A/N: I'M STILL GOING! ANOTHER CHAPTER! YESSSSSS!
XP
It'd taken a bit of poking around, but a few 'persuading' threats and bruised egos later, the 6 teens had found out where Bruce Wayne currently was. Took a bit of walking too, thankfully he was still in the same building complex, and were able to follow the directions all right. They found him in a room with a large computer screen, consoles, and the overall futuristic look to it with the metal walls that had seems in them which suggested hidden compartments and such. Bruce was currently watching what looked to be some sort of surveillance system. Windows of different areas, so many that some were overlapping each other, and one that was unmistakably a picture of the earth, some of it blanketed with thick black cloud, while other parts were allowed sunlight and white clouds.
"So?" Bruce asked turning around in his chair as the 6 teens filled into this room. He got up on his cane to meet them and was looking at Raven.
"We want to see what you found out about The Cross. Then we'll need a shuttle to Earth, and someway of contacting you." She answered. Shila and the others all nodded, making sure that Bruce knew they were all included when Raven said 'we'.
The man smirked, and got up. "The piece of The Cross we got showed us nothing on the computers, but perhaps you can make heads or tails of it." He said, walking over to a console and pressing a few buttons. A section of the wall opened up and he reached in for a large chunk of what almost appeared to be a fragment of the sun with white flicks mixed in with it, but less bright, and appearing to have lost some of its light because it wasn't even as bright as The Cross. Raven took it, and frowned.
"I'm not sure but I…wait…" She suddenly blinked, "Bruce, that, Cross Hope, did that use to be Jump City?" She asked suddenly.
He nodded solemnly.
"What does that have to…wait," Malorek said, clearly going along the same lines as Raven, "If there had been a bridge there…you said it looked familiar, you think…?" He said.
"What?" Shila demanded.
"The Cross, it was on an island in the lake and the setting was different, the bridge had obviously been torn down, but…that island is the exact same size, minus some of the stuff the demons obviously put there to sit on, and The Cross, it's also, but then…" She mumbled.
"Spit it out! What are you thinking!" Mace exclaimed.
"The Cross was once the T-Tower, base of the Teen Titans." Malorek said. "Or at least, it's in the same place as the T-Tower, but…what happened?" He asked.
"I don't know." Raven answered, racking her brain for answers, "But, the size of the T is the same, roughly anyways, I imagine the extra size is simply due to the light, but, how come it extended farther up?" She questioned, raising her hands to gesture.
"Can you think of anything that might have caused that, perhaps something in your room?" Malorek questioned. "Or something…" He blinked, and his eyes widened, "On the roof?"
Raven's jaw dropped, "The kethnic water!" She exclaimed.
"The what! Come on, people, us lowly humans aren't following!" Mace exclaimed, his voice even more irritated now.
"I'm sorry but, this is…it's just too unreal. Fifty years…that water can absorb sunlight even through clouds, if the sun is there it can…fifty years of sunlight and moonlight." She began to pace, "But just one year would have been enough to make it start to overflow and wrap the Tower in light. And light that powerful…of course it would make a full high demon weak! It would be pulsing with positive force that I wouldn't be able to stand. And that's why Judora can only use lesser demons as guards! Because the more powerful the demon, the more it would affect them. And Judora would have found a way of protecting herself from its effects, but even she wouldn't be able to get close enough to destroy it, and even if she could, it's the only thing keeping me from having enough power to kill her."
"So how do we use this to our advantage?" Asked Shila.
"Simple, we get to the top of the tower, and bottle some of that wa—" Raven stopped dead, her face fell into a look of realization, and confusion.
"What? What is it?" Malorek asked.
Raven set the glowing rock down, and put her hand over the dimensional gem that Malchior had crafted for her, and summoned the bottle that she and the other Titans had found among all those demon carcasses. The light coming from the small amount of water in the bottom was bright, and when she opened the top, it began to spill out in the exact same manner that the light on the fragment of The Cross was moving about. She then closed it, and looked at Malorek, expecting to see a look of comprehension on his face, but instead she was met with wide eyes, staring at the bottle.
"Raven…that bottle…"
"I know, it's the same, the same as in my dream. And it's got the same water in it, how—"
"No," He said, his voice sounding almost pained, "That, that bottle it's…Raven, I know that bottle." He said, looking at her, his violet eyes piercing.
"You…know it?"
"That's…your bottle. It's…Raven you…made it…" He said.
Raven's mouth dropped.
