Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ The Raven 03: Apocalypse ❯ After the End ( Chapter 8 )

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\

Starfire was growing increasingly desperate. She had lost track of how long she and her half-machine friend Cyborg had been hammering at the translucent black dome in which Raven had imprisoned them, along with Robin and an unconscious Beast Boy, but it had been too long.

Twice she and Cyborg had been able to blow holes in the dome. The first time had caught them by surprise, and the hole had sealed itself before they could react. The second time Robin had been ready and thrown himself through before the hole closed, but Cyborg and Starfire hadn't been fast enough to follow him. Their leader had decided not to wait to search for Raven, ordering them to follow him when the opportunity arose, but Starfire's hope that there would be an opportunity was slowly dying — and with it the strength of her emotion-reinforced energy blasts — and she could feel tears streaking her cheeks as she continued to blast away.

And then their time ran out. Through the shimmering dark energy of the dome, over the tops of the roofs of the buildings along the docks of the bay, she saw stone and earth fountain into the air. From underneath them, an immense dark red-skinned, barrel-chested form with flowing white hair rose above those buildings — Trigon had arrived. He threw back his antlered, white-haired, four-eyed head and roared into the sky, “The Earth is mine!”

Even as he roared out his challenge, a wave of red energy exploded out from his towering form, flashing around the buildings and over the bay. The dome vanished under that tide and for a moment Starfire's sight went crimson even as she felt a burst of white-hot pain explode between her breasts.

When she could see again she found herself on her knees, gasping for breath, her every muscle quivering from the aftershocks from that blast of pain. She forced herself to her feet and froze, eyes going wide at the sight of the changed world around her. Though waves still lapped at the shore of their tiny island, where before had been grass and sand was now only stone. Their headquarters, too, had changed from glass and steel to that same solid rock. When she looked across the bay at Jump City she saw the same blast landscape, with Trigon's giant demonic form dominating it, his triumphant laughter seeming to shake the ground even at that distance.

“Raven, no,” she whispered, then turned as Cyborg stepped up beside her to bury her face against his steel shoulder and wept.

“Woah, dudes, what'd I miss?”

Starfire stiffened at the sound of Best Boy's voice, then whirled to find the younger boy sitting up and rubbing at his chest. “Beast Boy, you are awaked!” she caroled, before sweeping him up in a hug and whirling around.

“Uh, yeah, I am.” Her teammate struggled in her embrace until she relented and put him down (and let him remove his face from her cleavage, her enthusiastic aim had been a little low). A furiously blushing Beast Boy pushed himself away and looked around. “Wow, who decided to change the landscaping? What happened?” he asked again.

“We lost,” Cyborg said bluntly, pointing across the bay to where the red-skinned, antlered giant was molding a stone throne out of an adjacent building to match his size.

Starfire followed Cyborg's pointing to stare at the massive figure, and her expression firmed as she felt a bloody-minded determination fill her, a resolve to triumph or die in the attempt — a resolve she had not felt since she had escaped from her Gordanian slavers, and been saved from recapture by her now-teammates. The support of those teammates had allowed her a softness — a `weakness' — that she could glory in and draw strength from because they had always had her back as she had had theirs, but now was not the time for it.

“No, we have not lost!” she stated firmly. “Robin would not give up, will not give up, and we will not fail him. We will not fail Raven! She is alive and he is looking for her, and we will help.”

Her two teammates stared at her, before Cyborg gently said, “Star', I wish you were right, but Raven's gone — she has to be, or Trigon wouldn't be here.”

“No, friend Cyborg, you are wrong,” Starfire insisted, turning to her friends. “Remember the dome she trapped us in. She was the one who created it, whose power maintained it against all we could do — and it held even after Trigon rose. It didn't fail until he claimed the Earth.”

Beast Boy glanced back and forth between the two, confused, but a suddenly hopeful Cyborg nodded. “You could be right,” he said thoughtfully. “So what do we do? What about the arrangements Raven told us about ... with her mothers, she said?”

Starfire looked back at their enemy. “We do not know what those arrangements are, or how long they will take,” she said. “So we attack. We distract him while Robin looks for Friend Raven. Her mothers will simply have to catch up with us.”

Beast Boy stared at the stone-faced alien in shock, then turned to also stare at Trigon. “You want us to attack that?” he demanded.

