Back at Titan's Tower, Koriand'r restlessly paced the length of the OPs room as Vic tapped restlessly at the extended keyboard in front of him. Her wired eyes darted between Vic's progress in hacking into the nightclub's surveillance system and on the Tower's CCTV monitors that currently concentrated on the 4th floor's secured guardroom, where the HIVE agent remained alone and uneasy.
"When will they go in?" Kori mumbled, her voice unnaturally husky.
Victor cleared his throat, "Soon."
"It is not wise to wait so long. We are only giving her more time to think of a plan if she has not already."
"They wanna see what comes back from the flask anlalysis."
"We cannot let her slip through-"
"Kori, she's not getting out of that cell. Dick has it more secured than the Batcave."
"Maybe, just let me go and-"
"Kori, you almost incinerated the girl when she barely tripped on herself."
"It looked like she was lunging at Karen."
"You're on edge. Understandably, but it's best you stay up here. Look," Vic nodded to the surveillance grid that showed Gar and Roy suited up and approaching the guardroom from the 4th-floor corridor. "They're on it."
"The results from Karen came in, then?"
Vic shook his head while expanding and unmuting the room's camera feed as the boys entered from the corridor, the door lock clicking behind them.
"Not hungry?" Garfield asked casually, gesturing to the table where the plate of crackers was left untouched. When the girl dropped her eyes from him, Gar shrugged and picked up the dish before leaning back against the wall. She eyed him strangely as he ate the crackers, grimacing at the crunching echoes of them shattering between his teeth.
"Dylan, right?" Roy crossed his arms and leaned against the table, "Sorry to lock you up like this, but whatever you did to our friend has us all a little peeved. Especially my boy over here, who you fully cockblocked, really, don't let the Barney suit fool you." Vic snickered at the screen as Gar launched a cracker at Roy's head. "We're gonna ask some questions, and you're going to tell us straight, or I'm gonna get the fiery redhead upstairs to roast the truth from you, yeah?" When the woman's gaze remained stubbornly fixed downward, Roy glanced over at Garfield, whose cheeks were stuffed with wafers. "Dude."
"I'm hungry, alright?" Gar mumbled, cracker dust spraying from his lips. "Left the pizza in the car."
"Don't you want to figure out where your girlfriend is?"
"Obviously dude, I'm stress-eating." Gar let a sudden smirk curve his lips, "She's not my girlfriend."
"Oh come on," Roy groaned playfully, "for the love of God, Beastie, don't be such a tease."
"Right, because I'm the tease?"
"Are we really back here?"
Gar tossed the plate back onto the table; the jarring clash of ceramic against metal made the girl jump, but Roy and Gar seemed otherwise unconcerned.
"What are they doing?" Kori clenched her fists against the desk in annoyance. "They are wasting time."
"–twenty bucks says she'll use this as an excuse to blow me off once she sobers up."
"Thirty says you're just too chickenshit to a dog that's finally caught his tail. Scared you won't know what to do with it once you get it."
"I know what to do."
"You sure, Bud? It's been a while since psycho stoner girl..."
"Alright, easy," Gar chuckled, "not long enough."
"Did she even let you play in her rock garden?"
"Come on-"
"Skip stones from her pebble beach?"
Gar flashed a maniacal smile. "Hey, fuck off, Speedy."
"That was kinda good, though?"
"Not even a lit-"
"Should I leave you two alone?" Dylan scolded, her sharp glare hardened on Roy.
"Oh good, so you're feeling chatty. Then how 'bout you tell us what happened at the club?"
"She doesn't know, not really." Gar answered, disregarding the suspicious looks from both Roy and the captive. "Do you?" He spoke more softly when he knelt in front of Dylan, securing her eye contact in the process. "I smelled panic on you. When you knocked into her, trying to wipe the drink off with your sleeve. You were terrified and confused. You didn't mean to spill it on her, did you?" Though Dylan didn't answer him, her quivering, amber eyes slowly widened and glistened beneath the lights. "What'd you put in the drink, Dylan?"
"The trace report'll come in from the lab any minute," Roy stated cooly, anticipating her reluctance. "We'll know soon enough. Some kind of acidic poison I'm sure, but that's never really been Blood's MO."
"A sedative," Dylan muttered. "They said it was just a sedative."
"Who did?" Roy asked. "Brother Blood?" Dylan shook her head. "You do work for the creep. That fresh branding of his on your neck tells me as much, but maybe not for very long."
"Why send a rookie agent to drug Raven? Especially with all of us right there? Doesn't make sense." Vic wondered just before the central monitor chimed with a completed download notification.
The security file from the nightclub automatically initiated across the screen, and the cyborg instantly scanned the footage viewpoints for the best angle of the overlooking booth. He paused the feed once he saw Garfield cross the dancefloor with Raven in tow in time to follow the moments leading up to Raven casting a portal opening around the booth.
Her portal encompassed the entire booth in black, but instead of dissolving as it usually would, the gateway flared with intense white light before closing in on Raven, who now stood alone in the booth. She then keeled over as if she would be sick, and that is when the tremoring began.
Despite the shaking camera lens, the four glowing eyes were unmistakable in the chaos, bright amber against red flesh and white hair swirling with the heat of Raven's power. Great shadows emitted from her and bled into the trembling dance hall filled with panicking bodies that rushed for the club's exits. Only seconds passed before the lens cracked and went dark, leaving only brief audio of muffled screaming before fuzzy silence.
"She didn't look very sedated to me. More agitated...forced into a demonaic state."
Koriand'r nodded before turning for the hallway. "I will go check on Karen's progress."
"Don't be going to the 4th floor, Star." Vic warned with some amusement, and as Kori spun around to protest his assumptions, she observed on the monitor Gar reaching over to comfort the captive by placing a hand on her restless knee.
"Why Dylan?" Gar's voice was firm, "What do you want with Raven?"
"Help," Dylan exhaled with sudden emotion, her tired eyes welling with tears that she wouldn't let fall. "We need her help."
"With what?"
"My brother. To help us find him."
"There are better ways to ask for someone's help than drugging them, you know."
"Where's your brother?"
"I don't know, that's the problem," she released an angry sob, disregarding Roy's snide comment altogether. "His tracker's been off for weeks...the internal tracker." Dylan ran a trembling finger over the tattoo on her neck. "So even if he were...even if she killed him, we'd still be able to trace his signal, but it's just lost."
"Who is the 'she'?" Vic asked, increasing the volume of the monitor.
"Lost." Koriand'r mumbled to herself.
"Okay, hold up, Blondie. Who exactly is your brother, why does someone want to kill him? And what does Blood have to do with any of this?"
"Hans," Dylan sniffled. "His name is Hans and Brother Blood doesn't know about tonight. He doesn't care about my brother, just the dagger."
"Then how could Raven help you find Hans?"
"They say she has powers like the Raven. Interdimensional...dark magic." Dylan glanced meekly at Gar, "She must have taken him through a portal to another world. That's why we can't trace him. And they have a connection...my leuitenant thinks the Raven could use it to find where she's holding Hans."
"Who?" Gar asked as he and Roy exchanged calculated looks. "Who has powers like the Raven?"
With a slight scowl, the captive wiped away the smeared mascara from beneath her eyes and sighed.
"Her name is Morrigan."