Hello everyone. The year came and left in the blink of an eye and now, one more day and we'll be welcoming 2014... I don't know about you guys but, my birthday cake has had a limit of 23 candles ever since... makes you wonder, huh? XD.

That was random. Anyway, i just wanted to wish all of you a happy, healthy and lovely new year.

Enjoy

BTW, I must warn you... at the end of this chapter, you'll be wondering "What the heck?"

Chapter 55. Side effects.

Everyone gasped at the revelation. A young Slade was knelt before them with scared and pleading eyes… eyes? Both of his eyes were in perfect condition. They also noticed a familiar resemblance but at the moment, none of them could tell at first sight. Cyborg was the first one to come out of his shock and took the unconscious girl from the young man's arms.

He run a quick scan but his face was grim, he wasn't picking up any vital readings. Raven came next to them with Garfield's help but he backed away a few steps as he was in too much shock to dare come closer and confirm his fears.

Raven was exhausted and her powers were too raw to even try to heal her. She knew that after what she had gone through, it was possible to cause more damage than good and so, she didn't dare even touch her but, she could sense a faint, lingering soul remaining that made her gasp.

"The baby still alive" Raven whispered. Immediately, Cyborg opened the panel on his left arm after realization struck.

"Leo, come in Leo, can you hear me?" he said with urgency and a barely contained desperation.

"Loud and clear Cy"

"Quickly, have everything ready. We'll have to perform an emergency C section. The baby is still alive"

"The baby? What about…. Right away" said the young woman before terminating the call.

"Will she survive?" asked young Slade who had not moved from his spot all the while. His concern was obvious.

Cyborg looked down at Meliah then locked eyes with Raven as if asking her the same question but her only response was silence as her own eyes cast down at the unconscious girl.

"We don't know" Was all Cyborg could say. Carefully, he lift up the girl off the ground and with Star's help to light the way, Cyborg headed towards the surface with Robin following close behind.

A dead silence reigned, the fog and smoke that still lingered gave the place an eerie feeling but without Starfire's help to illuminate, their visibility was almost nonexistent until a soft whimper broke the silence. He was a few feet away, knelt on the ground.

"Gar?…" called Raven softly but there was no immediate response.

"It was his fault" Garfield whispered and Raven had to come closer. She crawled her way to him and even in the dim light, she could tell he was shaking.

"Gar… talk to me" she pleaded but he kept his arms around himself with his head bent and shaky breath.

"All of this was his fault…" he whispered again but suddenly he looked up and a low growl was hear before he yelled " YOUR FAULT YOU BASTARD… IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU MELIAH WOULD STILL BE ALIVE!" Garfield screamed angrily while pointing at young Slade who was now recoiling from the outburst. Garfield then turned into a bear and was ready to attack Slade who was now crawling backwards to get away from the angry animal but, inches before the bear was able to hurt him, Garfield was stopped by a dark force field that enveloped his entire body. Soon he started to struggle with more and more force.

"Gar stop! It wasn't his fault Gar…" to this, Garfield turned back human but as he struggled some more, he managed to say.

"Not his fault? How can you say that Rae? If it wasn't for him messing around with your dad and having to save his ass, this would have never happened"

"Gar, if you want to blame someone, blame me. I lost control remember? I lost control of the entire ritual and I almost let Trigon take over again" she tried to reason.

"But Raven, why did you have to go through all that? Answer me!… it was because of him." Garfield said with as much venom and hate as he could muster.

"Gar… it had to be done regardless but we still don't know how Meliah found out about this place. Unless you told her about the ritual, then someone else told her about what was going on here" Garfield struggled some more and the growls became roars as he suddenly turned into the Beast . Raven was still weak and had to concentrate harder on keeping the force field strong enough to contain him. If she lost control now, there would be no stopping him and Slade would surely die in the Beast's claws.

A series of beeps sounded among the feral roars. Raven pulled out her communicator and hastily, flipped it open.

"Not a good time Robin" she said without even looking at the screen as she struggled to keep the force field up. The Beast knew his binds had grown weaker and was trying to take advantage of that.

"Raven, are you ok? What's going on?" asked Robin over the device but another loud roar interrupted him. "Raven! Is that what I think it is?" he asked with more urgency.

"Yes but right now I cant just chat with you Robin. If I loose concentration now, the Beast will kill Slade so, for the last time, what do you want?"

