Author's Note: Hum... first fic posted up... ever.
Teen Titans are property of DC Comics and Cartoon Network.
THE GAME
(An Alternate Universe Story)
Chapter 1: Who I Am
Richard Grayson took in a deep breath and smiled, another clear day in Jump City greeting him with its characteristically sunny rays beginning to warm his face. The exhalation of the breath brought around a more serious demeanor, but he kept the smile on his face as he reached into his bright-yellow utility belt and extracted an eyemask. Pressing the heat-activated adhesive onto his face, Robin emerged to greet the city he protected with the help of his team.
Upon reentering the T-shaped structure that he called home, he was greeted with a comfortably familiar sight. It was too early for the daily breakfast squabble between the two other guys who lived in the tower, and Robin contented himself with a quiet cup of coffee and the chance to collect his nerves. His comfortable silence was equally shared with another member of the elite crime-fighting team, and Robin quietly raised his mug to a cloaked head from the couch.
"Morning, Raven," Robin cheerfully called, his coffee mug settling on the countertop with a resonating chink.
"Good morning, Robin," Raven replied coolly, her eyes never leaving the ponderous book on her lap. Robin noticed that it was the same book that she often left on the coffee table late at night, whenever she felt that she couldn't sleep. He supposed that last night was one of those nights.
Several minutes of continued silence later, Robin found himself growing somewhat impatient. He idly tapped on the kitchen countertop, his fingers pounding out a random rhythm as he stared at the windows to the Jump City harbor. The city spread before his eyes, street lights dimming in the pinkish skies of dawn. The finished mug of coffee lay forgotten, the residual coffee drops turning bitterly cold.
"… Is there something on your mind, Robin?" Raven questioned finally, blue eyes peering over the book.
"Sometimes… do you think that maybe this is all just a game?" Robin asked suddenly.
Raven's left eyebrow rose at that nonchalant question. It was unlike Robin to just throw out a question and not have it get answered to his satisfaction. She mulled over the question, debating on whether or not to continue on with this interesting response to her prompt. She decided to take the bait this time.
"What would make you think that?" she asked in response.
Robin paused for only a moment. "It's just… I guess you can say that I'm bored… that's all."
Raven closed her book and pulled her hood down, revealing her orchid-colored hair and impressively sapphire-blue eyes. She turned and faced Robin, who in turn locked eyes with her.
"Aren't we supposed to be glad that we don't have to risk our lives fighting off crime everyday?" Raven questioned emotionlessly.
Robin partially wrung his hands together in search of a viable answer. He licked his suddenly dry lips, feeling the slightly-chapped skin underneath his flicking tongue. Raven's gaze never left Robin's masked eyes, and soon Robin exhaled a breath quite forcibly, as if expecting that breath to take away some of the frustrations that he was feeling at the moment. When nothing of the sort happened, he relented.
"I'm not so sure how to describe it," Robin confessed finally. At Raven's perplexed expression, Robin hastily added, "It's not that I don't know what it is, just I'm not sure how to put it to words. It's… a feeling."
"A feeling…" Raven repeated, her lips pursed as she let the sound of her own voice reverberate in her mind. She took in a deep breath, sighed, and turned her gaze to a spot on the kitchen counter. "A feeling that… you've run out of criminals to capture and throw in jail, isn't it?"
Robin nodded despite his ingrained response to say something to the contrary. He gritted his teeth at his own failure of hiding his true thoughts, but it was too late to take back what he had done. Raven didn't need to observe his actions to continue, and she stretched her back a little before going on.
"You are somewhat unique in that aspect," Raven noted, her voice suddenly very far away. "Going into the chase releases a sort of feral nature within you. It is something different from righteous anger, unstable DNA, and just an opportunity to kick ass and take names. It's like you're readying yourself to go…"
"Hunting," Robin finished in a hollow tone. At Raven's hesitant nod, he continued, "And the criminals are merely prey for us to take down. It becomes a game, a game where the stakes are high but the rewards are higher. It's… a game where losing means forfeiting everything."
