13. I Hate You
Having Raven's lazy aspect with them complicated things. It proved impossible to force Orange to walk more than a few hundred feet before she simply collapsed to the ground and started snoring loudly, indifferent to the place and the position she found herself in.
Even though the other aspects were now aware of her significance to Raven's psychological balance and well-being, they couldn't help grumbling about it. Garfield sighed in vexation, he was also getting tired of Orange's behavior.
"Any ideas?" he scratched the back of his head. "I can't go on carrying her. I must be free to react if something comes after us."
"I have one, though I must say I am not too keen on it," Yellow muttered. "I can create a hammock made from strands of black magic to carry her. I do not know, however, how long I can keep it up. It could be taxing."
"It's a good idea, but I don't want you exhausted. I may need your help in a fight – or after a fight," Garfield mused, then his face lit up. "Maybe if you and Purple combine your powers and do it together?"
"That would certainly help," Yellow nodded, then glanced at Purple. "Sister?"
Purple's eyes narrowed and she scowled at Garfield. "This is also going on your tab, you know?"
"I see it'll take quite some time to pay it off in full," he grinned at her playfully.
"You bet your delicious ass," Purple purred back at him, her lids closing halfway as she gave him a searing glance that made him shiver. Green snorted in disgust while Yellow cleared her throat.
"If you two are quite finished…"
Purple chuckled and moved closer to Yellow, managing to brush against Garfield as she did so. Her touch sent his mind reeling and her scent invaded his nostrils. He felt the urge rise in him like a tidal wave, sweeping away all rationality.
A small, pale, grimy hand touched his and he felt the flood of unreasoning lust drain away. He looked at Orange and smiled.
"Thanks!" he said gratefully.
"Whatever," she yawned and curled on the ground again.
-=oOo=-
"Wait," Yellow called out with an uncharacteristic touch of anxiety in her voice. "Something's wrong."
They were walking for a while, with Gar and Green leading the way and Purple and Yellow carrying Orange behind them. As Garfield cleansed Raven's aspects, the distances they had to travel to reach the next realm increased, but they had finally approached another gateway. As before, there was no way of telling where it would lead.
"What is it?" Garfield asked, his eyes studying carefully the arch in front of them. For some reason it was in such places where Trigon's creatures always chose to ambush them.
"Look around you," Yellow grumbled. "What do you see? Or more to the point, what do you not see?"
"Is it you that makes Raven speak in riddles all the time?" Garfield snapped impatiently. "Because it gets old very quickly."
"It's a habit of mine," Yellow shot back in a deadpan voice. "I choose the smartest person present to speak to; it usually turns out to be me."
Garfield huffed, irritated, but gave up the argument. He knew Yellow could run circles around him. He glanced over the landscape, trying to see what was wrong. Something scratched at the back of his mind, a warning signal from his animalistic side perhaps, woken up by Yellow's alert. His nostrils flared and his ears perked. He abandoned his logical mind for a moment and allowed his natural instincts to take over.
The hackles on his back rose and a deep, menacing growl rumbled from his throat. The puddles of black goo were gone.
"What does that mean?" he rumbled the question softly at Yellow. "What do those puddles represent in the first place?"
"Trigon's influence, in as few words as possible," Yellow replied dispassionately. "You saw it form the demons you fought. You saw it contaminate and corrupt our realms, and you saw it bursting out of us as you cleansed us."
Garfield frowned. "Why can't it touch me? Why does it try to form demons to kill me instead of simply corrupting me like it did to you?"
"Because our love protects you," Purple hummed, coming closer and placing a tender hand on his shoulder.
For a moment, Yellow's nose wrinkled, then her face smoothed out. "Purple Sister is right, as much as I don't like admitting it."
Garfield fought off another urge to seize Purple in his arms and wrestle her to the ground right then and there. He squirmed out from her touch, breaking her spell. He shook his head. "So what does that mean? I just can't believe that we won. It can't be that easy."
Yellow shrugged. "I don't know."
"We haven't won by a long stretch," Green joined the conversation. "It means someone's gathering their forces. Someone's tired of attacking you piecemeal and is getting ready to go all-out on you."
Gar turned to Green. "And who may this 'someone' be?"
Green stared at him, a painfully familiar spark of exasperation in her eyes. "Not even you are that stupid."
-=oOo=-
They stepped through the archway and found themselves in a familiar realm. Garfield recognized it instantly.
"Crud!" he hissed under his breath.
"Azar protect us!" Purple's hand covered her mouth in consternation.
"Hmmm. Somewhat unfortunate," Yellow mumbled.
"It was about time!" Green cracked her knuckles.
"Zzzzzz!" Orange snored.
They were in Red's domain.
"What now?" Garfield whispered to Green. "I don't want to fight Red."
