Teen Titans Presents: The End - Part Omni – Armageddon –
/
Chapter 4: Dig Me out of a Deep Hole to the Middle of Somewhere and Anywhere Else – Falling Stars
/
Cameo added in next chapter and familiar faces arise when Raven is finally ready to make the journey due to a change of plans.
/
The skies were growing redder. It was an unnatural sight as Slade contemplated his first idea to have them wait. There wasn't time. Earth was at stake, the rest of her anyway.
"Raven." Slade returned to speak to the empath over a night later or so, she'd been handed old cloths from a dusty corpse. Something not as gruesome yet it let her put the outfit over her remaining leotard. She'd gotten rid of her connection to her past, her cloak. Yet it would find her soon. She had predicted that the influence was partly not her father's, yet…
She regretted all of her birth, a destiny unfulfilled by her sacrifice or wishes. She'd lived while others had perished in his wake by her mistake. Her depressing "creepiness" making her the one to let the world go up in a puff of smoke. Slade had tried to live through it, yet nearly lost his life to the same monster he had bargained with. To change her, to destroy her. To use.
She looked him in the eye just barely shy of her anger towards the criminal. As filthy as she, the stench somehow masked by the cloth she wore.
"A change has come up; you'll be making the journey with me after all. What? Did you expect a congratulations?"
"No, I expected a better explanation that why we'll be going to the library to find a way to fix the world."
He snorted at that answer. "My dear, the world is already this bad. What we can do, is find something to sooth the pain of knowing it. I just want to locate what we can and get out. That place…isn't safe. I've tried. On my own, before you found that I was here, I tried to go inside and it nearly left me a shell. There are things –
"Dark magic doesn't scare me. I am darkness, in a way. Mortals wouldn't understand."
"Is that your demon talking, child?" Slade frowned. "You should let it out. Maybe it can break the seal on whatever is keeping us away from where we need to go to."
"It's my choice to stay, normal. For now." Raven got up, her new outfit a tattered brown weave of fabrics too light for this…. season. her legs still bared and her arms as well. The cloak made tarp was discarded and re used as a blanket since Slade was nor one for sharing.
Her hair was flatter, less sleek as she imagined his was shorter and growing in from the burns Trigon had left behind. "Whether we want to or not, you have the key we need to fix the world, or break it all over again." Slade told the empath quietly. "If you'll join, that's all I want to hear. That you'll disregard that self – wallowing to make things somewhat decent."
/
She in the end, agreed. His massive back carried a few items that were makeshift weapons and talismans from Azar's line. His only real power, like Robin's staff and birdarangs.
They were alike, and had no real power except their intimidating words and phrases to keep others in line. She disregarded the thought. Robin was a hero; Slade was nothing if not the polar opposite of a hero in him. She'd seen his aura, masked from her presence. Private, like his dreams.
"We'll be walking so try not to fall too far behind." He called back as the spear of one demon was in fact useful as a walking stick. He'd killed, which meant that there could be a lie between his teeth to use her to fix things so he wouldn't have to lift a pinky. Another sacrifice, as they moved forward over a rocky terrain, a desert that was once Jump City. She saw the statues, crumbling beings encased from within, not willing or able to cry out for help. Trying to move on to not pass off her guide, Raven scoured the world over with her two violet sights.
Devastated, she bit her lip and turned away. It was all a mess, all of her home now…this.
A dystopia that should have never existed, they walked miles along until Slade put up a hand for them both to stop.
"We have company. Don't move."
She smelled it first. Sludge – demons, filth. They could however, not see but they could smell. Slugs with massive teeth and bodies pooling in oil and muck. All of these. Her father had allowed into this world. Thankfully, they didn't come in packs, but in two as the monsters began to burrow. Slade am was statue ready, Raven however.
Let out a small puff of breath, as the head of one still above ground moved its fat neck to smell. It did not speak. Hissing and making sounds of a kaijuu from Bb's old movie collection. Raven held her breath, envious of Slade's skill. "Stay calm." He uttered as if he wasn't opening his mouth to say it. Yet, she didn't nod. She just, waited.
The beasts waddled and slithered by, sniffing and finding themselves in a bind once the scent had been lost, moving to burrow off as her eyes remained wide. His body, completely motionless, until after a few minutes of waiting, the man did move and Raven was obliged to do the same.
"What…. demons?"
"Demons of gluttony. And quite large, by now…" Slade only said, looking up ahead as he just kept walking. "They can't see us if we don't breathe a sound, but their eyes are poor. They can only smell fear and the energy we emit. Breath is life so they devour that." Raven felt a chill from those words. "How many got into our world? Through the portal?"
