I woke up.

I was not happy about this. My entire body ached, my head was throbbing and it felt like the light shining on my face was trying to burn out my retinas.

Did I go out drinking last night?

I slowly, carefully and with much hissing, opened my eyes.

Right.

Brockton Bay. The warehouse. Worm.

Shit.

Last night, I had been more or less in shock from incarnating into this world. I had good reason. I was Gavin Hawthorne, age 27. I was also...

T̴̥͍͕͎͙͗̒̐̆͊͂͆h̶͇͚͔̝͒ͅḙ̵͔̲͕͕̘͒̽͊͋͆͘ ̴̧̢̣̦̍̆̚͝P̴̖̫̙͍̒̚͠h̴̹͈̮̫̱̖͌͊́̒͝o̸̢̦͒͜e̸̤̹͛̊͜͝ń̸͍̰̼̤̘͓ͅȉ̸̛̩͔́̎x̴̨̛̗̱̉̈́̆.̷̨͉̬͇͒̐͗ ̷͙͉̘̫̖̽̃͒̏T̵̢͙͍̬̃̽̀͘ḫ̴̈́̏̍̿̇͂͝e̴͖̺͉̘̝͎̎̊̚ ̶̨͕̖̓̔F̶̯̟͆͊̊̊͘͠ị̶̖͑̽̒́͝r̴͎̦͙͎̝̥͌̏͆̌s̷͔̅͑͒̿̚ť̷̳̪͎̜̖̗́̐͒̔͘ ̸̨̼̥̖̫̾̉͗̉͑̐͜F̵̨̰͈͉̺̓̉͛̌́̎̓l̶͚̿͂̚a̸̧̛m̶̢̧̗̠̦̖͈̀̿̓̎̂́͠e̸̮͓̓̃͐̊̚.̴̮̞͔͈̜̟̈́͂ ̵̲̗̘̀͂̀͝ͅT̸̠͚̑̒̃ḩ̸̢͕̹͚̣̓̿͘̕ę̴͙̙̲̗̰̘͒͑̕ ̵̬͍̜̗̗̊̍́̉̏͋̕Ę̴̜͔͊t̶̲̗̑͊́͑ě̸̠̹͕́͠r̷̫̫̖̥̹̈́̽ͅn̶͕̺͚͛̇̊͠͠ā̶̢̛͍̻̝̱͍̟́͐̏̕̚l̵̺̺̈͊͛͗͠.̴̡̥͚͉̚

Because of course, I couldn't just be given the power of the Phoenix. I had to have the history as well. I had existed since before the dawn of time. I was the first spark. The first light. The first flame. I was trillions of years old, though thankfully, due to how boring and uneventful most of that time was, I couldn't recall it. The problem was, due to the power limitations I was under. I couldn't remember a good portion of anything else either. Flashes of history. Events great and small. Hundreds of millions of Avatars. Human and other. Male, Female and everything in between. Mostly though. I remember burning. I have died more times than I could count. I personally likely held a higher death count than all of humanity.

It was...a lot. I spent several moments forcing all of these fragmented memories down. Trying to chase the echoes of eternity from my mind.

Thankfully a rather appealing sight caught my attention. Raven sat in front of me. Eyes closed, legs crossed, floating about a foot off the ground, clearly meditating. I took a moment to truly look at her for the first time. This particular version of Raven had clearly been through a war. She wore her characteristic deep blue cloak, for sure, but in place of her standard leotard, she wore a black bodysuit, lightly armored though the armor panels glimmered with arcane symbols as the light played over her. Her hair was short, perhaps 3 inches long on top, cropped close on the sides. She had a small scar over her left eyebrow and I could see more runes in tattoo form on the backs of her hands, winding up her wrists until they were covered by the sleeve of her bodysuit.

Her boots were well worn and her cloak had clearly been patched many times. Despite all of this, she was without a single doubt the most achingly beautiful woman I had seen in my entire life. Her face was exquisite, with full lips, large eyes and delicate features. The chakra stone on her forehead glimmered with hidden power. She was petite and fairly slender, though for all of that, her bodysuit hid generous curves.

I realized I had been staring for several minutes and as pleasant as that was, it wasn't particularly productive. It was time to get the day started. It was going to be a hard one, I just knew it.

