By the time Raven made it to their living room that doubled as the conference center, Jamie Reyes was already talking with Robin. For a split second, Raven was not quite sure who he was but remembered that the alien armor known as the blue beetle was not active all the time. She had no doubt he could activate it whenever the need arose.
At present, they were both greeted by the kind, soft features of a young man with brown skin and dark eyes. He smiled towards Raven as she walked into the room trying to hide how out of breath she was.
"It's nice for you to come and see us, Blue Beetle," Robin said leading the party towards the couch. "Something up? I haven't heard from the Justice League except for the usual monthly updates."
Jamie nodded as he sat down. Robin sat beside him while Starfire hovered, Beast boy sat on the coffee table and Cyborg stood behind the couch with his arms crossed. Raven kept her distance from the entire crowd. Her instincts were telling her to be ready to run.
'These are your friends. You've done nothing. You've just been talking to an ancient alien entity through your visions.' That last bit made her wince.
"Superman thinks we may have trouble," Blue beetle said with a solemn nod. "There are signs of an ancient artifact being activated somewhere around Jump City, an artifact that has the whole JLA concerned."
"Really?" Cyborg said with a tilt of his head, red eye focused on the messenger. "What type of artifact."
"We think it's Kryptonian and you know how powerful anything from that planet can be, Robin."
Raven watched her friend nod, focused on the information. Dick Greyson was always planning, setting up contingencies and being ready for whatever came their way. Raven hated all that thinking. She just wanted to read her books.
"I haven't seen anything like that or even whispers. H.I.V.E Academy has been keeping to themselves for the last few months."
Kryptonian. Raven let out the breath she did not realize she was holding. They were looking for a remnant of Superman's planet. Not the piece that she had.
"Do we have any idea what this Kryptonian thingamabob can do or find it?" Beast Boy asked. "We gonna see some Blue Beetle action?"
Jamie laughed.
"No, it's just an artifact. Superman gave me instructions on retrieving it."
"What does the artifact look like?" Starfire asked excitedly. "So we can help you find it!"
"It's reported to be a simple black ring big enough to be a crown or a tiara."
Raven's heart went cold.
"Black ring? Haven't heard anything about that." Cyborg continued. "How about you, Raven?"
His voice was like a splash of cold water on her face while the heat of fear traveled up her spine. She was glad her cape because they could have seen her start trembling otherwise.
"I...uh...I...I haven't seen anything like that." she lied.
"This artifact sounds very dangerous, Blue Beetle," Robin said with finality. "We'll begin doing sweeps tomorrow."
For the next week, Blue Beetle and the Teen Titans began to systematically sweep Jump City looking for the artifact of which the Justice League had spoken of. Blue Beetle had brought some equipment that augmented his royal blue armored suit. For the first days, Raven had been gripped with terror that the gadgets would bring them straight to her closet door but they inexplicably did not.
Raven had avoided meditating with the ring to contact Jason and it did not beckon to her sensing the need for discretion. It was on the fifth day as the sky began to cloud that Blue beetle assembled with them on the roof of Jump city's tall buildings.
"I don't understand it," Jamie said with a frown, his face partial hidden behind the blue scarab generated mask.
Robin landed gracefully beside him and studied the screen over Blue Beetle's shoulder.
"I can't get a lock on the particles to help us locate the artifact. it's like there is a low-level saturation already in the city that's masking its presence."
"Is Jump City in danger?" Cyborg asked plopping himself down on a pile of cement blocks that workers had stopped using a long time ago.
"Only if someone uses it but it doesn't appear that anyone actually has it. We should be seeing heavy spikes of….particles of the user."
"What's your plan?" Raven ventured hoping a tremor did not appear in her voice and give away the deception.
"I'm going to have to contact Superman and see how he wants to proceed. Shall we meet back up at your HQ, Robin?"
Everybody assented but Raven shook her head quickly. "I'm going to look around a bit more then I'll meet you there."
"If you find it," Blue Beetle warned. "Don't touch it. Contact me immediately for retrieval. You cannot fathom how dangerous it is."
With that, they departed leaving her on the roof alone. When everybody was out of sight, Raven sat down shakily trying to calm her nerves. Everything she had heard so far about the ring had sent chills.
'He's saying it's dangerous but I know he's lying. It's not Kryptonian. It's something...older.'
Why was Blue Beetle or even the Justice League lying about the artifact? She could sense the power coming off of Jason but he had given her no reason to think that he was evil. Truth be told, Raven knew she had not spent a lot of time with him...it...either.
Raven dropped sharply out of her mind as the sense of being watched swam over her. She jumped up, blue cape swishing as she faced the sensation from behind. Standing before her was a young woman she had least expected.
The girl wore way too many shades of pink and purple and must have worked rather long and hard to get her pigtails to resemble a horseshoe. She had the same gray skin tone though with a bit more rose in her cheeks. She wore a black dress with a purple half shawl and high boots to match.
"Jinx."
The name rolled off Raven's tongue with menace and disgust. Raven's eyes went white as she summoned the power to fight. Instead, Jinx spread her hands out submissively.
"I...I didn't come to fight, Raven."
"Then why are you here."
"I saw what you found last week. I was looking for it too."
Raven's eyes narrowed in fear and anger. The hex-witch had to be lying.
"You're risking a lot coming here and lying to me. You're still wanted for your attack on the Jump City Stock Exchange."
"Raven," Jinx said her eyes uncharacteristically pleading. "I'm serious. I saw you find the Archon Ring. I heard the song too. It left me when it found you."
Raven's mouth went into a firm line as she listened to Jinx. Though the Azerthanian wanted to call her a liar, there was a surprisingly honest look in her face and eyes. There was no way she was going to give in though.
"You wasted your time, Jinx. I don't know what you're talking about. Leave."
"Raven. I've been searching for him since I was a child. I beg you, let me talk to Sovereign."
The realization hit sorceress like a tone of bricks. There was no secret.
Jinx knew.