Misstep
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 falls to her knees, an incredible pain flooding her every synapse.
Painful, white light blinds her, and she feels her mouth falling open in a silent scream.
Her body arcs into a tight bow as she's given a feeling not unlike what she imagines being struck by lightning would be like.
The light suddenly shuts off, leaving her immobile but, at the very least, able to see.
And the sight that meets her causes her blood to turn cold.
A massive circle of iron, either rusted or painted red, surrounds her on all sides.
As she stares at the lines, she notices a distinctive darkness slipping along the ground like spilled water.
The darkness is being sucked into the iron, making the bright red glow around her ever brighter with every bit of the energy it takes.
In her agonized mind, it takes her a few moments to realize the energy is hers, the draining darkness leaving her steadily more drained.
Through the pain-induced haze flooding her vision, she slowly begins to pick up distinct shapes.
With a start, she recognizes a plethora of magical symbols from various systems, cultures, and even planets.
Her pain doesn't prevent her from recognizing what's happening for long.
Despite understanding the magical circle that's suppressing her energy, she can do nothing to force her body back to a stand, much less get herself out of the glowing orb.
If it were any creature not made of magic, as she is, it would likely only be mildly uncomfortable, even if inconvenienced by it keeping them from throwing magic around.
She briefly considers the possibility that Batman did, in fact, lure her into a track.
The idea that he would be that stupid, however, is hard for her to accept, even in her state.
She's brought from her musings when incredible anger reaches her senses.
Only part of the emotion is her own, while a great deal comes from her side.
Jinx had watched Raven fall almost immediately, the cavern around them being flooded with white light.
When she'd seen the circle around them growing bright, and Raven's aura together, she'd put two and two together.
Her composure is virtually nonexistent as she watches the empath's energy, her actual essence, being drained out of her.
Magic rushes through the air, and Raven feels her hair lifting on the current of power.
Clearly the barrier didn't apply to magicians who also happened to be terrakinetics.
"Tōṛanā!" a voice booms, the cave echoing the sound to almost be godlike.
An echoing crack sounds, and rock explodes around the fallen empath.
Jinx points at the ground, a powerful glow exploding from beneath her to the edges of the circle.
Ready as she'd been for a trap, seeing Raven in even more pain had set something off inside of her.
As Raven watches, fissures rush out in a web from the meta's feet.
Iron bends and snaps under the sudden pressure, jagged debris and sparks flying through the air and into the surrounding darkness.
Once the circle is broken, the magic dissolves, and she falls limp and gasping to the ground.
Jinx's power continues flowing, and Raven forces her gaze upward.
A corona of pink flows around Jinx's body, just as brightly as it had been not minutes previously.
Except the darkness of the cave tells Raven that her vision is not at that level, at the moment, meaning it comes from her immense pull on her magic.
Jinx's long hair fans out around her in the air, and her hands are steadily dripping sparks of pink magic.
Matching her own eyes, Jinx's orbs stares ahead through pure lenses of color, though the shade is considerably darker than their usual pink.
Despite her lack of pupils, Raven can sense that Jinx is looking at something, and follows her gaze.
Standing not five steps away from them, Zatanna is nearly hidden in the shadows of the cave.
"You have ten fucking seconds to explain this, or things are going to get real ugly," Jinx warns.
Raven starts, her lover's voice containing an animalistic quality she's not heard before from her.
"You'll get crushed, too, if you pull this whole cave down," Zatanna responds calmly.
"Missed the part where I just broke the rock your iron circle's on? Don't put any bets on that," the meta snarls.
Raven pushes herself to her feet, finding her strength already almost returned.
Her hand lands on Jinx's shoulder, and a whoosh of air escapes her.
Something seems to spark between them with the touch, a painful warmth spreading through Raven's palm.
Even as the aura lightens to its former brightness, following suit with Jinx's eyes, she doesn't drop her building power.
With her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Raven notices a glint of red hanging around the sorceress's neck.
"Do not attack just yet, Jinx," Raven demands.
