Disclaimer-I don't own the Teen Titans. grr.
Night Jewel
StoryBy StormDancer
Chapter 2
"It is not light that we need, but the fire, it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake."
Raven rubbed her opal necklace nervously as she sat in the T-car along with Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire. The alarm which had gone off this evening had a ring of urgency to it that only she could feel. The others thought it was just a routine Slade attack, one of his drones robbing a warehouse at the waterside. It seemed a bit too easy to her, a robbery in broad daylight. But no one would listen to her.
Cyborg had told her to stop fretting, it would be okay. This would have been a good answer if nothing was at stake. Starfire didn't quite comprehend Raven's worries. Beast Boy told Raven she worried too much, that she should lighten up. And Robin dismissed her concerns as paranoia. A claim that had almost made Raven laugh. Robin calling her paranoid, about Slade? But he had been chilly with her ever since that night on the rooftop with X. She supposed she should apologize, but he needed the rebuke. All her team did.
The car stopped, and the Titans jumped out of it as the R-cycle came pulling up beside it. The Slade-bot was surveying them coldly as it stepped out of the building.
"Titans." It stated coldly, less a greeting or an acknowledgement than a threat.
"Give it up, Slade," Robin spat. Raven rolled her eyes, though no one could see it beneath her hood. Like Slade would surrender because of some trash talk. The robot seemed to agree. It didn't answer.
"Teen Titans, Go!" Robin yelled. Raven rose into the air as the other 4 charged the robot. The robot was oddly reluctant to attack, however. It retreated beneath Robin's furious flurry of blows. She rubbed the necklace as she watched the one-sided fight. Something wasn't right here. And Robin's obsession blinded him to it.
A glint caught her eye. The bridge was only 100 yards away, spanning magnificently across the river. She glanced back at the fight, which the robot was still fighting defensively, but the bridge claimed her attention once more. She studied it, frowning slightly. What was out of place? Slade was up to something, that much she was sure of, and instinct told her it had to do with the bridge, teeming with rush hour traffic.
"Raven! A little help would be nice!" Beast Boy yelled. She ignored him, still peering at the bridge.
A flash of light at the base of one of the supports. Acting on instinct alone, Raven melted back into the shadows and teleported to the base of the bridge. In the distance, she could see the robot step back and say something to the Titans. The heroes turned on horror towards the bridge, but Raven had already heard the ticking noise. She had just enough time to shield herself when the bomb went off, completely destroying the support. The bridge began to collapse, the groaning metal in chorus with the screams of the people trapped.
Magic encased it, bringing it back to its normal height as Raven rose with it, guiding its progress as people frantically rushed off the bridge, panic emanating from the people in ways just calculated to break her concentration.
The other Titans began to help the civilians off the bridge. Raven's head began to ache with the effort. The bridge was much heavier than most things she could levitate, and her power was not limitless. Her vision wavered in and out, flickering as her the bridge began to sag, her power's abilities lessening as she did. The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was a car sliding off the bridge, a child trapped screaming inside.
o0O0o0O0o
Raven fell just as the bridge collapsed in earnest. The other Titans, preoccupied with their struggle to save the civilians, didn't notice the flash of light around her that marked one of the Red-X suit's teleportation, nor did they notice that she never hit the ground.
o0O0o0O0o
Raven's eyes fluttered open. A room was flickering quickly in and out of focus, so confusing that she hurriedly closed her eyes again. She was on a bed, she noticed, taking in her surrounding with alternative senses. It wasn't her bed, though. It was harder, and with linen sheets instead of silk. They didn't smell of herbs, like hers did. None of the rooms in the Tower smelled like this, though, a clean, male scent. The boys were all too messy. The air was wrong as well, fresher, less sterile. A wind played over her face. The windows in the Tower were never open. 'Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore,' she thought resignedly.
