Categories > Cartoons > Teen Titans > Die To Save You
Through The Never
0 reviewsIn a fight gone wrong, Raven is forced into a different dimension. Now with nothing to help her but blind trust, her own powers, and four superheros working hard to bring her back - she must decide...
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A/N quite frankly, i abhor this site's uploader. It's been uploading sections of the chapters and cutting off out the majority of it. If anybody knows why, please tell me. Again, this entire story, up until chapter 21 (as of 10/23/14), is on fanfiction and Archive of your own -two sites who's uploaders actually seem to work. Forgive me for ranting a bit, but i don't think you'll be able to differentiate between normal text and italics with how it is right now. And that seriously bothers me. I hope it isn't too mich of a hindrance, although i feel like it is.
By the next day, the storm had hit the island hard and held no reserves. Suki’s cabin, one of the few ones that had a solid door on it and not a heavy cloth instead, had held up exceptionally well against the onslaught of snow, hail, and wind the previous night. And the storm showed no sign of letting up; and, with the temperature so low outside that one’s spit would freeze before it hit the ground. The Warriors inside were becoming extremely bored, having exhausted the playing cards and gotten tired of telling stories to each other. Raven had debated calling the other titans to talk to while Holly either slept or wrestled with Rena, but decided against using up what was left of the battery – knowing that the freezing temperatures would diminish it quickly. Raven snuggled in close to Holly, who intern was leaning against Ko’s back – who was in a deep sleep. Or as Suki joked, she often hibernated, and nothing short of a small war could wake her up. The four of them - which included Yumiko, who had her legs propped up on Ko and had stretched herself out on the floor - were all covered by two of the wool blankets.
“So bored…” Raven whined a bit as she looked up at Holly, whose arm she was resting on.
“Then go back to sleep.” She murmured in response.
“I don’t usually sleep for more than four hours. Just slept for six and it already feels weird.”
“Seems like a personal problem.” Holly smiled lazily as Raven repositioned herself higher on her chest. They both fell silent for a few minutes before Raven perked up again, but only fell back down a moment later.
“What is it?” Holly inquired.
“Just an idea, but I don’t think it will work.”
“Could still try.”
“I dunno, I’ve never tried it without a device that I have back home. Theoretically though, I should be able to…”
“Just get on with it.”
Raven repositioned herself again, this time in front of Holly, facing her as she looped her hands around her partner’s neck and stared directly into her eyes. Raven’s eyes grew a shade of red, not quite the crimson that was indicative of Rage’s presence, but still a color just as unsettling. Within a moment, she slumped forward unconscious onto Holly, nearly knocking them both over. Holly too was unresponsive and never felt Raven fall onto her.
*
Holly woke up laying on a cold, barred rock. She propped herself up on her elbows and glanced around, seeing the vast nothing that awaited her. She let herself get lost in the blackness beyond the rock for a moment, before finally walking over to the edge to look over. And then stick her out over. She clenched her hand into a fist but could barely see it, she pulled her hand back from over the edge and it became visible once again. Raven stood in the middle of the rock now, and watched as Holly walked back to her.
“What the hell? And how’d you get here?” She inquired, more curious and shocked than angry.
“Welcome to Nevermore, or at least that’s what Cyborg calls it, I never did choose a name for it.”
“Didn’t answer my question.”
“This is Nevermore, my mind –sort of. Either way, look around a bit, time will pass more quickly here too.”
“I’m in your mind.”
“Mhmm.” Raven turned and started walking towards the edge of the floating rock. “I want you to meet Love first. Well, maybe I don’t, but she won’t let me live it down if she isn’t first.” Raven reached the edge of the rock and kept walking. Holly was about to shout for her to stop but stopped herself short, seeing smaller rocks float up to meet the edge of the platform and form an indefinite pathway.
“What do you mean by “Love” wants to meet me first?”
“Love, she’s a person –sort of. When I was young I learned to deal with and isolate my emotions. To do that, I separated each emotion into a different person. One for Love, one for Rage, there’s Happy too…” Raven drifted off as she stared into the blackness. They reached an arch and Raven stopped, Holly coming up next to her. “What’s this?”
