Jared Wilson
This guy had never been to martial arts school. Hell, this guy would have trouble with capoeira.
I smirked, like the dick I was pretending, and having fun pretending, to be. I dodged another pathetic, half-assed punch. The battles around me weren't going the same. Maybe half of our side were winning, including Robin, and surprisingly, that annoying green kid.
Our side.
That's disgusting. I felt the urge to suddenly switch sides to piss the boy wonder off. But I couldn't. I hate to do this one thing so I could have access to Raven.
Later, later.
I was getting tired of this guy. I kicked off the wall and landed him right in the skull. His eyes went suddenly slack, and his body collapsed under itself. Nice.
I craned my neck, catching up on the others progress. That beast kid had a good name. His face was insane. And he hadn't even transformed yet. He was just landing hit after hit, overwhelming his oponent, causing him to panic and therefore less focused.
That Red-headed chick was up against two guys, but she had the advantage of air. They also had the advantage of guns, though they weren't getting anywhere close to her,while she zipped through the sky. Then that ment she couldn't hit them either.
Cyborg was up against seven. I could forgive him for losing.
Here we go again. I pushed the biggest button on the xynthonium belt and teleported over to him.
"Thanks man." He grunted, the human half of his face glistening with sweat. I drop kicked the closest guy to him, who was poised to attack. Out of all the titans, apart from Raven of course, He was the one I was most happy to help. If this had been Robin I like to think I would have helped him with his opponants, and then punched him in the face myself . The guy moaned and slumped to the ground, resigned. Where was the challenge?
Hang on, where was sunshine?
I searched for her, at the same time avoiding the shots from another guys taser gun. The yellow rectangle crackled malevolently. Where did he even get one of those?
I found her fighting the biggest man who ever lived. Her face was contorted in concentration, her fighting improved since the first time I took much notice of her fighting hive, but still not to its full potential. Baby was losing.
She got frustrated, her long voilet hair escaping the loose ponytail she had put it in and sticking to her sweaty forehead, and sent a wave of translucent black energy at the piping, that was rigged up against the ceiling. It flew at him, knocked him off balance, while she collected herself.
Satisfied, I went back to the man. I snapped his head back.
The huge man was back on his feet. And he smacked my girl in the stomach. She stumbled back, the force of it hitting her full in the gut. The guy laughed, and kicked her straight to her beatiful chest. I heard her utterance from over here. I considered running over to help, couldn't have her assets sustaining any more damage, but the nearest man to me took a running jump and smashed a metal pole down onto my shoulder.
I grunted and leaned back into the wall, keeping my eyes forced open, so I could watch him. He slammed it into me, but I rolled out of the way, and kicked my leg out sideways into his knee.
"You wanna fight?" I laughed retoricly, smashing in his nose with the toe of my shoe. Blood spurted out and his last mistake was to try and stop the flow with his hand. Ignoring my throbbing shoulder, I threw all my weight into a strong round house kick. He was thrown back across the roof, his pole forgotten. I picked it up, and twirled it for effect, feeling the immense satisfaction of a job well done.
The huge body builder was standing alone, arms crossed. Raven wasn't near him anymore. His smile would have matched mine exactly. That smile was universal. Smug, a job done right….
I saw her the toe of the boots that she wore all the time out of work disappear behind the broken glass that used to be the huge window of the style they had at Titans tower. I dropped the pole to the ground with a loud, resounding clanging noise and sprinted as fast as I could towards the side of the room.
Back at high-school I competed in athletics. I came first in the 80,100 and 250 meter sprints. I could run a mile in just over four minutes. But I could not reach that ledge fast enough and it made me feel like nothing.
I shot passed the body-builder, ignoring him completely. I could hurt him later. She was falling now. But it would be okay. She could fly, levitate, whatever, it didn't matter, because she wasn't human so falling off building wouldn't hurt her.
I reached it, lent over the side as far as I could in time to hear her scream. The sound was high pitched and desperate. Then it was cut-off as she landed. Her slim body hit less than a thud, but every one of my senses was strained to experience it. I heard the crack.
"RAVEN!" I yelled over the side, but she didn't move.
