⭐️ Eternal Shadow 🌙 Damian wayne ~~~~complete

Chapter 30: The Raid Plan

It was silent, efficient. Shadows wrapped around her target's throat, dragging him into the dark before he could cry out. Across the way, Damian's blade flashed briefly before a soft thud hit the ground.

"Clear," Damian called softly.

Mars inhaled, feeling the heavy pressure of old magic in the air again, tugging at the corners of her mind.

"The artifact's close," she murmured. "I can feel it."

Damian's expression turned grim. "Then we don't stop now."

They slipped through a crumbling stone archway, shadows clinging to them like armor, the battle just beginning to hum in the air.

Onward.

The hidden passage spilled them into a wide, open courtyard - ancient stone walls forming a crude circle, cracked columns reaching toward the night sky. Torches lined the perimeter, flickering against the thick press of darkness. The old-world air was oppressive, humming with the kind of magic that made Mars' skin crawl.

And in the center of it all, standing like a ghost risen from the grave, was Ra's al Ghul.

The artifact rested atop a crude altar - an obsidian relic carved with unfamiliar glyphs, radiating an oily green light that pulsed in time with Mars's heartbeat. The sight of it sent a violent chill down her spine. It was alive, in its own horrible way.

Around the altar, Ra's' loyalists gathered in disciplined rows. Blades gleamed. Crossbows loaded. And Mars could see it - the trap. They'd been expected.

"Showtime," Damian muttered.

The comm in her ear crackled.

"Everyone in position?" Dick's voice, low but steady.

"West side ready," Gar whispered.

"South flank clear," Kory confirmed.

"East, locked in," Raven added.

Mars glanced at Damian. He gave a single, sharp nod.

"On your go, Nightwing."

A tense beat of silence.

"Now."

It was like a spark hitting dry kindling.

Kory shot into the sky like a blazing comet, energy bolts raining down. Raven's shadows swept in from the south, wrapping around the enemy flank, throwing bodies into disarray. Gar charged in from the west, morphing mid-leap into a hulking tiger, scattering men like dolls.

And Mars... Mars unleashed.

Her shadows exploded outward, tendrils of living night tearing into the ranks. She moved like a storm, slipping between soldiers, her blades a blur, her powers a controlled chaos.

Damian was beside her, a perfect storm of precision and speed. The two fought back-to-back, instinctive and seamless.

Ra's watched them from the altar, a knowing smile creeping across his face.

"You're too late," he called, voice cutting through the din. "The heir belongs to me."

Mars snarled, her chest tightening as that oily magic surged around the artifact, tendrils reaching for her mind.

"Ignore him," Damian hissed, slicing down an attacker. "Focus, Mar."

But it was already threading its way through her thoughts. Whispers. Commands. Old words in a voice not entirely Ra's, not entirely human.

"Come home, child of shadow... your blood answers mine..."

Her pulse spiked. Shadows writhed violently around her, lashing out at friend and foe alike.

"Marceline!" Dick's voice through the comm, panicked. "You're losing control-pull back!"

But she couldn't hear them. Not fully. The artifact's grip tightened.

Damian saw it before anyone else - her eyes, no longer soft grey but pure, endless black, like twin voids.

"No," he growled, cutting down the last of Ra's' guards around them.

He sprinted toward her as she turned on Gar, shadows surging to strike. Gar barely dove out of the way, eyes wide.

"Mars-!"

"Marceline!" Damian's voice cracked like a whip through the madness.

He dodged a lash of her power and closed the gap between them. His hand gripped her wrist, her dagger an inch from his throat.

"You're not his," he snarled, voice low and ragged. "You hear me? You're not a weapon. You're not some pawn in his war. You're ours. You're mine."

Her pupils flickered.

The artifact's voice rose in a deafening scream inside her skull, an agonizing pressure behind her eyes. She fell to her knees with a sharp, pained cry, hands clutching her head as shadows whipped in every direction.

"Fight it, Mar!" Damian shouted, grabbing her shoulders as the others closed in, forming a protective circle.

Mars screamed - a raw, primal sound - as the artifact's influence shattered like glass in her mind. The pain was searing, fire racing through every nerve.

And then...

Silence.

The shadows dropped. The courtyard stilled. Marceline collapsed into Damian's arms, trembling, the oily magic receding like a retreating tide.

Ra's was gone. The artifact - gone too.

But the battle wasn't over. Not yet.

"We'll get him," Damian whispered fiercely, cradling her as the Titans gathered around, battered and bloodied but alive.

Mars, barely conscious, clung to the sound of his voice like a lifeline.

"You came back," she croaked.

He pressed his forehead to hers.

"Always."

⭐️🌑🌘🌗🌖🌕🌔🌓🌒🌑⭐️