Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ The Raven 03: Apocalypse ❯ Not So Last Stands ( Chapter 9 )

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\

From her position in front of the armored, shielded entrance to the bunker holding the mother and children in the middle of what had been the local park, Mara pointed the staff she'd been handed by one of the Valkyrie, channeled her own god-strength through it and fired up at one of black-and-green demons that had flooded her home's pocket-dimension through the Devourer's temporary portal, and snarled in frustration as yet again she missed not only her target but all of the other invaders caught up in the aerial duel. Though at least she hadn't hit any of the Valkyrie and Furies that the invaders were fighting. That was easier for the Valkyrie, they preferred distant attacks from to tips of their combat brooms' handles during long strafing attacks. But the anger and need to hurt that made the Furies what they were meant they preferred to mix it up close with their swords and as a result Mara had actually come closer to hitting several Furies than she had any of the invaders.

Mara fired again and missed again, her snarl growing louder. She hadn't felt such hatred since she had switch sides to Asgard and replaced her lover as Norn of the Past, and lost the constant anger simmering away in the depths of her soul that had been part of her demonic heritage. But it had roared to life when she'd seen the portal open and the invaders flood through, and known that their presence had been made possible by her daughter's death. And that hatred demanded its due in blood and pain.

Then she caught sight of a plummeting form, a Valkyrie knocked off his broom and falling limply to the ground — and two of the green/black invaders stooping to follow, crackling yellow beams lancing from their eyes.

This time her shot was close enough to cause them to break off their dive, remarkably close for a snap-shot taken as she ran forward to reach the Valkyrie moments after he hit. A quick glance at the unconscious god showed a body suit streaked with charring, reddened and blistered skin showing in a few places, but nothing that needed tending to immediately so she refocused on the sky. As she'd feared, the two she'd scared off were circling back around and dropping lower and no one else seemed to have noticed what was going on below. She really hoped the Furies weren't simply ignoring her predicament — Urd said that her people didn't hold Mara's switch against her, but she wondered —

The two invaders were lined up for their shallow dive, one slightly behind the other, wings spread wide and eyes beginning to glow, and Mara gritted her teeth as she stepped between them and the unconscious Valkyrie and braced herself. Her own combat suit was undamaged so it would provide better protection to them both, but that didn't mean this wasn't going to hurt — maybe fatally.

Then someone grabbed her from behind and she abruptly found herself cartwheeling across the earth and grass of the battle-torn park. Rolling to a stop against a mound of grassy earth, Mara twisted to look back at the Valkyrie she had been defending ... and found Lind standing in her place, her combat broom floating beside her, her two angels manifested above her with their single wing each spread out to both sides.

The Valkyrie commander was holding the halberd that had become her favorite weapon, and Mara gaped as she stepped to one side and angled her halberd across her body so that its massive axe-blade caught the first invader's eyebeam and sent it lancing back to spear lengthwise through the second one. Spear Mint had reached out a hand to intercept the second attacker's eyebeam and it bounced off her palm to lance harmlessly upward as its source's smoking corpse spiraled toward the ground. Then even as the first attacker angled up to pass overhead, well out of Lind and her angels' reach, Cool Mint and Spear Mint spiraled back into Lind's core and she leaped straight up, swinging the halberd at practically full extension. The blade caught the creature at the base of its throat and the creature's own momentum swept the blade down the length of its torso, showering Lind with viscera and purple blood as she dropped back to earth.

Mara fought down her gag reflex as she jumped to her feet and ran back to her co-mother to drop down next to the Valkyrie they'd been defending and after a moment of hurried checking breathed a sigh of relief — he was seared, but nothing life-threatening. “He'll be all right,” she reported.

Lind glanced at her with a thin but grateful smile, then looked up. Mara followed her gaze, and smiled viciously at the sight of the suddenly very one-sided dogfight. The Valkyrie reinforcements that had accompanied Lind were tearing into the invaders, and an increasing number of black and green bodies were dropping out of the sky. As hard as she tried, however much she reminded herself that she was a goddess now and not a demon, it had been only four years and Mara couldn't keep herself from exulting as each invader fell — one more body to be piled on her daughter's grave.

“Raven's alive.”

For a moment the words didn't register, then Mara's head whipped around to stare at her co-mother.

Goddesses couldn't lie. Actually, that wasn't quite true, better said that goddesses at Lind's level couldn't lie, or they wouldn't be at her level. Oh, they could dissemble, misdirect, leave out important facts ... but not lie. And more important, Lind wouldn't lie, not about this, not to her.

“How?” she whispered. “I mean ...” Her voice trailed off and she waved toward the furball above them.

