Will and Testament (Part II)
Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form own the show Teen Titans, nor the various DC comics on which this fanfiction is based.
Raven is tentative about the course of her teleportation.
Given the last experience with Fate's tower, both women are understandably cautious.
When they rise from the stone floor without any issues, though, both release a held breath in relief.
"Looks like he got that taken care of," Jinx sighs.
"As soon as you left," a voice states, causing the meta to almost jump.
"Thank you. Can I assume that you were privy to the conference?" Raven asks.
"Indeed. Do you believe that they'll be able to pull it off?" Doctor Fate returns.
"We're hopeful," Jinx responds with a shrug.
"In the meantime, I need to procure a room in your tower, hopefully only for a short time," Raven adds. "I have need to do some more astral traveling."
"That's unwise, with your soul as unsteady as it already is," Fate retorts.
"I'm going with you," Jinx adds in chorus.
"I need to delve into my own mind, not another plane. It is very probably not a good idea, given my exhaustion, but we do not have time for me to cater to exhaustion right now."
She turns her gaze to the meta, an apologetic grimace coloring her expression.
"And I need you to keep an eye on the situation. If something goes wrong while I'm out, I need you to be able to keep in touch with Gizmo for both of us and stay updated."
Jinx feels something off about Raven's statement, and her inability to figure it out further irritates her.
"Gizmo can handle it. If that monster's really alive in there, I'm not going to let you go in there alone, Raven," she hisses back.
"If he's really not a figment of the Dreaming, then he's currently siphoned to a shell and bound in chains," the empath reasons.
The doubt glows in her eyes, though, and Jinx presses on it.
"He's an immortal with anger problems and a lot of time to make plans. Let's say he really was talking to you there. He'll know you'll be coming. You really think that he won't have some plan already waiting?"
Suddenly remembering their audience, Raven blanches and takes a light hold on Jinx's arm.
With a nod of thanks, they quickly leave the staring Doctor Fate, the meta's hands balling into fists as they make their way to an empty room.
Jinx spins on her the second they clear the door, her eyes giving off sparks of angry, pink light.
Raven winces at the firm grasp on her shoulder, the still-sore muscles creaking slightly.
"Raven, so fucking help me, if I have to, I'll find a way into that pocket of yours and pull the damn mirror out. I'm not letting you go against him alone."
"Jinx-"
"I'm way past too tired for it," the meta interrupts with a hint of a growl. "He might not be real. Awesome. But if he is real, then you're going to be walking into a serious goddamn trap. I remember what you said could happen to you if something went on in there, the first time you took me there. I'm not letting it happen."
Raven's own posture becomes stiff, though she doesn't show any other outward signs of her roiling emotions.
"I can't let you join me, Jinx. If something were to happen to me while in Nevermore, and you were with me… your fate would be far worse than mine. I won't have you take that risk, either."
"Then-"
Raven moves, earning a light squeak from Jinx as she pulls her into her embrace.
"If it were not for our timetable, I would be getting a good amount of rest, with you, and we would both go in together. But if my brothers escape, then we need to prepare for the apocalypse, and I cannot run the risk of having residual traces of Trigon in my mind if I am to face my brothers. I need to clear this matter immediately. And I need someone to keep an eye, both on the situation, and on me."
"Keeping an eye on you won't do a damn bit of good, when everything'll be in your head!"
Raven tenses, and Jinx frowns when she feels it.
Pulling back, she notices the empath's eyes are downcast, another grimace curving her expression.
"Unless you think there's something to keep an eye out for."
It isn't stated as a question, but the meta notices that the demonling looks decidedly conflicted anyway.
"Raven, why do I have to keep an eye on you?" she demands.
"So that you can set Fate on me, if any event requiring such a thing arises."
"Raven-"
"It is possible that, were something to occur, I might slip into a coma. However, far more useful to my father is an event wherein my body remains fully functional, with him running things instead. If I come out of this seeming abnormal, I need to die, immediately. I will not have my powers used for any such purpose. And you know how to do it, as would Fate. Together, you two stand a good chance against me, even if Trigon is using every bit of potential magic I have stored in me."
The room becomes utterly silent, even Jinx's stalled breathing not breaking the silence.
When spots begin to dance before her, she remembers the need for oxygen in her burning lungs.
Even the fresh air does nothing to slow her heart's rapid pace.
