Sorry it took so long to update – to make up for that, I made it a lot longer than my usual chapters, and it's so much fuller!!! It was sort of hard for me to pull off and still keep everyone in character at the same time…. Please review and tell me how I did! It was pretty hard for some reason, and I really want to know how it turned out. Thanks for putting up with the long span of no updates.
The reference to the mission Dove went on with the team is in Unforeseen Surprises.
I mention the medieval guillotine – that's the beheading thing.
Read and Review,
Raven's secret-keeper
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Missing: Raven
Chapter 6: Healing
Dove was reading on the couch in the main room, contentment in her gaze for the first time in awhile. Since the revitalizing victory, she felt a lot better about Raven's absence. Maybe Raven wasn't coming home soon, but at least she knew that she wasn't just there at the tower, she was surrounded by people who care about her as a friend, not just another human being. They had always cared, but now was the first time she felt like she could really rely on them as friends.
Her powers had settled down and she had finally gotten her emotions under control. She had decided that maybe Raven wasn't there to teach her how to do anything new, but at least she could practice what she already knew how to do. She wasn't only going to meditate, but she was going to try to train herself to know the sensations and be able to use her powers, or at least the ones she knew about, as powerfully as she could. Then at least she wouldn't be so helpless when it came to her abilities, and maybe she would discover a few new abilities when she was using her older ones, the same way she had accidentally discovered her ability to read other peoples' memories.
She finished the chapter in her book and sighed.
Robin was at the computer, and she picked up her book and walked over to him a bit uneasily.
"Hey, uh, Robin…?" She wasn't sure what it would make him think, and she didn't want to explain to him why she wanted to work with her powers and still not go on any missions or anything…
"Hey, Dove."
"Could I use the obstacle course…?"
Robin turned from the computer he was working at and looked up at her. "Uh, yeah. Sure. But why? You're never with us on missions or anything."
"I want to practice using my powers. I'm kinda…" She stopped and tried to think of the best way to explain that she could control them now, but not really control them when she was using her abilities. She shifted uncomfortably and sighed.
"Why do you look so... nervous? What's wrong?"
"Just... not really used to approaching you guys like this…"
"You don't need to be afraid. We won't push you out or anything for asking a question."
"Sorry, I just… Yeah, I'm not used to it."
"You don't need to apologize. And do you want us to come with you?"
"I'd really rather do this alone… At least until I get a better grip on my powers. But could you show me how to use it?"
"Sure." He got up. "It looks to me like you have a good grip on them now."
"Well, I mean more like... um… Being able to use them, I guess. Raven was – when she was here, at least – just trying to get me used to using them."
"Oh. Well, if you need any help, just… Wait, you don't have one."
"A what?"
He reached into his utility belt and pulled out his communicator. "One of these."
"Oh. I'm sure I don't need one… I mean, I'm not really a Teen Titan, just… I live here."
"Would you like to be one?"
Dove felt a rush of a strange mixture of excitement, fear, and confusion. "Y – I mean, no – I'm not – " She sighed. "I don't know. I'd like to help out, I really would, but… I can't."
"Why not?"
"I'm... a pacifist. And I'm not a fighter, at all. I'd be down and out before you even gave the commands. I mean, I really would like to protect the city and all, but there's still a huge part of me that belongs to Azarath, and... When I went on that mission with you guys, I-I was… crying. Really, really crying. It just… I was scared. I don't think I'd be able to handle it. I've been around peace my entire life, and the physical violence is just too much."
"Oh. Well, if you're sure…"
Dove nodded solemnly. "Yeah... I'm sure."
He nodded and put the communicator back in its place.
"So... Yeah… Sorry… Are we going to the obstacle course?"
"Sorry for what?"
"Well, I just… feel like a parasite right now… I'm just living off of you guys here at the tower and not even doing anyone any good."
"You were with – " Robin stopped himself there, unsure how to tell Dove without upsetting her.
"Don't worry about that, Robin… I'm fine – sort of… We can go now, right?''
Robin nodded and stood up before leading Dove outside. "So, uh... You want me to teach you how to use it?"
"Yes, please."
"You can't exactly do this yourself until you know how, so do you mind if I - ?"
"No, just… Yeah, I guess that's fine."
"The controls are up on the – "
"The platform, I know."
"You – "
"I see you guys doing it sometimes, you know, when Raven was teaching me about meditating and teaching me... You guys were doing it at the same time – um, training..."
"Dove, what's wrong? Why are you so – ?"
"I'm sort of… I don't know… I'm just still a bit upset about Raven, and… I'm nervous. I don't want to - to just… mess up really bad and-and... I'm just… Too many thoughts, that's all."
"What's wrong?"
"I... I don't know… Really, I'm not exactly sure… I'm just – I guess I'm nervous... I've never done this thing before… and it's really making me nervous about how I have just about no idea how to fight… I really don't have a fighting instinct."
