There was a buzzing horde of voices beyond them, no doubt trying to draw their attention from each other, yet Raven and Gar could only see the other while the cambion slowly sat up from the floor. In the way her amethyst eyes slightly glossed over as they refused to leave his own, Gar understood that she had also seen every inch of his violated subconscious.
Whether from shock or dread of Raven's witness, Gar felt strangely numb to the grief that usually stirred from thinking of that day. Or of the many harrowing days that followed for almost two years. These were wounds, once so profound that they'd drain him dry of any hope before swallowing him entirely in primal darkness, one that he'd left behind long ago. So it wasn't reuniting with his wounds that worried Gar as he studied Raven's face. It was how she studied his that made him hold his breath, wondering if she knew how close he had come to ripping Dylan's throat from her neck.
And then, as if beside him in the darkened corners of his mind, Raven whispered, "There is such light in you."
Her shaky hands slid around his arms while he kept his hand cupping her face, and Gar said nothing before touching his forehead to hers, not minding how her gem kindled against his skin. Raven released a stifled sob, but with a gentle squeeze to his arm, she drove a steady breath. Gar was glad for it, unsure he'd be able to do the same if she cried for him.
They stayed like this until they heard Vic clear his throat, causing Gar to lean away from Raven to look over his shoulder.
Both Dylan and Roy were gone along with the horde of voices, leaving Gar to wonder if he had hallucinated Koriand'r and Karen and a strange woman he'd never seen before standing over him as he woke. He winced slightly at the state of ruin of their immediate surroundings: the fluorescent light fixtures that lined the corridor were cracked and flickering, potted plants smashed and scattered across its floor. The metallic tang of blood drew Gar's attention to the other side of the hall, where he found fresh splatters across the carpet beneath smeared streaks of dark red on the wall.
"Roy," Raven told him, having followed Garfield's severe gaze. His stomach turned as he recalled shoving Roy away from Dylan when she reeked of other, yet as of now, Gar couldn't smell anything other than the blood.
"He said you attacked them," Vic asked in a strange, almost cautious manner. Raven and Gar turned to him, both unsure who he was specifically asking. "He called us back, and by the time we got here, we found you in three...in a weird trance all roped up in Raven's shadows."
"She," Gar started, sifting through the strange visions and forced memories hoping to trace his steps, yet the last clear thing Gar remembered beyond the terrors of the little Raven and the crow that held her eyes in its beak was the overwhelming sting of emerald flame before his body crashed through glass doors.
That stench of other. Followed by untethered rage.
"Robin," Raven said, her voice suddenly sharp and loud. She shifted to her knees, pulling Garfield to his feet on the way to hers, "did you see him too?"
Gar thought of that golden-amber skies beyond where Robin knelt before shadows.
Raven looked to Vic and said, "Contain the sister. She's being used as a conduit of something. And whatever she was put up to last night, she apparently failed. I don't know how but that power did not come from her."
"Her friends failed to mention that?"
Raven shook her head once. "They might not know."
Gar's brows furrowed in recognition of the scent that had driven him into a frenzy, the same one from the STAR Labs bunker, from the spilled toxin. Could it have been Dylan this whole time? How could her scents change so drastically while her appearance remained the same?
"Morrigan? She showed you where she's keeping Dick captive?" Vic asked.
"Not exactly," Raven peered around the corridor as if now seeing the wreckage that was the 4th-floor lobby, "They believe she used a portal."
"That's what Dylan said."
Raven's eyes flickered to where Gar had the girl pinned on the ground just minutes before. "I don't know how much of this is a trap...how wise it is to trust these HIVE deflects...but we need to find him." She quietly peered around the corridor as if now seeing the wreckage that was the 4th-floor lobby, "I'm not sure how much time that connection just lost us. We have to move quickly."
"If we are facing this thing," Vic said with a strange warning in his voice, "you should probably rest."
"I am fine," Raven asserted, turning to where Garfield stood between her and the elevator. Gar caught an imploring glance from the Cyborg, whose eye glanced over Raven's outfit before arching a doubtful brow.
Gar caught Raven's arm with a gentle hand as she moved past him to the elevator. "What happened to you last night?"
"I dropped between gateways."
Gar's lips twitched at her casual tone as if what she explained was a glaring and trivial thing. "Right, obviously."
"Between realms, time isn't really measurable, so to me, last night feels like an hour ago."
The way her eyes slid up to Gar's, that look that begged him to remember what it was like to hold her against the wall, it made his mouth water. Gar caught himself before he could smirk too brazenly.
"Then we can't risk finding Morrigan if you haven't slept off the barrel of whiskey you drank last night." Vic murmured with a slight but tired grin on his lips as he passed them both on his way to the elevator.
"I wasn't that drunk," Raven asserted, her eyes still fixed on Gar, and he freed his smile, knowing that she didn't say that for Vic's benefit.
The Cyborg scoffed, heralding the elevator. If he wasn't so emotionally spent from the last 12 hours, he'd feel spritely enough to tease her about how much so-called sober-Raven seemed to enjoy the Footloose soundtrack.
But instead, Vic silently stepped into the elevator cab, not the least bit surprised that both Gar and Raven had dissolved through a portal by the time he turned around.