Disclaimer: Teen Titans isn't mine.
There wasn't any particular inspiration for this one; I had this dream in which someone died and decided to put it down on paper, so here it is.
M for character death.
"Speech"
Thoughts
There was something about Slade that always threw him off.
Maybe it was the fact that they truly were similar, but he was just always one step ahead, just a little bit better, and that was why he always got away. Maybe it was the fact that he just seemed to have a thing for the masked hero, always targeting him, always playing tricks with his mind. Whatever the case, Robin knew that he hated Slade.
And that was pretty much the only thing he knew when they fought. There was no "caution" when dealing with Slade. Nothing held back, ever. Sometimes, there wasn't even time to make a plan - sometimes, he had to charge in headfirst, blind, and make up things on the go as everything unfolded. To foil the plan of the master criminal, he had to think like him. Predict his next move. Where would he be hiding? What kind of traps would he have set? What was lies and what was truth? All of these things flying through his mind as he struck down robot after robot, then without a moment's rest or thought, pick a path and go, because there was never any time when dealing with Slade. Everything was a time bomb and if he was too late, all would be lost. Even if his body was tired, his mind was not - through sheer force of will, he ignored his exhaustion and the protests in his muscles, fighting through another wave of robots; then, hearing the frantic cries of his team behind him telling him to wait up, turned momentarily. But they just didn't understand! There was no time for him to wait! And so he merely gritted his teeth and moved on, tensed up, acutely aware of his surroundings, moving about warily like some night predator in the darkness.
No wonder they told him he was obsessed.
"Robin," the familiar, infuriating voice sounded. "How nice of you to join me."
"What are you up to?!"
"Really? Are you truly asking me such a mundane question? You should know the game by now, Robin."
The masked hero's eyes narrowed. "Game? What game?"
Slade appeared from the shadows. "I tell you some lie, you send your team after my bomb, or whatever it is that I have planted, leaving you all alone with me. And last I've checked, you haven't beaten me in a fight, even once."
"Well that's about to change."
Slade chuckled. "I would say, but this time, there's nobody to bail you out. Unfortunately, you and I both know that that's not the case. She's always there to save you, isn't she?"
Robin's eyes narrowed. "What are you getting at?"
Slade moved forward and in an instant, he was in front of Robin, punching downward. Robin dodged aside and drew his staff.
"What I'm getting at is how useless you are alone without the other bird in your team."
Robin gnashed his teeth together and charged, but Slade parried the blow easily and threw him back. "Don't take it personally, Robin. I'm better than you. There's nothing wrong with that."
The Titan's brows furrowed, but, opting not to reply, he decided to just attack. He forced the villain back with several powerful strikes, but then lurched forward as his feet were swept out from beneath him, then rolled aside, eyes wide, as Slade slammed a black blade into the ground where his head had just been. He got up, eyeing the other man warily.
"The blade's new."
"You don't always get another chance, Robin. I've given you so many opportunities to beat me in the past, but not once have you defeated me."
"I did! When Trigon-"
"You know full well that Raven was the one who won the game for you."
"Your mask - you spiked it!"
"And she bailed you out again. I saw the whole thing. Face it, boy, you can't do anything by yourself. It's time that you understand what failure truly means."
There was something menacing in Slade's pose, even more menacing than normal, some sort of killer intent placed into each strike. He was fast, too fast, and each time they clashed, trading blows, Robin was pushed back a little further, just a little, breathing heavily, trying not to lose focus and give in to the exhaustion that was pushing at the barriers of his mind.
Suddenly the villain was behind him, slashing downward with the black sword, pinning Robin to the ground by his cape, then in a crushing blow, slammed downward into his gut with his full body weight. Robin screamed and coughed out a mouthful of blood. Slade pulled the blade out from the ground and walked around calmly.
"And you thought you could beat me."
Robin took several heaving breaths, trying to ignore his screaming nerves, and stood, shaking slightly. Slade snorted.
"Just look at you. You look as if you're about to fall flat on your face."
Robin snarled. "What's it to you? Trying to play with your prey before you kill it?"
"Exactly."
A vicious kick to his side; Robin blocked it but felt his arm groan, but he had no time to think about that because the black sword was swinging at him again from the other side, threatening to split him in two.
