An Author's Note: Thanks to Mothman X for his reviews!
Chapter Thirty-Five
Dashing Hope
It was almost like being in an aquarium.
Whatever was holding the glass in the bottom of the monument must have been a very good spell indeed. She could look out the windows of the place and see little fish swimming about outside. It was a good thing Raven was accustomed to magic, or she would have been nervous, especially when she realized that magic was probably the only thing keeping this place together.
It got darker and darker the further she went, mostly because she was descending deeper and deeper into the water. She noticed water dripping along the walls, and started to wonder about the sturdiness of this place.
She saw light ahead. Hopefully the last test was there and she could finish this up and go home. She entered an arched doorway and found herself in a circular room with a giant pool in the middle. It looked cold and dark…and fairly nasty.
She took a deep breath and plunged.
She never even got wet. There was a flash of light and she was standing in a completely white expanse. She looked around her. The pool entrance was behind her and directly in front of her was a dark blue crystal.
She started walking towards it, but was soon stopped by an echoing voice.
"RAVEN! HELP!" It was Robin's voice and it was coming from the pool.
"Robin?" she turned towards the pool.
Turn back now, and you will never get the crystal. Another voice said, but this one was in her head.
But she could hear them now, all of them, screaming for her help. She could not just leave them, even though intellectually she knew that this might be a trick, she could not take the risk that it was not. She ran back to the pool without a second thought.
Go back, and you will fail.
"I don't care." She growled. "They're more important.
You will never get a second chance.
"Buzz off."
You would give up all that power for them?
Raven decided not to grace that with an answer.
…is this really your final choice? Think of all you will be giving up!
Raven ignored the voice and jumped in the pool.
…Finally!
Instead of landing back at the circular room at the bottom of the monument she ended up in the room where her friends where. She jumped up, almost in a panic.
"Are you guys alright?" she asked.
"We're fine Raven." Robin was looking at her in puzzlement.
Raven sighed and turned around. It had been a trick all along! And she fell for it!
"Raven…you were successful?" Starfire asked timidly.
"No," she said quietly, "I failed."
"On the contrary," Truehope spoke up. "You did exactly what I've been waiting for someone to do."
"What do you mean?" Raven asked.
"I never really cared about those stupid crystals. Darn silly thing to do to just judge someone by their ability to collect rocks. What I was really looking for was your reaction to the third test…for to long I would get moronic musclemen and prideful Amazons who would always ignore the screams of their allies, guessing it was a trick. Some generally thought it through, but most simply did not care. I do not want a wielder so selfish they would ignore a friend in need! My former master was not like that, and if I will be taken by anyone I would prefer to have someone like him….So you have won the challenge…I will go with you."
Raven was a bit pissed about this, but she was not about to say no. She drew Whistler out, but then paused at the sword's thrum.
"If I do this…what happens to Whistler?"
"Don't worry; Whistler's soul will still be there." Truehope replied "This merging will not push that one away. We will share the same vessel. When you need me call on me, and when you want Whistler call on him…think of it as having two swords in one."
"Great, a schizophrenic sword." Raven muttered. But she still walked forwards. She pointed the tip of Whistler at the glowing orb.
Truehope's soul gathered itself and then darted to Whistler. The soul slammed into Whistler, causing it to thrum even louder than before. Raven was nearly blown off her feet by the impact. It seemed to course throughout her body. The room was filled with a flash of silver light, and the thrumming slowed back to its normal pace.
"Cooooool." Beast Boy said as he stared at the sword.
"Yes…very impressive." A voice, feminine, soft and low, came from behind the Titans. They turned, and set eyes on the oddest creature they had ever seen.
It looked, at first glance, like a human wearing the skin of a black fox, but when you looked closer you would see that this was not the case at all. The fur was a part of this creature. The bottom part of the mouth was human, but the top part was sharp vulpine fox. The palms of its hands were normal, but the tops seemed to be in the middle of morphing into a fox paw. It was like someone had put on a fox fur coat, but the coat had been fused to the skin. It's were swirling pools of bright rainbow colors with no pupils to speak of. It was grinning at them savagely with its sharp teeth, its half-paw holding what an appeared to be a pair of dice, and it was throwing them in the air in a casual manner.
