CHAPTER 6: An Azarath Of A Welcome
Raven's legs were already pounding hard on the floor of the operations center in the Titans Tower the minute her soul-self managed to teleport the half-demon, half-human telekinetic into the home base. Already, the headquarters of the Teen Titans was deserted and abandoned for the day; the Justice League has called it a day and managed to go off back to the Watchtower, leaving the rest of the repairs for the rest of the day. After a few moments of second thought, while she was still running, Raven scanned for other life forms in the tower, any mental or physical signatures from Cyborg, Razor, Trinity, Forge, and the other adults from G.I. Joe and the X-Men that have stayed behind for helping out with the renovations and patch-ups from the explosion caused by the Megazord blowing up. To her relief, no one else was apparently in the vicinity. They must have left right before Raven managed to use her powers to warp into the tower. That meant she still had time to make her escape before Rogue could reveal to the others the awful truth…
Raven felt tears burn her eyes and her nose run, but she steely composed herself to remain facially frozen. No, she would not break down. Not now. There could still be one last hope, one final chance at true sanctuary, where she could truly flee this madness and insanity.
Raven could just visualize what her friends would say the instant they discovered the God-awful truth about her heritage, her birthright, and the shame that courted it. Robin's voice snarled from the blackest depths of her imagination…
How could you not tell us? We were your friends, your allies, and your family! We trusted you! We would have died for you, and this is how you show your loyalty? You hid this from us until it was too late to do anything about it? God, Raven, you're no Titan! Even Terra showed more concern and loyalty than you did for us on this!
Almost immediately, an image of Wanda, now gruesomely disemboweled and nothing more than a living, disgusting, decaying cadaver, emerged from her worst nightmares of the prophetic vision Slade had bequeathed to her, sobbing and shrieking piercingly at Raven with blame and hurt…
Look at me! Look at me! I ended up like this because you wouldn't trust me, because you didn't care about me! Even after I was nice to you and actually could share and understand and empathize with you, you still turned your back on me! How could you? How could you? Now thanks to you, Trigon killed me and my family, and I lost everything! And it's all your fault!
Then Professor Xavier regarded her sternly, saying the one thing that she least wished to ever hear in her lifetime…
You are no hero, Raven. You are nothing more than a beast, a monster, just like your father.
Raven could hear Low Light's earlier words taunting her, echoing cruelly in her mind as they continued to highlight the evil inside her, the evil she tried so desperately to hide, to change, to reform…
It sounds dangerous. If anything, if we can't make sure that this gem doesn't fall into the wrong hands, then we'll have to destroy it before the Hellfire Club and Slade and H.I.V.E. get their grubby hands on it. It'll be better to eliminate it so that no one could ever use that as a weapon and endanger innocents…
It'll be better to eliminate it so that no one could ever use that as a weapon and endanger innocents…
Endanger innocents…
Endanger innocents…
Endanger innocents…
"No," Raven half-sobbed as she continued running to her room, but there was no denying the fact of truth in the Joes' words. She was nothing more than a weapon, a tool of evil, a danger to her friends, the very type of threat heroes such as the X-Men, the Joes, and the Titans have always fought before, what they were meant to fulfill for the sake of making the world a better and safer place. A place without her being a blight upon it.
Raven managed to finally come to her room, her heart beating madly from the exertion and hoping she could still do what she planned before anyone could stop her, though a part of her reasoning reminded her that that assumption was based on the fact that her friends truly cared to want to stop her in the first place. Using her powers, immediately, all the books and papers that cluttered her floor swept away with a gentle noise as they were dragged and pushed along the carpet while the candles, the scented sticks of incense and myrrh, lit with small, gentle flames out of thin air, casting a soft and somewhat comforting aura of orange warmth in her dark room. Yet there was no time to waste on the pretense of relief when she need to run, to go to the last place she knew could be a possible last resort and haven for her.
With a flick of her fingers, a large, leather-bound spell-book, its pages ratty and tattered and the parchments colored yellow with age, hovered from one of the piles of books and tomes stacked all around her bed and flew towards the female Titan before she grasped it firmly to her chest. Raven remembered this particular volume; it was treasured above the rest of the books in her collection for it was the one her mother and the High Priest, Azar, bestowed upon her before Azar passed away and Raven left for Earth. And she knew, deep within its pages, were vivid and descriptive chapters about the mark and the horrors she would bring.
Raven recalled that Azar himself told Raven in his gentle voice, almost picturing his gray eyes of kindness and peace twinkling upon her fatherly when she was but a mere toddler.
"Raven, remember that if you ever need asylum, if you ever lose hope, remember those who love you and your legacy here in Azarath. This book is a testament to what you were firmly taught and what you must always cherish if you ever wish to live our ways, but no matter what, you have a home here, young one, should you ever need help."
It was safe to say this was one of those times.
Raven cursed her father, cursed Slade, cursed her other birthright and legacy as she raised a hand, and with a pop, two hourglasses on her bookshelf from nearby cracked at the very apex, the glass shattering neatly while the shadows of her telekinesis caressed the grains of dirt and rock and caused to float in the air, guided by her mind.
"You might be able to stop me from meditating!" Raven said, her voice shaking with fear from being cornered. The sands, sparkling faintly underneath the hues of the black shadows telekinetically carrying it, spread out neatly into a perfectly shaped circle, encircling the form of the cloaked Teen Titan.
"But you can't stop me from leaving!" she declared with final resolve, abandoning all her caution and her affection for her friends as she laid a hand on the spell-book and began chanting, her words thick with emotion, passion and power. Her cloak and cape all around her body began to billow as unforeseen winds picked up and swirled strongly all around the witch.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"
Instantly, blue sparks of magical aura became distinct in the sand and began to sparkle, glowing brighter and brighter with each syllable of power.