He moved, felt it cut into his side, just a little, but it burned horribly, striking him down with paralyzing pain. He fell and writhed on the ground, feeling like there were jolts of electricity running through his body.
Slade struck again, but this a barrier of dark energy formed around them, only to be shattered as the black sword made contact with it. But it was enough to throw off the trajectory of the attack and Robin's vision was filled with the color of midnight blue as he felt himself being carried away a little distance.
"You idiot," Raven hissed, turning back to look at Slade warily. "Why did you go so far ahead of us?"
"There was no time," Robin hissed back eyes narrowing, pushing her aside and getting to his feet. "Where's everyone else?"
Raven scowled. "Fighting Slade's robots. I had to abandon them to come help you. You were," she trembled a little. "It felt like you were going to die."
Robin grimaced. "I wasn't. Not to him." He held up his staff and met the amused gaze of the masked villain.
"I told you," he said calmly, teasingly. "She's always there to save you."
Enraged, Robin charged forward again, but the attack was too easy to read and Slade had him pinned to the ground in an instant. Raven gritted her teeth, eyes narrowed, sending out her powers and grabbed whatever she could find, throwing it at the shadowy figure standing above Robin. Slade's one visible eye narrowed and he dodged aside, watching as the objects paused, mid-air, before they would crush Robin, and then followed him.
But he was unnaturally fast and he stood over the fallen hero again, striking down with his sword, not even hesitating in the slightest as a barrier formed to block him. The blade shattered it again, this time with enough force to not shift trajectory, and the only thing that saved Robin was a black claw stretched out, grabbing him back.
But he was relentless. Slade followed it and suddenly found himself over the hooded girl, who was frantically trying to heal the unconscious hero, a blue glow around one hand. He paused for a moment, then made up his mind.
"You know," he said quietly, slashing down at her, narrowly missing as she darted aside. "I'm getting sick of you getting in the way of our fights."
He extended his hands out and threw out several hidden daggers at her, aimed straight at her chest. A barrier blocked them, but it was enough of a diversion to keep her focus away, and he turned back to Robin, thrusting downward with the black sword.
There was a panicked scream and blood dripped to the ground as the blade struck.
Robin blinked, vision coming back into focus quickly, but found that he could not move - he was pinned to the ground by something. A pair of hands on his wrists, a pair of bare, pale legs between his own, and blood dripping on his chest?
His eyes widened as he saw the black sword protruding through Raven's sternum. His mind went blank and time seemed to freeze.
He stared at her, pure shock on his face, as if he were unable to comprehend the sight before his eyes, and found that he could not summon the strength necessary to move. Raven... Raven... Raven... her name echoed through his mind, and he opened his mouth. Nothing came out. There was no way this was real. This was some sort of sick nightmare. He was just dreaming. There was no possible way... a hand came up and he touched the blood dripping onto his chest and he knew that he was not imagining it. He opened his mouth again, aghast, in a silent scream, looking up. He looked at the blade protruding from her chest. And then he realized that she had saved him by taking the death blow for him, and in the process, given up her own life.
"Raven!"
And then time went back to flowing normally as she coughed, slightly, blood dripping down from her mouth. From what he could see, her face was still contorted in concentration, or maybe in sheer agony - just a tiny cut from the sword had overwhelmed him with the pain - what would such a wound be doing to her?
"Raven!" he shrieked as her arms trembled, but she did not reply, eyes still squeezed tightly shut.
Behind her, her powers suddenly gathered and around the unsuspecting villain, several large, metal tubes bent their way around his body, restraining him.
"What the-"
His mouth was covered by another tube and he was forced back, tied to the ground by bent steel, unable to move a muscle. A fury of darkness spiraled everywhere, grabbing at whatever it could, launching it at the masked man with extreme force. There was a crunching sound as his body was bent completely out of shape by the metal twisting around him, and then he went still, back bent nearly 90 degrees with his waist, shattered in several areas. The sword fell from his fingertips and as it clattered to the floor, Raven gave off an odd choking noise, her arms giving way beneath her.
Robin moved quickly, cushioning her fall with his own body, then laid her gently on the ground, looking frantically into her face.
"Raven!" he screamed, and her eyes opened a sliver. "Raven, why? Why did you..?"
