In a disclaimatory action I, Markus Saint, now do declare that Malchior, Raven, Jinx, all the Titans and the soon to be introduced Zauriel are all property of DC Comics and other associated affiliates.
Or, if you'd rather, I dun own none this shit right here. Also, for those of you being all 'Who's this angel bitch, bitch?', wikipedia it. No, fuck Google.
Now, enjoy the story, this is the only Author's note the story will have.
The dark basin of the sky wept violently tears of Coatlique, the Earth calling for blood.
Antlers of blazing power and light reigned over the darkened vault and the wind danced all across and between heaven and earth with a tempestuous glee.
This was the scene before the titanic capital 'T' that stood on it's own elysian island in the City's bay. At the doorstep of this eccentrically designed haven a portal of black appeared ex nihilo, and slowly erupting upwards from amongst the dancing blades of soaked grass rose was an astral being with blood in her veins unlike any her universe had thus seen.
Wrapped in a heavy cloak, Raven stood strangled strongly so by her searingly silent suffering. Her violet eyes flashed malignantly with severe discontent as the large gate to her home opened.
After stepping in out of the storm Raven let out a breath she'd been all too aware she'd been holding. Already waves of relief flew into her frame as sheets of annoyance and uncomfort evanesced into nothingness. Still though there remained an inescapable aura of unsatisfactory emotions and malicious day-dreams set to appease the young woman's desire to completely and entirely smite something if only to let off a little steam.
Some of this bad karma may have been due to the fact that young Miss Raven was currently covered from head to toe in Plasmus' nasty purple goop. It was everywhere. In her eyes, in her hair, on her face, all over her cloak and leotard, in her boots, up her nose, in her ears, lying also in her mouth with such an unpleasant taste that the merest whiff of it would summon bile to your throat in an instant, some of the villainous muck had even crept up into part of Raven's person that the mystic teen would probably rather not have mentioned.
And so was the state of the miserable teen girl as she stood in the entrance lobby to her ridiculously unorthodox home.
Another factor in the fowl's foul mood was the fact that the stormy day (a personal favorite of hers) was taken up by some fund raiser/press conference Raven couldn't, truth be told, care any less about. And as if that hadn't been worse, Plasmus had struck some spot down town… trying to snag up some nuclear warheads or guns or condoms or some other errand that Slade must've felt was desperately important to have in his arsenal. Either that or the mastermind criminal was just out to make Raven's day a little worse. Which at this point the cloaked girl wouldn't have doubted.
It was just as Murphy had legislated, everything that can go wrong: will go wrong. And as Raven was fond of saying, everything that can't possibly go wrong: will go wrong anyway.
A green flea leapt off of Raven's shoulder and onto the floor in front of her… it shook as if working up the energy to explode out of it's own body.
Raven rolled her eyes as her temples pulsed… she and Murphy just had to be right.
A green skinned boy appear from apparent nothingness, and with it brought back far too much of the discontent that had previously disappeared thereto.
"Hey Raven, cheer up some. It's not like Plasmus actually got away with the jewels from that armored truck."
Raven silently indulged in a wave of remembrance in order to block out the changeling, jewels, that had been it. Nuclear warheads sounded better to the young lady though… and Slade using Plasmus to pick up condoms was almost absurd enough to bring a smile to Raven's face.
"Believe it or not, Beast Boy, the fact that some shiny rocks have been saved from the hell of Slade's wallet is not enough to consol me… or drive away this horrid stench for that matter." She droned to the shape shifter.
Using his bestial nose the changeling sniffed his own goop covered self, "I heard that, girl. This Plasmus guy definitely needs to take a shower!"
Raven brushed past him in a well-contained huff, "I wasn't talking about Plasmus, Mr. Stank-ball."
The changeling stood there for a moment before frowning and calling to the blue clad girl, "So not cool, Rae!"
As Raven levitated up to the main room a smirk melted it's way ever so subtly across her lips.
Steam rose up soothingly from the running shower and Raven was all too ready to enter it's cleansing embrace. Quickly casting off her towel and throwing aside the shower curtain Raven leapt into the warm, steamy fog of comfort with an eagerness almost never found in her actions.
The mist consumed her thoroughly; she could barely make out her own hand in front of her face. Perfect. It was how she liked it best.
