CV
Apparitions
Her dark soul drifted past the red carnage that had once been glorious Azarath…
But no longer... Now it was only dead.
Azarath - the most noble and blessed land ever created by mortal design, a sanctuary of learning and enlightenment for those who would follow the bright path of peace and love. It's shining marble halls and cut-tile mosaics told of a people who lived in harmony with light, and reveled in the spirit.
But life breathed this hallowed air no longer. No souls haunted its temples. Voluminous libraries, the envy of old Alexandria, were now shaded in soon forgotten time. One million volumes would never explain the tragedy that had befallen Azarath in its darkest hour.
Raven drifted past mangled corpses (some she recognized) whose bones would lie upon the intricately laid stone of the streets below… Bones that would be a greater testament to the horrors that had befallen Azarath than simple words could ever convey. For all they were, this was their final legacy...
Arella's child had never been truly accepted in Azarath. Her soul had never been pure, nor could it ever be. She was the child of Trigon. She had been feared. For the truly enlightened, she had been pitied. Although in the way that Raven was both darkness and light, she comprehended now that glorious Azarath was also created of Heaven and Hell.
The realm had been created by a man… whose soul had become as black as the grave in the shadow of his kingdom ascending to the heavens… that man was Ra's al Ghul. Humanity had never birthed a greater evil than the architect of beautiful Azarath.
But the true soul of Azarath was his estranged wife Zara al Ghul who had become Azar; a kind and gentle mother to all of mankind. By her decree, only the most tragic of souls could journey to Azarath and heal from its spiritual light to replace those who had fallen before. And thus Raven's mother Angela Roth had been chosen to become Arella of Azarath.
And now she had found herself in her birth-land searching for her mother's tragic soul…
A mother who had sacrificed herself in front of Raven's very eyes… a willing victim of the stone-faced God of Evil and his murderous Omega Beams. As the light of Azarath had been blotted from eternity by Trigon's curse, so too would Raven's human-half have been disintegrated by Darkseid's Omega Beams if not for her mother…
"Azarath's light still remains, my child."
The voice made Raven turn to behold the glowing spirit of Azar floating beside her. As Raven's spirit-self was a dark, raven-shaped shadow, Azar was a being of soft light, a perfect reflection of herself as she had been in life. Raven stared at the spirit quizzically as Azar continued.
"The light lives in you, my dear. A thousand set of eyes gaze in sorrow at what was once our home… But in the end it was only stone, earth, wood and flesh. We are spirit, Raven, carried by the goddess."
"…Goddess?"
"You, Raven."
"Azar… my mother… where is she? Was her spirit destroyed? I believed she would come here…"
"She never left you, Raven. You carry her inside… as you carry us all."
An apparition appeared in the air before Raven… Unlike Azar, it was a shade of smoke and shimmering light, but it was Arella! Instantly, Raven's soul-self reshaped into her human form, if only to take her mother in her arms once more as the sun shone upon Azarath…
"I thought I had lost you…"
"I thought I would lose you…"
"You died to save me…"
"I once lived to save you. And now you save us all. You are the miracle I once prayed for Raven."
"Mother…I don't think I'm strong enough… to defeat him."
"Strength, weakness, win, lose… these are false things, daughter. There is life, there is death. There is light, there is dark. You will bring light to the darkness. You will bring life from death."
"I… don't understand."
"I too did not understand but for one brief instance. You will, my dearest, you will…"
"…I'm afraid, mother. Afraid of what I may become."
"Let your fear be conquered by love. There is a man you love who needs you now…"
"Bruce!"
"Go to him, my child..."
Raven's eyes popped open to witness the scarred and craggy features of Orion's face before her. She was back in Elysium in her body. The New God had removed his helmet to hold her in his arms while Scott, Barda and Lightray looked on…
"Gods be praised! Fair cousin, we had feared the worst… Darkseid shall pay in equal measure for his crimes, Orion swears this to you!"
"I will bring light to darkness…" Raven felt as though she were still lost in a dream.
"Grief has overwhelmed you, cousin. Rest now, you are safe... Orion himself shall travel to Apokolips to tear asunder the Pact so that he may extract the terrible vengeance that is due, my Lady. The dread Lord of Apokolips shall be shown the justice that has been denied him for far too long…"
Grinning Lightray popped his head next to Orion's…
"Grief would overwhelm any maiden with an iota of sense when she is promised to hideous Kalibak!"
Smiling, Raven reached up her hand to rest it upon the battle-scarred cheek of the Dog of War. There was a rage that erupted inside him continually, anger beyond any she had ever felt. This was a warrior unlike no other. It stirred her soul to battle, but she knew first what she must do…
"Patience, brave Orion... My husband needs me."
With that, she was gone, leaving Orion with tendril wisps of smoke snaking through his fingers where once Raven had been…
Barbara Gordon now hundreds of yards behind, Bruce Wayne crested the peak of a hill in night-draped Shiruta only to have the world suddenly come crashing down upon him… Where there should be darkness, there was light. Where only quiet corpses should have littered the streets, there was movement and life.
The League had positioned themselves around the Wayne Data Center by the hundreds. Dozens of tanks, anti-aircraft weapons and soldiers surrounded his facility, ready to defend to the death.
Should the engine of destruction fire across the entire world, Kahndaq alone would be spared. Its free-floating gamma-nites had been expended when the League had initially deployed his weapon as an example and the nanites could be made not to reproduce… For the first time since crossing the river, he attempted to open a wi-screen…
Nothing...
