The long-awaited Chapter 9 is finally up! Yippee! This chapter is, once again, very bloody and gory. If you don't like that, or if you are squeamish or sensitive, don't read. And also, before we start, I want to make something clear – I DO NOT care who Robin is. I don't care whether he's Dick Grayson or Tim Drake or Joe Shmoe or whoever. If you are mad that I implied he was one particular person, then I'm sorry.

This chapter is something like 13 pages, which for me is hideously long. I'm sorry if it drags on. Blame poetic license. Hopefully the length doesn't detract from the chapter. I hope you like it. Read and review, please!

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Light…………

Bright lights pounded down on him, scorching his upturned face, sending glowing spots dancing across his vision. His senses were suddenly overwhelmed by the cacophony on every side; screaming, cheering, wailing and laughing, all bombarded him, rolling in waves from the masses of humanity all around. He could almost feel the air around him vibrating from the sheer volume of the shouts that echoed from the crowd – all of which were suddenly silenced by the bright blaring of a tuneful trumpet.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please!"

He looked up, his eager gaze taking in the billowing folds of the gargantuan circus tent, the gaily painted cloth and bright patterns that surrounded him. He felt vaguely that there was something wrong, some painful memory struggling to surface, something about the white light and the cold sensation of the air on the skin of his face – but it soon faded, and his young mind could not dwell on thoughts of doom when there was so much fun to be had!

"Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please! We now present, for your entertainment, the most daring, death-defying trapeze act ever performed!"

A faint silhouette suddenly appeared at the top of one of the huge poles that stood at either end of the circus tent. The spotlights immediately snapped to the small figure, drenching it in dazzling white light, illuminating every familiar detail of the woman's form as she balanced precariously on the edge of empty space.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this act requires absolute silence." Immediately all noise ceased. "Please direct your attention to the tower at the south end of the ring, and prepare to be amazed!"

He opened his mouth, adding his own cheers to the brief roar that flared up from the crowd before dying down into silence again. A drumroll echoed through the circus tent, seemingly emanating out of nowhere. The woman perched on the towering pole turned on her heel, bowing once to the crowd before leaping effortlessly out over nothingness, hanging still for a split second in mid-air –

A trapeze swung out to meet her, and she reached out, grasping it in both hands and flipping her body over and around it several times, to the drum's enthusiastic accompaniment. He could feel the crowd holding its breath, longing to burst out into applause, but keeping itself barely restrained.

The small figure up in the air swung from the trapeze, sailing gracefully out into empty space and reaching for another wooden bar that hung ready not a few feet away. Her hands stretched out – fingers reaching – and missed, her hand knocking the trapeze aside as she passed. There was a moment of shocked silence, before either crowd or performer truly realized what had happened. Then –

An ear-splitting shriek rang out, almost drowned out by the frantic roaring of the crowd. People leaped to their feet, pointing, screaming, waving frantically with their hands as though their fear could help save a doomed life, and knowing full well that they were helpless. And the frozen form of the woman continued to fall.

He found himself on his feet with the rest of them, yelling, his hands outstretched as though to catch the plummeting performer inches from the ground. He was young – too young to realize what the woman's imminent death would mean to him, too young to truly understand what would happen when that distant figure stopped falling – but he knew that something terrible was about to happen, and he wanted desperately to stop it.

A shadow rippled to life above the falling woman, and for a wild, crazy moment he thought it was some kind of parachute – or a pair of wide, dark wings, trailing out behind her as she dropped, catching air, slowing her fall, to no avail. And suddenly the brightly colored carnival clothes the woman wore turned dark, as though stained by her shadowy wings, and the skin tanned from years of being under hot spotlights turned white, and her long hair was suddenly impossibly short, and a deep shade of ebony blue.

"Raven!" he screamed, the cry ripped hoarsely from his throat as he reached his hands out further, trying desperately to catch the falling figure. "Raven, no!"

The hard floor of the ring was covered by a swirling mist that hid the carnival setup, the ground and the stunned performers watching from the sides. The dark girl that now fell through the air plummeted straight into it, vanishing with barely a ripple in the blood-red smoke –

"Raven!" he screamed, not knowing why he screamed or who he was screaming for – "Raven!"

She was gone.

"Raven!"

Gone……..

"Raven………"

There was still screaming all around him, but it didn't matter. She was gone.

"Raven………"

Raven.

Raven.

"Raven, no………"

Ignored by the shocked and scared masses that crowded the circus tent, a small boy fell to his knees and cried.

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Cyborg watched in speechless horror as the thing that had once been Robin raised its clawed hands high above Raven's head, fearsome talons arched and gleaming, ready to strike. There was the shriek of tortured air as the claws swung down, down – Cyborg closed his human eye and covered his robotic one, not wanting to see the moment when his friend's life came to an end –

Instead of a cry of pain, he heard a dull thump, as though something had fallen heavily to the ground. Daring to look again, he saw Raven lying dazedly on the floor, her shadowy bonds shredded by those yellowed claws, the blue glow of healing magic still cloaking her mangled body. Reaching down, the demon clenched its claws around the clasp of what had once been her cloak, hauling her to her feet and pushing her backwards so that she stumbled and fell against the wall, trying to stay upright. Fangs bared in a leering grin, it pulled a birdarang from Robin's utility belt, running a talon along the weapon's razor-sharp edge.

