I should be studying for finals, but this happened instead. Can't say I'm upset about it.
Hope you all are doing well!
Love
BBS
"She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said
"Go to him, stay with him if you can
But be prepared to bleed"
-A Case of You by James Blake
After each meeting the four Titans had with the Justice League, Robin would come to Raven's room with the case notes. It was their secret and their teammates knew nothing about it. The two birds had spent time discussing whether or not it was fair of them to keep the rest of the team in the dark.
"They can't know," Robin said as they sat among the piles of papers, "Cyborg is only a couple years from joining the League. Starfire and Beast Boy are prospective members as well. They can't be found leaking information to…" he paused, searching for the right word, "an outsider."
He gave Raven an apologetic look and she gave him a short reassuring smile. She put a stack of papers down and sighed,
"I'm worried about your future too though. You can't be caught either. Not only will it destroy your chances with the League, but also your relationship with Bruce," she looked away, avoiding his eyes, "I can't take you away from your family, Robin."
His hand gently coaxed her eyes back into his gaze and she felt her heart beat wildly. Raven would never get used to the intensity of his love. It was passionate and determined; a warrior love that she felt beyond her empathy.
"Raven, I can't lose you either,"
Raven smiled, holding back her fear that maybe losing her was the best thing for him. He leaned in, kissed her tenderly, and pulled away. His hand fell from her face and regretfully went back to looking through files.
"Bruce and I will be fine. He'll see eventually."
Her eyes lingered on him a moment longer, before grabbing her own set of files.
"For both our sake's, I really hope so."
Robin woke to Raven tossing in her sleep
They had fallen asleep on her floor, her head in his lap and his back leaning against her bed. It wasn't the first time they've fallen asleep on the ground with a perfectly good bed in the room.
He watched as her brow furrowed and relaxed and furrowed again. Robin knew a Raven nightmare when he saw one and he frowned. As her body began to twitch and toss more violently, he decided to intervene, his hand smoothing away the hair that began to stick to her forehead. His voice was a gentle coaxing whisper
"Rae, wake up."
She made unintelligible noises, some words in a language not heard on Earth.
His eyes traveled down to her Mark, a part of it exposed by her slightly lifted. He wasn't sure if his eyes were tricking him, but it seemed to be glowing. He reached out to touch it and as soon as his fingers grazed it, he pulled away and hissed in pain. It had burned him.
Robin's panic increased as she thrashed, afraid of the pain she might be in.
"Wake up, Raven."
His voice was more demanding as she shook her from her sleep.
"Rav-"
Her eyes fluttered open.
All four of them.
Fear seized Robin's heart and he jerked from underneath her. Her head dropped to the floor and she grunted in response.
"What the Hell?"
The four red eyes had disappeared and were replaced with two sleepy violet ones. Robin stared at her in shock as she rubbed the back of her head. She felt his shock radiate on their Bond and she looked into his eyes, concerned,
"What's wrong?"
"Raven, your…"
The Titan's alarm blared and they were bathed in the pulsating red light. They shot up, putting on their uniforms. She tossed him his mask, still feeling his emotion hanging in the air. He caught it and put it on, giving her a look she couldn't decipher.
"Are you okay?"
Raven frowned,
"I'm fine."
The burn in Robin's fingers faded away and he started to wonder if he had imagined it all. He shook the image of the four red eyes from his mind. He kissed her lips and she engulfed the in darkness, phasing them into the living room.
The two birds joined the others in front of the screen. Beast Boy yawned,
"Alright Cyborg, who ruined my morning?"
Raven felt Cyborg's dread and she stepped closer to the screen. Robin jaw clenched,
"The archer."
"God dammit, Star! Be careful!"
Raven heard Robin shout as an arrow flew by Starfire, grazing the alien's ear. Starfire eyes glowed green with fury and she roared as she bombarded the archer with starbolts. He blocked them with his crossbow and locked in more arrows. The empath felt the confidence rolling off the archer and it fueled her Anger. She threw up a shield in time to block a recovering Beast Boy from getting an arrow through the back. Cyborg charged forward but was thrown back by an explosive arrow. He landed hard on the ground with a sickening thud and Raven rushed to him, breathing a sigh of relief when she felt his pulse. The robotic man groaned and sat up
"I'm okay, Rae. Don't worry about healing me."
She gave him a concerned look, but nodded her head and stood up, offering him her hand.
"Titans!" she heard Robin's voice over the com, "he ran inside the building. We're going in. But do not engage on your own. I repeat. Do. Not. Engage on your own."
She had been training for weeks for this moment.
Cyborg saw the look on her face,
"Raven, don't."
Raven phased into the building, silently landing in the shadows. Her eyes scanned the abandoned hallway of GlobeMed. The red emergency evacuation lights still blinked, casting an eerie glow across the linoleum floors. She listened intently for any signs of the archer. She walked further down the hallway and picked up on his aura, in the lobby.
Raven's eyes scanned the lobby, disturbed that she couldn't see him and he could see her. She could feel how that excited him. Suddenly, something red caught her eye and she looked down to see a glowing red dot on her shirt. She looked up at the balcony and he stood there, crossbow trained on her chest. She kept her face emotionless as the dot hovered over her heart.
His face was completely covered by a mask and he wore dark green from head to toe like some sort of militant. He radiated complete confidence and she could tell he was amused by her confrontation.
"You don't really blend in with the décor," she kept the emotion from her voice, "Why did you take Mimic?"
