It was towards the evening when Rachel had gotten off work at the Scrumptious Cupcake. Bethany and Ronald were bickering as usually but the girl could not focus on them. Her mind kept going back to what Jinx had said and the fact that someone was trying to create an interdimensional portal. Cupcakes, bickering, setting, and cleaning tables seemed to be uninteresting compared to what was out there.
Her shift had ended and the young woman hurried home to hopefully find solace in her own home and in the arms of her boyfriend. Chet had been wonderfully normal and a representation of what she wanted. But now, she was not sure if that was true anymore. Hearing herself called Raven had stirred something in her.
Pushing the dark hair out of her eyes, Rachel unlocked the door to the common area and made her way up the stairs until she reached her own apartment. She pressed the key to the lock and the girl's heart jumped when it creaked open unsecured. She and Chet were very laid back but neither would have left the door unlocked.
Fishing out the pepper spray and toeing the door open, she was greeted by a dark room. Throwing her purse over her other shoulder and fumbling for the light switch, what greeted her made her heart sink. The room was torn apart.
"Chet?" Rachel called as she proceeded in slowly. "Chet!"
He was not working today so he should have been home and no one was here yet. "CHET!"
Rachel's mind raced and it tripped over itself trying to make a decision.
'Think, Rachel. Shut up and think.'
The security camera! They had installed one a year ago, an internal hidden camera when they had a minor break in. Chet joked about making a sex tape which Rachel had thrashed him with a pillow. They left it installed on the mantle in a fake clock. The clock was still on the mantle so she tore it apart to get to the sim card and found her laptop dumped on the floor. In about 10 minutes, she had the footage downloaded.
For most of it, it just had Chet puttering around the house and cleaning. She could hear the vacuum cleaner and his off tune singing of some pop song. It was the cracking sound and him looking up that made her heart leap. She could hear the lock of the door crack and give way and Chet immediately moved towards where they kept a bat. Some sort of energy whipped out and struck him sending him flying into the wall crushing the cheap bookcase and dumping its content on the floor. He struggled to get up but two burly men grabbed him and held him on his knees.
Stepping in to view was someone she had never seen before and just the appearance told her that this was no ordinary break in. Rachel knew the figure wearing a dark catsuit with little to no adornment was a woman and she showed no skin by wearing gloves. The strange thing was she wore a slim helmet that fit to her head but had no features, no holes or anything that remotely looked like a face. It was almost like one of those mannequins with no face but just smooth all around.
"Is it him, boss?" one of the grunts said as Chet tried to get to his feet.
"I am amused," the woman's voice said, sounding through a synthesizer. "You are the choice?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Chet growled at her but the woman simply backhanded him. Rachel winced.
"Take him to the warehouse district. He's our way to hold the Titans and the Justice League back. We'll dispose of him once the threat has passed."
"What about his girlfriend?"
"She's harmless and won't make a move once she knows we have him. Her old boyfriend won't be a problem anymore."
The last scene was Chet having a bag thrown over his head and dragged out of the house. The footage was just the same shot of the room for the rest of it until she came home.
'Oh, azar!' Rachel screamed inside. Someone had kidnapped her boyfriend and knew her past. How was that even possible?
What was she supposed to do? They knew who she was and she could not go to Robin. They would be monitoring him and Chet would be dead before they could move on to the Warehouse district. If they knew of Robin and the Teen Titans, they definitely knew Jinx and would be watching the HIVE for any movement too.
She was completely alone, unless….
Rachel's lips became a firm line as she opened the closet and found the eskrima stick Chet bought as a joke. Some dark clothing, a mask, and patience and she might get him out herself. It was the only chance he was going to make it out alive. She had brought this on him, she was going to get him out.
The man that stood over Raquelle with a mixture of modern medical tools and arcane instruments was wizen, slow, and meticulous. His cunning eyes studied the prone demoness as she lay resting on Nightwing's bed. Tobias had come through and found a sort of doctor who knew a lot about their kind, though he told Nightwing not to ask too many questions about where that knowledge came from.
