Chapter Thirty

Nightwing sighed as the alarm went off again. Even more suddenly than the alarm, Raven ran into his room, not bothering to knock.

"Dick… You and the Titans… You all need to stay here! I'll take care of this!" Raven pleaded. Nightwing's eyes narrowed.

"I thought we agreed not to keep secrets."

"I have to…Well first of all, I never made such a promise… But second, it's a family matter. You can come if you really have to, but let me take care of it… It's one of my half-siblings. I do have six of them. I suppose Trigon could rely on any of them to come back."

"Alright… I'll stay out of it as long as I can. I won't let you get killed though, Raven." Dick said, Raven waved him off, nodding and leaping out the window, flying towards the location of their new enemy. Dick followed, jumping and falling about 30 feet before catching the wind and flying along with Raven, catching up quickly. He had taught himself to fly using Vector Manipulation. He needed no wings or magic to make him fly.

Finally, hey made it to the right location and landed.

"Ah… Raven… Dear sister." The woman said, hugging Raven tightly. "I would say it's a pleasure to see you again, but I bring tidings from our father. He says that he won't use you to bring Him back this time. You were more trouble than you were worth last time. But he warns you to stay out of his way… And who's this handsome young gentleman with you? Your boyfriend?"

"Um… No, I'm…" Nightwing began, wanting to respect Raven's sense of privacy.

"Yes. He's my boyfriend… Keep your hands off, Lust." Raven said sternly. Lust laughed.

"Please, you know I prefer to be called Jane. Lust is my demon name. My human name is Jane. So much prettier."

"Yeah, well… You've given me your message. Now get out of here."

"I was told to await your reply."

"My answer is no. I will not lie down and allow Trigon to destroy Earth! We're ready for him! We'll destroy him again!" Raven snarled furiously. Lust actually laughed at this.

When she laughed, Nightwing couldn't help but turn a faint shade of pink. Her laugh was beautiful, like a delicate glass wind chime. Her voice was delicate and smooth, and when she spoke, it inexplicably made him want to obey her every wish. He knew that she was probably using demonic magic to coat her voice with that effect, but he couldn't help it. Raven stopped her, though.

"Get out! I've given you my answer! I will fight all my siblings at once by myself if I have to, and I will win!" She said, her voice rougher and more gravelly than Jane's, but still just as beautiful, Nightwing thought. Jane giggled again, and blew a kiss at Nightwing, seeming to disappear in a cloud of smoke that smelled like lilacs and honey.

"I'm… Sorry you had to be subjected to her mind controlling abilities. I told you I wanted to go alone. My half-siblings have just as much power as I do. They've cultivated it differently than I have, and they have no problem killing people with it. But they have similar levels of power as I do. I hoped that you would never have to meet them. It seems Trigon is using his children to assist him this time, though."

"Does he have seven children?"

"Seven children that I know of, including me. He may have others, but he developed demon worshipping cults all over the world to find people who would bear him children, and he has seven that I know of. One for each of the Deadly Sins."

"If… You don't mind my asking, which sin are you?" Nightwing asked. Raven blushed slightly.

"I'm Pride. My Pride Manipulation is only available to me when I don't bury it. I used magic a long time ago to bury that aspect of my powers, but my Empathy, Telepathy and some of my other powers are reminiscent of the Sin of Pride. I'm never completely free of my heritage."

"You are nothing like Trigon. You will never be like him. His evil does not define you." He said. Raven nodded uncertainly, heading back to Titan Tower with Dick, where they headed to the central room and Nightwing called the other Titans down. They came each in their own time, looking slightly groggy, some of them having been woken up.

"Alright, sorry to have to wake you up… But I need to know if you've all been taking your biomass pills to enhance yourselves. Trigon is coming back, sooner rather than later, and we all need to be as powerful as possible. So that's why I'm asking." Nightwing said. The rest of the Titans all nodded.

"Of course we have. I've become almost twice as strong as I was even with the enhancements you gave me." Cyborg said. Starfire nodded.

"The Plasma Manipulation that you gave me has become incalculably stronger. I have tested its ability to alter surrounding temperatures and even in 140 degrees of the Fahrenheit, I was able to reduce it to a mere -140 degrees of the Fahrenheit." Starfire said, seeming very proud of herself.

"And I'm able to turn into trillions of biting and stinging insects… And I'm getting super buff…" Beast Boy said, flexing his muscles.

"And my kinetic abilities are beyond what I could have imagined… I've got almost perfect control over them… And the amount of weight I'm carrying around on me has more than doubled!" Terra finished.

"Good, good…" Dick said. "We have to train some more. But I'm impressed with the advances you've made already. Let's get down and train. You've had plenty of sleep. All of you have had at least 5 hours of sleep last night. You shouldn't need more than 4 with your new abilities." Nightwing said.

