Dick was sitting at his desk, Gryfin across from him, going through the files they had one the most recent murder. A rather brutal one. But he couldn't stop thinking about Raven and what she had said. She had been the reason her entire city, Azarath, was dead. No not even a city, a dimension. He couldn't even begin to imagine what she was going through.

"What are you thinking about?" Gryfin asked and Dick looked over to his partner, "You're pretty zoned out."

"I was thinking about Raven," He admitted.

"The girl you brought in from the streets?" Gryfin asked and Dick nodded.

"She told me some more about her old home last night," Dick explained, "And how it got destroyed. She blames herself."

"It can't have been that bad, I mean, it's not even been on the news," Gryfin said, "Honestly, she's probably just overreacting. You know how you felt when you're family was killed. It's probably just the same thing."

"Yeah," Dick agreed, but he knew how different it was, and that he couldn't tell his partner.

He jumped as his phone started rapidly beeping, Gryfin laughing at him, and looked down at it.

The humour was suddenly gone. It was a distress signal from the mountain. Just as soon as it started it stopped.

"I have to go," Dick said as he picked up his jacket, "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Wait, where are you going?" Gryfin asked but if he expected a reply he didn't get one.

Dick ran straight to the nearest Zeta tube, too aware of the gun on his belt and the fact it was the only weapon he had. When he arrived at the cave he noticed two things. There had definitely been a fight and that M'gann was losing.

He ran at Raven and managed to tackle her off of M'gann, the surprise working to his advantage.

He heard M'gann drop to the floor behind him, but didn't look back, he was focused on Raven now. He felt a force push him off of her and went flying across the room, his back hitting the corner of the bar, and a groan escaped him at the pain. He was lucky his spine hadn't snapped.

He didn't have time to get back up as Raven came and landed on top of him, so he did the only thing he could. He took out his gun and fired a warning shot. The momentary distraction was enough for him to shove Raven off of him and get back on top. She growled up at him, struggling under his grip.

"Raven, listen to me-" His sentence cut short as Raven rolled over, using both of their weights so that she ended up on top again.

He reached again for his gun but Raven had other ideas as he found it hovering just above his head. He threw himself up at her, both of their heads colliding but it was enough to get her to lose her balance and drop the gun from her power.

He threw himself at her again, it seemed reasoning wasn't going to work so he was just going to have to knock her out. He was about to reach her when he had to roll out of the way of a flying sofa. But he rolled straight into the path of the other flying bookshelf, knocking him right out of the way like a bat and a ball. His vision went fuzzy for a moment as he lay there, unsure of what was happening. The only thing he could think was that he couldn't move.

----------

Raven watched with satisfaction as Dick rolled straight into the bookcase and was battered into the far wall. He was still conscious but he wasn't getting up, sometimes beating up a mortal was so entertaining. But it was always short-lived. She made her way over to him, watching as he struggled to get his body to respond, but she'd hit him hard enough. She crouched down in front of him, but his eyes wouldn't focus on her. Her smile became even wider.

Until suddenly his eyes came back into focus and his legs swept out, tripping her onto her side and she had just enough time to roll away as he launched himself at her. He was slower and bleeding heavily. She danced backwards, calling forth an array of kitchen knives again and holding them until he stood up and saw. Then she threw them all at him. Somehow, he nimbly dodged them all, only one nicking his left arm. But he didn't seem to notice as he picked up one and ran at her.

She easily dodged all his swipes, and grabbed his wrist, twisting until he was forced to drop the weapon and then even more until she heard the snap. She laughed at his scream. But he controlled himself well as he came with a roundhouse kick. She lazily caught his foot in her magic just before it hit her head and used it to throw him into the fridge. Another groan escaped him at the impact.

She called out the wires from the back of the television, the large screen falling to the floor as it lost its support with a loud crash, causing Dick to look up just as the wire came to tie him up. He leapt up and over them, Raven focusing to keep them following him, and ran towards the broken screen. He dived to the floor, hissing as the broken glass cut his skin, and picked up a piece, slicing at the wires until they ran out. Now she was getting annoyed at him, no one ever survived this long against her. Not even the Martian had.

The Martian.

She scanned the room, her gaze darting over fallen shelves, broken glasses until it landed on the woman by the edge of the lounge. She made her way over but was stopped as she was tackled into from the side by Dick again.

Her back went straight into the kitchen counter and a gasp escaped her at the pain. She felt fists connect with her side and arms, taking a moment before she trapped his arms in place, the right hand still hanging limply where she had snapped it. She smirked at him a moment, but that had allowed him to raise his leg and give her a kick, causing her to lose concentration as she stumbled to the side.

A growl escaped her as she threw herself at the mortal, colliding head-on with her own tackle, and then she threw him over the top of her across the room. He landed and slid along the floor until he fetched up against the doorway. She turned back to the Martian and headed over to her again, crouching down next to her as her eyes fluttered open.

----------

Dick was in more pain then he thought humanly possible. And it wasn't getting any better as Raven just bested him again and again. Why wasn't anyone else responding to the distress signal? Unless they hadn't seen it.

