The chorus of dark, boisterous birds led Raven to a tree grove so dense that hardly any sunlight managed to permeate through the woven canopy of dark green leaves. A sudden feeling of dusk fell over her as her determined stride shortened, hesitant to walk all the way into the gloom. Raven stood still and studied how the shallow nook, lined with colossal trunks, formed into something resembling a fallen archway. At the apex of that archway was the base of a redwood that stood tall on wide goosepens, darkness carving around its arched roots.
Raven's gaze remained fixed on this hollowed trunk, its vast and murky caverns immediately calling to mind the vision of the old hunting cabin's door and how that void of an entrance called to her. The goosepen appeared to grow deeper the longer she stared into its abyss, and it took the sudden silencing of cawing birds to snap her from its trance. In that silence that left her with just a faint ringing in her ears, Raven sensed a pair of careful footsteps. Not just one, but three.
Her brows knitted together over narrowed white eyes as she quickly lifted her glowing hands defensively, catching the three approaching bodies with her magic. She turned away from the tree grove to face her captives, instantly recognizing the man on her left.
She gritted her teeth at the sight of his stupid beard and boxy, thick-rimmed glasses. "You."
"Hey Titan," he grinned as if being suspended in the air, trapped in her dark grip, was the most natural thing in the world. "I'm flattered you remember me."
"Shut it, Em," the woman on the right of Raven growled. She had long black hair braided from the crown of her head into a rope that hung over her shoulder. Her dark olive skin looked flushed with anger, though Raven could still sense her fear, feeling the beat of her drumming heart. She glanced at the third individual, a man with a shockingly blond buzzcut and piercing blue eyes hardened in her direction. From him, she sensed nothing.
"Who the fuck are you," Raven grumbled, lowering her arms and their bodies closer to the ground, though her grip on them remained tight, "and why the fuck are you," her glare returned to the guy from the nightclub, who was just called Em, but Raven believed he had given her a different name last night, "trying to ambush me?"
"We're don't mean to ambush," the woman spoke, and Raven sensed the truth in her words, "we need your help."
"Why?"
"What brought you here?" Em asked.
Raven's scowled at him, taking note that all three of them wore identical black tactical suits, "You answer my questions first. Who are you and who do you work for?"
"My name is Emmett, like I told you last night. She's Kai, and the brooding albino over there is Mack. We're HIVE. Well, we were HIVE."
"And the girl with the drink," Raven mumbled as Gar's voicemail resurfaced, "she's..."
"Yes, she's with us, or was, until your people took her," the woman named Kai told her, but Raven's attention slid back to Emmett.
"You were trying to buy me, buy all of us, drinks...what the hell was in that drink?!"
"We thought it was a sedative," said Emmett with a hint of annoyance. "It obviously was not. In fact, it seemed to have the opposite effect."
"No shit, Einstein-"
"Emmett," He grinned again, and Raven tightened her grip around his torso. His features purpled in his attempt to keep a calm demeanor to show Raven he was unaffected by her power. It was then she suddenly recognized the strange, beady look in his eyes.
"STAR labs," she mumbled, pulling him closer to get a better look at his face behind the beard, keeping her hold firm. "That was your picture on the ID...what the fuck," Raven snarled and propelled him away from her. She could feel her skin flushing with frustration and tried to quiet her spiking pulse with calming breaths, all while keeping the three of them in her grip.
"Not my best picture, I know. Much more attractive in person, don't you think?"
If she heard, Raven didn't acknowledge it. She was instead running her mind around the clusterfuck of puzzle pieces falling before her. If that was his fake employee ID badge, and they are with HIVE, but the bunker mission was a trap for her set by the Crow...then the Crow must be working with HIVE.
"Stop antagonizing her, you idiot."
But Emmett just said they were with HIVE, as in they are not anymore...does that mean HIVE isn't involved with the Crow? Either way, HIVE or no HIVE, why would they try to drug her if they needed her help? It is more likely that they would drug her so they could hand her over the Crow. Yet, Raven knew the woman wasn't lying.
Still, they followed her here. How could they know she'd follow the sound Dick's voice to this spot in the middle of the forest if they weren't working with the Crow?
