The End
Part Three
Get up. Get. Up.
It was hard to open her eyes; it was even harder to obey the command of the warrior part of her. But still it chanted in her head; demanded her to give more to the fight.
Get up. Get. Up.
Starfire's green eyes blinked open slowly and the lack of color to the world would have scared her if she hadn't seen it before. In the temple of Scath, their bodies had been thrown around as if completely without value. Some were hunted, others were toyed with and some were lucky enough to be disregarded. Starfire pulled herself up as Cyborg and Tempest and her sister did the same. D'ucel, Arsenal, Jinx and Sakura were already standing and Washu showed no signs of standing down.
The battle for the most part was one sided. The Titans spent more time defending and evading rather than attacking, a situation they were not overly familiar with. Their communicators didn't ring with Bumble Bee's voice to give them any techniques, openings, or chances. It wasn't to stay they had inflicted no damage on the highest order of the Slade Syndicate, but it was to say that relatively, that damage done was minimal.
"So, does anyone actually have a plan?" Arsenal asked as the Titans stared down at the dark menace that was the Slade Syndicate.
"Yes." D'ucel responded. "We kick the butt."
Starfire nodded in agreement.
"We need something better than butt kicking." Cyborg responded.
"We need---" Tempest began.
"Everyone." Blackfire finished.
"Together." Sakura said.
"I hope Raven and Nightwing are undamaged."
"They are." Jinx said, turning her head to address the Titans. "They have to be."
"Astarte."
Jinx's cat eyes opened wide over the bruise a vicious blow from Slade had given her. Her sharp irises wavered when she turned her head back to see Washu, who hadn't suffered a blow since Nightwing had left the formation. The scar under his eye was white and had the Titans any manner of luck; the blow from Nightwing would have killed Washu: it would have killed any other man… but Washu was no man.
He moved faster than shadow, faster than Jinx had known he could. But what she knew didn't matter: in the true grand scheme she knew nothing and in the wicked eyes of Washu, she meant nothing.
The others gasped in horror as Washu's balled hand drew back, cloaked in a furious, stunning energy that could only have one purpose, coming from that source: to destroy.
"Sin." (Die.)
Jinx's scream of terror was masked both by Cyborg's yell of her name and the piercing cry of an awaking soul bird. The Titans gasped in relief as Washu's strike was halted as the menacing demon watched black energy lace the atmosphere of the gem pedestal room.
The blow from Washu's bane was absorbed into the flexing wing of Raven's soul self, the charge of energy crackled against the great energy body before it was pulled back revealing an undamaged Jinx and a furious Raven and a ready Nightwing.
Washu tilted his lips into a confident and menacing smirk. "Lethe. Boro." (Welcome.)
Raven levitated in the air, her white cloak billowing out like they were caught in the winds of heaven: though in truth, in their circumstance, heaven was the furthest distance for them to reach. Her purple hair flapped behind her, caught in the flow of all the dark energies in that place: the majority and the most powerful of which, in some manner, served Trigon.
"Already your body is alight in the great strength of your fertilely." Washu noted with amusement as the marks of Scath danced along Lethe tu Raven's body. "It may no longer be possible to release Trigon's might with the blood of Schala… but from the whelp of Lethe and the one, Nightwing, I can birth a power unfathomable to be feasted upon. Your body again, Lethe, and his energy again… my wicked heart trembles in anticipation."
The Titans felt a shuddering wind as the destructive potential in Raven swept through the air. Her right hand pressed forward, all the fingers of that hand pointed to Washu, while her eyes flashed in a dreadful white. Her mouth remained in a tight line as she squeezed her prophetic words from between her lips. "Are you satisfied with them: Your last words?"
The ground began to shake as Raven's battle cry filled all the silences in the air. Starfire grabbed Arsenal and Sakura, pulling them away from the direct path of Raven's power. Nightwing and Jinx tumbled clear, but stayed close as Cyborg blocked Tempest's smaller body with his sturdier one. The Titans watched as the atmosphere around them quivered behind the might of Raven's gifts. For the first time, Nightwing and Jinx could see emotion on Washu's face and it looked something akin to fear.
Raven threw her energy in a fanning beam of white energy.
