Slade casually slipped into the crowd of Curatorians before ever so subtly inching towards Starfire, Cyborg and Terra. If he thought that his actions had gone unnoticed, he was sorely mistaken. Aurora had observed his movements from where she stood guarding Beast Boy because everyone around him was standing still.

"Gordon. He's inching towards you and the titans." Aurora telepathically sent a mind message to Ausatia who was standing as close as she possibly could to the titans without raising any suspicions. Out of all the Curatorians, only Aurora and Ausatia believed that Gordon was truly evil and hence they alone were the titans' only line of defence against him. However, they had to be discreet about helping the titans because any overt actions on their parts could be seen as a betrayal by the rest of the Curatorians.

"That's not Gordon. That's Aden." Ausatia responded through their telepathic link.

"That's Gordon in Aden's uniform." The more experienced Aurora shot back. "Warriors do not grow half a head taller overnight."

"Right. I see his face now." Ausatia tried not to panic as Gordon closed in. Carefully, she manoeuvred around several Curatorians and bumped into him. This caused a slight commotion around them as the Curatorians in their vicinity smacked their heads and ordered them to be still. "How's it going over there?" Ausatia asked as they watched the demon on the runway crawling towards the Stone of Azarath.

"He's fighting it but it should hold until the ceremony is over." Aurora kept a tight grip on the green titan in front of her. The last thing she wanted was for him to break free and do something that he would regret.

"His emotions are alarming." Standing this close to Gordon meant that Ausatia could easily sense his impatience and agitation.

"It won't be long." Responded Aurora as the demon finally reached the Stone of Azarath and painfully pulled itself to its feet as though it had arthritis.

"Raven of Azarath." Grandis' booming voice filled the entire area as the entire platform began to glow white. "You have come here today to lay down your life for that of another. Do you have any last words before we begin the ceremony?"

"What's with all the last words?" Exclaimed Ausatia anxiously as Gordon again tried to move only to be smacked by Ausatia this time.

"Keep him still!" Aurora's message was for both Ausatia and herself. Beast Boy was fighting the chains like his life depended on it.

"Since you have declined to speak, we will begin the ceremony." Grandis announced as Ausatia smacked Gordon once more. "Lay your hands on the stone and recite the Demona Dimmortalica."

"NO!" Beast Boy frantically jabbed Aurora with his elbow but she never flinched. The demon stood straight now and Raven's low voice filled the room. Tears fell like waterfalls down the faces of Beast Boy and Starfire. Even Cyborg shed a few tears. They had not heard that voice for so long.

I, Raven of Trigon, celebrate the sum of my sin,

The darkness of my soul, the evil within.

No remorse in my mind, no guilt will you find,

No love in my heart, no good left behind.

But now I of the royals do retract my right,

To live on forever, to live for the night.

Demona Dimmortalica, let me move on.

Demona Dimmortalica, hail demon spawn.

To the next world I'll go, it's the next world I'll kill.

The bowels of hell, it's my duty to fill.

Demona Dimmortalica, demona deceasene.

Demona Dimmortalica

Forever in sin

The moment the last word was spoken, the sharp cry of a raven filled the room. The demon's soul self took the form of a raven that was so large that its wings crashed into the sides of the barrier that contained it. Raven's body slumped to the floor as the demon's soul rose through the hole that had opened up in the barrier and flew upward until it disappeared from view. The Stone of Azarath dimmed. Then it stopped glowing. Aurora felt Beast Boy's body go limp. He had passed out.

"The real Raven of Azarath is gone!" Grandis' triumphant cry filled the air as the Curatorians began cheering as one voice. In the midst of the chaotic celebrations, Slade made his move. In one fluid movement, he vaulted over a Curatorian and sprinted towards the remaining titans. Ausatia pulled out her whip of light and cracked it in his direction, tripping him in the process.

"Get them out of here!" Ausatia mentally hollered at Aurora as she engaged Slade in heated battle. With Beast Boy's unconscious body under one arm, Aurora dashed over to the distraught titans.

"You all, follow me!" Instructed Aurora tersely as she grabbed Terra's arm and jerked her out of her seat. More Curatorians had stopped their celebrations to help Ausatia and even Slade knew that he was fighting a losing battle. Having dished out a flurry expertly placed kicks and punches, he stunned the Curatorians long enough for him break away and make a beeline towards the retreating Aurora and her precious charges. Ausatia desperately cracked her whip in Slade's direction again but he lifted his leg beyond the reach of her whip and loped away.

"Kill him!" Yelled Grandis almost savagely as the Curatorians gave chase like Cheetahs on the African plain. Meanwhile, Aurora half carried and half dragged the titans to the gates of Curatoria.

"Listen, I'm sorry but I can't protect you anymore." Aurora tried not to allow the pain of parting to cloud her voice but despite her efforts, Starfire started crying even harder. "I... the deal was that Raven would give up her life and in exchange for that, we'd hand you over to the demons. I- I can't be your guardian anymore. I have to give you... give you back."

"What? So this is it? This is goodbye?" Exclaimed Terra incredulously as Starfire's shrieks and howls began to resemble a choir of ambulance sirens.

"I do not want to do the leaving!" Screamed the terrified Starfire as she desperately wrapped her arms around Aurora and held on with a death grip. Poor Beast Boy was sandwiched in their hug and Aurora found herself genuinely worried about the state of his internal organs.

"Aurora are you sure there isn't a way around this?" Questioned Cyborg as he quickly disentangled Beast Boy from Starfire's crushing hug. Out of the corner of his eye, he had caught sight of three imposing demons slowly making their way towards them.

