I know this took a long time, but with June came exams and though I know what I would rather had been doing, guilt got the best of me and revision came first. But it's over, yay, and I have about a week left until my job starts and after I move house tomorrow I'm free! Anyway about the chapter, this one is set during the season's finale. It's a bit drabble-ish as it isn't a recap of the scenes it's just bits and bobs in between where I enjoyed expanded on some concepts, hope you like it too.
During: The End
I step backwards from Robin releasing his hand, a touch that lingers as I sweep a black dome across the cavern separating myself from them. The thick air like a whispering ghost whips around my cloak and hair and I tear my gaze from them and before my feet erect a climbing walkway. I can't hide from destiny anymore.
They're calling at me but I daren't turn back, I was a fool to think that I could change anything, change what I am, what I was destined to do. Who was I deceiving more by trying to help people, myself or them? I can't outweigh the sins of my blood with good intentions and death shall be my retribution for there is no redemption down this path. I guess the saying is right: that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
And I'm glad no one can see my face as I ascend the narrow staircase, even if I wanted to weep I can't I'm as dry and cold as the stone beneath my shoes. My soul a wretched barren desert bleached of life watching the stars wink out and my bones turn to paper, I no longer desire to cry out to the heavens to the deciders of fate in a ostensible display of self pity . Every essence of decency and morality in my soul was from my friends it was only right that I gave the good in me back to them when I transferred a piece of my spirit to them. My last act of selflessness will be to save them, to keep them safe and I couldn't let them be tainted by this demonic evil.
I look inside myself and all I feel is a swelling empty darkness as if even the briefest times that I had felt normal and human had been snuffed out and swallowed in greed. I stand on the palm of my fate outreached and welcoming, it beacons to cradle its daughter, its tool, its freedom. Stone hand of my father I beseech to you nothing, in this umbra of your unnatural manufacture we are bound. The prophecy has begun. The incantation rises from my throat and the ancient scripture branded to me blisters openly on my skin only to peel away and hover red and fierce around me. A surge of incredible power feels like it is being driven into me like an exploding star that clefts me right down through my centre. I don't cry out, I can't breathe, there is only pain and from my shaking fingers the penny Beast Boy gave me drops silently and with it my last fragment of hope falls.
Be safe
The tendons of reality are ripped and shredded, a woven fabric of spells that held the dimensions apart are torn asunder and an ominous shudder is felt throughout the multiverse. The prison is open and every magical creature senses the approach of the very heart of evil. A red demonic being rises from the depths of the open portal, his arm outstretched in victory and everyone shall fear the coming of Trigon the Terrible.
"The Earth is mine."
It is a war cry that ripples outwards in a thunderous wave of destruction, its wake a desolate and lifeless tundra as all life is fossilised into tortured shells, their minds and souls now the playthings of Trigon's desire. The buildings are cracked and broken, dangerous crumbling giants with gaping faceless fronts with empty windows as gateways to a red ravaged sky. The sky an expanse of fire and shadows, clouds whirling like a frothing cyclone of blood its epicentre above the beast. He sits upon his throne watching the ants of humanity: the last dregs of resistance trying desperately to attack him with some recycled magic from his departed daughter. How disgustingly hopeful and naive, how slowly shall he torment and break them.
"Be gone." And the last of the Titans, the last of this Earth's heroes are tossed aside like sweet wrappers on the wind.
Bereft is a world claimed and shaken, its shrines to civilisation now unmarked tombs sooty and bleak left now, only with an oppressive silence which shows no breath. In the cavernous mouth of the portal a bargain is made between heroes and their mortal foe to save a friend;
"It's the end of the world; did you think it would be easy?"
Fate tugs on the strings of his dominion sending two knights like puppets down a vast and spiralling staircase, the game is getting interesting again. The boy hero and his greatest adversary now turned guide to journey through the nightmarish realm of hell makes good entertainment for the weaver of destiny.
