Chapter Two
Necronomicon
The museum in question was a large building right in the middle of downtown. It was one of those buildings whose architecture tried to bring great age to mind, even though the thing was not really as old as say, the Parthenon (or even the White House, come to think of it). It was not a place that the Teen Titans usually went to, unless someone was robbing it. However, today was special.
Just as Raven predicted there were very few "real" magical things on display. However, some of the things on display were interesting to see, if only for comedic value.
"Look!" Beast Boy bellowed far too loudly "Shrunken heads!"
"Oh yes," Raven muttered sarcastically "Little dry heads have tons of magical applications. Kind of like the way video games teach hand-eye coordination."
This completely flew over Beast Boy's head, if he even heard it at all. He was too busy ogling at the gruesome things under the display case with total fascination.
"So I guess nothing here is really magical, huh?" Robin said, looking at Raven in an attempt to gauge her reaction.
"Nope, most magical items got destroyed or lost in the Purging." Raven replied.
"The what?" Cyborg looked at Raven curiously.
"Kind of like the Salem witch trials, only it happened about five hundred years earlier. And actual magic was involved, not teenage girls with a desperate need for attention."
"So…it was some kind of magic war?" Cyborg asked, who really had not been paying attention in school they day they covered the early days of America.
"No," Raven replied "It was a bunch of religious nuts trying to drive off the magic users of the world. Why do you think there aren't many of us around?"
Now that Cyborg thought about it there really were only a few people he knew who actually used magic. There was Raven, Jinx, Malchior, Mumbo Jumbo and…and he really couldn't think of anyone else.
"Do you mean most of them were killed?" Cyborg asked, not really comfortable with the discussion but still dying of curiosity.
"No, they created Azarath. And no, I will not go into details on this particular subject right now." Raven growled.
"But-"
"Maybe when we are not in a museum with people around, but not right now." The finality stressed in the word "now" made it perfectly clear to the rest of the Titans that the subject was closed.
Cyborg was smart enough to take the hint, but he still pondered over Raven's words with a level of dislike that would have surprised the rest of the Titans. The truth was Cyborg really did not like magic that much. He found it creepy and unpredictable and a little obscene. Although he usually was the kind of guy who never hid anything from his friends he was smart enough not to share this opinion of magic with Raven, or to let it show that much. He might not like magic that much, but he liked Raven herself, and he did not want to hurt her by insulting her powers, or suggesting that it was somehow unnatural. As far as he was concerned she had enough trouble with being the daughter of a huge red demon. She didn't need one of her friends acting weird about her magic.
Although the museum lacked very much in magical items, Raven still enjoyed herself, and to her surprise the others seemed to be having a good time as well. They generally were not a group that was big on learning experiences, except maybe Starfire who wanted to know everything about Earth. Raven had to admit, at least to herself, that she was having fun.
Until she spotted the book. The thing darn near spoiled the entire evening, and was the cause of the trouble to come. It sat in a case in a nice dark corner; in fact it was almost invisible from where it was. But Raven managed to spot it, and the sight of it turned her blood to ice water.
"No," she muttered, still somewhat maintaining her outward calm, even though her insides were clinching in horror. "That can't be real. They were supposed to be destroyed!"
"Huh? What was destroyed?" Robin asked. He had been distracted for a moment, and had only caught the last part of Raven's sentence.
Raven walked up to the display case and stared at the offending object. She stared for a long time before growling "It is real. Of all the things in this place to be genuine why does it have to be this?"
"Hey, Raven you found a book!" Beast Boy said gleefully as he strolled over. "Trust you to find the one ancient book in the entire exhibit!"
"You moron!" Raven snarled "Do any of you have any idea what this thing is?"
"Err, a moldy old book like the tens of thousands of moldy old books you already own?" Cyborg asked, honestly puzzled by Raven's reaction.
"It's the Necronomicon." Raven said, still glaring at the book with a gaze that would have set steel ablaze if the clique about killing with a look were true.
"Necky-what?" Beast Boy asked.
"It's evil." Raven said "the most evil book ever written."
"How can a book be evil?" Starfire asked, puzzled "a book is not a living thing. Or do you mean that it has an evil creature like the Malchior dragon inside it?"
