The Dreaming
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 stands on the shifting ground of mist.
As it rolls around her ethereal feet, a strange electrical sensation runs through her nonexistent limbs.
Even without her real body, she feels a strong grip on her hand.
As soon as she notices it, the grasp tightens, and she finds her attention drawn to a sparking mass of pink and black.
The form seems like numerous wires had been cut with energy still moving through them.
She feels a smile form in her mind at how chaotic the aura is, seeming to match Jinx's personality perfectly.
Warmth seeps into her false hand, making her realize that the pink light is seeping into her own silhouette of an astral form.
At the same time she realizes this, she also notices her own aura slipping into her lover's essence.
Where such a thing shouldn't be possible without a great deal of force and pain, Jinx's mind doesn't seem to react at all.
The pure lenses of white light that mark her eyes remain locked on Raven's own form.
Despite the fact that their auras merging doesn't seem to be causing horrors to befall them, Raven feels it's not a good thing, nonetheless.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos," she chants, the words seeming to echo within her mind and the empty space around them.
Just as she notices that she had no mouth that she should have been able to speak her mantra with, lips seem to solidify.
The rest of her body follows, her vague darkness taking on the curves and lines of her natural form.
She feels Jinx's attention as the black light making her astral form up stretches, and soon she's standing in a constructed version of her white cloak.
As soon as the cloak resolves, so, too, does the rest of her body take form.
"Think hard. You see yourself in the mirror all the time. Jinx, concentrate on that image, now," she instructs, her hold on Jinx's pseudo-hand tightening to anchor the metahuman's mind.
The orbs slip closed and a light humming sound reaches Raven's senses.
Slowly, the sparks begin to lose their random pattern, taking on the meta's familiar shape.
Even as Jinx takes on a humanoid form, the sparking continues, seeming as though her body is hidden behind a heat mirage as the energy constantly moves.
With her body almost fully formed, Raven notices a frown on her expression.
Suddenly, an echoing pop sounds, and Jinx's body resolves into solidity.
Something seems to stir in the mist at the sound, an awareness settling on the women that puts them immediately on edge.
"So this is the Dreaming?" Jinx asks in a whisper, her eyes darting around.
"Let's hope so," Raven sighs.
Her gaze moves around them, searching for any signs of land nearby.
The blue haze obscures everything, her perceptions telling her that they aren't even on solid land.
"Gotta' say, Rae, I never thought I'd be able to think this, but I'd take Nevermore any day of the week," Jinx mutters nervously.
Raven gently squeezes her hand, pulling Jinx's form closer to her.
"It is just mist," she soothes. "Granted, a lot of mist that's probably hiding something worse, but still."
Jinx looks at her oddly, a frown curving her lips.
"What mist? It looks like a damn abyss ready to swallow us. Even Nevermore has a lot of light," she grumbles.
"What you are seeing and what I am seeing are different, it appears. I can't make out any shapes. Do you see any structures?"
"Stupid astral planes," Jinx groans while turning in a circle.
Her hand suddenly tightens, drawing Raven's attention to the side.
"I see Dracula's damn castle, I think."
She points skyward with her free hand, a frown on her lips.
"Lead the way. Perhaps there will be clearance in what I'm seeing further along."
Nodding, Jinx takes off with the demonling quickly moving behind her.
They run for what seems like an eternity down a path Raven can't see, until Jinx slows down.
Her head turns from side-to-side, an uncertain look on her face.
"Uh, there're three paths. They look the same to me."
Raven looks around as well, finding her own hopes that the mist would clear answered, somewhat.
"We're on a circle of ground, I think. I see a path to the right," she responds.
As Jinx turns to walk, Raven pulls her short.
"Hang on. We need to test this. See if the areas we're not perceiving might end up getting us killed. Where are the other paths you see?"
Jinx blinks in surprise, the thought one that hadn't occurred to her.
She blanches despite her current lack of blood, leading Raven to the edge of one of the other paths.
Her hold on Jinx's hand tightening somewhat as she takes a step where Jinx indicates.
The outstretched foot finds no ground in the void in front of her, her leg dropping somewhat before she quickly jerks it back.
"That could've been bad," Jinx muses with a whistle. "My turn."
Just as cautiously, she steps out onto the path of blackened stone before her eyes.
Where Raven's foot had seemed to shift right through the material, the meta's comes to rest, nothing but solid ground beneath her.
Her grip becomes white on Raven's hand as she takes another step onto the path, curiosity getting the better of her.
Raven's eyes widen as her fiancé appears to stand on nothing but air, mist swirling around her feet.
