Warning
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 feels Jinx's anger pulsing through the air, and her own immediately cools.
"You want to insult her a bit less subtly? I almost didn't catch that," the meta hisses with narrowed eyes.
Raven's tension leaves her in a deep breath, and a cool indigo gaze meets Zatanna's once her eyes open once more.
"Calm, Jinx, there are better things to expend our energies on."
Jinx nods and slowly uncoils, pressing more firmly into her girlfriend's side.
"And your grandly insulting statement is not too far off base, unfortunately, though it is none the less insulting. From the little that I know of them from rumors, it may be that I'm not a scion for evil purely out of luck. I shudder to think of living with a people who broke my mind lucky, mind you, but Azarath is certainly the factor that makes me different from Trigon's other spawn."
"Given our last meeting, I don't think the apple fell as far from the tree as you like to think, Raven," Zatanna sneers.
Cyborg visibly winces at that, and both Donna and Wally follow his lead when he begins taking measured steps back from the four.
A pulse of anger goes through Raven for a bare moment before she smirks at the sorceress.
Bringing her hand up to her chin, she turns her gaze upwards as if deep in thought. With a snap of her fingers, she once again locks gazes with Zatanna, her smirk larger.
"Oh, you're talking about when you tried to attack me and ended up flat on your ass with a mere thought, right? I'd almost forgotten about that. Good memory."
Cyborg snickers while Zatanna's face turns bright scarlet, her face contorting in her own anger.
"Want to try to go again? I bet a year's done wonders for what I can do to your shields," the sorceress hisses.
At this, Jinx begins laughing out loud, her body trembling with the force.
"Oh, you don't want to go there, bunny. You couldn't even come close," she says between laughs.
Zatanna's eyes gain a small glow in response, though this only causes Jinx to chuckle more.
"Bunny?" she inquires with a harsh glare.
Jinx opens her mouth to explain the insult, only to be silenced by an upraised eyebrow from her lover.
"Enough," Raven sighs while rubbing her temples. "I did not come to be bored by idle threats, nor to be insulted. Kindly play nice, Jinx. The simple fact of the matter is that I am different from what all accounts tell me my siblings are like. Azarath, and the pacifism and self-control I was educated with there, are what make me an exception to it all. Well, unless I'm somehow related to Jericho thanks to the souls that reside in him, but regardless, the point remains."
"How convenient," Zatanna mutters.
"Not really. The convenience lies at the Justice League having vouched for my story about the relics a full year ago when your half-cocked assumption nearly had me at the end of my patience. I'm beginning to feel nostalgic on that, Zatanna, so I really should warn you that you need not waste air on every thought bouncing around in your head."
Donna clears her throat, not even blinking as both sorceresses focus their glare on her.
"Sister of an Amazon princess. Cool the glares, girls, you need more than that for me. Anyway, the posturing's nice and all, but kind of missing the point of this all. What're we looking at here? Are we talking magical mosquitos or an army of mini-Trigons?"
"I don't have concrete information on that. Until Etrigan brought it up, I had thought it little beyond rumors. I would say that it's best to assume the latter while hoping for the former."
"Oh, that's nice. If only we had some kind of containment unit built for that kind of a threat," Zatanna sneers.
Jinx's eyes gain a bright pink glow at that, her gaze narrowed to slits.
"You don't want to remind me what you were planning to do a year ago, bunny."
"It would not matter if I hadn't derailed your loathsome plan or not," Raven responds with a mild glare of her own.
"Yeah? You just told us there could be a ton out there that're like you, but not playing at being nice-"
"And your cage was meant for me, and only me, in specifics. I remember the spell you would've put on that metal. I do not know whether I'm stronger than my siblings or not, but I do know that they would have even less plausibility of being beaten or tricked into it than I would have."
"Oh, so they're smarter than you, too? Fan-tastic."
Cyborg takes more steps back as the room grows cold, the heat disappearing with every bit that Raven's smirk grows.
"I can't know that until I find them. At any rate, if they are smarter or stronger than me, I can only imagine how poorly you would fare in that fight, Zatanna. So I reiterate that you'd best hope for the former of Troia's suppositions."
Something presses down on Raven's mind, and when she notices the glow in Zatanna's gaze, her barriers slam into place.
The room instantly returns to its former temperature, along with the red flecks dimming in her gaze.
Jinx watches her lover from the corner of her eye, having felt the strangeness in Raven's response as well.
