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Chapter Text

Security alert…Tower breach…

Security alert…Tower breach…

Security —

A hand slaps the security override button on the wall harshly. The blaring alarms and klaxons turn off, though the halls remain bathed in the red light of the intruder alarm. Pressing a finger to the comm in her ear and running down the corridor, she asks, “Cyborg?”

“Got a blip in the command center,” Vic’s voice comes over the radio. “One unidentified individual, cameras are out in the room. Seems to be alone.”

Donna Troy rounds a corner and nearly slams into Beast Boy, struggling to get his uniform shirt over his head as he runs.

“Shit, sorry,” he yelps, but runs after her, shifting into a polar bear. “Where’s the fire?”

“Command center. Single intruder. Cyborg can’t get an ID yet,” she replies curtly.

“Excellent,” the bear snorts. “Just how I like to be woken up at two in the morning.”

“Intruder is unarmed,” comes the Flash’s voice over the radio. “Cyborg was correct. One bogey.”

“Walls, that’s military slang,” Gar says, his tone making it clear that he’s rolling his eyes. “Is the intruder a UFO?”

“Haven’t engaged yet. Remains to be seen if the intruder can fly.”

Within seconds Gar and Donna meet up with the rest of the Titans in the command center to find a lone individual sitting in the middle of the room. They’re wearing a sleek combat suit and a helmet, but makes no move even when nine other Titans enter the room in varying degrees of battle readiness.

“I’m not here to attack, Titans, so you can stop pointing deadly weapons at me,” the person says. “Quite the opposite, in fact.”

None of the Titans relax at the intruder’s words. Arsenal actually draws his bow back a little further in response.

“Care to explain what you’re doing in a facility equipped with the best surveillance tech that money can buy, then?” Cyborg asks over the hum of his sonic cannon.

“I was sent to correct an error in the timeline. I’m here to help you stop a tragedy that will befall the Titans if not for my interference,” the stranger says. “It’s in both of our best interests to work together, if you wish to avoid that fate.”

Donna turns to Raven, raising a brow in question. She turns to the intruder and stares at him for a few seconds, before nodding and saying, “truth. They only wish to prevent harm, not cause it.”

Her statement makes the rest of the team relax somewhat, but some remain tense even as Donna approaches the stranger. “I’m Donna Troy, the leader of the Titans.”

“I know who you are, Donna,” the stranger says quietly. “I know who all of you are.”

“Are you from the future?” the Flash asks. “You said that you were here to prevent the fate of the Titans.”

The man nods. “Yes. I am Corax,” he says. “I am from a future that is best avoided.”

“You were our ally in the future?” Nightwing asks, putting away his batons.

Again Corax nods. “I knew you all very well in my time. I was a Titan too. But after the incident I am here to prevent, I am the only survivor of the team. Everyone else was killed.”

Gar narrows his eyes. “How? And what exactly are you here to prevent?”

“Before the Necrostar attacked, before Beast Boy had become a Star Conqueror, the Lords of Chaos had given the Helm of Chaos to Doctor Hate to further their goals,” Corax explains. Gar stiffens at the mention of the battle that cost him his sanity and nearly his life, but stays quiet. “But when Raven rejoined with her other half, they lost their weapon. Now they’ve come to collect their dues. They want to turn Raven into an agent of Chaos, which would grant them access to even more power.” (1)

Raven frowns. “First Neron, then Amanda Waller, then Trigon, and now the Lords of Chaos. Why am I worth the effort?”

“Because you are one of the most powerful beings in the world if you let go of your inhibitions,” Corax answers. “They want your power for themselves. In my time, the Lords of Chaos succeeded in turning you into their willful agent. The Titans tried to stop it, but an unfortunate sequence of events prevented them from securing their victory.” He turns to stare out the window. “All of them, including Raven, were killed in the ensuing battle save for me. For a long time I didn’t know why I was spared, but I’m hoping that being here will help me make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Nightwing steps forward. “When are the Lords of Chaos coming for her?” he asks.

Corax tilts his head to the side. “What is today’s date?”

“March 5th,” Donna answers, and Corax shakes his head.

“The first attack is in two days. I can’t tell you much more than I already have, if you want to secure your fate.”

Dick purses his lips. “Right. Well, there are spare rooms — ”

“On the sixth floor. I know,” Corax says simply. Donna and Dick exchange a look of concern, but she steps up to Corax regardless.

“Then I’ll show you to one and help you get settled.” The two leave the room without saying another word, and Dick turns to the other Titans.

“I don’t like him,” Gar says immediately. “He’s hiding something, I can tell.”

“He was telling the truth, but he was also not telling the whole truth,” Raven adds. “A necessity to ensure the stability of time, I suppose.”

Wally shakes his head. “He’s got no connection to the Speed Force, so he didn’t travel back in time because of that.”

“Magic?” Tempest suggests.

“Could be,” Dick says. “But I’m not sure that how he got here is relevant to what he’s here for.”

“How did he even know us?” Koriand’r asks. “If all of us are dead in his time and the first attack is in a few days, then when were we able to add him to the roster?”

Wally leans back in his chair, arms crossed. “Not every timeline is the same,” he says. “The events might stay the same, but the people involved can change. It’s possible that in his time, we did add another member before everything went wrong.”

Roy frowns. “He must still be someone that we know,” he argues. “He’s using a voice modulator with that helmet. Not once did he say how he met us even though we clearly don’t know who he is.”

“Let me and Donna worry about that,” Dick sighs, rubbing his face. “The rest of you…just be ready, I guess. Maybe Corax can tell us more about what to expect from the first attack.”

“Roy is correct,” Raven adds. “There is something familiar about Corax. I am not able to pinpoint why or how, though.”

Gar turns to Raven, a concerned look on his face. “How are you holding up with the whole Lords of Chaos thing?”

She sighs. “It is just another part of my existence that I must deal with. As my powers grow, so does the attention that I garner. They are just another powerful group of individuals who wish to use me for their own ends.”

“We won’t let that happen to you,” Gar says firmly, the others nodding their agreement. “I won’t let that happen to you.”

Raven gives him a grateful yet tired smile. “Something tells me that we might not have a choice in the matter.”

“So, why you?” Gar asks a few hours later when the team is eating breakfast with their new guest. “What makes you so special that you were able to travel back in time?”

“In truth, I don’t know who my benefactors are,” Corax admits, the space in front of him empty even as the rest of the Titans have a cup of coffee or bowl of cereal in front of them. “I was told that my timeline is flawed, that it shouldn’t exist because of a flaw in events. They didn’t tell me how I was going to be sent back in time, nor did they give me any specific instructions on how to avoid my timeline from coming true. I guess I have to rely on my own experience to prevent it from happening.”

“Don’t you have a family or something back home?” Roy asks in between bites of cereal. “Won’t changing your future cause you to stop existing?”

Corax shrugs. “I don’t know what will happen to me, should I succeed in preventing the future I came from. As for family…my wife was killed when the Lords of Chaos took over Raven. She destroyed a large portion of the city before she was stopped.”

Gar tenses. “Hey, that’s not Raven’s fault. Don’t blame her for what the Lords of Chaos made her do.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Corax says simply. “But my only family was my wife. There is nothing left for me in my time. All that I know is gone.”

“Oh, so like a lost Lenore kind of thing,” Roy says, nodding in understanding. “We’ve all lost something, but I can’t say any of us have lost a wife or husband.”

Corax goes very still at the name, something the other Titans don’t fail to notice. Roy quickly tries to apologize.

“Oh, uh, was her name Lenore? I’m sorry, Cor, I didn’t know — ”

“That’s not her name. It just reminded me of something about her,” Corax says. “She loved books. Would practically devour any literature she found.”

“Sounds like you and your ancient tomes,” Gar says to Raven, who rolls her eyes at him but smiles anyway.

“What can you tell us about the first attack?” Donna asks, leaning on the countertop across from Corax. “Anything we should know or do beforehand?”

Corax pauses, and looks around at the other Titans.

