Okay, so it's definitely been a long, long time and this should've been finished awhile ago. I had actually forgotten about this story before it was recently reviewed by so thank-youfor reminding me about this story :) ...Well, here is the long overdue last chapter!

Another side note to be aware of: This was the first chaptered story I tried writing on the site and I began it about 4 years ago...obviously my writing has evolved...going back and reading some of this, there is a lot that I would change now to make the story transition better and such, but seeing as it's already written, I decided to leave it alone...Hopefully the story is still good with the lack of good character development in the beginning...Anyway, I thought I'd put that out there...

Sundiata

Previously:

Raven chanted her mantra to clear her mind for the battle before stepping onto the forest clearing that they'd recently battled on. About 100 feet away she could see Slade, in his gleaming mask and all. Her worst fear. She was done running, she'd restore the world to normalcy or die trying.

Raven got into her battle stance and Slade did the same. Then, as they lunged for each other, all hell broke loose.

Raven had her sword drawn, a powerful white light emitting from the handle. She swung at Slade in mid-air, slicing his bo-staff in half. As she landed, Raven allowed herself to grin, she was sure that she'd taken him by surprise. However, the advantage was short lived. In the distance, Raven could see Slade's red aura encompass him. Uh-oh.

Raven readied the bow and arrow that she had brought with her, imagining the arrow would go sailing through Slade's head. However, before she could get the bow loaded, Slade appeared behind her, delivered a swift blow to her temple, and picked up the weapon. He tried to use the bow on her fallen form, however, he soon discovered that it would not work for him. To prevent Raven from using it, he snapped the bow in half, discarding it. He then turned his attention to his enemy once more, only to find that she was sitting up.

Raven pushed herself up, embarrassed by being taken down by such an easy blow, especially with spectators watching, Slade's army on one end, hers on the other. Raven pushed on her palms to get up and visibly flinched when she realized that her hand was atop a skull from a fallen comrade during the most recent battle. Angry, and with a new determination, Raven was almost standing when Slade's foot connected with her stomach, sending her flying back. Somewhere in the air, Raven had lost her mother's sword. Raven cursed her luck. This time, she wasted no time getting up, ignoring the shooting pain.

She then summoned her magic with her famous mantra, hitting Slade several times and knocking him to the ground. But Raven knew better than to think she had won. Sure enough, Slade was back into his fighting stance moments later, completely unscathed. He then summoned fire to the palms of his hands and, at that point, Raven knew her best bet was to avoid the hell fire.

He lunged at her, sending several flaming attacks her way, which she dodged with difficulty.

"So this is the person who is meant to overthrow my kingdom?" asked Slade, mockingly, "A weak, unexceptional, little girl whose powers cannot begin to compare with mine. How pathetic."

This infuriated Raven. All of her life she was perceived as weak and incapable and she hated being seen as such. She had defied all expectations then and she didn't plan on letting Slade get the best of her.

"You're a monster, and I hope that when you go to hell that you are tortured for all of those that you've carelessly killed."

Using her powers, Raven lifted the bones in the field, many sharp from being stepped on, and hurled them at Slade. Slade blocked most of the shards from hitting him, however, one grazed his arm, hitting a weak spot in his armor and grazing his skin (A/N: if you look at old armor, the whole arm was rarely covered).

With that, Slade's aura disappeared and he began to crumble in front of them until he fell, another skeleton to occupy those in the field. It took a few moments for it to register that she had won, but the cheering of both crowds confirmed that she was, in fact, victorious.

Soon, Raven's friends from camp descended the field to congratulate her. Raven allowed herself to be passed from person to person, being hugged, patted, and high-fived. She was fairly sure that she had been congratulated by Roy, Alan, Garfield and Victor, but after awhile, all of the faces seemed to blur together. The one person that she hadn't seen, however, was her griot, Richard. She was fairly sure that she'd remember seeing him.

"Dude! You're the new queen of Azarath!" yelled Gar, earning several cheers of approval.

Much to her dismay, Raven could feel her cheeks turning scarlet at the praise.

"All that's left is for us to travel to the Capitol and announce your victory," supplied Roy.

Raven nodded, she knew what protocol dictated, but she still had yet to see Richard.

"Tell them to pack out, we head out in an hour," replied Raven, before slipping out of the celebratory crowd.

She quickly teleported to their camp despite being fatigued by the battle; there was no way she was going to let someone see her walking away from the crowd and attempt to drag her back for more celebration. She knew her friends had meant well, but she was never one to enjoy being the center of attention.

After teleporting, Raven had no time to catch her bearings before being engulfed in another hug. Knowing it was Richard, she hugged back.

"I told you that you'd be fine," he said gently.

"I have no idea how I won, I got lucky," replied Raven, knowing that her words were true.

"I think I have it figured out, actually," stated Richard, pulling back from their embrace enough to see Raven's confused face.

"How?"

"The dead bone that hit him, well, it absorbed his powers on contact since it was also dead. It probably now holds the power that Slade did, but since you used your powers, it's probably impossible to spot, which is definitely a good thing. That's something that should be forgotten," supplied Richard.

Raven nodded, finally understanding her victory. Still, she had been incredibly lucky.

