Friday Afternoon.
"Mom, where are we going?" Wraith whined as they walked through the park.
"You wanted to see an image of your mom, so that's where we're going." Jinx said evenly to her ten-year-old daughter. The pair turned aroind a corner and collection of statues was revealed.
"Uh Mom? This is the Titans Memorial, what does this have to do with Mom?" The pink-purple haired child asked, confusion written on her face. Jinx didn't answer, instead dragging Wraith over to the statue of Raven.
"I know you've been learning about them in school and you want me to come on your trip to the Tower in a few days that I won't come on but you don't know why. You know who this is but you didn't know her. I can't come on the trip because, well... it'll be easier to show you." Jinx lifted the ten-year-old over the fence surrounding the statue and climbed over after her. There were gasps of shocked indignation behind them, but they went ignored. Jinx pointed to Ravens right hand and Wraith let out her own gasp. On the four-eyed statues finger was a ring almost identical to her moms. Jinx pulled both rings off and pushed the edges together. They made a single interlocking band of gold. Wraith stared at the rings with wide, flat pink-purple eyes.
"This is why I don't like talking about your mom, why I won't go on the trip with you. it reminds me me of how she died just a month after you were born." Crying silently, Jinx led her and Ravens daughter out of the clearing. Away from the painful reminder of what she'd lost, Jinx sat on a bench hugging Wraith. When the pinkette had run out of tears she handed an envelope to Wraith.
"Your mom wrote this before she died, incase anything happened to her. I've never opened it."
Wraith took the yellowing parchment and hugged it close before opening it. Inside was a thick letter, a card with several symbols on it labeled 'Titans Tower' and a pair of pictures. One was of the family, with Wraith in Raven and Jinxs arms and the other was of Wraith and Raven. Her eyes drank in the sight of the mother she never knew. Then she picked up the card.
"Mom, what is this?" Jinx looked at the card, surprise showing on her tear-stained face.
"This...This is the key-card Raven gave me when I moved in with her." She whispered. "I didn't know where it had disappeared to."
"They said at school that no-one has managed to open the door to her room in the Tower, not even the Last Titan Cyborg. Do you think I could with this?" Jinx smiled.
"Undoubtedly."
Thursday Midmorning
"And here is Ravens room. No-one has managed to open this door in the last ten years." The tour-guide droned. Several kids looked at the pad next to the metal door engraved with one word-'RAVEN'.
"The museum has a standing challenge to anyone willing to try open the door. If you want to try raise your hand."
Three hands rose, Wraiths among them. The guide motioned for Wraith to try first. She stepped up to the pad. On it were several symbols, some matching those on the card held in a death-grip.
"I hope this works." She whispered. Wraith pressed the buttons with the same symbols on the pad as the card. There was a soft 'beep' and the door, for the first time in a decade, slid open. A feminine voice spoke from the pad.
"Admitted: Wraith."
There was murmuring as it registered that the unlockable door had been unlocked by the freak. The guide was the first to address Wraith.
"How did you do that?" Her eyes widened perceptibly as she caught sight of the card. "Where did you get that card?!"
A thud cut off anything else she wished to say. The source of the thud came hurtling around the cornier in the form of Cyborg, the Last Titan.
"Who opened Raes door... " He trailed off as he noticed the pink-purple hair. "Wraith? Is that you? Ravens little girl?"
The dumbstruck crowd was completely forgotten as Wraith turned around to face Cyborg.
"It is you!" He shouted "Its been years since I last saw you and your Moms. Speacking of, where is Jinx?"
"She didn't want to come, something about bad memories." Cy nodded at this.
"I know that feels. Want me to call her, tell her you got the door opened?" Wraith nodded and stepped into the room.
Candles flickered to life of their own accord, revealing a pentagram burned into the floor. Wraith took the letter out of her pocket, remembering something about it being mentioned. After a minute she began to chant, her voice hollow and filled with the screams of a thousand tortured souls. The symbol burst into unholy crimson flames. From this hellish fire rose a shadowy corvid with four vermillion eyes. The wings of the ether-bird folded down and by trick of the eye became a blue cloak. The thing surged foward, falling to ethreal knees and hugged the girl before it.
"Wraith!" Raven sobbed, squezzing her daughter tightly.
"M-Mom?"
"It's me Honey, I'm really here." Wraith managed a smile through the tears.
"Come on. Lets get you home."
A balck portal swallowed the two, leaving the many visitors staring where the pair had just been.
"What just happened?"