A/N: I liveeee~! Gosh this one takes a while. I don't know why, especially since the ending has been planned for ages. Sigh. Oh well. I hope it's worth the wait!

13. Ornaments

"Trigon...huh?"

Yuuno flipped through another text and coughed away from the book. These texts were quite old, almost falling apart beneath his fingers. He scanned them into the archive as he flipped, so they'd never have to go through this again. The paperwork was ridiculous, but he had perfected the art of doing it in the back of his mind. It was well worth it, in the end.

He almost wished Arf was here, but she was running an errand for the Lost Logia section. It could be another half an hour or so. So he was on his own, searching for more information about this mysterious demon. This world eater, existing since before the fabled Al-Hazardian people. They seemed to fear him in these texts, if not admire him. Admire his gluttony.

"He often takes servants, much like the Non-Administrated World 97 main western religions' expect of the devil known as Lucifer… only to turn the deals on them… it's rare to survive such a deal…" Yuuno frowned. "Wonderful… 'He was once sealed in…"

But that couldn't be the case… as according to Fate he was connected to little Rae. The seal had to have been removed or worked around somehow… possibly through…

Yuuno's eyes widened. Of course. Blood Magic and Curses.

He went to look.

"Slade." Her voice is soft but her memories loud and she thought of him leaning over her, voice a purr, single eye and electric power holding her still, aging her, aging her time until she did nothing but create wrongdoing and suffering and- there was Vivio's hand in hers, soft and fierce.

"Rae-chan." The seriousness in her voice made her almost want to fly away, but the heterochromatic eyes stopped her. If she ran on her own, she wouldn't make it, not now. Not even with a demon's stamina. "Let's go!"

Rae nodded and when the light changed, they shot off. Rae heard Slade's chuckle even in the crowd. He hadn't moved, he hadn't attacked anyone but still, she could hear him.

"You're running the wrong way, little girl."

Vivio's hands sparked a strange myriad of colors and shot into the air. A signal for help on her terminal. Rae prayed it would work. She didn't know why he was here. If he had made it so she could become the gem, if he had persuaded her of it-

"Oh Raven, you didn't need much persuading and you know it."

-then he must be an envoy for her or father or had been which mean he was out and on another planet. The planet Robin was from, most likely. THe planet she must have lived on. So, why was she here?

She should be dead so why was she-

Maybe her father had been wrong about that, about her termination. What else had he been wrong about?

Well, he was wrong about something, at least. People weren't leaving her behind. She squeezed Vivio's hand and thought of her powers, bubbling under the surface. She closed her eyes and shivered at its touch.

"We'll be okay, Rae-chan!" Vivio chirped as she ran. "The Mamas are coming. I sent the signal."

Raven nodded. She just didn't want to know what else would get to them in the meantime. A pain raced through her chest and almost made her pause. Then she pushed her feet forward as they dove deeper into Cranagan. That was probably a bad idea, to get civilians involved unexpectedly, but that was how Slade worked wasn't it? Get as many casualties as possible.

How did she know that? How?

She knew Robin, she knew Starfire. She knew all of these things and couldn't explain how or why she knew them other than that they must have happened before.

"What's going to happen-" she murmured to herself, stopping as the thought wormed through her head. Vivio's stride was cut off mid-step as she turned to look at her.

"Rae-chan?"

"What's going to happen if I remember?" Rae shook her head, pulling their hands apart, pain racing to her stomach. "Will I disappear again? What am I going to do?" Fear shook the buildings, blasted and beat at the windows.

Vivio pulled Rae to her, even as the other girl squirmed and shuddered. The memories, the past or future, she wasn't sure, beat against her skull like trapped baby birds, trying to be heard. Vivio stayed quiet, watching the alleyway, thinking of how she had run through the sewers, looking for her mama, looking for someone strong.

There hadn't been words then, and she didn't have any now. She could feel Rae trying not to cry. So she held her and tried to calm her, trying to think of a way to buy time. That guy hadn't pursued them, but he was tough. He would find them, eventually.

They just had to hope it was after their mamas got there. She made to lead Rae somewhere in the shadows.

Then fire monsters burst out of nowhere. The sky turned red.

Rae started to scream.