Finals are over. Yay!

Erm, I will be traveling to Switzerland soon, so I probably wont be able to post anything for the next couple of weeks, though, if my father allows me to bring my computer with me, I can write while traveling. That means that I'll have chapters to upload when I get home. I wont be posting them while on vacation, sorry.

This is it.

This was irrevocably it.

Raven looked at the sleeping form of Reed, the kitchen knife in her hand. She was shaking badly and her breath came out in small forced puffs. She was afraid he would hear her frantically beating heart, in perfect symphony with her shallow breathing, but his eyes remained shut.

She took one step closer, her eyes refusing to leave the sight of his perfectly relaxed face. That face was completely oblivious of what was going on, his eyes un-knowing of what transpired on the other side of his closed lids.

She took a small step closer and stumbled slightly on her wobbly legs.

Reed stirred lightly in his position on the couch, his long frame curling up slightly.

I can't do this. She argued in her head, but the image of Adrian, dead and tortured on the floor of the cold steel lab in the Von Doom building was enough to make her take one step further.

Adrian

The past four days had consisted of switching between being normal and crazy. She had done her act convincingly, she believed, and everyone in the house knew she was unstable. Susan and Reed had been very excited when Johnny told them about her long periods of awareness and had asked countless of questions, aimed both at Johnny and Raven.

She looked at the knife in her hand and hesitantly took another step towards Reed, only six feet from him now.

I have to do this. For Adrian.

Reed murmured in his sleep and sweat started upon Ravens brow. The knife sat, erect in her limp hand, and she forced her arm to raise slowly, the knife rising in the air, catching the fading red sunlight making it look morbid and deadly, but beautiful all the same.

Her entire body shook as she took a step closer, tears welling in her eyes. Everything was deadly silent, the very planet holding its breath at what was about to happen. She felt deaf, unable to hear anything but the rushing of her own blood in her ears.

She was next to the couch now, the knife raised high above her head, waiting to lay its blow. Her arm twitched and then, she brought the knife down, seemingly in slow motion.

I'm going to save you, Adrian

"NO!" a voice hollered and suddenly an ignited Johnny hit her full force, knocking her to the ground before she had the chance to plant the knife in Reeds heart. She landed on her stomach, still with the knife in hand as Johnny de-flamed and pressed his knee into her back harshly, kicking the knife from her hand.

Reed shot into a sitting position on the couch just as she let out a squeak of pain from Johnny's kick.

I failed. Now Adrian is doomed.

The realization hit her like a ton of bricks and, angrily, she wriggled away from underneath Johnny, sending a forceful splash of water into his face. Johnny looked at her shocked, before a fierce scowl marred his facial features.

She had been practicing her skills constantly the past days and had almost learned the full extent of her powers. She knew how to use the water she had already consumed and knew how to extract water from around her, if her inner stock should run out.

They stood ten feet apart, facing each other. Johnny's hands very engulfed in flames and the water pipes in the sink were rattling ominously.

Johnny attacked, sending an explosive fireball at her, which she easily put out with a splash of water. The two forces met in a hiss and steam rose into the air.

Johnny put more effort into the next fireball and Raven had to really concentrate in order to deflect it.

Soon, a continuous stream of fire erupted from Johnny's hands, along with an equally continuous stream of water from Raven's. The two forces met halfway between Johnny and Raven, creating so much steam, Reed had trouble seeing them properly. It was a truly frightening sight to behold, until Reed's prolonged arms wrapped firmly around both of them, effectively stopping them. Johnny protested angrily, trying to wriggle out of the death grip, while Raven shouted profanities at them, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Let me go, you stupid, life destroying idiot! You deserve to die, you ruined my life!" she knew that she had to keep the act up if she wanted to get out of this, so she continued her rant. "You, with your experiments, selfish acts and-"

"Shut up, Raven! Just stop!" Johnny roared, breathing unevenly with anger. Reed let go of him, burned from Johnny's high temperature, but kept his tight grip on her. So far, he hadn't said anything, apparently to shocked to find words to say. He simply watched and observed. She attempted to ignore Johnny but then he walked right up to her and in a deadly cold voice declared, "I know you are perfectly level headed. I know you are not mentally unstable."

She gapped at him, realizing that her cover had been blown.

"But, ho-.. what?"

"Your eyes, damn it! They changed the night you woke up, and they stayed the same." He elaborated, still glaring viciously at her.

She continued to stare him open mouthed.

He slumped his shoulders, a hurt look in his eyes. He glared at the ground his fists clenched. "I tried to figure out why you would keep up the pretense." Blue eyes shot up reluctantly and fixed her with an angry stare. His voice was strong and laced with the fury he was experiencing. "I'm not stupid, Raven. I know you're hiding something essential from us. Why else would you try to murder Reed?" at the last part he motioned to the man behind him.

Reed observed them both, his typical big eyed and innocent look plastered on his face.

"So tell me, Raven.. What is it you hope to achieve by robbing someone else's life from them? What did you have in mind? I know that you know Reed is not to blame for your situation, and so, revenge is not the reason. So what is it?" Johnny paced the floor slightly, unable to stay still.

Reed was utterly baffled. Waking up to someone trying to kill you was enough of a shock, but seeing Johnny like this was what truly amazed him. Never before had he seen the young, carefree playboy so serious and dangerous.

Raven stubbornly kept her mouth shut, but treacherous, fat tears streamed down her face.

