Okay. Chapter three hits home, took me long enough. I won't bore you, so straight to the disclaimer and then the story. I don't own Teen Titans in any way, shape, or form. That honor belongs to someone connected with Cartoon Network and I'm not contesting that. I don't want to make a profit from this and just hope that this doesn't get me sued... Enjoy the story.
To Defeat the Darkness, One Must Embrace the Light...
A Teen Titans Story
By Wordbearer
Raven knew she was dreaming. This was an awareness born of a thousand nightmares, horrible nightmares that would have caused her tremendous grief if she let them get to her. Fortunately, this dream didn't seem to be one of them. She walked the halls of the Great Temple, drinking in the odor of incense and letting her gaze slip over the soothing mosaics that covered the walls. Chanting echoed throughout the vast hallways as Raven passed under brazen lamps that lent an aura of sunset to the dark walls. She felt truly relaxed, letting the dream pull her on its way. She was shaken as a child's cry tore dissonantly through the air and found herself pulled into a rush of black robed monks running toward the noise. Her contentment was further shattered as she was helplessly pulled to a set of doors that she recognized. The doors blew off their hinges with terrible force and a lingering dark cloud gathered on the floor as the child's voice cried out again.
"No, I don't want to! Stop it!" Raven recognized that voice as the air cleared and the source of the cries could be seen clearly for the first time.
It was a child, a girl of six years with grey skin and dark hair. A stone blazed in her forehead as a shadow hovered above her. Though the shadow had no face it seemed to stare at the crowd of monks gathered against it with all-consuming smugness. The child was her and the shadow, her father, as she learned what the phrase Trigon's Child truly meant on that most traumatic of days.
A wave of energy consumed a vase and sent it hurl it into an elderly monk who then impacted the wall with a sickeningly wet sounding thud as her six year old self cried, "No! Don't make me hurt them." The child closed her eyes; the white glow rendering her eyelids translucent as a heavy incense burner, propelled by her power, went scything through the dispersing monks. Its curved decorations acted as barbs and were stained with blood as a trio of monks fell under the onrushing projectile. The younger Raven was crying helplessly now as objects took to the air and sleeted through the hall with deadly force. The black shadow pulsed malignantly as Raven looked on the scene, transfixed in horror.
The barrage slowed as a commanding female voice shouted, "This is not your place, Daemon, and you cannot have this child!" The high priestess of Azarath gestured and the shadow trembled and began to fade away. The halls thundered with the sound of falling metal as ebony power flowed back into young Raven and the priestess drew closer, a pair of rings blazing on her fingers. The shadow twisted away with unheard cries. The aged priestess ignored the pools of blood that stained her white robes as she knelt in front of the child and rested a hand on the dark hair and chanted under her breath. The aura of power faded completely and young Raven threw herself into her savior's arms, tears of relief streaming from her eyes. The priestess patted the child comfortingly as she took in the grim scene.
Raven couldn't take it anymore and turned to flee. The halls emptied and she was alone, but a familiar voice halted her in her tracks. Turning around, Raven frantically sought to wake up as she took in the speaker's visage. Corroded metal and protruding wires covered much of his body. The flesh that could be seen was charred and rotten, a faint odor of decay issuing forth from his body. A glowing red eye flared unnaturally as Cyborg drew closer to the paralyzed mystic and all other sounds faded into silence.
"Raven," said the calm voice as it issued from his ruined throat.
"Why did you have to kill me? I didn't do anything to hurt you..."
Raven forced herself to reply, "I didn't do it. My father did and I stopped him from killing the rest of the world." Her tone didn't quite reflect the confident nature of her statement.
"Aw, isn't that nice for the world. Problem is, it's a tad late for me and a few other people I'd like you meet." The shadows thickened and a mob of figures formed out of the empty air, a mob of the fallen and the dead. They bore every wound known to daemonkind and gazed at Raven with sullen silence that was worse than rabid hate.
She started as Cyborg's apparition spoke again, "We want to know how you're going to repay us for our painful deaths. And dying does hurt, for daemons love to play with their food..." Raven merely opened and closed her mouth in shock as the mob closed in.
