A/N: So this chapter is actually a lot longer than the first time I wrote it, as I reread and rewrote several sections.
I hope you all like it and don't fault me too much for the cliche of a book store for occult stuff being Raven's go-to date location… it seemed a fitting way to continue their relationship.
On with the show!
Two days later
Ian was in his room, looking through his belongings that he had managed to acquire on a superhero salary… mainly after Robin had given him some money from the Titan's funds and said they should have been paying him for helping them from the get-go. He had just been handed a credit card and told the pin. Which meant he immediately rushed to the bank to check the amount in the account.
Welp…
Either a Superhero's salary was enormous, or Robin was massively overcompensating for calling him homeless a few weeks ago. Ian briefly wondered if this was a bribe to keep his mouth shut about Robin's secret identity. Then it hit him. It wasn't Robin. It was Batman. The detective would definitely do something to make sure the league wasn't in danger… at least that was the most likely scenario...
Of course, it wasn't like he could refuse the money. That would be like inviting distrust to his doorstep, even if it WAS a bribe that was to trust he'd keep things secret.
He immediately bought some necessities such as bedsheets and some furniture when he saw the substantial amount on the account he was given. The best part was it didn't even dent his funds!
Just as he finished setting down a lamp on his new desk, he heard a knock at the door.
"Coming!" he called out.
When he opened the door(once again using telekinesis that he was not even trying to activate), Raven was standing there fidgeting. Apparently, nervousness was something she wasn't used to showing. Wait… well her robe was still white and she hadn't cut her hair… Something told Ian that she was enjoying showing more emotion around him. He smiled as he thought about that. It was a nice gesture coming from someone as emotionally detached as Raven.
"Ian? Why are you smiling? I haven't even told you why I am here." She asked.
"Just happy to see you. It's not like I can't show that is it?" Ian replied. "So why are you here?"
"Can we… can we try going on another date?" Raven blushed.
Ian's grin got wider. "You know what? I like confident Raven!" he teased.
She hit his shoulder lightly. "Do you WANT to end up in the bay?" she asked.
He smirked right back and said, "You'll throw me in the bay for saying I like you? Yeah, that's logical!"
"I'm not gonna win am I?" Raven conceded.
"Not today!" Ian continued to tease. "So, got a place in mind?"
"Actually yes. Do you enjoy reading? Or would that be boring for you?"
Ian chuckled remembering her hobby of occult book collecting, "You want to go to a book store, right? Sure I'm game!"
Raven let a small smile onto her face, "It's a place I go for occult books… I thought we could research Scott's abilities together… and I just thought I'd finally show someone the place."
Ian's eyes widened, "You haven't shown the others?"
Raven shook her head, "It's a special place to me. I only want those close to me to see it." she said.
Ian pulled her into a hug, "Thanks. It means a lot that you'd accept me like this." he said.
She returned the hug, and Ian found that she was more… clingy than he remembered. In fact, he was worried that BB or Cy would walk around the corner and try to blackmail them. "So… can we go now, or were you busy?" Raven asked as she let go.
Ian nodded. "Sure. I wasn't particularly busy with anything. Just setting up my room."
"Setting up your room… with what?" She asked raising an eyebrow.
Ian chuckled, "The necessities for now. Just a desk, a few chairs, a lamp, you know, just stuff to live comfortably and-"
"No, I meant weren't you broke?" Raven narrowed her eyes.
Ian sighed and answered honestly, "I think Batman bribed me." he said. Raven sighed, "Well he IS paranoid, right? I'll look the other way, but don't let money go to your head. it's the root of all evi-"
"I thought that was Trigon's title," Ian smirked. Cue a punch in the face.
"Owww… so Rage is also something you've got under control… not gonna say I wasn't expecting at least a slap, but that hurt. A lot." Ian said. Despite having a bruise on his cheek and having flown back a few feet, he hadn't hit the opposite wall or anything.
"Well you should know not to talk about things that would trigger her then," Raven said breathing deeply as she straightened up and closed her second pair of eyes… wait when did… no, still white robe, and still long hair. Ian frowned. Why would she even feel hurt about a father that was the embodiment of evil? He had a definite idea on how to find out, but it wasn't a viable situation to bring it up in right now. He sighed, "Look I get that you can control emoticlones at will, but maybe we should just go to the bookstore and maybe we can… I don't know? Meditate when we get back?"
"Meditate… together?" Raven asked, she seemed genuinely surprised he had suggested it.
Ian smiled, "What did you think I wasn't into doing things with my girlfriend?" he smiled. Briefly, he heard Scott in his head say "Smooth!" in his head.
