Welcome to the Gallery
Disclaimer:
I do not own any characters or fandoms that will be found in this work. The Gallery will have the following fandoms within: Avatar the Last Airbender, Avatar: Legend of Korra, RWBY, Lost Girl, Naruto, Sanctuary, Warehouse 13, God of War, Bayonetta, W.I.T.C.H, Resistance Fall of Man, Dead Space, Stargate SG-1, Underwolrd, Twilight (Only Alice will make an appearance), Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil, Kingdom Hearts, Soul Eater, Harry Potter, Blood+, Enslaved, the Incredibles, Ouran Host Club, Carmilla, Bleach, Borderlands, X-men (Primarily the movies with some elements from the tv shows and comics), Bones, St. Trinians, Code Geass, Hellboy, Full Metal Alchemist, Danny Phantom, and Teen Titans.
Not all of the stories within the Gallery will be about romance but some will contain: Fem-slash, Male slash, and Het (But not much). The Gallery will have gender bending. IF you are not familiar with a fandom don't worry I will have the chapters labeled with the fandoms it contains and or the fandom the one-shot takes place in.
I own only the plots/ideas/situations that I have placed the characters in.
Also for those of you reading my other stories. No this doesn't mean I've stopped working on the F.M. re-write (I'm working on it).
1. Introduction
(Raven & Hermione/Teen Titans & Harry Potter)
'What the hell is this place?' her question was sharper than she intended it but surprisingly the emote it was directed at was too distracted to be offended.
'Look sharp there's someone else in here with us.'
'I can see that.' The emote rolled her eyes at her mistress.
'I mean there's someone coming our way, who isn't trapped in some kind of weird animated painting.' Her mistress was forced to doge to the side as a ball of colored light was shot down the aisle.
"Not a step c-closer." The voice was pain filled and weak sounding.
"Easy I'm not going to hurt you." Here she paused and slowly rose from the ground while saying, "My name's Raven. What's yours?"
"It's Hermione."
"Okay Hermione, would you mind telling me why I'm getting magic hurled at me?" She asks of Hermione and can't help but be impressed with how much magic she'd sensed in the attack.
She feels hesitation to her left. Just as she starts to phase through the floor, Hermione speaks. "I've been in a place like this before and was almost killed by bunch of murderers."
As Hermione trails off Raven takes a step in her direction. "Are you injured?"
There is silence for so long that Raven begins to wonder if the girl had run off.
"No. Its the after affects of powerful curse."
The wave of emotional turmoil made Raven stagger back against the wall that was not covered in paintings. But as soon as it was threatening to overwhelm her, it was gone. And in its place was a petite wild haired girl with eyes as dark and rich as chocolate, filled to the brim with concern.
"I thought you'd dodged my spell. Are you alright?"
Raven waved her off and stepped away from the wall. "I'm fine."
"Like hell you are." Those eyes had once again invaded her personal space and she was forced back into the wall.
"I'm an empath."
She heard a gasp and just as quickly as Hermione had blocked off her emotions, she stepped back and said, "Of course I've read that occlumency can prevent empaths from reading you and that it unbalances them. But its never been confirmed as most empaths prefer to keep their abilities to themselves."
"What do you mean by most empaths?" The question is out of her mouth before she realizes it and almost immediately she wants to banish her Intelligence to the darkest corner of her mind.
"And what do you mean by that? Surely a fellow mage should know that there are documented accounts of dozens of empaths." Hermione has locked gazes with Raven, waiting for her answer.
"I'm not exactly welcome among the American magical community. Zatanna Zatara spread rumors about me a being dark lady." Raven doesn't wait for the recognition from Hermione, every one knew who Zatanna was and everyone thought she was the second coming of Merlin.
She didn't get far when she heard Hermione's footsteps behind her. And then she stopped altogether. "What a load of rubbish. There is no such thing as dark magic or light magic. Mind you it did take me a while to figure that out and I haven't always thought like that, just recently."
Raven didn't falter in her step nor did she ask about her change of heart.
