Updated: 11/Jan/2020

Chapter 76

The Daughter who never was

Raven had thought she'd communicated her intentions clear enough. But that thought was shattered the moment Antonia lashed out at her with her long, clawed fingers. They barely reached her before the demon girl released a blast of energy, a blast intensified by the rage bubbling inside her.

Antonia was flung backwards, across the village green before slamming into a tall pole in the middle of the public space.

Screams followed as the residence slowly became aware of the tall, spider-like person in their presence, and the mysterious, hooded girl. The screams were antagonising Antonia. She spotted a family near the pub, a father, mother, a son and daughter. Antonia twisted and fired a lance of pure psychic energy at the family and their two children.

Now's my chance! Get her!

But what about the family?

What do they matter? Your job is to stop her. So what if four people had to die?

But as Raven looked over to them it was as if the world started going in slow motion, and she saw the utter terror on the two kids faces. The realisation they were about to die. Their parents kneeling down to hug their children, looking in horror at the blast coming their way.

More like them will die if you don't put a stop to Antonia, now!

Raven made her move, but not towards Antonia. With a flick of her mind, Raven sailed in front of the family, crossed her arms, clenched her muscles and generated a bubble around them. The force of the blast shocked her, but the shield held.

When the blast ceased Raven lashed out with her own powers, with a flick of her arm a curved, dark blade was produced, aimed at Antonia. It cut into her, leaving a nasty gash in her side and the pole she'd been up against split into two with a muffled clang as it hit the ground. The wound began to knit itself together and Antonia reformed quickly.

Next, Antonia began lumbering towards her on all fours like a creepy spider. It saddened her that she had to kill it, she loved how creepy it was. If it were smaller and easier to control Raven would want to add it to her collection of spiders.

It lashed out, and Raven waved her hands and cast another spell, speaking her chimes to help focus her mind. A dark portal formed beneath her and the family, and the five dropped into darkness. Dropped into a dimension that was Raven's soul-self. They weren't here for long as she emerged on the other side of the green with the family who were all shaken, but safe.

Before Antonia could realise what had happened Raven turned to the family, and through her creepy glowing eyes simply said. "Leave!" The parents, utterly terrified, scooped up their children and ran for it. A part of Raven still felt sad that even after helping them, they still looked at her like a demon.

Oh well, so what else is new?

Antonia lumbered around, completely consumed by her rage but her target was clear. She was heading back to the Hopkin's household. But she found her limbs suddenly forcing her backwards and to the ground as rings of darkness had formed around her arms and legs and they were now pinning her to the ground. She thrashed around with foam at the mouth in utter rage. She'd gone insane.

Raven could understand her pain all too well and she felt some sympathy. Just a little. But Antonia was blaming one person for a situation which was beyond his control to fix or influence, and Raven knew what it was like to be unfairly blamed.

"Why are you protecting that boy?" Antonia snarled, "No one likes him! No one trusts him! Why side with him? No one will like you if you protect him. Everyone wants to see him hurt!"

Raven remained silent. She'd heard that all before, only Raven had been the subject of it.

"You're doing all this, just because you fancy a boy?" Raven looked coldly and calmly at her. Raven was doing this for far more than just Russel, but if Antonia had decided Raven's motivation the goth girl got the feeling that no amount of reasoning would convince her otherwise. "A boy! Just for a boy!"

"And you're doing all this just because you hate the boy. Everything you do is in service to hurting that boy. Who's life revolves around Russel now?" Antonia raged again, she managed to raise her arm up, but Raven forced it back down.

"You won't be happy with him, you'll regret it. Mark my words, you will regret it." Raven's mouth shifted to one side of her face. She wanted to roll her eyes, but that would break her concentration. "Let go of me, you bitch!"

Raven couldn't help it, she wanted to taunt her more. "All this anger and emotion, just because some woman you want to call 'mummy' won't tell you she loves you."

In the next moment Raven felt stunned as something weird happened. Despite holding her body down Antonia's head had just leapt out at her and sharply head-butted Raven in the face. With her concentration faltering Antonia broke free and was up again in an instant, her head on her elongated neck wriggling like a snake. Shit, Raven now realised she should've grabbed her neck too!

Antonia was up on all fours and prepared to pounce. Raven prepared to generate a shield and fight back.

Raven sensed what was coming, but it was too late to react as she felt herself get swiped off of her feet and she went flying, crashing into the park bench. A shimmering, invisible giant standing before her.

