Categories > Cartoons > Teen Titans > To the End of the World . . . and After
Raven’s Discussions
1 reviewThe Titans discover that Raven might have to take refuge in a dimension with a very unstable relationship to theirs.
1Moving
To the End of the World . . . and After
A Teen Titans fic, by DrT
Chapter VI – Raven’s Discussions
In the previous chapter, the Titans have discovered that Raven might have to take refuge in another dimension should the Earth be moved by the Green Lantern Corps – a dimension with a very unstable relationship to their current one. . . .
*
“The first intersection would not be close enough for me to return, although it might be possible to exchange some information, maybe even physical letters. I could only possibly return on the second, fourth, and seventh through ninth intersections.”
“And after that?” Starfire asked.
“After that? Raven’s expression fell. “After that, the dimensions would almost certainly be too far apart for me to make the jump,” Raven admitted.
“So. . . .”
“So, if the Lanterns have to push the Earth into a different dimension and if I am unable to be teleported, then I would only be able to return after thirty months, sixty, a hundred and five, a hundred and twenty, or a hundred and thirty-five.”
“Or never,” Beast Boy muttered.
“Or never,” Raven was forced to agree.
Into the long silence that exchange created, Starfire finally said, “I do not understand. There must be the solution – the Warp came from the future, so that future must exist!”
“Apparently not,” Robin said sadly. “Superman used to regularly travel to the late thirtieth century; something about a sort of cosmic Justice League called the Legion of Super Heroes or something like that. He tried to travel to them to find out the solution and found that he couldn’t travel to the future anymore for some reason.”
Raven shrugged. “The future is always in flux. Warp came from a potential future, not a guaranteed one, and Superman use to travel to one possible future as well. If the problem is solved, those futures may be accessible again.”
Starfire’s shoulders dropped in defeat.
“Is that why Cyborg is making you a holo-ring?” Robin asked.
Raven gave her friend a very dirty look. Cyborg just shrugged.
Raven sighed. “I don’t have a great deal of information on the Earth I might be going to. From what little the Green Lanterns can gather, it is much like this one except I would be arriving in 1920. If the societies are parallel to this one, that will not be an easy society to be a single woman in, but it should at least be possible to function in some of the societies.”
“And if it’s not?” Robin asked softly.
“They didn’t detect any meta-human presence. There may be a few, probably more the psychically-sensitive than anything else, but nothing like our planet and time. I will be able to take care of myself; it’s doubtful anyone there could stand up to me. I would prefer to blend in, but if I have to, especially if I am forced to stay, I will be fine.”
“Maybe we should come with you,” Beast Boy suggested. The other three seemed to agree.
“I would like that, but it’s just not possible,” Raven lamented. “Like I said, there are few, if any, true metas, and it will be 1920. In that time, when there has been no alien contact and where there is a great deal of ethnic prejudice, never mind an even greater amount racial prejudice, how would an orange alien or a green shape-shifter fit in? Never mind a brilliant cybernetic Black man.”
“She’s right,” Cyborg reluctantly pointed out. “But can’t the Lanterns go and get you?” Cyborg asked.
Raven shook her head. “There will be a lot of dimensional disruptions building when I leave. That universe is generally almost impossible to enter from ours, but under the circumstances it will work. One reason the actual date for the end was selected is because it gives me a universe to go to where I can survive in, hopefully without any real problems, and very possibly escape from, sooner or later. The ones I could go to on other dates after the middle of February are all worse. And no,” she added, “I can’t contact any other civilization there. That universe, or at least our galaxy there, apparently only has about a twentieth of the inhabited planets as ours, none of which are nearby and none seem to have visited that Earth for that matter. That Earth doesn’t even have any Amazons or Atlanteans.”
“Weird,” Starfire stated.
“Couldn’t we come if we had holo-rings, like you?” Beast Boy argued.
Raven sighed, and to the amazement of her friends, she slowly changed her colorings. Her hair went jet black, her eyes became a very deep blue, and her skin, while pale, was no longer deathly grey. “I can hold this without thinking, provided I do not use my powers too strongly to do something else,” she said. “There’s only one reason Cyborg is making me a ring, and it’s not exactly a holo-ring, or at least not one for a full hologram.”
“Back up?” Beast Boy asked.
“Her chakra stone is still visible,” Robin pointed out. “Not a common fashion statement, even in India.”
