I couldn't resist putting up another chapter today!
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Dear Titans,
I'm going through a demon-pubertal stage so I've left to recuperate. Give me about 3 months.
Yours truly,
Raven
Beastboy read the neat cursive writings for the umpteenth time. He sighed and lay back on his bed as he clutched rather crumpled note to his chest. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As he opened them, he looked towards the calendar on his desk.
3 months, she had been gone for exactly 3 months. It was almost the end of the day and there was no sign of her.
Raven, when are you coming home? He asked himself as he turned onto his side. I... miss you.
When she first left, the team was devastated. Raven had not even bid them farewell, but they later learnt to accept the fact that she left, and there was no point brooding over the past.
Beastboy had almost slipped into depression again, but he remembered his promise to Raven that he would never ever do that again, and so he controlled himself, holding on to the small spark of hope that she would return to the Teen Titans.
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- Boiling water
- Molten lava
- Pure acid
- Snake venom
There, I've got almost all the materials, now to get back to Terra's cave, Raven thought as she flew back to the cave
"Here goes…" Raven thought out loud as she brought out the six jars. The magic spell she placed on them had enabled the materials to stay in their conditions throughout the journey.
The only two empty jars left meant for the tear of sorrow and 3 mouthfuls of blood.
"Might as well get them over with," she said aloud once again. Raven thought of the saddest thing possible: the death of her mother, and the tears flowed freely. She let one tear fall from her face and land in the jar.
Next was the hard part: 3 mouthfuls of blood?
Raven cringed and remembered the technique she learnt in Egypt while in search of the snake venom. Bracing herself for the procedure, she channeled energy to her chest and exerted a force, breaking a few blood vessels in one of her lungs. Before she knew it, she was in a painful coughing fit and had coughed out 3 mouthfuls of blood into the jar.
Raven continued coughing even after she collected the necessary amount of blood. She had expected this. After an intense coughing fit, she calmed herself down.
Her hands trembled as she opened the jars. Her powers could heal her, but she didn't want to waste time waiting.
She stood before the statue, her powers levitating the jars until they were within reach. She put up her hood and raised opened the jars using telekinesis.
"From pain and sorrow…"
She cringed as her right hand cupped the surface of the boiling water while her left did the same for the lava and she quickly splashed the statue. The statue started making crackling sounds,
"… A life may arise…"
The acid ate away at her right hand and the snake venom, her left, as she splashed the statue with the two other materials. The statue cracked in certain areas.
"… From happiness and joy…"
She could feel her head spinning as she struggled to breathe when she placed a finger which held the tear of sorrow onto the statue. The tear sizzled and dissolved into the statue as parts of it began falling apart.
"… Another may demise."
Raven felt herself losing consciousness as she used her remaining strength to splash the blood onto the statue. She felt the energy inside her drain as the statue absorbed her energy and exploded, spreading dust and dirt all around. The already weakened Raven bent down and used her cloak to shield herself from the debris.
The last thing she saw before succumbing to darkness was a blonde figure clad in a metallic armor emerging from the smoke.
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"B! Come on we're going to start the movie!" Cyborg's voice sounded over the communicator.
"Coming…" Beastboy replied, as he reluctantly got up from the bed and walked downstairs.
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The last thing Terra remembered was preventing the underground volcano from destroying Jump City. Suddenly, she found herself struggling to free herself from some kind of covering. At first, she couldn't breathe. At the last moment when she was about to suffocate, she had managed to break free from whatever covered her. Slumped on the ground in front of her was a lifeless body of…
"Raven?" she shouted. Though Raven had never really been on Terra's "friend" list, she wasn't exactly on the extreme end of her "foe" one either. After all, both of them had made the effort to try and be friends. Terra concluded that whatever happened to herself had something to do with Raven.
Although still a little shaky after the incident, Terra ran towards the cloaked girl.
"Raven! What happened? Are you alright?" she asked frantically. Seeing that the other titans were not around, Terra got worried. What was she doing here? Where are we? The first place to bring Raven that came to her mind was Titan's Tower.
Although Raven had a petite figure, Terra was practically skin and bones, rendering her unable to support Raven back. Thinking fast, Terra used her powers to summon a rock big enough for Raven to lie on and herself to stand on. It ripped out from the earth and Terra carefully placed the sorceress onto the stone before climbing onto it. Her hands grew yellow as she navigated the stone up towards the surface of the Earth, using boulders to create a clear exit.
As she made her way to Titans Tower, the past rushed back to her faster than the speed which she was moving at.