Seven stories down, her body was still, bent at an awkward angle. She was laying on her back, her head tilted sideways. The man behind me started to chuckle, deep in his throat. The sight of seeing my angel hurtle to earth disappeared, as darkness took it away.
I was possessed, but at the same time, I was still there. Besides getting my Baby back, this man dying was the best thing right now.
I pulled the gun out and cocked it. I aimed for the guys head, who was now full out laughing, his eyes closed in merriment and mirth.
Someone grabbed my gun hand. I snarled and saw Robin. His face was cold.
"Don't." He ordered. I wasn't his Titan. I could do what was right.
I had learnt that there was a huge difference between being a Hero and doing what needed to be done. Justice needed to be served and that was the reason I couldn't do what Robin wanted.
"Don't!" He ordered again, seeing me turn my face back to aim. I looked over at the man, who was being subdued with cannon blast by a hard-faced Cyborg. We were wasting too much time. I teleported out of Robins grasp, making sure I kept hold of the handgun.
I landed next to her broken body and was hit with shock. Her voilet hair was covering half of her face. It was fixed in its expression, her eyes wide with terror, her mouth parted, covered in drying blood from a hit to her nose. I numbly pushed the lilac hair away from her face. Their was a trickle of blood coming out of the corner of her mouth as well, a new one, still dripping wet.
"Sunshine?" I asked her gently, caressing her freezing cold and unnaturaly coloured grey cheek. No reply. Please let her wake up.
"Angel?" I asked more desperately. She was supposed to be healing herself. He chest was moving up and down, but intermittedly and softly, with odd timing, barley moving at all. Any moment it could stop completely.
"Baby?" I shouted, fisting my hands at my sides. If I touched her roughly I could make things worse. Her chest stopped moving. So did my heart. I heard the thundering footsteps reach us, and her team was around me. They all stood back a step, afraid to be close like I was. I heard Starfire start to sob.
"Raven!" Beastboy yelled. The hard-ass cop woman from more than a month ago was here, trembling.
"Get a stretcher." Robin shouted at her.
I kissed Raven on her pale, icy cheek and wiped the blood away from the corner of her lips, careful not to move her head.
The woman ran back inside. How could my Raven be dead?
Dead…
Not coming back?
That was impossible. She had such a…soul. She was so potent that she shouldn't be able to die. What had the world done to deserve this? What had I done?
I looked her over. Their were shallow scratches over her arms and a few deep ones on her forehead. The concrete beneath her appeared to be bleeding. The blood was so dark it was purple. Her blood. Without it, you die. Without it, she dies. Her eye were wide-open, staring at me. I couldn't see that sparky intelligence. Usually I could tell when she was going to make a sarcastic comment by looking into her lilac eyes, but now they were empty. Glass marbles that didn't belong to anyone.
Who cared what she had done with Robin? It didn't matter. She was mine and would always be mine. And god had no right to take what was mine.
Richard Grayson
In situations like these, with a presumed and very likely fatality and distressed members of the public, I was renowned for my calm and control.
Not this time. All I could do was stand behind a criminal I had spent countless hours trying to catch and stare at the broken body of a girl I loved.
Because this time, it was the girl I loved who was likely to not wake up again.
She looked exactly like my family had, when they had fallen to their deaths. Broken, eyes wide and mouth open in a silent scream. She had deep cuts that would need serious stitching if she lived. Her breathing was all wrong, like she was fighting for it, but it was no longer a natural reaction and she was forgetting how. The girl I loved, going the same way my mom, dad, and brother did.
But I knew I didn't love her as much as I claimed to, or I would be just like said criminal I had spent countless hours trying to catch.
He was…broken. Just as much as she was. I had no doubt that if he didn't care about her he would leave, avoid all this ugliness and pain. It was like his world had just collapsed around him, and he didn't know what to do. His eyes were wide and unseeing, and he was as white as a sheet. He wasn't afraid to touch her. His hand was on her cheek. At least Raven wouldn't die devoid of human contact, like she lived most of her life.
I still didn't like him. I still hated him. But now I pitied him.
