Summary: Post-Birthmark. Can life just go back to "normal" for the Teen Titans? Or will the admittance of the deeply-buried and long-denied make it impossible for Raven to conceal the truth of her destiny?
Author's Note: This was by far the most fun I've had writing a chapter yet. Trying to come up with the mechanics of a battle scene is especially difficult. Not only do the physical reactions have to be accurate, but then you have to try to keep the character's true to themselves via physical action, which seems to be harder than with just speech. Anyway, I had a good time, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I'd also like to point out that as I post this chapter I've got 69 reviews. giggles mischievously like a school girl Just because I'm in college, doesn't mean I have to grow up. )
Legal Note: Don't own Teen Titans in any form. Wish I did. Don't sue me, NYU has all my money.
scathac's warrior: You know me far too well, my friend. Fight scene it is! The dream was in Chapter 6 "Of Hellfire." Thanks for reading!
ray1: I actually agree, but I'm not going to lie, I totally ran out of dialogue for the two of them that didn't interfere with what little I wanted her to say. So I tried to do a mix of her giving in and staying firm to procrastinate for time, and end up with it seeming like more was said that really was. And of course, the alarm is always an easy to cut short any conversation. Thanks for the review! Constructive criticism makes me get better.
Angel Caida: Sure will, and here it is! ) Hope you like it.
mysti-eyed: Glad you liked it, and I hope the answers satisfied you. Thanks for reading!
GS Dragono: I also read the comics. ;) I've got The New Teen Titans Archives Vol. 2, and I've read the back-stories on all the characters, so I guess it's a combo. I try to make the story a bit of a combo between the show and the comics, but I think it makes it hard to write in character sometimes. Thanks for the review, hope you like this chapter.
Kool-Wolf: Don't be hatin'. Here's an update for ye.
AngeloftheSecondHell: I greatly enjoyed the analogy about "revealing secrets like the white house surveillance tapes after watergate." It made my day. Thank you very much for your review, and I'm so glad to hear that I've reached a middle ground. The swearing thing especially, because we all know real teenagers don't walk around, stub their toe, and yell, "Crud!" Wrong. We all know almost anyone, teen or not, will yell, "Damn!" or "Shit!" I don't know, I agree though, it's one of my pet peeves too, and I'm glad you think I'm doing it right. Here's a little something to fix that summer boredom, I hope.
Crowded around the screen in the Tower's main room, the team assessed the threat level of Jump City's latest disturbance. It was a bank robbery by what appeared to be some run-of-the-mill hooligans looking for some money and a thrill who now happened to be in a stand-off with the police. Naturally hostages were involved. Robin absorbed the information, and prepared to give his instructions to the team with a hand to his chin and a furrowed brow.
"Alright. No supervillains, I don't think the entire team is needed," he stated, and the rest of the Titans nodded their agreement. "Raven and Starfire, you two stay here and keep an eye on the Tower."
Starfire seemed disappointed by the order; the Tamaranean princess was from a warrior planet, and the lost prospect of battle slightly lowered the girl's spirits. But she accepted with a nod, and perhaps she and Friend Raven could spend some time together!
Raven was even less happy than Starfire to be remaining home, and began to protest coldly, "Robin, I do not need to be babied–"
"No arguments, Raven. Stay here with Starfire and guard the Tower. You didn't get much sleep last night anyway," Robin ordered, efficiently ending the conversation. Raven narrowed her eyes, and without another word, swept her deep blue cloak in front of her, disappearing into the floor in a wave of dark magic.
The other Titans gave each other a look, and Beast Boy shrugged. Robin hesitated, but sounded the cry, "Titans, GO!" Starfire remained in the main room, floating absently above the floor, staring at the door which had just closed behind the boys. She turned towards the hallway, and sighed, doubting her chances of talking Raven into the painting of the toenails with her.
Raven, back in her room, was attempting to contain her annoyance with the Boy Blunder. The information she had provided was not meant as a reason for him to coddle her, or keep her from battle because of some unfounded fear that she'd have a run in with Slade. And that's what this was about–Robin was looking for Slade under every rock again, projecting him into places where he wouldn't be found. A fucking bank robbery, and he's looking for some ploy by Slade to distract them and grab her. He didn't have to say it; she could read it on his face, and feel the paranoia rush off of him in waves.
Meditation had been difficult lately, but at the moment her need to keep her emotions in check outweighed the potential consequences. Raven paced in long strides, followed in her turns by frightful swishes of her long, indigo cloak. Abruptly she ceased her pacing, and folded her legs beneath her, levitating and touching her middle finger and thumb together. Breathing in deeply, she began her mantra.
"Azarath, Metreon, Zinthos. Azarath, Metreon Zinthos," Raven began to feel calmer immediately, and felt the familiar feeling of being swept into the confines of her own mind. At first there was only darkness, but then her feet alighted on the solid rock of Nevermore's landscape. Everything appeared normal, as normal as Raven's mind could ever be anyway. But then a fire appeared right before her eyes, and she knew the fire was not in her mind, but in the waking world.
