Chaos? Explosions? Masked men with guns?
Just another day in Jump City.
Richard John Grayson, AKA Robin, the original Boy Wonder, smirked ruefully as he leapt behind an overturned dumpster for cover. The rumble of a stampede and the rapid pop of automatic gunfire reached his ears as he pointedly ignored their sources and focused on his own problems with practiced ease. A small metallic disc was drawn from a pouch in his belt, bounced in his palm for a few moments as he counted the rounds hitting his dumpster, his smirk returning once he heard the telltale click of an empty chamber.
His left hand reached up and vaulted him over the dumpster as his right threw the disc in a fluid movement. It landed and dug into the pavement next to two masked thugs, beeping for a moment before exploding in their faces with massive concussive force. Flying and yelling, they slammed back-first into nearby cars, causing considerable dents and cracking their side windows. He didn't stop for a second, rolling under incoming gunfire and rising to crack a few ribs with a jabbing elbow to the shooter's midsection. His knuckle-plated gloves cracked against the skull of the man to finish him off, and a steel-toed boot diverted the barrel of another rifle just as it opened fire.
A click from behind warned him of another shooter, but this one had him dead to rights. He could only hope his armor would hold up long enough to get cover. As it turned out, he didn't need to, since two green bolts exploded at the attacker's feet, knocking him off-balance a moment before an orange and violet blur tackled him through a nearby brick wall. Smirking to himself, Robin brought his fist into the nose of the closer shooter and finished him with a roundhouse to the temple. Glancing around, he was greeted only with unconscious bodies. Finally allowing himself a breather, the Titans' leader tapped his earpiece and turned his eyes to the sky.
"Titans, how are we doing?"
Cyborg's comlink clicked on first. "Not too shabby, if I say so myself—" a loud grunt, "—though I could use a pinch of backup with the—" a crash was heard both over the link and in the distance, "—never mind. Thanks, Rae."
A noncommittal grunt sounded over the radio.
"Does anyone have eyes on the power node?" Robin asked.
"That's a big negative here," Cyborg responded.
"Same," Beast Boy groaned, sounding like he'd either just run a mile or had a gang beating on him from sixteen directions. Either one sounded possible at the moment.
"Star?" Robin asked.
No response.
"Starfire, come in," he ordered, a slight, nearly undetectable tinge of nerves in his voice.
A few more seconds passed before Robin pressed a control on his left gauntlet, pulling up a holographic map of the area and his team's corresponding transponders. Five glowing red dots lit up around a roughly three-block area, each with individual symbols captioning them. Raven had her namesake, Beast Boy an ornate eagle grasping a sword, and Cyborg his trademark dotted C. Robin's, of course, was a sharp-tipped R, and Starfire had a round green jewel indicative of the one she wore on her uniform's chest. At present, that jewel was sitting stationary some two blocks from Robin's current position.
An uncomfortable chill was sent up Robin's spine. Star never sat still if she could help it, especially not in a fight. Sending another quick glance at the map, Robin turned his comlink back on.
"Beast Boy, head north to Star's position. Find out what's going on."
The urgent note to his tone had BB adopting the same tone. "I'm on it, boss."
Robin pressed a control on his belt, and the rev of a tricked-out motorcycle reached his ears, the older teen not bothering to look as he leapt into the air, legs tucked against his chest to land on the newly arrived R-cycle in a perfect stance. The engine roared as he took off toward Star and Beast Boy, who had also fallen disturbingly silent after being sent to the hot zone. Gritting his teeth, Robin hit a control on his bike's dashboard after getting within a block of their transponders, the cycle's seat launching him thirty feet into the air and above the line of buildings obscuring his view.
