Chapter 25: Hellbent

Writer's Note: Some of you may have seen Etrigan on the Justice League cartoon, but I feel they left out the greatest part of his comic book character. What's that you say? Read on, I think you'll figure it out.

"Any boy who would fawn, over demon's mortal spawn, must be lacking in the brain, and that is e'er the path to PAIN!" Etrigan half roared, half laughed as he swung his massive, bony fist out, connecting with Savior and sending him flying backwards. Savior slammed into the wall, gritting his teeth to keep from crying out.

This battle had been going on for 20 seconds and it felt like 20 hours already from the few blows Etrigan had landed. His strength was off the charts, but then again, what could be expected of a creature that had once ruled Hell itself?

But as intimidating as that was, Savior wasn't giving up. Jason had said that demons out of hell dimensions or wherever they lived were weakened somewhat by the change in place. Surely he could find some way to beat Etrigan!

So he tried, lashing out with the Shimmer with, not holding back. He could have smashed through three solid feet of concrete…had Etrigan not shown surprising grace for his bulk and jumped over it.

"Your skill in battle is not jest, but let us see you weather THIS!" Etrigan said, as the glow within his gullet suddenly shone as brightly as a star.

Savior whipped the Shimmer back and formed a shield as Etrigan reared backwards and then snapped his head forward, fire belching from his gullet. The flame struck the Shimmer, and Savior jolted in shock as his arms began to burn. Etrigan poured on the fire for about eight seconds before he let off, and by then Savior felt like he had tipped his arms in hot wax.

"Demon fire is the bane, of mortals doomed to lives of pain. And if there's doubt, I'll tell you true: this hurts me far far less then YOU!" Etrigan laughed, and then with a roar he charged, swinging at Savior.

Savior dove between his legs, barely dodging Etrigan's stomping feet as he rolled and spun around, forming the Shimmer into a huge club that he slammed against the still recovering Etrigan.

Etrigan staggered a few steps. Considering that Savior had put enough force behind the shot that he expected Etrigan to go flying across the arena, it was a bit of a disappointment.

" 'A lucky shot,' that's what I'd say, if Ego held me in its sway. Your skill is naught to hold in doubt. Yet now I'll rip your innards out!" Etrigan said.

This time, Savior went through the wall.

Robin yawned as he turned another page. The weapons seemed simple enough: three just required cutting things, and the weird orb-gun was easy to figure out once you knew how to fire it. The bow was giving him some trouble though, and he had been plodding through some rather tedious legends and myths to try and understand just what to do with it. It wasn't the most mentally stimulating work.

Robin yawned. He bet Noel had to learn some really complicated spell or something. He wondered if that was as boring as this.

Wherever Blood had taken Savior when he had prepared his test, it didn't seem to be confined to one arena, as Savior tumbled through the crashing wreckage into another room beyond that. The décor didn't change much: still all stone, still lit by torches. No blood though. Thank god for small favors.

A fiery blast blew through the hole: Savior threw himself to the side at the last second, but it still seared him. He threw off his jacket: leather that melted could be very painful, and besides…

Etrigan ran through the hole.

And Savior threw his jacket over his head. Before Etrigan could produce a rhyming complaint Savior slammed twin Shimmer rams into his gut, actually succeeding in knocking Etrigan off his feet. The whiplash made his jacket fly off, but seeing couldn't keep Etrigan from stopping Savior grabbing the partly collapsed wall and ripping at it, bringing more stones down on Etrigan.

He had a feeling that wouldn't keep the demon down long. He formed a body-sized shield in one hand and a crude club in the other.

Etrigan exploded out from under the wreckage, as Savior put the shield in front of him to ward off the stone shards.

"Before you trifled with my fire, but now you've TRULY earned my ire!" Etrigan roared, swiping at Savior with claws that could cut through steel. Savior dodged aside and hit Etrigan with his club. It just seemed to make Etrigan angrier. Thankfully, not faster, as Savior used Shimmer strands coming out of his feet to push/leap over Etrigan's next slash, and then he rammed both his shield and club together on Etrigan's head like a cymbal. He leapt back…

And then Etrigan had him by both his arms. How could he move so quickly at times? Considering that half the time he was rather slow.

"A demon's head is really solid, due to our own environ squalid, but as for humans, despite what's said, no matter how dense, you have a soft head!" Etrigan yelled, and slammed his head forward. Had he head butted Savior in the face he probably would have been killed him, but the fact that he head-butted him in the chest didn't change the fact that it hurt like hell. It also didn't change Etrigan spinning around and throwing him through another wall.

