She fought the urge to shiver, snow lightly dusting her outfit. The world was covered in soft, cold flakes, gleaming with a frosty light.

"Where am I?" Raven wondered aloud, unable to help herself. She knew that it was a dream as soon as a familiar figure stepped out from behind a tree. Shegasped, and reached for him, but he faded away. Then tears began to fall down her cheeks, and she turned away, collapsing on the snow as she remembered.


Raven woke with a start. She shuddered, then looked around. A dungeon of some kind. Odd. The last thing she remembered was a glowing… something flying towards her and a brief explosion before she blacked out.

She checked herself for injuries. A few small cuts and burns, but that was all. Her black catsuit was torn all down her right side, and her back and shoulders ached. But she was in one piece. Her captors had been smart enough to take her throwing stars and katanas before they locked her away.

She tried to move, but thick chains held her hands and legs fast.

A teenager cautiously unlocked her cell door and walked in. He had brilliant, glittering green eyes and crazy, curly straw-blond hair.

"What do you want?" she spat, struggling futilely. He backed away.

"I just wanted to say, they won't kill you," he stammered.

"Oh, that's just great," she grumbled. "Do you have a habit of capturing random people?"

He seemed to be offended. "You were carrying swords. And grenades, and whatever those silver things are."

"Throwing stars," she snapped automatically, still pulling on the chains.

"Okay, well, Magyk against regular things isn't fair," he sighed. "I told Marcia, but she wouldn't listen."

"I stopped paying attention after the 'Okay.'" She rolled her eyes.

"That's the relevant part," he admitted.

Just then another man came in. "Madam, it is your trial."

"I am not a Madam," she hissed. "I am Raven."


Five guards escorted her to the chamber, her hands still cuffed behind her back. She stood, refusing to sit, staring defiantly into the violet eyes of a woman with long, dark hair and the crown of a monarch. Her own clear blue eyes narrowed, fire kindling and sparking within them.

Beside the queen stood a woman, with the same brilliant emerald eyes as the boy who had gone into her cell. She wore a fancy purple tunic and a silk cape, edged with fur. The queen wore red robes, edged with gold.

"I feel underdressed," Raven said dryly, looking down at her black leather catsuit and tactical harness. Then she looked back up, holding the gaze of the queen.

"Shut up and listen to Queen Jenna," one of the guards hissed into her ear. She noted that he was holding her katanas and throwing stars.

As the queen began to speak, Raven waited for her moment. Then she moved with a speed and grace expected of the deadliest assassin in the world. She swiftly disabled the men around her and reclaimed her katanas, slicing through her handcuffs in the process. She would have gone for the queen if not for the green-eyed woman next to her. The emerald gaze was intense, and Raven could feel the disconcerting presence of someone inside her head. Instinctively she pulled back, both physically and mentally, blocking out the presence, but not before it had enough information. Immediately Anastasia Furan shimmered into view.

"Peck, peck, peck, little Raven," she said. "Peck, peck."

Raven snarled, slicing her swords through Furan and being rewarded with Furan's disappearance.

Raven glared up at the woman in purple, ignoring the queen.

"This is your doing, is it not?" she growled, her usually soft Russian accent becoming much, much stronger. She could hear people whispering behind her, most likely about her looks. Her pale, but beautiful face blazed with a deadly fire.

Then Dimitri shivered into view just in front of her.

"Natalya," he whispered, putting both hands on her shoulders. "We have to run."

He slumped to the ground, a bullet wound streaming blood in his chest.

"Natalya… Natalya," he whispered.

"Fool," Raven shouted, her voice cracking. "I see Tolya and Dimitri every time I close my eyes. You will not hold me back that way, witch."

She kicked away the apparition. The woman in purple staggered back. The queen simply stared in dismay.

Raven took down four more guards. Everyone else was cowering behind chairs and desks. She turned to leave, looking over her shoulder at the queen and the witch.

"You do not try to contain the world's deadliest assassin, Queen Jenna," she sneered.. "Next time, you will not be so lucky."

She fired the pistol in her hand. The woman in purple collapsed.

"What a waste… of a bullet," Raven murmured, speaking the words that had shattered her world so long ago.