People, people… one more, I have excellent news! And that is that… Black Magic now has its own shrine! Yesiree – a message board type-thing dedicated to the fic! Nope, I didn't make it myself; Rocky-White Wolf of Curses very kindly put it together for me, even though I did not ask, and I have to, say it is looking great. After you're done here, you might want to stop by and take a look, maybe leave a comment for Rocky.
But wait! There's more! She also made… wait for it… a Small Print shrine too! I have a feeling that will be a little more popular… It's looking great too – I am so happy about both of them! They are wonderful! I hope you all like them too (including Narroch06, whom I don't think has sent the Small Print shrine yet…)…
So… I have put the links for both of them in my profile, right at the top, so when you're done reading, click on my name and go check them both out (unless you don't read Small Print)! They're awesome! BIG thankyou to Rocky-White Wolf of Curses!
Next! Thanks to: TheLon3Wolf8986 (quite… what will Robin do:P); Raven Victoria Grayson (Robin is kinda more worried about the fact that there is a baby rather than if it is a girl or a boy… and thanks for the back-story on your neighbour! I think…); Kami-Elf (who suddenly, halfway through that review, turned into Elmer Fudd… heh heh… glad you're enjoying the melancholy side…); Quinn and His Quill (yeah, I take my coffee black with no milk or sugar. I don't like hot chocolate or tea much… but how did we get onto this topic anyway? The "word-processor" or "spell-checker" I use is none other than simple Microsoft Word, on a Toshiba laptop. Nothing fancy… and as for those proof-readers… none of them are very good, you know. Well, James wasn't, anyway… I'm sure you heard that "Robin Goes to Hollywood" proof-reading story…); Heathen Requiem (I am happy that you find amusement in such simple things… little amuses the innocent, as they say. But yes, you are weird…); Simmie (heh heh… an excellent speculation… And the team won't be splitting up, so don't worry. This is set in Season Two, not Season Five…); Rocky-White Wolf of Curses (dude! Thanks for the shrines! Also, that's too bad about the flame, but don't worry. People who flame are usually dumb – they don't know how to criticise something constructively and helpfully, so they just say "It sucks!". You'll notice that flamers are always anonymous, too, so you can't grill their tails over it. Don't worry, Narroch06 and I have had flames for Small Print too… you wonder why people who hate slash even read the things…); YamiTai (yes, they have one hell of a secret to keep, huh?); BeautifulNightmare16 (won't be long 'til Remember the Titans now! oh, and as for Small Print… it is being worked on, don't despair. It's out of my hands at the moment, though. If you want a play-by-play, you'll have to plague Narroch06. You can always check out Rocky's Small Print shrine, though!); Poison's Ivy (you and your crazy reviews… I would imagine that this fic is a little tricky to understand if you haven't read Asylum; if I were you, to fully understand all of the implications of the prophecy, I would just read two chapters of it; The Prophecy and Sins of the Fathers. Those two explain pretty much everything… And yes, this fic is set in Season Two (before Terra is turned to stone), you do have a rather colourful vocabulary, and I looked up "The Writer You Fools" – The Gift is not by them. Maybe I'll just look on your profile… Did I really change Raven's age? O.o Oh, and a plaster is one of those sticky things you put over cuts…); Daybreak25 (thanks for the heads-up on the Black Magic shrine! And I'm afraid Seth isn't "dead somewhere"… He'll be back… obviously); Crazy Insomniac (Slade will be back VERY soon indeed! With the seer in tow and everything! Yeah, he hasn't been in it for chapters and chapters… Terra will be back, too… Poor, poor lil' Robin…); Raven of the Night676 (yay, a new reviewer! Glad you're liking it! Another Jonathon fan… sorry, but he had to go. Keep an eye on the necklace… BTW, you did read Asylum, right…?); and Super Chaos (another new reviewer! Yikes, please calm down! Here's the update!)…
Narroch06! Review, you ingrate! Heh heh, JK…
Oh yeah, that was the other thing… Jake Christensen? He's right here, baby.
Enjoy!
The Other Senator
Robin sank down back into his chair and took a sip of his coffee, then slumped on the tabletop and buried his head in his arms, heaving a lethargic sigh.
He had gotten Raven pregnant.
Nice one, Grayson; 16 years old and already on the Father's Day Honours guest-list…
And he hadn't been exaggerating to Raven; Bruce really would go nuts, to put it mildly. He was sure that, at 30-something, Bruce considered himself too young to be a grandfather… which, in all fairness, he was.
He looked up again, at the farthest end of the kitchen table. The Azarathian Senate file was buried beneath a week's worth of newspapers, exactly where he had left it before retreating up to bed; no-one would ever find it there, he being the only person in the whole of the tower who actually read newspapers.