Raven buried her face in Richard's chest, mumbling "I missed you, a lot."

She hadn't expected him to hear her, or to respond with, "Me too."

Raven then pulled back to look into his captivating cerulean eyes, seeing the warmth and compassion held in their depths. Before anything could become of the charged moment, they both heard the noise of the approaching people. They quickly let go of one another and Raven cursed herself for telling the men to pack up.

Upon reaching the top of the hill, Roy's eyes traveled from Raven to Richard, both looking incredibly guilty of something, and gave a knowing smile. Ever since their training, whenever Raven described Richard, he could see the fondness she held for her friend. So, in short, he wasn't surprised by this turn of events. He noticed, too, that Victor seemed to pick up on the same thing. Gar, however, remained clueless as ever.

As Richard and Raven went their separate ways to pack up their things, Victor approached Richard.

"Hey, man, I know you like her," began Victor in a serious tone, "And I'm happy for y'all. But, she's like my sister, and if you ever dare to hurt her, I will come after you. Got it?"

Richard nodded, before replying, "I would never do that, really."

Victor nodded solemnly before grinning, "Good."

As soon as Victor left to pack, Richard exhaled from relief. The hard look in Victor's eyes was definitely something Richard wasn't used to seeing from his comrade and it unnerved him. Barely 10 minutes later, Roy approached Richard as well. Before Richard could begin to worry that he'd get the same hostile look from Roy, however, Roy began to speak.

"She likes you a lot, you know," he stated calmly.

"Really?" asked Richard in disbelief.

"Yeah," he said, "Whenever she talked about you, you could see she cared about you. A lot. And though she would never admit it to me, I think she had a crush on you when you were kids too."

"Seriously?" he asked with his characteristic lopsided grin.

Roy nodded, "So quit wasting time. You of all people should know how precious it is."

Richard nodded in affirmation, "Yeah. And Roy? Thanks."

Roy nodded before wandering away to check on everyone and make sure they'd be able to leave soon. Richard was beaming inside, Roy's words were playing over and over in his mind. He began to pack with a newfound jubilance.

The journey to the Capitol took a few days, however, upon their arrival Raven was pronounced Queen of Azarath and a celebratory feast was thrown in her honor. Raven, although pleased that she could help her people, hated being Queen. First of all, it required that she always wear dresses, something that she was unaccustomed to. And most people treated her differently for it. AThey had been back only a week, and already, Raven had less time to spend with her friends. She had recently been reunited with her childhood friends, Tara, Jinx, and Kori, whom she still loved and got along with, but she was disappointed that she couldn't spend more time with them. She had barely seen Richard either, especially since he was reinstated as her advisor and he too had several meetings to attend.

Raven sighed. She stared at her pallid reflection in her ostentatious vanity, missing the simplicity of her early childhood. Finally, deciding that dwelling on the past would do no good, Raven rose, her midnight blue silk gown rustling with her movement. She headed for the castle gardens, which had been newly built, for an hour of peace and meditation. Upon arriving there, she was surprised to find Richard already there, mumbling slightly to himself.

"I hope I'm not interrupting a riveting conversation," she stated, amusement seeping into her usually monotone voice.

Richard whirled around in shock, before grinning at her and replying, "Not at all."

Hesitantly, she smiled back.

Unsure of what else to say, Raven awkwardly began, "How've you been this past week? Not too stressed out, I hope."

Richard had been, in fact, stressed out which was why he sought solitude in the gardens in the first place. His week had been hectic and he never could find a time to talk to Raven alone to tell her how he felt.

But seeing her before him, he forgot about all of his troubles and honestly replied, "Nothing I can't handle."

And it was true. Helping her in any way was something that he would gladly do.

She nodded, "That's good."

Not sure of what else to say, Raven looked away and fidgeted with an invisible stray thread on her gown. Richard smiled to himself, recalling Roy's words. And, yet, even with Roy's assurance, he couldn't stop his heart from racing. Still, it was now or never.

Cautiously, Richard made his way to Raven, taking her nervous hands in his own. Raven could feel her face flush as she met Richard's gaze. Hesitantly, they both inched their faces closer until their lips connected in a sweet, chaste kiss. During the kiss, Raven's arms moved of their own accord around his neck and his strong arms encircled her slim waist. Neither of them parted until the demand for air forced them apart.

And then Raven knew that things were perfect with Richard by her side. They smiled at one another, reveling in the perfect moment.

Since then, they managed to steal away from their duties from time to time, and eventually, Richard proposed. Overjoyed, Raven accepted and they announced it to their friends and, eventually, to the rest of the kingdom, who shared in the jubilance. The royal wedding was incredibly lavish, despite Raven's protests that it was too much, and in the end, Raven and Richard were incredibly happy together. Madame Rouge and her son remained in exile and were never heard from again. And the bone shard was forgotten in time and remained lost from humanity in that field of bones.

And not to be cliche, but they all lived (relatively) happily ever after.

And I've finally finished this story! I'm sure not many people will be reading this, but it still feels good to be done with this story, despite the fun time I had writing this (and it's my first complete chaptered story, woo!)...If you do read this, please please review!

~RukiaRae