Firing his grapnel at an overhead radio tower, he swung toward the far side of the building and seamlessly disconnected with a double backflip. A charge from his gloves sent his cape expanding into a rigid glider as his masked eyes narrowed at the smoke-filled street below. A rapid double-blink switched his lenses to infrared, and several large shapes filled his vision a moment before he felt a massive tug at his waist. Blinking twice again to retract the lenses, Robin looked down to see his belt being pulled down and forward, the tug only increasing the closer he got to street level. Another infrared scan revealed the why.
A massive heat spike was coming from the base of a building on the opposite side of the street, a large electromagnet, he hypothesized—quite correctly. Once he got far enough through the smoke, Robin could clearly see the two communicators and attached transponders glued to the device. Feeling himself about to be yanked there as well, he quickly reached down and unclipped his utility belt, cursing himself when he felt his legs being pulled on as well.
Knew I should've asked Lucius for ceramic plating instead of steel toes.
Angling his body forward, Robin planted his feet against the wall of the building and reached down to uncouple his boots as well, launching out of them in a backflip and using his cape to glide toward the rest of the heat signatures. A green explosion erupted in front of him, the Titans' leader releasing a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding as he saw Starfire's familiar orange-violet streak pass him by. Unfortunately, the wind gust from the movement threw his flight pattern off completely and sent him careening out of control. An almost panicked yell came from his throat until he felt strong, feminine fingers wrap around his forearm.
He looked up into Star's glowing green eyes and felt his heart skip a beat as he was momentarily distracted by her teasing smile.
Focus, Dick! Bruce would be so disappointed if he could see you now.
Shaking his head slightly, the Boy Wonder returned her smile and nodded once as she angled her flight pattern toward the battle, where the howl of a cheetah could be heard below. Star let him go just as the hulking metal figure of some kind of powered battle suit came into view, Robin planting spandex-clad feet on its upper hull with a grunt. Without the padding his boots provided, having to land on sheer metal was a bit of a pain. All the same, he rolled onto its shoulder and leapt off, springing off the side of a building and avoiding its attempts to pin him down with several near misses.
Robin smirked when he saw how easily the pilot was distracted, grinning fully when a massive green rhino barreled into the armored suit from behind, its horn finding a gap in its armor and digging into the delicate circuitry inside. Robin landed on ground level in a roll, taking a moment to recover his footing and breath as he looked up and coughed hard.
"Star," he called, "see if you can't clear out this smoke!"
Her only answer was the whirring of fast-moving wind, caused by the Tamaranean's spiral flight pattern. About ten seconds later, and the air was clear enough to see down the block. Robin's eyes widened when he saw another armored suit digging into a large metal container and yanking something out.
Oh no.
"Star, Beast Boy—stop that thing!"
They gave him slightly confused looks before both taking off into flight, a dozen green starbolts streaking toward the armored figure. It spotted them and her a split-second later, a jump-jet on its back rocketing it out of immediate danger as it took to the sky. Gritting his teeth, Robin ran toward the nearby electromagnet and hit the release on one of his belt pockets. An electric baton fell into his hand—made of high-density carbon polymers, thank goodness—and was jabbed into an exposed circuit of the magnet, disrupting its power supply and freeing both his teammates' communicators and his utility belt and boots.
Donning the latter, he sprinted toward the sounds of battle, his peripheral vision catching Raven and Cyborg finally joining them from the rear. The roar of twin jet engines reached him from in front, the teen rounding a corner only to gape when the armored thug dropped his pilfered machine aboard a modified F-35, a magnetic storage strip on its underside holding it in place. The suit gave the pilot a thumbs-up before turning to face the Titans and revealing a half-dozen concealed weapons of unknown make.
When they warmed red, Robin's eyes widened and he shouted at the rest of the team.
"Scatter!"
The Titans obeyed, some taking to the sky, others just running for cover as the suit's two arm-cannons fired red beams in their general directions. The beams, as Robin had assumed, disintegrated anything in their path with little difficulty, prompting Cyborg to unleash a full blast from his sonic cannon in an attempt to neutralize their sources. The pilot, however, was a pro. Despite the size of his machine, he expertly dodged Cyborg's shots and anything else to be thrown his way, countering with return fire comprised of rockets, bullets, and more disintegrating beams.
