Another long delay between chapters, I'm sorry! The good news (for some readers, hopefully) is that because some of these scenes are getting longer than I initially pictured them, this story is going to be at least one chapter longer than planned. So we're not quite to the big climactic conflict yet, but soon.
Make up your mind you want clarity
Take what you know and then make it make sense
Just admit what you fear
And soon it comes clear
The visions are just your defense
-"Make Up Your Mind", Next to Normal
"Excuse me?" Cyborg asked, unsure if he'd heard correctly.
"My demon's strength comes from being a combination of multiple negative emotions, so I'm going to break it back into its component parts," Raven said with strangely calm determination.
"You can do that?" Lilith asked.
"I created it," Raven answered, stepping forward from the refrigerator as Beast Boy loosened his grip on her arms. She squared her shoulders a bit, hoping to project more of an image of confidence. "If anyone can do it, it should be me."
"And that will get rid of it? For good?" Robin waved a hand in a gesture of finality.
She shook her head, feeling a twinge of bitterness. "The emotions that make it up are part of me, however much I hate to admit it. They aren't going to disappear. But at least individually they won't be much stronger than the rest of my emotions."
"That is wonderful news!" Starfire smiled. "Is there a spell that is used for the breaking up of emotion demons?"
Raven sighed, wrapping her arms around herself. "Unfortunately, it's not that simple. I'm going to have to confront it directly in my mental plane."
"Like you did when we got stuck in your mind?" Cyborg asked.
"Yes. Although this time I need to do more than reabsorb it."
"Not to be a Negative Nelly, but the whole problem is your demon is stronger than your conscious mind, so how are you planning to beat it in there?" Lilith pointed out.
Raven glanced at Cyborg and Beast Boy. "Do you remember how you advised me to defeat my demon when you were in my mind?"
Beast Boy thought back and his eyes widened. "You merged with all of the other you's, the good emotions, into a kind of Super Raven!"
"Exactly," she nodded.
"Hold up!" Lilith interrupted sharply, raising a hand to pause the conversation. "You mean to tell me that you're able to combine your emotions into a more powerful form to combat the demon? Why haven't you been doing that all this time?!"
"Because I couldn't sustain it," Raven explained. "I was able to maintain the unified form long enough to put the demon back in its place that time, but holding it together much longer took an intense amount of strain. So I went back to the old way and just increased the shields around the demon." She looked back at the rest of her team. "But I should be able to do it again for a while and that should give me enough strength to overcome the demon even now that it has grown and become more determined."
"Not crazy about the number of 'should's in that plan," Cyborg commented, arms crossed disapprovingly.
"You have a better idea?" she retorted.
"Let's say it works," Robin cut in, voice calm. "Once the demon's been split apart into separate emotions, then what?"
Raven sighed, fear threatening to creep in again. "That's the hard part."
"That's the hard part?" Cyborg arched an eyebrow.
Raven rubbed her arms, pulling her cloak tighter around herself uncomfortably, though she managed to keep her face mostly neutral. "Fragmenting the demon only reduces the problem. Unless I fix the entire situation, my emotions are still going to continue to escape when I sleep. Only instead of having to worry about one demonic presence taking over, I would have multiple negative emotions that could wreak havoc."
"Right." Lilith rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "You did have one successful uneventful night after we started the meditation exercises, but things kind of went to hell before we could see if it was going to work consistently."
"I do think we were on the right track. The destruction of my shields just means I don't have the luxury of time anymore." Raven's jaw tightened, her stomach fluttering at the magnitude of what she was considering. "I think the best long-term solution that would put a stop to all of this is to fully reintegrate all of my emotions permanently."
"Reintegrate?" Robin asked. "As in…"
"Unite my mind as one whole unit again. No more avatars, no more separated emotional spectrums or imaginary realms…"
"So, your whole mental world in there would be…" Beast Boy asked, gesturing at her head.
"Nevermore," Raven said, the corner of her lips quirking wryly.
The others gaped at her. She suspected they were considering if her brain truly had broken.
"Are you certain that this is a safe idea?" Starfire asked.
