AN: Here's a longer than normal chapter to make up for my lack of updates. I had someone proofreading the first half of this, but they fell asleep (since it is 3:09 a.m. as I'm typing this). I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and please review if you do. Have a good morning/night and hopefully I'll get the next chapter out sooner.
"There's been an increase in activity." Richard stated simply to the two girls. Raven and Jinx looked at each other before Raven turned to look at Richard again.
"What sort of activity are you talking about Dick?" Raven asked. Jinx giggled at the nickname before calming down and asking her own question.
"Yeah, Dick? Are we talking criminal, paranormal, or, uh, sexual?" Jinx asked while trying, and failing to hide her laughs. Raven tried to stay serious, but the other girl's eyebrow wiggle at Richard as she finished her question was too much for Raven to handle. Richard's eyes widened at the two girls sitting across from him and he quickly shot Raven a pointed glance.
"Raven, can I talk to you away from the person who wouldn't surprise me if she was part of it?" He said, turning to look accusingly at Jinx. Raven could feel the tension and anger settle in as Jinx stopped laughing and looked at Richard with a glare of pure hate. He and Jinx had never gotten along. No matter how much Raven had spoken of her innocence while they were together, Richard never trusted the ex-thief. Then Raven and Jinx split, and Richard really had a reason to hate the other girl.
Raven had always been like a sibling to Richard. Sure they had they're quarrels, but deep down Raven and Richard had a bond that was stronger than blood. Raven had even crushed on him before, but she had never acted on it. She preferred to see him happy with Kori than to go out on a limb to see if things would've worked between them. Richard knew of this, they had had a drunken confessional moment on Raven's 21st birthday, and they both chose to forget it ever happened.
Richard, what are you doing? Raven asked him telepathically. Richard smirked as he reopened the pathways of communication between them, and tuned out Jinx, who was trying to start a fight, and sent an answer back to her. We need to talk. Something is going on. It feels familiar, and very, very bad. His mouth hardened into a straight line after this comment. Raven raised an eyebrow at him and then turned to Jinx.
"Jinx, would you please calm down and control yourself, you're acting like a child. Richard and I will be in the kitchen if you need us for an emergency, and don't try listening in. I will know if you are and it will be extremely bad for your health if you do." Raven told the other girl. Jinx's shoulders slumped as she was met with defeat. Jinx sighed and looked Raven in the eyes. Raven knew she wanted to tell the girl it was okay to listen, but if Richard was right then the conversation needed to be alone to talk.
Raven motioned for Richard to follow her, and the two made their way to the kitchen. Raven made herself a cup of tea, and poured Richard another cup of coffee before sitting down across from him. Richard looked at Raven, silently asking that she check if Jinx was listening in on them. Raven did a quick mental sweep of where she was, and once she knew it was okay to speak she nodded at Richard to begin.
"Have you been watching the news Raven?" He asked her first.
"Not as much as I probably should be, or I'd know the reason for your visit." She replied. Raven hated watching the news. Ever since she had left the Titans she had only watched it when there was absolutely nothing on. If there was any major problem that she needed to help with, then Richard would have contacted her long before now.
"There's been a string of killings lately. All of them female; all of them mid 20's. The bodies have all been found in the same way too. The five we've found have been found in their yard, face up, legs crossed pointing towards the house in a "4" shape, heads pointing to the street with their arms bound behind their back, and they all have a very familiar mark carved into their stomach with a burnt circle surrounding the corpse. It doesn't seem to go any further than the very edge of the body and since there is no burn markings on the body, and since there in perfect circles we suspect that it wasn't made with fire." Richard paused to take some pictures out of his pocket and lay them out one by one on Raven's table.
"The first one, Jessica Edwards, was found five weeks ago. She was a single mother, no known enemies, and, as far as we know, no connection to anyone that would have set her up for something like this." Richard said, pointing to the furthest picture to Raven's left. Raven scanned the picture. The woman was fairly pretty, blonde hair, and average build. She definitely didn't look like someone who would be into something like this.
Raven's blood chilled as her eyes moved down the image. Fear crept into her veins. She looked at Richard and tried to steady her breath before speaking.
"Richard, this is very bad. This shouldn't be here at all, he's gone. he can't come back, or at least not this soon. This has to be some of sick joke by an imposter. It can't be either of them." Raven spoke, voice slightly trembling. Richard looked down and let out a small sigh.
"Rae," He started to say quietly, "If I thought it was an imposter then I wouldn't be here right now talking to you."
