The Ways of Magic

A/N: This story has hit five whole chapters, which is a first for me. I usually start writing something and scrap it after chapter one because I end up hating it. However, I really like this story. Anyway, enjoy chapter five. Thanks to a reviewer, I realized that I never explained what Rorek actually looks like in my story. He looks like he did in Spellbound, with the white hair and what not. His dark green cloak is open in the front, so it kind of looks like a green version of what Neo wore in the Matrix series. His staff is silver with a red crystal set into the top. That should help you visualize him better. The song excerpt at the beginning of this story doesn't mean this is turning into a song fic, I just thought that the lyrics were relevant to the story.

Chapter 5:

"Excuse the wall I put up from time to time,

A silver shade, the design is all mine.

Its just a maze, that everyday I seem to be stuck in.

It never seems to fade away,

But I pray for the day it ends."

From "Better Version" by Shinedown

The door slowly opened, revealing a very angry looking Raven. She was fuming, "Why must everyone interrupt my meditation?"

Rorek was visibly embarrassed at interrupting her meditation. "Uhh, Raven," Rorek said in an uncertain voice. "Would you like to go see a movie or something?"

Rorek mentally berated himself, "Really smooth, you idiot. First you interrupt her during her meditation, and then you ask her out. I wouldn't be surprised if she slaps you."

To Rorek's surprise, Raven's expression immediately changed from one of anger to an expression devoid of any emotion, and she said, "Ok."

Rorek looked at her and asked, "That's a yes, right?" Raven gave a small smile and said, "Yeah, that was a yes."

A little while later, Rorek and Raven were leaving the tower when they came across Beast Boy and Terra, who were holding hands as they entered the door. Beast Boy was surprised to see the two of them together. He said, "Hey, where are you two going?"

Rorek answered, "We're just going to a movie." Beast Boy was wearing a strange expression, "What, like a date? I didn't think Raven did dates, just like she supposedly didn't do fear." Terra didn't seem to understand what Beast Boy was referring to. Beast Boy and Terra left the room.

Rorek and Raven arrived at the theater, noticing that Wicked Scary 3 was playing. Beast Boy had told Rorek that it was good, so they decided to see it. The movie turned out to be a horrible piece of trash. It was so bad that Raven actually fell asleep on Rorek's shoulder.

After the movie, Rorek suggested that they go get something to eat at a Mexican food place that the Titans frequently visited. Raven agreed, and they made their way toward the restaurant. After they had been seated, Rorek noticed that they were staring at each other. Rorek decided to break the awkward silence, "Raven, I'm glad you went to that movie with me. I had a good time, even though the movie was crap."

Raven replied, "I usually don't say this much, but I've had a good time too." Rorek took a huge bite of enchilada and said, "That's good, I didn't figured you might like to get out of your room for a while?"

Raven looked slightly annoyed, "And what's wrong with me being in my room?" Rorek started to say something, but then he stopped himself and said, "I can't talk to you or hang out with you if your always in your room."

Raven looked surprised at Rorek's answer, "You really like hanging out with me? I don't know if you've realized this, but everyone else thinks I'm creepy." Rorek put a hand on Ravens shoulder, "Yeah, I know they think you're creepy, but I've already told you I don't." Rorek laughed, "Honestly, the thing that creeps me out the most at Titans Tower is when Starfire offers to make dinner. Now that's creepy."

Raven gave Rorek one of her rare smiles and said, "I'm glad you decided to stay with us at the tower." Rorek smiled back at her and said, "Yeah, I'm also glad I decided to stay too."

As they got up to leave, the manager told them that their meal was on the house. "It's always a pleasure to serve the Teen Titans." the manager said as they left. Rorek and Raven had barely made it out of the restaurant before a group of small kids surrounded them. The Titans had to deal with this sort of hero worship from kids on a regular basis, Robin and Cyborg in particular. However, most of the adults in Jump City regarded people like them with suspicion, due to the many villains that used powers similar to theirs. It put the Teen Titans in an awkward position, because a large portion of the cities inhabitants quietly labeled them as freaks - useful freaks - but still freaks.

"Hey," one of the kids asked, "Can we have your autographs?" Before Raven could make an excuse, Rorek said, "Sure, we'll give you our autographs." After signing whatever objects the kids wanted signed, Raven and Rorek flew to the top of one of Jump City's many skyscrapers.

They sat down on its edge and looked across the city. After a while Rorek said, "You know, before I became trapped in that book I could have never imagined a city this big." Raven replied, "It must have been a shock for you when you first arrived here. Have you remembered anything about those missing days before we found you?"

Rorek looked disappointed and said, "No, I still can't remember anything. I know that there is something really important that happened during that time. I can feel it."

