Fan Fiction ❯ A Raven Like No Other ❯ Chapter Eighteen: Acceptance ( Chapter 18 )

Chapter Eighteen: Acceptance

 

Raven, in white, was standing face to face with her nemesis, Rage, who was now powering up in a dark flame aura with her cloak blowing with her aura. Raven remained calm and tranquil as she awaited Rage to make the first move.

“Raven,” Rage spoke, “Once this battle is over, not only will I possess your body and restore G.L. back to the way I want him to be, I'll begin my reign of terror around the world! And I'll start by dealing with your weakling friends!”

“Don't you ever shut up,” Raven shot back. Angered by her comment, Rage burst forward toward Raven and attempted to strike her with her fist. Raven however easily evade the attack and backslapped Rage hard to the back her head. Rage screamed in pain from the surprise counterattack as she rubbed the back on her head.

“Damn you,” Rage cursed, “I'll devour you whole.”

“That's not gonna happen,” Raven retorted. After spitting on the ground once, Rage clenched her fists and charged at Raven again commencing the heated “bird-fight” between them (A/N: yes it's a dumb statement from the typical “catfight” expression). Rage was throwing a fury of dark energy covered fast fists at Raven, while the white-cloaked Goth evaded her attacks. Raven then dashed out of the way as Rage's fist came crashing into a nearby tree, denting her fist deep into it. Pulling her fist out of the hole made into the tree, Rage turned to Raven who was still looking at her with the same demeanor as before.

“I'll wipe that smile off your face,” Rage yelled.

“The sight of you is nothing to smile about,” Raven mocked with a cold voice. Growling from another insult made from Raven, Rage used her dark powers and uprooted one of the trees from out of the ground. She then shattered the tree into many sharp stabbing stakes and aimed them at the Titans.

“Oh Shit,” Cyborg cursed.

“Get my point,” Rage said with an evil voice, “In fact, get all of them!”

With a throw of her hand, Rage launched the stakes at the Titans with a speed that would have been very difficult for the Titans to outrun. Raven saw the danger and hurriedly shielded them from the stakes seconds before any harm came to them. All of the stakes collided into the shield dome and fell to the ground. With Raven distracted momentarily, Rage charged at her speedily and tackled her to the ground. The shield then collapsed, leaving the Titans to see Raven and Rage grappling and fighting each other on the ground. Rage punched Raven a few times to the face and said, “Your days with these Titans made you just like them! Spineless and too much of a softy!”

“Well soften up to this,” Raven countered as she grabbed and headbutted Rage to her head before blasting her away from her. Rage went crashing and rolling down on the ground before coming to a complete stop. Raven stood back up off the ground and wiped away the little blood that came from her mouth. Rage then stood back up and steadied herself. Turning to Raven, she said, “I'm thru playing game with you!”

Again Rage rushed over to Raven and started another fistfight with her. While this was going on Cyborg and Robin hurried over to where the unconscious Beast was laying. When Rage saw the however, she blasted an energy blast at them and thrust them away from Beast Boy.

“He's mine,” Rage yelled, “Stay away from him!”

Seeing Rage's distraction, Raven came quickly and landed a solid punched to her face, sending her flying backwards off the ground and landing down on her side. Partially dazed from the assault, Rage rubbed where she was just struck and felt a bruise on her left cheek. The pain from the bruise was enough to boil Rage's fury further.

“You have hurt me,” Rage said with an inhuman voice, “Hurting me was a Mistake!”

“Hurt you,” Raven asked in a monotone, “I haven't even started hurting you yet!”

Growling, Raven formed a black fireball and hurled it at Raven, only for it to be smacked away and burst into the ground. Getting desperate, Rage called upon all the dark power she had left within herself. Her hair and red cloak started flapping with the strong black flame aura that was around her. Soon her cloak completely burned off her as her powers intensified, leaving her in her leotard, chain belt and red boots. Her red eyes turn bloody black as glowing orange-red markings around her body began to show, with a certain kind of symbol on her forehead. These markings and symbol were all too familiar to Raven; they were the very ones she detested to the core. Her lavender hair grew longer till it was at a length that want pass her shoulders and down her back (A/N: if you've seen “Birthmark”, you'll know what I'm talking about).