Raven’s skin darkened. “I can pass for European or northern Indian, depending on the skin tone, but I do need the chakra stone to help me regulate my powers. I could do without it for short periods, maybe even up to a week, but I would then have to wear it for at least four times the amount of time I do not.” The stone vanished. “With this holo-ring, I don’t have to worry. And, as it only makes the stone invisible, it can go weeks without a recharge. When it does have to be recharged, Cyborg had to create a way to work with a wide variety of plugs and charges. Even the best holo-ring would be iffy at best for what might be decades if it had to do the complete job, like it would with three of you.”
“Then I should go,” Robin stated. “I can pass. . . .”
“You could, but you are NOT going to,” Raven stated firmly. “You are staying with Starfire. And, even if I wanted you to go, that would make this an automatic one-way trip. There is no way the teleporters could take two of us at the distance they’ll be at, and since the return dimensional trip would take at least eight times more energy than the trip out, I know I could not return two people.”
Beast Boy turned himself into a Chihuahua and yipped a little noise. “No,” Raven said firmly, “not even with an on-going dye job.” He tried a green lizard. “Better, but no.” Raven’s eyes teared up slightly. “But I thank you. I . . . I truly thank you all.” She turned around for a moment to recover. The others were not feeling any better than she was.
Taking a deep breath, Raven turned back to her friends and said, “That does sort of bring me to my other gift for tonight.” With a wave of her hand, a drawer of her desk opened, and then five small boxes floated over.
“You must have really been practicing,” Robin said. “If I wasn’t looking for it, I don’t know if I would have really noticed the black fields moving them.”
“I have been refining my powers as much as I can,” Raven agreed. “What I do is somewhat similar to how Green Lanterns’ visualize their powers, and they’ve given me some training. Go ahead and open them.”
Each of the others opened their box, and saw they each had a small piece of amber set on a necklace of white gold. Raven’s piece was somewhat larger.
“These are for if I do have to go to that alternate dimension. They do several related things, but are primarily memory stones. Put the chain on, and hold the stone. Cyborg, you’ll have to press it against your skin. Ready?” Getting four nods, Raven’s eyes glowed black for a moment.
Each of the other four felt how Raven felt about them for about five seconds. Robin and Cyborg looked both touched and concerned for their friend. Starfire had a tear running down her cheek. All four remembered how Raven had reminded them several times over the years that she felt emotions strongly but could rarely show them. They now knew firsthand how strongly she felt emotions, especially for each of them.
But why was Beast Boy giggling?
Seeing the looks he was getting, Beast Boy told them, “At first, it was like the warmest, most loving hug I ever got!” Raven blushed. “But then I could feel, and almost hear, Rae saying, ‘you’re hugging me! Quit it!’ You know, like she does when she’s glad we’re hugging her and doesn’t want to admit she likes it.”
Even Raven joined in the others by smiling (well, a little smile anyway). After a moment, Raven said, “Do it again, but hold on a bit longer. The activation phrase is ‘Raven go!’” The others each did so.
“It felt the same, and then stopped, correct?” The others agreed it was. “As long as I’m alive, that’s what will happen. Even my being in another dimension shouldn’t stop this from working. If . . . if I am not, then activating the stone a second time in less than five minutes will activate the first feeling, and then one of loss.”
“We shall think of you often, if you have to go away for a while,” Starfire said, still a bit upset.
Raven carried on. “Next Christmas, starting at about this time on Christmas Eve and lasting for twenty-four hours, your stones will glow, well, glow amber. Hold your stones and say your name and go, as in ‘Beast Boy, Go!’ and you can send me about twenty seconds’ worth of your feelings. I will be able to do the same. Your stone will glow its normal color with a hint of violet when you get my feelings.”
“That will be the most wondrous of the Christmas gifts, but I hope you are in this universe to share them,” Starfire stated.
“I hope so, too,” Raven agreed.
“Raven, what are your chances of being with us in say, eleven years?” Robin asked softly.
“I really don’t know,” she admitted. “If I have to go into that other dimension and nothing happens to me there, I’ve been told there is at least a sixty percent chance I can come back, and it might be as high as ninety-nine percent. It depends on how much disruption moving the Earth causes to the dimensional fluxes around its former location in this universe.” Raven bit her lower lip for a second, and then said in a whisper, “Please . . . don’t let them forget me.”
“Who?” Beast Boy demanded.
“The Green Lanterns,” Cyborg stated, to which Raven merely nodded. “Even if Rae can come back, there has to be someone in this dimension there to pick her up. She can’t transport back here just to find herself in space!”
