Chapter 4

Raven instantly took charge of the situation…

"Right, we need to move fast, we have a hour before he's gone for good, Cyborg carry him into the main foyer and lay him down on his back, and move all of the furniture out of the way, Robin go down to the basement and turn off the power, Beastboy, go to my room and look on one of my shelves for a black and blue box, it's the size of a juice box and has 4 red slashes on the lid, and you need to find a book under my bed, called " The Adepts Guide To Practical Necromancy", it's a huge tome, you can't miss it,"

"And me Raven? What will you have me do?" said Starfire, obviously eager to help in any way she could.

"uhhh, you come with me and Cyborg Star… I might need your help setting up."

In the main foyer Cyborg was tossing furniture against the walls and Raven was sitting cross legged in mid-air as she often did, trying to mask her anxiety, why did she offer to do this?! She had never attempted a resurrection before and it was extremely dangerous, so many things could go wrong she didn't even want to think about it. She had once seen pictures of people who had attempted resurrections and had made a mistake in a book of magical injury's she got 2 years ago for her birthday and the pictures had grossed her out so much she couldn't keep down her birthday cake. Maybe she wouldn't have minded if it had been for one of her teammates but for a stranger who the sea happened to chuck onto her front door? Why would she care, but still she couldn't help shaking the thought that there was something about this stranger, either way she was at least attempting to do the right thing which was what heroes do right? Her train of thought would of continued further if Beastboy hadn't rudely interrupted
"I found the book and the box Raven!" announced Beastboy

"Good, set them down on that table over there" replied Raven indicating to the small table near the west corner of the room that cyborg had rather unceremoniously lobbed across the room only seconds earlier. She was rather pleased that Beastboy had managed the simple task without either getting it mixed up or making a terrible joke, " Ok guys we're just waiting on Robin to turn out the…" And just like that all the lights in titan tower went out and the room was plunged into darkness. Raven reached into the small metal carton like box and pulled out some candles and proceeded to light them and let go of the, leaving them to float in mid-air.

"Ok Cyborg put him down gently in the middle of the room and I'll start" said Raven.
"Are you sure this is a good idea Raven?" Asked Robin who had just emerged from downstairs at the entrance to the room, "Yeah Raven, I mean what if he wakes up a zombie and starts eating our brains?!" concurred Beastboy looking somewhat genuinely concerned that the man in front of them will wake up and turn cannibal. "Well I'm sure you will be completely safe Beastboy." Replied Raven smirking as she reached for the book and began flipping through the chapters, looking for the correct ritual.

The Titans stood there in the darkened room for what seemed like an age, the only light coming from the candles floating at head height off the floor and the occasional lighting strike outside, the only sound being the thunder and Raven occasionally mumbling the odd word until she found what she was looking for.

"Summoning…. Reanimations… Revivals… aha! Here we are Resurrections!" announced Raven proudly slamming the book down by the side of the man's body and reaching inside the little metal box, this time for a stick of crimson red chalk… Then, only stopping every now and again for reference to a diagram in the book she proceeded to draw a seven sided star across the room, with the body in the centre.

Robin tentatively walked up to raven who was starting to draw rune and incantations along the outside edge of the star and put his hand on her shoulder "Raven, I'm serious, are you sure this is a good idea? We have no idea who this guy is and what if you can't do it?"

Raven shrugged off his hand and replied rather curtly "while your faith in me is overwhelming it'll be fine, and even if I do pull this off… This guy, whoever he is will still be far too weak to do us any harm, by eating our brains or otherwise, he'll be too weak to stand for a few days at least… Satisfied? Now can you and the others please stand against the far wall I'm going to start the ritual. And the last thing I want to be doing after this is scraping Beastboy off the wall."

Raven finished drawing the last rune into the 7th point of the star and sat down next to the body and started reciting some kind of incantation in an alien language, the others didn't understand a word of what she was saying but after about 5 minutes they started to notice the candles, still floating precariously in mid-air… Start to dim and slowly but surely extinguished one by one, Ravens chanting grew louder and louder, and if it wasn't just Robins imagination, the body was hovering, ever so slightly, maybe an inch or so off the floor.

Out of the almost complete darkness, only broken by the occasional lightning bolt outside, Ravens chanting stopped as soon as it had started, as sudden as the lightning, with the notion "that's it, I'm done."

"CRACKASH!" the biggest bolt of lightning any of the titans had ever seen struck the tower the candles burst back into life with the flames growing way beyond their natural size, flames were pouring up to and off of the ceiling of the room as if like water, the heat was unbearable and it was no trick of the light now the body was definitely floating a good metre or two off of the floor and thrashing as though possessed by a demon. The titans were getting unnerved and had visibly shuffled as far against the wall as possible, except for Raven, who had not moved a muscle since she started the resurrection. The thrashing corpse started to rotate into a standing position, several metres now off the floor, where the markings raven had made were glowing an indescribable shade of purple, at an odd juxtaposition with the flames dancing off the ceiling casting an all too eerie light across the room and over the man's face, then, a heart stopping roar echoed out across the tower, it was coming from the man, if his rattling breaths earlier was the sound somebody made when they were dying the titans could only imagine this was the sound made by someone being pulled back from the grave, it was hard to imagine it as anything else…

And then, just as suddenly as Raven had announced she was supposedly done, the roaring scream cut out, the flames died and the man fell to the floor in a heap. Breathing...And alive. Not to mention conscious, he looked shocked and out of breath ("who could blame him? He was dead a minute ago" reasoned Raven). The bleeding stump had congealed and scabbed over with an unhealthy looking scar, the flames had at least dried the man's soaking rags tattering his body. He sat bolt upright, in an all too ironic imitation of a vampire, he looked confused to be waking up in such strange surroundings with such strange looking people around him, he turned his head to Raven, sitting cross-legged at his side, mouth agape. The man's confusion turned to one of amazement, relief and joy. A grateful smile broke out across his face, he was grinning ear to ear. Raven had to admit a grin like that looked scary on this man… Scary and unnatural. Raven couldn't help but smile back; it looked equally unnatural and alien on her.

"Ophelia" sighed the man, looking at Raven as though she were some kind of angel. With that, the man closed his eyes slumped to the floor, and was still once more, Unconscious.

Robin edged slowly from the corner, there was no way he could of heard what the man had said, Raven had barely heard it herself, she was confused at the man's reaction and she'd have to go back to her room and puzzle it over later, for now she would just have to make do with the expression of Robins face, who looked like he had just wet his tights, clearly disturbed by everything he had just saw, with a stuttering voice he said to Raven " we are NEVER doing that again!"