Another chapter, great aren't I? I had a bit of time left over, and I got writers block in another fiction, so I decided to finish this one, the beginning I did a while back. All in all, I've read this same journal thing about eighty-five times, which is why I'm now sick of this damn chapter XD.

Anyways, enjoy. And I know that, at first, Jinx will seem to be heading to spend more time with Rorek than Raven. This will be the truth for the beginning of the fiction, but don't worry. It will even out in the end. I'm kina interpreted in seeing who the people will want to see him ending up with actually, bearing in mind neither will be heartbroken really.

Oh, P.S. for all your gits who alerted or favourited and DIDN'T REVIEW, I'm not exactly a review whore or anything, but come on! How do you favourite something like that and not pop in a quick 'like the fiction, Rorek is cool' or 'Yay, I hope you update soon' or my personal favourite 'I want you to have my children, let me cover you in hot chocolate and we shall play ''til the morning light!'.

Ahem. On with the fiction.

3rd entry:

It should be said right now I was not born in Noll, though that is often told and I give my home village as such. I was in fact born some distance away, to parents who were probably at least well meaning, if not particularly bright. You see the first thing they did on seeing my strange appearance was summon the town elder and Priest. A man so overrated as to be considered a wise man on all subjects, even those he had no education on. People often point out to me he was at least smart enough to ascertain I had great magical potential. Equally I often point out that when 50 or so Wizards show up on someone's lawn ( smoking and firing light spells at one another I might add) right after an unusual looking baby is born it takes a very special kind of mind to come to another conclusion.

Anyway, after those wizards had left he voiced his deep seated concern that I would grow up magical, and that somehow having incredible miraculous and godly power was a bad thing (though at least he was wise enough to wait until the wizards had left to say this, I shall concede that much). My parents were said to agree almost instantly, having half the common sense of granite and being thrice as dense. He reasoned that to stop me from becoming a wizard, they would have to cut something out. Oh there was an ample choice of body parts, yes - eyes, tongue, ears. It seemed odd that the circumcision thing priests love to do so much didn't come up in the conversation, though I am happy every day for that, if someone wants to be cut up in their most important places they can go ahead, but I certainly do not.

But I digress. Where was I… ah yes, all in all a very 'sharp' motif going for me. Yes, there we have it, I am but a day old and already some idiot is trying to maim me.

His reasoning was that if I couldn't read spell books I wouldn't be able to learn spells. So eyes were a good choice. Thank goodness I was one of the few in history who had a sane grandfather around for a change. He pointed out that making me blind would essentially stop be from working ever, and kill me. The Wiseman suggested the ears, not hearing a spell said would surely impede progress. My Grandfather pointed out it would impede things like communication and learning language. Next up, the tongue, as if I could not say a spell I would not be able to cast complex magic. Again Grandfather cut in and stopped them with his wisdom, telling them I wouldn't be able (with the inability to kiss) to ever find a partner or even taste , and that would just be annoying.

I often wondered why the old man didn't stop it altogether, or why he didn't choose to object to the final option. Their solution was so diabolically devious I occasionally think he himself may have thought of it.

You see, to stop me becoming a wizard they knew the stopping me speaking spells was a winning idea, but since the tongue was a bad choice, they went one better. It turns out, that if you have a perverse amount of skill in the area, you can slice the throat in such a way that the vocal cords are cut out but the windpipe is not. Though I truly do not wish to find out where the elder learnt to do this, or how many test subjects it took him to perfect it.

Hmm…

I will have to write more at a later date, someone is trying to hammer down my door. I am staying at an Inn at the moment, so it is probably that blasted Sylvia (or Sarah, or Saria, or Samantha - names allude me) woman with her books on Blood Magic. She seems to only turn up when I am writing this blasted Journal.

- Rorek of Noll

"Wake up. Wake up. Its time to destroy humanity!" The obviously humorous whispering voice in his ear was followed by a few muffled giggles of a distinctly female nature, which for some reason filled him with an immense feeling of dread.

Trying to figure out where he was, Rorek struggled to move around for a moment, before deducing he was tied up on something, keeping him from moving to a vertical position. His hands were tied above his head, and his legs stretched apart, giving him the impression he was tied in an X. To top that, his eyes were covered by a blindfold, and a gag had been forced awkwardly into his mouth through his scarf.

Not that covering his mouth would stop him speaking. He hadn't used his mouth to speak since… come to think of it, he had never used his mouth to speak. He couldn't even imagine doing it. But it was the principal of the thing that bothered him, someone was obviously trying to outdo him. Rorek frowned, and reached out with senses other than the normal Human ones, and was amazed at how prominent his kidnapper was in them. There, only a few feet away, was a girl extremely gifted in magic. He could feel the energy, flowing from her like heat from a light bulb.

