Draugzel
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Chapter 72: Dream
🕑 Added 2022-10-31 16:54:01 +0000 UTC"Raven, I don't want to beat around the bush... what did you do to me after we had defeated your father?"
Raven's eyes widened a smidgen before they were filled with guilt. Her look made me anxious of what she was going to say, but it was better to know, so I could prepare for it than be blindsided again.
"I tied my humanity to you." She responded while braving herself as she looked into my eyes.
"Oh... okay? What does that mean?" I was seriously stumped by her answer. What did her humanity being tied to me entail for me?
"Eh- right. It's like this. When I absorbed my demon family's power, it boosted my abilities and I go stronger because of it. It is just that by doing so, I empowered my demon side, which means due to the influx of energy, my balance between my human and demon side was tilted towards one side. To counteract having my human side being corrupted and devoured by the new energy, I opted to place a part of me on you."
"Soo, what? A part of you is inside me?" I joked.
"Nate. This is serious. And no, I am not inside you."
"Okay, now I am even more confused. You know what, just tell me how it affects me and if there are any dangers that I need to be aware of."
"It doesn't affect you much. I just used your being as my... target or anchor for some... emotions. By doing that, I can partially keep myself grounded in my human side. The only dangers appear when you... die, which would make me lose myself."
"So, I don't have to do anything?"
"No, you don't. Well, except not die... or hate me, otherwise, I will be fine."
"Sounds easy enough. So why are you feeling guilty?" Not dying and not hating her sounds incredibly easy and even reasonable for the exchange she got in terms of power increase. I didn't really see the reason she would feel guilty about it.
"... It's nothing." She turned her head to the side, hesitant to give me an answer.
"Raven, we had this situation before. Tell me, so I am not left in the dark."
"If I want to return my balance between my two sides, I will have to indulge in my human side, which means... Look. It doesn't matter. You said you liked my new look, right? It's going to stay and as long as we continue like this, I am going to be fine, so-"
My eyes widened in realization, "Oh-oooh, fuck. Raven... Kara is not ready for something like this and I am not sure I want to influence her with something like this."
"Yes, that's why I said you don't have to do anything. I am going to be fine and I can find another way-"
"For how long?"
"What?"
"For how long can you keep your human side from being corrupted? When do you reach the point of no return?" I asked to clarify the range of time for us to search for a solution.
"2 to 3 years, maybe? I am not sure and since I had already talked with my demon side, it isn't trying to eradicate that side of me and instead helps me to keep that influx of corrupting energy contained. Look, I don't want to emotionally blackmail you into doing anything. I am going to be fine even without your help, so don't worry."
I sighed in relief. It was a lot more time than I had expected, but it wasn't a lot either. I glanced at her with her arms crossed as she rubbed her upper arm as if to give herself a comforting hug.
There were many things I had expected her to say, but I could understand why she felt guilty. That didn't mean I blamed her for this, though I also couldn't say I was too happy with being put in such a position.
"Alright. Even if I have feelings for you, I will and can not act on it. I am in a committed relationship with Kara, and I don't want to break her heart. We will find another way to help you." Her eyes widened in surprise as she stared at me.
"... Wait, you like Like me? Like Romantically?" She asked, astonished that I would admit to that, which shouldn't be too surprising. After all, I had a crush on her for the longest time- which she obviously didn't know. Right, I hadn't told her that.
However, I remembered her saying that she knew of my feelings when she was overtaken by Lust's power, "I thought you already knew because... You know, you being an Empath?"
"N-nonono. No, I mean I sensed yours and Kara's lust since you were distracted and hadn't contained your emotions that well during those moments, and some of it was directed at me, but I hadn't known that you would like me that way-"
I held up my hand to stop her from talking and resisted the urge to rub my temple, "We know each other for some time now, and coupled with our dreams and how much time we spent with each other, it was inevitable that I saw you more than that really hot and sympathetic female friend that was my type."
"I am your type?? But Kara and I aren't really alike..."
"Well." I pulled at my collar, "Kara is still hot as hell."
"She sure is." Raven agreed before we stood there in silence.
I couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the awkward atmosphere, which she joined shortly after. She laughed heartily, and her demonic red skin seemed to lose a bit of its luster. Her skin was still deeply red, but I could already see that it had faded a bit.
After our laughs stopped, I embraced her strongly. "We will figure things out." All things considered, just seeing her being able to express herself this emotively was worth the entire ordeal, and I was sure we could manage this minor obstacle sooner than later.
