OH GOd guys I AM FINALLY TYPING CHAPTER 26 I CANT BELIEVE I MANAGED TO PULL MYSELF TOGETHER TO WRITE THIS FINALLY! FINALLY!
I've been spending my life on Neopets (neofriend me please! the name's minzanity) and I recently started working, after my trip to Bangkok in December. I'm sorry I kept you guys waiting for so long! :( I also had to go back on my old chapters and reread everything, deciding on how to restart this fic as smoothly as possible...a Happy new year, everybody! :) (although it's...laaaate)
He couldn't remember what happened when that ever-expanding blast of light hit him and the Titans. In that moment, he could only hold on tightly to the rings she gave, the souvenirs of her leaving, and quite possibly the last traces of her he'd ever possess. Slade Wilson was a mercenary, supervillain and technology extraordinaire, but nothing can prepare him for what's about to come.
He felt the atoms of his body scatter as they relocated him to a new place, far away from the library probably, and in his mind the still image of his newfound lover refused to leave him, as if thoughts of her was the only way he was going to survive through this ordeal.
It could had been hours before he finally woke up, but he wouldn't know even if he tried to check - Earth had come to a complete standstill where time is but history. The sun was no longer in sight, overruled by orange clouds hanging onto the blood-red sky. The air smelt like sulfur, death and destruction as a humongous creature, tall as a skyscraper, roared in the distance before settling onto a broken Titans Tower. In any other circumstance Slade would consider such a world to be a fantasy of his making, but now, the world was not his. It was his, however, to save.
Slade Wilson got up slowly, aching from the pain of teleportation. As he turned his head to survey the city's destroyed skyline, he spotted a feathered creature whose crimson eyes resembled that of...hers?!
It flew away upon feeling his eyes on it, and he gave chase, yelling her name, hoping that it would remember and respond. But it continued eluding him, further and further into the heart of the city, atop an oriental building. Slade kept up until a piece of debris jutting out caused him to temporarily lose his footing, just as the bird disappeared. Regaining his balance, he looked upwards to see that the winged creature was no more, but in it's place, four superheroes stood in his line of vision.
Blast it. What could I possibly expect from a BIRD?
Brushing off his embarrassing moment, Slade took on a stoic stance as he eyed the Titans. "I saw something out there."
"And so did we. It led us all here." Beast Boy replied. "..Almost all of us."
"We're the only ones left," commented Cyborg, with a tinge of pessimism.
"But how is this possible?" Starfire wondered out loud. "How have we survived?"
"It was Raven. She saved us - I don't know how but she did," Slade replied, taking a step towards the building's edge. "Before Trigon arrived on Earth I saw her familiar power acting as some form of shield."
"As it that matters. Look around. There's nothing left. What's the point?" Cyborg replied. His face was downcast and it was obvious he had little faith in defeating Trigon.
"Before this happened she said that she needed to finish this and get us out of it. Somehow, I believe her. She usually delivers. It wouldn't be wise to doubt her." Slade answered, hoping he, or rather, Raven, was right. A man like him who usually had everything detailed and calculated out no longer felt the sense of control and confidence in the face of such adversity.
"That won't happen without action from our part," replied Robin. "We could use a lead right now. Something to at least signal to us what to do..."
Minutes before Robin said that, something else was going on in Earth's own underworld...
All was dark, until she mustered whatever strength she had left to open her eyes against the numbness she felt in her body.
"Where...am I?" She stared at the rocks around her, arranged in a perfect circle. This place was short of a pentagram on the floor to complete the set of a satanic ritual... Raven stood up, with visible difficulty, for almost all her energy had been zapped out when she brought her interdimensional father into the earthly plane.
"You have awakened." His mocking, annoying yet fear-instilling voice sounded about the chamber she was trapped in. "I'm surprised you had the capacity to even live."
"Shut up!" she yelled as she regained more strength and took a defensive stance, prepared for an ambush. "If you're planning on finishing me here -"
He roared with laughter even before she could end her sentence.
"Finishing? Why would I finish off the only child of mine to have lived? No, my daughter, you are gravely mistaken - you live to serve only one master, and that is me. You live so that you can continue bringing worlds down to their knees and worship my name. You live so that one day, all the worlds that exist will belong to Trigon the Terrible!"
"I'd very much rather you finish me off, actually..." She trailed off as she felt a sudden sharp pain in her head. "OW! What's going on now - "
Images of her past flooded her mind as she opened her eyes to view an entirely different landscape set before her. "...Azarath? What am I doing here.."
"TRAITOR!" A million voices yelled in unison as ghostly white wraiths rushed past Raven, enveloping her in their midst. "You destroyed the land that made your birth possible and killed the very people who raised you!" The spirits of Azarath continued to whirl about her as she shielded her face with her forearms. Her hair was flying about amidst the turbulence and she tried to walk out of the spirits' grasp, slowly stepping towards whatever direction she could make out.
