Shangri-la

Gothic: *sweatdrops*  Don't worry Veral, I have plans for BB and Rae later…. Meanwhile, I'm still recovering from the ordeals of writing the last chapter. *hyperventilating* So….anyone for updates? Oh wait. That's why you're here reading this aren't you? *sweatdrops*

Kitty: Gothic owns nothing except for the tATu CD she's currently playing. She doesn't own tATu either.

Trigon 5 minus Raven: Help! Our sister is evil and going to destroy the Earth!

Evil Raven: MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Die all you pathetic mortals!!!

Robin: Do shut up. It's hard enough thinking without you threatening the Earth.

Kitty: On with the ficcie, - before they kill each other!

Gothic: I've just realised. My squiggly breaks have been different 'cause the keys are in the wrong place. In case you think I'm mad, my family has recently changed keyboards. As a result, the keys I normally use in my breaks (~ +) are in different places. Duh! I am such a dumb ass!!!

Kitty: Just read people…..

~+~+~+~+~

Jump City was in a critical condition. Destruction lay everywhere, and Trigon had taken his place as King of the City. Raven ruled as his most lethal warrior, prepared to fight to the death for her father. The Titans hadn't even got close to fighting at least Raven, the onslaught of the demon ravens and other creatures enough to grind them into the ground, and leave them begging for mercy.  The Titans had crawled back to Titans Tower in terrible states, hiding away to lick their wounds.

"Com' on Robin!" There' gotta be sumthing we can do!" Cyborg complained, whilst rubbing the rust off his robot components.

"We are very badly damaged Cyborg. At this time, there is not much we can do." Star's eyes were duller than they had been before, and her facial expression was very saddening, the burns from the battles that they had fought shining in the light.

"Star is right." Beast Boy was serious, his jokey look and tone of voice gone. "Look at it out there. See what has become of the City. There's nothing we can do like this." Beast Boy motioned towards the window as he spoke, the flames and the ruins of buildings, homes and lives clear as ever, the destruction shrines to the darkness against the still red sky.

"We will throw everything we have at Trigon. But, when the time comes, we will have to face Raven. Then, we will fight." Robin was more determined than ever. Although he had been the worst injured, the one thing the enemy could never destroy was his courage. Nothing ever disheartened him, despite all the things he and his team had faced. This was going to be the battle of their lives, they being the only barrier between the obliteration of the world.

"We will help. Our father is the source of all this chaos, and we cannot help but feel a little bit responsible." Firgu's strong willed voice came from behind, his battered and beaten siblings also looking ready to fight.

"Very well. In that case, Cyborg, send out the call for every ally of the Teen Titans. We will need every bit of help we can get." Robin ordered.

"Ok….One distress call going out." Replied Cyborg.

"Oh, and be quick about it." Came Robin grave voice.

~+~+~+~+~

Far off from Titans Tower, in the centre of the city, Trigon's throne stood like a phoenix from the ashes. Beside him, on a speaking level, sat Raven, a tower having been built so that she might be able to speak with her father without having to shout.

"So father, now that we have conquered this pathetic city, shall we proceed with the next?" Raven hissed in question.

"Patience my daughter. You have great ambition, something I have always admired about you. But first, the Teen Titans need to be destroyed, then the rest of the annoying superheroes in this mortal world." Trigon growled in reply.

"Gotham City…." Raven pondered.

"As I said, you have great ambition." Trigon laughed, an evil, menacing laugh. "The Justice League will have no idea what will have hit them." Father and daughter laughed together for a minute, the demon servants around the pair curious as to what amused them.

"Enough." Trigon snapped his fingers. A raven came forward. "Go. Take the best of your men. Capture the remaining humans, and lock them in the underground cells." His eyes narrowed in a dangerous way. "Make sure there are none left. Leave the Titans, Raven will deal with them."

"It would be my pleasure to destroy them father." Raven commented after the demon bird had left. "After all, If we do not get rid of them soon, they will become nothing more than a thorn in your side"

"Exactly." Said Trigon in a menacing tone.