“Each of my emotions has their own domain, or home. The gate is like a doorway into it. Get on.” She said as a rock floated up to the side of the path and Raven stepped onto it.
“You brought me here to meet your emotions, so why are we skipping this one?” Holly inquired, but still trusting Raven’s judgment and getting on the rock.
“If we have it my way, you won’t meet her for a while longer.” She said as Holly looked back at the gate. “Lust” She whispered, reading the barely legible word above the gate.
“Yes, now hurry up.” Raven said over her shoulder, already back on the path and walking ahead. Holly didn’t notice them pass under another gate until the nothingness that surrounded them became a beautiful sunset. Holly looked down to see herself barefoot with damp, soft grass coming up to her ankles. Where they were standing was looking down onto a small lake, with the sun just about to dip below one of the rolling hills on the opposite side of the lake. “Meet Love.” Was all that Raven said to her, as an exact replica of the woman –save for the color of her cloak –came running towards her, leaving the blanket that she was laying on far behind her. Holly was almost knocked down from the hug that she received, as if she didn’t even try to slow down, she pondered. The long string of words that came after Love removed herself from Holly was unintelligible; and, once she was finished she just stood there gasping for breath as she tried to smile at the same time. Love was still panting with her arms grasping Holly’s shoulders when Raven walked away and said: “Let’s go, you can come along Love.”
Love let out a loud, joyous, laugh and proceeded to latch her arms around Holly’s neck as she maneuvered herself behind the woman. Holly followed Raven out of the domain carrying Love piggyback style.
“Who’s next?” Love, who was resting her head on top of Holly’s, asked Raven. “Ooh, can it be Happy? I haven’t seen her since yesterday!” Love’s answer to her own question earned an eye roll from both the other woman. They kept walking for another twenty minutes, with Love occasionally climbing down to walk on her own –but it only lasted a few minutes until she climbed onto Holly’s back once more.
“Hey Rave,” Love slurred, “Why’d you let me out? I thought you didn’t want us leaving our domains unless we needed you real bad.”
“Since defeating him, I’ve been able to let certain emotions run free again –theoretically, that is. I saw no point in taking that risk until just recently.” Raven responded, she never did get comfortable with saying Trigon’s name out loud, even after his defeat. “In theory I should be able to have control over myself, even when Rage is in power. But to test that would be idiotic.”
“But that doesn’t mean you had to keep us all locked up, some of us are harmless, you know.”
“Hmm, that’s a good point. Maybe I’ll let Timid out.” Raven retorted; Love frowned and buried her face into Holly’s shoulder as they bounced along the rocky path.
“She’s right, you know.” Wisdom said from one of the smaller floating rocks below them. Raven, taken by surprise, looked behind them to see the gate far in the distance. I hadn’t even noticed that we passed through the gate.
“Dang Yellow, you didn’t even decorate.” Love commented on Wisdom’s domain. “I mean this could literally look like anything you can think of.”
“I told you not to call me that.” Wisdom stepped off her platform and onto the main path. “Besides, decorating would just be a distraction.”
“How is she right, Wisdom?” Raven asked with a sigh, knowing that Wisdom was probably eager to tell them. She was, despite her name, second only to Rage in her arrogance.
“There’s a tale, from one of the smaller dimensions I believe, of a servant of the devil who is sent to kill a young child. The servant could not bring himself to killing the boy due to the boy’s naivety of the situation, or so it is thought. Several of the variations claim that it was because of the boy’s resemblance to the servant’s son in his past life. Regardless, the servant kidnapped the boy, making it seem as if he had died, and brought him back to Hell to care for him without his master ever knowing. The servant found that when he was caring for the boy, his powers greatly increased, as he now had a reason to exist. His love, you could say, had made Hell tolerable for him and even allowed him to thrive in it, to an extent.” Wisdom finished, hoping that she wouldn’t have to explain it further.
“What happened at the end?” Holly asked, still carrying Love on her back.
“The child grew up, realized his absence had driven his real father into insanity, killed the servant as revenge, and then died attempting to kill the master.”
“Oh.”
“The point being, is that Love has already shown that she has great control over Rage. In fact, I would go as far as saying that love is one of the few –if not the only –thing that can stop Rage. And while it used to be extremely dangerous to let Rage loose, I believe it was because Love was never present before now. That, and without his influence anymore, you should be able to access your powers more freely and with more control over them.”
