Chapter four of this piece and while it's been long delayed, I feel it was worth waiting to not leave a cliffhanger in place to torment you all. Anyway, legal disclaimer and then story. I don't own Teen Titans in any way, shape, or form. That honor belongs to Cartoon Network and I have no intent of challenging them. I don't seek a profit from this and merely hope to avoid being sued… Please enjoy.

A Raven amid the HIVE

By Wordbearer2

The white-clad girl paused in front of the rundown warehouse and approached a seemingly normal wall. Resisting the urge to react, she stepped into the moldering brick and passed into a gleaming yellow chamber. Looking up from the shadows of her hood, the girl met the electronic eye that glared from the corner. A voice droned, "Step forward and prepare for retinal identification. Failure to do so will result in immediate termination." Sighing, she pulled back her hood revealing a short-cut swath of blond hair and light blue eyes. She put her eye up to the scanner and tensed as a green beam of light played over her dilated pupil. The voice spoke again, "Scan analyzed. Subject identified as HIVE student designate: Erinnyes Liche, Trainee. Welcome to HIVE academy." A hidden door slid open and revealed a hallway layered in hexagonal panels. The petite girl slipped in and sighed in relief as the door closed silently behind her. Relief thundered through her mind. There had been no guarantee that she would get this far.

The monotonous voice rang out suddenly, but her only reaction was to turn bored eyes towards the speaker unit, "Erinnyes Liche. New students are to report to Headmaster Blood as soon as they arrive on site. Please proceed to the training room C. You will find him there. If you do not know how to reach that location, this unit will…" 'Erinnyes Liche' rolled her eyes in exasperation as the voice droned on and on, though she carefully took note of the machine's instructions, amused by the fact that it was utterly unaware it was speaking to an imposter. It had taken surprisingly little effort to hack into HIVE records and create the alias she was currently using: Erinnyes Liche, HIVE Trainee.

"It was like they wanted people to create false records for some reason," thought Raven. Cyborg had completed the task in under 20 minutes, even with all his double checking and anti-tracking work. This made the disguised dark mystic nervous for some reason now that she was here. She was walking in the heart of one of her team's greatest foes, seriously thinking about sabotaging their operation. Her white gown swishing against her legs, Raven focused as she walked, calming the flurry of concern that threatened her self-control. The slight flush was gone from her features by the time she reached the entrance to her destination. The doors opened as she approached revealing a spectacle.

The room was expansive; the size of a coliseum. The center of the chamber was a sunken pit filled with explosions as a trio of metahumans dashed towards a raised platform. The sight of this trio temporarily froze Raven. Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo were at combat practice, using their respective strengths to make their way through the automated obstacle course. Flares of purple light cascaded from a slight figure that leapt, spun, and flipped through a swarm of buzzing drones. Gizmo smirked from the relative safety of the air, borne up by his jumpack. Hails of missiles and strobes of laser fire screamed from the darting figure's miniscule frame and left a trail of destruction as he advanced, lost in a childish frenzy. A pillar cracked in half and toppled towards a trio of heavyset robots. One was crushed and detonated with a dull thumping boom. Mammoth charged through the cloud of dust and tore a surviving robot in half before turning toward the survivor who charged its weapon. The robot never fired as purple sparks rippled over its surface and the hulking construct fell to pieces. Gizmo zoomed overhead. The trio continued their progress, making the effort seem like child's play.

A hand on Raven's shoulder startled her out of her trance-like state. Raven swiftly recovered from her surprise as a smooth male voice spoke from behind her, "You must be new to the academy if you're impressed by those three." Raven turned and faced the speaker a look of question on her face. He was tall and well built, draped in a purple bat-like cape with translucent goggles. The dark mystic recognized him as one of the people who had taken Terra.

She kept her voice in a steely monotone and stared directly at his face as she responded, "Why would that be?" The boy was unphased by the look, a first in Raven's experience. He smirked and crossed his arms over his chest, a smug look in his brown eyes.

He spat at the trio of HIVE agents as they made their way through the last of their run, "They're a bunch of screw ups. Had to be held back and demoted a couple of grades. They got their butts kicked justa day ago. It's the talk of the academy." Raven didn't react at all to his spiel as she noted the information for future reference.

