Hey everyone! I know its been a bit too long and I bet you thought I abandoned this story. I always knew the main story and plot of this story I wanted to tell but needed a bit more time to think of how to move it along. I have spent quite a bit of time thinking this over. I apologize for the hiatus and I promise to update this more regularly, because this is an emotional roller coaster of a story that I really have been wanting to get from my head into writing.
Chapter 2: The Darkness Within
As evening began to fall, Victor, Dick, and Garfield were in final discussions for their shift of a quick patrol of the city, discussing who would cover what areas that night. The girls had been allowed the night to themselves at the tower, which Raven was grateful for as she rested on the couch with her eyes closed, holding a cool, damp cloth over her forehead. She felt low on energy and had no appetite, the occasional wave of nausea sweeping over her, accompanied by a slowly growing sense of dread.
"Why don't we all stay in tonight? We'll know if there's a matter that needs our urgent attention." Raven heard Kori ask.
"We won't stay out too late. You're right, it will probably be another boring night, but I have some things I want to talk to Gar and Victor about personally. Besides, Raven looks like she needs to rest peacefully for a while." Dick replied.
Raven groaned and opened her eyes, she sat up and looked over the back of the couch to where the team was standing in front of the elevator. "Let them go Kori. I've got you to look after me."
Dick nodded at Raven with a smile and hugged Kori. Raven knew the private conversation he wanted to have with Gar and Vic pertained to the special proposal Dick was planning for Kori and potential wedding plans and venues. Raven's eyes were drawn to Gar who looked away quickly from her, but not fast enough, she saw the look of deep concern on his face, and that he was tempted to stay. She had to force herself not to smirk a bit. She also detected a bit of something going on with Gar that she could not place her finger on yet, like there had been a shift when they're eyes met for that brief second.
Raven sat up slowly on the end of the couch, hearing the elevator close, leaving her and Kori alone. Raven stood up slowly. "TV's yours Kori. I'm going down to the showers. Maybe it will help."
Kori floated over to her and reached out her hand slowly to Raven's arm to steady her. "Do you need me to escort you? You're worrying me."
Raven pulled her arm away gently, not unkindly, knowing Kori only wanted to help. "If I feel worse. I'll ask for you." She looked at Kori's face and forced herself to give a small smile. "I promise." She picked her phone up off the couch and showed it to Kori reassuringly. "I'll call you."
"Please do, sister. I'm here for whatever you need." Kori replied as Raven slowly walked to the elevator, steadying herself. She smiled a little at Kori's response. The Tamaranean had practically adopted her, Gar, and Victor as her official siblings the longer they had lived together and gotten to know each other. When it came to Dick Grayson, however, he became something more to her, something deeper. It took a little getting used to, but Raven had come around to it, and being considered Kori's sister grew on her. Raven could honestly say she had come to feel the same way for Kori, and she even saw the other Titans as something of a family.
Raven also felt a bond with Kori and had sympathy for her. Kori's relationship with her biological sister, Kormand'r, known by the team as Blackfire, was not friendly by any means, Kormand'r had a vendetta against Kori, a need for revenge after Kori had seen her apprehended. Raven understood how this hurt Kori, that her own blood sister had fallen so far and that she did not care about family or being her sister.
Raven knew a bit about what it was to not have a loving family, so to speak. She was the biological daughter of a demon who only saw her as a tool for domination, and now he was in her head, even though he had supposedly been vanquished. As for Raven's own human mother, Arella, though loving as she was, they almost never had any contact with each other. It still astounded Raven how such a union between Trigon and Arella, could have happened and the end result being her, a half breed daughter.
When Raven reached the large showers near the training rooms, in a separate wing from the shower for men, she hung a robe and a towel on the outside, laying the rest of her clothes to the side on the floor. The women's shower was a fairly large room with multiple faucets around a column and marble benches build into the walls. Before she could even enter the large shower room she was immediately brought to her knees, gasping, as she saw a vision of herself with red skin and red eyes, holding her hands over her ears and screaming in horrible agony as explosions erupted around her. In the midst of her screaming pain and agony she heard another voice she could not make out. The voice wasn't from Trigon. The voice was different this time, it sounded calm and loving, even though she couldn't make out the words.
Raven broke out of the vision, practically sprinting to turn on the hot water, her entire body shaking, begging for relief. She turned on the faucet and stood under the hot water, bracing herself against the column. She started breathing heavier, almost panting as she clenched her fists, her body burning, starting in her stomach, and working up. Nausea overcame her and she was brought to the floor again, she wrapped an arm around her stomach and wretched and heaved over the drain in the floor, a black substance erupting from her throat. When she finished, she rolled over and curled up in a ball on the floor, convulsing and trembling, the pain in her head around her gem exploded, leaving her wide eyed and unable to move from the shock of the pain. "Raven." Trigon's voice was back in her head, monstrous, harsh, and commanding. "You will kill for me."
"You're dead…" Raven whispered in a shaky voice as she lay curled up on the floor, her entire body experiencing spasms. "I live as long as the part of you that is me persists. Kill for me."
Raven closed her eyes tight, speaking defiantly. "No…no. I will never be your slave. I freed myself from you a long time ago. I will never betray my friends. I would rather die. Leave me!"
