Ugh…
Must… update… faster…
Haven't updated since December, and jeez… As I keep saying, this story is already written. I finished it in November 2006.
…Why the hell is it taking me so long to get it out there?!
Thankyou to: TheFallenAngel67, Me, Amara-chan, Dragonprincess1988, YamiTai, Brendan Aurabolt, dlsky, Guardian of Azarath, Someone, Simmie, The Fate of an Amaryllis and Kitty-Katz-Katz.
Oh, Magic, Magick, Magique… Brendan Aurabolt mentioned that in his review, that I seemed knowledgeable about 'real magick' (thankyou, Brendan!). That's an exaggeration. I'm not "knowledgeable" on it, per se. I'm not a Wicca or – worse – a wannabe-Wicca or… well, you get the picture. Respect to all who follow that stuff, peace out and all, but… nah, you're okay, don't think I'll be joining you.
The reason I am able to make such a decision is RESEARCH. Most of the magic used in this latter part of Remember the Titans is real or, at least, based on real magic (well, as real as it gets in a book called Practical Magic – White Spells for Day to Day I bought in a bookshop). I suppose that does make me knowledgeable, given the research – I know how these "spells" work", at least, but I've never done one. The final spell used by Robin in the next chapter or the chapter after or… well, soon, anyway… is one I made up after doing all this reading, combining loads of elements of different types of protection spells.
But I didn't want to just make some random stuff up. The magic in this is more realistic than the magic in Harry Potter or Artemis Fowl (to an extent).
Anyway… yeah. That's that. How exciting…
Gawd, it's nearly 5:30am here in Britain…
Tell It Like It Is
Although the events of the previous night now seemed like a dream to him – his séance and resulting illusional contact with Jonathon Vaughan – Robin knew that he was very much living in the real world.
He knew that before today was through, he was going to have been put to a very difficult test – one which he must succeed in passing if he was to save Raven and prevent Seth's resurrection. He had a busy day ahead of him; and the butterflies in his stomach were getting butterflies of their own.
As was their usual practice, he had slipped from her room at 6:00am to get dressed and ready to face the day ahead in his own room – where he should have been. It was so as not to arouse the suspicions of the other team members; because although there was nothing actually going on in that bed except for Raven squeezing him like she thought he was something far softer than he really was, it would have looked extremely…
Well. He had decided that one of the other Titans seeing him and Raven leaving her room in the morning together would be a very bad thing.
Which, of course, it would be.
Even if they did jump to conclusions…
Looking at the clock, Robin read 9:45am.
Buckling his belt around his waist, he frowned as he realised that he had to tighten it another notch. Over the past few weeks, he admitted that his appetite hadn't been too healthy; first following his depression after being raped in Arkham Asylum, and then through all of his worrying about the baby, those few days living off bread and instant coffee in that fifteen-years-ahead future hadn't helped, and now he had spent another entire week worrying about the baby all over again, only now he was worrying about Raven too, and the spell he knew he had to perform and, more to the point, perform perfectly.
It wasn't really very noticeable, but he had definitely lost weight.
As opposed to Raven, who was so huge by now – on this day that she, although she did not know it, was due to give birth – it absolutely astounded him how much her stomach had stretched. Perhaps it was just that he had never seen anyone this far gone before, but it seemed beyond the realm of bodily capability. In just two weeks – as was the nature of this pregnancy – she looked ready for the forceps.
It was ironic that she chose to put in an appearance at that moment; he heard the sound of his panel being slid back and watched her enter in the reflection in his mirror.
She was beaming, her hood down and her cloak covering her body.
"I went to the mall yesterday!" She told him happily, shutting the door behind her.
He suppressed a weary sigh and plastered a big smile on his face as he turned to her.
"I know, you told me yesterday…" The smile flickered painfully. "…About ten times…"
"I bought things."
"No dip…" The smile was beginning to make his face hurt.
"Would you like to see what I bought?"
No. Definitely not…
"Sure," he lied, his voice bouncy.
"Ta-daa!" She cried happily, throwing her arms out and sweeping her cloak back in one movement.
In place of the oversized-T-shirt-and-jeans combo he had given to her was a black dress with little sleeves and a plunging neckline, complimenting her fuller figure, with a knee-length fishtail bottom that had a 40's-ness about it. She was wearing matching black kitten heels on her feet and looked very pleased with herself.
