Hey, this is Cobalt Vixen! This is my first story posted to and I'm pretty excited. This is one of my favorite pairings. Something about Red-X intrigues me...maybe it's the arrogance and sarcasm or the mystery or all of it, but I love him! And Raven is simply boss. Enough said. I've had this story for months now and am happy I finally have somewhere to put it, hopefully for you to enjoy. So, without further ado, I give you Red Raven...
Jump City laid still and silent, the inhabitants sleeping peacefully through another November rain storm. Children were tucked snuggly into warm beds having nightlights left on to scare the monsters away, while parents slept serenely in the safety of one another's arms. Not a dog barked and even teenagers delayed sneaking out until a dryer night came along.
All except for one, however.
Amethyst eyes searched over hanging garments as delicate, pale hands rummaged through the closet. Her search was made more difficult by the lack of lighting, but she dare not turn on a light for fear that her teammates might be made aware of her awakened state.
She unlatched another wooden trunk and laid out the contents beside her. Her hands finally came in contact with the object of her search as her fingers stroked the smooth, black leather.
She set the bundle of leather on the silken sheets of her bed and placed the other items back into her closet.
She then removed her standard black leotard and azure cloak and laid out the bundle. She slipped into the uniform, securing the tight leather suit with a black utility belt around her slim waist. She pulled on a pair of knee-high black boots, made of the same durable leather as the uniform, and slid her fingers into a pair of slim leather gloves.
The girl studied her reflection in the vanity mirror and smirked. What would he think, she wondered,if he could see me in a suit so similar to his own. With the thought going unanswered, she pulled on the final touch to her ensemble: a black mask that concealed her face and covered her violet tresses.
A large jagged red 'X', which stood in great contrast to the black of the leather, was embellished off-center across her torso and also on the back of each glove. She had decided to forgo the skull of the original criminal's mask, but hers bore the same red 'X' slashed across her face.
She sauntered over to her floor-to-ceiling windows, pulled back the dark drapes, and peered into the face of a raging storm. Lightning lit up the midnight sky and the driving rain pounded against the glass, requesting entrance.
And she granted it.
She unlatched the window silently—she had learned how to deactivate the alarm attached to her window, so as not to alert Cyborg when she decided to go on an unsupervised outing—and slid it open, allowing the luckiest drops of water to soak the edge of her dark carpet.
She threw a glance over her shoulder, making sure none of her teammates had decided to pay her a midnight visit, before facing the anxious rain before her and the livid waters below.
Feeling her heart beat rapidly against her ribcage and butterflies dance within her stomach, Raven took a deep breath and leapt from her window.
She allowed herself to freefall at first, letting the wind whip her body and the rain beat against the leather of her suit. She loved the thrill of it. It was similar to that of flying, but in a freefall, one did not know if they would be caught before their bones were broken with the impact of the abrupt landing.
Raven, however, did know.
She allowed the raging ocean to come closer—about five feet from her body—preparing to swallow her alive, before she opened a black portal beneath her and disappeared through it.
She drifted in the abyss of black magic, searching for her destination. All around her the magic beckoned, called her name, stirred her soul. It coursed through her veins, becoming a part of her, and she a part of it. The dark magic was warm around her. Not stifling, but comfortable, like the embrace of another being. Raven reveled in the feel of it—the warmth, the power, the brief release of her emotions she received when she touched upon it.
The magic bent to her will, bringing up and discarding images of different places as she wished. An image of her desired destination materialized before her and she opened a portal to it.
Raven stepped out into the hammering rain, shuddering as the warmth of the magic retreated and the icy rain soaked her thoroughly. She walked across the concrete rooftop to the edge of the building and looked out over the sleeping city. She had chosen Magenta Industries, the city's tallest building aside from Titan's Tower, for her destination.
She scanned the area nearest and below her, ensuring there was no unusual commotion going on, before closing her masked eyes and extending her soul-self to examine the rest of the city.
Jump City was silent for the most part. There were a few places where a scuffle had cropped up, but the authorities had been notified and had it well under control. All seemed to be quiet and calm, the city folk seeming to have battened down the hatches for—wait, there. Raven's soul-self zeroed in on one of the darker corners of the city. That was where a pack of four men had cornered a woman, like hungry wolves about to devour their prey.
Raven came back into herself and felt her blood begin to boil. Even from this distance she had felt the woman's fear and despair. Raven would not stand for it. She would wipe the cocky grin from each man's face, one by one.
