A/N: Please enjoy and leave a review on how you like where this is going so far.
Disclaimer: No. Just no.
Chapter 7: Morning
Robin's eyes opened beneath his mask to find soft sunlight coming in barely through the circular opening of their confinement chamber, surprised when he moved to sit up he also found that they were no longer chained down. His eyes fell upon the rest of the Titans off beside him to confirm, and sure enough they were all simply lying around, all still knocked out and exhausted after last nights events. He sighed and pushed himself to sit up, running a hand through his spikey hair and shaking it out, his other hand rubbing at the back of his neck. He couldn't believe how much his muscles ached. He looked over to his left passed Beast Boy and stood up, quietly making his way to Raven.
"Raven," he gently whispered when he crouched down next to her, lightly touching her arm. He gave her body a soft nudge. "Raven?"
He saw her body tense before she alertly opened her eyes, relaxing when she saw it was him. He smiled down at her and let his hand trail from her arm to her side, resting at her hip. She fought back her blush and instead chose to glare at him instead, keeping her cool.
"Robin, what are you doing? When did we get back in here?"
He shook his head as they kept their voices at a murmur, "I don't know, but we got through the night," he said gratefully, exhaling as he realized she didn't want to be touched and removed his hand as he continued, "I was wondering if you could heal some of my aches and pains."
"Of course," was all she had to say as she too sat up and he followed suit, smiling lightly as relief washed over his body when she positioned herself behind him and ran her aura covered hands over his neck, shoulders, and back. He shut his eyes and sighed.
"I feel sorry for every other man who doesn't have you as their girlfriend… this beats a massage any day," he muttered under his breath as he lulled his head back, smirking. Raven rolled her eyes and pulled her hands back as she finished, sitting beside him now.
"Keep it down… we don't want them hearing."
"Hearing what? Rae don't be paranoid," Robin said as he looked back at her now with that same, relaxed smirk. He leaned closer and rested a hand on her thigh. "Just let me have a little time with you when we have a moment like this of peace and quiet…"
"Duuuuuudes!" Raven and Robin's eyes widened as they both jumped back from each other to look at Beast Boy, his face up and looking through the barred ceiling, "When did we get put back in here!?"
They exhaled as relief washed over them and they watched as the other two Titans were roused by the green boy's loud mouth, also slightly surprised. Cleared his throat to grab their attention.
"Good to see all of you awake. Now we can discuss."
"Oh yes, it is very good indeed to see us all here and accounted for this morning!" Starfire chimed, smiling widely as she flew up and floated off the ground, clapping her hands together. "What might we be discussing now? Our previous victory?"
"That victory means nothing if we don't keep it up," Cyborg said with a yawn, standing beside her with a sigh, "And if that's what our usual night is gonna look like, I dunno if –"
Robin put up his hand as he and Raven stood also with the others with the exception of Beast Boy, who tiredly leaned back against one of the walls beside them. "We can't think like that, Cyborg. I know this isn't easy on our minds or bodies, but we're going to make it through this. Together. Slade isn't anyone we haven't faced before. He may be pulling the strings, but he won't be able to keep us down. It's time we start figuring out what happened that worked last night and what didn't work. What we saw, what our limits were."
Cyborg nodded and rubbed at his head thoughtfully. "I'd say we went through at least a couple hundred Slade bots last night easy. Yeah there were a few breaks in the waves but they weren't for very long, and it lasted all night. If that's what we're looking at, I'd say we can be sure to expect that for the rest of these next two weeks. Probably more knowing how Slade'll try pushing us harder to weed us out."
"He will do no such thing," Starfire interjected confidentially, eyes saddened by the thought, "As Robin said, this exact discussion is to understand what we can do to better our chances. I myself believe that friend Raven's quickness last night in deciding to not let us spread too far from one another worked out most effectively."
"Yeah," Beast Boy said with a grin, hopping up to his feet but still leaning back against the wall casually, "Our teamwork is clearly on point. Splitting up would definitely be no bueno, I'm with Star."
Raven looked to Robin with her own nod and lowered her hood as she spoke up, "Separating will get us nowhere when the elements of that night are a total surprise."
"Unless…"
"Unless?" Everyone looked to Robin and raised an eyebrow.
"Unless it helps us cover more ground and explore different areas. Then we have a better chance to one of us finding Slade."
"Man, as cool as I am with wanting to go kick Slade's ass, there's no way that'll happen. Even if we were to come across him, there's no way we could take him on solo before the rest of us get there in time," Cyborg said, exasperated.
"I believe this is an instance in which saying 'we must play the game' applies?" Starfire asked, sighing.
"Do we really have to?" Robin asked with a huff, arms crossing over his chest as his mask turned to slits. "Shouldn't we try and figure out what that gunshot was? Where it was?"
"We don't have to split up to search the island, though… don't jump the gun and lose focus on options," Raven insisted calmly, "Each night we can take off in a different direction and keep track… figure out where things are in relation to this spot. Find our bearings. Eventually, we'll figure something out."
"Yes! Most wonderful of plans, friend Raven. I am in favor of attempting this."
"Alright… tonight, when the sunsets, we head out in the opposite direction this time, until we figure another way to handle things. Got it?" Robin asked everyone. They nodded. "For now, let's try and get some more sleep… there's no telling what'll be out there this time around."
Raven crashed down upon the tall, flat, circular roof to one of Jump City's tallest buildings, slowly pushing herself up with a low grunt despite the pain she felt surging throughout her body. Just as she flew up though, there was a resistance tugging at the hood of her cloak, choking her neck and halting her retreat. She glanced over her shoulder to be met with Slade.
"What you have concealed you shall become!"
With one huge tug, her cloak ripped off of her, along with a large black portion to her leotard, leaving her feeling exposed and bare as she fell to the ground on her stomach. She weakly pushed herself to look back behind her shoulder to see where he was, eyes beginning to glow their sinister white. But before she could do anything and just as she did so, he was suddenly down on top of her, hovering above her body with his metal suited one, mask removed and his hand gripping one of her wrists that was supporting her weight. He swiftly turned her around and her back connected with the ground again, their fronts now pressed together as he leaned down closer, his arms on either side of her head, trapping her. She looked up into his one eye that wasn't concealed by an eye patch and gasped when his face leaned closer to his own, one hand lowering to touch her body and run down it.
"You have no other choice."
Raven's eyes flew open as she gasped for breath, panic overwhelming her as her chest tightened. 'A dream' she told herself, 'it was only a dream.' But then, why that memory - and why had it been altered so drastically? Why Slade now? Why something so... her cheeks flushed at the thoughts, confusion surfacing from her sudden thoughts.
"Titans," Slade's voice suddenly called from nowhere, the quiet alarm that signaled their chamber door was opening going off, "It's time."
End Chapter
Hope you enjoyed, things will slowly begin to change and progress as time goes on. Sorry if it seemed repetitive or dull.
DarkGirlRavenGrayson