Lind's thin smile softened. “I don't know. Does it matter?”

“No! Of course not! I —” Mara's voice broke off as her throat tightened and she realized her cheeks were wet. Now I'm crying?

Lind looked up for a moment, searching the sky, then stepped forward and embraced Mara, a hand pulling her co-mother's head down against her shoulder. Mara ignored the blood and fluids smearing onto her bodysuit and skin as she clutched at her friend and sobbed out her relief. Cool Mint and Spear Mint again manifested, untainted by the gore coating their mistress, this time to circle their arms about Mara's back and sing wordless songs of happiness.

Eventually Mara's tears eased off, and she pulled back out of their embrace and wiped at a now-bloodstained cheek as she smiled up at the two angels. “I can't wait to get my own angel as wonderful as you two.” The two angels grinned and sang a trilling two-toned giggling harmony before vanishing back into their mistress.

Mara giggled as well, before glancing down at herself with a sigh. “I'm a mess,” she muttered as she tried to find a spot on her combat suit clean enough to wipe her filthy hands, then looked over Lind's blood-drenched body from tear-streaked face to foot. “You're a mess,” she continued. “We need to get cleaned up.”

Lind shook her head, smiling ruefully. “I'm afraid I have a job to do, one that I've ignored for too long already.”

“Oh?” Mara looked up at an aerial battle that, even to her inexperienced eye, was no longer a battle but now a hunt as the combined Furies and Valkyries ran down the last of the invaders. She refocused on Lind and cocked an eyebrow (a mannerism she'd picked up from Raven, and that their daughter had herself picked up while watching Nabiki in her mirror). “When this is over we're going to be meeting Raven. Is that how you want to look — and smell — when that happens?”

Lind looked down at her filthy combat bodysuit, then ran her hands through blood-smeared hair and grimaced. “I shouldn't —” she reluctantly began, only to be interrupted.

“Go ahead, Commander, we've got this in hand. Mara's right, you're in no shape to meet your little girl. I'll see to our casualties and get us reorganized for any counterstrike.”

The two turned to find another Valkyrie dismounting from her combat broom, the winged Fury in command of Nifflheim's forces present landing beside her. Lind considered the two for a moment, then put a finger to her ear. “Skuld, how are things going down there?” She listened for a minute, then said, “Good enough. If the Devourer is willing to let things stand at a stalemate down there, we'll let it be — it's not like we can take him down ourselves and if I bring my people back all it's likely to do is convince him to bring in more forces, maybe another invasion force targeting somewhere else in Asgard now that this one's history. But if he brings in more of his minions or Urd's people start getting overwhelmed let me know right away and we'll come running if we can.”

Turning to the Fury, she asked, “Janet, how's the situation with the invaders in Nifflheim?”

Janet shrugged. “At last report so far there haven't been any serious attempts on the bunkers, and assuming they don't uncork anything that they haven't used so far, they can't mount one. They're just tearing up real estate and a number of idiots or paranoiacs that refused to take refuge in the prepared bunkers are finding their time as demons cut short. We actually owe them our thanks for that, some very nasty customers are going to find themselves joining the mortal souls they enjoyed tormenting in the fires instead of stoking them, so to speak. So we're good.”

“Let me know immediately if they, ah ... `uncork' anything more serious, then take your Furies to Nifflheim. We'll replace you here. I'd send some of my people with you, but —”

“We have orders from Hild that you stay out,” Janet finished. “I understand why, the idiots and paranoiacs that aren't in the bunkers are the ones most likely to think they can get away with taking a potshot at your people. Like I said, we're good. Go get yourself clean.”

“Thank you.” As Janet leapt into the air with a beat of her wings and flew up toward those of her people still incorporate after the battle, Lind turned to her lieutenant. “Myrun, if the Devourer does make a move I can get into a spare combat suit in less than a minute. Respond immediately and I'll be right behind you.”

“You got it, Commander.”

Lind nodded her acknowledgement and turned toward their home as Myrun hopped back on her combat broom and sped away. She winced at the sight of pillars of smoke rising over the trees along the edge of the park. The invaders hadn't deliberately targeted the homes scattered throughout the pocket dimension, but they hadn't particularly cared what got in the way of any of their eyebeams that missed their targets. Neither had the Valkyrie, for that matter. “Come on, Mara,” she said with a sigh. “If our home's still standing we can get our showers.” She took her co-mother by the arm and began walking toward their home, her combat broom following along beside her.

As they walked, Lind said quietly, “And Mara? Thank you.”

“For what?” Mara asked, confused.