That made sense, Russel could generate the creature since he was linked to the psychic sink. If followed Antonia was capable of it too, and she was using it.

Two more lumbering giants were generated. Four against one. Not good odds. But Raven was the daughter of the dreaded Trigon. She should be able to take these brutes no problem.

No, I take that back, this is a problem! Raven later decided as the four adversaries made it difficult to focus for more than a few seconds to build up power. She could generate a shield around herself that was simple. But when it came to attacking the demon girl found she had limited time to power up. It was as if when in a panic it helped her focus and thus generate a shield. But when it came to attacking there wasn't a similar burst of concentration. For the next few minutes, Raven played this game of 'dodge the shimmering, barely visible fists'. A couple of times she was hit and knocked out of the sky. Another time Antonia came close to skewering her with her generated energy pikes. Finally, Raven was knocked down and she impacted the ground and rolled a few times before stopping. As she sat up she noticed her cloak, her lovely cloak had a hole ripped into it!

Antonia stood back, the three giants around Raven holding her down as the spider bitch approached, savouring the moment. Raven wasn't scared, she wasn't concerned. A dark aura burnt around the hooded girl and the giants could do nothing as she vanished into the burning darkness, which evaporated like smoke. Raven re-appeared high in the air and above their notice.

Raven needed to break Antonia's concentration so the brutes would dissipate. Raven saw a car parked close by. With her powers, she picked it up and the shrouded car was fired directly at Antonia, who didn't have time to react as the car was slammed down on top of her like a rolled-up newspaper with a spider.

The owner must've been watching, because Raven did sense some sense of loss through the ether.

I hope the guy had insurance. Said her brain.

The brutes vanished, but Raven was sure Antonia was only knocked back. The people who'd taken cover were very slowly coming out of hiding.

There came a crash, and a shattering of glass from much further away. Towards Russel's house. Antonia had given Raven the slip! The demon girl was over there in a flash. Antonia's spider form had grown to twice it's original size and she was breaking windows, flattening the cars outside, and ramming herself into the house, trying to bring it down. Raven didn't bother asking why she was attacking the family she wants affection from, reasons didn't matter right now.

"Get out here you arseholes!" Antonia shouted, "You picked 'him' over me?! You let them take me out, you are just as guilty as your frickin' son!" Whatever she was about to rage next stopped as two cars slammed together over her head, making it look like a head/car sandwich.

Antonia saw the floating girl in the sky. "Why won't you mind your own frickin' business?!"

Raven did not speak. She noticed Antonia got angrier if she remained silent, like a cold, silent judge; and angry people made mistakes. Antonia wanted to rage, she wanted an audience, and Raven knew how maddening it could be to want to shout out to the world, only for the world to silently not care.

Raven's powers ripped up lamp-posts and pulled out electrical wires from the ground and within seconds they'd wrapped around the spider girl like a mummy, trapping her. Raven doubted they'd hold her, but it'd give Raven time to think.

Unfortunately, she was distracted again, because Russel's family were too busy gawking at the spider girl to do anything, and worse, the house could come down on them at any second. Raven had to appear in front of them and tell them to run for it. They were a little spooked by how she appeared through the wall.

"Hey, isn't that Russel's girlfriend?" Sean asked. It took all restraint not to reach out and strangle him for saying that.

"You might want to do something called 'running.'" Raven said to them.

"I can't run, I've got bad legs." Said Russel's mom.

"And I'm not leaving my wife!" said Russel's Dad. Sean remained silent.

Raven closed her eyes and sighed. For God sake! Raven had to waste time lifting the three up, out of the house and carry them far away from Antonia as she struggled to release herself from her bonds.

I'm saving people. God, I am going soft now!

"What is that thing?" Russel's mom asked.

"That's your daughter." Raven said matter-of-factly. "The daughter who never was."

"What utter balderdash." Russel's Dad said.

"Where's Russel?!" Sean asked.

"He's safe." Raven answered simply.

"Where?" Russel's Mum then asked.

Raven was getting tired of all these questions while she was concentrating on not dropping them. "Enough of all the questions. He's safe, and I won't let anything happen to him. Just keep yourself safe, for his sake."

She set them down outside the town pub and released them from her power.

"Who are you?" Russel's Dad asked with an accusing look.

"The only one standing between you and that murder happy creature." Raven was about to turn back to the spider girl and hopefully do something to end her, when Russel's mom grabbed the goth girl by her forearm. "Be safe, deary." The woman had such concern in her eyes. She didn't know who Raven really was, but she cared enough to want her to be safe. Raven felt a little touched by that.