"Kill for me! Your soul is mine!" Trigon yelled in her head and Raven screamed in defiance, her energy erupting forth, ripping the shower faucets off the column, water spraying from the one she had turned on, the walls cracked, and the glass entrance to the shower exploded into large shards. Raven held up her hand and caught the glass shards in the black orbs of energy to prevent injury.
Raven gasped as the glass fell in pieces to the floor. Trigon's voice was gone, and she physically felt better, Even though the shower was destroyed and water was spraying from where the faucet used to be, she just lay there catching her breath, letting the hot water rain down on her, beyond thankful or relief from the pain. There wasn't any choice now, she would have to tell the Titans, for their own safety.
"Raven?!" She heard Kori shout from down the hall after a few minutes. "Oh my God!" she yelled as she saw the destruction and quickly flew to Raven, holding up her hands against the water erupting from where the faucet had been ripped off the column. Raven, slowly held up her hand from her spot on the floor, using her magic to turn off the one broken faucet.
"Raven! What happened? Are-" Kori began in a panic but was caught off as Raven held out her hand. "Uh, Kori. My robe please." Raven put the robe on and tied it, covering herself after Kori quickly flew around the outside of the shower to grab it, even though there stopped being any kind of embarrassment a long time ago since both girls had shared the large shower before.
"We need to talk. There's something I have to tell you. Also, I assume I caused the tower's security system to go off, that's how you knew to come down here?" Raven said, letting Kori float her over the broken glass on the floor. She gathered up her clothes and put the towel over her head. "Yes. Should I call the others to come back?" Kori asked.
"I have a better idea." Raven said. "I know I promised a girl's night in but for something of this magnitude, we all need to be together. I'm not feeling so sick at the moment, so I think we should meet up with the others instead of bringing them back from their patrol so soon."
"I'm not worried about 'girls' night'. I'm worried about you". Kori replied. "If you're sure that you're feeling up for it then let's go join the others."
"Let me use your communicator and then I'll get dressed." Raven said, nodding. She switched on the circular device and pulled the towel off of her head when Kori handed it to her. "This is Raven, contacting anyone available." She stared at the screen as it immediately flickered on. She expected that Dick would be the one to answer, but immediately sighed and rolled her eyes when Garfield's face appeared on the small screen almost instantly.
"Rae Rae!" Gar said in greeting a little too happily, "What's up? How's the slumber par-" Raven began to immediately speak over him, trying her absolute best to keep her annoyance contained, keeping the view of her squarely on her face. The last thing she wanted was to give him the mental image of her in nothing but a robe.
"I don't have time Gar. Tell the others that me and Kori are coming to meet up with you on your patrol. There's something important I have to discuss with you all."
She must have had a deadly serious expression on her face, because Garfield's face also fell, losing his big, goofy smile. There was a shift in tone and atmosphere as his face also grew serious and etched with worry. Raven appreciated that at least Gar could be serious and mature in this one moment. He still did immature things that annoyed her, and at times he still acted like a kid younger than his actual age, but Raven had detected a shift in him, no matter how small and subtle in recent days.
Raven had seen the way Gar had looked at hew before they left, the look of genuine concern, a look that said he wanted to stay or do something for her, even though he immediately tried to hide it. There had been other small subtle things Raven noticed, like catching him eyeing her out of the corner of his eye during times the team spent together in the tower. She didn't know what it was, maybe she was just reading too much into it, but it felt that somehow, in the smallest of ways, there had been a shift in Gar, that there was a small something there that wasn't there before.
"Raven. is everything alright? You look worried." Their eyes locked on each other in the communicator for a moment. Ordinarily she would have immediately shut off Garfield's image in front of her and ignored him. What was going on here in this moment that she didn't just immediately cut the transmission? Maybe her illness had messed with her head.
"Just tell them that me and Kori are coming to meet up with you. Raven out." Raven finally cut the feed and handed the communicator back to Kori. "Give me a few minutes to get dressed." Raven said, picking up her black shirt and jeans up from where she had folded them on the bench outside the shower. "Also, I suppose we'll need to get the shower fixed. Wont we? Sorry about that"
"Do not be sorry, sister." Kori said, coming over to gently grip Raven's arm. "The most important thing is your well-being and finding out what's plaguing you. We'll fix this. We're a team and we always do."
Kori had no idea just how right she was. Something was plaguing Raven, and neither Dick, nor Kori, nor Garfield, nor even Raven, knew what would happen in only a couple days time. No one could comprehend the magnitude, the implications, and the unimaginable disaster, the tragedy, that would haunt the Titans for the rest of their lives. It wouldn't affect just the Jump City Titans, but every branch of Titans in different areas and cities across the country on a historical level that would be remembered for decades. Things were about to change, forever. In only a couple days, the Jump City Titans as they existed now, would be a thing of the past.
I really hope you're enjoying where this story is going so far, and I hope that what is in my head comes out just as awesome and memorable, and heartbreaking in writing. By the end of this road, and my epilogue, I genuinely hope some of you will be left saying "Wow'. Also. This is my first ever fanfic and so I welcome constructive and friendly criticism in areas I could improve in. And I wont leave anyone hanging for months for the next chapter either. Next chapter coming soon!