Chapter Three: Blood and Pain
After Raven was done with her poetry writing, it was well past midnight and everyone was asleep. She was a bit hungry even though she drank at least a few ounces of tea more than she usually does. It had been a couple of days since she last ate. She pulled out left over lasagna that Starfire effectively made while she was gone and placed a piece on a plate. As she put the lasagna, she was reminded of Robin. She sighed, not dreamily, but in disappointment that she actually fell in like of him, or love, which ever she felt. Raven recounted the things that had gone wrong at the fair: possibly everything.
"Couldn't sleep?" A voice in the dark inquired. He was in his pajamas but still had his mask on for some odd reason. She looked at Robin. Raven shook her head.
"Yes, but I was hungry. Why do you want to know?" She spat. She took out the steaming lasagna and started to eat. "What about you?" she said between mouthfuls. She drooled over the food because she hadn't eaten a decent meal in days.
Robin sat at the clean kitchen counter across from Raven as well, and watched her eat. She threw a malicious look at him, telling him that she didn't want to be stared at. He turned his eyes at his fist on the table and made a beat until she threw another of those looks again. He scrunched up his face in a confused manner.
"We haven't talked yet. In fact, you haven't told anybody what you think of anything," Robin tried to cut through into her inside emotions.
"Everything is pointless. What makes you want to know about me?" Raven read his mind. After she whipped up the last of her lasagna into her mouth, she headed to the sink and cleaned it until it glimmered in the candle light. The counter seemed avoidable at the moment and she thought of getting out of this trap and tried to run away.
"Wait! We haven't had a- err- a point-ful conversation yet and you said you would, maybe now?" Robin acted up in want that Raven felt sorry, no not sorry, but pathetic that she didn't dare let anyone get too close to her. Another disappointed sigh slipped from her mouth. She sat next to him this time. "Why'd you run away at the fair?" Robin asked. Raven let her eyes meet his. Her eyes narrowed into slits. "You don't have to tell me." Robin tried to meet her level of exceptions, but didn't.
"They were pitiable. I saved them and they made fun of me," Raven decided to look at another direction and held onto her cotton pants. Her hair now messy in a half pony tail and her first button of her cotton pajamas was undone. She quickly arranged it back together.
"You could've ignored them," Robin tried desperately to make her show emotions. It's been a very long time since she was able to show any.
"It's not that easy, Robin. Have you ever been neglected when you were a child?" Raven importuned. Robin just shook his head. "Then you'll never know what it's like to be turned away from your own kind and mentally abused!" She looked deep into the flames of the candle light, and using her mind, she made it dance. Robin stared at it too.
"But I have been mentally abused before!" Robin looked forward to Raven's defeat of the illustration of sentiment. She looked down this time to her hands clutching her pants. She took out her hair tie. 'Then I'm sorry' she told him mentally. He looked at her and softened his face. The memories of the murder of his parents came to mind and his eyes, unexpectedly, brought tears out. He banged one of fists on to the table. "Damn it," he whispered. This caused her to look up. She was sad. Not for herself, but for him. She saw the replay in his mind. Raven wanted to hug him but drew back. Instead she gave him tissue and a pat on his back. She felt a flutter in her stomach when she saw the tears in his eyes.
"You have a family now, you're with us," Raven softly spoke. It wasn't like her to use those words in the same sentence but it was worth the try to get spiritually closer to him. He stopped crying and smiled.
"You're right," Robin squeaked out. He returned back to his regular video game beating, crime fighting and adored-by-many world. Even if Raven was the one to keep quiet, he also hid secrets, dwelling inside, ready to get loose and ready to tell somebody, anybody his fears. Raven although, had hid more fears than all of them combined. "What do you think of us?" He blurted out. This made Raven blush. She could tell him how she felt about him. How she exactly felt about him.
"They're- they're what I would call extravagant," Raven ended. Robin just wilted his face. He expected her to say more. She read his mind, and it was obvious that he did care about her, but she wasn't sure if he cared about her in a more than a friend manner. "You - I li- I really care about yo-" She began but an alarm went off. Robin raced to the intercom.