“Beast Boy was injured in the first attack, allowing the Lords of Chaos to take Raven away to places unknown using his life as leverage. When she returned, she had been corrupted by their magic. The Titans mobilized to fight her, but she easily dispatched them all.”

“Well, you have one of those contingency plan things for if Raven loses herself, right?” Gar asks, pointing to Nightwing with the spoon in his hand. “I don’t know if Corax here had those things in his world, but you definitely have one for her.”

Dick winces. “Ah, well, you’re her contingency plan. There’s not a lot of things that can keep Raven down; we saw that when the Spectre tried to fight the Dark-Winged Queen. You’ve been pretty good at talking her down without too much of a problem, so it’s you.”

“That won’t be enough, if we go by what happened in Corax’s time,” Garth points out. “If all of us died, then that means he wasn’t successful in talking her down.”

“Is there no other plan you have?” Kori asks skeptically. “Surely you have more than just ‘Gar annoys Raven to death.’”

“I do, but it’s not something that I wanted to default to right away,” Dick says. “That method is a little more…permanent.”

Gar’s face immediately hardens at his implication, the room suddenly filling with tension as Gar scowls at Dick. “Explain.”

For his credit, Dick meets Gar’s intense gaze head-on without fear or hesitation. “Raven is still half-demon, and all demons have the same weaknesses. Pure iron exorcises demons from mortal bodies, for example. I had something made of pure iron sanctified for this very purpose. Runes carved into it suppress her powers to the point of uselessness.”

Gar’s scowl deepens. “Spit it out, Grayson. What is it.”

Dick at least has the decency to look regretful when he says, “it’s a dagger.”

Raven stiffens as Gar’s tumultuous emotions wash over her. The calm, calculated way Gar puts down his spoon on the counter with a barely audible clink belies his fury. He leans in towards Dick.

“You. Made a knife. Out of pure iron. To permanently kill Raven?” he whispers.

“Yes.”

Gar’s eyes narrow. “That has got to be the stupidest, dumbest, most batshit insane, unnecessarily brutal, zero to one hundred, irreversible contingency plan you have ever fucking had, Grayson.”

The other Titans minus Raven and Corax watch the exchange with confused and bewildered expressions.

Gar rises to his feet, clenched fists shaking in anger. “Your backup plan for if Raven gets possessed is to default to me. And if that doesn’t work, instead of, oh, I don’t know, focusing on containment, you just go straight to killing her?”

“Uh…what’s going on?” Roy asks Wally, who just shakes his head, equally as lost as the others, merely continuing to wash the dishes.

Dick blinks wordlessly, then nods, seemingly content to let Gar work out his anger.

“Are you fucking insane?” he snarls, claws unsheathing without him noticing. “What the hell possessed you to jump straight from “talk her down” to “stab her and irreversibly tear her soul apart?’”

“I have my reasons — ” Dick starts, but Gar interrupts him.

“Don’t you fucking start with the holier than thou ‘if this person turns evil’ doctrine!” Gar shouts, pupils slitted and irises almost glowing in anger, pointing in Dick’s direction accusingly. “The Titans have always believed that allies who turn to the dark side have the chance to redeem themselves. Terra. Jericho. Cyborg. Superboy. Any of those names ring a bell? They can’t be redeemed if you kill them first! What if someone got their hands on that dagger, huh? What’s your continency plan for that? What the hell made you think “my contingency plan for if something goes wrong is to fucking kill Raven?”

Gar steps toward Dick, for what, the others can only guess. Corax nearly stands up to restrain Gar before a hand reaches out and grabs Gar by the wrist. He looks down to find Raven looking at him with an expression that clearly says ‘don’t do something you’ll regret.’ His eyes return to normal as she eases his anger with her empathic powers, and once Gar has calmed down, Raven speaks.

“I commissioned it. I asked Dick to make the blade.”

At her words, Gar completely deflates, shoulders slumping as the fury vacates his body entirely, collapsing onto the floor and sighing in defeat.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that,” Vic tries to joke in an attempt to relieve the tension in the room.

“Alright, is someone going to explain what the hell just happened and why Gar went ballistic over a knife?” Roy asks, gesturing between Gar and Dick.

“Despite my demonic nature, consecrated artifacts do not harm me because I am still half human,” Raven explains, gently running her fingers through Gar’s hair. “However, pure iron still works. In bodies possessed by the spirits of demons, the presence of iron can exorcise the spirit from the body. Quite violently, I must add. If I, a half-demon, were to be exorcised with pure iron, it would tear my soul apart and destroy it. I would cease to exist.”

“I used it in my future to stop Chaos Raven’s path of destruction,” Corax says, nodding. “It’s entirely mystical in nature, and I won’t pretend to know what exactly it does or where it came from, but it was Dick’s last line of defense.”

Dick narrows his eyes at Corax. “You used it…?” he whispers.

“‘Last line of defense’ being a permanent, irreversible solution. Sure, whatever,” Gar says bitterly. Dick opens his mouth, presumably to defend his thought process, but is interrupted by a voice booming from the radio intercoms.

“Watchtower to the Titans, we are picking up reports of a disturbance near the downtown S.T.A.R. Labs facility,” Oracle reports. “Seems to be mystical in nature, but reports are inconclusive. Blüdhaven PD are securing a perimeter around the area, but they’ve been told not to engage until you arrive.”

“We’ll handle this later,” Gar says to Dick, who merely shrugs.

“Corax? Anything you wish to tell us?” Kori asks, ignoring the drama fest next to her as she places her empty cup in the sink. Wally shoots her a conspicuous glare of annoyance, but she pretends not to notice.

“Odd. It’s early. That’s the first encounter,” Corax says as he stands up, looking around at all the assembled Titans. “Beast Boy, Raven. You remember Headcase, right?”

Both Titans nod in familiarity at the name.

“Um…” Wally starts, “who is — ”

“Barney Venton. Young telekinetic. A very powerful one, at that,” Corax says. “He absorbs the knowledge of those he touches, but he made a deal with the Lords of Chaos to gain more power and to take his revenge on Raven, who defeated him in almost every encounter with the Titans.” (2)

“What else do we need to know?” Dick asks, attaching his domino mask to his face.

“The Lords of Chaos were able to get what they wanted because they had used Beast Boy as a bargaining chip against Raven,” Corax adds, securing his gauntlets. “You can’t let him be captured, either by Headcase or the creatures that he commands.”

Donna raises an eyebrow. “What creatures?”

“You’ll see when we arrive,” Corax says cryptically as Cyborg opens a Boom Tube near the facility. Nightwing is the first to cross over, and after everyone else passes through, the portal closes with a bang that echoes through the streets even as some civilians run past the group in a panic.

Roy turns and grabs a man wearing a lab coat by the upper arm when he approaches the Titans. “Where’s the threat?” he asks, and though the man is clearly terrified, he points down the street.

“Over near the S.T.A.R. Labs building. Most escaped and I left through the back door, but I think he’s holding some of the scientists in there hostage.”

Nodding in appreciation, Roy lets the man go. “The BPD has a perimeter set up further down the street. You’ll be safe there.” The man nods in understanding before he continues running.

“Okay, Cyborg, Raven, you’re on evacuation of the east wing. Get anyone you see out of the area and investigate the lab building for any hostages,” Donna orders. “Flash, evacuate the west wing and take Beast Boy with you. Don’t let him out of your sight, but to everyone else, don’t get caught either. Any one of us could be used as leverage. Rest of the team, on me. We’ll find Headcase and his…monsters.”

The team snaps into action immediately, but Corax stops Gar from immediately following after the Flash when he puts a hand on Gar’s shoulder. “They won’t hurt Raven,” he says quickly. “That’s who they want to keep alive. You need to stay vigilant or you could set us on the path of my timeline.”

Gar nods grimly at Corax, shifting into a wolf and following after the Flash. Corax watches him go, before he turns and joins the others.

“So,” Cyborg says as he pushes open the back doors of the S.T.A.R. Labs building, “what do you think about Corax?”