What is this power? What has become of her mind state to generate such strength? Washu's questions were left unanswered for the moment as Raven's white energy struck him and hurled him backwards. The stunned demon rose to his feet as Raven returned the ground, walking forward with her dark eyes trained on his face. Another blast erupted from her fingers, striking and throwing him back with a roar that was nearly lost in the hazard of Raven's power. The Titans stood stunned as the after effect of Raven's blasts made the ground shudder. They could hear the echoes of from great distances, deeper and further backwards in the cave, the sound of stone hammering and splitting into the Earth, the sound of Raven's fury at absolute.
Jinx studied Washu's struggle as a spell began to form on his lips. Jinx immediately summoned her abilities and matched his curse. Washu glared furiously, knowing it was Astarte who was preventing him from generating a barrier. Raven continued to stalk forward, her body passing Jinx's as their energies kept moving forward with Washu as their target.
A stunning blast hammering into Washu's chest, hurling the villain backwards. Raven's voice hammered into his ears, his dark eyes stretched wide to witness her approach. "You would marry me to the gates of Hell?" Another blast crashed into the wicked demon. Raven thrust her hands forward, the beam of energy striking where she wanted it to. "You would take from me again what was beautiful?" Washu gasped when Raven's energy wrapped around his body in a constricting ring. "You would curse my soul to the damnation of war games of Trigon?" Washu dropped to his knees in a freakish pain as Raven continued to bombard his body with terrible power. "You think I'd let you? I will send you to Hell first myself, as a soul to be forgotten!"
Washu struggled to maintain on his feet as Raven's power demanded his soul to break. His dark eyes were stunned by the incurable hatred in her gaze… incurable, but not undefeatable. He had heard the energy of the world change, he felt the sway of Lethe's power conquer other, less powerful energies, he knew what her dark powers had done. Everything in the distance was the same as right in front of them. Every standing pillar returned to the earth. Arsenal dove and tackled Sakura, rescuing her from the broken finger, rocked free with the echo of Raven's power, as it plummeted to the ground. The Titans moved their feet, rolled their bodies as the very air they were breathing became exposed to and changed by the depth and fury of Raven's power.
They had never seen Raven's energy strike white before: it was awesome, it was terrible, it was truly frightening.
Cyborg's feet sunk deeper into the shattering ground beneath them. The wind took his words, but carried them sharply to the ears of those who were close. "Is she in control of her powers?"
Tempest swallowed hard and continued to brace himself. "Heaven help us if she isn't."
Starfire dove in and pushed them further back from the fray of Raven's power. She and Foxfire turned their Tameranian tinted eyes to the march of Raven as she stood not feet away from Washu, her entire body radiating white energy, her hands pressed forward to deliver the deathblow.
Jinx's cat eyes became worried when she say the wicked smile on Washu's face. Raven stared down as Washu stared up, his words ready to cut her to the bone as her powers were ready to turn him to memory.
"An eye for an eye, my Lethe? Haven't you already received your vengeance lust satisfaction from the murder of Terra Nostra?"
The eyes of the Titans shifted suddenly, definitively to the tremble in Raven's shoulder.
"The statue of the geomorph crumbled to the ground because of your imperfect spell and uncontrolled fury. She has returned to the earth… dead beyond rebirthing magic." Washu's words were venom, cold and calculated, dripping from the slit of his mouth, under his cruel smile.
In his aim, he was successful. Raven's concentration wavered, and with it, everyone else's wavered. A flash of energy struck Raven and hurled her into Jinx. The blow knocked the hex weaver off her task and gave the full demon the time to weave his spell. An energy barrier circled around him.
Raven gritted her teeth, standing up as Jinx stood up beside her. Her energy pulled into the shape of a raven's claw and dashed forward, the sound of its motion cut a howl into the wind. The black energy smashed into the shield and rebounded. Raven pressed her energy again, but the barrier held, keeping Washu from Raven's wrath.
"Kuso! That barrier is strong." Sakura gritted from between her teeth.
"Jinx, can you faze through it?" Nightwing asked.
Jinx shook her head in the negative. "I've never seen his power this way… when a powerful creature gets desperate… that is when his enemies witness the true depth of his abilities."
"While he's behind it, he's getting his strength back. We can't let him get strong again!"