The Titans went down to the training room and Nightwing insisted that they increase the weight they were carrying by 1.5 times what they currently had and set the systems in the room to make it more difficult than usual, and set the dilation effect to 1:24. That way, a single hour would see them get a full day of training in.

The next six hours saw them fighting all different opponents, each time increasing in difficulty, both power-wise and tactically, climaxing with a full-power Trigon, courtesy of Raven's knowledge of Trigon which, although not entirely complete, was far greater than any of the rest of the Titans. They trained for almost two full weeks, with Dick dilating time further every so often so that eventually an hour outside would equal three full days inside.

By the time they were done, even Dick was tired and he set up recovery pheromones, magic-replenishing pheromones and let the team sleep for a while. He set up time dilation in each of the team's rooms so that they could get a full night's sleep in a few minutes in the event that they had crime to fight and so that they could get more training in. Perhaps it wasn't the most ethical thing to do, but it was efficient.

Dick sighed and laid down on his bed, yawning and turning the dial on his time dilation adapter. He would get two hours of sleep in two minutes of outside time and when the two hours was up, a mental alarm would go off. While he was asleep, he had his body to increase his physical abilities. Just a little bit each night, but over time, he was becoming immensely powerful.

He wasn't as strong as Cyborg or Starfire yet, but his agility was incomparable to what it was before. He was also working on his non-physical abilities so that he could have them as backup. He yawned and closed his eyes, and before he knew it, he was asleep and dreaming.

He was standing at the end of the aisle. Bruce, Clark and all of their super friends were there, all of the Teen Titans, including the other branches of the team. He was waiting at the altar, getting nervous. Raven was supposed to be up at the front five minutes ago. The crowd was starting to get jittery, and he was getting anxious. What if she had run? What if she didn't love him anymore? He realized that he was holding his breath and finally found himself gasping for air.

After a bit though, the door opened and Raven started walking up the aisle in a beautiful white dress, walking up alone. She never liked the idea of being required to have a man give her away. So she offered herself. Finally, she got to the front.

"Sorry, Dick… I was nervous…"

"Second thoughts?" Dick asked with a smile.

"Briefly. But I'm over them now. If Terra can be brave enough to marry that clown, I think I can manage." Raven laughed. Dick nodded, taking her hand and walking up the steps.

"We are gathered here today to bond these two in holy matrimony…" Raven grimaced slightly.

"Sorry… Churches cause me a little bit of pain… I'm fine." She said telepathically.

"What? Why didn't you tell me? We could've had our wedding anywhere! We could've gotten married at the court building, had a legal marriage certificate handed to us. You didn't have to suffer just to have a wedding in a church." Dick thought back. Raven nodded.

"I know… But you really wanted to do it in a church, and I don't mind." Raven said. Dick found tears filling his eyes. He wiped them away quickly.

"Do you, Richard Grayson take Rachael Roth to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?" The priest asked.

"I do." Dick said, smiling lovingly at Raven.

"And do you, Rachel Roth take Richard Grayson to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?" He asked Raven.

There was a long pause. Raven's mouth opened up and silent words came out of it. There was a ringing in the background. He couldn't hear her.

"Wake up, Dick…"

"What?"

"Wake up…" Raven said.

Dick sighed, his eyes opening. He laid under the covers for a bit, going through the dream he just had. He couldn't remember ever feeling so happy. It was a perfect ending for them. But somehow, it left him feeling wistful and unsatisfied. He sat up, putting on his clothes and resetting the time dilation adapter, heading downstairs where Raven was sitting there, smiling knowingly at him.

"Hello, Dick. I take it you had the same dream that I did.

"I was walking down the aisle at our wedding, but you were late. I was nervous that you had decided against marrying me and that you had left, gone far away." Raven said. Dick laughed.

"Well… In my dream, I was waiting at the altar and you were the late one. But you came eventually. You were just about to say 'I do', but my alarm rang and you told me to wake up instead." Dick said. Raven actually laughed now.

"What an unsatisfying ending. You look upset about something." Raven said, walking over and sitting down next to Dick on the couch. Dick shook his head.

"Oh, it's nothing. I guess that dream just made me anxious. Was it a vision of the future? Have I evolved myself more than I thought? Am I seeing visions of things that will be or things that might be? Do my visions take into account free will?

"Does that vision mean we're going to survive all this or was it really just a dream?"

"Whoa… Robin…"

"Nightwing…"

"Whatever. Calm down. You can't change the future, even if you can see it. Have you ever heard the saying 'those who worry will inevitably suffer twice'?

"Things aren't set in stone. But that also means we can't control what happens. We can only react as best we can. So calm down and relax. Wow. I don't hear myself say that very often. But seriously. What will happen will happen and we can only change our part in it." Raven said.

"Listen, Dick… I know you're anxious about Trigon coming back… I am too. I don't know if we'll be able to beat him this time around.