There would be no calls for help… No secret programs to run. He had moments before dawn when the rest of the world would struggle for their last gasps of Sarin-laced breath and he was only one man against an army. He desperately scanned the streets for anything that would help him push his way through that crowd, to get into his building…
Without warning, he felt the blade of the Wakizashi slide along his throat and a small, firm hand place itself upon the back of his shoulder. The slender assassin behind him slowly raised the blade - littering his stubble along its edges from the underside of his neck without breaking the skin… He had heard or felt nothing until the blade was at his throat.
"Such a noise in the river, Mr. Wayne… Should you expect to enter here alive?" It was a woman's voice. Her English was good, but there was a trace of accent… Chinese?
"Who?..."
"If you were you my master, you would know who I am, and this blade by its name."
"Your master is dead."
"The dead do not die."
"Not dead yet… contained."
"Are you buying time, Mr. Wayne? Time is expensive when the world has only moments to live… it would be a shame if you were to waste it on lies."
"I'm not lying… Ra's is contained…"
Before him, Bruce made out the shape of a beautiful woman approaching in the moments before dawn in front of him. She walked confidently across the darkness towards them.
"Shiva! Release him at once!"
Bruce recognized the defiant, confident voice. Talia al Ghul stepped into the faint light in front of them. Six assassins followed the first daughter of the League, awaiting her every command.
"Talia…" The woman behind him spat the word. "You are not the master here, little witch."
"My father has been defeated. I am master here."
"By this man?" Bruce felt beads of perspiration trickle down his forehead as the tense blade lightly broke his skin. Six assassins had weapons pointed at the woman behind him.
Talia's voice sounded in his mind. Apparently telepathy was also one of Talia al Ghul's many talents…
'Bruce… Listen to me. This is very important. The rules are well defined. Did you defeat my father?'
'No, it was Barbara.'
'The red-headed woman in your employ?'
'Yes.'
Talia spoke again…
"An agent in Wayne's employ defeated my father. This American President has supported my bid for control of the League."
"Is this true, man of Gotham?" Shiva's lips were next to his ear so that he felt her chilling breath, the blade was unmoving...
"I saved her life if that's what you mean."
"And you would use my blade to repay your debt, Talia? So be it..." Shiva swung the blade forward and pushed Bruce forward into Talia so that he was finally able to take a breath once more. The black-haired Shiva continued…
"…But I demand this favor be repaid. Face me, girl! Prove to me that you are worthy of your father's title. Here and now…"
"Face me instead, assassin."
It was the voice Bruce had longed to hear since he had set foot in the Pentagon. Turning, he saw Raven dressed in an outfit like the one she had worn the night he had fallen in love with her… The first night they met. Her hooded cloak hid those piercing velvet eyes, her cloak flapped in the night breeze.
"Impressive little girl, but tell me... why do you wish to die?"
"You threatened my husband's life."
"Hmph… I am the greatest martial artist this sorry world knows. I am named for death itself. I can predict how you will die by the movement of your first step…"
Shiva tumbled face-first into the dirt, unmoving… Bruce looked at his wife again.
"Did you kill her?"
"I dropped her soul off in Tibet. She will survive. Why are you here, my husband? Have you been captured?"
The glare from indigo eyes directed at Talia al Ghul let everyone know that this woman's very existence was in jeopardy if her husband confirmed what Raven had suspected. The witch had been warned once already…
"No Raven... Talia was actually saving me… And you look fantastic by the way. I believe Ra's al Ghul has programmed my engine of destruction to kill everyone in the world at dawn. It's inside that building over there; the Wayne Data Center in Kahndaq. Can you get us in? We have around two minutes…"
"...Wait for me!"
Behind them, they saw a bare-footed Barbara Gordon scampering up the hill, trying to pick her way through the stones. Raven couldn't help but smile at the plight of the poor woman.
Black smoke swirled around Raven, Wayne, Barbara and Talia. They now suddenly found themselves inside an industrial building. Bruce and Barbara headed quickly towards a door marked "Authorized Personnel Only" while Raven placed a gentle hand upon Talia's shoulder following.
"I am sorry, Talia. I assumed the worst."
"You have made your position very clear to me, Mrs. Wayne. Bruce saved my life in Washington, I only sought to repay the favor. It pains me that my father had no plans to include me in this little group of survivors…"
Loud curses from the room in front of them drew their attention back to the present as the two ladies entered a large room full of technology… and a giant concrete block at its center.
"He's encased the entire thing in concrete!"
Bruce ran to a large, locked panel box on the wall, kicking it repeatedly until it opened… Desperately, he dragged the large breaker switches it contained to the off positions. The lights dimmed, and turned off entombing them in complete blackness while Bruce breathed a heavy sigh of relief…
Until they heard a massive diesel engine start somewhere below the facility and the lights flicked on once more. The back up generator… Panic-stricken, Bruce started looking for a fire axe while Barbara attempted to open a wi-screen with no success. Ra's al Ghul had left nothing to chance.
"There's no time! He's sealed off all the engine's breakers as well…"
Raven stopped her husband and placed her hands upon the sides of his stricken face. In a moment where time stood still, she stared deeply into his blue eyes and kissed him gently…
"Forgive me for what I must do, my love…"
Bruce still felt the light pressure of Raven's fingers and lips upon him as his lover disappeared into a mist of black smoke, leaving the three of them alone in the room with a device that would send a signal to end all humanity in only seconds…