"Just easing the tension." Emmett's voice interrupted her thoughts, not that they were clarifying anything whatsoever. Between trying to stay calm enough not to strangle all the air from their torsos and untying this fucking complex knot of logic, Raven felt overwhelmed. She needed the other Titans to help her sort this mess out. She should have gone back for her friends.
"Does the tension seem eased, asshole?"
Raven ended their bickering with a sharp grunt, bringing all three of them to their knees against the forest floor. "What exactly do you want from me?!"
"Your help," Kai said again. "We are looking for the same thing."
Again, Raven regarded the woman's honesty but couldn't shake her skepticism. "For Robin?"
"For her," the man in between Emmett and Kai finally spoke.
His voice was softer than Raven would have anticipated, judging from his unyielding glare. "Is it Robin that brought you here? To this location?" His piercing blue eyes left her, and Raven followed them over her shoulder to that ghostly, hollowed trunk. She looked back at him and surrendered a tiny nod. "We'll tell you what you need to know if you agree to do the same."
"And why would trust, let alone strike a deal with HIVE lackies?" Raven asked, that classic deadpan returning to her voice.
"Like he said, we're not HIVE. Our loyatlies are to each other alone."
"We know you can tell that we are not lying." Kai said.
"How would you know that?"
"It's been our job to know," she said, and Raven saw a strange glint of admiration in the woman's sharp, honey brown eyes. "That woman has taken people from us both. We can help each other get them back."
That woman. Even by the way she spoke the words, Raven trusted there was no allegiance there.
"The Crow does have Robin, then?" Raven clarified, and the woman nodded.
It seemed Kai perceived this woman as something lesser than a boogeyman, which struck a comforting cord somewhere within Raven. Still, the cambion released a sigh of confused exasperation, cursing herself again for not going back for her team first. Even if this woman spoke the truth, Raven wasn't naive enough to disregard the possibility of a trap. Still, her arms were starting to grow tired of holding them all in her clutches. "Where?"
"First, tell us where Dylan is being kept." Emmett bargained.
Raven raised a single brow. "Who?"
"The blonde girl with the butterfingers," he said, and she recalled the girl from the club with those wide and terrified eyes that trembled when they met Raven's. "Your ffriends grabbed her in the aftermath of your chaos, but she hasn't been booked in any SFPD holding cells. Titans don't typically take captives, do they?"
Raven met contrasted feelings of relief and guilt at this report. It was good to know that none of them had been hurt during, as Emmett so gently put it, your chaos. "No, not typically," she answered truthfully. Though the Tower's fourth floor has accommodations for holding cells, if the need ever presented itself, she never felt at ease when a threat slept within the same walls. It was always hard for Raven not to keep constant surveillance on their energies, intentionally or not. "She might not have been officially booked. Those with HIVE affiliations qualify for direct transfers to Belle Reve." Raven enjoyed the slight twitch in Emmett's face.
"Is she being held at Titans Tower?"
"I don't know. As you can see," Raven glanced down at her outfit begrudgingly, "I haven't been home yet."
"Where have you been for the last-"
She cut Emmett off with a glare. "It's my turn for questions. He said you're only loyal to each other. Tell me who you are, all of you. To each other, to HIVE, to the Crow." She watched as the three of them exchanged glances as if trying to decide how much information they were willing to divulge, so Raven quickly nodded to Kai. "You. Go."
"We met as recruits for a Special Ops unit, one hand-picked by Lex Luthor's people, specifically groomed to combat meta-humans. They injected us with experimental serums adapted from the DNA of various meta-human hosts, all meant to enhance our natural strengths or talents, physical and mental. Once they found our compatible formulas, we were good. For a while, anyway. But despite successful run after another, we never made it out of trials. The program was discovered and shut down before we saw any action, and our directors traded us in for lighter sentences. The four of us were framed, arrested, and split up across the country to serve time at different institutions for crimes we didn't do. On top of that, the serums they pumped us up with for months? Turns out they had bad withdrawal symptoms, ranging from migranes and insomnia to internal deterioration. Sometimes they gave us treatments that would steady our conditions temporarily, but no one cared enough to look for long-term answers."