"How delightful," it hissed, examining the pointed blade. "My new form certainly has excellent taste in toys." It tossed the birdarang into the air and caught it again, all in one smooth motion. "And fine reflexes. A most pleasing body indeed."

Somewhere in the shadows near the stairwell, Cyborg could hear Starfire crying softly as the demon admired its new form. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the cage of fire that held Beast Boy flare and fade as it changed size – from a small dome to contain a green rat, to a fiery inferno to hold in an emerald elephant. And still it seemed the demon did not notice the trapped Titans – its hideous face twisted into an expression of delight, its gaze never leaving Raven's face, it sent the birdarang flying towards her with a flick of its wrist. Cyborg flinched – but the weapon landed point-first in the stone wall and stayed there, quivering, inches from Raven's head.

Its gaze still fixed intently on Raven, it held out its hand to Slade, who stood silently in the shadows, watching the spectacle. Without a word, the villain pulled forth a strangely shaped pendant and dropped it into the demon's hand, too quickly for Cyborg to get a good look at it.

"Well, dear daughter?" It hissed, closing its talons around the pendant and taking a step closer to Raven, who stood pressed against the wall, her eyes wide with paralyzing fear, "Aren't you going to say anything? The least you could do is welcome me to your dimension after you have been so rude to me for fourteen years."

There was no answer.

The demon's grin widened, and it lifted the pendant higher, allowing her to get a clear glimpse of it, dangling its chain from one razor-sharp talon. The gold ruby-eyed raven gleamed back at her out of the darkness, contained within its sapphire circle, haloed by silver, looking inexplicably sinister hanging from the demon's hand. "No?" The evil thing hissed. "It is most unwise to be rude to me, Raven. Perhaps, if you beg for mercy, I might spare your life."

"Get away from me," she near-whispered, her voice breaking, seemingly frozen in shock. Cyborg clenched his metal hands into fists, gritting his teeth, feeling his blood begin to boil as the demon continued to advance on Raven, apparently taking pleasure in her helplessness.

"Come now, Raven," It crooned, swinging the pendant from side to side as it approached, "I don't want to hurt you. If you will just surrender, everything can be over without any more pain. I don't want to be your enemy."

"Get away from me!" she shrieked, lashing out ineffectually with her right hand, her left hanging limply at her side. The demon's eyes narrowed, and it closed its claws around her wrist, halting the blow.

"So stubborn, Raven," it hissed disapprovingly. "You cannot stand against me. I am you – you have all the power I wield, and I am what you will someday become. You cannot run away from who you are." Its eyes narrowed dangerously, and its voice dropped into a low, sibilant hiss. "But still you want to fight? Then so be it. But to prove that I am not your enemy………" It raised the pendant high into the air, swinging back and forth so fast that the golden raven became nothing more than a gleaming blur. Still holding Raven's wrist with its other hand, it barked out a series of harsh, grating words in a language Cyborg did not know – there was a flash of bright blue light

Before Cyborg's very eyes, Raven began to change. The long gashes and scars that marred her skin drew themselves closed, the dark purple of bruises faded, and broken bones healed themselves with an audible snap – leaving a bloodstained, but apparently whole Raven staring shocked at the demon that stood before her, laughing.

"Now, take your weapon," it growled, gesturing to the birdarang that still sat embedded in the wall, its point driven deep into the stone. Slowly, as though moving in a dream, she lifted the hand that had been useless a moment before, reaching up and pulling the bladed birdarang out, watching her own shaking hands with a sort of detached fascination.

"Now, Raven, since you are so eager to fight," the demon snarled, backing away into the middle of the room, its clawed hands spread wide, "attack me! You are a hero, surely you are used to battles; you are armed, and I am not. All you have to do is defeat me, and you will win your freedom."

Raven examined the razor edge of the birdarang she held in her hand, her eyes wide and fearful, her mouth half-open as though to protest. She glanced frantically around at her captive friends, and then over at Slade, who stood silent and still in the shadows.

The demon caught the glance. "Slade is bound to me," it assured her. "If I am killed, he shall be also. He will offer you no harm."

Raven took a step forward, the paralyzing fear in her expression giving way to a mask of steely determination and bone-chilling hate. She raised the bladed birdarang above her head and threw it hard to the floor, splintering the weapon into two glittering pieces. "I-I won't fight you," she said softly, her voice trembling so that it was barely audible, but her tone making it clear that her mind was made up.

The demon was standing before her in a heartbeat, its clawed hand clenched loosely around her throat, pressing her up against the wall once more. "A wise choice," it hissed, its foul breath blowing on her face. "You never would have stood a chance against me. Are you ready to surrender?"

"No," she gasped, struggling to speak beyond the firm grip on her throat. "I didn't choose not to fight you because I thought I would be killed." Her expression suddenly softened, though her voice remained as hard and implacable as ever as she looked straight into the demon's eyes. "I chose not to fight you because somewhere, deep inside you, you're still Robin. Or Robin is there, somewhere – and I won't hurt him, even if it meant I could rid the earth of such a hideous monster as you."

The demon laughed, though Cyborg could tell by the way Raven gasped and choked for air that it had tightened its claws around her windpipe. "So stubborn, Raven! Slade was right, you do have quite a fighting spirit. Don't worry, your little friend Robin is still alive," it chuckled, "but I wouldn't expect any help from him. When his body became mine, his mind went into shock – he is lost in his own memories, completely unaware of all that is going on. And as soon as I have you beside me, Raven, I shall crush him like the little worm that he is."

