Chance
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.
"You said they're making their way to Duma," Jinx points out. "As in… they're in Hell, right now?... kind of making their way?"
"Once Ramiel was dragged up, Duma realized what was happening. They will not be summoning him, now that he's aware of the danger," Morpheus responds.
It snaps Raven from her stupor, indigo eyes narrowing on the floor.
"There is no easy coming back once someone enters that realm."
He nods, seemingly fully aware of her line of thought before she can make it.
"If it were, the key would have no purpose. And yet, they will nevertheless make such an attempt in their quest for the key."
Something in Raven's eyes sets alarm bells blaring off in Jinx's mind, and she turns to level a glare on her.
"Rae, we are not fucking-"
"They will attempt it. Future tense. Can you tell me where their portal will be, so I can kill them before they're able to make such an attempt?" Raven inquires of the Endless, seemingly ignoring the irate meta.
Jinx blinks in surprise, a large sigh of relief leaving her.
"You misunderstand. They're currently in Hell, but they are only presently making their path so that they will make the attempt for the key. Can you not simply move between the walls? walls to come to planet Earth from your home dimension, as well as this realm of mine."
Raven winces, surprised at her surprise over the being's knowledge.
"I… can get into Hell," she admits. "But I have no way of knowing whether or not, once there, I will be capable of likewise getting out. That is a risk I would rather not take. There are many entities down there which would find great entertainment in making me suffer in horrific ways, for a foreseeable eternity. If I can stop my brothers beforehand, I would prefer it."
"I suppose you certainly could stop them, were you to know their destination. However-"
The air around them suddenly goes cold, the sensation reaching down to the women's very souls.
Silver mist suddenly floods the room around them, the vapors seeming to have weight to them unlike anything they'd experienced in the Dreaming.
Jinx tenses despite the chills rocking her form as the mist slowly coalesces and takes on a human form.
The spiral of vapors becomes a thin pillar, and suddenly a burst of similarly colored light floods the room.
When the women can see once again, another living piece of marble stands before them.
The woman seems, to Jinx, like the polar opposite of Morpheus's form, despite the similar power and statuesque body.
Where the man is tall and wiry, she is of average height and has an incredibly athletic form.
Black clothes wrap around her form, showing off the figure perfectly.
Against her black tank top, a necklace holding a silver ankh gleams harshly.
The same obsidian hair graces the new figure's form, though it takes on a sleek curtain going past her shoulders instead of his own mop.
Dark kohl lines her eyes, the makeup curving into a small hook beneath the right.
Her hands are encased in black gloves, combining with the rest of her appearance to form quite a picture.
In any other setting, Jinx would be inclined to think of the newcomer as simply a goth on her way to a club.
There was, she has to admit, even a disturbing resemblance to Raven the few times she'd managed to drag the empath to a club with her.
In Dream's castle, she seems like a monster masquerading in human flesh.
Jinx's eyes spark pink instinctually, her form losing its solidity as her power rises up.
Raven immediately grabs hold of the energy, her eyes wide in terror.
The power rippling from the strange woman is even more overwhelming to the empath than Morpheus's own.
Fortunately, the woman takes in Jinx's display with an amused smile, rather than the glare that Morpheus levels on her lover.
"I have that effect," the woman muses.
Her voice is much higher than Morpheus's, and the smile on her lips seems far more genuine than it ever could have on her brother's expression, seeming like a common expression for her.
Morpheus sets his glare on the woman, a displeased frown curling his lips.
"Sister, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
Jinx turns solid then, her building power dropping as she realizes what would happen if she continued readying for a fight.
Even without the mist, the room remains decidedly cold, and when Jinx thinks on how she can feel cold without a real body, her eyes widen.
The frosty feeling of the air, she realizes, is entirely coming from the woman, not her mist, as though her very presence drains all warmth from around them.
The woman turns and throws a grin at Morpheus, as though his displeasure greatly amuses her.
Her hand flicks up to her forehead, a finger seeming to indicate her brain to him.
