Titans: Elemental

Chapter 104: The Prophecy, Part 1

We see the machine room Slade set on fire during his face-off with the Titans.

As his implacable form rises at the far end, Raven races up a flight of stairs, just before the giant pistons lining the walls start to collapse.

Slade, "it has begun."

Dick, "freeze!"

The image jumps a bit and goes still. What we have just seen is a video clip playing on the window/screen in the living room of Titans Tower. It is nighttime, and the lights are low here. Shots from other angles fill the rest of the panes; Dick and Jack stand before the display, studying it intently.

Jack, "rewind."

The click of a remote is heard; we see Changeling, who is sprawled wearily on the couch with the remote in his hand. Rose and Bryan sit nearby. Pictures of Slade and the glowing red S-Insignia on his forehead, also Trigon's brand-lie on the coffee table.

Changeling, "dudes, we've been looking at this thing all day. I'm telling you, there's nothing else there."

Rose, "yeah. I mean, I wanna figure out how to stop my newly resurrected father too, but there's not much else to see."

Dick, "there has to be. Play it again."

Changeling, "ugh, 'Slade Kicks Butt', take three hundred and four."

Vic and Kom' enter.

Dick, "Victor, Kom'. Anything?"

Vic, "I cross-matched that symbol with every database on the planet. I even had Fixit and Spike at Star Labs run a check on it."

Jack, "and…?"

Vic, "nothing. Whatever it is, it's not from Earth."

Bryan, "that's foreboding."

Dick, "new powers? Cryptic threats? Targeting Raven? Slade's playing a whole new game now."

Jack, "regardless of his game plan, I'm not letting him hurt Raven…."

The frozen image of the covered face flickers a bit as the leaders eye it up and down.

Dick, "and this symbol is the key. We will find out what it means."

Jack, "whatever it takes to stop Slade and protect Raven."

…..

We see the symbol chiseled into a patch of rock, we see this area is a wide, jagged island shaped like the insignia in a lake of lava.

Raven steps up to a ridge on the far shore; she is just as pensive and worried as when she had her apocalyptic vision from.

Behind her, the sky has gone blood-red and Jump City stands in ruins as Slade made it appear. The sound of his voice snaps her out of the reverie.

Slade jumps into view among buildings, "tick-tock, Raven. Time is running out."

Raven, "I'm not afraid of you!"

He materializes behind her.

Slade, "silly girl. I'm not the one to be afraid of."

He continues his advance, forcing her to back up, and we see them on the roof of another smashed structure.

Slade, "you know that."

Lightning whites out the view; when it clears, she is alone atop the wreckage. Her respite lasts only a fraction of a second before huge fireballs start to rain down from the sky and a terrible, booming, familiar voice speaks up.

"What you have concealed, you shall become!"

Two of the missiles curve in and collide at her position, throwing flames in all directions. Through the inferno, a hemispherical black shield emerges, she has used her powers just in time, and she takes it down as the fire swirls around her.

Raven, "it's a lie! I won't let this happen. I'll find a way."

Slade walks through the fire.

Slade, "your optimism is really adorable, but you're forgetting one thing, Raven."

A lick of flame wipes him away and leaves her staring at the ravaged shore and the remains of Titans Tower.

His voice rings out, "this is what you were born to do."

Another lick; now the scenery shows the other Titans, frozen in stone and dragged down by the ghouls in her previous vision.

"You were sent here to destroy the Earth."

Raven's eyes are glued to the frozen Jack.

Another lick: she finds herself looking across the lava-filled bay at more devastation. The ground goes black and violet waves radiate out from her feet and mirror her image.

"Your destiny will be fulfilled", his four eyes open on the ground, "the portal must be opened!"

Lightning strikes.

….

Raven gasps sharply as we see her floating just above the floor in her room amid stacks of books. Superimposed on her forehead gem is Slade's/Trigon's mark. The past forty-five seconds have been part of a vision achieved during meditation, and from her expression, she would rather have been subjected to every unfriendly spell she knows. She struggles to catch her breath for several more seconds.

….

Later in Raven's room….

We see open books floating around her in a circle.

Raven, "it's my destiny. There has to be a way to change it. I know there is", she flips pages with her powers, "I just need a little help finding it."

A hand gesture shifts all the books to bring another one in front; more pages turn, stopping on a large illustration of the same insignia..

Raven, "no", she grabs the book and the others hit the floor, "this has to be wrong."

