Authors notes: I'm currently working on changing a mistake I made in previous chapters were I accidentally made Azar a male character when she's canonically female. Whoops. There wasn't that much I could find out about Azarath when I started this story so I just made it up as I went. I've decided this suits me fine, as there is now nothing to interfere with the surrogate father/daughter relationship of Raven and the eighth Doctor. Except maybe the Master. ;)

Keep in mind, Raven is supposed to be falling down a dark path here.

Chapter 99

The Four Ravens

Ace watched this smiling face in a pink cloak zoomed here and there like she was on something.

This was the same girl who two minutes ago was moping about killing those activists.

Ace snorted. She remembered being an activist. She'd been to Green Peace rallies, protests against governments and companies all across the galaxy, fighting prejudice, bigotry, for workers rights and so on. That was who Ace was. She had enjoyed being an activist. It was some of the best years of her life.

Her opinion of Hedgy's little group, however, was less than impressive. In any protests she'd been a part of there was always that one small group whom you knew existed within the protest, but was unpopular to call out. The sort who took the protest too seriously and would go totally totalitarian on the world if given power. Whenever the protest was won the whole protest ended. But some lived for the conflict and would continue to stoke the fire to keep the party going, not because they believed in the cause, but because they just wanted to cause mischief and have an excuse to get away with it. The protest was like a massive party to them, and no one likes it when the party ends and everyone has to go home.

Ace thought of Hedgy's group like that. Only they'd clearly gotten so big that they could re-enforce and support themselves. Ace knew if she explained this to her younger self, she'd accuse herself of being ignorant or something. But then, sometimes you don't see the wisdom in someone's words until you experienced it yourself.

"Some people find the act of fighting more enjoyable than the relief of winning." Her Doctor had once said to her. He always had that knowing look in his eye. He never attended protests, demonstrations or rallies. He was always trying to fry bigger fish. Is this what he was thinking when he saw young Ace? Did he see her as another Hedgy? Or was she just being pretentious?

Nah! Ace decided. She actually had a life outside of her own activism. When it came to Hedgy's group, activism was part of their identity, but they were the worst kind of foe-activists. If only their energies were turned more towards actual issues facing Earth Alliance instead of bullying a small space colony under the control of a former, reformed soldier then maybe they could've done some genuine good for society and for the people.

But despite her low opinion of them, she didn't think they were bad people. Like many humans they just thought they were right and everyone else was wrong, and assumed everyone was just as equally arrogant and ignorant about everything. Hedgy's group were just of the ilk that used their self proclaimed moral authority to be a bunch of bullies who thought the moral ends justified the immoral means. She absolutely did not want the gobshites to die. Though she thought maybe they did deserve a good smack in the face with the back of a hand. Or maybe their mothers should've spanked them more as kids.

Oh my god. Ace stopped for a second, her eyes unfocused. I'm starting to sound like mum. Her soul shivered like cold water had ran down her back.

Through another archway they went and Ace fell face first into the dirt as she failed to make the transition from brightly lit grassy fields to shadowy solid rock. She got up. Pink Raven had ran off again.

This place was like a quarry. Or the planet Skaro. It was difficult to tell on some of these planets. Ace shivered, storm clouds were moving in.

"Oi, where did you go now?" Ace shouted out. No response came.

Built into the rock face of the side of the quarry there was some kind of carved temple. Like the one they filmed Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in, though much, much bigger. The walk up to it was flanked on either side by stone statues in hooded cloaks holding tall staffs.

Ace sensed danger but despite it strode along with some confidence. 'Just pretend like you own the place.' The Doctor had once said. But Ace was wary to keep every little shadow within her line of sight.

She heard a horrible screeching and she stopped. It was like the noise a wild beast would make.

Chattering, she heard chattering.

"Raving Raven, Raving Raven, Raving Raven, Raving Raven!" Came the childish taunting. The ground shook as it rolled past and vanished off into the distance, echoing around.

"I am the Doctor, and monsters always learn to fear me!" Said the voice of a guy who sounded like he belonged in a Robin Hood movie. "Go to your room." It added in a disappointed tone. The ground shook as if it quaked in fear.