"That is not what I mean" Raven said deliberately "The Necronomicon contains the darkest of dark magic inside it. The most evil spells, the most terrible curses in the world are all explained in this thing. Everyone who had ever owned a copy of this thing have died really nasty deaths. These things were supposed to be destroyed by the same people who raised me, but they must have missed one." She turned and looked at Robin with a strangely obsessive look in her eyes. "We have got to destroy this thing."
"But Raven, it's museum property. We can't just take and destroy it!"
"Did you not hear me? This thing is evil. If it isn't destroyed bad things could happen."
"Raven, how long do you think this book has been here? For all we know it could have been sitting there for years not causing any harm." Robin said, not wanting to add what he was really thinking which was: it's just a book, it can't hurt anyone!
Raven argued. She argued very strongly and very persistently. Although she did not disrupt her dignity by actually shouting at the others she did make it perfectly clear from her voice tone that she was not going to let this book go by unburned. Eventually, Robin decided to humor her, even if he thought she was being slightly ridiculous.
"Okay, look" Robin said "I'll go talk to the museum owner about surrendering it to us. But you have to promise me not to do anything even slightly illegal to the thing until I'm done. Alright Raven?"
"Alright." Raven said, and she looked a bit less agitated now that someone was doing something about the book, even though every instinct she had was bellowing at her to blow the book to little bits right here and now.
"Just wait here for a second. I might be a while." Robin said as he set off to find the owner, feeling a bit like the worlds most idiotic superhero.
The feeling of idiocy only grew when he confronted the museum owner, who refused point blank to surrender the book. He was one of those large, lazy looking guys who practically turned the air into an oil field just by walking around, and Robin disliked him on sight.
"It's one of a kind! The only English translation of the Necronomicon still in print! The others were all destroyed! And you want to take it away." The man complained as he glared a Robin with the gaze of one who did not like superheroes that much as a rule.
Robin was especially glad that he had not mentioned the fact that Raven wanted the book destroyed; he had only said that they wanted it.
"It's in the interest of city security," Robin tried to explain "one of my teammates thinks that it could be dangerous. I-"
"This 'teammate' wouldn't happen to be that Goth girl I've seen on the news is she?" Sir Oil-a-lot said with a sneer "Frankly I don't believe that Goth business should be encouraged, even by 'superheroes'. It is not healthy."
Robin resisted the sudden urge to punch this guy. Raven was a real magic user, not some strange girl with dark tastes! But Robin knew that losing his cool would not help the situation at all. He realized that, sort of resorting to thievery, there was really only one way he was going to get his hands on that dratted book. It would mean having to borrow money from Batman, but Robin thought he could get his old mentor to help, as long as it wasn't too much.
"How much will you take for it?" Robin asked.
"It's rare, it's priceless! Five million dollars."
Oh, this is going to be fun! Robin thought sarcastically as he began bargaining. It took a long time, as the museum owner was one of those hard bargainers who hate to lose. Eventually, however, Robin managed to talk the guy down. If you considered half a million as "down".
Bruce is going to hate me for asking for that much cash on such short notice, but…
"And you are not getting it until I see that cash, and I won't take a check or a credit card." The owner continued.
DRAT! Robin thought.
"I'll be back with the cash." Robin said, realizing that he was going to have to make a call from Titan's Tower to his old mentor.
The museum owner said nothing; he just grunted at Robin and walked away.
Robin went back to where the others were waiting for him, feeling angry and put out. Not just by the owner's condescending and rude attitude, but by the whole situation in general. He knew that it was not wise to take Raven lightly, especially when it came to magic. But honestly! An evil book?
"Well? What happened?" Beast Boy asked curiously.
"We won't be able to get it right now. The owner is asking for an enormous amount of money for the thing because it is so rare. But give me some time and I think I can get it." Robin said.
"How long?" Raven asked with a tense look.
"Not sure, but don't worry, I'll get it."
"Dude! How much does he want?!" Beast Boy asked.
"You really do not want to know."
Raven gave the book one last evil look, as if she wanted to set it on fire right then and there with no concern for the consequences. But to the others infinite relief she turned and started walking away. One by one the others followed her. Clearly this little visit was over.