Gaining a sense of foreboding, she lets her soul-self seep slightly from her aura.
Her hand becomes a tendril of darkness that coils around Jinx's arm.
She stifles a groan as sudden lightheadedness strikes her, focusing on the more important matter at hand.
"Do not let go of my hand, Jinx," she warns.
She tentatively reaches her foot out, placing it directly at the side of Jinx's.
Again, she meets nothing but air, her foot sinking below the meta's.
Jinx immediately tenses, her eyes going wide with terror.
Her form loosens somewhat, Raven's grasp almost slipping free as the arm she holds becomes like electricity.
Jinx's body begins to fall, and Raven pulls, dragging her back onto the solid ground.
Jinx solidifies once more as she falls atop her, feline eyes wide with terror.
"Wh-What the f-fuck!? I was standing on it, then you put yer foot in, and suddenly I ain't on stone anym-more!" she shrieks.
Raven runs a hand through her hair, making sounds she hopes are comforting for the trembling meta.
"We need to be careful. Where our perceptions overlap should be fine, but elsewhere is unstable," Raven explains.
"Unstable nothing," she grumbles. "How the hell were you walkin' with me all this way, then?"
"You were walking, and there was no sense that my mind likely compensated. Perhaps there was, in fact, ground beneath me, or perhaps my mind created ground because it expected it to be there. It didn't occur to me until you mentioned paths that are not present for me despite the clearance from the mist that there might be things we're seeing that aren't there."
"Wait, so we can control this place? Cool! I say we just close our eyes, think about the castle real hard, and-"
"Morpheus controls this place. Anything we can do with the landscape is likely to be caused on a subconscious level," Raven interrupts. "If we really expect something to be there, it will be so, but otherwise? I wouldn't willingly walk on a path that we created in such a way, personally. It would seem that the Dreaming comes differently to different minds. I should have expected it, really. We will need to go with a great deal of caution more than already expected."
"This place already sucks. Oh, and have I mentioned lately how lovely it is to have a girlfriend that can fly and teleport? Especially in situations that might end up dropping my cute ass down a cliff into some weird abyss?" Jinx muses while pressing firmly into Raven's side.
"Let's store that for times of need, shall we? I do not want to waste energy here, in case we need it later, and I do not trust the landscape I'm seeing enough to be able to navigate us through the air."
Jinx nods as they head for the solid path, both women very cautious about attempting it.
Seeing their lack of options, Raven sighs and steps on first.
They make their way down the path one cautious step after another, never getting any further away from each other than they absolutely have to.
"So, why do you think we're seeing what we are?" Jinx asks after several silent, tense moments. "No offense, but dark and gothic's way more your thing than mine."
Raven frowns in thought, the question one that's rolling around inside her own mind as well.
"You are correct, of course. If it were taking on a representation of my mind, it should just have been a larger form of Nevermore. This mist is just odd, unless somehow I'm seeing the Dreaming as it is and you aren't."
"That doesn't make any sense. If you're seeing the real world, then there's no reason I shouldn't be, too, right? And there's definitely no reason I'd be seein' Nevermore's big brother."
A thought turns Raven's grey skin even paler, the memory of their auras mixing surfacing in a blink of her eyes.
"Do you feel… odd… at all, Jinx?"
The meta raises a brow at her, an incredulous expression on her face.
"Well, yeah, I feel like any second, something's going to reach up from down there and grab my damn ankle. And it feels like somethin's watching me."
"No, I meant… Never mind, if you're physically feeling alright, it's for the best."
"What were you thinkin'?" Jinx demands.
"We arrived here as simply our energy. When I came to, our auras were mixing. It is possible that, somehow, my energy was leeched into you and influenced your mind so that what I should be seeing, you are seeing instead. But it doesn't really make sense, and trust me, if you were going through having your aura corrupted, you'd know."
"Well, you're right, that wouldn't make any sense. We throw our energies together all the time, and it's never done anythin' to my head. Maybe it's different because it's this place?"
"Possible. I would normally suggest that we lose these shells of ours and I pull my mingled energy free from you, but I do not want to risk being so loose with our souls here."
"Yeah, I'm with you. I say that we just hurry to Dracula's castle over there, talk to the not-Greek-god-god guy, and bail," the meta states with a nod in the castle's apparent direction.
Raven pulls to a stop, her eyes going wide in surprise.
Where the wall of mist had been, she now sees a castle in the distance.
She gives a low whistle at the sight, Jinx's estimation not far off.
The structure, what she can see of it, appears to be spires and towers of black and grey stone.