Meanwhile, the F-35 was getting away over the bay with the device they had stolen—something Robin was not keen on letting them have, especially considering what he suspected was the fuel for that suit. To that end…
"Raven, stop that fighter!"
"On it," she replied in her usual monotone, taking to the skies and juking around a disintegrator beam sent her way.
Robin managed to land a hit on its firing arm with an explosive disk, sending its next two shots wide and allowing Raven time to escape. "The rest of you, concentrate on disabling its weapons, but don't damage it too badly. We do not want this thing to go critical."
"Rob," Cy started, "tell me that thing isn't shooting what I think it is."
Robin shot him a look as he leapt behind new cover. "You remember Chang's cannon. Does that tech look any different?"
Cyborg just shot him a frown and shook his head. "When will these morons ever learn?"
Another half-minute into the battle, and Robin's comlink fired up.
"Bit of an issue," Raven said with a miffed note to her voice even as the sound of thunder reached the shoreline.
"Talk to me," Robin replied.
"The jet just went supersonic, and I can't match it for speed thanks to a drone it sent to slow me down."
Robin scowled into his communicator. "Raven, do whatever you have to. That plane cannot get away!"
Immediately after he finished saying this, a massive gust of wind from behind sent his cape billowing up into his features, temporarily blinding him. Waving it off with a small growl, he looked behind, then forward to the waterfront. What he saw, he almost couldn't believe. Blinking once, then twice to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, Robin stared at the disturbed water rolling away from a narrow path that led toward the escaping jet—and the silver lightning trail at its head.
…
Raven stamped down on the anger threatening to rise within her as she narrowly dodged another burst of automatic fire from the drone currently keeping her occupied. Despite all telekinetic attempts to latch onto and crush it, the machine was somehow evading her grasp and making life very difficult. Meanwhile, her true mission was getting smaller and smaller in the distance.
Enough of this, she decided.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
An arc of dark energy engulfed the space where she predicted the drone would fly next, and it vanished from existence as she teleported it into the bay, short-circuiting its insides. Turning toward the escaping fighter, she put a burst of power into her flight and took off, accelerating at a massive speed, but still not enough to close the gap, given that it was already a great deal faster than her. Gritting her teeth, she primed herself to attempt a teleport when a loud rush of displaced water reached her from below. Violet eyes glancing down, she stared agape at the white streak that zipped past her in a blur, trailing silver lightning all the way on its path to the jet.
Not flying…running. But that's not Kid Flash.
Her eyes narrowed as she put on more speed, managing to concentrate enough to teleport a few miles forward. Evidently, she overestimated the distance, because when she came out of the portal, the jet was nowhere in sight. Turning about with a twinge of anxiety, her eyes widened when the jet streaked toward her at a massive speed, a panel on its bottom opening to unsheathe a minigun. High-velocity rounds streaked toward her with pinpoint accuracy, only a rapidly formed barrier of magical energy saving her from being shredded—just barely.
She felt exhaustion creep up into her bones as her body started to give out under the strain of stopping over three thousand rounds a minute for ten full seconds. The jet turned at the last second, the backwash of its engines buffeting her about as it streaked past, the girl following with some difficulty. The rush of water followed a moment later, and after pressing a hand to her temple to relieve her sudden headache, Raven looked toward it to see something she would wonder at for some time to come. The silver-and-white blur had actually managed to get a considerable lead on the jet, and was streaking back and forth across the water.
Before she knew it, a large, twelve-foot wave had formed on the surface of the bay. The reason for this was discovered a moment later when the blur zipped around to its front and ran straight up it, leaping off the crest of the wave into a two hundred foot jump—right onto the front of the jet. The half-demon gaped as the form of a white-and-gray clad man was seen standing atop the fighter, a mocking voice just barely reaching her over the wind as he pressed his right hand to the glass of the canopy.