"S-so what's going on? Raven made the bottle, but…what, she doesn't remember?" Asked Shila, who sounded as though she was desperate to comprehend what was going on. Raven started, suddenly remembering that there were other people in the room. "How, and why are you acting so, what is it?"
"Look," Malorek turned to them all, "This isn't something we can explain very well, so unless you want to be more confused and given no answers because it would take far too long to explain everything, you'd better leave now." He said. They all stared at each other. Bruce nodded, and with one look at Raven, was the first to make his way to the door. Seemingly to agree that this was a conversation best held between the two of them.
Raven groped for the wall, found it, and slumped against it, feeling almost feint. "But then…that means…the white cloak, this bottle…that, our friend…was it, Avelona?" She asked.
"But you just said—"
"OUT!" Malorek roared, coming over to Raven's side. They all jumped, but still didn't look very keen to leave.
"Come on." Bruce snapped from the doorway. "Let's leave them to work this out. They know more than we do and standing there asking questions will only waste time, and time is of the essence." He said to the four. They chanced a concerned look back at Raven, but Shila followed Bruce, and the rest followed her.
"She could have gone through time, couldn't she? She could have, had visions of this, and, what if she took precautions to prevent it? Precautions that…failed?" Raven asked, breathlessly. "But then…I saw her, it can't…if she was there, then why did this happen? Why is the future like this if she was there? Surely she…but….if she knew this would happen, why didn't she kill Judora in the past? Why…"
"Raven calm down!" Malorek exclaimed. "Listen, it might not have been Avelona at all, in fact, I'm most certain it wasn't. She always had an aversion to messing with time, she only ever went through time an hour at most, just to prove she could do it. And, like you said, if she knew enough that she would go that far in time to prevent this, she'd have killed Judora off in her own time. It could have been someone entirely different. Perhaps another friend from the past, who Avelona gave that bottle to before she was killed. Someone from that underground society." He said.
"…Allira'shinede?" Raven asked.
"Ali-what?" Malorek blinked.
"Avelona's mother, her name was Allira'shinede. Avelona might have given her the bottle as a present." Raven said, her eyes widened, "What if, what if the white cloak, wasn't a white cloak at all, what if it was white hair!" She asked. "But then, why wouldn't she have confronted me? And, I mean, surely Chire'ni would have mentioned her, even if it was during some sort of rant. So why—?"
"Well, that's kind of obvious, Raven." Malorek answered. Raven spun and stared at him, "Think about it, her own flesh and blood killed you, she'd probably be ashamed. And besides of which, you aren't Avelona, you're Raven. You are your own person, and therefore very different from the little girl she raised. Also, you have a real mother now. She might not want to intrude on this. As for Chire'ni, well, it would make sense for Alira'shinede to have disowned her and not wanted anything more to do with her. She might not even know Chire'ni's still alive, and vice versa." He said.
"But, the white cloth I found beneath the bottle," Raven murmured, pulling the scrap in question out of her belt.
"Could be something symbolic between she and Avelona. Perhaps it represented Avelona in a way, she always wore white so, maybe it was a silent message. Maybe she was telling you it was her, but in that way, you wouldn't have known because you don't have all of Avelona's memories." He said.
"And all the demons that were killed? How could she have,"
"Remember what Chire'ni is capable of, where do you think she got it from? It's possible that Alira'shinede is far more powerful than Chire'ni, and knows a lot more drow magic too." He answered.
"But…Judora would have been able to kill her then, because she'd be weak from using so much power." Raven said, biting her lip.
"…There's still the question of why Judora sent us, well, you, here." Malorek told her.
"You think…what if…" Raven considered, "What if I was…a demon before I was sent back, what if I killed everyone when I came back, what if I killed you here?" She asked in a whisper. "What if this time's Judora is suppose to somehow make me, make me like that?" She asked.
Malorek's eyes widened at this prospect, "Well then, we have to make sure you don't go anywhere near her, don't we?" He said.
"So I guess that plan is off, isn't it?"
"Definitely, and you should probably stay here as well. I'll find the three guys, they'll recognize me." He told her.
Raven looked up at him, "Malorek I'm not going to sit back and—"
"Oh yes you will." He interrupted, "I'm fairly certain you don't want to end up that way, best to stay here."
"You think I'll be safe from her here? Malorek, this Judora is probably more powerful, more crafty, and more experienced than the other one. She will be able to find a way of getting me from here to there if I appear to be staying here." She said.
