Chapter 4 – Healing and Learning

"Any luck at all?" asked Robin to a tall, slim figure with slicked back black hair on the main view screen in the Titans' living room. Beast Boy came into view on the monitor to this person's left in the form of a giant green squid that he immediately discarded to speak normally with his comrade.

"Sorry dude, Aqualad and I have been out searching the seas for the past two days, and not even the fish have a clue where that submarine went."

"Actually," spoke Beast Boy's more eloquent swimming companion, "The animals in the sea told me that they haven't spotted it at all since its arrival at your place, and I don't know how they could miss something that huge."

X was using a computer across the room from Robin to search for some records of the surrounding area in hopes that he would find out something that the Mavericks would be interested in, but he was listening to the conversation as well. He slid his chair so that the two could see him.

"Aqualad, unless you talk to the mammals, you're not likely to get anywhere. Most aquatic life forms have very short memory spans." X skimmed his chair back to his research, but then turned back to the view screen for another moment. "No offense."

"None taken," said the sea dwelling Titan, bearing the insult with a raised eyebrow.

Robin snorted at being unable to find the Mavericks that had attacked the city, and more importantly to him, the Titans.

"Alright Beast Boy," said Robin, "You might as well come back to the tower, and Aqualad can get going back to Titans East. Robin out." The view screen shut off and Robin turned toward X, doubtful that any progress had been made on his end either.

"Sorry Robin, I've got nothing. I've searched half the Titan mainframe and swept the city with my own sensors, but I can't find anything sophisticated or special enough that the Mavericks would potentially be interested in." Once again, he found himself doing a double take. "No offense."

"None taken," he smiled, taking the stab much more happily than Aqualad did.

He went back to his search through dusty boxes of old enemies artifacts from past Teen Titan battles. Cyborg was sorting through several of them as well. The more powerful items had already been searched, and they were now ruffling through the more obscure criminal toys. Cyborg took a nostalgic pleasure out of it all.

"Hey, look what I found!" exclaimed the metal man, interrupting the search and holding up a small, black and red remote control. "Man, we probably have half a dozen of these magic remote things from beating up Control Freak all those times. Hey Rob, you ever tempted to use one of these things to bring a Lara Croft doll to life?"

"I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear you say that," Robin said to Cyborg's sheepish grin.

X smiled at them both and shook his head as they picked out a few other things and reminisced about them between themselves. Mega Man wished he could experience that youth the way Cyborg and Robin did. He didn't get a whole lot of chance to have fun like that. Of course, traveling through space didn't normally give him anybody to have fun with in the first place.

X turned back to the screen with records of the surrounding towns as well as the criminal masterminds that had been present. He leaned his head against his hand in thought while looking at a recurring picture. This 'Slade' person was a common entry in the Titans' database. This dark, masked person was undoubtedly one of the primary enemies of the Titans, but he was listed as being deceased. On X's world, this would not have been unusual in his line of work. He was used to having to exterminate Mavericks. There were not many occasions when he was actually able to apprehend or imprison the rogue machines. In fact, his orders were often to eliminate the Mavericks without even attempting the more peaceable solution of capturing them. Still, the massive computer file and list of attacks made by Slade invoked some curiosity as to why he was the only one listed as dead. All the other criminals that the Titans had put a stop to were either imprisoned or there whereabouts unknown.

A strange twitch in X's mind made his head shake. Only a moment afterward, Starfire burst through the doors with an enormous smile.

"Friends, I have wonderful news!" she beamed with her arms wide in the air, "Raven has finally awakened, and she says that she is in great need of the breakfast!"

Everyone immediately jumped up from what they were doing to tend to their friend. Cyborg put on a chef's hat and a 'kiss the robot' apron, while Robin started to heat up hot water for some of Raven's herbal tea.

"Alright everyone," said Cyborg excitedly, "Time for the waffle master to work his magic!"

"Yes, Cyborg," agreed Starfire, "and I shall make the eggs of scrambledness!"

Robin and Cyborg looked horrified at the thought of the young redheaded girl preparing food. X noticed and stopped her from opening the fridge with a better idea in mind.

"Actually Starfire, why don't you let me make the eggs? I've got something special that I think she'll like."