"Please stow all tray tables in the upright position and unfasten your seatbelt."
His pressed appendage vibrated at a massive speed, and the glass shattered a moment later as he reached into the now-open cockpit and clicked the belt loose, then slammed the pilot's helmet into the dashboard and pushed the yoke of the jet down. The throttle was pulled back, and the jet decelerated as it careened toward the surface of the water, Raven rushing to get to it. As it turned out, her assistance was unneeded, as with pinpoint precision, the speedster slung the pilot over his shoulder and waited until the last possible second to run.
The moment the nose of the fighter tapped the water, he broke off in a breakneck sprint toward the back of the plane, leaping off its tailfin just as it began to submerge and landing on the water's surface in a running start. Raven brought herself to an abrupt stop as he ran past her, then looped back toward the flipping jet and snatched the device off its mounting. His lightning trail then swept back toward the city, Raven trying to follow but dramatically outpaced given both his superior starting speed and her own exhaustion. A few minutes later, she finally reached the coastline, where the rest of the Titans stared blankly at the unconscious pilot and the cylindrical machine aboard his vehicle.
A paper was taped to the latter's metal surface with the words, "You're welcome," scrawled in rushed, almost unintelligible handwriting. The Titans each exchanged confused glances, Robin eventually speaking up.
"Raven, you were the closest of all of us. What did you see?"
She sent a look at the cylinder, then turned back to Robin. "Just a blur. A white-silver blur. Got a closer look when he boarded the jet."
Beast Boy's eyebrows shut upward. "How'd he pull that off? That thing wasn't exactly close to the water."
"He took a running jump off a wave he created by running back and forth. And then he crashed it."
"Any defining features?" Robin continued.
"White suit, gray highlights. Definitely male, but he wore a mask. I didn't see much of what was visible."
Robin's lips pursed hard, his girlfriend laying a hand on his shoulder before turning to the rest of the team.
"Does his assistance not make him a friend?" the alien asked.
"The fact that he didn't steal the tech for himself is a plus," Robin replied, "but we still don't know his motivations." He looked up at them. "For now, we get these thugs to jail and get back to the tower. I need to find out if anyone's seen this white blur before."
"But first," Cy interrupted as he brought a pry-bar transformed fist into the downed armor suit, "we need to get these things stowed away."
"No kidding," Beast Boy agreed as he transformed into a wolf spider and climbed into the chassis. He emerged with a small cylinder of glowing red liquid a few moments later, transforming back into his human form and carefully handing the container to Cyborg. "I still remember having to fix the tower after Chang lit it up last time."
First responders and police arrived on the scene and began taking the unconscious thugs into custody while the Titans assisted with the heavy lifting. Meanwhile, their resident half-demon kept thinking and glanced at one of the armors.
"Speaking of Chang," Raven piped up after a while, "do we think he's behind this?"
"Wouldn't put it past him," Robin said with a frown as he crouched over the defunct armor, "but last time I checked, he was behind bars at Belle Reve. Could be a proxy." He rose to his feet and turned back to the team. "We'll know more when we get back home."
She gave him a short nod, then returned to work. After most of the clean-up was done and Beast Boy started getting antsy, the Titans gathered some distance away from the police.
"Right then," Cyborg said, swiping his palms across each other. "Rae, do you mind?"
The pale girl sighed, but nodded and called on her powers. A few moments later, they exited her dark energy and stepped into the entrance atrium of the tower. Since the Tokyo incident, several villains had gotten the bright idea that it would be a good idea to attack Titans Tower directly. As a result, between the damage and exhaustion incurred by each assault, several changes had been made to the tower's architecture and security systems. The entrance was enlarged with more open space, making the bottom half of the T more of an upward-sloping pyramid. The reason for this was twofold—first, to allow for more guest space, especially since the Titans' overall ranks had swelled considerably; and second, to build in more security turrets and other defense systems without sacrificing free space.
