Teen Titans Sun and Moon Rhapsody – Illuminate My Earth –

by INKblOt32

No Slash! After tearful goodbyes were said in the Universal War arc, Ami Grayson suddenly becomes Earth's only hope in stopping a collapse between worlds.. What? Has the balance really been broken; what is needed to fix the gap - and how does Ava fall into this plot? Mahou Shojo to the rescue! Won't wanna miss, so read on!

14. Chapter 14

Teen Titans; Sun and Moon Rhapsody- Illuminate My Earth –

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Chapter 14: Into the Void, again…Belly of the Beast!

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Existentialism at its finest. Hold onto your karma!

/

Ava was weightless, naked and felt more exposed to the elemental darkness than her times she had fought it.

Where was she? She looked out and gasped. Seeing her desired outcome. Anya was there, feeding off of her family like a leech.

Red eyed, Anya. Her darkest half of the Crescent life Ava no longer wanted to lead. If she told them the truth. That her fears had allowed the monster to reach through the very fabric of another world.

No….

She'd be the one to vanish…. she should have never become what that was…

Slade had done the same. They were injectors of avarice into their parties' lives, she had been the infected link to the five-pointed star of all life. Once things went quiet, she'd go back to sleep. Ava had never wanted to be a princess. She had never wanted to be so lonely on that one cold gust of wind. The demonic God eater had treated her emotions like something to plump. But…. why didn't she care?

The tendrils wove thicker round Anya's prey as she cackled. Ava rose her silver and lavender eyes to the doppelganger and its intentions.

~ This is our pain. Sister? Do you heard the screams as they all return into the void to feed the great one?? It has lived to collect and devour since the dawn, and I want no more to do with the prophecy chosen of us. ~

~Proph…. ~ Ava cracked back hoarsely. ~What….why are you doing this to me –

~ So vain, so…angry.~ Anya licked her lips as the screams only grew louder. She recognized someone.

It was so young, so afraid.

~Who….who did you harm? ~

~None if our concern, go back to sleep. The great destroyer feeds….he needs us to stay aloft on this plane.~ Grinned the hungry figment as Ava shook her head. The dark tendrils held her from finding her own way out. She…was sure it would be over soon.

Yet inside one cocoon, was not a battle yet the emergence. As it cracked….

Of light.

/

Hakuro would be damned if Raku gave into his fears to go back to being weak. He wasn't unless she was there.

The tendrils had manifested as he heard the bawling, aching half jinn and cried while knowing what was going to happen.

~I banished her, but why??~ The blinded jinn was confused as Lily's nearly tangible form held him down to assault him. He was a victim of sexual assault once by her power, so it had been used by this trickster God eater to drag the child in. As if a hallucination by fear toxin, Hakuro anxiously shouted for his counter part to wake up.

~ THIS IS NOT REAL! FIGHT IT. THIS THING….IS SLOWLY DIGESTING EVERYTHING THAT WE ARE WITHOUT OUR WORLDS ON ITS MENU!! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR???~

Rakuten shook his head, the tendrils terrifying him as he tried to breathe as long as he could. The breath then manifested as something he saw in a vision.

~Ami…~ Raku gasped. ~ Amy….she needs us!!~ Raku saw the claws if the strux and was pushed into the void as Hakuro let out a merciless cry to action.

~ Rrrah!! He's not alone! Get back!!~

Raku was freed temporarily as Hakuro clutched his companion and they attempted to merge. Raku's body was close, then it all went to kill off the magic. The body spilt with a tear as Raku was sent sprawling. The tendrils tried to attack, yet Hakuro refused to let the daemon fall.

~ You…..made a promise…~ Hakuro ground his teeth out of frustration as his magic was only able to tame the attacking limbs - as a lion to a whip barer, he was pushing back and not enough. Not without his counter balanced partner who was now currently, unbalanced.