"No." Raven stared at the creature as if she had just seen a ghost. "You can't be-"
"Oh, yes…I guess you out of everyone here must have heard of me…but your little buddies there" the dice less paw pointed at the Titans "are looking very confused."
"What are you?" Robin growled, pulling out his bo staff.
Laughter, cold and amused, echoed. "You really thing that silly little stick can do anything, kid? I am the Black Fox, and I've been here since before your planets microbes got the idea to breed, so stop acting like you are somehow important!"
"The elders call you a trickster." Raven growled. "They say that you maneuver people into positions they cannot escape, and that you twist the truth to suit yourself."
"Hey," the Fox spread her arms out wide "I've never shown anyone anything other then the truth…what the do with that knowledge…I have no control over that…"
"I'll bet." Raven growled.
"Hmmm, you want proof? What if I told you that the path you are on right now will lead the destruction of all you love? What would you say that that?"
"Stay away from us!" Raven shouted.
"Too late." The Black Fox's grin seemed wider than the Cheshire Cat's. She snapped her fingers.
And everything disappeared.
It looked like the end of the world again. Destroyed buildings, lakes of fire, the only thing missing was the petrified people…but that was easily explained by the face that the streets of Jump city were covered with blood. Up in the sky something was soaring. The Titans looked up and saw what appeared to be Raven's black soul self, apparently on a rampage.
"Amazing what can happen when you leave dark powers just lying around…isn't it?" The Black Fox said, a huge grin on her face.
"What happened?" Starfire asked with wide eyes.
"It's simple. This is what will happen if your friend here doesn't take her powers back." The Black Fox was staring at the dark soul self, still grinning like a loon.
"You're lying!" Raven shouted "This is some sort of trick."
"No…I'm not. Didn't you elders tell you what I can do? I see the timelines of the worlds."
"So…you can see the future?" Robin asked.
"Time is not what you think, little boy. Time not a river or a line or anything like that. It is like a ball of yarn that has been thrown around a room. You people are ants crawling around the yarn. You can only see what it behind you and directly in front of you, you can't see what can or what might be."
"What are you talking about?" Robin was puzzled.
"Only this," The Fox's eyes narrowed, and now she looked serious. "Make the wrong choice and this will be your future…make the right choice and it won't…you decide."
A flash, and the Titans where back in the monument, and the Black Fox was nowhere in sight.
After a long pause Raven sighed "I guess I really never had a choice after all." She said sadly.
"No…" Beast Boy said "Rae…it was lie! It had to be lie!"
"Beast Boy…" Raven looked at him with longing eyes "We can't take the chance that it is not! If I don't take my powers back and they get loose…Don't you see we can't allow that to happen! Without me to control them my powers really could go on a rampage!"
"But…" Beast Boy shook his head. Dude, this is so unfair!
A long sad silence followed as it sank into everyone there that Raven's hopes for being normal were now destroyed. Cyborg was probably the one most upset by this after Raven and Beast Boy themselves. He didn't want to see his poor sister unhappy again, and really just wanted to find that Black Fox and put some hurt on her.
"Guys," Raven finally said "we should get going."
"Yeah," Robin said in a low sad voice. "Where's that dragon?"
As if the question had summoned him, Lightflight landed just outside the monument at that precise moment.
"What happened in there?" He asked the Titans as they came out, all of them looking downcast.
"Never mind." Raven said shortly "I guess this is goodbye, huh." She turned to look at Arcktos, Winterwing and Illeria.
"Yeah…I have to get back to my people." Arcktos said. He embraced Raven tightly "Don't give up hope, h'Radoni." He whispered.
"Don't call me that." She whispered back.
Arcktos cocked his head, but didn't say anything else.