“What do you mean?” Raven asks, following after him.

“Nightwing is suspicious of him, and he’s said some odd things. I don’t think he is what he says he is,” Cyborg answers, a flashlight popping out of his shoulder that illuminates the dark hallways.

“I am unable to feel his aura. I believe his helmet blocks my empathic powers to a certain degree, but I do not know if it is magical in nature or if something in its composition is blocking me.” She pauses. “What do you mean he is not who he says he is?”

Cyborg forces open a set of double doors leading to a large meeting room, but finds the room empty. “Nightwing told me that Cor talked about Gar being instrumental in bringing both halves of yourself back together. We didn’t tell anyone about that specific detail outside of the Titans. The others were too busy fighting Trigon to notice that Gar was absent from the battle.”

In the next room, they find two scientists huddled up in the corner of the room, and Cyborg creates a Boom Tube to the police perimeter for the two to escape, who both thank them as they leave. “Night thinks that Corax wasn’t a new addition to the team,” he continues before he starts thinking out loud. “He suspects that Cor is one of us, disguised. He’s clearly not me, though; he’s almost six inches shorter. I was thinking maybe a future version of Nightwing? It would explain the blue and black color scheme, but he’s not married as far as I know. Flash is, but Corax hasn’t demonstrated any powers. And he didn’t mention having any kids. But Nightwing thinks Corax was the one who killed the future you, which is why he’s the only survivor.”

Raven frowns at Cyborg’s mumbling. “I see. But I doubt that who he is matters as much as what he is here for.”

Before Cyborg can think to argue the point, the radio comm crackles to life. “Watchtower to Titans, we’re getting a mass reading of signs of life in the basement level of the building’s west wing, unable to confirm hostility,” Oracle warns.

“Yeah, I’m thinking that they’re definitely of the hostile variety,” Flash’s voice comes through. “Beast Boy, stay close to — Beast Boy? Ah hell…”

Dread creeps in on Raven when she reaches out with her senses but is unable to find Gar. She exchanges a look with Cyborg, who immediately transforms his right arm into a cannon and wordlessly starts heading towards the stairs to the basement level.

“It’s almost too easy to get you alone and away from the others,” Headcase says, his voice echoing with the power of the Helmet of Chaos as he watches Gar with mild amusement. “I thought you would have been smarter about this.”

“You were the one who just put a wall between me and Flash,” Gar points out as he fights off some kind of eldritch abomination creature Headcase summoned from the void. “And what are the oh-so-almighty Lords of Chaos doing with a high schooler afflicted with migraines?”

Headcase’s face is completely obscured by the Helmet of Chaos, but Gar’s sure that the boy is rolling his eyes from behind its surface when he retorts, “what is the daughter of a demon lord doing with a guy who can turn himself into a cockroach?”

“That’s what I was wondering!” Gar says cheerfully even as he nearly slices the abomination in half with a single swipe from a polar bear.

“Well, I’m not here for you anyway,” Headcase says, hands starting to glow with crackling blue energy. “You’re just a tool to get me what I need.”

Gar abruptly transforms into a hummingbird to avoid being vaporized by the beam of energy that Headcase shoots at him, which cuts the monster in half instead of him. “The Disorganized Dudes could probably say the same thing about you, Barney.” (3)

“They’re the ones who are giving me all this power, Beast Boy,” Headcase snaps. “Power you can’t even fathom if you tried.” As if to demonstrate, the energy around his body flickers into a sinister shade of dark red, and he reaches out, surrounding Gar’s body in it before forcing him to revert to human form, then throwing him across the room with excessive amounts of force.

“Heh…that’s a neat trick,” Gar wheezes when he gets back on his feet. He transforms into a wolf and tries to leap across the room to tackle Headcase to the ground, but just as his front paws are about to make contact with Headcase’s body something grabs him from behind and uses Gar’s own momentum to slam him into the wall. The wolf lets out a high-pitched yelp of pain before it reverts to human form, with Gar cradling an bruised arm as he looks up to find the creature that had just been cut in two up and on its feet again.

“Ah, shit,” Gar mutters before he ducks below the abomination’s fist swinging for where his jaw was a half second ago, only for its other fist to slam directly into Gar’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him. It takes the opportunity to grab hold of Gar’s right arm by the wrist and twist. Gar howls in agony when the creature snaps his radius and ulna in two as easily as one might break a toothpick.

So much for not getting caught, Gar thinks to himself, attenpting to move away as it slowly advances on him like a horror movie monster. Bracing himself, Gar prepares to roll out of the way when the creature lunges for him, jagged teeth bared and monstrous claws prepared to slice him in two just like he did mere moments ago. Then Corax is suddenly in front of Gar, a katar-like dagger popping out of his right gauntlet as the creature, unable to change its collision course, impales itself on the blade. Hearing the signature noise of a Boom Tube opening nearby, Gar watches, eyes wide, as Corax brings his other arm up, something clicking into place before a beam of orange energy blasts right through the monster’s skull. He looks around to try and find Headcase only to find Cyborg and Raven moving towards him, with Corax letting the monster’s body fall to the ground when the blade retracts into his gauntlet.

“Shit, Gar, what…shit,” Cyborg curses as his shoulder-mounted flashlight turns on to assess Gar’s injuries.

“Headcase?” Gar asks, voice hoarse in pain. Raven shakes her head as Cyborg scans Gar’s arm with his bionic eye.

“Victor opened a Boom Tube to a magic-repressing cell in the Tower. Nightwing will interrogate him later…after the others are done fighting off the creatures Headcase summoned.”

“Okay, we’ve got a chalkstick open fracture and a few lacerations on the upper extremities,” Cyborg says. “Raven?” (4)

“I can heal it,” she says quietly, watching the blood drip down Gar’s arm. “The bone needs to be splinted before I do.”

“Hey, thanks,” Gar says to Corax, who has been hovering nearby since the monster’s corpse hit the floor. Corax turns his head so the front of the helmet is facing Gar. “You probably just stopped your entire timeline from happening, you know?” Cyborg helps Gar up, who winces when his arm moves.

“I did,” Corax says. “It would have been over the second that monster got its hands on you. We would have lost.”

Cyborg scoffs, opening a Boom Tube to the Tower infirmary as Gar leans on Raven for support, cradling his bleeding arm to his chest. “Really? Right then and there?”

“I would know,” Corax says, but offers no further explanation.

As the trio step through the Boom Tube, Gar thinks he hears Corax say something along the lines of “I was there.”

“Well?” Vic asks when Dick and Kori join the rest of the Titans in the common room later that evening. “What’d you get?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing,” Dick sighs, taking his mask off and rubbing his face in exasperation. “The kid won’t talk. Not even when Kori threatened bodily harm.”

“He is very persistent,” Kori agrees, irritation in her green eyes. “Even a starbolt near his head wasn’t enough to convince him.”

“Now Kori, you know we don’t intimidate criminals with physical violence,” Wally says, but the amusement in his tone betrays how he really feels about the situation.

“Yes, well. How is he?” Kori asks.

Gar shoots her a groggy thumbs up from where he’s lying across the couch, head in Raven’s lap as she slowly heals his fractured arm. “Never been better,” he says with cheer in his voice that’s only half-faked. “Courtesy of John Wick over there.”

Corax shifts uncomfortably when everyone looks at him. “It really isn’t necessary for you to keep doing that. You’ve said thanks about eight times since we got back.”

“Well too bad because I’m gonna say it more!” Gar giggles to himself, and Dick turns to Cyborg with a raised eyebrow.

Vic shrugs innocently. “Yes, I gave him some painkillers. His arm was snapped in half, did you want to hear him complain about the pain for the next few hours?”

“Touché,” Dick acquiesces, watching as Raven gently runs her fingers through Gar’s hair.

“I mean, to be fair, what Corax did was pretty freakin’ cool,” Roy adds, his eyes not leaving the screen where he, Garth, and Wally are playing Mario Kart. “Vic’s got it recorded.”

