Wounds of Filth
Chapter 8: Held Captive Within the Devil's Jar
By: DeathIsOnlyTheBeginin
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN TEEN TITANS...OR ANY OF THE THINGS/PEOPLE/PLOTS ASSOSIATED WITH IT
(Enjoy! Read and Review Please!)
Crimson shot through the ebony, lacing the walls with pain and listening as they screamed in agony. Hot cruelty wove through the many cracks within the rock, magma steaming and sputtering below as it washed over thin islands of stone. A single dark eye gleamed in the ruby, the owner's metal suit hazed red from the angry liquid-fire below. A pair of fists sat at the sides of Slade's hips, the veins below their skin bulging from the intensity of his grip.
"What has happened?" a voice snarled, the root of its tone gravely and evil; such power sent a shiver through Slade's body. He stole a shallow breath, the smell of sulfur and smoke suffocating him slightly.
"The girl, she has breached our control."
A loud roar rippled through the cave soon after, tension growing and pressing heavily against the suit of armor Slade stood encased within. The mark upon his forehead began to glow with violent ferocity and he winced, pressing one hand over it before collapsing to one knee.
"Fool!" Trigon bellowed, his voice booming, "Did I not order you to keep close watch over her! Now, because of your sickening incompetence, all could fail!"
Slade cringed, his ears ringing, "Master, you must forgive my failure! She overpowered me! I could do nothing!"
Rage boiled within the lava below and electricity sparked through the room, snatching the villain from his crouch and slamming him into the far stonewall. Hassled rocks tumbled from their old supports and crumbled round him as he slithered down the granite and withered to the ledge.
"You dare to argue with I, Trigon the Terrible!" the daemon rumbled, his voice shaking with fury. Slade groaned and shook his aching head, one hand raised in a plea of forgiveness.
"Forgive me, Master. I am but your humble servant. I am in no way as wise or as powerful as you."
The air seemed to still, a much calmer aura lifting into the atmosphere. Silence plagued the deaf ears of Slade as he climbed to his feet, his posture unsteady as he lolled back and forth; hesitantly, he leaned up against the wall behind him.
"Bring me the boy."
Slade lifted his head and focused upon the pulsing swirls that were his leader.
"The boy, Master? But we don't even know if that is who she contacted."
"Who else would she?" Trigon sneered, his tone dangerously low and gritty, "The boy is vital to my undoing and I want him destroyed."
Slade bowed his head and nodded, "Yes, Master; as you wish."
"On second thought," Trigon snapped suddenly, "I have a much better idea."
The slave glanced up at his ruler, a hidden eyebrow arched, "Maste-"
"Have you finished the task I assigned to you?" Trigon asked sternly, his calm demeanor fading slightly.
Slade bowed, "No, Master."
A low growl rumbled through the cave, "Finish it. Then, ship her back to them."
Lavender eyes stared blandly down at the floor before glancing over at the boy to her left. Red X lay in heap upon the floor, his mask cracked and limbs jutting in odd angles. Raven sighed and looked back to the plain tile, her mind swimming with things she longed to forget.
A key was what she was meant to find, yet she had no idea where to search or even what it was to look for. She groaned and shook her head, the tangled, violet locks flourishing round her head. Her skull throbbed from the amount of power she had so carelessly dispensed no more than five hours before hand and Raven longed for it to stop.
"I trust you slept well. Rest is good for the body..."
Slade's voice startled her for a moment, the small hairs upon the back of her neck bristling. The felon walked round to face her, a dagger in hand.
"...and you're going to need it."
Raven simply sighed and hung her head, not wishing to look upon him any longer. However, her plans shattered the instant he lifted her chin, her eyes landing upon his hidden face.
"Your little outburst got me in a lot of trouble," He spat angrily while waving the blade in front of her face, "And you're going to pay for it."
Raven felt her breathing hitch, her eyes closing as he placed the razor beside the jewel in her forehead. The point dug deeply into the shallow skin, a drop of blood pooling round it before trickling downward. The avatar cringed and attempted to pull her head back, only to feel his free hand's fingers grasp tightly round a large clump of hair.
Raven whimpered and was instantly disgusted with herself for doing so, the knife moving slowly along, its blade splitting layer after layer of her gray skin. Ruby blood flowed freely down her face in small rivers, a few streams dripping down over her eyebrows and catching on her lashes. Raven blinked them away, only to have a second wave sink into her eyes, staining her vision red.
Robin's eyes scanned the large screen before him, fingers clicking away upon a beaten and abused keyboard. Pointless information upon pointless information flooded his sights and he growled in anger, his hands moving more briskly as he pressed on. Minutes ticked by on the clock beside the bottom of his display; 6:47 a.m.