Starfire had no objection, so X dematerialized himself as he had done before in the medical bay and landed on one knee on a transport pad on his ship. He hurried to a storage room and opened a large refrigeration device that he normally stored chemicals and other important objects that needed to be kept at a low temperature. The fridge towered over his head, so he used the boosters at the bottom of his feet to reach the top shelves where some of the less used items lay. He knew he could not hover forever, so he quickly fingered through various jars and tubes to reveal two enormous golden eggs toward the back that were nearly the size of his head. He tucked one under each while gently releasing the pressure on his foot jets, and the landing was smoothly done so as not to break the eggs. With both of them securely held, Mega Man rushed back through the halls of his ship back to Titan's Tower. A few quick pants escaped his reploid lungs from the incredible speed that he used to get Raven's breakfast, but Starfire's squealing reaction alone was well worth the smile that it brought to his face.

"Friend Mega Man, those eggs look more glorious than the Gorlockan devil bird eggs on Tamaran! However, I think we shall need a larger pan!" She jumped up and down like an excited five-year-old getting her first candy bar as X cracked the massive golden ovals at the edge of the stove in the Titans' kitchen, then dumped the contents into a much bigger frying pan that he had found in the cupboards below. The yolk and white of the eggs were glittered golden as well. It was only food, but to the Titans, it was quite a sight.

Once all was done, the three Titans and X entered Raven's room with several mugs of herbal tea for everyone, a six inch high stack of waffles, and the golden eggs that sparkled in the dim light of her room. Raven was lying in her bed, still in the patient's smock, with bags under her eyes from having been asleep so long. She had to struggle to sit up properly from the remaining injuries, but some of her broken bones and gashes had swiftly and completely mended themselves. Scars were still obvious on her uncovered arms and another across her cheek that had not finished healing yet. She was happy to see all of her friends, but her appetite took a monstrous precedence.

"Oh, I'm so hungry," she moaned, grabbing the entire stack of waffles and devouring huge bites that almost didn't fit into her mouth. The other Titans and X watched for a moment as she wolfed in food in a very chaotic manner that the Titans were not used to seeing from her. A piece of waffle didn't quite get into her mouth as she bit down on an oversized bite, and it dropped into her lap. Without even thinking, she picked it up and stuffed it right back with the rest of the half chewed waffles in her mouth. She looked up at her friends and paused with her mouth puffed out from too much food being inside. and her cheeks turned red once she realized that she was eating like an absolute pig.

"I, uh…" her normally pale face lit up the dim room with embarrassment. The Titans all burst out laughing at Raven's jaws being comically stretched to the limit.

"It's ok Rae, you haven't eaten in almost a week," reassured Robin.

"Yeah," added Cyborg with a grin, "If it were me, I'd probably even be hungry enough to eat some of Starfire's cookin'!"

They all laughed, except for a blushing Starfire, knowing full well that many of the recipes from her home planet had caused those who dared to try them severe lower intestinal issues for sometimes weeks.

Raven swallowed her food and took a deep breath, while clutching her chest. She gathered herself and started to eat a little slower. She looked at the scrambled eggs on her fork and raised an eyebrow.

"Tell me Beast Boy didn't make these," she said, worried that she was about to consume one of his repulsive Tofu creations.

"Nope, X made those," said Beast Boy.

X had been standing in the background out of Raven's sight for good reason. Upon being mentioned, he had no choice but to present himself to the crowd. Raven placed her food down and stared at X with a mixed expression on her face. Cyborg and Robin could almost smell the emotions running between the two pairs of eyes, and figured that it would be best to leave them be.

"I, uh… have to get back to research," Robin used to excuse himself. Cyborg followed suit.

"Oh yeah, and it's my turn to wash dishes," said Cyborg; a task that he would never normally claim.

Starfire still sat in the room, smiling in a clueless fashion and unable to perceive that X and Raven needed to be alone to sort out their experiences. Raven rolled her eyes at the redheaded girl's incompetence.

"Eh-hem," she coughed in an exaggerated manner toward her ignorant friend.

"Oh, friend Raven, do you need the syrup of no coughing?"

X sighed and rubbed his hand down the human-like skin of his face, trying to hold in his amusement at how socially inept the Tamaranian princess was. He knew he had made a wise choice in passing by Tamaran on his travels to this planet. If Starfire was royalty on her world, then her lack of conversational skills probably paled in comparison to many of the subjects that she ruled over. X decided to make it as clear as day for her.

"Starfire, do you think that Raven and I could have some time to talk... alone?"

She still didn't comprehend that it had been implied already, but she obliged and left the room anyway. X and Raven both shook their heads at the alien girl, then returned to gazing at each other.

