Shadows In A Mirror
Part One
by Go-Go Spiders
A 'Princess and the Frog'/'Teen Titans' crossover
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Dr. Facilier (The Princess and the Frog)/Adult!Raven (Teen Titans)
***
Facilier grinned as the woman bound within the summoning circle attempted to eradicate the symbols drawn on the floorboards of his Emporium. He liked a woman with a bit of the devil in her, and this one practically radiated with the darkest kind of magic.
"No good, darlin', you ain't getting out of there 'till I say so."
The woman, lithe but still pleasingly curvy, spun on her heels to face him, her long blue cloak billowing behind her. The hood of her cloak was pulled down over her head, placing most of her face in shadow. Eyes as dark as her cloak glared at him from underneath the cowl. Without a word, she drew back her hand as it was enveloped in darkness, then thrust it out in front of her, aiming for his face.
The dark energy dissipated into nothing as soon as it hit the protective wards of the circle, leaving Facilier untouched. He laughed. "I'm not a stupid man, darlin'. Honestly think I'd try to summon anything without botherin' to protect myself first?"
"You're a stupid man for even trying to summon me," the woman hissed, her eyes cold.
"Maybe, maybe not," said Facilier, gracefully flipping his hat off his head. "Could I have summoned a lesser shadow being instead? Probably. But the daughter of Trigon?" He grinned again, falling into a mock bow before placing his hat back on top of his head. "Now, that's an accomplishment, if I do say so myself."
The woman glared at Facilier, then at the shadow behind Facilier, which was doing its best to look as nonchalant as a shadow moving independently of its owner could.
"What is it you want?" She asked, suddenly sounding very tired.
Facilier snapped his fingers, and his shadow sluggishly approached the circle, being careful to not cross over the symbols drawn around the woman. Facilier put his arms around his shadow. "My Friend here seems to be having a bit of trouble. See, he was part of the deal I made with the Other Side, but he's lost some of himself to the light. There have been some times when I've needed him to help me and he's just been nothing but a normal shadow. I've tried everythin' I can think of, but he keeps getting' worse."
"Then why don't you call your other 'Friends'?," asked the woman. "They could probably help you more then I could."
"I would, but they keep asking for more than I can afford to pay them," said Facilier. "Thanks to your Daddy, you're a creature of shadows born to a woman of light. That's a rare thing in my book. Figured if anyone would agree to help my poor Friend regain some of his darkness, it might be you, Raven."
Raven looked at the shadow again. It glanced up at her, its shoulder slumped. She sighed softly. If the shadow's owner had already dug himself in that deep to the Other Side, he probably needed all the help he could get at this point.
And besides, it was probably the only way he'd let her out of the summoning circle. She couldn't stay inside it forever.
"I can't help you from inside the circle," she said. "If you release me, I'll see what I can do. But no promises. If there's nothing I can do, you let me leave this place."
Faciler rubbed out the chalk symbols in front of Raven with his shoe, breaking the circle. "It's a deal."
***
Facilier was seated on the floor in the back of his Emporium, a tall candle the only thing between him and Raven. Raven hung suspended in the air half a foot above the floorboards, her legs crossed in front of her. The cloak wafted gently behind her, moving in a breeze Facilier couldn't feel.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." Raven spoke quietly. "Azarath, Metrion, Zin-thoooss," she lightly hissed. Raven slowly opened her eyes, which shone white. Dark energy crackled in her palms seemed to spin around the woman's body, tossing her hair and cloak around violently. The shadow of a large raven appeared from the darkest folds of her cloak, hovering above her body for a moment before beating its black wings and letting loose a screech that shook the dust from the rickety wooden rafters of his Emporium.
Facilier's shadow shrank back from the raven, sliding down the wall to hide behind its master. Facilier shot it an annoyed look. It looked bad to have his shadow cower before a display of that kind of power, even if inside, deep deep down, he was shivering in fear himself.
Sudden doubts in his plan began to engulf him. He'd just set loose the daughter of Trigon. Trigon, one of the most dangerous beings from the Other Side, who would like nothing more than to see the world become a hunk of rock devoid of all life. What had he been thinking, asking her of all people for help?
Then the bird enveloped both him and his shadow in its giant wings and he was lost to the darkness.
***
Facilier awoke the next morning on the floor, naked and tangled up in Raven's large cloak. Muscles he didn't even know he had ached slightly as he stretched his arms and legs out underneath the blue cloak. Raven was curled beside him, her grey skin still covered with a thin sheen of sweat from the night's activities. An electric lamp knocked on its side illuminated the mischief his shadow had gotten up to when its owner had finally fallen asleep. Facilier's shadow turned a cartwheel against the wall, healthy and vibrant again. Whatever Raven had done – at this point he could only vaguely recall sensations but what pleasurable sensations they had been, her fingers carassing his chest, her lips against his neck – must have worked. He hadn't seen his shadow that energetic since he'd first made that deal with the Other Side.
He kissed the red chakra gem on Raven's forehead lightly. "For a daughter of a devil, you sure are heavenly in bed."