"Yeah," Lilith frowned. "Not to doubt you, but you just said you couldn't sustain a unified form for any real length of time."
"That was before you showed me I can express a range of emotions in nondestructive ways," Raven nodded to her. "If I allow my emotions to vent in safe amounts, it should be more stable. Control instead of repression."
"But you're not just talking about a tweak here and there. You're talking about overhauling your entire system," Cyborg said, concern written in his brow. "Your people set that up for a reason."
"And at the time, it was the best I could handle," Raven agreed. "Good. Bad. Blanket classifications that a child could understand. But I'm an adult now. I understand the subtleties of emotions a lot more than I did back then, and I'll continue to learn how to use them appropriately." She frowned stubbornly at her friends' dubious expressions. "I'm not saying it will be easy, but I do believe it's possible!"
"We're not saying it's not." Robin rubbed the back of his neck, face twisted with hesitancy. "But this sounds like a really major procedure. I think it's just taking us a minute to process the scope of what you're suggesting."
"Taking my mind apart and reassembling it in a new way? I know," Raven said, softer than before. Her own fears flickered at the walls in her mind, quietly corrosive. She wondered what it would feel like to be afraid once her mental structure was less defined. "But the simple fact is I can't go back to the way things were. Even if I could rebuild my shields to the strength they once had, it's clear now my system is flawed. It's already proven dangerous and harmful, both to myself and to the rest of you. It kept me alive this long, but it's time to see if there could be something better." She looked at Lilith with a faint smile. "Something less binding."
"Again, not to rain on your parade, but what happens if this doesn't work?" Cyborg asked.
Yes, what indeed? She felt the demon's mocking challenge in the back of her mind and scowled thoughtfully. "I'll set up a contingency plan in case the demon wins. It might be possible to bind it to an object, like I did with Malchior. I can write out the steps of how to send it to Azarath so you can have them deal with it."
"That's great," he said, stepping closer and looking down at her, his size emphasizing the protective tone in his voice. "But I was talking more about the risk to you."
She met his gaze, keeping hers serious and clinical. "Same as before. I could go insane or be subsumed by my dark side. Either way, let the monks handle it."
"Let's be optimistic and say everything works," Robin said, leaning on a counter as he watched her as if she were a case he was trying to solve. "You really would be free to express emotion?"
Raven turned to Lilith, whose head jerked up, surprised. "You're asking me?"
"I know what I think will happen, but it could be wishful thinking. I'd like to hear a logical prognosis." She shrugged. "Or a precognition of success would be nice."
Lilith scoffed. "Yeah, wouldn't it?" She closed her eyes, touching her temple as she focused. After a moment, she sighed in frustration. "I can't push my precog that far. All it's showing me is us going ahead with this idea. If I try to see the result, everything goes hazy. So, guess all I can offer is an opinion." She raked the fingers of her left hand through her hair, grimacing. "Like I've said, everything about you is unprecedented, so I'm just hypothesizing…"
Raven gestured impatiently. "I'm going to do this anyway. I just want to be sure I'm not being delusional."
Lilith's mouth twitched slightly, bitterly. "Yeah, no pressure, huh?" She closed her eyes and straightened slightly, nodding. "All right, just based on what I've seen so far, if you can break your demon back down into smaller avatars equal to the ones you already employ and if you successfully reintegrate all the parts of your psyche so that you have something closer to a standard human mind…" She considered it for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, your powers are still tied into your emotions, so you'd still have to be careful about how you manifest them, but as far as I can tell there's no reason you couldn't learn how to express yourself more normally."
"So she really would be able to feel stuff?" Beast Boy asked, ears perking up. "Like, actually really show her emotions?"
"Well, she's not going to turn into a copy of Starfire or anything," Lilith said with a friendly nod at the alien. She looked back to Raven. "Your core personality won't change no matter what you do, but yeah, I think our experiments showed you have greater emotional capability than you've trusted yourself to use so far."
Raven allowed herself a small, satisfied smile. "Then it's worth trying for."
Starfire clasped her hands together as she soared higher above the group, no longer able to keep herself close to the ground. "Oh, I am most excited that you could finally be free to feel more alive!"
