Categories > Cartoons > Teen Titans > To the End of the World . . . and After
To the End of the World . . . and After
A Teen Titans fic, by DrT
*
As stated in the early chapters, this story is based on the 2003-2006 animated series, not the many other versions of the Teen Titans. This story was written just for fun, and all rights to the character belong to DC comics et al.
*
Chapter XV – Raven’s Return, and an Epilogue
Raven clicked on the message icon flashing on the comm unit.
-Welcome back, Raven! Hit respond, and Garfield will be notified you are ready to receive visitors.-
Raven smiled.
She was home. She went to click the icon.
“Before you do that, I wish to speak with you.”
Raven whirled around and saw a very tall, regal looking woman, but the power Raven could sense was nearly off any of the scales she could judge by.
“You seem to be similar to how I felt Athena’s power,” Raven managed to say. “Obviously, you don’t appear to be her. May I know who you are?”
“I am Hera.” Raven bowed slightly. “Our champion wished to be present for your return, and prayed to us for your success. Athena and Hecate had both been impressed by your actions against your father and afterwards, and wished to insure your successful return. For reasons of our own, Aphrodite and I decided to accompany them here.”
“Is that why the portal opened, and was sealed, so easily?”
“In large part, along with a number of your friends, and their friends, who aided with the ceremony in both universes. As Diana reminded her mother, you might have been a member of their so-called Justice League for a short time, but you were still a member, not to mention an associate for quite some time. The number of Green Lanterns present to then rescue you was also very surprising – all were impressed with your actions during Earth’s end time. Even though you found your actions repugnant, you still did your duty, and you were also willing to sacrifice your best escape route in order to save others. Your actions inspired others to want to help you in return. Once you returned, you kept your nerve and held your powered sphere long enough for the first Lantern to reach you. At that point, your rescue was inevitable, but you could still have been gravely injured if you had faltered for even an instant. That you managed to keep it going to nearly the theoretical limit is a testament to your will and power as well as your nerve.”
Raven merely bowed again in recognition of the tribute. Still, she had to ask, “Would I have succeeded if so many had not helped open and then seal the portal?”
“You would be surprised at the number of people involved – I sensed many hundreds, almost certainly more than a thousand, linked together on that other Earth, helping you to open the portal from that side, while we of course helped open it from this side. All were involved in helping you seal it. Still, we were all helping you, you had to do most of the work. By doing so, we helped you approach the maximum possible time you had within your sphere. Without it, you would have had perhaps three minutes or so less time. Had there only been four rescuers, had we not helped them pinpoint your location – your general location could hardly have been missed, considering your entrance – you almost certainly would have survived, but likely only your own powers of healing could have prevented some sort of medium, if not long term or even permanent, damage.”
“The people here, I can and will thank. I wish I could thank the others.”
“I am certain they know you successfully left their world, and that is satisfactory enough for most, I am sure. Speaking of being here, would you care to speculate on why Aphrodite and I are here, child?”
“Because of Garfield?”
Hera nodded very slightly. “Because of the relationship you and the green one have – love spanning such an absence is of course not unheard of, but across dimensions as well? We were watching the end of days quite closely, and Aphrodite was impressed at how quickly you both realized the true depth of feeling you had for each other.” She frowned slightly. “I was less impressed that you indulged physically, but that was in part because of the culture you were living in, and the example your leader and his lover had set for you. Now, you and your intended fear that the other might be having doubts, might have grown apart, might be forcing themselves to still declare love after your absence. I have looked into both of your hearts, as has Aphrodite. Neither of you need fear the commitment, the depth of feeling, that you both have. Should you tap into his feelings as you did that first evening you were with him, you will find them even stronger than they were that night.”
“Thank you for the assurances,” Raven told her, not at all sure she welcomed the interference, but grateful to have her doubts eased. She was not about to try and deeply access Garfield’s feelings for her again; to do so might signal to him that she had doubts, either about his love for her or her love for him.
“With a little prodding by Diana, Richard and his partner have agreed to be formally married before they leave the station. I offer to officiate at yours as well, but that is up to you and your intended. I mentioned the depth of both of your feelings only in order to prevent hesitation due to doubt or wonder.”
Raven bowed again, but asked, “Is that partly why you came?”
“Not entirely, child. Tell me, do you know many of the stories of ancient Greece that were still told in this time?”
“I do, if in translation.”
“Were they usually happy tales?”
Raven shook her head; they were more commonly tragedies, or stories of conflict.
