Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or elements from Final Fantasy X. They are the right property of Cartoon Network and Square Enix.
A/N: This is our first original fanfiction. We hope it's entertaining enough and look forward to hearing form all of you.
xXx
Teen Titans: Final Flames
Chapter 1
Raven watched as the usual evening proceedings played out. Like clockwork, Cyborg and Beast Boy would play their video games until nine p.m., and then they would go out for pizza and hit the night arcade with Kid Flash and his girlfriend Jinx. Sometimes on a rare occasion, other members from the team would hook up with them and then they'd have a good time. As for the leader of the entire team, well, he had more personal things to do with his time. Now that he was in a relationship with Starfire, all his free time was spent taking her out and the two having romantic evenings and sharing private dinners together. He still made sure to be a good leader, even with his relationship with one of his teammates, and it amazed Raven how he managed being both a leader and a good boyfriend. She knew Starfire…she was a handful.
Nothing against her fellow female teammate and best friend (which Raven will never admit aloud to anyone), but sometimes Starfire just got a bit too much to be around. She was so energetic and positive it got tiring, especially for someone like Raven who liked to keep more of a low beat in life. The alien princess, short-time queen, was always expecting Robin's time when they weren't dealing with some criminal or super-villain. Raven just couldn't understand it. What was so appealing to spending your every waking moment with somebody else? She'd imagine that things would get dull real quick, but it never seemed to with Robin…
Starfire really was a lucky girl…
Raven sighed as she put down the book she had been pretending to read. Once more all her friends were going about their daily routine, never once turning an eye her direction, then again if they did, all they'd assume was she was too busy reading. At first, she was happy that she was finally getting time to catch up with her reading, but lately, seeing how everyone was just too comfortable leaving her out of their extracurricular activities had started to get to her in a way. Normally, at least one of them would come bug her and try and get her to join in whatever they wanted to do, like Cyborg and Beast Boy trying to restart their Stink-ball sport, or Starfire wanting to drag her off to the mall where she'd prevent to mildly tolerate being all girly for a few hours.
She still was irked by it but it still was nice to have Starfire try and bring out her feminine side. It meant that she was wanted, someone actually liked to spend time with her…but since she hooked up with Robin after Tokyo, that all died. Starfire had stopped coming to her to hang out. She seemed to just turn a blind eye on their friendship to pursue her relationship with Robin. That was okay…Starfire always wanted to spend that kind of time with the Boy Wonder. Why should she have a third wheel hampering their romance? Not someone whose own personal experience with relationships involved an evil dragon imprisoned in a book or a common Goth whose idea of dating was to act like they weren't dating.
Yeah, Raven could admit why no one wanted to be around someone like her…
Grimacing up from her book, she decided to make one last attempt to see what everyone was doing before she just walked off to her room, where she'd spend another lonely evening trying to convince herself all she needed were her books. She scanned the common room, seeing Cyborg beat Beast Boy once again at some racing game, then turn off their game system and making their way out. Shifting her cold-dead gaze just slightly to the right, she saw Robin sitting and smiling as he chatted with Starfire over…well, whatever the two of them had to talk about.
Starfire was chatting away, looking at a paper, and then squealed so loud, it made Raven flinch from how sharp it rang in her ears. "There's a musical version of that movie we say on "The Netflix!" Starfire continued to squeal. "Quick we must see if it is on the 'stream'!"
Robin rubbed his sore ears, having been at ground zero when it went off. "You mean Twilight? Ugh, Starfire…that was okay…but I don't think I can stand seeing a musical of it…"
"But you said you liked that movie?" Starfire objected with puppy wide eyes.
"I said it was okay to watch…" Robin corrected, looking like he might have another word he'd have liked to used, or so it appeared to Raven.
Raven groaned herself. She was not a Twilight fan, even considering her emo reputation she had around the team. Not able to help herself, Raven muttered to herself, "Vampires shouldn't sparkle…"
She had meant to just say it to herself, but then Robin's head perked up and a grin was shot her way. He looked ready to say something else, but then Starfire had quickly picked him up off his seat and started carrying him away.
"Come! Let's see if maybe this version will be more to your liking!" Starfire said, assuming he would and flew them off to her room where they could watch the movie privately.
Robin made a noise as all the air was yanked out of him before he could say whatever it was he was planning, and that was all Raven saw before he was zipped away to suffer two hours of whatever kind of Stephanie Meyer's inspired hell Starfire was going to put him through. With it, Raven's only bit of hope of having a little socializing that evening. Raven looked at her book and sighed into it. "Looks like another night between you and me…yippee."
