A/N: just a 'thank you' to everyone who read the first chapter and a double thanks to who reviewed because both your comments were really helpful and I hope that I've taken all your tips on board. This chapter is set after 'The Prophecy' say about three days after to give the characters some time to digest the procphecy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even the story really as it's all based on the existing thread of the plot.


In Between: The Prophecy

I look up and there is nothing to help me get to grips with a sky that is gaping and yawning with a fierce gulping and spewing comes forth a fire that is melting and swirling. Around me the buildings are kneeling and broken like grey faceless restless things. Laughter fills my pounding ear drums and this desolate plane echoes with a thousand repeating voices, I can make out but a few phrases: what you have concealed: I didn't bring them into this; it's a lie; my last hope; my scenery starts to rotate around me and becomes a blur of vicious colours and the voices blend together. There is a great booming over head and my father's voice spreads across the land and the other cornucopia of chanting slip under and is banished. All I can hear is the prophecy and I find myself huddled and clawing at the ground.

The Gem was born of Evil's fire.

The Gem shall be his portal.

He comes to claim,

He comes to sire

The end of all things mortal.

Thick boots obscure my view and a hand grips my hair and forces me up to face whoever it is: it's Slade. I'm not scared just angry and I scratch his mask off, underneath is Beast boy and I can't bare the look he is giving me.

"But look who is afraid of you." He speaks with Slade's cruel drawl and drops me to my knees and my eyes snap open. I'm on my knees in my room, it was just another vision, they're getting worse and I haven't slept for over sixty hours and haven't been able to mediate properly for longer.

I can feel my control weakening and that's exactly what He wants so I keep trying but it's getting harder to find my centre and there is little peace left in my mind. It's affecting my powers and I'm finding it harder to restrain my aggression. The only thing I'm grateful for is that we haven't been called out on any alerts since my battle with Slade under the library. The way they were looking at me was awful and I could smell their fear of me: that was the worst thing.

My hands are shaking and my migraine is back, I don't usually get ill because my powers heal me almost instantly if I'm not magically exhausted. But I can get headaches as a result of not being able to mediate and because they're not physically or chemically based I can't take anything for them. I sigh and rub at my throbbing temples, all I can think of is the prophecy and the horrible things I'm going to. I scan through my books for what seems like the hundredth time today, there has to be a way, I just don't know it yet.

"He'll have to destroy me before I help him." and now I'm talking to myself. I have to become more than my destiny. There has to be something I can do to stop myself becoming his portal. One of my books describes the making of portals but there are so many different kinds. I even used one to bring Cyborg back from the past. That was a space-time portal and didn't take too much energy to bring him back because reality knew he didn't belong there. But the portal that will allow my father to traverse this world will be the death of me and the magical discharge will be enough to create a flux in the very fabric that holds the dimensions together. For him it will be like stepping through a shadow and for me? It will be like nothing I can image. I flick through the pages of the book and find the page I'm looking for, it reads;

...to negotiate a path through forbidden or locked dimensions is a dangerous forgoing and desires much risk and even the power of Gabriel's horn cannot weaken the walls. There are several ways to pass through these barriers and all require a sacrifice of varying nature analogous to the dimension itself. A sacrifice may be something substantial or ethereal like a memory or your eye colour...

I scan down until I get to the paragraph on living portals;

...not guaranteed. However if it is your aspiration to combat even the strongest barriers between worlds then a link between dimensions must be established in the form of a living portal. A living portal is not just a magical being who is a host to a doorway between planes but whose very soul and body together make the portal. To allow yourself to pass through the hole in reality that it will create the 'host' must be born of your blood like a genetic key that can only let a matching 'blood parent' pass. It need not be said that the living portal will not survive the process as both the immortal soul of the being and its body are torn apart to release the required amount of magical force to rip through worlds...

"Great, I bet that just tickles." I snap the book shut; it holds no other details about a 'living portal' the whole process being vague and considered dark magic. The portal needs both my soul and body so I'll never be free and an escape starts to form in my mind: "if he can't use my body then he can't ascend to this plane." I stand up and start pulling out more books looking for a small leather bound one near the back.

