Kori brushed away a tear as the five children sat huddled around a small candle and a sheet of paper. Richard reached out his hand and caught hers, intertwining their fingers. He gestured for the rest of them to do the same. Rachel grasped his left hand, Garfield hers, and Victor held Garfield's. When they were all joined, Richard began to read aloud.
"Gordon Samuels. We love you Kor." Kori wailed and dropped her head. Rachel made a shushing sound and continued for Richard.
"Tony Zucco. We love you Dick." She paused, allowing the seriousness and solemnity of what they were doing to soak in.
"Nicholas Galtry. We love you Gar," Richard started again.
"Mr. Roth. We love you Rae." He took a deep breath and, steeling himself, continued.
"We solemnly swear to protect each other from these people until the very end. We solemnly swear not to keep any secrets from one another. We solemnly swear to keep it between us. We solemnly swear to meet all our dues. We shall not rest until they are punished. This is our pledge. We are the Titans." Victor reached into his pocket and pulled out a black marker. Leaning forward he began to inscribe his name onto the paper. "Cyborg." The children passed marker and paper around.
"Robin."
"Starfire."
"Changeling."
"Raven."
Rachel placed the paper back into the centre of the circle and the group joined hands again. They spoke the final sentence in faultless unison.
"This is the pledge of the Titans."
"Forever." Kori smiled softly at her friends, tears shining on her face in the clear moonlight.
"And always." Richard grinned.
"Our bond will never be broken." Victor's deep voice broke on the last word.
"Never, ever, ever, ever, never." Garfield glowed with all the love in the world at his friends.
"We are a family." Rachel bowed her head and the others followed suit. "And nothing will ever change that."
8 years later
The only sounds in the stuffy car were the thrumming of rain against the windows and the muffled twang of guitar and voices that leaked from Garfield Logan's earphones. Richard Grayson, seated beside him, stared off into the blackness of the night rain, tracing absent patterns on his thigh.
In front of the silent boys, Victor Stone imitated his namesake, moving only his arms as he steered the car smoothly along the slick streets. Kori Anders was seated in the passenger seat, huddled into herself for warmth, toying with an errant curl of red hair. She frowned at a split end and yanked it off with unnecessary force, accidentally pulling the entire hair from her head. Hissing inside her head at the sting, she uncrossed and recrossed her legs. She twisted in her seat to look at her fellow passengers, each of them made a point of looking anywhere but her; Gar absentmindedly fiddled with his iPod, Vic and Dick both stared out their respective windows.
As she resettled in her seat, a slight jolt told her they had reached their destination. Vic calmly drove over the speed bumps filling the visitors' entrance to the hospital at a snail's pace, minimizing the impact.
Vic looked about awkwardly and cleared his throat. "We're here."
"I guess we should-" Gar cut off Kori's sentence by opening his door and exiting it, slamming the silver Lexus's metal frames against one another in his mad dash for the car park elevator.
"Hey, Gar, calm down. Wait for the rest of us." Dick slid smoothly out of the car and strode evenly after him, his slightly heeled shoes making shuffling noises that echoed throughout the cavernous underground area.
Kori's own shoes made little noise, so little that her friends seemed completely shocked when she piped up as they entered the lobby from the uncomfortable elevator trip.
"Do we need to get visitors passes?" Kori directed her question at Vic, who had spent the most time in a hospital. He shook his head stiffly; the cold, medicinal feel of these intimidating white buildings still upset him.
"No time. Just don't draw attention. She's in room 372 on this floor." He cleared his throat and turned down a wide corridor to their left. Kori felt the tears burn in her eyes as she caught sight of a gurney burdened with a noticeably female shape.
Scurrying to catch up with her fast moving companions, Kori managed to keep her eyes averted from the many open doors. She had no desire to see any more injured than she had too. The others seemed to have the same idea. All three teens kept their eyes on doors, not seeing anything else. It was a miracle then didn't step on one another's feet.
"Finally." Gar broke off from the group before the word was fully out of his mouth, and rushed to a door with the numbers 372 stuck on in black metal. His scuffed sneakers squeaked loudly with every step. Somehow the group, including Kori, all managed to reach the door at the same time, and very nearly squished themselves into a single mass in their haphazard attempt to all get through the door simultaneously. But once they were through the doorway, they all regained their composure and, with Victor shutting the door behind them, sidled over to Rachel's bedside.
She was propped up almost to a sitting position by pillows and her brightly coloured bedding, supplied from the children's wing judging by the horribly gaudy hearts and flower arrangement on them, was pulled tightly against her. One slim, pale arm was in a plain cast and her face was a mess of purpling bruises. She turned her head to look at them as they entered and managed to smile weakly. It was that smile, trying so desperately to reassure, that destroyed Kori's composure.
"Oh Rachel!" Kori flung her tanned body against Rachel's pasty; blanket swaddled frame and sobbed into her friend's neck. Rachel grimaced in pain and began to softly stroke Kori's back.
"Shh…Kori, relax. It's not as bad as it looks. I've definitely had worse." She looked up at the other occupants of the room. "Please, guys, pull up a chair. Sit or something. All that standing around is so ominous."
Kori peeled her tearstained face away from Rachel and shifted so that she was curled up beside Rachel's form. Gar sat on Rachel's other side, slinging an arm around her shoulder and subtly manoeuvring himself until Rachel leant against him. The other two sat at the end of the bed.
"Rachel, we were so worried." Vic frowned as he carefully twitched a crocheted blanket up over Kori. "When the hospital called…well...they made it sound a lot worse." Dick grimaced.
"Please, these doctors are so stupid. They don't know toes from thumbs. They bought my father's tale of a trip down the stairs without any hesitation."
"Oh Rae. What happened?" Gar squeezed her slightly, moulding his shape even closer to Rachel's. Kori followed suit, shifting until she could feel the steady thrum of Rachel's heart against her own chest.
"It was just…it's the anniversary of his last sour business deal. His idiot ex-business partner Arthur visited with champagne and cigars, toasting money and booze until father threw him out on his ass." Rachel frowned and looked over at Dick and Victor. They dealt with this stuff better than the sensitive Garfield and Kori. "He was drunk. I'm not that hurt. A break in my arm, some nasty bruises…he's done worse when he was sober."
"Do you know when you can go home?" Dick leant back against the foot of the bed.
"Tomorrow, they say."
"Whoa, that's quick. You must be healing up nicely then?" Garfield twisted to smile brightly at each of them.
"Actually, I've been in here for about 4 days." Rachel looked at the roof as her four friends- siblings more like- stared in shock.
"Rachel! How could you not tell us?" Kori disentangled herself enough to sit up. "We could have comforted you, and kept you entertained."
"Yea, Rae, don't you remember? We promised to tell each other everything!" They all nodded in agreement with Gar's outburst. Rachel looked over them and sighed, closing her eyes.
"I didn't tell you exactly because of that. I needed time to think." Rachel raised her lids, revealing still pools of shadowy lilac. "Guys…I'm ready. I want to fulfil our pledge. I want to end this."
WITDS here. Please enjoy this story, which I will update...someday. When I stop humming that song in my head. I'd like to give my thanks to Mahlia, who is an amazing writer on this website (go check her out, she's so talented and nice) who is acting as my BETA. I'm letting anyone who's going to read this know now- the rating will change. I love me some curse words. Christ, I hope I get better at writing these AN's. Anyway, be the defibrillator for my poor, weak maidens heart- review.