“Exactly,” Raven again. She looked down. “I can only transport back if there is someone waiting near where I emerge. I’ll have about twelve minutes at best before the force bubble I’ll come back in dissolves and leaves me in open space. That’s why it will take so much more power to come back than to leave.” She looked up at her friends. “Everyone will be busy. What’s the fate of one person? It might be a big deal to have a transport capable of rescuing me here.”
“Even if I have to go back to Tamaran and hijack our fleet, I will do what I can to bring my true sister home,” Starfire vowed.
Robin exchanged looks with Cyborg. “We both have some contacts with Lanterns. We’ll make certain they know up front that if they can’t guarantee to do everything possible to get you back, you are NOT going through with this.”
“But. . . .”
“No!” the other four shouted.
“There will be no one-way missions for my sister,” Starfire stated.
“Not for MY lil’ sis,” Cyborg agreed.
“If they can’t guarantee it, then whatever deal you made is void,” Robin stated.
“You know,” Beast Boy mused. “We’re puttin’ a whole lot of trust in the Lanterns over this.”
Robin nodded. “We do know. Batman, Superman, Steel, and the Question, and others I’m sure, have all gone over the evidence and agree that the threat, and unfortunately their responses, are real. The Clatorian cannot be allowed to get a foothold in our universe.”
“And that means besides stopping them, striking back,” Raven pointed out.
“Raven,” Starfire said gently, “you have not agreed with us. Please, swear to me as my true sister, that if the Green Lanterns cannot guarantee they will be there to rescue you should you be able to return, you will not go through with this.”
Raven looked torn, but in the end, she swore the oath. Starfire immediately grabbed her in a hug. She then dragged Robin into it, while, to everyone’s surprise, Raven grabbed Beast Boy to add to it. Cyborg completed the group hug.
None of the Titans were happy with the state of affairs. The others were concerned for Raven, but at least now they had a better idea of what she was up to, and up against for that matter.
“Shall we go watch the Christmas specials together? Or shall we stay here?” Starfire asked. It was clear that Raven would be with them either way.
“I need to get out of the room for a while,” Raven said. She paused and looked at her friends. “Would you boys do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Absolutely.”
“Whatever you need.”
“Robin, Cyborg, could you two explain what I’ll have to do to Jinx and the Kid? I really would prefer not to go over it with them.”
“Sure,” Robin said. “Let’s go.” Cyborg merely nodded.
Raven hesitated, but then asked, “Beast Boy . . . would you please turn into Toto for me?”
“Toto?” Beast Boy asked. “Like in ‘The Wizard of Oz’?”
“Yes; I’m not sure what kind of terrier he was. . . .”
“He was played by a female Cairn terrier,” Beast Boy told her, bemused. He shrank into the form. To Starfire’s amusement and terrier-Beast Boy’s surprise, Raven picked him up and cuddled him. To Starfire’s pleasure, Raven then leaned against her and accepted Starfire’s light hug. Raven had almost always rejected (or acted as if she objected to) physical solace offered by her friends. Starfire was glad her friend was wise enough to seek out such comfort in these trying times.
*
Thirty-nine Days before the End of the World
The new Key to Azarath had been selected, and Raven had endowed her with the powers and authority over that dimension. It had been exhausting, and now, two mornings later, she was still in her room, recovering. She was therefore startled when a knock came on her door. Usually she would sense anyone approaching it.
The door opened and revealed Cyborg. “Rae,” he said, somewhat confused, “you have a visitor.”
“Who is it?” she asked.
“Do you remember the Catholic priest at St. Edmund’s?” The group had stopped the Church from being damaged during one of Cinderblock’s rampages a few years before. The priest had insisted on hosting a dinner to honor the Titans at the parish hall a few weeks later.
“Vaguely,” she said. “Father Duddleswell?”
“That’s him. He’s in the little conference room on the third floor.”
“Good morning. What can I do for you, Father?” Raven asked as she entered the room ten minutes later.
The plump priest stood and nodded at Raven. “Good morning, Miss Raven,” he replied. At her gesture, they both sat.
“I have to say, when I first met you, I never could have conceived of having this conversation with you,” he replied. “So, to start off, the Church, as I’m sure you understand, has many ways of acquiring information. When I was told you had links to a demon lord, I was shocked.”
“I can understand that.”
“We were all taken aback when we learned what had happened last March. Like nearly everyone else on the planet, very few of us, not including myself, knew what was happening while it happened. The Church very quickly learned about it, and the details. I was called to Rome to coordinate the reports, and I was pleased to learn of your father’s defeat, and of your role in that defeat.”
