Beast Boy groaned as he shifted his weight off his left arm by rolling over on the floor. Groggily, he propped himself up with his right elbow, willing his eyes to adjust to the lights that threatened to kill his eyes. Through the slits of the world that he saw, he could make out hazy images of Starfire and Terra lying in two small heaps a few feet away from him. Cyborg was leaning against the wall to his left, seemingly out cold.
"Cy?" His raspy voice barely scratched the silence. There was no response. He tried to move towards Starfire and Terra only to find that his body felt as though he was being racked with arthritis. Digging his elbows into the floor, he gingerly scooted along the frigid floor of the bare cell. When he got close enough, he reached out and shook each girl gently to see if they were conscious. They weren't. They were so still that for a moment, he feared that they were brain dead or in a permanent coma. Seeing that Starfire was sprawled out in a very awkward position, he forced himself into a kneeling position and shifted her slightly so that she could lie flat on her back. As he did so, a small blue gem fell out of her uniform. He toyed with it for a few minutes, wondering where it came from and why she carried it.
"She's been gone seven days," Beast Boy heard a deep voice coming down the hall. Like a child who was about to be caught for stealing sweets, he started panicking and jerking his head from left to right as he tried to figure out what to do. Amidst the confusion, the gem somehow slipped through his chilled fingers and landed on the floor before shattering into three pieces. He stared at it in horror as a stream of red energy flowed from the gem and made a beeline for his heart. As it entered his body, he suddenly felt very heavy as though he had gained more than a few pounds. It was as if someone had jabbed him in the heart with a needle before pumping him full of lead. The transfer took several seconds but the pain - it just kept going on and on like a wound that never healed. He crouched on the floor, gasping for breath like a dog. As the footsteps neared, the fear overrode the pain and the green Titan found the sensibility to cover the broken gem fragments with Starfire's hand and to try to pretend that he was asleep.
"They wake not." He could feel a presence that stood next to him.
"If she returns not what shall we do?" Another voice asked.
"We kill them." Beast Boy stiffened. It took everything within his power not to grit his teeth as the pain racked his body. He felt something burning within him; a force that was strangely familiar and unwanted.
"She will kill us for it. She has always wanted the honor of killing them herself."
"I don't see the particular honor in killing a mere mortal. Pleasure perhaps, but they are so fragile that crushing them is no feat."
"True." The demons retreated from the cell before the heavy metal door clanged shut behind them.
"Devia do you feel it?" Defria questioned when they were in the hallway and out of Beast Boy's hearing range. None of the demons had been fooled for one second that Beast Boy was actually asleep.
"I did. The green one. He has powers. Powers from her highness."
"Her highness must have given it to him of her own free will. There is no other possible explanation. No one can have her powers without her consent." Defria surmised. She had no idea that Beast Boy's current demonic powers were not of Raven's purposeful doing. Back when she had first returned to Earth, she had given Slade demonic powers in a bid to convince him she was truly evil and to make him her slave so that he would deliver the Titans into her hands. However once she found out about the Improbus Daemonium, she had tried to withdraw the power from him to no avail as Slade was carrying a sorcerer's charm to prevent her from doing so. Before he could go to Curatoria, he first had to ditch the demonic powers hence he channeled them into the gem that masked the evil and carried it into Curatoria. Now, Beast Boy was in possession of those powers because 'Starfire' had not woken up fast enough to regain control over them. But the demons didn't know that.
"Do you know what this means?" Devia fingered the medal around her neck. "It means she was never serious about killing them. She actually wanted to protect them."
"Agreed. She was even willing to deal with those detestable Curatorians to get them back. Trigon would never bother to even negotiate." Defria bristled. Initially, Raven's many, many excuses about why she had wanted the Titans alive had worked but now, too much time had passed without her actually carrying out anything to make Defria conclude that she actually wanted to save them.
"Brutus going to Curatoria in exchange for them - that was a rescue mission. She was planning to do more than to simply rid us of Brutus."
"She's kept them alive much longer than necessary. Seigon has completely disappeared, there is no need for her to keep them. Yet she does."
"We must tell the others. Our queen is a traitor."
"Devia. Defria."
"Edwindan?"
"I've been listening."
"Now what?"
"We gather the demons and pool our powers. She hasn't reached the full potential of her power yet. She still can be destroyed by our collective power." He declared in a voice that could rock the bowels of the Earth.
"I fear we underestimate her power." Devia pointed out sullenly. She more than anyone else understood what the effects of Pride were and knew that her brother had the tendency to have a big head when it came to his estimations of how powerful the demons really were.