"You said that you've been in a place like this before. How is it different?"
"Well instead of prophecies there are magic paintings." Hermione's voice went quiet for a moment. The word prophecies brought Raven up short and she barely managed to clamp down on the rising urge to unleash her powers on this entire place.
"Is that me and you?" At this Raven turns and walks back to Hermione and stands at her side. What she sees, is a well rendered drawing of Hermione behind a counter at a book shop. The Hermione behind the counter has a pleasant smile on her face and looks unbelievably happy. Then a bell chimes and in walks a picture perfect image of herself, only she's wearing a glamour.
"Yeah except I'm in my civilian clothes." She murmurs under her breath and unfortunately Hermione's hearing is better than Raven would have thought.
"Why would you be wearing-" Raven is uneasy about the light in Hermione's eyes. But is rather surprised when Hermione turns back to the painting and as she goes to touch the frame she receives the equivalent of an electric shock for her trouble. "Bloody hell."
'Can I just say that her accent is adorable as hell.' She suppresses the urge to bang her head against the painting.
'Aw mistress don't be like that. You've got to admit she's caught your eye.' The emote did have a point and grudgingly Raven conceded. 'Its adorable. Happy now?'
Before Queen X's and O's could respond, Raven cut in 'We are not making a move on her until we know more about whats going on and what the painting means.'
'Well then stop threatening us with bodily harm and pay attention.' She really hated it when her emotions ganged up on her. But nodded an affirmative and returned her attention to the painting.
Words begin appearing across the image, obscuring their view of the painting that read: Do not touch paintings until the paint has dried, yours faithfully Z-7.
"Who is that and what is with this painting?" The question was answered by a very unexpected person.
"Well Mione did you notice that the painting depicting you and your lovely companion, I must say she seems like a decent bird, is numbered the 95th?"
Raven watched as Hermione's eyes widened and then her gazed was focused on the painting next to, apparently, their painting.
"Harry James Potter, what is that 'she seems like a decent bird' commment supposed to mean? And where are we?" Surprisingly enough or not so surprisingly this Harry James Potter looked an awful lot like a kicked Beast Boy or Beast Boy after Terra betrayed the titans to Slade, as he visibly wilted at Hermione's tone.
"Now Mione I've known for awhile that you had a thing for Fleur and later one for Luna after the whole Malfoy Manor business. Besides after Ron pulled that stunt, the stupid git; you deserve to be happy and your companion seems like she could match you in intelligence. Merlin knows that I've had a time of keep up with you. Also you're the brightest witch of the age, I'm sure you'll figure out the answer; you always do." With that he bowed and was retreating back into the painting.
"Harry don't you dare. Ugh and the prat has left the building." However in the midst of her sigh of frustration Hermione stepped back to observe the entire area that held Harry's painting.
"Ah. So that's what he meant. I should do something nice for him if and when we get out of here, he's the only one who knows how much I love a good mystery."
Raven had been curious about Harry's comment on the numbered painting and while Hermione was examining his painting, she turned to once more examine theirs. The frame, upon closer inspection had demonic runes etched into its vine wood. She was mesmerized by runes as they were blue, like her cloak, instead of the red that she knew they could be. And as she'd swept her eyes over the frame, she caught sight of the placard resting just above it, the placard read: 95. Advertisement (Raven & Hermione).
She then turned her attention to Harry's painting and saw another placard. This one read: 94. Last Hope (Maka & Harry).
"We should follow them and see if there are anymore paintings depicting us." They both said this at the same time and while Hermione grinned, Raven's control over powers was at its limit, her face remained blank.
"Great minds think alike it seems." She was mortified at how corny that sounded. But rather then dwell on that she stepped past Hermione and beckoned her to follow.
'CANDY CANE!' The emote in the line of fire dived behind G.I. Jane and hid underneath her cloak.