"If I pull this off," Raven added, trying to sober her own hope, which was lighting up her mind brightly enough to draw the demon's focus.
"And this is what you want to do, Raven?" Robin asked seriously.
She looked back at him, arms crossed, chin raised. She eased one of her shields slightly to let her determination show through her eyes. "It is."
He held her gaze for a long moment, his eyes managing to pierce into hers even through his mask. She didn't waver.
Finally, he drew a deep breath and released it in a sigh, nodding decisively. "Okay. What can we do to help you?"
Raven hesitated. She hadn't thought about including anyone else in this endeavor, but she knew she shouldn't have been surprised. Her friends had stood by her every step of the way since the day they met, no matter how many times she gave them completely justifiable reasons to run. Of course they wouldn't let her go to face this fight alone. She felt the solidarity around her, saw her friends standing or floating, alert and determined, ready to do whatever she asked. Warmth tried to fill the areas in her chest left cold and aching by the events of the day. If she hadn't needed to commit so much energy to holding back the demon, she suspected she would have been glowing again.
An idea crept through her thoughts. She balked internally at the implications, but it definitely could increase her chances.
"There is something you can do," she started, tentatively.
"Name it," Cyborg said, happy to finally be given a way to contribute.
"I think you could help me most by being amplifiers."
Confusion rose from all of them.
"Amplifiers?" Beast Boy cocked his head, whether unclear on the context or the word itself, she wasn't sure.
"How do we do that?" Robin asked.
Raven swallowed slightly. "You come with me and trigger my good emotions so they're stronger when I face the demon."
"All right!" Beast Boy brightened. "I'll start thinking of some killer jokes for your happy side." Raven was glad he didn't seem to notice her wince.
"I too have much experience with good emotions," Starfire said confidently. "I would be honored to help encourage such feelings in you!"
Lilith held up a finger, brow furrowed. "When you say 'come with' you…?"
Raven sighed, closing her eyes. No way around it now. "I would bring you into my mind the way Beast Boy and Cyborg were."
Shock rippled around the kitchen. The rest of her team at least knew the magnitude of what that invitation meant.
"Raven, are you sure you want to do that?" Robin asked quietly.
"It's not my first choice, but it's the best way to have a direct effect," she answered. She absolutely didn't relish the idea of opening the depths of her mind to her friends, especially while it was in such a tenuous state, but at this point, they had already seen so much of what she had desperately tried to keep hidden. The sanctity of her mental refuge was long destroyed now.
But perhaps that wasn't as bad a thing as she feared. She looked up to meet her friends' eyes. "Besides," she said with an attempt at casual confidence, "by this point I trust you all to respect what privacy I have left."
Their amazement and emotion poured off them even without needing her empathic powers to sense it.
"Of course, Rave," Cyborg promised.
"We know what that offer means to you," Robin said firmly. "We won't betray it."
"I know." And she realized she really did. Her eyes travelled across these people who had become so close to her over the years. They had been witness to her darkest moments and instrumental in her happiest. They had woven themselves inextricably into a life that she had once thought would never be allowed such luxuries. It was intimidating and a bit frightening to find that she really didn't want to do this alone anymore.
Although she addressed all of them, she found her eyes settling last on Beast Boy. "After everything you've put up with, you deserve that much."
A sheen of tears made his eyes glisten and the pulse of emotion that came off of him set off a strong enough reflection from her own that it softened her focus slightly. Red fire surged against her shields, lunging at the site of weakness. She winced, a hand going to her head as she pushed back against the rising tide.
The others sobered quickly at this reminder of the situation's stakes.
"It's been an insanely long day," Robin said decisively, pushing off the counter. "And if we're going to do this, I recommend we get a good night's rest to be at full strength. Can you make it that long, Raven?"
"I can," she nodded, giving the darkness one last firm shove back into its allotted space. I have to. "Everyone go ahead. And…thank you."
Starfire swooped over, giving her a big hug against all better judgment. "Rest well, Raven! Tomorrow, we will help you defeat your demon for the once and all!"
