Inner Demon

I didn't remain in the Watchtower because I didn't need to be here to know if Hawkgirl arrived at the Watchtower. So, instead of waiting in the Watchtower, I went out into the atmosphere where I knew I couldn't be seen before I dispersed my clone and returned my focus to my main body.

I had another clone speaking with the higher-ups of West-Mob while my main body was working on weaving my way through the complicated minds of these new gods. Honestly, even if they turned out to be not that helpful, just the experience I gained was more than enough to have spent my time doing this to them.

After my clone was done and my ki returned to its full range, my powers rose and I entered Super Saiyan as easy as breathing. It almost took no effort to transform anymore, which meant I had almost mastered the transformation. I could almost lower my output to be equal to that of my base power and if that happened, maintaining the transformation forever shouldn't be a far-off dream.

By then, I could be said to have mastered the Super Saiyan transformation. Not to the same degree as Son Goku and Gohan after they had exited the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, but my progress would be considerable.

Of course, I wouldn't stop until I was on their level, but I might take a while. For that degree of mastery, not only did I need to maintain the transformation indefinitely, I also needed to maintain it while I was sleeping. Although it was just an anime-only episode, it wouldn't surprise me if they truly were capable of holding onto it regardless of whether they were awake.

It took me another hour, but I finally finished with Gilotina. I retracted my telepathic probes and woke her up.

Her eyes fluttered open before she confusedly looked around before her eyes rested on me. It took her a moment before she registered who she was seeing before she quickly repositioned her into a kneel with her head bowed with her eyes on the ground, not daring to look at me straight in the eyes.

"Master! I apologize for the unsightly appearance I showed you!" She exclaimed with a passion. I had replaced myself with Darkseid in her mind, with me being the more powerful and merciful one that had slain Darkseid, spared and nurtured her.

I didn't place any lies in her mind, as I knew that these would be easily discovered once someone spoke with her. The only things I truly changed were her view of Darkseid as well as her 'good' life on Apokolips by exaggerating her positive feelings she would get from things I could and would give her.

With Darkseid being dead, a big factor that would make them turn back on the new life they could have somewhere else was a nonissue.

Now I let her compare her life with the one I 'offered' on earth and made her see me in a better light to the point that she directly subordinated herself to me. She calling me 'Master' was a bit unexpected, but not too surprising.

Although I was harder on Mad Harriet, she also came to the same conclusion to fully accept me as her new master, giving me any honorific that she was most fond of, being either my lord or master.

I gave her some tasks to see if she was fully right in the head and I didn't mess up unexpectedly. Harriet hadn't acted out and was even on better behavior than she would otherwise be without my control over her.

She had obediently guarded her teammates, though at some point she started slashing the walls in boredom. Probably would have done the same if I had to guard unconscious people for an entire day. I put her back to sleep so I could wake them all up at the same time. They could then coordinate together and I wouldn't have to micromanage them. Barda could take over that part.

It was rather ambitious of me to control Barda, Lashina, Stompa, and Steppenwolf in just two weeks considering that it took me over a month to control Harriet and Gilotina, but I had already earned a lot of experience already. With the experience I gained from these two, I was optimistic that the others would be fairly easy to meddle with.

Honestly, 2 weeks was already generous. If nothing unexpected happened or the others didn't show more resistance, then it would only take me a week at most. Stompa was the next one I had on the plan, and I already knew from the first superficial look she would be easy to convert into one of my followers.

Barda would be fairly easy as well, as she was already predisposed to having a different, better life. If it wasn't for the false sense of loyalty, she felt to the furies and Darkseid as she thought they cared for her, she wouldn't be against leaving that part of her life. Lashina should be easy to convert as well. She was more of a follower than anything, so it wouldn't take much, just minimal tweaking.

Steppenwolf should be the biggest problem. Not only was he experienced, but he was an old god that would have a trick or two up his sleeve if one entered his mind. I figured he would take most of my time, but I would have to see in the upcoming days.

"Don't call me master and you don't have to kneel...How are you feeling, Gilotina?" I asked as I watched her hesitantly stand up at my urging.

