Author: Nazran

Shattered: Act II

Chapter II

§Oo–.–oO§

They stood together, two men of muscular tall stature in fine suits of the highest quality. The first was distinguished and greyed. His oiled hair of silver and grey spotted with a once deep black was pulled back and pinned behind his ears to fall down his nape. A finely groomed beard, clinging about his chin and lips matched the hair. Cold grey eyes regarded the scene that the two companions watched and the man smoothed the lapels of his black suit. The other lacked the hair on both pate and face but stood with a cool air of intellect and superiority, thick arms crossed over a barrel chest. The chiselled jaw was set into an impassive clench, lips drawn in a hard line. They were partners, fellow planners and orchestrators.

"A minor setback. I assure you that it will be solved, the boy may yield even more interesting information to us with this new development."

"I would hope that is the case, Mr. Masters." The voice was thick with refinement and deep rooted calculation.

Together they turned away from the thick glass that separated them from the lab on the other side. The scientists, the hired help, within were just struggling back to their feet or shifting on the floor with clearly pained movements. Their subject lay sedate on the metal table he had been strapped to; visible, if only barely, through the web of thick white cracks that violated the view through the ballistic grade material.

Thick soles rapped on the metal of the floor as the two walked down the corridor, grey and black suits timeless under the flat white lights. The pair did not speak. They were partners, nothing more. Their arrangement was made purely out of similar goals, built on an as of yet solid foundation of shared hatred and desire. Business was something they both understood well, having made themselves through diligence and hard work—legitimate and otherwise. In each other they had found a partner with which to pursue those goals, a partner that understood the struggle and the need for exacting detail in order to succeed. And both had felt the sting of defeat at the hands of beings greater than they first supposed, more incorruptible and powerful than first glance would suggest. They both had refused to give up, had strived to bring low the object that blocked the way and every time had not moved the object. The immoveable object meeting the unstoppable force. With this attempt, perhaps the paradox would be shattered.

They passed by other windows, other views into various labs that presented further work the two were formulating together. A lab lined with cylinders of glowing green fluid, each container holding a slightly different shade of the substance. Bustling technicians working with smaller samples moved about the lab. In another a creature was being worked on by other educated minds, its shaggy black fur was crisscrossed with scars and a heavy metal muzzle covered the slavering jaws of the unconscious thing. Tubes ran in and out of the beast, the ghost, as data was collected and samples taken. Yet another room was more a long corridor than actual room, only two figures working within the white metal confines. A shiny object was mounted to a pillar in the middle of the room. One of the workers within gripped it carefully and a blinding flash lit the room. At the end of the corridor a white block burned brightly as the burst of light faded from the sensitive eyes of the people. The second figure within the room scribbled some notes down and the ecto-tech weapon was removed from the pillar.

After several minutes of the loud rapping walk the two partners came to another room blocked by a double wide doorway set in heavily locked doors. They slid open at the approach of the masterminds and revealed the room beyond. It was unadorned and simple, a white cube of a chamber. On the opposite wall a circular tunnel was present, dark and almost foreboding. Both knew that with a simple command prompt in the console next to the tunnel it would activate, a swirling miasma of green energy incumbent to the dimension they occupied. The bald man turned and inclined his head to the other.

Vladimir Masters spoke, "Until next time then. I will forward our progress reports to you as soon as the technicians finish them for this week."

"Very good. Ah, if I might have a sample of the boy's blood perhaps. I have a lab of my own that would take a look at it if possible."

A gracious thin lipped smile, "Of course, of course. It will arrive shortly at your office then, Mr. Luthor."

§Oo–.–oO§

Raven poured over the books. They were piled around her room along with sheaves of parchment, rolled scrolls and scattered notebooks. Her bed was untouched except for the diagrams lain atop the thick coverings. She was seated on the floor in lotus with an array of different tomes, many of them borrowed surreptitiously from Zatanna. Magic users were a secretive lot, especially when it came to interdimensional travel and gate summoning. So far she had made only limited progress, though something told her that slowly she was closing in.

