~~~~Part III: Dancing with Despair~~~~

**Notes: Hi everyone I hope your enjoying this cause well I hope so...and I don't know how many I'm gonna make because I have a problem with endings...I'm not quite sure How to do it so bare with me...**

Raven, Ritzy, Dee, Logan, Scott, Gambit, Jean, Orora, Rogue and the Professor sat around a table in Ritzy's magick shop which she had closed for a while. The book, which happened to be in Latin, sat in the middle, everyone was quiet and the atmosphere was tense. Lenna was perched on Raven shoulder looking from her to Ritzy to Xavier and back to her again, not really seeing the problem, but Raven didn't bother explaining it to her.

Raven finally broke the silence, "Logan you don't have to be telepathic, to know what your thinking, so why don't you just say it, why should now be any different, than any other time you slice egos and shatter self esteems with your mind numbing ability to share your unpleasant thoughts?"

"You wanna me to say what I'm thinkin'?" Logan growled looking her in the eyes, "I think this is ridiculous, grown people messing with magick? It's for children who don't know better, magicians who cheat you out of your money, but not for normal..."

Raven cut him off, "Look around genius, Do you see any normal people here? No one here is normal, not even Ritzy and Dee, Ritzy Tele-empathic, and Dee can levitate do you call that normal, because if you do, buy a dictionary and look it up, and if you want normal people, go somewhere else, because I'm sick and tired of you judging things that you don't understand, and you know what I think it really is, I think your afraid..."

"Afraid of what, the bunnies you pulled out of a freakin' hat? A card trick? yeah I'm shakin' Can't you tell?" Logan scoffed.

Raven was silent for a second, so was everyone else, they knew better than to pour fuel on an already raging fire. "You wanna see magick Logan I'll show you some, Dee get me five black candles," Raven said angrily which Dee complied without a word.

"All right Jean, set the candles up in a square shape and put the left over one in the middle," Raven told her.

Jean also complied skeptically, but nonetheless she used her telekinesis, to move the candles into place, Ritzy lit each candle. "Everyone get up and back away from the table, except Logan," Raven told them.

They all backed away, Except Ritzy, Dee, and Logan. Ritzy, Dee, and Raven spread themselves an equal distance apart from each other.

"Logan go get the Athame, laying on the checkout counter, and give it to your sister," Ritzy said to Logan.

"The what?" He wrinkled his head.

"The knife," Ritzy clarified slightly impatient.

He nodded and grabbed it off the counter, "Why does she need that?" he demanded.

"Because she's gonna be our medium," Dee told him slightly more gently then, Ritzy would have.

Logan nodded and handed it to her. "Now stand behind her, and if she falls catch her," Ritzy told him, "You ready chica?"

"Si, y ustedes?" she asked (meaning 'yes and you all?).

"Si, y tu?" Ritzy asked Dee. (meaning 'and you' there's supposed to be and accent mark over the 'u' but I wasn't sure how to do it)

"Si, let's do it," Dee responded.

Raven held the Athame with both hands in front of her as if she was praying, and Ritzy and Dee did the same with their hands.

"Osiris, god of the underworld, I summon, you before the unbelievers, demonstrate your power let it flow through me, like water through a river bed, by the power of Fire," Raven chanted.

"By the power of wind," Ritzy joined in.

Then Dee joined next, "By the power of water,"

"We beg of you come to us demonstrate your power, show them your strength through me," Raven finished.

A cold wind whipped through the shop sending shivers up everyone's spine making the hair stand up on the back of their necks. The cold wind seemed to swirl around Raven, her body stiffened and suddenly convulsed, her eye's rolled back in her head and she collapsed. Logan caught her in complete surprise, as he checked her pulse, it was gone.

"What did you do to her?" He growled.

A translucent figure appeared in the center of the table, one that resembled an Egyptian pharaoh. The figure stepped down off the table.

"Now do you believe?" It asked.

Logan's claws came from his hands as the others looked on in terror. "Who are you?" He demanded.

"I thought it went without saying, I'm Osiris, she asked for a demonstration that would make the non-believers believe, well do you believe?" Osiris asked again.

"I believe that if you don't fix this problem, now I'm gonna kill you, that's what I believe," Logan snarled.