In the middle of the woman's stomach, the bloody image of the mark of scath had been carved.
The ice in Raven's blood must have affected the entirety of the house. After a few moments of Raven staring at the pictures of the five woman, each branded with the mark of Trigon, Jinx silently popped her head into the kitchen, ignoring Raven's warning to not do so, and looked at the pair sitting at the table.
The first things she noticed, were the five pictures laid out on the table, with Raven's finger laying on the rightmost one. The second thing she noticed, was that Raven's other hand was covering her mouth, and her skin was about seven shades lighter than it normally was. The third thing she noticed, was the tense silence that clouded the atmosphere of the kitchen. Jinx hadn't heard any yelling, so she didn't figure that an argument had taken place, but then again Raven and Dick could be extremely quiet when they needed to be.
Jinx silently tiptoed behind the other woman before letting out a gasp, and quickly looking away. The sudden noise, knocked Raven out of her trance and she looked up at Richard. Jinx, finally swallowing the urge to vomit after looking at the pictures, spoke the first words.
"You don't think He's back, do you Rae?" She asked, staring intently at the photos, trying to see if there was any other significance to the bodies themselves besides the mark.
"How do you know about Trigon Jinx?" Raven asked. She had never mentioned her heritage to the girl, besides mentioning she was half demon, and had definitely never spoken her "father"'s name to Jinx before.
"That's the mark of Scath. There's only one demon lord that uses that mark and that is Trigon. There was word on the street that he had been defeated, but many people also spoke of him returning again." Jinx stated simply. Richard looked at Jinx, trying to cover the shock that was written in his eyes. Raven's look of shock however was not hidden. She didn't know where Jinx had gotten this knowledge, and it set her on edge. She had never had knowledge of demon's like this before she had left.
"How do you know that?" Both Richard and Raven asked the pink haired sorceress at the same time. Jinx flashed them a guilty grin as she started to speak again.
"After I left Jump, I spent years in the underground societies of both "witches", actual witches, sorcerers, and necromancers. I didn't practice much during that time, only when I needed to keep my skills up, but I took time to sit down and learn from them. The "witches" that I met, although they taught me no actual magic, they taught me the meaning and workings of tarot, which our friend here seems to somewhat know, and other forms of divination. The actual witches taught me basic enchantments and charms for when I really needed something to have it. The necromancers taught me the darker side of what I could do when using magic, like summoning the dead to do my bidding and how to force someone under my control. The sorcerers that I met however, knew quite a bit about demonic lore. I can't tell you who any of them are, but they all taught me a lot about demonic culture and structure. They taught me how to summon demons and bind them, one of them had one forced under his control, but the one thing they all knew was that Trigon was one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, of the demon lords. I learned how he had a child and it became the portal to earth. None of us may remember it, but the demon he controlled, was immune to the effects he had put the planet under and witnessed what had happened. That's all I really learned from the demon itself though." Jinx finished.
Raven's breath caught in her throat. Jinx knew the child was the portal, but apparently didn't know that it was her. Images of this night going very badly flashed through Raven's mind. How would Jinx react if she knew I was the portal? Raven thought to herself. Richard cleared his throat to break the awkward silence of the kitchen.
"Well," He started to say, looking at Jinx as an equal for the first time, "Is there anything you can see in these pictures that would help us out?"
Jinx stared at the images for a few minutes each. Something about them was triggering something just at the back of her mind, but she couldn't tell exactly what it was. The thing she was looking for was right in front of her, but she needed more information to see if it would help jog her memory.
"I heard the stuff about the first one as I was walking in, what can you tell me about the rest?" She asked Richard. He voice portrayed an unusual seriousness in the usually very cheerful and sarcastic woman. Richard pushed the second picture towards Jinx as she took a seat. The woman had long black hair, very tan skin, and a very toned body. Obviously the killer wasn't looking for people who looked similar. She appeared to be a lot younger than the other women, she had probably just turned twenty from the looks of it. Jinx's eyes noted a pentacle necklace on her, she definitely wasn't the same as the first.
"Inez Gatti, killed exactly a week after the first. The day also happened to be her 20th birthday if the estimate of the time of death is correct. She was a bartender at a local place called Rosemary's Vale. The locals seemed to like her, and she was often seen holding conversations with many of the bar goers."
