Dream or Fate

Location: Unknown. Time: Unknown

P.O.V: Rachel 'Raven' Roth

"Raven."

"Wake up."

My eyes shoot open when I hear a woman's voice. I gaze my eyes around and see that...I'm not in the Tower, no sign of anyone that could have spoken to me, nothing. I sit up and try to get a better sight on where I am but I see only blackness, just an endless void all around. I go get up but a wet feeling touches my hand as I look down and see that I'm laying on what appears to be black water. Raising my hand, my eyes widen as my breath starts to quicken...it's not water...it's blood.

I get up to my feet in shock at the sight of the blood, the blackness of the water starts to turn to a crimson red. "This isn't real...this isn't real." I say to myself as I use every calming technique that I know and try to wake myself from the dream. "Is it?" I hear a soft but still heavy voice question as my heart sinks into my stomach. I know that voice, dread starts to well up within me as I shudder, turning slowly...I shudder when I see four red eyes glowing in the dark void. "This isn't real...you're not real!" I shout as I turn away but stare shocked when the eyes appear directly in front and above me, illuminating the void in a fiery red and orange. "I am real... Daughter." The voice says as the blood starts to swirl around me, almost like a whirlpool. I shield my eyes and ears from the blood and the voice as I fall to my knees, praying and pleading. "This isn't real, this isn't real...this isn't real." I whimper to myself as I feel the blood crash against me.

I hold my breath under the thick blood as I try to even myself from being rag dolled by the liquid...I manage to find the surface, only to fall to a heap on some concrete. I open my eyes slowly and see that the scenario has changed. The void is now a ruined city. Smoke is rising from hundreds, if not, thousands of fires burning. Buildings appear to be broken, near collapse. Hundreds of bodies line the streets, rubble crushing most of them, but others are shriveled, like the life has been sucked out of them...a look of terror plastered on their faces. "Rachel." I hear a different voice call out to me, with my real name, as I turn but see no one. "Rachel." The voice calls out again as I turn and see a completely different scene than before. Gone is the ruined city but now is an open field, greenery that stretches to the horizon, flowers sprouting from the soil...a complete 180° compared to what was here before. "Rachel." This time, I turn and see Matt standing before me. I was going to say something, question him about what is going on but I see the withered look in his eyes...I gaze at him from head to toe and see just how bad he looks. His hair is completely grey, wrinkles are showing along his eyes and his stature is hunched over...the Matt before me is a far cry to the one that I know. "Why did you leave?" He says to me, a soft, sad tone in his voice as I stare at him with confusion. "Why did I-I don't even know what is happening? Why is this happening?" I demand out of him but he simply gazes at me sadly. "You could have saved us. Could have saved us all. Why did you leave? What could I have done better?" He asks as I start to pace in front of him...anger and frustration is starting to get the better of me. "I don't understand. Speak plainly. Why am I here? Why am I seeing this? Why was he here?" I question as he nods sorrowfully. "To understand...you must see." He says as he reaches forwards and places his thumb against my chakra. His eyes glow with a dim blue glow as my eyes roll back as I collapse against the ground.

As soon as that happens, my eyes open up and I hop back up to my feet. I'm in the ruined city again, only this time, I can hear the sounds of combat...the roar of a beast and the sound of gunfire. I dart through the maze of rubble and bodies...my eyes widen when I found that some of them are very familiar. I see the body of Nightwing, impaled on five steel beams. Rocket, with her neck twisted 180°. Black Bolt's body sitting nearby, his right hand almost reaching out o her but...his legs are missing. As I walk, I recongise more and more...some of them are even villains. Blade, Wonder Girl, Captain Atom, Aquaman, the Hawks, Martian Manhunter, Lagoon Boy, Robin, Mal, Bumblebee, Guy Gardner, the Penguin, Harley Quinn, King Shark, Gorilla Grodd, Sabertooth, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Lex Luthor, even Ra's Al Ghul. Hundreds of bodies...heroes, villains, civilians...it didn't matter...whether they were men, women or children...they lined the streets...the brutality in some of them, of how they died...nearly brought up the contents of my stomach.

"Raven."

"Wake up."

