Rune offered to take the next shift on the city patrol, replacing Beast Boy. He kept going for the shift immediately after as well, despite two messages from Raven to take his place and more than a dozen calls through the night which he had ignored. Jump City was a haven compared to some places such as Gotham but look hard enough and you could still find crime in one of the many dark alleys this city had to offer. Rune hopped from rooftop to rooftop, traces of Slade or Red X were next to nothing so the Titans had quickly relegated their patrols to simply the crime centric areas. If they could spread word that the Titans were cracking down on crime of the non-super element, they could hope that the latest spike of crime would die down. Rune was so wrapped up in his own thoughts he forgot to acknowledge in the exhilarating feeling of running across the rooftops, planting one foot after other and taking the leap to the next roof should have felt like sticking up a middle finger straight to Death's face but there was nothing. Rune stopped as he ran out of buildings and leant down to his knees, surprised at the exhaustion in his breath, he must've run near two dozen entire blocks. Cursing himself for his idiocy, Rune began to run back the opposite way, this time paying close attention. He could feel the bags growing under his eyes and the heaviness growing in his limbs but he paid it no mind, the only thing that remained with him were the visions Raven had put him through. He had buried those memories a long time ago, left Gotham, abandoned his old life, he had died that day, and Darkside was born. I wasn't the only one who died that day his brain reminded him. Rune gritted his teeth and struck out at the closest thing within reach, in this case a TV antennae that lost signal for the twelve apartments in the building under his feet. He leapt a few more gaps before his body demanded rest or his lungs would burst. Rune sat down, his legs hanging off the edge of the building, watching various bugs fly around the bright bulb of a street light below. His communicator buzzed and he flipped it open. "Report" Robin's voice barked.
"Nothing happening" Rune told him, "just me and the moths. Not the killer monster things like Silkie" he added quickly.
"You sound tired" Robin told him. "Come back to the Tower, I'll have Cyborg replace you."
"I'm fine" Rune told him. "I'll return at sunrise."
"But-"
"Sunrise" Rune repeated, cutting him off. He killed the transmission. The communicator buzzed a second later and Rune checked it again, this time it was a message, from Raven. Please, come home.
Rune shook his head and deactivated the tracker, he knew she would be monitoring his location to see if her message worked, and that she would come to him if it didn't. Rune got back to his feet despite his need for more rest and decided to move on when the whispers of a protest and a scream reached his ears. Rune turned and listened harder. Single female his ears told him, intoxicated, physically struggling. He knew there was a less-than-glamorous nightclub in this vicinity, he'd been thinking about trying to score a gig as a bartender there before he'd accidentally blown up a car with an awoken rune and triggered a fight with five teenage superheroes. Running towards the sound, another voice reached a voice. It was a man's. Aggressive, dominant. There was another element to it as well. Lust. This is no mugging. The man's voice slithered into Rune's ear and almost made him physically wretch. "Let me go!" The woman screamed. Judging by the pleading tone in her voice, she was obviously overpowered, Rune knew that the begging would only encourage the man. He leapt the last rooftop and looked down into the piss-stained alley below. A blonde in a mini skirt and flimsy shirt was being pinned by her wrists to the wall by a man in a brown leather jacket and cap. He had dark greasy brown hair and a smattering of facial hair. He was desperately trying to kiss her, slathering his tongue over her lips, neck and ear lobes despite her struggling feebly against him. The small neon pink sign of the bar's back door dimly lit up the vile scene. Rune vaulted down off the fire escape and landed light enough to avoid injury but heavy enough to make a sound loud enough to disturb the man's escalating attempt. Rune's face was hidden in the darkness and he wanted to keep it that way. This man had really picked the wrong time to piss him off, Rune had a lot of pent up anger he wanted to let out. "Let her go" he called.
"Or what?" The man called in return. He had drunk enough to become foolishly emboldened and his pride was not about to be sacrificed to the smaller silhouette. "You gonna try and stop me?"
"Yeah" Rune replied grittily. "And you're really going to regret making me."
