Teen Titans Presents Raven – The End – Armageddon

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Chapter 8: Never Late Enough to Make a Difference

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This chapter will be mellow and fluffy, forlorn to a hero…...take caution!

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Dinah clenched her fists twice as gnarled at Slade's tall tale. How he'd subjected the Bat's protégé and the league's secondary set of eyes into this hideous debacle. How Raven, the last of these young heroes, was even CONSIDERING walking beside the bulk of immortal flesh. Her eyes cursed him from feet away as John ignored those sets of claws. A bird of prey, always she was for her roost and those she'd nurtured. Robin, was one of those as well as Roy Harper. Who currently with a heart of stone, deep underground.

Slade was no mystery. Selfish, arrogant and cruel pretty much summarized his head of the Shadows once upon a time. Or his hatred and respect for Bruce, how he'd tried to coerce and harm Jason in Gotham on a contract as the news had spread – by word of Jason's boasting, of course.

Dick was to perish with the rest, was no prophecy. She turned to her side and saw that her wound was feeling much better. With such tiny, insecure fingers, Raven was hiding something like her enemy in the wrappings. Yet she knew that maybe both were busy in their own way, in their own minds, there was only a danger she'd not yet unearthed just by searching their half – covered faces.

"So." Dinah put a hand to her hip and stopped. "Where did you expect me to take you inside the hall. You want answers, right?"

"We do." Slade said rather matter- of - fact. "The data we require is important to saving what's left of this earth in our universe." He let his eye move to John who scratched the back of his neck messily, thinking that no comeback would be necessary until later.

"This space is protected." Dinah told them. "The way in isn't here. We had to move a lot of ewquiptment that could be salvaged to a new base. Below." She pointed. "The only place a person hates to look more than up, is down."

"Far, far, away." Snorted John with a cough. "Ah, are any other members present? We could use more than a good days' inn."

"We're not a hotel." Sniffed the harpy.

"Right, sorry then." John tried to apologize, yet Slade took this as an opportunity to get through and have what they needed without any restrictions. "The longer we go about arguing Ifs around, the greater chance there is no changing the outcome –

"How do you even know that time can be, redone?" Dinah put her hands up, her disbelief clear as night. Not as day, not as clear as Slade should have guessed by the least hot headed of the League. She'd changed, which meant she'd not let them off easy with any files…

"I need this as well." Raven stepped forward as Dinah's expression flashed a different face. A more nurturing one that she'd used for the new members like the Titans. "Raven, this is insane and trusting him is calling itself a big mistake. I can sense he's hiding more than he wants to tell any of us –

"I just." Slade heaved out. "Want to retire and return. To fix what was lost and to get back parts of myself. If in the process time is rewound, we can even save her team." Slade looked to Raven almost forgiving. It felt unnatural as before when he'd helped her. "That's not why you came. I don't believe a word. Raven. Get behind me."

"I'm ser –

"Bullshit, Slade!" She stomped up to Raven as the empath saw how Amazonian this woman forced herself to be. With or without her fully abilities. "John, Rachel. Last chance. Stand down and get away from the criminal." She raised her fists and gulped in a breath.

Slade was fast, too fast as he slammed into her, his only ability to bind her down was with his weakened muscles as John tried to look into dragging them both away. "NO! She's trying to get us arrested before we can finish it. Raven. She won't understand. We just have to get in by force. Don't tell yourself she'll care. Not about what you helped to accomplish."

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Dinah kicked him, so he dropped his weight on top of her. His hand to her throat to black her out, as her voice barely acted to an octave higher. "She's restrained, John." Just ad demanding as he was with any of his underlings, Slade turned to the magi who was caught up in a whirring wheel of electrical dissonance. "You know what to do –

"She's one of us!"

"She'll stop our progress." Shot the merc. Raven moved in and saw that Dinah was in fear of not Slade, but as he said. "There is something else she won't talk about –

"His death, probably." Snorted the mighty mastermind in wrapped up reckoning. "Dinah, you know the way down. Take us there and we'll find a way to bring him back. I won't lie, this mess is partly mine. I want to help –

"Don –

Raven moved as the harpy clawed out at her –

Clawed, as Raven stepped back. "I knew it! She's been cursed like the merc in the room! Forgot that Trigon hates them as much." John chuckled and sighed at the connection. "We have to put her own. She could be unaware of her new guise. That is…. like Raven?"

"I'm not doing anything right now." Raven's eyes flickered up at the magi. "I'll still her mind. She won't hurt me."

"She doesn't know that." Slade redirected their attention to Dinah's outward suffering. She squirmed like a possessed maiden below the foreboding bite of a hungry Dragul. "We have to keep her quiet. John, last chance."

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They knocked her out but were completely on their own. Raven wondered what new heroes or old were still safe. Safe from the blast….from her father's curses being spewed out into the air. Yes. The dreaded remainder. If you escaped a demon, sometimes it was not all for the best. If it bit you, seduced or immobilized you to the ground, you had to flee. But NEVER. EVER.

Get bitten. Which, that bite was her bruise. The one Raven had fixed was from some beast on this plane as it took what was left of the matron ally to twist that into screams of pain and agonizing screeches. Slade wouldn't care. He had said she'd lost someone, yet how could he have known anything about that??

