Raven was defeated. Her body screamed in pain where the inscriptions were burned into her skin, branding her as the Gem of Scath; destined to be sacrificed to bring forth the demon Trigon (her father).
But the physical pain her body felt was nothing compared to the emotional and psychological agony she felt as she looked at the destroyed world around her.
Raven felt two cold hands wrap tightly around her upper arms. The quiet and malice voice that spoke to her sent chills all the way down her spine.
"This is the future, your future. It began the day you were born and nothing can stop it. This will come to pass, I will make sure of it. Your going to destroy the world Raven, its written all over your face." Slade said.
Raven shut her eyes trying to block out his words. She did not want to believe him, she did not want to be responsible for the death of the world and everyone in it.
But the image of her friend turned to stone with the rest of the world was as visible with her eyes closed as they were open and the searing pain that flared up on her skin reminded her what exactly was written all over her face and body; proving his words were true.
Raven had never felt more hopless than in that moment, which was followed by a wave of self-loathing and grief. The power behind those emotions burst out from her with a loud scream.
"NO!" The empath heard her own voice so full of despair echo around her as her soul self tried to reach out (in the form of a giant raven) and break free from this nightmare.
Raven then went limp as her mind shut down from a mixture of all the pain, stress, and sudden release of energy. The masked villain became the only thing holding her up as they stood at the edge of Jump City's visitors tower.
Slade smirked evilly to himself as the magical inscriptions hid themselves. "We'll be in touch." He said simply as he let the empath go causing her to plummet down to the earth.
"Oh and happy birthday." Raven somehow heard Slade say as she drowned in darkness. She could feel a cold wind rushing past her pulling her down into a deep dispare, but could not seem to grasp which way was up, and which way was down. Or even how to open her eyes, as they felt glued shut forcing her to stay enveloped in cold darkness with only the terrible images Slade had shown her to keep her company.
Raven did not want to live in cold darkness, she never did. Despite how she dressed and decorated her room, she often sought the light from those around her. Her friends gave her light in the form of love, care, and compassion.
But they were not there to guide her out of the darkness she was currently in. Not because they did not want to be, Raven knew full well if they knew what was happening they would do everything they could to save her. But they were all still frozen in time, in a factory that was in the middle of collapsing on top of them.
The wind surrounding Raven suddenly stopped as a powerful impact from beneth her shook the body of the already broken soul. Raven opened her eyes to find herself in Nevermore with all her emotion clones surrounding her.
Everyone of them looked as dulled and utterly devastated as Raven felt.
Robin lost traction as the bride platform he was running across gave away bending upwards causing him to slide back down.
He rolled over to see a giant gear rolling towards him. For a split second panic filled the teen hero's mind, but a loud scream seemed to kick start it again.
"Stop!" Raven's voiced echoed across the factory followed by a flash of blue light. Hearing the pain and feeling the panic from their bond; Robin rolled off the broken platform a split second before he was crushed.
As gravity took effect Robin shot his grappling hook straight up catching it on some beems overhead. Robin's fall came to a jolting halt as he swung suspended beneath the still collapsing bridge.
He scanned the area for his teammates, particularly for Raven whom he could sense was in trouble.
He did not find the empath but his masked eyes landed on the rest of his team about to exit the building. "Starfire!" Robin called yelled out and said individual turned locking eyes with him for a briefly before gasping and flying so fast she was a bright green blur to him.
Robin let go of the grappling hook as he felt the beautiful alien grab him and fly him safely over to Cyborg and Beastboy who were waiting at the exit. But the moment Robin's feet touched solid ground the bond he shared with Raven caused him to collapse in pain.
"Robin!" Starfire called in horror as she kept hold of him lowering him to the ground. Robin took a few deep breaths as Cyborg and Beastboy surrounded as him as well.
Ever since he heard Raven scream, he has felt somthing was wrong. There was an overwhelming variety of emotions and pain emanating from her side of the bond followed by a consuming darkness. Then just now Robin felt like he just got hit by Cinderblock and thrown through a building before the connection with Raven disappeared all together.
"Dude are you okay?" Beastboy asked kneeling next to his winded leader. Robin shook his head, no something was very very wrong.
"Where is Raven?" Robin asked with a slight hint of panic in his voice as he looked up.
His question startled the other 3 titans and they immediately began looking around. The factory was still collapsing in on itself but seemed to be settling given that Slade was no longer shooting electricity everywhere.
Which would be a good thing except both Slade and Raven where no where to be seen. "Friend Raven!?" Starfire called out as she looked around.
Robin hauled himself back onto his feet looking around while praying that Raven would just pop out of one of her portals safe and sound. But he just knew deep down that that was not going to happen.
"She is at the cathedral about 5 miles north east of here." Cyborg said pulling up Raven's communicator's GPS an his arm.
Robin nodded grateful for some sort of answer on the empath's location, even if though thousands of other questions flooded his mind at once. "Titans Go!" He said and they all took off for that location.
As they fully exited the factory Beastboy transformed into a pterodactyl and picked Cyborg up in its claws. While Starfire grabbed Robin's hands and held him suspended as they all flew over to the cathedral.