I hear the same voice that I first heard but as I look around but there is still no one there. I shake my head from the voice and continue on, I finally get to the source of the fighting and see a massive crater in the middle of what I assume had been a park of some kind. The crater was huge, the former park was all but gone, the buildings nearby had collapsed within, more bodies lined the rubble. But what confused me was that some of them were of a creature that I've never seen. One of the bodies was a mangled mess of flesh and armour but I could see the remnants of what might have been wings. Dark armour had been twisted and constructed to shield the creature, it also had a weapon of some kind, almost similar to the gun if not for the glowing red glow and alien design. The other bodies were of some that I instantly recognised. Demon of all shapes and sizes. Some of them had been burned with I assume to be from Matt and Zarathos but others had bullets holes and stab wounds. My observations were cut short when I heard a roar as a body was flung towards me. I dart behind a large rock as I glance up and see the winged creature from before, impaled on some exposed rebar. I hear a growling as a towering frame of what I can only describe as a beast steps up. His skin is of red scales with green that seems to glimmer in the light of the nearby fire. The beast has very human frame with long arms that end with a deadly set of claws but also a set of short, claws coming just out of the knuckles. The legs were a bit strange compared to the muscular build of the torso as they were slender and angular almost like a dog or a wolf's legs would be. The beast was also mostly scales but it did have a cost of fir that encased the savage face and shoulders, the fur was also of a red colour but more of a maroon red and brown. Lastly to finish off, a dinosaur like tail that swayed behind it.

(1)

The beast unleashes an earth-shaking roar as its red eyes focus on another of the flying creatures but to my shock and horror, more of them start to fly out from the horizon. Fiery puts start to melt the ground near me as dozens of demons start to crawl their way out. "Get down here, Gar!" I hear Matt shout as th beast cocks its head towards the centre of the crater. My eyes at hearing the familiar name that the beast seemed to respond to. "Beast Boy?" I question to myself as I look shocked at the reveal. Beast Boy was one of the last names on my list of suspects that the beast could have been.

Getting pass the reveal of the beast's identity, I move to another rock and hide as I gaze down at the centre of the crater. Even from this far back, I can see Matt is his usual colours of black with his trademark white 'U' but what was different compared to what I know is the armour aesthetic that he had. Next to Matt was Beast Boy, towering over everyone present. And the others were Frank Castle AKA the Punisher, Blue Beetle, Batman, Superboy and Vandal Savage. "There's too many of them. We have to fall back." Castle says as I get closer to the ensemble group. "Fall back where, Castle? There is nowhere left to go. Nowhere left to hide." Savage says in a clam manner but being an empath, I can sense his fear and unease at the situation. "We completely surrounded. Those things are coming back, and all of our heavy hitters are gone...it's just us." Blue Beetle says, his tone full of fear and sorrow. "We still have our back up plan. We can stop this invasion...if we get close enough to her..." Batman begins to say but Blue Beetle formed a plasma cannon on his right arm and pointed it at Batman, his left arm flexed, and a large blade shot out. "We are not doing that! I won't let you!" He shouts with rage at the Caped Crusader who barely flinched at Blue Beetle's threat. Beast Boy growled softly and threateningly at Batman for his statement, from where I was, I could see the ground beneath Beast Boy's crouched position was being sliced by his enormous claws. "Batman is right, Reyes. We don't have any other options. For the greater good of mankind's survival, this has to be done." Savage says to Beetle, backing up Batman. "I would sooner off myself than take your advice Savage so just shut the fuck up before I do the demons a favor." Beetle says threateningly to Savage, just as Beast Boy rose to his full height, his low growl turning into an snarl. "That's enough, Jaime. Gar." Superboy says as he and Castle step in to de-escalate the situation. "Fighting amongst ourselves won't help anyone." He says to Blue-Jaime...who calms down and puts his weapons away. Beast Boy relaxes his stance and crouches down again, but his eyes trained on Savage and Batman, his claws still flexed and scraping across the ground. "Matt...any ideas?" Superboy asks Matt which brings my attention over to Matt. He is seated upon a rock, his chains handing loosely from his arms, a large board axe laid across his lap, and Azrael's sword standing straight out of the ground.

