One word.
A usual greeting before it was followed by the meaningless action of small talk. At least Raven thought it meaningless.
But this? This filled her with uneasiness. The violet haired empath traced her fingers over the engraving on the wall. She could sense a tinge of supernatural energy emanating from the engraving. Her hands began to glow black, a reaction to the energy.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she whispered, opening up a black void that was soon after filled by a series of images.
The void projected an image of a group of shadowy individuals, an unknown black essence dripping off all of them; they also had faces which looked like skulls that were in the process of burning or were already burnt. They were surrounding a young, shirtless man with short black hair who was tied up with ropes by the wrists and ankles. There was one skull man who wielded a giant axe-spear and was stabbing violently into the young man's chest. His screams echoed throughout whatever location he was being held in. The empath watched as the others pulled out their blades stabbed into the young man in random places repeatedly. Blood splattered all over them until the young man's screams ended.
The man with the axe-spear looked up, appearing to stare directly into Raven's eyes and she quickly dispelled the projection. Eyes wide, she floated onto her bed, her quick breaths seeming almost like she was hyperventilating.
"Raven?" the voice of Beast Boy called out from behind her door.
She did not answer, attempting to compose herself from the images witnessed. After a very huge deep breath, she floated over to the door, her face masked in its usual apathy. Raven opened the door just enough to see Beast Boy's face.
"Shouldn't you be sleeping right now?" she asked, droll.
"I would if I slept," the changeling replied. "What's going on, Rae? You've been acting weirder than usual."
"Nice to know I'm weird. Thanks for that, really," Raven snarked. "And don't call me 'Rae'. Now if you'll excuse me-"
"You're not really meditating, are you?" BB challenged.
Raven scowled at the green skinned boy before darting her eyes back and forth from the hallway. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into her room.
"Gar," she began, using his real name. "I honestly don't know what's happening and it's making me feel...off to say the least. But you let me deal with this, alright?"
"Is it something to do with your emotions?" BB asked.
"Trust me, if it was, I would've dealt with it by now. It's way more serious than that."
"Just let me help you, mama," BB pleaded. "You're not alone."
"I know." Raven had a ghost of a smile on her face. "I'll be more specific later, Gar. That's all I can promise."
"Good enough for me." As BB got up to leave, he stopped for a second and turned around. "Wait. You're not even gonna threaten me or hit me for callin' you 'mama'?"
*SMACK*
"Ow!"
"Thanks for reminding me," Raven said, an evil smirk on her face.
"Damn it," BB mumbled as he left, the door closing behind him. The empath chuckled slightly before composing herself once more.
Raven floated over to her door and took out a small knife. She began carving on the wall immediately.
On top of one of the many rises in Jump City, Jesse groaned and rubbed his head.
"Shit, man. Never doing that again," he mumbled.
He looked over and saw that his codex was glowing black. He gasped and began skimming it to find out exactly which page was glowing. After stopping on a formerly blank page, Jesse read:
'WHO ARE YOU?'
"Yes," he cheered. "I knew you'd say something."
Jesse smiled and rummaged around in his rucksack, taking out a calligraphy pen and some ink. Dipping the pen into the ink, he quickly scribbled out:
'ROOFTOP. NOW.'
Placing his codex and pen back into his sack, Jesse cracked his knuckles. "Hope this works, Jake," he thought out loud.
The mysterious magician held his right arm out in front of him, glowing black. "टके मे तो थे तोवेर," (*) he said. A portal opened up for him to step through.
On the other side, Jesse closed the portal behind him and was now standing on another rooftop, but this time, he was not alone. Staring at him was the purple haired girl that he located with his soul self. Her face looked apathetic, but he can sense the suspicion and uneasiness coming from her.
Red trench coat with a hood covering his face, brown pants, and some kind of bag with one strap on his right shoulder. Raven couldn't see his face, which made her all the more wary of him. Going on his appearance alone, he looked to be a bit older than her, around 22 or 23 years old. He stood at around 5'11", the same height as she.
What really stuck out to Raven was the fact that she couldn't sense any of his emotions.
'Can you hear me?' a voice in her head said. However, the voice was not Raven's own, making the empath turn her head around herself.
'Sorry. Guess you're not telepathic,' the voice apologized.
"Let's use our outside voices," Raven said to the man, crossing her arms.
Jesse coughed into his hand to clear his throat. "Uh, heh, I, uh, I know you probably have a shit ton of questions ri-"
"Who are you?" Raven interrupted, her voice steely. "And how did you carve that message in my room?"
"Straight to the point, huh?" Jesse remarked.
Raven noticed that his voice carried an East Coast flair. "Enough with the small talk. Answer my question."
"Pushy," Jesse snarked. "Guess I can't blame you. And for the carving? I had to get your attention somehow."
"You left me seizing on the floor, scaring my friends. Full attention granted."
Jesse shifted around nervously. "I don't wanna sound offensive, but...I mean, uh, this day and age? A grown man on a rooftop with a teenage girl-"
"No one can see us, if that's what you're wondering," Raven replied, her voice dry.
"Ok. Sorry about the blacking out thing. Anyways, here goes." He took off his hood, displaying brown eyes, long matte black hair and a five o'clock shadow. "My name is Jesse, and obviously you're Raven. You're my, uh, half-sister."
Raven narrowed her eyes at him. "Is this supposed to be some kind of a joke? Because it's not funny. I'm giving you to the count of three-"
Her threat was interrupted by Jesse taking off his right glove and displaying a rather unfortunately familiar mark on the palm of his hand. She also noticed that his eyes were glowing gold.
'Now do you believe me?' his voice echoed in her head.
"How?" she asked as Jesse dispelled the mark and his eyes went back to their normal brown. "This can't be true. I would've known if he had more children!"
"Ol' daddy dearest always did have a thing for human women. You think you were the first? Pssh, far from it," Jesse replied. "Anyways, I know this is-"
Jesse was interrupted by Raven enveloping his body with telekinetically. "I should send you back to the domain of my father!" Raven threatened, her eyes milky white.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Jesse exclaimed, using his telekinesis to free himself. "Let's not get too hasty, alright?! I'm one of the good guys, I promise!"
"That remains to be seen," Raven hissed at him, still in a defensive stance.
"I'm not asking-ok, sort of-ugggh, I'm not evil! I just need your help, ok?!"
"Help?" Raven wondered.
Jesse sighed. "It's gonna take a lot longer to explain myself, I know. Long story short, there are these guys coming. I swear to everything that is holy, I'm not lying about that."
"There was the projection of these men and women-"
Jesse held up a hand, cutting her off. "This is gonna have to wait 'til the morning. These sons of bitches are probably one third of the way here as we speak."
Raven watched as Jesse turned around and stuck his left arm out in front of him. "गिवे मे शेल्तेर," (**) he said, summoning a portal. Before he stepped through the portal, he took one last look at Raven.
"I'll be back, I swear," he said before entering the portal to an unknown location.
Raven ran her hands through her hair, anxious; she couldn't get a read on him with her powers, he displayed the mark of Skath, and knew the same kind of magic she did.
"What the hell?" she whispered to herself, going back inside the tower.
BTW, yes, Raven actually has six other brothers including Jesse in the comics. They're known as the Sons of Trigon or the Seven Deadly Sins and they're a-holes. I decided to make at least two of them good for the sake of the TT Universe.
(*): Take me to the Tower.
(**): Give me shelter.