An Authors Note: Wow, I finally got a review for my story! Thanks to TDG3RD for his (um, or her) nice comments. You are the first person to ever review any of my work (and frankly I'm very glad that my first commenter didn't write "you suck" or something like that).

By the way, I don't mind reviews at all, but the amount or content of them will not affect the speed or anything else about my writing. In other words mounds of e-mails will not cause me to write any faster (but they might make me go slower, in case I feel inclined to answer). And I'm not going to quit this even if I get a bunch of reviews with nothing but cuss words in them (not that I've gotten any yet, but you never know). However, if anyone has some useful CONSTRUTIVE criticism I will listen, and if anyone has a question for me I will be glad to answer (as long as it had nothing to do with my personal life).

Enough rambling, lets start the show!

Chapter Five

Falconblood Stones

Raven awoke to an explosively horrible headache. In fact it felt like she had been smashed in the head by a rampaging elephant. She groaned and tried to rub her throbbing forehead, but her arm refused to move. Suddenly worried that she was paralyzed she tried to sit up. She managed to lift her head, but not much else. She soon spotted the reason why, someone had strapped her down to some sort of metal table. Abruptly she was reminded of that old black and white movie with the mad scientist and his monster creation. That was not a comfortable thought at all. Where the heck was she?

A familiar, horrible scraping sound came from above her head, and Raven leaned her head back to see what it was. Sitting there looking at Raven was the spider creature known as Riki. Raven was no longer thinking of movie monsters, know she was thinking about spiders and flies and what ACTUALLY happened to poor little defenseless insects caught in a spider's web. It took all of her self control not to go into screaming hysterics right then and there.

This worst part of this whole deal was the fact that Raven could literally see the monster's mouthparts moving around. Did those things ever stop twitching their fangs? Raven didn't like it one bit. She wondered why the thing wasn't munching on her head right then, but it did not seem interested.

But…wait a minute; didn't that thing have a master? Yes it did! For a moment Raven had forgotten about the dratted wizard!

But if she was strapped to a table, with an ugly familiar obviously guarding her…

Oh great.

Obviously her friends had not gotten to them museum in time. Either that or Sumal had managed to beat them. She doubted that this guy had beaten them, though. They had fought Trigon and won, surly some wizard would have been no problem for them.

Right?

Now, to find a way out of here. Raven knew that her friends were probably looking for her, but that did not mean that she should not try to free herself. She knew that she was not strong enough to break the straps, but she still had her powers. She could still sense them; Sumal had not taken them yet.

She attempted to use her powers, but found that she could not. They were still there, but they were being blocked by a powerful spell. Raven mentally strained against the block, but this was one spell she could not break, at least not quickly. If she had time to work with it then she might be able to crack it.

But time was something she did not have. Right when Raven starting renewing her attack on the block, her captor came into the room.

"Might as well stop doing that." Sumal said mildly, he could feel Raven straining against the block. She heard him walking around the room, but could not see him that well. She really only had a good view of one wall, not to mention the fact that her eyes kept involuntarily glancing over at a certain spider.

Raven glanced at the door Sumal had come through. She expected to see Robin kicking his way into the place any minute now. The Titans had always come through for her, even when she thought the situation was hopeless. But no one came. No Robin with that battle cry of his. No Starfire with her starbolts. No Cyborg with his ridiculous, but somehow hearting, cry of booyah. And no Beast Boy with his moronic jokes and blatant stupidity. Raven waited for them to arrive and help, even though it really irked her to need rescue like this. But no one arrived. Where were they?

She heard someone…chanting some sort of spell. It could only be Sumal. And that chanting could only mean one thing. He was preparing to steal Raven's powers. She knew this would not be like the time she became Trigon's portal. That time her powers had been weakened, but they had still been there. This time she knew that they would be gone completely.

Sumal stopped chanting and approached Raven, his left hand and arm incased in an eerie white light. Though she was afraid Raven could not help but be fascinated by the spell. It was clearly a complex and layered thing, and a part of Raven could not help but find it interesting. She had never seen anything like it. Sumal might have been a shameless thief and a monster, but she had to admit that the other wizard must have been some sort of genius to come up with this spell.

