Disclaimer: Yep, I still got nothin'.

A/N: I'm so sorry for the delay with this chapter, everyone! My laptop crashed and I had to redo everything I'd had written, which was all of this chapter and part of the next. Hopefully, the chapter will make up for the wait, though. Thanks so much to all of you who've taken time to read and review this. It makes me so happy to see there are those who enjoy reading this little project of mine as much as I enjoy writing it!

And special thanks to the lovely Absentia for playing editor on this one for me! She's wonderful, and you should all be reading her stuff right now because it's so much better than anything I could turn out for you. Go. Shoo. You know you want to check her out. :)

Peace, all.

Last Time:

The wailing came full force now, like a freight train screaming down the tracks, and Raven could barely make out the muffled cry of her name from somewhere outside her prison. It was the last thing she remembered before her body deconstructed, pulling itself apart like a house of sand, the scream in her throat lost to the wind.

Just like the rest of her.


Chapter Three: Stuck in the Middle With You

"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right; here I am, stuck in the middle with you." --Stealers Wheel

Her molecules collected like a swarm of locusts, fusing in pixels of tissue and bone, before the flesh wound its way around her foundation and stitched her back together like a doll made of gunnysack and sawdust. And when at last she drew breath, Raven did the only thing she could do at the moment.

She fell to her knees and retched.

It was a rather gruesome and undignified affair, though not within her ability to control for the time being. In fact, if her head didn't quit spinning she might just have a repeat performance. The muscles of her stomach seized and clenched violently, and Raven collapsed back to the ground with a sharp cry, unable to do anything more than curl in on herself and writhe until her body adjusted to its painful transition. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she stilled; her breathing slowed and she let the echo of the wind ease her into her senses and bring her back, slowly, to some measure of control.

Several long moments passed with her lying, there, in the dirt, gaining focus on the fragments in her mind and putting them back together, and when it seemed the fog in her vision began to dissipate and the world would hold still, she propped herself upright on her forearms and rolled over to her hands and knees. It was a move she almost instantly regretted, and she hissed at the sudden, sharp sting in her palms. Nonplussed, Raven sat up on her knees and turned her hands to examine the source of her discomfort, only to find strange symbols etched into the flesh as though she'd been branded. Her brow furrowed in concentration, and she brought a delicate finger up to trace the lines of a particularly intricate design. Were those…hieroglyphics?

Clarity crept in on her like a frost settling over her skin, and for the first time, Raven took a good, long look at her surroundings.

"Dear Azar," she breathed, feeling a distinct chill settle in her spine. It wasn't the roiling, black mass that stretched across the sky like bubbling tar, or the distant, tortured screaming of clashing winds and once living things, that filled her belly with bile and dread; and it wasn't the gaping chasm of absolute night that lie before her, or the stench of grave soil as it spilled atop fingers that dug into the ground for what solidity they could get, that tightened her chest with fear.

After all, this wasn't the first time Raven stood at the mouth of Hell.

And therein lie the crux of it all. It was the sickening familiarity of it that sank into her bones and left her thoroughly weak and bitter and cold inside. Admittedly, the environment had changed from her last encounter, but Hell was Hell, no matter what mythology it was constructed upon. And Raven knew the darkness when she saw it, just as she knew she couldn't go through this again. Not this time.

Not without Robin.

He'd been the one to protect her when she was just small. To stand with her when there was nothing left to stand for. To guide her when she could not find her way. Who, now, would lead her home?

"Ugh," came the low, sickly groan from somewhere on the ground.

Oh, no.

"God, who dropped a building on my head?"

Hell, no.

"Idiot," she hissed, causing him to jump at the sound of her voice. She fixed him with one of her most intimidating glares. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

The thief shook his head to gain focus and instantly dropped back to the earth, shaking as though he'd been struck by lightening. If it hadn't been for the fact that he'd gotten them into this mess to begin with, she might have felt sorry for him. As it was, she didn't, and while she didn't particularly enjoy watching him sink into himself, groaning helplessly for the next twenty minutes, she wasn't exactly inclined to help him at the moment. Provided she even could have, which she doubted.

Similarly, when he eventually came back to himself and finally managed to find his footing in the not quite solid earth, she did little more than scowl, eyeing him with irritation and expectancy. "Well?" She asked irritably.

The thief coughed and returned her look of displeasure, and though she couldn't see it, she certainly felt it. "What I've done? Don't you mean what we've done?" he redirected, brushing the dirt from his uniform nonchalantly but wincing as he grazed over the raw skin, exposed through the burned edges of his gloves.

If Raven noticed, she obviously didn't care.

"We didn't steal a cursed Egyptian artifact," she said, not at all amused.

"No, but last I recall, everything was just fine until you had to go all hocus pocus," the thief elaborated. "Whatever happened here," he paused to look around, "you set it off."