But Robin wanted one more look at that book. He leaned over the glass case and stared at the thing. It was lying open on its stand (but hadn't it been closed before? Robin thought that must be his imagination). He tried to read it, but the shadows obscured all but two lines.
That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.
What in the world does that mean? Robin thought. It sounded like nonsense. After all, if you were dead you were dead and if you were alive you were alive. Things like zombies and vampires only happened in cheap horror movies, and Beast Boy's imagination.
But Robin a little voice inside him said you hang out with a girl who can emit scary black energy, make monsters with her mind, cast spells, and turn her soul into a giant black bird! How do you know that things like the living dead do not exist?
For a moment he was sure he sensed someone behind him. That someone whispered this nice little cryptic phrase in his ear:
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."
Okay, Robin thought I don't think I even want to know if that was real or not! Let me out of here!
Quickly, but not so quickly that it looked like he was running, Robin rejoined his friends as they headed for the parked T-Car awaiting them in the parking lot. Now that he was back in the sunshine Robin easily pushed the memory of the voice out of his head. His mind went back to more important matters, one of which was a plan to get Raven back into a relatively happy mood and the other was where exactly he was going to take Starfire for their date this Saturday.
No one noticed the Black Fox as she appeared next to the evil book on its stand in the museum. Deftly she closed it back to its original position with a nasty, cruel little smile on her half-fox half human face.
"This is going to be great!" She said "Just wait until tomorrow!"
Her laughter echoed throughout the building, but although there were still plenty of people around no one saw or heard a thing.
In a near desperate bid to make sure Raven did not end this day in an evil book induced depression, Beast Boy immediately devised a plan to get her mind off the museum. He offered to help Raven take care of Mithrah, who needed his daily grooming. Raven did not quite trust him enough to actually let Beast Boy touch her temperamental animal, but she did let him help by handing her the various brushes and other objects associated with the care of night horses. As it turned out night horses were groomed very much like regular horses, except for two extra for the wings and the horns. While this was going on Beast Boy pelted Raven with every question he could think of concerning night horses, and Raven was surprisingly open with him. The other Titans quickly realized that they had finally found a subject that Raven was willing to talk about at length, and Beast Boy was more than happy to listen to her talk. Eventually his little plan worked and Raven had put the museum incident in the back of her mind, at least for a moment.
The sun started its way down into west, and Raven decided to go to bed early. She was tired and ready to sleep. She said good night to her friends, with much assurances that yes she did have a good time today. Mithrah followed her to her room, but point blank refused to return to his closet. Instead he plopped down at the end of Raven's bed. He gave her a meaningful look. I am staying here that look said and there is nothing you can do to budge me!
Raven was more than happy to let him stay there. It would be nice to have him sleep near her like he did in the old days. Tired and yawning, she literally collapsed in her bed and immediately started snoring.
That was the evening the first of the dreams started:
She was standing in a dark and cold stone room, like the room of a castle. There were no doors, no windows, but somehow there was a little bit of light coming from somewhere, just enough to cast the appropriate amount of creepy shadows against the thick walls.
She noticed that there were symbols on the wall, but it was too dark to read them. She choose one and squinted at it, trying to make it out, when it exploded with bright green light. Now she could make it out, and it what it said scared her badly. It was not what it said but the language it was in. She only knew a few words in First Draconic, but she could read this. It was a single word: Time.
Another one exploded, but this one with red light. It was in the same tongue as the first one, but this time the word was War.
She stared at the symbols, her mind not wanting to admit to what she was seeing. If this was what she thought it was-
The two lights started swirling and in their depths Raven was sure that she could see two pairs of eyes, one pair red and one green. Like the lights in which they dwelled.
And she was certain that they were looking right at her.
She heard a terrible roaring, a familiar roar. The roar of a dragon. What was worse, she was pretty sure it was coming from her.
She looked down at herself, but what she saw was not her familiar body. She had sharp silver claws and dark navy blue scales. For whatever reason, she was a dragon.
