This doesn't technically fall under the drabble catagory--it started as one, but it mutated. This is a teaser from my upcoming story!

Title: lacking. Plot: underworks.

I'm posting it 'cause I said I would.

AU, Raven's crazy. Enjoy.


There wasn't a stir in the house; all was calm and peaceful. The grandfather clock's bells echoed down a corridor, the faint snoring of a man escaped a room. The rustling of sheets could be heard, and an occasional click of claws against tiles ricocheted off the walls. A figure slipped past the slightly ajar door of a room of a child, the sleeping mutt dog, and into the room of a sleeping couple.

Raven leaned against the bookcase, watching the male sleeping soundly. She cocked her head, blinking with interested eyes. This was the man Slade had insisted on? He was hardly a target. But then again, lately Slade had been driving her up the wall with the strangest of victims.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," she whispered, engulfing the man in a black light. He didn't wake, and it was probably for the better. She closed her fist and phased through the wall, carrying the sleeping man with her. Once inside the warehouse, she brought the man five feet in the air and let him drop.

"Good evening," Raven said dully, buffing her nails against her chest.

The man looked up at Raven with a sleepy gaze. "Who… Where… Where the fuck did Lydia put damned that remote?" Raven couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"Mr…Jackson, was it?"

"Johnson," he corrected. He still hadn't realized what was going on.

"Well, Mr. Johnson," she smiled chillingly, "pleasure to meet you. My name is Raven." At this the man's eyes bulged. Raven smiled inwardly; it was beginning to sink in. He knew who she was and she was glade. She, unlike her mentor, hated going on about how he was superior and had the upper-hand and was clearly beyond any mental capacity he could begin to imagine—

"Heard of me?" she mused, twirling the dagger in her hand.

"W-What d-do you want w-with me?" he choked out. Raven could sense the fear radiating off him, and she liked it. Fear made her stronger. Fear was her steroids, stroking her ego and soothing her mind. Her smile only grew.

"I don't want anything, actually. Why someone wants you dead isn't my business," she lied. "I just kill; it's easier not to ask questions," Raven replied shortly, throwing aside her cloak. She just hated to get blood on it. She crouched down to his level.

"So how do you want it? Quick or slow and painful? Seeing the blood is always the fun part, and swishing your head off would make it painless for you," she offered. For a moment, the man thought she was joking. The moonlight reflected through the skylight, giving a sliver of her face light. It was clear she wasn't.

Not that it was expected, he thought. The Raven was dark and heartless, rumored to be past insanity. She was both a witch and mercenary; if you were her target, you would not live to see the next sunrise.

Excuses began to sputter out of his mouth uncontrollably, "I have a family! M-my job! My step-mother is dying…" he pleaded, scooting as far away from her as possible.

Pathetic, Raven thought. Excuses, excuses. Couldn't they just take death like a noble person? Raven sighed and threw her head around. "I have a family, I'm engaged, I've saved lives, I'm a superhero, yadda-yadda. I've heard them all."

The man paused as something clicked in his head. "Y-you killed Terra, didn't you?" The man's eyes had grown wide with fear; the geomancer had been rumored to have committed suicide. Had the femme fatale really been the cause of her death? I knew she was crazy…but a superhero?

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. It's all a blur to me anyhow. I like to assume I did, since God knows I hated the little bitch's guts," Raven said. She threw the dagger in the air one last time, catching it by its handle. It was now aimed in the direction of the man's heart.

"H-her body was never found…" he whispered, lost in his own thought.

"Can't say the same for yours," Raven said in her monotonous voice. She brought down the dagger.

Ten minutes later, Raven walked out of the warehouse once again twirling her weapon and licking the blood from her fingers.


An excerpt, remember!

Review? I'd like feedback on this one.