A/N: Look at that I'm back. Bet no one was expecting that. ah well. I'll try, emphasis on try as life seems to get in the way, to keep updating this story. I have around 8 chapters written for Act II. For returning readers, I have taken 3 days and gone through proofing all the previous chapters. Minor changes in grammar and flow only. If you can recall everything then you're fine to jump right back into this. Chapter I of Act 2 will be posted within the next week once I proof it and the remaining of what I have prepped for act 2 to get back into the characters' heads. Review if you want, though I always get anxious when I see the email notification. I try to read them but I've been lax over the last year or so as I felt bad for putting this story on the back burner.
Naz
Author: Nazran
Shattered: Act I
Chapter 8
§Oo–.–oO§
The circular tunnel was dark and steadily descended into the depths of the earth without stairs. Carved sconces cast flickering red torchlight over the two figures that silently padded down the tunnel. Danny followed the man before him in grim silence. He by no means expected this to an easy journey or task. Trigon, if he was as powerful as Raven had said, would not allow them to regain his daughter so easily. He was nervous actually, the energy bubbling beneath his skin as he wondered what they would run into. Or if he could even trust the Slade not to try to kill him the first chance he got.
The tunnel opened up into a deep ravine, the bottom of which glowed far below with a thin river of lava. The ceiling of the narrow space disappeared in shadow far above and only faint illumination pulsed from the molten rock below. A narrow path, no more than shoulder width wound its way along the ravine's steep wall. Slade stepped onto the ledge without hesitation and continued on, not looking back. Danny followed, knowing his powers could be used if he really needed them. He was not afraid of Slade knowing who he was, in fact he readily supposed that perhaps Slade had guessed or knew. The man had seen both of his forms and knew of the powers he had.
Around a corner a landing was revealed with a massive double set of iron doors carved with the Mark of Skath, "This is the beginning. It will become dangerous now." Slade spoke.
The pair pushed on the doors and they swung open on creaking hinges. Beyond the portal a cavernous passage was visible. Massive statues carved in the likeness of demonic birds lined the passage, standing as tall as large buildings with molten rock pouring from beaks open in silent screeching. Far below the river continued, widening and strewn with exposed boulders. Danny picked out a boat floating on the thick liquid below, somehow not succumbing to the immense heat that radiated from the river and flows. He had no doubt that if it weren't for his powers he'd be hard pressed not to roast alive in the oppressive heat. They made it down to the boat without incident and got into, it wobbled sluggishly in the river. Slade picked up the pole and began to propel them down the river.
Danny sat at the rudder. "Why did you do it? I understand that you're a villain, an enemy of the Titans but this," Danny gestured to the towering spectres of Trigons ravens with the lava pouring from their beaks, "This is beyond apocalyptic. The world has been destroyed."
"Not everything is so cut and dry." Slade's tone was even and each word was measured and careful.
"A demon god has taken over the planet, maybe the dimension." Danny thought about the Ghost Zone and wondered if Clockwork was okay. The Time Ghost was essentially a god in his own right, "That is pretty cut and dry, trust me, I've had my own experience with world ending evils."
"I sensed you weren't human. You're more akin to me, aren't you? Not dead, yet not alive. That was my deal with Trigon, the one he betrayed. He was to return what I had lost to an apprentice who betrayed me for her weakness." Slade kept talking, "She struck a blow that should have ended me but Trigon found me and offered me a deal. Bring his Gem to him and he would reward me for the service."
"You were willing to bring about the end of the world for some vague promise?"
"With or without me this would have happened. Raven knew, the prophecy foretold of the end. Trigon would have simply enlisted a different messenger. I took the opportunity as it appeared, nothing more."
"You've caused a lot of suffering, a lot of death."
Slade looked back at him, "It's what I do best." He almost sounded smug with the admission.
The magma poured on either side of the two men shifted, and a demonic screech echoed throughout the cavern. From the flowing molten rock the fire demon minions materialized, forming from the fires. Slade immediately leapt from the boat to a floating rock more than thirty feet away, striking with the steerage pole. The boat rocked dangerously as he pushed off and Danny struggled to maintain balance. A demon swept toward him and while he ducked its clawed hand grabbed his shirt and tore him from the vessel. It let go, intending to drop him into the lava to be burned alive. Danny grimaced and caught himself, floating above the lava. More demons immediately struck out against him, flying from the falling lava and emerging from the river itself. Slade paid him no mind, whirling this way and that with his makeshift staff, banishing the creatures with vicious slashes.
Danny flex his hand, floating horizontally above the lava and punched a reaching demon beak beneath him. The creature burst apart but more rose to replace it. They swarmed around him, three tackling him and driving him into the wall. The stone was hot against his back, so terribly hot his skin would have crackled and charred but for his powers. Demons screamed in his ear and obscured his vision with the burning red light. Danny struggled against them, calling on more of the cryokinesis just to keep himself from burning up. Trigon's minions were stronger in this place, their powers amplified by the depths of the temple to Skath. He couldn't defeat them, his cryokinesis wasn't strong enough with this heat. There was too much fire, it was oppressive and choked his lungs with fumes and stale heat.