Raven merely nodded.
“We were likely as shocked as you to learn of this new dimensional attack on the Earth.” While not really surprised at what the priest had said before, this did surprise Raven. “Those of us who know of this are of course even more shocked, and saddened, that there appears no way out. That this world will likely be. . . .” Duddleswell couldn’t go on.
Raven looked at the priest, who suddenly found himself unable to do more than breathe. “My apologies, but you know more than you should.” Raven concentrated for a moment, and then the man found himself released.
“Sorry, but I had to make certain you were free of Clatorian influence,” she told him. “You were saying that if no other way is found very soon that to save this universe, this world will be sacrificed? That as this world is likely doomed; that it may be all over bar the timing?”
The now-very shaken Duddleswell could only nod.
“Why come to me?”
The old priest was blunt, at least in part because he was still upset about having been psychically searched. “Why are you calling your father? Won’t there be enough suffering at the end without offering up souls to be damned?”
“Why call my father at the very end? Because we are unleashing him as well as the demons of Hades on the Clatorian, to prevent them from attacking this and hopefully other universes and destroying them. Whether or not the Clatorian may be damned in the process is beyond my knowledge.”
“Setting aside the Clatorian, as I cannot speculate on their souls or the state of them, what about the souls of the people of Earth?” Duddleswell demanded.
“Trigon will not have claim to them,” Raven argued back. “He will be trapped when he is called back, and if he doesn’t agree to the terms offered, he will be next to helpless for his time here, and will have a very limited time to interact at all after the Earth is transferred. No matter if he does or does not agree to terms, the souls of the people of Earth will be under no more threat of him than they ever have been.”
“Our understanding is that lives will have to be offered to him,” Duddleswell stated.
“Not quite in the way you are thinking,” Raven retorted. “Blood must be offered to him. In the particular ceremony I would be using, blood from six people will be used to summon him, and five lives will be offered. Five lives that would be lost in any event. As for their souls, it will up to them if they prefer immediate death or to serve Trigon. Personally, I would prefer death.”
“And will you be taking those lives?”
“If you mean directly, no, I will not. If Trigon agrees to the bargain, he must ask them for their souls in service. That gives them the choice of death or damnation, but they are going to die no matter what we do if they do not choose damnation.”
“Did you choose the victims?”
“No,” Raven retorted truthfully, as the sacrifices had not yet been decided upon, “nor did I suggest that Trigon be summoned. The request was made of me, and after some very difficult soul-searching, I decided to do so was the lesser of evils. Now,” she demanded, “since I now know you have the same type of empathic skills I do, albeit on a lesser level, what do you intend to do, since you should know I am telling you the truth.”
His empathic skills were more limited than Raven’s, but Duddleswell had many more decades experience. Therefore he did indeed know that Raven was telling him the truth . . . or at least the truth as she knew it. “That is not up to me,” he replied. “I will be reporting to the Holy Father directly. I take it you have someone you will be reporting this to as well?”
“I do,” Raven agreed. She would contact the Green Lantern Corps as soon as her guest left.
Although neither felt hostile, Raven escorted the old priest out in silence. Duddleswell hesitated at the door, however, and turned to her. “I hope you will not be offended when I tell you I will be praying for Divine Guidance for you?”
“I can assure you, Father, that I would appreciate it.” She hesitated, and handed him some money she had just summoned. “I may not be Christian, let alone Catholic, but I wonder if you will do something for me?”
“And that is?”
“I’m sure, in addition to prayers and even masses, you will be lighting candles?”
“Of course. You want me to light candles for you?”
Raven shook her head. “Not for me. One for my friends and one for the world.”
The priest merely nodded and smiled at that and left. He would make certain he lit one for Raven as well.
Raven was unsure about what, if any, negotiations occurred between the Green Lantern Corps and the Holy See, but a week after her meeting with Father Duddleswell, the Pope announced that for 36 hours the Church would observe prayer and penance throughout the Catholic Church, praying for the world and for peace between all people, at both individual and group levels. No explanation was giving for the dates being chosen, which, depending on the time zone, would cover March 8-10. His Holiness essentially responded to the questions by telling those who asked to look at the world around them. The next day, the Archbishop of Canterbury announced his support. Then to the shock of nearly everyone around the world, the Supreme Leader of Iran, backed by the Assembly of Experts, announced similar requests for special prayers and daylight fasting during the time period, with the leading clerics in Saudi Arabia were only a few minutes behind. Within two days, many world religious leaders chimed in with their agreement to honor the period as one of penance and prayers for peace and reconciliation.
