A/N: Hey everyone, this story WAS going to be on time as promised but guess what? THE SCHOOL I GO TO BANNED Fanfiction Net!!! Three days after school started and right when I was almost done with this chapter too! And I couldn't find any way of getting it updated, but oh well you get a longer than normal chapter because of it…and I think I've out done my self on this one. If I have you jaw laying on your desk by the time this chapter is finished, I've accomplished my goal…for this chapter at least… But then again this chapter may bite, my finished-copy approver person moved away…
In any case don't worry. I've finally got internet back up and running at my house so I should be able to get updates up within a decent time-frame after they're finished, so long as my Mom doesn't discover I'm back on here… If she does, then most likely you can kiss this fic goodbye. But hopefully this fic is going to be around for awhile. For my own plot purposes I think this story is changing from a ten-chapter stand-alone story to a lovely little trilogy. I've even got a name for it waiting in the wings if this story works the way I think it will…
I must say I'm very happy to know so many people enjoy my story but a few of you might want me dead at the end of this chapter...
During the summer I got hold of a D.C. Comics Encyclopedia and let me tell you, it gave me ideas…Wonderfully good and evil ideas… As a matter of fact when I came up with these ideas I started laughing… and couldn't stop for nearly an hour. People, I tell you, it was scary. Let's just say that I think you're all going to be in for some twists and turns that you'll never see coming…
And those other fictions I told you I was working on? Well… I'm still working on it;( not to mention I've hidden the disk with ALL my fan fictions on it from my Mom so well, I can't even find it…) Just be grateful I got this one chapter finished, because between this and the last chapter things have been coming very slow to get to where I wanted things to be… And it's probably going to take weeks of reading transcripts and digging through files at Titans Tower and Worlds Finest Online to get some of the info I need for the next several chapters even with me giving up my lunch period every day! (Not to mention I'm going to have to sneak around at home and read transcripts because wouldn't you know it, the school banned too! It's a conspiracy I tell you! They smother us with work then take away our only amusement…Hump, I'll show them…)
Also for those of you wondering about my decision on the pairings, well, hehehe… that's part of my good and evil scheme.
Okay I'll shut up now… If you actually read all of that, then you're a devoted reader.
And by the way this is actually only chapter four. I got the chapter numbers on my computer files mixed up I had the prolog labeled as chapter one and I'm not counting it as a chapter… Anyway, here you are, chapter four, still Raven's P.O.V.
I opened my eyes to the landscape of Nevermore, and I immediately noticed that the place wasn't in the best of shape. The gray stone slowly crumbled around the edges of the land into the endless space below. The tress looked brittle, and some of them were even charred. Even the stars looked as though they might go out. I knew this wasn't from neglect. A voice came from behind me.
"Hello again my daughter."
And I was right. I turned to face Trigon, though in a form not nearly as tall as he normally was. He was only around ten feet tall now, but inch for inch he was still just as vile looking.
"Get out. Now." I hissed. He just chuckled.
"Now why would I want to leave when I have had such a warm reception from one of your darker selves?" Trigon said gesturing to a black-cloaked figure standing in the branches of one of the trees. The space around my demon-self was so dark all I could see from here were the four blood-red eyes.
I should have realized right then and there that something was wrong. I never let that part of me roam loose in my mind. Unfortunately I didn't give it that much thought. Trigon continued speaking.
"You see, we've come to an agreement of sorts. 'I grant the demon half of your soul full control over your body and mind, and in return, she eliminates those annoyances you call heroes before my return to Earth."
"You've just forgotten one small thing Trigon." I said to him. I couldn't help noticing a small smirk on his face as he answered:
"Oh really? And just what would that be my dear daughter?"
"Me."
"AZERATH, METRION, ZINTHOS!!!" I cried out, gesturing towards him with my hands.
I stood there struck dumb with horror. Nothing happened. My demon half laughed wickedly from where she was perched in the tree.
"Missing something?" She said, raising a hand wrapped in my powers, and my blood suddenly ran cold. She never was supposed to have any power in my mind. Trigon began to walk towards me.
"Yes. We did foresee some problem with you. Or at least with you remaining alive." Trigon threw a punch at me with a ground-shaking roar and I tried to dodge it.
