IX

Everything and Nothing

Cutting into the rock ahead of the three Titans became more and more difficult the deeper they got. The path was solid earth, almost like the regular underground surrounding them. The entire process became almost like an archeology dig, with Cyborg using his geosensors to determine where the density of earth changed while they cut through, mostly vaporizing the rock in front of them as they went. It was another hour before they realized they had finally reached the end of the tunnel.

"I think that's it," Cyborg finally said, wiping his brow. "Seems like some sort of chamber."

Surprisingly, the chamber at the end of the collapsed tunnel was left unscathed. The rocky cavern boasted its own tunneled-out short paths and alcoves. The team spread out, searching the area for any clues. They found nothing in the form of left-behind trinkets or devices, or anything that would help them understand what had been down there.

"Hey, Rob," Cyborg said from further away, his voice echoing off the multiple walls of the chamber. "Take a look at this."

Robin walked over to Cyborg who was shining his shoulder lamp at a solid-looking wall of rock. "An entrance?"

"Think so," Cyborg nodded. "But check it." Cyborg lowered his lamp to the ground where the rock started coming out of the wall, looking almost like a flood of dark water practically frozen in place.

"Molten rock," Robin realized. "Must have super-cooled before it had a chance to fill the chamber. Can we cut through?"

"Sorry, man," Cyborg shook his head, "but I just about wasted my batteries getting' down this far."

"We may have to come back."

"Robin?" came Starfire's voice from behind. Robin and Cyborg approached the green glow coming from Starfire's raised hand.

"What did you find?"

"I can not be certain," she began, "but there is something…strange about this part of the floor."

Robin looked to the ground, finding nothing particularly interesting. He bent down and examined the ground more closely. The dirt had been stirred up, as if attempting to hide something that had been there. The rest of the chamber floor showed very little sign of travel. Robin ran a gloved finger through a small mound of dirt.

"Lemme check that," Cyborg offered, switching his lamp through his multiple scanning beams. Robin stepped back as Cyborg scanned the area in front of the Titans.

"This part of the dirt seems to have been disturbed almost in a circle," Robin said. "Can you check for traces of ash?"

Cyborg's scanner turned a deep violet color. Smeared portions of dirt indicated the areas in which something at some point had burned.

"These points indeed seem to form a circle," Starfire noted. "With the exception of the four even points on the outside."

"I don't want to guess," Robin started, "but I'm not liking the look of this."

"What are you thinkin' it is?" Cyborg asked.

"Something…dark. Whatever it is, we have to keep searching. There were two Slade sentinels guarding this thing. We've got to get to the bottom of this."

-

-

"What about the shadow you masked your face with?"

Raven had been asking question after question for the last two hours. A fair amount went without a clear answer, but the hours were not wasted. From Zerrich, Raven learned his history, his abilities to an extent, even some of his setbacks.

To answer Raven's prior question, Zerrich raised his hand out to his side. Raven watched as he caused the floor to grow dark in a larger shape of the hand above it. The fingers swirled clockwise until the shadow became a large circular spot with no given source. For the most part, the explanations for how he learned each of his abilities usually stemmed from the scrolls. Raven could only assume this was yet another technique drawn from the incantations.

"Shadow magic is probably the easiest to learn," Zerrich said. "Not much to it except keeping the concentration. All you're really doing is creating walls of shadow. Of course…"

Zerrich lifted his hand higher, and the circular shadow on the floor lifted into the air. A disc of darker air centered itself between Zerrich and Raven. She instinctively reached out for it. When her fingers touched the first part of the disc, it began to dissolve like a mist until it was gone.

Zerrich smirked. "It does move around. Can't really do much else with it. I can shape it and wrap it around objects on a small scale. Nothing too large, as yet."

"It's perfect for concealment," Raven indicated.

"Also very nice for masking my travels when I slide through a wall," Zerrich added. "My natural energy is blue, and a little too bright for being surreptitious."

Raven nodded, thinking about the lessons she was taught. "The Elders say those that can find their center and let it radiate from within have a color that matches their soul."