Gasping with the effort and disruption of her trance, Raven's eyes flew open in reality, and her concentration thus disturbed, she fell to the floor of her room. Rubbing her bottom and looking up, she saw the man who she hadn't needed to see with her eyes to know he was there: Slade. He had appeared in a burst of flames, much the way Raven disappeared and reappeared with her dark magic.
"Slade," Raven spat, "Ever hear of knocking?" Her hands began to glow with her power.
"Raven," Slade taunted, "Ever hear of 'hello?'"
"What the hell do you want?" she demanded angrily, already knowing what he wanted.
"Quite a pun there, Raven. Hell is exactly what I want. But alas, I am just the messenger," he answered without really answering. "It is time for me to convince you of your fate." Slade's fists glowed with fire power, and he raised them to strike out at Raven. He threw his arms forward to attack–
Knock, knock, knock. A pause. "Friend Raven?" Starfire stood outside of Raven's door, excitedly bouncing around and hoping her friend would participate in some strange earthly customs with her.
Slade and Raven both froze. Raven's face twisted with horror, while Slade's mouth turned up in a one-sided grin. Raven shook her head, imploring Slade to wait until Starfire left, but knew her plea for mercy from Slade on this point was hopeless.
Starfire grew curious, and knocked again. "Friend Raven, are you there? I wish for us to partake in the–" A noise from inside interrupted her sentence.
Raven and Slade had both simultaneously flown for the door; Slade with the intention of taking Starfire quickly out of the picture, thereby proving his lack of mercy, and Raven to stop Slade from whatever he had been planning at Starfire's expense. Slade was closer to the door than Raven was, and naturally made it there before she did. But when he found no one in the doorway, he took the opportunity to use Raven's quick move and unguarded stance to begin his lessons. As Raven headed swiftly for the doorway, she saw suddenly that Starfire was not there, and realized she was barreling right into Slade's grasp. Slade grabbed Raven by the neck of her cloak before she could block and, spinning his body, used her forward momentum to heave her devastatingly hard into the wall of the hallway.
Raven hit hard on her back, her neck rolling upward until her head connected with the wall, causing chunks of the plaster to fall around her. She gave a small cry, before sliding down to the floor. Before she hit the floor however, Slade had a hold of her. He'd grabbed her with his left arm, his fingers laced into the fabric of her cape, and his forearm supporting her along her collarbone. Her feet dangled about a foot off the ground.
Starfire, who had heard the sound of both Raven and Slade making their dives for the door, had skipped quickly to the side before either of the two had burst through. At first all she saw was Raven fly out into the hallway and, unbeknownst to Raven, had called her name in surprise. The next thing Starfire saw from her viewpoint off to the side was Slade pinning Raven to the wall, and she watched for a second as Slade raised his fiery right first to deliver a crushing blow to Raven's face. In the slow motion reel the mind creates during any scene of danger, Starfire saw Raven's face, and saw the girl's momentary fear turn into defiance before she closed her eyes to accept the blow.
But Starfire would have none of it. In a swift motion, Starfire moved forward and grabbed Slade's right arm. Using her unusual Tamaranean strength she bent it back impossibly far, and used it as leverage to twist Slade around and slam him head-first into the doorway of Raven's room. Raven had slid to the floor again when Slade had released her, but was up in an instant.
"Thanks, Star." The two girls had little time for conversation–Slade was already rising from his place on the floor, cracking bones back into place, and standing. Starfire stared in awe as Slade rose, and Raven looked on wearily.
"Silly boys. I see they left the women to fend for themselves." Both girls glared daggers, but made no reply. Arguing over sexism was not their foremost objective, and they knew Slade was doing it purposefully to anger them, in hopes they'd make a hasty attack. Instead, they gritted their teeth and prepared for battle.
Slade's conversationalist side was not easily subdued, however. "Have you told her your destiny yet, Raven?" He flicked his eyes to the side, indicating Starfire. "Or are you still in the business of trading lies?"
Starfire's green eyes flickered briefly to normal, before returning to their powered state. Raven flinched, and if possible, glared even more. Through her teeth she warned, "Shut up, Slade. Leave her out of this. This is between you and me. Let her go."
"As always Raven, concealing the truth," Slade pushed on. "Always endangering your friends with your secrets, ending the world," Slade sneered, before continuing and finding firm footing on his soap box, using his rhythmic voice to his advantage. "You brought them into this, Raven. The day you brought this team together you knew. You knew what you would one day do them. That one day you would far surpass the treachery of Terra–"
He had done it. Raven shot forward in anger at the comparison of herself to Terra. She had hated Terra, she had known not to trust her. The comparison of herself to Terra hit close to home, for she, as was Terra, was destined to betray her friends. Raven had known from the beginning, and had hated the girl in part because of the similarities she saw to herself. But Terra's memory burned the most because the blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty had had a chance to redeem herself, winning her goodness back in the end.
