Raven silently stood stock still, her hands by her side and her fists tightly clenched. She was angry. In fact, angry was probably a gross understatement. She was livid. All she wanted was for things to go back to the way they were and to reunite with her friends but once more, Slade had gotten in the way. She had come so close to saving them and destroying him only to have her plans thwarted once more.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven recited. Her dark energy wrapped up her physical self and she was off to find Slade. By then, it was already 11:50 PM.
Raven followed Slade to his room and stood in a corner unnoticed as he picked up the same stone he had used to communicate with his ally within the Improbus Daemonium. She listened carefully as he began to speak.
"By the power of Raven and this mystical stone,
By their power here I stand.
To the Improbus Daemonium's golden throne,
Transport me to the demons' land."
A glowing red portal opened right in front of Slade and he quickly stepped through it. When Raven tried to follow, an unknown power within the portal prevented her from doing so. She could only watch helplessly as the portal closed. Having looked to the floor, she saw that the stone had fallen to the ground. Eagerly, Raven picked it up and examined it.
"Slade said 'By the power of Raven', which means he was relying on my power." Raven suddenly perked up with a bright idea.
"By the power of Trigon and this mystical stone,
By their power here I stand.
To the Improbus Daemonium's golden throne,
Transport me to the demons' land."
The same glowing red portal appeared. Raven levitated into the air and flew through it. The portal closed behind her and she found herself blitzing past demonic worlds of every kind.
"I can't believe that a plain ordinary rock is actually the portal to the dens of evil." Raven sighed. "Why can't some magical things look more magical for once?"
Raven was fuming when she arrived at the Improbus Daemonium's arrival triangle, mostly because it took her so long to get there. The arrival triangle was a large room that resembled the interior of a pyramid and it had one door on each of its three walls.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Raven whispered. Her soul self engulfed her and she hovered below the pointed ceiling, waiting for something to happen.
Raven waited for forty seconds before one of the three doors opened and a tall figure stepped through. The demon stood at roughly eight feet tall. It had no visible physical features as it wore a black helmet with no eyeholes. It was of a muscular build and wore a suit of armor with demonic incantations inscribed all over it. It carried an intimidating spear that glowed red and spoke in a booming voice that filled the room.
"Seigon, son of Trigon. The Improbus Daemonium welcomes you." It thundered in a deep voice that sounded anything but inviting.
"Sei what now?" Raven thought as she stared at the two in consternation.
"It is good to be home." Slade said carefully.
"I can sense a powerful demonic presence in this room. Seigon, you really are something." The demon commented as he motioned for Slade to walk through one of the doors.
"That powerful demonic presence is me!" Raven fumed. "Demonic dolt." She thought as she followed behind them.
The demon and Slade walked into a pitch black room. As they entered the room, it lit up in a brilliant flash of light as inscriptions on the walls began to glow.
"You really are the son of Trigon." The demon said in awe. "We demons are glad that Trigon has another child who can lead us. Not only is that sister of yours a hero from Azarath, she is also has no loyalty. The way she just came back from Azar and left her so called friends at your mercy is revolting. We fear that she may do that to us as well."
"It's 11:54." Slade reminded him.
"Yes, yes. Memorize what I tell you and repeat it word for word." The demon ordered as he directed Slade to lay his hands on a pillar full of glowing inscriptions.
"Evil is good but too much evil bad.
Good is evil and good is bad.
Yet good is good when one is too bad,
Out of Azarath's Raven remove half her bad."
Before Slade could repeat what the demon had said, Raven materialized before them.
"Seigon oh, Seigon you are far from my brother. I know that you're Slade, an incessant bother. Trigon is not and will never be your father, you are an impostor; the child of another."
"Your highness!" Screeched the demon the moment he realized who she was.
"Senio Sergi Sivere Daemonicia!" Six fire-demons appeared behind Raven and began to attack Slade, who used the powers she had given him to fend off their attacks. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven roared. To her amazement, she was unable to withdraw the power from him. Perplexed, she tried again only to be faced with the same result.
"Seigon!" The demon who had almost helped Slade with the spell was both flustered and astonished.
"There is no Seigon!" Raven snarled. "This is Slade!"