"Robin?"
He jumped slightly, his masked eyes sneaking around to land on the small form of a green teenager. Beast Boy spared him an odd look, his hair mussed and eyes blood shot. Robin quirked an eyebrow and halted in his work, turning his chair to fully face his fellow teammate.
"What's up, BB? It's a little early for you to be up," The Boy Wonder snorted at the realization and glanced back to the screen, still finding nothing of use.
"Starting early, huh?" Beast Boy replied blandly, shrugging the sleep comment off lazily and staring at the display. Robin nodded, his demeanor stiffening and falling into a more serious pace; Beast Boy noticed the change and let out a vacant sigh.
"Dude, you're gonna' overwork yourself."
Robin clenched his jaw, his form swinging back to face the large computer monitor. Fingers found their place upon the keys and he began to type away once again, completely focused.
"We have to find her, Beast Boy. And we are going to, no matter what the cost."
Raven stared down at herself, eyes watering with pink tears, their rims burning from the invasion of blood. The floor round her was tarnished a shameful crimson, the claret still dripping from her ruthlessly. The scarlet gleamed at her as it wove down from the newly made slashed markings in her front, her leotard reduced to hanging ribbons. The prophecy littered her torso and legs, arms and forehead, hands and feet; more ruby trickled to the floor. Raven momentarily cursed the healing energy that thrived within her being; without it, she surely would have already died from the heavy amount of blood loss...and the pain.
Violet eyes watched as the puddle of crimson stretched out wider, her body aching with am agony so intense that Raven deeply and honestly prayed - towards every god she had ever learned of - for death. Her severed nerves screamed with vigor, their snipped cords raging riots throughout the entirety of her broken skin. The avatar sobbed dryly, holding the tears prisoner within her eyes; salt and open flesh did not mix happily.
Slade had long since left, his weapon of choice lying mockingly within the small pond of blood. Raven watched as the ruby of her origin swallowed the blade, her lungs constricting and striking a match of anguish to blaze over her flesh as the breathing stretched wounds. Pain danced over her broken skin lovingly, holding its hands up and smiling as blood trickled over its palms.
A foreign groan snapped Raven from her wallowing within the throbbing hurt, which she could not escape, and she glanced over at the boy upon the floor. Red X rolled over onto his back, on hand clutching his side as he opened his eyes. He spared a sorry glance in her direction, eyes screwed up in dull pain as he sat up. The fractured mask covering his face fully gave into defeat and fell away, revealing a mass of blonde hair and two electric blue eyes.
Raven closed her amethysts and hung her head; her energy suddenly fleeted and her body fell completely lip.
Lilac irises peered through the dark; the sound of dripping water upon a hollow floor flittered through the silence and into the owner's ears. The scent of musty air and damp plant life wafted through the senses and tainted the memory with the realization of recognition. Raven breathed in deeply, her violets stretching wide as she scanned the room for any makeshift of light. As though on cue, a candle flickered to life at her left and she turned in that direction; her footsteps were void and vacant upon the stone floor as she neared the light source.
She found the candle sitting in its original placing, one of her fingers slipping through the coil connected to its circular base. Raven plucked it from its lazy position and continued on down the abandoned hallway. Her boots clattered against the stone loudly here, her body turning and heading down the next corridor. She continued on, listening intently for any sign of eerie, irregular singing as she neared the door she had been expecting to find. A slight pang of fear roared to life inside of her and she cringed, her fingers retracting from their sudden reach towards the doorknob. Shaking her head at her foolishness, Raven wrapped her slim gray digits round the cool protrusion and twisted. The door tugged softly from her hand and slowly, delicately opened.
A figure in a white robe sat in a chair against the far wall; A stained-glass window cast a beautiful assortment of dark color over their clothing. A heavy hood hid the stranger's face, the head bowed towards the floor as a pair of feminine hands pressed together in a figure of prayer. The tips of the other's strait fingers were turned upward and into a point, the apex held barely far enough away to keep from touching the unfamiliar's own nose.
Raven eyed the material that snuck over the unknown's hands before glancing down at her own. She inspected the similarity of the triangular gloves, which bound about the base of the middle fingers at their ends. Raven lifted her eyes and settled them upon the other, eyebrows raised in confusion.
"Very good, Raven," Spoke the voice of a woman, "I am indeed that little girl."
The mature version of Raven's younger self stood, lifting her head. A pair of empty sockets greeted Raven where a pair of violet eyes should have stared and the half-daemon gasped, her lips parting slightly; the candle snubbed out and all was plunged into darkness. Elder Raven nodded at her response and let her hands fall to ease at her sides, the light of the moon still littering through the colored window and upon her form.