A noise caught Ace's attention. Like something had just sprouted from the soil at her feet. She felt the vice like grip before she saw the silver hand reaching up out of the soil. She kicked and stomped and whacked at the hand until she wriggled free from its ironclad grip. Something large and gigantic was rising up out of the soil like a rising zombie. Burred for so long. Scarred, rusted, with human ribs poked out from its silver torso. Pipes dangled from its arms and on its chest was a damaged control unit. The handle bars around its head confirmed what they were.

"Oh great, not you bozos." Ace complained as more of them began to emerge from the soil, and her without her trusty bat, or sling shot, or gold coins.

Cybermen, only these were zombie Cybermen. Thousands of them coming up to get her.

"You will become like us, you will become like us." They chanted. Ace backed away and was about to run when the area was swamped by a fast moving shadow. It whooshed past her and landed across the way on the other side of the army from Ace. Her first thought honestly was. 'Holy hell, is that Batman?' No, the figure was shorter, and wore a dark green hooded cloak. Ace guessed who this figure was, and was getting annoyed at the constant changes in persona.

"Yo, tin men, come at me, bro!" Said the figure with total confidence. The army turned to advance on the new figure. The cloak parted and Ace could see Raven's body underneath. The goth girl moved with grace and balance as she swung her arms left and right. Darkness flung from her arms and hands like whips, they caught arms, legs and heads of Cybermen, dismembering them bit by bit. The girl was smiling, like she was enjoying the rush of effortlessly beating down a powerful opponent.

One of the metal giants tried to fire a blast at Raven from a gun, but she used her powers to picked up a fallen Cybermen, moved it in front of the energy projectile catching it, then she projected the suspended Cyberman back at the assaulting one. More Cybermen rose their guns, but with a flick of her wrist the guns were pulled free of their ironclad grip and flew over her shoulders out of their reach.

She twirled, showing off how poised she was as she gathered up the downed Cybermen with her powers. They broke apart at her behest into dozens of parts and flicking her arms out the parts rained towards the Cybermen. They were all cut to ribbons and they slowly disintegrated. Ace had to dive out of the way of the raining parts so she too didn't get dismembered.

There was just one left, and she was within arms length of it. It reached out for her, but Raven seemed to catapult back away from its grasping hands. Then she struck. Raven reached out for it and with a flick of her wrist the Cyberman was shrouded in darkness. Raven waved at it with a smirk which simply said, 'bye,' and the Cyberman was ripped into a million metal and plastic pieces.

"Wow, did you see me there? I am so awesome." She flung her arms up in triumph. "The crowd goes wild." She made a noise with her mouth, trying to mimic a cheering crowd. "Give me high fives all around, girl!" She then said to Ace, holding her hands out to receive the approval of a double high-five.

"What in the actual hell is up with you?" Ace asked a little peeved that she'd nearly been impaled. "You could've killed me!"

"Yeah, but I didn't. And hey, you shouldn't wander into the Valley of Fear unless you're ready to face them all like I am." Raven said, "Bring it on. Shaydes, Cybermen, Vampires, Daleks. I'm ready for all of them. When Trigon shows up I'll kick his giant red ass so hard he'll need to wear nappies for the next century!"

"I thought you were showing me the way out?!" Ace asked.

"I am," said a third voice. A familiar voice. The voice of Raven when she was dressed in pink.

Before Ace could turn she felt someone tugging at her arm. She turned to see...

This couldn't be right. Ace did a double take. It was another Raven, the pink one. There were two of her at the same time? Pink was pulling on her like a child would their parent.

""This way, hurry!" Pink said.

Green came forward and grabbed Aces other arm. "No way! She can't protect you like I can. Come with me!"

"I found her first, she's mine." Pink complained.

"Finders keepers." Green hissed as they began a tug of war between the two of them over Ace.

"Hey, stop it. You're hurting her." Said the meek voice of the grey one.

"NOBODY ASKED YOU!" Green and Pink both barked at her. Grey shrank away at the verbal assault.

"Ace is only one person." Said Yellow, who appeared from a portal in the ground. "Either share her, or none of you get to have her."

"I don't like to share what is mine." Green said.

"Oi, I belong to no one!" Ace said, pulling the two teenage girls towards her before flicking her arms like whips to make them let go.

"Yes you do." Pink said. "You belong to me."