"New clothes," Robin acknowledged boredly.
"Maternity wear," she reprimanded him, pouting. She rubbed one hand fondly over her swollen abdomen. "See how perfectly it fits over my bump?"
"Raven, that's a cocktail dress," Robin replied snippily. "You know, evening wear?"
"I like it," Raven sniffled.
"What else did you buy?" Robin asked warily, hoping that she hadn't broken the bank, considering she wasn't going to be needing
that maternity wear by this time tomorrow.
"Some more clothes, a few baby things…"
"Did you keep the receipts?" Robin asked faintly.
"Mm-hm!" She nodded vigorously. "You know, just in case something doesn't fit or… you know…"
Yeah. You don't have it or something…
"Oh, and I got you something too!" Raven went on happily.
"Yeah?"
She nodded again; and produced from beneath her cloak something folded up and black.
"Here." She handed it to him, still smiling, and he took it warily.
Unfolding it and holding it by the corners, he let it fall to its full extent to reveal itself as a T-shirt.
Across the chest, in stylized white writing on the black cotton, was Daddy in Training.
He masked his alarm and disgust by slapping another grin on his face.
"Cool." There wasn't much feeling in it, but Raven seemed happy enough.
"I knew you would like it," she told him as he nonchalantly turned it over, (unbeknownst to her searching for the tag).
And when he didn't find one, he looked up at her again, his expression very droll.
"To the extent that you thought it would be a good idea to pull the tag off?"
She beamed again and nodded.
"What if it doesn't fit?" He snapped; what he actually meant "How am I supposed to take it back now?".
Because there was no way in all of Hell that he was going to wear this.
"Well, they only had them in men's sizes, not boys'," Raven explained, "because… well, most fathers-to-be are adults. And with the teenager clothes they go by age, so I would have gotten you a 16-17, but because it was a man's T-shirt, I just had to go for X-Small. So it will fit you, I think. I think that X-Small is about the equivalent of 17-18…"
Although this was the most logical thing she had said since arriving back from the future time and going loopy on him, he still stared at her. Even if it did fit perfectly, why had she pulled off the tag? Hadn't it occurred to her that he might not want it (which he didn't)?
He had to get the old Raven back.
Raven pawed at his arm.
"Put it on," she wheedled.
"Not right now, Ray." He folded it up again, trying to think of a way of getting rid of it.
Throwing it on Jump City's tire fire or selling it on eBay both seemed like good ideas to him…
"Please?"
"No." He relented a little when he saw her hurt expression. "Later," he promised.
By which time you'll be back to normal…
She blinked and smiled at him, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet – and her kitten heels.
He felt weird inside – interfused anger, sorrow, guilt and worry. He was angry, in a way, that he had to kill the baby, because it was Raven's child, demon or not; and he was sorry, too, and even guilty, that it had come to this.
Ironically, he would have preferred it if it had been his child. That would have given them an entire nine months to worry and sort everything out, and a normal human child would have been the result of it. It was true, he didn't really want a baby at all, but in retrospect would rather have had the responsibility of having a real baby to take care of than for it to be so purely evil that he had to kill it while still in the womb.
He shuddered; he was turning into a bit of a serial killer…
But it was this or allow Raven to die and procure Seth's resurrection. Killing the child was the lesser of two evils, no two ways about it.
And so he was ready to do what he had to.
The way he had been taught.
"Anyway, Ray," he said perkily, snapping himself out of his silent reverie, "with you so far along, I thought maybe it was time we stopped keeping this a secret."
Raven's eyes positively sparkled.
"We're going to tell our friends?"
"Think it's about time, huh?"
Raven nodded crazily and clapped her hands in a way that reminded Robin uncomfortably of Starfire.
For that was true too; with Seth's demise, Robin no longer loved Raven in a sexual way.
Only as a very, very good friend. One of his best friends.
He would go to any lengths to protect her; to save her.
But he did not love her.
Raven knew this, deep down inside her somewhere; her true self. But whatever had made her change… well, her "alter-ego" seemed to be blissfully unaware of the fact.
As much as she was blissfully unaware that the child she carried wasn't even his; and that it wasn't human.
That it was pure stinking evil.
And so, it was time to remedy this; and lay down the law. And the other Titans would have to know sooner or later, so… why not just tell them all together?
"So, I was thinking," he went on brightly, "we could go down and tell them now, at breakfast. Sound like a good idea?"
