~~~~Part I: The sign~~~~
*Summary: The world of X-men and the world of
magic collide when an old mutant is summoned
from the grave, now the X-men are forced to
to keep an open mind...or else this mutant could
take over the world and cause an apocalypse.*
*Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any character associated with X-men or Marvel comics...*sad sigh*... your all probably lucky I don't... *evil grin*... but I just wanted to play with them for a while... *does a happy dance*
**Notes: Okay first of all, you have to understand that in my point of view, witchcraft is only as evil as the person doing it, If you can't understand that then stop reading now, okay if your still reading then you must, be either nosy or you can really accept my point of view, second I have only studied the Craft, I haven't practiced it, so anything I get wrong, sorry don't jump down my throat about it, I do know a little about it but not much, third of all Gambit speaks French, I don't, so bare with me, if it was Spanish I could do it but not French, (By the way, my description of magic is exaggerated in the story) and lastly...please enjoy and send me feedback good or bad I wanna know, but please only constructive criticism...**
Raven stood in a dark ally she heard them coming at least six hooded figures surrounded her, she took up a fighting stance, her eyes glazed over a feral yellow color, like a tiger, now she saw everything around her in infrared. She sent a roundhouse kick to the first one's temple; he collapsed immediately. The two closest ones pulled out machetes one in each hand, and the closest one out of the two swung one of his around in an arc to cut off her head, but she easily side stepped it and grabbed his arm using his momentum she slammed him into the ally wall. Behind her a trash can fell over and there was a screech of a frightened cat. Raven switched her attention to the cat, meanwhile the other hooded figures grabbed her by the arms, and the second one with the machetes took a step toward her and placed a machete at her throat. Suddenly the image disappeared and she was back in the danger room.
"You have to work on your attention span, you can't be distracted by the smallest of things," Professor Xavier told her.
"What are you talking about, I had them just where I wanted them," Raven rolled her eyes.
Logan and Scott came up behind the Professor, "Right, maybe if you were trying to commit suicide," Logan mumbled.
"It was a cat, how did you not expect that to distract me? The thing sounded petrified," Raven asked annoyed.
"It was only a cat, you have to learn that your life is more important then some stray cat," the professor told her.
"Not to the cat," Raven hissed. Behind her she heard Kitty giggle, she turned and glared at her. Kitty immediately stopped laughing, and shrank back behind Rogue and Jubilee who wisely kept quiet.
"I understand your empathy for animals, but you need to learn where to draw the line, and also could we try not killing people? That's not what we do," Xavier replied calmly. Raven had always had a certain understanding of animals that no one else could possibly have, due to her mutation, which he completely understood, but he was worried it would get her killed.
"Right, 'cause I already know where to draw the line for my empathy for the human race, save the criminals and slaughter the animals its the human way," Raven tossed back, tossing her long black hair she walked out of the danger room and headed for her room.
"Jeez, she can be so mean to someone, but I saw her bring a hurt bird to her room earlier," Kitty said shaking her head.
"Why does she have a bird in her room?" Logan asked wrinkling up her forehead.
"Johnny scorched its feathers this morning, I thought she was going to kill him," Kitty told him.
"He what?" Scott's eyes widened under his red glasses.
"Not on purpose," Rogue said quickly, "He was just foolin' around bein' a guy and the bird got in the way, he couldn't fly, It's a good thing Johnny can run fast,"
"And it's in her room, don't we have rules about that?" Scott raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah well it wouldn't be the first time she brought in strays, small cats, snakes, anything that wiggles and isn't a bug," Kitty babbled on.
"Kitty," Jubilee hissed.
"Oops," Kitty said realizing what she'd done,"You didn't here it from me, she hates me enough as it is,"
"Don't take it personal kid, she doesn't like Jean either," Logan told her. There wasn't many people his little sister did like, she got along okay with Rogue and Jubilee, But the only one she really actually liked was Gambit, and Logan didn't really like the idea of them hanging around each other, considering Gambit's fondness for the opposite sex.
"Who does she like?" Kitty demanded.
"Jubilee and Rogue," Logan told her.