Robin was tense as he followed Slade down what seemed an endless abyss, his muscles tort expecting some kind of treachery on Slade's behalf and though none came from the figure in front he kept vigilant and sceptical. In fact, nothing came from that gloomy shape in the darkness, not breath nor words, even his footsteps were stifled by the dusty sloping path. And as their route grew darker and more quiet he felt his mind playing tricks on him, voices whispering of traps and misgivings until at one point he thought himself alone, so alone that he couldn't sense his own being or heartbeat. His mental wandering was interrupted by the ground levelling under his path and Slade spoke out.
"Welcome to Hell, Robin, would you like the tour? There's no turning back after we pass through this door."
"I never have before." At their approach two wooden torches flamed into life revealing a heavy iron doorway pressed into the rock. The thick doors rose high above them, the surface seemed wet with sweat, above was an inscription that looked like it had been scratched into it with blunt nails. As Robin focused on the lettering it shifted and reformed in English, the familiarity of the last line catching his attention;
"Abandon every hope, all you who enter? The gates of hell? You've got to be kidding me." In his surprise Robin momentarily forgot himself and the possible danger of being in close quarters with his enemy, but Slade just stood nonchalantly as if about to open a kitchen cupboard instead of the infamous gates of no return.
"Why?" without a grunt of effort he dragged the cast iron door open as it scraped up stones along the gritty floor.
"Well, look what's written up there."
"What were you expecting?"But Robin seemed somewhat reluctant to press on, paranoid, perhaps expecting an elaborate hoax. Ignoring the boy's hesitation Slade strode forward and within a few strides heard Robin following again.
"Well, it's exactly what I was expecting. That's the problem, is this place even real or is it an illusion feeding on my preconceptions." The hard dry rock had been replaced with a dried cracked mud under foot and their pathway was no longer narrow instead opening up into an impossibly vast landscape.
"You're not hallucinating Robin, if anything this place is warped to incorporate human understanding. After all aren't we damned to walk its hallowed paths?" Robin wasn't sure if he should believe anything Slade said, the landscape was hazy and shifting. With Slade's signal he had kept to an unseen route that took them across the region quicker than what should have been feasible.
"Who then, I don't see anyone. I thought the saying went that hell was other people, I believe that there is good in people but an empty hell makes little sense." His foot sunk into the thick bluish mud but he took little notice when Slade's next comment sent a chill up his spine because in the moment that he blinked it felt true.
"Really? I see thousands of people in this limbo."
Beast Boy found himself being slammed into the ground again from a great height and converted briefly back into human form. Rubbing at the base of his spine for all the good it would do, he morphed into a mammoth to take on his dark counterpart who was diving towards him. Upon impact the diving hawk changed into a hippo but Beast Boy managed to toss away his attack with his tusks, but only just as a fractured tusk is hard to ignore.
Come on B, this isn't about how strong or fast you can be. You gotta think faster and hope your darker side is the stupid one. Go cheetah before he gets up. He changed whilst at full sprint then used his extra legs to accelerate himself further, the twin dodged his first launch and turned into a gorilla swiping his long hefty arms at Beast Boy who ducked and clawed back. He sunk his teeth into a hairy forearm and through thick fur punctured the skin, the taste of blood alien and metallic. Another fist swung back and punched him away, Beast Boy was driven into the Earth and flipped back in human form with a split lip and bruised jaw. The other walked towards him also in human form and for the moment they sized each other up trying to guess first which animal their foe would choose.
"Is that all you got? You're pathetic, and you call yourself a Titan. You don't belong on this team; you're always letting them down making them pick up your slack. Always falling behind dragging them down, the Doom Patrol was glad to be shot of you."
Beast Boy wiped the blood from his chin that had dried and scabbed over, and with a snarl leapt and changed into bull ready to run down his twin and make him a greasy stain on the floor, but he met him mid charge with the clashing antlers of a moose. I am so going to have a major headache when this is over.
Overhead, just speeding blips of conflict against the tumultuous sky, were Starfire and her evil side in an evenly matched clash of the alien warrior powerhouses. Starfire was used to reigning in her strength against some of her more fragile human opponents also weakening her starbolts though that was also to conserve energy. But the air was so clogged and dark she was finding it difficult to recharge her energies from the sun; a problem her counterpart didn't appear to be having. The landscape blurred beneath her as flew in a high sickle arc and brought her feet together in a devastating assault that sent the dark Starfire hurtling through the carcass of an empty building. She followed it up with a barrage of starbolts to bring the ruins tumbling down on top of her. Through the clouding ash that had developed and curled its way from the wreck in big pluming clouds the black Starfire began launching pieces of the debris.
