WARNING: I began this story for a friend when Teen Titans was still on air, and after many threats and rewritings I am finishing this so I can be done with it.
I'm including this warning because a lot of this is from years ago, and although I have touched it up I left the story as close to the original as I could, which means things will sound like things written by an angsty young teenager (because it was). Given how long the story is, you will probably notice a distinct difference as the chapters go on, as there are literally years between when I wrote the chapters. I'm hoping there is a noticeable improvement between chapter 1 (rewritten two or three times, the last time when I was about 17~18) and chapter 20 (written at the age of 22). While I could restart the entire thing, I really don't want to rewrite the first 100 pages. Again. And so, I apologize for the quality of the writing and the story, and I hope you will forgive me and enjoy the story regardless!
"I have him," Raven said, one energy empowered hand extended towards her towering, but still, foe.
"Good work Raven, we'll be right over," Robin said, running toward her location and relaying the coordinates to the rest.
"You shouldn't have done that, Raven," this came from the now bored appearing man while he studied his wrist guards for scratches.
"And why not, Slade?" she said, glowing eyes narrowing as her obvious distaste grew to just biting back her onslaught.
"It limits the time we have to talk," with this, Slade relaxed against one of the bar railings on the scaffold.
"Why would I want to talk with you?" Raven might as well have grown a forked tongue her voice was so venomous.
"I have a proposition for you my dear," his response was unchanged, lazily relaxed.
She raised an eyebrow in response.
"I am thinking of acquiring a new apprentice. The last few have been rather disappointing as you might have noticed," he continued after a pause, straightening up a bit as if he was suddenly becoming more professional and business like.
"There is no way I'm going to be employed as your newest puppet," there was a moment of shock before Raven was able to scoff her retort.
"You would come on your own free will," he offered her, as if she was already showing interest.
"With only a side dish of black mail I'm sure," by now Raven was being sarcastic, trying to buy the rest of them time to get there.
He chuckled, "without the side dish, of course."
"No," it was simple but firm.
"You are special, Raven, you deserve to have the teaching you need," he took a step forward, hand beginning to be outstretched to her.
"I can train without you," she stepped back, her guard nearly down. Her purple eyes were now visible, but her hands still glowed.
"But you will only benefit your powers, you must expand your physical strength in order to truly extend you mental powers," Slade took back his hand realizing she would not take it now.
"As stated, I can train without you," Raven's eyes glowed once more as she brought her guard back up.
"You're different from the rest of them, do you honestly think that if Starfire was Trigon's daughter she would have been able to stop him?" Slade was still off guard, showing no interest in fighting anymore.
"Not really," she confided. Starfire was strong, but emotionally handling it might have been difficult. Raven had surprised herself in that battle, she didn't know if anyone else could have managed the same.
"You truly could be the leader, but Robin is still in control, and he is not doing the greatest job either," he began to examine her teammates out loud, almost musing each candidate over in his mind and letting her hear his thoughts.
"That is only your point of view," the empath defended, but was curious about what he was doing this for, his actions always had a purpose. What the point behind this?
"Beast Boy is irresponsible, and still cares about Terra," Raven's curiosity continued to be piqued by his words, how Slade knew the truth, why he was saying it out loud to her.
"That's true," Beast Boy hid it well, but when he was alone he thought of her. Raven had picked up strong emotions from him when his mind wandered and she was close.
"And Cyborg can be turned off like a loud, annoying TV."
"Not quite," Slade's generalization of Cyborg bothered Raven, she did not like when people viewed him as a computer with an expressive face and not as a human.
"First, I thought I would go with the leader of the group," he continued with his analysis and explanation of past apprentices.
"That failed miserably," Raven kept him going, wondering where he was going with this and when the other Titans would arrive to help her capture Slade.
"Yes, then I went with who I thought had the most power," he emphasized the word 'thought,' possibly the closest she had ever heard him admit he was wrong about something.
"Also failing horridly," though not at first, Terra had been effective until she realized and regretted what she had done and turned on Slade.
"But Terra's apprenticeship did prove useful," well, it was nice Slade was able to see the bright side in every situation.
"It led you to me?" she played along as well as tried to satisfy her own curiosity by indulging him and guessing what he was leading up to.
"Yes. You have the power, the mental ability, inner strength..." his flattery had no good effect on her, instead causing her to scowl and say in an imitating voice:
" 'It's always the quiet one, isn't it?' "
"You took the words right out of my mouth," it sounded like he was smirking, and she was sure under the mask he was grinning at her.
Raven glared at him suspiciously.
"And now I make my leave, I'll call you," he jumped up onto a platform that hadn't been there a moment ago.
"Hey!" she jumped up after him, right into a trap. A few well-placed bombs threw her to the opposite wall, as Robin came rushing in, his Hate-Slade-Rush driving him to where Slade had disappeared.
"You let him get away!" Robin shouted at Raven.
