A/N: Wow! I just beat my record for chapter reviews! 29! Well, thanks to everyone who's been reviewing. Enjoy chapter ten!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans, okay?
Chapter Ten: Revenge is sweet, if you know how to fight
"Dad, I can explain!" Gar said quickly.
"What is there to explain! You helped a clearly insane girl escape from an institution! Do you have any idea what could happen to you if you get caught?" he was yelling from the kitchen doorway. "Do you, Gar? You could be sent to jail! And for what? What's your excuse!"
"She's not insane," Gar murmured softly, although anger was slowly building in his voice. "And I knew what I was doing."
"You don't know what you're doing! Why can't you just think before you do things? You're not a kid anymore, Gar! There's always consequences to your actions, and you have to be ready to deal with them!" Marie was completely lost in this conversation, but she kept eyeing Raven after the insane comment. Clenching his fists on the table, Gar tried to stay calm, but Mark wouldn't let him explain.
All the while, Raven sat there glancing from Gar to Mark to the empty hall. She knew it had been a mistake to stay. Not only had she been found, but Gar had gotten in trouble. Eyeing the hall again, she thought about her options, and she knew what she had to do.
"I know that!" Gar shouted back, pounding his fists against the table.
"No you don't! Her father is worried about her! I don't care why you did it. I'm going to call her father and tell him that I found her." Disappearing into the kitchen, Mark walked back into the room now holding a cordless phone showing that he wasn't bluffing.
"No!" Raven yelled and stood quickly. Everyone looked over at Raven with surprise as if they had forgotten she was even there. She looked just as surprised as everyone else that she had yelled that. Then, she panicked.
Turning towards the empty hall, she took off running. Fumbling with the doorknob a moment before opening the front door and running out into the warm, summer night.
Too stunned to move, everyone merely stared down the hall. "Look what you did!" Gar was absolutely furious. "I just wanted to help her."
"How do you call that helping her?" Mark was no longer yelling.
"At least she's not stuck with her deranged father!" Gar stood, knowing that he had already wasted precious time he could be using to stop Raven.
"Deranged?"
"He abused her." His voice was a low growl. There was silence for a moment. Finally, Gar rushed past his father.
"You can't be sure that she was telling the truth. She's mentally unstable, Garfield," Mark called after him, although he knew Gar wasn't listening.
Forgetting his car completely, he chose a direction and sprinted down the sidewalk. He couldn't see her down the long stretch of empty sidewalk, but he had waited a long time before following and the dim light of the streetlights was hard to see by. The pavement blurred beneath his feet. In sports he had never been the fastest or the strongest, but that was because he never really cared much. Now, his legs moved faster than they probably ever had before.
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After running what seemed like miles, Raven ducked into a narrow alleyway. Glancing over her shoulder, she realized that no one was following her. With a sigh she leaned back against the brick wall behind her and desperately tried to regain her breath.
It was for the best that she had left, and that she hadn't been followed. Slumping against the wall, she slid down and sat on the cold ground pulling her knees close to her. Exhaustion was slowly taking hold of her, but she did her best to fight it off. She just had to keep telling herself that this was for the best. Over and over again.
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He didn't see the small crack in the cement of the sidewalk, and accidentally twisted his ankle. Then he fell flat on his face. His arms softening the blow, but not by much. "Ow...," he whined as he rolled over and sat up. Now that he had finally stopped Gar felt like his lungs were going to explode. After brushing himself off, Gar got back up. Luckily the fall hadn't caused any serious damage. His pace was slowed to a tired walk as he stumbled through the town. Almost no one was outside, and anyone who was brave enough to venture through the city at night you didn't want to make eye contact with. By now, Gar was sure she had ran in the other direction, but he continued to walk down the street anyway.
Sometime during his chase, he had exited the residential area and entered the more commercial part of town. Jump City wasn't the cleanest or safest city around. There were few alleys and he glanced down each one as he passed it, but they were all just as dark and empty as the last. It was possible that she had just kept running, but if she had he would never be able to catch her.