"Does that mean you believe I can do it? Because if you don't I can't help you," Osiris told him calmly, "A simple yes or no that's all, she is dead completely, but her soul is still in the room, she sees you, from up there," he pointed toward the ceiling.

"Yes okay just, do something," Logan said.

Osiris just nodded and placed, a single translucent hand on her head. Raven's eyes suddenly opened she gasped for breath clinging to Logan's arm. Osiris's form solidified.

"Don't you ever do that again!," Logan growled at Raven still holding on to her.

"Great, I get in trouble for dying too?" Raven laughed.

"You better believe it, kid," Logan smiled as he helped her steady herself.

Raven glanced over noticing Osiris, she drew in a sharp breathe, "Wow," she whispered.

"I didn't think you ever appeared in solid shape," Raven said pulling away from Logan and walking slowly around Osiris in slow circles like a cat circling its prey. Osiris watched her carefully with an amused grin on his face.

"Shoot, I'm surprised you didn't leave her dead..." Ritzy said speaking up.

"Why would I do that? we like her," he responded, smiling wider.

"We?" Dee wrinkled up her forehead.

"Isis, Seth, Nephthlys, Horus, Aton, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, all of us gods," he clarified.

"Sacre blu, Mon chere, your famous eh?" Gambit smiled, "Not that I know who any of them are, I'm assuming other gods and goddesses."

"Okay why?" Raven stopped walking and raised an eyebrow.

Osiris chuckled slightly and shook his head.

"What?" Raven widened her eyes.

"You have no Idea how much power you have do you?" Osiris asked.

"What power? So I can ask a god to kill me how much power do you need for that?" Raven shrugged.

"You think I'm the one who made myself solid? Your power did it...not mine..." Osiris explained.

"I don't think so...I couldn't ever, I don't have that much..." Raven stuttered.

"Yes you do, and maybe the next events will convince you, While I'm here I'll tell you a little more about Despair, he was an ancient Mutant, that lived in Persia because he was banished from Egypt, by us gods, because of abuse of power, he was a mutant with the ability move and re-arrange molecules...of all kinds...which if you know anything about physics is an enormously dangerous power...he then started messing with the dark arts, using magick for evil and so on, well your ancestor banished him, to another dimension, which basically made him live forever, but the catch was in that damson everything was two dimensional, but he essence was in side of a hand crafted solid gold cube...which is hard enough to get out of but now he trapped in a solid gold square," He explained.

"Bet that's gotta suck," Scott said shaking his head.

"Now the symbol, his symbol, was etched on each face of the cube, which holds the power of fire, that's why is burst into flames, just remember if you trap his essence somewhere, make sure he can't get out...and you can kill his body but never his essence so be careful..." Osiris told them, "You can do this," He slowly shimmered away into nothing, and then he was gone.

Raven ran her hands through her hair, and started pacing the magick shop. "Okay what do we do?" Raven looked around at everyone most were as dumbfounded, as she now was.

"Well you guys are the witches you tell us," Scott said raising and eyebrow above his red glasses.

"Yeah well ya'll are the mutants so what's the deal?" Ritzy crossed her arms.

"I hate to point this out, but so are you guys, you've just always thought it was magick..." Scott replied to the frustrated Puerto Rican.

"Not the point, hombre, you study physics we study metaphysics," She replied slight more irritated. ('hombre' meaning man)

"Actually Scott she's right, but in order to do this, defeat Despair, we need both worlds because this is going to be a messy fight," Xavier said speaking up.

"Not if we take 'em out before they get a chance to raise it," Ritzy told them.

"That is a good Idea but how do you propose we find them?" Orora said.

"I have an idea, This guy brings about the Apocalypse right?" Raven asked.

"Yeah, we went over that..." Ritzy replied.

"So that means there should be signs...Dee look online and find all weird apocalyptic events then mark them on a map, and let me see it," Raven told her. _________________________________________________________________

*An hour later*

"Hey guys come take a look at this," Dee called once she'd finished.

Everyone gathered around the table, to see what she'd come up with.

"Wow," Raven muttered. The weird events had all occurred in a pattern, more specifically, the pattern of Despair's sign.

