Chapter 2

Harry despised magical travel, but the portal the Being threw him into was the worst form of it he had ever experienced.

It was a stomach-churning, head-splitting assault on the senses, and when it stopped, Harry fell to his knees and retched violently.

Collapsing to the side and away from his bile, Harry felt like his brain was full of quicksand, his thought slow and ponderous, his sense of hearing, sight, smell, and touch all wrong and agonizing. Harry wasn't sure how long he lay there, unable to process the world around him, but eventually, he began to make out murmurs of a crowd.

"Does he need help?"

"He just appeared."

"Has anyone called the Titans?"

Harry gathered all his strength and tried to push himself up, but only managed to turn himself over, so he was lying on his back. Even that simple movement made his stomach lurch dangerously, and his eyes watered under the sun's bright light.

"Please, everyone, back away. Give us some space." A confident voice spoke not far from Harry.

"Y'all heard the man. Back up, and let us take a look!"

Harry groaned at the volume of the second voice. It felt like the noise was bouncing against the inside of his skull.

"Lower your voice, Cyborg. I think he has a migraine."

Harry wanted to thank the new voice, it was closest to him and soft and monotone.

"Right, sorry, Raven."

Harry felt a small hand cup the side of his head. He tried to pull away but couldn't do more than flinch.

"It's alright. I'm going to try and heal you."

The calm voice reassured him, and Harry felt relief begin to spread through his body. The pounding in his head subsided, his stomach stopped churning, and the light no longer felt like daggers outside his eyelids. It was then that Harry realized the only thing keeping him awake was the pain and discomfort as a wave of exhaustion overcame him. Harry felt his awareness slipping, and he fought it, but he failed, and everything faded to black as he lost consciousness.

Jump City was a fantastic city to live in. The weather was sunny and temperate. The city was clean, and the people were friendly. Everyone felt safe walking down the street, but that wasn't always the case. Crime had run rampant, as it often did in large cities. Theft, arson, and assault had all been everyday events until the Teen Titans arrived.

"Titan's Go!" Robin, leader of the Titans, screamed as he leaped into the middle of a turf war between two local small-time gangs.

"Ah yeah!" Cyborg followed, his footsteps heavy as he ran and used the strength of his mechanically enhanced body to bowl over everyone in his path.

One of the gang members swung at Cyborg with a pipe, only for it to clang off his metal chest, leaving nothing but a scratch.

Cyborg's left eye glowed an angry red as he snatched the pipe from the man and casually tied it into a knot before chucking it in the distance.

"Do you know how long it takes to buff that out?" Cyborg asked rhetorically before grabbing the stunned gang member by the shirt, spinning in a circle, and hurling the man into a group of his fellows, knocking them all to the ground.

"It's not like you to play so rough," Raven commented as she used her powers to lift a trash can and send it flying toward a thug trying to sneak up on Robin from behind.

"Man, I just buffed my chassis, and that dummy went and scratched up my hard work."

"Shouldn't have gotten hit then," Raven said, a faint smile visible from under her blue hooded cloak.

The three heroes continued to fight until all the gang members were on the ground, bruised and battered, groaning in pain.

Robin tossed Raven and Cyborg a bag of zip ties before pulling out his communicator.

"Beast Boy and Starfire report."

There was a moment of silence before Beast Boy's voice filtered through the tiny speakers.

"Dude, you could say please, ya know."

"I could say a lot of things, but for now, were you able to stop the jewel thieves?"

"Yeah, man, they were complete chumps, almost wet themselves when they saw me turn into a gorilla, and they couldn't get on the ground fast enough after Starfire broke their getaway car in half. Any problems on your end."

Robin glanced at Raven and Cyborg, securing the last of their prisoners, and smirked.

"Not a one."

"Sweet! Hey, do you think we can go for celebratory pizza after the cops pick these fools up?"

"Yes!" Starfire chimed in from her own communicator. "Earth pizza is most delicious when paired with the tangy yellow mustard."

Robin shivered slightly. He still wasn't used to Starfire's alien dietary preferences.

