"RAVEN!" The sudden yell has Raven jump out of bed while still partially asleep, her powers begin flowing around her as she looks ready for a fight, still dressed in only the large black T-shirt. She almost leaps at the figure in the open doorway before realizing who it is.
"Richard?" She says with confusion leaking into her voice as she calms down. "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong?! Look at you!" Richard almost yells as he turns on the light.
"What are you…?" Raven doesn't finished the sentence before something wet runs down the side of her nose, the smell has her raise her hand race to her head, finding a huge gash running over her forehead. As her hand comes back covered in blood, she notices her bed is drenched in the same liquid. Raven looks once at Richard once before she storms past him and barricades herself in the private bathroom. The t-shirt is practically blasted off her as she stands before the large mirrors behind the sink, revealing the previously white underwear now as soaked as the bed in blood, and a host of cuts, bruises and burns that covers her from top to bottom.
"Raven? What's….by the gods." Diana's voice filters through her mind.
"Raven, are you ok?" Richard asks from the other side.
"I…I don't know." Raven replies, startled by the wounds.
"Raven let me in; I'll get you to the infirmary." Richard says from the other side, when he receives no reply, the door is kicked open before he enters, finding Raven frozen by her own mirror image. "Raven?"
"I…I don't know where I got them." Raven manages without breaking off from the mirror. She doesn't register it happening before Richard has scooped her off the ground and carries her out of the room in his arms and races down the hallways of the manor.
"ALFRED!" Richard yells as he runs down the main staircase. "IN THE CAVE!" He continues as he uses the secondary cave entrance, a doorway hidden behind a bookcase, opened by a piano. "Can't this thing go any faster?" He growls impatiently as they ride down the very old elevator before everything goes dark before he finds himself standing on the medical platform in the cave.
"You can put me down Richard." Raven says as he looks around confused.
"You're hurt; you shouldn't use your powers for that." He continues as he puts her down on the bed, before racing off to find bandages and the other instruments needed, it's as he races up that Raven notices he is only wearing a pair of black boxer shorts. "Damn it, where is everything?!" He grumbles as he returns empty handed, if he wasn't so obviously panicked, Raven would have found this amusing.
"Richard, I am not hurt." Raven says as he comes close enough for her to grab his arm, he looks at her in confusion.
"You're bleeding heavily, must be the loss of blood." He mumbles.
"Richard!" Raven says fiercely. "Calm down!"
"Master Richard, I heard your…oh dear." Alfred exclaims as he comes down the stairs, wearing his pajamas under his morning coat.
"What's the commotion? Whoa!" Tim says as he comes down right after Alfred.
"Ok, everyone stop!" Raven says firmly as she gets off the bed. "I feel fine."
"Sure don't look like it." Tim adds, before receiving a glare.
"But Miss Raven, how did you get them?" Alfred asks.
"How did you avoid waking up?" Richard continues.
"Look, I went to bed and woke up with them…what were you doing in my room?" She suddenly asks while staring at Richard.
"I…erm…" He begins as Alfred begins staring at him as well. "Later, you're hurt."
"I feel fine…" Raven says before her eyes roll back into her head and she collapses, only to get caught by Richard before she hits the ground.
"Damn it, it me that's supposed to be this stubborn." Richard says as he puts her onto the bed, where she awakens again, blinking a few times.
"Blackout, urg, now I know where I got them." She says as she sits up, ignoring Richards attempt to push her down. "It's the demon."
"Miss Raven?" Alfred asks but keeps his distance.
"What demon?" Tim asks.
"What? Oh, it's my other half." Raven sighs.
"You kept that somewhere inside of you." Richard mentions.
"Yes, before that fight, my anger was completely tied to it. Now my anger is my own, and not my fathers. I left my demon side with Rage. I guess that may not have been the best idea now." She says while looking down herself.
"This is Rage doing this to the demon, but it's affecting you here." Tim surmises.
"Yes, it seems to be it." Raven agrees. "I need to meditate."
"Not before those wounds are bandaged." Richard says firmly, worried she would bleed out.
"Whatever." Raven shrugs before lying down, floating above the bed and closes her eyes.
Raven's Mind:
"Raven, thank the gods you are ok." Diana says as Raven appears in the council room where they others are gathered as well, it had not gone her by that they mostly stayed here.
"I'm not ok just yet." Raven says.