By now, the angry Raven had blown the roof off the dark room and light from the red sky began streaming in.
"I am not Slade!" Slade gasped as the fire-demons pushed him to the floor.
"Who is Slade?" Asked the demon anxiously.
"Sis, I am no longer known as Slade. Slade was the name that my mother gave me. When Brutus agreed to help me with the spell, he accepted me as Seigon. It's understood among demons that I'm now known as Seigon and that I'm never to be called Slade ever again." Slade tried to explain.
"I am not your sister." Raven hissed. "And Trigon is not your father. I gave you these powers, not him."
"If that's the case, then why were you unable to take my powers away?" Slade questioned coolly as her fire-demons pinned him to the wall.
"You have done something." Raven declared. "You are not my brother and you never will be. I will find out what you have done and I will take my power back."
"You can't take back what is not yours." Replied Slade calmly. "Our father gave us powers of our own. I can't take your powers away and neither can you take mine away. Having a sibling means you have to share everything that our father gives us, sister." Raven felt as though she was going to vomit.
"Azarath-"
"-What is going on?" Thundered a demon who stood taller and larger than the others. A large group of demons had gathered around the three. "Brutus!" Yelled the demon the moment he saw Brutus trying to free Slade from the fire-demons' grasp.
"What do you want, Edwindan?" Brutus crossed his arms in defiance.
"An explanation." Edwindan growled. "Who is this fellow with the orange mask and who is this woman?"
"This is Seigon. He's an illegitimate child of Trigon which means he won't be able to inherit the throne of the Improbus Daemonium and neither is he entitled to any of the eleven spheres." Brutus replied.
"Are you kidding me?" Raven was incredulous.
"And this woman here is Raven, the our queen and Trigon's little princess who fights evil and is closely associated with the Azarathians." Brutus spat out. The demons immediately removed their helmets and knelt down before Raven.
"Excuse our ignorance, your appearance has not been made known to us." Edwindan said humbly.
"Why are they being so nice when they all live and breathe evil? And did he say 'queen'?" Raven crossed her arms as she thought hard.
"Allow me to introduce myself." Said Slade as Brutus finally succeeded in freeing him from Raven's fire-demons. "My name is Seigon and I was born as an illegitimate child after Trigon raped my human mother. I've been living in the shadows all these years because Trigon cared much more about Raven than he did for me. I do have some powers but as a child whose father refused to acknowledge him, I've missed out on a lot."
Raven glared at Slade angrily. She knew that he was lying but his lie was so skillful that it would be hard for her to rebut him. By claiming to be an illegitimate child, Slade had excused himself from having to explain why Trigon ignored him, why he wasn't as powerful as Raven or her real brothers and why he wasn't granted the ability to induce and amplify a certain sin. To make matters worse, Raven now sensed that Slade too was half-demon and it puzzled her to the core. Up until now, Raven had sensed that Slade was fully human which meant that he must have done something to make himself appear half-demon very recently. However, she couldn't seem to figure out how he had done that because she had destroyed Trigon, making it impossible for Slade to sell half of his soul to him.
"Humans do not just become half-demons like that, even though this particular human has caused me more pain than all of the Improbus Daemonium put together." Raven clenched her fists. She was furious beyond comprehension but she was mature enough to know that making any outbursts at this point would be to her detriment. The Improbus Daemonium would simply figure that she was making so much noise out of jealousy and completely disregard her from then on. As a result, she remained silent as she watched Slade with a truly evil look on her face. She needed to lawyer up and speak up at the right time and in the right tone.
"Since I'm also a child of Trigon, I deserve a chance to prove to you that I would make a better leader than your current queen." Slade said confidently. "Your queen is not evil. She is part of a team of superheroes called the Teen Titans and she spends her days fighting evil. I on the other hand, live for evil, chaos and vengeance. Who would you rather serve, your prim and proper queen or I, the lover of evil?" The demons began nodding their heads and murmuring in agreement.