He hadn't told Raven, but he was very worried about Seth and what he was up to. Because, in actual fact, the whole thing was becoming a bit of a jigsaw, and Robin felt that he only had a few pieces out of a considerably big puzzle. Seth knew about him, knew he was the Avenger, and had known of him since his very conception. Robin believed him because of all that he had rattled off about the Boy Wonder's past down in the dungeon, and also the facts on Seth he had checked against the Senate records.
Robin got up and retrieved the file, taking it back to his seat to flick through it again. There were a few pages on each of the senators in service at the moment, but this file was centuries old and contained the details of nearly ever senator that had ever been on the Azarathian Senate since the organisation had been founded eight hundred years ago. Before that, from what Robin could gather, Azarath had been ruled by a queen, also a goddess, known as Arella; the very goddess which Raven's mother was named after.
Some of the information he was unable to read, as it was scribed in the Azarathian language, but some of it was in English, and he had been able to piece together some information on Seth from what he could understand. His origins were, apparently, unknown, so Robin didn't know if Seth was actually Azarathian or not. Details of his family were also not known, but the information clearly stated that, if Seth was even Azarathian, he was not a pure-blooded one. He was half-bred, possibly half-demon as Raven was, as his powers were beyond the capability of a normal Azarathian. However, while the file said this, it did not actually have any kind of inkling of what Seth could actually do, so they still didn't know exactly what they were up against. His age was unknown too, but Robin would have guessed him at early-to-mid twenties. Judging by the time of year now – September, according to the calendar on the kitchen wall – Robin made him to be serving as Head Senator for sixteen and a half years. What was more, it said here that Seth hadn't been a senator beforehand, or even Vice-Head like Marcus had been, but had just swanned in as Head Senator on a date in spring just over sixteen years ago, a date that was very familiar to Robin.
His birthday.
Robin read the date of Seth's appointment again now, as he had done over fifty times before that day. On the exact day that Richard John Grayson, the first and only child of acrobats Mary and John Grayson, had taken his very first breath of fresh air in Gotham City Hospital, Seth Elliott had been made Head Senator of the Azarathian Senate.
Coincidence…?
Robin didn't think so. Flicking over the page he read the details of the previous Head Senator, another young guy named Jake Christensen, who had died under mysterious circumstances two days prior to Seth's appointment.
Died… or murdered?
There were no details of Jake's death given, but Robin figured it was probably similar to the way Jonathon had been bumped off. But it would go unnoticed, because while Marcus and the Senate knew that Seth had killed Jonathon, none of the serving senators now – Michael Shelley, Sarah de Marçon, Lawrence Westten, Aurora Mariotte, Emma Tomasi, Calica White, Catriona Darke, James Sinclair, Zachariah Warrix, Arella Roth (who had only just come to Azarath, still pregnant with Raven, at that time), nor Marcus Vandiver himself – had been on the Senate almost seventeen years ago. There was nothing yet on the newest and creepiest member, Cordelia Silver…
They had all probably been the age Robin was now, but yet Seth – Robin flicked the page back to Seth's details again – was said here to have been in his mid-to-late twenties when he had become Head Senator, but now he couldn't be older than thirty. Either Seth had discovered Botox here on Earth the way he had discovered smoking, or the Azarathians were right in thinking that Seth might not be Azarathian at all.
He was something else entirely.
But regardless of what Seth was, Robin was still in the dark. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure that all this had something to do with the prophecy.
He was the Avenger, the one sworn to stop the summoning of the apocalyptic power of the Orb of Azarath by Slade's hand; Seth Elliott was the appointed guardian of said orb.
Spring, sixteen and a half years ago – Richard John Grayson, later known as "Robin", born in Gotham City Hospital.
Spring, sixteen and a half years ago – Seth Elliott appointed Head of the Azarathian Senate following the mysterious and sudden death of the previous Head Senator, Jake Christensen, just two days earlier.
Seth wanted that job, but it had to be precisely on the day I was born, Robin realised. Because if all he wanted was to be Head Senator, he could have killed Jake Christensen any old time.
Yes, whatever Seth was planning, it had something to do with the prophecy. It seemed odd that Seth was so involved with him, and it would have been if he had not been the Avenger. But he was, and whatever Seth was doing, Robin knew he had some kind of part to play in it, whether he wanted to or not.
And then, of course, there was Cordelia Silver's "message"…
"No-one may escape their destiny…"
But still, some things didn't add up. For Seth to have been deliberately appointed Head Senator on that specific day, he would have to have known beforehand the day on which Robin would be born. That was impossible, wasn't it? Robin had not been born on his due date – he remembered his mom telling him that he had obviously been excited to get out and explore the world, because he had been four days early. So how could Seth have known that he would be born four days early? Unless he could foretell the future or something, but Robin doubted that immensely.
But other things still niggled him. For one, why the hell had Seth taken out his soul, then put it back again? He obviously didn't want Robin to be a demon, nor did he want him dead or inanimate or whatever, because if he did, he would have left him soulless. It just didn't make sense. And why had Seth been so desperate for that gear, and even more desperate for Robin to have the Blood Diamond, which hung around his neck even as he sat at the kitchen table in Titans Tower and contemplated it all?