"They all but threw us in a hole to die like failed lab rats," Emmett added, his eyes darting from the ground beneath his knees to Raven. "But then Hans crawled out of his hole on a technicality, only made it a few days before being hospitalized from organ degeneration. Someone found him there, at the hospital, promised him a miracle cure with a side of revenge on the people responsible. Hard to pass up on such an offer on your death bed, no?"
"Em," Kai said softly, her face twisted by memories Raven could tell she'd rather not keep.
"Who was it?" Raven asked, and the girl looked up, inquiringly. "The who promised him a cure?"
"Sebastian Blood." It was Mack who answered, and Raven unintentionally tightened her hold around all three of them at the sound of his name. Mack held her severe gaze as if it was a fun challenge, but Raven was gathering that this might just be his manner, fronting a thick shell that hid within it a vulnerable center. As they bore into each other's eyes, Raven wondered how deep her soul-self would need to go to bring this man's deepest fears to light. But she quickly pulled away from that particular voice in her head.
Raven again eyed Kai. "You work for Brother Blood?"
"No," she said firmly. "We are loyal only to each other."
"Alright," Raven groaned, shaking her head impatiently. "I can tell you're giving me vague truths, so I have no reason to think you're lying. That's not going to cut it, okay? I am tired and hungover and have never craved sweatpants more in my life, so if you want my help, you'll shut the fuck up," she eyed Emmett as she said this, "unless you're giving me clear and specific answers to my questions. Okay?" Raven accepted their collective silence as agreement and took a calming breath. "Okay, then. You said you were HIVE, and I'm guessing through Brother Blood's connection with the organization, yes?" Kai nodded. "You no longer affiliate yourselves with HIVE, and by extension, Brother Blood, so then who's orders were you acting on last night when you tried drugging me?"
"Our own," Emmett said. "Even if Blood is the one who saved Hans, he didn't care about the rest of us. Hans is the one who tracked us all down and saved us from rotting in prison. Ever since, we are loyal to him, not Blood. So when Hans went missing, all that old fucker could care about was the fact that he went missing with that dagger."
"He made the mistake of calling him expendable in comparison, sounding a little too much like our first round of bosses," added Mack. "We don't take orders from assholes who'd value a sharp piece of metal over our lives."
"Fuck Blood, we're gonna find Hans ourselves. But if our theory plays out, you might be the only one who can actually reach him," Kai told her. "We knew you wouldn't trust us once Em was recognized from the STAR Labs stunt, so we thought if we could get you alone, away from the intimidation of the other Titans, we'd be able to explain. Granted, drugging you was never a good plan," she eyed Mack when she said this, "but once you were spotted at Vida Vibrations, we had to think on our feet. And when Emmett failed to charm you as all knew he would-"
"Oh please, none of expected she'd be sucking face with the Green Menagerie all night." Raven's cheeks ignited, but she managed to maintain her calm demeanor, even if her eyes stared daggers at the obnoxious hipster-looking ass. She then had the most obnoxious thought that he kind of reminded her of Garfield, with his relentless and uninvited commentary meant to deflect their own embarrassment. While quick to shake away the idea, Raven admitted to herself that it made Emmett a tiny bit more endurable.
"Please, for the love of God, ignore him," Kai grumbled, "he truly can't help being a jackass. I swear he wants your help as badly as the rest of us."
"Why exactly do you think I can find your friend," Raven asked, "and more importantly, why should I? Regardless of your current employment status, if you worked for HIVE and Brother Blood...if you were involved in that STAR Labs trap...if you meant to drug and kidnap me from my friends last night...if you are connected in any way with that woman...what the fuck should I help you?"
"Last we heard from Hans, that woman was taking him to where she kept Robin, not a peep from her or Hans since," Kai said. "That over three weeks ago."
Immediately Koriand'r's face came to Raven's mind as guilt and worry tangled her breath and weight heavily in her chest. Three fucking weeks?
For three weeks, Raven had been more concerned about Kori finding out she knew the truth about Barbara that she let Kori's quiet suspicions go unnoticed. No, not even. More like she had been so caught up in her own bullshit that Raven let three whole weeks pass while Kori worried in silence. And Raven let her because that was preferable to admitting that she was a shit friend.
