Gone Native: Child of Azarath (ch. 37) (Patreon)

By all accounts, Raven knew that she should be in horrible agony. She could feel the corruptive spread of chaotic energy spreading through her like a disease that infected every cell that it touched. Her own magic recoiled at the touch of chaos, a fundamental force of the universe, and if she didn't force her magic to contain the spread, Raven knew that she would die from it. The sound of rushing air filled her ears as she plummeted from the sky. She could distantly hear Robin shouting her name, the feeling of panic brushing over her skin, but even that felt distant.

The pain was there but it was muted. Distant. Almost as if someone else had been stabbed in the gut with pure chaos and not her.

'I lost control,' Raven thought, hitting the ground heavily. She hadn't cushioned her fall or slowed it, yet she was more than a stain on the ground. It seemed that in her blind rampage, even her body had been strengthened. More than the pain, more than her own horrid at her actions, that fact dominated her mind. She had completely lost control over herself. Her control hadn't just slipped, it fell off a mountain and was nowhere to be seen.

The rage that she always kept in check had gotten out. Barely. But it was enough. Enough to convince her of the truth that she had tried to hide from.

It was all a lie. A sweet and comforting one, but a lie was still a lie.

In the end, Raven saw that she was her father's daughter. A destructive force of nature… because nothing had ever felt as sweet as wrapping her hands around Child's throat and squeezing. Not the late night movies with Kori, not the after mission celebrations, nor the moments of solitude when she was curled up with a good book and a warm cup of tea. None of it could compare to the sheer viveral delight that had resonated through her when she finally gave into her rage.

"Raven!" Raven heard before Kori appeared at her side, her hand going to the crystalized chaos in her stomach, but Raven stopped her hand cold.

"Don't," Raven warned, and to her horror, Kori flinched. Her voice sounded harsh and angry to her own ears. The hand that gripped her friend's wrist was tinged red that darkened still. It wouldn't stop until it was the same hue as her father and brothers. Raven forced herself to let go of Kori's wrist as she gazed upward at Child, who turned her attention to Broly. Delight and amusement came off of her in waves as Broly lashed out against unending waves of power with nothing but pure might.

His raw strength was honestly insane, Raven observed as Broly punched Chaos with nothing but bare knuckles. She hadn't even thought that was possible. It probably wasn't, but Broly didn't seem to care.

Rage bubbled  in his chest. A raw and primal rage, the same that Tarble experienced whenever he looked at a moon. The Oozaru transformation. Broly threw his head back in a shout and Raven could feel the entire dimension shake from the force of it. The sheer power in it couldn't be denied. All the same, he was no closer to Child than when he started his battle with her. Pure might could only do so much against magic, much less a Lord of Chaos.

"Oh~ it's been so long since I encountered a proper Saiyan! Your kind were better than any demon or devil! You just traveled around the universe, feasting on gods and wiping planets from existence just to satiate your base needs. What the Guardians did to you was a travesty," Child exclaimed, radiating a joy that was every bit as pure as Kori's. Broly screamed wordlessly in response, firing a beam of pure green energy at Child. Raven was sure that if it struck her, she'd be destroyed. At least temporarily.

Yet, with a twitch of her finger, Child redirected the attack so it struck Broly instead. Child was too old and too powerful for basic attacks to reach her.

"We ate gods? That's so freakin cool!" Elery exclaimed, giving Child a savage smile. "Does that mean we became gods? Oh, what happens if I eat you?"

Child laughed in response, "Try it, Saiyan Warrior." She taunted, prompting Elery to go on the offensive. She was joined by her team as they attacked, their blood singing in their veins even as their attacks proved pointless.

Through the anger, Raven felt a wave of pity for Tarble. He wanted to change himself and his people  so desperately. Yet someone's true nature wasn't something so easily denied.

"You must remain still, Raven," Kori instructed, going to push Raven down as she began to rise.

"They're never going to get through," Raven spoke, her voice a low growl. Her red tinged hand grabbed hold of the crystal of chaos in her stomach and with a savage pull, she yanked it out. There was a flash of pain and discomfort, but Raven willed the flesh to mend and her body obeyed. The crystal burned in her hand, and even now, she could feel the foreign influence of the magic within her. Child hadn't been trying to kill her.

She was trying to make her become her father. A creature that only cared for destruction and found pleasure in death.

'That won't happen,' Raven swore, crushing the crystal in her fist, her skin darkening to a scarlet red. Yet, even as she made the vow, she understood how shaky her control was. She had pulled back because of shock, but… that was something that would only happen once. "Worry about Faust. I'll deal with Child," Raven instructed, falling into her own shadow.

Faust would be a dangerous enemy for the Titans, but Child was the true threat. As a Lord of Chaos, there weren't limits to her power.

Yet, that did not mean she lacked weaknesses.