"Not if she's mad," Jubilee said, "Though she seems to be rather fond of Gambit," Jubilee giggled. Logan glared at her and she immediacy stopped laughing. "I meant in a friendly way, of course," she told him, glancing away so she wouldn't laugh, Logan was extremely over protective over her and they all found it amusing.
"Wow, does that glare run in the family?" Kitty whispered to Rogue.
"I'm guessin'" Rogue replied.
___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ____________
Raven ran her hand through her hair and looked into the mirror, she needed to get out of here. The crow she brought in this morning screeched loudly at the window, in her room. She walked out into the room. The crow was perched on a chair near the balcony window. It looked at her pleadingly. "I'm sorry but you have to wait 'til your feathers grow back sweetie," Raven told her. The bird looked down and then back out the window. She looks so depressed, she thought, stoking its head. "Sweetie, I'm gonna go out, wanna come with?" she asked the bird. It squawked in response. "All right let me change," she told it going into the bathroom again. When she came out she was wearing hip-hugging black leather pants and a low cut maroon halter top. She grabbed her leather duster off her bed and lifted the crow onto her shoulder, and went downstairs.
(Note: What you have to understand about Raven is that she's not crazy, her mutation makes her feel like one of them and makes her able to communicate with the animal, I guess its a sort of telepathy, but she doesn't realize that, so she speaks out loud, when in reality she doesn't have to)
"Mon chere? Where are you goin'?" Gambit asked, leaning against the railing at the bottom of the staircase.
"Out, I need to breathe," she replied curtly not bothering to stop.
"Don't you need to tell the professor? Or Wolvy for that matter," he asked.
"Nope, but you can if you want," she called back over her shoulder before leaving. She hopped into her bright yellow 3000GT, she put up the top so it wouldn't bother the crow, and then she sped off.
Logan walked down the stairs passing by Gambit, "She's gone," Gambit told him.
"What? Where'd she go?" Logan asked stopping in his tracks.
"Don't know," Gambit said pulling out his pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
"Why didn't you ask?" Logan demanded.
"I did, she said she was going..." Gambit paused as he lit his cigarette.
Logan looked at him expectantly, "out...she needed to breathe," Gambit continued.
"Why do I bother asking you anything?" Logan growled and walked back up the stairs.
Gambit smiled, to himself. ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ____________
Raven stepped out of the car; the bird perched on her shoulder. The place didn't look too busy, but on a Sunday the magick shop rarely was, so she figured Ritzy and Dee shouldn't be to busy.
She stepped through the doors the chimes ringing as she opened it. "Be with you in a second," A voice called from the back.
"It's me Ritzy," Raven called.
"Oh okay come on back," she replied.
Raven walked back to the back of the store, she could smell the incents in the air, Dee was sitting on a beanbag chair in the corner while Ritzy, sat on a blanket flipping through an old looking book.
"Who's your friend?" Dee asked.
"Oh her, she had her feathers scorched by some flamethrowing crackhead, so I took her in," Raven explained.
"Oh you poor thing, maybe we can try to heal you," Ritzy said to the bird, "You should try she likes you,"
"Okay what do I need to do," Raven asked.
Ritzy went around putting out all of her incents and got out fresh ones, "Okay sit in the middle of the room," Ritzy told her, "Now set the bird down right in front of you,"
Ritzy poured salt around the two in a clockwise motion, then lit four incents, one in front of Raven, one behind her, and one on each side. Then she set four light pink candles in between them and lit them in clockwise order.
"Okay I need some purified holy water, um, some...sage, a glass bowl, and um, an amethyst, possibly an athame," Ritzy said thinking out loud.
"I have an athame in my trunk, and an amethest, I'll go get it if..." Raven started, but Ritzy cut her off.
"No, no, no, you can't leave the circle I'll go get it, gimme your keys," Ritzy told her.
"They're in a black duffel bag, here," she replied handing her the keys.
Ritzy took the key and went out the door, "I guess I'll go get the rest of the stuff from the shop," Dee told her, "Don't move and don't smudge the circle,"
"Okay I'll be here, not moving, promise," Raven assured her.
Ritzy strolled back into the room, "You left your cellphone in the car, your brother called but I told him you were busy and would have to call him back later,"
"You told him what?" Raven's eyes widen, "and he agree?"
