Thanks for reading still, after that horrendous wait. It was irking me beyond belief not being able to write this, so I apologize if it's not quite so good, but the next chapter will be much better with any luck!
P.S. castle in the air has been very sick but she is better now and will be writing more for her stories, so leave her a review if you have a second, when I say sick, I mean very bad and she's down right now sooo...
In light of that, dedicated to castle in the air...I'm so glad you're finally healing.
Because I admire you, dedicated to: The Writer you Fools, Cherry Jade, and Alena-chan.
Hush
Chapter Six (Yeah, finally!)
"TITANS, GO!"
They dashed into action, as usual. Villain du jour?
Cinderblock and Plasmus.
A block head and a blob, oh goody, Raven cast a thought carelessly.
"I don't see what you're so excited about," Aqualad caught the thought cheekily as he ran below her toward Cinderblock who was already under attack from Starfire and Beast Boy—now in T-Rex form. The empath made a sound of scoffing in her mind, clearly audible to the Atlantian before diving out of herself and making a beeline straight for Plasmus.
This really was her job after all; no one else could take him apart quite like she could.
As she felt his being separate she returned to her body in time to see the Cyborg deliver a dead-center hit with his cannon. The bionic man grinned, "Boo-yah!" Aqualad stood to the side next to Beast Boy and Starfire—who clapped as Starfire would—and Robin stood to the far side.
And it was like any other day: villains make the stupid mistake of coming out. Titans get alerted and the villains get taken out. And that's that.
Well, almost.
Raven's brow knit in confusion as a strange white and red wall shot up between her and the other titans. Robin ran forward, concern evident even as Raven looked for another way out. She turned to go the other way. Another glowing wall shot up. She flew up only to have a veritable ceiling shoot over her so fast she ran into it.
Something like fire and lightning jolted through her and her heart must have stopped for a moment because she couldn't breathe. She felt herself falling.
"No!" Robin dashed forward but Starfire held him back.
"Friend Robin, no! You cannot touch it! You cannot help her that way! We must find another!" she struggled to reason with the leader even as he refused to listen.
"Raven!" Robin shouted to her but there was no response. He struggled harder. Aqualad stared, aghast and cold with an undetermined amount of fear as he closed his eyes in concentration. Maybe she couldn't 'hear' them...but telepathy was another kind of hearing.
Raven, wake up! Catch yourself Raven! We can't get through. Raven! RAVEN!
The wind rushing past her was her first sensation as her eyes snapped open and she swerved in the air, stopping a bare two feet above the concrete. She heard sighs of relief and turned to face her friends. Starfire was shooting starbolts at one side of it while Cyborg tried his cannon, both to no visible avail. Robin stood, fists clenched to one side, Beast Boy with a hand on his shoulder as both a warning and a preventative measure. There was no reason for Robin to injure himself in a way they already knew would happen.
"Raven," he took one cautious step closer to the wall and it crackled and spat like small explosions. A couple sparks made cuts on his skin and burns across his chest, but he didn't really notice. Raven did.
Robin, stop, she motioned, her gesture conveying more ease than she felt. He stopped. For some reason she'd always had that power over him.
"Raven can you get through the ground?" Aqualad appeared at Robin's shoulder. Rather than replying, Raven simply concentrated. Her trademark glow surrounded her as she seemed to disappear in the form of a Raven. Shortly she reappeared outside of it.
"That was quick thinking," Cyborg praised, and Aqualad shrugged.
"Just glad it worked," he said. Raven rubbed her temples absently and Robin took this moment to approach her.
"Are you okay?" It was one of those questions that asked a little more than it said. She gazed levelly at him, tucking some stray strands of hair behind her ear. There were visible burn marks on her neck and part of her shoulder where her leotard had been burned away. Her cloak was tattered and her face a little smudged from the burns. But she nodded to him.
I'm fine, but this is a little elaborate for Plasmus and Cinderblock, Raven noted to herself as she waved a dismissive hand at her leader in an effort to make him stop wearing that horribly worried look. But she ruined the façade as she winced, trying to readjust her posture. Maybe she wasn't so fine... she felt very weak and a little dizzy...
"Titans, so good to see your delightful faces, all...6 of you is it?"
All six titans turned.
"What are you doing here?" Robin's voice only reached that tone and loathing with one entity the other titans knew of and from the sound of the voice, he was right...but where...
"Up here, titans," Slade eyed them all speculatively, standing cockily on the edge of the nearest skyscraper. "What, no warm welcome?" he taunted. Glares from all sides met the long-time villain and psychopath. "Ah, but I suppose some of you are finding it a little more...difficult to say...anything at all, isn't that right, little Raven?" He leapt down, not even grunting with the effort as he landed with an almost inhuman agility. The other titans immediately moved in between him and Raven, who for her part was baffled.
