Chapter 10

The Shayde

Raven's lungs burnt and things began to go black. The grip on her mouth and nose were weakening and she could feel the creature working its way between her fingers.

She felt a power building in the pit of her stomach. In her panic something was happening.

Suddenly the creature was gone! Raven impacted the ground, knocking whatever air was left in her lungs and she drank down the fresh air from around her. As she caught her breath she got up onto her hands and knees and saw she had moved. She had instantly and without thinking teleported herself a few feet away and up into the air.

The creature writhed as it struggled to figure out where its prey had gone, but it wasn't stupid, it quickly realised Raven was behind it.

Raven got to her feet and ran into the undergrowth, the creature chasing after her.

She leapt into the air and flew, or she did for a few seconds. As she gained height every now and then she'd suddenly drop a few feet. She couldn't focus, this was a life or death situation and the stress of it was making it hard to focus on her powers.

Eventually they stopped entirely and she dropped to the floor. She avoided serious damage by grabbing onto the branch of a tree that broke her fall. Raven landed on the ground and took off running as fast as her legs could carry her. She didn't think, she focused all of her energies on fleeing the thing that she was certain was following her.

She leapt up and tried to fly again but the power wasn't coming. She tried to teleport again, but again for whatever reason the power wasn't working. After a while she came to a stop, panting for breath and tried to collect herself. She was certain she'd out ran the thing, so projected her mind out to find out where it was.

She could sense something! But it wasn't the creature. It was one of the villagers out in the forest gathering fruit and berries, by itself. Why it was by itself she didn't know. It must still be their waking hours, she reasoned.

But then she felt the creature, the black mass, and it was creeping towards the villager.

It's distracted. Run, run, now! Raven's mind commanded of itself, but she hesitated, she was conflicted. RUN, RUN! and in a split second Raven did, but towards the villager. As soon as she could see the pale creature she shouted out to it.

"RUN, RUN, SOMETHING'S COMING!" the villager looked at her, but couldn't react in time. The dark creature rose up and swallowed the villager within itself. Raven wanted to help, but she was rooted to the spot because she felt the villagers life force slowly fading in distress, and terror. It faded, faded, faded. Gone.

Raven had never felt anything like that before. She felt cold.

Immediately the creature stepped off the villager and the pale person crumpled to the floor, totally drained of any kind of life. Just a dead husk.

Now the creature came for her again, and Raven turned and ran again as this thing followed her.

Stupid girl, her mind told her. As she ran she kept jumping into the air trying to focus. Fly! Come on, fly! FLY!

Suddenly her legs snapped together as the creature caught up and it warped one of its tentacle like appendages around her legs. It stood over her, in a humanoid form, but its arms split into multiple, wriggling masses like something out of a nightmare. It began to descend upon her, melting into a liquid mass and began to rise up over her body again.

In desperation Raven managed to gain enough focus to draw all kinds of things towards her and fling at the creature. Rocks, stones, sticks, fruit but the more it rose up over her the weaker she could feel her powers becoming as it began to drain her. It was coming up her chest and suddenly she called a stick to her hand to beat at the creature but before a blow could be made the creature writhed as if in agony and pulled itself off and it quickly slithered back into the forest.

Heart pounding Raven sat up, covered in some kind of sticky goo that dripped from her. It shone like oil does on water.

She wondered what had just happened as she stood up and a light caught her attention. It was on the end of the stick she had in her hand, it was a Glow Stone. Raven reached up and touched it, and it instantly turned black. Then from the forest she heard the creature moving. She quickly removed her hand from the stone and it glowed again and the black mass retreated back into the bushes it had started slinking out of.

She could see it over the bushes watching her, waiting for its moment to strike.

Experimentally she held out the stick and pointed it at the creature. It retreated further.

So, it doesn't like the Glow Stone, Raven thought, and she sat down on a nearby rock gathering her strength. She was safe, for now, so she collected herself and her thoughts.

This stick in her hand was some kind of walking stick and must've belonged to that villager she saw get drained.

Yes, the villager. The villager was dead. She had felt death claim the soul of it. She had never really experienced death. Not like this. Screaming and shouting, fighting for survival as something slowly snuffed out your existence without hesitation. It had been so sudden for the poor creature and it made her feel... 'emotional' just thinking about it.

It's just death, she tried to reason, death is a natural part of life, stop getting worked up over it! You didn't even know the thing!

Raven breathed. She'd also never really been in any real danger before. The Monks of Azarath were never any real threat to her. They were pacifists. She was like a lioness with the Monks her tamers, she could easily turn on and destroy them all if she wished. Living a sheltered life in the temple and with no real enemies she'd always assumed she was pretty indestructible. Whatever the universe could throw at her she could deliver back, ten times over and then some. But the moment she was in real danger her focus faltered, her powers either faded or went haywire and she was left helpless. She might as well be a defenceless girl, she was useless now.

Though there was still a turmoil going on in her mind she eventually achieved focus, despite the fact there was a murderous shadowy mass at the edge of her perception desperate to get at her and murder her.

She tried to make herself rise into the air. But nothing happened. She leapt up and hoped to catch herself but she was dragged down to Terra Firma. Why weren't her powers working?!

Okay, I'll walk, she decided and reached out for the black void that was the TARDIS. She couldn't sense it. She couldn't sense anything at all! What was wrong with her? What happened?