"Oh no, you know better than that, I hung up on him, he tried to call back but I put it on silent," she replied.
"Oh thanks, Ritz, now I'm gonna here it," Raven shook her head but couldn't suppress a grin, I would have loved to see his face then, she thought.
"Okay, here, now what you've got to do is call upon Isis's power because she has healing powers, its a simple spell you shouldn't have any problems you've done one's like this," Ritzy told her.
"Whoa, wait, Isis she's like really powerful, I don't think I can..." Raven began...but Dee walking in the room stopped her.
"You can do this, do you know why? Because you're powerful, and if anyone can you can," Dee smiled.
"Well I'm gonna have to trust the fact that you trust me, and that Lenna trusts me," Raven told replied.
"Lenna?" Ritzy asked raising an eyebrow.
"She didn't have a name, humans are the only animals that name each other, so I named her, she said she liked it," Raven explained.
Ritzy smiled, "Your becoming attached to her,"
"Hey, lets get this over with, though a goddess who can bring her dead husband back to life is not someone I want to play around with," Raven said changing the subject.
"She'll probably like you, you've got that whole cat thing goin' on, and plus it's totally unselfish," Dee told her.
"All right let's get started, first put the dried sage in the bowl, then light it on fire, that'll purify the room," Ritzy explained.
Raven did as she was told, a pungent aroma filled the air that reminded her of spaghetti, she jerked a little at the sight of the fire, since fire scared her, it was an animal instinct, the professor had explained, it was natural, because of her mutation.
"Next, cleanse your athame with the fire, and then the amethyst," she continued.
Raven held the athame in the flames for a minute, and then held the amethyst in the flames next.
"Now pour the holy water into the flames, then drop in the amethest, then you know what to do from there," Ritzy finished.
Raven took a deep breath, she slowly poured in the holy water from the jug until the bowl was full, and then she dropped in the amethyst. Next, she placed her fingers on the water's surface so they barely brushed the water. She took another deep breath, now was the tricky part wording the spell right so it didn't back fire. She stared down into the bowl concentrating on the amethyst at the bottom. "Isis, goddess of the moon, I ask you for your help and power, before me lies, the wounded, victim of Someone's recklessness, before me lies a grounded crow. I ask you for your power to let this wounded victim be wounded no more, heal her wings and let her once again be free to fly," Raven took another deep breath. She felt a tingling sensation enter her hands and travel up her arms and through her body. She then, placed her hands around Lenna and she felt all that power pouring into the bird. Raven smiled, then tossed Lenna into the air, she spread her wings and flew out of the backroom and into the store then back again.
"Isis, I humbly thank you for your power and assistance," Raven said finishing the spell.
They were quiet for a minute, then Dee broke the silence, "That was awesome, and you were worried? I couldn't have done it better myself, well heck, I probably couldn't have even done it,"
"It wasn't that good, I mean you could have done it, once you start its like automatic, the words just came to me," Raven shrugged.
"That was amazing, your a natural, I told you, you'd make a good vet, you could talk to them and then heal them," Ritzy told her.
"That would be personal gain wouldn't it?" Raven said looking from Dee to Ritzy.
"Yeah, Raven I was joking," Ritzy smiled.
"Oh, just making sure," Raven stood up, "Let me help you clean up,"
"Nah, girl, don't worry about, go talk to your brother, before he explodes into slinkies," Ritzy told her waving her away.
"I would pay to see that," Raven giggled. Lenna cawed happily as flew out of the shop ahead of Raven.
"I'll see ya'll later then," Raven called to them as she walked out of the shop, "Go Lenna, go fly, if you wanna come back I'll leave the balcony door open,"
Lenna fluttered away into the air, Raven smiled after her, and got into the car, and headed toward the institute. ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ____________
Raven stood outside of the institute, for a while under a tree. She heard a the branches above her head move around, she glanced up and a large black tabby cat was looking down at her, it was a cat she'd often seen around here, she'd warned it to stay up in the trees at night because of the security system. She named him Chico, when she'd first met him and since then he'd been hanging around in the trees a lot. "Hey, Chico, how are you?" Raven smiled. Suddenly he let out a yowl as if he was in pain.