~No one will lose their mind or mass to this void less entity…now, fight it! Come on! You were a near - God that drove me to insanity, why can't you snap out of your own??~

Raku stopped and looked up, a tendril had a small spoke as needle thin as he shouted to Hakuro, the blood in his veils seeing a brillaint frined now…now…

His skin was hot, his body was in agony. ~I….Let….me, I'll take it, you need to find our family. ~

Raku swam to the spot and with a red eyed glare of a daemon, the vine burst to bits. A similar case with Verra's power to obliterate, now he had such a curse to give. With his hands to Hakuro's wrists, his aura took hold. ~This….is Azag's burden no more, I can do it…I can steal the poison from your body….you have purpose….let me…. ~

~Isdiot…..you'll be tainted again! ~ Scolded the sweating ethereal son. ~You can't control what it will do. That shou –

~I'm sorry…. ~ Raku looked up, his eyes crystal as the tears became tar black. The light in his palms was erased as he let go of Hakuro. Opening a vortex and clutching his heart, the djinn son smiled on. ~I hope, you can ever forgive what I did to him….please, save our family….hurry…..!~ Raku tried to fight it, his book was radiating fumes as Ignito dragged the boy into it to safeguarc him, to knock him out as he tutted the other. Hakuro too was in tears as he was shoved through a way out. A way only a time god could manage.

~Azag was just as foolish as you, boy king. ~ The dopple sighed and laid his lord onto the table where the man usually performed spells to keep the balance in Raku's mind alight. ~You have a journey once more. You alone can end the cycle of madness. Not all djinn may succumb, and your power is growing still. If Azag could take the pain and suffering for many eons….so too can his last heir. ~

Raku was trapped inside his dreams, his nightmares as he felt them drag him from the light again. This place was a danger as he looked to see nothingness below his feet. The void….a void, yet why was he put into this room? This box –

~ You dream of taking the pain another bleeds, yet the blood ye hath spilt is final. Hath though one such way to appease? Wherefore there is the wise sage, there is a god to tell it to rest its visions sought. You are either; god or the wise man who wanders in search of truths none may touch. If so you decide, it will mean that you may heal, yet to heal another….can a man do this alone without the help of the divine? ~

~It, is poison. Evil that is not. ~

Another voice spoke, a female one.

~Am….am I to be judged? ~

He was awake, and the faces of masked gods, god relics of the past in glittering metal and wooden emblems, the olden ones that Azag had tended to know…

~Child of Lord Azag. Son of Red Beginnings, you hath sworn to protect, yet will you save a life that is not willing to know of this act? ~

~There is a way, I know there must be. Azag stole the pain away, he still interacted –

~Your father did against our kind and was punished - no less than you. His single child. His last. ~ The goddess with a leopard mask said.

~He stole pain from war torn humans and gods, from famine and illnesses none could master – in claim, he was a god that could never be traced back to its original sin –

~Azag was good! ~ Raku protested in his own mind. ~I know of it, and he wished the best for me to know that as well. I wanted to be as the guardians; to know of our "humanity" and the realm of spirit to protect both worlds." He said. ~ I merged alone with the Ethereal known as Hakuro, the lost child of Lady A. She was kind, and the part of me that treated her coldly was wrong. She wanted my happiness, as did Azag. I will not choose.~ Raku decided. ~ I know that both lives can accept what I am to be! ~

~Your humanity is incomplete. Your oath, unworn. You cannot live separately. ~ Warned a stone ape masked god. ~You cannot return to what you were, only what you must become. ~

~Then, like Hakuro, I want to have the power that a god of wisdom must to save those who may just save our world. The world you bore from nothing. ~ The child reminded the elders. ~I will pose in turn as a mortal and rise beyond at the call. Like the heroes of earth, I will wander but not as a seeker of truths. Yet, a protector OF that knowledge that may help these planes co – exist again. ~

~They never have, child of Azag. You are wrong. What can mortals do BUT birth gods by their spirit, their memory? ~ A serpent masked female goddess slithered by. Anthromorphic, the deity did not have bodies but forms that warped and changed as water in a tide pool. ~Little demi god, you will remain as you are – if you should ask to become full fledged by the time you are of truest rite, then this too shall be recorded by the very first. ~

~Thank you. ~ Raku bowed and looked to the door of gold that was a vortex well back into his time. ~I must save the vassal of Amaterasu, and I must protect the family she holds dear… as I do, at every cost to prevent that imposter –

~It is not false; it is pain manifested in form so strongly. ~ A frog headed deity croaked to comment. ~ It exists inside the pages of another story, one that another has not yet told. ~

Another alternate time?? ~ Raku gawked at the frog. ~Forgive me…. what brought it to our world? ~

~Tests are rare, yet time is fickle. If you cannot find the core of this pain that devours all life to bring it alive and anew…. the fires will consume. The chaos will not be stopped. ~ The leopard masked goddess spoke of grave dangers ahead. ~Then , I want to unlock the powers I have. Of the gods' rite. As a story teller and a djinn lord's child of creation and destruction. ~

~How long do you wish to exhibit such power? ~ The frog quizzed the demigod child. ~ How long will you act as their protection from afar, if you too must learn to grow into the skin of both kinds of god and god – less? You must decide now if the goddess herself will be saved by a magi, or by a demi god with enhanced fortitude by his divine rites. ~

~ Second, the second is how I shall break us free. I cannot let Hakuro's humility be for nought. ~

The gods in their masks seemed impressed by the young teen and his decision to be a hero. An unlikely event had happened of Gilgamesh and of course, Horus. He was not as they, but maybe he could be a Theseus and learn to adapt to both planes on a conscious level.

