Disclaimer: I'm sure many of us have better things to talk about and this isn't one of them.
Summary: That night, three weeks ago, something horrible happened, and Raven thinks she's the only one who remembers it.
DEDICATED TO Xaleria07. This was her original birthday present from me, but I changed my mind (because I can, duh. lol) but I kept it dedicated to her since she loved it SOOOO much!
"He's stealing from a building Robin! Why won't you believe me?" She shouted at her leader, the same one that was growing irritated at Raven's attempts to find an imaginary villain.
"Raven, there's no person called Red X!"
"Yes there is! You built the suit for the love of—"
"Raven!" He stared at her, and she did so as well, glaring at the mask he hid behind.
She rolled her eyes. "Fine, don't believe me, but when there's a criminal called Red X in jail, we'll see who's telling the truth.
She walked away, creating a black portal in the wall and walking into it.
Robin sighed, and looked at Cyborg. "Well?"
He shrugged. "I don't know what is going on in her head. I mean, I'm guessing that hit to the head did something to her, but … Maybe…" He was saddened that something terrible had happened to the girl he claimed as a sister. He didn't want to think something was wrong with her. "Hallucinations I suppose."
"Friend Cyborg, will the medicine make friend Raven feel better?"
Cyborg scowled; the fact that Raven might have been mentally sick crushed all of them.
"Maybe… we just need to give her some time."
"It's already been three weeks and it hasn't ended."
Beast Boy's voice broke all the hopes they might have had.
"… One more week?" Robin asked, looking at all of them.
He didn't need their replies to know that they wanted more time than that.
Raven was in lotus position, trying to meditate to no avail. Why did none of the Titans believe her?
She stood up from her position, and crossed her arms, trying to figure out what had happened that night three weeks ago.
She shut her eyes, recalling the memory that had left her bewildered.
She woke up in the medical wing, her head throbbing with all the Titans surrounded her, all of them sleeping. Confused, she slowly sat up, finding it hard to believe Robin gave up his search on Red X, who had stolen a disk from a company that night.
"Guys?"
They didn't wake up, and by the darkness of the sky, she guessed it was sometime early in the morning.
She shivered as the curtain on the window flew, revealing an open window.
That's strange… why would they leave the window open at night? Weren't there villains trying to kill them off every now and then? Yes, keeping a window open was a great idea!
She slowly stood up and went to investigate the open window, only for her friends to slowly wake up right then and there.
"Raven, you're okay!"
"Friend Raven, are you feeling all right? You must not stand, you were hit quite hard."
"Forget that, what happened to Red X?" She asked, and was bewildered at the look of confusion that replaced their expressions of happiness.
"… Who?"
Why had they not remembered? She shrugged it off as a joke, only to find that the week after, Red X had appeared, but not of the Titans saw anything.
… As if he'd been wiped off the Earth.
But what was odd, was that she herself had saw Red X…
The Titans investigated, but found nothing.
And it happened again, but they still found nothing, and now they didn't believe her.
She created a portal, and disappeared to go to the city.
"I'm guessing they still don't believe you?"
She glared at the masked man, the one who had caused her so much trouble with her friends.
"Shut up."
"But if I do that, they'll never know I exist."
She marched up to him, staring at him face to face. "What is going on?"
She had found him waiting for her on a roof of a museum, with his arms crossed, leaning on a wall even though there were strong winds blowing that night, a warning of the storm that was coming.
He shrugged. "How in the world would I know? Has it occurred to you that maybe you're just crazy?"
"And I'm talking to you … how?"
"Heh, I may as well be a hallucination. You never know."
Without warning, she trapped him to the wall using her powers.
"I didn't know you were into bondage—"
She cut him off by pulling out her communicator from her belt, and then speaking into it.
"Robin, he's here."
"Raven, not again—"
"Robin! I've captured him, he's right here!!" She exclaimed, never taking his eyes off the masked villain. "Just look!"
She pointed the communicator towards Red X, who was smirking under the mask.
"See?"
She inwardly smirked, knowing she had finally trapped him.
"…" Robin sighed. Confused, Raven looked at the communicator, only to see Robin rubbing his forehead with two fingers. "Raven… this is getting out of hand."
She looked back at X. "Robin, he's right there! What are you talking about—"
"What are you talking about Raven? There's no one there!"
"…"
He's right there though.
She slammed the communicator shut, finding no use to hear what Robin had to say.
"Now do you think I'm a hallucination?"
She glared at him. What was wrong with Robin, why couldn't he remember anything about Red X? Why couldn't he see Red X? "What did you do to them?"
It was just like the time Robin had seen hallucinations of Slade, only she knew Red X wasn't a hallucination. She walked up to him and grabbed him by the neck, threatening to crush his neck to smithereens.
She could feel him…
He raised an eyebrow under that mask, "Why nothing—"
"That night!" She recalled from three weeks ago. "The window was open." The strong winds blew at her hair, and the night grew darker with more storm clouds. "You… you were there weren't you?"
He chuckled, "Maybe."
"And… you did something to them. That's why they wouldn't wake up immediately! We're Titans! All of us… most of us, wake up immediately! You did something! What did you do?" She screamed angrily into his face.
He did his best to lower his face to bring it closer to hers.
"Nothing."
"LIAR!" She hit his head on the wall, but not hard enough to knock him into unconsciousness. He grunted, but said nothing more.
"What did you do?" She shouted, ignoring the rain that started to pour down heavily.
"You really want to know Raven?" He whispered, but she still heard him even through the harsh wind and rain.