The dark sorceress girl couldn't fight a captivating pull from his bright green eyes. She couldn't quite focus on anything else as she just stared into those tranquil, yet courageous eyes that had helped save her from her own mind. An amorous exhale flew out from her lungs, and the sound brought her out of her own trance. She blushed again, even heavier this time than she had with her food.

"Hi," she said, hiding her cheeks and her eyes from his with a subtle smile and a bowed head.

"Hi," he said right back. "How are you feeling?"

She smiled to herself. What a question.

"I'm… alright, I guess," she blushed. "Considering I nearly died and then had my mind half torn apart with you running around inside to fix it," Raven added, trying to make it sound as though it wasn't a big deal.

"I'm sorry, if I had only been there sooner, I could have stopped Vile from hurting you."

Raven cringed at the Maverick's name. Her face filled with a mix of unbridled hate and an overwhelming fear for the dark machine that brutally attempted to murder her. Her jaw twitched and tightened, trying to fight the conflicting thoughts of cowering in front of Vile and wanting slaughtering him. She opened her eyes wide as she felt X's hand squeeze gently around her shoulder.

"It's alright Raven," he said, trying to calm her beating heart, "I'm not going to let that bastard hurt anyone."

Raven's mouth opened, but she could not find the words to express what she felt inside her.

"X, I… I don't even know what to say. I've never even had a conversation with you before this, and you've already saved my life twice at so much risk to your own. I can't even begin to thank you."

"Don't worry about it. I just did what I had to do," the Maverick Hunter said to her with a gentle nod.

The two shared a short, but much needed silence for a few minutes to gather their thoughts and composure. It was Raven who spoke next.

"I'm curious, how were you created with telepathic abilities?" Raven asked, interested in the man in blue armor.

"Actually, I learned."

"You learned!" she said with eyes wide opened in astonishment, and she felt a rippling, anxious chill slide up from her finger tips while she sat up for the coming story.

X rubbed the back of his helmet recalling what he felt was an embarrassing memory. "I crash landed high in a snow covered mountain range on another world when the engine systems in my ship failed. This was almost six years ago. I couldn't repair the damage with the supplies on my ship, so I had to head out into the blizzard on the mountaintop."

"What happened then?" questioned the intrigued sorceress.

"Well, I'm pretty resistant to the cold, but after almost a day being lost in a complete white wash, I collapsed. When I woke up, I was sitting in a grass meadow face to face with this… thing… that apparently saved me."

Raven was fascinated. Her culture all innately owned psychic abilities that they merely developed, and she was amazed that a machine had the ability to learn such a thing.

"Go on," she requested.

"The creature told me… or rather telepathically spoke to me a message telling me it would teach me how to open my mind to new things. I told him I had to fix my ship, but he said that when I returned it would already be repaired. So, I stayed with him for what seemed like weeks, and slowly, I learned to speak with my mind rather than my mouth." X laughed. "After he was satisfied with my progress, he flew off into the distance and I never saw him again. I never even learned anything about him; not even his name."

"Nothing at all?"

X thought hard and remembered what few words the creature spoke to him aside from training. It brought a sly grin to his features.

"I actually tried to pry into his mind one time once I started to get better. Needless to say, I failed pretty miserably. I was just glad that he didn't get angry."

"Bold move," said Raven warmly, fidgeting her sheets and fingers together while she listened.

"He did tell me one thing," X said, and the seriousness on his face brought Raven's hands to a frozen halt. "He said… that I was special, and that the powers he gave me would help me to protect someone else special, as well."

His glance met strongly met hers.

Raven blushed crimson at this, feeling very special indeed. "That's an amazing story, that you could learn telepathy like that," she said, but she felt an underlying delight that she had a place in his tale, whether it was true or not.

"I'm still not very good at it, but I'm glad it happened, or else I wouldn't have been able to jump into that scary mind of yours to save it."

X suddenly felt a wave of discomfort coming from the dark sorceress even though her facial expression didn't change at all. It was like radar had been activated in the reploid's thoughts without giving his consent, and all signs pointed to the pale girl in front of her. Mega Man X could feel the deep pain residing within Raven's wounded heart from her own past, and he could sense the words she struggle to speak before they even left the pallid lips that hid behind a down-turned face.

"Raven, it's alright, I won't tell any of the others what I saw inside of you."

She wrapped her bed sheets tightly around her and hunched down sorely.

"I'm so sorry… you had to go through all of that horror because of me," she spoke with a shaking whisper and an ashen look on her face.

