CH. 09: DAMIAN VS THE DEMON

"Grandfather?" Damian exhaled in disbelief as he stood upright. It looked like him. Except his skin was a dark gray, his hair almost pitch-black, and his eyes a deep red color. 'How is he…?'

"Damian," Ra's spoke in a gravely voice. "My blood."

'No,' Robin said to himself. 'It can't be him.' "It's a trick!" He declared as he took a guard stance with his sword. "I saw you die."

"No trick," Ra's shook his head. "It's me, I assure you. I exist. Lord Trigon is my sustenance."

'Sustenance?' "He's a devil," Damian growled in response as Raven stirred behind him.

"No. He's a god of necessity," his grandfather explained. "How do you think I attained my power? Where do you think the Lazarus Pits came from?" He looked into Damian's eyes. "It's all his doing." This shocked Damian. All his life he thought that his grandfather was a hero. A man bent on saving the world from itself. Now, he was openly admitting to being an agent of Trigon. "And he can make things whole again. For a price," he stated coldly. "He can give us the world we wanted, you and I: a perfect world," at that declaration Raven looked over to see something from one of her nightmares.

Standing before her was a man wearing the dark armor of the Black Swordsman from her dreams. And, between her and him was Damian, who she now realized was the Red Knight. But, she felt conflicting emotions raging within Damian. His grandfather was tempting him with his greatest wish. The dream he'd had since he was little and thought lost. Ra's pointed to her with his sword, what he said next caused her to tremble with fear.

"She's the only one who stands in the way," he was telling Damian that she was the price. Kill her and Trigon would grant your wish. "Prove your love, grandson," Ra's said as Damian looked back at her. She could see the confusion and pain on his face. He didn't know what to do. But, she also felt a burning desire within him to be reunited with his beloved grandfather. "Take care of this for me," Ra's said as she looked away, "before my pact with Trigon expires."

'Kill Raven?' Damian could hardly believe it. Here his grandfather was, half-undead, telling him that Trigon was not only the source of his power but also the key to their goal. But…Raven? She'd helped him, and he'd helped her. She was his friend! 'I couldn't…' "I…" He hesitated for a moment, trying to think, figure this confusing mess out. "I would do anything to bring you back." He then looked back up, hoping to see something that might convince him his grandfather wasn't serious. "But, grandfather, I-I don't…" He stammered as his heart felt like it was being clenched in a vice.

"You hesitate," Ra's declared. Hesitation was one of the things he despised. "Why? Are you afraid to do the one act that will restore me to life?" And there was that word Damian detested.

"I'm not afraid of anything!" He declared. Something fell into place for him. The words Ra's had used: 'pact', 'price', how Trigon was the source of his power. His connection to the devil went back decades, centuries. He figured it all out. 'He's the one who freed Trigon! Trigon offered to restore him to life if he freed him and did his bidding!' Everything that has happened, the fair attack, the corruptors, Trigon's invasion of Earth, the suffering of his friends…it was all because of him! That pissed Damian off.

"You dare disobey me!?" Ra's snapped at him. "Have you forgotten your heritage?"

'The heritage that drove my mother to madness, and murder a clone of her own son?'

"You are an al-Ghul!" Ra's declared.

"No," Damian growled as he felt a surge well up inside him. Something he hadn't felt since he fled Nanda Parbat following Slade's attack. A feeling of purpose, of a mission. An identity. "I'm a Titan!"

Damian struck first, but Ra's blocked and parried his attacks. Still, Robin pressed the attack, hoping to put distance between Ra's and Raven. He also made sure to stay between the two as much as possible, lest his grandfather try to attack her again. He failed to protect her once, he couldn't fail her here.

From her spot, Raven watched as Damian began to unknowingly reenact the battles she'd seen between the swordsmen in her dreams. He was battling his grandfather, his hero, all to protect her. He was doing this for her. But, why? She looked down and saw the shards of the crystal. All was lost, was it not?