I would have an indescribable time dealing with this. I shook my head. I couldn't even think about this. My mind was racing ahead of its own accord and I was too numb to stop it. This man in front of me would snap.
She's not even dead yet!
And even more than I hated him, I hated watching him fall apart. What was an arch enemy if they didn't see the need to fight you anymore. Where would my life go? If Raven died, I would not even have my obsession to focus on. It was selfish and I hated myself.
Wake up!
She was my best friend. Her breathing had stopped. I would never see her criticize me again. I shouldn't have tried to take advantage of…Jared leaving. I should have comforted her and dragged his ass back. I shouldn't have given him a reason to go.
How could we have left her to fight that guy alone? When X wanted to shoot the guy, I almost wanted to snatch the gun from him and do it myself. But I had to stay a hero. That was my rule. Never take a life, no matter how inhuman that life was.
I chocked back a dry sob. I would not cry. If Raven was okay, she would tell me to man up. With a scowl. I couldn't get any happiness out of the mental image. Not while her body was in front of me. If she did go, I wanted to remember her up and about.
Why wont someone cover her up?
"Raven!" Jared cried out again. He didn't sound angry and in pain this time. I didn't have to see what was happening. His voice filled me with happiness. Because it was infectious. X's voice was filled with unfiltered joy, he jumped to his feet and I had a clear view. Raven was now hovering a foot of the ground, her hair a curtain suspended beneath her, swinging in the light breeze, her chest moving steadily up and down. She was healing herself.
And just like that, Raven had gone from dead, to fine, in my head.
I let out the biggest breath ever, one that I hadn't known I had been holding. I was filled with relief from the tips of my toes to the top of my head, and I breathed so freely it was heaven. I found Starfire hugging me, and breathing became hard again, but in a good way. My other sister. She looked at me, big emerald eyes shinning with tears of happiness.
"Friend Raven is okay!" She cried, Pulling away to hug Cyborg. He lifted her up of the ground, the only one of us able to do so. He was laughing, probably delirious from joy.
It was like Christmas, and everyone's birthday, rolled into one.
Bang!
I swung my body around to see Jared, gun in his hand smoking. Officer Ricard and cop friends had started bringing the men out. We had left most of them unconscious, but the body builder who had kicked Raven out the window was just coming to. Now he was howling in pain.
Jared had shoot him in the foot with careful precision. Now the cops had their weapons drawn, pointing at him. He had an incredibly smug look on his face, at least, his mouth did. That's all I could see due to the fact he had jammed his baseball cap on his head again. His personality had done a 180, like Raven starting to heal had brought a dead man back to life. He turned his head towards mine, voice serious.
"I shot his pinky toe off. Hopefully it will fuck up his balance. See you at your Medical bay" And then he teleported, gun still in hand. I shook my head, and watched the cops dissipate into vans with their convicts, looking thourily shell-shocked. We needed to get out of here before Ambulance officers came.
I used to be paranoid that Raven was going to get poached by a hospital.
Cyborg was examining her. He looked up.
"Beastboy, go get Red back here. We could damage her if we don't teleport her to the medic bay." He sighed, crossing his arms. " I can't say if she'll stay like this." He confessed. "if you look closely at her, the energy keeps faltering." I looked at her form in horror. As if prompted by his words, the glow around her faded for a moment, and then came back brighter. Beastboy morphed into an eagle and took off into the sky, immediately but grimly.
I was glad of one small thing. Strangely, it was that he had shot the guy. Their was a huge gap of loss in my chest. I hadn't lost Raven, yet, but in a way, a dream of mine had died.
To be with Raven. She was one of a kind. I knew I couldn't compete with Red-X. Maybe if it was another girl, I could have won against him. But not her. For a few minutes today, his life had lost all meaning. For the same few minutes, I could still think about the future, no matter how bleakly. It was rare to witness love, But I was pretty damn sure it was what I had just seen.
Starfire was taking a kind of guard over Raven while she healed, sitting cross legged next to her. She was smiling optimistically. I was glad. Her cheer made me believe Raven would be okay, even though the happiness from before was marred with worry.
Would god be cruel enough to give us hope and then take it away?
