Mind Games
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.
Raven and Jinx work their way once again through the streets of Gotham, memories of their last adventure visibly making Jinx tense.
Currently, Raven's eyes are glowing black, seeing something that Jinx's own cannot no matter how much she tries.
"You're going to give yourself a headache," Raven warns without gazing at her.
"Yeah? We'll see. I'm still thinking of ways to make sure this is the last time you wake up because of some weird not-vision instead of replaying our activities before you fell asleep."
"Getting a tad presumptuous, Jinx. When this heist stuff is done with, I don't imagine we'll be able to see each as often while you're on other operations."
A pain suddenly makes itself known to Raven, amplified by Jinx's own mirror of the emotion.
"Then that just gives me… what? Two years, at the rate things are going? I can totally wear you down into joining the dark side by then," the hex caster laughs.
"The dark side? Really?"
"Hey, what I do is positively black compared to what bird-brain's world view is," Jinx returns with a shrug.
"Am I sure of that?" Raven mentally questions.
"Yes, and by that logic, our last visit here would put me on a list with Deathstroke for him. I'd really rather not entertain that thought."
She focuses back on her search, the trail from the museum gradually getting stronger.
"Point still stands. 'Sides, I told you when we first started hanging out that with your talents, I could get you at least an interview with a snap a' my fingers."
"Either way, we won't have to discuss this seriously for quite some time. I rather like things as they stand, Zatanna and Nightwing notwithstanding."
A strange sense of foreboding comes and goes in seconds through the psychic, a cold sweat suddenly breaking out.
Ignoring it, she turns down an empty street, stomach tightening in tension as the end of the trail quickly approaches.
"Ya' know, I think it'd be worth it just so you didn't always hafta' make an end-run in the morning so bird-brain don't figure out you prefer the company of yours truly than him an' the witch. Oh, speakin' of-"
"I'd rather not think about it at the moment. Them, not you. I'd much prefer you on my mind than the fight we're undoubtedly walking into," she adds quickly to her girlfriend's shock.
"Awe, sweet-talker," Jinx laughs, pressing into her side and laying a kiss on her cheek.
Blushing, Raven's expression turns serious, a finger rising to her lips.
Jinx's mirth instantly vanishes, a professional mask sliding into place as the two take up a spot on the wall near a warehouse door.
Ever so slowly, Raven offsets the lock with her soul-self, the door sliding silently open as it's pushed forward.
Raven's eyes widen as she looks at the interior.
It seems to be a warehouse storing construction materials. What catches the psychic's attention is the bed set in the dead center of the large room, a man resting on it.
A strange light emanates from the man's brain, held in a glass case atop his split head.
And on Psimon's finger rests the ring, exactly how it looked in her dream.
"Vision," Wisdom's voice argues. "Proof is in front of your eyes that you weren't imagining something."
Raven ignores the voice and noiselessly slides through the door, Jinx following her with just as little noise.
Her pink eyes glow like neon in the darkened warehouse, but Psimon's sleeping expression reveals no notice of the light.
The women slowly approach him from both sides, making sure to make no noise.
But where they can both be silent as ghosts, Raven's mind keeps her hidden from the man's psychic detection, a part of her nature that had long become automatic.
Jinx, as skilled as she has become from working and training with Raven, possesses no such psychic subtlety.
Just as Raven's soul-self reaches out to attempt slipping the ring from the man's finger, Psimon's eyes snap open, a smirk forming as he takes their appearance in.
The ring on his finger glows sinisterly, his ashen skin taking the faint red color.
"Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise. Raven, right? And… I don't know you," he sniffs dismissively at Jinx.
A flare of light goes through his eyes, and a pleased smile forms that sends ripples of revulsion through the women.
"Ah, that makes quite the picture, then. Who am I to question what Ms. Diaz chooses to associate with herself? Was it a wise move, do you guess, to bring along someone with you whose mind I could turn into quite the mess?" he laughs.
A hiss sounds in the back of Raven's throat, and Jinx feels a pressure in her head relax before she even knew it existed.
"I'd thank you to keep your filth away from either of our heads. I know how much you would prefer not to offend me. Make this easy on yourself and give me the ring, Psimon," Raven states, stepping threateningly towards him.
