"Your brother?" Nightwing asks, leaning back in his seat. Raven watches as his eyes glaze over. He's running through plans in his head before she even gives him a full account of their opponent. Raven nods, although Nightwing isn't fully paying attention at this point. She looks at all her teammates who are much more attentive.
"I will assume that you do not hold brotherly affection for this man?" Starfire asks. Raven nods again.
"Trigon has fathered hundreds of sons after me, but the six following me are the most powerful. Each of their powers coincide with the seven deadly sins."
"But there are only six of them?" Garfield asks, his folded hands are supporting his chin as he leans in close.
"I'm the seventh," Raven says. That stops the questions for a few moments.
"But you powers aren't-" Cyborg pauses, rubbing his bald head. "Sinly?"
Raven quirks her eyebrows. "Shooting black energy from my fingertips not dark enough for you?"
"You know what I mean," Cyborg grumbles. Raven nods.
"The pride within you is tangible to me; I can manipulate it," Raven says, crossing her legs. The team looks at her with parted lips. It was like their questions hung like weights on their lower jaw. She sighs. "I can play with the levels of pride in you so that it obscures all other systems. Biological. Mental. Emotional."
"Wait, so you can sense how proud we are?" Garfield asks. Raven nods. "You must have a joy ride with boy wonder over there."
Nightwing scoffs. Garfield lifts his hands up, not even trying to erase his crooked smile.
"Why have you never used this power before?" Nightwing asks, finally escaping the wheel that's turning in his head.
"Why haven't I turned someone into something they're not?" Raven asks, hoping that in asking the question, Nightwing already found his answer. Nightwing seems to understand her as he leans back in his seat. Raven still feels the need to answer as the rest of her team stares at her expectantly.
"The villains we face rarely have a deficiency in pride. Besides, pride is a tricky thing. Given too much you will become foolish and illogical, convinced you have the right answer to everything. But given just enough," Raven lets her eyes linger over Nightwing. "You become a detail oriented, confident leader." Nightwing bows his head gracefully.
"The thing is, there is no set amount of pride that divides the foolish people from the well adjusted. Most of us have momentary spikes in our pride. There is no telling whether these spikes are good or bad. It's dependent on how people use it. I don't have the foresight to tell you how someone will react if they're made more proud."
"'Cept for Adonis," Garfield says, then blushes when all eyes turn to him. "What? That guy is always one spike of pride away from falling on his own sword."
Raven ponders that and shrugs.
"I'm not in the occupation of guessing someone's limits. Besides it's different when he's in animal form."
"How?" Garfield asks, leaning into the conversation. Raven pauses.
"My ability to sense emotions works best on humans."
"You are able to sense mine," Starfire chimes in. Raven nods at her.
"Things like happiness and sadness essentially feel the same in all beings. Between full human beings, the difference in how they feel emotions is almost imperceptible. But your body is wired differently. You're Tamaranean and I have not enough access to Tamaraneans to get any baseline data on what your emotions read like. For example, your powers are connected with your ability to feel happiness. You practice happiness constantly, therefore your happiness is more potent. Because your happiness is so loud, it can be difficult for me to register the extent of your sadness."
"It must be difficult to sense what I'm feeling," Garfield says in a thoughtful whisper. Raven looks at him. "Every animal I turn into has different motivations. Some of them can be very strong."
"Your animal forms are never permanent. While you can rearrange your DNA, it's never fully stable. Your body will always want to revert to your human form," Raven says. When she thinks about it though, Raven knows there is another form always pulling at Garfield's control. She purses her lips, pausing to figure out where she's going with this. "No matter which form you take, there is always something essentially you that I can sense clearly because I know...well I know you." Garfield looks at her. Raven clears her throat.
"And I know Star," Raven says, moving her gaze from Garfield to Starfire. "I can sense what both of you are feeling but sometimes it can be a little harder for me to give it a name."
"So the brother on the footage? Which is he?"
"Jesse. Envy."
The team is silent for a while.
"Alone they'd be dangerous. Together, coupled with someone who understands centuries of mystical arts…" Raven trails off. Nightwing nods two times, evenly, militaristically. Every once and a while Raven has to marvel at how certain Nightwing can be about things completely out of his element.