Raven rematerialized in the air as Child did battle with the Saiyans. She was playing around with them as if they were an old and treasured friend, though her focus was largely on Broly. The Saiyan roared his anger as he gripped chaos magic with his bare hand and crushed it into nothing, only to find himself hurling head first into a portal that sent him at the start of his mad charge. She was playing with them.

If she wasn't, then they'd all be dead.

"Azarath," Raven began, trying to center herself as she prepared a spell, but her magic responded in a blind surge. A total wave where there had once been a finely controlled trickle in comparison. Even as she was, Raven knew she was no match for a Lord of Chaos. But she didn't need to be. "Metrion… Zinthos!" Raven exclaimed, not at all caring for the volatility of her magic as it surged forward to the crystal being whose palm Child stood on. The magic slammed into them both, cutting through Child's barrier like a knife, but Raven knew that her familiar would remain unharmed.

"Aim for her familiar," Raven snapped at Elery and her team, making her eyebrows shoot up at her harsh tone. "She can't remain on this plane of existence without it," Raven instructed and she was dimly aware of the indignant spike of anger coming off of most of the Saiyans.

"What? No way! That's so underhanded! We're going to beat her in a straight fight," Kakarot spoke, speaking for all of them.

Child laughed loudly, clutching her stomach. "You lack the power of your ancestors, but you sure kept the attitude!"

Even should things be ideal -- if Raven was in full control of herself and she didn't have red hot anger surfing through her veins, Raven was still certain that she would have had the same response. Her patience snapped at the stubbornness and with a wave of her hand, she struck the Saiyans down. Kakarot, Elery, and Olaive barely had time to widen their eyes before they collapsed to the ground, bound by black shadows.

"I don't feel like playing with you, daughter of Trigon. If you're going to take shots at my familiar, then it's only fair if I attack your friends, right?" Child questioned, a vindictive glee in her voice as her smile stretched just past what should be natural for her face.

"I won't let you," Raven swore as she flew high, her cloak bellowing in the wind as she clenched her hands shut into tight fists. The fire that her father had left, the twisting cyclones that scorched Azarath, responded to her will as she ushered them forward. Child looked to the twisting cyclones that were hurricanes in scope that swept over chunks of Azarath, and raised a hand.

In that same moment, Broly fired a ki attack and Raven subverted the redirect. The power that flowed through Raven was overwhelming, but more so because of how her senses seemed to expand. She didn't just didn't gain a sixth sense, but a seventh and eighth. She could see the threads of the dimension, how Child was pinching them together with her magic to form a funnel that would simply send Broly's attack back at him. It was a low form of reality manipulation.

Reality manipulation was something that Raven knew she was capable of. She had learned the hard way years ago after watching a scary movie with the Titans and her subconscious had turned the Tower into a horror house complete with every scary movie trope. However, that had been an accident. She never tried to warp reality on purpose.

She never would have expected it to be so easy.

The crystal familiar threw itself over Child, weathering the blow that Broly unleashed as it finally reached her. Raven felt the tugs at the fabric of space, and she instantly responded, bending them with her own magic while she grabbed hold of Broly. Instead of slipping away like Child intended, she found herself in the heart of her father's fire as she teleported Broly and herself nearby.

Grabbing hold of the cyclone with her magic, she began to squeeze down, tightening the noose around Child and her familiar. Broly, on the other hand, simply charged forward at them both within the cyclone of hellfire as they flew high above Azarath. "Don't!" Raven snapped at Broly, but he was beyond listening to her. His rage seemed to swell, as did his power, and with no hesitation at all, he dove into the hellfire.

It said a great deal about him that he wasn't instantly vaporized, but Raven could feel his pain. Yet it was only motivation for him to reach his perceived enemies. The cyclone warped when they clashed within, a short moment before the crystal was launched out of the hellfire with Broly in hot pursuit. Leaving Child without her protector.

Raven clenched down with her hands, making the cyclone condense as she felt something within the cyclone expand. Child was more powerful. In a contest of pure might, she wasn't going to win. Not as she was now. Raven could feel it as Child started to pull at her magical control over the twisting pillar of hellfire, attempting to usurp it and before long, she would manage it.

Either she had to think of something fast or dig deeper. Deeper than she ever wanted to.

Meaning… she had to think of something fast.

"Azarath…Metrion… Zinthos!" Raven chanted, her four eyes flowing with power. While the cyclone surged violently over a battle of will, Raven prepared her true intention -- a lesson well learned from her books. Misdirection was the heart of charlatan magic.

Without warning, Raven grabbed hold of the hellfire and dissipated it with her magic, leaving a smiling Child within a gleaming red barrier as her nevermore acted. Child was enveloped in inky blackness as she was being pulled out of the dimension. Forcing the Lord of Chaos into the Bleed would be a temporary measure, but Raven knew first hand that Azarath was not a dimension that was easily entered.