"Carazon Rakashas Endere…"
The sand then emitted columns and columns of transparent light the color of the purest oceans as a barrier of light, a wall of holy luminescence taking shape of the circle of sand, rose from the floor and kept extending and extending until it touched the ceiling, creating another ring of light above Raven's head. Raven's voice grew more foreboding and forceful as the telekinetic levitated off the floor.
"Vaserix Endrien Azarath…"
The ring of light on the ceiling of the room now became a swirling portal of power, and Raven's eyes flew open, showing no pupils as they glowed white with power and emotion. The portal was now churning madly as the winds blew bits of paper and dust all around the Titan as the epicenter of a miniature tornado before Raven then bellowed the last words.
"…AZARATH, AZARATH!"
With a sudden flash of white light, Raven was pulled upwards into the portal without so much as a gasp from the girl, and with another flash, the portal sealed itself, disappearing from sight. With that, all became as still as death in her little dark room, the candles now extinguished and smoking gently with wafts of scented steam.
As if she was on the fastest rocket ship towards heaven, Raven flew as free and clear as a bird, the winds rushing past her as she used her powers and mental strength to propel herself higher and higher into the infinite tunnel of light. All around her, magical white energy and intense power crackled and swirled around her madly, threatening to incinerate Raven into ashes, but with a simple burst of black shadows, her soul held the defensive mechanisms at bay, keeping her safe as apparitions of fierce angelic beings besieged her, trying as guardians of the realm to prevent the unfamiliar intruder from desecrating their hallowed ground. Raven paid them no heed, her face showing a glower of concentrated determination, as she barraged her way through the energy and ghosts without even much of a conscious thought. Like a bu8llet she flew, but it was nowhere as fast as the jumbled chaotic thoughts of what was to come running through her mind and petrifying the very core of her being. Raven forced herself to not think of it. Before long, she finally reached the end of the tunnel, and it was a gigantic barrier of light, colored with hues of the softest pink and purple of the dawning sun in the sky. The doorway was covered with circles and triangles all arranged in an intricate pattern, like a stained glass window, while the border of the disc of light was written in strange, glowing runes. The very same runes of the ancient language that littered Raven's body when Slade attacked her. Raven let out the breath she was holding in painfully; she was home. Raven immediately thrust herself at the entryway eagerly, but to her shock, a violent conflagration of light burst forth from the pattern and pushed her back forcefully, instantly letting her know she was not to pass.
Raven was not going to back down. No, she wouldn't back down! Azar himself told her that she would always be welcome, and by Azarath, she needed help! They could not turn her away! They simply couldn't!
"Let me in!" Raven growled, the jewel on her forehead now glowing as red as fresh blood as she flew into the barrier, pushing as hard as she could, hoping that the door would give way and allow her in at last. Yet to her dawning horror and fear and dread, the gate just fought back just as vigorously, the two sources of power now coming head to head, and to Raven's shock, it was as if the path would not allow her to go through for that one, horrific secret, because of her demonic heritage.
She didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to believe that she was now banished, not when she was in such dire need and only one person behind the gate could help her. But what would she do then if she was exiled?
At this, Raven lost it and started screaming, lost as she hugged the spell-book close to her chest, the touch of the novel reminding her of Azar's promise and giving her one last lingering shred of a fool's hope that she could be safe here. Raven's voice grew more shrill, her heart plummeting to her stomach in an icy cold, numbing pain as she pounded hard on the barrier, trying to get through, not caring of the pain that was blossoming over and over as she struck her fist against the force-field of steel.
"Let me in! PLEASE! LET ME IN! LET ME IN, LET ME IN, LET ME IN! For the love of all that is holy, let me in!" she screamed.
The gate still did not budge, and like she was the most horrible and filthy of all outcasts, it continued to force her back.
"Let me in…please," she begged, dropping her tone to a whisper, her eyes brimming with loss. Oh by Azarath, if she was no longer welcome…
The pattern of protection then halted its attack, ceasing its brunt act of violence, before flickering in its glowing intensity, ranging into a cyclic rhythm of faint to strong over and over again, as if pondering the situation.
"Please…" Raven choked. She hated asking for mercy, but what else could she do?
She couldn't face this alone…
To her relief, with a gentle blaze, everything around her went white, silent yet as soft and tender as a gentle breeze, and Raven felt her heart soar as she then found herself soon hovering in the air in front of a giant, levitating rock roughly the size of the asteroid, Avalon, created by Magneto. And on the surface of the flying mountain was a giant kingdom, a living city full of towers, buildings, and a lone, main monolith symbolically structured in the very center of the grand civilization. All of the structures and skyscrapers were tall, elongated, and forged out of the smoothest rock and elements of creamy brown and precious metals, the edges trimmed with silver and gold. It was faintly reminiscent of the Renaissance era, a town based on the architecture of the Roman cathedrals and European design, yet at the same time, displaying a comforting aura of serenity and peaceful times.
Raven then smiled to herself.
She was granted refuge.
"Thank you…" Raven whispered to no one in particular, tears in her eyes and clutching the volume in her hands, but appreciative all the same for the her entrance into the mysterious and mystical metropolis. Raven then spoke the words with fond memory, remembering the happier times she had here in the earlier years.
"Azarath, my last hope."
Without even hesitating, Raven flew into the city, her heart lighter than usual. As she then wandered into the streets and passageways that snaked all around Azarath like a maze, she then felt eerily worried. All around, she noticed that there was not a single living soul anywhere within the gilded buildings, the streets as empty and silent and dusty as if no one had inhabited the realm of Azarath for quite some time. She suddenly found herself wishing her friends, the Titans, were here, or if anything else, the X-Men and the Misfits. Anyone as long as she wouldn't be alone during this difficult time of returning back to Azarath.