"I will not condone her. None of this is her fault." He says in low growl, just hearing him say that sends a wave of fear through me and I can see, very clearly...that it's affecting everyone near him. Maybe to a greater extent than I. "I have lost too much to this war...I will not cast aside and destroy the last vestige of my humanity." He says as Savage approaches Matt...though very carefully. "I understand what we ask of you. I know that what we are asking is too horrific to even mention or even consider. To kill a child, at worse, your own...is a terrible thing, I know. But look at what has happened, all of this destruction...we have to end this war, end all of this death and destruction." He says as I focus my eyes and see Matt hooking a chain to the axe. "But at what cost?" Matt says as he grips the axe handle and jumps to his feet, twirling around, he throws the axe with all his might and it embeds in Savage's torso. The Leader of the Light gazes down in shock at the embedded axe but before he can scream, shout or do anything, Matt races over and pulls the axe out and cuts off his head. A dim blue fire spreads over Savage's remains, leaving a charred, headless corpse.

Matt looks up from his work and gazes at the others and appears to me that none of them show any sign of surprise, horror, anything. Not even a twitch at the display of violence. Matt walks over to the Dark Knight and gets in his face. "You mention that plan ever again...I'll rip out your spine." He growls out to Batman who hangs his head in submission. Matt walks away from the group but surprises me when his eyes train onto me. "Do you see...the inevitability? The horror of it? We rise...only to fall." He says as I blink in confusion, only to find Matt directly in front of me, crossing the distance between us in a literal, blink of an eye. "We have become a slow and terrible shield against the weight of a thousand swords." He says as he walks closer to me, I'm so unnerved by his presence and his speech that I back away and stand up against a piece of rubble.

"Do you see, what we have become? To fight? To survive?" He says as raging fire starts to spread across the crater and ruined city. "The ones that we have lost. The ones we had grieved. The ones we buried. The ones we murdered?" He says as images start to form from within the fire. Even with fires' chaotic nature, I could still clearly see images of people dying. I saw a family being hunted and tortured by a group of demons. I saw Superman clash against a behemoth of a demon. The massive demon smashes the Man of Steel into and ground with such force that it made a small earthquake...the demon then grabs Superman and lifts him above his head...and starts pulling. Superman's agony filled screams hit my ears with full force as I watch him get ripped in half by the colossal demon. The image cuts to another showing Lilith, the Mother of All Demons fighting against the combined forces of Zatanna, a blonde man with a sandy trench coat, Doctor Fate and even Klarion, the Witch Boy. But the next image, makes me shudder in fear and helplessness as I watch Jade, Matt's wife, fighting against a horde of the flying creatures from behind. A sai in one hand while Azrael's blade in the other. She is skillfully holding her ground against the horde but a pair of red beams of energy zig zag out of nowhere and burn through her, killing her instantly. Matt, in full Rider form, roars in fury and charges at a smoke shrouded figure. A towering monster of grey skin, and strong blue armour. The figure smirks out of the smoke and simply holds his hands behind his back, completely at ease with the Ghost Rider charging at him in full rage.

Many other images come and go, heroes and villains being overwhelmed and slaughtered. Civilians being picked off and tortured for amusement of the demons but what confuses me I'd when the flying creatures from before and the Green Lanterns, John Stewart and Hal Jordan team up to battle the demons...what is going on? What is happening? What is all this? The last image I see before the fire dies down is of an open area, similar to the crater before...I see Matt stand at one far edge of the area. The axe and Azrael's sword in hand, both of them Burning bright with Heavenly Fire. Across from him is a figure that I instantly recognise to be Lilith. She is wearing a twisted form of golden-grey armour that is glowing with a green glow that encompasses the armour, like veins. She has a thin straight sword in her left hand and a massive, black flail in the other. (2) I hear a grunt as I turn and see my father, dressed in an ornate but still practical black and red armour, with a massive spiked warhammer resting on his shoulder. (3) A crash of rubble caught my attention to the opposite end of my father, and it's the same towering figure that I saw before. I can see him more clearly now and I can honestly say...that compared to my father, this might be the most intimidating thing that I have ever been in the presence of. The unknown individual stands tall, almost as tall as my father but more muscular. Every detail of the individual's figure, stance and confidence is projected as a threat that should never, ever, be crossed. A foreboding blue armour is worn by the figure and has a massive pike like halberd. (4) A silence reigns over the four individuals, none of them moving, just simply staring each other down...waiting for someone to make the first move. "And now it ends." Matt says next to me as Heavenly Fire burns over his head, revealing his Angel Rider form. He begins walking in Lilith's direction who smiles sadistically at him, mirroring his movements. I hear a father huff and chuckle as he moves his hammer off his shoulder and walks forward too, the other figure matching his stride. Soon enough, they tire of walking and start running...large trails of dust and smoke are left in their wake as the four powerful combatants clash in an earth shattering collision. The force is so strong that I'm blasted off my feet and sent through hundreds of pieces of rubble and debris.

