15 Years in the future
Raven draws a sight of a relief after she closes the heavy steel door to the shelter she shares with Richard.
"Rae?" Richard calls as he limps into view, coming from his small workstation in the back, supporting himself with a crutch. As always he is dressed in the dirty blue jumpsuit, his hair and full beard have mostly turned gray prematurely and his career as an active resistance fighter ended 5 years ago when he lost most of his right leg. "How'd it go?"
"Your info was spot on." Raven sighs as she pulls off the black hood covering her head and the scarf she wears over her mouth and nose. Her dress is a basic thing, the last of her old combat boots, some dark pants a black hoodie. They both remember times when their attire would simply be costumes, now it's all they have, but with all the moving around they do, it's probably for the best they don't have too much to carry.
"And?" Richard asks hopefully, trying to look past the blank expression Raven is giving him.
She sighs and closes her eyes for a second before replying. "I gave her peace."
Richard squeezes his eyes shut in anger, grief and frustration; he had so hoped Starfire would still be free. "Damnit!" He hisses between clenched teeth before he pushes it aside and looks at Raven, his wife of the last four and a half years. "How are you dealing? Are you ok?" He asks.
"I need some time." She admits before she embraces him in a hug, one he returns. "She's in a better place now." She mutters.
"I know." Richard sighs disheartened by the knowledge that another dear friend had been turned into a zombie and that another ally would no longer be able to aid them in the struggle against Darkseid. "I made supper, we leave in eight hours." He sighs before letting go and leads her back to their small table.
She can't sleep, her deeds today are still plaguing her, never had she thought that she in her right mind would have to take Starfire's life. But she had seen her, walking with the other zombies, humans that had been exposed to the Anti-Life equation that had left their minds as blank slates. They had no memory of who they were, what they were, they remembered nothing but servitude to Darkseid and Star shouldn't be enslaved again.
Darkseid, the New God of evil, 12 years ago he attacked the Earth, armed with the Anti-Life equation. Months of fighting later and he proclaimed victory, most of those able to resist him had been either slain or went underground in hopes of being able to find a weak point in the monster, they've waited in vain. And Raven is left to look at the red skies above what used to be Rome, now lit up by the ceaseless toil of the zombies and the great firepit that had consumed most of Central Europe.
And now they are so few that Raven doubts they have the strength to exploit a weak point, if they ever find one. There used to be entire armies that had gone underground when the war was lost, but as the years went by, more and more were lost, today Raven doubts there's more than 500 free human beings left in the world. And she and the haunted man behind her are two of the last dozen or so who once claimed to be superheroes or villains. Darkseid had a particular hatred for their kind and still had considerable resources dedicated to finding them. Confirming their deaths were acceptable to him, but he preferred them captured, just so he could torture and turn them into zombies, the fate that had befallen Starfire.
Again Raven thinks back to better days, days she'd give everything to see once more, but she would give even more if she could find out where it all went wrong. She desperately wanted to know what had happened in the past that gave Darkseid the power to destroy everything that had halted him before.
"Raven…" She is brought out of her musings by the deep rumbling voice that precedes the owner as it manifests itself as a ghost beside her.
"Allen." Raven huffs at the once mighty Spectre, the thing that had been missing for so many years. "You have some nerve to appear now."
The Spectre holds up a hand to silence her. "I am held prisoner, I was captured while standing with the other deities when Darkseid waged his war in the heavens."
"And you broke free." Raven notes as she faces the spirit before suddenly grabbing it with what little power she has left these days and pushes it against the wall. "Why do I find that hard to believe?" She hisses before she lets go. "It doesn't matter, it's too late; we were going to die eventually." She sighs.
"Yes." The Spectre replies flatly. "I am now far too weak to undo the damage that has been wrought upon the Earth. But you are correct, I have not broken free." The spirit replies getting a look from Raven. "What you see is all I can slip past them as my being is slowly being dissolved… to fuel the firepit."
"What are you doing here?" Raven asks dryly.
"I know the answer to your question." The Spectre replies. "I know when this world became inevitable, and I have come to ask for you to do what I cannot… and give everything you have left to change it."
"You're serious." Raven notes, suspicious that she was being duped. "Why now?"
"I haven't been able to maintain this form long enough to find you before and because it's been a decade since you've been on this continent." The Spectre replies. "Will you help us seek vengeance?"
Raven looks at the pleading spirit and then at Richard, still mumbling in his sleep, an old, tired, dirty man who had lost everything and everyone he held dear, except her. They are poor, tired, hungry and only guaranteed torture and death when their enemies one day manage to get them. "This isn't a life worth living." She mutters to herself as her own dread reminds her that, even if they somehow managed to kill Darkseid, there were now too little left of Earth and humanity for it to matter, it was all over. "What do I need to do?"
"I will send you back through time, to the moment where Darkseid's ascension started, you will know what to do." The Spectre replies as he opens a white portal the size of a man beside her. "But I must warn you, should you succeed, all of your life as you know it, from that point forwards will cease to be. And I know not how it will play out." Raven just smiles a little at him.
"I killed one of my nearest and dearest friends today, if there is another future in store… I will gladly run that risk." She says before she walks over to kiss Richard on the forehead. "Goodbye Richard, I am going to make things right." She whispers before she rises and turns back to the Spectre. "Why me?" She asks.
"You are the only one that can." The spirit replies.
"Right." Raven sighs before she steps through the portal.
She barely has time to realize she is in an empty throne room of some kind, constructed of dark-reddish stones before she hears the doors being opened and she has to take cover behind a support column in the corner she arrived in. A careful look makes her blood boil, she sees Darkseid making his way towards the throne and her old demon-self being dragged behind him by two underlings.