Walking for another half an hour, Gar was seriously considering turning back. Just before he was about to return home he saw a certain violet haired girl hunched over in one of the few alleys. A sigh of relief escaped his lips. "Raven, I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to find you. You have no idea how happy I am to see you..." There was no reply, so he continued. "My dad was just angry, he didn't mean any of it. We just need to talk to him." Expecting an objection, Gar was surprised when none came. "Raven? You know ignoring me won't solve anything... Raven, are you alright?" He suddenly began to panic, and she hadn't moved the whole time he had been there. Then, he saw her breath and he smiled.
Kneeling down beside her and placing his hand on her shoulder, Gar shook her lightly. "Raven... Wake up, Raven," he said softly. As far as he knew she had never been a light sleeper, but that was because she usually passed out from exhaustion. How she could sleep at this time and place was a mystery to him, but then again Raven was a mystery herself.
Taking a seat beside her, Gar examined his ankle. It wasn't at all bad, and it would probably be back to normal by the next day. The watch on his wrist told him it was only a couple minutes past midnight. He hadn't thought he had really been gone that long. He didn't plan on spending the night here, so he tried to shake her awake again.
This time, Raven groaned quietly and rubbed one of her eyes. "Come on, Raven. Wake up." His shaking was persistent, as much as she wanted to ignore it she couldn't.
"Gar? What is it?"
"We gotta go, Rae. It's getting late." She was confused and only half awake.
"I can't go back, Gar." Well, maybe not completely confused, she stilled seemed to remember earlier.
"Yes you can. I worked everything out, my dad says you can stay," he lied, but he knew if he talked with his dad he could work things out.
Rubbing the back of her neck, Raven thought about it for a second. "Alright." Gar helped her stand up, and he guided her out of the alleyway and down the street. After, walking for a moment she was fully awake again. Neither of them knew what to say, so they walked in silence for a long time.
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"Hey, man. Isn't that Logan?"
"Who?" Adam wasn't very interested as he slurped his fourth beer and discarded the can to the floor of his convertible with all the others.
"You know, the green kid." Now Adam was interested.
"Where?" he asked to quick to sound casual.
"Across the street."
"Come on, guys." Three other boys and him had been leaning against his car drinking for an hour. Adam slammed his hand down on the hood of his car as he walked past the front. The three looked confused, but followed for lack of something better to do. Blocking Gar and Raven's path, Adam smiled maliciously at the two. "Hey, Logan. Remember me?"
"Adam... What do you want?" Gar growled fiercely, although on the inside Gar was petrified. Suddenly they were surrounded by Adam and his group.
"Wow, Logan and the slut in one place. Aren't I lucky."
"Shut up, Adam." Whatever ferocity Gar's voice had had a moment ago had now completely disappeared. Although, Raven wasn't at all intimidated by Adam, she just glared at him silently.
"You two got me in a lot of trouble, maybe I should return the favor." One of the guys shoved Gar from behind, and while Raven was distracted Adam grabbed her wrists. Struggling against his grip, Raven was still too tired to break free.
"Let go of me you jerk." Raven's order merely made Adam laugh. Pushing her against the wall of a nearby shop, Raven winced from the impact. Gar was trapped by the other three. Slamming her foot down on top of his, Raven only managed to further aggravate him. He held both her wrists in one hand and slapped her hard across the face with the other.
"Leave her alone, Adam!" Gar yelled. Then, a fist was driven into the side of his face, and he stumbled and fell to the floor.
"Gar!" Adam pressed his face up close to hers, the stink of liquor strong on his breath. He placed his hand on the side of her waist. That was it, Raven brought her leg up and thrust it just the wrong way a little below his left knee. A soft snapping noise filled their ears. Releasing her with a scream of pain, Adam fell to the ground holding his leg.
"Adam!" Gar and the three other boys looked over at Raven then to Adam who was writhing on the ground in amazement.
