Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Coil ❯ Rise the Demon ( Chapter 10 )

 

“Coil”

Chapter 10: “Rise the Demon”

Disclaimer: How many times must I say this? Teen Titans does not belong to me; it belongs to DC Comics and Warner Brothers. The same goes for anyone who appears in here that has already appeared in a DC property, whether it is comics, animated, or live action.

Author's notes: Man, am I on a roll. I'm churning out these chapters like I've tapped into the Speed Force! In case you don't know what the Speed Force is, I'll tell you: It's the extra-dimensional energy force that gives all super-speedsters their power. In the comics, Wally West's version of the Flash is possibly the fastest speedster in existence because he mainlines the Force and therefore can't be cut off from it unlike other speedsters.

Robin's costume while he was in L.A. was based on the character redesign done by a deviantART member called Turin-the-forsaken. The same goes for Nightwing's costume. Using those designs was my way of honoring his ass-kicking costume designs. That guy should work for DC Comics.

If you're wondering if any other DC mystical heroes will be making appearances, I happened to drop a hint in the title. Anyway, let's continue this story, shall we?

Nightwing, Raven, and Omen went to the local hospital. When they did, they saw an endless amount of sick people being carried into the hospital by paramedics.

“Titans, right?” a woman in a doctor's coat surmised.

“Yeah,” Nightwing replied, “sort of.”

The doctor looked at Nightwing and Omen. “I haven't seen you two around. I guess the Titans must have started recruiting recently.”

Nightwing chuckled softly. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“If you're here about all the sick people in here, I'm afraid we have no idea how to cure them,” the doctor said. “Whatever it is they've got, we have no record of it.”

“That's because it's not an earthborn sickness,” Omen answered.

“You mean it's something from outer space?” the doctor asked.

“No, it's not of this world at all,” Omen replied.

Raven levitated into a meditative position and closed her eyes.

“What is she doing?” the doctor asked.

“If we're lucky, curing all of these people,” Nightwing replied.

“Azarath . . . Metrion . . . Zinthos . . .” Raven chanted, her eyes opening as glowing white orbs upon the last word. A raven-shaped black aura left her body and flew through the hospital, briefly merging with each person it crossed on its path before moving on. After the aura was finished, it returned to Raven, who gasped for air. “I feel . . . weak.”

Nightwing supported Raven as she moved back into a standing position. “It's ok, I've got you.”

“Thanks,” Raven said.

“It's a miracle!” a nurse shouted.

“A miracle?” a male doctor asked as he walked up to the nurse.

“Yes!” the nurse exclaimed. “These patients . . . their vitals . . . they're all as healthy as twenty-year-olds!”

The female doctor checked on several of the patients, verifying the nurse's excited declaration. “She's right. They're very healthy. It's almost as though they were never ill at all.”

“Raven, you did it,” Nightwing said with a smile. “You gonna be ok?”

“Yeah, it'll take me a while to recover, but I think I'll be ok,” Raven replied.

Omen stood as still as a board for a few seconds before returning to her normal posture.

“What's wrong, Omen?” Raven asked.

“This hospital . . . will be attacked very shortly,” Omen replied.

Approximately five seconds later, the revolving front door of the hospital was blown apart by an explosion. The person standing in the center of the explosion was a pale woman dressed in black with crimson eyes, a black circle covering the right side of her face to suggest a lunar eclipse, and fangs.

“Who the hell are you?” Nightwing asked.

“Call me Eclipso,” the woman replied before sending a wave of rippling force at the three Titans, who blocked the force wave by combining their powers into a shield.

“Are you one of Dark Angel's lackeys?” Omen asked.

Eclipso snickered. “Lackey. What a derogatory word. I prefer assistant.”

