Raven

Raven wasn't so sure teleporting to Azarath -- or teleporting at all -- was a good idea, but she had go. She made a brief stop in her Gotham first, just to assure herself the world of her mother was still there. She didn't have the faintest idea how to find Arella now, but at least the city was still standing. For now.

Then she stepped into the netherverse to take herself to the place of her birth. She hadn't returned there since its destruction at the hands of her father's demons, something she had stood and overseen, relishing in the carnage, even the pain and injuries of her friends as they tried to save Azarath and its people. Going back had crossed her mind from time to time, to...what? Pay her respects? Beg for forgiveness? But she never found the courage to go, until today.

Charred bones littered the marble streets, stained reddish-brown with dried blood, and the once magnificent golden towers were crumpled and fallen. "I am sorry for my part in this," Raven whispered as she walked the paths of her childhood. Juris had been right. She had brought doom to Azarath. But Azar had known, and in the end, her people accepted the sacrifice of their lives to stop Trigon. They'd welcomed it.

That didn't make her feel any better about it. The guilt she carried came surging back and she prayed, at least, that their souls were at peace.

The Great Library, she found to her dismay, had collapsed. If there were any books within that might contain any knowledge that would be helpful against this threat to the multiverse, it would take too long to dig through the rubble. There would be no help there.

She shivered, drawing her cloak more tightly around her shoulders as she looked up into the dark skies above. Planets hung impossibly close, galaxies spun, nebula glowed colorfully. But in the distance, the sky was empty. No stars, no swirls of color, just...blackness.

Raven teleported closer, wincing a little as she could practically hear Jono, Karla, and Anakin admonishing her for being unwise. But she had to see. She stood on one of the stepping stones that dotted the netherverse, watching as the blackness spread across the sky, swallowing everything in its path, consuming the netherverse and heading straight for Azarath.

"No," she whispered, for a moment crazily wondering if she could somehow teleport her entire home away from the encroaching darkness. But it was too big; her powers had their limits. She could only watch and scream as the darkness swallowed the ruins of her home. And still it crept onward, heading right toward her.

She willed herself back to Fandom before it could get to her, collapsing in her room as her legs gave out from a combination of weakness and grief and fear. Nothing lived in Azarath anymore, but it was all she had of her home, and now it was gone. And if all the netherverse was consumed, what would that mean for her?

She curled into a ball on the floor and started to cry, no longer able to hold back the stress and sorrow.

Raven huddled on a rocky spire in the netherverse, head bowed as she fought for control of herself. The skies were an angry red and purple instead of black now, and lightning streaked across them. Her behavior in Special Collections the day before sickened her, as did her reaction when Jono had touched her in the library. Trigon's whispers were becoming stronger and stronger, and it was all she could do to resist the pull of his evil. She'd retreated within herself to try to find some peace and regain control before she hurt someone. It pained her that she could do nothing more to aid in finding Karla and the others, but right now she was more of a hindrance than a help.

"Why have you done this to me, Azar?" she whispered. "Surely before you perished you had to know the suffering I would endure. You had to know the changes that would befall me. I feel hate now. Azar, I feel the urge to kill! You taught me that pacifism was strength, not weakness. But you were wrong, Azar -- wrong! I feel my father's evil growing within me and I am frightened by my new thoughts. Thoughts of death! Thoughts of decay! Thoughts of power! And I am frightened by these thoughts not because I have them...but because I relish them!"

She couldn't hold back her tears anymore. "Help me, Azar," she begged. "I desperately wish to stand beside my friends at their moment of need, yet because of what I am becoming, I cannot. Give me comfort, Azar, or damn me to hell. I cannot abide what I have become!

Silence was her only answer, aside from the rumble of thunder. Or was that her father's laughter? She kept trying, however. She was going to remain here for quite some time until she felt in control of herself enough to return to Fandom.


[ooc: NFB, NFI, warnings for melodramtic canon. I tone it down, people. I TONE IT DOWN.]

Goronn

The sky turned black with smoke-like clouds, and two huge sets of burning red eyes peered down from above. Laughter roared like thunder, and lightning struck, tearing a hole in the air, through which crawled a reddish demon as large as five men. Its hands and feet ended in sharp claws, its mouth was filled with huge yellow teeth, and its tail ended in a spiked-club like some kind of demented dinosaur. It seized hold of Raven. "Ahh, little one, come and make Goronn a tasty meal," it cackled. "I hunger, dear Raven, I hunger for you!"

( Yes, he really said that. GOD, canon. )

[OOC: Preplayed with the awesome blondecanary, brat_intraining, furnaceface, glacial_witch, joan_notjane, life_inshadow, oops_mbad, sith_happened, and weetuskenraider. Warnings for comic book dialogue. It's painful, for realz. NFI and NFB, but OOC always welcomed!]
 

Raven swept up her friends into her Soul-Self, teleporting them into the netherverse, where Alligorr and his sorcererous companions awaited on a plateau amongst a rocky terrain. They stood now on a narrow bridge of stone that led to this plateau. The skies above were a strange reddish-orange and black.

( Long preplay is looooooooooooooong. )


( And then trouble showed up. In spandex. )

[OOC: Preplayed with the terribly patient blondecanary, brat_intraining, furnaceface, glacial_witch, joan_notjane, life_inshadow, oops_mbad, sith_happened, and weetuskenraider. Warnings for comic book violence, comic book dialogue, questionable rituals, and the JLA being one-dimensional dickheads. NFI and NFB, but OOC always welcomed!]
 

Alligorr had sent word to Raven that it was time to perform the ritual to stop her father from entering this world's dimension. She wasn't expecting trouble, but there was always the chance that there could be an attack by those her father had managed to influence -- not to mention her own fear that she could succumb to her father's control -- so she felt much more confident with her friends there to watch. Their love and friendship gave her strength and helped her overcome her doubt and fear, but she was still nervous.

( Cut for preplay. )

[OOC: Preplayed with the fabulous blondecanary, brat_intraining, furnaceface, glacial_witch, joan_notjane, life_inshadow, oops_mbad, sith_happened, and weetuskenraider. NFI, OOC always welcomed! Apologies for the spam that will follow later today/tomorrow. :) ]