"Titans! Wake up! Emergency!" Robin and Raven ran out to the entrance when the door flew open in front of their faces. Plasmus, Cinderblock and the H.I.V.E.'s were teamed up against them all. Somehow, Slade managed to awake Plasmus and get Cinderblock out of his jail cell and the H.I.V.E's from being corruptive. Raven threw off the slippers she wore around the house and flew straight at Jinx. She punched her in the face.
"Still fighting like a boy, Raven? Where'd you learn to fight? Did Robin teach you?" Jinx growled in fun. Her witch's power was no match for Raven but Raven didn't want her dark side to let loose. Instead she went to her maximum power where she wouldn't turn that way. Raven kicked her full on in the stomach and that made Jinx lean down for a bit. Mammoth went straight for her, but Raven used telekinesis to lift him up.
"Whoa!" Mammoth managed to let out. With Jinx still on the ground, Gizmo wanted to avenge their almost defeat and spiked her in the back with one of his legs.
"Ready to be beaten?" Gizmo smiled. Raven gasped from the pin as blood spilled over her shoulders. Luckily she wasn't hit in the spine but near her shoulders. At the last second, she directed Mammoth over the leaning Jinx and dropped him on top of her. She struggled against him but he was too heavy and a bit whizzed out. Gizmo laughed as he blew a rocket at her. Raven jumped back and sniveled in pain as it engraved the side of her leg. Blood detonated everywhere. Robin watched her as he did some acrobatic tricks on Cinderblock and Grudge to confuse them both until the rest could get down.
As they were battling each other outside, a green hawk flew over Robin's head and dropped his belt to him. Robin fumbled to put it on as Cyborg wrestled Cinderblock with Starfire blasting energy balls at the Grudge. BeastBoy turned into T-Rex to combat Jinx. She finally made it out from under Mammoth, which was still dizzy from the 10 story fall. He finally got up and picked up Raven.
"How would you like to be dropped? Heh, I'll just throw you!" Mammoth elevated Raven above his head, as her blood trickled down his arms and his shoulders. Some that oozed down her hand flew onto Mammoth's forehead and streamed down his face above his mouth. He licked it and smiled. "You're gonna regret the day you were born!" Raven alerted her mind to the door that they once again blew down and made it fly over to them. It smacked Mammoth but before he fell into unconsciousness, he threw Raven, who also passed out from loss of blood, into a tree about 5 yards ahead of them. Her pajamas were ripped up at the calves and her sleeves. Gizmo laughed and rushed over to Raven. Who began to pick her up as well, Beastboy saw Gizmo moving towards Raven, and tried to rescue her himself, but Jinx caught up with him and made him weak from her blows of purple energy blasts.
"Raven!" Starfire screamed, she also tried to reach her but grabbed by Plasmus. Gizmo was now on his emaciated metal legs and laughed again. "Let me go! We must save Raven!"
"I got you for sure!" Gizmo's remote was ordered to bring out more of his rockets. He aimed at Raven and some around Raven just to add effect. Robin and Cyborg were being belligerent against Cinderblock because it seemed somehow he grew twice as tall and stronger than last time. They didn't notice until it actually went off. Gizmo jumped back to not get hurt. When it was done blowing up Raven he crouched over her in the smoke.
"RAVEN!!!" Robin bawled. "Gizmo! You're gonna pay!"
"With what? We won! So beat it!" Gizmo hooted. He lunged the air to show Robin his bloody friend. Raven was lying on her side. This time, instead of having a few places being ripped open, her shirt was torn up until it reached her chest and her pants became the shape of short shorts. Her sleeves were frayed to tatters. Her hair was sticky with blood. The first button popped off and her collars were rejected so now it looked like she was bloody Hill Billy. Her once longed sleeved pajama collared shirt became a ripped up tank top that showed her narrow stomach and her pajama boy shorts revealed once again her muscled legs. "I said, 'BEAT IT!'" and on cue, Plasmus held Starfire to the ground and covered her neck to toes in slim so it wasn't so easy to get out of herself. With her energy gone, she cried. Cinderblock picked up Robin and Cyborg and smashed them together and dropped them cataleptic. Jinx, making her grand finale to also make Beastboy into the state of comatose, she powered up her vigor and gratis it out him making his head hit Starfire's head. They both fell into insensible sleep.