"I think that sounds like a good idea. Meet you at the Pizza Palace when we're done here."

Robin ignored the excited cheering and shut his communicator before walking to Cyborg and Raven.

"Are any of them the gang leaders?" Robin asked

Cyborg snorted. "Nah, man, I already ran facial recognition, and these punks are nothing but low-level thugs."

Robin nodded, he wasn't surprised. He made it a habit to track the behavior of all the known active gangs in Jump. The two in front of him didn't generally compete over territory or business, meaning their little scrap probably wasn't sanctioned.

'Probably just looking to have some fun.' Robin reasoned before shaking his head.

"Well, once we get them turned over, we're gonna meet Star and Beast Boy for pizza, so let's make it quick and get out of here before BB orders nothing but tofu pies again."

Cyborg's eyes widened.

"Heck no, I'm not going through that torture again."

Cyborg typed a command on his forearm computer, and the fingers on his left hand segmented, extending into a receiver and antenna. Cyborg brought his hand up to the side of his face and waited.

"Pizza Palace? Yeah, it's Cyborg. I need to place an order…."

Cyborg walked off as the half-a-dozen police cars screamed into the parking lot, screeching to a halt before the tied-up criminals.

Robin turned to Raven as the police began to pile out of their cars.

"Did you know he had a phone in this hand?"

Raven shrugged. "I stopped trying to keep track of his upgrades a while ago."

Robin could acknowledge the fairness of that statement before jerking his head to the ranking officer on the scene.

"Come on, let's go give our report."

The Pizza Palace was one of the Titan's favorite haunts, and none of the employees were surprised anymore when the five suited-up heroes walked in. Even the parlor's regulars were past their shock and barely even glanced up, so typical of a sight it had become.

"That was a most delicious meal, friends. Thank you for sharing it with me." Starfire said as she slurped on a straw buried in a mustard bottle.

Cyborg let out a belch loud enough to make Beast Boy jump and fall out of his chair.

"Dude," Beast Boy said, picking himself up. "Nice!"

Raven wrinkled her nose as Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg all began to laugh and high-five each other.

"Boys." She muttered before her eyes went wide and began to glow white as she felt a titanic magic presence explode across her senses.

Crying out, Raven clutched at her head and fought to keep her powers from roiling out of control, but still, every piece of glass within a hundred feet of her cracked as she failed to hold back entirely.

"Raven!" Robin shouted, already out of his seat and by her side. "What's wrong?"

Raven didn't answer for a minute, trying to focus past the assault on her senses to determine the cause of the magical cascade, but the feeling vanished almost as quickly as it appeared.

"Raven." Robin tried again, hesitating, like he wanted to reach out but ultimately kept his hands at his sides.

"'I'm alright," Raven told him as her magic settled and her eyes changed from glowing white to their usual deep purple.

"Someone cast an incredibly powerful spell not far from here. It was overwhelming.

"Do you think it was a threat?"

"I don't–" Raven was interrupted as each of the titans' communicators began to blare in unison.

"Why do I suspect that isn't a coincidence?" Cyborg grumbled, and he deactivated his alarm.

"A disturbance three blocks from here, move out Titans," Robin said as he took off running for the door, with everyone else right on his heels.

The Titans quickly got to the scene of the disturbance and saw that a large crowd had already gathered.

Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg carefully pushed their way through the crowd, whereas Starfire and Raven glided overhead.

Seeing a figure lying on the ground, Robin addressed the crowd.

"Please, everyone, back away. Give us some space."

The crowd barely acknowledged the call until Cyborg lent his voice to the melee.

"Y'all heard the man, back-up, and let us help."

People may have been able to ignore the slight figure that was Robin, but it was a lot more difficult to ignore a five-hundred-pound mechanical man, and the crowd quickly parted.

Raven was already kneeling beside the figure, and Robin joined her, checking over the guy, who appeared to be barely conscious. Completely focused, Robin quickly assessed the man for injuries but found nothing.