Finally, the biggest guy out of the group charged at Raven. He had to be at least twice maybe even three times her size, but she wasn't all that scared of him. Size could often be a disadvantage, especially when they didn't know what they were doing. Slow and lumbering moves were easy to dodge, and Raven did just that. Now that she was out of the way, she landed a kick right to the side of his knee making him off balance. All she wanted to do was make her and Gar enough time to get away.
The other two were no longer concerned with Gar and attacked at the same time. She ducked a punch from the boy in front of her, but the other hit her in the back. Fortunately for her, the one throwing the punch wasn't a trained fighter, so she was able to recover easily. Hitting one of the boys with a roundhouse to the ribs, she managed to get him out of the way for a minute while she took down the other.
Turning around quickly, she didn't see the punch he was throwing and got hit square in the jaw. Taking a step back, Raven was a bit stunned. Then, when he stepped forward to hit her again, she kicked him in the chest and knocked the wind out of him.
Twisting back around, she turned just in time to see Gar punch the remaining boy hard in the face. Standing over the boy who was now on the floor, he smiled at Raven proudly and she couldn't help but smile back. "Come on, let's get out of here before they get back up." Nodding in response, Gar ran after her. "Can you run? I saw you limping earlier."
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Gar didn't think she had noticed, she hadn't said anything earlier, maybe she was more observant than he knew. Trying to keep up with her quick pace, Gar had to ask her one question. "Where'd you learn to fight like that? It was amazing how easily you took them down."
"You didn't think I just learned math and history in all those years of home schooling, did you?" she said with a cryptic smile. "Although," she added, "I must admit I'm a little rusty, I haven't practiced for awhile." He really didn't know her did he?
It didn't take them long to get back home, and Gar's parents had been waiting for them. "What happened?" Marie asked after seeing the large bruises on Gar and Raven's faces. Gar just glared at his father for a second before looking back at his mom.
"Adam and his friends were looking for a fight," Ga replied Raven was trying her best to hide behind Gar. It felt awkward with both his parents staring at her, especially now that they both knew who she really was.
"Where are they?" Mark asked.
"Probably at the hospital, but I wouldn't worry about them. I need to talk to you, dad."
They walked out of the room leaving Marie and Raven in an uncomfortable silence. Raven stared at the ground. "Do you need some ice?" Marie finally asked.
"Excuse me?" Raven finally looked up.
"Would you like some ice for your face, dear?" Marie asked again with a kind smile, which surprised Raven.
"Um... N-no thank you, I'm fine."
"You don't have to be so nervous around me," Marie chuckled. "I don't care about your past. I can tell Gar likes you, and that's all that matters." Raven gave Marie a small smile, she just wished his dad was that easy.
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"Dad, she's not crazy, let alone dangerous. It was all her father."
"I don't know, Gar."
"She has no where else to go, dad. And she sure isn't going back home. Do you want to put her out on the streets?"
Mark sighed in defeat. "No... Fine, she can stay at least until we get everything figured out. But I don't know what I'll tell her father."
"Thank you so much. I promise you won't regret it." Gar ran out of the room to tell Raven the good news. Mark sighed again and ran a hand through his short hair. What had he just gotten himself into?
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A/N: I hope everyone liked chapter ten. Please, tell me what you think. I tried not to make it too short. Well, please review if you want.
Beast Girl 4 3ver: Thanks! The fluff took a long time, but I'm glad you liked it. Hooray for fluff:D
K.C. Raven: Thanks! I tried to update as quick as possible. Stupid school gives me too many stupid assignments:D
Luna Forest: Haha! Wow, what do I say to that? Yes? lol :D
Mrs. Peacock: I'm getting back into cliffhangers now, I forgot how much fun they can be. Thanks! I hope this was quick enough, if it weren't for school it would have been sooner.