"You belong to me now." They all said in unison in the way the children of the corn would. All except for the grey one who didn't join in, but looked to the side, her eyes staring at Ace's shoes. She pulled her hood up and tried to hide herself away. "You belong to me now." They continued to chant as they surrounded her, linking their arms like she was in the middle of some unbreakable prison.

"We're going to be together forever." Pink said.

"My sparring partner, forever." Green said.

"My lab rat," Yellow said, "Forever."

"Trapped inside me, forever." They all chanted. "Where you can't tell on me."

"Get away from me you. Hey!" Ace complained as pink and yellow took her under her arms and carried her up into the sky. "Where are you taking me?"

"We're going to..." Pink paused. "Play." She smiled an unnerving smile. "Don't worry. I'll be gentle."

"I won't be." Green Raven said floating on her back just underneath Ace. She made a show of cracked her knuckles at Ace.

"Come an inch near me, you'll see how much fun I can be." Ace threatened her.

"Oh, she's tough." Green said with relish.

"I'd really like to see how much psychic pressure I need to put on someone to make their spleen bleed without it failing." Yellow said. "It could be valuable."

"Oh, don't listen to her," Pink said, "She's just trying to scare you."

"No I'm not." Yellow said matter-of-factly.

"Oh yeah, that's right. Spoil the surprise why don't you." Green complained.

Ace looked back and saw the grey one following just a little behind the others. She couldn't meet her eye, but she refused to meet her eye.

The Master stared into Raven's eyes. The teen was still not aware of what was going on around her. She was just vaguely aware of the dark Time Lord moving through her mind.

"Now, I am going to count to three, and you'll wake up." Raven nodded. "One, two, three."

The Master snapped his fingers.

Raven slowly blinked, and shook her head to clear the mind fog. Her brain reasserted itself quickly, within two seconds she realised where she was, who she was, what was happening. The violet eyes clamped onto the Master and instantly she indicated her dislike of him. Without raising a finger the Master was lifted off the ground by a collar of darkness around his neck.

"Now, I am going to count to three and you're going to take me back to Safe Harbour." Raven threatened. "One."

"No, wait. Stop. You haven't listened to what I have to say." The Master wheezed.

"Two."

"You don't like to be manipulated. Well, the Doctor is the biggest manipulator of them all." The Master said, "He can't protect you. Do you know how many of his human pets he's abandoned the moment he has no use for them?" Raven stopped counting. "I've met many of them, all abandoned by the Doctor when they've figured him out, or when he desires someone new, fresh, young and dumb." Raven's angry eyes kept staring.

"Two and a half." Raven warned.

The TARDIS lurched, this wasn't the usual mechanical fault. Something had slammed into the time ship. The Christmas tree swayed dangerously on its narrow base, and Raven fell to the floor, but quickly picked herself up ready to drag the Master back from wherever he'd tried to shrink to.

"Raven Roth, Daughter of the Demon Trigon." Called a voice from behind Raven. A voice which sent a chill down her spine.

Turning slowly Raven saw them. Three figures in hoods. Oh god! Monks from Azarath. How the hell did they get in here?! The one in front dropped his hood, and the icicles of fear in Raven's heart became a burning fire of rage. It was the Witch Finder. Gallrick! The betrayer!

"Come with us quietly and we will not hurt you." Gallrick said in a tone of voice which suggested that if she resisted they'd have no qualms about hurting her, "You are sought after by the High Priests of Azarath."

Raven adopted a defensive stance. "I'm not going back." Raven said, "Azarath can find some else to be their White Whale."

Gallrick clearly didn't understand the reference. "You have no choice."

"The hell I don't!" And Raven sent a blast of darkness at them. The three older monks deflected it all easily.

"Do not resist, witch." Gallrick said as the monks advanced on. The monks that flanked him held up their hands, but Raven was quicker. With her powers she pulled down the Christmas tree on top of them. She'd done it so forcibly that they didn't have time to fully react as the mass of pine needles and tinsel fell on top of them.

Waving her hands, the monks became tangled in the tinsel streamers and lights. Raven was very good at manipulating things to use as surrogate tentacles, but the Monks had other tricks as they used their powers to send a blast of energy at Raven, knocking her from her feet. The tinsel and lights that surrounded them were instantly shredded, and they held out their hands to Raven again and began muttering their own spells. They were surprised when their cloaks suddenly came to life in a field of darkness and flipped up to wrap around their heads and faces. Raven had long ago learnt that when the chips are down you had to fight dirty and use the environment to your advantage.

