Shattered Star
By Goddess Grief
A/N: The third part of my Starfire/Raven stories! Yes, the third. Even though it's the second I've posted, and the immediate sequel to "Shooting Star," I plan to have a story explaining why Raven left, in her POV. I'm still working on it (it got locked in a room that I won't be able to get to for another few days, at least) and hope to post it in the next week or so. If I don't, you have my utmost permission to strangle me! Just kidding, I enjoy my life too much. Anyway, on to "Shattered Star," and I must warn you, this is sad... so if you aren't in the mood for a tearjerker, bookmark this page and come back later.
Blessed Be,
Goddess Grief
"Shattered Star"
"Titans!"
Starfire heard Robin's voice from the living area, and rolled over in her big, circular bed with a groan. Her red hair lay about her form in a mass of tangles that was anything but picturesque, and she honestly didn't want to get up. Besides, the four remaining Titans hadn't really been needed for the past few months, so whatever it was that Robin wanted, she decided that it could wait.
She was wrong. As soon as the Tamaranian had dozed off again, Robin's voice floated to her ears once more. There was a note of fear laced within his words as he spoke.
"Titans, assemble! We have...a situation! And yes, that means you too, Beast Boy." He added as an afterthought. At the word "situation," Star was up and ready. She pulled on her normal garments, a short purple skirt and a purple and silver shirt with knee-high purple boots, and immediately shoved the door aside. As she had suspected, she was in the main area before both Cyborg and Beast Boy. Robin was sitting at their mainframe computer system, hunched over the keyboard and shaking slightly.
"The little bitch." he murmured, unaware that Starfire was standing right behind him. "How dare she do this?"
Starfire coughed, making her presence be known to the Boy Wonder, and peered at the screen intensely to see what was getting Robin so riled up. She gasped when she saw it.
A huge, red demon about the size of the Empire State Building (if not larger) was picking up anything in its reach and ingesting them, screaming and roaring each time he swallowed one.
"Robin, what is it?" she asked, confused. She knew that it was an enemy, but who was this "she" whom Robin referred to as the "little bitch?"
The Boy Wonder pointed to the screen again, and this time Starfire saw it.
The monster was not picking up the helpless victims, but a psychic force was. A black psychic aura, to be exact.
"Who do you know that can do this?" he asked smugly, pointing again to reveal a cloaked figure perched upon the demon's shoulder. The eyes of the figure were glowing red, and it was swallowing some of the victims within its cloak and spitting them out just as quickly.
Starfire's emerald eyes grew huge as she realized just who the smaller evil being was.
Raven.
Her heart nearly leapt into her throat as she watched a young girl get sucked into the vortex of Raven's cloak, kicking and screaming all the while. Once, when she was in one of her more depressing moods, Raven had described what happened to her victims if she unleashed her full powers. The flesh was torn from the bones while the victim was still alive, the eyeballs popped as if under constant pressure, and their brain shriveled into a meaningless nothing along with other things which Starfire did not care to remember. She shuddered as the skeleton of the girl cracked upon the pavement, and tears welled up within her eyes. Why would Raven, her dear, beloved Raven, do this?
"Raven..." she whispered, letting the tears flow freely now. "But..."
"What about Raven?" asked an unusually alert Beast Boy. Starfire didn't know what to say, but began to cry instead. Robin patted her delicate shoulder consolingly as she trembled with each nerve-wracking sob. Beast Boy's eyes grew wide as he realized that whatever information they had unearthed about Raven, the chances were that it wasn't good. He turned from the computer screen.
"Forget it. I don't wanna see."
"Yeah, me either." Cyborg, who had been standing next to Beast Boy, voiced as he looked down.
The fury within Robin's eyes was now blatant. "Oh, come ON you guys! We need to see what we're going to be up against! Raven and this...this THING are destroying everything in sight!" he nearly screamed in their faces.
"I'm not going up against anything, Wonder Boy." Growled Beast Boy as he attempted to walk off. Robin, however, had other plans. He leapt in front of the animorph's path and grabbed his shoulders angrily. Shaking the green teen's lightweight form, he replied.