"ANSWER ME!" He screamed. She jumped into the air in shock at the loudness of his voice.

She mentally tried to pull herself together, but felt her knees buckle underneath her anyway. At some point, she knew she would have to answer, but still, her mouth remained shut.

"She- she'll kill him" She hoarsely whispered after some time. Johnny froze from his pacing and looked at her with a scrutinizing gaze.

"She'll. Kill. Who?" Johnny didn't even seem to care who 'she' was. He planned on finding that out later.

Raven mentally pulled herself together. Saying his name out loud, to these people was the last thing she had ever wanted to do, but now she had to.

"Adrian." The name fell from her lips with such ease even though she sucked in a breath afterwards.

Knowing she'd have to elaborate, she continued. "When I first moved here, I-I was in a relationship with a guy named Adrian. After the accident, Von Doom took Adrian, so no-one would notice my missing. They still got him, and if I don't do what she says, Adrian dies." Her voice cracked. Admitting this to other people was almost too much.

"Let me get this straight.. You had to choose between Reed and this 'Adrian' guy and you didn't even for once consider what would happen if Reed died?" Johnny's voice was calm and low, but so strained and lazed with danger, she actually felt herself shake in fear.

"And not only did you complete ignore that fact that you would be robbing my sister's husband from her, you didn't think about the rest of the world? Reed is one of the fantastic four! He saves lives every week!" at this point, Reed let go of Raven, but still stood in the background, not saying anything.

"And not just by fighting evil. He is one of the smartest people on earth! This guy practically invented fifty percent of all remedies used in the hospitals nowadays!"

"Actually, I only work out the theories, I don-"

"Shut it, limpy!"

Johnny stepped closer to her now and grabbed hold of her forearms. Their connected skin started sizzling and steaming as usual. "Are you really selfish enough to kill one of the most important people on earth in order to save your boyfriend?"

Raven was all but sobbing on the floor now; Johnny's grip on her arms the only thing keeping her up.

"Please, do not ask me to choose between Reed and Adrian. Because it will be him. It will always be him."

His usually clear blue eyes were dark with anger and he looked at her with such hate and contempt, his face fixed into an ugly mask of fury.

"I-" She stammered, feeling her words get stuck in her throat, "I-I'm sorry, I-"

"NO! Sorry doesn't cut it! Sorry doesn't change anything! Sorry does not change the fact that you tried to murder Reed!" Johnny shook her shoulders frantically and she let out cries of pain from his tight grip.

"Johnny, please stop," Reed suddenly stood by the younger mans side and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "You're not thinking straight. Let her go."

"No Reed, I am perfectly levelheaded! How can you stand there and act so calm and forgiving, when you saw what she was going to do?" Johnny protested, but let go of her anyway.

Reed looked at the sobbing woman, kneeling on the floor, covering her face with her hands. "I'm not forgiving her. I just.. I understand why she would do it. I'd probably do the same for Susan."

Reed looked at her for a long time, his lips pressed together in thought. At length he ordered; "Take her to the guestroom and make sure she doesn't leave it." He looked seriously at Johnny, "We have to discuss this with Sue and Ben, before we do anything."

Johnny immediately did as told and, roughly, grabbed one of her arms, pulling her to her feet. Reed slumped down on the couch he'd been sleeping on only moments before and ran a hand through his hair, letting out the breath he had been holding.

Johnny half dragged her to the guestroom, completely ignoring her pained whimpers and her continuous sobbing. When he arrived at the door, he opened it and all but threw her into the room.

Raven landed on the floor, in the middle of the room. She turned around to look at Johnny, who stood in the doorway.

"You know, I really thought you were an okay person. I guess I-" He shook his head at everything and shut the door, locking it in the process.

Raven didn't move from her position on the floor, merely turned back around and slumped down into the rug. Her right hand throbbed from when Johnny had thrown her to the floor and her throat burned from the sobbing and whimpering.

Outside, night had fallen, leaving the guestroom dark and shadowy. Panic rose in her. Wherever she looked, all she could see was Adrian's dead body, bloody and tortured, and Teresa's leering and mocking face, grinning at her.

She tried to swipe the images away, arguing with herself that Adrian wasn't dead yet and hope wasn't lost. She told herself that she still could manage to do this, that she could still save him.

And then, reality kicked in.

She had failed and Adrian was doomed. These people knew about Adrian, they knew someone wanted Reed dead and they knew that Raven had been ready to do it, to save Adrian.

She was never going to get a shot at killing Reed again. And Adrian would die. Adrian would die!

An agonizing cry escaped her throat as she broke down on the floor, slowly loosing the will to live.

She would readily trade her own life for Adrian's, not that Teresa would let her do that.

She would do anything, anything, to save him, but the world was entirely against her. He was the only thing she had left.

Her parents were dead, she never had any siblings, nor did she posses any belongings anymore, and she was all alone, in America.

Raven slowly stood on wobbly legs, her entire body shaking, looking around the room for something she could use to take her own life with.

But there was nothing. Reed and Susan had taken good care, so there was nothing in the room she could use to harm herself with.

She let out a frustrated shriek before her legs buckled underneath her and she fell to the floor, fainted.

I got the idea for Ravens name from a song called "Code Name: Raven" by a band called House of Heroes.

if you don't know it, I highly recommend giving it a try. I really think it fits the story. If you decide to listen to it, please tell me what you think of it!

Thank you everyone who reviewed/favourited/alerted!

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