Cyborg stared as well, then shrugged. “Why not? He owes us.”

“Yes, my friend, indeed he does!” Starfire agreed, voice hard. “So let us collect. In full.” She rose off the ground, shifted around to grab him underneath his arms from behind, and lifted him to fly toward the city. He was very heavy, even as strong as she was she would not be able to carry him far. But it would be far enough.

Left behind, Beast Boy stared after them, then glanced around at the blasted landscape and stone T-shaped shell that had been their home, shuddering — it looked just like what he saw whenever he delivered flowers to the cavern holding the stone figure that was all that was left of Terra after she maxed out her earth control powers saving Jump City. “Why not? It's not like there's much of a party going on here.” He shifted into a green eagle and flew after his departing teammates.

/oOo\

In her circle in Kami-sama's office Belldandy waited, once more in the eternal Now. She didn't bother counting how many times she had sought out that aspect of her dominion as Norn of the Present, when there was no past and no future, only Now, ticking over second by second. It was often a vital aspect of the most important of workings, when her own response needed to be instantaneous — and there was no working she had ever been a part of more important than this one.

That importance was probably the only reason why she'd actually been able to attain the Now — for the first time since she completed her training she had had to struggle to sink into that peace. But then, this was the first time that she had had to struggle with a fear that reached as deep into her heart as her love for Keiichi and their children, because it was an integral part of that love. It had perhaps been the hardest fight of her very long life to ... not set aside that love/fear, never that, but accept it and let it cease to be the focus of her all as she waited for the Devourer's coming.

And then between one instant and the next that moment was Now, and her circle flared into active life as the Devourer's presence manifested.

Even as it was activating Belldandy instantly threw her all into the circle, pouring her strength into the need to freeze all life in the air and on or under the sea in its own eternal Now as the Devourer's claim swept across it. Her own Now ticked over instant by instant, encompassing more and more of the Earth as the Devourer's influence spread. She was stretching to her breaking point as she sorted through all the additional lives she was touching with each tick of her Now, determining which would need her touch, even as the weight of the world seemed to press in on her from all sides — and then her circle's changed state registered with the adjoining circles of Hild and her Father and they activated, joining their strength to hers as the Devourer's foul claim completed its sweep around the planet.

Then it was done, and the light running through the circles dimmed as they shifted to maintenance mode, keeping the newly-frozen lives in their stasis. Belldandy gasped with relief as the weight of the world faded. She could still feel some pressure from the uncountable multitude of newly-formed connections, a constant drain on her strength, but that burden was shared among the three of them and on her least of all. It was bearable. Though there was one additional link, oddly tainted by the Devourer's presence from within rather than without....

“Well done, daughter, well done indeed,” Kami-sama complimented her as he strode from his circle to sweep her up in a hug.

In her shock she automatically returned the hug. Her Father normally wasn't the most physically demonstrative of people ... if one's name wasn't Raven, at least. Then she thought of her mortal family, now so many stone statues in what had been a Tokyo city park, and her hug tightened as she clung to her father for comfort — now that she thought of it, Raven had needed comfort more often than most people, and at the moment so did she.

His arms tightened to meet her need for long moments, until Hild said from where she stood to one side, “As heartwarming as this all is, we need to get ready for the main event.” His embrace eased and Belldandy reluctantly let go. She turned to the Daimakaicho, choosing to ignore the slight snark to Hild's voice — she suspected Hild had been playing her role for so long it had become second nature, and certainly the situation was desperate enough that Belldandy could forgive her for forgetting to drop it. Instead she simply asked, “The main event?”

“Indeed.” Hild grinned and theatrically lifted her arms wide, and this time Belldandy's gasp was from awe as all the other circles and sigils that she had forgotten began to come to life, lighting up with a mix of white and black, divine and infernal energies intertwined. The Norn of the Present turned in place, face alight with wonder as that admixture raced away from the three along floor and walls, circling around and up to meet high on the ceiling above them — before spearing straight down into the middle of the circle where she had just stood and pure white light exploded outward, light so intense that any mortal would have been instantly and permanently blinded, and even Belldandy's eyes were overwhelmed.

When she could again see through bedazzled eyes, she found the circles the three had just occupied still dimly lit in standby mode. But now there were fresh, brightly glowing lines running from those circles in all directions, connecting them to the rest of the room's massive array.

