You know, I'd have had this chapter up a week ago but a certain website wouldn't let me update . Ah well, it's here now, eh?
Phoenix sauntered towards the one interrogation room that her tower offered some time later. She had left Raven sleeping soundly in her room and, satisfied that the empath was completely healed, had resolved to seek out Robin.
She found her sister first, leaning against the wall beside the door that led to her interrogation room.
"Girlfriend ok?" Dark blue eyes rolled and Phoenix sighed before locking her gaze back onto the single, ice blue eye.
"Raven isn't my girlfriend, Rose. But yes, she's fine." She could tell that no matter how many times she reiterated herself her sister would never believe her. Not after the morning they had met, at any rate. She changed the subject. "Is Robin in there?" Ravager nodded.
"He refused to go back to the infirmary. Wouldn't even come out and wait for you. Robin is not a happy birdie." Phoenix looked around; expecting to see Crimson standing somewhere nearby but the corridor was empty except for Slade's daughters. "I sent your boy back upstairs; no point both of us standing around out here."
"Thanks." Phoenix smiled and took a deep breath, looking at the door to the interrogation room. In the room beyond was the man who had killed Ayla and tried to kill her closest friends. He had come so close and Phoenix wasn't entirely sure that she could be in the same room as him. But she couldn't leave Robin alone in there either, so she reached out and laid her hand on the door handle.
"You going in?" Her sister already knew the answer of course, she was really asking if Phoenix wanted her to go with her. They had similar tempers and the older girl knew how she would react in the younger's place; she would kill him. And she would enjoy it.
"Yeah, could you wait out here for me? If you hear yelling…"
"I'll come and help out. I got your back, Cyd." Phoenix grinned, turning the handle and pushing it open. Ravager didn't need an answer so she slipped inside, closing the door behind her.
Inside, Robin was leaning on the table, hands extended before him with his masked eyes narrowed at the criminal in the chair opposite. She saw that Crimson had removed the man's white mask and beneath it Imago Dei looked strangely average. She wouldn't have batted an eyelid if they'd passed on the street or if he had asked for her team's assistance and that made the sight of him frightening. Imago could've been anyone at all. With his dirty blonde hair and pale blue eyes, even the light freckles across his nose; he was invisible among the other citizens of Sol City.
"You're supposed to be in the infirmary." The firebird muttered. Robin started and straightened but it was painfully obvious that his chest hurt him. It was unsurprising really; he had been stabbed there and Raven had only had chance to heal the main damage. He should be resting until he was strong enough to return to his duties. Not that he would ever listen to this.
"You're supposed to be dead." The counter didn't come from Robin, it came from Imago but both heroes ignored him, each choosing instead to keep trying to stare the other down. "Tell me, Phoenix. How did you survive?" Robin blinked finally and cast a short glance to Imago.
"He wouldn't speak to me. I tried everything but not a word. You walk in and suddenly he wants to talk." He was half amused and half disappointed. She smiled a crooked smile and looked at the average man who was sat at her interrogation table, his hands cuffed to the arms of his chair. She didn't need to look to know that his ankles were similarly bound.
"A magician never reveals her secrets." The quip, borrowed from Raven, tripped easily from her tongue, garnering a smile from Robin's lips.
"Your father would be proud of you, I think. For surviving. Maybe I should call him when I leave your company." The Boy Wonder glowered.
"What makes you think you're going to be leaving?" The blue eyes glittered smugly and their owner leant back in his chair, somehow managing to look comfortable despite his restraints.
"What makes you think that you can keep me here?" There was something so like genuine curiosity in the villain's voice that Phoenix was suddenly stricken with a need to keep the bottom floor completely locked down, and at least two Titans outside the interrogation room at all times. "Either I will escape here or I will escape from our illustrious policing system. Either way I believe that I will be speaking with dear Deathstroke soon enough." Robin slapped a gloved hand onto the table and Phoenix started as the sound jolted her from her thoughts of fortification.
"You won't escape. Even if I have to escort you myself, I will see you in a jail cell." Imago laughed coldly, his pale eyes fixed on the silent firebird.
"You know what your father would have you do." She did. Slade would have Imago killed in a simple act of vengeance. She couldn't deny that her fingers itched to feel the searing flames that would wipe away the villain before her. Not to herself at any rate. "After all, this isn't the first time that his children have felt my blade." One of Phoenix's hands rose to touch the deep cut along her cheek, the only wound she had that hadn't yet healed, and she remembered the deadly gleam of Imago Dei's straight razor.
