The Ways of Magic 4

An Interlude:

"Has the boy remembered?", a man in a gray business suit said. "Yes, Wraith. He knows enough for our purposes.", said his companion, a man in a black cloak.

Wraith looked around at the abandoned warehouse they used for their meetings. "And what of the girl?" Wraith said, "She could destroy everything we have worked so hard to create." The cloaked man laughed, "I will take care of her. By the end of tomorrow, neither of them will be a threat."

Wraith smiled, "So it is close to completion?" The cloaked man said, "Yes, very close. Soon, neither the wizard, the empath, or any of their pathetic friends will be a threat to us. For centuries, we have repeatedly failed in our goals, but this time is different. Soon, all of this city...all of the world, for that matter, will have no choice but to bow before us."

Wraith looked at his companion, "And what if the boy remembers too much?" The cloaked man said, "He will burn himself out. And if he doesn't destroy himself, then our master will have to do it for him."

Chapter 4

Rorek and Raven were sitting at the table after everyone had finished eating. "How did you do it...?" Raven asked, "How did you bring her back?" Raven sounded slightly angry. Rorek looked at her and said, "When I saw that statue, something inside me told me what I had to do, and I did it. The next thing I knew, she was falling off that pedestal."

A distant expression came over Raven, "Well you certainly made Beast Boy happy." Rorek chuckled, "Yeah, neither of them would shut up during dinner." After a moment, Rorek said, "Robin told me about how she betrayed you guys. I didn't know about that whenever I did what I did to free her. Do you think she can be trusted?"

Raven looked surprised at Rorek's question, "After talking to her, I do. I think she genuinely wanted to be our friend before she betrayed us, but she couldn't throw off Slade's control over her."

As Rorek and Raven were getting up from the table, an alarm went off. Robin and the others rushed into the room. Cyborg eagerly said, "Ok, where are we gonna do the butt kicking?" Robin looked puzzled, "At the top of the tower."

The Titans made their way to the top of the tower. There was a black cloaked figure standing there. His hands were glowing with a bluish-gray energy. Suddenly, a storm moved in off the bay, its lightning illuminating the figure in brief, eerie flashes of light.

The figure slowly raised his face toward the Titans and said in a coldly cruel voice, "Now that I have your attention. I am Caine, and I will be the last thing you ever see." He unleashed a blast of energy which rivaled Cyborg's most powerful sonic cannon attack. The Titans scattered, barely avoiding the blue-gray flames.

Robin leaped at the figure with his staff raised, and was shocked as Caine leaped straight at him, grabbing his staff and using the momentum from Robin's leap to twirl around and slam Robin to the ground.

Rorek, who had only the day before learned to fly, was hovering about six feet to the left of Raven. They looked at other and nodded. Before Caine even hit the ground after attacking Robin, two bolts of energy, one red and one black, slammed into him. An explosion of gold sparks emanated from Caine, and he fell to the ground. Cyborg, who had been firing his sonic cannon, yelled, "Boo ya! Score one for the Teen Titans! What?"

With a speed unmatched by normal humans, Caine had leaped to his feet and rushed Cyborg. The only thing that saved him was a huge green ram that plowed into Caine, sending him sprawling.

Terra, who had been circling the tower while gathering huge chunks of earth with her powers, let loose a barrage of rocks on Caine. With each rock that hit him, Caine stumbled back toward the edge of the tower. However, before he reached the edge he raised his hand towards Terra, spearing her with a blast of energy. Terra fell off of her rock, and over the edge of the tower. Beast Boy turned into a green hawk and swooped down after her.

Starfire, tired of seeing her friends getting pummeled, flew at Caine in what Cyborg would call a "full frontal assault", firing star bolts as she approached. Caine easily side stepped Starfire's attack and grabbed her. He easily tossed Starfire twenty feet, where she landed by an injured Robin.

Raven yelled her mantra, "Azerath Metrion Zinthos," and sent a huge ball of black energy towards Caine. Caine muttered something indistinct and leaped at Raven, who was hovering twenty five feet above the roof of Titans Tower. In mid flight he blasted Rorek with a beam of energy, sending him off the edge of the tower.