“Hm.” Dick watches as Raven finishes healing Gar, who sits up and moves his arm around before nodding and giving her a quick kiss. “Corax has been doing a lot of things lately.” He mumbles that last part, but Corax hears it anyway, stiffening and turning his head to face Dick.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Corax asks slowly.

Guess we’re doing this now. “I mean that you probably thought you’d be able to get away with it forever,” Dick says, crossing his arms. “But when you’re the former partner of the world’s greatest detective, you tend to learn a few things.”

“What’s happening?” Vic leans in to whisper to Kori, who just shrugs in mutual confusion even as Garth pauses the game on the TV to watch the interaction.

“I know who you are. You weren’t exactly careful with hiding your identity as much as you thought you were,” Dick frowns. “So when are you going to tell us the truth, Corax? When will you tell us what really happened in your time?”

Silence reigns in the room for several minutes before Corax sighs, “damn you and your detective dad,” and reaches up to his black helmet, slowly taking it off and placing it on the table next to him carefully. Though Dick remains unmoved as he finally looks Corax directly in the eyes, the other Titans are unable to do much more than stare in disbelief at the person who stands before them.

With an awfully sardonic smile on his face, Corax gestures toward himself in an almost dismissive manner. “Is this what you wanted, Dick Grayson? Is this what you expected me to be?”

“Tell them, Corax,” Dick says forcefully, ignoring the question. “They deserve to know.”

Gar slowly sits up from his place on the couch next to Raven, realization dawning on his face as he gradually puts all the pieces together. “Corax,” Gar repeats. “Corvus corax.” He narrows his eyes. “Scientific name of — ”

“The common raven. Yes, I know who I named myself after,” Corax says, his tone icy.

Gar narrows his eyes. He was the last living Titan in his time, and he knew about the blade. “Then that means…you — ”

“Yes,” the future version of Garfield Logan nods solemnly. “I killed Raven.”

Don’t panic, no, not yet
I know I’m the one you want to forget
Cue all the love to leave my heart
It’s time for me to fall apart
Now you’re gone but I’ll be okay
Your hot whiskey eyes have fanned the
flames
Maybe I’ll burn a little brighter tonight
Let the fire breathe me back to life
Baby, you were my picket fence
I miss missing you, now and then
Chlorine-kissed summer skin
I miss missing you now and then
Sometimes before it gets better
The darkness gets bigger
The person that you’d take a bullet for is behind the trigger
Oh, we’re fading fast
I miss missing you now and then
Making eyes at this husk around my heart
I see through you and we’re sitting in the dark
So give me your filth, make it rough
Let me, let me, trash your love
I will sing to you every day
If it will take away the pain
Oh, and I’ve heard you’ve got it, got it so bad
‘Cause I am the best you’ll ever have
Baby, you were my picket fence
I miss missing you, now and then
Chlorine-kissed summer skin
I miss missing you now and then
Sometimes before it gets better
The darkness gets bigger
The person that you’d take a bullet for is behind the trigger
Oh, we’re fading fast
I miss missing you now and then
Now and then
Now and then
Now and then
Baby, you were my picket fence
I miss missing you now and then
— Miss Missing You, Fall Out Boy

Search for the answers I knew all along
I lost myself, we all fall down
Never the wiser of what I’ve become
Alone I stand, a broken man
All I have is one last chance
I won’t turn my back on you
Take my hand, drag me down
If you fall then I will too
And I can’t save what’s left of you
Sing something new, I’ve nothing left
I can’t face the dark without you
There’s nothing left to lose, the fight never ends
I can’t face the dark without you
Swallow me under and pull me apart
I understand, there’s nothing left
Pain so familiar and close to the heart
No more, no less, I won’t forget
Come back down, save yourself
I can’t find my way to you
And I can’t bear to face the truth
Sing something new, I’ve nothing left
I can’t face the dark without you
There’s nothing left to lose, the fight never ends
I can’t face the dark without you
I wanted to forget
I’m trying to forget
Don’t leave me here again
I am with you, forever, the end
Sing something new, I’ve nothing left
I can’t face the dark without you
There’s nothing left to lose, the fight never ends
I can’t face the dark without you
Holding the hand that holds me down
I forgive you, forget you, the end
Holding the hand that holds me down
I forgive you, forget you, the end
— Without You, Breaking Benjamin

Chapter Text

“Beast Boy! Beast Boy, come in now!”

Gar jolted awake from his restless slumber on the uncomfortable piece of plastic that was an infirmary bed. Throwing his hand out, he grabbed his earpiece comm lying on the bedside table and hastily attached it. Pressing the button while trying to untangle himself from the paper-thin sheets, Gar answered.

“Dick?! What’s going on, what are you guys — ”

“It was a trap!” Dick yelled, and Gar flinched a bit at the volume of the comm, pulling the earpiece back a little bit so the ringing in his ear died down. “She pulled us out into a trap! You need to get the blade!”

Gar’s blood ran cold at the implication. “Dick, you know I’m not — ”

“She killed Garth!” Dick interrupted, and Gar’s eyes widened as the severity of the situation dawned on him. Finally getting his legs free, Gar stood up and immediately headed for the door.

“What?! How?”

“I don’t know, I just…she hit him with something! He’s not breathing and I can’t find a pulse!” Dick said, and Gar could hear the faint sounds of explosions and screams in the background. “You need to get that blade and come here now, it’s our only chance at stopping her before this gets worse!”

Gar looked down at the arm sling across his chest. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to get there in time,” he said, shoving the door open and running down the hall to the stairwell.

“Just get here as soon as you can,” Dick said, “we didn’t — ”

The radio crackled with static for several seconds before going silent, and Gar cursed under his breath. He took the stairs down two at a time, painfully aware of the seconds ticking by as he raced to get the blade. Slamming open the stairwell door, Gar immediately headed for the armory, barely stopping to let the door slide open before he squeezed his way through. Fluorescent lights above him flickered on as Gar stalked towards the bladed weapons area, coming to a stop in the middle of a display case. Smashing the glass, Gar winced as the display shattered, sending tiny shards of glass flying everywhere.

He looked down at the seemingly nondescript dagger lying there, ready for the taking, with nothing about it giving away anything about its true intended purpose. Glaring down at the weapon, Gar picked the dagger up and tucked it into his arm sling, hidden from view as he turned and exited the way he came.

To say the city was in shambles would be an understatement, and Gar couldn’t help but gawk at the wrecked buildings lying on top of each other like dominoes. Following the path of destruction, he was forced to get out of the car he’d taken to leave the Tower when the road ended in a large pile of rubble and he couldn’t go any farther. Gar climbed over the various large pieces of concrete and rebar, hearing shouts and voices in the distance and heading towards the source.

The first sign of something being terribly, horribly wrong was the various pieces of metal that suspiciously looked like the plating covering Cyborg’s body, making Gar’s heart lurch in his chest at the sight. The second sign was Donna’s lasso, lying on the ground and the normally bright blue light emanating from it conspicuously absent. The last was when he turned a corner and found Roy, face down on the concrete, arrows strewn around his body and a large pool of blood underneath him. Gar’s hand flew to his mouth, barely holding back a retch as he followed the sounds of battle. Already Gar knew that there was nothing that he could do for Roy, so he pushed forward.

The closer he got to the ongoing fight, the further his stomach sank. More bodies followed, most of them civilians but all of them far beyond saving. Tears ran down Gar’s face as he passed the empty husk that was left of Cyborg’s body, the Mother Box that kept him alive and gave him power torn out of his chest and discarded onto the street, its blue light extinguished.

And then he looked up in time to watch Flash’s body come crashing through the window of a store next to him. Gar immediately bolted for where he landed, climbing over the debris to find him sprawled out on the floor, suit in tattered pieces and half of his mask torn. Lying in a rapidly growing pool of blood that seemed to originate from his abdomen where he was run through by a piece of rebar, Wally looked up weakly to find Gar standing over him, eyes wide with horror. He barely managed to give Gar a small smile of relief before he exhaled and didn’t move again.