"The most recently one occurred right here," She said pointing at an old empty water tower right in the center, "Or just outside of it, A runaway, named Ana Lisa Mclaughlin died, burnt from the inside out,"

"Spontaneous combustion?" Scott wrinkled up his forehead.

"I doubt it was Spontaneous," Raven said, "I wanna go see that,"

"It was recent it's probably still crawling with cops, and yellow tape," Jean told her.

"Gimme a second," Raven replied, walking back into the back of the shop.

*Five minutes later*

Raven came out wearing, a cute black leather pants suit, and half of her hair pulled back with a few strands hanging down in the front. Making her look chic and somewhat professional at the same time. Hanging around her neck was a badge that made it obvious what her plan was.

"You've got to be kidding, they have laws against that kind of thing," Scott said his eyes widening.

Raven looked at him, raising an eyebrow, he knew better. In her past she was a theif, a very good one, but not petty theft and never cash, she stole priceless things from museums and safety desposit boxes. Mostly all high security places, but when she'd learned about her brother, she went to him but they had a heck of a time breaking her out of the habit of doing illegal things, some were important to the cause, and others were just bad habits. In fact when she first met Gambit, she stole his wallet just to figure out who he was. Normally she doesn't do pickpocketing but any good thief knows the basics, besides she gave it back...eventually.

"You don't care, I get it but, we can't just go around doing illegal things because we can," Scott continued.

"Scott, do you know the meaning of the word, Apocalypse?" She asked slowly articulating each word as if he were an idiot, "Let me simplify it, End of the world, total destruction, obliteration of everything good, big boom, death of everything..."

He cut her off, "I know what it means but that doesn't..."

"Hey, boy scout, if all these people die, breaking a simple law won't matter any more," Ritzy said taking her side, "People are dying, most likely our people, witches, so excuse me if I don't give a crap what law she's breaking."

"She's right, People are dying, a small stunt like this will seem trivial if this mutant is raised," the professor said, "You should go ahead we'll keep in contact, take Scott with you,"

"What?!" they both exclaimed at the same time.

"Please Scott'll wimp out on me, he could barely stand the thought of breaking the law but he might go into convulsions if he actually comes close," Raven growled.

"No, professor, I can't, she's insolent, rude, and I don't think she should go either, she could screw up this whole mission, she could get us bother arrested," Scott exclaimed.

"Well Scott if we do get arrested, I can break in high security areas why not out?" she laughed.

"You think this is some kind of joke, look she thinks its funny..." Scott ran his hand through his hair.

"...that your obsessing over it, you sound like a paranoid psychopath, she can do this better than you'd ever be able to, so get over it, and get going," Ritzy growled turning Scott toward the door, and handing him his keys, he sighed, and walked out, Raven followed with a grin on her face.

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Scott pulled up on the opposite side of the street and parked his car, he sat in the car for a second, while Raven got out and sat on his hood waiting for him. Scott finally got out and started heading toward the crime scene, when Raven grabbed him by the arm.

"Here, you need this," she said handing him a fake badge, "Don't do anything stupid,"

"Me, your telling me not to do anything stupid? I'm not the one you need to worry about," he snapped.

"Yes, look at you now, keep your cool, okay, let me talk, believe me I know about cops," Raven told him and headed across the street before he had a chance to respond.

"What do we got here?" Raven asked, the closest cop.

"One crispy girl, burnt from the inside out," he replied with a chuckle

"What's so funny?" She asked narrowing her eyes.

He cleared his throat nervously..."Um nothin', I was just tryin' to lighten things up a bit ya know?"

"Yeah I know," she repiled darkly.

"So what department are ya'll from?" he asked as Scott walked up behind her.

"Homicide," she replied coolly.

"Homicide? When did this become a Homicide?" he wrinkled up his face.

"Since we got here, Don't you have something to do?" she asked him.

"Sure detective uh..." he started.

"Diaz, and this is detective Malone," she said gesturing toward Scott.

"Fine detective Diaz, if there's anything I can help you with I'll be around," He told her backing away leaving them staring at the large scorch mark on the ground.

"Scott make sure no one's coming..."she told him.

