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ShikaIno1: They do! And thanks! I'm glad that you like that scene. I wasn't sure about it.
Everyone: Much love. Stay safe, thanks for reading, be happy, and happy reading.
Warning: This story contains sexual content, which will begin and end with DAMIRAE!
A Slave for Her
Chapter Fifteen
The moment that Raven woke up, she sat up, and her hands went to her abdomen. They glowed while she helplessly sought for her baby's essence. "No, no, no, no! Not again."
Tears surged down her eyes. Items around the room exploded.
"Rae!" Hands wrapped around her wrists and tugged her hands away from her stomach.
Her eyes went to Dick's face. Her heart calmed at the sight of his gentle eyes. "The baby," she whispered.
"The baby's okay."
"He's okay?"
"He's okay."
"I can't feel him." Fresh tears mixed with old ones.
"I know. Come with me." He didn't wait for her to respond. He scooped her up and carried her out of the room. She tightened her arms around his neck. When she began to relax, she noticed Damian walking behind them.
The sight of his face prompted Raven to ask again, "Is my baby okay?"
"Our baby is fine." They both answered; however, it was Damian that elaborated.
"There are some complications with the baby but the mages are working hard to stabilize him."
"What complications? The mages?" She frowned. The only mages that she knew were the mages- who had no names- from R'Fina. Now that they were on Earth, they had decided to work for the League of Assassin, who she knew didn't loan their members without a price.
"It would be best if the mages answer that. I know you will have more questions. They can answer them all for you." Dick replied, walking into a hidden elevator in a long hallway.
She nodded in his chest with dried tears. "Where are we?"
"At my farmhouse," Damian answered, pushing his hand against the elevator wall. A keypad appeared, and he entered a code. They descended in silence.
When the doors opened, Raven's focus went straight to the glowing cylinder tank in the middle of the room. She flew out of Dick's arms to the tank. Her hands touched the glass. She could feel her son's presence.
"What is this?"
She turned to Damian and Dick, who walked up behind her along with two familiar mages.
"This is an artificial womb that was provided to us by the League of Assassins so that when we extracted the fetus from your body, it could continue to grow safely." The male mage answered.
"For what price?" Raven glanced at Damian, who cleared his throat.
"Two drops of blood from him each year."
Anger rose in her. Two drops of blood would appear insignificant to many; however, few knew the bio-weapons that were created in the past by Ra's Al Ghul from a drop of metahuman blood.
Nevertheless, she pushed her anger down. Damian wouldn't casually make a deal with his grandfather unless he had to.
"Why did you remove him from my body?"
The female answered. "When we extracted the fetus three weeks ago-"
"Three weeks." Her brow frowned before her eyes widened. "Elainna." She turned to Dick.
"Don't worry. Jason's watching her." He gave a small smile; she nodded.
"Please continue." She turned to the mage.
"As I was saying, when we extracted the baby, it was because your body couldn't sustain the fetus's power, which was harming you both."
"His power?" She looked at her son, who was a tiny fetus. She could barely sense any magic radiating from his essence.
"Yes," the male mage answered. "His magic is highly unstable, and it's currently killing him."
Her head spun as her chest rose and fell rapidly. Something in the basement exploded.
"Calm down, Raven." Damian placed a hand on her shoulder. "There's a solution."
"A solution?" Her eyes met Damian's. "What is it?"
"It's best that you hear the mages' explanation first." She turned to Dick, and for the first time, she actually noticed him.
His gentle demeanor was buried under a stoic mask. Eyes were neutral. Body was stiff. Yet, what stood out the most wasn't visible to the eyes, but she felt it.
He had shut her out of his mind.
"Should I continue?" The female mage looked between the superheroes in the room.
"Yes." Raven turned her gaze back to the mage.
"Okay. The reason the fetus is unstable is because of the necklaces that you two are wearing." She focused her eyes on the biological partners.
"The power from your necklace, Precious Gem, contained traces of power from Skli Forest."
"It's impossible. I created the necklace myself. It should only hold my powers."
"Yes, but we were informed by the fetus's biological father that the R'Fina who you gave the necklace to resided in the forest. The necklace must have attracted the forest's magic, mingled with it, and captured it within itself.
"That magic prevented the fetus from being aborted." Raven cringed as the mage continued. "However, it created the opportunity for the magic to enter your fetus's body. This anomaly made a minor change in its physiology similar to the R'fina natives."
"What change?" Remembering Ion's words that Fina' needed the Skli Forest to survive, she became anxious.