Raven clamped down on the anger that threatened to spill over into her consciousness and squared off with the arrogant thief. "Well, if you would have just given it back like I told you—"

X laughed outright. "Yes, because I know plenty of thieves in the business of stealing just to hand over the goods when asked politely enough."

Raven squeezed her eyes shut and began to chant inwardly. She was just this close to politely beating him to death with his own arms. And as much as she hated to admit it, she was going to need both him and his arms if they expected to find a way out of here. The Titan sighed; she might not want to do this without Robin, but she was beginning to realize that she didn't exactly have a choice. She couldn't do this alone, and if it was one thing Robin had taught her over the years, it was that giving up was never an option. He'd trusted her, believed in her when she couldn't believe in herself. Walked through Hell with his greatest enemy based on that belief, just to bring her back to them! To show her that there was always hope. To give her something to live for. Who was she to disregard his effort, now? No, she wouldn't have to do this without Robin; he'd left a piece of himself with her always after that, stronger than the bond they already shared—hopefully, it would be enough to sustain her. It had to be…

The sorceress exhaled sharply, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "This is pointless. Arguing will get us nowhere, fast. We need a plan."

"So now it's we?" X taunted, and Raven glowered.

"Until I grow weary of you and use your intestines for jump rope," she deadpanned.

"You sweet talker, you," the thief replied amusedly.

Raven rolled her eyes, clutching to the end of her virtually non-existent patience. "What exactly did you steal?"


Silence was something X was entirely accustomed to in his line of work. And despite the impression he left when in the company of a certain group of superheroes, he was a relatively quiet person by nature. Idle words meant little to him, and he had discovered rather early on that the world had much more to offer when one took the time to listen to what that might be.

He rather wished he'd listened a bit more intently when it came to the Eye of Horus.

…Not to mention a certain dark, violet haired sorceress, as it were.

X sighed heavily, if not a little frustrated; he wasn't sure how long they'd been traveling, at this point. It was one of the first things he'd noticed about this strange place—time was entirely irrelevant; nothing changed. From the darkness of their surroundings to the natural progressions of his own body…it was as though time simply didn't pass at all, and he wondered if they had actually been walking for hours or possibly even days.

However, regardless of how long they'd been moving, it did nothing to change the fact that she hadn't so much as breathed audibly. And while X didn't mind the quiet, the utter lack of communication between them wasn't helping the situation at all. He wasn't the type to just go blindly traipsing into oblivion with his enemies…especially when he wasn't in complete control. He was impulsive, yes, but not stupid. Yet, here he was, following Raven, of all people, into the depths of who knew what, without the first clue where they were headed, and no indication as to what was really going on. In fact, beyond a few muttered ramblings about Egyptian polytheism (what that had to do with anything he didn't know), she hadn't told him a damn thing—not where they were, not about the crap burned into his hands, and certainly not how the hell they were going to get home.

To say that circumstances were irritating would have, quite possibly, been the understatement of the century.

"Alright, doll, that's it," he said, stepping along the craggy outcropping of rock on a widened portion of the narrow, spiral path they'd been following and planting himself firmly in her way, arms crossed impatiently. "We're not moving another step until you tell me just what the hell's going on here and where you're taking us."

"Raven," she intoned.

"Excuse me?"

"It's my name," she replied, clearly annoyed. "Not doll, not sunshine, not sweets, and not pretty bird." She'd nearly cringed on the last one, he could tell. He'd have to use that one more often.

"Raven. Learn it. Use it."

"Whatever you say, pretty bird, but don't change the subject."

She flushed angrily and for a moment looked ready to give him a tongue-lashing that would make even Batman blush; however, Raven wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. Instead, she shut her mouth with an audible snap and brushed past him, without so much as a backward glance.

Or at least she would have, if not for the bruising grip on her upper arm as he spun her to face him directly.

"I don't think so."

The light was scarce, and not really light at all so much as a strange, soft glow coming from the ground to illuminate the way of their footsteps, and had it not been for the night-vision his mask provided, he might have missed the deadly gleam of her eyes as she looked from the place where his fingers were wrapped around her bicep up to the hollow of his eyes.

"Let. Go."

X swallowed, knowing he was treading on dangerous ground but determined not to give away the upper hand. "Or what?"

The ground buckled and cracked as if in reply, and X cursed as the earth lurched with enough force to knock their feet out from under them.

"Damn it, girl," X growled, sitting up in the dirt, "was that really necessary?"

"That wasn't me, genius," she snapped.

"Then what the—"

The earth groaned and hissed in response, and they scuttled back nervously as the ground began to quake, a large bulge growing below the surface of the rock. It stretched and screamed until, finally, the pressure became too great and it exploded, spewing stones and foul smelling gas into the air, and pitching both thief and Titan headlong over the cliff side.