Gar reached out with a shaking hand to close Wally’s eyes respectfully before his entire body stiffened, hair on the back of his neck standing up before he turned to find her hovering in the doorway, shadows leaking out all around her as she approached. Before Gar could even open his mouth to demand an explanation, he was seized by an invisible force and thrown back out onto the street. His broken arm burned in agony as he landed on it wrong, and he let out a pained scream, feeling the broken bones shift against each other in a way they should not have.

Struggling to roll over onto his side, Gar looked up to see his assailant rapidly approaching him again. She shot him an eerie smile, and Gar swallowed hard before she spoke.

“Took you long enough to get here,” Chaos Raven taunted, her voice echoing with the unstable and corrupt power that seized her mind.

Gar’s eyes narrowed and he managed to wheeze, “not for lack of trying on my part,” as he climbed to his feet. Miraculously, the blade had somehow not clattered free of his arm sling even after being thrown across the street, and she didn’t seem to know he had it with him.

Chaos Raven raised an eyebrow. “Is this your last line of defense? A man with a broken arm who can’t even shapeshift?”

He grimaced and got into a battle stance. “I don’t need to transform to stop you.”

“Interesting.” Chaos Raven cocked her head to the side, before holding up her hand, encased in the scarlet energy of Chaos. Flicking her hand towards him, Gar didn’t even have the chance to see what was coming before a sharp pain exploded in his chest, making him cry out in shocked agony. He looked down, eyes wide, at the red slowly blooming across his chest.

“Don’t worry, it won’t kill you. There’s no fun in killing you; that’s a large part of Raven’s suffering.” The Lords of Chaos smiled down at Gar, who was doubled over in pain. “But if you ever try to shapeshift again, the shrapnel will pierce your heart and it will kill you. Quickly.”

Gar spat out the blood in his mouth and glared up at Chaos Raven. “Go fuck yourselves,” he growled defiantly.

Chaos Raven’s eyes narrowed and a piece of rebar shot forward from where it was lying on the street, passing clean through the flesh of Gar’s leg and making him scream. Crumpling to the ground, Gar barely had enough time to track his opponent’s movements before he was shoved back by an invisible force, slamming into a concrete wall. He gasped as all the air in his lungs was forced out of his body, only to start choking as Chaos Raven pinned him against the wall, hand wrapped around his throat and lifting him into the air.

“On second thought,” Chaos Raven sneered, “perhaps we’ll just kill you now and be done with it.”

Enemy or not, Gar still hated himself when he clawed at the arm holding him up, the tips of his claws leaving behind deep, bloody scratches on what was still technically Raven’s body. Chaos Raven leaned in towards him, sneering as she asked, “what do you think, Garfield? Would you like to die at the hands of the one you love the most?” The bastardization of Raven’s smile grew wider. “A bit poetic, don’t you think?”

Still trying to pry apart Chaos Raven’s fingers from his throat, Gar managed to give himself enough leeway to choke out a weak “Raven…stop…”

“Oh, but we’re having so much fun, Beast Boy,” she mocked. “Us Lords of Chaos haven’t had an actual physical body in centuries. Can’t a girl let herself loose every now and then?”

“You’re…not… Raven,” Gar shook his head, not so much saying the words as he was squeaking them past his constricted windpipe. “Raven…I know….you’re…there…fighting…”

“What is it you mortals say? Oh yes…Raven’s not here anymore,” she said. “We can leave her a message, if you want.”

Gar ignored the Lords of Chaos inhabiting Raven’s body. “Rae, please…. come back…come back…to me…” Black spots danced in Gar’s vision as his brain continued to be deprived of oxygen.

Her eyes narrowed. “How many times do we have to tell you — ”

Abruptly Raven stopped, freezing in place as her eyes clouded over. The darkness was nearly over Gar then, but it vanished entirely when Raven suddenly dropped him onto the concrete. Immediately Gar fell to his knees and started coughing violently, taking in large gulps of air. When he’d finally caught his breath, he dared to look up at Raven, and his heart nearly stopped at the sight of her.

Raven had stumbled back several steps as she took in the destruction all around her, eyes wide and panicked. She looked down, and their eyes met for a brief moment before Raven sank to her knees in front of Gar, breaking eye contact.

“Raven.” Gar moved towards her but stopped when she flinched back from his touch.

“Garfield, I…” she looked all around them, at everywhere but him, wide eyes brimming with tears. “What have I done?” she whispered.

“Raven, you did nothing. This isn’t your fault,” Gar said gently. “It’s not your fault.”

“It is.” She looked back at him and gestured towards his chest. “You-you’re hurt because of me.”

Gar moved closer to Raven, letting out a small sigh of relief when she didn’t move away again. “I chose to come here, I didn’t — ”

“I gave in to them. I let them in,” she continued. “And they are trying to take back control.”

Gar’s eyes widened. “Can-can you fight them?”

Raven shook her head. “It is too late. I have already let them in. If I had known this would happen, I never would have…” she trailed off, glancing around at the mountains of rubble. Gar’s heart lurched in his chest when Raven choked back a sob, turning back to face him with desperation in her eyes. “Garfield, you-you have to stop them. Stop me.”

His mouth went dry as he remembered the dagger he slipped into his arm sling; the dagger that was still tucked away; the dagger he thought she had no idea he had. He shook his head. “Raven…”

“Please, Garfield,” she insisted, taking his hand in both of hers. “I can’t stop them. And even if I could, they would not let me.” Her eyes glistened with tears, matching the ones in his eyes as well. “You are the only option. My last chance to be stopped before I cause any more destruction than I already have.”

Gar drew back, horror written all over his face as he shouted, “no! No, there has to be another way, Raven. There’s got to be something else we can do, something we can try!”

Raven looked at him with eternal sadness in her eyes that made his heart crumble to pieces. “Even if there was, we do not have the luxury of time.” She reached forward and pulled the dagger out of Gar’s arm sling, unsheathing the blade before placing it in his hand. “I wish there was more that we could do…but I am already losing the fight to retain control over myself.” She put a hand on the side of Gar’s face, giving him a weak and tearful smile. “I wish it didn’t have to be you, Garfield. I wish we had more time.”

“This is going to kill you,” Gar said, tears running down his face. “It’s going to forcibly exorcise you and practically destroy your soul. There would be no coming back from this…I can’t…I don’t…please, don’t make me do this…”

Raven took his face in her hands and leaned their foreheads together. “It is me or everything, Garfield. You know which one is more important.”

“You are everything to me,” Gar hissed. “I would kill the world for you.”

Raven closed her eyes, letting the tears spill over. “You can’t. They will not stop at Earth.” She inhaled shakily. “Please, Garfield. I will love you forever, and I despise that you have to be the one to end it, but you cannot let them win.”

What hurts more than knowing what he’d have to do is knowing that she was right. If not stopped now when he has the chance, there wouldn’t be another one before the Earth fell to the power of the Lords of Chaos in Raven’s body. Several tears rolled down his face as he painfully, reluctantly nodded his assent. Gar reached out and placed a hand on the side of her face, jaw trembling. “I love you so much,” he whispered, before he closed his eyes and shoved.

Raven gasped, perhaps involuntarily, as the knife sank into her chest. She started to fall back, but Gar reached out and caught her, sobbing as the ground beneath them became stained with Raven’s blood. He gathered her into his arms, bent over her body and crying uncontrollably. He was sure he’d never cried so hard in his life, perhaps second only to when he was told his parents were never coming home. He was so wrapped up in his cries of anguish that he almost missed it when Raven whispered his name, until she reached up with a shaking hand to gently turn his head to face her and not at the dagger sticking out of her chest, soaked with her blood.

“Garfield,” she repeated, and Gar opened his eyes to find her violet irises trained on his. Tears ran down her face as well, but she managed to gasp, “do-do you take me as your unofficially wedded wife?”

Gar squeezed his eyes shut and nodded fervently. “I-I do,” he said, hand reaching forward to brush some of her hair out of her face. “Would you take me as your unofficially wedded husband?”