She nodded vigorously again.
"Okay." He flapped his hands at her to leave the room. "Come on then…"
She wheeled and went to the door, checking once to see if he was still behind her. He smiled, following her, and she was satisfied.
He threw the T–shirt into his trash basket on the way out.
—
Despite being used to having his plans frequently spoiled by what was known as Murphy's Law, or even Sod's Law, he was still surprised by the greeting he and Raven received when they walked into the kitchen, Raven behind Robin; and so close to him she was practically walking into him.
"Dudes!" Beast Boy squealed, leaping up from his chair the moment he saw them; there was a newspaper clutched in his hand. "Have you seen what is on the second page of this morning's Jump City Times?"
"No," Robin answered warily as Beast Boy waved the newspaper around in front of him. "Did another villain escape? Someone from Arkham Asylum? Or did Lois Lane finally figure out that Clark Kent is Superman?"
"Nope!" Cyborg was at his side, grinning hugely. "It's hilarious!"
He snatched the paper from Beast Boy, found the page and thrust it at Robin; the Boy Wonder took it and smoothed it out, reading the headline.
And nearly had a heart attack.
Because it hadn't occurred to him at all…
…that Raven, one of the Teen Titans – pretty much the celebrities of Jump City – going into a maternity wear store would get attention.
And he had been stupid not to think of it.
TEEN TITAN? TRY TEEN MOTHER!
He read the headline over and over again, aghast. The article itself was of a haughty, almost sneering nature, rattling on about the significant rise in teen pregnancies over the last few years, and about how the Teen Titans were supposed to be role models to the public of Jump City, and more specifically the teenaged population, and what sort of example were they…?
It went on and on; and eventually he looked up in disgust – the article had moved on to badmouthing Batman and Robin himself, partially blaming them, and saying that Batman wasn't a good influence on Robin and in turn Robin couldn't be a good influence on the Titans.
At the bottom of the page were the results of a phone-in poll that had obviously been started the previous evening in the Jump City Evening Times; the question was reprinted in bold writing, and beneath it were four little bar charts, one significantly higher than the other three.
He was half-horrified and half-amused as he read it;
Which male Titan is the father of Raven's baby?
There a very small bar marked "Other"; implying someone outside of the Titans.
Not many people seemed to think that it was someone else; either that, or they didn't want to think that. If it was one of the other Titans, it was so much more exciting; like a soap-opera, of sorts. As though Titans Tower was some kind of brothel…
The second smallest bar was Cyborg's.
The second largest bar was Beast Boy's.
And the largest – by far the longest – was Robin's.
He was horrified that he seemed to have gained a reputation of this sort for himself, and even a little irked because he knew that it probably had something to do with the article above it; no doubt the previous evening's had contained badmouthing of a similar nature in it.
Technically Batman was getting the blame for this.
And he was amused, in a strange way, and for a reason he couldn't quite put his finger on.
And because Cyborg and Beast Boy didn't know that it was true; and that Raven actually was pregnant with "his" child, he could see why they found it so funny.
Starfire appeared behind the two boys.
"I do not find it as greatly amusing as they," she told Robin rather stiffly, "but I wish to know why the paper of the news has such lies written in it. How can they make up stories that are not true and expect people to believe them?"
"Duh, Star," Beast Boy replied, looking over his shoulder at her. "That's what newspapers make their money off. Journalists are nothing more than paid liars."
Meanwhile, Robin folded up the newspaper and handed it back to Cyborg silently.
Cyborg and Beast Boy frowned at him; and at Raven, who was hiding behind him.
"Uh, Robin, you aren't laughing…"
Robin pulled Raven around in front of him and wrenched her cloak open
"I'm not laughing because it is, unfortunately, true," he said with conviction. And then he frowned, and added; "Well, mostly…"
Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire stared at Raven's swollen stomach as though their eyes were about to fall out of their sockets.
Raven beamed.
"We're going to have a baby!" She announced happily.
"Wait, you…?" Cyborg looked wildly from Raven to Robin several times, his eyes huge. "Robin… you…?"
"Actually-" Robin started.
"Robin, this is…?" Starfire interrupted, then trailed off, her voice faint.
"Well, we-" Robin started again, beginning to become irritated.
"Dude, you knocked up Raven?" Beast Boy burst out, getting right in Robin's face.
Robin pushed him away irritably.