Her lips moved slightly, noiselessly; whatever she had said, or mouthed, was lost in the panic in his mind. She was Raven. She had beaten a inter-dimensional demon lord, she had risen from the dead, she had returned from the very pits of Hell, she was fucking Raven... there was just no way... impossible...
Her mouth moved again and she, oddly enough, smiled very slightly, before coughing again, a spray of red mist dissipating into the air. He tore off his mask in a panicked move and stared at her eyes, trying to find some life within them. He stared at her furiously, determinedly, as if trying to pass his very own life force into her, but she was dying, and dying quickly, and the sparkling, but fading light in her eyes only served to reinforce that. That glimmering violet, still shimmering slightly, but hazed over slightly, her eyelids dropping swiftly...
She struggled one last time and stared at him, trying to convey some meaning to him, some feeling that had been lost in her words, and darkened mauve met pure aquamarine.
And in that moment, he realized she loved him. She had loved him; she had died for it, but she had loved him.
Her eyes closed and her body fell limp in his hands.
A drop of water fell on her cloak and he realized that he was crying, cradling her body in his arms, sobbing silently, maskless, bare to the whole world, but he didn't care anymore. She was dead because she had loved him enough to give her own life for his, and he had been too stupid to realize it until now. What else was there to care about anymore? All that mattered was Raven, but she was gone.
He didn't even care as his team gathered around him, their screams and cries of disbelief seeming faint and distant; the only thing that reached his senses was the limp, cold body in his arms and the unbearable sense of his own grief... no, the unbearable sense of her grief too, the fact that she had secretly loved him for the longest time, after he had dragged her out from the pits of hell itself and given her the strength to fight against her fate, to save her life and soul... her grief because she had loved him but was too afraid to admit it, and thus never had her love reciprocated. Not until she had died.
And he had never realized it. He had been the cause of much of her pain, and he had never even bothered to consider that possibility. And now she was dead, and he had no way of rectifying that. He shook silently, letting the tears fall freely, refusing to tear his gaze from her body.
"Robin. Robin man," there was a quiet voice beside his ear and he turned, suddenly aware of himself.
Cyborg's gloomy face met his own. "Robin, we've gotta go. You can't stay there forever. It's already been four hours."
Robin did not respond. Cyborg sight and held out a mask to the other hero and waited patiently.
Robin blinked a few times at the foreign object, as if not understanding what it was, not understanding the other man's words... not understanding anything besides the fact that Raven was gone.
Cyborg closed his eyes. "Robin."
"I'm not letting go of her," he said quietly, fiercely. "I can't-"
"Robin, you have to. She's gone," the robotic man's voice trembled. "She's gone... she took Slade down with her, but she's gone..."
"I'm not letting go," he repeated stubbornly, quietly. "I can't."
"Robin!" His voice was loud, terribly grieved. "Robin," he repeated more quietly. "She died to save you, didn't she?"
"She loved me," he said quietly. "I'm not letting go of her."
There was a flash of recognition in Cyborg's eyes, but he buried it quickly, knowing not to press the other hero while he wasn't in his right state of mind. "Come on," he said quietly, holding out a hand. "She wouldn't want you to cry over her forever."
Robin breathed in sharply, closing his eyes. How do I know what she would have wanted? I didn't even know that she loved me until it was too late. How can I move on... Raven...
He took the mask from Cyborg's hand and squeezed it in his own, still refusing to put it on. Gritting his teeth, he looked down at her face.
She seemed so peaceful, as if she were just sleeping, and if he ignored the blood on her chest, he might have been inclined to believe that she was just at rest. Well, he supposed, in a way, she was. His fingers trembled as he touched her lips, caressing her cheek gently. He stared at her for the longest time, then finally, finally, seemed to gather himself together. Then he placed an arm below her knees and one behind her neck, lifting her off the ground.
"I'm holding her as long as I can," he said softly.
The shifted meaning was not lost on the robotic man. He nodded, and casting a mournful glance at the violet haired girl in Robin's arms, turned, walking forward, head bowed down slightly.
After a moment, Robin followed him, still looking down at Raven's face, unable to tear his gaze away.
He sighed, paused, something tearing at his gut, his innards roiling. And then continued walking, not bothering to quell his pain, bearing it in darkened silence. Pausing, then moving on again, but he knew that he would never forget her. Never forget the one who had loved him and given her life for him. Raven...