Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ The Raven 03: Apocalypse ❯ Cusp Point ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi or Kosuke Fujishima, and certainly not anything owned by Warner Bros.

/oOo\

Robin was panting as his short staves knocked another pair of fire demons away. He spun in place, his mid-cape flaring out behind him, and knocked away a third with a spinning side kick to the `head' that he'd have never dared try with a human opponent (or sentient, for that matter), then dropped to fists and toes and as another demon's explosively stretching arms flashed through where he had been standing. Rolling to one side he dodged another set of hammering arms, then kipped to his feet and braced himself as crossed staves blocked a third set.

As he spun in place looking for the next attack he caught a glimpse of Slade, standing back at the edge of the water and watching the scrum. The Boy Wonder had never made it to their old enemy when the fighting resumed, cut off by attacking demons, and he wasn't going to — there were more demons than the first round, and this time they were springing up as quickly as the Titans could obliterate them. No, there would be no help from his teammates, giving him the opening he needed to go for Slade. They had their own problems.

Not that it would matter, Robin thought as he spun away from yet another charging demon, not after the way he just took everything I could hit him with and shrugged it off. It'll take all of us acting at once to hurt him, and we aren't getting the breathing space to organize it. No, all they could do at this point was keep the demons away from the Tower and buy time for reinforcements.

Then time ran out as Robin sensed more than heard the Tower's door swish open.

He knocked aside the two closest demons and was just turning toward the Tower when the world abruptly darkened even as the ground shifted under him. Unable to keep on his feet, he fell backward only to find himself lifting into the air inside a translucent black sphere. His heart sank as he instantly realized who had to be behind it.

The Boy Wonder stood up and braced himself on the sphere's curved surface, lifting his staves at the sight of a mob of the fire demons flying at him, only for his world to go black-red as the demons smashed into the sphere and exploded. His shoulder slumped with relief ... whatever was going on with Raven, she hadn't completely gone over to the Dark Side.

As his vision cleared, Robin looked around to find the other Titans also inside their own black spheres, floating toward him. Beast Boy was lying limp on the bottom of his, apparently unconscious, but both Cyborg and Starfire's spheres were lighting up as they uselessly blasted away at their prisons — there would be no help from that quarter.

Finally, Robin looked over at the entrance. As he'd feared, his gray-skinned teammate was floating there, her face cast in shadow by her raised dark blue hood, hands outstretched as she brought the four spheres together. A moment later the spheres collided, their walls vanishing where they touched, and the now-single large sphere with all four Titans inside lowered, the bottom flattening against the ground so it became a dome.

Robin knelt by his green-skinned younger teammate, and found what he'd expected — Beast Boy was unconscious, but not apparently seriously hurt. Glancing up at Cyborg and Starfire still blasting away at the dome's wall he shouted over the explosions and loud whine of Cyborg's sonic cannon: “Stop!”

The two stopped and turned to stare at their leader. Starfire hesitantly said, “But friend Raven needs —”

Robin cut her off. “You aren't making a dent, save it for later when we'll need it.” Then he looked back toward the Tower to find Raven floating toward them. Nowhe could see under the hood, and he froze at the sight of four eyes, all glowing a solid red.

Starfire gasped as she followed Robin's shocked gaze, then stepped toward their teammate and flattened one hand against the side of the dome. “Friend Raven?” she asked, voice shaking.

Raven ignored the alien princess to gaze down at Beast Boy. “Apologize for me when he wakes up,” she said. Her voice was rough, almost a growl, like a hunting beast. “He's the only one of you that could break out of the spheres — changing into an elephant would have shattered it.” She looked up. “I've made arrangements with my mothers. Whatever happens, you four will be safe.” She paused for a long moment, her four glowing red eyes staring into the two eyes of her only real female age-mate friend, dark green on light green shimmering with unshed tears, then stepped forward to flatten one hand against the outside of the dome's wall, covering where Starfire's hand rested. “All I wanted was to make this last day perfect. Instead, you spent it worrying about me — fighting for me. I am not allowing you to die for me, not when it would be a useless death.” She paused for a moment before continuing, voice soft, “I know it will be hard but please, be happy.”

“How touching.” The Titans turned at the sound of the gravelly voice to stare at Slade, standing off to one side with the fire demons again in ranks behind him. He ignored the four trapped Titans to focus on Raven, “So you have finally accepted your destiny.”