"Probably, hundreds. I noticed that one was swollen, maybe with children it was trying to supply nutrients for "
"Disgusting. Can we just, keep moving? Please?" Raven would not call that the cycle of life. It was a parasite, nothing more. "Of course, but from now on each time we run across a demon you'll act according to what I tell you. For instance, the bird demons are the most lethal but others are just as dangerous. Trackers; lizard – bandits that can walk on four or two legs. They run as fast as a cheetah and usually, their prey is done. Let's hope they won't be onto our scent anytime soon." Smirked the bandaged enemy, his eye showing amusement in petrified this girl scout.
"Fine, what other demons should we avoid. I have to ask now that you're not going to stop."
"Well, there are the web – crawlers. Giant spiders with the ability to suck out souls and, they are the enemy of the slugs you saw. There are also dead walkers. Skeletons that were half eaten beings from our world. They have half a brain, literally but are easily proved and will bite if made uncomfortable."
"So, zombies, giant arachnids, lizard – bandits, four red – eyed demon ravens. What else did I bring by helping out my father?" She insinuated, saying Slade with her eyes spoke was just as responsible for freeing the lord of hell on her world. "I could leave you here now. See if you end up nibbled to bits by the very worst of them all. The soul wretches."
"Soul, wretches?"
"A hollow man demon, but moving in the shadows. It grabs you, tugs you down until you can't even scream."
"Slade!"
Raven gasped, his head cocking to the side as the empath's warning wasn't met with the proper reaction.
"What's the matter, did I scare-
A tongue came out of the earth and dragged him by the foot. Acid burns in it as the second worm appeared. They were not so easily fooled.
"OK…. I HAVE…. AZARATH –
No!!!" Slade shouted as his staff took off the tongue. "No magic from her…the demon only ! They won't try to trace it. Try!"
He beat the staff into the worms supposed face as it shrieked out and the other, the mother or father, came looking for fresh meat. Raven ran, her body moving to float as she leveled out that power, thinking on how to conjure up a fire. Something to burn them all back.
"Give me the staff!" She called out. Slade scowled and pulled out the talisman from before instead. "Chant the inscription! You can, I'm…. not able!"
She caught the damned tablet in her palms and held it up high. Her magic flooded over with the feeling of, control of it. She gave her eyes time to shut. The power borrowed, her words seeping to use it. To have it working more than he had against the birds.
" Kaitsku ja pagendagu jumalad neid, kes sellele päästjale kahju teevad. Vihma deemonite peale, tuli! Tuld kesköö õhust! Nii et olgu see siis tehtud!" (Estonian, I thought was a nice touch since Trigon was all over the globe being kept a secret by his cults.)
Light did rain, for fire came in the shape of bright mounds that brought the scorching, screaming worms to expand and explode before their eyes. Slade dragged his body, still healing to rest. "Damn ….so, close…. ach."
The projectile fire had simmered, yet Raven floated down to tend to the enemy as his scorched leg looked to be oozing a bit of pus. "Let me try to –
"We can't expose ourselves again. No –
"I won't let you leave us stranded. How long will it take? Hours? You wanted me on this trip, so you can't say no to being punctual." Raven dragged out her hands as he bit back a cry. She saw…. a lab table and something that made her eyes pop open once she'd done enough to his leg. Both panting, while Raven was an absolute fool for doubting him.
"You, can heal…in minutes. You're enhanced, by sci –
"MY PAST." Shot the mercenary. "Is not for you to bear witness, witch. I'm fine."
He was right. The wound without her would have taken thirty minutes or less to reseal. She gulped, looking at his dejected face. So foreign to her. "You really can face them that's why you survived. Not because –
"My scars still scab." He told her coldly and rose to take up the staff while his healing shin still itched terribly. "I'M no less if a freak than any of your friends. Come. We're wasting time again."
"But, your powers. You didn't have to always be this way. Slade." Still, she put her powers to the test. That, empathy he lacked. Methodical, tricky and crude. She was, too pure to know what he had done. "The world comes first before my feelings. You should know this. Tears will only slow us down."
She moved to flank him, her eyes never changing as she thought, that Slade had mire to him as a person. That was why Robin respected and feared the man. Because he could relate to none of what he didn't know. Which meant –
Robin knew. He knew that Slade could have lived, he didn't tell them. Any of them!
"The boy wonder fought crime in Gotham, a city of impossible nightmares come to life." Raven tipped her head up as Slade drawled on. "Robin and the Bat, they both know an immortal when they see one. It should come as no such surprise that he wouldn't go looking. The mask was a way to punish his efforts, he'd been digging all along behind your backs and mine so? Well, you know the rest."
