WONDERLAND
Robin smiled as he jumped from building to building. The air in his face was refreshing and most of all there was no crime on the streets today. He would be able to return to the tower early. He smirked and rushed towards the alley where his R-cycle was parked, yet before he could arrive at his destination a cry of help made him change direction to follow the screams.
Two muggers and a woman. He groaned. Just what he needed. As he jumped down he threw a side punch and a roundhouse kick sending the two men to the ground. He smiled at the womwn and handed her purse back to her. He then threw his grappling hook up to the rooftop where it caught and pulled him up leaving the woman to call the police. He groaned as he checked his watch.
Was it that bad to want to get home early and be with his girlfriend? He didn't think so but then again every time he thought he was going to go home early something came up and kept him from going to her. Tonight though his patroling was done and he would be in the tower in no time. He smiled as he neared his R-cycle and saw the cloaked figure standing by it.
"Hey Raven."
"Robin! I"
"Uummmmmmmmhhhhhh"
In two steps he was right in front of her. Kissing her and not just a small kiss. This kiss was filled with passion and raw emotions. She found herself responding to the kiss and to his body. It didn't matter that they were in an alley somewhere in the city. All she could feel and sense was his arms around her and his lips on hers. As he leaned in to deepen the kiss her eyes snapped open and she pushed him away.
"Wha? What's wrong?"
"Your kissing me."
"...are you feeling ok?"
"Listen to me Robin this is not real. This is and illusion. You were..."
"What are you talking about?"
"The Scarecrow. Remember him?" He came to Jump City to steal the new dream machine being developed at Wayne Enterprises."
"...the Scarecrow...but Batman...he.."
"Think Robin. This is not real."
" I don't believe it...I know this is I know I love you and I know Scarecrow is locked up in Arkham asylum."
"You know this is not real Robin. You don't really love me and I don't love you. We're not together and the Scarecrow is free. Terra is in rock form and"
"NO!"
He pulled away from her and jumped backwards doing a backflip. As he landed on his feet he pulled his bo staff from his belt and pointed it at her with a glare in his eyes. She raised her hands in a defensive stance and frowned. Robin is the best martial artist in the world and here in his mind her powers are limited. She couldn't best him in hand to hand and she knew it.
"You don't want to hurt me."
"Who are you?"
"It's me Raven. The real Raven."
"LIAR!"
"Listen to me!"
"Who sent you? Why are you doing this? What could you gain from telling me these lies?"
She jumped backwards when he approached her. He was angry and she had seen what he was capable of when he got like that. She tried to reason with him but nothing changed. If she was going to help him out of this she needed to play along and snap him out of it using his own dream sequence against him. She teleported to the Titans' tower she saw her double and merged with her.
Taking her place was easy now all she needed to do was try and keep up the charade that she was Robin's girlfriend. Hard as that was to believe she found herself curious. The computer had created Robin's perfect and ideal fantasy life so why had it put her as his girlfriend instead of Starfire, and for that matter why was everything else the same? The door to Titans' tower openned and she saw him walk towards her.
"Everything ok?"
"No...I had a rough night."
She took a deep breath and walked over to him. She reached towards his hand. She was a bit hesitant but she needed to do it to play along with his fantasy. As she held his hand she found herself enjoying the sensation and feel of it. He lowered his face to hers and gave her a slight peck on the cheek. A smile clearly on his face she found herself looking away and blushing.
"I missed you."
"You were only gone a couple of hours."
"Between crime fighting as a Titan and doing my night patrols we don't get to spend time together."
"We could always take a day off.( Where the hell had that come from?)"
She frowned. The words had just popped into her mind and she had spoken them as if she was really interested. She needed to focus and keep calm. She couldn't allow herself to be pulled into his fantasy but spending time together might help her convince him that this was a lie.
" I'll have to ask Cyborg to cover for us."
"You do that."
As he walked away Raven felt an emotion screaming at her senses. Pulling herself out of her dazed state she concentrated and managed to project herself on to the real world and to her body entering her body she took a deep breath and shook her head. Maintaining her corporeal form when she was in her soul self was hard enough without having to project herself into someone's dream. It was nearly impossible to do.
"So?"
"Whatever that lunatic did to that machine it created a perfect world for him. He is becoming dependent on that world."
"I thought scare dude was supposed to mess with your fears, not bring your happiest fantasies to life."
"He must of figured out that he was beaten and decided to give us a goodbye gift."
"Yeah well it worked. I'm scared we won't be able to bring him out of it."
She nodded. It was hard maintaining the link between them especially since she had broken their bond not too long ago. She wished now she had waited and kept it but it was becoming too much of a distraction for her and for him, and she couldn't allow it to grow or it would become permanent.
"So now what?"
"I'm trying to reach him but it will take some time he truly enjoys that dream world."
"So what makes it so perfect?"
"...I haven't figured that out yet. All I know is that there is something that is keeping him from seeing the truth. I find it I find our solution."
"I am most grateful that you are using your powers to aid friend Robin, but what of yourself. Are you injured?"
"Yo girl Star is right."
"I'm just tired Cyborg. It's hard to maintain a link and he is stubborn."
"Want me to help you kick some sense into him?"
She wished he could indeed help her because she knew this was going to be hard. Whatever it was that had Robin dependent on that world was pretty strong to provoke such a strong reaction from him. Closing her eyes she began to chant and once again she was within Robin's mind and this time
she noticed her dream self was in normal clothing sitting beside Robin without his mask and in normal clothes too.
Taking over the Raven in Robin's dreams she noticed for the first time his eye color and deep hazel brown eyes stared back at her and she smiled. She had never seen such clear hazel coloring in any eyes. She also noticed his face and was taken back by the teen sitting in front of her, he was Richard Grayson, adoptive son of Bruce Wayne, one of the richest men in the world.
