Chapter 11- Quoth the Raven
The drone camera scuttled back out of the way as Raven blasted the Titans with the black lightning. It was small, unobtrusive- none of them even knew it was there- but still, its programming was clear- self-preservation at all costs. The master required the information it was transmitting.
Far away, deep beneath the city, that master watched as the drone's transmission was displayed for him on a video screen. Slade shook his head as he watched Robin and his friends blasted back, writhing in pain. "Pathetic," he whispered. "Really, Robin, I expected better of you."
Slade reached down to his belt and removed the device he had prepared in the event that the Titans failed- a ruby pendant that seemed to glow with its own inner light. The Ring of Azar was not the only thing he had taken from Trigon's realm while in the Demon King's service; the ruby was a weapon of tremendous magical power. Slade preferred technology and wit to magic- better, in his opinion, that a man should succeed based on ruthlessness, skill, and clever planning than by relying on the crutch of the supernatural- but in some cases, it was all that was effective. When Raven summoned the energies for her great spell, Slade would activate the ruby's own enchantment, and Raven spell would be seized and drawn within the stone, along with her soul. When that happened, killing her would be as easy as smashing the pendant beneath his boot.
There- it was time. Raven had begun her spellcasting. Slade lifted the pendant before his eyes and began to swing it back and forth, chanting the words he had memorized in the demon realm- and then he stopped, staring at the screen, his one good eye widening slightly. The green fool had come out of nowhere and broken the spell- what was that in his hand? A mirror? Then the screen went dark for what Slade estimated to be about five seconds- and when it cleared, the Titans were all gone. The mirror lay on the floor of an empty room.
"Well, now," Slade said to himself, lowering the pendant. "What a curious turn of events this is."
Robin stood on a plain of grey rock beneath a black, red-flecked sky. Beast Boy and Cyborg had told him that this place was in some way a symbolic representation of Raven's mind- that didn't make it any less eerie. The air and land were completely still, lifeless except for the flock of black birds that perched on the dead, twisted trees- waiting, it seemed, but for what? Every so often one of them would give a dry, scratchy caw, but otherwise the mindscape was completely silent.
Robin turned to his teammates, who stood behind him, staring out into the empty sky. "Beast Boy- this was your plan. What do we do now?"
"Last time I was here, this place was full of different Ravens," the shapeshifter said. "All the different parts of her mind. The demon side was one of them- so if Raven's good side is anywhere, it'll be here."
"But how do we find her?" Starfire asked. "This place- it is so cold, so empty. Where do we look?"
"Well," Cyborg put in, "last time we were here, we didn't really find anything- it found us." At that precise moment, a huge tree, larger than any of the others, sprouted from the center of the plain. "Like that," Cyborg added.
The tree was the only thing the Titans had to go on, so they began to walk towards it. When they reached its base, the tree seemed to have grown to such a great height that it almost blotted out the strange sky. But there was nothing on it to suggest that Raven was anywhere nearby. Robin motioned, and the team followed him as he led the way around the trunk. And there, on the other side, they saw her.
She was bound to the side of the tree by thorn-covered branches that held her upright, her arms held out and her legs bound together. She was dressed all in white, and though a hood was pulled low over her face, the Titans knew she was Raven. But she was different from the Raven they knew- her skin was pale, but within the normal human range rather than that eerie grey they were used to, and her hair, from what they could see of it beneath the hood, was black rather than violet. This was the part of Raven that symbolized her human soul, even as the thing that now possessed her body embodied her demonic power.
"Raven," Robin whispered in pity and horror as he looked at her. "What happened to you?"
"Robin?" she said weakly, raising her head. "Is that really you? Or am I dreaming again."
"It's me, Raven," Robin said gently. "It's all of us. We're here to save you."
"You can't save me," Raven replied. "It's too late."
"No, Raven," Beast Boy said. "Remember Terra? It's never too late. You just have to believe that."
Robin drew a birdarang from his belt. "Cyborg, help me," he said. "We need to get her down." Snapping the weapon open, he began to viciously attack the branch that bound one arm, while Cyborg attacked the other with his chainsaw. At last they gave way, and Raven collapsed weakly onto the ground.
"It's all right, Raven," Beast Boy said as he helped her to her feet. "You're safe now."
"I am afraid that you are mistaken, my friend," a voice hissed from the darkness. The black birds had taken flight, and now they seemed to fly together, forming into a dark shape taller than the twisted tree, a demon girl swathed in black.
"This body is mine," the demon hissed. "This life is mine. Too long you kept me locked up here, in the depths of your darkest thoughts- but I am free now, and I shall never return there." She raised her hand, and it burned with black fire. "You were foolish to come here, Titans- now you will all pay the price!" She lowered her hand and sent the waves of destructive energy coursing down and her enemies.