"We're headed to Jump City Hospital. Leonore reserved a section of the maternity wing for us to bring Meliah in. We don't have the right equipment of resources at the tower to deliver the baby out safely. I'm headed back to you to…"

"Hospital. Got it" Raven interrupted and closed the device without letting Robin finish.

"Garfield, did you hear that? They're taking Meliah to Jump City Hospital to deliver her baby. You love that baby right? You wouldn't want her to fear you, right? You want to be her hero and a hero doesn't kill. Not out of Rage."

The beast roared some more and nodded towards the young man on the ground who was still in too much shock to even try to run away.

"Don't worry about him, I'll take care of him. Go meet your baby, she needs you more" Raven said as she cautiously approached him. He was panting, bared teeth and looking at her straight in the eyes. Very slowly, her hand lifted and almost touched the Beast's face when, with a final jerk, the animal was able to break free of her magic.

Raven gasped in surprise and for a moment, she feared the Beast would make a run for it and finally kill the young man but instead, the Beast never stopped looking at her and started to close in on her. Instinctively, Raven backed away. There was no telling what the monster's intentions were. She was too weak and flustered to even try to discern what he was feeling, let alone read his mind but as she walked backwards and was stopped by a column, the Beast simply rested his forehead on her shoulder for a moment. When he lifted his head, there was a sad expression there and it seemed like he was shaking his head no.

"Leave her alone! Get away from her" the young man yelled from the spot he had been but now he had found his courage and was on his feet.

The Beast made an attempt to look in the direction of the voice with a growl but Raven quickly lifted her hand and grabbed his face. "Don't worry about him" she said, her own eyes glowing white. "I'll be ok, just go" the Beast leaned on her hand for a split second before taking off. His claws even created sparks on the ground as he was trying to get away with all his might.

Once the Beast was gone. Raven turned to the young man as her eyes stopped glowing. It was then that two rocks fell to the ground a few inches from where the Beast had been.

"Miss… are you alright?" came young Slade running.

"Do you have a death wish?"

"What…"

"What were you thinking? That with your sudden spur of courage you would have been able to stop him from ripping you head off?" Raven said.

"I-I'm sorry… I thought he might hurt you" said Slade as he backed away from her. Her eyes were glowing white again while she approached him dangerously close.

"Raven! Stop!" said Robin as he run to them. Once in front of her he asked "Raven, what's the matter?"

"Apparently this fool has been a lunatic his entire life" she said with a sneer, but soon she turned around and walked towards the exit leaving the two perplexed young men behind.

After a few silent minutes, Slade said "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset her but I really thought that monster would hurt her"

Robin was taken by surprise. The young man next to him sounded so sincere. There was no trace of sarcasm or malicious intent just… honest concern.

"Don't worry, Beast Boy would never hurt her, no matter how angry he gets just… don't get in his way when he's like that"

"Got it" said Slade absentmindedly while he still watched Raven walk farther away. "By the way, I'm Slade Wilson. Second Cadet of the US army. At your service" he said as he extended his hand.

"Second Cadet?" he said with a mild frown but shook the young man's hand anyway. "Aren't you a bit too young to even be in the army? Let alone a second rank?" Robin asked as they started to walk the same direction Raven took.

"Perhaps"… Slade said with almost a smile. "… But harsh circumstances made me decide to take that chance "

"I can understand that" Robin said quietly thinking of his own circumstances for becoming a superhero. Once they reached the surface, they found Raven staring in the far off city. The hood of her cloak was over her head hiding her features.

"Raven? Everything ok?" asked Robin once they had caught up with her.

"How is she?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know. We had just reached the hospital when I left them."

Raven nodded once then looked over her shoulder and said "I need to meditate. Tell Gar I'll be there as soon as I can" Then slowly started to levitate and flew away.

"Wow, she flies too? I've never met anyone like that, or like any of you for that matter. Can you fly like she does or transform into animals like… Beast Boy was it?"

"No, I cant. They're unique. I'm just a martial artist" Robin said absentmindedly as he watched the sorceress fly away.

"Are you? So am I. Perhaps a friendly match would bring me back in shape" said Slade with bit more of enthusiasm but Robin started to grow suspicious.

"What do you mean back in shape?" Robin asked and instinctively was reaching for his staff hanging on the back side of his belt.

"Well, I'm afraid to say that… seeing that feral monster trying to come after me, it almost made me whimper like a little girl. Never seen anything like it" Slade said with a self mocking chuckle. Robin relaxed a little but then his concern returned.

