Child of Darkness

Dangers of the Lazarus Pit

Life in the League had become much easier once she had decided to embrace a life without morals. In her lessons, she progressed in leaps and bounds, no longer concerned about injuring her tutors. There had never been any cause for concern anyway, as the Assassins were never seriously injured; they were all too advanced for her current skill level, especially since she had been diligently keeping to the no magic rule.

She felt freer than ever before, she just had to squash any feelings of empathy that rose to the surface every now and then. Her severe restrictions on using magic meant that her link to Trigon was almost non-existent during most of the day, and without that link, annoying feelings of guilt and shame had begun making themselves known again.

Raven desperately tried to ignore them. After all; what had she to be ashamed of? She had wanted to punish those parents, so she had punished them; she had felt like kissing Damian, so she had kissed him. She was a demon, a creature of passion and desire, and she would do whatever she pleased.

It had been fun over the past few weeks; no one quite knew how to handle her.

Lady Shiva, Raven could sense, was becoming more and more uneasy in her presence. She had to hand it to the Assassin though; she had not changed her teaching style or outward attitude – or lack thereof – towards Raven at all.

Talia had begun glaring at her for some reason. It was amusing; maybe she hated the fact that Raven was now enjoying her training – Talia always seemed the type to believe that life was to be worked through and not enjoyed – or she could be resentful of Raven's new found entertainment in her son.

Ah Damian.

Now that was a game that was fun to play. He was still her teacher, and in classes she would try her best to kill him – the bastard was just so damned annoying and cocky most of the time – but sometimes Raven found herself in his arms, pressing him against the wall or being pressed against a wall herself, their lips locked and their hands wandering.

The constant changes of her feelings towards him were slightly alarming, even to herself.

If she was confused about how she felt, then he must be too, though you wouldn't tell by looking at him; he seemed to take her volatile behaviour all in hand. Sometimes, it was even him that surprised her.

Only the day before, she had actually managed to hit him during a bout – he had redirected her weapon so that it had only glanced his thigh, but it was still contact – and he had made out with her so strongly that she had thought they would take their – whatever-it-was – further than mere kissing and groping. To her slight disappointment though he had pulled away and resumed their duelling session.

She wondered what was going to happen today.

Raven stood in the training room, stretching her muscles before Damien arrived. It was the first time that she had been here earlier than her teacher, but he had responsibilities other than her. At least, in his mind he did. She would just have to show him that doing what you wanted when you wanted was a much better way of living.

The sound of the door opening made her look up. But it wasn't Damian striding towards her.

It was Talia.

"Sorry," smirked Raven. "You're not the al Ghul I want to see right now. I mean, you're pretty and all, but I just don't swing that way."

Unsurprisingly, the Assassin didn't react.

"You might think yourself special, girl. But I have met many spoilt brats like you in my time. You are in no way worthy of being an al Ghul, no matter what my father thinks."