It all began with what can only be described as a freak encounter, where the protagonist meets an outrageous, or maybe prodigious, depending on one's perspective, girl. She was mysterious, dark, gloomy, angsty, etc, etc, etc, as the lust-er, I mean, list goes on. In the beginning, it was just me and her. We only had ourselves to depend on, in an odd group of wording. In truth, we were like H2O and oil, always having a thin skin of water tension acting in separation between us. But that line was thin, very………very thin. We were next to each other, just with that condemnable line acting in our separation. Now, in my analysis, that line could've been any number of the complications: the issues regarding her emotions, as well as her personality, and perhaps my inability to relate to others in well manners of all forms. Hero or not, I was and am still just a kid with a very male and very human mind, as well as instincts and innate calibrations, and with those complications, certain rises and bumps came into my friendship with her, as well as with the rest of the Titans, as the team developed through the time. We were a family………heh, yeah, a true 'family'………Teen Titans……the providence of our lives and the remaining days of our glory, which now stands broken and battered like the sick dog………bird, I am……heh, and then things………………………I don't know………………………
-T-T-T-T-T-
"Raven…" Robin mumbled, slowly, perhaps reluctantly, as he crossed the beach to reach the sorceress in acknowledgement.
The winds were gruff, and it tasted bitter against the skin.
Robin halted as he stepped on the edge of a clunk of sand.
He gazed upwards.
The sight of the shape of the tower, the 'T' bellowed to the beings in its now shattered image.
Broken windows. Crumbled doors and shafts. Destroyed electronics. Cindered pieces of unknowns.
A vanquished home.
He snarled. He kept that expression of vex and indignation as he crossed the threshold of grains of minerals and blood.
He was still wearing that sidekick of Batman uniform, and he smelled blood on it.
"Raven." He said, louder, perhaps more intentional.
The girl turned around, and gave a soft smile. She still wore her leotard, minus the hood as of now. Her blue hair drifted across her face along with the harsh winds. Her eyes shined with the light of the dim sun, reflecting grey and violet, but they were cloudy and misted, though perhaps appropriate in accordance to her. She's just as pale as she was ever before, but now the girl seemed to have to taken upon a silvery complexion.
Raven acknowledged him with her soft smile and a nod. "Hello, Robin. Long time no see, eh?"
"Sure, twenty days no see. That's a friggin' long time."
She giggled, and Robin's eyemask thinned.
"Mmmhmmm……you've changed, that's a comforting notion."
"Change? You mean this?" He pointed to his uniform, where now the 'R' was gone, "or my attitude?"
"Overall, of course. It'll be unprofessional of me to evaluate just the simplistic appearances of a formal teammate."
Robin winced and gritted his teeth. "………former…………."
Raven made her first steps, and traveled toward the broken tower. She smiled as she saw the shattered jagged glass pieces of her room on the west side of the tower.
She paused, and motioned for Robin to follow. "……………let's not play hookie now."
His eyemask thinned again. He gripped his hair. His left hand shuddered.
Robin tilted his head upwards.
The sky was blue. There were some clouds.
He sauntered into the tower.
-T-T-
Raven walked towards the base lounge of the tower with her hands behind her back. It almost seemed as if she was humming.
Robin followed. He followed………something.
She paused at the stairs and gave an amused grin.
"Beast Boy used to tumble down these things……" She muttered before she turned around, "So! Where have you been these……twenty days………canoodling?"
Robin frowned. "…………Hell's Kitchen."
"Interesting…….that was where I found Cyborg in the beginning, the alleyways of the freaks, hmmm, suiting for all of us."
"Where have you been?"
Raven placed a finger under her chin. "Mmmmm………?" She smirked.
Robin's eyemask thinned, again. "…….why are you so……fortuitous, Raven? I thought you had to keep your emotions in check, what, with all the meditation you used to force on yourself."
"It got tiring. Besides, there's no reason to keep things under caps for any longer." She held her palm up. "Not since everything that happened, right?"
"R-right, yeah, I g-guess that's r-right."