It had been more than a month since her talk with Robin. In that time she had scarcely left her room. She had water, her kettle and enough tea to sustain her. Drawing energy from the atmosphere through a ritual had kept her from starving and it had been a passive process that she had been able to keep up during bouts of meditation in lieu of sleep. Her focus had remained on the search for the saviour of the team—Danny. He had kept the tragedy of Trigon at bay, he would pull the team from the impending doom that was slowly creeping in on them. She only hoped, held faith, that Robin could pull the others from their slump. As she had stoically reminded him to do when she had last seen him. In that she had found little on ghostly dimensions beyond mentions of the various levels of hell and heaven, Valhalla, Tartarus and other divine after lives. Whatever Danny was, he didn't exist in any mystical literature.

Her dark eyes found the sculpture of the raven, set in a shadowed recess of her now empty bookcase. It was a symbol to her now and she drew strength from the meaning of the crystalline piece with its many delicate facets. It represented her darkest hour, the deepest despair that had ever gripped the half demon heart of the sorceress and the being that had pulled her from the pit despite barely knowing her. She owed Danny more than she could ever tell the older boy.

The facets of the raven flickered in the shadows, the pale blue of the perma-ice bright in the dim candle light of her room. She burned incense, the thin trails of pale scent drifting upward to the shadowed ceiling. Certain tomes she had in her possession, particularly some of the grimoires, could only be read under particular conditions of light and air. In one corner a circle was sketched, archaic ruins chalked into the hard floor and linked with powders and other mixtures. They were components to a seeking spell, one that could be targeted with incantation to a particular dimensional coordinate. The problem was finding the particular spot in the multiverse that Danny had ended up in.

The sorceress stood and moved to the circle. She stepped into the etching, careful not to disturb the carefully drawn diagram. Holding her cloak close to her body she sank into lotus and close her eyes, her fingers joining on each knee. Behind her eyes it was black, fathomless and dark. She breathed carefully with steady concentration, drawing the magic from deep within her mind as each breath left her chest. It was like a mental node, a sphere of energy that she could feel at all times in her mind. Her magic came easily to her in situations of combat, bleeding off a little bit of the energy with each use of her powers. Her mantra served as a mental trigger to more fully access the power. This however was a much more complex process; it required meditation and controlled access to the nodule, considerably more involved and ritualistic magic use. She spoke the incantation she had prepared, careful to enunciate and perfect each pronunciation of the archaic language. A mistake would not do. The words died on her breath and the darkness bloomed with a light.

An image slowly materialized in the dusk of her shut lids. It was, at first, only a flicker of light at scattered spots across the vista. Winking lights like stars in the night sky that solidified and became substantial. The magic enveloped her and a representation of her body formed in the landscape her spell had crafted. Her body moved into the darkness and her perspective left that of an omniscient viewer to that of a participant in this fabricated world. Slowly Raven looked around, searching for discrepancies in the floating lights that surrounded her on all sides. Nothing seemed to move. Her hands found her hips as she looked around. Her mouth quirked in disappointment. She had hoped for something more from the spell, something that would actually point her in the right direction. Instead she got a vague construct that could represent any number of different things.

Her vision flashed, bright burning light consuming her eyes and driving her to her knees. Her hands shot to her temples, clawing at the skin as every one of her senses was overloaded and consumed. Raven grit her teeth, barely conscious of anything as she fought against the onslaught. It pulsed and strobed, black and acidic green before flaring powerfully one final time, like the death rattle of some great beast, before fading away into blackness.

Raven opened her eyes and found herself laying on her back, staring at her ceiling. The floor was hard against her slim frame and the organized disorder of her study into dimensions was scattered. Papers fluttered though the air, carried by currents of magic that had lashed through the air. She sat up, her arms straight behind her to brace her body upright.

"Strange."