Raven reached out for a piece of the environment to send their way. She heard the TARDIS groan from above. She looked up briefly to see she'd taken a hold of something that was part of the TARDIS itself. She released it.

"Sorry," she said to the machine, and settled for picking up the filing cabinet and bashing it into the monks. They all ducked as it came sailing past. "Leave me alone!" She shouted as the Monks got back to their feet, their ego's bruised. "I won't go back there and be your social pariah, I'd rather be dead." Raven screamed this. Gallrick hesitated and held up his hand to stop his brothers.

"What do you mean? We're not going to hurt you." Gallrick said tenderly.

"I'm sick of being the evil creature." She flung an energy blast at them. The monks braced themselves, their cloaks billowed out behind them but they did not move. "I tried. I tried to be good." Raven snarled and built up power, and with each word she spoke she sent a shard of her dark soul their way. "BUT - YOU - WON'T - LET - ME - BE -ANYTHING - ELSE - BUT - EVIL!"

They didn't stop. They kept coming. Gallrick opened his mouth to speak when...

A loud screeching sounded from the shadows followed by a blinding flash of red light. The two monks flanking Gallrick screamed. Something odd was happening to them, Raven could feel it. Their entire bodies were crushed down like there was an enormous pressure on all sides of them. That was what her higher senses told her. Her eyes, however, would describe what she saw. The two monks rapidly shrinking down. Magic oozed from their bodies as it happened, like juice being squashed from an orange. Organs shrank at different rates, the skull crushed the brain. Blood pressure rose and caused certain organs to rupture. It was a very violent way to die.

When it was done the reduced monks had no signs of life in them at all, they were lifeless, doll shaped corpses on the ground.

Gallrick looked into the shadows as the Master re-aimed some kind of tube like device at the male teen. The Master pressed down firmly on the black tube. Raven acted more on instinct than thought as she reached out and knocked the Master's arms upwards sending the beam high into the endless sky of the TARDIS console room.

Gallrick looked back to Raven, then to the Master, understanding that the balance of power had shifted. He looked back at Raven and their eyes met for but a brief second.

A white portal formed behind him and he hastily stepped back into it. Him and it vanished.

Breathing heavily Raven relaxed. That was a close call.

The echoes of death reverberated in her soul as she approached the fallen monks now no bigger than a pair of dolls barely six inches in height.

"Tissue Compression Eliminator." The Master held the device up harmlessly between his thumb and forefinger. "All done by gravitons and micron-particles."

"I need neither to do the same to you." Raven said. With a wave of her hand she wrenched the Master's device from his fingers and she flung it across the console room out of his reach. She then picked the Master up in her powers again, his entire body encased in darkness. "Now, take me back to Safe Harbour. And you better prey the Doctor isn't dead. Because I've always wanted a voodoo doll, and you'll do just nicely."

"What do you think would've happened if I wasn't here? Do you think the Doctor would have been able stop them?"

"He'd have found a way. A none-violent one." Raven said. The Master scoffed.

"He would've stood by and let you be taken."

"Not by choice. He would've come for me." Raven said. "He would've found me." The Master laughed.

"My dear, he abandoned his own Granddaughter on a strange planet. Do you think he has any real affection for you?" The Master found things a little more uncomfortable after he felt the sensation of a hot needle being forced into his brain. He then began to say in desperation. "You're just a tool he uses in his games. He views you no different than his sonic screwdriver."

"Enough of your lies. Take me back to Safe Harbour. NOW!" She shouted the last word. She was getting anxious. The more time she wasted here, the greater the chance of the Doctors extermination.

"Ask yourself this." The Master pleaded. "What will the Doctor think when he finds out you murdered those people?"

"I murdered no one. My hands are clean." Raven said.

"Their lives were in your hands. You gave the order for their execution. You said yourself, they were too dangerous to be left alive. You may not have committed the deed, but you might as well have done. Do you think the Doctor will see it any other way?"

Fear gripped at her heart, but she did not show it.

"The Doctor doesn't need to know." Raven said.

