A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers, and Jay, you are a smart man, I started writing both when I had finished the first chapter and took the one I thought was better. Here we go.
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans
"Sure-thing," He said smiling. He pulled the trigger. A wave of blood and brains and skull splashed over Raven; she stood there unable to move, unable to speak, unable to think. He was still smiling as he turned his gun on Raven "time to die."
"…NO!" Raven cried out in fear and rage as the gun exploded in the man's hand and not leaving much of it behind. She came close to losing control of her power but she managed to bring them back in her grasp only to break down once again at the sight of the girl's body, lying lifeless, decapitated by the bullet, on the floor.
She fell to her knees, her hands to her face; she had failed, failed the girl; let her die, she wasn't quick enough.
She didn't even notice the man lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, his movement ceased and his color mostly gone.
Finally, the police arrived.
She teleported back to the tower, food forgotten.
She had teleported back to her room, she needed a shower, she need to be clean, to wash all the blood off.
An hour later and the water began to run cold.
The blood was no longer visible on Raven's thoroughly scrubbed hair or face, the acrid taste was gone from her mouth, and the smell had been washed away.
Yet there she stood, in the ever-increasing tide of icy water, for the blood wasn't gone, she could sense it, feel it. She knew it was still on her, damning her for letting its owner be separated from it. Cursing her. Still she stood in the face of the hypothermic water, her lips turning blue.
Raven finally shut the shower off. She stepped out, shivering, she grabbed a towel and dried herself off.
She stepped from her private bath and into her room; she had thrown out the blood spattered clothes so she grabbed a new leotard and cloak.
It was all like a dream to her, she was only partially aware of what was going on around her, but she knew she had to confront the others, she knew she need to talk to them now.
She left her room.
Raven knew that they'd either be angry with her or try to comfort her, she was hoping for the latter, but then the rest of the team always seemed apprehensive around her, even after all they had been through together; she figured they would just kick her off the team, especially for letting a hostage die at the hands of some two-bit robber.
So she walked, he head hanging low, slowly towards the main room.
The others were waiting for her, standing in front of the couch-Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy; all of them with different expressions. They stood staring at one another for what seemed to Raven like an eternity; their thoughts were mostly unguarded and they let themselves be known in her head.
'What's wrong with her?'
'How could she let something like this happen?'
'Is it true, did friend Raven not stop this man only to kill him moments later?'
"I…um…" Raven needed to break the silence, desperately.
"Don't even try to get out of this one Raven, we know about everything that happened!"
"But yu-" She was cut off by more of Cyborg's fury.
"You fucked up and you got somebody killed Raven, there are no 'buts', your lucky the police aren't bringing up any charges on you, but you'll play hell getting out of the lawsuits from the girl's family and the robber's!"
"I-wa-" he cut her off again.
"You're off the team. You gone, there won't be any criminal charges due to your past record, but your hero license has been revoked. You need to leave the tower, but we'll give you an hour to gather up your things."
She looked from the fuming Cyborg to Starfire; more a look of pity than anger, maybe some remorse; then to Beast Boy, who almost always had a grin on his face, but not this time, his eyes were deadly serious but she could not see much more from his blank expression. The beginnings of tears were in the corner of her eyes.
"But-but I can explain…" She managed to sob out, now breaking down into tears. Starfire went to help her but was held back by Cyborg's outstretched arm. He looked at her with an incredulous stare.
"There is no explaining it, and there's no question. You're off the team; you have an hour to gather up you belongings and leave."
Raven only just kept her emotions in check; she brought her sobbing quickly under control and dried her eyes. She turned away from Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy and headed back to her room; which was really no longer hers, to gather up what remained of her life, and what she thought had been her friendship.
She went into 'her' room and looked around. It had been her home for so long she could imagine leaving, she had to think of somewhere to go, somewhere no one would come looking for her; and if they did, never find her.
She quickly searched her books for the deepest, darkest, and most steeped in lore place should could find. After finding what she was looking for she took one last look around at her surroundings and teleported away, using a large portion of her strength to arrive at a place she had never seen before and wasn't even sure existed.
She would wait here, wait until she could think of were to go, what to do. She'd probably leave the planet, or even the dimension, or would have had a voice not called out to her in the darkens.
"I have missed you…daughter…"
A/N: I'm sorry for the long interlude between the chapters but I have been crushed under a veritable mountain of schoolwork. I hope you like it so far- R&R.