'Save me from our mistress.' The green clad emote rolled her eyes and stepped forward while gently nudging Candy into the arms of Queen X's and O's. After all Red and Madam Snark seemed about ready to rip into poor Candy. The Wilting Wonder was currently crying quietly by Dazed and Lazy, they certainly weren't going to keep Candy safe.
'Relax mistress it was either a corny line or dissolving a whole wall's worth of paintings and I, well Snark, believes that if this Z-7 is willing to protect the un-dried paintings with an intent triggered electric field, what do you think they're going to do if we destroyed a whole wall of them?' She hated to admit this but Courage did have a point.
'Bring Happy over here.' It wasn't a question and the green clad emote did not want to find out what would happen if she refused her mistress.
'Queen X's and O's send Candy over here.'
It didn't take long for the emote to arrive. She was afraid of what her mistress was going to do to her. She didn't want to be sent away.
'If you insist upon forcing words out of me, can you at least attempt to collaborate with Intelligence. So that we don't sound like Beast Boy.'
Before any more emotes could contribute further their mistress withdrew.
When she was no longer zoned out Raven spotted her name above another painting but it wasn't accompanied by Hermione's.
"Does that say Raven and Kratos? Like Kratos from the God of War game series." Hermione's voice was filled with disbelief and Raven felt the same.
As they drew closer to the painting the other details became clearer and when they came upon the painting, Raven skin was ashen, above the painting it was numbered 89th and Through The Fire was next to it but that is not what worried her. What worried her was the image within the frame and Hermione's reaction to it.
However as Hermione turned to look at the painting it was obscured once more by lettering; Spoilers, Z-7. At this Hermione pulled out what looked to be a wand and as she was about to spell the painting visible, she turned to stone for a split second and then was back to normal.
"This is your one and only warning Hermione Jean Granger, do not damage the paintings or make any further attempts to glimpse the one I blocked from you. After all certain paintings are extremely personal for the occupants. Also you two are doing well please proceed in a timely fashion and we'll talk soon." The voice sounded masculine but it was hard to tell.
"Do not attempt to ask questions of me. As I'm very busy and I need time to prepare for your arrival."
Both Raven and Hermione decided to keep a respectful distance from the paintings and to avoid incurring the wrath of Z-7, as whoever it was seemed to possess great powers. After all many of the paintings depicted others with extraordinary powers and as far as they knew this Z-7 had brought them both here.
With the warnings in mind and the mutual decisions made to keep moving they were off only to stop a couple paintings later. It was Hermione who was made uneasy by what she saw in the painting. "Harry mustn't ever see this."
As she said that, Raven couldn't help but notice that Hermione started rubbing her left forearm. She wanted to do something about the obvious discomfort that Hermione felt but didn't know what. Instead she grasped Hermione's arm and tugged her past the painting. It was 83 (Heal) in the series and its occupants were Hermione and Bellatrix.
They stopped to observe painting 81. Raven saw that, the same girl who was in Harry's painting was in this one. There was no comment from Hermione about it and when Raven looked at her, she suddenly wanted to murder this Z-7.
"Hermione you need to see this one." To this there was no answer and she was forced to do something drastic.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." Surprisingly her powers lifted the painting off the wall, she was surprised that this Z-7 would allow such a thing. To her further surprise words appeared on the back of the painting over her powers. These words read:Bellatrix has a complicated relationship with Hermione and that painting is important for them both. It was never my intention to cause Hermione anguish. Also she loves books and reading, so if you mention that she's depicted in a library in this one...
She hated herself for doing as Z-7 suggested but when she did, it pulled Hermione out of her funk from earlier.
"Pen and Paper. That doesn't sound so bad. And Merlin's beard how are you doing this, won't it hurt the painting?" The outburst and questions elicited a chuckle out of Raven. She was directing the painting back to the wall as she answered, "I'm a telekinetic as well as an empath and apparently this Z-7 isn't a malicious entity. I think they allowed me to show you the painting."
Hermione's smile was radiant as they proceeded down the aisle of paintings. "I was right you're Raven from the Teen Titans."