Breaking away, Raven flew back to the spider girl like a bullet. But sadly, Antonia already broken out and had smashed down the Hopkin's household. She was now stamping on what remained of Russel's room, trying to smash everything that was in it.

The spider girl gave Raven an evil look when she saw her.

"Why do you insist in tormenting me?" Antonia voice raged out in an unearthly shout.

"Why fish for sympathy when nobody gives a shit?" Raven said back.

Antonia curled up her appendages and lept at Raven. The demon girl held up her hands, preparing to defend herself, when Antonia disappeared in a puff of wispy smoke. Shit! She can do that too?! Then Raven sensed, far too late that Antonia had dissipated and reformed behind her. Raven's arms were grabbed and she was forced to fall down, almost twenty feet into the muddy soil. Raven couldn't do anything as her face was forced forward into the mud. Water closing all around her face. She couldn't breathe, she was going to drown in the mud and she couldn't focus enough to use her powers.

She could panic, but if she didn't focus then the energy released might not do anything useful. She could end up hurting people!

Raven was aware something had slammed into Antonia's head. The spider girl looked around, and in her struggles Raven caught a glimpse of a small boy and girl, the two she'd saved from Antonia's attack, tossing stones. The spider girl hissed and was about to blast them when more stones came. These from adults, another residence of the town, old and young, even the pub landlord, the book stores owner, Russel's family, even two women Raven guessed were Russel's sister and niece. Where her eyes deceiving her? Or were Sarah and Lisa in the crowd too? They were all throwing stones at Antonia. The one who'd pretended to be the little helpless girl. Now her true self was on display, and they didn't like it one bit.

The townspeople were brave, but it was a bad move. However, what it did do was grant Raven enough breathing room to focus. With burning darkness she vanished again, and as Antonia attempted to swipe at the town's people a dark dome formed over her.

Hovering in the air outside the dome Raven spread her arms out, her hands cupped as if holding a large, imaginary ball, and slowly she began contracting her hands together. As she did this the dome began to shrink down, getting smaller and smaller. She was going to crush this spider girl like a bug.

The watching townspeople stood back and watched with bated breath as Raven held the spider girl within her power.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" Antonia screamed. The dark sphere was the size of a beachball, and still Raven collapsed it further, and further and further, and yet Antonia wouldn't die.

Of course! Antonia physically didn't exist. She was psychic energy, projected by a psychic imprint from Russel's head. She couldn't die, technically. But she could be moulded and squashed, and she could feel pain. Raven wanted to feel pleasure but kept it down. She felt nothing as every drop of psychic energy that was Antonia was contained within a dark sphere the size of a soccer ball.

The well of power Raven drew from suddenly dried up. This wasn't natural. Her sphere vanished and Antonia was released.

Instantly, Raven tried to conjure a shield, but there was nothing. So she tried to generate a blast, still nothing. Her powers had stopped working, and she suspected why.

In theory, that also meant Antonia was powerless too. But no, as the spider girl stood tall she still existed, though she looked a little groggy.

"Doctor, you frickin' idiot!" Raven shouted as Antonia lashed out with a clawed hand. At least she wasn't trying to fire energy blasts, by how stiff she was Raven guessed she'd also lost the ability to morph, the bad news is that she was in a form that was deadly while even de-powered.

The village people scattered and ran now that Antonia was free. But still, Raven stood up to her, despite the sad fact the demon was now powerless to stop it. As this went on darkness descended upon Devils End. Storm clouds shrouded out the evening twilight and heavy rain began to pour.

Only now, as Raven moved around, avoiding her strikes did she realise how damaged she was. Her leotard was torn, she was bleeding from several scrapes, and she felt like she'd bruised a few ribs. She was really taking damage this time. Which totally smashed her pompous view of invulnerability.

She was suddenly off her feet as Raven was knocked to the muddy ground and she began rolling in it, in a desperate attempt to avoid Antonia's claws. Raven felt her cloak was dragging on her surroundings. Without her powers it was a useless accessory. She didn't want to, but survival demanded she ditch it.

Slipping out of the cloak, Raven rolled a few times in the mud. Antonia stood over her, and so Raven lashed out with a sharp kick into Antonia's stomach. She still felt pain it turned out, but that revelation was useless as the spider girl grabbed Raven's arms and she was hauled up into the air. Antonia began to pull on Raven's arms. The pain was intense, and Raven dreaded losing an arm, but despite the pain her eyes met with Antonia's and Raven stared with gritted teeth. Raven would not scream so easily.