Danny grimaced again and made the decision. He let the power rise in him, the ectoplasm growing within him until the familiar rings of power appeared and his form changed to that of Phantom. The discharge, for the transformation was a cryokinesis power, scattered the demons and Danny floated free of the wall, flexing his fists in their heavy gloves and running a hand through his hair, now white except for the black streak. The power felt good. The last few weeks had been hard, he'd been trapped in human form—both for avoiding the GIW and for the sake of keeping his secret from the Titans. This release was like relieving a burden he did not yet know was pressing on his mind. He grinned.
Fists lit in blue cryoplasm, his eyes flickering to the pale clarity of azure glacier ice he charged. Blasts of the power stripped away the protective armor of heat the demons used, freezing them in a permafrost of his cryoplasm. Legions fells to him, hissing in the lava as he unleashed the pent up energy of weeks without proper exercise. Any demon that came close to him puffed away as the aura of cold smothered their fires and destroyed their magic. Eventually the crowds of demons thinned around Danny, their extending arms of fire bursting apart on blue energy shields and their blasts of fire sputtering out before striking him.
Slade fought against a group that had surrounded him on all sides, advancing slowly with arms lashing out at him. The stave he held fended them off desperately but he was slowly being overwhelmed and he could not even see the boy. Suddenly a sharp hiss reached his ears and a wave of frosty cold washed over him. Danny appeared, clad in white and black with shining white hair and a steady pale glow exuding from him. He felt dead now, truly dead and not the half living that had been there before. The demons snuffed out around the boy and Slade ripped the others down.
"So you are indeed dead. Interesting." Slade spoke.
A demon appeared behind the man, ten feed beyond Danny's cone of influence. Its arm shot out and Slade spun but was struck before he could get a defence up. The black and orange mask slipped from the man's face as Danny shot a thin beam of cryoplasm from a finger, casually ripping the demon apart and causing it to explode. The mask clattered to Danny's feet, or rather below his feet as he floated. The villain turned and revealed his face for the first time to the Halfa. Bone. A skull with a single dull red eye stared at him. The bone was grey, worn and almost charred in appeared, a clear scar cut through the right orbit which gaped at him in darkness.
Danny blinked, a bit shocked at that revelation, "What are you?"
Slade replaced the mask, "Let's just say I am currently incomplete. My condition is only temporary."
The man turned away and walked to the narrow crack that continued the path along the river. Danny spoke, "I'm here as much to save Raven as I am you, aren't I? There's something down here that will make you complete again." Danny's hands lit blue again, "Tell me or I'll leave you down here, frozen. My ice won't melt."
Slade turned, "Never make a deal with an interdimensional demon king without some protection. And a deal is a deal, I will have my promised payment."
§Oo–.–oO§
Danny walked out of the tunnel. He'd left the undead villain behind, the man only saying something about his goal being somewhere hotter. The Halfa had expected a double cross, or maybe a threat or some cryptic words of parting. He'd gotten only the parting words and pointed down a path. And now he was in a great cavern, massive beyond all imagination for an underground cavern. The ceiling was lost in red light like the sky of the surface and a narrow winding path snaked through the sky to a decrepit ruin in the distance. It stood on great pillar of stone that rose from the some distant floor. Other columns speared into the sky, clawing at the space of the chamber vainly.
On the path was a double row of piled skulls. They stood eight feet, melted together like wax. Danny walked between them cautiously, his power glowing in his hands. He had elected to remain in his Phantom form for the sake of efficiency and protection. This turned out to be the right thing to do when around him the double row of skull pillars exploded in fire and ash. Larger more powerful demons materialized from the pillars and roared in their attack. His powerful smothering frost did little to divert the flames of the attack.
Danny skipped aside, lifting up to float as an arm fired across the eight foot gap between him and one of the creatures. He turned his head snapping an arm up to plunge into the chest of the demon next to him, limned in cryoplasm and snuffing the thing out like a candle. Twin beams shot from his eyes and cut down another, his eyes smarted a bit with the use of the power. He was slowly beginning to get used to that particular ability of his. Danny couldn't help the grin that split his pale glowing face—it felt good to be powerful again, immensely good. A fist punched into his gut from another demon some distance from his position, it sputtered in the cold but the impact was still felt and it pushed him back fractionally through the air. He retaliated, grabbing the appendage before it retracted and with a grunt launching a sheet of ice, down the arm to engulf the body. The remaining four crowded around him in a brainless, tactic void huddle trying to smother him with their heat and power. A calm breath, mist rising in the exhalation and it flashed black in shadow, thousands of tiny crystals lit with black light ripping into the creatures as a heat killing power.
Danny touched down, "Hm, that was new." He looked down at himself and shrugged, "Ah well."