Her magic flared with her emotions and she heard the scream of a car alarm in the distance begin. It soon died, replaced by the groan of twisting metal as Raven's magic reshaped some person's car into an unrecognizable heap of metal.
She did not care, however. Her focus was centered on the helpless woman and her attackers. Raven opened a black portal and stepped through, reappearing in the shadows behind the four drunken men. She could now smell the stench of alcohol wafting off of them; she was thoroughly disgusted.
She could hear the sobs and pleas from the woman clearly now, desperate and helpless. Her pleas of release were answered with laughter and taunting.
"What's wrong, huh? Afraid ya boyfriend's gonn' find out what ya's been up to?" one of them laughed at her, his words heavily slurred. He was the largest of the group by far. And judging from the smell and flurry of unbridled emotions, he was also the most drunken of them as well.
The woman cried harder, shaken to her core.
"Come on, baby. We just wanna have a little fun," a tall, lanky man said. Then he did something really ignorant—he advanced on her. The other three men followed suit and closed in on her, encouraging each other and taunting the frightened woman. She backed up against a wall and slid down the brick, curling up into a tight, sobbing ball on the littered ground.
Raven had had enough. She emerged from the shadows that concealed her and executed a perfect roundhouse kick to Lanky Boy's head. He stumbled into the behemoth, almost knocking them both to the pavement.
Raven dropped into a fighting stance and faced the now-alert pack of men. They abandoned their previous plans for the woman, who was now in hysterics, and focused—as much as they could in their current state—on Raven.
"Well, look what we've got here. We have a new player, boys," a third man, the most coherent of the group, called over his shoulder. He was also the most handsome; what a pity darkness had to come in such a pretty package.
Raven snarled beneath her mask. "So long as the game isn't baseball, I'm in," she said, her voice unrecognizable in her anger. "I hate baseball."
Handsome laughed. "Don't worry, darling. This'll be a lot rougher than baseball. A lot more fun, too." Raven saw the arrogance etched in his blue eyes a split second before he lunged at her.
She used him as leverage, placing her hands on his broad shoulders and somersaulting over him. She twisted in mid-air and landed gracefully on her feet, facing his back.
Handsome whipped around to face her and was greeted with her fist colliding with his jaw. He stumbled back, cradling his jaw in his palm. "Don't just stand there, you idiots. Get her!"
Raven smiled beneath the mask. She turned and glanced over the group of men, deciding that the title 'idiot' fit each one of them like a latex glove.
She lowered her lithe body easily into a fighting stance as the remaining three men looked at each other.
"What's the matter, boys? Do I play too rough?" Raven taunted. Her voice, usually monotonous, now emulated the smirk they could not see.
She heard a low growl from behind her and turned to see Handsome spit blood and wipe his mouth on his sleeve. Various emotions came off him in rolling waves, frustration being the foremost.
"When I say do something, you do it," he snarled at his colleagues. He was very much sober now.
He wasted no time in his attack. He came at her, fists raised, in such a blind fury that he was easily off-balanced. But he was relentless; he got back to his feet and attacked once again.
They executed punches, kicks, and blocks like a dance, their steps seemingly synchronized. He fought rough and determined and Raven guessed he felt he had something to prove: that he was a man. And not just any man, but one who could get what he wanted when he wanted it.
Not tonight, Raven thought to herself.
The rain poured down on them and slickened the pavement. Lightening flashed overhead and the wind picked up, the storm seeming to mirror their excitement and adrenaline.
Raven had never been the strongest hand-to-hand combatant—Robin won that title hands down—but she had recently requested private training sessions with Starfire. If there was a better way of learning to fight than getting her hide handed to her on a silver platter by the abnormally strong Tamaranian princess, Raven had never been made aware of it. Starfire's strength allowed Raven to give it her all and then give more when she failed; she couldn't come close to harming the princess. Star's strength also gave Raven a better incentive not to get pummeled; even with her heightened healing abilities, the bruises left from Starfire's hits always marked her body for weeks.
Regardless of her improvement in hand-to-hand combat skills, Raven was still her weakest without using her magic. So it came only as a small surprise when her attacker was able to block her left hook and seize her by the throat.
He raised her off of the ground so she dangled like a helpless ragdoll in his grip. Her hands flew to his large hand squeezing her neck, trying to pry his fingers loose.
He only tightened his grip and laughed darkly in her face. "I told you this would be fun. Did you think I meant for you?" he whispered huskily, bringing her masked face mere inches from his.
