Ataraxia Praeteritum, Perdidit Futurum
Chapter 49: The End of the Beginning Part: 6
I felt the rock hit my wing just as I heard Raven scream on my back. With literal tons of rock coming down around us I was trying to weave through as best I could, but it was impossible not to be hit.
As we tumbled my original plan of staying near the ground was no longer valid due to the fact that there was no ground left. All that remained was an endless black pit, and it seemed as though there were plenty of small red dots shooting up at us.
Somehow Raven was able to cling to my back as we did a flat spin into the darkness, but I wasn't about to give up.
I make some horrible noise as I began to use my damaged arm. Pulling in my wings I tried to realign us as we kept descending. Feeling that I could open my arms I spread my wings and caught the air rushing back up towards us.
I spotted outcrop of rock on the giant cliff of rock and made a beeline for it. Raven screamed as red demons shot past me as I pushed harder and harder towards that ledge.
I wouldn't say it was a very dignified landing, but it was a landing none the less. I was careful to keep Raven out of harm's way, but that meant It was going to hurt even more. I didn't care.
Jumping off my back Raven ran to hide behind a rock that had landed on the ledge, while I reverted back to human form.
It felt as if my arm was on fire, the entire left arm was covered in blood and I was willing to bet that I had a broken or fractured bone in there.
"Don't worry Raven, they're not for us," I said as calmly as I could while the last of the demons shot past us.
Slowly she came out from behind her rock, her small frame only amplifying the look of fear she now wore.
"You ok?" I asked, but she just stood there looking at my arm, as if it were some otherworldly object.
"Beast Boy, why are you doing this?"
I raised an eyebrow at first, but the look she was giving me, even if it was one the face of the child, it was a look I knew too well. "You do remember."
A slow nod was my answer "It's like a dream," she said as she walked to the edge of our ledge. "or like some cruel nightmare, I only remember some things, the rest is foggy."
"But it's over now."
"Raven, we need you, you can help us," I said I needed her to be with us one hundred percent.
"No one can defeat Trigon," she said, turning back to me "you came down here for nothing."
"I came here for you," I growled out as I tried cleaning my arm.
"WHY!" she cried "I have nothing, my powers came from Him, and they're gone now." She walked over to me and knelt down in front of me. "A prophecy came true, there's nothing we can do."
"You're going to get yourself killed."
Gritting my teeth, I stood up, standing over her I felt like a giant, but one that also felt like an ant.
"Perhaps," I said plainly. Looking up at me she had a blank stare, obviously, she didn't understand. "but there can be worse things than dying, running scared is one of them."
"You once told me that you didn't do fear, but all I see is a scared child who wants nothing more than to hide from the possibility to fix this world," I said "and it not fair that we have to do it, but guess what, life isn't fair, yours isn't fair, mine doesn't fair, and neither is anyone else's, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't save them, so I'm going to ask you one time Raven…"
She looked up at me wide-eyed, "Do you want me to leave you here, or do you want to save the damn world?"
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Robin could remember when he was young he was chased by a swarm of angry bees from the inside of an old circus railcar, he was starting to feel the same in this situation.
All three of them ran down the rubble-filled streets, only glancing behind to shoot at a swarm of very angry demons or throw a birdrang.
"Robin," Cyborg started as he looked over to his friend.
"Yeah?"
"You have great cardio man."
Suddenly a black beam shot out towards the crowd. Turning around they, all watched in astonishment as the demons fell apart in midair.
At the same time, all of them suddenly filled with hope, who else other than Raven could have fired that shot?
But when the smoke settled they were met with Beast Boy, whose arm was encased in black energy and a small child next to him who looked astonishingly like Raven.
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I figured I could put it off as Raven's powers, after all since she had hit us with separate pieces of her power and the color was different.
That was why I put my arm in dark energy, why I struggled to keep a black disk below us as we ascended through the giant gaping hole in the ground, and hat was also why I disintegrated that entire group of fire demons, even though it wore me out.
Appearing from a cloud of smoke, I could see the disappointment when they saw Raven, it was probably the same look I gave Robin when I first saw her. But regardless, they found their way towards us.
"Raven?" Starfire asked as she floated towards her tiny friend.
Robin walked up to me and glanced at my arm "Broken?" He asked I nodded in response.
"How's things up here?" I asked, a small smile growing on my face.
Robin shrugged, while Cyborg spoke up "Same old thing, getting chased by an angry group of demons, all in days work." He said while giving me thumbs up.
Robin glanced at Raven who was talking with Starfire "So… what exactly happened?"
I gave Robin a trimmed version of the story, Slade heading off, me finding Raven alone and without memory and our unfortunate mishap while coming to the surface.
"So, it's broken?" Robin said while pointing to my arm.
"Feels like it," I said bitterly if not a bit sarcastically.
Suddenly the ground began to tremble, and a shadow began to crawl across the city. Looking up we all saw the towering figure of Trigon.
"What strange vermin cower beneath my rocks?"