"I know the place, but I've never been in it. Do you happen to know if she frequented a place called The Rose and Thorn?" Jinx asked. She knew Rosemary's Vale was a local Wiccan bar in the darker side of Jump, but it was a nice place. They made sure everyone felt welcome there. Jinx had been in there once, and picked up a girl there, but she couldn't recall if she had met the bartender before.
"According to a couple of her close friends, she taught a group there on Wednesday nights in the art of reading tarot and sensing auras. She was very into the Wiccan and New Age stuff." Richard said, trying to keep an unbiased façade, but Jinx could tell he thought that stuff was crap. Jinx chuckled internally. If only he sat down and talked to Wiccans who actually knew what they were doing. He'd learn quite a bit about what is crap. She thought to herself.
"Okay, move on to the next one." Jinx said. Richard moved the second picture back and pushed the third toward Jinx. This woman had short, fire engine red hair and was neither pale nor tan. She was of small build, but her clothing and tattoos seemed to suggest she was more of a punk rocker rebel. Jinx found her to be very attractive.
"Victoria Adler, or, as her friends told me to call her, Vikky Ravage. Lead guitarist in a local punk rock group called The Silver Bullets. Killed a week after Inez, after playing a concert. Her band-mates say that she got drunk as usual, had some fun with a chick at the bar, then made her way home as usual. She was found by her neighbor the next morning. The age was 23." Richard stated. Jinx took a look at the picture again, trying to see if she had missed something, then put it with the other two she had already looked at.
"Okay, move on to the next one, Dick." She told him. Raven got up to pour herself more tea and put more coffee in the pot. This was going to be a long night. Richard moved the fourth picture in front of Jinx. This girl was a brunette with glasses. She was curvy and really didn't seem like a target. Jinx's eyes stared at the bit of black on the woman's shoulder, a tattoo from the looks of it, and the black choker around her neck.
"Sabrina Pellot. Age 26. Librarian by day, and, uhm, d-dominatrix by night. She never made it into work that night. Her workers were worried about her and when the club closed up in the morning her best friend went to check on her to see if she was sick. She called the cops immediately afterwards and is currently attending therapy for what she saw. Killed last Wednesday, a week after Vikky." Richard finished, and looked away to hide him embarrassment. Jinx sighed and took a drink of the coffee Raven had set next to her then mumbled a quick thank you. She nodded to Richard and then looked at the last picture he put before her.
"Rebbecca Weinrich. Age 28. Her body was found two days ago, a week after Sabrina." He stated. Jinx looked at him and raised an eyebrow. The woman had deep creases in her face from stress and her black hair was tied back tightly in a bun.
"What's her story?" She asked Richard, and fell silent as he started to speak again.
"She was an up and coming young business woman. She and her company Calcitech had been sealing deals all over the country with special forces. They manufacture weapons and security technology. She had just broken her first million. She was an inspiration to those everywhere." He said. Jinx tuned him out as he kept talking about her and her "rise to fame" from poverty.
"Do these women have anything in common besides age?" Raven finally asked. A sigh left Richard's lips as he stared down at the table. Raven could feel the frustration rolling off of him at not being able to figure out what was going on in his city. She could feel Jinx's frustration at not being able to put the final piece into place of what they were all missing.
A gasp suddenly left Jinx's lips as the final piece clicked into place in her mind. She bolted up from the table and ran upstairs to where she had put her bag for the night. Richard looked at Raven, obvious confusion written on his face, and furrowed his brow. Raven shook her head in a silent response that meant she didn't know what the other woman was doing either. The loud footsteps of Jinx running back down the steps signaled that she was almost back. Jinx ran into the kitchen and laid a deck of cards in front of the other two people staring at her.
"Jinx, I don't have time for a card game,. I have a very important case on my hands." Richard said with obvious annoyance in his voice.
"They're not playing cards." Jinx stated simply and laid the twenty-two cards out in front of her. Each card had an image of a different kind on it. Jinx selected the twelfth card in the order, and put the rest of them back in a pile next to her before taking her seat once again.
"The Hanged Man, the twelfth card in the major arcana. He is found hanging upside down from a tree or a wooden beam with his legs in the shape of a four and his arms tied behind him. In this position he tries to see the world from a different perspective and gain the knowledge from it. He represents change, normally of a good nature, but change none the less. It seems that whoever left these bodies for us knows this, and is using it to get a meaning across." Jinx stated. Although she wouldn't smile at a moment like this, a sense of pride welled up in her as she solved her missing piece of the puzzle. What she didn't understand; however, was why Raven hadn't pointed this out at the beginning.