"Yes," Zerrich answered. "The blue itself is supposed to indicate peace and tranquility."

Raven smirked slightly. "I think just about every hue represents peace and tranquility on Azarath."

Zerrich couldn't help but smile back. "It isn't very surprising. The depth of blue in my power seems to come from emptiness of a kind. I had always assumed it was related to my mother."

"Aaand…now you think it might be something else?"

Zerrich shook his head. "I really have no reason to. But…yes, I do."

"Such as?"

"I have no idea," Zerrich answered, shaking his head again. "As I said before, part of my reason for coming here was in the search for answers."

"You've been pretty open about asking questions. Especially the ones about me."

"I still have questions about you. If I could read your mind, things would be easier."

"If you could read my mind," Raven retorted, "it'd probably leave you traumatized."

Zerrich smirked, letting his amusement show. For Raven, the question on whether Zerrich was psychic or not had been officially answered. That, however, left another question.

Raven looked straight at Zerrich. "You have no psychic ability. How is it you can project that aura…"

The intercom clicked, and Raven's question was interrupted by Beast Boy's words. "Hey, Raven. Robin's calling in. He really wants to talk to you."

Raven sighed. "I have to go. We'll continue this later."

"I might have a favor to ask," Zerrich started as Raven turned to leave.

"What kind of favor?" she asked, turning around slightly.

"Is there a chance I might be able to receive some food? I believe it is well past breakfast. I haven't actually had a decent meal in some time."

Raven looked back towards the door. Food. They hadn't actually given him a meal all day.

"Sorry about that," she said, somewhat embarrassed. "I'll have something brought in. You aren't too picky, are you?"

"At the moment," Zerrich answered, "not very picky at all. Thank you."

Raven nodded as she headed for the door, typing in her code to open it and walk through. As the door closed behind her, Beast Boy reopened the corridor.

"What does Robin need with me?" Raven asked.

"Dunno," Beast Boy answered. "But it sounds like they found something they want you to look at. Cyborg's gonna come back in and recharge, so when he gets here with the T-car…"

"I'll just head out now," Raven interrupted. "It'll be a lot faster."

"Kay then," Beast Boy said. "So, what about this Zerrich guy? Am I gonna keep watching him?

"When Cyborg gets in," Raven began, "make sure to give him a decent lunch."

"Um," Beast Boy said, "okay. Do you think he'd like to try som-"

"No tofu," Raven replied. "In fact, let Cyborg fix something when he gets in. I'll be back with the team."

With nothing else to say, Raven sank into the shadows on the floor and the black swirl of magic under her feet.

-

-

Raven didn't like it.

From the first step into the cavern chamber, looking around at the different tunnels and alcoves, she felt a terrible chill fill her entire body. There was no draft, no source for air that she could see except for behind her. However, the chill came from the chamber itself. Neither Robin nor Starfire seemed to be bothered by it. Then, Robin shined a portable lamp Cyborg had given him at the ground. The spectrum of light caused the parts of the ground to glow. He explained the glowing dirt piles were ash and residue from something that had burned there prior. The formation was immediately recognized, and Raven suffered from a chill of a more natural cause—a quick moment of fear.

No, Raven didn't like it at all.

Despite her moment of heightened emotion, she kept her face neutral and was able to maintain control. She looked over at Robin who was watching her. She knew he'd seen it in her face. Regardless of how well she may have hidden it, Robin had probably seen that fear right off of her.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I can't tell," she answered, neutrally. "I'm…just not comfortable here." She looked back to the circular pattern of highlighted dirt. She made note of the four cornered highlights just outside the circle. After taking it in, she stepped into the middle of it and began levitating. She crossed her legs under her, holding her hands out and closing her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Robin asked.

"What I'm looking for can't be found physically in this cave. I'm going to see what I can find beyond."

"Be careful, Raven," Starfire whispered.

Raven put her concentration into the circle. She reached out with her mind to the residue of ash surrounding her. She increased her concentration on their origins—what they might have been used for. She tried imagining the candles that had probably been in their place.