Although I still felt like I was emotionally cheating on Kara, it wasn't like I could control how I cared for a dear friend of mine. I could only control how I acted. I am not willing to lose my relationship with Kara, but I also didn't want Raven to lose her humanity.
Both sides sucked, and I had to figure out how to balance both. Just because she had to indulge in her human side more didn't mean we had to do it, right?
I released my hold on Raven, revealing her blushed face. " The Justice League of another timeline, our own time travel, our fight with Trigon. It had been a lot, so how about we relax for the next week? See what this world had to offer?"
"I would like that." She gently placed her hand on my chest before she pulled away and gave me a wry smile. We were truly in an awkward position. We both had affection for each other, but we couldn't be together since we didn't want to hurt Kara.
"Let's hope we don't need 2 years before we return." I joked, to which she smiled slightly.
"Hey, don't you raise any flags!" She wriggled a finger in front of my face before chuckling.
"I guess that's one issue out of the way. Another thing I wanted to discuss with you was Trigon's defeat and Neron."
Her face turned solemn at the mention of the two demons. She nodded. "You think our victory against Trigon was too easy as well?"
"Yeah. Well, I am sure he fought at full capacity, but I think he wasn't too concerned about his defeat and, therefore, didn't use some of his trump cards. It was a good thing that you practically countered him by you being able to absorb his powers and harm him with the dimension-turned-weapon. Otherwise, I am sure our victory might have been his."
She nodded again before manifesting the darkness-formed claw. "Yeah. Without this, I wouldn't be able to touch his heart or absorb all that power. Most of it was absorbed into this claw, but even it can't contain it all. I can still feel the power of the Heart of Darkness trickle into my being, which is the reason we only have 2-3 years instead of the 100 that I had initially calculated."
"Well, I am glad you were there. If I had known he was this strong, I would have trained for another year before confronting him."
"What did you expect? Trigon is a being that can't enter our universe because his power is too vast. Someone like Darkseid just wasn't a good comparison."
"Yeah, I figured as much by now as well. I should have listened to you when you mentioned your concerns, but that wasn't what I wanted to talk about. Now that you hold Trigon's power, wouldn't you be targeted by Neron? He wanted his powers, right?"
Her eyes widened, turning the claw to look at it. No light reflected off that weapon. "You think that was why Trigon wasn't too concerned about being defeated? He knew he could escape and we would attract Neron's attention?" Her suspicion was the same I had gotten to after realizing that Trigon had messed with our minds to spare Sloth.
I nodded affirmatively. "Most likely, but I don't think it was his plan that we escaped into another universe. Now, he might be hunted down by Neron, since the other demon couldn't find us."
"That is if Neron was confined by one universe. He operates from Hell, and I heard rumors they exist beyond the universe and connect to others." Her words made me remember all the beings that were a multiversal threat because their powers were beyond the confines of a simple universe. I wasn't ready for that type of enemy. I had to be at least a Super Saiyan God to be low-multiversal.
I, on the other hand, was barely able to wipe out a solar system when I stack Ikari on top. I would be solar system when I attained Ascended Super Saiyan, but how long would it take me to reach Super Saiyan God?
There was still Super Saiyan 2, 3, and 4 before I reached a god's level of strength. Maybe I should truly skip right to Super Saiyan 4. Goku needed 7 years of training in the afterlife to attain Super Saiyan 3. 7 years to train and reach a flawed transformation that would leave me gassed after fighting a couple of minutes didn't seem like the best time investment.
"Let's hope that he is. Though like Trigon, he doesn't seem to be able to enter universes at a whim either, so we should be fine for now. So, besides all that, how do you feel? Physically or magically, I mean."
"Fine, I guess." She said before forming a dark orb hovering above her hand. A frown appeared shortly afterward. "This universe is using different laws."
My eyebrows raised, astonished at her words. She continued her observation, "The space feels... muddy. It doesn't flow as easily. It takes a lot of effort to exert my abilities." She concluded before looking at me.
I nodded. "I feel the same. If I had to guess, I could probably fight at 1 percent of my capacity."
"That's a lot." Raven frowned before testing out some telekinesis and other spells.
"Indeed, we should still be able to handle most things, but let's not get too confident when encountering someone."
1 percent of my entire strength. If it had been before my fight against Trigon, then I would have been troubled against someone like Darkseid, but I could feel my strength increasing from another Zenkai as I healed all my internal injuries.
After Darkseid, my strength increased by around 30x times. Now my strength had already tripled, and I was still getting stronger. So, nothing really changed in terms of how strong I was if I just went with how destructive and how hard I could hit. However, this wasn't the only thing that would determine who I could take on in the future.