"Stupid girl," she heard her father's voice in her head. "You think your allies can stop me now that I'm here? The Justice League?" He didn't even laugh, he considered them so beneath him, "defenders of this realm, less than insects to me." And still they would fight him. And still Damian fought for her. "I will strip their flesh from their bones."

Damian threw a shuriken at Ra's but it was smacked away, detonating harmlessly in the air beyond the spire. Ra's went for an underhand strike, his blade arcing upward. Damian stepped back and rolled past Ra's who spun his blade around after him. Damian blocked the strike and made an attempt at a roundhouse kick to Ra's' head. But, the 'Demon's Head' merely backed away and Damian merely spun in the air.

"And your pathetic friends?" Trigon continued to mock her as she got up to move to the shards. She couldn't give up. Damian wouldn't give up. Not on the mission. Not on her. She had to find a way. "I will make them suffer endless pain and you will have to watch." Off to the side, Damian was struggling to put up a fight against Ra's al-Ghul. Raven's legs were weak as she moved closer. "Soon your souls will belong to Trigon. As will your world." She dug deep, trying to summon every last ounce of strength to soldier forward.

Damian rolled past Ra's again. He blocked Ra's strike and made one of his own, he then moved to the side, forcing Ra's into a tactical withdrawal. He jumped, aiming a pair of back spin kicks which Ra's blocked with the flat of his blade. Feeling pressed back towards the edge, Ra's shoved Damian off him, the teen barely maintaining his footing as Ra's moved into the attack.

Robin blocked a pair of strikes only to be kicked to the ground by his grandfather. As he rose up he barely had time to register the slash aimed at his chest. He moved back but not fast enough. The sword sliced through his uniform and his flesh. Not enough to do anything remotely fatal, but it hurt and it drew blood. His arm instinctively went to cover the wound. 'That wasn't an accident,' Damian realized. 'That was meant to do real damage.' But, he fought through the pain and resumed his guard stance.

"Your friends have made you soft," Ra's growled at him. "Ungrateful child. You could've been immortal, like me."

'And gone mad from it?' Damian steeled his resolve. 'I was only another tool for your league. But Raven was my friend. That's worth more than immortality!' Ra's attacked once again.

Raven reached the central pedestal and the shards, falling to her knees, her strength seemed to be fleeing with every movement she made. "Give…up," Trigon growled at her. She could hear Damian fighting behind her. He was losing and she could sense it. She knew he was wounded and starting to get fatigued from trying to match his grandfather's strikes. And yet he kept fighting. In her heart, she knew he would never give up. He would keep fighting until he found a way to win. Or die…protecting her.

She reached down and picked up one of the shards. She felt a faint amount of the magik she used the last time. The original crystal may have been destroyed, but the magik remained. "You're too weak to stop me, Raven," he tried to intimidate her. "You always have been." She looked at the crystal and, for a brief moment, she saw Damian. And Garfield. And Jaime. And Kori. They had all stood by her, even when she all but confessed to being the motive, the would-be instrument of Armageddon. They defended her from the demons and the Justice League. She couldn't fail to repay that kind of loyalty. That kind of love. "Just like your mother."

"No!" She shouted back over their link. "My only weakness was loving you," back when she was on Azarath. She had sought him out with her magik. Tried to befriend him and love him since he was her father. She thought that would mean something. Give her meaning. "Hoping I would be loved in return." But, he had used her. Used to her to enter Azarath just so he could destroy it and murder her mother in front of her eyes. Just like he was doing again. "But all you were capable of giving was pain. So, I ran away…"

For a while, after she had sealed him the first time, she hoped to get him to understand. When she realized he would never change, she fled to Earth. Before long, she met the Titans. A team who were outcasts like herself. But, instead of taking pity on her or each other, they resolved to take her in and help her join them in protecting others. "Found friends…" They gave her a purpose, again. A purpose she could believe in. They became her new family. "Friends I would give my life for…" She could feel him smirk indignantly at that. Sacrifice for others was not something he would ever contemplate doing.

