Chapter Twenty-One

Raven is shocked at the Black sister family reunion. April looks at Emily and Emily at April in shock. Christine stands there motionless holding her husband's hand. Emerald stands next to them with Matt at her side. Raven turns around and grabs a sword. She points the blade at Emerald with a stern look on her face. She lowers the sword to the ground and points the handle to Emerald. The room remains silent. You could hear everyone's breathing. By the look on the faces of those standing there they knew that the sisterly rivalry was over, for now at least. Raven turns to look at Christine and her husband.

"Now to deal with you. You are a coward. A sell out. I have been hiding for almost two hundred years because you wanted money. All because you didn't want to work anymore." says Raven angrily as she gets in Christine's face and putting her finger into Christine's chest.

"I haven't seen you in how many years? I've taken care of our mother who is wheel chair bound. You think being the one who sold out to them makes me any more popular to the other Demons? The older Demons hate me and my family because they remember mom's reign and how great she was. These younger ones don't even know who we are." says Christine getting right back in Raven's face.

"It's the least you could do Christine. Emerald was gone, I was gone, Christan is in Heaven doing only the Gods know what. It was all on you, the golden child." says Raven starting to raise her voice.

"I did what I thought was best for MY family Raven. MY children. MY husband. You were gone, the council wanted you. I don't think I could have held up their vote." says Christine starting to mount tears as her husband kisses her hand.

"If you don't want us we will leave, but I am not going to stand here and let you bombard my wife." says Christine's husband staring at Raven.

Raven turned around from Christine's husband. She grabbed one sword and one bow. She gave the bow to Christine and the sword to her husband. 

"Now, we can either talk, or we can fight. I say we fight. Anyone who doesn't want to fight can find the door." says Raven with a stern face.

"Time of attack my lady?" asks Rick.

"After I leave, I want the attack to be launched. I want Rick and Maven calling the shots."

"What about us? Aren't we the bounty hunters?" asks Emerald.

"That's my point. No going rouge. I want a full fledged attack as an army. Show them we aren't bandits. We may be a group of misfits, but d****t they won't be ready for us." says Raven as the army begins to cheer.

The next morning Raven prepares herself to meet The Dark Emperors. She puts her sword in the sheath. She wishes her army the best of luck and wishes them safe travels and walks out the door.As Raven approaches the gates she is stopped by a guard.

"Name?" asks the guard as his eyes turn black.

"Raven Black. Must be new around here? Maybe just young." says Raven with a chuckle.

"Young, obviously. Now stand here for a minute." says the guard as he turns to put her name in a computer system.

"When did we get those?" asks Raven

"Raven Black. Sorry, no entry. You were excommunicated. Still stands sweetie. Go hide on Earth for another couple hundred years and see if you get back in then." says the guard with a grin.

"I'll give you one chance to let me in, or I'll kill you. It's as simple as that." says Raven.

"Threatening me? You've lost your mind. I'll throw you in the jails and see how tough you really are." says the guard.

"You'll never take me alive, but then again you'll be too dead to ever tell another tale." says Raven with a grin.

"Listen here, you're going to jail." says the guard with intense black eyes grabbing Raven by collar.

The guard grabbed Raven and put her in power binding handcuffs. He threw her in a cell an closed and locked the door. Another guard walked past and dropped his key ring into the cell and flashed a wink at Raven. Raven crawls to the key ring and manages to use one of the keys to unlock her handcuffs. After she gets them off she stands up, and picks up the keys again. She finds a key with a label wrapped around it. A note that says "Thank you." Raven puts her hand through the cell and tries to find the keyhole to unlock the door. It takes her a few minutes and a few close calls of being almost caught by guards that remain loyal to The Dark Emperors but Raven gets the door opened. 

"Hey! She's getting free!" yells the guard that arrested her running toward her.

"Stop before you get hurt!" yells Raven drawing her Demon Blade, the same small knife that she had to fight for.

"Never!" yells the guard approaching Raven.

"D****t you mule." says Raven as she pulls the man toward her, stabbing him with the knife. His eyes roll back in his head. Raven holds him in her arms and slowly lowers him onto the ground.

Raven collects her thoughts for a moment. Stands up and walks to the castle, keeping her head low to avoid suspicion. When she gets to the castle doors a lady is sitting at a desk with a pen in hand chomping on gum.

"Hello ma'am, do you have an appointment with the Emperor and the Empress.?" asks the lady.

"I do not." said Raven.

"Well then we can make one here, the next opening I have is tomorrow at three. Is that okay?" asks the lady.

"I'm sorry." says Raven as she drags her knife across the ladies throat. The ladies head drops on the desk. Raven walks around the desk and pushes the button that opens the doors to the Emperors. She takes a deep breath and walks in.

The archers rest on the hill above the prison with their bows drawn, while the swordsmen wait outside the barracks door. Maven leads the bowmen. Maven,April,Emily, and a few other women have the bows. All the men and Emerald have swords and shields outside the door being led by Rick. They agreed that the bowmen would fire into the windows and take a few out. When they came out to investigate they would be attacked and destroyed. Maven waited about five minutes for all the archers to find a spot they could hit someone. Then Maven called for them to fire. Every archer hit and killed their target. Just as they planned, one by one, Demons were pouring from the barracks to investigate, only to be killed by a sword or struck by an arrow. Except one. One man escaped the crowd. He found April, who was the most distant from the other archers. He grabbed April by her hair and drew his sword with the intent to slam it through her. He was interrupted by an arrow that came through his head, right between his eyes, and then he falls onto April.  April kicks and screams trying to get the man off of her. The man gets thrown off of her by the mysterious man who keeps appearing and disappearing.

"Get to Aldemar. After this, go. Don't look back to any of these putrid planets until you can save us." says the man.

"Who are you?" asks April on the verge of crying.

"My name is Ace. I am the eighth generation grandson of Robin Hood." says the mysterious man known as Ace.

"Robin Hood?" asks April.

"I don't have the time to go into detail, maybe another time." says Ace as he runs away.

Raven is prepared to speak to the emperors. As she collects her thought she walks up to them as they sit high in their thrones, looking down at Raven.

"My dear, look who's back. It's Raven! I always knew you would find a way back into Hell." says the Dark Empress.

"How did you get in this time?" asks the Dark Emperor.

"I got arrested and broke out. Friends in low places you could say. Oh and by the way, you have a dead guard and you need a new secretary." says Raven with a grin.

"You surely didn't come here to fight did you?" asks the Dark Empress who is wearing her long black hair down to her shoulder, and has luxurious jewelry on. 

"We leave that to our armies." says the Dark Emperor who appears much older than the Empress. He has a long gray beard and a staff.

"As do I, but I have the courage to fight with them." says Raven.

"Where are they? All safe and sound in our city, that's right." says the Empress.

"I'm here to ask you for something. I need to know if a Psychic by the name of Aldemar is alive?" asks Raven.

"All Psychics were killed. He's dead. They are extinct. Accept it, and that the Forgotten Five are not here this soon. The Titans don't care enough about the Psychics." says the Emperor. 

"He was supposed to be the last Psychic of his world, and is supposed to train the Forgotten Five. That planet is far too large, even barren, to just wildly search." says Raven.

"Word is that you may have one of the Five. I assume that's why you're asking." says the Empress.

"So you do know and don't want me to train your biggest nightmare. That girl has a legit chance of helping me knock you from your thrones and you are scared." says Raven with a grin.

"I'll find him, don't worry." Raven continues. as she starts to walk toward the door.

"You'll burn first." says the Emperor.

"Oh and the barracks outside the gates is now mine." says Raven as she walks out the door, closing it behind her.