Her communicator began to ring, and soon Robin's voice was talking to her, even though she had not touched the communicator.
"Raven! Raven, where are you?"
"Do you want me to get rid of that for you, or do you want to do it by yourself? Because you and I know perfectly well that he won't believe you at all. He probably wants to tell you that he has a Psych Ward room all ready for you—"
She took her communicator and shut it off, then teleported away, leaving Red X alone to teleport himself.
She found herself in the main room, with all the Titans rushing up to her.
"Raven where have you been—"
"Why are you wet—"
"Are you okay friend Raven?—"
"C'mon, let's get you dry."
She found herself being pushed along by the other Titans, yet she didn't say anything. She stayed quiet, looking at the floor.
They're caring for me so much because they all think I'm crazy.
"Raven… we've been thinking…" Robin started, but he stopped when she glared at him.
"What?" Her voice was cold and harsh. "That I need to be put on medications? I need to be sent to an Asylum because I'm hallucinating of seeing a criminal that doesn't exist?"
She stared at all of them in the hallway, and noted the fact that they were all quiet and their heads were bent down.
"Maybe I should remind you of a small fact. Didn't the same thing happen to you Robin? But you don't see yourself in a mental hospital, now do you Robin?"
"Raven—"
She interrupted him. "No, I don't want to hear it."
And with that, she disappeared through the ground before any of the Titans could reply.
It was quiet before Robin's voice cut through the silence. "We have to find her."
They all split up.
"Heh, and here I thought I had to get you out of a mental hospital."
Here she was again, out in the rain, on another rooftop, staring back at the mask.
She sighed. "What did you do?"
"Why would you think I did anything?"
"Stop it! Stop with your stupid mind games! Just tell me what the hell you did so that we both can do back to our lives!"
"Raven, Raven, Raven", he whispered, grabbing her by her arms and pulling her closer to him.
"Had it ever occurred to you, that maybe they haven't forgotten me? Maybe they're just pretending?"
She stayed silent, not looking at him.
"You're a smart girl. You know the reasons they would want to get rid of you. So both you and I know that this is the real reason, right?"
No…
"There's no use in denying it Raven. Your 'friends' betrayed you."
They wouldn't…
"I'm not lying. I heard them that night, three weeks ago. They were plotting against you."
"You're lying—"
"I'm trying to help you Raven because they were involving me. They were going to pretend I didn't exist, that Robin never made this costume, and that the hit you received on your head was the cause of your hallucinations. But you and I know both of us were battling that night."
Why…
"They found out about your past… your future…"
They wouldn't…
"They didn't need to have your problems on their shoulder. They didn't want to be blamed for the destruction that they knew you would cause. They wanted to know what would happen before it happened. They knew you wouldn't tell them the truth."
But…
"I heard them Raven. With my own ears. I may be a thief, but I'm not a liar… and I'm not going to allow an innocent person to be perceived as mentally ill, especially you Raven. You're everything but."
How…
They wouldn't.
He took out a tape recorder, playing the conversation he heard three weeks ago.
He knew it would have come in handy.
"We need to do this. It's the only way Raven can be helped."
"Friend Robin, must we do this?Is there no other way friend Raven's problem maybe be solved?"
"Yea dude. We can't do this to Raven."
"We have to. She won't tell us the truth, so maybe she'll tell us when she's with a psychiatrist."
She almost cried.
"They… they…"
"Raven!" The cause of her grief was here, behind her.
"Friend Raven! Please! Come back!"
She felt X wrap one arm around her, pulling him to his chest, and before any of the Titans came closer, he teleported to another rooftop, close to the one they were on before.
"Why, so you can enter her in a Psych Ward Bird boy?" X asked, holding her tighter. "I found the reservation at Jump City Mental Hospital, reserved under the name Raven."
Robin was silent.
"Dude! I didn't think you'd actually do it!"
Raven stayed quiet.
"Friend Robin, please, what is truly going on? Friend Raven! Please! Tell us what is to happen so we can end this madness!"
She gulped, and found herself hugging X back.
"That's it! Stop! Raven, we're sorry! We just… wanted to make sure nothing happened to you."
"Do you want me to get you out of here, or do you want to do the honors?"
She hugged him tighter.
"Okay then."
He teleported away with her in tow, thanking himself for recalibrating the teleportation button to carry more than one person.
They never found her after that. They didn't know if she had changed her name and appearance, or if she had traveled to another planet, or if she had …
Died.
The titans couldn't stand that thought, and just thought they could—
Would find her. They had to.
But it's impossible to find a person who didn't want to be found.
This is a one shot that WAS dedicated to Xaleria07 for her birthday. But since I decided to write a fic for her (because I can so there :P), I posted this up and dedicated to her anyway since I love her like the sister she is. (My personality twin people. How awesome is that?)
I wrote this on March 21. It took a lot of patience to wait until now, let alone November 9th. But I know she loves blaming Robin and I wanted to put a threesome in the fic I wrote for her, but it didn't happen.
Inspiration: It's from cimple's Passing Judgment: Playing by the Rules, the line: "How he couldn't see this guy had Red X written all over his face." (I love that line) So, some dedications go to cimple too.
Yea, this is long. Deal with it. Jkjk.
Um, when I was in the middle of writing this, I realized it sounded a lot like Haunted, but I didn't mean to do that, so I just worked that episode into this fic.
I hope you all liked it, especially you Xaleria!! Hope you'll like your future bday fic.
Love,
Ivy
