Author's Note: Did anyone actually miss me? No, seriously, anyone. -sigh- I guess it's to be expected, but to actually have it happen… that's sad man. Hell, you don't even have to tell me you like this thing. Just tell me why it sucks ass. That's all I ask. Review peeps, it'll make my day.

Start: 5/30/2007

Finished: 6/30/2007

Chapter the Sixth: Resolutions- Sort Of.

She noticed it.

Of course she noticed it. It wasn't something that you could just 'not' notice. The absence of fear, the sweet thrill that coursed through her veins, the hot spice of adrenaline soaking her mind; it was impossible to miss. The absolute terror that she had to work through when she first began hunting the Raaja had disappeared altogether, like it was never there to begin with. Now she was the definition of warrior goddess, a vengeful fury, power, strength, confidence. It sent her into ecstasy, a fierce happiness that she couldn't get enough of. And the only thing she had to do to keep it coming was to keep- on- moving.

Kel landed in a low crouch, one leg fully extended, the other curled beneath her. The broom, bristles, shaft, permanent ink and all, ran parallel with the extended limb. The mad grin on her face never faltered as she raced toward- well, she couldn't really describe it, but it was something; all awkward looking extremities and- were those tentacles? It didn't matter, though, all that mattered was that it was something to destroy, something to hit, something for her to keep the rush with. Oh gods, her world was the rush, everything else was second.

With the broom's bristles aimed toward the floor she surged forward, a throaty bark of laughter escaping to masquerade as a battle cry. Vengeful goddess, fury, Valkyrie; she was all of these things now and she wasn't sure how she would stop. She wasn't even sure she wanted to.

-I-

Terra was sure she'd never hated anyone more than she hated Jinx at the moment. The catty girl just had to pull on the bit and Terra never liked being steered… not anymore. And she just won't. Shut. Up!

"Can't you go any faster?"

Terra gritted her teeth, reminding herself that she wasn't going to toss this- this witch off. She owed the Titans, this city a debt that she could never hope to repay in full but she had to try anyways. It was all that's left. She had tried to evade her debt; she had tried to leave it all behind. But the bill was here now, and she had to cough up the dirt as best she could. That meant, she sighed, no killing teammates, no matter how despicable and god's thrice annoying!

"I'm going, as fast, as I can." If you ignored the blue eyed glare, the tense shoulders (calves, back, footing…), and the fact that the words came through gritted teeth and haltingly at that, Terra thought she did exceptionally well when it came to masking her irritation. Well, at least she got brownie points with Raven for trying. She cringed at the thought of the empath. Oh, she really did mess it up didn't she? No one wants a half demonic girl mad at them: especially when said girl is on her monthlies.

She saw the red and yellow blur careening towards them, easily keeping pace with her boulder, and decided that super-speed was a decidedly awesome power. Man if she could get so much done in such a relatively short amount of time… it'd almost be like immortality without the whole forever thing. Neat…

"OkayIknowwheretheyarebutsomereallymessedupshitisgoingdown," he looked at the girls and saw them both looking down at him blankly. Super-speed. Frustrated and not knowing quite how to express it adequately, the Junior Flash took a deep breath- and let it go. Kid Flash sighed. "I did it again, didn't I?"

Jinx patted him on the shoulder. "You'll get the hang of it- eventually." Flash sighed, moping a bit as he absently kicked up some dirt with the tip of his red boot, still running.

Terra stared at the interaction between the sitting cat and running boy. What the- "Hello!? Giant worm thing-y to take care of!? Am I the only one that remembers!?"

The pair looked at each other, then turned to geomancer, who had a tic going on her forehead (read: multiple tics), then looked away. Jinx coughed, slightly embarrassed. Really need to keep the gooey stuff to when they're off duty.

"Okay, get on the rock," Terra took personal offense to this (it was a frickin' boulder!), "and give a report. Terra, fly us their and try to listen." Another tic formed at that implication. "We know how it is with blonds." (1) Terra was practically frothing at that. Jinx was smiling sadistically and Flash was hoping that the cat-fight would take place after they saved the city… and that he could get front row seats. (2)

The blond geomancer took off without further ado; knees crouched slightly to lower her center of gravity. Pouring on the speed, she wondered if she should just pull out all the brakes and give the witch whiplash. Deciding against that, since she wanted to listen and not to mention contribute when they got to the whole mess downtown, she turned her attention to the debriefing and hoped she didn't add another life to the List before they got there. Flinching at the thought, she took off.