"Did you guys get bitten by him or something?" Raven yelled back, "YOU GUYS DON'T EVEN FIGHT! WHY -"
A laughter similar to hers sounded about her as the spirits ceased and died down, disappearing into thin air.
"So I see you managed to keep your intelligence, other than your life." A shadowed figure laughed as she stepped out, revealing herself.
Raven stared in mute shock as she saw her own self standing before her, with a face only Trigon would endorse - four eyes with a twisted smile.
"So, uh, you're me. And I'm you," Raven managed before she found herself lifted off the ground by the other Raven. "What even - "
"Don't praise yourself too much, dear," Other Raven smiled as she threw Raven into a building which promptly crumbled upon impact. "You're not as strong or powerful as me."
Raven struggled to get the debris off as she sat up, leaning on the taller concrete pieces. She glared at her twin as her eyes glowed with white rage. Reaching out to blast her cocky doppelganger, she ran towards her to deal some physical impact, only to be tackled by her and swiftly smashed into the ground.
"How is it that you're so fast and I'm so - "
"- slow?" Her other self finished as she lifted Raven off the ground with her powers, only to smash her into other buildings. She giggled as Raven fell to the floor in defeat, hunched over as she tried to stop her bleeding and pain. "Oops. Did that hurt?"
"Did that hurt just like how you grew up forced to be stripped of emotions, just like how I was forced to be quiet and good by you? Did that hurt like how you know no one's going to trust you anymore because you just don't tell people what's going on, like, oh, the prophecy and your silly little deal, until it was too late? Not even the weak mortal who you think you love?" She walked closer towards Raven, still wearing the smile that annoyed Raven to no end.
"Shut up about - "
"Slade Joseph Wilson? The man who married someone and had children before you?"
"OH FOR GOD'S SAKE LET ME FINISH MY OWN SENTENCES!" Raven screamed as she lunged towards her twin with insurmountable rage, knocking her off the ground and slamming her against a sharp piece of debris which pierced through her abdomen. "You think I can't kill you? I think my life would have been better if I did, so that no one needed to look at me as if I were the most disgusting thing in the universe - "
She flung her other self off towards one of the vehicles Terry used to transport her to rehab on, which was broken down and ruined way before the other her crashed into it. The wing of the machine stabbed her chest as she gasped in pain, refusing to admit her unexpected defeat.
Creepily, she actually started smiling as the blood drained out of her while Raven watched her die intently, seething with rage.
She had won. **
As Robin finished his sentence, the rings on Slade's hand glowed, as if to indicate a direction. A strange feeling came over Slade as images of the old library came into his mind. Was Raven's magic working through his instincts?
"I think we just got one. But this is a mission for only one of you. Trigon is an all-seeing, all-powerful being who must not know of our search for Raven, lest he destroys us in the process. We need to form a plan."
- later -
Robin and Slade found themselves walking along the rocky pavement of an undiscovered underworld after finding a secret passage through the old library building. Their plan was simple: Keep the all-seeing demon preoccupied and find Raven, their best weapon (and also their last hope). Slade had passed one ring to Starfire for the trio's protection from Trigon after she had embraced Robin long enough.
Meanwhile:
Starfire shivered as she flew nearer to the personification of evil and darkness, claiming what they used to call home as his throne. If everything went according to plan, Robin would be safe and unharmed as she had hoped. Closing her eyes before signalling to Beast Boy to make the first offense, she prayed to X'hal for the strength she would need to pull through such an ordeal.
Promptly changing into a hummingbird and into a giant whale upon reaching Trigon's ear canal, Beast Boy wriggled wildly as the omnipotent demon roared in pain. This was the cue to start attacking with all they have got.
** - if you don't understand why Other Raven won, it's because Raven was tempted to committing evil (in this case, killing her evil self) after being triggered by the insult about Slade and the remark of her hiding details from people. (Not forgetting the pains of her childhood, yes?)
So basically she had become her evil self, because it wasn't possible to do what she did without having that tint of darkness in herself.
If you read the comics where she turned evil, she manipulated the Titans to face their evil selves and into killing them so that she could claim their souls and turn the Titans evil to do her bidding. This, fortunately, didn't happen. :-)
Aaaaaand I've finally published a NEW CHAPTER! Whoo hoo for me! yeehaaaa! See guys, I didn't break my promise. I just hope most of the followers are still reading. Exams and school take out a lot of our time for fanfiction but hey I think we come back eventually..even if it takes years (cough cough).
Also, I created my own Teen Titans fandom Instagram account so as to keep me focused on this fic and future fics. My username is ChildofAzarath and I look forward to have people comment on my works. :D
- nic