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.

Once Karla had vanished and Dinah taken Rook and run, Raven did her best to prevent her future self from pursuing them. She couldn't stop all of the minions, but she could keep the deadliest threat occupied while Dinah got Rook to safety and Karla sought out her own future self and Warren.

Their Soul-Selves still clashed overhead, neither gaining the upper hand over the other. "You can't stop me," the older Raven said as she lashed out with a jolt of pain. "No one can. I will destroy the child, and you all will be mine."

( Raven versus Raven, Round One, FIGHT. )


[NFI, NFB, OOC is always love. Preplayed with glacial_witch and blondecanary, coded using whateverknight's spiffy coder. Warning for violence, megalomania, the occasional comic book villain monologue, and cliffhangers. Follows this, this, this, and this, happening concurrently with this and this. This is what happens when you let Nu play with your canon.]
 

[Follows this.]

Those inside Temple Azarath were not fighting, of course. They chanted and waited as demons tore the roof off the temple, creating an ever-widening opening through which they would soon come. Arella, Raven's mother, was among them, tears in her eyes as she waited and listened.

"It is time, it is finished," the woman who led the ritual declared. "Azar summons us now, and we go to meet our destiny!"

( The woman who spoke turned to look at the new arrivals, stretching out a hand to Tara. )

[Preplayed with blondecanary, brat_intraining, furious_maximus, furnaceface, glacial_witch, icecoldfrost, justwantsquiet, life_inshadow, longislandiceme, not_a_parakeet, and sith_happened. NFI and NFB but OOC, as always, is welcome.]

[Follows after this.]

Fandom seemingly vanished, leaving them floating in a column of kaleidoscopic light that carried them upward, up through a hazy golden mist, into blue then purple and finally black. There was a momentary pause as light and dark merged into one. Their hearts suddenly stopped. No pulse. They were trapped in a moment of time, between worlds and dimensions and here and now and then and will be. Then the moment ended and they were elsewhere.

Most of them had seen this place before and would remember the beautiful city whose spires pierced the dark star-filled skies. They would remember Azarath in all its magnificent but sterile beauty. But what they saw now was nothing like before. Azarath had been razed and awaited death's dark scavengers to feast on its final meager pickings. The buildings were in ruins, and the skies burned red and yellow. Only one building still stood, the Temple Azarath, from which came voices raised in prayer.

Bodies littered the streets. Winged demons circled overhead, looking for more victims. ( And they'd spotted the new arrivals from Fandom. )

[Preplayed with blondecanary, brat_intraining, furious_maximus, furnaceface, glacial_witch, icecoldfrost, justwantsquiet, life_inshadow, longislandiceme, not_a_parakeet, sith_happened. NFI and NFB but OOC, as always, is welcome.]

mrs_theterrible

After Trigon and Raven had vanished and the demons had all disappeared, Arella turned to address those from Fandom. "I will return you to your home as my daughter requested," she said. "Unless...." She hesitated and glanced toward the Temple of Azarath, damaged but still standing.

( It wasn't over yet. )

[OOC: Preplayed with the spectacular spectacular blondecanary, brat_intraining, furnaceface, glacial_witch, longislandiceme, joan_notjane, life_inshadow, oops_mbad, psychic_wonder, sith_happened, and weetuskenraider. YAY THE ENDS OF PREPLAY. NFI and NFB, but OOC always welcomed!]
 

Raven wasn't strong enough to take everyone far, but Azarath was close enough to reach safely. They found themselves between dark blue-green skies where stars and planets hung impossibly close. There were buildings around them of marble and gold, and people milling about in robes of grey and blue.

Raven knew Dinah would recognize where they were, but for the rest, she said quietly, "This is Azarath. Welcome to my home."

( You will never find a more wretched hive of....peace and passivity. )

( And then Trigon reappeared. )

( And then Raven decided to be an idiot. )

[OOC: Preplayed with the awesome blondecanary, brat_intraining, furnaceface, glacial_witch, longislandiceme, joan_notjane, life_inshadow, oops_mbad, psychic_wonder, sith_happened, and weetuskenraider. Warnings for comic book dialogue and Raven being really stupid. NFI and NFB, but OOC always welcomed!]
 

Raven's Soul-Self returned to the Netherverse and reappeared near where the battle against the demon Goronn still raged, depositing those she had brought back with her from Fandom. It then returned to Raven's side, merging once again with her body as the fight continued.

( Ice, ice, baby. )

( Then a voice rolled like thunder across the skies. )

[OOC: Preplayed with the scintillating blondecanary, brat_intraining, furnaceface, glacial_witch, longislandiceme, joan_notjane, life_inshadow, oops_mbad, psychic_wonder, sith_happened, and weetuskenraider. Warnings for comic book dialogue and a demon speaking in capslock. NFI and NFB, but OOC always welcomed!]
 

Raven had made arrangements with Dinah to meet her after class in her room. Afraid of losing her nerve, she didn't want to waste any time talking more about where they were going. It was a simple enough plan anyway: sneak back into Azarath, find the information they were looking for, and leave as quickly and quietly as they came.

As soon as they were ready, she teleported them outside the Temple Azarath in the interdimensional realm that existed between the planes of known reality. She felt a pang as she looked around. It had been months since she had been here, and she missed the beauty of this place. The skies overhead were a dark blue-green, speckled with stars and planets that hung impossibly above. The streets were paved in solid marble, and the buildings were accented with columns of pure gold. Magical flames provided illumination, but also shadows in which Raven pulled Dinah so that the dark-cloaked figures moving about would not see them. ( ''Welcome to my home,'' she said softly. )

[ooc: Preplayed with blondecanary, NFI but OOC is always welcome!]