Okay, First, the disclaimer. I DO NOT own the Teen Titans or any other DC Comics Character. If I Did, the show would still be airing new episodes. Oh, and I don't own any of the song quotes in this story! I can't remember all of them at the moment, but yeah. They're there. Now that I've got that out of the way...This is my first Teen Titans fanfic, so don't be too harsh. Uhmm...I can't really think of anything else to say, so read, review, and enjoy! ^_^
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No, I'm Not Afraid, At Least Not to Die. I'm Afraid to Live and Not Remember Why.
Raven's P.O.V
I opened my eyes, and looked around to take in my surroundings. I was walking down Main street in Jump City in the rain, surrounded by a procession of people, all dressed in black. I looked down at myself. I wasn't wearing my usual "hero get-up", but a black dress, and black gloves. I realized then that I was looking through a black laced veil that was coming off a hat that I was wearing. I looked up to see four coffins being carried by an odd assortment of people. The coffin to the far left was being carried by the Doom Patrol. The coffin in the middle to the left was being carried by the Royal Tameranean Guard. The one in the middle to the right was being carried by Batman, Superman, Wonder Women, and the Flash, and the one to the far right was being carried by Jump City's Finest. It just wasn't clicking in my head what this was. I ran ahead to ask Batman what was going on.
"Batman?" No answer."…Bruce!" He looked down at me.
"Raven, what are you doing?" he asked, glaring at me.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Raven, what is wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me?!…." I trailed off, starting to ask myself more than Bruce. Batman stopped walking…intern making everyone else stop and look over, puzzled.
"Raven? Do you know where you are?" he asked. I looked back up at him.
"We're in the middle of Jump City, aren't we?"
"Yes, do you know what's happening?"
"A…a funeral…?" and then it donned on me as I looked around at all the coffin bearers…I felt tears slide down my cheeks…I collapsed on the wet street…from somewhere far away I heard a women let out an agonizing scream/sob…it took me a moment to comprehend that it was me…
Third person; Raven's bedroom
The violet haired girl let out a heart-wrenching, howl of a sob, and sat up in her bed.
Shaking violently with tears, she put her face in her hands and began yelling, "No, no, no! NO!". She continued to howl in agony, the rest of her words discernable. Priceless artifacts began to crack and shatter, books flew from their cases, the pages ripping out of them, shredding themselves into to small flakes, drifting down like snow and lightly coating the dark carpet of the room.
Suddenly the door at the other end of the room burst open. A shirtless, lean boy in red pajama bottoms stood in the door way, bo-staff in hand, and his mask in place, ready for battle, even though he had obviously just jumped out of bed. His ink black hair was not in it's normal disarray of spikes, but rather a horrible case of bed-head. He looked around at the utter chaos of the room, searching for an unknown attacker. After several moments he saw no one in the room, but Raven, sobbing on her bed.
"Raven? Raven, what's wrong? What happened?"
She looked up in utter bewilderment, everything froze just as it was.
"R-robin? What…? But…where'd the….where is Batman?"
"Raven, what are you talking about?" he asked, coming out of his fighting stance and closing his staff. There obviously was not a physical enemy here.
"You were…and the rest of the team…," she brought her hands up to her face, and began sobbing again. The discord picked back up, as though nothing had interrupted it.
"Shh, shh, Raven. I'm sure you were just having a bad dream," He said running to her bed side, trying to avoid being hit by any of the flying objects. He wrapped his arms around her and she leaned into him, crying even harder. The walls started to tremble and other things around the Tower started to break. The other Titans had arrived at Raven's bedroom door, and were currently looking in on the madness.
"Ro-robin, it seemed so real!" she nearly screamed.
"I know, I know, Raven, but it wasn't. Shh," he said stroking her hair. He waved his hand in a signal for the others to come in . "Look, Raven, the rest of the team is right here, look. I know it's hard, but you have to try and calm down, okay?" she looked up at the worried faces of her team, but continued sobbing for a minute or so but it was starting to subside…but not completely. Robin motioned for the others to leave now, and find shelter. "Raven, I'm here, you have to stop crying okay? Can you do that for me?" Her sobs started coming less frequently, till, finally, they stopped all together. She looked up at the Boy Wonder.
"It seemed so real…" she said again. The pain in her amethyst eyes tugged at his heart strings, making him want to jump off the highest building in Gotham (which just so happens to be Wayne Enterprises).
"Do you want to tell me about your dream?" he asked, willing to do anything to remove this look from her ashen face.
"I'm worried it may have been more than a dream."
"What do you mean? That it may have been a vision into the future? Tell me what happened."
"Yes…Robin, I…You all were dead…" she said tears silently rolling down her cheeks, but she kept eye contact with Robin.
"And you think…?" he trailed off.