"Raven, is he the source of the magic you felt?"

"I don't think so, but I can feel traces of it all over him and this place."

Raven reached down and gently placed her hand on the side of the guy's face. Robin watched as he flinched away from the touch but otherwise remained still.

"It's alright. I'm going to try and heal you." Raven said soothingly as her hand began to glow purple.

Robin glanced at her in surprise.

"I didn't know you could heal people."

"It's not exactly my area of expertise, besides I don't think he's badly hurt in the traditional sense."

Raven stopped the flow of power as the guy went limp and passed out, his breathing much calmer, and the pained grimace he had been wearing faded.

"Is he alright?" Robin asked. Carefully reaching out to feel for a pulse at the guy's neck and relieved to find it solid and steady.

"Yes, but I want to bring him back to the tower."

"Not the hospital?"

Raven shook her head.

"I don't think he was the cause of the disturbance, but he's definitely a magic user and a powerful one. It would be better if we kept an eye on him until we know exactly what happened."

Robin nodded, and his eyes narrowed behind the domino mask he always wore in thought.

"Cy, call the T-car. We're going back to the tower."

The Teen Titan's base was on a medium size island in one of Jump City's many ocean bays. A skyscraper of glass and steel shaped like a tee that looked over the city and was packed with all the latest crime-stopping technology thanks to Cyborg's smarts and generous funding from Robin's mentor. It had quickly become a symbol to the people of Jump, and many tourists flocked to the shore to admire the sight, but it was rare that they ever caught a glimpse of the Titans leaving or arriving. It frustrated people, many of whom would sit and wait all day long, hoping for a chance to see the famous band of heroes.

The reason for the lack of visibility of the Titans around their base was their preferred modality of travel. Flying was common when three of the five were fully capable of the action while carrying a teammate. But when the Titans used a more common method of travel, such as the T-car, they used underground tunnels that led from the tower and into the city. It was in one of these tunnels that the T-car was currently screaming down.

"Anything, Raven?" Robin asked, looking over his shoulder from where he was sitting in the passenger seat. They had folded the back seat so they could lay the guy down with Raven sitting beside him, keeping watch.

"Sorry, Robin, no ID," Raven said, rummaging through his pockets. "I've got what looks like a wand holstered on his arm that I can't seem to touch and a pouch with some kind of protection on it, so I can't open it."

"Cyborg, your facial recognition didn't pick anything up?"

"I already told you I got nothing. Once we get to the tower, I'll try to run DNA and fingerprints."

Robin sighed. He despised waiting, and not knowing was even worse than waiting. Settling back into his seat, Robin crossed his arms and scowled, mind whirling with what little he knew until the car ascended up a steep slope and roared into the high-tech garage at the bottom of the tower where Beast Boy and Cyborg were already waiting.

Robin was the first out of the car.

"Raven, carry him to the infirmary. Cyborg, you go with her and get whatever samples you need. Starfire, Beast Boy, with me, we'll see if any surveillance cameras caught what happened."

His orders were given, and Robin swept from the room, his short cape flapping behind him as Starfire and Beast Boy followed on his heels.

Ravan used her magic to build a thin platform under the unconscious man, carefully moved him out of the car, and followed Cyborg to the elevators.

"So, Robin's pretty tense about this," Cyborg commented, never fond of silences.

"Robin's always tense."

"Yeah, I know, but still. Something about this whole thing is really bugging the guy."

Raven shook her head, purple hair fanning out as she did, before looking up at Cyborg and meeting his curious eyes.

"Robin doesn't like magic because he can't comprehend how it works. It frustrates him. Ergo, our mystery guest, frustrates him."

"But he doesn't get frustrated with you."

A little smirk played at the corner of Raven's mouth.

"I frustrate him plenty. He's just learned to deal with it."

Cyborg let out a belly laugh as the elevator dinged and the doors opened, revealing the clean wall of the tower's dedicated infirmary. Raven never liked to visit the infirmary, not just because of the room's connotations. It was white, the floor, the walls, the furniture, all of it white, and with the sun coming through the floor-to-ceiling windows, it made everything too bright.