"Based on our research and the information we gathered on the Fina', a Fina' fetus is like a tiny seed that would eventually grow into the woody creatures that they were. In order for the fetus to grow it needs to connect with its parents through a bonding process, in which the parents would place their hands into the ground around the seed and release energy, which is like a nutrient, for minutes to hours each day, depending on the seed needs.
"While the parents are releasing energy into the seed, the energy that is being released also attracts magic from the forest, we think, to the seed. Once the seed recognizes its parents, it uses their energy and the forest magic to grow and stabilize its own magic."
"How does this affect my baby?"
The male mage took over. "In short, the bonds that you created with these two males have been recognized by the Fina' magic as energy, and it used the bonds to attract and stabilize your child's magic. Yet, the problem was caused by the necklace around the fetus's biological father's neck. It disconnected your bond with him.
Raven's eye traveled to the necklace. "Take it off."
"I would have if I could." Damian said, touching the chain. It hissed. When he removed his hands and showed them to her. She saw the burn marks.
Her eyes narrowed. She held up her hand to the necklace. It fell off his neck onto the floor. Damian picked it up and put it in his pocket.
Raven faced the mages. "Problem solved."
The male mage coughed. "It would have if it wasn't for the other bond...Let me explain. When the bond to the fetus's biological father was blocked, the baby's magic used the bond and energy that you created with your husband to stabilize his magic. Yet, since your husband isn't its biological father, the magic has a hard time adjusting to the new energy source as its stabilizer since it had been using its father's energy as a stabilizer before."
"So, I just need to redirect the baby's magic back to Damian."
Everyone in the room frowned.
"What is it?"
"The baby's magic is using your husband's energy as a stabilizer. That is what's keeping the baby alive as well as killing him." The female mage explained. "If you insist by force that the baby's magic recognizes its biological father's energy, your child could die."
Tears gathered in her eyes, but they didn't fall. "You said that there was a solution."
The room went silent.
"What is it?" Raven asked.
"The best course of action would be to open the bonds between both male humans and gather energy from them... at the same time until the fetus's magic is stabilized." The female said softly.
Raven raised an eyebrow. "What's the catch?"
The female mage cleared her throat. "In the Fina' culture, the parents would place their hands in the soil surrounding the seed after they copulate when energy exchange and gathering is at its highest. You would need to do the same by placing your hands on the glass… after copulating."
Raven's eyes widened. Her gaze traveled to Dick and Damian. They looked away from her. She faced the mages again.
"We aren't Fina'. The necklace being removed from Damian's neck should have been enough."
"That was what we had hoped." The male mage pointed to the monitor next to the tank above her head." The vital signs should have improved immediately after you removed the necklace, yet it stayed the same."
She stared at the monitor. Her heart clenched at her baby's weak vitals. She shifted her attention back to the mages.
"Are you sure that this is the only way?"
"After three weeks, we concluded this would be the best and safest course of action."
"I..." Her eyes moved to Dick.
Dick sighed. "Can you leave the room so that I can talk with my wife?" The mages rushed to the exit of the basement while Damian strolled past him. Their eyes connected before he joined the mages on the elevator.
When the elevator doors were shut, he joined Raven next to the artificial womb. His eyes were glued to the fetus.
"Dick-"
"Damian and I had already decided to... take part in the energy gathering and exchange.. We're fine with it as long as we don't accidentally touch each other."
"... You can't be serious? You can't be fine with this."
His hands flexed and curled against the glass. He calmed his breath. "It has to be done. After the baby is stabilized, you ...we can decide the next step for our relationship." He felt her eyes on him and her presence in his mind."
"We already agreed on our next step before you left for space. We are going to be a family of four: You, me, Elainna, and the baby."
He closed his eyes, shutting out the vision of the simple life she mentioned. When he opened his eyes, he stared at the tank. He stood firm in his decision.
"We have to adapt to the hands that was dealt to us."
"... Dick talked to me." Her voice cracked. "If we do this, we can't go back to being a couple. I..."
He knew that, but what could they do?
He turned to her and stared into her exquisite eyes. "We have to, or do you plan on losing another baby?"
His words transported them back into the past, to the reason they had left the Titans and the true reason he had been comfortable with Raven having Damian's baby.
"Help! Help me, daddy! I don't want to go!"
Dick's eyes opened. His body was in pain and his head thumped. Nevertheless, he stood up.
"No! No! Hang on." Hearing Raven's shrinking voice, he quickly scanned the battlefield that had been covered with unconscious people thanks to the villain that had ambushed the team on their annual picnic.