"Raven" I said quietly. "We have somewhere to be."

Calm amethyst eyes opened and met mine. A small smile ghosted across her lips.

"Then let us be on our way."

You might think it somewhat odd that neither of us introduced ourselves to the other, nor asked any questions of how we came to be here, or quite where here was. There was a reason for this.

One thing that I was quite happy about was that despite this being the first time we had actually met. We were not strangers. Several of my perks combined meant that, once the correct Raven had been located, we had exchanged...profiles, for lack of a better word. I hesitate to call it similar to a dating service considering the seriousness of the situation, but, honestly? That's more it less what it was. Also, Raven had run into one of my more famous Avatars. I knew her past, her struggles, her triumphs, and her ultimate defeat. In most worlds, Raven resigns herself to being her father's portal, only to be given a reason to fight back by her friends. This Raven was different. She fought back. She was savaged for it.

Her friends betrayed her. All of them. Beast Boy never existed in that world. Starfire was much more like her sister than most and Robin took his mentors paranoia to utterly ridiculous levels. Cyborg died early on, so the Titans were fractured from the start. When Robin found out exactly who and what Raven was, he tried to kill her. Starfire helped once she was offered monetary incentive. Honestly, that whole universe seemed primed to create a Raven who not only resigned herself to her destiny, but welcomed it. Except for one thing. Raven, after having escaped her fellow Titans ran into someone who really shouldn't have existed in that world. Jean Grey.

Somehow, someway an avatar of the Phoenix from a whole different strand of creation found her way there. They became fast friends. Nearly sisters. Both bearing power and destiny from greater beings. A lot of things happened after that. Years passed. Battles were fought and Trigon was rebuffed, again and again. Then...Jean died. She was not native to that world and her power was largely suppressed. She had to choose between offensive or defensive abilities and chose to help her friend fight. At the moment of her death, as you might imagine, being the avatar of the phoenix, Jean BURNED.

This was the method through which Raven's soul was joined to mine. Rather than burning with her, Raven was given a choice. She learned who and what I was. Where I was from and where I was going. My history, both as the Phoenix, and as Gavin. She was offered to chance to join me, who was the ultimately the same soul that her sister had borne. Her choice should be obvious. The fire consumed her. All that remained was ash.

But From Ashes, a Fire Shall be Woken.

A little dramatic perhaps, but appropriate in this case. Raven was now as immortal as I was. Neither of us could truly die. We were in a very real way Life and Death.

A Light from Shadow Shall Spring.

Leave it to Tolkien to have words for even this uniquely strange situation.

Raven and I were now the living embodiment of the opposing sides of the Phoenix. I was Life. The Fire. I was Rebirth. Rejuvenation. Raven was Death. The Shadow. The Quiet Sleep.

It was all very yin/yang.

We were deeply familiar with one another, though being both old friends and newly met had its own sort of challenges. The only question is exactly what form our relationship will take. Considering the appreciative glances that she was throwing my way as I stretched out the kinks in my back and how my blood heated when I looked at her. I had a feeling we would not be treating each other like siblings. Big Titty Goth GF for the win!

A slender hand reached through a shadow behind me and slapped me firmly across the back of the head.

Right. Telepathic empath with whom I share a soul. Perhaps I should be more careful with how I phrase things in my head.

Not wrong though. GOD DAMN she is fine.

SLAP

Yeah. I earned that.

Raven smirked at me.

Anyways. We had things to do. It was 7AM. From what I could gather from skimming the thoughts of the students at the school, Winslow would open in half an hour. We had some time to get the lay of the land and figure out how we were going to intervene.

And intervene we would. The geas I had chosen for myself was quite simple and something I likely would have done anyways. Protect Taylor Hebert.

She wouldn't be locked in that locker. Today was the last day that she would be tormented. I would not let her trigger. Queen Administrator would just have to find another friend.

In most Worm instances, to be Taylor Hebert was to suffer. I had something to say about that.

AN: I have a bitch of a time starting stories. This fought me for like 3 days, which considering it's less than 1500 words is saying something. Hopefully the next chapter will be both easier and longer, but I wanted to get this posted so that at least I could be done with the hard part. Next, we meet Taylor! Sophia will not enjoy this.