Because of events beyond my control, this was a long time in coming. I hope you enjoy it.

Colors
Chapter Ten

From the journal of Raven, daughter of Trigon the Terrible, Teen Titan.

Today is the day.

Friday, October 31st, 2008. Halloween.

The end of the world.

I can feel it in the air, in my bones. The runes that Slade wrote onto me burn. They are crying out to him, to my father. Trigon is coming, and when he arrives, mortal life will surrender to his power. When I become the portal, I expect that my body will be destroyed.


My friends deserve to know, and I hope to make this, their and my own last day, the best day possible. But there is one other who deserves to know something as well. He knows of my hatred of my father. He won't take it as well, but I have to tell him. I owe him that much.

Why am I writing this? I know my father won't settle for Earth. He'll send out his minions to conquer the entire cosmos. People will fight back, and perhaps some day, someone will come destroy him, someone from a far-away world. Perhaps you are one of those liberators, reading this now.

Earth may be long gone by the time my father is defeated. If he ever is, though I hope we are celebrating with you rather than being morned by you when you find this.

This leaves just one loose end. The one who calls himself Oz. He's a wild card, not from this universe, and apparently, from one that where Trigon has already been destroyed. He relayed to me cryptically that the sorcerer Jason Blood had a weapon that could defeat Trigon. He gave me a piece of the same weapon from his own world. I've entrusted the shard that Oz gave me to Ragnarök, and told him only this: to use it when he was sure it was the right time, that he'd know when that was. He was confused at first, but I was trying to show him that I trust him. I don't know if he took my meaning or just took what I gave him because of my seniority. It doesn't matter. Not as long as he uses it wisely.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to retrieve the sword from the Blood of this world now. I gambled with time and lost.

I suspect now... No. I KNOW that the Spectre was sent here to destroy Trigon, and that the humanity left in him made a hasty decision and left before that job was finished. Even the greatest of mortals make mistakes, if Spectre can be called mortal.

I should go now. Trevor won't want to hear what I have to tell him, but I owe him the truth; it's all I have left to give him at this point...

oooo

The day after Emmanuel's death was quiet so far. The cops typically could handle Halloween pranks, and supervillains feared to be out now that the Spectre's presence was known throughout the town.

Beast Boy and Collin had spent most of the morning playing Game Station, while Cyborg worked on something in his room/laboratory. Starfire was staying with Robin, now, as the Boy Wonder added data on both Emmanuel and Oz into the computer, ignoring the constant ping of his public email. (Most of the emails he got were utterly devoid of intelligent thought and made Robin very weary about the future of humanity.)

"Starfire," he said after a few minutes without words between them. "You seem quiet today. What's up?"

"I am merely tired. I had a long night."

Robin looked back at her. She was looking no worse for the wear after what had happened yesterday. Raven had stabilized her and stopped the bleeding, and Collin had fixed her up with the White Catalyst as soon as he returned.

When asked by Beast Boy why he didn't just carry it with him all the time, Collin had replied that he didn't want to give anyone a false sense of security and end up getting themselves killed, and Robin, begrudgingly, was forced to agree with him.

"You took a lot of damage yesterday. I'm glad you're feeling better. Isn't there anything you want to do, though? I mean it's Halloween. We could go have some fun tonight. Show up in costume at a party or something."

Starfire smiled at that. "And eat your earth candy till our teeth fall out of our dibtars!"

Robin smirked. "Something like that."

"That would be most wonderful!"

"It's a date then," Robin said. "As soon as I finish this work. And make sure that our prisoner is secure."

Starfire nodded somberly. "He spent most of the night writing in his journal or sleeping. He does not seem to me to be hostile towards us."

Robin nodded. Because of the healing effects of the White Catalyst, Starfire had been unable to sleep, and had therefore watched Oz all night. "No he doesn't. But that really isn't something you should worry about. I'll handle this. Even if I have to call Batman and see what he thinks should be done. You probably ought to get some sleep before tonight, though."

Nodding slightly, but still seemingly distracted, distant, Starfire got off the bed and hovered out of the room. Robin went back to typing, his files on Emmanuel almost complete.

"Status," he read aloud. "...deceased."