Raven turned away from the dome and lifted higher, flying slowly toward the mainland. “Come on, slave, let's get this over with.”

“Slave? I'm not the one with four eyes at the moment,” Slade replied. When Raven didn't respond he shrugged, then lifted off the ground and flew up to join her, the fire demons trailing behind.

Starfire shouted, “Friend Raven!” When her friend didn't answer she stepped back and raised both fists, green fire coruscating around them, only to pause when Robin stepped up beside here to place a hand on her shoulder.

“Wait,” he ordered.

“But Robin —” Starfire started to protest, only for him to cut her off again.

“The dome's too strong. Save your strength, wait until Raven reaches the city. Maybe distance will weaken it.”

Starfire stared longingly after their departing friend, but finally nodded reluctantly and stepped back. “I will wait.”

Cyborg stepped over beside them, also staring at the backs of the fire demons shrinking with distance. “What d'you think she meant about `arrangements' and `mothers'?” he asked.

Robin shrugged. “I don't know, and hopefully we won't have to find out.” He turned and walked over to Beast Boy. Kneeling, he lifted his teammate's limp body by the shoulders and dragged him to the side of the dome away from the bay. He looked up to watch as Raven, Slade and the fire demons were lost among the buildings along Jump City's docks. “Okay, fire away,” he ordered.

/\

In her place just in front of the first rank of her Furies, Urd was beginning to tremble slightly as she fought her need to move. How she moved almost didn't matter — more than anything she wanted to intervene in the fight on Titans Island between her daughter's friends and the Devourer's summoned elementals that she was watching from across the city and partway up one of the bordering mountains, but even pacing would have helped. But she couldn't do that, either, if she did she'd instantly lose sight of the battle. The minor spell she'd used to sharpen her eyesight didn't enable her to see through buildings, if she moved she'd be cut off. Besides, having the commander of half of the warriors gathered on that mountain pacing back and forth pulling her hair out wouldn't exactly do wonders for those warriors' morale.

“She's on the move!”

Urd whirled around to stare over her youngest sister's head where Skuld crouched just in front of and between the two armies. Beyond the two, standing in front of the ranks of the Valkyrie, Lind had also turned toward them. Urd had been a little repulsed, even angered by her co-mother's calm, but when their eyes met for a moment she saw the fear and frustration burning in them and felt a stab of shame as she realized the Valkyrie was having as hard a time of it as she was. Then the two co-mothers simultaneously hurried over to join the Norn of the Future.

“What do you mean, she's on the move?” Urd demanded. She had been impressed when she'd seen the sigils and circles in the Titans Tower's safe room through Raven's bindi. Urd had found it hard to believe that mortals could actually create a ritual strong enough to block the Devourer's link to her daughter, but they had — so long as Raven stayed within its bounds.

“Just what I said, she'd moving!” Skuld repeated. Her face was scrunched up in a way that made Urd's heart stop — that expression always meant something was going wrong — and the youngest Norn's fingers were flying across the virtual keyboard. “I can't tell where, though, something's interfering with the signal. Visual and tracking is out, all I'm getting are audio and vital signs.”

“What!” Urd dropped to one knee beside her sister to stare at the holographic screen. Not that that did her any good, to her the lines of symbols streaming down the screen were so much gibberish even if she recognized each and every one. She had some knowledge of the workings of Yggrdasil, Asgard's central computer, but would admit (occasionally, when she'd had too much sake) that Skuld badly outclassed her.

Lind spoke up. “Raven just left the tower.”

“What!” This time it was both sisters shouting, and Skuld and Urd bounced to their feet. Urd reactivated her farsight spell and stared toward the Tower. “No,” she whispered at the sight of her daughter's black spheres trapping the other Titans.

Skuld finished pulling on a pair of high-tech goggles and took one look toward the Tower, then dropped to her knees to grab the datapad from where it was still bobbing from being knocked to one side and hit a few keys, turning on the external speakers and turning up the volume so they could hear Raven's voice. “— will be hard, but please, be happy.”

Urd heart froze. She's given up. She ignored Slade's hated voice and her daughter's reply as her mind raced. “Skuld, the link is still open to Kami-sama and Hild?”

