Author's Note: We're nearing the end hear people. Sniff. This chapter was easy to write, but hard to post. As I told Instant Coffee, it's kinda like dropping a bombshell on y'all. I didn't know how you'd take it... Anyways, next chapter is the last and it's only half written. I'll get it up after exams. Well...
Chapter 12: 10:00: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
The Titans stared at Raven in a mixture of awe and fear.
"OK... Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture?" Beast Boy asked, looking at his friends.
Cyborg leaned in close to Robin. "Let me get this straight– that's Raven now, right?"
"I think so..." Robin muttered.
"Ray?!" The call was a question. The four Titans turned to look at the nurse, who had dropped the boy's body and was now staring wide eyed at the snake. She looked like she was about to faint.
Raven turned at the call and gave Abby a wink. "Hang in there, Abby," she said, "and I'll show you what living is."
The snake roared again. In taking physical form, it had sprouted arms and was waving them around madly.
"Hey, don't be cranky," said Raven. "You were the one who wanted to be a demon."
Starfire blinked innocently. "And we are sure this is Raven?" she said, questioningly, looking at Robin for support, who just shrugged, without answer.
"Uh... Rae?"
"Kinda busy here, BB," Raven said, not turning to the confused shape shifter.
"Right," said Beast Boy stepping back. Instead, he directed his question to Robin. "Should we help her?"
"I think this is her fight," Robin said.
The snake's tongue shot out of its mouth and wrapped itself around Raven's body, lifting her off the ground.
"Hey Godzilla!"
The snake turned his head at the call.
Robin slapped his hands over his face. "I guess Cyborg missed the memo."
The half-robot had seized the beast's tail and was threatening to pull. Raven's eyes widened in fear and, surprisingly, so did the snake's.
"Cyborg, you dolt!" she screamed. "Get out of there! This thing'll tear you limb from limb!"
"I don't care!" Cyborg screamed back. "It could do the same to you!"
Raven fumed and as a result, a nearby building collapsed in a wave of black energy. "Now see what you made me do? I'm weak and unhappy, now do as I say!"
Raven, a voice echoed inside her head. You know I will not harm your friends.
"Shut up!" Raven screamed aloud, throwing a large block of cement from the fallen building at the snake's head with her telekinesis.
The snake shrieked in pain and dropped the girl. The very second her feet touched the ground, she was off sprinting to the snake's tail where she tackled the half-robot who was holding it.
With a muffled 'oof,' the surprised Titan glared at Raven with his human eye. Raven merely met his glare.
"Stay out of this. This isn't your fight," she ordered.
"Hey," said Cyborg, matching Raven's anger. "Something's been going on and I wanna know what it is. I think you owe us an explanation."
Raven softened, paused, and nodded. "You're right, I do," she said. Then, her eyes narrowed again. "But not now, if you don't mind."
"Right," said Cyborg, grinning. "I see you're busy. And, uh, you have a visitor."
Cyborg pointed up behind Raven's shoulder and she looked over it to see the reptilian beast sneering at her with red eyes.
They looked at each other a moment and, for lack of a better plan, Raven turned around and ran.
The snake followed her down the streets of Jump City, smashing bus stops and cars, and even the window of the department store Abby had taken her to only hours before.
This is good, Raven thought. I need to lead him away from the Titans. I just hope they don't follow me too.
Finally, Raven stopped and the snake did to, confused at this bizarre action from his prey. She turned to him, frowning, looking baffled.
"Larkin!" she called up to him. "What are you fighting for?"
In the chaos, the snake didn't seem to hear her, or perhaps he could no longer understand her human tongue and he launched at her with fangs bared. She instantly jumped into the air and hung there for a moment. She threw another block of cement at the snake's body.
"Honestly!" she screamed again. "What are you here for? If you kill me now, what will you get? What will happen to you?"
Her words seemed to hurt the beast more than any number of cement blocks could and he howled in anguish and fury, swiping at her with his huge tail. She swiftly avoided this attack to.
"Larkin!" she called out to him. "You are, by all biological means, dead. This thing you've made? Not really here. This damage? Undone. You don't even have that shell of a body anymore. It's brain has totally collapsed, thanks to you for speeding the process. Face it, Charles, you don't exist. All that's left is this desperate essence, looking for a life– any life– to take back, to live, to survive. But Charles, look what you've done."
Raven gestured at the streets and buildings within a ten mile radius, smashed by the reptile.
"Look at yourself." She nodded at the beast. "What is your master plan now, Larkin? What are you? Nothing. You're like the monster under a child's bed. You appear to be real, but your nothing more than a figment of my imagination."