Sumal passed his glowing hand over Raven's body, like a gold digger using a metal detector to search for coins on the beach. His face held no expression at all, and it was starting to freak Raven out a little. In Raven's experience it was about now that the villain was usually bragging about his brilliant plan or threatening his helpless prisoners or delivering his formalized ransom statement to the leaders of the world, but Sumal had skipped all the banter was going about his business as if this was something he did everyday. There wasn't even any maniacal laughter echoing throughout the room. Weren't villains required to laugh manically at least once? But Sumal was calm, frighteningly so. It was the kind of calm usually displayed by sociopaths without any human conscience. He had the attitude of one doing a minor chore. Raven had never before encountered an opponent who skipped the dialogue and just did whatever he was planning without preamble. It was then she knew that she was in real trouble. She would have preferred a long rant, it would have bought her some time, and it would make her feel less like the pig getting ready to be slaughtered by the butcher.

All of a sudden the wizard plunged his magicked arm into Raven's torso. His arm went through her body like a ghost's would have. It didn't hurt, but it was terribly cold. She felt him grab something inside her, and he slowly started pulling it out. That was when the pain hit. It felt like he was trying to tear her arm off, yet it was still so much worse than that. After all it was not a physical part of her that he was removing; it was a part of her soul. And the agony only got worse as Sumal slowly extracted his arm from Raven's body. After a while she could no longer stand it. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on something, anything else. Meditation exercises, computer programs, how to build Cyborg's stupid car, Beast Boy's bad jokes, anything to dull the pain. She heard a pain filled whine coming from somewhere, and then she realized that it was coming from her. Finally, when Raven thought that she was just going to start screaming and never stop she felt a terrible ripping sensation. The pain was gone, leaving a dull empty feeling in its wake.

She wanted to keep her eyes closed, but she had to see what exactly Sumal had taken from her. She forced her eyelids open. There he stood, holding a black ball of pure energy in his hand. Her energy. Her powers. A part of her soul. She felt a sudden surge of hatred and anger toward this evil man, but long habit caused her to keep it locked inside. She still had not realized that she was now free to feel what she wished. She watched as he pulled out a black pendent out of his robes. With yet another spell he…kind of poured her powers into the pendent. It was over. Raven's powers where now completely his, and there was nothing Raven could do to prevent it.

He studied his prize for a moment (err, the pendent I mean) with a certain amount of pride. After a few minutes his gaze returned to Raven. It looked as if he was pondering what to do with her. Seeming to come to a discussion about something, he nodded to himself. He then walked to the door, opened it and called to someone.

Raven heard the rumble of heavy footsteps and watched as two golems entered the room. They were huge creations of living stone. They were basically just a pair of lumpy arms and short thick legs with no heads to speak of. They lumbered toward Raven and removed the restraints. Before she could even think about running they had grabbed her arms and started dragging her out the door.

"What are you going to do now?" Raven growled, trying her best to sound defiant.

Sumal held up his hand to stop the golems from dragging her away so he could answer. He stared at Raven for a moment.

"I'm going to kill you." He said. There was absolutely no humanity in his voice, and that made his statement all the more chilling.

A few minutes later Raven found herself locked in a cell. It was one of those classic dungeons, with absolutely nothing but four stone walls and a damp pile of straw. She was pretty sure something had already died in here; the stink of the place was proof of that.

"Worse then Beast Boy's room." She muttered. The thought of the green changeling made Raven's heart ache for a bit, though she had no idea why. Nostalgia, most likely. In fact she rather wished the green string bean was here. She would never admit it to his face, but Beast Boy's jokes really could be funny. In fact she missed Beast Boy a bit more than she missed the others, Azar knew why.

She started to brush her hair out of her eyes, but then noticed something odd. The black stones that she usually wore on the backs of her hands were gone.

Feeling slightly panicked, she checked her other hand and discovered that it was missing its stone as well. Not only that the broach that she usually wore on her cloak had vanished as well, as had her belt.

"That b(censored). " She grumbled "Bad enough he runs off with my powers, but does he have to take my black falconblood stones as well? I guess I really don't need them anymore, but still. Well at least he didn't steal this locket."

She stared at her birthday present (which was still around her neck); since it was not magical Sumal had felt no need to take it.

Raven opened it and stared at the smiling images of her friends. Although there was no logic to it looking at them gave her some hope. So they were too late to save her powers, so what? She knew in her heart they were looking for her, and that they would find her. They would come, and they would not fail. The Trigon incident had proved to her that her friends could do anything. She had always thought that her destiny was inevitable, but they had proven her wrong. No way would they let her die at the hands of this wizard.

