Threat
Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form own the show Teen Titans, nor the various DC comics on which this fanfiction is based.
1 month later…
Raven's sleeping mind begins to stir, a strange, alien presence forming in its depths.
The comfort of her lover's arms, a pleasantry she had quickly become accustomed to, is not enough to fight the evil of the presence.
Outwardly, her body begins sweating heavily while a look of discomfort takes form.
In her mind, though, a storm brews.
Fiery red eyes burn in a black sky, a thought long-since buried rising as lava and smoke surrounds Raven, no land to be seen anywhere.
A rumbling growl sounds through the smoke, and a blast of black lightning rips its way through the miasma.
The scene in her mind jarringly shifts, the image of a man she'd read in one of Richard's files to be Vandal Savage taking form.
He is running around a barren landscape, ducking low in hunt of his prey, a large feline creature of some kind.
With a roar, he lunges at the beast, too focused on his newest meal to notice the brilliant flash of light in the sky.
By the time he notices its shadow, a dead sabertooth tiger at his feet, the meteor strikes.
Instead of the certain death expected of an impact of such scale at such a close range, the savage crawls out of the crater with green smoke rising from his body.
As he lets out a primal roar, the scene shifts once more.
A large man garbed in mountaineering equipment slams away at the ground with a pickaxe.
Seeming to find something of value, a large smile forms on his lips, and he begins hacking away at the strangely colored ground.
Yet another transition takes place just as he's pulling his discovery up.
Now Raven watches as a woman stands over a burning laser, sparks shooting upward from a mass of strange, white rock.
Time seems to move in fast-forward, the rock breaking down and melting into a bizarre, sparkling white liquid. The liquid immediately starts steaming as it pours through a sieve-live device into a metal tube.
Steam fills Raven's vision, and when it clears, the woman holds up a solid, shining white ring, shot through with black dots.
The scene changes one last time, Raven finding herself in a museum. A glass display case lies shattered on the ground, and a tall, thin shadow is spotted running out into an alleyway.
With a gasp, Raven's eyes open as her head beats a manic rhythm inside her chest.
"I do not have visions," she mentally growls.
"Father does," a rumbling voice argues. "At least pertaining to the plane which he occupies."
"And I am not Trigon, Rage."
"No, something for which we are all glad, I'm sure. But your defeat of him may have set a course for his powers to move to a new host."
"Energy doesn't break down, it simply moves elsewhere, as our recent treatment of the artifacts has surely drilled into you," Wisdom chimes in.
With a slight growl, Raven forces herself to leave her mental conference, thinking on the images shown to her.
A light purring sound brings her attention to her side, and she finds herself staring into the sleeping face of her girlfriend.
The world adorable is one not in Raven's lexicon. And yet, she finds no other word fitting to use to describe Jinx's slumbering face, a smile curving her slightly parted lips and her nose scrunched.
Pleasure, and many other warm feelings, roll away from the slumbering sorceress, doing quick work of dampening Raven's bad mood, if not her exhaustion.
Deciding not to let her experience ruin Jinx's good dream, she slowly falls into a portal beneath her, coming up in a silent crouch on the floor next to the bed.
With a grunt, Jinx's arms wrap around a pillow and hugs it to herself.
Her face contorts as something bothers her in her sleep, and slowly, one eye blearily opens.
Groaning, she rolls over and stares pointedly at the clock before returning her tired gaze to the standing empath.
"Nuh-uh. Too early. Getcher' sweet ass back'ere," she mumbles.
Raising an eyebrow at her, Raven feels a familiar smile forming.
"Down, girl. I need to send a quick message. A minute at most."
"Too many words. Ya ain't back here by then, I'm not gonna' be a happy Jinx," the woman mutters, already in the process of falling back asleep.
Smiling, Raven picks up Rachel Roth's cell phone and quickly types a message to Gizmo, telling him the details of her dream and to look into if the ring exists at all.
"Couldn't even make it half a minute, with such a tempting offer right here," Raven mutters with a false sigh.
With the same grin on both women's faces, she once again crawls into Jinx's warm embrace, laughing when the woman wraps her legs and arms around her and nuzzles her head into her neck.
"Goin' nowhere," she mutters.
"Such fine incentive," Raven laughs.
