Shangri-la

Gothic: Well, I hope you all enjoyed the ending of the last chapter. *evil grin* Now the fun really begins, as the cavalry comes to save Raven! But are they too late? I guess I'll let you find out the answer to that one. *really, really evil witches cackle*

Kitty: She….owns…..nothing…..so…you…no…sue…..Just thought I'd get that out.

Gothic: Oh, and before I forget:

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

Kitty: On with the ficcie! The ending of the last chapter will be at the start here, to help the tension at  the start here flow better. =^_^=

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"Do your worse Slade."

"You little bitch!" Slade slapped her again, and then lifted the blade.

Then, with a final cry, he threw all the force he had behind it, -

and drove it forward straight into Raven's chest.

Raven's head fell forward for a minute. Then she lifted her head, the blade still in her chest, and crimson blood running in rivets down her body. She leaned forward, then whispered in a harrowing voice straight into Slade's ear.

"Didn't your mummy ever tell you that demons have 13 lives?" Slade appeared speechless for a minute, then he screamed out loud in a defeated voice.

"ERATHI! YOU LYING BASTARD! GET YOUR ASS HERE NOW YOU LITTLE TRAITOR!" But Slade's screams had no answer, for as Erathi had told Raven; he was back home, safe from Slade's threats.

Raven meanwhile was celebrating the fact the blade had gone straight through her body, and into the circuitries of the rock behind it. The bindings holding her had no effect, and she was able to easily blast the covers away. Then, with the blade still in her body, she jumped down, the weight of the sharp blade almost pulling her forward. She braced herself, then took a firm grip on the hilt of the blade. She winced slightly as she drew the giant dagger out of her chest, and flung it aside as if it had no meaning. Which, to her, it hadn't.

With her leotard ripped, and the wound still badly bleeding, Raven began to drag herself away from Slade. She had lost a huge amount of blood, and needed desperate medical attention. If the others didn't come soon, she was going to lose another life. She looked back for two seconds, glancing at the defeated Slade, lying helplessly on the floor in front of where she had been bound. The only reason he wasn't chasing her was that he was too preoccupied with what had just happened. And there was the fact that he could capture her again.

Sighing softly, Raven dragged her tired and weary body to the staircase, one hand over her wound. There was blood dripping down her back, her cloak sticking to the stab and absorbing the deep red liquid, leaving huge red patches on her cloak. It was going to be a long walk home.

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Back by the metal door that led to Slade's hideout, the remaining Titans were awaiting Robin's orders to smash into the place. They didn't, however, notice the stealthy and sneaky minions of Slade, who were on life and death orders to let no one through that door. They snuck up, like cat on mouse, and pounced upon the unwary Titans. It was only that they noticed the arrival of their attackers, when Robin found himself picked, up, spun around, and flat on his back with a minion staring at him.

"Titans! Go!" Robin shouted his orders as he smacked the demon full on the face, and then shoved it backwards, allowing him to get up, - and draw out his staff.

"Bring it on." Was all Robin said, before lunging into battle. They fought for several minutes, Robin determinedly smashing left and right, Starfire throwing starbolts from the air, Cyborg shooting left and right with his sonic cannon, occasionally stopping to smash the living daylights out of a closer minion, and Beast Boy transforming into every creature possible to combat the oncoming attacks.

Eventually, after several minutes, the minions lay in shards, exposed wires and mechanical part everywhere. Just then, a survivor crawled from the ashes, half of its right arm gone. It prepared to charge, and the Titans readied themselves for its attack.

An aura of black and white surrounded the minion. It was lifted into the air, and was thrown backwards. It fell with a siren cry of help, as the Titans turned to see a rather beaten and bruised Raven standing there, the door showing the appearance of one blasted off it's hinges.

"Raven!" The others charged to greet her, with general cries of 'You're alright!' and 'Did Slade hurt you?' Raven shrugged off the questions for a minute, and the hand upon her chest fell from tiredness. In the daylight, the Titans gasped, as they saw the huge gash, spreading from just to the left of her windpipe, going in a downwards direction, all the way to just the start of her right breast. Starfire, who was flying overhead, could see the deep red stains on her cloak, the others being able to see the ripped and torn threads of her clothing.

"What,…what happened to you? Did Slade do this?" Robin was so horrified, that he could only just speak. Raven merely nodded, taking deep breaths, trying to stay conscious.

"Why that little…." Cyborg shook with rage and Beast Boy just stood, in a trance, his gaze transfixed on the wound.  Raven at last found her voice, and managed few words.

"He tried to kill me. It didn't work, but I lost a lot of blood." She fell forwards, handily caught by Beast Boy, who had shook himself out of the trance only two seconds before. He supported the deeply breathing telepath, also getting blood on his front.

"Slade tried to….to kill you?" Robin curiously asked. Raven nodded, accepting the support of her teammate.