I land on my back and find myself back to my feet, unhurt, and in the dark void that I started in. "Why did you leave? Was it something I did?" I hear Matt say as I turn and see him before me, he looks just as he did in the open field. "I don't know what you are talking about. I don't know what you are trying to tell me. Please, just tell me, tell me what you want me to say." I say as he steps closer and pulls me into a gentle hug, I'm taken aback by the act. I nervously raise my arms and hug him back. "I'm sorry...I should have done more. Where did I go wrong?" He says as he breaks away but still holds me close as I look up at him. "What happened? Why did I leave?" I ask him as his sad expression narrows into one of even steel, neither joy...nor anger. Just nothing. His gaze trail down as I follow his eyesight, my eyes widen in horror at seeing my fist driven deep into his chest. I instinctively clench and pull my fist out, unintentionally pulling his heart with me. "You tell me. Why did you go to him?" Matt says as I gaze in horror as he drops dead to the ground, a gaping hole in his chest. I drop his heart in terror, just as I hear a mocking laugh.

I look up and widen my eyes at seeing a mirror that was situated behind Matt, and in my reflection...all I see is something that will forever stay with me. Instead of seeing my horrified visage and tear-streaked face, all I see is an older woman with crimson red skin, a deep contrast to my pale white. Armoured gauntlets with sharp claws at the end of her fingertips, Matt's heart still in hand and his thick blood is dripping down from her claws. The reflection also has a similar cloak to my own but more angular, sharper, while also darker...nearly an all black...just like the void from before. Sharp, metal feathers line the cloaks shoulder blades and hood, keeping the reflections face hidden from view. I shake my head from the sight, opening them up, I see that the mirror and the reflection are gone, and Matt's heart is gone as well. I look around and see that I'm in the same meadow from before but instead of it being peaceful and serene, the grass is now all gone, shriveled and black. The sky has turned from a warm blue to a crimson, evil red. Smoke rises from the ground as fire burns over the field. My breathing starts to quicken when I see all the bodies that I saw before, and then some. They are spread across the entire field, thousands upon thousands of bodies. I look over all of them, the sight of them just making me tremble with fear and terror. I turn to run and hide from the sight but all I find when I turn, is the reflection made real, standing before me. The sight of reflection and the realness of it surprised me so much that I fell to the ground in surprise and fear.

The figure laughs cruelly at me as I back away slowly from her. "What...who are you?" I say, my voice trembling with fear. Every instinct in my body, both human and demon, is telling me to run...run and hide as far away as I can. The figure laughs cruelly once again, the sound of her laughter sending a cold chill right down my spine. "Oh, come on now. I think we both know that your smarter than that." The figure says as she reaches up and pulls her hood back, finally revealing who she is and my heart sinks in dread and horror at the reveal...it's me...a demonic, older me.