She closes the volume and clutches it to her chest. Knocking is heard from the direction of the door; cut to it.

Dick, "uh…. Any luck finding the symbol?"

She pushes the book under her bed with her powers.

Raven, "no. It's not in any of my books."

She puts her hood up, hiding the glow on her forehead, just before he opens the door part way to look in. Jack stands close by.

Jack, "Raven, sweety, are you okay?"

She moves toward them.

Dick, "you look a little…. Well…. Paler."

Jack, "which isn't bad. It's just…. Concerning."

Raven, "it's nothing. I just haven't been able to meditate lately. That's all."

Dick, "look. We know Slade scared you, but we'll find out why he was after you."

Raven, "Slade doesn't concern me."

Jack, "then what does?"

Before Raven can answer, the alarm and red flashers choose this particular moment to go off.

Starfire says over the intercom, "friends! Come quickly!"

Dick is off and running, but his genuinely worried teammates stand in the doorway. Finally, Raven opens the door the rest of the way.

Jack gives her a brief hug. The two then move down the hall, letting the door close behind them.

….

We see the kitchen, where Changeling, Rose, Bryan, Kom', Vic, and Starfire have gathered at the counter around a large copy of Trigon's mark; the other three join them very shortly. The alarm has stopped.

Starfire, "Victor was correct. This symbol is not of the Earth. And what I have discovered is most disturbing."

Raven's eyes pop slightly out of fear that her secret has been found out, then shift back to Starfire, who extends a pointer rod. She indicates a spot in the upper left.

Starfire, "please, give your attention to this quadrant."

Changeling leans in for a closer look.

Starfire, "in the folklore of the Zargac nomads…. Markings such as these were used as a prelude to the Goulding."

Changeling, "actually…."

Starfire, "a savage ritual that requires all Zargac warriors to consume vast quantities of bortha worms and…."

Changeling reaches over, peels up the spot she pointed out, and holds it up in full view.

Changeling, "it's tofu calzone. My bad."

Dick's eyes pop.

Changeling tosses it over his shoulder, where it is intercepted by Silkie's very neat midair chomp.

Starfire, "oh…. Never mind."

Kom', "eh, it was a good shot, sis."

Alarm and flashers go off.

We look to the Titans window/screen, which shows a map of one part of Jump City; Slade's insignia is displayed next to a glowing spot.

Dick, "Slade."

Bryan, "let's get this son of a witch…."

….

We see the night sky, angled up between two rows of buildings. A few bits of newspaper blow past in a very forlorn manner before a huge belch of fire rips across the area, setting off explosions in the upper stories. More flames roar up from the pavement, and here comes Slade through it all, having had a new bit of fun.

Slade, "I do love my job…."

He wreathes both hands in fire, but before he can do his torch impression again, a sonic cannon blast tears the air and extinguishes him.

We see the Titans just down the way.

Dick, "vandalism? I'd say you hit an all-new low, Slade."

Rose, "and that's saying a LOT."

Slade, "the Titans. Nice of you to drop by, but as you can see, I'm right in the middle of something. I'll deal with you in a few minutes."

Dick, "no."

All warm up; Changeling becomes a grizzly bear.

Jack, "we'll deal with you now, ya fiery hood ornament…."

Slade, "you can't always have what you want."

Re-igniting his fists, he bangs them together to open a burning fissure in the pavement that sends all the Titans diving for cover. When they regroup, Changeling has become a crane.

Dick, "Titans! Split up and take him down!"

Bryan, "with pleasure!"

They move in again; now Slade leaps from one building to another and does a little high-energy renovation as he goes. Vic is brought up short by a red-hot stone column crashing down in his path.

Vic, "doesn't Slade know this whole block is already slated for demolition?"

Changeling lands on a ledge and resumes human form.

Changeling, "since when did Slade need an excuse to wreck stuff?"

Bryan, "when Changeling is making sense, the whole world has gone nuts."

Changeling becomes a cheetah and is off as fast as his legs will carry him. The armored pyromaniac, meanwhile, has perched on a rooftop and taken to shooting jets of fire from his hands. After a couple of shots, he dives toward ground level, only to be kicked aside by the swinging Dick after touching down. A stack of oil drums and a wall stop Slade's momentum, whereupon Rose leaps in for a go.

Rose, "why did you come back, dad? Where did you get these powers?"

Slade points at own forehead that has the S insignia, "you all want to know about this, don't you?"

Dick leaps over to Rose as Slade crosses to them; his footprints flare up.

