"Mix the frankenscence with the toad oil to form a paste, mix the paste with the wine enriched clay to form a loose base. Form this base into a small sculpture of your friend, it doesn't have to be very detailed, as long as you recognize it as your friend that will be enough. Put a personal possession of your friend's on the figurine to form a link to him. Very good, now all that's left is the incantation and it shall be done.

Raven wiped the soggy clay from her hands onto a towel and inspected the crudely made simulacrum sitting on the floor in front of her. It didn't really look like anyone at all, but she decided to trust Malchior's word, probably because she didn't have any other choice. The incantation was a short one, only a handful of verses that were easy enough to pronounce. When she finished the figurine had a hard, glossy shell. She crossed her arms "There, it's done.

"Very good Raven. That spell will keep your friend from getting any worse for a short while at least." The page's eyes narrowed "As well as keep him safe from any incompetent hiccups you make along the way."

"Just tell me what I'm supposed to do next."

"Right then, based off of what you've told me so far and what I've divined myself, your original hypothesis was correct. Your friend's mind is constantly backlashing on itself as it heals, and his body is paying the price."

"Well, what can we do? His powers make him immune to my healing."

"His problem isn't physical, silly girl, it's mental. Something is wrong with his train of thought, and it can't place itself on the path to recovery. Due to the speed of his degredation, there is only one option available to us at this time."

Raven interrupted "A supernal mind-scape jaunt."

The book's eyebrow raised "You were paying attention. Yes, similar to your mirror, a portal to his mind-scape will be necessary if he's going to see tomorrow's sunset. You know what you need, don't you?"

"Of course I do." She stood up and dusted off her legs, shuffling over to one of the many shelves littered in jars and boxes.

Malchior called from his stand "And Raven, I hope I don't have to remind you of the dangers of a jaunt into another person's mind, much less one that's as shattered as your friend's?"

"Showing concern for your old pupil Malchior?"

"Perish the thought, but if you were to be reduced to a drooling mess from having your mind self killed then it would be rather difficult collecting on my end of the deal..."

"And we can't have that."

"No we can't Raven, no we can't."


"Your going to do WHAT!"

Raven sighed "Jaunt into his mindscape and fix his mind, after that he'll regenerate naturally."

Cyborg paused for a moment "...You sure you didn't suffer some brain damage girl? Cuz' you ain't making a lick of sense!"

She grit her teeth "It's the only way, if I don't do this he'll die."

"Ain't happening! This guy has been teetering on the brink for the last sixteen hours, a dirty look might finally do him in, I am not letting no blue-headed witch go leaping in his skull, much less the one who did this to him!"

"..." Raven stared.

"...Okay, maybe that was a little harsh, but I'm still not letting you do it."

"If we don't do this Cyborg, we should just start picking out burial plots."

"There's gotta be another way, hey ya'll tell her it's a bad idea."

BeastBoy said from his cross-legged sit on the floor "I dunno man, sounds a little risky."

Starfire never took her eyes off of the husk in the tank as she remained silent.

The Boy Wonder off to the sides stood up from his stool. "What exactly will you be doing Raven."

"An Supernal mind-jaunt. Effectively I'll be reaching into another dimension, the one that holds his mindscape. You and BeastBoy did the same thing last year when you found my mirror."

"Is it at all dangerous?"

"I won't lie, yes, it is very dangerous-"

Cyborg piped in "Ah HA!"

"-but there's a good chance of his recovery, and if I don't do it then he will die, regardless of what Cyborg does."

Robin pondered for just a moment before saying "This is a team matter, I say it be a team decision."

Raven raised her hand "I'm for it."

BeastBoy said from his cross-legged sit on the floor "Speaking as someone who's been in one of these mind-scraper thingies, I gotta say no-go. There has to be a better way."

Cyborg indignantly pointed his thumb at himself "I think ya'll know how I feel."

Robin turned "What about you Star?"

"..."

"Star... Star!"

"Hmm?" She hastily turned towards him.

"How do you vote?"

Starfire looked back and forth between the tank and her friends, anxiously chewing on her lip. "Oh, I do not wish to see my friend in this condition any longer. I cast my vote for the mental projection."

"I guess that leaves just me then, Raven, do it."

"SAY WHAT!" Cyborg all but shouted.

"If Raven says this is the only way, then I believe her. Starfire, BeastBoy, for the time being this room is off limits, and Cyborg I want you to do everything you can to help her."

"But-"

"That's an order."

Cyborg grit his teeth for a second before responding "...Fine."

Robin nodded and went out the sliding door, closely followed by his melancholy teammates. Both Cyborg and Raven turned to eachother.

"If this doesn't work Rae..."

"I'm well aware Cyborg, now we've got work to do.