"Do you think he won't find out?" The Master asked. "How will he react when he finds out what you did?"

"They murdered the people of Safe Harbour with their lies!"

"The Earth Alliance murdered the people of Safe Harbour. Those activists had just as clean hands as you have. Yet, you still signed their death warrants."

Raven's face betrayed her thoughts. The Doctor would be greatly disappointed in her.

"You believed the Doctor when he said you could be good?" The Master asked. "Yet, look how you act when unsupervised? The Doctor is never an 'Ends justify the means' kind of character."

Cracks began to form in her steely face.

"Do you know what happens to the rest of the residents of Safe Harbour after you had those activists shot?" The Master said. "Let me show you." A projection appeared in the space above the control room. News articles and political information flashed up. The picture it described was dire. Safe Harbour was labelled a breeding ground for Daleks and the execution of the activists had confirmed that to the public. It all told how Big Dog was evil, etcetera, etcetera and so on. "After shooting those activists in cold blood, public opinion shifted against Safe Harbour." The Master said, "Earth Alliance hunted down the remainder of Safe Harbour and gunned them down. Men, women and children. Big Dog was captured alive and paraded across the Alliance as a symbol of his failed attempt at escaping the system."

Raven suddenly felt very cold. "I... I didn't mean for that to happen."

"Yet, it did happen." The Master said. "You had a small emotional victory for yourself, but it was Big Dog who took the punishment, and he trusted you to make the right call."

Raven's legs turned to jelly. She fell backwards into her reading chair.

"I... I..." She couldn't deny that she had Hedgy's group shot for her own pleasure, but... "I..." This was hard to say. "I... I am... evil..."

"Good and evil is all relative to the moral system you operate on." The Master said.

"The Doctor would consider me evil." Raven said.

"Yes." The Master confirmed. Raven began to sweat. She felt like she was already on thin ice with the Doctor, and that worried her. But that paled in comparison to something else she was thinking as she looked at her own, thin hands.

"I tried to be good, I tried so hard to be good, and I... really wanted to help people, and I... I've... I've failed."

The Master stopped and watched the witch as she lamented in the chair. Everything about her drooped in depression, yet no tears escaped her face.

"What are you to do now?" The Master asked. "You can't go back to the Doctor, he'll reject you. Push you away like an unwanted puppy." Raven didn't answer, she just fell numb. She was too scared to want to go back and save the Doctor now. She feared his judgement.

"I still need to go back." Raven said, meekly. "He still needs saving," She didn't care if the Doctor thought she was a monster. He didn't deserve to be left in a dire situation because she was too much of a coward to face him.

She'll save him. Then she'll leave. She'll exile herself before the Doctor can do it for her and better if he not find out why.

"I'd like to show you something, first." The Master said. "While I have your attention."

"No, you'll take me back now!" Raven demanded, "there is nothing you can say to change my mind!"

"You've been told that you are the daughter of trans-dimensional creature Trigon?" The Master said, "I tell you this, it's lies, all lies."

Raven stared at him for a good ten seconds as she processed this.

"You have two minutes." She warned.

"The Temple on Azarath hides a dark secret and you are at the centre of it." The Master said.

"Really?" Raven said, not convinced. She held him in her powers more tightly.

"You aren't the daughter of Trigon. You were taken as an act of retribution against someone who had offended them." The Master said, "Will you listen to me now?"

Raven hesitated, interested in what he had to say.

"First we go back to Safe Harbour, and rescue the Doctor." Raven commanded.

"The Doctor can look after himself." The Master said. "Trust me. He could talk himself out of Shada."

"He also talks himself into a lot of trouble." Raven insisted.

"If we pick up the Doctor, he'll dissuade you from looking deeper into your true origin." The Master said. "This is a time machine. I can show you what I want to show you, and if you're not convinced you could force me to go back for the Doctor at the exact time and place we left, and you can hand me over to him, like a good little puppet."

Raven considered the logic to this. Time wasn't a straight line, it could form into any shape, she knew that. Time also didn't have to run concurrently with each strand.

The Master was still difficult to read, but she could tell he was sincere when he said he wanted to show her something that might change her perspective. There was something he knew that was forbidden to Raven, and she wanted to know what it was. Surely, the Doctor could survive a little longer, it's not as if there was time to run out of.

