Alright! Thanks for reviewing everyone!! XD I'm sorry it took me a while to update. I had a little writer's block and just got over it THANKS TO IVY!! XP Since last chapter was really short, I'll to make up for that this chapter! Enjoy!

DEDICATION: Did I ever mention this is DEDICATED to IVY? ;D

Disclaimer: XP I'm tired of these. But they somehow seem mandatory. (shrug) Don't own.

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Chapter 3- The Art of Infiltration

A week later…

Raven sighed, glaring at her reflection. The entire week she had forced Victor to spar with her, and she had purposely gotten bruises in particular places to set her story into motion. She still hated the purple-blue blotches on her skin though. She also hadn't eaten all week either making it worse. Once she came back from this mission, she would find a way to kill Richard. Maybe she'd be able to pick up some pointers from this 'Red X' person while she was undercover.

"Oi, Rae! You ready yet?" Gar asked, safely from her closed door. It seemed he had finally gained some intelligence.

"Just about," Raven called back. She pulled open a drawer to her right, pulling out a silver blade. She toyed with it for a while, thinking of the perfect places to injure herself. After all, she couldn't infiltrate without a good story, could she?

"Hey Gar, can you get Richard for me?" Raven cried out, hoping the little guy was still there.

"Uh…okay." He responded. She listened to the pounding of his feet as he raced away. Raven looked back down at the dagger and then pressed it to her arm, slicing her skin and watching the blood drip. She cut herself more, on her arms, her legs, and her face. She even cut herself dangerously close to the vein on her neck. She then took the bleeding cuts and rubbed them on her clothes, like she had rubbed them in a panicked frenzy.

"Raven!" Richard shouted when he opened her door. He quickly ran to her, grabbing the hand with the knife. "What the hell are you doing!?"

"Making my story." Raven answered as she wiped the knife clean and put it away. She didn't mind that blood was still dripping from the many cuts she had given herself.

"Your story?" Richard questioned, wondering what she was doing now as she dug for something under the bed.

"Yeah, what do you expect me to do? Waltz up to X and ask him to let me in? Ha," Raven snorted as she felt her fingers come into contact with a box. "Ahh, here it is."

She pulled out the box and opened it, revealing a gun. "Raven…what are you going to do with that?" Richard asked, becoming concerned for his friend's health.

"Nothing," she said. Richard let out a sight of relief but was surprised when Raven held out the gun to him. "You're going to shoot me with it."

"Raven! That's going too far!" Richard tried to push the gun away but Raven held her hand out firmly.

"Come on, Richard," Raven moaned. "A couple of cuts aren't going to get me anywhere. I need a serious wound. A bullet wound in the shoulder should do."

"Raven…"

"Just do it!"

Richard looked down at the gun uncertainly, but if it was to catch a criminal…If it was to catch X, he guessed it would be alright. He hesitated but reached for the gun. Raven stood stiffly as she stared at Richard, her eyes holding no emotion. She bit her lip, readying her body for pain. Richard looked at the gun in his hands and quickly pulled on the trigger, thinking it was better to just get it over with. At once, he heard the bang of the gun followed by Raven's screams of pain.

Richard looked out of the car worriedly at Raven who sat against a wall, breathing heavily and looking like someone who had just escaped from a bad fight. The exact result she had desired in the first place. Although the street was deserted now, someone would surely come.

Raven had told him the main points of her plan and about the research she had discovered. This neighborhood Richard now lied in wait in was one of the, surprisingly many, neighborhoods that supported X and what he did. They called him a 'hero' here. It disgusted Richard.

Raven decided this was the best since someone might see her and call to X for help.

Richard looked back down at the printouts Raven had provided him. It was the alias she'd be using. Raven Taine? Why the heck did she use her real first name? Richard frowned in disapproval, but it was too late to change anything now. From the file, 'Raven Taine' had been an orphan since the age of 6. She was sent to an orphanage in a neighboring city of Jump City, one that had been destroyed in a gang war just about a couple of days ago actually. Raven's story was that she had fled the orphanage but was caught by a gang. She then escaped them and collapsed in this neighborhood.

That's why she made me shoot her at the tower, so her wounds would age a little bit. Even if just for an hour or so. Richard thought. That way she'd look like she escaped a gang execution or something. I never would have thought of that…

"Hey miss, you okay?" Richard's eyes tore away from the manila folder and back to Raven. She had been approached by a little boy. "Miss?"

His eyes spotted the pool of blood forming around her and he opened his mouth, letting out a scream. "Billy!" A woman came running out of a building and she gasped when she spotted Raven. "Oh god!"

The woman bent down, checking Raven's pulse. Her face looked a little relieved but still panicked. She quickly told Billy some directions and the boy nodded, running off. Richard waited for a couple of minutes until the boy returned, a man in tow.

Richard tried hard to hold himself back from starting the car and running down the son of a bitch who had knocked out his team the last time they met.

"She's still alive, but she's badly hurt." The woman informed X as he knelt down next to Raven. He grabbed her chin and looked at her face, his eyes narrowing at the bloody wound in her shoulder and the cuts and bruises all over her body. Her clothes were torn, dirty and bloody as well.