He cocked his head and grinned, "You must be new. I'm sure that I would remember someone with such a pretty face… Anyway, my name is Nightclaw, but you can call me John."

The dark mystic was both repulsed and stunned, the combination swiftly fermenting into rage as her innate dignity was riled up. That this… this… ape would dare to approach her in such a manner made her want to slam him through the nearest wall. She suppressed the urge with practiced ease as she replied, "Erinneyes Liche. Is that supposed to be some kind of pickup line?"

Nightclaw replied, "It's not a pickup line if it's true. Why? Do you think it's a pickup line? I think that someone's interested."

Raven let an ounce of the disgust of she felt boiling inside her show on her face as she cuttingly retorted, "You have no idea how that makes me wish I wasn't here right now. I make it a habit to date inside my species. There are enough low-browed cretins like yourself to point out the dangerous results of doing otherwise."

Bruce's look lost some of its cockiness and anger rushed to fill the void, "Okay, Erin. You want to play it that way? Be my guest, let's see how much cover I give you when we have to do tag team sparring, you little…"

Nightclaw's rant was aborted as a smooth voice issued from behind him, "Come now, Nightclaw. That is no way to speak to a new student, especially a new student who seems to have a quite a quick tongue in her mouth."

John paled and murmured, "Yes, Headmaster." A tall slim figure robed in white and gold patted the student's shoulder and passed into Raven's sight. The narrow distinguished face with its tufts of white hair and sharp intelligent eyes was previously emblazoned in her memory. This was Brother Blood.

Blood spoke again, directing his attention to Raven, "If I'm not mistaken, you are Miss Liche, the latest of my students. I am pleased to meet any who would be willing to learn in my simple school." Blood waved at the grandiose chamber and chuckled. A circle of watching students clad in a mish-mash of outfits laughed nervously with him, a fact that made Raven shore up her mental screens all the more securely.

Blood gestured and the laughter stopped abruptly as he continued, "I was especially concerned to meet you, your transcripts indicate that you specialize in Telepathy, Telekinesis, and Teleportation. Not the easiest of gifts to master, even given your exemplary records." The headmaster's eyes glittered with secret amusement and made the hair on the back of Raven's neck stand up. Something made the dark mystic want to tense up around Blood, something more than the fact of his telepathic power. As he spoke, she could hear something around his voice an undertone of ceaseless screams she felt at the edge of her hearing.

Raven forced herself to ignore the unease and gaze attentively as Blood continued, "I make a point to have special tutoring session with all my telepaths. I consider it my duty to help other's master the gifts that brought me such trouble in my youth. An unbound telepath can bring such misery on themselves and other people. Would you not agree that discipline is the key to using such power?"

Raven answered softly, "Of course."

The half-daemon wanted away from Blood. Now! The causeless fear that was bubbling up from her subconscious was nearly overwhelming; something primal that would overcome her inhibitions in a matter of minutes. She was caught by Blood's gaze and his smile was tainted with malevolence as a trickle of sweat slipped from the shadows of her white hood. The blowing of an siren announced the end of the trio's training session and the ring of HIVE students shuffled nervously, not wanting to break their leader's chat, but fully aware that he would be furious if they neglected their other duties. The white robed leader shook his head and turned away from Raven, a harmless smile playing over his benign features.

In a booming tone, Blood said, "I must have lost track of the time. Come, come students. On to your other duties…" The mass of students broke for the door and scattered into the halls, leaving Raven alone in the aisle between the seats.

Blood called over his shoulder to her as he went to talk with Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo about their performance, "Go to procure a room from the boarding officer. I'm sure you're tired and I want you bright and chipper for our meeting tomorrow morning. I have to reprimand some of your regrettably sloppy fellow students…"

He turned away and Raven let her breath quicken as he was lost from sight. That had been one of the most intense conversations she had ever experienced and she was determined not to have to go through it again. Raven turned and walked into the near empty halls, the white cloth of her outfit clashing softly with the yellow walls. She frowned as she thought, "I nearly lost it. What's wrong with me? Everything was manageable before, but now the least thing sets me off… Everything has been off ever since that fight, the one with… Terra." She privately cursed the blond to ten thousand years in the Abyss, sobering as she quickly realized that the depths of Terra's shattered mind could indeed contain horrors that made her Father's realm look tame.