"What's going on?" Superman asks, Raven gives him a smirk.
"It seems to be that I cannot continue treating my demon half as I do now." She says before a piece of white cloth materializes in her hand. "I only have two options now and I think you should see it, follow me. You too Hemon, Mom." She says to the group as the two ghosts enter through the door. The group flies down to the door to Rage's domain before flying down the tunnels, getting greeted by another scream as they enter the huge cavern. "Anger stop." Raven says as they fly over the floor towards the demons cell, finding Anger and Hatred standing silently at the open door. "Release it." Rage moves aside as Hatred pulls the demons shackles out of the wall before dragging it out by the hair, accompanied by its whining before it is dropped before Raven's feet. They all note that it is sporting every wound Raven has in the real world, confirming her theory. "Look at me." Raven says quietly with menace leaking into her voice. The demon looks up at her, Raven didn't think it possible for a demon to look so utterly hurt and terrified as this one does. "It seems I can no longer keep you like you should be kept for all the misery you have caused me."
"I…I…"
"Shut up!" Raven snaps at its attempt to speak, it immediately curls up on the ground, scared to look at Raven. "I only have two choices now regarding you. One is your utter annihilation, sending you into oblivion." The demon curls up even more at the mention. "While I am willing to brave the consequences of doing that if I have to, you have a choice in the matter. Choose oblivion and the pain and fear goes away with you, or you choose this." Raven says as she holds out the piece of cloth waiting for the demon to raise its eyes to see what she is talking about, it seems surprised.
"You...I'd…"
"You become a true part of me, no different than any of my other emotions, you will be treated like the rest and you will have a seat on the council. So you either work with me and like it or you go to the place nothing returns from, it is your choice." Raven says still holding the cloth.
"But…I'd surrender everything I am…I'd be nothing." The demon finally braves to looking Raven in the eyes.
"Untrue, you will be you and still have a voice on the council, you just won't have the freedom you previously enjoyed and everyone will know you for what you are. Rome once leveled their greatest enemy; Carthage, with the ground before building a new city on top of it. In this case, you are Carthage, what's it going to be, rehabilitation or the salt?" The demon seems to think, while still locking eyes with Raven for a full minute. The others can see it bare it's teeth at her for a short second, seemingly about to attack before it slowly lowers its head in submission as it takes hold of the edge cloth. "Good." Raven says as she lets the cloth fall over the demon, covering it completely. The cloth seems to come alive as it lands as it wraps itself around the demon that begins struggling against it. The struggle is short as the demon is soon wrapped tightly inside a cloth cocoon.
"Raven, what is going on?" Shayera asks.
"As you saw, what it was going through down here was beginning to affect me in the real world, something I am beginning to suspect you are also doing, but in a much smaller degree. In the past she and I have been very much two people in the same mind, one I constantly had to fight. Now I make her do what she tried to do to me." Raven explains without taking her eyes off the still cocoon.
"She is embracing you as she tried to force you to embrace your father." Hemon says.
"Correct, from now on, she and I become one. I will no longer have her as an excuse for anything I do, no more fighting to keep her down. That is why you are here." She says to the group as she turns to face them. "I am letting you know that from his point forwards, I am no different from anyone else who makes an inexcusable mistake, no internal personality taking over me. Now, rise, Demon." Raven says, as the cocoon unravels and a figure stands up as the cloak changes color and material. As the others watch, the figure raises her head behind Raven's back, revealing it to be Raven's first demonic form covered by a deep red cloak that seems to be constantly running with blood.
"No…I am no longer a demon." The new emotion says. "You have utterly destroyed that part, I am; Carnage." She says with Raven's calm voice as Raven turns to regard her.
"Indeed, I am the demon now." Raven says. "Carnage it is, now go to your room." The emotion lowers its head before marching into the cell and closes its door behind it.
"About time, we were about to make room for Malice down here too." Anger says, sounding relived, it surprises everyone but Raven.
"I really hate her." Hatred sighs.
"Hey aren't you two supposed to be, erm, angry and hateful of this?" Flash asks.
"Oh we are." Anger says. "But we aren't as mindless as you may think; actually I think I have more of a mind now with her around." The emotion continues as she thumbs at the closed door.
"It will represent the red mist where no reason can reach me." Raven says while rubbing her eyes. "Where you have to stop me, by any means, no buts, and no mercy."
"That's a little harsh?" John notes.