"I'll have to destroy myself. I'd rather die and be free, than be a slave to that monster's plans."

It won't be easy though because of my healing abilities and I can't just switch them off. Only a magically spelled knife could work and it's not like I have abundance of them in the tower. It's not like the corny horror movies Beast Boy and Cyborg get me to watch where the head vampire lives in some creepy old castle with east facing windows or flimsy wooden furniture that make handy stakes. Real life just isn't that convenient. The book I've picked has a nasty greasy black cover that feels like it leaves blood on your fingertips; it's more dark magic and has some spells that work against demons. I scan the pages and find one that might work, I read on and all I need is some natural black ink and the right incantation.

I fetch a large bowl of warm water and the gravity of my plan starts to irk me. The peace and monochromatic atmosphere of the tower makes me feel ridiculous and over dramatic, Beast Boy and Cyborg are playing Mega Monkey Racing and Robin is teaching Starfire to make sticky toffee puddings and Star has managed to sneak mustard into the sauce. She asked me what the water was for and I lied and said it was to put herbs in to help me meditate. Do I say goodbye? Do I leave note? Back in my room I decide to do neither, nothing I could say could help them understand why I need to do this. They can't see the future as I do, I'm going to die both ways and this way no one else has get hurt and no one has to live that future.

I draw a circle of protection in the middle of my floor with salt and cast symbols around the edges, I know He will try and stop me once he realises what I'm trying to do and the circle should prevent him reaching me. I sit cross legged in its centre with the bowl of water in front of me and I pull up the fabric of my sleeves. I take a deep breath and try and focus out my fear, I use a brush to etch the magical characters across my wrists. The black ink looks thick and glistening as it dries on my pale skin, and I begin the mantra of words that they book taught. The ink bubbles and turns a ruby red and with a gurgling and spitting it froths with my own blood. It hurts and when I plunge my hands into the warm water I see the deep cuts that have appeared and the whitish glow around them as my body fails to heal them. It is not long before the water has matched the colour of blood and I'm slowly hypnotised watching its level rise. I wonder briefly how long it might take and whether or not I'll pass out but decide instead to concentrate on my friends and hope that they'll be able to forgive me. My eyes start to droop and I feel light headed, it doesn't hurt anymore and I can't even feel my fingers. From the corner of my vision I think I'm hallucinating and see spurts of fire dancing around the floor, they move like snakes and glide in patterns towards me but stop when they reach my circle.

Did I just giggle?

There's a knock at my door, at least I think there is. I try to sound normal;

"Go away." But my voice sounds strange even to me and I can't take my eyes off the fire that is growing around my room.

"Raven? Are you okay only I walked past and it looks like strange things are coming under the door." It's Robin, hmm, how can I get rid of him? I'm not exactly thinking clearly, the blood has started spilling over the bowl and I guess I've lost just over a pint in four minutes.

"It's okay, I'm just hallucinating." Why did I just say that? He'll want to come in now.

"Raven, I'm coming in, is that okay?"

"No it's not." And I try to raise my arm to magic the door shut but I'm too slow and I knock the bowl over. He's rushing towards me, I must look a state and he's saying something at me. I can't make it out because the streaks of fire have surrounded my circle of protection and are burning through it. Before I can do anything two whips of flame lash out wrap themselves around my wrists, they drag me down sharply against the floor and I think I hear myself cry out. Robin's here and he pulling at my bonds but he is pushed away by some invisible force.

"Robin!"

There's that laughter again and I can no longer distinguish if it's in my head or not, two red gnarly hands start to grow out of the floor with thick black claw-like nails. They grab my wrists and I instantly feel a singeing agony and try desperately to struggle and thrash away. He's too strong and without the power of healing he burns my flesh closed. I'm close to passing out when he releases me, the room reels and I feel Robin shaking my shoulders. I resist the urge to throw up on him and instead try and focus on what is real: the fire is gone and my room is back to its normal gloom, Robin is talking to me again and it takes me a moment to register what he's saying.

