Chains of red and gorged ropes wrapped around her limbs, or at least tried to, but were obliterated when it came in contact with her magic. Phantoms of dark memories played all around her and tried to ensnare her only to falter every time it came near her.
The light from Dr. Fate's magic gave her an anchor to her own sanity and control. Had it not been for it, Trigon would have sublimated her a long time ago.
She could still feel it though. Fraying at the edge of her mind, like a dark mucous, slathering around every crevice, looking for the barest slip she would give. It felt sickening how intimate his actions were, to her, and she knew that was exactly the reason why he did so.
It hadn't been until she saw him, spoke to him face to face that she finally understood where the disconnect was. The one they'd seen so far was nothing but an aspect of the whole.
There was no mistake that it was Trigon that was sliming around in her head, but what she had seen was not all Trigon was. He was bigger than that – deeper than that. And that was what made him even more frightening.
That of all the horrors and nightmares she's received from him, it was barely scratching the surface of what he could give. Truly she lucked out in winning the father of the year.
Dr. Fate's magic gave her more breathing space for her to exact her own control as she fought against Trigon's influence on her mind. For him to be able to stave off Trigon's influence on not one, not two, but on three fronts simultaneously would make him just about the most powerful sorcerer she'd seen till date.
It was not a feat she could hold herself capable of. At least not anytime soon.
Besides, "Get away from me." She lashed out, the barest hint of anger in her voice as her magic pushed away Trigon's even more. With Dr. Fate's magic shielding her mind, she had more leeway in directly fighting off Trigon without having to divide her focus.
"That hurts. How coldhearted can you be?"
Once again she heard the whispers in her head. "Don't speak as if you care for it." She tried but it was hard for her to stop her emotions from bleeding through when Trigon's presence was all around her.
"If I didn't, would I be here?"
"You're here because you don't," she replied harshly.
"If I weren't so fond of lying I would say you tell the truth." The voice replied. "But before that, I have a surprise for you."
It came as flashes of a memory but the one figure she saw in it almost made her stop her magic.
The first thing that came to her mind was that the images were a lie. Taro shouldn't be anywhere near the Hall of Justice. He went with the League of Assassins so there was no way he would be here all of a sudden.
Did he do something? Her father was extremely sadistic and this was exactly the type of scenario he enjoyed playing with. Twisting the lives of innocents as mere strings in a dark play only he got to enjoy.
Even as she wondered at what Trigon was playing at (though she had a pretty good guess) her hands never stopped as a huge wave of magic erupted from them and pushed Trigon back. She felt her mind clearing up a bit and her thoughts becoming more guarded from him.
She could feel the gem in her head pulsating but she ignored it as she started actively taking back control of her mind.
"No need to hurry. Take your time. My gift isn't going anywhere–"
She pushed his words away as memories of her lessons with Taro came to mind. Guarding one's thought was an act of precision and she had been training hers to be as sharp as a knife.
She cut off Trigon's dark words and whatever influence it had on her mind and with her new clarity she threw a bit of caution away and reached out to the fractured and alienated part of her mind.
Trigon was sectioning away parts of her mind and using them as a foothold on both her mind and the physical world. He was using her power over shadows as mini-gates to send his demons through.
Her actions were a bit risky but now she could clearly see it. The only reason why he had little to no influence on her mind was because of Dr. Fate's interference or else the heroes would have more to worry about than just demons. But as it were they were running out of time. She was running out of time.
If she could get to Taro then her influence over her mind would be strong enough for her to eject both of them from this hellish mindscape.
Even as she fought off Trigon's influence, the world of her mind still took on the same hellfire and brimstone appearance which was testament to how close Trigon had come to fully consuming her.
The gem on her head glowed intensely as she worked her magic relentlessly and wrestled back her mind from Trigon's hands. If she was surprised that it was aiding her in fighting off Trigon then no one would know because she outright ignored it.
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...
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Taro on the other hand was fighting like a madman while he ignored the laughing devil on his shoulders. Since it made known its intent on not answering Taro's simple question, Taro chose the simple choice of not humoring it as he continued to fight his way through the hell he'd found himself in.
Being a mental projection was like a flipping coin. There was a good and bad side to it.
The good side was that he didn't have to worry about physical limits. Sure he couldn't project himself as something other than the sum total of what he was but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. While he couldn't project himself stronger than he actually was, he also didn't have to project himself as 'weak' as he physically was. Simply, he was projecting himself in a state he considered his 'physically strongest'. His prime, so to speak.
On the flip side of that coin however was a lot simpler and far more damning: he had a physical limit. He couldn't exert more than he physically could. And while on a normal occasion that would be magnitudes above what normal people could, it didn't actually mean much in a magical mindscape.
He could protect himself just well thanks to his own strength and whatever magic the sorcerer had done, but his ability to help Raven, while not completely zero, was greatly diminished.
"Your 'daughter' takes after you well. You both know how to struggle in futility." That increasingly familiar mocking baritone entered his ears.
He ignored the voice and would have ignored the demons crawling out of the fiery cracks in the ground had they not been in his way.
It was then that he felt a shift in the world they were in. Something had changed and he knew exactly what had. Raven.
He didn't know what exactly changed but he could tell in what way it had. Raven was wrestling back her control and while he was happy with the development, the fact that Trigon was here talking and mocking him made the unsettling pit in her stomach grow.
Trigon's visage was long gone but he could still feel the eyes on his body and he could tell they were smiling. The demon's mask was slipping and the implications of the reasons why was not one Taro had any interest in hearing.
"Can you hear that?" A wave of pure magic washed over Taro and his lips almost twitched into a smile. He could feel her clearly now and he was sure she could feel the same.
