If I owned it, I wouldn't be writing this. Nor do I own the song that inspired it, which I think is by Eric Clapton, but I'm not sure
The first thing Raven noticed was the smell. Not that there was anything bad about it, quite the opposite in fact. It smelled like every thing that had ever smelled good to her. Vanilla, warm, apple cinnamon, sugar cookies, everything. Slowly, her eyes fluttered open, or maybe her consciousness fluttered open, she wasn't quite sure.
She was in a park, sitting on a bench talking to Snoopy. That in itself did not seem strange to her, but rather the strange thing was that she was interested is what he had to say, and she was so happy to be talking to him.
"So anyway, the short story is that Chuck finally just outright kissed the girl after he talked to me, and boy o' boy, weren't we surprised with the aftermath."
Raven blinked, turning her head to look at the short, white beagle. "Well what happened?" Blinking again, Raven crossed her eyes to look at her own nose. Was that her voice? It didn't sound like her. The voice was hers, but the lilt, the tone, were all wrong, too happy, it almost sounded like Starfire.
Snoopy answered, chuckling. "Working on his thirteenth kid and just won the lottery for the second time."
"Wow… So I guess they were right all along, he is a good man."
"Yep, that he is…" Grinning, the beagle patted her on the knee and stood up stretching a little bit. "Well I'll take my leave of you, looks like your ride is here."
Confused, Raven looked around. "What are you-" Her statement cut off when she saw who the dog was talking about. Leaning against a tree about ten feet away, dressed in khaki corduroy slacks and a white shirt with bare feet, was Changeling.
Grinning, her green friend pushed off of the tree and walked towards her, standing about two feet away. "How ya doin', Rae? And before you ask, it's Garfield here."
Raven stared at him for about a second more before flying from her seat like a rock from a catapult, her arms wrapping around his neck and her toes just barely dragging the ground. He was tall, so very tall, and she had forgotten how tall he'd been. He'd been. That thought brought Raven up short, her head pulling back to look at him, worry finally making an appearance in her mind, though it quickly turned to curiosity.
"Chan- Garfield, rather. Where am I? What is this place? How did I get here?"
Garfield smiled softly from where he was holding her, his arms around her in return of her embrace, her toes still dragging. "Where do you think you are, Raven?"
"I don't know… I think I'm in Hea-" Raven's mouth snapped closed and she let go of Garfield's neck, trying to back away. "I don't belong here, Garfield. I'm not supposed to be here…"
Garfield refused to let her back up too far, keeping her close enough that she couldn't turn and run away. "Tell me, Rae, what's the last thing you remember?"
"What's that have to do with anything?"
"Just think, Raven. What was the last thing you remember?"
Quietly, the dark sorceress furrowed her brows, trying to sift through her last memories.
FLASH
Cut, bleeding, broken, and beaten, Raven stood before her father, sheer defiant will the only thing holding her together.
"Daughter," Trigon's voice slithered forth, the demon himself striding around her clad in a deceivingly comely mortal sheathe. "I am tired of waiting. Now my choices are either to kill you and take the power I want regardless, or you give in and I gain that power that much faster. The key point in that second choice, dearest child, is that you remain alive. Make your choice."
Raven slowly straightened, every joint in her body grinding bone directly onto bone. Even slower, she hung her head, one arm painfully extended to end in a hand wrapped in black magic, her lips moving as she silently chanted an energy spell.
Like rocks grating in a pit of bile and slime, Trigon chuckled as he reached out to take her hand. "Wise choice, daughter."
"You have no idea." Raven spoke quietly, just barely enough force in her breath to make a whisper. Four words came to her lips, not new words by far, but words that had never been spoken as part of a spell. Four words that, singularly or together, spelt out the antithesis of her father, the one emotion that she never dared to feel but always did. Four words, four names, that to Raven, meant Love above all else.
"Starfire. Cyborg. Changeling. Robin!" With a roar, Raven did the impossible, reversing the polarity of her own, inherited magic, flooding the demon with pure, unadulterated light. In an eternal instant, Trigon was flayed layer by layer from every form and reality that he had ever touched.
In the aftermath, Raven lay upon her back, blood flowing from her eyes, nose, and mouth as well as her cuts. The very same light energy that she had used to finally rid the world from her father was doing the same to half of her, Raven's body painfully liquefying like magma through a tin pipe. As her eyes melted in their sockets, her last thoughts was of her beloved Titans, and most of all, of Robin. He had promised to be there when Raven got to her final destination, no matter where it be…
FLASH
Raven canted her head to the side, looking at Garfield with tears in her eyes, even more astonished to have them, everything beginning to make sense save for one aspect.
"Garfield… W-Where's Robin? He promised me he'd be here…"
The green dynamo gently pulled Raven to his chest, smiling. "He's here alright, Raven. They just won't let him in the park yet. He… He listened to you, Rae, when you told him where you thought you'd go. That was his last act, to make sure he went to Hell, despite his life of righteousness… But when I found out where you were going, we tend to get things about two weeks in advance here, I sent word to him. And as of yesterday, the entirety of Hell is either scared civilized, dead, or stapled to lampposts."
Raven stared openly at her friend, not believing but not disbelieving the extent of Robin's commitment to her.
Gently, Garfield turned and guided her to a path, placing a hand upon her shoulder and whispering in her ear. "Straight that way. When you smell the sulfur, you'll find him."
Wordlessly, the dark sorceress nodded, her steps coming slow and short at first, increasing gradually until she broke into a flat out sprint, racing past trees and grass faster than she ever had before.
Ahead, Raven could see Robin sitting with his back to a wall outside the park gate, scarred and still smoking from the Gates of Hell. She saw him look up as she called his name, the girl running too fast for tears to catch up. She saw him rise and bolt towards her, barreling through men and women of all different ages and time periods. At full speed they ran to each other, not slowing even as they approached one another, which one crashed into the other irrelevant as they collided, tumbling down a hill to one side, Robin's lips locking onto Raven's as they rolled to a stop, all the world and even Heaven standing still for the brilliant flash of light that accompanied angels getting their wings. Neither of the birds could care, however, as they stared into each others eyes, even if they were floating two feet off the ground.
AN: There it is, Ladies and Gentlemen. Reviews are greatly appreciated, no matter be they praise or flames. Do be aware that dumb flames will be summarily ignored, such as ones regarding the pairing.
My sincerest apologies to those of you waiting for the first real chapter of JCHS, I swear I'm working on it. International travel, heavy ordnance deployments, and other work related circumstances have prevented me from doing right by you. I'm trying, really
PANAN: For those of you that will say that Raven is out of character, I am fully aware of that. Before you berate me, think about it. It's Heaven. Everything's perfect! (Allegedly) That includes the reward of being able to feel. Capish?