Robin was sprinting recklessly, his heart burning with the unquenchable thirst for revenge. Darkness had its frightening glare upon him so much so that he could barely see his own hands. Relying on his ears and hands to guide him, he advanced forward purposefully, determined to find Slade and to avenge the supposed death of his friend.
Having entered a small clearing in a forested area, Robin stopped running and simply waited. He knew well enough that Slade was always near and that he was always watching. A nemesis who never missed a chance to taunt and torment; Robin was sure that he would come straight to him.
As he paced around with observable impatience, a cool breeze gently caressed him, sending chills down his spine. As the hairs on the back of his neck began to stand, Robin instantly became hyper alert. Many years of crime fighting had given him a sixth sense for danger and he had instantly sensed that something was amiss. Cautiously, he skirted the area, hoping to lure whatever that was lurking in the shadows out of hiding. Right when he was about to reach for his staff for protection, a blast of bright red energy shrieked past him. Before he could respond, another similar blast blazed back in the direction whence the first one came from. Robin hastily leapt out of the way as red streaks of dark energy illuminated the darkness. Curiously, he watched as two equally vicious creatures fought tooth and nail with blazing spears. Despite the light from their weapons granting him limited ability to peer into the night, Robin was unable to see the wielders of those formidable weapons. All he saw were two weapons as long as Cyborg was tall waving around in midair.
"What are they?" He wondered as unearthly shrieks and cries shredded the peace of the quiet wood. "Or more importantly, who are they?"
Puzzled and curious, Robin took a step towards the creatures. Sensing his approach, the creature to his right pointed its weapon at its opponent and unleashed an ultra powerful blast sending it flying deep into the forest. To Robin's utter horror, the creature then turned on him.
Slade savagely slammed his fist onto the tabletop, rocking the four legs in their joints.
"Who now?" He demanded, his voice thick with rage.
"My sister, Devia. The one who gave Raven the Sphere of Pride. She swooped in and stole him from me. I tried to fight her but I lost." Brutus' massive shoulders drooped.
"How is that possible? What do you think you are doing?" Slade
"She's much more powerful than I am." Brutus replied fearfully. "She is the official guardian of one of the Spheres of Sin. She has to be at least ten times more powerful than the most powerful of demons in order to do her job. Only Trigon and Raven are above her. Since I don't have her position, neither do I have that power."
Slade remained silently but the truth was that he was beyond frustrated. When he was devising Plan B, he had not expected his complication. Yes, he knew that Raven had Devia on her side but what he did not know was that Devia was more powerful than Brutus. Fearing that he may incite suspicion by asking too many questions and having no access to an extensive library demonic literature, Slade had made the assumption that Brutus and Devia were equally powerful and that he would be able to overpower her through sheer aggression. Without any further words to Brutus, Slade stalked out of the room.
"Great work." Raven nodded when she saw Devia. The demon lightly tossed Robin's limp body onto a mattress on the floor of a cell. Having to keep up the charade that she was evil so that Devia would remain loyal to her, Raven had to pretend to imprison Robin. Devia acknowledged her compliment with a slight bow.
"My brother seeks to destroy him before you can. If it pleases you, kill this mortal before he can do so." Devia advised.
"No." Raven said firmly after a rehearsed moment of thought. "I will let him live so that I can use him to taunt your brother. The longer I hold what he wants, the more agitated he will become. His frustration will provide additional entertainment for me."
Devia merely stared at her.
"Drop the act Raven." Raven twirled around to see Edwindan standing behind her.
"We know all about the little game that you've been playing." Devia growled as both demons closed in on her.
"What act?" Raven made sure no betray not the slightest bit of emotion.
"Oh, you know. Your contacting the Curatorians for help?" Edwindan's roar shook the whole spaceship.
"What makes you think that I was asking for 'help'?" Raven asked with a smirk on her face.
"Because you did ask for help!" Edwindan thundered. "Do you really think we are that ignorant? We practice our own magic, we use our own spells! We were suspicious because you were so anxious to have Devia rescue this miserable wretch of a boy, so we combined our powers to do the spell and guess what we saw! We looked into your past Raven! We saw you fighting crime, we saw you leaving the Earth for Azarath and we saw you handing the titans over the Curatorians! No good demon associates with them and they will only help someone that they think is good! Seigon was right! You are not evil! You do not deserve to be our queen! You will get nothing from us! Nothing! No loyalty, nothing! The game is over Raven. No advocate of good will rule over us! Give Devia back the Sphere of Pride and be gone!"