No other demons appeared, though he walked the distance to the ruin. It may have been a domed building at one point but nothing remained of the ceiling but fingers of stone that reached over the open floor like a hand reaching up to grasp the occupants. Shattered and tarnished stain glass images and broken effigies of screaming demons and tortured souls. It was a Temple of Skath he believed, something built in honour of the monster. Danny approached the looming building carefully, unsure of what he would find inside.
Passing beneath the sundered doors revealed an interior of shadows. Red light seeped in through the broken roof, revealing scattered rubble and pews dried out to splinters in the ever present heat. Further carvings lined those walls that remained standing; followers worshipping Trigon, sacrificing others and themselves to the deity, depictions of the wastelands and lakes of lava left in his wake, the frozen horrified expressions of humans and legions of the fiery minions. He moved further into the expansive room, looking around with alert eyes as his body cast a faint glow over the shadows.
"Hello?" his voice rang in the silence.
Nothing responded but he felt something shift in the room. The air seemed to move in the room independent of his own movement. He looked around, moving faster. At the end of the circular chapel he glimpsed a flash of gold and so, climbing over some larger slabs of stone debris, he made his way there. It was a pedestal, or a podium. Intricately carved golden sculptures writhed their way up the stand to a place for a book to be set and two sconces for candles long empty. A short distance behind was altar of more gold highlighted with rotted crimson silk.
"Raven?" Danny spoke softly, looking around, "Where are you Raven?"
"How do you know my name? Who are you?" the sound of another voice, no matter how small and timid surprised the Halfa and he turned to the noise. Crouched in the shadows was a small shape, too small to be the newly sixteen year old girl he searched for. But there she was peeking out from behind a pillar.
Danny knelt and smiled reassuringly at the girl, "My name is Danny. I'm your friend, from another life. You wouldn't recognize me like this, I've changed to fight the dangers. To protect you."
"Changed?"
"Yes. I can't show you now though, it's too risky."
The girl slipped from behind the pillar and came into his glow. She was tiny, maybe eight or nine years old but the hints of the girl she would become were visible. The same hair, the same bright watchful eyes and flawless grey skin. Her robes were the same, only smaller and fitted for a child instead of a young woman. She nodded at him emphatically, "There are monsters outside. They can't find me in here, they won't come inside."
"What do you remember Rae? He used the diminutive of her name, trying to show affection and bring to ease the frightened girl.
"N-nothing. I was running from the monsters, they chased me here. I slept and now you're here. Th-maybe there was a flash of light, I was scared and it hurt. Then the monsters were everywhere and it was too hot." She trembled.
"It's okay, you're safe with me. I won't let any monsters get near you. I'm too chilly for them you see, they vanish near me. Poof!" He puffed air from his mouth, glad that he breathed reflexively in this form, and splayed his fingers as his hand drifted in front of his face. He smiled at her as the fog of his breath dissipated.
She smiled and nodded, "Okay. Danny. What do we do now?"
Danny frowned and thought about how to phrase his next words. He didn't want to scare the girl but he would need Raven to come with him and it might get a bit rough as they returned to the surface. "I have to take you away from here Rae, you friends, our friends, are fighting a bad guy. They need you to help them, and maybe me too. We can, together."
"Me? Fight a bad guy? But . . . I'm just a little girl." Despair and sadness resounded in the girl, deeper than that of someone so young.
"You're stronger than you know. We just have to find it, like how I found mine. I'll help you, but first we have to get out of here."
"How?"
Danny ran a hand through his hair, "Do you feel cold now? Close to me?" she shook her head immediately, lips pursed. "Come here then and see if you can touch me without being too cold." He held out a gloved hand and the girl darted forward to grasp a few of his fingers in her small hands. A spark of green shot between them but only Danny noticed. She shook her head at him and he smiled again, "Good. Here," He turned around and reached his arms behind him, "Climb aboard and we'll go see our other friends. Who knows, maybe you'll remember something on the way back." He blinked over his shoulder at her and she clambered up onto his back, hooking her chin over the folds of the hood that was limp on his shoulders and locking her arms about his neck.
Danny stood and shifted her a little, his arms supporting the back of her knees. The Halfa and the diminished sorceress lifted up to float a few feet above the ground. He had no way of knowing how deep beneath the surface they were and didn't want to risk intangibility through a lot of solid rock. The only choice was to return the previous direction and hope they ran into fewer demons. They left the building and he felt the little girl clinging to his back tense as they emerged into the cavern. Nothing around them however and Danny smiled to himself as the girl relaxed slowly while he walked out onto the narrow path. It wasn't so bad after all.
§Oo–.–oO§
Blocked the blows desperately, barely knocking aside the fists that tore into toward her, trying to defeat her guard. The battle was turning desperate, her friends when she saw them, were barely holding together against the onslaught of the negative clones. A fist blew the air from her lungs followed a powerful uppercut that smashed her backward into a protruding boulder. She swooned, her vision sparkling in the red and shadow of the world around her. Vaguely she wondered if Robin was okay. She'd seen him only once, duelling with his clone in an amazing display of agility and acrobatics. He had been bleeding. Worry had bloomed in her heart for the boy, her leader and the man she loved, but she had had to crush it to focus on her own fight. Tamaraneans could allow no distractions in battle.