"Look at you warrior, Robin could never want you, he'll never love you, he can only fear your strength. Why do you even bother to try to fit in? You do not belong on this world."
Starfire cracked her knuckles and with her eyes glowing with an internal green inferno ploughed fists first into the taunting figure below. The pair gauged a deep crevice through the weeping ruins of Jump city throwing up chunks of concrete and tarmac from the leftover streets.
Nearby the two cyborgs fought mercilessly each bowling punches that could shatter normal bones but instead fell on titanium armour that rang out musically with each resounding punch.
"You don't have a hope in hell; I know all your weaknesses robot."
"Right back at ya." Cyborg flicked out one of his fingers to use his soldering tool as he managed to get through the other's defence and burn through some wires in a tiny gap under his arm joint. The dark Cyborg stumbled for a moment the fingers in his left hand twitching involuntarily.
"Trying to trigger a detonation in my shoulder rockets? Well you missed." He laughed needlessly and fired a platoon of small missiles from both of his shoulders. "I didn't."
They had climbed down a precarious and deep cliff face of the gorge to the edge of a fast flowing river of fire. It slumped at and girded the rabble of the shore beneath their feet and cooled slightly on the surface turning it an ashy black that split above the flow of magma to reveal deep red veins. No normal boat could cross its depths and the one designed to do the job wasn't made of wood or steel. The boat Slade and Robin used was made of a rough grey stone and on further inspection Robin dusted away a section of its surface and saw pieces of bone and teeth fossilised into its structure. Robin steeped his fingers watching Slade row as there was only two oars, again he showed no strain to this physical effort, the oars also being made of stone.
"I need to know what you know, about Trigon. With or without Raven how do I stop him? He's got to have a weakness and I'm guessing that you might know it." Slade considered the youth opposite him and though was not one to spill information easily unless it was to misguide and torment he decided to part ways with what knowledge he had collected on Trigon.
"You guess correctly, I don't make deals with people unless I have a security plan. Though with Trigon I had little choice at the time he offered something only he could give. As I kept up my end of the bargain I made it my business to learn all I could about him which lead me to, amongst other things, to the ring of Azar." The boat's progress was sluggish against the thick tide of magma and the towering pillars of the gorge gurgled out spewing streams of it to adding to the flow.
"The Book of Trigon-"
"There's a book?"
"Don't interrupt with stupid questions. You still have little patience. The Book of Trigon states him to be the eighth evolution of the Devil which puts him almost in a league of his own when it comes to demons. He's the original, the first fear, the source of all fear perhaps.
"You are traversing through the realm of fear, every nightmare, every menace enveloped in the dark recess of the mind. You know that Raven's powers reside on pure emotions that's not necessarily a common attribute for a witch or a demon and certainly counterintuitive in a human. I imagine that it is both restricting and frustrating for a monster struggling to be human-"
"Raven never let herself become a monster, you know nothing about her!" Silence clung around the boat after Robin's angry outburst and Slade let it linger before continuing.
"I know what she's wrought to this world; you saw the destruction up there. But before you interrupt me again, you wanted to learn more about Trigon and my point is thus: Raven's powers are akin to her fathers; his also are strengthened by emotion; every dark and foreboding thought from sentient life throughout the universe feeds him; all the eternal rage and hate of the devil and you want to know how to defeat that." Robin's eyes narrowed under his mask and he kept his arms folded as he surveyed Slade.
"So we have a paradox: was Trigon spun from the idea of evil or is the origin of all darkness Trigon himself?"
"Which thought would comfort you more? Either way you are as much the walking dead as I."
As if by a schedule Trigion's fiery servants started to writhe out of the current below and detach themselves from the flowing columns of magma. An army of nearly mindless demons edged towards the intruders swiping their flaming tentacles at their flanks.