Trigon was gone—pretty much—and that was about all that was interesting about her that she knew of...of interest to villains in any case. Her vision swam violently with a harsh abruptness in the middle of her thought however and she felt herself stumble.
"Back off Slade," Robin bit out. Behind him stood Starfire, then Beast Boy, then Cyborg, and then Aqualad who was helping Raven to keep on her feet. Slade's laughter cut like a cold wind through the empty street.
"I'll indulge you, my ex-apprentice, but I'd be careful with your bird. You wouldn't want her to fly away to a new home, would you?" He leaned in closer to Robin, mask leering at him darkly as he added in a hiss, "She might never come back." Resolve snapping, Robin lashed out but Slade made a quick side-step and, to the confusion and horror of the titans, began to glow an eerie red as a black vortex opened behind him and he disappeared into it, ever smug mask fading slowly away into nothing.
"Since when can Slade do that?" Beast Boy echoed words from over a year ago. All turned questioning eyes to Raven, who shook her head, which turned out to be a mistake. The floor heaved up under her and she fell this time. Very vaguely she was aware of a pair of strong arms catching her and holding her. Voices called to her, her friends, she guessed murkily. Somewhere in her blurring consciousness she also heard a terrible laughter, high and empty, long and devilish...worse than any sound she'd ever heard.
And then there was darkness.
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When she awoke she was in the med room of Titans' Tower. Not surprised, she shifted a little, blinking and trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She bit her lip. Her body still ached like it had been broken even though it had only been a strange burn...
She examined her exposed arms and wrists, her legs too—damn hospital gown. Why'd they put her in this thing? Leave it to Raven, she still had enough of her usual nature to scowl at her current attire with the deepest of misgivings. The burns on her legs looked like angry red scratches, as did the ones on her right arm. There were none on her left that she could find. On her right lower thigh there was a long red mark, a burn, but she found this odd because she'd been nearly positive it was her whole body that got the shock. So why was most of the rest of her body alright? She might have examined this further but company kept her from doing so.
The electric door opened and Robin came in.
Well, more accurately, he stood in the doorway.
"...how are you feeling?" he asked, leaning against the doorframe.
Raven shrugged without feeling as if to say: fine, without meaning it, and her leader graced her with an equally empty laugh.
"I thought you might," he said and came in all the way, to the point that now Raven could see his other arm, previously hidden. He carried under his arm a book and in the same hand, a mug of tea. Her expression softened.
You know me too well, she mused with an odd gentleness as she accepted the tea. Robin placed the book on the stand to Raven's left.
"We have a bond," he replied gently, not in response to her thoughts, for he could not hear them, but more as a statement, an explanation. Hiis voice held more emotion than he'd meant to show, however, and Raven's attention sharpened as she looked at her leader.
She mouthed 'How are the others?' to him and Robin shrugged.
Raven took a sip of her tea.
"Fine, they're fine. He was—they were—we were all very worried," Robin cut himself off as his eyes fell to focus on the floor. 'He' was of course, Aqualad. The Atlantian had wanted to stay there until the sorceress woke, but Robin had exercised his leader role and said that what Raven needed was space, and sleep, not a keeper. The Atlantian had, however begrudgingly, agreed and let it drop. At this thought, Robin shifted his weight absently.
Misreading his actions, for once, Raven waved her free hand as if to restate she was fine, and Robin nodded with an equally dismissive air.
"Yes, I know. You're 'fine', he said and shot her a look.
Raven arched a brow as if to challenge him.
"What? I don't believe you. It's not the first time," he said and Raven took another sip of her tea, averting her gaze to the bed sheets in a disgruntled huff.
Damn observant leaders, she thought darkly, the warmth of the tea soothing her muscles from the inside out, just a bit.
"I'm worried about you," Robin said at last but that was all, and then silence ensued again. The sorceress sipped at her tea. The boy wonder shifted his weight again. Sip. Shift. Sip. Shift.
Raven closed her eyes as she set the empty mug on the night stand next to the book. So he was worried about her? She wanted to tell him he didn't need to be, that she could take care of herself—regardless of the most recent event's results. But of course, she couldn't. And the truth was she feared her own lies a little more than usual for once.
Without her words, without the usual use of her power controlled by voice and instinct, could she truly take care of herself?
Should she even be with the team?
Her heart hardened at the thought of having to leave and her hands wound themselves in the white sheets around her. Robin watched her carefully from behind his mask, always that small, safe distance from her—that was what the mask was for him and her. It wasn't a cover-up since she knew his eyes from all that time ago with the Slade hallucinations, but it did provide a definitive barrier. Still, as he watched her now, he wondered at their distance.