A Teen Titans fic, by DrT
Chapter VI – Raven’s Discussions
In the previous chapter, the Titans have discovered that Raven might have to take refuge in another dimension should the Earth be moved by the Green Lantern Corps – a dimension with a very unstable relationship to their current one. . . .
*
“The first intersection would not be close enough for me to return, although it might be possible to exchange some information, maybe even physical letters. I could only possibly return on the second, fourth, and seventh through ninth intersections.”
“And after that?” Starfire asked.
“After that? Raven’s expression fell. “After that, the dimensions would almost certainly be too far apart for me to make the jump,” Raven admitted.
“So. . . .”
“So, if the Lanterns have to push the Earth into a different dimension and if I am unable to be teleported, then I would only be able to return after thirty months, sixty, a hundred and five, a hundred and twenty, or a hundred and thirty-five.”
“Or never,” Beast Boy muttered.
“Or never,” Raven was forced to agree.
Into the long silence that exchange created, Starfire finally said, “I do not understand. There must be the solution – the Warp came from the future, so that future must exist!”
“Apparently not,” Robin said sadly. “Superman used to regularly travel to the late thirtieth century; something about a sort of cosmic Justice League called the Legion of Super Heroes or something like that. He tried to travel to them to find out the solution and found that he couldn’t travel to the future anymore for some reason.”
Raven shrugged. “The future is always in flux. Warp came from a potential future, not a guaranteed one, and Superman use to travel to one possible future as well. If the problem is solved, those futures may be accessible again.”
Starfire’s shoulders dropped in defeat.
“Is that why Cyborg is making you a holo-ring?” Robin asked.
Raven gave her friend a very dirty look. Cyborg just shrugged.
Raven sighed. “I don’t have a great deal of information on the Earth I might be going to. From what little the Green Lanterns can gather, it is much like this one except I would be arriving in 1920. If the societies are parallel to this one, that will not be an easy society to be a single woman in, but it should at least be possible to function in some of the societies.”
“And if it’s not?” Robin asked softly.
“They didn’t detect any meta-human presence. There may be a few, probably more the psychically-sensitive than anything else, but nothing like our planet and time. I will be able to take care of myself; it’s doubtful anyone there could stand up to me. I would prefer to blend in, but if I have to, especially if I am forced to stay, I will be fine.”
“Maybe we should come with you,” Beast Boy suggested. The other three seemed to agree.
“I would like that, but it’s just not possible,” Raven lamented. “Like I said, there are few, if any, true metas, and it will be 1920. In that time, when there has been no alien contact and where there is a great deal of ethnic prejudice, never mind an even greater amount racial prejudice, how would an orange alien or a green shape-shifter fit in? Never mind a brilliant cybernetic Black man.”
“She’s right,” Cyborg reluctantly pointed out. “But can’t the Lanterns go and get you?” Cyborg asked.
Raven shook her head. “There will be a lot of dimensional disruptions building when I leave. That universe is generally almost impossible to enter from ours, but under the circumstances it will work. One reason the actual date for the end was selected is because it gives me a universe to go to where I can survive in, hopefully without any real problems, and very possibly escape from, sooner or later. The ones I could go to on other dates after the middle of February are all worse. And no,” she added, “I can’t contact any other civilization there. That universe, or at least our galaxy there, apparently only has about a twentieth of the inhabited planets as ours, none of which are nearby and none seem to have visited that Earth for that matter. That Earth doesn’t even have any Amazons or Atlanteans.”
“Weird,” Starfire stated.
“Couldn’t we come if we had holo-rings, like you?” Beast Boy argued.
Raven sighed, and to the amazement of her friends, she slowly changed her colorings. Her hair went jet black, her eyes became a very deep blue, and her skin, while pale, was no longer deathly grey. “I can hold this without thinking, provided I do not use my powers too strongly to do something else,” she said. “There’s only one reason Cyborg is making me a ring, and it’s not exactly a holo-ring, or at least not one for a full hologram.”
“Back up?” Beast Boy asked.
“Her chakra stone is still visible,” Robin pointed out. “Not a common fashion statement, even in India.”