"I believe you all know what kind of state of mind I will be in. I won't be a person, rather a maddened animal with no restraint at all. I need you to promise me, if we get you back, that you will do what is necessary if I ever become that. If I fall to that level, I don't want to wake up to find out I have injured or killed someone."
"You're asking us to kill you." Flash says.
"Yes." Raven confirms.
"It's a promise." Batman says. "If we cannot contain you."
"Bruce, I am talking about the point where even Joker thinks I'm too nuts to be around." Raven argues.
"I swore long ago, I would never take a human life. But you will be put down if we cannot contain you." Batman continues.
"It's the best you are going to get." Superman adds.
"I doubt any of us will like it and hopefully it will never happen, but you got it." Shayera says, getting nods from the two 'Johns' in agreement with her.
"Death before dishonor." Diana says quietly before nodding, she wouldn't have it any other way either.
"Well this is all very gloomy, but I don't think you will come to that." Flash adds.
"Azerath will have abandoned you by then." Hemon says. "But we will only leave if asked to."
"And I promised you long ago." Arella says with a rock hard voice, betraying how much I really hurt hear hearing all of this.
"You did and I hope you will never have to live up to it. Thank you." Raven says, feeling relived.
"Well, I don't know about you lot, but it will be over my dead body I let her run the show." Anger says from behind Raven.
"Me too, I still hate her." Hatred adds.
"Well you hate everyone and everything." Anger shrugs at her colleague.
"That she does." Raven agrees. "I trust this solution suits you better Superman?"
"Very." Superman confirms.
"Good, I apologize for the abrupt awakening for some. But we should get back."
"I'm getting weirded out by the floor." Flash whispers to Shayera.
"I've been meaning to change that." Anger sighs. "It's more Carnages style anyways."
"I will leave you to the redecorating." Raven nods at the emotions. "Bruce, a word?"
"Sure." The man replies before they depart.
"I hear you are considering not returning." Raven says from the top of the satellite as Batman lands behind her.
"Mind reading?" Bruce asks.
"Filtered into my mind while I was sleeping." Raven replies. "Are you?"
"Yes." Bruce says quietly, wondering if Clark will hear the conversation.
"I understand why." Raven sighs as she turns around to face him.
"We aren't meant to return from the dead."
"Perhaps, perhaps not. But who says you are dead?" Batman looks at her, prompting her to elaborate. "Your souls have been forcibly separated from your bodies, that is called astral projection and as you know, I do that a lot, and from what I have read, Fate and Zatanna can do it as well."
"Our bodies are decomposing." Bruce notes.
"Not really, there is something about them, I can't say what exactly, but I have a hunch that the Spectre didn't put you all back together just to have you rot away. I'm sure enough about that to say that we could leave them outside of the League morgue for weeks and still nothing would happen to them."
"My heart is not beating and my lungs do not draw breath that usually has doctors to declare a man deceased." Batman counters.
"Actually the rules of first aid say ones head has to be visually being separated from the body before you can stop trying to apply first aid." Raven counters flatly. "Richard drilled that into us, you wouldn't believe the amount of times he had to repeat that to Beastboy." She continues, reminded of the sessions with the plastic torso. "Think of what we are doing now as first aid and the Spectre was kind enough to put Clarks head back onto his shoulders."
"Are you telling me you won't let me leave?" Batman asks in an almost hostile tone.
"Not at all, all here are free to leave if they want, my emotions excluded. I am just trying to convince you not to leave simply because it may be easier for you." Raven replies calmly as Batman walks up to stand right in front of her, appearing very menacing.
"Not all roads have to be the long ones." He says while towering over her.
"I can guess why you are conflicted; you are so close to them you can almost see them, but do you think they would want you to come to them because they are close or it's easier?" Raven replies calmly.
"Don't!" Raven doesn't need to be an empath to know he is beyond angry now. "You never knew them!"
"No, I didn't. But I know no real parent would want you to give up in a situation like this." Her reasoning earns her a lightning fast slap to the side of the face, thought it doesn't make her break eye contact.
"You're moving out of Wayne Manor." Batman says with a voice that has turned low and deadly, Raven appears unaffected by the order.
"Would they want you?" Raven continues. "If you insist on finding out, then you are not the man I thought you were, think about it." Raven says as she fades from view in time to avoid a second palm passing through where her head was, leaving Bruce to seethe at the spot on the ground she occupied before he spots a very shocked looking Superman floating far below the station.