"Raven, what were you thinking? What on Earth was going through your head? What-"he's flustered and has a thousand questions to bombard me with; most of them repeat each other.

"You can't understand." I stand up and inspect my wrists. They are glowing as my healing abilities take hold but because of the nature of the infliction of these cuts I'm left with ugly scars. I pull my sleeves back down.

"I could if you'd just let me try."

"You need to leave." My head is pounding. I need to be alone.

"Raven, you can't push me out of this. I can help with what you're going through." I start to edge him towards the door, I just can't argue about this now, not when my control is so weathered and thin.

"Robin, there is nothing you or anyone else can do."

"Killing yourself isn't the answer." He holds my arms tightly and I haven't the strength to push him off.

"You don't understand."

"Then Raven, you have to tell me." I can't stand situations like this and I can feel my temper start to snap.

"I'm not some suicidal repressed teen, I'm not a martyr and I'm certainly not a victim I can be more than what my destiny allows. I'm trying to do what is right." The usually monotony of my voice is gone and my fingers what to curl themselves into angry fists.

"However you see it, this can't be right." I know it's unwise of Robin to push this but I feel the need to make him understand if he can't just leave me alone.

"I am going to die, Robin. Soon. You said yourself that the gem has to be destroyed."

"But not if it's you." He looks at me searchingly; I can sense that he is trying desperately to understand.

"When Trigon comes you won't be able to stop him. It doesn't matter how fast you are, how smart you are, how well the team can work together or how much you want it because you'll never be able to defeat him. He is the very manifestation of evil, every dark thought, selfish act or crime it feeds him, and he is as immortal as an idea because that was what he was born from." I'm breathing heavily and my lungs are tight, I've never felt this way before.

"If he is as powerful as you say, then why does he need you to get to Earth?"

"Because where there has been great evil there has always been great good, this plane is very heavily protected, even Azar herself has laid down various layers of defence but she died trying to protect Azarath from him and now there is no one left who can stand against him. He needs a physical link to this world, so he sired a child and that was all I was ever meant to be." I rub my temples again; visions of a burning Azarath plague me.

"If he comes we will find a way to stop him, I cannot believe that there is no hope left." I admire Robin's determination but it will do him no good.

"There isn't, it is pointless to argue, and if you truly understand then you will help me find away to destroy my body.

"Raven!"

"I won't let him use me, it's the only way." I resist my anger enough not to raise my voice too much but I feel like I'm about to drown in my own emotions. "When I become his portal my body and soul will be torn apart and in the release of magic and energy I will obliterate everything, the skies will become fire, the land will become ash and the people will become as stone. I don't want to help him; I don't want to be this thing. By killing this body I sever his blood link to this world and I will set my own soul free, I'll never have to be his puppet, he'll never be able to use me again." He puts his arm around me and tries to calm me.

"Raven, listen to yourself. What about all of us? We're your friends and we can't let you do this to yourself."

"Do not tell them." I push him away and through my open door, he stands in the corridor and I know he won't leave yet, "I should have known you couldn't understand."

"I'm trying. But there must be some other magic that we could use...as added protection... to sever his link to you?

"Blood magic is one of the oldest kinds; there is not loop hole around it. I do not have the freedom of choice." My mind is buzzing; I need to meditate no matter how difficult it's been lately.

"There's always a choice."

"Save your inspirational drivel, I don't have a choice, I never had the choice, and I never had the freedom. Do you think I want this?" I go to shut the door, "You need to leave." I can barely hear my own thoughts, it feels like my mind is screaming and there are tears at the corners of my eyes.

"Raven, I just want to help."

"Well, you can't. So leave." I'm strained and pinch again at my temples but the shouting is starting. The prophecy is a deafening roar in my skull and Trigon's laughter starts up again. That infernal mocking laughter in my head! I fall to my knees clutching at my ears.

"Raven, what's happening?"

"Argh, GET OUT." I'm screaming and I can hear the others come running but that is all I can register outside of my own skin.