"Is it, Raven?" a voice, deep and silk smooth. It echoed in her room, much like Danny's had when he was in Phantom's form. A prickle crept down the girl's spine as she felt the energy of the presence. More than she could ever hope to match. "You've felt it before, with Daniel. The spark of power. Only this time, it was amplified and larger."

"Who are you?"

"A friend. Of Daniel's. But perhaps of you, and the Titans as well." The source of the voice materialized before her. An old man, glowing faintly in the dim room. He was clad in purples, dark red runes shone on the long cloak he wore. Long blue belts and golden chains were hung about his hips and strapped to the forearms of the being, clock faces dangling from their latches with hands at different times. The torso was stooped over insubstantial legs, a long trail of mists that swirled about extending down from the hips of the being. In his hands, gripped tightly as if it was holding him upright, was a long carved staff. A crystal floated between two towers at the apex of the staff, rotating slowly with calm impassiveness. "You may call me Clockwork."

§Oo–.–oO§

"Pulse cannon live fire test four. Beginning in: three, two, one." The energy indicators on the device, a cylinder as long as his forearm with a thick node containing charging electronics and emitters integrated into one end, lit up in the pale blue that denoted the alien cybernetics in his body. The weapon cycled and fired, a ball of blue energy launching from the end down the firing range. A cube of solid alloy was at the end of the range, remade from the scrap body panels of the trashed T-Car. The ball of energy hit the metal within a half second and, with a flare of light, reduced the metal to a glowing, torn lump.

A data feed trickled across the hologram display. Temperatures and output readings scrolled vertically by the one deep brown eye and the cybernetics of his prosthetic replacement. The computer built into his skull and integrated into his brain read and translated the data, quantifying it into terms that meant something to the man. Even he, with all of his knowledge and experience in the field of generative energy weapons and cybernetics, knew only a scant amount of the required technical knowledge regarding his own brain. The inner workings of his own psyche and mind were a mystery to everyone on the planet. His father, Silas, knew only that the alien technology had successfully integrated enough to save his life. From there nanides in the artificial fluid that flowed in his veins and through the robotics did the rest of the work. They were autonomous and self-repairing.

The Teen Titan, Victor 'Victory' Stone before the accident, pushed back from the screens that lined the walls of his room. The super cooled magnets that leant his chair its ability to hover above the floor silently propelled him across the room. He stood, his feet thudding against the floor with his immense weight. It was time. The answer to his application would come today and with any luck he would be accepted. If that was true he'd have a lot of work to do before the end of the day. But it would be worth it, even if it was uncomfortable at first.

A chime rung through his ears. Over his robotic eye an alert scrolled revealing that one of the Zeta tubes in a lower level of the tower was activating. The source signal for the dimensional travel device was coming from the Watchtower. There was only one reason that a Zeta signal originating from the orbiting base of the Justice League would be coming through at this time. With no emergency alerts currently active it could only be the official coming.

Cy took a deep breath. He moved to the elevator at the end of the long corridor separating his room from the storage facilities across the hall. The robotic teen had taken an entire floor of the tall tower for himself, storing materials, electronics and other hardware for his hobby and maintenance practices in dealing with his own body. The floors zipped past as the high speed technology took him down to the open level that was lined with Zeta Tubes and monitors. Many of these had readings and feeds coming in from the other Titan holdouts that had been founded in recent years, the most prominent being Titans East.

The light from the portal technology was fading, the device deactivating now that its cargo had been transported—incidentally, Zeta technology was rarely used for actual freight transport, the impracticalities of creating such large tubes for use outside of deep space travel being prohibitively costly.

