Will and Testament (Part III)
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.
Jinx jolts to full alertness.
She curses at herself at the realization that, despite the situation, she'd let herself fall prey to her building exhaustion.
She casts her gaze around, looking for what caused even her exhaustion to lose out.
Something unsettling stirs in the air, as though the entire tower around them is preparing for a fight.
Her first instinct sends her looking toward the door, but finds nothing there that hadn't been there when she'd passed out.
A low, growling sound reaches her ears, then, and her entire body tenses.
Slowly, willing her instincts to be wrong, just this once, she looks down.
And with another curse, she finds the lover in her arms replaced by a shell of deep, scarlet skin and four eyes, all closed in a pained wince.
Before she can worry too much about it, though, a pulse of angry, powerful magic explodes in a wave from the demonling.
The metahuman finds herself tumbling through the air, the force of the magic easily throwing her entire weight.
Seeing the stone wall rushing for her skull, Jinx's eyes pulse with brilliant, pink light.
The air becomes heavy around her, and she quickly throws a torrent of magic at the barrier.
"Kômala hô jānā!" she screeches.
As soon as the words leave her, her body rams into the now-glowing wall.
A wheeze of breath jumps from her throat at the sudden, harsh impact.
As she slumps to the floor, she glares at her lover's floating body.
Thankfully, the magic had worked incredibly fast, mostly thanks to the impending death if it didn't.
Unfortunately, it hadn't been the pile of pillows she'd been hoping for.
As she fights to pull air into her traumatized lungs again, she glares at the way her fiancé is ignoring gravity.
All around her, black and red sparks snap through the air.
The room quickly begins reeking of ozone, and Jinx finds herself wondering if she's going to suddenly be blasted by magical lightning.
"Don't you fucking dare do this, Raven," she hisses once she's back on her feet.
The demonling gives no response, her face crumpling in a pain that the meta can do nothing about.
Jinx runs towards Raven, ignoring the sparks of magic around her.
A touch of serious worry comes to life when her shirt suddenly ignites, when it comes into contact with a few of the red sparks, though.
As she pats the irritating flames out, she feels tears made from a mix of emotions roiling beneath her eyes.
"Should've asked Fate to find me that damn mirror," she snarls.
Shaking her head to clear the burning sensation from her orbs, she raises both arms and points her palms towards Raven.
More magic flows through her, tingling starbursts of pink flowing from her fingertips.
"Uṭhō, tuma ōphphōha!"
A blast of her hex energy lances straight into Raven's body.
For a period of exactly three seconds, Jinx curses once again, this time at her impulsiveness.
By the end of that time, Raven's body releases another pulse of light, and an ethereal fist of color explodes outward, retaliating against the perceived attack.
Jinx feels the stone give under her impact, and debris happily finds its way into any bit of the meta's exposed skin that it can.
Dust rises in a cloud around the meta, whose vision shifts between painfully too bright and sharp, and disturbingly dim and blurred.
Something twinges painfully in her mid-back as she draws in a shaky breath, and several other muscles throughout her body follow suit when her lungs expand.
In the pile of brick fragments she finds herself limply buried in, she finds she has a perfect view of Raven.
Even the incredible pain racking the meta's body does nothing to distract her from the terrifying display.
Like a terrible Jekyll and Hyde effect, Raven's body seems uncertain which form to take.
For every few seconds that she floats with red skin and a predatory animal's sleek build, she returns to being grey-skinned and somewhat spare for yet more.
A small explosion of white accompanies each shift, and the meta thanks the deities that she doesn't have epilepsy on top of her numerous other current problems.
Her heart squeezes at the low, barely-there whimpering sounds that accompany each shift.
"Please… Raven, don't. I can't do it," Jinx begs.
A wince crosses her face, even the small amount of air used for such a simple statement causing her chest to flare with minor pains and aches.
Suddenly, golden light floods the room, and Jinx looks up to find Doctor Fate taking the scene in.
