Chapter Three
Perhaps it had been because there had been no emergency lately, but when the alarm sounded all the Titans went into panic mode. There were many bumps, and crashes. Even Raven found herself mumbling curses under her breath, breaking an unused light bulb in her room from the feelings of frustration. It was a surprise that it was only when they made it to the living room that the rest of the team realized that it wasn't even the cry for help when they needed to jump into action. Instead they were greeted with Robin standing there with his arms crossed. "Our timing has gotten slower." He said, his face blank, and unreadable. "It's time to train. We need to stay on top of our game, whether we keep getting calls or not."
Beast Boy was the first to protest, he looked at his watch, and whined loudly, "Robin! It's only four a.m.!" Turning into a big, green panda, he yawned, and rubbed his eyes. "I should be hibernating!" BB continued, turning back into himself.
"Well, when we can start catching the alarms, and actually stay on the top of our game, then you can complain about how early we have to wake up to work out, and practice." Robin walked off in the direction of the training room, his aura a storm that rushed by Raven. He was angry, and unsettled. But it wasn't because of their lack of need in crime fighting, nor the team's lateness to this drill. It was something else Raven couldn't put her finger on. Starfire looked at the rest of the team, worry and confusion in her eyes, while Cyborg and Beast Boy shared frustrated angry looks. Whenever Robin was in a mood he took it out on everyone else. His competitive, and obsessive behavior drove the team wild, and more than not it just fueled their anger to be thrown at him. Raven knew this training session wasn't going to be very happy for the team.
"Starfire, would you focus! you're not even hitting it!" Robin yelled at the Tamaranian girl, the pink headed girl's eyes heated up to a daring green, her hands aglow. Her eyes right on Robin as she tossed a beam at the mannequin, disintegrating it.
"Dude! What is up with you today?" Cyborg yelled, from across the room. The room got eerily quiet, the silence something that had not fell upon the training room since they entered, but here they all were, staring at their leader, waiting for some kind of explanation to his behavior this morning. They were met with none. Instead their leader brushed off their looks, and headed straight for the punching bag. Continuously kicking, and abusing the hanging bag, he let out his emotions. It was not intentional, Raven knew, after all Robin was a private person, but being an empath, his emotions were being hurled at her like a freight train. His anger, his frustration, his disappointment- his… Loneliness?
As the rest of the Titans began to get back to their training, Raven stood there for a beat longer, staring at Robin. She couldn't understand why he was lonely, he wasn't like Raven. Where she must be contained, and controlled, Robin was freely able to express his emotions. She found herself jealous more than once of his ability to feel as much as he did. Free to be as happy, or as joyous as he wanted. With the hovering fog of anger, and aggression Raven decided not to tag it any longer, and she left the room, disappearing between the floorboards.
"Raven! Where are you going?" Robin hollered, noticing the lack of her presence quickly. She had already evaporated downstairs when he decided to follow her, his steel toe boots stomping down the halls of the tower. The rest of the team looked at one another in worry. They had all become use to leaving Raven alone after the first few months of her in the team. Where she had once destroyed the tower in her wake, her emotions unchecked wreaked havoc. Even though now she it had been a long time, and a great many things since, no one ever really pushed Raven like such. Robin, must be off some hinge for him to go after her.
Her door was open before he even got there, and he entered without knocking, the door closing mechanically after him, blocking out the show from the other Titans. "Raven, why did you walk out of training? We are not done yet, so, get back up there." His voice was clipped in the way of a soldier. Looking at him her eyes slates of unexpressed emotions, Raven stood there with her cloak removed. Her face was blank for a few seething moments, before her eyes went to slits, and she stepped closer to him.
"I don't know what your problem is, Robin, but you seem to forget that I can feel everything you feel. You especially, after everything. You know me better than anyone so I don't know what it is you think you are achieving right now by verbally attacking your friends, and the attitude you have right now, but it's not helping you."
"I didn't ask for you to be connected with me that much! I didn't ask for you to go into my mind!" Robin yelled, he brushed everything else off that she had said, and his anger was still swelling. But Raven didn't seem taken aback, nor surprised.
"Why don't you go somewhere else to calm down, before you have the rest of the team placing you at the wrong end of their own wrath." Raven warned him, her hard violet eyes making sure he realized she would be one of the people who would side against him now as well. Their eyes were electric, sparked, and heated. Somewhere in the room there was a crash of books falling from their place, her emotions overwhelming for the moment had gotten the better of her. That was when Robin decided to leave her room, pushing past the crowd of their friends standing on the other side of the door.
"I shall go make sure he does not leave in that mood that he is in, friend Raven." Starfire said, floating down the hall after Robin, quietly. Raven just looked at the other two male members of the team, knowing they had their own input in what was going on with their leader.
"Do you understand what is going on with the guy?" Cyborg asked from the doorway, not daring to enter her room the way Robin had. Beast Boy on the other hand saw an open door and took it as an invitation and waltzed in.
"Yea, Rae, you were in that dude's head, can't you just like- do it again? Get him to calm down? Maybe let us sleep a bit?" BB said, making faces, his snaggle tooth on display. Raven's eyes darkened in black, her anger pushing him back out the door. "Okay- that's a no." Beast Boy said, rubbing the back of his head.
"I think we all realize this has more to do than a drill not going as planned." Cyborg said, looking at BB and shaking his head. The green skinned friend should have known better, only Robin would dare to do something like enter Raven's room. Raven placed her cloak back on, needing the cover of it in their presence, feeling all too much exposed.
"I don't know." Raven said, her voice flat, but her overhanging worried thoughts weighed on their chests. "I really don't." Looking to the side, in the direction she could sense him in the tower, she couldn't help but think, "Robin… What's wrong?"