"Why don't you get rid of them, Cinderblock? Mammoth, you too," Jinx ordered both of them, after Mammoth finally got after 15 minutes. Cinderblock picked up Cyborg, Beastboy and Raven while Mammoth selected Robin and Starfire (after removing the glob that stuck to her). They threw them all the way to the forest that was past the city they were in. Their confidence had doubled their strength that they finally beat the Titans.
14 Hours Later_________________________
A groan escaped Robin's lips. He licked it and tasted the dried blood. He was on the ground, but he couldn't find anyone else, except Raven. She was on a rock taller than her.
"Raven!" he croaked. His parched throat kept him from screaming the other names. He rushed towards her. Lifting her up her stood on the rocks to check if any one else was near by. The only person he saw was Cyborg on the tree tops. He tried calling his name a dozen times, but his voice couldn't reach his ears. Then he directed his approach on Raven. Robin held her close to him. She was still bleeding and it dripped onto his pajamas. She appeared dead to the world, with serenity on her face, it didn't seem that she was still alive. Robin started crying. The tears ran down fast with one right after another. Then they proceeded from streams to rivers to water falls. The tears splattered onto her face, waking her heart beat. She wasn't awake though, just from dead to unconscious, or it seemed she was lifeless. "Wake, up, don't die. Please don't die, please. DON'T DIE!" Robin was holding her in his arms and rocking back and forth. He couldn't feel her heart beat yet though and couldn't hear her soft breathing so he decided to give her a proper funeral. He looked for the delicate spot of dirt and began to dig with his bare hands. She was still on his laps as he bent down digging and digging. He wept bitterly and asking himself why couldn't he save her, why didn't he notice that Gizmo was going to kill her? When he reached a foot underground, she turned her head and moaned. He thought that was himself until he felt her grabbing his shirt.
"Help the others," she structured. "They need you." She lifted her head and tears formed in her eyes. Robin didn't want her to show emotions like this during this time of event. He wiped the blood and tears from her eyes. While she was out cold, the bleeding eventually stopped. Raven stood up and started to pace towards the river but collapsed. Robin ran over to her and lifted her up and they ensued to the river.
When they reached it a few minutes later, they drank the clean water and bathed themselves with clothes still on. Raven swam slowly to the middle where it was the height of her neck. She cooled herself in it and the pain eased little by little.
After Raven was done with her poetry writing, it was well past midnight and everyone was asleep. She was a bit hungry even though she drank at least a few ounces of tea more than she usually does. It had been a couple of days since she last ate. She pulled out left over lasagna that Starfire effectively made while she was gone and placed a piece on a plate. As she put the lasagna, she was reminded of Robin. She sighed, not dreamily, but in disappointment that she actually fell in like of him, or love, which ever she felt. Raven recounted the things that had gone wrong at the fair: possibly everything.
"Couldn't sleep?" A voice in the dark inquired. He was in his pajamas but still had his mask on for some odd reason. She looked at Robin. Raven shook her head.
"Yes, but I was hungry. Why do you want to know?" She spat. She took out the steaming lasagna and started to eat. "What about you?" she said between mouthfuls. She drooled over the food because she hadn't eaten a decent meal in days.
Robin sat at the clean kitchen counter across from Raven as well, and watched her eat. She threw a malicious look at him, telling him that she didn't want to be stared at. He turned his eyes at his fist on the table and made a beat until she threw another of those looks again. He scrunched up his face in a confused manner.
"We haven't talked yet. In fact, you haven't told anybody what you think of anything," Robin tried to cut through into her inside emotions.
"Everything is pointless. What makes you want to know about me?" Raven read his mind. After she whipped up the last of her lasagna into her mouth, she headed to the sink and cleaned it until it glimmered in the candle light. The counter seemed avoidable at the moment and she thought of getting out of this trap and tried to run away.
"Wait! We haven't had a- err- a point-ful conversation yet and you said you would, maybe now?" Robin acted up in want that Raven felt sorry, no not sorry, but pathetic that she didn't dare let anyone get too close to her. Another disappointed sigh slipped from her mouth. She sat next to him this time. "Why'd you run away at the fair?" Robin asked. Raven let her eyes meet his. Her eyes narrowed into slits. "You don't have to tell me." Robin tried to meet her level of exceptions, but didn't.
"They were pitiable. I saved them and they made fun of me," Raven decided to look at another direction and held onto her cotton pants. Her hair now messy in a half pony tail and her first button of her cotton pajamas was undone. She quickly arranged it back together.