“For standing in front of one of my wounded people, ready to take a hit that might have killed you but would have almost certainly killed him.”

“But I didn't do anything, you shoved me out of the way,” Mara protested.

Lind shrugged. “Of course I did, I have the skills needed to protect Orlygr without taking the hit. It doesn't matter — you were willing. You may not have a Valkyrie's fighting spirit or skills, but once word spreads there won't be a Valkyrie that doubts your courage or heart. From today onward, if any other Asgardian maligns you within the hearing of a Valkyrie, there will be ... words.”

Mara felt her eyes growing damp again, and hastily wiped them. While she had been safer as a goddess than a demon, not having to continually watch her back, that wasn't the same as being accepted. Certainly Urd's sisters had accepted her unreservedly and Lind had never doubted her, but that attitude had been far from universal — not all those that switched sides stayed switched, and the fact that Urd had rejoined her mother at the same time and that they remained lovers had just fueled the rumors. Now this ... “You're welcome. And thank you,” she replied, voice husky with emotion.

/oOo\

Robin groaned as he rolled over, trying to focus as he once more became aware of the world around him. The last thing he remembered was ... riding his motorbike? Yes, he'd escaped from the energy dome Raven had imprisoned her teammates in, made it across the bay to the docks on the Titans' ferry raft, had retrieved his motorbike from their vehicle storage there and headed for the abandoned library, and ... Robin shot to his feet as he remembered Trigon's massive form bursting up, and the red wave of energy that had flashed out from that demon — and the pain exploding through his head just as quickly dropped him to his knees, hands clutching at his hair as the world again washed away.

The pain finally subsided, and the Boy Wonder realized that the world beyond his pounding head and ringing ears was ... rather noisy. The sounds of Cyborg's sonic cannon and Starfire's energy blasts were distinctive and with Starfire there were inevitably explosions, and the inhuman shouts and screams were to be expected, considering what kind of minions an entity like Trigon would have — but far too many of the shouts and some of the screams were entirely too human.

Moving slowly this time, Robin rose to his feet and looked up, trying to focus on the mass of lights and colors swirling above him. His inability to force his star-spangled vision into clarity was worrying, he didn't have time for a serious concussion! Then he realized that one of those fuzzy images was growing larger as it dropped toward him. He fell into a barely adequate defensive stance as a woman with ebony wings to match her hair carrying a sword that crackled with power landed a few yards away from him — well out of his currently shaky reach. He suspected that she'd be an attractive woman if he wasn't seeing double.

The double-imaged woman tapped at her right ear. “Urd, Sandra here. I found Robin. He looks shaky, but he's up. We're on the ground at three o'clock, two blocks. Over.”

Less than a minute later another woman spiraled down to land by the first, platinum blonde wings that matched her hair. Robin thought she could probably be described as sultry, even in double overlapping images. She was wearing a full body suit like the first, though the newcomer's suit came with two long strips of cloth hanging off her shoulders. She took one look at Robin, then stepped forward and caught him as he started to tilt. She glanced to one side and shook her head ruefully, then stared intently into his eyes for a moment before holding up one hand and asking, “How many fingers?”

“Uh ...” Robin tried to focus. “Dividing by two, I'd say three.”

The newcomer — Urd, Robin presumed — chuckled. “Yup, major concussion. Didn't your mentor teach you not to ride your bike without a helmet?”

“It was lost in a fight and hasn't been replaced yet, and I was in a hurry.”

“And look where that got you,” Urd replied as she oddly twisted the hand that wasn't propping Robin up. A ceramic-appearing bottle appeared in the hand, a clear cup upside down on top of it.

Off to one side with her eyes on the sky, Sandra snorted. “You're one to talk,” she snarked.

“Now Sandra, be nice, you've only heard stories. It's been many years since I've been that stupid.” Urd handed the bottle to her. “I have sky watch, half a glass.”

Sandra reached up to drop her sword into the sheath on her back between her wings and filled the glass halfway with a thick purple fluid. “And what stories they are!” she enthused as she handed the glass to Urd and redrew her sword. “I have sky watch.”

“You all shouldn't believe everything Mara tells you.”

“And what about the Daimakaicho?”

“Especially the Daimakaicho, you know how much she enjoys embarrassing me. Besides, hers are mostly from when I was a child. Who isn't an idiot at that age?” Urd held the half-full glass up in front of Robin's eyes. “Robin, this little pick-me-up will make that concussion go away and give you so much energy that you'll be bouncing off the walls, more than you already do. Just be close to a bed twelve hours from now, because when you crash you are going to crash.”

