"Why did it take us this long to do that?" asked Damian as he planted kisses on Raven's hand.
"Because you were being a tease," smirked Raven.
"My sincerest apologies, beloved," he said.
Raven blinked in slight shock. "Beloved?" despite knowing it was just a word, she couldn't help but feel her heart skip a beat. "I bet you say that to all the girls."
"No," Damian replied, staring intently into her eyes. "In fact, I've never said that to anyone before."
A smile, genuine and delighted, spread across Raven's face. "Then I don't mind saying 'I love you too''".
His deep green eyes danced. "I bet you say that to all the boys." He smirked playfully.
"Only ever two," she thrilled at her lover's sudden possessive anger. "You and my father."
Damian chuckled, mollified. "If that's the case, do you want me to be your daddy?"
Raven smiled up at him. "Damian, darling, I love you but don't ever say that again!"
"So, no Oedipus complexes here then?"
"Not unless you want to call me 'mommy'."
Damian pondered this for a while. "That would be … strange."
"Good strange or bad strange?"
"Not sure," he mused. "I think we'll save that one for if we ever have hate-sex."
"OK," laughed Raven, pulling him in for another long kiss. "No parent talk in bed."
They stayed like that for a while, laying in bed, kissing deeply with no haste or desperation, just savouring each other. Eventually they pulled apart again.
"Speaking about parents," said Damian as he stroked a hand through Raven's hair. "Mine are throwing a fund-raiser for the Justice League next week. Would you like to come with me?"
"A high-society bash?" Raven said in mock shock. "But whatever would I wear?"
"I'm sure we can find something last minute." Chuckled Damian. "But surely you're used to this sort of thing; your father literally rules Hell, you must go to tonnes of Demonic soirées."
Raven laughed at this, laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks and she could feel Damian's gruff humiliation. She forced herself to calm down; she didn't want Damian to get all pouty and defensive.
"What do you imagine Hell to be like?" she enquired, still smiling. "Trigon the Terrible, Lord of Madness and Conquer of Worlds, in a tuxedo? He's too busy having fun to organise any formal events."
Damian allowed his indignation to fade away as he stared at his beloved. She had never really elaborated on the differences between their home worlds before and Damian had, probably naively, assumed that it was much like the one he was from but with more fire and screams.
"What you have to remember, my love, is that being a demon in Hell is just one big orgy of pleasure. There are parties," she added. "But no one really enjoys them. A demon only hosts an event if they need to climb socially and the ones who attend are also there to gain something, whether it be wealth or power or just to get their name known. Once you get to a certain level however, you no longer need to host or attend parties because you no longer have to schmooze with other political climbers."
"So, in your world, parties are less fun than day-to-day life?" Damian clarified. It was actually the opposite of how things happened on Earth, he mused. On his world, the lower classes could hold parties to just have fun, but once you reached a certain level in society, they were an opportunity to work at increasing your influence with others and gain more political power.
"If you're worried about meeting my father, don't be," Raven stroked his cheek lightly with the backs of her fingers. "He doesn't really care how I enjoy myself, just that I do. Trust me," she added seeing the mild disbelief on Damian's face. "I've got three brothers and he doesn't give two shits about who they're fucking at any one time."
"Yes, beloved, but you are his favourite and his only daughter. I don't care how different demons are from humans; certain things do not change."
Raven rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said. "If you want to give yourself unnecessary stress, go ahead. But I'm telling you now; he won't care. He probably won't even look at you twice!"
Damian clicked his tongue in disbelief.
"Anyway, you'll come to the fundraiser then?" he asked.
"Of course," exclaimed Raven. "I'm looking forwards to your mother trying to assassinate me throughout the night!"
"She wouldn't do that," smirked Damian.
"Now who's in denial about their parents?"
xxx
Everyone looked up as the elevator pinged and the doors opened to reveal Damian, a hand placed possessively on Raven's hip while she carried a large carboard box in her arms. Damian gave everyone in the room a piercing look. It was a look they all knew well; he was not in the mood to take any insubordination. Blackstar used to be the one who gave that look, but she knew that she had never managed to make it as effective as Damian did. Dick's little brother was everything he had been raised to be; ruthless, commanding and merciless. She would have found it a turn-on if she wasn't so afraid of him.
Raven seemed to be totally unaffected by the cold-blooded assassin behind her though – probably due to the fact that she was an actual demon – and strode out of the lift towards Cassie without hesitation.