"You know you missed me, Dream. As for why I'm here…"
Her gaze turns back to the couple, and Raven finds herself fighting hard not to cringe at the feeling of her attention.
"Do you know who I am?" the woman inquires, seeming even more amused by their wariness.
Raven shivers, unconsciously rubbing at her arm to stay the chill creeping through her mind.
An uncomfortable tugging sensation forms in her awareness, and she clamps down on her soul-self, drawing her energy as tightly together as possible.
"Death, were I to hazard a guess," she mutters.
The woman's eyes glow in delight, a grin on her lips.
"You got it in one. How'd you guess?"
Jinx blinks in surprise, the question one on her mind as well, with how easily her fiancé made the assumption.
"Even had he not called you sister, you're clearly an Endless. I've never felt power like either of you possess before, and it'd be hard to mistake it now that I have. And given the ankh, and the feeling like I'm having my soul sucked out just being here… it seemed a safe bet," Raven mumbles with a slight blush.
Death looks down at her necklace, her teeth now showing in her grin.
"You're a quick one."
"I try," she responds with a shrug.
"Wait… Death? Like, grim reaper scythe and robes, Death?" Jinx asks with an unconscious step back.
"The scythe bit was added after the 15th century," Death quips. "They had some really dark ideas in their heads, and that's what they saw me as. Not exactly flattering."
"And… why did we get the attention of Death, exactly?" Raven asks nervously. "I had some inkling that you very rarely take a mortal form, much less personally interacting with mortals…"
"Well, Dream doesn't know where your brothers will be," Death explains. "And I do."
"You do?" Jinx asks with a blink. "Wait, he doesn't?"
Dream scowls at the meta, making her quickly duck behind Raven with a sheepish grin.
"Death draws me, and there's one place where there's going to be a lot of it, including a lot of demons and other creatures. That's where you'll find them opening the gate."
"They need the keys… key… before they can do anything with the gate," Raven reasons.
"Exactly. Lucky you, you guys don't even need to go down there yourselves," Death muses.
Jinx releases a sigh of relief that her lover doesn't seem willing to agree with.
"Then there is no getting to them before they get the key, is there?" the demonling groans.
"You might be able to go after them, but I don't think it'll do you much good. While you've been here, they've been working their little claws off to get to Duma. Never got why giving half to Ramiel was a good idea, personally, but you do what you're told, right, Dream?"
Dream glares at her, the expression seemingly unnoticed as she steps closer to the pair.
"But you've got plenty of time now, because of it."
Raven blinks in surprise, Death's words not making sense.
"I may not be as quick as you assumed… How do we have any time, if they're already making their way to him?" she asks.
"The key has enough power to grant the wielder control over Hell, but it's not exactly like that right now," Death explains. "They left the half of the key they retrieved topside, while sending their souls down to grab the other half."
She chuckles at the blank expression covering both of their faces, the cold moving through them seeming to intensify at the sound.
"The key isn't going to do them any good like it is. Even if they do somehow manage to get to Duma, swipe his half from him, and somehow make it back to their bodies out of Hell's locked gate with the key in hand, they're not going to be overly powerful. And that's a big 'if' considering the power they already had to use to summon Ramiel and hold him until they got his key."
"I've had it pointed out to me that I have a somewhat remarkable speed of recovery. As they share my blood, though I loathe the idea of it, I can't safely assume it's not true for them, as well," Raven sighs.
"Right. But your recovery's all physical. Even the energy you get back is physical energy. Those guys? They're burning their souls doing what they're doing, pulling on their lifeforce for it. I'm not sure if they know it, but they've jumped themselves up my list in a huge way with the last few weeks of stunts they've been pulling. Granted, you two've been happily running a race with them to see which group can get there first, but what you two're going to experience when you wake is isn't going to be anything compared to what they're doing."
Raven nods in understanding, a thoughtful frown curving her lips.
She forces her mind to focus on everything except the seeming threat over her recent actions and their consequence to both women.
"How much time do we have?"