Just as Raven begins falling back to sleep in the comfortable hold, the cell phone begins vibrating, sounding not unlike a buzzsaw against the wood it rests upon.
Jinx gives a groan, opening an eye to glare accusingly at her.
"If that ain't a present for me, I'm gonna' beat sense inta' who's callin' at oh-dark-thirty," she mumbles.
Too tired to fight her blush, Raven sends a mental limb out and floats the phone above them, entirely too comfortable to get up again.
It flips open with an audible click, and she sighs as she reads the information.
"Well, I'm here, so that kinda' makes who's keepin' me awake a short list."
Raven ignores her and reads over the lengthy text from Gizmo. What she finds does not help her relax and go back to sleep.
Evidently, there had been a few dozen magical rings stolen over the long heists, but with his usual talent at research, and aid of the D.M.A. database, made short work of the lead.
One ring on the planet was made from a meteorite, and it belongs to Vandal Savage.
Or belonged, until he for whatever reason lost it and it ended up in a Gotham museum.
Surprisingly, from what he's gathered, the ring was stolen less than a week ago, and it didn't fit the description of how the other items were stolen, as if unrelated.
"Jinx, you can shut up and go back to sleep or you can continue complaining and you'll have to join me with getting ready for the day at oh-dark-thirty, as you so eloquently put it."
"It's work," Jinx groaned. "Damnit, woman, even villains get rest."
"I took all of today off to remain in your company," Raven deadpans. "Rest doesn't necessarily include sleep."
Jinx groans again, slowly releasing her hold on her.
"What is it? If it ain't urgent, I ain't gettin' off this bed, whether you do or not."
Smirking, Raven runs her hand through her girlfriend's hair, watching as she shivers in appreciation.
"I had a dream. I'll spare the details, but suffice it to say I got a potential lead from it."
Her cell phone falls from the air into her open hand, her eyes scanning further down the report.
"Vandal Savage, if you're unaware, is an immortal supervillain. I only know about him because of a discussion I had at one point on whether immortality is truly a thing that can be achieved with someone who knew of him. Evidently, he at some point had a ring made from the meteorite that granted him immortality. It apparently was stolen from Gotham a short time ago, and it is a very dangerous thing to have lying around."
Jinx becomes more alert at that, her curiosity rearing its ugly head.
"How recent?"
"Recent enough that Gizmo believes it's still in Gotham's boundaries… And his source appears to have been unable to tell him who stole it, which seems to make him think he or she knows and is just too scared to give anything concrete."
"This means we're going to Gotham again, doesn't it?" Jinx asks, glaring sleepily at her lover.
"Not just a pretty face, if there was ever any doubt," Raven remarks, quickly kissing her before she can retort.
When she pulls back, Jinx gives a sigh between her panting breaths and both women sit up.
"Alright, alright, I could see why this'd be important enough to not've waited a few hours. Still, I must be doing something horribly wrong if you can dream about things other'n me."
Raven doesn't comment on the statement, simply laughing as she stands up.
A shower quickly follows, with Raven eventually kicking Jinx out so she can actually remove the meta's scent from herself.
As Raven heads out, she presses another kiss onto her lips, and it's with a blush that she materializes in her room in the Tower.
She had given up feeling guilty about lying to Nightwing quickly after finding out how enjoyable her time with the hex caster was becoming.
Not for the first time, she moves out of her room as though there the entire time, Nightwing the only one in the Tower awake.
Or, that's how it usually is. As she rounds the corner leading to the common room, though, she finds Kori, Zatanna, and Cyborg all with him, as well.
Steeling herself, she floats into the room and gives a yawn, not nearly as false in nature as she wishes.
"I really should've just given it two hours. Not like the vision was going anywhere," she grouses internally.
"Morning," she sighs, moving to prepare her tea.
"Any word on Inertia or Deathstroke?" Nightwing asks in greeting.
"Not that I've heard. But I'll keep an ear out when I'm in Gotham today."
"You're gettin' to be as bad as Nightwing," Cyborg laughs.
"Not intentionally," she shrugs. "And did those tips pay off?"
Raven had decided, after weeks of becoming more irritated with Nightwing's suspicions and Zatanna's odd behavior, that it would be best to give them leads Gizmo gathered.
As long as they found the items and didn't question her on where the leads came from, Raven had found it to be very useful for getting their leader's attention off of suspecting her of something she has yet to discern.