Raven smiled. "Agreeing with me so readily? Not an argument, a declaration of determination and justice?"
"I changed. You said it yourself."
"And you agreed to that just as readily, hehehehehe."
Robin clenched his fist. "Nnngghh……Raven, just what are you doing here? There's nothing to come back to."
"And yet you returned to this place just as I did, perhaps neither of us can really abandon anything. We're attached………to this tower." She grinned.
Robin shook his head. "No……….we're not attached to this tower, we're attached to the memories associated with it. It's the nostalgic wishing and longing……for what was lost."
"Apparently, you understand more than you and I believed, or knew, whichever applies."
"Whichever applies, is that all this is bullshit! Just……where have you been all these three weeks-"
"Twenty days."
"Whatever! Just where have you been? You haven't answered that question, Raven! I……I……was worried, I think, yeah, I didn't know where you were, if you were safe……and I just come back to this tombstone and I find you here……I was……worried."
"Awwww, you were thinking about me this whole time?"
"Wha-of course! I was worried, Raven! Just where the hell have you been?"
Raven placed her finger under her chin, again. "Mmmmmhmmmmm………just around downtown, slightly north to where the café is. Some people still linger around the city, however much it's changed. Just like you."
"I……..haven't changed-"
"Yes you have."
"………that much."
"Glad you agree, hehehe." She picked up here movement, once more, and floated upwards, where a gigantic hole presented itself.
Robin reached for his belt. He stopped. He looked to the end of the lounge, and saw the elevator.
"……………………………………………………………."
He walked.
He stopped.
He pressed the 'I'button of the elevator against the wall.
He waited. The elevator didn't respond.
He growled, and reached into his utility belt, and pulled out a grappler hook.
"………………………………last one."
SPIIIOOOO!
-T-T-
Robin looked around. He was in the training room.
A single treadmill was still upright, and it was close by. It seemed to be the only thing unscathed amongst debris of metal shards and shrapnel.
The harsh wind was parading around.
He looked to the right. A huge hole resided in the walls.
The sky was still blue.
Robin reached into his utility belt. He found nothing, and he expected nothing.
The boy walked out of the room through a door that wasn't powered with……anything, anymore.
But not before he kicked the treadmill.
-T-T-
The halls were full of the usual shadows, just as it had always been. But now……there was the infuriating knowledge that there is no true life around anymore.
Robin's footsteps echoed through the empty corridors. He arrived at the gathering grounds for the Titans. What once was the Titans, anyways.
He glanced at the broken gigantic monitor.
The kitchen cabinet and counter were severed by blasts of something. There were marks. Claw marks.
He sat down on a stool.
He fingered the remains of a substance.
Everything was silent, like a funeral.
"And now for the demonstration, no, no, 'performance', on the step by step way to create one of man's greatest creations in culinary delights! Not to mention probably one of the more morally prominent actions in the world of kosher, ya bloody meat eaters!" Beast Boy declared, while waving a pan.
-T-T-T-
Cyborg chuckled. "Stayed up all night trying to write that introduction?"
The changeling waved his hand. "Eh, got 'round to sleeping by two a.m."
"Amongst doing other things, I bet."
"Kiss my hairy green arse, ya limie!"
"Dude, I'm black and proud! Hehehehehehe!"
"Hahahahaha!"
Robin took a peak behind the newspapers. "Well, doesn't matter how appealing your commentary is gonna be, Beast Boy, tofu just isn't something I'm used to digesting, oh purgatory, no one's really……ya know, crazy about it."
"Pffft! Go jam your tofu hatin' mangina with your generic hair gel. Cuz this is the real bomb! I learned this recipe from watching a program featuring Steve Martin!"
"……mangina?"
"Hehehehehe!" Starfire giggled.
"Anyways……it's a mushroom bruschetta, and it's a got a kick with the red pepper and onions, but once the mozzarella cheese dances with the greens-"
Cyborg raised a hand. "BB, there just ain't no way and nor any how that I'm gonna eat one of your veggie meals! Heck, it's the exact reason why you're like an anorexic umpa loompa!"
