"It looks like the work of a very large crime ring that we've been pursuing lately. They're ruthless and cunning. We have no idea who's involved or why. All we know is that we've already… lost several members to them." Superman looked vaguely disturbed at having to reveal such unhappy information to five children, but he was a man of truth and honor and he believed in telling people exactly what they needed to know. "The grim fact of it is, that we don't believe you five are ready to face such an enigmatic foe. We'll be providing you with rooms in the city and requesting you remain there until further notice."
"What!" Beast Boy and Cyborg bristled, unwilling to even think that they needed the help of adults to avenge their home. Neither of them really understood why the League was involved to begin with. They began to offer protestations but stopped, under the surprisingly quelling glance of Robin.
I knew that Robin had expected this. Ever since the four emissaries from the station had appeared, requesting our presence, and Robin's unusual compliance, I had known he had expected this. He wasn't even watching Superman as he delivered the verdict. He was watching an enigmatic shape in the shadows.
Batman.
Ever since Robin's apprenticeship to Slade, Robin and Batman had been at odds. Batman no longer trusted the boy wonder's capabilities, and disagreed with his approach to crime fighting. Most likely, the silent bat had offered up his advice that the Teen Titans be prevented from actively searching for their attackers. Children shouldn't take part in acts of revenge, especially children who had been known to lose their tempers before.
However, it made me wonder what was so important about these criminals that the League would step in to begin with. Robin had mentioned their possible involvement the night of the attack. Had he known then that the criminals were much bigger than we could imagine?
"This is for your protection of course. Obviously you are the next targets of these assassins and they are extremely ruthless. They never stop pursuing a target until it has been eliminated. And somehow they always known their opponent's weaknesses."
I felt my world freeze. Was there another reason to my absent powers? Had the mirror been purposefully targeted?
"We request that you all assume regular, daily lives, and try to blend in as best as possible, understood? Do not leave the apartment and do not show yourselves in public."
XXX
I woke from my nap to find the world dark and glimmering with nightlife. I decided that the others must have been home by then, and would probably be looking for someone to tell their adventures to. Reluctantly I clambered from beneath the sheets and entered the main room, rubbing the tired sleep from my eyes.
I froze in the entryway, watching as the flickering images on the television screen cascaded over Robin's frozen shape. He was standing in front of the TV, remote in hand, and his face was shining with stifled tears. I was too stunned to move, wondering silently what had caused this odd picture.
"They're dead." He whispered. He pressed a button on the remote and instantly the sounds of a news report filled the room.
"It's reported that the three teens were supposedly part of the late Teen Titans, which were thought to be destroyed in the recent collapse of Titan's Tower. The trio apparently fought bravely against yet, unidentified foes. We have no information yet as to the deaths total but we are certain that the three heroes did not survive the attack. "
Robin muted the TV once more and turned to look at me, the stunned horror on his face mirroring my own. "The club that they were in- it exploded… a lot of people died…"
I didn't need his help envisioning what happened next. Naturally the three of them would have survived, resourceful as they were, and risen to struggle against the culprits. And somehow they had lost? It couldn't be. The Teen Titans never lost, they never failed. They never died.
Except, we weren't the Teen Titans anymore. We ceased to be that legendary team the minute Titans Tower crumbled beneath us. We were nothing then.
"Robin…"
"It's all my fault. You were right. I should have been there. I shouldn't have abandoned them. They died thinking that I didn't care. They died-"
"Robin stop!"
He stared at me with wide, uncomprehending eyes. I stood before him, clutching my cape to my body, shivering uncontrollably. We stood that way, caught, like a pair of animals in the headlights, in our own shock and horror. Suddenly, he crossed the distance between us and wrapped his arms around me, desperately seeking to soothe my shattered heart. For the first time in years, I began to cry in deep, painful earnest.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Raven, I'm sorry." His voice whispered in my ear, shuddering with repressed tears. I found myself gripping his shoulders as if they were the only things in the world holding me up above the empty chasm looming below me.
The emotions swirling in my mind were unrepressed, unbidden and so strong. I had never felt so many things before. I had never been able to. Part of me wondered why there was no exploding glass, no cracking walls, and the rest of me grieved without restraint. I begged the world not to start moving again. I begged whatever God there was, to let me stay here like this, in the arms of the only person I had left.
The front door crashed out of its frame and landed with a thud, revealing three huge silhouettes. Both Robin and I turned to face the intruders, Robin in fighting stance as I sniffled miserably behind him. The three strode into the room and the light from the TV fell across them, revealing Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.