"That's a pretty crass way of putting it," he replied coldly.
"But it's true, right?" Cyborg was awed.
"Uh, not—"
"Yes!" Raven threw her arms around Robin's neck, smiling broadly. "He made me pregnant and now we're going to have a baby!"
Robin laughed weakly, disentangling her arms from around his neck as he saw Starfire simmering behind Cyborg, her face dark and angry.
"Actually, Ray, you—"
"This is unacceptable!" Starfire interrupted; the alien princess was clearly furious, with equal measure of jealousy.
"Actually, Robin, I gotta agree with her," Cyborg added gravely. "Getting another member of the team pregnant is so not a good thing…"
"Have you seen what they said about us in the paper?" Beast Boy was distracted. "They think we're a bunch of sex maniacs!"
"UNACCEPTABLE!" Starfire stormed, flying above Cyborg and Beast Boy.
Raven was distraught.
"Aren't you happy for us?" She rubbed her stomach forlornly. "Everyone will be able to share the baby. We can-"
"Raven, you aren't seeing the big picture here!" Cyborg snapped. "This is really bad press for the Titans!" He looked at first Raven and then Robin in disgust. "How could the pair of you be so stupid?"
"If you'd listen, I-" Robin started.
"How come you got the highest vote?" Beast Boy wanted to know, jabbing the poll results. "What makes everyone think you're the team hottie?" He scowled at the poll results again. "Even if it is true…"
"Is it true?" Cyborg probed.
"Is what true?" Robin asked jadedly.
"That!" Cyborg said, exasperated, pointing wildly at Raven's swollen midsection. "It is yours, right?"
"Yes!" Raven put in excitedly.
"Actually…" Robin pushed through them all and calmly went over to the coffee pot. "…It's not."
"WHAT?" The other four – including Raven – were all staring at him across the room.
"But the newspaper-"
"But you just said-"
"What do you mean, it's not-?"
"Then whose is it?"
The last demand was from Raven, who pushed through the other three after him.
"Robin, what are you on?" Cyborg interrogated warily. "'Cause I want some…" he muttered as an afterthought.
Getting himself a cup of coffee, the Boy Wonder turned to them all, much calmer now that he had them all in his thrall.
"You heard me." He raised his eyebrows as he took a sip of his black coffee. "It's not mine."
"Of course it's yours!" Raven said defensively, hugging her stomach.
He foresaw a repeat of the conversation – or rather, argument – he had had with her back in the warehouse a week ago following their return to the present.
"Look, don't start this again!" He snapped, his eyebrows skewing in real irritation. "We've had this conversation before!"
"Uh, when?" Cyborg put in as he, Starfire and Beast Boy joined them.
"In the warehouse last week," Robin said dismissively.
"It's yours!" Raven stated, sounding very distressed.
"Right, right, hang on…" Beast Boy popped up between everyone, flapping his hands. "Let me get this straight… Raven is pregnant; and waaay pregnant at that. The newspaper knew before we all did, Robin got the highest vote for the probability of being the father, Raven says he is the father, but Robin says he isn't even though earlier he said that it was true…"
"I never once said I was the father," Robin pointed out coolly. "I said that it was true that she was pregnant."
Beast Boy looked around at everyone; and then folded his arms.
"What's going on here?" He asked.
"Yes," Starfire added stonily. "What is going on here, might I be permitted to know?"
"Robin?" Cyborg looked at him for an explanation. "An answer would be good. Our friend and team-mate is pregnant, she says you are the father, which would imply that you both… um, well… made a baby, or at least did the necessary procedure for making a baby. And if you aren't the father, then has Raven slept with someone else and it's theirs even though she believes it's yours, and…?"
Cyborg trailed off, very confused.
"It's his!" Raven protested shrilly, pointing crazily at Robin. "He's lying! I haven't slept with anyone else!"
"Wait, so you and Raven…" Beast Boy looked from Robin to Raven in utter awe. "You guys… actually… did it?"
"No… Yes…" Robin sighed and put his coffee down. "Look, I have a lot of explaining to do to make everything clear to all of you. Could we please all sit down?"
"It's heavy?" Cyborg asked wearily.
"Way heavy." Robin actually managed to crack a smile. "A tale of sex, lies, deceit, betrayal, magic, prophecy, broken vows, time-travel… well, you name it, it's in there…"
"Is Elvis in there?" Beast Boy asked.