"Yes but it'll be a lot harder for her, and it will buy us some time too. We could put a protection spell around our room, the same one you had around the Tower, remember? She couldn't do anything to us while we were in there." He said.
"Even so, I'm not going to just sit quiet and do nothing!" She told him.
"Yes you will! I'm not going to let you put yourself in danger like that. I would much rather you stayed here and let me do all this!" he said.
"Oh, and what if I didn't want you to put yourself in danger either!" She demanded shrilly.
"What?"
"Have you forgotten one little itty bitty fact? SHE WANTS TO USE YOU TO RESURRECT TRIGON!" She yelled.
"Oh, right, I seriously doubt she'll be able to—"
"She was able to take on your separate halves at the same time." Raven pointed out, which caused Malorek to flush angrily.
"That was because she was prepared for us!" He yelled. "She wove a sleeping spell into us while she teleported us so we couldn't have fought against it!"
"And she'll be prepared for you next time! She could do the exact same thing, only differently to accommodate for your own power raise. She'll know you're whole and will be planning on that!" She exclaimed.
"I DON'T CARE!" He roared. "I don't care what happens to me, you are far more important and—"
"Oh right, and I'm going to be so much better off if you die and I have to contend with my dear father! That could be what drives me up the wall, didja think of that!" Droplets of salty water were seeping from her eyes now, but she brushed them away, furious with herself. "I might be more important in your eyes, but you are more important in mine! I'd rather die than lose you…again." Her voice cracked with a suppressed sob, and she tried to brush the tears flowing from her eyes out of her face again.
"Raven…" Malorek whispered, and the next moment Raven found him holding her tightly, "I'm sorry, it's just, I'm scared, okay? I'm scared. I feel like we're still groping in the dark for some things, and I can't stand it! If this is the future…" he held her tighter, "If everything ends…I can't stand the thought of that. The thought that, this might not change. I wanted to believe that, in fifty years, you and I might finally have the peace we've longed for. Instead, we come here and find that, that tainted woman is still around, and she's f333ed up this life as well! It isn't fair! What did we do to deserve all this!" He demanded.
"Nothing, nothing." She said, tears coming from her eyes freely now.
They stood there for a few minutes, just holding each other, but then Raven straightened herself up, whipped her eyes, and put on a determined face, "We just have to try harder to make sure this doesn't happen." She said, her voice steady now.
Malorek looked at her, and nodded.
When they came out of the room, or rather when they opened the door, an avalanche of teens might have fell on them, if the two hadn't moved out of the way in time. Malorek glared menacingly at them, but Raven just raised an eyebrow, schooling her face to seem annoyed rather than amused. "I hope you realize that we're not going to be answering any questions your eavesdropping might have sprouted." She told them.
"Uuuuuuh." They looked up at her guiltily, "We were just," Shila said as they picked themselves up.
"Well…we only started listening when you two started shouting." Mace muttered.
"You're not helping yourself." Malorek growled.
Seeing them all, especially Grissom, shrink away, looking like a bunch of kids caught making out by their mothers, seemed to force Raven's spirits to rise and she couldn't keep the grin off her face. She put her hand over her mouth to try and hid it, but then she started snickering and that just blew the entire thing.
XD
"I still wish you wouldn't co—"
"And I still wish you'd just let it go." Raven interrupted, just as the airlock closed behind them, and the shuttle Bruce had managed to get them flew out of the moon's gravitational field, and headed to earth. Raven's hand flew over what had been the incomprehensible form of a key board, before, of course, she had been given a donation of blood from Terri, who knew so much about flying and shuttles, just that string of his memories nearly overloaded her mind. She was able to weed through it swiftly enough to that she could pilot a shuttle, and that was really all they needed right now. Troubleshooting engine problems, depicting basic strings of computer code, and programming the ship to say 'WASUUUUUUUP!' every time it was engaged past a certain speed wasn't exactly necessary at the present moment. Though she would have to ask Terri why he felt the need to learn that last bit later, however she was quite sure she didn't want to know.
"Alright, alright. So where are we going?" He asked.
"The last place they were spotted." Raven answered. "We'll go from there."
"Which is?" Asked Malorek.
"Well, looks like Scotland." She answered.
"Where?" Asked Shila, poking her head up between them.
Raven pulled up a general map of the earth, and pointed. "There." She said.
"…Where's that?" Asked Mace.