"Chico, baby what's wrong?" Raven eye's widen in concern. Suddenly he fell out of the tree and landed on the ground in front of her, she could hear his breathing, it was shallow. He yowled again. "Chico sweetie, you have to tell me what's wrong...you have to then I can help," Raven said in a frantic voice, "Come on I'm gonna take you inside," She scooped him up in her arms and ran inside.
When she got inside no one was there, she ran into the rec. room. Logan, Jean, Scott, Rogue, Kitty, Gambit, and Spike sat around talking and basically doing nothing. When she entered the room everyone looked up.
"Hey, isn't that the black cat the runs around outside the institute all the time," Jean asked.
"Yeah, there's something wrong with him, he won't tell me what, he's, he's in pain, and he just fell and..." Raven babbled on the verge of tears.
Logan, Gambit and Rogue immediately were at her side, "Chere, calm down, take a deep breath, and start from the beginin' I don't understand a word you're sayin',"
"Here sit down," Rogue pulled out a chair for her.
"He, he was in the tree and I was talking, but then out of nowhere he yowled like, like something hurt him, and not like the, 'someone stepped on my tail' type yowl, like the 'someone tossed me into a bon fire' type yowl, and he just fell out of the tree and yowled again, his breathing's really shallow...he's, he's dying and, I don't know why, I need, to know I need to help him but he won't talk to me..." A single tear slipped down her cheek.
"He's a cat, does she know cat's don't talk?" Spike whispered to Scott, But since both Raven and Logan have extremely good hearing...he received three evil glares.
"That's just your human ignorance talking, all animals speak, its just a matter of listening is all," Raven growled angrily.
"Spike, shut up, don't say anything else, I'll talk to you later," Logan narrowed his eyes, "See if the professor can do anything for it,"
As he said that the professor entered the room sensing, Raven's distress over the dying cat. Raven had always been difficult for him to read because of the mental wall she sub-consciencely put up around her mind, but there was no mistaking her frustrations.
"Right on cue, man he's good," Spike muttered, which he was rewarded by another angry glare from Logan.
"Can you help? Do something he's dying, I don't why," Raven pleaded.
"I can try to read him, but it wouldn't help, I wouldn't understand an animal's thought process," he told her.
"Can you show me what you see?" Raven asked.
"Actually I can," Xavier smiled, he knew that she'd be able to interpret it better than he could, her mutation actually made her part animal, mostly like a cat. He placed a hand on the cat's head, all at once a bunch of terrifying images that he couldn't make out flashed into his mind. He pulled his hand away as if the cat had bitten him.
"What did you see?" Logan asked.
"I don't know, all I know is that whatever he saw horrified the cat," Xavier shook his head, "Raven are you sure you want me to show you?"
"Yes, do it," Raven nodded.
Xavier put a hand on her head, *Image* Inside a building, there was a sign on the floor, it was a huge circle, with a huge square in the middle, and each corner of the square was connected to the opposite one with a thin black line, and at the spot where they interacted, there was a pool of blood. The lines connecting the corners of the squares burst into flames, the flames slowly spread to the square, then to the circle. Out of the flames a face emerged, a terrifying face. Chico backed out through the small window he'd came in through...*End of Image*
The image faded out, but not before she saw the face again, but this didn't feel like a memory from Chico, this felt like something in her head. The face smiled evilly then mouthed something that looked like: Join or die Raven, join or die! Raven jerked back away from the professor with a terrified looked on her face. Then she looked to check on Chico but he wasn't there. Before she could ask Logan responded.
"He died before you came out of vision, so..." his voice trailed off.
Raven swallowed, and nodded.
"What did you see?" Professor X asked.
"It was, Um, I'm not really sure it wasn't too clear and my head was a little foggy, or his head was a little foggy, I'm tired I'm going to bed," Raven replied. She got up to leave when Logan grabbed her wrist, "Logan, I'm fine and I'm tired Do you mind?" she snapped.
"What scared you? What'd you really see?" Logan asked.
"Logan, I already said that..."
"I know what you said, but if your not scared then why is you pulse rate so high?" Logan asked raising an eyebrow.
Raven jerked wrist away from him, "Leave me alone Logan, I'm tired," with that she went to her room.