"I'm sorry. There isn't." Aurora looked as though she too was about to cry. In all her years as a warrior, she had never developed very deep feelings for those she protected. She had always been more of a contract bodyguard; an unemotional guardian there on business alone. But the titans were different. They were so young, so strong and so precarious. Each had suffered in ways no child should have to suffer yet from their trauma, they all rose to become stronger. Brave hearts. Brave souls. Titans. The warmth of their friendship drew her in and for the first time in her existence, she actually felt truly comfortable with the ones that she guarded. She finally understood why Raven was willing to sacrifice everything for them. She finally understood why a demon like Raven would go against her nature to care for them. She finally understood the true meaning of friendship. The love of a friend outshines the hatred of all men.

"That's them?" Terra too took notice of the approaching demons.

"Yes." Aurora said gravely as she gently stroked the sobbing Starfire's silky hair. "Take care of yourselves." She said huskily as she tenderly unwrapped Starfire's arms and gave her a slight nudge in Terra's direction. Starfire collapsed into Terra's arms as though she was made of lead.

Sensing that the three demons were getting impatient, Aurora reluctantly took several steps back from them, dodging the hands of the alien girl who kept reaching out to her. It broke her heart to do that but she didn't have a choice. With a crack of her whip, she cut the pavement that the titans stood on away from the main pavement that was attached to Curatoria. They slowly floated away from her towards the waiting demons.

"Aurora you have to come now." Ausatia's mind message broke through her thoughts. Whip in hand, Aurora turned on a dime and raced back into Curatoria. It didn't take her long to find Gordon as all she had to do was to follow the shouts.

Gordon sat on the floor, bound head to toe in glowing whips of light. For someone who had fought tooth and nail just moments earlier, he was strangely placid; staring deep into space with an unnerving smile twisting his face. Aurora froze. She had seen this smile before. In one of her earliest training missions to Earth, she had met the strangest villain with a face as white as a glacier and green hair. He had called himself the "joker" but there was nothing funny about him. His lips looked as though they had been painted blood red and when they stretched into a smile, they framed the grin of evil itself. Now Gordon had taken that horrendous smile and plastered it on his own face.

"What's happening to him?" Whispered Aurora to Aurena as the scholar squinted hard at the spectacle before them.

"I think I know." A voice spoke up from behind them. Aeydan held up a white rectangular crystal and shook it a little until an an image appeared. Everyone crowded around to look as Aurora found herself watching a replay of her fleeing down a hallway with the titans. She carried Beast Boy and ran in front while Terra, Cyborg and Starfire ran behind her like children grabbing on to their mother's apron strings. The Curatorians gasped simultaneously as they watched Gordon appear behind them and toss a metal disc that landed on Starfire's right arm. The moment the disc made contact with her skin, the alien fell to her knees and morphed into the likeness of Gordon. Gordon on the other hand then pressed a button on a control that he held in his hand and transformed himself to look exactly like Starfire. Having kicked her in the stomach, he left her on the floor and caught up with Aurora just as Ausatia and the other warriors closed in on her.

"I understand what happened now." Aurena said knowingly as she unwound several whips and began examining the arm. "The disc that he threw on her is a technological contraption that changes the appearance of a person. I believe that it is incompatible with her psychological make up and hence shortly after it was put on her, she stopped resisting us and developed these trance like symptoms. I believe her mind has been well and truly scrambled. We will try to repair the damage but in the mean time Au-" But Aurora was gone.

"Azar, is it wrong to kill?" Asked Raven as she sat down next to her mentor and looked up into Azar's kind face.

"Murder and peace do not go hand in hand, my child." Azar's eyes clouded with sadness as she patted Raven's back with the tenderness of a doting mother.

"But what if you had to kill to achieve peace?" Raven persisted. She was hoping against hope to find some justification for what she was about to do to Slade.

"Would you truly be at peace with yourself if you did that?" Azar's question was met with no response.

"He's Slade." Raven said defensively as she jerked up her hood and looked away.

"If you kill your enemies then you're no better than Trigon." The soft but commanding voice of her mentor shook Raven to the very core.

"I am better. Trigon killed the innocent, I only kill the guilty! Nobody said anything when I destroyed Trigon. Nobody said anything because he's evil. But when it comes to Slade, destroying him suddenly becomes wrong even though the sum of his sins numbers close to infinity! Why? Because he's a mere mortal and deserves to be pitied?" Raven spat out derisively. "If Slade doesn't die other people will suffer for it. He will wreck havoc everywhere he goes and ruin the lives of those who would've gone untouched if not for him! You don't get to live in this world without dealing with consequences and if Slade doesn't go, these consequences will eclipse what little good that you could possibly envision him doing. He has to die because if he doesn't, others will and by others, I mean my friends!"

"Will committing an evil for the sake of good truly perpetuate good?" She said it again. Raven hated it when Azar used the word 'truly'. It made it hard for her to win their arguments. "Once you've killed your first enemy because you deem him to be beyond hope, who's to say that you won't do it again? If you start killing now, it becomes easier to keep on killing for the rest of your life. Would you truly be at peace then? Would the world truly be at peace then?"

"Yes! Because then I would have ridded the world of all disruptions of peace!" Raven's voice rang with conviction and this both startled and scared Azar. Something had changed inside of Raven and it wasn't the good kind of change. At first the signs had been subtle but now they were becoming a little bit too overt to ignore.

"It's happening." Azar whispered sadly as she slowly backed away. "Do not leave. When I have meditated, I will see you."

Raven stared at the woman she had admired all her life in shock. Despite all the temper tantrums that she threw as a child, Azar had never backed away from her. It was almost as if Azar was afraid of her now.

"She's afraid of me. Even her."

The little black crystal that she held in her hand stopped glowing. But Raven did not go back.