"Oooo! Another 'short' joke, like I haven't seen this comin'………grrrr, I say. Grrrrrrr."
"Hehehehehehe!"
"……mangina?"
Raven walked in, took one glance. "…………so, the torture begins this early in the morning as well."
Beast Boy grinned. "Hey! Miss sunshine, hoz a mushroom bruschetta accompanying your asianic tea sound?"
"Like a protein deficient death."
Starfire clapped her hands. "This is almost an identical comparison of the comedy of situations on the television!"
"Sit com?"
"Silicon! Hehehehehe!"
"……girl, you're one oddball."
Beast Boy mocked a frown. "C'mon! You're not doing ol' green leaves and jam here any justice!"
"I'm exacting justice by staying alive and in control, which will be your end if I eat something that was meant for mellow herbivores."
"Hey, all I'm sayin' is that you could use some nutrition besides water boiled with leaves, you're as pale as the farside of Rob's butt cheeks, which, by the way, we still have the negatives for it."
"Wha-wha-what! Cyborg, you lied to me!"
"Hehehehe! Sorry, man, but ya just got such a sweet ass, and it's not our fault ya lost your trunks to silkie!"
The small monster roared in its basket. "Raaaaarrrgghhh!"
"Hehehehehe! Too bad you don't get any sun there, talk about tender skin."
"Arrrrgghhh!"
"Hahahahahahahaha!" The android and the changeling got up and ran off, with the Boy Wonder close behind, armed with seven birdarangs.
Raven twitched slightly. "……well, that didn't make them sound gay."
"Raven, what is a mangina?"
-T-T-T-
Robin slammed his fist hard against the counter. Dust flew.
He panted slightly, perspiration forming on his forehead.
Slowly, the boy got up, and walked back into the corridors.
-T-T-
Robin's room was still the same, if it wasn't entirely disoriented and damaged. But it still retained its usual element of darkness.
Clippings of newspapers hung on the walls.
One clipping was almost undamaged, and it stood out, or at least the man on the clipping stood out.
"Slade……………."
He tore the clipping off, and just let it fall to the ground.
He then proceeded to shuffle through the turned over bed, tables, books, and gadgets.
Finally, Robin found another golden belt, a fresh one.
He unclasped the one he wore, and replaced it. The belt was slightly cleaner than the rest of him.
With a huff, he left the room, in search of the 'formal' teammate.
-T-T-
He found her in her room. The room was still bleak and ……..noir, as it had been the whole time.
Raven sat on her bed, and was looking out through the windows. Towards the west.
Robin took a few steps forward, before he just halted and gazed at the girl.
She was smiling.
Robin almost growled. "……….why are you smiling?"
She threw him a glance. "…………hehehee……you don't remember, do you? About all that's happened?"
"What the hell are you talking about? Of course I remember, how can I not remember?" He clenched his fists. "Star-Starfire………Cy-Cyborg………Beast B-boy………th-they all s-sacrificed themselves to defeat Slade………and this time, in the meaning of physics,
permanently."
Raven raised an eyebrow. Her eyes glowed. She smiled.
"Is that so? They're gone?"
Robin glared at the girl. "Wh-what the hell is the matter with you? Beast Boy used his friggin' body to shield you! Cyborg blew himself up! And…..and….."
Raven was suddenly before him. She slowly trailed a finger on his chin. The boy almost gasped, but he just stayed still.
"And………..what?" She breathed.
He shuddered. He frowned, and brushed the girl's hand away. "And Starfire saved my worthless ass……..with her life."
"Hehehehe……of course, she liked you, she had affections for you, a huge amount of it."
Robin didn't say anything else, and instead turned away. He trembled from what could be sadness or anger. Most likely both.
He shuddered as Raven touched his shoulders. "Did you like her? Did you return those affections?"
Robin's eyes widened.
"Did you want to hold her? Caress her face? Kiss her skin, neck, lips? Just say it, you loved her. You loved Starfire. You loved that which you have lost, and lost to something you're not even certain of."