Back in the Batcave:
"Why am I dressed like a mummy?" Raven asks as she wakes up in the cave completely wrapped in bandages.
"Your wounds weren't healing." Richard notes from besides her. "What happened?"
"My theory was correct; it was the wounds the demon suffered that were surfacing. It left me with offering it two choices, be cast into nothingness or become one with me. It chose to live." Raven replies as she sits up.
"Erm, is that supposed to make any sense?" Tim asks.
"Split personality becoming one." Richard replies, getting a nod from Raven as she begins peeling off the bandages. "You shouldn't."
"I'm healed, look." She replies, pulling off the ones covering her head, revealing it to be completely healed.
"Good thing that was all Dick's work." Tim adds. "He was worried sick."
"Alfred went up to make breakfast." Richard continues. "It was time to get up anyways."
"Did you just get home or?" Raven asks, returning to why he was looking into her room in the first place.
"Home, was about to turn in." Richard replies suddenly realizing where she is going. "I was just checking up on you, honest!" He says while waving his hand in front of him defensively as Raven gets off the bed, cornering him between her and a few monitors.
"Why?" Raven asks.
"Well…I…erm…" Richard begins.
"Just tell her Dick, before she makes you." Tim intervenes, deriving much amusement from watching the two.
"Ah..well…" Richard tries again.
"Well what?" Raven tries.
"I…I…am just worried that you would just disappear again without a trace." He finally manages. "I don't want to lose you again."
"You never lost me Richard, thank you for the concern." Raven says giving him a warm smile before turning away.
Later that day, over the Yellow Sea:
"Raven is there a reason why Bruce is acting like an angry bear?" Superman asks several hours after Raven and Richard have left Gotham in the jet. That time has been spent by Raven to mentally prepare for what's coming, reading a few files on the noteworthy people on the island and ignoring the dirty pink sweater Richard handed her before departure along with an old pair of pants.
"Isn't he always?" Raven sends back, Bruce and her hadn't spoken one word or thought since the meeting on the satellite and she hadn't relayed his order.
"Not like this." Superman continues. "Even Diana gets the ice stare."
"Must be one of those days." Raven shrugs.
"Why did he tell you to move out of the Mansion?" Superman says firmly, a quick scan of her mind tells Raven he is having his arms crossed and that he is alone.
"Don't tell any of the others this. Bruce is having doubts about coming back he thinks it's not supposed to happen. I confronted him about the real reason why."
"His parents." Superman surmises.
"I asked him if they would want him to go to them when there is a chance for him to continue." Raven sighs.
"He doesn't like talking about them. So he got angry."
"Yes, but since he is still present I think it was worth it."
"Kicking you out of Wayne Manor? I hope you realize you may have burned all bridges to him now?" Superman continues in a concerned tone.
"If that is the price for returning him as well, then it is one I pay gladly. Besides, there is still hope he will admit I am right."
"And how do you know? Perhaps he is right, as usual, that we shouldn't." Superman asks while waving his hand in front of him as if Raven was in front of him.
"Bruce knows many things, but he's not the expert on souls and magic. Also, I don't believe a being like the Spectre puts you all back together just for the funeral, everything he does has a purpose. And his sense of humor only applies to those he passes judgment over. Finally there is something about your bodies that isn't supposed to be there, I can't say exactly what it is, but it keeps them fresh." Raven explains.
"You were only out for a few hours and you didn't see ours when you dropped Nemesis off." Superman argues.
"You need to be attuned to sense it, but I could and it was more than just residue from what Moonface did."
"And Zauriel, Fate and Zatanna didn't notice?"
"Zauriel is an angle; to him resurrection is stealing even if you never left this plane. I don't know why Fate didn't see it, he should be able to, at least I think he should, not to mention he might have sensed something but chosen not to speak about it. And, well, Zatanna had been drinking, alcohol tends to ruin sights and senses that are mystical. When we get back, we can ask them to have a look."
"If we make it back." Superman notes. "So Zauriel considers this stealing, what about you?"
"You are supposed to be eternally optimistic." Raven sends back while smiling to herself. "But if you are asking me as a human, I will tell you that I am doing first aid the way I can. If you ask Etrigan? He would probably eat you in your current state."
"Rae, hate to break up the internal conversation you are having, but we are coming up on the drop off point." Richard says from up front.