Slade, "how many sleepless nights have you had, trying to uncover its secret? Well, let me put your mind at ease. It's called the Mark of Skath. And it's about to become very popular."

Dick, "what are you planning?"

Slade, "I'm not planning anything", he draws the Mark in the air, within a fireball, "I'm simply providing a valuable public service", he gestures it upward, "illumination."

The ball is propelled forward and erupts into a blazing jet. Dick and Rose hurl themselves away from its approach just in time to avoid instant barbecuing and find themselves looking up at that expressionless steel mask. Before Slade can finish the job, several lasers hit his armor and Starfire rockets into view and plows him aside; without missing a beat, Kom' cuts in with every juiced-up pitch she can think of. None of the shots hits Slade, who easily sidesteps them all and then leaps up past her and Starfire to land on the boom of a construction crane parked nearby. It breaks under his weight as he bounds nimbly away, leaving a wrecking ball to swing up from the severed end and bash Starfire and Kom' full in the face.

Slade is on the move along a rooftop ledge, but stops short when something green dives past him. After a moment of trying to balance on one foot, he gets himself under control and finds that Changeling has become a flying squirrel to harass him. The distraction lasts long enough for Vic and Bryan to train their cannon and laser gun on the spot from ground level.

They both yell, "fire in the hole!"

Their shots blow out the patch of ledge under Slade's feet, dropping him to the concrete, but a savage flaming onslaught puts the two cyborgs suddenly on the defensive. When they look up, they see a shower of rubble thundering toward them from the building struck by Slade's blows. The slabs fill the area, then we see the masked madman near the smoking impact site. As Slade sets off running, the rodent Changeling swoops down and disappears into the pile with a tiny puff of dust. It is followed by a much larger one and his re-emergence as a brontosaurus; the wreckage is flung everywhere by his sudden growth, and Vic and Bryan sit up woozily on his back.

Vic says as Changeling roars, "yeah, you better run!"

Bryan slips off of Changeling and onto the ground with a groan.

We look across the decrepit blocks and stop in front of a particular building, where Slade touches down from his quick escape. Steel-gloved fists blaze anew, but whatever he has in mind gets put on hold when Raven's "soul-self" materializes at the door and resolves back into her usual form.

Raven, "what do you want?"

Slade, "only what any messenger wants, Raven. For their message to be heard."

Raven descends to the steps.

Slade, "it's time your friends learned the truth. And if you don't tell them, I will."

Raven, "leave them out of this."

Slade, "I didn't bring them into this. You did, the day you came into their lives. Tick-tock, Raven", he backs up, "time is running out."

He is swallowed up in a fiery tornado that erupts from the street; it slices toward Raven!

Raven gasps, but is soon covered in a shield of ice!

The maelstrom dies down, the ice quickly melting into water, leaving her staring in disbelief at a fault that has sealed itself almost perfectly.

Jack lands nearby on a slab of Earth.

Raven and Jack simply look at one another in worry.

….

We see Dick, communicator in his hand amid the architectural inferno.

Dick, "Titans!"

A beam collapses in front of him.

Dick, "do you read me?"

Vic, Bryan next to him, addresses his forearm comm, "I read you, but I don't see you!"

Starfire and Kom', in midair, have theirs out.

Starfire, "we see you all, and something else."

Below them, broad swaths of fire trace out the Mark of Skath on a truly grand and terrible scale.

….

We see a single building standing at the center of an empty, burned-out crater hundreds of yards wide.

Dick, "everything in a three-block radius has been destroyed…."

We see the front door of a library, and the Titans stand at the front door. Changeling is back in human form.

Dick, "... except this. Slade left it standing for a reason."

Rose, "like he wanted us to come here."

Vic checks his forearm panel, "according to the city's master plan, this is the original town library. But it's been abandoned for decades."

Changeling, "no wonder. This place is a dump."

He kicks at a column, which promptly falls over, scaring a yell out of him and nearly putting him in traction.

Bryan, "nice job, dummy."

We look up to the sign over the entrance; fresh cracks race up the facade, and most of the stonework crashes down just short of the Titans' location. Dust boils up and clears to show the Mark, etched in red on a wall.

Dick, "the Mark of Skath."

Jack, "Rose's dad definitely wanted us to come here…."

Said wall, exposed by the big-time wipeout, now looms before the Titans above the library doors, and Raven's eyes bug out-the secret she came across in her books is now all the way out in the open.

Dick, "Slade told me the name."

