Author's Notes

Okay, I adopted this story from JP-Rider (from his Adoptable Story Ideas). This is another alternate scenario story that Raven had previously been enslaved by Poison Ivy for two years before escaping and eventually joining the Titans.

What attracted me to this story was that I like this type of story (it's similar to the work of Outside85, whose Welcome to the Madhouse and Raven Rising quadrology served as significant influences, as well as what I've discussed with JP-Rider) and this was something different from what I'd done so far. This is going to be a dark one, and definitely earns its M rating. This story will be twelve to fifteen chapters long in the end probably.

This chapter is more or less a placeholder for the story - to get things into gear for the rest of The Poison of the Raven. I will continue this story once I finish Second Chance.

Bold indicates nightmares. Italics indicate flashbacks. "indicates speech" while 'indicates throughts'.

Note: The Poison of the Raven has now been completely revamped, well revised is more like it. Changes will be annotated in each chapter with a number with the explanation for the change listed below. These revisions include changes in dialogue and addition of new lines and entire flashbacks, many of which were inspired by the animated Batman series of the 1990s. The most prominent of these changes is a new subplot being added, one that focuses on the strained relationship between Robin and Batman. Despite all these changes, the basic story as a whole has not been altered. [1]

Now, let's begin the story.

Raven lay sound asleep in her bed, boots set aside and cloak hung up. As she lay in her bed, she suddenly began to shake as if she was starting to have a nightmare.

Raven found herself, a younger version of herself, pressed against a wall in what appeared to be a dungeon with no escape, a window that was high above her and a door that was locked and guarded. Her powers were being inhibited by a collar that was tightly pressed against her neck, rendering her unable to fight. Her arms were contained by a set of stocks on the wall. Raven could not move or try to get away. The green outfit she was wearing had been unzipped and pushed down, exposing her bare back to the elements, and whoever was accompanying her in this cell.

Suddenly, Raven heard the unmistakable sound of a whip cracking as it struck her backside, causing her to scream in agony as blood ran down her back from the impact. However, that was not the first time that foul whip struck her back - her back already showed signs of such abuse as shown by the healing lines that criss-crossed her backside.

Raven continued to scream as more lashes struck her back, striking randomly as blood fell down her pale gray body, dripping on the cold stone floor.

Raven was jolted awake from her nightmare, looking to see if everything was normal, well normal for a half-demon superhero. She was still in her room, a fact Raven took great relief in. That wasn't the first time she had experienced that nightmare - in fact it was a memory.

Raven shuddered as she tried to repress the painful memories of her back being lashed by her captor. She endured way too much, even by demon standards, and it stuck with her for life.

How she ever was able to escape that, she never completely understood. Perhaps fate took pity on her, seeing as her life was already screwed up beyond belief. Her bastard demon father Trigon was going to use her as a portal to enter the Earth, so she needed help. She needed companionship. She needed love.

Shortly after she awoke, she heard someone knocking on her door. Raven put on her cloak and floated over to her doorway, seeing a concerned Robin in the frame.

Robin asked, "Is everything alright, Raven? I heard you screaming."

Raven responded, "It was just a nightmare. I'm fine."

"It was more than that. You've been having nightmares for weeks now. This one keeps popping up. I know through our bond. Raven, just tell me what's going on."

"I can't. Robin, you know me better than any one. You don't want to travel into my past. You won't like what you find. Trust me."

"I already know about the prophecy and your father. What else could there be?"

"A lot more than you realize. I just hope that you'll never find out, that it never comes back to find me."

"How bad was it?"

"If you knew, you wouldn't look at me the same way again."

With that, Raven closed the door on the Boy Wonder, leaving him to go back to bed. As Robin walked away, Raven silently muttered to herself, "I do hope that you never find out."