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Cyborg, Starfire, Beastboy and Robin were watching a movie in the common room. Plasmus, Cinderblock and Overload had broken out of jail that day – again, and they had a tough time taking them down. Though he had his eyes fixed on the screen, Robin's mind was racing with thoughts of how they kept breaking out of jail under maximum security, and who was the one behind all this.
Robin was so deep in thought that when the doorbell rang he jumped 3 feet into the air and whipped out his bostaff.
"Relax friend Robin, it is merely the bell of the door, I shall go and answer it," Starfire said, as she placed a reassuring gloved hand on the Titans leader's shoulder. She flew to the door and opened it. In front of her was a familiar blue cloaked figure lying on the ground, motionless.
"Raven?" she asked as she bent over to remove the hood that covered the figure's face. She gasped, "Friend Raven!"
Robin, Cyborg and Beastboy all ran towards the door at top speed.
Beastboy passed out when he saw Raven slumped on the ground, motionless.
Cyborg ran up to her and picked up her hand to check her pulse. His robotic arm recoiled when he saw the state her hands were in. They were badly burnt and at some points, her flesh was almost gone. Okay, that white thingy there that I just saw is not her bone, it is NOT! He thought to himself. He checked her neck instead. There was hardly any pulse.
"We have to get her to the infirmary now!" he screamed, as he picked up her lifeless figure and ran towards the lift.
"Star, I'll follow Cyborg. Stay here and take care of Beastboy," Robin ordered as he ran after Cyborg. He didn't want Starfire to face the trauma of seeing Raven in this condition, and he knew Beastboy would freak out once he saw the state Raven was in. Starfire immediately obeyed.
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"Cyborg, how is she?" Robin asked.
"Doesn't look good Rob," Cyborg said, "this is SOME demonic-pubertal stage..."
Robin walked over to the purple-haired figure and watched as Cyborg wrapped her left hand in a bandage. He glanced over at Raven's left hand, which hadn't been wrapped yet. Though her hands were healing themselves slowly, his eyes still widened in shock behind his mask when he saw the kind of injuries they had sustained.
"Oh my God…" he said as he brought his hand up to his mouth.
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Beastboy came around, "What… what happened? Star! I dreamt that Raven came back! That must have been some dream."
"No Beastboy, you are not in the land of dreams." Starfire said, and she pinched him hard to prove her point.
"Ow! That's going to leave a bruise! I'm awake, okay, okay, but… how… it can't be…" he stumbled as he recalled what had just happened. "That means… Raven! Raven where is she?" Beastboy asked.
"Raven is in the firm of the ary," Starfire looked down sadly.
"Um…" It took him a few seconds to register "in the firm of the ary" meant "infirmary", "Oh man…" Beastboy stood up, "Let's go check on her."
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"How is she?" asked Beastboy as he raced up to the unconscious figure.
"She's exhausted and not in very good shape, both physically and mentally," Cyborg explained, "She's got a high fever, she's lost a lot of weight, she's got very bad burns, she has snake venom running through her veins, I found traces of pure sulphuric acid on her, her energy has been drained and there are a few burst arteries in her right lung. She's in a coma now, but she's still healing some of the minor injuries by herself. But I'm still not sure whether she'll make it."
"Raven…" Beastboy carefully placed a gloved hand on her forearm hidden beneath the white sheets. He felt like hugging her there and then.
"Beastboy, it's best if we don't touch her. Her wounds can get easily infected," Cyborg warned. Beastboy immediately removed his hand and cursed himself for his carelessness.
"It's okay Beastboy, you did not know," Starfire said nicely, as she placed her hand on his arm.
"We should all get a good rest." Robin suggested.
"No! What if Raven wakes up and runs away again?" asked Beastboy, who was close to tears. Everyone else seemed reluctant to leave as well.
"Very well, we'll take turns watching her," Robin said.
"Can… can I watch her for tonight?" asked Beastboy.
Nobody objected.
"Cheer up friends, I'm sure Raven will not like to see us so sad," Starfire tried her best to sound cheerful as she flew back to her room.
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Chapter Preview:
"You won't get away with this, Vines!" Robin snarled.
"I'm afraid you won't get away either Robin, not until Raven agrees to come with me," the man said, "So Raven, do we have a deal?"
"No friend Raven, run, quick!"
"Don't listen to him Rae!" shouted Cyborg.
Raven felt herself say, "No,"
"Then your friends are of no use to me," he said, as the vines crushed them. One after another, their struggling stopped, "and I'll have to do this the hard way," he dropped their lifeless bodies to the ground and they landed with sickening "thuds", all except…
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Where did Terra go?