Raven set the John Doe down on the nearest bed and watched as Cyborg retrieved a small mechanical box from a nearby cupboard.

"Latest and greatest right here," Cyborg told Raven when he saw her watching.

"This baby will check our friends' fingerprints and run them through every database in the world in just a couple of minutes."

Raven hummed and continued to watch as Cyborg carefully maneuvered the man's hand to get a print from each finger. Raven herself had never taken much interest in the forensic or investigative portion of the Titan's hero work. She was happy to research a spell or piece of magic, digging through ancient tomes if asked, she even enjoyed it to an extent, but computers and technologies weren't for her.

"Damn," Cyborg grumbled as the screen on his machine flashed red. Raven could guess what that meant.

"No matches?"

"Yeah, guy's prints aren't on file anywhere, which is pretty rare nowadays."

"Are you going to try DNA?"

"Yeah, I'll try, but if facial rec and prints didn't work, I'm not holding out much hope."

Raven considered their dilemma, head cocked slightly to one side as she weighed the pros and cons of attempting to reach the man's mind. It wasn't an action that she would generally consider. The mind was a sacred place, and treading into another, especially magic users, could be exceptionally dangerous. However, even though Raven did her best to control it, she was unnerved by the magic she had felt earlier. The power behind it had been greater than any she had felt in the past, even on Azeroth, her home planet, where magic was far more commonplace.

Feeling her curiosity and worry rise, Raven ruthlessly crushed them down. She would not make her decision based on an emotional response. Raven crossed her legs, using her powers to keep herself aloft, and closed her eyes, quickly entering a trance-like state and reviewing what she knew without bias. After a moment, her decision was made. They knew too little about the man and his origins, power of great, unknown scale were possibly at play and could cause trouble at any moment, and for all Raven knew, that man could sleep for days.

Floating over to the man, Raven straightened her body to hover directly over him, staring straight at his closed eyelids and gently cupping his face with her hands.

"Raven, what are you doing?" Cyborg asked, scratching at the human side of his face and staring at Raven in concern. Getting close to people was very out of character for her. Cyborg knew this well, so to see her in what could be called an intimate position with a stranger sent off alarm bells in his neural processor.

"I'm going to try and enter his mind."

"You can do that!"

Raven gave Cyborg an irritated look but otherwise didn't move.

"With enough concentration, yes."

Cyborg quailed slightly under Raven's glare but didn't back down.

"You sure that's a good idea? I mean, messing around in someone else's head just seems wrong."

"I'm not sure if good is the right word, but it may be necessary. Now please let me focus." Raven closed her eyes and focused on the feel of the man's skin beneath his hands and his calm even breaths.

"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos." Raven clearly and slowly enunciated each syllable.

"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos."

Raven opened her eyes, now glowing white with her power, and focused on the point between the man's eyebrows.

"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos."

Raven felt herself falling, and black energy began to gather in her hands, moving into the man's body.

"Azarath. Metrion-" Raven interrupted herself with a cry, and she fell onto the man, her concentration disrupted as a lance of pain shot through her head. It felt like a frozen screwdriver was being driven through her skull and into her brain as the man's mind brutally rejected her presence.

"Raven!" Cyborg cried, moving quickly to pick her up off the man and move her to a bed of her own.

Raven pushed the heels of her hands into her temples, fighting against the pain, even as she heard every window in the infirmary crack as her powers responded to the abrupt discomfort.

Cyborg hovered awkwardly beside Raven, it was obvious that whatever Raven had been trying to get into the guy's mind hadn't worked, but he had no idea how to help her.

Fortunately for Raven, the pain began to fade quickly until nothing but a throbbing headache remained, pulsing rhythmically right behind her eyes.

Sitting up slowly, Raven ignored Cyborg's worries and turned to look back toward the man, only to freeze as she met a pair of wide-open, livid, green eyes.

Bit of a bridge chapter but it's necessary to set the scene, let me know what you think.