"So confident! You know that aside from incapacitating you, I couldn't fight you when I was aiding the Brotherhood, correct? Of course you do. You do pay so much attention to things of this nature, I imagine. But I'm willing to wager that you are utterly unaware of things as they currently stand," he adds with a sinister edge to his voice.
Jinx stares confused between the two, completely lost on how they know each other.
"This is becoming way too much of a habit!" Jinx internally snarls, memories of Sebastian Blood rising.
"Uh… Raven, what the hell?"
She doesn't remember Psimon, given that she was preoccupied during the Titans' assault, but it had never occurred to her that some villains would actively avoid the Titan, or have a reason to even think of doing so.
Given her acknowledging nod to her girlfriend, Jinx knows that Raven will be giving her answers after the threat is dealt with.
"I do know, Psimon. Or at least, I know that you're no longer as cautious as you should be. Let me assure you that your confidence is misplaced."
"Oh? Is that so? Well, you'll pardon me if I don't start quivering. Without him around, you should know your powers alone cannot stand a chance. Powerful though you may be, you've got nothing on me."
At that, a smirk crosses Raven's lips and her eyes gain an unearthly glow. As the room seems to dim around her body, some of Psimon's confidence visibly vanishes.
"If I caused his downfall alone, what do you think I can do to you, Psimon, were I to not hold back? He could wipe your powers away with a thought, and I beat him. Your confidence is misplaced."
Something tickles at the back of Jinx's mind. As she watches Raven's growing amusement, the words of Brother Blood return with a snap.
"He said it was patricide. She's talking about killing her old man... Who the hell was her father?" she questions, staring at her girlfriend.
"Ha! At best a fluke, at worst an assisted suicide. He was getting on in his years. I'd say that my powers work better than ever proves your arrogance is out of touch with the reality of this situation, Raven."
His own eyes gain a glow similar to Raven's, and Jinx rushes to her side, letting her hex magic flow.
With a glance between the two women, they move into action, running to either side of the man. Both bring their hands together with sparks of their unique energies as bolts leave them.
As the black and pink energies approach, the bed he had rested on suddenly lifts itself from the floor.
The energies meet the barrier with an explosion of multi-colored sparks.
By the time the dust is cleared, an invisible force makes itself known, slamming into Jinx's chest.
With a grunt, she slams into the concrete and begins seeing black spots.
In the process of forcing herself back up, she sees a large sheet of metal spinning through the air at her, looking not unlike a saw blade at its speed.
Before it can decapitate her, a black coating forms overtop the metal, and it reverses course, the air screaming in resistance as it spins back at Psimon.
With a bored wave of his hand, he slams the sheet upward, an echoing clang sounding as it implants into the roof.
A dark, ugly burst of red light rises from the ring, a similar glow filling his eyes.
More construction materials follow the first sheet, multiples of them snapping into thousands of jagged metal spikes.
Raven appears next to Jinx and they both begin throwing their power out, destroying the blades as they come.
Jinx feels her girlfriend's hand on her shoulder, and they sink into the ground through a portal just as the skewers reach them.
A hex bolt flies at the man's back as soon as they come out behind him, a fiery black fist going with it.
A large chunk of wood launches in an arc over him, exploding into splinters that follow its path when the attacks hit.
Raven moves into a spin, throwing the chunks with a large black shield to plant into the wall nearest them.
With a growl, Jinx cups her hands together, her eyes and palms flaring with a brilliant light.
Sensing her girlfriend's plan, she tightens her hold on her shoulder and places her free hand overtop hers.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
Her eyes flare with black light, the energy mixing between the hex caster's closed palms and making the pink glow within almost purple.
"Ustulo!" Jinx shouts before pushing the built energy out.
The purple ball explodes in the air, becoming a mass of flames of the same color.
Psimon watches with increasingly visible anger as the flames circle him, trapping him in place.
"The ring, if you would, Psimon," Raven states with a raised hand.
His eyes widen, and Raven grunts as he mentally assaults her, her barriers keeping him out, but with more effort than expected.
"The ring gives me all I need to beat you, witch," he laughs as his assault strengthens.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
Raven's eyes turn obsidian, and the air seems to shimmer between the two as his mental reach is shoved back.
Suddenly, he ducks down and lets the power flow past him, focusing an attack on Jinx.