Raven was shocked into stillness and it was Hermione's turn to pull her along. "I met Argent once and saved her from a horde of dementors, horrible creatures. After I explained what they were, she explained who she was and told me about some of the other Titans. Anyway I gave her my contact information, in case she had anymore run ins with them."
"What had you traveling to New Zealand?" The question was promptly answered with, "Dragons. I was studying them for my Care of Magical Creatures Mastery, my thesis on them disproved the myth that dragons were mindless beasts and while they are un-tameable, they can understand human speech."
'I wonder what she'd make of Malchior.' This comment was met with an enraged hiss.
'Fuck that.' The emote's glasses had a crack in the lenses from her mistress's outburst. She made a placating gesture and backed away slowly.
'I was merely suggesting that we show her the book.' Her mistress and Red growled in tandem at that.
'Perhaps It wasn't the best of my ideas.'
"Raven, look you get to meet Harry." When she managed to orient herself as being jarred abruptly from Nevermore wasn't something she'd mastered yet, she looked to the painted image. It was number 75 and it said Mirror.
"He seemed like a decent bloke." she said and a minute later Hermione burst out laughing, Raven like the sound of it, it was a very warm sound.
"A villain named Mad Mod broke into the Tower, doused us with sleeping gas, and tried to hypnotize us into drooling idiots. His British accent was annoying as hell. Especially when he said the words 'my duckies'" She shudders at that and continues, "I decided, after our second run in with Mad Mod on the 4th of July, to master a British accent and to learn some UK slang to mock him with."
"Its brilliant."
They both fell silent as they came upon another painting and it looked very amusing. "Oh I hope I get to hear the story behind this one."
Hermione mock glared at her as she observed the details; 69. Annoyance (Toph & Hermione). "Holy cricket. That must be what these paintings are. They're stories that didn't happen."
"Of course alternate dimensions. These must be crossover events but what's the point of this. What is Z-7's game?"
"Raven what if Z-7 has witnessed these events. Maybe they're here to make sure that these events aren't forgotten." Raven didn't have an answer and simply continued on through the aisle, barely glancing at the paintings as she passed them.
The next one was Raven and Gaara, 60, Rejection. Two more paintings went by and it was Azula and Raven, 57, Sacrifice. But it was at painting 55 that Raven halted them. "I'm going to kill Z-7."
Hermione looked at the paintings occupants; Beast Boy and Raven, Waiting.
"It may not be as bad as it looks."
Raven made a pained sounding noise in her throat and muttered, "Stank ball."
"What was that?"
"Nothing lets just keep moving."
They didn't make it very far as the next painting involved one of them. The names above the painting silenced any protests that Raven had. Tower (Gender bent Beast Boy & Raven)
"They're going to turn me into a guy." As soon as Raven said that out loud more words appeared on the painting; Nope just Beast Boy.
"Small mercy that."
Hermione remained silent and Raven was grateful. The two walked farther then ever before. During this time the two really looked around at the strange art gallery that they were in. Each painting had an over head light that really made the images and color of the paintings pop. The frames were each unique and different, they seemed to be a combination of the paintings occupants, one frame they passed was two streams of fire; one half blue and the other half red.
It wasn't long after that they came upon another painting, it was one of theirs; 40. Steal (Gender bent Robin & Raven). "Robin would probably have a coronary if he saw this painting. But then again he did create a master thief by the name of Red-X in an attempt to fool Slade. Par for the course."
"Raven?" Her tone was subdued, almost hesitant.
"Yes."
"I think this Z-7 has a fixation on you. You've been depicted in 8 of the paintings so far."
Raven shrugged and kept walking. "I wouldn't say its a fixation. I get the feeling that they are simply respectful of my abilities. After all, I can travel through dimensions easily, it makes sense that I'd have a lot of interesting events with numerous people."
"You make it sound like a walk in the park; dimension traveling." It was refreshing to say the least, that Hermione was genuinely curious about her abilities and not in fear of them.
"For me its simpler than others." It must have been the tone in her voice that made Hermione stamp down, extra hard on her curiosity. That curiosity was back in full force as they came upon yet another painting.