The mist surrounding it appears darker and even more obscuring, a nearly black haze surrounding the castle.
"I see it, a bit, as well, and I agree with your sentiment, Jinx. Either it's very large, or we're very near."
"I see somethin' up ahead. Looks like another split," Jinx muses.
They head further down, and from nowhere, two hulking masses take form before the meta.
Raven, too, sees the event, and her nonexistent pulse races.
"Are those-?"
"Damnit to the Ninth Circle," Raven interrupts.
"Yeah, I thought so. Looks like we hit the lottery," Jinx sighs. "We probably should've asked Fate if he knew anything-"
"For two are the gates of shadowy dreams, and one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Those dreams that pass through the gate of sawn ivory deceive men, bringing words that find no fulfillment. But those that come forth through the gate of polished horn bring true issues to pass, when any mortal sees them," Raven intones.
Jinx stares blankly at her lover, wondering if she's lost her mind.
"Penelope talks about them in the Odyssey," she explains with a shrug. "The Gate of Ivory is the one to avoid."
"I need to catch up on my epics," Jinx mutters. "Maybe I'll do that during our vacation."
"Oh, I assure you, your attention will not be on reading while we're away. But the problem remains, which is the Gate of Horn?"
Jinx turns her gaze back to the gates, her eyes narrowing quickly into a glare.
"Well, I don't know what the hell Horn is, but I know that ivory's white, so it's got to be the other one."
"They're both grey to me," Raven sighs. "The mist is obscuring them beyond knowing they're there. If the Gate of Horn isn't white, it is close enough here for me to be unable to tell."
"Okay, but I see one that's pretty clearly brighter than the other one."
"Fortunate," Raven muses as the meta pulls her to the left pathway.
When they reach the gate, Raven finds a strange sense of foreboding creeping along her spine.
Jinx notices the tension, a frown curling her lips.
"You alright, Rae?"
Raven shakes her head, a glare settling on the gate of utterly obscured, grey stone before her.
"Just getting a bad feeling. Perhaps the other gate is trying to make it seem that we're going into the wrong gate. Perhaps we are going into the wrong gate and it's somehow making it seem to you as though the gates are reversed. Either way, we need to go through a gate, and you're seeing more than I am. Shall we?"
"I really hate this place," Jinx mumbles.
She takes in the sight before her, a strange sensation running through her at the sight.
The gate is surrounded by a wall of pure, smooth black which seems to stretch into the sky.
Just as she contemplates having Raven just fly them around that gate, it reacts and grows.
A horrific crackling sound reaches her ears as the sinewy, black wall curves to surround them, until only the path they'd come down and the door before them is visible.
Releasing a frustrated sigh, she presses her hand onto the disturbingly warm, rough doorway of black and pushes.
The door doesn't part despite her efforts, a grunt of effort sounding as she continues getting no results.
"Do you want-"
"Nah, I've got this," Jinx interrupts with an annoyed huff.
Raven watches as the meta pulls her other hand free and begins throwing her weight behind her shoves.
"Stupid heavy gate. Seriously! Who makes a gate of solid… whatever the hell Horn is?" she complains when there's no progress.
Slightly amused, Raven places her hand next to the meta's.
Darkness stretches from her palm, wrapping around the doorway.
It slips open easily, almost sending Jinx's leaning weight sprawling to the path below.
"It's not funny," she says with a glare at Raven's slightly trembling form.
"I would beg to differ," Raven muses with a grin.
"I'll remember this later," Jinx swears as her cheeks turn pink.
"I'll look forward to it. You're thinking of things in a way you shouldn't. We are not in a physical world, nor do we really have bodies. Trying to work with things as if you were will likely always be wasted effort and energy, here," the demonling responds.
Blushing, Jinx puts her hand on the side of the gateway remaining closed.
Pink energy fires into the gate, and the door swings silently back.
Jinx gives a satisfied nod to herself, wishing for her blush to die down quickly.
"I'll keep that in mind."
Smiling, Raven takes up her hand again and they move through the gates.
As the gates slip closed behind Raven, the sense of foreboding takes on the form of a lead ball settling in her stomach…
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Author's Notes:
When writing this scene, I was surprised to find that there doesn't appear to be any reference to what horn actually is. The best I could guess was that it would possibly be a material. Perhaps it was referring to actual horns, which are usually keratin and proteins surrounding bone, but if not, that's still what I went with. Anyone who knows the historical context better, feel free to correct me.
I hope you're all enjoying thus far! As always, I look forward to your input, positive or negative, and I'll see you all next time!