~+~+~+~+~

Far to the East of Jump City, several demon creatures stood guard over many areas of earth. If one took a look closer, one would see that there were several holes in each patch. On top of these holes were metal covers, bars striping across. These 'cells' had entrances no bigger than man holes, but spaced out immensely inside. Within these filthy holes, many humans, of all ages and genders were chained up. The smell was very disgusting, and very potent to one locked up for long periods of time.

"There are new arrivals sir." One guard growled to the head demon of the territories. "More female and child humans."

"Undoubtedly, the males offered their lives for their families. Pathetic morals and oaths. Why do these humans have them?" The leader angrily snarled in return.

"It is a mystery we are not meant to know. These humans are very dependent on themselves and their beliefs. Without such ways of life, humans would be very different, and much harder to crush and defeat." Erathi's voice echoed across the barren wasteland that was the prison cells.

"Erathi. It is good to see you again. I heard you tricked an earthling, before making your great escape." The leader demon called.

"Yes, I did trick an earthling. Ran off to Trugia. Trigon found me there and brought me back to Earth with him." Erathi rasped.

The two guards looked at one another with new found respect for the elderly demon. "Welcome back Erathi." The leader clapped him on the back, and led him to see Trigon's captives.

The moans and groans of the prisoners crept up from the cells like a ghosts last words creeping from the grave. The stench of unwashed bodies and human waste rose from each hole, the ground beneath them bare and lifeless. For some odd reason, the snow was melting away, transforming into water and running down to the prisoners below.

As more and more ravens and creatures winged their way towards these prisons, the whole torture of it all became more than a nightmare to the young children and teenagers locked up. For a long while, most of the young adults, teenagers and children had tried to believe that it was no more than a nightmare, a very realistic nightmare. For those astrological and mystical dreamers, they believed that they were all trapped in some kind of lucid dreaming, where you normally were aware you were dreaming, but the dream was very realistic. The only problem with this dream was that they weren't asleep. Bit by bit, the older ones first, the youth of the people began to realise that this was no dream.

It was very real, and very frightening.

~+~+~+~+~

Towards the city centre, where Trigon and Raven were, a small 9 year old boy and his 13 year old sister hid in terror. They had managed to evade the capture of every single inhabitant of the city. The horrendousness of seeing the people being dragged away against their own will had scared the boy almost to death. Now they had crept out of the sewers where they had hid, and were crouched behind a slab of concrete. Fire and wreckage lay around them, no building whole, at least the top ripped off it. The remains of these destructions littered the streets, the skies blood red with several black streaks here and there.

As the two hid there, a hustle of guards came past, dragging their latest captives. Women cried and clung to their children, the youngsters afraid, and desperate to stay with the protection of their mothers. Little did they know, that they might never see their mother alive again. The misery of the older, much wiser children was clear by just looking at the expressions on their faces.

The procession came forward, the people depressed, and fearing for their separate families. At that point, a birdarang shot from a nearby wreckage of a car, and smashed into the leading creature.

"Let them go." Came Robin's severely pissed off voice from the wreckage. At that, the shadows of the four remaining Titans, the Trigon 5, Aqualad, Thunder and Lightning, several armies of creatures from Atlantis and other watery depths and 4 newcomers from Tamaran. These newcomers were Starfire's sisters, consisting of Moonfire, Sunstar, Sweetfire and Sunafire, all having come on a call from Starfire. . All in all, there was more than 30 beings there, all determined to fight for the planet Earth. The Atlantisians were there to stop Trigon's evil spreading to the underwater depths, and then to the rest of the world, Starfire's sisters were there to stop the evil getting past the 1st Dimension, and everyone else was there purely to save the Earth.

"Never! They are prisoners of Trigon the Terrible! We are on orders to capture them!" The leading Demon hissed back, the birdarang having barely hurt him.

"Um, dude, you're capturing the inhabitants of Jump City. Hello? We're also inhabitants!" Beast Boy put in.

"Heh, heh, heh. Oh, we're not dealing with you. Trigon's daughter is going to play with you." The demon sarcastically commented.

"Um, I think he means Raven. And I'm thinking that's not a good thing." Cyborg added.

"Wow. You actually got something right. I'm impressed." The huge group looked up to see Raven levitating slightly in front of the group of people, a rather evil looking smirk on her face. "And now it's time for me to eliminate your sorry asses and let these nice demons continue their work to save their buts." The smirk got bigger, pure evil in her eyes.

