Sapphire Ink Chapter 11, a teen titans fanfic

Chapter 10

Raven explained to us how we would use the mirror, which was supposed to take us to our destination. I eyed the mirror sceptically, the idea of visiting another world was laughable. But allot of strange and unbelievable things had happened to me ever since I had learned about the existence of vampires. Now werewolves had been introduced to me as well, what was next?

"I will direct you to the vampire world, on the council of fires land. It will take all my strength to teleport all of us to the fire lands so I wont be able to take you directly to the main palace. When you step through the mirror, clear your mind and stay calm, the teleportation should only last a moment."

There was a burst of disbelieving laughter from Will who wiped a few imaginary tears from his eyes. "Magical mirrors? Whats next? Flying hippos?"

Raven answered patiently "you've seen the vampires and the werewolf, and yet you don't believe in this?"

Will snorted "please, this is all a dream. I'm going to wake up soon so do whatever, pick daisy's, do hand stands...or you know teleport using magic mirrors, that's fine. Its all the same to me." He waved a dismissive hand

I noticed a few members of my coven seemed insulted by the small boy, others with good humour like Victor and Gar seemed amused. Raven chose to ignore the ignorant child and continued

"I believe we should travel two at a time, just step through and do as I say."

Wally chuckled to himself "your making it sound like a school field trip. We've all traveled before lets just get going." He said impatiently.

Raven nodded and turned towards the mirror. She closed her eyes and began to chant the three familiar words "Azerath, Metrion Zinthos."

Wally and Jinx stepped up, linking hands as they strode through the mirror. The glass rippled like water as they stepped through and disappeared from sight, almost melting into the reflection. I gasped, but as Roy and Jade stepped through, glaring at each other, I willed myself not to be afraid. If they weren't scarred then why should I be?

Maris hand trembled in mine, and even Will after his big talk looked nervous. Richard glanced at me and then down at the boy, he smiled "I will help the boy. You go with the girl."

Will frowned "My name is Will, not boy."

Richard smiled "I apologise William."

Will growled as his face heated up, he glared at the ground. When it was just us left, as well as Raven and Gar I grasped Maris hand and walked forward, speaking to the young girl. "It'll be alright Mari, don't be scared."

Mari nodded bravely and held her large silver book closer. We stepped through the large mirror, the feeling of walking through it? Freezing. Vampires were supposed to be able to control their body temperature, but the chill was overwhelming. It wasn't wet like water, but as I slipped through the surface it felt as if I was walking through a water fall.

At first I couldn't see anything, and when I looked down, I could no longer see Mari but I still felt her hand in mine. The darkness lasted only a moment, and then a flash of light sparked in front of me, so bright that I had to close my eyes.

A voice echoed in the light "you should not have come to this world. I fear they wake now, your time is nearly up daughter of the stars."

When I opened my eyes we were both standing on a hill top in the middle of no where. The rest of the members were gathered at the bottom of the slope and I frowned in confusion. Who had that been? Who had awoken?

I looked down at Mari who was grinning wide eyed "wow! That was amazing!"

I smiled "glad you liked it, lets join the others." As I walked down I glanced up at the hill and saw that all there was on the top of it were two trees that weaved together at the top, creating an arch. Mari looked around

"so we're in another world now?"

I looked around as well and was slightly disappointed. There was nothing special about the land, grass spread out for miles with rocks and boulders dotted around randomly. In the distance I could see trees, but it looked a long way away.

The grass was no different, actually there was no magical feeling about being there, it seemed the same as the human world. The only difference was the sun that was almost setting in the distance. I reached the others just as Jericho was saying telepathically "there is limited sunlight here. The sun is only out for a few hours, and the rest belongs to the moon."

Terra smiled calmly "its been a very long time since I came to the vampire world."

Everyone nodded except for Roy, who I remembered was a traveller. He crossed his arms and smiled to himself "Donner will be waiting for me at the council Ignis."

I tilted my head to the side "whos Donner?"

Jade rolled her eyes "his fling girl. He has one in every council I'm sure." She said bitterly

"I do not! Would you quit insulting me! I've had enough of this." Roy yelled, his fists clenching

I had noticed the glares between them, but to see Jade and Roy actually argue was strange. Usually everyone got on so well but they looked at each other with eyes of complete hatred. Kyle was enjoying the show, a grin on his face as he watched. I whispered to Karen "whats wrong with them?"

Karen looked fearful "well, Jade has identified Roy as her soul mate, but Roy cant, or rather wont believe it."

As Jade yelled the grass she stood on changed colour, like all the water was draining out of it. It turned to brown and then decayed into black ash.