However, just as Child was to be forced from the dimension, Raven saw sparks of hellfire ignite into blood red flames that started to sweep over the land behind her. Raven's heart leapt to her throat as a thought slammed into her.

Her friends.

That moment of hesitation was all Child needed to slip out of the net Raven prepared for her. "I'd hurry, Trigon's daughter." Child remarked as fire surged forward while Child began to descend, tauntingly. To the heart of Azarath.

Raven grit her teeth, but it wasn't even a question of what she should do. She vanished in her shadow and reappeared at the heart of the battle between the Titans and Faust. Neither side was ignorant of the danger and as Raven appeared, it was on the verge of overcoming them.

Chaotic hellfire scorched through the ruins her friends fought in, and already the heat on her face was nearly unbearable. Raven raised a hand to halt the encroaching fire. Yet, before she could, a ki barrier was put up that covered them all. Raven glanced over at Elery, who had her hands spread out as she maintained the barrier as the fire swept over it. There was a flicker of alarm through her as she dramatically increased the output to prevent the barrier from failing. Kakarot and Olaive joined in, lightening the load on Elery.

It gave Raven enough time to look at Faust, who seemed to be on the backfoot. Wally was currently hovering in the air, and Garfield was stuck with the head of a T-Rex and the body of a tortoise. Faust looked at her fearfully. As he should.

Black tendrils lashed out across the ground, wrapping around Faust's ankles, "Wait, no, don't-!" He shouted, not knowing what was about to happen, but knowing that it would be nothing good.

"Raven, stop!" Kori cried out as she dragged Faust into her long shadow. The spell cast on Wally and Garfield was undone, while Robin approached. Raven wasn't doing anything to Faust. It wasn't torture. It wasn't anything untoward. It was simply granting him… some perspective.

Raven spat Faust out of her shadow and the once proud wizard was curled into the fetal position, trembling like a leaf with every drop of blood drained from his face, leaving him white as a sheet. "All of you are leaving," Raven informed, a flower bud created of her magic forming in the palm of her hand.

"No, not without you," Robin instantly responded, digging his heels in.

"You're just in the way," Raven rebuked. She hadn't meant to sound cruel and she hated that it was the truth. There was no place for them in this battle.

Elery spun around, "No way, I'm not leaving Br-" she started to protest, but Raven activated the spell. The magic circle formed under their feet, perfectly conforming to the barrier that was erected. Her friends tried to protest. She could feel the fear and concern rolling off of them in waves. She felt the indignation and anger from the Saiyans as well as the overwhelming fear from Faust.

Then, in a fraction of a second, they were all gone.

The ki barrier fell and the fire swept over Raven. Her nevermore emerged from the shadows as shield for but a moment before Raven vanished into her own shadow, letting the fire burn away the once great library. When she emerged, she caught sight of Broly battling with the crystal familiar. The creature was sporting cracks in its surface, which grew and deepened with each powerful blow that Broly landed.

Broly roared and the dimension trembled, raising his hands up before bringing them both down on the familiar's back, red light shining through the cracks as it shot down. Broly himself was growing larger, already he was a foot taller than he had been at the start of the battle. Raven wasn't sure what prompted it, but when she emerged from her shadow, Broly's attention snapped to her.

The emotions coming off of him were intense. All-consuming rage and instincts screaming to destroy. Unlike Tarble, Broly was helpless against his instincts and fell prey to the rage. Sending him back wasn't an option like this. He could destroy Earth if he didn't snap out of it.

At the thought, Broly went still and to Raven's horror, she only realized what had happened after it was done. The pure fury on Broly's face faded into confusion as without any warning, Raven shoved his rage down to a far more manageable level. She had warped reality by accident. Worse, she did it on someone. Any thought of convincing him was nowhere to be found as she stepped over a line -- she had just controlled Broly's emotions. Mind control. A violation of his will.

There weren't words to describe the hate Raven felt for herself at that moment.

"Watch out!" Broly shouted, darting forward, snapping Raven out of her dawning horror. Only then did she notice that the familiar was flying at her at incredible speeds -- the magic that went into him was something incredible, now that Raven paid attention as two pincer-like arms were aimed to skewer her. The familiar itself violated worldly properties with the power of chaos, granting it incredible speed, strength, and durability. The fact that Broly could fight it at all, that he could damage it… just how strong was he?

In any case, Broly's warning came too late, but that didn't matter. The familiar thrust its arms forward, the tips entering her body, but not harming her. They traveled an infinite amount of distance, they should have skewered her, but instead the familiar became enveloped as Raven moved forward, her shadow expanding until the familiar became consumed. Raven could feel the connection between Child and her familiar being cut off.

Yet Raven was still picking up  Child's emotions. She was still within the dimension.