"Snap out of it! BB, We all know how you feel about Raven, but this is no time to let your emotions stand in your way of our mission! No matter who we're up against, supposed friend or foe, you can't back out! First they'll destroy the city, then, on to Titan Tower! Do you honestly think that they'll skip us or something?!" asked Robin, glaring at Beast Boy. "I don't think that ANY of us want to hurt Raven, but if we have to, then-"
"We must." Starfire interrupted bravely, wiping a tear away. "It is the very least we can do, for she is surely unhappy with the crimes she is committing. There is no doubt inside of my mind that the real Raven is in there somewhere, hating her very being. Let us go, friends, and free our friend from herself!"
Robin nodded. "You've got it, Starfire. Now, do the two of us have to do this alone, or are you guys with us?"
"You know my answer." Cyborg said, nodding to both Star and Robin to signify that he would do it. "But can I have a look at that computer screen first? There's something familiar about that red dude."
"Be my guest." Robin said, suddenly transferring his attention to the green changeling in front of him. "BB?"
Beast Boy nodded reluctantly, averting his eyes so as not to reveal the fury within them, which Starfire so keenly spotted. It was then that Cyborg spoke again, preventing the Tamaranian from saying anything.
"Yo, BB! Check out the red dude!" the half-android exclaimed, jabbing a robotic finger in the direction of the computer screen and motioning for Beast Boy to look. Beast Boy did, and instantly remembered...
Audio Flashback
"Let's just say that I have issues with my father."
End of Audio Flashback
Beast Boy's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he recalled the huge, red demon that had lurked within Raven's mind. "No way..." he whispered. Starfire squeezed herself in between the changeling and half- android with a curious look upon her face. "What is in the way of no?" she asked them, tilting her head to one side, her face drooping slightly as she once again focused on the Evil Raven.
"The red guy is from Raven's mirror!" Cyborg nearly shouted, exchanging glances with Beast Boy. "Rage! I thought we killed him!"
Beast Boy motioned to Robin, eyes still on the verge of popping out of his skull. "Turn the volume up or something, Wonder Boy. He's saying something! And I'll bet you all of my video games that it's "Rage will consume you.""
Robin obliged to his friend's request, and after he had finished turning the knob, only one sentence wracked the household.
"TRIGON WILL CONSUME YOU!!!"
Everybody looked at Beast Boy, who sweat dropped nervously. "Hehe...let's not take that bet too seriously, okay?"
The city was nearly in ruins. Skeletons of the many people who had been unfortunate enough to cross the paths of the two evildoers littered the streets, sidewalks, and what was left of the buildings which once stood tall. Large footprints, roughly a hundred times the size of the largest human footprint known to mankind, were left upon the pavement, which made the gargantuan monster an easy target for the Titans to track.
The four had snuck up on both he and Raven from behind, Star posing for an aerial attack, Robin from the top of one of the few uncrushed buildings, Beast Boy as a cobra, ready to strike, and Cyborg with a huge chunk of building, readying himself to fling it. As the red demon neared the area of attack, Robin gave the signal with his normal "Titans, GO!"
Big mistake. As soon as the words left Wonder Boy's mouth, the demon, Trigon, turned to see the four attacks. Without further ado, they attacked.
Cyborg threw the frame of some unfortunate building at Trigon with all of his strength, praying that it hit its target. He got his answer soon enough as the dust around Trigon cleared.
The half-android sucked in a deep breath as he saw that the red demon was still standing, as strong and as tall as ever. Instantly, he clenched his mechanical fists in frustration. "Gonna take you down the old fashioned way, after all, huh?" he asked, bright red eye turning blood red. "That's fine with me."
As Cyborg lunged, Robin pole-vaulted onto the demon's shoulder, landing next to a very sinister-looking Raven.
"So the Boy Wonder has come to save the damsel in distress?" mocked the sorceress, her eyes glowing as blood red as Cyborg's one eye. She laughed cruelly and lashed out, enveloping him within her dark powers. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."
"Unh...no....I'm here...to...destroy the...damsel!" Robin grunted as his steel pole emerged from the darkness and tried to smack Raven in the head. She dodged it.
Meanwhile, Cyborg was being lifted up by Trigon, using his laser blast to try and escape. To no avail, the demon just squeezed tighter than ever. He felt his mechanical parts go first, then his lung as he blacked out, the screen on front of his eyes reading "Excessive Damage" as he lost consciousness.