"It just seemed too real…maybe it was just a dream. I'm sorry." she said looking down. He lifted her chin up with his finger, and made her look at him.
"Don't be sorry, everyone has bad dreams," she gave a slight nod. He dropped his arms and stood up from the bed. "Are you going to be okay?"
"Yes," she looked over at the clock on her bedside table. 5:07 a.m. He followed her gaze and saw the time.
"Well, might as well stay up and get a jump start on the day," he said, grinning at her.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," she replied, smiling slightly. He returned the smile, and started to head for the door. "Robin?"
"Yes?" he asked, turning back around.
"Thank you."
He smiled, "Anytime," and Raven stared after him as he continued out her door and across the hall to his bedroom. She rose to close the door, then went to her closet to change into her "hero get-up". After changing she went into her bathroom and splashed her face with cold water. She dried her face and went back into her room to assess the damage.
"Nothing too unmanageable," she said to her self, and using her telekinesis, she reassembled the broken statues and bust, put back together the pages of her ancient tomes, placed the books back on their shelves, and fixed her numerous magical artifacts.
She looked out her bay windows and saw the first streaks of pink sunlight coming over the horizon, and sighed.
She left her room and looked down the hall…there was debris everywhere. She sighed again and raised her arms above her head, her hands lighting up black with her powers and her eyes glowing white.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…" she nearly hissed. The debris promptly lifted into the air and mended back into whatever it had originally been and flew back to where it belonged. 'I'm glad Robin calmed me down when he did, because any longer and I would have brought down the Tower…and I don't think I could have fixed that,' she thought to herself.
Third person; kitchen
Robin was standing in front of the stove, absent-mindedly tapping his fingers on the counter (not in an impatient way, but in the rhythm of some half remembered song), waiting for the water in the tea kettle to boil. The other Titans were standing around, miscellaneously, looking at the wreckage when it lifted into the air by Raven's magic. They watched in awe as things zoomed this way and that, fixing themselves, and flying back to their homes. When the last tea mug reassembled itself and landed neatly in the cabinet it belong to, Raven entered the main living area. At the sight of her friends her face light up into a magnificent smile, and she soared across the room, wrapping her arms tightly around the rather startled Tameranean. Quickly Starfire recovered her self and returned the hug warmly, a smile breaking across her features. The boys bodies started to glow with Raven's black aura, and they were levitated towards the girls. They all quickly threw their arms around the two embracing.
"I'm so happy you're all here," Raven said, with her face burrowed up against Starfire's neck.
"We too, are grateful for you presence, Raven," the red head beamed back. Raven released Starfire and hugged each of the boys intern.
"Uhm…yeah, Raven…We're happy you're here too," Beast Boy said, rubbing the back of his neck in confusion. The tea pot on the stove started to whistle.
"Mmm…is that jasmine tea I smell?" the telepath inquired, her eyes closed, and a content smile on her lips.
"Oh, yeah. I thought you would like some after…well, yeah, I'll just go get it," Robin said hurrying over to the kitchen. Raven followed him. As he prepared their tea she rummaged through the fridge.
"Well, there isn't really anything in here for breakfast, would you all like to go out to eat?" she asked. They all looked at her dumbfounded. Robin, who had still been pouring tea, forgot what he was doing and tea started to overflow onto the counter. "What? Just because we're superheroes doesn't mean we can't go out and eat breakfast. And, well, quite frankly, we all know I can't cook," she smiled sheepishly.
"Wait, let me get this straight," Beast Boy said, holding up his hands, palms forward. "You're happy that we're here, you're smiling, like, real smiles, and you want to go have breakfast with us?" he asked incredulously. She nodded. "Wait, is it the end of the world again?!" he asked, his eyes bugging wide.
"No…well, at least not that I know of," she told him honestly. He stared at her suspiciously. She ignored him and turned back to Robin who had began speaking.
"Breakfast will have to wait. Raven and I need to talk," he told the rest of the team, then turned to Raven. "Do you mind if we have our tea on the roof?"
"Of course not," she said. He grabbed their mugs of tea, and they both headed up to the roof.
It was a cool, clear, windy day in Jump City. The sun was just breaking the horizon, and the wind was blowing from the east. The sky was a brilliant clear blue. Robin handed Raven her tea, and she sipped it thoughtfully. They walked to the edge of the roof and sat down, their legs hanging over the edge. Robin finally began to talk after they had both finished their tea.
"So…this dream you had…You think it may have been a vision of something to come?"
"Thought," she said firmly.
"I…I don't understand,?" he said with a puzzled look.
"I thought at the time it may have been a vision. But now I know it most certainly was not."
"How do you know this?" he asked.
"Because it didn't make sense."
"Raven…I think I'd understand better if you told me the whole dream."
