Raven tries running a million solutions in her head as she flies quickly to her teammates.
She could teleport the sparring pairs to different locations but her brothers could always teleport back.
She could form a solid dome around the sparring pairs but holding an impenetrable barrier that wide for too long would leave her incapable of doing anything else to help the situation.
She could try to come up with a spell to counteract Malchior's spell but that could take hours and they didn't have the time.
She could-
Her thoughts are cut short when one of Starfire's light beams zaps a couple inches in front of her nose and knocks down a tree several feet away. She curses. Barrier it is.
She plants both her feet on the ground and closes her eyes.
"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos!"
The barrier isn't the strongest, and she's pretty sure she sees one of Starfire's light beams break through just as she erects it but it's better than nothing.
"Titans, the park's not empty!" she barks out through gritted teeth, stretching the barrier as Wrath tumbles away from Starfire. She would have thought they didn't hear her seeing as they didn't pause at her announcement but Starfire immediately stops using light beams and Cyborg retracts his cannons back into his body. They were clearly trying to revert to hand to hand which would slow the damage made to the park. But this also made them vulnerable to her brother's energy blasts.
"Terra," Raven calls through gritted teeth .
"On it," Terra responds, already working to block off any energy blasts with mounds of Earth. Raven puts her whole body into maintaining a solid dome. The energy blasts that Terra doesn't have time to block keep hitting her barrier. She feels like a rope that's slowly being pulled apart string by string.
"Beast Boy?" Terra gasps when she finally finds herself close enough to Raven to ask. Raven, who was working on making the barrier around the group tighter, tries to determine whether soothing Terra's concerns is worth the momentary lapse in concentration. She digs her heels harder into the ground.
"With Aqualad," she finally responds, the muscles in her neck tense with the strain. She doesn't have time to interpret the look Terra shoots her as Wrath's giant body bulldozes into her force field. The dark energy vibrates around the whole team like a thin piece of metal. Raven bends her knees, clenches her eyes shut and pushes her hands out in front of her. She's biting down so hard that she's sure her teeth were going to sink into her gums.
"Agh!" she cries out, feeling as her energy is strained out of her through her skin. She knows she's going to collapse but usually during battles she can measure the exact moment it will happen. This time it comes to her abruptly. Something breaks through her shield and instead of straining to fill the gap, all that black energy just collapses back into itselfs. It's sucked back into her body all at once. She imagines this is what throwing up backwards would feel like. She falls into the ground, scrapping her palms with pebbles as she tries to soften her sudden descent. Her skin feels paper thin. See-through. Her insides exposed. She gasps for breath, bringing her knees to her chest. She gasps again, trying to clear the black spots from her vision. Her teammates are a blur of colors forcing her to close her eyes.
She feels a stabbing pain sprouting from her ribs; the pressure makes her cough and gasp. She rolls over on her back hoping to get more air in her lungs, only to have someone sit their full weight on her stomach, pinning her elbows with their knees.
"Charming little makeshift amulets you made for your little friends," Malchior hisses, tapping the jewel on her forehead. She turns away from his touch so abruptly that her world spins. Where's Garfield? She tries to move her head to look for him but Malchior grabs her chin roughly. She wiggles beneath him.
"It's something I would have thought of myself in my beginning years of mystical practice. Of course I probably would have noticed how ill equipped those charmed amulets would be to protect my nonhuman friends. Cruel of you to leave the green one so exposed to your brothers' manipulation."
Raven stills.
"Changeling is human," she mumbles mostly to herself. Her amulets would protect him. Malchior grins, his eyes squinting with incredible mirth for such a dark soul.
"Is he always dear?"
Raven clenches her fist so hard that she's sure she breaks skin. Her throat is tight with the urge to punch the "dear" right out of his mouth.
"Yes," she bites out. Malchior sucks his teeth, looking at the sun above them. He looks back down at her and her stomach turns.
"You're still so naive. It makes me want to devour you," Malchior says, running a finger down her neck. She wiggles away. He smiles, moving his hand away. "I knew what I wanted when you found me in that book. I wanted out. And then you opened yourself to me. And at first, I took simply to satisfy my basal carnal desires for flesh. A man gets lonely after being imprisoned so long." Malchior looks towards the sun again, his smile fading in thought. After a few moments, she tries to move her head again to look for Garfield, but he snatches her chin roughly.