"Well then," a nearby demon remarked, "Let the battles begin." Sniggering, the demon stalked off with the rest of the demons leading the people.

"Looks like I get to have some fun." Raven's eyebrow raised slightly at the prospect of the 'fun' that was awaiting her.

"Titans! GO!" Robin shouted his commands, and charged forward with the rest of the pack.

Raven didn't hesitate. She quickly opened a portal, her hands glowing with her familiar black and white aura. Demon birds charged out of the portal that was also identical to the past two Cyborg and Beast Boy had seen. Flying towards the approaching Titans, the birds cawed, scratched, bit, and did anything they could to bring the Titans down. This ambush was followed by hideous creatures with horns, hoofs, claws and other disgusting and nasty bits about their bodies. These also sprung out of the portal, drawing blood stained swords and daggers, charging and slicing at the teens.

"Robin! She's too strong!" Aqualad called. "We're going to be hacked to pieces." He shouted, whilst ducking a slash from a demon sword. He kicked the demon back, and as it staggered, reeling from being winded, Aqualad smashed what appeared to be it's nose in. Nose cartilage was driven back into bone, and the demon fell to the floor.

"We haven't even got as far as trying to hurt Raven herself! Keep going! If it gets too overpowering, I'll call back!" Robin yelled back, also ducking a blow from a demon. A raven came flying down, and he smashed it back into the air with his staff. The demon came raging back, screaming a battle cry. It was aiming to impale Robin on it's disgustingly dirty weapon. Robin dropped to the floor, and swung his body around to kick the demon's calves. He rolled out of the way as the creature came crashing face down, and stood up again, brushing himself off.

"Now to deal with you!" Robin cried above the tide of the battle. He rushed towards Raven, smashing everything that got in his way. He had to stop and properly take down some of the enemy quite a few times, but, eventually, he reached the fiendishly laughing Raven.

"You are going down!" With a cry, he lunged himself upwards, and towards Raven.

"Fool! You think you can take me down!" Raven retorted. She kicked him backwards as he flew towards her, swooping down to where he crash landed to finish the job. Her attitude changed as she went from amused to pissed off. "This is what you get for messing with a full fledged demon." She hissed whilst hauling him back up by his shirt.

"I don't think so." Robin grimly replied. Then he planted both hands on her stomach and shoved her backwards and off him. Too angry to speak, she got up, and rammed him backwards with her powers, going up and over the battle she had just thrown him through to hurt him more. She was shocked when he lunged from the crowd, and pushed her to the floor. They landed with Robin on top of Raven, Raven pinned to the floor. Seriously pissed off now, Robin swung himself around and straddled Raven. Furious, he punched her full on in the face, several times, giving her a nose bleed and numerous cuts, not to mention various bruises. Stopping for a minute, Robin breathing in deeply, Raven rubbing where he had punched her. Then, angry, Raven's hands glowed with her power, and she flung Robin off her.

"I  can't be beat that easy." Raven snarled, stalking towards Robin. She kicked a nearby demon out of the way, then proceeded with her torture.

"Robin!" Star cried. Starfire had been close enough to see what was about to happen. She soared upwards, and flew around to the back of Raven, who had been to preoccupied with what she was doing  to notice Starfire. Star's hands glowed bright green, and in her anger, she hurled a starbolt at Raven back. Raven hissed in pain as the starbolt hit her, and swivelled around to face the alien girl.

"You will pay for that." She growled.

"Incoming!" Yelled Cyborg, as he blasted Raven up towards Starfire with his Sonic Cannon. Star retaliated by throwing several starbolts, badly burning Raven. She would of hurtled downwards to Earth had Beast Boy, in bird form not grabbed her. BB rose upwards, flying high with Raven, who was too dazed to protest. When the two were above the portal, that was still open, Beast Boy dropped Raven, – who landed right beside the portal.

"Yo! BB! Get your ass over here!" Cyborg shouted, whilst blasting several ravens from the sky, then elbowing an oncoming demon. "We could use a little help!" He cried again, whilst smashing the demon's face in.

"Coming!" Beast Boy, who had transformed back into human form. He hadn't accounted for the recovering Raven behind him, who held him with her powers.