"You'll be fine."
Dove blinked.
"Trust me. I'll go easy on you."
"So... there's absolutely no way I can do this… and be… really alone?"
"Yes there is. I do that all the time. You just have to know how to use it. But I'd rather be sure you're going to be fine before I leave you alone. Come here." He led Dove up onto the platform. He showed her how to set up the course, put a time delay on the course, and how to go through it by giving her pointers on each item.
"So... uh… You can help me out on this, right...? I'm not trying to defeat anything, just get used to using my powers…"
"That's pretty much why we use it. It helps us practice each of our own abilities."
"Okay, so, can I get some help? I mean, you guys make it all look easy, but I'm sure it's not really so… Yeah…"
Robin nodded. "I'll set up the course. Why don't you go stand in front of the platform and I'll be down as soon as I have it set."
Dove nodded and walked to a few feet in front of the platform a bit uneasily. "Focus," she whispered. "Don't let it bother you, it's not the end of the world if I mess up… Focus, focus, focus, find your center…" She sighed and took in a soft breath with her eyes closed. "Calm down... Azarath Metrion Zinthos…" She opened her eyes and exhaled softly. "Concentrate…" She forced herself to calm down and refused to let emotions enter her mind. "Focus…" Luckily, if there was one thing Raven had succeeded in teaching her, it was how to calm down when she was nervous. "It's not going to be that hard, right…?"
Robin came down and stood next to her as the timer lit up and began the countdown, each lower number bringing a small beep. "Ready?"
"I think…"
He nodded.
"Okay." She nodded to herself, instilling a subtle amount of confidence in her mind. All I have to do is focus, and I'll be fine…
The timer reached zero, and Robin took off. "Come on!" Dove followed him, then chanted "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" and rose shakily into the air. She levitated to his side and followed him. She shot forward, then gasped and nearly collided with a metal structure that sprang from the ground – she barely managed to pull to a halt in front of it.
"Dove - !"
She was shot backwards by a small laser beam emitted from its top and fell to the ground.
"You have to -" She stood up and threw up a shield of energy over herself just as it began shooting a volley of lasers her way.
"Dove, you need to avoid them!"
She looked his way a bit nervously.
"Come on!" He ran farther and dodged a few before the machine turned back to Dove and he stopped.
She gulped and let down her shield only to move her arms protectively over herself and toss up another. "I don't move that fast!"
"Then block them!" Robin called back. "Watch."
He ran a few feet back, making the machine rotate his way and shoot the beams towards him. Dove let her shield down again and saw him whip his staff from his belt and spinning it too fast to make out anything but a protective circle – which stopped the beams from colliding with him as he ran.
"I can't hold up a shield and move at the same time!"
"Then use evasive maneuvers." He ducked as he put his staff away and began running in a zig-zag to avoid them.
Dove sighed. "Ill try," she mumbled, then she looked into the air and focused on her being there, then she chanted the words again and levitated upwards, and she mimicked his pattern of motion and managed to dodge the lasers. Though her movements weren't exactly smooth and the way she imagined them due to her lack of experience, she still avoided being shot down.
Finally Robin stopped out of the range of the lasers, and Dove glided unsteadily to his side.
"Is that it?" Dove asked carefully.
"No." He nodded towards the eight thin cylinders rising from the ground. Some were an inch tall, others were taller than his body.
"What do those do?" Dove asked.
"They connect invisible laser beams and send electronic signals to the monitor."
"What's the point of them?"
"To know where they are and figure out how to avoid them without a mirror. Give it a shot."
"Uh…" Dove looked around. "How am I supposed to know where they are?"
"That's part of the problem. Here, I think I can help you out." He pulled a small sphere from his utility belt and tossed it on the ground. It exploded with nothing more than a huge puff of smoke, and Dove coughed a bit as it swirled around them. When the dust cleared, every one of the red lines was visible. Each one began and ended at a different height, creating and impossibly intricate maze of beams.
"And I have to get through this?" Dove asked, completely amazed and disbelieving.
"It is possible," he told her. "You just have to use your imagination."
"Do I have to do it the traditional way?" She looked thoughtfully at the cylinders.
"Not at all."
She nodded. "Then I think I have an idea..." She closed her eyes to recenter herself, then opened them and, eyes glowing with uneven white energy, she put up her right hand and shot a crackling beam of energy at the nearest cylinder. After a few moments, it collapsed with a small sizzle of electricity and a few of the beams faded away.
"I don't think I've ever seen anyone do it that way before," Robin told her.
Dove shrugged and repeated the process on the other six.
"You're going to need to actually work on the next parts," he warned her.