Raven’s skin darkened. “I can pass for European or northern Indian, depending on the skin tone, but I do need the chakra stone to help me regulate my powers. I could do without it for short periods, maybe even up to a week, but I would then have to wear it for at least four times the amount of time I do not.” The stone vanished. “With this holo-ring, I don’t have to worry. And, as it only makes the stone invisible, it can go weeks without a recharge. When it does have to be recharged, Cyborg had to create a way to work with a wide variety of plugs and charges. Even the best holo-ring would be iffy at best for what might be decades if it had to do the complete job, like it would with three of you.”
“Then I should go,” Robin stated. “I can pass. . . .”
“You could, but you are NOT going to,” Raven stated firmly. “You are staying with Starfire. And, even if I wanted you to go, that would make this an automatic one-way trip. There is no way the teleporters could take two of us at the distance they’ll be at, and since the return dimensional trip would take at least eight times more energy than the trip out, I know I could not return two people.”
Beast Boy turned himself into a Chihuahua and yipped a little noise. “No,” Raven said firmly, “not even with an on-going dye job.” He tried a green lizard. “Better, but no.” Raven’s eyes teared up slightly. “But I thank you. I . . . I truly thank you all.” She turned around for a moment to recover. The others were not feeling any better than she was.
Taking a deep breath, Raven turned back to her friends and said, “That does sort of bring me to my other gift for tonight.” With a wave of her hand, a drawer of her desk opened, and then five small boxes floated over.
“You must have really been practicing,” Robin said. “If I wasn’t looking for it, I don’t know if I would have really noticed the black fields moving them.”
“I have been refining my powers as much as I can,” Raven agreed. “What I do is somewhat similar to how Green Lanterns’ visualize their powers, and they’ve given me some training. Go ahead and open them.”
Each of the others opened their box, and saw they each had a small piece of amber set on a necklace of white gold. Raven’s piece was somewhat larger.
“These are for if I do have to go to that alternate dimension. They do several related things, but are primarily memory stones. Put the chain on, and hold the stone. Cyborg, you’ll have to press it against your skin. Ready?” Getting four nods, Raven’s eyes glowed black for a moment.
Each of the other four felt how Raven felt about them for about five seconds. Robin and Cyborg looked both touched and concerned for their friend. Starfire had a tear running down her cheek. All four remembered how Raven had reminded them several times over the years that she felt emotions strongly but could rarely show them. They now knew firsthand how strongly she felt emotions, especially for each of them.
But why was Beast Boy giggling?
Seeing the looks he was getting, Beast Boy told them, “At first, it was like the warmest, most loving hug I ever got!” Raven blushed. “But then I could feel, and almost hear, Rae saying, ‘you’re hugging me! Quit it!’ You know, like she does when she’s glad we’re hugging her and doesn’t want to admit she likes it.”
Even Raven joined in the others by smiling (well, a little smile anyway). After a moment, Raven said, “Do it again, but hold on a bit longer. The activation phrase is ‘Raven go!’” The others each did so.
“It felt the same, and then stopped, correct?” The others agreed it was. “As long as I’m alive, that’s what will happen. Even my being in another dimension shouldn’t stop this from working. If . . . if I am not, then activating the stone a second time in less than five minutes will activate the first feeling, and then one of loss.”
“We shall think of you often, if you have to go away for a while,” Starfire said, still a bit upset.
Raven carried on. “Next Christmas, starting at about this time on Christmas Eve and lasting for twenty-four hours, your stones will glow, well, glow amber. Hold your stones and say your name and go, as in ‘Beast Boy, Go!’ and you can send me about twenty seconds’ worth of your feelings. I will be able to do the same. Your stone will glow its normal color with a hint of violet when you get my feelings.”
“That will be the most wondrous of the Christmas gifts, but I hope you are in this universe to share them,” Starfire stated.
“I hope so, too,” Raven agreed.
“Raven, what are your chances of being with us in say, eleven years?” Robin asked softly.
“I really don’t know,” she admitted. “If I have to go into that other dimension and nothing happens to me there, I’ve been told there is at least a sixty percent chance I can come back, and it might be as high as ninety-nine percent. It depends on how much disruption moving the Earth causes to the dimensional fluxes around its former location in this universe.” Raven bit her lower lip for a second, and then said in a whisper, “Please . . . don’t let them forget me.”
“Who?” Beast Boy demanded.
“The Green Lanterns,” Cyborg stated, to which Raven merely nodded. “Even if Rae can come back, there has to be someone in this dimension there to pick her up. She can’t transport back here just to find herself in space!”
