"Falling"
Robin fell.
Raven screamed as he fell.
She darted towards him, desperately trying to save her love from an enemy he could never defeat.
She was too late.
Images of his broken body lying at the foot of an unknown structure flashed through her mind.
She screamed again.
An ethereal voice called her name. She looked up, bewildered with grief and loss.
"Raven!" it cried.
"Raven, it's not real! You have to wake up!"
"Raven, I need you..."
Raven woke with a start. "Robin!"
A masked face framed by black hair looked down at her.
"You were screaming, so I came to check on you. I'm here. It's okay now."
"I saw you...fall... I thought...I thought..." Raven stuttered, trying to free her mind of the horrible picture in her head. "I need some air."
Robin took her arm over his shoulder and helped her up and along the corridor to the roof. She took a deep breath, and her tense body relaxed somewhat.
"Thanks, Robin. I...I think I'll be okay now." she said, pulling her white cloak around her. She stood on tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.
"Well, whatever you say, Rae. But you know, just shout if you need me." Robin said seriously. Raven raised an eyebrow.
"Who are you and what have you done with my bright and happy boyfriend?" she joked feebly. "Relax, Boy Blunder, I'm fine now."
Robin smiled and gave her a thumbs-up sign before turning and going back into the Tower.
As Robin walked down the corridors towards his room, he started thinking about the things Raven had been sending down their mind-link without knowing (mainly when she was sleeping). He remembered seeing a fair few images of him with a black suit on, instead of his normal garish attire.
He thought some more. I do want to get rid of the "Boy Wonder" image...
An evil grin started in his eyes and made its way across his face.
He looked around surreptitiously and, confirming no one was around, sprinted to his room, closed and locked the door, and opened a secret compartment in his wardrobe, revealing something he'd been keeping secret for a good few months. A flash of blue reflected off a metallic material and the light played across his face for a few seconds before he closed the wardrobe.
He pulled his hair out of the hood of his jumper where he'd been hiding it for the past week or so, during the period of very little crime when they'd barely gone out once. He closed his eyes for a second.
Time for a show...
Robin wandered into the common room and sat down beside Cyborg and Changeling (formerly Beast Boy), the former attempting to read a car magazine without throwing up at the sight of the latter eating some insane "culinary creation" made predominately of tofu and nuclear waste.
"Robin..." Cyborg sighed only half-jokingly, "What have you done to your hair?"
"Hey dude, nice mullet!" Changeling put in before collapsing into a fit of laughter. "And I love the white highlights! Very stylish!"
"Seriously man, that hair does NOT work with your outfit. Or any outfit, for that matter!" Cyborg grinned. "Why're you even changing your hair?"
"Well, you guys have all messed with your uniforms. Beast Boy – oops, Changeling, sorry Gar – has his new white-and-red colour scheme; Rae's got a pure white outfit and her hair's down to her waist; Starfire's rocking that bloody armour and you've got gold bits on yourself for no reason whatsoever, so why can't I change my look? I need my hair long for my new outfit. Which, I might add, contains the best tech this side of S.T.A.R. Labs. My old one's outdated." Robin's eyes gleamed. "Also, the highlights are cool. Very cool."
"The gold bits are for cooling purposes and definitely notso I can just look seriously pimpin'." Cyborg asked, instantly interested by both the promise of technology and the opportunity to discuss his 'bling'. "And how 'outdated' is it?"
"About 1.3 million versions." Robin said. "I haven't really been in the market for new tech for the Robin suit because it doesn't particularly need any more than Birdarangs and explosive discs. The new outfit will, though."
Changeling said something through his snack.
"Yeah, when are we going to get to see your super secret new outfit, Rob?" Cyborg translated.
An unseen glint flashed in Robin's eye.
"Soon."
Raven sat alone on the roof, thinking.
Sensing Robin's distinctive aura behind her – not needing to open her eyes – she asked him what he wanted.
"I wanted to know...what that nightmare you had was about."
Raven inhaled sharply. She sat there for a minute, cross-legged and debating whether to tell him. She decided yes, she would tell him.
"You were falling...falling off somewhere high...and...and I couldn't save you...and I...I..."
"Lost me." Robin said quietly.
Raven nodded.
Robin shook off his mobid attitude and his voice took on a lighter tone.
"Well then, concerned girlfriend Raven, allow me to demonstrate why you will never have to worry about me falling to my doom from a tall building."
She turned around. He had his back to her.
"Those boots look different to his normal ones..." she thought. "...and his hair's weirdly styled...weirdly...totally hot..."
His cape covered the rest of his body so she couldn't see the rest of his outfit.
He took a step away from her, closer to the edge of the building, and undid the cape from around his neck. She gasped.
Robin was wearing what looked like a reproduction of the Batsuit, only without a cowl or a cape. Heavily armoured gauntlets and boots, the latter with some kind of nozzles on them, complemented the look. His hair was in a mullet with white bits at the tips of his hair and a white lightning bolt ran down the middle of his hair. Two stubby sticks protruded from holsters on his back, mounted on a stripe of blue in a V-shape. A belt consisting of multiple silver rectangles was still present; no change about Robin's obsession with utility belts, other than the colour.
