Summary: Something horrible befalls one of the Titans, but the matter is out of their jurisdiction. Can the Titans hand this one over to the JCPD, or will the call for vengeance cry too loud? Certain Titans may not be able to trust justice to the law, and there's no telling just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
Rating: "Mature" for strong language, violence, sexual content and sensitive material.
Warning: YOU ARE NOW OFFICIALLY WARNED. DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT read beyond this point if you are of a weak constitution or can't handle reading about any of those subjects listed under the rating.
AN: For Unfinished Business readers, skip ahead to chapter three, or feel free to refresh yourself. For new readers, please enjoy, and let me know what you think. I'm finding myself more and more invested in this story, so forgive the panhandling, but reader feedback is crucial. Any thoughts or opinions on the story, any at all, please.
Disclaimer: They'd never let me own the Titans, because I keep doing awful things to them.
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01: vIoLaTeD
"I don't want to understand this horror/ There's a weight in your eyes/ I can't admit"
Our Lady Peace - Thief
Marianne Webster sat at the reception desk of Jump City PD headquarters, nursing a hot cup of black coffee, fresh from the morning pot. Sighing over the aromatic steam, Marianne stared blankly out the window at the pinkening horizon, waiting for the caffeine to hit her brain and jumpstart her mental processes. She was always useless for the first fifteen minutes of the early shift. Coffee was an essential when one had to go to work at the ass-crack of dawn.
Saturday mornings like these were typically quiet. Business, as it were, usually started picking up as noon drew near, normally nothing more than such trivial matters as community service reports and ticket payments. It was a nice blessing, working at the PD and being able to count on most weekend mornings being fairly simple. It was like a small town PD at such times, with few worries.
Though, Marianne had to admit, that was mostly thanks to the unusual circumstances in Jump. She couldn't really think of anywhere else where vigilantes and local government and law enforcement got along so well. The city's heroes could usually be counted on to deal with the big, weird cases and often undercut a lot of the petty crimes that went with any urban area.
Of course, the JCPD still had their share of crime to deal with, but the margin was much narrower. JCPD dealt with minor felonies on a more regular basis, and, of course, the serious, ugly crimes that required special units and teams, the kind not suited for teenage do-gooders. Marianne never had to deal with any of the latter, thankfully, seeing as how she handled mostly paperwork and filing.
Just as Marianne drained the dregs of her mug, the front doors swung open on well-oiled hinges, admitting a disconcertingly familiar figure.
It was a Titan, one of the teen heroes who made Marianne's job so much easier. They were starting to get a bit old for the "teen" part of their name, and in a year or two, they'd be completely transitioned into the label "Team Titans".
Marianne frowned as the crusader seemed to waver under the garish halogen light, then stepped forward. This Titan was the dark sorceress, Raven, and something seemed odd, wrong somehow. As the mysterious young woman slipped back her cowl with a pale hand that seemed to tremble just so, Marianne gasped, half-rising from her chair thoughtlessly.
Raven's face was haggard, her short plum locks in snarls and matted in places, dark with some unidentifiable substance or another. Ghastly purple and yellow bruises decorated the scape of her left cheekbone, her lower lip swollen and split open, dried blood smeared down her chin. A cut over her right eye looked like it might require stitches.
Marianne couldn't see any more of the girl than that, other than a hand that clenched her cloak closed at the throat, her clutching fingers with bloodied knuckles all that held the heavy fabric around her, but Raven walked towards Marianne's desk with a pronounced limp.
"My Lord… child, are you alright? Can I get you a drink, or a chair?" Marianne had four children, three of them daughters and one of them graduating high school next year; she was a mother first, and the bedraggled sight of this young woman hardly older than her Emily sent alarms shrilling loud in her head.
Raven licked her lips and opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was a thick croak. Wincing, she cleared her throat and tried again, managing in a raw, raspy voice that quavered and quaked, "I'd like to report a crime."
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Robin less leaned against the wall as slumped against it, and it seemed the only thing between him and a painful crash to the floor. His legs felt like jelly, like they wouldn't support his weight, as if his knees would buckle if he tried to stand on his own. In a detached way, he realized he was going into a sort of shock, and his sensibilities were telling him he needed to pull himself together if he was going to function properly as leader of the Titans and take control of the situation. All the rest of him wasn't listening.
"I can't believe this…"
The plainclothes leaning—actually leaning—against the wall across from him folded his arms across his broad chest and remarked, "Your friend was pretty lucky, actually."
"Lucky? What the hell is lucky about this?" Robin was still too stunned to emote the anger and indignation the detective's comment had incited, but the older man got the idea.
"Listen, kid, that's not what I meant. She's lucky she didn't die of the injuries she sustained. She seems to have healed herself a good bit, and she's in no great shape even now. What she's gone through is no small deal, and we will catch the fucker who did it."