"You ok Raven?"
"Yes."
"Good I geuss it's just me and my nerves."
"(Nerves?) It's a beautiful day. Why don't you relax?"
"I wish I could, then again it's not your parents I'm meeting so..."
"...what?"
"II'm sorry I forgot I"
"What about parents?"
It all clicked and Robin could see the sorrow in her eyes. He cursed himself for bringing up her family and her parents. Being the daughter of a demonic entity and a run away street rat who had vanished years ago tended to leave emotional scars way bigger than those he had as a child. He closed the distance between them and hugged her.
" I'm sorry. I shouldn't of"
"Is everything ok Dick?"
A male voice sounded and Raven flinched. She didn't want to do this. He was happy here. He had his parents alive and well. He was happy, truly happy but it was an illusion and she had to snap him out of it if it wasn't real. He should accept this, she wouldn't let him. As she stood up she turned towards the two figures and frowned. They were the reason he denied the truth.
Slowly she raised her hand and began to unleash dark energy bolts at the two figures who fell to the ground and vanished. She closed her eyes and adverted herself from the scene. His sorrow and pain was too great while in her soul self she was more sensitive to emotions and the ones he was feeling were painful, too painful.
"Please stop ."
"it wasn't real was it?"
"I'm sorry."
"... get me out of here."
She nodded and closed her eyes as her chakra began to glow. It surrounded him and herself. He bolted from the machine and immediately felt a hand press down on his chest. He tried to struggle but it was no use whoever was holding him down was doing a good job of it and was quite strong.
"Snap out of it dude."
"Agh...CCyborg?"
"Yeah man. Chill ok we need to get this thing off ya man."
"...RRaven...is she?"
"Friend Raven is all right do not worry she is just tired."
"WWhat the hell happened?"
"You were totally sucker punched by Scarecrow who hooked you up to this machine. Then you went all dreamy like and Raven had to go fetch you and what was your fantasy about?"
He clenched his eyes shut. As soon as he felt Cyborg remove the last hook-up from his body he jumped frome the bed and walked away. Beast Boy glanced at Raven who just shook her head. He nodded and seemed to understand that perhaps it was not a fantasy of pleasure but of lies after all the guy who had put Robin in the machine was named Scarecrow.
With a name like that Beast Boy knew whatever fantasy Robin was in had had it's drawbacks and by the look on Raven's face something really horrible happened in there.
NOT THE SAME
After the incident with Scarecrow and the dream machine the Titans noticed some what of a different attitude in their leader. He didn't joke around with them as much nor did he hang out with them all that much. Raven on the other hand seemed to be avoiding him and the others like the plague and Cyborg for one had had enough of it.
He got Starfire and Beast Boy out of the tower and left the two people alone in there and hoped that by the time he returned everything ok and settled. It was hard enough having on person who was cold and secretive, but to have two of them he drew the line there in the tower. However neither of them heard the other.
Raven's guess was that he was probably training since it was all he had done since they had come back from the dream chamber. Yet she was mistaken. Robin was on the rooftop trying to figure out the mess that was his mind. His seeing his parents again was great but when the illusion came to light he only felt rage and anger. He had been fooled by his mind and had been hurt again.
He had accepted that and moved on the thing that kept tormenting him at nights were dreams of a time that never existed, of the fantasy he had been forced to live and had been reluctant to abandone. Images of her and him hugging, kissing, and being together haunted his mind. In his dreams she would come to him and they would embrace and tell each other of their undying love. It was wonderful and yet it was horrible because when he woke all he felt was loss.
Every time he woke he felt it the loss and the realization that it had only been a dream. That they had never shared that kind of relationship and that he was a fool for falling in love with a fantasy that would never come true. She was a half-demon half-human priestess from the dimension of Azarath. Her whole life she had spent training to control her emotions and dreamed of being with her and both of them being in love.
TRUTH HURTS
"Robin?"
"Hey"
"W-What are you doing up here?"
"Thinking...Been doing a lot of it lately."
"So realized something yet?"
She sat on the edge of the and he crossed his arms in front of him. Looking outwards at the setting sun she saw him and wondered what he was thinking. He was debating something in his mind that was for sure and for once in her life she was thankful for all the years of discipline and self control because she had never been so tempted to read someone's mind.
"Yeah I think I have."
"Oh?"
"I'm in love with you."
He didn't move, he didn't show any outward signs of being uncomfortable or nervious. He was simply looking at the sunset. The words were said as a statement not a question or a reassurance. He was sure and he had resolved that that was how he felt for her. She was about to talk when he turned towards her. His gaze made her freeze and the words caught in her throat.
"It's how i feel no matter what you say or do. No matter what happens from here on in this feeling I have won't go away, it won't change."
"I-I can't"
"I know"
"T-Then why?"
"I don't know...just thought you should know."
"What are you expecting from me. You know I can't."
"I'm not expecting anything from you. I don't want an answer or a reply. I wanted you to know that's all."
She closed her eyes and turned towards the sunset. It was almost dark now, some stars were gathering in the sky and he was still standing there, looking out towards the fading light, calm and collected. She didn't know what to say or what to do. She didn't do emotions period. He knew that and had taken a risk in telling her this and even though she couldn't return his love she could do something for him.
"There is something I want you to know."
"Oh?"
"W-When I was in your mind...and you kissed me, I felt something...I don't know what it was but I enjoyed it."
"Really?"
"Yes...We'll be together right?"
"What do you mean?"
"This love ... it won't get in the way of our friendship right?"
"No don't worry it won't."
"I'm glad."
Standing up she walks besided him and takes his hand in hers a small smile is on her lips as she leans towards his face giving him a small kiss on his lips.
"Raven?"
"I can't express emotions but that doesn't mean I don't have them."
end