She is going faster now, faster and faster, all of the other small lights have long since become long while lines, only the point before her seems to only slowly become bigger. It feels like its taken hours for her to reach it, but suddenly she collides with it without realizing it, plunging her into almost total darkness. There is only one light in this place and it is dim, but considering that it is radiating off a single body, she is lucky to have any. She has seen the descriptions of the spirit before her, read about him so she would know him if she ever encountered him. Hanging chained and gagged in the middle of nothingness, is the Spectre. He is many times the size of Raven and he is struggling furiously at the chains holding it emaining oblivious to her presence. Raven wasn't expecting this, by all the accounts she has read, Luthor sould be wearing the Spectre here like a second skin. She needs help to take the next step, since she highly doubts the chains are the problem or even possible for her to undo and there is only one here who can.
"Hold still while I get this off." She says while she flies to the cloth gag covering the spirits mouth, without her demonic half, she is relying on her own strength to do this as her telekinesis is part of her demonic side. Putting her feet onto his left cheek she strains against the cloth that seems unnaturally resilient, but as she puts all of her strength into it, she is rewarded with the sound of tearing cloth as the gag falls away.
"Away from me! Hellspawn!" The Spectre roars with his mouth finally free. "You are still tainted!" Raven was sort of expecting this, the Spectre alone was never mentioned as a particularly rational being, this is one of the reasons it is always tied to a human soul. "When I get free, I will make sure to punish you for your transgressions against God!"
"Shut up!" Raven snaps back. "Listen to me! You are being used by a man who's greed knows no bounds, with your unwilling help, he will no doubt claim everything, and everything he does will be on your hands!" The spirit seethes, but Raven cuts him off before he can speak. "The Phantom Stranger sent me to prevent him doing just that, whenever you like it or not, I am the only one who can help you till your real host is found and returned to you."
"The Stranger…sent a demon queen?!" The spirit seethes in outrage.
"Like it or not, yes and as you know, I am already dead in this form. I want to make sure this world remains, even after I am gone. But I need your help to find the man enslaving you, before he realizes the true scope of your stolen powers." Raven states while staring into the white skull-eyes of the Spirit of Vengeance.
"Mark my words demon, one misstep and you judgment will be final!" The Spirit finally sighs.
"I am currently beyond your jurisdiction." Raven replies flatly as a glowing portal opens in the Spirit's forehead under the green hood, she doesn't hesitate before flying into it, as she enters a new dark, she hears a new voice.
"Perhaps you would like to assure them that your secret weapon is still on its way before they end up like the dead one behind you?" It is Luthor.
"I am here." Raven replies in to the darkness, instantly a surprised and normal looking Luthor appears before her.
"You again?! I saw your corpse?!" He asks as he recognizes her before calming down. "No matter, I will undo you like I undid the others." He says and a look of surprise crosses his face as nothing happens. "What? What have you done?"
"You don't understand how the Spectre works, do you?" Raven asks as she crosses her arms before her. "The Spectre chooses its host from the spirits of the dead; you broke his rules and caged him while you are alive. I am not. I am here to contest your control of the power of the Spirit of Vengeance, as long as I do that, your body is a statue in the real world till this is decided."
"This power is mine, and I will never give it up." Luthor says flatly. "I don't know who or what you are, but do not expect me to give this up without a fight!" He says before lunging at her.
"She is in." The Stranger says to Nightwing as he is pouring over a list of dead cops and their last known addresses.
"Good, mind fights are Rae's specialty, Luthor is in for a world of hurt." Nightwing says as he spots the name he was looking for. "Got him."
"I wish not to worry you, but she has had to undergo certain changes to get inside of the Spectre and Luthor is still slightly augmented."
"Raven will pull through; I know she will, no matter what." Nightwing replies confidently as he runs out of the building, heading back to the neighborhood he was first dropped in, Crispus Allen lived only a few blocks from there.
"She will." The Stranger agrees. "She has to." He says to himself.
"She is inside." The Stranger notes as his companions can breathe again.
"We came too late." Fate sighs, noticing the devastation wrought on the people in the square.
"By the tides." Aquaman adds. "He has killed them all." He says, noticing the pile of clay and Batman's cape and skeleton.
"We have other worries." The Stranger sighs. "The demon is free, I don't know how, but its containment has been shattered."
"Garth…" Aquaman sighs. "He was in the Tower; he must have been tricked by it. Damnit!" The sea king kicks up a little dirt at the thought of his fellow Atlantean and former sidekick.