"Hello?" Raven called out hesitantly, like a small child. There was only a unnatural silence, so solemn and quiet that the blood was ringing in Raven's ears. The Titan managed to give out a soft laugh at herself, despite the fear and terror gripping her.
She muttered to herself, "It's not like I expected a parade…"
Raven then, to her shock and pleasure, saw a dove of pure white color cooing gently from the rooftops, staring at Raven with wide, black eyes of innocence. Raven smiled at the bird, at the sign that there was life in the city, and upon this greeting, the dove flapped its wings and took off, the sunlight giving a slight halo of radiance all around the avian of symbolic peace, its feathers shimmering. Intrigued and as if she knew deep down that the dove wished for Raven to follow it, the Titan flew in the air with her powers and tracked the dove, still clutching the book in her arms protectively. Straight as a line, the dove flew and Raven tailed it, heading towards the very heart of the empire. Eventually, the dove flew towards the top of a gigantic and beautiful tower, the lofty and soaring monument that could be glimpsed from a far distance and that dwarfed over the rest of the nearby buildings, and on the side of the obelisk was a gargantuan of a huge golden bird with its wings spread out in a majestic gesture. The symbol of the kingdom of Azarath. There, as Raven ascended into the rosy sky of yellow and bright sunlight, Raven could see the dove land on a wide balcony positioned at the very top of the tower amid a sea of fellow white birds. Among them on the spacious terrace was a tall, thin feminine figure in a white cloak, the hood drawn over its head, but the Titan could just barely make out the familiar face of a grave yet stunningly beautiful woman with long, dark hair and a similar jewel position in the middle of her forehead. With a glazed look of peace on her serene face, the woman stroked one of the doves that flew into her hands gently, and even from the far distance, Raven recognized the one woman with a gasp.
It was her mother.
"Arella!" Raven whispered to herself in joy before she quickened her pace, her head buzzing from the effort of rushing quickly, reaching the balcony right before her mother could retreat back inside the chambers within.
"Mother, wait!" Raven called out pleadingly, and at those words, Arella stiffened, as if taken aback, before her shoulders significantly relaxed and turned to see her daughter glide gently before she landed onto the veranda with barely a noise. Arella face did not change in any way, not the slightest hint of happiness or joy at seeing her kin again. She remained as stoic as ever, but Raven, though she was sure she was imagining it, could see a hint of…sadness and regret?
Arella then spoke in a smooth and elegantly gentle and sage voice, her voice a bit husky but ethereal as well, "Hello, Raven. Welcome home, my daughter."
Raven felt her heart choke and writhe at the look. She spoke hurriedly.
"No, Mother! Wait! I've come back! Mother, please help me!"
The woman bit back her strong emotions of grief as she spoke, "You always had a home here, my child. But help we could not give."
"The prophecy, it's happening!" Raven gasped, whimpering, brandishing the book in front of her and forgetting all pretenses of formal greetings (though she could argue now was not the time), "You have to tell me how to stop it!"
"Nothing can be done. The promise…of your birth was…absolute. I am truly sorry, Raven."
Raven flared at this, now feeling the urge to scream and blame her mother, for accusing her of being so distant and cold-blooded.
"I don't believe you! There has to be a way! There has to! I don't want to be this! I…I don't want to help him." Raven's voice dropped a notch lower at this last sentence, and Arella nervously clutched her elbows, as if in pain and conflict between helping Raven or just standing by and accepting the fate of her daughter's role with Trigon. Raven pushed even more gently.
"Mother, please, I don't want to help him."
Arella then spoke, her voice now a bit strangled and teary, misty with sadness and love for her daughter, though Raven had no idea how unbearable it was to Arella for knowing that very little could be done to save her daughter. She whispered, "You forever had the love of your people, Raven, even knowing what you would become and what you would bring. Even when Juris was killed trying to sentence you to limbo to help spare Azarath and Earth, people still did not wish to banish you because of what you are, because of what you would become. In truth, we…accepted it. The priests and priestesses of Azarath do not condone violence and the loss of life for something as fruitless and inevitable as this, and the sacrifice of the many lives of innocents that would come of it if we even dared to attempt destroying Trigon…it was too much to risk, too much to give. Even though Azar wished that you could be safe before he passed, he told us that he would not blame you for your role in the prophecy, in the Armageddon."
"It was not my fault!" screamed Raven hysterically, at her wits end, in a voice that was teetering between anger, self-loathing, and frustration, "I didn't mean for Juris to get killed because of me! I didn't ask for this, ask to be Trigon's daughter, ask to be born, ask to be a part of this entire prophecy! I didn't ask for it! I don't want it! It's not fair this should be on my shoulders! It's not fair!"
Raven's mother lower lip began to tremble and quiver, her grief and pain starting to emerge, as she clasped her hands together and held them in front of her mouth, stifling the rare instances when she would break down, before she choked, "I am truly sorry, Raven. I…I have n o choice. You have no choice. It is your destiny, it is your birthright, it is a part of you and your life. You cannot escape it."
At this, Raven was simply furious as she then lashed out at her mother.
"Is that all you can say to me?" spat Raven angrily, "'I have no choice'? 'It's my destiny'! You were more of fault at this mess with Trigon than anyone, more than me! You're the one who had to sire a child with him! If you were any kind of a mother, you would help me! I don't want to die! I don't want to die helping Trigon! If you even loved me like a real mother, you wouldn't just stand by and let your own child die like the sacrificial lamb to save your own skin!"
At this, Arella began to weep quietly, and Raven's heart broke at the unintentional way she worded her anger, at the way she hurt her mother. Raven then began to cry too, wishing she and her matriarch could just live in peace, that she could be just a normal teenager, that she could live in happiness with what was left of her family. The Titan then rushed over, and with a rare moment of affection, she hugged her mother tightly, not caring if her mother didn't return the gesture.