The demure blonde looked like she was about to cry. She truly was pathetic. Blackstar still didn't really understand why Damian had chosen her in the first place, though everyone had needs she supposed, and it wasn't exactly like he was faithful when it came to her; he hadn't even tried to hide it. Maybe Blackfire would have supported Wonder Girl if she had shown any effort in trying to confront him about it. But she hadn't, so who cared?
"I believe these are yours," Raven practically glowed with malice as she dropped the box at Wonder Girl's feet. "I must say I'm surprised at how … adventurous you are. It's always the quiet ones, eh?" Her smile was cruel and revealed her strangely sharp teeth. Blackfire decided that she never wanted to get on Raven's bad side, not that she'd felt otherwise before; don't make enemies with people you aren't certain you can kill.
Raven bent down to pick something out of the box. It seemed to be a tangled mess of silver chains. The conglomeration made no sense until Raven held it in a certain way and then it became clear that they were an array meant for various body piercings and it included places where Blackfire certainly thought piercings should never be placed.
"Now I might be evil," Raven's smile grew wider. "But even I shudder to think of any woman degrading herself this much."
"What else is in there?" Blackfire was never one to hold back on the cruelty, especially when it was being dished out by such an artist. The banished Tamaranean princess peered into the contents of the box before extracting a black leather whip. "Surely this wasn't used by you?" She laughed at Wonder Girl who was crying silently. "If I ripped that flimsy outfit off you, would I see the marks?" She feigned to slap the blonde with the whip, Cassie flinched. Raven laughed.
"She's so pathetic," chimed in Rose, who was crouching behind them, searching through the rest of the toys. "Imagine being so unsatisfying in bed that a man has to put this on you to get excited!" She waved what looked like a choker collar with spikes aimed inwards.
Yup, Blackfire was definitely glad she was dating the elder brother.
"Although, Damian's tastes are to be condemned a bit too," crooned Raven.
Blackfire and Rose instantly stopped laughing. Blackfire in fact took several slow steps backwards, eyeing the pair wearily.
Raven had a malicious gleam in her eye as she looked at her paramour whilst Damian stared back at her, a disturbing lack of emotion showing on his face. Everyone in the team knew that look as well. Raven had overstepped a mark and she had best do some backtracking fast.
But apparently, the newest member of the team hadn't gotten the memo. Blackfire felt Superboy shift restlessly beside her. Aqualad's muscles tensed slightly. Rose seemed frozen between the pair, still kneeling by the box, and Jericho was staring worriedly at his sister. The only one who was unconcerned with the change in conversational direction was Wonder Girl, who appeared not to have noticed the suddenly dangerous atmosphere but was looking down at the box containing the remnants of her life with Damian with blank eyes.
"I mean really Damian," Raven twitched her hand slightly and a garment rose into the air in front of her. "A bunny outfit? I thought you'd be a little more interesting than that."
Damian blinked. "I don't recognise that one."
The words hung in the air for several second before everyone slowly turned to face Cassie, who's entire face had drained of colour. Blackfire couldn't blame her.
"Well, well, well," said Raven in astonishment. "I'm impressed! So, the Wonder Brat's not as pathetic as we all thought." The demon paused for a moment, staring at her teammate as if it was the first time seeing her. "You know, if I had known that you were cheating on him," she indicated Damian, who had regained his deadly stillness. "I might have treated you with more respect."
"Respect?" the word came out as a half-laugh-half-scream. "I don't want your respect, I never have! Who in their right minds would ever want the respect of a disgusting demon?" Cassie was finally standing up for herself, but in a very boring way in Blackfire's opinion. "I was doing fine before you came along, OK so maybe I needed to work a bit to satisfy in the bedroom but it was nothing too bad. But then you came along and suddenly nothing I did was good enough! Suddenly I had to do things and say things that were humiliating." Her voice raised to an even higher pitch, there was definitely fear there as she looked directly at Damian. "You humiliated me! But I took it, I never complained, I allowed you to do this," she rolled up the bottom of her shirt to reveal ugly red marks all over her midriff.
Blackfire took the opportunity to look round at the other's reactions. Damian was still dangerously silent, his eyes revealing no emotions at all; Raven appeared mildly interested in the outcry; Rose was taking the opportunity to back away from the three fighting adolescents; and Kaldur was as unaffected as usual. Jon though, appeared uncomfortable and kept shooting furtive glances at his best friend; and Jericho seemed on the verge of tears as he stared at the pale skin covered in welts.
