Raventhedarkgoddess: Well, you know me, lazy as ever, sorry I haven't updated.
Chapter Seven: Not All Is Fair...
The attack was sudden, swift, and unexpected, and yet something in Slade's muscles tensed, and he moved out of the way of the bolts of green and black light seconds before they would have struck in directly in his masked face, leaning heavily on his bow staff, which seemed to appear from nowhere and hit the floor at his side in a tedious balancing act.
"Never send a girl to do the work of a team. Why were just you sent? One would assume that an attempt to revive a teammate would be one for the whole team. Or have they finally realized that your attempts to bring that hunk of steel who was as good as dead back to life and given up on you? I can see why they would let you come to hold your own, although why you brought Starfire is beyond me. You're not very good at protecting those you care about, Raven." Slade's voice held half a chuckle, half a laugh.
"Don't you dare drag my friends into this," Raven hissed at him, the venom in her voice painful and hate-filled, but she tried to brush it down. "This isn't about them, and it isn't about my past faults. This is about Cyborg and only about getting Cyborg back. You know how, and you're going to tell me." She managed to force calm back into her voice, but the rage was too close, too real, moving toward her surface. Just stay calm..."You're 'going to tell me'? What a rude way to ask for information, Raven. And besides, what makes you so sure I am the one to know? What of my associates? And besides, I don't understand why you waste your time on such futile efforts. He's obviously not going to come back to you."
"You know how to revive him. Don't pretend that you don't. You're going to tell me." Starfire looked with worry at Raven: The cold edge on her voice was slipping, becoming more emotional. Whatever was going through her mind was obviously having a serious effect on how stable she was, on her well-being as far as her very sanity went.
"I already told you: It's not polite to accuse someone who probably has no idea of what you're talking about. And besides, his condition is hopeless. Why cling to the one you could never love in the first place? Besides, why love something that probably isn't even human enough to love you back?" His visible eye gleamed at her in partial hatred, patrial... Was that pity she saw on his face? She blinked once, but it was already gone, replaced by the hard mask of emotions that he guarded, so unlike her because he chose to be a lifeless-looking soul.
The words formed themselves inside her head and she saw them in fury, knew her emotions were slipping, tried to recage the ugly feelings of hate and rage but felt them moving away from her anyway, felt them moving toward him. "Don't ever speak that disrespectfully about Cyborg. Ever again. Never." The words were her own pain and rage, but they felt as if they were spoken by a stranger, and she longed to pull back, but something inside her refused. I will not let him get away with this.Starfire's emerald eyes grew slightly larger in her head: She knew what was happening and grabbed Raven's arm impulsively. "Friend Raven, you must not!" Even as her own panicked voice filled the room, though, and reached her ears, she knew that words were only feeble words and would do nothing to help her cause, mainly not against the demon inside of Raven.
"Oh, did my comment about Cyborg get you all riled up? Just calm down, child. After all, what makes him worth getting upset over anyway?" He smirked: Ever since Terra, he had known that rage itself, her own emotions, mostly anger, were her downfall. Even after all this time, he refused to forget the one thing that could break the girl, mainly when all it took were words of anger and rage and hatred toward her beloved pile of scrap metal.
Raven let out an animal cry of inhuman rage and, outstretched arm shaking, sent a bolt of black energy flying in his direction. It grabbed his bo staff: Within seconds, it was little more than metal splinters on the floor. She advanced in a slow, menacing gild, Starfire still trying to calm her, to sooth her inner savage and failing.
"Come now, is that any way to treat a fellow human?" Slade mocked her, stepping over the shattered metal with a sick, obnoxious, and echoing crunching sound toward them. "Oops, my bad... Someone like you who can't feel love isn't human."
This time, two bolts came toward him: He was unable to dodge the one Starfire through, and then Raven fired again, knocking in the left side of his mask. He felt the metal dig into his skin and decided now was the time to leave them, to run back and cause the boys to fall, then come back to finish the demon he had unleashed. "We'll meet again, Raven."
She wanted to chase Slade through the narrow archway, wanted to wrench away from Starfire and follow him until she caught him and ripped his heart from his chest. But instead she fell to her knees, gasping for air, all of her rage gone and only an empty, hollow feeling in her chest. "I... I accidentally let go, and now I'll never have another chance..."
"You must get up, friend Raven. Slade must be defeated. Do not let him steal away all you have ever cared about!" Starfire cried back in protest of Raven's weakness. "You must get up!"
She rose without a word, everything about her movements somewhat forced. "I'm going to get him..." Stafire could do nothing but nod. Cyborg had to be reclaimed, even if it meant that Raven ended up losing her temper one more time. They gave chase through the crumbling archway.
Robin crept silently toward the woman. He wondered briefly if this was the right thing to do, but there was only one way to find out.
"Hello, Robin," she said in a deep and yet chilling female voice. "Hello, Beast Boy."
How did she know we were here!