Robin closed the files, shut down the computer, and left his room. There was no further reason to pursue this. Emmanuel's death was unfortunate, at least for his other half, but at the same time, dead criminals were the easiest to deal with.

The living, on the other hand, could be more of a problem...

oooo

"Did Luthor send you?" Robin asked Oz, trying to get at least SOMETHING from the stalker. "Or Brainiac? Brainiac is behind everything."

"I told you, I'm not part of some super villain's evil plot. I came to this place by accident."

"What place? Jump City? The United States? Earth?" Robin didn't THINK he was an alien, but with the strange abilities that Tara had described him using during her fight with him, Robin could never be certain.

Oz leaned back on his cot, still in his cell behind the transparent barrier of the prison. "I suppose you could say," he said with a smirk, "that I have more in common with your newest Titan friend that I'm wont to admit."

"What does that mean? You possess an alien suit of cybernetic armor?"

"No," Collin realized out loud. "You are from another universe, aren't you. That's how you know so much about all the other Titans, and that's why you haven't been able to spill out my life secrets. You come from another place where I don't exist, at least not in this form."

"Well, you're smarter than I gave you credit for," Oz said. "And I really didn't give you much to begin with, considering some of the things I've heard you say."

Ragnarök flashed a look of annoyance and confusion, when Oz removed a tape recorder from his pocket, and pressed a small button. Before anyone could say anything, it played a recording of Collin from a few weeks earlier:

Bill Clinton was the man. I don't get why conservatives always want to glomp th e guy. I mean he balanced the budget, cut overspending on the military, and there were no major wars in his presidency...

Oz clicked the stop button on his recorder and smirked.
"That only proves you've been spying on us longer than we've known," Collin said. "It's not a crime or an indication of stupidity to have a political opinion."

"Oi," Oz shook his head. "No, it's not, but some opinions ought to be. Crimes, I mean."

"Wonderful," Collin said. "We have a neo-con stalker from another dimension who thinks I'm stupid because of my politics."

"More than that," Robin said. "He seems to think we 'aren't ready' for something. Tell us, then, Oz, what is so bad that is coming that we can't handle?"

"Haven't you been paying attention to Raven? Hello? End of the world, Trigon the Terrible."

Robin sat down. "As a matter of fact, we have been preparing for him. You seem to think we're a bunch of—"

"Preparing how?" Oz interrupted. "I see no weapons, no consulting people who'd know how to stop him."

"Raven has been looking into that," Robin said.

"No she hasn't," Oz replied. "You all have been too stupid to see it, but Raven has been spending these nights you thought she was looking for a way to stop Trigon with a meta-human hating newspaper columnist called Trevor Washington."

Beast Boy, who had been listening silently in the corner while polishing his moped, spoke up now. "You mean that guy who wrote that the Titans were one day going to lord over the rest of the city from the tower if the mayor continued to sanction us?"

"Yeah, that's the guy." Oz said.

"And what, pray tell, has Raven been doing with this columnist?" Robin asked.

Oz got up and walked over to the barrier as if to intimidate—he was about two inches taller than Robin—and looked at him through the mask. "Normal date stuff. They've been eating together, seeing movies. Hanging out in bars with fake ID's"

"That's a lie!" Beast Boy blurted, throwing his polishing rag down and going over to the barrier. "Raven would never do that."

"I have photos back at my place," Oz said, "If you want to see them."

"If you think for a minute that we're letting you get out of here, then think again," Robin said.

"I've been staying in here mostly for your convenience," Oz said. "You think you're holding me here? Hah! I could escape in a heartbeat, but I'm trying to warn you. BE READY."

"We ARE READY." Robin shot back. Though, even though he didn't really believe what Oz had said of Raven, it had shaken his confidence a bit. And it would explain some of the oddities of Raven's behavior as of late.

"Tell me," Oz said. "Have you ever stared down a homicidal cyborg maniac with a katana and a grudge against 'worthless' people who became self-styled god and destroyed half the town? Have you ever fought a teenager who could alter the nature of reality at his whim or had civilians hanging on crosses outside your town? Have you ever faced an insane sorceress so powerful that magic is literally her plaything—who could turn a town to powder with a flick of the wrist? Have you?"