The magic was strange, with an aura he had never felt before. Completely unlike Dark magic, which was detectable as you felt it try (in vain in his case) to break your mind in two. But also unlike Light Magic, which tended to cause warm tingles along the skin, and in large amounts undeserved feelings of righteousness in the unprepared (which often involved storming castles, burning 'witches', or attacking him for talking to local Women/Maidens/Princesses or Milkmaids).

This was completely unlike those two more common forms of magic, and indeed unlike any form of magic he had ever sensed. Nevertheless, it was still suitable to draw power from, and he immediately began jumpstarting his own recharge using the large amount she released carelessly. Adding to that he had regained in his sleep, it put him at around one tenth of his normal power. Enough to fight, provided he was easy on his injuries.

"You're quiet. Most people squirm a bit when I do this kind of thing." One hand stroked the skin by his eyes, and came dangerously close to pulling down the scarf which hid his face. "I wonder what's underneath this. I could have taken it off before…" She admitted. "But if you wear this, maybe that means you don't want people seeing what you look like." A lone finger stroked down, and poked underneath the black cloth, pulling it down the tiniest bit, exposing a sliver more of pale flesh. The Sorcerer moved his head away violently, wishing he had the power to simply blast his bindings from him. "So if you don't want it gone, it'd be way more fun to take it off when you know its being taken off." She whispered, so close he could feel her breath on him, in a voice which was unmistakably sadistic.

Whomever's company he had found himself in, it was highly likely they were several points below the mark designating sanity.

Rorek felt a (very) small amount of weight on his chest, and realized that she had straddled his torso.

"Get off of me now!" He growled angrily, his patience having run out. The gag and blindfold burst into flames, disappearing from existence at his command. He struggled against his bindings for a moment before realising they were nothing more than handcuffs made from a cheap inferior metal, and snapped them with little trouble. By this time the girl had already leapt off his chest only to stop on the other side of the room - standing confidently but with a confused look on her face.

She was definitely a witch. It was hard not to come to the conclusion with the appearance she kept. The girl had bright pink hair, brought up to defy gravity into two long horn like shapes. Her clothes consisted of a tiny black almost see through dress, the skirt of which was almost scandalously short. Her legs would have been totally visible, but for the odd net like socks she wore over them which extended from the bottom of her shoeless feet, past her dress. He got the distinct impression this was not her normal clothing, and it looked a lot more like she was dressing either for bed, or for carnal relations.

He did not wish for clarification on that.

Her skin was a pale greyish colour, similar to the other Witch he had met earlier, though unlike her or his own moonlight bleached skin her seemed to have the tiniest shade of violet mixed into it. However, he found his true focus came to her eyes. They were almost feline, it was impressive. As was the fact they were the same colour as her hair was, vibrant pink, an even rarer colour than his own milky blue eyes, even among magicians. The startling effect of her facial features was only increased at her smile, though perhaps 'grin' would have been a better word. The mere expression told him she was peculiar, disturbing, eccentric and likely downright evil - traits many of his previous colleagues had possessed, though never all at once.

In his mind, he debated what this aloof female had planned for him if he hadn't of broken out, especially considering the object he had been tied to was most certainly a bed. He once again considered her dress, and then considered if he truly should have broken out, before shaking the thought from his brain. He was not one to fall to petty lust, especially under such situations.

Rorek reached down to undo the handcuffs which held his legs to it's frame, and frowned as he saw they were inexplicable covered in a kind of fake pink fur, but instead decided it was not important to question. Forming a small ball of energy on his fingertip, he cut through them like they were nothing more than butter, the fur catching alight as he did so.

Standing up, he treated his kidnapper to a full on glare, sparks still crackling between his finger tips, more for effect than actual use. The girl continued to grin, and her hand glowed in purple in response.

"Chivalry dictates I should not attack a defenceless woman. But you are far from defenceless, aren't you?"

"Well if your gonna fight me, can we take this outside pretty boy? Blood stains furniture." The grin only widened, shadowed oddly by the purple light in her hand."Very well." Rorek scowled and gestured towards her with one glowing hand. The air in front of the girl exploded, blowing her cleanly through the brick wall and down to the streets four floors below.

"Hmph… that was too easy."