Strolling over to her bed, Raven glanced at a copy of Cinderella before trying to fall asleep again. [2]

It was another busy day in Gotham City, especially over at the city's most infamous prison, Arkham Asylum, a sanitarium that houses more criminals than mentally insane folk. Many of these criminals are sent over to Arkham by Dr. Jonathan Crane, a psychologist who got paid off to label them insane [3], ship them to Arkham, and where they would eventually be let free to continue their games, i.e. crimes. However, this didn't last as Crane was eventually captured by Batman upon proof of his corruption revealed and he was sent to prison for conspiring with mob boss Rupert Thorne, who yet again eluded arrest. [4]

Almost everybody Batman has put away has been put in Arkham one time or another - everybody from the Joker and Two-Face to the Riddler and Bane. Only Harley Quinn, accomplice to the Joker, has avoided detention inside the asylum, but she has been inside, as an employee. She was by day Doctor Harleen Quinzel, a psychiatrist who fell in love with the Clown Prince of Crime.

However, today she was not seeing her love, but rather another patient of hers, one that she really liked. Formerly known as Doctor Pamela Lilian Isley, this patient now went by the criminal alias of Poison Ivy. The two had struck up a friendship in the prison, but the two had yet to cross paths in the criminal underworld, as Ivy had been imprisoned for four years after someone had given up her location for Ivy to be taken down by Commissioner Gordon's Gotham police and Batman.

Ivy has been resentful ever since that day, and been imprisoned ever since, unable to escape. The police had cut her off access from all plant life, making it impossible for her to escape, not that she didn't try.

Dr. Quinzel was waiting in her office for Poison Ivy to come in for their bi-monthly chat. Right on time, at ten in the morning, Poison Ivy came right into the doctor's office.

The doctor said, "Ah, Miss Isley. Great to see you again. Please, take a seat."

Poison Ivy proceeded to sit down on the lounge chair as Quinzel proceeded to take a seat right in front of her.

Poison Ivy asked, "What are we here to talk about today?"

"The manner of your imprisonment."

"You should know how I got imprisoned, Harleen. My servant bitch betrayed me in order to save herself." With that, Ivy began to reminisce about the last time she had seen her - which was at her trial and sentencing.

Poison Ivy was wearing an orange jumpsuit, sitting in the courtroom as the jury for her trial was deliberating on her guilt and sentence following the key testimony of her former servant, who was currently in a modified sound booth that altered her voice and hid her face. But, even with such precautions, Ivy knew full well who was behind the booth.

She was absolutely livid, but the only thing stopping her from completely lashing out and trying to kill her was her lawyer, who was telling her that such behavior would further hurt her case and likely provoke a longer sentence. Fortunately for the witness, all the plants in the room had been removed, denying her any possibility of using her powers against the witness.

Finally, the jury returned to the courtroom. The judge asked, "Has the jury reached a verdict?"

The foreman of the jury answered, "We have your honor. We find the defendant, Doctor Pamela Isley, aka Poison Ivy, guilty on all charges."

The judge declared, "Poison Ivy, you are to spend the next ninety years in high-security confinement at Arkham Asylum under the recommendation of Jonathan Crane."

Immediately, Ivy snapped and began yelling, "Don't you forget, servant bitch! I will get out and I will find you. There's nowhere you can hide, nowhere I won't have you found. And when you are back in my grip, I will make sure you regret your betrayal."

With that outburst, two guards proceeded to handcuff her and dragged her, barking and growling, out of the courtroom. [5]

"Who was it?"

"Why do you want to know? Isn't it in the file?"

"No. A Batman redaction. The name was removed. Tell me who was responsible for putting a dame like you in a hellhole like this."

"Tell you what, Harleen. You get me out of here and we'll partner up to ensure that the rest of her life is a living hell."

With that, Dr. Quinzel got up from her chair and walked over to Harley Quinn, whispering, "Give it sunlight and it's your way outta here" as she slipped a small green plant into the pocket of Ivy's pants.

The doctor continued, "Time's up Dr. Isley, return to your cell."

Poison Ivy replied, "Alright then, Doctor Quinzel."