Get up, you cannot fail Robin. He would never fail you, he is coming back, he promised, he promised he'd bring Raven back too. Starfire stumbled out of the crater that her untoward landing had created and managed to look up in time to see her counterpart barrel into to her, she stood her ground against the impact the loose earth sinking further beneath her. The dark Starfire grabbed a fistful of her other self's red hair and threw her face down against the dirt and between kicks continued to taunt her;
"He's not coming back, why would he? For you? You're just fooling yourself." Starfire shielded her face from the blows until she grabbed the other girls foot in both hands, with loud and echoing snap she twisted her grip and broke a bone. The dark Starfire fell to the ground with a strangled cry and shot out a twin red beam of energy from her eyes sending the real Starfire reeling back into the recesses of another building. She picked herself up and flew towards the wreckage opposite hurling abuse and screaming.
"You're a coward, who even slavery wasn't enough, someone like you deserves death!" She entered the building through one of the many glassless windows and floated through the detritus and crumbling filth and caught a glimpse of Starfire running up a shady staircase. "Your escape from slavery only fuelled Tamarans demise. Did you even think of the people you loved when you decided to stay on Earth? A planet that doesn't want you. Think of your parents, you forgot about them and now they're dead." She blasted through the ceiling with her curled fist glowing crimson, the dregs of steel and concrete decaying from the edges of the hole she'd made. "There you are."
Starfire flew out of the top window turning back sending out her fierce green eye lasers in a long line across the building sending it down collapsing onto her evil side. But her breath of relief was short lived.
"You'll have to do better than that warrior, what are you really capable of?" Ash and bits and pieces of rubble fell from her as she dashed back and the aerial assault continued high above the remains of Jump city. Like two spitfires they circled each other firing out long streams of starbolts, stray ones gutting out the fragments of building that they hit.
"You fled your planet when it needed you most. You alone condemned Tarmaran and then refused to stay when you returned months ago. You left the crown to someone not of pure blood, you abandoned your people you should have resigned yourself to slavery."
"I won't be a slave to anyone. No one will own me again. No one!" She flipped back landing an accurate kick to her evil opponent's chin and when she fell towards the earth Starfire grabbed her shoulder set on burying her. "No one."
The pair collided with such force that the ground shook and trembled, a shockwave boomed outwards leaving a crater deep in the centre and wide in diameter. The impact rippled across the streets making the ground flow like water and knocking down the two robots that were pummelling and breaking off pieces of each other. The Cyborgs fight had mostly been a close range boxing match each hitting harder and harder wearing down enamelled coating, bits of it chipped off of knuckles and chests. Cyborg grunted as he blocked an aggressive right hook, the impact shuddered up his arms and he retaliated with an under cut to the gut. His evil counterpart bent over double feigning injury as he aimed a punch at Cyborg's left kneecap that he had already landed awkwardly on.
"Come on, give me what ya got, freak. Or are you just useless parts."
Electrical discharges sparked around his joints and along the hair thin cracks in his armour but Cyborg stood up straight and charged at his opponent under a barrage of fire and insults.
"You're less than half a person, you frighten people. You'll never be a real man and they'll never see you as more than a tin imitation."
A quarter of a mile away Beast Boy wasn't faring any better, after bounding sharply round several tight turns as a kangaroo he sought momentary refuge in a narrow alley behind what used to be the video store. The constant changing from giant animals to small ones or from cold blooded to warm blooded were taking its toll and he just needed to catch his breath. Going from T-Rex to mouse could really make you dizzy; he hoped that the others were doing better than he was. He turned into a small frog and shivered further into the shadows as he heard his counterpart approach the alley's mouth.
"I know you're cowering near. What makes you think you have even the slightest hope? You couldn't save your parents; deep down you know it was your fault. You couldn't save Terra and you couldn't save Raven, effectively, you watched both of them die. Raven's dead, you saw her die, do you honestly think Robin is coming back, you might as well give up like you always do, like you gave up on the Doom Patrol. Face it: You can't even save yourself."
Beast Boy pushed himself further against the brick wall behind him listening to his evil twin pushing aside rocks and bricks to find him.
"Admit it, you're a failure, you only let people down, you hurt them. Who will die next because of you?"