"You." She remembered the gleam of that same straight razor, years before resting against the hollow of a young blonde boy's throat. "It was you." Her fists clenched at her sides and fire flickered to life, forming gauntlets around her wrists.
"Nix, relax." Robin placed a gloved hand on her shoulder. She shook him off, glowering at the seated villain until her ex-lover forced her away, one hand on either side of her face to ensure that she was looking at him. "Calm down and tell me what's going on."
"He's the one who tried to kill Joey; our baby brother. He put a blade to his throat and left him mute." Robin could understand the anger that was rolling off of the pyromancer in waves, he really could, but he couldn't let her kill Imago. He knew she would come to regret it in time. He tightened his grip when she struggled slightly. "Let me go."
Imago chuckled as he watched the heroes fight each other. When he had heard that one of Deathstroke's daughters had turned to heroism he had been surprised. He had somehow known it would be the younger without being told; he had seen the anger in her eyes as he had held the youngest child to him. And he had felt the heat of the flames that had killed the rest of his crew when he had slit the boy's throat in front of her. Cydney had never had much control of her emotions and what better way for a hero to fall from grace than to kill a criminal who was bound and helpless? What better way for him to disappear than for him to 'die'?
Phoenix pushed Robin's arms off of her, forcing him back until he was leant against the wall. Then she turned to lean on the table, flames forming a deadly halo around her body.
"What's the matter, Cydney? You always used to be such a Daddy's girl." He enjoyed the conflict in her dark eyes. Justice and Vengeance fighting for control. Robin and Slade both vying for her loyalty. She reached out across the table and wrapped a flame swaddled hand around the ordinary man's neck. "That's better." He crooned to her, encouraging the soft growl rumbling in her chest. Robin was trying to brave the flames but they were too hot for him to even get close to laying a restraining hand on the girl. Imago smiled.
"Phoenix stop." The husky monotone registered in the pyromancer's head as Robin's yells couldn't and her flames wavered as she turned her head. Raven was here, watching her with soft amethyst eyes and her arms folded beneath her cloak.
"He hurt Joey." Phoenix sounded painfully childlike but the flames died when Raven reached out a hand to touch her arm, instinctively knowing that they would burn her.
"I know, Nix. I know what he made you see but you have to stop or you'll be just like him." Robin frowned; she had never told him anything about her brother, let alone an attack but somehow Raven seemed to know. He added that to the list of things to find out later, along with just how Raven had known that Phoenix was losing it in the interrogation room. When Phoenix dropped a surprised Imago back into his seat unceremoniously and the empath pulled the other girl into a loose embrace, his frown deepened.
"Mom wouldn't have… it was all him." Phoenix let Raven's power swathe her form as she took them from the room, leaving Robin alone with Imago Dei.
"She has a point." The man muttered. "Dear Deathstroke wouldn't be what he is today without me." There was a ring of melted flesh around the villain's neck that would need treatment, but there was also a distinctly proud grin on his face. Robin shook his head and walked towards the door.
"Shut up."
/
"How did you know I was losing it?" Raven had teleported them back to her room and they sat, side by side, on the firebird's bed. The empath gave a soft smile.
"Did Robin ever tell you about our bond?" Phoenix nodded. "When you gave me some of your life force earlier, you formed a bond with me as well. Strong emotions like anger are easy to sense, even so early on. Soon enough you should be able to sense them too and it shouldn't be too long before you can catch the more subtle emotions too."
"Thank you. For stopping me. You know, I really wanted to kill him." Raven's smile grew broader and she nudged the other girl gently with her shoulder.
"I know, Nix. I know your mind almost as well as my own now."
"Well that makes one of us, I guess." Phoenix tried a smile of her own as the quip fell from her lips. "But really; I needed stopping and I don't think Robin could've done it."
"You'd have stopped yourself before you got too far." The empath sounded so sure and there was a large part of Phoenix that wanted to believe her. "You would; I know it."
"That's going to get really creepy really fast." The firebird grinned and quickly planted a light kiss onto her friend's cheek. She turned away before her blush had finished blooming and got to her feet. "I should get back to the infirmary. You can stay here and rest if you want." She half turned when she got to the door. "Thank you, Rachel." Then passed out of sight, leaving the half demon alone with a pale hand touching her cheek and a gentle frown pulling at her eyebrows, even as her lips twitched into a small smile.
"Yeah."
I'm bending the rules of the universe again, I know but, hey, if Nix has a berserk button it's going to be good little Joey.