Trigon tossed the immobile Cyborg aside like a rag doll, and an enraged Beast Boy attacked as a T-Rex, pearly white jaws chomping on anything that got in his way until he reached his destination. Trigon.
As Beast Boy was striking, the sudden movement of Trigon's shoulders whipped Raven off balance, and she released her hold on Robin angrily. The Boy Wonder saw a chance to strike, but something held him back. Raven's eyes. They looked different. They almost looked...normal.
Indeed, although the iris was still very crimson, her eye looked as it had before she had left the Titans. He nearly fell off of Trigon's shoulder in shock, but then he was struck by a blast of Raven's dark energy, knocking him off of the shoulder, instead.
As Beast Boy dove for Trigon's jugular, Starfire watched Robin fall, and saw Raven as she poised triumphantly and laughed. She was both speechless and frozen in midair, helpless and unable to move. She watched Beast Boy's attack as though it was in slow motion. His mouth was wide open, his eyes narrowed and angry, and yet he saw nothing as Raven lashed out with all of her strength, slamming Beast Boy into a pile of rubble and knocking him out
Star stared at the two creatures stupidly, her mind not comprehending what she saw. To her immediate left lay Cyborg, his red eye now dull and sightless. To her immediate right lay a battered and bruised Robin, and to her far right, Beast Boy was now breathing sharply and bleeding from a wound to the neck. Although Starfire knew next to nothing about anatomy, she concluded that the wound on the green boy's throat would be fatal if not treated in the next hour or so.
And directly in front of her stood the cause of all of this pain. The being who had taken Raven over to his side, who had turned a compassionate healer into a dangerous foe, who had succeeded in killing many of the people whom Raven had loved at one point in her lifetime. The pieces of the puzzle were slowly being unraveled and placed into their proper slots. Trigon...she had heard Raven say this name before, but where?
Then it hit her like a ton of bricks.
Audio Flashback
"I was born in a place called Azarath, my father was Trigon the terrible, and my mother was the unfortunate woman whom he raped."
End of Audio Flashback
Trigon was Raven's father? This gargantuan red thing was the father of the woman whom Starfire held so dear, whom she had comforted on many a night? THIS was Trigon the terrible?
Star laughed. "You don't look so terrible to me, Trigon." She said, eyes glowing bright green along with her fingertips. "Bastard." She cursed under her breath as she swooped in, shooting starbeams in every direction she could.
Once again, time seemed to slow down as she sped her flight up, only to run smack dab into Trigon's outstretched palm. He closed his fingers, and Starfire took in one last glance of Raven before closing her eyes, when suddenly...
"STOP!" a familiar voice shouted. Trigon had been surprised, guessed Starfire, because at that moment he dropped her to the ground.
When she landed, the red haired Tamaranian looked up to see...
"Raven?" she asked, at that moment questioning her own sanity as the caped sorceress leapt from her father's shoulder to the aide of Starfire. Looking up at her father with evident disgust and hatred, she spoke.
"You promised me that you wouldn't hurt them. ANY of them!" yelled Raven, eyes ablaze with an ardent fire that anybody within the known universe could probably spot. "I joined you so that you wouldn't harm them!!! AZARATH, METRION, ZINTHOS!" she screamed, lashing out with her powers, this time hitting Trigon with them. The blast seemed to have some sort of effect, because Trigon screamed in fury. Raven then directed her attention to Starfire, who lay on the ground, looking at her as though she had grown another head.
"Are you okay?" asked the enchantress, clasping Starfire's hand within her own and kissing her lightly on the lips. Star nodded, still somewhat confused, and looked around her.
"Yes, I am fine, but the others are not. What did you do to your father?" asked the Tamaranian quizzically.
"Oh, that should keep him busy for another ten minutes or so...wait. The others aren't okay? Where are they?" Raven asked, eyes wide with fear and concern for her friends. "What did he do to them?!"
"You mean you do not remember?" asked Starfire, gesturing to Robin, who lay still. "You threw him off of your father's shoulder using your power... Beast Boy is injured, and Cyborg has been disabled."
Raven's jaw dropped. "I did WHAT? I tried to kill Robin?!"
Glumly, Starfire nodded. "Yes. But your father tried to kill Cyborg and Beast Boy. Come, dearest, and I shall show you to them."