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"……………Robin………………."

He wandered the dark city streets, strolling confidently through the winter night, following the path laid out by the pools of light cast from the streetlamps on either side. He did not bother to keep to the shadows, or walk silently as he had been taught – the cold night wind invigorated him, sparked energy and excitement in the depths of his young mind. What had he to fear? He was a superhero! He was powerful, clever, intelligent, invincible!

He sauntered through the gloom and silence of metropolitan midnight, his bright red and green uniform making him a blazing target in the yellow light and ebony shadows of his surroundings. For once, he didn't care; he had only been in this city for a week, and already he had foiled close to ten bank robberies, and caught countless criminals. Just this morning he had jailed a maniac that called himself Dr. Light. The people of the city hailed him as a hero, and he was finally beginning to make a name for himself instead of living in his mentor's shadow. Nothing could have spoiled his good mood that night –

except the crash of a window shattering, and the roaring voices of two men shouting curses nearby.

A grim smile on his face at the thought of a new challenge, he dashed off down a deserted side street, his hand going to his utility belt and curling around the bladed birdarang he always kept there. He wove through the maze of city streets, dashing through brightly lit boulevards interspersed with dark alleyways, until he finally reached the source of the sounds that echoed through the night.

Two burly men had cornered someone in the shadows of a dead end street, and were standing over their victim menacingly, leering and laughing as they tormented their prey.

"Oh, look what we have here! Look at those jewels, bet they're worth a bit!"

"Yeah, we'll be taking those. What's in the box? Hand it over, or we'll take it from ya!"

He growled, backing up away from the alley. Once he judged he was a far enough distance away, he started to run forward, launching into a flying kick just before he reached the thugs. His steel-tipped boot rammed home into the first man's skull, dropping him without a sound. The second was quicker; whirling around, he swung one ham-like fist at his attacker, who dropped effortlessly out of the way.

The young hero leaped towards one of the brick walls that hemmed the alley in, kicking off the solid surface and swinging his boot to the side of the second thug's head. The large man dropped like a stone.

Landing catlike on his feet, the young hero turned to the end of the alley, where the theives' victim huddled against the brick wall, shaking from the closeness of the encounter. Taking a cautious step forward, he held out his hand, smiling kindly down at the hunched figure. The shadows suddenly seemed to part like water before him, revealing a small girl, clad oddly in a leotard and rippling cloak as dark as the night around her.

"Are you all right?" he asked gently, noticing the small wooden box she clutched tightly to her chest as though it was the most precious thing in the world. "Did those idiots do anything to you?"

The girl looked up at her rescuer, layers of long ebony-blue hair falling away, revealing a pale, quietly beautiful face, and gleaming violet eyes that shifted and glinted like moonlight on the endless sea.

The young hero caught his breath as his masked eyes met those shining violet ones, feeling suddenly light-headed and strangely dizzy. His outstretched hand fell back to his side as he stared, thunderstruck, fascinated by the depths of knowledge, wisdom and suffering held in those sapphire pools of light –

"Look out!"

The girl cried out, pointing at something over his shoulder – her sweet alto voice jolted him out of his shock, but it was too late. The first thug he had laid low loomed behind him, both fists raised to deliver a crushing blow – the young hero tried to roll to the side, but he knew it was too late, he was not fast enough to avoid the fists that would crush his skull –

There was strangled cry of pain, and a resounding crash that made the pavement shiver under his hands. Looking up, he saw the huge thug lifted into the air by what seemed to be a mass of living shadows, which threw him violently backwards, driving his limp body several feet into solid brick.

There was silence.

Slowly climbing back to his feet, the hero turned his gaze back to the girl hunched at the end of the alley, staring at her in shock. Her hand was still outstretched, pointing at the thief who was now imbedded in a wall, her eyes closed, her teeth clenched, her face a mask of concentration.

He looked from her, to the unconscious thief, then back to her again. "Did you…… was that…… what just happened?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she looked at him with those endless eyes again, climbing shakily to her feet, the box still held tight to her chest. "Yes," she near-whispered, so softly he had to strain to hear her. "Yes, I did that. I'm kind of – I'm kind of new here. I can't control my powers very well yet."

He stared at her, blankly. "Powers?"

"Yes, powers," she said flatly, her back still pressed to the wall, her gaze slightly suspicious. "You are Robin, right? The hero?"

"Yes." He couldn't say any more than that. Who was this girl, with her bizarre clothes, impossible powers, and eyes that could hold him immobile with a single glance?

She rolled her eyes, the merest ghost of a smile flitting across her features. "Is everyone from Earth so clueless?"

"No, we're not! I'm just – wait." He blinked. "Everyone from Earth? Aren't you from Earth? Who are you?"

"You can call me Raven," she answered promptly. "And no, I am not from Earth. It's a very, very long story, and here is not the place to tell it. But first – thank you for saving me."

"You're – ah – you're welcome." There was a moment of silence. "You more than returned the favor," he said finally, gesturing to the unconscious thug laying half in and half out of the wall. He blinked again, unable to hold the cool blue gaze that now rested on him, and blurted out the first thought that came to mind. "If you're not from here – do you have a place to stay?"

Immediately her eyes narrowed, and she stood a little straighter, the look in her eyes growing hard as though he had insulted her. "I don't need your help," she said loftily.