Resigning to her situation, Raven floated up from her usual reading spot and levitated to her room. If she was gonna be alone again, it would be better to do it in the privacy of her own room where it was expected. As soon as she entered her room, she used her powers to light a few candles and one of her favorite incense and floated over to her bed…before she stopped and stared at nothing.
"…Why do I feel so abandoned?" Raven whispered to herself.
She knew it was stupid to feel that way. She had friends now. She had a place that welcomed her with opened arms, but yet her mind kept wanting to picture a real set of opened arms that wanted to welcome her. Growling at herself, Raven in an odd bit of tantrum threw her book away and floated down to sit on her knees and held her face in her hands. "I know they're still my friends…I'm happy I'm here…but why do I keep expecting more?"
Strangely, she wanted to cry. Maybe it was a reaction from being free from her father's influence. Since his demise after she defeated him, her human side was starting to show more and more. She was starting to 'feel' more like other people should. She had to blame it on that, and on the face she was still maturing into adulthood, so she could chalk up her natural hormones messing with her, too. Each day her emotions were starting to get a better hold of her. It was getting harder for her to, even going into her mirror to keep her emoticons under control as they seemed to be acting out more boldly than ever before.
She literally had to tie up Bravery after that particular emoticon had wanted Raven to be more assertive with her 'not' boyfriend Goth. Sadly, she still lost that battle and tried to be a bit more active with the gloomy boy, and next thing Raven knew was that he said, "We need to spend some time apart…" and that was all she heard from him. She hadn't expected that to actually hurt her, but it did. It was a slap in the face and she honestly would have preferred he did slap her. At least then she could be mad at the prick and have a good enough excuse to not care. No, he decided to be a real jerk and just dump whatever kind of 'relationship' they had and act like she never existed.
See if she ever tried to listen to any of the dreary songs he wrote again.
They weren't really that good so she wasn't missing out that much, but still it was nice to have something to do. Grumbling to herself at how silly she was acting, especially with how she found herself thinking about Goth once again, she slapped her cheeks a little to wake her up and tried to shake off the troubling thoughts boiling in her head. "I'm just being retarded…this was gonna happen even if I tried to prevent it didn't…I'm just too different."
Like a crashing vehicle a crushing sadness slammed into Raven in that moment and she really did want to cry. As it was, a tear had started to pool up out of the corner of her left eye…when from the side of her room, something thumped when it hit the floor.
"Hmm?" Raven uttered, pulling herself out of her own pity and focusing quickly on what made that noise.
The book she had thrown earlier must have knocked into her bookshelf, as it was lying on the ground in front of it, along with another book she must have loosen off the shelf with her throw. The book that had fallen had opened itself up and revealed to be one of her spell books, one she had recently found in a dusty old bookstore that collected unique totems or supposed grimoire. Looking a little closer at the opened pages, she saw what looked like a magical circle and some intriguing runes. Always curious about learning more magic, Raven forgot her issues for the moment and crawled over to the opened book and read what was on the revealed pages.
"…Summoner's Call," Raven murmured as she found the name of the spell she was looking at. Feeling an impulse rise up that she couldn't ignore, she picked up the book and started reading it eagerly. "A spell to call forth a powerful being to come to your aid and do your bidding. Once called, the being will be obligated to fulfill whatever its summoner wishes it to do."
Looking back at the technical aspect of the spell, she found no loophole that would allow the creature to turn on its summoner. Once it was called, it had no choice but to do what its summoner wanted it to do. Feeling that pull getting stronger and hearing the part of her wanting some kind of social interaction, she decided on that spot to give it a try and see what happened.
What was the worst thing that could happen?
xXx
A battle was clashing in the realm of spirits. It had many names to the mortals who passed from the realm of the living. To some it was known as Hades or either the Netherrealm. It could be Heaven or Hell to the more unknowledgeable, but to the mighty beings that were battling for their lives, it was known as the Farplane. It had been a vicious battle and the defenders who fought to restore order in the Farplane were losing. They had been fighting with all their might, having long abandoned trying to reason with their fellow kind. Since the darkness had settled into their hearts none of them wished to talk, only dominate or destroy whatever lay in their path.
A beam of pure destructive energy leveled an entire field of the Farplane. Jumping from the now ruined field, a massively huge figure with blue horns and claws longer than a humans arm clutched at a more feminine version of itself in its thick muscular arms. It landed on a floating rock that hovered above the battlefield, sending a swarm of spirits fleeing out of fright as the being slammed into the rock. Its orange-tan fur was singed and its once think mane of red hair was now patchy and almost bald in places. One of its massive blue, curved horns had been broken off its forehead; a testament to just how long it had been fighting. Its essence had been strained thin from fighting so much, getting to the point it could no longer regenerate its wounds that normally would have healed over by now.
