Kin
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's body is surrounded in a large, golden aura, and her hand reflexively clamps down on the silver hilt.
Raven's eyes flash with a similar light before slamming shut, her teeth grit in the face of the blistering pain spreading through her entire body.
Agony ripples through her head, her hand pressing against her forehead in a desperate attempt to force it away.
Her gem shines brightly within the colored sphere, and Jinx fights the urge to rush towards her lover as the aura takes on the form of a raven around her.
The psychic's legs tremble as a crushing force presses down on her.
"A demon has no right to wield this blade," a voice warns, echoing through her skull.
"T-Temporary exception," Raven gasps.
The pressure lessens somewhat, at least allowing her to stand straight again, though the pain remains.
"What reason?"
Raven's body tenses, and she pulls on the power from the sword.
Her mind falls into the blade's memories, many kings' and warriors' battles coming to her.
Finally, she finds the memory of an old sorcerer, and focuses her attention on him as he wields the blade shortly after its creation.
His words flow through her mind, and she pulls back to her body.
"I'll return you to the homeland! Tá gá dom do chumhacht sula féidir liom, cé. Bow le mo chomhghuaillíocht sealadach.," she hisses, her voice guttural and echoing as it leaves her.
The sword pulses with energy, and her pain vanishes in an instant, leaving her strong once more, if slightly shaky and heavily sweating.
The gold shrinks around her, compressing into a second, shining skin around her.
Her four eyes open again to reveal glowing, pure white lenses.
"R-Rae?" Jinx asks, taking a tentative step towards her.
"I'm okay," Raven responds, though her eyes stay locked on the near distance.
Jinx follows her gaze to find a shadow approaching from the other side of the street.
The closer the shadow gets, the more intense the fighting, which had stopped as everyone gawked at Raven's struggle, becomes.
The shadow moves past Batgirl as though it doesn't exist, the assassin not stopping her assault on the battered and bruised Kid Flash for an instant.
As the women watch, Zatanna's eyes flash white, and she mutters something that ends up smashing the woman into the road.
The gold brightens for an instant, and Raven raises a brow at the man.
"That won't work on me at the moment," she states.
A chuckle rises, and as Jinx watches, the shadows dissolve, leaving a man in their place.
A very tall man, who Jinx is fairly certain would terrify most people on first glance.
The man is at least six feet tall, and half as wide.
Jinx's brief relief over him being undoubtedly slow vanishes when she realizes his entire body seems made of pure muscle.
Veins and muscles cast harsh shadows across his brown skin, his entire body seeming to ripple with his every step towards them.
Long, thin rows of black hair curve around his scalp, seeming to pull his entire face taut.
And beneath the cornrows are four slitted, red lenses that match Raven's.
He comes to a stop several paces away from the women, an amused smirk on his lips as his skin shifts to being dark red.
"Pride," he states in a smooth, smoky voice.
Raven's eyes narrow, and Jinx doesn't miss how tightly she grips the sword's handle.
"It's Raven," she bites out.
The statement seems to amuse him, and a deep rumble of laughter sounds.
"Right. Then you can call me Jared, sis," he laughs.
His amusement vanishes, and he turns to angle his body towards the group fighting Batgirl.
His hand rises up, and a brief pulse of red light shines around his palm.
Both women's eyes widen as the fighters change, becoming animalistic.
Zatanna's eyes flash brightly, and a pulse of magic leaves her cupped hands.
The attack slams into Batgirl's side, and she screams while her body leaves the ground.
Kid Flash follows through, his body causing a sonic boom as he rushes in to punch her exposed stomach.
When she slams into a nearby building, smoke rises in a column from her back, and her body twitches.
While she's down, Nightwing growls and lunges through the air, aiming his bow staff for her skull.
Batgirl reacts by rolling under him and swiping her foot out.
While he's sprawling to the ground, she brings out a batarang and jumps after him, aiming the blade for his throat.
Raven reacts, her free hand flinging out.
The aura around her pulses, and soul-self suddenly rises from the shadows, trapping all four fighters in black cages.
Something explodes behind her, and she turns to find Troia slamming Match into the road, sending strips of concrete flying upwards around them.
Even in the dark, Raven sees a lot of blood covering the Amazon's fists.
Her eyes darken again, and the two are also wrapped in cages.
A blue glow is noticed nearby, and Jared stares in surprise at the sonic blast rushing towards him.
"Interesting," he laughs before knocking the attack skyward.
Before Cyborg can react, a red fist lashes up and slams him into the pavement, his head cracking the road with each time he skids.