Raven grimaced in anger and shook her head in self disgust, "I'm better than this. I can control my emotions. I'll get the information we need and get out of here. Then this thing with all its accursed ghosts will be put away and never trouble me again." She resentfully glared at the white gown she wore and paused to chant her mantra under her breath.

Suitably calmed, she didn't startle as a toneless voice inquired, "HIVE Trainee Liche, do you require assistance? I can direct to the boarding officer's chamber to acquire a room. Alternately, I can guide you to the cafeteria to eat before you travel to that location if you are hungry." The automaton waited patiently for her to respond. Raven blinked in thought. The mention of food was the catalyst that prompted a rumble from her stomach.

She nodded as she replied, "Cafeteria please." "Of course, Miss Liche. Please follow the drone to your desired destination." A small buzzing robot shot out of a hidden panel and flew down the hall. Raven followed the energetically bouncing ball of light and halted in front of a set of double doors labeled 'cafeteria'.

Raven slipped into the noisy cafeteria and immediately regretted her choice. The tables were almost full at this hour of the afternoon, arrays of costumed metahumans busily chatting it up with one another. She had never had the misfortune to go through the social pressure cooker known to most of her teammates as high school, but Raven had no trouble imagining that this had some resemblance to that experience. The dark mystic determinedly made her way over to the window where purple-robed figures served anonymous food stuffs. More than a few male eyebrows cocked interestedly at her. Raven made herself ignore the lecherous stares and promised herself to think of something creative to do to Cyborg when this was over… Taking a place in the queue, she took what was offered her, not letting her disgust at the unappetizing foodstuffs show on her face. Raven got out of the line and looked for somewhere to sit that was less crowded. There was one curiously empty table in the middle of the room and she made a beeline for it, arms burdened with the tray.

Someone called out, "You might not want to sit there. It's reserved for…" The half-daemon looked directly at the hapless student and even with her features masked by the appealing facade of Cyborg's illusionary skin, the student fell silent.

"I will not play your petty games," Raven whispered to the student body at large. She took a seat and set to eating with a mindless stubbornness. The potatoes were overcooked. The meat was pink and greasy, sitting in a puddle of stinking fat. The only thing worth eating was a small pile of string beans and even they were pocked with brown spots. Nevertheless, it was what she would have to subside on and she would tolerate what she had to in order to fulfill her promises.

A shadow fell over her and the dark mystic looked up, the act causing the hood to fall from her head. Gizmo, Jinx and Mammoth loomed over her; well, Mammoth did at any rate. Gizmo called at from a level somewhere in the vicinity of her knee, "Hey, newbie! This is our table, get lost."

Jinx added, "Yeah, this table is cursed. Anyone who sits here without our permission suffers minor embarrassment. I'm the good luck charm that keeps the curse away." A purple glint flashed in Jinx's eyes to match her malicious grin.

Mammoth hopped into the conversation, "You might say that this is our special table. Yah know? One just for us gifted students."

The towering blond cocked his head and grinned, "Although… We could make an exception for you. Always good to have fresh blood." The look the other two flashed him convinced Raven that the line had not been part of the plan.

Gizmo complained, "You lughead! This is our table! We're not sharing it with no one." The diminutive genius would have continued, but Mammoth picked him up by his backpack and dumped him down on a bench on the other side of the table.

"She stays. It pays to be nice to new students," Mammoth continued as he took a seat by Raven and motioned for Jinx to take a seat next to Gizmo. Jinx looked disbelievingly at him, but complied. The half-daemon took all this in and ruefully reflected on the indignity of it all.

As Mammoth shoveled down his food, Jinx leaned forward, interested despite herself, and asked, "How long have you been going here? You're new. I can tell."

Keeping her face carefully neutral, Raven replied, "I just enrolled. First day here."