"We'd better get back. Raven needs medical attention and fast." Everyone agreed with Cyborg's words, and decided the best way to get Raven, and themselves back to the Tower unharmed. With Cyborg carrying Raven as carefully as he could, they slowly began the long trek back to the Tower.

Inside the building they had just come out of, Slade stood before a monitor, chuckling softly to himself. "It won't be long before you are mine again Raven….. And then, Trigon will be released……"

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On Azarath, Zuthion the demon was in a desperate situation. Standing before her, in all his glory, was her father Trigon. He had interrogated her for hours, and now had worked himself into a roaring rage. There was no way he could force her dark side out of her, - her body couldn't take it, as she wasn't old enough yet.

"Why was I summoned?! You are the only one in this dimension! Answer me, you pathetic excuse for a demon!"

"I….never…..summoned….you. The….only…demon….who…can….summon…you….is…my…sister."  Zuthion  was dropped to the floor at long last, and she rubbed her throat in pain.

Wow. He actually listened to me. Then again, that's no surprise, as it only took five½ hours. He still hasn't broken his record of 4¾ hours. The winded demon thought.

"Where is she?" His voice was like nails on metal. She winced at the painfulness of her throat. " WHERE IS SHE?!?!" He screamed at her.

"Trugia…..17th Dimension…..In….hiding…" Zuthion managed to gasp.

"If I find out that you have lied to me, you will die a death as painful as the many who have died so many years before you." Trigon flung the demon aside, and headed for the exit. Then, with a roar of anger, and a blinding flash of lightning, he was gone.

Rubbing her head and groaning slightly, Zuthion managed to scramble to her feet. Her eyes closed, and the gem on her forehead glowed softly. She concentrated, and sent a silent message to her sister 12 dimensions away.

Trigon's coming. He knows you've been forced to summon him. I've misled him, but I'm coming to you. Now.

Her eyes opened, the gem faded, and she collapsed, all the energy drained from her.

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In the hospital wing of Titans Tower, Raven's eyes opened in haste, as the gem upon her forehead shone so brightly, she could see the glow reflected from the shiny tiles of the wall in front of her. As the gem faded again as quickly as it had lighted up, she winced at the painfulness of her chest. The others had bandaged up her chest, but had left her clothing, so she could see the whiteness of the bandage. She was also wired up to a drip, that was steadily putting the lost blood back in.

The message she had just received had been telepathically, from her sister Zuthion, who was on Azarath. The message had been faint, indicating that she had most likely been injured before contacting her.

Trigon. She thought grimly. He's hurt her, trying to discover why he was summoned. If Slade does that again, Trigon will most likely get through into this dimension. Oh crap. She sank back down onto her bed, lost in her thoughts. Quite quickly she dozed off into a restless sleep, her dreams haunted by the possible escape of her father onto Earth.

Meanwhile, the other 4 Titans were discussing what to do about Slade. There had been many suggestions, not one really good enough to use against the evil enemy.

"Come on man! There gotta be sumthing we can do!" Cyborg complained yet again at the prospect of the nothingness they had.

"Raven has been very damaged Robin, and we were not there to help her. If we do not do something soon, I fear that Draygion may also be seriously damaged." Starfire's usual enthusiasm was gone, her expression grim as the atmosphere around her.

"Yeah man, and there was Draygion's guardian, whoever she is to also rescue." Beast Boy put in.

"Maybe Raven herself will be able to answer these questions everyone has." Robin finally spoke, his expression blank, empty, and never changing. "It seems that there are various things about her and her family that we need to know in order to defeat Slade's latest plan."

There was an outbreak of talk, everyone discussing the prospect of this. Robin waited patiently for the babble of voices to fade before continuing.

"Raven may be too injured to tell us much at the moment, but we must act fast, and rescue the other two from Slade before he uses them as bait again. So, everyone spread out and search the city for any clues. Beast Boy, you stay here, and make sure Raven is okay."

Everyone generally agreed with this, despite several groans of despair from Beast Boy. But, after Robin raised a 'do not object' eyebrow, he nervously smiled, and adopted a 'at your service' look

"Remember, cover the city as much as you can. Titans, GO!" The others left, leaving Beast Boy to whimper slightly in nervousness, and conduct his own search as best as he could by the tower's computers.

After about an hour and a ½, Beast Boy decided to go and check on Raven, having found nothing from the computers. He tiptoed along the metal corridors, shaking a bit, as he knew what Ravens temper was like. When he entered the medical area, he was unsure if Raven had been asleep before he entered, as her eyes flickered open only two seconds after entering the room. He shrank back for a minute, as her violet eyes stared him out, then crept forward again when she made no move to shout at him.

"What do you want?" She asked, in surprisingly calm voice.

"Um, just…checking up on you, 'cause the others are out hunting for clues on Slade's plans." He said in a rush.