Raven, still wide-eyed, looked around at what was once such a peaceful city. "I helped him do this?" she asked quietly as Starfire led her to Cyborg's semi-crushed self. With tears in her eyes, Starfire nodded. "Just heal them and then we can defeat your father, together."
The sorceress obliged, healing Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Robin, who were all overjoyed to see her in her normal state of mind.
When she was finished, Raven took Starfire's hand in hers and squeezed it. "You four stay back. You should know how dangerous my father truly is. Only I can defeat him. You just stay out of the way."
The four Titans shook their heads simultaneously.
"No way, Rave!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "It's like last time, in the mirror! We can't let you fight this dude al- wait. He's your DAD?!"
Raven nodded, glaring at the red demon's still form. "Yes, but there's no time to explain now. The spell I placed is wearing off, and you have all got to get away. He destroys anything or anyone I care for, and if he sees me with you guys, he'll kill you all! He's already seen me protect Starfire, so chances are he'll go for her first! Go!" she yelled at them, her normally monotonous tones close to pleading.
Starfire placed an arm around Raven's slender waist, her green eyes boring into the shorter woman's soul as she spoke.
"We won't let you do this alone." She said, looking up at the demon with an expression that clearly meant "You'll die, asshole."
"Star's right, Raven." Cyborg said with a grin. "Besides, you needed mine and BB's help that one time!"
"But-"
"We won't take no for an answer." Robin declared, surprising them all. "We're fighting with you 'till the end."
"NO!" Raven shouted, glaring as Trigon began to move again. "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!" she screamed, charging the red demon and unleashing her fury like that Titans had never seen before. The normally black wave of energy was now bright, screaming red, and it became even larger as she screamed her three favorite words over and over again like a mantra. Trigon fell, then, to the Titan's horror, rose back up while encompassed with Raven's hatred and anger. His eye, a red, demonic, bloodshot eye, then fell upon Starfire, and he grinned.
"TRIGON WILL CONSUME YOU!" he shouted, throwing a black sphere of energy in the direction of the Titans, all of whom moved...except for Starfire. She got the same strange sensation she had gotten as Beast Boy had attacked Trigon, like everything was moving in slow motion. All of her joints (no not marijuana joints, stoners) seemed to freeze up as the sphere hurtled toward her.
"This is it..." she thought to herself. "This is the end...." She closed her eyes and waited for impact, when all of a sudden, she felt something warm encompassing her complete form. Opening one eye meekly, she discovered that Raven was shielding her with her powers.
"NO...YOU...DON'T!!!" yelled Raven as she threw the energy right back at her father.
For a moment, it seemed as though nothing had happened at all to Trigon, when all of a sudden, bright red dust began to fall off of him and blow away in the moonlit breeze until there was nothing left of him but a pair of blood red eyes.
Starfire saw it first as Raven began to topple over as though she were a domino. Flying to her love's side, she saw the weary look within Raven's dark purple eyes.
"Raven...Thank you." She whispered, placing a kiss upon Raven's forehead, which now felt cold and clammy. "We'll just take you to the Tower and put you to bed, then you will be all right." She said.
Raven shook her head ever so slightly, her lips moving in a feeble attempt to form words. She spoke, and Starfire had to lean in closely to hear.
"I used all of ...my...energy..." stated the sorceress as though it were as plain as day. "I'm afraid..." she paused to cough "That I won't....be....coming...home."
Starfire's green eyes welled up with a fresh fountain of tears as she shook her own head. "No, you will be all right." She murmured, a flood of tears dripping down her cheeks in torrents as she realized that Raven was right. "You will live."
Raven shook her head once more, her eyelids fluttering as she spoke. "I...love...you...my shooting...Star."
With that, the former enchantress gave one last sigh before releasing her soul to the spirit world, and the Tamaranian princess held her love's body close.
"Raven..." she whispered, unaware of the three other Titans who had gathered around her. "I love you, too. I will never forget you, dearest."
She looked to the sky, and began to smile as an ebony raven flew overhead, silhouetted within a shroud made of the sun.
A/N: Okay, that's it, folks! Shattered Star is finished! Hope you liked it, because it took me five hours to write!