"Too easy? Do ya' think?!" The wizard jumped to the side, as a bolt of energy flew past him into the ceiling. Diving through the opening he found her unharmed but for a few scratches and some dust, already charging another blast ready to throw. Dodging and jumping behind a car, he sent a retaliatory shot back to stop her coming closer, but quickly realised after a few seconds of exchanging fire that was exactly what she wanted, likely why she suggested going outside. 'It seems most likely she is weak in hand to hand combat. Therefore, that is what I must engage her in it.' Another blast flew over his head. 'Not here though, there is too much space for her to dodge.'

Jumping out, he quickly ducked into an alleyway. Smiling despite the situation, it appeared his judgement had been completely correct. It was incredibly narrow, and full of things to hide behind. If she came in here, he would easily subdue her. Of course, his dodging ability was about as good as hers, so if she simply decided to fire at him, it was unlikely he would be able to get out of the way. Adding to the problem with this plan was the fact that she might be very much aware of her weakness, and stay out of the alley altogether.

After a seconds more thought Rorek abandoned the alley floor and leapt to the left building's rooftop high above, using the narrow alley walls to spring himself upwards, delighting at his re-healing leg's performance. Making sure he was located near the entrance where the girl was likely to show up, the wizard then ducked down, watching what would unfold below.

"You can't get away from me you know." The girl raised a hand, expressionless for a change, and blew the surrounding walls apart, sending masonry down on the area he had been in only seconds before.

The Witch cautiously crept forward, trying to find some evidence she had killed him. She was not prepared however, when a strong arm wrapped around her throat and lifted her backwards. A mane of white hair tickled her cheek, and she instantly struggled against the iron grip as both her hands were taken in only one of his, secured around her back.

"I was not trying to." He answered her earlier statement. She growled before bringing one leg back, and hitting him in his own injured leg by chance. Rorek gritted his teeth, but held firm.

"Oh? Did that hurt?" She asked in a mock innocent voice, and immediately stopped struggling. Instead concentrating on her legwork, she brought her heel into the same place repeatedly, and with every one she felt her captors muscle's tense slightly.

"I could snap your neck right now." Rorek grunted.

"You haven't. Don't you know chivalry is dead?" She taunted, having guessed the reason and continuing her attack. Her kicks began to falter however when she felt a warm liquid on her foot and calf. Further investigation showed it to be copious amounts of blood, and not hers. "Your bleeding." She stated, with none of the malice her earlier speech had shown.

Fighting was fine, to the death if she had to. But looking at him now, with his ragged breath and seeping wounds, she really didn't want to attack him anymore. Besides, she had spent time bandaging those wounds, even if they seemed worse than she had thought, and just making them bleed again would have meant her time was wasted.

"I know." Rorek spat back. Originally he had been expecting her to submit, but obviously this was not going to happen. Admitting temporary defeat, he leapt backwards as best he could, favouring the ever more annoying injury he held.

The witch took a moment to catch her breath, before turning back on her attacker, obviously injured.

"I think I win." She taunted again, though not with much heart. She could see he was fighting with a serious injury, and from the looks of him who could know what others he had stashed around him. Fighting was fine, but fighting someone like this was just unsporting. He did not recognize the well hidden sympathy in her voice however, and what expression she could see was a frown.

"I have tired of this. Chivalry or not, surrender or die." He brought his hand up, and began to charge a spell. Unlike his normal bolts, this one was not white, instead it was red. And where the others were mostly solid looking, this crackled wildly, like he was holding barely restrained lighting. To the girl he looked far more threatening than he had before, and she instantly regretted pitying him. Despite the injury, his stance was firm and confident, and the parts of his face she could see severe. It was obvious enough he had no qualms about carrying out his death threat.

"Let me think…" The sarcastic comment hid a small amount of worry, as she really was trying to calculate her next move, or anticipate his. "Well…on the one hand your little spell looks pretty dangerous. But it also looks like its really hard to hold together." She said, smirking.

"It is, however it will keep until it cuts you in two."

"It would be really unlucky, if say… it exploded." Her own hand was brought up, purple glowing in it. "Maybe I should make it." She thought aloud, confident in her victory.

"I wouldn't." The wizard told her, his eyes narrowing.

"And why not, whitey?"

"Because if this explodes, it would explode in the direction it is pointing. I would suffer minor damage, perhaps a few broken bones at worst (of which I have quite the collection). You on the other hand would be reduced to ashes."

"Oh."

"Oh indeed." Rorek said, before following through with his bluff perfectly. "You are quite free to try however…" He offered, as the slightly bemused girl shook her head.

"How about we call this a draw and I'll forgive you for blowing a hole in my wall for no reason." She finally said, her voice sounding almost like she was doing him a huge favour even considering the deal.

