Crossposted from my AO3. And sorry in advance but if I had to suffer from this idea, then you all get to suffer with me.

Another Way

There was a little park in Auldnoir, tucked away on one of the lower levels. It looked as though hardly anyone visited, outside of the birds. If it hadn't been for the old slide and swingset, it would have been impossible to tell it was a park at all.

Even the large tree in it's center was nothing special, not compared to those by the church. Everything about this place seemed unimportant and forgettable to Raven. Which made the fact Kat had asked her to follow her here all the weirder.

Raven leaned up against a wall as Kat took a seat on the swingset, idly pushing the seat back and forth as she stared at a spot in front of the tree. Hekseville's resident hero seemed lost in thought. And seeing the normally energetic girl so muted was offputting.
"As much as I'm enjoying the peace and quiet, it's kind of weird so what's going on?"
"Raven," Kat looked up at her, red eyes meeting blue, "we're friends, right?"

Raven blinked. Whatever she had been expecting, it definitely wasn't that.
"Where did that come from? I wouldn't be here if we weren't."
"Sorry, I just-"
"You're too excitable," Raven continued, cutting Kat off, "and don't seem to know how to shut up. Keeping up with you is exhausting sometimes... but it wouldn't feel right if you were gone."

For the first time since Raven had arrived at the Pipe House a half hour earlier, a geniuine smile appeared on Kat's face.
"That's more like it. You're supposed to be the insufferably happy one."
"I'm not sure if I should be pleased or insulted though."
"Maybe both," Raven laughed, stepping away from the wall and taking a seat on the other swing beside Kat, "so why show me this place?"

Kat looked back at the tree. Only this time her gaze seemed more sentimental than wistful.
"You remember the first time we saw each other, on the rooftops? You took one look at me and then flew off."
"I remember. Didn't know who you were at the time," Raven nodded, deciding not to add that that was the only reason she hadn't attacked on sight like their next several meetings.
"You want to know why I'd tried to talk to you that day? Why you'd never heard of me until then?"

Now it was Raven idly rocking her seat back and forth as she thought back to that day where Kat had first appeared in her life. She couldn't guess how that encounter, as brief as it had been, tied back to this forgotten park. So she nodded and let Kat continue.

Raven stayed quiet and listened as Kat told the story of her first day in Hekseville, waking up beneath that tree with no idea where she was. How she had found out about her and Dusty's abilities, only to be chased off by an ungrateful Aujean. Raven made a mental note to pay the ice cream seller a visit at some point for that.
"-so then I saw you flying by and thought maybe you'd know what was going on, or who I am. No luck there, huh?"
"Doesn't seem like it."

"So then I ran into Syd. Got my name, found my house, got settled in and you know the rest."
"Rough first day." Raven commented, not really sure what to add.
"It turned out okay in the end," Kat said back, smiling at her friend. Just the sight of her happy again seemed to drain the almost-depressing seriousness of moments ago.
"I guess it did."

The two shared the moment, enjoying how far they had both come since that day. Kat stood up and walked over to the tree, kneeling at it's base to pet the starry black cat sleeping in it's shade. Raven's own companion was perched on the top of the swingset.
"Why tell me this, Kat?"
"I don't know really. Just a thought I had, maybe I should tell you more about me. I'd tell Syd too but he tried to foist his work on me last time I tried."
"As lazy as ever it seems."
"He called it 'using all available resources'," Kat laughed, "but I'm pretty sure he just didn't want to go dumpster diving for evidence. So I pushed him in and left him to get on with it."

The small park was filled with the sound of their laughter at that particular mental image. Raven almost wished she'd been there to see the look on his face. Kat took her seat back beside her, having finished bothering Dusty.
"Still must be rough not knowing where you're from." Raven said.
"At first it was but now, it's not so bad. I might not know who I was but I'm happy with who I am now."
"Being happy with who you are now, huh..." Raven muttered, looking up at the sky peeking through from between the upper levels.
"Raven?"
"It's nothing."

There were limits to what she was willing to admit to. And if she did ever admit that, thanks to Kat, she could actually enjoy herself again, she'd never live it down. Although judging by the smirk on the blonde shifter's face, she already knew anyway. Time to change the subject before the teasing began.
"So the only thing you had to go on is that 'there was another way'?"
"Yup. That's all I remembered."
"Any idea what that meant?"
"Not a one. Gade won't tell and I asked Aki a while ago but I'd have better luck getting a straight answer out of a Nevi than Pandora."