Raven blushed and smiled, "Sorry for hitting you in the face." She said before she chanted her mantra and teleported them both to the roof, Ian decided to see how levitating felt, and found it was harder than it looked. In the end, he let Scott man the powers while he just focused on the location, all the while thinking to himself that the two of them being able to swap out basic functions right down to powers and abilities was rather like cheating on a test. Not that he was complaining or anything. Soon they were flying over Jump.
They landed in a remote part of the city in front of a two-story building, the door to the shop on the ground floor ringing a bell as they walked in.
"Raven? Back again? Hadn't seen you for a while. The usual herbal tea righ-who's the new guy? Wait… guy? Did you finally find someone? Well… color me impressed." A teen girl at the counter said before she even introduced herself to them. The girl was wearing a black loose-fitting T-shirt with a skull design on it and had a nose piercing, as well as tattoos on her hands of spiderwebs covered in little spiders. Ian smiled, thinking it was rather fitting that an emo chick would own an occult book store. Wait a second! She knew about the tea immediately and was currently making it?
In an effort to blend in, he said, "Can I get some as well?"
Raven let a small laugh out without realizing it and said, "You don't have to try so hard Ian. Unless you are legitimately wanting to have some?" She seemed more interested in him answering than what the answer given actually was.
Ian nodded, "Of course I want to try it! I'll try anything at least once. Besides, I like normal tea just fine! I'd like to taste the difference between the two of them."
They were soon given two cups of herbal tea, and Ian put the cup to his lips, taking a sip. As Raven watched him, his eyes widened, and she asked, "Is it really that bad?"
Ian stopped drinking and laughed, "That's the exact opposite of why I reacted like that!" he said, taking another sip.
The teen that had welcomed them nodded saying, "Definitely a keeper, Raven. What the… I just noticed you're not wearing blue! Is this one of those emotiwhatevers?"
"No… I am at peace with myself for the moment." Raven smiled.
"White equals every emotion. I'm surprised she told you about the emoticlones!" Ian commented.
The girl reached a hand out to Ian and said, "Call me Charlotte. And before you ask, yes, like the spider."
"Name's Ian." Then before anyone could say anything else, his eyes glowed red and his forehead's third eye appeared as he said, "And I'm Scott. You wouldn't happen to have any books on Trigon would you?"
Charlotte's eyes widened, "He's possessed?" she turned to Raven.
Raven shook her head. "Not possessed. It's complicated. There are two of him."
"What is he? a Jekyll and Hyde character?" Charlotte asked. Ian's eyes reverted and he shook his head. "I operate under Multiverse Theory," he said as if that explained everything.
"So… not possessed. Just crazy?" Charlotte seemed confused.
"No!" Raven frowned.
"A host for an alien then?" Charlotte asked.
"No. We're the same person from two different universes." Ian explained.
Charlotte's eyes widened, "Just a sec…" she said excitedly as she ran to a shelf and started talking to herself. "Not that one… Nope… Where is it? I know I got those weird books from another dimension somewhere! AHA!" She rushed over to them, "Check this out!"
Ian blinked and couldn't hide his shock, "No way… is that-"
"It can't be…" Raven breathed.
The books in charlotte's arms were one with the cover depicting Mystic Deathbringer, Beast Girl, Dubs, and Malgand'r in a battle with Superman… and Ian recognized him as the one from Injustice 2… the Brainiac fused evil version one, The other depicting a single phrase.
"History of Earth-Prime"
"Where did you get these?" Scott demanded, overshadowing Ian fully despite saying he would never do so. "Name your price."
Charlotte handed it over, "I don't need money or dusty books with creepy omens from another universe. Take it."
Scott smirked darkly, "Good answer."
Raven hit him across the face, her four red eyes staring him down angrily. "Stay inside his head you bastard!" she shouted.
Scott seemed to be hurt both physically and emotionally and receded back into Ian again. Ian looked around and seemed like he didn't know why he was holding the books in his hands.
"Are you okay?" Raven asked with a frown, her extra eyes closing and disappearing as she took a breath, "I did just slap you across the face pretty hard…"
"Y-yeah… I'll be fine… it stings and Scott seems to be very upset in my head, but… I'll be okay." Ian managed to say.
"He overshadowed you completely… it was like you weren't even there." Raven seemed troubled.
"Oh…" was all Ian could say.
Charlotte sighed dreamily for some reason.
"What's with her?" Ian asked. Raven shook her head, "Don't. Ask."
"Uhhh… okay? Thanks for the books, I guess?" Ian said as they left the store. "Rae, Are… are you okay?" he asked her as they flew across the city.
She frowned and answered a question with a question, "Ian, are you sure you can handle Scott?"