“Hey Rave,” Holly turned towards her, “that true? That Love was never present before and whatnot?”
“I’m not answering that.”
“Completely true.” Love filled her in. “I mean, I was always around for when I she was a kid, but love for a mother figure is completely different. Is was like being a passenger in a car, where now I’m the driver.”
“Car?”
“A stupidly expensive carriage that goes fast.” Raven said. Holly shrugged and looked around for Wisdom, who seemed to have disappeared.
They continued walking down the path and through the arch that indicated the end of Wisdom’s domain. Raven walked in silence, her head beginning to ache from the strain of keeping Holly in her mindscape without the mirror. In fact, she had never done it without that mirror, or another very similar device. Perhaps Wisdom is right. Rage has most of my powers, regardless of if they’re good or not. And I haven’t been meditating nearly as much, maybe Love’s presence is the solution.
“Of course Wisdom’s right, that arrogant shits never been wrong before, has she?”
Raven looked up, surprised. In front of her stood Rude, donning an orange cloak and crossing her arms, tapping her fingers impatiently.
“Who let you out of your domain?” Raven asked, ignoring Rude’s previous response.
“I did, you fool. Or maybe it was one of Happy’s imaginary friends, hell if I know.”
Holly burst out in laughter, catching them all by surprise. “Spirits Raven, you’re an ass.” She said, giving Raven a wide grin.
“It’s not that funny.” She weakly defended herself.
“Kind of is.” Holly said, still grinning.
“We’re leaving. This is giving me a headache anyway.” Raven said, brushing past Rude to get in front of Holly. She ignored the scoff that Rude made at her and shooed Love off of the other woman. Allowing her eyes to turn a maroon red, her chakra glowed a touch before Holly blacked out. Tho duo returned to the real world, still wrapped in a thick blanket while the others had long fallen asleep.
“Hey,” Love turned to Rude, “you think we could get out like that? Just get her to stare at us a bit and…”
“Go away.” Rude cut her short.
“But I think this could work.”
“Now. Go away, now.”
“Hmph.” Love turned and headed back for her domain, occasionally glancing back to see Rude still standing there, watching her walk away.
A/N I forgot to mention, that just recently it was pointed out that “Yea” and “yeah” are different words, with different pronunciations. Never knew that, feel like an idiot for it too. I’ve yet to correct all of the times that those two were switched.
By the next day, the storm had hit the island hard and held no reserves. Suki’s cabin, one of the few ones that had a solid door on it and not a heavy cloth instead, had held up exceptionally well against the onslaught of snow, hail, and wind the previous night. And the storm showed no sign of letting up; and, with the temperature so low outside that one’s spit would freeze before it hit the ground. The Warriors inside were becoming extremely bored, having exhausted the playing cards and gotten tired of telling stories to each other. Raven had debated calling the other titans to talk to while Holly either slept or wrestled with Rena, but decided against using up what was left of the battery – knowing that the freezing temperatures would diminish it quickly. Raven snuggled in close to Holly, who intern was leaning against Ko’s back – who was in a deep sleep. Or as Suki joked, she often hibernated, and nothing short of a small war could wake her up. The four of them - which included Yumiko, who had her legs propped up on Ko and had stretched herself out on the floor - were all covered by two of the wool blankets.
“So bored…” Raven whined a bit as she looked up at Holly, whose arm she was resting on.
“Then go back to sleep.” She murmured in response.
“I don’t usually sleep for more than four hours. Just slept for six and it already feels weird.”
“Seems like a personal problem.” Holly smiled lazily as Raven repositioned herself higher on her chest. They both fell silent for a few minutes before Raven perked up again, but only fell back down a moment later.
“What is it?” Holly inquired.
“Just an idea, but I don’t think it will work.”
“Could still try.”
“I dunno, I’ve never tried it without a device that I have back home. Theoretically though, I should be able to…”
“Just get on with it.”