She can't read his expression behind his mask, even less than usual as he stares at Raven's display.
He seems to be staring at something Jinx can't even begin to comprehend.
When his tensed body completely relaxes, though, and the barest of sighs of what could be relief reaches her ears, she, too, relaxes.
"Is… is she alright?" she croaks.
He turns his gaze to her, and by his reaction she wonders how bad she looks at the moment.
"She will be fine… Different, but fine. There's nothing we can do to ease her transition. Your pupils are mismatched," he observes.
"Freight train ran into me. Healing magic, please?" she practically begs as her vision begins dancing with massive black spots.
Her body is encased in golden light, and she hisses as she feels her bones mending themselves.
When she can breathe normally, the magic cuts off, leaving her with a great deal of remaining agony.
"Your magic and mine are… not overly compatible," Fate explains at her questioning look. "Anything further, and I may exacerbate the damage."
She nods in acceptance, finding herself grateful to be able to stand.
"That was pretty stupid of me. So… what's this about a transition?"
She can guess just by looking at the empath's shifting body, but the fear tearing through her stomach makes her hope that she's wrong.
"I cannot say for certain. I can't see into her astral plane, and see what is currently happening, after all. But were I to guess, I would say she did something to purge Trigon from her mind."
Jinx's eyes widen, and her lips part slightly in surprise.
"We never said-"
"Give me some credit," he interrupts. "Only a handful of creatures could possibly have been the subject of your earlier discussion."
"Fair enough," she muttered with a suddenly burning blush. "So… she won?"
"Most likely."
Something feels strange in Raven's aura, but the meta gladly overlooks it in the face of her sudden hope.
Jinx breathes another heavy sigh of relief.
Her communicator starts buzzing in her pocket, causing her to jump.
Flipping it open, she finds herself staring at several faces.
She looks mostly at Nightwing, and the bruised and battered Titans behind his monitor.
"It's over."
She grits her teeth at the tone with which he delivers his news.
A worrisome spark of pink light sets off from her finger, the glass gaining a small crack as a result.
"Great. How'd things go badly?"
"Brother Blood kicked our asses," Cyborg groans from somewhere off-camera.
"For our part, they had a sorceress with them, who seemed to have a collection of traps lying in wait for any telepaths. I was very nearly knocked unconscious," the Martian Manhunter explains.
"And they had a whole stinkin' army of magicians, from what I could see," Gizmo adds.
"No kidding!" Zatanna screeches. "I couldn't even get into the building for a while, with how many barriers they'd set up. And nobody told me they had a members-only entrance in there until Cyborg got in, and by the time we figured out how to pry it open, they were all gone."
Jinx hears an ominous groan from the device beneath her hand, and with a start she realizes her hand is clenched to the point of making her knuckles white.
"Did you get any sense of where they went? Or how they got out?"
"It stunk like chaos magic, but there wasn't anything that told us who got them out, much less any kind of direction," Zatanna explains.
Jinx's eyes close, and her entire body tightens briefly before she forces a deep breath from her lungs.
"Fan-tastic. Nightwing, tell Batman to be ready. If he can figure out where they would be, being a detective and all, that'd be great, but he needs to be ready if he can't."
She watches as his eyes narrow behind his mask, anger curling his entire expression.
"You're no more qualified to tell me how to run my team than Raven is, Jinx. We could've gotten killed out there, while you and Raven were off-"
"Before you finish that thought, let me make you aware of the fact that Raven's unconscious, at the moment, and it ain't because she just decided to piss off for a nap," Jinx snaps.
A spark of pink lightning pops through the air behind her, and she quickly takes another calming breath.
It's just as unhelpful as the previous.
"We've been going non-goddamn-stop for days now. Your team got hurt. I get it. But there's more important things right now. If Raven wasn't sure that something would've happened to make things worse, we'd have taken care of the shit ourselves."
Nightwing releases a low growl, and his hand releases an echoing slam as it comes down on the console.
