Third person
Raven's eyes opened to almost complete darkness, and she tried to sit up. Her equilibrium was terribly off balance though, and she fell back to the ground. After lying there for several minutes, she attempted to stand up again, and succeeded. She almost fell back over at the sight before her. The moon hung high above, full, but not bright enough to illuminate the dense forest surrounding her, growls emitted from the depths of the shadows. Raven ran forward, trying to get away from the snarling creatures. She stumbled over the ground of the foreign woods, as she ran blindly in any direction. A tree root snagged her foot then and she crashed to the ground. She sat up and scooted back against a tree, looking around wildly for the growling wolves. She was in too much of a daze to even remember her powers. After a moment she could see the eyes of the hostile creatures.
"Enough," a voice said. Raven looked around saw no one, but nonetheless the wolves stopped growling and retreated. From up in the canopy of the woods, a faint light was growing larger as she stared in wonder. The light took the form of a woman…with great white wings that protruded from her back. Raven scrambled onto her knees, and bowed before the Angel.
"Rise, Raven of Azarath, Daughter of Arella," the Angel said. Raven looked up, astonished. "You have no business bowing before me," Raven stood slowly, taking in the Angel's appearance. She had wavy, sandy blonde hair that went half way down her back, and she was wearing a simple black dress. Raven then looked at her face. The Angel had starling blue eyes. 'Blue eyes,' Raven thought, and she remembered why she was here in the first place.
"Great Angel, what are you doing in this dark, evil place?"
"I am here to aid you in your journey," the Angel said simply.
"Why?" Raven asked.
"Your mother was named in my honor, and you have done great things in her honor," the Messenger Angel said as she turned and began walking away from Raven. "Follow me, and I shall lead you out of the forest," Raven stumbled along after the after the Angel. The ground was sprinkled with snow.
"Uhm…?" Raven trailed off, not knowing what to address the Angel by.
"Yes, young hero?"
"Where are we going?" she asked, testing to see if asking the Angel questions was tolerable.
"I am leading you to the Temple of Trigon, where the Magistrates of Azarath of Old are currently residing," the Angel said without looking at her.
"Oh…" Raven's brows pulled together. "Why did you call it Azarath of Old?"
"Once a civilization has fallen, a reign ended, the Divine Ones address it as "Of Old" in the hopes that a younger generation will rebuild it. Once it has been rebuilt, we call the new civilization "Of New". Do you see? When Azarath is once again a thriving city, we will call it Azarath of New, and when discussing Azarath before it fell we will call it Azarath of Old."
"I see," Raven said. "Angel, please, do you know what is to become of-"
"Stop there, young hero, for I cannot tell you what is to become of your birthplace. Nor how the coming battle will end. It is for you to make your own destiny," The Angel said, but not unkindly. Raven nodded. "We are here," Raven looked up to see a giant temple, made of black stone. A stone gate stood before Raven and the Angel, its posts topped with statues of screaming, winged demons.
"This is where I must leave you, brave girl. From here on you go alone, no one can reach you where you are going," the Angel turned around and stepped toward Raven. She placed her hand on the empath's shoulder, engulfing them both in the faint light that constantly surrounded the Angel. "Young Raven, Trigon cannot be aloud to rise again. This is your burden to bare. You have the Angel's Blessing," the Angel closed her eyes and nodded. The light glowed brighter, and Raven could no longer see her surroundings. When the light faded Raven looked around and found that she was alone. The gate before her stood slightly ajar. 'A parting gift,' Raven thought. She listened to the blood rushing in her ears, and stepped forward, through the gate.
Third person; The Tower
Cyborg's fist slammed down onto the keyboard of the main computer in the Titan's living room.
"Cyborg, please, our friends will return. We must be patient and have the hope," Starfire said, placing her hand on Cyborg's shoulder.
"I can't get a signal on either of them, Star, how am I supposed to relax? The last place I could track Raven to was the Watch Tower. What am I supposed to make of that?!" he yelled. Starfire flinched at his hostility, and retracted her hand.
"I do not know, Cyborg," she said quietly. Beast Boy was standing by the window, looking out to the bay.