"Oh mother, please…I…I'm scared…" Raven blubbered. And Arella then grasped her daughter in her arms, sobbing freely now.
"I am so sorry, my child. I…I had no choice. Please forgive me for what I did, for what I must to protect you…"
"Mother?" Raven asked softly, confused, but Arella then raised her tear-stained face to her daughter.
"I am so sorry, Raven…I did not wish to, please believe me…" the tender woman sobbed.
"Did not wish to what?" the Teen Titan asked, now horribly baffled. But then she dropped the book in shock when she realized they were not alone on the balcony as the white doves all around them fluttered and darted off into the sky madly upon the intrusion.
"Hello, my dear Raven…" Brother Blood's voice sneered. Raven took several steps back in horror and alarm as she readied herself automatically into a defensive pose to see, to her amazement and disbelief, Brother Blood and a large, towering, behemoth of a demon standing side by side with Arella. Brother Blood, though he had the same head and facial gestures, was dramatically different. His body, the chest the arms and his legs, were amplified into an ape-like musculature, hairy and quivering with power and brute strength. A testament from Brother Blood's experimentation with the Shaggy Man, with what had been done with Kalibak's body. If anything, the evil tyrant and religious nut seemed younger, stronger, and more menacing than ever. And around Brother Blood's bare shoulders was an exquisite cape of shimmering silver and red, and the Titan could sense something foreboding, something haunting from the garment. And the demon on Arella's left side was massive, immense, his entire body black from his wicked claws and talons to his spiked hair. In fact, the only things not black on the demon's body were Blackheart's eyes and the symbol of the Heartless on his torso.
Raven was stunned. How did they ever manage to enter Azarath, a haven of holiness that would not allow anyone, regardless of what powers they harnessed, to enter unless they were…
Raven felt her world drop and crumble beneath her feet as she then realized it. Her mother had let them in. Her own flesh and blood betrayed her only daughter to Brother Blood and his associate, surrendering her to the Hellfire Club and ultimately, to Trigon. Arella then said in a choked voice.
"I am sorry, Raven, but I did not wish to see you killed…and Brother Blood along with the Hellfire Club has promised me that they would ensure that Trigon would spare your life if I helped them and that Azarath would be restored…"
Raven could only stand there, petrified at the words of betrayal, while Brother Blood and Blackheart descended upon the sixteen-year old girl with little chance of escape…
---
"You have got to be kidding me," Speedy said flatly, still not sure how to take it.
That sentiment was voiced at least have a dozen times by the member of Titans East as he and his teammates along with the Teen Titans, the X-Men, G.I. Joe, and the Misfits just listened Rogue explain what she had learned when she had inadvertently absorbed Raven's memories by accident in complete and utter shock. Not just the ordinary, fatigued, shock that one naturally expects from the life of a teenage superhero. All of them were literally experiencing the jaw-dropping, horrified, reeling shock that was only slightly a few notches above being doused with a bucket of ice water before being left stranded and naked in an isle in the North Pole full of bloodthirsty polar bears and killer sharks and Abominable Snowmen.
Beast Boy looked absolutely broken as he pleaded to Rogue, nearly begging, "C'mon, Rogue, you can't be serious! Tell us it's a mistake! Tell us you're joking! Tell us this is something you imagined! Something Raven imagined! It's can't be! It can't be true!"
Earlier, Rogue urgently and frantically contacted the Professor with her mind, nearly overwhelmed with fear and panic, and when the X-Men, the Titans, the Misfits, and the Joes gathered around her in the middle of the Jump City Main Park, the gothic mutant explained what happened with her and Raven when they grouped together at the Mega-Mall. Then she also explained what she saw when she touched Raven, the memories she absorbed and sprang to life in her head like a demented video player, revealing to her a horror she only dared imagine in movies or books.
At first, everyone was slightly skeptical (even hoping that the X-Girl was seriously mistaken), especially the Teen Titans and Titans East, but then the Professor looked into her mind and by using a telepathic mental link (upon Robin and Bumblebee's requests), was able to project the thoughts Rogue steadily gained into the consciousnesses of everyone gathered around with his mental powers. And at that point, there was pretty much no question about the images that Rogue had absorbed from Raven.
They saw the scenes of Raven being covered with the ancient texts and symbols of her heritage, the writing burning into her skin and as red as fresh blood, writing that was in the same style as the brand on Slade's forehead.
They found themselves immersed in the darkness as a deep, disembodied voice rang throughout the sea of blackness, whispering the foreign yet chillingly haunting words of doom, "What you have concealed, you shall become! You have no other choice! Your destiny will be fulfilled! The portal must be opened! The gem was born of evil's fire! The gem shall be his portal! He comes to claim, he comes to sire, the end of all things mortal!"
They viewed down upon Raven screaming, clutching herself in agony and torment, as she was immersed in a sea of fire, while two demonic and dauntingly malicious pair of eyes watched over her, leering, among the symbols of the Heartless and of Scath burning brightly in the sky. And quite frankly, the sight of the evil eyes was enough to make Beast Boy and several others wet their pants upon the spot.
They could only stand there, petrified, as Raven and Slade fought, while she tried fleeing for her sanity and safety. Slade practically molested her, ripping her uniform and exposing her bare skin to display the hideous runes of her birthright, as the Titans, the Misfits, the X-Men, and the Joes heard the prophecy, word for word.
Yet what truly haunted each of the heroes, what truly struck them at the core of their hearts and souls, was the premonition Raven saw as soon as Slade recited the prophecy. The group could only tremble and gasp at the images of the people and the Titans petrified in rock, could only cover their mouths in revulsion at the sight of the demons feasting upon the carcasses of the Joes, the Justice League, the X-Men, and the Misfits. That one future vision of death, of destruction, of the end of all life as they knew it.