"It's a nice excuse, but we're all running on empty. If Raven's as strong as she acts, then she'd've been there, too. We might've reached her brothers if she'd been there to open the door."
Jinx's hair rises on a suddenly billowing wind, her eyes turning to pink lenses.
"Fuck you, Richard."
She notices him blink in surprise at her utterance, but the words act like an opened floodgate for the meta.
"Raven's been destroying herself taking care of this whole thing. Do you have any idea of the kind of shit that she's been putting on herself lately? She's in a damn coma right now because she's dealing with the shit that her family tends to cause. If she'd gone there, without dealing with this, the Church's magic would've raised the armies of Hell for you to deal with. Again. Don't know about you, but I prefer not giving them any more of an opening down there right now than they're already trying to make."
Something stirs in the air behind her, but Jinx ignores the hackles rising on her neck in favor of her anger.
"You want to talk about people? Do it to their faces. But she's not conscious at the moment, and I'm not going to tolerate it like she would. I'm not that nice, and I sure as hell am not in the mood."
A low whimper sounds, and Jinx feels the air turning cold.
It sends a spark of awareness through her, bringing her attention away from the angry Titan.
"Tell Batman, or don't. I don't give a shit. Just know that the tunnels are coming down in a few days, right on top of the demons, if he doesn't figure out where they'll be for us to contain them. However you want to play it, it's on you."
"When this is over, we're going to have a long talk, Jinx. We might have to make it an appointment in Belle Reeve, if we can't evacuate the city," Nightwing warns.
Jinx's entire body goes rigid, and Nightwing smirks somewhat at her inability to maintain a mask of non-reaction.
"When this is over, if me an' Rae are still alive, we have a list a mile goddamn long of people who want to have chats. We won't be doin' anything but talkin', and you sure as hell ain't the scariest on the list, so take a number, Richard. And as for the rest of that… consider this your one, and only warning you're ever going to get, Bird Brain. I suggest you take that for what it's worth."
She smirks in satisfaction when his jaw drops.
"Same to you, Supes. You want to throw us in prison, go complain to all the monsters that want us dead first, and play politics with them to get your chance," she adds in dismissal to the still silent Kryptonian.
He opens his mouth to respond, but Jinx is faster at flipping her communicator closed.
"You aren't making many allies," Fate observes.
She lifts her shoulders in a halfhearted approximation of a shrug.
"We don't have the luxury of worryin' about long-term here. If we make it out, me an' Rae'll figure it out. I sure as hell ain't sittin' in a prison cell ever again."
Suddenly, the mystic is beside her, and she cringes at the feeling of him staring.
"You have leeway because of the organization you do not officially belong to, and the connections that don't officially exist anywhere. That leeway may not cover it if you crumble Gotham City, intentions to save the planet and universe as a whole or otherwise."
"I'm hopin' Wayne gets his shit together. The guy's smart. Hopefully he can figure it out, and we won't have to do anything of the sort."
Fate says nothing about the young metahuman knowing such a secret, though she can practically see his raised brow beyond the helmet.
"Batman is among the few in the League's upper echelons that are in your corner. I don't think it would remain that way, were you to crumble his house along with the rest of the city. And, I'm not sure how informed you truly are, but there's the threat of Superman's pocket dimensional prison. Even Raven would be powerless if she were trapped there. It drains every species that is lost there."
Jinx shudders at that, having not been aware of that little gem.
She settles herself with the secret she does know, though.
"We're not evil, and Superman ain't gonna' throw whoever he wants into someplace like you're describin' just 'cause he doesn't like us. And, on the off-chance I'm wrong… well, Raven might not know about it, but we both know that the Kryptonian would go down if he started a fight with us. He knows it, too."
Fate does turn towards her then, the vague sense she'd been getting of his expression vanishing.
"He would know that. And you are correct, he would be neither vain nor stupid enough to make an attempt, even if he doesn't like the methods employed for the good of the universe. Nonetheless, you'd stand better chances if you had the active aid of the Justice League and Titans."