A bright light suddenly flared up in the Tower, non of the three could see anything.
"Your friend Raven is okay, for now…" an Angelic voice echoed through the tower. The light dimmed and the three titans looked around but saw no one.
Third person; The Pass
As soon as Raven entered the gate, the whole atmosphere changed. She faced a see of lava, with a narrow, winding rock path that came up from the lava. The temple was no where in sight.
"Fabulous…" she muttered. There was a large stone arch before her that had inscriptions at the top. 'You must face your own demons first.' She let out a humorless laugh, and started walking down the rock path. After walking for about 30 minutes she began getting nervous. 'Why haven't I been attacked yet?' She kept on walking though, letting her mind wander. She thought about Robin, and the other titans. An image filled her mind then, of Robin and Starfire kissing. Raven shook her head violently, as if to physically expel the thought from her head. 'Starfire would never do that to me! She's like my sister. And Robin wouldn't betray me' she told herself.
'Wouldn't he?'a voice in her head countered.
'Of course he wouldn't…' she trailed off, doubt taking over.
'Look at it logically. She's taller, prettier, stronger, and…exotic. And you, well you're…short and demonic. What reason would Robin have to pick you over her? He is a man, and that's how men are,' the voice said.
'I…No. Robin isn't like other men,' she thought firmly.
'Why wouldn't Starfire go after him then? Tameranean's love challenges. Him being taken would only make him appeal more to her,' the voice said, coming from a new angle. The whole scene played out in Raven's mind then. Robin sitting in his room, going over some papers, when a lonely Starfire knocked on the door. He would get up to answer it, and she would stand their, her big green eyes full of fake sorrow. He would ask her what's wrong, and invite her in-
"Stop!" Raven yelled out loud then. The voice chuckled, but didn't say anything. 'Starfire is too sweet to do something like that,' Raven told herself.
'She wasn't that sweet yesterday morning when she accused and attacked you,' the voice reminder her.
'There was so much going on, and Starfire couldn't handle it anymore, that's all that was,' Raven said simply, not entirely sure it was true now.
'Oh, come on. You can't lie to me. I'm in your head, I know all your doubts. Starfire was starting to sense something more than friendship between you and Boy Blunder, that's why she attacked, and you know it,'
"Shut up!" Raven yelled aloud again. The voice quieted for a while then. After walking for several more minutes she could see another arch in the distance. She quickened her pace.
'Tell me something,' the voice said.
"No," Raven said. The voice laughed again, but continued anyways.
'How did it feel to finally kill her?" it asked. Raven stopped walking, the question sending her into paralysis. 'It must have felt good to finally get rid of the show offy blonde. She was always under skin. And then she went and tried to kill every one of your friends? I'm surprised by how long it took you to-'
"That's ENOUGH!" Raven yelled. Her eyes went black and lava started to fly up all around her. The walkway began to crack, and Raven knew she had to get to arch before it was too late. She took off at full speed.
'Who among us can face their darkest fears?' was the inscription above this arch, andonce again the scenery changed. She looked around and found herself in a giant graveyard. Taking care not to look at any of the names on the tombstones, she began walking forward. Far ahead of her she could see a giant mausoleum with a statue set atop it. 'This is odd…I'm not scared of cemeteries…Why am I here?' she asked herself. She was getting close to the huge mausoleum, and stopped short when she could see what the statue was. She ran forward then. 'No, no, this can't be real. It has to be another trick,' she told herself. The statue was a stone twin of her four best friends. There was a plaque on the side of tomb.
"'Here Lie the Teen Titan's; Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy. Honorary Members of the Justice League, Beloved Heroes of Not only Jump City, But the World. The last enemy that shall be defeated is death.' No, no, I don't believe it!" Raven said, tears streaking down her cheeks. She took a few steps back from the mausoleum and threw her arm out. The top of the giant tomb flew off, revealing four coffins. With another flick of her wrist they opened. She ran up to them, a pain in her chest that hurt worse than anything she had ever felt before. She looked into the first one and saw Starfire's limp, lifeless body, and collapsed. She was sobbing so hard it made her retch. She reached into the coffin and held Star's hand. No pulse, or warmth…just cold flesh.