Raven opened her balcony, window, and Lenna flew in immediately, Raven stepped out on her balcony and looked over the edge. Something's not right, She thought, but what is it?
*Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any character associated with X-men or Marvel comics...*sad sigh*... your all probably lucky I don't... *evil grin*... but I just wanted to play with them for a while... *does a happy dance*
**Notes: Okay first of all, you have to understand that in my point of view, witchcraft is only as evil as the person doing it, If you can't understand that then stop reading now, okay if your still reading then you must, be either nosy or you can really accept my point of view, second I have only studied the Craft, I haven't practiced it, so anything I get wrong, sorry don't jump down my throat about it, I do know a little about it but not much, third of all Gambit speaks French, I don't, so bare with me, if it was Spanish I could do it but not French, (By the way, my description of magic is exaggerated in the story) and lastly...please enjoy and send me feedback good or bad I wanna know, but please only constructive criticism...**
Raven stood in a dark ally she heard them coming at least six hooded figures surrounded her, she took up a fighting stance, her eyes glazed over a feral yellow color, like a tiger, now she saw everything around her in infrared. She sent a roundhouse kick to the first one's temple; he collapsed immediately. The two closest ones pulled out machetes one in each hand, and the closest one out of the two swung one of his around in an arc to cut off her head, but she easily side stepped it and grabbed his arm using his momentum she slammed him into the ally wall. Behind her a trash can fell over and there was a screech of a frightened cat. Raven switched her attention to the cat, meanwhile the other hooded figures grabbed her by the arms, and the second one with the machetes took a step toward her and placed a machete at her throat. Suddenly the image disappeared and she was back in the danger room.
"You have to work on your attention span, you can't be distracted by the smallest of things," Professor Xavier told her.
"What are you talking about, I had them just where I wanted them," Raven rolled her eyes.
Logan and Scott came up behind the Professor, "Right, maybe if you were trying to commit suicide," Logan mumbled.
"It was a cat, how did you not expect that to distract me? The thing sounded petrified," Raven asked annoyed.
"It was only a cat, you have to learn that your life is more important then some stray cat," the professor told her.
"Not to the cat," Raven hissed. Behind her she heard Kitty giggle, she turned and glared at her. Kitty immediately stopped laughing, and shrank back behind Rogue and Jubilee who wisely kept quiet.
"I understand your empathy for animals, but you need to learn where to draw the line, and also could we try not killing people? That's not what we do," Xavier replied calmly. Raven had always had a certain understanding of animals that no one else could possibly have, due to her mutation, which he completely understood, but he was worried it would get her killed.
"Right, 'cause I already know where to draw the line for my empathy for the human race, save the criminals and slaughter the animals its the human way," Raven tossed back, tossing her long black hair she walked out of the danger room and headed for her room.
"Jeez, she can be so mean to someone, but I saw her bring a hurt bird to her room earlier," Kitty said shaking her head.
"Why does she have a bird in her room?" Logan asked wrinkling up her forehead.
"Johnny scorched its feathers this morning, I thought she was going to kill him," Kitty told him.
"He what?" Scott's eyes widened under his red glasses.
"Not on purpose," Rogue said quickly, "He was just foolin' around bein' a guy and the bird got in the way, he couldn't fly, It's a good thing Johnny can run fast,"
"And it's in her room, don't we have rules about that?" Scott raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah well it wouldn't be the first time she brought in strays, small cats, snakes, anything that wiggles and isn't a bug," Kitty babbled on.
"Kitty," Jubilee hissed.
"Oops," Kitty said realizing what she'd done,"You didn't here it from me, she hates me enough as it is,"
"Don't take it personal kid, she doesn't like Jean either," Logan told her. There wasn't many people his little sister did like, she got along okay with Rogue and Jubilee, But the only one she really actually liked was Gambit, and Logan didn't really like the idea of them hanging around each other, considering Gambit's fondness for the opposite sex.
"Who does she like?" Kitty demanded.
"Jubilee and Rogue," Logan told her.
"Not if she's mad," Jubilee said, "Though she seems to be rather fond of Gambit," Jubilee giggled. Logan glared at her and she immediacy stopped laughing. "I meant in a friendly way, of course," she told him, glancing away so she wouldn't laugh, Logan was extremely over protective over her and they all found it amusing.
