Raven stared out at the bay of Black City. Her eyes were glazed as the rain decided to fall on the world. Footsteps fell softly behind her and she sighed. Starfire was, as always, quite curious about why Raven was so deep in thought about the most recent battle. The alien had held off on questions for the remainder of the previous day, but she wasn't going to take silence for an answer. "Raven?" Starfire asked anxiously. "I hate to have a sticky nose, but may I ask you about what happened yesterday?" Raven allowed herself a swift smirk at Starfire's mismatched terms and let out a small sigh. She turned about to face the girl, Starfire standing still with her hands closed over her chest. "When I told you about myself, I left quite a bit out," Raven admitted. "I simplified a lot of things, and I didn't really want to talk about her." Starfire recalled the conversation that they had shared in the dark alleyway. Raven had mentioned briefly that her life had been chaos until she was eight, but left it at that. The taller of the girls cocked her head in the silly manner she had. "You did not mean that your life was random and hard to understand," Starfire murmured. "You meant that she was your life?" Raven shook her head with a hard exhale. It was a difficult thing to even try to explain, and Starfire was making it harder. "Yes and no," the sorceress replied. "Chaos was always around when I was younger. She was around so much that I couldn't think of life without her. When I was eight, she just vanished one day. There was no goodbye or explanation of why, she just disappeared. She taught me a lot about my powers and how to restrain my emotions. I owe her, I suppose. But I don't understand why she's shown up now." "And you do not understand why she performed an act of love to you?" Raven stiffened at the remark, her eyes a bit wider than normal. She stared at Starfire, who only smiled back at her. Raven wondered why Starfire was so blunt, but reminded herself that the planet the other girl came from served something called "pudding of sadness." They were blunt, but rather creative with their emotions. "Love isn't a word, much less an emotion I'd associate with Chaos," Raven muttered. "When I last saw her eight years ago, she was like I am. We weren't the cheeriest of people because we couldn't be. I don't see why Chaos was acting like she was yesterday." Starfire tilted her head in bemusement, and Raven sighed. There really was no way of getting around giving Starfire an explanation, so she began to tell her tale. ---------- A heavy rain doused the area. It was a rare thing for rain to fall so much on Azarath. Azarath, home of demons and angels, and all those mixed between. A woman led by a massive dog stepped lightly through the puddles of rain. She held a one-sided blade in her right hand, red eyes uncovered. She, Chaos, strode towards a certain house that was apart from all others. "What do you smell, Flame?" Chaos asked the dog. The dog turned its head slightly, casting red eyes about and taking in deep breaths. As raindrops fell to its black fur, steam rose up and was whisked away in the breeze and gently waving fur. The beast, not an animal at all, was her familiar. Chaos was a pureblood demon, born through the blood of black elemental magic and dark flames. She understood what the creature, made from black fire itself, said silently. "Hatred?" Chaos murmured. "She's going to kill herself. Get in the house and stop her." The dog growled softly and leapt away. Chaos sighed and continued to walk towards the house, almost smirking when a crunch signaled the door's destruction. She strode through the broken doorway, stepping easily over the fallen door. In a room dark from the night and the rain, a woman sat curled on the floor. A few feet away, a sharp kitchen knife lay on the floor under the black dog's paw. She sobbed, her long black hair falling around her face. "Please, no more demons!" she sobbed, her hands shaking madly over her temples. "I don't even want to live anymore! Please, for the love of god, let me die!" Chaos gazed at the woman, eyes usually filled with the lust for battle soft. After a moment, she laid down her sword and knelt down next to the woman. "Your name is Alena, isn't it?" the demon woman asked. She reached out to touch the woman's shoulder, pausing when the sobbing woman jerked away. Carefully, slowly, she tried again and let her fingers trail on the woman's cheek. She gently wiped the tears away and lifted Alena's chin so she would look up. "I'm not here to hurt you," Chaos explained, her crimson eyes creating a calming hypnotic effect. "I know what you are. You are a half-breed between a human woman and an angel. I know what happened to you just a few nights ago. You were raped by a demon named Trigon. Do you know why I know all of this?" Alena shook her head, tears still slowly falling from her eyes. "Something happened to me about a week ago," Chaos continued to explain. "Something that rarely happens to pureblood demons. I was visited in my dreams by the archangel Gabriel. He showed me a prophecy that involved you, Trigon, and the child developing in your body. Gabriel said that there was something important about your child-something I cannot remember. Demons can rarely remembers dreams, much less prophecies. "I can only remember that he said your child is important to the world. He warned me to not let you die and to make sure that your child stays alive. There will be others after you. They will try to kill Trigon's child. He is second only to Lucifer himself, and this child-mixed with demon, angel, and human blood-may even surpass him. You must stay alive." "But this is...terrible," Alena whispered in despair. "That terrible thing did this to me! He took everything from me! He took my body and raped it!" Chaos sighed and pulled the woman close. "I know that I'm not one to say that you should try to live," the demon said. "Up until this point, I have traveled through the human realm and Azarath killing everything in my sight. I've been called the grim reaper at times. The thing is, demons and angels do not associate well with each other and will often engage in death battles when they encounter each other. For an angel, not to mention the archangel Gabriel, to visit a pureblood demon for a prophecy is something that's never happened." "What's your point?" Alena asked bitterly. "Why should I believe you?" Chaos frowned and stood up, taking her sword in hand. She stood with the razor-sharp tip of the blade against Alena's throat. The sword was forged by Chaos herself in her own black flames, and there was no blade in any realm that was sharper. The lightest touch caused a line of blood to run down Alena's neck. "Look as deep inside yourself as you can," Chaos ordered. "Any person with angelic blood should be able to sense anything within themselves. Find that tiny new life in your