"Hey, I'm partially responsible for getting our wires crossed, so don't worry about it," he reassured her. She didn't feel very relieved about it, so X changed the subject. "Come on now, your eggs are getting cold."

"Oh, right," she brought the plate back in front of her with carnivorous intentions and less of the murky mood. "I am still really hungry. So what did you say these were?" she asked as she slowly forked an enormous piece.

"They're from a large breed of birds called chocobos from a planet not too far from my own solar system. The birds themselves are normally used as a means of transportation, but the eggs are quite a delicacy, too."

"People ride on them?" she asked with a muffled mouthful of the bird's scrambled offspring.

"Absolutely. More fun than horseback riding, and they're very tame," he educated her. Raven set down her fork and thought about how much time she normally used during the day reading books and meditating. It occurred to her that she had never once been horseback riding, let alone giant bird riding.

"Maybe I'll take you there sometime and you can try it yourself?" he proposed.

Raven nearly gagged on her eggs at the offer. "Seriously? You'd take me to another world?"

"Sure, once things cool down around here. I still have to confirm the reason for the Maverick uprising in this star sector before I go anywhere."

Raven nodded, knowing that those responsibilities came first. "Have you had any luck finding them?"

"No, not a thing," he sulked, not at all thrilled about it. "Robin and Cyborg have been digging through old junk from past criminals and I've been doing a database search of the surrounding cities for anything in the past few decades that might be of use to Mavericks, but I can't find anything either."

"And has Beast Boy been an endless nuisance?" mused Raven with a glare that was reserved especially for the green changeling. If X had to guess, he's say that the look was a mixture of vein-bursting annoyance and frequent disapproval.

X chuckled at the friendly jab she made toward Beast Boy nonetheless. "He hasn't been all that bad. It took us a while to pry his face away from playing Super Mega Monkeys 4, but we eventually managed to get him to cooperate and patrol the seas with Aqualad."

"Typical," she replied.

X picked up two cups of herbal tea from the tray sitting on a desk near her bed. The desk also had an ancient looking book that appeared to contain information on a very old wizard. Also sitting on the dark oak desk was a black sculpture of the opposing faces of the drama symbol; one mask smiling, the other crying. The Maverick Hunter was not put off by the unusual dark temperament in the room when he scanned it, but he was willing to admit to himself that it was different from what he or any of his kind was normally accustomed to. X brought his mind off his surroundings and back to Raven, handing her a cup of hot green tea while taking the other for himself.

X took a sip of the tea and screwed up his face in distaste. "It's a bit bland… uh, is something wrong, Raven?"

The dark sorceress girl was staring wide-eyed at him with her cup halfway to her mouth as if she had been frozen in place. She was amazed that X had just… consumed food. "How did you… but you're a ro-…" Raven bit her lip and slapped her hand over her mouth. X's uncomfortable expression wasn't necessary for Raven to know that she had just seriously insulted him.

"X, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I mean I just thought that…"

"Calm down Raven," X raised his voice over hers, "It's ok; I get it a lot."

She apologized again. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed what you can and can't do."

"Will you stop apologizing? I told you it's alright. Besides, if Cyborg can devour stack after stack of pancakes, then there's no reason that I can't."

Raven giggled, which she admitted while doing it that it was an unusual occurrence for her.

"And you're funny, too. What else can you do?"

A twinkle lit up in Mega Man's eyes as he leaned a little closer to Raven. "Well…" he said, beginning another story that had the softer tones of leading into something bigger, "My X-Buster has the ability to absorb the DNA codes of the Mavericks that I defeat, creating separate lines of energy from my brain to my body."

"Which means?"

"It means that I can use the weapon systems and special skills of those Mavericks."

Raven wondered why he was telling her this, but it quickly became evident. It was strange, but he was admitting that those who he had to destroy in battle could become a part of him.

"Unfortunately," he interrupted the dark girl's thought, "most of those separate energy lines eventually degrade and become useless over time, so to keep that versatility, I learned some… other skills in my travels."

Mega Man X cupped his hands together up close to Raven's face with her watching intently. A cold steam starting flowing out of the gaps between his fingers as X made delicate changes in the positioning in his hands, as if he were shaping a ball of clay.

"Hold out your hands, and close your eyes," he told the intrigued sorceress.

She placed her hands in front of him and shut her eyes, awaiting X's surprise. Raven suddenly felt an icy shock flow up through her elbow as a small object touched her palms. She opened her eyes, and she gasped at an ice sculpture sitting in her hands. It was of a beautiful water lily that reflected with prismatic light from the illumination in her room. It was freezing to the touch, but she didn't care even as droplets of water began to slither their way down the side of her hands and onto her lap.