She bounces between shocked, horrified, and angry for a small eternity, but the still-unfamiliar anger wins out at her fiancé's idea.
"If you think for even one damn second that I'm gonna' let you go commit suicide using me as a proxy, then you're-"
"Much like my brothers, I, too, have a very limited number of outcomes. If I go there and find nothing, then it's a non-issue. But if he's there, and I let it go, I run the risk of becoming steadily more like Trigon every time I call on my demonic I'll be leaning heavily on to beat them. Or I deal with him, now, and run the same risk, but have the chance to cut the head off a wretched snake before I get bitten. I do not plan to lose, as I am stronger than our last fight while he would be significantly weaker. But I can't allow for error. If he somehow pulls it off, I won't throw my powers in to all the other problems already facing everyone."
"And if you die while your brothers get away, then what? You were just goin' on about how screwed people would be gettin' between you an' them, but how bad'll it be if it's just them?"
"I am not planning on losing," Raven defends.
"No, you're just planning for me to kill your ass when you do!"
"I always plan for the unlikely possibilities. I won't lose to a husk of Trigon, any more than I lost to him when he was at his peak."
"Great! Then-"
"But if he's there, I will be facing him in Nevermore, and he's had a great deal more time to practice planning than I have. I can plan to not lose all I like, but I can't ignore that the plan may fall through."
Jinx's response dies on her lips, her eyes still crackling with angry light.
The women stare silently at each other, the tension ratcheting in the air with every second that passes.
"You said no more soloing things," Jinx finally growls.
Raven's hand suddenly lands on the meta's shoulder, her patience gone.
"I do not want to do this alone, Jinx! But I have no choice. Who knows what kind of damage I would cause if Trigon took over my body and powers? That can. not. happen! And I need someone who knows how to kill me out here, in the event of it happening. Fate and the others could possibly do it, but the damage in the meantime would be incomprehensible, especially if he decides to make use of my brothers."
Pain flashes across her face, and she steps closer to her lover.
"You're the only person I have ever trusted enough to divulge how to destroy me. If I lose, I need you to take care of it. I wouldn't make you do it yourself, but I need you ready, to tell Fate how to do it. Please, Nicole!"
She jerks her hand away as if burned, her body spinning away from Jinx in a blur until she was staring at her back.
"Besides," she starts with a noticeable quiver to her voice, "he might not really be there."
She throws a smile over her shoulder at Jinx before her eyes flash black.
Jinx watches her slump, her teeth grinding together as she slows her fall.
"Damnit," she hisses at the seemingly sleeping empath. "If you lose, I'll do it. And then, I'll hunt you down and kick your ghost's ass."
Raven's form seems to smirk in amusement, but the meta finds the expression too sinister for it to be reassuring…
…
Rocks crack and hiss beneath Raven's feet.
The scent of acrid smoke presses against her nostrils, drawing a grimace from the empath.
As soon as her awareness had entered her astral plane, she'd known.
There had been a distinctive, empty feeling that the realm had gained with the disappearance of her Emoticlones.
When she slipped down to her subconscious, the air seemed tense this time.
Every step across the landscape gives her the impression that she is being watched, and the air itself seems angry.
Rage's previous domain had been the obvious location for her father's bindings, and every step closer to the area affirms her suspicion.
When the heat of the volcanic hellscape reaches her, she briefly wonders at the sensation of blood in her mouth.
Her eyes narrow when the sensation becomes strong enough that she reaches up to wipe the liquid away, only to find nothing there.
As soon as she reaches up to clear the nonexistent blood away, though, a rumble rolls across the ground in three short waves, and she realizes that they're the effects of a giant's laughter.
Irritation zings through her, and a pulse of black energy rises through her skin.
When it dies down, the sensation is gone, and she finds herself even more wary.
Her hands ball to fists as she rises from the ground, fabric violently rippling around her.
She takes off through the air, her awareness constantly scanning for Trigon's presence.
An obelisk of black stone suddenly springs into existence near her side, drawing her to a jerking halt.
Raven stares at her father, finding him to be roughly three times as tall as the Dreaming's vision had suggested.
He is, nonetheless, still hollow-seeming, with skin hanging loose where muscles used to stand large.
Despite the weakness of his physical form, his eyes glow bright with magical energy, and she notices that the stone behind him is chipped and cracked.