We still hadn't caught Jemal Rusesamunga, but at least Starfire wasn't upset and so far today all my friends were alive.
"Jesus! What happened?" A feminine voice asked rudely, cutting off my thought pattern. I turned to see a slight Asian girl of about eighteen with a lip and nose piercing staring at Raven. She seemed to have been running recently, her breathing was labored.
She had an apron tied around her waist and underneath it she was wearing small denim shorts, tights and a thin sweater. She must be freezing to death.
Cyborg stared at her as if she were mad, sharing my train of thought. I looked at him. He definatly didn't know her.
"Who are you?" I asked, eyebrow raised. She had walked over to Raven, and had been staring down at her, long silky dark brown hair hanging forward. She straightened up and turned to face me, one of her eyebrows raised, face full of attitude.
"My name is Lela. Who the fuck are you?" she snapped, her mocha eyes daring me to reply back with force.
Arella Roth, A.K.A, Angela Blithe
I felt the portal close with a squeezing sensation in my stomach, and I took in my surroundings cautiously, Giddy. I remembered this. Not that I had ever been here before. But it was darker than Azarath, and it smelled less….clean. Pure. The smell of earth.
I felt excited and terrified at the same time.
I straightened up. It felt strange to be home. No, this was not my home. Even though I had never been to this city, let alone this building, I was still reminded of bad things that happened to me in this dimension. I sighed and rounded the corner, straining my ears for noise. I heard the faint sounds of movement down the hallway.
I must be in Raven's tower. I passed a small window and paused. It was nighttime, and you could see a big city from here, the kind I used to live in, the kind they didn't have in Azarath. The sky was spraying a fine rain, blurring the lights. It would be filled with all kinds of people. Interesting people. Full of the smell of hotdog vendors, kabab joints that stayed open all night, clubs with pervy old bouncers, fake Id's, and free drinks for every young girl that would dance on the table-top for a few minutes. I didn't think I would ever be able to go into one again.
If this had been eighteen years ago, I would have been out. On the mean streets of upper Gotham. I shook my head, and tried to focus on why I was here. To see my daughter. To see my old family.
I came towards the sound. I seemed like someone was moving something around. Curious, I came to the door. It slid open. I almost jumped out of my skin. A door hadn't slid open for me in so long. In Azarath it was either an arch way with a various type of curtain or a big wooden door. I should have done this ages ago. My teenage self was laughing at me in my head. I calmed myself down, feeling foolish.
A big African American male wearing a worried look on his face was walking around, having just set down a heavy bowl full of tubes. I saw the tip of a metal syringe poking into sight. He turned to the sound of the door in shock, and with a jolt I saw half of his face was shiny blue and silver metal, half robot.
I remembered him as Cyborg, not that I had seen him before. Raven had described it to me in her letters. She had said he was kind, like a brother. I had been glad that someone was.
The room had other people in it. I tried to name them all. The easiest people were the green one, and the girl with the flaming red hair. Beastboy and Starfire. She had said Beastboy was immature, but he didn't look it. His eyes were dull and dark, and had only just looked up to watch me. His body language suggested defeat. Raven hadn't described the girl very well either. She had said Starfire was a permanently smiling, slightly irritating but well meaning, extremely beautiful, naiive foreigner. While it was definatly true she was beautiful, her mouth was curved downwards and I could see her large striking green eyes were filled with tears. Nothing naiive about that.
Their were two dark haired boys in the center, both with almost identical looks of confusion and shock on their faces as they stared at me with slack jaws. One was in a ridiculous red, green and orange suit that Raven had said was Robin. He was wearing a mask. I had no idea who the other man was, all I could note was that his eyes were the darkest, the most dead.
I noted the tiny Asian girl in the corner, who was asleep on her chair, arms folded under her chin.
Where was Raven?
"Arella?" The girl, Starfire asked unsurely, straightening up on her chair. I stared at her. Did Raven talk about me often? My heart seemed to warm at the thought.
"Yes." I nodded. Talking to my daughters friend should be a normal thing, but it felt surreal. The girl brightened a little, a dazzling smile lighting up her face. But it fell quickly. I walked into the room more, and the doors immediately swished shut behind me.