"Perhaps victory is still your heart's assumption, but the end is as sure as Raven's corruption." Etrigan said as he walked over to where a bloody and battered Savior was trying to get up.

"Just curious. Can you say a sentence with the word "orange" in it?" Savior asked.

"You humans think you are so clever, with words like that are so hard to rhyme. You are so quick to mock, yet never, think of rhyming all the time!" Etrigan replied, and kicked Savior into the ceiling.

Raven had thought the burning was bad. She had been wrong. What had come in its wake was far far worse.

It was, in a way, a coldness, but in another way it was nothing. Truly nothing, that was swallowing her up, to be replaced with something she had despised all her life but in the end knew she couldn't stand against. She was already hanging on by her fingernails.

The only pain left in her body was a strange one at the top of her skull. It wasn't like any headache a human could have, but Raven knew what it meant.

The end was truly near.

The burning was all Savior knew, as Etrigan blasted him with demonic fire, his Shimmer shield not keeping the terrible heat from hurting him. He staggered and nearly fell, his strength sapped by the heat, and then Etrigan was there, driving his fist into Savior's gut. Savior collapsed at his feet. Sighing, Etrigan reached down and picked Savior up, his hand enveloping Noel's whole head.

"You fight in vain with all your might, for a goal that cannot be won. Trigon's seed will your love slight! For you trying is ALL the fun!" Etrigan said, and then reared back, planning to slam Savior head first into the nearest wall. He swung…

Shimmer strands slammed out and stopped his arm, even as new strands flowed out from Savior's head and pried Etrigan's fingers apart. Using the strands, Savior flipped himself backwards, catching Etrigan with a makeshift garrote and pulling him down, slamming the back of his head into the ground as hard as he could. Unfortunately the back of his head proved to be as hard as the front, and Savior had to leap away as Etrigan spewed fire at him again.

Then one of Etrigan's clawed hands slashed out as Savior retreated, slicing an errant Shimmer line. The pain exploded through Noel, and he collapsed with a scream.

"Your tricks are many, that is true, but in honesty your brains are few. I've been alive since humans sprang, you'll need more then tricks to earn the Fang!" Etrigan said as he got up, and then he charged into Savior, picking him up and ramming him back first into the wall, and then once again as the wall collapsed. Etrigan roared in laughter.

A roar that was cut off when Savior grabbed a large piece of stone and broke it over his head. Etrigan stopped, and Savior smashed another piece of rock over Etrigan's thick skull, finally getting him to loosen his grip. Etrigan roared his anger and was about to say something when Savior brought the third piece of rubble, three times larger then the others, down on Etrigan's head. He actually managed to knock the demon to his knees, and felt a surge of pride. It faded quickly as Etrigan got up, shaking his head.

"I must confess, I did not see. Was that the tickle of a flea? I've tangled with Krypton's last son! Before it started, this fight I've won!" Etrigan said.

"No." Noel hissed.

"Ah love, that secret, sweet sweet pain, that has addled this young one's brain. Against the cold, it is no buffer, and for crossing me you now shall suffer!" Etrigan said, and leapt at Savior, slashing with his claws. Savior dodged aside and smashed a Shimmer-club over Etrigan's head, but Etrigan just laughed and grabbed it, pulling Savior in and then sending him flying back with a vicious punch.

Savior bounced off the wall, hitting the ground face first. He groaned and tried to get up, as blood spilled into his eyes, making his vision blur and his eyes sting.

Etrigan was right: he was way too powerful for him. But he had to win. And if he couldn't beat Etrigan in the normal way, he'd have to get creative. But what would work on that rhyming tub of hot air…

Wait…

"Having been so long away, from the Pit and all its fun, you don't slay a fool on ev'ry day, so I promise to enjoy this one!" Etrigan said as he walked over to Savior.

"Hey, I hear demons don't dream. Do they have to breathe?" Savior asked.

And then he thrust out the Shimmer. Etrigan slashed at it but the strands dodged the attack and flew on. They struck Etrigan, and then to the demon's shock, they flowed out, sealing up his mouth and plugging his nose. Etrigan's roar was greatly muted as he tried to bite the Shimmer, but the material flowed over his teeth and covered them, so that when he closed his mouth the Shimmer kept the teeth from actually cutting. At the same time more strands whipped out and covered Etrigan's clawed fingers, sealing the claws away in the same barrier.