Jinx pulled free a slither of paper so thin it was transparent in some parts. "I don't have the ability to go through it… but I might be able to open it…"
"Might?"
"His magic is strong… to over come it I'll need all my strength and some time." Jinx replied.
"You have neither time nor strength!"
A fireball shoot through the air, aimed at Jinx and Raven. It was Blackfire who jumped in to interrupt the shot. A giant blackbolt met the pyromancy of Deathstroke, spinning the heated attack in her energy blast, where it sunk away in the fire of the sun. Blackfire twisted her hands into fists before turning her head back to her sister and Foxfire.
"Koriand'r! Surren'der! Mesna gotksa Umpora til Tameran!" (Sister, Foxfire! Let us act as Warriors of Tameran!)
D'ucel and Starfire nodded and took to the air. Starfire looked down beneath her to Arsenal and Sakura. "To give Jinx the time, occupy Slade. We will make it impossible for Washu to concentrate." Starfire's eyes were washed over with her righteous fury as the words hammered out of her warrior self. Sakura and Arsenal nodded, both turning well trained eyes to the executioner of the Slade Syndicate. Sakura and Arsenal leapt into the air together, their weapons pulled to unload their mastered skill. The hiraikotsu whirled down through the air trained to take Slade out. With a power driven grunt, a blast of fire escaped Slade's body, blasting its way to strike the giant boomerang head on. The fireball met the weapon head on and knocked the hiraikotsu off its course, what it didn't do was block the charging arrow hidden behind it.
Starfire watched the knockout arrow from the male Titan redhead before turning her attention back to Washu. "Now it is our turn to assist!"
A Starbolt, a Blackbolt and a Fox Shot were held tightly in powerful hands, their fists balled and drawn back. The three Tameranian powerhouses dove downward from the air, their bodies acting as one as they assaulted, head on the magic of Washu's barrier.
Nightwing and Raven waited, standing in front of Jinx as the hex weaver's dark words stormed out in rapid succession. Every curse she knew she mended together in a string to be powerful enough to rip the might of Washu apart.
Jinx could not be distracted from her hex work, but the sound of the clash beyond the magnitude needed to draw Nightwing and Raven's eyes to the barrier… where the magic of Washu rebounded the Tameranian warriors powerfully away, all three of them being lost in a furious white light.
"Starfire! Fox!" Cyborg yelled.
"Blackfire!" Tempest echoed.
Sakura and Nightwing blocked their eyes around the raging retaliation energy. When the light dimmed they saw their friends, thrown against the floor, struggling to sit up. Above them were dark mirror images of themselves.
Dark Star.
Night Fire.
Black Fox.
The wicked trio looked down at their counterparts, smiling cruelly at the creatures they had been born from.
"What is that?" Arsenal asked.
"Their dark sides… it seems that when they met Washu's barrier with their entire bodies, Washu was able to manifest their cruelty, hatred and warrior brutality into physical bodies." Raven replied.
Dark Star laughed. "And now that we are free, we shall destroy the weakness that we are bound to!"
Starfire gasped when a dark starbolt came heralding from her dark self. The blow crashed into her as eyebeams from Night Fire hammered into her sister and a punch from Black Fox knocked Foxfire across the temple. The three slammed back first into the temple walls, groaning over the pain inflicted into their persons.
"We have to help them!" Tempest shouted as he watched the Tameranian trio struggle to their feet as their dark counterparts charged in to continue the fight.
"How can you help them, when you have your own darkness to battle?" Washu's energy waved out in a deadly curve.
Sakura and Raven leapt in front of Jinx as the concentrating hex weaver was targeted for a blow. Sakura crossed her arms in a protective guard and Raven's wings expanded to block the charge. Washu's energy cut through Raven's energy and struck out, spiraling and cutting the energy. Raven screamed in pain as the guard of her energy was washed away. Washu's power struck Raven, Cyborg, Tempest, Arsenal, Nightwing and Sakura. Sakura watched the trace of Holy rebound the attack and watched Raven's magic repel it as well. It was only because of the truths she knew that she didn't question why the energy repelled off of her Dear Brother as well. She turned her head, away from Nightwing to see the ray of power strike Arsenal and pull his dark side away. Arsenal dropped to the ground as the Bleak Arrow pulled himself free. The cruel, dark energy archer pulled taunt an arrow and trained his sights on Sakura.
