"Listen to me, you green bean pole! You aren't allowed to quit on me!" she screamed, flying through the city as fast as she could to get her boyfriend back to Titans Tower. "Dammit, Garfield, open your eyes!" Her hood fell off of her head, revealing her purple hair, matted to the side of her head by blood from a cut to her cheek, tears stinging her eyes and falling down her cheeks. "Talk! Blabber, do something so I don't have to kill you again!"
"Stop...yelling in my...ear, Rae," Garfield Logan mumbled, his broken left arm draped over his chest while several small peices of rebar stuck out of his right shoulder. A bullet wound in his abdomen, stab in his chest, as well as a broken leg and cuts along his face, the one called Changeling was worse for the wear. "Didn't know that...he had that kind of firepower..."
"He isn't called Arsenal for nothing, Gar," Raven whispered, blasting into Titans Tower. "VICTOR!" The sound of metal clanking on metal met her ears as Victor Stone, also known as Cyborg, ran down the hall after the flying woman. She laid Garfield on the bed in the medical room, stepping out of the way. "Save him, please!"
"I'll do what I can, Raven. PLease. I need you to go out for now," Cyborg said. Raven nodded, slowly walking out of the room. She heard her friend start pulling peices of rebar out of Garfield's arm, sinking to her knees outside of the door.
Later that evening, Cyborg finally walked back out of the room, wiping the small part of his face that was still human. "He's going to be fine," he said. "He's sleeping for now." He stopped Raven from running straight into the room as she jumped up. "Raven, there's something you need to know. The attack today...the stab and the shot had properties of a canceling agent that shorted out his powers. He won't be able to be Changeling anymore. He isn't even green."
Raven sighed, wrapping her arms around herself. "Victor, there's something you aren't telling me," she whispered. "I don't need to probe your mind to know that." She looked up at her friend, sighing. "What is it?"
"The venom from the monkey that bit him and started the initial virus in system when he was a kid is killing him. The antidote his parents gave him helped to quell the effect of the venom, but...without the antidote, and nobody to synthizise an antidote again...he doesn't have long," the cyborg Titan said. "I'm sorry, Rae. I've given him...maybe a week. If that long."
Raven stepped around Cyborg, heading into the room. She walked over and moved the curtain, sliding down into the chair beside his bed. She took his hand, one she'd gotten used to being green and covered in fur, and she rubbed the pale white knuckles. "You listen to me, Garfield Mark Logan. You can't give up. You can't let go," she whispered. She pressed his knuckles against her forehead, tears falling out of her violet eyes. "Please...I love you too much to let you go, Garfield..."
The next four days passed in a slow crawl for the purple hair half-demon. She barely left her boyfriend's side, only leaving to change and grab something to eat before coming back and sitting beside him. When she wasn't holding his hand, she was meditating, knowing she'd have to keep her emotions in check despite the anger, sorrow, and pain she was feeling.
The morning of the fifth day, Raven looked up as the doors to the medical bay opened, Starfire floating in with a book in her hands. "Raven?" the Tamaranian woman asked, crossing her legs and floating in mid-air beside her only female friend in the Tower. "Are you doing ok?"
"No, Starfire...I'm not ok," Raven whispered. "Victor says that...tonight he's-" She shook her head, biting back tears and clenching her jaw.
"He is going to see if there is any change in Garfield's condition, and if there is not, he will inject a lethal dose of medication into the IV," Starfire finished, putting her hand on Raven's. "At least you know that after that he will not be in pain any longer."
Raven nodded. "Yes..."
"He informed us of his procedure two days ago," Starfire said. "He asked that we remained silent until closer to the time."
Raven bit her tongue, slightly angry that she wasn't the first told about what was going to happen to her boyfriend. "Starfire...if this was Dick laying here with you worrying about your future without him...what would you do?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"I would let him know that it was ok to move onto the next life without me, and that I would not fall into the pit of depression at his passing. I would reassure him that everything I felt with him would always remain in my heart, even if I fell in love again," Starfire said, her words coming almost automatically.
Raven sighed, rubbing Garfield's hand as had become her custom in the last few days. She moved to sit up on the bed beside him, crossing her right leg under her and letting her left hang down. "You listen to me, Garfield. As much as I want to fight against the pits of Hell and Heaven's gates to keep you, if you have to go...then go. Don't try and fight back and come back just because of me. It'll hurt like hell, yes, but...I suppose that love means having to learn to let go," she whispered, tears falling down her cheeks again. "Don't let me be what stops you from not hurting anymore...please..."
Starfire hugged Raven tightly from behind, sighing softly. "He heard you," she whispered. "I know he did." She gave Raven a gentle squeeze, rubbing her friend's arm. "I'll leave you to be in peace now." She moved and headed for the door, her arms around her stomach.
"Starfire," Raven's voice called, the purplenette turning. "Thank you for the help."
"You are welcome, Raven," Starfire said, smiling grimly. She closed the door behind her, wiping her own eyes.
Late that night, as Raven rested her head against Garfield's chest, her breathing even despite the worry in her heart, she felt the air in the room drop slightly. She opened her eyes to the monitors beeping with the sound of a flatline. She pulled her Titan communicator out of her cloak, flipping it open. "Victor? Can you please...please come down here?"
"Yeah, Rae. I'll be there in a minute," Victor said, smiling a grim smile. He shut off the line and disconnected from his recharging station, heading down a level in the Tower and pushing the door to the medical bay open. He heard the sounds of the flatline, and he put his fingers on Garfield's neck, feeling for a pulse. After a minute, he pushed the off switches for the medical equipment, looking at the clock built into his arm. "Time of passing, 2:33 A.M." He looked at Raven and gave her hand a squeeze.
Raven felt her heart break, and she buried her face against Garfield's arm, her entire body shaking with sobs. She stayed like that for a few minutes, sobbing into his arm. After she managed to compose herself, she stood up and kissed Garfield's forehead softly, giving his hand a final squeeze. "Goodbye, Garfield. I love you...and I won't forget what you've done for me..."
Two days later, Garfield's body was laid to rest outside of Titans Tower, an ornate headstone carved for him by Raven and Starfire. The ceremony lasted less then an hour, several other Titans gathered, such as Kid Flash and Jinx, as well as Thunder and Lightning. Raven stayed beside the grave for almost an hour until the rain started, staring down at the dates on the headstone. She felt the rain stop on her shoulders, looking up and seeing Dick and Starfire there with an umbrella.
"You...don't have to watch me," Raven whispered.
Dick shook his head. "We're not watching you. We're with you," he said, giving Raven's hand a squeeze. "He was our friend and brother, and he was a Titan. We're just all here to honor his memory."
"Leave his room alone," Raven whispered. "Don't touch it or mess with it. Even if more Titans live in this tower, that room stays locked off.
Dick and Starfire looked at each other and nodded. "Alright," they said in unison.
Raven nodded softly, kneeling down and putting her hand on the headstone, summoning her magic and engraving one last sentiment into the stone. She stood and turned, nodding her head. "Lets...go inside," she said, wiping her eyes and shaking her hair out of her face. As she moved, the words became visible:
He Never Let Anyone Go