He had killed Jonathon, presumably because Jonathon had been on to him; but what had he known?
Why couldn't Seth touch that knife (which Robin had stashed under his bed in a cardboard box)?
What was the significance of Cordelia's message?
And what did Seth want with Raven?
What the hell is Seth up to?
"Robin?"
Robin looked up from the file at the doorway, where Raven was standing, a small box in one hand, a long, thin plastic tube in the other.
"I got the test," Raven went on, approaching him.
Robin nodded and held out his hand, putting down the file with the other. Raven handed him the little box and the test, sitting across the table from him. Robin put the test down without looking at it, instead consulting the box.
"Ok, it says here that if there's a little smiley face, you're pregnant," Robin said, looking up at her. She nodded and he continued to read; "And if there's a sad face you aren't; fingers crossed. And… if there's a red line you should consult your doctor."
Robin looked up again, a frown on his face.
"How can a pregnancy test be not sure if you're pregnant or not?" He asked incredulously. "You either are or you aren't!"
Raven shrugged half-heartedly as he put the box down and picked up the test; she saw him cross his fingers and felt sorry for him, getting his hopes up like that…
He saw her shaking her head in what appeared to be a gesture of pity and he scowled. This was science - science never lied…
He kept that in mind as he looked down at the pregnancy test.
"Oops."
He deadpanned the word so familiar to him since Larry's reign of chaos as he looked up at her, then back at the test.
Damn you, smiley face. What are you smirking at?
He sighed heavily and tossed it over his head, where it sailed into the trashcan. The box followed but Raven didn't have it within her to be impressed by his expert shots.
"So." Robin folded his arms, then unfolded them again restlessly. "You're pregnant."
"Yes. I told you I was."
Robin put his hands behind his head and leaned back.
"I didn't want to believe you."
"I don't want to believe it either," Raven sighed. "But it's true. We're going to be parents."
"Hmm." He rocked back and forwards on his chair. "I guess this is when getting sucked off doesn't seem so appealing…"
Raven shivered.
"I don't want to talk about that, Robin. I don't know what was wrong with me that night…"
To her surprise, he smiled.
"No, neither do I…"
"You don't want to talk about it, or you don't know what got into me either?"
"Both. Well, about not wanting to talk about it. We both know what got into you; you're pregnant as a result of it…"
Raven sighed heavily, looking up at him, her violet eyes sad.
"Robin, what are we going to do?" She asked softly.
He stopped rocking and returned her gaze.
"I don't know." He exhaled deeply. "Guess there's not much we can do, is there? I know you'd never abort it."
"No. Never," Raven confirmed. "It's not fair; it's not the baby's fault we were stupid and, well… conceived it."
Robin nodded in vague agreement.
"Yeah, it's my fault," he murmured. "I'm the one that got you pregnant…"
"It's both of our faults," Raven corrected. "We did this together; it's our baby."
He nodded obediently again and she got the feeling he wasn't taking much notice of what she was saying.
"Robin," she said firmly. "I'm not going to say this again; it's not your fault."
He shrugged nonchalantly in response.
"I'm not looking forward to telling Bruce," he said miserably.
Raven could understand his worry there; Bruce was not going to take it well. Of course, once he had gotten over it - and had finished strangling Robin - he would probably be a very good grandfather and spoil his grandchild rotten, and no doubt the butler, Alfred, would stand in for a substitute great-grandfather. When she pushed away all the initial worry, Raven figured that, while she wasn't exactly the ideal mother-type, having a baby – her baby – around might be quite fun. She found herself hoping it was a girl, so that when her daughter was older, they could have the long, depressing conversations Raven longed for that she couldn't squeeze out of optimistic, upbeat Starfire.
That was, if… they all lived that long…
Robin didn't seem to be thinking as "optimistically" as she was.
"He's going to kill me!" He wailed in despair. "He'll probably have me castrated!"
Raven blinked.
"Robin, you're being stupid now," she said irritably.
He slumped on the table top in response.
"It was an accident," she heard him muttering. "A stupid accident…"
"I know it was… but, Robin… I want this baby."
Robin looked up at her slowly and her gaze became fixed not on his face, but on the glittering red jewel contrasting against his grey pyjama top.
"Why?" He asked, sounding as though he really couldn't understand why anyone would actually want to have a baby.
"Because it's our child, Robin!" Raven said in exasperation, standing up. "It'll be a mix of all the best parts of you and I, maybe it'll have your intellect and my powers, and we could bring it up as a Titan, Robin; as a superhero. It would be another whole new person in the fight for justice."
"Maybe," he said vaguely. He was gazing absently at her stomach, perfectly flat beneath her black satin robe, and imagining it suddenly swelling to an abnormal size.