“I do,” Raven breathed, her body relaxing in his arms at the words and closing her eyes. “A-and I would do it all over again, because loving you was the best thing that could have happened to me.”

Gar hunched in on himself as his shoulders shook with uncontrollable sobs. “I-I wish this never happened,” he wailed. “I wish I could go back in time and fix this.”

“It’s not your fault,” Raven whispered, her voice nearly imperceptible. “Please do not blame yourself, Garfield. Live, for me.”

Gar sniffled. “There is no life for me without you,” he croaked. “But I’ll-I’ll try.”

“Good,” Raven exhaled, pulling him down for a long kiss that said everything they wanted to say but didn’t have the time for.

They parted after a few seconds, Gar leaning his forehead against Raven’s and breathing in her scent, tainted with the sharp tang of her blood. Gar nuzzled into her neck, whispering, “I love you.”

Raven inhaled deeply, letting it out slowly before she replied, “I love you too.”

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

…

Silence.

Leaning his head on Raven’s, Gar gave himself over to the sobs of grief wracking his body.

Thirty minutes later, the Justice League arrived to find a destroyed city, with a broken man hunched over in the center of it all, holding on to what little was left of the woman he loved.

She finds him in their room later, arms crossed, standing in front of the window, staring out into the dark night, claws digging into his own skin, but not hard enough to draw blood. Quietly making her way to him, she stops when she’s standing next to him in front of the window, and though he doesn’t turn towards her, his hand moves at his side to take hers.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Raven asks after a few minutes of silence broken only by the gentle whirring of the room’s fan blades.

Gar is quiet for a moment.

“When the Doom Patrol died,” he starts eventually, “I asked Steve why Mom would willingly choose to die if she had a husband and a kid to come home to. I didn’t understand why she would choose a bunch of strangers over her family.”

“What did he say?” Raven asks, looking up at Gar.

His jaw clenches before he answers. “He said, ‘sometimes you have to choose between the world and your world. And if you have loved ones who are still alive…you know which one to choose.’” He takes a deep breath and releases it in a resigned sigh. “I didn’t truly understand what he meant back then. I do now.”

Raven closes her eyes but says nothing, instead choosing to wrap him in a hug that he returns, burying his face in her hair. “And I imagine it was even more painful for Corax when he realized it, too,” he mumbles.

“Corax said that me staying with the Titans despite the first confrontation had already changed the future,” Raven says. “The mere fact that I am here shows that we can prevent his future from happening.”

“They’re still after you. You’re still not safe.”

Raven pulls back from his embrace to look at him in his bloodshot eyes. “And Corax ensured that you were not sidelined from the beginning. We have ten fully rested and battle-ready Titans. Their plan failed.”

Gar leans his head against Raven, who wraps her arms around his neck to hold him close. “I’m just…I don’t want to lose you. Not after what Corax told us.”

Raven tilts her head up and their lips meet, with Gar placing both hands on either side of her hips as they kiss slowly.

“I don’t want to lose you either,” Raven says against his lips.

Gar sighs, snaking his arms around her waist before pulling her body up against his, breathing in her scent and shuddering when she brings both hands to his chest and deepens the kiss. He separates from her only to whisper, “I don’t want to make love right now, I just…stay with me tonight. Please,” he says, voice quiet and nearly nonexistent. Raven nods immediately.

“Of course I will stay with you,” she tells him softly, before unclasping her cloak and summoning one of Gar’s shirts in her hand, slipping it on as Gar pulls his suit off, leaving him in his boxers. Gar manages to give her a small, genuine smile, the first one he’s had all evening, before Raven takes his hand and leads him to the bed. Lying on his side, Gar pulls her so that his chest is to her back, brushing some of her hair over her shoulder as he holds her close like she’ll disappear if he loosens his grip. Raven takes the hand resting at her waist, bringing it up to her lips and kissing the inside of his wrist and palm.

“I don’t want to let go of you,” Gar mumbles, the comfort of her lying next to him and the warmth of the blankets slowly lulling him to sleep, kissing the base of her neck.

Raven doesn’t reply immediately, but after a while she turns in his arms so they’re facing together. Placing a hand on the side of Gar’s face, she whispers, “So don’t,” before placing her lips on his again.

It’s been so long since he’s actually walked the halls of Titans Tower since the incident.

He hasn’t been in any version of the tower since that day, and even now as he wanders the halls, unable to find it in him to sleep, memories of a past life continue to haunt him. He’s walked past the bedroom suites of each Titan as if to remind himself that these Titans, even if they aren’t necessarily his Titans, are still alive.

Nightwing and Donna, as co-leaders of the team, were both completing paperwork to be sent to the Bludhaven police department and mission reports to the Justice League. Cyborg tinkered away at some new project he’s been working on, most likely something to do with system maintenance and hardware updates. Arsenal was on the phone with Lian, talking about her most recent adventures as Cheshire Cat and what her mother had been up to now. Wally had left the Tower a few hours ago to celebrate Linda’s birthday with the twins. Garth was apparently watching some kind of fantasy show, and Kori was most likely tending to her garden of alien flora.

Gar and this Raven, well…

Corax fights back tears as he listens to them talk to each other about love and loss in hushed tones, how Gar says he loves her and Raven quickly returns the sentiment. It had been so hard to not reveal who he was to her on the first day of his arrival, to not immediately break down crying when he heard her voice for the first time in four years. To not sink to his knees in front of her and beg Raven, even if she was not from his time, for forgiveness. He’s got the feeling that no matter what universe, no matter the life experience, Garfield Logan will always mourn the loss of the people he couldn’t save.

And he does remember Steve telling him that sometimes you have to choose between the world and your world. Killing Raven and freeing her from the clutches of the Lords of Chaos was the right thing to do, but it was the most difficult choice he ever had to make in his life. 

Corax misses his Raven dearly, but what tears him apart even more than his hands being the ones that ended her life is the fact that by the nature of how he killed her, there is no hope of seeing her again. No chance to touch her, no chance that he’ll ever smell that mixture of lavender and old books, no chance to ever hear her say his name again. Corax can only hope that this Raven is too focused on Gar to recognize his own tumultuous emotions as he stands by the door, tears falling down his face as he listens to the two whisper words of affirmation to each other. Gar says that he doesn’t want to let go of her, and Raven makes it sound so easy when she replies, “so don’t.”

There’s a moment of silence and he hears the rustling of sheets before Gar proclaims his love for Raven. A broken smile flits across Corax’s lips when he hears Raven say, “I love you too, Garfield.”

It takes every ounce of willpower to drag himself away from their door after several minutes have gone by and he can tell they’ve both fallen asleep in each other’s arms. Raven was and still is the love of his life, and even four years after her death he mourns her loss as if she had died yesterday.

Any version of Garfield Logan is no stranger to grief, having loved and lost before. But to be the one to metaphorically pull the trigger on the person that he would’ve taken a bullet for…it tends to break a man. Corax hadn’t lied when he said all the Titans died that day. As far as he’s concerned, Beast Boy died with the rest of the Titans, and if he’s not able to shapeshift because his connection to the Red has become faded over time, then all the more reason to say that Beast Boy is dead.

All the reminiscing on the past has unconsciously brought Corax back to the infirmary where it all began, before retracing his steps back towards the armory and reliving the worst day of his life. Though he’s no doubt been instrumental in preventing this Raven’s fall to Chaos in the way that his Raven had, he’s no clue on where they’ll go from here, and he’s not sure what will happen to him when this entire ordeal is over. Their only hope is to somehow make it to when Doctor Fate can arrive at the Tower and use the power of the Lords of Order to shield Raven, but Donna had had no idea when he would be able to stop by in between his own duties as a hero.

