A / A /N: I've made you guy's wait long enough. And I'm short on time so I can't talk right now, but anything I've previously told you about what would happen in this story no longer applies. Here you all go, chapter four Raven's P.O.V. Enjoy.
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As the shadows crept away from me, I set foot on Titan's Isle and the ground beneath me seemed to quiver, as if the very earth feared my rage. I breathed in the sweet night air, and the scent of sea salt, plant life, and the stink of gasoline from the far off city rose to meet me. I reached out to sense the emotions in the Tower; worry, rage, anxiety, discord; word of my escape must have reached the Titans, and they must have feared for their worthless lives. I walked closer to the Tower, plants that brushed the rim of my cloak withered and died.
I stretched out my arms and levitated to the level of the main room, as I did the Tower's lights flickered and went out. I thrust my hand palm out and the glass across the windows shattered; I sent the shards singing through the air like arrows to strike my un-expecting quarry. Hearing their startled yells I drifted into the room.
A shaft of moonlight illuminated my figure; Starfire screamed, the boys gasped, all four held looks of horror on their faces.
"Hello, my friends." I hissed the last word with as much malevolence and venom as I could possibly muster.
"R-Raven?" Beast Boy squeaked.
"Oh very good. You can remember my name." I looked at them with detached emotion, I no longer had friends--- they were obsolete.
"What's happened you?" Cyborg whispered.
"Nothing you fools didn't wish on me when you abandoned me to the Justice League---."
"---Raven we didn't---"Robin began.
"SILENCE! I AM THROUGH LISTENING TO MORTAL LIES! Trigon has shown me what I have been blind to this whole time! I at last accept his will and his alone as my one and only fate!"
"No!" Starfire yelled.
"YES! Trigon has not been banished from this pitiful realm! This time the true prophecy shall come to pass, and it will be by my own two hands that this world shall rot as a burning wasteland, its inhabitants condemned to serve an eternity as the slaves of Trigon! The Earth shall be washed in blood, consumed by violence, AND YOUR DEATHS SHALL BE THE FIRST OF MILLIONS!" I howled, sending spears of my dark energy hurling towards them at an impossible speed.
"TITANS, SCATTER!" Robin yelled, but it was in vain, they all failed to dodge my missiles and each of my attacks struck their mark. The four Titans fell, but I didn't kill them.
Not yet.
Not until I made them all pay.
Not until I finished toying with them.
"Stand and fight me Titans. So far I am indeed…disappointed. Those fools you call your Justice League failed to put up much of a fight. Those of them that did dare to face me at least… Surely you that posed such a challenge to Trigon will not leave me disappointed as well…"
"Raven we're not going to fight you! You're our friend!" Robin yelled as he and the others stiffly got to their feet. My eyes narrowed.
"Iam not the same Raven you once knew…"
"We're not going to believe that."
"Then let me ask you a question Titans. Could the Raven you know call upon her father's minions to do her bidding? Would the Raven knew toy with your emotions? Invade the privacy of your minds? Play with your fears? Make you face your own nightmares in the living world?"
I received no answers from any of them.
"Your silence speaks volumes to me."
"You wouldn't." Cyborg said to me in a sure voice.
"Oh really? I make no idle threats. Do you all not believe me? No. Don't answer me. I can see it written all over your faces. Well… I suppose they say seeing is believing" I made a gesture with my hands. One gesture and they all backed away from me, the real world dissolving before them into their delirious delusions of what ever torments haunted them in the darkest corners of their minds. And I watched, savoring the tormented looks on each one of their faces.
Beast Boy was especially amusing to watch, and I allowed myself to turn my focus away from the others. It was while I was distracted that I unknowingly lost my grip on Robin. I didn't realize it until I heard the soft "swish" of the door opening behind me. I spun around my attention solely on him now, and he stopped moving, like a startled deer caught in headlights; before he turned and fled from the room, in either fear or some falsely heroic attempt of drawing me away from the others. Needless to say I went after him, my mind bent on murder.
I was impressed. He managed to make it all the way to the entrance hall before I managed to catch up with him. What can I say; the boy runs fast.
Just barely behind him, I snatched hold of his cape, and using that I flung him into the wall. The metal buckled and he slid to the ground. But the Boy Wonder wasn't the kind to give up that easily. He rolled back up and wiped out his bo-staff, taking up a defensive position.
"I don't care what you say. Somewhere in there is the real Raven, our friend."
"I have no friends. Have my words been falling on deaf ears this whole time or are you just stupid? The Raven you knew is dead. Gone. Erased from existence by my father for eternity." Robin sniggered.
"What are you laughing at?" I demanded. Robin answered me with a blank face, toying with the end of his staff as though he didn't really notice me.
"I just think it's funny. You never use to let Trigon push you around like this."
"What the hell are you talking about!" I shouted at him, though my actual panic wasn't betrayed in my voice. The truth was, I could remember nothing before my escape from the Watchtower. Nothing about Trigon other than he freed me; nothing about the Titans other than they betrayed me, nothing about the Justice League other than the fight and my capture. I could remember nothing else. When I was wholly controlled my rage, I hadn't given my motives a second thought, now I inwardly questioned everything. Robin snapped me out of my thoughts. "He's using you again, just like before----""Before?"
"Yes! Can't you remember the Prophecy? Or anything for that matter?"
"Th-the Prophecy… it… never happened… nothing happened…"
"Yes it did!" Suddenly somewhere within the recesses of my mind a furious voice hissed angrily,
""NO HE LIES! KILL HIM NOW!"" That sense of rage enveloped me and I lunged, catching him off guard and throwing him back into the already dented wall. I continued my assault with my powers, hurling him around and slamming him into the walls and floor.