Wham! Caine hit Raven with a hard flying tackle that sent them both sprawling to the ground. "Now it's time to get down to business." Caine said with an evil smile. He stood directly over Raven, and aimed an energy blast at Raven's face.

"Touch her and die!" yelled Rorek, who landed on the roof with a thud. Caine was taken aback, "How did you...it doesn't matter. I think I'll kill first, and then finish with the girl."

Suddenly Rorek's eyes began to grow red, and the storm that had been going on suddenly stopped. Rorek looked Caine in the eye and growled, "I think not."

The two combatants stared at each other for a few seconds, then suddenly attacked. Caine leaped straight into the air, dodging a barrage of Rorek's spells. Caine was about to plant a foot in Rorek's face when suddenly, with supernatural speed, Rorek spun around, putting himself behind Caine.

Caine hesitated for an instant, and that was his downfall. Rorek placed his hand against Caine's back and said, "Try and kill this." A blinding flash of red light erupted from Rorek's hand, sending a surprised Caine tumbling over the edge of Titans Tower and into the bay below.

The red light in Rorek's eyes faded, and he fell unconscious onto the pavement.

An Interlude

Later, Caine managed to drag himself to the warehouse that had become his home. The man called Wraith was waiting for him. Wraith said, "From the looks of it, I'd say you failed in your mission to kill the girl." Caine who could barely manage to walk, sank into a chair and said, "Yes, the wizard is more powerful than we had originally thought. He has regained enough of his powers to challenge us-" Wraith interrupted, "But not enough to challenge him. He will never be strong enough to up any kind of a fight against him. We made sure of that."

Caine thought for a moment before saying, "So what are we going to do about them?" Wraith gave him a calculating stare and replied, "We will do nothing except wait for our preparations to be complete "

Rorek slowly returned to consciousness. As his eyes began to register what he was seeing, he saw Starfire standing over him. She gave a squeal and said in a loud voice, "You are ok!" She then gave him a hug that felt like it crushed a few of his ribs. "Shall I make you the pudding of wellness?" she asked. Rorek moaned, "Please, no!" and at seeing Starfire's expression he said, "I don't feel like eating anything right now."

Cyborg entered the room and walked over to where Rorek was laying, "Hey man," Cyborg said, "I'm glad to see your all right. You've been out for almost a whole day."

Rorek looked surprised, "It only seemed like a few minutes." Rorek raised himself off the bed and got to his feet. He was on his way to the kitchen to make himself something to eat when he met Raven in the hall. She looked at him and said, "You saved me." Rorek returned her look, noticing that she looked like she was dying to tell him something, but couldn't get it out. Rorek said, "Yeah, that's what friends are for, right?" He didn't seem to notice the look on Raven's face. Raven sighed and said, "Yeah, that's what they're for." She hung her head and walked away.

Later that night, Robin, Rorek, Stafire, and Cyborg were sitting around watching movies. Beat Boy and Terra, who had of late become inseparable, had gone out to see a movie. No one seemed to notice that Raven hadn't come down. After all, night was her favorite time of the day. Robin looked at Rorek and said, "You know, whenever your not around, Raven won't shut up about you." Rorek had a hard time picturing Raven talking a lot, much less about him.

Cyborg said, "Yeah, I think she likes you." Everybody got a big laugh out of that, except for Rorek. Rorek said, "What's so funny about her liking me?" Cyborg was wearing an expression of disbelief, "Have you ever actually talked to Raven? She's like queen of the ice planet!"

Robin grimaced as he moved his hurt arm the wrong way, "Raven might seem to be really cold, but she actually cares for everyone here, you included. She just can't show it because she has to control her emotions to keep her powers in check. You should try talking to her."

Cyborg imitated Robin, "You should try talking to her...if you like pain. You've seen what she does to BB when he tries to make her laugh."

Rorek nodded, "Yeah, but..." Maybe he would go talk to Raven. After all, she was kind of pretty, and had treated him really nice since he got here. He felt stupid for not realizing it earlier.

A couple of minutes later, he stood outside Raven's door. He knocked, "Hey Raven, can I talk to you for a minute?"

A/N: What do you think would happen if two spellcasters went on a date? Where would they go? What would they do? If you have any cool ideas, stick them in a review. Let me hear what you think.