"No blood has been spilt within my tower." Fate says. "He is safe. But the Stranger is right; with her demonic half free this is has become more problematic."
"It will head after its other half." Zauriel continues. "I cannot allow it to reach the Spectre!"
"It is too late; it will be there before you." Etrigan says. "And you cannot enter. This will be up to Raven to deal with."
"I would have thought seeing a demon command the Spectre would be amusing to one such as you?" Zauriel asks noticing that Etrigan does not sound happy about it.
"Ha! If there is to be a demon to command the Spectre, it should be I. But no, having something like that command it would only bring ruin to all realms. It will start with the mortal plane, then spread to the eight levels of Hell before, finally, even Heavens gates will be breached." Zauriel chuckles at Etrigan explanation. "What amuses you angle?"
"Merely the fear you have of one of your own."
"You would do well to be the same; you will see when you meet her." Etrigan warns.
"Enough, we need to get the frozen and wounded out of here." Fate says, quickly loosing his patience with the endless bickering the two can get into.
"Agreed." Aquaman says. "And the dead." He says as a sad expression crosses his face as he looks at Superman's body. "Where are Hawkgirl and Green Lantern?" He asks, spotting the column of smoke, guessing that would be J'onn.
"We will find no trace of John Steward." Amazo says. "Shayera lies here." He say as he points to the spot in the ground before the earth moves aside and a still body is lifted out of the ground in a yellow bowl. "I am sorry, her lungs are filled with gravel." He continues as Aquaman walks over, Shayera looks back at him with dirt in her mouth and eyes that are wide in horror.
"Let me take her." He says as he slips his arms under her back and knees. "You didn't deserve this." He says quietly to her.
"I can feel you are still drawing on something." Raven says as she circles Luthor, she will admit that he is more formidable than she initially thought, but she can feel he is drawing on the Spectres powers and she herself does not have all of her usual abilities, forcing her to rely completely on her martial arts capabilities to simulate her attacks. And by drawing on the Spectres powers, he is making it very hard for her to reach into his mind, but she is working on it.
"Of course I am, you think rules apply to me?" Lex smirks while he begins circling as well.
"They do son, they really do." A deep male voice says from inside Lex's head, the voice sounds like it is spoken inside a cave.
"What? Who?" Lex asks in confusion as he looks around himself, Raven smirks slightly, she's broken through and Lex doesn't even know it. "I know that voice."
"Yes you do, son." The voice continues as a pale blue ghost of a man in a suit with curly hair and beard appears. "You murdered me in the name of ambition; your own father." Raven is surprised at the ghost, this isn't her doing.
"You were too old; you weren't aggressive enough with the company, Lionel. And you wouldn't step down willingly!" Lex growls at the ghost.
"You were barely 21, and it does not justify murder. My son, I can see your heart, the greed inside it knows no bounds. You want it all, at any cost you will have it, even if it leaves everything in ruin."
"A king is a king, old man, I believe I said often enough to you that I want to be one." Luthor continues arrogantly.
"But what is a king, If he has no kingdom to rule? Heed my last words to you, King Alexander Luthor, King Nothing. " The ghost says before it vanishes.
"Old fool." Lex says to himself while grinding his teeth, forgetting Raven inside with him. While fascinating to watch, Raven has been doing something other than watching Lex argue with is dead father. Like digging up more of his past, people that might have turned him from the path he follows, people like a Lana Lang.
"Ohh, Spectre, you cannot phantom how pleased I am to see you like this. It suits you." A voice says, the spirit snaps to attention at the voice. "To think God's mighty Vengeance has been bound to easily by mere flesh and blood." The voice continues speaking with malice reeking in it.
"You!" The spirit brims with anger as he spots Raven's demonic half floating closer to him. "Away from me!"
"No, I think I want to get closer to you, much closer." The demon teases. "I can smell my weaker half in there with you; she has almost won over the flesh bag holding you, hasn't she? Perhaps I should let her win for a brief second, before I crush all hope on this planet?" She says as she caresses the cheek of the spirit.
"You have no chance, half-creature. Without either half of yourselves, you will both wither and die soon enough." The Spectre smirks at her knowingly. "I can see it all, you are no conqueror, you are no mistress…"
"Shut up!" The demon growls.
"…you are a slave, of your father, of your destiny as a forgotten tool. And after that destiny was accomplished; you are a slave to her." The Spectre laughs deeply at the seething demon now rake her nails over his face.
