fandomtownies | The Woods in the Preserve, Friday Afternoon

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The Woods in the Preserve, Friday Afternoon

Karla was in a Mood. A bad one. First, that little snack Alluka had brought for her had gotten away. Now, something was happening around the island and, whatever it was, she didn't like it. She was hungry, all the lovely fog was going away, and she just wanted to bite something until it bled and screamed and died. The bodies of several hollows littered her cavern. She hadn't even eaten most of them, she'd just wanted to murder something and they'd been handy.

Ugh, where was one of those obnoxious Fandom heroes now? She'd show them what a real apex predator looked like.

[For one and for epic SP]

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Raven could leave Fandom now. She could return to Glacia -- at least she assumed she could; she hadn't tried yet. Because she wasn't going to go before she did one thing.

She teleported herself to Karla's cave. "Karla!" she called.

Karla scuttled towards the save mouth and frowned, rolling her eyes. "Oh, it's you," she said. "I'd hoped for someone who'd actually offer me a challenge."

The victory over the thing that had been Zoe was still singing in her veins, and Raven did not alter her aggressive stance. "I am returning to Glacia," she said. "But before I go, I must be able to tell your children that their mother is at peace."

"You're doing what now?" Karla wasn't referring to the implied threat, no. "You think you've somehow managed to escape Fandom's web, little bird? Maybe you have lost your mind."

"We are no longer bound to this place," Raven said. At least the way to the mainland was open again, and she prayed to Azar she would be able to teleport across dimensions to Glacia.

"But you will not be leaving with the rest of us."

"So Zoe has fallen," Karla said thoughtfully and there was a dry skitter-hiss as she moved about her lair. "And now you think that something has changed between us? Don't be ridiculous, Raven. You can't kill me. Even if you have the power, your weak, fool's heart won't let you."

"That may have been the case previously," Raven admitted, "but I still held hope that somehow this could be reversed, that despite what I told myself, there was still something of you left inside this abomination you have become." She hadn't wanted to admit it to herself, but it had held her back. Others she had killed more easily, but Karla...Karla was different.

"But that is not the case, and I am prepared to face you now."

"Of course," Karla said, nodding. "And you importune me to come out and I refuse and then you stomp off in a swirl of black skirts. Come now, Raven, we've played this game a thousand times. If you want me, you'll have to come in and get me."

Raven began to shift into her demon form. "Ready or not, monster," she said, practically spitting the last word, "here I come."

She stepped into the mouth of the cave, expecting the ebon-grey barrier to stop her.

Raven passed into the cave mouth with nary a cobweb to impede her. Karla was hungry and if her old friend was going to offer herself up on a platter, who was she to stop her.

The cave was dark, though, the light entering into the cave for only a few scant feet and the cave was much deeper and larger than it appeared on the outside. Webbing was abundant, clinging and sticky, holding the dessicated husks of previous victims that Karla could be bothered to clean.

"Are we playing hide and seek?" Karla asked, her voice bouncing off the cavern walls. "Are you really so sure you're it?"

Ignoring Karla's taunts, Raven paused and closed her eyes. She wasn't so sure this would work as it had against Zoe, but it was worth a try.

She gathered up her carefully protected memories of Karla's children, and her own as well, wound them with the love she felt for her friend, and projected them outward into the web.

Karla hissed, skittering backwards like she'd been burned. "What is that--no!" she howled as the threads holding her tangled webs in place turned back and crumbled away. Light flared as Karla's illusions were stripped from her and her next words were garbled and broken as she spoke with her true mouth.

"Kill you!" she screeched. "Going to kill you and feast on your rotting corpse!"

No more pretty face, no more golden hair, Raven stood face to face with the real Karla.

It was incongruous, wearing her demon skin and yet thinking of love and hope and joy. But she needed both the darkness and the light. Raven stepped further into the cave, thinking more and more of Karla, memories strengthened by having met that other Karla and holding her inside herself.

