A/N: Here's the highly requested sequel/continuation or whatever. I hope it lives up to expectations.
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Unfinished Business
Prologue
With all the lights off, shadows collected in all the corners and around every stationary monument in the room. To Red X, it was paradise. So many things to steal, so little in the way of setbacks. This particular museum didn't even have security cameras, let alone the floor sensors and laser movement detectors he was used to. It was almost an insult to his pride to break into such a place.
But the museum had something he just couldn't pass up. The Eye of Eden. It was one of the artifacts that had been brought into the city for a one-week showcase. It was a large obsidian stone surrounded by a ring of sapphire. It looked like a gleaming iris from a distance, and to Red X, it was a must have.
Knowing the only guard on duty that night was on the other side of the museum, Red X casually strolled through the display as if he were a regular patron. He walked right up to the case the housed the Eye and attached a suction cup to the top and pulled up. The case made a small popping sound before giving way, and X reached for the Eye.
It was heavier than he expected, but that didn't stop him from grinning with delight as he pocketed it. With ease, he reattached the display case and removed his suction cup and turned around to leave. He stopped mid-stride as he spotted a tall, lanky figure in the shadows of the hallway.
At first, X thought he had miscalculated the guard's rounds and had been caught mid-burgle, but with a more scrutinizing glance, he realized his situation was much worse. One of Slade's robot minions stood between him and the exit. The robot reached out to a red box on the wall and pulled, setting off the building's fire alarms.
"And I thought today would be a boring day," X muttered as the robot came at him. The tin can did very little to subdue X, but when he vanquished one, three more appeared to occupy his time. X realized that if he didn't make it out of the museum in a certain amount of time that the authorities, or worse yet, the Titans would show up to ruin his party.
With the sound of sirens blaring outside the building, X knew it was the former that he would have the pleasure of dealing with after downing the last minion. He turned around in time to see uniformed officers rush into the room on either side of him.
"Freeze!"
Chapter 1
Raven woke up with a feeling of uneasiness. She had been dreaming that someone had been chasing her again. She sighed at her own paranoia, cursing her nerves that had been on end since the incident with Slade. She threw her covers to the side and rolled out of bed, grumbling about it being too early for her to get up.
Still, as she moved through her normal daily routine, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her. She knew it was near impossible for someone to get in unnoticed, as Cyborg had recently installed a new security system in her room. But the feeling would not leave, so she decided to do a little test.
She stood in the middle of her room, eyes closed and hands palmed together, as if she were praying. Without a word, she opened her now white, glowing eyes and pulled her hands apart in a sweeping motion. A chakra blast swept through the entire room, rattling furniture and books as it went.
A tiny fly on the ceiling squeaked and began a freefall to the ground, growing in size and shape to form Beast Boy, who landed on the floor with a thud. Slightly dazed, he sat up groaning and rubbing his back. Suddenly remembering that he'd just been busted, he lamely smiled up at Raven, who loomed over him with a dark look.
"Uh, good morning?" he tried, followed by a nervous chuckle.
"What are you doing in my room?" Raven asked, a slight hint of venom in her voice.
"Um, I was, uh, just hanging around," Beast Boy answered, grinning like an idiot. Raven sighed in exasperation and pointed for the door. Beast Boy looked at it with dismay, then back at her. "There's breakfast. If you want some."
"I don't eat breakfast and you know that," Raven reminded him. He frowned.
"Fine. Then watch us eat," Beast Boy proposed, standing up. "You never hang out with us anymore."
"I spent the entire night 'hanging around' with you guys last night," Raven stated. "We went for pizza, I refereed Stank-Ball for you guys in the park, and watched those ridiculous horror movies with you until three o'clock this morning."
"And you were moody and cranky the whole time," he shot back. "Ever since we got you back from Slade, you've been doing that whole creepy-secluded-Raven thing again."
"And I'll probably be like this for the rest of my life," Raven predicted. "Get over it."
"Geez. You're even worse in the mornings," Beast Boy muttered and crossed his arms. Raven gave him a look of death and grasped him with her chakra. Without a word, she shadowed him out her door. She heard his squawk of protest followed by more evil mutters in her direction disappearing down the hall.
After taking an hour to calm herself down, Raven ventured out of her room and down to the end of breakfast. She entered the room without a word and made her tea, sitting down at the table that was mostly devoid of food now.
"Well, look who decided to join us," Cyborg commented in between bites of scrambled eggs. While he wasn't looking, Beast Boy dumped a spoonful of tofu eggs into his breakfast.
"I have a complaint in the security of my room," Raven told him, watching him scoop up the tofu eggs and pause at her comment. Beast Boy watched slack-jawed as the tofu stopped within inches of Cyborg's mouth.
"That stuff is state-of-the-art," Cyborg told her. "What could possibly be wrong with it?"
"Goober Boy over there snuck into my room this morning," Raven replied. Beast Boy stopped staring at the spoonful of tofu and returned his attention to the conversation.
"Actually, I did it last night," he clarified happily. "And you talk in your sleep."
Her hood was down as it usually was when she wandered the Tower, so everyone saw the vein in her head pop out and begin to pulse. "Cyborg, Beast Boy put tofu in your eggs. Bon appetite."