Given that the Justice League was a bit stronger than my League after they returned from another timeline, and they still couldn't take down Darkseid, meant that the enemies would be as strong to match them.
If this Justice League attacked us now, I would have to go to Super Saiyan to beat them. Ikari, on top of that, would be too much. All in all, I remained one of the top forces in this universe as well, but it wasn't to the degree it would be in my universe.
I couldn't slack, so after relaxing with Raven, I have to go out and grow stronger. It was almost time to ascend to the next Super Saiyan transformation either way. Might as well do it sooner than later.
"Alright, let's go to sleep for now. I don't want to be exhausted the next few days."
Raven nodded in agreement before she dropped the barrier and we truly took in the room for the first time. After we had stepped inside, we had directly erected a small barrier around us to keep others from spying on us. Now that we had dropped it, we inspected the interior of the room for the first time.
It was all held simple, but it also didn't give off the feeling of being cheap. Two beds and two bed stands on the far left and far right, with a lamp on top of it. There was a TV opposite the beds as well as a door next to, leading towards the bathroom.
I tilted my head towards the bathroom and invited her to take a shower first. We had practically bathed in dust, blood, and dirt for the last few days and we both were keen on a good shower before we dived into our beds.
Without hesitation, she went into the bathroom. From beneath the door, I could see how her darkness washed across the room, probably in search of a camera. She truly didn't trust the Justice League. I could understand her mistrust, though.
As she showered, my telekinetic energy investigated the room and all I could find were the bugs from Batman that he stuck to us. As far as I could tell, they hadn't set up any cameras, which was at least somewhat decent. I telepathically reached out to Raven and told her about where I placed Batman's bugs.
Honestly, a bold move from Batman after knowing that I was familiar with another Batman, or was it another way to confirm our knowledge and our familiarity with his methods?
Either way, I didn't care about the suspicion that we would build up by destroying or making these things pick up nothing but static. Until now, I hadn't told them much about our capabilities, even when I had been honest with everything. Currently, the only information they had was a sense of how we operated, meaning that the Justice League wasn't tyrannically or too brutal.
It was a good thing that I led the line of questioning about our Justice League. If they had questioned my personal methods, it could have quickly devolved into conflict. For now, they shouldn't have a reason to use the lasso of truth again. After all, we had no intention of coming here. Our Justice League was good, and I was an initial member of the League.
I wasn't sure what I would say if they asked me if I was still a member. I mean, technically I still was a member, but the conflict we had was a bit heavy, coupled with us being unfamiliar with each other because of differing timelines, which made it difficult to decide if I wanted to associate with them any longer.
A sigh was released from my mouth as I leaned against the wall. My hand reached underneath my forearm guard, pulling out a flat USB stick. It held the information that I was able to gather during my trip into the past. Truth be told, I wasn't sure how important it was anymore since I had placed that device in my cave back on Arva.
Well, it was better to have some additional data than realize my cave collapsed, which destroyed my devices or something. The door towards the bathroom opened and brought me out of the depths of my thoughts.
My head turned towards her, and I found her inside a towel. My eyes wandered down, drinking her appearance in before I forcefully looked into her eyes again. I pressed the USB stick into her hands and had her store it in her dimensional or where ever she stored these things. I was only aware that it would be safer from thieves than it would be with me.
Our hands brushed and even with her red skin, I could see the blush on her. She quietly stepped away from me and the door before she walked towards the bed near the window and shut the curtains. I took that as the cue it was and headed inside the bathroom.
The air was still damp. After closing the door, I looked into the mirror, which showed the pathetic shape I was in. Although most external injuries had already closed, I was still somewhat pale and weak looking.
I tore off the undersuit and the bits of armor hanging off my body on their dear life. The only thing that was important was the stick, and the rest were only scraps at the moment. Seeing the pieces, I realized I hadn't any reserve armor or any other clothes to wear.
Despite what my lower head was trying to convince me of, it was probably also why Raven had worn nothing except her towel when she stepped out of the shower. A glance at the wash basket revealed her worn leotard and her cloak.
There was also her thin, gold belt decorated with crimson jewels she liked to wear sitting on the sink. It was weird since I had always thought that her clothes were made of magic or created out of it, so she didn't really need to wash them and could just destroy them, right?
I shook my head and decided not to think about it and stepped into the shower after having undressed. The warm water prattling against my skin was probably one of the nicest feelings one could have after a long, hard, and dirty day. My constantly buzzing thoughts grew quiet as I just felt the water running down my body.