"Robin?" Raven could feel her blood running cold as she watched him, following his wide-eyed gaze to her stomach. But it was not him staring at her abdomen in that way that bothered her; it was the fact that Seth had done the very same thing, and he had been smiling…
Robin looked up at Raven and frowned.
"Hey, Raven, you okay?" He asked, getting to his feet and going to her. "You've gone… well, paler than usual."
"Seth," Raven said, clutching Robin's elbows.
"No, I'm Robin," Robin corrected her irritably.
"No, Seth!" Raven cried, looking wildly into Robin's masked eyes. "Robin, he knows!"
"He knows what?" Robin pressed, getting a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach…
"That… that I'm…"
"Pregnant?" Robin finished heavily. Raven nodded, her expression distraught.
"How do you know he knows?" Robin asked cautiously.
Raven quickly recounted Seth's strange behaviour down in the chamber, only now it didn't seem so strange anymore. Somehow, Seth had known Raven was pregnant with Robin's child before Raven herself had.
And he obviously found it amusing.
Unless… that was what he wanted? He had vowed to Arella that her daughter would be his; but was it the baby he wanted?
Robin let go of her and punched the palm of his hand with his other fist, something she had only seen him do once or twice before; something left over from years of being Batman's cute little kid sidekick, she presumed.
"How does he know this stuff?" He asked in exasperation, the question rhetorical.
Raven blinked.
"What do you mean? What else does he know?"
Robin retrieved the Senate file and briefly filled Raven in on everything he had managed to piece together about Seth Elliott, occasionally backing it up with a fact or figure from the file. She scanned down the Azarathian text, but informed him it was only a translation of what was already there in English; apparently the Azarathians were bilingual, and were familiar with many of Earth's customs, even borrowing some for their own culture.
"So… Jonathon isn't the first person he's murdered," Raven said softly.
"And probably not the last," Robin added flatly. "Jake Christensen got it in the neck because he had the job Seth wanted; Jonathon was bumped off because he knew too much. Maybe it's a good thing he didn't get around to telling Marcus what he knew; Seth probably would have killed him too."
Raven nodded, her despair and confusion overwhelming.
"Robin, you don't think… maybe he'll hurt our baby?" She asked, clutching one of Robin's wrists.
Robin shook his head.
"As arrogant as it sounds, Raven," he said mildly, "it's me he wants. What would he want with a baby that was conceived not even two days ago? He'll have to wait nine months before it's even born, and even then it won't be much use to him."
Raven shivered.
"But he swore to my mother that I would be his. What if it isn't me he wants? What if it's our baby?"
"What good is it to him?"
"But then what does he want with you?" She pressed, gripping Robin's wrist tighter. "I'm sorry to be… I'm not calling you useless – you're strong and clever and brave – but you're powerless. What does he want from you? What can he possibly take from a mortal?"
Robin raised an eyebrow.
"That's the part I haven't figured out yet."
"He's been shadowing you your entire life."
"I know."
Robin toyed with the necklace absently, twisting the glittering chain around his finger. Raven eyed it skeptically.
"You sure it's safe to wear that thing?" She questioned of it. "I mean, you said Seth was desperate for you to have it; maybe he did something to it."
Robin looked down at the necklace; it was something he hadn't even considered. Finally he shook his head.
"I don't think so. Granted, he wanted me to have it, and I think there's a reason behind it, too. But I don't think he's jinxed it or anything."
Raven continued to look at it warily.
"I'd rather you took it off."
He shook his head again.
"No, something tells me I should keep an eye one it."
"But do you have to wear it 24-7?" Raven pressed. "You haven't taken it off at all since he gave it to you; it's like your mask. Beast Boy said he was waiting for you to come out of the shower so that he could have one, and when you came out of the bathroom you were only wearing a towel, but you still had the necklace on, implying you wore it in the shower."
Robin nodded vaguely.
"I know it seems dumb, Raven," he agreed. "And believe me, it's not because I cherish it because Seth gave it to me or anything. It's just… I don't know. I just don't want to let it out of my sight; I want to know exactly where it is all the time, so the safest place to keep it is around my neck."
"You could leave it locked up in the Evidence Room," Raven pointed out.
"And risk Beast Boy prying it out of its case and making off down to the comic book store to see if he can sell it as genuine movie memorabilia? You never know; it might pass off as something out of The Twilight Zone."
"Good point."
Robin sighed.
"Man, I hate this…" he muttered darkly.
"You hate what?" Raven asked cautiously.
"Just… everything." Robin hoisted himself up onto the sideboard and crossed one leg over the other, all the while watching her intently. "We haven't a got a clue what's going on here," he went on. "I get the feeling that all this has something to with the prophecy, and we still don't know what Slade is up to, for petesakes! And now we've got some all-powerful killer on our hands too, although maybe if we're lucky he'll kill Slade for us and we'll have one less thing to worry about… But even so, we don't know where Seth went, and right at this very moment Slade is probably plotting yet another way to kill me…"
He looked down briefly, then back up at her.