The team marched toward one of the now-three elevators as one exhausted unit, Raven pulling back her hood and heaving a large sigh. When the doors opened, she was the first one off, mind filling with thoughts of herbal tea and a long nap. Stopping nearly a thousand rounds of high-caliber ammunition did that to you, apparently. She reached into the familiar tea cupboard almost absently, ignoring Beast Boy and Cyborg as they scrambled for the fridge and telekinetically setting a pot of water to boil. She slumped into a chair half-asleep after setting the tea to steep, pressing her fingers against her temples in a vain attempt to stifle her growing headache as the shouts of the half-robot and green teen sent a jackhammer rocketing against her skull.
Two hard whacks smacked against the backs of both their heads, and Raven was about to thank Starfire or Robin when she looked up to see neither of them standing behind the feuding teens. In fact, no one was standing behind them. The sound of pouring liquid came from her left, and she turned in tandem with the other two in the room—Star and Robin nowhere to be found—to see a white and gray-clad figure standing next to the teapot with two cups gripped in his gloved hands and a small smirk on his face. He sipped from the cup in his right hand and cringed slightly before nodding in approval.
"Not bad," he said quietly, voice a gentle baritone-bordering-tenor. His smile grew as he laid the second, untouched cup next to a gaping Raven, along with sugar, lemons, and cream a moment later. "Don't know how you take it, so…" He retreated to the counter once more, looking almost sheepish as he sipped his tea.
Cyborg and Beast Boy were just staring at him, the former the first to snap to, probably because his internal, computerized alarms were blaring full-volume. His right arm transformed into a sonic cannon and pointed at the figure.
"You wanna explain exactly what you're doin' here?"
"And how you got in?" Beast Boy added, gloved hands bared at his sides.
He outright grinned and set the cup down on the counter as he zipped over to a nearby wall, hand pressed against it. "When I vibrate my molecules at the natural frequency of air," his hand did this as Robin and Starfire entered from another hallway, "I create an energy field that allows me to pass through solid objects." His arm did this as well, phasing through to allow the wall to engulf his entire hand, then pulling out and becoming solid again. He returned to sipping his tea a moment later.
Contrary to Cyborg and Beast Boy, Robin didn't go for his weapons or take a ready stance. Starfire just stared at him quizzically, head cocked slightly in curiosity. Raven was staring blankly, as if trapped in her own body. The intruder took a long swig of the tea as he looked at the Titans nervously—too fast, as Raven noted—and was rewarded with a fit of coughs and sputtering, his closed fist hammering on his chest until his breathing stabilized and he grinned.
Robin's masked eyes narrowed. "We appreciate your help back at the waterfront, but breaking into our home is another matter entirely." His arms crossed. "So let's start with who you are and why you're here."
His grin faded to a flat line as he looked toward the Titans' leader. "I'm the White Revenant."
"The who-what?" Beast Boy asked eloquently.
"Revenant," he answered.
"What's a reb—rev—"
"A revenant is an undead creature bearing the memories and personality of the person it once was," Raven interrupted flatly, finally snapping out of her stupor to stand with her cloak gathered around her.
BB gave her a cockeyed look. "Huh?"
"Basically a cooler version of a zombie," the Revenant answered.
Beast Boy nodded with an "oh" and tested the word on his tongue. "Rev…Revan…"
Seeing his trouble, the Revenant just grinned and said, "Just call me Rev."
"Seems like a weird thing to call a speedster," Cyborg remarked absently, cautiously depowering his cannon.
The young speedster in question smirked ruefully and looked down. "If you knew my origins, you wouldn't think so."
"Then enlighten us," Robin said, approaching him.
Star lit up brightly and flew over to the rapidly forming crowd. "Yes! Please tell us your story of origin!"