Speaking of said wizard, Raven wondered what he meant when he said he was going to kill her. Like Jinx she had heard tales of this guy, and most of said tales agreed that he always let his victims go when he was done with them. Why would he choose to kill her? Unless-

That book! It had to be the answer! Raven knew that really dark spells sometimes required a sacrifice, a human sacrifice. While she was not technically human, Raven could bet that this was what Sumal wanted her for. He could try out a spell from the book using her as a sacrifice for the dark magic. That could also be why he wanted those falconblood stones. The things were powerful magic amplifiers, and would enhance his magic tenfold.

Oh this was very bad. Not just for her, but for the world in general. The things he could summon with that book…She didn't even want to think about it. But there was nothing she could do at the moment. She would just have to hope that the Titans could stop Sumal. Before it was too late.

Raven was wrong about one thing. The falconblood stones had indeed been taken by Sumal, but he no longer had them.

The belt, broach and the two other stones all glittered on Sumal's study, but they did not stay there. Through magic all their own they vanished. Crossing the dimensional void they returned to their home, Titans Tower.

Right under Beast Boy's nose.

Beast Boy had managed to fall asleep on Raven's bed, mostly due to exhaustion, but also due to the fact that Raven had a very comfortable bed. He was in the middle of a pleasant dream that involved kissing…someone. A very pretty someone. He really couldn't see said someone, but he knew that it was defiantly female. For some reason he started smelling falcon. Now, how many females did he know that smelled like-

Beast Boy jerked awake and let out a scared yip. He was in Raven's room! The forbidden room! The Room of a Thousand Red Eyed Horrors With the Scary Black Claws! Raven would kill him! Especially when she found him on her bed shedding green hairs.

He expected, just for a moment, to see her swooping down on him with all four red glowing eyes, well glowing. Then he remembered the museum, and the wizard, and the spider.

Now he almost wished he would see her swooping. If she was swooping here then it would mean that she was not there. Wherever "there" was.

Then Beast Boy remembered what had woken him up in the first place, the smell of falcon. He looked down at his paws and yipped again. It was Raven's belt. And that little broach thing she had on her cloak. And those two other stones that decorated the backs of her hands. How had they gotten there? Where they magic?

Beast Boy shifted back to human. He picked up the broach stone (funny how he just knew that it was the broach, it was almost identical to the hand stones) and stared at it.

"Hello Mr. Black and Red stone" he said "do you know where Raven went?"

"I do." Replied the stone.

Beast Boy yelped and hid under the bed. He had lived with Raven long enough to know that things that should not talk should be treated with caution, or just plain fear.

"Oh do come out from there you imbecile," the stone said "we do not have time for games."

"Look dude, I know enough not to listen to weird talking jewelry. We already had that problem with the dragon!"

"I am not a dragon and I am not trapped in this stone or anything of the sort! I am only speaking through this stone."

"Yeah? Then what the heck are you?" Beast Boy emerged from the underside of the bed and glared at the rock, which was now glowing with golden light.

"Take me to the other titans. I will explain to all of them."

Beast Boy did not like it, but when he thought a bit he decided it was a good idea. Robin would be better at this then him, and Jinx might have an idea as well. Carefully, just in case something decided to bite, he gathered up Raven's stones from the bed and dashed to the ops center with them.

Robin and Jinx where still discussing the best plan of attack when Cyborg walked in, Starfire in tow. The alien had finally shaken off the venom, and was now eager to join in planning the downfall of a certain wizard. Cyborg was fully operational as well, and just as ready to go smash some bad guy in a very literal and painful sense. The two joined in the battle planning, but all plans were cut short when a green whirlwind entered the room babbling.

"Dudes! I was kind of in Raven's room, ya know just to check, and look what I found. Raven's stuff! And this one talked at me! It says it knows were Raven is. But I don't know, you think it might be like Malchior or something?"

"What? Man you got to calm down." Cyborg said while holding his hands in the air. Then he noticed exactly what Beast Boy was holding "Wait a minute, aren't those Raven's stone thingies?"

Jinx was looking carefully at the stones. Her pink feline eyes were narrowed in concentration. Slowly she got up and approached Beast Boy, her eyes never leaving the stones.

"Let me see one of those stones." She said "Preferably the one that talked."

Beast Boy was reluctant, but he did as he was told. He held out the broach for Jinx to take. For some reason a quiet had settled over the entire room as everyone held their breath. Jinx studied the odd stone for a minute or two, and then looked at the others with a critical eye. She grunted.

"Well, well." She said "These are black falconblood stones! I knew she had to have a least one, but all of these?"

"What's a black falconblood stone?" Robin asked.