He took a closer look at her strange clothes, noticing for the first time the rips and tears in her ebony cloak, the smudges of dirt that stained her pale skin, the way her leotard hung loosely on her too-thin frame. It was clear she needed a long rest and a good meal – why, then, would she not accept his help?

He had to fight a smile from emerging on his face as he realized what was going on. Here was someone possessed of the same crazy stubbornness and stupid pride he himself was so often accused of. She would not accept any help from him if she thought it was offered out of pity, no matter how desperately she needed it. But he was not going to leave her to fend for herself, not with powers like hers – so it appeared it was time to try a different approach.

"There's a lot of crime in this city," he said casually. "Too much for me to handle by myself. Your, ah – powers – are very impressive. Would you mind helping me? I've been thinking of trying to put together some kind of team around here. Only if you want to, of course," he added hastily.

The strange girl – Raven, he reminded himself – looked down at herself, evidently realizing the same thing he had. "I look terrible, don't I?" she asked wryly, a crooked smile hovering about her features. "That was very tactful, trying to offer me help without letting me know it. I would love to join your team, Robin. Thank you for offering." She held out one graceful white hand. Robin took it in his own gloved one, grinning back at her.

"Welcome to Earth," he said softly, releasing her hand and bowing in a weak attempt at chivalry, gesturing for her to precede him down the street. She smiled faintly at him, and started to walk away. He turned to follow.

"………Robin………"

Frowning, he turned around, away from Raven's retreating back, looking for whoever had called his name. Turning back into the dark alleyway behind him, his masked eyes searched the shadows, finally coming to rest on –

Raven?

He turned his head back, looking at the dark cloaked silhouette walking away from him, then back to the figure standing against the brick wall where he had been only a moment before. Both were, undeniably, Raven – but how could there be two Ravens at the same time?

He took a closer look at the new Raven, fighting down the urge to shout in surprise as he realized the fact that either there was something far beyond his understanding going on here, or he was going completely insane. The new Raven was taller than her counterpart, almost as tall as Robin himself – her cloak was reduced to tatters of dark cloth that dangled from her shoulders, and her skin was stained, not with dirt, but with blood – his stomach lurched, and he felt bile rising in his throat as he suddenly realized that the blood was her own. He wasn't sure how he knew that, or why he suddenly felt such a searing pain in his heart at the sight of her, but he knew as soon as the thought occurred to him that it was true. Someone had hurt her, and badly.

"………won't hurt him………even if………hideous monster as you."

Her lips were moving, and while the voice he heard was undeniably Raven's, it seemed incredibly distant, as though it was echoing to him across a wide gulf of silence, and only some of the words were intelligible. She wasn't even looking at him; her violet eyes burning with terror and hate, she glared right through him, as though she wasn't really seeing him at all.

A strange emotion washed through him as he watched her standing there, glaring with such defiance at some unknown enemy that he could not see, covered in her own blood. Something was terribly wrong……… he should not have been be here, in the city………he should have been somewhere else, somewhere far away, where there was a powerful enemy to be fought, a friend to be saved.

"Robin! Are you coming?"

The strange, ghostly Raven in the alley began to fade, and in a few moments there was nothing behind him but shifting shadows. Pushing the apparition out of his mind, he turned and ran down the street, chasing after the dark figure that flitted ahead through the night, made suddenly uneasy by a strange feeling of impending doom.

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"Robin," Raven said pleadingly, clearly terrified as she had never been before, her eyes searching the demon's face for any hint of familiarity. "Robin, please, if you can hear me –"

"He can't," the demon snarled, clenching his hand tighter around her throat with every word. "So don't waste your breath. You are going to die, Raven. I will make sure of it." She could feel his claws pricking the skin on her neck, and cold drops of blood oozing out. "Any last words?"

"Robin, please," she gasped, the words cut off by a choked sob. "Robin, he's going to kill me – to kill us both – to kill everyone. I need your help –" She was crying now, tears streaming down her face, the tears she had never dared shed before. The demon's skin sputtered and steamed where her tears touched it, and the demon clenched its hand, sinking its claws deep into her neck, severing her windpipe, so that even as the blood rushed from her wounds, she could not get enough air into her lungs to scream.

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There was desert spreading all around him, a barren wasteland bordered by a city that rose from the flat ground like some steel forest in the distance. The only sound that broke the silence was the hot whispering of the desert wind – and a soft, cool voice……

"…………Robin………"

"Who are you?" he asked the empty sky. "What do you want with me? Why do I feel like you need my help?"

"…………Robin, please………"

"Raven? Is that you? I shouldn't be here. Where are you? What do you want me to do?"

"…………if you can hear me…………"

"I can hear you, Raven, I can hear you! But how can I help you?"

"…………kill me – kill us both – kill everyone…………need your help…………"

"Who? Who's going to kill you? Hold on, Raven, I'll find you, I promise!"

He had a strange feeling, a barely conscious memory – soft tones, harsh words, unshed tears and broken hearts……… and through it all, Raven's violet eyes burning into his soul. He remembered……he remembered……

There was snow……… and darkness………rain and music……… emotions. Something about emotions – showing emotions for the first time, new and crazy emotions that neither he nor Raven had ever felt before. He felt wrong, as though he were in the wrong place, at the wrong time, when there was someone – someone he cared about deeply – who desperately needed his help.