His smirk faded as he gave them all a long look. "In due time, I'm sure. But first to answer the second part of your question." He nodded to Robin. "I'm here because…" he sighed hard, staring at the floor, "frankly, I need your help." He looked back up at Robin. "And I think you could use mine, too."
Beast Boy snorted and stuck his fang out obnoxiously. "Dude, we already have a speedster. Two of 'em, actually—" he looked off to the side, distractedly tapping his chin. "Would the twins count as one speedster or two?"
The White Revenant huffed in agitation. "I'm not just talking about my powers. I'm talking about information."
Raven's eyes narrowed dangerously as she lifted a hand, encasing the speedster's lower half in dark energy and lifting him a foot or two off the ground. "And exactly what information could you have that would be worth me not throwing you into the bay—or another dimension?"
His dark gray eyes rolled as he shrugged midair. "Oh, I don't know." His intense gaze was directed straight at Robin. "Slade's true identity?"
Every Titan in the room froze in tandem, Raven abruptly dropping Rev, who landed without losing his balance.
Robin gave him a long, narrow-eyed glare. "I've been trying to solve that riddle for the past four years, and you're telling me that a speedster no one's ever heard of suddenly has the answer? That's—"
"What," Rev interrupted, "impossible?" He smirked and crossed his arms. "This coming from the guy who lives and works with a half-demon sorceress," he started counting them off with his fingers, "a fully-integrated cyborg, an invulnerable alien princess, and a green guy who has the genome of the entire animal kingdom in his DNA."
Robin arched an eyebrow and shrugged with a huff. "Touché. Still doesn't explain why you know what you know."
"No," Rev replied, uncrossing his arms and striding toward him. "But that'll come, in time. Along with Slade's identity."
"Why not tell us now?" Beast Boy asked. "It'd save us all a lot of trouble."
His lips pressed into a thin line. "Because I need to know that I can trust you."
"Dude, we're the heroes!"
"Yes," he answered, shooting BB a cynical smirk, "you are. Heroes that are lauded by the public, worshipped by this city." He turned back to Robin. "Reputation is distinctly different from character, wouldn't you say?"
Robin gave him a long look before nodding slowly. "Trust is earned, not read."
"Exactly."
"Which means that you want something for your information, but you're not sure we'll accept. What is it?"
His lips pursed. "A shot for a place on the team."
The room fell eerily silent for a while.
"No," came a hoarse monotone.
Rev arched an eyebrow at Raven. "No?"
"No," she repeated forcefully, shooting him a glare.
The speedster smirked. "And here I thought that the roster was Robin's call."
Raven could see Robin's jaw tighten, his mind churning as he detected the not-so-subtle bait in the statement.
"Much as I don't appreciate being undercut," Robin responded, "I have to agree with Raven. We don't know you."
"And I don't know you," Rev interrupted. "Yet."
"Or ever," Raven said.
He huffed in agitation. "Look, I'm not asking for a golden ticket or a free ride or that you're somehow supposed to instantly like me." He shrugged. "And yes, I will admit, breaking into your place wasn't the best icebreaker, but…" he snorted and waved to his surroundings, "seriously, solid walls with no electrified alloy? Made this place way too easy to break into. You were practically begging me to waltz right in."
Raven's eyes flared with dark energy as she bared her teeth.
He held up his hands in surrender. "All I am asking for is a chance to prove myself and see who the Titans really are. Up close and personal. When I know that…" he sighed, "then I'll tell you everything."
Silence reigned over the room once more, the gears turning in Robin's head once more as Raven eyed their leader cautiously. Finally, he reached to the side of his belt and pulled out a small, rectangular device that Raven identified as a Bluetooth receiver.
No, he can't be—
"Take this," Robin said. "It's a one-way closed system, for us to contact you, and not the other way around. When we feel the time is right, that thing will go off, and you'll get your chance." He held up a gloved finger for emphasis. "One chance. You fail to follow orders, recklessly endanger civilians, or break into our tower again, and you're out. No arguments, no excuses."