She feels the meta's eyes turn to her with incredulity, though she still refuses to let go of the magic.
Raven focuses on Zatanna, her eyes burning bright in the darkness.
"What is the purpose of this circle?"
"It wasn't meant for you," a different voice responds.
Jinx's stare moves to the shadows, finding the outline of Batman against a cavern wall.
"It dropped her as soon as we touched down, and that sure as hell ain't a coincidence."
Raven doesn't break from her staring contest with the sorceress, despite her own startle at the caped hero's sudden appearance.
"It keeps people from teleporting into my home. Or it did, anyway. I don't like announced guests, invited or not," Batman states.
"Unless they're a demon. Then it just drains their life force."
Zatanna's eyes narrow in response to the accusation.
"Most of us have to worry about them, so I added in extra protections when I made the circle, almost a year ago. Yeah, it's stronger with demons, because demons are stronger, and it just gets stronger with the more energy spent on struggling. As soon as he told me you were going to be coming, I headed over to open a doorway. It's not my fault I was only halfway through when you popped in," she argues.
"Actually, now that I look at it, this circle looks remarkably like the one you had inscribed on Richard's machine," Raven continues as though she hadn't heard a thing.
She turns in a slow circle, taking in the symbols surrounding her.
"Though I do grant you, it does seem intended for defense."
She frowns in thought, staring at the circle in confusion.
"It's odd, though. Something like this should have a deterrent built in, like Fate's tower. I should have felt it when I was coming in, and I would gladly have gone to the driveway, instead. Yet I didn't feel a thing."
The implication sits heavy on the air, and Jinx notices the way Zatanna tenses.
Frowning, the meta casts her gaze around in search of the odd symbol out that would've screwed it up.
She finds what she's looking for literally right under her nose.
Taking a small step back, she looks down at the red lines she'd been standing on.
Her heart immediately speeds up as she recognizes what she's looking at.
For a moment, she considers how lucky Zatanna is, considering if she hadn't finally let go of her power, she probably would have hexed her right then.
She looks up from the circle to find Zatanna staring into her eyes, seeming to plead with her expression.
While the meta more than understands her fear, she doesn't even consider hiding her discovery from Raven.
Even if the demonling didn't turn to face her and spot their staring match in that moment, she isn't sure she would've even if she could've.
"What error did she make? You know, Zatanna, this kind of spell can be very dangerous if not written out right. You could do a lot of terrible things on accident when teleportation's involved."
Her tone is almost scholarly, sounding like so many conversations she'd held with Jinx when teaching her the nuances of more complicated magic.
Jinx gulps and reluctantly taps her foot to the segment of stone in front of her.
Raven watches Zatanna's eyes follow the movement, and a cold sweat breaks out on the sorceress's skin.
An incredibly sweet fragrance floods the air, making Raven almost gag.
It is a different smell than the nervous concern Jinx had produced not minutes earlier.
She focuses her senses and finds, much to her surprise, that both Zatanna and Jinx are producing the smell, though the odor is far stronger from Zatanna's direction.
It is incredibly enticing to her new senses, and the realization worries her greatly.
She doesn't want to know what would cause such fear in both women, but she also cannot stop herself from looking.
Her eyes fall to where Jinx is indicating, and her blood turns cold.
Her name had been added to the circle's magic, written in Enochian symbols.
It was clearly done with a lot of guessing involved, as it was missing a decent amount of information, but it was closer to the true name attached to her soul than Raven was comfortable with.
As she stares at the symbols, she realizes why she hadn't felt anything when teleporting.
Her name had been partially ascribed to the magic, essentially making her part of the circle itself.
It is why she felt nothing when entering, as she is desensitized since long ago to the feel of her own magic.
Worse, it's why they landed directly in the circle.
The markings were laid as a trap, meant to block and trap all intruders, but especiallyher, specifically.
Without Jinx, it likely could have completely drained her, leaving nothing but a hollowed body behind.