"So I came here to give you the warning, Richard. Send the word out. If a Titan sees red eyes and skin, tell them to send word and to absolutely not engage. If they're like myself, you can't know if they have my patience or mercy. And if they aren't, then you can be sure you'll start losing members. Either way, there are fights that are best avoided."
Nightwing's eyes narrow behind his mask, a snarl forming on his lips.
"Don't tell me how to run my teams, Raven."
Raven's own eyes narrow to meet his glare, this irritation entirely her own.
"When Trigon came, only our team was able to remain free from the stone prisons entrapping everyone on the planet, and you all escaped only because of my power. I have no way of knowing what powers my siblings have within themselves, but do you think a smart leader would willfully run the risk?"
"When you brought Trigon through, you mean," Nightwing retorts. "We can handle ourselves… But it's definitely not a bad idea to put the word out to be cautious," he admits with a sigh.
"You can't just use your mojo to hunt them down?" Wally asks.
"That's one possibility I'll be looking into. Until I can figure out what kind of threat they pose, just keep on your guards."
"On our guards for what? I mean, if they're like you, they'll just look like a normal person most of the time, right?" Troia asks.
"Possibly. They could be entirely demonic in nature, or they could be half-human, or something else entirely. Unless you knew what to look for with my bloodline, they could just slip by in a human body, or even a good spell that hides them."
"You mean you'd be able to tell them apart if you ran into each other on a street?" Wally asks with a frown.
"We come back to me not knowing specifics. But since I know the changes my nature causes to the world around me, if they're similar, then I would notice the differences between them and others."
"Like the way the room just turned subarctic for a second there," Jinx adds.
"Among other things, yes. It gets more obvious when I'm using more of my power. If I transformed, you might get a better idea of what to look for, but I don't want to end up scaring Zat-"
"Just do it," Troia sighs. "Only Richard and Vic have any idea what to look for right now, so we need whatever we can get."
Shrugging, Raven lets her mind become utterly calm.
Jinx releases her hold on her girlfriend's side and moves to stand at her full height next to her, which coincidentally puts herself directly between Raven and Zatanna.
Power wells up, and her skin becomes bright red in the next instant.
Her head ripples, and four glowing eyes reveal themselves, even as her long hair shifts and becomes the same shade of pearl white as her cloak.
Her nails remain the same length, though the obsidian cast to them darkens and seems to draw in the light around them.
With her senses fully alive, Raven's eyes have no problem seeing what she'd suspected around Zatanna.
Only Jinx notices the slight narrowing to her eyes, the rest of them staring in shock at the woman's changed appearance.
"Victor, your eye should notice that the air around me right now is different?" Raven inquires, her voice a hissing rasp.
Blinking, the half-machine focuses on his mechanical eye, a frown of thought forming on his expression.
"Oh, man, you ain't kiddin'! It looks like there's a black hole around you."
Moving her gaze from Zatanna, Raven gives him a nod in agreement.
"That's my soul-self. Normally, it's internalized, but like this, it has nowhere to go but outside."
"Feels like I'm going to get pulled in," Wally adds with a glare.
Jinx ignores them all, keeping her gaze entirely focused on Zatanna, and the harsh glare directed from the witch to her girlfriend.
She may not know what caused Raven's reaction, but she knows better than to not pay attention to it.
"You drop the facade so readily," Zatanna sneers.
"Now pay attention to what you're feeling, right now," Raven instructs, ignoring the jab.
In the same time it took to change, she once again stands in the command center in grey skin and purple hair.
"Victor?"
"It's still there. But really subdued," he states.
"And I've still got that creepy feeling," Wally interjects.
"Being creeped out by her's the normal reaction," Zatanna sneers.
"What you're feeling right now is my demonic nature. Unless I actively put my energy into hiding it, you'll always feel traces of it. They'll be the same, at least assuming that their physiology is like my own. Keep that in mind, and avoid it if you feel anything like that again."
"Somehow, I think if any of us feel it an' you aren't around, we're already going to be caught in a fight," Troia muses.
"Or if she is around," Nightwing adds.
They turn to stare at him in surprise, but he merely shrugs and keeps his gaze on the psychic.
"Not what I meant. Probably. Think about it. We just found out about them, but if they were on Trigon's side of things, then they have to know about Raven. If they're looking for her-"
"They would've shown up a long time ago if that were the case," Jinx interrupts.
"Point. Especially with all the attention you two get with your work."
"Subtle to a fault," Zatanna agrees, echoing Raven's mockery when she first joined the Titans.