Etrigan thrashed and yanked, but Savior went with the Shimmer and was kept from being hurt as Etrigan furiously tried to get the energy off. By now it was almost completely coating his whole head.

Savior's face was filled with determination as Etrigan continued to struggle, refusing to give up as he yanked at the strands and tried to get something sharp into them.

In the end, that failed. But the demon fire didn't.

The burning sensation traveled down the lines and exploded through Savior, a whole new kind of pain. Fire blasted through holes that had formed in the Shimmer and then the energy finally retreated as Etrigan burned it away, using the magical qualities of his fire to harm the Shimmer where normal fire could not. The retreating Shimmer barely formed a shield as Etrigan turned the fire on Savior, sending more burning shooting through his body. No sooner had he finished his charring then he leapt over and smashed his fist into the Shimmer so hard he broke through the shield and sent Noel crashing into the wall again. Bellowing, Etrigan grabbed the prone boy and threw him across the arena again, sending him bouncing along the floor and into the wall behind him before he finally came to a stop. He didn't get up.

Etrigan took a few breathes. That had been close. And using the fire in such a situation may have harmed him. It made him angry. That boy would pay.

Savior started to get to his knees as Etrigan stomped over. His ploy had failed.

But…

"In battle both divine and cursed, I've endured the best as well as the worst. But now the novelty wears thin, so now I come to claim my win." Etrigan snarled as he stalked over. "Before I end your poor resistance, I wish to make one thing crystal clear. Not mortal can, without assistance, drop a demon on his rear."

He had no choice. This might not work, and he may not get the weapon, but if he didn't use it he was dead, and then he definitely couldn't help Raven.

"Hey Etrigan…"

"At last, the silent fool doeth speak. Obviously now you mercy seek. But you have lost, I claim my prize. I think first I'll boil away your eyes." Etrigan said as he came close, the brightness appearing within his maw again that signaled demonfire.

"Perhaps so, but the goal said I had to banish you…and since I can't beat you in combat…GONE GONE OH ETRIGAN! APPEAR ONCE MORE IN FORM OF MAN!" Savior yelled.

Etrigan stopped dead.

"WHAT! HOW DID…!" Etrigan yelled, as the smoke swirled up around him again. "YOU…know…" Etrigan's said as his voice faded into Jason Blood's, and the man reappeared, the Demon banished back to hell.

"How…?" Jason asked.

"When I tried to suffocate him…I also stuck several strands through his ear and into his brain. I can read minds…if I do that…and I read…that those were the words that could send him back. Etrigan was too busy trying to breathe to notice…so…does this mean I fail? I couldn't beat your other side in combat."

"Combat is one thing, but intelligence, strategy, and the refusal to surrender…those are far more important then strength. No Noel. You passed."

"Great." Noel said, and then passed out.

Had the remaining Titans been paying close attention, they may have noticed their Tower start to vibrate slightly. But the subtle feeling escaped them and woe to them for it.

For it was truly the calm before the storm.

When Noel woke up, he was back in the small room where this had begun. He blinked and then pushed himself up off the floor.

"I believe this is yours." Blood said, offering Noel his mangled jacket. Noel blinked, and then realized he felt no pain. His wounds were gone.

"What…?"

"What happens on the training ground…stays on the training ground. A small bonus, if you will." Blood said, giving Noel back his jacket.

"And you couldn't fix my clothes as well?" Noel teased.

"Your wounds are gone, aren't they? If you want I can easily bring them back!" Blood snapped.

"No no no, I'll live with it."

"Good." Blood said, turning back to the box. "Here is the weapon. Let us see if you are truly worthy of carrying it."

Jason opened the box. A soft glow came from inside, and it transferred out as Jason withdrew the weapon and gave it to Noel. He looked at it.

"A sword? Just a sword? Now THAT'S a cliché." Noel said as he looked up and down the softly glowing blade. With the exception of the glow, it looked like the average longsword.

"This weapon is beyond such things as a set state. Your own perceptions make it manifest as a sword. It has been many things through the ages, and accomplished miracles and brought about the end of worlds. I do not think it could manifest such might in your hands, but it may just be able to banish Trigon back to the Nether-Verse."

"Does it have a name? Etrigan called it 'The Fang'"

"If I said its real name your head, and most likely mine, would explode. But in the loosest translation I can give you in English, it is called 'He Who Dares Bare Fangs At God.'"

"Great. I'll get this back to you." Noel said, turning.

"Wait…" Jason said.

"Yeah?"

Jason closed his eyes.