Blessed Be,
Goddess Grief
By Goddess Grief
A/N: The third part of my Starfire/Raven stories! Yes, the third. Even though it's the second I've posted, and the immediate sequel to "Shooting Star," I plan to have a story explaining why Raven left, in her POV. I'm still working on it (it got locked in a room that I won't be able to get to for another few days, at least) and hope to post it in the next week or so. If I don't, you have my utmost permission to strangle me! Just kidding, I enjoy my life too much. Anyway, on to "Shattered Star," and I must warn you, this is sad... so if you aren't in the mood for a tearjerker, bookmark this page and come back later.
Blessed Be,
Goddess Grief
"Shattered Star"
"Titans!"
Starfire heard Robin's voice from the living area, and rolled over in her big, circular bed with a groan. Her red hair lay about her form in a mass of tangles that was anything but picturesque, and she honestly didn't want to get up. Besides, the four remaining Titans hadn't really been needed for the past few months, so whatever it was that Robin wanted, she decided that it could wait.
She was wrong. As soon as the Tamaranian had dozed off again, Robin's voice floated to her ears once more. There was a note of fear laced within his words as he spoke.
"Titans, assemble! We have...a situation! And yes, that means you too, Beast Boy." He added as an afterthought. At the word "situation," Star was up and ready. She pulled on her normal garments, a short purple skirt and a purple and silver shirt with knee-high purple boots, and immediately shoved the door aside. As she had suspected, she was in the main area before both Cyborg and Beast Boy. Robin was sitting at their mainframe computer system, hunched over the keyboard and shaking slightly.
"The little bitch." he murmured, unaware that Starfire was standing right behind him. "How dare she do this?"
Starfire coughed, making her presence be known to the Boy Wonder, and peered at the screen intensely to see what was getting Robin so riled up. She gasped when she saw it.
A huge, red demon about the size of the Empire State Building (if not larger) was picking up anything in its reach and ingesting them, screaming and roaring each time he swallowed one.
"Robin, what is it?" she asked, confused. She knew that it was an enemy, but who was this "she" whom Robin referred to as the "little bitch?"
The Boy Wonder pointed to the screen again, and this time Starfire saw it.
The monster was not picking up the helpless victims, but a psychic force was. A black psychic aura, to be exact.
"Who do you know that can do this?" he asked smugly, pointing again to reveal a cloaked figure perched upon the demon's shoulder. The eyes of the figure were glowing red, and it was swallowing some of the victims within its cloak and spitting them out just as quickly.
Starfire's emerald eyes grew huge as she realized just who the smaller evil being was.
Raven.
Her heart nearly leapt into her throat as she watched a young girl get sucked into the vortex of Raven's cloak, kicking and screaming all the while. Once, when she was in one of her more depressing moods, Raven had described what happened to her victims if she unleashed her full powers. The flesh was torn from the bones while the victim was still alive, the eyeballs popped as if under constant pressure, and their brain shriveled into a meaningless nothing along with other things which Starfire did not care to remember. She shuddered as the skeleton of the girl cracked upon the pavement, and tears welled up within her eyes. Why would Raven, her dear, beloved Raven, do this?
"Raven..." she whispered, letting the tears flow freely now. "But..."
"What about Raven?" asked an unusually alert Beast Boy. Starfire didn't know what to say, but began to cry instead. Robin patted her delicate shoulder consolingly as she trembled with each nerve-wracking sob. Beast Boy's eyes grew wide as he realized that whatever information they had unearthed about Raven, the chances were that it wasn't good. He turned from the computer screen.
"Forget it. I don't wanna see."
"Yeah, me either." Cyborg, who had been standing next to Beast Boy, voiced as he looked down.
The fury within Robin's eyes was now blatant. "Oh, come ON you guys! We need to see what we're going to be up against! Raven and this...this THING are destroying everything in sight!" he nearly screamed in their faces.
"I'm not going up against anything, Wonder Boy." Growled Beast Boy as he attempted to walk off. Robin, however, had other plans. He leapt in front of the animorph's path and grabbed his shoulders angrily. Shaking the green teen's lightweight form, he replied.