She flew at the three Titans and began to fight them hand to hand. She aimed a high kick at Nightwing's head but the masked warrior blocked the kick with his armored forearm and retaliated with a palm strike to her chest. This did not seem to deter Eclipso in the least, as she dropped and swung her leg out to knock his feet out from under him. Nightwing jumped over her leg and flipped behind her, subsequently aiming a nerve strike at her neck. Unfortunately for him, Eclipso seemed to anticipate that move and grabbed his wrist, throwing him into and through the wall with inhuman strength.

“Nightwing!” Raven shouted, throwing a blast of shadowy telekinetic force at Eclipso, who dissipated the blast as soon as it touched her. “What are you?”

“Your worst nightmare,” Eclipso replied before seemingly vanishing into thin air. She reappeared right in front of Raven, striking her in the chest with her palm and sending her flying before she could right herself in midair. Raven hovered before Eclipso, delivering kick after kick to the pale woman and spinning to land the final kick to the side of her head. Eclipso just grabbed Raven's ankle and twisted it until it broke, causing her to drop to the floor in pain.

Omen shot a telekinetic blast at Eclipso, who merely blocked it with a wave of her hand. “Is that all you've got?” Eclipso asked. “Pathetic.”

Omen snarled and kicked Eclipso, revealing a long and shapely leg in the process. Eclipso was about to break Omen's leg when a ball of unholy flame struck her and sent her flying into a wall.

“Who did that?” Eclipso asked angrily.

“That would be me, wench,” a deep, rough voice growled.

Eclipso got up and faced her attacker, a muscular, yellow-skinned, red-eyed demon dressed in red with a black cape. He had no hair at all, ears shaped almost like bat's wings, horns on his head, fangs in his mouth, and claws on his fingers.

“Etrigan!” she snarled.

Raven looked up and saw the demon. “Etrigan . . .” she echoed slightly fearfully. She had heard the legends told to her by the Azarathian monks and priestesses about Etrigan, the common thread being that he was the most ferocious demon in all of hell. If he was here now, then that meant real trouble.

“Yes, that is my name,” the demon sneered. “Now prepare for hell, foul spirit!”

“You have no right to call anyone a foul spirit, demon,” Eclipso snarled as she blasted Etrigan with another rippling wave of force. For his part, Etrigan simply withstood the wave without moving even a millimeter.

“You are pathetic,” Etrigan declared before unleashing a double-fisted blast of hellfire upon Eclipso, slamming her into a wall. The demon did not let up in his assault, continuing to pummel her with the flames of hell. “So how long can you bear this before you are forced to move on to another host in order to escape your approaching death?”

He noticed that Eclipso was no longer speaking. On second glance, he noticed that her eyes were no longer red but hazel and that the pale skin, fangs, and black circle were gone.

Oh, well. He'd still torture the goddamned human.

Stop, the voice of his human alter ego Jason Blood whispered.

Why should I? Etrigan asked.

Because it's not your mission to torture an innocent human, Jason insisted.

Etrigan snarled and dissipated his hellfire. “Depart from this place, human, before I change my mind about sparing you.”

The woman who had been possessed by Eclipso fled from the hospital.

“If Eclipso is no longer in that human . . .” the demon mumbled. His musings were interrupted by a hellish battle cry that preceded a vicious spin kick that sent him into a wall. Etrigan got up and found himself standing before Nightwing, whose skin had turned deathly white and whose face was marked by a black circle on the right side. When Nightwing smiled, he exposed fangs.

“Hello, Etrigan,” Nightwing greeted with an unholy lilt in his voice.

“Eclipso,” Etrigan snarled.

“Damn straight,” Eclipso confirmed with a cruel grin.

“Let him go!” Raven yelled, struggling to her feet despite the pain in her ankle.

“Why should I?” Eclipso asked. “I rather like this body. Strong, agile, powerful - a hell of a lot better than that woman I previously inhabited.”

Raven let loose with a blast of dark psychokinetic power, which Eclipso sliced through with an unnaturally glowing right arm.