"Do not fret, Raven, I shall not harm you."
Raven shook her head, her mouth dry as she placed the spent candle upon the floor, "What has happened to you?"
Elder Raven chuckled and took a step towards her, a small smile on her face. The white robe that draped over her swished round her ankles, the toes of a pair of white boots peeking out from beneath the material.
"At this moment, that is of no importance, Raven. Have you found the key?"
Raven's brows knitted in perplexion, her blue hood shadowing her face, "I don't even know where to begin."
Her elder form nodded curtly in understanding, her smile never fading, "Begin where you know. You shall find it easily if you allow it to guide you."
Elder Raven lifted her hands and dropped her hood, allowing a river of long plum hair to fall freely over her shoulders.
"Raven," She began sternly, her smile vanishing, "You are a child of darkness and whether you wish for it to happen or not, it can not be avoided; this you know."
Raven felt herself fall deeper into confusion, "But then, what of the key?-"
"You will unlock the portal Raven; yet," Elder Raven paused for a moment, her smile reappearing, "that does not mean you must allow the world to fall with the inevitable. Fight it Raven, find the key and fight back with it."
Raven watched as the form of her older self began to disperse, her eyes beginning to water; it was too hard, Trigon was too strong.
"Fight, Raven, and you will succeed."
With that fading echo, Raven found herself alone and encased within silence once again.
Robert sat with his head buried in his hands, his fingertips massaging the skin of his forehead. He had shifted himself around the room and his back was resting easily against the metal wall. His knees sat propped and holding the weight of his arms, his elbows digging. He inhaled shakily, casting a weary glance at the unconscious girl hanging to his left.
Red X watched as she twitched in her restless sleep, streams of blood swerving down her small form and onto the maniacal tile below. Robert felt his stomach lurch at the sight of her, the material of her costume ripped and ruined, his cape fallen and forgotten as it lay surrounded by her blood on the floor. What had he gotten himself into? This was definitely not what he had signed up for; he was no hard criminal.
The aching teen shook his head, his blonde locks swaying sorrowfully in the dim light. Everything was screwed over; Slade was a fucking mad man and he had become the bastard's playing pawn. Robert smashed his fists into the floor, inhaling through gritted teeth as they pulsated with bruising pain; He had even bought the asshole's weapons!
Blue eyes wandered to the growing pool of blood, the pupils locking upon the crimson drenched knife. Once again, his stomach twisted and Robert jerked forward, his head falling between his knees as he spilled the contents of the relentless organ all over the floor. The green acid glared up at him as Red spat the remaining fluid from his mouth, his sapphire irises heavily lidded. With a groan he leaned himself back against the wall, wiping the essence of his puke away with his arm. Sweat matted his blonde tresses down upon a forehead flushed with angry fever and Robert let his eyes fall closed, open for the attack of a troubled sleep.
Raven eyed her surroundings oddly, the candle at her feet suddenly striking back to life. She bent and lifted it, her pupils still keen and alert. The sound of a shuffling cloak moving from behind roused her attention and she swung around, only to be knocked backward with a hard blow to her abdomen. Raven flew through the room and onto the unoccupied chair; the wooden legs splintered beneath her impact, the timber make crumbling to the floor along with the tussled demolisher.
A nasty cackle rippled through Raven's ears as she pushed herself up with her arms and shook her head; fragments of disunited wood flung from the lavender tresses and to the mossy floor. A dark hand reached down and curved its fingers under the neck of Raven's cloak, ripping the avatar from the ground and shoving her into the window.
Raven groaned as the sound of cracking glass met her ears, violet eyes peering into double sets of red. The reeking odor of rotten flesh filled the Titan's senses and her face contorted in disgust, a pair of hands pushing against the chest of her attacker.
"Don't fight, Raven," the violator cooed; Raven gagged, the grotesque stench heightening with the opening of her abuser's mouth, "It's so very much easier if you don't fight."
Raven growled and lifted her feet and, using the window as her main support, sent them hurtling into the torso of the one before her. A shriek ripped through the heavy silence as the other was shoved backward, the tall form tumbling backward and onto the floor.
Raven, having fallen to the ground herself, quickly climbed to her feet and stared at the one resting upon the floor. The sound of raspy breathing littered the air and she took a few steps forward, her eyes settling upon the face of her attacker. The features of herself older greeted her, only this form of had two sets of eyes to their name, the four lids closed. Raven scowled; her inner daemon.