~ You are imprinted as the book to your soul. The lion in you must sleep until it is awakened. Is that understandable, young child of Azag? ~

Raku bowed, his head lowered as the masks started to dim and then, became light. Pure light, as they began to glow and light the dark cracks of this world.

~ We see it. You are not the only one.~ Smiled the big cat goddess. ~ The bird or rebirth and reincarnation must undergo its own death to aide your allies. ~

~ Anna must?~ Raku gasped and raised his head high. ~She cannot break through, can she? ~

~You are her guardian now, child of Azag. ~ Smiled the serpent goddess. ~ You tell us…~

/

In the dark, the sky grew hollow. Thunder clashed as the world was coming to an end. "We cannot stop the destroyer…." Kori swallowed as her eyes became moist. "Richard –

"My contract might be up." He looked at the closed space where his family had been taken. Raven had come no sooner since the veil was growing thin enough to let her sleep into their city. Jump was on ice, Tokyo was living in another destination and plane thus far. Slade was freed and being mentally beaten by his pissed protégé.

"Why."

"Why, what." Slade grumbled as Anna tried not to look him in the eye yet. "You said you wanted to protect me from myself. Was that all a lie too? To control what I had?"

"In a way, not to its entirety." Slade rolled his aching joints as they seemed stable. "Staying away was dangerous. That flying bird, that fire bird is real and used you to stay in between our time as a watcher. It just waited until it was needed, but…if you try to fight this –

"I could lose what humanity I have left." She swallowed. "I get that part, but why Hades and…you?"

"He wasn'talking like that before. He spoke about restoring balance. Not ruining the world by devouring all life on both worlds. It's complicated."

"If it is, why."

"To cement my deal quicker. I have a time table and, I didn't want my best student to be wrapped up in losing herself because there was no way out. I told you." He cocked his head at her. "I owe your father much more. It's what I promised. Should he be in trouble, I'd repay in full. And you, were a part of the package. I have been wrapped up in too many gods taking what's owed that I thought, the hell with it. They owe me too."

ANBA almost chuckled at the idea of another Odin in the land of the gods. Ava's new neighbor. Until the woman was bawling and laughing at the picture, Slade had to give her a wide look. ,"Hey. It is not impossible. That way I'm out of this mess, a scout or watcher from ground level on earth. And I get to stay alive. Sounds like a cushy gig but you…losing you now is impossible to me."

She stopped laughing. "I…I don't understand. I'm a troubled maker, a fire starter. You hate –

"Did I tell you that? You got to control your fire, my dear." Smirked the merc as he put back his patch into its proper place. Boots laced up as the time had come to brave an unknown front.

"I'd never do that for someone I despised, you know. Ask your papa. He does."

"He respects me, but it's not what you think. And this, was not to prove anything Slade." Frowned Grayson. Anna rolled her eyes, stating the obvious "sure he does, and so do I."

"You are frenemies." She chuckled. "Dad, you couldn't cuff him if you tried."

"It's not funny, Anna." Dick shook his head and pointed at Slade. "He helped that thing and it got in. All because he wanted his throne. All because he used us –

"Why didn't you figure this out sooner, Grayson?" Slade barked. "Anna was going to die if I didn't put together the pieces. The fire bird wants that. For her to be a sacrifice and THIS is its last test to rectify YOUR ego problem! These kids are the main attraction, acro – bat boy." Snirted the merc with that hard a jab. "You took on a contract with Ares. You think it all matters?? As long as Anna can rewrite time and space, I know it's a good thing I stuck around. You would have gotten your own brats –

"BOTH OF YOU, SHUT UP!!" Aiden shouted over them both. His lungs shuddered as he imagined what Hakuro and the others were going through. "You've both got bigger egos than Karen and he is all alone doing for himself. He taught me though one very important fact. Without balance. Without stability, the walls topple and the world will come to a close. That's right. Your anger, your frustration and your panic is WHY the damn test is purely bull crap! Raku is inside that thing and it's going to ruin what he's worked, what we all have been trying to do. He wants to protect you, and you…." Aiden swallowed thickly. "And me and Ami and all YOU can think about is….your failed bro- mance!!"

