They arrived in the infirmary to see Amanda sitting up in bed.
"Here, drink this… it will make you feel better." Jean said gently handing her the cup.
She blew the steam off the top then took a small sip and was met with a minty taste that was backed with some unnamed fruity flavor. It helped and she drank a bit more to calm her stomach. She then turned to Jean waiting impatiently for an answer.
Jean looked over at Nightwing then Raven, his expression screaming that he was not to be held personally responsible for her reactions then launched his explanation. Telling her about Syphon and what had been happening while they were separated. She gasped in shock placing her empty teacup on the table.
"Why didn't you contact me sooner?" she demanded anger showing hot in her expression.
"He has my powers I didn't want you to get hurt."
Starfire watched in silent shock how this situation was a mirror image of what was happening between her, Blackfire and Raven. She made eye contact with Supergirl then Raven to realize that they saw the same thing.
"Jean…" Amanda sighed still feeling tired her anger melting into hurt, "I wish you hadn't hidden it from me."
He looked around the room for a moment then back at Amanda. He could see that she was hurt by the idea that he had kept this secret from her, but it had been for her own good that he had attempted to hide it, at least until she had recovered from the food poisoning that had her on intravenous fluids in the med-bay.
"I was going to wait until you were better, but somehow that didn't end up happening and I'm sorry for that."
"No… it's okay." Amanda replied, she lied back on her back, and her right arm, the one without the I.V., came to rest across her eyes as if to block out the bright florescent lights of the med-bay, "I know now, that's all that matters, I might not be able to fight but my mind is still working I can still help. I just wish you had come to me months ago… before this happened I could have gotten involved then and it wouldn't be so bad."
Jean nodded "In that case, you should probably know that I think Syphon and Blackfire have teamed up."
Amanda glared at Jean from beneath her right elbow, how had that happened? Blackfire never thought of anybody except Blackfire. Syphon had to have made a good case for her to go for it.
"I'm not sure of anything yet but that's the only explanation I can come up with for why your friends can't find her yet."
Meanwhile, Blackfire was still hidden away in a cave outside of Jump City trying to understand how the Teen Titans hadn't tracked her down yet. It had been nearly twenty-four hours since she'd laid hands on the little witch, come so deliciously close to ending her, she knew the tower scanners could find her easily so why hadn't they?
She heard something move nearby and turned to defend herself unable to hide the pained wince at the movement over her broken ribs.
Syphon appeared in the mouth of the cave wincing.
"Ouch, what happened to you…" he says, "you look like you got hit by a locomotive."
Blackfire growled a black bolt appearing in her right hand and her eyes glowing purple as she took in the appearance of the intruder.
"If you're only here to mock me you know where the exit is." Blackfire bit out in anger.
"Woah… easy, no need to get defensive." He said putting his hands up. "I want to help… tell me what happened?"
Blackfire hesitated for a moment then stowed her powers she could easily call them later should the need arise.
She told him the story of how she had attacked her sister's best friend and how close she'd gotten to ending the little witch before Supergirl interfered.
He looked her over and nodded knowingly.
"Let me guess you weren't expecting that." He inferred.
"Exactly…" Blackfire replied.
Syphon shook his head.
"How do you intend to help me?" Blackfire replied in genuine curiosity "Who are you?"
"I am Syphon… and your… what is it… witch friend, has just come into contact with someone I have been chasing for a long time." He said, "I think I can get you to her."
"Interesting…" Blackfire replied getting more and more curious about who this was and what his plan was for this. "Just out of curiosity, it's been nearly twenty-four hours, the witch has long recovered thanks to that cursed magic of hers… you wouldn't happen to know why they haven't found me yet?"
"Here's my plan…" he said pausing briefly "and that would be my doing… you're welcome… but first I need do something about those ribs."
Blackfire watched dubiously as he ran his hand over her side, not quite touching her but she still felt a strange heat from his hand as the pain dulled and vanished.
"Thanks… now about that plan?" she grinned wickedly.
Syphon launched into his plan Blackfire hanging on his every word. If he could heal the damage Supergirl had done to her that simply she was curious what else he could do.
Syphon watched as she leaned on a bolder like it was a table and he began to feel the emotions building inside of her, stirring into the beginnings of a crush. He could really use her… string her along and have the muscle to take on the titans at his fingertips.
Amanda groaned as she stairred up at the celling of the med bay. She hated being sick with passion. When Madison learned her sister was ill she called and apologized profusely about her illness. Truth be told there had been no way they could know that Amanda had contracted something so dangerous in one of the most trusted family eating establishments in all of Jump City.