"NO! No, you're just lying to me again!" I screamed at him. When I released him, I was surprised to watch him stand, let alone speak to me again.
"Who's lying Raven? Me or Trigon? He's the one filling your head full of lies!"
"No." I answered, this time fully sure of something. "He has told me the truth, and I know it's the truth. You all abandoned me to the Justice League. The Titans never came to the Watchtower for me and you probably gave Batman the Mortricorvus too…"
"Batman got the Mortricorvus himself and we couldn't come after you because the Justice League disabled the T-ship so we couldn't get to the Watchtower!"
I remained silent. What Robin was saying made sense. At least it made more sense than believing nothing, or believing that horrid voice that still screamed at me to kill him while I had the chance. I must say I wrestled with the temptation. While I stood still, trying to figure out who was telling me the truth and who was telling me lies, Robin spoke to me in a softer tone of voice and walked, or rather limped, towards me.
"Raven, this is all just another one of Trigon's tricks. He's made you forget everything that he doesn't want you to know, or remember, so that you would believe whatever he's told you. We can beat him again Raven. Just like before. Let me help you. Let the Titans help you." He had ventured close enough to put a hand on my shoulder. He must have known he now stood on a knife blade edge of either me trusting him, or me ripping his head off. He stayed silent while I thought. I just didn't know who to believe anymore. Then, slowly the answer came to me. Why I didn't think of it sooner I didn't know.
I read his thoughts. I saw everything that had happened over the past few days and at last I knew the truth. I learned of the false distress signal that the Justice League had used to lure the rest of the Teen Titans away from the city and the Tower. I knew that when they all had figured out what was going on they had immediately rushed home to the Tower only to find Cyborg's prized security systems completely disabled, me missing and the signs of my struggle with the League, then finding the cold, insensitive, official-looking letter that the Justice League had left behind telling the Titans what they had done. And on top of all that discovering that the T-ship had been tapered with and was now useless for space travel. Short of Starfire going to the Watchtower alone or the Titans going to steal a spaceship, they had no way to get to me.
I drew away, turning my back on Robin and walking away, I felt my spells over the others drop. I had stopped walking, but I was still aware of Robin's gaze lingering on me.
"You were telling the truth…this whole time…you were right…Trigon did brainwash me…" The second I said that, the second that I fully believed every word that had come out of Robin's mouth, pain exploded through every inch of my being.
""NO! YOU BELONG TO ME! YOU ONLY EXSIST TO SERVE ME!"" Trigon's horrible voice boomed inside my skull. His voice and presence was so vivid I could practically smell the stench of death that hung around him.
"I"LL NEVER SERVE YOU! YOU VILE PIECE OF FILTH! AND YOUR NEVER GOING TO BE ABLE TO MAKE ME HURT MY FRIENDS EVER AGAIN! I WILL DIE BEFORE YOU EVER USE ME AS A PUPPET AGAIN!" I screamed back at him, meaning every single word of it. The pain only increased ten fold and my knees buckled under my own weight. The marks of Scath felt as though they burned my skin like boiling acid, and I screamed as my powers broke loose, my body trying to reject it's demon-like form. I grasped hold of the floor, a sharp edge cut my palm open, and I watched bright red blood bloom from the cut. Then I saw my father's minions rise up and advance towards me. I tried to redirect the wild explosion of my powers towards them, but I as often hit one of them as I did the Tower walls, and I could have sworn I felt my powers rip through part of the Tower's central support beam. Then it all stopped. Trigon's minions vanished but the worse thing was my powers just stopped. Like I had nothing left. My strength was gone too, even the strain of keeping my eyes open proved too much, I could feel my heart laboring to keep beating. I heard the voices of my friends. That, and the sound of the Tower's doors being forced open for the second time that week, was the last thing I heard before the cold darkness came to claim me.
'fear nothing, but fear itself."
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A/N: To all of my readers and reviewers, I beg your forgiveness for me not updating this. I am truly sorry. I should have no excuse, but at first it was merely a writer's block and a plot change that kept me from updating. Then I became tied up with schoolwork and I lost all interest in this fic, and Teen Titans. But then I realized I had become what I hated, an author who's work I enjoyed, but who never updated. I soon began working on this again but I encountered the same problems as before, as well as End-of-school work. That said, with the school year ending I had given up any and all hope of finishing this chapter. Then I received e-mail from Raven of Azerath, begging me for an update, telling me she loved my story. That was when I realized it was no longer a choice. I had to finish this. And so I did. Against the odds this chapter is done and once more I am working on my fic. I will be gone until late August or early September, so there will not be any more updates until then provided the school does not decide to block And also provided I can get a hold of a new working e-mail. But when I do return I will have the next chapter at least as well as my new Teen Titans story that parallels this on in those parts where Raven isn't there. Also if your interested, I may have my original character X-men: Evolution story started as well as possibly the start of a planed Batman Beyond series I've been working on. See I have been doing something this whole time! But here's the thing. Remember I told you I re-wrote the plot? Well I've done that now twice. And do you remember where I said that this fic might possibly be a Raven/Robin pairing? Well, that's now up in the air. Either way I can now shape the story with or without it, so my dear Readers, the choice is entirely yours. That's right but you have to act quickly! My school's exams end on Thursday, June 3rd so that is how long I have left on here! After that, I can't read anymore reviews and they wouldn't have any effect on the next chapter(s) I write over the summer! So tell me what you want to happen along with anything you think might be interesting to add to the story, and I will take it into consideration. I am open to any and all suggestions for this story! All ideas will be considered! (Provided that I don't change the plot again) I'll see you in the fall! (One way or the other!)
