Chapter Twenty-Eight

"Alright, Dick… Magic is straightforward enough to learn. Mastering it is a different story, but for now, let's just get the basics down. You have Mana in you, right? You'd need to in order to affect alchemy. The basics are pretty similar. You need to breathe in the power and breathe out the magic. Feel the Mana growing in strength inside you and project it outwards. Different mages have different methods of doing that.

"Zatanna says what she wants to happen backwards. I have Azaroth Metrion Zinthos and a number of verbal spells that are primarily in Latin and Greek. Some do it non-verbally. They simply focus their will and command the magic to obey them. No way is right or wrong. It only matters what works for the individual." Raven said. Dick nodded.

"So… I just have to visualize the effect I want?"

"More or less… True control is a lot more difficult, but to start, just imagine a small ball of energy." Raven said. Dick nodded, closing his eyes and breathing in. Then, he breathed out, and a sphere of energy appeared in his hand.

"Alright… You put a bit more energy into it than I intended for you, but this is a good start. You should meditate for at least half an hour every evening.

"You can increase the amount of time later, but for now, half an hour should be plenty. Honestly, you're the last person I ever thought I'd be teaching magic. You're more than smart enough. But you were always focused on martial arts. Perhaps the two would work well together for you. I've created a perfect copy of the necklace that Zatanna gave me with the same effect on it.

It will hopefully make the barriers stronger and easier to maintain. There's no guarantee, but you should wear it at all times. Now, some mages have a specialty in certain aspects of magic. For example, some specialize in elemental magic. Some prefer transmutative magic. We should start you with a strong foundation in basic magic before we worry about your specialty. Try a simple effect. Try making a fireball in your hand." Raven said.

Dick nodded, closing his eyes and changed the time settings on the Time Dilation Chamber, making it so that 1 hour outside equaled 12 hours inside. Then, he began to focus on heat and power. As he did this, a ruby red flame erupted in his hand. It wasn't as big as he thought it would be, but it emanated a great deal of heat, like it would vaporize anything it came in contact with. He focused and determined that the flames exceeded 1,200oF.

He calmed down the energy, and the flame went from a ruby red to a blue, then to an orange and yellow, indicating that it had decreased in het by more than half of what it was at first. Raven nodded.

"Good, good. Now, turn that fire into lightning. No. I said to turn the fire into lightning, not get rid of the fire and make lightning." Raven said when Dick initially doused the fire and created a bolt of electricity in his hand.

"Better. Start with the fire, then focus on turning it into electricity. Transformative magic is important… Mm… Maybe a bit too advanced, though." Raven said. "Try turning something physical into something else physical. Transmuting energy was difficult even for me. Try turning this rock into metal." Raven said, handing a small piece of shale to Dick, who focused on it, willing it to turn into steel. Finally, it took on a dull gleam, and Dick nodded, satisfied with his progress.

Raven seemed of a different mind though, because she continued to instruct him until at least four hours had gone by outside the room. That meant that he had easily been in there for four days straight. But he couldn't deny that he was improving quickly.

"Alright… We'll stop for today. If you continue to advance this quickly, I won't need to teach you for much longer." Raven said. Dick nodded.

"I wanted to give you this." Dick said. Raven looked at the greyish-green liquid in the vial and raised an eyebrow. "What is it?" She asked.

"It will enhance your magic by a factor of approximately 10 for a period no longer than two hours. After that, I strongly recommend you get some rest. You'll be exhausted if you use your magic at full capacity in that time." Dick said. Raven nodded and pocketed the vial.

"Are you sure it's safe?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow. It didn't seem likely that she would suffer no backlash from enhancing her magic so much so suddenly.

"No. But by the time you'd need to drink it, I am sure that how safe it is will be the least of your worries." Nightwing said. Raven nodded. That much was clearly true.

"But it's not going to kill me, is it?"

"I doubt it. Your regeneration will probably avail you overall. It may hurt, you may bleed. But you won't die. Your regeneration is very powerful. I do suggest a regeneration enhancing serum after the effects of the magic enhancing serum end… Just to be safe. Your regeneration will be enhanced for about twenty-four hours after drinking it."

"You're not inspiring my confidence." Raven said dryly. Dick chuckled at this. Raven didn't often make jokes, but when she did, she was fairly funny.

"Well… I can't tell you that you'll get out of it Scott free. I can't even tell you that you won't end up hurting yourself. But I can tell you that you may be glad you had it in the end." Raven laughed, nodding at what he said.

"Well… I guess it's time for me to go to bed. I don't know what you do at night. But I still need to sleep." Raven said, kissing Dick goodnight and heading up to her room. She stopped first though, looking hopefully at Dick, who smiled gently at her.

"Don't worry, Rachel. We won't let anything happen to you… No matter what Trigon tries, we'll be ready for him.

"I hate to say it, but we have good help with Slade. He's as powerful an ally as we can hope to get. I'm going to try to get in contact with Superman, but his tendency to get mind controlled by the enemy is well known, and I'm not sure Batman will want him on our side. He may be better for our cause if we keep him out of the way." Nightwing said. Raven nodded.

"I could fairly easily capture him. He isn't immune to magic or psychic powers. I could just use telepathy to put him out until we tell him to wake up." Raven said. Dick laughed.

"While that is tempting, he's still the defender of his own city. I'm sure they can't spare him. As frequently as he may or may not get mind controlled, we can't just put him out until he proves himself definitively to be a threat to our plan."

"I can respect that. Even now that you're not Batman's apprentice, you're very moral."

"Well… There are times when killing an opponent is warranted. Killing or putting Superman out just because he can't resist mind control isn't warranted. I'll talk to him, see if I can fix his situation. Frankly, I can't just make him stronger willed, but I can put psychic defenses in his mind as I've done with all of you." Dick said. Rachel nodded, kissing Dick. He was such a good person.

His obsession with Slade was occasionally frightening, but he always meant well. Raven sighed and headed up to bed. Now, it was almost 1 in the morning, and she needed to sleep even if Dick didn't. Dick sighed and went up to his room as well, sitting down and, setting his smart phone to binaural beats and eventually going into a deep trance.