She looked down at her body, "I think I am fine, at least I don't feel uncomfortable." As she said that, she stretched a bit, not knowing that I meant her mind, which was a good thing. Harriet had complained about some constant headaches and weird feelings.

"Good. What can you last remember?" I asked before giving her something to eat as I sat her down at a table. She nibbled the jerky while frowning as she tried to remember her last memory.

"After slaying Darkseid, you spared us and gave us a chance to be better, to have a better life. You gave us food and shelter while we- I felt lost." I nodded with a smile on my face.

"Anything else? How has live becoming of you on earth?" Even with new artificial memories and exaggerated sense of joy of being given a new chance and an alternative lifestyle, everyone interpreted or took in the situation a bit differently.

"Good. Although the humans are weak, it makes the life calming and peaceful. It's boring sometimes, but I guess there are things I could do now, things that would give my life meaning and purpose. Even if it made life less exciting, this life would be worth it." She said as she stared at me.

"And what is it you want to do?" I dug, not wanting her to develop a too deep 'passion'.

"...I want to be like you. A warrior that fights the powerful Evil while giving the weak a helping hand, another chance at life. For this purpose..."

My smile grew at that. I guessed a new hero had just been born. Honestly, the earth owed me for giving it a new hero.

"... I pledge my undying loyalty to you, because I know as long as I follow you, you will be able to give the world the peace it deserved." A bit too fanatic. Seemed like she was leaning to putting me on a pedestal, but that could be fixed with conversations instead of an intrusion into her mind.

"There are many ways to achieve your goal and I will do my best to uplift the vision you see in me, but there will be times when I am not there and you have to decide what is best. I hope you will be able to do that with the other furies, or maybe with another team that you could call your own."

She nodded at that, and I didn't miss the excited gleam in her eyes. She had some leader qualities, so she could be developed in that regard in the future. It would certainly be helpful to have her lead another, bigger team.

As I finished up with Gilotina, I got a notice of Hawkgirl's return from the Watchtower. She hadn't been away for long, just about 7 hours. After I put Gilotina back to sleep, I went out without hesitation.

I shot through the sky and arrived in front of the Watchtower's entrance in mere seconds. Batman and Diana's life force weren't in the Watchtower, so they should be on that island Batman had wanted to investigate. J'onn, GL, and Shayera were on the tower, but after I went inside, GL was heading back to earth.

We just nodded to each other and went our ways. J'onn would hold on the front at the monitors, so I didn't need to worry about him. In a straight line, I headed for Shayera, who was inside her bedroom. Every league member had their own room on the Watchtower in case the shifts were long, duties needed to be done for several days back to back, or because the leaguers hadn't another accommodation, which had been the case for J'onn.

Not everyone took up on that offer of a room and had let it undecorated like a guest room, but theoretically all of us could be a hero full time and not worry about living expenses.

I knocked on her door, but there was no reaction, so I knocked again, "Shayera, it's me Shallot, open up. I have some questions."

I could hear movement inside the room as I waited for her to open the door. It took several moments for her to open the door, but when she did, I noticed she had slightly damp hair. Probably had a shower mere moments ago.

I walked in and sat on the chair in front of the desk. With a look around, I could see that she had already decorated it slightly. It didn't surprise me as she was one of the league members that spend more time here. Her mace had an easily reachable spot on the wall near the entrance.

"So, yesterday..." I started as I finished looking around, only to turn my attention to her. Her lips thinned as she awaited my question. "Did we fuck?"

Her expression didn't change after I spoke. The silence that fell into the room was deafening. It wasn't until she spoke up that the tension broke. "...What?"

"I had looked into the recordings of yesterday and found that we spent about an hour in your room before I went home. So, did we do it?"

"Heh. Pftt..." She was amused as I spoke until it broke into laughter after I finished, which put me at ease since it meant that we probably didn't cross that line. Still, what did we do?

"Alright, could you stop?" I asked after she had laughed for a solid minute. She wiped the tear off the corner of her eyes as she continued to giggle.

"So-sorry. I mean- hehe, did you come for another round? Hahaha." She mocked as she posed to accentuate her curves while pulling at her collar to show a bit of cleavage.

"Come on. Enough fun." I put her into a headlock and give her a good noogie until she cried for mercy.