She roared again in panic and the walls closed in. She tried to breath, but she drowning! She struggled to reach the surface of the cold dark water that surrounded her but it was impossible. Her wings strained to fly in this unfamiliar environment, but it was useless. She was going down, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Robin walked into the ops room the next morning and found a very grumpy, very sleepy looking Raven drinking her favorite herbal tea while glaring at an open book with a thunderous expression.
Oh no, what's wrong now!? Robin could tell that something was upsetting Raven. Sometimes he thought he could mentally pick up her feelings, probably a result of when she had been inside his mind. Today was one of those days, and what he was picking up was anger mixed with a bit of fear. It wasn't like Raven to look quite that angry, normally she just looked slightly annoyed. And he had thought that yesterday had gone so well! She was even wearing that locket they had given her! Why was she suddenly so upset?
Just as he was steeling himself to ask Raven about what was bothering her, the others came in talking loudly and happily. Raven shot the group a grouchy look then went back to glaring at her book.
"Good morning, Raven!" Beast Boy said cheerily, ignoring his teammates Grinchlike mood "Do you sleep well last night?"
"No." she growled, hoping that everyone would just leave her alone today.
This was not going to happen.
"Why not?" Robin said, glad the conversation had gone toward the basic direction of what might be bothering Raven. Not to mention glad that he had not been the one to approach the subject. He could recognize a woman in a dangerous mood when he saw one.
"Nightmare." Raven growled, ninety percent of her attention still focused on the book.
"Oh no! What kind of nightmares!" Starfire asked "Perhaps you would like to her the Tameranian folk song of good dreams? That always helps me when I-"
Raven finally looked up "Does it cover dreams from the First Dragons?"
"No," Starfire admitted, then"What is a first dragon?"
Finally realizing that she was not going to get any research done at all with this group hovering over her, Raven put the book down and stared at her friends, all of whom were looking at her with mixed concern and curiosity to varying degrees.
"It is a long story-"
"Tell us!" the others said, all at the same time with eager looks on their faces.
Raven sighed, and then started talking.
"You have to understand that this is kind of a creation myth that my people tell. You have to listen to it from the beginning in order to understand what the First Dragons were, and before anyone asks: no they are not like Malchior.
My people say that the First Dragons were born at the same moment that the universe itself was created. They were supposedly the wisest and greatest race of dragons that ever lived. They were the closest to beings of pure good that any mortal race has ever aspired to. They were experts in both magic and technology and could combine both to-"
"What?" Cyborg interrupted, the concept of combining magic and tech blowing his mind.
"Please don't interrupt." Raven asked with a glare "This story is kind of important to my people. Well, anyway, people say that the First Dragons were so advanced that they could literally travel throughout the dimensions within the blink of an eye. But, while the First Dragons were a force for good, there was naturally another force out there. Most refer to them as the Outer Gods, but no one really knows what they really are. At least no one I know about. My people really do not like to talk about them that much. I think they are a bit afraid of them, and they probably have good reason to be afraid."
"Are they as bad as Trigon?" Robin asked, forgetting that Raven didn't want to be interrupted, but this time she did not seem to mind. Maybe because Robin's question was actually somewhat intelligent.
"Worse," Raven said "It wasn't so much as they wanted to conquer the galaxy or anything like that, it was just that they didn't care who or what they hurt. To them mortals are like ants. No one really notices if they accidentally step on a bug while they are walking along, even though it would be important to the bug. The First Dragons, however, liked mortals and didn't want them to be hurt. Eventually the First Dragons and the Outer Gods ended up in a war. But no matter how much the fought, no matter how badly they hurt the Outer Gods, the Outer Gods simply did not die. In fact, many say that the Outer Gods could not die, because they are not mortal. The First Dragons died by the thousands, and it looked like the entire race would be wiped out. In the end the First Dragons realized that they could not defeat the Outer Gods, so instead seven of them created a spell which would seal up the Outer Gods for what they hoped was for all eternity. They succeeded, and the Outer Gods were banished from reality itself.