She took in this man's face—dark hair soaked with water from the still-falling rain, drops dripping into his dark blue eyes, rolling down the structure of his hard face. Raven came to the decision that there was nothing remotely handsome about this cretin; he was pure darkness.
She struggled in his grasp, trying her hardest not to gasp for breath. She would not give him that satisfaction.
Her magic sprung to life, sensing her predicament, and sparked at her fingertips. It rose up inside her and lashed out against the temporary restraints she had placed on it like a dog yanking on its leash, struggling desperately to be freed.
Raven tried to think clearly, to focus her energy on the man holding her captive, lest her magic should lash out at anything and everything once she loosened the restraints.
Her vision was becoming blurred, her mind hazy, and her limbs weak. She tried her hardest not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her choke, watching her gasp for air, but her lungs felt on the verge of bursting, her breath coming faster and shallower.
A sly grin broke out across his face and he opened his mouth to say more. He hadn't uttered a sound before a foot came from out of nowhere and collided with the side of his skull, bringing him down and freeing Raven.
She fell hard on her knees in the puddling rain water, her gloved hands going to her throat. She sucked in large lungfuls of air, closing her eyes to clear her blurring vision and keep the rising headache at bay. The sound of her heartbeat roared in her ears like thrashing rapids.
She was barely aware of the fight that continued around her until she felt one of the four men fall unconscious to the pavement beside her.
Her eyes snapped open and she watched as the other three men ran from the alley, the woman they had cornered nowhere in sight.
Once she felt steady and strong enough, she rose to her feet and peered through the pouring rain at her rescuer. Her masked eyes narrowed as he approached her, sauntering through the rain as if this were an every day occurrence for him.
She mentally kicked herself for falling into such a position where he had to intervene. And then she asked herself why he had done so; he was a criminal, she a hero.
Raven stood stock-still as Red-X circled her slowly and let out a low whistle. She raised an eyebrow as he came to a halt in front of her.
"And here I thought I was the only one who could pull off the suit," he said cockily, his metallic voice raised to be heard over the pounding rain. "But I'm proven wrong; it looks way better on a female figure."
Raven scoffed. Typical guy, she thought.
"So, what brings a pretty little thing like you out on a night like this?" He tilted his head and looked her over. "Speaking of 'you', who are you?"
Now it made sense why he had saved her—he had no idea of her identity. For all he knew she could be a police officer in disguise. Which brought up the question again—why had he saved her?
Raven supposed he had to have some morals under all of that twisted, rebellious, rash, ignorant, narcissistic arrogance of his. But still, Red-X was not the kind of person to commit random acts of valor.
When Raven remained silent, X chuckled and took a couple of steps towards her.
"Come on, Sugar. Someone as daring and undoubtedly gorgeous as you shouldn't be able to resist speaking to someone like me," he looked at her a moment, obviously expecting some sort of feedback. "What's the matter, cat got you're tongue?"
Raven tilted her head. "No, but I'd like to remove yours."
X chuckled. "Feisty little thing, are we? Tell me, what did you find so intriguing about Red-X that you had to don his look?"
Raven rolled her violet eyes. "Speaking of yourself in third person is so attractive," she said, pleased to hear the sarcasm drip from her words like honey.
X crossed his arms over his broad chest. "So I'm attractive?"
"If your goal is to attract filth, then yes," Raven replied, slipping back into her emotionless voice. She could feel his arrogance and conceit building, slamming into the empathic walls she had built to keep the onslaught of emotions at a minimum. Did he revel in insults? Was it a turn-on for him? She could only wonder.
"Your voice; it sounds familiar," he said, scrutinizing her more thoroughly as if trying to discern who she was beneath the mask. She prayed to Azar that Robin had never thought to equip the suit with some form of x-ray vision.
"Wish I could say the same," she said, referring to the voice modulator built into his suit. What she said was truth—she wished she could hear his voice. She wanted to know what it would sound like if he spoke to her in his natural voice. Would it be low and husky or smooth like velvet?
She hated when people tried to hide a part of who they were. It was why she silently despised masks. She had tried on several occasions to convince Robin that he shouldn't wear one, but it was to no avail. He had told her that he wore one so that he didn't always have to be Robin; he could be Richard some days if he chose to be. Raven supposed that was the only reason she wore this mask on her little outings—so that she could play this part when she felt daring enough, but still return to being the Raven everyone knew and some loved. Someday she might lay aside the mask, but that day would only come if the Titans disbanded. With how happy the Titans were together, Raven doubted that day would ever come.