"Fine! Fine, I talk. Geez. You are no fun." She groaned slightly as she tidied up her hair before she sat on her bed. "You were really adamant about you being in a relationship with Superman's cousin and, honestly, I don't see you anything other than a brother."

I looked at her weirdly. "You don't have a brother complex, right?"

She snorted at that before glancing at her mace, that was hanging at the wall. Probably thinking about teaching me a lesson with it.

"As for why you were here yesterday, you came here to puke your guts out. Didn't want to embarrass yourself in front of your missus."

"Oh." I could see that.

"Oh, indeed. You even said if I tried anything, you will show me your drunken style, whatever that meant, probably some form of fighting style. At least you dropped into a stance before knocking my plant over."

"Right... Then what?" Clearly that couldn't fill an entire hour, right? Maybe I was underestimating how much a drunken person could waste time on some nonsense.

Though it seemed something did happen since Shayera opened her mouth hesitantly after being silent for a few moments, "I...I told you about Thanagar and... it gave me a lot to think about." She didn't look at me as she said that. Instead, she seemed to recall our talk from this morning. Maybe it was because of our talk that she had gone out? At least, according to the mission logs, she wasn't on any league business.

I wanted to know what we had talked about, but she didn't seem comfortable speaking about it, so I let her be. I apologized for bothering her and being weird about it as well, which she just waved off and told me not to worry about it.

"Hey, I know it must suck that I don't remember, but... if you need to talk again, I will lend you an ear. Maybe this time when I am sober." I was seriously miffed that I seemed to have forgotten an important talk with her, but I couldn't change anything about it. Even with telepathic sweeps over the past event, some things were just lost or so impaired that I couldn't get anything out of my memories.

"Thanks, I appreciate it, Nate." She said gratefully before I made my way out of her room to let her rest. When I closed the door, I realized she was probably the first one of the League besides Superman that called me by my other name, which reminded me I should probably ask Superman's parents how Kara was holding up.

She should probably spend more time with the Kents and have them as parental figures. I figured that might do her some good, instead of spending every waking every moment with me, especially since school started soon and the Kents could need the helping hand around their farm. I shook my head, not wanting to think about it anymore.

After I left through the exit in the Watchtower's hangar, I dispersed my clone and concentrated on Raven, who came up to me with a strange proposal.

Or rather than strange, it was just unexpected that she would do it now. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that she was coming closer with the other members of the Teen Titans that she wanted to tackle on her biggest problem.

She wanted to control her demonic side and was now asking for my help. Of course, I wouldn't refuse her, but I feared she was rushing it.

I told her this, and she bitterly smiled at that, saying that there would never be the perfect situation or time when everything aligned. So instead of waiting for an impossible scenario, she might as well try it now. After hearing that, I could only nod to her suggestion. It was indeed better to do it now than wait forever until everything was perfect.

Kara wanted to help, but I had to refuse her. Although she meant well, Raven's mind wasn't something that anyone should just enter. Not if the person wasn't an adept telepath and especially not when Raven tried to connect with her demonic inheritance.

An inheritance given by a terrible demon that was evil incarnate. Thinking about it, was Trigon my Majin Buu? A magical Buu that was too serious for his own good? A lot more cunning, too...

She sat on the floor cross-legged, resting her hands on her knees before chanting softly, "Azarath...Metrion...Zinthos..." I stood behind her and placed my hands beside her head with my fingertips slightly brushing against her temple.

With all that training and experience I got through experimenting on new gods, the resistance to entering someone's mind would be nonexistent for someone unexpecting, but Raven was another subject.

Good thing I had all this experience, otherwise it would have been more difficult to delve that deep into her mind, especially since she couldn't give me any guidance. Instead, I had to use the direct way.

Another way into her mind would have been her mirror, but it was already set to guide the user towards her emotions and her demonic side wasn't part of that specific spectrum even if it could mostly be linked to her anger or rather her anger was an easy segue to her demonic side. The mirror would limit my access to that area and wandering somewhere else in her mind would be more difficult than entering on my own terms.

