First off let me apologize that this is a week late. I am working on all these stories while I have a rib injury and it has been bothering to wear a seat belt while driving. My mother dropped me off at the library while she did some errands and I didn't have this chapter ready the day she went out. At this point I really don't know where this story is going. I swore to myself I wasn't going to put up any stories that weren't finished first. To me it just makes it harder to write that way and here I am doing that. Anyway I just wanted to make a note that I do not know Jinx real name, I couldn't even find her in the old comics I have so I just made up a name for her in this story. Also this is the first time I have written a chapter in one long continuous scene time wise. I started to interject some passages of time, but since I stink at writing battle scenes I needed to put in some other stuff to fill in the gaps instead of just skipping it altogether.
Fall from Grace-part 4
Kid Flash and Jinx respond to a warehouse break in by the HIVE 5-early in the morning. Kid Flash looks over at Jinx as they venture in side. "You're old pals are very persistent. This is the third time this month."
"Maybe if the city would spring for a jail that could hold all of the super powered bad guys."
"That's what they keep us super heroes around for."
Mason and his group wait in the shadows. They just happened upon the HIVE 5's latest scheme while searching for them and they intend to take advantage of it. Mason turns to Barry. "Are you ready?"
Barry uncaps the syringe of drugs. "As always."
"She used to be friends with the HIVE 5--"
Mason turns to Julian. "--Then go wait in the car so we can be ready to go once we've captured the witch."
Julian stands there a few moments before he makes his way outside to the car. He has been told all his life that witches are bad and must die. He hasn't questioned that at all until now. Here in Jump City they have found not one, but two witches that seem to be using their powers for good. Even if one is half-demon she can't really be bad in his way of thinking if she is here with the Titans doing good deeds.
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Raven awakens with a start to find her room in disarray all around her. The dream she awakened from is still fresh in her mind. She tries to not to focus on it. All such thoughts are forbidden to her for a reason...it makes it harder for her to control her powers. She shouldn't even be thinking such thoughts about Robin anyway. Raven gets up and goes down to the infirmary, she could really use a sedative to help her calm down right now. She pulls her cloak close around her-the color reminds her of Robin's intense blue eyes. The thought of that brings her dream rushing back to her and she hears something explode close by.
"Raven?"
She freezes at the sound of his voice. "Robin...I'm sorry...I had this dream and..."
"Its okay. Do you think you need a sedative?"
"I was just going to get one." It is all Raven can do to keep her composure as Robin follows her down to the infirmary. She watches as he opens the medicine cabinet. She knows he thinks the dream was about what happened to her. Raven thinks maybe she should just tell him what has been on her mind and get it over with.
"Cyborg is normally in charge of this stuff and I'm sure he would want to give you a shot, but I'm going to trust you with these." Robin hands Raven a small bottle with some pills in it.
"Robin...I...there is something that I--"
Cyborg rushes into the room. "--You two are going to want to see this." He goes to the window and draws back the curtains.
Raven follows Robin over to the window to look outside. There is press swarming everywhere.
"What's going on out there?"
Cyborg hands Robin a copy of the evening paper from yesterday.
Robin looks briefly at the paper-but keeps it out of sight from Raven. This is the last thing she needs right now on top of everything else. "I'll take care of it, or try to anyway. Raven, maybe you should go back up to your room and rest."
"What's going on?"
"Raven, I don't think--"
"--If it concerns me then I want to know about it Robin."
"She's going to find out sooner or later."
Robin looks up at Cyborg a moment before he speaks. "Give us some privacy okay."
"Sure." Cyborg looks from Robin to Raven wondering whether or not the news is true before he leaves.
"Maybe you better take one of those pills and give it a little time to start working."
Raven starts to object, but then decides its a good idea. She gets some water and takes one of the pills.
Robin wants her to give the pills some time to take affect before he drops the bombshell from the paper on her. "I think we need to let Cyborg and the others know what happened to you the other night. You don't even have to say anything, just let me tell them."
"Robin what's going on?"
"Let me go talk to them first okay? Then I'll come up and talk to you."
"But--"
"--Just trust me on this okay?"
"Okay."
"Why don't you go back up to your room and lay down while I go talk to the others?"
Raven starts to object-but she really doesn't want to face the sympathic gazes of the others while Robin tells them what happened. "Okay." She goes back up to her room only to be confronted with the mess made by her powers. She doesn't lay down, she begins cleaning up the mess.
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Robin heads down to OPS where Cyborg is with Starfire and Beast Boy watching media coverage on the news. They all turn around as Robin clears his throat. "Before this gets any farther out of hand, I think you all should know what we were doing yesterday when those pictures were taken." He looks around as none of them say anything. "I don't know how I knew it exactly at the time, but Raven was attacked on her way home from the cafe she always goes to. The men were witch hunters and they were trying to kill her. She was heavily drugged when I got to her. She didn't want to report it at the time and maybe I should have, but I didn't force the issue. I talked her into going to the police yesterday and that was when the pictures must have been taken." He looks at the paper. "I don't know where this guy got all this from, but it isn't true."
"People seem to be pretty upset...they think you too were out joy riding on the r-cycle with and egg in the nest. You can try to deny it, but I don't think people are going to buy it."
"Maybe not Beast Boy, but that leaves us with a bigger problem. These people that attacked Raven now know that she is alive and now they are going to think that she is pregnant too."
