Chap. 6
Confrontations
The ride back to the Tower was tense. Raven sat quietly in the T-car and didn't say a word. The bleeding had stopped, but she didn't seem to notice. Even though her face was emotionless, there was an invisible aura from her that caused everyone around her to sit as far back as possible. Things were no better in the BRAT-Mobile. Brett was distraught over what had happened and he wanted to do something to apologize. But he knew he that he should at least say it to Raven's face, so he sat just as quietly, refusing to even let even Sara try to talk to him about what had happened. So both cars were filled with two quiet, emotional beings, just waiting to get their feelings out.
Finally, the cars reached the Tower. Brett practically leapt out of
the BRAT-Mobile, but Raven had already teleported out of the T-Car
and was walking down the hallway. Undeterred, the bat followed.
"Raven!" he yelled out, trying to her slow her down. The young
girl didn't stopped though, so Brett called out two more times.
Finally, Raven stopped and turned to face him. "What?" she asked
coldly. "Raven, I just want to apologize. I shouldn't have just
left you like that." "Don't worry about it. After all, you
had to tend to her." Raven replied in that same cold voice.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Brett asked, a bit of anger
coming into his own voice. "Ever since she got here, you haven't
left her side for a single minute. Everything gets pushed aside for
her. Dammit Brett, you didn't even tell me she existed and now you
throw everything out the window for her." "Rae I just don't
like to talk about her when she's gone ok? It depresses me. But
that can't be all this about. Are you still mad about this
morning?" "Yeah, but I'm more angry that you just left me
there to hold that vortex open. What were you thinking?"
"Rae,
look. Sara's my wife and I care about her. What am I supposed to
do, not react when someone throws a grenade at her? I've already
seen her die once. Do you think it's easy for me to watch her get
hurt now?" Those words finally managed to crack Raven's anger.
Sighing, she said, "Maybe I over-reacted, but that was still a
stupid thing to do." "And I apologized for it. Is there
something else I can do to make it up to you?" Raven thought for a
minute, then said, "Come to the café Thursday night."
"Hmmm.. you must want me to sit through another two hours of
listening to 'artists' reading the most abstract and pointless
works in history just so I can hear something from you. Sounds
good."
Raven nodded her acceptance and turned to walk away. But then she heard Brett say, "Wait. Is Thursday the sixteenth?" "Yeah." "Oh crap, I can't go." Turning around, Raven practically moaned, "What now?" "I need to be with Sara then. That's a really hard day for her." "Are you kidding? What's so important about the sixteenth?" "It's personal." "Don't feed me that!" Raven practically yelled. "You just can't spend one minute away from her can you?" "Raven it's a hard day for me too. I would've done it even if she hadn't been here. Something happened…." "Save it. Go have your 'personal' day, enjoy it. Just don't try to try have any with me anymore ok?" A look of pain washed over Brett. But then came a dim spark of recognition. "You're not jealous are you?" "Don't be ridiculous. I don't get jealous." "Rae, it's fine if that's what this about. I mean, you're right, I shouldn't have kept this hidden from you if we're friends." As he spoke, Brett moved closer to the girl. Reaching up to place his hand on her shoulder, he continued. "But being jealous like this…" "I AM NOT JEALOUS OF HER!" Raven yelled. Suddenly, black energy whirled out, grabbed Brett and threw him against the wall, knocking him out. It disappeared a moment later, but Raven's horror over this loss of control did not. "Brett, I'm sorry." She cried, her anger forgotten. She began to move towards him, but then a voice said, "Stay away from him."
Raven turned around, to see Sara standing before her. The fox had her wrist blade drawn, and it glowed with a golden aura. "It was an accident." Raven began. But Sara wouldn't hear it. "I knew this would happen." She said coldly. All allusions of trusting Raven had vanished the second Brett had been hurled into the wall. It was time for Sara to deal with her the way she deserved. "I told Brett not to trust you, but he never listened. This is what your kind always does." Raven didn't respond; she just stood there as Sara moved closer. "It's not my fault." The empath managed to get out. "Of course not. It's never your fault, because you look like everyone else. But I know. I know what you really are inside. I know the monster you really are." "I-I'm not.." Oh but you are. But now you have something you need; a muzzle. I'm going to watch you Raven, all the time. The minute you do this again, I'll cut you down. Someone's going to do it eventually, might as well be me." That was the final straw. Eyes watering, Raven pushed the fox aside and ran off to her room. Sara watched her go, and then turned as she heard the sounds of her husband waking up.
The door slammed shut as Raven ran inside. Throwing herself on her bed, she sobbed, burying her face in the covers. Sara's words kept ringing in her ears and each time she heard them, they cut a little deeper. "It's not true." Raven sobbed. "It's not." She moved her hand up to wipe her face and brushed against something. Looking up, she saw it was the poem that she had been working on. For a moment, she looked at it, then Raven grabbed it and tore it to shreds. What did anything she wrote about matter? She'd never be good enough. Someone would always be telling her she was damned, that she wasn't worth anything. "I don't want this anymore." She cried. "I just want to be… anything else." "Dear girl," a voice suddenly said. "You don't get to choose." It was a voice that chilled Raven to her core. Turing around, she saw the being that had spoken….
"I can't believe you said that to her!" Brett cried angrily, as he stared at Sara. "It doesn't mean I wasn't right." The fox answered, not dropping her stance. "Goddamnit, why do you always do this Sara?" "Do what?" "See everything in black and white. No matter how long we do this, everything is just good or evil to you. There can never be any gray." "What, so there aren't any borders anymore?" "No, but…. Dammit what right did you have to say that to her?" "She's a demon, Brett. Maybe you don't wanna admit it, but that means something bad." "She's also a fifteen-year-old girl who's been trying her entire life to control that part of her. It's so easy for you isn't it? You don't have anything that can control you, anything that can change you." Sara tried to speak, but Brett was a rage now, refusing to stop. "Don't you remember how hard it was for you? When you first become a Knight, didn't you hate the stares? Didn't you hate the people who feared you, even as they were trying to save you? Didn't you tell me more then once, how you wanted to rip away the fur? How can you have forgotten that, and tried to force it onto her?" Brett stopped then, and Sara just stared, completely at a loss for words.
Suddenly, Starfire flew up between them. "Friends, you must come! Something horrible has happened!" "What's wrong!" Sara asked. "It is Raven. She is not in her room." "So?" Brett asked. "Her room is also trashed, and we cannot find her in the Tower. There is also some sort of symbol in her room, like the one on Slade's forehead." At that, both Knights paled. "Show us." Brett said, and the three of them raced to Raven's room.