Yes, there was no denying that the images Rogue absorbed were those of Raven, and to the Titans, it certainly explained a few things about Raven's recent behavior. However, most of the Titans and some of the Joes and the mutants were still hesitant to believe that this implied that Raven has something to do with the events with Slade, Leomon, the Hellfire Club, H.I.V.E. and the Heartless. It also didn't help explain a few blank spots of where logic failed to grasp…
"I cannot believe it," Starfire said shakily, her wide green eyes troubled and holding her hands to her chest, "I will not believe it! I will not believe what you have just shared, Friend Rogue! Raven cannot be evil! She simply cannot!"
"Yeah, and if anything, if any one of us was going to turn evil, I would have bet money that it would have been Jean," Pietro commented rather flippantly, and Scott put his hands to his sunglasses in a threatening manner, warning the Misfit.
"Just keep going on with your big mouth, Quicksilver…" Scott growled, and that ended whatever the speedster was going to say rather quickly.
"Dude…Rogue! Your mutant power can't always be right, can it?" Beast Boy pleaded, "C'mon, Rogue, tell us this can't be real, the either you and Raven must have dreamed this all up as some sort of nightmare!"
"I hate ta' tell ya' this, Beast Boy, but I think what Rogue got from Raven's the real deal," Sam commented, white in the face, "Rogue doesn't just absorb life force, but she actually takes in their memories and stuff that can only have been in Raven's mind in the first place. Plus, I don't think that even Rogue, despite her gloomy personality, can even think up of stuff like this on a whim! Hell, this is enough to make Stephen King get the willies!"
"I agree with Cannonball. The memories I sensed from Rogue's mind are rather genuine, so there's no doubt that these are Raven's actual memories and her fears," Jean added. Beast Boy was still adamantly stubborn.
"No, Raven's not like that! It's gotta be something Raven then dreamed up! I mean, who else would have nightmares from being chased by a super-powered Slade?"
"Actually, this might explain a lot ever since we tried celebrating Raven's birthday a week or so ago," Aqualad said, frowning, deep in thought, "And it also explains why Slade is targeting only her. Slade must have something to do with that thing that wants Raven. Only problem is, it doesn't explain who or what Raven is supposed to do or how she's supposed to end the world."
"It makes sense," Xi said, unnaturally troubled, "If the day of her birthday marked her being closer to this supposed end of the world, then of course she'd not want anything to do with it, to be reminded of it. I think she was trying to escape it, hoping she could make an effort to refuse it. That's why Slade was taunting her about her heritage and her birth when he chased her and Robin."
"So that symbol on Slade's forehead is called the Mark of Scath?" Roadblock queried, "But then how does this relate to Raven's path? We don't even know what's the relation between Raven and Scath in this situation!"
"No, you don't understand! Raven isn't evil, but she's gonna be part of the prophecy of her father! Don't ya' guys see? That's who this Scath guy is! Scath is Raven's father!" Rogue exclaimed. Upon this sentence, Beast Boy and Cyborg's jaws collectively dropped as their eyes popped out, immediately recalling this trip to Raven's mind from the mirror in her bedroom one fateful day in the past.
"No way!" Beast Boy gasped.
"Aw man, HIM?" Cyborg screeched uncharacteristically, "THAT'S who we're up against?"
"You know him?" Scott asked, "You went up against this guy before? You and the other Titans?"
Cyborg explained hurriedly how Beast Boy and he invaded Raven's privacy one time and how they somehow triggered a magical mirror that led them into Nevermore, into the realm that represented her mind and how they learned of why she was always so emotionally distant and how they met her split personalities. And then he explained how they met a manifestation of Raven's father in her darkest regions of her psyche, of how he represented her evil, dark side and how it grew stronger every time she was angry and allowed herself to feel rage. And at the end, Cyborg showed a holographic image he summoned from his bionic arm of what Trigon looked like.
The X-Men, the Titans, the Misfits, and the Joes were bothered to say the least, and if anything, as much as they were willing to not admit it, it made them see Raven in a whole new unflattering way.
"That's her Dad?" Fred gasped, his eyes wide as he looked on at the red and black horned demon.
"Hmph, she obviously takes after her mother," Brittany commented without much thought.
"So does that mean Raven has the gem? The one Slade is looking for, the one of evil's fire? You know, that tiara jewel that is on her forehead?" Dragonfly gasped, but Robin then guessed the truth as it clicked into place from Rogue's testimony.
"No!" he exclaimed, "Raven is the gem! She's the gem! Raven is the thing that will bring in her father! If it was simply a jewel, all Slade would have to do is steal it from Raven or kill her to get it! But the vision Rogue absorbed of Slade revealing Raven the prophecy and when those weird markings appeared on her body! And when he bragged in the future vision of Earth's destruction that this was the world she was meant to create! Slade was toying and playing with Raven, but he never truly harmed her! It's because she's needed to be alive and well in order to bring Scath! Don't you see, now? Raven is the portal herself!"
"Then the gem that's supposed to be the of Scath and how it's supposed to bring the end of the world…" murmured Forge in horror.
"…is Raven! She's going to be the catalyst that's supposed to cause the end of the world! And she'll be helping her father achieve it!" Bobby exclaimed.
"How come you never told us this? It could have helped us!" Bumblebee demanded angrily, her hands on her hips. Offended at her tone of voice, Cyborg turned his red, robotic eye on the leader of Titans East with an angry glare.
"Hey, first of all, it wasn't our place to tell! We really wouldn't be much of friends with Raven if we went around blabbing her secrets! And secondly, we didn't even know that he's behind the whole thing or that this was why Slade's after Raven! So don't turn your damn nose up at me and insinuate that Raven's feelings or our friendship to her is less important than this whole fiasco with the Hellfire Club and Scath!"