"You know the League." Raven stopped this time as a door was made by way of a few minor adjustments. the thing flung up as cool air brushed past her cheek, rustling his bandages as the man didn't turn to reply but did.

"In a way, we had terms." Slade only said, cryptic as John seemed to be quieted by the controversial egging. "I'm out of your debates. I'll stand g –

"You're coming in." Slade startled the two as Raven and Constantine bobbed their heads, still skeptical of what they'd find.

Raven just saw a skitter and lifted her cloak from the floor, dust coating it in a fine white powder. John sniffed the air and Slade, stepped in something rather gross. "Eggs for brunch, mate? Did y –

Before he could scream, John was hoisted by a rather large set of legs. Eight, and beady eyes that were red. Like Trigon. "This place is –

"A nest." Raven finished, her eyes on another exit which was under the meeting room's table. She'd seen it open before. "We have to get underground. There may be –

The squeals and hisses of a dozen spiders as large as tanks, emerged. John blasted the one that had him, his body fine as he took to an elixir rip any venom from him in the next hour. "No bloody way we're not here to see them feed…. what is the plan, maestro?" He grinned dopily at the disgruntled merc and wary empath. "Are you finished?" Slade sneered at the magi as the three of them bolted to where Raven directed. "We can't get any info in this place. Not while a sack of spiders is loose."

"John, I give you permission to go wild, but for the love of all things still thriving…can you…. cover our rear?"

Slade slapped the button the base of the table and grabbed Raven as the hatch opened up. John shouted and threw a force field over the structure as he dove in foot first. His crossed arms and how deep the hole was had been due to the tunnel not having power. "We can't reach the bottom! There was a transport system; now it'll crush us!"

"Then, phase through it." Slade snidely responded, changing his tune to something less unpleasant as he looked at Raven. "They can't get to us if it's quick. Would you be so kind, Rachel?"

She bit her lip. "You can't call me that, but I will…. Azarath…. Metrion..."

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They toppled down, a lower center of humming and buzzing to find it was a lab. A real one, as Slade caught the empath from coming down too hard. She shoved him away as John brushed Slade as well, his eyes icier than the man had seen in a long, long time. "Just remember, if I die…. Supes will put you in the earth for the gods to debate on. Will you just cool it, alright?"

"You could have just killed all of those beasts." Slade hissed. "Why hold back, Constantine."

John huffed and didn't answer, yet Slade wouldn't let him walk. "Why." He repeated.

"Why, why? Because you are out to rewrite humanity's fate. That's why, ya wanker merc bast –

Slade punished as John got up, spitting a bit of blood from the gash in his lip. "She said not to fight."

"I'm tired of running underground like rats." Slade sharply growled at the magi. "She's running out of time and you're not even trying to help."

"I don't get my hands dirty all that often."

Raven wondered why John wouldn't fight, let alone really…. did Dinah hate him too??

"I'm not in the League, I piss them off too much." The magi spoke. "I'm only tagging along to see what you two will do if this little plan falls short on an answer."

"You…don't care about anything? That's not true." Raven shook her head. "Just being from another universe –

"Which is why, if your universe doesn't recover, I can wash my hands and return. It's not like I had any connection to anyone here. I'm just here to see what made it out –

"You…. are dead !"

"Slade!"

" HEY !"

The three did stop. Raven looked to see footsteps and out of the shadows of this underground lab, a woman with a more street style aesthetic. She was African Amercian as well, her roots showing in how she held herself in front of the three. Around her neck was a leopard talisman or pendant that stayed in place yet she wore an orange and brown uniform. Her hair was kinked, dark and full of body despite the lack of humidity above ground. Raven for one, thought she was new…

"Who are you, lov?"

"I'm not a lov of anyone." Snorted the girl. "I'm here, but why are you supposed to be snoopin? I've got a mind to report you to the team –

She squinted and then pointed with a gaping mouth as wide as a fish's. "Hey! I know you, girl! Raven? From the Titans? You guys know my girl, Primer?"

"Ah…." Raven looked to John, yet he was busy nursing his cheek. Slade had his arms crossed, expecting more to be said. She was quite catty. "Name's Vixen." She held out a hand to Raven, pouting her face to look at John and Slade with scrutinizing brown eyes. "You know these dudes? This one looks…. like he could use a bath. Phew! We've got running water, but you get five minutes or not at all."

"I'm damaged, dirt is –

"Slade." Raven jutted him with her eyes. "Yes, we'd like that. These are my companions. We also came to see Clark."

She said it. Not caring since both men were too smart to have not known. Lex was only smartest without his money, his lab prepping him for a coming end…. she wondered if he was also dead in his bunker by now. "Uh, you have ta' go through security, but Billy ain't so bad."

"Billy?"

"The watch dog." Vixen said. "He's a Marvel, lemme tell ya. Took five of us to keep him alive."

"Why bother with that much effort."

Vixen swung back to step in front of Slade. Raven groaned and shook her head. They were doomed. Between John's innate inability to remain interested for as long as it took to do the right thing, and Slade's pessimistic behaviors putting down others that could assist them in saving said universe….

They were doomed.

"Cause a team don't give up. What about you?" She smiled at Raven; her eyes trapped on the memory of everything vanishing. Before she knew it, her eyes had started to water.

Vixen's small gasp and gloved hands reached out. "Mama…what happened to them?" She asked, gentle as a dove, yet determined as the vultures here were yet to flock for an explanation.

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