"Oh thank God!" The super powered woman strode forward and caught us both in a hug, obviously relieved that we were safe. I roughly shoved her away, glaring. I didn't want anyone else to touch me. I didn't want the world to start moving again. All I wanted was to stay in Robin's arms, where it was safe. Unconsciously I clung to his shadow, the darkness of my cloak hiding my expression.
Wonder Woman backed away in confusion, and Superman laid a consoling hand on her shoulder. He couldn't, however, stop Batman from glaring darkly at Robin, who in turn, glared equally back.
"We told them not to leave the building. I told you to make sure they didn't. They were your responsibility." His harsh, cold monotone, I had no doubt, was the inner voice that was already chiding Robin for their deaths. I felt a rage gathering inside me that joined with the unfairness of their deaths and cascaded past my eyes in a haze of red fury.
"SHUT UP!" I screamed. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"
Even Robin turned to stare at me in shock. I was no longer hiding behind him, but holding my head in my hands and crying uncontrollably. "It wasn't his fault! He didn't do anything wrong!" Robin's hands on my shoulders hushed my tirade. He gently stroked my hair and I gratefully leaned against him, welcoming the solace of his presence.
"She's right Bruce, you can't blame him. " Wonder Woman chided gently.
I could hear them talking, but I wasn't listening. My mind was racing with thoughts and agonizing pain, numbing my senses to the world outside. All that mattered was Robin's arms around my shoulders, and the flickering images on the TV screen.
I remembered Starfire, returning from her trip to the future with Warp. I remembered how I had gone insane in that dimension; without friends I had lost myself to the turmoil of my heritage. They never knew it, but I needed them more than they needed me. I needed them more than they needed me. I needed them more than they needed me.
I needed them.
XXX
"I don't care about the nature of a super hero! I don't care about my duty to the people! All I care about it my duty to her."
Robin angrily pointed in my direction, a gesture that made me blush. Superman and the other League members watched with varying levels of concern as Batman and Robin faced off in the center of their control room.
"We aren't heroes, maybe we never were, but right now that doesn't matter! You might be willing to sacrifice yourself and your sanity for the greater good, but I'm not!" And with that, Boy Wonder pulled the mask from his face and threw it at his mentor's feet.
Batman looked up from the fallen mask into the icy eyes of Richard Grayson. He looked about ready to disagree, and even Superman made to intervene, but the enigmatic hero only nodded.
"I know." He glanced at me, his dark eyes penetrating deeper into my sorrow than any gaze had yet to delve. "You both have been through too much to continue fighting. Robin… Richard… I'm sorry."
With a swirl of his spiky black cape, the Bat strode into the shadows and vanished. Richard watched him go, a stunned look on his face. Obviously he had expected Batman to argue. Deflated, he turned to me and smiled, a weak, pained smile that spoke of the many nights we had both spent awake in mourning. It was the first time I had ever seen his eyes.
They were blue.
XXX
When we moved into the apartment, we put our stuff into two separate rooms. We pretended we were normal. We dressed in normal clothes. We talked in normal tones. We watched normal TV; changing the channel every time we saw the news.
But that night, when the nightmares started to claw at my dreams and the tears soaked through my pillow, I woke up and silently tiptoed to his room. He was still asleep, motionless in the darkness. I was jealous of his ability to resist the terror of loss, his ability to remain inside reality and not the horrific dreamland pain of the heart.
I sat fearfully at the edge of the bed and trembled. I had lost everything: my friends, my family, my powers… What could I do now? What did I have left? I only had him. He was he last thing in the world that mattered.
His crime fighting instincts told him when he was being watched. I wasn't surprised when he jumped up from the bed and stared at me through the ebony shadows. I saw him smile faintly.
"We'll move your stuff in here tomorrow."
And that was that. We would share the room. We wouldn't be alone. We couldn't be alone. He invited me under the covers. I silently obeyed, facing the wintry night outside our window, and he wrapped his arms around me from behind. I could feel his breathing slow as it gently brushed my neck. His heart, beating steadily in his chest, the slow rhythm as he gently fell asleep, soothed my broken soul until I gave into the peace of sleep.
I still had a home, wherever I could find him.
Lunatic: Usually I would have made Raven a lot calmer, a lot colder about all of this, but I wanted to show how much she really cared about her friends. After all, didn't she go insane when Starfire left? So no, I don't think anyone is out of character. And I think them leaving is perfectly plausible, and yes I might consider a sequel to better explain what was going on etc. etc.