The bad memories she swept aside. Of the good, there were plenty. Karla's Virgin Night. Becoming a member of her First Circle. The morning (http://glacial-queen.livejournal.com/1875.html?thread=171859#t171859) of Karla's coronation. A surprise (http://fandomhighdorms.livejournal.com/2023436.html?thread=173991180#t173991180) birthday party. Drunkeness (http://fh-trips.livejournal.com/60839.html?thread=14088359) at Vail. Christmas (http://justwantsquiet.livejournal.com/38009.html?thread=1005689#t1005689) in Bon Temps. Comfort (http://glacial-witch.livejournal.com/41805.html?thread=1656141#t1656141) when Raven couldn't heal Jono. Heading the Magical Reserves together. The concern (http://fandomhigh.livejournal.com/2638220.html?thread=169504652#t169593996) Raven constantly felt for Karla. When she'd come back after dying (http://trigons-child.livejournal.com/41297.html) defeating Trigon. Every little thing she could remember.

She knew she was making herself an easy target, but it was worth the risk. She took all the emotions she was feeling, all that love, and fused it with a bolt of demonic energy aimed straight at the creature that had worn Karla's face.

With a screech, Karla leapt at Raven. She could feel her skin twisting, burning, sloughing off as she was hit by bolt after bolt. But she wasn't going to go down easy, reaching out with long claws to rake down Raven's face.

Raven cried out in pain as the claws tore into her skin, poison seeping into her veins. She reeled backward, almost falling.

"I am sorry I could not spare you this, Karla," she said, clutching her hand to her face and trying to focus through the pain to heal. "I am sorry I was not stronger."

"And I'm sorry you won't make a longer dinner!" Karla hissed, attempting to throw some webbing around Raven's hands to drag her forward. Her real venom was in her teeth and she wanted to slide them into Raven's throat and feel her insides dissolve while she fed.

The webbing caught Raven's hands. She struggled as she was pulled forward, then changed course and lunged at Karla, tearing the webbing as she threw her arms around the torso of the creature.

"I love you, Karla," she said as she focused all that emotion and all her power into her.

Karla screamed, an angry, high-pitched noise that could rupture eardrums. Struggling, she tried to break Raven's grip and, when that failed, began biting instead, aiming for Raven's eyes and throat and face. Anything to make the painful, burning agony stop.

She reached for Craft, but her Craft was useless, dragged far out of reach by pain and debilitating weakness. One of her legs gave, then another, her swollen abdomen hitting the floor. Her thrashing weakened and she mewled, "No, no, Darkness have mercy, Raven, no."

Raven almost faltered at her words. The places on her face where Karla had managed to scrape her fangs were burning with venom, and blood was dribbling from her ears. And she sounded so much like Karla....

No. Karla would not beg. Karla would go down fighting and screaming and cursing. This thing wore her form, but it was not her.

She sank down, cradling the thing's torso in her arms as she gathered her strength for one more attack. As she pressed her lips to Karla's forehead, she poured everything she had left into her.

"Nooooooooooo!" Karla wailed, engulfed in a bright pink light that tore away flesh and tendon and muscle. Her last action before she was blasted into nothingness was an attempt to pass her hand into Raven's chest and rip out the heart that was causing her destruction.

Raven almost let her. It would have been fitting, would it not, to die this way, destroying one another. Almost as if that had been meant to be. Most of her life since coming to Fandom had been entwined with Karla's.

She thought of her own children, though, and Kayla and Collin, grown so much now but desperately waiting for word of their mothers. Could she condemn them to live with ignorance, wondering why they had never come back? No. Someone had to tell them the truth.

She wrenched herself back as Karla screamed and vanished. But she couldn't help but feel that some part of her did die in that moment.

She sat back on her heels, hot tears starting to flow as she stared at the place the creature had been. It had not been Karla, but still, it felt as if she had dealt the killing blow to her friend. She was gone, with no hope of return.

"I will return to Glacia," she said, her voice choked. "I will tell your children how much you loved them. How you would have given anything to return to them. They will feel it from me, I promise you."

It was a long time before she could stand and leave the cave.

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The Woods in the Preserve, Friday Afternoon

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