"Snap out of it! BB, We all know how you feel about Raven, but this is no time to let your emotions stand in your way of our mission! No matter who we're up against, supposed friend or foe, you can't back out! First they'll destroy the city, then, on to Titan Tower! Do you honestly think that they'll skip us or something?!" asked Robin, glaring at Beast Boy. "I don't think that ANY of us want to hurt Raven, but if we have to, then-"
"We must." Starfire interrupted bravely, wiping a tear away. "It is the very least we can do, for she is surely unhappy with the crimes she is committing. There is no doubt inside of my mind that the real Raven is in there somewhere, hating her very being. Let us go, friends, and free our friend from herself!"
Robin nodded. "You've got it, Starfire. Now, do the two of us have to do this alone, or are you guys with us?"
"You know my answer." Cyborg said, nodding to both Star and Robin to signify that he would do it. "But can I have a look at that computer screen first? There's something familiar about that red dude."
"Be my guest." Robin said, suddenly transferring his attention to the green changeling in front of him. "BB?"
Beast Boy nodded reluctantly, averting his eyes so as not to reveal the fury within them, which Starfire so keenly spotted. It was then that Cyborg spoke again, preventing the Tamaranian from saying anything.
"Yo, BB! Check out the red dude!" the half-android exclaimed, jabbing a robotic finger in the direction of the computer screen and motioning for Beast Boy to look. Beast Boy did, and instantly remembered...
Audio Flashback
"Let's just say that I have issues with my father."
End of Audio Flashback
Beast Boy's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he recalled the huge, red demon that had lurked within Raven's mind. "No way..." he whispered. Starfire squeezed herself in between the changeling and half- android with a curious look upon her face. "What is in the way of no?" she asked them, tilting her head to one side, her face drooping slightly as she once again focused on the Evil Raven.
"The red guy is from Raven's mirror!" Cyborg nearly shouted, exchanging glances with Beast Boy. "Rage! I thought we killed him!"
Beast Boy motioned to Robin, eyes still on the verge of popping out of his skull. "Turn the volume up or something, Wonder Boy. He's saying something! And I'll bet you all of my video games that it's "Rage will consume you.""
Robin obliged to his friend's request, and after he had finished turning the knob, only one sentence wracked the household.
"TRIGON WILL CONSUME YOU!!!"
Everybody looked at Beast Boy, who sweat dropped nervously. "Hehe...let's not take that bet too seriously, okay?"
The city was nearly in ruins. Skeletons of the many people who had been unfortunate enough to cross the paths of the two evildoers littered the streets, sidewalks, and what was left of the buildings which once stood tall. Large footprints, roughly a hundred times the size of the largest human footprint known to mankind, were left upon the pavement, which made the gargantuan monster an easy target for the Titans to track.
The four had snuck up on both he and Raven from behind, Star posing for an aerial attack, Robin from the top of one of the few uncrushed buildings, Beast Boy as a cobra, ready to strike, and Cyborg with a huge chunk of building, readying himself to fling it. As the red demon neared the area of attack, Robin gave the signal with his normal "Titans, GO!"
Big mistake. As soon as the words left Wonder Boy's mouth, the demon, Trigon, turned to see the four attacks. Without further ado, they attacked.
Cyborg threw the frame of some unfortunate building at Trigon with all of his strength, praying that it hit its target. He got his answer soon enough as the dust around Trigon cleared.
The half-android sucked in a deep breath as he saw that the red demon was still standing, as strong and as tall as ever. Instantly, he clenched his mechanical fists in frustration. "Gonna take you down the old fashioned way, after all, huh?" he asked, bright red eye turning blood red. "That's fine with me."
As Cyborg lunged, Robin pole-vaulted onto the demon's shoulder, landing next to a very sinister-looking Raven.
"So the Boy Wonder has come to save the damsel in distress?" mocked the sorceress, her eyes glowing as blood red as Cyborg's one eye. She laughed cruelly and lashed out, enveloping him within her dark powers. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."
"Unh...no....I'm here...to...destroy the...damsel!" Robin grunted as his steel pole emerged from the darkness and tried to smack Raven in the head. She dodged it.
Meanwhile, Cyborg was being lifted up by Trigon, using his laser blast to try and escape. To no avail, the demon just squeezed tighter than ever. He felt his mechanical parts go first, then his lung as he blacked out, the screen on front of his eyes reading "Excessive Damage" as he lost consciousness.