Which didn't work.
He came at me with another, and this time I tried to block it.
More of the same.
The third time I tried something new.
"Athemalka! Athevina! Athemhokma! Layorlam!" I shouted. It wasn't a very strong defensive spell, but it was the first thing that came to my mind. And it worked. A glowing circle of protective runes had sprung up around me. Trigon's fist still punched through the shield, shattering it like glass and knocking me back a good fifty feet, but the most important thing was it worked.
I stood up from the ground, wiping away a trickle of blood from the corner of my mouth. My mind and heart was racing with sudden hope. I may not be able to use my powers, but I could still use magic. The only problem was most of what I knew that would hurt him or help me lay strictly under the magic I had learned from Malchior.
It was either my moral code or my mortal soul. I'll let you figure out which one I picked.
From where he stood, Trigon threw a fistful of fire after me. I threw a hand out and yelled, "REVORIUM!" and the flames swerved away from me and returned to shoot towards him. With an almost careless wave of his hand the flames vanished into thin air, but before he could attack me with something else, I struck back at him first, pointing at him I called out, "LELORIOUS!" and the spell stuck him in the eyes.
Bad idea.
A very bad idea.
Howling with as much rage as pain he shouted, "BIND HER!!!" Two of my Father's flame-and-shadow minions rose to grab my left arm, another three seized my right, and a sixth grabbed hold of my neck from behind while effectively managing to choke me in the process as the group wrestled me to my knees. More circled me and even from here I could see the bloodlust looming in their soulless eyes. I fought to free myself but I couldn't move an inch; I couldn't break their hold on me and their grip was actually burning my skin. My eyes were watering because I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't focus on any spell I could use to throw them off. All I could see was Trigon coming closer, and the inhuman savagery in his eyes. If I didn't do something fast, I was going to die on my knees and then the Earth wasn't going to have a snowflake's chance in Hell.
Trigon bent down on one knee in front of me and I could smell his foul breath as he grinned at me with fanged teeth. I glared back at him, radiating cold fury as he used a finger to turn my cheek and look at my face.
"Pity, pity… It is such a shame to have to kill something so beautiful. You remind me so much of Arella." That did it. I did the last thing I could; I spit in his face, screaming,
"YOU KEEP YOUR FILTHY MOUTH OFF OF MY MOTHER'S NAME!!!!!!" Trigon howled in furry and made tostrike me but the blow never came. With a reptilian roar a green T-rex slammed into him as a birdarang sword crashed down on the flame minion choking me, while green starbolts destroyed the ones on my left arm and the blue beam of Cyborg's sonic cannon blasted the ones on my right. The minions circling me began to close in but now I suddenly had my friends at my back.
"What are you all doing here?! Do you even realize what kind of terrible danger you're putting yourselves in?" I said glaring at my friends, not that I wasn't grateful.
"Nice to see you too Rae." Cyborg called out as he continued to blast the monsters back. Having finally gotten my second wind I got to my feet and I shouted "CRASITONUS!" The ground underneath the flame-minions rolled and split open under them. With a sweeping gesture of my hand the ground washed back over them, sealing them in the gray stone. My friends were…somewhat startled.
"Dude! Since when have you been able to do that?" Beast Boy said pointing at the ground accusingly and eyeing it as if it might try to swallow him up too. An interesting idea, but not for today. I didn't answer him. In the brief moment I had taken my eyes off of him, Trigon had vanished. My eyes swept the land. He was still here; I can feel that much, I just can't tell where…
"So how did you guys get here any way? My mirror?"
"No we couldn't actually," Robin answered, "Long story short, some of the Justice League showed up and we had to leave Titan's Tower. When your powers broke loose it damaged the Tower's support structure, so the League ordered us out of there. Were on the way up to the Watch Tower as we speak." Robin finished, sounding none too happy about it.
"That didn't answer my question."
"That Martian dude helped us ou—Raven behind you!!!" Beast Boy shouted. From nowhere my dark half slammed into me.