The snake roared with anger, snatching Raven in his hands once more. The Titan remained calm as he stared at her with those snake-like red eyes, panting, his tongue darting in and out of his mouth. She smiled.
"You see," she whispered. "There's nothing left for you here. You're tired. Maybe, Larkin, it's time for you to let go."
The snake stared at her a moment, and Raven was unsure of what was to happen next.
In the sky, the full moon hung like a circular picture frame, a window to an alternate reality where everything was white. This reality cast a veil of silver silence over Jump City at that moment, suspending everything in a silent tableaux. It watched the battle through its circular window, silver otherworldly beams refusing to allow the beast to speak or even move.
Raven watched him, suspended animation in the moonlight, waiting for an answer that she wondered would ever come at all.
And then, a cloud floated over the moon and the city was consumed by darkness. An equally dark voice boomed forcefully inside Raven's head and she screamed with the pain it caused.
No.
The snake roared and dropped Raven, who fell to the ground hard. There was a loud crack that reverberated off of the walls of the buildings. Raven cried out in agony again, the terrible snake looming over her.
You haven't won yet, sneered the voice inside her head.
"Dammit, where'd they go!" Robin cried as the Titans shifted through the debris of fallen buildings, searching for survivors.
"Gee, that question shouldn't be too hard to answer," Beast Boy replied, pointing down a trashed street. "Just follow Destruction Road."
"I have found the child's body!"
All heads turned at Starfire's call. She looked radiant in the moonlight, floating there holding the corpse of a little boy, brown hair and pale skin. She looked down at him with a pitying expression, then looked up at her friends.
When she next spoke, her voice was quiet. "How could he do this? To such a small child..."
"Starfire, what are you talking about?" Cyborg said.
Starfire looked down at the body in her hands again, so tiny and so cold. "I am beginning to understand. Robin, you were right."
"I think we've figured that much out," said Beast Boy, looking at Robin. But Robin was looking at Starfire.
"What was I right about?" he asked.
She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "That essence that took control of Raven's body. It was Larkin."
"How can you be sure?" Cyborg asked after a moment of silence.
Starfire looked down at the boy with a tenderly tragic expression, like a mother mourning the death of her newborn child. Her eyes half-closed, she wondered what he might have been, saw him growing up to join their forces against his father, fight with the Titans and with Raven, against people who would abuse such powerful magic. She saw him playing soccer in a park near Leicester Square, although she'd never been to England, she knew every detail of the park. The hole in the tree where he and his friends hid their football cards, the secret hollow hidden among reeds and leaves where they discussed David Beckham's latest triumph, the pond where they skipped stones... He was laughing and giggling until his mother came to pick him up. She saw the collision at the stop light, the glass shattering, the terror in his eyes, the depression in his heart when the authorities brought him to his neglecting father's apartment.
And somehow, she felt the need as he did to please him, to have love in his life again, to have a home again. And she felt the disappointment and knew the moment Jordan realized that he would never be any good to his father. No, not like his precious Raven was.
All he ever wanted was to be loved.
Starfire didn't understand where this clarity came from, but she somehow understood it all now. The universe was laying itself down at her feet and for a moment, she felt into the future, and knew exactly what was to happen next.
The knowledge weighed heavy on her heart and she pitied Raven for it, for it would be Raven who suffered most of all from its consequences.
Slowly, Starfire bent down and kissed the boy's forehead, silently thanking him. She lowered herself to the ground and carefully laid the boy down at her friends' feet.
"Starfire..."
But Starfire silenced Robin, putting a finger to her lips as she kneeled down and looked at the boy.
"Quickly," she whispered. "There is much we must do be for Raven returns."
"Shouldn't we follow her?" Beast Boy asked.
"There is no need," said Starfire. "In the end, things will turn out right."
"How can you be so sure?" Cyborg asked again. "Star... what's going on? Who's that kid? How do you know?"
"This child," Starfire said as she rose to her feet, still looking at the child, "once went by the name of Jordan Larkin. He was... the son of Raven's worst enemy. She spoke to me of it this morning, before she changed. Larkin destroyed him. How I know the rest, I cannot say. There are some things better left a mystery."
Robin smiled at her. "Of course," he said.
She looked up at her friends. "There is much we must do," she repeated.
"Like...?" Beat Boy prompted.
Starfire smiled at him. "First," she said. "We must give this boy a proper burial."
"And we will," said Robin. "In a minute."
He took Starfire aside while the other two continued looking for survivors.
"Star..." he said, grinning at her. "Of course. It only makes sense that the most empathetic of the group should feel his aura."
"I do not comprehend," Starfire said, frowning.