She noticed claws and sharpened teeth on the features of the crowd as Cyborg spoke in a deadly serious tone, "Only thing I can figure is the classic tooth-for-a-tooth solution. We'll take our time since you have only one life to give in exchange."
His tone twisted bitterly and then fell silent as he joined the rush of tattered figures, his sonic blaster raised like a club. Looking around in fear, Raven heard her father's hateful voice, "It seems you need assistance. Access the daemon in you. As my spawn you have all the power you need to slay these pitiful remnants."
"No. You will not control me, Trigon!" Raven's voice was tinged with terror as the mob bore her down and tore at her cloak.
Trigon's voice was amused as he replied, "I afraid that death is not an option here, my daughter. Your own body will not allow it." Raven's cry of refusal was drowned in the waves of black energy that tore through the dense pack of wraiths like they were made of tissue paper. She could feel their deaths and the horrid pleasure that followed like an aftertaste as she looked up and saw Cyborg looming above her.
His voice echoed through her head, "What are you going to do now, Raven? Kill me too? Actually, let's make that for the second time." Raven could see her reflection on Cyborg's eye. She paused, horrified as a lance of darkness punched through his chest, the attack issuing forth from her body without her directing it.
Cyborg toppled and her father's last words were, "I did nothing here. That was all your power and your own motives..." Raven mercifully woke up then, as the light dimmed and her four-eyed reflection faded from sight.
Raven came to with a start, sweat beading her face despite the coolness of the cavern. She sat upright in her sleeping bag, breathing deeply to regain control of her emotions as small pebbles tinged off the walls in response to her distress. Running through her mantra several times under her breath, the half-daemon calmed and looked over at Terra. She was still asleep, curled in the fetal position under a thin blanket as she drooled in her sleep. Repressing her mild revulsion,
Raven got out of her sleeping bag, pulled on her cloak and made ready to leave the cave. Lacing up her boots tightly, she thought to her herself, "Really have to meditate, I should get a couple hours peace before Terra gets up." With that, Raven rose into the air and sought out a place to meditate.
Several hours later as the sun peaked into the canyon, Raven hovered over a stone spike with her eyes closed. She was silent and let the low melody of the canyon wash through her head. Seeking the quiet of reality that lay below all the noise, Raven was all but oblivious to the world and her head was empty of thought.
Despite her introspective focus, she didn't startle as Terra brightly called out, "Hey Raven! Want breakfast? I've gathered wood!" Conditioning after months of living with a handful of rowdy teenagers kept her from falling on her butt. Raven waited just long enough to answer in order to make her displeasure more clear.
She tersely replied to the waiting blond, "No thanks. I don't do breakfast, just so you know." Terra deflated visibly, "Oh. Okay then... Just wanted to let you know." As the hovering mystic continued to glare at her, Terra stammered, "I'll just go then. See you later..."
Raven's conscience prodded her and she sighed as the other turned to go, carefully softening her expression, "Wait Terra. I'll join you in a second." Terra brightened and Raven braced herself for a barrage of conversation.
Sitting across from Terra as she devoured her food wholesale, Raven listened with concealed disgust. Not only was the blond consuming the trail rations at an alarming rate, Terra managed to talk a mile a minute at the same time.
Chunks of food took flight as she spoke, "So then I turned down left down the ravine, this giant scorpion right on my heels. It was huge and mean-looking. No way could anything get that big without radioactivity..."
Pausing to gulp some water, she picked up again, "So just as I'm cornered, back to the wall and the monster walks under a stone bridge. One push with my powers and SPLAT! Scorpion dead and problem solved!" Terra hooded her eyes slightly as she finished and
Raven interjected drolly, "Fascinating."
Not noticing the dismissive nature of the comment, Terra replied a little more softly, "of course, two days later, those demons started showing up and it was either run or fight all the time."
Raven's expression tightened at the comment, troubled by her lingering nightmare and a sense of guilt, zoning out as the feelings rose.
"...and I had to keep hitting one over and over, it wouldn't go down. Snorting and belching smoke like a car about to explode. I finally had to bring the whole da... You listening, Raven?" The half-daemon didn't react immediately, so caught up in her thoughts was she.