Before he really computed his actions he was standing right next to her side and had lifted her chin with his hand.
"Hey," he smiled. Raven's shock won over her default-rage at having her personal space so clearly invaded. She stared, wide-eyed as a child she didn't quite remember being. "You're not going anywhere," he said gently.
And Raven reconsidered the possibility of Robin's knack for telepathy.
His face was very close and she wasn't certain if it was her imagination or not, but she could see his eyes: pools of the ocean during a storm.
Fitting, she thought absently.
She wanted to ask him why he was so near.
Robin, for his part, was not sure what possessed him beyond the pure uncertainty of what was to come but instinct and the uncontrolled edges of his feelings seemed to take over as he tilted Raven's chin up slightly and leaned closer.
Closer.
Closer.
Closer...
And the mug on the nightstand shattered into a million pieces along with the light. Robin covered himself and Raven as best he could with his cape and cursed himself internally.
"Sorry…I...I'll go get another bulb," he said in the darkness. Raven was aware of how close his voice sounded, how it almost felt like his lips brushed past her cheek when he said those awkward words, and how his cape felt as it slid off of her shoulders. "Back in a second," he said over his shoulder and jammed something in the door to keep it open so light might come in from the hall, so Raven wouldn't be in the dark. Before she could do anything, he had hurried away.
And he wasn't back in a second. Starfire came instead. In addition to the new light bulb, the Tamaranian had another cloak, and leotard for Raven. And perhaps Robin had sent Starfire instead because of the implications of her needing help to get dressed again...or something.
But a voice in the back of Raven's mind told her different.
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Raven sighed a soundless sigh.
She stood at the wide window in the common room of Titans' Tower. Winter was approaching early, it seemed as she pressed the flat of her hand against the glass to feel its coldness.
A week passed and Raven was feeling better, almost back to normal. Robin, it seemed, was avoiding her and she couldn't bring herself to seek him out after their near-incident.
And she wasn't even sure it was an incident to begin with, or what might have happened had her emotions not picked that time to skyrocket...and that was another thing, what had done that? Surely her emotions weren't suggesting that she...
Her eyes widened and then narrowed with the same speed.
No way.
A patented scowl of deepest displeasure soon followed.
I didn't...he doesn't...her thoughts got messy after that, the color of traffic lights and a dark room.
The sorceress began to pace, cat-like, a little nervous, and very, very perturbed. She didn't want to think about this right now...her voice was her first priority she told herself and buried any further musings over her team leader with about twenty feet of other more tangible problems. For instance, she'd found no spell, no magic of any kind that might help her regain her voice.
And on top of annoying the Hell out of her, it worried her.
Even with the Atlantian's lessons, through which Raven was now so well versed in telepathy that almost all her undercurrents of thought had been duly muted. Now she could communicate clearly with him, and it felt almost natural.
But that worried her too.
What if, perhaps, she forgot the way to speak? It was something she might have laughed at prior to her predicament. How could one simply forget? But Raven knew well the conflicts of disuse and she took them, logically, into account now.
Still...perhaps she would find the spell today. Or not...whatever. She felt like hitting her head on something sharp, or blunt with great zeal, but refrained. Perhaps things would sort themselves out...not that they ever had before...
She sighed again. This pessimism might just kill her.
If Slade and whatever cockamamie plot he'd thought up now didn't first. At this thought, her pulse skipped nervously. She'd never been caught so off guard before...and that strange power the villain had yielded was not Trigon's power. That she would recognize in a light-speed second. But the enigmatic nature of it concerned her. She could not recall anything in her readings of the power to open rifts in space relative to weird red auras and strange red electric-fire shields.
What are you planning, Slade? She wondered absently, darkly and tried then to put him from her mind. She didn't need this right now.
Raven paused in her pacing and took another long stare through the window at the bay. It was nearly the same blue as the sky, practically melting into each other. A smile, soft and honest, tugged at her lips and she brought her hand to her mouth, thoughtful. Since she'd been taking lessons with Aqualad, the Atlantian seemed rather fiercely intent on not only helping her learn to control her thoughts, but to have fun...or as close as Raven would ever come to having fun. A few more smiles her and there, a silent laugh, a twinkle of the eyes, all these Raven saw he tried to elicit from her, successful more often than not. In fact, he'd gotten so successful at it that here she found herself smiling all of her own accord...even, apparently, directly considering the intentions of an at-large psychopath with otherworldly new powers.
Go figure.