The visitor stood impressively tall at two inches over six feet, though few that much about him. His face, except for the powerful jaw with the faintest darkening of facial hair, was concealed behind a dark cowl. White material, opaque from the outside but no doubt translucent from within, protected the eyes along with thin, tailor moulded armor plates over the brow, crown and cheek bones that were incorporated into the tri-woven graphene coated composite cloth. His chest was broad, capped with powerful shoulders that led into bulging arms; all of his body covered in a fine matrix of the same composite cloth, a titanium synthetic much like Robin's, with a graphene overlay and coloured the darkest black and grey. A jet black cape flowed down from the shoulders, clasping over the clavicles, the edges of the cloak rippling with a cut pattern. Protruding titanium alloy blades angled sharply from the armoured vambraces. Thick gauntlets joined the vambraces, matching the heavy boots. A belt, segmented with locking compartments hung off the imposing figure's hips. Across the barrel chest was splayed a bat silhouette, as iconic as any symbol on the planet. He was silent, moving like a shadow through even the lit room, the perfect predator of a man. The Batman had arrived at Titans Tower.

"Sir. It's an honour to meet to you in person." Cyborg stood stiffly, acutely aware of the impassive but piercing gaze that examined him from behind the mask.

The infamous hero folded the edges of his cloak over his shoulders, the two edges meeting to obscure his body. "Cyborg." The voice was deep, filled with graveling undertones. Batman looked around the wide room, "You keep the tower in good order."

"The credit is Robin's as much as my own, sir."

"We shall see." He stood before Cyborg and a hand slipped from behind the cloaking fabric, opened in greeting. The grip was powerful as Cyborg shook the hand, he could feel the pressure sensors in his prosthetic taking stock.

"If I may sir, why are you here? I expected one of the newer members or maybe an admin staff member."

"The Titans are under Robin's leadership. He is, was, a protégé of mine. With the recent dip in the team's performance and the rising crime rate in Jump City the League decided it would be best if I handled this personally. Now, you won't mention a word of this to Robin. Go and pack your things, you've been approved for membership as a full Justice League member."

Excitement bubbled up in Cyborg as he processed those words. He was a full member of the largest hero organization in the world. Being a member meant full access to all of the incredible technology and information at the hands of the League. It meant space travel as ambassadors and heroes. It meant working with large teams against the worst villains the world knew. It meant strength and security. "Th—"

"Br—Batman? What the hell are you doing in my tower?" Robin's haggard voice echoed in the room.

The Boy Wonder stood just in front of the elevator. He was tense; feet set into a light stance, shoulders tensed and head forward with a narrow glare firing out from the mask. The eighteen year old lacked his cape but had a more cohesive suit than he had been wearing. A tightly fitted suit of the same material as his old, with a similar colour scheme—red across the anterior of the torso and legs with black leaping up either side and between the legs—but only a single belt in lieu of the belt and bandolier combination he had worn before Trigon. It still appeared unfinished, lacking details and finishing touches as Robin would want.

The Dark Knight's hidden gaze focused on Robin. Both of the younger men knew that behind the expressionless mask there was a heated glare. A tightening of the strong jaw revealed at least that much. "Cyborg has been accepted a—"

"What! Cyborg what the fuck?"

"Robin! Control yourself." The rebuke came as a sharp growl, rolling over the two heroes. "Now is not the time for this. Cyborg, go pack. Robin, we need to talk."

The cybernetic teen glanced carefully back and forth between the towering man and his shorter compatriot. They hadn't moved. Both stared at the other with equal parts reservation, and hatred on the part of Robin. He considered his options, whether it would be wise to interfere in what was obviously coming to a head before him. Cyborg did not know much of what had happened between the Boy Wonder and the Dark Knight. Rumours had spun abound through the net about the reasoning for Robin's move to Jump City from Gotham. He had never believed any of it held real credence but Cy had never asked his leader about it either. And now it was too late, he would be leaving the Titans. It was both exciting and saddening.

He had to pack. Much of the things in his suite of rooms would be left behind. He really only needed to the necessary data banks containing the software packages that operated his body and allowed him to run the appropriate diagnostics on his weapons and equipment. The Watchtower would provide most everything else he might need. The League was the best funded and most well equipped organization in the star system. Cyborg looked around the room as he hoisted a bag from the ground, the power cells and drives straining the fabric in his hands. Time to go, to find a place among the greatest of the world's heroes, as an adult and no longer the teen.