"You're right," she said, and continued to relay the dream to him.
"Oh…" was all he said. He looked out over the bay to the sun which was fully over the horizon now. "Raven…I hate to say it, but there are real chances that could happen," he glanced over at her. Her facial expression didn't change in the slightest.
"No, Robin, there are not. If the four of you were to die, I would not be at the funeral," his eyes widened. She looked over at him and realized how he had taken it. "No, no, no. That's not how I meant that to come out. If the four of you were to die, I wouldn't go on living. If I hadn't died along side you I would kill myself the moment I knew you all were dead," she confided in him and looked back to the sun.
"Raven…" he said weakly. "You can't. Who would protect the city?"
"There are plenty of honorary Titans, and a whole spaceship full of big shot Heroes orbiting the earth as we speak. The city would be fine…Not that I would have thought of that at the time."
"How can you just sit there and talk about your own suicide like it's nothing?!" he said becoming slightly outraged. He didn't like the thought of his best friend killing herself, no matter what the circumstances. She looked up at him, surprised at his raised voice. "Raven, promise me, that you'll never do that, no matter what happens."
"Robin, I can't and I won't promise you that. I don't like breaking promises, and that would be one that I know I couldn't keep. Listen, Robin. Those are the sort of things we don't have to worry about, okay? Just forget about it, and enjoy the day," he looked back out at the sun, and started to calm down. "Now, let's go have a real breakfast," she said standing up and holding out her hand. He looked up at her hand, grasped it and stood up.
"It's a beautiful day," he said. She looked back towards the sun.
"Yes, yes it is."
Third person; breakfast
The team decided on a little Ma&Pa diner for breakfast. Beast Boy was in a pouty mood because the place didn't serve tofu or soy milk, so there was really nothing for him to eat or drink, except orange juice.
"Oh, stop your whining, BB. Just man up and eat some meat!" Cyborg chided him. Beast Boy looked at him, outraged.
"Dude, we've been over this! I've been most of those animals!" the changeling yelled, flailing his arms over his head.
"Hush, you're making a scene," Raven said. "Hold on a second," and with that her body shrank into the seat of the booth they were sitting in. The other Titans looked at the place where she had vanished.
"Do you think she has gone to the room of resting for ladies?" Starfire inquired.
"I don't think so," Robin said, one eyebrow raised. After several minutes the empty seat next to Starfire was once again filled by the blue cloaked Titan, but she had something in her hands.
"Is that a to-go box?" Beast Boy asked, puzzled.
"Yes, picky," she replied, handing him the box. He opened it to find a completely tofu meal. He look back up at her in astonishment.
"Did you just…?" he trailed off.
"Go out of my way and spend money out of my own pocket for your breakfast? Yes, enjoy."
"And it's not-"
"Don't you dare say poisoned," she cut him off. He looked back at his breakfast and closed the lid.
"Thank you, Raven."
"Aren't you going to eat it?" Robin asked.
"Yes, but I want to wait till the rest of you get your food," he said, looking at Raven. The others looked at him, struck dumb.
"Please, Cyborg. Beast Boy is being…polite?" Starfire asked, obviously confused.
"I…I think so, Star."
"What? She bought me breakfast, the least I can do is wait for the rest of you to get your food…and it's not like I'm rude all the time," he said indignantly. They all looked at him quizzically. Just then the rest of their food arrived, everyone was momentarily distracted and dug into their meals. As the other four Titans ate and chatted happily, Raven smiled to herself, not wanting this to end. Wanting her friends to remain happy, not wanting another perilous fight to endanger their lives. Robin looked over at her, while Starfire and Cyborg argued over who could eat more. He suddenly didn't want the moment to end either, not wanting the sweet smile on her lips to ever slip away. Just then their was a loud bang and the table they were at spilt in two. Raven acted swiftly and repaired the table.
"It is a challenge then!" Starfire beamed, Tameranean pride and competitiveness blazing in her eyes.
"Bring it on!" Cyborg countered. Beast Boy ordered stacks and stacks of pancakes.
"Okay, here are the rules-" Beast Boy started, but neither competitor paid him any attention, but promptly began scarfing down pancakes. The carnage went on for several minutes, until Cyborg became more and more sluggish. Starfire, on the other hand, was becoming more and more ferocious, until she finally tossed the last pancake into the air. It landed in the large cavern of her mouth and she licked her lips and smiled. Cyborg was to full to move.
"That is all?" she asked hungrily.
"I think it's safe to say the winner is Starfire," Raven announced.
"Yay! Hehe," she giggle as she rose into the air, doing a pirouette. Raven chuckled to herself under her breath. The others look at her in utter disbelief, but before anyone could say anything something came crashing through the window of the dinner.