"………………………?"
"If you can't admit to that, then you'll become insane."
"…………….who the hell are you?"
The girl smiled. "I'm Raven."
Robin showed some of his teeth. "No…………you can't be Raven, you're smiling……..too much."
She 'smiled' again. "Now, now. Don't go insane on me just yet. We still have a long night ahead of us. We'll talk after you're rested up."
He didn't know how he was removed from the room.
-T-T-
Night came……
It was cold. There was no power source for the tower's heating system.
Robin laid on what remained of his bed, in a 'G' position.
He breathed. He shuddered.
Slowly, he brought his hand to his eyemask.
"…………………………………………..it was Slade, wasn't it?" He gripped his head. "………………Starfire………………….."
He laid still for a few more moments. "……….Raven………R-raven…………"
He sat up. Perspiration was still forming.
Roughly, he removed his green gloves and tossed them to the corner of 'his room'.
He gripped his head again. "……why……did I come back? What was I expecting?"
FLASH!
"I wasn't expecting anything."
FLASH!
"I knew what I was going to see, what I was going to find."
FLASH!
"I expected Raven."
FLASH!
"……………..but I wanted to see Starfire, no, I d-don't………………what the hell?"
Moments passed.
Robin almost chuckled. He slapped his face.
Moments passed.
Robin ignored his gloves, and walked hastily out of the room.
He stepped on the torn clipping of Slade.
-T-T-
Robin found himself in the main lounge, where the broken monitor still hung from the wall. The curtains were all torn, and the windows were still shattered. A beam of moonlight shined through and illuminated the grim demurs of shadows the room was.
He focused his eyes.
Raven was there.
"…………….just like I expected."
Through the light of the moon, it could be seen, that the girl was smiling. Her blue hair flapped as the harsh winds suddenly began once more, and it was rhythmic.
Robin was behind her in an instant.
He placed his hand on her shoulder, and roughly turned her around to face him.
Raven looked at him in the eyes. She looked at him in the soul.
He judged her eyes. They were cloudy, but they were light clouds, like the ones that appear before a storm. A violet and violent storm.
She smiled. "Such a nice night…………you want something, Robin?"
He glanced at her eyes a few moments longer. They were unsurprised, but attentive. He glanced slightly downwards. Her lips. His own lips parted.
In a split second, he grabbed her, and kissed her, just as roughly as he grabbed her.
He sucked on her lips, while stroking her cheekbones, and she in turn gripped his hair, while massaging his upper lip with her tongue.
They both ceased momentarily. Neither were showing shock or…….anything.
"……..nothing's blowing up."
That smile showed again. "Is this wise, Robin? You're provoking me."
Robin's expression didn't change. "This is definitely wise. I've always wanted you, but you were beyond normal relations."
"That's untrue, it was just………difficult."
"Well, now it's easy." He tilted his head downwards.
She stopped him with a finger. "You love Starfire."
"What?"
"You love Starfire, this is not a statement, it's a tautology."
"No. She was a terrific friend, perhaps my best friend. But I didn't love her. She was something I needed, and she's not here anymore."
"And you're going insane."
"Did you love Beast Boy?"
"He loved Terra."
"Did you love Beast Boy?"
She laughed. "Nope."
"And I didn't love Starfire, fancy that."
"It's too soon. They all just perished."
"It's been twenty days."
"No mourning period for the dead?"
"I've been mourning for the past twenty days."
"You two had a special bond."
"What?"
"You and Starfire, you two had a special bond. And now that bond's being broken, but you, by me. And now you're going insane. You don't want me, you don't love me."
"No, I want you, I definitely want you." He caressed her cheek.
Raven untangled her hands from his hair, and rested them on his shoulder. Her mouth formed an 'O' as she pressed her teeth slightly against Robin's throat.
She grinned. "You'll definitely regret it."
He breathed. "……….no, I won't."
The grinning continued. "What if I don't want you?"
A beat.
"You're going to get me anyways."
The moonlight vanished.
"Hehehehe…….then take me, and I mean take all of me."