34. Stars (Starfire & Raven)
"Are you guys having tea on the moon?" Raven elected not to answer her and they continued down the seemingly never ending aisle. Despite how nonchalant she sounded earlier about being in so many paintings she was beginning to wonder about her participation in some of them. Her weariness increased as she glimpse the next terrible image since Beast Boy's paintings, although this person would be more tolerable than him, by a long shot. 25. Trouble Lurking (Jinx & Raven).
"Nine." This whisper is the only comment Hermione makes on the painting. The rest of the aisle is traveled in silence as they paused only long enough to ascertain if they were in any other paintings and they were only in three others; 17. Blood (Hermione & Saya), 14. Smile (Hinata & Hermione), and 5. Seeking Solace (Raven & Toph).
As they, finally, reached the end of the aisle of paintings they were met with a solid black door. The door had purple letters emblazoned on it, that read: Z-7 Proceed with caution, do not disturb, and sanity is scarce inside. With major trepidation and an eternity's worth of hesitation, Raven knocked on the door. A click echoed and then the door swung open by itself.
Just beyond the door the two stopped dead as they found themselves inside a ginormous library. However books weren't the only things on the shelves. They saw countless video games and CDs stacked in between the books. The floor was covered in rugs with skulls and dragons on them. Music was blasting through speakers that hung off the ends of every bookshelf and the song wasn't recognizable to either of them.
They moved further into the shelves and heard faint clacking sounds. With no indications of this Z-7's presence they decided to follow the sound to its source. As they walked Raven felt Hermione's nervousness ratchet up to 11. Rather than slow down to try and ease those nerves, Raven kept moving toward the clacking and as she rounded a corner, they'd arrived.
There was an open space in front of them and across the space at a beat up black computer desk, sat Z-7. She was typing away on a black laptop resting on a cookie cooling rack. And she hadn't noticed their arrival yet which was good, it gave them the upper hand. Raven walked into the open space followed closely by Hermione and as they drew closer, they saw that she was wearing a beanie with skulls on it and that she sported a pair of black glasses.
"Ah it seems you've arrived. Perhaps a little ahead of schedule. But no matter now we can get down to business." She never looked up nor stopped typing away at her computer as she spoke. This seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back, for Hermione at least. "Where are we?"
"What is the point of all of this?" It seemed as though Z-7 wasn't going to answer the questions. But she stopped typing and looked up from the computer screen in front of her.
"The point of all of this," she gestures around at the stacks of books and loose papers covering every available surface in her immediate vicinity, "is for an Introduction. And as for Hermione's question, this is my mind. Its cluttered with the possibilities of all the events that you passed by on your way here."
"Wait, just wait." Hermione was having a difficult time wrapping her mind around the fact that she was in someone else's mind. "Are you telling us that we're figments of your imagination, that," she spins around waving at the bookshelves and the stereo speakers spread throughout the room they entered, "That this is your mind and we are a part of it."
"No. I'm saying that you, Raven, and the others in here. Are here to help improve my word smithing, a challenge if you will. A one hundred theme challenge where I'm to write the events that you've briefly observed on your way through the gallery."
"Not exactly the malicious entity that you were expecting. Were you ladies?"
Raven and Hermione each share a look before springing into action. Raven was hurling bookshelves at the woman sitting at the desk, while Hermione had shot off a chain of spells that she designed to incapacitate a giant.
Z-7 yawned widely before waving her hand in their general direction. The bookshelves dissolved in midair and reappeared exactly where they belonged. Hermione's spells were swallowed up by mini black holes.
"Are you quite finished?" There is a hint of amusement in her voice as the two commence with another attack.
"Well obviously you two will need to be sent into the first painting that I have planned, in order for you to cool off. Seeing is believing as they say." She snapped her fingers at them and instantly they vanished. A pleased grin spread across her face as she looked to the first painting; 2. Love (Magnus & H.G. Wells). "Let the games begin."