Clean Sweep Ch. 27 (DC Comics) (Patreon)

(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Raven Time!

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Raven is peering at the stone along with her Master when the old woman interrupts them. It’s an interesting thing, though no more than a passing curiosity in her estimation. The magic coming off of it is as faint as the humming glow that it gives off.

Whatever this magical artifact once was, it had either been nearly used up and then discarded, or it had been lost and in turn lost most of its power over the course of its time under the cabinet. Both were entirely plausible possibilities, but either way she doubted it would be of much use to them.

However, it was not Raven’s place to question her Master’s choices. If he wanted to buy the stone so he could investigate it further than that was his prerogative. Turning her gaze from the magical stone to the elderly shopkeep, Raven watches the old woman look at it with a furrowed brow for a moment.

“Ah… I’ve never seen that in my life young man. I couldn’t possibly charge you for it.”

Oh? How had it been lost in her store then? That did make it a bit more of a curiosity, by Raven’s estimation. The story behind the stone was probably more interesting than the stone itself at this point.

Of course, her Master is too good of a man to just take advantage of this old woman’s generosity. He’s quick to shake his head in response to her offer.

“I found it in your store on your property. As far as I’m concerned, that makes it yours… but I do still want to purchase it from you. Name your price and I’ll be glad to pay it.”

A strange expression spreads across the old woman’s face at that.

“Yes… it is my property, isn’t it? Hm… I’m not sure I can sell it though. It’s quite beautiful, is it not?”

Cole’s congenial smile falters a bit at that as he looks down at the stone rather dubiously. It’s not that beautiful, Raven thinks to herself. Indeed, if not for the fact that it’s faintly magical, she wouldn’t think much of it at all.

“… I’m sure we can come to some sort of arrangement, ma’am. It’s just a carved rock, right? Name your price, please.”

The shopkeeper’s brow furrows, her lips curling into a deeper frown as she looks between the stone and Cole’s face. She seems to almost be fighting with herself for several long moments before huffing.

“Very well… a thousand dollars!”

The way she snaps out that number… Raven narrows her eyes. It almost sounds like the woman is trying to put the stone’s price out of Master Cole’s reach. It definitely would NOT be worth that in normal circumstances. Indeed, if not for the magic, she’s confident that her Master would balk at such a thing.

Well, also if not for the wealth that they’d found together in the park… wealth that even now they hadn’t had much of a chance to use thanks to a rather solid streak of luck.

As things stand, Master Cole’s smile firms up again at hearing such a number, giving the elderly woman a decisive nod.

“A thousand sounds about right to me. Shall we head up to the front then?”

This visibly gives the shopkeeper some pause, making Raven narrow her eyes in turn. The older woman looked increasingly reluctant to part with the stone, staring longingly at it where it lies in Cole’s grasp. Finally though she yanks her gaze away and turns woodenly to begin leading them both back to the front of the store.

As they arrive at the counter, her Master looks to her and Raven perks up, immediately recognizing what he wants. Out of sight of the old woman, she quickly retrieves some of their money, handing it over to Cole as surreptitiously as possible.

He… is not quite so surreptitious. Setting the stone down on the counter, he begins to peel pieces of Earth Money from the band, each one being worth ‘one hundred’ from what Raven had learned so far. Once he has ten of them pulled forth, he prepares to hand them over and reaches for the stone again to complete the transaction.

Only, before Master Cole’s hand can close over the stone, the shopkeep’s own gnarled fingers lash out, grabbing it and sliding it away, startling Raven and her Master in the process.

“Ten thousand!”

Raven stares even as Master Cole blinks in surprise. The woman has completely transformed at this point. She hadn’t necessarily come across as particularly cheerful or outgoing before, but she’d seemed affable enough. Not quite a doting grandmother, but there was that moment where she initially acted as though she wasn’t going to charge them for the stone at all.

Now? Now she looks hunched in and almost manic, her eyes sunken into her face, her weathered paper thin lips pressed into a thin line bordering on a snarl. She holds the slightly magic stone close to her chest with a sneer.

“Ten thousand dollars! No less! I will accept no less!”

… Was this the stone’s doing? Was it cursed, perhaps? Raven exchanges a look with her bewildered Master and tilts her head in the direction of the magical artifact. Perhaps this was why it had been lost in the first place… because it had an effect like this on its users.

Cole’s eyes widen as he picks up what Raven is suggesting… and then narrow as his jaw sets in determination. Without missing a beat, he lifts a hand and casts his particular brand of magic on the poor woman in front of them.

It was as Zatanna Zatara had said and as Raven had known since she’d first met him. Cole did not do something so simple or mundane as ‘cleaning magic’. No, his magic was of a purer quality than that. His magic was cleansing and purifying to its core.

As such, as her Master’s magic washes over the elderly shopkeeper, Raven isn’t surprised in the slightest when it works like a charm. The old woman blinks, straightening up out of her hunch and suddenly looking a lot more normal… like she did back when they’d first arrived. She glances down at the stone she’d been clutching for dear life and then at the money in Cole’s hands and furrows her brow.

“I don’t… I’m not sure what came over me. I’m not like that. I’m not a greedy person…”

Cole just smiles awkwardly and offers the thousand dollars.

“Well, why don’t you take this and let me take that off your hands for you. No harm done, right?”

But the old woman just shakes her head as she puts the magical stone back on the counter and slides it over.

“No. I don’t want your money. I-urk!”

Raven’s eyes widen alongside her Master’s as a spike suddenly sprouts from the center of the woman’s forehead, rocking her back and killing her instantly. She immediately whips around, calling upon her magic to protect her Master from the man who has snuck up behind them. Truly, she’d let her guard down way too much. She’d been distracted by the strangeness plaguing the woman and not kept a proper eye on their surroundings.