He didn't turn around.
"You might want to call Cyborg and Beast Boy." Robin said. Raven could practically hear the grin on his face. She shouted down the stairs and the two troublemakers were on the roof before she could finish the phrase "Robin's got a new suit."
Robin waved a hand in their general direction and said "Hi guys. Bye guys."
With that, Robin promptly stuck his arms out in a T-shape and did a little hop off the side of the Tower.
Raven screamed. He DIDN'T just do that to me..!
All three Titans ran to the edge to try to catch a glimpse of their leader.
They were very surprised when a black and blue figure shot up the side of the Tower and into the air before turning and flying back down to hover about three feet away from the awestruck onlookers, suspended four feet in the air.
"Hey." he said. Flames sprayed out from the bottom of his boots. Black-backed wings with blue insides stuck out from his upper back and were clipped onto his arms for stability.
A blue bird was splayed across his chestplate, glowing slightly.
He did a couple of loop-the-loops until he got a reaction.
"Wow." Changeling was speechless until realisation struck him. "Wait, dude. YOU'RE FLYING!"
"Boot jets? Carbonadium fibre armour?" Cyborg was muttering to himself. "Where do you even get all this cool stuff?"
Robin laughed and said "I'll tell Batman you like the toys."
He landed on the Tower roof, spreading smoke, his jets blasting the small stones and gravel in a circle around him as he slowly descended towards the roof and killed the thrusters, landing with a dull clunk on the concrete surface in an exaggerated pose; legs bent and arms holding the wings above his head.
He stood up, grinning, and the wings folded up into shoulderpads.
Raven was in shock, staring at the emblem on the armour.
"How's this for my new name: Nightwing!" the now newly renamed Nightwing grinned, eyes gleaming behind his heavily stylised X-shaped mask.
"Works..." Cyborg said dubiously.
"What kind of bird is that on your chest, Nightwing?" Changeling asked curiously.
"Duh, it's a robin." Cyborg said, as though talking to a two-year-old. "As homage to your old identity?"
"No, it's not." Nightwing said, shaking his head. "It's actually a-"
Raven interrupted, snapping out of her trance.
"It's...a raven..." she breathed in wonder. "It's...it's beautiful..."
Raven walked up to her boyfriend and rested her head on the raven emblem on his chest. She put her hand on it and looked up at her Nightwing.
He pushed her hood off her face and put his arms around her in response.
"I always dreamed you'd wear black..." she mused.
"I know." he said, smiling down at her.
She stood on tiptoes and whispered "Don't you go flying away from me, Richard."
He said nothing, just bent down and kissed her gently. She threw her arms around him and responded passionately.
Cyborg and Changeling mimed throwing up in the background.
"WARNING: PROXIMITY ALERT." A computerised voice with a very British accent interrupted them. "DISPENSING TRANQUILISER GAS."
"Uh-oh..." Nightwing said.
Two small doors opened on Nightwing's right wrist revealing a small missile which swivelled into place and fired into the floor, spraying yellowy gas all over the roof.
A black battlemask with X-shaped visor closed over Nightwing's entire head immediately and he took a see-through rebreather from his belt and clapped it over Raven's face.
"Mmph-" she said through a gas filter, "What was that?"
"That would be the suit's auto-defense system." Nightwing said sheepishly.
"Well, now that your new uniform has effectively ruined any moment we were just having there, what are we going to do?" Raven said, her voice coming through the rebreather as a tinny wheeze.
"Well, we could always watch this beautiful sunset?" Nightwing said hopefully, his voice sounding robotic like his erstwhile alter ego Red X's.
It was at this point that Changeling staggered drunkenly into view and fainted at their feet.
"Another moment ruined. Thanks Nightwing." Raven deadpanned.
Nightwing rolled his eyes (or Raven assumed he did – she was unable to see them).
He walked her inside and sealed the door, before stepping away from her and muttering for the armour to disengage.
The armour retracted into a very metallic looking backpack, leaving him in his civilian clothes.
He stepped back.
"Raven..." Nightwing said gently.
"Richard..." Raven mimicked him.
"Please don't kill me, but..."
"But?"
Nightwing got out a small box from his pocket.
Raven started panicking. "Oh sweet Azar, he's gone mad!" she screamed mentally.
Nightwing opened the box to reveal a ring. A blue raven ring. Not an engagement ring.
Raven exhaled, stopping her panic.
"Not the kind of ring you were expecting?" Nightwing grinned.
"Happy Anniversary, Raven."
"You remembered!" Raven said, surprised.
"What kind of a jerk would I be if I forgot...for the fourth year in a row...?"
"I love you, Robin." Raven walked up to him and kissed him.
"I love you too, Raven." Nightwing said and kissed her.
Raven slipped away and into her room. She smiled to herself as she heard him in the corridor.
"Wait a minute...IT'S NIGHTWING!"
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or places featured here.
A/N: Yay for new story. Sorry for fans of Wake Up and Sleepless, but their epilogues are SO difficult to write.
I liked the idea of Nightwing's suit being a super-advanced set of armour (which had nothing to do with going to see Iron Man 3 before writing this) so I wrote that in.
Review and tell me what you think!
Tom