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Raven's Roaming: Greco Rae	By : DecieverGod Category: DC Verse Cartoons - Teen Titans > Het Views: 19344 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, I do not own Raven, I am not associated with DC Comics, I make no money from this publication.

Chapter List
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The city was dark, no moon held in the sky for light and despite the incandescent twinkle of the street lights and the city shops, the city was dark. Within that darkness things slipped and slithered about, a man in a shadowed mask dodged through the security arrays of the museum, and Red X walked up to a large white marble arch. “The Gate of Janus.” The thief spoke to the shadows. “One really old marble arch, one really big pile of money for me.” The villain cracked his knuckled and reached for the marble gate.

And a bird-a-rang snapped into the museum placard.

Behind him, posed and ready for battle, stood the five Titans. Raven hovered several feet in the air behind the boys, her eyes glowing with a sullen white light and her fists balled tightly together, ready for whatever the cunning X had in store. Starfire stood beside their leader, a snarl locked in place as she glared at the elusive thief; he had escaped their clutches for the last time, this time he was going down. The orange alien lit up with neon green energy, her eyes and fists readied for the chase.

“Sorry X, but the only gate you’re going to see is a prison gate.” Robin crouched low in front of his team, another bird-a-rang in one hand and a smirk across his face.

“Hmm, the Teen Titans… It’s Friday Night, thought you’d be in each other’s beds by now.” X half turned, his shroud waving with his motion. He didn’t regard the heroes as a threat, or at least, didn’t let himself.

“Wait… what are you implying?” The taunt did its worst to Beast Boy; he broke his crouched stand and stared for just long enough for a red X projectile to find its way onto his face.

Starfire shot her fists toward Red X, blasting away with wild defense of her friend. “We have our own beds for your information!!” The thief’s perverse humor was lost on the Tamaranean as she leapt to join her female teammate in the air.

Raven groaned in irritation as the Tamaranean’s assault kicked up enough dust and rubble to obscure Red X. “Starfire calm down.” She muttered to herself, floating to one of the exits and erecting a dark barrier over it to make certain X didn’t escape them again.

Escape however was secondary to humiliating the Titans in X’s mind. He leapt from the dust dodging through the alien’s attacks, right then left and then flipped back to land atop his intended target. “Down girl, I like ‘em frisky not homicidal.” Rex X chuckled, and drew three fresh projectiles from his belt, discarding them toward the Titan girls before flipping forward.

Robin met the rogue in the air, the two exchanging blows before landing across from one another, X back in front of the Gate, and Robin between him and the exit. “What’s your deal X? You’re not an art thief, tech is more your style…”

“Now now, what fun would it be if I gave the ending away?” Another three X’s were drawn from the villain’s belt, and while Cyborg assisted in the removal of the on currently muting the team’s changeling, another glued itself around their alien’s hands.

Starfire held them out in front her, no matter how hard she flexed or powered up her star bolts the tacky red Xs would not come off. The Tamaranean let out an angry cry and flung herself forward, she may not have been able to blast the thief, but she was still able to punch a few holes in him.

She charged past Robin and swung her fists to take off the thief’s head, she was not in the mood for the normal banter, and she was tired of X’s cocky attitude. Raven was less angered but equally irritated, a red X crossed her mouth, and as she tugged at the adhesive attack she mumbled incoherent curses. Her barrier still blocked the exit, so instead of staying in one place she sped from wall to wall erecting barriers across the windows and doors, and even a few air vents to give the Titans a fighting chance at keeping the nimble criminal contained.

X gave no quarter and attacked again before the Titans had a chance to react to Starfire’s furious charge. One X went to bind the Tamaranean’s feet, and another went to block Robin’s bird-a-rang. The third was brought to the floor by the boy wonder’s staff. The rogue ran past his heroic counterpart, giving the alien girl a firm strike on the rear and flipping up her skirt as he passed.

The alien girl yelped as her rear was smacked on her descent to her knees. She wound up with her elbows smashed into the tiled museum floor. She growled angrily and fell onto her side, beginning to wriggle back and forth in the ruby bindings, much like those on her hands, those on her feet wouldn’t move. “R-Robin hurry he is escaping!”