Oh, he just loved his life sometimes.

He sat back up, standing with the support of the wall, and looked over to her. She was standing over M'gann. He began to move over to her, ignoring the pain that shot through his body as he did, to see the Martian was awake. He ducked as Raven came flying over his head and looked over to M'gann.

"Are you okay?" He asked as she came over to his side.

"Better than you," She replied.

"You need to go get help," Dick said, "We can't take her on alone."

"I can't leave you with her," M'gann said but the had to dodge out of the way as the ceiling came down between them.

"Well, I can't get out now anyway. Go!" Dick shouted and M'gann debated for a couple of moments before heading for the zeta beams.

Raven went to follow but Dick threw a book at the back of her head, "Hey, I'm not done with you yet."

The half-demon rolled her eyes at him as she ran back over, phasing through the rubble without a second thought.

Dick leapt out of the way as she kicked out at him and landed in the glass of the T.V. He swears there was more glass in him than on the floor by now. He was thrown back onto the glass as Raven landed on top of him and rolled onto his back, a larger slice cutting open just above his eye so that the blood meant he could no longer see.

"We're done," Raven hissed and Dick arched as her hand went into his chest and grabbed his heart and began squeezing.

He couldn't stop his body convulsing as she continued squeezing, he couldn't even scream. And then it all stopped. The last thing he ever saw the smile of his enemy.

----------

A deep primal scream cut through Raven building up from inside to the outside, washing away her father's influence until she had returned to normal, but it was too late. She stared down at the broken body in front of her. At what she had done, again.

"This is what you're meant for Raven," Her father said and she could hear him smiling, "This is what you were born to do."

"Shut up," She said as she placed her hands over Dick, "Just shut up."

She put all her focusing into her power, she had to heal him, she had to. She felt her power reaching out, searching for everything broken about him. Pushing out the glass and knitting over the wounds, realigning and mending his wrist and a few small fractures in his back. Then it focused on the heart. She cried as she realised what she had down, at how it had burst open under the pressure she had put on it.

She had to be able to fix it, she had to. She could feel herself working overtime, she wasn't meant to expend this much power at once, it could backfire. She pushed harder, she could feel the blood pooling back to where it should be. The heart moving back and fixing.

She screamed as she was thrown across the room, her magic giving out on her. She crawled back over to his body, now looking perfect as if he had just gone to sleep. But she knew better.

She had killed him, and she couldn't take it back.

The tears welled up even more as sobs wracked her body. Maybe her father was right, maybe this is all she was meant to do. Maybe she needed to chant the words and let him in. She paused for a moment, he hadn't spoken at all during this, not after she'd told him to shut up. Maybe she'd managed to expel him. But no, she could see the glow coming from it, he was active.

"Dad, what are you doing?" Raven asked, a feeling of fear rising in her.

"I'm helping you," He said, "I can see how much you care about this mortal. I shall bring him back now and spare his life when the apocalypse comes. But you must understand I will never do this again."

"Thank you," She said, "Thank you so much."

She looked back down at Dick, he was still cold, still pale, still dead. She watched with bated breath for minutes but nothing happened.

"Dad?" She asked as she looked over him again.

"I'm so sorry kiddo," He said, without much remorse at all, "But you did a number on him. He's too far gone."

This time the sobs hit even harder and she brought his body in as if she was hugging it. She had killed him, and not even the devil could bring him back.

----------

Dick was floating in emptiness, all around him was black. And silence, a silence so eternal it cut straight through his soul. He seemed to float there for forever until another figure appeared. He was red-skinned with four eyes like Raven, but he had horns and white hair.

"You're Raven's father," Dick stated as the man came over to him.

"And you must be Dick," He said, his voice a low gravelly sound, "I've heard so much about you."

"What do you want?" Dick asked.

"I want my daughter to be happy," Trigon said, "And that means reviving you from the mess she made. Fortunately, she's not strong enough to do it herself, which means I can have my fun and games."

"What are you going to do?" Dick asked, "I've heard you're trapped in the little stone on her head."

"Luckily for me, you're not," He said and Dick felt something stabbing at his dead heart. He let out a scream at the pain, his wide eyes focused on Trigon, "You see Dick. Thanks to my daughter killing you, I can revive you into whatever mold I want. And I know what mold I want, one that will get her to release me. And you're going to do that for me, Dick, you're going to want to."

"What are you doing to me?" Dick panted out as Trigon moved closer to him.

"Whatever I want," He grinned and vanished into the blackness.

Dick felt another stab at his heart and let out a scream into the blackness.

----------

He jumped awake with a start, knocking heads with an unsuspecting Raven. He saw the Chakra on her head dim to normal as she looked at him and an unbelieving look crossed her face and then she brought him in for a hug.

"You're alive," She breathed, "You're alive."

"I guess I am," He replied and heard the zeta tubes announce the arrival of the rest of the team.
The pair looked over to them and stopped, "I don't know what you're looking at. We're just having a hug."

He heard Raven laugh next to him and joined in at the look of his teams faces. But there was something else he had to do, something important.

Something world-destroying