When consciousness flooded back, it was not gentle. Raven felt as if someone had jammed an ice pick directly into her eye socket and was in the process of giving her a lobotomy. Forcing her eyes open she found herself staring up at a gray, plain ceiling. She rolled into a sitting position on the cot and groaned at the act.

"Oh!"

The little squeak made the ex-titan jerk her head up to see a young woman on the other side of a force-field looking at her with large, startled eyes. She fumbled the radio on the plastic table in front of her.

"She's awake."

The ex-Titan looked about her gauging her location and realizing where she was. The small cell with force-field and warded walls, the shackles encasing her hands, the diminutive guard room told her that she was being held in the high-security cell block of Titan Tower. Designed to keep people like her.

Raven closed her eyes trying to sense Sovereign, but she could only feel a cold echo in the distance. Someone had upgraded the wards and whoever it was had an excellent knowledge of magic. Raven could feel the fear of the woman outside the cell and understood how she must look. The ex-Titan had been stripped of all her clothing except her leotard, so her short purple hair was tussled and probably looked like a swimmer who just got out of the pool.

The door ground opens laboriously and a few people strode in. The man who had shot her was accompanied by Batman and her old leader, Robin. Raven refused to make eye contact with Robin though she could feel his eyes on her skin.

"Thank you, Simmons," Coulson said. "We'll take it from here."

The girl quickly hurried out. Coulson grabbed one of the chairs and plopped it in front of her chair then sat on it backward so he could rest his arms on the backrest. The many scenes from the police procedurals that Cyborg always watched came to mind.

"It's good to see you up and about, Miss Roth."

"I prefer Raven," she responded in her usually lethargic growl.

"Raven," He said with an easy smile. "Sorry about the little dust-up earlier. I wish we could have started out on better terms."

"Is there a point to all this?"

"I hope I'm not to difficult to read for your empathic abilities," He said. "but they tell me you have a potent punch and I don't want the force-field to go down."

She jolted up and cursed herself. This stranger had access to her files and probably knew everything in them. Raven had done enough interrogations to realize what was going on. He was trying to build a rapport. The young sorceress was not going to have anything to do with it.

"What do you want?"

"Wanted to talk about the artifact you've got there," he said gesturing to the band. She instinctively reached for it forgetting that it may have been taken. The cold metal felt comforting against her fingers.

"What about it?"

"I would like you to give it to me."

"No."

"I don't think you know what it is and who you have allied yourself with, Raven."

"I do."

"Oh," Coulson said with a knowing nod. "Good. So you know about the other girl that tried to help him in another reality and the millions that died because of it."

'Other girl?'

Why had she gravitated to that phrase instead of the millions? Raven knew that Jason had tried to come back through first, and she expected a body count from a fight but not in the millions. She decided not to show she was uncomfortable but Coulson saw through it.

"So you didn't know. Want me to tell you?"

"Not like I can stop you."

Before he began, there was a buzz, and Batman picked up his communicator from his belt. He spoke a few words she couldn't make out and then nodded to Coulson.

"DIA's gotten it taken care of. No issues."

"Thank you, sir," Coulson responded and turned back to Raven. "Oh, that was just the obsidian key. DIA's following procedure. With the Archon Ring activated, we're burying the obsidian key where you or Sovereign will ever be able to detect it."

Raven's mouth became a firm line, and Coulson settled back into his chair. "Where was I? Oh, the girl. Her name was Heather. She was just like you in a way, young and impressionable and chose to side with him. As soon as she put on the Archon Ring, he dominated her mind and made her open the portals much like he is doing to you. She created the Archon Knights, soldiers all wearing the band and funneling his power. He destroyed millions in building the device that subsequently crushed the reality into a small pellet of unspeakable power. He was about to use it to destroy the rest of realities when Iris stopped him."

"My mind is not dominated," Raven responded.

"How do you know, Raven?" Snapped Robin who had been silent the entire exchange. He rushed up to the security screen before Batman could put a hand on his shoulder. "How do you know he hasn't taken over your mind and made you think that you're in control? How do you know you are even you anymore?"

Raven did not answer nor did she look at him keeping her eyes focused on a spot over Coulson's shoulder. She could not risk looking because she didn't want to convey all the turmoil and emotion that was chewing at her gut.

