CLEANSING
by Concolor44
A/N: This one is very short and for that I apologize. But I know how the rest of this is going to turn out, and it was either stop it here or bundle it all together. Next chapter is the final one.
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
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Nevermore
A little experimentation showed Raven that she could move between shadows (and there were a hell of a lot of shadows) while wrapped in her soul-self, and remain essentially invisible. Via this method, she canvassed a wide swath of her mindscape, coming to rest eventually very near the portal to Rage's prison.
No demonic birds. Not even the immature ones that aren't truly connected yet. Not the least breath of another presence. I don't know whether to be relieved or concerned.
A quick sprint across the open space ended with her diving through the portal into the desolate waste. She located the nearest large rock and made herself small in the lee of it. When nothing happened after a short span of time, she hazarded a glance toward the prison's entrance. The open door, hanging crazily from bent hinges, confirmed what she'd suspected.
Damn. Now I have to find them, too. And they won't be making it easy for me.
She skulked her way back into the no-man's-land of Nevermore, mulling over her options, few and unappealing though they were. I wouldn't be able to face Rage by myself, even if she didn't have any help. This whole place stinks of necromancy, and that means nothing good for anyone.
It was shaping up into a long, hard day.
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Near Jump City, at dusk
A muted blue glow lit the trees briefly in the small park near the beach, and Jericho peeked out from behind one of them.
The even tones of the Avatar of Order echoed through his mind. "Can you see your objective?"
** Yes. Maybe half a klick away. **
"Stay hidden until I distract her."
** I can do that. ** He crouched and waited.
The detonation that rattled his bones a few minutes later scored a ragged crack across the sky over the darkness that hid the city, and shafts of golden light spilled out. Where they struck the black shroud, it shattered into shards and vanished, exposing the tops of buildings. Almost immediately a stentorian scream of outrage sounded, and a thick, dark red rope shot up out of the city center, engaging and deflecting the attacks.
As signals go, thought Jericho, that one could hardly be misinterpreted. He scuttled out and made a beeline for his destination.
In the city center, Rage and Desire were determinedly going after the sorcerer who had attacked them.
I will KILL that son of a bitch!
Is he still there?
I can feel him.
He thinks he is shielded.
Ha! Watch this.
The enormous blood-red rope split into several hundred strands, each of which shot out in a different direction, each capped with a wicked, poisoned point. Over the southern edge of the city, one of them made contact with something … something that howled in pain.
Heeee! Gotcha!
The rest of the ropes whipped over to join the attack. For a few seconds it seemed that the swarm of living cables would triumph … but then there was a blast of pure white light, an actinic explosion so intense that the biggest lightning bolt ever to strike the earth would, by comparison, constitute a dead area. Rage screamed in agony, but then redoubled her efforts. Something was there, something that she meant to keep. The crimson whips encircled it, covered it, and brought it down.
He will NOT escape from THIS!
You seem very sure of that.
I am. Even his mighty magicks can't overcome
the raw power of my necromantic matrix.
He's stuck and he's going to stay stuck.
You go back in and keep looking for Raven.
Even as weak as she is, she is no fool.
She could cause us a great deal of trouble.
Oh, really? My goodness!
I was completely unaware!
Thank you so much for enlightening me!
Shut up.
She drew the object into her demesne, pulling the cables taut and anchoring them in a thousand places. Then, fully shielded from any attack he might offer, she moved in close to see.
The transparent, delicate-seeming sphere was just barely large enough to allow the sorcerer to stand. He was, however, not standing. Instead, he lay on his side, muttering minor spells to repair the awful wounds that the barbed ropes had inflicted.
Rage grinned broadly.
You returned.
How delightful.
Did you miss me so badly?
Dr. Fate did not deign to answer. It was taking all his concentration to maintain the sphere and heal himself before he bled out.
By all means, good sir,
heal all the damage you like.
That only means I get to
play with you a bit longer.
Some of the ropes thinned out to very fine wires. These wires then changed, morphing into micro-abrasive lines of force, running back and forth across the surface of the sphere and leaving faint marks.
I will soon have you out of your egg,
and then the real fun will begin.
Before the nearly-invisible wire saws had worked very far at all into the obdurate material, Dr. Fate stood, flung his bloodstained arms wide, and spoke an incantation in a language that was long dead before anyone on Earth had discovered fire. The sphere glowed a pale blue, and everything in direct contact with it shivered to ash and fell to the ground. Rage screamed again, the pain from the violent feedback driving hot nails deep into her mind. After that, her renewed attack on Dr. Fate's protective device held no play, no mercy. She wanted his head and she wanted it now.
But the sphere had changed. It no longer resembled a giant soap bubble; it was more like an enormous blue gem stone, its thousands of opaque facets mirror bright in the glancing rays of the setting sun. And despite everything she threw at it, nothing could mar its surface. Nothing yielded a crack. Throwing the entire weight of her demonic powers at the stubborn thing no more gave her entrance than would a feather against a bank vault. And after a few more minutes …
Rage …
Sister, dear.
Listen.
The violent Emotion pulled back, giving the mental equivalent of a few panting breaths and examining the flawless surface of the thing in her grasp. She ground out,
He can't stay in there forever.
No, you are right.
He can't.
I'll wait him out.
Yes, you should do that.
But first, you need to help me with the others.
… Others?
Knowledge and Bravery and Sloth and …
Oh. Of course.
You found them?
I did. But they will not come quietly.
We'll just see about that, then, won't we?
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Titans' Tower
On the roof, Robin watched in numb awe as the drama unfolded over Jump City. He had been, via sheer luck, placed just so that he could see all of it. The initial attack had given him a (very) brief hope that she might be defeated. But then the ropes appeared, plucked something out of the air, and brought it low. He'd stared narrowly at the place until the space-bending flash of light had left him temporarily blind, his mask's dampers notwithstanding. Great. Just terrific. One of the few times I left my communicator in my room. Feeling his way as best he could, he eventually made it back to the elevator. I hope Victor isn't in his charging station.
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The cybernetic teen was not, in fact, charging up his system. He was working on yet another way to break through Raven's defenses. Knowing what he did from their previous experiment, he had figured out a way to establish the drilling beam as a standing wave. That might give them enough time to sneak inside. It was the longest of long shots, but he was fresh out of other ideas.
The noise of Rage's scream penetrated even to the interior room where he was working, and it worried him enough that he felt a need to investigate. But the only thing he saw when the door slid open was a pair of bright green eyes. Then everything went black …
Jericho, now using Victor's sight, went back into the work room and locked the door behind him, thinking, I only hope I have enough time to carry out Dr. Fate's instructions.
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A/N: My most heartfelt thanks to everyone who has stuck with this odd little story. You guys are the best!
Reviews are appreciated!