Cyborg had reported the case of food poisoning to the CDC as soon as his systems had confirmed exactly what had taken place. He had also sent his test results for them to go over and confirm his diagnosis. He had also sent the list of foods/drinks that she had consumed in the time frame that could have led to her infection. He finally got the confirmation that he had been fearing. She wasn't the only one that the establishment had infected, and they were now under investigation and in danger of being shut down.
He sat in the med-bay and looked over at Amanda. Beast Boy had brought her his hand-held game console so she would have some form of entertainment. There was also a small stack of hardcover books, an early birthday gift from Raven, it included all three of the Hunger Games books, which Amanda had already voiced a desire to own. He shook his head, Raven always had a thing for hardcover rather than paperback books, she claimed they lasted longer. Right now, Amanda wasn't touching any of the items to her side, though thankfully she wasn't reaching for the basin either meaning Jean's tea must have helped.
"You okay, kid?" he asked.
"Besides being bored, I'm fine… I finished the game Beast Boy left with the system. but he didn't bother leaving any other games." She explained.
"What about the books?" he asked.
"Tried… can't focus on the words." She replied.
Cyborg thought for a moment then went to a cabinet off to his right and pulled out a strange tablet she hadn't seen before.
"City's been setting us up with streaming services lately… how about a movie then?" he offered.
"Sounds good…" she replied propping herself up on her pillows.
He handed her the device and a set of headphones, and she was soon surfing through streaming services until she stumbled upon one of her favorite shows and started streaming it on episode one. He vaguely heard something that sounded like a female narrator listing the four elements before she turned the volume down to where he could no longer hear it. That was one problem solved now on to other things he had to deal with.
He began looking over the scans he had from Jean, he wasn't sure what to make of the kid. He spoke like he was so much older than his apparent age and Cyborg worried about him and what this Syphon was up to especially when he was informed Blackfire was involved. He knew that girl was dangerous. The problem was she had no track record of really working with allies with the notable exception of the slime guy she had tried to marry Starfire off to, and he wondered if Syphon knew the risk he was taking when he took her on as an ally.
Raven watched suspiciously as Jean sat with Beast Boy watching cartoons. She had mentioned him to Madison, and she had confirmed that he and Amanda had been best friends back in Dakota, but she was still nervous, still suspicious and she made it no secret she wasn't too sure how to feel about him.
Jean looked over his shoulder at Raven, he could sense her distrust from across the massive room. He could understand her suspicion, he'd come essentially out of the blue looking for aid. He was, or at least claimed to be, a good friend of Amanda's that apparently she had not spoken of until that moment. She was also concerned that his intentions might not be as they appeared, it wouldn't be unheard of for one to pull a long con on a hero as young as Amanda, gain her trust to get to her power, but he had plenty of power on his own if his opponent didn't seem to match him power for power he wouldn't be in this situation to begin with.
Jean figured that words would mean little to Raven especially since he didn't know the source of her distrust. Once he figured out what was the cause of her mistrust maybe he would be able to get passed it. She finished brewing her tea and left towards her room.
"She isn't too trusting, is she?" he asked looking at Beast Boy who didn't acknowledge that he'd said anything.
Raven got through the door on her way to her room to find Nightwing waiting for her on the other side.
"What do you think of him?" Nightwing asked.
"I honestly don't know…" she replied not looking Nightwing in the eye. "I know he says he told us everything that we need to know, but… you know me… it's hard for me to trust anyone new."
Nightwing sighed "I'd say there was the potential that he isn't who he claims to be, but he has been calling her by her real name since he laid eyes on her."
"That's true… but I still feel… I don't know… like there is a lot to him we don't know and… I can't explain it, but I don't trust him."
Nightwing placed a hand on her shoulder.
"No, I get it, we've been burned we don't want her to go through that too…"
Meanwhile Jean sighed and stepped away from the couch, his feet leading him through the tower until he found a door that clearly hadn't opened in several years. He stepped through to see a beautiful southwest night mural on one wall and was hit in the gut with psychic imprints of pain and betrayal connected to a female.
Then, standing in the middle of the room everything he felt from Raven made sense. This room belonged to the last person who wasn't blood related to her that she had trusted, and he began to understand why, unconsciously, she couldn't trust him. She had been burned by that before and he could understand why doing so again was so difficult for her even if she never intended to project the sins of whoever lived in this room onto him.
Raven set her teacup on her bedside table after emptying it and was about to begin to meditate when there was a knock at her door. She opened it to see Jean standing there.
"What do you want?" she asked annoyance underlaying her usual monotone.
"Raven I… I feel like we need to talk, just you and me…" he said standing there quietly waiting for her to respond.
Raven stepped out of the room and let the door close behind her, but it wasn't fast enough for him to miss the strange psychic energy coming from a rather large trunk in her room. The energy was of a strange malicious beast, but it wasn't just the beast that awakened questions, it was the pain her mind attached to that being that really had him curious.