This room looked like a miniature hospital ward. Everything looked superbly clean and white. A few Cupboards lined the wall next to me, and the bench was sparkling. There were a few empty beds, and I could see the people were gathered around one. The small part of it I could see had a pair of boot clad feet seemingly levitating a foot above the beds surface.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees, and worry seeped into my voice. It was high and strangled.
"Where's Raven?" I asked desperately, rushing towards the bed. Beastboy and Robin moved out of the way, but the other male stayed glued to where he was. I pushed him aside roughly.
My daughters limp form was levitating over the bed, glowing with her black energy. She was healing herself, but she had an IV drip inserted in her arm. I knew enough to know it shouldn't be there.
I looked her over with wide eyes. She was healing herself, which meant she would most likely be okay. I tried to look at this logically.
She was going to be okay. There was no reason for the paralyzing concern in me.
But then my emotions knew this was natural. I was her godforsaken mother and for her sake I needed to start acting like it!
I couldn't help notice the changes since I had seen her just over four years ago. Her face was slimmer, less childlike. She had grown her hair out to the length it used to be when she was a young child, and was now hanging down from her head like a curtain of violet, the only part of her not covered in the dark glow. She was taller, but not much. Her charka was still imbedded on her forehead above her eyebrows. Her lips were bigger. Redder. And for all intents and purposes, she was a fully grown woman. Not a child anymore.
I wanted to burst into tears, but I knew enough of control not to. I did what Raven always did and stayed still as I could, my face frozen. I did it for her.
I couldn't remember what I had come here for. All my enthusiasm and excitement was gone and that mattered was that my daughter was lying unconscious in a place that was not her true home, and if I had not decided to visit, I would not even have known.
"How did this happen?" I asked sharply. I wanted to touch her and let her know I was here, but that might hurt her chances of getting better.
The young man next to me answered.
"She got thrown out of a seven story window and landed on the sidewalk."
His voice was everything dead in this world. It was shaking with rage, and sorrow, and he sounded as if he was about to keel over in exhaustion. Who was he? I couldn't focus. Why did these thing always happen to her? I knew it was horrible, But I wished it had been the optimistic chick who had been fallen. It was because Raven had to live through so much. Did god think oh, one more won't hurt? I hated him. He was supposed to take care of her. She had already been tested. He had had his turn!
"Who threw her?" I asked, biting my lip. The male answered again.
"I dealt to him." He replied in the same kind of voice.
That shouldn't make me happy. For the last eighteen years I had lived in a wonderful place that was the way it was because there was no violence. I should ask exactly what he did. But I was afraid to, in case I thought he didn't do enough.
I felt stuck at sixeen. Pretending I had control over what was heppening to me. Because I never have and I never would. Hell, If god was going to make me immature mentally, the least he could do was make sure my body didn't age either.
"Raven?" I asked quietly. "Its Arella."
No response.
"Your mom." I added.
I had no idea why I said it. It wasn't like I had bothered to make an effort before. The guilt that reared on a daily bases was hitting me all at once now. Every opportunity I had given up, every fear, every time I doubted her, every thought of harming her, every wish that she had never happened, was replaying in my mind.
It pointed out the obvious. That it should be me lying there. In fact, it should be everyone who ever made her life harder than it already was should be lying there. And Azar knows just how hard it was.
"I love you." I sighed finally.
Still no reaction. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. "Take the IV out of her arm. It will mess with her energys circulation around her body." I said, sitting down. Cyborg obeyed.
He seemed to be the one with the most medical knowledge.
The Asian girl shot upwards when I scraped my chair closer to the bed, her face turning into confusion when she saw me.
"Raven?" She asked groggily. I stared at her. She reminded me of the girls I used to hang with. No one on Azarath looked like her.
She had two peircings, one jutting out from her lip, and the other a tiny jewel in her nose. Her long, even and straight hair, had a flash of pink streak down it. I looked back at Raven. There weren't that many mirrors in Azarath, but their had been at my Gotham house, and I supposed she could have been my twin.