Skuld tapped a few more keys, waited for the result, and nodded. “Yes, it is.”

“Both ways?”

“Yeah.”

Urd stared down at Raven now flying across the bay toward the city, Slade flying beside her and the fire elementals following. What are Father and Mom waiting for? she thought desperately. Surely if they were following Skuld's data feed they'd know their adopted granddaughter had failed, and Urd and Lind's combined force were perfectly situated to intervene, to stop Raven before she could be consumed in the ritual that opened the portal for the Devourer.

They're up to something. I don't know what, but they must be. Well, Kami-sama must be up to something. If there was one thing Urd had learned about her mother in the four years since she'd become commander of the Furies and de facto Heir Apparent of Niflheim, it was that Hild was not ... reasonable ... when it came to Raven — the mix of love, guilt and self-loathing Hild felt when she thought too much about her granddaughter's situation made `reasonableness' impossible. Besides, while Hild came up with schemes as easily as breathing that made marble cakes look simple, Urd was beginning to think that when it came to long-term planning Kami-sama trumped her. No, if there was a deep, hidden plan involving Raven it was her grandfather's, not her grandmother's. Though Hild must have agreed to go along with it or she'd already have charged to the rescue.

Urd looked toward Lind to find her looking her way again. The two co-mothers exchanged worried glances before looking back toward their daughter just in time to see her vanish, lost from view among the city buildings. But Urd knew where she was headed, the temple to her `father' beneath the abandoned library.

She gritted her teeth as she fought the temptation to ignore her orders and lead her Furies to her daughter's rescue, to Niflheim with whatever her father was planning! I don't care how powerful or all-knowing or clever he is, Father had better know what he's doing or I will make him regret it! Somehow....

/\

There were times when Raven was barely aware of how fragmented her mind was, how much those fragments of her emotions had taken on lives of their own, or how dependent she was on them to really feel anything — especially when a single strong emotion predominated. Now was not one of those times. As she walked down the long spiral stone stairway underneath the abandoned library, a column of fire elementals behind her and Slade at her side, she could feel those fragments in her mind jostling for position and dominance. The slimy sensation of her `father's' power crawling though her bringing out Disgust. Anger, Despair, Guilt, Loathing at her weakness and what she was going to do. Determination to match that of her friends as she felt the pull of the power she'd `borrowed' from her `father' as it reinforced the dome they were hammering at, where she had left them trapped back at the Tower. Love and Gratitude, again for her friends along with her mothers, her grandmother and grandfather, her aunts, that had given her so much happiness in her short second life, so much more than she deserved, and forgave her so easily in advance for what she was going to do. Longing, for the life she was about to surrender.

And Curiosity. Raven again glanced out of the corner of her eye at the tall man beside her. At least, he looked like a man, though she'd had her doubts since his reappearance several weeks earlier and what she was seeing now confirmed her suspicions. She had thought at first that the only change from the additional two eyes that had manifested when she accepted her `father's' call was the temporary double-vision until she adjusted, but now she realized that she could see her `father's' power like crackling black strands snaking around her old enemy. And while those coruscating ribbons covered Slade from head to foot — almost certainly responsible for his unnatural toughness and flight — they weren't evenly distributed. The strands that wrapped more thickly around his hands had to be the source of the blasts of tainted power he had been throwing around, but that didn't explain the additional strands wrapping about his head ... and sunk into his temples through the mask covering his head.

But whatever havoc those strands might be playing with Slade's ability to think they hadn't interfered with his powers of perception, and he'd noticed her attention. He rumbled, “The chamber has been prepared for you. Everything is ready for Trigon's ascent.”

So let's see what happens if I poke at him a little. “You're a fool,” she replied. “Whatever he promised, he won't deliver.” Raven's four eyes widened slightly as she saw the strands of power snaking into Slade's temple suddenly pulse.

But whatever effect that pulsing had, there was no outward sign — Slade merely shrugged. He calmly said, “Dear child, you don't know what you're talking about.”

“You think I don't know my own father?” She didn't, of course, except through the anger and hatred that had bubbled beneath the surface of her mind for as long as she could remember, ever since she had recognized it for what it was. But Slade shouldn't know that.

But he merely shrugged again. “You are merely the portal. An insignificant pawn in Trigon's game.”