To Raven's surprise, Nightwing's glare moves to the sorceress, his mouth turning downward.
It disappears almost as quickly as it shows up, and his glare shifts back to them.
Something occurs to Raven then, her entire body going stiff as she fights against staring at Zatanna again.
"At any rate, there's much to consider. Keep my warning in mind, and seriously, tell the Titans to watch themselves. If something were to happen, at best they would cause an unnecessary fight against potential allies."
"And at worst?" Wally inquires with a grimace.
Closing her eyes, Raven releases a sigh to work the tension free from her body.
"Think of a scenario where I gave myself fully over to my demonic heritage, took away all humanity from my personality, and wished for nothing but to cause pain and suffering to all of the universe without holding any of my power back. Then, imagine that in multiple individuals," she responds.
Everyone in the room pales at that prospect, even Raven's coloring becoming slightly more white than grey.
"That's bad."
"Bad wouldn't cover it. That would be apocalyptic," Zatanna mutters.
"Not quite, but it would be close enough. I put Trigon down, so I could probably handle a few of them, especially if I had help, but with the information currently available, there's no way of knowing what kind of numbers they have. It could just be two or three, in which case this could all be needless concern. It could also be twenty, given Trigon's… proclivities…"
"So this is definitely a case of 'better prepared and not needing it'," Jinx adds.
"I'll send the word out," Nightwing agrees, his color coming back more quickly than the others'.
"Good. We may not like each other, but with how close these thefts are to being solved, it will be important to be able to work together. I feel something ugly coming at the end of this all."
"On top of the mystery siblings. Great. Well, nothing an Amazon loves more than a good challenge," Troia muses.
"I think it's time to head out, then, with all of that out of the way," Jinx proposes.
Nodding gratefully at her lover, Raven turns towards the door.
"Agreed. Nice seeing you again, Victor. If you want to come by, you know how to reach me," she offers.
She doesn't wait for his nod as she heads for the door, Jinx strategically staying at her back as they take their leave.
The information comes together in her mind as she makes her way to the door, a frown forming on her lips when they reach it.
"Zatanna, out of curiosity, have you been feeling… over… um… rather… Have you been feeling off lately?" she inquires, coming to a sudden stop before the entryway.
Jinx turns her gaze to the sorceress, fully expecting her to spit more venom at her lover.
It is to her surprise, then, that Zatanna nods and looks at the floor.
"Not really. Well, maybe. Every little annoyance's been kinda' turning into a huge deal lately. And I've been kind of… um… heated, lately. Plus there was feeling you back in town, and working these thefts on top of being a Titan and a Leaguer, plus living with Kori… I figured it was just, y'know… wait… why?"
Jinx watches the sorceress blink in confusion, and then her expression changes to lividly pissed.
"The fuck'd you just do to me?"
"I don't think you quite grasp how my powers work, Zatanna. If I did something to you, you would've noticed," Raven answers with a shrug.
"No, you just did something," she argues. "What the fuck did you do?"
Jinx eyes Raven along with the others, her own curiosity evident to the psychic.
"I assure you, I didn't do anything," she responds. "Well, I asked a question, but I didn't do anything to you."
Something begins glowing in Zatanna's gaze, the couple both noticing it while the others can't.
"At any rate, perhaps you should look into that. It sounds like you may be taking on too much at the moment," Raven muses.
She turns back to the door and steps towards it.
Only Jinx notices the spark of black at her feet, and the next second, her cloak slips forward and underneath Raven's foot.
When she steps forward, the cloth tightens, and her feet leave her, sending her on a crash course for the door.
"Ligo," Raven hisses loudly enough for Jinx to barely hear as anything other than a cough, just as her hand moves to the door to steady herself.
Her fall stops, and with a sigh, Raven slips her feet back down beneath herself mid-air.
"Flight really is more convenient. I think I need to get this shortened," she muses to Jinx.
Only Jinx's eyes, accustomed to seeing her lover's magic, can see the small black spark that hits the door as Raven's hand pulls back.
Feigning embarrassment, Raven leaves without another word, the meta following just as silently behind her...
********************************
Once in the confines of their home, Jinx whirls on Raven.
"So… did you do anything to the bunny?"
Falling onto the couch, the psychic gives her lover a smirk.
"As I said, I did nothing more than ask her a question."
Jinx frowns in thought, going over her exact phrasing.
When she gets it, her eyes widen in surprise.
"No way! "Over… um…"… verum!?" she ponders in shock.
"You didn't think maybe she'd notice your incredible word salad there and would think something was up?"
