First, a note or two:

This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else.

Also, this story departs from cannon just before the first of the "The End" trilogy of episodes, as, obviously that being the end, I can't make my own story line stemming from that. Although, since the Titans still seemed together after that, maybe I can...

KEY:

'Blah' thought

"Blah" speech

I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. This product subject to the International Confederation of Wizards Statute of Secrecy and contains Class C Non-Tradeable Substances. Violating these rules may result in expulsion, fines of up to 3000 Galleons, and up to 6 percent of the appropriate species average lifetime (5 years for a human) in prison, or 10 years for Non-Expiring species. Do not disassemble under any circumstances.

Please review if you've read this story.

Some of you seem surprised that I decided to kill off Starfire. I do have to admit that I honestly was surprised too. Really. I'm not just saying that to mock my reviewers. When you write a story – a story that comes from yourself – it is difficult to be sure exactly how the story will play out. Characters evolve throughout the story. I did know that at least SOMEONE had to die - it was just a premonition, shall we say - but as to who, I had no idea.

Plus, I said this was not for kiddies, so deal with it :)

And now, on with the show.

Out on the once-proud plains of Tameran, three friends were engaged in an epic battle against one whom they had, mere moments before, thought to be one of their closest friends and trusted allies. One would normally think that when three warriors fought against one, when all four of the combatants knew every other's fighting style, that lone one would inevitably be overwhelmed and beaten.

In this particular fight, however, it was the three that were overwhelmed and beaten, for their spirits had already been broken. The kind, gentle Tameranian named Koriand'r, or Starfire by her earthling friends, lay in the low grass at the edge of this field, her body beginning to turn the ghostly gray that, like a missing sales receipt, signified no return.

Robin swung at Raven with his bo staff, nearly missing her yet again. He was strangely uncoordinated, missing almost every strike. He certainly fought with as much passion as ever, his eyes filled with rage. In fact, that was exactly why he couldn't land a strike. Robin's mind was so deeply filled with rage over the death of Starfire that he almost literally couldn't see what he was doing.

Raven shot another blast of dark energy at Robin. Despite his inability to fight, he managed to deflect the blast, sending it ricocheting off the ground and careening off into space. This clearly angered Raven, who was getting tired of fighting this annoying little human. She sneered at Robin, before clenching her fists and closing her eyes. The same dark spear that had moments before killed Starfire shot out from her hands, darting towards the Boy Wonder. He ducked out of the way just in time, and, to both his and Raven's surprise, heard a strange squelching noise behind him.

Standing behind Robin was Beast Boy, whose stomach was now impaled with the same dark spear of energy. His eyes, though, were what surprised them. They were now filled with hate as Robin's were. Instead, they were filled with what seemed like pity. As he choked his last breaths, he spoke one last time, his eyes, still full of pity, on Raven.

"I know you're in there. I know you can hear us. You have to fight him, because I still love you. No matter what, I still love you." And then, for the second time that night, the rapidly cooling body of member of a once-powerful fighting force touched the cold Ysalamari Plains.

Raven's mind was in shock. She had never known that someone would so readily give up his life for her. But then perhaps that was because she had always been so focused on her meditation. Fat lot of good that had done her, she thought morosely. Or had she focused? Raven realized suddenly that she had never been at ease in her entire life. She had always been afraid. Afraid to walk out in the street, lest someone be hurt by an outburst of her powers. Afraid to laugh, to live, and to love, lest a friend be wounded by her nightmares.

Raven of Azerath focused herself for the first time in her life. She focused on the four last words spoken by the small green changeling that now lay in the grass near her. She focused her whole self on those, blocking out the outside, the mocking thought-words of her father, and the physical pain that her father was channeling through to her. She focused only on those words.

Trigon could tell something was wrong the moment he tried to taunt Raven again and found that he couldn't. There was a impenetrable barrier put up between his mind and that of his daughter. 'So she's isolated herself,' thought Trigon. 'How – usual.' He laughed to himself, his laughter pouring out of Raven's mouth and echoing in the night.

Raven heard her father's laughter and knew what she had to do. She focused on her father now, on his mocking, his murders, and his mastery of her body. She focused on these, and felt the anger build in her like it had never before. The anger grew inside her like some roiling mass of dark energy. She imagined, and, for the first time in what seemed like eons, it took shape. A twisting coil of dark energy shot out from her head. It shot towards Robin, who stared resolutely at it, prepared to meet death head on. At the last moment, however, it seemed to falter. It stopped in midair, mere inches from the masked face of the Boy Wonder, and seemed to tremble in the air, almost as if it were a rope in an invisible tug-of-war competition.

Raven herself was behaving very oddly. She was completely still, and yet her eyes were moving rapidly in their sockets. They darted around, sometimes looking at the coil and sometimes not, almost as if she was both trying to look at it and trying not to look at it. Then suddenly her gaze fixed and did not move again. The coil of energy trembled for a moment longer before turning on itself and pointing back towards its caster. With one final spasm, it shot towards Raven.

Raven screamed, but it was not her own scream. It was a much deeper, darker scream. It was a scream of the frustration of a fallen angel. It was a scream of the liberation of a hundred thousand tortured souls. It was the scream one hears when the door to the school bus opens at the end of the first day of school and the frightened little child cries "Mommy!" and runs towards his mother. The dark coil impaled her as it had impaled the others, and then curved down into the ground, effectively pinning her in the middle of the field like some grotesque Christmas decoration. As Robin and Cyborg watched, something strange seemed to happen to the dying sorceress. Her body had almost immediately gone limp, unlike the others, who had managed to deliver nice little speeches before expiring. Instead, her body was lifeless as two shapes, one blue, one red, seemed to struggle above her. They were both fading quickly as the blue one seemed to be trying to hold the red one down. Then they both winked out of all existence, and a blinding flash of light filled the air. When the light cleared, Raven's body was gone. Only a small, black burn mark, like the mark of a rocket launch, remained on the ground where she had been.

Raven was gone. Her mind and body were gone, and with her she had taken the most powerful demon in the universe. Robin walked over to the charred spot where she had been and spoke, his voiced choked with shock and emotion. "May you rest in peace, dearest Raven." As he spoke, a single, solitary tear fell from him to the to the cold ground.