"You, did that? All tracked him, nearly –
"I HAD TO." Slade shut her out a second and had his leg at seventy five percent in moments. The hobble, gone. "My file, the bat has it yet Robin isn't allowed to view the JLA's list. It's a code. They don't like to break them, just how I broke mine with Robin and Terra…"
"WH –
Almost there. The winds will pick up soon. Do you have that tarp hood from earlier?" He changed the top, her head bobbing as he snorted and looked onwards. "The dust bowl arena, I call it. There." He pointed to what looked to be howling, moving individual clouds and tornados of fog and….and…. wind. sand storms.
"Ready to be brave, princess?"
"Did I just save us from two giant worms?" She sniffed back.
"Perhaps, but these clouds are sentient almost. Like a board game you cannot win. Try, see if they don't shoot first."
Was he…she shook her head and went ahead, a bolt of lightning nearly striking her foot.
"See?" He chuckled, pulling out the staff, her eyes knowing now why he'd brought it along. "Pretty clever." Rolling her eyes, this had to all be such a game to the overpowered warrior.
She shrugged off the chill and stayed on his right; the whirring winds not as close to that side for some reason. "Stay by me, grab my arm if it helps." Was…. she just rejected his smugness and latched on carefully. The clouds easier to dodge while Slade had a way to deflect and remain undetected by his tools.
When she'd finally caught up to catch her breath, a large steep climb awaited them. "This is where I come in, isn't it?"
Slade shrugged, seeming to not care either way. Even if she knee she was being mocked. "I'm not Beastboy so I don't climb like a gorilla, but I could –
"It's fine then." She levitated them both, the large temple building now atop a mountain of larger building set by the explosion. But no. It was a throne. She saw. Trigon's discarded one. Somehow, that didn't surprise her.
"Where do we go from here? Any answers?"
She waited a second as Slade put his hand to the rock. "Can you break this away?" He asked her, his voice more composed, more responsive and yet at the same time, determined to finish the job without waiting.
"I can, watch this." She used her powers to crush the rocky seat as the hole below, had her gaping.
"That…. where did –
"His portal, his rules." Slade took from his supplies a grapple gun; the very last. "If you or I slip, there is no turning back. This is the only way so far back to the surface."
"What happened to the other entrance."
"A cave in, completely destroyed." Slade answered, stoic voice recounting what he and Robin had failed to accomplish in the end. "Trigon hoarded this way in to prevent another collapse of his empire. Down here, is the coldest hell imaginable now that it's without its one true, king."
/
They did not fall, but Raven knew that Slade was keeping something from her. That this wasn't the realm he'd gotten his flesh and blood from. This wasn't the place they'd found Raven completely ruined in. This wasn't, where she and Robin had strengthened their bond before leaving it at the foot of this world. When fire…she felt the sides as she levitated, until her powers started to waver did Slade grip her torso and have the empath rest on their long way down, down into the deep, dark tunnel into Trigon's last living presence of power.
When they'd made it to the base of the tunnel and portal, darkened walls of obsidian and nothingness but black surrounded the two journeyers.
No lava, all encased in black stone. No demons, all but dead as Raven saw her breath and shivered in Slade's grip until they were to the ground. The grapple retracted as the rest looked bleak.
Hell, had in fact officially frozen over.
Cold to the touch as the magic was breaking here too. Slade's eye looked grim, not just the scar over top it. "There should be –
"Wait." Raven reached out, her questions still lacking in that department. "You know what it is we're supposed to be looking for. You've been here, so you have to have a real reason why you know where to go. Talk. I want answers or no other help is coming."
/
Raven rubbed her arms, the cold not as awful as he sighed, feeling they'd go nowhere if he didn't quit pulling the mysterious act all in one go.
"So, you've detected a plan... The place I wanted to go to regain my flesh and body, also granted the visitor their deepest desires. If memory serves, it will be below this level, a few levels. No lava - river means…we may have to walk a majority of the way. Your powers won't work here, as well my dear."
"WHAT? He's not here. That's more than untrue. What plan –
"No real… plan, this is his domain and he's still alive until he decides to everything in it wake from its, slumber." The man said cryptically. Raven frowned, her arms not doing a decent job of keeping her well and from hypothermia.
"Here." He dragged off the cloth from his back as it swept over her shoulders with a wave and such warmth it was unbelievable for a human to have. "I can handle this, you can't. Not all of you." He hinted that her demon self could tolerate this weather, but not her human half.
"You're only doing this because I have something you want."
"As are you." Slade replied. "Aren't you glad to have such a reliable knight here by your side, princess?" He smirked below his bandages; her frown only deepening in annoyance as she snorted back while flanking right behind him again in a straight line. "If only he wasn't so conceited, then sure. I am, super, thrilled to be here right now…"
/
Raven is a bit shaken. She hasn't seen this part of the world yet and Slade is making her into a bit of a skeptic even if she's already not that trusting of others. In a way, they both can relate, but if this world is obsolete or fast asleep…. will his plan work to get to the same room and have a wish granted? Find out!