"Wow, does that glare run in the family?" Kitty whispered to Rogue.
"I'm guessin'" Rogue replied.
___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ____________
Raven ran her hand through her hair and looked into the mirror, she needed to get out of here. The crow she brought in this morning screeched loudly at the window, in her room. She walked out into the room. The crow was perched on a chair near the balcony window. It looked at her pleadingly. "I'm sorry but you have to wait 'til your feathers grow back sweetie," Raven told her. The bird looked down and then back out the window. She looks so depressed, she thought, stoking its head. "Sweetie, I'm gonna go out, wanna come with?" she asked the bird. It squawked in response. "All right let me change," she told it going into the bathroom again. When she came out she was wearing hip-hugging black leather pants and a low cut maroon halter top. She grabbed her leather duster off her bed and lifted the crow onto her shoulder, and went downstairs.
(Note: What you have to understand about Raven is that she's not crazy, her mutation makes her feel like one of them and makes her able to communicate with the animal, I guess its a sort of telepathy, but she doesn't realize that, so she speaks out loud, when in reality she doesn't have to)
"Mon chere? Where are you goin'?" Gambit asked, leaning against the railing at the bottom of the staircase.
"Out, I need to breathe," she replied curtly not bothering to stop.
"Don't you need to tell the professor? Or Wolvy for that matter," he asked.
"Nope, but you can if you want," she called back over her shoulder before leaving. She hopped into her bright yellow 3000GT, she put up the top so it wouldn't bother the crow, and then she sped off.
Logan walked down the stairs passing by Gambit, "She's gone," Gambit told him.
"What? Where'd she go?" Logan asked stopping in his tracks.
"Don't know," Gambit said pulling out his pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
"Why didn't you ask?" Logan demanded.
"I did, she said she was going..." Gambit paused as he lit his cigarette.
Logan looked at him expectantly, "out...she needed to breathe," Gambit continued.
"Why do I bother asking you anything?" Logan growled and walked back up the stairs.
Gambit smiled, to himself. ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ____________
Raven stepped out of the car; the bird perched on her shoulder. The place didn't look too busy, but on a Sunday the magick shop rarely was, so she figured Ritzy and Dee shouldn't be to busy.
She stepped through the doors the chimes ringing as she opened it. "Be with you in a second," A voice called from the back.
"It's me Ritzy," Raven called.
"Oh okay come on back," she replied.
Raven walked back to the back of the store, she could smell the incents in the air, Dee was sitting on a beanbag chair in the corner while Ritzy, sat on a blanket flipping through an old looking book.
"Who's your friend?" Dee asked.
"Oh her, she had her feathers scorched by some flamethrowing crackhead, so I took her in," Raven explained.
"Oh you poor thing, maybe we can try to heal you," Ritzy said to the bird, "You should try she likes you,"
"Okay what do I need to do," Raven asked.
Ritzy went around putting out all of her incents and got out fresh ones, "Okay sit in the middle of the room," Ritzy told her, "Now set the bird down right in front of you,"
Ritzy poured salt around the two in a clockwise motion, then lit four incents, one in front of Raven, one behind her, and one on each side. Then she set four light pink candles in between them and lit them in clockwise order.
"Okay I need some purified holy water, um, some...sage, a glass bowl, and um, an amethyst, possibly an athame," Ritzy said thinking out loud.
"I have an athame in my trunk, and an amethest, I'll go get it if..." Raven started, but Ritzy cut her off.
"No, no, no, you can't leave the circle I'll go get it, gimme your keys," Ritzy told her.
"They're in a black duffel bag, here," she replied handing her the keys.
Ritzy took the key and went out the door, "I guess I'll go get the rest of the stuff from the shop," Dee told her, "Don't move and don't smudge the circle,"
"Okay I'll be here, not moving, promise," Raven assured her.
Ritzy strolled back into the room, "You left your cellphone in the car, your brother called but I told him you were busy and would have to call him back later,"
"You told him what?" Raven's eyes widen, "and he agree?"
"Oh no, you know better than that, I hung up on him, he tried to call back but I put it on silent," she replied.