"Yeah... I know." Cyborg pouted "Man, fuck democracy."


"Every living person's mind has a supernal realm. It's a place where the processes of thought and feelings are abstractly represented. When a consciousness is born a realm is carved out of the aether, the place of raw magic between dimensions, to represent them. It's a proven fact. Mine was represented as that amalgam of floating stones in the center of the cosmos, but a mindscape can be anything. A single room, an expansive castle, a place of neverending conflict, each one is unique to that person. The only common thread is that they are always hazardous to outside influence, such as a foreign entity jaunting into one. With what we know about Reaver's personality and feelings, it will most likely be even more so."

Cyborg looked up from his readout display, "Then why not bring somebody with you?"

"I'm the only one who has any idea of what to expect, and we don't have enough time for me to concoct a spell that will be powerful enough for me to bring someone other than myself." Answered Raven as she slid one of her overstuffed chairs into the center of a perfect circle written in gold dust and powdered teeth. "It has to be me and me alone." She set herself down in the large chair.

"How long will this take anyway?"

"My spell will last for twelve hours, and it can't be cancelled early."

"Great." Cyborg fiddled with a display on his arm "Looks like I'll be turning down the ole' sleep module."

"I'm ready now Cyborg, and I see no reason to wait around. If you have any more questions..."

"Naw, I'm good Rae, do your thing."

"Right." The blue headed sorceress took a deep breath and released a slow exhale. "Azarath... Metrion... Zinthos..." The girl's eyes flashed grey for an instant, a sound liken to that of shattering glass was heard, and she slumped down in her chair, seemingly unconscious."

Cyborg nodded in her general direction, "Now comes the hard part, keeping BB from drawing a moustache on her for the next twelve hours."


Raven had spent the last several hours preparing for this instant, mentally bolstering herself to be able to withstand the hostile environment she was thrusting herself in.

Which is why the first sensation she felt only half caught her by surprise.

For a fleeting instant she felt she was falling before she splashed into what felt like blood-warm sea that sent an electric tingle through her body. A rush of water that felt as though she were licking a liquid 9-volt battery flowed into her mouth. She didn't dare open her eyes.

She resisted the instinct to inhale, instead silently chanting her mantra. A expanding sphere of black energy burst into being around her, settling a few feet from her body, providing her with a much needed sanctuary in the depths.

Raven took a moment to stand up and wring out her cloak, which now weighed about a hundred pounds. "Well, so far so-" Raven cut herself short, for she sensed a presence, the presence of things beyong her shield.

Within moments she sensed hundreds of beings, seemingly swarming about her sanctum. Her eyes flashed, steadying her position in the abyss. After a moment's concentration, Raven willed the shield around her into shaded translucence, letting through the sights of the ocean.

Blue, all was enshrouded in a gentle blue aura, lighting up the entirety of the sea to her eyes. Hidden in this blue nimbus were spectres of white, almost reverse silhouettes limned in the electric-blue water. At first Raven believed these forms to be dancing, but a more attentive inspection revealed that that was not the case. Rather, the figures were fighting, each one paired off with one or more similarly silouhetted combatants.

Raven glanced to her left and saw the closest battle unfolding in front of her. A man bearing a sword was pushing back an unarmed man. He slashed left and right, missing by a wide margin each time, despite this the sword man bore a look of confidence. The unarmed man was stone-faced. The sword man feinted high forcing the unarmed man's guard up high. The blade flicked across, connecting with the unarmed man's left forearm. The limb dropped down to the space that seemed to be the ground, but before the the sword man could regain his stance the unarmed one lunged forward and plunged his hand up to the elbow in his gut. The sword dropped to the floor in a silent clatter. The now one armed man placed his foot on his opponents chest and bloodily tore out his fist, alongside a mass that could only be organs. The mass fell to from his hand, revealing a wicked, five fingered claw bonded to his hand.

"By Azar... that's Reaver." The blue sorceress stares at the spectres features, same hard jaw, same large body, and the signature claw. As she watched the scene reversed itself in a blink, resetting the fight to run exactly the same. Raven glanced around at the various similar scenes that played around her. A man fell with a hole in his head here, a woman was blasted away by a grenade there, and all were set in motion by Reaver. A grisly, infinite rehearsal of death performed by blue lined, ghostly marionettes.

Had her time been not of the essence, Raven might have considered spending some time exploring, pondering the existence and meaning of these figures, she did not however have this luxury. So with a flick of her wrist she sent her impromptu vessel skyward, breaking free of the blue surf within moments of travel.

Beneath her was the soft glow of the ocean of fighting ghosts, and above her was an impossibly low ceiling of shady dark grey clouds that occasionally danced with lightning. Torturously heavy rains fell from the dark clouds and glowing waves crested and fell beneath her.

