Authors Note: Okay, for those of you who don't know (because I didn't tell you in the first chapter) Tim (Tim Drake) is the equivalent of Robin, Cy (Victor Stone) is obviously Cyborg, Raven (Raven Roth) obviously Raven, Gar (or Garfield Logan) is Beast Boy, and Kori (Kori Anders) is Starfire. Now we're all clear on that.
Sunlight glanced off the building, repelled by the hard stones and cold gray countenance of the building's structure, by the fear and hatred it emitted in one second, one approach. If school was a demon for some, this was Lucifer himself, the ninth circled of hell.
Silence filled the empty courtyard, loud and overbearing. Tim's footsteps seemed muffled, empty, Cy's steps equally hollowed beside him. It was as if sound was forbidden, words outlawed, silence the law and disease.
Tim had been sizing up his escort for several long moments, knowing he could bring the guard who was guiding him toward purgatory down. The question was, if he did, where would he run? There was nowhere to go, nothing left to say. Fate had dealt him another losing hand.
The entrance hall of Gotham City Juvenile Hall was hardly welcoming. Metal detectors glared at them, intimidating from the doorway, gap appearing as a ravenous mouth that longed to swallow the two and spit them out again, proclaiming them worthless and weak. A high-pitched squeal emitted from the machine and Tim found himself being searched, the cause of alarm finally revealing itself: a penny.
Without further words, both boys were led to a drafty and dank dorm room. Cy and Tim were meant to share a space the size of a large closet occupied only by two thin mattresses supported by twin steel frames, matching bureaus sitting barren across the room. Cy threw his suitcase down and looked around the room in silent disgust. Tim voiced their cynical thoughts in his abrupt way.
"Home sweet home."
"For now, anyways." Cy corrected, sticking his shaved head out the door and glancing down the hall. "This place is deserted."
"Tell me about it. We must be the only two he…" Tim was interrupted by the sound of indignant yelling down the hall.
"Dude, that CD player is like, MINE!!! GIVE IT BACK!"
Cy and Tim looked down the hall to see a boy with blond hair yelling at an even shorter kid that had a sneering, pushed in face.
"Not a chance, you mucus crunchin' scum bucket!"
"That's not even a real insult!" The blond boy protested while making a swipe at the CD player, attempting to steal it back. The scene was comical, and became even more so as a girl that towered over both boys came up. Her seemingly endless amounts of red hair swung as she attempted to break the fight up.
"Please, friends, we must not start a battle. It would promote hatred and…"
"Why don't you shut up, Kori?"
"Don't tell her to shut up!" The blond boy shoved the other as he defended the red haired girl. Tim glanced over Kor, summing her up in a glance: beautiful, energetic, strong, but without a hint of grace. She was almost attractive, in a way, but there was something missing…
His mind barely registered the fact that Cy had joined the fray, at first as a peace bearer, now yelling at the boy with the sneering face over who was the better hacker.
"Gizmo? What kind of idiotic cyber name is that?"
"Better than Cyborg, you blood guzzlin' friggin' load of…"
"This is pointless. Arguing solves nothing." A monotone voice sounded behind Tim, bored and slightly annoyed. He glanced behind him to see the bearer of the voice, a slim, small girl, pale, with hair so dark it seemed to be indigo framing her thin face in short lengths. Amethyst eyes seemed to pierce the flesh and mind of all gathered there.
Tim felt captivated by those orbs, caught in the way they seemed to both absorb and reflect the light. No smile graced the girl's ashen lips, a stern expression her only hint of emotion. "If we are caught our stay here might be extended. It's best to remain calm."
"And if we don't want to…?" Gizmo questioned in a disrespectful growl. The girl's cold violet eyes surveyed him for several long moments before she spoke a quiet threat.
"No one would miss you."
Once the meaning had sunk through, Gizmo scowled and slunk off. The blond haired boy turned and grinned at the pale girl dressed all in black. "Way to go!"
"Yes! Excellent work at restoring the peace!" Kori added her praises gleefully. Briefly Tim wondered why the happy-go-lucky girl was here, then decided he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
The girl with the dark hair, bordering violet, did not even show a twitch of a smile. She answered calmly, without feeling, as if she wasn't used to speaking informally. "The yelling disrupted my concentration, so I stopped it." She turned on heel and moved away, back toward her dorm. Tim watched her disappear behind the door of her room and then turned to the blond haired boy.
"Who's she?"
The boy shrugged, but Kori answered for him. "She is Raven Roth. I, by the way, am Kori Anders, and this is Garfield Logan."
"Dude, it's Gar."
"Tim Drake."
"Victor Stone. Call me Cy."
Introductions over with, Tim spoke of what had been puzzling him since entering. "I expected people here to be…you know…"
"Criminals." Cy finished for him. Gar began to grin and spoke in his MTV inspired way.
"Kori's dad, like, run's the place, so she lives here."
"And there are others who prefer more violence living in the other dorms of this building. They say we have it easiest in this section of the Hall." Kori added thoughtfully.
"Is that the truth?" Tim couldn't bear getting off easily if this is what this was. He lived for challenges, for adrenaline rushes, for things impossible.
Cy raised an eyebrow at his friend. "That depends on your perception of the truth." It was strange to hear something so philosophical escaping the boy's mouth. Then again, a lot of strange things had been happening.
Like those violet eyes that wouldn't leave him, burned into his mind.
Raven sighed upon entering her room yet again, though the line between room and cell was hard to draw. The day in court had written not only her sentence but the death of all she took interest in. Her reading was censored, bought items censored, radio preferences censored, TV programs censored, and if she was one to talk on the phone her conversations would have been censored as well. In short, she was a walking, breathing ban against personal freedom.
Hell if she regretted what she'd done, though.
Refusing to speak either in defense or confession at the police station or at court had earned her a cramped room with a thin door that let in all sound. Naturally the others occupying the building would be the kind she hated most: obnoxious, noisy, shallow, frivolous. Her memory kept flashing the grey eyes that had bored into her as she attempted to restore order. The boy had been gawking at her, almost in awe, but the remnants of a cocky nature lingered around him. Her brow gathered together in a light frown. Already she could tell he, whoever he was, would be a problem.
Unmarking the page from the book she had been concentrating on earlier, she began to pull her eyes across the page in a practiced motion, though the words were not being completely registered.
…the night was thick and dark as pitch, hard traveling for my company and me…
Dark like the liquid she had brewed. Dark like the night. Dark like his hair.
…hard traveling for my company…
No company for her. She preferred the silence that stretched from wall to wall, encircling the room. Company would mean talking, laughter, friendship, and all such things with Raven were impossible.
…the night was thick and dark…
Night was approaching steadily. Night was already upon them.
She closed the book silently as she deemed concentration unattainable, realizing she had been reading the same line over and over, something strange for her. Staring out the window, her gaze took in a full moon ringed by a halo of light, making it demonic and angelic, light and dark.
It would be another sleepless night.
Sorry if the second chapter was bad, but I had to get them to Juvenile Hall. Know that I'm making up everything about the Juvenile Hall and the Reform School as I've never been to one. If you don't like that, then deal with it.