"Right, I guess you wouldn't have been given Geogrophy lessons. Okay Cross Hope is right about here," She pointed to a spot on North America, "This map encompasses the entire world, so you get an idea of how far it is. I imagine they came over there to put the Atlantic Ocean between them and Judora…um, that's this strip of ocean right here." She explained. "However, they probably aren't there now. But I've made out the patterns of their last few appearances." She pressed a few buttons, and red dots appeared on the map. "A while ago they seemed to sort of hang around in Great Britton, that's this entire continent, but the last few times they were moving up and down the west coast of Africa, that's this continent here. So I think we can narrow our search down to this line." She explained.
"What about those dots over here and here?" Shila asked, pointing to other spots of Europe and Asia.
"I'm aware of this, however, most of the sightings have them around here, and if they went back to Great Britton, it's likely they'll stay there, moving about for a while. It's possible they won't, but for now this is our best guess." Raven answered.
"Britton? Hm…" Malorek looked to be in thought.
"What?" She asked.
"Just thinking, that's where I was born, er, where I hatched anyway. That's also where…well…you know." He said.
"Hatched? What do you mean, hatched!" Mace demanded.
"What, you mean after all this you still think I'm human?" Malorek asked, raising an eyebrow at the man behind him.
"Entering earth's atmosphere, we'll be nearing Scotland shortly I think. These things fly pretty fast." Raven remarked.
"Of course they do, have to be able to out-fly a guard, don't they?" Mace said.
"True."
XD
The landing was smooth and easy, fifty years of frantically upgrading technology in order to live made sure of that, and the good part was they didn't seem to have been spotted by anyone, so they wouldn't have crowds of people groping to get to the moon upon seeing the shuttle. Still, Raven felt it would be a good idea to leave two people there, just in case. Grissom and Blade seemed the best choices, and the rest of them took to the air.
A day's searching granted them signs of destruction which some of the marshes had grown over in time, glimpses of what had once been civilization, and signs of human's trekking across the moor, but nothing else. No intelligent life, human or otherwise. They had even spread out to search, but when they regrouped near the ship, each account was the same, so they went back into the ship and slept in three separate rooms.
Raven didn't sleep well, and her nightmares consisted of a demon with her face, blood dripping from her fangs and claws, blood that wasn't hers. In each changing scene, the demon was either ripping up bodies and sinking its teeth into their hearts for the blood, or else causing destruction, humans running in all directions as it shrieked inhumanly. However, she noticed that in most of the dreams, she was an on-looker of sorts, she was not the demon, and this afforded her little comfort.
However it did not stop her from screaming into her pillow in the middle of the night. She and Malorek, of course, ended up sharing one of the barely comfortable beds for the rest of the night, which seemed to help, but only in that she didn't feel the need to scream the next time she jerked awake.
Morning was a rather unfavorable affair, Shila and Mace couldn't be roused at all, which wasn't surprising since they had never flown before, and had spent the last day doing nothing but. So Raven flew the ship into another area of Scotland their friends had been seen a while back, and landed. They had to wake the two up long enough to tell them that they were watching the ship this time, and then Raven, Malorek, Grissom, and Blade took to the air above the trees. However, before they had the change to get very far once split up, Grissom shouted for them to come over, and they found the unmistakable signs of recent human life.
A few acres on, and the makings of a definite city came into view, with people in it.
The four landed where they wouldn't be seen.
"What do you think?" Asked Malorek.
"We should try it. Just to see if anyone has seen them recently." Raven answered, pulling a hood over her head. She then looked at Malorek, "Um, I think you should try to keep out of sight."
"Good idea." Malorek then looked over at Grissom, "I hope you can improve your social skills a bit, a slight tone of voice and a single word could be the difference between trust and suspicion."
He frowned, but didn't say anything.
In all honesty, Raven half expected people to turn and start whispering as they approached, but upon closer inspection, Raven found that none of them looked out of place. Clothing styles ranged from rags held in place with string, to metal armor, and even white cloaks. In fact, there were many with white cloaks and garments, though most looked more dirty and a little less white than hers, no one seemed to care enough to notice. Even the hair was in all different colors here, unlike at Cross Hope where anything but dark hair and dark skin could get you killed, dyed hair seemed to be the only thing these people were able to do about fashion and style. Some hair cuts looked absolutely horrible as well, one girl had shoulder length hair on half her head, and a buzz cut on the other half. The only thing that seemed to be putting Raven out of place, was her hood, which she pulled down as soon as the amount of colors became apparent.
