And another chapter is born! Yay! The final battle with Dark Fall is already planned out, and all you have to do is read to get there! Some of you will ask why I asked for a vote if I was just gonna destroy the dice. Well… it was so close I couldn't tell who won! (audience falls down anime style) It was between BB and Raven. Starfire got a few passion votes since Robin died, and poor Cyborg only got like two votes! Poor guy! Oh well… Anyway! When we last left our heroes they'd figured out the riddle of the third game, and Raven destroyed the dice. With no way for the game to continue, Dark Fall has ended the game! But that means… that right! Its time for a battle! RAWR! I don't own Teen Titans!

Raven's Game 3: Final Shadow

Part 13 – Rampage of Darkness

It had grown strong over the millenia. It was powerful, yes. It had tangled with sages, knights, wizard, clergy, and so many more mere innocents had become a part of its being… Then the power Azar people had sealed it away. Then… so many years later, it had been set free by complete chance. So, it had sipped at the magic being used above its prison.

Only when she used her magic did it take any for itself. It stored the magic away like a battery, until it was strong enough to finally break free. When the green one and the metal man broke the seal, it was finally. Then, it had taken the shape of a disk to throw it off guard. It was just a game, after all…

But then she'd won and sealed it away. So it waited many years and went back in time for revenge. Then, it had accidentally captured her life mate. He'd won that game.

After more time had passed it decided to play one more game with the group. One of them had lost, but the others had figured out the secret. Three games were more than enough. It was time to start feeding again. It already had thousands of souls, and had recently added one more. It was time to purge the world…

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"aaaaaaaaaa---AAAAAAAH!" All four Titans fell into the common room from the ceiling, dropping out of a muddy-purple vortex. They landed with a group-sized, "OOF!"

"Get offa my back!"

"Get your foot outta my face!"

"My hair is tangled in someone's gafars!"

"E–NOUGH!" Raven sent them all scrambling. Her white garb flickered, but then went back to white. "Dark Fall is right behind us. Be ready!" Everyone stood poised for battle. There was a long silence. The boxes from their spring cleaning were still strewn around the room. Raven's book was right where she'd left it when she'd gone to see Jumangi for the first time. Robin's clipboard and pencil were still nearby, tallying and keeping track of everything. Nothing had changed.

"Uh… is it coming or not?" Cyborg said, lowering his sonic cannon. "Maybe… it's over?"

"Dude… I think it just got started." Beast Boy had gone pale and was pointing out the common room's main window. Everyone whipped around, expecting to see Dark Fall in the room. But no, it was worse than that.

Dark Fall was in Jump City, the size of the skyscrapers.

"Dear Azar…" Raven's face, since it was always pale, went completely white. Starfire covered her mouth with both hands in horror. Beast Boy fell on his hands and knees in shock. Cyborg couldn't believe his eyes.

How had it grown so huge! The giant, pulsing shadow had taken a vague, lumpish shape. Its twin red eyes seemed to focus on nothing, but see everything. It had no mouth to speak of, at least not yet, and its shadowy aura was starting to blacken the sky. Thunderous clouds rolled this way and that, warning of a violent storm to come. A very violent storm…

"Uh… this is gonna be a problem…" Cyborg said, gesturing to his severed arm.

"I am also wearied with battle…" Starfire said, drooping before their most powerful enemy yet.

"Mmm…" Raven said.

"Suck it up!" Beast Boy snapped. Everyone looked at him in shock, but he only glared back. "We got through the game where we had to follow its rules. Now its on our turf!"

"He's right." Raven said. "We've gotta repair Cyborg and get out there as quickly as we can. In the meantime, we have to evacuate the city." Raven ran to the computer that usually told Robin what was wrong when the Titan alarm went off. A microphone jumped out at her after a few moments. "Evacuation code black. All citizens flee the city immiediatly." Raven's voice echoed across Jump City, and Dark Fall paused. It turned directly towards Titans Tower, its eyes narrowing. Raven slammed the microphone down and it broke into pieces.

"I think it heard you." Beast Boy mumbled. Cyborg took off towards his repair shop, eager for every second they had. "Hurry Cyborg! We'll need you out there!" Beast Boy took off towards the window, getting ready to break it and take off into battle as a large animal. Raven grabbed him by his collar and yanked Starfire along by the wrist. "Hey, what gives? The city needs us!"