"Friends who give me love…" The sounds of Damian's seemingly impossible battle continued to echo around her. Despite his desperate battle, she could feel his determination. It never wavered. She also felt his fear for her. He fought hard to keep Ra's away from her. It was always about her. Everything he did, since she shared her snack and kindness with him, had been for her. She felt encouraged by his fortitude. A wave of newfound strength flowed over her. Yes. Damian's courage, would give her what she needed. "And the strength to do this…" She rose to her feet.

"No'rak annack ra'kutaq," she began her incantation as she had before. The crystal shard hovered before her. "No'rak annack ra'kutaq. No'rak annack ra'kutaq. No'rak annack ra'kutaq." Over and over she repeated the spell to summon the requisite energies to prime the shard to hold the demon.

Behind her, Damian had gone for a swipe at Ra's legs. He simply hopped over the strike, made a downward strike of his own which Robin barely blocked. But, this left him exposed to a powerful snap kick that sent him sprawling. And his sword tumbling down into the fire pit. Coming to his knees, Robin could see that Raven was floating in the air, beginning to cast her spell to seal Trigon. He also knew this was when she was most vulnerable. Any interruption of the spell and all would be lost.

He heard Ra's charge behind him. He turned in time to see his grandfather go for another downward strike. This one would definitely be fatal. Damian clasped his gauntlets together, their armored wrist plates catching the edge of Ra's sword. He then clasped his palms and fingers over the blunt edge of the blade. Ra's gritted his teeth at the child's defiance. Damian responded by twisting the blade and pulling his grandfather to the ground, the sword wrenching from Ra's grasp.

As Ra's rolled to his feet he caught a double flying kick to the sternum that sent him slamming into a pillar. This time, the damned souls of Hell worked in Damian's favor. They reached out through the rock and began to claw and grasp at Ra's, trying to pull him in to join them in suffering. Damian's wounds, the slash and his ribs, were beginning to flare and the pain increased. He dropped Ra's sword but quickly retrieved it as he held his wound, pressing his elbow to his rib, dulling the pain.

"Damian!" Ra's cried out to him, pleading for help. "Save me!" Even after he tried to kill him, and force him to kill his only friend, the man still begged. "Ahh! Gyah!" The tortured souls began to scratch and bite at him.

'There's no saving you,' Damian said to himself. 'You're already in Hell.' Damian Wayne, former al-Ghul, slowly walked forward, his grandfather's sword in his hand. 'So, stay!' With one clean swipe, he beheaded the 'Demon's Head'.

Ra's head fell to the ground and reverted to that of a red skinned, four eyed demon. Whether he was a demon using Ra's as a disguise, or if that was his 'true form', Damian didn't know nor care. A pair of clawed hands reached out and pulled it into the pillar with the rest of the body. Robin turned away and marched back to Raven, ready to fight anything else Hell wanted to try and throw at her.

"Grant me the strength of mighty Azarath," Raven implored the goddess spirit. "To contain the demon Trigon within this sacred shard…now and forever!" And with that Damian saw a pillar of dark energy lance into the sky, piercing the red clouds that he had thought were merely the ceiling of a massive cavern. Beneath his feet he could feel the spire quake. At first, he thought the spell would cause it to break apart.

But, soon, he heard a new sound. A ghastly screaming and growling sound. Like the shrieks of thousands of voices crying out in terror. These were soon followed by angry growls and howls that he recognized as Trigon.

Back on Earth, Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash were shaking disorientation form their heads due to the pounding they received from Trigon. When their vision cleared, they saw their foe wrapped in a blanket of dark energy like a straight jacket. And, like many of those who wear straight jackets, he was flailing and thrashing, trying to break free of it. But, it would be to no avail. They watched as he was pulled into the ground, through a portal that led back to his Hell.

"RAV-!" His clawed hand was the last to slip through as he cried out in anger.