"Thanks, Star," she wheezed, grimacing. A part of her wished she could have Starfire as one of her avatars. Even the demon probably wouldn't be strong enough to break the alien's grip.
The others bid their goodnights and started heading back toward the hallways to their rooms. As he passed, though, Raven reached out and caught Cyborg's arm with one hand. She barely exerted any force against his momentum, but the oddness of the gesture itself was enough to stop him in his tracks and focus his attention on her.
"Cyborg, do we have any stimulants in the infirmary?" she asked quietly.
He scratched his head. "Yeah, we should. Why?"
Raven hesitated slightly, noticing Beast Boy had paused and was watching them curiously. "I think I'm going to need one to make it through the night."
"You're planning to stay up all night?" Cyborg asked. "Rave, you need the rest more than any of us!"
The others had stopped now, too, at his surprised voice.
Raven looked up, catching his eye with her own while raising her voice enough to let the others hear. "If I fall asleep, the demon will get out again. Meditation should be sufficient for one night."
"Raven, what you're planning to do tomorrow is going to take an intense amount of strength and focus as it is," Lilith said. "I wouldn't recommend attempting it at partial-strength."
"If the demon gets loose again, I won't be attempting it at all," Raven retorted, trying to keep frustration from wearing holes in her shields.
"Realistically, Raven, between everything you've been through the last few days, are you going to be able to stay up all night?" Robin asked.
"I'd better be," she answered solemnly.
"Would it help if one of us stayed up with you?" Starfire suggested gently.
Raven hesitated, but she had already decided she was done rejecting her friends' offers out of pride. There was no shame in asking for something as simple as this.
"It might," she admitted. "But I don't want to weaken any of you before tomorrow either."
Starfire beamed. "Then it is settled! We each can take a shift sitting up with Raven to make sure that she does not fall asleep!"
"Sounds good," Cyborg agreed. "I don't need to sleep much anyway."
"Yeah," Beast Boy said, grinning. "Might even be fun."
"I'm going to be meditating the whole time," Raven reminded him. "I'm not going to play games or entertain you. You'd have to just sit and be quiet."
"I know that! I'll have you know I'm in the middle of a very interesting novel right now," he huffed, feigning offense.
"Graphic novel," Cyborg corrected.
"Close enough."
"I'll take first shift," Robin said, preventing any bickering from breaking out. "I was going to stay up reviewing case files for a while anyway."
"All right," Raven said, drawing her cloak around herself again, "I'll go get everything ready, then head to the safe room. If anything's going to happen, best it happens there."
She started to turn for the door, then paused. She looked back at her gathered friends, planning out their schedule of shifts, and was struck by the realization that if anything did go wrong, this could be the last time she saw them all together with her own eyes and mind. A thousand thoughts and emotions flashed through her, every one seeming too rambling or maudlin or just utterly insufficient.
Ultimately, she settled for the simplest words that still carried the heart of what she wanted to tell them most.
"Thank you, all of you."
They looked up, smiling, but their light-hearted replies faded unspoken as they realized how sincere and final her tone of voice had been. The pause hung in the air as again language was searched for words that could not live up to what they were attempting to convey.
Finally, Robin said softly, "Our pleasure, Raven." The others nodded, waves of pure sentiment radiating off them.
Raven felt her throat close up and quickly teleported herself out of the room before she lost what composure she had left. Before the room disappeared into darkness, though, she thought she saw a white glow around the edges of her power.
OOO
Robin wondered if it was finally time to admit defeat. No matter how many times he tried, he just didn't seem to be getting anywhere and, to be honest, he was starting to run out of motivation to keep bothering.
With a sigh, he set down the file that had failed to hold his interest and glanced back over at his hovering companion, her eyes closed, hands resting on her crossed legs. In the hour he had been sitting with her, the only movement she had made was the occasional head bob as her body tried to overcome the stimulant Cyborg had given her and succumb to sleep. Every time he thought he would have to step in and wake her, she jerked herself back upright, her back even straighter than before, and resumed her meditation with almost ruthless determination.
And so he sat leaned against a wall, trying to read the same incredibly dull case file for the fifth time while his mind continuously veered off to thoughts about what would take place the next day, and what he might have to do that night.