"We need help first." Raven said, throwing the door to their room open. Pulling both of them inside she finally let go. Her hair kept getting in her way while she was looking along her shelves. Finally growing angry about it getting in her way, she formed a line of magic at the end of one finger. Gripping the end of her really long hair (which she wasn't used to), she slashed it off! Tossing a foot or so of hair to the floor, Raven looked like her old self again. Beast Boy and Starfire gasped, but she actually felt better with shorter hair. Grunting and pushing potion after ingredient aside to get a better look, she finally found what she was looking for. "Spirit lure powder." She showed them the jar. "Kind of like sugar for the supernatural." She untwisted the lid, grabbed a pinch and threw it in Starfire's hair. The red-headed girl sneezed. She repeated the process with Beast Boy and herself. "Now, Dark Fall will be attracted to us rather than the innocents in the city. Just don't eat any. Its very addictive."

"What does that stuff do?" Beast Boy asked, watching his hair sparkle just a little before going back to normal.

Raven resealed the jar and placed it back on the shelf. "You'll be like a homing beacon for it to find. You won't be able to hide, but it might leave the people of the city alone if it senses one of us." She turned with a flourish of her cloak. "We have to get out there as soon as possible. The longer we wait the more people will suffer."

"Yes." Starfire nodded quickly, racing out into the hall and out of sight.

Beast Boy ran to follow, but paused in the doorway. "Aren't you coming, Raven?" He said, waving a hand that she should follow. Raven was rushing around her shelves of potions and scriptures, hurriedly mixing and double-checking everything.

"I'll follow as soon as I can. Go." She didn't even look at him, her finger running down the page of a potion recipe. Her eyes darted back and forth

Beast Boy stomped over to her and took her by the collar. She looked shocked when he forced a kiss on her. Quickly he broke it and said, "If I die before you get out there, I'm comin' back to haunt you." He smiled, let her go, and took off. Raven sat there alone amongst her potion ingredients, shocked but invigorated.

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Dark Fall had no definitive shape. But, it didn't really need one. It was far too powerful to even need to go after the screaming masses that were retreating from the city. It's red, powerful eyes flashed for a moment, and it seemed to sprout thousands of what looked like hairs out of its head. No… webbing. Strands of webbing. Thousands and thousands of them snaked down through the city. Dark Fall's eyes narrowed in amusement. Its bubbling, bulbous shape seethed and writhed on itself. The smokey black aura was spreading in the sky, and thunder shook the city.

The army of darkness was coming.

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Beast Boy rushed after Starfire, and caught her in the common room, taking off her gauntlets and metallic collar-thing. "What're you doing?" Beast Boy asked, looking frantically at the new development that Dark Fall was taking. Thousands of little red things were sprouting from its body. What were they?

"I am removing the weight on my body." Starfire dropped her gauntlets and the metal collar clanged heavily to the ground. "This… this may be our final battle." Starfire whispered. "I wish to be as lightweight as possible, in the case that I may rely on speed." She looked out towards the city rather fearfully, but quickly hardened her resolve. Beast Boy leaned down and picked them up, receiving a slight shock. Starfire must've been wearing thirty pounds of extra weight! Seeing his look, she spoke again. "Tameranians are always being physically trained, and many of us wear weighted clothing to fulfill this requirement." She watched him place them on the counter.

Lightning crashed and thunder boomed, startling them both.

Cyborg ran into the common room, a new arm ready to go. "Let's kick some butt!"

"How will we fight this shadow creature directly?" Starfire wanted to know as the three of them stood by the main window. "It is even larger than Trigon." She winced at saying Raven's father's name aloud.

"The same way we fight any other enemy. As Titans." Beast Boy said it, but it sounded like something Robin would say. Starfire flinched lightly at the thought of his name. "Hey." He said, looking over at her and guessing her thoughts. "There's only four of us, but four's better than nothing."

"Raven said she'd catch up with us…" Beast Boy said. "She'll be behind us soon, so we've gotta be the first wave." He paused for a moment, looking at the still blackening sky. "She's probably mixin' up something nasty to throw at shadow-blob over there." He jabbed his thumb in the direction of their enemy. There was a long silence, all three of them staring out over Jump City. The red threads were still multiplying, weaving around but not grabbing anything. What were they for, if not to grab people or… something? Beast Boy swallowed aloud, then turned back to his team mates. "So… who gets to say it now?"

"I shall." Starfire said solemnly. "I shall say it…" Her eyes flared bright green. She rose slowly… slowly into the air. Both boys could feel the gathering power. It vibrated the very air around them. Starfire's brilliant red hair wriggled with no breeze, and her muscles trembled as they coiled up with all the strength she could muster. She took several deep breaths, and Beast Boy turned into a pterodactyl . Grabbing onto Cyborg's shoulders, he waited. "For friend Robin…" Starfire whispered, green vapors of supernatural power outlining her slender form. "Titans, GO!" She took off like a shot, straight out the common room window. Beast Boy and Cyborg followed, but she was way ahead of them. The battle had begun.

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The threads were everywhere. Red threads of light. Red, dark light. They lay in streets, on dumpsters, in the alleyways, on sidewalks and around buildings. Seething quietly. Adrift in the wind, they waggled like little hairs. All of them connected to the same giant entity, Dark Fall.