Bumblebee turned bright red with ire, and had she not had a reasonable clamp on her emotions, she would have given Cyborg a hearty rude gesture with a particular finger. Roadblock looked at Jean and Professor Xavier.
"Did you two ever managed to sense something about her?" he asked, but Xavier shook his head.
"It is understandable if you logically look at it," Xavier commented, troubled, "A girl that young but with such incredible skills of telekinesis and telepathy would naturally have solid mental shields, and considering that Robin and the other Titans have told me that she needs to be in constant meditation to keep her powers under control, she is literally a walking battery of power. So much inside her, so uncontrollably destructive…and if it is capable enough to bring forth an Armageddon that will destroy the Earth, it should be of no surprise that her mental powers could very well dwarf Jean's skills or mine. Thus, we cannot sense her even if we tried."
"That's not exactly comforting to hear, Charley!" Shipwreck groaned, "You're one of the most powerful mutants on the face of the planet! If Raven can easily beat ya', then imagine what her Pops is like!"
"I don't even wanna think about it!" groaned Sam.
"Then that explains why Leomon was so hostile to Raven when he first ran into us with the Heartless over at Jump City Bay!" gasped Wanda, realizing, "He knows what Raven is! He knows Raven is Scath's daughter! That explains why he's even here around the same time Slade and the Hellfire Club started appeared with H.I.V.E."
"Then if he knows that Raven is the gem and supposedly some sort of portal that's supposed to doom the Earth…" Roberto murmured.
"…then that also means Leomon also knows that this Scath guy will come if the Hellfire Club and Slade gets her under their control and the prophecy that revolves around her! So in a weird way, Leomon is on our side because we share the same common enemy!" Amara gasped, white in the face and finishing Sunspot's sentence for him.
"But maybe it's not as bad as we think!" Bobby put in, hopeful, "I mean, isn't it enough she doesn't want this to happen, that she's trying to stop it! You saw how Raven acted when Slade told her of her prophecy and her birthright! She didn't want it! Doesn't it prove that maybe we can avoid this, that Raven can possibly not lead to this Scath guy taking over the world?"
Scott said flatly, "Somehow Bobby, I don't think Slade and the Hellions are going to be giving Raven much of a choice on that. And something tells me they're going to be willing to do anything to ensure Scath gets exactly what he wants, even if it means hurting her or worse."
"Uh…how big is this Scath guy?" Jamie asked, white in the face and not sure he was going to like the answer.
Cyborg did a quick calculation on his bionic arm's keyboard scanner-console, estimating as well as he could taking into account Beast Boy's size when he transformed into a pterodactyl and that, by memory, the changeling could only reach half the size of Trigon's head, and said with dawning horror, "Considering when we last fought him…oh holy crap! Scath is around a thousand feet tall, give or take!"
The Misfits, the Joes, and the X-Men all felt their hearts drop at that factoid.
"A thousand…Oh my goddamned stars and garters!" cursed Beast, one of the few incidents where his trademark catchphrase would come out as a cursed swear word.
"Are you kidding me? That's even bigger than a Sentinel!" Tabitha gasped.
"About at least fifteen times the size of a Sentinel by our calculations!" Daria commented worriedly as she, Quinn and Brittany crunched a few hasty numbers on their scanners. This, if anything, made the X-Men and Misfits and soldiers from G.I. Joe worry even more.
"Suddenly, I wish we didn't destroy that Megazord after we built it several days ago," moaned Forge, holding a hand to his forehead.
"No use in crying over spilled milk, Forge," Jake said as calmly as he could before he turned to Cyborg and Beast Boy, asking, "You two kittens seem to have managed to handle him before in Raven's mind. Are there any weaknesses Scath has, maybe some sort of disability that could work out to our advantage?"
"No, there wasn't!" gasped Beast Boy, pulling his green hair in frustration, "Even in Raven's mind, me and Cybrog couldn't even faze him much, and we were all nearly toast! Dude, the only reason we were able to get outta there with our skins was because Raven managed to summon up all her split personalities to combine into some Mega-Raven and absorb the manifestation thingy of her father into her! She was the only one who was strong enough to stop him!"
"Damn it, it figures!" Blind Master groaned, "The only one who could stop Scath and the Armageddon of the planet is the same person who was fated to doom it by bringing him in the first place!"
"How could Raven do this to us, how could she not tell us?" Jean griped, "If she trusted us, we could have helped her!"
"And if Raven has the power to stop her father, then why not just simply blast him or something? I mean, she has the ability to lift up skyscrapers telekinetically and can use complex magic with barely even a thought or with just a simply flick of her fingers! If she has the power to stop Scath, why is she running? Why can't she just stay behind and help us fight him?" Aqualad asked. Yet Justin answered a bit solemnly.
"It's never easy to stand up against a parent who scares you to your very core, Aqualad."
Wanda and Pietro's faces both went collectively ashy and waxen. They felt that exact same sentiment in the past with Magneto, and Wanda felt only sympathy and concern for Raven when she could only envision what the Titan was struggling with.
"Chubby-cheeks is right," Pietro confessed, "I mean, I remember how hard it was to share to the guys when Tabitha left and Mystique came back that Magneto was my father. It wasn't the best feeling, to know that the Brotherhood and my friends would never look at me the same, that I'd be viewed like my Dad when I couldn't stand that, that I didn't want to be anything like Magneto. And I couldn't fight him because he scared me as a kid and I didn't want to be punished and made an example out of, like how he did with Wanda. When you're scared of your Dad as a kid, terrified of what he would do to you, no holds barred, you don't ever want to cross the line, even when you grow older. It stays with you, that hurt and fear and resentment. It's never easy to change it, to ignore it."