Beast Boy came sprinting out from his hiding place with his knuckles clenched and tears prickling the corners of his eyes. He didn't bother changing into any animal but was driven by the same wild kind of instincts that fuelled by his anger landed blow after blow against his dark mirror image. Who spat blood back at him whilst grinning.
"Go on change; show me what you can be. You're just an animal, a vicious primal animal. Come on show me!"
Both boys changed at the same time becoming shaggy wild beasts with powerful jaws and razor shape claws. Two beasts of equal proportions: one black with glowing red eyes the other a dark green with eyes a ferocious white.
Robin and Slade made their way deeper through the rocky terrain, down narrow treacherous pathways that draped the steep and unforgiving cliffs like thrown spaghetti. At each step the air grew crowded and seemed to bellow in Robin's lungs and condense in his throat. It was a foul and rotten stench that permeated all skin that crawled into your nose and gagged at your tongue. Robin gave up trying to protect his nose and mouth from it and instead tried to focus.
"We're running out of time, it took Dante three days to traverse hell."
"We're not going through it, and besides there are trans-dimensional demi-paths that we can take."
"You mean short cuts. Staff only?" The path was blocked where a large section had crumbled away destroying more sections of their route further down the cliff face. They'd have to climb down but at least it would be quicker Robin mused to himself. "Where is Raven? Is she... dead?"
"Yes and no. But you won't find her with the rest of the dead and sinners, she'll be lost in the remains of an Azarathian church that was built in secret when Azarath was a strong enough essence to send watchmen down to control and watch over Trigon. This dimension, this hell it was his prison too."
"Where angels fear to tread." Both fell silent and continued their laborious climb downwards, the rock felt dangerously loose in places but there were breaks in their course where they rejoined the original walkway. It took a moment for Robin to realise that they had reached the bottom of their climb as it had grown pitch black. He felt around the walls and found that they were in narrow corridor and every so often a bitter squall of wind would whip past in short bursts and when they did he thought he heard whispers and pleas.
"Could have used your fire powers now."
"Fortunately I can find my way without them. Besides don't you have a torch tucked away somewhere?" Slade was a lot closer to him than Robin had originally guessed but as he spoke he started walking away and he followed the sound of his voice and footsteps in the pervading darkness.
"Must have left it in my other belt." The erratic gusts of winds where disorientating seeming to come from different directions and he took to keeping his hand on one side of the rough and winding corridor. "There's more to this, isn't there." Slade was disinclined to answer, either that or the winds had carried Robins words away, he tried again louder.
"The prophecy, Raven, the end of the world: this isn't just it, there's more. All this stuff about fate and destiny? If it was the end then we wouldn't be here, still fighting and Raven would be dead."
The path was sloping downwards now and with each unknown step deeper Slade's voice took on a hypnotic quality, like a powerful presence that the prevailing gusts could not whip away upwards to the rolling whispers.
"Your optimism is admirable, and to an extent you are correct. Destiny dug its claws into Raven deeper than she imagined, and wove a web around her, you, me and even Trigon. We are all the pieces to some elaborate game, as to its outcome I do not know."
"But you seem to know the rules."
"On the contrary, I don't even pretend to. But to keep in accordance with the metaphor at least I've been given a couple of cards to play with. I found another version of the prophecy.
"The ruins of Azarath were one of the first of the places I looked for information on Trigon and it proved most fruitful. Where the chambers of Scathe under the library were full of inscriptions of his power and influence what I found in Azarath showed details of many great battles against him, in particular a tale of his greatest defeat that imprisoned him. The details are scarce and it isn't named what force conquered Trigon as it was thousands of years before Azarath existed but it is suggested that the war waged almost completely destroyed its victors. Its survivors became the ancestors of Azarath and the protectors of the prophecies conceived from darkness.
"The prophecy you know came from Trigon's followers thousands of years before Raven was even born, she is not his first child but is the first one to survive beyond birth, I am assuming that a blend of human and demon DNA isn't the most stable and I believe that most of the women who were lured into the cult of Scathe and drugged died in pregnancy.