"Her mother." Robin spoke up. His voice sounded hoarse, probably from under use. He cleared it.
The girl nodded in intrest.
"Okay." She said off-handedly and yawned.
Obviously she didn't know this was a once in a life time occurance. "Any improvement?"
Cyborg held up a chart, and set it down again, tapping the monitor.
"Last time I checked five minutes ago three of her four of her broken ribs, her collarbone and a major head trauma had healed themselves. Shes still got the crack in her right arm, both legs and about a million deep cuts to go." He sighed, twisting his mouth lop-sided. "It might be another few days. Her healing rate slowed down once most major injurys had been stabilized."
I breathed out. She had healed her broken arm in two hours when she had fallen from the sky when she got distrakted levitating. That had been the first majoy scare. Even though I had known she was going to die along with the rest of us, the fact that it might have happened then and there had been horrifying.
But what do I do now? There was nothing to worry about, except how she was going to react when she saw me. Her birthday was in a week… maybe I should go and come back then. Eighteen. She wouldn't belong to me anymore.
"So she'll be okay?" The girl asked. Cyborg nodded. She stood up and looked around apologetically. "I should go home."
Robin was half-way towards moving over to her, but stopped himself. Most of the people in the room smiled in amusement. The girl looked at him with surprised eyes.
"Call me when she wakes up"
"Okay Lela." He said in a hoarse voice and awkward voice. I raised my eyebrow.
All the boys snickered, except for the one who kept his dark eyes on Raven. The girl smiled slightly, looking pleased with herself, and slung a suede handbag over her shoulder, touching Robins shoulder on her way out. He froze and a thick blue cell-phone in the shape of a disk dropped to the floor with a thud. Lela smiled deeper and excited the room quickly.
Everyone snickered except the man with the dark hair in civilian clothes, staring intently at Raven.
I was curious about him. Why was he looking at her like that? And who was he? It was clear that Lela did not live here. And from all Raven's letters, the team only had five members.
I watched Raven breath and heal steadily for a few more minutes. The others in the room seemed to be falling asleep. I had no idea what time it was, but when I had seen the city it had been dark, and a half-moon. They all looked ready for bed.
"Who are you?" I asked the man finally. He just shrugged, not moving his eyes away.
"Jared" He muttered simply.
I stared at him. By the way he was staring intently, he was obviously interested in my daughter. If so, then why was he being rude to her mother?
"and who is Jared?" I asked sharply. He didn't answer, but Beastboy lifted his head of another hospital bed and stifled a yawn.
"He's red-X" Be said tirdly, as if he were dreaming, before setting his head back down again.
"Shut up man." Cybrog muttered out of the corner of his mouth, smacking him on the head. The boy stayed sleeping, not reacting.
I scanned my catalogue of letters that Raven had sent me. I vaugly remembered one in which she said that she felt betrayed because a member of her team had gone undercover as a criminal and not told any of the team. In a following letter she had said that someone had stolen the suit, and assumed the identity of Red-X.
So this man, looking at my child as if she were Azar herself, was a common criminal. I remembered so many of them in Gotham. Me and my friends had shoplifted on occasions, when we were bored in need of a cheap thrill. Very cheap thrill. Free, in fact. But from what I had seen of the tower so far, it had a lot of security. Meaning this Jared had skill.
Criminals with skill usualy got in too deep to be pulled back out. They were the kind that usually ended up killed, or killing.
"For a criminal, you look pretty cut up about my daughter." I said suspiciously. To my surprise, he started chuckling.
"You sound exactly like her" He commented, finally turning to face me. His eyes were a curious shade of grey.
Was that a complement? Or an insult?
I didn't know Raven that well, how could I tell?
"Right."
I shook my head. This was all too much. I stood up from the uncomfortable chair. They all looked at me. "I need to get to Gotham, this was just ment to be a stopover." I said quietly.
I pulled my jacket closer around me. I had no idea how to get there. I assumed I'd just get a cab to the airport and use the credit card I'd had with me since I'd run from there in the first place. It would probably set off a police search when they realized the card was active again, but how else could I get there?