"If you count the panel picture outside Jazz Central USA, then yes he is," Robin replied coolly, sitting down at the kitchen table and gesturing for everyone to join him.
Cyborg and Beast Boy sat, puzzled, bewildered and interested all at once.
Raven sat rather sulkily next to Cyborg.
Fuming, Starfire wouldn't even come to the table, instead perching on the worktop. Robin knew that she was listening, though; and didn't have it in his heart to feel sorry for her at the moment, not when he had so many other things to worry about right now…
"First of all, I have a lot to say," Robin said, setting his cup of coffee down in front of him. "Please don't interrupt me unless it's really urgent, or I'll forget where I was."
Everyone nodded, even though the girls both looked at him rather balefully.
Okay, so he wasn't, at the moment, very popular among the female residents of Titans Tower.
"And secondly," Robin went on, "I will say it again and start from there; the baby isn't mine."
Raven opened her mouth to protest and he shot her a murderous look that silenced her.
"But here's where it begins to get complicated… I did impregnate her…"
He looked around at them all.
"Are you all ready for this?"
One by one, they all nodded.
"Alright…"
And from there he began to slowly piece together, for and in front of them, the entire jigsaw; for the first time, he spoke of his ordeal in Arkham Asylum to them, explaining the "prophecy" as fully as he was able; and then spoke of his time in Azarath, sparing the detail of what had gone on between him and Raven but implying it heavily, explained that it had been Head Senator Seth Elliott who had removed his soul and murdered fellow senator Jonathon Vaughan; and then, as they stared at him with increasingly widening eyes, he launched into the whole story of his time-travelling experience.
Meeting Terra and Roy, the destruction of the cities, the deaths of the Titans, the Justice League and then Batman's Titans, and then the Master of Time's appearance, the consequential visit to the destroyed Wayne Enterprises, his fight with Slade, the revealing of the seer to be Seth Elliott, the unmasking of the real prophecy, the realisation that the Blood Diamond was the key to the Orb of Azarath, how Seth had used him and Slade and everything else of the history in between, including the realisation that Robin wasn't an "Avenger" of any sort and that the Teen Titans weren't "mortal gods", how he had almost died, how Raven had been brought to the future and how he had learned that the child was Seth's – and more to the point, how he managed to pull off the stunt of using Robin to impregnate Raven with his child – and then how Seth had almost killed him again, Raven's destruction of him; Marcus' explaining of what was to be done concerning the baby, Robin's second fight with Slade and consequential killing of him; the conversation he had had with Raven, the journey home by the Clock of Eternity, Raven's sudden personality switch, the third fight with Slade, Robin's dream in which Jonathon had appeared, the finding of the spell, the séance with Jonathon, and then the entire spell itself and all of its implications, including the fact that he was going to do it tonight and would be grateful for their help…
By the time he was finished an entire hour had passed and Robin's throat was near-bleeding. He got up to get a glass of water and they all stared at his back, gobsmacked.
"You're serious?" Cyborg finally broke the awed silence.
"Deadly."
"It's all true?" Beast Boy asked.
"Every word." Robin sipped at his water, quenching his thirst, his back still to the table.
There was another bout of silence. And then—
"You are a liar!" Raven screamed, getting to her feet angrily. "And Azar damn you to hell if you think I am going to let you murder your child! Our child!"
Robin whirled on her furiously, slamming his glass down so hard that it cracked.
"I am getting sick of this!" He seethed. "You'd better snap out of this behaviour right now and be sensible or I'll have to strap you down in the sick bay to perform the spell!"
"No!" She squealed, backing away from him.
"Yes!" Robin snatched across and grasped her wrist hard. "Didn't you hear me? If the baby is born, you'll die and Seth will be resurrected! You wanna damn all the world to hell, Raven, you go right ahead, because you'll die as a result of the birth and you were the one who stopped him last time…"
"I WON'T LET YOU!" Raven shrieked, wrenching her wrist away and running past them all out of the room.
"RAVEN!" Robin grabbed at his own hair in utter exasperation, and then went after her; pushing past Starfire, who had deliberately planted herself in his path.
Starfire's eyes narrowed as she watched him leave the kitchen.
Inside her, jealously boiled and began to bubble over; as green and flaming as her Tamaranean power.
"I can't believe Robin got so many more votes than us, Cy," Beast Boy said irritably as they too watched Robin leave the room.