Apart from the main stream of hot water coming from the shining silver showerhead the warm mist rolled over her entirely in the spots the stream missed, the droplets soothing her as the goop she hadn't managed to wipe off prior where now swept up and drowned down the drain with a moments hesitation… and Raven was clean. Now she had only to get comfortable.
After washing her hair and body the young lady took a seat in the thick fog of the shower and simply laid there in the tub, allowing her foot to rest over the drain causing the hot water to rise up slowly around her… tickling her skin with a familiar touch.
She closed her eyes and let her mind clear. The strong muscles in her ironically petite body relaxed and she let out another sigh, releasing the pressures of the day.
And so she stayed in the misty main bathroom of Titans' Tower, chosen by her for it's spaciousness and the larger tub than found in her personal bathroom.
The mist rolled and touched Raven, the tub, everything in the room. An enigmatic fog forged of tiny droplets of heated water… floating mystically thru the air and dancing the line between liquid and gas. A puzzle by nature, and mystery by definition. A confusion in existence.
And Raven lay in that confusion… cleaned and relaxed.
Raven ambled down the hallways slowly, content in her warm bathrobe, her hair up in a towel. Her bare feet worked on memory all their own as they traveled down the often trodden path to Raven's room. They wasted no time and indulged in no distraction. Their destination was imminent and desirable, to Raven's room without delay.
And so it was that after a few moments of calm walking the warm and clean young woman stood infront of the pallid piece of metal that was plainly her door…
Obviously persuaded open by an outside perversion... seeing as how it was leaning off one broken hinge.
Raven's violet gaze flashed with malignant majesty once more as she looked past her door ajar and into the depths of her room to discover Jinx sprawled out upon her bed, spread eagle, with a large white book help up above her face.
A large white book with a silver gray ring… a book that was talking to Jinx.
Raven's jaw went slack and her senses became overwhelmed and a low, animal noise went past her lips in very unfeminine grunt of primal discontent, disgust, and disbelief.
Jinx took notice and rolled over daintily to face Raven, with a chesire grin she look gleefully at Raven and showed her the book, the page with Rorek's eyes. Jinx purred over to the enraged teen, "Raven! Why didn't you ever tell me about this? It's-it's wonderful!"
The book's voice took on a tone of chivalric annoyance, "Raven, your friend is quite eccentric. Though pleasant she refuses to believe that I am an actual being and not simply some enchanted book made for mere entertainment."
Raven glared at the two, her frie- her acquaintance and her ex… rolling around in her bed! Now granted the fact that her ex was a book made it a little less dramatic, but it still popped into her head in that context. Rage nearly consumed Raven as she began to see red but with skill she fought back and drove her red demon back into the depths of her skull.
She calmly now beheld the pink sprite and the entombed dragon and asked plainly, a sharp edge to her voice as if the her tongue had been a sword, "Jinx… I did not tell you of Malchior because, like he claims, he is real, but he is also false. He is dangerous, he is deceitful, he is deadly. I know he has told you stories, tales of fancy and epics of emotion. He is a tale weaver of great skill and he had even put me underneath his thrall at one point in time and it nearly cost me the lives of the Titans. He is-"
"A dragon." Jinx chirped happily, "He told me about his transgression with you."
Raven's violent eyes narrowed dangerously.
And then, only serving to make her more enflamed with anger, Malchior spoke, "Raven, the time for lies is over, for they will avail me not with you as my watcher. I have told your friend here only the truth about myself, about my past, about my present predicament, and about my plans for the future."
For the first time since entering the room Raven looked the book right in the sketched eyes, "You have no future to plan for, snake!"
Her astral eyes flashed with hot gray power and ensnared the tome in obsidian substance, snatching it from Jinx's hands and slamming it shut, utterly. It flew into it's trunk, the trunk's lid was replaced and the industrial chains levitated and reforged themselves about the large chest.
Jinx jumped up off Raven's bed, "Raven, wait! He's not evil, just a victim of circumstance like-"
Raven whirled on the objector, "Like what, Jinx? Like you? Don't you think that's exactly what he wants you to think? He wants to paint himself as the misunderstood tragical hero and he wants to unveil a common ground between himself and you to make you even more sympathetic to his cause. He wants you to fall for his charm, for his wit, for his mind. And fall for him you will, and then instead of catching you he'll let you tumble down to the cold hard ground and shatter your heart, leaving the pieces smoking in the cold underworld. He will smite you for becoming smitten with him. And this isn't me being bitchy, Jinx, this is the voice of experience."