Now Jinx was intrigued, "Really. Where did you do your prep work? Nobody gets in here without an impressive…"

Mammoth cut her off with his mouth still half full, "Don't pester her. She's cool enough sit with us isn't she? What's your name, sweet cheeks?" He put his arm around her shoulder, a profound violation of Raven's personal space that she found deeply offensive even from people she trusted.

This kind of disrespect from Mammoth made her next statement drip contempt and dull anger, "My name isn't sweet cheeks. Never call me that name again if you want to have children."

Mammoth guffawed, deeply amused with her response, and answered her, "That's spunk. I like that in a girl, even more than good looks. Now what's your name again?"

Gizmo muttered under his breath, "Gonad crazed moron." Jinx flashed Raven an bitter look.

She cut in sardonically, "First day and you already have guys wrapped around your fingers. How do you do it?" Raven didn't hear this comment. She was focused on containing the fury that was surging upwards with every comment that passed Mammoth's lips. She distantly heard him ask for her name again when she decided to follow a rash impulse.

She turned her head to Mammoth, looking him squarely in his smug eyes, "My name is Erinneyes Liche and I am the last human being on this planet you want to tick off. Too late for you." Confusion bloomed in his eyes as she touched his face with one gloved hand and sent a psychic probe lancing into his mind. It was easy, too easy. His mind had been weakened by previous telepathic probes and steady subliminal programming. It wasn't much of mental leap for her to connect the damaged mind to the robed headmaster of HIVE academy. This was a brief side shot of her main effort, the stream of horror she shot into the hulking male's brain. A thousand nightmare images, many of them left there by her Father as mementos of his visits, scenes from the Abyss that no human being should see, poured directly into Mammath's brain and he could not help but wither under the assault. The fear grew a hundredfold as it gathered images from Mammoth's mind to reinforce the assault. She grinned, drawing pleasure from the vicarious terror she was inflicting on her victim as he shied away from her and fell off the bench, weeping and slipping into the fetal position.

Jinx shot to her feet and demanded, "What did you do?" This shook Raven from the ecstatic trance and she shuddered with repulsion. The entire cafeteria was staring at them, at the massive youth rocking on the floor and wetting himself, at the slight newcomer who had reduced one of their most feared members to a shattered wreck.

Mammoth groaned in a tortured undertone and mumbled, "No. Mom, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt him. We were playing tag… Don't hit me. Please. Mom, please, I'm sorry…" Raven was suddenly ashamed of her pleasure at hurting him and got up to go.

Jinx blocked her escape and demanded, "I don't know what you did to him, but this isn't over. We'll talk later. Count on it." Jinx stepped to one side and the chastened half-daemon hurried out of the room. The others watched her silently, forming a corridor for her to flee through.

Before distance drowned it out, Raven heard Mammoth cry out, "Don't hit me, mommy! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She gulped and hurried on her way.

Raven pulled out a small ovoid communicator from a hidden pouch and tapped it lightly to activate it. She whispered softly into the device, "Raven to Titans Tower. Come in."

Beastboy's voice answered, "…is that button? If Cyborg is going to make this thing so complicated, he should color code it or…"

Raven sighed. Some things never change. "Beastboy, you turned it on. Now listen to me."

The changeling sounded embarrassed, "Oh. Right. What are you doing calling in so soon? Shouldn't you be settling in for a few days before doing anything?" Raven pulled her hood further over her hood as she reflected ruefully.

She said, "Ideally, yes. There's been an incident however and Brother Blood is sure to be interested in me soon. There's no way I can stand up to him psychically if he brings himself fully to bear from what I've sensed.

There was a long pause before Beastboy answered, "That's bad… Just get on a computer and get some info quick. Robin's going to be ticked, but I'm sure he already has a plan B, C, and D ready."

The dark mystic replied in a droll monotone, "Right. I'm across from the computer lab now. I'll call back after I get what information I can." She snapped of the communicator before he could answer back.