"Again, there's a huge if here. They might burn themselves out completely down in Hell, which I promise isn't a pun, and then, you have all the time it'll take to swipe the key from where they stashed their bodies, which will be long-useless by then. But I'm not Destiny, so even I don't know for sure how it will turn out."
"If they do manage all of it and get back with the other half?" Jinx asks with clear reluctance.
"Their souls will be stretched rail-thin. Between the rumors spreading of what you would do to anyone helping them, some of them realizing they're trying to bring Hell up to throw the entire universe off, and some deciding they're less likely to get killed if they just let your group and theirs kill each other off, they don't have much support remaining. The ones left are too weak or dim-witted to properly put the halves back together, so it's up to your brothers. If I were to guess, and keep in mind this is only a rough estimate since demon souls are kind of finicky, I'd say it could take them up to a full week of Earth's time to pull themselves back together."
"And the pessimistic estimate?" Raven sighs.
"At least five human days, and that's only if they can manage to go into a trance like Raven here can, while also running from Duma, Ramiel, and everyone the two can sic on them to get the keys back. They won't take it lying down. And they probably can't go into the trance, anyway, seeing as how that's a trained skill you picked up from the Temple of Azar."
"I would be disturbed you know so much, were you not omniscient," Raven notes.
"Comes with the territory," Death says with a shrug. "Life and Death are my business. I don't know everything there is to know, but I know at least the generals about everything."
Dream's mouth opened, the chill of Death's proximity completely canceling out any lulling effect his voice had previously had on the pair.
"They also only have one opportunity. There are no second chances for them to get the energy they need to both combine the key and to open the gate with it. If they fail, the remains of their souls will not be enough to make another attempt. Thus, they will, if they are at all intelligent, which they would need to be to concoct this plan without being more unbalanced than your lineage necessitates, take as much time as they require, in order to return to their optimum condition."
"He's right," Death says with a nod. "They mess it up, and all this work will be made completely pointless, which they're fully aware of. And they'll be running the whole time once they get back, because the leaders in Hell won't take this lying down. The First and his will probably interfere, which is how they'll be able to stay ahead instead of jumping right to the front of my line, but it won't let them rest and speed up their recovery."
Raven's shoulders sag, a brow rising at Death.
"So they will be on the move. Again. Wonderful," she sighs.
Grinning, Death steps forward and wraps an arm around Raven's shoulder, her body nearly turning to ice despite its ethereal nature at the touch.
Seeing the slight blue tint to the demonling, Death's grin dims somewhat, and her eyes flash briefly with light.
The cold immediately vanishes, and the woman's smile returns to its previous size.
"Don't get so discouraged. I've got something that Lucifer Morningstar doesn't."
Any number of the snarky remarks the metahuman is preparing to make in response are cut off by Raven's warning glare.
"You know where they'll end up," the demonling muses.
"There's a location on your planet that's got a strong draw for me. The chances are high that'll be where you'll find them, when they get there."
"Any chance we can know where they are, so we can take their asses out before they get back to being in full health?" Jinx asks.
"Well, I know where their bodies are, but I don't think you'll be wanting to run the risk just now. They might be vulnerable, themselves, but they've got that vampire and his cult watching over them, and they're in a place that Raven probably really wouldn't want to just waltz into."
Raven's eyes narrow, a shiver of warning running through her.
"Are they in the Church in Gotham?" Jinx ponders.
"Nope. An old library."
Raven's eyes widen, her eyes sliding to the Endless still hanging onto her shoulder.
"Yes, Raven, that oldlibrary. Makes sense, opening a portal there. Close enough to Hell as it is, gives them less issue getting through."
Raven nods, her expression hardening.
"I'll level the building on top of them. There will be no body for any of them to return to," she hisses.
"Eager. Kind of surprised you didn't think to do that last time, actually," Death muses. "But I don't think that'll work. Odds are pretty good that nothing good comes from you getting anywhere near them while they're in there. And with what it's got, you aren't going to pull that building down without being very close."
"Whoa, hang on," Jinx hisses. "Some old books and statues ain't enough to scare us away!"