"Alright, I'll take care of her." X told the lady, moving to pick Raven up. Richard saw that his face became surprised, as if to say, 'She's so light'.

No wonder she stopped eating…Richard thought, remembering how he was worried why Raven hadn't joined them for any meals. She had been getting ready for this. Just like they had all said, Raven really was the best at infiltrating.

X thanked the woman and the boy and walked off. Richard watched until he was out of sight. I guess I leave this in your hands now Raven.

Richard sighed, wishing he could be the infiltrator instead of Raven, but that was impossible. He started the car and drove off.

"Who the hell is she?" Jinx asked when Red X returned home with a bloody girl in his arms.

"I don't know," X shrugged, walking towards the bed to lie the girl down. She was out like a light, probably from dehydration or the blood loss, maybe even both. "Billy found her leaning against the Monroe building this morning."

"Oh?" Jinx walked up to the bed, looking at the girl with curious eyes. "Ouch, those look painful."

"They probably were," X responded, getting to work. "Hey Jinx, can you get me a towel and a bowl of water?"

"What do I look like, a nurse?" X gave Jinx a dry look, one that said, 'whose house is this again?'. "Fine."

However, Jinx smirked, "But you do know you have to change her, right?"

Jinx's smile widened as X's face fell in shock. He turned red and tried not to look at the girl. "Um, never mind. I'll get the water and you change her."

"Alright," Jinx waited until X had walked away before she grabbed the scissors and cut through the girl's clothing. Jinx's face contorted to that of disgust and pity when the clothes fell to reveal the purple-blue bruises all over the girl's skin. What the heck happened to her?

She grabbed a fresh shirt and sweats from X's meager selection of clothes and dressed the girl in them, wary of her cuts and bruises. X did not return until Jinx said she was fully clothed.

"I think the bullet's still in her shoulder," X told Jinx when he finally went to inspecting her wounds. "I'll have to remove it."

"Ugh! I don't want to watch that!" Jinx shrieked.

"I'll need your help though." X told her, getting some tools ready. He had obviously done this before. "I don't have morphine or any kind of drug for her to take. If she wakes from the pain I need you to hold her down."

"You mean," Jinx became bug-eyed when X pulled out a knife. "You're going to CUT HER OPEN?!"

X stared at her, "How else am I going to get it out?"

"I think I'm gonna be sick…"

"Just hold her down!!"

A few minutes later Jinx, unwillingly, held the girl down and tired hard not to watch X cut the skin of the girl's arm open. He pulled out some tweezers and dug into the hole of the skin, trying to grab the bullet. It took him a moment, but he soon pulled the tweezers out along with the bullet and plopped it into a bowl. Jinx helped him clean the wound and midway in their stitching, the girl awoke.

At first, they hadn't realized it. Then the girl jumped, the thread and needle coming loose from X's hands. The girl backed up against the wall, staring at the two with suspicious eyes, "Who the hell are you? What the hell are you doing to me?"

"We were fixing your wounds," X emphasized, scowling at this girl's attitude. After all, he had been helping her!

"You…" the girl trailed off, confused. She looked down at her shoulder at were they had been stitching. "Helped me?"

"Of course. We weren't going to leave you bleeding out there. What do you think we are, heartless killers?" X said, shaking his head with a sigh. The girl gave him a funny look, but it quickly passed as she slowly became less tense around them. "Now can we finish stitching it?"

"Uh…" the girl said uneasily. She looked back at her shoulder. "I guess."

She hesitantly laid back down and while X finished the stitching, Jinx asked her questions. "So, what's your name?"

"Raven Taine," she answered, trying to ignore the pulling of her skin on her shoulder.

"Where do you come from?"

"From Palm City, by the way, where am I anyway?" Raven asked as X finished up. He closed the stitch and cut the string.

"You're in Jump. It's right next door." X answered, getting up to clean out all the blood from the towels and bowl.

Raven looked down at her cuts. They had been cleaned and some ointment had been put on them. "Thanks."

"It's no problem. X here helps out anyone in need." Jinx leaned back, jerking her thumb to X. Raven's eyes widened in surprise.

"X? As in Red X?"

"Yeah, you know me?" X asked from the sink, dumping its contents down the drain.

"Only from the stories I heard the gang talking about. They said you were a serial killer." Raven looked down at X, her eyes more alert now.

X chuckled, "Really?" When he spotted Raven fidgeting uneasily, he reassured, "Don't worry. I won't kill you. I only kill those that hurt others."

Raven frowned, "But isn't it still a crime?"

"Crime? I find it more like an act of…" X trailed off, searching for the right word, "duty."

"X doesn't kill for pleasure," Jinx told Raven. "He kills the scum of the earth who don't deserve to live. People who will take people's homes and throw them into the streets without offering a hand of help; people who would backstab their friends and laugh in their faces as they did so."

"People who take other people's family and lock them up like lab rats," X hissed, his eyes hateful. "That's the kind of people I kill."

Raven looked at Jinx then at X, wondering what she had just gotten herself into.

"So," Raven watched as Jinx plopped herself down next to her feet. She smiled friendly at Raven as she said, "Tell me what happened to you. I'm dying of curiosity."