They were coming. It could smell the spirit lure powder on them. Very clever. The dark one no doubt gave them that… but where was she? No matter. They would all die, and join the ranks. The ranks of the thousands it had consumed…

Just then, a jolt of magic went through the threads lying throughout the city. Each one thrashed independently. Shapes began forming on the end of each one. Vague… they were transparent… no… they were solid now… Forming arms and legs… heads, limbs and bodies. They were people! No… souls. The souls of all those Dark Fall had consumed. Connected to it in the small of the backs by the threads, each and every one of them glowed red. Thousands of long-dead people were in Jump City now. All of them were its servants. All who died before it were doomed to join its army of darkness. It saw everything through their eyes, knew everything they knew. It was absolute, and in control.

At the edge of the bay, three teenage super heroes landed. Standing side by side… they advanced into darkness. That was when the rain started. "This is it, you guys." Beast Boy said.

"Yup." Cyborg said, deploying his sonic cannon. "I see them already." He gestured.

"Dark Fall's victims?" Starfire asked softly, though her face was kept neutral by force.

"Yeah." Beast Boy said. "That could'a been us, if we hadn't found a way out…" His eyes narrowed as they walked down the street at a leisurely pace. Dark Fall was so big they could already see it. There was no point in wasting energy getting there quicker. They'd fight when they arrived.

"Then… friend Robin is among them somewhere?" Starfire whispered, shuddering. "He is a part of this army of darkness?"

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Raven toiled quickly away at everything she could all at once. It was all coming down to this. Mixing tiny bottle after tiny bottle, she pushed each one into her belt. She looked like Rambo, except with tiny bottles of whatever she was making instead of bullets strapped all over her. "Well… that's all." She snuffed the fire under her small cauldron with a flick of her powers.

She picked up the jar of spirit lure powder. Squeezing her eyes and mouth shut as she twisted off the lid, she dumped the whole thing over her head. The magical powder hissed into all the cracks and folds of her cloak. Some got down her unitard between her breasts. A good deal stuck in her hair… If the others were candles for the Dark Fall to zoom in on, Raven had just become the world's biggest bonfire.

Raven shuddered at the feeling the powder gave. It was an electric, static feeling and she didn't like it. Her powers longed for her to eat some, but she couldn't. Not now, not ever. It was too risky. "That's… all I can do…" she made her way out of her room, walking and quietly shutting the door behind her. She passed through the common room, seeing Dark Fall out among the buildings. Her powers could sense its growing darkness. The rain was picking up, and lightning split the sky. "Heh… lightning startled me and started the first game when my powers went haywire…" Raven mused as she got into the elevator. "It doesn't even phase me now, after all the stuff we've been through…" she pushed the R button, and stood silently as the elevator climbed the shaft. There was no point in rushing. Expending energy before she got to the battlefield would only make her worse off. The elevator beeped and the door hissed open. She stepped out and climbed the stairs. Pushing the door open, she stepped out onto the roof.

Dark Fall could see her, she knew. Its eyes could see everything in Jump City. There was no hiding. It was either fight if you could, run if you could, or be consumed by darkness. No doubt some citizens had already been taken. They really didn't get much notice, but at least she'd warned who she could. The thousands of red, shining threads connected to someone from the past from whom it had stolen their souls. An army of mighty warriors, monks, clergy, wizards, and God knew what else. Just waiting to take Raven and the other Titans on. It was time for the final battle of Dark Fall's games. The final shadow.

Raven found herself thinking of Beast Boy right before she flew off the tower. How odd and quirky their relationship had been at first. And then… it seemed so natural. She wasn't the weak damsel in distress type of girl, but… she would've given anything to have him hold her right then. Even for just a moment… Raven licked her dry lips, pulling up her hood since it was raining. She let her cloak close around her, hiding her body from the world. "I…" Raven tried to think of something inspirational to say to herself before going into battle. There was no Robin to shout 'Titans go!' anymore. The dark girl could only think of one thing to say, and try to stop the end of the world… she parted her lips and spoke softly, just above a whisper. She could barely even hear herself over the rain. It was a poem. A poem from a Valentine's Day card Beast Boy had given her long ago… a Henry Vaughan poem. "I saw eternity the other night, like a great ring of pure and endless light. All calm as it was bright…"

Lightning split the sky again, and Raven was gone from the tower.

Let the battle begin! The Raven's Game series is coming to a close, folks. I can't believe how much praise, how many reviews, and fellow authors I've met thanks to this trio of stories! Its freaking awesome! I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labor! Leave a review and let me know what you think. I hafta go write the next part, so I don't have much time to sit and chat! TTFN! Ta-ta-for-now!