-T-T-
Robin woke up in a bolt. Perspiration.
"Agghh……S-starfire………Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven……………"
He shuddered.
"………Raven?"
He swirled to the right, finding a bare shoulder of a sleeping Raven. Her silky hair played along her pale yet beautiful face, where a lazy smile presented itself unhindered by anything that associates with that girl.
Robin paused his mind. "……………I am going crazy…………what am I not seeing? Starfire…………….where are you? No, you're dead. You're supposed to be………buried……..torn…….the warmth, where's……?"
A hand rested on his bare shoulder. He shuddered.
"Regretful yet?" Raven asked, her eyes cloudy and misty.
A beat.
Robin shook his head.
Raven giggled. "Oh, but I believe in the controversy, dear Robin. I think you're rather regretful, about this, about everything."
"………………………….."
"Since everything began, you must have had some inner tempted desire, some unexplained urge, the need for justice can just as easily be a justification for your need to consult violence. We were hypocrites, Robin. We sought peace by using violence, and that only brought war."
"W-why? Why are you saying all of this all of a sudden?"
"I'm saying all of this, because you needed to hear it. Just as you claimed you wanted me."
"I did want you, I still do."
"Is that so?"
"…………………………..?"
"You still don't remember?"
"No! What the hell am I suppose to remember?"
She kissed him, gently, like a feather's caress.
Robin shuddered. He grimaced.
"…………………..I don't understand."
She grinned. "You were not supposed to, that's what makes women better than men."
"?"
She placed a hand on his eyemask.
He didn't protest, and he didn't move away.
They stayed that way, like fountain statues.
Dense silence stampeded through the bedroom, with the two former Titans suspended in a world of debate and clarification……………of nothing.
"…………..you and your alter-ego."
"………….what?"
"That was the first thing that we agreed upon, that your true identity would not be revealed. The 'human' identity of Robin would not be disclosed to neither the Titans nor to the public." She released her hand.
He nodded.
Raven gave a sly smirk. "Then what was the agreement you made with me when we decided to form the Titans?"
Robin gazed at her blankly.
For many, many moments.
His eyes narrowed. He released a dense breath of cold vapor.
He turned his head, and saw that the twin masks of smiles and sadness was incomplete. The mask of sadness was gone.
His head jerked, and twitched, just slightly.
The harsh winds blew again.
Raven smiled. "Go and recall……………but try not to go insane."
Robin didn't know how he was removed from the room.
-T-T-
Robin sat amongst the fragmented lounge of the base floor of the tower.
Damaged foundations of the tower still lay around.
Chunks of concrete and mixed metals were imbedded into the floor and the walls. A large support beam had apparently fallen between two walls, with one end connecting to the bottom, and the other end contacting the ceiling. It was a diagonal line, a line that formed an 'N' with the walls.
He palmed his chin.
He scowled.
"Robin."
"Yeah, Raven? You need something?"
"That would be the point of calling to your attention."
"Aren't you just cute?"
-T-T-T-
"I need a promise from you."
"A promise?"
"A guaranteed favor, if you will."
"If it's within my powers…heh, funnily coincidental pun, anyways, I'll do it if I can."
"You remember what I told you about my……situation?"
"…………………………"
"Robin?"
"I…………I don't like where this is going…"
"Robin……………if I ever become the living portal for my father……no, Trigon to appear in this dimension of the world, then kill me."
"…………………"
"Robin?"
"I………I c-can't do that."
"But you must, to save the innocents."
"But you're also an innocent, shouldn't I protect you as well then?"
"That's not what I'm asking of you."
"Which is starting to become part of the issue as well. I can't just agree to……killing……one of my teammates, who I recognize and respect as one of my friends!"
"And yet you must."
"Arggg………I-I just ……."
"Robin………we didn't get into this business just to act as heroes and heroines of a city. We're here because we are needed to act as a buffer against a dark demon as well. And fate just so has it that the instrument to bring that dark demon into the innocent masses is me, Raven. So as the leader of the Titans, you're obligated to destroy me……if the time comes. All I want from you, is the verbal promise that you'll lead the team, and execute it."