"I still had every intention of getting out. But you, my dear, would have been nice to have too. The last piece to my puzzle," he says, running his thumb over the corner of her lips.
It is the last straw for her.
He touches her so wontedly. As if she was an extension of his body.
She is tired of the condescending speeches.
The way he looks down on her but still trailed his eyes over the curve of her breast.
She feels a scream locked tight between her clavicles.
He kneels above her now, a physical embodiment of the weight she's carried since she was fifteen.
A shame that should have never been hers.
He looks like a giant from this angle.
She stills completely, looking him directly in the eyes.
"You will not pin me down any longer," she says, and her eyes grow hot with power. Something in her mind just aligns, like all her emotions have come to the center of her mind to get this man off of her. She propels his body into the air, pinning him down at each limb.
"Eripe animam, flere sanguine venire ad me, et ponam te in somnum-" Malchior's eyes widen, his lips part. "Et stabit de domino vestro, aliquis. Et stabit de domino vestro. Audite vocem meam."
And suddenly he's unconscious and she is clutching a clay figurine tight in her hand. She opens a portal and his body is swallowed up beneath her.
She closes up the portal and her knees sink in the soft grass where his body once was. She digs her palms into the earth and breathes. Deeply, fully.
Painfully.
What did she just do?
"Now is not the time for silent contemplation!" Terra digs her fingers into Raven's arm dragging her to her feet. "You said he'd be protected! Now help me do whatever the fuck it is you just did with the dragon."
Terra gestures wildly to the scene in front of them. Raven's limbs grow cold as a pained roar practically rumbles the ground beneath them. She looks up just in time to see Nightwing's weapon dislodging itself from the Beast's shoulder. Chunks of flesh and blood spurt out of the wound, matting his green fur.
"The Beast," Raven mumbles. Terra shoves her. Raven can feel Terra's hot anger like it was an iron in her own core.
"No fucking shit. Aqualad passed out. It took your boyfriend two seconds to take this thing out of Gar. You know how fucking hard it is for him to keep that under wraps!" Terra yells, her finger digging into Raven's sensitive chest. Raven backs up, more overwhelmed by the waves of distress coming off the changeling's girlfriend than threatened. Unshed tears make Terra's eyes shine like crystals. They don't fit with the crumpled paper that is Terra's expression.
Raven side steps Terra with the intent to join the fray.
And then she sees the destruction all around them.
Her lips part.
Her eyes land on the crisped back of a man. There is no telling what age he was. He is laying on his stomach. Raven almost thought he was a rock. His skin is textured and misshapen, bits peeled off to reveal sensitive pink flesh underneath. He is charred, the only color on him is the remnants of his blue shirt that didn't burn off of him. The rest melted into his skin.
Raven puts a hand over her lips and takes a couple instinctive steps towards him.
Terra grabs her elbow gently. Raven looks towards her.
"I checked him already," Terra says. Raven has trouble pinpointing what Terra is feeling. The anger is still simmering inside of her, but her sadness and defeat is also heavy on Raven. And then she feels something really soft and tender, right in her heart...Terra's empathy. Raven throat is blocked. She can only mouth the words 'I'm sorry.' Terra nods.
Raven resumes her jog towards her team.
"Who was next to him? Wrath?" Raven asks over her shoulder.
"The long haired one."
"Envy?" Raven asks, looking over her shoulder with one eyebrow cocked. Garfield certainly had his bursts of jealousy but envy is much more deeply seated in people.
"Yeah if that's the long haired one," Terra says, keeping up with Raven's pace.
"You should stay back, the Beast is unpredictable."
"Oh like I did before?" Terra asks sarcastically, her red hot anger poking holes through what Raven can sense is a remarkable effort to be respectful. Raven pushes forward.
She's near the Nightwing and Changeling when the world gets tilted sideways. She hears a crack as her shoulder bangs painfully against the ground. A suffocating weight lands on top of her. The little breath she has in her lungs escapes her quickly.