"And let's face it, Ray," he said softly. "You were right in your likening me to a cat; I must be on my last life by now…"
"Robin, don't talk like that," Raven replied quietly, coming over to him; sitting on the sideboard he was now a good few inches higher than her. She looked up at him, silently conveying him to continue, even though in reality she didn't want him to.
"And, well, if he succeeds, there'll be no Avenger to stop the reckoning," Robin went on heavily, "and there'll be no back-up plan either, 'cause you guys an' Superman and the Justice League and everyone else will all be powerless, and I guess there would still be Batman because he doesn't have any powers, but if Slade had summoned the orb's power by that time, there would be nothing Batman could do against him. And if Seth has something to do with all of this, he'd hammer Batman flat, and everyone else too, if he steps in before Slade kills me. I get the feeling we can't defeat Seth using brute force, Ray, even with the Justice League on our side."
"But the Senate would help too," Raven reminded him. "And they may not be as powerful as Seth is, Robin, but even without Jonathon, they're still a pretty formidable force."
"But would they be enough to defeat Seth?" Robin asked. "That's what you've got to keep in mind. This guy killed that Jake Christensen guy, who was a Head Senator himself; he must have been pretty powerful, and yet Seth killed him. And he murdered Jonathon, and you said yourself that Jonathon was very powerful too, and I read in this file all the stuff Jonathon could do. I reckon he was stronger than Marcus is, and yet Seth just… well, tore his heart out…"
"Robin, it's not hopeless," Raven pressed; she felt that he was stealing her role. Usually she was the depressive one.
"I didn't say it was. It's pretty bleak, though."
"Yeah, the way you tell it."
Robin smiled grimly.
"I can embellish."
"Be my guest," Raven replied irritably.
Robin looked straight at her, his deep blue eyes boring into her even through his mask.
"You're pregnant."
"Yes, I think we spent about ten minutes establishing that," Raven snapped.
Robin shrugged in acknowledgement, not taking his eyes off her.
"Well, it causes a number of glitches," he said carefully, watching her passive expression turn into a scowl even as the words rolled off his tongue.
Her hand went to her stomach as though in protection of the barely-formed baby inside her.
"I knew you'd-" she started furiously.
"No, hear me out," Robin interrupted calmly. Her scowl did not deteriorate, but she allowed him to continue; "This baby certainly wasn't planned, Raven, and I still don't know what we're going to do about it, but it's not the baby that's going to cause the problem; we have nine months before it's born."
"Then what is the problem, Robin?" Raven asked dangerously, her hand still at her stomach.
"Exactly what I said; you're pregnant."
Raven stared at him.
"You said the baby wasn't the problem!" She cried, exasperated.
"The baby isn't." Robin leaned forwards, his expression unreadable. "You are."
"And how am I the problem?" Raven questioned waspishly. "You think I'm going to spend the next nine months at the mall shopping for maternity wear and things for the baby's room?"
Robin leaned back again, shaking his head.
"Not at all," he said calmly. His expression turned to a frown. "Raven, I'm worried about you."
Raven actually smiled.
"Worried? Robin, I'll be fine. Granted, I've never been pregnant before, and I don't think I'm going to like it all that much, what with the morning sickness and the mood swings and the growing out of all my clothes, but I can handle it, I promise."
Robin shook his head.
"No, Raven; you don't get me. I know you'll handle the pregnancy fine. It's… other stuff."
"Like what?"
"Well, to do with everything that's going on, what with the prophecy and Slade and now Seth… Raven, you're our only link to Seth, maybe the only one capable of defeating him. And don't look at me like that, Raven; you might feel you could take on Seth now, but in four or five months' time when you're carrying a lot of extra weight, you might not feel the same way. I don't think Seth is going to rush into anything, Raven; if he waited sixteen and a half years to finally meet me, he might deliberately postpone whatever he's up to until you're heavily pregnant and can't do much against him. You did say he knew that you were pregnant, right?"
Raven nodded mutely; she hadn't even taken that eventuality into account. She didn't know too much about being pregnant, but she did know that pregnant mothers weren't capable of the things they were when not with child. In a fight she would be more concerned about the safety of the unborn baby inside her than in defeating the enemy, and the extra weight of her by then-swollen stomach would slow her down.
If Robin was right, and Seth did make things awkward by waiting until Raven was seven or eight months pregnant…
She looked up at him in despair.
"Slade worries me too," Robin went on, as though to deliberately crush her already-shattered psyche even more. "He needs me dead to access the orb's power; if he found out you were pregnant with my child he could use it against me."
"As in… he'd try to get you to sacrifice your own life to save your unborn child?"
Robin shrugged.
"Maybe. It's the kind of thing he'd do."
"And would you?" Raven asked softly.
Robin looked at her very hard.
"It would depend on the circumstances. You have to remember that if I gave up my life you'd all be powerless; the baby might not get born anyway."
"Would you, Robin?" Raven pressed, dismissing his previous statement and taking hold of his wrist.