"No! Please, please hold on."
He spotted Raven and rushed to her. As he got closer, his heart shattered. Blood gushed from her bulged stomach while the bloody blade of the villain lay beside her and debris on her legs.
He pushed the rubble off of her... "Raven-"
"Mommy, Help! Help me, daddy! I'm scared." His eyes shot to Raven. "Is that..."
"Our baby?" She nodded. "She's dying." Tears fell.
"Your powers?"
"The sword had magic on it. I can't use my powers." She cried.
"Mommy! Daddy! Please."
"Dick." Raven clenched his uniform. "Help."
He had wanted to. But the baby was gone in less than a moment. It had taken them months to recover.
They wiped the tears from each other's faces.
"I'm sorry." Raven said.
"Don't be. You're my wife. My greatest honor is being there to protect you and my greatest failure is when I can't."
Tears fell down her eyes onto his hands that still touched her face.
"I don't want to lose you, but it would be difficult to stay together if..."
"I know." He said, wondering if there was a way that they could stay together.
Damian sat on the bench in front of the elevator, waiting for Raven's and Grayson's conversation to end.
While he waited, he thought back to his conversation with Dick after the mages first told them about the solution.
"Imbeciles."
Damian walked in front of the artificial womb. "I should have never asked my grandfather to send the mages."
"Why are they still with your grandfather?" Grayson asked. "Are they hostages?"
Damian snorted. "Originally, yes, but my grandfather and they had come to an unusual arrangement. But if this is an example of their usefulness, then grandfather will be sorely disappointed in the future."
"They are useful. You just don't like their solution."
Damian spun towards him. " And you do?"
Their eyes clashed. Blue against green.
"Of course not. However, it's been two and a half weeks. This was the best and safest solution that they could think of. What choice do we have, unless you have another idea?"
He didn't.
"So, you are just going to sit back and watch another man copulate with your wife."
"No, what I'm going to do is save the son of my little brother and wife." A lone tear fell down Grayson's cheek. He quickly wiped it away.
Damian's anger dispelled. "I'm sorry." He said, unsure what he was exactly sorry for.
"Are you, Damian? Aren't you getting what you wanted? Like you always do."
Grayson's tone of voice shook his heart. Since he met him, Damian never heard Dick talk to him with that tone of voice. It was a tone that showed that he was done with Damian.
Unexpected tears fell down his eyes.
During his life span, several of his family members and so-called friends had used that tone with him, including his parents and Jon, who was currently upset with him. Although some friends and family members had reconciled with him, in his heart, he knew that one day his relationships with them could always come to a permanent end.
Nevertheless, there were two relationships that he expected to last a lifetime: the one with Pennyworth and the one with Grayson.
Yet, as he sensed his relationship with Grayson ending, he no longer saw Grayson as his competition for Raven's love but the big brother that was always there for him, that was always supposed to be there.
"This isn't what I wanted," Damian confessed. "I want a healthy baby, Raven's love...and our relationship to withstand all of this. You are my brother."
Grayson scoffed. "Funny that you think of me as your brother now. You can't have it all, Damian."
"But I want it all."
"That's your problem, Damian. You're too entitled to think that you can. Too arrogant and selfish to let go of things that you shouldn't hold on to. Too foolish to see the consequences of your actions.
"If you had not behaved like an entitled prick, we could've moved on from this after we save the baby. But now, after it's over, Raven isn't going to stay with either of us. She would feel guilty, and... This is the end of the road for all of us, Damian. Just be happy she doesn't know why we were fighting." He said and exited the basement. Leaving Damian in his thoughts.
It had taken a day for Damian to come up with a response to Grayson's words. Yet, all he could say when he saw Grayson again were words that were inspired by Raven: Let's create our own way for her to stay.
Grayson hadn't been motivated by his words, but he wasn't against working with Damian to make this situation comfortable for Raven. After all, everything would depend on Raven's reaction.
The elevator door opened. Damian stood up as Grayson and Raven stepped out. Grayson's gaze found his before he trudged down the hallway with heavy shoulders.
Damian watched him for a few seconds before his attention turned back to Raven, who stood in front of him.
He gulped.
"We need to talk." They said together.
A/N: Sorry! This emotional rollercoaster is too long, painful, and more than I planned. But it will end soon. Have a good day or night!
A/N: I posted Chapters 14 and 15 today in case you missed ch 14. I will post another chapter tomorrow.