"Yeah. I got ta' meet Green Lantern," the metal man proclaims proudly. "Apparently he wasn't happy something belonging to that planet their power comes from was just sittin' unprotected."
"Fascinating. Zatanna, when you do eventually return to the League, you really must get on starting some magical organization within to keep their eyes on these things," Raven throws over her shoulder.
Her expression gives nothing away as the sorceress's irritation quickly permeates the air.
"At any rate, Gotham…?" Nightwing prompts.
"Ah, yes. While I was out yesterday, an associate brought to my attention that just approximately three days ago, a magical ring was lifted from a museum there. I think it's probably still in-town, and the way he described it, it may simply be an opportunist rather than whatever we've been dealing with. Might as well go and check it out."
"You sure? It might make looking faster if someone goes with you," Nightwing reasons.
"I cannot. I, too, have gotten the lead, from a people on a planet not far from here. It may be related to the Intergang you believe may have something to do with the robberies," Koriand'r interjects.
Raven's eyes widen as a strange sense of relief fills the air in the room, centered around Nightwing and Zatanna.
"You're overthinking things. He's not that stupid," Raven mentally growls, stomping down an unfortunately reasonable and growing suspicion.
"And BB and I got called last night. We're headin' out to Steel City soon as he's up to give Bumble Bee and the guys some help with some problems. Apparently just cause Jump's criminals are smart doesn't mean their's are."
"And Zatanna has a show in an hour, if I'm not mistaken. And you need to stay here to deal with calling us all back if something big comes up. You were saying?" Raven adds with an upraised eyebrow.
"Alright. You sure it won't be a problem working as a team again, when all this settles down?" their leader asks.
"I foresee no issues," Raven partially lies, thoughts of Jinx immediately coming to her mind.
"Alright. Track the lead down, call if you get into trouble," he sighs.
Raven keeps her mask in place as his exasperation slips, the irritation and powerful sense of suspicion rising in a torrent in its wake.
She nods and returns to her room, promptly falling into a trance to regain her lost sleep…
*********
Zatanna sits resting against Nightwing, frowning at the thoughts rolling around in her mind.
"You can't really think that she's got some contact network that keeps feeding her these objects, Richard," she states.
His eyes narrow, the ever-present fog on both their minds amplifying his paranoid tendencies.
"I wouldn't be surprised, honestly. She's gotten… distant. More than when we first started the group, even. I won't say it's impossible that she does know plenty of questionable people, especially with how much time she keeps disappearing from the grid over the last few months."
Her hand grips his forearm, a frown curling her lips.
"Oh, come on, Dick. You're thinking the same thing I am."
"She's not the only person who can slip undetected into places all over the world," Nightwing sighs. "I'd prefer to work my way through the thieves with that talent, before I accuse my teammates of anything."
"Uh-huh. That's why you've got those-"
"That and this are unrelated," he cuts in. "Strictly precautionary. Distrusting someone and treating them as a threat are different."
He meets her gaze, her determined glare bringing a sigh from the former Boy Wonder.
"Weren't you complaining I'm getting to be too much like Bruce just a month ago? Look in a mirror, Zee."
"I think you look at me enough for a lifetime, thanks," she remarks, laughing when he blushes.
Her mirth vanishes and she leans into him, her index finger poking the plate covering his chest.
"She was lying through her teeth, Richard. She had to be. With her habits of late, wouldn't she have immediately headed out to look for this thing yesterday when she heard about it if that was true?"
With a sigh, Nightwing presses down on the bridge of his nose, desperately trying to stay the forming headache.
"Alright, Zee. Point… Keep out of her senses. Do not intervene, and do not interfere with anything she does in Gotham. If she really looks like she needs help, jump in, but otherwise, just… keep an eye on her…"
Zatanna nods and quickly vanishes in a cloud of smoke, the cloud covering her mind quickly transforming her suspicion to anger as she goes...
*********
Author's Notes:
On the pacing of the story, I originally had it scripted out for all of part 1 (prologue to chapter 24) take place within one month. I decided around chapter 14 that that time frame would be really rushed for all the events going on around Raven. So sorry for the time skipping.
Things in part 1 are coming to a head, and I hope you're as excited about reading it as I am writing it. Either way, be sure to let me know. See you next time!