"Come on Sakura, baby. Give us a kiss."
Sakura sneered and readied her fists. Tempest managed to remain standing as Tsunami emerged from his body. Cyborg stumbled backwards; the Machine stared down at him. Machine turned his sonic cannon and blasted Cyborg point blank. "Booyah." Machine said coolly.
Nightwing watched his sister take a straight boot to her chest as Starfire and Dark Star did battle stories above his head. A few feet back he could see Raven kneeling in front of Jinx, her protective barrier keeping any of the fury of battle away from the hex artist. In his peripheral vision he could see the three demons working their energies in opposite directions. He could hear Jinx's dark words, he could feel Washu's dark presence and he could see Raven's dark summons, but in all of them, Raven was different. Raven wasn't trying to attack or destroy; she was what was good in dark things: that which would defend in any absence of light, even if that absence was somehow a fault of her own.
The body of Tsunami was hurled past his vision and Tempest continued his assault; dark and gold arrows were shot in opposite directions while Sakura's flip flops allowed her to dodge stray bolts.
Nightwing was the only one of them not directly engaged in battle, so he was the one to see what the warring Titans could not. While they pushed their twisted mirrors backwards, their dark menaces countered more fiercely, moving them all in the same direction.
Towards Jinx and the barrier that was allowing her to keep her concentration.
Nightwing turned his eye to Raven and could tell from her set face that she had realized it to. Raven held her knight's kneel as Nightwing retrieved his dark bird-a-rang blade. In the air, Night Fire tackled Komand'r, slamming the alien princess into a cave wall. Tempest felt the wall over his head quake and turned to see, his distraction caused him to narrowly avoid a thunderous punch from Tsunami. A spin kick from his dark genesis knocked Tempest to the side, slamming his hip into a broken pillar.
"You don't deserve her." Tsunami leered. "With you out of the way she'll be all mine! You're too weak to be good enough."
Tempest sneered before pivoting his hips to launch from the ground, his lifting kick knocked Tsunami across the cave. "You don't know anything about me and I will never let you lay one hand on my woman!"
Tsunami was the first of the twisted mirrors to fall. A spinning cut from Nightwing's dark bird-a-rang blade severed the creature in half. The broken fragments returned to Tempest's body, just as Arsenal was thrown into him care of a wild dark starbolt, one amongst a fury of them that were chasing a fleeing Starfire.
"Why do you even fight you, worthless girl?" Dark Star yelled. The warrior unleashed her eyebeams. The energy jets crashed into Starfire and the pretty Tameranian hammered into the ground. A blizzard of dark starbolts followed until Dark Star descended to the smoking hole her powerful blows had created. Starfire staggered to her hands and knees, turning her dirt stained face to her twisted mirror. Dark Star smiled wicked. "I know for the fact that everyone here fights for what they love and those who love them! Komand'r fights for Tempest and Arsenal fights for Sakura and Nightwing fights for his Raven. Why continue fighting when no one is in the love with you?"
Starfire's eyes flashed a furious green. She unleashed a battle cry, her eye beams charging and striking her dark side. Dark Star took the blow, her feet dragged along the temple floor, cutting deep furrows as the force hurled her halfway across the temple. Starfire got to her feet and followed.
Cyborg and the Machine traded blows until an uppercut threw Cyborg's body away as if a broken toy. Nightwing dashed in, his weapon turned to cut the Machine in half. His eyes widened hugely as the Machine turned and cut his descending wrist. "I don't think so, little bird. I've had enough of you trying to boss this big man around." The Machine drew back his beam cannon. Before he could unleash a blast, he was tackled by Foxfire, throwing Nightwing from danger. Foxfire kept his pin of the Machine until he slammed him into a pillar, sinking the dark-Cyborg into a pill of rubbish. D'ucel ascended into the air and unleashed his Fox Shots until Black Fox caught him in a Tameranian submission hold.
"How did a weakling like you become the high warrior of Tameran? You fail in great battles and you will fail here!"
