Several Ways to Die Trying
Summary: Fifteen years after the fall of the Titans, their old leader comes across a Banshee's prophecy of death. Reuniting with a rising angel, a broken machine, a jaded ghost and a fallen demon, they fight one last battle, not just to save the city, but the world.
Author's Note: The trouble with love and friendship is that you can never know what the other person is thinking and feeling, not entirely. For the longest time I've been wanting to write a meaningful, action-packed adventure story, with love and friendship adding to a large chunk of it. If Raven did fall in love, assuming she would ever let herself do such a thing, could the one thing that makes life so beautiful for everyone else make her see the wickedness in her own soul? Using this tangent, I spun a dark tale of betrayal, forgiveness, love, death and heartache. A forbidden romance blossoms, unrequited love tries so hard to thrive, certain friendships turn into loving kinships, an evil is unlocked inside a desperate soul, and a man's denial threatens the world. Literally. There are several ways to die trying. Here, you should find them all.
This is a birthday present to me (yay!). My newest saga. Read at your own risk, and tell me as it progresses if it's too dull for the "action" genre ;-).
Prologue: Darkness Becomes You
Senior Memories
Name: Garfield "Beast Boy" Logan
Activities: Member of the Prank War with Cyborg; President of the "Lets Annoy Raven" Club; Champion of the Video Game Tournament (take THAT, Cy!); And, well, you know, Homecoming King, Prom King– Haha, you wish; Also saving the world, from time to time.
Best School Memory: Probably accidentally falling into Raven's head with Cyborg. Then again, that was pretty scary.
Favorite Band: Bare Naked Ladies, New Found Glory
What You'll Miss Most: That look on Cyborg's face every time I beat him in video games!
Often Caught Saying: "I am the Tofu King!"
Favorite Quote: "I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose."– Woody Allen
It had all happened so fast, for all of them.
"I would never hurt you. I would never hurt any of you."
The words rang in his ears as he watched the shadow of a friend fall to his death from the top of the tower. He saw him crash, stared at the mangled corpse in disbelief. He looked up at the figure, glowing with dark energy, floating above the high tower looking down. Her hands were raised toward the lightning-ridden sky, drawing power from the storm. Or perhaps the storm drew power from her.
"I will do anything in my power to save any of you from harm. I've never known people like you. Gentle, compassionate... Friends."
The clips of conversation kept coming back to him, even as he saw her brought back down to earth by the man she loved the most.
"Raven!" The name rang out like a gunshot above the thunder of the storm. From the ground, Cyborg looked up to see the demon tackled in the air by a swift shadow, engulfing her like darkness in an eclipse, pulling her down, lower, lower, until she was beneath who she used to be. Or had she done that on her own...?
"I have never known life like I know it with you. It's taken me years of fighting to understand this feeling. Fighting villains, fighting darkness, fighting myself and fighting you. Fighting everything, denying the chance to look beyond... everything."
Cyborg looked around to see his other friend sanding over the corpse, gaunt as a ghost, her red hair plastered to her face as her eyes widened, deeper than chasms, and more infinite than emerald fields of the countryside which stretched to the horizon. She had seen the darkness and it had humbled her. This delicate creature who should never know heartache was breaking. She had seen the darkness and she couldn't break it back.
"Side by side, day by day, but still I swore you could never know me. But you know me. You've always known me. All of you, you're more a part of me than my own body."
Slowly, very slowly, Starfire backed away, her toes barely touching the ground as she floated there, dumbstruck and scared, tears too distant to the misery she knew to spill down her cheeks with the muddy raindrops. She looked up at Cyborg like a doe in the headlights, and then he swore she began to fade, like a waif dissolving into the dim light of an alley, loveless, homeless, lifeless. She floated there like a ghost a few moments more, and then she landed, her feet planted firmly on the ground and stood there, anchored to the earth, wings clipped and eyes jaded.
"You are my arms, my legs, my head, my heart. You are me."
She took one last look at Cyborg and then looked up at the roof where the battle waged on between man and demon. And then, she turned her back on him and walked towards the water. When she reached its edge, she just kept going, her feet skimming its surface.
And that was the last he ever saw of her.
"You would give the world to save me. And now, I think– I know– more passionately and more positively than I've ever known anything in my life..."
Cyborg looked up again at the roof of the tower, watching the battle until finally, their valiant leader took her by the collar and threw her into the very hell dimension she had just opened. In an instant, the portal closed, the storm ended, and the demons unleashed hid in the darkness of the city below. Their leader stood there, out of breath, looking out over the city, knowing in the depths of his soul that there were millions of demons out there and it was his duty to slay them all.
Just as Cyborg knew, in the depths of his soul, that the second Robin showed no mercy on their old friend was the second he had lost him to the darkness forever.
"... That I would give the world and more just to keep you here with me."
With a sad sigh and his heart heavy with the memory of her, he turned away from the tower himself, and walked away, the ghost of a goodbye dying on his breath...