Nevermore; Part 2
Some time later, after walking through the freezing rain, Spades arrives outside a run-down apartment building in downtown Jump City. He climbs the worn stone stairs to the doorway and searches for a PA system of some sort, but cannot find one.
Spades had a sudden, eerie feeling over him, like he was being watched. He realizes he probably was, because Raven was indeed a powerful sorceress who could perform such surveillance with magic. Spades opens his mouth to call her name.
"Raven—!" He's cut off as the door unlocks on its own, "… Oh, ok." So she did know he was here. Pushing the door open, he gets out of the freezing rain and into the dark apartment building. The lights turn on around him, once again seemingly by themselves, and flicker their dim tan aura upon the dirty walls and dusty floor. This show was meant to frighten unwanted guests, but Spades knew better. "You know Raven…" he calls into the apparently empty voids of the building, "You're just going to make everyone think this place is haunted if you keep this up," he chuckles, having no anxiety over such things.
Raven floats quietly down the stairs into the poorly lit halls of the first floor. The pale girl's face was shadowed beneath a dark blue hood, and her body hidden beneath the rest of the cloak like an indigo ghost. She gazed upon Spades for a moment, not saying a word. Her wide, blue eyes were most noticeable beneath her shroud, but Spades could still make out the stale, unemotional look on her gray face beneath the shadow.
She opens her mouth to speak, having a comparatively monotone and almost whispering voice as opposed to Spades. "That's what it's supposed to do," she says simply, responding to Spades's comment about her creepy entrance, "Maybe I need to work on it a little more?"
Spades notices a very faint, but evident smile on her face. He chuckles a bit as he understood the sarcasm, "In any case, how are you this afternoon?"
"Nothing new," Raven tells him. She lifts her arms up from beneath her cloak, revealing the black skin-tight leotard beneath. She pulls her hood gently down to expose her short, well-groomed indigo hair, as well as the red gem on her forehead. "What about you?" she asks, "You and Beast Girl still getting along?"
"Sure are," Spades smiles, walking forward now toward the stairway.
Raven turns to follow, levitating beside Spades at eye-level, despite being a few inches shorter. "So what did you come here for?" She could sense Spades's unease, but didn't say anything about it yet.
"Oh, mostly just some more training, maybe show you a couple good books I came across."
"Nothing else?" she asks, glancing at him as they advance toward the second floor, then the third.
"…Nothing else," Spades confirms after a moment's pause, but he knew that was a lie.
"Something is troubling you…" Raven sees right through him.
Spades groans, "Is it really that obvious?"
"Yes."
"…" Spades sighs deeply, "First Leyla, now you?"
"I bet Leyla got more answers than I will."
"It's just me thinking about my parents again, same thing I told Leyla," Spades explains, walking ahead and trying to trivialize the topic. It was old news to him.
Raven picks up her speed and swoops back up beside him, "It's been almost a year, Spades. I understand you're troubled, but you have to move on eventually."
Avro interrupts, taking over Spades's voice for a moment. "What do you think I've been telling him?" Spades winces and takes back control immediately, a little angry, "Avro! What did I tell you about possessing me?!"
Raven raises an eyebrow, "If I had never met Avro, I'd think you a madman."
"Yea, well maybe I am a little schizophrenic, but that doesn't mean I'm not pissing myself off because of it. Got any spells to shut him up for a while?"
"I do…" Raven says, and then allows an awkward silence come over them.
Spades breaks the silence after a moment, "… Can you teach me one?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because it's more fun to watch you suffer," she says sarcastically.
Spades sighs again, "Forget it. In any case, let's just get started."
By now, they had reached the top floor, which was originally a storage area but it had been converted into a ritual chamber for Raven's spells. Unlike the rest of the building, this area appeared to be maintained and refurbished.
Spades removes his cape now and sets it down on a chair. He was wearing all black underneath, from his shirt to his shoes and everything in between. Raven does the same with her own cloak, then sets her feet down on the floor to walk normally. She tells him, "We'll just be doing the regular practice again today… You need to learn to control your emotions. Let's see if you've gotten any better yet."
"I find it healthier and more effective in magic to use my emotions and express them," Spades argues.
"You'll find that magic works much better when your emotion doesn't supply it."
"I disagree, but very well," he shrugs and sits down, cross-legged on the floor. "Satanic spells are performed very differently then I guess."
"These are not Satanic spells though. They're Azarathian rituals."
"What's the difference between yours and mine again?"
"It requires you not to let your emotions control you," she repeats.
"However—"
Raven interrupts him this time, "However you may believe magic works, even your powers will work better when you control your emotions rather than emancipate them. Not even I hide my emotions, I control them."
Spades gave up the argument, despite finding Raven's claim somewhat hypocritical, "Very well then. Maybe you have a point."
Raven nods, "Good, now we begin…" She places a glass chalice between them, a delicate piece, "Bring yourself into a state of emotional neutrality, then try to lift the glass."
"I can do that without a spell," he jokes, picking up the glass with his hands.
Raven just stares at him with a look that told him to stop screwing off.
Spades loses his smile, "Ok, ok…" He places it back on the floor and closes his eyes, then chanting, "Azarath metrion zinthos…"
Raven watches him inventively, able to sense his aura.
Spades began searching through the depths of his mind, clearing it out of all impurities as he floated into a trance.
Suddenly though, he hears Avro's voice, "Spades, stop this spell immediately. It isn't safe, it's happening again."
Spades responds in his own mind, "Avro, don't interrupt me."
"Nevermind, it's too late." Avro fades and waits for the inevitable.