My...doppelganger, has two sets of red eyes that stare down at me, a very amused and sadistic smile spread across her face, revealing danger like canines. "Don't be afraid...what's there to be afraid of?" She says as she moves closer to me, swaying her hips like a seductress. I move away I. Fear of her, crawling over the corpses of friends, foes and civilians alike. "Stay away from me! You're not real! None of this is real!" I say, trying to hide myself from her view and not to gaze anymore at her. She laughs loudly at me, almost like she was mocking me but also amused by what I said. "Oh, Raven. This is very real. Why don't you ask your friends...how real this is?" She says as I turn to her, she raises her hands above her head. I hear gurgling and twitching as I look around and see all the bodies starting to move. Their eyes open, revealing a dark red glow, another set grows out of their foreheads, matching that of my doppelganger. The sight of the eyes gives me the telltale sign of demonic possession...particularly those, of Trigon descendent and worship.

They all stand and face towards me, I hold my hands up, a purple and black energy form glide over my fingers as I turn every so enough to keep track of them all. "This isn't real! None of you are real! This is just a dream, just a dream, just a dream." I mumble to myself as I close my eyes and try to block them out. "Sister. Sister. Sister. Sister. Sister. Sister." They all start chant as I collapse to my knees and cover my ears. "Just a dream, just a dream, just a dream, just a dream, just a dream." I continue to say as I carefully peak my eyes out, I recoil when I see them stand over me, wide predatory smiles as they lean over me, blocking out any source of light, leaving only their red eyes visible. "This is just a dream. None do this...is REAL!" I shout as I explode up and push them all away with a telekinetic blast. My doppelganger stands firm the blast, only her cloak getting pushed back from the force.

I breath heavily from the amount of power that I used, the energy had been built because of my emotions and like a damn rookie, I used most of it all up. I collapse back to my knees as I pant, drawing in as much breath as I can. My muscles are aching from the drop in power and my energy is in a flux, trying to stabilize from the blast. I look and see the sadistic and satisfied smirk on my doppelganger's face. "My, my, my...very sloppy. Hard to believe that I once came from you...such a pity." She mockingly says to me as I try to call upon my power to attack her, but I have sapped too much. I look around and see the possessed bodies rising once again, training to me one more time. "Sister. Sister. Sister. Sister. Sister. Sister. Sister." They all begin chanting again as I curl up in a ball and hide from them. "Just a dream, just a dream...please, just leave me alone." I cry softly, just accepting the fact that they are not going to stop, I can't even tell what's real and what's not anymore. "Sister. Sister. Sister. Sister. Sister. Sister. Sister. Sister." They all continue chanting as I cover my ears. "Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it!" I shout out again and to my surprise...they do.

"Daughter."

A familiar voice sounds as I look up and see all the possessed bodies move away and give me line of sight to my doppelganger...and my father, Trigon. He is not fully corporeal, just a dark, transparent figure with red wisps of magical energy coming off of him. "Join me, Daughter. This world is ours for the taking. Its inhabitants will be our servants. It's warriors, our army. Join me, Daughter...you don't have to be alone any more. Join me, Daughter...and we can be a family. You, me...and your mother." He says as another figure forms on the other side of my doppelganger, she has the same, purple hair as me and the same facial features with a few changes. Angela Roth, more known more as Arella...my mother. She stares at me with love and affection that I haven't seen in so long, not since I was taken from Azarath. "Come, Raven...come to mommy." She says as she kneels down, a wide open smile on her face, like she was smiling at a child...and she lost likely was...it's been years since in last saw her. Something deep within is almost telling me to go, rejoin her, hug her...love her, just like before...before everything.

"Raven."

"Wake up."

"You need to wake up."

I hear the same voice from before, only this time, it's more hurried, I hear a great sense of worry within its tone...like it's desperate to...wake me. "This is just a dream." I say with realisation. I kept saying that it was, that none of it was real...I should have listened to the voice to begin with. I turn back to my doppelganger, my father and my mother. Their faces turn from an evil, sadistic smile, to an angry snarl of hate and rage. I narrow my eyes as I feel the magic start to build up to greater heights, the magic of Azarath pushing down the demonic influence that I can now sense...my mind is now clearer than before, no longer hindered by doubt, fear and frustration. "Get...out...of...my...head!" I shout as I blast an area wide, telekinetic push that sends all the possessed bodies flying, some even break apart and disintegrate. I float in a meditative position and focus my magic. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos." I chant, unleashing a massive, purple raven that spreads its wings and caws, sending a torrent wave of power and extinguishing Trigon and my doppelganger out of my mind. "Time to wake up."