"Fine." Raven said, "But I've got my eye on you." The Master was dropped to the floor, sharply. The black tube device sailed back into Raven's waiting hand. "And I'll hang onto this if you don't mind."

"Thank you." The Master said as he composed himself. "You will not regret this action."

"See that I don't."

"My dear, It'll be the start of the truth." The Master turned to program the console. Raven gripped his throat briefly and said.

"And stop calling me, 'your dear'" Then she released him.

Raven turned back and looked at the shrunken corpses on the floor. She walked up to them and picked them up in her long fingers. She plucked at their hoods and pulled them back so she could see who they were.

She knew them, and it felt surreal to hold their crushed corpses. These two had been there when Raven was tormented, always watching, always with that apologetic look on their faces. A few times they even joined in just so they could say they were not on Raven's side.

Understandably, the goth teen took that personally.

Raven carried the two bodies across the console room to what looked like a wooden cabinet. She pressed a pedal at the bottom with her foot and the lid lifted up, revealing a black bag and a bad smell within. Old orange and banana peals and discarded objects were within that were of no use to either the Doctor or Raven.

She dumped the two bodies into the trash with all the other rubbish. She provided no ceremony for them, the bodies would just be flushed out into the vortex at some point. She was aware how this would've looked to someone watching her, but she didn't care if they thought she was ghoulish, horrid and insensitive. She didn't care. She never cared. But despite telling herself this something inside her still felt squeamish.

Raven stood at the bin for a long time and thought.

She'd caused so much pain and destruction, just from one decision she made that ultimately did nothing but make herself feel better. She looked at her hands again.

"I... I am evil." She affirmed. Yes, this sounded right. This was her true state. It was impossible for Raven to be good. That was a certainty.

So why did her internal feelings feel so mixed on this conclusion?

Raven turned back to the Master. He was still working on the console. Her eyes narrowed. Maybe if she squeezed his intestines with her powers he'd get the picture to not mess with her.

The TARDIS was in motion again and the Master turned to her.

"You know that ritual you monks do to purge yourself of evil?" The Master asked.

"Yes." Raven said, and managed to make that one word sound like a prompt to hurry along.

"And I'm guessing you have trouble expelling your own evil?" The Master asked. Raven's brow dropped, that wasn't untrue.

"Yes."

"I see," The Master said with a knowing look. "The evil that they expelled. Where do you think it goes?" The Master said.

"Nowhere, I don't think the ritual works at all." Raven said.

"Oh, it does something, I assure you." The Master said mysteriously. "It does purge 'evil' but there is a reason you can never do it. Where do you think it goes?"

"I don't know, it just vanishes." The Master laughed like he was talking to a naïve child.

"My dear." He didn't notice Raven's narrowing eyes. He clearly went to the same school as the Doctor when it come to that level of not listening. "what you call 'Evil' is a form of psychic energy. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed. Only converted from one form to another. In other cases it can collect together, and when you bring energy together you can create physical matter. Matter which can clump together and evolve." The Master explained, his velvety voice was similar to the Doctors. It was difficult to not listen to. "For centuries Azarath has been flushing evil down the toilet into the sewers of the Dark Dimension. Eventually that drain got clogged. That evil came together and it birthed life. Birthed a creature of great evil who's only desire was to destroy the cruel beings who've given it life." A chill went down Raven's spine. "That was how Trigon was born."

"No." Raven said, "Trigon is a demon. A creature from the dark times. Azar fought him." The Master laughed like the idea was absurd.

"Mere poetic interpretation." The Master waved a hand dismissively. "The Trigon she fought was merely the shadow of herself. That's what a Trigon is. The word is actually an old Gallifreyan term to mean 'Shadow Self.'" Raven didn't know if she bought that, but it sounded and felt sincere. But then, why didn't the Doctor mention this to her? "Don't you understand, my dear?" The Master said with concern in his voice."Azarath doesn't protect the universe from the evil of a demon from the dawn of time." The Masters tone went conspiratorial. "They created the danger in the first place, by polluting the Dark Dimension. Getting rid of their 'evil' so they never have to face or deal with their darker thoughts. The creature is also a useful catastrophe that will never actually come, like the Rapture, Ragnarok or Global Warming, all so Azarath can justify its existence and relevance on the galactic stage." The Master laughed. "Never waste the threat of a good crisis. The only influence Trigon will ever have on the universe is in the world of politics."