"However Raven's mother managed to escape and was found by Azar, who understanding the circumstances took her to Azarath to give birth to and raise the child. You may be wondering why she didn't just kill the baby."
"Actually I wasn't. It doesn't surprise me that people don't go around killing unborn babies."
"Even ones destined to destroy the world? Look around, look what she's done. Would you kill one baby to save billions?"
"I'd find another way."
"That's what Azar did; she sensed something good in Raven so she spared her. On the day of her birth they looked into her future and saw it in written in stone that the prophecy would come to pass, that the world would become bathed in fire but what came after was uncertain and Azar saw a chance for a new prophecy."
They had come to the end of the series of dark and towering tunnels and the wind gave way to freezing rain and boisterous clumps of hail. Slade gestured to a closed up archway carved into the corner of a sloping cliff. He pushed some of the emblems on the rim of the arch and the gateway opened, the stone blocking the way dissolved. Their new route was a cold stone passage with towering ceilings and gruesome demons painted on the walls. The images now old and decaying but the mud red paint still leapt out in areas. After the darkness of the wind tunnels the torches that flared into life as they entered were harsh and bright. Slade handed Robin a scrap of paper that was charred at the edges.
It read; The gem was born of evil's fire
The gem shall be his downfall
Of equal strength
And pure desire
Evil fear the Raven's call.
"Saying that I believe you, is it Raven's destiny to save the world and destroy her father?"
"Raven's destiny is in her own hands for the first time in her life, I said that the future was unclear. The new prophecy suggests that she has the power to do so, it doesn't mean that she will, she'll have to step out of the shadows that the old prophecy has cast her in her whole life. But it was Azar that took the child under her wing and taught her what she needed to defeat Trigon, and so far, though unintentionally Raven has started to forge her own fate.
"Azar taught Raven to separate her soul from her body, it's how her powers work; she projects pieces of her soul into objects to move them and has on occasion projected her whole soul in raven form. It was this trick that could assure that when Raven's body was destroyed and seemingly her soul as well that there is piece of herself left. I saw her outside the tower when she knocked you and your friends unconscious, she didn't just impart some of her powers to you she gave you each a part of her soul, a good part, her hope and her love... you get the picture. Whether she meant to or not what she had done made all of you an anchor for her so that she didn't dissolve into oblivion with the creation of the portal.
"Raven had to become the portal and at the same time she had to die. Her body was consumed by the portal and with it a part of Trigon's influence over her. Or what is left of her."
"What's that supposed to mean, you keep saying she's not the Raven I knew and that I wouldn't like what I find."
"What is left of Raven is a purity that even her father could not taint."
"How do you know all this?"
"Like I said I searched the ruins of Azarath and I found the final resting place of Azar." With nothing left to say Slade continued in silence to the end of the passage leaving Robin to muse over their conversation. Their journey together was also coming to an end as they were approaching the parting of ways. Slade's path would lead him deep into the eighth level of hell to a locked chamber of lost and hopeless souls. Whereas Robin's quest would lead him to the last refuge of the pure in this forsaken place.
Shadows. I was playing in the darkness, everywhere and nowhere, I am gaping yawning darkness in the space less breath between dimensions. Then why do I feel sand between my fingers? Gritty little particles. They count time; each grain witnesses its passing. I was playing in the sand. No, I'm waiting on a hard and marble floor, I was split open and they'll come to gouge me clean. Pulling out yielding gelatinous packets, wobbling writhing tubular things; I don't need them anymore throw them to become screaming feathered masses. Let the birds feed in the sand. Why do gulls scream like babies? Empty now. Stuff me with the golden timeless sand and the vacated shells of snails, sucked clean, too, by the ravenous birds. Ravenous. Raven, raving ravens, raging ravens.
Pluck their feathers, oily plumage slick with a thousand underlying colours in their wings and tuck them in my hair. Don't forget the rubies for the blood I didn't mean to spill, I promise I'll clean it up, and the penny for my heart dated 1964, its coppery surface has lost its shine. I'm lost. Where are the buttons; I couldn't cry them so how will they sew me up? But don't douse me with vinegar I don't want the bitterness. Stuff me with sand the sawdust won't do, the dead will find it itchy. Dead? I'm not dead, don't be silly, Raven, you'll die tied to a tree being eaten by the ants. I watched the ants, they weren't eating the dead; I was playing, I watched the ants playing in the sand and they were marching along the matchsticks.