"Get out of my head. I won't let you." I press my forehead against the floor with my eyes screwed shut. I can feel Trigon trying to possess me through my rage; he sends me images of what he can make me do.

"Leave them out of this."

"Raven, what is it, what can I do?" I scream again and my power lashes out and throws him against the wall.

"Robin!" my vision is spinning but I see Starfire help him up. My power is flailing around in black tendrils and there is only one thing that can be done.

"Knock me out! ...DO IT NOW!"

I sense Cyborg approach and he has a sedative in his hand. Everything goes black.

"Is she going to be okay?" Cyborg looked away from the monitors at his little green friend.

"Hmm?"

"She's not moving." The air in the infirmary was warm and still and the sterile pale room was a place that none of the titans enjoyed spending time in.

"She'll be fine. She's just under heavy sedation. She'll be out for a couple of hours I reckon." He turned his attention back to the monitors; he had hooked Raven up with a variety of wires and electrodes to her forehead and didn't like the readings he was getting. "I'm picking up some pretty heavy brain spikes."

"What does that mean?" Robin joined Cyborg next to the screens and started scanning them for what he could decipher.

"It means that she's screaming inside her head. By the looks of this intensity, if she was telepathic she could knock out every person in the city." He turned to Robin, "you were there, what happened to her?"

"I don't know for sure. But she's been under a lot of stress lately and I think Trigon's been taking advantage of that and tried to possess her or something." He crossed his arms frowning, "did you look at the schematics I drew up for a safety room?" Cyborg replies with only a nod.

"Oh friend Raven, I wish there was something that we could do to help you through your struggle." Starfire sat on a stall next to her friend, "do you think she can hear us?"

"I'm not sure, Star," Cyborg placed another receptor on her neck to monitor blood flow to the brain, "from what I know about Raven's psychology the battles she fights in her mind are real and Trigon has a direct connection to her through her rage so she's probably too far away to hear you."

"I've got an idea on how we can help her." Beast Boy snapped his fingers and ran out of the infirmary and headed towards Raven's room, "I'll be right back."

He shape-shifted into a wolf to run faster and skidded around the last corner to Raven's room with this back claws scrapping the floor as he went. In his excitement he didn't sense the blood until he'd bounced through the doorway. The pungent smell of it made him growl deeply in his throat and bare his teeth but he was long used to controlling animalistic instincts and edged further into the darkened room. He sniffed at the bowl and he could tell that there was something else to it: ink? He brushed some of the salt away with his paw it looked like it had been used in some kind of pattern.

Beast Boy sat back on his haunches, his tail thumped nervously on the ground and he let out a soft whine; it didn't take a genius to figure out that Raven had tried to do something to herself. He had never thought her capable. His friend had always seemed so much stronger than that, he didn't want to believe it, not without checking first.

But first, he'd come to her room to get her meditating mirror that had sucked Cyborg and himself into her mind almost a year ago. It was on her dresser like last time and he guessed that she'd been using it lately and had left it out. He carried it in his teeth and ran back to the infirmary.

He padded over to Cyborg and handed him the mirror changing back into his human form as he did so.

"Nice, doggy slobber." he wiped off the drool with a tissue, "nasty, it's not natural the amount of drool you can produce." Beast Boy just stuck his tongue out at him and with his back to Cyborg and the others as he explained what the mirror was, he turned Raven's wrist towards himself and rolled up her sleeve a fraction. There was a jagged white scar livid against her already deathly skin, it was about a centimetre thick and looked deep. He sighed and pushed her sleeve back.

"- so theoretically we could travel into her mind and help her." Starfire was studying the mirror; the surface had gone an inky black and no longer showed a reflection.

"Marvellous. But how do we make it work?" She continued to turn the mirror around in her hands, "I am very doubtful that there will be an 'on switch'."

"BB, you managed it last time, why don't you try popping another zit in it."

"I would if my skin wasn't so flawless. Besides it wasn't all black before, I think she's keeping us out."

A red siren started flashing alerting the Titans to trouble, they all looked at each other and at the brain monitor which, was still rapidly fluctuating.