That probably explained why Raven had been the one paying for dinner the last two weeks. If Aki knew the concept behind a friend discount, she certainly didn't care to follow it.
"Maybe it's to do with you," Kat mused.
"Why me?"
"Well, think about it. The way things were going back then, the two options were you beating me or me beating you. And yet here we are! Or there's the choice between saving the districts in the Rift Planes or Boutoume. We managed both."

It was a good theory but Raven didn't buy it, shaking her head as she stood.
"No. I doubt it is that simple. Whatever that's referring to probably involves who you were before."
"Yeah that sounds likely. Well it doesn't really matter," Kat hopped to her feet too, almost bouncing up beside Raven. "I figure I'll know what it means when it happens."
"Well be sure to tell me when you do," Raven patted her on the shoulder, "I'll help where I can."
"Will do! We'll figure it out together."
"Right."

Kat definitely seemed back to her usual self again, beaming away as the two starry animals joined the pair. Even a loud growling coming from her stomach didn't seem to dampen her spirits, especially when Raven's decided to join in.
"Well I think that means it's time for dinner. I found a stall that makes really good apple pies. My treat?"
"You had me at pie." Raven admitted as the two took to the skies and headed on their way.

It had been over three years in Hekseville before Raven found herself back in that quiet little park. It seemed a little more overgrown but was still basically the same as it had been before. Still the same old slide and swingset, the same old bench and the same old tree.

The only thing that changed was that this time Raven arrived alone. She stared up at the tree in silence for several minutes before taking the seat on the swingset that she had taken all that time ago.

If anyone else had been around, the icy glare on Raven's face would have seemed more fitting on how she had looked before she had met Kat. Back when she had been nothing more than a tool to scare and manipulate Hekseville.

She scratched at some bandages on her midriff, the burns from the fight with the woman in gold still healing. But even the pain that still gave her seemed like nothing compared to what she felt when she looked at that tree and remembered the talk they had shared.
"There was another way," she muttered, looking across at where Kat had been, where she should have been. "so much for figuring it out together."

She stood, turning away. It had only been a couple weeks since that day, Kat being gone was still almost too much for her to face.
"That was the answer you came up with? Sacrificing yourself... you idiot. You stupid-"

Any further words were cut off by the clang of impact on metal, the swingset almost toppling as Raven punched the frame. Even without using her powers she managed to put a very noticeable dent in the metal. It didn't help. It hadn't helped when she'd punched a wall. It hadn't helped when she'd torn the last Nevi attack apart.

Even punching Syd hadn't done anything to change the fact that Kat was gone. That a part of what made Raven who she was had been taken away and was not coming back. She tried to fight back tears but even that didn't work.
"Y-you didn't have to- we could have found a better way! Why that?"

Perhaps the one comfort of this park was that no one was around to witness her. It took several minutes before she managed to gather herself, wiping her eyes on her sleeves as she looked up at the tree that had been the start of Kat's story.

As much as the temptation was there to uproot the tree, hurl it out of Hekseville and tear the whole place apart, she knew it was wrong. Kat had always cared about the city, Raven couldn't bring herself to do any more damage to it.

So she left, before she could lost control again and have another outburst. She raced through Auldnoir, ignoring the people as she flew over head before dropping down to Kat's house. Although she guessed it was hers now.

Even that thought seemed wrong. But she refused to abandon it, it had meant so much to the both of them. She stepped inside, collapsing on the bed. It certainly didn't seem as warm and comforting as it had before, she hadn't managed to get much sleep since Kat had gone. It wasn't the same without Kat elbowing her in the back at some stupid time of night because she couldn't stay still even when sleeping.

Raven always managed to get payback the next morning, usually by shoving her out of the bed. She pulled herself back to a sitting position, wincing at the lightning burns as she pushed herself so her back was against the pipe's wall.

Tucking her knees to her chest, she sat silently, staring at the photos that covered the walls. One in particular stood out, the two of them just after reuniting in Jirga Para Lhao. Syd, Lisa and Cecie looking on in shock as the two of them ate enough food for ten.

Raven found herself wondering if they felt the same way she did, if they missed Kat as much. She hoped they didn't, she couldn't wish that on anyone. Still, she hadn't been able to work up the courage to face them and find that out.

The look on Kat's face in the picture, seeming both frustrated as she tried to wrestle a plate of bacon out of Raven's grasp as well as happy to have been reunited with her best friend, was all it took to start another round of crying again. And this one, this one Raven didn't know how to stop.