She realizes that, had the symbols been correct, had the magic been even more specific on targeting her, she would not have been standing there now.
"Like I said, a year ago," Zatanna defends nervously.
Batman looks between the women, not sure what the significance of the symbols under Jinx's foot is.
"This is a pretty good guess, Zatanna," Raven muses.
Her voice is dangerously calm, and even Jinx seems ready to back away from the underlying threat.
Suddenly, darkness blossoms into existence around Raven's tightly clenched fist.
With wide eyes, Jinx moves into a series of backward somersaults.
As soon as the meta's out of her path, the empath brings her fist down.
For a very brief moment, red markings flash into existence on Raven's skin, making her entire body glow.
They are gone in the next blink, but nobody had missed their presence.
And then, dust and rock explodes upward in a dark cloud.
Zatanna shields her face from the choking debris, though she's very reluctant to take her eyes off Raven.
When the cloud clears, they find Raven standing in the center of a massive indentation in the rock.
Iron is bent and warped along the broken ground, the empath's soul-self seeming to have sheared completely through the magic-absorbent metal.
"A very close guess, actually," the empath continues as though nothing had happened.
There's a startling growl to Raven's voice now as she speaks, and Zatanna finds herself taking a few instinctive steps back.
Raven's eyes glow sinisterly in the darkness, seeming to cast shadows on the rest of her face.
Batman, Zatanna, and Jinx all stare at the massive crater where the magic circle had previously been.
Raven, too, stares at her work.
She'd been aiming to simply break the small area with her almost-name on it, and had instead decimated the two meter swath of rock that the magical circle had covered.
She fights down a gasp as she realizes that the destruction ends practically underneath Jinx's feet where she'd landed.
The realization disturbs her, but she forces away all signs of it as she turns to her full attention back to Zatanna.
"Raven-"
"You should shut up, bunny," Jinx warns in a distressingly shaky voice.
She doesn't think Raven is going to outright kill Zatanna for the magic she'd worked into her protective circle, but even without empathic abilities, she could feel the rage boiling under the surface.
"Look, it was a year ago. I would never exploit-"
"You absolutely won't," Raven growls.
Zatanna visibly shivers, putting more distance between herself and the demon.
"It's been almost a year since you did that guesswork. I'm going to assume, likely safely, that you've gotten it fully since then. Let me make one thing perfectly clear, Zatanna Zatarra. There is exactly one person I have ever trusted with my true name. That you've learned it by some means on your own is impressive, but do not make the mistake of thinking to use it."
Her eyes brighten suddenly, and Zatanna finds herself staring into almost literal fire as the colors swirl around.
"Ever. Because you will have exactly one chance, and I swear to you on the River Styx that it will end in a way that will guarantee no second attempt."
The air suddenly becomes heavy, and the other magicians stare in shock at Raven.
Jinx had certainly heard her lover form enough geasa in their time together that the sensation was familiar.
The sensation is different, though, when made with such ugly intentions.
Zatanna, wraps her arms around her stomach as though to stay the feeling clawing through her body.
It leaves her feeling drained, and she swears then and there to forget the symbols, even if she had to use magic to do it.
Even Raven feels the difference as she resists shuddering.
The geasa she'd made before had always been accompanied with a slight chill, as though some deity was jotting her name down on a list for later reference.
This time, she feels a burning heat pulse through her entire body, as though a very small fire has been lit inside her organs.
It disappears quickly enough, but in its wake, Raven finds herself fighting hard to keep from violently shaking.
"I won't use it," Zatanna promises, sounding nearly in tears.
"I know."
Zatanna shivers at the absolute certainty in Raven's tone, and even Jinx resists doing the same.
"Is there a reason you started a small earthquake under my house?" Batman demands.
"Leave it alone, rich boy," Jinx warns.
Her boots crunch noisily on the rocks as she approaches Raven's side.
Raven's body almost immediately relaxes as soon as the meta's hand is holding hers.
"You said I could help find where they'll be?" she asks.