“And now,” Hild said, stepping back into her circle as Belldandy gaped, “find your niece's life-light and prepare yourself to channel all that power back when the time comes.”

/oOo\

Urd closed her eyes as the scarlet wave of Devourer's claim to the Earth flashed over her, then opened them on the newly transformed landscape, everything living now merged with the blasted bare rock that was all that was left, red skies and dark clouds above. She noted a stone bird nearby frozen in mid-flight and distantly wondered why it was hanging in the air, but her curiosity was only a tiny ember. Later, she knew, she was going to be angry with her Father — very angry, more angry than she had ever been in her long life, even angrier than when Raven had begun remembering her year of continual serial rapes in Rothgan's palace, and Urd's hatred and despair at her inability to protect her daughter from those memories had pushed her into accepting her mother's offer to join the Furies. Her oh-so-clever Father had failed her, failed her co-mothers, failed the world, but most importantly had failed her daughter. She didn't know how, but someday, somehow, she would make him pay.

But that was for later. For now her overwhelming grief left no room for anger, and tears flowed down her cheeks as she watched the gigantic red form of the Devourer raise the column upon which her daughter had died from the ruins of his temple to shape into his new throne. Right now, she wished more than anything that the hand tightly clutching hers was her lover's, as well as their co-mother's.

Then seemingly out of nowhere, a massive green elephant appeared directly over the Devourer's head. Urd gaped as the elephant dropped, missing the head proper but landing on one of the antlers and snapping it off! The Devourer roared with fury as his broken antler dropped down out of sight into the ruins of his temple, the elephant following only to vanish as it fell. Beast Boy had undoubtedly changed into a fly or wasp, or some other miniscule insect. Even as he vanished, Starfire flew up from the transformed city, whipping past Trigon and throwing a massive green blast of energy into the monster's ear as white blasts from Cyborg's sonic cannon peppered his face around his eyes. Raven's friends had arrived, and she and Lind had a final promise to their daughter to keep.

She squeezed Lind's hand briefly in acknowledgement before letting go, and turned to her youngest sister. “Skuld, now that Raven's gone, Lind and I ... Skuld?”

The Norn of the Future was still crouched on her heels, intently focused on her datapad's projected screen as her fingers flew across the keyboard. She obviously hadn't heard a word her big sister had said.

Urd stepped over next to her sister, keeping a wary eye on the battle taking place in the city below them. The Titans attacking the Devourer might be mere annoyances to someone of his power — the actual Titans wouldn't be a major threat — but they were proving to be very annoying annoyances, enough so that he had given in to his anger and was physically trying to swat Starfire out of the sky instead of simply annihilating her mystically. You go, guys. Urd refocused on her sister and shouted, “Skuld!”

“Huh? What?” Skuld looked up and froze, eyes wide as she looked across the blasted landscape and focused on the raging Devourer, then looked back down at her datapad ... then up ... then down. Up again. “That's not right!” she burst out.

“What? What's not right?” Urd demanded. They didn't have time for this —

“He can't be here, Raven's still alive!”

For a moment Urd's world stopped, and then she was dropping down next to Skuld so quickly that if she'd been mortal she'd have badly bruised knees. She was vaguely aware of Lind suddenly standing beside them, but all her focus was on her sister. “Are you sure? How do you know?”

Skuld's fingers were again flying across her keyboard. “It's Raven's bindi, it's still active and it's powered by Raven's life force — if she was dead, it would be on standby, powered by the emergency battery.”

Urd sagged, going lightheaded as fresh hope swept through her. She realized she was hyperventilating and forced herself to slow her breathing. She asked, “So where is she?”

“I don't know,” Skuld replied, eyes still fixed to the screen. “Something's interfering with the bindi's signal. The best I can say is she's somewhere below the Devourer's temple. And the visual's dark, I can't tell if it's because of the interference or just that dark wherever she is. I can't even make sense of the emotional signal, it's all scrambled.” She finally looked up. “That's the best I can do, I'm sorry.”

Urd reached over to gently grip her sister's shoulder. “That's okay, Squirt, you told us Raven's still alive, that's the important thing.”

“He's getting back on track.”

At Lind's terse statement Urd and Skuld looked up to find her staring down at the city. Urd hastily rose, her own gaze following her co-mother's, and her heart sank.