"You leaving?" Starfire asked in surprise, her big eyes confused. I felt a sudded rush of guilt. A real mother would not leave when their child was in danger. I was not a real mother thought, was I?
"Yes. Tell her to call the Blithe residence when she wakes up. Tell her I came."
I bit my lip and stared at her for a long moment.
A strand of her voilet hair fell across her forehead and her expresion was peaceful. These people were here for her. She would be okay.
"Of course." Robin said, nodding. I nodded back at him and excited the room, excited about seeing my family, and guilty about leaving the most important part of it behind.
Raven Roth
My eyes felt heavy. It took me a few seconds to gather the strength to open them. My head hurt like a bitch, the mother of all migranes coming on just as I became aware of where I was. I was alive. And this headache was nothing compared to the pain of what I had endured while healing. I could think. Remembered lots of talking around me.
Arella? I remembered her coming in. How did the titans manage to contact her? My blood chilled. That would have taken an age for them to figure out how to reach Azarath. How long had I been down? It had seemed like barley twenty-four hours of lying in darkness, unable to move but feeling the massaging waves of energy soothing away the splintering pain in all of my limps, the numbness of my face and the throbbing dents in my head.
I remembered freefalling. I remembered the freezing wind whipping my hair around just as I hit the ground. I remembered the paralyzing terror, which made me unable to do anything to stop myself.
I finally manadged to prise my eyes open and winced at the birght hallogen light that greeted me when I did. I must be in the medical bay. I breathed freely, testing my body for pain. I wiggled my fingers, and they moved like they always had. My ribs were a little sore when I took in a particuly deep breath, but when I rolled my ankles I felt fine.
I tried to sit up, heard the crinkling of the overstrached and underused sheets move around me. I blinked to clear my head, and noticed a mess of black hair next to my right leg. Jared.
I reached out to touch his hair, and he groaned but stayed where he was.
"Jared?" I asked croakily, my voice sounding weak. He immediately jumped up, a frazled grin spreading across his face and eyes wide.
"Sunshine!" He cried, grabbing my wrists with his hands. He was warm. I shivered as it spread up my arms to my shoulders. He must have thought he was too cold, because he pulled away quickly. "Sorry." He said hurriedly. He looked at me excitedly, shaking his head and laughing in releif.
It made the huge weight on my chest fall off. To see him happy. I had expected anger. I had hoped for a little pity due to being thrown off that building, but not this much.
"Oh Angel," He sighed. "You look like death."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Thanks" I said sarcastically, pulling myself higher up on the pillows. I looked around to find the room empty apart from him. Suddenly I remembered what had been said. The other titans had gone to bed and Jared had said he'd stay. I remembered Arella had come to see me for a half-an hour, before going to Gotham to see the Blithes. Good. It meant I didn't need to deal with them again.
Jared saw me looking around.
"The others had to go to bed. I told them I'd be here when you got up" He informed me.
"I know, I heard."
I remembered lying there, being mildly interested when Arella had come in. That had been a surprise. She had been pissed at Jared not giving up information easily, I could hear it in her tone. I had wanted to laugh but found myself unable. When everyone had left, I remembered him talking to me.
Jared raised his eyebrows.
"You heard everything?" He prompted. I nodded.
"And it wasn't your fault. You were fighting someone at the time"
Jared had apologized for leaving me alone with the body builder. I felt another wave of relief when I thought about him finishing up his little speech with "I don't care what you did with Robin. I'm here anyway. I'll be here when you get up. I love you, just keep healing. Fast, if possible." He had sighed. "Damn it."
Jared shook his head and lent back in his chair, defeated.
"I was just playing with him angel. Like I always play with the people I'm fighting. That's What Red-X does, and I should have looked out for you." His cloudy eyes darkened with self-loathing and heady guilt.
"Red-X doesn't play with people. You have to remember Robin created him. Red-X does what he has to do, and at the moment you had to fight that guy. I'm supposed to be able to take care of myself."
I had failed. I had to take on one civilain, and I had been overpowered and shut down, distracting everyone else.
Jared raised his eyebrows.