I felt Richards presence and turned to face him. Will quickly ran over and rejoined his sister, while Richard casually followed. In the distance I saw Raven and Gar who had teleported as well. Raven staggered, putting a hand to her head as Gar turned into a horse, looking up at her with caring green eyes. Raven weakly mounted the horse and it trotted down the hill to meet us.

That moment shared between them was the way I envisioned true soul mates to be as. Attentive, loyal to one person only and loving. When I looked over at Jade and Roy I sighed and walked forward, stepping between them before they could rip out each others throats.

"I understand your problems but please don't quarrel here. If you have have to do it, at least hear out your separate issues, isn't that what the foundation of the soul mates is? Understanding, sharing yourself?" I asked

"Shes not my soul mate!" Roy growled

"That's rich coming from you Kori, you know nothing of soul mates. You know nothing of me or Roy, and your a hypocrite to preach to us about sharing yourself when you haven't with Richard!" Jade hissed at me, and I could feel the air thicken with tension.

Richard stepped forward, looking menacing and blood thirsty. I held a hand up to stop him, which he did though his eyes didn't change from red slits.

"Can we please just get going? I'm so thirsty and the longer we stay here the longer it will take to get to the council." Moaned Victor, glancing at the fearful Will, who touched his neck without realising.

I nodded "I agree, lets get going." I ignored Jades icy glare and Roy's annoyed face.

I picked up Mari and Richard caught my eye, he nodded curtly and turned to Will "I'm going to have to carry you."

Will frowned "I refuse."

Richard sighed and waited a moment before grabbing the boy and picking him up, much to Wills annoyance. I smiled and ran, directing my power to my feet to run faster as I followed Wally, who lead the way. It was impossible to keep up with him, or pass him, but at least I could keep him in sight.

The others followed, and I was aware of Will complaining "put me down! This is humiliating!"

"you think I want to hold you? Its humiliating for me to even be carrying you." Muttered Richard

I smiled to myself and looked down at Mari "is this what you've always wanted? To visit another world?"

Mari nodded "well I never fit into the human one, and I always dreamed of a place I belonged. I hope this is the place." She tightened her grip on her book.

"May I ask where you got that book?"

Mari looked up at me, and I read the deep pain in her eyes. I could tell where it was from before she told me, as I had seen that same hurt look reflected in my eyes. It was only there when people spoke of my parents

"my mother gave it to me."

I nodded, a dull ache in my chest was a reminder of my past pain. "I know how you feel, my parents and siblings died in a plane crash."

Her black hair blew in the wind as she looked down sadly "I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know what happened to my parents, I was left at the gate of the orphanage. They discovered my parents...bodies a few days later." She seemed not to want to talk about it anymore, so I merely said

"I'm sure they were very proud of you. Your a bright young girl."

Mari smiled sadly and wiped a stay tear from her rosy cheeks. As I ran through the grass, my feet padding on the ground rhythmically I shared stories with Mari the bright girl. She had a way about her that was old before her time, she accepted things as they were and wasn't fearful when I spoke of vampires.

"I hope I can be a vampire one day" she said so cheerfully.

I don't know what my eyes looked like then, but if they reflected what I was thinking it was no wonder Mari flinched when she saw my expression.

"you shouldn't wish this on yourself." My voice sounded like someone elses.

"Why not? You seem happy to me." Mari blinked and I closed my eyes for a moment, picturing all the people I had killed just to survive. There wasn't many since I was new to the life style, and had taken several blood bags from the hospital but the guilt was overwhelming.

When I looked down at Maris naive face I couldn't imagine her doing something like that. "There's allot of things I'm not happy about thats associated with this world. I cant be with the one I love because of several reasons, I have this ancient power inside me that was descended from my blood line, and I cant even eat muffins anymore. I'm not saying that will happen to you if you became a vampire, but its not a life I would wish on anyone who didn't know who their soul mate was. Without Richard I couldn't have made it this far."

Mari half nodded, confused about some of the things I had said but seeming to accept them. I continued running for a long time, though I wasn't tired by the time the council Ignis's palace came into sight. I gasped, as did Mari, leaning out of my arms to get a better look.

"Wow Kori! You didn't tell me the councils head quarters was carved out of a volcano!"

Sure enough the black structure was at the base of a massive volcano, which much to my relief looked dormant. The council Ignis's palace looked ancient, its building had jet black stones in place of the usual materials you'd expect to see for a building. It had a very an eerie look about it. In some ways it resembled a large castle rather than a palace what with its towers and gothic look. I stared up at them in awe, catching up to Wally who had stopped, waiting for everyone else.