She also couldn't give me guidance because she couldn't open her mind as easily as she wanted in fear that her demonic side would break out or her emotions took over. The degree she could offer an entrance was also limiting the amount of power I could send through it. In the end, I had to make my own way inside to not limit my power in her mind.

Of course, I still couldn't pour all of my psychic energy into her mind by projecting myself inside, since my powers had grown stronger with my physical strength and life force. I could feel that my psychic talent was lagging behind my ki, but it appeared that my body was dragging my psychic capabilities to a similar level.

Given that I was half as strong as Darkseid in my base and my psychic abilities weren't that far behind, should give one an estimate on how powerful of a telepath I was, but this time my power wasn't needed to be flaunted. If poured all of that power into her mind, there would be unforeseen consequences that I wouldn't want to risk.

This was about Raven confronting and mastering her demonic side. As I thought this, I projected my consciousness into her mind, carefully, in fear that I would accidentally rip open a part of her barrier that shouldn't be broken down.

So, I couldn't just choose a random place on her barrier to enter from, but this all wouldn't be a problem any longer as I had gotten some ideas from Morgaine's counterattack. It truly was worth it to clash with some old people. They sure had a lot of time to create some techniques I hadn't thought of yet. These ideas had been incredibly helpful already.

I let our telepathic consciousness brush against each other. Now I was touching Raven's barrier to the outside world and could establish a sense for it and notice where the barriers were weaker or where it didn't feel like it would explode once I attacked that spot. I rapidly searched for an optimal position and pierced into her barrier with a scalpel-like attack.

Once opened, I enveloped the entrance with my telepathic consciousness while projecting part of it into her mind. With this, I had limited the pressure to the strength of my projection I put into her mind, while being able to continue supplying more energy if needed. Honestly, I wouldn't want to brag, but it was one effective method.

My consciousness quickly found itself inside her mind, submerging into it as darkness surrounded me. I slowly dug deeper, feeling for Raven's presence. It didn't take long for her to notice and pinpoint the entrance I had made.

She looked at the entrance and then at me before giving me a serious nod. Probably too stunned to speak after having inspected my entrance, the work of art it was. She turned around and dived deeper into the darkness that surrounded us.

We didn't take long until we arrived inside a void like space with natural stone bridges connecting portals. I recognized it as her emotional mind space, which we would have been limited to with her mirror. We brazenly flew over the bridges and headed for the area that looked like it was on fire guarded by demonic looking stone statues.

Although it was a brief description, until we had reached the place, several dozen minutes in the real world passed. One had to know that the processing time inside the mind was incomparable to that of the outside world.

We could cross light years in mere moments. That we travelled this far was a sign for how deeply she had locked that part away. Of course, that's not to say that we couldn't have crossed the distance instantly. She was still the master of this realm, after all.

However, she still decided to slowly fly towards it. Probably her nerves, as she tried to delay the moment she had to face what she feared. It wasn't until she took a deep breath, muttered something to herself, and then looked at me in an effort to gain confidence before we finally arrived.

We landed in front of the intimidating entrance guarded by the stone beasts and tightly wrapped inside chains that were several houses thick. The gargoyles' eyes glowed purple and stood up straight before Raven waved her hand, returning them to their lifeless state as they were set back to their pedestals.

With another breath, she moved towards the entrance and with every step she took, the chains moved to unravel the door. I followed closely behind as I watched the gigantic chains retreat before the gate opened up slowly with just a tiny gap giving a glimpse inside.

A shadowy fire flowed outside of the gap and I could feel a sinister aura coming from it. It was truly an exciting sight to beholden. We entered the gate and stepped into the darkness that seeped outside. A cold shiver ran down my spine and I couldn't help but feel my blood boil, counteracting the coldness I felt.

Our steps rang out in this seemingly everlasting darkness, as if we were walking inside a giant hall containing nothing. The only thing that attracted my attention was the distant dim light. I could tell that it was a weak light that I would have missed if it wasn't for the dark setting. Raven certainly chose a fitting environment to contain her demonic side in or was this created by her demonic side?

I leaned closer to her and whispered, "Did you create all this?" Several moments passed, but I didn't get any response from her. When I looked at her, I could tell by her frown and the tense jaw that she hadn't registered my words.