Raven took this moment to mutter her little chant behind the X binding her mouth. Thousands of small sharp black birds leapt out from her to attack the fleeing thief. One hand waved about in command of the wicked shadows, while the other still tugged on her crimson gag.

X dodged back and forth, fading in and out of visibility as he danced from side to side. He slipped from between blows, both from the dark sorceress and the boy wonder. All the while advancing, Cyborg stood to halt him, leaving Beast Boy to struggle with his own gag on his own. The mechanical man threw a punch and Red X leapt over him, planting one of his tokens across the back of the hero’s skill cap.

The X exploded and Cyborg was knocked flat on his face, the villain leaping over him. Beast Boy stood; raising his fists into a failing boxer’s stance, all it took for Red X to get past him was a sweeping kick and a well timed leap. Robin still pursed him, but the villain was quickly approaching the dark girl, and the exit behind her.

The Tamaranean managed to get herself onto her hands and knees, throwing herself into the air and after the retreating thief. Her bound hands gripped each other, ready to club the consciousness out of the irritating X.

Raven on the other hand was far less enraged and far more annoyed. She halted her attempts at removing the X across her mouth and decided she was tired of the whole thing. Raven landed and waited for the masked villain to close ready to swallow the entire room in her shadow to finally catch the irritating thief.

Red X however had his own plans. After a moment spent dueling with the boy wonder, he closed the gap between himself and the Tamaranean, but then with a quick flash, he jumped toward the paler Titan’s girl and set the board. “What’s the matter pretty girl? These guys just keep you around ‘cause you’re easy on the eyes or can you fight too?”

Starfire could feel his sneer even from behind the skull mask. Her eyes burst with green ethereal light as she roared loud enough to shake the museum walls. “You will pay for your crimes and your rude rude insults!” Her hands raised high over her head and came down with a thunderous crack.

Raven launched herself into fray, her eyes shining as brightly as Starfire’s as a deep black mass began to take shape behind her. She muttered to herself as she sent the drape-shaped shadow arching over her head crashing down across alley and enemy alike.

X had however vaulted over the enraged alien, sending her barreling into the shadow sorceress. Raven was about to swallow them all before a very angry orange alien barreled into her. She let out a muffled yowl before her body was pinned under the other girl’s and her aura fell in on them. Starfire collapsed onto her friend, grimacing as her forehead cracked against the floor beside Raven. She tried to shift off her cursing comrade but a moment later she was swallowed in darkness and completely blind. The two girls were wrapped tightly together in Raven’s shadow, which in its current state made it look a lot like they were wrestling under a blanket.

Robin skidded to a halt, as X bounded over his ally. Cyborg had finally managed to remove the gag binding Beast Boy’s mouth, through the use of a blow torch, and the two leapt up eager to join the fray. Unfortunately the fight was already over.

Red X stood at the museum’s exit. “As diverting as it is to watch your girls make out. I’ve got places to be, things to steal. You know how it is.” He gave the five a mock salute and leapt backward, disappearing through the museum’s door.

The dark aura disappeared and Raven and Starfire were left ruffled and scrambling in a mixture of limbs and tangled hair. The grey teen glared at the profusely apologetic orange girl. Raven wriggled to remove an elbow from her eye. “St-Starfire, get, Off!”

That was all it took to remove Star from her fellow female, the orange alien quickly rolling off the grey teen. “I am sorry Friend Raven! I am very sorry, I have not hurt you have I?”

“Duuuude!” Beast Boy howled. “That was lame!”

“Agreed.” Robin stood brooding by the exit, his cape wrapped around him as he glared sullenly at the pavement.

“Yeah, yeah.” Cyborg walked over to where the girls squirmed, living Star to her feet by the binding around her hands, before drawing his blow torch and once again beginning the delicate process of removing the elastic X’s. “So, what’s X’s deal with this thing anyway?”

Starfire remained for the most part still as her mechanical friend began to work to remove her restraints. “It is quiet strange, and the Red X seemed far more aggressive this encounter than is normal.”

Raven rubbed at her eye and grimaced as the faint pang of a bruise began to form on her neck. She mumbled something about the gate, but she was muffled by the X that still glued half her mouth shut.