Memory returned in a rush, driving daggers through his head, a flickering deluge of images and emotions coursing like a waterfall behind his eyes. Nights and days, storms and suns, all blazed past in a blinding torrent of time that whirled around and around with him at its vortex, a centrifuge of fate and love and life itself.

Robin fell to the ground, driven to his knees by the sheer force of memories, and closed his eyes as all around him dissolved into darkness…………

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Robin……………………

Raven felt the last of her breath escaping through the hole the demon's talons had cut in her throat. Choking and gasping for air, blood pouring from her wounds, the demon's claws still imbedded in her skin, she felt the one word echoing and resounding inside her head. Robin……

She had never been afraid of death. Death had been only another shadow, another darkness, another unknown dimension that she would be thrown into as she had been forced to come to Earth. But now, for the first time in her life, she found that she did not want to die – because she knew that if she died, her father would triumph, and the world would become the living hell she had tried so hard to prevent.

Fear overwhelmed her, numbing the pain of the claws driven into her throat, spreading a veil of icy dread over her entire body. And as her sight began to fade, she felt vaguely ashamed; she was a hero, and heroes were not supposed to know the kind of paralyzing fear that stole away all power of movement until it seemed the body was carved from ice.

"Kin shall slay kin," Trigon hissed. "Father killing daughter. Don't worry, dear Raven, it will all be over soon. After all, the rest of the prophecy must be fulfilled – the raven flies no more."

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There was darkness.

He looked frantically around, his hands outstretched in front of him, feeling for any kind of surface, anything he could grab on to, get his bearings, find out where he was and how he could get to Raven. But his hands reached only empty air, and his masked eyes could see nothing but shadows.

Then, so small he guessed they were incredibly far away, two pinpoints of light flared into life. They blazed brightly for a moment, dissolving into the shape of two catlike eyes, floating suspended in the darkness, a well of images and emotions contained in their depths. Grateful for any sign of life, he stepped hesitantly towards them; then, when the darkness around him held his weight, he began to run, exercising all of the strength and speed he possessed. Still they seemed to draw closer at an infuriatingly slow pace; his blood pounding in his ears, every instinct screaming that Raven needed him, and desperately, he ran on.

The darkness stretched around him into infinity, above, below, and to all sides, unbroken save for the two eyes that floated level with his own. Drawing nearer, he looked into the strange flares of light, and clenched his hands into fists, resisting the urge to scream with rage at what he saw.

It was as though he were looking through two windows that opened into the outside world, the world he remembered leaving behind – or being forced out of, by an impossibly red shadow that had torn his mind from his body. Peering through the strange eyes, he could see his friends, trapped beneath cages of fire, all with looks of utter hopelessness and despair on their faces, Starfire and Beast Boy weeping openly. He could vaguely see Slade, standing far back from him, half-hidden by shadows, the contours of his mask twisted into a smile. But the thing that caught his immediate attention was Raven – her eyes wide and fearful, staring directly at him, her lips silently forming his name, and five yellowed claws sinking into her throat.

His claws.

Realization hit him with a physical blow, one that drove him to his knees, head reeling, as though someone had punched him hard in the stomach. He was indeed looking through someone's eyes – his own. Those were his hands slick with Raven's blood, his features that inspired the look of utter terror that crossed her face.

Not his, he corrected himself, the demon's. Trigon's. The blood-red force that had ripped all control of his body from him, imprisoning him in memories to be sure he didn't interfere. The hell-spawned monster that was tearing into its daughter's throat.

Robin felt the muscles of his hands clench, and looked down – but he could not see himself, because of the utter darkness. Or maybe, he thought suddenly, he did not exist to see. Looking back through Trigon's eyes, he saw that the red-skinned hands had tightened their grip on Raven's flesh, and he understood. The longer he stayed here, in this deep darkness, looking through the demon's eyes, the more in tune with his own body he became, and the more he could fight the demon's control.

Looking out through Trigon's eyes, he felt the brief feeling of hope that had flared up in him die, leaving only utter despair. Raven's eyes had glazed over, sightless, staring into the gaping maw of death. He could feel her skin growing cold beneath the demon's hands, as her blood continued to rush from her gruesome wounds. Even if he could regain control of his body, there was nothing he could do to save her. Raven would die. He was far too late.

POSSIBLE Chapter Break. If this chapter ends up going on for fifty zillion more pages and I need to break it up, this would be a good place. But I hereby vow not to post until all of it is written. I think.

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Cyborg looked on, all thought driven out by the sheer horror that filled him, as the demon pulled its claws from Raven's flesh, letting her limp body slump to the floor. It stood over her, claws still arched and bloody, its fangs bared in an insane grin, its hungry gaze fixed on her sightless eyes, waiting –

There was a stir of movement at the edge of his vision, as though Raven had wakened and was trying to rise. Cyborg stared, his jaw hanging open, his eyes wide with shock. No one, not even a full demon, could have recovered from the kind of wounds Raven had sustained. It was incredible, impossible –

Light rose from where Raven lay, limp and unmoving, on the cold concrete. Exhaled with her last breath, shimmering over every inch of her skin, light rippled to life, rising in the air to form the silhouette of a stylized raven, wings outstretched, head craned upwards – a silhouette that was not black, but white.