Raven supposed she owed the Atlantian for his kindness and patience. It was truly a gift at this time, for her. His presence made things feel calm, like the sea on a clear day and the empath highly suspected this was because he projected that feeling onto her. But that was, for some reason, okay with her.
There were few people who had ever been able to help her feel truly at peace, even for a moment...
"How are we feeling today?"
The voice of the person of her thoughts sounded.
Raven turned as Aqualad approached her, his almost always-in-place smile/smirk greeting her.
Don't say 'we'. It makes me feel like I'm in a hospital...or an asylum...and like you're a doctor, Raven deadpanned and though he laughed in reply, Aqualad also nodded his head.
"Alright, sorry. How are you though? You look like a lioness in a cage," he remarked.
How long have you been in this room? Raven arched a brow and turned back to face the view of the bay. Sometimes she couldn't help but be disconcerted by his intense kindness, as with Robin and his intense sense of justice. They each emanated their thoughts through look and action, so Raven found it comforting to look elsewhere when speaking with either one.
Not that she'd had the chance to talk to the latter for some time.
He'd been...dare she say, avoiding her...she suspected. She noted the Atlantian as he shifted to stand beside her.
"Long enough to make that simile," he replied and she rolled her eyes.
I see. Raven absently leaned her forehead against the glass.
"So, something troubling you?" Aqualad asked and opted to sit with his back against the window, looking up at his prodigal student—and potential love interest, even if she didn't know it still. She gazed sideways and down at him.
Do you think I'll find a counter-curse? Her eyes closed and Aqualad frowned deeply. So she was fearful? He supposed he should have sensed it himself, but fear not being a thing he had honestly ever associated with Raven—except in the cases she instilled the fear—since she seemed so very...immune.
But that was a silly assumption. He scrutinized her as thoroughly as possible while Raven's eyes remained shut. There was the slight furrow of the brow—worry—and the slight down, uneven turn of her mouth—fear and uncertainty...and anger?
His frown deepened. Just what was she...
Oh. He saw.
"Raven," he said gently and her eyes opened half-way.
What? He almost laughed, but didn't quite. This was very much the first face of Raven he had come to know—monosyllabic and a little sarcastic for no particular reason. He shook his head at her, which earned him a faint glare and then he sighed.
"Don't be angry at yourself for feeling fear."
Raven's eyes widened all the way.
I'm not, she responded and Aqualad stared up at her skeptically.
"Raven, give me a little credit here," he said and she felt guilt almost before he finished saying it. He was right. He would know whether she wanted him to or not. Sometimes she forgot, even after all this time, that he was not like the others who could be fooled or put off by a look or gesture of indifference. He saw a bit too much for that sort of ploy to work.
I'm not afraid of him, she clarified instead and Aqualad nodded.
"I'm not surprised. But you're afraid of something. Will you tell me?" His eyes bore into hers and Raven marveled at his candid nature with her. Few and far between dared to cross such dangerous grounds with her...probing for answers was not usually something that ended prettily with Raven.
But she found herself not angry...not irritated...rather...chastened maybe, by his frankness.
Chastened?
A first time for everything, I guess, she mused and Aqualad laughed but not unkindly.
"Yes, I think so," he said and then waited. Half of him expected her to just shake her head and not answer at all. The other half of him hoped for more than that. In all his time at the tower, he hadn't been able to bring himself to act any further on his feelings and while he discerned Robin hadn't either, Aqualad also discerned it was much for the same reasons. They both found random things getting in their way—circumstances being what they now seemed to be, what with Slade's mysterious powers and targeting Raven once more.
It simply wasn't time...
But every time he got near her he found even his well disciplined resolve to be patient crumble just a bit. There was something, or several things rather, that simply drew him to her...a tilt of her head, the way she wrinkled her nose when something displeased her rather than her daily scowl that was less an expression, more just her default mode. It was maybe in the way that her smiles were now more frequent, in the way that he felt her warmth in small time spans when they were a little nearer than they needed to be, whether or not she noticed. He certainly did.
Her mind's voice broke into his thoughts, which he did well to keep heavily guarded from her.
I am afraid of the harm I may cause by staying, she whispered to his mind and heart and the Atlantian stood slowly, looking down thoughtfully at the heliotrope haired sorceress.
"Raven, let me tell you something," he said, all kindness and leaned his forehead against hers as a dear friend might—or someone more. "You won't be doing any harm by staying. It's the harm that might occur if you don't stay, that you should consider."
But I—
"You're an important member of this team. I can see that, and the others can too which is what you should really take into account. I'm just here for you after all," he rushed his words a bit but Raven caught them all, hanging onto his last ones.
For me?