As they all landed right outside the cathedral they came face to face with a battle ground. The road was all torn up and scorched. Two pieces of pavement are standing straight up in the shape of a giant clam that had been shucked opened.
Firefighters had just arrived and were putting out the fires. Robin looked to Cyborg who was checking his arm again.
"It says she's still in there." The half metal man said starting towards the building. Ignoring the Firefighters they all ran into the lightly burning building.
It looked like someone set off an explosion as everything was blown back. Cyborg went over to a pile of benches only to find Raven's communicator thrown under one of them.
'Shit!' Was all that ran through Robin's head as he looked around for clues on where they could have gone. His masked eyes landed on the open back door with the glow of flames emanating from the alley.
Robin ran out the door and looked around. At the end of the alley was a dying wall of fire. And Robin could see behind it two buildings in the distance smashed together with puffs of dust still settling around them.
"Dang how have we missed so much of the battle?" Cyborg asked spotting the same thing as Robin.
Robin however did not have an answer to that, what he knew was that his and Raven's bond was still disconnected, and that they needed to get to her ASAP.
"Don't know, but we need to catch up, follow the trail of destruction." He commanded and with three determined nods they were in the air again.
"Oh I do hope friend Raven is the ok." Starfire said fearfully as they passed over three destroyed cars. It was obvious that there was a chase.
As they made it over the two now sandwiched together buildings Robin looked around for any sign of his teammate and friend. He spotted damage to the top of the visitors tower, and a patch of dark blue.
"Over there! On the tower." He said and the rest of the team quickly spotted what he was referring to.
As Starfire dropped Robin on the edge of the tower he quickly ran over to the patch of blue with the rest of the team right on his heels. Only to find it was Raven's cloak, but not Raven.
Beastboy let out a growl, Cyborg's knuckles craked, and Starfire's eyes lit up bright green as Robin held the cloak up. It was obvious that it had been torn right off her and everyone was becoming increasingly worried as well as frustrated.
"Dam it Slade, I hope you rot in hell." Robin hissed.
"Now, now Robin you should watch your language. Besides I have already been to hell and instead of rotting I seemed to come out on top." Slades voice cut through air grabbing the Titan's attention they looked up to him playing with a ball of fire in his hand.
The four Titans took up a fighting pose and Robin was about to launch forward to attack but Slade spoke again. "What do you want more Robin, to fight and lose to me again?"
Robin clenched his hands a teeth together, and was about to retort back that he would not lose this time. But what Slade asked next sent fear down all their spines.
"Or to help your injured bird?" Slade asked satisfaction radiating of him as Robin and his teammates all went pale.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?" Robin yelled in horror, dropping his fighting pose with the rest of the team following suit.
The whole team could hear him smirk as he walked to the edge of the tower. "Hmm, well it would seem she stood a little to close the the edge of the building after using a bit to much energy." He said looking over the edge then having a ball of fire suddenly pop out of the ground and wrap entirely around him.
The fire disappeared and the mad man with with it. But the Titans did not care as they rushed fearfully to the edge of the building. And to their horror at the bottom was a crater in the asphalt with a still figure in the middle.
"No!" Both Robin and Cyborg yelled simultaneously at the same time Beastboy yelled "Raven!" and Starfire gasped "Friend!"
Robin instantly jumped off the building and shot his grappling hook into the tower to control his drop down. Beastboy jumped right after him talking the form of a raven to fly down. Starfire grabbed Cyborg and followed down after them.
The crowd at the bottom cleared back as they spotted the four heroes drop down and run to the crater. Only to all freeze in horror at the sight before them.
Raven layed unconscious in the center of the crater at an odd looking angle. Her hair was somehow very long and fanned out in all different directions. Most of her uniform was torn off of her giving her an exposed and broken look as she breathed heavily like she could not get enough air.
But she was breathing the four Titans realized kick starting them back into motion. Robin and Beastboy jumped down into the crater next the empath. Starfire floated overhead waiting for a way she could help, while Cyborg began frantically typing into his arms to run scans over the empath.
"Beastboy, keep her warm Cyborg report." Robin commanded kneeling next to the empath. Beastboy without a second thought transformed into a lion and laid down next to the broken girl in an attempt to transfer body heat.
"I'm not sure how but her neck and spine are all in tact, I'm not even picking up a broken bone. One of her lungs lookes like it might try to collapse though. We need to get her back to the tower and do a full exam." Cyborg said looking over the data in his arm.
Robin nodded and turned to look at Starfire. Starfire caught on without any further prompting and floated down to carefully pick up the empath and began flying her back to the tower.
Beastboy instantly changed from a lion to a falcon and took off with Starfire. Cyborg helped Robin out of the crater right as the T-Car drove itself up to them.
On the fast ride back Robin allowed the questions to fill his mind. Why is Slade back? Where did he get those powers? What did he want with Raven? What does that symbol on his forhead mean?
These questions were put on the back burner as they arrived back at the tower, and ran up to the infirmary.