Renegade

Chapter 18

Raven's eyes peeked open as her consciousness returned. She looked around the room and discovered that she was in the same room, in fact everything was the same except for one thing: She was in pain.

Her sore body tried to lift itself off the ground, an act which her body refused to do, but she wouldn't have any resistance from her body. She forced herself off the ground grunting at the pain coming from every joint in her body. What had caused her this pain? She thought desperately for the answer to this nagging question that took prominence over all other thoughts in her mind. She looked back into her mind for something, anything, an image, a memory, something. She saw herself battered and beaten held by two guards who lifted her off the ground without fear of her fighting back. In front of her was a pale man with a large black jacket facing another man in a glass cell which she identified as Ark. She was surprised at his reaction to her condition, very surprised. When the pale man threatened to do more Ark quickly relented and told him whatever information the pale man needed. Strange, she wondered why he was so worried about her. Looking further into her mind she noted that she had recorded a message from Ark, a message of his private thoughts, a message of his love.

Love, that was something Raven couldn't understand. Love was something that she couldn't entertain, ever. It was at least partially an emotion and emotions were something she disconnected herself with. To her, it was nothing more than an animalistic need for another person to 'share their life with.' Why would someone want to share their life with someone else if they can do fine on their own? But there was something aside from love that befuddled her mind even more: Why would someone love her?

She was dark. She admitted that putting creepy, a word that she loathes to no end, is a nice way of putting her. She didn't consider herself beautiful or graceful in fact just the opposite. That is not to say that she didn't think of herself as ugly. She just never thought of her as beautiful. She began thinking about Ark, this man whose mind was fixed upon her. He was…what you would call sweet from what she knew; of course there was someone else that had manipulated her feelings. But Malchior never did something that Ark did: sacrifice. He put himself in harm's way for her and the other Titans and at least she should regard him as 'friend.' At most, she didn't want to think about it.

At the same time Ark thought of Raven, entertaining his infatuation with visions of her beauty, her grace, and her wisdom. He could at least take some solace in knowing that she was alive if anything. Ark looked up at the ceiling of his small cell, visualizing the night sky. He had memorized the patterns of the sky and was able to make it out with surprising detail. In his mind's eye he viewed the heavens when one constellation caught his interest, Orion. Upon Orion hung his belt of three stars; to Ark, the one on the left was him, to the right was Rave, and they would not be considered linked were it not for the one in the middle: the one called Love.

Batman bided his time until the workaholic moved from his desk; then he would reveal himself. The man rubbed his eyes as if he were going to erase them from existence. Several times he got up for a caffeinated drink but he still had to fight off the torture that is fatigue. Batman couldn't risk and slip up's so he waited for the man to quit working completely. After a while, he was open to compromising and decided to make his move when he got up for more than 1 minuet. The workaholic got off his rear and headed toward the hallway and in the direction of a sign that said: Bathroom. At that time, Batman made his move.

First, he decided if the man had any useful information on that computer he was typing on with no end in sight. He pulled up the files he currently had active in his toolbars. One was a report to his superior; it was too lengthy to read before he got back so he uploaded it onto his PDA or rather his BatDA, BDA for short. One of the other conversations was a conversation between him and what he assumed to be his friend over an instant messenger. He pulled the conversation to the top with the correct assumption that the other user was the one who started the conversation.

OffBeat Temp0: Hey man, What's up?

Singinmatt13: Nothing much, just finishing the report on the Titan's Tower siege.

OffBeat Temp0: Really? How did it go?

Singinmatt13: I was the only member of my battalion to survive. That Raven is tough.

OffBeat Temp0: Wait, Raven you mean you were beat by a girl?

Singinmatt13: It was confirmed that she was half-demon.

OffBeat Temp0: Yeah, but a half-demon. GIRL.

Singinmatt13: Would you just shut up?

OffBeat Temp0: Sorry man. Anyway, while you were being beat up by a coughgirlcough Me and my troop took the remaining bunkers in Azerbaijan.

Singinmatt13: Isn't that all that remained in that backwater country?

OffBeat Temp0: Yep, we now control the country in all areas, Politicians, military, etc. They all belong to us

Singinmatt13: Good, that's one more nation under the organization's fold.

These details disturbed Batman. Though it was only a third world nation whatever or whoever this organization was controlled an entire country. He would have to follow this rabbit trail to the source. He couldn't reveal any of his evidence until then. He exited the program and began he journey to where Ark was being kept. After a hallway or two he made it to where there were two rooms left. He stood in front of the door which the area schematics he picked up on the Batcomputer told him to go to. Past this office area would be where the Renegade was being kept.

At the same time Ark was testing something out. He had tried to use his telekinesis to get him out but the physic inhibitor was too strong. He tried his amateur abilities in wind magic but he was too weak of a mage. That's when he had the ingenious idea to mix the two. With the flow of the wind and the matter manipulating abilities of telekinesis he would surely be able to get free of his bonds. The combined powers of the two abilities gave a sort of flow to his powers, with his familiarity of the properties of telekinesis and the natural flowing nature of wind gave it a rhythmic grace. He focused his abilities which took something that could only be described as being 'mentally ambidextrous' he applied enough pressure to the keyboard on the control panel to his cell to press the keys. After many failed attempts he pressed them in the right sequence releasing him from his glass surroundings. The strange healing liquid flowed onto the tile floor resting upon it. Ark took off the inhibitor and walked toward the door.

Batman opened the door and immediately felt a sharp tug on his neck. He looked up to see a pale man with long black hair staring right at him. He had the appearance of a dead man whose death had been recent. Were it not for the fact that he was confidently standing up he would have mistook him for a corpse. The pale man firmly held a large straight sword that was trained on Batman's neck.

"Batman, isn't it?" The pale man said.