X struck out, grasping and clawing what little his hands could take purchase of, and he hissed through his teeth as rock and dirt bit into the marred flesh of his palms through the burned places of his gloves, while he clung there, precariously on the edge. He felt the muscles of his legs stretch and jerk abruptly, and Red-X looked down to find Raven hanging above the abyss, gripping his ankles like a lifeline.

"Shouldn't you be flying right about now?" X asked dryly, the tension in his voice noticeable even through the distorter.

"I—" she gasped as they slipped several inches down the cliff side before X maintained his grip, and they stopped short. "I can't."

"What?! What do you mean you can't?"

"It isn't…safe."

"Well, in case you haven't noticed," he spoke, peering down into her face, "this isn't exactly what you'd call safe."

"Look," she began angrily, only to have a startled cry escape her lips and her eyes widen in shock.

X followed her gaze to find a great soldier of bone and rotting tissue towering over them, its attire a filthy linen kilt that smelled of death and a crown of petrified snakes upon its jackal-like head. The creature snarled, teeth of knives glinting in the low, black light and inhuman maw gaping as it took a mighty swing with its scythe.

X cursed and jerked his hand away from the ledge just as the giant blade smashed into the ground where it had been. The creature screeched and swung again, showering them with rocks and dust as X switched hands and it missed again.

"Fuck!" he exclaimed, out of breath as he swapped yet again. "I can't keep this up." He caught her eye for a heartbeat, and Raven nodded, tightening her hold on him and squeezing her eyes shut.

"So long, bones," the thief saluted, and without so much as a second thought, he let go to the darkness that swallowed them whole.


"Hey man, you still up?" Cyborg asked, though he wasn't surprised to find him there, in the dark of his research room at three in the morning, watching the surveillance footage of the fight over and over again. Similarly, he wasn't surprised when Robin didn't even appear to have heard him, though Cyborg knew he probably had.

"Look, Rob," he said, approaching cautiously and placing a hand on the Boy Wonder's shoulder to give a light squeeze. "We've been over the video a hundred times…there's just nothing there."

"And what if you're wrong, Cyborg?" Robin asked coldly, pointedly shrugging the hand from his shoulder. "We could've missed something. Anything. People just don't vanish into thin air."

"No, they don't," he agreed. "But we've run every test there is to run on that amulet and searched the entire city over. And we still got nothin'."

"That's not good enough," Robin growled.

"I know," Cyborg said quietly.

"I…we will find her."

Cyborg smiled a little. "I know that, too. But it's been three days, man. How do you expect to find her if you're too exhausted to function? You're no good to her like that."

Robin's expression softened slightly, then. Cyborg had a point, it seemed. Reluctantly, he stopped the video and exhaled, rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly. "Point taken, Cy."

"Good. Now go get some sleep," the half-cybernetic Titan said, satisfied with himself. "We've got that Egyptologist coming in the morning."

"Right, just give me a minute to put these with the others," he said, rifling through the mountain of papers he'd collected on the Eye of Horus.

"Alright. G'night, Rob."

"Goodnight, Cyborg," he said as he stood, putting documents in the appropriate folders.

And when the last was in its place and Cyborg in his room, the television came back on.


'Well, this is oddly familiar,' X thought as he continued to freefall into the chasm of shadow, the sorceress clamped onto his legs so tight he'd almost lost the feeling in his feet. Unfortunately, teleportation would be of no use to them without some idea of their surroundings, and he knew that adhesive would break under the strain.

'Only one thing left…' he realized, pulling the grappling gun from his belt. "Hang tight!" he shouted, firing blindly and praying for it to catch.

And catch it did. X felt his stomach lurch violently, and he cried out in agony as the sudden motion yanked his left shoulder completely out of socket. He dropped the one hand, screaming, and winced even further as the pressure doubled on the ruined skin of his torn, bleeding palm.

His vision began to swim, and he could hear Raven calling to him but suddenly couldn't understand what she was saying. By the time they were about to meet the solid stone wall in a deadly collision, X had lost consciousness.


Raven had never really believed in luck until then, and if there had been any other possible explanation for it, she wouldn't have believed in it still. But there was just no way around it. The fact that in the middle of a black hole of nothing there would be a lone tree growing out from the side of a solid slab of rock, and that he'd managed to slow their descent enough and let go just in time to avoid crashing into that rock while perfectly in line with said tree, so that she could just reach the farthest branch and still hang on to him…

Pure, dumb luck.

And she was entirely grateful for it.

Of course, getting him up into the safety of the thicker limbs was nearly a biblical effort. It took her the better part of an hour, and many nasty gashes and scrapes, but at last she managed to heft the thief up against the trunk, situating him to lean back with his legs on either side of the massive branch.

She collapsed back on the bough, then, taking several long moments to catch her breath and wiping the sweat from her brow. Who knew Red-X was so damn heavy?