"That guy was huge. I couldn't have taken him on by myself. Don't try blaming yourself when its my fault. Red-X doesn't do what Robin wants. The red-X Robin created wasn't really his, its mine, and you have to admit," He added, a cocky grin spreading across his face. " I look much better in the suit."
I snorted.
"Okay." I said sarcastically, though I didn't mean it.
"But I look even better with it off."
"Right." I agreed just to shut him up.
"But you already know that don't you?" He asked suggestively. I glared at him, feeling my cheeks heat up slightly. It was nice, because I was so cold.
"If you don't shut up I'll never know it again." I threatened, crossing my arms over what remained of my leotard. It was stiff with dried blood, but at least no one tried to undress me. Jared's eyes widened slightly, and I wasn't sure if he was mocking me or not.
"You mean if I shut up, you'll take the time to access whether I do look better with it off? Again?"
I shot him a look, not wanting to answer. Right now, I was in no state to even try, but I found myself thinking I actually really would.
"You'd have to be very lucky." I said off-handedly. His grin returned.
"I'm the luckiest man alive." He replied confidently. I raised my eyebrow but thought through my answer, knowing that in his state of dizzy releif that I was alive, and I could feel it through empathy, he would twist anything I said into an innuendo.
"How so?" I asked carefully, measuring both words, checking for holes. He put a hand on mine, and I clentched it in a reflex. I felt a little embarrassed at how desperate I was for contact with him after only a month, but his masaged the back of my hand softly with his thumb so I tried to ignore it the shame and enjoy.
"Your awake. And talking to me. And Robin is over you." He smirked. I looked at him questioningly. That was fast, not that I was upset. "And your all mine"
I accepted the lest sentence.
"Hang on, how is he over me?"
Jared chuckled, and lent down to kiss my hand gently. I stared at him. This was not a very Jared thing to do at all. He came back up, acting as if nothing was out of place.
"Lela." He smirked. "She came in to see you and the boy-wonder has been acting all nervous and sweaty-palmed since." His smirk became more indulgent. "I was thinking of asking him if he wanted me to talk to her for him. Send her a note in maths class or something."
I frowned at his immaturity. But inside I was glowing. This was perfect!
"Don't be mean." I sighed. I wanted to get up and do a victory dance. Everything had fallen into place, and all that had to happen was me liking going to a coffee shop that a pretty girl worked at, Jared getting shot, a crazed Ethiopian man attempting genocide on the American race and me getting pushed from the seventh storyof an office building!
Just, too easy. Logic said sarcastically.
I want you to shut up now. Desire hissed. Your ruining the god dammed moment hoe!
My mind was silent.
Jared shook his head.
"I'm not being mean. Its just really cute you know? When she touched his arm he dropped his communicator on the ground, and then he blushed." He looked as if he was reliving very fond memories. "But I couldn't really enjoy it at the time because I thought you were going to die." He added.
I had always thought that no one would care very much if I died. Children my age in Azarath, and a lot of adults, had made themselves clear on that. And when you are told something should happen over and over again, it becomes all too easy to believe. I didn't speak my thoughts aloud. I knew they would make Jared angry.
"I'm glad I didn't." I said quietly. He lost his cheeky, cocky, confident look.
"Same here." He lent in to me, slow for once. No heat, or force. He knew that might hurt me in this state. My heart rate speed up, and I fought for control as fast as I could, so I wouldn't need to worry about it later.
His arm wound its way around my back, supporting me so it didn't hurt. I bridged the gap between my lips and his, closing my eyes in anticipation. Jared kissed me lightly, moving in closer slowly so I didn't get too excited. I opened my mouth fully so he could add a little more spice. He captured my lips a little more enthusiastically, perfectly, for my bruised state. I gasped, I couldn't help myself.
Everything was just so right.
I tasted him, he tasted me, and I wished we could stay here forever. His hand moved up my back to the base of my head. He used to position to push me closer. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, my skin crawled with delight and I wanted more than what I was capable of right now. It was such a shame, and he recognized it, pulling away from me sighing.
He lent his forehead against mine.
"Go back to sleep and heal yourself Raven." he muttered to me. "because my control is all used up."