Perspective
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.
Footsteps echo noisily around the women as they make their way through the tunnels.
Zatanna's entire body is tense from having her back to Raven.
Given that it's her spell leading them, though, she hadn't had much choice in taking the lead.
Raven is likewise tense, though it's only partly due to the waves of emotion rushing against her mental barrier.
She feels Jinx's eyes on her as she studies her hand, sparks of black light setting off into the air with her every flex.
The longer they walk silently along, the more time she finds to worry over her utter lack of control over her power.
Finesse is a requirement, to not break the world around her at every turn, and her change seems to have affected that quality as much as her muscle control.
Zatanna feels the energy across her awareness, as well.
She doubts Raven would stab her in the back, much as she doesn't like her, but the sensation makes her nervous nonetheless.
"So what's with the red eyes?"
The sorceress blinks in surprise, the question having escaped her seemingly without any active will of her own.
She feels them both stare at her, likely with the same surprise on their expressions, but refuses to turn or slow down to check.
The silence becomes even more awkward for several moments before the couple's shared stare ends with mutual shrugs.
"My father's influence, most likely," the empath answers, eyeing the sorceress suspiciously.
"So what Fate said was true, then? You killed him for real this time?"
"I did. Or rather, I assimilated him so that he no longer exists. Killing him would be far less… permanent."
"I'll bet. So the new eyes are stuck like that?"
Raven is surprised by the genuine curiosity in Zatanna's voice, though it serves to only strengthen her suspicion.
"I suspect so. My body has always had two forms, though I've worked long to suppress it and appear more than only half human. Absorbing his powers means that I have shifted my aura to better match his energy, and therefore not kill me when I took everything he had."
Zatanna visibly shudders at the completely emotionless way that the empath talks about destroying an immortal.
She knows further conversation is pushing her luck, and yet finds that her fear spurs her mouth to ignore her survival instinct.
"Shame. Glow in the dark eyes probably aren't great for stealth."
Raven's eyes narrow in both surprise and annoyance by the magician's tactless statement.
Jinx steps closer to Raven, only a little out of worry for Zatanna's potential strangulation.
Given what the demonling had done to solid rock, flesh probably wouldn't be a pretty sight.
"Ah, coulda' been worse," she retorts flippantly. "Least you don't hafta' buy a new knife or anything."
Her eyes narrow, then, and her lips curve as her expression changes for Raven's eyes only.
"Besides, they aren't that bad. Long as you aren't pissed, I'll bet they'll get less bright."
"Etrigan's never do," Raven argues, unable to hide her bitterness.
"What's this about a knife?" Zatanna asks nervously at the same time.
"And when have you ever seen Etrigan when he wasn't pissed?" the meta challenges with a grin.
"Point," Raven agrees with a nod. "And she's referring to my nails, I believe."
Zatanna's head turns, a brow raised at the shrugging empath.
Jinx acts on the opening, hoping to keep them distracted for as long as possible.
She doesn't know what's broken in the sorceress's head, but she really doesn't care if it means a way to keep her blood from covering the stone walls.
"Best as we can figure, Rae's fingernails are basically steel. When she first changed, she had to use a knife to trim 'em. They kept comin' back whenever she completely shifted to the other form, and pretty soon, her nails started winning against the knife."
"You have claws?" Zatanna gasps.
Raven raises her hand to her inspection once more, feeling a blush creep across her cheeks.
"Not usually. I try to avoid it. They're inconvenient and potentially dangerous. Unfortunately, they seem to get stronger the more I cut them."
Jinx blushes, then, as well, telling Zatanna more than she ever wanted to know about what was inconvenienced.
"On the plus side, they don't grow like normal nails, either, so she only has to cut them when she shifts," the meta rushes to say in the hopes of distracting the sorceress.
Zatanna nods, her expression warped in deep, apparently unpleasant thought that neither woman can guess at.
They continue on for a few more minutes in silence.
When they get deeper into the earth, and the air grows colder, Zatanna decides distracting herself from the growing chill might be worth her potential injuries.
"So realistically, what're your chances?"
Raven freezes mid-step, her eyes snapping to the back of the sorceress's head.
"Fate said that you could've fried your brain beating Wrath. That's only one. There'll be five more, right?" Zatanna continues nervously.
"I acted rashly with Wrath, and I destroyed him myself. It's even possible that, at the time, Trigon called his essence in the hopes of unbalancing me and giving him a better chance for whatever he had planned. It will be different now that I know the risks and am not going to be stubborn about insisting I deal with them myself," Raven explains warily.
"That doesn't answer the question. It's been bugging me since Fate told us about it. What're the actual chances that you both walk out of this all alive?"
The couple exchanges a brief look, the question an uncomfortable one for both of them.