"Ha." Raven feigned a chuckle.
"You are enjoying this way too much." Edwindan crossed his arms.
"I'm amazed at how stupid you are!" Raven gave a small laugh. Her heart was palpitating yet she knew that she had to maintain a cool front. She could not afford to lose the loyalty of the demons. Not now. "I was using the Curatorians against Seigon."
"And how were you planning to do that?" Devia wondered, both her and Edwindan taken aback by this new revelation.
"Easy." Raven laughed. "I tricked Azar into thinking that I was good to gain a powerful ally for myself, just in case something happened. When Seigon found out about my powers and my inheritance, he immediately began trying to seize the titans to use them to blackmail me. Now that he's fighting with me for my whole inheritance, i needed to do something to eliminate the competition. So I had that Azar help me contact the Curatorians to ask them to harbor the titans. Knowing Seigon, he thinks that I care about them and controlling them is the key to controlling me. That idiot has no idea how powerful the Curatorians are. He's going to go to their realm and try to take the titans back and when he does, they will slay him for me, just like they slew my brothers."
"You couldn't just slay him by yourself?" Edwindan frowned. He was still a tad suspicious.
"And what? Give his soul a chance to escape into the Temple of Spirits where he could possibly be reborn with even more power? I'd rather have the Curatorians kill him and lock his soul up in their prisons of goodness or whatever they call it!" Raven raised her voice slightly, causing both Edwindan and Devia to tremble. They had confronted her on the grounds that she had broken the rules of the competition by making an alliance with the Curatorians but now that their accusation had been thrown out of the window, they had nothing to protect them from her wrath. Defeated, they left her and returned to the others to tell them what had happened.
Raven stood proudly before Edwindan and released her soul self. Thanks to Slade's seemingly halfhearted attempts to induce Wrath, along with her Raven induced nationwide power outage in the last few crucial moments of the NFL final that would decide the winner between two deadlocked teams, she had won the Sphere of Wrath by a landslide. The sight of a football loving nation screaming and shrieking at their blank TV screens had easily convinced Edwindan that she deserved the sphere.
"Sphere of Wrath release your roar,
Incite and multiply infinite furore.
Be free of me, be free to soar,
To Trigon's Raven's soul and core.
Her you shall serve, her you adore,
And wreck composures like never before.
Sphere of Wrath let us hear thy roar,
Be free of me, be free to soar,
Be free of me, be free to soar..."
Slade glared at Brutus with his arms crossed.
"Well. Does my soul appear human to you?" He asked harshly.
"Yes, your highness." Said Brutus wonderingly.
"Good. Now attack me."
"I could never do that, master."
"Do it. Now."
Aurora whizzed through the universe at light speed searching for those in need of help. Next to her was her best friend, Ausatia who trained with her everyday. As planets sprinted past them, the two chatted in their own Curatorian language, depending on their souls to sense for those in need of help.
"Quas tendamis!" Said Ausatia suddenly. The pair shrieked to a halt and plunged downward toward Earth and the United States of America. Furiously, they lashed out at the assailant, mercilessly driving him into the ground; they were determined to finish him. The assailant, a powerful demon of considerable strength and stature fought back with equal vigor, sending torrents of pulsing red energy flying at the two. However, Ausatia and Aurora were experienced fighters who knew exactly what to do. While Ausatia raced to tend to the victim, Aurora unleashed her signature power move. Clasping her hands together as though she were praying, she slowly drew her hands apart. A blinding beam of light appeared between her palms and the further her hands moved, the bigger and brighter it got. Stunned by the sheer brightness, the demon began backing away but Aurora was not done. When her hands were about one and a half meters apart, she closed both fists on both ends of this rope of light before letting go of one end. With a whip of light that exuded a glistening white aura that shone with radiance and purity, she practically whipped the demon into submission. Clearly knowing the consequences of dueling with the Curatorians, the demon hastily uttered a chant and opened a portal with its weapon. Before Ausatia could unleash her own power move, the demon was long gone.
The victim gazed at the warriors, awestruck. Finally, he spoke.
"Thank you so much for saving me!" He gushed. Aurora and Ausatia simply stared at him. "You two saved my life! I played around with some old books I found in my grandmother's attic and somehow summoned this demon who has been terrorizing me non-stop! Tonight was supposed to be the night when he took my life!" He slumped down on the ground panting with relief.