"Raven, we-" Broly started, only to be silenced when Raven vanished him from the dimension without so much a word. He looked stricken for a moment before he vanished, and only when he was gone did Raven let out any sign of relief. Now, if she fell from grace, then there was no one at risk getting caught in the fallout. If the worse case scenario happened… then she would use the last vestiges of her control to sever this dimension from all others. For eternity, she would be trapped in a desolate Azarath.

As she so richly deserved.

But, for now, there was one person left in Azarath and Raven was determined to expel the Lord of Chaos. To that end, Raven allowed herself to fall, heading directly to Child, who was at the heart of the dimension. Space rippled as intact spells placed by the Azarathian monks reacted to her intrusion, but they were no match for her. The closer she got, the larger the thing that originally hadn't even been a spec in the distance got until it dominated her vision.

It was a temple, Raven realized. Not one too different from the Grand Library or other ancient Azarathian temples. It was built upon a sphere that Raven quickly realized was the size of a moon when she touched down upon it. The temple itself was a labyrinth, one meant to infinitely confuse whoever stepped foot upon this sacred place. Raven had no idea this temple had existed, much less the fact that it had been spared the destruction of her father.

Yet, not the touch of Child. The spells put in place were disrupted, left in tatters as Child had blitzed her way through. What was left of them was enough to convey that the Azarathian monks didn't want anyone entering this place. Not even themselves.

A pit formed in Raven's gut as she followed the destruction Child left in her wake, closing the distance between them swiftly.

It was then that Raven saw what the monks had been protecting.

An orange ball. Its surface seemed to be made out of glass, or some kind of crystal, with a thick layer of it protecting the bright orange insides of the moon sized item. Raven felt the power of the object. It washed over her with near physical force as she flew past the final defense that allowed her to overlook the orange ball that hovered at the heart of the temple. Raven didn't know what it was, but there was no doubt in her mind that it was extremely powerful.

Floating within the ball were a number of stars, seven in total arranged in a small circle with one in the center.

Upon the center of the stars were two figures -- Child, who pressed her hands against the orange sphere, and the other…

It was impossible for her to mistake her features. Ones that were so similar  to her own. Her body seemed to be made of stone, but unlike the other statues, there was a serene expression on her face instead of horror or fear.

Her mother had died in peace, it seemed. She knelt at the center of the middle star on the sphere, in a traditional meditative  stance. Raven found no comfort in that fact. Instead of suffering at the hands of her father, it meant that her mother had survived to find her way here. And it was here that she died, alone, possibly years after she let her father into the dimension.

"One of the legendary Dragon Balls," Child intoned, standing up as she turned around to face Raven. "One of seven in total. You won't believe how well hidden these things are. I've been alive since the beginning of this universe and this is only my second time seeing one."

Raven found herself indifferent as she landed on the so-called Dragon Ball. "Take a long look, Child. It's the last one you'll ever see," Raven spoke.

Child didn't seem to care, "The legend about them is about as old as I am. Maybe older. Most of the universe has completely forgotten their existence. A deliberate measure of the Guardians, I suspect. After all, if the legends prove to be true… then there isn't anything in this universe that's  impossible." That caught Raven's interest, despite herself. "Gather the seven Dragon Balls and make a wish, and it shall be granted. No matter how impossible it should be. Such is the power of the almighty Dragon God Zalama."

Child threw her hands out wide as she smiled at Raven, "Are you not interested, Daughter of Trigon? Anything becomes a possibility once they are gathered. You could even undo what your glorious father did to this place. You could bring the monks back to life. Even your dear mother. All you need to do is help me in my quest to gather them all."

The offer was beyond tempting. Child was offering the one thing that Raven had yearned for since that tragic day. A chance to undo what had been done.

Yet…

"Thank you for telling me the legend," Raven spoke, her shadow growing. "But I don't need you to collect them."

To that, Child smiled. "No, Child of Trigon. However, you might against all the others I've told that legend too. I don't have a wish for the Dragon Balls… but watching the chaos unfold as the entire universe begins their search for them to make the ultimate wish? Why, I don't need the Dragon Balls for my wish to come true." With that, Child threw her head back and began to laugh while her body began to fade from view.

Child vanished into nothing yet Raven couldn't be certain it was because she finally ran out of ambient power after she usurped her familiar… or if Child chose to leave after accomplishing her mission -- to tempt her into gathering the Dragon Balls.

In any case, Raven was left alone with nothing but her thoughts… and hopes that she couldn't quite crush within her chest.

…

This chapter is about two and a half chapters worth of nothing condensed into a single chapter. I’m really glad that I took the time to rewrite some stuff because I didn’t realize how unhappy I was with the chapters until I scrapped them -- a whole lot of meandering, a whole lot of stopping to talk about lore between characters that wouldn’t be stopping to talk about lore, and the rest was me managing to write about nothing.

So, thank you for your patience! I personally like the rewritten chapters, and I think all of you will too.