"It's not all for show of course," interrupted the Maverick Hunter, as he stood up from the bed in a much grander stance. He focused his thoughts on the door leading to Raven's room, figuring that it would be sturdy enough to withstand his attack. Mega Man X gathered energy for his blizzard spell, not from his X-Buster, but from within the depths of his body. A circular set of symbols appeared from beneath his feet, and then a blue light shot up around accompanied by a powerful surge of humming. X's eyes shone even brighter green than before as he waved his hand forcefully in the direction of the steel sliding door of Raven's room. From the bottom up, the door and wall became enveloped in a thick layer of jagged ice. The powerful spell even managed to crawl across the ceiling, releasing tiny crystallized flakes of snow on top of X that melted upon contact with him. Raven's mouth hung open at the spiritually formed barrier of frozen water covering an entire wall of her bedroom.

Feeling the room temperature drop across his face, X went to Raven, lifted up on her chin and closed it for her.

"Wow…" was the only thing that the dark sorceress could say. "But… now I can't get out of my room," said Raven.

X had already contemplated that with an ear-to-ear, impressive smile. Performing a similar ritual as before, red energy began to swirl out of the runic symbol that appeared beneath X's feet, which then encircled his arms in flame. Two blazing tornadoes swirled out from the reploid's arms and engulfed the crystalline wall, evaporating most of it instantly. Only a small amount of water and vapors remained after X's show of fire and magic.

Raven had been unintentionally withholding her breath during X's impressive spectacle of lights, and upon taking in a large gasp of air through her nostrils, she was revolted by a terrible stench that was so strong that it completely broke her fascination with Mega Man.

"Ugh… what's that smell!" she almost choked.

X took a sniff around where he stood. He didn't smell anything. X sidled up close to Raven's bed, bent over, and sniffed her lightly.

"Gwwaaaa!" he shouted, plugging his nose. "Raven, I think that's you," he told her with a pointed finger.

"Oh wonderful," came her sarcasm. "I just love going for a week without showering. Now I smell about as wonderful as Beast Boy."

Raven slid herself to the side of her bed and pinched the back of her medical slip so that her butt wouldn't hang out, but she stumbled and nearly fell, just narrowly catching her balance on X's arm.

"Easy, Raven," he comforted her. "You're still not very strong."

"I'll feel better once my own smell stops nauseating me," she insisted.

X admired her determination and even her stubbornness. "Alright then, go get cleaned up, and when you're done, why don't you drop by my ship? The other Titans are curious about where I'm from, so I'm going to show them all, as well as give them the tour of the ship."

"Alright," she nodded with a slight smile, "I'll be there." Raven watched the valiant machine pivot and pass through the slightly damp sliding door. She felt an awkward rumbling in the pit of her belly after seeing him leave.

"Why do I feel like I have butterflies in my stomach?" she pondered. The strange sensation only lasted a moment longer. "Must just be because I haven't eaten anything in so long," she disregarded it.

Raven peeled off the loose garb covering her and it dropped in a thin heap at her feet. She gasped at the appearance of her naked body. Scars were abundant from her thighs up to her chest. The dark sorceress grumbled as she rubbed her fingers across some of the vicious remnants of her near murder.

"...Oww!" her body jerked as she touched a particularly thick gash just beneath her right breast. It obviously still need more time to finish healing. Raven, now extremely frustrated at her diced appearance, took slow, straining steps to her shower in the adjacent room after she finished counting the numerous imperfections in her skin. Twisting the knob to turn on hot water took much more effort than it normally did, but the steaming spray that covered her body when she stepped in gave instant satisfaction to her sore muscles.

Raven shut the shower curtain and leaned forward, pressing her hands against the shower wall with the water flowing along her back and over her shoulders down the front of her body. She didn't even know how long she stood there, enjoying the therapeutic warmth and pressure on every aching joint, but she knew that the shower had never felt quite so relaxing as it did right at that moment.

Raven washed the many days of grime out of her silky blue hair with a Lavender shampoo. She leaned back and let the refreshing current splash across her face and down the curves in her chest and torso. She slowly scrubbed down the rest of her body, savoring every moment of it and careful not to agitate the few wounds that were still fragile.

After much reluctance, Raven finally turned the shower off and continued to lean against the shower walls, letting the water drip down her legs and into the drain, taking her stress with it.