Raven calmly walked across the hall and entered the room. The place was all but deserted and dark as a tomb. The only light came from the lamps that hung above each computer station. Raven pulled back her hood and breathed deeply before taking a seat in front of a monitor. As the screen lit up, she reflected that there was a part of her that would never trust these things completely, some quiet dread would linger on that these super machines were merely bidding their time before turning on their builders. She shoved the thought aside and set to work navigating the HIVE's systems. Irrationally paranoid as she was about computers, the half-daemon had made a point to master their use and her fingers flew over the keyboard and mouse like a swarm of spiders. She entered a folder labeled 'Students' and skimmed fruitlessly for Terra's name. Exhausting all other prehacking options, a feat she did not feel up to, Raven opened a document called 'Class Project' out of desperation. She could not have much time left.

The contents of the file made her eyes narrow and she set into the task of reading the voluminous document. The communicator beeped from within its resting place and Raven picked it up with her free hand as she continued to scroll down the page, taking in information.

She answered, "Raven here."

Cyborg's voice sounded worried as it issued from the device, "What's this I hear that you've screwed up already and need to get out of there? I swear if you…"

Raven was terse as she replied, "Cyborg. Feel free to chew me out later. Do you want to hear what HIVE's 'Class Project' is?"

Cyborgwasmiffed, "Why not? If you're screwing up my mission, I might as well listen to read me the details of their homework assignment."

Raven was deadly serious, "They're building something called a nuero-plasmic amplifier. When it's equipped to the right person, it will allow them to safely increase their energy output by 1000. You're on their list of ideal subjects by the way."

Cyborg exclaimed loudly enough to make Raven wince, "What?!? What in the name of heck is that thing?"

"I don't know. They didn't have the schematics in this file. If I look…" The room was flooded with light as someone switched on the overhead lights along the walls of the room.

Her short blond hair swinging, Raven snapped her head up and her face turned to stone as she took in the person standing in the doorway. Brother Blood gazed at her enigmatically with his arms behind his back. The white and gold robe ruffled gently as he slowly walked into the room. The dark mystic dropped the communicator and rose to her feet, fighting back the strange fear rising in her gut. Her eyes locked onto Blood and she held her tongue. Raven focused on her mantra to gather energy for the fight which was sure to follow.

Blood's tone was low and even, "Miss Erinneyes Liche, that little display of yours was most impressive. I would think that you would be eager to brag about such power. It would certainly warrant special training, perhaps even one-on-one tutoring with myself." He bowed his head and stopped talking. This display of mock humility did nothing to reassure Raven as the ever present screaming that accompanied Blood's presence suddenly spiked in volume, making her want to clap her hands over her ears for all the good that would do. Blood looked up and his eyes were as crimson as his name sake, a glow that made his face seem anything but attractive.

Raven felt waves of telepathic power wash over her mind as Blood started to speak again, "That is, unless you wanted to not attention, melt into the ranks of my students and avoid my attentions as much as possible. That doesn't seem like the go-getter attitude that someone with as spotless a transcript as yours would want. It is the perfect attitude for a spy though, Miss Liche. Or should I call you Raven?" The dark mystic tensed, physically and psychically, a sense of relief permeating her being at the ending of the masquerade. This relief was quite small at the realization that it was Brother Blood she would have to get past before leaving.

Blood's voice spiked in volume, "I won't tolerate the presence of a disruptive pupils in my school! Prepare for some of that one-on-one tutoring I promised, Miss Raven!" His hand shot out and a coruscating bolt of red lightning arched through the half-daemon's body. She was thrown against the wall and grunted against the pain. Her eyes flared and a computer monitor rose into the air. It didn't go far however, when the ebony power suspending it was inexplicably absorbed into her adversary's body. The drain caused another burst of visceral agony that Raven couldn't keep from her face. Blood smiled as he lobed another bolt of power into her and made her drop to her knees.

Raven chanted, "Azarath medrion Zinthos," and attempted to bring the ceiling above the white-haired headmaster down on him as he walked forward. Blood's eyes flared as this caused an even greater surge of pain throughout her body.

Raven could barely hear Blood as he chuckled, "Well, well. Now I know one thing about the Titans' most mysterious member. You're at least part-daemon." From her crouching position, Raven could see the hem of Blood's robe. She felt limp and drained by Blood's mere presence and moaned in agony as his touch made her feel like he was sucking the life from her. He lifted her by her chin effortlessly, his thin arm seeming to not even feel her body weight.