"Gone gone oh form of man…"

"Hey wait a minute…"

"And rise the demon ETRIGAN!" Etrigan roared, back from hell.

"Hey, I beat you, I…"

"Lower thy ire, young mortal man. Betrayal is not in my plan. You won fairly, thought by trick, so listen to me for a tick. A demon you do wish to slay, so with a demon you shall play. I'll give you all the truth you need, though I rather doubt you will succeed." Etrigan said.

"…Ok. What do I have to do?"

Etrigan told him.

And in the end, Noel agreed. The price was extremely high, most likely too much for a human being. Or for him.

But if it came to that…

He'd pay anyway.

Etrigan left after he had given the information, and Jason reappeared.

"So you know?" he asked.

"Yes." Noel replied.

"And?"

Noel looked thoughtful.

"Do you think I can do it?" he finally asked.

Now Jason looked thoughtful.

"Some things are impossible. And some things…are inevitable. What do YOU believe, Noel?"

Noel blinked, and then turned away.

"I believe I can surprise her."

"Geez, took you long enough, I-WHOA!" Robin said, looking up from the book as Noel walked in. The "whoa" came from Robin's surprise at Noel's outfit, tattered and torn up. "What happened to you?"

"I had to enter some rather strong negotiations to get what I wanted. But I did. Here it is." Noel said, showing Robin the sword. "Gather up the other weapons and let's get the hell back to the tower."

"Agreed." Robin said, grabbing up a sack and carefully placing the weapons in it. Jason had give Noel a sheath for his sword (Noel would just call it the Fang as well, for the moment), and Noel sheathed it.

"Here, I grabbed a few things from the closets which might also help us with demons." Robin said, tossing Noel a small case. "Let's go."

Within a minute the two teens were out of the building and back on their way home.

Deep in his mansion, Jason Blood pulled a long sheath of cloth off, of all things, a crystal ball. Saying a few words, he placed his hand on the surface.

"You gave him that weapon…do you actually think he can do anything?" Etrigan rumbled, the voice speaking inside Jason's head. It was only during these conversations that Etrigan would not speak in rhyme: something about it being "below his art" or something.

"I know many things, but at the same time…I do not know many things…and whether or not he can win is one of those. So is another…" Jason said, as he looked into the ball. It showed him an image he had known would appear, but it chilled him all the same.

"I do not know if those two will make it back in time. And I do not know if their allies will survive it."

Her hand was changing.

Her skin, dusky and pale from lack of light, was slowly turning the deep crimson of blood, the colour sliding up her arm. She watched. It was all she could do.

The pain in her head was coming to a climax, and her resistance was just about to completely run out.

She had been a fool. She should have run when she had the chance. She should have done something, anything, to avoid this. But she hadn't wanted to. Running or asking for help may have endangered her friends, as they would surely have come looking for her. In staying and pretending nothing was wrong, she had hoped she could avoid hurting them. But she had been wrong. Now there was nothing she could do, as the red swarmed up her hand.

The last act of Raven the Titan was to shed two tears.

"My friends…forgive me…"

And then a darkness deeper then night claimed her. Forever.

The Titans finally realized what was happening when they heard the laughter exploding through the Tower.

It was a terrible laugh, booming into the Titan's ears, the scorn and cruelty so thick they could almost see the laugh manifest itself in a physical state. The Titans reeled.

The TV the guys were playing suddenly exploded as all the lights flashed crazily, and then the Tower began to shake like a creature in an epileptic seizure. Starfire cried out in fear and surprise.

"What is happening!??!?!?" she cried, as all the windows suddenly exploded outward and a terrible heat washed down on them from above.

And the roof of the tower exploded as Raven rose up, her arms out and her head thrown back as she laughed, her own high shriek matching with the disembodied laugh that had shaken the building.

Raven no longer resembled a human. Her skin was now blood red all over, and a new set of eyes had opened up in her forehead, giving her four. Red lightning crackled from and around her, as her cloak thrashed about, no more just plain cloth. It now seemed almost a living thing, a mantle composed of the shadows. Her father's evil had finally won, overwhelming and crushing her personality and placing what her father represented in its place. Raven had, for all terms, ceased to exist.

And the new Raven only had one goal.

Starfire flew up, carrying Cyborg, as Beast Boy joined them as a hawk. Everyone goggled at this new Raven, and at the power that washed over her and around her, blackening the night sky to an even darker nocturne.

"Raven?" Beast Boy said incredulously.