He just couldn't believe it. How could this have happened? How could he have allowed it to happen?
They hadn't explained why someone needed to come down to the station when the JCPD had contacted Titan Tower, only informed them vaguely that there had been an incident involving Raven.
Robin had gone, because he knew police procedure, had dealt with such things before in Gotham. He had experience. Only one person needed to go, and Robin would wire back to the Tower whatever news he got as soon as he got it.
True to his word, Robin had delivered the information as soon as he was enlightened, breaking the news to Cyborg almost mechanically. Robin was somewhat relieved that he'd come alone, now that he knew. Beastboy would have reacted very badly, wouldn't have been any help in the situation, and while Cyborg would have been able to deal, at the Tower he could… explain what had happened. Help them understand.
Now he was reeling from the shock, trying to wrap his head around the situation. In Gotham, things like this happened all the time, were pretty much commonplace. It was horrible and ugly, but there was nothing that could be done about it that wasn't already in effect. Here, in the sleepy, sunny California coastal city of Jump, it hadn't really been an issue, and Robin hadn't had to so much as worry about it. That was one of the things he loved so much about Jump. It was so much softer than gritty, rough Gotham. He had unpleasant dreams of nights on Gotham streets.
It was like part of the nightmare had followed him home.
Detective Freeman, the plainclothes, handed him a cup of coffee. Robin took it and stared at it as if he didn't recognize it or know what to do with it. He realized his hands were trembling when a drop of hot liquid spilled onto and over the green of his gloves. The moment he realized it, they stopped.
Robin looked up at the large window beside Freeman, set the coffee on a nearby hallstand and moved to stand in front of the glass.
She looked so small and helpless in there, so tiny and fragile and lost, the bruises on her face and blood on her mouth ugly and heartwrenching. She huddled under a pale blue EMP-issue blanket as Freeman's female partner gently but firmly questioned her. Raven was so strong, answering with little hesitation and as fully as she could.
Robin couldn't hear what she was saying. The interrogation room was soundproof.
Raven couldn't see him. The window was a two-way mirror.
Robin put his hand against the glass, the longing to reach out and hold that fragile, broken girl achingly strong. His fingers curled into a tight fist. "Do I need to take her to the hospital when your partner is through? Or can I take her home?"
"She's free to go as soon as Detective Yu has everything she needs. Miss Roth cooperated with evidence and forensics as much as was necessary, but she wouldn't let any doctors patch her up. Flat refused. I think she really just wants to go home and finish what she started."
"Okay. Thanks, Detective Freeman." Something distracted Robin's attention and he directed an inquisitive glance towards the officer. "Miss Roth, you said?"
"Her last name. We needed it for the report."
"Huh." Robin's focus was already back to Raven. Her head was bent and her spine was very straight, her shoulders very still. Detective Yu handed her a tissue.
Robin backed up to the opposite wall, watching the interrogation room door anxiously as the two women behind the glass rose. Detective Yu held the door open for Raven to precede her, and Robin was there waiting for her.
Catching sight of him, Raven stopped in the doorway, clutching the blanket tight around her shoulders as if she was cold. She was barely holding together, her calm, disaffected mask cracked and splintering, her swollen eyes bloodshot and shining with tears and pain. Robin took a step forward, hand raised. Freeman stood up straight and took two steps away from the wall.
Raven tensed, hunched inwards, her expression flinching for a moment before she asserted the mask again. Everyone in the quiet hallway stood still and silent, waiting. After a moment, she stood straighter, raised her gaze to Robin's. She held it, rallying her strength as she tried to stand indifferent and unaffected before him.
"Oh, Raven…"
The soft murmur tore through her defenses like tissue paper and she wavered, her lips starting to tremble as tears welled on her lashes. With a choked sob, she stumbled into his open arms, burying her face in his chest as he wrapped strong, protective arms around her shaking shoulders.
Resting his cheek atop her hair, Robin closed his eyes against his own urge to break down and cry with her, murmuring against her skin as he kissed her temple, "Sshh… You're safe now, Raven. I'll take care of you. You're going to be okay, I'm here now. I'm here."
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AN: Thank you, everyone who read this when I posted it in Unfinished Business. Because of your encouraging responses, I finally got the courage and the motivation to continue this story. –smiles- I'll be posting chapter two directly, which you have also already read, and the new chapter three will be arriving just after.
To new readers, I hope you will commit to this ride with me. It's something of a daunting undertaking, and somehow, to me, a more serious endeavor than any of my previous fanfiction projects. I know the popular norm is light comedy and romance, and angst and depression may at times threaten to consume this story, but I sincerely hope you will enjoy it just as well, and stick it out for the end. Thanks either way.