Jinx looked at the mystic teen frantically, "He told me you'd say that! He told me exactly how he betrayed you! Exactly how he did it and exactly how wrong of him it was! He made no excuse but he did tell me his reasons, and Raven they are good ones! If he had stayed instead of tried to fly off it would have been the end of this world!"
Crimson flew across Raven's eyes for a fleeting second before melting back to the blazing gray, she spoke with a heavy, dread tone, "That is what he would have you believe, Jinx, and I cannot blame you for believe him. He is a master at tugging at the heart strings of a person, but I've become inoculated to his treachery thru experience and as long as I am his warden he is eternally trapped. Besides, even if he was speaking the truth, know that I have seen the end of this world before. Indeed I have been the end of this world… and the rest of the Five and I did overcome. Malchior is a criminal, and like all criminals, it is our duty to see he remains in his jail."
Jinx shook her head, "No, Raven, you don't understand! I know he spoke the truth! He showed me, he showed me!"
"Haven't you listened to a word I've said, girl? He was just manipulating you!"
Jinx's face contorted into one of defiance, "How would you know when you won't even here him or me out? If you are so inoculated to his alleged malevolence then why do you shy away from facing him? He told me you loved him, and he told me he knew it, and he betrayed it, but he had reason. Trust me Raven he didn't want to hurt you!"
The room turned black and red seeped in around the edges of Raven's fiery gray eyes, the gothic room began to shudder with deep power and Jinx became acutely aware she had crossed a line that was better left uncrossed.
Raven stared with heavenly restrained demonic fire into those chaotic cat eyes, "You want to leave…"
Jinx could barely meet the astral lady's gaze, yet she answered, "You're damn right I do." before scurrying out of the shaking room.
And alone Raven stood, the shuddering stopped and the blackness all congealed around her broken door, repairing the damage and sealing the room shut.
The gray left her eyes and with it the strength left her body.
She collapsed to the floor, sullied and dirtied unexpectedly with the ghosts of memory.
She laid out on the floor for time unbeknownst to herself, weak, tired, and unrivalably forlorn.
And still, Raven absolutely refused to weep.
High above the bay of the City of Angels there were clouds… gigantic, half real ships sailing across the winds carrying droplets of mist yet to form rain. An armada of these whimsical ships moved lightly across the sky as if out of joint with the rest of time.
Above these part-ethereal silver-lined constructs, far above where man-made birds do fly, there was a technological palace. It's golden exterior was pale in the dream inducing moonlight.
And all throughout the labyrinthial depths of this levitating hall there was only one living being.
An angel honorably descended.
Deep inside the womb of the hall there was a room filled with technology eons beyond the reach of humanity inhabited soley by a pale, winged figure who was pacing in worry.
His golden eyes once again were cast over to a screen, showing graphs and charts and figures… but most disturbingly were pictures. Scenes of demoniacs and horrific hellfire that could not be the product of any human imagination.
In the center of these was a picture of a tall humanoid being, clad in hellish armor, with long blonde curls and flashing eyes of emerald hate.
All throughout the pale, winged man a shudder did travel, shaking his divine soul. He took a deep breath for strength and vitality, and then turned with determination and marched over to a keyboard. With one long, avian finger he pressed a single button.
Out from his palace shot a signal, soaring faster than sound out of the atmosphere and bouncing off a satellite to a strategic point on the globe.
Rocketing back down to earth the angel's signal found it's target inside a large, metal capital T.
Robin, recently returned from the same day long trials as Raven, stood in his roost of a room and removed his uniform, preparing for sleep. As he cast off the last of his cloths save his mask and put on a pair of light shorts he was interrupted by a flashing red light and a high pitched mechanized whine from the far side of his room.
In a half moment the Boy Wonder had crossed the room and pressed a single button, accepting the call on his emergency channel.
Masked teenage eyes that expected to see cape and cowl were instead greeted with a long pale face, golden eyes, and eldritch wings.
Slightly taken aback Robin was speechless for a moment, "You…"
The figure gave a tired nod, "Yes, I know Robin. I'm the last person you expected to speak with today, and I'm sorry to call so late."