When he comes down in the final bounce, another pulse of red appears, and he screams as his body is hurled high into the distance.
"Rare to find someone that can't be taken in by us. Not that it'll help you now, since this'll be long-over by the time he can get back, if he can survive that landing," Jared laughs.
His eyes pulse with red light, and the fighters begin to smash their weapons against the black bars surrounding them.
Jinx doesn't miss the pain that's clear on the psychic's face, even though it lasts for the barest of moments.
The stress of extending her soul-self so much begins to eat away at Raven, one of her eyes being dulled to nothing but vague blurs from the strain.
The Excalibur seems to pick up on the stresses of her body, and the golden light pours into her body, rejuvenating her almost instantly.
As she recovers, though, she notices that the energy surrounding her dims, just slightly.
"It's a weapon, not a battery," the sword's spirit growls.
"I know," she hisses back.
As they struggle against her, she turns her gaze to her half-brother, her gaze narrowed.
"You can also call me Wrath," Jared explains.
"You cursed those two?" she asks with a nod in Nightwing and Zatanna's direction.
"Yup. Well, it was a team effort with two of your other brothers."
He points at her, and Raven grunts as a stream of red light rushes against her.
Even in the face of Excalibur's protective armor, her brother's soul-self slips past.
For a second, an incredible, inexplicable anger sweeps through her mind.
While she resists the energy, her body turns scarlet.
Her teeth clench and her gaze moves to first Deathstroke, then Zatanna and Nightwing.
"Raven," Jinx demands, seeing something shift in her lover's expression.
Her voice wars with the force in Raven's mind, and the psychic hisses.
"Amadán," the voice from Excalibur clucks.
The pressure returns from the sword, and she winces while the force in her mind is pushed away.
Raven glares down at the sword, eyebrow raised.
"Cillus," she hisses back.
Her eyes focus back on Jared, and his own gaze widens in momentary surprise.
"Cute," she muses.
She brings Excalibur up, and as she does, the golden light expands around her.
"What do you want, dick?" Jinx demands, her eyes and hands both glowing neon pink.
He seems to only notice the meta then, and the grin that forms sends a wave of revulsion through her.
"You brought your pet. Jacob said that he had lots of fun playing around in your head when he found out about her," Jared laughs.
Raven's anger is entirely her own this time, the metal creaking in her tightened hand.
"Was he our assailant today?"
Jared shrugs, his grin only growing.
"He gave you the mark. I gave you the irrational anger that let me blow your house to hell," he laughs. "Our oldest brother said you'd be too calm to fuck with. Glad you disappointed!"
"Hey, I asked you a question," Jinx growls. "Why're you here?"
"The pet's uppity," Jared responds undeterred. "Should slap some sense into her."
He grunts as Raven's soul-self lashes out, a black fist rushing into his chest and pushing him back.
As soon as he stops sliding, the hand disappears, though Jinx notices a pinprick of the black energy seep into Jared's arm as it vanishes.
"Do not call her a pet," Raven snarls.
"She's not? She's too pathetic to be-"
Before he can finish, a blast of pink light rockets towards him.
When he dodges out of the way, Jinx's hand jerks downward, her hexbolt following the motion.
It crashes into the ground, and he grunts in surprise as the road practically dissolves in a wave from under him.
While he's falling, Jinx takes aim at where she saw Raven's soul-self, and shoots a neon spark at him.
It collides with the spot in his arm, but seems to disperse harmlessly from his body.
"A pet that doesn't even have much of a bite, at that," he mocks. "As for why I'm here, killing you or getting you to join us, how this goes depends on if you can actually put up a fight."
Neither woman rises to the bait, their shared smirk missed as Jared pushes his way back to solid ground.
As he stands tall once again, the Titans and Batgirl redouble their struggles against their black cages, drawing another wince from Raven.
"They'll wear themselves to death while under my power," Jared taunts. "'Course, if you kill me, it'd get rid of that problem, but since you're under my control, too, I don't think you can do much, either."
Raven's brow rises at that, not letting her amusement show.
"I would like to test that theory, actually," she responds.
"Ha! You fight me, and you need to go at me with everything you've got, sis! The second you do, they're going to get free and I'll make sure they attack you just as readily as they want to against each other right now. You can't kill them like you think you can me, can you?" Jared mocks.
Raven glares at him as her mind goes to work.
Jinx stares at the trapped villains and Titans, her hands releasing pink sparks.
"Then it's good that she's not solo out here, isn't it?" she quips at the demonling.
"You're really damn annoying," he hisses.
She simply flashes him her Cheshire smile, her eyes glowing darkly.
"Yep."