"Why are your brothers attacking now?" Nightwing asks in a way that makes it clear to Raven that not knowing is not an option. She pauses.
"My brothers' motivations are tied directly to my father's."
"Cool so we're up against old ass magic dragon, sin and evil incarnate," Garfield runs a hand through his hair, tugging at his roots a little.
"We need to cut this plan off at the roots," Nightwing says, ignoring Garfield's comment. "We start with Trigon." Raven's is rarely overcome with emotion but she has to fight to trap the sardonic chuckle bubbling from her chest behind her closed lips.
"Trigon is trapped in another dimension," Raven says with a finality that would make anyone else drop the subject.
"So was Malchior," Nightwing says quickly. His four teammates snap their heads to him. "Sorry," he mumbles, looking to the floor.
"You're not wrong," Raven says after a moment, then shrugs one shoulder. "But Malchior's escape is much easier than Trigon's. Very few beings are able to traverse multiple planes of existence and even fewer are able to go where I put Trigon. Setting him free would be a marvelous feat indeed."
"Never underestimate your enemies," Nightwing says, pressing a fist into his palm.
"I don't. I don't deny that my brothers are more than likely searching for a way to free my father but he is not yet a part of the equation. We start with my brothers."
"And if they manage to free your father?"
"Then at least we won't have to deal with evil incarnate and sin and an old ass magical dragon," Raven says. Garfield raises his hand for a high five. Raven looks at it before tapping away at the touchscreen in front of the team. Garfield grumbles.
"We need to get supplies to protect ourselves and the tower from sinful influe-"
"Hate to interrupt sister but you were all moving at such a snail's pace."
Raven pulls up a protective barrier around her friends before they can even register that someone else is in the room. The man in front of her doesn't even blink as he plops down on the sofa. Nightwing moves forward purposefully but Raven pushes him back with her powers.
"Leave the barrier and he will play with you like a toy."
"Now, now, pretty vessel you know we can only enhance people's natural inclinations," Jacob says, propping one leg on the back rest of their sofa while the other hangs limply off the edge of the seat. He is sprawled out like a Greek god. His head rolls back. "May I say, this is quite the incestuous little family you have. The lust was rampant when I walked in the room. Although I shouldn't be surprised Malchior has spoken of your...appetite."
"Why are you here?"
"Oh why don't you just drop the barrier? It's not like you can hold it for much longer anyways. Besides, playing with your friends is not why I am here."
"You expect me to trust you?" Raven's voice wavers under the strain of protecting her friends. Even now she can feel Jacob probing the weakest parts of her barrier.
"No I suppose not," Jacob says, sending the group a crooked smile. He runs his hand slowly up his leg, over his muscular thigh, and drops it dangerously close to the bulge in his unitard. Then he chuckles.
"Our brothers have sent me to ask you to join our endeavours in freeing our father."
"I'd rather die."
"Ah I said much the same to them. You are much too proud," Jacob chuckles. It sounds like a bell.
"Original."
"Ooh your sentences are getting much shorter. I bet I could push through this barrier of yours now," Jacob says, rubbing his hands together enthusiastically and sitting up properly in one quick, smooth movement. He eyes Nightwing from head to feat. "I've pushed through my fair share of barriers in this lifetime."
Jacob winks. Raven clenches her teeth.
"Alas, I don't feel much like straining myself today although I can assure you my brothers do not know the same restraint. They wanted me to force you to join our side. But I think your high and noble friends wouldn't let you turn yourself over to us even if I did say...peel their skin off in front of you," Jacob says. He reaches for a lollipop in the candy basket they keep in the common room and peels off the wrapper. He swirls his tongue slowly over the confection. "Well, I will not waste my energy."
Jacob eyes run over the Titans one by one, watching as their muscles twitch with the desire to hurt him. He feels like laughing.
"Protect your tower, conduit. Protect your friends. But as I tell all my lovers, be prepared for the full weight of us."
Jacob moves to walk out their front door and Raven feels her barrier weaken significantly. Before he leaves Jacob looks over his shoulder with a lascivious smirk.
"And do try to lay with the green one at least once. Your thirst for each other is simply pathetic."
Jacob leaves.