A starbolt crashed into Black Fox, causing him to release his grip. Both versions of Foxfire turned and saw Starfire ragging with her Tameranian fury. "Leave him alone!" A tackle from Night Fire kept Star from starting her assault and dark starbolt knocked Foxfire back towards the ground.
Arsenal and Bleak Arrow ran in a circle in the same direction, unleashing arrow after arrow after arrow. An exploding arrow stopped the Bleak Arrow in his tracks, coughing and partially blinded. The wind parted just enough for him to see the destruction heading toward him. The hiraikotsu cut through the twisted mirror, rending the dark creation in half before returning to Arsenal's body. Arsenal turned his masked eyes to his love as she caught her weapon on its return path. He smiled coolly as she wiped her bangs from her sweating face.
He had known all along that she had the power to defeat his dark side.
A dark starbolt caught Nightwing and hurled him along the ground for several feet before he dropped his hand to slow his path. His earth burned body came to a stop under a shadow that had loomed in his life for longer than any shadow should. He rolled his shoulders and hips to spin his body to his feet just as Slade's heel hammered into the cobblestone.
Slade turned his masked face to meet Nightwing's. Both men stood at their absolute heights. Slade reached behind his back and retrieved his bo-staff, extending it to its full length. "I've dreamt of this day for years Nightwing… when I believed that you were dead. I fought you in my dreams when I was terrified that you failed to exist."
"I don't care!"
"No, you don't. All you care about is the impossible: loving Raven, remaining the good guy, defeating me… now that I know the class of your survival ability… I can literally tear you limb from limb!"
Their weapons clashed, rivaling the sonic shots delivered back and forth between Cyborg and the Machine. The Machine had gotten cocky, teasing the cybernetic fighter he was born from. It had taken only two names to unleash the total rage in Cyborg's body, tearing the elements of the Machine piece by piece until it had nothing to do but break. Cyborg touched the platting of his chest where the Machine had sunk into fully. He might not be able to get rid of that dark part of him, but he could beat it.
All of them could.
Slade took a string of shots to his body, dealing just as many back to the Titans' leader. Nightwing grunted furiously, his legs spinning out in flash kicks, his upper cuts hammered into Slade's mask. The blows he dealt to Slade's mass staggered the older fighter, crush elbows threw his head back. When Slade twisted his neck back, his eye opened wide as he watched Nightwing descend from the air.
In the air behind Nightwing's head, Star, Blackfire and D'ucel were floating back to back to back. The trio backed up tightly until their shoulders were nearly touching in their taut ring. Around them, Black Fox, Night Fire, and Dark Star floated, holding their energies in their hands. Starfire dropped her hand to her sides, grabbing one of D'ucel's hands and one of her sisters. On the other side, Blackfire grabbed Foxfire's hand. With their hands locked, their eyes echoed their righteous fury and three prisms of light radiated from the space between their bodies. Their powers mixed in a massive sphere of energy: the blues slid over the purples and greens until the energies ceased to be separate energies and formed one sparkling ball. Together their battle cries swallowed all the silence and that energy fanned out enveloped everything in the power of the sun.
The energy cleared to find Night Fire, Black Fox and Dark Star returned to where they belonged, in the small weak place in each of their hearts. The Tameranian trio turned their heads as they heard Nightwing's battle cry cut through the remaining silence.
"Hiyaaaa!" Nightwing drew his dark bird-a-rang blade behind his head and dropped down in a perfectly vertical cut. The sound of metal on metal was sharp in Nightwing's ear as he landed in a tight crouch, his weapon held tightly in his hand. His hair fanned out behind him as the wind of Slade's motion pushed the air. Nightwing didn't look up, he had felt it under his weapon that Slade had evaded, Slade's feet connecting with the ground after his back flip only confirmed with his body knew. He was in his knees still when the severed mask fell from Slade's face to his feet. The hard metal crashed to the ground, halved perfectly by Nightwing's sword. Slade covered his face with his hand, taking a step backwards.
"Another day Nightwing. Another day." His free hand charged his pyromancy. He grunted with the excursion of his ill begotten fire powers. The fire ball screeched through the air. The fireball arched like a snake to strike down Nightwing. The Titans' leader turned his weapon to combat the blow, instead a black guard rebounded the charge. Nightwing turned his head to Raven and watched her recall her power. The move was what Slade needed to make his escape.