"If I am not evil like you say so, then why did you try to recite a spell at 11:54 that would remove half of the evil out of me?" Raven summoned the force of her cunning. "If I'm already good, why would you need to take measures to make me good?" With the tables turned, the demons began glaring at Slade. Raven quickly monopolized the turning of the tide to her advantage. "You know that I'm evil." She began walking in circles around Slade. "And it intimidates you. To make yourself feel better, you tried to make me less evil so that you would look like Trigon in comparison to me. How can someone so insecure make a good leader?" She asked the demons. They were completely and utterly swayed.
"Raven has no loyalty." Slade declared in response before playing a holographic video. "Watch her packing up and leaving the titans to their deaths at my hands. A good leader would stay with the team while a bad one abandons her team. Are you sure you want to be led by someone who could abandon you in battle at any minute?"
"Correction, an evil leader does what is best for herself. A good leader like Slade, does what is best for the team. Like I said, Slade isn't evil. I am. If he isn't evil, how can he lead the cause for evil? And since I am evil, why would I abandon the cause of evil?"
"Well said!" Edwindan shouted and all the demons began cheering.
"If you are actually evil, explain why you have been fighting for the cause of good all this while." Slade's new tactic was now to tear Raven down instead of building himself up.
"Simple. I fought evil on earth because I was insulted by the way that evil was portrayed by what humans call 'villains'. They think that their puny toys, pathetic powers and pitiful rampages make them evil. That's why I sought to defeat them. They are making evil look like child's play. Why should I - the daughter of Trigon - stand for these miserable displays of fake evil? I didn't fight them for the cause of good, I fought them for the cause of evil. There can only be true evil and imitation is just wrong."
"Let's give it up for our queen!" Yelled one demon. The demons erupted in loud albeit deep cheers.
"You could've just fought fake evil on you own. Why would you need to alliance yourself with a superhero group?" Slade persisted.
"So that I could play with their emotions." Raven replied easily. "I needed something to do when I wasn't showing off my power."
"What about Azar? Why did you go to Azar's plane of existence for help if you were truly evil?" Slade was throwing at her everything he had.
"Trigon gave me powers but he didn't teach me how to control them. I was just using Azar to learn how to control my powers. Once I was done, I left because I hated the heavenly atmosphere of the place." Raven shuddered.
"Yeah!" Yelled a particularly rowdy demon.
"If you were really evil, you wouldn't have destroyed our father. Instead, you would've ruled by his side." Slade was quickly running out of ideas.
"Why would I want to rule by his side when I could rule on my own?" Raven demanded. "He may be my father but that doesn't mean I'm going to share control over the universe with him."
As the demons began to cheer once again, Slade remained silent. Raven was just too good with words.
"Regardless of what and who Raven is, but I still deserve a chance to fight for the throne and my rightful inheritance." He said finally. He had not given up yet, but at this point, his original plan had failed.
Slade had planned to conquer the titans by first conquering Raven, the most powerful member of the group in a series of steps which he had listed out nicely in his head.
1) When Raven leaves, torture and torment the titans until their morale is depleted.
2) Take control of Terra's mind and manipulate the weakened titans into accepting her onto the team.
3) Record and document Raven's return and her leaving the titans because of Terra.
4) When Raven comes through, tell her that unless she gives me powers, I will kill her friends.
5) Use powers that Raven gives me to kill a demon, store its soul in a jewel and keep the jewel in utility belt at all times so that demons will think that I'm half-demon and Raven cannot take my powers away like Trigon did.
6) Use magical stone stolen from Raven - who doesn't even know she has it - to contact the Improbus Daemonium.
7) Find a traitor within the Improbus Daemonium and win him to my side by pretending to be an illegitimate child of Trigon and proving to him that Raven doesn't deserve everything she has from Trigon.
8) Learn spell to make Raven truly good from traitor and recite it.
9) Use her leaving to prove to the Improbus Daemonium that not only is Raven not evil, she is also disloyal and could abandon them in battle.
10) Convince the eleven leading demons that I deserve the eleven Spheres of Sin more than the pure Raven who now looks completely good to them because she has so little evil within her.
11) Absorb the eleven Spheres of Sin and use new abilities to defeat and kill Raven.
12) Defeat the titans who are powerless without Raven.
13) Get everything that I ever wanted.
