Notes: This chapter was posted last week on AO03, apologies for the delay in posting it here.

Raven

Three men pour liquid from a red can all over the floor. The girls cover their noses and tears stream down their faces. Ms. Kinders marches down the stairs with the boys, behind them. One if his followers threatens them with a machete. They gather them inside a chalk drawn circle on the floor, before dancing around the room with insanity. Fire blazes through the house. The liquid is splashed onto everyone. A match is lit and brought to the floor. Fire eats everything. It devours them from the feet up, licking their skin and clothes. They run to the doors and windows, but there is no escape. They all burn.

"Hey! Wake up!" Someone shakes my shoulder and I yelp, because it hurts. It's Mr. West. "Hey, you can't sleep in class." I ignore him and roll up my sleeve because the light pressure of my shirt makes it hurt so badly. The skin beneath is red and bubbled with blisters. I Check the other arm and it's the same.

"Shit. What happened?" Mr. West grabs the unblistered part of my wrist. "When did this happen? Let's go... Class, just wait here a minute. Please read by yourselves or talk quietly." He takes me to the kitchen and starts running my arm under cold water.

"Ow!" I scream.

"This looks like a second-degree burn." I take my arm back. This isn't a normal burn. It can't be treated like one.

"What caused this? Were you playing with fire or the stove?" I shake my head, but I don't think he believes me. "Stay here, I'll be right back." He starts to leave, but I grab his shirt tail. He pauses and looks at me.

"Something bad is going to happen." He stares, not sure what to make of the words.

"What do you mean?"

"Fire... There was a liquid that made fire. A red can. Everyone burned." He thinks I'm crazy. I can tell from his face. I pause and look at my arm. The burns are gone now. I show him and now he's puzzled. He moves to touch it, but I move it back out of his reach.

"What do you mean a fire? Did you have a nightmare?" He asks and I can tell he's looking at the circles under my eyes, so I look away.

"Something bad is going to happen... There's fire... You know Mr. Wayne, right?" He tilts his head slightly. Richard said he has a Wayne Tech Lab badge hanging on the rearview mirror of his car. He must know Mr. Wayne if he works for him, right? "Mr. Wayne knows the Justice League."

"Why would you think that?" Now he's alarmed.

"Because he does." I can't tell him that Mr. Wayne is Batman. No one wears a mask because they want people to know who they are. Even if I did, he probably wouldn't believe me.

"Can you tell him, to tell them? Something bad is going to happen..."

"When? When will something bad happen?" he asks.

"I don't know..." He sighs and runs his hands through his hair. "Soon. They'll come soon and do something terrible to everyone."

"Who?" I shake my head, because I won't tell him that. He doesn't believe me about this, so why would he believe me if I told him about them? And if he did believe me, that might be worse... If someone finds out that he can use me to come here and destroy everything, reshape the world into his liking, they will not forgive. Even Azar sent me here to die and Azar harms no one.

"Look, I'll do what I can. Let's go back to class. If you have a hard time paying attention today let me know and I can help you get caught up later."

We go back to class, but I'm not the only one who has a hard time paying attention. I don't know if he believes me or not, but he's distracted. He spells things wrong on the board and doesn't teach with his usual enthusiasm. Maybe the burns just surprised him though. Normal people aren't used to seeing things like that... Richard and Garfield would probably be stunned by it too and Garfield changes all the time.

After dinner I try to read in the library, but it's hard to stay awake. The images keep coming for me. He asked if it was a nightmare, but it's worse than a nightmare, it's what's coming. I can feel it. Every second that ticks by brings us closer to the end.

The library door opens. It's Mr. West. He pulls out a chair and sits at our table. That chair once belonged to Garfield.

"Can I ask you more about what you said?" I shrug. What more is there to know? Something bad is going to happen.

"Was it something you dreamed?" He folds his hands on the table and he looks calm. Another person might think he feels calm, but I sense unease. Maybe he believes me... Or at least maybe he will try to.

"It's not a dream." Dreams are things you want to happen. This is a horrible thing that will happen. He doesn't argue with me on the terminology.

"Can you start at the beginning, what happens?" I think about that. I don't have the beginning. I tell him what I saw in slow, careful terms. The girls are huddled by the living room TV while they slosh the liquid onto the rug and the floor. The boys are herded down the stairs. Then everyone is on fire. He doesn't say anything at first.

"Will you help?" He still doesn't say anything.

"The police will be doing some extra rounds around the building starting tonight." That's not enough. It must show on my face. "I did talk to Mr. Wayne like you asked, but I don't know what will happen next."

"..." At least he tried. I wish he would do more, so this could be stopped, but maybe that's impossible. Maybe this will happen no matter what.