His lips pursed as he took the device with a nod. "I understand."
Raven just stared at Robin, mouth slightly agape.
The White Revenant gave them all a look, eyes settling on Raven a bit longer than the others, though not by much. "See you around, then."
He was gone in the next second, having either phased through one of the walls or run down the stairs and out the front door. The moment he was gone, Cyborg made for the workshop, grumbling the whole way about Rev's comment on their security.
Probably going to shore up that defect now, Raven thought absently, internally fuming as she followed Robin into the hallway.
He noticed, and turned to face her. "Something you need?"
Her mind plowed through several responses before settling on, "Are you crazy?"
He had the audacity to shrug and play dumb. "It's possible, given what I put up with from you guys." He scratched his head. "And that's not even counting all the villains and thugs we deal with on a daily basis." An exaggerated shudder passed through his body.
Raven wasn't swayed by his wit. "We don't know anything about this guy, yet from one conversation and one 'good deed,' you're just willing to let him run with us?" Her teeth clenched briefly, voice rising in volume. "Have you learned nothing from the last four years? From Terra?" She could feel Beast Boy bristle a bit back in the common room, but plowed ahead anyway. "Over a year of silence from Slade's end, no contact whatsoever, and then this kid shows up and just happens to know his identity? Tell me you're not actually falling for this crap."
"Raven, trust me when I say that you're not telling me anything I haven't already told myself." He faced her fully, shoulders squared. "I made this decision for threefold reasons. The first, of course, is the information he supposedly carries. If he's telling the truth, it could be the break we've been waiting for since we stopped Trigon from crossing over." He frowned deeply. "We may have briefly allied to stop your father, but he promised me that he'd be back to do our dance someday. And if there's anything I know for sure, it's that Slade keeps his promises.
"The second reason is that even if Rev is lying, or if he's telling the truth and has some ulterior motive in mind, someone with his kind of power can't just be turned loose. Better for us to keep track of him up close than to kick him to the curb and hope for the best. Keep your friends close—"
"And your enemies closer," Raven supplied, starting to deflate. "And the third reason?"
Robin's lips pursed hard. "If Slade's made us so paranoid that we're afraid to give the benefit of the doubt to a stranger who—apart from breaking into the tower—has given us no cause for suspicion…" he sighed, "then he's already won." He shrugged. "And then what kind of heroes are we?"
"I…" Raven looked down and away, cloak gathered around her tightly. "I'm sorry. You're right…as usual."
Robin smiled a little and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I hear where you're coming from, Raven. I do. Don't ever think that your opinion doesn't matter just because I'm mostly always right."
He smirked wryly, and Raven returned a small smile.
He patted her shoulder, then released her and turned to the rest of the team, who had not-so-subtly been listening in. "Training for this afternoon is cancelled. We've had a long day. I'm sure you're all exhausted." He huffed. "I know I am." He gave Raven one last look, then took Starfire's hand as she flew toward him. "Get some rest, all of you."
Raven barely caught his muttered remark as he and his girlfriend walked away.
"I have a feeling we'll need it."
AN: So…this popped into my head over the course of several weeks, ideas I was toying with story-wise while trying to break another bout of writer's block. Surprisingly enough, it evolved into a semi-coherent plot based on the bulk of the show. In case you didn't pick up on it, this all occurs post-Tokyo, with the whole Trigon portal thing happening about a year back. It's not clear how much time passes during the course of the show, so I'm just making this so that the original Titans are in their latter teen years.
I want to make one thing abundantly clear: though Raven and the White Revenant are two major characters in this story, they are NOT BEING PAIRED. Canon pairings only. Apart from Batman and Wonder Woman, there isn't a single pairing in the DC Universe that I am absolutely ironclad on—except for Beast Boy and Raven. Just making that clear.
At any rate, feel free to review this at your leisure and pass the word along to your friends.
As always, oya, vode.
- CDrake