Now that anger wasn't just bubbling away, it was rising to the surface — filling her with hatred and the desire to hurt. Slade always did bring out the worst in her. But though it was hard, she managed to keep her voice level. As they reached to bottom of the circling stone stairway where it branched out into multiple corridors, she replied, “Then I guess we have that in common. And once he gets what he wants, you'll be insignificant, too.”

Now she'd touched a nerve, and Slade whirled toward her, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her off her feet as he shouted, “Shut your mouth!”

Even as Raven tensed to react the fire elementals following behind them were in motion, the first ranks grabbing their erstwhile leader and slamming him against the wall of the corridor hard enough to crack the stone.

The shock of the impact forced Slade's hand open, and as Raven dropped to her knees, hacking for breath, he ignored the smoke rising from where the flaming arms pinning him to the wall circled chest and arms as he struggled against their grip. He shouted, “Get off me! Do as I command!”

Raven forced herself to her feet, four glowing red eyes narrowing in satisfaction. She purred, “Come to think of it, Slade, you're already insignificant. Not even your own army will listen to you.” She turned away from the now irrelevant man-thing and strode down the corridor toward which her `father's' will pulled her. “Leave him,” she called over her shoulder. She heard the sound of Slade hitting the floor, and seconds later the heat of the front ranks of the fire elementals as they caught up and fell into rank behind her.

/\

Slade watched from where he'd fallen as Raven walked away. He quickly lost sight of her as the fire demons that had released him followed her, but stayed down on the floor as the rest of the elementals followed, ignoring their former commander as they followed their new one. Finally the last of the fiery automatons passed overhead, and Slade pushed himself to his feet and turned toward another of the corridors branching from the base of the stairwell. If his part was done, he had one last meeting. It was time to collect what he'd been promised. “Whatever he promised, he won't deliver. And once he gets what he wants, you'll be insignificant, too.” For a moment it was as if Raven was beside him, repeating her first words to him on the stairwell. then for a split second it seemed as if the world around him grew, shrank, grew again, the fog that seemed to fill his mind thinned, then again thickened. The villain shook his head as the world returned to normal and continued to stride down the corridor, the words forgotten.

It took less than a minute to reach his destination, a small chapel — or what had passed for a chapel for the cult that had originally created the temple, carved out of the bedrock, the walls rough-hewn and with only bare floor and a single ornately carved altar standing in front of where Trigon's jagged blood-red sigil was etched into the back wall. At least the altar was too small for a human sacrifice.

Slade stopped in front of the altar and waited impatiently, until less than a minute later the sigil vanished, replaced by four huge flaming red eyes. He waited for several more seconds, but when nothing else happened he finally spoke: “The portal approaches. The hour is near. It's time for my payment.”

Now a voice filled the chapel, so deep that the sound seemed to resonate through Slade's very bones. “Payment? For what? The gem returns of her own free will. You did not deliver her.”

Slade tensed at the dismissiveness that permeated that statement. He ground out, “We had a deal! I held up my part of the bargain.”

His only reply was loud, contemptuous laughter that shook the chapel. “And once he gets what he wants, you'll be insignificant, too.” Something deep inside Slade's mind seemed to snap, his knees hit the floor with a loud clack of armor as he clutched at his head, and suddenly the fog clouding his mind evaporated and he could see clearly, think clearly for the first time since Terra, his second apprentice, had turned against him and destroyed him, and Trigon had made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Yes, he could see clearly, everything he had done — and the consequences of those actions.

Slade jerked to his feet, screaming as he gathered black fire in his hands to hurl fireball after fireball at the red eyes behind the altar, continuing even as they exploded uselessly against the wall's rock.

Then ribbons of the same black fire snaked from those fiery eyes to encircle his arms and legs, lifting him off the ground and pulling him out spread-eagled. As he struggled against his bonds Trigon's voice again filled the chapel: “I granted you these powers, and I can take them away!” Instantly the power that had filled Slade since he had accepted his master's offer flowed away, leaving him limp and weak, and his world vanished in a blaze of pure white light.