Grinning, Raven gives the meta a shrug in response.
"If she does, there's not exactly anything to do about it. I didn't spell her, or hex her, or anything severe enough to warrant any kind of forceful response, assuming she could muster one up."
Laughing, Jinx moves to sit beside her.
"The Dark Side's treating you well," she quips.
"At any rate, it worked for its purpose."
The darkening of Raven's gaze causes her lover to tense, a frown on her face.
"And what was the purpose?"
"You know how my senses get when I'm calling on my demonic nature-"
"No kiddin'," Jinx mutters with a bright blush.
Smirking, Raven pulls her against her side, increasing the color of the blush to nearly neon levels.
"Mind out of the gutter, love. I saw everyone's auras when I changed."
"And found out that bunny's a bitch? This was news?"
"I don't know that she is. There were signs of tampering with her, and Richard's, auras."
"Whoa, you mean… possession?" the meta gasps.
"It would explain Zatanna's change in character and demeanor, from everything I'd heard before she joined up with Richard a year ago… If that's the case, then it's at least partially my fault. I noticed oddities back then, and didn't put as much attention into it as I should have."
"It'd explain the weird glowing eyes bit, too… Oh, Raven, that could be bad."
"And yet, it's not just Zatanna. It's Richard, too. Which suggests a spell of some kind, rather than a spirit's work."
Jinx frowns in thought, working the information over from every angle she could think of.
"What would be the point? A ghost, or demon, or something, I could see. But what would be the point of a spell like that? From what I can figure, all it does is make her irritable and horny."
"And angry. Irrationally so, whenever in my presence," Raven adds. "It's less the intent behind it, and more the mechanics of it that concern me."
"Well, it's not like it'd be too hard to hex her or anythin'."
"I wouldn't go that far, Jinx. She is less weak than she is insecure about her powers. Sure, she couldn't hurt either of us in a fight, especially after the last year, but she nonetheless has a lot of skill, else the League wouldn't accept her readily. To do something to her psyche that would be so subtle as to seem natural… that would take a great deal of both power and finessed control."
Jinx pales as a disturbing thought occurs to her, the expression on her lover's face telling her it's not her conclusion alone.
"You don't think… I mean, could you do something like that? Hell, could Trigon?"
"He had strong psychic abilities. If he were one for subtlety, who's to know what capabilities he had that he saw no point in ever using? I brought honesty from someone who may be potentially possessed with a word. Who knows what they'd be able to do?"
Jinx hums in thought, her eyes closing as she concentrates on the ideas rolling around.
"I just don't see it. I mean, there would be a reason if they were coming after you but they didn't do anything to you directly. And what would be the point of using Zatanna? Especially after you left the Titans and had no contact with her?"
Whatever thought that occurs to Raven causes her to stiffen around Jinx, causing the meta to tense as well.
"What?"
"Had I not met you… Think about what was going on, Jinx. They were building a way to lobotomize me. Further, Zatanna was compromising Dick's judgment further than most other things have. If I hadn't had your friendship and love, I would have had virtually nothing but meditation to keep me human."
Jinx catches on then, her mouth opening in a gasp.
"And if you'd been kicked out of the Titans-"
"I would have had no support in this world. Going to Koriand'r or Victor would compromise them as Titans. I would have lost my tethers to my humanity. It would not be impossible, if they have the kind of power to do that to Zatanna, for them to take me if I was in the state that I undoubtedly would have been put in. If I resisted yet, they would have had the cage as a backup strategy."
"Uh… not that I'm necessarily worried or anything, but, um, Rae, what're the chances they did build that cage again? I mean, you threatened them pretty good from what you told me, but-"
"I've kept watch. They don't have the cage. And I've had Cyborg watching for them using other means to have it built. It's not out of the possibilities that my siblings have done it themselves, though…"
"I think we need to look into your family, Raven," Jinx speculates worriedly.
"Yes, we do. Perhaps, as I told them, there's little to worry about and they may just be toying with the two out of amusement. Getting kicks from watching the drama they caused and the lasting effects between Kori and the rest. Or the rest of the Titans and Richard, for that matter, though I somehow doubt they had more than a small hand in his contingencies, or the subsequent airing of that secret by me."
"Yeah, I meant to ask about that. It seemed like Cy only came back recently, and unwillingly."
"He left to Titans East as soon as I was gone. Garfield was angry about it all, as well, but from what I gathered, he decided to stay and keep an eye on Richard. Between the two of them, word got around the Titans about the plans, and many struck out on their own. At any rate, he was dating Bumble Bee while there."