"I can't believe Robin and Raven… you know…" Cyborg countered.
"Yeah…" Beast Boy's voice was distant. "I wonder if she was good…"
Cyborg elbowed him.
"Don't talk about her like that," he hissed. "As for Robin… well, I guess he did a pretty good job, seeing how he managed to knock her up…"
Starfire stormed out of the room.
Cyborg and Beast Boy exchanged glances.
"Raven!"
Robin easily caught up to her, not having her extra weight to slow him down, and caught her arm, whipping her around; and holding her as they stood in the middle of the Operations Center.
"No, NO!" She screamed, batting at him.
If she had really wanted, she could have hurt him.
Killed him.
But she didn't use her powers; just pounded at him, flailing in his grasp.
"Calm down!" He snapped, taking her other wrist and holding her still.
"No, I won't listen to you!" She sobbed, wrenching at her wrists in his grip. "I won't listen to your lies!"
"Why would I lie to you?" He asked in absolute exasperation.
"You don't want the baby!"
"It's going to kill you, Raven!"
"No it isn't!" Raven wailed, succeeding in pulling one wrist away from him. "You're making it all up!"
"For petesakes, Raven, I'm not!" He yelled at her furiously. "I'm trying to save you!"
"Let go! I hate you!"
She kicked him in the shin with her new kitten heels, twisted free and ran away across the room.
Cursing under his breath, Robin went after her.
He wasn't quick enough.
Something faintly red and purple pelted past him and too late he realised—
"Starfire, no!"
Inflamed with jealousy – and Tamaraneans are creatures of unbridled emotion – the alien princess barrelled right into Raven, who was almost at the door. The pregnant girl uttered a shrill shriek as Starfire knocked her to the floor and descended upon her.
"Starfire!" Furious, Robin leapt at her with a flying kick.
But Starfire was angry and jealous, and with that employed her inhuman strength, catching his ankle and easily flinging him over her head into the wall. Her murderous flaming gaze turned back on Raven again – who, instead of using her telekinesis to throw Starfire off her, was merely slapping upwards at her.
Starfire grabbed her hands.
And smirked.
And then, before she could finish warming up her eyes, she was torn off Raven by Cyborg and thrown to the floor. Before she could get up again, Robin straddled her, pinned her arms with his knees and swiftly found the pressure point at her shoulder he was looking for; applying a little weight from his fingers, she gave a little shudder and fell unconscious.
"Catfight-much?" Beast Boy quipped nervously, joining them as Robin got off the comatose Starfire.
"I'm guessing she doesn't believe your story about it not being yours either, then?" Cyborg commented warily.
"That's no excuse," Robin replied coldly, looking at the alien girl in disgust.
That was the first time she had ever truly frightened him.
As a member of the team, it was easy to forget that she was an alien. But it was true; she wasn't like them, not the same species. Tamaranean, not human. And as sweet and as pretty and as nice as Starfire was, she wasn't human.
She was strong.
She was powerful.
She was dangerous.
"Take her to her room," Robin ordered, turning away from her. "I'll talk to her when she comes round."
Cyborg and Beast Boy exchanged glances again; surprised by the Boy Wonder's steely tone. It wasn't like him to be angry with his precious Starfire – who could normally never do no wrong.
But then again, he was right; her behaviour back there had been unacceptable.
Turning to Raven, Robin pulled her upright.
"Are you okay?" He asked warily.
She looked at him.
Blinked.
Her face had suddenly lost that big pretty smile and out-of-the-ordinary innocence.
She looked like…
…Raven…
"You let me come downstairs in a dress?" She asked pointedly, her gaze on Robin.
Robin stared at her. She was… normal… again.
Was that all she had needed all this time? A smack to the head?
She put out her hand and he helped her to her feet.
"Wait…" He couldn't stop staring at her. "You're… you… now?"
"Yes." She looked at Beast Boy and Cyborg, who were also staring at her, gobsmacked.
"H-how?" Cyborg stammered.
Raven casually held up her hand.
The ring was missing.
"It was the ring," she said mildly. "The ring was the cause of my less-than-ordinary behaviour…"
"Then why didn't you say so?" Robin snapped angrily. "All this time I-"
"Oh, don't be stupid," Raven interrupted coldly. "There was nothing I could do about it. Seth Elliott cast a spell on it, which was triggered by the time fracture."
