Thank you so much for the amazing support, everyone. I'm sorry I don't have time to thank each one of you right now, but I'll do a super duper comprehensive list next time. This is not my favorite chapter, but necessary to kick up the plot. Bear with me. It'll improve, with any luck. Review if you have time, if not, simply enjoy! (I hope.)
Disclaimer of DOOM, whoosh: don't own teen titans, sadly. Oh the raven and robin that would permeate the show if I did...sigh.
Winner Takes All
Chapter Three: Another Kind of Game
She'd have to yell at herself later about having imagined their leader in the shower at all, mask or no. For the moment, she was transfixed with the more immediate matter of memorizing his uncovered face with the greatest care and detail.
Those piercing eyes, his eyes, were the color of the sky on sunny days, the kind of sunny days that she, Raven, did her best to avoid being dragged out on. She found herself thinking that his eyes had a sparkle that those sunlit skies did not and that, surely, this must be why they did not annoy her so.
Robin, for his part, was equally stunned and forgot to be embarrassed by his aforementioned state of undress as he lifted a numb hand to his unmasked face, having noticed his companion's rather obvious stare.
He groaned.
Judging his options at light speed, Robin decided his best tactic to get out of this as unscathed as possible was humor but his wit died on his lips as he noticed the girl in front of him had taken an unconscious step closer to him. Her hand was outstretched and before he could even fully comprehend her actions, that same hand cradled one side of his face and he was stunned by the gentleness.
"I can't believe you don't shower with your mask on," she breathed very, very softly.
"I'd start to mold around my eyes," he explained dumbly and almost hit himself. I'd start to mold...? Get a grip, Robin, he told himself. To his disappointment she withdrew her hand slowly, as though not certain of what she was seeing; to his relief, she barely quirked a questioning glance at his odd comment before blithely continuing on.
"Why aren't you using your shower?" it was a rather pointed question, more of an accusation really.
"There's no tub," he said in such a matter-of-fact way that Raven almost missed it entirely.
"'No tub'?" she deadpanned.
"No tub," he nodded firmly. Raven almost, almost, laughed.
But not quite.
"For your bubble bath, I'm sure," she teased him.
"No, for my rubber duck," Robin replied easily, not missing a beat.
In the following moment of skepticism, Raven found herself taking a close enough look at her leader to be reminded of the towel that she now felt was wrapped far too carelessly around his waist. Robin, who seemed to notice her noticing him, smirked, sky colored eyes flashing in amusement. A wicked idea occurred to him and completely ignoring the voice in his head that was frantically trying to remind him of the scrupulous danger he was in whenever he pushed the buttons of a certain empath, he stretched casually. Very casually. Raven, for her part, bit her bottom lip and forced her gaze from her friend's rather impressively muscled torso and pasted on a scowl.
"So I take it you're done," she said flatly and added with an amused expression, "You and the duck."
"Maybe," he drawled indolently. Then, hard blue eyes sparkling with a blatant pairing of mischief and suggestiveness, he continued, "But Raven, you know the only bird for me is you. My rubber duck simply can't compare. Perhaps you'd like to join me next time?"
Clearly Robin didn't value is life very much, the empath surmised and glowered deeply, at which point Robin—who it might be noted did in fact value is life very much—took a precautionary step back into the bathroom.
He wasn't dense after all, just a little over confident, a little curious, and a lot reckless.
The boy wonder pondered a little frivolously whether or not being banished to a world of darkness would be a bad thing as he noted a familiar blackish energy surging at his companion bird's fingertips. Something told him it probably would be.
Fortunately for him, Raven was in a forgiving mood.
"You're done," she all but commanded and in several deft moves teleported behind him, pushed him firmly out the door and shut it with a click of the lock. This sent Robin sprawling on the ground in an undignified heap, the towel holding on valiantly. He chuckled at the closed door and rubbed his head ruefully.
Really, he should have anticipated that.
As he pulled himself up off the floor he heard the shower head spring to life as hot water jetted out and with admirable discipline steered his mind away from imagining the sorts of things that he shouldn't really be imagining about Raven. The reflection on what said bird would do to him if she had even an inkling of an idea what his thoughts were was enough to send him walking swiftly away from the bathroom door chanting an inner mantra of: she'll kill me, she'll kill me, she'll kill me...or banish me to a world of darkness...she'll kill me, she'll kill me, she'll kill me.
It was, all in all, quite the effective technique and Robin made it to his room without injury, much to his relief.