"They seem like they'd get along," Jinx muses, memories of the H.I.V.E. days flashing through her mind.
"Indeed. But they're also both strong-willed-"
"Stubborn?" the meta supplies with a grin.
"-stubborn that it recently led to problems with the team. They decided it was best to go their own ways for their team's sake, and Cy ended up coming back here shortly after. I've no idea why he decided to do so, but I'd much rather work with them while he's present than not."
"Well, whatever reason, I ain't gonna' complain that he's here, either. If both of them are possessed by your family, it can't hurt to have somebody who's pretty much immune to that shit on their team."
"He does have a resistance, if the old Blood was any indication."
"And yet you don't seem optimistic, somehow. C'mon, Tinman can definitely handle himself," the meta laughs.
"You really must work on your nicknaming habits," Raven scolds. "At any rate, while he can certainly stand up well against that kind of magic, the concern I have is that he resists external influences, such as what happened when he was being taken over by Blood."
"Well, it's not like they're able to mess with them internally… right?"
"My soul-self is essentially my demonic nature itself, in energy form. I could possibly send it elsewhere without it doing anything harmful to myself… Here's a worrisome thought. Rather than them being possessed, what if my siblings, assuming that it is them, were to do something like exert their soul-selves into those two, instead? In theory, it's possible that they could, instead of possessing them, pull the dark aspects of their souls from suppression by stimulating them with their demonic natures."
"In which case, they would be themselves, and would just assume anything odd was natural," Jinx finishes. "Rae, the more we talk, the more I hope that Etrigan was screwing with us, 'cause frankly, this is startin' to scare the shit out of me."
Normally, the statement would be a lighthearted one, coming from the meta.
The slight tremor to her form in Raven's arms, however, alerts her to just how honest the concern is.
Frowning, Raven pulls her closer, tightening her arms around the hex caster's stomach possessively.
"Do not be afraid needlessly, Nicole. I bested my father, and I would gladly repeat the process on any who would dare to threaten you."
Jinx's tremors subside, and she turns to gaze into her lover's amethyst eyes.
"You're really good at that, you know," she muses with a soft smile.
Grinning, Raven cups her chin briefly before pulling her into a sweet kiss.
When they separate once more, both women are flushed and breathing more difficultly.
"That, too," the meta laughs, her eyes glazed over somewhat.
"And for some reason, I can never resist when the opportunity arises, so perhaps it isn't only me," Raven quips.
"So, what was with the whole tripping thing? Very subtle, by the way, I don't think I would've even guessed you did that on purpose if I wasn't the pure awesome that I am… well, that, and that I was almost on top of you."
"An old binding spell. Only demons and those influenced by them will notice anything. That you noticed it simply means we're closer than I had originally assumed… Anyway, it will, at least in theory, wipe any negative influence and energy inside the Tower from existence."
"Whoa… So… what? You exorcised them?"
"That would take far less subtlety and far more brute force. At least in theory, when we left, the spell should have begun already draining away the corrupting force that influences both Nightwing and Zatanna."
"And it was all done in a cough. Damn, woman, you're incredible," Jinx laughs.
Raven's grin changes, and she leans forward, putting her lips against the meta's ear.
"You know, we haven't yet gotten to relieve the stress of Wotan's attack, which I recall you not thinking twice to step in front of for my sake. I think that it's only fair if I show you just how incredible I can be," she whispers.
Jinx can only moan in agreement as they fall into a black vortex through the couch, their clothes not following their journey to the bed…
****************************
Author's Notes:
Ligo: Latin- "Bind"
Verum: Latin- "Truth"
For reference, this is the actual Titans East, not Deathstroke's that I made reference to earlier in the story.
Also, I've been asked about it enough times to clarify why I'm not writing the sex scenes despite this being an M story. The answer's that this site makes a distinction that it doesn't accept literature rated MA, which is basically anything with written sex. M is everything except that. I'd really rather not have to deal with it if the story gets reported and have to reupload everything. As such, the sex scenes that are missing thus far will be written for those who are interested in them, and I'm working on figuring out a way to get them to those interested since copy/pasting links is no longer possible in stories on this site.
I missed writing verbal sparring matches, but I certainly got to enjoy this one. I hope you're all enjoying so far, as well. And perhaps Raven's gotten a bit devious over the last year? Well, I, for one, don't think she's even started showing all that she's picked up in that time yet. Look forward to badass things to come, people. See you all next time!