The pair were suddenly blinded by a bright light as two lamps in the darkness sped towards them at a quick speed with a very distinctive clatter of an air-cooled engine. Antonia, being like a deer in headlights, was too slow to react as the Doctors bug like car smashed into the spider-like girl. Antonia went flying, and rolled over and over in the rain before coming to a stop.

Russel and the Doctor lept out of the car, Russel was by Raven's side in an instant. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"I'm filthy, I'm bleeding, I'm bruised, and I know how a football feels. So yeah, I feel just fine and dandy."

Russel then looked at her mud covered body.

"Say one word," Raven warned and held up a hand of mud, "and you get a face full of this."

"Did you enjoy your mud-bath?" she flicked the back of her hand to him so he was sprayed with mud.

"You two can flirt later." The Doctor said, snapping Raven out of the moment.

"We weren't flirting!" Raven insisted. But the Doctor had other things on his mind, because Antonia was getting back up again.

"Can't anything stop her?" Russel asked.

"Technically, you can." The Doctor said, "You've been feeding her all these years, she's still connected to you."

"Then why did she try to murder me?" Russel asked.

"I don't know, madness can make you a bit 'murder happy' without reason." The Doctor joked.

"So you're saying," Raven looked at Russel, "To stop Antonia Russel has to die?" Raven looked horrified.

"No, don't be silly. We just need to sever Russel's connection with the psychic influence somehow."

"Got any plans, Doc?" Russel asked him.

"Well, we could dial the modulator producing the psychic cancelling wave up." The Doctor mused, "but the shock might damage your brain, or even kill you."

"We're not going through with that plan!" Raven insisted. The Doctor looked at her like she'd grown three heads. "What?"

"Since when did you grow a heart?"

"The moment I realised I needed it to pump blood." Raven dismissed.

"YOU!" Antonia hissed when she spotted Russel. "I thought I killed you!"

"Not on my watch, you won't!" Raven said defiantly at her.

"I'm gonna kill you, you little witch!" Antonia shouted.

"Sticks and stones, monster!" Raven answered. But she was shocked when Antonia's hand lanced out, and grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up off the floor. Okay, maybe she did possess some shapeshifting ability.

Raven's legs dangled as she struggled to breathe. She tried to kick out, but Antonia was too far away. Raven had no powers, and unless the Doctor or Russel could do something fast Raven was going to die.

"Let her go, Antonia!" Russel shouted, "Or I'll dial this thing up to eleven!" He was standing on the passenger side of the car hand on a dial on the dash that controls the psychic inhibitor. "You'll be severed from my brain, and without it, you can't exist." He turned to the Doctor, "Are you sure this will work, Doctor?"

"As sure as anything I've seen today. Russel, I can't let you do this, you might die." The Doctor said.

Russel looked at Antonia with an intense look.

"I've realised now the thing that's been tormenting me all my life is some darkness from my own head. A creature I've created. In a way, I've been tormenting myself all these years, always wanting to run away from her, just because I feared the backlash if I fought back. But now I can't just run away from it. I created this monster, Antonia is my responsibility, and she's going back to where I can control her." He tapped the side of his own head.

"Russel…" Raven choked, she wanted to say "Stop being so melodramatic." But that's not what she said, all she could say through her contracting windpipe was, "Russel…don't… you'll… die!"

"Doctor, what are the chances of survival?"

"Slim." The Doctor warned. "Russel, I can't let you do this, I'm sorry. There has to be another way."

"Doctor, if I…" Russel paused, then looked over the Doctor's shoulder. "Doctor, what the heck is that?" Like an idiot, the Doctor turned to look, and Russel kicked him sharply away. Before the Doctor could get back up Russel had entered the purple car and slammed the doors shut, and locked it. He then reached over to the driver's side and locked that too.

The Doctor got back up, reached into his pockets for his Sonic Screwdriver. But his shoulders slumped in defeat. "And my Sonic Screwdriver is in there!"

Russel looked at Antonia with a tired, intense look.

"You won't do it!" Antonia barked, "you won't sacrifice yourself for anyone. You're a coward who'll choose your own life over anyone else's."

Russel began turning the dial and increasing the power. He gripped his head sharply. Antonia shrieked with pain. "You're not alive." Russel shouted through the misting up window, "You are what you've always been. A cancer."