Jinx lightly squeezes the empath's hand, offering her a small smile.
"Don't worry about us, bunny. We're made of stern stuff."
Zatanna's shoulders hunch, and she briefly turns to face the unmoving pair.
"Why do you call me that?" she demands. "Do I look like some airhead to you?"
The meta stares for a silent moment, surprised by the anger in her voice as she feels Raven's warning stare on her.
"I think you've got the wrong mindset. Though what you're thinking is probably more personally insulting, so I probably should've gone that route. If we're all being frank here, I don't like you."
"Gee, I'd never picked up on that," Zatanna snarks with a glare.
"To the Justice League, you're basically a magician's rabbit. They pull you out when they need you, you serve as a lynchpin for any case where they've got to deal with magic like those rabbits do for a cheap magician's act, and then you get put away until you're needed again. How you relate to how that entire organization is run pisses me off."
Zatanna blinks in surprise, staring back into hard, pink orbs.
Raven notices the tension in the sorceress's hands, her own eyes narrowing to red slits.
"Think very carefully over your next actions. We have more important things to deal with right now."
"Screw that," Zatanna growls, much to the empath's surprise.
Something shifts inside Zatanna, and she decides in that moment that she's through playing nice, as much as she could say she had been before.
"I'm tired to this. If you're both going to die in a few days anyways, then I'm going to air some things. I'm getting this off my chest, and I'm going to do it while I'm sure you won't kill me, because you're not that stupid, and it would add a lot of time you don't have to this trek through Gotham's armpit."
"Get it over with, then," Raven sighs with a circular motion of her hand.
"Back there when you broke my circle, you sure as hell weren't intending to do enough damage to almost collapse the tunnel on us all. Meaning you weren't in control. If I've learned one thing about you, Raven, it's that without control, you're more dangerous than any random monster or villain to the world around you. I can only assume that it's because you got a serious power boost from taking Trigon out for good."
"I'm a fast learner. I will be ready for the Sons of Trigon," Raven assures with a shrug.
"Fine. Say you do somehow learn to control it all again in a few days and go head-to-head with five demons. Say you both come out of it all as the winners. Great, you saved the universe. There are a lot of people who'll be coming for the both of you as soon as the dust's settled. What's stopping you from deciding that you two are more important than however many lives get thrown into apprehending you, from both sides, and making this whole thing moot by going Trigon version two-point-oh on the universe?"
"I have countermeasures in place," Raven counters. "I've considered that possibility. If it happens, I will die, and that will be the end of that."
"If your girlfriend can pull the trigger. Somehow, I'm not buyin' that she will."
Jinx's eyes narrow, but her retort is cut off by Zatanna's continuing tirade.
Not that she would be able to argue the point, she considers with a grimace, given her unwillingness to do anything even when it was entirely possible Trigon had taken over Raven's body.
"I've never understood you, Raven. It's the biggest part of why I've never trusted you. At least with Etrigan, his motivations are clear. He'll help or use anyone and anything, as long as it gives him the chance to kill Le Fey. But you? You're born fully demon, for a long while thought you'd killed the reason you were on our side, and I don't buy the theories explaining your actions. I just don't get you, and I sure as hell can't trust you with the kind of power you can throw around."
Raven's eyes widen in surprise, the admission one she hadn't expected to ever hear from the sorceress.
Jinx continues standing silently at Raven's side, curious where the conversation will go.
"You dealt with those first artifacts by sneaking around behind your supposed friends' backs, doing who knew what with all the power that wasn't there with the ones you did return. We'd been getting all kinds of reports of a demon running loose stealing things and scaring the shit out of people, whether they were villains or not. Richard and I both got justifiably suspicious, and started putting a plan in place to deal with you, only to be used in the event that you might someday go villain. You found out, and immediately destroyed it."
Raven takes a threatening step forward, but is further surprised when the movement is matched by Zatanna.
"No. I'm not done! You've been harping on me about it. You've held a grudge for a whole damn year. But you know what? I stand by my decision. Yes, between my own issues and Wrath's influence, it was made worse. The plan was screwed up and needlessly cruel. But you know what? If you'd decided to just confront Richard and I about it, we probably could've hashed things out. Koriand'r wouldn't have been hurt, the Titans wouldn't have lost their faith in their leader, and we would've had a trap all ready and waiting for your brothers now, instead of hoping that you both don't get killed in a five-on-two fight at Hell's doorway."
The cavern suddenly drops several degrees, but Zatanna remains undeterred, her anger completely overriding her fear from moments ago.
"I had protection against you to keep a secondary base for the Justice League set up. It proved just now that our trap would have worked on your brothers, too. You and your girlfriend just destroyed it and made a crater where there was solid iron and rock before, without a second of hesitation or thinking of ways to use it to our advantage."