The grey-skinned mystic slowly blinked a few seconds as Terra looked on concerned, "Raven? Raven!?! You still with me?"
Glaring from out of the corners of her eyes, Raven sharply replied, "Of course. You were talking about daemons, right?"
The other shrank back a little from the response, "Uh, yeah, I was. Did you guys have any problems? I couldn't seem to get away from them, they were everywhere! Then: poof. Gone in a night! Like someone told them to go to their rooms..." Raven tried to find a way to answer that question without completely leaving herself open to disconcerting questions.
She spoke in a heavy monotone as she spat up the first idea that seemed half-way relevant, "You could say that we weren't on their to-do list." She slapped herself inside for borrowing one of Beastboy's lines and a rock turned black quickly as her control slipped briefly.
Terra frowned at the response, having told enough white lies to recognize one in the making, but held her tongue. Raven wanted to keep secrets, so be it. The random energy discharge interested her too, power control being one of her core concerns.
Speaking hesitantly, "So what are you doing out here, Raven? There must be a lot of super heroing to be done if those things were as destructive as they were trying to be out here. I got the impression that they were distinctly frustrated with the changelessness of the canyons."
Raven answered, her voice relieved at the change in topic, "The Tower has been flooded with every super powered busybody on the West coast. I wasn't needed there right now."
Terra nodded in understanding, "Okay. So what were you planning to do before we had our little dust-up yesterday?"
Raven let her eyes dance over the canyon walls before speaking, "Rest. Meditate. Fast. Pull my head together; my powers don't control themselves you know." She didn't know why she had spoken so frankly to this relative stranger, but her instincts said to and Raven made it a point to go with her instincts, her human ones at any rate.
Terra's lit up with interest and she gushed out her next thought, "Really? That's great! I don't mean in that your powers don't control themselves, but that you know how to do it... Um, I'm ashamed to admit to it, but my abilities aren't exactly... always... stable either." Raven smirked as her previous guess was proven true.
Terra rushed on, "If you can spare anytime from your own work I would appreciate any comments you could give on the topic?" The blonde's voice bled with pathetic neediness and Raven's first response was to cut her down with a scornful reply.
Something kept the comment from passing her lips and she shook her head as she formulated a different response in its place, "Okay, Terra I'll make you a deal."
Terra's eyes locked onto Raven's and the mystic lowered her hood to make sure Terra understood everything that she was about to say. "You can stay in this cave with me while I'm here this week. In return, you let me meditate, being quiet and not disturbing me until mid-afternoon. That means no breakfast calls." Raven pointedly tipped her head toward the remains of the meal and Terra blushed in embarrassment, though whether this was because of her gluttony or loud greeting earlier was anyone's guess.
Continuing in the same even tone the half-daemon said, "Then the rest of the day I'd be willing to spend with you and help you out with your needs until we stop for dinner and sleep. Clear enough?"
Terra reflected a moment and said cautiously, "That sounds okay... Hey. Wait a second. I was here first, why do you get to tell me that it's an honor for me to stay? I should be the one extending the invitation!"
Raven's response was curt, "Don't push it. I normally don't share my living space with others, let alone complete strangers. I can always leave."
Holding her hands up placatingly, Terra exclaimed, "Hold on a second, no need to get like that! Geez, you have quite a temper."
Raven merely gazed at Terra and a silence bloomed between them, causing the shorter blond girl to turn away in embarrassment.
Raven broke the silence herself, "What exactly can you do with your powers that you say aren't 'exactly... always... stable'?"
Terra seized the question, "I move rocks, dirt, stone, stuff like that. Some egghead that I spoke to once said I had lithokinesis, whatever that means... Hopefully it isn't a rash of some kind."
Raven rolled her eyes at the other in contempt, "No it isn't a rash. The word is Latin, litho means rock and kinesis means..." As she got into the explanation, the mystic felt her unease retract and let the surprisingly good feeling wash over her. As the two spoke in the darkness of the cave, the sun slipped into its shadowed confines.
So, you made it down here. What do you think? Good? Bad? Don't care? Leave a review if you see fit and tell me what the good, the bad and the ugly are in here. Thank you for your time.