Raven repositioned herself again, this time in front of Holly, facing her as she looped her hands around her partner’s neck and stared directly into her eyes. Raven’s eyes grew a shade of red, not quite the crimson that was indicative of Rage’s presence, but still a color just as unsettling. Within a moment, she slumped forward unconscious onto Holly, nearly knocking them both over. Holly too was unresponsive and never felt Raven fall onto her.
*
Holly woke up laying on a cold, barred rock. She propped herself up on her elbows and glanced around, seeing the vast nothing that awaited her. She let herself get lost in the blackness beyond the rock for a moment, before finally walking over to the edge to look over. And then stick her out over. She clenched her hand into a fist but could barely see it, she pulled her hand back from over the edge and it became visible once again. Raven stood in the middle of the rock now, and watched as Holly walked back to her.
“What the hell? And how’d you get here?” She inquired, more curious and shocked than angry.
“Welcome to Nevermore, or at least that’s what Cyborg calls it, I never did choose a name for it.”
“Didn’t answer my question.”
“This is Nevermore, my mind –sort of. Either way, look around a bit, time will pass more quickly here too.”
“I’m in your mind.”
“Mhmm.” Raven turned and started walking towards the edge of the floating rock. “I want you to meet Love first. Well, maybe I don’t, but she won’t let me live it down if she isn’t first.” Raven reached the edge of the rock and kept walking. Holly was about to shout for her to stop but stopped herself short, seeing smaller rocks float up to meet the edge of the platform and form an indefinite pathway.
“What do you mean by “Love” wants to meet me first?”
“Love, she’s a person –sort of. When I was young I learned to deal with and isolate my emotions. To do that, I separated each emotion into a different person. One for Love, one for Rage, there’s Happy too…” Raven drifted off as she stared into the blackness. They reached an arch and Raven stopped, Holly coming up next to her. “What’s this?”
“Each of my emotions has their own domain, or home. The gate is like a doorway into it. Get on.” She said as a rock floated up to the side of the path and Raven stepped onto it.
“You brought me here to meet your emotions, so why are we skipping this one?” Holly inquired, but still trusting Raven’s judgment and getting on the rock.
“If we have it my way, you won’t meet her for a while longer.” She said as Holly looked back at the gate. “Lust” She whispered, reading the barely legible word above the gate.
“Yes, now hurry up.” Raven said over her shoulder, already back on the path and walking ahead. Holly didn’t notice them pass under another gate until the nothingness that surrounded them became a beautiful sunset. Holly looked down to see herself barefoot with damp, soft grass coming up to her ankles. Where they were standing was looking down onto a small lake, with the sun just about to dip below one of the rolling hills on the opposite side of the lake. “Meet Love.” Was all that Raven said to her, as an exact replica of the woman –save for the color of her cloak –came running towards her, leaving the blanket that she was laying on far behind her. Holly was almost knocked down from the hug that she received, as if she didn’t even try to slow down, she pondered. The long string of words that came after Love removed herself from Holly was unintelligible; and, once she was finished she just stood there gasping for breath as she tried to smile at the same time. Love was still panting with her arms grasping Holly’s shoulders when Raven walked away and said: “Let’s go, you can come along Love.”
Love let out a loud, joyous, laugh and proceeded to latch her arms around Holly’s neck as she maneuvered herself behind the woman. Holly followed Raven out of the domain carrying Love piggyback style.
“Who’s next?” Love, who was resting her head on top of Holly’s, asked Raven. “Ooh, can it be Happy? I haven’t seen her since yesterday!” Love’s answer to her own question earned an eye roll from both the other woman. They kept walking for another twenty minutes, with Love occasionally climbing down to walk on her own –but it only lasted a few minutes until she climbed onto Holly’s back once more.
“Hey Rave,” Love slurred, “Why’d you let me out? I thought you didn’t want us leaving our domains unless we needed you real bad.”
“Since defeating him, I’ve been able to let certain emotions run free again –theoretically, that is. I saw no point in taking that risk until just recently.” Raven responded, she never did get comfortable with saying Trigon’s name out loud, even after his defeat. “In theory I should be able to have control over myself, even when Rage is in power. But to test that would be idiotic.”
“But that doesn’t mean you had to keep us all locked up, some of us are harmless, you know.”
“Hmm, that’s a good point. Maybe I’ll let Timid out.” Raven retorted; Love frowned and buried her face into Holly’s shoulder as they bounced along the rocky path.
