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The Titans: Triptych	By : hentaigoten Category: DC Verse Cartoons - Teen Titans > Crossovers > FemmeSlash Views: 1932 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or JLA. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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#2

The Sundering

Chapter 2 of 6: Revelations

The library at Themyscira University was vast. Books from every age and every culture in the world filled its shelves. Their researchers had sourced books from every subject.

There was a bias towards certain viewpoints, it seemed. But it wasn’t too unexpected. It didn’t even seem to matter. The design of the place seemed almost too perfect. The weather perfectly reflected its other name, of The Paradise Islands.

Levitating along the shelves, searching for information, Raven found herself reluctantly glad she had agreed to coming to this place. At the very least, it was providing to be an enlightening research sabbatical.

She even found herself tolerating Starfire’s ludicrous obsession with championing the cause for mustard to be regarded by all as a refreshing drink, and only half dreading having to sample the dish she was preparing to serve up any day now.

Strange, really. She’d been so consumed by trying to prove she was worthy as the new leader of the team…being free of that responsibility again, even if only for a short time, was…liberating.

Finding the shelf she wanted, Raven stopped in mid-air. She ran her fingers along the spines of the books, searching out the title she wanted. She had to translate some of them, but eventually she found what she was looking for.

Raising her legs up, folding them under her, she opened up the book and sat cross legged in mid air, pouring through it.

Midday came and went before she left the library. Study was more than just gathering up information, and besides, she had been taking advantage of the other facilities on the island. Being able to eat a meal without having to wonder if it’d give you something was one of those small things you had to savour while you could.

Raven landed on one of the smaller of the islands. The whole floating island concept was a bit odd at first, but she’d gotten over it. Being dwarfed by everyone on the island except Starfire was, though.

Must be something in the water.

Raven made her way on feet, drawing only the occasionally glance from the Amazons. Having grey skin and going about in a hooded cloak all day tended to do that here. But at least they were respectful about her wishes to remain dressed the way she was, even if some of them occasionally wondered why anyone would do so in the weather they had.

Admittedly, it was a bit stifling under the costume, but-

Raven froze mid step. Something was…here.

She turned round, glancing round quickly. Something had caught her attention. Something…familiar?

Muttering a few words under her breath, she tried to find with her mind what her eyes could not.

Nothing.

Glancing around one last time, she decided it must have been a mistake. Nothing could have gotten on these islands without the Amazons knowing, and repelling any intruder with ease.

No. She’d imagined it. She’d misread something, that was all.

It must have been.

Starfire beamed with pride and happiness.

It may have taken her two weeks, but she had finally gotten a hold of ingredients close enough to the ones from her homeworld. She’d had to ask nearly everyone on the islands it had seemed, but she had tracked down what she wanted.

She flew over the islands, the bag full of the last few ingredients clutched in her hand, eventually landing next to a small, modest looking place. Just large enough not to be cramped, and not too large to be too much for two people to live in.

Moving inside swiftly, Starfire quickly put her new found ingredients away. She’d wait until Raven was back. Serve up an evening meal.

But…she couldn’t resist telling her. Just a question of finding Raven, was all it was.

She set off, flying over the islands of Themyscira, and began her search.

Raven had ate silently, letting her mind wander as she did so, letting her mind digest the information she’d uncovered this morning.

Soon enough she left, her mind turning over ways to try and make a three strong team work in any meaningful way.

She wasn’t two steps out of the building when it happened.

Her head snapped round, eyes widening in recognition. Barely a hundred metres away. A woman, an outsider, in light conversation with an Amazon.

It was her.

She flew across the intervening ground, her eyes narrowing in undisguised emotion.

She had barely changed. Still in the same costume. Still the same distinctive hat, outfit- she wore it well, true enough. She must be in her late thirties by now.

Raven best remembered her when she was in her early thirties. Years ago, when it happened.

“Zatana!”

Her head snapped around at the sound of her name being called out. Sudden shock registered on her face, before she assumed a far more neutral expression. But Raven could feel the emotion radiating off of her.

She hadn’t changed. Not a bit.

“Raven. It’s been...a while.”

“What are you doing here?” Raven said, hovering inches off the ground, glaring at the older woman.

“League business. I’m here to see Diana. I would have gone to the Themysciran embassy, but she has been on the islands the past couple of weeks…”

“I’m sure.” Raven replied, her words uncharacteristically ripe with emotion, drenched in disgust, loathing, and hate.

“You have...something to say to me?”

“What do you think?” Raven replied, spitting the words out through gritted teeth. The air seemed to shimmer around her.

“I’m sure you know best. From what I’ve heard, you’re the-”

“Fucking.” The ground cracked beneath her. “Bitch.”

An involuntary telekinetic wave slammed into everything around her, ripping up the ground, cracking pillars.

Zatana had disappeared from sight.

Raven glanced around, seeking out her target, muttering a steady stream of invocations under her breath.

She reappeared to her lift, a wave of magical energy slamming into Raven. Thrown through the air, she slammed into a tree, falling to the ground, landing heavily.

Telekinetically ripping up objects around her, Raven hurtled them at Zatana. She turned them into dust with a simple wave of her hand.