Zatanna flanked the man watching what he was doing keenly with a wand gripped in her fist. She was the safety in case he tried anything. After about 30 minutes of studying while Raquelle drifted between wake and sleep, he turned to them both with a sigh.
"Tobias says she is the creation of a magical transformation?" the old man asked, voice cracked with age.
"Yes," Nightwing said with arms folded across his chest. "Djinn magic."
"Ah, yes. Wish magic. Powerful stuff though quite finicky and hates to be boxed up."
"We don't need a lecture on Djinn magic, Doctor." Zatanna said.
"Well, someone should have or you would have known to keep her away from the other half." The old man admonished as he began putting his tools away.
"What do you mean?"
"Raquelle here is like a golem, her existence pulled together by the power of a Djinn wish. When she came in contact with her other self, it destabilized her creation. She's falling apart. She's dying."
'Dying?!' "Is there anything we can do for her?" Nightwing asked, gritting his teeth.
"Nope," the old man said with finality as he clicked his medical bag closed. "Wish magic is so arcane and volatile, even I, who have studied all forms of magic, do not understand how it works. Maybe the Djinn who the wish was taken from might know but I doubt it. The Djinn are as old as time and much of their knowledge is lost to the veil. Where shall I send my bill?"
Nightwing resisted the urge to just kick the man out, but he was one of Tobias' and there were certain rules among the underground magic world that Richard knew he had to follow.
"Send it to the Titans Tower in Jump City. As Tobias has probably told you, we're good for it."
"You are," The old man said. "but he said to watch out for your magician friend, a Justice League monkey."
"You can go now before I forget my promise to Nightwing," Zatanna warned. The old man just cackled and made his way out.
Nightwing sat on the edge of the bed and adjusted the hot water bottle on her chest and made sure the heating blanket was turned on max. He had to keep her body temperature as hot as possible as she was slowly losing heat. He had time to collect his thoughts while Cyborg, Pink Phantom, and Beast Boy were out on patrol with Captain Eagle.
"This isn't good," Dick finally said.
"As much as I hate the old geezer," Zatanna said. "but he's right. She's destabilizing and nobody knows if there is a fix. I can reach out to Sargon the Sorcerer and Constantine to see if they know anything but I wouldn't count on it."
"Please," Nightwing said, leaning forward and gripping his hands tightly in front of him. "We've got to try everything we can. It's the least we can do for her."
Zantanna nodded and made her way out. When the door closed, he saw the four pair of eyes open. They struggled to focus on him.
"Raquelle is sorry," she whispered to him. Nightwing moved to her side and took her hand in his. It was only a bit warm which made him worry even more.
"There's nothing to be sorry about."
"I was too hungry. I chased and I chased. I wanted her to possess her for myself. And I have died."
"You're not dead," Nightwing whispered gently to her.
"I am. It's okay. As Nightwing says. Actions have consequences. We must live with him."
Richard gritted his teeth and tried to hold back the tears that were forming in his eyes.
"You know I'm not going to give up on you. You're a part of this team and you and I have been through a lot. You're my friend, Raquelle."
"Raquelle knows. Even when you have a binding stone."
A sly grin crossed her weak face and her four eyes sparkled in amusement. "Raquelle wished many times that Nightwing would use a binding stone to force me to do naughty and kinky things. You wasted so many opportunities."
"I couldn't do that," Nightwing said caught off guard but cracked a grin.
"You tied up Raven and did things to her, yes?"
"What?"
"I have some of the other one's memories. You tying her hands, putting her on her stomach and-"
"Shush and sleep," Nightwing said, interrupting her and trying to hide the blush. "You need your strength."
"Do not leave me alone." Raquelle said, gripping his hand tighter. "I only want you until Starfire comes back. The other me is in trouble and she will need you."
Nightwing's eyebrow went up as a chill ran down his spine.
"How do you know?"
"I sense her better as I die. She is in distress. She needs a hero like you." Raquelle struggled to pull a hotel pad to her and pen. She scribbled an address in her clunky handwriting and handed it to him.
"Save her."