"And you relish it, don't you," Raven pressed, although her voice was fairly calm in comparison to the mesmerizing emotion showing in her eyes. "You relish the hunt, but you especially relish the capture, that which you associate the 'kill' with. It's quite possibly the one of the few things that has followed you out of the red skies of Gotham besides that mask: the love of the hunt, whether for justice or just to clean the streets."
Robin slumped over on a kitchen stool, absently rubbing his forehead with gloved fingertips. Raven had left her perch on the couch and was now hovering over the kitchen area, face set in a somewhat plaintive expression. She touched down on the carpet bordering the vinyl floors of the kitchen unit, her movements silent as she summoned a dark blue mug from one of the cabinets. Various appliances responded under a glow of black energy as she busied herself with making a cup of herbal tea, and still Robin remained silent.
"… How… how do you know all of that," Robin uttered, more as a statement than a question.
Raven looked up from her busywork and carefully handled the mug of tea in her hands. Gently blowing over the dark brown liquid, she glanced through the cloud of steam for a few seconds. Robin sensed something odd about her brief lapse of silence, for Raven would usually either answer in a straightforward manner or evade the topic of conversation altogether. However, Raven set her undisturbed mug of tea on the countertop.
"You and I both share that same feeling," Raven muttered finally. Her eyes narrowed as she continued in an even quieter tone. "Although… I would hesitate to call your feeling bloodlust. It's more… zealous… than anything else."
Robin made no mention that he heard the passing statement. Instead, he shifted his fingers to his right temple, resting them there as he propped his elbow up on the kitchen table. Keeping his head in that precarious balance, he heaved out a small sigh. Raven blew at her tea once more and took in an experimental sip before braving the still-hot liquid for a more satisfying gulp. Robin found himself studying the contents of the cabinet that Raven had left open, but when Raven turned to return to her book and thus end the awkward conversation, his chair swiveled and he jumped off, crossing his arms across his broad chest.
"Can I… ask you a question?" he asked, his gaze never leaving the carpet in front of him.
"I don't see why not," Raven replied with her eyes closed. She drank more of the tea, savoring the bittersweet aftertaste.
"If you feel the same towards fighting crime, then why aren't you… bored?"
Raven opened her eyes, brilliant sapphire irises contrasting with the pale skin of her face and dark hair. She could pass as a monochromatic figure, which Robin figured wasn't very healthy of anyone, but he had decided long ago to not question Raven about anything. This, however, this was something that he deemed rather urgent, and he was willing to simply stand there for as long as he could to get even a sliver of an answer that Raven could hand out. This time, Raven decided to humor fate and she turned around, facing Robin's caped back.
"You should know that answer; you instill the mindset into us everyday," Raven replied simply. "Criminals, no matter how sadistic or cruel or just plain idiotic they are, they're still people… or at least sentient beings. And sentient beings can all feel one common emotion, whether they are heroes or villains."
Robin snorted in spite of himself, but there was a recurring image of potential similarities between Plasmus, Cinderblock, Mad Mod, Killer Moth, Control Freak, the HIVE teens, and countless other villains that would make Batman laugh. He was quite sure that there were little to no similarities, let alone a common emotion that they would even admit to sharing. If it was one thing that he was slightly thankful for, it was the fact that these enemies of the city never deemed it profitable to work together for one heist.
"And what sort of emotion would that be?" Robin asked. "What exactly do we have in common with the criminals we fight and lock up everyday?"
Raven wasted no time. Drawing her hood over her head and hiding her facial features from the world, she centered her gaze straight at Robin. The Boy Wonder suddenly had the sensation that the sorceress was looking at him, not through him as she usually did.
"We all are capable of feeling fear."
With that, Raven deemed the conversation was over, and teleported out of the room before Robin could come up with a witty argument to convince her otherwise. Robin's hand was even lifted in a motion to halt the sorceress, but he thought better of his late action and let his hand fall limply to his side, fingers slightly curling to form a semi-fist.