Robin didn't say anything.

Collin, however, was not so judicious. "Um, technically we have fought the second thing on that list... minus the crosses."

"You mean this 'Delirium' that I somehow slept through?"

"You were at the bottom of Jump City bay as a block of ammonium nitrate, most likely," Collin said.

Oz blinked at this. "That explains the smell of my clothes the day you got back from space. But that's besides the point."

"Being?" Robin asked.

"The point is that your team hasn't been properly tempered. Trigon is an arch-demon of the highest order, a Devil Lord who can transmute the Earth itself into a barren wasteland of fire and ash, and then conquer the cosmos with its harvested souls. We're talking about a being who's conquered billions of planets and wold give Lucifer pause. Are you ready to handle something like that?"

"We'll see." Robin said.

"No! There is no we'll see! You have to be ready! Because if you aren't, the world will END! This is not a VIDEO GAME and you WON'T get second tries or extra lives! This is LIFE AND DEATH."

Beast Boy bristled. "Dude, we're not the Justice League."

Oz glared at him, an unsettling glare that felt like it cut into Beast Boy's very soul. "You're going to have to be. Until you've seen the streets run with blood, you won't know what 'ready for anything' means."

Beast Boy stepped back. "And I thought Raven was creepy."

"Just another way of denying the truth. If Raven' creeps you out, then you DON'T KNOW what 'creepy' is." Oz said. "I know you might think I'm insane, Gar, but do you think I'm a liar?"

Gar shook his head.

"Then trust me."

"Trust you with what?" Robin said. "My team?"

"That would be a start. In fact, I'd prefer it if you gave me command in the fight against Trigon. On the other hand, I wonder if I should really interfere. I've done too much as it is."

"You're out of your mind then. You think you can just walk in, spout some doomsday gibberish, and expect us to prostrate ourselves before you? Screw you. We'll show you just how ready for this we are."

"Ready for hell? Hell is just a word. Reality is FAR, FAR, worse." Oz turned around, and seemed to contemplate something. "You want to see how wrong you are? How your arrogance has blinded you?"

Robin whirled around too, his anger at Oz growing. Who was he to barge in and tell him how to run his own team? He wished Kori was there to temper him, or he feared he'd do something that he would regret...

"Computer," Oz suddenly said, sending a jolt of ice through Robin's gut, "Clearance Menville, Peyton, Cipes. Destroy the Teen Titans."

Override confirmed, the computer voice said. Commencing termination.

"WHAT!" Robin blurted, spinning back around to Oz. "How did you..."

Then, the request he'd made sank in. "Computer! Clearance, Strong, Walch, Johnson! Stand defenses down! Repeat, stand down!"

"West, Ward, Gorshin." Oz said evenly, "Destroy them."

"Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney!" Robin returned. "Stand down!"

"Conroy, Romano, Bale!" Oz blurted. "Destroy."

"Wolfman, Perez, Johns!" Robin said frantically. "Cease and desist!"

"Finger, Kane, Miller!" Oz said, causing the guns to spin back towards the Titans.

"Computer! Robin blurted. "DESTROY THE INTRUDER. Final override, Kasem, Lester, Valencia!"

Final Override confirmed. Commencing destruction.

"On second thought," Robin said. "Stand down and deactivate for the next five hours."

Confirmed.

"How did you do that?" Robin asked him, his voice a low growl.

"Your security here is pathetic. I simply sneaked into the tower while you were away in space and gave myself some security overrides. Now if I, a guy with only moderate computer skills, can do that, what could I have done if I had been a super villain? Bombs under your beds? Slitting your throats in your sleep? I repeat my warning. Be. Ready."

And so, silence reigned in the interrogation room.

oooo

On the other side of Jump City, a crowd began to clear out of a theatre. Trevor having just seen Charlie's Angels 3 and being disappointed by the sheer awfulness of it, left in a bad mood. This improved somewhat, however, when he saw Rachel standing outside the theatre.

What was odd was that she was looking directly at him, and with a very odd expression on her face. How she had found him, generally at the theatre, and specifically in the crowd, was running circles around his mind as she approached.