"What…has happened?" Starfire asked, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"Ah, my former allies…" Raven said, looking at them. It was her voice, and yet it wasn't. It now contained an edge, a cruelty, that the Titans never knew their friend possessed. But she did. It was her birthright.

And Cyborg, recalling his trip through Raven's mirror, and what he had seen, realized what had happened.

"RAVEN NO! DON'T!"

"Behold! You shall be the first to see the new dawn! COME FORTH FATHER! COME FORTH AND CONQUER!" Raven laughed, throwing her hands up and out. The air above Raven suddenly glowed black.

"NOOOOOO!" Cyborg yelled, activating his cannon and firing. But an invisible wall of force around Raven stopped all the shots, even as she laughed and slammed her arms down.

(Writer's Note: Since I cannot upload music to a fic, please imagine some dramatic choir music for this moment. Maybe that tune where the Fellowship and Gandalf confront the Balrog in LOTR:TFOTR. Yeah, imagine that tune for this scene).

The air above her SPLIT, opening up a vortex that howled with the fury of hell. But even that terrible sounded was drowned out by the booming laugher as a red-clawed hand emerged from the gate. The hand was quickly followed by an arm, and then Trigon emerged from the hole.

The demon seemed even larger then he had when Raven's Anger had manifested itself in his form, but besides that the red-skinned, four-eyed, loincloth clad monster known as Trigon the Terrible looked pretty much the way Cyborg remembered.

Trigon landed on top of the tower, the building buckling but managing to hold his weight. He roared his triumph.

"AT LAST! FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!" Trigon bellowed, the sound hurting the Titan's ears.

"Father…" Raven said, floating over to Trigon's face. Trigon's face acquired a look that could almost be tenderness.

"Ah, my daughter. At last you have realized your destiny."

"And yours. Come father. Let us rebuild your empire, and make it a thousand times greater then the last." Raven said.

"NO!"

Raven spun around to look at the Titans, standing nearby with as defiant a look they could muster in their fear.

"Raven! Come back to us! Please! This is not who you really are!" Starfire cried.

"Oh, but is is, old friend. This is whom I was meant to be. It was why my father soiled his greatness by laying down with a human woman. It was so that I, as you see now, could come into existence. It is all I was ever meant to be." Raven replied.

"And then what were we?" Beast Boy yelled. It sounded good until he had actually said it.

"Fools. And the first ones to fall before my invincible father. Goodbye." Raven said, raising a hand.

"No…" Trigon said. Raven looked over at her father with some surprise. "No, dear daughter. You were the key that allowed me to break free from that prison your so called home world dared place me in. Allow me to annihilate these fools."

"As you wish, father." Raven said.

Trigon smiled, showing more teeth then an army of crocodiles, and then his eyes glowed bright red before massive bolts of force fired out of them.

The three remaining Titans only dodged because they had some warning. The beam flew past them, and then a massive explosion blasted in the distance, the force wave so strong it knocked the Titans over.

"Hmmmmm. Not bad." Trigon said, as he raised his left hand. Fire, more powerful then anything Etrigan could muster, burst into creation on his fist. "But not enough either."

Trigon threw the fireball. And this blast was too large to dodge.

Surprisingly, Starfire opened up on the fireball with a barrage of Starbolts. Cyborg added to it with his sonic cannon, and Beast Boy turned into an elephant and, pumping water in his trunk, began spraying the blast. The fireball continued on its path, but it shrank as the Titans continued to blast away at it, and several feet from impact it dissipated.

Trigon cocked his head, as Cyborg lowered his cannon and gave him the finger.

"You'll have to try harder then that to beat the Teen Titans!" he yelled.

"Very well. I guess I will put some effort into this one." Trigon said.

Cyborg gaped. Somehow, he knew Trigon had been speaking the truth. That fireball they had barely stopped…Trigon had put no effort into it. But the next one…

"Silly mortal children…" Trigon said, as he summoned another fire blast twice as large as the previous one. "I have lain waste to worlds beyond your comprehension. You are nothing but insects, and you cannot beat me…"

And then Trigon yelled in surprise as a blue blast of some kind of energy suddenly flew up and crashed into his eyes. He recoiled a bit, the fireball fading as he brought his hand up to his face. He hadn't been expecting that, and that had allowed it to harm him.

The Titans looked behind them.

Robin was standing on a slab of rock sticking out of the sea, holding some kind of weird gun with orbs attached to it. Savior stood behind him, holding a bag. Robin lowered the orb-gun, his eyes as serious as they had ever been.

"I'd like to test that theory."