"Haven't you ever heard of the saying, 'Curiosity killed the cat'?" Raven asked her, wanting to avoid telling her elaborate 'past' if she could.

"Yes, but ever heard, 'And satisfaction brought it back'?" Jinx countered, a quite cattish smirk on her face to compliment her abnormal cat-eyes. Raven wondered how she got like that.

"Well," Raven started, thinking out her story in her head. She had to sound believing and get her story straight, or else she'd compromise the mission. "Like I said, I lived in Palm City in an orphanage called 'Helen's Home'." Raven watched as Jinx crossed her feet, getting comfortable. From the corner of her eyes, she could see X turn a chair towards her and sit.

"I don't know if you heard about it, but maybe three or so days ago, I can't remember when, the orphanage became the site of a gang war." Raven pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, as if seeking comfort from this position. She was really getting into this role. "Anyway, I ran from the orphanage, but was caught by one of the gangs. I don't know exactly what happened after that, they had knocked me out. When I woke up I found myself in some warehouse and they…they…"

Raven trailed off as a haunted look come to her eyes. Although to Jinx and X, they believed she was remembering a horrible experience from the gang, Raven was actually remembering something quite different.

No one, not even her close friends, knew this. But as a child, Raven had been abused by her father, Trigon. He was a business tycoon and a well-admired figure, but Raven hated him with every fiber of her being. He had abused her, her mother, and taken advantage of them both. He was the reason her mother had committed suicide and left Raven behind. He was the reason she became a cop so she could bust his ass one day. That day had yet to come, but she was sure it would. She wouldn't rest unless she saw her father behind bars, or better yet, dead himself.

"Hey, you okay?" Raven snapped out of her trance as she looked up at X who had walked over and placed his hand on her shoulder.

Raven shrugged his hand off, muttering, "I'm fine." In her limited line of vision she could see X and Jinx look at each other.

"Well," Jinx interrupted the uncomfortable silence. "I think I'll be going now. You rest up, Rae!"

"Wait, she's staying with me?" X asked, incredulous.

Jinx frowned, swatting at X with her hand, "Duh! She has no where to go! And there's no way I'm taking her to my place. Who knows what the guys will do to her when she's in this state. So here she stays, got that?"

X growled but didn't protest, "Fine."

"Uh, I could always…" Raven started, playing the part but knowing she wouldn't actually leave.

"No way!" Jinx told her, just like she had planned. "You're injured! You stay here! And X," Jinx turned on the guy, a threatening look in her eyes, "Don't even get any ideas."

"Hey! I'm not gonna do anything to her." X assured, sighing.

Jinx nodded, satisfied as she left with a wave of her hand.

Raven looked down at the bowl of soup that had been set before her, wondering if it might contain poison. X rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what she must be thinking, and picked it up. He grabbed another spoon and took a bite, swallowing loudly so she could see he wasn't trying to kill her.

Assured now, Raven ate it. Very cautiously though.

Sighing, X got up from his seat next to her bed. "I don't know why you don't trust me. If you ask me, it should be the other way around. How do I know an enemy of mine or the cops didn't send you here to capture me?"

Raven almost dropped the bowl, He's smart. I better be careful from now on…

"I don't even know anything about you besides that you're a killer," Raven muttered. "Why are you even helping me anyway? You don't have to be obligated to. It's not like helping people will compensate for what you've done."

Raven was surprised when X laughed. "You think that's why I help people? To compensate for my crimes? That's the first time anyone's told me that."

"Then why do you help people? You kill people, but you help people? I don't get it," Raven was growing frustrated. It was harder to get into this guy's head than she thought it would be.

"Didn't you listen to Jinx at all when she explained why I killed?" X walked up to the bed, an apple in hand.

"She said you killed bad people," Raven pointed out. "But no matter what it's still killing. Why kill? Why didn't you just become a cop or something?"

"One," X started, pulling out a knife in front of Raven's face. Raven's eyes widened, looking at the knife. Had he found out? However, she let out a sigh of relief when X pulled the knife away and started to skin the apple while saying, "I don't like cops. I think they're useless."

"And two," he stopped peeling the apple to put his face close to Raven's, breathing out, "To the rest of the world, I'm dead."

Dead? What does he mean? Raven thought as he moved back. X started to skin the apple again until he finished. Raven watched as the long, swirling skin peel landed on the floor. Its skin was shiny red, the perfect kind to eat.

"You don't like the skin?" Raven asked, deciding to stray away from the earlier topic and come back to it later. She didn't want to look suspicious, but she tucked it away in her memory to ask him about what he meant when the time was right.

"No, that's not it." X told her, taking a bite of the peeled apple. When he swallowed, he explained, "I hate the color red."

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I hope this makes up for my lack of updating fast. I'm sorry everyone! :( I'll try to be faster. Like I said I was stuck.

THANKS SO MUCH TO IVY FOR HELPING ME GET OVER THAT!

I'd still be stuck on their awkward, first moments together if it weren't for you! Anyway, next chapter, more RedxRae!! XD They'll be spending a long time together. :D

Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone!

Ciao,

Xaleria