"NO!" Raven yelled out in a jagged sob. She crawled over to the next coffin, to find Beast Boy. She checked his hand then too, and got the same results. Cyborg was next, and she let out another heart-wrenching scream of a sob. She didn't want to look in the next coffin, but she couldn't stop herself. Even in death, he wore his mask. She retched again, and looked around wildly for something sharp. Anything at all. She had to get rid of this pain. Now. She then saw the statue that had been on top of the mausoleum. The stone Robin had a perfect stone replica of a bird-a-rang in his hand. It zoomed over to her and she caught it. She prepared to plunge it into her chest.
"RAVEN!" a familiar voice called out to her. She looked around, utterly confused, but saw no one. "Don't you dare, Raven," it said.
"R-robin?" she asked aloud shaking all over.
"Raven, please do not do this horrible thing to yourself," another voice implored her.
"Star?"
"Dude, don't do it."
"Beast Boy?"
"Rae…put the bird-a-rang down, okay?"
"Where are you guys?!" she sobbed out.
"We're right here with you, like we always have been," Robin's voice said.
"But I can't see you!" Raven said, a panicked confusion coming over her.
"Raven, you must do the calming down."
"Raven…Please, don't do this. For me?" she took a deep breath.
"What's the point in going on if you all are…dead?" she chocked out.
"Dude, who said we were dead?" she didn't answer him.
"Raven…I'm still here…and I still need your help," Robin said. Avoiding looking into any of the coffins because it would surely be the end of her, she stood up, dropped the stone bird-a-rang, and kept walking through the cemetery. She focused her mind totally on walking, not letting herself think of anything else. After what seemed to be an hour or so she saw the next arch, not knowing anymore if she wanted to cross its threshold.
'You must face your past, if you wish to see your future.' it said. "I don't know how much more of this I can take," she thought, but kept walking. For the third time, her surroundings changed. She was once again standing before a sea of lava, with a straight rock path. She raised an eyebrow and continued walking. As soon as she took her first step, someone whispered seductively in her ear 'Every touch of affection…' Her lips, hands, forehead, shoulders, neck, back, anywhere on her that somebody had touched her affectionately, seared like she was being branded. She cried out in pain, shocked by the sudden pain. But then it made sense, and she kept walking. The searing did not cease when another, more wrathful whisper came. 'Every violent blow…'and she fell to the ground, writhing in agony, as if being beaten, on top of the burns.
'Come on, girl. You can fight this. You've gotta get up,' Cyborg's voice echoed in her head.She weakly got up, and continued walking with trembling knees. Both pains continued as she walked. After awhile she could see another arch. 'Thank Azarath!' she thought. Only a hundred yards away from the arch now, one last voice whispered to her, this one sounding like her demonic self.
'Every emotional strain…' and Raven fell to the ground. She didn't call out in pain, she just lay there, waiting.
'I'm going to die here,' she thought. 'All my efforts were a waste of time. I am going to lay here and wait for Death to grant me with eternal numbness.'
'Friend, please do not give up the hope, for we have not,' Starfire's voice rang out. Raven stretched out her arm and tried to crawl, but didn't make any progress.
"I'm sorry, Star…" she whispered.
'Raven, you're stronger than this. Come on, fight it!' Robin voice encouraged. And with that, she managed to get up her hands and knees, and after a moment stood and stumbled to the next arch. Once through, she collapsed unconscious.
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AN, Damn me and all my cliff hangers. XD This one took me quite awhile to write and I apologize. I'd would like to thank fireflight33 for recommending my story, and I will gladly return the favor.
As the Table Turns by fireflight33
When the Teen Titans encounter Slade for the first time in months, he's back with a new plan up his sleeve, and a new apprentice at that. What happens when this apprentice manipulates the female titans? Will they stop Slade for good? R&R!
It is an awesomely gripping story, check it out, 'kay?
And, hey, do me a favor and review please? They inspire me to write and update sooner.