“Pathetic,” Eclipso sneered. “I expected more from you, my sweet Raven.”

Raven gritted her teeth in rage at Eclipso's appropriation of the affectionate name given to her by the dragon Malchior, who had disguised himself as the noble wizard in one of her books in order to gain her trust and affection so that he could be free.

“I am not your sweet Raven,” she declared before hurling whatever objects she could get her psychic “hands” on at Eclipso, who leaped, jumped, and flipped out of the way of those objects.

“Come on, I know you can do better,” Eclipso taunted.

Raven screamed in fury and enveloped Eclipso in her dark aura, using it to throw him into a wall. This didn't seem to faze Eclipso in the least, as he just got up and cracked his neck back into place, having nearly broken it when Raven slammed him into the wall.

“Foolish half-demon!” Etrigan snarled at Raven. “Stop holding back! He may bear the face of the one you love, but the creature behind that face is a foul monstrosity that should be sent back to the hell that spawned him!”

“I hate to say this, but the demon is correct,” Omen stated. “For Nightwing's sake, Eclipso must be taken down . . . hard.”

A ball of flame formed in Omen's hand and she threw it at Eclipso, who blocked with a ball of black flame. Eclipso pulled back one of the blue strips on Nightwing's bracer and then pulled out a thin black strip that tapered at both ends like a bird's body. Curved blue-edged black “wings” popped out of the strip.

“Heh, so this is his new and improved Birdarang,” Eclipso remarked. “I like the shape.” He poked the points of the wings, the tail, and the head and stroked the edges of the wings. “Ah, so this boy is quite the craftsman when he wants to be. A beautiful weapon indeed.”

“Quit talking and fight,” Raven growled.

“Why?” Eclipso asked. “It's already clear that you're no match for me, so why not use this time to run for your pathetic lives?”

Raven cried out in rage and charged at Eclipso, her hands glowing with dark power that shaped itself into claws. Eclipso merely caught Raven's wrist and was about to slash her throat with the Birdarang when his arm stopped just millimeters away from her throat.

“What's happening?” Eclipso asked.

“It appears your control over Nightwing's body isn't as total as you would like,” Raven replied.

Eclipso let go of Raven and collapsed, writhing on the ground and screaming in agony.

“Get out,” Nightwing's voice snarled. “Get out of my body!”

“No!” Eclipso yelled. “I'm staying!”

A third, darker voice chipped in. “No . . . you're not.”

Eclipso screamed as he was forced out of Nightwing's body by both Nightwing and the darkness dragon. The dark entity manifested as a red-eyed shadow that dematerialized.

“What was that?” Omen asked.

Nightwing went over to Raven. “You shouldn't have done that. Your ankle's going to get worse now.”

“It's ok,” Raven replied. “I just . . . had to stop that thing from using you to hurt us.”

Nightwing picked up Raven in such a way that he was holding her like a bridegroom held his bride on their wedding day. “Let's get back to the Tower.”

The three Titans and Etrigan returned to the Tower.

“Whoa!” Beast Boy exclaimed when he saw Etrigan. “Since when did we let demons into the Tower?”

“This one happens to be an old friend of mine,” Nightwing replied. “Titans, say hello to Etrigan.”

“He resembles Thlo'kass, the legendary terror of the planet Xyntoz,” Starfire remarked.

“I said it before and I'll say it again: You really don't keep good company, Nightwing,” Speedy remarked.

Nightwing's only response was, “Gone, gone O demon! Take once more the form of man!”

The chant caused a marked transformation in Etrigan, replacing a squat, muscular, yellow-skinned demon with a tall, well-dressed man with red-highlighted black hair that had a lightning-like white stripe in it. An aura of nobility emanated from the man, unlike the aura of dread that emanated from Etrigan.

“Greetings,” the man said. “I am Jason Blood.”

“Any relation to Brother Blood?” Cyborg asked.

“No, I would not wish to have anything to do with such a man,” Jason replied.