"Raven, get ready." Bruce cuts through with a voice completely devoid of emotion.
"Commander in chief is still here it seems." Superman sends. "We will be in the council chamber."
"Got everything you need?" Richard asks.
"Yup, nothing except myself and an ugly sweater, how far do I have to swim?" Raven asks as she puts away several printed files she has previously been reading.
"20 kilometers North East, that way." Richard points with a black gloved finger.
"Sloppy." Bruce growls from the inside, inwardly Raven guesses she is in for a treatment with the Iron Glove as Richard called it when nothing seemed to be up to Bruce's standards.
"Remember, no flying and no powers or they will see. Use the currents to help you."
"Got it." Raven says as she changes her appearance to an almost skinny, dark skinned girl with high cheekbones with black hair and brown eyes. "Going to slow down?"
"No can do, but at this range, you should be able to use your powers for a safe landing!" Richard yells as the top hatch opens. "Rae?!"
"Yeah?!" Raven yells back as she unbuckles.
"Good luck!"
"Thanks!" Raven yells before leaping out of the plane after gathering her powers to slow her speed and cushion her impact with the water, the black shield ends up resembling a surfboard as it skips three times before Raven drops into the cold water. Poking her head over the water, she sees the Bat-Wing disappear in the evening horizon.
"Get moving." Bruce grumbles.
"Got at least 20km to go in freezing waters and with sharks in it if I remember correctly, no, I will stay here." Raven replies before taking the first strokes.
Later:
"20km, my demonic butt!" Raven growls internally, it had been dark for a long while now and she was sure she had spent at least four hours in the water by now.
"Less complaining." Bruce sends back, it had been the same all the way, Raven sending one message, primarily to the others and Batman knocking her on the head for either going to slow, using too much energy, making too much noise and so on, Raven had just started to ignore him.
"You're doing fine as long as you can see the island." John replies, Raven had noted that Batman was actually distancing himself from the others, moving further and further back into the council room. "Getting closer isn't it?" It is, what was a small black spot when she was dropped off, has now become a bigger black spot, but it seems to be still far off.
"Fortunately." Raven sends back as she keeps swimming, though clawing at the water is a better description, she is beyond tired now, but she keeps going with little grace. "Two kilometers I take it."
"Keep going." Bruce continues.
"Way to go Raven!" Wally cheers as Raven is within 500 meters of the coastline, where the surf is visible now, even in the dark.
"Yipee." Is all Raven can manage at this point; swimming was never her strongest suit.
"Mind the bottom; hear sea porcupines make their home here." Superman mentions, as Raven can feel the current finally beginning to work with her, instead of against her.
"Float face up the rest of the way." Batman says, finally offering something useful to the swim. And Raven turns around and let's herself be carried along. As she floats, she looks at the stars trying to not fall asleep, in her exhausted state of mind she doesn't sense the part of the creature she is being carried towards before she feels the stinging tentacles on the top of her head.
"Nrg…!" Raven exclaims in surprise as she raises a hand to her head that also comes into contact with the tentacle, at what is first a stinging and burning sensation is quickly turning into numbness, paralyzing her as more of the stringy tentacles comes into contact with her skin.
"Jellyfish, the actual body can be far away." Batman says without a note of concern in his voice as Raven slowly stops moving, leaving her to float through the tentacles.
"Can't move." Raven sends to the others, admitting to herself that she is scared, it's like the others notice.
"Stay calm, you are ok as long as you are protected by your clothes." John says.
"H…how long w…will it last?" Raven asks, hoping that she wasn't going to drift out to sea again.
"With your constitution, a matter of hours." Batman says."You should have paid more attention to where you were going." Raven has to clamp down on herself to not snap back a reply; he is deliberately pissing her off, or trying to.
Right now she is reminded of one of the stories Richard told her and the others about how brutal Bruce could be during training, Richard was young and Bruce had him practice against a stationary mechanical contraption that was supposed to increase his agility, awareness and precision, the first few times Richard got his butt served on a silver platter and the contraption didn't go gentle with him. That time Bruce had not cared at all for the bruises Richard got, only that he got up and repeated, hauling Richard to his feet when he couldn't do it himself, ending up with Bruce walking out of the cave with Richard lying defeated in front of the robot covered in bruises.
Authors Notes: Next up Oolong Island's unfriendly immigration & custom services.