“Even the gods prefer happy endings, child, and happy endings are rare in heroic tales. The end of the Earth is a tragedy almost beyond measure. In many senses, your return is the final ending to the tales of Old Earth. Humanity will be merged into the greater cosmos and form part of those stories. Your return brings a bit of hope and love at the end of the tragedy. That was more than worth the effort expended on your behalf.”
“So, in a sense I had deae ex machine in my corner rather than a deus?
Hera smiled, “Well, in a sense. Do you object?”
“No, I am grateful for all the help given. I just find it . . . it still surprises me that people care for me so much.”
“You have offered much; sometimes, not always, not even usually, but sometimes that is rewarded.” Hera looked at Raven with her powers. “I am also the goddess of birth as well as marriage. It should bring you some comfort to know that you are now incapable of passing on your link to your father; it was unlikely before you left, but his renouncing any claims upon you made it impossible. Should you be blessed with children with the Changeling, some of your gifts, and less likely his, may be passed on, but nothing demonic.”
Raven bowed more deeply this time. “That was a concern; thank you.”
“Contact your intended, young one. You were born connected to a demon, but you are now only touched by the truly divine. May your life be a long and happy one.” Hera faded from the room.
Raven took a moment to center herself, and then clicked the icon to let Garfield know she was awake and ready to see him.
*
Epilogue
Raven woke up on her narrow cot. Glancing around, she saw that she was alone in her small room on Paradise Island. For the first time in several days, no one was sitting vigil with her. She sighed, contentedly – it was nice to be finally alone again, for she was far from truly lonely.
She plunged into meditation, able to reflect on her long life. She had indeed married Garfield a few days after she had returned to this universe, and the next sixty odd years she and Garfield had managed to have, overall, a very good life together. Sure, they argued at times, and had had many minor disagreements, but life with him was never dull and always filled with love.
Richard had even given them an immediate purpose. He and Kori had just become full agents for the ICI right before her return. She, Garfield, and Victor had been grandfathered in as special agents, needing only a three month course in ICI policies and practices. The five, joined by the former Bumblebee, had then formed the nucleus of a mobile ICI team, aboard a ship christened the ICI Titan. For twenty of the next twenty-seven years, they had played an active role in policing a sector of the galaxy, a worthwhile and satisfying career. All three couples had taken some time off as field agents, spending the time as office agents, to start families. Her and Garfield’s daughter, Marcia, had inherited some of her magical abilities and had become a researcher. Some of the people around them had thought she might form a relationship with Richard and Kori’s son Bruce, but they each regarded the other as their sibling. Marcia had found a love of her own, and started a large family.
Raven had aged slowly. When Garfield had died, his life cut a bit short from all the injuries he had sustained over the decades, she might have been in her mid-eighties, but she looked like she was at most thirty. Even now, over three hundred and fifty years later, she looked like she was in her mid-forties.
She didn’t feel that young – inside, she was indeed a very old woman. Just over three hundred years earlier, she had left her role as a researcher and matriarch and took up the invitation to live on Paradise Island. She had refused the regimen which would have changed her into an Amazon, and which would have prolonged her life to near immortality. Technically, she shouldn’t have been allowed to stay without doing so, but Hera herself had intervened, and made Raven her priestess. With a divinely ordained role, Raven was fully accepted into the society.
She stopped her meditation and again glanced around the room, settling her eyes on a far wall. Like most Amazons, she had a small altar dedicated to the gods in her room, but her eyes first glanced to its right. A view screen on the wall, when activated, would cycle through a large number of images, mostly of her chosen and biological families. She then looked over to the left, where there was a small group of items. Most importantly, there was a jar containing Garfield’s ashes. Someday, very likely soon, her ashes would be mixed with hers. Atop of the jar was Garfield’s wedding ring, and a very old penny, still showing scorch marks. Beside it was her old Titan’s communicator, as well on those from the Justice League and the ICI. Next to them, sealed in a clear case to preserve it, was the first gift she had been given out of friendship. The chicken plushy looked only a bit worn from its age.
Raven settled back down into her pillow, and let the good memories of her husband, friends, and families wash over her mind.
Raven’s breathing slowed, and her body fell into an even more relaxed state. When Diana came to look in on her friend, she found Raven had passed on, the first natural death on Paradise Island for nearly two hundred years.
As a tear ran down her cheek, Diana became aware of a presence behind her. Turning, she was unsurprised to find Hera in the room with her.
“My priestess has passed this world,” Hera acknowledged. “She was offered a place in the Elysian Fields, but she chose another place, one nearly as peaceful, so that she could spend eternity with her husband and the rest of her team. While you may mourn the loss of your friend, be assured she has found her place, for although she called this realm her home longer than any place in her life and found a large measure of peace and even contentment here, her true home is with them.”