"You'll have to," Green grumbled back. "As much as I'd like to twist her little demonic neck into a knot, I can't. It'll be up to you."
The changeling turned to Yellow. "Is there any possibility of handling Red without a fight?"
The rational aspect scoffed. "She represents Rage, Hatred, Jealousy, Bloodlust and all other negative emotions. Have you ever tried discussing things calmly and rationally with a rabid wolverine?"
"Look, she can't be that bad…"
The ground shook. Heavy thumping sounds came from the distance. Purple gasped, Yellow lifted an eyebrow and Green snarled.
"No. She's worse."
Garfield gulped and looked at where the sound was coming from.
Shit.
He remembered it well. It was the same representation of Trigon that he saw when he and Cyborg were… inadvertently sucked into Raven's mind.
The four-eyed giant approached quickly, its enormous legs swiftly swallowing the distance between them. It had no antlers and its eyes glowed yellow rather than red, but otherwise it was the image of Raven's father.
Garfield took a deep breath and cleared his mind of doubts and pointless worries. He would give out his best, and if that wasn't enough…
No. He had to win. Not for himself, but for her. His jaw clenched and he took a step ahead.
"Stay behind me!" he warned Raven's aspects as he prepared his metamorphosis. He glanced back, noticing none of them replied. His eyes widened when he saw that his followers were all encased in bubbles of black power.
He glanced back at the approaching monster. She laughed thunderously, her lips curling back from feline teeth. A searing bolt of red flashed from her eyes and struck at where Garfield was standing a split second ago.
"They can't help you, little green bug!" she roared her fury. "I will tear you to pieces and broil you and cut you up!"
"We'll see about that," Garfield smiled mirthlessly. He may have hoped to avoid this confrontation, but deep inside he knew it was inevitable. No animal that ever roamed the Earth could resist the embodiment of Trigon the Terrible. But his power allowed him to feel the creatures that exist or have existed in the environment he was in and take their shape; that is how he could transform into Tamaranean beasts on Tamaran. And being in Raven's mind, it was not difficult to picture himself as the most powerful creature Raven knew.
His face extruded itself into a snout bristling with teeth that would make a T-Rex jealous. Dark green scales erupted on his back as his body grew to enormous proportions. Arms and legs lengthened into powerful limbs with claws that dug deep furrows in the incredibly hard obsidian below him. Grey-green wings unfurled from his shoulders to their full, majestic span. The green dragon, identical to Malchior in every aspect besides its color, reared on its hind legs and roared a challenge.
-=oOo=-
Dragon-Garfield towered over Trigon-Red, but not for long. A stream of sooty goop formed a pool around her and climbed up her legs, increasing the monster's size. Garfield realized he had to act quickly.
He took a deep breath and expelled a stream of liquid fire. Red screamed in pain and Garfield smiled inwardly. As a demon, Trigon-Red was immune to normal fire and his attack caught her by surprise. His breath was not an ordinary blaze; it was dragonflame, and it could burn or freeze or corrode or poison anything, whatever Garfield wanted it to do. And Garfield wanted it to cleanse.
Burning drops of Trigon's taint rained from Red and disappeared in choking ash and stinking smoke as she writhed in agony. More of the tarry goo flowed into her as she sucked it in, struggling to maintain her size and power. Garfield's flames ate into it remorselessly. If he could keep this up for a minute or two –
"RAAAH!" the red behemoth thundered and a bolt of ruby power slammed into the dragon, throwing it back. Garfield shook his scaly head to clear it and sprung up, wings beating furiously to gain altitude and attack Trigon-Red from the air. Sanguinely lethal beams sought him out, one burning a hole in his left wing and the other searing his right hind leg. He screamed in pain and unleashed another gout of flame at the demon.
The tongue of flames collided with an almost solid beam of crimson magic, clawing and tearing and ripping into each other, pushing and striving to overcome as they seesawed back and forth from one combatant to the other. The lake of black tar that had formed around Trigon-Red ebbed slowly as she absorbed it to fuel her attack until it turned into a pond, and then into a small puddle beneath her huge feet. But Garfield was getting exhausted also; the effort to maintain the form of the enormous creature and the toll of his liberal use of dragonfire was showing. He was breathing heavily and his flame gouts couldn't last as long. He wouldn't win this way; he had to find a different strategy.
His wings worked furiously as they lifted him up, corkscrewing to avoid the beams Trigon-Red was sending after him. As he reached a respectable height, he plummeted down towards the demon, claws extended and jaw open, slamming into her and carrying them both to the ground.