"So what happened to make you into such a Girl Scout?" Beast Boy demanded.
"That wasn't truly "me"," Raven explained in the jaded tone that was so typical of her – and one they had never been so glad to hear. "You and Cyborg will be more familiar with this, Beast Boy; the spell suppressed my true self while my personified emotion of Happiness was given free rein over my body."
Beast Boy and Cyborg's eyes widened in comprehension.
"Happiness…" Cyborg frowned. "The one in the pink robe, right?"
Raven nodded.
"This past week, you haven't been dealing with me. You've been dealing with Happiness. I have been "trapped" within my own body, knowing what is going on but not having any control over it. I knew it was the ring doing this, but I couldn't let anyone know. Only the removal of the ring would break the spell."
"But I tried to take the ring off!" Robin said in exasperation. "I couldn't get it off your finger."
Raven shrugged.
"An enchantment, no doubt."
"So Robin didn't give you that ring?" Cyborg asked faintly.
"No."
"Why did you say that he did then?"
"I didn't. Happiness did."
"Why?"
"I don't know," Raven replied wearily.
"Where is it now?" Beast Boy asked.
"Starfire pulled it off when she grabbed my hands and then Cyborg wrenched her backwards." Raven nodded at Starfire's unconscious form – the alien girl was draped in Cyborg's arms.
Beast Boy opened Starfire's hand and sure enough, the ring dropped from her limp fingers and hit the floor of the Operations Center.
"Maybe it's a strength thing?" The green shape-shifter asked, picking the ring up. "Star's the strongest out of all of us, physically; a lot stronger than Robin, anyway. You saw how she just threw him across the room with one hand…"
Robin nodded as Beast Boy handed him the ring.
"Yeah, I seriously couldn't get it off…"
"Here's one thing I ain't getting, Ray," Cyborg put in. "Robin said that you were there the whole time in the future, because that Seth dude brought you there with the intention of marrying you or whatever, right?"
Raven nodded.
"Well, from what BB and I saw inside your head all those months ago," the cybernetic teen went on, "all those emotions are a part of who you are. Why couldn't "Happiness" remember everything that had happened in the future? Before Star just knocked you down there like a bowling pin, you were hollerin' saying Robin was lying and making it all up, but you were there… and so Happiness, as a part of you, would have been there too."
"Yes." Raven nodded, impressed. "That's observant, Cyborg. However, you will remember that I suppress my emotions – the use of my powers requires it. Each of my emotions do not share all the same experiences. What I felt that night was fear and anger – even hatred. I did not feel happy, and so Happiness was oblivious of what had happened."
"But Happiness knew of everything before that," Robin pointed out. "Uh, the baby, and… how… the baby was, um… conceived…"
"Because I was happy then," Raven said quietly, a little pink tingeing her pale face.
There was a tense silence.
"So…" Cyborg cleared his throat. "You're… all for Robin's heebie-jeebie abortion tonight?"
Raven nodded.
"We can't allow it to live. My life aside…" She shook her head. "We can't give Seth the chance to be resurrected, and we can't allow it to be born."
Robin pulled at her wrist.
"Come and look at this spell," he said, tugging at her. "Check I've done it right."
"Alright…"
Robin looked over his shoulder at Cyborg and Beast Boy as he left the room with Raven.
"Just leave her in her room," he said, scowling a little at the unconscious Starfire.
But then, in retrospect, if it hadn't been for Starfire…
…Raven would still be lost to them.
By attempting to murder Raven, Starfire had actually saved her.
After such a crazy month, even the irony of that was lost…
Before anyone rips into about the ring "suddenly" having magical powers that conveniently suppressed Raven's real self so Seth could PWN everyone from beyond the grave…
Well, incidentally, the ring HAS been in it for ages – like since Raven first showed up in the future; but more importantly…
…It's called a DEUS EX MACHINA, kids. It's what we idiot authors use when we write ourselves into a corner and then think "Oh… crap. That was bad.", so then you have to come up with some thing where a magical wizard appears from nowhere and gives the hero an equally-magical sword that just so happens to be made of the only metal that will kill the giant monster that's spent the rest of the book terrorizing everyone…
Deal with it.
Hey, at least a magical wizard didn't appear and remove the ring.
There is NOT long left to go now, AND Raven is back to her usual self! Yayz!
Next time (and I'm not even going to bother promising I'll update soon because… I would just be lying…)!
RR xXx