Robin grinned slightly, "I'm the protégé of the Dark Knight… nighttime suits me well. I'm more curious than anything to know your reason for calling. After all you do tend to isolate yourself."
"True enough. But something is troubling me. Something I've been studing and watching vigilantly for quite some time now, Robin. Something that I'm now sure (all too late) is coming to the surface, and something I know I cannot control on my own. Something... hellish."
Robin nodded, "So you need reinforcements? Well, the Titans would be happy to help but… if it's that bad don't you think your Justice League ties would be more appropriate?"
The figure smirk ruefully, "Yes, they normally would be, Robin. But not in this case… seeing as how the fight is coming to your doorstep."
A brow rose over the Boy Wonder's eyemask.
"Come to my home on the morrow, Boy Wonder, and I will reveal to you and your comrades what I know."
"Of course… Zauriel."
"Good night, Robin. May the Presence bless your host."
Robin nodded, "Same to you. Good night."
Zauriel gave Robin a look of silent melancholy from across the screen before it went blank.
Turning back to his bed Robin's head swam with the descended angel's news. He laid down on his bed and didn't come close to sleep for the rest of the night.
It was in the midst of night and early morning and the storm still raged outside Raven's bedroom window.
She sat on her bed, a determined look of total apathy on her face, she was clothed in traditional leotard and an old, heavy and battered blue cloak wrapped around her person, dull with dust from the astral plane as opposed to a nightgown for sleeping. For what she was about to do she did not want any sign of softness to show.
"Why am I even thinking about doing this?" she asks herself
'Because jinx was right' answered some obscure voice in her head.
She thought back on the pink sprite's words with annoyance, "If you are so inoculated to his alleged malevolence then why do you shy away from facing him?"
Lightning flashed it's way across the foreboding sky vault as Raven stood and pulled her hood over her head, hiding her face. She walked with heavy footsteps across her room and, gazing down at the trunk as if the mere construct itself had done her some horrible wrong, she let the chains fall to the floor unceremoniously. She quietly opened the lid and promptly opened the white tome, knowing it would flutter and fly to the torn page. To Rorek's face.
And he spoke without hesitation, "Hello Raven, I must say this is quite the pleasant surprise. I figured you'd be more sore than usual at me after what happened earlier."
Raven spoke evenly, not betraying the urge to gag that had instantly arisen, "My spite and loathing for you is such that I'm physically unable to hate you anymore than I have for quite some time now."
The book almost winced, "Too cruel words to come from such beauty."
"Keep your kind words in your filthy mouth behind your forked tongue, snake."
"If you didn't wish to hear me speak, Raven, why did you open up my prison?"
Raven peered down ominously at the paper eyes with two gray eyes of doom, "You have, no doubt, worked your sweet lies onto my comrade and inveigled her into believing you to be some sort of… mystical, misunderstood anti-hero fighting since the dawn of time against all things truly evil. Or some other such supreme bullshit. This could be potentially damaging not only to the entire team, but to Jinx herself. For the sake of this I need to know exactly what you told her, word for word, so nothing Jinx says will catch me by surprise, and don't try to change the story around because if I find any inconsistencies… well, I have no qualms about sending this tome to a fiery end."
"Of course I will comply. Unfortunately there seems to be some misunderstanding here. I have only told Jinx the truth."
A nearby candle was sparked to life by black magic, it's flame too near to the white book cover for the entomed Malchior's liking.
"Truly, what do I have to gain by lying to you now?"
Raven rose a brow, "What do you have to gain by telling the truth?"
"Little, but more than enough. Perhaps some small penitence if nothing else. But alas, you've asked me to tell you what I've told dear Jinx, and what I've told dear Jinx is merely my life story. You have no need to fear that I will not tell the story exactly word for word as I told it to her for I would hardly forget something so remarkable that happened only earlier today, adding on top of the fact that I'm a nearly divine storyteller… literally."
Raven levitated up off the floor and hovered slowly over to her bed, which she sat cross legged upon. She looked at the book with a look of cynical concentration.
"It all started, as these things so often do, with an enormously volcanic eruption of grossly copious amounts of violence, sound, and light. Or, if you'd rather, a big 'Ka-Boom'..."