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Raven didn't sleep that night. The shower refreshed her to the point of a completely awakened state and so, being Raven, she chose a book from her impressive shelves of literature and reconvened with the comfortable silence of early morning in the common room. No one was up this early, even if it was a feasible thing, it being 5:34 AM at this point.
So engrossed in the book, Raven didn't notice as day's first light seeped through the huge window, giving the room that morning glow of gold and white. The story she was reading was entirely fanciful as many of her books were lately. Her fellow titans were under the impression that the resident 'creepy' member of their team was into specifically creepy things and while she did have a bit of a penchant for darkness, Raven found herself more and more often drawn to subjects no less light but a lot less dark.
If that made any sense, which she suspected it didn't really.
These books had moving castles and warriors that hid in plain sight amidst great dunes of sand and waves of sun, powerful wizards that threw excellent tantrums and most importantly, strange worlds. This was the main point of interest: other worlds. Azar and Tameran were hardly otherworldly in her opinion, foreign though they might be. No, these books, this book particularly, involved the kinds of things Raven resonated with in a childlike fashion she hadn't endorsed since the day she'd learned of the prophecy. And, as that was at a very young age, revisiting these feelings of kinship with novels that had almost fairy-tale quality about them wasn't incomprehensible.
Well, revisiting wasn't quite the word. Having known almost her entire life about what was to come—the end of the world—Raven hadn't had much of one to revisit, so maybe for the first time she was just experiencing the allowance of believing in more than what was right in front of her.
Like Robin believed in me, she admitted idly and then tucked that thought away between the pages of later chapters as voices reached her.
"It's my turn to make breakfast, grass stain," Cyborg's voice boomed, preceding him as he made his way to the kitchen. He nodded genially at Raven, "Morning, Rae," he said and then turned on a fast following Beast Boy. "I am not gonna eat your disgusting meat substitute for two days in a row!" he bellowed and Beast Boy caved, if with some petulant muttering and glaring of his own as Cyborg went to work.
"Hey Raven," Beast Boy took seat on one of the stools at the counter and waved to the reader.
"Beast Boy," she replied shortly, though not unkindly. He was used to it and didn't take offense as he did in their earlier days.
"What a glorious morning it is!" In a voice so cheery it could be none other than the simultaneously delightful and clueless alien girl, Starfire flew into the common area, settling next to Raven, beaming. "Friend Raven, how are you this most joyous morning?"
"Fine Star," Raven privately was surprised at how conversational she was able to come off. It wasn't exactly as pleasant as the Tameranian but no one really was. In any case, it seemed to satisfy the lovely redhead as she then flew over to exchange the same morning greetings with Beast Boy and Cyborg.
"Dude, I thought you said you were making breakfast for everyone!" Beast Boy's voice rose with renewed upset.
"I am."
"I can't eat that!" the changeling insisted and the two shared distasteful glares before the vegetarian turned his back, settling for ignoring the designated chef who went back to fixing breakfast, grumbling to himself. Raven rolled her eyes. If she could cook—and she knew very well she couldn't—she would consider making breakfast every day if only to avoid this old argument. Still, some of what Starfire had said must have been true because even Raven was finding the banter amusing today. Maybe it was going to be as Starfire declared, a 'most joyous' day. Just as she considered this odd possibility, a hand reached over her to pluck her book from its safe spot beside her and she turned to see a familiar head of spiky black hair poking over the top of the book, opened to the middle. Raven suppressed a groan.
Maybe not so joyous a day after all, she thought, disgruntled, and tried to snatch her beloved novel back. Evasive, as usual, the boy blunder took just a couple steps out of her reach.
"Interesting," he intoned. When she gave no response, he lowered the book to eye her quizzically. Frowning, Raven had her hand outstretched. Clearly she still expected for him to return it. So when black energy moved around and grabbed it back for her, he let out a surprised exclamation. The smug expression on the empath's face was the last thing he saw of her before she opened her book once more to continue her reading, pointedly ignoring him. "I guess now would be a bad time to ask to borrow it." At this, ageless eyes peeked at him over her shoulder.
"You read?" Robin laughed at her blunt wryness.
"More than you know," was his reply.
"You're full of surprises," she said and Robin suspected her of repressing a very, very subtle smile.
"You ain't seen nothin' yet," he grinned. The two now had the audience of the other three titans, however unbeknownst to them.
"Right. Well, yes, now is a bad time to ask to borrow it...I'm not done yet though if a certain overconfident bird would stop interrupting me I might be able to lend it to him by the end of the day." That said, she turned back to her reading without another inclination she even knew he was there, even though of course, she did.