"Last time, my ability to beat him was enhanced by the fact that I surprised him with the fact that I recovered my powers and memories. He won't make that mistake again, and my brothers and sisters will be there to assist him. We'll definitely need all the help we can get. So the other Titans will come in handy, even if we can't win. Even if we all die in order to get rid of Trigon." Raven muttered, seeming terribly sad. Nightwing sat down, pulling Raven onto the bed with him.

"Listen, Raven… There's always a chance we could die. But I'm actually looking forward to getting rid of Trigon for good. I've been working with Zatanna on something that can entrap Trigon permanently. I think only you would be able to maintain this, though. It's an alchemical crystal that when someone is trapped inside, it deals constant pain to it to prevent it from focusing long enough to attempt to break out. The crystal will react to the holder's willpower and magic if they have magic.

It's small enough to fit on your forehead like your Chakram does. When you put it on your forehead, it will adhere with psychic glue. It will come off if you want it to, but won't if you don't want it to or aren't thinking about it."

"Zatanna helped you make this? You're working very closely with her…" Raven said, looking a little bit jealous. Dick laughed.

"Zatanna's dated Bruce. I can assure you I have no interest in her." Dick said, kissing his love tenderly on the lips. Meanwhile, Damian was in his room on the phone with Carrie. It was hard sometimes having a long-distance relationship, especially when he worried that a beautiful girl like Carrie would attract the attention of other guys. She assured him that it wasn't a problem. But he still worried.

"Hey… Damian… How's being the Teen Titans' new Robin going?"

"Oh, it's alright… It's different in Jump City from Gotham… Much cleaner and honestly, the criminals are just as bizarre, but not quite as evil in some ways… Slade is still an issue, but we're working with him for now… See how long that lasts, right?"

"Ahaha… Yeah, well… It'll last about as long as a deal with any Neutral Evil villain."

"What now?" Damian asked, raising an eyebrow at Carrie's odd reference.

"Dungeons and Dragons? Pathfinder? The alignment system?"

"I've heard of those games. I've never had much time to play them. Remember, before I came to Gotham, I spent at least 8 hours a day in training, usually more like 10."

"Oh… Wow… Even I don't spend that much time in training… Well, I do now… But 10 hours in the training room is like 1 hour in the real world. So it all balances out with my real life."

"Yeah… The same has been happening for me, and I'm not quite sure what to do with all my spare time. When a full week of training can be done in fifteen minutes, what do you do with the other 23 hours and 45 minutes of your day?"

"Boy… Grayson is really working you guys to the bone, eh? What's he expecting to happen?"

"Apocalypse. He says that Trigon is coming back… Apparently, Raven's sister showed her face in Jump City. She says that Trigon is coming again and Nightwing believes her."

"Do you believe them?"

"I'm not sure. I see no reason for them to lie to us. If we really had time to train slowly, I'm sure Grayson would let us. It's better to build up your skill steadily than forcing it all in a few weeks. But I've seen immense improvement in all the Titans. Maybe we will be able to beat the nearly omnipotent being that's supposedly coming. Or maybe Grayson's and Raven's obsessive planning and defenses against it coming will stand up against it and Trigon will never get through."

"Alright… Well… Just call Batman and me down if you need help."

"I'm sure Grayson has already planned for that eventuality. If this goes down like they think it will, I guess I'll be seeing you soon. Are you taking your enhancement pills?" Damian asked. Carrie nodded.

"Yeah… I'm not getting too much stronger. But I'm able to jump over three times my height now with no problem. I bet once I'm done with the third cycle, I'll be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound."

"I wouldn't necessarily count on it. But it's a good thing to work towards. Grayson modified all of us even before we started taking the pills. Maybe if I ask him, he'll do the same for you. I doubt Father would accept such modifications. After all, he wants to work for everything he has. Taking pills is enough of a shortcut for him, no doubt. At least the pills require intense exercise and training to fully stabilize the effects of." Damian said. Carrie nodded, making a sound of affirmation.

"Maybe we could talk on the video phone sometime?" Damian asked. Carrie smiled at the thought of this.

"I'd like that. Let's hang up and try that now." Carrie said, hanging up and using the video on her phone, dialing Damian. He picked up almost immediately.

"Can you see me?" Carrie asked.

"Yes… Are you wearing color contacts?" Damian asked. Carrie nodded.

"I wanted to make my eyes less conspicuous, so I got brown color contacts."

"I loved your green eyes. They were beautiful. You should leave them the way they are." Damian replied. Carrie blushed slightly.

"Thank you… I didn't really want to draw attention to myself when acting as Robin… Not a lot of people have not only red hair, but also green eyes. It would be a definite red flag if someone realized they could determine who Bruce's current Robin is just by finding out how many red haired, green eyed girls there are in the city."

"Point well taken. Can you take out your contacts so I can see your real eyes, though?" Damian asked, walking out of his room and almost immediately walking into Starfire.