You're frightened, you're emotional, a voice in her mind said. I am not! She said back. Liar.

This was all that stupid Doctors' fault, another voice in her mind told herself, if he hadn't walked out of the TARDIS and gotten tangled up in stuff that isn't his business we'd never be in this situation. But as much as it made her feel better to think this and as much as she'd like to blame the Doctor for this, it was her own fault.

If you'd not been so caring about people you don't know you would've floated past that voice, or left the village creature to be bait, and we'd never be in this situation, her mind told herself. No, that wasn't it. It was true though, but she denied it. Why? She didn't know. She just didn't want that to be the conclusion for some reason. As her mind settled the truth of the matter hit her. I... I... I was defeated by my own hubris? Her mind concluded and questioned. Yeah, that was it. She'd assumed nothing could harm her, so she'd walked into the jaws of death expecting to walk back out again, and death had snapped its jaws shut and tried to swallow her.

Raven felt normal again, minus her powers. So she began to think out loud to help her concentrate "Okay, the TARDIS is out, unless I stumble upon it somehow. I should make it back to the village and look for the Doctor. If I can find him again."

She set off carrying her Glow Stone stick as protection. She could sense the creature around her, still hunting her, but the Glow Stone made it keep its distance. Why it didn't like the Glow Stone Raven didn't know.

As she walked she realised she was covered from the chest down in some kind of sticky goo. It wasn't foul smelling, it just made her feel icky. Raven hoped this civilisation had invented the shower and she hoped they didn't have any kind of monetary system because she didn't have a single penny.

As Raven walked through the forest she began to realise how unfit she really was. She'd never needed to run or have regular exercise on Azarath. She spent most of her days meditating to control her powers. The only reason she was so slim is because she needed to eat very little to maintain herself. Why would she need to be physical when her powers did everything for her?

Maybe it wouldn't hurt to build up some stamina, she reasoned. So I don't have to rely on my powers all the time.

She held up her free hand and tried to focus and conjure a ball of dark energy. A dark energy ball appeared, but it kept flickering like a flame trying to grip to life, winking in and out of existence. Effectively it was useless.

She saw a glow in the distance and decided to follow it, hoping it would lead her back to the village. Indeed it did, and the creature stopped following her. But she was aware she couldn't cast her cloak of perception over herself. She was fully visible to the entire village and she was quickly realising the reception to her had changed. The people looked at her as if she was unwelcome, and without her powers she felt more vulnerable than usual. She pulled her hood up in an attempt to hide herself.

It could be the oily like black liquid that was staining her cloak but she got the vibe from the people that they saw her as a threat. She got a bad feeling she was about to pay for something she'd done earlier.

Raven rounded a corner and saw a crying child in the distance, holding hands with a bigger version of itself. It pointed at Raven and shouted at her. Raven's face went paler than usual as she realised that was the kid she'd used her powers on to extract information.

"Oh no" Raven mouthed as the bigger creature came towards her.

Raven took small steps back. If she'd had her powers she would've stood still and not felt threatened. But as she was now, helpless, she was... concerned for her own safety. She used the word concerned because she didn't want to use the word 'scared'.

"You! You hurt my child!" the creature shouted at her.

"S-sorry" was all Raven could say to calm the creature, but it looked like 'sorry' wasn't going to be enough for it. Behind it there were others starting to gather and Raven took another step back getting ready to retreat.

"I bet it's all her" someone shouted "I bet she's the reason people are going missing." the mob nodded in agreement.

"She's a demon!" cried another "A monster" said another "Kill it!"

Time to run, and Raven span on her heel and took off as fast as her own legs could carry her. Her heart pounding, trying to supply her muscles with oxygen and power to carry her away from danger, but her body couldn't run forever. These creatures were probably hard workers and maybe hunters, she wasn't going to be able to outrun them. She was in dead trouble.

Raven rounded a corner and into an alley. She felt something grab her hood and pull her back, through a door that slammed shut in front of her. Her assailant clamped a hand over her mouth and held her tightly to itself. She closed her eyes to prepare herself to feel the villagers beating her. But not a single blow came, and the sound of the mob seemed to be fading into the distance as it ran past the door, not through it.

The hand was removed from her face. "Making more friends, are we?" said a familiar voice. She spun around. It was the Doctor! Angry she thumped him on the arm, it wasn't hard and the Doctor barely felt it.

"Hey, what was that for?" he complained. But Raven just stared at him with eyes that showed irritation at him. In reality she was pleased to see him but she didn't want to express it in her body language because the sheer smugness would be unbearable.

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: If you've noticed I've given Raven some pre-show character flaws to work on throughout the story.

First her Stamina, I reasoned that Raven would not be very fit stamina wise if she spent her whole life in a Temple meditating. Something that clearly wasn't a factor in Teen Titans.

Second, the concept of death. Living in a temple she'd not be used to death, or at least feeling sudden death and that would affect her negatively when it happened.

Third, keeping calm in stressful situations. The safety of the Temple (and by extension the TARDIS) meant Raven had never experienced the stress of a life or death situation, and she likely wouldn't be able to remain calm under that kind of pressure.

Fourth, arrogance, speaks for itself really.

I remembered there was an episode of Teen Titans where Raven lost her powers before. But I noticed she didn't seem all that upset about it giving how shattering this should be to her. So maybe she's lost her powers before and she's learnt how she can survive without them until they returned.