"YOU ALWAYS RUIN EVERYTHING!!! I AM NOT GOING BACK!!! YOU'RE NEVER CAGING ME UP LIKE THAT AGAIN!!!" She drew back a fist sheathed in shadows and her blow came crashing down on a shield-spell that I conjured not even seconds before, and I threw her off me. Already back on my feet I was ready to hit her with another spell---
"Raven!" Trigon's voice boomed, drawing both our attentions before either of us could strike another blow.
My heart practically stopped. Trigon had re-assumed his larger than life size and had grabbed hold of my friends, two in each hand, and was slowly crushing them, the only bait he could possibly use against me.
"This has gone on far too long. Either you surrender yourself now, or you can watch me kill your friends." Trigon stood there, starring me down and he continued to squeeze the life out of the Titans.
I closed my eyes knowing how this game worked. Even if I did surrender, Trigon would still kill them. My friends have been so good to me; I'm loyal to them to almost a fault. And no one, not even Trigon, threatens to kill my friends and gets away with it.
He did one of the few possible things he could have done to really tick me off.
And I snapped.
The shadow behind me vanished, and that was because it became me, the two halves of my soul that I had fought most of my life to keep separate were one, but different, neither in full power but blended. This new power was not dark, dangerous, and viscously untamed, but sleek, powerful, and most of all controllable. I think Trigon expected me to lose control, but he hadn't expected this.
"This. Ends. Now." I only just whispered those venomous words, but they seemed to echo in the dead silence of Nevermore. I glared at Trigon with eyes that were neither violet nor red, silently daring him to even try to hurt my friends now. I don't know how I knew, but if he challenged me, I knew I would win.
Trigon threw the Titans down without a second glance and snapped his fingers. The mark of Scath suddenly burned on my forehead, the pain spreading through my whole body. He was trying to get control over me again, but like I said before, I'm done with being his puppet.
"I already told you…Trigon…never again." With that the mark vanished the pain stopped.
"NO!" He roared, now trying to blast me away with a beam of violent red energy, but my own white-rimmed black energy wrapped itself around my hands and shot out, hitting the beam head-on and actually pushing it back. He knew he had lost his power over me and in some form or another, Trigon for the first time in his vile life felt fear.
"You had better leave my friends, the Earth and everyone else on it alone Trigon. Because I swear on my very last and dying breath if you don't--- then you won't live to regret it."
"THIS IS NOT OVER RAVEN!!!! YOU MAY HAVE WON THIS BATTLE, BUT THE WAR HAS NOT EVEN BEGUN!!!!!" Trigon yelled as his last defiance, my powers over coming him and banishing him from my mind.
In the next heartbeat, I was awake, starring at the white walls of what was clearly a medical room on the Watch Tower, and I was quite happy to find I wasn't strapped down to the bed with an armed guard at my door.
I sat up and taking in my surroundings I noticed a small mirror hanging above a sink in the corner of the room. Hesitantly I got up and walked over towards it, half-afraid of what might look back at me. For the record, I have never been happier to look in a mirror and see my normal, amethyst-eyed, violet-hair self in all my life. I just desperately wanted a pair of scissors to cut my hair back to its normal length.
Someone knocked at my door.
"Hey Raven, are you awake in there?" Cyborg called out quietly. I opened the door to find him, Beast Boy and Starfire standing there.
"Soooooo…uh… How are you feeling Raven?" Beast Boy asked, scratching his head like he wasn't sure it was the right thing to say. Honestly I wasn't sure what to say myself.
"I'm a lot better now that I'm not trying to kill you guys. Listen, I'm really sorry, I---" Cyborg stopped me.
"Forget about it Raven, were all fine---" From somewhere down the hall someone screamed out in frustration. Then I realized something.
"Where's Robin?"
None of them would meet my eyes.
"He is… injured---" Starfire began.
"What?" I asked. Beast Boy finished what Starfire started.
"He's not that bad Raven. I mean… he was feeling good enough that he was…still fighting off the orderlies when we left…" Beast Boy said meekly.
"Where is he?" I asked, already stepping outside of the room, but Cyborg tried to make me go back.
"Now Raven, Robin's going to be fine and you should probably be resting…"
"I don't need rest. What I need is to see Robin. Cyborg sighed.