While there was a hiccup on step 4 when Raven returned supposedly evil instead of good, Slade was still able to convince her to give him powers. Bigger difficulties came in at step 7, when he was trying to convince Brutus the traitor to help him. Because Raven now wore her demonic front, Brutus came to fear her instantaneously the moment he came to earth and saw her. He feared her power so much that Slade had to go to great lengths to prove that she posed no threat to them and that she would not destroy them should she find out about their plan to take her entire inheritance and position as queen of the Improbus Daemonium away from her.
However, it was only at step 8 when Raven derailed his entire plan by showing up before he could recite the spell. He would've had Brutus do it earlier, if not for the fact that only he could do it because unlike Brutus, his powers were indirectly from Trigon, which meant that only he could remove evil from Raven. Now that Raven had totally ruined everything, not only did the demons believe she was more evil than him, they seemed to be angry with him. There was no way for him to convince them to give him the eleven Spheres of Sin when they now clearly favored Raven. Plan A was now thrown out of the window but that didn't mean Slade didn't have a plan B. As he watched the demons discussing what to do among themselves, he sincerely hoped that Raven wouldn't mess this up for him again.
Beast Boy strode into the lounge with a huge grin on his face. His expression was sharply juxtaposed with the grief-stricken expressions of his teammates. Starfire's hair looked as though a tornado had blown through it while the slightly neater Terra had puffy eyes. Cyborg wore the look that devastated men wear when they are trying not to cry.
"You look awfully happy for someone who just lost the-" Cyborg stopped short, leaving everyone hanging. He had intended to finish his sentence with 'love of his life' but was fortunately able to catch himself. Beast Boy had explicitly warned him not to tell anyone about his feelings for Raven.
"I've got- where's Robin?" Beast Boy asked.
"He has done the leaving." Said Starfire brokenly as the tears began to flow once more.
"Leaving? Why would he do that?" Beast Boy demanded.
"I do not do the knowing!" Starfire bawled as Terra tried to comfort her.
"Aurora said that she found him at the gates last night during her patrol duty and he looked depressed. She asked him what was wrong but he refused to say anything, so she told him to go inside and he did. By morning, he was gone." Cyborg sighed.
"Gone? Where?" Beast Boy was now genuinely worried.
"Dunno. Aurora and several warriors have gone to look for him." Cyborg said softly. "B, this is serious. Robin is in big trouble. Aurora says she can only sense four human souls within the whole of Curatoria, which means Robin has somehow left the realm of Curatoria itself. Aurena is going crazy right now because apparently, some kind of demon cast a spell on us and it's only here that we'll be safe from it. So long Robin stays outside, the demon who cast spell could kill him."
"What?" Beast Boy screeched. "Why didn't she tell us that earlier?"
"She didn't want us to worry and she didn't think that any one of us would try to leave." Cyborg replied as he cast a sympathetic look in Starfire's direction.
"If Robin left, where would he go?" Terra suddenly spoke up. "Where exactly are we?"
"Aurena says that Curatoria is an inter-dimensional world like Azarath. The only difference is that Curatoria is much easier to enter and leave. You don't need to be Raven and have all sorts of magical stuff to get in and get out. Since one of their animals that looks like a Pegasus is missing, Aurena thinks that Robin took it, rode it out the gate and down the footpath and out of this dimension. She says that once he's left he'll return to the dimension he came from with their flying horselike thing."
"Aren't there guards or anything to stop him from leaving?" Terra inquired as she softly patted the sobbing Starfire's head.
"No. They don't have guards. Their warriors are so powerful that they don't need them." Cyborg said tiredly.
"Why would Robin leave?" Beast Boy wondered. "He knows that it's dangerous out there. It just doesn't sound like him to run off like that."
"Yesterday he became very pale when we heard about Raven's death. He just this guilty look on his face. It's almost as though he felt responsible for it." Cyborg said thoughtfully.
"Robin would never do the killing of friend Raven!" Cried Starfire indignantly.
"Easy Star. We're not accusing him of anything." Cyborg said quickly. Starfire looked at him disbelievingly.
"Robin didn't kill Raven." Beast Boy said firmly. "Check this out." He said before producing the black stone from his pocket and laying it on the table.