Aurora and Ausatia exchanged looks. No words had to be spoken. They both sensed that the victim exuded an evil aura and they did not trust him. Yet, he was in need of help as he was being oppressed by a greater evil. Both of them wanted to follow the Curatorian code to always help someone who needed help and protection. However, they hesitated because being aura-sensing beings, they sensed that this particular victim was up to no good.
"Introduce yourself." Said Aurora harshly. Gone was her peaceful expression. Gone was her musical voice. Gone were her gentle movements and elegant stance. She did not trust him at all.
"My name is Gordon Wesson, I'm-I'm twenty-six years old. I'm an engineer and I had-had an accident at the workplace that scarred my face so I wear this mask to not scare people."
The two Curatorians scrutinized him from head to toe. Finally, Aurora spoke.
"Come with us." She said sharply as she wrapped her shining whip around her arm and illuminated the way for the victim. They intended to present him before the scholars of Curatoria to decide if they should shelter him or not.
Four forlorn titans silently sat in a small circle, heads heavily bowed with the worrying weight of Robin's mysterious disappearance. The disturbing stillness was broken when Beast Boy brought his fist heavily down onto the table.
"This is just great." He fumed. "Robin has a demonic identity which means that Curatorians can't find him. This doesn't make any sense at all! What on earth does Aurena mean by that?"
"The Pegasus creature deposited Robin on Earth and returned to Curatoria. This narrows our search because at least we know he's gone back to our home planet." Cyborg reflected. "But Aurena says that the Curatorians can't find him because to them, his soul is that of a demon."
"If his soul is that of a demon, he shouldn't be that hard to find in a world of mortals." Terra pointed out.
"There are a lot more demons on Earth than you think there are, Terra. A lot more." Cyborg's voice had adopted a rather chilling tone. "Remember what Aurena told us-"
"-Aurora's coming!" Whispered Beast Boy urgently, having caught sight of the warrior walking down the hall. Aurora's cheerful greeting was sharply juxtaposed with the titans' downcast faces.
"Can you tell us more about this whole Robin having a demonic identity thing?" Cyborg got straight to the point.
"Sure." Aurora joined them at the table. "When I first went to Earth to pick you up, Raven was there. Because she's an extremely powerful being, her soul has a stronger aura than yours and that made the room overwhelmingly demonic. But I could still sense snippets of your auras by standing close to you and I sensed that every one of you except Terra had a demonic aura. I didn't want to take you to Curatoria but I decided to trust Azar when she said that you guys are actually good mortals. Now that you are in Curatoria, the force of good in our world suppresses your demonic auras but when you leave, they will return. Because of that, Robin in the outside world will take on a demonic identity. This makes it close to impossible for us to differentiation between him and real demons on Earth."
"All of us except Terra had demonic auras?" Cyborg repeated, the literal and mechanical wheels in his mind spinning at top speed. "Wait a minute!" The puzzle pieces had finally come together. "I know why that is so! Remember when Trigon came and Raven gave us some of her powers to protect us? That must be the reason why our souls look demonic to Aurora and why Terra doesn't have it!"
"But if we're really demonic, how come we're still alive?" Beast Boy demanded. "Didn't you say that nothing demonic can survive here because the power of good is just too much to bear?" He turned to Aurora accusingly.
"You're not fully demonic. Your souls are mainly mortal and are subject to influence. Surrounded by good, your demonic sides are suppressed. However, Earth is full of evil and surrounding by it, Robin's demonic side will manifest even more strongly. I'm really sorry, but it's not going to be easy to find him. We need permission first."
"Permission from who?" Asked Terra curiously as she squeezed the hyperventilating Starfire's hand.
"Permission from the council." Aurora replied softly, her eyes full of pity as she looked at Starfire. "Because Raven was there when I came to get you and I immediately brought you to Curatoria, all these externalities mean that I was never able to sense Robin's soul's unique identity. For us to find him, we must physically meet every single demon on Earth to check and being their mortal enemies, that means we'll also have to fight them. Through searching for Robin, we could easily start an inter-dimensional or universal war. That's why we need permission from the council if we're going to carry this out."
"What are the chances of the council saying 'yes'?" Cyborg asked almost fearfully.
"Very slim." Aurora said in almost a whisper. Hearing her words, Starfire burst into a torrent of tears and fled the room as though it were on fire. Everyone instinctively jumped up but only Terra ventured to follow her. After the tips of Terra's flowing blonde hair had disappeared around the corner, Aurora turned to Cyborg and Beast Boy whose crushed expressions shredded her heart.
"You must do something, please." Cyborg said pleadingly.