The hallways of the eighth floor where the combat room and armory are kept are eerily silent as Corax retraces his steps. The armory is just as it looked in his time, the words etched into the steel door as perfect and immaculate as they always have been. Corax gently opens the door and steps into the room, eyes scanning the glass cases surrounding the various weapons. He runs a finger along the edge of the case as he looks over the various blades collected by both Dick and Donna, over the familiar shine of metal and the empty space where —

He stops in his tracks, eyes widening in realization before the severity of the situation dawns on him. Corax immediately turns on his heel and leaves the armory in a hurry, tapping into the radio comms and hoping that against all odds, someone is awake to hear it.

“Armory and containment breach!” Corax yells as he runs through the halls, slamming into the door to the stairwell and taking the stairs two at a time as he approaches the floor containing the living quarters. “Headcase got out and has the iron dagger!”

It’s times like these that Gar’s immensely grateful for his heightened senses.

The sound of the bedroom door sliding open rouses him from his slumber, but the foreign scent is what puts his entire body on alert. He rolls over to instinctively cover Raven’s body with his own just in time to block the blast of energy from hitting a still-asleep Raven in the abdomen, grunting in pain when the full force of Headcase’s blast slams into his body.

Scrambling to put his feet on solid ground, Gar turns to face Headcase, his stomach dropping when his eyes land on the iron dagger in his right hand, surrounded by blue energy.

“Ah, well, two birds with one stone, I guess,” Headcase says, and fires another energy blast that Gar only barely manages to avoid. Raven is awake as well at this point, but when she tries to release her soul-self the runes on the dagger glow orange and she falls to the floor with a cry of pain. Gar instinctively looks to the side to see if she’s alright, a mistake he instantly regrets when Headcase’s next blast not only throws him back several meters, but also burns his skin from the energy beam’s heat.

“You were all so easy to fool. One of the greatest superhero teams on Earth and a simple illusion is enough to trick you? How does it feel knowing you got outplayed by a teenager?” Headcase mocks, his voice echoing through the room as the Helmet of Chaos distorts the tone. Despite the agonizing pain of his seared flesh, Gar manages to get to his feet, transforming into a tiger and roaring. He places himself between both Headcase and Raven, still on the floor as the dagger’s runes suppress her powers. Gar’s ear flicks as he hears the faint sound of footsteps coming down the hall at a fast pace. Please be backup please be backup please be backup —

The door slides open again and Gar catches the silhouette of Corax in the light of the hallway before he lunges forward and tackles Headcase to the ground. The dagger clatters to the floor as he loses his grip on the handle, and Gar runs forward to recover it.

“Where are the others?” Gar asks, ignoring the pain in his chest as he picks up the dagger and throws it down the hall with as much force as he can muster.

“Fighting each other,” Corax says before he’s blasted backwards by Headcase.

Gar roars and lunges forward with large bear claws slicing through the air as he moves towards Headcase. “What are you doing to them?” he growls.

Headcase’s arm shoots out and he grabs Gar by the throat. “Just twisting their perception. Keeping them busy.”

Gar transforms into a snake and escapes the boy’s grip before transforming into a gorilla and throwing him out into the hallway. Behind him, Corax helps Raven to her feet, so Gar moves towards a downed Headcase.

The boy shoots his arm out as if trying to reach for something and Gar curses himself for his ignorance when the dagger that had been lying in the hall is summoned to Headcase’s hand. His other free hand glows with the power of Chaos magic and Gar curses himself even more when he’s forced to revert to human form. Headcase takes advantage of Gar being temporarily off balance and swings forward with the blade, cutting through Gar’s skin before he can adequately dodge the weapon. He hears Corax let out a curse behind him as Headcase moves forward, forcing Gar back into the room with every slash of the blade.

Corax’s blade gauntlets unsheathe and he steps forward to parry the dagger away from Gar’s already bleeding body before raising his other arm to fire an energy beam at Headcase, only for his aim to be knocked off course when Headcase grabs him by the wrist and quickly diverts it. The glass window shatters as Corax shoots the window instead, and Gar lets out a loud curse when Headcase uses the hard metal of the helmet to headbutt him in the face.

“You’re all too much trouble for what you’re worth,” Headcase growls, before seizing Gar’s throat in his hand and throwing him through the shattered window to fall several dozen meters to the ground.

“Funny, I could say the same thing about you,” Corax retorts, throwing a punch at the side of the helmet. The knuckles of his suit barely make a dent in the metal, but he takes advantage of Headcase’s movement to grab onto the bottom of the helmet and pull, tossing the Helmet of Chaos onto the ground where the energy that had been surrounding it dissipates. Corax takes Headcase by the wrist and twists until he’s forced to drop the dagger, after which he kicks it through the window. Seconds later, Corax hears the screech of a bird of prey from outside.

“Are you trying to freaking kill me?” Gar asks as he flies in through the hole in the window.

“No, but he is,” Corax replies, ducking out of the way when Headcase fires a blast of energy at him.

“You’re ruining everything!” he seethes, lifting off the floor to levitate in the air as he throws the bedside lamp at Raven’s head, still recovering from the dagger’s draining abilities. Corax shoots the lamp away from her so it crashes against the wall instead. Screaming in outrage, he fires another energy blast at Gar, who dodges it only to be blasted back through several walls by Headcase’s counter. Corax lifts his arm that has the ejected blade, but is quickly restrained and lifted into the air by Headcase’s telekinetic powers. The blade itself trembles in the gauntlet before it pops free and flies into Headcase’s hand.

“This will have to do,” he smiles cruelly at Corax, and turns to face Raven on the floor. “If I can’t have her power…no one can,” he declares before advancing on her.

In his many years as a hero, both as Beast Boy and as a vigilante stalking the streets of Bludhaven, Corax has faced death many, many times before.

Not once has he ever seen his entire life flash before his eyes when in a life-or-death situation. More often than not, he just sees death and destruction; the lives he couldn’t save and the promises he couldn’t keep. He’s carried the guilt of his inability to keep his loved ones safe throughout the years, and when he closes his eyes at night, all he sees is her tearful face as he prepares himself for what he’ll have to do.

But now, as he watches Headcase advance on another version of Raven, this one just as vulnerable as the one he couldn’t save, he understands, and instead of facing death like he’s always had, he finally faces life.

The life he had with his parents. The life he had with the Doom Patrol. The life he had with the Titans, the family that took him in when his own had seemingly died.

The life he had with Raven.

The connection blinks back to life.

And he transforms.

The Corax armor falls to the ground, empty.

The shrapnel that he’s never told anyone about shifts in his body as he changes, and he’s surprised to learn that it doesn’t even hurt when it shreds through the tissues of vital organs as their positions rearrange. He already feels dizzy from blood loss even as the large hand of a gorilla takes Headcase by the arm and throws him back onto the floor. The blade in his hands clatters to the ground, and he watches as a Boom Tube opens up beneath Headcase’s body, where he disappears into. He turns his head as the Boom Tube closes to find Cyborg standing in the doorway, holding Gar’s body up.

He looks to the side at Raven to see if she’s okay, finding her leaning on the bed as she struggles to her feet.

She’s okay. She’s safe.

“Corax?” Gar asks in concern when the man suddenly falls and doesn’t get back up. “What’s wrong with him?”

Cyborg kneels down next to Corax’s prone body, electronic eye scanning his body. “Uh, massive cardiopulmonary hemorrhage, from the looks of it. Piece of shrapnel shredded through his vital organs. Lots of internal bleeding,” he reports, face grim. Gar helps Raven up and she sits opposite to Vic, taking Corax’s hand in her own, eyes flashing with power before she shakes her head solemnly.

“I could heal this, but he has lost too much blood already,” she says, and Gar’s heart sinks.

“It-it’s okay Raven,” Corax wheezes, turning his head to look at her. “I’ve made peace with my death a long time ago.” He blinks back a tear as Cyborg removes his shredded shirt to better scan his torso. “I’m just glad I was able to save any version of Raven.”

“We have blood on hand for a transfusion,” Vic says, but Corax shakes his head.

“There’s no life for me without her, without the other Titans,” he says. “But I can’t stay here either.” He turns his head to look at Gar and address him. “Cherish the time you have with the others. You won’t know what you have until you’ve lost it. Hold onto them for as long as you can because it won’t last forever. But don’t be afraid of loving them. Don’t be afraid of loving her.”