At this point Spades had reached a portion of his mind dedicated to his older memories. This was the obstacle he had come across so many times before with this magic, and failed. Like an ancient tomb, the doors of his subconscious swing open. The memories escape and soar through his mind.
He opens his eyes again, but he cannot see Raven or the apartment, only the glass he was focused upon and a black void everywhere else. A dark aura surrounds the chalice and begins to lift it into the air.
Spades tries to contain the memories, or not allow them to effect him, but too many flew fourth at once. The glass began to tremble. He tries to control it as thoughts poison his mind.
As Spades stared into the empty abyss of this trance, images start to flash through his head. He sees a moment of his childhood, when he and his father went fishing at the water locks in Boston. He could remember how his grandmother came over that day to bring them sandwiches, since she worked at the train stations near by at Commuter Rail and Amtrak.
He remembered happier times for a moment, and soon it was too late to turn back as he went along with the memory. However, it isn't long until those memories betray him. Suddenly, his world erupts into fire, images of a home burning to the ground, the smell of seared flesh, and Spades snaps out of the trance to let out a horrible cry. "DAD!"
Suddenly, the chalice shatters and scatters shrapnel in every direction. Raven quickly lifts her arm to shield her face from the shards of glass. She looks at Spades in frustration, "How are your abilities supposed to advance if this keeps happening?"
Spades looks at her, clearly angry, "How am I supposed to help it?! The memories flow, and if I try to suppress them, they just build up and break loose!"
"You don't suppress them, you accept and control them," she replies firmly, her facial expression showing her lack of patience, though she does not raise her voice. "You're not listening."
"I am listening," Spades replies, trying to calm down again, "But you have no idea how difficult it was for me."
"My father was a demon who tried to destroy the world. Don't get me started on family matters."
"Yea, well you still have parents… and at least a mother who's not dead…" Spades remarked.
Raven stares at him for a moment until her view turns upon the now broken glass all over the floor. She closes her eyes and channels energy toward it. The thousands of shards around the room pick themselves up and elegantly float toward the epicenter again. Soon, they start reforming together, like pieces of a puzzle.
Spades meanwhile knows what to do next. He performs a spell he's far more familiar with, creating a hot ball of fire in the palms of both his hands. Using it, he places his hands around the chalice as it comes back together. The heat eventually melts the glass and fuses the broken parts back together while Raven's own abilities hold it still.
Raven comments, "It's dangerous to play with fire, you know…"
"I've been using this power since I was thirteen."
"I'm not talking about your abilities, Spades."
"What do you speak of then?" he inquires.
"Using your emotions to fuel your power; it's not safe. One day it could even backfire. You'll have to move on eventually or you'll lose everything. They're never coming back and you have to accept it, but it's ok." Raven knew about his parents from past conversations. She knew that it was most often a memory about his old life that prevented him from completing the training.
Spades asks, seemingly out of the blue, "Have you ever read that poem by Edgar Poe?"
"Which one?" she asks.
"The Raven."
She rolls her eyes. "… Well, obviously."
"Well, you're reminding me a lot of the bird in that poem."
"That bird has a pretty good point though. Nevermore, and it's a fact you'll have to come to accept," Raven explains.
"Accept? Accept what? I don't deny the fact that my parents are dead, that my grandmother Lenore is dead, that my sister is dead. That my own remaining family, cousins, uncles, aunts…" he calms down, "They may as well be dead."
That last part was news to Raven, "Why them?"
"My aunt, who was supposed to be my godmother, doesn't agree with my Satanic faith nor does the rest of the remaining family," he explains.
"They told you this themselves?"
"They haven't, but I know better…"
"Have you even tried finding out?" Raven asks.
Spades shakes his head with a sigh. "No, not that it matters now anyway… I've lost contact with everyone since my parents died. Even before that, no one agreed with me joining the Teen Titans when I started coming to terms with my powers."
"I remember when you first came to the tower," Raven says, "I was very skeptical about you at first."
"Understandable," Spades comments, "After all, I appeared in the aftermath of a traitor." He was referring to a girl named Terra who once was a part of the Titans until she joined their enemy, an assassin known as Deathstroke, who was allegedly Slade Wilson.
"Yes, but that is another story." Raven continues, "You did everything you could to prove your loyalty to the Titans… even if it meant making Robin mad." A faint smile came to her face again at an amusing memory from their earlier days. "I was trying not to laugh when you talked Control Freak into giving up."
Spades chuckles now, "That was a funny day. You were going to laugh?" he asks, somewhat surprised.
Raven's smile grew a little now, "Yes. I had never seen Robin so furious, and you just knew you were doing the right thing. I think it's the first time a super villain surrendered peacefully… No battle, barely even a verbal fight. Robin doesn't like being proved wrong."
Spades laughs, "I prefer verbal negotiation. Robin likes aggressive negotiation."
"What's the difference?" Raven asks.
"Aggressive negotiation is done with your fists," he chuckles, "I mean, Control Freak for example, he's an alright guy when you stop throwing punches and talk with him. I wouldn't say he's super villain either, he's more of a hardcore fanboy. He's a beast at Call of Duty though."
"I would imagine…" Raven tells him as she stands up. "Speaking of videogames, you want to visit Cyborg?" she asks, "He's been asking for a rematch in Halo."
"Victor?" Spades looks up, "Is he still living at the old tower?"
"He is."
"Sure, why not?"
With those last words, they pick up their capes from the chair they left them upon earlier, and depart. A few flights of stairs later and they were back on the streets. At least now it had stopped raining.