§Oo–.–oO§

He awoke to swathe of acid green, depthless and complete it filled his vision, and a pulsing behind his eyes. He could not move his arms or legs, his head or any part of his body. His face and eyes were obscured, encased in a heavy prison that strained the muscles of his neck. Danny could tell he was upside down, suspended in a prison of cold metal and sharp edges that kept him from moving and sapped his energies. The ever present thrum of his ghostly powers, the ectoplasm that buzzed in his body, through his very being, was muted and obfuscated. His head felt as though it was filled with coarse, thick fabric, itching and scratching at his skull. Before long his eyes began to hurt from a lack of focus.

For how long he hung there without stimuli but for the pain he was not certain. The time was spent largely without thought. Perhaps Danny should have considered the reality of what he saw but in his heart he knew that confronting the spectre of Jazz staring back at him would be a horrid possibility. His family was dead. They had fallen during the Disastroid incident, the molten green fires and super-heated rock killing them instantly. At least that is what he hoped for. Nothing he could do could bring them back. He was a ghost and death was an absolute that he was intimately knowledgeable of. He had, after all, passed from life to death twice. For months he had locked away the fear that they had not passed from this existence properly. That whatever after life existed beyond the scope of the worlds he knew had welcomed his family and friends and that they were safe and happy. But Jazz had appeared before him, she had looked tangible, as though, if he'd possessed the strength, he could have touched her skin.

He clenched his teeth on the bitter metal that clogged his mouth. A shiver rippled through his skin as his muscles tightened in the confines of his prison. Danny squeezed his eyes shut, forcing the morbid thoughts from his mind, welcoming the darkness in contrast to the astringent green.

They opened again. The green was gone. In its place was flat, seamless screen of white. His eyes flicked around rapidly but saw only the featureless white landscape. Without warning, no sound or movement gave clue, Sam hovered in the white. Like a portrait only her shoulders and head were visible. The midnight hair that she always kept cut above her shoulders was drawn up into messy flairs though much of it still hung down about her neck and cheeks. Pale purple makeup set off her violet eyes as they stared at him, the warmth and care in their hearts boring into him. Her pale skin was dusted lightly with a trace of makeup and her painted lips quirked in that ever present sarcastic smile. Her shoulders were covered in a crossing pattern of black material that joined into the making of a corset that plunged in an open swathe downward. It was the same garb as her dress, the one she wore the only time they had ever truly gone out.

Danny panicked. He could not help it. After staring listless at the vision before him the rush of emotions overwhelmed him. His heart—normally beat only a couple of times per minute, if that—leapt into action, throbbing as though he had run a sprint to collapse. He felt cold, a rare occurrence, and clammy sweat dripped from his pores. He never sweat when in ghost form. The Halfa would have thrashed but the metal would not let him. Fear crawled into his mind, stirring the darkness there, coiling like a snake in a hole. It was slimy, insidious and his body shook with it.

The vison of Sam smiled comfortingly and reached out. He felt her hand on his cheek, "Shh, now Danny. Relax. It's okay." Her soft fingers traced a line as light as a breath of wind along his cheekbone.

A questioned choked out around the bit in his mouth, "Sam?"

A delicate smile crept over her mouth. She nodded. "I'm here Danny."

"W-Why?"

The girl sighed, "Because, you need to be told. You need the help."

"But . . . you're dead . . ."

A wan smile this time, "I am. We are." Behind her a group materialized from the white. Jazz, his mother and father, Tucker, Mr. Lancer, a half dozen others from his school. Each and every one smiled sadly at him. "But, you need us. You must listen to what I say.

"We are here only because of you. Your powers have melded with those of another. You have both touched each other through your energies and imparted a piece of yourselves on one another. This has allowed us to appear as we are before you. It is an extension of your mind. Now that you know this energy is within you, you may use it to your advantage. But you must learn to do this. If you do not, you will pass from your life in the place that holds you prisoner. Vlad will end you and his plans will move forward.