Gar nods solemnly. “Thank you,” he says quietly, taking Corax’s other hand in both of his own. “I won’t. I promise.”

The man gives him a small smile, before turning to face Raven. “I know you’re not my Raven but…thank you. For everything.”

Raven squeezes his hand and gives him a soft smile. “Thank you,” she whispers. “You saved me. You saved us.”

Corax nods solemnly, giving her a small smile before closing his eyes and exhaling softly for the last time.

“Do you think he’s in a better place now?”

Raven leans her head on Gar’s shoulder. “I want to believe that he is,” Raven replies as Doctor Fate finishes up the psychic Chaos shielding on her mind. “I want to believe that he has found peace with himself, wherever he is.” She nods in gratitude towards the sorcerer, who returns it before leaving the two on the common room couch to speak with Dick and Donna at the other side of the room.

Gar takes Raven’s hand in his own, pressing his lips to the crest of her chakra and making her shiver. “I don’t know that I’d ever find peace with myself if I knew that I would never see you again in this life or the next,” he admits, watching Donna hand the cursed blade over to Fate. “I hate to be the cheesy one, but it wouldn’t be heaven without you in it.”

Raven smiles sadly at his attempt at a joke. “The people you lost have always defined your every waking hour,” she tells him, staring out the window. “You cannot move forward with yourself and truly heal from it if you cannot forgive yourself.”

Gar doesn’t reply, so Raven leans back on him. “But it is always so much easier said than done, is it not? For everything that I have lost, I was nowhere near as close to it as you have been.” She tilts her head back to look Gar in the eye as he wraps an arm around the front of her waist and pulls her body closer to his. “So I cannot ever know how it feels to keep losing those you love. And if I were to lose the person I have the strongest bond with? If I were to lose you?” She closes her eyes and sighs deeply. “I don’t know what it would do to me.“

“You won’t ever have to know that. I’m not going anywhere for a while,” Gar says.

Turning in his arms, Raven places both hands on the side of Gar’s face, leaning in and pressing her lips to his. She pulls away before the kisses can get too passionate, however, and whispers with a sad smile, “don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I don’t want to go,” he says, almost sounding like a petulant child.

She gives him a soft yet sad smile. “I’m afraid you don’t have a choice in the matter. Your time has come, and it’s my responsibility to escort you.”

Garfield watches as Cyborg lifts his body off the floor. “There’s no life for me if she isn’t there too,” he says sadly.

Death says nothing, simply watching and waiting. After a while he finally sighs and turns towards her.

“Alright,” he says. “Where do I go from here?”

Death waves her hand in the air and a bright light surrounds them, engulfing their previous environment until they’re entirely surrounded by white light. The light starts dissipating as quickly as it came, however, leaving the two standing in the middle of a field with rolling hills, flowers, and a sunrise-lit sky.

“That’s something for you to find out, Gar Logan,” Death says cryptically, before vanishing.

Any other person would stop to take in the beauty of the world around him, but for Gar, his heart has sunk to the lowest of lows. Raven isn’t here. This place…it’s ethereal, like out of a dream. But it isn’t paradise without her. Gar sinks to his knees, grasping at the strands of grass beneath him. This is it. I’ll never see her again. Tears roll down his face but he makes no move to wipe them away and squeezes his eyes shut.

An afterlife without her is not one worth living.

“Guess I’m not living then,” a voice says from behind him.

He feels warmth against the side of his face as someone moves closer to him, and slowly opens his eyes to find Raven — his Raven — crouched on the ground in front of him, staring back at him with a small smile on her face.

“Hello, Garfield,” she whispers, brushing her thumb over his lips. “I have been waiting for you.”

From the top of a large castle a young man dressed in pure white robes observes the couple on the ground as they reunite in their new afterlife, absentmindedly stroking the head of a raven perched on the railing in front of him.

“Did I do the right thing, sister?” he asks aloud to the silent presence behind him.

Death steps out from the shadows and moves to stand next to her younger brother, nodding in acknowledgment to Matthew the raven.

“Do you think you did the right thing?” she asks.

“I want to believe that I did, but they have traded one life of conflict for another,” the lord of dreams answers. “The Sphere of the Gods and by extent, the Dreaming, has never and will never be truly at peace. Not since Morpheus died.” (1)

“Uh, what’s going on?” Matthew asks, shifting his weight on the railing. “Isn’t she supposed to be deader than dead?”

Death looks to Matthew with a bemused look on her face. “You have the entire library of the Dreaming at your disposal and you don’t understand what’s happening?” she asks.

“I don’t have hands like the rest of you!” Matthew defends, spreading his wings in irritation. “I can’t just open a book with nonexistent thumbs!”

Daniel smiles to himself.  “I heard Raven’s soul call out to me when she was dying,” he explains. “She asked me to save what was left of her soul and bring it here so it could be preserved in the Dreaming. She offered to help me in any future endeavors, as long as I brought her love here as well when it was his time.”

“Could’ve just led with that,” Matt grumbles. 

“Do you think they’ll be alright?” Daniel asks Death, nodding towards them. “Will they be able to find some semblance of peace here even as the realms continue to be at war with each other?”

Death steps up to the railing, watching as the pair embrace each other tightly. She smiles to herself. “As long as they’re together?

“I think they’ll be more than alright.”

I wanna roll the numbers
I wanna feel my stars align again
Even if the Earth breaks like burned skin
And the heavens just won’t open up for me
Would you invite me in again?
Won’t you pay for your arrogance?
Won’t you show me your weakness?
I made loving you a blood sport
I made loving you a blood sport
I made loving you a blood sport
I can’t win
I made loving you a blood sport
I made loving you a blood sport
I made loving you a blood sport
I can’t win
So let’s play
And somewhere
Somewhere the atoms stopped fusing
I’m still your favorite regret
You’re still my weapon of choosing
And out there
Stuck in a quantum pattern
Tangled with what I never said
You say it doesn’t matter
I wanna be forgiven
I wanna choke up chunks of my own sins
Even if the sky cracks in mourning
And the heavens just won’t open up for me
Would you invite me again?
Let me pay for my arrogance?
Won’t you show me your weakness?
I made loving you a blood sport
I made loving you a blood sport
I made loving you a blood sport
I can’t win
I made loving you a blood sport
I made loving you a blood sport
I made loving you a blood sport
I can’t win
And somewhere (I made loving you a blood sport)
Somewhere the atoms stopped fusing (I made loving you a blood sport)
I’m still your favorite regret (I made loving you a blood sport)
You’re still my weapon of choosing (I can’t win)
And out there (I made loving you a blood sport)
Stuck in a quantum pattern (I made loving you a blood sport)
Tangled with what I never said (I made loving you a blood sport)
You say it doesn’t matter
— Blood Sport, Sleep Token



If I can’t let you go, will darkness divide?
For the fiction of love is the truth of our lies
We were playing for keeps, but we both knew the cost
Now the only way out’s in your heart shaped box
But I hate that it seems you were never enough
We were broken and bleeding but never gave up
And I hate that I made you the enemy
And I hate that your heart was the casualty
Now I hate that I need you
As we rest here alone like notes on a page
The finest to compose could not play our pain
With a candle through time, I can still see your ghost
But I can’t close my eyes for it
For it is there when you haunt me most
When you haunt me most
I hate that it seems you were never enough
We were broken and bleeding but never gave up
And I hope that I stain through your memory
As we echo through time in the melody
Now I hate that I need you
And I hear you now when you said it hurt
But it had to fall, fall apart to work
As I see you now, in what’s left of me
Is it too late to plead insanity?
‘Cause I hate that it seems you were never enough
We were broken and bleeding in the name of love
And I hope that we meet in another life
I hope that we meet in another life
I don’t hate that I need you (I don’t hate that I need you)
I don’t hate that I need you (I don’t hate that I need you)
I don’t hate that I need you
— Another Life, Motionless In White