"Wow, nice place." Muttered Jinx, her pink eyes wide.

"The council will be expecting you. I'm sure they have plenty of questions to ask to keep me entertained, have a nice interrogation!" Kyle laughed and ran forward, leaving the rest of us behind.

"Humpth. Good riddance to the creep" said Jade, crossing her arms.

"We'll be alright I'm sure. The thing I'm worried about is what they said in the letter about that war between them and the council of Air." Jericho's animal eyes observed the palace gravely.

Terra sighed telepathically, a brush of sound"we should get going. Lance doesn't like to be kept waiting."

Everyone ran forward once more and I followed, hearing Victor remark "at least we'll see Isaiah Crockett again, I haven't seen that guy for years."

As the group ran forward, I couldn't help but notice that Richard hung back slightly behind us. I turned and waited for him to catch up, seeing the uneasy expression on his face.

"Whats wrong?" I asked

Richard glanced at me, his blue eyes darkening like storm clouds. "My kind of...blood type isn't welcome here. I wont exactly be treated like the rest of you, but you have to ignore it. If they ever found out that someone with my dirty blood was soul mates with you, the girl of the prophecy, it would be an outrage."

I frowned, feeling anger and hate twisting around my dead heart. I tried to calm my hollow rage as Will spoke up, still being carried by Richard.

"Why don't they like you?"

Richard looked down, his eyes sad "my blood type is black. In the vampire world, the blood is the life, and mine is considered to be weak, worthless. So they treat me as worthless even though I have fought for this council five times. I fought in their blood thirty wars and yet they never thanked me, just looked at me like they wished I had been slain in the war along with the other vampires."

His dark tone was strange for me to hear, he had never sounded so murderous and cold. Will gazed up and him and frowned "well that stinks." He summed up easily. Mari hit her head, and I could almost hear her thinking idiot. You don't say that.

Richard didn't seem to mind as he smiled weakly, saying "yes. It does stink."

I looked at him and smiled softly "well just so you know, I don't consider you inadequate. Your the bravest man I've ever met."

Richard smiled, but the storm clouds didn't subside in his eyes. His voice was quiet, an echo of fear "thank you...my star."

OOO

The grand doors leading to the village owned by the fire council opened. I looked around as I ran, seeing all the humans that went about their business. They didn't seem to care that we were running at an in human speed, and I even saw some of them catting to vampires. So these were the donors that gave their blood once in awhile to sustain the vampires.

I rose an eyebrow but kept going non the less, following my coven up the black marble steps of the palace. We gathered at the entrance and one of the guards pushed open the double doors for us, gesturing to go in.

"The council expects you." He said in a deep voice.

When we were inside I put Mari down on the floor, as did Richard with Will. There was a single large door down the grand hall way, several pictures hung here and there, the carpet we walked on was naturally, red, with candles on either side of the walls. When we finally reached the large door I noticed that it was covered with markings, some of which I recognised as the symbol for fire. There was ancient writings, like Latin, Greek and older languages still.

I wanted to gaze at it some more but Victor opened the door, holding it open for everyone.

As I walked inside I was immediately swamped with the sense of power in the room. It was every where, intoxicating me, wanting to make me bow down to it. I was highly aware of the seven vampires in the room, each of them seeming to give off that ancient aroma, the one in particular who gave off the most was a blond haired man.

He had silver eyes that reminded me of that of a hawk, watching us like we were his prey. The seven council members each had seats that seemed fit for royalty.

On either side of the room, there was more seats, set up very much like a court system. The seats filled with vampires on either side of the room reminded me of the jury, the other six council members were the judges and the hawk guy was the executioner.

My coven bowed and I did the same, thankful that the children mimicked my actions.

The silver eyed man stood "welcome to all. Thank you for answering our summons on such short notice."

I didn't know what to say, so I was glad when Raven spoke up "thank you for inviting us my lord."

My lord? I looked up at the man, was this guy really that much of a big deal?

He smiled in a way that wasn't kind, it seemed more hungry. When his calm eyes fell on me I flinched and looked away

"ah. You must be Kori Anders... step forward please."

As I did so I noticed the other council members straighten their backs, watching me with interested and curious looks. Hawk guy walked down to me, stepping on the marble steps elegantly. There was something about him that was familiar, his scent was also almost the same as...

My eyes widened. This was Kyles brother.

Immediately, I was on guard, my whole body tensing as he stood in front of me, bowing formally. Well at least he has more manners than his brother I thought bitterly.

"We have been looking forward to a meeting with you ever since that rogue vampire told us your capability's. My name is Lance Warlock." He smiled in a very charming way, which I returned to be polite.