Raven had explained the process clearly to him before they settled in. Should things go wrong—which was a profound understatement—he was to read the spell she had written out for them while throwing her pre-concocted powder at the demon. This should bind it, body and soul, into her mirror, since she already had a connection to the object. 'Should' being the operative word there, but she seemed reasonably optimistic it could work, in her own darkly fatalistic way.
She had also left instructions for how to send the mirror to Azarath for disposal afterward, but he had no intention of going through with that until he had exhausted every chance at bringing her back safely. Not that he had told her that.
The door opened quietly beside him and Lilith crept in. "Your shift's about up," she whispered.
"Thanks." He started gathering up his files and stretching his back.
"How's it going?" Lilith asked, looking at Raven.
"Seems okay, so far. She's tired, but stubborn."
"No surprises there," Lilith smiled.
"Yeah. Oh." He pulled a paper off the top of his stack of folders and handed it to her with a small bag. "Here's the spell she prepared in case the demon gets loose again. She wrote it out phonetically, but she said what matters most is focusing on the goal of binding her to the mirror."
"Right." Lilith read through it. She frowned and lowered the paper, her thumb pushing at the bag of powdered herbs as she considered what was inside. "This is crazy."
Robin looked over, eyes narrowing. "The spell? Is something wrong with it?"
"This isn't a spell; it's a curse. We're talking some serious, hardcore dark magic here," Lilith said.
"Well, we're dealing with a hardcore, dark, magical entity, so I guess that's appropriate." Robin frowned. "You okay?"
Lilith sighed, rubbing her forehead with the hand holding the instruction sheet. "I think it just keeps hitting me how far over my head I'm in it here. I mean, I've fought beside the Amazons and I've dealt with supervillains in New York with the other local Titans. And when I got the call from Bumble Bee, I figured, sure, of course I could help. But all this… You know, I'm still in school?" she asked, looking back at Robin. "I still have a year left in my Bachelor's of Psychology. I have no business diagnosing anything for regular humans. What was I thinking trying to provide counseling for someone this…complicated?"
"You were trying to help," Robin said firmly. "All of us face things that are beyond our previous experience. It's part of being a superhero. There isn't anyone qualified to handle this situation, so we all do the best we can with what we do know."
"I guess," Lilith sighed, leaning back against the wall. "But I still feel like my suggestions have been doing more harm than good here."
"That's not true."
Robin's and Lilith's heads turned abruptly at the unexpected voice.
Raven opened one eye, looking at them expressionlessly. "Sorry. It was not my intention to eavesdrop."
"No, our fault for disturbing you," Lilith said, waving it off. "I'll be quiet. Go back to your meditation."
Raven smirked slightly. "Magnanimous, as always, but as I am now involved, I would rather contribute to this conversation."
Robin stared at her, eyes narrowed. "Raven," he asked, with a slight edge to his voice, "which of you are we talking to right now?"
She quirked an eyebrow at him as Lilith regarded her with new suspicion. "You are the astute one. As you may have surmised, Raven has no true names for us, but I am an amalgamation of Wisdom, Logic, Intelligence, Knowledge, Rationality and a number of other synonyms of those concepts."
"You're not supposed to be in charge," Robin growled sternly, adjusting his stance and shifting slightly in front of Lilith. "What did you do to Raven?"
Raven's eyes simply looked back at him calmly. "We have done nothing to Raven in the way you are implying. Our actions now are only for the benefit of our entire self."
"What actions?" Robin snapped, approaching her intimidatingly.
She didn't flinch. "Our lethargic side is engaged in counteracting the effects of the stimulant we took. Raven needs a recuperative night's sleep in order to face tomorrow's, shall we say, psychological warfare."
"She was meditating for a reason," Lilith insisted, stepping up beside Robin. "She said if she fell asleep her demonic side would be able to get free."
Raven gave her a condescending look. "I know the reasoning behind her intentions. I was part of their conception. However, after further analysis and consideration, I realized there was an alternative. I also knew Raven would not consciously accept it, so we acted instead on her behalf."
