Please do Not take this story seriously. I know the premise is cliche (Once you figure out what it is) but I don't care. Please review, flame, critique, anything.
Magic Error
Robin watched helplessly as Starfire paced in midair worriedly. Even though Robin assured her that the empath would be fine after about another 20 minutes of bed rest, Starfire couldn't help but feel nervous. Why was Raven the only one to get hit by the smoke bomb? Starfire feared something else was bound to happen today.
"Star, calm down. We can check on her in a few minutes. All of us can," Robin soothed after checking the clock situated on the wall above the kitchen cabinets. Starfire sighed before coming to a stop and returning to her seat next to the boy wonder.
"I know. But I fear that something else is going to happen. I think the expression is 'There's something missing'," she answered quietly.
Robin made a "Hmm" sound, contemplating what Star just said. He had to agree. The Joker out of all the villains, showed up at their doorstep. And he commented offhandedly about that's what he got for making a deal with 'him'.
"I'm worried too, Star. If it makes you feel any better, we can go check on her now," he said, sliding off of the kitchen stool. Starfire was apparently relieved at this and nodded.
Robin told Cyborg and Beastboy the news and the team made their way to Raven's room.
"You don't really think the Joker was working with someone, do you?" Beastboy asked suddenly, while they all were traversing the stairs, sans Starfire who was hovering above them. "He's random, right? This was just a spur of the moment thing?"
Robin's domino mask hid the contemplative expression that he no doubt had.
"I think he had a partner in this," Robin finally admitted.
"You think bozo the clown was a distraction for something?" Cyborg suggested, the team reaching the second floor. Raven's door was just several paces ahead, and Robin sighed, not knowing what the Joker's angle was.
"As long as Raven is safe and sound, I will not worry," Stafire said. No argument there, the team figured.
Slowly, Robin cracked the door open and called Raven's name just in case.
"Raven? It's us, we're here to check on you."
Robin waited a couple of seconds before opening the door completely.
"Oh no!" Beastboy shouted. Starfire rushed to the bed and gasped after pulling the covers.
"She is gone! And the bed is cold!"
Robin's worst fears were realized just then. Raven was kidnapped right under their nose, and from Star's description of the bed, it had been a while ago.
"No, no, no," Beastboy chanted with his hands on his head. "We have to find her! This all must have been a trap to abduct her-"
"BB, cool down, man. We're going to look for her. We just need to find out what direction she was taken," Cyborg said with a pat on BB's shoulder.
"I know who took her," Robin's voice said, it's tone betraying both anger and a little bit of surprise.
"Slade. Whatever he's planning, he didn't cover his tracks. We have to find him quickly."
"What the heck does Slade want with Raven!? Didn't he already have a falling out with Raven's giant dad?"
"I don't know. But whatever's going on, Slade was sloppy in the kidnapping." Robin then thought to himself for a few seconds before relaying orders.
"Cyborg, bring up the list of Slade hideouts within a three mile radius. I have a feeling he didn't go far."
"Got ya," Cyborg acknowledged, turning to make his way towards the lounge computer. With nothing to do, Beastboy went to follow his metallic friend company. Star glided over towards Robin, examining the boot prints that Robin was studying.
"Do you think that Slade is planning to hurt friend Raven?" Starfire couldn't help but ask. Robin closed his eyes, analyzing the situation.
"I hope not," Robin said after some thought. "It seems like he's in a hurry for something."
With consciousness returning, Raven was forced to hold her head. There was a ringing in her forehead, but she didn't remember injuring herself severely enough. Forcing herself to center her emotions and focus, she couldn't help thinking that all of this was happening on her...on her birthday of all days.
"Uurgh," Raven groaned as she began to gain her footing and start to stand up.
"You're finally awake," a voice said from a few feet away. Raven felt she should recognize the voice, but her exhaustion was still preventing any warning bells from going off. Footsteps sounded and they slowly got louder before it ceased all together. Whoever this person was, was standing right in front of her, no doubt. Apparently, he was allowing her to regain some awareness of her surrounding. After her vision cleared and she looked up, a gasp escaped her as she jumped backwards. Slade made no movement to give chase.
"I'm not here to harm you, Raven."
Raven couldn't resist responding sarcastically.
"First time for everything, huh?"
Slade decided to cut to the chase. "I am dying. I need your help."
Out of all the possible things Slade could say, she was not expecting that particular sentence.
"...What."
"The powers that I had gotten from Trigon, a year ago, today. You remember, don't you?" Any other day, that statment would have been a scathing remark coming from Slade, but his confession made it sound more like he was just stating a fact.
"What does this have to do with..." Raven began. She backed away slightly, and again, Slade made no move to chase her.
"Why should I care?" she amended her earlier statement under a mask of apathy.
"As I am in this...condition, I am hardly in a position to make a threat. Instead I have an offer. If you do this favor for me, I will owe you a favor. This illness seems to be some sort of delayed withdrawal symptom of your father's power."
Raven looked away from his masked face and considered the thought.
"Why didn't you imprison me or bind me?" the empath asked curiously. She could escape right now, all things considered.
"As I said, I'm in no condition to make threats." Slade looked away for a moment, as though thinking of his next words. "Think of it as a sign of trust."
Raven regarded him a moment before thinking the situation over again. It really seemed like Slade was dying. That and the fact he hadn't bothered to bind him. She could just walk away...
