The Last Battle

Chapter XVIII

~ Tibet ~

Raven had been flying West for several hours now, and was nearing the border of India, with little else on her mind except to get away. Away from Damian and anything that could lead him to her, 'But to where?'

Everything else West of here was only going to be more heavily populated, which meant that sooner or later, she'd have to find a disguise of some sort. The biggest problem here would be the fact that with more people who could see her, the higher the risk of being pulled into situations that would force her to use her powers again.

Night had fallen just as she had arrived at the edge of a vast expanse of forest leading into a low mountain range, which she hoped to use to sneak into India. Even with her pale skin, the cloak should cover enough of her body that even if anyone were to catch a glimpse of her in the darkness, she would move quickly enough that they would probably think of her as an illusion of some sort. She alighted at the very edge of the forest, drawing her hood up and covering her face in the shadows it provided, pulling her cloak tightly around her, and making her way into the copse of trees.

~ Titans Tower ~

Damian had fumed for long enough, it felt pitiful really, to have spent any time at all letting that creature get a rise out of him. Sending him all the way back to the Tower had been bad enough, he should have kept his emotions in check, and just made moves to correct the setback. 'Maybe he was right,' he thought as he set about resupplying himself for his trek again, 'I'm still feeling things far too deeply, I'm failing Grandfather in this.'

Once he had dropped his communicator, he knew that he needed to calm his mind, so he walked over to his window, staring out at the cityscape as he began breathing exercises to settle his mind. When his heartrate began to slow, and the thumping had ceased to fill his ears, Damian noticed another sound that forced him to seek out its source. As he turned away from the window to search, the source of the sound, a rhythmic beep, became quickly apparent. There was a communicator strapped on his small bag, next to one of his shuriken pouches, which had not been there when he had gathered his equipment.

The device in question had several scratches and a faded appearance, far from the norm for some of the team's missions, yet this looked like it hadn't been altered or fixed from whatever battle caused this damage. He plucked it from it's spot, checking the interface and only finding an odd set of pinged coordinates among the little data contained within. What caught his eye though, was a pair of stored recordings, one video and one audio. Connecting it to his modified earpiece, he played the audio, only to find it contained mostly silence, punctuated by the occasional background noise, which would need to be dissected once he was away from the tower.

As for the video, it was of the Jump City Fairgrounds, and opened up with a view of the Ferris Wheel in the background, with the attraction in front of it being the Hall of Mirrors. Damian watched as he entered the frame, Raven walking beside him as she pointed out the milk bottle ring toss, which she knew he excelled at. When he pointed out the Ferris Wheel, she started walking through the entrance of the Hall of Mirrors, turning to reach her hand towards him, which he surprisingly took, walking with her hand-in-hand into the tunnel.

As he watched this happen, he felt that sensation, of her lips on his, of her body pressed against his, and felt his eyes close, taking in the wave of painful nostalgia before boxing up that emotion as well. "I can't let this keep happening," he said aloud to no one, "Why do you make me feel these things?" This he asked to Raven, knowing she could not answer him yet, but determined to hear her explain what she had done to him.

Even as he thought this, a part of him wondered if maybe that man had been right, 'Perhaps I should just examine these emotions, maybe then finding her would be easier.'

~ Jump City Bookstore? ~

Starfire, Nightwing, and Blue Beetle had just walked in on what may have been one of the strangest places they had ever seen. The shelves of books seemed to stretch far deeper than the exterior of the building seemed to allow, and above the normal wall height shelves were several more separate shelves, each no more than a few feet across, drifting aimlessly. The space they seemed to occupy was beautiful, a view of a bright star system, though not one that any of them could name. As they walked down the first aisle of books, they noticed that almost none of the books had titles or anything written on the bindings.

"How does anyone find anything here? Is everyone here loco?"

"Not sure Jaime," Nightwing replied, "Batman only heard about this place from Constantine in passing, maybe only people who know this guy know how to find what they're looking for."

"Still, these books must contain some very powerful magic," Starfire said, before feeling a soft hand on her shoulder. As she turned, readying herself for a fight, she was surprised when she came face-to-face with an elderly man, dressed plainly in grey slacks with a white button up shirt, a matching grey vest, and simple readers set upon his face.

Blue Beetle and Nightwing noticed this, and had only moved to stand by Starfire, ready to engage should the need arise. "Are you the owner of this shop?"

The old man looked at Nightwing, smiling gently, just as one would imagine of a grandparent being asked a question by their grandchild. "Why yes, is there anything in particular you are looking for?" He moved towards the wall, reaching for a thin black leather-bound book, "Perhaps the Lesser Key of Solomon, or the Liber Salomonis?"

Starfire smiled at the kindness this man exuded, "We're actually looking for some information about a young woman, sir."

"Yeah, we were hoping you'd know something about this girl named Raven. Ever heard the name Anciano?"

Nightwing gently chastised Blue Beetle by bumping him with his elbow, as if to say, 'Mind your manners Jaime.'

The elderly man turned to each of them in turn, a smile on his face, "I believe we have something for all of your needs here, though you may not like what you'll find written within these tomes. Let me show you," before they could blink, the view around them warped quickly, the shelves stretching into the infinite spectrum before they were plopped down in a very nice sitting room, complete with a simple fireplace, chairs for all four of them, and a singular blue-black leather bound tome on a short table. Moving to sit in the chairs, Starfire picked up the book, looking at Nightwing and Blue Beetle before turning to the old man.

He simply sat down in his chair and gestured for her to open the book.