She snaps her fingers, and his eyes widen as his shoulder glows pink.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
Just as Raven finishes her own chant, Jared catches on and his entire body flashes red.
The women watch as he rematerializes several steps back, a massive explosion setting off where he'd stood.
"That could've killed me," he mutters in disbelief.
"Would. That would have killed you," Jinx corrects with an even larger grin. "You were saying something about how I don't have much of a bite before, right? Ever mess with a nest of scorpions?"
"What did you do?" he demands, again ignoring her.
"Rae, you take care of him. Take your time, maybe get some info that could help us. I've got your back if they try anything," Jinx states, ignoring him as she turns to the caged fighters.
The road around them glows vibrant pink, and a smirk creeps across Raven's lips.
"Don't hurt them too much, if you can help it."
She grins in answer, her eyes becoming complete lenses.
"I'll give it my best shot."
Raven's body suddenly disappears into the ground, and at once, each of her cages evaporates.
Jinx finds herself surprised that she isn't immediately rushed.
Instead, the heroes and villains alike stand utterly still where they'd been pinned, staring at the women.
When the demonling rises once more, Excalibur is mid-motion, slicing towards Jared's neck.
Jared is astonishingly quick for his size, Raven discovers.
He spins on the ball of his left foot and kicks.
Before his foot connects with her, a shell of red soul-self encases the limb.
It's only thanks to her own supernatural reflexes that she's able to bring the magical sword between them, letting the metal take the brunt of the impact.
Even still, pain vibrates from the sword up to her shoulders.
"The sword can't break. Strikes like that will naturally go to through the path of least resistance," the sword's spirit advises.
She ignores it, focusing on pushing the pain down.
"Noted," she hisses once feeling returns to her limbs.
Jared hunches over, and the ground violently trembles as he charges at his sister.
Her eyes narrow as she looks for her opportunity.
When he next swings his fist at her, she jumps high into the air and pushes off a platform of soul-self that forms.
The push carries her over her half-brother, and she brings the sword down as she passes.
The metal begins digging into his shoulder, his armor-like flesh splitting under the golden aura.
Before she can do significant damage, his body explodes in tendrils of red energy and vanishes from under her.
She lunges into a roll the second her feet touch the ground, her instinct just barely saving her from the impact of his massive fist.
She comes up facing him, sword at the ready, only to find him gone again.
Her hands move seemingly of their own accord, putting Excalibur between her skull and his fists as he fell from above.
Her eyes flash black, and soul-self coats the sword just before he lands, the weight of the hit burying her feet into the concrete.
He pulls back and swung for her skull while she's stuck, expecting to cave her head in with the strike.
Anger pulses through Raven, and her body evaporates in soul-self.
Instead of moving behind him, she coils the energy around his outstretched arm, dragging Excalibur's edge across the flesh as she went.
Blood flows down his entire arm as she lands several feet away, her eyes not leaving him for a second.
"You've got some good instincts, sis," Jared laughs whilst shaking out his fist.
It doesn't escape her that they were the only ones fighting, and alarm bells begin setting off in her mind.
Seeming to read her mind, Jared laughs with a grin that spreads from ear-to-ear.
"No more theatrics. I can't waste much on them, either. We are related, after all. As long as the pet doesn't help you, they can stay where they are. Do you want to know why they aren't helping you?"
"Don't really care," she retorts before lunging at him again.
He dissolves once more, and she immediately leaps from the ground to follow after his astral body.
The chase lasts for several seconds before she finds a chunk of pavement flying at her face.
When she phases through, she reforms in the direct path of his fist.
She drops to the ground, turning into a shadow that speeds across under him.
He jumps to the side to avoid her as she explodes upward, Excalibur singing as it cuts through the air.
His entire body becomes wrapped in red soul-self and he dives for her before her feet touch the ground.
His weight crashes into her, the golden aura shimmering violently around her body from the impact.
Her eyes narrow as the ground rushes towards them, and the air comes alive around them.
"Verto!"
Their bodies are coated in a black sphere for a moment, and it clears away at the same time that Jared's body smashes into the ground.
Raven quickly shoves off from atop his chest, gouging a chunk of skin from him as she moved backward.
"Playing dirty, huh? Alright," he laughs.
He rises to his feet and spits a glob of blood to the ground, eyes narrowed at her.
His upper two eyes glow bright red, and Raven immediately lifts into the air.
Concentrated magic builds within the demonling's head, and from his eyes a massive red beam releases.
A wall of black snaps into existence in front of her at the same time the eldritch blast strikes.
Her soul-self bends and warbles from the impact, and she let her body drop down before the attack explodes through.