She shrugs again, though a grimace crosses her face to join it this time.
"I ain't a politician, and I don't pretend to be. We were lucky we got them to help as much as we did. Gettin' them to jump in an' fight the demons with us, when at least a few of 'em probably think Rae's just the same as her brothers, ain't happenin'," she sighs.
The mystic's response is interrupted by a solid thump sounding on the stone behind them.
Suddenly tensing, she turns to face Raven, and her heart skips a beat.
The empath stands to her full height, her recent coma seeming to have no effect now.
While her skin is still grey, there is a pinkish glow to it now, as though her demonic form is projected dimly overtop of her.
Jinx's simply stares, not daring to so much as breathe.
Raven looks down at her hand, flexing it experimentally, as though unused to the sensation.
The meta reasons that it could be a matter of the muscles gracing her human form's physique being different from when she'd gone to Nevermore.
A more pessimistic part of her reasons that if Trigon was using her lover's body like a new suit, he would be unused to the way her body moves.
The inner war isn't helped any by the way that Raven's eyes glow a brilliant, bloody red, though there are only two of them.
Even more baffling is the power rolling from the empath's body.
The same somewhat cold sensation of her soul-self ripples through the air in waves.
Jinx has long since gotten used to the sensation, but something feels off about it now.
There's a harsher edge to it, as though each unconscious wave of her power is now stronger, and the world around her doesn't know how to react.
It hums across the meta's senses, as though caressing her skin.
Jinx finds the sensation slightly intoxicating, and this worries her even more.
Slowly, Raven's head rises from staring at her hand, and her blank expression morphs in an instant.
Jinx bites back a yelp when the demonling is standing next to her in the next blink.
She finds it very reassuring that she can still read the empath's expressions, and that there's worry instead of calculating how to murder her in her red eyes.
Raven's hand rises to cup the meta's cheek, a baffling guilty grimace shifting her expression.
"You're hurt."
Jinx shivers, finding the strange, slightly higher pitch to the demonling's voice shockingly pleasant to her ears.
"I, uh, I'm… fine," she mutters with a blush.
"I hurt you. I'm so sorry," Raven laments.
Darkness briefly coats Jinx's body, and when it's gone, her various injuries are gone without a trace.
Raven blinks, as though confused by her own powers.
The warm feeling rolling through Jinx cools in an instant.
With a nearly silent growl, the meta curses at the confused and terrified game of tennis her mind is playing with itself.
She ponders if Trigon would be able to impersonate Raven, if he'd won.
Would he be able to know just how to touch the meta so nothing seemed amiss?
The way to lower her tone just right to make it seem Raven is trying not to show how worried she was?
Raven takes a visual catalogue of the meta as the debate rages on.
"Technically, I hurt me," she mutters when she recalls the empath's words. "I freaked out, and tried waking you up. Entirely my fault."
Raven makes a low hum in response, though the meta can't decide what the sound signifies.
"Hey, Rae?"
The empath's eyes move up to meet her own, and Jinx desperately searches for some sign, one way or the other, of who she faces in their red depths.
"It seems she's neither entirely Raven, nor Trigon," Doctor Fate says.
Both women jump, but don't break the eye contact.
Jinx finds that she has to agree with the mystic's assessment, though.
"So, uh… how're things?" she asks, immediately wincing at how awkward it sounds.
Raven's head tilts to the side in response, her lips pursing in thought.
"I am not entirely sure. Things got a tad out of my control."
"But you beat him, right?"
Raven's eyes snap shut, a hand going to her forehead as though to help her mind.
"I… think so," she finally mumbles. "I was absorbing his powers, and then he decided to speed the process up on his own, hoping to burn my consciousness away with the rapid influx. There was a lot of pain, and I was fairly certain I was going to die."
"Well, you ain't dead," the meta points out.
She finds herself wanting so desperately for Raven to be the same, but is terrified of the empath's own confusion on the matter.
"Indeed. I obviously didn't fall to it. But… I can't remember anything past the pain. And his damned laughing. I have no idea what happened."