"You said it happens at night, right?" I think it's night. Everyone is in their pajamas. I nod. "Can't you protect them, like you protected people at the ball?" I shake my head. There must be a reason I won't be able to save them this time. Of course, I will try, but I'll fail. Like Azar failed to send me to my death.

"No." He doesn't like that answer. The library door opens. It's Ms. Kinders.

"I didn't know you were still here Mr. West," she says.

"Sorry, I came back because I had an update about Richard and Garfield." He lies so easily. She smiles and nods.

"Someone needs to go do their chores." So, they finally noticed. I get up and go vacuum the living room. She makes me help with cleaning the kitchen too, but I don't mind. All that's waiting for me upstairs is a bed I don't want to get into.

The next few days are as normal as the days have been without Richard and Garfield. The other kids leave me alone for the most part. They whisper about the burns from class, but no one says anything to my face. On Saturday when I get out of bed, after another sleepless night, I go to put cold water on my face, but freeze when I enter the bathroom. On the far wall, someone wrote "He will rise" in what looks very much like blood. Someone pushes me from behind.

"See! I told you!" It's Ginny and Ms. Reeves. Ms. Reeves pushes past me too and stares at the wall.

"Raven, did you do this?" She turns to look at me and I shake my head quickly. There's no way I would ever write that.

"She did, she did!" Ginny yells. "I woke up last night and saw her leave the room. See! She even has the blood on her shirt!" She points to my shirt which is covered in blood, but I don't remember doing that... I couldn't have... I roll up my sleeves. There are no cuts or marks. I leave and go to the library. There's no way it was me... But the blood.

I curl into a ball in the shelves and stay there all day. No one bothers me. Maybe they're scared. They should be. I wish Richard and Garfield were here. They would tell me the other kids were lying, playing a cruel joke again...

It's almost time for bed when I feel them. It's easy to feel their presence among the kids in the house. They drip with hate, rage, arrogance, him. If they got inside that means Mr. West's precautions failed. That means the bad thing is going to happen... The screams start right away. In addition to their negative emotions, the kids and adults in the house are filled with terror. I take a slow deep breath and try to shield, because I need to think and I can't think with all their feelings. I can run and getaway, but the others... They'll burn them all. They'll burn the house to the ground.

"You can run! But you can't hide!" One of them yells in the hallway.

"Bring her to us!" Another yells, this one is fainter light it's from somewhere else in the house. My legs tremble, but I know I have to do this...

I step out from the bookshelves just as the library door opens. Two men in red robes walk in. One has a machete. The other a knife.

"Take me to your leader." Garfield would never believe that I just said that. It's one of the dumb things kids sometimes say to him to be mean, but it's also from some of the comics and movies he likes. I try to think about how he would laugh, if he heard me say that. It gives me just a little bit of courage.

The men turn around and I follow them downstairs. There's a man having a cup of tea on the couch. He's wearing the same red robes as the other, but he also has a gold crown with two horns. He probably thinks he looks like him, but he's wrong. He looks stupid.

He stands up as we approach. The girls are already huddled in the living room corner by the TV, just like what I saw. They're terrified, it's hard to tune out, I can feel my legs begin to shake.

"Finally, we meet at least." He grins like he's not about to murder everyone here, or maybe that's why he's smiling. "You can call me Brother Blood. Together we will bring your father's glory to earth." Is he insane? Does he really think he'll live if that happens? How warped is his mind, that he really believes he's so special Trigon would let him live? Gratitude is not in Trigon's nature.

"Let them go." He turns his head slightly like he can't believe what I just said. "This has nothing to do with them. Let them go."

"Now that we've found you, we must thank Trigon with an offering." I take a slow breath and wish I'd practiced using my powers more since coming to earth. Rules and promises be damned. I reach out and grab him by the top of his robe with my aura, eyes glowing red.

"Let, them, go." The words are dripping with all the hate that I feel for these people. He smiles.

"Fine. Let's go then. We can find another offering." I put him down and he takes steps outside. As soon as I get to the door though, the floor is set on fire. One of the red robes is dancing in the flames.

"Hail Trigon!" He screams. No! The door closes behind us and the fire starts to spread. I can see it's light from the windows and hear their screams. There are dozens of red robes out here. I can't fight them all... If I go with them, I'll become his vessel and then these won't be the only people that die...

I've only teleported once since coming to earth, but I pull on my powers to do it again. I get as far as the end of the street. They weren't expecting that, so they run after me. There's only one way to get away from them forever. When I reach the busy road, I wait for the oncoming lights. The truck slams into me, but it doesn't even hurt.