The boy detective to the artifact in question and placed a hand on his chin. “Red X is a thief… and he’s has no reason to want a piece of Greek art for himself. He must have been stealing it for someone.” He walked over to the museum piece and looked down at the placard for it. “The Gate of Janus...” He rubbed his chin and sheathed his staff. “Let’s take this thing back to the Tower. We need to find out who wants it, so we can find out who hired X to steal it.”

“I feel ya.” Cyborg snapped Starfire’s hands free and then turned his attention to Raven. He looked over at the torch atop his finger, and then back to Raven. He turned the blow torch off and reached forward, pinching the X along her cheek. “This might hurt a little…” The grey girl squeezed her eyes shut and tensed as Cyborg snapped the X off her face with a quick flick of his wrist.

Starfire pouted as she stood up and stretched her fingers in relief. “But would not the Red X return for his prize if we were to simply leave it be?” She didn’t understand humans and their funny shaped rocks, but apparently it was important enough to steal.

Robin took a deep breath and began to read the Gate’s placard. “It might mean we miss an opportunity to catch Red X, but right X is just a bit player. We need to find out who’s paying him, and stop these crimes at their source.”

“Yeah. I’m all for not tangling with Red X again.” Beast Boy rubbed at his face, there as a little fur singed from Cyborg’s torch, but it would probably grow back to normal in a couple of days.

Raven remained silent, as the X was ripped off her face. There was a still a red X marking her pale skin, and small tears welled up in her eyes, but all she showed was a brief shiver and a small grunt. “Th-thanks Cy.”

“No problem Rae.” Cyborg smirked a little, walking to stand beside Robin and looked at the priceless piece of history in front of him. “You want me to put this in the back of the T car?” Getting it to fit would be a problem.

Robin nodded. “The sooner we get this thing back to the tower, the sooner we can find out who might want it.”

Starfire sighed and nodded with Robin. “I suppose you are right Robin, though I do wish that our foe had not managed to escape us once again.” She wondered as to the identity of the Red X almost as much as the boy wonder himself.

The mechanical man picked up the marble arch with one hand, and Robin added “Be careful, that’s a priceless work of art.” Cyborg added a hand, along with a little caution, as he hauled the arch to his car.

Raven rubbed at her cheek softly, and turned to leave the museum. She glanced at the depressed form of her orange friend and took a deep breath, steeling herself for what she was about to do. She walked over to the alien girl and patted her shoulder gently. “We’ll get him Star… eventually.” Starfire didn’t look so certain, but smiled slightly anyway and turned the two turned to follow their male teammates out.

Cyborg was strapping the ancient piece of art to the back of his car with what appeared to be duct tape, while robin swept the scene and left a note for curator. Beast Boy just got in the car and cracked the radio. It always seemed to help the team get over a humiliating defeat to wail on air guitar a little, or at least it helped him. Cyborg didn’t seem to approve much, but it was hard to argue with the green teen.

Raven just silently got in the car, wincing as her brain struggled to remain intact against the onslaught of BB’s music. Starfire on the other hand didn’t even seem to notice the blaring radio. She was disappointed, how often had they faced this adversary and come up empty handed. Red X had escaped them more than any one of their other foes. It was too much for the Tamaranean to bear, her pride and sense of justice demanded that he be brought to pay for his oddly charming criminal antics.

After another minute the Titans took off. Robin following the T car on his cycle, there was no traffic at the late hour, and they were returned Titans Tower within the hour. Cyborg cautiously removed the marble archway from his car, while beast Boy proclaimed the team’s need for a midnight breakfast, and Robin sulked even as they returned home, climbing the stairs to the lounge and quickly attaching himself to the main computer.

Starfire followed Robin’s moping to a T, and plopped herself down on the couch the instant she got to the main living room. The alien tucked her legs to her chest and crossed her arms, hugging them as she stared blankly at the back of her leader’s head.

Raven on the other hand wasn’t nearly as humiliated as everyone seemed to be; she walked into the main room, sat at one of the kitchen stools, and began wracking her brain for what she knew about an artifact called The Gate of Janus.