"He may have simply burned his remaining power out before your ability to defend against him failed," Fate speculates.
"A definite possibility," she agrees with a nod.
"But…?" the meta reluctantly prompts.
"But something doesn't feel quite right. I do not feel as though he's there, but considering that I didn't before, either, that tells me nothing. I definitely feel stronger, but if he did something to me, it could easily be something he did for his own benefit."
"Y'know, I gotta' say, your old man could give lessons to Brother Blood and the Dreaming both on effective mindfucks," Jinx grumbles.
"Indeed. He's wretched like that. Or was. Maybe. Because if I did defeat him, there is no more Trigon. I'm certain what remained of him was what was in Nevermore… And there wasn't much of that. But even weak, he was still powerful."
"Well, ain't this peachy? We can head down to the library and see what happens, if you want," the meta offers, grasping at straws.
Raven briefly nods, before her eyes widen in horror.
"I… can't. What if he's subtly implanted himself into my subconscious? He could tamper with my soul-self. If he's there and decided to tamper with the barrier…"
Jinx feels her stomach roil, the thought of her atoms splintering apart between dimensions turning her decidedly green.
"Oh-kay. That's an image I never needed."
"If I may interject, before you both draw yourselves into hyperventilation?" Doctor Fate asks.
The women turn as one, but only Jinx jumps at finding the mystic a mere two or three steps away from them.
"If one such as Trigon were in you, it would show through your aura. Even with your demonic blood fully seated with your humanity, you would be noticeably less human."
"But he was in my head, for who knows how long, already. He may have gleamed some way to hide. I didn't even notice him until the Dreaming revealed his presence."
"There's a way to be certain. Allow me access to your mind. If Trigon is still alive, and is hiding in your psyche, he will not survive for long."
Raven tenses, her eyes going wide in surprise.
"But if he's there, then he may lash out at you, too. I-"
"Trigon was a powerful being. But even if he remains, you've weakened him well past the point where he could harm me," Fate reasons.
Jinx remains silent, finding herself unsure of how she feels over the whole thing.
Raven gives a nearly imperceptible nod, and the air in the room seems to shift with her agreement.
Doctor Fate's eyes glow a brilliant gold within his mask, and Jinx watches as a similar color begins burning through Raven's own orbs.
His eyes glow a brilliant gold within his mask, and Jinx watches as a similar color begins burning through Raven's own orbs.
The orange color of the two combining is an odd mixture, reminding Jinx of Etrigan's fire.
Raven's body entirely relaxes, her only movement the slight swaying of her legs as she remains locked in Fate's stare.
The golden light spreads through the entire room, and Jinx finds herself feeling decidedly weak-kneed as it slams into her senses.
She quickly visualizes a bubble of white light forming around her, and she breathes a heavy sigh of relief when the barrier takes form.
While not a skill she practices nearly enough, the meta finds herself incredibly glad that it works at the moment.
The other two remain oblivious to her, both their bodies turning to solid ankhs of golden magic in the air.
"Animus mundantur aliqua anomalias contaminantium ut reveletur."
Fate's voice echoes, as though a thousand voices speak through him at once.
Jinx's barrier falters, and she grits her teeth as his magic abrades against her mind.
Suddenly, she understands what the mystic had been talking about.
While not exactly painful, the sensation is incredibly uncomfortable, as though her entire body is being massaged with pins.
Fate places a hand on the empath's forehead, and then the air shifts.
Jinx does fall to her knees then.
She realizes that the room is no longer being enchanted by Doctor Fate.
The incredible, overpowering presence in the air is far, far older than anything any human could possibly wield.
The mystic's body becomes entirely obscured in the burning ankh of magic, but the Helm of Nabu remains distinctly detailed.
The awareness briefly passes over the meta, drawing a shudder from her, before it settles on the still demonling.
"Quod omne malum, quod si sint in animo facere, corpus et animam, deleo te murus in rebus, non est reversa ultra ad!"