Beyond that...Dick has been her prisoner this whole all of this time. Azar knows what fuckery she's doing to him.
"She's from Azarath, that woman," Mack interrupted her internal pity party with what sounded dangerously like bait, and Raven met his gaze with impatient fury. Before she could remind him of her rule about vague truths, he continued, "We'll tell you about her. Things that will help you fight her, beat her even...when that time comes. We'll help you if you help us get Hans, and then we'll disappear."
Raven's silence brought a strange smirk to his thin pink lips before every corner of his face suddenly softened. He dropped his head as if exhausted and released a breath like he'd been holding it for a long time. "Please."
With another beat of heavy silence, Raven realized the music of the forest had returned to her background, and she felt sunbeams warming her face. She scanned each of their faces once more before taking in grounding herself through a breath of that same raw earth. "I'm going to let you go now," her jaw tightened as she warned, "if any of you make a move at me, I promise you'll regret it. Understood?"
"Would this be a good time to give you my safeword, then?"
"I'm going to smash your fucking larynx, Em," Kai snarled, and while amused, Raven still tightened her grip around the woman.
"You will not move."
Kai promptly nodded, but she continued glaring across the clearing at Emmett. Raven lowered her hands, and her soul-self receded into Raven's natural shadow. The three former HIVE agents gently and cautiously shook rusty limbs and cracked angry joints under Raven's vigilance before settling comfortably on the ground.
"Now, tell me everything you know about the Crow."
"First, a quick disclaimer," Emmett says with a defensive hand, "the three of us have spent little time with Morrigan. All we know is either from Hans or heresay among the ranks. We may be Blood's special soldiers, but we're rarely in the room where it happens."
"Way to start of with strong confidence, Em," Kai scoffed. "But he's right. We will tell you what we know, and trust that it's the truth as we know it."
"Which is still more that what you have," said Mack, eyeing Raven as if to warn her not to break their deal. Instead of reminding him that she never agreed to anything, Raven's eyes slid back over to Emmett.
"Morrigan?"
"That's what she calls herself. You called her the Crow, but that form is one of many she has. We think she does that specially for you, since, you know...you're the Raven?" Kai said awkwardly, almost like a nervous fangirl would. "What?" Raven realized that her lips had naturally twitched at hearing her name like that. She's seen it used as a persona spelled out in the papers that way, but it still sounded unnatural out loud.
"Her name is Raven, not the Raven, genius," Emmett said smugly. "Here's something I've been wondering, were you named before or after they found out about your..." he spread and fluttered his arms to emulate wings.
"Rachel," Raven told him, her voice thick with complacency. "That's the name my mother gave me. Raven is my Azarathian name. The rest is a convinient coincidence," she looked to Kai, "but you can call me the Raven if you want to."
The woman offered a shy smile before resuming her glare at Emmett.
"She knew your mother," Mack said, with the same strange gleam in his eye that begged her to understand just how vital his information was, but instead, he'd learn just how well she controlled her expressions. When Raven simply stared at him, looking a little bored even, he went on. "She was the one who brought her into Trigon's cult, way back when."
As chills covered her body, Raven felt just as she did in that far away dream...the one where she's hovering above a faceless crowd of indigo cloaks, humming, watching her. She then felt the strange tickle of warm liquid on her lip, and she almost brought her fingers to check under her nose for blood.
"We don't know if that's true," Kai said, "but that is the story. That woman apparently claimed to be responsible for your life, which is why she's helping Brother Blood."
"Helping him do what?" Raven asked, trying to ignore the way her heart throbbed in her ears. More puzzle pieces falling at her feet, and she can't simply think straight long enough to see where they fit. "What does Brother Blood what from me?"
"There's an old legend in the Church, spread in small whispers among its followers, about a prophecy of legacy." Emmett shifts on his legs before raising his hands in the air, a flicker of drama in his face. "The story goes that the title of Sebastian Blood is passed from father to son, but only with violent usurpation. Basically, the son kills the father to get the crown and all the powers that go with it. And as of late, dear old Bastian' is looking wearier and wearier with each passing day. So, the accompanying rumor is that the current Brother Blood has taken significant measures throughout his long life to make sure he never sires a son, believing this will save him from his fate. Despite this, his power is said to be waning anyway, and Blood grows desperate for a loophole that would elongate his life. Now, seeing that the Church of Blood has longstanding connections with your dear old dad's local worship, ergo...he seeks Trigon the Terrible to help him out of his little sticky."