Raven knew her story was doomed to end in betrayal without redemption. What would there be to redeem? The world would be ended.
Her hands encased in dark energy and her eyes glowing white, Raven threw several quick punches in Slade's direction, all of which he blocked easily. Slade kicked out a foot, catching Raven's with his own, and flipped her hard onto the ground. As he bent over her, Starfire made her assault on him with a barrage of starbolts, the first several of which hit their mark. Raven rolled back into a crouch away from the line of fire and Slade. Starfire dived right for Slade, and managed to catch him and slam him backwards into the floor. As Slade hit the floor on his back, he grabbed Starfire's arms and, again using momentum to his advantage, flipped over his shoulders with her, sufficiently disorienting her. With a final kick to her abdomen he launched her upwards. Starfire let out a shrill, "Eeeeee!" before she crashed loudly into the ceiling, then falling to the floor with a groan.
"Azarath Metreon Zinthos!" Two large chunks of the wall that had fallen due to Slade's previous run-in with it glowed in a black aura and rose off the ground. Slade had a moment to widen his one good eye before the two chunks smashed together, trapping him between them. In less than a second, Slade had burst through the two of them in a blaze of fiery glory, sending flying debris in all directions. Raven blocked herself with a shield of her magic, and kept the shield up as Slade advanced on her suddenly, attempting to kick and punch his way through her defenses. Raven blocked every one, until she heard Starfire stir behind him, and made the mistake of looking over his shoulder.
Her reward for her lack of attention was a quick uppercut to her chin, which sent her reeling off balance. After a couple of hurried steps she'd regained her footing, but not before Slade had begun pummeling her anew. Hit once, she could not seem to recover, and took a barrage of hits to her stomach and face before Slade landed a fist to her right cheek hard enough to send her spinning to the floor. She landed face down, hands planted with fingers spread to either side of her shoulders, and her legs twisted slightly in the direction which she had been standing.
Slade loomed over her. Raven groaned and spit out a healthy helping of blood before turning her weary but still defiant gaze up to meet his.
"Had enough yet, Raven? It would be much easier for you if you would just come with me willingly, and accept your glorious destiny." Slade was such a smug son of a bitch, even for a dead man.
Starfire, who had shakily regained her footing, fired a series of starbolts at Slade's back. She felt that had to have at least injured him enough for she and Friend Raven to escape to safety. Starfire squinted into the dust cloud where Slade had been standing.
"I tire of your interference!" shouted Slade angrily, as he flew out of the dust at Starfire, about to land a finishing blow to the surprised red-head. His fist was raised over his head and glowed with fire. Raven, seeing this with horror, ghosted from her place on the floor to a position between Starfire and Slade's fist.
Slade's fist of fury landed directly on Raven's energy shield, and Raven let out a scream as her energy shattered around her, and the majority of Slade's fiery attack made it's way straight for her. The flames engulfed her, and blew her backwards onto the floor. Raven lay sprawled on her back, gasping for air, her muscles aching. Her head bled where she had hit the floor this time; there had been a jagged piece of Titan's Tower where her head had landed, creating a large gash in the back of her head. Her vision flirted with stars in wavering blackness. She screamed from the pain; Slade's fire attack burned more than anything she had ever experienced. Starfire was in a similar position–completely immobilized, but still quite conscious, thanks to Raven taking the brunt of Slade's anger. Her arm was very likely broken in at least two places because of how she'd landed on it, but her burns were relatively minor.
Finding himself somewhat disappointed not to have ended Starfire, Slade took consolation in the fact that this battle was over. As much as he enjoyed fighting the Titans, playing around with them was sometimes a bit tedious. He walked slowly over to Raven, and grabbed a handful of her short, violet hair. He lifted her slightly up off the floor to force her to look at him, causing Raven to emit a scream of agony. Her hair pulled on her head wound excruciatingly, and she felt the blood drip in a miniature river down the back of her neck and into her leotard. "Couldn't do it the easy way, could you?" Her vision swam with the pain, but she gritted her teeth to keep from screaming again. When Raven said nothing, Slade dropped her head back to the ground–although he gave it a slight push–causing her vision to swirl and finally the blackness overtook her, and swept her downward into the primal abyss of painless unconsciousness.
Had Starfire's throat not been so scratchy from the fire, she might have protested. Slade kneeled, and pulled Raven into his arms bridal style with surprising care. Starfire wondered why he hadn't just killed both of them, and what he needed Raven for. Noticing she was awake, Slade turned and walked to Starfire. Before she could speak, Slade was looking down on her. "Good night, Princess." With that, his foot crashed onto her head.
Starfire saw nothing more.
That was a good time. In the next chapter, people worry.
I know, wasn't that an awesome spoiler? Because ya'll hadn't figured that one out yet. I'm evil! Teehee. )