Raven then did something that completely shocked Rorek, she kissed him. It was a quick kiss, but it was a kiss nonetheless. Rorek felt a strange mixture of happiness and shock. He looked Raven in the eye, noticing she was blushing beet red. In a world where magic was generally regarded with fear and suspicion, he had found someone he could relate to. And better yet, she really liked him. "Hey Raven, I think you should know that was -"

He never got to finish his sentence, because at that moment Raven's communicator started beeping. It was Robin, and he sounded worried. "Talk about bad timing." Rorek thought. Robin's voice crackled through the communicator, "Hey, come back to the tower, we have some visitors you guys might know."

Rorek stood up and helped Raven to her feet, "For some reason, I don't think that this is gonna be good."

They arrived at the tower, noticing a strange car parked close to it. When they entered the living room, they saw who these 'visitors' were. There was an attractive looking girl with pink hair sitting on the couch, and a small boy, who was walking on mechanical spider legs that extended out of his back pack. They were Jinx and Gizmo from HIVE Academy.

Ravens expression, which up until that point had almost been happy, soured, and she said in her typical icy voice, "All right, what are they doing here?"

Robin who had been talking to Gizmo, said, "Apparently, that guy Caine has been attacking many of the HIVE's magic using students. It appears someone is trying to get rid of all of the spellcasters in this city. If I hadn't seen Caine attempt to kill Raven, I wouldn't have believed these two. As much as I hate to say this, I think we should help them."

Rorek, who had been silently thinking to himself, said, "And Jinx is a magic user, right?"

Jinx said, "Yes, I specialize in curses. I'm the only spellcaster at HIVE that this...Caine...hasn't managed to pound yet."

Cyborg said, "So they want our help in finding Caine and putting him out of commission." Cyborg adjusted one of his settings and said, "Hey BB, are you even listening?"

Beast Boy had until that point been in the form of a cat laying on Terra's lap. He jumped down, shifted into his normal form and said, "Yeah, I'm listening. You say that we're supposed to take out this Caine. Didn't you notice that Rorek was the only one of us that could even scratch him?"

Rorek said, "Maybe that's so, but I couldn't slow him down enough so we could get any information out of him."

Cyborg looked very pleased with himself as he said, "We don't need to get information anymore. When I managed to blast him with my sonic cannon, I also attached a micro tracking beacon to him. At first it didn't seem to be working, but just recently my sensors began picking up its signal."

Robin asked, "Where is he now?"

Cyborg pressed a few buttons on his arm display, "He's currently at an old warehouse near the harbor."

Robin said, "Titans, and you two," he gestured to Jinx and Gizmo, "Lets go."

The arrived at the warehouse a short while later. It was locked, so Raven blasted the lock off the door. As they walked inside, Cyborg said, "I just lost him! He was here a second ago, and now he's not!"

"Split up and look for anything that could tell us what's going on here." Robin said. They searched the warehouse for about half an hour before hearing Raven and Rorek say that they found something.

The group met in the middle of the warehouse and waited as Raven explained some very bad news. Raven held up a large leather bound book. She explained, "This is called the Draconomicon, the book of dragons. In this book are all of the secret rituals of the dragons. Summoning, binding, even destruction spells are contained within its pages. I found it opened to the ritual that would allow someone to bind the spirit of a dragon into a human being. That would allow the dragon to move unnoticed through the city, while retaining all of its draconic abilities."

Rorek didn't look too worried, "That's not so bad. We could take down a normal dragon with no problem. The hardest part would be finding the possessed human."

Raven gave Rorek an look that said she wasn't done explaining, "This particular spell only works on elder dragons. And as far as I know, there is only one elder dragon spirit that would still be a viable candidate for this ritual."

Rorek started nervously pacing, "That's impossible. Please, tell me you don't mean -"

Raven cut him off, and said the name of the one being that Rorek never wanted to face again.

"Malchior."

Rorek paled and managed to weakly say, "Oh...".

An Interlude:

In a dark room in some nameless building, the man called Wraith listened to Raven's entire explanation through a small listening device that he had installed in the warehouse. He turned to the man in a black cloak, "They already know of the ritual, we had hoped they wouldn't learn of it until later."

The man in black smiled, an expression that gave him the look of the grim reaper on a good day, "Don't worry Wraith, you have done well in the preparations for my return, and you will be richly rewarded. I have to congratulate you on choosing Caine as my host body, his superhuman strength and speed greatly compliment my already formidable powers. As for the Titans finding out about our plans, they don't even have any idea that the ritual has already been carried out. I think we will have a bit of fun with them before we destroy them."

Wraith looked relieved that he was not going to be punished for the Titans discovery of the plan.

Wraith nodded and said, "Whatever you wish, Malchior my lord."