"Oh. What are you doing here then, other than keeping an eye on me?" Her expression changed slightly, but only slightly, as a hint of puzzlement took to her eyes.

"Robin told me to search via the computers. I'm not too good tho. I think you're a lot better." He smiled at this, and even Raven had the decency to blush a bit.

" I might be able to find Draygion telepathically. We're connected mentally as we're both telepaths." She actually smiled at this, nearly causing Beast Boy to faint and pass out.

"Can ya find Slade's latest hideout? The entire team's been hunting everywhere." Feeling a bit more relaxed, he crept forward a few more paces

"Maybe….if I can get into the main room without collapsing from the undying pain in my chest." Her words, full of sarcasm, earned yet more smiles from the two of them.

Maybe I can get something out of this. Beast Boy thought, as he watched Raven slowly get out of bed. She seemed to be able to cope well, disattaching the drip on her arm, as she'd had 5 pints put back in, and her body could deal with with the missing amount of blood. Together, with Beast Boy ready to support Raven if she felt too faint, the two began to make their way down to the main room.

Raven didn't need too much help getting down from the medical room. She had to stop a few times, but on the whole, was okay. Once there, Raven took a chair to sit on, and got busy working on the Titans latest catastrophe, Beast Boy uncomplainingly watching her progress. She brought up the locations of Draygion and his guardian, and more importantly, the area of Slade's backup hideout, and how far away from it the other Titans were.

"There. That's Draygion, and that grey dot there is Arella." Raven pointed out a orange dot, and a grey dot. "And the black dot over there in the building is Slade." She spoke more softly than usual, occasionally stopping to take a gulp of air and breath more deeply.

" So these other dots are the others?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yes. The red dot here is Robin, and the blue one, " Raven switched sides of the city, "is Cyborg." She switched again, moving in on a yellow dot near the East, close to the tower. "That yellow dot is Starfire. Robin is the closest to Slade, but he doesn't know Slade is nearby in Drewen Street."

"Hey! Star's near the tower! She's literally just across from the East of the island!" Beast Boy pointed out Titans Tower, where Raven homed in on a green dot, and a purple dot.

"Those dots are us. Not hard to guess which is which." Raven relaxed for a minute, scanning for anything else out of the ordinary. Both were startled when Beast Boy communicator rang out.

"Beast Boy! It's Robin. We can't find anything, so we're all gonna head back to the Tower."

Beast Boy looked  to Raven, who had found Robin again. He was right next to Slade's hideout. She nodded to him, then yawned.

"Robin wait! There is something! I went to check on Raven earlier, and she was well enough to help me out. She's managed to find just about everyone."

"Right. Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine. Oh, and you're standing right next to Slade's hideout by the way."

There was no sound on the other end for a minute. Even Raven was looking with interest at Beast Boy's communicator. Eventually, Robin spoke.

"Right next door to Slade's new hideout?"

"Yeah dude."


"You're about 2 yards from the entrance. It's a black door, but DO NOT go barging in cause there's too many minions behind it for you to take alone." Raven's usual monotone voice barely altered, but there was a slight pinch of emphasis on 'DO NOT'.


"Okay, I'll regroup with the others, and we'll meet you guys back at the tower." Robin's voice cut off, and Beast Boy and Raven were left in alone in  front of the computer screen once more.

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Across dimensions, back in Azarath once more, Zuthion prepared to find her sister. She had packed the few things she would need, and was now in the 'Hall of Mirrors'. This hall, although sounding like no more than a fairground adventure, was actually a powerful tower, containing portals to every single dimension and planet in the whole universe. Right now, she was standing in front of a portal that looked like a full length mirror you get on Earth. Above this portal, there was a sign carved into gold, reading:

The Solar System

'The realm of humanity.'

She sighed, then stepped forward. In a flash she was hurtling through dimension, after dimension, after dimension. She was in a wormhole of some description, black and white streaks lining the tunnel she was in. Then, a blinding flash of sky blue light shone into her eyes, causing the demon to shut her eyes in pain. She fell out of the wormhole, and landed, on her back, directly on the island at the back of Titans Tower.

The portal of Earth is here? How can that be? She thought.

Shaking herself, she got up, and brushed herself down. Something told her that her sister was very close, so close she could sense her.

The third of the 5 Children of Trigon had arrived on Earth.

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Gothic: Um, how did I manage to write nearly 3,000 words? No wonder it took so long to write! This chappie may have been a long to get through, but the romance of Beast Boy and Raven is beginning! And pay attention to the phrase 'The 5 Children of Trigon.' It plays an important part in the story.

Kitty: Well, we gotta wrap this all up now, cause Gothic wants to go surfing for interesting stories to read. She can't write and read.

Gothic: Updates soon! Lets just hope the next chappie isn't as long….