"……………………"
"……………promise me."
"……………………al-all right."
"Thank you…………and sorry."
"Y-yeah…………fancy that, eh?"
-T-T-T-
Robin chuckled. "Yeah, fancy that, eh?"
The harsh winds blew through the shattered parts of the lounge, and grazed around the boy's frame.
He turned around, still in a sitting position.
He looked toward the broken main door.
The sky was red.
And the clouds were black.
Slowly, like the sprouting of a seed, Robin grinned.
-T-T-T-
The streets erupted in flames.
The scent of blood and gore.
Guts and blood.
Blood and black.
Red eyes.
Four of them.
Each pair glaring, glancing, laughing.
Robin stumbled across the pavements that were in the process of being uprooted like weed in a tornado.
He panted against the dire wind.
He reached the edge of the supposed tornado.
At the edge, he saw the limping form of a green boy.
His mouth parted in anguish recognition.
The boy almost stuttered, but endured on.
Leaving behind flames and one death.
-T-T-T-
Raven floated down from the hole of the upper floor. She smirked as she saw the smile on the boy's face.
She was now wearing something that resembled a gown. Most likely Starfire's.
The light material of the clothing flapped in the descent of the air pressure.
She stood yards away from the Boy Wonder, and placed her hands behind her back.
"…………so, do you remember?"
-T-T-
"Robin! Do it now! Kill me! Kill me this very instant!"
The boy, shakily, held up a bladed weapon. The birdarang.
He shuddered.
Four red eyes.
Each pair glaring, glancing, pleading.
"Y-you must do it now! Arrrgghhh! N-now! I-I can't-"
Bursts of light. Red light. Black.
Robin trembled.
The grounds quaked.
Massive piles of bile and darkness enveloped the surroundings.
He held the birdarang back.
"Aaaahhhhhhh! N-now!"
He drew a breath.
FLASH!
-T-T-
Robin trembled. He turned around to face the girl, laced with an eccentric amusement in his grin.
"Yeah. I promised you." He took a look around the broken tower. "And I didn't deliver."
She smiled. "Nope, you did not."
-T-T-T-
He dropped the weapon, and fell on his knees.
"R-robin! No, what-what?"
He panted, and fixated his gaze on the ground.
The path was never taken.
Tendrils of black.
Four red eyes.
-T-T-T-
He laughed. "There never was any Slade. There never was anything related to that red sky and black clouds…….than ourselves. Hehehehehe……"
He took a step forward. "So that's how it all is."
"Feeling that regret yet?"
He looked the girl up and down. "…………….yes………and many no's."
Slowly, an equally eccentric grin formed on Raven's face. "I wanted freedom from a restricting life of forbidden emotions……….."
"And I wanted you."
She nodded.
Robin looked toward the sky. "………..Star…………Beast Boy…………Cyborg……………they were all……….."
She nodded.
He grinned.
She grinned as well. "Feeling a little on the edge?"
"I'm not insane, you are."
"Hmmm, fancy that."
Robin caressed his forehead. "The Titans………….are no more. Tell me, how do we still exist?"
She placed her hand on her chest. "I'm still alive. You never executed your promise."
Robin reached into his fresh utility belt, and retrieved a birdarang. He inspected it, and twirled it on and between his fingers.
"Hey…………" He looked back to the girl, "just what happened? How did everything turn out? What happened, really? Am I……still alive?"
She smiled. "You'll remember, eventually. It's only a matter of time, and a matter of acceptance. Try to feel it. And……you're still alive, if you want to be."
"Awesome, so I get to see death."
"If that's what you want."
"Naw, I just want you."
She smirked. "That's awfully sweet."
He pulled his hand back. "You want to close your eyes?"
She shook her head. Her eyes turned red. Her grin remained, and she embraced the harsh winds.
A beat.
Spiiiiiiiii-ooooooo-nnnn!
"Hehehehe…………….maybe I am insane."
And he laughed.