"You cannot let this happen."

"How?" he still spoke around the metal but Sam understood him.

"She will help you. They will all help you. Let them see who you are, not the mask you have let them see. We know you can, but we know too that you have held back. Danny, you don't need to keep yourself from them to respect us. We have moved on to a place of comfort. Do not worry about us." Sam leaned in to him and her lips brushed over his brow. "You can still love Danny, do not take that from the world."

The white pulsed and grew, blinding him. When his vision returned so too did the green expanse. The eighteen-year-old did not cry out or look about frantically like one might expect given the situation. He stared directly ahead, his eyes aching as they did not blink. The green did not waver under his dead stare and Danny did not move for a long time.

He was unsure how to feel emotionally. Guilt had been shunted away, shoved into a dark corner of his mind like old clothing in a closet. The pain had never left but it had not been so long since their deaths. When he had been with the titans, it was only a few scant months passed on from the Disastroid. A half year maybe. He hadn't kept track. Physically he was drained and sore but could still feel the touch of Sam's lips as though she had actually kissed him. Vaguely he remembered the 'fake out make outs' and blinked sadly. She was gone, they all were. How he missed them, his family, his home. The snake of fear stirred, its rough scales scraping tiny flecks from his mind. Danny felt the shift, the tiny pieces of his soul, long dead with loss, fade away. He did not open his eyes again, hoping that he would have the visions again. They did not come, but something else did.

When again his green orbs glittered they were beset by a bizarre vista. Sweeping in a seemingly endless sea of rolling hill was a sparse forest with a grassy floor. However, the grasses—undulating rhythmically on an unfelt wind—were a bright miasma of powdery day-glo colors. And the trees were thin of trunk and scattered about in a mismatched random assortment of needled and leafy foliage. Scents of jasmine and paper permeated the atmosphere. The sky stretched in a swirled in a pale imitation of the ground and distant shapes, landmass, were visible floating high above.

Danny, for his part, stood in the middle of a large clearing the sparse forest. He was unshackled and not bound in any way. The familiar energy of his ghost side whirred inside of him like an old friend excited to see a long missed companion. The aches and pains were gone. Even the tightness that had clawed at his right hand since the incident in the lab had lessened considerably. Danny's white brow furrowed and his hand crept up into the white hair, unerringly drifting through the shock of black that marred the crisp strands. He looked around, blowing a confused sigh out.

"You!" a keening high pitched voice snarled, reverberating through the clearing. Danny rocked up onto the balls of his feet, his knees bending. He had no idea what would come but he wasn't about to be caught unawares. A flash of movement and he spun around. "You should not be here!" the voice screeched at him again.

The Halfa saw the source then. The figure was stooped, reducing its already slight build and stature to little more than that of a child. It was cloaked in red and shrouded in unnatural shadow. Crimson glowing eyes, two pairs of slanted coals that sent shivering cold down his spine in their familiarity. They burned with hatred, a loathing that mirrored what he had seen in monstrous eyes of Trigon. The realization hit Danny then that the creature crouched before him, slavering and snarling, was Raven. Or some mockery of her in any case.

She leapt at him, hands out stretched for his throat but the four eyed being vanished before she could strike Danny. A puff of black mist that plumed and then dissipated. A new voice echoed in the landscape, calm and collected, "I apologize for Rage, she has been weakened greatly but is still an occasional annoyance." It was Raven's voice but not Raven who spoke. Or at least, not the Raven that Danny knew. This one wore thick lenses over her violet eyes, a tome clutched in her hands and a vibrant yellow cloak and one piece covering her body. The cadence was tinged more strongly with intellect and exacting pontification than the half demon sorceress normally allowed. "Her fall has only made her even more inflamed."

"Uhm . . ."