Again Robin gazed at her for a very long time before answering.
"Not… not if it was just the baby."
"You'd let him kill our baby?" Raven repeated weakly.
"Only because I couldn't risk you all losing your powers for a baby that probably wouldn't get born anyway as a result of Slade gaining the orb's power."
"But… just the baby?"
Robin nodded.
"So… if he was going to kill me as well the baby…" Raven said softly, trailing off.
Robin gazed fixedly at her.
"I wouldn't let him," he answered quietly. "I would give up my life to save you."
"But you couldn't!" Raven said, horrified. "Then we'd all be powerless anyway!"
Robin nodded.
"I know," he said quietly. "That's why we can't let Slade find out you're pregnant."
"Why, Robin?" Raven bantered him, gripping his wrist tighter. "Why would you die for me?"
Again, a long pause.
"Because, like I said, I think you're the only one who can stop Seth."
Not "Because I love you". But that might have been what he meant; maybe not. There was no way of telling with Robin; he could mask his feelings almost as well as she could, and definitely as well as Batman could.
"If you died for me, I wouldn't have any powers with which to defeat Seth," she pointed out testily.
Robin looked at her in despair.
"I know that. That's why we can't let him find out."
Raven nodded in understanding.
"So… what do you want me to do?" She asked quietly.
Robin sighed heavily.
"I don't know. I don't have a clue what we're going to do about this baby. We're obviously going to keep it… you know, if Slade or Seth haven't killed us all by the time it's due. But…" He sighed again, putting his head in his hands. "It's gonna be hard, Ray. Money's not going to be a problem, 'cause the city gives us more than enough funding, and I'm sure Bruce will shower us with crap that we don't even need, and it's not like we don't have any space in the tower for a baby…"
"Yeah… there's an empty room next to the Evidence Room," Raven said, sounding quite enthusiastic. "It overlooks the river and Gotham City Bridge. That can be the baby's room, and we can paint it and-"
"That's my point, Raven," Robin interrupted sadly, looking up. "Where are we going to find the time? We'll need to decorate and furnish the room, buy clothes and things for the baby, and we've got a scanner and stuff in the hospital wing so Cyborg or I can carry out the checks for you, but you should still probably go to antenatal classes… "
He looked at her in despair.
"Raven, we're superheroes!" He burst out. "Jump City depends on us to protect it! And towards the end of the pregnancy you'll obviously be sitting cases out, because I will not let you get into a scrap with the Hive or the Amazing Mumbo when you're eight and a half months pregnant, and then after the baby is born… well, who is going to look after it when we're out stopping Mad Mod's latest psychedelic crime wave? I mean, I'm sure Cy, Star and B.B will all want to be as involved with this baby as we are, so we can take it in turns to stay behind with it, but that's still going to leave us one team-member short every time the Titan Alert goes! And babies keep you up all night, so what are we going to be like trying to stop a villain when we've had about one and a half hour's sleep the night before? I mean, don't get me wrong, Raven; it's my baby as much as it is yours, and I don't want you to get rid of it, but it's going to tear the team apart."
Raven nodded numbly; every point he was making was perfectly valid, but ranting about it the way he was wasn't going to make it any better. She was pregnant, and that was all there was to it.
"I don't know what you expect me to do about it, Robin," she said quietly, gazing sadly at him.
"Well, that's just it, isn't it?" Robin sighed, the question rhetorical. "Aside from an abortion, there's nothing we can do."
"I'm not killing our baby just because it's an inconvenience."
"Yes, I know." Robin sighed again, getting up from his chair and going to the kitchen window, looking out over the dark river and Gotham City Bridge beyond.
"We'll find a way," he said, more to himself than to her. "We'll make it work, Raven. And it'll be… fun…"
He seemed to struggle saying the last word, and she watched him absently twisting his necklace around his finger as he gazed at Gotham City River, his back to her.
"You don't want it, do you?" Raven asked him quietly. He turned to her, his necklace still tangled around his first finger.
"Not if I'm honest," he replied expressionlessly. "Who wants to be a dad at 16? Who wants to be a mom, for that matter?..."
"I do."
He didn't take his gaze off her, but she saw the tiniest trace of a smile grace his face.
"That… that surprises me, you know. Starfire seems more like the type to want a baby."
Raven nodded.
"She is. But this is different, Robin. This is our baby. And you and me… we're not like other people, Robin."
"Oh, I know that," Robin said airily. "I can just imagine it when it's our age, Raven; it'll either be mad like me or moody like you, maybe both if we're "lucky"…"
"Or," Raven said with a smile, "with the love and guidance of us and the other Titans and Batman… it'll grow up to be a good, clever and courageous person committed to the fight against evil, just like we are."
Robin shrugged
"Maybe."
Raven sighed at his lack of enthusiasm and came over to him, looking out at the mirror-like river too.
"It would be a nice view for the baby's room," she said wistfully.
