Collecting the Pieces of a Broken Mirror

' Thought '

"Speech"

Chapter 3: The Gem and the Darkness

The other Titans saw the fire and looked at each other. Raven was in big trouble. When they got closer, they saw her father standing beside her. He punched Raven, who was making a great effort not to touch the fire. Those who could fly, flew and tried to get inside the circle of fire. Those who couldn't become airborne tried to extinguish the flames.

Starfire and the green hawk besides her tried to fly over the circle of fire and then land inside it. Useless. Each time they tried to fly over it, the flames grew higher and burned them.

'Raven... please be okay...' was all her fellow Titans were thinking.

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Raven felt the fire lick her cloak. As she raised her hand to unlock the brooch that kept the cloak in its place, she felt someone hit her back. She felt down from the strong impact and coughed. Small droplets of a deep red fell on the wet ground. She tried to stand up, but was brutally kicked and punched. She did her best not to fall in the fire, but the flames started to get closer to her, and she could feel the heat lick her skin.

Her father was standing in front of her, eyeing his daughter malevolently.

"What do you want?", she yelled as the monster laughed.

He did not answer, but simply hit her again, knocking her down and punching her back. She could not defend herself. Without her powers, she was just another girl, and another girls wouldn't do much in her situation. The monster finished amusing himself by making Raven bleed and decided to used his black magic to injure her inside.

She couldn't scream, the pain was too strong. It seemed all of her bones were shattering. She wished she'd simply die but that thing had better plans.

He growled strange words and the fire consumed him. Raven was lying on the ground, hardly breathing, bleeding from the many stabs her body now sustained.

'It is.. not over..."

The back of her leotard now barely covered her back, and the sleeves were almost gone, ripped cloth hanging from her arms. Raven tried to stand, but there was a loud "crack!" and she fell down, yelling in pain. She had broken her left leg. Falling over her right arm, she noticed it was broken too, as well as some ribs. 'Now all l can use is one arm and one leg... great...'

oOo

He had seen her being beaten up. He had seen her blood running down her back. He had seen her eyes widening as she felt terrible pain from inside. And he hadn't been able to do anything for her. Nothing. He was useless. Raven could have died there and he wasn't able to do anything, not even being by her side.

He mentally cursed his weakness as the fire walls consumed the beast. As soon as the flames extinguished, he flew down and landed beside his goth... friend. He made a remarkable effort not to cry as he saw her arm and legs twisted strangely, and her breathing getting more and more painful.

"BB?", she whispered, her eyes closed.

"I'm here Rae... wait! Did you just call me BB?"

"Can't I?", she said, giggling softly and then whining because of the pain her action caused.

"Shhh, Rae, relax! I'll... we'll take care of you. And of course you can call me BB if you wanna! But for now, just try not to move or to talk, alright?"

"Am I... that hurt?"

"No! No, you're not!", he lied "Just an extra care..."

And he smiled at her, for lack of comforting words. Her eyes suddenly looked away from him, frightened. The pile of ashes had become a Red Raven, as the Raven they had previously beaten inside the goth's mind.

Red Raven used a red energy, much like Raven's, to immobilize Beast Boy and the other Titans and lift them about a hundred feet in the air. Then she looked up with all of her four red eyes and grinned at them, who tried uselessly to get loose.

Then she walked slowly to the original Raven lying on her back. She laughed demonically and placed her foot on the girl's neck, sinking her into the mud. Raven could not breathe, and her pale, grayish skin was slightly turning blue.

The Red Raven bent forward and grabbed the gem (or chakra) in the girl's forehead, taking it off. Raven did not remember feeling as much pain as she did at this moment. The wound on forehead bled and the blood blocked most of her sight. She felt darkness surrounding her as her lungs burned and the air inside her became toxic.

Then she felt the foot leaving her neck and exhaled and inhaled as much air as she could, feeling the numbness on her limbs disappearing slowly. She coughed, vomiting a lot more blood than the first time she did it.

The Red Raven had the gem on her blood-soaked hand, and looked (Gollum-likely) at it as if it was her most precious treasure. By this time the Titans were already free from her grip, and were trying to attack her. Red Raven simply ignored them.

Beast Boy was by Raven's side, trying to stop the bleeding. It was no use. He prayed silently as Cyborg shot a laser beam at Red Raven's arm and she dropped the gem.

Raven noticed this, and tried to get up.

"No, Raven! You can't! You're too hurt!" Beast Boy said as he held her down. She did not open her eyes.

"Beast Boy, release me, please.", she mumbled, her voice trembling.

"I can't! You will DIE if you go near that thing!"

She kissed his lips softly as he bent down to clean her face. Beast Boy looked at her. He understood. He should let her go.

Beast Boy loosened his grip and she gathered all of her strength. Then she stood, waiting a few moments until she started walking to Red Raven. Her eyes were still closed, but she knew the way. She tried to open them, but blood poured inside and burned her eyes. 'Cursed Demon blood...' . Red Raven raised her eyes and looked at Raven, who stood two feet away from her. The evil creature growled magic words and red energy surrounded the goth, swirling around.

But Raven's target was not her replica. Whining in pain, she collected the gem from the floor and whispered. Her words seemed to be a soft spell from a far away place, and her red gem turned white.

Red Raven's four eyes became full of anger and disdainfulness, and she yelled, inviting her powers to come and kill. Raven sobbed as the red swirl spun closer to her and she felt all the hatred its energy contained. All the hatred once lived inside her. So much suffering, so much pain. So many curses she carried within her blood.

'Time to give all of this up... time to leave all of this behind.'

She felt her powers slowly filling her body and increasing her pain.

'No, do not cry. Do not release it again. Enough of suffering.'

She finally opened her eyes to a red-colored world. Red from the burning blood in her eyes.

'I do not feel the evil presence anymore. That shadow is gone. The evil is gone.'

All of her friends were by her side. Raven had some difficulty on understanding what they were saying. It seemed they were calling her from a distant place.

"Rae!"

"Raven! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she answered as she tried not to show the wave of pain that washed her body.

Beast Boy was looking at her. He knew she was in pain, and all he wanted was to take her to the hospital and be sure she was going to get better.

"Rae," he said. "We'll take you to the hospital. You don't look nice."

"Beast Boy," she whispered in his ear as he threw her arm over him, seeking support. "I could not be better... I am... free.."

"Free? Free of what?"

She smiled at the green one. She would really miss him, and wished he could go with her. 'What? How... selfish can I be? Wishing him to come with me?'

The bleeding on her forehead got worse, and she felt the life within her vanish silently as darkness covered her eyes.