"-EN!" The shrieked filled Damian's ears as the entity was pulled, like a cloud of smoke being sucked into a vacuum, down to the shard. When all the dark energy disappeared into the tiny shard, four tiny specks of light glowed before the shard began to emanate its own light. It then plopped into Raven's open palm.

The girl, sapped of energy and filled with relief that it worked, fell back to her knees. Damian was, admittedly, happy to see her skin return to its normal tone and complexion. He walked up to her as she was examining the shard. He kept his left arm across his wound, keeping it in check, as he gently placed his right hand on her shoulder. When she looked up at him he couldn't help but give her a weak smile.

They had done it. They'd fought through Hell's minions, including a demonic Ra's al-Ghul, and resealed Trigon within his prison. Damian was never the one to calculate odds, but he knew it was a difficult task. But, he also knew they would succeed. That was something to be proud of. For her part, Raven couldn't help but smile back. His determination had given her the necessary strength and hope to overcome her fears and save the day. She'd be forever grateful to him.

They were soon joined by the rest of the Titans. Once Trigon was sealed, the Hydra lost all its power and collapsed dead. Garfield and Jaime were disappointed to not have gotten in a 'kill shot', but they weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Raven," Kori said as she touched down in front of them. "Is it over?"

"It'll never be over," she said softly, her shoulders slumping. "Trigon will spend every single minute trying to get out of here." She held the shard clenched in her hand, as if letting up for an instant would enable him to break free. "So," she glanced to the side, painful thoughts creeping into her mind, "he needs to be watched. Every single minute." Behind Kori, Beast Boy, Beetle and Cyborg were having a discussion about Cyborg joining the team.

Meanwhile, Damian and Kori shared a concerned look. They knew Raven was worried about a repeat. She had a point. If he could escape once, he could escape again. He was hesitant to tell Kori about Ra's but knew he'd have to once they got back to the Tower. Especially since she'd want to check his wound and would ask how he got it. But, for now, they had to go home.

So, Koriand'r simply held of her hand to the young girl. Raven looked up to see Kori, Robin and the others giving her soft, appreciative smiles. "Let's go home," Kori said softly. She smiled weakly and took her hand, allowing herself to be helped to her feet.

"I'll take you back," she said as she opened a portal that led back to the Tower. The Titans began to walk towards it, but Raven didn't move. Damian sensed something painful within her just as she spoke up. "Unfortunately," she said just before they could step through. They stopped and turned to her. She backed away, her regret evident on her face. Damian could sense what she was thinking. "This is my home," she said, folding her arms.

Damian knew she didn't really believe it. He could feel her true feelings on the matter. He still didn't understand why he could feel some of the things she did. But, he knew she didn't belong here; and he knew she didn't really believe it either. No matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise. He'd felt the same way when he first joined the Titans. Now he knew differently. "I have to watch him," she explained as she began to turn away. She moved to take 'her' place at the center of the platform. Warden to Trigon's prison. And just like when she tried to leave back at the Tower, she was stopped by the last person she expected to speak up. She shouldn't have been surprised by now.

"It's not your home!" Damian spoke up without even really having to think about it. But, being on the Titans, without her around…it just didn't feel right. Nor did it feel right that she had to be punished, by being the warden in Hell, just because her asshole devil father wanted to ruin her life. Her life would be ruined if she stayed here. She stopped as she felt his spirit radiate warmth and reassurance. "Home is the place where…" he took a breath, fighting the pain in his heart at the thought of Raven not being around, "when you have to go there, they have to take you in."

"Robert Frost," Starfire recognized the poet Damian quoted. He shot her a look, as if she had just ruined his 'pick up line'. "You are full of surprises, Damian," she followed up with an encouraging statement.

"You're coming with us," Robin said cheerfully.

Raven opened her eyes, looking down at the shard. Then she looked back and her eyes met Damian's. And, at that moment, she knew he was right. Her home was with them. "You're not going to take 'no' for an answer," she said turning back to him with a soft smile. "Are you?"

"Hell no," Damian replied without thinking about it. Garfield started laughing his ass off at the irony of the comment.