Robin shrugged again
"Mm."
"Well, where do you want to keep it?" Raven asked him snippily. "A box?"
Yet another shrug.
"You're desperate, Robin…" Raven sighed.
Yes, I know…
Robin sighed too; even as he stood next to her, his thoughts were of the dream he had had two nights ago, the one about himself and Starfire… He felt terrible for it now, having learned that he had gotten Raven pregnant. The dream hadn't been his fault, of course – there was no way of controlling the sedated mind – but it still felt like two-timing.
Maybe he should tell Raven.
She would kill him.
But it hadn't been deliberate.
She would still kill him.
And it still worried him slightly. It hadn't been a pleasant dream at all, yet he had still enjoyed it enough to orgasm in his sleep. What did that say about him?…
Raven knew about dreams; maybe she could interpret it for him. Maybe there was more to it than the initial content.
He hoped.
"Raven…"
She recognised that slow, wheedling tone and looked sharply at him; he wanted something. Or he was scared she'd be mad at him; one or the other.
"What?" She asked cautiously.
"Well…" He didn't look at her, still continuing to twist his necklace nervously. "I… had this dream…"
What was he doing? He didn't want to tell her this; it was embarrassing. And yet he was.
Raven looked sharply at him. Another vision? Or did he remember the first one?
"Robin, you don't have to tell me about your dreams anymore. You're 100 demon-free," she told him cautiously.
"No, I know… but this one was different, Raven… It… scares me a little…"
Her heart thudded.
"A nightmare?"
"No."
Raven breathed an imperceptible sigh of relief. Nothing like The End then…
"If it wasn't a nightmare, why does it scare you?"
"Well… it was… a… a… sex dream…"
"Oh." Raven raised her eyebrows, drawing in her breath again. "Of the wet and wild variety you talked about? Who was licking the maple syrup off you, Poison Ivy?"
Robin shuddered.
"No. There was no maple syrup involved."
"But it was wet and wild?"
She was going to laugh; he could hear it in her voice.
"Raven, I'm not messing," he said icily, turning to face her. "I wouldn't tell you this if it didn't worry me."
"Why would you be worried?" Raven asked incredulously, still biting back the desire to laugh at him. "You didn't dream you were in a gay bar, did you?"
He looked away again and she wished she hadn't said that, in retrospection of…
Arkham…
"Ok," she sighed in resignation. "Tell me. I won't laugh, and I won't get mad, I promise."
So he did, every detail, and about the fact that Seth knew about it and had even gone to the trouble of taking away his wet sheets.
"I'd be more worried that Seth knew about it than the actual dream itself," Raven said when he had finished.
Robin shrugged.
"Nothing Seth knows surprises me, after all that we've found out about him."
Raven nodded vaguely in agreement.
"So… you have any idea what it meant?" Robin went on. "Because no matter what you think about boys, Raven, I can assure you it wasn't a normal dream."
Raven nodded again in agreement.
"Well, it is strange it was about Starfire," she said, "especially after what had just happened. But I think I know why it was her, and why it was so horrible."
"Oh?" Robin looked at her in interest.
"It's not something any of us bothered mentioning to you," Raven explained, "but when you were fully possessed you wouldn't let any of us near you except Starfire."
Robin blinked.
"Why?"
"Because you weren't human, and you obviously somehow felt threatened or whatever by humans and Azarathians or whatever. But…"
"Starfire's not human," Robin finished, catching on.
Raven nodded.
"Right, and Seth – for all the other stuff he's done – was pretty useful in explaining to you that the sexual indulgence had allowed the demon to get a strong grip on you. Obviously it was in possession of your sedated mind. So, when you fell asleep, you had that violent erotic dream about a much more savage Starfire, because it the demon's fantasy – not yours, Robin."
Robin frowned.
"And the other stuff? The necklace, and the chamber, both of which I had never seen before?"
Raven shrugged.
"I believe I have told you before about the prophetic abilities of dreams, Robin." She said this part very cautiously indeed; trying to trick him into spilling if he did remember that dream he had experienced during his meditation.
"Yeah, but…" Robin ran a hand through his messy hair. "It doesn't make sense. I'm not like you, Raven; I don't have any kind of empathic powers. I can't read minds, and I can't see the future…"
Raven looked long and hard at him. He obviously didn't remember.
"It would appear that you can, Robin. You had dreams foreseeing the reappearance of Poison Ivy, did you not?"
Among other things…
"Yeah, but I talked to Batman about that, and he said it was symbolic. Ivy was the reason Bruce and I broke up the partnership, and I was probably subconsciously feeling bad about it and maybe even missing Batman, so I dreamt about Ivy. Bruce reckons it was just a really freaky coincidence that Ivy decided to show up again around the same time I was dreaming about her."
Raven nodded.