"I never really trusted her. I only pretended to trust her." Edwindan dropped a bombshell that surprised even his demonic siblings. "She is half-mortal. Half-mortals cannot be trusted. From the start, I have been watching her and calculating the strength of her power. I consulted the scrolls, I am sure of it. She doesn't have the power or the evil in her to fight the collective power of all the demons in this universe and plane of existence. She will lose and she will die. The truly evil leader we've been looking for isn't her. It's Seigon."
"So we find him -"
"- and we support him."
"Let the universe be ours."
"Good riddance to that traitor."
Not knowing that all that she had done to trick the demons was unravelling, Raven remained in Azar's plane of existence impatiently tapping her foot on the floor as she waited for Azar.
"This is dumb. I've been waiting for days with no explanation as to why I have to be here. Damn, I can't believe even Azar is afraid of me. Am I really that frightening that even the ones who know me so well are afraid of me?" Raven tossed the book she had been reading to the floor and watched it bounce on its spine several times before landing on its side with a soft smack. "Holed up in this library reading about all the heroes of the past - ugh! Why should I even care? I'm better than all of them."
"Raven." Azar tiptoed into the room and breezed over to Raven.
"Finally!" Raven growled as she sent an entire pile of books flying with her left boot. "It's about time!"
"You are changing." Azar plainly stated, ignoring the question Raven had asked for she knew that talking about the long wait would only agitate her more. "I was hoping this wouldn't come so soon but it looks like it is imminent. You're slowly becoming corrupted by the power Trigon has given you. Within a couple of weeks, you will probably be corrupted beyond the point of rescue."
"What?" Raven suddenly snapped out of her rant. She was titan, a hero. She was brave but she had her fears. Fears she had were mainly three, she was afraid of losing her friends, losing control and losing herself. She feared that they would fear her: a demon who would never be able to fully escape the clutches of evil that constantly bound her. Now, it seemed as though all her fears were being realised. "I knew I was going to be corrupted but so far I've been able to keep control. I'm not beyond rescue." She insisted, trying her best to deny a reality that had haunted her for years.
"Not yet but soon. You exhibited... signs. You called Slade a 'mere mortal', something that only the demons would do. You wanted to destroy people - 'all disruptions of peace' as you so bluntly put it. You haven't realised it but you're acting more and more like a demon. The more power you get, the more the evil will corrupt you. When Trigon used you as the portal to come to Earth, he knew you'd survive. He knew that you'd eventually regain your stature. That's why he made the will. His greatest mistake was that he was so powerful that he underestimated the power of friendship and the power of your bond with the Titans. That was why he was destroyed. Do you really think he'd have granted you so much power had he not been sure that you would use it for the cause he intended? He knew that even if you tried, the sum of your powers would completely overpower what purity you have in you and you would become his greatest pawn."
"So that's why I can't kill Slade." Raven finally understood. "If I did that might be the tipping point that would send me over... there. How do I stop this Azar?" Raven's pleading violet eyes bore through Azar's grieving soul.
"I'm sorry Raven. There is no permanent solution." Whispered Azar as she looked away from Raven's face. "We've been searching for days. All of us Azarathians intensified our efforts to find a cure but still... we found nothing."
"Oh." Raven looked at the floor. "Why did you back away from me?" She had longed to ask Azar this for the longest time.
"Because I saw what was happening... and didn't know how to help you then." Azar's words cut through Raven's tender heart like a chopper through tenderised meat. "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that I am afraid of you. I assure you, I have never been afraid of you and I never will be. No matter what you become or who you become, I will always see that little child meditating in the great halls of Azarath with that beautiful but small smile on her face. I will always see her bravery, my heart will always ache for her struggles. Even if the rest of the world thinks you're a million times worse than Trigon, I will always be here and I will always recognise the good in you."
"Thank you Azar." A tear spilled from Raven's left eye. After seemingly endless turmoil, it felt so wonderful to hear some encouragement and to get some love from someone who was actually capable of loving.
"There is no permanent solution Raven," Azar cheered a little to see human emotions welling within Raven. "But there is a temporary one."
"There is?" Raven's shimmering eyes widened.
"Yes. Do you... love Beast Boy?"
"I... yes." Raven averted her eyes and turned away, hoping against hope that Azar hadn't seen the crimson powdering her cheeks.
"She's shy. That's good."
"He's your solution to your problems." Azar declared as she stooped to pick up the books that Raven had so carelessly strewn all over the place. "Love is a mortal emotion. Unselfish love for someone else in its purest form is something the demons are not capable of. They only know how to love themselves. They only know how to love evil. Your love for your friends will sustain you for a time but you need more than that. The extent of your power is too great. The love of a partner, that is a different kind of love. It touches a different part of your heart. If you love him, admit it to him. Stay together and your mortal side will wax stronger and you will remain in control for longer."