Finally, Raven sat up to face him, knowing that it was best to reset his shoulder before he woke. She stood, easing closer to him in tiny steps, before settling directly in front of him, her calves atop his. Carefully, she took his left arm in one hand and steadied his torso with the other. With one swift and forceful tug, the limb popped back into place with a sickening crack that made Raven's skin crawl.

He might be an arrogant pain in the ass, but she was glad he hadn't been awake for the pain it would have caused.

She moved his arm just a bit, making certain the joint was in tact before easing it back down and removing the remains of his gloves, revealing the ravaged, bloody mess that had been his hands. Whatever the spell had been, it had certainly left its mark—in blistering, angry furrows that cut straight through fabric and flesh, nearly to the bone, and she cringed, feeling his pain as keenly as her own. She'd have to wrap them; Raven exhaled heavily and removed her cloak with a frown, knowing that it was all she had. If his cape was anything like Robin's, and she knew it was, it would never tear as easily as she needed.

The Titan ripped along the bottom edge, pulling off long, thin strips of cloth until she had enough to bandage both their hands, and set to work on her own. When she was finished Raven dressed his, working quickly, and rarely taking her eyes away from her surroundings.

Bloody hands and dislocated joints were, quite frankly, the least of their worries.

It was only a matter of time before the ghouls of this place would come for them, and she knew it. The bone soldier hadn't been alone; she could sense others upon the ridge waiting for them, and while they were certainly the most imminent threat, they were by no means the only one. And as long as she couldn't use her powers, they were vulnerable out in the open like this. She had to get them out of there and into safer territory.

If there was any.

She exhaled, tiredly, before easing the gloves back into place on his hands and settling what was left of her cloak about her shoulders. It only reached the top of her knees at this point, but as far as Raven was concerned it was better than nothing. Especially when she considered the possibility of wandering eyes…she'd hate to have to use them for target practice; he might need to see to help get them home, after all.

"X," she whispered as she shook him lightly, trying to rouse him without tipping them both over the edge. "X, wake up. We have to move, it isn't safe here."

She sighed. Nothing.

"X," she spoke more forcefully, reaching up to grip his uninjured shoulder and give it a firm shake. However, just as her fingertips grazed past the armored fabric of his collar, he snatched her by the wrist, stopping her in mid-motion.

Her eyes widened a tiny fraction, but it was the only outward sign of surprise she gave. "Come on," she spoke, perhaps a bit urgently. "We've gotta get out of this tree while we've got the chance."

The thief seemed to come back to himself then, taking a moment to look over his hands and roll his shoulder around a bit before sitting up straight to face her. "No," he shook his head fiercely. "No way, not until I get some answers."

"We don't have time for that now," Raven insisted.

"Something tells me we'll never have time, so you might as well spill it now, pretty bird. I want to know what the hell's going on. What the hell was that thing? And more importantly, where are we, and where are we going?"

She sighed, exasperated. He wasn't going to give up on this. "Alright, look," she said, massaging her temples to ease the throbbing headache creeping in on her. "It's just a guess, but I think we might be somewhere in the Egyptian realm of the dead."

"The underworld?"

"Essentially, yes."

X paused a moment, apparently mulling it over. "Okay," he drawled out, oddly accepting of the situation. "Then how are we supposed to get out?"

Raven shrugged, unsure. "I suppose we just keep going until we find what we're looking for."

"Which is?"

"A spiritual nexus, where the energy of this world is at its most powerful—and volatile. We'll have a better chance of reopening the gate there."

"How will we know when we find it?"

"I'll be able to feel it," she said hastily. "Satisfied? We should—"

"Not so fast," he interrupted, standing up to catch her by the arm as she made her way around him, determined to begin her descent. "Why can't you just use your powers and get us out of here? I've seen what you can do, sunshine, don't tell me it isn't possible."

"So is tearing apart the fabric of all reality," she deadpanned, pulling away from him. "Mixing magic in a spiritual realm like this is dangerous. Until I know for certain what we're dealing with, I'd prefer to keep all mystical energy dormant."

"Now if you don't mind, I really think—Gah!" Raven cried out in surprise as X grabbed the front of her tattered cloak and jerked her forward into his chest, a shower of splintered wood littering the air from the impact of the arrow, now jutting out sharply from where she'd been standing just a millisecond before.

Her eyes widened as the whistle of incoming projectiles filled the air, and arrows began to strike the tree with the force of tiny meteors.

"Let's move!" he cried, grabbing her around the waist and jumping down from branch to branch. "Looks like bones made some friends."

"Put me down!" she huffed indignantly.

"Deal with it; it's quicker this way."

Raven glowered, wishing she had her powers. It was going to be a long, long trip, indeed.


A/N: Well, I hope you all enjoyed! Thanks again for reading, and please feed the author on your way out!