"Oh thanks, Ritz, now I'm gonna here it," Raven shook her head but couldn't suppress a grin, I would have loved to see his face then, she thought.
"Okay, here, now what you've got to do is call upon Isis's power because she has healing powers, its a simple spell you shouldn't have any problems you've done one's like this," Ritzy told her.
"Whoa, wait, Isis she's like really powerful, I don't think I can..." Raven began...but Dee walking in the room stopped her.
"You can do this, do you know why? Because you're powerful, and if anyone can you can," Dee smiled.
"Well I'm gonna have to trust the fact that you trust me, and that Lenna trusts me," Raven told replied.
"Lenna?" Ritzy asked raising an eyebrow.
"She didn't have a name, humans are the only animals that name each other, so I named her, she said she liked it," Raven explained.
Ritzy smiled, "Your becoming attached to her,"
"Hey, lets get this over with, though a goddess who can bring her dead husband back to life is not someone I want to play around with," Raven said changing the subject.
"She'll probably like you, you've got that whole cat thing goin' on, and plus it's totally unselfish," Dee told her.
"All right let's get started, first put the dried sage in the bowl, then light it on fire, that'll purify the room," Ritzy explained.
Raven did as she was told, a pungent aroma filled the air that reminded her of spaghetti, she jerked a little at the sight of the fire, since fire scared her, it was an animal instinct, the professor had explained, it was natural, because of her mutation.
"Next, cleanse your athame with the fire, and then the amethyst," she continued.
Raven held the athame in the flames for a minute, and then held the amethyst in the flames next.
"Now pour the holy water into the flames, then drop in the amethest, then you know what to do from there," Ritzy finished.
Raven took a deep breath, she slowly poured in the holy water from the jug until the bowl was full, and then she dropped in the amethyst. Next, she placed her fingers on the water's surface so they barely brushed the water. She took another deep breath, now was the tricky part wording the spell right so it didn't back fire. She stared down into the bowl concentrating on the amethyst at the bottom. "Isis, goddess of the moon, I ask you for your help and power, before me lies, the wounded, victim of Someone's recklessness, before me lies a grounded crow. I ask you for your power to let this wounded victim be wounded no more, heal her wings and let her once again be free to fly," Raven took another deep breath. She felt a tingling sensation enter her hands and travel up her arms and through her body. She then, placed her hands around Lenna and she felt all that power pouring into the bird. Raven smiled, then tossed Lenna into the air, she spread her wings and flew out of the backroom and into the store then back again.
"Isis, I humbly thank you for your power and assistance," Raven said finishing the spell.
They were quiet for a minute, then Dee broke the silence, "That was awesome, and you were worried? I couldn't have done it better myself, well heck, I probably couldn't have even done it,"
"It wasn't that good, I mean you could have done it, once you start its like automatic, the words just came to me," Raven shrugged.
"That was amazing, your a natural, I told you, you'd make a good vet, you could talk to them and then heal them," Ritzy told her.
"That would be personal gain wouldn't it?" Raven said looking from Dee to Ritzy.
"Yeah, Raven I was joking," Ritzy smiled.
"Oh, just making sure," Raven stood up, "Let me help you clean up,"
"Nah, girl, don't worry about, go talk to your brother, before he explodes into slinkies," Ritzy told her waving her away.
"I would pay to see that," Raven giggled. Lenna cawed happily as flew out of the shop ahead of Raven.
"I'll see ya'll later then," Raven called to them as she walked out of the shop, "Go Lenna, go fly, if you wanna come back I'll leave the balcony door open,"
Lenna fluttered away into the air, Raven smiled after her, and got into the car, and headed toward the institute. ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ____________
Raven stood outside of the institute, for a while under a tree. She heard a the branches above her head move around, she glanced up and a large black tabby cat was looking down at her, it was a cat she'd often seen around here, she'd warned it to stay up in the trees at night because of the security system. She named him Chico, when she'd first met him and since then he'd been hanging around in the trees a lot. "Hey, Chico, how are you?" Raven smiled. Suddenly he let out a yowl as if he was in pain.