"That's not your right to decide!" Robin said. Her unflappability irritated him as it reminded him of how helpless he had felt in the face of the demon's power before. The superior tone of her voice didn't help either.
"An interesting assertion," Raven mused, head cocking slightly. "As the part of our mind responsible for decision-making, however subconsciously, I would dispute that idea. But I understand your concern. Let me assure you, it behooves none of our existences to allow the demon to assume control. It is one of the few things all of us can agree on. So, the others have joined their efforts to keep the demon restrained and distracted while I stepped forward to take control of our body. Blocking the channels, as it were." She glanced at Lilith. "It is true, if strong emotions open the pathway, the demon could merge with them as a conduit for its own power. However, I am not an emotion."
Lilith stared at her, brow crinkling with confusion. "You're not, are you? Everything you listed as your components, those aren't feelings. You're thought. You're…the Superego to the others' Id."
The corner of Raven's mouth quirked in humorless amusement. "I think our mental structure is a bit beyond Freudian terminology at this point."
"Fine, let's get more technical," Lilith said, waving a hand irritably. "You're the prefrontal cortex. Everyone else is tied to the amygdala or hypothalamus, but you're a completely different part of the brain."
"I would say your psychology classes are paying off," Raven commented.
"But, that doesn't make sense," Lilith shook her head. "You're the opposite of emotion. You're pure rational thought. Why would Raven create an avatar of you? She wouldn't need to control you. You're what she was aspiring to be!"
"As pure rational thought, it is difficult for me to speculate on an emotional choice," Raven said, brow wrinkling slightly. "However, I believe that Raven created me so that she would have someone she could relate to. Someone to agree with her and say what she needed to hear when temptation arose. An ally, if you will, against the chaos of her emotional sides."
Robin felt his defensive stance relaxing. He thought of the child version of Raven he had seen after she became the portal. How she must have been even younger when she had to go through the initial process of containing her emotions. The social deprivation he knew she had faced in the temple, kept mostly separated from others for the safety of all involved, her time spent mainly in meditation. With only these figments of her own mind for company, was it really any surprise she had created…
"A friend," he said, almost too softly to hear.
"That's more of an emotional term than I would apply to myself," she replied. "But all of this is distraction from why I interrupted your conversation to begin with." She focused on Lilith. "There is no reason for you to blame yourself for anything that has transpired since your arrival. You were brought here for a purpose and you have performed it: provide unbiased analysis and a novel perspective on our situation. While the outcomes have not always been optimal, your methods revealed a potential we did not believe possible for us. That would not have happened without you. Our loss of control still would have. So put any regrets aside and focus your energy on helping us reach that potential tomorrow."
Lilith nodded slightly, feeling a tension in her chest relax slightly. "Thanks, Raven."
Raven returned the nod, starting to close her eyes again.
"Wait!" Robin called, drawing her attention again. "I'm just kind of surprised you're on board with Raven's plan. Won't unifying her—uh, your mind mean that you cease to exist?"
"You are still thinking of us as separate entities from Raven. Understandable, considering the imprecisions of language when it comes to explaining our situation, but regardless, we are all Raven. Each of us is but one fragment of our whole self. Even though the demon considers itself a rival consciousness, it still knows that it is Raven. This separation is not a comfortable situation for any of us and has put every aspect of our existence under great strain for years. Our natural condition is to be one unified mind, as we were born in the first place.
"Now," she said, lowering herself to the ground, "to that end, we must be well-rested to give our self the best chance of success tomorrow. I am in command of our body for the time being, and I intend to use that control to have our body sleep. It may not be as restful as true, natural sleep, but it is preferable to meditation. Whether you choose to continue your vigils or not is up to you," she added, lying down on her side with one arm tucked under her head as a pillow. "Either way, I will be keeping watch as well."
"I'll stay," Lilith said, taking a seat against the wall nearby. "Just in case."
"That is wise," Raven said, closing her eyes.
Robin looked at the two girls: Raven curled beneath her cloak, breathing evenly; Lilith perched nearby with the mirror and curse instruments beside her. It may not have been exactly what the original plan was, but he decided Raven was in safe hands for the night.