"I've been at this longer than you, sis," he mocks.
"So I can see," she concedes between gasping breaths.
He grins at the trembles rocking through her body, her entire form covered in sweat.
"Still, you're putting up a damn better fight than I was expecting. So about your friends… At this very moment, they're wondering if this is all just a show to endear you to them," he laughs.
The thought disturbs her, but she refuses to show such a response to him, merely tightening her grip on Excalibur's hilt.
"Even better, I'm only messing with those two with that. Mind control's hard as hell, even with how simple it is with those two. The others aren't planning on attacking you while your back's turned, but since they're the leaders, I'm sure I can convince them to make a move," he continues with a sneer.
Anger pulses through her, and she notices his influence in it immediately.
"We're finishing this, now!"
Her hands stretch apart, and the air shines with crackles of purple energy, her eyes turning to pure obsidian.
Energy begins sparking with golden fire, and her entire body becomes a single point of throbbing pain.
She clenches her teeth and lets it feed on her magic, never letting her eyes leave him for even an instant.
His hairs rise on the base of his neck, and Jared immediately charges at her.
"Léirscr-!"
Her spell is interrupted when Jared turns into soul-self and materializes in front of her.
She has no time to respond before his fist slams straight into her wrist, and Excalibur goes soaring free from her grip.
With her arm entirely numb, she sends a limb of soul-self after the blade and grabs at its hilt.
He senses the impending danger and immediately rushes away form her encased in soul-self to increase his speed.
Each burst of energy sends a wall of concrete upward, blocking the incoming strike more effectively while his inertia forces him to continue in a straight line.
Her limb snaps past her and releases the metal, sending the magical sword careening after him fast enough to release a small explosion of sound.
As though the road were as sturdy as heated butter, Excalibur rips its way after the fleeing demonling.
Seeing it coming, he ignores his exhaustion and forces himself to become fully coated in his astral body.
Even in the midst of teleporting, the sword manages to rip a piece of his side free.
He crashes to the ground in a pile of limbs, pain wracking through his body.
His body slowly loses its color, turning to a dark shade of mocha.
While his second set of eyes vanish, his entire body seems to shrink and lose its armor.
Glaring at her, he presses down on his side to stay the bloodflow.
"Con-Contrarium," he gasps in clear agony.
A thick stream of black smoke moves through the air towards him, and as Raven watches, the same smoke leaks out from Zatanna's and Nightwing's eyes and mouths to join it.
When the smoke leaves them, the corruption in their auras utterly vanishes and leaves them looking shaken and confused.
The smoke coalesces around his body, and his skin seems to absorb the vapors in.
His body glows black for a moment, and when the glow disappears, his body is once more whole.
He stands on shaking legs, his entire body wracked with tremors that more than match Raven's.
"K-kudos to you, you almost killed me there. We'll be coming b-back for you," he stutters.
With those ominous words, his body sinks into the ground and Raven no longer feels his presence.
As soon as he's gone, Raven drops to the road on her backside.
The red leaves her flesh, and she lies gasping and panting, her heart beating a painful tempo in her chest.
Jinx moves to her side, never turning her back to the heroes even with the demonling's departure.
Only when she's kneeling next to her lover do her eyes regain their whites, and she gives her a worried once-over.
While showing no physical damage, pain and exhaustion are obvious on the psychic's face, and the meta's hearing picks up on her erratic heartbeat.
Before she can vocalize her concerns, a scuffing sound reaches her ears.
She levels a glare on Zatanna, who slowly staggers towards them…
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Author's Notes:
Tá gá dom do chumhacht sula féidir liom, cé. Bow le mo chomhghuaillíocht sealadach.- Gaelic: (roughly) "I have need of your power before I can, though. Bow to my temporary alliance."
Amadán- Gaelic: "fool"; this wasn't a spell, just an insult from a smarmy magical sword
Cillus- Latin: "ass"
Verto- Latin: "swap/exchange/change/turn, etc."
The interrupted spell would have been "Léirscrios", or Gaelic for "devastation"
Contrarium- Latin: "reverse"
An eldritch blast is pure, concentrated magic, and Raven is one of the only children of Trigon not capable of using them, though she can do something similar by combining several of her other abilities which she, in turn, possesses that the others don't (at least as far as I remember).
FYI, anyone who's never tried to learn the Gaelic language, it's even worse trying to pronounce than it is to write and read.
I hope you enjoyed that, because I sure enjoyed writing it. As always, feel free to give me your inputs, be they positive or negative, and I hope you're all enjoying thus far. See you next time!