"As the lady wishes," he continued with his lopsided smirk.
"Lucky she didn't fry you," Beast Boy observed finally—all the titans were still watching avidly—as one who was accustomed to being very nearly fried by the silent bookworm and Cyborg just nodded. It was, of course, the first time the two titans had agreed on anything all morning and for that, Raven was grateful. Further interruption was not welcome.
"Guess so," Robin admitted then turned to Cyborg, "So, what's for breakfast?" This led to more quarreling amongst the technically inclined and green titans, which led soon to Starfire imploring peace between them—an impossible thing as Raven dourly noted in the midst of the escape scene in her novel—which led to Robin scratching his head thoughtfully before getting himself his own breakfast.
He thought it safer this way, at least for him, as he chanced a glance over his shoulder at Cyborg who he suspected of beginning to spark and Beast Boy who was becoming various animals that sometimes ended up as food at odd intervals, as if to emphasize his point. Starfire flitted about beseechingly, to no avail. Raven did not stir from her seat on the couch and he went about getting coffee, which although he'd never admit it to anyone else, really did taste bad.
But, he thought shortly, not as bad as tea.
A couple plastic coasters whizzed past his head, very nearly clipping his ear.
We have coasters? Robin thought, caught off guard for once.
"Tea is better than your caffeinated mug of mud, boy blunder and yes, we do have coasters for those who choose to use them...whatever the purpose," her tone was a blank one but her words insinuated a smile she didn't show.
"Purposes like weaponry?" he asked dryly as he picked both coasters up and examined them briefly before boldly tossing them, one at a time, in a leisurely fashion, at the head of one, Raven Roth. Not budging, she halted their course and settled them with equal ease back on top of the stack of them which, as Robin now noticed, sat unassumingly on the table.
"Not by you," Raven replied, her lips curving upward very, very slightly. If he hadn't been looking for it, Robin wouldn't have seen it, but a smile was there, however faint.
"Be nice," Robin chastised, eyes dancing.
"I don't do 'nice' oh fearless leader," she retorted deftly.
"Right, silly of me. A bit of T.I. is all it was," Robin assured her with an airy wave of his hand.
"T.I.?" Raven arched an eyebrow in speculation.
"Temporary insanity of course," his smile was way too self confident for Raven's taste.
"Feeling clever today, I see." Her words were a challenge.
"As always." He rose to the occasion.
They shared a look of simple but understood humor with each other before the red lights flashed and, just like any other day, they were out the tower, headed speedily toward the site of turmoil, wherever it was.
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"Titans, go!" Robin issued the standard if somewhat customized version of 'let 'em have it' and they all hurried to do so as Plasmus scoured around like a giant log of guck—that being what he was after all.
Starfire pelted him effectively with green discs of energy with the occasional shot from her eyes as Cyborg blasted him with his beam cannons. Robin busied himself getting in between Plasmus and any other energy source; Beast Boy did much the same. Raven meanwhile was doing support work, flying around and saving her teammates from being crushed into the sides of buildings or drowned in goo, among other things.
It went on like this for some time before, as usual, they began to effectively subdue the rather ugly, rather amorphous enemy and it was only then that a certain man veiled in shadow decided it was a good time to make a move.
Raven held back; the titans were doing fine for now and she felt like letting them handle it today, well, the force part. She hadn't been feeling very well midway into the fight and she guessed it was from no sleep and nothing to eat but said nothing. As such her awareness was down and when two hands settled firmly on her shoulders, she jumped back, startled.
Or she would have if she could have moved, which she couldn't. The hands had moved swiftly down to clasp her wrists in theirs, effectively halting any movement.
"Long time, no see, Raven," a familiar voice crept unwelcomingly into her ears. She cursed profusely in her head as she looked at the strangely engraved cuffs on the man's wrists. They must have cancelled out her abilities because she couldn't phase, couldn't fly, and couldn't even summon enough power to throw him back where he came from as she so desperately wished.
"What do you want?" she spat, eyes alit with a fire reminiscent of her origin.
"Leverage," the voice responded as if talking about the weather. Raven seethed and struggled to loose herself from his grip.
"Uh-uh," he chastised her and to her confusion and surprise, something that felt like an intense electrical shock ran through her body; it felt like she'd been hit against a great iron barbell on fire and in shock, she heard herself cry out.