Trevor moved through the crowd and finally got close enough to be heard. "What's going on Rachel? How did you find me here?"

Rachel hung her head slightly, her chin falling on the edge of her blouse, which oddly seemed not to notice it had been touched. "Trevor, we need to talk."

"Is something wrong? Oh, no, please don't tell me your dad found out."

"He's known all along. He just couldn't do anything about it till today," Rachel said. "That's not why I'm here."

"What's wrong then? You're dad has forbid you to see me?"

The two started walking, now down a much less crowed side street, the sidewalk narrower but less cluttered. The shops here were mostly novelty stores, and didn't have many customers.

"I've not been telling you the whole truth about me. Or my dad..."

Trevor stopped. "Rachel..."

"I need you to know this," she said. "I really do care about you. I wanted your company, and enjoyed it. But if you knew... if you knew who I really am, then you'd have nothing to do with me."

"What are you talking about, Rachel?" Trevor's face was a twisted mess of emotions, he could feel it, as could he feel the dread and confusion in his stomach. What was this? Did she have another boyfriend? Was she pregnant? Married? The thoughts when swimming through his mind.

Then she stepped, back, reached down to her fingers, and removed her mood rings.

And then, her skin and clothes literally slid off her body... and revealed something entirely different. Black shadows pulled themselves around her, forming a blue cloak around her grey skin and black leotard...

She was a Teen Titan...

Trevor stood there, anger filling his mind. He tried to push it away, but then confusion reigned in its stead. And guilt, and shame, for how he had spoken of the Titans. Then more anger..

"You... You're..."

"My name is Raven," she said. "Rachel Roth, the person you thought you knew... she doesn't exist. I made her up because I was trying to escape who I am. I was trying to be normal for a change."

That hit him like a jolt, and Trevor realized that in some small part of his mind, he had been holding out the hope that this was some sort of trick, or that the Titan was impersonating Rachel to get near Trevor... or anything that would let him not face the truth that seemed to be playing out before him...

"I'm sorry," she said. And he could tell she meant it. But that didn't make the hurt go away.

"You've been lying to me the whole time?"

"And I hated to, Trevor, believe me, I hated to. But you were the only one I could talk to about... about who my father is."

"Your father?"

"My father is... he's a demon. A devil. Literally. And he's coming today—this is the end of the world."

After a long silence, Trevor turned around. "What am I supposed to say to that?"

Raven said nothing. "I guess we're no longer a couple." Even through her normally unshakable demeanor, Raven's voice sounded like it was on the verge of bending. Not breaking, but bending.

"No, Raven, we're not. I'm not sure we ever were. I thought I really cared for you, but that person doesn't really exist."

Raven's voice fell low, as if she was looking at the ground, and Trevor turned to see that indeed, she was. "I lied to you about my name, and about where I came from. But I was never false around you. If you can't accept me because I'm one of your hated metahumans, then you really aren't worth my time."

"You're just saying that," Trevor said accusingly. "You know that it's not that you're a Titan. You could be Wonder Woman for all I care—it's that you lied to me, Rachel... Raven. Whoever you are."

"Are you sure that's it?" Raven asked. Man, she was strong, Trevor mused. She hadn't shed a tear. Her face was hurt, but her demeanor was cold. Trevor oddly found himself admiring that before reality sank back in.

"No, really, I'm not. Maybe I am just a lonely bigot. I need some time to think. If the world doesn't end, maybe I'll calm down."

Trevor started to leave, when Raven said, "Thank you."

Trevor glanced back, and said, somewhat bitterly, "For what?"

"For being honest, at least. About your feelings."

Trevor nodded, and continued around the corner. This was... upsetting, disappointing. To think, that HE of all people would find himself dating a metahuman! How could she have just up and lied to him like that? But was it just the betrayal? After all, metahumans were law-breakers, most of them, no matter which side they fought on.

And with their power, they could easily enslave the earth, and had in some parallel worlds, or so Trevor had read. So why now did his opinions make him feel so friggin' guilty. Just because he had expressed them to his girlfriend of all people. He couldn't have known she wasn't who she said she was...

As he rounded the corner the whole city suddenly went black, and Trevor looked up to see that the sun was completely eclipsed.