He stood completely still as he spoke,
"Her ability is essential to my business."
The deep mechanized voice unsettled her. She saw him pull the arrow back and his voice came again,
"You have 30 seconds to decide whether you're going to chase after me or stop that bomb from blowing up you and your friends."
He moved his aim and shot an arrow, hitting a black duffle bag on the ground. Raven's eyes widened and she ran towards the bag. She heard the ticking.
She pushed herself off the ground and crossed her legs, eyes glowing white,
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."
Her soul left her body, shooting into the bag and encasing the bomb
The explosion felt like it happened inside her. Everything was silent as her soul self was shot back into her body, the force of it throwing her through the glass doors of the lobby. She tumbled across pavement, the cement and glass tearing away at her skin. She came to a stop, her cloak tangled around her.
She gasped for a breath, the wind knocked out of her. Her Soul was just as raw and torn as her skin and her Mark burned on her chest like an open flame. She swore as rolled onto her back, coughing up the blood that had filled her mouth. The morning sun shined down on her face and she sat up, clutching her mark like it was an open wound.
That had hurt more than it usually did.
And something felt very wrong. She felt less stable, struggling to stay above the surface when something below tried pulled her under.
Her insides felt like she was a rotting apple. If she got up, she would slop back onto the ground and spill all over the pavement.
A movement on the side of the building caught her eye and she ignored her body's protests as she scrambled to her feet. It no longer felt like hers anyway.
Her vision tunneled as she ran. A primitive part of her wanted to feel the burn of her muscles before she pounced and killed.
She would tear the archer apart; every part of her screamed for it.
Raven reached the edge of the building, chest heaving and eyes flashing. Her eyes darted around looking for any sign of the archer but he was gone.
With a curse, she punched the brick building, breaking open the skin on her knuckles. Her Anger flared, losing some of her humanity under its depths. She felt a hand on her shoulder and spun around, pinning its owner to the brick wall roughly.
James Wolff looked momentarily shocked as the demon girl shoved him into the wall with four glowing red eyes. Regaining some control, she growled once before releasing him with a shove and stepping away,
"Why in God's name would you EVER approach me like that?"
Her voice was angry, poisoned with demonic undertones. She turned her back towards him, trying to collect herself as her tongue burned.
"I apologize, Raven. I was concerned after I saw you crash through the glass doors…"
Her head shot up, picking up on the strange coincidence. She turned sharply, pressing him back into the brick wall
"What. Were. You. Doing. Here?
She didn't bother hiding the flash of sharp teeth from him as she interrogated him. But she was disturbed by the lack of fear she expected. Instead, he returned a cold look, his voice dripping acid,
"When one of my companies is attacked, I involve myself."
She knew it was a lie and he knew that she knew.
"My team may fall for that story, Mr. Wolff, but I won't. I don't trust you."
He laughed roughly, the predatory grin she hated spreading across his face.
"It doesn't matter if you trust me. Your team barely trusts you."
Her eyes flashed red again and she let loose a demonic growl as she pressed him even harder into the wall.
"Raven, let him go."
Cyborg approached and she couldn't help but feel hurt that his canon was trained on her. She gave Wolff one more shove into the wall before backing up with her hands up. In response, the billionaire held up his hands too.
Cyborg lowered his canon and approached the two,
"What's the problem here?"
Wolff straightened his suit, his expression melting into apologetic friendliness, "It was my fault. I shouldn't have snuck up on her like I did."
"Is this true, Raven?"
The demon girl scoffed, rolling her eyes.
"Sure."
She would let Wolff have this one. He was involved with this attack. She could feel it.
She shoved past Cyborg, roughly.
"I can't believe you pointed your canon at me."
As Raven approached the T-car, the adrenaline from her confrontation with Mr. Wolff faded and the pain from her injuries hit her full force. Her last few steps staggered and she leaned heavily into the car, her breathing labored.
"Raven!"
She could only look up briefly at Robin as he ran towards her. Black dots blurred her vision and she fought the urge to get sick. A drop of blood fell from her nose and onto the pavement. She stared intently at it, willing herself to focus and not pass out.
Her body threatened to spill across the ground again.
Raven felt Robin grab her and put her arm over his shoulders for support. The world spun and warped itself, no longer stable. She squeezed her eyes closed, willing it to stop.
She was pretty sure he was talking to her but she couldn't hear what he was saying.
"Robin, I don't feel…"
And then nothing.
Raven opened her eyes and the ceiling spun. She closed them again and fought the urge to vomit. She felt awful, like she was incredibly hung over. A shiver ran through her body and she curled up in a ball, pulling her blankets tighter around her. The movement made her sick and she threw the covers off of her and stumbled into her bathroom. Without hesitation, she threw up in the toilet. Her hands shook as she gripped the porcelain seat. Her hair touched the toilet water but she couldn't find it in herself to care. She wiped her mouth with the back of her shaking hand as she stood up and faced the sink.
The mirror showed the dark circles under her eyes and the pieces of violet hair that stuck to her forehead with sweat. Another drop of blood was just beginning to fall from her nose so she wadded up a tissue and held it there. She felt the fever in her skin and felt it throb behind her head along with the second demon's voice.
It's making you sick
Previous events hit her all at once: the archer, the explosion, Wolff, Robin, darkness.
She rubbed her temples and her body begged her to go back to bed for the day.
But she had a demon expert to consult.