"Alright." Raven breathed, the light returning to her eyes if only for a moment.
"But if your heart gets broken... that will be a catastrophe for the entire universe. We still don't know how long your love for him can sustain you. Go back to Earth Raven. Save your friends while you still can." Azar chided as she sympathetically stroked Raven's violet hair. "I and the others will keep searching for a permanent cure."
"Thank you Azar." Raven bowed her head with gratitude. "Thank you."
As Raven travelled through the various planes of existence, something began to change within her. It felt like a force bigger within her that tugged at her soul self and kept egging her to change course. She was still on course for her own plane of existence except this time, her trajectory was slanted. She couldn't move in a straight line back towards Earth and her spaceship like she had on her previous trip. Instead, she found herself being pulled against her will towards the Improbus Daemonium. She more she tried to move away from it, the harder it pulled and by the time she fully entered her own plane of existence, she found herself back at square one; back at the arrival triangle that she had first followed Slade into the first time she came here. Back into this pyramid shaped room with all those mystical symbols on the walls. Back into the place when she started the lies that truly began everything.
She could feel a strong demonic presence emanating from the walls. There must be a demonic gathering in this place. None of the individual demons she knew had this kind of power - none of the demons except her. For her to feel it so strongly, there had to be hundreds of thousands of demons here. She finally understood why she had been drawn to come here instead of her original destination. Evil is magnetic. The concentration of evil here made this place more desirable than her spaceship, luring her soul self to come her instead because of the evil within her.
Raven silently wrapped herself in her soul self once again and seeped through the walls. The determined woman was headed straight for the meeting room of the eleven leading demons. She had to know what they were up to and more importantly, she wanted to know why they had gathered the demons here without a specific order from her.
"Tonight, there will be an uprising." Raven hovered between the walls of the meeting room so that she could listen to what Edwindan was saying while remaining hidden from sight. "Tonight, we have seen who our leader truly is, an ambassador of good and a double agent of the heavenly angels." His words was the truth that slammed down upon her like the weight of the world. "She has fooled us for far too long, playing us for fools as she pretended to be evil while she secretly did good. All that imbecile ever wanted was for her to save her friends. She's good, she loves, she has to go. Tonight, we bring all demons together. Tonight, we will use the Demenem Decibo to pull our powers together to destroy the biggest traitor ever known to us. We have done our work and consulted our scrolls, she doesn't have the power to overcome us. Tonight she dies like Trigon did, tonight we will rule like Trigon did. And for the fun of us all, let us destroy her little friends with her."
"Aye!" The demons chorused in one voice as the launched into gleeful celebrations. She could feel them shaking with vengeance.
Raven bolted out of there. She didn't even bother to fly back to the Titans with her soul self. She just teleported herself back to where she knew that they had been kept. She didn't know how but her entire plan had been foiled. All the demons in existence were coming to pool their powers to destroy her. The power she had now already stretched beyond the imaginations of most but her instincts told her that the demons were right. She still wasn't that powerful and against all of them, she didn't have the power to overcome them. She stared at the only friends that she ever had besides the Azarathians with tears in her eyes.
"I'm sorry." She just couldn't bring herself to verbalise it so she cried out to them in her mind. "I'm sorry that we're in this mess. I'm sorry that I haven't saved you. I'm sorry for hurting you when I did for the sake of my plan that has now failed. Slade isn't our worst enemy anymore. He simply introduced us to the real evil. The demons are the ones who can really hurt you. One man I can beat with my power but the whole universe of evil, I don't know. I don't know if I can save you now. I don't know if I can even save myself. But I promise that I will fight for you. I just... have to let myself go. The very thing that is limiting my power is the thing that makes me love you. If we are all to stand a chance, I must be fully evil. When I give up control over my mortal side... I hope that you will still love me."
Author's Note: Hi everyone! I've never written an author's note before but this round, I decided that it really is quite long overdue. First up, I'd like to thank all the readers who have been following this story all this while. Your comments and reviews have meant more to me than you can imagine. :)
As some of you might notice, I started writing in 2013 (beginning with this story) and have continued to grow as a writer ever since. It really cheers me to know that there are people out there who love the Teen Titans as much as I do and are able to appreciate the written word as much as the film versions.
I'm sorry for taking so long to update this story sometimes because of school commitments but rest assured, my holidays have come so you can be expecting more frequent updates in the future - both for this story and for my latest story, Word. The story Them Goddesses will be temporarily on hold for now because after I impulsively started the story, I realised that I didn't quite know enough about Greek mythology to do justice to the beauty of their culture and history. When I have done more in depth research into it, I will continue with that one. Anyways, thanks again for all the response and support and do check out the story Word if you have time. Happy reading!