He stared her in the eye as he spoke, "Through all these centuries, I have bested many daemonic spawn. But have not done so in the last two hundred years. The burden of a reputation I suppose. I must thank you for this opportunity."

All Raven could see through a film of pain was Blood's face and all she could hear through the screaming was his voice as it hammered into her head from all directions. She barely felt it as Blood slammed her against the wall and he intoned, "As you haven't dissolved into ebony mist at my touch, you must be at least partially human as well and since you have so much power… I can make use of you. Let me show you the benefit of being a graduate of HIVE academy." Her mental screens were pounded from all sides with crushing violence and barely held. She slipped into her mind and ignored everything else: the pain of her bruises, the cold leeching touch of Blood's hand on her throat, and the crackle of sparks as the rings shorted out, stripping her of Cyborg's disguise. She would not allow Blood into her mind, could not.

He spoke as he assaulted her mental stronghold, crushing her will in a vice, "You are most impressive and obviously benefited from a skilled tutor for one so young. I have cracked open masters of the mystic arts in the time it took me to say this sentence…" A bladed mental wind swept over her shields, abrading her mind.

Raven said nothing and Blood continued, "Why are you so stubborn? No teenager can be so self assured as to be willing to stand alone against the world. And from what little I can see, you are so very alone…" The word 'alone' echoed in her highly ordered mind, over barren expanses of suppressed memories and past crystalline prisons of thought holding back every impulse she had ever felt. The dissonance weakened her shields for a second and Blood exploited a minute fracture in her wall and slipped into her head. With a flex of mental tendrils, he shattered her wall and poured over her mind, seeping into every thought.

Raven's mind was lost in the crimson tide of Blood's power, the feral stink of rich ichor filling every corner of her psyche and staining everything with his cruel presence. His voice thundered through her universe like the voice of an angry god, "I have never seen such a delicate mind as yours, one so afraid of itself and the world. I surprised that you were capable of destroying Terra's mind so completely. You hold your own brain together with pure will and regiment your thought like deadly chemicals. What in this void keeps you breathing from day to day? Why don't you give up?" Crude lances of thought stabbed into her locked memories evoking a thousand images: Azar, the temple, endless hours listening to prayer and smelling fragrant incense, a mother's hand on her young cheek, sneaking an extra rice cake from the temple kitchens. The images skipped ahead ten years to a meeting with new people who didn't look at her with hate, a black haired woman who tended to her blazing forehead as she fought off the flu in a doorless tower, meeting a group of young people she would come to regard as friends, hoarded images of pleasure amid a life of ceaseless discipline.

Blood laughed, "You hoard your happiness like a miser… What makes you so protective? Why do you think that all this could be taken away in seconds? I can help you. I can give you control, I can give you the happiness you are so starved for… Just give in to me. It's all I ask and I will give you everything you've ever desired for yourself."

Raven whispered softly, "No. I won't. I can't…" It was a desperate cry from the one corner of her thoughts she kept free, a cry that spoke of endless discipline even as her mind was inundated.

Blood's face was creased with a frown as his mental voice shouted, "I'm offering you salvation from yourself! Salvation from isolation, salvation from fear, and the gift of belonging! You want it. I know that for a fact! You're afraid of something else, something other than betraying your teammates. I will find out and make you mine…" Raven saw a massive crimson fist rise in her mind's eye and slam down against the surface of her mind. It bored into her subconscious, past basic urges both human and daemonic, urges that seemed locked in permanent war. Fear, so primal, so complete that it made her voice fall silent filled her as Blood's probe hung near a glistening sphere of thought. Streaming energy was wrapped around a void in her soul, a hole in her mind that seemed to go on forever.

Blood was truly astonished and the wonder showed in his voice, "This is like nothing I have ever sensed. This is the something you fear, it corrupts your mind and takes so much power that you have nothing to spare for yourself. If I remove it, you are mine…" Blood reached out and grabbed the ethereal shell that wrapped the void, ripping it with mental talons.

In the real world, the headmaster's face twitched in curiosity as he thought, "Odd, this construct is lending your mind power. How is that…" Blood's body stiffened in sympathetic pain as his soul was gripped by a fist of pure daemonic might. Blood's probe was dissolving into crimson streamers as ebony cords stabbed out from the holes his probe had made in the barrier and held him immobile before an ageless gaze.