There were no actual houses, more like buildings that people stayed in, and most carried around something to sleep on with them, so that they could use them whenever they were tired, and just sort of found a building that not many people were using and spread themselves out. The surprising thing was, though some boys were running around with little more than loin cloths on, the place seemed surprisingly sanitary. The reason for this became apparent as, deeper into the makeshift city, obvious signs of technology were coming to them. Pluming, especially, as one woman was watering some flowers with a hose. Also, when Raven glimpsed into some of the larger constructions, she saw artificial light had been put on, as well as fans. The cleanliness was also discovered when they passed by several bathhouses (each with its own specific gender, not surprising there were more woman bath houses than men), and these seemed to be places that everyone could just walk in and use.
Finally, upon coming to one of the largest buildings, they actually found a sort of bar and restaurant kind of place, where people were not only eating food and drinking what probably wasn't only water, but they were bringing in food and going to the back to help out. Obvious 'customers' just up and walked over to the back once they'd finished eating.
"Hungry, lass?" Questioned the man at the bar, who had a sink and was washing plates and cups right there as he spoke.
"No thank you." Raven answered, feeling awkward. He smiled.
"New here ey? Well, don' you worry abou' a thing, you'll start to fit in well enough. Over yonder you can get yer'selves a pallet to sleep on, and if you start a work'n right away, yall'll be befrend'n this little town before ya knows it. Me name's Griff, everyone calls me that. So, you want a drink or anything else? I'll be happy to help if ya need it." He asked her.
Raven smiled at him, he was a burly man, with a lot of beard and muscles, wearing some leather pants and a shaft over his chest, held there by a rather nice leather belt. He didn't seem like someone who was very clean, but with soap suds all over his hands, how could he not be? "Actually, ah, we're not here to stay. We're looking for some friends." She told him, starting to feel a bit nervous.
"Aaaah, well, I always work the kitchens, so I see everyone aroun'. This is the only place you can get cooked food, other build'ns might sell bread, but the rest'll be fruits and vegetables. So, what are their names, and what do they look like? If they were here, I'd know." He told her helpfully.
Raven smiled again, "Um, well, Shade, Michael, and Daniel. One's got red ha—" But she didn't need to go any further. Griff stopped drying the plate he had in his hand and gave her such a piercing look, her smile faded, to be replaced with a questioning look. She saw a swift movement out of the corner of her eye, but ignored it. "What?" She asked.
"You say they're yer friends, do you?" He asked, smiling again, though it was obvious he was forcing it on his face. He didn't resume his drying.
"Yes, what's wrong?" She asked, though she had a good idea what the answer was.
Suddenly, Raven felt both her arms being grabbed, and a haughty, yet very familiar voice in her ear, "I was wondering when she'd start recruiting human mystics to track us down."
"Yep, too bad this one seems a little dense." Said a voice in her other ear.
"You know, I really didn't think our encounter would go this way." Raven muttered.
"Bet you didn't." Said Daniel, and he forced her to turn around and face them.
"No, for one, I thought you'd just be staring at me in disbelief, much like you're doing now." Raven answered, shrugging their hands off of her as their grip was pathetically slack now.
They hadn't changed, in looks anyway. Each of them were just as young as they had been the last she saw them, which, to her, was just the other day. However, some differences were notable. For instance, Danial's hair had been dyed so that the ends were more yellow to make it look like fire, but that was the only physical difference on any of them. The rest, was the air of maturity, the traces of deadness in their eyes, and the sense of those who'd seen a lot, and were forcing themselves to keep light hearts about it.
At first she had been afraid they might not recognize her, but all doubts vanished the moment they saw her face and met her eyes. "R-Raven!" They all gasped, waking from their stupor at the same time.
XP
A/N: And we're back with the age-old cliffhangers. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Anyway, not too many things to say for reviewers, but here we are:
Silver Dragonness: I have thought about it, and, as I told a certain someone I just had an AIM conversation not too long ago, I do have a certain…material in store for the end of Spellfire that could turn into another story, but at the same time it could just be disposed of, it just depends on how the ending turns out. But I have something really…intense (I hope) planned, so I hope you guys aren't too disappointed, however it goes!
Me: That'll be explained, probably in the next chapter. So don't worry!
That's about it. Also, you peoples need to check out this Malchior/Raven/Rorek forum by Zoicytes-Shadow called Romanticide! There aren't too many peoples up there, and how is one suppose to talk about pointless stuffs when there's only 3 to 5 people to respond? HOW I ASK YOU? Also, Zoicytes-Shadow has this one fanfic called The Malchior Files and they are fuuuuunney! I am seriously busting a gut over here, you must read!