Slamming a telekinetic wave into the other woman, Raven levitated off the ground, her steady stream of under the breath incantations becoming a flood. The air darkened.

Something strained at the edges of reality.

Zatana, her own incantations spiralling out, stood her ground, reality warping where the two mages rival invocations sparked against each other.

Someone was calling her name. She ignored the voice, but it grew ever more persistent, frantic.

“Raven! Please, stop!”

She glanced over, barely registering who it was.

“Don’t get in my way.” Raven snarled.

“Rae-”

A telekinetic wave slammed the distraction out of the way before it could finish what it was saying.

She turned her attention back to Zatana, her incantations becoming louder and more strident. Localised air disturbances tore at her face, throwing her hood back, her cloak streaming behind her. She wasn’t going to hold back. Zatana wouldn’t-

Blinding light struck at her from somewhere nearby. Thrown to the ground, yelling in frustration more than pain, Raven saw something, someone land next to her.

“Raven? Can you hear me...?”

“I…” She blinked, looked up…

Starfire. Where had she-?

There was something on her face. An ungainly colour.

“Star...I...I didn’t...”

“Don’t worry, Rae. Don’t worry.” She said, radiating nothing but concern, anxiety over Raven…her voice, steady and strong, pushing aside Raven’s sudden, fearful words and thoughts.

“Let us leave this place.” Starfire said, hooking her arm around Raven’s waist, taking off a second later, flying fast and low until they arrived at their shared abode on the islands.

Guiding her to a couch, Starfire laid Raven down, trying to calm her, trying to reassure her that she hadn’t been hurt seriously.

Some minutes later, someone landed nearby. Starfire went outside, with reassurances that she’d be back after she had gotten rid of them.

She was gone for a while.

About fifteen minutes passed, as Starfire stood outside, rapidly explaining the situation as best she could, before promising that she would find out what happened, and tell the relevant people what had happened, and why.

She returned inside to find Raven sat upright, her head in her hands. She walked over quietly, sitting down next to her team leader, and placing her arm round her shoulders. She knew enough to keep quiet for now.

Raven muttered something under her breath. Listening carefully, Starfire heard a slow stream of words. Questions.

“Why did...I had...she had no...”

Starfire kept her peace. She had no intention on asking Raven any questions, despite her promises to find out what had happened. Sometimes, you just had to stand by someone. She didn’t know why Raven and this woman had fought, but, though she burned with questions, she wasn’t going to ask a single one. She’d follow Raven’s lead. She wouldn’t breathe a single word of anything that was said.

“Fucking Zatana.”

“Zatana?”

“The woman whose ass I tried to kick. That bitch. I thought…”

Raven stared silently at the floor. Her shoulders hitched slightly.

“I’d seen the last of that bigot...I thought I had...”

“What...what did she...?”

“I...” Raven paused, before shrugging off Starfire’s arm. “Nothing.”

She walked a couple of steps, before halting abruptly.

“If it is nothing, then why do you hold such a...a dislike of her?”

Raven didn’t speak. She stood with her back to Starfire.

“Perhaps, what had happened, it was…was some form of misunderstanding?”

“Misunderstanding?” Raven whirled round, her face contorting with anger. Damp tracks of tears glistened on her face. “Misunderstanding? Do you know what happened when I went for help? Nine years ago?”

Starfire shook her head a fraction.

“I’d ran from...from him.” Raven said, not elaborating. “I heard of these heroes. I went to them. But they had...”

Raven paused, her fists clenched tightly. The floor shook slightly.

“Zatana was there. She saw the...saw the daemon heritage in me. There wasn’t anything else in her mind.

“I was irredeemable. I couldn’t be trusted. I was intrinsically evil.”

Raven paused again, and Starfire rose as she started to speak again.

“I was eleven. I was a child. I wasn’t...”

She slumped to her knees, Starfire at her side an instant later.

“I wasn’t...”

Starfire wordlessly embraced her, running her hand over the back of her head, murmuring words of comfort as the building quaked around them, cracks spreading in the masonry, Raven’s sobs muffled as she pressed her face into Starfire’s shoulder.

Murmuring illogical words of comfort, Starfire didn’t move as the minutes passed, as Raven’s sobs slowed to an irregular crawl.

“Don’t worry. She wont do anything to do.” She said, running her hand through Raven’s hair. “She wont do anything, because if she does, I’ll set her on fire every day for as long as I live.”

Raven half laughed at that.

“I...Star, I...”

“Don’t worry about it. There’s no need to.”

“Don’t...I don’t think...”

“I’m not going anywhere, Rae. I’m staying right here. Right here beside you.”

The sun was on the edge of the horizon, casting long shadows over Themyscira.

Raven lay, sleeping in her bed. Sleeping sitting, propped up by a cabinet, Starfire kept close.

Night slowly crept over the land. Lights were lit and extinguished.

Deep in the bowels of the earth, something moved.

The shifting of the earth was detected by monitoring stations throughout the world, but it didn’t do anything to save the city the earth shifted under.

Lights flickered and died throughout the sprawling city. Buildings shook, collapsed.

A population in constant transit paused as the ground beneath them shook violently for twenty seconds.

The earthquake had barely been, before it had gone.

But the real disaster had only just begun.
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The Titans: Triptych