"Is this the scope of what you humans call pride? How limiting." The voice said, as if making a casual comment, and Taro felt it turn towards him.
"This gift is for her and as such I don't want you to interfere. How sad. So you think she'll take it? She has to, right? After all, I'm the one giving it."
More now than ever Taro could clearly feel its breath on his neck, if not for how his spine tingled then it was because of the overwhelming stench of death that pervaded his senses.
His limbs suddenly weighed dozens of tons and his sight felt as if he was swimming through molten tar. The winds in his lungs ceased and were replaced with the heat of burning sulphur.
Heated coal flowed in place of blood in his veins and his mouth was filled with rotting lead.
A possession, he instantly recognized.
As if responding to his thoughts, the magic John Constantine had put in his body activated and tried to fight back the foreign action being taken against his body.
"You all fight so brazenly even without understanding what it is you're fighting. Pests thinking they are anything other than they are. You amuse me nonetheless."
Whatever protection the magic that was put on Taro gave held for a moment, even fighting off Trigon's possession for an instant, only for it to fail spectacularly as the entirety of Trigon's presence in Raven's mindscape surged towards Taro and swallowed him up.
He could feel as his mind went under and something else came up. He tried to fight it as much as he could but how could his decades of experience compare to the weight of a being eons old with more deaths to his name than life on earth?
He was still aware, well about as aware as a man being buried under hell, and he could hear and feel just about anything that was happening around him, albeit the sensations that reached him felt as if they were passed through a muted film.
'This is bad.' He thought grimly. He could see the nefarious play Trigon had set up being unfurled.
He could still feel his limbs and his connection to them but the actions they took were not his own. It was like being half-awake in a lucid dream.
"Let him go."
Raven arrived and the expression on her face was the most Taro had ever seen her wear.
"Now now, my dear child, that is not how you receive a well-wishing gift." His mouth opened to speak but the words he wanted to say were not the ones that came out.
"I'm not. I'm refusing it." She said severely. Magic gathered around her hands in a threatening show but Trigon just laughed and even boldly stepped forward.
"But that's the thing with gifts. Even if you hate them, you have to remain polite and receive them. It's common decency."
"You don't know anything about common decency." She spat out venomously. If it wasn't for the dire situation, and his inability to regain control of the situation, Taro would have waved the small flag in his back pocket for support.
"Let him go now." She took a step forward, unflinching as stood face to face with the embodiment of her nightmares.
Except, "Those are not the correct words, Raven."
"I'm not playing whatever games you're trying to rig up."
Her newfound confidence, while pleasing to look at, had no place in this theater Trigon had set up.
Taro could see it clearly. He was sure she could too. This was never about the right choice. It was about what hurt her the most. This whole invasion thing was secondary at best. Being possessed by Trigon as he was, Taro could confidently say that this was the main reason why the demon even bothered.
This moment right now.
"Two gifts, because only I can be that gracious. Him or the world – pick your favorite, Raven."
Raven physically recoiled and Taro guessed that hearing such a thing with his voice delivered a more hurtful blow, which of course was just what Trigon intended.
And more so he could feel it. Trigon didn't really care for what choice she made. Either of both would hurt her all the same and that was the only thing he wanted.
The look in Raven's eyes hurt him more than anything because he could tell just how shocked she was.
Maybe she never expected it, maybe she never entertained the idea that she would one day be forced to make such a choice. This wasn't about right or wrong, no, this was about just how far he could make her sink in her own choices. And as the sick being he was, he made sure Taro got a first class ticket to watching her make a decision.
"Clock's a' ticking, daughter mine. And you either gain him, or you gain the world. It's all about what you want more. It's a gift after all."
Taro has never regretted words more than he did the words that were coming out of his mouth. The demonic taint of Trigon's voice was gone and so all that Raven heard was the unmistakable soft tone of Taro's voice.
The world around them was quickly unravelling and it seemed that whatever lingering hold Trigon had on this plane was being snuffed out but the being in question simply smiled mockingly at Raven.
Taro could read the reverberations from Trigon and knew that he just never cared about the invasion. Whether the heroes won or not didn't matter. Whether she sealed him for another thousand years didn't matter. What mattered to him were the choices she made and how deeply he could make them hurt her.
So even as Dr. Fate hurried up with whatever he had been doing, Trigon just smiled at Raven, smiling even wider as he knew the choice she'd make.
"Would you look at that? Truly like father like daughter. How greedy." Trigon laughed as he saw her stone cold face. Even if she hadn't made the choice yet, he knew what she'd choose, Taro did and so did Raven.
"You would so easily throw away the first person to care for you, for what? A world of 8 billion souls who wouldn't care to do the same. You make me… proud."
Golden light shone on them but by now it was too late. Trigon already got what he came for – A healing heart shattered once again.
"Since you've made your decision then I'll make mine. This pitiful soul, at the end of his WRETCHED MORTAL LIFE, I WILL TORTURE HIM IN MY DARKEST PITS FOR EVERY BREATH YOU'VE TAKEN. A SOUL FOR A WORLD. TRULY, YOU MAKE ME PROUD."
The world fractured like a mosaic as Trigon's presence was suddenly pushed back until it completely disappeared. Trigon's descent successfully thwarted but neither Taro or Raven felt like it was a win.
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A/N: I initially didn't want it to end on such a note. I think most would have preferred the winning trope where Raven overcomes her fears and seals away Trigon for good (or for an extended time) but then as I kept writing I felt like it would be underwhelming somehow for the way I had written up Trigon. I know everyone likes the big win, I do too, but this I felt had more substance to it.
(Yes, the title was a curveball. I did what I did.)
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