I hear the voice from before as I feel a nursing sensation on my shoulder and see a skeletal hand. I feel an intense rush of power as the world around crumbles away, leaving a bright white flash of light.

Salem, Massachusetts: 2:19am, May 23rd, 2013

Tower of Fate:

My opens shoot open as I hold my arms out defensively to whatever is in front of me, my magic ready to react at a moment's notice. Everything is very foggy, very...disorient. "Whoa, ok, ok...you're ok. It's me...Zatanna." I calm down when I hear the name. I relaxed my magic as my eyes start to clear, the room around starts to look familiar. The room is dark with its purple and dark blue colouring, it's also very spartan...lacking any extravagant accessories or items. The only thing that made me very confused was why we're all my spell books and furniture scattered or broken across the room. "Raven? Raven?!" Zatanna speaks up, getting my attention as I turn to the direction of her voice. I see that she is sitting on my bed with a worried expression on her face, but with her, standing close by was Doctor Fate.

"Are you ok? You gave us quite a scare." Zatanna asks me as I shake my head of the memories of the dream. "Yes, I'm ok. Just a bad dream." I say as I pull my knees up to my chest, subconsciously trying to hide from the cold stare of Nabu. "That wasn't just a mere dream, child." Nabu's deep, commanding voice echoes in the room as I glance at him. His eyes turn to my wall just add mine and Zatanna's follow his gaze and to my shock...the wall of my room had a thick black, vein like substance that was spreading up along the wall. I look around and notice that my whole room was covered in it...how the hell did I not notice any of that when I woke up?

"We were in the foyer when we started to feel the Tower shake. Nabu sensed that very powerful magic was affecting the magical and physical foundations of the Tower. Everything was in a flux, the defensive wards and protective enchantments...that substance was the result of the flux and eventually started spreading everywhere." Zatanna explains to me as she points out the veins. I look wide eyed at her explanation before settling on the veins. My brows furrow when I trail the pathway of a vein...down the wall, across the floor, merging and splitting from the other veins, but they all originated from a single point, a single bed...that came directly from my bed...right from where I was sleeping.

"I did this?" I ask, worried that if I did...Nabu was going to kick me out. I know that is very irrational, he can be a bit...intimidating and unnecessarily harsh, especially when it comes to training, but he is not inherently cruel. But if what Zatanna and Fate say is true, that my dream, shook the Tower and spread these...veins all over...then I am afraid of getting the boot. "Yes...but not of your own free will or control." Nabu answers my question bluntly as I hang my head in shame. "You were experiencing a nightmare, however, your magic is still very unknown...even to Order. Your demonic heritage has made your magic very chaotic...your magic and abilities are drawn from your emotions and feelings, and react without any form or direction...just like what happened here tonight. Your nightmare triggered intense emotions out of you and you in turn, unaware of what was happening, started to release the unstable magic. Your demon heritage started to leak out and infect the magic of the Tower." Fate says as I hold my knees close to me, feeling very ashamed of what Nabu is telling me. Zatanna glares at Nabu before closing the distance between us and pulls me into a side hug, she is aware that close contact is not something that I particularly like, hence why she is still keeping just a good enough distance with her hug. I glance at her, nodding in gratitude at her action.

"Hey, hey...it's not your fault. And it doesn't matter, we were able to hold off the veins from spreading too far. After the first shake of the Tower, I came here to check up on you...when I saw that you were having a nightmare, I cast a protection on you and the room, hoping to keep any damage to a minimum." She says to me as I nod my head at her, thanking her for helping. She smiles and gestures to my scattered shelving and books. "Sorry that I couldn't save your books though." She says apologetically with a hint of humour, I smile at her attempt to cheer me up. "It's alright...I was thinking about doing some furniture moving anyway." I deadpan back, it's not very humorous...at least not to me but Zatanna cracks up laughing with I can only assume to be the funniest thing that she heard.

