Revisions

by Concolor44

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Author's Note: This is the sequel to "Regrets", and the fourth in the "Death and Taxes" series. It was intended to be a one-shot, but looks like at least three chapters instead.

Here's a question to keep you on your toes: If your basic personalities clash, how do you work closely with a being who possesses mind-shattering power, without getting blasted into oblivion? It's definitely an idea worth pondering.

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Chapter One

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Titans' Tower, 06 September, 1:12pm

"I don't know why you couldn't just do a spell or something and fix all the damage."

"Terra …" Raven massaged her brow, trying to work the frown out of it. "My power doesn't work that way here. I know how it usually gets portrayed in the popular media, but I don't have a bag of Magic Spiffle Dust I can pull out and sprinkle on any given problem, and make it go away."

"But when we were in the Eighth Circle, you just sorta waved a hand and …"

"And we aren't in the Eighth Circle, are we?"

"Well … no. But even here you're like, way more …"

"Would you like to move the Tower to that plane? Of course, since your powers don't work on hellstone, that would make your presence on the team rather moot, wouldn't it?"

"Hey!"

Cyborg walked by, carrying a smoking piece of something that, before the latest battle, might have been electronic equipment. He moved to the edge of the remaining section of the no-longer-quite-T-shaped building, peered down at the large collection of demolished junk on the rocky shore, gave a resigned shrug, and tossed his burden onto the pile. "This is gonna take a while."

Nightwing looked up from his datapad. "What this is going to do is blow our budget for the year. Stupid giant robots."

"Yeah." Terra sat down and crossed her legs, resting elbows on knees and propping her chin on her fists. "Too bad our enemies don't come with instruction manuals. If we'd known about that frequency thing off the bat …"

"Don't remind me," groused Cyborg.

"No, I didn't mean it like that! I mean, you were the one that finally kicked their shiny red butts, right? We just didn't have any way to know … you know."

Giving a distracted nod, Nightwing added, "There's a saying: You don't know what you don't know. We can't beat ourselves up for not having enough information about an unknown enemy." His brows drawing together in a frown, he muttered to himself, "And I promise that won't happen again with these guys."

"Plus," said Raven, "they were canny enough to wait until it was just you three at the Tower. Starfire could probably have taken them down, and my magic certainly would have been helpful. For that matter, Gar might have been able to transform into something small enough to infiltrate their armor, and taken out their circuitry from the inside."

Raising her head and gazing around dejectedly at the rubble, Terra asked Raven, "Are you sure there's nothing you can do?"

"I can help clear out the damaged sections." As she spoke, a severely-smashed and nearly-unrecognizable monitor station floated up out of the smoking hole in the middle of the Tower. It changed direction and added its bulk to the pile of junk down below. "And when we get done sifting, I'll take the rest of it over to the recycling center."

"Crud."

"You could help, too."

"How?"

"The city-side end of the 'T' lost a good bit of its cantilevering. If you raised a column of stone that repositioned it back to parallel with the other side …"

"On it!" She hopped on one of the boulders on the roof and dropped out of sight.

Nightwing put a gentle hand on Raven's shoulder. "Thank you."

Giving him a quarter-profile, she said, "For?"

"That boost. Even after all she's been through with us lately, she still lacks confidence. This will help."

She nodded. Once. "Something she said is bothering me, though."

"Really? What?"

"She wanted to know why I couldn't just 'magic it all better'. I told her my magic didn't work that way here, but … now I don't know."

"Have you tried?"

"Not really. I've been sticking with what I know, except for my obvious power boost."

"Yeah. Adonis learned that pretty quickly."

She let go with a snicker. "I did like his reaction when all the steel parts of his suit turned into wiffle bats."

"And then started whacking him."

"But," she countered, coming back to their current problem, "I can't just make stuff. Healing is one thing. My magic understands that. But the advanced electronics that Vic sprinkles all over the Tower? Not so much."

"I guess you didn't have much of a chance to study anything technical growing up."