Trigon tossed the immobile Cyborg aside like a rag doll, and an enraged Beast Boy attacked as a T-Rex, pearly white jaws chomping on anything that got in his way until he reached his destination. Trigon.
As Beast Boy was striking, the sudden movement of Trigon's shoulders whipped Raven off balance, and she released her hold on Robin angrily. The Boy Wonder saw a chance to strike, but something held him back. Raven's eyes. They looked different. They almost looked...normal.
Indeed, although the iris was still very crimson, her eye looked as it had before she had left the Titans. He nearly fell off of Trigon's shoulder in shock, but then he was struck by a blast of Raven's dark energy, knocking him off of the shoulder, instead.
As Beast Boy dove for Trigon's jugular, Starfire watched Robin fall, and saw Raven as she poised triumphantly and laughed. She was both speechless and frozen in midair, helpless and unable to move. She watched Beast Boy's attack as though it was in slow motion. His mouth was wide open, his eyes narrowed and angry, and yet he saw nothing as Raven lashed out with all of her strength, slamming Beast Boy into a pile of rubble and knocking him out
Star stared at the two creatures stupidly, her mind not comprehending what she saw. To her immediate left lay Cyborg, his red eye now dull and sightless. To her immediate right lay a battered and bruised Robin, and to her far right, Beast Boy was now breathing sharply and bleeding from a wound to the neck. Although Starfire knew next to nothing about anatomy, she concluded that the wound on the green boy's throat would be fatal if not treated in the next hour or so.
And directly in front of her stood the cause of all of this pain. The being who had taken Raven over to his side, who had turned a compassionate healer into a dangerous foe, who had succeeded in killing many of the people whom Raven had loved at one point in her lifetime. The pieces of the puzzle were slowly being unraveled and placed into their proper slots. Trigon...she had heard Raven say this name before, but where?
Then it hit her like a ton of bricks.
Audio Flashback
"I was born in a place called Azarath, my father was Trigon the terrible, and my mother was the unfortunate woman whom he raped."
End of Audio Flashback
Trigon was Raven's father? This gargantuan red thing was the father of the woman whom Starfire held so dear, whom she had comforted on many a night? THIS was Trigon the terrible?
Star laughed. "You don't look so terrible to me, Trigon." She said, eyes glowing bright green along with her fingertips. "Bastard." She cursed under her breath as she swooped in, shooting starbeams in every direction she could.
Once again, time seemed to slow down as she sped her flight up, only to run smack dab into Trigon's outstretched palm. He closed his fingers, and Starfire took in one last glance of Raven before closing her eyes, when suddenly...
"STOP!" a familiar voice shouted. Trigon had been surprised, guessed Starfire, because at that moment he dropped her to the ground.
When she landed, the red haired Tamaranian looked up to see...
"Raven?" she asked, at that moment questioning her own sanity as the caped sorceress leapt from her father's shoulder to the aide of Starfire. Looking up at her father with evident disgust and hatred, she spoke.
"You promised me that you wouldn't hurt them. ANY of them!" yelled Raven, eyes ablaze with an ardent fire that anybody within the known universe could probably spot. "I joined you so that you wouldn't harm them!!! AZARATH, METRION, ZINTHOS!" she screamed, lashing out with her powers, this time hitting Trigon with them. The blast seemed to have some sort of effect, because Trigon screamed in fury. Raven then directed her attention to Starfire, who lay on the ground, looking at her as though she had grown another head.
"Are you okay?" asked the enchantress, clasping Starfire's hand within her own and kissing her lightly on the lips. Star nodded, still somewhat confused, and looked around her.
"Yes, I am fine, but the others are not. What did you do to your father?" asked the Tamaranian quizzically.
"Oh, that should keep him busy for another ten minutes or so...wait. The others aren't okay? Where are they?" Raven asked, eyes wide with fear and concern for her friends. "What did he do to them?!"
"You mean you do not remember?" asked Starfire, gesturing to Robin, who lay still. "You threw him off of your father's shoulder using your power... Beast Boy is injured, and Cyborg has been disabled."
Raven's jaw dropped. "I did WHAT? I tried to kill Robin?!"
Glumly, Starfire nodded. "Yes. But your father tried to kill Cyborg and Beast Boy. Come, dearest, and I shall show you to them."