"I'm always here for you," he said, evasive but no less truthful. "And so are the others," he added and stepped back a pace.
That kind of nearness reminded him why he usually didn't get quite so near.
The desire to kiss her was just a bit overwhelming.
Another thought the Atlantian kept tactfully to himself.
I don't know if it's worth it, Raven admitted, pulling her cloak tighter around herself absently.
"Maybe some day you will," Aqualad said and stared out at the bay again. Raven did the same and for a few minutes all the sound was their soft, even breathing mingling.
Winter's coming. Do you want to return home yet? Raven asked, trying to keep the degree of sadness she felt out of it. Part of her was confused with that sadness. Part of her understood it...even if it couldn't put a name to it yet.
"Do you want me to go?" Aqualad asked, voice carefully even but eyes betraying much of what he did not say. Raven shook her head immediately.
I just thought...you've helped so much...I don't want to make you feel you have to stay.
Aqualad refrained from rolling his eyes. Have to stay?
Sheesh.
She really wouldn't ever get it, unless he told her, he realized more fully now.
Really...make him stay?
He refrained once more from rolling his eyes.
"I'll be glad to stay a while longer, if the titans will have me," he said.
We will, she replied and they both stared back out at the bay again.
Robin, having earlier forgotten a file on the kitchen breakfast counter took this moment to step into the room. His steps, quiet as usual and not preceded by a swishing door did not alert the Atlantian or the empath. His eyes flickered over the pair, standing, he thought, unnecessarily close.
Close.
He'd been so close...millimeters away...and then...
Robin ran a hand through his hair as he picked up the file with his other hand and silently made his way back to his research lab.
Close to what? His inner voice mocked. Kissing her? Big deal.
It is a big deal, Robin argued...with himself to his own disturbance as he entered the research lab, door locking behind him automatically.
And now he's close, the inner voice kept on coming.
Oh shut up.
You've been avoiding her. Serves you right. Coward.
I'm not. It's just not the right time.
The Atlantian will win her and then she'll never even know your feelings existed.
Maybe it's better that way.
The inner voice had nothing to say to that and Robin, sighing, buried his face in his hands after tossing the file on top of one of his many haphazard stacks of files.
He had tried approaching her several times since that day in the med lab, but each time there was an interference—usually in the form of Aqualad, who whether or not he planned it, was doing an excellent job of shutting the boy wonder out.
And then there were a couple times when they had to go out on assignments, at which point he usually made indirect suggestions for Raven to stay behind, at which point she caught on, shot daggers at him, and he relented and they set off in pairs instead.
And of course because in a pinch Aqualad was the only one who had immediate communication with her, Raven went with him.
So things went, and each time Robin's nerves became edgier and edgier. Slade was no fool, unfortunately and his sadistic side seemed to grow with every passing encounter. The fact that Raven was his target did not help matters.
Robin wished it was he who has the target, but no such luck. Slade had, of course, already had his fun with him. The boy wonder's jaw clenched.
That definitely went on his 'biggest mistakes of my multiple lives' list.
Without even looking he punched in a couple of key codes and his disturbingly extensive files and data and codes on Slade shot up on the high definition laser screens all around the room. They spanned all the screens and kept on going for quite some time.
And still, Robin knew so little.
Sometimes he thought he might go mad.
All he knew was much what he knew the first time he truly met Slade. The man was nuts, one. He was good at his trade, two. And he was, without a doubt, very, very sadistic, three.
Robin wanted to keep Raven safe.
Robin wanted to tell Raven he liked her...that he might love her...that with each passing day that he couldn't find the words or time or moment to be with her, part of him felt like it was mutating into something horrible and unnamed.
Robin wanted a chance.
But in the midst of the Slade affair, those things seemed slim and he couldn't take chances. So instead of seeking her out, Robin set into looking for more information on Slade, more on his questionable new powers, more anything...
Anything to keep her safe.
As for Aqualad...well, if he could make her happy...
Robin's heartbeat was loud in his ears.
If Aqualad made her happy...
A loud and shrill beep signaled new potential information on the subject—Slade—and Robin turned to the screens fully.
Well, if he made her happy, then Robin supposed, perhaps it was his duty as her leader and friend to make her safe.
His feelings, it seemed, would have to wait.
Sorry it took so long. Work and school and writer's block equal much difficulty in getting new chapters out! Aiyaaaa!
Anyways, thanks to anyone who's stayed with this story so long. So we've got more plot now yippee. It's not just attempted humor and stuff, though there will be much more of that as a break probably next chapter, which will be out much sooner, promise.
A review is always great but if you're still reading, hey that's enough for me!
:smile:
-Rei