Jinx relaxes, then, as well, when she hears the usual smoky tone in her lover's voice.
Batman stares at her for another moment, frowning when he realizes he can't read anything in the lenses of red where her eyes used to be.
"There are a lot of tunnels beneath Gotham, and even using faster means of transportation, I can't possibly get through them all in the time we have. I also don't have any idea what I'd be looking for."
"It's the gate to Hell," Zatanna chimes in. "Something like that's got to be massive, and pouring magic out like crazy."
"The Hellmouth's the entrance to Hell. It's not an actual place, otherwise we'd've been on it the second we found out that's where they were goin'," Jinx corrects.
"But the part about the magic is true," Raven adds. "Someplace where you could stabilize that portal would have to be incredibly powerful to begin with. The world would be… wrong… around a place like that."
"To someone who can sense magic," Batman cuts in. "Hence why you're here. I was going to suggest you two and Zatanna work together and pool your senses together to find the place."
His eyes narrow on Raven, then, and she forces herself to not react to the expression.
"But I think it'd be safer to have you go separate routes, if that was any indication. The three of you fighting could collapse the whole cave system."
"They can't actually be that unstable. Gotham'd be a pile of rubble long before now if they were," Jinx retorts.
Frowning, Batman stalked towards the crater Raven had created and gestured downward.
"Both of you just shattered solid iron and stone, in a few seconds."
"Unless the Sons of Trigon are waiting for us in those tunnels, we'll be fine."
"How do you know they aren't?" the hero challenges.
Jinx feels a cold sweat break out at the thought, but Raven merely shrugs.
"If they're waiting for us, that means they've recovered faster than Death told us they would, and have managed to escape the army chasing after them. In other words, if that's true, then the preparation will be pointless, and we'll fight them as we are, or lose."
"That's pretty pessimistic," Zatanna nervously muses.
"Nah, she's right. If they're there, we'd be way past too late already. Plus, Rae'd've figuratively sniffed them out the second we got here. After she was able to stand up again."
"And without them lying in wait, I will not erroneously break walls apart," Raven finishes.
Zatanna points at the tunnel behind them, her hair rising in wild waves around her.
"Etacidni eht htap wcihw ew kees!"
A ball of blue light ignites in the air, bright energy seeming to bubble beneath the surface.
The orb floats for several seconds before Zatanna glares at it.
"It's not going to be that easy," Jinx sighs.
Raven's eyes pulse with light, and she points her index finger at the sphere.
A small spark of darkness launches into the orb, and the entire thing becomes noticeably darker.
Zatanna turns to question the action, when suddenly a solid spike of blue rises from the sphere's body.
The women watch as it slowly spins and points behind Zatanna.
"When I said the world would be wrong, I meant it would be overflowing with magic. The area itself would be stable, but only because the rest of the world becomes chaotic from grounding the energy. Your energy would be… unsuited, on its own, to draw us to such a place."
"Why not just do it yourself, then?" the sorceress demands with a glare.
"Jinx and I both probably could," the empath replies with a shrug. "But that kind of spell would likely give false positives. There can't be many places in these tunnels that have both forms of magical energy, however."
"Are you going to start the fight this time, or do you want to find the damn hotspot and get this done with?" Jinx adds with a glare.
Zatanna seems as though she has a retort for a moment, before she silently closes her gaping mouth.
Without another word, the women begin making their way through the tunnels…
…...
Author's Notes:
Tōṛanā- Hindi: "snap"
Enochian is the mystical language used by angels.
River Styx- A lot of people probably know this tidbit. The Styx is the river of hatred in the Greek Underworld. It's also a the daughter of two Titans in that pantheon, who helped overthrow the Titans in Zeus's war. Even the Greek gods don't dare break an oath sworn on her name.
Geasa- Plural of the Gaelig term "geas"
I rewrote this chapter a surprising number of times before finally deciding on the way it went. I think it turned out well, but as always, I'm interested in hearing what you readers think, positive or negative. I'll see you all next time!