Whoo, next chapter! Heh heh, I finished it a little later than I had hoped, sorry about that. But at least it's up now, right? -sweatdrop- Anyway, hope you enjoy!
By the way, my disclaimer still stands. No, I do not own Samus or the Metroid games...
Chapter Two: Friend or Foe?
Raven spent the next several hours poring over every one of the many volumes she had on magical artifacts. She wanted to know everything about these enchanted books: how they worked, how rare they were, how easy or hard it would be to change the words on the page. If "Rorek" spoke the truth, she intended to free him as soon as possible. But she still felt suspicious; if he was really just Malchior trying a new, clever tactic to trick her into freeing him again, she wouldn't dare let herself fall for it.
Finally, the mage sat down again next to the book, which had been propped open and "watching" silently the entire time. "Well?" the book asked hopefully. "Are you convinced now that I am speaking the truth?"
Raven glanced through the notes she had scrawled during her research. "Well, the facts seem to support you," she admitted.
"The facts?" the voice replied with amusement. "Such as…?"
Raven answered his tone with an annoyed glare. "Enchanted tomes like yours are very rare, so it was hard for me to find much information on them," she started, flipping through her notes as she spoke. "Their magic is activated by a spoken curse, which causes them to trap the recipient of the curse within. This can be undone only through a much more complicated spell and potion – though that's something I already knew."
"Yes, yes… Go on," the book interjected eagerly.
"More than one person can be trapped inside an enchanted book at once, but only one can make contact with the outside world at a time," Raven continued, looking up at the picture of Rorek. "I'm guessing that's why Malchior was the only one to contact me before, and why he isn't now?"
"Yes, of course," the voice responded, again amused. "Until Malchior first spoke to you a few months ago, neither of us had been able to contact any of the few people who came across this book. You see, when your soul is trapped within a magical prison and your body essentially disappears, you tend to fall into a kind of sleep. To be honest, I was not even aware of my surroundings for a couple of centuries until the book was used again; that is, when you freed Malchior and then re-imprisoned him."
Raven nodded slowly. "That makes sense. I think I read about that somewhere in my research." When Malchior talked to me, he said that he had been reading about spells during all that time, she thought to herself. If this was really Malchior again, he would have probably claimed something similar.
There was a few moments' pause before the book decided to speak again. "…Well? Do you trust me, or must I find another way to assure you that I am the wizard and not the dragon?"
Raven stood up. "I'm still not so sure. I should explain all of this to the others. Even when I know who I'm freeing here, there's still a chance that Malchior will find a way to work his way through the spell and make an escape as well. We need a plan."
* * * * *
Raven entered the main room of the Tower to the sound of idle chatter. Robin and Starfire, back home now, sat on the large couch by Beast Boy and Cyborg, who had finally tired of their game for the night and set it down.
Just how long have I been in my room? Raven wondered incredulously as she approached her teammates. "Guys, there's something important you need to know," she began. "I –"
"I know!" Beast Boy interrupted, standing up. "It turns out Samus is a girl!"
Cyborg turned to him and scowled. "Man, I told you everybody already knew that!" he replied. "Everybody but you, that is," he added in a mutter to himself.
Beast Boy looked back down at his metal companion. "Then why didn't you tell me I was playing a girl character?"
Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "I just don't see what the big deal is. You're not a girl, but you're not an intergalactic bounty hunter in a power suit either."
Raven, increasingly annoyed by the off-topic conversation, by now looked like she was going to pop a vein. "Did it ever occur to you two blockheads," she hissed, "that I might actually have something important to say?"
This quieted the two immediately, and the shapeshifter quickly sat back down, but Robin stood. "What's wrong?" he asked.
With a sigh, the Azarathean explained to her friends everything she had learned about Rorek and the enchanted book. "I can't just leave Rorek in there," she finished, "But I'm not sure how to free him without running the risk that Malchior will escape too."
Robin thought his over for a moment, his chin in his hands. "So you're saying that even though the releasing spell is supposed to only work on the one you want to free, someone with strong magic can use it to break out as well?"
Raven nodded. "And we've all seen just how strong Malchior's magic is."
"Could there be a chance that this is merely Malchior attempting to trick you by changing the words in the book, and that Rorek was never really imprisoned?" Starfire considered.
"No, not really," Raven replied. "It takes a huge amount of magic just to change some of the words written in the book. I'll never understand why Malchior bothered to use all that energy to switch the names before when he could have just claimed he was Rorek."
Beast Boy shrugged. "I guess he just likes his own name a lot," he offered.
Robin started pacing across the floor. "Well, if that's the case, then we're just going to have to –" He was suddenly cut off by the sound of the Tower's alarm going off. He rushed to the computer, and the other Titans tensed, ready for action.
"Robbery, at First Bank downtown," Robin announced after reading the information on the screen for a few moments.
Beast Boy groaned. "Dude, who robs a bank this late at night?" he complained.
"Mumbo Jumbo," his leader replied after a glance at the figure on the screen. He whirled around. "Titans! Move out!"
Woo hoo, we'll be getting some action next chapter! Reviews would be very much appreciated, especially since I'm not certain I have Raven's personality quite right... Anyway, please tell me what you think, and I'll get chapter 3 up ASAP!
By the way, in case anybody was wondering, my main character on SSB is Link (and I'm a girl, muahahaha) Power to the cross-gender-players!