A strong windstorm blew from Rage as black voltages waltzed around her body. Raven scowled at Rage as she beheld the markings and symbol that were on the dark emotion that she abhorred with the utmost disgust. A crater formed underneath the dark emotion as she gathered all of her remaining powers for one last battle. The others were doing what they could to hold up against the wind force that was coming from Rage.

“I'm not liking the looks of this,” Cyborg comment as he, Jinx and the others were witnessing what Rage was doing.

“Rage is planning something,” Aqualad suggested, “And whatever it is, it's anything but good.”

“Ya think,” Jinx retorted. After a couple more moments, Rage let out a loud, inhuman yelled as she gathered the last bit of dark powers left her in. When that was done, a four red-eyed large black raven-shaped aura formed around her as she turned to Raven who was standing in the some spot as before with a calm and steady demeanor.

“I will consume you,” Rage said to Raven with an inhuman voice.

“All you'll consume is my fist,” Raven retorted, “You will not win the fight! Not tonight, Not EVER!”

Raven powered up and formed a large raven-shaped aura of her own around her, except hers had two white eyes.

“LET'S GO,” yelled Rage as she stormed off against Raven who in turned dashed at her. Reaching each other, they grabbed each other and started a tug of war against each other with spark of energy radiating off of their clashing auras. The friction intensified as pieces of nearby trees stared breaking off and while masses of dirt and rocks flying away from them. The friction came to a point that they both repelled each other before they blasted off into the air and flew at each other. Getting to each other again, a fierce fistfight began between them. Raven and Rage exchanged punches after kicks after power blasts against each other with the utmost prejudice.

“Damn,” Bumblebee commented, “That's one serious cat fight!”

“What's more funny about it is that one of the major reasons for this fight is over a guy,” Cyborg said.

“You mean to say that Raven is battle “herself” over a guy aside stopping “herself” from killing everyone,” Jinx asked with a bugged out expression, “That girl REALLY has some major issues!”

“Most people these days always have issues,” Speedy commented, “Except me of course.”

“Yeah right,” Aqualad shot back.

“Raven is a friend who is...complex in many ways we can't begin to understand,” Starfire said.

“Maybe,” Robin said, “But I feel that Beast Boy can relate to her on more grounds than any of us could.”

And speaking of Beast Boy, they saw that he was still unconscious lying on the same spot as before. Robin took the opportunity to get away from further harm while Rage was being dealt with. Speedy ran over with Robin and helped him carry the heavy beaten Beast Boy over to the group. After arriving back to the group, Cyborg checked on his vitals.

“How is he,” Starfire asked worriedly.

“...Not so good,” Cyborg said with a sigh, “His pulse is low and that last attack really did a brute number on him. And the physical aftermath of the attack didn't help either...”

“Will he pull through.,” Robin asked.

“At this time,” Cyborg said, “It's hard to tell.”

While in the air, Raven was really doing some serious damages to Rage. The red emotion was doing all she could to topple the white-cloaked Goth, but the more she exerted, the more fatigue she gradually grew. Unlike Rage, Raven had energy to spare and she was letting it all out on Rage with every punch and kick she inflicted on her.

“Raven is really giving it to her,” Bumblebee observed.

“And she doesn't look like she'll be letting up soon,” Robin added.

“I hope that Raven doesn't get too absorbed into this fight with “herself,” ”said Starfire, “Such conflicts with oneself can have some damaging effects, yes?”

“Perhaps,” Cyborg replied, “But then again, there are things about Raven that we might not come to understand.”

