Catalyst
By
Black Corvid
Disclaimer:
Don't own Teen Titans I just borrowed them for this little tale of mine…
You guys can flame me for my bad grammar or silly mistakes cause I didn't have anyone beta this for me, but not for the pairing please…not going to say what it is right now for it spoils the fun but it'd become more evident in later chapters…
Anyway leave me a comment after reading…
Chapter 1
Obsession can be explained as an unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or someone. And to the Teen Titans it was their leader
Robin, who had an obsession with a certain masked villain, a villain named Slade.
Chase after chase, battle after battle Robin had always thought that he had gotten the better of him the last time they met but after a short lived hiatus of calm he would catch wind of his evil deeds once more lingering over his town.
Robin's need to defeat Slade was at first confined to in the beginning to only getting rid of the 'bad guy' but as time wore on it soon went beyond that. Robin had tried almost everything he knew to try and defeat him and even went as far as creating a separate identity to trick him.
But nothing seemed to work for Slade just kept on coming back to haunt him…
Everyone single one of the Titans could see how their leader was overly obsessing over him but yet no one could seem to come up with a way of telling it right to his face. The hard part of that deal was making him listen, which sadly he never did.
And on one particular night as they rushed off to battle the elements of evil Robin would get a grim reminder of that fact thrown right in his face.
It wasn't even a crime that needed all of their attention even, for any single member of Titans would suffice in this case. It was just a very poor planned out robbery in one of the local banks and the Titans didn't break a sweat on the job.
Robin was herding the last member of the trio of would be bank robbers over to the police van after cuffing him and just then at the corner of his eye he saw a hint of orangey black metallic paint and it was coming from someone that was standing high above the opposite building looking down on him.
"Slade…!" he shouted and totally forgot what was at hand and ran off to the building.
And in that spilt second of his loss of concentration the robber had somehow managed to swipe a bird-a-rang from his utility belt without Robin noticing. He then thinking that it was maybe a hacksaw of some sort due to its sharp shiny edges began to saw at the chains of his birdcuffs.
Raven who had been nearest to Robin then quickly flew over to the unguarded robber to assume custody over him but just as she landed beside him she caught sight of what he was doing but it was too late.
Robin by then had ran all the way up to top of the building only to find it empty and as he looked down to the street below him a loud explosion threw him off the edge and back onto the roof.
As the plume of black smoke rose before him to the heavens Robin groggily got up and rubbed his head.
"What happened…?" he asked no one in particular as he slowly got up to his feet.
"Raven! Are you okay?" as Cyborg's shouts reached his ears clearly even from below.
"What's going on down there?" Robin thought out loudly.
Robin then ran back to the edge of the roof and slowly digested what he saw underneath him.
Below him on the street stood Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire hovering over the fallen figure of Raven who had landed some distance back from a small crater that had been freshly created on the asphalt.
Robin spun around and ran back down with all the speed his feet could muster.
And when he arrived all he could see were the paramedics who were luckily near by treating the injured Titan.
"What happened here!" asked Robin authoritatively.
"Dunno…man all I saw was Raven landing beside the last bank robber and then boom…" answered Beast Boy, his hands motioning in a large circular motion.
Robin didn't even get the chance to counter ask Beast Boy for he suddenly found himself forcefully dragged over by a very large mechanical hand over to the spot where the explosion had taken place.
"I found this…" uttered Cyborg's rather harsh voice as he handed or rather pushed to Robin a police evidence bag.
Robin curiously studied the contents and his eyes grew wide in disbelief, it was a broken piece of his exploding birdrang, the worst was still to come for Robin for that same piece of his unique weaponry was also caked with semi-dried blood.
In Jump City General Hospital the other Titans were huddled outside an emergency room while in the inside a group of doctors began to work on her right away. Only one member of the team was inauspiciously absent…
Robin was still at the site of the bank robbery, he couldn't believe it at first but as he dug into his belt he sadly found one of his birdrangs had indeed gone missing. And he distinctly remembered not using one that particular afternoon, all he did was open the compartment up to take out a pair of birdcuffs..
Behind him two policemen who were doing a investigation into the explosion were talking, "Turns out that the guy that got blown to bits was actually quite the master pickpocket…guess he wasn't making enough from picking pockets for him to graduate to bank robbery."
"Must have been real good cause he managed to swipe one of Robin's birdrangs right under his nose…"
Robin's mouth started to trail a little stream of blood from his hard biting down on his lower lips before walking away.
Raven wasn't really hurt as bad she had looked her wounds were slowly healing by themselves but still just to be on the safe side the hospital had admitted her into a ward for overnight observation.