"You could've ignored them," Robin tried desperately to make her show emotions. It's been a very long time since she was able to show any.
"It's not that easy, Robin. Have you ever been neglected when you were a child?" Raven importuned. Robin just shook his head. "Then you'll never know what it's like to be turned away from your own kind and mentally abused!" She looked deep into the flames of the candle light, and using her mind, she made it dance. Robin stared at it too.
"But I have been mentally abused before!" Robin looked forward to Raven's defeat of the illustration of sentiment. She looked down this time to her hands clutching her pants. She took out her hair tie. 'Then I'm sorry' she told him mentally. He looked at her and softened his face. The memories of the murder of his parents came to mind and his eyes, unexpectedly, brought tears out. He banged one of fists on to the table. "Damn it," he whispered. This caused her to look up. She was sad. Not for herself, but for him. She saw the replay in his mind. Raven wanted to hug him but drew back. Instead she gave him tissue and a pat on his back. She felt a flutter in her stomach when she saw the tears in his eyes.
"You have a family now, you're with us," Raven softly spoke. It wasn't like her to use those words in the same sentence but it was worth the try to get spiritually closer to him. He stopped crying and smiled.
"You're right," Robin squeaked out. He returned back to his regular video game beating, crime fighting and adored-by-many world. Even if Raven was the one to keep quiet, he also hid secrets, dwelling inside, ready to get loose and ready to tell somebody, anybody his fears. Raven although, had hid more fears than all of them combined. "What do you think of us?" He blurted out. This made Raven blush. She could tell him how she felt about him. How she exactly felt about him.
"They're- they're what I would call extravagant," Raven ended. Robin just wilted his face. He expected her to say more. She read his mind, and it was obvious that he did care about her, but she wasn't sure if he cared about her in a more than a friend manner. "You - I li- I really care about yo-" She began but an alarm went off. Robin raced to the intercom.
"Titans! Wake up! Emergency!" Robin and Raven ran out to the entrance when the door flew open in front of their faces. Plasmus, Cinderblock and the H.I.V.E.'s were teamed up against them all. Somehow, Slade managed to awake Plasmus and get Cinderblock out of his jail cell and the H.I.V.E's from being corruptive. Raven threw off the slippers she wore around the house and flew straight at Jinx. She punched her in the face.
"Still fighting like a boy, Raven? Where'd you learn to fight? Did Robin teach you?" Jinx growled in fun. Her witch's power was no match for Raven but Raven didn't want her dark side to let loose. Instead she went to her maximum power where she wouldn't turn that way. Raven kicked her full on in the stomach and that made Jinx lean down for a bit. Mammoth went straight for her, but Raven used telekinesis to lift him up.
"Whoa!" Mammoth managed to let out. With Jinx still on the ground, Gizmo wanted to avenge their almost defeat and spiked her in the back with one of his legs.
"Ready to be beaten?" Gizmo smiled. Raven gasped from the pin as blood spilled over her shoulders. Luckily she wasn't hit in the spine but near her shoulders. At the last second, she directed Mammoth over the leaning Jinx and dropped him on top of her. She struggled against him but he was too heavy and a bit whizzed out. Gizmo laughed as he blew a rocket at her. Raven jumped back and sniveled in pain as it engraved the side of her leg. Blood detonated everywhere. Robin watched her as he did some acrobatic tricks on Cinderblock and Grudge to confuse them both until the rest could get down.
As they were battling each other outside, a green hawk flew over Robin's head and dropped his belt to him. Robin fumbled to put it on as Cyborg wrestled Cinderblock with Starfire blasting energy balls at the Grudge. BeastBoy turned into T-Rex to combat Jinx. She finally made it out from under Mammoth, which was still dizzy from the 10 story fall. He finally got up and picked up Raven.
"How would you like to be dropped? Heh, I'll just throw you!" Mammoth elevated Raven above his head, as her blood trickled down his arms and his shoulders. Some that oozed down her hand flew onto Mammoth's forehead and streamed down his face above his mouth. He licked it and smiled. "You're gonna regret the day you were born!" Raven alerted her mind to the door that they once again blew down and made it fly over to them. It smacked Mammoth but before he fell into unconsciousness, he threw Raven, who also passed out from loss of blood, into a tree about 5 yards ahead of them. Her pajamas were ripped up at the calves and her sleeves. Gizmo laughed and rushed over to Raven. Who began to pick her up as well, Beastboy saw Gizmo moving towards Raven, and tried to rescue her himself, but Jinx caught up with him and made him weak from her blows of purple energy blasts.