"Ah, I am Knowledge. Raven's intellect and logic. And you, you are Phantom. And Danny, yes?"

"Wha—"

"Dude! Danny's here! Or Phantom. Or Both!" This one veritably shouted as she swooped into the clearing. Her forest green cloak billowed about her ankles with her sudden stop directly in front of the Halfa. She examined him closely before saying, "I dig the boots."

Danny took a step back from the sudden movements of the newest aspect. The whole situation was leaving him nonplussed, from the glaring surroundings to the bright and surprisingly talkative versions of the Titan. He and Raven had had but rarely engaged due to the shallow amplitude. These two Ravens spoke with greater confidence and at what most would consider a normal volume. In fact, the green one veritably shouted.

Materializing from vortices of dark power on the ground more of the aspects appeared. They were all identical but for the colours of their cloaks. Pink, grey, brown, orange and violet. Each had different reactions to his presence, from fear to shy smiles to disinterest. They crowded around him or hung back slightly. Some spoke, excitedly or otherwise, some remained silent and one even belched. Danny could only stand dumbfounded, trying to process the idea that he was somehow looking at different parts of Raven. Not her physical body but the different entities of her mind and character. That made him feel as though he shouldn't be in the place he was. It felt like a violation of the friendship they had developed before he was taken. Her emotions, kept so carefully cultivated and controlled in reality, were laid bare before him now. Almost as if she was that scared little girl again, open to him.

The aspects' chatter stuttered and silenced. Each turned to look off into the distance, all of them staring in the same direction as a shadow appeared high in the bright sky. From the heart of the magic the peak of a dark hood slid forth, followed by the remainder of the cloak and the girl beneath it. It was Raven. The real Raven. Her feet touched down lightly on the day-glo grass and she looked at him. Her eyes seemed bright in the shade of her hood and the Halfa saw them widen slightly when she saw him. The aspects parted and she zipped forward, her toes skimming the grass until she crashed into him. The half demon's delicate arms wrapped around his torso and her head rested in against his chest.

"Y-you're alive." She breathed. Her body stilled and she seemed to realize what she had done. The next instant had Raven standing back from him, a faint colour to her pale cheeks now visible. Her hood had fallen in her rush to him.

"Rae . . . A-are we where I think we are?" He asked hesitantly, gesturing vaguely with hands to the silent aspects surrounding him.

"This is Nevermore, a," she paused, searching for the words to describe the place, "construct of my magic. It is my mind made into a metaphysical space. Danny, where have you been? What happened?"

The young man looked down and sighed, "I was taken. I don't remember how or anything passed trying to give you time to fight Raven. I woke up facing . . . well an old enemy. H-how long have I been gone?"

"Months. Trigon was defeated and the world is safe." She smiled, "Because of you, you and Phantom. But they're one in the same aren't they."

He opened and closed his fists at his sides, "Ah, about that. Uh, who exactly knows?"

"Just me. Robin might have his suspicions but he has bigger concerns. Clockwork confirmed a lot of my theories for me. He—"

"Hold on; you know Clockwork?"

Raven nodded, "He came to me while I searched for you. Whatever he is, he knew a lot. Gave me the guidance to find the thread of your mind. Danny, we're connected through the magic. I don't know exactly what it means but I shouldn't have been able to track you as easily as I did, even once I knew what to look for. Bringing you here should have been impossible without certain items or a ritual."

Danny rubbed a gauntlet over his face, surprised at how similar the rough texture felt to the reality of his ghost form's garb, "Clockwork would know. He's a lot more powerful than he lets on but I guess a lot of supernatural powers are. Look at what you did. I'm glad you found your strength, enough to defeat your father." His hand brushed down along the line of his jaw, "A connection. I've felt it but I thought it was just the ectoplasm reacting to magical stimuli." He could feel the beginnings of a headache creeping through his skull, even in a mindscape as they were. Trying to keep to one subject when there was so much to discuss with the Titan was difficult. "Is it dangerous?"