"But you said I'm not the daughter of Trigon?" Raven prompted.

"Oh yes. You see, my dear. Since dumping evil into the Dark Dimension just made the Trigon stronger, they needed a new method of disposing of their 'evil'. And what's more perfect a psychic sink than the mind of a new born child? Totally innocent, never having known, or committed evil itself." Raven felt like someone had walked over her grave. "That's why they hate you. You are filled with their evil, and they want you back so badly. Their own darkness is backing up and they need their sink to flush it all into."

Raven felt her breathing start to quicken, her teeth tightened, her eyes narrowed. It felt like everything was slotting into place. She looked at her own hands. But still... there was doubt. The Master, she imagined, was one to speak with a forked tongue

"Prove it." She told him.

"Certainly," the Master said with a satisfied tone, "I shall take you to the one person who can convince you what I say is true. I imagine he'll be so happy to see you after all this time."

"Who are you talking about?" Raven asked.

The Maser spoke, and Raven felt a chill go up her spine. "I am taking you to see your father, my dear. Your real father."

Ace had figured out who they were supposed to be, but not exactly what they were.

They were parts of Raven's personality. Pink was happy, Green was confidence, yellow was intelligence and logic, and Grey was sadness and shame. This was more confusing than when she meets multiple versions of the Doctor. At least they could pass as unique individuals. These were just shards of one personality.

Pink was fun loving and happy, but not very respectful nor socially aware. Yellow was intelligent and logical, but socially inept thinking more like a machine. Green was confident and powerful, but was a careless adrenaline junkie who, -Ace imagined- liked to beat people up because it was fun.

Grey was shame, depression, sadness, and expressed that any chance she got. It was like the personification of Raven's conscience. She held herself like she was always cold.

For the sake of simplicity, and since they all responded to being called Raven, Ace had decided to name her three captors.

Pink she'd called Tigger. "I love that name. He's my favourite of the bunch." Pink had said.

Green she'd called Buttercup. "Oh my god, that name is awesome. It sounds like the name of someone who can kick ass."

The yellow one she called Egon. "Print is dead?" Yellow announced, still not getting the reference.

"Hey, does that make her," Green nodded at the grey one. "Eeyore?" Pink laughed.

"Yeah, Eeyore. That's a good name for her."

"I hate it." Grey said meekly.

"Tough, we like it, Eeyore." Green said.

"Eeyore. It's funny." Pink laughed. Yellow didn't join in because, apparently "Names are pointless."

"Oi, leave her alone!" Ace cried to them. "No one gets a name now." She was just going to call them by their colours.

"Spoil sport." Pink moaned.

They carried Ace to a place that looked like a giant store display. Rows, upon rows of bottles were stored here, all the size of cars. Each appeared to have something within. One was of a half human, half cybermen hybrid that was halfway through conversion, it's eyes pleading for death. There was also what looked like a hillbilly of some kind in a broad rimmed hat who sat in a defeated posture with his wrists bleeding out.

Pink then twisted the top off of an empty bottle. Green and Yellow moved Ace over the rim.

"I'm not thirsty, I... hey!" They dropped her. Ace fell down the neck of the bottle and landed in the base. Pink re-attached the cap, and poked holes in it.

"Oi!" Ace shouted at them as they peered in through the glass, and Ace raged back at them.

"Hey, don't be bitter." Pink said cheerily.

"Yeah," Green said as she took the giant bottle and shook it violently with her powers, not enough to hurt Ace though, but to annoy her. Green was delighted at Ace's outrage. "We do this to everything that causes us pain."

"Too right I'll cause you pain. You come in here and do that to me!" Ace jumped back as all three of them appeared in the bottle with her. The grey one followed behind them.

"This is where you'll stay." Pink announced like it was some sweet property deal.

"Safely stored away, and contained." Yellow said.

"Yeah, now you can't really bother us. But one of us will drop in every now and again when we want to play." Green said.

"Just avoid the red one." Pink said, "she can get a little carried away. In fact, so can purple."