He prepares to head in.

Raven, "w-wait! We shouldn't go in. It's probably a trap."

Jack glanced at Raven, "y-yeah! I mean, this is Slade we're talking about!"

Dick, "it's also our only lead. We'll just have to chance it."

Bryan, "whatever it takes to stop the old jerk."

At a nod from Dick, Kom' and Starfire haul on the barred doors and manage to force them open.

We see inside the library, at ceiling level near the domed skylight, and look down to floor level as the heroes move in with the help of Vic's shoulder flashlight. Bats flutter in the upper reaches of the long-disused facility.

Changeling, "dudes, even without the creepy librarians, I'm not digging this place."

Jack, "reminds me of my middle school's library. You made a single noise, the librarian would come down on you like a steel bat."

We see among the stacks; they advance into view among them. The walk brings them to a blank wall at the end of a passage.

Dick, "it's a dead end."

Vic puts his flash away.

Raven, "there's nothing here. Can we go now?"

The hood of her cloak is up, but it does not block out enough light to keep the Mark from appearing, clear as day, right between her eyes. Jack sees this, but keeps silent. She looks worriedly up at it, it fades out, and we look to Changeling by the unlit wall of this dead end. As if on cue, shafts of white light pierce the gloom, forming a door on which the Mark begins to burn. The whole thing falls away, exposing a passage, and the green goofball jumps backward with a scared little yelp before all lean in closer.

Changeling, "uh…. I mean…. Cool! Heh. Secret passage! Um…. Victor, you go first."

Out comes the flash to illuminate a flight of steps leading downward; he then breaks with precedent and does as the little guy says.

We see a sculpture that depicts a cloaked, hooded skeleton; the beam plays over it, and it is one of several at the wall of a chamber. Here come the Titans, off the stairs and into this place.

Starfire, "I did not realize your libraries housed such unpleasant sculptures."

The flash is put away.

Bryan now checks his own forearm panel, "they don't. This part of the building is old. I mean, REALLY old. It must've been built before the city was built."

Vic looks at his own panel and says, "he's right."

We look at Jack and Raven, bringing up the rear and just now reaching the bottom of the stairs. Again the Mark pops out on her forehead; this time, the response is a quick spreading of incandescent red runes on the chamber walls, similar to the ones that appeared on her body. The others can only gape at the emergence, which culminates in the Mark writ large on the far wall facing them. Pair by pair, the empty eyes of the stone figures' skulls flare white and a spirit emerges from each.

Spirits, "the gem was born of evil's fire. The gem shall be his portal. He comes to claim."

Jack looks at Raven with a very worried expression.

We look to Raven's feet and then up to her face as the marks appear all over her clothing and skin.

Spirits, "he comes to sire", Raven gasps and covers herself, "the end of all things mortal."

Jack, "Raven?"

She wraps her cloak even tighter and hustles back up the stairs, stopping to rest only when the underground chamber is well out of sight.

The cloak has fallen open to show those scarlet inscriptions again, and soon she is on the move, but now, Jack and Dick are coming up fast.

Dick, "Raven!"

Jack, "come back!"

Raven stops short, staring up toward the library with sudden mute fear, and the two close the rest of the gap.

Dick, "are you okay?"

Raven turns to them.

Raven, "this place…. It's…. I shouldn't be here. It's all wrong."

Jack, "what's going on, Raven? What aren't you telling us? Please, we only wanna help."

He and Dick advance slowly; she backs up.

Raven, "I can't explain. I just need to leave", she transforms to her human 'soul self', "I can't go back in there."

She disappears through the ceiling.

Jack, "Raven!"

Dick, "wait!"

Jack, "she must've gone back to the tower. I'm gonna head there. You stay with the others."

Dick nodded as Jack ran off.

….

We see an image of the spirits, a hologram projected by Vic's forearm panel, and pull back as they repeat the previous chant and Starfire speaks. She is eyeing the playback worriedly. The runes on the walls have faded out.

Starfire, "it appears to be some kind of…. Prophecy."

Bryan, "right on the money there, Star."

Vic, "whatever it is, it doesn't sound good."

Changeling, "this is some serious evil, even for Slade."

Dick and Jack descend the stairs.

Dick, "not Slade. Whoever he's working for."

Starfire, "Skath."

Dick, "'the gem shall be his portal.'"

Dick crossed the chamber to inspect the Mark chiseled on the wall.

