Teen Titans Presents: The End - Part Omni – Armageddon –

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CHAPTER 2: AS THE WOLF HUNTS, THE BIRD SCOURS THE GROUND FOR ITS KIN

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Trying for poetic titles off the top of my head since you guessed it – Slade's meant to symbolize a lone wolf and Raven is the blackbird, far from its home and family. Alone, will these two come to a clear, conscious decision to save their world, or…. will they rip each other apart before finding a reason to keep fighting?

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Raven had no choice but to use what magic she had fir later, conserving her last defense if her father's scouts were still around. Was Slade fighting demons or animals turned into hideous creatures from the red ogre's domain of hell -fire?

She had let him go free, yet her back was turned all that while; he'd not abandoned her, not told her to get out of his cellar – made into a convenient bunker protected by magic from Azarathean books. Spells, as if she had to guess from where…

"You must still need to eat. Truce, for now –

"Only if I get answers." She grumbled to the man with her legs to her chest beneath her useless old tarp. He sighed as she heard it, the mini cooler not the best until, until she saw what he was going to do with a generator in the corner and an electric powered griddle. She didn't ask as the burning smell of death stung her nostrils. Slade had –

"Are you trying to suffocate us??"

"It's meat, not the freshest but…I won't die from this. Eaten grubs, rotten fruit in my past. Just like now, surviving means sucking it up, princess."

He had disdain in that last title word, her nose scrunched up as she tried to pinch the bridge of her nostrils shut to breathe right through her mouth. It didn't work, so she used the tarp's smell to mask the dead…whatever he was going to cook.

When the item was shut off, Slade used a sheet to air the room out towards the exit. The birds had to have flown away yet he only checked before coming down, his face gaunt more so as day had come. "Breakfast, and no meat for you my dear."

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He'd made one can of beans from the pantry, more bread and what looked to be a cheese spread from the kitchen of the church's adjacent day school. "Now that we're settled in a bit." He took a bite of the rancid thing on a wooden skewer as she still didn't look his way.

"Ask away. I'm not going to reject your proposal, other than the lack of vitamin B12."

She used the bread to scoop the refried disaster into her mouth, the tarp acting as a napkin since she didn't want him getting too comfortable. She was vulnerable, he was a dangerous and selfish adult with his own agendas. Worse than Ra's or Lex Luthor, maybe just as so…

"Fine. When my powers…. failed, my friends…. the people –

"Turned to stone, as I told you." Slade ripped at the vile bite in his teeth. Her appetite was wasted on his company as her gut gurgled in disgust at the image. "Trigon is gone, you tried to bargain the lives of-

"I tried to survive through a promise to keep the world as he wanted, Raven. As any dictator might tell his citizens, you cannot fall behind the competition. It's a sad fact, but this was a desperate move on my part. I couldn't even tell him to let your friends live if I'd wanted to."

"You never did, not much longer than it took to gain back your body." She shoved a bite of food to her lips and gnashed angrily with a rough swallow. Once done, Raven went back to another question. "Then, the other heroes. No one else fought back?"

"It was a magnificent reenactment of the big bang. There was barely enough time to bat an eye before it all ended for them." Slade shook his head, his hair took to a whiter hue, she realized. "One more thing." Raven wiped her lips on the tarp before finishing with her near to last question.

"Why did you survive. And, are you not a human being."

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"No, wrong. Sorry." Slade snorted, rolling his shoulders as he stood to discard his stick into the cooler. "Try to guess again. Why did I survive the last time –

"Rings, but those were destroyed. I saw them on you when…. when I'd bonded with Robin to get back to my real self."

"Azar had many lost relics before Trigon's onslaught of that world. I had to prepare myself, and your friends as well, found comfort in all that I could do to offer them protection. It was never enough, so a backup plan was in my reach as long as they didn't disappoint."

"You stole those artifacts in case we had failed." Raven's eyes seemed to turn to light, yet Slade held up a strong palm to deter such violence inside the small bunker. "I'd think more about how your powers going off again could lead even more of Trigon's "incarnations" to follow us to this place." He warned the empath, who's eyes soon dimmed at the reminder of who she still held no real freedom from. Not until he was defeated, not until…

"My conclusion came to this; your power to stop time could perhaps work to reverse what has occurred. To try again and to fight as you're supposed to against your all – powerful father, and win."

Raven's eyes turned to him, the stink of that rat or big rodent he'd killed and cooked not having her peer over. No, but a promise and a reason to fix her mistake? Was it possible?

"How??" Raven begged to understand if she could turn back time. If she could use that magic correctly with the little that still remained. "You fought me in the factory then and that glorious power underneath it all, shown as a beacon. A way out." He made his way over as she'd started to stand as well, the tarp still bound round her tightly. She didn't know if he would use her like with Terra or Robin, or if she was able to cast a spell to keep him at bay just long enough. Cornered animals could be desperate. Yet the hungrier ones? They didn't know the meaning of the word "stop."

"My magic is too weak to fight him."

"Your light magic is, my dear. Azar's light is useless to us." He leaned over. How his face was anything but a promise of good tidings. His steely blue eye, white hair and white scar over his face and missing right eye had her wonder if this was the man Robin had nearly been hurt by with a possible trauma meant to kill him. Or for her sake, the man who had ripped away her now discarded reason to BE a heroine of this tale.

"Your demon side is all – powerful among the shadows. What Trigon has left; you can use it. Drink it in and soon, your magic will have a place in stopping that red ogre from destroying anymore worlds."

"My…demon – self??" Raven gaped and frantically looked around. No door, no way up unless she'd rather feed the birds a rather gassy fare. "I…. I'm not going to do what he wants-

"I didn't say it had it had become you, child." Slade tried to clarify. "It's a mask, a role you can discard once your world is back as it was. You'll just be borrowing your dark powers that he gave you to use them as you see fit."

She was mortified. Turned against- that was why she had fled! Why she had tried so hard in all that time to never show her second skin to anyone…

"There has to be another way." Her voice came out, breaking. "That magic will only corrupt. I won't know how to shield you if –

"You can't hurt me, my dear."

"You're only a human, that's not…." She clutched her head and felt her beating heart ramp up at his request. "Only just." He replied, his body now leaving her to find the space where the dingy black mat was. "Care to test that theory in combat?"

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