She caught the fist that knifed in toward her face as the clone leaned close, "Why do you fight?" The eyes born into her own emerald orbs. "What is your goal here? You cannot hope to win."
Starfire cried out in the powerful voice of a Tamaranean war cry and brought her head forward with a snap. The clone recoiled at the blow, backing away as Star spun and delivered a kick charged with green energy that exploded against the opponent. It burst in a cloud of energy that threw both combatants across the battlefield. Starfire tumbled through the air, crashing through rock and ruins before rolling to a battered and uneven stop. She groaned and tried to stand but fell back to the warm stone.
Trigon's voice rumbled through the air, "I know. It will make no difference, these pitiful mortals mean nothing. My daughter is broken, dwindled to little more than a shadow. They will do nothing, can do nothing."
A gloved hand grabbed her shoulder and the warm voice of the Titans leader echoed in her ear, "Star, are you all right?"
"Robin? Your fight . . . ?"
"The clones retreated to Trigon. C'mon Star, they're coming back." She looked at the Boy Wonder and gasped. He was battered beyond anything she had expected. His nose was crooked and his eyes blackened with deep swollen bags. Dust and grime clung to dried blood and his cap was torn and scorched. The armor he always wore was battered, the scales chipped and the scuffed. His bandoliers were beaten just as badly with dented metal pouches and broken clasps. His hair curled from fires and a gash bled on his shoulder. "That bad hey? Don't worry, I'm okay. So are the others, despite their appearances."
"Hey Star, you look pretty good actually." BB's voice held a tired smile in it. Robin helped Star to her feet and she saw the changeling standing there with Cyborg.
Both looked horribly beaten. Beast Boy held one arm close to his side, the limp appendage slowly dripping blood onto the ground. His cheek was swollen and his smile bloody behind the furred face. His uniform, the fitted bio-adaptive material that covered him toe to throat, was tattered in places with clear claw marks tearing through areas on his torso. Still the boyish grin split his face. Cyborg was missing an entire appendage, his left arm missing at the shoulder. The socket sparked faintly as he moved and a film of blue liquid was caked on his side from where the circulation tubes had been torn. Other dents and carved out scratches coated his armor, some sparking as the internal power circuitry shorted out and the back-up system reset to adjust for the changes.
"We're not wining this man." Cyborg's voice was more frustrated than anything. "My clone knows my every weakness, he ripped my damn arm off!"
Robin sighed, switching the broken halves of his bow staff back to both of his hands, "We have to switch tactics."
"Dude, talk later." BB turned away, "Seriously, those NegaClone things are coming back."
The others turned away from their huddled discussion around the alien girl. The clones were closing in on all sides, their eyes glowing with hatred and the grins still glinting. "Titans, we're switching it up." Robin spun the hafts of his weapons, the plan coming to him suddenly, fully formed in his mind. They couldn't fight themselves, but they could fight each other.
Starfire made a noise of confirmation in her throat and saw the Cyborg clone approaching her left. Robin's battle cry reached her ears and she took off, smashing into the clone and leaving a whirling cloud of dust and air behind her with the force of the take off. She drove the robot clone high into the air, flying for all of her worth before she slowed and switched her grip to his arm, twisting and throwing it down with all of the force her formidable strength could manage. She let out a breath, and floated down to the cloud that formed when the clone had smashed into the rock below. Star hovered just beyond the cloud, waiting and watching.
The beam of red power that exploded from the cloud cut a tunnel through the particulate and nearly knocked Star from her floating position. The heat crackled against her skin and she was thankful her alien nature granted her immunity from heat and radiation. The beam faded and then blasted again, this time directly her. She shouted and lit her hands, driving them into the red energy with her own power. It parted around her, smaller beams splitting off and rotating around her summoned orb. The star bolt burst from her hands and lanced down through the attack, knocking the NegaClone, as BB had coined them, flat in an explosion.
Robin launched his left handed weapon at the changeling clone and followed close behind it, striking at the small bird it morphed into to avoid the projectile. The bird flapped away out of range before the attack impacted and Robing continued on, running as best he could over the uneven terrain. A falcon screamed above him and the Boy Wonder dove as the changeling slammed gorilla fists into the stone. Robin slipped into a building, vaulting over a reception desk in the office building and running up the stairs. A roar, some big cat perhaps, he did not look behind him, echoed in the empty building.
The leader dropped smoke pellet and slipped into a room. He looked up and then jumped onto a desk, sliding a panel aside in the ceiling and hauling himself up into the space that separated the superstructure of the next floor and the interior space. The slight boy replaced the panel, perforated as it was so he could see through to the room below but only just barely. He heard the low growling of the pale predator as it entered the office slowly. He saw its broad furred back as it prowled in, head lifted and mouth open to scent the air. Robin carefully reached behind him into a compartment on the belt that was attached to his hips and withdrew a tiny disk, no larger than the tip of his thumb. It was domed and had miniscule controls on the edge, a few simple buttons. Tiny barbs protruded from the flat surface.