"What…" Raven asked impatiently.
He gave her a serious look, "You don't like me, do you?"
"No… I don't…" she replied shortly "I don't trust you… Amanda is my responsibility and you come in here claiming you know her though she has never spoken of you before this moment… you are clearly hiding a ton of stuff from us and when we do ask we do ask you give us just enough to let us know what might actually be happening or none of this is the truth and you're leading us into a massive trap."
Jean looked at a spot on the floor between them and sighed softly.
"You have made some extremely good points" he sighed. "It is hard for me to be completely open, but I do have an idea that will help us both."
"I'm listening…" Raven trailed in curiosity.
"The idea is you enter my mind and I show you everything you need to know, and you can dole that information to the others as you see fit in ways that they will understand. You do know the others far better than I do."
Raven leaned against the wall mulling over the proposition.
"Fine… but not out here." Raven replied and allowed him into her room.
Jean looked around the dimly lit room, its walls lined with shelves filled with books and other magical artifacts. His eyes then landed on the trunk from earlier and more questions mounted in his mind. What was in that trunk? Why was there so much pain attached to it? Why did she keep it in her room if it caused her so much pain? He would ask her, but not now.
Raven gestured for him to sit at the end of her bed, and she assumed the lotus position levitating about three feet off the floor.
He sat on the end of her bed with his hands sitting relaxed in his lap and closed his eyes taking a deep almost meditative breath to slow his mind to allow her in.
"I'm ready when you are." He said calmly.
"Okay" she replied and began to chant her mantra, closing her eyes for a moment before reopening them to reveal them glowing white. Her soul-self left her body in the form of an astral raven before entering Jean's body allowing her uninhibited access to his mind which showed her flashes of his life, the people, places and things he'd seen in his home universe. His father the unstoppable Juggernaut, his uncle the humble professor and strong telepath along with a girl… his cousin Kathy. Then she saw his travels and then suddenly she realized they were in Azerath and suddenly she saw herself and pulled out of his mind.
Jean opened his eyes and looked at her in confusion.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"I saw me… when were you in Azerath?" she asked in confusion edging towards anger that this detail, that they had met before had been omitted from his introduction "I lived there in isolation until I ran away when I was fourteen."
"When I first left home I went to other worlds to find someplace, any place to discover why my powers are the way they are. My powers are like no one else in my world they have never stopped growing." He explained.
"That still doesn't explain how you found me, like I said I lived in isolation while I was in Azerath, only my mother, Azar and a few of the monks ever really interacted with me as a child." She sighed.
"During my visit I went to explore and got lost and found my way into a door that I'm assuming was supposed to be locked because people didn't seem to like that I got in there." He explained.
Raven listened then realized the door he must have been talking about.
"So why don't I remember this?" she asked.
"I can only assume that they wiped me from your memory because like I said I was never supposed to see you… the interaction between us wasn't spectacular… you were playing with a small ball, and it rolled away from you. I caught it and gave it back then they found me and removed me from the room it wasn't like it was some earth-shattering conversation." he paused briefly "If I'm right you were about seven years old at the time."
Raven's eyes when wide as a ghost of a memory surfaced from the back of her mind a memory she had long since let drift away and completely forgotten about until that moment.
"I see you remember more than you thought…" he said with a smile. "If my powers didn't make me damn near omnipotent I'd be offended you forgot me. Am I really that boring?"
Raven quirked a brow, she didn't get him at all.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, it was Nightwing, apparently Cyborg had ordered pizza for lunch, and it had just arrived.
Jean looked at Raven.
"Anything else?" he asked.
"Not right now" she replied as her stomach made it well known that she had gone with her usual routine of not eating anything for breakfast.
Jean chuckled at the sound of her growling stomach.
"Sounds like your stomach already has plans." He replied as he stood from the foot of her bed.
They walked together to the kitchen and went to the table before getting slices of pizza. Jean had gained more questions than he had answers, what was in that trunk? Who was the girl that had stayed in that bedroom? He didn't know who to ask and now seemed like a bad time anyway. He looked around at the members of the team as they all enjoyed their pizza wondering who might be willing and able to answer his questions on these subjects.
"What is Amanda eating?" he asked, "With her stomach the way it is all these spices wouldn't be a good idea."
"She has some chicken noodle soup that we're going to see if she can keep down." Cyborg replied simply.
He nodded but didn't ask any more questions right away opting to eat with the others. He finished and excused himself to go speak with Amanda.
Nightwing looked at Raven trying to see what she thought of the idea of him being by himself with Amanda and she gave him a non-committal shrug as if to say she didn't see any harm in it. His brow furrowed in confusion as he tried to understand the change in Raven's demeanor. He would pull her aside later and they would have a long talk about what happened during her conversation with Jean.
To Be Continued…