“Exactly,” Raven again. She looked down. “I can only transport back if there is someone waiting near where I emerge. I’ll have about twelve minutes at best before the force bubble I’ll come back in dissolves and leaves me in open space. That’s why it will take so much more power to come back than to leave.” She looked up at her friends. “Everyone will be busy. What’s the fate of one person? It might be a big deal to have a transport capable of rescuing me here.”
“Even if I have to go back to Tamaran and hijack our fleet, I will do what I can to bring my true sister home,” Starfire vowed.
Robin exchanged looks with Cyborg. “We both have some contacts with Lanterns. We’ll make certain they know up front that if they can’t guarantee to do everything possible to get you back, you are NOT going through with this.”
“But. . . .”
“No!” the other four shouted.
“There will be no one-way missions for my sister,” Starfire stated.
“Not for MY lil’ sis,” Cyborg agreed.
“If they can’t guarantee it, then whatever deal you made is void,” Robin stated.
“You know,” Beast Boy mused. “We’re puttin’ a whole lot of trust in the Lanterns over this.”
Robin nodded. “We do know. Batman, Superman, Steel, and the Question, and others I’m sure, have all gone over the evidence and agree that the threat, and unfortunately their responses, are real. The Clatorian cannot be allowed to get a foothold in our universe.”
“And that means besides stopping them, striking back,” Raven pointed out.
“Raven,” Starfire said gently, “you have not agreed with us. Please, swear to me as my true sister, that if the Green Lanterns cannot guarantee they will be there to rescue you should you be able to return, you will not go through with this.”
Raven looked torn, but in the end, she swore the oath. Starfire immediately grabbed her in a hug. She then dragged Robin into it, while, to everyone’s surprise, Raven grabbed Beast Boy to add to it. Cyborg completed the group hug.
None of the Titans were happy with the state of affairs. The others were concerned for Raven, but at least now they had a better idea of what she was up to, and up against for that matter.
“Shall we go watch the Christmas specials together? Or shall we stay here?” Starfire asked. It was clear that Raven would be with them either way.
“I need to get out of the room for a while,” Raven said. She paused and looked at her friends. “Would you boys do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Absolutely.”
“Whatever you need.”
“Robin, Cyborg, could you two explain what I’ll have to do to Jinx and the Kid? I really would prefer not to go over it with them.”
“Sure,” Robin said. “Let’s go.” Cyborg merely nodded.
Raven hesitated, but then asked, “Beast Boy . . . would you please turn into Toto for me?”
“Toto?” Beast Boy asked. “Like in ‘The Wizard of Oz’?”
“Yes; I’m not sure what kind of terrier he was. . . .”
“He was played by a female Cairn terrier,” Beast Boy told her, bemused. He shrank into the form. To Starfire’s amusement and terrier-Beast Boy’s surprise, Raven picked him up and cuddled him. To Starfire’s pleasure, Raven then leaned against her and accepted Starfire’s light hug. Raven had almost always rejected (or acted as if she objected to) physical solace offered by her friends. Starfire was glad her friend was wise enough to seek out such comfort in these trying times.
*
Thirty-nine Days before the End of the World
The new Key to Azarath had been selected, and Raven had endowed her with the powers and authority over that dimension. It had been exhausting, and now, two mornings later, she was still in her room, recovering. She was therefore startled when a knock came on her door. Usually she would sense anyone approaching it.
The door opened and revealed Cyborg. “Rae,” he said, somewhat confused, “you have a visitor.”
“Who is it?” she asked.
“Do you remember the Catholic priest at St. Edmund’s?” The group had stopped the Church from being damaged during one of Cinderblock’s rampages a few years before. The priest had insisted on hosting a dinner to honor the Titans at the parish hall a few weeks later.
“Vaguely,” she said. “Father Duddleswell?”
“That’s him. He’s in the little conference room on the third floor.”
“Good morning. What can I do for you, Father?” Raven asked as she entered the room ten minutes later.
The plump priest stood and nodded at Raven. “Good morning, Miss Raven,” he replied. At her gesture, they both sat.
“I have to say, when I first met you, I never could have conceived of having this conversation with you,” he replied. “So, to start off, the Church, as I’m sure you understand, has many ways of acquiring information. When I was told you had links to a demon lord, I was shocked.”
“I can understand that.”
“We were all taken aback when we learned what had happened last March. Like nearly everyone else on the planet, very few of us, not including myself, knew what was happening while it happened. The Church very quickly learned about it, and the details. I was called to Rome to coordinate the reports, and I was pleased to learn of your father’s defeat, and of your role in that defeat.”
Raven merely nodded.