Beast Boy was found behind the kitchen counter, preparing his version of a midnight breakfast for everyone. This included waffles, tofu eggs, tofu bacon, and syrup. Cyborg didn’t spend enough time in the lounge to protest, there was a noticeable burn on the back of his head from Red X’s charge, and slipped off to his room to repair himself before he lost anything he needed, like his entire memory of the third grade, or ability to whistle.

The boy wonder on the other hand had set himself straight to work, scouring the entirety of the internet for every mention of The Gate of Janus he could find, which as it turned out was quite a bit as her narrated. “The Gate of Janus, a late century piece of Greek art originating from Athens, Janus was a Roman God of Beginnings and Endings, his Greek equivalent is unknown... He is depicted as having two faces, one facing inward, one outward and his likeness was depicted on the inside and outside of numerous gates and doorways throughout the ancient world… hmm…” Robin put a hand to his chin. “It says some of his artifacts have been rumored to possess supernatural powers… including teleportation.”

Raven looked up and over to where the team leader read. “There is a large amount of Greek artifacts that house dormant magical power.” She looked interested and actually rose from her seat to stand beside Robin, a hand on his shoulder as she read alongside him.

Robin set a hand on his chin and stared up at the screen, flipping through page after page in a rapid search for more information. “There’s not a lot of information on the Gate. Looks like Janus wasn’t very well respected in Greece, and historically the Gate’s history is pretty boring… It was made by an Athena sculptor who claimed that its perfect proportions were testimony to its divine inspiration… apparently the golden ration is replicated over one hundred times within the Gate’s design.”

Raven nodded slowly at his side as she read over his shoulder. “If this thing has teleportation capabilities, then it could be really bad if it fell into the wrong hands.” She looked a little worried as she frowned at the screen.
“Agreed.” Robin nodded, skimming through some of the less reputable ‘magic’ sites on the internet. “Any way you know of to disable it?”

She squeezed her hand on his shoulder, silently trying to tell him that that wasn’t an option. “If it’s active… I might be able to turn it off… so to speak. But I’ll need time.”

“Any research you could pull up would be useful… I’m getting nothing off these historical sites.” Robin sighed and turned his computer off, resigning himself to uselessness, he was beginning to see why Batman hated magical things.

The dark girl patted the boy wonder’s shoulder and rubbed at her cheek once more. “I’ll get right on it…”

Robin smirked back at her, rising from his seat in front of the computer to go join Beast Boy and Starfire in preparing ‘breakfast.’ “I know you will Raven.” He didn’t like being useless, but the last time he’d dealt with magic, it had involved Etrigan, who was rather unpleasant to be around, even more so than that eerie feeling Raven brought to a room.

The shadowed girl walked into the kitchen, avoiding Beast Boy and Star, and grabbed a cold bottle of water from the fridge. “Is it still in the garage?”

“Yeah, I think it’ll be best to keep it there until we fully understand its capabilities.” The Titans’ leader nodded, taking a can of pop from the kitchen and snapping it open. He sat at the counter and turned his attention to watching his two teammates turn midnight breakfast into a battlefield.

Raven walked into the kitchen, avoiding BB and Star as she grabbed a cold bottle of water from the fridge. “Is it still in the garage?" She walked over to the elevator and turned back to look at Robin waiting for his answer after she pressed the down button.

Raven nodded and stepped into the elevator. “If I’m not up in three days, come check on me.” She was almost being sarcastic as she pressed the button for the garage basement.

“Three days?” Beast Boy poked his head around the corner, just because that seemed like a long time for someone, anyone but particularly Raven, to spend in the garage.

“Alright Rae, check in when you can.” Robin simply nodded and took a sip of his drink.

She rolled her eyes at the green teen and nodded back to the boy wonder. “Of course.” The elevator doors closed and Raven tugged her hood down and let out a soft sigh, rubbing at her aching cheek as she descended.

The other Titans mostly minded their own. Cyborg returned with a repaired head shortly after Raven had left, and was dually informed of her actions. He decided he could polish the T car some other time and promptly forced Beast Boy into allowing him to make real bacon alongside his tofu bacon.