"Someone should stay."

"I will Robin, but can I talk to you quickly. It's important."

"Beast Boy, this isn't the time. The city needs us."

"I know. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't really important."

Cyborg was looking at the report in his arm screen, "Robin you can catch us up, it's just Doctor Light he's at the power station." With a nod Cyborg and Starfire raced out of the room in hot pursuit. Beast Boy tugged on Robin's arm and manoeuvred him away from Raven, he knew that Cyborg had said that she probably couldn't hear them but he looked over his shoulder anyway.

"Robin, did Raven try to... did she do this to herself?"

He didn't want to answer due to respect for Raven's privacy but he wasn't about to lie to a direct question from Beast Boy, he dithered for a moment struggling to find what to say. "... It's complicated."

"That doesn't mean I won't understand." Robin looked down at the younger teen, when the team had formed he had read up on Beast Boy's file and despite the bad jokes and pranks, he was far from naive.

"She did, but it's not what you might think. She said if she destroyed her body then Trigon couldn't use it to come to Earth, that her soul would be free. But he stopped her, he needs her alive... at least for a little bit longer." He ran his fingers through his hair; he barely understood Raven and didn't really feel qualified to explain what had happened.

"..."

"Beast boy, she doesn't want anyone to know what she tried to do." He walked back over to her bedside finding it difficult to know that she was so conflicted inside when she looked so peaceful.

"But we're her friends. Can't we help her?"

"Apparently not." The day with its chain of events had given him a lot to contemplate and he didn't look back round the room when he left to get his motorcycle and join the other.

"But that doesn't mean we still can't try."

Beast Boy sat on the stall where Starfire had been and swivelled for a while, should he talk to her, pat her hand or try and comfort her? Something told him that she probably wouldn't appreciate it. He sighed and span round a couple more times.

"So I expect the others are kicking Doctor Light's butt by now, though it's more fun when your there to make him almost wet himself. I swear that if just one time you make him do it I'll give you ten bucks or something." He laughed nervously, being alone in a room with Raven was a rare and usually terrifying experience but when it came down to it Raven was always there for you and the team. He glanced at the monitor screens and back to the mirror picking it up and looking at its blank surface, "Raven, what should I do?"

"For a start you can put down my mirror."

"Eeeryp!" he turned rapidly almost dropping it and saw Raven sitting up normally and pulling the wires from her skin with faint popping sounds.

"Can you pass me my cloak?" she pinched the bridge of her nose and held her other hand out as he passed it to her.

"Raven, are you okay? You scared us, are you still yourself?"

"I'm just peachy." She groaned and swayed a little, "I could use a cup of tea."

"No worries, just wait here I'll go make you one."

She felt exhausted both physically and mentally but she felt herself and that meant everything at the moment. He couldn't control her, she had found the strength to fight him and she vowed never again would he be given that opening, would she show that much weakness. She yawned and wrapping her cloak around her body she laid back, by the time Beast Boy returned with a steaming and badly made cup of tea she was fast asleep curled up like a cat. He didn't fail to notice the tiniest of smiles across her lips.

TEA SOLVES EVERYTHING. I do not know who likes tea more; Iroh (Avatar), Raven or my friend Connie who thinks that a two litre teapot isn't be big enough.

And if anyone would like to tell me how to spell that adorable little sound Beast Boy makes when he is surprised it would be fantastic.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I don't think Raven is all emotional and suicidal and tried to get across that she's more of a fighter and that she would do anything to save her friends. Death is an entirely different concept for her, and when she dies in the comics (The Terror of Trigon) her soul is set free and wanders the Earth (I think). She apparently comes back at one point and wrecks Starfire's and Nightwing's wedding but I haven't read that one, but she is reincarnated by the newest Brother Blood.

Just to geek-out further, Gabriel's horn is the horn that The Herald uses, tons of cake to those who spotted my mention of it.

Please review; I'm not sure whether to do a chapter between or during 'the end' episodes because there aren't gaps between them, or to just go straight to doing an epilogue to the series.