-II-

Emrys looked over his spell components. They were nice, neat and very well organized, in his eyes anyway. To the casual observer, they made absolutely no sense. That would mostly be due to the fact that they didn't have any magical training and didn't understand and couldn't see magic in the first place. For those that could see magic, they would make even less sense. Emrys was a power unto himself, and as he watched the spell paraphernalia marching about and reorganizing themselves as he saw fit, he wondered at what came first, magic or the universe? Such a puzzler, that one was. Not like the chicken or the egg thing. There had to be some perks to conversing with the fates, and they did know a thing or two when it came to past fates.

Looking down at the kit outlined before him, he shifted his glasses up the hook he called a nose. It looked about right, he mused. Absently, he waved a carry sack over, the pouch lid opened and yawning as it waited to be filled. He treated his equipment right, and so they always aimed to please. (3) With another complacent gesture, his assembled kit marched its way into the pouch he selected for this occasion. With that he slung the bag's strap over his head and onto his shoulder as the bag itself rested comfortably on the opposite hip. And if anyone called it a purse, heads will roll…

"Master, do not forget the vase." The cheerful reminder bubbled up from Cora, hands held behind her back, smiling, as Ceres happily presented the ceramic article to him, arms fully extended and in his face with the thing.

With a long suffering sigh and a roll of his eyes, he took the thing single handedly, charged it with magic (a nice flash of light came with that action) and stuffed the all too large pottery haphazardly into the carry sack. No irregular shape reported the urn's hiding place. Scratching at his chin, he tried to remember if he forgot anything.

"Alright, you two, remember not to play with the stuff in the shop. Attend to any of the customers that come in, but don't let them purchase any merchandise. You both know the policy. Don't ignore the international outposts, and remember, assume that anything you touch could explode. We don't want a repeat of the spork incident…." He shook his head at that memory as he tried to massage the migraine away. How they did that with a spork, of all things, he'd never know and frankly didn't want to know. He shuddered at the thought of a repeat. Gods forbid.

The twins grumbled at the reminder. Sheesh, one little incident and they never trust you again. What has the world come to? It's not like they ended a whole civilization or anything, just sort of opened the eyes of a lot of spork followers… don't ask.

"Okay, prime the defenses and everything should be a go." The wizard was at the gate. Turning, he muttered an incantation priming said defenses. With a quick glance about to check over his handiwork, he nodded and headed off trusting his feet to take him to Kel. That girl had so much magic on her it was impossible for him to not be drawn to her. Like called to like, after all.

A nervous feeling began to claw at his stomach. Kel wasn't supposed to be able to call upon her magics. Sure, manipulating magic that was already present was a simple matter (the cards), anyone could do that (hence the many quests by knights for magic swords and their ilk), but Kel had Named that broom. That called on magic and magic called on Power. To change the nature of something so radically- Emrys quickened his pace. He didn't know what Zero's game was but he didn't trust the entity (he hesitated to call Zero a man) as far as he could throw him.

-III-

The rundown, concrete grey structures rumbled uneasily. Nervously.

Quiet. Then another rumble and another groan. A keen whining picked up and, in a moment's time, crescendoed to an explosion of eardrum shattering proportions.

Grey edifices that have long forgotten what it is to be white (to be pristine and proud) collapsed with a relieved groan. Dust rolled forth to preserve the dignity of these fallen giants. The sighs of pebbles clattered noisily to the earth, only to be drowned out by the cacophony of singeing air and guttural challenges.

Wykkyd tried not to notice the sounds of chaos all about him. He succeeded and quickly wished he hadn't. As distracting as it was for him to think with the ruckus clogging his ears it wasn't half as bad as the jolts of pain shooting up his left arm. Satan be blessed (Lucifer hated that, bless his black heart), he hated gothicly attired superpeople (he pointedly ignored the fact that was one these gothicly attired individuals). He didn't know what that freak-job did to Raven but she had made short work of his ring with painstaking ease. Then- and this was the worse part of it all in his humble opinion- then she ignored him completely to chase the Noctix.

He had been snubbed for a book (4). Leather, paper, binding and ink. He supposed handling three Titans would be preferable to four, but damned that stung.

He tried to get his head back in the game; nearly losing the thing to a titanium fist would facilitate such a response. Ducking under the stream of white blue light, he wondered why it was that a sonic cannon would have properties that looked suspiciously laser cannon-like. The light screamed laser, but Frankenstein called it a sonic-cannon which would imply sound. Hmm, maybe the frequency was so high and focused that it caused the molecules in the air to vibrate to a higher energy state, thus shedding the blast white blue radiance. Huh, wonder what would happen if-

A steel tipped toe came crashing into his solar plexus. He really had to pay attention here.

With a nice showy flash of the cape and he was a ways away, trying to catch his breath among the rubble, body doubled over as he wheezed as silently as possible.

Looking up he mourned the untimely death of his wheezing time, killed tragically in the line of duty by the glowing green gaze of a certain redhead. Half the populace of Jump openly drooled over the Tamaranean princess but if they ever saw her as she was now, they'd think twice about fantasizing about her. The orange toned warrior was hefting a chunk of concrete that was easily ten times her own body mass and weighing at over a ton. The fury burning in her eyes, the angry curl to her lips, the decidedly unhappy slopes to her brow, that was what really peed Kyd's pants.

Suddenly his view of the angry alien was obscured by the concrete that was once in her hands. He distantly noted the grunt of exertion. Okay, one gigantic piece of rock to dodge, not too troublesome.

The rock that was once only crawling at him (thank you very much Hive conditioning) suddenly became many rocks with emerald bolts of energy dancing in between the debris and raining on his parade.

It wasn't easy anymore. The green stuff came in fast and heavy, forcing him to dance as he dodged the things. It may have been random, but she was pockmarking the edges, cutting off escape and keeping him dancing all at once. Lousy trigger happy Tamaraneans! This also meant no time to teleport. And then the rocks came in.

This just wasn't his day.

-IV-

Cavall had decided to forego keeping the Hive prisoners; they were small fry in the grand scheme of things. However, the paper humanoid was irked. How had the green one come under the construct's care?

Sure, Raven had glared at it (and to be honest, it was a frightening glare all told) but that by all means should not have cowed the mighty construct. The humiliation...

With a resigned sigh its attention turned back toward the struggle for dominance. The dark sorceress had joined its mistress and the Raaja in containing the Noctix. The Noctix, being a tome of 'evil' knowledge had taken on a more- durable form. Currently it was giving Kel hell with arcs of ink that were sharp enough to rend steel.

Keltaek for her part was twisting out of steeling rending way as best she could. She'd already tapped her arsenal of spell tags and was left with the broom as her only means of defense and offense. However, she was not to be taken lightly with her 'limitation'. Cavall winced again as the cleaning implement once again sent a hail of debris into the air, leaving devastation in the wake of the missed strike. There was a violence in Kel that was- unnatural. Cavall hoped that this stint in bloodlust was only temporary.

On the flip side of things, Raven seemed all too calm. She floated, hanging in the air, stationary as opposed to Kel's flitting about. Shadows undulated and pulsed almost peacefully if not for their violent intent upon the Noctix. The darkness seemed to caress the tome. Cavall was half tempted to fall asleep just watching her ministration and they weren't even directed towards him. A chill whipped through leaves of paper; Cavall didn't sleep. Ever.

The Raaja had burrowed into the earth, its mass inescapable, its movement- relentless. There wasn't much else to say about that, except perhaps brutal. Stone shouldn't be able to do half the things they were doing under the guardian's direction.

The Noctix was a book. It was leather, paper, binding and ink. At the same time, it was so much more that just that. The abstract infinity of a book became quite literal with the tome. Luckily, the binding of the book kept it relatively containable. Fighting a mass with little to no trace in way of concrete shape or form was rather inconvenient, to put it mildly. There was no true weak spot to exploit. Most attacks left little to no impression on it. The thing was only stunned for a short breath when anyone brained it especially hard. After shaking it off, it'd surge forth on the offensive once more.

So the battle plan became relatively simple: force the gods cursed thing into the ground and, with two earth elementals present, seal it. It was crude but it was all they had.

-V-

Robin had a good glare. He was, after all was said and done, taught by the legendary dark knight, a dark knight that had been famed for his legendary glaring. It was to be expected, frankly, that the boy wonder could glare anyone down, having been coached and all. But Robin himself thought it was much more intimidating to be glared down by Superman than Batman. It was probably because you could actually see the Kryptonian's eyes, not to mention the fact that Superman rarely glared, making it that much worse for you if you're on the receiving end of it. Batman's foes have all kinda gotten inoculated of the intimidation that was Batman's glare; the only reason it still worked its charm was because he always followed through with what his glare promised (except in the case of Catwoman, she usually got the slap on the wrist treatment that bordered on police brutality from the uniformed servants of the law). But the point was, Robin had a good glare. He took the middle road of his two idols, glaring when appropriate and not when it wasn't. It made him thriftier with the whole glaring business, what with not dispensing with it on every crook out there, but not penny pinchin' them either. Just right for intimidation, thought the boy wonder proudly.

This, however, did not change the fact that Robin was glaring at no one in particular. He was wearing his special glare, the one reserved for when something wasn't going his way. He wore the same glare whenever he faced Slade or after he bungled something, which, he was proud to admit, didn't happen all that often. But now, a watered down super-villain with teleportation had handed their collective asses to them. Oh the humiliation.

But that wasn't the point: how the hell did he come by such power? Robin scowled as his mind immediately jumped to Slade. Grimacing, he continued to survey the (ruined) landscape. Toppled buildings, rubble, wrecked statues and smoking ruins; but there was no caped menace. Absently checking his arsenal, he found he was still well padded in that department. Pulling a face at the fact that his mind was still wired to blame everything on Slade, he reluctantly added it to the list of things he had to talk to Raven about. It was funny, between her and Cyborg, they made up the team's much needed therapists. They talked to each other and everyone else, except Beast Boy (he talked to Silkie and actually found it therapeutic; the rest of the team shrugged at this- to each his own, after all). Sighing at the unproductive search, he reached for his communicator called for a short brusque, "Report."

The comm.-unit crackled before a bubbly voice that never failed to call to mind flowing red tresses, picturesque emeralds, and copper expanses of skin answered- "No sightings from the air, Friend Robin."

"Negative on all spectrums, man." The abnormally serious voice from the android alerted the skilled vigilante to the metal man's anxiety. He was probably worried about their green friend, mused Robin. He frowned as his attention shifted to the diminutive changeling. The morph had either been holding out on the team or suddenly had an awesome leap in ability. Well, no worries, just another thing to worry about heaped onto his plate.

"Let's get back to BB and Raven," the casual wording of the suggestion didn't change the fact that it was a command. "It looked as if they were taking care of another head-case. We'll lend support. Move out, Titans."

A moment after the three of them had made their way down to the tussle below, the space next to where Robin had been began undulate, twisting to reveal their wayward quarry. Wykkyd desperately sucked in air. There was a reason why you don't store living things in pocket spaces; a limited atmosphere was one of them. With his breath restored, he began rooting around for a place to hide. He still had a shot at retrieving the Noctix.

-VI-

Terra was uncomfortable. The three of them had had an- encounter with the Hive Five (it was four actually) and some shield guy. Jinx had been real quiet after that and Kid Flash had done his best to console the hex witch and making very little progress. The geomancer had seen the way they had looked at the witch: Mammoth and Gizmo were a mix of angry resentment and- understanding, See-more had this quiet air about him (kinda like a kicked puppy), Numerous had made some tactless comment about a 'traitoress-whore' (to which Terra had nonchalantly flicked a pebble to his red clothed noggin), and Private Hive had a reproachful look plastered on him.

Well, if this wasn't the shittiest way to build comraderie, thought the earth mover with a hint of dark amusement. It was so typical that she'd be the only one to start a bond on such faulty foundations and, if the trend holds up, build a comfortable repartee. There was that run of good foundation she'd found amongst the Titans, but she'd always found it hard to maintain one of those. Those were scary. They were precious, expensive, and she'd worry them to death or die from the anxiety of it all. With a faulty foundation, it was more- laid-back. She didn't worry because it didn't start out expensive; it was made that way from the dirt and stone she had moved in to make it so. It wasn't spectacular, but it was hers, made by her own efforts; and it wasn't shiny, precious, or placed on a pedestal. It was- grounded. And that made her comfortable. Well, looks like she was never going to be in a relationship. With a mentality like that, she shook her head, she was so screwed.

"Hey," the pink haired girl turned to her, "you alright?" the earth mover asked gruffly. Well, it was a start.

"I will be." The answer was short and tried to be snappy but didn't quite achieve the 'snap'.

Terra took another breath and focused her attention on the boulder they were on, softening the rock cushioning the other girl's rear. Pink cat eyes turned to the earth mover's face as the pilot firmly kept her features aloof. The blue eyes were trained firmly to their destination, and thus, missed the thanks that were conveyed by eyes alone before the witch propped herself comfortably against Kid's shoulder.

-VII-

Raven was used to- not exactly fearing but being wary about the darkness that she wielded so well, so familiarly. It was like a snake charmer handling a cobra, familiar but there was certain distance, a detachment. Now, now the darkness soothed her, like a familiar blanket, cloaking her and muffling the pain that radiated off the world around her. Now she commanded the shadows with an ease that was so- so natural. It was like an extension of herself and not at the same time.

Her cloak had been dyed a midnight blue from the darkness, she noted. Absently she turned back to the battle at hand. This disinterest lead to calmer execution, but it also left her easily distracted. Oh well, worry later, take care of gloop thing now. Gloop thing, ugh, that was something Beast Boy would say.

The Noctix was contorting itself in ever more disturbing forms while somehow still resembling something simian in shape. Dodging flying rocks, Black Tentacles of Doom(TM), and a paper fan and broom tandem combination, the very much animated tome was in a pretty pickle. In every direction it turned, something would thwart its escape. How utterly annoying. Finally, it flung itself into the air at the desperate opening in their trinity from hell. Weaving ink and sheet alike, it constructed wings of sorts to keep it airborne. The situation was growing increasingly annoying, and the tome decided to make a decisive blow, but how? That was when the Raaja manifested itself, ready and rearin' to go. If books could grin, the Noctix would have.

The inhuman thing flung itself on the earth guardian, tendrils of paper pulp and ink snaking out to puncture the worm at various points and melding with it. A thunderous roar that shook the very foundation of the earth itself came crashing out of the Raaja. Raven flung her powers out, protecting her friends from the onslaught as best she could.

Cavall looked on grimly as Kel desperately wielded the harisen, a paper fan, and broom, desperately trying to fend off the malevolent tome. The fight had been going so well, but not anymore. Shadows moved to shield the green boy under Cavall's care and the construct absently noted the presence of the other Titans and the fact that they too had been cocooned in darkness. This was bad on so many levels. For one thing, the Magids were going to so have their collective bacons for this. If the situation were to escalate, and Cavall couldn't quite see how it wouldn't, then the whole world was in peril of being completely screwed, and not just cleansed as opposed to just the Raaja acting on its own. Well, that's that then. They were screwed.

A paper fan came flying at the lupine/human and merged seamlessly into its body. Since the thing came from him in the first place, it was only natural. The broom that followed, though, neatly thwacked him on the head. What the- what was she doing?

Kel had that look in her eye that told you she was going to do something incredibly stupid/brave (it depended on the outcome; if it was a success then it's brave, if it wasn't a success then it's stupid). The seals on her body, all twelve of them, began to make their collective presence known. Flaring up and off of Kel (they were still connected to the girl by a string of magic though) they began to form a circle of magic in the air. With an unnatural ease, she changed their shape to suit her needs. Flinging the magic out, she wrapped the seals about the infected the guardian and pulled it, infected beast and all, inside of herself. Falling to her hands and knees, the once golden seal had turned into a distorted sort of grey before wrapping itself about the sorceress. The seals began to overflow, marking the skin about her body. The skin itself took on a pallid, sickly hue. Her whole frame shook and she desperately heaved nothing onto the ground. The sounds coming from her mouth were a cross between agonized frustration and wails of doomed despair.

That bought some time at least, with a grunt Cavall turned to acknowledge the entrance of its other master. Emrys, in all of his wizardry glory, had stepped into the scene (actually, he stepped off of some sort of giant avian, obviously animated by his magics; he'd decided to speed his way here). His left hand came up to absently elevate his specs. His right dug into the pouch at his waist to pull up one spell component or another and tossed it absentmindedly at his apprentice. The spider-like thing attached itself to Kel's back and phased its eight legs into the infected mage, digging and rooting inside of her. Emrys turned to Cavall when he finally spotted it.

"Report, please," the absentmindedness to his tone not waning a nudge.

"The one called Beast Boy has overexerted himself," the lupine replied. "He'll be needing that spell of yours now."

"I can't do it alone, you know. No earth magics and all that. We'll have to wait for her to arrive then. Anything else?" The sorcerer turned to his pouch once more, rooting through it for something or other. Dragging various totems of power out, he began arranging them in a haphazardly patterned circle around the green changeling. Lastly, he dragged a piece chalk out over the relatively smooth surface of the floor, tracing out runes of power.

Raven watched as the complex patterns weave themselves into a spell tapestry, reinforcing the incantation they were to use. She was oddly calm throughout the whole ordeal. Her eyes turned to the changeling himself and she absently reached for her empathic healing. Taking the pain into herself she healed the injuries to his mind as best as she was able to, relieving him of the stress that was killing him. It wasn't a permanent solution as it started to build again, but the point was to buy time and ease pain. It appears that his ability to acquire another's meta capabilities taxed his brain directly. While not damaging it in the usual sense, it did push its limits. How that was possible was a mystery to her, but then and again, his powers were still a mystery to scientific and mystic communities both.

"Who are we waiting for?" the dark girl asked.

"It depends on whoever is quicker," came the reply. Emrys squinted at the markings on the floor. "If Kel recovers in time, which I doubt will happen, she'll be helping us. If not, then the blonde flying that rock (at this point in time Terra screamed 'It's a boulder!' angrily, scaring her passengers witless) will have to do. I will, of course, have to awaken her latent abilities for this- exercise. Hmm, then she'll have to be trained afterwards…" and he trailed off, mumbling to himself as he continued to work on the spell.

Raven blinked. Awaken?

A crash boomed out and a boulder along with rubble came falling. Dust choked the air again and light streamed down. A blonde, a redhead and bubblegum pink-head made their presence known- the back up has arrived.

The Titans stared at her, well, the ones that were awake anyhow. It was hard not to stare, so they did.

Kid Flash looked around, noticed the tense atmosphere and decided to do what he did best (since the green one was out).

"Hey peeps, how's life going for you all?" and of course he was largely ignored.

"F-friend Terra?" the hesitation was expected, but the geomancer winced all the same to hear it from the Tamaranean.

Her musings were interrupted by some brunette who was suddenly making her pain very well known. Some eight legged, armed, appendage-d thing was pulling a book out of her back. And it wasn't one of those thin paperback deals, it was a freakin' tome! Her back was arched, and some guy, a rugged looking nerd (kinda cute…) went over and started brushing her hair out of her face, muttering soothingly, calming her. When the thing finally finished pulling the book out, it wrapped itself around it and flattened itself to the surface. It looked like a lock of some sort, but she couldn't be too sure. The brunette was panting and looked on the verge of passing out, but before she did she gasped out-

"Save them."

"Of course," answered the lanky nerd as he rearranged the unconscious girl. "You did pay the fee." Once he made sure his charge was comfortable, then he turned to Terra, addressing her directly.

"Well, it looks like you'll have to do. Come here girl child."

Terra instinctively obeyed. No one else moved, still too stunned to do much. KF wasn't sure what was going on, but decided to not risk interrupting. Crossfire, not good.

Emrys lifted his right hand, index and middle finger extended, and carefully touched her forehead. Gently, he trickled his power into her mind, searching for the magic underneath her geo-kinetic abilities. Those had developed from the buried magic; it was a common occurrence when magic is just pent up. Power was meant to be used and exercised, if not it could drive one mad. So, in lieu of that, they sometimes manifested as a psychic gift/burden. There were gifted psychics; most of the mystic community had agreed that they were a branch of magic that adhered to most scientific rules. They just have to ask where the power came from for the mystic community to jump all over it. But that was unimportant. Right now, he had to awaken Terra's magic- and there it was.

"Wait, you're going to have her come into contact with Beast Boy?" the underlying incredulity in Raven's tone was heard by all. The 'core' Titans knew she was reeling with emotion now if it was apparent to even those who didn't know her well.

"Well, either that or leave him to die. It's your choice." With that, Emrys went to Cavall and left him with an urn.

Raven mulled over the words from the sorcerer, Rage gnashing at her bonds. Her emoti-clone wanted the traitor (Rage used much more colorful language, of course) dead, and her blood in their shared gullet. But Raven had trained herself to be logical, to not be ruled by her emotions. 'sides, the fact that a certain changeling's life depended upon earth magic carried the vote in the decision making process. With a growl, she nodded her ascent.

Terra was confused. Confuzzled. Completely bewildered. What in blazes was going on here? Magic? She had magic? Wicked cool- I think, thought the geomancer warily. Absently she followed the nerd's, Emrys', instruction. Drawing on magic was different from being geo-kinetic. It was like her powers before had been but a taste of what was to come. This, this was a new high. It was like she had only been puffing the cheap stuff and was finally introduced to the 400 dollar a gram brand. And seriously, it made all the difference. The power flowed through her, and she idly wondered if it was the same for Raven. If so, she had no idea how she was able to resist using it. It felt better than sin. Damn.

Raven, on the other hand, was marking the progress of the spell, watching the magics weaving into each other, and cocooning around the changeling. Once more, he was hidden from view, once more he was shrouded in power. However, this time, she was drawn into him. Terra was too high to notice, but Raven was not. Emrys soothed her wariness and guided her into Beast Boy.

On the surface was Beast Boy. Well, it was more of a jungle, safari thing. It was every wild thing that has ever existed or could exist. The forms that he took on the most were prominent, but every animal, every creature dwelt within him. Even creatures she was sure wasn't of this earth were there and some creatures of myth and dream. However, quite conspicuously missing was the Beast at this level. It did not dwell here.

Emrys went about ordering the place to his specification. Chains of words and intent scrolled across the savanna, keeping things in check. Some of the creatures were quieted, none were banished. Wards and miscellaneous spells were put into place to control Beast Boy's growth in the arts. Hopefully, he would be able to master his gift. There was something here that was strange, but Raven couldn't quite put her hand on it.

Once done, they burrowed deeper into his being and came upon the Beast. He guarded the boundary bordering Gar and the Shadow. It looked at them for a moment's time before silently allowing them passage.

In the Shadow's realm, Raven moved the darkness at Emrys' direction. The ink was too dark for her 'eyes' to truly see with. But there was nothing to fear. She felt the same shadowy presence that had come to their aide. Raven nudged it, inquiring about a name. It answered with Nocturne. It was a soft darkness, a comforting presence that offered peace and tranquility. Raven's mind began to wander, but she forcefully put it back to task. Again they moved on.

Bordering the divide this time was a winged wraith of some sort. Ragged strips of cloth bandaged the wing like appendage that protruded from it back. Her face was hooded, her garb warlike. She too observed them unblinkingly and then allowed them passage.

This ones presence was coiled tightly. Wound so far, it was the size of a pinprick. However, its presence was overwhelming. Terra became even more intoxicated if that was even possible. Power compressed to this point should not have been possible. Going in, Terra began reshaping this part of the spell under Em's guidance. Raven, however, began poking around for a name. It would have been much better if she hadn't, then again, we do want an interesting story…

The Shadow had been half asleep, so its presence in the 'system' that was Beast Boy wasn't all that 'foreign', translation, it didn't disrupt the cognitive faculties that was BB. However, this presence was buried deep. Asleep. When Raven started poking around, she started waking the presence up.

Emrys, for his part, noticed this. He knew what would happen if Raven woke this child from her slumber; he just didn't care enough to stop it. Besides, no one was going to die, so it wasn't exactly bad. But things will start getting interesting, so he didn't bother. All he did was instruct Terra to work around it and set up even more precautions. After all, Kel had paid quite well to save this lots life, he'd get some serious crap from the girl if he didn't uphold his part of the bargain.

Well, Raven now knew that it wasn't an it but a she. Absently, she noted the influx of earth magic flooding into her physical shell. Emrys noted it as well with amusement. Raven wasn't quite as pleased. She did get a name, Minuet. They continued on once they were done.

The divide between Minuet and Beast Boy was guarded by a dragon. It was a sinuous drake, with two pairs of wings that segmented the serpent neatly into three. The beast growled at them before allowing them passage. As they passed through the changeling's mindscape, Raven noted the quiet and a sinking feeling made itself known at her stomach. Then, before her mind could dwell on that tidbit, the dragon roared, expelling the lot of them.

When Raven opened her eyes, she trained them front and center, expecting to see a certain green animorph. She was instead met with a nude, female teen.

Minuet.

(1) I have nothing against blonds. Honestly.

(2) So I'm getting a little perverted in my humor. Sue me. (please don't sue me)

(3) Okay, so I'm getting a lot perverted. I'm growing boy, damn it.

(4) Sadly, I would so do that if I know I won't get killed by them.

End Chapter.

Author's End Note: like I said, review!