Darkness is Bright: Thanks! That's the best compliment anyone has ever given me. Don't worry, you'll get more story. :D
beautifulpurpleflame: I promise you won't have to wait too long to see what happens. I'll type as fast as I can. :D
Overactive Mind: Thanks! Haha, yeah. The fluff took a long time, but I'm glad you liked it. Explaining thing's to his father definitely isn't as easy as getting her out of the hospital. :D
ravenmasteroftele: I agree completely, I would much rather waste my money on comics and anime than make-up. Hahaha, that sounds like fun. Once my sister and I took wire cutters and cut off the legs of a Barbie, then I took a red sharpie and drew blood on it. My mom wasn't really sure how to react to that one. So, I wasn't much better either. Thanks! That's a great compliment. Sorry the fluff took so long, but I hope it was worth the wait. :D
Rainbow-Jess: Haha! I'm glad you liked that part. Oh well, it's impossible not to dance after beating a game, I would know. Good job. Aw, thanks:D
Lilliesofthevalley: Yeah, I was kinda worried about that, but I'm glad that you don't think the rushing ruined it. I guess I've been dragging it out so much that I just couldn't help it. Thanks! I know what you mean, I'm tired of this whole week. :D
Kinz: Thanks! It means a lot. There's no need for an apology. Yes! Cookies! I'll type as fast as I can! Especially if I get more cookies. :D
dPhantoMfreak: Aw, thanks. You're too kind. I almost forgot about the whole dream thing, thanks for reminding me. I'll type as quick as I can:D
XX.xXx.AchillezWiplash.xXx.XX: Haha, I'm glad you liked that. Thanks:D
Blueyedgirl: Thanks! Sorry, but I love cliffhangers. I won't disappoint you:D
Agent of the Divine One: Haha, yeah I guess so. I guess you;ll just have to wait and see. :D
Malaya21: Sorry, but I just remembered how much I love cliffhangers. It was about time, I dragged that whole thing out long enough, but I'm glad you liked it. :D
AureliusXsoul: You're right, it would have been bad, but I just couldn't do it. Yeah, I had that whole thing planned, I didn't want anyone to see it coming. Thank you. I'm sorry, you just have to be brave that's the only way you'll get through the year. I absolutely hate school, but as much as I hate to admit it, my school probably could be worse. May you be triumphant in your battle against the school demon! Haha. :D
ELLIEdangerous: Haha. I'm glad you liked that. Good, I tried to make this one less painful than the last. :D
Kaos Kraze: lol I glad you liked that. I know, it took forever, but hopefully the kiss was worth the wait... maybe? Thanks, that's still a great compliment. I love cliffhangers, I had just forgotten how much fun they can be. So, don't expect me to stop writing them. :D
skribble-scrabble: Haha. Don't you just love cliffhangers:D
Snea: Uh, thanks? I think. I'm glad you liked it. :D
addicted2danny: Hahaha. Thank you, (takes a bow) thank you. You're too kind. :D
Django X: Thank you. Yes, I absolutely hate school! You're so lucky, my parents just expect me to get good grades. I'm extremely lazy to, but it's just easier to be that way. Haha. Well, good luck, I know you can do it:D
new identity: Thank you, that means a lot. Yeah, I don't review much either. :D
moo-like-a-floofy-llama: I like cliffhangers cause I'm evil. Wow, 12 times? Hahaha. I'm glad you liked that part. :D
ravanwolf: Aw, thanks. You're too kind. I'm really glad you like it. :D
Hide-because-it's-me: Haha! Thanks. Mmm, I'll do anything for that much flesh. Hopefully you can pull yourself together again. My mouth is watering. I love that gray, squishy part of the human brain, it just melts in your mouth. Thank you. I'm much more confident in my fight than I was last week, but I am also tiring. This battle has caused me to get little sleep, and every day seems longer than the last. No matter what, though, I shall triumph with the ultimate grades:D
Crazy Sugar Girl: Aw, thanks. You're so sweet. Don't worry, I have another idea for at least one more story that I should be writing right after this one. I hope you'll take the time to read it, and if so maybe you'll like it. :D
chittychittybangbang16: Short and simple. I'll type as fast as I can:D