"Why?" Scott asked but his question was soon answered when her eye's glazed over a predatory yellow, like a tiger.

She stared at the scorch mark now, seeing everything different, she saw several foot prints around the scorch mark, and those footprints head toward the abandoned water tower down the street a little. Raven pulled out pocket knife out of her jacket and scraped up a little of the remains, and stuck it in a small container and put it in her pocket.

"Scott go to the and call the professor and tell him, we found central command," She told him.

He nodded and headed back toward the car...Raven wandered toward the abandoned Water tower.

Raven climbed up the latter on the side of the water tower, and hopped in, she could tell it was an old one because it reminded her of a giant tub...with several support columns coming up from the ground. The place was empty, She saw in the middle of the place the symbol on the floor and a dried blood stain in the middle of the symbol. Evil practically radiated from the place...it disturbed her. Suddenly, she was aware that she was alone...too suddenly. Up until that moment only a few rats and field mice scurried about, but this was different.

A man with long thick black hair, pull back in a pony tail and dark eyes stepped out of the shadows. His skin was slightly tanned and he wore a black casual suit. His gaze fell upon her and he smiled, "It's too late, but I knew you'd come, Your curiosity got the better of you...You know what they say don't you...Curiosity killed the cat,"

"Satisfaction brought it back," Raven replied as if she wasn't a nerved.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Not really," she replied honestly.

"Honest, I like that," he said, "Join me, you'd go far, you could have power beyond belief,"

"I don't think so, That whole apocalypse thing, I'm not feelin' that," Raven replied flippantly.

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Scott, Logan and the others will be there soon, Go find her, I think she's in trouble, Get her out of there if you can, the professor telepathically told him.

Scott headed toward the water tower, still not believing that she went in there alone. He climbed up the latter, and into the old water tower.

He kept to the shadows, and watched Raven and some other guy banter back and forth, but it was apparent, that Raven was scared and the other guy was amused.

"Oh come on this world it's nothing, but we can re-make it, instead of several different governments for several different countries, one central government, one person to answer to," Despair told her.

"And let me guess, that one person is you?" Raven asked.

" Yes, but you could be right beside me," he replied nodding.

"I'll have to pass, don't take it personal," Raven told him.

"Your not leaving here, unless its in a bodybag," Despair said sighing.

"I beg to differ," Scott said. Stepping out of the shadows behind Raven.

"So how long were you gonna stand there?" Raven asked him.

"You knew I was there?" Scott wrinkled up his forehead.

"Please, Scott don't insult me, your stealth skills suck," Raven rolled her eyes.

"You really must have wanted to die," Despair said to Scott.

The concrete floor around him grew sticky and heavy like quicksand and he began to sink.

"Scott!" Raven ran as close to him as she could get without sinking, which was less than helpful to him.

Suddenly he was lifted straight out of the stick ground, Jean jumped out of the X-jet which was in stealth mode. Followed by Orora, Logan, Ritzy, Gambit, Rogue, and Dee.

Raven smiled, but knew now she couldn't move. She could see that the floor all around her except for the spot she was standing on was liquidy. Jean lifted her off the ground and over to a safe none-quicksandy spot. Rogue snuck up behind Despair, and pulled off her glove...she grabbed despair by the neck...instantly the ground hardened and Despair collapsed.

"Whoa," Rogue said stumbling, "No wonder this guy's on an ego trip, He's high off all this power, It's like he can literally mold the earth,"

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"You shouldn't have gone in alone," Scott told her.

Raven didn't even dignify him with a glance. In fact she didn't even hear him, she stared at nothing imparticular, not moving or even giving any sign that she was paying attention. Which made Scott mad, and he just gave up walking out of Xavier's office.

Raven, Are you there? The professor 'asked' her.

"Huh?" Raven's head snapped up.

"You all right?" Ritzy asked her leaning on the professor's desk.

"You tell me," Raven replied, in a monotone voice.

"He scared you," Ritzy said, "but Scott's right,"

"About what?" Raven glanced at her.

"You shouldn't have gone in alone," Xavier told her.

"Messin' with him is like dancing with The Devil," Ritzy told her.

"No, not with The Devil, with Despair," she replied, in the same, emotionless voice.