Out of the corner of his eye, Cyborg saw Slade take a step forward, his good eye narrowed in consternation. "Master, what –"

Trigon gestured for his servant to be silent, his gaze never leaving the white raven that hovered in the air above his daughter's body. "She is free of corruption," he hissed. "My corruption. It was my power that turned her soul black. Now that I have taken her powers away, it is pure white."

He held out his clawed hands, as though reaching for the white raven, to grasp it and draw it towards him. Red smoke began to stream from his palms, almost obscuring the gold pendant that he still held in one hand, enveloping the spectral bird, hiding it from sight.

"Now," the demon roared suddenly, as the red of its skin began to fade, as though it was pouring its entire essence into the stream of mist that rushed from its hands. "My moment of triumph is now!"

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Robin watched in wide-eyed terror as Raven fell to the floor, lying limp and unmoving, the hideous wounds on her neck still oozing blood. The white raven erupted from her still form, and was hidden by red smoke – he swore he could see it writhing in pain, and hear its agonized cries, so like Raven's sweet voice –

Suddenly, without warning, Robin felt the demon's grip on his mind loosen, as though its power was being diverted. He found himself back in his own body, and sensation returned in a rush – he felt the cool breath of air on his skin, the rough mask that still covered his eyes, the unnatural scales that dug into the skin of his palms – and something burning white-hot clutched in his left hand.

Moving carefully, so as not to let the demon know that he was free, Robin looked down to see what was scorching his flesh. There was a pendant clutched tight in his – the demon's – claws, a stylized gold raven surrounded by silver threads and contained within a sapphire circle. It blazed with black light, flaring and fading to the rhythm of a beating heart, both burning and freezing his skin all at once.

He didn't know what it was, or why it was lit with the eerie black glow of Raven's magic, but he knew it was important, and he knew the demon held it in high value. Maybe, just maybe, he could use it to distract the demon, and gain a little time.

The leering grin on the demon's face widened, and Robin clenched his hand into a fist, watching with delight as crystal and gold were severed by bloodstained claws.

The room was rocked by a soundless explosion, as the pendant shattered with a high, unearthly wail. A storm of raging energy burst from the shards of the gold raven, shadows swirling wildly about the room, breaking like dark waves over the cages that held the trapped Titans and throwing Slade back against the wall. Robin felt the demon's roar of rage explode from his throat – but the deed had been done. Shadow magic whirled in a howling centrifuge of whistling winds, all of which spun around the pillar of light that was the white raven, that blazed like the last flare of a dying sun. The black energy mixed with the red, tainting, overpowering the bloody smoke, seeping into the white raven from the edges of its wings until the spectral bird had turned darker then onyx, shot through with bloody red veins. The demon screamed with rage, regaining control of Robin's body and reaching out clawed hands as though to catch and hold the now-black ghostly bird as it fell soundlessly back into Raven's body, haloing her with a brilliant blue light.

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There was darkness.

She was falling.

Falling.

Falling…………..

She slammed into something solid with a blaze of pain and lay still, her eyes tightly closed, afraid to open them for fear of what she might see. Her imagination turned the ache that suffused her body into the fires of Hell licking at her skin, and the ringing in her ears became the crackling and roaring of the unearthly flames. She couldn't see, couldn't think, couldn't breathe –

There was silence.

The imagined crashing and screeching of fire all around her began to fade, burning itself into oblivion until she was surrounded only by silence. And after what might have been an eternity passed in slow soundlessness, she finally dared to open her eyes, looking around the bizarre place she had found herself.

Cracked, parched, dusty earth extended away in all directions, a barren plain that seemed to stretch on into infinity. Gaping fissures snaked across the landscape, like dark scars left by some titanic battle, half-hidden by clouds of drifting red dust kicked up by the frigid wind. The dull monotony of burnished red was broken only by a single stunted and leafless tree, struggling for life on the desolate plain, scorched by the harsh glare of a monstrous red sun.

Slowly, hesitantly, Raven stood, both hands flying to her throat, where the demon's claws had plunged through her skin only a few moments before. To her shock, her questing fingers encountered no wound, no cold blood pouring forth, pulling away clean of that black stain.

I am – I am healed. The thought was illogical, impossible, unbelievable. She had died – she clearly remembered her sight dimming, the last cold breath escaping from her body, her heart ceasing to beat – by rights she should have been writhing in Hell by now.

Is this what Hell is, then? This emptiness, this desolation? She could see how a sane person could go mad, stranded without hope of escape on a garish nightmare plain, but she was far too familiar with emptiness and silence. Brushing the red dust from her cloak with shaking hands, she crossed over to the withering tree, the only living thing she could see, and placed a white hand on its wilting branches.

There was a sudden soundless explosion and she whirled around, grabbing onto the tree in an effort to stay upright, the ground heaving and shaking beneath her feet. Rust-red dust rose in waves as the wind suddenly picked up, howling like a beast in torment, and the dark fissures in the earth widened with a rumbling crash, as though trying to tear the earth apart.

Not far from Raven and the stunted tree, a gaping crack in the earth yawned wide open, its mouth spewing forth a fountain of flames that leaped into the bloodstained sky, clawing at it as though to bring it crashing down. Spiraling up, twining about itself until the jagged peak of the inferno was lost from sight, the column of flame widened, growing slowly larger, encroaching on the dark girl that stood, shocked and speechless, in the middle of the darkling plain. Raven took a few hesitant steps backward, then turned and started to run; but it was to no avail. An enormous red-skinned, yellow-clawed hand reached out of the towering flames, swatting her away as though she were nothing more than a lingering shadow, sending her crashing into the dirt and dust with a resounding crash. Horrible screeching laughter rang out from the pillar of flame, accompanied by the shriek of tortured air as the fire split itself in two, parting to make way for the gargantuan figure emerging from its depths.