The enemy knew this and was pressing harder than ever now. Their endless assaults were finally taking a toll on the weary guardians and now they were on their last leg. The wounded guardian cradled his partner, his mate for eternity, protectively. She had taking the blunt of the force, having shielded him from many attacks, and now she was on the verge of fading away. He would not allow that to happen, even with his weakened state, he had to keep moving to buy enough time for her to try and recover. That was what he hoped. She had taken more abuse than he had, even against his desire; she had done everything to protect him out of the love they shared.
His concern for her safety was the only thing that kept his boiling rage from sending him into a suicidal charge against his own kind. The rage inside him was all that kept his tired body moving and focused. He looked over the ledge of the floating rock, as he did, he immediately launched himself off the rock to avoid a concentrated beam ray that sliced through the rock like it were paper. Summoning up just enough energy to create an orb of fire in his claws, he threw it down at where the beam came from and it exploded on impact on the enemy that had fired the beam ray. It wouldn't stop it, but it bought him enough time to safely float away without being attacked.
Landing on another random floating rock, he looked around desperately, looking for anything that might help him and his mate. It couldn't continue to keep running like this. His rage was legendary but this battle had carried out far too long and he was near his own limits. If only there was a way to buy more time…
It was then, as if someone had heard his deep desire that he felt it. The Prayer.
Whipping his head up to the eternal cloudy sky of the Farplane, a ray or pure white light shot through and near his location. It was too good to be true but it was his and his mate's only hope! Deciding on the spot, he rushed with all his remaining strength toward the path of light. There would be no point looking behind him. He had no doubt the others would be just as shocked as he was about the call and would attempt to answer The Prayer themselves.
He needed to be the one that answered it. It was the only chance they had on surviving now.
He started to run toward the light when the rock he had been on suddenly jolted and the force threw his balance off. Snarling in frustration, he whipped his head around and saw his most powerful enemy latching his taloned feet into the rock's surface, letting out a roar that shook the heavens. As beastly as he and his mate was, this opponent was even more so and held no mercy in his heart. The creature expanded his bladed black-scaled wings and smashed his thick tail in challenge, ripping up chucks of rock to fly off randomly through the Farplane sky. Seeing the wicked look in its beady, draconic eyes, he knew what was coming. Fearing what it was, he forced his body to break past its limit and head for the path of light. He could hear behind him the spinning rotation of the halo-disk attached to his enemy's back. There was only a few seconds left before the impending doom that would be unleashed at his exposed back. There was no time to spare looking back now; it would just lead to his and his mate's instant demise.
Everything mattered now to reaching the light. With all his last bit of strength he ran straight for the light and when he was out of rock to run on, he leapt as hard as he could.
But still it was too late…
From behind him a massive beam enveloped him from behind. Reacting as best he could, he curled himself into a ball, using his body as a shield as his mate had done for him. A small clawed hand rose up and stroked his muzzled face and he growled sadly as they were thrown into oblivion. That was all that he remembered when the energy burned into his body, not aware that the blast had pushed him that needed few feet into the path of light...
xXx
Raven was getting excited. The spell was working. She had followed the chant, which sounded more like a prayer to her than an actual summons, but it worked. She felt something respond to her call. She sat at the edge of the summoning circle she prepared, setting up a second protection circle around herself just to be cautious should anything go wrong. From the summoning circle, a portal had opened up and something was coming through it. She hadn't expected it to work at first. The spell really was a matter of repeating a prayer-like chant until a being answered it.
It took a little over an hour for it to finally get results after repeating the prayer non-stop. Now she was sitting anxiously and waiting to see what would come through. She had been so focused the outcome of her spell, she never heard the knocking from her door, and then the door jarring opening slightly.
"I'm sorry, Raven. Your door wasn't locked and you weren't answering…but I felt bad leaving you alone like I did. I know we haven't really been spending time…Raven?" Robin said, as he let himself in and paused when he finally noticed the magical circles.
Raven whipped her head around in panic. Robin wasn't protected as he was outside her protection circle. If whatever came through and decided to make a mess, he would be the first thing it attacked. "Robin, get out of here before something bad happens!"
"Raven, what are you doing?" Robin questioned, oblivious to the possible threat coming.
"No time to explain, you're not safe!" Raven cried out in fear and tried waving him to go back. "Please, leave before you're hurt!"
That might have been the wrong thing to say to someone like Robin. If there was a possible danger, his first instinct would be to confront it and stop it before it did anything to anyone. Acting on that nature, Robin reached for his Bo Staff and extended it out for combat, and then charged head on. Not aware that he had stomped all over Raven's protection circle, undoing its magic, and readied himself.