Dick, "Skath is coming, and this gem is how he gets here. If we're going to stop him, we need to find it and destroy it."

A sudden, savage kick from Dick reduces that particular stone slab to gravel, but Starfire pays it only a moment's notice before looking off elsewhere.

Starfire, "Richard? Where is Raven? And Jack?"

Dick, "Raven's not coming. Jack is gonna check on her."

Dick dashes into the total blackness of a passage exposed by his attack on the masonry.

….

We see Raven's room, the books stacked all over the place as when this whole circus began. Candles light themselves as the door opens and she stands in the hall, surveying the area; the marks on her person have disappeared again. With the help of her powers, she retrieves the book she hid under her bed, then clears a wide section of the floor.

Raven, "you might be able to stop me from meditating…."

She raises one hand, causing two flasks filled with sand on a nearby bookshelf to pop their corks and float over to her. The contents pour out in a circle, putting her within.

Raven, "... but you can't stop me from leaving!"

Candles arrange themselves around the ring and light up as she sits cross-legged. We see the book in her lap; she places the fingertips of one hand on the cover, her eyes are closed.

Raven starts chanting with building intensity, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos…. Carazon Rakashas Endere…. Vaserix Endrien Azarath…. Azarath, Azarath!"

During the second part of the incantation, flecks of bluish light begin to pop from the ring of sand and form into a cylindrical barrier that reaches all the way to the ceiling. On the third part, she floats clear of the floor and opens her eyes, which now glow brilliant white, and we see a newly opened, swirling vortex in the tiles overhead. A few loose scraps of paper then fly past as Raven is pulled up into the portal.

That's right as Jack, out of breath, barges in and gasps, "Raven!"

He runs into the portal after her!

And with a blinding flash the sheet of light disintegrates into flickering shreds at floor and ceiling before the portal seals itself.

….

Another flash, and we are looking straight down into an immense circular shaft whose bottom disappears into the complete dark. The walls are lined with a spiral staircase, and the other seven Titans at the top of it. This is the space Dick uncovered after smashing the carving of the Mark of Skath, and all peer cautiously over the landing's edge.

Vic, "so, how far down do you think it goes?"

Bryan, "all the way to the depths of hades, it looks like…."

Changeling, "only one way to find out."

Changeling tries to hock up a loogie, but Rose quickly thwacks him over the head and yells, "no!"

Kom' grabs a rock and throws it down instead, deeming that a lot more sanitary.

After a few seconds, they hear it hit the ground.

Vic, "that's far."

Dick heads for the stairs, "then we better get started. I'm willing to bet that gem is down there."

The others start down.

Vic, "yeah, but what else is down there with it?"

Rose, "let's hope we don't find out."

….

We see a flow of energy that streams down like a waterfall. After a second or two, Raven pulls into view, flying against its current; we are now within the passage she opened with her spell, and wearing the most single-mindedly determined expression she has ever sported up to this point. As she ascends, bat-like, screeching apparitions pass her going the other way; when she looks down after them, she finds that the lower end has gone bright red-orange.

"Raven!"

Rave gasps and turns to see Jack standing there.

Raven, "Jack! What're you doing here?!"

Jack, "I'm not letting you do this alone. Now what-"

The spirits disappear into the lurid radiance, which begins to expand so fast that Raven has to put it in overdrive. Jack runs after her as fast as he can. The acceleration is barely enough to keep either of them ahead, though, and flames from the pit lick at their heels; finally they gasp in shock and are swallowed up in the inferno….

….

Reviews:

raven 2012: yeah, I had fun writing that part.

Bailey Radcliff: thank you very much. Glad you're excited. Hope you'll enjoy the film. Your family sounds nice.

GreenD109: while I agree with most of your points, I think Starfire's speech could be applied to anyone who is like her friends.

Canadude2029: agreed. I'm glad he never came back. And now we can continue with the Trigon arc….

Yang34: I respect your opinion…. But I personally love Starfire's look from the comics. And her look in this story is meant to be a mix of her design from the show and from the comic. It's mostly the cartoon design, but with a slightly more revealing outfit like her comic one, since Starfire gets her power from soaking up solar energy in the comics, much like Superman.

DaV1nc136: yeah, I found it so satisfying to give that Clorbag some pain. This episode is so interesting to discuss because of its topics and such. Everyone with a smart brain hates Val-Yor. And yeah, I'm also someone with Asbergers and Tourettes Syndrome, And was relentlessly bullied as a kid.

….

And now we continue the Trigon arc.