(Enjoy devilinyoureye - and happy birthday for yesterdayyy!)

It hadn't surprised anyone that Batman had insisted on going. And Jason. And Cassandra. And basically most of the Batfamily. Raven was now one of them- another devil child in the family, in quite the literal sense. Had Dick not been worried about Kori going in to labour while he was gone, he would've demanded to come along too. As would Selina, if Bruce hadn't insisted she stay and look after Belladonna with Alfred.

As it were, the people who'd gathered for the briefing were as follows:

Batman, Cassandra, Timothy, Jason, Stephanie and Kathy Kane of the Bats. (Bat woman found out by sheer chance and thought it would be a shame to miss the opportunity).

Constantine, Zatanna and Etrigan on the magical side: the ancient demon had been called upon by Constantine, who'd known that he would want to participate.

Lahra, Tyrone, Jackson and Zeela (yes, even the peaceful sea-dweller had tagged along) from the Dark preternatural community.

And of course, the collected loyal League of Assassins soldiers, reformed under the hand of Emrys (Damian's fellow legacy-demon trainee years ago) and recently, Talia Al Ghul.

That left only Raven, Damian and Adyn.

Oh- nope- Raven, Damian, Adyn and one other.

Adyn's lust interest himself, the Light Councilman Aleil. There were a few raised eyebrows at that- particularly from Constantine. Raven was coming to terms with the fact that her brother was falling for a creature of Light- that didn't mean she liked it- but at least Adyn was happy.

With them all congregated in the newly established  LoA headquarters in America (in Gotham) it was time to explain each party's role. Role in what? Only taking back control of Hell, no big deal.

***

Praying to the Mother spirit of the Netherrealm that her father didn't perk up now, Raven opened a black gaping portal leading in to the depths of Hell. Besides her, Constantine and Zatanna did likewise, with their two opening to different locations within the living lands- heaven forbid they enter the wastelands.

The largest of the two groups (the LoA soldiers, Emrys, Constantine, Zatanna, Etrigan, Red Robin (nobody say shit about Drake. In my happy world of make-believe, that title does not exist) ,the Red Hood, Batgirl, Batwoman, Lahra and Jackson) went through Constantine and Zatanna's portals. Their job was simple: defeat the soldiers of the Hellish forces . No problem.

The second group had a much harder task at hand. They had to get to the heart of Trigon's palace and tackle those at the head of this coup. Raven's three brothers. Representatives of the most despicable ones of her kind. Thriving on agony and hatred more than blood and flesh. Evil incarnate and evil in soul. Figures borne of malevolence and made in flowing rivers of innocent blood- all those children torn apart at their hands...oh the children...

And...something else. Something they weren't quite sure of. Something sitting on the throne with a visage masked man shadows and a body hugged by a cape that looked like terrorised wraiths sewn together by the Fates' hands.

With the alarm bells ringing through the palace, whose beauty came from the ceaseless labour of slaves. Their crumbling figures and trembling arms had hewn this great mass of dark elegance from jagged chunks of obsidian those eons ago. But that was history. And there was much worse history for Raven to regret for her ancestors.

She had to focus on that moment. And in that moment, she was standing in the throne room, facing fifteen of the elite demon guard in front of her three brothers and the shadow sitting on the throne.

There was a still moment.

Raven wanted to reach out for Damian's hand, feel it's warmth and know that it would all be fine. Because it would. Absolutely. Totally, completely fine. They had Master assassins and combatants and magicians and.... oh Azar...

One look in to her brother's eyes. The demon on the left. She froze. The other two were monsters. Horrific creatures of death. But this...he....gods no...

Ephron.

Envy.

Raven choked back a sound. It might have been a cry. Maybe a scream. She pushed back the wave of memories that wanted to chuck themselves at her like wild animals in front of a lorry at night. Except she was the roadkill.

Damian stared at her with concerned eyes, but she was locked on to those yellow death sentences. How she had wished once that he would just kill her and end it all.

His four yellow eyes glared at her, and she was five again. Mercy, she had begged for. Just mercy. Again and again. But there would be no pauses in training until the time was over. 'Endurance' training. Torture. That's what it was, excruciating torture. Delivered at the hands of Ephron. Envy. With a hungry smile and bloodied blades.

Adyn had it the worst. Needing to be punished every day for nothing. A misplaced word to Ephron. A wrong glance at Ephron. A general feeling that wasn't to the satisfaction of Ephron. Adyn had tasted the barbs of Envy's weapons for a near century. Raven's five or so years were nothing.

She looked at her brother, standing besides her, in his battle face- black horns, white hair, red skin, horns and deadly blades. There was so much fear in his eyes and heart, but resolve too. Buckets of it. Raven drew on that like a waterless desert-wanderer.

"Sissster....brother...", Ephron hissed, "the returning traitors."

"See how they shake in fear." Lust- Calder- chuckled, toying with a black knife. Raven remembered that small blade well- it's bite was worse than Calder's bark.