"I was a little caught up having my life drained out of me to worry about it," Raven hisses.
"Yeah, I know. I get it. I wasn't fast enough in disarming it. When Jinx broke through and stopped its power. Which was well before you decided to destroy the whole thing, intentionally or not. With her terrakinesis, we probably could've salvaged the whole thing and simply rewritten the spell to affect them instead. But no, you decimated it because you were angry."
Zatanna storms towards the pair, her eyes glowing with her emotions.
"You got chased by your brother, and you didn't even think twice before grabbing a magical weapon that's caused people to go insane for centuries and started swinging it around like you were born to use it, never mind the incredible amounts of damage you could've caused. Did cause, actually. Just you and one of your brothers was enough to wreck a huge chunk of downtown Jump."
Zatanna's eyes move to encompass Jinx, as well, then, setting the meta on edge.
"Not to mention that the both of you destroyed Stonehenge, a structure that's stood absorbing magic for centuries. You killed beings that've been around since Pangaea broke apart and Atlantis sank, and didn't even bat an eye because they were all actions that you could justify. Frankly, I can't disagree with all of it, without the benefit of hindsight. And the cherry on top was that you followed up by forming a geas with Morgana Le Fey, not giving a damn about what she can do in the future using that."
Zatanna looms over Raven, glowing blue eyes meeting solid red without any hesitation.
"For as smart as you both are, you're impulsive as hell, and with your abilities, that's a terrible combination! Given that the consequences of what you do tend to be an accidental oversight, with the power you throw around, you are, despite the different ideologies, very similar in your actions to what Trigon tended to do, only at least he caused chaos and mayhem intentionally."
Jinx's heart jumps to her throat as Raven flashes into motion.
The air screeches as the empath's fist lashes out at Zatanna, stone cracking under the air pressure her swing drags with it.
Her fist stops just short of painting the rocks with Zatanna's head.
An ugly expression twists the empath's face as her muscles protest from the horrible strain of stopping her action.
The wind pushes past her stopped fist and sends the sorceress's hair into a flurry around her.
An ominous whistle sounds through the cavern, and the meta briefly notices rocks cascading down from the walls around them.
Jinx notices that Zatanna's entire body is shaking, but from the cold way she stares at Raven's stopped fist, she'd never have been able to tell otherwise.
"Y-you know that every single thing I just said is true."
If not for how stupid goading Raven had been, Jinx's opinion of Zatanna would likely be rising.
She isn't entirely positive she would be that calm, knowing what Raven's fist could do to whatever it hit.
Raven remains frozen, staring at her hand for a small eternity.
Beads of sweat trickle down her face, glinting strangely in the light cast from Zatanna's magic sphere.
The only sounds in the cave are their breathing, with Raven's being, surprisingly, the harshest of the trio.
"In this instance, being correct and being wise were mutually exclusive, and you picked the wrong one," Raven finally says.
The voice that echoes around the cavern is a disturbing growl, as though an animal were imitating a human instead of the usual tone that went with Raven's anger.
Her hand is jerky as she pulls it back to her side, the way the flesh is violently trembling not missed by the others before it hides beneath her cloak.
Jinx simply stares at her fiancé, her expression utterly unreadable to Zatanna's searching gaze.
"I'll… be back in a moment," Raven mutters.
Jinx can't stop her as darkness envelopes the empath's body.
Only the feeling of her presence, very distantly back the way they'd come, sets her slightly at ease.
Zatanna starts to follow after the empath, but Jinx steps in front of her, her entire body tensed.
"She'll be back in a minute. You've pushed it enough. While I think everything about how that just happened was stupid, you have guts, which should stay inside of your skin," the meta warns into the silence.
As much as she wants to punch the sorceress, she finds Raven's utter lack of a retort of any kind indicative enough about how right the sorceress had been to stop the instinct.
"And she has more control than I gave her credit," the sorceress returns.
The meta turns her eyes back where she feels Raven, her expression harsh.
"Yeah, she does. What the hell made you think pushin' her one serious button would be a good idea? You want to talk about acting without considering the outcome? If she hadn't pulled short, your body would be jelly in the cracks between these rocks right now."
Zatanna pales at the image, her arms moving to wrap around her torso as if to stay off the unpleasantness.
"Like I said, you both might die in a few days. I took the opportunity while I had it, so I don't have anything festering when everything's done."
"There was every chance she wouldn't have been able to stop herself. She ain't used to the way her new and improved body is, and you had to've figured that out if you knew she didn't mean to wreck the whole cave before. It wasn't worth it."
Zatanna shrugs, staring in the direction Raven had disappeared to.
"That last part slipped out. I think I'm right, but I didn't mean to say that… Once I started talking, everything just kind of kept going."