"The end is near sister," Wrath says, pinning her. She phases through the ground and moves herself behind him. From the corner of her eye she sees a flash of blonde hair. Terra is engaged in her own tussle with Lust.
Where's Starfire?
"Your friend is unconscious. For now. She is a formidable opponent and an impressive warrior. She'd make a great addition to our plan. She just needs someone to tap into that thinly veiled anger in her."
Raven clutches the clay figurine in her hand very firmly.
"I'll never join you," she says, her voice even despite having no time to catch her breath. She's taking gulps of air but she still doesn't feel the oxygen travelling through her body. Her shoulder is burning, bringing tears to the corners of her eye. "So what is the point of all this?"
Wrath's face is even. He holds his arms behind his back and stands with perfect posture. Nothing about him indicates that Starfire put a dent in him but Raven is certain they were an even match. She clenches her fingers around the clay figurine tighter as irritation begins to bubble beneath her skin. She knows the exact moment Wrath can sense it because his lips curl on both ends.
"Because I'm angry," Wrath says. She doesn't even see his chest rise when he breathes. He doesn't move an inch.
She thinks of the body behind them.
A man who was just enjoying the nice weather at the park. Maybe walking his dog. Hopefully not with his family. And now there were pieces of his skin, shriveled up like crumpled up straw covers hanging off of his body.
The worst thing is that Wrath didn't have to manipulate her.
She screams.
It comes straight from her chest, rips through her inflamed throat.
She can feel herself lifting off the ground, propelled by the black tentacles that have emerged from beneath her cloak. She towers over her brother.
"You pathetic imbecile. Trigon will never respect you," she booms, feeling her anger diffuse through her, solidifying into dark energy that surrounds her in clouds.
Wrath doesn't move. Even when one of the tentacles whips towards him and wraps itself tightly around his neck. Raven squeezes it tighter.
"I can snap you."
"You think us terrible. Pure evil. You think the world would be better without us," Wrath says, even tone, looking like he might as well be in a cradle even though Raven's grip is making the skin of his neck red. "There are some humans we do not even have to touch, sister."
"And there are some that you do."
"And there are some that we do," Wrath agrees in a low voice. "Some people are good because they are good. Some people are good because they fear what will become of themselves if they do something bad. We only serve to make people forget the consequences. We give them free will. Isn't that what everyone deserves?"
Raven feels herself shrinking back to her regular height, her grip on her brother's neck loosening.
"Asking people to make decisions when they have a distorted view of reality is not meritable."
"Is it distorted? Can you honestly purport that this is your reality when there is another side of you vying to be at the forefront? What if you are the one with a clouded view of reality?"
Raven lowers him completely. He's wrong. She knows it.
"Your red headed friend is awake," Wrath says, his hands resuming their position behind his back. He smirks a perfect slant. "And she's angry."
Of course I probably would have noticed how ill equipped those charmed amulets would be to protect my nonhuman friends. Malchior's voice rings in her head.
Shit. Raven thinks turning just in time to see Starfire, hunched over, running towards the pair at full speed. Her red hair billows behind her like a racehorse. Raven has always known that Starfire is well trained. She is probably the physically strongest of the group. But knowing is different than seeing the muscle of her thigh flex underneath her skin as she runs at you full force.
Raven assesses what she can now understand is a broken arm. She still feels off center from her momentary lapse in control with her brother, like all the molecules in her body are vibrating at a different frequency. This is going to be fun. She bends at the knees, summoning whatever is left of her dark energy to her fingertips and braces for impact.
But Starfire veers left when she reaches the pair.
She hits Wrath at the knees with the full weight of her body.
"You touched her! Who do you think her anger was directed at, imbecile?!" Lust bellows from across the field. He's distracted enough for Terra to literally rip the ground from underneath him. Raven hears a crack as Lust falls on his head.
"Go!" Terra yells, gesturing to the Beast. Raven looks around, making sure all her brothers are evenly matched before running towards Nightwing and Changeling.
She hears a yowl as she approaches causing her to quicken her pace. Nightwing is crouched down, one arm extended toward the Beast. Nightwing looks ready to pounce, one had on the ground as if he is regaining energy from it. There is a long scar across his cheek that's bleeding down his neck.