And then, inches away, it vanished, swept away by white light. Raven was standing on her own now, and she walked towards her dark counterpart with a look of calm confidence on her face.
"How can this be?" the demon asked. "The power comes from Trigon- it is mine! How is it that you can oppose me?"
"Because you don't understand nearly as much as you think you do," Raven replied calmly. "I live in this mind, too- so I also have power here."
"Raven!" Robin shouted, "Get back! Let us fight her. You're still too weak."
"No, Robin," she said without looking back, "this isn't about that kind of strength. This is a battle for my soul- and it is my fight. I don't know if I can defeat her, but for all of your sakes I have to try."
"Your fight?" the demon laughed. "You can't fight me. I was always our strength- all you ever did was hold us back. You kept us from our vengeance."
"Vengeance? For what?" Raven said. "Trigon and Slade have been paid back for their evil; the Titans were always our friends; and Azar's teachings were the only thing that kept us sane. From where I'm standing, we don't have anything to take revenge for."
"Azar made us weak!" the demon roared. "She forced us to keep our power limited because she feared us."
"She cared about us, and about this world. She knew what Trigon planned, and so she worked to save both the world and his daughter from the darkness. Because she knew that I could be saved, even when I didn't believe it myself. And Robin believed, and the Titans believed- even Slade believed in that, in his own way. Because I'm not a demon, not completely. I am Azar's light and Trigon's darkness, bound together in Arella's humanity. And that means that I have a choice!" As Raven spoke she seemed to grow, or perhaps the demon diminished. Either way, they were almost the same size now.
"Lies. The light cares nothing for us, and humanity is weak. Only in darkness is there strength."
"For Trigon, maybe, but not for me. He is pure darkness, but I'm a lot more complex. That's why I needed Azar's techniques to keep my mind under control- and you needed them too, to keep me out. But you can't use them very well, can you? All you do is destroy and hate. You can't keep your emotions under control at all."
"What are you saying?" The demon seemed afraid for the first time now.
"All those fits of anger, uncontrolled magic- you know why that happened. You can't clear your mind of hate because you are hate. If you can't control your emotions, you'll go insane- but I'm the only one here with self control. You need me," Raven smiled tightly, "but I don't need you."
"We shall see the truth of that!" the demon snarled. Raising both her hands she summoned the dark fire again, far more than before. Power crackled in the air about her as she drew more and more energy from her surroundings. Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire were rocked almost off their feet by the mighty winds that raced towards the ball of energy the demon held. The trees and birds were drawn in completely and vanished. All that was left now was the empty land and sky, the Titans, and the two Ravens.
"I AM POWER!" The demon shrieked, and hurled the dark fire at her counterpart. Raven did not move, did not react at all- she simply stood there and let the fire pass into her- and was unharmed.
"Help me, friends," she said in a strained voice. "I need your strength for this, just like she needed Blood's strength."
"We're with you, Raven," Robin said as he and the other Titans came to stand by Raven's side. She stood there for a moment, seeming to bask in their presence, and white light formed a soft halo around her- and then she reached out to the line of black flame that linked her to the demon, and pulled.
The demon shrieked in agony as the black fire was dragged out of her- and with it came more Ravens, each of them wearing a cloak of a different color, each of them representing a different aspect of the sorceress's mind. One by one the flowed into white Raven's body, and as they did her skin once more became that strange grey, here hair the dark violet. Except for the white robe, she was now completely the Raven that the Titans knew.
The demon was reduced now to a single, human sized figure, her robe as red as the four eyes that still burned beneath her hood. She lay on her knees, panting, and looked up at Raven with pure hate in her expression. "Fool," she gasped, "I would have made us great."
Raven shook her head. "No," she whispered, "You would have made us into a monster, and somewhere, in the depths of whatever pit he is in now, Trigon would have laughed." She walked forward to face the demon, and as she did she shrank, till they were standing eye to eye.
"You're a part of me," Raven said sadly, "and you always will be. But light and humanity always will too. Maybe neither will ever win. Maybe that's the point." Then, to the shock of her friends, Raven bent down to the demon's level, and embraced her.
The darkness of Raven's mindscape vanished, replaced a searing light. Half of the light was white, and the other was red, and the two halves strove against each other. But in the end, the white light won.
Robin lay numb on a carpeted floor. He couldn't move, didn't want to. He was so tired, and he couldn't think of anything else that mattered. Then he realized, slowly, that someone was softly calling a word, and that word was his name.
Robin opened his eyes and looked up to see Raven leaning over him, apparently in between attempts to shake him awake. And she was herself again- grey skin, violet hair and eyes, blue robe. This was the friend who had helped the team through so many dangers, not the monster who had tried to destroy them.
"It's alright, Raven," he said, "I'm awake."
Raven smiled her small, quiet smile. "Then let's go home," she said.