I was playing in the sand: I built a house, it had little windows and a garden fence made from matchsticks, I used a bucket and it was blue but it wasn't mine.
Enough of this terror, I deserve to see truth and grow ever less blinded and blind. I open my eyes and I'm in the ruinous shell of a church, it's gutted and rubble lies in big bundles. I can see its backbone; it is broken too. Where did the sand box go? I was going to make a whole village of small houses and when I'm done Azar said she wants to talk to me. She said;
"What a pretty house you've made. When you're finished playing I'd like to talk to you. Don't worry Raven, you've done nothing wrong but it's important. Now you're older you can understand, but first you can finish your game."
But I don't know where the sand box went and now Azar won't be able to find me. The stick people I found won't be able to have a home, I tied leaves to their heads to give them hair but where will they live now? Not in this musty old church. How will Azar find me here? I'm lost and she said she needed to tell me something important. I should have stopped playing and listened. And all I can hear now are the screaming gulls and ravens, but I see a little robin he twitters around and I think he's looking for me.
But I'm lost.
"Hello, is anyone here... Raven?"
The others had found themselves exhausted and surrounded but in a last minute decision switched opponents. Their evil counterparts, taken by surprise, were at a loss when the three titans bolted into them. Each evil was banished back to their hosts, each a small victory but as the beast stated pointless against a greater force more powerful than any they had previously faced.
"This is the story of Raven. She was my very good friend and she was very brave. Together we fought evil. We beat monsters and villains, and we kept our city safe."
Robin spins a tale around me; his words weave in and out and like the flashing of moving pictures I see our city. The monsters that threatened it blink in and out of my vision, changing every fraction of a second, there are big glutinous monsters with pounding fists, fast magical villains and I hear the clips and quirks of pointless banter. I remember all the places I used to go, I feel like a dam has burst in my mind and I'm awash with images that make little sense like a scattered jigsaw. The towering wall we're climbing up begins to tremble and we go sliding down, I try to hold on to Robin but I can't.
"Raven!"
He plunges after me without fear and we're safe for the moment. Robin, the Titans that's what they do, it's what I used to do: we made people safe. But I can't help anymore; I'm just a fragment of what I used to be, I can't help, I can't do anything and I tell him so. He shrugs off my doubt and we continue our climb, he's says that he'll just have to have enough hope for the both of us and I can't even begin to understand how he does it.
We reach the surface and for the first time I witness the depth of the devastation my actions have caused. It's a shadow of what I remember with the empty buildings baring the shape of the city but their faces expose them for the hollowness they've become. What frightens me the most are the people stuck in fearful stone poses and I sense them alive inside their dreams being invaded by Trigon's evil. I hear them screaming inside my head.
We find the others and I know that they try to hide their disappointment. I was supposed to be their white angel to swoop in as a beacon of hope and vanquish evil, like a story. Robin bends down to talk to me.
"This is your story, Raven. And I'm not sure what happens next. I know it seems hopeless but I believe that when the time is right you will know what to do." I don't know what I can tell him, I'm not like him, I'm not like them.
But each one of them is a hero and they make their own stories with their own endings, in one last desperate and spirited attempt they pitch up all their strength and go to attack the very source of darkness. It is their purity and sincerity that carries them and it hurts him. It is short lived and one by one the Titans fall under the fierce fiery beams of Trigon's rage and I feel my own stir as he looms over me. What does Starfire call it: righteous fury?
"Farewell dear daughter," under the influence of his power and sarcastic sneering he can't even touch me. My fist glows with an intense white fire and I stare at it incredulously as it wiggles around my fingers.
"You may have retained some trace of my power but you are still no threat to me, little girl. I am your creator, your master. You exist only to serve me. You survive only because I allow it. What hope can a mere child have at defeating her all powerful father!"