His shackles are likewise damaged, giving off black wisps of smoke with every movement he makes.
The grin curving his lips does little for her growing feeling of being trapped.
"Daughter, it's so nice of you to come so soon!"
Raven's soul-self leaks out from her right arm, a claw of obsidian fire taking form in the burning air.
Trigon simply continues grinning, his fangs glowing harshly in the firelight.
"If I knock the bottom from that tower, will you die in the lava? Or will I simply have to drag you back up and find another way to cleanse you from my soul?"
"Ah, daughter, can you truly afford to do that?" he laughs.
Her stomach clenches at the deep sense of foreboding his words cause, but she keeps her expression neutral.
"You're corrupting my mind. It cannot continue."
"Ah, but how am I corrupting your mind, daughter? Every time you've become more like me, it's been through you calling on my powers. Because you were too weak to handle things yourself, you needed to pull on my blood, my powers, to ensure your continued survival. Can you really believe that you will be able to defeat the others without that power?"
Raven's weaponized soul-self wavers, a startled gasp escaping her before she can choke it off.
"No planned response? Pathetic! How you ever defeated me, I will never fathom."
He winces when darkness suddenly slams into him, pressing him with bone-atomizing force into the obelisk.
Raven glares at him, not feeling the way that red creeps slightly across her eyes.
"I defeated you because I am stronger than you. I may have been your Gem, but in giving me that power, you engineered your own death."
"Are," he corrects, grinning despite his obvious pain. "You are my Gem, Raven, still. Else you would not have been so utterly terrified to face the measly wraiths and ghosts that remain in that library without my influence."
"I needed to take care of you, first. Your influence would bring them all up, if you were in me when I entered," she snarls back, failing to notice the sudden elongation of her canines.
"Oh, please! If you were stronger than me, even if I did raise every single entity buried and embedded in that stone, you would wipe them away with a thought. Where's your supposed confidence, daughter?"
Raven stares at him, her heart thudding in her chest.
"Fear was not my motivation."
"Wasn't it? You must not like the humans very much, then."
"It's a calculated risk. Even if they fail, they'll make it out. Your sons won't be in any shape to do anything but scurry into the shadows with tails clasped between their legs."
"Now, those humans who bow to my every word, and their small army of magicians, and the vampire who leads them, and a collection of magical weaponry, on the other hand… My sons may not be in the proper form, but that doesn't guarantee any escape for your… friends, does it? All of which is meaningless in the face of the fact that there would be no chance of failure if you'd gone yourself. It stinks of cowardice, from where I'm hanging."
Raven's eyes flash red, and Trigon grunts as the power wraps more tightly around him.
His bones audibly creak, and several snap, under the pressure.
A disturbing satisfaction leaks into Raven's awareness as she watches blood leak from his decimated arm.
"You used Slade as an agent, knowing that I could turn him back to dust, because you knew doing it yourself would get you nowhere. You ended up using the lives of everyone I cared about to force my hand and release you. I will not be blamed of cowardice by you," she snarls.
Her fist clenches, and the obelisk gives an echoing snap as her soul-self suddenly squeezes.
She watches as a crack tears through the stone, spreading through the entire structure.
Slowly, Trigon's lumbering form falls forward, the obelisk and his chains utterly snapping under her power.
Moving faster than she expects, her power expands and wraps his entire body in darkness, just before he crashes to the rocky ground.
He doesn't give the expected struggles, his head simply turning so he can focus all four eyes on her.
Something inside of her begins tearing at its cage at the sight of his confident, if pained, smirk.
"Temper, temper, Raven, you're acting highly demonic," he mocks.
Alarms set off in the empath's mind, but she finds that her anger more than overpowers them.
And the part of her that takes pleasure in watching Trigon suffering at her hand begins to overtake her senses entirely.
Almost of its own will, her soul-self shrinks, and horrific, wet pops and echoing cracks begin filling Nevermore.
A feral grin crosses her lips at his moan of pain.
The impression that something is wrong goes entirely ignored.
"I can see why you enjoy others' misery, Trigon. I'm certainly enjoying myself, though I could never do a tenth of the pain your existence has caused me."
His eyes narrow at her, and she takes a startling amount of satisfaction when she finds that his smirk is gone.