"What the blazes?" he said. "There's not supposed to be an eclipse today." He remembered that there had been one back in August, but it was scheduled and completely ordinary.

Then he saw four red lights in the sky, which was odd, as they didn't seem to be connected to anything... then he looked closer, and he saw it... they were EYES!

And with that realization, Trevor Washington's world suddenly went white...

oooo

Raven had watched Trevor go around the corner with a growing, hollow pain in her chest. She had known from the beginning it would come to this, but... part of her wanted to rebel, to reach out and jerk Trevor close and not let him go.

Foolish thoughts, to be sure. What had happened to her cold demeanor, her unshakable emotional deadness? Had her control eroded so far?

Raven turned to go, when suddenly, the sky went dark at noon. Raven glanced up... and saw that the sun was eclipsed. No! It couldn't be happening! She hadn't gotten to speak to her friends! She hadn't gotten to make this day their best!

Then, she heard the explosion, behind her, and all those thoughts vanished. Only one thing remained. "Trevor!"

Raven darted around the corner, chasing after Trevor, hoping she wasn't too late... By the time she got to him, panic and chaos reigned on the street where the blast had happened. What had caused it was still unclear, but Raven found Trevor almost immediately, staggering to his feet on the opposite side of the street from her, dazed, and perhaps injured from the explosion. It didn't seem to be critical.

Then, through the smoke and chaos and screams, Raven saw him...

Slade. He stood on the roof of the shop that Trevor was in front of, looking down with his piercing eye, the mark of Scath burning on his mask. And then he looked down at Trevor, and horror filled her.

"Don't touch him!" She blurted, raising her hands to strike.. but then, pain wracked her body, as did weakness, and Raven collapsed, the runes on her skin glowing with evil red light.

"I think the things I do or don't do aren't for you to decide, child," Slade said, jumping off the building and grabbing Trevor in a choke hold. Then he held out his hand and a sword materialized in it, a red burning thing of pure evil."You are merely a pawn in your father's game. Insignificant. Worthless. Just like your friend."

And what Slade did next made 'hot knife through butter' sound like a euphemism for difficulty, cutting through Trevor's midsection as if it wasn't even there, his demon blade barely making a sound. Slade held onto Trevor's top half by his hair.

"Tick, tock, Raven. Your time's run out." Then he hurled Trevor at her, Raven catching the young man's torso, her eyes filling with horror and her stomach with disgust... and then she looked into Trevor's eyes, his plea strong and clear, but he could barely vocalize it...

"Ra...chel.."

Those were his last words... Raven felt the life slide from him even as guilt and pain poured over her. It was all her fault. For daring to love a mortal, for daring to defy her father, Trigon had sent his pawn, that wretched, wretched man called Slade to kill the one person that did not know the risk, did not know the chance he was taking loving the girl Rachel Roth. The one person who was defenseless, and whose demise she was defenseless against.

Trevor...

"No..."

And with that, Raven began to cry, her tears falling and vaporizing on the asphalt, even as she began to glow, the runes becoming the focal points of hairline fissures erupting all over her body.

Then Slade intruded into her pain, and made it seem all the more hopeless.

"Give it up, Raven. You can't win against your father. You can't fight your destiny. Go ahead. Recite the prophecy. Surely the peace of oblivion would be better than this."

"Monster!" Raven hissed.

"Trigon will win, either way," Slade said. "You're only prolonging the inevitable."

Raven cursed at Slade, who backed up, but did not dare hurt the Gem. "Your choice. Trigon wins after you suffer. Or Trigon wins when you say a few simple words."

Raven wanted to tell Slade then and there how much she loathed him, how much, more than anything, that she wanted Slade to feel the full force, the brunt of all the vitriol she had for him. But all that came out was a dull whimper.

Falling on her back, and staring up at the sky, Raven began to weep uncontrollably. She could feel her emotive powers radiating out, tearing up the streets and sidewalks, but she couldn't help it. What hope had she left? Her friends would die, all of Oz's planning would come to naught. What could be done now?

And then, as if an omen from heaven, a small silver flash caught Raven's eye... a ship entering the atmosphere...