The End.
A Teen Titans fic, by DrT
*
As stated in the early chapters, this story is based on the 2003-2006 animated series, not the many other versions of the Teen Titans. This story was written just for fun, and all rights to the character belong to DC comics et al.
*
Chapter XV – Raven’s Return, and an Epilogue
Raven clicked on the message icon flashing on the comm unit.
-Welcome back, Raven! Hit respond, and Garfield will be notified you are ready to receive visitors.-
Raven smiled.
She was home. She went to click the icon.
“Before you do that, I wish to speak with you.”
Raven whirled around and saw a very tall, regal looking woman, but the power Raven could sense was nearly off any of the scales she could judge by.
“You seem to be similar to how I felt Athena’s power,” Raven managed to say. “Obviously, you don’t appear to be her. May I know who you are?”
“I am Hera.” Raven bowed slightly. “Our champion wished to be present for your return, and prayed to us for your success. Athena and Hecate had both been impressed by your actions against your father and afterwards, and wished to insure your successful return. For reasons of our own, Aphrodite and I decided to accompany them here.”
“Is that why the portal opened, and was sealed, so easily?”
“In large part, along with a number of your friends, and their friends, who aided with the ceremony in both universes. As Diana reminded her mother, you might have been a member of their so-called Justice League for a short time, but you were still a member, not to mention an associate for quite some time. The number of Green Lanterns present to then rescue you was also very surprising – all were impressed with your actions during Earth’s end time. Even though you found your actions repugnant, you still did your duty, and you were also willing to sacrifice your best escape route in order to save others. Your actions inspired others to want to help you in return. Once you returned, you kept your nerve and held your powered sphere long enough for the first Lantern to reach you. At that point, your rescue was inevitable, but you could still have been gravely injured if you had faltered for even an instant. That you managed to keep it going to nearly the theoretical limit is a testament to your will and power as well as your nerve.”
Raven merely bowed again in recognition of the tribute. Still, she had to ask, “Would I have succeeded if so many had not helped open and then seal the portal?”
“You would be surprised at the number of people involved – I sensed many hundreds, almost certainly more than a thousand, linked together on that other Earth, helping you to open the portal from that side, while we of course helped open it from this side. All were involved in helping you seal it. Still, we were all helping you, you had to do most of the work. By doing so, we helped you approach the maximum possible time you had within your sphere. Without it, you would have had perhaps three minutes or so less time. Had there only been four rescuers, had we not helped them pinpoint your location – your general location could hardly have been missed, considering your entrance – you almost certainly would have survived, but likely only your own powers of healing could have prevented some sort of medium, if not long term or even permanent, damage.”
“The people here, I can and will thank. I wish I could thank the others.”
“I am certain they know you successfully left their world, and that is satisfactory enough for most, I am sure. Speaking of being here, would you care to speculate on why Aphrodite and I are here, child?”
“Because of Garfield?”
Hera nodded very slightly. “Because of the relationship you and the green one have – love spanning such an absence is of course not unheard of, but across dimensions as well? We were watching the end of days quite closely, and Aphrodite was impressed at how quickly you both realized the true depth of feeling you had for each other.” She frowned slightly. “I was less impressed that you indulged physically, but that was in part because of the culture you were living in, and the example your leader and his lover had set for you. Now, you and your intended fear that the other might be having doubts, might have grown apart, might be forcing themselves to still declare love after your absence. I have looked into both of your hearts, as has Aphrodite. Neither of you need fear the commitment, the depth of feeling, that you both have. Should you tap into his feelings as you did that first evening you were with him, you will find them even stronger than they were that night.”
“Thank you for the assurances,” Raven told her, not at all sure she welcomed the interference, but grateful to have her doubts eased. She was not about to try and deeply access Garfield’s feelings for her again; to do so might signal to him that she had doubts, either about his love for her or her love for him.
“With a little prodding by Diana, Richard and his partner have agreed to be formally married before they leave the station. I offer to officiate at yours as well, but that is up to you and your intended. I mentioned the depth of both of your feelings only in order to prevent hesitation due to doubt or wonder.”
Raven bowed again, but asked, “Is that partly why you came?”
“Not entirely, child. Tell me, do you know many of the stories of ancient Greece that were still told in this time?”
“I do, if in translation.”
“Were they usually happy tales?”
Raven shook her head; they were more commonly tragedies, or stories of conflict.
“Even the gods prefer happy endings, child, and happy endings are rare in heroic tales. The end of the Earth is a tragedy almost beyond measure. In many senses, your return is the final ending to the tales of Old Earth. Humanity will be merged into the greater cosmos and form part of those stories. Your return brings a bit of hope and love at the end of the tragedy. That was more than worth the effort expended on your behalf.”