Raven landed hard on the ground, crying out as the breath was knocked from her body, lying still in the dust, unable to move. She felt a burning presence approach her from behind, and clenched her fingers into the dry soil around her, as though trying to hold herself to the earth as a cracked claw as long as she was descended from the heavens and hooked the hood of her cloak. She found herself jerked violently upwards, her fingers dragged from the earth, leaving her with two handfuls of rust-red sand.

"RAVEN!" A screeching voice roared, and she found herself staring into a pair of sickeningly familiar ochre yellow eyes, facing a gaping, fanged mouth large enough to swallow her whole. She shut her eyes in a futile attempt to block out the hideous red-skinned face leering down at her, both hands clutching at the clasp of her cloak, which was cutting painfully into her throat.

"Your friend may have disrupted my plans, Raven, but I will still destroy you!" Trigon bellowed. Closing his other claws in a fist around her body, he began to squeeze, his fangs bared in a satisfied grin as several of Raven's ribs broke with an audible crack. What little breath she had was forced from her lungs and she closed her eyes tightly, wondering if, now that she was in Hell, she would even be able to die.

"You are not in hell, Raven," Trigon chuckled in his bone-shaking voice. "You are in a place of my making, a place that does not exist in any plane, only in your mind. As soon as I kill you, I shall dissolve this place, and it will be as though it never existed – though you will be quite dead." He tightened his grip still further, taking evident enjoyment from his daughter's slow death.

Raven opened her eyes, unable to keep them closed as that earth-shattering voice vibrated through her skull. A flash of color caught her eye – a flare of green and yellow in the monotonous red and brown of her surroundings. Looking down and away, she saw Trigon's other hand clenched into a fist far below her – and a spiky-haired form, clad in eye-searing yellow and green, limp between his talons.

"Robin!" she screamed, the cry exploding from her throat, as she reached her hands out, as though to take the young hero from her father's grasp, save him from the death that inevitably awaited. "Robin, no!"

Black light began to shimmer over her skin, forming into daggers and forks of lightning that stabbed outwards, plunging into red scales and coming out smeared with black blood. Arcs of energy crawled along Raven's body as she continued to scream Robin's name, oblivious to the power that raged around her. Black light suddenly exploded outwards from her body, rushing away in all directions in razor-edged waves, bloodying Trigon's hand. With a roar of outrage the demon flung Raven away, growling as she landed hard on the ground once more. Almost immediately the black light faded – instead, blue sparks danced across Raven's form, sinking into her skin, healing the gashes her father's claws had inflicted only moments before.

Snarling with rage, Trigon moved his other hand in a sharp motion, tossing the limp Robin across to land next to Raven. With a shuddering gasp that sent pain stabbing through her lungs, she lurched to her feet, staring thunderstruck at her hands, which gleamed once again with dark magic.

"My powers –" she breathed, shocked and bewildered. "What –" There was a slight moan from behind her and she turned, her newfound magic forgotten. "Robin!" Kneeling at his side, she held her hands over his limp form, her face a mask of concentration as blue light streamed from her palms, engulfing him in a brilliant sapphire blaze. He moaned again, and stirred, moving feebly. Trigon snarled.

"There is no use healing him, daughter," the demon roared. "His body may be his once again, but his mind is still mine. I will crush him as soon as you are dead."

The giant advanced on the kneeling Raven, his breath turned to red smoke that hovered about him like a shield against the dark magic his daughter could wield. Startled out of her healing trance by the tremors of his footsteps, Raven stood, dropping instinctively into a fighting stance.

"You won't touch him!" She cried defiantly, shining with black light. "I don't care if you kill me, but I won't let you hurt my friends!" Bolts of black lightning leaped from her hands, striking the red mist that surrounded Trigon and bouncing harmlessly away. The demon roared, and a jet of fire leapt from the ground Raven stood on, burning her skin. She was knocked aside, rolling away to avoid the clawed, red-skinned foot that descended where she had been moments before.

There was a gleam of light overhead as scything claws fell down towards her – knowing she wasn't fast enough to get out of the way, Raven threw up a black shield, wincing as the talons skidded off her barrier. Flame fell from high above, engulfing her – black lightning spiraled out from Raven's body, smothering the flames where it touched them, allowing her time to stand up again and face her enemy.

Thinking quickly, Raven closed her eyes and concentrated – and felt herself rocket upwards, her powers of flight returned along with her magic. Soaring up and away from the demon that roared below, she turned in the air and fired bolts of black light down at him, catching him right in the face. Snarling in pain, Trigon reached for her with grasping claws, but she easily evaded his grip. She streaked away, a swiftly moving shadow against the red sky, and he followed, pounding along the earth below her. Her hands clenched into fists, Raven flew on, weaving back and forth through the air, leading her father away from where Robin still lay motionless in the dust.

A shaft of fire shot through the air inches from Raven's head and she dropped in the air, startled out of her concentration. Trigon reached for her, his claws grazing her cloak, but she plunged a bolt of lightning through his palm and he snatched his hand back, roaring in pain.