The voice coming from the helmet isn't the chorus that Fate's had been mere seconds earlier.
Instead, it's one distinct, echoing voice.
No words come to the meta's mind to describe the voice, except for power.
Nabu's voice is raw, unfiltered magical power, and in its presence, Jinx feels the Chaos magic coursing in her veins beginning to heat up.
Raven's body jerks violently, and her eyes burn a brilliant red through the swirling gold surrounding her.
Her expression remains impassive, though, showing no actual signs of pain, or even discomfort, despite her movements.
"Dominium dominis sub ordine tenebris abdere ejeci te, si insidiari! Vade!"
The empath's spine suddenly arcs, as though lightning is running through her.
Her mouth drops open in a silent scream, and for a brief moment, Jinx does see a string of golden light stabbing from somewhere above into her forehead.
The light floods her chakra gem, and the gold easily overpowers any red in the gem.
And then, it ends.
As though nothing had happened in the first place, leaving no traces of the incredible magic they'd just been witness to.
Jinx blinks before staring in open-mouthed awe at Raven.
She suddenly drops to her knees, wheezing noisy breaths out as golden smoke begins rising from her hunched form.
Jinx almost joins her, feeling a disturbing wateriness building in the back of her throat.
She can't put into words how much she's glad they have the mystic on their side, in that moment.
Because they would never stand a chance.
"Apologies. I can't imagine that was pleasant," Doctor Fate muses in his same, usual voice.
Raven waves him off, her eyes closed in a pained wince.
"I… should've left the room," Jinx groans.
"You handled it well, actually. Were it someone like Wotan, survival would have been dubious, and coming away unscathed unthinkable," he offers with what Jinx thinks might be a shrug.
Or it could be her shaking body making her imagine the motion.
"Me not being evil, confirmed… Cool," she says as a hand moves to hold her stomach.
"Seconded," Raven wheezes, though with a very slight smile.
The empath's eyes widen, and Jinx wonders at the queasiness that suddenly forms on her expression then.
"Were I more demonic, what would've just happened?" the demonling asks, her voice quiet and trembling slightly.
Doctor Fate's head tilts sideways slightly, clearly listening to something the mask is telling him.
"Demonic or not has nothing to do with that. Granted, it hurts because you're naturally aligned with Chaos magic, moreso than even Jinx, given your heritage, and the nature of having my own magic used on you is never going to be a pleasant experience. But I purged evil, not Chaos, nor demon blood."
"So… we're certain, then? Trigon doesn't remain?" she asks hopefully.
"Had Trigon been present in your mind, you would be unconscious when he was forcefully removed. As you are only in a fair bit of pain, he was not," the mystic explains.
Raven suddenly drops all the way to the floor, a relieved grin revealing itself on her lips when she rolls over.
Despite the incredible discomfort racking her body, Jinx finds herself grinning, as well.
"Ya' kicked his ass, again. Good goin', Rae," she quips.
"I'll go prepare a room for the two of you," Doctor Fate says. "One with a ward. Neither of you are doing any more magic or psychic travel until your souls recover."
Jinx almost makes a snarky remark at the mystic.
The flash of memory before her eyes of what she'd just witnessed, though, ensures it will always remain as almost.
She slowly makes her way over to Raven's side before collapsing.
"Seriously. When this shit's done, vacation. Anywhere I pick," she mutters.
Raven takes a long time to answer, almost making the meta think she'd fallen asleep.
When her stomach stops undergoing its odd flipping sensation, she turns her head to face the meta's.
"We'll make it a honeymoon. Anywhere you want," she finally agrees.
Jinx smirks, finding the new red cast to her lover's eyes far less frightening now that she's sure it's purely Raven behind the color.
"Might have to hop a dimension or two. Throw the people off so that our list can't catch up with us until we've relaxed for at least a week."
The empath mirrors her smile, her hand reaching out.
The meta doesn't think twice about grabbing her hand.
