Author's Notes:

This could potentially tie up to an ALTERNATE of RECIPROCATE AU.

Also loosely related to other Lazarus Pit AUs:

Lazarus Pit: The Demon Lost His Head

Lazarus Pit: The Demon Lost Her Heart

~.~.~.~.~.

A shadow came rushing and stumbling down the cavern with another figure in their arms. When the flickers of the fire reached the two figures it was then clear who had arrived.

Damian Wayne- or Al Ghul, whatever it is he carried as his last name, looked frightened for his life. He had scratches and flesh wounds around his body, blood trickling down his forehead. But it was the woman in white robes that was stained with blood and dirt in his arms that looked far worse than him. In fact, she looked a tinge blue and she was holding onto her stomach trying to stop the bleeding from a wound there, but it clearly wasn't working as she was dripping blood on their tracks.

She coughed blood as she tried to talk, Damian looked down at the woman. Her black bob hair was wet from her sweat mixed with blood.

"Please, Raven, don't try to talk." Came Damian's shaky voice as he continued to stumble as he carried her. "We're almost there." His eyes locked at the green liquid that was too many paces too far from them, it might as well have been a mile. But he had brought her here, he was so close.

"Please just hold on." His tone was begging, desperate.

Raven tried to pick herself up, pull herself by his shoulder, and he froze for a second as he looked at her with wide eyes.

"N-no, we-we don't know how it will affect me." She struggled as she tried to get out of his hold. His eyes darkened as he firmly held her in place, he looked ahead at the goal clearly in front of him.

He continued to walk, "I don't care." His paces were heavy as he was extremely weak, but he would not lose her, not when the Lazarus Pit could help her. Not when it was clearly in front of them.

"Da-damian." She begged and then coughed blood.

"Stop talking." His always firm voice was weak and begging, scared and hurt and so very afraid of losing her. He was afraid his name would be the last words she said, and barely with any strength. She never spoke his name so weakly until now and this fact alone made his heart ache deeply.

"Almost there." He mumbled more to himself than to Raven. He had been mumbling encouraging words to himself, it was all he could do to keep himself sane.

"We don't know how this will affect me or the pit." She begged as the tears fell from her eyes and she clenched his chest.

"I don't fucking care!" He yelled; the pain he didn't want to manifest came as hot streaks of water from his eyes down to his cheeks.

He will not lose her, not when that vile pit existed. He continued to walk with a reignited desire to save her. The only goal in his mind, the only option, whatever comes after he would face head on as long as she was breathing and alive.

"Damian." Raven wept but he could not be stopped. He will use the pit to save her from this fatal wound, from death's door.

Raven wanted to call out his name again, but found that she was growing weaker, and saying his name only hurt in more ways than one. So she endured as tears fell down her cheeks too.

Who would have thought that she would see Damian cry like this? She never thought she'd see him this broken because of her.

Raven hurled and blood came out of her mouth as she coughed. Damian could only squeeze her in his arms. Almost there was the thought that made him power through the pain.

Raven's eyes were shut as she tried to cough the blood out of her throat and willed herself to make it till he placed her into the pit. At the very least, she should try and make herself conscious till then. She didn't want him to put her into the pit, but he wanted to- he had to, she felt his desperation as if it was hers. And so she will let him, it wasn't like she had the strength to fight him anyways.

"Raven." He stared at her for a second as they stood before the pit.

"I love you." She said in reply to him calling her name as he walked into the pit and he held her closely to his chest and submerged her into the waters.

"I love you." She whispered again as a tear slipped from her eye before her face was fully submerged. But he never said the words back, even when she repeated them.

Damian concluded that his wounds didn't matter, they were nothing but flesh wounds and so he stepped out of the pit and waited for her on the side. She would need him in case she turned insane because of the pit's after effects.

And so, Damian waited, in the quiet cave with flickering torchlights for the woman he loved that was dying to be fully revitalized.

But the wait was agonizing and longer than he expected. He then became too worried; he couldn't look at the pit that had no signs of life so he turned his back on it.

Why was it not working? Was it because of the pits' origins? Raven did warn him- they didn't know how it would affect her.

Damian felt helpless kneeling on the floor, his back against the pit and his palms on the ground as his eyes burned due to the tears.

He couldn't be without her. This had to work. He found himself praying to whatever entity that would hear him to- at least make it work.