"Raven, there's no way to know. Sovereign is feeding you a fantasy of a perfect world, but it will be built on the bones of billions."

"Not if I help him," she whispered. "I can keep people from dying...unless you resist."

"You're living in a fantasy," Coulson sighed. "Sovereign is a monster, and you can't see it."

The flood of white-fire burst on her breasts as she felt the energy of Sovereign shove against the magical barriers. She could feel him pushing into every cell, and a gentle request nudged her mind to allow him to have control for only a moment.

Fear ripped through her, would she lose control forever if she let him? She trusted him this far, and she was already in all the way. Even if she did turn over the Archon Ring, she was still going to prison. Relaxing her mind, she felt it picked up by the powerful golden current and wash into a gentle cocoon of darkness where she slept.

Robin took a step back from the forcefield when Raven's lovely purple eyes washed and radiated gold light. Her posture had changed from a prisoner to one who was in control. She stood up with an uncharacteristic smirk on her face.

Coulson's expression went from kindness to anger. He spoke one word.

"Sovereign."

"Hello, Philip."

The voice was raven's, but there was an undercurrent of a male tone that sounded off key to Raven's lovely dark tonal strains. Robin gripped his telescoping staff tightly while he mentor's muscles were tense and ready to strike in case it got out of the cage.

"Release Raven," Robin said stepping forward. He was not going to miss the opportunity to face the foe that had taken his friend.

Raven's body turned its eyes on him, the brilliant gold seemingly mocking him. "She's not a prisoner. She can remove the Archon Ring anytime she wants. She chose to be with me."

"Liar."

"Is it so hard to think that she wants something more? What can you Titans provide her but more pain and death? I can bring her peace."

"Don't listen to him, Robin," Coulson said stepping up to the young man. "Sovereign's a manipulator. He's dominated her; she just has to realize it."

"You used the same lines with Heather, Philip." the creature drawled as he sat back down on the bed and stretched Raven's shapely legs. "You got her killed."

"You killed her."

It was between blinks, but Sovereign had moved from the sitting position to face right up against the forcefield causing both Robin and Coulson to step back.

"You killed her!" it screeched. "You tried to rip the archon ring off her head shattering her mind. I was forced to use her body, and it's a horrible state because of your fear and loathing of a world where you are not needed!"

"You had to be stopped," Phil said quietly, hand still on his weapon.

"Congratulations. You broke a young girl and killed all those connected to her."

The rage had vanished, and the creature sat back down on the bed, it's quiet easy going manner returning. "At least I got to burn out Fury's eye before the realities separated or are he still blaming that on Captain Marvel?"

Coulson did not respond, and Robin looked at him. His face was one of someone in thought. Robin hated this. He knew he was out of his depth with the entity and he was sensing even the Justice League was too.

As Coulson's expression changed, Raven/Sovereign's grin widened. "Ah, you are finally getting it."

"Getting what?" Batman said for the first time.

"Raven's plan." Sovereign drawled as he began to lazily kick his feet as if bored.

"She let herself be captured," Coulson said firmly. "But why?"

It was Robin who had seen the tactic before, and the realization hit him hard.

"She's feinting," Robin said his breath coming into gasps. "She's allowed herself to get captured to drop our guard. We think he people are broken without her; they're not."

"And we just moved the Obsidian key into the open," Batman said reaching for the communicator.

It burst alive with chatter and Batman turned it up so everyone could hear.

"This is convoy Alpha-six. We've been attacked by a group of metahumans. We've identified one of them as the fugitive Jinx, and the other is a Tamarian woman. Our defenses are too weak to repel her. They've got the package."

Batman looked up at Robin, and he shook his head. There was no way Starfire would have sided with Sovereign. He took the communicator.

"Can you describe the Tamarian?"

"Thin, lithe, black hair, and ruthless," the voice said on the other line.

"Blackfire."

Sovereign's laugh tinkled through the room. "I now have the obsidian key."

Sovereign/Raven leaned forward with a grin. "How long did you think you can keep my Archon?"

With that, the light faded from the eyes and Raven passed on on the cot sleeping peacefully.