Quicksilver's words struck a chord with the rest of the Misfits and X-Men.
"Like how my Dad just disowned me over the phone and said I would no longer be a part of the family because I chose to be an X-Man," Bobby sniffed.
Tabitha choked, "And like my deadbeat father only wanted me around so I could use my mutant powers to steal money for his own selfish needs."
"And I never knew my Pops," Rogue sighed.
"And my father was one of Two-Face's flunkies who was gunned down when he tried to back out," Robin shared glumly.
"And my adoptive father physically molested me along with his wife when I was a child," Lance said shakily, shivering, and this one actually made some of the Titans' eyebrows perk up in surprise and pity at this confession. That one was easily a low point for any child. Roberto, though it was unclear if the X-Man shared because he wished to or because he didn't want Lance's admission to be too awkward for Lance himself, then spoke quietly.
"And my father is nothing more than a criminal syndicate who gets my family's wealth off the various crime rings and suffering of people caught in his extortions and shady dealings. Pietro's right when he says the thing that hurts the most is how you don't want to be viewed like your father and how you wish you could be nothing like him, that you won't make the same mistakes."
"I didn't know that," Ray said, surprised, as he turned to his Brazilian teammate and/or rival. Roberto shrugged easily enough thanks to distance and personal space.
"It's not something I'd like to advertise to the whole world, Ray," Sunspot grumbled, and a part of his was tensely waiting for Bezerker to laugh in his face so that Roberto would have the perfect reason to beat Ray to a bloody pulp. Yet what Bezerker did next actually surprised him. Ray placed a solid hand on Roberto's shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze.
"You're not your father, you know," he murmured. Roberto stared at Ray thoughtfully for a bit from this unexpected act of compassion, as if seeing the ex-Morlock in a whole new light, before he grinned a bit reluctantly.
"I know…"
"Or the fact that my Pops tried to kill me when I was little…" sniffed Toad.
"Or the fact that I only have him to pass off as a Dad!" Althea wailed overdramatically while pointing at Shipwreck. Shipwreck glared at his daughter for the underlying insult.
"Now that one, I can certainly say is certainly tragic," muttered Ororo to herself.
"You know, it really scares me to see how many of you guys have father issues," said Jean, raising an eyebrow uneasily. Rogue and Lance glared at the mutant telekinetic for the slight braggart that was underneath that seemingly innocent observation.
"Well, excuse us for not having your 'Leave-It-To-Beaver' family life, little Miss Princess Perfect!" Rogue snapped, and Jean instantly took to offense as she sized up to Rogue, but Ororo gracefully stopped it before a fight could erupt.
"What on Earth is the Hellfire Club thinking?" Xavier said, asking no one in particular, "They're absolute fools if they think that they can control a demon of such monumental proportions or think that such a demon would ever wish to sire them into his services…"
"Unless if they made a deal with Scath!" gasped Mas y Menos, for once able to deduce a reasonable theory, and Cover Girl whipped her head sharply to the two Hispanic twins, asking in their native tongue to explain what they meant, and the two members of Titans East heartily did so.
"What did the two hyperactive midgets they say, Courtney?" Shipwreck asked, puzzled. Cover Girl then hurriedly translated what the speedsters of Titans East speculated to the attentive group.
"Mas and Menos said that the Hellfire Club must have made a deal with Scath in the first place! And it makes sense! Mas and Menos said that it would explain why Slade came back from the dead and why the Hellions are helping him! The Hellfire Club must have promised Scath and Slade their services to help free Scath into our world if Scath, in return for freeing him, promised them powers and to spare them in the Armageddon! That's why they needed Slade and H.I.V.E! Not only will they provide additional manpower for the Hellfire Club, but they're soldiers and opponents that have dealt with the Teen Titans before! That would allow them to familiarize themselves with Raven's strengths and weaknesses, giving them an easier time to force her to free her father! That's why the Hellions and the Hellfire Club are teaming up with H.I.V.E! Because they're working together to use Raven to free Scath and gain power or whatever they hope to achieve from dooming the Earth! And if this Scath guy is as powerful as Beast Boy and Cyborg said, then it also explains how Slade managed to have such destructive powers all of a sudden! Because they were given to him by Scath!"
"That does make sense," murmured Wolverine, rubbing his chin. Speedy looked at Mas y Menos warily.
"Wow, who would have thought that these two blockheads would ever come off as having a brain cell?" the archer smirked. Mas y Menos glared at their teammate before saying a few choice words in Spanish that Cover Girl decided was best not translating.
"But what could they possibly hope to gain from this?" Althea asked Cover Girl, "I mean, dooming the world will cause the ends of humans and mutants, and I don't think the Hellfire Club is that short-sighted and stupid to want to destroy the world for a little something to boost their egos and standing in the planet! Heck, there won't even be a planet if they help Scath!"
"Wavedancer has a point, Dad," Rina remarked to Wolverine, "The Hellfire Club isn't stupid. They must have some sort of scheme of making sure Scath doesn't prove to be a dangerous threat to their safety while at the same time, achieving whatever they need from Scath in the first place."
"We'll worry about that later, but for now, we have to track down Raven before Leomon or the Hellions get to her first," Wolverine muttered.
"There's a problem with that," Robin added as he held up a scanner from his utility belt, "As soon as Rogue explained how Raven took off, I tried tracking her homing signals embedded in the brooch and rings of her uniform, but I can't get any signal, here in Jump City or outside the boundaries of the town! Wherever she is, she's gone far, too far for us to find!"
"Robin, we shouldn't track and hunt her down like she was our enemy!" Professor X retorted, "Raven is as much as a victim in this as the rest of us!"