Please.

But the wait continued on and the quiet cavern was now filled with a sickening silence that Damian hated more as the minutes passed.

He didn't know how long he waited but enough time passed that he finally felt hopeless and resigned.

The Lazarus Pit probably couldn't cure her. He wasn't even able to tell her that he loved her, tears fell from his eyes and it did not stop. He didn't want to say them because he thought he still had the chance once the pit healed her.

Damian squeezed his eyes and sobbed.

Raven was gone.

"Damian?" Hearing Raven's careful voice was indescribable. Damian gasped at the sound and turned to look at her, the surprise in his face disappeared and quickly matched the confusion she had.

Raven stood in an empty pit. The vile green liquid he knew as the Lazarus Pit was gone.

"Damian?" She called out again, this time her voice tinged with fear and he too was frightened. Raven coughed and that made him rush to her side. Damian slid down the pit even more scared than a moment ago.

Damian's shaking fingers cupped her cheek and his other hand wiped her hair off her face. He was so frightened that the pit really didn't work, but was cruel enough to give them this moment.

Raven continued to cough. The tears streaming down his face felt nonexistent. He was so terrified.

What if the coughing was the side effect of the pit working?

What if at the next second she will just fall and turn into a lifeless corpse?

Raven coughed again as she tried to pull away and Damian's hand froze as he saw the familiar green liquid trickle down the corner of her lips.

Was it really just a cruel trick the Lazarus Pit was giving the couple, like a cruel last miracle to haunt him after?

"Damian?" Raven called his name again, but this time it was as weak as when she had called him moments before she entered the Lazarus Pit.

Raven's knees gave in and she fell towards him and he frantically caught her but fell on his knees too.

"No, no…" The son of Batman heard his desperate cry. The tears on his face felt searingly hot once again.

But Raven, his beloved Raven, continued to cough green liquid from her pale lips. He propped her up with his knee and cradled her.

"No…" His voice was so soft and in pain that anyone who would have witnessed such a sight would wonder if he really was the heir of the Demon's Head.

In Raven's weakened state she attempted to lift her hand. Damian felt the movement and looked at her shaking hand that was midway towards him. He captured that hand and let it rest against his cheek. He couldn't let her suffer anymore.

His green eyes stared at her ashen face.

There were no words that could be said now, they were both clearly in pain.

Raven's eyes fluttered and Damian's heart squeezed inside his chest.

No, he didn't want her to close her eyes. Before his objections could be said, Raven's eyes had closed.

Her breath soon followed and came to a stop.

And he heard his sharp inhale pierce through his ears as it bounced around him within the cavern.

His body automatically crouched over her head as he cradled her lifeless corpse. He found that his voice was hoarse. He wondered if he had been screaming in sorrow when she didn't emerge instantly from the pit. Or maybe when he approached her in the empty pit, perhaps he was screaming.

Or maybe it was now. The 'I Love You', the 'Don't leave me' and 'This can't be happening' were not registering in his head. The phrases he kept repeating despite his hoarse throat and aching heart.

At one point, Damian just knew that he couldn't find his voice and strength to vocally scream his pain anymore.

Raven was really gone. The pit was gone and she wasn't even saved. Her body was cold and so was the space inside the cavern, it was so terribly cold. In fact, Damian could feel the chilliness inside his body too.

The useless piece of liquid didn't even bring her back. The liquid disappeared but didn't even return anything to him.

Damian's sorrow was turning into anger and then suddenly a sharp inhale from lips that wasn't his resonated through the empty cave and more importantly his ears.

He gasped as he looked down and stared at the lips of his beautiful lover.

Raven was gasping for air like she was a fish out of water, violet eyes open. Damian's green eyes were wide as he saw green lines all over her face. He studied her briefly and found that it was her veins all over her body that were protruding and glowing a familiar shade of green- the Lazarus Pit's shade. Aside from green veins there were similar green lines reaching into her eyes and he felt her body heat up.

She gasped loudly again and then silence. The green lines in Raven's eyes disappeared along with her green veins as a faint greenish glow surrounded her entirety.

Then Raven became slack again.

Damian was left confused. He couldn't hear her breathing for at least five seconds and then- soft even breathing.