When they make contact, both women jerk, and pink and black energy rolls around their entwined fingers.
The magic sparks through the air for several seconds, forming a small band that coils from Jinx's wrist to Raven's.
And then, it disappears, and both women find their aches gone.
In its place, an incredible, soul-deep weariness takes form, dark rings forming under both their eyes.
"Have I told you how awesome it is to have a girlfriend with compatible magic?" Jinx muses in a slightly breathy voice.
"Sweet-talker," the empath laughs in response, even as her eyes start slipping closed.
"Are you tired, too?"
"No more… bottomless pit to tap," Raven muses as her awareness begins to darken.
"Welcome to mortality. It's a bitch."
Raven makes a quiet hum in agreement, before the exhaustion finally beats her.
Jinx watches as the empath entirely relaxes, finding it disturbing how it's the most relaxed Raven has looked in months, outside an occasional day or two.
Doctor Fate returns to the room shortly afterward, his presence now sending the meta's senses on edge.
"It won't go away."
She looks up at him in confusion, her pink eyes seeming dim and somewhat glassy.
"You've been witness to Nabu's power. Your mind will never forget the sensation, no matter how much you might end up hoping it would when in my presence," he elaborates.
"Little uncomfortable, but I'll get used to it. He's freaky as shit, but you've helped us too much for it to get to me too bad."
A huff of pained air escapes her as she stands, finding herself distressingly unsteady on her feet.
"I have a room ready. I had one of my other guests balance the warding out, so your recovery will be improved instead of hindered."
She nods, his words barely registering as her vision dims around the edges.
With a surprising ease, she slips Raven's prone body off the floor, supporting them both.
"I fear that I can't help carry her, or you, for that matter, at the moment. Even if you can adapt over time to the new awareness you both have, you're both too vulnerable at the moment."
She can practically see his apologetic wince behind the helmet's covering, and offers him a small smile.
"It's cool. You've already helped us a ton today. Can't get lazy or anythin'," she offers.
With that, she hobbles after the mystic, finding the dimness around her sight to be growing worse with each stop.
By the time they reach their temporary room, Jinx is nearly joining her lover in her unconsciousness.
She briefly registers a warm, soft feeling suggestive of a bed beneath her, as both women drop limply.
And then, the world fades away, the thrum of the healing magic working over them down to the very soul acting as a blissful lullaby…
...
Author's Notes:
Kômala hô jānā- Hindi: "Become soft"
Uṭhō, tuma ōphphōha!- Hindi: "Wake up, goddamn you!" (roughly)
"Animus mundantur aliqua anomalias contaminantium ut reveletur."- Latin: "Let the mind be cleansed, and may any anomalies and contaminants be revealed. "
"Quod omne malum, quod si sint in animo facere, corpus et animam, deleo te murus in rebus, non est reversa ultra ad!"- Latin: "All evil, if you do reside within this one's mind, body, or soul, I banish thee, into the wall separating realities, to never return again!"
"Dominium dominis sub ordine tenebris abdere ejeci te, si insidiari! Vade!"- Latin: "Under the domain of the Lords of Order, I cast thee out if you hide in the shadows in wait! Begone!" (very roughly)
Okay, so I had a long debate on this chapter. Two main issues presented themselves, namely whether to show the fight at the library, and whether to draw out Raven's torment over her doubts.
On the first issue, I decided that it's not really relevant to Raven and Jinx's story. I may write the scene out as a side-story down the road, but for the purposes of this particular story, I decided in the end that it wasn't necessary.
For the second one, I went back and forth for a while. Pacing-wise, I can't say that it's to the betterment of the story to essentially jump over that plot thread. And it could have made for an interesting story in itself. However, on a story level, it would make no sense whatsoever to have them be in Doctor Fate's presence, and to have him simply let Raven suffer like that. In the end, I decided to take a hit on the pacing in favor of the story's logic.
Hopefully, you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I did writing it. However, I'm open to any critiques on how you think it was handled. So I look forward to that, and I'll see you all next time!