"Raven!" Starfire screamed, she also tried to reach her but grabbed by Plasmus. Gizmo was now on his emaciated metal legs and laughed again. "Let me go! We must save Raven!"
"I got you for sure!" Gizmo's remote was ordered to bring out more of his rockets. He aimed at Raven and some around Raven just to add effect. Robin and Cyborg were being belligerent against Cinderblock because it seemed somehow he grew twice as tall and stronger than last time. They didn't notice until it actually went off. Gizmo jumped back to not get hurt. When it was done blowing up Raven he crouched over her in the smoke.
"RAVEN!!!" Robin bawled. "Gizmo! You're gonna pay!"
"With what? We won! So beat it!" Gizmo hooted. He lunged the air to show Robin his bloody friend. Raven was lying on her side. This time, instead of having a few places being ripped open, her shirt was torn up until it reached her chest and her pants became the shape of short shorts. Her sleeves were frayed to tatters. Her hair was sticky with blood. The first button popped off and her collars were rejected so now it looked like she was bloody Hill Billy. Her once longed sleeved pajama collared shirt became a ripped up tank top that showed her narrow stomach and her pajama boy shorts revealed once again her muscled legs. "I said, 'BEAT IT!'" and on cue, Plasmus held Starfire to the ground and covered her neck to toes in slim so it wasn't so easy to get out of herself. With her energy gone, she cried. Cinderblock picked up Robin and Cyborg and smashed them together and dropped them cataleptic. Jinx, making her grand finale to also make Beastboy into the state of comatose, she powered up her vigor and gratis it out him making his head hit Starfire's head. They both fell into insensible sleep.
"Why don't you get rid of them, Cinderblock? Mammoth, you too," Jinx ordered both of them, after Mammoth finally got after 15 minutes. Cinderblock picked up Cyborg, Beastboy and Raven while Mammoth selected Robin and Starfire (after removing the glob that stuck to her). They threw them all the way to the forest that was past the city they were in. Their confidence had doubled their strength that they finally beat the Titans.
14 Hours Later_________________________
A groan escaped Robin's lips. He licked it and tasted the dried blood. He was on the ground, but he couldn't find anyone else, except Raven. She was on a rock taller than her.
"Raven!" he croaked. His parched throat kept him from screaming the other names. He rushed towards her. Lifting her up her stood on the rocks to check if any one else was near by. The only person he saw was Cyborg on the tree tops. He tried calling his name a dozen times, but his voice couldn't reach his ears. Then he directed his approach on Raven. Robin held her close to him. She was still bleeding and it dripped onto his pajamas. She appeared dead to the world, with serenity on her face, it didn't seem that she was still alive. Robin started crying. The tears ran down fast with one right after another. Then they proceeded from streams to rivers to water falls. The tears splattered onto her face, waking her heart beat. She wasn't awake though, just from dead to unconscious, or it seemed she was lifeless. "Wake, up, don't die. Please don't die, please. DON'T DIE!" Robin was holding her in his arms and rocking back and forth. He couldn't feel her heart beat yet though and couldn't hear her soft breathing so he decided to give her a proper funeral. He looked for the delicate spot of dirt and began to dig with his bare hands. She was still on his laps as he bent down digging and digging. He wept bitterly and asking himself why couldn't he save her, why didn't he notice that Gizmo was going to kill her? When he reached a foot underground, she turned her head and moaned. He thought that was himself until he felt her grabbing his shirt.
"Help the others," she structured. "They need you." She lifted her head and tears formed in her eyes. Robin didn't want her to show emotions like this during this time of event. He wiped the blood and tears from her eyes. While she was out cold, the bleeding eventually stopped. Raven stood up and started to pace towards the river but collapsed. Robin ran over to her and lifted her up and they ensued to the river.
When they reached it a few minutes later, they drank the clean water and bathed themselves with clothes still on. Raven swam slowly to the middle where it was the height of her neck. She cooled herself in it and the pain eased little by little.