“She’s right, you know.” Wisdom said from one of the smaller floating rocks below them. Raven, taken by surprise, looked behind them to see the gate far in the distance. I hadn’t even noticed that we passed through the gate.
“Dang Yellow, you didn’t even decorate.” Love commented on Wisdom’s domain. “I mean this could literally look like anything you can think of.”
“I told you not to call me that.” Wisdom stepped off her platform and onto the main path. “Besides, decorating would just be a distraction.”
“How is she right, Wisdom?” Raven asked with a sigh, knowing that Wisdom was probably eager to tell them. She was, despite her name, second only to Rage in her arrogance.
“There’s a tale, from one of the smaller dimensions I believe, of a servant of the devil who is sent to kill a young child. The servant could not bring himself to killing the boy due to the boy’s naivety of the situation, or so it is thought. Several of the variations claim that it was because of the boy’s resemblance to the servant’s son in his past life. Regardless, the servant kidnapped the boy, making it seem as if he had died, and brought him back to Hell to care for him without his master ever knowing. The servant found that when he was caring for the boy, his powers greatly increased, as he now had a reason to exist. His love, you could say, had made Hell tolerable for him and even allowed him to thrive in it, to an extent.” Wisdom finished, hoping that she wouldn’t have to explain it further.
“What happened at the end?” Holly asked, still carrying Love on her back.
“The child grew up, realized his absence had driven his real father into insanity, killed the servant as revenge, and then died attempting to kill the master.”
“Oh.”
“The point being, is that Love has already shown that she has great control over Rage. In fact, I would go as far as saying that love is one of the few –if not the only –thing that can stop Rage. And while it used to be extremely dangerous to let Rage loose, I believe it was because Love was never present before now. That, and without his influence anymore, you should be able to access your powers more freely and with more control over them.”
“Hey Rave,” Holly turned towards her, “that true? That Love was never present before and whatnot?”
“I’m not answering that.”
“Completely true.” Love filled her in. “I mean, I was always around for when I she was a kid, but love for a mother figure is completely different. Is was like being a passenger in a car, where now I’m the driver.”
“Car?”
“A stupidly expensive carriage that goes fast.” Raven said. Holly shrugged and looked around for Wisdom, who seemed to have disappeared.
They continued walking down the path and through the arch that indicated the end of Wisdom’s domain. Raven walked in silence, her head beginning to ache from the strain of keeping Holly in her mindscape without the mirror. In fact, she had never done it without that mirror, or another very similar device. Perhaps Wisdom is right. Rage has most of my powers, regardless of if they’re good or not. And I haven’t been meditating nearly as much, maybe Love’s presence is the solution.
“Of course Wisdom’s right, that arrogant shits never been wrong before, has she?”
Raven looked up, surprised. In front of her stood Rude, donning an orange cloak and crossing her arms, tapping her fingers impatiently.
“Who let you out of your domain?” Raven asked, ignoring Rude’s previous response.
“I did, you fool. Or maybe it was one of Happy’s imaginary friends, hell if I know.”
Holly burst out in laughter, catching them all by surprise. “Spirits Raven, you’re an ass.” She said, giving Raven a wide grin.
“It’s not that funny.” She weakly defended herself.
“Kind of is.” Holly said, still grinning.
“We’re leaving. This is giving me a headache anyway.” Raven said, brushing past Rude to get in front of Holly. She ignored the scoff that Rude made at her and shooed Love off of the other woman. Allowing her eyes to turn a maroon red, her chakra glowed a touch before Holly blacked out. Tho duo returned to the real world, still wrapped in a thick blanket while the others had long fallen asleep.
“Hey,” Love turned to Rude, “you think we could get out like that? Just get her to stare at us a bit and…”
“Go away.” Rude cut her short.
“But I think this could work.”
“Now. Go away, now.”
“Hmph.” Love turned and headed back for her domain, occasionally glancing back to see Rude still standing there, watching her walk away.
A/N I forgot to mention, that just recently it was pointed out that “Yea” and “yeah” are different words, with different pronunciations. Never knew that, feel like an idiot for it too. I’ve yet to correct all of the times that those two were switched.
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