/\

Raven walked down the by now all-too-familiar corridor, feeling her muscles tightening with every step until she could barely walk. The increasing difficulty she was having maintaining the dome imprisoning her friends wasn't making things easier — each blow and blast from Robin, Cyborg and Starfire were sending shockwaves through her mind, and that combined with the ever-increasing pull of her `father's' call was making it almost impossible to think. In the end only blind Determination to end this while her friends were still safe — and Pride's demand that she actually walk to her final destination instead of crawl (flight was a distant memory) — was able to push her the last few steps into the temple's central chamber.

And there she hit her limits — two steps into the chamber, and her leg muscles finally locked up, spilling her to the floor to curl up into a ball of pure pain. Not that it matters, she thought, staring along the floor of the room. Even if she hadn't collapsed there was no way she could have climbed the stairway spiraling around the huge column that dominated the center of the chamber, that her `father's' call was demanding she take.

But it was a distant thought, at this point it was taking almost everything she had to keep her friends restrained.

Her vision filled with black-and-red flames as of one of her `father's' elementals came to ground in front of her, jostling her shivering body as it slid its arms underneath her, lifting her off the floor. Where Slade had burned when the things had restrained him, to Raven the embrace felt almost comforting, the flames dancing along one cheek cool like the soft breeze that sometimes blew through the Titans' favorite city park.

Then she was lifting, the elemental flying her up to the top of the column. There, it gently lowered her to the flat, round top, in the center of the jagged, angular lines of the mystical circle she had seen the first time she'd been in the chamber, when Slade had lured her there on her birthday. Its task done, the elemental flew over the edge and vanished from sight as it dropped toward the floor.

For a long minute nothing happened, and then she felt invisible bonds circle her wrists and ankles. She bit her lip to keep back a shriek of pain as she was lifted up and her muscle-knotted limbs were yanked outward to spread-eagle her. For just a moment her control over the Titans' prison faltered, and she squeezed her eyes shut and focused everything she had to shore it up again — they were not charging to a useless rescue, to only helplessly watch her ending and the world with her, before Trigon killed them.

Even as her control of the distant dome steadied a new pain ripped through her, radiating from the center of her abdomen. Raven opened her eyes and looked down (ignoring the blood from where she'd bitten through her lip running down her chin and spattering her costume over her breasts), but couldn't see anything, so she fought to ignore it as she lifted her head and glanced around as best she could, her four eyes widening at what she saw.

The fire elementals that had accompanied her had taken up positions around the curved wall of the chamber, and more were filing in through the entranceway she'd used. The newcomers were joining their predecessors against the wall, taking positions above the firstcomers. New sigils were revealed carved into the walls, sigils that had been lost in the darkness or hidden from normal sight during her last two visits but were now revealed in the flickering light of the elementals' fire — more sigils coming to light as the newest fire elementals took positions ever higher. Then there were no more fire elementals pouring into the chamber. She watched as the last that she could see took their positions along the wall, and braced herself for whatever came next.

What came next was every elemental slamming itself backward, splashing against the wall. The entire room went blindingly red for brief seconds, before fading to show a complete absence of fiery things, but the sigils glowing red as the slimy feel of her `father's' power still crawling through her was joined by the same across her face, her hands, her legs, every bit of exposed skin. From there it seeped underneath her costume, spreading across her thighs, stomach, up along her arms and down her neck and chest to coat her breasts until there wasn't a single inch of her body not quivering with disgust at the sensation.

But her moment of disgust was brief, within seconds the fiery red sigils flared and she threw her head back and shrieked as the pain centered in her abdomen went incandescent ... and began to expand, spreading down across her thighs and crotch, up into her chest. Somehow, she managed to maintain her friends' prison even as her screams filled the room, before she fought herself into silence and forced open her eyes, and ... was the chamber growing brighter? She glanced down to find a ball of expanding near-blinding white, swallowing more and more of her body as it grew and brought that incandescent pain with it, as if her body was being shredded, disintegrating ... consumed from the center out. That's probably exactly what's happening, she managed to think through the pain.

She again felt her hold on the dome at Titans' Island falter and squeezed her eyes shut. Ignoring the pain as best she could, she completely gave herself over to Determination even as that pain spread down her legs, up her chest, breasts, neck, down her arms as it crossed her eyes to cover her head and her brain seemed to catch fire. Whatever happened to her, Her. Friends. Would. LIVE!

Then the line of white heat spread across her hands to the tips of her fingers, down her ankles and across her feet, and there was nothing but PAIN, until her world went white and vanished.