"I think you better get out of here before I wipe this alley with your face" the man told him.
"That'd be impressive to see for a guy barely struggling with a wasted ninety pound bimbo."
The man's smirk quickly melted away. The girl, obviously terrified of this ominous stranger, tried to pull away but the man slammed her back against the wall and slapped her hard across the face. Rune reached into his pocket and his fingers pulled out a blade, it was time to end this. He saw the silhouette of the man's hand beginning to roughly force its way up the girl's skirt and he threw the first one. The man cried in pain and retreated a few steps before looking at the razor blade that was sticking out of his wrist, he winced as he yanked it out. Blood poured out of the cut half an inch deep. "You're going to pay for this you piece of-"
Rune's next blade slicing a line under his eye interrupted his next curse word, ironically eliciting an even worse word from the man.
"You're going to pay for that!" He yelled.
Rune didn't react. "I'd go home if I were you" he told the girl. She nodded and backed away. When the man didn't speak he continued. "That wound on your wrist will require a doctor" He said. "You leave now to seek medical attention and that can be a peaceful end to the night."
The man took several breaths through his gritted teeth, his breath turning to steam in the alley. He looked to be imitating a bull before charging. And I've already beaten one of those Rune thought. Sure enough, the man charged with a roar and hail of spittle flying off his trembling lip. Rune didn't move a muscle as the man charged at him, he just stared and waited. At the last moment, Rune nimbly stepped out of the way and the man crashed through air tumbling to the ground in a heap. He pulled himself back up, his jacket stained and his pants soaked from the roll across the dank corridor. Rune watched the man get back to his feet, breath punctuated by inebriated mutterings. He ran at Rune trying to tackle him but the Titan replied by slamming an elbow down into his back before lifting a knee that connected solidly to man's jaw. He stumbled backwards, dazed, recovering only in time to be knocked straight back into confusion as Rune hammered his jaw with a roundhouse kick straight out of Robin's book. The man went down to one knee against the dumpster, regaining his breath. Rune thought he was about to concede defeat as the man checked the trail of blood dribbling from his lip but that was misconceived as the man reacted in even further anger seeing blood on his fingers after wiping his face. That's when the knife came up. Rune heard it before he saw it. The unmistakable click of the switchblade, he knew it well enough from when he had one himself during his… darker moments. The glint of the steel flying towards his gut in the dim pink light was all Rune needed to switch off the higher thought processes and just operate solely on instinct. The same instincts that had spent all day sweltering in guilt and sadness that had since soured to anger. Rune seized the man's wrist stabbing forward and twisted it away. The man hissed in pain and dropped the knife but Rune didn't stop there, he couldn't. He twisted the wrist a degree further, snapping the bone as the man cried out before gagging as Rune struck him in the throat with stiffened fingers with his other hand. Still holding the wrist, Rune delivered two shots to the gut and an uppercut to the jaw, knocking the man back onto the ground dazed and confused. Normally Rune would've left the man far before there, but not this time. Rune knelt down, pressing a knee into the man's sternum as he grabbed the man's collar and punched him in the face. The man blinked, trying to gain a sense of his surroundings. Rune hit him.
And hit him.
Again.
And again.
The man's nose broke with a messy squirt of blood that Rune felt splatter on his own face. Rune didn't care though, he couldn't care. The thought of what this man was going to do to the woman was filling his mind and driving his fist. The girl screamed and ran to Rune, screaming at him to stop but Rune unintentionally struck her pulling back his fist and she fell away. Rune felt distant, far away, as his anger flowed out into unmaking the scum before him before a voice called out his name from underwater. Rune… Rune kept hitting him.
"Rune!"
Rune woke up, his arm coated and petrified in black energy. From the sky, Raven floated down, her eyes glowing white. "That's enough!" She commanded.