Personally, Blackfire was finding the whole situation a tad melodramatic; but still, if a man had ever tried to hurt her like that, no matter the circumstances, she would have fought back. Clearly Wonder Girl had just allowed it to happen. If she hadn't respected herself enough to stop it, why should anyone else feel any sympathy?
"All I ever wanted was to love you Damian!" At this, Raven gave a very loud and noticeable yawn. Blackfire sniggered; oh, she really liked this girl!
"Fuck you!" The attack came as a complete surprise for everyone; Wonder Girl had never attempted to harm one of her fellow teammates, even in training she was always allowing the others to step all over her. So, when she flew at Raven and sent the demon sprawling, even Damian was slow to react.
As soon as he did though, all hell broke loose.
It seemed like it would be all over in an instant; Damian prowled forwards, all muscle and deadly intent. Quick as a flash, a dagger was in his hand, but then he stopped, the blade mere inches from its target. The assassin seemed to be struggling with himself; Blackfire saw the arm holding the dagger actually shaking. What was going on?
There was a low moan of anguish. It was Rose. "Jericho, no."
Suddenly it all clicked; Jericho was possessing Damian!
Clearly having come to the same conclusion, Jon, eyes glowing, turned towards Jericho's empty body.
"No!"
Two streams of red light flashed up through the ceiling as Rose used her sword to deflect the deadly beams away from her brother.
Kaldur started forwards, but before he managed to take more than a couple of steps towards the one-eyed teenager, she was enveloped in darkness. Raven was on her feet and Blackfire had never seen anything so terrifying in her life; gone was the deathly pale skin and the large amethyst eyes. Standing in front of them was clearly a creature of nightmares; red skin, clawed hands, two short horns protruding from her forehead, and the eyes. Those eyes were the worst thing about her; four of them, glowing red, with no discernible elements to them and yet, somehow Blackfire knew that they were all looking in different directions, pointing at each of them in turn. When one aimed its gaze at her, she understood what true fear felt like. She was nothing! With all her boasting and swagger and physical strength, she was a mere worm in comparison to this God.
No one moved.
And then, Raven seemed to stagger. The darkness engulfing Rose Wilson vanished as the monstrous creature shook its head as though trying to dislodge a fly, before holding a knife to her own throat.
"Get out of her," Damian's order rang with a chilling threat.
"Cassie," the thing said. Her voice was unlike anything Blackfire had ever heard; deep and high at the same time, like broken glass and scurrying insects and every horrible sound imaginable. "Cassie, run!"
It was Jericho, Blackfire realised, he must have jumped out of Damian, back into his own body and then out into Raven!
Despite everything, Cassie clearly wasn't an idiot. She turned and ran to the elevator.
A loud smashing sound behind her made Blackfire jump, she turned to see a mangled mess of metal and glass laying where an enormous fridge-freezer used to stand. All around the room random items and pieces of furniture seemed to be melting or flying or warping. It was the demon's magic; Jericho couldn't control it! Somehow, this made her feel less safe than if Raven were in control of her powers; at least she could show restraint if so inclined.
"Now," Blackfire whirled back round to see Raven/Jericho holding a knife to her/his own throat whilst staring intently at Damian with all four of those terrible eyes. "You are going to have Rose take my body out of the tower. She's going to get into my car with me and Cassie and drive away. As soon as I feel that my connection is about to be broken, I'll transfer back."
It was a desperate plan, and redundant. They all knew it. Even if by some miracle, they managed to evade Superboy in the initial flee, Damian al Ghul was tireless and relentless in hunting his enemies.
Eyes narrowed, Damian stepped towards Raven/Jericho. He stopped just out of arms reach when Jericho inched Raven's arm across her neck slightly. A small trickle of blood ran down the blade. Damian seemed to stare at it.
"I was going to forgive you your treachery, brother," Damian spoke softly. "After all, hormones are difficult to control and you always were weak.
"Like I said, I was going to be understanding. But now," his voice was awesome in its supressed furry. "Now you've hurt the one dearest to me and you. Will. Pay.
"Rose," said Damian, never took his eyes from those of Raven/Jericho.
Rose, a thin sheen of sweat covering her face stared at Damian's back.
"You haven't actually harmed anyone yet, and I understand all too well the bonds of undeserved affection a sibling can induce in a person, so I'm going to give you a chance to redeem yourself."