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" She screams at him while she keeps tearing and he keeps laughing. "I am the mistress! I am the one with all the power!"
"But she has control, where you have none!" The Spectre continues laughing. "Perhaps if she succeeds, I should grant her a more permanent solution to your separation. Perhaps she would like you in a bottle she can put on her mantle piece? Or she'd prefer you as her personal waitress, but then again, you already are, all you need is a fitting token of your position, a leash perhaps?" He roars with laughter again as the demon freezes completely, it's fury having reached past the point of reason.
"You talk too much slave of God. I will deal with you after I am free on my human side; your suffering shall be remembered by all, from the pits of hell, to the ignorant buffoon that created you!" She says as she pulls back. "This entry will be but a brief taste of the pain to come!" She yells as she races towards him. The Spectres laughter is turned to a scream as she forcibly enters the closed up portal in his forehead by caving it in.
"It has entered." The Stranger notes at Luthors frozen shape as he carefully collects Wonder Woman's clay remains.
Slowly help is arriving from Jump City Penitentiary, the President was not about to let several dozen of metahumans vanish under his nose while the diplomatic corps of the world was with him. With the President having been kidnapped to Jump City, Agent Faraday had not been slow to direct a sizeable portion of the State's spy satellites at the city. With Fate, Zauriel and Etrigan present along with those able bodied Leaguers Lex hadn't frozen, there aren't any of the criminals that feel fit to try and oppose them and just seem glad when the soldiers and police start showing up to take them away.
"It seems even angrier than before." Fate notes as he guides the brainwashed heroes and villains into separate groups.
"I suspect the Spectre made it face some facts that were uncomfortably true for it. We need to clear out this area fast; whoever will emerge the victor, will do so soon." The Stranger continues.
"All right! Everyone capable of it, move beyond the perimeter, NOW!" Aquaman bellows, his voice heard by all, no one questions him and they begin gradually clearing the square. "Amazo, have you collected the Martian?" He asks the large android as he floats by with a yellow sphere with some black powder inside.
"I have his ashes, yes. But I fail to see why they matter at this stage; they are no longer at risk."
"It is called reverence, if we make it through this, they deserve proper treatment." Aquaman replies.
Nightwing is at his destination, while hanging from a wire on the face of the building he looks into each apartment through the windows. At the third living room he is sure he has found his target sitting in a couch while looking into the distance. Nightwing knocks on the window to get his attention, it goes unheard, but the last knock makes Nightwing realize that he can pass through walls as his hand sinks into the window. Trying it out, he pushes himself through the surface with his entire body. This gets the man's attention.
"This is breaking and entering you know." He says grumpily, he is a bald African-American with a small beard and glasses, wearing a green overcoat with a loose pair of brown pants.
"Yet you don't seem overly surprised to see me do it." Nightwing notes.
"When you have been the host of the Spectre, passing through walls becomes as natural as breathing." The man sighs. "So are you dead too? I had the perception that you and Bruce Wayne were escaping death more often than was natural." Nightwing gives a short look of surprise at the man's knowledge. "I was lingering a year after my death before I accepted the Spectres offer, one of the things I did, was to follow Batman home to the cave where he took off his mask." Nightwing sighs, Crispus had just done what the entire police force in Gotham would have done; discover who Batman was under the cowl.
"Did it surprise you?"
"Not really when I found out, it made perfect sense." Crispus shrugs as he turns his attention back to the three shades in the room. "My wife and sons, I can see everyone as clear as day, but they can't see me."
"I only see shades. Mr. Allen, I am alive and I have been sent by the Phantom Stranger to take you back to the Spectre."
"Figures, well we better get going then." He sighs. "I don't do this anymore, visit them that is. After a year of wallowing in grief, I thought it was best I stayed away and buried myself in my work. My boys a growing so fast." He sighs the last part.
"Come, or we risk them not getting any older." Nightwing's words makes Crispus snap to attention. "Lex Luthor was the one that had you cast out of the Spectre to take control of it himself; we need to get you back inside."
"Had to be that egotistical maniac." Crispus growls. "Let's go."
"No…stop it…" Lex pleads from within the circle of ghosts that has surrounded him, ghost of people he has let down on purpose, people he has trampled into the dirt on his way to the top, people he has had murdered, all in the name of his monstrous ambition. They taunt him, ask him why and wonders how a man such as he could come into being. From his memories, Raven knows Lex barely batted an eye at any of them as he carried out his deeds against them but now when they are combined, they have brought him to his knees in guilt. "Make it stop!" Raven look on with the coldness of a machine.