"Order!" shouted Edwindan as he motioned for Slade and Raven to stand on two different platforms. They had all gathered in the judgement hall of the Improbus Daemonium to decide if Slade would be allowed to battle Raven for her position and inheritance. "Devia, if you will." He motioned for one of the demons to stand.
"When a legitimate child of Trigon is born, eleven Spheres of Sin are created with their first breath and are given to us to guard. The eleven spheres that we now guard all belong to Raven, Trigon's sole surviving legitimate child." Devia was clearly the lawyerly one of the group. "However, according to the demon code, a legitimate child of Trigon can forfeit his or her inheritance by behaving in a manner contrary to the laws of evil. The spheres are then given to one of Trigon's illegitimate childen. Although Raven has proven that she is evil, she has lived a questionable life and said questionable things. In addition, her upbringing by the Azarathians further blurs her evil identity. As a result, we are unable to judge whether Raven has actually broken any laws that would allow Seigon to receive her inheritance. However, due to the sheer amount of grey areas, we also cannot assume that Raven has not broken any laws and that she is still entitled to her inheritance. Consequently, us guardians of the Spheres of Sin have delivered the verdict that each sphere will go to the child of Trigon who can prove that they are more worthy of it. Defian, please inform them how it is done."
"Devia! Why do you always have to make simple things sound complicated?" Asked Defian as he stood.
"It sounds complicated to you because you weren't listening." Devia retorted.
"Yes I was!" Defian insisted.
"Enough!" Ordered Edwindan. "Defian, since you think you can do a better job than Devia, I welcome you to try."
"Okay!" He said brightly. "Because of a lot of things that has happened, we don't know which one of you the eleven spheres belongs to, so you're going to have to fight for them. Sounds simple enough?"
"Devia, you really are longwinded and complex." Commented another demon. "And I thought Demona was bad."
"Devil! Shut up!" Yelled Demona.
"Enough." Edwindan groaned. "Devia, tell us what is going to happen to the Sphere of Pride."
"As the guardian of the Sphere of Pride, I am pleased to announce that I will relinquish the sphere to Raven since she already has the ability to amplify and induce Pride due to her legitimacy. The inheritance stated in the law actually refers to the other ten sins that Raven cannot induce and it will be for those other ten Spheres of Sin that Seigon and Raven will fight for. For those with objections, the Sphere of Pride is counted as Raven's no matter how she behaves and no matter how many laws she breaks. Raven, receiving this sphere will allow you to control, manipulate and amplify Pride with unrestrained freedom, something that you are not able to do now. Are you ready?"
"Yes." Raven said confidently before stepping down from the platform and approaching Devia. She held her breath and tried not to smirk. Slade was going to be so very jealous.
"Close your eyes." Said Devia taking Raven's two hands in hers. Raven obeyed and Devia began the ceremony.
"Sphere of Pride, Sphere of Pride,
The emotion who makes the united divide.
Be free of me, flee from my side,
And go to her who shall be your guide.
With Trigon's Raven you shall abide,
With power over Pride you shall provide.
Sphere of Pride, Sphere of Pride,
Be free of me, flee from my side,
Be free of me, flee from my side..."
The entire hall watched with rapt attention as a swirling orb of dark energy left Devia's chest and hovered in the air between the two.
"Release your soul self." Devia whispered.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Raven said in a barely audible voice. The demons watched in awe as her raven filled the room and sent shivers down their spines with a resounding shriek. The orb then disintegrated and fused with Raven's soul self, which then returned to her in a flash. Shocked and stunned, Raven fell to the ground.
"The transfer is complete." Devia announced as she helped Raven to her feet.
"Go Raven!" Yelled Defian.
"Shut up Defian!" Roared the fiery Demona.
"Demona..." Groaned Edwindan. "Defian, please tell Seigon and Raven how they are going to fight for the other ten Spheres of Sin."
"You got it!" Defian said cheerfully. "Since both of you have mothers originating from earth, you will prove to us that you deserve a particular sphere on earth. Let's say you two are fighting for Greed. The one who manages to induce more greed among humans will be more deserving of the sphere and will receive the Sphere of Greed. Simple?"