Robin clicked the silent buttons, watching carefully as the panther passed beneath him. The panel just beneath the meeting point of his collar bones was carefully shifted aside and he dropped the disk. It landed on the back of the changeling clone and the big cat started, its head snapping up. The disk activated, the probes snapping into its fur and releasing a powerful electric shock. The clone shrieked and its form wavered, cycling between a set of land mammals before only the humanoid lay twitching on the ground. Robin dropped on it and quickly tied the thing up with a cord more than strong enough to hold any animal it could become. He took another device and connected it to the ropes, a simple thing that detected tension in the cord and released an electric charge into the conducting material. He smiled through his broken nose.
Cyborg squared off against the much smaller clone he faced, the staff in its hands twirling deftly. The cybernetic hero only had one arm to fight with, it wasn't particularly ideal but the oldest Titan knew he could deal with the disadvantage. The clone struck, swinging the staff at him in horizontal slashes. Cyborg caught some with his right arm, deflecting the blows away at first. The clones moved to the left, circling to his weakened slide with acrobatic movements that disguised further jabs. The staff slid through its hands and came at him in a broad slash. Cyborg's knee went up and kept his more vulnerable torso guarded as the metal clanged against his advanced armor. The knee dropped in a stomp and his own fist snapped around and drove into the clone's head.
The force of the blow would have killed the real Robin. As it was the clone's head jerked out an unnatural angle and the flesh felt like jelly beneath to the sensitive receptors in the fist. The body followed the head and the clone tumbled away into a roll. Cyborg followed its movement continuing with the punch as his hand unfolded into the cannon, charging in a moment and firing the beam after the body. It flipped back and out of the way of the blast that pulverized stone and disintegrated the remaining powder. The clone stumbled backward as the beam cut closer to it than it expected. Cyborg grinned and fired the rockets in his fist. His forearm took off away from his body, the hand opening. Before the clone recovered the piece of advanced technology slammed into its upper arm and the fingers fired large steel barbs into the stone, securing the hand and clone in place.
Beast Boy leapt away from a streaking charge by the Tamaranean clone. He morphed into the Werebeast immediately, deciding that messing around with other forms would be pointless with an enemy who was so fast, strong and durable. In this form he was faster, stronger and healed better than in any other. Granted he lost some tactical ability in the feral mind of the beast but it was necessary sacrifice for the power. The clone struck again after whipping around in the air and coming back toward him with its fists glowing red. He jumped straight up in the beast form and twisted in the air as the clone flew beneath him. His massive clawed paw closed around the ankles of the clone and he was jerked along as it flew. Snarling the free paw tore at the toughened alien flesh but it only grooved beneath the claws before filling back in.
The clone jerked to a stop and BB was left scrambling for a hold for an instant before his inertia tore him from the hold and he was catapulted into a building. The windows had long vanished in the conversion that the demon king had imposed on the world. The shadows were deeper in the building, light only filtering in the first few feet from the rows of windows. Howling the Werebeast ambled deeper into the building, waiting for the clone to come to him in a predatory manner. The beast did not wait long before the clone flew into the closer quarters of the building, her red glowing hands and eyes giving the position away to highly sensitive eyes. The clone looked around, rotating in the air carefully.
BB attacked, leaping onto its back and biting down on the shoulder. He shook his head, riding the clone down into the floor and tossing the body high into the air. The clone hit the ceiling and BB followed, plowing the clone through the superstructure and into the next floor. A paw engulfed the small torso while the beast spun to throw the clone. It sailed out of the building, crashing into the next building over, a graceful thing with steel construction lining the outside like a skeleton. BB chased his prey and delivered a vicious double kick to the clone as it tried to stand. It's back struck a large girder that was diagonally set as both a structural support and a decorative piece. BB kept up the assault, shoving the opponent into a space between the deep lips of the girder. His furry arms bulged and flexed, bending the metal around the clone and pinning it into a prison. Red bolts shot from its eyes and scorched the beast, the explosion launching it backward but BB's plan held and the creature couldn't get free. Snuffling BB shook his head and morphed to human, stumbling away from the trapped clone.
The Titans reassembled and moved to defiantly stand before Trigon. They looked much worse for wear than they had before but determination would not crumble to the assault. Robin stood at the forefront of the group, the most vulnerable but the most determined. It was he who addressed Trigon, belittling his effort and insulting the god thing.
Trigon stirred and four eyes opened. He seemed amused, "Hm, you think your attempt is worth my time? Your struggle is hopeless mortals, I have already won. You'll be entertaining playthings for my pets." A wave of his hand and the lava boiled, shifting and moving. Something new erupted from the pits of the lake, something far more difficult to defeat than the simple spectral manipulations that had been the NegaClones.
§Oo–.–oO§
"See that wasn't so bad. And we're almost out too." Danny smiled over his shoulder at the little girl. Around him were piled a dozen or so sets of ashes from smothered fire demons. He and Raven has made it back to the river without too much resistance. When they had first entered the first of the two ravines they would be forced to traverse a group of Trigon's minions had immediately descended upon them.