With that, Poison Ivy walked out of Doctor Quinzel's office with the plant given to her, as she intended to use it in order to break out of Arkham and exact her revenge on the one responsible for her imprisonment.

A few hours later, Ivy was waiting in her cell for free time, knowing that was when she would have her opportune time to escape. She knew that the plant wouldn't be able to help her escape if she was still in her stone cell - the plant wouldn't be anywhere near strong enough to take down the walls.

A guard soon called out to Ivy, yelling out, "Isley, yard time! And don't make me have to force you out."

Ivy deadpanned, "I'm coming Vin, you don't need to come in here."

Ivy then walked out of the cell, soon followed by Vin, making sure that she did not escape or try to make a move - she had tried that so many times, and had failed every single time. But this time, she knew, would be different. Now she would get her freedom.

She walked by the cells of Arkham that contained the likes of Doctor Victor Fries (Mr. Freeze), Edward Nygma (The Riddler), Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin), Selina Kyle (Catwoman), The Joker, and Harvey Dent (Two-Face). She watched as Fries worked on the cure for his wife, but to little effect. He had been working on a cure for six years, four of them in Arkham, and his progress hadn't gotten too far. Nygma was doing a puzzle while Cobblepot was sleeping on his bed. Kyle was simply admiring a picture of a cat hanging on her wall, Dent was flipping his signature coin, while the Joker was prancing around his cell like a madman.

Ivy thought to herself, 'It'll all be behind me soon enough. I'll be out of this hellhole.'

Poison Ivy walked by the empty cafeteria before finally getting outside. Vin said, "Half an hour, no more" as Ivy walked out into the prison yard. Currently outside included Waylon Jones (Killer Croc), Victor Zsasz, Garfield Lynns (Firefly), Bane, and Arthur Brown (Cluemaster). Zsasz and Brown were playing a game of basketball while Jones was having a conversation with Lynns, leaving only Bane alone, who was sitting on a bench far away from the other inmates.

As she observed the other inmates, she thought 'Bane, when will you stop staying by yourself? Well, it's not going to be my problem now. Harley, your plan better work, or I'm ratting you out.'

Ivy walked past Lynns and Jones, obscuring herself from the view of the guards as she headed towards an empty patch of soil - most of the soil (and the plant life) were on the other side of Arkham Asylum, where she was forbidden to go, given her abilities.

There was nothing planted in the soil, so placing the plant in there would be very noticeable. Ivy had to do her work quickly or else her escape attempt would fail.

She bent down towards the soil, which was fairly normal (and expected of her by the guards), as the guards thought Ivy was trying to see what plant life was there, when there was none. False hope for her, but it wouldn't be today.

Ivy pulled the plant out of her pocket, unseen by the guards and planted it into the soil. Now, her escape was about to begin. She used her powers to quickly grow the plant until it reached her waist, and Ivy's positioning made it impossible for the guards to know what was going on.

Meanwhile, during the basketball game between Zsasz and Brown, their basketball so happened to pop, leading Zsasz to go leave the ruined ball and attracting the guard's attention, taking his focus far away from Ivy.

With that, she soon grew the plant up to her head and grabbed onto two of the leaves as she proceeded to grow the plant up to twenty feet, going way higher than the wall.

One of the guards soon noticed Ivy's escape attempt and fired his rifle at her plant, scoring several hits on it, but doing nothing to prevent the criminal botanist's escape as her plant bent her down to the ground, moving her outside of Arkham's walls.

An alarm quickly rang out, signifying an escape was in progress. Guards quickly moved to try to catch Ivy before she got too far, but she had the advantage as they had to go through grass. Her powers enabled her to grow the grass such that the guards were ensnared in it, making it impossible for them to catch her.

Poison Ivy smirked at them, gave them a wave, and then ran off far away from Arkham Asylum.

She soon made her way back to her old hideout, which had been abandoned for several years, since she had been captured of course. She was very disappointed that many of her plants had died because she could not take care of them, and there was nobody to take care of them.