The hex caster grunts as he pushes at her fire, sweat beading on her forehead as she fights to keep him trapped and out of her mind both.
A sneer mars his expression, and a loud series of grating noises reaches her ears.
Before Jinx can call out a warning, a solid piece of metal zooms into her view and smashes into her stomach, making her feet leave the ground as it throws her back.
Raven follows her arc as a sharp pain takes form in her chest.
A wave of black light flows across the ground beneath the soaring hex caster, and when it's fully beneath her it rises.
She immediately comes to a stop, being gently lowered to the ground.
By the time Raven's attention turns back to Psimon, it's too late.
"Psimon says sleep," he intones, barely a foot from her.
His hand slams into her forehead, and through the jarring sensation, he slips past her defenses, both psychics going utterly still.
Jinx recovers quickly and flips back to her feet, ready to attack.
Her heart rate spikes as she takes in their still forms, a sense of dread quickly flooding her.
When she runs forward, attempting to remove Psimon from her girlfriend, an invisible wall slams into place.
When she meets it, it reacts as a spring, throwing her back to the ground with a groan…
*******************
Psimon floats above Raven, a grin on his face.
Raven rises from her crouch, an audible growl rising from the back of her throat.
"Get. out," she snarls, the red speckling in the air seeming to grow brighter.
"Oh, I don't think so. I've always wondered what a demon's mind might look like. You were going on so proudly about killing the old man, I found myself curious what you have locked up in here."
His eyes move around the landscape, a sniff of disappointment sounding.
"I was expecting more hellfire."
Raven rises to her full height, Psimon's eyes widening as speckling similar to what covers the obsidian sky forms in her violet eyes.
"You were better off outside of my mind, Psimon. Here, I have the power."
She rises off the ground, her body pulsing with black sparks in time with her breaths.
"You're delightfully deluded, my dear, dim, demi-demon. Your power cannot even enter the scope of mine, without the power your dear daddy gave you to be his portal. We're in your mind, but the mental domain is mine."
The ring flares with bright, crimson light which quickly coats his entire body.
In an instant, Raven falls to the ground under a crushing pressure.
The landscape begins to waver, and a groan of pain leaves her as Psimon's hand takes a firm grip on her hair.
"What does a demon fear in their slumber, I wonder? Let's find out!"
Raven's mouth opens in a silent scream as his power takes hold, ripping things up from the darkest corners of her mind.
Her vision blackens for a moment, and when it clears once more, her worst fear lies before her.
Raven stares at herself, her mirror image garbed in a dark purple ballroom gown. Her skin is like fire, seeming not quite orange nor red, but having strong hints of both.
Where nails should be, daggers of black rest, gleaming hideously in the light cast by the sky above, a black and red reflection of Nevermore.
Four red slits for eyes stare into the distance, seeming to be looking for something.
Beneath her rests a throne based on a pile of stone bodies, horror and revulsion ripping through the real Raven at the familiar faces making up their ranks.
In a large circle around the throne's base lies the corpse of Malchior, seeming to send a message of some kind.
At the edges of his body, the ground drops sharply into a flowing moat of lava, sending oily black steam into the air where it meets and eats into the concrete surrounding it.
"Oh, so that's your intent. Fascinating," Psimon states with a tug on her hair.
Unwillingly, Raven looks where he wants her attention, and her stomach empties itself then, no longer able to hold itself.
Jinx lies off to the side of the body pile, leaning against it as if it were a comfortable body pillow.
Her eyes stare blankly into the distance, and on her forehead rests an ugly, black mark, as if the Mark of Skaath had been burned into her forehead and healed over to keep it there.
Raven snaps her eyes shut, violently jerking her head side to side in denial.
The pressure of her fear begins crushing down on her, seeming to bury her gradually into the ground at her feet.
"You're wrong!" she screams, a pulse of rage flooding her mind.
Psimon's eyes widen as he looks down on her, an amused smirk on his face.
"Am I?" he asks.
Raven's eyes open again to find her own skin matching her mirror's, a familiar burning in her forehead bringing her extra set of eyes to her attention.
"-en"
Raven casts her gaze around, looking for the source of the sudden and out of place sound.
Outside of her mind, Jinx slams more and more of her hex energy into the barrier, screaming Raven's name. The pink light is enough to set off multiple detectors in the area, even Zatanna wincing from where she watches.