Raven's eyes opened and it revealed the same green as the Lazarus Pit instead of her usual violet hue. Damian was very perplexed and then she blinked and her green eyes were gone. Damian was now staring at the familiar violet shade that he knows and loves.

"Hello." She sat up studying him, a small sly smile on her lips. It was like she wasn't injured or in pain a few seconds prior, her tone was calm and collected. It somehow eased the agitation Damian was fighting within himself.

Did he want to know what happened?

Did he want to know the consequences of his actions?

Did it really matter?

Damian cupped both her cheeks and steadily held it in place as he studied her new found vitality. She smiled back at him with a tint of mischievousness and held his face in her hands by his jaws.

He had so many questions.

"I feel- very much alive." Raven said with a sinister smile on her lips.

He should be afraid. But Damian was the son of Batman, a trained assassin who is the son of Talia Al Ghul and grandson of Ra's Al Ghul, afraid was only a moment he felt when he thought he had lost her.

When he thought he lost his beloved Raven?

Clearly, she was alive perhaps altered a little, but alive and that was all that mattered.

Damian leaned his forehead against hers as he exhaled, his eyes locked on her eyes. With the same smile on her lips, she inhaled his breath.

It was clear that his future is now altered too.

How can he be a hero when villains would and could take everything from him? They had already tried taking Raven away from him permanently.

He often wondered why he was holding back when he had the Lazarus Pit and could save the love of his life at any time. If needed, Damian could use the pit to resurrect her. He didn't imagine that he'd have to use the Pit to actually save his girlfriend that could heal virtually any wounds- except the one they were faced with that night. But now, there was no reassurance that he could use the pit if anything deadly was to happen to her.

Damian might have put her into the green waters of the pit as a hero but he emerged from this incident as a different man. He noticed the darkness in Raven's eyes and he brushed the corner of her eyes gently.

He could not be Damian Wayne, not when he used the pit like this. The League of Assassin's would not allow it anyways. He would also need the League's resources and data about the pit now that the situation has become like this. Now that they were on an empty Lazarus Pit. He'd also have to pay the price for this.

He can clearly see that Raven was changed because of the pit. He wondered how the pit changed his lover.

"I'm still the same." Raven replied in a steady manner as if she had read his mind, but there on her lips was still a sinister smile.

He knew she wasn't the same.

"I love you." He brushed her nose with his. Whatever has transpired here, he will stick by that decision. He decided that it is the best decision to become the next Demon's head after all.

They were both changed that day.

The decision to become the next Demon's Head proved to be the right thing to do in the coming days after Raven was revived.

Raven was the same for the most part, however, when she bled, she bled green liquid. The color of the Lazarus Pit and her wounds would instantly heal without using her magic to heal.

It didn't take long for them to find out that all the Lazarus Pits were now nothing but empty pits.

She did warn him that they didn't know how it would affect her or the pit. However, who would have thought that it would affect the pit itself in this way?

Raven was also more attuned to her demonic side and took pride and joy in extracting information for the League with whatever skill or method she has in her disposal. In a simple word: torture, she had come to marvel at such a dark thing.

Raven didn't even affiliate herself as a hero anymore, she would kill without a second thought. She wouldn't allow anyone who could possibly bring Damian's demise to be alive. But her love for Damian was the same, be it him as a Wayne, an Al Ghul, a Titan- she still loved him the same.

The same thing could be said about Damian's feelings for Raven. Maybe at first, he felt trepidation over her change but ultimately accepted them because it was simply the price that came in exchange for her life.

Since the fact that there is no more working Lazarus Pit, Damian could understand her willingness to kill. Without the pit, if he was heavily injured, he could not be healed, in fact he cannot prolong his life like what his grandfather did.

But Raven is the Daughter of Trigon, she will surely find a way to preserve her lover for as long as she lives. After all, the two would spare no expense for their partner.

The empty pits in multiple places that used to house green liquid that could heal and revive the dead is a clear proof of the kinds of lengths they were willing to go for one another.

Damian will live as long as Raven would, being Trigon's daughter had its merits after all.

THE END.

~.~.~.~.~.

Author's Notes:

This is actually not how I initially wanted to make this AU. I only realized AFTER I finished it.

With that said, I plan to make the right one, but post it separately (not in this collection).

Entitled: Eternity (that's the plan at least)

Details would be different from this, if you are interested keep posted on my profile or something.

Hope you guys enjoyed this work!