"Do you think it's easy keeping these energies in control?" Dove replied as she shot the last one. "Believe me, you have no idea." The glow in her eyes faded as she let her arm down. "How, exactly, am I going to need to work? I mean – I'm not afraid of it, I just don't want to risk losing too much control…"
"That's understandable. You're just going to have to run through a few things to avoid being – "
"Run through those?" Dove blinked at the newest obstacle – a large object that looked like giant-sized replicas of the medieval guillotines – and gulped.
"It's not that hard. Just move under them as fast as you can."
Dove nodded and shook her head to push away her nerves, then rose into the air and sped towards them, Robin running up to her side and keeping time with her. They both sped up as they reached the obstacle, and Dove closed her eyes in desperation as the thing slammed down right behind her, her anxiety unwillingly giving her powers a bit of extra energy and sending her speeding ahead of Robin.
She had barely gotten under the third one when a giant shape shot up and knocked her from the sky. She hit the ground and stood up and tottered, a little dazed by the sudden hit.
"What was…?" She gasped and jumped back as she felt the ground rumble and barely managed to avoid another.
"Dove, move!" Robin called, and she blinked her sense of balance back and her vision cleared. She heard the ground breaking below her, and let out a startled yelp as she saw it dividing and revealing a steel pit. The ground wrenched her balance away and she fell towards it.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" She screamed the words and shot from the air with a streak of energy following her. "Are you trying to kill me?!" she yelled at Robin before swerving to a halt in front of another shape that sprang from the ground.
"I warned you!" he replied before dodging the pit by shooting his grappling hook onto one of the shapes and swinging over it.
"About what? The fact that the ground was about to split, or the – " She landed and saw another shape appear, about half her height with a disc-like top and a thick slit in its side. It charged up –
"Great. More deadly firing objects," she murmured before jumping out of the way of a large disc about the size of her hand and saw it land on the ground with an explosion that she felt the heat of even a few feet away. "Exploding deadly firing objects. Oh. Fun." She made a small noise of exertion as she jumped out of the way again and took to the air. "Robin, I can't keep this up forever!" she shouted breathlessly.
"This is the last part," he told her before throwing his own exploding disc at it and it exploded. He walked over to it and she landed heavily and nearly collapsed.
Dove bent over to catch her breath. "That was… It was… Oh, Azar…"
"You okay?"
Dove sighed. "Yeah, just winded… I'll be fine…" She stood up and rubbed her arm where the explosion had singed her skin a bit. "Wow… I've never really used my powers like that… I mean… Not to… That was just weird for me."
"But you made it through."
"Not on my own… I'm not very good at using my powers at all. If you weren't there, I think I'd be unconscious."
"We can just do targets if you want."
"Yeah, that'd be nice…"
Robin nodded and went back to the platform. Dove watched as a few shapes with red and white targets sprang up.
Robin came back down and she blinked. "Uh…"
"All you have to do is aim."
"I know… I'm just… Telekinesis isn't my strong point…"
"Raven was a little shaky with it when she first came to the team, too. You'll get better with practice."
"If you say so." She sighed.
"You can start whenever you're ready."
Dove nodded, then looked around. "So, I can use whatever I can pick up, right…?"
"Right."
Dove saw a small rock about the size of her palm and closed her eyes, thinking about how Raven had instructed her to do this so many times. Find your center… Focus your energy… She opened her eyes and chanted, slowly and carefully, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Her eyes began glowing white. She concentrated her energy and it encased the rock in a crackling white glow. It's a part of me, and I'm part of it… I'm putting a bit of my soul into it… She lifted her hand, shakily bringing the rock with it. Keep a vivid image of what you want it to do, and keep control of it… She flicked her hand, and the rock flew through the air. Dove focused on the rock, what she wanted it to do, where she wanted it to go…
The rock landed about an inch from the nearest target. Dove blinked.
"Keep going," Robin told her.
Dove nodded and picked up another rock with her powers and did it all over again, slowly bringing it up and, keeping control of it as flew through the air, flicking her hand. This time she guided the rock with her powers instead of just flinging it. She looked at the target, her entire mind focused on getting the rock to go where she wanted it to. It collided with the target's edge and Dove released her power's hold on it, causing it to fall to the ground.
A bit more confidence flared up inside her, and she picked up another before making it fly through the air. This time it hit the second ring. She let a small grin slip onto her face, then closed her eyes and shook her head to clear away thought. Stay focused…
She picked up another rock and let it hover for awhile, feeling a little shaky for some reason. She moved her hand slightly to the left, causing the rock to shoot off, and winced, realizing her powers had slipped. The rock landed in the water.
"Uh, what were you doing?"
"Just trying to see if I could make it go anywhere… I have no idea how good I am yet, and I know I have limits, I just need to see where they are… Apparently I don't have much control yet…"
"Yet being the key word. I'm sure if you practice, you'll get better."
"That's what everyone says…" She sighed before picking up another rock. It shook as it rose like all the others, and she couldn't help wondering how long it would take for her to really control her powers.
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-Raven's secret-keeper