Several moments later, everyone on the surface saw and heard a loud crash from in front of them. Some distance away from them was a crater and within the crater was a beaten and scratched up Rage, whose leotard had endured some serious damages (A/N: think about how ragged out Raven looked after Slade attacked her and damaged her leotard in the ep. “Birthmark”). Her long hair was a mess and she had bruises and cuts around her face and body and with a little blood come out from both ends of her mouth. Her boots were just as ragged and worn out. White Raven, with her eyes as burning white as ever, landed down on the ground and the large black raven around her was absorbed back into her.

“Now you can say that I have hurt you,” Raven said with a harsh voice. After cracking her fingers, she calmly walked over to the crater where the worn and ragged out Rage was in. Rage, with the little strength left in her, tried to crawl from out of the crater and away from Raven.

“Where do you think you're going,” Raven said as she fired a black beam at her, grabbing and lift her off the ground. She then tossed Rage across the air and caused her to skid off the ground a couple of time before coming to a complete crash into a tree. Rage was severely low on power and in serious pain all over. She was left with defenseless and at Raven's mercy, that is, if Raven was planning on showing any form of mercy which was rather unlikely at this point. The red emotion couldn't call on Beast Boy to protect her as before since he was unconscious and she had lost all control over him.

While walking towards the cloak-less Rage, Raven saw Rage move herself into a sit up position up against the trunk of the tree. Raven now saw the full damage she inflicted on Rage and how defenseless she was. Rage coughed a few times with a little blood coming out of her mouth.

Before Raven did anything else to further vent out her anger against the dark emotion, she then heard Rage mumble something very weakly and surprisingly sad at the same time. At first she couldn't make out what it was but it was clear that it wasn't any form of incantation or spell. In the process her four eyes changed from four to two normal eyes like Raven's, except her violet eyes had a touch of red in them and her eyes were partially opened.

“G...Ga...Gar...Garfield...,” Rage said weakly and sadly as two tears came down from her eyes. At hearing that name and seeing the bit of humanity that surfaced from deep with the dark emotion after so many years, Raven's burning white eyes calmed down to her normal eyes. The anger she had against Rage slowly cooled down. Rage then completely lost consciousness as her head fell downwards. Her hair shrunk down back to its normal length and all of the dark markings and the symbol on her body vanished away as if they were never there. Raven then remembered what Love had told her a few days ago about her emotions up on the roof of Titan Tower:

“Since you chose not to heed my warning, each of your emotions came out from the mirror expressing your affections for Garfield Logan in their own ways. From Happy to Bravery to Fear to Rudeness to Cunning, and surprisingly even to Rage...”

In place of her burning anger and desire for retribution against Rage was her pity. Raven couldn't move herself into inflicting further damage on the now unconscious and beaten Rage after what she had seen and heard with her own eyes and ears. Just then Love's white rose appeared in Raven's right hand. Raising the rose forward at Rage, the rose glowed white and beamed down onto Rage's arms, morphing into two shiny steel armbands. When that was done, Rage's body glowed completely red until she was totally absorbed into the red energy, which was then absorbed into Raven's body. Raven gasped as she assimilated Rage back into herself. After completely absorbing Rage back into herself Raven exhaled out loudly as she regained her composure.

 

(Meanwhile)

Everyone was silent as they saw that the battle was over.

“Raven has defeated and absorbed the Rage doppelganger,” Starfire observed.

“So the battle is over and Rage has been stopped,” Cyborg said.

“That's a relief especially after all we've been through for one night,” Bumblebee commented. After a moment alone, Raven turned and walked back towards the other Titans, who were watching over Beast Boy, who still haven't regained consciousness.

“Friend Raven you have come out victorious,” Starfire said happily. Raven stayed quiet as she looked away from Starfire and the others and turned her attention towards Beast Boy. She went over to Beast Boy and knelt next to him. Reaching down to him, she picked and embraced his cut up and battered body over to herself, resting his head on the bosoms of her breasts and then resting her head down on top of his.