"Well, possibly. But you have to remember, Robin, that the subconscious mind is a different part of your brain which is active when you sleep, as opposed to the part which works while you are awake. Believe me, this subconscious part can be capable of truly amazing things. Seemingly normal human beings have done allsorts while sleeping, even telekinesis including levitating themselves from the mattress, still sleeping."
"I've never done that, but I have fallen out of bed at Wayne Manor. It was quite a high bed and it really hurt…"
"Yes, well… it's possible that you did, somehow, see a glimpse of things to come, but not enough for you to avoid it. Either way, I can assure you that no part of that dream was really anything to worry about."
The other dream, however…
She said nothing of the morning in the sacrificial chamber.
Robin bit his lip worriedly.
"What is it?" She asked warily.
"That new senator… Cordelia Silver… She came to my room just before we left. She had a message for me…"
"I don't like her."
Robin snorted.
"Neither do I. She's got the most horrific way of passing on messages… It was like a… vision… "
"Tell me," Raven urged him, trying not to panic.
Robin explained what she had done, suppressing a shudder as he remembered the way her tongue had slid right down his throat…
Raven seemed disgusted.
"That's gross…" She looked at him long and hard. "But you're okay? No after-effects? The head-ache is gone?…"
"Yeah, no traces of it… except this."
He rolled up his left sleeve and pulled off the plaster to show her the tiny clumsy "A".
"Did you do that?"
"No." He sounded irritated. "I woke up on the balcony with it. I don't remember her doing it, though…"
"It's like a… warning," Raven whispered, taking his wrist. "A reminder of something you have to do…"
So very like mine…
"Why an "A"?"
Raven looked up at him.
"You surprise me. It's for "Avenger"."
He raised his eyebrows.
"Oh, of course it is. How silly of me." He stuck the plaster back down. "Well, it had better heal up pretty quick. It's stupid-looking…"
"I think you should be more concerned with the fact that's there at all…"
"You think she's evil too?"
Raven groaned.
"I seriously hope not…"
Robin scratched his soft hair and stretched like a cat, arching his back gracefully.
"What a pair we are, Ray," he pointed out as he came back to his normal height. "I'm a walking disaster zone – I just seem to attract trouble like a magnet – and I have mad dreams and seriously must have a sign on my back that encourages people to pick on me, and then there's you… how to describe you?"
"Creepy. Freaky. Moody." Raven's voice was completely deadpan.
Robin smiled.
"I think "different" was the word I was looking for."
"That's because you're tactful. Beast Boy isn't, and he's right."
Robin shook his head in resignation.
"You forgot "sarcastic"," he muttered.
"How absent-minded of me."
Robin sighed.
"You know, I feel sorry for this baby, being born to us, of all people."
Raven actually smiled.
"I don't," she said, still smiling. "Regardless of whether it's born depressed, it's going to be a very special baby."
Robin tried to smile in return as he looked away, back out at Gotham City River, and the glittering metropolis that was Jump City, and Batman's city beyond.
His smile died.
"Special", yeah. That's the part that worries me…
TT
OK, first of all, Robin's birthday – I was vague, I know, but the truth is that I am actually unable to put a date on it. According to Robin Year One, he was born in spring, so that part is accurate, but the date is unknown, and the year is inconsistent, so I couldn't put that down either; only a note of how many years had passed since then, which is roughly sixteen and a half. Robin first appeared in Batman in spring 1940, where he was aged 8 years old. From 1940 to the late 1970s he stayed somewhere between 8-14; by the time The New Teen Titans appeared he was around sixteen or seventeen, suddenly aging 8 or 9 years. In the current DC Universe, Mr Grayson is in his early to mid-twenties, and working under the nomenclature "Nightwing". However, the WB cartoon has reverted back to the early days of TT, in which Robin is once again around 16, which, of course, would imply that since 1940 he has only aged 8 years; if he were real, he would in fact be 74.
Botox, anyone?
Spring also seems like a very good choice for Robin, too; he seems like an Aries to me. Want proof? Check out the Aries traits:
Colour: Red
Strengths: Courage, action, leadership
Weaknesses: Greed, destruction, arrogance
Element: Fire
Symbol: Ram
Ruled by: Mars, God of War
Honestly, those are all real traits of Aries. Soooo… c'mon; is Robin an Aries or is he an Aries?
Also: More Revenge of the Sith references! If you thought you recognised that name… The previous Head Senator murdered by Seth Elliott was called Jake Christensen; "Christensen" coming from "Hayden Christensen", the actor who played Anakin Skywalker in Episodes II and III. And yes, that Anakin poster on my wall is still fighting off other contenders… He was briefly replaced by a Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven poster, but he's since reclaimed his spot. You know, he even fought off the Jim Lee Batman poster that was there before him! That's quite an accomplishment on my wall!
Anyway, I think that is all for now! Not long to go now! Don't forget to check out the Black Magic and Small Print shrines – links are in my profile. Well, they should be. I just put them up so they might not have shown up yet. If not, check tomorrow.
Thankyou and goodnight!
- RobinRocks xXx