"There's no choice, Chuck," Logan gruffly said, his actions and mind briskly going through the possible solutions with tactical cunningness in his head, "We either get her now, personal feelings be damned, or we just let Slade and H.I.V.E. get her first. We're also gonna need back-up if we're gonna stop Scath from coming to our world then, and all four of our groups ain't gonna be enough for this job. I mean, we couldn't even hurt that Heartless thing that Slade summoned when we first met off!"
"I agree," Blind Master said steely, "We'll have to contact everyone who can try to help offer some resistance to the Hellfire Club's plans with Raven and Scath…not only does it include having General Hawk get all the Joes we can spare, but the Justice League and their friends, Dr. Strange, Longshot and his teammates from Mojo's dimension, the Eloi, and even the Dinosaucers."
"Dinosaucers?" Jean repeated, the word foreign to her. The African ninja master turned to the red-haired X-Girl wearily.
"We'll explain later, Jean, but for now, we will have to regroup all our allies if we hope to stop the Hellfire Club…"
"Wait!" protested Avalanche, "What about Leomon? He could help us out too! After all, he did before!"
"No, it'll be too risky, and he might even be helping Scath in the first place. We still don't know where his loyalties lie," Piotr said. Lance glared at the X-Man.
"That's not funny, Russkie," he growled, and Colossus returned the glare wholeheartedly.
"It wasn't meant as a joke, Rock-Head," he shot back with an insult, "We still don't know for sure if Leomon is on our side or not, even if he is fighting the Hellfire Club and even though he does know more than what he's telling us and he has the power to destroy those Heartless creatures. We can't just risk everything on the fact that he seems to be the lesser of two evils! The term 'the enemy of my enemy is also my friend' doesn't always apply, you know! And besides, don't you remember? Leomon said he wasn't going to help us fight the first time we ran into him at Jump City Harbor! He said whatever qualms we have with our enemies were of no concern of his."
"Funny you should mention that, then…" Jean murmured aloud, "Then, it could mean that the Hellfire Club isn't the main target for Leomon in the first place! Remember what Peter just said? He knows Slade and the Hellions were fighting against us and the Titans, but he refers to them as our enemies, not his enemies."
"I get it!" Althea murmured at once, "Leomon isn't gunning for H.I.V.E and the Hellfire Club like we are. That's why he called them 'your enemies', not as 'our enemies'. And plus, during the battle with the Hellions and H.I.V.E, Leomon didn't attack any of them. He only attacked that Heartless monster before it could kill Lance and Spirit. He never fought personally with any of the representatives from the Hellfire Club himself."
"Exactly! So the Hellfire Club isn't his target after all! He's not on the same mission as we are!"
"But then who else could Leomon be fighting, Red?" Toad asked, his eyes wide, "I don't think a big, fuzzy lion warrior would even bother showing up unless he had a big reason to be here, yo! And if he's not after the Hellfire Club or the Hellions or Slade, then who else could he be aft-…oh!"
Toad trailed off with the exclamation, gasping, but everyone else then guessed the same thought Toad did.
"Raven…" Starfire blurted out in shock, "Leomon is after Friend Raven!"
"Could he be after Raven because of her powers as well, then?" Shipwreck asked.
"Anything is possible, especially with Leomon being a wild card in this fight," Spirit muttered, though in his heart, despite the logic running through his mind, refused to believe that Leomon was evil as well.
Yet before they could ponder this, the skies began to ominously darken, and in surprise, the heroes looked up to see that the very sun was beginning to die, blocked by the moon in a speedily growing eclipse.
"What the hell?" Low Light gasped, but several of the adults instantly guessed the truth.
"The skies will burn…" murmured Cover Girl, reciting the prophecy of Slade from Rogue's revelation.
"Flesh will become stone…" Ororo said, her body shaking with sudden cold as she unconsciously gripped her elbows.
"And the sun will set on our world…" Blind Master recalled with growing dread and horror.
"Never to rise again…" Roadblock finished as the sun fully extinguished, instantly causing the entire city to be engulfed by the shade of twilight, a sure sign of an evil omen, or danger approaching. After all, full and total eclipses of the sun out of nowhere generally don't happen on a basic principle.
"Oh no, it's happening!" Scott yelped.
"Raven must be in grave danger!" gasped Starfire.
"And how right you are, my dear Titan, but I wouldn't worry about leaving to go look for your precious friend. In fact, you and the rest of your sorry troupe of heroes won't be leaving at all…" Slade's voice rang out from the rooftops all around them. The X-Men, the Teen Titans, the Titans East, the Misfits, and the Joes looked up, startled to see Slade and the Hellions looking down on them, smirking smugly. And they were not alone. All around were grotesquely deformed creatures of the blackest night, with sickening visages and humanoid appendages and physiques and glowing yellow eyes, making guttural noises of pain, discomfort and bestial killer instinct. There had to be at least over a hundred of them. And on each of the abominations was the familiar red-and-black symbol of the crossed out heart, the badge of the Heartless.
"Ready for round two, X-Geeks?" sneered Bevatron.
"Oh no!" Pietro practically wailed out loud.
"Mein Gott! They're Heartless! An entire army of them! Slade must have created more of them!" Kurt gasped.
"Shit!" cursed Shipwreck, taking out his dual Eagle pistols with one fluid motion, "We're surrounded!"
"And the day has only just begun, my dear Joe," Slade said in a final monotone voice before he and the Hellions charged, leaping upon the heroes from the sky as the Heartless followed.
Author's Notes: Check back next Friday for the chapter, "Raven's Final Gamble"! We will finally learn what Brother Blood and Blackheart have in store for Raven while the Titans, the X-Men, the Misfits, and the Joes fight for their very lives against Slade and his army, but is it too late? Will the Armageddon be averted? And what exactly does Leomon have to do in all of this? Find out next time, and until then, read and enjoy and review!