Before any of the other Titans cold say anything to Raven, they all then heard a few low sobs escape her mouth as her body trembled a little from sobbing. It was clear to everyone that Raven was actually crying. A few of her tears fell onto Beast Boy's face as she felt all of her emotions and personalities being affected by what she was feeling. A moment later, Raven gathered herself enough to say something she wanted to say, something she knew she should have said a long time a ago.

“...Garfield,” Raven said softly and sincerely, “...I love you.”

At that moment, the energy force field around her mirror of meditation and the Jewel of Confinement disappeared. And when that happened, the mirror glowed brightly and floated over to Raven and Beast Boy. The mirror stood up in an upright position, facing Raven as she and the others looked on at what was happening. The cracks that were on the glass piece of the mirror started repairing itself until it was completely repaired. From out of the mirror came a hooded emotion in a blackish navy blue cloak and boots. This emotion stood before Raven and Beast Boy before she looked and faced Raven in eye-to-eye contact.

“Denial,” Raven said lowly as the emotion remained silent, “I won't deny my affections for Garfield Logan anymore.”

Denial then faded into blackish navy blue energy and was absorbed into Raven. A bright flash momentarily occurred and when the flashed died out, Raven was back in her normal appearance, her blue cloak and boots and black leotard. The fully repaired mirror slowly landed down into Raven's hand as the glow around it faded away.

“Denial Raven Doppelganger was inside the fractured mirror the entire time,” Starfire asked.

“It makes perfect sense,” Robin explained, “Since Raven refused to accepted how she felt for Beast Boy and chose to strongly denied and suppress her affections, her feelings for Beast Boy came out in another way when all of her emotions and personalities burst from the cracked mirror. And since Denial was so strongly expressed, Raven's other emotions and personalities would never returned back into the mirror until Raven stopped denying and accepted how she felt.”

“You mean say that all of this chaos and hell we've went tonight was all because Raven refused to say she is in love with Beast Boy,” Speedy said in disbelief. The other Titans East found what they heard pretty hard to believe also. Before another word was said from any of the standing Titans, a voice weakly said, “She's an enigma...a Raven like no other.”

Everyone looked down to see that Beast Boy had regained consciousness.

“Garfield,” Raven said happily and teary-eyed as she embraced Beast Boy in an embrace that would have shamed Starfire.

“Ra...,” Beast Boy said very weakly and coughed, “...Raven you're hugging me...out of oxygen.”

Blushing, Raven released her embraced on Beast Boy and helped him up on his feet.

“Beast Boy you have regained consciousness,” Starfire cheered, “Are you back to your normal self again?”

“I...am...,” Beast Boy smiled and assured lowly before losing consciousness again.

“Beast Boy,” Raven called out worriedly. Cyborg quickly checked on him and after a few moments, he explained, “He had only enough strength to regain consciousness for a brief moment. I guess the experience his mind and body went through was too much for him. But I'm sure he'll pull through after he's given time to recover.”

Raven took some comfort in Cyborg's words as she wiped her tears away. She looked over at Cyborg and nodded to him to show that she believe and have faith in what he told her and the others concerning Beast Boy's future recovery. After all that she and the others went through, they were in need of optimism and rest.

“So it's all over,” Jinx asked.

“Yes,” Raven answered, “It's over. We should return back to Titan Tower to check on all of your injuries.”

Agreeing, everyone left the scene and started on their way to Titan Tower. Levitating the Jewel of Confinement off the rock and over to her, Raven grabbed and held onto it, making sure not to lose sight of it. Seeing no other option of getting back with her left leg injured, Jinx, with Cyborg's help, followed the Titans back to the Titan Tower. Aqualad and Speedy helped carry the again unconscious Beast Boy back to the T-Ship while Robin carried Starfire along with him. Raven remained silent throughout the rest of the journey back to Titan Tower, although she took a number of glances at Beast Boy here and there. Raven's emotional issues of love denial were dealt with but now other issues have to be settled...

 

 

TBC