Titans Forever

Episode 3: Ties to the past

 Unknown 12:45 AM

  The sound of ringing pierced the long darkened silence. Rachel's eyes slowly flutter open as consciousness was finally regained. She sits up and gently places a hand on her head. A groan is let off as her eyes survey her new surroundings. It was an old rustic hotel room, meant for two. The bed she was on top of was a single just as the other beside her. The sheets on the adjacent bed were wrinkled, indicating that someone was recently there. Rachel slowly crawls off the bed and makes her way to the door. She looks outside the peephole to see a balcony that leads out to a parking lot. Sadly nothing of the outside was familiar to her. Where did she end up? She slowly steps away from the door while rubbing the sides of her head.

  'What happened? Why can't I remember.... Zat! Constantine! They were acting different...' Rachel paced around the room with a furrowed brow and folded arms. She could only remember to an extent of what had happened but none of it was useful. Suddenly the sound of the knob turning broke her intense train of thought. Rachel's body tenses up at the possibility of who it could be. She had to act fast. Without hesitation she quickly enters the bathroom. From beyond the door heavy footsteps could be heard trailing into the wider area of the room. Whoever it was let off a low mumble of obvious disappointment. Rachel frantically looks around the bathroom for some sort of weapon. When nothing came to view she looks to the mirror with a panicked grimace. That's when it hit her...

  A tall man in a leather jacket, jeans, white T shirt, and boots, stands by the bed.
  "Where the hell did she go..." he mumbles softly. The bathroom door slowly cracks open. Rachel slowly creeps up behind the stranger before raising a shard of glass high into the air. Normaly a person in this situation would let off a mighty battle cry, completely giving away their element of surprise for that satisfaction. But Rachel wasn't that type of person. The glass shard is plunged down into the man's back, but to her surprise it didn't pierce the skin. She stands there in silence as she pulls back the now broken tipped glass shard. The clothes were torn but beneath was unbroken. The man slowly rolls back his shoulders and look back to Rachel.
  "Wow... You actually just did that. If we weren't allies that action would be met in blood shed." The man states in a deep voice before turning around fully. Rachel trembles as she looks upwards into his eyes. A red shine glosses over in them before flashing a particularly sharp grin.

  "Etrigan?" Rachel asks with a slightly hopeful tone. The larger man sits down on his bed and places a takeout bag on the nightstand.

  "Hello Raven, it's good to see you in one piece."

  "I go by Rachel... B-But now's not the time. What have you been- I mean, what happened? I was back at the tower, Constantine and Zatanna weren't themselves, a-and I had to separate them but then there was nothing but darkness... Please if you can tell me anything I'd-"

  "You may need to sit down for this Raven." Etrigan interrupts. The serious tone of the demon prompted her to follow what is suggested. She approaches the empty bed and sits across from Etrigan. Her eyes meets his before a word can be said.

  "The tower had recently become a place for me to take well deserved breaks. I mean maintaining the influx of demonic activity in this world isn't an easy job. And that Constantine sure knew how to have a fun time... But days ago I discovered something very strange... There was no demonic activity. Nothing was try to enter this world. It was completely peculiar... Until I did some personal intel gathering. Large quantities of demons have been spotted throughout hell gathering... Now it's not uncommon for certain traces of this activity to arise, but to this scale something else was going on. That's when I came back to the tower. Groups of men and women adorned in blood red robes where chanting your father's tongue. Their actions have deteriorated the barrier around the tower of fate. The doctor managed to take out most of them, but it seemed as though their numbers kept multiplying. I lended a hand but the odds were stacked against us. He said that there was something he needed to look into, I didn't know that involved the possible termination of you."