Ivy kicked open a window and got sunlight into several of the rooms in her hideout, rejuvenating them as she grabbed a bucket of water to feed her plants, giving them life as she grew them back to their normal size (well, normal for Poison Ivy).

Once that was done, Ivy stripped out of her prison uniform, put back on her signature outfit, and took a picture from the desk of her former servant before heading towards a dungeon (which was a part of her hideout). This was formerly the room of her servant girl (who went on to betray her).

A couple of minutes after walking in, Poison Ivy was soon graced by the presence of Harley Quinn, who had left Arkham earlier and changed into her criminal outfit.

Harley asked, "So, what's our plan, Ivy?"

Poison Ivy turned around to face Harley Quinn, saying "First, let's get my old bitch back here. Then, I intend to make her life a living hell. I'm going to make her beg for death, and not give it to her. She will suffer beyond compare, suffer for the four years she imprisoned me to save herself."

"Who is she?"

Ivy pulled out a picture she had placed in her uniform and gave it to Harley Quinn. She remarked, "Oh, I know her. She's one of them god-darned Teen Titans over in Jump City."

Ivy commented, "Yes. Get her to me. I think we should make her think she's not vulnerable before we break her down to the bone."

"I'm on..." Harley was interrupted from her heading off to pick up Ivy's old servant when Ivy grabbed onto her shoulder, explaining, "First, here's a little something to help you out. It's an anti-toxin that renders you immune to almost all forms of poison and toxins and greatly enhances your speed and agility."

Before Harley could comment otherwise, she felt the pinch of a needle go inside and screamed in pain. Once Ivy removed the needle, Harley rubbed her shoulder, commenting, "Ya think after all that time hanging around with Mistah J, I'd be used to pain. Okay then, now I'm off, Red." [6]

It was another normal day in Jump City. Raven was getting her tea while Cyborg was making breakfast for the other Titans. Raven rarely had that much for breakfast - just her tea and maybe a piece of toast or two. That was all she needed to satiate herself, given her half-demon metabolism required less food than a normal human.

Beast Boy came up to her and said, "Are you going to stay for breakfast today?"

Raven responded, "No. I need to meditate."

Robin then came up and noted, "Raven, you need to stay. We need to talk."

"About what?"

"Your nightmares. You can't seem to stay asleep for more than a few hours over the course of the past month. What is going on? What are these nightmares?"

"Robin, those aren't just nightmares."

Cyborg sighed, "They're memories. Painful ones."

"Ones that I can't afford to reveal to you."

"Raven, as the leader of the Titans, I need to know about your past, if there is anything hampering in there that could affect your performance as a Titan."

"I told you before, if you knew the truth, you wouldn't look at me the same way."

"Was it abuse, Raven? Did the people of Azarath abuse you?"

"No, Azarath didn't abuse me." Robin clearly knew that Raven was withholding something - she partially answered the question, but there was still more that Robin couldn't discern. Before he could ask again, the klaxon rang out.

"Trouble, downtown."

As the Titans arrived at the scene of the crime - the Slack Bank, Robin was disturbed to see just who was robbing it. As he took a good look at the robber, he became very uncomfortable.

Cyborg asked, "Yo Rob, what's wrong? The new robber's already getting on your nerves?"

Robin replied, "She's on my nerves, but I know her. I never thought she'd come here."

The thief bellowed, "Aw, if it isn't the Boy Wonder himself, leading a whole team now. I'm sure ol' Batsy would be proud of his adopted sidekick."

As she readied her hammer, Robin responded, "I'm a little kid any more, and I'm ready for you, Harley."

Harley Quinn commented, "Oh, but you see, Robin, I'm not here for you."

With that, Harley went on the offensive, leaping towards the Titans as she swung her hammer into Starfire, impacting her in the chest before sending her spiraling into the T-Car, now unconscious.

"I can see why she's on your nerves."

"Yeah, one of my most hated people on Earth. A real pain in the ass."