"This isn't good. I couldn't stop things down there if I wanted to," she mentally hisses, not paying any attention to the vice-like fog keeping her from acting to help the women.
Jinx doesn't know what is happening in her girlfriend's mind, but her convulsing body and the red hue to her is making it very much something to worry about.
Slowly, her screams slither their way past Psimon's hold, reaching Raven in the illusion.
"He makes a fool of us!" a voice snarls deep in her mind, the sound ripping the rest of the fog away in an instant.
Psimon immediately releases his hold as she stands, her body seeming to grow taller by the second.
The illusionary copy disappears in a flash of black light, Jinx's body and the throne vanishing with it.
Her lips split in a snarl, her teeth audibly grinding as she moves towards him.
"You thought to make me afraid of you, Psimon? Assumed me to be one of your victims who would cower when shown your illusions? I'll tell you something about demons. Even a halfling like me doesn't become afraid of your tricks. We get angry," she snarls, her voice sending a tremble through the ground on the last word.
Instantly, the rest of the illusion crashes in Psimon's fear.
He casts his gaze around in confusion, finding them standing in a volcanic landscape similar and yet very different to her fear.
"You think I'm that creative? That it was a trick!? You give me far too much credit. I merely brought to the surface what is already in your own mind, Raven. You seem far better fit for Chaos's side, rather than playing hero, if this is the kind of thing you worry about."
Both are impressed with the man's acting talent, no trace of his absolute terror showing in his voice.
His eyes widen in mock surprise, his hope to throw her off telegraphing itself clearly to her rage-enhanced senses.
"I understand, now. You always try to build some form of karmic credit up so your soul may yet be saved when you turn on everything and everyone you love and hold dear!"
He jumps when another presence makes itself known, a Raven cloaked in red and sporting yet another pair of four red eyes appearing at his side.
"You've talked quite enough, father's plaything," the red Raven states, her voice sending chills through his very soul.
"I quite agree," Raven says, letting her anger take reign.
Her hand extends, and the moment her Rage makes contact, the volcanoes around them explode in sprays of lava.
Psimon grunts and brings a barrier to form as fire rains from the sky, rocks quickly melting under the heat.
Raven now stands alone, a cruel smile on her lips and black flames rolling from her eyes.
"Azarath-"
"Wait! I'll give you the ring!" Psimon pleads, raising his hands in placation.
"Metrion-"
He frantically pulls his power to bear, attempting to break his hold on her and leave her body.
"Zinthos!" Raven screams, her voice echoing and sending a violent tremor through the fiery hellscape.
Black power lashes out, and suddenly torrents of molten lava launch past her body, moving like living snakes towards the man's astral form.
A scream rips from him as the assault lands, and just as he begins to die, a flash of light goes off where his body stood.
Raven's eyes snap open immediately, Psimon's mental hold utterly gone.
She is vaguely aware of Jinx's screaming, and the weight of Savage's ring in her palm.
Four eyes glow pure white as they watch Psimon's retreat, a crack clearly visible against the glass covering his visible brain. White smoke rises from the crack, and his pain leaves a distinct presence in the air.
Her eyes and body shift back to their normal appearance as she separates Rage once more.
As soon as he's out of view, Raven falls to her knees, finally noticing the blood spurting from her nose and the various breaks and tears in her skin.
"He almost killed me… First Sebastian and now Psimon, both have used my weakness to nearly cause me to kill myself… Something needs to be done," she says, her voice meeting with agreement in her mind.
Suddenly, she feels Jinx's arms around her, and her shredded barriers give with a snap.
Tears begin rushing past the broken dam, and before she's aware of herself, her head is pressed into Jinx's shoulder, her body shuddering violently in her firm embrace…
*******************
Author's Notes:
Psimon, or Dr. Simon Jones, originally got his powers when, due to his research in dimensions, he made a deal with Trigon. I kind of unintentionally started writing his dialogue in alliteration and rhyme, and decided to go with it, because I only vaguely remember how he actually talks.
Ustulo- Latin for the verbs "Burn," "Burn up," or "Scorch," take your pick
As for everything else, I had a lot of fun writing the psychic battle, and I hope you all had just as much fun reading it. Either way, be sure to let me know. See you next time!