"I told you I was researching all day," Robin explained. "Stumbled across the Empathy Haunt. He's been searching for peace, Star. He gained it through you."
"That boy has long been dead," Starfire whispered. "It seems fitting that he has at last found what he was searching for. And I'm glad I could be of help."
Raven glared up at the snake, plotting her next move. He stared back, no doubt planning his.
Suddenly, the snake's eyes narrowed in confusion and there was the sound of a stone knocking on wood. The snake turned from Raven to see a petite brunette throwing stones at him. He looked at Raven skeptically, whose eyes merely widened in horror.
"Leave her out of this, Larkin!" Raven ordered through gritted teeth.
You are in no position to make demands, Songbird, he cooed inside her head.
"You said you wouldn't hurt my friends!" Raven screamed, on the verge of hysterics.
The demon grinned hideously. Aye, he replied. Any friends that I consider worth saving. She is not one of them.
"She has done you no harm!" Raven protested. "She has no part in this. Let her be!"
Wrong, Larkin hissed. She has done harm by assisting you. I have often said that no good deed should go unpunished.
"Come and get me, yeh big bully!" Abby screamed, throwing another rock at the snake's head.
My, what a nuisance, Larkin's voice muttered inside Raven's head as the snake turned to face the nurse, looking annoyed.
"Abby, no!" Raven screamed, trying to get up and run. A sharp dagger shot up through the earth and pierced straight through Raven's right leg and she shrieked with painful surprise. She looked down to see that her leg was swollen, a bump sticking out at an odd angle at her knee.
"Shit!" she muttered, recognizing the break immediately. She looked up at Abby, desperately wondering what trick she should try to pull. All the pressure and stress of that night culminated
And in that split second where Raven lost herself, she lost Abby.
The world spun around her as she realized it.
Abbywas lost to her long before Larkin slithered her way, his bite reaching straight for the jugular.
She jumped aside, but it was no use. He missed his specific target, but his fangs still clamped on her shoulder.
But she didn't scream. She didn't run. She just stared out at him blankly and fell against the wall, sliding to the ground with a small quiet sigh that echoed in Raven's head.
"No..." Raven whispered as she found herself again. But she knew she would never find Abby again.
Immediately she quick-fixed her leg andlevitated into the air. She flew over to Abby, instantly by her side, cradling her in her arms.
"Abby..." she said. "Just hold on."
"... Ray?" Abby whispered, her voice hoarse. "Is that you?"
"Yes, Abby, yes!" Raven said, the tears in her eyes bringing with it a torrent of dark energy that swarmed around she and Abby. And for a moment, it was only them and nothing else. Unintentionally yet instinctively, Raven was using her powers to protect Abby, to make her last conscious moments in this dark city quiet ones.
Larkin tried to get past the barrier created by Raven's misery, but it sparked with dangerous energy and he knew if he touched it with even the tip of his slithery tongue, it would fry him to a crisp.
Raven's emotions were the trigger to her dark powers. Normally when they escaped, they created havoc. But for once, they created peace.
"Abby, it's me..." Raven whispered to Abby. "It's Ray."
"The Ray I know is dead... dead..." Abby whispered, closing her eyes and turning her head from side to side.
"Abby, look at me!" Raven ordered, the tears spilling down her cheeks. She forced Abby's chin up for her to look her in the eyes. Abby stared a moment and her mouth opened slightly in awe as she stared into Raven's eyes. Finally, she smiled.
"It is you..." she whispered. "I'm so glad you're OK. Did I save you?"
"You saved me, Abby," Raven said, smiling. "You saved me from a number of things. You saved me."
"Good," Abby said, her breath becoming heavy. "I can't feel much anymore, Ray. Something got into my arm and now... I can't feel anymore. It's slithering inside me, oozing, hurting, but I can't feel."
"It's OK, Abby," Raven said, soothingly. "I'm here. I'll be here for you until help comes."
"You were the only one who understood..." Abby muttered.
"I'm sorry it had to come to this," Raven said. "I never wanted you to get hurt."
"Ray," Abby said, a dopey smile taking over her pale features. "You never hurt me. You saved me. You gave me the adventure I always wanted. I will never forget you for it. You've given me the chance to... chance to..."
"Chance to what, Abby?" Raven asked, her voice trembling. "Abby, the chance to what?"
Abby's eyes rolled, but she blinked and came back to smile warmly at Raven. "It'll be OK, Raven. I knew this was coming. I could feel it, by the pizza parlor, with you in my arms... and now I'm in your arms... Are we there yet?"
"Yes," Raven nodded. "We are. But I don't know how I could have come so far without you."