The Beast's fur is charred and matted in many spaces. Patches of fur are missing on his abdomen. He tears out the throwing star Nightwing swung at him and gives a full chested roar that almost makes Raven tumble backwards. Glistening sharp teeth are bared. Saliva stretches from one lip to the other.
And then the pair are charging at each other.
Raven puts herself between them, erecting the biggest force field she can.
"Raven get out of the-" Nightwing begins, the sentence dying on his lips as the Beast takes an open clawed swipe at Raven's side, causing her force field to collapse back into her for the second time that day. She falls to the ground, out of breath. Tears fall down her cheeks as sharp pain shoots down her broken arm. She can hear as the Beast paws hit the ground but can only see the outline of his blurred green figure pass her through the spots in her vision.
She wants to lay down.
She's tired.
Her entire body hurts.
She wants to lay down.
She wants to lay down.
She gets up with her good arm and blinks a couple of times.
Her cloak is tattered.
There are three long stripes on her side, oozing thick warm blood that stains her leg. She winces. Gritting her teeth and ignoring the resistance from her broken arm, she rips off the end of her cloak and ties it around her waist, covering the wounds as best she can. She gets up on her knees, her legs shaking beneath her. Inhaling deeply, she gets up fully and wobbles towards Nightwing and the Beast again.
"Raven-" Nightwing warns, noticing her from the corner of his eyes. Raven ignores him, walking slowly towards the Beast who is just getting up from whatever it was Nightwing just threw at him. The Beast sways briefly as he gets up on his legs. He shakes his head, putting a paw to it. Then retracts it to reveal blood. The Beast snorts, nostrils flaring. Giant green paws touch the ground again.
"Raven-" Nightwing warns again.
And then the Beast is charging.
Raven stands still waiting for him to get closer.
Then she summons whatever energy she has left and forms a force field around them.
The Beast is stunned, pausing mid run to look at the black bubble around them. His mouth closes and he lets out a little whimper.
Then he looks at her.
His chest expands. A roar rips past his lips as he lunges towards Raven.
He stops when he's just half a foot from her.
Raven stands still, trying to pull herself past the screeching pain in her side.
He's on all fours. She looks down at his muscles which are tight beneath his fur. Drool dribbles down his jaw. Many of his wounds are still bleeding. Some of them still have bits of the metal Nightwing launched at him still stuck in them. He's breathing heavily.
"Neither of us can go on like this for much longer Garfield. You're going to have to fight this urge."
The Beast roars again, and Raven feels specks of saliva hit her face. Her hair blows back at the forces. Her ears ring. The Beast sticks its chest out, his claws digging up chunks of the ground.
"I can't go into your head. I don't have the energy," she says, looking into the Beast's eyes. They're completely black and small, overshadowed by his thick furry eyebrows. Raven can see herself in them. Tears push past her lower lids again as she painfully raises her wounded arm and puts her fingers in between his eyebrows. Her blood stained fingers get lost in his green fur.
"I'm in a lot of pain right now Garfield," she says very softly, not used to the tremble in her voice. "I won't be able to help the team much longer. Please...we need you."
She holds her breath, her fingers twitching.
It's silent
And then the Beast howls again, long and loud. She flinches as she hears bones cracking and watches as Garfield's muscles shift underneath his skin. The Beast's body shrinks. Raven breaths out, falling to her knees as Garfield does. His body shivers back into its human form. He's on all fours still, head turned towards the ground. His howl turns into a scream.
"Changeling," she asks, her hand is on the top of his head. She removes her wounded arm with a soft yelp. Her other hand reaches out and runs behind his ear and underneath his jaw. She lifts his head so he can look at her.
His eyes are pink and watery. His face crumples up in a wince as he sits back on his feet. His uniform is tattered and she can barely see any purple underneath all the blood. A breath passes her lips as she hovers her hand over all of his wounds. He peeks at her through one eye. Then this ridiculous, completely misplaced grin stretches across his face.
"Garfield?"
"Do you think Nightwing is going to take this out on me during training?"
She wants to yell at him for joking.
She really does.
But suddenly her head feels very heavy.
She blinks a couple of times.
Garfield's face goes out of focus.
Her chin hits her chest.
She feels herself falling forward.
And that's all she remembers.