The ash and residue answered back. In her mind, each point was as bright as the original candle flames that once surrounded where she levitated. She searched further, deeper into their meaning. They whispered to her, but she could not fully interpret what they were saying. Her mind went through the categories of rituals she knew, trying to find a connection. A certain possibility struck her mind, and she mentally told herself it couldn't be what she thought. She applied the thought to the whispering fires.

The flames answered. The whispers turned into hoarse chanting. It was an incantation—the incantation used to invoke the fires surrounding her. That's when Raven gasped, though she couldn't tell if it was mentally or out loud. The small candle flames became large fires burning around her. The fires linked to each other through lines of light—the four 'corner' flames forming a diamond with sides that curved from point to point outside of the circle. The incantation grew louder, repeating over and over, and she recognized it. In that recognition came a vision. A fiery portal formed just in front of her. Flames swirling around like wind appeared from the realm on the other side. A quick flash of fire soared past the opening on the other side—a wave of flame in the shape of a wing.

Raven screamed.

Her eyes flew open, and her concentration dissolved, causing her to fall to the ground. She was panting, out of breath. Sweat poured down her face. The other two Titans came to her side, asking if she was all right, if anything was wrong.

"Everything is wrong," she whispered through her panting. "Everything…"

-

-

The trip home was slow. Starfire carried Robin back while Raven flew along side them. The sun was beginning to set, and the city seemed to be in the midst of getting home just the same as the Titans.

"So, you know what that vision you had means?" Robin asked through the wind.

"Positive," Raven yelled back. "It was a ritual for opening a window to the realm of the Flame Demons. We call them the Firnusium. They're made of pure fire. Just one of them could make a real mess of this city and keep our hands full for a while."

"If that's true," Robin said, "then I'd make a guess that we don't have one in the city right now."

"You couldn't miss one," Raven answered. "If we haven't seen one around, we probably aren't going to." Not yet…

"So," Starfire started, "the ritual has failed?"

"I'm not sure," Raven responded. "I saw the portal. I saw the fires on the other side. I think the portal was opened, but something prevented anything from coming through."

"Like what?" Robin inquired.

"Don't know," Raven said. "That was about when I screamed and accidentally ended the vision."

They continued to fly for a moment, the Tower starting to show up in front of them as they flew across the bay. "Learn anything from Zerrich?"

Raven kept her flight steady, not answering right away. What a quick subject change. "He's told me a lot."

"What does he want?" Robin asked.

"Well, he actually hasn't said that much yet."

"That doesn't help us."

Raven nodded once. "He did tell me a lot about his past and his abilities."

Robin looked over at Raven as they flew. "Give me a run-down."

"He used to be a healer. Something happened with him, and suddenly he began learning to use his power in different ways. It happened after a vision he says he had, but he won't tell me what it was about."

"Any guesses?" Robin asked.

"I'd rather not guess," Raven answered him. "I do know that he was given the Rontizma scrolls as some kind of payment for rescuing the granddaughter of one of our Elders. I don't know any more details around that situation; the specifics are still light."

"He learned how to fight from reading the scrolls?"

"He learned how to use his energy to create fields and energy blasts. I'm not sure where he learned to fight. He also learned to use his energy to allow him to fly, traverse interdimensionally and grab onto objects and move them across great distances. He isn't psychic or telekinetic, though. When he grabs objects, he can only lesson their weight by a certain amount. Mostly because he can't apply his mind to it."

"So he can't lift busses like you can," Robin put it simply.

Raven smirked slightly. "He has gotten good with what he's learned. There are also some tricks he knows that are unrelated to the energy he's tapped within himself. Rituals, incantations and the like. He's scratched the surface of shadow magic. He uses it mostly as a masking tool."

"Okay," Robin nodded, "how do we find out what he wants?"

"I'm trying to get to that. I'm hoping he might enlighten me if I keep pushing."

"Enlightenment is what I'm after," Robin finished as they approached the roof of the Tower. "I'm giving you more time with him, but only because I need to know if and how he fits into all this."