Raven, still wide-eyed, looked around at what was once such a peaceful city. "I helped him do this?" she asked quietly as Starfire led her to Cyborg's semi-crushed self. With tears in her eyes, Starfire nodded. "Just heal them and then we can defeat your father, together."
The sorceress obliged, healing Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Robin, who were all overjoyed to see her in her normal state of mind.
When she was finished, Raven took Starfire's hand in hers and squeezed it. "You four stay back. You should know how dangerous my father truly is. Only I can defeat him. You just stay out of the way."
The four Titans shook their heads simultaneously.
"No way, Rave!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "It's like last time, in the mirror! We can't let you fight this dude al- wait. He's your DAD?!"
Raven nodded, glaring at the red demon's still form. "Yes, but there's no time to explain now. The spell I placed is wearing off, and you have all got to get away. He destroys anything or anyone I care for, and if he sees me with you guys, he'll kill you all! He's already seen me protect Starfire, so chances are he'll go for her first! Go!" she yelled at them, her normally monotonous tones close to pleading.
Starfire placed an arm around Raven's slender waist, her green eyes boring into the shorter woman's soul as she spoke.
"We won't let you do this alone." She said, looking up at the demon with an expression that clearly meant "You'll die, asshole."
"Star's right, Raven." Cyborg said with a grin. "Besides, you needed mine and BB's help that one time!"
"But-"
"We won't take no for an answer." Robin declared, surprising them all. "We're fighting with you 'till the end."
"NO!" Raven shouted, glaring as Trigon began to move again. "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!" she screamed, charging the red demon and unleashing her fury like that Titans had never seen before. The normally black wave of energy was now bright, screaming red, and it became even larger as she screamed her three favorite words over and over again like a mantra. Trigon fell, then, to the Titan's horror, rose back up while encompassed with Raven's hatred and anger. His eye, a red, demonic, bloodshot eye, then fell upon Starfire, and he grinned.
"TRIGON WILL CONSUME YOU!" he shouted, throwing a black sphere of energy in the direction of the Titans, all of whom moved...except for Starfire. She got the same strange sensation she had gotten as Beast Boy had attacked Trigon, like everything was moving in slow motion. All of her joints (no not marijuana joints, stoners) seemed to freeze up as the sphere hurtled toward her.
"This is it..." she thought to herself. "This is the end...." She closed her eyes and waited for impact, when all of a sudden, she felt something warm encompassing her complete form. Opening one eye meekly, she discovered that Raven was shielding her with her powers.
"NO...YOU...DON'T!!!" yelled Raven as she threw the energy right back at her father.
For a moment, it seemed as though nothing had happened at all to Trigon, when all of a sudden, bright red dust began to fall off of him and blow away in the moonlit breeze until there was nothing left of him but a pair of blood red eyes.
Starfire saw it first as Raven began to topple over as though she were a domino. Flying to her love's side, she saw the weary look within Raven's dark purple eyes.
"Raven...Thank you." She whispered, placing a kiss upon Raven's forehead, which now felt cold and clammy. "We'll just take you to the Tower and put you to bed, then you will be all right." She said.
Raven shook her head ever so slightly, her lips moving in a feeble attempt to form words. She spoke, and Starfire had to lean in closely to hear.
"I used all of ...my...energy..." stated the sorceress as though it were as plain as day. "I'm afraid..." she paused to cough "That I won't....be....coming...home."
Starfire's green eyes welled up with a fresh fountain of tears as she shook her own head. "No, you will be all right." She murmured, a flood of tears dripping down her cheeks in torrents as she realized that Raven was right. "You will live."
Raven shook her head once more, her eyelids fluttering as she spoke. "I...love...you...my shooting...Star."
With that, the former enchantress gave one last sigh before releasing her soul to the spirit world, and the Tamaranian princess held her love's body close.
"Raven..." she whispered, unaware of the three other Titans who had gathered around her. "I love you, too. I will never forget you, dearest."
She looked to the sky, and began to smile as an ebony raven flew overhead, silhouetted within a shroud made of the sun.
A/N: Okay, that's it, folks! Shattered Star is finished! Hope you liked it, because it took me five hours to write!
Blessed Be,
Goddess Grief