“So how did you do that?” Bumblebee asked.

“Do what?” Jason asked almost innocently.

“Transform into a man when you were a demon,” Bumblebee clarified.

“It is said that demons can take on human form,” Jason answered.

“So is that what you are?” Aqualad asked. “A demon in human guise?”

“No,” Omen responded. “I sense . . . that the demon is an entity whose spirit is entwined with that of Jason.”

“You would be correct, miss,” Jason confirmed. “Etrigan and I are bonded for eternity and the nature of the bond is that he takes my place in this plane of existence when I recite a certain rhyme. The rhyme Nightwing recited is the rhyme that enables me to reclaim my place in this plane after switching with Etrigan.”

“Ok,” Speedy remarked.

Blackfire looked at Nightwing, who was still carrying Raven in the bridal style.

“Did you two elope and not tell me?” she asked.

“No, Raven's hurt,” Nightwing replied. “We ran into a demonic entity called Eclipso at the hospital. He - she at the time - broke her ankle.”

“What do you mean, she at the time?” Wonder Girl asked.

“Eclipso is an evil god of vengeance that can possess others,” Jason explained. “He was inside a woman when he first attacked us. After Etrigan prevented him from doing any further harm, he escaped from the woman and used Nightwing's body to attack us. Fortunately, Nightwing had a strong enough will to eject Eclipso from his body.” He looked at Raven. “Mind if I take a look at that?”

“Sure,” Raven replied.

Jason gently touched her broken ankle and chanted something in Latin. His hands glowed a bright pink and that glow passed into Raven's ankle, healing the fractured bone.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

Nightwing let Raven down and she stood on both feet. “I feel great. Thank you.”

“You're welcome,” Jason answered.

“Why did Eclipso attack you?” Starfire asked.

“He, she, it, whatever, is working for Dark Angel,” Nightwing replied. “She must have known Raven was going to cure everyone in the hospital that was affected by Pestilence and that she'd be weaker after that.”

“How are we doing on the Famine front?” Bumblebee asked.

“I just got in contact with Kid Flash,” Aqualad replied. “He and the Flash, along with Superman, are still acting as super-speed food couriers. For the most part, it seems to be working.”

“We still have to stop Death,” Cyborg said. “It's not as though any of us have the power to bring people back to life.”

“And War,” Nightwing added. “Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel are two of the strongest forces for peace, but I'm not sure how long they can last with humans determined to kill each other off. Not to mention that Ares is probably fighting them both to prevent them from preventing the humans from killing each other off.”

“I've had enough of this,” Wonder Girl spoke up. “It's time we took the fight to Dark Angel instead of waiting for her and her demons to attack us.”

“Wonder Girl is right,” Starfire agreed. “If we continue to battle defensively, we will eventually be beaten.”

“I hate to admit it, but I'm with Starfire,” Blackfire piped up.

“No one's denying that, but the problem is finding her,” Nightwing stated. “Fate's the League's top sorcerer and he can't even find Dark Angel.”

“That's because she is outside this plane of existence,” Raven supplied.

“So how do we find her?” Speedy asked.

Nightwing reached into a pouch on his belt and removed the four Apocalyptic Gems from it.

“How long have you had those?” Raven asked irritably.

“I swiped them shortly after Dark Angel released the Horsemen,” Nightwing replied. “I was hoping there'd be some residual energy left so we could find the Horsemen.”

“Is there?” Omen asked.

“Yeah,” Nightwing replied. He gave the Gem of White Famine to Raven, the Gem of Red War to Bumblebee, and the Gem of Blue Pestilence to Aqualad. “We're going to split into four teams and each team is going to find and fight a Horseman. I'm taking Red X, Blackfire, and Starfire with me. Raven, you'll take Beast Boy and Mas y Menos with you. Bumblebee, you're going with Speedy, Cyborg, and Omen. Aqualad, you're with Wonder Girl and Jason.”