"Blood of a giant black falcon after it dies. It kind of crystallizes when the bird dies. They are very magical and powerful. Especially if the falcon died for a cause." Jinx said.

"Err, whaaaaaat?" Cyborg said.

"Are all Earthlings this uneducated?" The same voice that had startled Beast Boy in Raven's room returned. Everyone except Jinx jumped.

"Are you Rahaska Bloodwings?" Jinx asked with the air of someone addressing George Washington.

"Finally, a mortal with an education! This was getting annoying. Where did you learn my name?"

"A unicorn called Mortical. Do you know him?"

"I have been dead for thousands of years, girl. What do you think?"

"DEAD!" Everyone except Jinx bellowed.

"They don't know anything, do they?" Rahaska the talking stone said. "One moment please."

The stone started glowing gold again, and then floated out of Jinx's hand. It flew to middle of the room and flashed twice. When the light left the Titans were faced with an awesome sight. It was a huge black bird, a falcon, whose head literally scraped the ceiling. That was bad enough, but what was worse was the fact that it was literally see-through.

This thing was a ghost.

"Now, for an education. My name is Rahaska Bloodwings. In life I was a familiar to a man known as Makhar, a high priest of Azar.

Starfire gasped "That is what Raven is!" Everyone looked at her "Remember when that nasty Puppet King switched mine and Raven's bodies? We did the sharing of our pasts. She mentioned that she was a high priestess of Azar, though I did not know what this meant. She also said the she belonged to a Makhar sect. I did not understand this either."

"The high priests of Azar opposed the Order of Scath thousands of years ago. While the Order of Scath was one of violence and bloodshed the priests of Azar believed in peace. So much so that they were, and are, almost complete pacifists.

Long ago they were about to be destroyed, and because of these pacifistic beliefs they were almost helpless until my master decided to take a stand. He rejected his vow of nonviolence and rode me into battle. Together we saved hundreds, but in the end both of us lost our own lives. As a show of gratitude the priests of Azar formed the Makhar sect, the only sect in the Temple of Azar that is permitted to do battle."

"Nice story, but what does this have to do with Raven?" Cyborg asked with a disgruntled look.

"Because Raven is the last of the Makhar apprentices to live. If she dies then the last hope of master's legacy dies with her. I loved my master dearly, and I will not let his legacy fail!"

"Why are you showing up now? She's put her life on the line hundreds of times before this! Why didn't you show up when Trigon tried to use her as a portal?" Robin asked suspicion in his tone.

"Trigon's power prevented me from using my own. I do not have much left, in fact I have only a few more minutes until…but that is not important! Listen to me now if you wish to save your friend! This wizard who took her is inside a small pocket dimension as we speak. You will not be able to find him. However, I know that he is planning on using raven in a certain dark ritual. To perform this ritual he will need to return to earth, and that is the time to strike."

"You wouldn't know where he is going to be, do you? Earth is kind of a big place!" Beast Boy said.

"Three possible places would serve as a good place for this ritual. One is the old library in this very town. Another is a certain cliff in the Rocky Mountains. You cannot miss it; it is surrounded by four huge rocks that make a kind of bowl. The third place is the underground sewers of Gotham city."

"Gotham city?" Robin asked.

"Did you ever wonder why the place is so dark and depressing? It was a meeting place for the Order of Scath once."

"Alright!" Robin said, going into his leader mode "We need to stake out those three places!"

"One moment." Jinx said "Bloodwings! What is this ritual?"

The falcon-ghost looked at her with a piercing gaze.

"The wizard wishes to summon one of the children of Yog-Sothoth. That is why he needs raven. He… will feed her to it." The black falcon was now looking directly at Jinx. "Save her young mage, for the sake of the Makar and for the sake of both your fathers. I watched over both of them."

Jinx nodded. "Yeah, I can't let her die can I?"

"For Flario, for the Curse, and for Makar!" The bird bellowed as it vanished into thin air, leaving five very confused teens staring at Jinx in puzzlement.

An author's note: I don't own Teen Titans or Yog-Sothoth, but I do own Rahaska Bloodwings and Makhar! D.C. Comics and I think Warner Brothers own the Teen Titans. H.P. Lovecraft owns Yog-Sothoth. All I have is a bunch of original characters and an old computer named the Clunker!

Notice that no one ever explains the fact that, while Raven was raised by pacifists and is presumably a member of their…whatever she still fights all those villains? Last time I checked pacifists don't fight period. That's why I created the Makhar sect! To explain this weird little conundrum.