Robin nodded, winced at the pain the motion sent bouncing around inside his skull, and reached for the glass only for Urd to pull it out of his reach. “Nu-uh, not the way your hand's shaking,” she said. “Open wide.” She held the glass up to his mouth and poured the contents down his throat as soon as his lips parted.

It was foul ... really foul, indescribably foul, like nothing he'd ever tasted or smelled before and hoped never to taste or smell again. It was all he could do not to choke or gag on the aftertaste, and then it was as if a hot water balloon burst in his stomach, its contents exploding through his body. He wouldn't have been surprised later to learn he'd had steam coming out of his ears like a Warner Brothers cartoon. But behind that rush of wet heat his pain vanished, his vision snapped into focus, he felt like he was bursting with a need to move, his mind was clear — and he abruptly realized that he had just drunk who-knew-what offered to him by a complete stranger.

He instantly shook off the hand on his shoulder and stepped back. “Who are you?” he demanded.

Urd grinned. “Good to see you're thinking again. We're the Furies, and I'm Urd, one of Raven's mothers.”

Robin eyed her, then looked up and around, everything now crystal clear and his mind racing. He caught sight of Starfire flashing through the black and green pterodactyl-like things and past a gigantic roaring Trigon, her green energy blasts marching across his massive red-skinned chest. Her attack was massively more powerful than he had ever seen, to the point that the explosions were actually leaving small craters and blue-green blood was oozing down Trigon's chest and abdomen (Robin thought that the massive bracers covering her entire forearms that he had never seen before were probably behind the power-up). She soared away, dodging yellow beams flashing from his own eyes, followed by a pair of literal wingwomen with the same glowing, crackling swords as Sandra in hand on each side of her and slightly behind to form a small aerial `V'. Several of the leathery demons dropped toward the alien princess, only to scatter as the one in the lead was slammed to one side by Cyborg's screeching blue-white sonic blast.

The Boy Wonder glanced over at the platinum blonde beside him and asked, “Beast Boy?”

Urd gave him a thin smile. “After he flew into the Devourer's ear canal and turned into a small whale, he got the monster's personal attention. So we asked him to guard Cyborg — while we guard them both.”

“I've made arrangements with my mothers.” A fragment of Raven's last words to her friends echoed through Robin's mind. Trigon's presence was supposed to mean that Raven was gone, consumed in his summoning, but the woman beside him had to know that and she was way too calm. If she was one of Raven's mothers ... a tightness in his chest that had been there since he'd looked around with clear eyes at the rocky, blasted landscape the world had become finally eased and it was suddenly easier to breathe. He said, “Raven's alive.”

Urd's smile broadened. “Very good, Boy Wonder, yes, she is. And you —”

“Incoming!”

Robin and Urd glanced up then dove apart as a green and black winged something smashed down where they had been standing. Robin rolled across the rocky ground and to his feet, right next to ... his motorbike? Well, the stone statue that had been his bike, standing upright and of one piece with the rocky ground that had been paved road — what Urd had glanced at when she'd first seen his condition, he realized. He glanced over at the stone car that the thing had smashed down next to, now liberally splashed with the thing's purple blood and gore — no surprise, it had been eviscerated, a dead body falling out of the air instead of an attack. It was the same stone car that Robin must have catapulted into head first when the world — including his motorcycle — had turned to stone and he hadn't. He had gotten off lightly with a major concussion. Right, first thing after this is over, get a new helmet and always wear it. The Batman was right yet again.

Urd stood up and dusted herself off as she glanced up at the furball above them. “As I was saying, you need to go find her. We know she's somewhere below in the Devourer's temple, but not exactly where. And I can't go myself, the Devourer can almost certainly track me or any of my Furies anywhere I go. I doubt he knows she's alive, so let's not change that.”

Robin nodded his agreement. He briefly considered grabbing Beast Boy, but rejected the thought — Gar's ability to turn into, say, a fly would make searching the temple much easier, but he could not remember to keep quiet when reporting, not consistently. Best not to chance it. “Don't worry, I'll find her,” he said instead.

Urd offered her hand and when Robin reached toward it clasped forearms.

“Thank you, we've missed her,” she said quietly, then let go and she and Sandra spread their wings sprang into the air to rejoin the fight.

Robin watched them rejoin the dogfight, Sandra drawing her sword and almost casually cutting off one low-flying thing's wing as their flight path intersected it from the rear. He lost track of the pair in the furball, and returned most of his attention to the ground as he shifted over next to the calcified building beside the road and stalked alongside it, slowly to avoid drawing the wrong kind of attention from above but with one eye on the sky in case he failed. Trigon bursting up through the abandoned library had made a mess of things, but the entrance had been this way....