"What happened in there before I showed up?" To this, Slade's features lost all amusement and he sighed.

"He blamed me for the girl's death. His words were so full of anger, if it wasn't for miss Raven, he would have definitely rip me to pieces… she tried to reason with him, she even told him he could blame her because she was the one who lost control of the ritual but… he blamed me again for that too… Robin… is it true that I'm the one to blame for all this?"

Robin was caught by surprise. How could he answer that? On one hand he was on Beast Boy's side. If it wasn't because Slade had been Trigon's new portal, Raven would have never had to perform the ritual. On the other hand, if he said too much and Slade actually started to remember and gain full memory while the other's were away, he would have to apprehend the villain by himself and right now, he had neither the energy nor the resources to accomplish that.

He liked the idea of having the villain under constant supervision. With no memory of who he was or at least until he remembered on his own. Something else tugged at his guilt too. Regardless of Slade being the center of the ritual, there had been no reason for Meliah to be there and intervene. Sure he was grateful it didn't escalated to a full size demon taking over again but, the consequences were devastating with the possibility of more than one casualty and deep down he knew Slade wasn't at blame for that.

Robin sighed, motioned for the young man to follow him into the aircraft and once inside he said "Her death is not your fault. She sacrificed herself without any of us knowing she was there… at least I didn't until the last minute but then it was too late but lets not talk about that now, I'll take you to the tower. We'll wait there for any news. Right now, there is nothing else we can do to help"

Young Slade nodded his agreement and seconds later, the aircraft lifted silently in the air and flew away.

…

…

Raven arrived at the tower and from the outside, she phased through the north side window into her room. The mangled door took her by surprise for a moment but she quickly remembered Garfield had done that only a few hours ago before they took off to perform the ritual. She sat heavily at the edge of her bed. Images of the ritual before and after it had gone awry but most of all, it intrigued her greatly how did Meliah found out when a voice called out to her.

"Raven? Is that you?"

"Not in the mood Malchior" she said almost bored while she closed her eyes.

"Fair maiden, what has happened. Did you not accomplish your goal with the ritual?" surprisingly for Raven, there was concern in his words but from experience, she refrained herself from falling into his lies again but at the moment, she only needed to get answers.

"I did… but killed someone else in the process"

Again, to her surprise, he gasped "No, that was not supposed to happen. I sent her to help you."

"What? You told Meliah where to find us? Why?" she said as she got up with renewed anger.

"I knew it was too soon for you to perform the ritual and you would loose control but…"

"But what? You didn't think she could get hurt? Did you forget she was pregnant you idiot?"

"There was no one else. She showed up here by herself. Raven… it was not supposed to happen she was not supposed to get hurt. She only had to remove Slade from the circle and…"

"Well, congratulations Malchior, for once, you didn't think things thru unless… you planned it" she said and a dark aura enveloped the book and one by one, the pages were coming off, all the while the being trapped within was almost screaming in agony.

"C'mon Raven… you know you cant…arghhh … you know you cant destroy me"

"Really? Well, watch me try and if I cant, I'm sure there are many ways to make you suffer. I'm sure Garfield will more than agree with me" she said this while turning her hand and more pages were coming off and the ones that were already on the floor started to ignite on their own.

"Raven…stop… you're still… under the influence of the black magic from…arghhh… from that book… destroy it… destroy it or you'll regret it."

Raven gasped at his words. It was so easy to give into the darkness of her nature if she wasn't prepared. Soon, she let the tattered book fall with a thud to the floor and she fell to her hands and knees along with it, panting.

"Why is it still affecting me?"

"You absorbed more than you could handle… how do you feel?"

"I-I feel jittery and cold" she said as she recoiled and wrapped her arms around herself and for a moment, her entire frame was shaking. "I feel as… if I'm about to…freeze… why?" she said in between chattering teeth.

"They're side effects. You never embraced that side of you. The one that feeds on human souls to survive."

Raven tried to listen but her discomfort and, most of all, fear of having gone too far in feeding her demon half that Malchior's words didn't make sense then suddenly, out of nowhere, a cold, icy breeze started to blow. Loose papers and curtains were being manipulated every which way and her fingers started to feel numb, her eyes were tightly closed thanks to the wind and cold.

"Raven! Concentrate. You have to control yourself" yelled Malchior over the sound of the wind. His prison, with less weight now due to the many pages Raven tore, was being dragged around by the wind.