The earth shook as their combined masses rolled over the obsidian landscape, crushing the diamond-hard rock into sand as if it was crumbling mortar, while they clawed and bit each other, searching for a vulnerable place to decide the duel once and for all. Both were breathing heavily, forsaking the magic and focusing on brute force, sharp teeth and tearing claws. Garfield's talons dug bone-deep into the demon's shoulder, while her hand closed on his right wing and her powerful wrist twisted, breaking the humerus like a twig. Both screamed their fury and their pain and tore into each other with renewed rage.
They fought on, ignoring their own pain and exhaustion. The demon's eyes glowed red while the dragon's eyes blazed white, they both understood only one of them would walk away. They slashed with claws, ripped with teeth, smashed with fists and pummeled with feet. Garfield threw Red against an obsidian cliff, shattering it into a myriad glittering pieces of black glass and breaking three of her ribs, but she grabbed his left arm and pulled him in an arc to slam him onto the hard stone. His arm snapped and he howled, almost blinded by pain. He tore himself away while she tried to cough up the blood that began filling her lungs. He fell on her, his wide-open maw seizing her throat. His jaws began closing and for a moment it looked like the fight was decided.
But the jerk of the powerful jaws that would end Red's existence never came. Completely immersed in berserk rage and abandoning all rationality, guided fully and only by the animalistic urge to kill and not be killed, Garfield was unable to force his jaws together. Killing Red would have unforeseen consequences for Raven; she would probably never be herself again, if she survived it at all.
The small hesitation was enough for Red to smash a fist into his head and throw him away. He fell on the rocky ground and his control of the dragon form finally broke. He shrank into his human self and lay on the stone, gasping for air.
Red rose up in pain, diminishing in size while Trigon's taint flowed off her, gathering into a small pond. She was too tired to hold onto it, and her shape returned to that of a red-cloaked Raven. She limped over to Garfield, four eyes blazing in rage, lips curled back from razor-sharp teeth and wisps of black magic coiling from under her cloak like tentacles.
"I don't need Father's help to deal with you," she snarled as the magic wrapped around him and began squeezing. "I will kill you myself!"
"Why?" was all Garfield could croak out. The fire in her eyes intensified.
"Why? Why?" she shouted and the constricting coils curled harder around him, forcing the breath out of his lungs. He started seeing stars.
"You left me! You abandoned me! I had to fight him alone!" she screamed at him. "I was wounded! I was in agony! And where were you while I suffered all the pain? Suffered it for you and for every other worthless piece of shit on this planet? Where were you? Making fun of me? Sneering at the creep? Laughing at the witch? IS THAT NOT SO?"
"Just… kill me," Garfield rasped. Even if her absurd, senseless accusations weren't a clear indication that she simply couldn't be reasoned with, he was unable to find the strength to fight her. Pain from his wounds crashed into his brain and his breathing was short and gasping, struggling against the squeeze she was putting on his body.
He had failed. He had lost. He would not bring Raven back.
That thought hurt more than anything Red or even Trigon himself could ever do to him.
"I will," Red hissed like a snake. "But I'll do it slowly. I want to enjoy it."
"Do it… already," he managed to growl. "Kill me… and become… your father."
"HE IS NOTHING!" she screamed and tossed him furiously against a glass-like obsidian cliff. He crashed into it and heard several ribs crack. More pain assaulted his already half-numb consciousness.
"I have defeated him! Me! Not any of my sisters! I was the one that sucked the power from him and turned it against him and blasted his mind to the Limbo where he came from!"
The new source of pain somehow cleared Garfield's mind. "Yeah," he whispered. "You did. And now… the way is clear… for you… to turn into him."
A black tendril picked him up, lifted him and slammed him on the ground. The tendons in his right leg snapped and the joint popped out of its socket. The pain was almost caressing.
"I. AM. NOT. HIM!" she frothed. "I will never be him! I am myself! I don't need him, or you, or anyone else!"
"Sure," he managed to gasp. "Whatever. Just… get it over with."
An ethereal wisp of black power wrapped itself around his neck. It lifted him and brought him close to her. She snarled a grin into his face and turned to the pool of demonic liquid from which a host of demons was assembling, all gazing hungrily at the doomed changeling, all cackling in eager anticipation.
Red's eyes blazed. Without turning, she allowed the grasping tentacle to lay Garfield gently on the ground.
"DIEEEEE!" she shrieked and sent a wave of dark energy over the demons, obliterating them and annihilating every vestige of whatever remained of Trigon's dark taint.
She turned back to Garfield and waved her hand. The black spheres that held her sisters captive floated closer. She dismissed the imprisoning fields and approached Purple, grabbing her cloak in a furious fist.
"Heal him, you slut!" she growled, then her four eyes closed and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Author's Note: Sorry for another delay, but hey, we're getting there! Bet you didn't expect the showdown with Red until later? There are worse things in Raven's mind than Rage and Hatred!