Dick blinked at his son. Slade, didn't try to spit. His venom ran dry, seeing the old Robin in that boy. "So, let's save them. Whatever happens next, we face it. Like we always do. And whatever there is that we can't do alone." He smiled at everyone, a smile soft and calming like a setting sun.

"We don't let each other down. No matter our histories. For this world, and many others. Will you, just this time?"

Slade stood up, dusting off his uniform, or the one he was forced to wear partly to avoid the gods' wrath. "I'm fine with a truce. You should have just said that in the very beginning."

Dick sniffed and raised a hand. "For them, for all of those still fighting."

Raven floated up, a hand there beside Dami and Kori. "Ditto. For my Am'iander and Raku and Hakuro, my Ava….I will not let them face this evil alone!"

"Here, here " The prince nodded.

Kayu and Vee both grinned and gave a thumbs up. "We're down to clown, how bout you meat bags?"

Blue Beetle, Jackie, Julian and even Bumble Bee all agreed. "Erebus can cut through illusions too. I can ask him to get my girl on the call. No sweat." Jackie smiled back. "For my boo."

"For my Cy – bear." Karen sniffed. "And fir this place we call a home."

"For Garfield, the Titans who want to save everyone. To protect this universe." Raven said.

"So?" Aiden grinned at his fellow heroes. "We are strong, not fighting or losing time. You ready to break the seal, dad?"

"I guess…"

The group waited, Slade crossing his arms as the verdict was down to Nightwing. "Yeah." The cop bobbed his head. Slade smirked at the way it felt well, better to tie himself up with the heroes. If it kept his post clean, they'd see. And Anna was a very amusing person. She was strong, but he couldn't help feeling nostalgic.

"How do we get a portal up, should I use my Scarab-

"I'll help with that." Raven offered. "I can boost the connection. The guardians may need to stand by."

"Got it. Ready, wet blanket -san?"

"Damn right, bugger." Kayu smiled his fox's grin as the others tried to stay hopeful. "We're so close, but how do you look into another world…for…. –

"Constantine." Raven blinked.

"He's all the way across the world, mami." Jaime shook his head. "How the –

"No.' She pointed and Dami saw too that there was hope. Always, in a means of magic.

"Did we scare you, lot? I'm back, but where is… -

He saw their faces and landed, there in tow were some heroes that could say a few things. Batman and the veteran members were all sucked up into the blob of darkness, mainly. But not all of them.

"Rose?" Slade sat up as his kid just huffed and then walked over to or floated partly, to where Dick and Anna couldn't seem to stop staring. "You're the infamous Ravenger. Wow." Anna blinked at the rather beautiful adult with white hair like her dad. "Dad, did you know each other?"

"Didn't you know I was an estranged friend of the family." Smirked the assassin and anti-heroine. "I brought Joe and a few friends along. You could use the support."

Behind them, was a hoard of minds. Dick and Kori were stunned at it. "Who's fighting a nameless entity right about now?" Kayu wondered aloud. "Anybody?"

The groups all cheered and it felt like old times too. "Brings you back; this was your father's old face before he flew south and never came to say hey to the little people." Rose remarked with a sharp wit to her tone. "He's…always been like that. Flighty, for a bird boy."

"And you grew up to be the exact opposite of this –

Dick didn't try to point at Slade. It was a touchy topic. "Well, we're glad you and the teams could make it to save the universe. Again." Dick rolled his eyes.

"Are we done?" Dami frowned as Aiden was also not going to wait around to get any younger. "Time is running out." The blonde agreed. "We have to act, or no one is saving anybody."

/

I guess I borrowed a Marvel – verse trope by mistake? Anyway, the heroes earlier that were absorbed into the big steaming ball of rolling hate and fear is on the move – once more, the void is where our heroes shall travel. Can Anna get Slade to cough up who the alter in her body is that would have made her the hero and the tragic loss to this tale? Why does Raku need the bird's help if he can create a new future should he decide to BE a god? Find out! Next is a look into Ava's mind. She's still not as together as the rest thought. Using Faouzia cover I'm Blue as a song fic piece. Love the woman's pitch and style! Such grace abd power. Like Ava intends to have once she overcomes the fact that she brought a manifestation of fear to earth.