She drew a calming breath. Raven was not in the Tower, but that didn't necessarily mean she was in danger. If no one was in the room with her, she could teleport out with no one being the wiser. Not everyone knew she could teleport. She extended her empathetic sensitivity out of her center to encompass the whole room, only to meet a metaphysical second skin around her own. She battered mentally against the shield, but it was impermeable.
"It won't work."
Red-X's voice was the first sign she had had that he was near her. She abandoned the pretense of being asleep.
"What won't?"
"Your powers. They're blocked."
Raven sat up, noticing that her cloak, shoes and jewelry had been removed as she slept, except for a pair of new bracelets, iron set with obsidian spheres with a electronic lock on the underside, one on each arm. They were draped over an armchair. Next to the, Red-X was relaxed on a straight-backed chair, backwards with his chin resting on the backrest.
"Oh? And why might that be?" Raven drawled. He motioned towards the bracelets.
"Because your powers need rest, and if you can't use them you won't try," he answered the unasked question.
Raven raised an eyebrow. He was right, but it was odd that he would have taken the trouble to find out.
"And I couldn't restrain myself at home?"
"No."
Raven looked at him skeptically. She knew intuitively he was meeting her eyes from underneath the mask, even if she couldn't see his eyes. She stared hard at him, and the mask shifted nearly imperceptibly as he grinned.
"There were 3-odd alerts in the tower while you were out," he informed her, "All of them would have wakened you."
At her involuntarily, horrified look, he nodded reassuringly.
"Minor only. They handled each one in about 10 minutes, max. But you would have gone, and used your powers, and overextended yourself. By keeping you here, you have an excuse not to go."
"So all your concern was for me?" Raven asked unbelievingly, hiding her dismay at his easy information at what went on inside the tower, as well as how well he knew her.
"A cracked jewel never shines as brightly once mended," he retorted, "I'm doing a service to mankind, keeping your beauty on the streets where people can appreciate it. I can't imagine your father's demons having an appreciation for beauty."
Raven started slightly, amazed at his knowledge of her past. Recovering her poise, she rolled her eyes.
"Cut the crap, X. What do you really want? To see if you could steal a Titan?"
"even if you are the most valuable Jewel I've ever stolen," he said, and Raven was sure he was smirking, "My motives are as I said. Take it or leave it."
She still looked skeptically.
"What, you don't believe me?" He asked in mock pain, 'That cuts, Jewel, really hurts."
"I'm sure," she stated ironically.
"Why don't you trust me?" he asked, in earnest this time.
"Oh, I don't know," she counted off her points on her fingers, "You're on the other side of the law. You usually flirt with Starfire, than all of a sudden you turn around and start flirting with me, and being sort of swe-," she cut off herself, "You don't show your face. You've kidnapped me, even if you can justify it. Need me to continue?"
"Flirting with Starfire is fun because it pisses me off Robin, not because I like her. She's annoying. I don't show my face because you'd arrest me otherwise, and I don't trust you with that temptation. And we're discussing the alleged abduction, so you can't use it as an argument."
"I just did."
"As a valid argument," he amended, "Anyway, you know I did you a favor."
"Perhaps," Raven admitted grudgingly. He knew her far too well for comfort. "But you never denied first claim."
"That I'm against the law?" he shrugged, "That's because I can't. But am I a bad guy?"
"You steal for a living," Raven pointed out dryly.
"Look around," X gestured abruptly to the room. "This is y home. Does it look like a rich thieves den?"
Raven scanned the room. As he said, it didn't look like a lair. While uncharacteristically tidy for a lone male, something Raven knew from the experience of having 3 male roommates, it was all lower middle class furnishings. Nothing to show all the money he had.
"Hoarding?" she suggested.
"Hardly," he spat. He stalked over to her and helped her to her feet, surprisingly gentle despite his unsympathetic tone. She pulled away from him, but swayed on her feet as soon as he let go. He steadied her, despite her attempts to prevent him. He brought her to the window.