"God, the purple one is an embarrassment." Yellow said. "Red's bad enough, but purple." She shivered. "No thought, nor logic to her, just impulse."

"But hey, don't worry." Green said to Ace, "trust me, you're not her type."

"I'm sorry..." Grey said "I didn't want to..."

"Oh, shut up." Green said. "We're doing this because you won't stop feeling. Stop feeling!"

"That makes me feel worse." Grey said. The other three Raven's vanished and reappeared outside the bottle.

Grey attempted to move through too. But she comically slammed into a solid wall. The other three laughed.

"Hey!" Grey said, "let me out!"

"No, we're sick of you whispering in our ears." Green said. "You can stay in there until you can learn to lighten up."

"I can't. I am who I am." Grey complained in a low murmur. Yellow seemed to be considering something by the way she rested an index finger to her lips.

"Then you can rot in there with your new friend." Green said.

Greys shameful purple eyes rolled to Ace, she looked genuinely apologetic.

"Sorry." Grey said to Ace.

"Boy, you can be a bitch." Ace said to her.

"I know."

"We'll swing by and feed you some time, if you're not busy." Pink said, and with a wink of power she vanished..

"Yeah. I want us to fight. You're frickin' awesome." Green said, and in a flash Green was gone.

Yellow entered the bottle again and approached Ace. "Take one step closer to me Egon, and I swear you'll be wearing that chain belt around your neck!"

"Would you have told on me?" Yellow asked through the bottle.

"Told? What are you, twelve? You mean told the Doctor about what you did?" Ace asked, "That you allowed several people to be murdered, just to make yourself feel better?"

"We didn't want to. It was not logical, nor kind, nor did it bring much pleasure, so it was ultimately pointless. We tried to control her. But she broke free." Yellow said.

"Who?"

"She flipped the table when we wouldn't do what she wanted and subdued us."

"Who?" Ace prompted.

"We fought back, but so did blue, a flood of blue and a storm of red came and together they began tearing everything up." Yellow said. "The only way to sate them was to get rid of Hedgy, and then to get rid of you." Ace scowled at her as she continued on. "Think yourself lucky. It was only seven votes against six that stopped us from outright killing you. This way is kinder."

"Sealing me in here is kinder?" Ace asked. Yellow just stared through her glasses.

"You can never talk, and you are still alive." Yellow said. "Yes, keeping you within the soul-self was the kinder, logical option. And bottling you up keeps us safe from you, and you safe from us."

"Me safe from you?"

"Some of us will not listen to logic, nor kindness. Others are not bound by the honourable code of the vote." Yellow said.

"This place is so weird." Ace said.

"It is Raven, mind and soul." Yellow said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, and judging by the floating rocks I reckon the architect gave up on this place too."

Yellow didn't react, though her eyes narrowed. "Get comfortable with it. Remember, you belong to Raven now." Yellow stepped back and she vanished.

Ace saw Grey had collapsed to the floor, all wrapped up in her own cloak and hood. "I wish I could go back to the way it was before." She said, "Now... now people will hate me. So much hate... the hate."

The older girl was about to impart some harsh, sharp words to the Grey, goth bitch. But she stopped herself when Grey shuffled away from her, her eyes betraying her terror at the words that had yet to escape. No, Ace didn't shout, it felt wrong to shout at someone when they were down like this. Grey knew she'd done wrong. It was the others who were the problem.

Oh great, I'm stuck in a mental prison with some miserable girls personification of depression. This couldn't possibly get any worse. Ace thought.

The echoing roar of a far off, and large sounding beast rolled over the landscape.

Yeah, right on que. It's worse.

To Be Continued.

Edits:

March 12th 2023: I altered how the Master convinces Raven to follow him, by shaming her into believing that she is irredeemably evil by showing her the consequences of Raven's snap decision to allow Hedgy and his group to be executed. In essence, she'd given Earth Alliance the excuse they needed to label Safe Harbour a moral danger full of hateful monsters and thus gain public support to have their army's move in and eradicate them.

Yes, I know I Global Warming is happening. It's just a joke. Calm down. Its more poking fun at those who use a crisis as their chance to gain power, and once they have it do nothing to fix said crisis, because once the crisis is sorted their power diminishes. And remember, the Master is an expert at using fraudulent means to gain power. ;)