Raven was about to try and cancel the spell and call off whatever was answering her call, but she had waited too long. The being that had answered had arrived. Or rather, two beings had appeared. One of them forced the portal to widen out to allow its great bulk to pass through. It was humanoid around its heavily tanned colored torso, rippled with huge, wide muscles that would put to shame any of the best body-builders. Its head was crowned with blue horns that curved around its head like swords, but it was missing one that curved on the right side of its head where a patchy mane of orange-flaming fur waved back behind it and down its jaw like a beard. Its face was nothing human. It was a primal and wild like a wolf or a great cat, almost a perfect combination of the two; the rest showing around its hands and feet that looked more beast than human.
Its eyes were what really separated it from a human or an animal. There were no pupils or iris in its eyes, only a blank pool of molten lava. In them swarm a deep, old intelligence that spoke centuries of existence…and tiredness. As soon it came through the portal, it collapsed on Raven's floor, shaking the whole room and knocking almost everything off her shelves. The other being that accompanied it rolled slightly out from its huge arms. This one looked female as it had a more curved body and a bust that clearly showed she was. Only thinking keeping her modesty was a metal-crafted bikini that covered just enough of her to keep from being totally nude. Unless her male companion, she had blackish-blue body with a white furry mane and long side-burns. Her face was slightly human save for the short cat-like muzzle she had and the red molten eyes. Like the male she also had a crown of horns that swept over her head, only hers were golden in color.
She growled some in a way that made it sound like she was moaning in pain. Raven risked a look and saw the side of the female's body was wounded and wisps of cloudy-like substances were rising out of her body and vanishing. She started to move and stopped when the male beast placed his long taloned hands over the female and snarled at her and Robin, clearly protecting the female.
"Raven, get back!" Robin cautioned, positioning himself between her and the two strange beast-like beings.
The male snarled a bit more but then it looked closer at Robin. It looked as if to be thinking about something as it then looked down at his female companion, and they seemed to be having a wordless conversation. The female nodded here and there as did the male after a few moments. There was no way of telling what they were saying, only that from the way they were looking at each other, they were discussing something.
As they were, Robin glanced over his shoulder. "Raven, was this supposed to happen?"
"I don't know, it's a new spell I was trying out," Raven admitted. "I…I'm sorry for casting it. I was…I needed something to do."
An understanding smile graced Robin's face as he nodded in understanding. "It's okay. I'm just glad you're safe."
A smile of relief appeared on her face. She was afraid Robin would be mad at her over this.
The two beings looked up from their conversation and studied the two humans without their awareness, seeing they were busy making sure the other was okay as well. The female smiled weakly and padded the male's arm, gaining his attention and she nodded to him and he nodded back in turn. They knew their lives were coming to an end. That last attacked at pushed them beyond their ability to recover and going back to the Farplane would only mean instant death. They had been weighing their options while they had the moment to do so. It was obvious that the one that called them was very inexperienced as she would have known the circles she created were not needed. Once they were called, they obeyed the summoner, no matter their personal views: that was the code of the Aeon.
Time must have changed humans greatly if they could not recognize an Aeon when they saw one, or possibly, they were summoned to a world unfamiliar with their kind. Whichever the case, it was a blessing they somehow pulled off the Prayer. What was more interesting to them was that the two seem to be very close. The human boy's actions were pleasing to them that he would risk his own health to protect the girl; it was a trait they admired greatly.
Making a decision right then, the two Aeons touched their muzzled faces against one another, rubbing them together in a way that looked as if they were kissing. Their bodies began to fade as more of the ethereal wisps started to leak from their physical bodies and began to flow over to the two humans. Thanks to the human boy, the protection circle was ruined when his feet smeared and broke the protective barrier. Their remaining essence easily bypassed the crumbling magical shield and floated around them.
Seeing the wisp-like smoke, the two jerked back to the two Aeons and saw them both nod once, just once…and then their bodies faded into more wisps and they traveled toward them. Robin tried swatting at the wisps with his Bo Staff to make them disburse, but his staff did nothing to them. Raven was in the middle of her chant when the wisps dove into her body, flooding in through her opened mouth and eyes. The same thing happened to Robin and they locked up as the wisps poured into their bodies. Neither of them understood what was going on. They were bombarded with images, memories, and emotions so deep it shadowed over their own. All this happened in a matter of seconds and the two could not process it all and passed out. As they fell to the floor, a ghostly image of the two Aeon's hands appeared around their own and clasped together as they did.
While lying on the floor, Robin and Raven's hands tightened as the ghostly claws of the Aeons did and slowly the claws vanished, leaving only the two Titans holding each other as they laid unconscious, unaware of the changes that was slowly happening to their bodies.