Cyborg, who was in the middle of chewing, stopped abruptly and turned to face the squirming changeling. During the stare-down, Starfire put Silky on the table, who inched over and began feasting on the boys' breakfast. Raven got up from the table with her tea and walked away from the egg-spitting wrestling fight, headed for her room. Robin was fast on her heels.
"Hey, before you lock yourself up again—" he began.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she snapped as she turned on him.
"It means that you've been hiding in your room a lot lately," Robin clarified. "I wanted to know if you wanted to go on city patrol with us."
"No," Raven answered and turned to continue down the hall. "I will watch the Tower."
"What is up with you lately?" Robin inquired, giving chase. "You never hang out with us anymore. It's like you don't—"
"I just need my space," Raven answered quickly. "I'm not ignoring you."
"Then go with us to dinner at the Pizza Palace," Robin insisted. "It won't kill you, right?"
"Fine," Raven agreed, somewhat irritably. "Can I go now?"
"Yeah," Robin mumbled, glowering as he walked away.
Raven made it the rest of the way to her room undeterred and locked the door behind her. She sighed heavily as she plopped down on the edge of her bed and began rubbing her temples. After a few minutes of silently massaging away her growing headache, she dropped her hands into her lap.
"How long are you going to watch me?" she called out.
"You know, you make it hard for a guy to sneak into your room these days."
Raven stood up and turned around to face the figure that had just emerged from hiding within her curtains.
"What, no hug?" Red X joked.
"I thought you weren't going to break into my room anymore," Raven stated, crossing her arms.
"No, I said I wouldn't steal you anymore," Red X explained, walking towards the pale spell-caster. "I never said anything about breaking into your room."
Raven turned her back on him and began collecting the books that were strewn across the floor from earlier that morning. "So then, what do I owe this little visit?"
"I just missed your sparkling personality," Red X stated, sarcasm dripping from his words.
"Yeah, like you miss a swift kick in the ass," Raven muttered, placing the books on her bookshelf. "You want something from me."
"So what if I do?" he threw out. "Would you give it to me?"
"Depends, I suppose," Raven told him. "What do you want?"
"You," was his response. Raven quirked an eyebrow at him.
"No," she stated flatly.
"Let me explain," he started.
"No," she interrupted. "Not interested."
"Raven," he tried again. "I…need your help."
Raven blinked at him. "Come again?"
"I know you're not hard of hearing," X commented.
Raven sighed heavily. "Why me?"
"Partly because you're the only Titan that doesn't attack me every time you see me," X stated.
"And the other part?" Raven asked, somewhat afraid of the answer.
"I thought you might want a vacation from this lame walk of life," X chuckled. "You seem a little stressed out."
"Screw you," she hissed, heading for her door. "I have better things to do with my time than waste it with you."
"Look," Red X began, moving to block her exit. "I have a problem—"
"I'll say," Raven muttered.
"I assume that you watch the headlines, if not the news," he continued. She nodded. "Do you remember seeing something last week about the museum that lost the Eye of Eden?"
"I was there," Raven clarified. "We got there just after you got out."
"I barely got out," he revealed. "And before you say it, no, I am not slipping."
"So what's your excuse then?" she asked.
"Slade," he said.
"Slade?" she repeated.
"He's been sending is robot lackeys out to sabotage my jobs," Red X told her. "The museum was just the first. Over the last week he has been tracking me relentlessly on any job I go out on and sets me up for a fall."
"I fail to see what any of this has to do with me," Raven told him. "I can't help you find Slade. And as far as him sabotaging your 'jobs,' that's just too bad. It's nice having someone else do the work for us."
"You should just agree to do it," X warned her. "I don't want to have to be mean."
"There is nothing you can say that is going to convince me to do this," Raven denied.
"I know about the secret that you and Boy Wonder keep," X said. "I know that he wants to keep his little business transaction with me a secret from the rest of the Titans."
"How do you…" Raven began. Red X walked up close and unclasped the cloak from her shoulders. On the back of the clasp was a tiny metallic X that could only be seen when light was reflected against it.
"It was an insightful ride home," X stated. "I hate using these kinds of tactics, but sometimes you gotta do something you don't like in order to get what you want. So if you don't agree to cooperate with me, I will reveal Robin's deceit to the other Titans."
Raven stood silently for a moment. "I hate you."
"I'll take that as a yes, then," X surmised. "I have a few details to work out and then I'll be back to get you. Pack light, we're taking the motorcycle."
Raven didn't even grace him with a response. She stared at the opposite wall as if to bore holes in it, trying to control her temper.
"Oh, by the way," Red X spoke up, standing in the window sill, "Beast Boy was right. You do talk in your sleep. It's actually quite amusing to know that you dream about me."
Raven lost her temper and used her chakra to throw books from her shelf out the window after him, yelling obsenaties at him as she crossed her room to the window. Not surprisingly, when she looked down he was out of sight. She willed her books back to her room and began reorganizing them before any of her teammates came inquiring as to why it had suddenly started raining spellbooks.
A/N: As always, feedback is appreciated. Let me know what you think so far.