Suddenly a blast of red energy caused us all to scatter. The resulting explosion threw us all away from each other. Landing on my broken arm I yelled in pain, I was not looking forward to recovering from this.
"You, you are very promising indeed."
The voice was Trigons, but it wasn't from his mouth, instead, it rang inside my head. What happened next was too fast for me to even react. I hadn't noticed the strand of red energy slithering towards me like a snake, instead, I felt the stinging sensation of it hitting my back.
Turning around as fast as I could I saw what was now unleashed. Its' giant white smile stared back at me.
He didn't speak, but instead beckoned me with his index finger mockingly before morphing into a hawk and dashing away.
"Beast Boy!" I heard Robin yell behind me, but I was fixated on the raptor now flying away.
Starting to head away from Robin I stopped and looked back at him as he raced towards me.
"Robin, stay here, I need to do this," I said as I tried to turn away, but a hand reached out grabbing my wrist.
"Beast Boy, we need you here, we need all the Titans to defeat Trigon," Robin said, with one of the lenses in his mask ripped I could his eye, pleading, begging for me to stay with them, I had seen the look before, but this was a different matter.
Shaking his hand off I shook my head "Robin trust me."
"You'll just be going after your own shadow, we…"
"Trust. Me." I said a bit forcefully.
With that I rocketed into the sky as an eagle, chasing after my very own shadow.
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Robin did his best to regroup his team, but the seemingly constant seismic activity was impeding his progress. It wasn't like he hadn't had experience in ruins of a city before, No Man's land had ensured that. But no man's land didn't have multi-story demons stomping around either.
Starfire was able to get to him pretty quickly, she could fly after all, but Cyborg was running around with a small Raven on his back trying to escape falling debris.
This was gonna be a hell of a time.
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Landing in a small square I morphed back into a human to see him standing there, just waiting for me.
"Lovely weather we're having today," He said raising his arms, gesturing at the sky as the ground shook slightly under our feet.
"We don't have to do this," I said, I wasn't prepared for this, not even close.
Brushing his foot along the stone beneath his foot he smiled "No, we don't," he said as he paused, "but I want to."
I couldn't even blink before he was in front of me and a pressure was on my through. I suddenly felt I was being lifted off the ground, and the horrifying realization came that I was. At least this pain was drowning out the pain my arm still felt.
"Do you know how long I've waited for this," he said with a disgusted tone "do you?"
Instead of throwing me to the ground, he threw me backward, the power propelling me back all the way to the buildings at the sides of the square.
Impact felt like I had been thrown from orbit, and landing on the ground was just an added insult.
Laying on my belly I tried to get up, but I suddenly felt the pressure of a boot resting on my head.
"Look at you," He said, I as he spits on me "so weak."
Grinding his heel back and forth my face was being thrashed against the ground. Suddenly the pressure was off and I was allowed to get up or at least try. All I could really manage was to push off the ground to my knees and elbows.
"Pitiful," he spat. "you can't even morph into complex creatures yet."
"You're not gonna kill me." I said with a shit eating grin smile. "you know exactly why you need me."
He nodded before grabbing me by the chest, his hand was no longer human, instead, it was that of beasts, something with long claws that dug into my skin. I winced in pain, but I refused to shout out.
His face contorted in fury "I'm the one who kept us alive all those years, you're the one who needs me!"
"That doesn't change the fact that you can't kill me," I responded as he growled.
"I could go kill the others," he said with a smile "It would be so easy, and Trigon? He would keep me alive."
"We both know you wouldn't do it."
"Doesn't matter if I would, all that matters is I can, and theirs, not a damn thing you can do to stop me, you can't even stand."
"You don't know that."
"Really? You could be so much better, so more powerful if you only listened to me."
I narrowed my eyed "I listened to you once, and…"
"We survived." He said quickly.
"You've been too easy on this world," He said, his face contorting in disgust "you know exactly what needs to happen if you want to save them." With a sudden smile "just give them one of those doppelgangers Malchior taught you about, then make a real difference,"
"Do things my way, the way you've always wanted to."
"I won't, I'm nothing like you," I said spitting in his face.
Almost too calmly he wiped it off with a laugh. "Oh, but we are alike you and I, after all, I didn't ask to exist."
Without any warning, he threw me over himself and into the square once again. This time I landed on my back, and I was too tired to get up.
Feeling the weight of his knee on my torso was excruciating, but I was just going to have to deal with it.
"You've been relying too much on the team?" He asked, "look at you, you were never this careless before, but now you've just reverted back to your old self, careless."
"Talk all you want, we both know you don't have much time, I still have to defeat Trigon you know."
Smiling he bared his teeth, this time they were horribly mangled and sharp, like that of a shark "Oh I know, but I just wanted you to know something."
Leaning down he came right up to my ear, his hot breath smelled like rotting fish, but I didn't flinch "I'll be there, whenever you're too weak, whenever you can't pick yourself up, I'll be there to keep you standing and like always all you have to do is ask."