Raven and Slade both nodded before turning to glare at each other. Both were relatively pleased with the outcome because it favored neither. Deep down, Raven had feared that she would lose the eleven spheres altogether because she knew that the demons frowned upon her upbringing and superhero status. Slade in contrast had feared that the demons would figure that he wasn't actually Trigon's illegitimate son and completely disregard him. The two left the judgement hall with two different vows. One vowed to expose the other for being the fraud that he was while the other vowed to carry out his plan to get everything he ever wanted.
Having set a date on when Raven and Slade were to battle for the first sphere - the Sphere of Wrath - Edwindan ordered Devia, the guardian of the Sphere of Pride to take Raven on a tour of the Improbus Daemonium. Until ownership of the remaining ten spheres had been decided and Raven and Slade had fought each other for control of the order, Raven was still recognized as the official queen of the Improbus Daemonium.
"I still can't believe that I'm the queen of this place." Raven mused as she surveyed several statues of Trigon. "How did this happen?" She asked Devia.
"Trigon was our king, so when you defeated him, you became our queen." Devia replied simply.
"I defeated him a long time ago."
"So?"
"Why did it take you so long to tell me that I'm queen?" Raven snapped.
"We weren't under attack and we didn't need your protection." Devia explained.
"I see. Who is this?" Raven asked as they stopped in front of a statue of a woman. "This is the first female statue I've seen so far."
"That's you." Said Devia sheepishly.
"Really?" Raven stood beside the statue and faced her. "Really? I look nothing like this."
"Heh. Sorry?" Devia volunteered. Raven was so surprised she found herself gaping.
"Why don't you seem that evil?" She wondered. "The book Azar gave me describes you demons as demons who live and breathe evil and I know as well as you do that evil does not apologize."
"Firstly, I don't seem that evil to you because you are much more evil than I am." Devia replied. Raven tried not to roll her eyes. "The Azarathians thought that we were pure evil for a reason. Our father was the one who originally guarded the eleven sins; seven deadly sins plus four others. He was the one who lived and breathed evil. Because of that, he tried to take the eleven spheres for himself instead of guarding them. Trigon killed him as a punishment and having recognized the power we wield, he gave each one of us a sphere to guard, but not before removing some of the evil within us so that we would not try to seize the sphere instead of guarding it. It was our father who is evil. We are the lessor evil. However, to good people like that Azarathians, evil is evil and some evil equals all evil. But in reality, we're not that bad." Devia said wryly.
"What about that Brutus fellow?" Raven wondered. "Who is he?"
'Brutus is our twelfth brother who was born shortly after Trigon gave us our duties. He was named differently because he was the last child. There are only eleven spheres, so he missed out on guardianship and a high position. Unlike the rest of us, he's purely evil because Trigon didn't remove any evil from him. We keep him around because he's our brother but he's been causing trouble from the moment he could walk. He probably teamed up with Seigon to try to overthrow you with the spell. It's a lucky thing you came in and stopped it when you did. If they had gone through with the spell to remove half of the evil from you to make you good, we would have seen you as a good person and would've automatically crowned Seigon as king and granted him the eleven spheres - even the Sphere of Pride."
"Is that so?" Raven mused before parting ways with Devia and she walking into her assigned quarters with a lot of things on her mind.
Raven sat down on her bed and pulled out a black rock shaped like a raven. It was between these two rocks that she was able to so called loan part of her soul self to Beast Boy. As she stared at it, a strange thought came to her mind.
"Slade is actually downright evil but because of what I've said, the Improbus Daemonium thinks that he's good. I on the other hand am a good girl pretending to be evil. Now, I have to fight to keep my inheritance of the other ten spheres and my position as ruler of the Improbus Daemonium and if I don't fight Slade fairly in this competition as though he's my real brother, the demons will not respect me anymore and they will try to hurt my friends in retaliation. Only until the fight for the other ten spheres is over can I do away with Slade once and for all." At this point, Raven let out a loud sigh. "Great. I am an evil girl who is actually good but is acting evil so that she can fight for evil to fight against evil. I think I'm having an identity crisis." She thought sadly as she assumed the lotus position. She needed to prepare herself for the difficult battles that were yet to come.