A black cloak lay disheveled beneath the form of her monster, a black leotard covering the exposed body. Snarled, violet hair lay in cascades over the living floor, gray skin faded to a hard black. Raven felt her grimace deepen with distain; the pairs of ruby eyes snapped open. A flash of black was all Raven had time to recognize before she found herself face to face with her monstrosity; it flashed her a yellow, Cheshire smile.
"Raven," It spat lowly, "So good to see you."
Raven's lip curled with disgust, the stink of decayed bodily tissue once again present in the air.
"Wish I could say the same," she spewed back, her violet eyes narrowed dangerously. Her daemon smirked, her older features twisting into an extremely smug look of triumph. Without a twitch of remorse, she lifted up a jar. Raven's eyes shifted their attention to the glass container, their entirety widening upon the sight that greeted them. There, sitting within a transparent fluid, sat two beautiful, round, sparkling amethyst eyes.
"What do you think?" Her inner beast asked haughtily, "Do you like them? They're my favorite pair."
Raven's eyes snapped back to her monster's, the emotion behind them cruel and cold. The fists at her sides began to tense, her knuckles ghostly white.
"Give them back to her," Raven roared, bearing her teeth in warning. The daemon threw her head back and laughed loudly, her voice thundering throughout the room. Raven felt Rage boil to life within her,
"You putrid, disgusting, vile-"
"She deserved what she got!" It suddenly shouted, facing Raven once again and seething, "The little brat stole my victory...so I stole her eyes."
Raven felt her muscles clench in confusion, her mind swimming. What was this disgrace muttering about? It was then that realization hit home and the avatar's heart sunk; Young Raven had hit the being over the head with a doll...to save her - then - older form. Raven lifted a hand to her forehead; now, she supposed, it was her younger form. The monster laughed at Raven's bewilderment,
"No matter," It droned, "She can't steal it from me this time."
Raven lifted her head only to feel the jar smash into her jawbone; the glass cracked and the pieces fell away, the thieved eyes and fluid falling along with them. Raven collapsed to the floor, the plant suddenly dieing away to reveal hard stone. Her spine hit hard, sounds of popping bones and snapping cartilage filling her senses before her head hit. Pain erupted before her eyes, white plaguing her sights as dark blood pooled beneath her skull.
Raven's mouth parted in a sharp scream as her monster soon flung itself upon her, its bony fingers wrapping tightly round her throat. The shriek was cut short and instantly pinched into whining, Raven's own fingers reaching up and wrapping about those that threatened to kill her. The daemon cackled loudly, her yellow teeth shinning with a large smile as she pressed tighter. Raven gasped and wheezed, her eyes rolling back into her head and body thrashing.
"Ring around the rosies, a pocket full of posies," it sang loudly, its tone insanely wicked and depraved, "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!"
A laugh rang out and Raven fell limp, her lips parted in one final, futile attempt to snatch air.
Violet's snapped open and a scream burst through the atmosphere, the screech soon followed by a needy inhale, the oxygen scratching down the raw throat. Raven gasped and sucked in once more, her bleeding form writhing as she fought to re-enter reality. A pair of hands pressed against the sides of her head and lifted, forcing her to face them. Amethyst locked with sapphire.
"Raven," Red X cried, eyes wide with worry, "What is it, Raven! Raven!"
He shook her gently, her body still thrashing about; eventually she blinked, finally seeming to realize who it was before her.
"...X..." She groaned, her eyes rolling before falling closed. Red X watched her go limp and carefully lowered her head before stepping back, his boots squeaking in the blood beneath their soles. The door in the wall farthest from his suddenly creaked open and Robert's eyes instantly locked onto the one whom stood in the frame, staring.
"Awake, I see."
1/14/2011:
For writers everywhere, I just want to give a heads up to ANYONE who reads any really old story by me and then feels the need to leave a ridiculous, anon review and rant like some child about how dreadful they think it is - I don't care what you think about anything, so don't waste my time. I'm just going to delete your flame anyway, so you might as well not bother to leave it - however, if you must insist upon posting one, I wish you happiness in your futility.
That being said, if you flame - SIGN IN instead of just popping on here like some coward and trying to rip me up over something I wrote AGES ago (ha!). If you flame and then refuse to sign in and offer up your own writing to back your mouth up, keep your mouth closed. I wrote this story 6 years ago. It's an old, amateur, raw piece of work, and I know that. I was only 14 when I started it - but for 14, I did a damn good job.
It's comical that you think you can judge someone's writing capabilities on the shortcomings of their 6-year-old pieces of work - honestly, that just cracks me up. You should know that despite your high opinion of yourself and your obvious belief that I need your "expertise", I'm just laughing at you. I do not need your praise or acknowledgment to validate myself as a writer, and I don't need your dimwitted, ignorant advice. I write very well and I know it. God bless.