"Sorry, Dollface, but you'll have to remain guessing at what my angelic voice sounds like," he said, the synthetic voice laced with amusement.
"I'd hardly consider you an angel."
"Well I'm no devil. And what about you?"
Raven arched an eyebrow. "What abut me?"
"You don't look like an angel but devils don't do good deeds," he stated.
Raven's eyes narrowed at the criminal in front of her. The criminal who stole without a conscience on a regular basis. Who was he to question her integrity?
X held his hands out in a gesture meant to keep peace. "Look, I didn't mean it that way. I have no doubt under that mask you look like heaven, but you did copy a criminal's look, so…" his metallic voice trailed off.
Raven rolled her eyes and sighed. He really thought her glare was for a comment taken the wrong way? She honestly did not care what he thought she looked like.
"You flit about stealing precious gems, and you have the audacity to call me a devil?" Demon, however, was a whole other matter.
"I do not flit about, Sweetheart. Thievery is an art. A skill. A series of techniques that takes years to master," he said. Raven had no doubt that under his mask was a smirk dripping with arrogance. "After all, you don't see me cuffed behind bars, do you? I don't flit. Flirt on the other hand…"
"Save it, X. I'm not interested." Raven turned and started walking away, searching for a shadowed place to teleport, when his metallic voice drifted through the rain to her.
"Fine by me. I've just about got the Titans' Raven wrapped tight around my little finger anyways."
Raven froze where she stood, feeling her blood once again begin to heat up within her veins. He had her wrapped around his little finger, did he?
She turned around slowly to face him and found him standing only a few feet away from her.
"Your arrogance is barely tolerable, X. And you yourself are insufferable."
She could only assume he grinned beneath the skull of his mask. "I knew you'd warm up to me." Raven heard his ever-present arrogance, but another emotion she could not quite place had added its presence to his altered voice.
Raven sighed. "What do you want?" she asked.
X shrugged. "I want a lot of things. You'll have to be more specific, Sweetness."
"Why did you save me? Why not let Thug Four suffocate me while Thugs One through Three ran ramped?"
He tilted his head to the side, seeming to seriously contemplate her question. "I suppose I was curious about the other X. And even though I may be a thief, it doesn't make me less of a gentleman."
Raven barely repressed a snort.
"Join me," he said suddenly, his voice entirely void of all joking and taunting. She felt for his emotions and found only determination, passion…and longing?
"What, for dinner?" She let sarcasm lace her voice like poison.
"Together, we could take down the Titans. We could have anything we want. We could even donate the money from our little career if it would satisfy you."
"I don't think so. In case you haven't noticed, our kinds don't tend to get along. You and I are water and oil," she said.
"We don't have to be."
"I'm afraid some can't change their spots. And I don't want to change mine, even if I could." Raven could hardly believe she was having this conversation with a criminal. Even the thought of such a conversation was absurd.
"Are you sure you have the right spots?" he asked, coming much closer than she would prefer. "Are you sure you're seeing mine clearly?"
"X, you're a criminal. Your spots could be no easier to see than black on white."
"For the most part. In case you were wondering, I don't live a lavish lifestyle."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" she asked, only slightly annoyed.
Raven felt his gaze sweep over her again before he spoke. "Figure it out, little birdie." Before Raven could even think to respond, X had his hand at his belt and in a matter of seconds he had faded away, leaving her to wonder at his parting words.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Red-X watched as Raven materialized in her dark room. With the enhanced vision Bird Boy had thought to add to the mask, he had a perfect view of her as she pulled of the mask so akin to his own, letting her amethyst tresses fall around her face.
X smiled and began walking back into the city and away from the beauty on the island.
He had to admit, he had genuinely no idea who was under the mask when he had first caught sight of her, but he would know Raven no matter what disguise she wore.
He knew he would never be able to sway her decision to stay with the Titans, and that was okay as long as it meant hand-to-hand combat with her and an even better battle of wits and words between them, but it had been fun to test her patience.
As he materialized in his civilian apartment and removed the mask of Red-X, he found he couldn't get the image of her in a suit so similar to his own out of his mind. It sent a slight shiver down his spine and a smile to grace his lips.
He knew that the feathers of a raven were a beautiful glossy black; he knew that the Titans' resident Raven was always swathed in indigo; but he also knew that tonight in the pouring rain, dressed as she was, she had been his Red Raven. He just hoped that she would someday realize that.
Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. If you feel so inclined, please leave a review, I would love the feedback. Thank You!
~Cobalt Vixen