The second bolt of fire caught her square in the back.

She fell, landing hard on the ground and skidding away through the dust before she finally came to a stop, breathing heavily, black lightning dancing wildly around her. Trigon stood over her, roaring his triumph, his claws arched and ready to strike.

"Poor Raven," he hissed mockingly. "Destroyed by your own stupid, stubborn pride. If you had only surrendered, you could have lived. You never had a chance at defeating me, you silly little girl! I am you – all of your rage, all of your bitterness, all of your hate. You cannot kill a part of yourself." He suddenly began to shrink, his scales becoming smooth and peeling away from his skin, his hands turning white and his claws receding back into his fingers, until instead of a demon, Raven was menaced by a red-cloaked replica of herself.

"Perhaps you recognize me better this way," the demonic Raven hissed, four bloody eyes flickering beneath its ruby hood. "You have fought against me for fourteen years, and never prevailed. I knew that killing you once and for all would not be difficult, and then I could take you over and set you on your rightful throne. True, you made it much more difficult than it needed to be, and your pesky friend complicated matters, but the result will be the same in the end."

Looking past the red-cloaked demon, Raven saw Robin begin to stir in the distance, sitting up and looking around, clearly bewildered at his surroundings. She reached out her hands to him, a silent plea for help –

Without turning its head, the demonic Raven moved its hand in a sharp gesture, and a dome of red smoke rose from the ground around Robin, imprisoning him. The young hero threw himself at the barrier keeping him in, kicking and punching, but it was no use. Helpless, he ripped off his mask, pressing his hands against the dome and staring out at Raven, his eyes never leaving hers, offering what cold comfort he could. Both of their lives were over, and they both knew it.

No!

Raven gritted her teeth, rolling away from the demon that stood over and lurching to her feet. The red-cloaked figure did not seem bothered by the rage written across her face; it only shifted its weight from one foot to the other as though bored, those four eyes glaring at her from under the hood that shadowed its face.

"You won't hurt Robin," she growled, black light fountaining up from the ground around her, twining about itself in a frenzied dance. "You won't hurt any of my friends. I won't let you!"

The final words exploded from between her teeth, a cry of pure rage as her hands clenched into fists and the magic around her was driven to a wild frenzy of motion. She began to rise from the ground, lifted by her magic, her hair blowing back and her cloak rippling out behind her as though caught in a high wind, her eyes blazing white. Still leering, the red-cloaked demon walked fearlessly towards her, its step confident, its eyes unblinking. "Yes, Raven," it hissed tauntingly. "Let rage overcome you. You cannot fight it, just as you cannot fight me. Your anger cannot hurt me – it only offers me a way into your mind. Hate me, Raven. Dream of ripping off my head. Long to see me die – it will only hasten your doom."

Walking forward, the red-cloaked demon continued to advance, batting away the tendrils of dark magic that attacked it like crazed serpents. And still Raven hung motionless in the air, her face a mask of rage, her eyes blazing burning white. The demon reached for her, claws sprouting from its fingers once more –

Raven opened her mouth in a silent scream as the mass of shadows around her suddenly threw itself at the demon, pinning its arms to its sides, chaining it in bolts of black lightning, dragging it forwards towards the dark girl hanging in the air. Its grin gone, the demon tried to fight – but still it was pulled inexorably forward, almost hidden by the magic that wrapped around it.

"You are a part of me," Raven said suddenly, her voice clear and strong, ringing in the air long after she had finished speaking. "You are my rage, which I have kept contained for fourteen years. And I can imprison you. I can keep you locked within me so that you never again see the light of day." Her lips curving up into a cruel smile, her sightless eyes turned to the struggling demon growing ever closer. "My rage has let you into my mind – but tell me, can you get out?"

With a furious scream, the demon tried to escape the pull of Raven's magic, but to no avail. Dissolving into a cloud of bloody smoke, it plunged into Raven's heart, its scream mingling with hers as she fell to the ground, writhing in pain, the hideous wounds that the demon had healed opening again all over her body. Robin looked on, his mouth open in speechless horror, as Raven's blood stained the ground around her and she screamed once and lay still.

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Cyborg watched unbelievingly as the white raven, now black shot through with demonic red, fell back into Raven's limp form. She suddenly began to move, impossibly, thrashing about on the floor as the wounds that had vanished from her body opened again, as though the healing spell the demon had put on her had faded.

There was an explosion of fire from the shadows, and he turned – only to see Slade erupting into flames, his skin and clothes burning away to ashes, his copper mask melting as though he had been engulfed in lava all over again. The fiery cages that held the trapped Titans dissolved into a shower of sparks that hissed their lives out on the cold floor, but none of them moved, all eyes fixed on the center of the room, where Raven lay in a pool of her own blood, and Robin – his claws and horns gone, and his skin a normal color again – fell senseless to the floor.

Cyborg stood from where he had been kneeling on the floor, slowly, his metal hands shaking, his ears ringing from the shriek that had accompanied Slade's death. Looking around at the totaled basement, the smashed machinery, and the splashes of blood that adorned the walls, he closed his eyes.

"Remind me never to come to the basement again."

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And there you have it, the climax! I really hope it wasn't a letdown, but I suck at choreographing fight scenes, so I put in as little fighting as possible. I'm sorry if that disappointed anyone. And for those of you who are incredibly confused, I'll try to explain everything in the next chapter. Review, please!