"If you say so . . . " Raven shuffled herself back up the boy's back, having been dislodged a bit during his movements. "What happens when we get out? The girl's voice was still filled with trepidation and timidity.
"I don't know Rae. Our friends will be waiting for us hopefully. They'll need you, your powers can only protect them so much." Danny hovered above the flowing lava, watching carefully for the demons to emerge again.
"My friends . . . " she trailed off. "What sort of person was I Danny? What kind of friend?"
Danny smiled to himself at the girl's intelligence. "Hm, I didn't know you very long. Certainly not like the others but we had our moments. We drank tea together every evening and most mornings. You answered my questions about magic and I helped you understand ghosts. You were very smart, are very smart."
"Is that all?"
"No. You were brave and loyal and very powerful. The Titans, your friends, relied on you to fight evil in the world. You did a lot of good for the world and brought a lot of others into the fold of being heroes with the Titans. The team you were a part of started a revolution in the younger generation of metahuman heroes." Danny looked at the girl on his back, "Together you guys did more than any other team of younger heroes."
"I was a hero? I was powerful?" Wonder crept into her small voice.
"Yes very. You were the strongest of the Titans I think, your magic gave you powers only limited by what you knew."
"What about you?"
"Ha, the Titans haven't seen me like this but I am not so powerful. You did, once, but you didn't know that Danny Fenton was, is, Danny Phantom." Danny paused, "Will you keep that secret for me Rae? I don't want the others to know yet. It would be too hard to explain."
"Okay. But . . . will you help me? If they really need me to help them beat the monsters? I don't think I can do it alone."
"You're never alone Raven, your friends will always stand with you. They're doing it now, fighting for you. I am just here to find you and bring you back safely but if you want, I will fight. I will gladly fight."
Danny reached the great metal doors and pushed them open. Beyond the doors two fire demons stood and they were cut down by the beams that launched from the Halfa's eyes in a blaze of blue energy. He looked around the chamber. It was empty but for the two demon's that had already faded to nothing but ash. His eyes still stung but every time he used the new power it grew less. Danny had used it a few times on this trek so far but now, the demons were far fewer than he expected to see. No more blocked the path in fact. It was unnerving, even suspicious.
Phantom kept going, towing along the sorceress as he went. The torches were snuffed in the tunnel as he followed the ramp back to the surface. His aura was still blowing around him as an invisible blizzard, torrents of air and inhumanly cold atmosphere protecting the two from the heat and oppression of the deep temple. It was less necessary now and Danny reigned in the power. The glow, the shocking blue, faded in intensity and the air grew warmer around him. They continued up the ramp and eventually made it back to the blasted pit that was the library and the entrance to the temple complex.
An animal roar echoed around them, deep and wet. Across the chasm of the open chamber, high above the pair, four figure appeared. Two leapt over the rim and tumbled down the slope while one flew down and the other changed to a bird and followed. Following tight on their heels a wall of fire erupted, obscuring the sky and pouring heat into the open area. Danny raised an arm up, shielding his eyes and summoning a barrier of cold to cut through the oppressive heat. He didn't want to think what the others were going through. Well Robin and BB anyway, Starfire was immune to harsh conditions and Cyborg was mostly a robot.
He jogged forward, meeting the group as Star and the changeling landed and Robin and Cy recovered, "Titans, what was that?"
Robin stared a moment, "Phantom? Where's Danny?"
Danny smiled painfully, "Not here right now. I have Raven though." He set the girl down and she stood shyly next to him. "You guys don't look so good." He added as an afterthought.
Robin stared at the little girl that had been his team's powerful magic user, "Rae? Is that you?"
She drew back her dark hood, "Y-Yes. I am Raven."
"Aw dude . . . What're we going to do now?" Everyone turned and glared at the changeling. "What? We need Raven, the big Raven. We're doomed without her, right?" Cyborg punched the changeling with his good arm.
"I fear we cannot win now." Starfire added. "That thing is too powerful, and Trigon is still beyond that." As if to punctuate her point a roar echoed through the barren wasteland.
"What is it?"
Robin looked at Phantom suspiciously, "Some sort of fire demon, but larger than the other. Much, much larger. And far more dangerous."
Danny perked, "Fire you say?" He looked to Raven who was still beside him, "Looks like I get my fight after all Rae."
"What do you mean? You can't, it's beyond us. We need Raven's magic." Robin objected.
"No, not with fire. I'll take care of the fire demon." He jerked his head to the side, "Can I talk to you for a moment?" Robin nodded grimly and the two young men walked away a ways. Danny sighed and turned to the Boy Wonder, "You need to draw the real Raven back out, she's in that little girl. Beneath the hesitation."
"Are you sure you can handle the demon? You haven't even seen Trigon's newest monster yet, it'll kill you. It nearly did us."
"Don't worry about it, I'm not exactly alive remember. I'm a ghost, he couldn't kill me if he wanted to." Danny walked away back to Raven.