"Fine," she said aloud. Even though Slade is like their arch-nemesis, she couldn't leave him to die, much less let him die because of her father. Raven closed her eyes and centered her emotions, thinking about it logically. Yes, Slade was a very bad guy, but he is also a human being. Forgetting about him wouldn't make her any better than a villain. Something she did not want to inherit from her father.
"Please sit," she ordered. Slade didn't comment but obeyed, and took off his left glove and gauntlet.
"Will you be able to reverse the effects, birthday girl?"
"Don't call me that," Raven ground out, while preparing to examine Slade's unhealthy looking arm. Raven retained particularly bad memories of Slade being Trigon's herald only a year ago.
Slade allowed himself a small, humorless chuckle. "Fair enough."
Visualizing the arm in her mind, Raven willed the dark magic she inherited from her father to react to the remnants of Trigon's aura that seemed to be attacking Slade's system like corrupt antibodies.
Raven's power seemed to be doing something, seeing as how Slade's arm twitched in pain.
"So, why do you...do what you do?" Raven decided to ask. Not really to distract Slade from the pain of the magical operation, but to start some kind of dialogue.
Slade wasn't about to answer, but seeing as the situation he was in, he was obligated to answer.
"...It's...complicated," the enigmatic answer came.
A very Robin-like answer, if Raven could say so herself. He obviously wasn't going to reveal any more than that, not that any progress was made to begin with.
"You were right. The miniscule remains of Trigon's aura seemed to be rejecting your system. I just need to draw a seal and we can get this over with in a few minutes," Raven explained, moving her hands away from Slade's arm.
"You have a marker?"
"On the table."
Raven walked over to the table that contained half destroyed parts of several Slade-bots. Ignoring them, she grabbed the marker and drew a detailed circle on the floor directly in front of Slade.
"Once I complete the enchantment, you'll just need rest and you should be fine."
Slade didn't respond, and Raven hadn't expected him to. But right before she began to chant the words, Slade said something she didn't expect.
"Thanks."
Raven regarded him before closing her eyes. "You're welcome."
Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, and Beastboy were currently at the harbor, quickly examining the larger warehouses as they passed by them.
Beastboy was currently morphed into a bloodhound, sniffing the entrance to each opening he passed.
"Pick up anything, Beastboy?" Robin asked. Beastboy didn't respond immediately, continuing to sniff the ground, before he barked once, pointing his muzzle towards a specific warehouse. Robin nodded once to BB, who morphed back and then to the other two.
"Titans, get ready. Raven could be in danger," he whispered. The team nodded once, slowly making their way inside. They all remembered just under a year ago, when Trigon attacked Jump City, with Slade acting as his vanguard, for all intents and purposes. They could only assume that Slade was trying to get that power again somehow. So they agreed that the moment they found Slade, they'd interrupt whatever spell he might be forcing Raven to conjure.
Around the corner, a white light could be seen flashing, alot like how when Raven is conjuring a spell.
"Titans, GO!" Robin shouted, jumping around the corner with his friends in tow. As he threw his flash bomb birdarangs, he could see Raven kneeling in front of Slade, some sort of mystical graph etched into the floor beneath them. Time to ruin Slade's plans!
Raven's encantation was complete just as the birdarangs slammed into the middle of the graph. Raven looked genuinely suprised at the Titans' appearance. Slade seemed to have checked over his arm before leaping out of the way of another salvo of discs thrown by Robin and ducking under a non-lethal burst of Cyborg's sonic cannon.
For some strange reason, the graph drawn on the floor seemed to react violently to the sparks given off by the discs and Beastboy's description of it would be: Wonky.
And then to Beastboy's suprise, the drawing thing in the ground actually exploded, flinging Raven backwards towards where the Titans were. The empath groaned, holding her forehead.
"Raven! Are you okay?" Beastboy asked, holding her by the shoulders before she fell over.
"Wait, stop attacking," Raven pleaded. Robin and Starfire were about to give chase to Slade who had disappeared during the explosion but halted at Raven's words.
"He wasn't trying to harm me. He needed my help."
"Was he trying to steal your powers?" Beastboy replied, frowning at the thought of Slade teaming up with Trigon again.
"No, to cure him."
The team looked at each other in confusion before turning their gaze back to Raven.
"What?" Beastboy asked, confused. Raven sighed, lightly pushing Beastboy off of her now that she could stand on her own. "I'll explain on the way back-"
Her statement was cut short by the area where the graph blew up. A black mass stated to form, and inside the mass was a hole.
"Is it me, or does that look like this warehouse inside of their?" Beastboy questioned aloud. No one answered, partly because pretty much the same question was in all of their minds.
Then the unexpected happened.
Raven flew out of the portal.
Or at least, someone in a cloak that resembled Raven.
The titans looked at each other briefly before looking at the newcomer. The cloak was exactly the same as Raven's. But when the person turned around, it wasn't a girl at all, but a boy. Rather than a leotard, like Raven, the boy had on a similarly colored vest with a sash and pants. He had slightly pale skin and slightly longer hair than Raven, and also sporting a chakra stone on his forehead.
One thought crossed Beastboy's mind. Did Raven have any siblings he didn't know about?
"Uh..." Beastboy started with his index finger raised. Before he could formulate the rest of his sentence, four other teenagers ran or flew through the portal towards the first one to enter.
"Raven, are you OK?" one of the new females said.
Beastboy instantly frowned. A green girl that looked kinda like him, except it was a girl, and the hair looked more shaggy than his. Beastboy turned to his group, his face betraying his surprise.
"Are you telling me rule 63 exists?"
