Update: Since I figured the first chapter could use an author comment, here goes. First, a bit of light on my plans with this story. I'm aiming for a minimal schedule of 1 chapter/month. Whenever I have the time (and no writer's block), I'll try to make it two chapters a month. In addition to rewriting Young Justice episodes to include Raven, I intend to rehash most (if not all) the Raven-centric episodes of Teen Titans into the Young Justice continuity. I'm also still figuring out the features of the site, so forgive the poor formatting.

It's good to see there are already people who have noticed and liked the story. There have already been two reviews, one of them asking for a Rob/Rae pairing. Hate to break it to you, but I just don't see a romantic pairing between them in this story, not without going seriously off-character with either Raven or Robin. I loved the pairing in Teen Titans, but the Robin of Young Justice is just too different. Too cheerful and carefree. The Raven-Robin 'Birds of a Feather' dynamic just isn't there anymore. I do see the potential for a very close Rae/Nightwing friendship, but that's already five years later in the storyline and I do have plans for a longer storyline planned for the interlude years. Reviews are much appreciated and I promise to read them all.

Ah, and I fixed a number of obvious typos with the update, too.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Young Justice, Teen Titans, Raven or any other character featured in this story.

Chapter 1

Star City
October 16, 04:33

Green Arrow lifts the skinny middle-aged woman up by her robe and slams her into the brick wall behind her.

"Where are you holding them?" Green Arrow demands. His best impression of Batman is not good enough this time. Although Ollie can see the fear in her eyes, she's not afraid enough to talk. With a sigh, Ollie lets the woman down, only to fire a net arrow at her. At least she won't be running off.

The last month has been frustrating. Three young women kidnapped already and now the cult got away with a fourth. And his only lead isn't talking. With a life on the line like this, Ollie sighs and finally admits it to himself. He can't handle this alone. He opens a line to the Watchtower.

"Green Arrow to Justice League."
"Captain Atom reading. What can I do for you, GA?"
"I'm dealing with some kind of cult in Star City. I've got a lead, a captive, but I need help making her talk."
"Come on, GA, you really need League backup for a something that simple?"
"They've abducted a girl, Cap. I need her to get her talking fast or..." Ollie trails off with the sentence.
"Alright. I'm sending Zatara." Captain Atom replies apologetically. With a freshly kidnapped victim, there was no room for errors or delays

"Esaeler Sdnib!" Green Arrow hears the woman speak behind him. Turning to look, he sees his net down on the ground and the woman trying to run. Deciding not to take chances, Ollie fires a tazer arrow at her. Failing to pay attention, the woman doesn't even try to evade the arrow, and is promptly knocked out by the electric shock. Looking at the net left behind, Ollie sees that it was carefully opened at the proper releases. She'd have to be a magician to... What have I gotten myself into? Ollie thinks to himself as he turns to his radio again. A different channel this time.

"Hey, Dinah. It's Ollie. Are you busy?"
"Not really, why?" Black Canary replies
"Remember those kidnappings I was looking into?"
"Sure."
"They've taken a turn for the worse. There's some kind of cult involved and my newest lead just used a spell to get out of a net arrow. The league's already sending Zatara to help, but..."
"You've got a bad feeling about it. I'm coming as fast as I can." Canary replies, her voice serious. When GA had a bad feeling about something, it was rarely wrong

Thirty minutes later, the cultist awakens, firmly tied to a chair. She catches herself before she opens her eyes. Keeping them shut, she listens instead.

"So, what do you think, Zatara?" her original captor, Green Arrow asks.
"I don't know what to think. I've never seen anything quite like it." the second man replies with a vaguely Italian accent.
"What about her magic skills? Anything you can tell about those?" a woman asks.
"That's what I meant, actually. Her aura is strange. Magically powerful, but unnatural. Most likely, the magic power was infused into her. I can think of a few spells that could do that."
"What about the clothes, then? The other cultists wore the exact same robes, so it has to be a uniform of some kind. Anything you recognize?" Green Arrow asks.
"Red and white color scheme, no visible markings. Too common for anything specific. I suppose I could come up with something, if I had a few weeks to consult the right libraries and experts."