"No Lex Luthor, on your command, Terra murdered several of my friends, some of whom were still children, my children! For that, I will never forgive you or her." She says flatly, after the 3rd ghost had appeared, Lex's first business partner, Raven had figured out how they appeared. It is Lex himself that animates them, Raven just nudges his mind with the memories.
"I just gave her free reigns to do what she wanted, so she was manageable." Lex pleads.
"I can read your mind Lex, as I have read hers. You gave her orders to eliminate any Titan she could, tapping into our old communicators; you dispatched her as your own assassin." Raven replies, before she becomes aware of another.
"She called it the Judas Contract and she enjoyed doing it. And I must say, I enjoyed every memory and scream as well." Lex stares in disbelief as a second woman with the same voice and body as the first appears to his right, with the first on the left. "Of course, when we are done here, her suffering will dwarf any she has inflicted."
"Took you long enough to get here." Raven sighs, somehow she wasn't surprised that her other half would get loose.
"There's two of you?!" Lex asks in confusion, the ghost around him are forgotten.
"No, there's only me." The last word is spoken by both.
"No longer will I bow to you or anyone else!" The newcomer says to Raven as she opens her four eyes.
"Funny, since you are bowing to a long dead demon." Raven replies as she falls into a ready stance.
"Father will live again; I will make sure of it."
"It will be over my dead body." Raven's voice gains a hard edge at the last part.
"That is part of the plan." The demon says as she breaks into a run towards Raven.
"So it begins." The Phantom Stranger sighs. "The battle of a soul has begun as predicted."
"You knew this?!" Aquaman asks.
"No, but the possibility was very high for it to happen. Make no mistake, I would have preferred it settled outside of the Spectre, but such was not our fortunes. But the fight has been coming since the day she was born." The Stranger replies. "Now we can only hope that Nightwing retrieves the true host in time, before a victor can be decided."
"Raven's soul would be bound to the Spectre as a new host if he does not." Fate explains. "And Luthor could regain his control if they exhaust one another."
"I was told she meditated daily to suppress the demon inside of her?" Aquaman mentions, his knowledge comes from Aqualad who had briefed his king on the Titans.
"She does when needed, the demon is now being confronted for the final time, either it will fall forever or gain total dominance." The Stranger answers.
"And we would have to kill it." Zauriel says, oddly enough Etrigan nods in agreement.
"I assume this is because she will be lost in that case." Aquaman asks.
"Her human soul will be devoured as a precaution." Fate sighs, it is a horrible thought, a soul devoured is destroyed utterly, no afterlife will await it, only oblivion.
"Question, how are you going to get me back inside if Lex still has his magical doohickey?" Allen asks as the two men fly through a starry tunnel.
"We got one working on distracting him from the inside till you get there, so we assume the ritual was only meant to kick you out once." Nightwing replies cheerfully.
"Wait, you put someone inside Old Moonface with him?" Cripus asks in surprise, knowing how that was usually achieved.
"Yeah, the Phantom Stranger put her in here; she is good at mind fighting." Nightwing says, still not noticing the man behind him growing a little pale.
"She is a brave one." Crispus finally says.
"That's she is, I just hope she can keep him occupied long enough for you to get there." Behind him Crispus nods gravely, knowing Nightwing remains unknowing of what Raven was asked, to be able to do what she is doing now.
"Leave me out of your fight damnit!" Lex growls as one of the two females sail close over his head for the third time since the fight began. This time however when the thrower advanced after the tossed; he is backhanded as she passed.
"Quiet, flesh-bag!" He hears one of them growl, that would be the latter he decides as he gets back up, she seemed much more verbally abusive than the first who was almost completely quiet as the two fought, only speaking to distract her.
"Does he distract you?" She asks. "Not surprising, you are the part that gets annoyed at the little things." She continues as the two tangle with each other, each tearing or punching at the other.
"We are of one mind when it comes to him and his deeds." The other seethes as the two separate for a second before reengaging. "He should be skinned alive!" Lex doesn't like the sound of that.
"Should? Yes. Will I do it? I doubt it." The other says as they pull apart again and one of them executes a very acrobatic back flip that treats the other to two kicks in the face before landing on her feet again.
"It would be justice, think of the Kids you so adore." One of them says.