With that, he got off me and I took a breath I hadn't known I was waiting to take. "Oh, and one last thing." He said before lifting his foot, "Take better care of the body for me."
This time I did scream in pain as he stomped his foot right onto my fracture arm, the dark energy long gone due to lack of concentration. Black dots floated in my vision, and the fact that the sting of his reassimilating with my just made it worse.
when I was finally able to see straight again I pulled myself up. Every atom in my body hurt. No matter how weak I was, it was time to end this.
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Good news. Slade showed up.
Bad news. Trigon had just blasted us with energy beams and we were all spent.
I could feel the tugging on my back as Raven tried to wake me up I could hear her cries for help, but I was too tired and weak to pick myself up.
It wasn't until I heard the sounds of more feet approaching did I open one of my eyes.
The first thing I saw was a flash of red, then a flash of white. I watched as Raven stood there, clad in white, and powering a shield made of pure white energy.
Raven looked down are her hands in astonishment, and then up to Beast Boy, who nodded. Beast Boy looked more beaten up than the rest of us. His face was already beginning to well up and his arm, now without any support seemed to hang limp and at strange angles.
"Foolish child, you may have retained some of my power, but you are no threat to me. Look around you, your group is shattered, your world is mine, you could not withstand me before and you will not do so again. What chance does a child have against her all-powerful father!?"
Raven looked at the ground, the helpless look on her face seemed to sum up all of her emotions., but then a hand rested on her shoulder.
"No,"
It was the lightest words Robin thought had even touched his ears, but after that, he couldn't believe what he saw.
It was perhaps the brightest and purest light he had ever witnessed, but it shot out from Raven's body, creating a sphere around her and when it finally subsided it was no longer a child that stood there.
Cast in white it was as if the purest of creatures stood in the ruins of a city, Robin could feel the air crackling, he could practically taste the ozone in the air as power surged around Raven, it seemed to jolt him, compel him to stand up.
Watching as Raven blasted beams of light at her father and drove him back was like watching a dream play out. Robin couldn't hear what she said, the impact of the energy hitting her father shook the earth and the shock wave caused only ringing in his ears.
Soon he was surrounded by white lighting as storm him and in that moment Robin seemed to know what to do. It was as if he could hear an invisible voice commanding him to stand. He looked around and it seemed as if the others had felt the urge to stand as well as they all, even with battered and broken bodies stood up.
Together they linked together and touched Raven's shoulders, giving back the power she had given us. Beast Boy seemed preoccupied with something on his hand and seeing that he had a broken arm, Robin connected him to Raven, Robin would have told anyone that Beast Boy was too tired to lift his good arm anyways. He looked the worst out of all of them.
Raven ascended into the sky and in an instant the giant white shape of a bird expanded outward.
Shielding my eyed I could feel the energy as it expanded, the rush of air from such a powerful action. My ears seemed to pop, and for a few seconds, I couldn't seem to pick up any noises.
Then it all hit me. The noises of a city, one full of life, car horns, the sound of production, people talking, it was all there.
Taking my arm down I looked around, clear skies, perfect skyline, we were back, the earth was back.
Robin watched as Raven descended from the sky, like an angel who had come back from slaying a demon.
Landing in front of them she was the only one without serious injuries, cyborgs would take a few days to fix, but the worst was by far Beast Boy.
"Unbelievable." Robin breathed.
"No," Raven said as she turned towards Beast Boy "someone believed."
Walking forward Raven embraced him, not only as a kind gesture, but to help him. He wasn't exactly stable, far from it, and now there were stuck there, Beast Boy too tired to even stand and being supported by a half-demon who, before this day, wouldn't want any contact with him.
Turning to the others, she said the three words they all wanted to hear.
"Let's go Home."
We're DONE! Well with season 4 at least. I can't tell you guys how long I've wanted to write this and it has taken much too long. I hope I did it justice as I think we all can safely say it is the best season by far. Also this is our longest chapter and the 100,000th word was… to.
SHOUTOUTS- As well as being the last chapter of Season 4 we had the most reviews last chapter *Round of Applause*.
Let's see if we can get more on the 50th chapter!
-Wow there we a lot of milestones for this chapter….
The Dimensional Reader- Hmmm… Coconuts.
Mochfraptor- Why thank you… side note, finish your stories!
A Random Guest- Well, wait, maybe we'll see, *wink*.
Drannakka- Well how did he figure it out in his original timeline… food for thought…
Beakers47- Why thank you… about that unstable DNA.
xzxzxzxzx- Well you're awesome sir, except your name is not a word so… we should really start there.
Pluto- Why thank you my friend. Um I know this maybe awkward but they've been saying some things and I just have to ask… do you still identify as a planet?
Well that's it for me this week folks. Most Reviews, Longest Chapter, and Hitting 100,000 words. Honestly, I never thought we'd get this far, but here we are. Leave your questions, comments, or concerns in the review section and I'll do my best to respond.
Until Next Time