"The only thing they wanted from me was control. Everything – and I do mean everything – that I was given to study was geared toward keeping my emotions in check, keeping me … safe." She turned away, looked up at the nearly-cloudless sky. "They say you can never know what might have been. But I have to wonder. Not that I'm complaining about my present circumstances."

Slender, pale arms encircled her waist. A soft cheek nuzzled her neck. "I should hope not."

With a genuine smile, Raven turned in Jinx's embrace, cupped her face, and gave her a slow, gentle kiss. Then she pulled her in tight, wound her fingers into that pink hair, and whispered, "No complaints at all."

Nightwing smirked. "I'd tell you two to get a room, except yours is pretty much a shambles right now."

"True," sighed Raven. "We'll have to figure out … some … place …" Her eyes widened. "What am I saying? I've got a whole dimension!"

Jinx's emotional state whipped from contented love to near-panic in about a second.

As thoroughly in tune with her lover's mind as Raven was, the sudden switch nearly gave her whiplash. "Sweetie? It'll be okay."

"I can't believe you're considering parking us in Hell 'til the Tower gets fixed."

With a careless shrug, Nightwing commented, "You know, it's not that bad. Not anymore."

Staring at him, Jinx said, "Seriously? It's freakin' Hell!"

Raven patted her arm. "The term 'Hell' is a rather malleable concept. When people in this society use the term, they are typically referring to the Christian Hell. But I've read their literature. Technically, their Hell isn't finished yet. It's 'under construction' until their God decides it's time to … well, end time and do that whole Last Judgment thing."

"Huh. Never heard that before."

"Well, I don't pretend to be any kind of theologian, but according to their scriptures, Hell is where all the unrepentant Unfaithful will end up. Eventually."

"Eventually? But what about, like, now? People die all the time. What happens to their souls or spirits or whatever?"

"That's a lot less clear. Apparently a lot of the answer depends on what they believed in life." She shrugged. "Being of demonic ancestry, I doubt any of it applies to me directly." Giving her lover a wry grin, she added, "Guess I'll find out. Eventually."

"I'm just all kinds of comforted by that Raven!"

"My place is the Eighth Circle," responded Raven in a soothing tone. "It's an alternate dimension that has been under the control of a being of Pure Evil for several millennia. Yeah, they collect … let's call them 'defective' souls, and occasionally consume them. But they learned that from Trigon. It's not all they are, and it's not what they'll be … not once I'm done with the place."

Jinx gave her a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

"I've already begun a program of what I'm advertising as 'upgrades' to their system. Sure, they have to do what I say anyway, but I would rather have them on board than trying to circumvent my will at every turn."

"… I can see that. What sorts of reforms?"

"To start with, they aren't allowed to trick anyone into a soul-for-power contract anymore. That got some grumbles. But then I pointed out that they had an entire dimension where they were the only intelligent species, there are only around fifty million of them, and were only inhabiting a single world in that dimension. That got them to realize that they were limiting themselves simply because Trigon had wanted it that way. They've been talking about what to do with the information for the last week."

"Well … like what?"

"The Eighth Circle isn't anything LIKE as big as our universe – maybe one-ten-millionth the size in volume, and one hundred-billionth in solid matter – but it's completely chock full of magical potential. That's why demons can be so powerful. They all have a conduit to that field of magic, and some have impressively wide conduits."

Nightwing had been listening closely. "So … when you 'demoted' that Duke … Wrenchgallows?"

"Yes?"

"You just throttled his siphon off, didn't you?"

"Indeed. And the other demons are fully aware that I can do that to any number of them at any time."

"Did Trigon know about that?"

"I have no idea. He was so powerful, personally, that I don't know for sure that he ever used any of the magical potential of the place." Turning back to Jinx and taking her hands, she said, "Let's go give you the dollar tour."

"And you're sure it's safe? Dead sure?"

"Yes, Sweetie. I wouldn't put your life at risk, or allow anyone else to, either."

"Well … okay." She got a firm grip on Raven's upper arm. "But I'm not letting go of you for a second."

"Wouldn't have it any other way," answered the demi-demon with a grin.

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End Note:

So now Jinx gets to see Raven's ancestral lands. The question is: Are THEY ready for HER? Guess we'll find out.

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