Ian looked around the area and said, "Honestly, our lives coincide for the most part up to a point. I know he's actually me because we both 'died' the same way according to the memories I've been able to sift through. He ended up serving Trigon in Injustice, and I ended up here… I don't think he's all bad, but he did marry an evil you and have a kid who trained under Slade, so to answer your question, no, I don't think 'handling him' is possible, but it's not like that is even what I need to worry about."
Raven was interested now, "What do you mean?" she asked.
Ian shrugged, "He likes you enough to be sobbing in my head right now… you slapping him across the face must have made him remember the other you."
Raven raised an eyebrow, "So he's a masochist?"
Ian fell a few feet in the air. "Oh fu-" he winced as he stabilized. Raven sighed, "It's okay to have quirks, Ian. Everyone has-"
"I AM NOT LIKE THAT!" Ian shouted as he fervently shook his head.
Raven smiled, "Sure. You can talk about it when you're ready."
"I swear that's not how I am!" Ian was having more trouble levitating now. He was mortified that there was a version of him that would even be… THAT word… he couldn't even think it!
A few hours later he was back in his room. "Sometimes I wish I had a Nevermore…" he sighed staring at the History of Earth-Prime. A part of him was concerned, another part curious, and another scared to know, so he opted to ignore the book for now.
As he lay on the bed, he grabbed the book from Injustice that he recently got and cracked it open. It seemed to be a list of powers of each of the Injustice Titans' kids, along with, you guessed it, Scott's powers and history as well, along with the regular info on the regime and others. The very back of the book detailed the last fight the kid hero team had against Superman and had a gruesome mangled Dubs at the end, who in a last-ditch effort to save everyone, launched the whole team into space with a boom tube. He sighed, committing it to memory and reading up on how Scott's powers were used, however…
There were a lot more than he was aware of, and all of them seemed demonic. Then again, this was a version that died when he touched the TV, and was sent to Trigon's realm, serving him without question…
until he met Raven. At that point, it seemed that Scott had diverted his attention to earning her trust and respect, which had led to him ultimately becoming her lover and conceiving Catherine. After that when Raven tried to kill her, Scott seemed to have sheltered her from her mother by sending her to Slade under the pretense of giving Deathstroke an apprentice.
After that, Catherine had become an enemy of Superman, which meant Scott had to make a choice. Either stay loyal to Raven or protect his daughter.
He chose Catherine.
Beyond wondering how old Scott was if he looked only a few months older than Ian, he was having a field day learning things about an Injustice world that didn't seem to follow his world's canon… Realizing that the Injustice 2 "Bad ending" was the one depicted in the book, he gulped. could he even defeat a Superman fused with Brainiac unless the team had a plan in place before… he tried not to think about it and kept reading.
Fleeing earth while Dubs was distracting Superman, they constructed a computer and used a Motherbox to transfer Dub's consciousness from his old body to this current one on the outer reaches of the milky way effectively rescuing Dubs at the last moment when Superman was going to finish him off since it would be impossible to reprogram Dubs unless he was decomposed and reset to an infantile mind, which was useless to Superman. As a result, the team was personally exiled from the milky way by Evil Superman, who added insult to injury by ordering an exorbitant bounty be placed on their heads for them to be caught and subdued.
Ian finished reading, and sighed, "Even a good demon is still a demon, huh?" he set the book down. "So you made a few bad choices, Scott… we both know which choices were the right ones. I believe you did the right thing…"
Before he fell asleep, he added, "We can both have a crush on her you know. It's not a bad thing to share…"
The last thing he heard was, "Maybe you're right... you've given me a lot to think about." as Scott answered him in deep thought.
ZZZZZZZZ… ZZZZZZZZ… ZZZZZZZZ...
A/N: I know that the injustice comics vs the Injustice 2 game endings are different or deter from each other due to the fact that in the game there's a "Good" and "Bad" ending, however, there's a reason I chose the game to pull from and a reason to use Evil Super Man Brainiac. If you haven't seen the ending to that game I encourage you to find a let's play, but the gist is that that entire earth's heroes are subdued into Superman's pawns with Brainiac's influence. It seemed fitting to use a villain that maniacal as the fear Ian has considering this means he may have to deal with the entire Brainiac-possessed Injustice world should that happen so-
Ian: Tsk tsk, no spoilers asshat.
Me: How did you get in here? You're not real!
Scott: Says You! The multiverse theory is what I operate under, remember? Also, Warp's time device is convenient for dimensions as well as space and time, so we wanted to make sure you weren't planning on killing someone.
Me: Oh fu- Is Raven okay?
Ian and Scott at the same time: Which one?
Shit... I gotta deal with this. See you next time if Ian doesn't kill me readers!