Rune looked back to the man beneath him. What was remaining of his teeth were covered red with blood pouring out his mouth. His nose was nearly completely destroyed, similarly bloody and his eyes had rolled back in his head as he hung limply from Rune's hand. Rune looked at his right fist, it was messily splattered a sloppy red with blood and saliva as it dripped off his knuckles slick with it. Rune quickly pressed his fingers to the man's neck; there was a pulse, but only just. "Call an ambulance" he ordered the girl who was watching terrified from behind the dumpster. She nodded and began to fumble in her purse. Raven released her the energy she had holding his arm and Rune stood, chest heaving both in exasperation and in shock at what he had done. "Get me out of here" he asked Raven quietly. She nodded as a black raven of ethereal energy spawned from the shadows of her cloak and enveloped them both before flying away into the night. Rune shivered as she released them on the shore of Titan's island, the towering 'T' standing in shadow above them held no protection from the late autumn wind. "Why are we here?" He asked Raven.
"Because you need to talk" she told him. "I went into your mind, unintentionally, but I did. No single person can hold that much pain, what happened to you after the world ended? You told us how you got the runes but nothing between there and turning up in Jump City." Rune ignored her as he picked up a stone and hurled it into the bay. Raven watched him for a few moments. "Will you ever tell me?"
"I don't know" Rune admitted, "forever is an awfully long while to make a promise for."
"And where does that leave… us?" Raven asked. The word sounded foreign on her tongue, alien, it had never belonged to her. All she knew was Rune had this way of grinning and her heart was immediately doused in impassioning flame, it was infuriating. It was also dangerous, the way her emotions could so easily get out of hand around him, she needed control, she could never act on wild impulses without someone else being forced to suffer the consequences. Beast Boy had berated her so many times about why she acted so cold and moody but he didn't understand, he would never understand, not without understanding her past and despite his reassurances that she was sure he'd spurt if she told him so, he would never understand. Rune could though, he had been a facet of Trigon's schemes once upon a time, he knew pain, he knew having abilities that he could see as a curse, not a gift. Was that why she felt the way she did for him? Because he was the first person she thought maybe had a chance of fully understanding her and so now she was throwing herself at him to keep him to stay? Raven shook her head angrily. I will not throw myself at anyone. But then the memory of how Malchior had manipulated her so easy, she had shut herself away in her room for weeks on end dedicating herself solely to helping him free from the confines of his book only to find he had tricked and used her for her own gains. She couldn't believe Rune would do that to her but coldly, she realised she could believe that he might not be totally sorry even if he did.
"I think…" Rune started, interrupting her thoughts. "I think maybe friends is best for everyone, lot less chance of getting hurt that way, and the stakes are lower."
Raven closed her eyes, his words made sense to her head but came like a lance to her heart. Why did it feel like that? Damn him! She cursed mentally. She felt like slapping him again. But she did not. She betrayed no emotion inside her, wrapped up in her cloak fluttering softly in the wind. "I thought so too" she replied. It was true technically, she did think friends was best but Passion was whispering in her mind that maybe she didn't want what was best for everyone, and Passion was being annoyingly convincing. Rune nodded and Raven turned away to walk back up to the tower as Rune hurled a rock with a lot more strength behind it as he imagined the rock being all the situations that were forcing their into his mind telling him how things could go wrong if he stayed close to Raven, he wanted them gone. She was beautiful, even she didn't see that herself, she was hopeful and reserved, considerate of others before herself and was able to not take others seriously, particularly Beast Boy but it was still a trait that made a small grin decorate his face whenever they were in the same room. But I can't… The memories Raven had forced up flashed again through his mind, him screaming at the silhouette to stay away with a hand covered in flashing lights of alien designs carved into his flesh, she was torn between her safety and her care for him, then the lights exploded out of his flesh and there was that piercing scream through the air, that scream… Rune tore himself away from the memories, breathing hard as the first bead of sweat began to trickle from his temple. Rune knelt down at the water's edge and splashed some up into his face, forcing him to cool, even though the night was already cold. He looked back down at his reflection and quickly turned away, following the path after Raven, needing a decent sleep as the first lights of the approaching dawn began to creep over the horizon.