body, if you can. I will slice your throat in thirty seconds unless you tell me not to." Alena looked into Chaos' bloodthirsty eyes and saw the death that Chaos was nicknamed for. She closed her own blue eyes and delved deep into her own spirit. Chaos kept her eyes on Alena, her mind easily keeping track of the time. After thirty seconds, she pulled her sword back and thrust at top speed. Alena's eyes snapped open, consumed by brilliant white light. Chaos' entire body was covered with wicked shadows and thrown backwards into a wall. Not a second later, the shadows vanished and Chaos fell onto her feet. "By Lucifer," the demon coughed. "Even this early, that child has its father's strength. Only Trigon or my father can throw me so hard." Alena gasped, placing her hands over her lower abdomen. The power had surged through her, and none of it had been hers. It was undeniably strong. "So the prophecy was true," Chaos murmured. "Damn that angel. I suppose I'll have to keep you alive until that child is born or I'll have all of Heaven after my blood." She turned towards the door, beckoning the dog Flame to her side. "Teach the child as you like. My business is only to make sure it stays safe." She strode towards the door, sliding the sword into a sheath on her back. "Wait!" Alena cried. Chaos paused, turning to glance back at the woman. "Please, I'm begging you...teach her." "Her?" Chaos sneered, flashing the fangs all demons bore. "So you're going to bare a girl. What difference does that make to me? Why should I teach her?" "My skills only go as far as healing," Alena murmured desperately. "You felt that dark magic yourself! She's more demon than anything else, and she'd learn from you! Please, for her own sake, teach her." Chaos sighed, casting her eyes towards the outside. Alena let her eyes fall, realizing that pleading with a demon was a rather futile effort. "Very well," Chaos said grudgingly. "I will teach the girl, but I will not suffer through preaching about the value of life. I'm a demon, and I live to kill." Alena nodded, glad that the demon so feared for death would help her and her future child. ---------- "That is how you met Chaos?" Starfire asked innocently. Raven sighed a bit, surprisingly not irritated. "No, Starfire," she replied. "I wasn't born yet. That was how my mother met Chaos, and how Chaos became my teacher. She taught me everything about controlling my emotions so my powers wouldn't destroy everything." Starfire nodded as she began to understand what exactly made Raven what she was. "But you said Chaos could see," the alien said bemusedly. "When we met her today, she said she was blind." Raven sighed once more, looking out over the bay. "When I was eight, I was attacked by pureblood demons while Chaos was teaching me," she began to explain. "What happened is how Chaos became blind." ---------- "So the merchant of death has lowered herself to playing teacher to a little half-breed freak?" the dog-faced demon barked laughingly. "Well, we'll just have to kill you along with the kid." Chaos stood from her meditative position, Flame standing at her side. Raven, merely a child of eight, stood close to her master in subconscious fear. While she learned not to show the emotion, she was still a frightened child. "I've not lowered myself," Chaos growled, drawing her sword. "I'd just rather not have every angel in Heaven hunting me for letting their prophetic child get killed by the likes of you. Raven, focus. Do not let them touch you. Remember that your power is stronger than theirs." Raven nodded, pulling her hood up over her head. "Kill them both!" the dog-faced demon shouted. The five demons rushed at Raven and Chaos. Chaos held her sword in one hand before her, facing two angry demons. "Return to my blade, Flame!" she commanded. The dog howled and vanished into shapeless black fire. It rushed to Chaos' sword and surrounded the blade. With unparalleled speed, Chaos ran at the two demons and cut them down in one fell swoop. They fell to the ground with death cries as Chaos swung the blade to cast the blood away. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Raven cried, focusing her energy on a large tree. Her signature black shadows captured the foliage and uprooted the massive pine. Barely strained, she cast her hands at the two demons running at her with axes. The tree followed her dark magic and slammed into the demons, thoroughly crushing them unto death. Raven, charged with her first success, whirled to face the final demon. Enraged, the demon hurled flaming shuriken at the young sorceress. Raven held her hands up, the black shadows creating a shield. The shuriken bounced off the black magic and struck the demon-one in the forehead and two in the heart. Two other shuriken, however, flew by the demon. When the demon fell to the ground, dead, Raven allowed herself a small smirk. However, the shout that echoed through the forest shattered her newfound glory. She looked away from the demon to find her master fallen to the ground, hands over her face. "Master?" she asked nervously. "Are you injured?" She walked cautiously towards the elder demon and froze when Chaos sat up and threw the two errant shuriken to the ground. They were covered in black blood-blood trademark only to demons. Chaos covered her eyes with a shaking hand, blood streaming down her face. "Master?" Raven asked once more. Chaos stood up, sword in her free hand. After a moment of listening, she turned sightlessly to the young girl. With a shout filled with rage, she lifted her sword and swung down at Raven. Raven lifted her hands automatically and created her dark shield. The sword clashed against magic. Raven strained against Chaos' strength and anger and eventually managed to deflect the blow. The sword slammed into the ground. Dust flew into the air, and a massive gouge was created from the sheer force of the strike. "I can teach you nothing more," Chaos snarled, a hand still over her eyes. "My debt is done to those damned angels." She turned from Raven, the black fire falling from her sword into its familiar form of the hound. Chaos walked away without another word, and Raven was left alone. ---------- Starfire and Raven stood in silence for a time. Raven kept her eyes to the water of the bay, whilst Starfire looked to the stars. A moment passed, and Starfire let out a confused groan. "If she attacked you for taking her sight, why did she help us in battle today?" the alien asked, rubbing her head to try and stimulate extra thought. "Would she not have tried to attack you again?" "That's what I don't understand," Raven admitted. "I couldn't heal her then, but I probably could now. I don't know why she's here now." Before either girl could think of something to say, their emergency warning items began to blink. There was simply no time to waste now. -to be continued-
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