The Devourer was finally ignoring Cyborg and Starfire's continuing attacks. His arms were stretched wide above his head, and the black swirling masses of three new portals were forming between his hands. If he was following his standard procedure, in a moment his own demonic forces would be flooding out of one portal and into the other two, targeting the divine and infernal realms of his newly-conquered world to keep their surprised occupants busy while he recovered his strength.

Lind asked, “Skuld, is the link to Kami-sama still open?”

Skuld quickly typed a few keys and briefly studied the result before nodding. “Yes, it is.”

So why isn't Father doing anything? Urd railed in her mind. She took a deep breath, watching as the predicted demons began flooding out of one portal and splitting into two streams into the other two, so many of them that all Urd could pick out were flashes of green and black wings.

A red stud on Skuld's datapad began to blink. She quickly pressed it, and went white at the data that sprang up on her screen. She shouted, “Urd, Lind, they're targeting your home!”

“Of course they are,” Lind said. “That was where Raven lived — and the Devourer's connected to her.”

Urd thought that Lind sounded way too calm even as she fought for the same calm herself. Mara! And not all the demons had passed through the two exit portals before Trigon had shut them down, and suddenly the all-too-mortal Titans below were finding themselves on the defensive. Starfire was weaving about through the sky blasting away at the scores of green and black pterodactyl-like things chasing her as she dodged their own eye-blasts while Cyborg had set his back to a now-stone building's wall and was firing his blasts of concentrated sound at anything that came close while trying to cover Starfire when he could. Urd couldn't see Beast Boy in her brief glance before she looked over at Lind to find her co-mother gazing at her.

Urd said, “Forget Nifflheim, they're either in bunkers with Furies guarding them or will have to look out for themselves. Take your Valkyrie home to back up our people already there, protect the mothers and children. We Furies will rescue the Titans.”

“We haven't received any orders,” Lind pointed out.

“Do we need them? Defense of your realm and the innocent are your primary tasks, and we made Raven a promise — and we always keep our promises.” She ignored the irony of her statement as she stared at her co-mother. Normally it was the gods that were supposed to be concerned about the spirit of a promise and the demons sticking to the exact letter of their agreements, but she didn't care.

Apparently neither did Lind. She smiled thinly. “True,” she said, then turned away, calling out to her lieutenants. In moments the Valkyrie were mounted on their fighting brooms and falling into column in front of the resummoned temporary portal.

I wonder just how much Father saw in advance, Urd thought as she reflected that the temporary portal went directly to the pocket dimension that held their home. After a moment she shrugged as she turned to her own ranks of Furies, their wings already springing from their shoulder blades. She would just have to hope that her Father had foreseen her own intervention as well. “You heard me, let's go!” she called out. The next moment her own implanted wings swept out and she took to the air at the front of her flock to the thunder of hundreds of wings, and dove toward the monster that had claimed her world. She just really hoped her Father knew what he was doing.

/oOo\

She was huddled on the rough, cold rock floor, trying to stay absolutely still. The Bad Man was somewhere out there in the pitch blackness that surrounded her, she could feel him — not only all around her, but inside her as well. But maybe if she didn't move, didn't so much as twitch, didn't make a whisper of a sound, the Bad Man wouldn't know where she was, wouldn't catch her ... wouldn't do Bad Things to her. She didn't know just what those Bad Things would be, she didn't want to know, but somehow she knew that they would hurt, inside and out. There were bits and pieces at the edges of her mind she was desperately trying to ignore, all hissing, yowling claws and slime and weight and something stabbing her. And pain ... pain, and more pain.

She wanted her mommy, any of her mommies: the red-haired woman that would tell him bedtime stories of his valiant ancestors, the platinum-blonde woman that would play games at the playground, the stern-faced purple-haired woman that smiled when she danced with her, the yellow-blonde woman that loved to sing — and all of them would hold her when she cried. She wanted her mommies.

She shivered from the cold then froze in place, a terrified whimper escaping before she could stop it. She bit down on a fisted hand to stop more whimpers and listened, straining to hear anything that might hint that the Bad Man had heard her — nothing. Moving as quietly as she could, she wrapped her cape around herself and curled into a ball for warmth, and again went still as silent tears tracked down her face.

Mommy....