"See what it's like out there?" he asked harshly. The view was of a lower class neighborhood, one of dark alleys and shady dealings in the setting sun. "That's not even the worst of it. There are places out there where people can't go outside without a gun. Where people steal their neighbor's food and starve anyway. Places where the best you can hope to be is alive."
"I know," Raven said sadly, "But there's nothing one person can do about it. No one person can solve poverty, or world hunger. Or at least no more than I can."
"What a remarkably cynical philosophy for a hero," he remarked blandly.
"I do what I can, and no more," Raven shrugged, "What does this have to do with your point?"
"That, Jewel, is where my money goes," he said, gesturing out the window, "To keeping some people out there alive for just one more day. So they don't have to steal to live, and inevitably get caught, leaving their families to starve. I may be on the opposite side of the law, but so was Batman when he started out."
"You're a thief." Raven stated in a monotone, staring expressionless out the window.
"Has anyone ever gotten hurt because of me?" he asked defensively, "Has anything happened that you guys couldn't set right? Or if that happened, didn't I help?"
"No," Raven admitted ungraciously.
"Well, there you have it," he said, suddenly turning more cheerful, "I'm not demeaning what you do. That's necessary too. I'll save lies my way, and you can yours."
"At least you can," Raven said quietly. X looked at her; head tilted in what she assumed must be a quizzical look. "People died, on the bridge. I saw them. Just because I wasn't strong enough. I killed them, X. It's all my fault!"
A tear leaked down her cheek, followed by another, and another.
"It's not your fault!" X exclaimed gently, but with horror in his quiet voice, 'It's Slade's. You saved so many lives today, Jewel. The casualties would have skyrocketed if you hadn't been there."
The tears ran faster down her cheeks. A sob escaped her.
"But it wasn't enough!" she yelled. Her eyes flashed grey, than she collapsed in a faint. Red-X caught her before she had fallen an inch. He carried her bridal style back to the bed.
"Jewel?" he murmured anxiously, sitting beside her on the bed and leaning anxiously over her. "Jewel, are you alright?"
She blinked, than sat up, raising an eyebrow at his seat. He stood quickly.
"I'm fine," she told him reassuringly, "My powers knocked me out because they couldn't go anywhere else."
"Oh." he looked disappointedly at the bracelets. "Well, they were a good idea."
He moved to unlock them for her, but she yanked them away.
"They work fine," she snapped, "At least I didn't hurt anyone else."
She shrugged at his dubious look.
"They're the best I've seen so far. Now, thanks for all this, you were right. I needed it, but it's time for me to go home."
He nodded; mask hiding his sting at being so quickly dismissed. He tossed her her stuff, which she put on. Raven walked shakily to the door, but he was in front of her, appearing as if by magic.
"You'll understand of course, if I teleport you out of here."
"Of course."
X grabbed her by the waist before she could protest and quickly teleported to the mainland across for the Tower.
"Here you go," he said.
"Now comes the hard part," she groaned resignedly.
"What?"
"Explaining to Robin where I've been."
"Afraid, Jewel?" X drawled.
"No, annoyed. It'll take me forever without a good excuse."
"Tellhi the truth," he suggested, " I abducted you and you escaped."
"Without my powers?" Raven retorted skeptically.
"You threatened e with a knife."
"I don't have a knife."
"Easily remedied."
Something flashed in the air between them. She caught it reflexively. It was a knife, obsidian blade honed to a wicked sharpness. She rubbed the opal set in the pommel of the jet hilt.
"That'll do," she said, "Thanks."
"Anything for you," he replied flirtatiously. She rolled her eyes.
"For this and the necklace," she continued. He didn't respond, but began to jog away.
"Hey X!" she yelled. He stopped. "How do I get these things off?" she motioned to the bracelets.
"A password."
"Which is?"
"What do you think?" Maybe the shields were malfunctioning, because somehow she knew that beneath the mask he winked at her. "Jewel."
Author's note-Sorry it's so long, but i couldn't find a good breaking point. So enjoy, but don't expect it to be so long all the time.