"After I stabilised the Tower's foundations, I sensed where you and Zatara were and came here as soon as possible...seeing that you are unharmed and the damage has been halted, Fate is done here." Nabu says as he raises his hand and forms a bright, yellow ankh. The black veins start to wither and dissolve from his powerful magic. "I will not allow an incident like this to happen again...be in Mirror Chamber when the Sun rises...any later and there will be consequences." Nabu says threateningly before teleporting away in a yellow ankh. "Fucking asshole." Zatanna quips angrily next to me as I nod with a smile. "Truer words have not yet been spoken." I say back to her but Zatanna faces away from me and wipes a tear from her eye. I gently reach out and get a read on her feelings and I hang my head when I feel a deep anger, love and regret coming from her. "That is very rude, you know?" She says, causing me to break from my empath observation and see her facing me with a knowing smirk on her face. "Sorry...I was just-." I try to say in my defensive but she waves me off. "It's ok, one of your greatest gifts is your empathy. Just wish that you asked first but it's alright." She says with a joking tone as I a small curl forms on the corner of my lip.

We sit in comfortable silence as everything of the last hour start to wear away at us. "So...do you want to talk about it? Your nightmare?" Zatanna asks as I glance at her, while I do want to share with her what I saw...I can't help but wonder if what I saw should be kept to myself. By all accounts, I could have been a dream, or a nightmare...but I have never had a dream slash nightmare as vivid as that. Sure, I had nightmares of my father...and of Azarath but they were mild compared to what I saw and felt. Was it a dream...or a vision? A premonition of a possible future? If anyone could understand of what I saw, it would be Zatanna or even Nabu...but I don't want to worry them. It could be nothing but then...it could be something. "No...I mean...just not right now, I suppose." I say worriedly, fearing that Zatanna is going to push the issue but she smiles and places a hand on my shoulder. "Ok, of that's what you want, then I won't push you. But just keep in mind, I'm always here for you...if you ever want to call...I'm just a call or a teleporting spell away." She says as I smile and nod thankfully at her. She hops to her feet and turns to me with a dramatic fashion. "Well...I'm gonna go, remember...I'm open ears if you want to talk." She says as I nod with a smile. "Ok, Zatanna...if I want to talk...you'll be the first that I approach." I say as she nods. "Oh, and before I go...'eruitinruf dna skoob s'nevaR fo lla nruter dna riapeR'." She chants as my furniture is forced and placed back where they are originally, all of my books fly back, repaired if needed and returned to their original places...all in all, it doesn't look like a magical episode happened here at all. "Thank you." I say gratefully to Zatanna who waves me off. "Don't worry about, it's the least I could go." She says before walking towards the bedroom door. She turns back to me with a soft, at ease, expression. "Please try and get some sleep, ok? God knows that you're going to need come morning with Nabu." She says as I nod with tense unease. I don't know even if I want to go back to sleep after that ordeal. "I'll try." I say, trying to ease her worry. She smiles one last time before heading out and closing the door behind her.

Left alone in the dark room, I sigh deeply before laying back down on my bed. I pull the sheets up and over my body as I try and get comfortable to fall asleep but all I can think about...is the dream. Just all the images and everything that I felt, that I saw. It didn't feel like a dream but more like I was walking through a vision of the future. I really should have talked to Zatanna about it. This indecision and doubt about what I saw is making my head throb and it's making it harder from me to fall asleep. I grain deeply as I realise that I'm not going to get any sleep for the rest of the night and that training, come morning...is going to be nothing but hell...and Nabu is going to throttle me around like a fucking child's toy before teaching me anything meaningful. Great...just wonderful.

A.N:

(1): Imagine his template as Abomination from the Avengers: Initiative mobile game, just without the gauntlets and boots. He has a mixture of hair from lions, horses, and dogs that covers his head, collar, shoulders and trails down his spine to the small of his back. Three short, pointed claws protrude just out of his knuckles. His legs are more wolf-like with the raised ankles, the feet are dinosaur like with the three toes and finally he has a T-Rex like tail, similar to Humongosaur from Ben 10: Alien Force.

(2): Witch King's flail from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

(3): Shao Khan's Wrath Hammer but with Trigon's symbol from Teen Titans instead of the Mortal Kombat dragon.

(4): Darkseid's pole axe-spear from Zack Snyder's Justice League.