Raven could feel herself starting to blackout, the edges of the world were becoming fuzzy. "No…" Raven choked, "Russel… I don't… want you... to die!..."

"I will snap her neck!" Antonia threatened and she gripped her neck more firmly.

Raven and Russel's eyes met through the fogging up window as darkness began to take Raven.

Then Russel gave the dial a sharp twist to full.

Raven came too, battered and bruised on the road, the beetle car's headlights illuminating her, forcing her to wake up. She could sense that her powers were back, that much she was aware of. But everything else was a blur.

She heard a noise, a voice, but it was too muffled to make out. What was it. "Bacon? Baking? Raining? Raven!" The voice was calling her name.

The world came back into sharp focus both visually and audibly. The voice was the Doctor, who was kneeling down to examine her.

"Raven, are you alright?" Through her hazing mind Raven realised he sounded so concerned for her.

"R... Russel?" She asked as the haze in her brain began to clear and she took in the car. The bonnet had been opened up and the crystal within had been dashed to the pavement, shattering it into a million shards. Russel was still laid back in the car's seat, his nose gently bleeding but he was still breathing. The car's passenger window had been smashed in. The lack of glass on the road told Raven it had been broken into from the inside out.

"He's stable and breathing." The Doctor said. Raven caught a glimpse of the Doctor's hand. His bloodied hand.

A small, almost alien whimper came from the green. Laying in it was a creature. It had the vague shape of a human, but its skin was pebbly, its face now mis-shapen. Antonia.

"You might want to check on your friend." The Doctor told her, his attention focused entirely on the mis-shapen creature.

The Doctor stood and helped Raven up to her feet. The Time Lord then slowly began walking towards the creature, it turned and tried to drag itself away. The psychic pool had mostly dried up, the creature had no power left, yet still, it clung to life somehow.

Wrenching the car door open, Raven gently pulled Russel out of the car and held him in her arms. Using her own psychic abilities she did her best to stop his bleeding nose, fix whatever damage his body had endured. But his brain, if that was damaged it was something she wasn't going to be able to fix. Her attention went back to the Doctor and Antonia.

The Time Lord stood over the once-powerful creature as it squirmed away. Antonia lept to her feet and tried to strike at the Doctor's neck. With a swipe of his hand the Time Lord re-directed her arms and swept the legs out from under her. She was down again, squirming in the mud for a few seconds. Then she struck again, and with a swipe of his hand Antonia was forced back to the ground again.

The Doctor's face burned with a cold intensity only Raven had seen before, a chill went up her spine at the memory.

Antonia didn't get up now. She had no power.

"You, my dear," The Doctor said rather coldly, almost threateningly, "Have been a very naughty girl."

Raven turned back to Russel, his eyes were opening as he came back from the dead.

"Am I dead?" He asked.

"If you were, don't think that means you'd escape me!" Raven said angrily to him.

"I feel like my brains been through the blender."

"Give me five minutes, I can make that happen!" She fumed as she laid him out on the pavement and continued to check him.

"Five minutes, alone with you?" He smiled, "I don't think it'd be that bad."

"I can see one organ still functions." Raven sighed. Gently, Russel's hands touched her arms and he tilted his head to one side. This was hardly the time or place but...

"Oh, what the hell." and Raven gently kissed him. It started out as a peck, but she couldn't help herself the peck slowly became making out. Raven felt her powers move and shift at this attention. Her darker side really didn't like this positivity. It felt like it had to go wrong, it would force it to go wrong.

Russel's gentle movements stopped as his fingers began to dig into her arms. He was hurting her. He broke off his kissing, his face was red, not with embarrassment, with pain. Raven could sense it, he was in awful pain.

He began to scream and writhe on the ground, still he clung to her. Raven tried to steady him, by holding him down, and when she did she saw to her horror what she had done. In their moment of passion Raven had broken his legs.

He screamed, and screamed.

"I'm sorry." Raven said as guilt washed over her. She shushed him, then placed her hand over his forehead and induced sleep. He rag-dolled in her arms. She gently laid him out.

"I can fix him!" She said to herself, I can fix him, and she dived into her powers and began the process of reconstructing his legs, healing them and putting them back. "I can fix him, I can fix him."

It'll only happen again. Next time it might be his neck. Do you know what this means? As Raven repaired Russel's legs her heart began to break

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: Nothing to add, I just hope everyone enjoyed it.