For a while the multiverse ticked along just fine, but then the first humans appeared. At first the Dragons loved humans. They thought that humans were the greatest of the lesser lived species that ever existed. The First Dragons made it there mission in life to teach and guide the humans. At first the humans and Dragons got along fine, but then something happened. Some believe that the Outer Gods somehow reached out from their prison and tainted the humans, others say that the humans just got greedy, in fact there are as much theories as to why it happened as there are stars in the sky. In the end I suppose it does not really matter, but what happened was the humans started killing the First Dragons. In fact the humans nearly finished the job the Outer Gods started"
"But if the First Dragons were so powerful, then why did they let themselves be slaughtered?" Beast Boy asked quietly.
"If you suddenly saw a little kid run up to you waving a knife with obvious intent to kill, would you fight him or just stand there dumbfounded?"
"Err, stand there dumbfounded?" Beast Boy said.
"Exactly, to the First Dragons the humans were just little children. Also they could not bear to fight the creatures that they had once loved with all their hearts. For a while the First Dragons did not know what to do. Eventually they decided that the best thing to do would be to leave all human inhabited worlds entirely. But then they discovered something disturbing. They heard a prophecy that said that one day the Outer Gods would try to break free from their prison and back to reality. If all of the Dragons left then the mulitiverse itself could be destroyed. But if they stayed then the Dragons could still be hunted to extinction. They also knew that they could just kill all humans and remove the threat, but they did not want to do that, because they still loved humans even though humans now hated them. The seven Dragons who first locked the Outer Gods away came up with a creative solution. They were getting old, and could not prevent themselves from dieing, but they had a way to preserve their power in the hopes that when and if the Outer Gods returned there would be someone there capable of fighting them. I'm not sure how to explain this, but I'll try. They used a spell to literally preserve their memories and powers. When they died they left behind a little bit of their souls on various worlds. If the right human or similar mortal found this power then the soul and power of a First Dragon would be given to them. This people are called the Dragonborn and they are supposed to be created when the time of the Outer Gods return is close. The First Dragons hoped that these people would have the power to reseal the Outer Gods if they were ever freed. In this way the rest of the First Dragon race was able to flee the human inhabited worlds and live in relative peace. No one knows the exact location of the remaining First Dragons, but I've heard the place referred to as the World of Dreams, and that you cannot get there without the First Dragons letting you in."
"So what does all of this have to do with your dream?" Robin asked.
Raven told them about her dream, but this only caused the others more confusion.
"The two symbols I saw," she said, trying to get them to understand "Were the names and colors of two of the seven First Dragons who preserved their powers, Tiamatiania the Dragon of Time and Yoksolalthee the Dragon of War. I couldn't see the other symbols, but I bet that they were the names of the other five."
"So, what a minute." Beast Boy said "If you were a dragon during this dream…Raven! Do you think that you could be one of these Dragonborn people?"
When in the world did you get so darned perceptive? Raven thought. Aloud she said "I have no idea, but I would tend to doubt it."
"Why, of all the people I would pick to be a universe saving dragon it would be you!" Beast Boy said.
"I'm the daughter of a demon; there is no way a First Dragon would want to inhabit my body." Raven said, not trying to sound as disappointed as she felt.
"Raven-"Robin started, but he was interrupted by the clanging of the Towers alarm bells. Robin mentally cursed the alarm. He looked at the front display screen which would show them the scene of the crime taking place. His heart sank when he saw that the place being robbed was the same museum that they had visited the other day.
Ignoring this little fact in the hopes that Raven's dream had distracted her from a certain book, Robin bellowed his trademark "Titans go!" and ran for the door, the others at his heels.
All except Raven. She had not forgotten the book at all, and she was getting a very bad feeling. She stared at the screen for a moment, then simply flew out of the window without preamble. She was certain that this had something to do with that book, and she was determined to make sure that it did not fall into the wrong hands.
She did not know that the Black Fox was close. Despite her extra senses she could not pick up the Black Fox at all. The Black Fox herself watched Raven with far too much interest, a savage little look on her face.
An Authors note: The little couplet that Robin read in the book and the ensuing voice he heard both came from the H.P. Lovecraft story The Call of Cthulhu and the Necronomicon and the Outer Gods were also created by him (they pop up in just about everything he ever wrote). The Black Fox, the First Dragons, and everything relating to the Dragonborn are all my creations and are originals. The little story about the First Dragons is mine as well, even though it does involve Lovecraft's critters.