"Hey! Let me go! HELP!" Beast Boy transformed into every animal there was possible, struggling to get free.

"Ummm, seems to me that you could use a trip back to Azarath….or elsewhere." Raven pondered, her eyes glowing, and holding Beast Boy fast.

"Maybe you could use that trip sometime." Moonfire, her powers being crescent moon shaped moonstars, slammed into Raven's back, forcing her to focus on the alien and not Beast Boy. Pinning the angry demon to the floor, Moonfire held her front down, allowing Beast Boy to get away with Raven's concentration broken.

"Get….off….me…." Raven thrashed about underneath Moonfire, struggling and squirming to get free. Moonfire was surprisingly strong.

"Not going to happen anytime soon babe." Moonfire commented, pushing down even harder.

The battle raged on for over 4 hours, good and evil fighting it out, new and more dangerous demons and creatures piling from the portal everyone so often. The more the Titans began to get an edge, the more the enemy would fight, driving them back down. Slowly but surely, the Teen Titans were losing, the opponent winning the fight for Earth.

"Come on Titans! We can't lose now! Charge!" Robin, worn down and tired, would fight to the bitter end if he had to, ordering his troops forward and back into the conflict.

"Brother! Help! We are cornered!" Lightning shouted for his brother, him, Sunstar and Sweetfire backed into a rigid circle, the demons holding bloody swords in front of their faces.

"Nobody hurts my brother! Get away from them!" Thunder and Cyborg slammed their way through, striking out their opponents and clouting demon ravens on the heads as they cawed their way down to the two. Thumping a demon out of the way, Thunder struck another of the soulless beasts with a thunder shot, followed with a lightning shot, before the two brothers stepped back and let the two alien sisters take their turn.

Holding her hands in front of her as if she was praying, Sunstar chanted underneath her breath, and slowly drew her hands away from one another. As her hands parted, a blinding light shone in between, growing as the gap increased. Eventually, when her hands were about two feet apart, Sunstar somehow lifted the ball of amber light above her head, and flung it at several demons. Her targets vanished in puffs of smoke. Drawing daggers to fight on a closer range, Sunstar stepped back, and Sweetfire took her turn. Lifting her right hand above her head, Sweetfire brought the hand back down, and across to the left in a swift movement. Fire ignited where her hand had swept across, and blazed up, catching alight the oncoming demons. They burned and cried, damned to hell forever. Sweetfire drew a ritual sword, flying back in to stab the fiends to death.

Raven meanwhile, had managed to blast Moonfire off her, and turn to face her opponent. She hissed strange words, opening another, much smaller portal. Raven reached her hand into this portal, and drew out a sword. This sword had a black hilt, with various crystals and a deep silver blade. Smirking, Raven swung for Moonfire, catching the alien's left cheek.

"So, you wanna play? We can have lots of fun playing 'Slay the alien'. You'd like that, wouldn't you?" The sarcastic tone of Raven's voice cut deep, causing the alien girl to quickly take to the air, and away from Raven.

"Hmm, guess not then…" Raven added, whirling around to point the end of her sword at Robin, who had managed to creep up on her. "Make another move and I will skewer your dead body on this blade."

"Can I back off then?" Robin nervously asked.

"No." Came Raven's dangerous tone.

Robin gulped nervously as the battle continued all around him. But the only things he saw was the crimson red skin of Raven in front of him, and the evil, determined expression on her face. As he concentrated on these sights, he could only hear the still beating of Raven's heart, and his heart, oblivious to the world of fighting and war around them.

It was at that point that he realised the only thing that would bring their old friend back to them.

Trigon had to die.

~+~+~+~+~

Gothic: Bios on Starfire's sisters will go up at some point….when I get round to it. I also thought of a poem the other night, if you're a major Raven fan (like me...) then you might like it, as it's based on Raven's feelings at night. Now I'm going to read some nice stories of yours, and enjoy my handy, nearby cup of tea.

Kitty: It's so damned cold here in England! Do not, I repeat DO NOT come to England for the winter! It's bitterly cold outside today.

Gothic: Go with Kitty. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and have a joyful new year. I'll continue updating, but for now, please review for me. =^_^=