Jinx's eyes narrow, the anger burning behind them causing Zatanna to almost step back from the meta.
"You heaped a lot of blame on her, when she's already got enough to deal with always going around in her head. Hell, a lot of what you blamed on her can and should've gone to me, not her. The secrecy when she was a Titan was because of me, and so was everything that happened at Stonehenge."
"She's an adult, and she makes her own decisions."
Jinx stomps forward, her eyes glowing brilliantly in the darkness.
"I didn't say otherwise. She's flawed, like everyone else. Like you. She's also the only reason that I didn't sneak into Titans Tower and kill you in your sleep after she broke off with the Titans."
"W-what?"
"I'm flawed, too. I wanted to make sure that you couldn't start making a new cage as soon as everything was done. I was halfway through talking to Gizmo about how I could get past the Tower's security when she stopped me. She assured me she would keep an eye out, and since it was her asking me, I decided to let her deal with it herself. Whether or not I'd've been able to pull it off back then is a separate question, but Raven's the only reason I didn't make the attempt."
"Why would she stop you?"
Jinx shrugs, fighting the grimace trying to spread across her face.
"Despite what you said, she thinks most things through, where her paternal family ain't concerned. Me killing, or even attacking, you would've brought the League on our asses. We didn't need that kind of shit anymore then than we do now. Aside from that, neither of us actually likes violence."
"Considering how you both deal with issues, you'll have to forgive me when I don't buy that."
"There's a reason I was a thief and not a killer. Let's be realistic. You know what the both of us can do. If we were bloodthirsty monsters, everything we did would have an incredible body count."
"I don't know. Even though I don't disagree with you, I'm pretty sure it's a safe bet that Raven's first instinct was 'let's kill them,' and she stuck with it. That's not a pacifistic approach."
"We deal with things, and do what needs to be done," the meta retorts with another shrug. "It doesn't mean we like brutality. Hell, my plan to deal with you a year ago was because I wanted to protect the woman I love, not because I had any real interest in hurting you."
"That makes me feel all warm inside," Zatanna mutters. "The problem is what you think needs to be done and what actually needs to be done aren't always going to be lined up. Given that you both do whatever you think you need to do to keep each other safe, the difference probably comes up a lot."
Jinx glares over the sorceress's shoulder, finding that she doesn't have a response on the tip of her tongue.
Something flickers across her awareness in her pause, but she doesn't feel up to turning and searching for Raven in the shadows just now.
"Yeah, that's what I thought. You didn't contradict me before, I noticed. If Raven did go off the rails, under her power or otherwise, you're the only person who knows how to kill her, and you wouldn't do it."
"What makes you think that?" Jinx challenges, though it sounds weak even to her.
"She said she only trusted one person with her true name. The only people she's close to are Victor, Koriand'r, Doctor Fate, and you. Vic and Koriand'r aren't into magic. Fate said if it went really south, he would deal with you, but he made it seem like it would be because of the pure power Nabu gives him. That leaves you being the one she trusted with the name, and the power that goes with that."
Jinx remains silent, causing the sorceress to nod as though she'd confirmed everything.
"Did she really trust you to kill her, knowing damn well you would never follow through with it, though?"
The meta remains silent, her mind rolling over how she'd dealt with Raven's potential transformation.
A sudden pain stabs into her chest at the thoughts in her mind, but the sensation brings clarity to her.
"We do what's necessary," Jinx reiterates. "If it came down to it… I would do it. It would destroy me. Probably literally, given the whole connected souls thing. But I would do it. In a situation where I was forced to, she would never forgive me, anymore than I would forgive myself, if I didn't."
The conviction in Jinx's voice silences any retort Zatanna would make.
"Let's get going. The sooner we finish this, the better."
"Shouldn't we wait for Raven?"
Zatanna shrieks when said empath suddenly materializes from the shadows at Jinx's side, her expression unreadable.
"Let's get going," Raven reiterates.
The sorceress turns and starts walking without another word.
With her back turned, she misses Jinx's entire body relaxing at the demonling's touch on her cheek.
The meta returns the gesture, and both women are unaware of the color that briefly swirls around them.
They are, however, aware of the way they suddenly relax from the mutual contact.
"We definitely need to experiment with that, when this is finished," Jinx murmurs.
Raven nods and begins following behind Zatanna, her hand wrapped in Jinx's own.
Thankfully, they come upon their target within a matter of a few awkward, painfully silent minutes.
Jinx and Raven happily let their attentions be pulled fully into making plans…
…..
Author's Notes:
Anyone else feel like that was an explosion that's been waiting to happen for a while? I had a great time with this chapter. Next chapter, we get back to the action. I hope you're all enjoying, and I'll see you all next time!