“We were likely as shocked as you to learn of this new dimensional attack on the Earth.” While not really surprised at what the priest had said before, this did surprise Raven. “Those of us who know of this are of course even more shocked, and saddened, that there appears no way out. That this world will likely be. . . .” Duddleswell couldn’t go on.
Raven looked at the priest, who suddenly found himself unable to do more than breathe. “My apologies, but you know more than you should.” Raven concentrated for a moment, and then the man found himself released.
“Sorry, but I had to make certain you were free of Clatorian influence,” she told him. “You were saying that if no other way is found very soon that to save this universe, this world will be sacrificed? That as this world is likely doomed; that it may be all over bar the timing?”
The now-very shaken Duddleswell could only nod.
“Why come to me?”
The old priest was blunt, at least in part because he was still upset about having been psychically searched. “Why are you calling your father? Won’t there be enough suffering at the end without offering up souls to be damned?”
“Why call my father at the very end? Because we are unleashing him as well as the demons of Hades on the Clatorian, to prevent them from attacking this and hopefully other universes and destroying them. Whether or not the Clatorian may be damned in the process is beyond my knowledge.”
“Setting aside the Clatorian, as I cannot speculate on their souls or the state of them, what about the souls of the people of Earth?” Duddleswell demanded.
“Trigon will not have claim to them,” Raven argued back. “He will be trapped when he is called back, and if he doesn’t agree to the terms offered, he will be next to helpless for his time here, and will have a very limited time to interact at all after the Earth is transferred. No matter if he does or does not agree to terms, the souls of the people of Earth will be under no more threat of him than they ever have been.”
“Our understanding is that lives will have to be offered to him,” Duddleswell stated.
“Not quite in the way you are thinking,” Raven retorted. “Blood must be offered to him. In the particular ceremony I would be using, blood from six people will be used to summon him, and five lives will be offered. Five lives that would be lost in any event. As for their souls, it will up to them if they prefer immediate death or to serve Trigon. Personally, I would prefer death.”
“And will you be taking those lives?”
“If you mean directly, no, I will not. If Trigon agrees to the bargain, he must ask them for their souls in service. That gives them the choice of death or damnation, but they are going to die no matter what we do if they do not choose damnation.”
“Did you choose the victims?”
“No,” Raven retorted truthfully, as the sacrifices had not yet been decided upon, “nor did I suggest that Trigon be summoned. The request was made of me, and after some very difficult soul-searching, I decided to do so was the lesser of evils. Now,” she demanded, “since I now know you have the same type of empathic skills I do, albeit on a lesser level, what do you intend to do, since you should know I am telling you the truth.”
His empathic skills were more limited than Raven’s, but Duddleswell had many more decades experience. Therefore he did indeed know that Raven was telling him the truth . . . or at least the truth as she knew it. “That is not up to me,” he replied. “I will be reporting to the Holy Father directly. I take it you have someone you will be reporting this to as well?”
“I do,” Raven agreed. She would contact the Green Lantern Corps as soon as her guest left.
Although neither felt hostile, Raven escorted the old priest out in silence. Duddleswell hesitated at the door, however, and turned to her. “I hope you will not be offended when I tell you I will be praying for Divine Guidance for you?”
“I can assure you, Father, that I would appreciate it.” She hesitated, and handed him some money she had just summoned. “I may not be Christian, let alone Catholic, but I wonder if you will do something for me?”
“And that is?”
“I’m sure, in addition to prayers and even masses, you will be lighting candles?”
“Of course. You want me to light candles for you?”
Raven shook her head. “Not for me. One for my friends and one for the world.”
The priest merely nodded and smiled at that and left. He would make certain he lit one for Raven as well.
Raven was unsure about what, if any, negotiations occurred between the Green Lantern Corps and the Holy See, but a week after her meeting with Father Duddleswell, the Pope announced that for 36 hours the Church would observe prayer and penance throughout the Catholic Church, praying for the world and for peace between all people, at both individual and group levels. No explanation was giving for the dates being chosen, which, depending on the time zone, would cover March 8-10. His Holiness essentially responded to the questions by telling those who asked to look at the world around them. The next day, the Archbishop of Canterbury announced his support. Then to the shock of nearly everyone around the world, the Supreme Leader of Iran, backed by the Assembly of Experts, announced similar requests for special prayers and daylight fasting during the time period, with the leading clerics in Saudi Arabia were only a few minutes behind. Within two days, many world religious leaders chimed in with their agreement to honor the period as one of penance and prayers for peace and reconciliation.
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