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Rico leads the FBI agents over to his partner who sits at his desk. "Kowalski, these are FBI agents SSA Maurice and his partner retired naval officer--
"--Just call me Skipper. And this is Ace, our technical analyst."
"You're here just in time." Kowalski holds up the morning's paper. "We may have a problem. These three didn't know the girl survived."
Agent Maurice takes the paper and looks at it. "Have you brought in the reporter who put out this story?"
"No."
Skipper glance at the story. "Better have him brought in for questioning. It is possible he knows something. In the mean time I would like to have Ace look over your files from the cult killings."
"I have everything the boys in records found waiting in the conference room. Its right this way." Rico leads the team toward the conference room.
"I'll be right there." Kowalski picks up the phone and dials his ex-wife's number. "Hello, Marlene...it has been awhile. I was just wondering if you've heard from Alice since she went to that school...Darkway Prep was it?"
"She transfered to the Hive Academy For Extraordinary Young People."
"When was that--never mind...is she still there?"
"No...why?"
"There is stuff going on that I can't really talk about yet. I'm just worried that she could be in danger."
"She's a Titan now, goes by Jinx. I haven't talked to her in awhile though."
"I think I know how to get in touch with her. If you talk to her-just tell her to be careful."
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The reporter picks up the phone is his office. "Jump City Journal--"
"--are you this Mort guy that wrote the article on the Titans?"
"Yes."
"Is it really true about the bird girl, or was that just some creative journalism?"
"Which part?"
"The pregnancy."
"I followed them to the hospital myself and I got the news from a very reliable source at the hospital."
"Thank you Mort."
"Hey who is this?...Hello?" He hangs up the phone as the line goes dead.
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"This is it Barry, I'll distract her and you drug her."
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Outside in the car Julian stuffs the morning paper under the seat-hoping that neither Mason or Barry have seen it yet. He stashes his cell phone back in his pocket then looks up to sees them rush out of the building with the second Titan girl.
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Robin stands outside Raven's room, with the paper in hand. He wishes now that he had asked Cyborg to take the T-car, then there wouldn't be pictures of them sparking rumors that are going around-although how those pictures make the leap to Raven being pregnant and them married. He glances down at the paper again before knocking on Raven's door.
Raven looks up-as she lays on the edge of her bed. The pill kicked in a little while ago and she no longer feels like trying to clean up her room. She doesn't like this feeling it all-its too much like the way she felt when she awoke tied between the trees. "Come in." She wonders if that even came out right-it sounded right at least to her--sort of. The door opens to reveal Robin standing there. She tries to sit up quickly only to end up rolling off the edge of the bed and onto the floor. "Oww."
He rushes over to Raven and helps her up. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"Maybe next time you should just take half a pill."
"Good idea."
"This can wait awhile if you want to, you're kind of not...all that with it right now."
Raven keeps hold of Robin's hand-pulling him down too as she sits on the bed. "There is something I need to tell you...while I have to nerve and I'm sedated enough so that my powers don't spiral out of control." She pauses taking a deep breath. "I was thinking about you that night."
"What are talking about?"
"I wasn't paying attention to those guys because I was thinking about you...and how I feel when I'm around you. I can understand if you don't feel the same way...but I just needed to let you know before it got out of hand and affected my powers."
Robin sits there quietly for a few moments. "I understand how you feel Raven...I do its just that...I have to question is what we feel real, or it is just some side effect of our bond?"
"I never though of it that way. I guess the only way we can know for sure is to break it."
"No! That is what lead me to you Raven. I don't even want to think about what might have happened to you if we didn't have the bond."
Raven catches sight of part of a picture in the newspaper he has and it looks a lot like her. "What is that?"
He hands her the paper letting her look it over. "That is why all the media is outside right now."
She sits there staring at the headline that reports the resident Titan birds are nesting. "How do they get that from some out of focus pictures?"
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"So as you can see these same types of murders date all the way back to the end of the Salem Witch Trials." Agent Maurice passes around copies of the files.
"No one back then kept detailed records like we have today so there are only a few scattered reports at first." Skipper sips on a cup of coffee. "But they become more and more frequent with the passage of time. Ace, anything else come up in your search?"
"No, Skipper, the last major killing was this cult right here in Jump City several years ago. There is nothing else until the attempt on the victim the other night."
"It appears the unsubs we are dealing with are the latest in a long line of witch hunters. The profile seems to suggest a family or a group of families picked up where the Salem Witch Trials left off." Maurice puts up a picture of Raven on a board.
"These unsubs are deeply religious as evidenced by the Bible quote the victim heard one of them say. If confronted with verses that says it is a sin to kill they would quote you other verses that would seem to negate that fact and even further support what it is they're doing." Skipper again sips on his coffee and lets Maurice continue
"They are close in age-if not several years older than the victim. In a crowd they wouldn't stand out anymore than your average Joe. From the victim's statement it would seem that they hang back and watch for someone with behavior that would make them target someone as a witch. In the past they may have even showed interest in the occult to get a suspected witch to reveal themselves. With more and more people openly admitting their faith in the occult religions they find it easier to pick their targets."
"I've got something else." Ace looks up at Skipper and Maurice. "The victims mother was a member of the cult that was murdered several years ago. She wasn't one of the victims, in fact there are no traces of her for several weeks before the cult killings."
An officer enters the room and speaks briefly to Rico.
"We may have a complication. There is a media circus out on Titan Island after the news story yesterday. They could use that as cover to try and slip in to go after her."