"Alright then. Come on before our fearless leader gives himself a heart attack..."
We all began the walk down the hall, and we could all hear yelling. Even though it was muffled, I could tell it was Robin. He was still yelling even after Cyborg opened the door.
"I don't care! No one messes with my friends or my team Bruce! Not you, not Superman or anyone else in the dammed Justice League!!!"
"Richard Grayson shut your mouth!" The quarreling Dynamic Duo both suddenly realized they had an audience. A bandaged and mask-less Batman in a neck-brace watched me warily, while Robin looked up at me from his place strapped to the bed.
"Raven? Are you okay?" I could feel he was honestly and deeply worried about me.
"I'm fine, but it doesn't look like you can say the same." My remark was my own attempt to cover up my concern. He was covered in cuts and bruises, his chest bound up with white bandages his leg in a cast and an IV drip of morphine in his arm. It really hurt to know that I was the one who did this to him.
"No Raven, I'm fine. Really, it just looks bad. The Justice League is making a fuss over nothing." From behind me I heard Beast Boy hiss in Cyborg's ear: "I think that's the pain killers talking…"
After one silent look in Beast Boy's direction I went and sat over by Robin's bedside. I'm not sure if anyone in that room even breathed. I placed my hands on Robin's chest and he stiffened up as though for one wild minute he thought I was going to hurt him again, but he relaxed when the soft blue aura of my healing powers covered my hands. I was grateful that I still had that part of my powers left; I knew I'd probably be needing them.
Through my powers I could feel the pain he was going through and it was more than "nothing". Even with the pain killers I don't know how he managed to keep a strait face. And while the physical pain he was going through was terrible, it wasn't anything compared to the pain he was feeling emotionally. It felt like an old wound, one that had had barely healed before something had happened to open it up again.
He was healed before I could dig any deeper. I opened my eyes and looked down at him.
"You're a terrible liar, do you know that?" He laughed to himself.
"So I've been told…" He said under his breath.
With a gesture of my hands magic undid the straps holding him down.
"Thanks…" he muttered, rubbing his wrists as he got up and went into the adjoining bathroom to take off all the bandages and change into the other half of his uniform. I didn't hear him. I was eyeing the bandages on Batman's head, as he sat in the corner of the room. He noticed me looking at him and he shifted uneasily in his seat.
"It's not as bad as it looks."
"No disrespect Batman, but I'm empathic and I can tell your lying." I stood and held out a hand, "Will you let me heal you? As a good will gesture?" I watched him toy with the idea for a moment.
"What do I need to do?"
"Nothing." I went and stood behind him with my hands just above his shoulders. "Just don't move."
He wasn't as bad as Robin, who had just come back into the room. Other than Batman's head wounds, a little bit of a cracked skull and a few realy bad bruises he was fine, when I'd lost it I must not of hit him as hard as I thought. For once I couldn't stand the silence that was steadily getting thicker in the room, and my guilty conscience was driving me mad.
"What about the others that I attacked? Most of what I did is one big blur."
"Are you sure you want to know?" Batman asked me.
"Yes." The blue aura died around my hands. With his head injuries healed he was able to unwrap his bandages, and he hastily pulled his mask back over his face. He was trying to stall for time, but eventually he started.
"Superman is the worst. Some of the kryptionite he was cut with was so small it couldn't be removed. It's poisoning his blood and killing off his white blood cells. Superman's body is shutting down. He just slipped into a coma a while ago. The doctor's aren't sure if—" An intercom broke him off.
"Code Zero, ICU room four."
"Oh God, Clark!" Batman said as he tore from the room, Robin on his tail and the rest of us followed him.
"Hey Cy! What's a code zero?" Beast Boy shouted, desperately trying to keep up. We already had lost sight of Batman save for the end of his cape that we could see as we turned a corner.
"Basically a Code Zero's doctors talk for someone's about to die! Robin who's Clark?" Cyborg called out.
"It's Superman's real name!" We reached the hall where Superman's room was and almost ran into Batman, who had stopped suddenly in the middle of the hall. A crowd had gathered outside of Superman's room and we heard the news.
The Man of Steel was dead.
A/N: Please don't kill me. You'll regret it if you do…