The demon shook her head again; clearly Raven was fighting for control over herself. Blackfire didn't give Jericho good odds on holding out for long.
"Rose, as soon as Jericho re-enters his body, kill him."
A loud, awful grinding sound was the only warning they had before one of the wings of the tower was torn away. Wind rushed through the gaping wound to the outside world and Blackfire began hovering above the ground in case Jericho did something else unpredictable with Raven's powers. The others were all looking nervus apart from Damian as he somehow managed to glare unflinchingly into those evil eyes.
"Rose," Raven/Jericho's voice was cracked and strained. "I'm so sorry. Goodbye."
Raven let go of the dagger and fell forwards into Damian's waiting arms just as Jericho opened his eyes. There was a splatter of blood as Rose slit his throat, right along the scar already there. She fell to the ground alongside her brother, sobbing as she held him close to her.
Blackfire had never felt affection for her own sibling; this public display of grief was almost indecent in her opinion.
"Damian?" Superboy, voice uncharacteristically serious, seemed to have been waiting for his orders.
"Bring me her head Jon."
Superboy's departure left a ringing in Blackfire's ears.
Titan's Tower was in ruins, both metaphorically and physically. Raven was throwing up violently as Damian held back her hair. It wasn't unheard of for Jericho's victims to have such reactions.
Blackfire exchanged looks with Aqualad, neither of them had done anything during the quick skirmish and they were both hoping that their leader wouldn't hold it against them. But really, what could they have done?
No one said anything for the longest time. Raven seemed to have expelled the contents of her stomach and was dry heaving. Thoughtfully, Aqualad directed a stream of water that was gushing from a broken pipe into a cup and handed it to her. She seemed to calm down after taking a few sips and fell back into Damian as her skin faded back to its usual milky hue and – in the most disgusting display Blackfire had ever seen – her top set of eyes receded into her skin while the bottom set rose to their proper position on her face.
Damian kissed the top of her head and began stroked her hair. It looked as though he was murmuring something to her.
Blackfire looked away; if he saw her watching such an intimate moment, he might take her head off. But it had been a shock none the less; she had known that the two of them were going to get together eventually. It had been obvious to everyone, even Wonder Girl, but Blackfire had just assumed that Damian wanted to fuck her; after all, he hadn't cared a jot about Cassie and they'd officially been dating for years. Now though, now she could see: Damian was in love, and Blackfire couldn't decide if this made him less of a threat or more dangerous than ever. After all, the person he was in love with could annihilate them all in a heartbeat, if the barely controlled burst of magic Jericho had unleashed was anything to go by.
A whooshing sound was the only warning they got before Superboy landed in front of Damian and dropped Cassie's head on the floor.
Blackfire licked her lips nervously; thank X'Hal she was graduating to the Justice League next month. She had a feeling that the Teen Titans was about to become a very dangerous team indeed.
xxx
Whew, 'tis over.
I can't tell you how many DamieRae stories I have jotted down as half-formed ideas. I have adored this pairing for many years now, but other ships have been taking up my writing talents (NaraSessh anyone?) and a couple of months ago I was introduced to She-Ra, which caused me to focus on another ship in my head (hence the name change).
Anywho, finally got round to writing this one. It's the first story I've written this way and I've gotta say, I kinda liked it. It was intense, but fun. What I did was just start writing the scenes down as they came into my head. I started with the one about Klarion and Raven in the corridor (y'all know the one I'm talking about) and everything else just kind of bloomed out of that. I didn't write the scenes in order, I allowed the plot to write itself. It was just like I had a little demon in my head telling me what to do…
This was going to be a one-off short scene-like story, just to get it off my mind. But I couldn't do it! I need to explore the world, the characters and their motivations.
On a side note, I really enjoyed writing the Justice League as … not-good-guys (I don't know if evil is the right word, because they still think they're doing the right thing for humanity, but then again, the road to Hell and all that).
Well ladies and gents, what did you think about my first fore into the complex and often contradictory world of the DC multiverse? Please let me know; like the suffering of the damned fuels Trigon, reviews fuel me.
I'm currently working on a series of books focusing on our two favourite love birds, I call it the 'Hell on Earth Trilogy' (again, was only supposed to be one book, but now I'm half way through the second and I need to think of how to end it) so keep an eye out for that in the … future (I won't say "near future"; I'm notoriously good at procrastinating when it comes to posting – what can I say? I'm a perfectionist, I can never edit enough!)
Love to you all,
LP
xxx