Arsenal would not let it be that easy. The agile archer charged an arrow and unleashed it over the shoulders of Raven and Nightwing, pushing their hair in the path of the arrow, the long locks in slow motion it seemed before the bolt cut through the wind and struck Slade in his exposed face. Before Arsenal could follow the assault, he heard something that changed the focus of the battle.
"Endari Ende Mortix!"
The curse in Jinx's hand moved like a living thing, like the flow of water as it thinned out and seeped into the air. The fragile paper found Washu's barrier and gripped the dome of energy. They all watched as the paper began to melt a wound in the barrier only six inches long and four inches deep. Raven watched Jinx struggle to open the patch wider.
"It needs to be bigger."
"I can't! I can only hold it this size… do something before it closes!" Jinx yelled.
Neither of them thought about it. Somehow they both knew that it had to be done. Nightwing and Sakura ran forward, standing on either side of the barrier. The hole was just large enough for them to stick their fingers in. From the right, Nightwing gripped, from the left, Sakura held and from both sides, they pulled.
Washu's eyes widened in horror as the siblings managed to grab his barrier. The strain of their face should their struggle, but more than that it showed their success. Their feet dragged and they pulled with all their might, tiny fragments of energy, in gold and white, too small for them to see, ate away at the barrier under their fingers. Their eyes were pulled tight closed, their teeth gritted firmly. Sakura slanted her body low to the ground and Nightwing pulled with all his strength.
"Lethe! Now!" Jinx shouted.
The Titans felt the air change as Raven sunk into her soul self and dove forward. The wound between the siblings was just large enough for her energy to seep through. Raven's energy sunk over all of them as she passed, stealing tiny pulses on their life energies. When her energy washed over Nightwing, Jinx and Sakura, their concentration was lost. The barrier closed when Jinx and the siblings dropped to the floor, leaving Raven trapped alone with Washu in his barrier.
The tiny pulses of their life energies swarmed in a crystalline ball in between Raven's hands. Raven's eyes flashed white as the energy sunk into hers and her eyes between a brilliant white.
Outside the barrier, Nightwing helped his sister to her feet and saw her eyes flash white. He blinked rapidly and turned to his team. Cyborg's eyes were white, Jinx's whose were normally a pink wave of energy were white, and the green of Starfire was masked in white, as the purple and blue of Blackfire and D'ucel were. Arsenal and Tempest, whom never had their powers wash over their eyes, were staring forward in white.
Nightwing turned his head back to Raven, in that motion, his eyes flashed white as well.
Washu trembled in horror as his energy barrier was breached by a power more magnificent than anything he had ever seen. Raven's eyes shifted from white as her hands raised above her head, white wings emerging from her back.
"AZARATH FAERIDOS REX!"
The energy spiraled outward like a hurricane, shredding through the air and the energy of Washu's barrier like a sword through paper. The concentrated energy, the souls of all the Titans – Starfire's green, Arsenal's red, Cyborg's blue, everyone's life energy slammed into Washu. Each life energy became a soul solider that dove forward – Sakura's threw an energy hiraikotsu, Tempest's hurled an energy tide, and together, Nightwing and Raven's energy stood back to back: Nightwing rose his left hand, Raven rose her right and together they sent the entire army of the Titans power forward.
With an amazing blast of light and a terrifying roar of pain, Washu was destroyed.
…
She sat in the vanity while the combs were run through her hair. She sat quietly with her hands folded over each other; the white gloves were soft and noiseless as they rested on top of her lap.
Her lashes fluttered closed softly then opened again, revealing her delicate amethyst eyes. Sakura and Starfire finished the last weaves of Raven's thick bun, pulling the crown of the veil in place of the soon to be bride. Blackfire had painted her lips delicately in a pale pink that was her something new. The tiny jewel in the center piece of her jeweled crown was a pearl, a gift from Sakura, as something blue. The silver necklace was forged from metal that was normally very heavy, but sat delicately in the nape of her neck, molding in the shape of an infinite symbol behind a full moon: it was a birthright of Starfire's and served as something borrowed.
"It's almost time." Sakura said softly.