"Now the old Batman wouldn't want to hear that foul mouth of yours, so let's shut you up." Harley Quinn pounced on Robin but Robin pulled out his bo-staff to block the hammer, preventing it from hitting him. She continued, "Oh you learned some new tricks. But you're just the same little boy that Mista J had no trouble beatin'."

Robin was enraged by that, Harley bringing up the past, and Robin swung at her, only to be met with a hammer to his shoulder, knocking him onto the ground.

Harley jumped away from Robin as she moved onto Cyborg, hitting him in the back of the head, causing him to fall onto the ground. Beast Boy turned into a cougar and lunged for the clown-dressed Gothamite criminal, only to be met with the hammer impacting him in the neck, causing him to spiral into the road, now out for the count. It was just the two birds on the team: Robin and Raven.

Robin managed to get back up and threw a bird-a-rang at Harley Quinn, knocking her hammer's head off. Robin growled, "You're finished, Harley. Let's bring you back to Arkham for a head check-up."

"No, I think I'm sound. But you aren't." Harley brought up a joy buzzer and fired it at Robin - it was a massive tazer that stunned Robin onto the ground, unconscious as Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg.

Harley was soon blasted away from Robin with a blast of black energy from Raven. Harley got back up and proceeded to cartwheel towards Raven.

Raven blasted away at Harley, trying to take her out, but she was just so damn elusive, Raven couldn't get a lock on her. Harley, on the other hand, landed a kick into Raven's head, sending her spiraling into the ground. Raven demanded, "Why are you here? Isn't Gotham enough trouble for you?"

Harley replied, "Actually, I'm here on request from our mutual friend. She sends her regards and wishes you to come see her."

Raven was startled as she realized just who Harley was here for, yelling, "Tell her that I'm declining the visit. She can continue to rot in Arkham."

"But you see, she's already free. And now she demands you come back to see her."

"That will never happen."

With that, Harley Quinn threw a small dart filled with a powerful sedative into Raven's neck, which quickly knocked her out. With her target secure, Harley grabbed Raven before tossing the half-demon into her monster truck parked a little away from the Bank, driving away from the Titans.

About an hour later, the four remaining Titans regained consciousness, only to notice that their violet bird was missing. Robin screamed in frustration as he realized that Harley was after Raven, and that they were long gone.

Beast Boy asked, "Dudes, where is Raven?"

Robin growled, "Harley Quinn kidnapped her. I need to call him, he might give us an idea of where she's headed."

Cyborg inquired, "Are you sure about that?"

"I have no choice."

With that, Robin pulled out his T-communicator and proceeded to flip it open, going through his contacts until he saw the one he wanted. Dialing the codes, Robin looked at the man he needed to see.

"It's been a long time, Robin. Why are you calling?"

"Harley Quinn just showed up in Jump City and took Raven."

"Raven?"

"Is there a problem?"

"Poison Ivy escaped from prison yesterday. Harley's appearance could not be a coincidence."

"What do you mean, Batman?"

"Robin, get you and your team to Gotham now. Hell is about to be unleashed."

"Explain what the heck is going on."

"I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to tell you, but Raven and Poison Ivy have a history."

"What kind?"

"I'll explain more when you get here. But the important thing is that Raven used to work for Poison Ivy."

Batman closed the connection as Robin stared with an angered expression on his face. He thought, 'That's what she was hiding this whole time.'

[1]: The first change to the story, the opening note explaining the changes.

[2]: This is a new line added to the story. I recently watched the 2015 Cinderella and noted a parallel between my story and the fairy tale. With my revised version, I hope to fully capitalize exploring that similarity.

[3]: The line originally was "a psychologist who gets paid off to label them insane"

[4]: This is a new line added to the story, so it now adheres to the continuity of Chapter 7, where Scarecrow is a prisoner of Arkham Asylum.

[5]: This is a new flashback added to the story, showing Ivy swear vengeance on her "servant bitch", aka Raven for testifying against her.

[6]: This is a new addition to the story - giving Harley her enhanced agility and toxin immunity she got from Ivy in the comics (and on the Batman episode "Harley & Ivy").