"You just couldn't stay dead, could you?" her voice was shaky but her stubborn attitude was not. Raven fumed. She had hoped the Trigon arc was the last she'd had to deal with this man devil. Suppressing a shudder, she also had hoped that was the last time he would have a chance to get this close to her. Of all the villains they had fought, he was the only one who made her nervous, even if she didn't show it. Trigon was evil incarnate, intended to be supremely frightening and as a result, was not. This was a human though, so horrid and devoid that he killed many and was so good at it, he continued to get away, so dark that he would help the devil himself with the end of a world that was his own, just to get what he wanted.
If there was someone she hated nearly as much as her father, it would definitely have to be him.
So thinking, she kicked him squarely in the knee, hard, hoping to get him to release her. Another shockwave pulsed through her and she gasped. Okay, not a good idea.
Her consciousness was weak and she had not noticed that her previous cry had alerted the other titans. She did not see the look of distinctive anger and worry that crossed Robin's face or the way Starfire's eyes lit green with fury or how Cyborg's cannon shifted aim...not even how Beast Boy was quietly watching.
It was too bad really. Raven would have liked to see a quiet Beast Boy.
"My dear Raven, that was the point of helping your fearless masked leader. I got my life back," it was a sinister inflection that muffled itself vexingly through the mask.
"Let her go, Slade," Robin's command was icy and hating how her stomach rebelled nauseously at her, Raven lifted her head to try and focus on him, traffic light colors and all.
"Titans, I think you would do well to remember who has the most power here. And if you need a hint," his pause was like a breath of death, "It isn't you." His hands closed more firmly, if possible, around Raven's wrists and another shock went through her. There was no cry this time; she was ready and meditating in her head, surprised only by the fact that she was still conscious at all.
"What do you want?" Starfire asked nervously, watching with large, worried eyes as Raven's limp figure collapsed further. The empath's head lolled to one side as the last thing she heard was Starfire's concern and briefly, she noted how kind that was of the Tameranian, before falling completely into darkness.
"Your attention," Slade said impassively. "And now that I have it, I think I'll let you have your other bird back. She's really not the one I'm after anyway." At that, Robin's face hardened and his glare was less than human. In response, Slade's own sneer was unmistakable through the opaqueness of the mask as even when Robin ran to pursue, the loathsome visage and the body with it just seemed to disappear.
Slade's voice echoed from nowhere any of the titans could locate:
"The game has begun again. I'll be around, titans. Your move," the laugh was hollow and seemed to reach out for whatever hope the teens had as they stood, helplessly listening as it faded to a disconcerting nothing.
Robin's masked eyes stared at the empty space for such a strange period of time, no one knew quite how long he stood there. It had been a while since Slade had been seen, so long that the others had hoped never to see him again, even while knowing better than to even hope for such a thing.
Even death hadn't stopped this man.
Inside, Robin's blood was something of an inhuman heat, white with flame and anger and the undeniable reawakening of his obsessive nature concerning the titans' most longstanding and dangerous of enemies. So rigid with cold and disgust, Robin's eyes widened as he noticed hands were shaking him by his shoulders.
"Robin, Robin, Robin...ROBIN!" Beast Boy finally bellowed, his normal voice taking on the quality of an angry lion's.
"Sorry Beast Boy, what?" Robin apologized and asked.
"Dude, get it together. We have to get Raven back, now!" Beast Boy's worry should have only touched him and admonished him for not being that way, but instead, Robin—for whatever reason—felt angrier still.
"Let's go," his words were a cold order but the titans were used to this kind of tone whenever Robin and Slade were involved, so they simply let it pass. Beast Boy went to lift the unmoving figure of Raven but Robin stilled him with a hand motion and picked her up himself.
Maybe it was pure jealousy. Maybe it was that he felt disgusting disappointment in himself for allowing his hatred of Slade to take the first place in his mind over Raven's well being.
Maybe it was because Slade had already made him infuriated, as always, but his unprovoked anger settled in the direction now of anyone who came too close to the comatose empath. He didn't want anyone else near her, touching her, anything.
Robin flinched as he thought he heard a voice say, "Your move, little Robin."
A hand rested cautiously on his shoulder as Starfire asked timidly, "Are you alright, friend Robin?"
"Fine, Star," he bit out though his tone suggested otherwise.
And, in silence, they made their way with renowned speed to the tower, tension thick as winter ice.
Again, I apologize for some of the forcedness of this chapter, but like I said, it's needed and also, I'm on a slight time budge lately...sigh...work and all you know.
Anyway, because it IS tradition and I've got a stupid attachment to tradition:
Continue:runs off, is late to work AHHHH: