Oh my gosh dear readers! Could this be another update?
Why yes! Yes it is!

I am sorry for the delay, between redecorating, my annoying relatives and other troubles unnecessary to mention things just got a little crazy.

Fear not, I have the next chapter already well under way.

I'd like to take this time to say: I OWN NOTHING. DO NOT SUE.

In this chapter we see Raven & Jinx coping & learning various things that will probably be very important to know for later on. And ya know, they both end up in Raven's room.

Raven gritted her teeth and strained against the pull of the field. It whipped and clawed against her in inanimate protest but the empath refused to falter and only pushed herself all the harder for it. When her vision grew cloudy with tiny white lights, she stopped and collapsed to her knees, thus failing her lesson once again. She silently gasped for breath while struggling to maintain her outwardly tranquil composure; more-so for her own satisfaction then her mentor's. If she had to keep humiliating herself further, then at the very least she could do so with dignity, if grace she could no longer muster.

"Wrong again parum deamonus," Azar chastised from a few feet away, her wings tucked neatly against her well postured frame, "Rise and rursum."

Raven nodded and stood up again, pushing against the floor with her tail to give her more balance. It had been three days now, that she had been trapped inside her own twisted body, and she was still figuring out how to survive within it, which the empath found humiliating beyond measure. Thankfully, after a quick lesson from the green changeling, Raven had been able to retract her claws somewhat which she felt was a nice start, and amazingly, she hadn't inherited her father's hellish footware, but Azar had claimed that both could very well change in time. The wings she was still getting used to and concerned her the most as they interfered with almost every aspect of her life. They made things like sleeping, sitting, and even her choices in wardrobe more complicated then Raven had ever before considered possible. Not to mention they liked to get caught on things, and everytime they did so the psion was filled with fear that the thin membrane like parts would tear and render them useless.

If she had to have them, she should at the very least make the most of them, she had decided stubbornly. Her horns however, she could see no valuable reason for as she didn't plan on headbutting anyone anytime soon and they were extremely aggravating; Azar had stopped her on several occasions from simply snapping them off. They were pretty though, in a strange otherworldly sort of way, and twice she had caught herself nearly smiling at them in her reflection. Trigon take her, she hated her reflection. They had never been on good terms to start with -but this- this was grinding lemon soaked salt into the festered wound. She could stand the wings, could tolerate the tail, and even the claws and horns she could overlook… but those eyes.

Her eyes. They were simply horrid.

Her scleras were completely black instead of the luminous white they had once been. A blood red limbus ringed each iris and they had a habit of flashing whenever her moods sparked. Her irises themselves were still the abnormal violet color that they had always been, and they were almost the only way she was able to recognize her reflection as her own anymore. Her pupils though… they almost scared her. They weren't slitted like a cat's, nor perfectly round like a humans, rather, they were some mix inbetween and each sported a glowing pinprick of red in an infinite sea of darkness beyond the color of black. Azar had told her that they too might change in time but for better or worse she either did not know or had decided not to say. What the godlike queen had told her however, was "Wer schön sein will muss leiden," -those who wish to be beautiful must suffer. A sentiment that Raven had once thoroughly believed after observing the inhabitants of Earth run in circles to attain their unreachable epitome of beauty. She had thought she had been above such petty things as vanity. It was only now that the empath realized her "indifference" had been nothing but self-righteous pride.

The empath shook herself a bit, trying to find her proper posture and kept her head held high in almost proper military formation. She was still Raven, and she would continue to behave and act as such. It was all she felt she had left of herself to cling to.

"Pushing child, will only strain you to exhaustion. If you plan to continue fighting against the tide of the ocean, you had better be able to part it in two."

Raven nodded. She would do better this time. She was Raven. Daughter of the Damned and Savior to the city. The heir to both the Seventh Level of Hell and the Firstchair to the Azarathian Council. She had to keep practicing until she succeeded.

"I'm ready your grace," said the empath in reply. The queen nodded and cast the energy field again; it immediately leapt at the demonling, intent binding itself to the empath and cutting off her supply of power to strengthen itself. When she had been little, such a spell would have been easily outmaneuvered by the empath as her black magic had easily staved off similar breeds as the white magic her mentor was currently using. Now however, with her magics demonically aligned instead of righteously attuned, the empath had to relearn solutions to problems that she was embarrassed to be facing. Her mentor was once again teaching her things that most fledglings had already mastered and made no pretense to hide her displeasure to be doing so. It was completely justified in the empath's opinion, as she too was completely fed up with her newfound lack of skill mastery.

With her jaw set in frustration the demonling unleashed a spark of anger, causing her barrier to flash a crimson red that instantly blinded all in the room as it swallowed the white magic, leaving a large space of nether energy in its wake that soon dissipated into nothingness. Raven stared at her Queen in shock. The spellbreaker had been a momentary lapse in her self control.

"I do believe you are finally progressing my child," Azar affirmed, taking stock of the situation. "You have done enough for the moment. I would suggest eating something, and perhaps taking a short rest before your demonic nature decides to do it for you," she suggested, in reference to the spell.

Raven nodded obediently, knowing the suggestion was an order. She quietly left the room, only the gentle swish of her feathers making any real sound at all and she idly wondered how long it would take for her to learn how to quell that sound as well. It was utterly strange for the empath to hear herself. The empath decided to head to the kitchen, as with any luck, remnants of the dinner the other Titans had already consumed would still be there. Then, perhaps after she had eaten, she would manage a moment or two of meditation. A frown marred her face as the thought nagged at her. She hadn't meditated in quite awhile now. It was almost as if it were the day before her birthday again. Perhaps, she thought to herself as she padded past the doors, demons were not capable of meditating… what with the ways their powers worked.

Were they capable of eating? She thought to herself as she headed towards the common room. The many texts she had read suggested that they could, and often did if gluttonous, but none of them ever mentioned weather demons needed to. Not unless they derived their power from it anyway. She certainly had not felt hungry in the last three days. Then again, she had never really been in touch with her own body even when she had been more… human and she had often gone for a day or two without consuming anything other than a cup of her favored tea.

As she walked into the common area, she wondered further to herself, contemplating on weather as her past self she had carried out those humanistic rituals out of necessity or else out of habit. She walked into the pitchblack kitchen and looked around, her eyes not even registering a difference between night or daylight. Her vision just automatically compensated for it.

She had never been much for cooking; her only stab at it ending in horrible panckcake mockeries that only the Tamaranean warrior princess had loved. The others of course were only too happy to cook for her after that, the empath thought, causing her cheeks to flush. Raven's attention then caught on a faint porcelain glimmer on the countertop. Approaching it, she almost smiled; someone had left a bowl of fruit ripe for the taking. And take she would. She selected a red juicy looking apple and, because she still wasn't used to working with her clawed hands and thus afraid of damaging the food in the process, grabbed the apple with her powers and brought it to her eagerly awaiting hands instead.

She was shocked however, when the inky black shadow faded away and a completely rotted fruity thing was left in its wake. Raven gagged a bit as she quickly found out that it smelled as bad as it looked and pitched the offending substance into the garbage. Eyeing the residue on her hand in disgust she meandered over to the sink and turned the faucet on with her clean hand. It was difficult with her claws, but not impossible she found. She let the stream run over her palm and trickle down her fingers as she turned her head to sneeze. Absently, her brain told her that there was something wrong with the water and looked back at her hand to see a rather frightening amount of red liquid. Startled, she immediately pulled her hand away and nearly ripped the knob off the fixture as she pulled her other hand close as well.

As she inspected her hand she noted that she was neither in pain nor bleeding. She looked back at the water that was still running. It looked regular enough. It looked wet and watery. Just like water should in this dimension. Curious, the Titan slowly slid her hand back into the stream and watched in detached fascination as the water once again turned red as it hit her hand. She cupped a little in her palm and brought it to her lips, not at all surprised when she tasted a coppery tang.

To be completely honest, the taste slightly reminded her of the tea she used to drink near constantly. Sharp, bitter, thick, and a touch of sweetness. Perhaps the specific array was the only combination her different halves were able to agree on. She flicked her tongue over the remaining blood absentmindedly as she continued to think. In the prophesy of her Father's rise to power on Earth, one of the warning signs had been the seas turning to blood. Her Father was no longer the threat however, but herself. Her brothers. Perhaps this was nothing more than a more intimate type of vision?

A sharp pain in her hand caused her to jolt slightly; she had bitten herself. Her alabaster skin trickled with tiny red-black rivets of her own blood. She had a feeling that it would not taste as the water-made blood had. Sighing, she wiped her hand on the dark black fabric of her improvised costume. It actually looked far closer to her mentors; it started as a corset with a low cut back for her wings and tapered in two panels, front and back, down to her feet, leaving her legs exposed where her thigh high boots didn't cover. Her shoulders and arms were still bare, and she thoroughly missed her hood and cape. Items which she could not regain until she was at more ease with herself. It was almost all she could do to put on her current attire without shedding the fabric. She would manage though, and eventually she would be able to reclaim more of her standard form of dress.

All of the day's training and self discoveries left the empath feeling very drained, she decided. Maybe it was time to try sleeping again. She still hadn't gotten the hang of it with her new appendages yet, but that didn't mean she couldn't keep trying. Her mentor had told her to attempt it at any rate. She walked back to her bedroom, which she hadn't seen much of since she had woken up with her mentor beside her, and took a look around.

Everything seemed to be as she had left it, and yet, she somehow felt detached from the room she had called her home. The items within the walls were mildly interesting and true, she had some lingering affection for the place, but honestly, it felt as though the room belonged to someone in a past life. Her past life. Petty human trinkets held little value to her now. She shuddered to think how her Queen had felt looking around the place. Raven walked over to the dresser and debated on taking her costume off. It was still impeccably clean, it felt rather nice to honest, and she risked the garment's safety should a carless claw or two catch it. Her reflection scolded her laziness. With that, the empath proceeded to slip out of the costume with less grace than was her norm. Satisfied, and feeling rather confident in herself, she opened a draw and fished out a cream colored tank top. She grimaced; it would never fit over her wings… but she supposed it would have to do and managed to wrangle herself into it, the back of the shirt resting on the joints where her back became wings, causing her to shiver slightly as the cold air hit the skin on the bare of her lower-back.

Feeling rather victorious now, the Titan wandered over to her bed and stared at it in contemplation. Laying on her back had proved painful that first night, and her side no better on the second; though, truthfully, that pain could have been better attributed to her magic lesson... She recalled seeing Beast Boy as a gryphon once, sleeping with his wings draped over his back like a blanket, his bird-shifted face resting peacefully between his paws. She smiled to herself, she may not have been a feathered feline, but she was fairly certain a similar position would be satisfactory, and at the very least, less painful. The empath crawled onto the bed and settled down. It took a few tries to make her wings bend the way she wanted, the joints stiff with disuse, and she unused to how they were intended to work to begin with. Still, she soon found herself quite comfortable and tugged one of her pillows to better rest her head and sighed in contentment, her tail flicking back and forth like a sunbathing cat.

A knock sounded at her door, wrestling Raven from her slumber like state, but not rousing her from her bed. She only lifted her head to get a better view of the person walking into her room. She raised an eyebrow at her visitor, having fully expected it to be her mentor or else the leader of her team. The person in question however was certainly not as tall or winged as the Queen nor as masculine or hair-gelled as her leader, and the empath didn't even need to look at the horns to deduce the person's identity. She would recognize Jinx's magic signature anywhere. With a flick of her tail, Raven settled back down, half inclined to go to sleep anyway, visitor be damned.

The hexcaster flicked on the light, causing the empath to blink slowly, her inner eyelids closing horizontally before opening again. Jinx, having seen some pretty freaky shit herself on the streets and in school didn't pay it any attention to it. Instead, the pink haired witch plopped herself on the edge of the bed and tilted her head, to which the demoness only yawned and turned her slightly so that she could see the girl while still keeping comfortable.

"You look like a cat who's eaten a canary."

Raven flashed the meta a smile filled with sharp and pointy pearly white teeth.

"Jeeze," she replied with a start, "keep that up an people will start calling you a Cheshire cat."

The empath smiled, her eyes half lidded and her tail flicking absently; "So to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Haven't seen ya in a couple days Darlin' an I guess I was just wonderin' how you were."

"I'm fine. It'll be awhile before…" Raven shifted a bit and repositioned her wings, snapping them open before furling them again, "before I am used to everything. But something tells me that this was more than a check up call," she continued, her tone changing as she felt Jinx's emotions.

The hex caster nodded and turned to face the empath, sitting on crossed legs, and replied, "I went to see my old friends the other day..."

"You mean the ones we locked up."

Jinx nodded, "Rob- I mean, Nightwing, sent me there to get…I dunno, closure I guess…"

At this Raven raised her head, "So he's finally changed then?"

The hexcaster nodded again, "permanently too, said the Bat's even got himself a new Robin, didn't tell us the name of him though."

"That's probably for the best; they take their privacy to a frightening level;" the empath didn't add that they might see him eventually when the Bat decided the boy needed complete training.

"Yeah, well, they do kind of have to keep on the down low. At least that's what we gathered at the H.I.V.E. when we studied the Gotham baddies. Man, some of them sounded so cool… what I wouldn't give to meet one of th-" she paused when she realized what she was saying and shook her head, "I mean, not that I would… not now at any rate that is, but…"

"You looked up to them…" the psion replied evenly, "Tis understandable."

Jinx grinned half heartedly and rubbed her elbow absently, unsure of how to reply. She settled on tucking her knees to her chin and wrapped her arms around them, her smile faltering.

"I'm scared."

"Somehow Jinx, I very much doubt that you have anything to fear from the terrors of Gotham."

The hexcaster shook her head a bit her bottom lip, prompting the empath to realize that the witch was actually upset about something feasible and not something like say, mutant killer rabbits. Although, those would if fact be cause for fear, she mentally chuckled.

"…What's wrong?"

Jinx continued to fidget as she thought about what she wanted to say. Raven, confused and almost interested pushed herself into a sitting position, lowering her wings to rest beside her knees; "Come on now, it can't be much worse than say, turning into a demon," said the dark Titan with a smirk.

Jinx smiled briefly, nodded in reply, and said, "Yeah, it would kinda suck worse to wake up lookin' like you," to which Raven darkened, "I mean to think my hair purple," she said in faux-enthusiasm as she preened her prized pink locks, causing Raven to smirk and set at ease.

"I don't know…Color is rather relative after all…"

Jinx giggled and then a few minutes of silence passed before Jinx bowed her head; "I miss it all. The rush especially. But when I walked away from See-More... I… I realized I can't ever go back," she continued, lifting her head, "They got a price on my head now Ravie. He said it was a pretty hefty one too. I told Nightwing about it and he said not to worry too much about it as long as I stayed with the others;" she flopped on her back and continued while looking up at the empath's ceiling, "That's another thing Doll, with you out of commission I haft ta' play third wheel all the time. It's weird. I mean I've been sticking with Vic and Gar when I can but I hate watching the Blondie and the Green Bean for too long if you know what I mean…" she turned over on her stomach, facing Raven with her hands propping up her face, her feet hanging of the bed; "Makes me miss Flashy a bit, you know?"

"I had…wondered…about you two. You've been seeing each other for-"

"-Three months. Just about anyway," the pink hexcaster interjected, "We had a bit of a row though, that's kinda why I accepted Robin's offer. I thought a bit of space would do us both good."

"Has it?" the empath inquired innocently.

"I don't know. He called me a few days after I moved in but I haven't heard from him since…" she confessed, her hair drooping.

"Well, I'm afraid any areas pertaining to emotion or relationships are out of my league so I can't help you there. The price on your head however…is…troubling," the empath replied, her head tilted slightly.

"Yeah…but… I mean you were right Dollface. I could have it a hellava lot worse," she replied, nodding in Raven's direction, "So what's… what with you? Gar said that you had another apocalypse to divert and something about bad bloodlines… Stone just shrugged."

Raven fluffed her feathers and flattened them again as she thought, "I have…" she paused and shook her head before starting again, "My father Trigon sired apparently sired several offspring besides myself. I… I have to stop them at… well, whatever it is that they are planning. I really don't know much more than that. I don't have any prophesies or visions to work from so I'm just… taking everything one step at a time until I do."

Jinx nodded as she glanced over Raven's changed form, making the empath fidget at the attention; "So, does looking like that make your powers stronger or something?"

She meant it innocently enough, but it still left a sour feeling along the empath's spine. She tapped her claws against the bed's comforter, making no sound, and sighed before replying, "It better houses my demonic power, but I've yet to see if any of my powers are actually stronger. Although come to think of it, I touched an apple earlier and it rotted instantly…and apparently I turn water into blood when I touch it… so I am going to assume that yes Jinx, my powers are very much stronger. It appears that my flesh has finally betrayed my soul."

"Your…flesh…betrayed…your soul…" Jinx repeatedly slowly, as her eyebows knitted.

"Yes. My flesh –you know, skin and squishy bits? My blood is demonic by my birthright and it was trying to mutate me for years in order to succumb to my Father. Azar and the other monks tore my soul from my body and placed into the space between Heaven, Purgatory and the nine levels of Hell… well, I've managed to count nine levels of hell... There could quite possibly be more. Anyway, because it was separated from my body it could never be tainted along with it. Thus giving me control over myself and making it harder for my Father to influence me."

"I thought your emotions were the problem, not your blood. I'm not even going to ask how a soul gets plucked and placed places."

"No, probably best that you don't. And my emotions are trouble… or… were at any rate. More-so than my blood in fact, as I just said, my soul was ripped from me. My emotions, like my soul, were also taken and given manifestation in my hand mirror. -The silver one you stole from my room when your band of miscreants broke into the Tower…" Raven replied; giving the girl a bit of a glare at the annoyance the memory caused as she floated the tiny hand held mediation tool in front of herself with her powers. She held out the mirror with her inky black soulself for the hexwitch to inspect.

"Heh, what can I say Sunshine, it seemed like a great idea at the time…" the hexcaster giggled, happily looking at her reflection in the glass before asking, "So if your emotions are inside a mirror… how do you feel anything?"

"It's…hard to explain… I would need to teach you Ancient Azarathian and a hefty dose of metamagical-psudophyics to give you any accurate information but... roughly speaking, very roughly mind you, it's… kind of like having someone… like a puppeteer, control some of the little things that you do. A skipping heartbeat; a little burst of adrenaline. If I use my mirror I'm transported inside my own mind, where I can better get a grasp on how I'm feeling, what I'm thinking… what my emotions are thinking…" the empath let the statement trail off into silence. Truthfully she hadn't expected as to what kind of reaction the pink haired witch might grant her confessions and she was interested on how the catlike metahuman would react.

"So how'ya planning on taking showers from now on?" she asked, completely derailing the previous conversation effortlessly.

Raven blinked in surprise at the question before smirking. Jinx was uncanny at turning any unpleasant conversation into a more comical variety of communication. Still, she marked the question as something to get back to, as at some point she would need to know that answer. Jinx giggled to herself and sat up again, reminding the psion once again of just how much insufferable energy the girl always possessed. -If magic were the cause, she needed to know the particular spell. Yawning, the empath stretched her arms over her head, her wings unfurling and then closing again along with her. In doing so her concentration broke and her mirror began its swift descent to the bed. Her thief's instinct kicking in; Jinx caught the trinket in mid air even as Raven panickedly rushed to grab it as well, the resulting combined powers causing a bright multicolored flash to fill the room.

There is a song called Wer schön sein will muss leiden that is by Oomph. Go check it out. I was listening to it while writing some of this chapter, as I thought it seemed to fit the mood quite nicely.

Now...let's see...I know I wanted to say something here... Oh yes.

So, Raven isn't seeing Azar as anything but her mentor. In her defense, Lust takes Pride in becoming the desired ideal. In any case, there shall be more to that angle of the story soon.

-kudos to those who manage find all the references in my story. There are many.

Blah blah blahhhhhhhhh

THANKS FOR READING & REVIEWING AND BEING SO PATIENT & SUPPORTIVE WITH ME.

Next stop: NEVERMORE. Jinxed flavored.

It's gonna be big.