Could it be? Raven's powers were now too far gone, too occupied with her father's work to sense who was on the ship, but it didn't matter. Because those Justice Leaguers, whoever they were, were the planet's only hope. And Raven cast her father's spell, but mixed it subtly with her own...

A white line of power shot into the sky, and over took the craft. Protection from her father's evil. Now... for oblivion.

"The Gem was born of evil's fire..." Raven started. "The gem shall be his portal. He comes to claim..." The runes on her body burst off and hovered in the hair around her... "he comes to sire..." The runes span around her in a torrent of red light, evil light...

"THE END OF ALL THINGS MORTAL!" Raven and Trigon said in unison.

And then, all went black for the devil's daughter.

oooo

The Javelin arced through the atmosphere, coming in over California and heading down towards the Metro Tower in Metropolis, some 2000 miles away. But then, something unexpected happened.

"Diana!" said John Stewart, Earth's current Green Lantern. "What IS that?" He pointed out of the cockpit to the white stream of light coming towards them...

"I don't know," replied Wonder Woman. "Evasive maneuvers..."

"Too late! It's bending TOWARDS us..."

Then it was there, washing over the space ship and permeating the beings of all the people on board. It was gone almost as soon as it had started, but John still had an odd tingling feeling over his whole body...

"Report," he said. "Does anybody know what happened?" John let Diana take the controls and went into the back, where Hawkgirl, Booster Gold, and Question were seated.

"It was some sort of magic field," the Hawkgirl Shayera Hol said.

"How do you know?"

Shayera held up her hand, her mace dangling by it's wrist strap. It was glowing red hot.

"Ah." Said John. Thanagarian Nth Metal disrupted the flow of magic; for it to be glowing red hot, there had to be some serious power in that wave.

"I don't feel much different," Booster Gold said. "Anything you're reading Skeets?"

The small robot hovering above Booster replied. "Negative. My sensors were never calibrated to detect magic, sir."

"Aw, nuts," Said Booster. "Well, I guess it was nothing. We all seem to be okay."

"Or perhaps the spell was preparation for something more sinister," said the Question. A conspiracy theorist, often considered a nut job, Question was kept on the League mostly because he rivaled Batman as a detective, and could hold his own in a fight too.

"Shoelaces are sinister to you," Hawkgirl said.

"Not the laces themselves. The plastic coating on their tips," Question corrected.

"Can we not fight amongst ourselves for one minute?" John insisted.

"We weren't fighting," Hawkgirl said, "We were discussing."

"Whatever the case may be—" Diana said from the pilot's seat... Then she fell really silent with a half gasp.

"Diana! What's wrong!" Hawkgirl and John darted into the cockpit, followed by Booster and Question.

"Great Hera!" Diana blurted...

oooo

In the centre of Jump City, towering at least fifty stories tall, was a massive red demon.

Trigon the Terrible. The Eighth Devil.

"The World of Mortals today meets its end!" Trigon bellowed, and with a primordial growl, the world began to change...

oooo

The alarms in Titans Tower began to go off as soon as the explosion had rocked the down town shops, and all the Titans rushed to the windows in ops, just in time to see a massive ball of red-white power erupt from the middle of the city, a column of energy opening a portal into the pits of places never treaded by mortals, places too horrible to describe...

And what emerged from them was the realization of all their fears, the incarnation of an entire dimension's evil. Trigon stood. Robin pressed a button to locate Raven, and found nothing—their friend had been destroyed.

"No..." Beast Boy said. "This isn't real."

"It's dead real," Oz's voice was cold and harsh, and the Titans didn't even bother asking how he got out of his prison. "Well Titans, welcome to hell. What hell REALLY is. This planet is about to be twisted into Trigon's personal playground, a smoldering ruin of ash and lava. I wish I had time to enact my contingency plan. Now it's up to you. Is there anything you did to prepare for this day?"

"We made a safe room for Raven. It's supposed to protect against dark magic," Cyborg said. "We used her books and everything."

"Then I suggest we all get into it, or we'll have our flesh turned into stone."

Robin nodded. "Follow me. Cyborg, get Kori!"
Author's Note: Sorry for all the melodrama. I'm not any good at romance. : (