He's wrong, what I feel inside isn't some remnant of his power; it contains none of his darkness. This power comes from me; this shall be my legacy not this bittersweet desolation. I feel it build up like a thousand solar flares and it sets my chakra gem aflame, this pure energy flows violently through my body making me complete again.
"You may have created me. But you were never my father." I become the embodiment of light and I sense all the souls of this world and the next, all the hope and goodness in people, I feel the peace of my people who perished under Trigon. I am purged of his darkness and through the ultimate benevolence that they taught me I can corrupt his evil.
"Fathers are kind! Fathers protect you! Fathers raise you!" the energy swells in my hands, my friend taught me how to fight for those how could protect themselves, they taught me to hope and helped me to believe that I could become more than what he fated me to become. Never again will I fear him; never again will I doubt myself.
"I was protected by the monks of Azarath. I was raised by my friends." My friends join me and I take comfort in their presence and I can feel the faith they hold in me. Trigon stumbles back from my attacks, he is helpless, unable to protect himself from the forces that he has fought to destroy for millennia.
"They are my family.
"This is my home.
"And you are not welcome here!"
With the cry of my mantra I unleash the full capacity of my soul like Azar taught me as a child and a brilliant white raven flies against Trigon, it's wings fill the sky and he is burned by it as it envelopes him. He cries out in defeat and is swept away in my virtuous influence that spreads outwards covering the Earth. We rarely get the opportunity to recant our actions, but today I get to take back what I've done and restore this world that has raised me.
I descend from the sky now a glorious blue and feel the sun on my skin for what feels like the first time, and perhaps it is the first time I've ever really appreciated it. My mind is a blur with thoughts as the others gather round me; I can only begin to imagine what this could mean for me. A new life not hindered by a prophecy. A second chance: how many people get that?
Phew, hope I got all the errors there. Um hope you enjoyed this chapter, a little over dramatic perhaps but I re-watched the episodes and it does get quite tense in a few places. I hope it flowed okay because obviously it's not the full episodes just bits and pieces.
'fellow 80's comic fan' I did pick up my copy of 'the terror of Trigon,' and pieced together some ideas from it and some of the dialogue between the titans and their evil counterparts as I thought it might show a little more depth to their characters. I've tried to find titans hunt but haven't been able to which is a shame because it looks like a good story; I mostly have the later ones starting from a kid's game.
I picked up on some other influences as you might have guessed from Dante's inferno. I would have put the full incantation written above the gates of hell because it's pretty chilling but I found two versions of it;
THROUGH ME THE WAY INTO THE SUFFERING CITY,
THROUGH ME THE WAY TO THE ETERNAL PAIN,
THROUGH ME THE WAY THAT RUNS AMONG THE LOST.
JUSTICE URGED ON MY HIGH ARTIFICER;
MY MAKER WAS DIVINE AUTHORITY, THE HIGHEST WISDOM, AND THE PRIMAL LOVE.
BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS WERE MADE, AND I ENDURE ETERNALLY.
ABANDON EVERY HOPE, WHO ENTER HERE.
and
I AM THE WAY INTO THE DOLEFUL CITY,
I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL GRIEF,
I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN RACE
JUSTICE IT WAS THAT MOVED MY GREAT CREATOR;
DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE CREATED ME,
AND HIGHEST WISDOM JOINED WITH PRIMAL LOVE.
BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS
WERE MADE, AND I SHALL LAST ETERNALLY.
ABANDON EVERY HOPE, ALL YOU WHO ENTER.
Though, for those who are interested but don't want to read the whole divine comedy there is a book called Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle which is a nice modern remake of the classic. Instead of Dante being led by Virgil it has a science fiction writer who died falling off a balcony whilst drunk being led by a very different historical figure (though I won't tell you which unless you really want to know.)
Anyway, back to fan fiction. I almost didn't put the bit in with Raven's narrative in the church where she was confused and hallucinating, I rewrote it several times and I know it's quite strange but ... erg I don't know.
Please review and let me know what you think of anything, all comments are helpful, though I won't be able to reply past tomorrow for a couple of weeks because I shall be left without the internet. Just one more chapter for this story: a kind of epilogue that I've got a couple of idea for.
Thanks for reading.