Raven arrived at the garage in short order. She unclasped her cloak and hung it over Cyborg’s work bench before eyeing the Gate nervously. “Why’d it have to be Greek?” She grumbled to herself, flicking her wrists and the ropes holding it snapped apart and she gently lowered it to the ground. She tilted her head as she eyed the Gate from a few angles, just trying to see how she could start on this ridiculous thing.

The Gate itself was a rather ornate and very well perceived piece of marble, tall, and white with repeatedly etched image of the double faced god on either side. At the precipice of the arch the deity looked out from both sides, while along the sides golden rectangles were filled with perfect sculptures of both past and future, humble beginnings on one side, mirrored by heroic deaths on the other. The beginning and end of the countless legends lay out side by side.

Raven walked forward and placed her hands on the edge of the marble gate, running her hands over its length as she examined it. She wasn’t really good with Greek things, they always had some underlying issue with the magic, some utterly awkward and unpredictable way to get yourself killed or turned into a spider, or both.

She sighed and walked through the archway once, before turning around and walking back. It was going to take some time just to figure out how the darn thing worked, let alone how to make it stop working. So instead of sitting around thinking about it, Raven decided to take the directed approach and activate it. She placed her hands on either side of her and spoke softly in the garbled broken Greek that she knew, then thrust her hands forward toward the gate and began channeling her energy towards it.

The Gate stood there, solid, stone, and unmoving. It didn't seem to like her much, the stone faces of Janus stared down with a mute expression, and the innumerable heroes who were born and died upon its sides seemed, lifeless.

Raven paused, staring at it expectantly, what she should be doing was researching the thing before she started to tinker with it, but this wasn’t really a project she was interested in, and the worst thing she could was activate it… or destroy it.

The pale teen grimaced at the thought of the marble gate crumbling, and having to explain that to the museum. She grabbed a stool and stat down on it, staring at the gate with as much disdain as it was giving her. “Listen I don’t like you… Greek things are trick and annoying… so let’s just work together on this alright?” She sighed and flicked her wrists, small hands began to slither up the surface of the marble, feeling for any button or switch or dents that needed her attention.

In truth it did have a method of activation, but as with most things stemming from a mathematics centric culture, it was obscenely convoluted and completely unnecessary. Eight of the birth scenes on the first side held secrets, the mythological beginnings they depicted were flawed, precisely so, and in righting these scenes, pushing a figure back where it belonged, raising or lowering another to correct the scene, the power of the artifact would be brought to bear. But of course that wasn’t all that was required, the scenes were placed along the arch so that, those with flaws, corresponded to the golden spiral and to properly activate the arch, these scenes needed to be corrected in the order of the Spiral, from the outer most, to the inner most.

The dower girl’s shadowed hands set themselves to work, prodding and pushing clicking things about. She had no idea about any of what she was really doing, but let something work at a puzzle long enough and even without a single clue; they were bound to make a break through.

And that’s what she did. When the click of marble against marble caught her ear, the black hands wriggled in the excitement of discovering something, and she pushed all her energy to work against the flawed marble surface. “I… Really hate Greek things.” She complained, not at all in the mood to work against the annoying gate.

Still, if anyone works something with a sequence long enough and eventually they find it. Beast Boy had proven that numerous times, and despite plenty of failures, not the forty-thousand three hundred nineteen that were statistically possible, but several, the right pieces clicked into place, and the Gate began to release a dull hum. Its marble trembling under centuries of the dust its magical workings had accumulated, and then, stopped.

Raven blinked in surprise as the Gate actually responded to her prodding energy. She felt, ineffably drawn to it, sliding off the stool she walked towards it, and cautiously inspected the frame. She took a deep breath and started walking forward; placing one foot before the other in a sort of tight rope walker’s strike she made her way through the gate’s arch, squeezing her eyes shut in a sort of squeamish manner. She strode far further than she felt she should have, eyes closed, fists clenched tightly to her side. Suddenly it didn’t feel like she was walking in the garage anymore, and it really hadn’t been that cold before? Why was the concrete floor all damp and squishy?

Raven opened her eyes and froze. She was not in the garage anymore.
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Raven's Roaming: Greco Rae