Though the stairs up from the dungeon were not long, Raven felt that it took forever to cross them. Her mind whirled with everything that had happened in the last few hours and that she had gone from the Midnight Empress back to Raven. It almost felt as if a spell had snapped and she was found that the monster she had been fighting was herself. Starfire wanted her to come to her but the young sorceress doubted that she was going to get out of the fortress alive.
She pushed open the large, stone doors and stepped into the hallway. The tortures burned in ancient ambiance and the girl peered down the long wide corridor to see the hulking form standing there, black eyes glittering in the light. The sickly green glow of Millennium's minions flanking him. For the first time in so many months, a trill of terror swept through her.
"I cannot say that I am not surprised," Millennium's thrum sounded through the hallway.
"Jump City was a wake up call," Raven said simply as she turned to face him. "I saw myself for what I truly am and instead of accepting it like you did, I'd rather die trying to make it right."
"You will die," Millennium said. "everything in this reality will die. It has always been destined to as soon as Zanah perished in the void."
"Then I shall die with it," Raven said. She reached up and put her hands on the simple, dark band that had damned her soul. Her hand froze as the overwhelming urge to leave it spread through her.
"It is hard to let go of all that power, to be unstoppable."
The faces of her friends floated in her mind, the pizza parties, long video game marathons, Robin and Cyborg arguing over something stupid. She would never have that again but at least she can let them. Pulling, the ring came off smoothly and clattered on to the ground, the metal sound ricocheting off the stone walls.
She swooned as the feeling of a giant weight lifted from her shoulders fell away and Raven struggled to catch her breath. Her eyes felt cool for the first time in a longtime and a glance at one of the many mirrors in the hallways, she could see her eyes again. They were no longer consumed by the golden glow.
"So be it," Millennium said.
Raven did not hesitate. Her black soul self surrounded her as she tried to pull herself away and throw her body out of the castle but the green energy from the giant bug ripped her back to the reality and threw her to the ground. The sorceress gasped for breath but rolled as another blast of green energy scorched the floor where she had been a second earlier.
Instinctively, she fired the black bolts of energy at him and the bug fell back with a grunt but the fire that came at him barely missed her and blew out one of the large windows. This was her chance, probably the only chance she would ever get. Raven threw herself through the window, summoned what memory she had of flying and soared towards the edge of Boulder as fast as she could.
Dodging low through the empty streets and zig zagging in case she was being chased, Raven tried to summon a portal but found she was too exhausted to manifest it. Without Sovereign's power, she had her own magic again and it was out of use and weak in comparison. It was when she had reached the open fields and making a straight shot towards California when the blow landed. Coming from above, something slammed hard into her and threw her to the ground. Raven bounced twice before rolling to a stop in the muddy grass. Hovering over top of her, wrapped in gold and pink energy was who Raven had expected.
"Jinx," Raven said gasping as she tried to stand.
Raven did not get another word out as the pink form bolted down and slammed a fist in her gut threw her backwards. Raven was sure a rib had cracked from the blow.
"How. Dare. You," Jinx shrieked, the pink and golden energy rolling off of her. The pinkette's eyes were full golden.
Another swift kick threw Raven down in to a ravine barely missing a rock with her head. Jinx was on top of her lifting her up by her dress as if she was a paper doll.
"After everything I did for you, after I gave you unconditional loyalty, my love, my body, my life, this is how you repay me?" Jinx demanded. "I loved you, Raven. I wanted to be with you forever. I wanted to be at your feet as we ruled this dimension for Sovereign but you threw it away. YOU THROUGH IT AWAY."
Raven found herself hurled across the field but did not bother to try to land out of the throw. Her body felt so weak from the pummeling and all she could do was stare up towards the sky trying to catch her breath. Jinx stood over her with hands on her hips. It was now that Raven could see that the metal ring she had given up was firmly affixed to the girl's forehead.
"Oh, Jinx," Raven said softly. "What have you done?"
"I took the mantle that you threw away. You abandoned him, you abandoned ME."
"I couldn't do it anymore," Raven said trying to pull herself up. "I saw what happened a Jump City, the lives that were lost. I can't do it anymore."
"It was for peace. That's what you said and I swore to follow you no matter where the path took us and then you left."
"So you're now the new Midnight Empress?" Raven asked trying to think but finding her head fuzzy.
"No, you will always be the Midnight Empress, " Jinx said as she stepped back. Three other people, had arrived. Raven recognized them as superheroes who had chosen to follow her but she could not place their names. Their eyes glowed telling her that they had become Archon Knights.
"I'm Midnight Shadow, what was left by the great Empress herself."
Jinx stopped and tilted her head as if hearing. Raven knew that Sovereign was talking to her.
"The master calls," Jinx said with a grin. She turned to the Archon Knights. "Beat her to an inch of her life and bring what is left to me."
Jinx soared away in the air and Raven braced herself for what was going to be an extremely painful few minutes.
It was the shriek of a lion that caught Raven by surprise as a giant, green animal threw itself on one of the Archon Knights. A massive stone boulder slammed into the other one while the third was looking for where the attack had come from. He was hit by a massive energy blast from above sending him rolling.
Raven looked up to see a flying suit of armor decorated in red and gold. It spoke through the speaker. "Don't look at me, it wasn't my idea to rescue you."
"Hello, mama," the voice said beside her. Raven turned to see her green friend standing there with a big smile on his face. "I heard you needed some rescuing."
She threw her arms around him and squeezed him tight ignoring the pain in her body.
"Hey! Can we flirt later? I'm like fighting three demigods by myself?"
Raven saw Terra zip by riding a boulder while others tried to crush the Archon Knights who were recovering from the surprise attack.
"Iron Man!" Beast Boy called up to the man in the red metal suit. "Let's do it!"
Iron Man landed beside them as Terra floated in close. A panel popped open and he slammed his fist on the button.
"Hold on to your butts."
Raven felt a tug as a portal opened brilliant white and they were sucked in before the Archon Knights could attack.
Raven hit the ground hard as they all landed in a pile. Raven began to stand when she felt a strong hand on her shoulder holding her on her knees.
"Don't get up, Raven," said the voice. It had been so long but she recognized Robin immediately. She looked up bleary eyed to find that she was surrounded by troops and they all had their weapons aimed at her face. "and don't resist."
"I won't resist," she whispered as she let him take her arms and gently put them behind her back and secure them with cuffs. "I promise."
She was now a prisoner of Iris.