Between the two of them, in front of the shadow-wearer on the throne, was Linus, Sloth. The tallest of the three and the oldest by three hundred years or so. He bared his teeth, "Two pests out of the way, another two to deal with. " Linus clenched and unclenched his hand, and flames consumed it. He thrust them at forwards, and a ball of fire flew at the demoness.

The demonic forces surged forwards and the fight began. Raven flew out of the fireball's path, splaying her fingers and crying out, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!", bringing forth a wave of our black magic that swept the first four soldiers off their feet. Damian and Cassandra struck the fallen elite guards, striking at fine pressure points and knocking them out stone cold- they wouldn't be breaking the no-killing rule so blatantly in front of Batman. As Raven withdrew her demonic blade (gifted to her by Damian at Christmas) she saw the guard in front of her take a step back.

Raven smirked.

She slashed forwards, strengthening her blow with magical power, sending the demon flying in to the wall just behind Ephron. Envy leaped forwards, joining the fight with Lust and Sloth, as Batman took down another two assailants. On Raven's other side, Zeela fought with skill never before seen of her, weaving  through the soldiers and striking them with a knife that seemed to be made of shape-shifted water (a skill possessed by all of her kind).

With their combined efforts, the fifteen of the elite guard had fallen, leaving only Ephron, Calder and Linus. Ephron faced off against Batman and Adyn, viciously slashing at the air where the two had stood and twirling around with menacing speed, but that speed was well-matched and Ephron was overwhelmed by their combined forces. Calder struggled under the onslaught of attacks from Zeela and Aleil, which left Damian, Raven and Cassandra to deal with the oldest demon child- Linus.

He fought with skill deserving of his age, avoiding the most calculated blows from the assassins and powerful assaults by the demoness. Just as Damian and Cassandra seemed to have trapped him in to leaving himself open to Raven's powers and they seemed to have the advantage, along with their allies, the figure on the throne stood up.

Raven took a dashing opportunity and thrust her demonic blade in to Linus' chest, straight through his heart. All metres of him disintegrated, crumbling away in to a black dust, then nothingness. His next destination would be the Wastelands of Hell to rot for eternity. A fitting end.

Finished with her brother she looked up, and the shadowed person let the darkness slip away from them.

Raven didn't blink. She tried to fathom it, in some area of her mind, but nothing would cooperate. Who...but by Azar it's...I should know who but...wait, it's coming to me... gods say it isn't so- but it is- her face- those eyes...Azar have mercy I remember!

Damian was fixed in place, rooted to the ground like a thousand year-old tree grown in the fertile soil of fear. Those years- those memories- that had been tucked away in the recesses of his mind, forbidden to him, now let loose their secrets- well... a few. But that was her. He was so filled with shame that he'd ever made himself forget. Then he gained the memories of the pain, that awful pain, and he remembered why he'd forgotten.

Some things were too painful to remember. Damian had known that for many a year. His memory was a patchwork of blank spaces and dark spots he'd rather leave alone. Now some of those foggy blank spaces were clearing themselves up and bearing the truth in a godforsaken testimony of pain pain pain PAIN!

That bittersweetness of a lost scene that existed only as a whisper on the breeze that you could sometimes smell in the most random of places and brought tears for seemingly no reason. That was her face. And how he'd seen her smile, the only smile he'd known for many of his years.
In his head in played, that beautiful humming sound, her peaceful hymn of love for a son that was not hers but might as well have been.

The sister that had to be so much more. How had he forgotten?

A strangled, choked sound escaped his throat, but he said nothing.

He looked in to her eyes, the eyes of Sahara Al Ghul, and his body regained its function. There was something wrong.

More wrong than anything else that day so far.

All warmth had fled from her green eyes and was replaced by a coldness that chilled Damian's bones. The hair that he recalled to have been softer than freshly fallen snow and the colour of unroasted chestnuts now was a scraggly mass of white locks. She wore a corset of black leather, that displayed her darker olive skin, and black trousers but remained shoeless. Her feet hovered just off the ground with her entire body rimmed by a reddish glow.

That could have been her, in front of Damian and his allies. But he reasoned that it could also be a creature using her form- or one that draws upon mental vulnerabilities...Are the others affected?

He looked around him, there was a lot of confusion, but no fear or extreme alarm on anyone's faces. The others still held down Raven's two other brothers, but Damian saw his father looking at his with concern. Of course Batman could see what was wrong. Damian turned his eyes to his other side, and no problems there. Except for Raven.

She stared at the floating woman with...regret?- no, guilt? Damian couldn't understand it. He took the first step.

"Who are you?", he demanded.

Those green eyes, identical to his own, snapped on to his and a flicker of recognition was engulfed by obliviousness.

She spoke with the voice of a timeless creature, deep, hissing, and utterly foreign to his ears.

"Your end."

A.N:

And that is where I leave you! Yay!

Now, this whole concept of Damian's sister and her having a connection to Raven was the starting point to my idea for this story. In actuality, this whole 'storming Hell to regain it' idea was the only plot I really had in mind for this book from the start, everything else I've just made up along the way really, it could have been a disaster. But it's not- so that's nice! 

It's taken 93 chapters to finally get to this point...time to go out with a BANG!

-Bats ;)