"Trigon is-"
"Defeated yes," Emmett pointed a finger to check Raven's interruption, and she couldn't help but think of how much this fucker likes the sound of his own voice.If he points his entitled finger at her like that again, she might just let Kai smash his larynx after all. "But the mighty Raven, who hath risen from the shadows of Azarath like a dark angel, consumed all her father's evil dreams of conquest with her overwhelming darkness." When Emmett saw how Raven scowled at him, he shrugged playfully, "That's how they spin your tale at the Church, I can't help that I'm a fantastic orator."
Raven rubbed her pounding temples, a hangover headache growing stronger with each syllable Emmett utters. "Somehow, you've been talking for three straight minutes and still haven't answered my question. What does Blood want with me, and what does it have to do with the, er, this Morrigan person?"
"Context, my dear, context matters. Stay with me."
"Fucks sake," Mack grumbled, "he thinks he can bring Trigon back from whatever space hole you shoved him in, and in return, Trigon will restore Brother Blood's powers."
"Mackenzie," Emmett puffed.
"On the advice of an old patron of your father's cult, the one that your mother joined when, you know," Kai managed awkwardly, "this guy told Brother Blood that there is a way to use your mother's spirit, or soul, or something, I don't know, to free Trigon." My mother's shade, Raven thought, and she knew Mack finally got his glimpse of raw reaction.
Despite her quick recovery, Raven continued to internally panic while trying to process how someone out there could know this much about the nature of Trigon's prison, especially when it's something that she herself did not fully understand. It amplified that awful feeling of being in that temple chamber, cold and ashamed and on display for a humming audience that she couldn't see.
Raven glanced over at Mack, who looked less smug and more curious in his careful study of her. Very briefly, she considered shoving her soul-self down his throat far enough to make him never want to look her in the eyes again. Very briefly.
"Problem with that...my father isn't exactly among the grateful sort. Why is Brother Blood so sure that Trigon will restore his power...if that's even a possible."
"Alas, the plot thickens still!" Emmett yells, his flailing hands distracting Raven from Mack's invasive attention. "Hans was actually in the room when this happened-"
"So best we let him tell it, eh?' Mack interrupted with a brutal glare.
"But-"
"Ra-Raven," Kai mumbled before clearing her throat and straightening her spine. The girl didn't like seeming meek, which was something Raven understood well enough. "Will you help us?"
With one last scan to these strangers that sat before her, who asked for the trust that she wasn't even sure she had to give at this point, Raven relaxed her shoulders and spoke softly, her exhaustion revealing itself to them in full. "I still don't understand why you think I'm the only one who can find them."
"She's your people," Mack told her again, his eyes flickering back to the shady tree grove behind her, "you could find her the same way she found you."
"Kinda seems like you were on your way to finding her before he came along," Kai murmured, her sharp eyes also glancing to the shadows behind Raven.
Another long, contemplative silence passed before Raven moved a muscle. Wordlessly, the cambion stood to her feet, brushing wet leaves and soil from her knees. The three of them watched her closely between quick glances at each other.
"Come on," she finally said and gestured for them to stand.
"Wanna fill us in on the plan?" Emmett asked, watching Raven's hands ignite with black flames.
"Can't do that until I have a plan," Raven told him, "and frankly, tactical strategy isn't among my strengths. But a good friend of mine- who also happens to have a cannon gun for an arm- is a much better strategist. So we're going to go talk to him."
"We're going to Titans Tower?" Kai asked, a small light twinkling in her eyes, and Raven fought the urge to smile.
"Have any of you traveled through a portal before?" Raven asked, and they all shook their heads. Raven feigned a concerned frown but quickly waved a nonchalant hand. "That's ok, just grab each other's hands and you should be fine."
Delighted in watching them actually join hands, Raven turned to hide her smirking lips while drawing a portal to the Tower grounds.