The three Titans touched down on the Tower's roof. They wasted little time going down the stairs to the lounge within before splitting their own ways. Raven made her way straight to her room. For the moment, Zerrich would have to wait.

-

-

"Gone," Raven muttered to herself, slapping the book in her hand to the floor with a muffled 'foomp.' She had suspected the obvious already, but after checking through every single book in her room, Raven confirmed that one of her books was missing. Technically, she was missing several. Among ones she couldn't recall at the moment was the book in question.

Raven picked the dropped book back up and put it on top of the stack of books in front of her. That stack had been the last of the books to search through. She reached out with her mind, lifting the entire stack of tomes back on the upper shelf she had gotten them from. The black energy around each edition dissolved as they settled in place. Raven headed out of her room and towards the recreation lounge for an evening meal.

Raven hadn't simply been searching to see if the book had indeed remained or not. She had wanted to look up valuable information about the ritual she had discovered in the cavern. Still, she knew she wouldn't find it. She had known from the beginning that the knowledge of such a ritual could have only come from that book. The likelihood of anyone else having a copy on Earth was highly improbable.

It wasn't a long walk before Raven made it to the living room. Cyborg had been lying on the sofa, taking up most of the central area. Raven could see that he'd made himself quite comfortable as he watched the television screen.

"All charged up?" Raven asked.

Cyborg looked up, a little surprised. "Oh, yeah I did. Course, now I'm all energized, and it's nearly ten 'o'clock."

Raven sat on the far end of the curved sofa. "Where's Beast Boy?"

Cyborg shot a thumb towards the far corridor. "Turned in early. Guard duty was too much for 'im."

Raven rolled her eyes. "And, by 'too much,' you mean 'bored to tears.' "

Cyborg laughed. "Yeah. 'Bout sums it up, don't it?"

"What about Robin and Starfire? Already gone to bed?"

Cyborg shook his head. "Star and Robin went back to the station. He's gonna try and get the stuff from Slade's base out from under all that red tape. Y'know, just in case they missed something."

Raven relaxed against the back of the couch. It was a good idea, going over the salvaged equipment. Even the slightest clue or bit of extra data recovered might have helped.

"Rob says you got some bad vibes in that cave," Cyborg brought up.

"Understatement of the year," Raven responded.

"Least you got a better idea what it was."

Raven nodded. "What, yes. The why and the how are still in question."

Actually, the how was simple. They stole my book and opened that portal with it. That, of course, brought in the question of whom. Slade? Someone else?

"So," Cyborg straightened out. "Is it bad? We talkin' 'usual Slade' bad, or worse?"

Raven took the time to explain her vision to Cyborg. She explained it was just a vision, enhanced by her own powers. It had reflected an event that had occurred, which considering the creatures Raven knew dwelled on the other side, meant a very dangerous event indeed.

"What I can remember," Raven continued, "the rituals required some sort of astrological alignment, and a hot spot, I think. Some place considered potent…ripe for the incantation."

"Figures," Cyborg said. "There's always some underground cave just beggin' for someone to find and wake up the dead. Er…call up the…demon…dudes."

"Except that," Raven said, "from what I know something should have happened, and it didn't. If the ritual was a success as I saw in my vision, then why aren't there a flock of these things terrorizing the city?"

"Somethin' went wrong?" Cyborg queried.

"I'm not so sure. Like, something else happened. Another plan."

Cyborg scoffed. "That'd be just like Slade. Throwin' curves on us."

Raven sighed. "It always seems to come back to Slade."

"You think our boy down stairs is still involved?"

"I don't know. We're in a spot, though. Can't rule out Zerrich, can't really account for Slade. After probing Chang's mind we know he was telling the truth, so he isn't involved past his own plans."

"Maybe when Robin gets back, we'll have some more info. And if there ain't no fireballs with wings messin' with the city, let's be glad we got a break for once."

Raven simply stared across the room. "I want to be. I just don't think this is a break. More like the calm before the storm."

The two Titans simply sat on the couch with no noise except for the audio from the large TV image in front of them.