“So, in a sense I had deae ex machine in my corner rather than a deus?
Hera smiled, “Well, in a sense. Do you object?”
“No, I am grateful for all the help given. I just find it . . . it still surprises me that people care for me so much.”
“You have offered much; sometimes, not always, not even usually, but sometimes that is rewarded.” Hera looked at Raven with her powers. “I am also the goddess of birth as well as marriage. It should bring you some comfort to know that you are now incapable of passing on your link to your father; it was unlikely before you left, but his renouncing any claims upon you made it impossible. Should you be blessed with children with the Changeling, some of your gifts, and less likely his, may be passed on, but nothing demonic.”
Raven bowed more deeply this time. “That was a concern; thank you.”
“Contact your intended, young one. You were born connected to a demon, but you are now only touched by the truly divine. May your life be a long and happy one.” Hera faded from the room.
Raven took a moment to center herself, and then clicked the icon to let Garfield know she was awake and ready to see him.
*
Epilogue
Raven woke up on her narrow cot. Glancing around, she saw that she was alone in her small room on Paradise Island. For the first time in several days, no one was sitting vigil with her. She sighed, contentedly – it was nice to be finally alone again, for she was far from truly lonely.
She plunged into meditation, able to reflect on her long life. She had indeed married Garfield a few days after she had returned to this universe, and the next sixty odd years she and Garfield had managed to have, overall, a very good life together. Sure, they argued at times, and had had many minor disagreements, but life with him was never dull and always filled with love.
Richard had even given them an immediate purpose. He and Kori had just become full agents for the ICI right before her return. She, Garfield, and Victor had been grandfathered in as special agents, needing only a three month course in ICI policies and practices. The five, joined by the former Bumblebee, had then formed the nucleus of a mobile ICI team, aboard a ship christened the ICI Titan. For twenty of the next twenty-seven years, they had played an active role in policing a sector of the galaxy, a worthwhile and satisfying career. All three couples had taken some time off as field agents, spending the time as office agents, to start families. Her and Garfield’s daughter, Marcia, had inherited some of her magical abilities and had become a researcher. Some of the people around them had thought she might form a relationship with Richard and Kori’s son Bruce, but they each regarded the other as their sibling. Marcia had found a love of her own, and started a large family.
Raven had aged slowly. When Garfield had died, his life cut a bit short from all the injuries he had sustained over the decades, she might have been in her mid-eighties, but she looked like she was at most thirty. Even now, over three hundred and fifty years later, she looked like she was in her mid-forties.
She didn’t feel that young – inside, she was indeed a very old woman. Just over three hundred years earlier, she had left her role as a researcher and matriarch and took up the invitation to live on Paradise Island. She had refused the regimen which would have changed her into an Amazon, and which would have prolonged her life to near immortality. Technically, she shouldn’t have been allowed to stay without doing so, but Hera herself had intervened, and made Raven her priestess. With a divinely ordained role, Raven was fully accepted into the society.
She stopped her meditation and again glanced around the room, settling her eyes on a far wall. Like most Amazons, she had a small altar dedicated to the gods in her room, but her eyes first glanced to its right. A view screen on the wall, when activated, would cycle through a large number of images, mostly of her chosen and biological families. She then looked over to the left, where there was a small group of items. Most importantly, there was a jar containing Garfield’s ashes. Someday, very likely soon, her ashes would be mixed with hers. Atop of the jar was Garfield’s wedding ring, and a very old penny, still showing scorch marks. Beside it was her old Titan’s communicator, as well on those from the Justice League and the ICI. Next to them, sealed in a clear case to preserve it, was the first gift she had been given out of friendship. The chicken plushy looked only a bit worn from its age.
Raven settled back down into her pillow, and let the good memories of her husband, friends, and families wash over her mind.
Raven’s breathing slowed, and her body fell into an even more relaxed state. When Diana came to look in on her friend, she found Raven had passed on, the first natural death on Paradise Island for nearly two hundred years.
As a tear ran down her cheek, Diana became aware of a presence behind her. Turning, she was unsurprised to find Hera in the room with her.
“My priestess has passed this world,” Hera acknowledged. “She was offered a place in the Elysian Fields, but she chose another place, one nearly as peaceful, so that she could spend eternity with her husband and the rest of her team. While you may mourn the loss of your friend, be assured she has found her place, for although she called this realm her home longer than any place in her life and found a large measure of peace and even contentment here, her true home is with them.”
The End.
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