"Past, present... future..." Abby went on. "A continuum. This is how it's supposed to be. Thank you, Ray, for giving me the chance to..."
"Abby?" Raven said, her voice weak. "Abby?"
Abby closed her eyes and took in a deep, shuddering breath. "Die..."
The body went limp in Raven's arms. Raven closed her eyes and laid it down calmly on the cement sidewalk.
She looked up at Larkin through her black bubble, her face inscrutable, but her eyes glowing red.
"How dare you," she said, her voice low. "How dare you!"
There was a scream and a burst of blackness as Raven's energy bubble expanded, throwing Larkin off his feet and through building walls before he smashed against a wall blocks away.
Raven advanced on him deliberately and calmly as she walked down the street, ignoring the dulled pain in her knee, her steps echoing off the tree trunks of the concrete jungle.
"You try to deceive me, you try to deceive my friends. You try to discredit me, you try to control my friends. You try to kill me, you try to kill my friends. How does it feel, knowing you've succeeded in one of your endeavors. I'll tell you something, though. You failed in all the rest. You want to know why? Because you can't beat me. You can never beat me. And you'll never beat the Titans either."
She looked down at him then, the bloody serpent, coughing up his nonexistent lungs, one arm totally fried from the blow, the other twitching. One eye was sealed shut with dried blood but the other looked up at her with meek fear.
But Larkin knew, as all who studied such a race would, that an angry demon of Azarath is never to be messed with.
He had incurred Raven's deadly wrath, and he was resigned to pay the price.
No, Raven told him with a forceful mental shove that sent shivers of pain through his body and he winced. I am no demon. I am not like you.
We are all demons, my little Songbird, came Larkin's voice. We just wear different guises.
And you said you wanted to do good, Raven hissed in disgust. You told a naive child that she could do good in the world, and dammit, she believed you. And in that sense, you helped her become who she is today. And in that sense, she helped you become who you are today.
"But you're not," she said allowed.
I beg your pardon? Larkin said, confused.
"You're just not," Raven said simply, nonchalantly. "You became... nothing, Larkin. What has this quest for revenge reduced you to? A quivering, formless, unnatural figment of the imagination, regretting everything. And you are regretting everything, aren't you?"
There was a pause.
I do not deny it, the snake replied in thought-speech.
Raven folded her arms.
Begone from here, Larkin. You don't belong here and you know it. There is nothing left. You're dead, Larkin, so why won't you let yourself accept it? I wonder if you were ever really alive to begin with. I'm sorry our lives took different courses. You were blind with ambition, the demonism of power, the corruption of a sinful nature. You're right. You are more demon than most humans. But you're more human than most demons. And that's why you regret.
The snake said nothing, merely looking at the girl standing over him, no longer in fear, but in respect.
I am proud of you, he said. You have finally grown beyond what I can teach you. I wish you the best. I accept your defeat over me. I will leave you in peace.
"That isn't a lie," Raven said aloud. "Run, Larkin. Run far, far away and never return. Never haunt my dreams again. Never torment my friends again. Never destroy another life."
The snake moved its head, trying to nod. I will leave you in peace, Larkin repeated. But please, know this. I was changed by your friends. They reminded me what being human was. After so many years, I had forgotten. And I did try to help them. I wanted so much to hang onto them. And if that meant getting rid of you, so be it. You betrayed me.
"Then I guess we're even," said Raven. "Because you betrayed me too."
I suppose we are, Larkin acknowledged. I wanted so badly to destroy you. But now, I am sorry for the pain I have caused you. And I am sorry for Jordan. I tried to make amends with your friends. But, it is as I always say...
"No good deed goes unpunished," Raven whispered. She kneeled down and placed a hand kindly on her old mentor's scaley head. "Goodbye, Larkin."
Slowly, the snake's breathing quickened and then slowed and he exhaled through his huge nostrils for the last time, closing his remaining eye.
Beneath her fingers, Raven felt the particles dissipate and the beast was gone in a gust of wind, floating out towards the sea.
Dimensions closed, time went on, and Raven began her long walk back to the pizza parlor in the silence of the city.
Offhandedly, she raised her head and looked at the clock tower.
11:02
Author's Note (Revisited): Ok, I just wanted to say, I'm sorry. I didn't realize how well liked Abby's character was gonna be. It pained me, to just drop her like that, because I liked her to. But (and I hate to say it) that was my intention from the beginning. It may seem like the easy way out of a plot hole, but actually it was quite the hard way out. I had all these other ideas of how she would help Raven and they'd part on good terms or whatever, but this makes so much more sense. And it puts Raven through more torture. And... well... more next chapter. Again, I'm sorry!