After enjoying it for a moment, I washed with the shampoo and soap they had provided before stepping out again. A look into the bathroom's closet revealed a bunch of towels, but also bathrobes.
With my ki and a shake of my head, I instantly dried myself before I wore a bathrobe and stepped out. Raven was sitting cross-legged on her bed, meditating with her usual leotard and cloak on. I glanced at her worn clothes in the wash basket before they vanished into darkness as if she sensed my gaze on them.
"Hey Raven, you don't happen to be able to supply me with some clothes as well, do you?" I asked the goth girl with a face that had gone completely red.
She was hesitant for a moment before an entire set of casual clothes appeared on my bed. I raised an eyebrow, asking a question without speaking, to which she quickly responded that it was going to be a gift for my one-year anniversary on earth, which was supposed to be in a few days.
"Thanks, I like it," I said as I felt the material of the leather-like jacket. It was somewhat more resilient than normal clothes, similar to my armor. Did she ask Maxima for help to create this?
"It's the least I could do." She said with a smile, showing that she was happy I liked her gift. I put them on the chair, so I could wear them the next morning before wrapping myself into the blanket as naked as the day I was born.
"Alright, good night," I said before turning off the light, which Raven followed in kind. It didn't take long until exhaustion took me and I fell asleep.
...
A look around made me realize I was in my bedroom inside my home in Portland. There was no one beside me, so I could only lean against the headboard, gathering myself as I was confused as hell. A moment later, I realized I was dreaming. Just as I wanted to take the dream over, an unfamiliar young black woman with dreads appeared. Some dreads in the front were colorful.
She looked at me in confusion and I looked at her probably with the same expression. She then stormed towards the bathroom door, leaving behind a colorful trail before she slammed the door shut behind her.
"What the fuck?" I stood up and opened the door to the bathroom. However, it only revealed an empty bathroom. The girl was nowhere to be found. I scratched my head before I heard a familiar voice coming from behind me, making me forget the girl.
"Nathan?" I turned around and looked at the shocked Raven, who had called out my name. A frown decorated my expression as I felt my telepathic abilities rush in every direction of the dream. There were some slight cracks into which my senses disappeared without giving me any helpful feedback.
The only thing I could confidently tell was Raven not being a dream character. "Did you? You hadn't forgotten to mention another back entrance, right?"
"No! Of course, not!" She exclaimed, and I figured as much. Strange. A moment later, the dream got even stranger.
"Nathan? Raven?" Kara's voice called out from the door towards the hallway. A colorful trail that seemed to have originated from that door gave rise to some uneasiness, but I quickly forgot about it when I saw Kara's expression.
My senses probed her to figure out if she was a dream character, but the way she looked at me and the familiar tone she used to call out to me already made me realize that this was my girl. Just as I recognized her without my telepathy, she recognized me.
In the next moment, her form flew into me, dragging me into a mighty hug as she rubbed her face into my chest. Just a moment later, she dragged Raven into the hug as well. It was almost like she wanted to crush us with all her might. She held us strongly, and I felt my skin turn wet from her tears.
I returned her hug and rubbed her back, trying to calm her down. It took her some time, but she eventually let us have enough space so we could look at each other. "Y-you two really made me worry about you." She said as she sniveled slightly.
"I-I am sorry, it's all because I couldn't control myself-" Raven started before I slapped her across the back of her head. Kara did the same.
Kara wanted to berate her for saying that, but she only sighed. "I am just happy that you two are okay. I-if you had died, I am not sure if I could handle that."
After she said that, I kissed her forehead before embracing her again. We then sat on the bed before we explained what had happened to us in the last few days. "How is this possible? It's not been a few days, but a couple of weeks ago, and how are we able to enter the same dream?"
"We were thrown through time, so it isn't weird why our times are different. Luckily, it isn't too different. Otherwise, I would have to build another time machine." Kara and Raven playfully slapped my shoulder for that, but I wasn't joking.
"As for how we can have the same dream across universes... I am not sure." As I said that, I looked at the door to the bathroom, but I couldn't remember what was so important about it.
Kara was still holding our hands as we sat on the bed like she was afraid that she would lose us the moment she let go. "Either way, I am glad I know you are okay. And you finally got rid of Trigon!" She held her fist with Raven's up triumphantly.
"He is still alive-" Raven retorted, and it wasn't surprising that it was still in her mind.
"But you totally drained him of most of his powers while he has to watch out for that Neron guy. We won't see him anytime soon and when we do, you can kick his ass alone!" Kara said, completely confident that it was the way she described.
"What about you? What were you up to in the last few weeks?" I asked, and she instantly got embarrassed.