Raven tried with all her might to focus and started to chant her mantra thru tight teeth but as the cold increased, so did a numbing feeling that started to take over her body soon, her jaw stopped trembling and the wind, although still cold, slowed down considerably.

"Raven? What's going on" asked the magic book again after it stopped tumbling around her.

"Its strange, I'm not cold anymore" she said calmly. Too calm he thought.

"Were you able to meditate. To regain control.?"

"No, it just stopped hurting. I know its cold I just…cant feel it anymore"

"No Raven, that's not good, don't give in. Don't let her take over" he said with more urgency with a trace of… fear?

Then, running steps were heard just outside the door "Raven!" someone called out and a shadow stopped in front of the mangled door. "Raven!" he called out again, this time closer, running.

"Raven?… Raven! Its me, beautiful. Talk to me…" the thief came running and was at her side in seconds. There was a chill in the room, not like the eerie chill he found when he first walked in when he was looking for her hair samples a few weeks ago, but a dead chill…unnatural.

Her skin was cold and her lips were turning blue and for a moment, her eyes were dim, as if she was asleep. He wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm her up.

"Raven, talk to me, what's going on. Why are you like this?" he asked with concern as he took off his mask.

"The ritual and the amount of black magic she came in contact with, are taking its tall on her. Quickly. Make sure she's warm" came the commanding voice from somewhere in the room. He looked around but there was no one.

"Who's there… what did you do to her? What ritual?"

"But I'm not cold anymore" said Raven almost absentmindedly.

"That's not good… you're Michael, correct?"

"Y-yes but…"

"I'll answer whatever you need to know later child, right now, Raven is in danger"

"Why? What happened?" Michael asked as he kept on rubbing her arms.

"Like I said, the ritual was too much for her. Tapping into her demonic nature to control black magic was far more dangerous than what we expected and now, she's in the brink of loosing that battle with that side of herself."

"How is that possible, as far as I know, she's been able to control it"

"Suppress rather than control. But there is a point where a suppressed emotion or feeling bursts at any given time when the will to suppress it is no longer there. In Raven's case, all that penned up, natural anger was not only ready to burst but was fed with what its been craving all along"

"And what is that and why is she so cold?" Michael said as he hastily removed a sheet from her bed and wrapped it around her while he tried to listen to the voice nearby.

"Demons are cold blooded entities that need the warmth of a soul to survive on their own. There is a reason hell is a never ending pit fire because without the souls of other creatures… humans for example, they would desiccate and petrify. What she had to do was tap into that dark side of her nature and straighten it with black magic in order to bring Slade back from the dead"

"She did what?…"

"I told you, leave the questions for later, right now your job is to feed her human half enough for her to find a balance within herself and …"

"Feed her human half?… let me get this straight, she fed her demon half with a soul and black magic, correct? How exactly do you feed a demon's human half.?" asked Michael, more frustrated by the minute.

"By making her feel warm" said the voice with a more malicious tone.

"And what do you think I've been trying to do all this time?"

"Not with a blanket you idiot, think before her rage takes over. The only way a human can feel warm. The only way she can feel human… a kiss to warm her lips…" said the voice tentatively. To this, Raven opened her eyes slowly but as she looked up, her eyes were turning red and faint smile appeared as she said "I'd like that".

Michael gasped. His surprise was more than unexpected. Somehow, deep down, he was hoping nothing the voice had said before was true but, as that malicious smile appeared and a feeling of danger spread within him, he realized that the girl in his arms could be more lethal if he didn't make a decision fast.

"Wouldn't you want… Beast… Garfield to give you that kiss you want so much, beautiful?"

"Oh, c'mon Red X, after all the teasing and flirting you've thrown my way, don't you want to take advantage of this… one in a lifetime chance?" she said as she seductively moved her hand up his chest and felt him stiffen when she leaned in and he felt her cold breath on his neck.

"Raven… you know you don't want me… you want Garfield. He's the one who should be here, not me… he's the one you love…not me" he whispered, not trusting his voice.

"You're right, he's not here but… you are" Raven said as she slipped her hand to the back of his head and slowly pulled him closer.

"Raven…" he breathed as he grabbed her waist to slow her down

"One kiss Michael… one kiss is what I need right now" she said as she tugged at the collar of his suit.

"One kiss… will do the trick?" he asked as he picked her up but a dark cloud levitated both of them and pulled them slowly to the bed.

"And a thrust, to make me feel alive" she hissed before everything went dark.

What did i tell you...