“I'd ask you when you decided you could give orders, but you make sense,” Cyborg stated.

“Let's go,” Nightwing stated.

The Titans and their allies got into four-person jets in the teams assigned by Nightwing.

“So . . . you think that sword is going to work?” Red X asked.

“It should,” Nightwing replied as he piloted the jet. He gazed at the Gem of Black Death as its rune pulsed. “We're getting close.”

When Nightwing reached the destination the Gem of Black Death had pointed out to him, he saw a Los Angeles neighborhood full of dead bodies. He landed and exited the jet, Red X, Blackfire, and Starfire following.

“Death was here,” Nightwing mumbled.

“That's one big freaking duh,” Red X remarked, deftly concealing his horror at seeing so many dead bodies.

“This . . . this is awful . . .” Starfire uttered, her voice betraying her shock, horror, and dismay. “All of these people . . .”

Blackfire was speechless.

“Death!” Nightwing yelled. “Show your face!”

The skull-helmed Horseman materialized on his pale horse.

Nightwing drew the dragon-headed golden blade Zauriel had given him. The dragon's head snapped open, releasing a small cyclone of golden wind that left behind brighter gold metal in the sword's blade.

Death drew his sword as well.

The two charged at each other, slashing and striking with their swords. Death ducked under Nightwing's swing and slashed him vertically as he rose up, tearing through the outer layer of leather and the inner layer of modern chain mail to cut the more vulnerable flesh beneath. Nightwing retaliated by slicing through Death's armor with his golden sword, eliciting a cry of pain from the deadly Horseman. Death and Nightwing charged at each other, slashing at the same time as they passed each other.

There was a brief moment of inaction and afterward . . . blood burst out of another wound on Nightwing's body and black liquid burst out of another wound on Death's body.

Red X, Starfire, and Blackfire gasped in horror as they saw the bloody wounds on Nightwing's body.

“How the hell is he not dead?” Red X asked.

Nightwing chuckled, but it was a low, inhuman chuckle.

Death turned to look at him. “And what, mortal, is so funny?” he asked in a cold, metallic voice.

“Nothing . . .” Nightwing replied in that same inhuman voice. “I was just wondering . . . how your head would look mounted on my wall.”

“What is wrong with him?” Starfire asked.

“Watch, little sister,” Blackfire answered. “This is where it gets good.”

Nightwing dropped the golden sword and sped toward Death, knocking him down with a vicious right cross. Death rose to his feet and slashed at Nightwing with his sword but Nightwing caught the blade between his hands . . . and shattered it with almost no effort. Angered at the destruction of his sword, Death aimed a karate chop for the young fighter's throat, but Nightwing grabbed his wrist and flipped while still holding onto him, dropping him to the ground upon landing. An unnaturally quick scissor flip sent Nightwing's heel impacting against Death's helm and he followed up with a kick to the Horseman's wounded chest.

“Holy crap,” Red X remarked. “He's good.”

Blackfire just smiled while Starfire looked on speechlessly.

Death found himself on the defensive and wondering just who this boy who dared harm him was.

Nightwing chuckled as the wounds he had suffered at Death's hands stopped bleeding and sealed shut. “What's the matter? Not having fun?”

Death and Nightwing began to fight at unholy speeds, appearing to Red X, Starfire, and Blackfire as blurs that would occasionally impact against each other.

“What are you?” Death asked after being viciously slammed to the ground. “You're not human, are you?”

“Correct,” Nightwing replied with a fanged smirk as he pulled out the Gem of Black Death. “Now . . . go back to Lucifer. I'm sure he needs you for the big one.”

The rune on the black gem glowed and that glow engulfed Death, removing him from the mortal plane by painful force.

“One down,” Nightwing remarked.

“Congratulations,” a familiar purring voice stated. “I was almost afraid I'd have to intervene on your behalf.”