"I…think I'll tag along with you to Earth…at least for a little bit." Illeria said, giving her sister a concerned look.
"I have a request." Winterwing said, looking directly at Robin. "Now that Sanath is dead I have no reason to stay here. Raven is the only one left of my pack. I wish to go with you, and stay."
"You want to become a Titan?" Robin asked, not quite belivign that.
"Not right away…and maybe not ever. But I do wish to hunt near Raven, if that is alright with you."
"Well, we do have a very nice island you can live on…just don't go eating anyone's pets." Robin said with a nod.
"If that is settled, can I please get on with the spell?" Lightflight asked in an irritated manner.
"Sure, take us home!" Robin said.
"Dude! It's Halloween already!" Beast Boy asked as they landed right in front of Titans Tower.
"No…this isn't right!" Raven said.
And indeed it was not. Someone had, in their absence, covered the tower with huge spider webs. The fact that it was raining and storming and nighttime only added to the eeriness of the scene.
"Do you think it's…" Cyborg trailed off, not wanting to say the name that was racing through their minds.
"Sumal." Robin's eyes narrowed beneath his mask.
"But that means…KID FLASH!" Jinx broke into a run towards the Tower, headless of her allies shouts to come back.
"Man, I so have a bad feeling about this." Cyborg muttered as he and others ran to catch up with Jinx.
" I was wondering when you would get back here. Been on a vacation?" Sumal said as the Titans burst through their own Ops door. The evil wizard was standing in front of the main window, looking out at the rain. Over near the kitchen Riki was hovering over a bloody form in yellow spandex. Kid Flash.
Jinx screamed in anger and went straight for the spider, which reared on its hind legs to challenge the angry Titan.
Sumal turned to aid his familiar, but soon came face to face with Raven, who by now was really, really…angry.
Sumal didn't even stop to bandy words with his foe. He attacked, using Raven's own powers against her. A blast of black energy flew Raven's direction, but it was countered by Truehope's silver energy.
Sumal studied this new development with careful eyes. He switched weapons, trying for the toy gun, but Raven darted forwards with her sword. It split the gun in two, the stolen energy flying out of the weapon and then darting away.
Sumal stared at his broken weapon, puzzled. Raven took this opportunity and grabbed the pendent with her hand and started to pull on the chain. Sumal's hand came up and he grabbed the side of her face, sending horrible pain throughout her body. She clung onto the pendent with all her might.
Suddenly a pair of green paws encircled Sumal's waist and started to squeeze the life from the wizard. Sumal looked up the snarling face of a huge green grizzly bear, who had the audacity to drool in his eye.
This, more than anything else, caused the evil man to let go of Raven. Raven gave the chain one last yank, and it came free. The pendent shattered in her hand, and the power began to flow into her.
It was like swallowing tar, it felt just as horrible coming back into her. With it came the anger and rage inherit in a demon, and it found the anger that was already gripping her. Raven screamed and fell to her knees, the dark power consuming her completely.
In Nevermore a similar thing was occurring. Emotions where falling down everywhere, all of them screaming in pain except for Rage, who was laughing as if she had just won the lottery.
Love groaned in horror as she looked down at her hands. They were bulging and growing razor sharp claws.
"NO!"
Illeria stared at her sister, her fanged mouth open in terror "Not again!" she whispered.
To the Titans it was almost like the Doctor Light incident, except for one major difference. Instead of merely waving around, the tentacles of darkness that emerged from Raven's cloak seemed to be trying to consume her themselves. They were crawling up her body at an incredible pace. Just before they overtook her head the Titans saw Raven's eyes split into four glowing red eyes.
Just then Robin felt a strange slamming sensation in his mind, as if someone had just shut a door there. He realized he could not longer feel Raven's emotions, she must have put a block on their bond.
Beast Boy roared, dropped Sumal and lunged for the black form on the floor, desperate to save Raven from whatever was happening to her. A black shock wave blew him away.
Then his world was filled with teeth.