Raven wiped the blood from her nose as she stood up and dusted herself off. An enraged Robin was approaching Raven when she swept Robin to the side with her body and magic. Robin looked shocked at the platform; a lone Slade Bot was there, aiming at Robin. Robin was about to attack when several more Slade Bots attacked the shooting one, dragging it through a hidden entrance. Robin turned his attention back on Raven. She was standing, holding her arm as blood seeped through her fingers. She closed her eyes letting her energy close the clean cut. A moment later, she removed her hand and inspected the smooth skin where the bullet had grazed her. She flicked the blood from her hand as the rest of the Titans ran into the room.
"Slade got away from me," Raven simply stated before walking from the room. Robin sighed before following, the rest falling behind.
As soon as the Teens got back to the Tower Raven went to the roof to catch the last of the sun while meditating. They could tell she wanted to be alone for a while so they let her be, but they hoped she and Robin wouldn't drag whatever it was on. Raven began her normal chant, letting the last of the sun's rays warm her. She let her body rebuild its energy, slowly floating up and down. Her brow creased as a strange feeling crept over her, starting deep inside and creeping through her, not so much expanding as winding its way to the surface. Trying to identify it her mind touched it, trying to examine it and slow its progress through the levels of her psyche. It evaded her and there was a harsh crackle. Her eyes opened when the black energy sparked around her, flaring and disappearing as the feeling snaked away.
Raven was distinctly aware that she was shaking, looking down at her hands she saw them trembling before she forced them to be still. Boots touched the floor and she walked over to the edge of the rooftop and looked at the horizon. The sun had nearly set, painting the sky in a rainbow of colors as twilight fell around her. She cleared her mind, banishing all thoughts before she tried to figure out what just happened.
A presence entered her mind, not deep down like the previous feeling, and definitely not one of Raven's inner entities. Feeling the presence, curious what it was and how it had entered, Raven allowed it to stay without attacking it yet. The presence was calm and peaceful, soothing Raven but not making coherent words, instead using feelings to convey a message of nonaggression. Raven reached out mentally, trying to feel out the presence and find its source, but it shrunk away from her mind. When she focused to follow it energy crackled again without control and she ceased immediately.
The feeling was gone. The presence was gone. And for some reason Raven felt utterly and totally alone. Intense despair flooded her before she could stop it, and she retreated to her room to try to gain control of her emotions. They swung wildly, and she covered her mouth to mute the laughter that was followed by screams of terror. She clenched her eyes shut, reigning in her overactive emotions, and after a few minutes was successful. Breathing heavily she fell onto her bed, wiping the tears and beads of sweat from her brow. Calm once more, she was more perplexed than ever.
Four tentative knocks sounded from her door. After a moment Raven got up and answered it, opening the door enough to show half her face and seeing Robin there. He looked ashamed.
"Raven, I know I was a little harsh on you earlier, and, I'm sorry," Robin began.
"You don't have to apologize," she began, stopping, hoping he didn't notice her voice change.
"Are you crying?" Robin asked quickly.
"I'll be fine, I just, need to meditate," she assured him.
"Oh-okay," he replied, sounding guilty.
Raven shut the door, hand resting on the smooth surface as she thought. What had caused her to lose control of her powers? Even a small loss of control could prove fatal, and what of the strange being in her mind? What was its origin and what did it want? Was it connected to her lack of control? Did it have something to do with Slade? This had happened right after he had spoken to her, perhaps he was the cause somehow. If that was the case, Raven knew she needed to seal off her mind and regain control as quickly as possible to ward against possible attack. She couldn't lose control of her powers; the consequences could be deadly.
The next day was slow, there was no trouble in the city and the Titans remained at their home for a day of relaxation. Raven entered the main room, the first time she had come out since the previous night, and the others silently noticed her presence but did not approach. They were not sure if she wanted company or if she would wish to be alone longer. They knew if she stayed in the room after making tea it was safe to talk to her, if she departed once she got what she had come for they would leave her be.
The telepath did indeed make tea, as well as make a light meal while the kettle heated to a boil. She watched the others in the room, Beast Boy and Cyborg playing a game, Starfire looked like she was trying to knit something, Robin was no where to be seen. When the tea was ready she sat down to think as she ate her food, mulling over the past day.
As far as she could tell, her powers were once more under control as well as her emotions, but she was worried, the loss yesterday had caught her completely off guard, she had not felt herself losing control until she did. She was accustomed to feeling it slip away, she was normally aware when she was getting close to losing control. But last night it had just… happened. And there was the matter of the alien presence she had felt; despite her efforts to find it and reconnect to learn about it she was unable to sense it any longer.
Raven was interested to know who had reached out to her mind, and why. It had not been a hostile touch, but it had retreated when she had tried to find the source, so it did not want to be known. Raven did not encounter other telepaths often, especially empathic ones. While telepathy tended to be more difficult it was more common, ironically. But communicating strictly through emotions was difficult, especially over distance. Telepathy was much easier to perform over long distances, only a very powerful empath would be able to communicate over such a long distance with a mind it had never encountered before. Raven considered another possibility, perhaps the mysterious empath was close. Very close. Or a transmitter, amplifier, of some sort. She would have to look into that in order to find out who, or what, the strange presence was.