“Slade,” Nightwing growled, his voice still inhuman.

“Robin,” Slade greeted as he stepped out of the shadows. “Or do I call you Nightwing now? No . . . I know your real identity . . . Dragon of the Shadowlands.”

“Dragon of the Shadowlands?” Starfire echoed. “You mean it is the darkness dragon that defeated Death?”

“Yes,” Slade confirmed.

The dragon smirked with Nightwing's lips. “You are a clever bastard, aren't you, Slade?”

“I did my research,” Slade answered. “I know your home is the Shadowlands. I know you went on a destructive rampage during the era of sorcery prior to Camelot's fall, claiming many human lives. I know that it was Merlin who performed the time-twisting spell that wrenched your soul from your draconic body and sealed it within that of Nightwing.”'

“Funny that you know so much about me but I know so little about you,” the dragon retorted.

“What do you want, Slade?” Starfire asked.

“Revenge,” Slade replied. “Dark Angel used me to acquire the gems for herself. I do not like being used, so I'm going to make that witch suffer.”

“How?” Blackfire asked. “You can't even find her.”

“But I can . . .” Slade contradicted. “It involves a form of scrying that only a few mages have access to.”

“And which mage did you have to strong-arm to learn that form of scrying?” Red X asked.

“A rather pleasant young lady who prefers to be called Lust,” Slade replied. “Foxy little minx.”

“The idea of you with a sex life is more disturbing than those whacked-out yaoi fangirl sites run by people who think that Nightwing and Speedy ought to be together,” Red X stated with a shudder.

“There's a site like that?” the dragon asked in horror. He sighed. “Human females! What is wrong with them that they would think such a thing?”

“I don't know,” Red X replied.

“Back to the subject,” Slade interrupted. “The point is that Lust showed me how to scry for magical beings or magic users in other dimensions. I'm going to help you find Dark Angel and then she's going to suffer agonies that would put all nine circles of hell to shame.”

“Sure . . .” the dragon answered. “Fine, you can `chill' with us as the young humans say nowadays, but try anything funny and I'll tear your spine out and beat you to death with it.”

“I'd like to see you try,” Slade challenged.

The dragon leaned over to Red X and whispered, “By the way, don't tell Starfire, but there's a site dedicated to her imagined romance with Raven.”

“I've been there,” Red X whispered back with a snicker.

“What are you two whispering about?” Starfire asked.

“Nothing, cutie,” Red X replied. “Just strategizing.”

“What is your strategy?” Starfire asked.

“Round up the others and kick Dark Angel's lily ass,” Red X replied.

“Yes, but first we must scry for her location,” Slade added.

“Yeah, lead the way, you bastard,” the dragon snarled.

End Notes: Ah, I better just end it here before it starts getting bad. I don't really feel up to writing this chapter any further, especially since I wrote pretty much all the good stuff yesterday.

In case no one ever watched that episode of Batman titled “The Demon Within” or that episode of Justice League titled “A Knight of Shadows,” I'll explain Etrigan to you. Etrigan was a demon who served the wizard Merlin during the days of Camelot. When Camelot fell because Jason Blood, a knight at the time, allowed himself to be seduced by a witch named Morgan Le Fay, Merlin punished him by binding him to Etrigan for all eternity. In the modern era, Jason and Etrigan have been known to lend their assistance to Batman when it comes to the supernatural.

Eclipso is an evil god of vengeance who was once the representation of the Wrath of God. As shown in this chapter, he can possess other people and amplify their inner darkness to such an extent that he can use it to control their bodies. The name “Eclipso” is a reference to his ability to “eclipse” the personality of the person he is possessing with his own.

As you've been demanding from me for some time, the darkness dragon has come out in true badass fashion, vanquishing a Horseman of the Apocalypse. However, what does this alliance with Slade spell for him, Red X, Blackfire, and Starfire? And will the other teams fare as well as the dragon did?