"We both know this is an utterly futile effort. I'm nothing but energy. You can cause the illusion of pain, but it's not going to do anything since I don't have a real-"
Raven's soul-self expands, and Trigon's eyes go wide as the darkness suddenly slips into his open mouth, cutting his statement off entirely.
"You have a shell. I can certainly cause you pain, whether you want to believe it or not."
As she speaks, the darkness flares into a bubble, and Trigon writhes at the sudden agony rippling through his throat.
When the sounds reach her ears, Raven gives a satisfied nod and lets the newest limb retract.
"I should kill you where you stand, you wretched mistake!"
"Would if you could, Trigon, would if you could," she taunts.
His eyes explode with red light, and Raven dives to the side.
The next second, lava explodes in a geyser upward from the scorched land she'd been standing on.
Red smoke coils upward from the demon's eyes, and she notices that the slits within are dimmer from the lost energy.
"Oh, by all means, go on. It would be an experience itself to watch you snuff yourself out. It will save me the trouble."
"End this already," he snarls. "If you're so superior, prove it. Vacate me from your soul, and find out just how much of a chance you stand against my sons without my energy there for you to move off of, like a common parasite."
"If I just banish you from me, you'll have a way to speed up your return. Energy of yours that isn't locked down, for you to manipulate."
"So smug you can defeat me, yet so terrified of facing me again. Pathetic," he mocks.
"However, I cannot let you remain here, corrupting my mind and soul, either," she continues as though he hadn't spoken. "Power or not, you're like a damaged battery, leaking acid even as I get the energy from you."
"Then you face an interesting problem, daughter! You can't remove me, nor can you let me remain. And you certainly can't kill me, either. I'm fascinated to know what you think you're going to do."
Raven stares at him, indecision clear on her face.
A nagging thought whispers to the back of her mind, and her eyes widen when it fully forms.
Her stomach roils, her skin turning noticeably paler.
But her eyes glow with determination, as she walks slowly towards his crumpled body.
"When my mind was broken by the monks, to stay your influence, I had a similar problem. Rage was a part of your soul embedded in mine, as well. Luckily, I found a way to cope with it all a year ago."
For a moment, he simply stares at her.
And then realization sets in.
"You're not serious."
"I've beaten you, and coped with the powers I gained from it. I murdered Wrath, and assimilated him so my mind wouldn't be corrupted. I think a third time won't do any harm."
"I'll scorch your mind! I'll overtake you," he bellows.
His rage shakes the craggy ground, stone snapping under the force of it.
"I was stronger than you when first we faced, and I am stronger than your barren husk of a shell that yet remains now. You might even be below Jared at the moment, after how long I've siphoned from you. And that, too, gives me the advantage. My body has become accustomed to your energy, your power. You will not overtake me."
Something screams in the back of Raven's mind, but her focus dims the sound to a barely present whisper.
He stares up at her when she comes to a rest near his head, her eyes glowing a brilliant scarlet.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
A beam of darkness lances from her outstretched palm, slamming into his forehead.
All four of his eyes turn obsidian, and a strange sense of fullness begins taking form in her.
She feels his power flowing into her, and watches in fascination as his body begins deflating.
Not literally, but she finds that his muscles begin loosening even further with every bit of power she pulls from him.
Distracted by the spectacle, she misses the way that red light slowly creeps into her soul-self from him.
But when she notices the feral grin curving his lips, she feels horror strike through her.
At the same time that she realizes she's no longer controlling the flow of his energy.
She attempts to back away, but finds that he simply continues pouring his essence into her mind, forcing her to remain rooted as her mind starts burning.
"Let's put your theory on being acclimated to my power to the test, shall we, Raven?"
Trigon's voice seems to echo around her, but she focuses her every bit of spare energy on blocking his awareness from burning through her awareness.
A laugh echoes somewhere, and the empath isn't sure if it's physical or in her mind.
The world explodes with white light, and an echoing scream ripples across the astral plane…
...
Author's Notes:
That was an especially fun chapter to write. At least in part due to the fact that I'm nearly finished with my semester, and that I managed to get my animation done in time. I'll be absent next week, so no update then, so I hope that this chapter was awesome enough to suffice in the meantime.
As always, I look forward to any and all feedback. See you all next time!
P.S. For those interested in how my animation came out, save for some tweaks I'm planning down the road, the link to my portfolio site, which I also have plans to improve once I've relaxed a bit with the semester over, is now on my profile here.