And when she finally woke up she did so with a very bad headache and not to mention fatigue. Her self-healing was taking a lot out of her thus her long bout of unconsciousness.
Just as her eyes focused in around her surroundings she noticed a familiar spiky haired shadowy figure walking away from her bed.
"Robin…?"
It was close to midnight and Robin had planned to make this an easy apology and also goodbye in the form of letter that was in his hand and not a face-to-face kind of thing…
"Hey there Raven…" he said in a hushed voice.
The room was dark and being adjusted to the condition Raven could easily make out that he wasn't wearing his tri-colored uniform. Instead all she could make out were the white parts of his mask.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"Hospital…"
The memories then slowly filtered into her head from the afternoon and Raven paled at the memory.
"Robin…what about that robber is he okay? He had one of your bird-a-rangs in his hands…then it went all white then black…"
All she got from him was silence…
"Robin…?"
"He's…dead…" came his heavy toned reply.
Robin had spent the whole afternoon and evening riding his R-cycle without direction and when he did stop he found himself right at the city limits. While still on the cycle he then gave a very loud cry of anguish to the skies above him.
"Dead…? How?" wondered Raven, she had tried to take away the implement from the robber's hand but the next thing she knew it suddenly flashed brightly.
Robin still standing in the darkened room exhaled a labored breath.
Raven then slowly began to piece things together, "Robin…how did he manage to get hold of one of your bird-a-rangs anyway? It isn't as if you gave him one yourself…" her voice was a little sarcastic but that was to be expected from her.
He cringed at her question in the dim room.
"Look I just want to say I'm sorry for my recklessness…and for getting you hurt. Don't worry it isn't going to happen ever again…" he skittishly said to her.
Raven didn't particularly like the last part of what he had said to her, "Robin…what do you mean by that?"
No response came and it was then did she realize that he wasn't inside the room with her anymore…only a crumbled letter laid in the nearby wastebasket.
His head was filled with a lot of things that particular cold night as he walked out of the hospital, he had finally decided to take a timeout and think about the things that had happened and in particular his situation with Slade.
And to Robin it wasn't looking too good for him…he had admitted to himself that he had messed up big time with his overly obsessive nature in capturing or getting rid of Slade. Not only did he abandoned his teammates he also abandoned his responsibilities not only being the leader of the Titans but to the city he swore to protect.
"I should have known better…" Robin cursed to himself as he got onto his black Ducati.
Looking back over his shoulders to the room where he had left her, Robin sat down onto the parked machine and picked up his helmet but before he wore it his fingers lingered around the area if his eyes and felt the rough surface of his mask.
And with one swift action he tore off the mask that was usually encasing his eyes and let it slip off his hand and as it floated into the night he sped off.
Robin's or now Richard's without the mask mind was made up already, after he had screamed out all his frustration he knew what he had to do and that was to give up the Titans for a while or maybe forever if it needed to come to that.
He realized that if it had been any other Titan other then Raven who had the gift of healing then things could have been much worst. But then again it was wasn't it? A man had lost his life for his mistake a man was killed.
Even if he was a criminal he was still a human being and Robin had never ever killed anyone before no matter how deserving. People would say that it was the robber's own mistake but he knew better.
He had indeed left one of the pouches of his utility belt wide open whilst he was getting his birdcuffs and well the rest of the story is self-explanatory. It was his mistake his own folly that led to the man's death and Robin wasn't handling it well.
Robin knew that if anyone of the Titans were to have seen him leaving wearing only a pair of black racing leathers instead of his usual uniform then he would arouse their suspicions. And that was why he was the only one in the T-Tower…everyone else was still at the hospital. Robin wanted to leave without telling anyone bar for the note that he had left on the kitchen counter.
He then walked down to the garage and in particular to his own storage area. Each Titan had been given a small storeroom of sorts to store stuff that they didn't need or too personal to show and for Robin it held inside the gift he had received as Richard Grayson from a Bruce Wayne a year back or so for his 16th birthday, a black Ducati sportsbike.
'It's safer that way…safer for all of them that I'm gone…'
And even if he had to vanquish Slade by himself as Richard Grayson then he would do so without hurting anyone else but himself.
It was selfish but it was the only way, he had now become a liability to his team and he couldn't have him to be their downfall.
Raven had tried to get back up but her body's self healing process had taken a lot out of her and as she did try to get up of the bed the blinding headache that ensued threw her back down onto the soft bedding.
And as her eyes closed onto themselves her last thought was that of foreboding…
When she reopened them Raven slowly focused in onto a rather pensive face of the resident Tamaranian.