"Leave it there." Darkseid instructs and the two bearers let the demon flop onto the ground and leave the room, while Darkseid takes his seat. "Today marks a new beginning creature." Darkseid rumbles as Raven can see Carnage look up, clearly defeated. "From your mind, I have recovered a small but vital piece of the Anti-Life Equation."
"Hrr…" Carnage heaves, Raven guesses she is slowly losing her mind without the rest of her present day self.
"With it, the remaining pieces will become clear, in time. As for you, there is only one choice; serve Darkseid or face his wrath." Carnage mutters something and Darkseid rises, while Raven makes ready. Darkseid walks over to grab Carnage by one of her horns and lift her head up so she can see him, but she also spots Raven who mouths something at her.
"Go fuck yourself." Carnage repeats as Raven rushes from her hiding place storms towards Darkseid, who turns to punch her aside with his free hand, only for her to leap over him, and to land on Carnage, vanishing into her.
"Wait… You are not Raven!" Carnage bellows in her head as the two shrink down into Ravens human form that slips out of Darkseids grasp.
"Long story, I am Raven, 15 years older." She sends back as Darkseid turns back to face her with burning eyes. "Hold on, I've been waiting for this." She says before she fires her eye beams while still human to counter Darkseid's Omega Beams. But along with it, she throws a telekinetic punch that takes Darkseid off his feet and sends him flying into his own throne. "15 years! I've been waiting for this!" Darkseid has no time to recover as she leaps at him with a double handed blow, transforming in midair.
The blow is felt for miles across Apokolips, and more and more follow as the older Raven gives in to the power she has lived for so long without, caring nothing for the building that is collapsing around her ears as a result of her actions, all she cares about is vengeance, for all the misery and death the Lord of Apokolips had inflicted on her and her people, her friends and loved ones.
"That… was most impressive." Carnage says from within as Raven finally stops, her arms and fists ache, but what she wanted to do was done, and Darkseid is lying broken and unconscious in the middle of a hole that had once carried one of his palaces. "Who are you?"
"I am Raven, but I am here to prevent my present from becoming real. He took something from us, something that will allow him to finish the Anti-Life Equation in a few years, and become unstoppable."
"Obviously it hasn't been stopped yet, you are still here." Carnage notes.
"I have to erase his mind. And what he took from me wasn't you, it was the understanding of our command over emotions, which is vital to make the formula work; I see that now." Raven replies as she checks on Darkseid, making sure he is out cold and resists the urge she has to kick him.
"If that is true, in this future world of yours, where I am?" Carnage asks.
"This day marked the last time I ever saw you." Raven replies flatly. "I've lived 15 years without you or any of the powers you have right now. We thought you would expire after a few hours if you didn't fade back into Inferno, which had already passed after the battle unfolding on New Genesis right now. Seeing you now I know I was correct on my part; you wouldn't serve him."
"So… what happens now? To me? You? We could be quite a team." Carnage asks, her voice showly turning more seductive.
"We couldn't." Raven replies. "I am here to prevent my present becoming real, the moment that happens, I cease to be. You? I don't know to be honest, if you want to chance living outside of the rest of me? That is up to you, but I think you should return to the rest of me. You didn't look so hot from where I was looking."
"15 years seems to not have made you any less annoying." Carnage huffs. "So why should I let you do this when I am obviously at risk? In fact, what I feel from you, makes me think I would have much better chance of claiming you than our younger self."
"I know I can manage without you. Leave me with enough power to do what I have to and I will let you out, erase your mind of this meeting and send you on your way. As for claiming me?" Raven asks. "My will has not diminished, neither has my memory. And if I have to recreate Anger and the rest, I'll let them take turns on you. So perhaps you are more interested in making me not come into existence in the first place?" Raven replies with a threatening tone entering her voice.
"Hmm, and here I was just pulling your leg. If your memory is as good as you claim, you know what, we just went through, you should remember the argument we had and that I have realized that I am not what I thought I am without the rest of us."
"I remember, but I also remember you are an opportunist." Raven shrugs.
"That I am." Carnage agrees. "Would you allow me to do it?"
"Less than 6 hours ago, I had to kill Starfire because of what he did to her. This I have to do, for her, the others I lost to him, along with the millions he took everything from when he turned Earth into Apokolips."
"Vengeance. I can understand that." Carnage says and smirks before she pulls herself out. "Maybe we will meet again."
"You won't remember if we do." Raven replies before her eyes flash and she takes control of Carnages' mind, wiping the memory of their meeting away and replacing it with one of her violently breaking free, before heading back to New Genesis. Almost mechanically the great demon flaps its wings and takes off towards the skies. "Farewell, old friend." Raven mutters after it before she turns to Darkseid."And you; perhaps it is for the best of all that you forget I was ever on your hell hole; Enter my soul-self and forget!" She commands and manifests the black entity that sweeps over Darkseid to do what had to be done. Raven's nose starts to bleed as she enters the dark pit of Darkseid's mind, her eyes start as well when she begins unraveling the gods memories of her before re-weaving them. As she does so, she starts to fade away as her timeline fades away. She draws a final sigh of relief as she is done, she is gone, she has never existed. And the one responsible for her existence will now only remember the Doomsday experiments first going terribly wrong three months ago, forcing him to destroy huge swathes of his own planet to stop it. His actions today however are remembered as a test of New Genesis' might, one it passes and Highfather's repercussion was indeed costly, his son, his Furies, his torturer, his palace and his recreated Granny Box; all lost.
Author Notes: There is a bit of a problem with the editor not adding normal line breaks for me atm.