Trying not to seem too pushy I asked "may I ask which rogue vampire that was?"

"Oh you know him, Xaviour Redd I think it was. He was the one who gave us the information about Slade Wilson's death, along with his daughter's."

I gulped and remebered the letter they had sent me.

'There is also the subject over your blood line, and the sensitive topic over what happened to Mr. Slade Wilson and his daughter Rose Wilson. We have had information about this from an unreliable source and we wish to discuss it further to know the full extent of what happened.'

Raven spoke up "my brother can twist the truth sometimes. Please don't judge Kori too harshly until you have heard everything."

Lance was about to say more when another vampire from the council stood up from his chair. He had blue eyes and dark skin, with an easy smile in place "come on guys, they've just travelled from the human world, they must be exhausted. Lets leave that serious business until later, for now lets just relax."

Victor spoke up "good to see you again Hotspot."

Judging by Victors friendly tone, I guessed that the man who was nicknamed 'Hotspot' was Isaiah Crockett. Isaiah smiled

"you too Stone."

Victor let out a loud laugh, which echoed around the room. I could tell Lance wasn't happy about leaving the subject, by the way he set his jaw and frowned. Sighing he said "yes, you may enjoy yourselves for tonight and get the this mess sorted-"

As he was walking towards the door he had suddenly caught sight of Richard. The air suddenly grew tense, like an icy chill swept around us.

Richards dark eyes stared into Lance's hawk ones, the look of smugness that came onto Lances face resembled that of Kyles.

"Ink stain. Still clinging to this coven I see?" Lances voice was full of venom, but Richard didn't answer.

The silver eyed vampire turned his full attention on Richard now. "Your foster father ran away like a coward. I wonder why you didn't pursue him. Tell me, why exactly are you still here?"

He began to circle Richard now, slowly pacing around him like he was trying to solve a difficult puzzle. "Is it because of your sister? Or is it something more? You still haven't found your soul mate yet...or have you?"

Richard finally spoke "why is it important?"

"I'll take that as a yes...hmm lets see, there are only two women not claimed in your coven. Jade and..." Lances eyes landed on me and several members of the council frowned in disapproval of the idea.

Lance looked at Richard, his eye brow raised "don't tell me you think its Kori Anders? The idea of someone as powerful as Kori being tied to such filth like you isn't plausible."

I wanted to speak out against him, but I remembered Richards words from earlier.

Mari spoke up for me, yelling at Lance "Richard isn't filth!"

Lance looked at her, confused "you think not?"

The vampire in one swift movement brought his fist up, hitting Richard in the face. I bit back a cry of outrage, clenching my hands into fists as I saw Richard fall to the floor. I knew from Richards capability that he could have blocked that attack but chose not to.

A trickle of black blood ran down from Richards cut lip. He wiped it away just as Lance pointed at him, saying to Mari "do you see it now? That's why he'll never be seen as anything more than a weak ink stain. That blood of his is inferior, he doesn't deserve to be here."

"Quite the contrary Lance." Came a soft voice

Everyone turned to see a figure in the door way. I hadn't even heard the door open, but when I turned to see who it was my mouth fell open.

Standing there was an angel, the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. Words could not describe her, which was probably why everyone was silent as they saw her. She had curly golden hair that fell down to her knees, her eyes were kind and the smile she had was so warm it reminded me of being wrapped up in a blanket. She wore a deep red dress that fell down to the floor elegantly.

Of course what I was most shocked to see was her wings behind her, that were also golden. I was surprised to see that the wings were ripped and torn, in worse condition than Richards. They hung like ripped curtains and I noticed that she did indeed have an air about her that was sad, and lonely. But in terms of spiritual power, it overflowed from her, spilling forth around the room.

Everyone knelt down to their knees, bowing to her. I followed suit and was glad to see that Will and Mari did the same.

I heard footsteps and when I looked up, she was standing in front of me. She smiled kindly "please don't bow to me, you especially do not need to."

She held out a snow white hand which I took, the skin soft. When I was stood she bowed her head to me "it is an honor to finally meet you, daughter of the stars. My name is Grace."

My eyes widened as I remembered several things at once. She had been who had spoken to me in the light

A voice echoed in the light "you should not have come to this world. I fear they wake now, your time is nearly up daughter of the stars."

I also remembered that Grace was the name of the first Shadow wing. Born from a fallen angel and a vampire. I looked at her with awe, this women was an Ancient.

ooo

so did u like it? I hope so ^^ Im glad Grace has finally arrived :) Ive been feeling a little low lately, dunno why. Must be the bad weather we've been having, urgh I hate the rain.

Review please, they cheer me up!