Robin stared after the other boy for a moment and followed, "Damn it."
"Phantom? Are you going to be okay?" Raven stared at him with huge violet eyes.
Phantom knelt, taking her delicate hand in his own. "Of course Rae. Just remember, they need you. I need you to. I'll be back, I promise." He let a puff of ice glitter in his hands and formed it, shaping it into a pillar and then a bird in midflight, a raven with feathers that glittered in the light. It was exquisitely detailed, a trick that Frostbite had taught him long before. It would never melt and he set it in front of Raven with a smile.
Danny rose into the air, standing straight and tall. He wasn't sure why he had made the ice sculpture for the girl. It had felt appropriate, maybe it would help remind her who she was. He rose higher and higher, leaving the Titans far below and cresting the hollow they had been in. Before him loomed a beast taller than the high rise buildings of the city, a massive thing of fire and burning liquid. It dripped onto the stone, making it hiss and smoke. The wide beak opened and a wet roar screeched from the creature, flecks of liquid fire flying from it.
A cloud of blue billowed from his mouth and the eyes that had been serene exploded in blue light so intense the Titans who watched below had to shield their eyes. The aura around him grew, the air whipping up and ruffling his clothing, and the temperature precipitously dropped. The giant raised an arm and it rocketed out at him as a pillar of fire. Danny's hands closed to fists and he vanished in the fire. Starfire gasped below and BB gaped as the arm shattered and Phantom appeared, a blue capsule fading from around him. The Halfa couldn't help the smile that crossed his face.
With a raised arm Danny fired an immense blast of his cryoplasm, a solid beam that raced toward the demon. The stone it hit cracked under the extreme temperature change until it hit the demon. There was a moment of impact, a hiss and then a deafening explosion as two extremes met. The demon vanished in the flash of light that obscured everything and filled the world for miles around with blinding white. Following close behind that was a shockwave that stirred dust for miles and knocked over a few buildings that had teetered on the edge of standing. Danny turned away from the blast as it rolled over him. When he looked back again to where the giant had stood there nothing but a crumbled pile of rock.
He floated down to the rim of the hollow and met the Titans plus little Raven as they scrambled up the embankment, "That's taken care of. Now we have Trigon."
"Dude . . . How can you be nonchalant!" BB couldn't contain his incredulity at the being before him.
"Later Beast Boy." Robin berated.
"Mortals. Come here, I would look upon the beings that defy my power." Trigon's voice boomed.
A symbol of Scath flashed beneath their feet and suddenly they stood on the shores of the lake of lava. Trigon towered before them, still sitting on his throne. He was alert though, his red eyes burning into them with omniscient pressure. Raven cowered behind Danny and the other Titans fanned out defensively.
"So you have found my daughter. Pathetic. She will not help you now, she will only suffer your deaths." The jagged beams of bloody energy zipped from his eyes and the jewel on his forehead. Before any of the Titans could react the power stuttered, blossoming against black shields that held against the onslaught. They shattered and the energy drove into their bodies. Each of the teens; Robin, Starfire, Cyborg Beast Boy and Danny screamed in pain as the energy ripped through them.
It felt like nothing Danny had ever experienced, worse than any of the ghost technology that had been designed to destroy him. He convulsed involuntarily, his fingers numb but the rest of his body burning. Distantly he was aware of the others screaming in pain and Raven screaming horror. Trigon's cruel laugh boomed in his ears and then it ended. Danny dropped to his hands and knees, breath coming ragged gasps. The others were groaning, alive but unconscious or rendered senseless.
"Danny!" Raven called out, her small hands gently touching his shoulders. "Are you okay?"
He grimaced and nodded, "Yeah I'm okay. You saved us Raven, your magic protected them. You have power, find it within. Meditate. I'll keep Trigon busy." He pushed himself up to his feet.
"Foolish mortal, you cannot hope to stand against me. No one can."
Danny glared at the giant before him, "You're a fool Trigon. I am no mortal." He smiled. "I am beyond your experience."
"Impudent child, you know nothing."
"You're mistaken. I know exactly what I need to do. I know that my power will give Raven the time she needs, and that she will defeat you." Danny sucked in a breath, a huge lung filling inhalation that swelled his middle and chest. He held it for a moment, a smirk quirking his lips at the feeling of rightness.
Danny released the power. It was the greatest use of his ghost powers he had ever felt. It had been building in him since he had awoken with Robin in the grey ruins. The reaction of his natural affinities against the demonic hellish fire that had beset him had been the deathly cold of his cryokinesis. It had built in his heart and chest and now found its outlet. The sound rocked the city ruins, throwing waves of lava free of the surface only to harden and become encased in ice. The waves of blue light expanded from the Halfa's mouth and struck the god thing that was before him. Trigon struggled to stand against the assault before it swept him from the throne, crumbling the rock and steel and casting the giant demon into the lake behind him with a roar. Lava exploded in a great plume and was scattered as glittering frosted stones.