“Pathetic. Giving up one’s property for free? Utterly sickening.”

Wearing what Raven knows to be fancy Earth clothes; the man appears relatively mundane at first… until he takes off his sunglasses and suddenly he has two sets of red eyes instead of one and the demonic stench that fills the antique shop becomes impossible to ignore.

At Raven’s side, Master Cole bristles with righteous fury over the death of the old woman… as well he should. Raven is appalled by it too, but she’s far more concerned with protecting him at this point. Whoever this is clearly has bad intentions.

“Who are you? Why did you do that?”

A slow smile spreads across the well-kept demon’s face, even as he rolls his shoulders and stretches his neck.

“She died because she was weak willed. To be selfless… is there no greater crime? As for who I am… I am Greed, Son of Trigon. And you have angered him greatly.”

Greed looks to Raven then and his smile becomes a wicked grin.

“Hello sister.”

Raven jolts as if struck. She wants to deny it, to call him a liar… but the moment he says it, she knows it to be true. Somewhere deep inside of her, she knows that he is who he says he is. A child of Trigon, her half-brother… come for her.

She’d thought they would have more time. She’d thought they were being smart and keeping one step ahead of such pursuers. More than that, while Raven had suspected her father would have human agents on Earth, she definitely hadn’t thought he would have other children here on this world.

Just how powerful was Greed? How strong was her brother that he’d been able to track them down like this? She couldn’t let him hurt Master Cole. Not just because Cole was keeping Trigon out of her mind, but also because she owed him everything… she would rather die than let him be hurt. Even if she had to sacrifice herself, she would-!

“Fuck off.”

Both Raven and Greed blink at that, the latter looking visibly taken aback. Raven, honestly, is just caught off guard by Cole’s almost immediate, vehement response. Not just vehement… but confident. He stands there at her side entirely unafraid of her brother. In spite of Greed managing to hunt them down, in spite of the ease with which he’d killed that old woman… Cole stares Greed down like he’s nothing more than a nuisance.

Greed stares back for a moment before letting out a disbelieving laughter.

“What is this yapping from a small, insignificant dog? Do you truly not know when you stand in the presence of your better? Do you really think you or my sister can hold a candle to the power our father has granted me?”

Grin twisting into something truly wicked, Greed raises a hand.

“Allow me to show you.”

Raven tenses up, immediately casting a protective spell over herself and her Master… but she needn’t have bothered. To her confusion, what Greed does next targets everything around them instead. The antique shop filled with old things suddenly becomes dusty and rather empty as every item in the store ages to the point of falling apart and disintegrating.

Entropy. He’s increasing the rate of entropy in the items… and not just the items either, as even the old woman’s body behind the collapsing counter turns to bones and then corpse dust in mere moments.

When it’s all said and done, they stand in a much more open area, one filled with the atomized remains of everything that had previously been there. Greed, meanwhile, breathes in deep and lets out a laugh.

“Ah… do you see now? All that energy… now power at my fingertips thanks to our father. Fighting me is hopeless, sister. You can’t stop me. You certainly can’t beat me.”

Far from being afraid, however, Cole just sweeps his hand across their surroundings and cleans it all up, leaving the building empty and pristine as he continues to stare Greed down. Even as Raven is trembling with uncertainty and fear, her Master shows not a single ounce of concern.

“You’re rather stupid, aren’t you?”

Ah… she’s never seen Master Cole act like this before. Where does his confidence come from? Her half-brother certainly doesn’t like it… in fact, he drops all pretense of pleasure, his face becoming a rictus of rage.

“Even now you dare to insult me, insect?! Know your place!”

“I think I should be saying the same to you. You keep harping on and on about how much power your father is giving you. How it makes you unstoppable. But… what happens when it’s taken away?”

Understanding dawns on Raven right as Greed is blinking in confusion.

“Wha-?”

And that’s when Master Cole does the same thing to her brother that he’d done to her back in that alley where they first met. He casts his magic on him. The effects are immediate. It’s just as Greed said… he was strong because Trigon made him strong. He was powerful because their father granted him a sliver of power.

But what happens when that connection is broken? Well at that point, Greed became just another half-demon… and Raven highly doubted her sibling had trained with the mystics of Azarath all his life. Indeed, as the connection is severed, even the four red eyes adorning his head disappear, leaving Greed with one set of blinking blue eyes as he stumbles back in confusion.

“… What?”

“Take out the trash, Raven.”

Raven doesn’t hesitate to do as she’s told.

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos!”

A blast of glowing black magic takes Greed right in the chest and flings him out the door and across the street. A wide grin spreads across Raven’s face as she looks to Master Cole, who grins right back at her. Their first altercation with one of her father’s agents couldn’t possibly be this easy… and yet here they were.

Of course, they couldn’t hang around forever. Cole’s magic had only been able to hold her father back for a bit at a time until they’d started holding hands.

Unfortunately, by the time they rush out after Greed to try and lock him down further… he’s already gone. Raven would have expected being flung into the brick wall across the street to be more debilitating, but perhaps his half-demon heritage gave him enough durability to avoid being seriously injured or even stunned.

Either way, he’d clearly decided discretion was the better part of valor and fled the scene. They’d won… but as Cole looks between the magic stone in his palm and the emptied shop behind him, Raven can tell he’s not entirely pleased about the cost.

… Neither is she. Next time, they would be more decisive. Next time, she wouldn’t let herself be so unobservant.

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A/N: Remember to Vote, leave a Like, and let me know what you think!

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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MnO0au1FFN-nyugWdy9Vnl8GUtc6qGa9E_Qrinmev1c/edit?tab=t.0