A deep, rumbling voice sardonically intoned, "I believe that humans have a concept called private property. A concept I find most sensible. Humans also prove temperamental when they find someone abusing their property. I share that reaction and I am feeling most temperamental." The voice echoed through Raven's mind and into Blood's.

Raven spasmed in mindless fear as the horrifically familiar voice continued, "I find it deeply offensive that people like you play at these games. It is the job of me and my kin to torment human souls. Anything you mortals do is child's play compared to the skill of those who have had eons to refine our craft in the depths of the Abyss." The voice experimentally squeezed Blood's mind and the headmaster convulsed. Physically, Brother Blood dropped Raven and flung himself backwards against the computer desks. He stumbled over a chair and fell.

Blood gritted his teeth and whispered aloud, "You… Can't… Touch me, daemon. My shawl protects… Me!" He screamed as the voice squeezed again.

Dark amusement as old as time itself reverberated in the daemon's response, "Normally yes. That little trinket you have sown into your skin protects you from daemons on the physical and magical levels. But how can the power of your God's Avatar protect you when you stick your mind into a doorway of the Abyss, located in the depths of a daemonlord's scion's soul?" Trigon squeezed in a particularly painful manner and let go of his prize, allowing Blood's ravaged mind retreat all the way back to his body. A flurry of dark tendrils lashed out of the slowly healing orb and smoothed over the most ravaged portions of Raven's mind, repairing her enough to bring her consciousness out of shock.

Trigon symbolically slapped Raven's psyche and sternly said, "Now, daughter. This pretentiousfool has made a mess of your lovingly ordered mind, but I need you alive. You need to get a certain distance away fromhim before you can teleport to the safe embrace of your friends."

Raven asked a hesitant question, too stunned to understand what just happened, "Why are you helping me? I'm in exactly the kind of state you've wanted me in…"

Trigon sighed, "If only that were the case. I consider it unsporting compassion to coddle you in a moment of weakness, but the shell you have built to contain me is a touch too strong for me to control you safely…" In the depths of Raven's mind, the orb blocking Trigon's passage was healing, cutting off his tendrils one by one. Raven opened her eyes and stared at Brother Blood. The headmaster was clutching his skull and groaning softly, twitching in tightly controlled pain.

Trigon chided her urgently, "Child. He won't remain that way for long, his mind is too resilient even for me to break on such short notice, and you need to get moving. Now go, you aren't that hurt." Trigon's voice faded away amid the chorus of screams that emanated from Brother Blood.

The dark mystic pulled herself to her feet and tried to ignore the overwhelming soreness of her body. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, sparks of ebony power flashing along her frame and channeling toward Blood. She took one step at a time and ignored the moans of the stunned headmaster. Her purple hair was limp with sweat. Raven felt like collapsing where she stood. But her accursed Father was right; she had to keep moving and get away from Blood and back to the tower.

"To do anything else would be foolish and I am not a fool," Raven murmured under her breath. She clung to that one spec of certainty amid a sea of confusion. Brother Blood. Trigon. Azar. Mother. Cyborg. Starfire. The images kaleidoscopically reeled through her head. Out in the hallway, she fell back against the wall. Her gown lay tangled amid her legs, but the dark mystic could not bring herself to care. There was too much else to feel and without the headmaster's dampening presence, her power was causing minature explosions of chaos to rise from the floor around her. Trigon had saved her. She wearily catalogued that thought away for another day, another century. She couldn't feel the aura of dread that Blood emitted out here and that would have to be far enough, the last drops of energy seemed to have fled from her body. Raven whispered her mantra and felt a surge of power answer the invocation. Focusing inward, Raven vanished amid a flash of black light.

So you made it down here… What did you think? Good? Bad? Confusing as Hell? Leave a review if you see fit. Just so that people know, I did not make up Brother Blood's ability to absorb Raven's telekinesis. That bit of lore is straight from the comics, albeit with a bit of tweaking to accommodate the difference between the cartoon and the source material. I hope you enjoyed and thank you for your time.