I put a hand on her shoulder, which made her flinch slightly as she was brought out of her stupor. "You alright?"

She gulped before she slowly nodded. "Yes. I am just a bit nervous." To which I strengthened my hold on her shoulder. She smiled appreciatively before returning her attention back to that dim light.

"You will be fine. I believe in you." I said, as we continued to traverse the darkness. Our journey seemed to have picked up on speed.

"Thank you." She said before sighing out and our speed once again sped up. We almost instantly traversed the space and arrived in front of a giant version of the gem on her forehead.

The gem was the source of the dim light we saw from the distance, giving off a red hue. "So, this is where you locked away your demon side?"

"Yes. This is the only thing that contained my inner demon and keep it from surfacing. It's very fragile, so don't touch it before I am ready." I nodded at that.

"...Wait. The only thing? What was all the darkness, gate, and gargoyles for then?"

"In case someone invaded my mind and tried to free it. The gem contained it, but I also need to keep it safe from being tampered."

"Makes sense...So, it is mostly mental? Do you need a specific stone to keep your demon contained?" I asked as I walked around the glowing gem, but from all directions it looked the same, completely symmetrical.

"It's a special chakra gem from Azarath. It is very powerful and might even be able to contain Trigon, but it is also very fragile and therefore needs to be guarded heavily."

I looked at her, surprised. "It could contain Trigon?" It reminded me of that movie where Raven hadn't a gem until she contained Trigon in it, but it obviously wasn't what happened in this universe, so I thought it had a different function. Well, from what she said, it didn't have a different function but was just used on another demon, her own demon.

"Yes, theoretically, but practically probably not." She admitted before she sat down cross-legged. I didn't continue with my questions, as she would need some time to calm herself before confronting her demon side.

I sat down beside her and waited for a few minutes until she was ready. She stood up and approached the gem. With a gentle touch, the gem smoothly opened up in the middle without being destroyed.

Suddenly, a solid darkness with red eyes peeked outside. It squeezed its way out of the opening before expanding to several dozen meters tall. It glanced at me but turned its attention to Raven, who was standing defensively as she watched her demon.

They sized each other up. Raven was waiting for her demonic side to attack, standing there with her hands up with her brows furrowed. Nothing happened, as they just stared at each other. I would have guessed that they were telepathically communicating with each other if it weren't for the fact that we were in her mind and any telepathic communication would resound like normal speech.

The two would probably have stared at each other for longer if I hadn't interjected, "So, are you two going to fight or talk?"

The demon side-eyed me before its form changed to something familiar. A more scantily clad Raven with red skin and four glowing eyes. She approached me before Raven blocked her way, holding up a hand to keep her away.

Her demon side smirked at the display. "You know, I thought you would be lame without me, but those dreams...well, you proved me wrong. You certainly gave me an excellent view."

Demon-Raven suddenly disappeared and I could instantly sense her behind me. Her hand brushed from my abs over my chest to gently stroke my neck before pinching my chin. "Are you here to flaunt him in front of me? Well, I can't blame you. I would have claimed this piece of ass and showed it of as well."

Raven turned around with her hands enveloped with familiar darkness, "Don't you dare touch him!" I raised my hand to show her I was fine.

Demon-Raven closed in to my ear and whispered, "You know I think I would fit better for you. I mean, I wouldn't be that hesitant to take charge." Her eyes wandered down to my lips as she turned my head towards her. "I can let you wear my thighs as ear-muffs or ride you until you are dry and I don't need minutes to be convinced. How about it? Just help me take charge and I will do whatever you want."

Like the devil whispering temptations into my ear. I couldn't help but sigh and shake my head as I listened to the smirking demon and saw the concerned Raven. As if I would fall for something like that.

I unwrapped myself out of her hug, which seemed to surprise her as her grip was anything but loose. With several steps to the side, I went back to the sideline before I gestured to the two that they had the stage for themselves.

"Raven, just say the word and I will help you." I added before sitting cross-legged on the dark floor. Raven nodded, relieved, while her demon side just clicked her tongue at my words.

Honestly, I was waiting for an epic battle, but the two seemed to have other ideas as they conjured two chairs and began to talk.