"Friend Raven, are you feeling healthy this morning…?" wondered a less then cherry sounding Starfire.
Taking a slow ascend this time out of her bed to sit up Raven groaned out that she'd live, barely.
"That's good to hear…" interjected Cyborg's voice and that was when she then noticed how his facial expression was one of irritancy and also worry as he sat down on the chair beside her bed.
In fact you didn't need to have the ability to read people's minds to see how troubled the atmosphere in the room was that morning.
"Who just died?" droned Raven.
No one spoke.
"Could someone in this room have the decency to tell me what's going on or do I have to probe each of your minds?" she said out to her friends sounding overly irritated.
Richard was riding on the highway out of Jump City headed for Gotham hoping that a few words from his mentor would clear his head up. But right now his head was filled with rather irritated thoughts of the tailgater who not only been tailgating him for a whole two miles but he had his headlights switched on high.
He had slowed down even to allow the car to pass him by but instead it slowed down as well content with being behind him.
'What is going on with that guy…?' Richard wondered as he took a quick look behind his left shoulder.
The bright lights made it hard for him to see who was driving and just as he round a curve Richard's bike suddenly fished tailed and as he was thrown out of his vehicle a beam of some sort shot out and scored a direct hit on his body.
All he could see next was nothing but black.
Instead of talking a note was produced by Cyborg and he handed it to her. Raven took it and began to read its contents.
'Guys, Sorry but I'm leaving the team. Robin.'
To her his written words didn't even make up a proper note, in fact it didn't even make a proper goodbye.
"Is this for real?" Raven wondered over to Cyborg, she couldn't be sure if this was a joke or something.
"He's serious…he left behind all his costumes, all his equipment heck he even left the R-cycle. The only things he took were the few clothes he had and the bike that he had stashed in his personal area." Cyborg responded with some form of disbelief.
"Friend Robin didn't even say farewell to me…" Starfire whispered out with a tone of voice that was tainted with sadness.
"Where's Beast Boy?" she then asked after noticing the absence of the changeling.
"He's out roaming the city trying to look for Robin…"
After six months of searching all the remaining Titans had managed to come up with was a slightly battered black Dugati that was resting in the evidence room below them and a whole string of leads, which were all dead ends.
Peculiarly in those six months except for petty crimes it seemed like all the 'heavy hitters' of crime around Jump City had vanished. They had yet to catch a single glimpse of their regular super villains doing anything of late.
By the second week Raven who had been assigned the task of going through Robin's vapor trail, which zigzagged across the entire city with a fine toothcomb, was feeling dead tired.
And all she could came up with nothing more then a torn up business card from a Wayne Industries, the bottom half actually. From whom it was from was still a mystery.
That miniature clue came around only after clearing almost a ton of Slade related paraphernalia from Robin's personal storage area in the garage, searching his room was out of the question as it was locked up more securely then Fort Knox.
Out of pure curiosity Raven after a long two week wait flew over to Wayne Industries Headquarters to try and see if she could come up with anything.
To say that she was welcomed into the building with open arms was an understatement, a severe one. It took her almost two days of camping out by the main entrance, 24 pieces of broken tinted window glass, 42 shattered light bulbs and a rather innocent piece of modern art that had been placed outside of the building which exploded into bits of rubble was she then allowed to step foot into the building.
And that feat was only achieved by accident, for on the second day she was still trying to convince the two groups of security guards out by the main lobby to allow her to at least ask around to see if anyone knew of Robin.
After the umpteenth that Raven was thrown out of the building her emotions got the better of her and a glass shattered somewhere in front of her, the glass so happened to be the windscreen of the car that Bruce Wayne had arrived in that morning.
"Would you like to have something to drink?" asked a voice.
"Herbal tea would be a good start…" gruffed Raven, her hands crossed over her chest, with a raised eyebrow, "One cup of herbal tea and my usual please, thanks Linda."
"Your one of the Teen Titans aren't you?" inquired the well-dressed man in front of her.
Raven pulled her hood even lower to her hide her face as she noticed how the man in front of her was trying to peer into the darkness created by it.
"Look I'm not here to sign any autographs or pose for pictures…I'm here to ask if anyone here in this godforsaken company has been in contact with Robin lately…"
Bruce then thanked his secretary for passing over to him his usual cup of black coffee before responding, "Hmmm…Robin? Isn't he one of the Titans as well?"
"You're a regular Einstein…" she shot back as she accepted her cup of tea.
'My apprentice sure has weird choices of allies…' he thought soundly.