Raven spun, looking all around her, but only saw the glowing sea and the dark clouds for hundreds of miles. "Damn, there has to be something. This can't be all that there is to Reaver's mindscape."

Acting on her first impulse, Raven flew upward, no doubt believing that a higher vantage point would be needed to see anything of note, but she decided to back off when a sudden bolt of lightning tore from the heavens and smashed into her shield, creating a series of spiderweb cracks along it's surface and giving Raven an instant migraine. She instead decided to back off, rubbing her head on the way down.

Upon reaching sea level, she bolstered the shield around her and summoned a small floating portal through which she had a clear view of the outside. Free from the shading effects of her force field bubble she was able to see a thin shaft of light, a small break in the roof of clouds several miles off.

"Finally." Raven positioned her scrying window to act as a view screen and flew along through the storm in her friend's mind.

As she progressed, Raven noted that the storm grew much worse. Rain tore through her viewing portal with fierce vehemency, thunderous booms were heard from dozens of lightning strikes. Raven glanced down and saw that the pooling water was at roughly ankle depth, and continued to flow in unheeded.

Raven suddenly shuddered as another bolt impacted her shield ball, with a similar result as the first one. Raven staggered to a stop, rubbing her head.

After spending a few seconds recovering, she continued on with her previous course, and was promptly impacted by another, stronger lightning bolt. Shards of energy flaked off of the shield as Raven fell to her knees, clutching at her temple.

"Nnnng..." Raven's orb was still. "It strikes when I move closer to the light, like it's guarding something." The goth girl stood up straight and propelled her orb forward at break neck speed, no longer even navigating via the scrying hole, just propelling herself on a forward course.

Another bolt streaked from the heavens, but only struck surf as Raven narrowly evaded the bolt, only to be struck again as yet another bolt zapped her shield, drawing yet another shudder from the sorceress.

"To hell with this." Droned Raven, as she simply waved her hands causing herself to vanish into a hole of darkness, reappearing several hundred yards closer to her goal, except with what for all intents and purposes was a force field umbrella over her head. She was only there for a second however before she mustered enough energy to teleport several hundred more yards. And it was in this fashion that she hopped her way towards her destination.

She didn't stop until she was within feet of her destination, and that was because she was staring hard at the spectacle. It was an island, not exceptionally large, perhaps three square miles. The center of which boasted an impossibly large spire of a mountain, almost a tower, that poked a hole in the low blanket of clouds. While the island itself was seemingly ordinary, but that was the problem. No storm waves pounded it's shores, no rain fell on it's palm trees, and no lightning struck it's sands. Indeed, several hundred yards from the shore of the island, the storm just stopped. One inch there was rain, the next was sun. The water even lost it's blue glow, and was replaced with a breath taking crystalline beauty. It was like looking at a resort island in a brochure.

Raven floated toward it and out of the storm, pulling up her hood for the first time since she'd arrived. Though it was sunny and bright, it wasn't exactly Raven's idea of ideal weather. Nevertheless, she floated towards the island, setting her booted foot down on the soft sands.

She placed her hands on her hips, and smirked at her surroundings. Tall, picturesque palm trees, cheery sun, forebodingly high mountain, and gently lapping surf.

"Hmm, not exactly what I imagined."

"Talking to yourself now Raven?"

The girl whipped around at the sudden voice, nimbuses of gray energy wrapped around her hands. Nearby a large rock was encased in a black aura.

The figure defensively raised a hand, "Easy, I'm not here to fight. I just need to speak with you."

Raven didn't lower her guard, but neither of them made a move which gave her a chance to take in the newcomer. He was dressed in a white suit with a power tie and slicked back hair. If Raven didn't know better she would have sworn he was a business tycoon or a used car salesman, except for the fact that she had a face he recognized.

Raven quietly uttered "Reaver?"

The man chuckled "Close but no cigar hon, but I can understand the confusion even though that schmuck never looked half as good as I do. You don't really want to see him now, he's sort of a mess. I'm just one of the many pieces of Reaver." The man reached under his jacket, and pulled out a cigarette case, placing one on his lips and lighting it as he spoke. "If you need something to call me, call me Professional."

"Well then, Professional, I need you to explain to my what happened to my friend."

"Later Miss Raven, for now we need to high-tail it out of here. I was the only one who was whole enough to come and meet you, but that doesn't mean that others aren't coming. The only reasion I got here first is because I'm one of the few left who can still actually think."

"What?"

Professional chuckled "Damn, you really don't know anything about your friend, don'cha?" He shook his head and flicked ash down onto the sands. "I'll explain everything you need to know later, regardless of what he wants, but for now we need to run. Fury is coming."