"Don't you DARE speak about them!" The other warns as they tangle again in what appears to be something akin to sumo wrestling. If Lex had been watching through a TV screen, he would have popcorn nearby, as it is now, he wants to be somewhere far away when a victor is decided.
"Nightwing, you have done your part in this, Crispus Allen can find his way from here." The voice of the Stranger rings in the tunnel of starts where a white dot has appeared in the distance.
"Ok, you just go do you thing then." Nightwing says over his shoulder to Crispus.
"I will." The man replies. "Thank you for the save and for what it's worth, I'm sorry." Nightwing looks at him in confusion before his vision goes white and he suddenly has the feeling he is flying through real air, the impact with the stones underneath him tells him that he was right.
"Nightwing?" A deep voice asks in surprise before someone hauls him to his feet as his vision returns. "Come, we need to get clear of this place." Nightwing's sight is a little blurry, but he is fairly sure he is running or being carried across a square somewhere, the place seems oddly familiar somehow. When he looks to his side at the one supporting him, he sees a blond man with a beard and smells of seawater?
"Aquaman?" He asks. "Where are we?"
"In front of Jump City Hall, Luthor brought them all here." The sea king replies as they approach a group of people Nightwing currently doesn't recognize, there's a white blob, a red blob, a yellow blob and a big blue one or is that two blobs? "He is disorientated, Amazo, put him down over there." Nightwing feels a cold but smooth arm take hold of him as he is led into the darkness before he is sat down with his back against something.
"Rest my friend." A clam voice says before the yellow blob moves away.
Gradually his vision returns, he can see he is in a back alley with someone who appears to be asleep or something as the person is lying at the wall opposite from him, he finds it odd to find someone sleeping here, even if he knows Jump City has its share of homeless. As his visions clears he can tell the person is female, and armored, something inside his head kicks in and he recognizes her.
"Rae?" He asks as he crawls over to her. "We did good today Rae, Crispus should have kicked Luthor out by now." No response."Rae?" His vision becomes clear and he gets a good look at her, there is only one thing that gives away she is not sleeping, and Richard Greyson's heart freezes when he realizes it, she isn't breathing. "Rae!" he yelps as he quickly pulls off a glove to check for a pulse, he finds none and he notes her body is cold as ice. His mind goes into shock as he tries to come up with a reason for the condition before something finally dawns on him, she is dead. That was what Crispus meant, why he was sorry.
"He is seated." Amazo says as he rejoins the others.
"Where did you put him?" Aquaman asks.
"With his friend, he was very proud of her." Amazo replies calmly as he had read Nightwing's mind.
"You WHAT?!" Aquaman asks in shock. A second later a scream of grief comes from behind the building. Quickly the King and Dr. Fate run back. Finding Nightwing kneeling with Raven's body in his lap, holding her close while he is breaking down completely.
"Damnit Rae why does it have to be you?!" He screams to the skies that is robbing the light of dawn with thick black cloud. "Why is always you they choose?" He whispers to her. The two men are almost afraid of the reaction they will get if they announce their presence and tell him that Raven at least has a chance where the League has none. It is this last thought that makes Aquaman act as he walks up to the griever.
"Nightwing?" He asks, getting no response. "Nightwing!" He gets one as Nightwing looks at him, with his mask torn off and with red eyes.
"Why her?" Nightwing asks in a whisper. "Why does she have to sacrifice everything?"
"Listen to me Nightwing." Aquaman says as she kneels in front of him and puts a hand on his shoulder to make sure he has the other mans attention. "Raven is not gone, not yet. I am as displeased about this as I can be, but the Stranger works in, well, strange ways. He said it was necessary for Raven to be able to get inside the Spectre."
"She could separate her body and soul while alive!" Nightwing almost yells into the king's face.
"She could, but for her to enter, she had to be parted from her demonic half." Fate mentions, Nightwing is about to voice another angry outburst, but Aquaman cuts him off. "I know you don't like it, none of us do. But she has a chance of coming back, according to the Stranger, how and why he did not say but she has one. Come, there is something you need to see." He says as he gets up, offering Nightwing his one remaining hand, Nightwing just stares at him.
"I am not going to leave her in a back alley!" He finally manages; having internally come to the conclusion that if Raven really has a chance, then he will make sure her body is safe till then.
"Take her with you." Aquaman nods at him as Nightwing uses one hand to put his mask on after having dusted it off.
"Just be prepared to tell it to the people we are going to meet." Fate mentions as he forms a yellow orb around the three that takes them elsewhere.