"No reason? You attempted to kidnap and imprison me." He pointed out. "Albeit poorly, but all the same-"

"I did not kidnap or imprison you!!" The girl interrupted hotly. "Well… ok. I did imprison you, I'll give you that much. But I was gonna let you go, you should have figured it wasn't serious! It was only furry handcuffs, no guy even tries to escape from them!"

"Um… why?" Rorek found himself asking. She looked at him like he was a moron.

"OK, that's it. Weird clothes, strange accent, creepy echoing voice thing, and you don't know about furry handcuffs? You're definitely not from around here."

"Correct." Still slightly guarded, Rorek extinguished the spell burning in his right hand. He didn't have nearly enough energy to use it safely anyway, it was far more a bluff than a useful weapon at the moment. And it had worked. "If I may ask, if you did not kidnap me, why did I awake in your residence?"

"I found you asleep all beaten up near a bank I was going to rob. So being the kind and caring person I was, I brought you back here to rest." She answered, putting her chin up in the air to emphasize her the purity of her goal. The wizard frowned for a minute, as he noticed the now bloodstained dressings on his wounds that he moronically not considered beforehand.

"Why?" 'And how on Earth did you manage to drag me here?' He added mentally.

"Because I'm nice!" She said far too loudly, and with a far-too-wide grin on her face.

"I don't believe you." He informed her calmly.

"What? It's the truth, I found you-" She protested before he interrupted."No, I believe that part. I do not believe you are nice." He said, getting an angry stare for his remark.

"Look, are you gonna take the draw or not?" She asked angrily. He was really beginning to piss her off. She had gotten to the bank ready for a night of fun, found him sleeping outside and on a rare moment of conscience she had taken him home. But when she had finally gotten around to seeing what he looked like under that mask, he leapt up and attacked her! It was just like the instructors at H.I.V.E. had always told them, do a good deed for nothing and it'll come back and bite you in the ass (admittedly the original language was somewhat more scholarly, but that's what it came down to).

"I will accept your draw." He answered.

"Good." Even though it was a tie, she gave a face like she had won. "Now you can help fix my wall.""What?" He asked flatly.

"You broke it, you fix it." Rorek turned to the brick he had destroyed and sighed. It was fair, when all was said and done. Even if she had not had the best intentions, she had still offered her home to him, and he had responded by blowing a part of it up.

"You are very lucky the energy taken to fix this is less than the energy required to burn the flesh from your bones." Of course, he wasn't going to admit he had been in the wrong.

"Yeah yeah, whatever Whitey. Just get out of here when you're done. It's pretty damn late." She began to walk away, waving one hand over her head at him, before stopping and turning with a thoughtful gaze. Rorek's eyebrow went up as she looked at him with a mischievous glint in her eye. "Hey… what would you say to a place to stay?" His former captor almost purred, giving the sweetest smile she could.

"I would say 'Please stand in front of me, if this female does not go for my throat, I am certain she will go for my testicles. You being an inanimate object will cope with this a lot better than I.' Rorek responded flatly.

This signalled the first of many slaps Rorek would receive before the day was out.

Raven rolled her eyes as yet another lead failed to pay up, wandering if the others were having the same luck. The description 'strangely dressed albino with makeup' had brought her back to the same district four times already, and she was beginning to suspect that the abundance of Discos, nightclubs and very… masculine looking 'women' meant this was not the haunt of an escaped Dragon, and more likely the Red Light District for the City's more… colourful population.

'No use.' She thought to herself, floating upwards to the rooftops to escape the drunken club-goers below. 'I can't find him like this.'

Raven could have used her powers to try and track him a while ago, but had refrained from it, knowing her opponent was telepathic. To try and track a powerful telepath alone was foolish enough, it was only because she knew how weak he was she did it at all, but to use their own magic speciality when yours was in another field was beyond stupid. Nevertheless, she had run out of options. Jump City was not a small place, and in the time she left him he could get anywhere in, or even out of it.

Making sure she had a semi-comfortable place to sit and concentrate, she was surprised that the constant chatter below was hardly noticeable, since the building was tall enough to be quite far from them. All the better for what she was about to do.

As the cold wind whipped around her (closely drawn in) cloak, she looked out and began to imagine his form in her mind. It was not hard. She could not possibly forget what he looked like, the one who had broken her heart.

No. This was neither the time nor the place to dwell on such thoughts. She would deal with him like every other criminal they chased. They would chase him, possible cause thousands of dollars in damages, and then throw him to the Metahuman recovery teams (who would likely put him in an extremely high security Meta-Prison).