Now that she had thought of that, she shot a glance at the other woman. Raven was hunched over, almost looking as if she was trying to hide from the other two. Her skin was still pale, and her eyes seemed glazed over. She had barely said a word since Jinx arrived, and Jinx was starting to worry about the other woman. Jinx focused back in as soon as she realized that Richard had been talking.
"I'm sorry Dick, can you repeat that?" She asked Richard. He sighed before repeating what he had said.
"I said that if they knew that much, do you think it could be just some random Trigon cultist that wants to try and bring him back?" Richard asked again. Jinx rolled the thought around in her head. She didn't really know. Raven looked up at this sentence though and softly said no.
"I can tell there's power radiating off of those bodies just by looking at the picture. This isn't a simple cultist. The magic they must have used was very advanced, and it's pure demon. I get a feeling of anger and power off of those photos. Whoever did that is sending a challenge, to-" Raven stopped mid sentence. She didn't want to confess her heritage in front of Jinx like this, but she knew it was going to come out.
"To the child of Trigon?" Jinx asked, hoping she was following the other woman's thoughts correctly.
"Yes," Raven choked out, "They're sending the challenge to me." She said as she turned to face Jinx. Jinx face paled as the information sunk into her mind and the shock set in. She swallowed hard. Raven could feel the confusion and fear rolling off of her in strong waves. Apparently Richard could too, as he stood from the table.
"It's late Raven, I think I should be making my leave now. I trust you'll be in contact with me soon?" He asked her. Raven just simply nodded.
"Then I'll see myself out." He said. Richard pulled up his hood again, collected the pictures, and made his way out of the house. Jinx stared at the path he had left by before turning to Raven once again. Raven flinched at Jinx's gaze and tried not to make eye contact. Jinx opened and shut her mouth a few times, trying to figure out what to say before asking her question.
"Trigon was your what?" Jinx asked. The accusation and anger in her voice was apparent and it made Raven flinch to hear it. Raven's heart quickened as she assumed that the girl she had just found again was about to make her final leave. Her worst fears were coming true. Jinx merely stared Raven down as she waited for her answer.
"Trigon, was my father." She whispered, her voice failing her because of her fear. Jinx looked at Raven then looked away. Raven stared at the table, shame filling her every pore. Jinx sighed and put her face in her hands. She rubbed her eyes to try and clear them and stared at Raven. Raven felt like an ant under her gaze.
Jinx stood from the table and made her way back to the living room before sitting on the couch and flipping on the tv. Raven silently followed her and sat in the chair in the corner that was next to her bookshelf. Jinx swallowed hard, unsure of what to think or say. This was the Raven that she had trusted. The Raven that she knew was half demon. The Raven that she loved. She was also the Raven that was the daughter of one of the most powerful demon lords to ever exist, and the Raven that was his portal to Earth. She was also the Raven that had defeated him though.
Raven sat tensely in her chair and she watched as Jinx fought her inner struggle. She didn't know what was about to happen. Jinx could either stay, and accept Raven for who and what she was, or Jinx could leave and never talk to her again. Raven hoped that she would stay, but wouldn't have blamed her for walking out either. News like that wasn't something that someone heard everyday. Raven looked at the clock that read 4:25. Was Richard really here that long? She asked herself. Raven focused solely on the ticking of the clock to relax her and calm her down. Jinx's voice brought her out of that peace though.
"Raven," Jinx started to say before her words failed her.
"Yes Jinx?" Raven asked back, preparing for the worst.
"We really need to talk." Jinx finally said after waiting a minute. Raven sighed and looked away, knowing what was about to come.
"I understand that you're leaving, and there are no hard feelings on my end." Raven told the girl. After Jinx didn't respond for a few moments, Raven looked up to see what she was doing. Jinx's face was a mass of confusion.
"I'm not leaving Raven, but I do have a few questions. Come here and sit down, you look like somebody just killed your puppy." Jinx said softly. Raven got up quickly and made her way to sit by the other woman. Once Raven had gotten comfortable, Jinx pulled the girl close to her.
The two sat that way for a few minutes enjoying each others company before Jinx felt Raven relax completely. Jinx looked at her from where she had been watching tv and smiled as she noticed that Raven had fallen asleep. She adjusted her arm to be a bit more comfortable and flipped the tv to some comedy show. She must have been pretty tired to fall asleep on me. Jinx thought to herself, before settling in to watch her show, and wait for Raven to wake up. Her questions could wait until later.