Danny's breath ran out then, the power fading. He twisted as he fell and saw Raven hovering in lotus behind him fully grown into her sixteen year old self. Her eyes flitted open and beheld him, laying on the ground before a backdrop of frozen rock and a Trigon that breaking free of thick cryoplasmic ice. Danny smiled at her, knowing that she would finish the battle. He blinked slowly as he felt the power recede within him and the human take over. He changed before her, becoming Fenton, instead of Phantom. Her eyes widened. Danny frowned and felt himself being drawn away, felt the flicker of the Ghost Zone behind him. This wasn't right.
§Oo–.–oO§
Raven saw Danny disintegrate before her eyes, as if the power of his attack had been too much. Fury welled up within the girl, overwhelming even her shock at the revelation of Phantom-Fenton. She saw her friends collapsed around her, they had defended her when she was weak and afraid. And now they were vulnerable. Because of her. She sucked in a breath and chanted her mantra.
Her father got free of the ice and looked to her, "A valiant effort but ultimately useless. Pathetic." The gloating arrogance in his tone set Raven on edge.
"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos." In her mind the many facets of her emotions gathered and swelled. Around her physical body materialized the emotions, each in a cloak of different hue and each in lotus. Her mouth parted open with a breath and the clones of her being repeated her spell. Light grew in the center of the hemisphere and pulsed brighter. A white beam coalesced into being.
Trigon's lip curled as his daughter appeared in the light. She was equal in height to him, glittering snow white robes covering her body and her dark hair cascading from her drawn hood. Her eyes opened, shining crystalline white with power.
"You threaten my friends. Hurt them. My family." She stepped forward, a hand jabbing out and smashing his chest with power, "You may be my Father." Another blast of white magic knocked the demon back another step. "But THEY. ARE. MY. FAMILY." Both her arms came together in front of her chest and Trigon roared as a spear of white magic shattered against his chest.
The demon rocked backward and fell over onto his back, splashing into the lake through a layer of frozen stone. The giant white Raven floated forward coming to a stop at his feet. She glared down at the god thing with righteous fury. Her eyes narrowed. Her hand raised and clutched at the air. White light, much like her regular magic but opposite in spectrum encased the demon and he was lifted into the air. It squeezed him, tearing at his essence and he roared in defiant pain.
"Begone, Father." Raven's voice was low.
A swirling white portal materialized into being. A sharp gesture with her fingers pushed the demon into the portal and it snapped shut behind him, winking out of existence. Her arm returned to her side and the sorceress turned to the city. Her head tilted back, mouth opening and pouring white. The hellish apparition of the world faded, the sun and blue sky returned, the damaged buildings righted themselves and the people began to move again. They were none the wiser thanks to the power Raven let loose in that moment. She shrunk and was a normal human again, the white robes and long hair remaining. The cool waters of the Californian coast lapped at her shoes and she set down next to her stirring friends. They were horribly damaged, battered and beaten down but each managed to smile at her when they saw her.
"Good-" Robin coughed, "Good to see you back Rae." He smiled but it turned into a frown. "Where did Phantom go?"
Raven's breath caught but she said nothing. The image burned in her mind of his fading, his body dissolving into nothingness. The last thing she had seen of him was a tired smile and the blue eyes that swirled with green in the depths of his power. He was Phantom. Half human half ghost and powerful enough to give Trigon pause. Danny had saved her, given her strength just as the Titans had if not more.
"I-I don't know. He vanished."
"Vanished? Is he . . . ?"
Raven choked imperceptibly, "I don't know." She repeated.
"Dude, my head is killing me. Can we go back to the Tower and order in tonight? I need a nap." BB groaned, relieved the trial was over.
"Sure Beast Boy. Let's go, home." Robin spoke softly, struggling to his feet and helping Cyborg stand with only a single arm.
Raven nodded to herself. Something caught her eye, floating in the surf, when she turned to see the Titans Tower glittering on its island in the setting sun. She picked it up. "Home."
Later that evening Raven stood in a room she had claimed as a library years earlier, before the window that overlooked the sea. The sunset was beautiful, lighting the waters on fire in a dance of colour so unlike the fires that Trigon had brought to the world. On bare space of her shelf, between a row of books and piles of scrolls she placed the object she had retrieved earlier. The sunlight flickered in a rainbow through the ice sculpture that Danny had left her. She smiled mournfully at the sight, sniffling and turning to her sit in lotus, hovering some feet above the floor.
"Azarath metrion zinthos," her voice was soft.
§Oo–.–oO§
The world swirling acid green, the atmosphere thick and fluid. Barren rock floated throughout the area and doors winked in and out of view in the ever changing skies. A body drifted, limp and weak through the fluid. A boy with black hair struck through in white. He was dirty and bruised, his mouth parted open slightly for the shallow breath to ricochet in and out of his lithe chest.
Another figure appeared. This one was tall and straight, broad with thick arms and midnight black hair. The blue skin was stretched tight over a gaunt face. A face split with a fanged grin and a smooth baritone voice echoed with power in the strange place, "Hello again, little badger."
END ACT I