Clouds started bordering the happy sun of Jump City.
But Robin was given little time to brood over his newfound source of consternation when the main doors opened with a snappy slide. His back to the door, he forced himself to push down his thoughts to the back of his mind. Heavy footsteps, followed by lighter ones and a small whooshing noise of someone in flight, caused him to turn around with a smile on his face.
"Happy morning, friend Robin!" Starfire chirped, her enthusiasm lighting up the room more than any source of natural sunlight.
"Yeah, morning," Cyborg yawned out, but he quickly snapped out of his standby-mode when he spotted Beast Boy zooming towards the kitchen unit, chef's hat already on his head at a jaunty angle.
"Yeah, yeah, morning and all… Now who's ready for some tofu!" Beast Boy cackled, brandishing a frying pan and packages of tofu.
"Watch it you little grass stain!" Cyborg yelled, launching himself over the counter and landing with a heavy thump beside the rather sprightly green teen. "We're gonna have bacon and eggs this morning! It's my morning to cook!"
"Dude! How am I supposed to eat what you're trying to cook? Besides, everyone over here eats the tofu I cook!"
Already Robin was calculating the extent of the damage the two were causing as pots and pans catapulted out of the various cupboard doors. Dimly he remembered how neatly organized everything was before they had stormed down to continue their food war, and dimly he recalled the quiet that he had experienced with such relish only a few moments before.
"It's probably 'cause you burned out our taste buds a long time ago trying to stuff us with that white crap! Now move over, I know I put that bacon somewhere…"
Cyborg hastily shoved a green octopus out of the way as he rummaged through the refrigerator, trying to keep the tentacles at bay as he emerged with his triumph. Beast Boy immediately morphed into a spider monkey and latched onto the hulking giant's shoulders, causing quite a screeching racket. Cyborg in turn blindly reached out and grabbed a pan handle in retaliation.
"Please, friends, perhaps I may pursue the preparation of the breaking of fasts today?" Starfire offered with her hands clasped together.
Beast Boy, perched on Cyborg's massive shoulders, stopped tugging at his friend's ears as Cyborg stopped the random pan in his grasp in mid-swing. The duo looked at Robin plaintively, who in turn sighed and stretched on a watery smile as he faced Starfire.
"Um… maybe during lunch?" he asked.
"Glorious! I shall not disappoint!" Starfire squealed, and she flew away at top speed to entertain herself for a few more hours.
With that taken care of, Cyborg and Beast Boy continued on with their breakfast debacle while Robin sat down on the couch, his head in his hands and his mind in deep thought.
"We are all capable of feeling fear."
Robin blinked from under his mask, the wheels in his mind working on overtime. Of course he understood her statement; criminals felt enough fear whenever they saw the super-powered group of teens converging on their getaway paths. But why had Raven put so much emphasis on that statement alone? Why was she opening up so much to him now, on only that concept alone?
"… I need some time alone," he muttered to no one in particular.
He made to leave to the training room, but he stopped when he spotted Raven's book. Only, there was a newspaper neatly folded on top of the book. He picked up the newspaper, recalling that he had not picked up the newspaper from the mailbox this morning at all. He folded it over, his eyes scanning the headline article.
MASKED TERRORIST NOW IN JUMP CITY?
His curiosity was suitably piqued. Thumbing through the various articles pertaining to the new story at hand, he found himself walking down the stairs and to the residential halls of the Titans Tower. Several shoddy pictures of a masked man instantly caught his attention, as did the insignia that the masked man had emblazoned on his earlier crime scenes, followed by a monosyllabic name.
"Slade…"
Robin found the gears in his head moving in tune to the wheels which were already zooming around in circles.
"… Who is Slade?"
Although he failed to notice, he passed directly by Raven's room as he muttered the question, whereupon the dark girl quietly exited her room. Her expression unreadable, she heaved a small sigh laced with a surprising trace of guilt.
"Slade… is no ordinary criminal."
Raven decided that today would be a good time to make sure she had sufficient meditation.