"I already have something in mind that doesn't involve getting permission from the council." Aurora said confidently. "I'm going to find Raven."
"Take me with you!" Cried Beast Boy in a plea that sounded more like an order.
"I can't, it's too dangerous! I'm not supposed to let you leave this place!"
"You have to!" Beast Boy morphed into a Gorilla and seized Aurora's arms with his large hands.
"B! Don't be irrational!" Cyborg desperately tried to separate the two as Beast Boy literally stared daggers. "I know Raven means a lot to you but that doesn't mean you can take it out on Aurora!"
"You must take me!" Beast Boy morphed back into his human form and began begging Aurora in every way that he knew. "Please! You have to! Raven is powerful! Nothing bad will happen when she's around! I just need to tell her how I feel about her before it is too late! C'mon Aurora! Please! Don't do this to me!"
"Beast Boy..." Aurora faltered, her mind and her heart viciously battling each other. She felt sorry for him and badly wanted to help him but she knew that the dangers that lay beyond the realm of Curatoria were great and at this point, bringing him out would be too great a risk. "I can't take you."
"Yes you can!" Beast Boy immediately picked up on the lack of conviction in her voice. Hardening her heart, Aurora reached out and grabbed him by his uniform, lifting him off the floor.
"Listen." She growled in an undertone. "I may be an accomplished warrior, but I can't protect you from everything. I may have fought off the some of the most powerful creatures to ever live and I may have helped slay Raven's brothers, but my power has its limits. Raven is the most powerful demon alive right now and it's no secret that you titans are the only friends she has or at least, had. You have no idea what some demons will give to capture you to use you to blackmail her." By now, Aurora had carried Beast Boy across the room and backed him into the wall. "They want her power and you're the key to controlling her power. If you are smart, you won't repeat Robin's mistake." Dropping him to the floor, she stalked out of the room. Tensions were rising and they were rising fast.
A young woman paced around the room with the anxiety of a mother whose child was in the ICU. But she was no mother herself. Her thoughts tormented her, her fears attacking every fibre of her being. She knew that she was probably being paranoid, but paranoia was the very thing that had kept her alive through adolescence. Having sensed a soul materialize in the room, she hastily spun around, poised for attack.
"It's just me, your highness."
"Devia. Have you found any information about him?" Raven got right to the point.
"He's not coming for the handover ceremony."
"He probably doesn't want to have defeat rubbed in his face again."
"I don't think so." Whispered Devia in a voice that was quite uncanny for a demon of her size and power.
"Why?" Raven folded her arms and stared at Devia.
"When Defria delivered her decision to the rest of us, she mentioned that Seigon didn't even try to do anything to win the Sphere of Envy."
"That means that he's figured out another underhanded method to steal it from me." Raven said coolly. "I expected that. What I want to know is why his soul has suddenly disappeared from this dimension. If I'm going to protect myself, I'm need to know where he is and what he's doing."
"Defria knows everything he did within the last eleven hours. Once the handover ceremony is complete, she will be free to help you. But until then, she must remain neutral."
"Your highness, the ceremony is about to begin!" Announced a booming voice from behind. Raven nodded and allowed Edwindan and Devia to escort her out.
Beast Boy staggered to his bed and collapsed into the comforting folds of linen. Aurora had gone to find Raven and she had gone without him.
"I was so close." He whispered to himself. "So close."
The deafening silence resonated throughout the room, giving him an immense feeling of loneliness. He felt like crying but the tears just refused to come. Depressed, he decided to go for a stroll in the garden to clear his thoughts. As he passed by flowers and plants blooming in their finest splendor, his eyes beheld them but his mind failed to comprehend them. He was in a heavenly sanctuary but his heart was in turmoil.
"Raven. She is the reason that I live and breathe. I hope Aurora passes her the letter that I wrote for her. I hope she feels the same way about me." Standing by the pond, he gazed at his reflection on the still waters. He studied his own features, noting how he had matured and grown over the past few years. He was no longer the short and cute Beast Boy who constantly annoyed his teammates. He was now tall, strong and handsome and his eyes reflected both kindness and maturity. As he began trying to imagine what Raven would look like close up and without a demonic look on her face, he suddenly became aware of another reflection appearing next to his. His blood instantaneously began to freeze, starting from his toes and creeping steadily up his body. As cold chills screamed up and down his spine, he looked up, his green skin helping to hide his paleness. The hair and goosebumps on his arms fighting for prominence, he made eye contact with the titans' devilish nemesis; a man with one eye and an orange mask.