She tried again. Imagining what little of his face she had seen, his clothes, his body structure. Even his voice, which was admittedly slightly different from what she remembered. But then, he had somehow gained a fully Human form, how similar could she expect him to sound with such a small body compared to the huge one of a Dragon?

A part of her regretted not bringing Rorek's Magical Book, but it was only a very small part. If he had already managed to escape once, it meant he could easily do it again, so the book was useless as a prison. Besides, a Human body had to be easier to defeat than a Dragon's. It was likely they could stop him without even bothering with the ancient Wizard's curse now, and if not it wouldn't take long for her to prepare it, perhaps even bolster it with a few of her own.

'Curious, someone is attempting to track me?' The suddenly mocking voice broke her out of her thoughts, as it invaded her senses. Echoing around her like it truly was there, instead of being sent to her mind. Raven tried in vain to break the connection between them as the world around her seemed to fall apart, the dull grey rooftop being replaced by deep black nothingness.

As quickly as the voice had appeared the area had turned to dark blank space, where she was left to float freely. Unable to escape the illusion, despite knowing her physical body had not moved at all.

"Oh, so it is you who was tracking me?' She swung around, her gaze meeting the figure who floated only a few metres away, watching her. She had to fight the urge not to try and attack him, knowing he was not truly present. "I did not expect you would attempt to follow me further."

"Of course I'm going to follow you." She told him, her voice leaving its neutral zone and approaching anger. "My friends and I won't stop until you're either defeated or locked back in your book, where you belong."

"Oh really?" He sounded expectantly angry. "I would ask why you would embark on such a pointless endeavour, but to question it is equally pointless. You -" He gestured to her with one hand, a careless wave akin to someone swatting a fly. "Would be unable to do either. Even with the help of your bizarre little friends."

"You won't get away with this." She told him darkly, only to meet a cold but confused look.

"And what is it exactly you believe I have set out to do, oh Maiden?" He asked, in genuine curiosity.

"Just escaping is enough for me." She growled. Her anger came less from his words however, and more from frustration. He was communicating with her telepathically, she should have been able to sense something, anything, that would give her a clue to his whereabouts. But every time she searched she got a blank. "We'll find you, and then you'll find yourself in a prison so big you'll think that book was pleasant."

"Oh really? That is a shame." His expression turned darker. "I would have thought perhaps I would have kept some of the recognition I gained so long ago. Apparently not if such a young woman would speak to me so angrily."

"Recognition? You mean infamy, don you?"

"There was some of that too. I would warn you though, girl. I have had decades to practise my magic. You will not win if we clash."

Raven had to stop herself from saying 'Good always triumphs over evil..' The line was far too overused for her to say it.

"It does, does it?" The wizard asked, looking down at her with an air of superiority as she realised he had read her mind again. "We shall see, though I do wish you would not refer to me as evil."

"I read the Journal. That's all a creature like you is." Raven said it quietly, but there was weight to her words as she accused what she thought was a Dragon. The astral projection watched her curiously, his eyes fixing to hers questioningly.

"I see. So that is your belief is it?" He did not wait for an answer. "Very well, I shall crush you no matter what you affix to me." Rorek was no longer joking, an instant dislike had spread of this woman. She seemed so at odds with what his first impression of her, overly hostile and quick to judge when she had seemed so calm and thoughtful, and certainly when he had rumbled through her mind he had felt the darkness there. So why did she keep to such restrictive labelling? He was keen to find out, but not so much he would stay longer.

Raven watched as he began to fade in front of her and tried all she could to keep him in the link, still hoping to get a trace of where he was. It was pointless though, he was powerful and her own powers were being thrown out of whack by the (very deserved) anger she felt towards him.

"I'll find you eventually, you can't run." The empath told the empty back space, as it began to morph back into the rooftops of before.

"I only run to extend the hunt my dear, but you are certainly not my prey. I hunt bigger game." The voice was no louder than a whisper, but she heard it.

For a few minutes she simply stood, and went over what had happened. Then, she smirked. A tiny, grim looking look, which nevertheless showed a tiny flicker of determination.

Raven got up and prepared to fly back to the tower. She was sure he would confront her eventually, and when he did, she would make sure he got hell for his trouble. There was more than a few tricks she had stored about the place, and when he came she'd show them all.

Definitely having trouble writing Raven, though I'm sure it will get better as I go along and she stops being so emotional (it has to happen to make sense I'm afraid). Jinx by comparison is pretty easy, I can do her as frickin' insane, and I think I'm pretty good at that.

If anyone has tips for writing Raven I'd love to hear 'em.