"Chico, baby what's wrong?" Raven eye's widen in concern. Suddenly he fell out of the tree and landed on the ground in front of her, she could hear his breathing, it was shallow. He yowled again. "Chico sweetie, you have to tell me what's wrong...you have to then I can help," Raven said in a frantic voice, "Come on I'm gonna take you inside," She scooped him up in her arms and ran inside.
When she got inside no one was there, she ran into the rec. room. Logan, Jean, Scott, Rogue, Kitty, Gambit, and Spike sat around talking and basically doing nothing. When she entered the room everyone looked up.
"Hey, isn't that the black cat the runs around outside the institute all the time," Jean asked.
"Yeah, there's something wrong with him, he won't tell me what, he's, he's in pain, and he just fell and..." Raven babbled on the verge of tears.
Logan, Gambit and Rogue immediately were at her side, "Chere, calm down, take a deep breath, and start from the beginin' I don't understand a word you're sayin',"
"Here sit down," Rogue pulled out a chair for her.
"He, he was in the tree and I was talking, but then out of nowhere he yowled like, like something hurt him, and not like the, 'someone stepped on my tail' type yowl, like the 'someone tossed me into a bon fire' type yowl, and he just fell out of the tree and yowled again, his breathing's really shallow...he's, he's dying and, I don't know why, I need, to know I need to help him but he won't talk to me..." A single tear slipped down her cheek.
"He's a cat, does she know cat's don't talk?" Spike whispered to Scott, But since both Raven and Logan have extremely good hearing...he received three evil glares.
"That's just your human ignorance talking, all animals speak, its just a matter of listening is all," Raven growled angrily.
"Spike, shut up, don't say anything else, I'll talk to you later," Logan narrowed his eyes, "See if the professor can do anything for it,"
As he said that the professor entered the room sensing, Raven's distress over the dying cat. Raven had always been difficult for him to read because of the mental wall she sub-consciencely put up around her mind, but there was no mistaking her frustrations.
"Right on cue, man he's good," Spike muttered, which he was rewarded by another angry glare from Logan.
"Can you help? Do something he's dying, I don't why," Raven pleaded.
"I can try to read him, but it wouldn't help, I wouldn't understand an animal's thought process," he told her.
"Can you show me what you see?" Raven asked.
"Actually I can," Xavier smiled, he knew that she'd be able to interpret it better than he could, her mutation actually made her part animal, mostly like a cat. He placed a hand on the cat's head, all at once a bunch of terrifying images that he couldn't make out flashed into his mind. He pulled his hand away as if the cat had bitten him.
"What did you see?" Logan asked.
"I don't know, all I know is that whatever he saw horrified the cat," Xavier shook his head, "Raven are you sure you want me to show you?"
"Yes, do it," Raven nodded.
Xavier put a hand on her head, *Image* Inside a building, there was a sign on the floor, it was a huge circle, with a huge square in the middle, and each corner of the square was connected to the opposite one with a thin black line, and at the spot where they interacted, there was a pool of blood. The lines connecting the corners of the squares burst into flames, the flames slowly spread to the square, then to the circle. Out of the flames a face emerged, a terrifying face. Chico backed out through the small window he'd came in through...*End of Image*
The image faded out, but not before she saw the face again, but this didn't feel like a memory from Chico, this felt like something in her head. The face smiled evilly then mouthed something that looked like: Join or die Raven, join or die! Raven jerked back away from the professor with a terrified looked on her face. Then she looked to check on Chico but he wasn't there. Before she could ask Logan responded.
"He died before you came out of vision, so..." his voice trailed off.
Raven swallowed, and nodded.
"What did you see?" Professor X asked.
"It was, Um, I'm not really sure it wasn't too clear and my head was a little foggy, or his head was a little foggy, I'm tired I'm going to bed," Raven replied. She got up to leave when Logan grabbed her wrist, "Logan, I'm fine and I'm tired Do you mind?" she snapped.
"What scared you? What'd you really see?" Logan asked.
"Logan, I already said that..."
"I know what you said, but if your not scared then why is you pulse rate so high?" Logan asked raising an eyebrow.
Raven jerked wrist away from him, "Leave me alone Logan, I'm tired," with that she went to her room.
Raven opened her balcony, window, and Lenna flew in immediately, Raven stepped out on her balcony and looked over the edge. Something's not right, She thought, but what is it?