"Actually…if you want to ask about Robin the best person to ask over here would be Batman. He was his understudy for a while if the rumors in the press are to be trusted…"
Raven then put down her cup of tea rather disappointed that she could drink any and was starting to leave the office when Bruce called out to her, "Miss where do you think your going?"
"I'm going to look for this Batman person…the faster I can find him the faster I can leave this city."
"And how are you going to do that?" enquired the man.
"Well…if Robin studied under this Batman guy then their probably both way overly obsessive about their crime fighting…I'd just go out to the city and make some innocent trouble and he'd come to me. So if you don't mind me I have a few non-essential things to find and blow up…" and flew out of his office leaving a broken window as a parting gift.
Bruce Wayne sat there with his cup of coffee midway up to his mouth and pushed down a sweat drop, 'I am not overly obsessive…'
Raven was in luck as she soon found an abandoned building around the city that was scheduled to be demolished in a few days. After she had made sure that it was empty Raven now on the roof decided that she might as well start creating something noticeable to flush this Batman by out.
And just as her hands glowed black with energy and just as she was about to chant her famous incantation, "I wouldn't do that if I were you missy…" interrupted a voice.
A figure in black stood beside her and as she jumped back defensively, "And who are you supposed to be?"
"I'm Batman…"
Raven found Batman to be no better a source of clues to Robin's current whereabouts then all the other leads but what she did find out was that she now knew where Robin had gotten a few of his traits from.
And so after six months of searching the Titans were still no closer to finding Robin then they were since the first day he had disappeared.
One cool night while Raven with her hood down was up on the roof of the tower meditating she suddenly felt as if she was being watched. She opened her left eye and figured that it was probably Beast Boy trying to pull a prank on her but after a few minutes of nothing she soon continued into her meditation.
And when she was just about to reach calm she felt the presence of someone watching her again.
This time Raven went on the defensive and stood up pulling back her hood over her head and looked around the roof. After finding no one after a long search she started to get irritated.
She mentally scanned the area and found nothing as well, 'I need to maybe cut down on the tea…?'
Just as Raven was about to make her way back…
'Going inside so soon? It's a rather wonderful peaceful night…' said a voice unexpectedly inside her head.
Raven quickly turned around and scanned the rooftop visually again trying to find this person but she still couldn't see anyone.
'Don't be alarmed for I mean you no harm.'
Raven was pensive but figured that if this person had the ability to speak to her mind then he might be listening to her reply as well.
'Get out of my head…before I kick you out!'
'Aren't you the bit curious to who I am?'
Raven tried to block the voice out but found that it was rather hard.
'Curiosity killed the cat…they say.' replied Raven coldly.
'Well you're not a cat as far as I can see...' laughed the voice lightly.
Raven's patience ran out just then, "Alright you…why don't you just show yourself so I can kick your sorry little butt…" she yelled out as the sounds of a startled Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg who were in the common area echoed below her.
The other members of the Teen Titans had been watching some cartoons downstairs when all of a sudden their big screen TV suddenly cracked before blowing up releasing a large plume of black smoke.
Silence.
Raven was now officially pissed off and as she hovered lightly above the roof her hands glowing with energy…
"There's no need for hostilities…" said a voice to her far right.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Raven yelled out loud as she shot two orbs of power right at the voice's direction.
Raven stood back to see the results of her work, which usually resulted in a loud blast, but instead all she saw were how her power blasts were being contained in the hands of a floating figure that looked very familiar.
Of course the figure looked familiar to Raven for as he floated closer and closer to her. Raven had noted how much he looked liked her.
"I think these belong to you?" as the figure held the suspended blast of dark power out for her to see.
Raven was speechless no one had ever done that before.
After a minute of silence, "Since you obviously don't want them back I guess it's best to harness them into something better…" he pondered out openly.
And in an instant the two black orbs were transformed into two birds with feathers as black as the night and as black as the color of his cloak.
The birds then flew off from his hands and 'cawed' loudly before disappearing into the night.
Raven stood there before the figure standing a few feet in front of her. She felt as if she was looking into a mirror for the figure standing before her had the same cloak as she was. Only difference was that while hers was shade of purple, his was a plain black.
Even down to the facial expression or lack of it as they both wore their hoods down over their faces were identical.
"Who are you…?" asked Raven softly breaking the silence between them.
"Who do you want me to be?" he asked her in return.
"I'm asking the questions here…" she voiced back in her normal, monotonous tone.
"And so am I…Raven." he replied her calmly in mono.
Raven's anger was getting close to boiling over again but decided against it, "If you're some form of imitation then I'm not flattered." she hissed at him.
He simply snickered at her well taken into consideration retort and pulled down the hood that had been covering his face…
End of Chapter 1.