"I don't know. I've already felt flares of energy that shouldn't be possible for anyone except myself. They echo through the dimensions and I am attuned to whatever place sources your own natural abilities. I can open a gate to it now, if I so choose."

"No!" Danny's attention snapped up to Raven and he implored her as much with his eyes as his words. "Do not come to the Ghost Zone. Things have changed, it isn't safe anymore. Plasmius is doing something and I don't think it's just the experiments on me."

"Danny what? What experiments? Who is Plasmius?"

"I'm being held in a facility of some sort. There are men in white suits taking samples, running trials." Danny shuddered as he heard the cold voice again, ordering the acid to punish him at the same time recordings were taken of the stimulus reaction. "But there's more. Weapon trials, experiments on other ghosts. I think those ghosts from the pizza place were involved in some of them and that means the GIW might be involved. There's too much to explain."

The sorceress opened her mouth to respond, an expression of concern splayed over her normally stoic face. Before she could speak however the world around them flickered and darkened, like a power surge affecting lights in a house. Her hands snapped to her head as did those of all the aspects, all of them collectively wincing. She grimaced and groaned in obvious discomfort.

"Raven!" Danny shouted, alarmed. She collapsed and he knelt beside her, supporting her shoulders and asking her what was wrong.

"Something . . . trying to get in my head. Telepath. Followed you." Raven gritted the words out through grinding teeth as she held off the presence.

The Halfa could feel it now. The toxic presence of something pressing in on the bright and idyllic surroundings of Raven's mind. An unfelt and unseen shadow, like a dark watcher looming over them. "How do we stop it?"

"Can only hold it off, wants you."

"Shit. Rae how do I leave? Send me back, whatever it is might leave once I am gone."

"No." Raven flinched as the sky flickered and darkened again.

"Do it." He gripped her shoulders, forcing her to look at him, "I'll be okay for a while longer. I've lasted so far."

The sorceress stared back for a long silent moment. Danny knew she was considering the implications of her next actions. If she let him go then it was very likely that he would have to contend with whatever force was clawing into her mind. What that would do to him was unknown. Danny suspected that the force trying to get to him was ectoplasmic or ghostly in nature. Whether his nature would provide some measure of protection, or complete immunity to the invasion was beyond either of them. This was a test of her trust in his abilities. A choice she had to make regarding his ability to guard himself. She nodded.

Danny immediately felt lighter, the world around him wavered. The air shimmered like the mirage of distant heat and the colours swelled. A moment of black and he found himself staring back into the green expanse of the restraint mask. The pain flooded back through his mind followed closely by the screeching monstrosity that must have been trying to get through Raven. His teeth dug into the hard metal of the bit in his mouth. The pain was excruciating and he could feel the thing, green and gelatinous in its presence, scoring against the rudimentary mental discipline he had. Danny would endure because he had to. But for the first time he considered escape, knowing that Raven and the Titans were still alive and human civilization was still thriving.

§Oo–.–oO§

A/N: Yeah I'm still alive. I won't offer any excuses other than things just didn't work out over the passed year. This was edited more than half a year ago and I'm basically uploading it now on a whim so there may be some errors or things I am not totally happy with (I wrote this chapter off as finalized probably 8 or more months ago though so it shouldn't be too bad) but the good news is I am currently chipping away at chapter 9 of Act II so really I have no excuse not to put up at least one chapter a week for the foreseeable future.

Most of the plot of Act II is laid out in my mind as well, with only a few details here and there that need to be squared away. There may even be an Act III dealing with the fallout of the events of Act II more thoroughly or extending some conflicts with more nuance but I'm undecided. There will finally be a little bit more RavenxDanny featuring here. I'm using the events above and some other stuff included in flashbacks and later in this act to more solidly put them together. We will start to see some romantic and sexual tension between the two and generally a bit more fluff with the whole Titans team in general (eventually, don't expect Titans fluff for at least another 4-5 chapters since we have to work out their issues following Trigon first.