Chapter Fourteen
Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans
"It's not true. It just can't be. That's all."
Raven stared at her mother with nothing less than repulsion on her face, slowly drawing away and darting her eyes around as if an excuse for Arella would be written in the air.
"Raven," she stammered, "It's t"-
"He forced you, didn't he?" She asked in a low voice, darting forward and grabbing Arella's arm with her pale, bony hand, "Tell me he forced you. He's forcing you to be with him. He's making you sleep with him. Rape. We could call this rape, you know," Arella's daughter continued, her voice rising with every word.
"Raven, stop. It's true, and you know it."
"What is...that?" Raven asked in disgust, ignoring Arella and staring down at her ring, which would provide clarity to her.
"Read it, daughter," Arella said quietly, blinking up at the dying sun before glancing back at Raven's partially shadowed face.
"What! It has his name in it. It has...your name in it," she growled to the silver band, clutching it her fist a moment as if to shatter the offensive object.
"I'm sorry, Raven."
"No! Where is he? I'll kill him."
Raven spun around in a circle, her hood falling off and her cape spinning out behind her.
"Please don't try," Arella choked, the back of her eyes smarting with tears, "I want to be with him. I want to stay with him. I belong with Slade."
"How can you say that?" Raven asked flatly, her eyelids half-closed with sudden dullness, "After all he did, to me, to my friends, all the people that he killed? He's insane."
"No, he's not. And I love him."
"Are you-serious?"
Arella nodded slowly as Raven deflated and handed the ring back.
"Very. Raven, we're married now. He saved me, I fell in love with him, and he married me."
"I have to go," she said abruptly, "My communicator's going off. I'll find you later, mother."
"Raven, we really should"-
"No. I can't...handle this. Unless you'd want to come back to the Tower, so the Titans..."
"Raven, your friends saved the world. They're great heroes, and I would trust them with my life. But Slade? No. Not after Slade. The Titans would not be so forgiving of my cardinal sin."
She watched Raven's shoulders slump as the blue-robed teenager took flight, and for a moment Arella was afraid her daughter wouldn't say anything else.
"Hate the sin," Raven called back, tossing Arella a yellow communicator, which she caught.
"Love the sinner," Slade murmured from the shadows, taking the device from his weeping lover.