Taking a careful peek, she sees that she's not unguarded. She sees the three superheroes guarding her, the renowned wizard Zatara, as well as Green Arrow and Black Canary. Realizing Zatara can force her mouth to talk, she takes a different way out. Not being gagged, she utters her last spell before anyone can stop her.

"Nrub Ym Hself!" she spits out.
"No!" Zatara shouts as the bound woman is consumed by fire.

After several seconds of agonized screaming and unsuccessful attempts to put out the magical flame, the fires die, leaving only charred remains.

"Damn it!" Green Arrow curses, venting his frustration by punching the wall hard enough to leave a few cracks it.
"Wait, the aura!" Zatara whispers, seeing that the unnatural component of the aura isn't fading away as auras usually do when a person dies. Instead, he sees the inky slivers form into a single cloud, before oozing out of the room.
"Quick, follow me!" Zatara tells his companions, rushing after the magical energy as it travels. With its' host dead, the strange magical power must be traveling back to its' source.

Green Arrow and Black Canary fail to keep up, but Zatara manages to track the aura back to an abandoned foundry. He almost rushes in after it, but decides to wait for his backup. Not five minutes later, they arrive and kick down the door. Only to find the old foundry empty. After some searching, Green Arrow notices faint footprints in the dust, leading to and from the furnace. Prying open the furnace door, they find an ominous staircase leading down into darkness.

After reaching the bottom, they follow the faint chanting and eventually reach a large rectangular hall. The sides are lines with creepy statues of what look like skeletons dressed in the cult robes. On the far end of the room is an altar, along with the latest kidnapping victim chained on it. ON the balcony above the altar is a tall hooded figure. Most likely the leader of the cult. Between the heroes and the altar is the body of the cult. Twenty robed figures, all facing the altar and chatting in sinister language.

As the chanting gets louder, red runes across the room begin to glow, pulsating in a slow rhythm. Most notably, the glow reveals a figure behind the leader. A young violet-haired girl in a dark blue cloak, chained to the wall and surrounded by a magical circle of runes. With no more time to spare, the heroes open their attack. Green Arrow knocks out five cultists on the left with a rapid barrage of shock arrows while Zatara casts a spell putting seven cultists on the right to sleep. The center of the group is hit by the famous Canary Cry.

"Interlopers!" The cult leader booms with a low growling voice "Destroy them!"

The six remaining cultists turn toward the heroes and black energy flares up around their hands as they throw panicked spells at their opponents. Their chaotic counterattack ends in failure, as Green Arrow and Black Canary dodge the black orbs of energy and Zatara simply deflects them with a magical barrier. A few seconds later, all six cultists are down on the ground with the others.

"That. Is. Enough!" the cult leader booms again, rising to levitate a few inches above the floor, surrounded by a black flame and only a pair of gleaming red eyes can be seen under the shadow of his hood "Silence!"

With the last word, two bolts of black lightning, one from each hand, strike Zatara and Black Canary in their throats. Taken off balance by their sudden inability to speak and shout, the head cultist quickly follows up with a second pair of black lightning bolts, knocking both heroes to the ground with small arcs of black energy surrounding their bodies. Thinking the leader to be distracted, Green arrow fires an explosive arrow at him, only for the arrow to be enveloped in black energy and stopped in mid-air. Ollie manages to evade the first two lightning bolts, but the third skirts his leg and the fourth hits him square in the back.

The leader levels both his hands at Green Arrow to finish him when suddenly a voice shouts behind him

"No!" turning to see, the leader is immediately blinded by a flash of light. When the regains his vision, he sees the violet-haired girl rising from the floor next to Green Arrow.

"Stand aside, girl." he demands.

"No. I won't let you hurt anyone else." The girl exclaims resolutely, her hands glowing with the same black energy.

Looking down from the balcony, the cult leader seems amused by the girl's spirit for a moment. Then he fires two lightning bolts at the girl, only to have them blocked by an ebony barrier.

"You may have taken my power, but I can take it back." The leader's eyes widen in shock as he realizes how powerless he really is against the girl.

The three heroes recover and rise to their feet, shocked to see the young girl levitate to the ceiling and shout out her own spell.

"AZARATH! METRION! ZINTHOS!"

Black bolts of lightning surge forth from each cultist and strike into the girl. She yells out as a black wave of energy surges out from her.