"All right, call if anything happens," Robin told Lilith. He looked back at Raven. "And, uh…Intellect?"
Raven opened one eye. "Yes?"
He smiled slightly to see the avatar truly was alert and on guard. "You're being a good friend to Raven."
She seemed to consider this for a moment. Then her eye closed again and she resumed overseeing her much-needed night of peace. "I know."
You lovely readers have been too kind with comments over this long and rambling story and I've tried to reply to each of you directly. (Anonymous readers, I can't message you directly, but I truly appreciate all of your reviews!) There have been a few repeated and insightful comments lately that I thought I'd try to answer more publicly, though.
I know there's concern that Raven won't be Raven anymore by the end of this story. I do want to leave some suspense about her fate, but I hope that you'll trust that I'm working to be true to her character even as crazy things happen.
As for Lilith always having the right answer practically immediately...Unfortunately, that's a failing on my part. Not my intention, but a side effect of trying to get through exposition scenes relatively quickly to keep moving the action forward. And Lilith drew the tricky role of being Exposition Woman in this story. While writing her interactions with the team and her job as catalyst to set off the actions of this story, I did approach her with the idea that she is a young psychology student (plus all her occult and Amazon-related experience), excited by being able to apply what she knows and a bit overconfident that she has all the answers. As we saw last two chapters ago, that overconfidence backfired as "the demon" took advantage of their plan in an unforeseen way, so at this point in the story she's more humbled and realizing how much more she has to learn (like most students as they progress into the workforce, and yes this is speaking from experience). Raven, though, reassures her the core of her knowledge wasn't wrong, there's just more they have to take into account for it to work. I regret that this transition didn't come across as strongly in the text as it has been in my head. (One of the costs of carrying a story in your head for months is you forget how much you've explicitly written versus what you just thought over and maybe cut from previous scenes.)
Anyway, I regret that Plot Device turn for Lilith's role in the last chapter especially, because that final scene is supposed to be the turning point for Raven (expanded on further in this chapter). All her life, people have made decisions for Raven on how to deal with her situation. Azar taught her the repression techniques, which was necessary because she was a child and didn't know how to control things on her own. Trigon tried to assert his will on her, which was not okay. Just within this story, Robin, with every good intention, called in help behind Raven's back. Lilith then took the lead in suggesting yet another technique to deal with things. Finally, when everything has been damaged to the point of no return, Raven makes a decision and develops a plan for herself. It's the first time (since banishing Trigon and stopping the prophecy) that Raven has taken full control and chosen what SHE wants to do about her future. Lilith is still advising, but from here on out, it's Raven's plan.
As far as why the monks of Azarath, in all their years working with Raven, never noticed the flaws in their plan, that comes back to the problem of getting set in your ways. In the original Wolfman & Perez comics (which I've been finally getting to read while writing this), the Azaratheans weren't all-wise, perfect, angelic beings. They were pacifists to the point of being useless. They surrendered to prophecy, refusing to take action if it meant having to give up their peace and risk contamination by dark emotions, the ultimate non-involvement even in the face of destruction. They were stagnating. I've taken liberties from that exact origin, but I still feel the Azaratheans were set in their ways. Azar did teach Raven control so that she had an innocent, nondestructive life up until her destiny kicked in, but none of them ever suggested it could be stopped. They were fatalistic. And so, if a technique worked long enough to stave off evil until their prophesied expiration date, why think they would ever need to worry what happened if Raven managed to keep existing beyond that? Her demon didn't get strong enough to escape until she started expressing emotion, which Azar's technique forbade her to do. In short, we all have blind spots to flaws in our plans if we see that it's working well enough. (Just look at me with writing this story. ;) ) And it takes someone completely neutral, like Lilith, or my sharp-eyed reviewers, to come in and point out that just because something works doesn't mean it's the best way to get the job done.
Sorry for the mini-essay! Just really found the comments on last chapter interesting and it got me thinking, so I figured I'd share for those who had such concerns, but just didn't write in about them. I love hearing from all of you and hope the story will ultimately work in spite of its failings.