"The defense mechanisms set up by the Church of Blood, which activate the aspect of my soul that yet remains a dimensional key for my father, or as the case may be any creature with knowledge of me waiting to jump across, however, do," Raven retorts. "Even though Trigon is dead, Death is right. Nothing good can come from me approaching there."
Jinx blanches, her eyes going wide in realization.
Their previous comment flashes to her mind, and she finds herself very glad for the warning the Endless gave them.
"Ohh… that library… Yeah, uh, good call, Death," Jinx mutters with a shaky thumb raised. "So… about where they will be?"
"Again, they might end up as empty husks. If they do make it out alive with the key, though, then sometime within the next week, they'll be trying to open the Hellmouth in Gotham. There's a cave system beneath the city, which your former leader knows well. Not every part of it has been explored by his mentor, and there are sections that have been there for a long time on the planet. That's where you'll find them."
Raven nods, her mind going to work on how much the hero would complain if his cavernous lair was crumpled in the process of her caving the entire tunnel system in on her brothers.
"Not exact coordinates, but far more information than we've gotten thus far. Thank you a great deal, Death," she states with a small bow of her head.
"No problem. You guys taking care of this for me means that I'll have a lot less work and cleaning up to do," Death quips with an utterly unembarrassed shrug.
Nodding, Raven moves from beneath the Endless's arm and joins the meta's side, eyes moving to the castle's door.
"Then we had best not outstay our welcome-"
"That would mean there was a welcoming invitation to begin with," Dream muses.
"-so we'll take our leave now and get started looking for where they're most likely to work."
The couple doesn't take two full steps before Death suddenly vanishes and pops back into existence in front of them in a cloud of silver smoke.
"You two are pretty serious. That's good. But I think that you should probably spend at least a day getting your affairs in order," Death states.
They both stare at her blankly, causing the Endless's smile to wane slightly.
"If your siblings manage to take care of tricking and beating both handpicked guardians of Hell, they're not to be taken lightly. You killed one of them, but that still leaves six of them. It will not be anything resembling easy if they can pull that all off. I'm quite serious. As the one who ferries all souls to their new beginnings, or their true ends, I have seen a great deal of regrets and laments, and it is entirely possible that even if you both emerge victorious, it will be at the cost of your lives. You don't want to be among the regretful ones."
Death's words strike a chord in Raven, her eyes widening at the deep weariness coming across in the Endless's melodic voice.
Jinx, too, hears it, and her grip on Raven's hand tightens subconsciously, until both have whitened knuckles.
"Thank you, Death… We will keep that in mind…" the demonling mutters uncomfortably.
"I'm sure you will," Death returns with another shrug.
Her smile returns to its former wattage, the woman suddenly behind them with an arm over each of their shoulders.
"And don't think I'm seeing the future here, or anything. It's possible that it could end that way. Who knows? You've rewritten Destiny's books before, and you two have a lot to live for. I've also learned to never underestimate the sheer will that can draw from you mortals. It's what keeps eternity interesting. So try your best, okay?"
Jinx nods, a small smile on her lips.
"We'll try our damnedest."
"That's a poor pun," Raven groans, making the meta's grin grow even larger.
"Yep. Now, are we gonna' have to walk back through the stupid gate to get back to our bodies, or is there some magic words you've got in your head to wake us up?" the meta asks with a sideways glance at her fiancé.
Dream materializes in front of them before Raven can speak, black sand taking form in his open palm.
A puff of air hits the pile, and for a brief moment, the women watch blackness creep through their bodies as though their veins are pumping it through them.
As one, they blink, and their eyes open to a ceiling of grey brick over their heads and a golden bubble of magic protecting them…
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Author's Notes:
I had a lot of fun writing how Death contrasts to her brother here. She's pretty bubbly and energetic, considering her job, and it was pretty enjoyable to mix it with the others' personalities. I hope you all enjoyed, as well! I look forward to reading your thoughts on it, good or bad, as always. See you all next time!