Raven stood up and smoothed out her dress, though it was as immaculate as when she sat down. The strapless dress curved to her perfect figure, highlighting every soft inch of her mature body.
"Do you have the nerves?" Starfire asked.
Raven shook her head in the negative. "I've never been happier in my life."
"Never more beautiful either."
The four Titan females turned their heads to the door. There he stood, looking not a single day older than they had last seen him.
"Beast King?"
The green animorph smiled and rubbed the back of his head. The motion rustled his pressed black suit. "I'm a little bit more low key these days. Call me Garfield."
"Garfield. It's so wonderful to see you again."
"You too… hey girls, could you let me and Rae talk a bit alone?"
Star, Blackfire and Sakura consented. "We'll be waiting outside the door."
Raven nodded. When the door closed the two of them stepped closer to each other. Raven smiled up at the taller Garfield Logan and he smiled gently down at her. "Once," Garfield admitted, "Once, a long time ago, I had hoped it would be you and me walking down the isle." He said gently, touching the moon pale woman's face.
"You know for a few months, so did I."
Garfield laughed. "We were stupid kids then."
"No, just meant for better things."
"You're more beautiful now than we I saw us doing. It was my biggest dream for it to be you and me down the isle."
"It still can be… would you give me away?"
"Raven."
"Raven."
"Raven."
"RAVEN!"
The moon pale woman shook her head as the yell interrupted her dream. She blinked her huge eyes, turning to find Victor Stone holding her arm.
"What is it?"
"The march is about to begin. Are you okay?" He asked.
"Yes… I just had a dream. I had a dream Beast King came back for the wedding."
"I understand. I'm sorry we couldn't find him… we should all be here for this. It's not everyday our little birds go and get married."
"Thank you for giving me away, but you could have come as you are… not as…"
Victor looked down at his hands, the big meaty hands that would have been his if things had been different. The rings on his fingers, he had told himself he was done with them, but some things were bigger than his pride. "I know you never had issues with my being half machine, but for today it isn't about me. It's about you and Richard and I wanted this to be as close to perfect as I could make it."
Raven sighed contentedly. "Thank you, for everything."
"Same to you, Rae. Same to you."
The wedding march began and the maid of honor and the best man walked side by side to the alter to stand beside Sakura, Tempest, Bruce Wayne and the waiting Richard Grayson. Roy took his place and so did Starfire before the bride made her way to the alter. Raven's heart beated beautifully as she moved to stand closer and closer to Richard Grayson. The march ended and the bride and groom to be turned to each other. The small wedding party watched amethyst eyes meet gold-brown when Richard moved lift her veil. He couldn't help himself: he kissed her long before it was time, desperate to feel her against him in a moment that would be one of their most precious in their history together. Raven blushed and closed her eyes, thankful for everything that lead to that moment. The reverend cleared his throat and the wedding party giggled together and proceeded through the ceremony.
At the right moment Arsenal produced the ring and when the call for objections rose, no one had a reason or the will to stop the union. Raven Roth's ring was slid onto Richard's hand, making him hers and Richard Grayson's ring slid onto hers, making her Mrs. Raven Grayson.
Joyfully, Richard kissed his bride again and the party cheered. Cake slices were lovingly rubbed into each others faces, a garter belt was tossed to the crowd, landing on D'ucel, who was more than confused, but cheerful none the less. The banquet was launched and a catfight the likes of which Roy, Victor, Orin, and D'ucel had never seen waged between the unwed Titan females. It was an exhausted Sakura who came up victorious. Bruce bumped the blushing archer, who turned red then sank through the floor.
The dance of Richard and Raven seemed to last hours rather than the few short minutes it really was. Raven's cheek rested gently in Richard's shoulder, their bodies pressed tight together, her hand in his, her fingers on his chest, his against her lower back. They moved together with her eyes closed, feeling every beat, beat heartbeat and loving it all.
Rice was thrown at their getaway car and the Titans with Bruce Wayne watched them disappear towards their honeymoon.
They would return in one month to Jump City and Titans' Tower, ready to continue their roles as the defenders of Truth, Justice and Pizza.
The End of Chapter Sixteen.
A/N
So far this story is 858 pages.
This story isn't over.