Chapter Two

"Cyborg, have you seen Jericho?"

Cyborg looked up at Raven from across the lobby. He'd been working on the gamestation for the last couple minutes, Beast Boy had chucked his controller with more effort than usual and hit the monitor. The damage wasn't major, but annoying to fix all the same. He stopped thinking about the repairs long enough to answer his teammate. "Nah, he was here earlier, but said you were busy."

Raven nodded her head, keeping her surfacing annoyance off her face. "Did he say where he was heading?"

"Nah," Cyborg replied, head back in the machinery, "he just left."

"Alright, thanks."

Raven left the lobby and started walking down the hallway. She'd hoped that it had been Beast Boy or one of the others who'd seen her and Forrestor on the roof. It hadn't been though, just great. She hadn't planned on this, or explaining the situation to anyone. And now it'd gone from annoying to headache-inducing in the last half-hour. Shaking her head, she threw her hood back over her head, and made for the roof. As soon as she was there, she floated up and flew off into the sky, towards the city.

'Unless he's going crazy, he should be where he always is around now.'

-T-

Jericho sat under a tree in the city's park. The people all around him were taking advantage of the good weather, running and eating and even swimming in the lake. The mute teen however, was content in just sitting there, sketching pictures of any wildlife that stopped long enough for him to get a good look at them. He'd already compiled several pictures when he heard a familiar voice from above.

"Jericho."

Jericho looked up and saw Raven sitting in the tree just above him. The mute had a split-second urge not to smile, but it went away as soon as it'd occurred to him. He smiled and motioned for Raven to sit down next to him, which she did. He put down the pad and pencil and folded his hands behind his head, looking out across the park. Raven looked a bit uneasy.

"Jericho, you saw me on the roof, didn't you?"

Slowly, he took his hands from behind his head and put them on his lap. He nodded. He then started signing something to Raven, who stopped him halfway through.

"There's nothing between us, Forrestor and me, that's his name."

Jericho looked at Raven quickly, his eyebrows receding past his hair line. He tried to sign again, only to be interrupted once more.

"He just recently started showing up. We ran into him while we were fighting some HIVE students. Just another Honorary Titan that hangs out a little too much." Raven studied the look in Jericho's eyes. "And also one that would rather spend time with me than the others. But trust me Jericho, there's nothing going on, he's more annoying than charming."

Jericho felt like a knot in his chest loosen. The nervous grip on his gut subsided, and was replaced by the calm he'd been trying to get for the last half hour in the park. He smiled again, this time with no conservations about it. Raven joined him in it, and then said, "So... want to go spend the day together like we planned?"

Jericho nodded, his chest swelling.

-T-

"Raven, you have returned!" Starfire exclaimed as the two Titans passed in the hallway.

"Just like I planned." Raven said, keeping most of her sarcasm at bay. Starfire hadn't meant anything by saying that, unlike how Beast Boy might have. Plus, she'd had a nice enough day that one of Beast Boy's quips probably wouldn't have earned more than a stern look from her direction.

"Will you be joining the others for the night of movies?" Starfire asked, before bringing up a hand to their faces and counting off titles. "Robin has rented the 'Last Knight'; Cyborg 'The Program'; and Beast Boy has taped and wishes us to view a very long documentary on this planet's living organisms!"

"Sounds... great, Star. But I think I'm going to just go up to my room." Raven said. She'd said this before when the selections weren't exactly stellar, but today she felt a bit... more tired than usual. The sun had suddenly burst from behind the clouds today and turned what'd been a nice type of mild into a sweltering exhaustive heat. That hadn't stopped the two of them from doing everything they usually did in each other's company, but it did make it more uncomfortable,though neither of them had let the other know.

Starfire didn't bother her about it though, and aside from wishing her a "night of goodness", whisked off to the lobby to watch movies with the others. Raven made her way to her room so she could grab a change of clothes and get ready for bed. When she was about to open the door, she heard something on the other side. Muttering something to herself, she threw it open with her powers, and flicked on the light switch.

"Beast Boy, how many times have I told you--"

Raven stopped in mid-sentence, seeing who it actually was in her room at her desk.

"Raven, didn't tell me you were seeing someone on the side."

Raven's first response was the obvious one, ignoring what the other teen said. "How'd you get in here?" Eric Forrestor laughed in his deep, husky voice.

"I just decided to drop by. Come on Raven, I'm a superhero, I've got powers." He waggled his fingers and grinned.

"Do those include breaking-and-entering?" Raven shot back, feeling her anger start to build a little. She was telling the truth when she told Jericho there was nothing between Forrestor and her. He was too arrogant for his own good, and this just proved it.

"They might," Eric mused, moving from Raven's desk and towards her. "You never really seemed that interested in knowing me. Can I take it you do now?"

"No." Raven said, taking a step back. She'd seen Forrestor use his charm on other girls, and they always seemed to fall for it. Sometimes the empath even felt some weird pull to him when he started acting like that. It wasn't anything normal though, there was something... sinister in the attraction to him. Almost like it was... forced, as if something foreign was putting it into her subconscious. She resisted feeling anything towards him, other than the anger at his unasked-for presence. He walked a little closer to her.

"Ah, come on Raven, don't know why you gotta' be like that. Lose the blondie, he's not a real man. Can't bring you any... satisfaction like I can."

"I'm not dating him, and I'm definitely not dating you." Raven said firmly. She stood her ground this time; she'd be out of her room if she took another step away. Remembering her communicator, she reached a hand to her belt. Eric Forrestor rushed forward right then, making to grab it.

A sheet of black energy erupted between the two, and Forrestor bounced off the shield. Raven pushed the button on her belt, signaling the others. She looked over at Forrestor as he was getting back up, and gave him one last chance.

"Leave, before my friends show up."

To her dismay, Forrestor laughed in his husky voice again.

"Think I haven't already handled them? While we were up here yelling, I snuck through the vents and knocked them out."

Raven's eyes widened at Forrestor's last comment. "But, if you've been in this room with me the whole time, how'd you--"

"I've got manipulation over my soul. You know, split it up into parts. Sort of like your soul self and all. Would've known this if you'd been more open and all."

Raven was very quiet for a moment. As she watched from behind her shield of obsidian, little tear-shaped black blobs snaked their way out of the vent in the wall. They came to Forrestor, and crawled under his pant leg, melding and disappearing into his flesh. Raven thought a few seconds, and then chose her next words carefully.

"What do you want?"

Forrestor cracked his neck, and started walking towards her. The black energy around him started to seep out of skin, and fluctuate around him.

"Want Raven? Oh, that's easy. All I want is you.

"And that delicious soul of yours."

End of Chapter Two

Note:Substituted this in for the previous one when Hhgbh pointed out a repeated paragraph. Sorry 'bout that.