This chapter will be consisting of VERY IMPORTANT flashbacks. I lied about more info on Raven and Garth this chapter but it will undoubtedly be in the next one. Richard's POV throughout the entire chapter.
Flashback:
September 2003,Dining Hall
It was noon and as usual there they were clinging to one another as though their lives depended on it. I glanced at them through the corners of my eyes insidiously for she was next to me. Terra.
I don't know what I was thinking, what I was doing with her at all. I do know however, who I want. I want Raven. Since our first year, that desire for her has been the same and it will probably remain tucked away for the rest of my days. I was never such a coward but here I was, hiding what I felt for her.
"Rich?"
I cringe at the nickname. How difficult could it be to pronounce one more syllable? But I never speak to her of my hate for it, for this relationship.
Despite my better reasoning, or rather lack of wanting to, I faced her, a fake smile overtaking my countenance.
I've done this so much that the muscles in my face tense when she approaches me.
"Yeah?" My voice sounded overly friendly but, without surprise, never picked up on it.
"You seem… not yourself." In our few times together, like now at lunch, she observed me and rarely spoke. When she did, her sentences were broken and inarticulate.
I heard her for once and she was correct. I knew my behavior became more unpredictable with each passing day. It was wrong, I was wrong for doing this to her. My first choice would always be Raven and no girl deserved to be second to anyone.
My smile had faded and in result her attention diverted to her food. The geomancer was quiet and meek since I learned of her dangerous powers. She had little control and was ashamed for her inexperience almost flattened me in a bout of anger. To this day, I'm still in the dark to why she was angry.
That was last week and our time together had lessened. She was hard to locate. No one could tell me where she was or if they had even seen her for hours at a time.
"I'm sorry. I've just been sidetracked with the con-demos tomorrow." I lied without hesitation.
"I could help you… if you want."
I immediately opened my mouth to spurn her idea but a burning in my chest halted me.
"We can go now if you're done."
Our relationship was hollow, mostly on my part, and only in their eye line did I allow contact with her.
She nodded and we stood to find a better location. The chatter of the students couldn't provide much efficiency to practice.
Raven was on the sidelines of our path with Garth's arm around her waist. I, in turn, did the same for Terra. The blonde in my arms twitched the corners of her lips upwards and I beamed down at her. This allowed me a view of Raven, who was laughing lightly at one of Garth's sarcastic jokes. Her eyes hardened when we passed, barely visual… but there and I caught it. It all lasted a fraction of a second and my stride never even slowed. Why did she look that way? My questions always went unanswered yet I continued to ask them.
End Flashback
Cyborg saw me staring at them and pulled me aside.
"Man, are you ever going to talk to her?" His big brother voice was present as it did when topics were serious. I didn't feel like spilling my guts to him. No different than any other day.
"I always talk to her." I hoped he would take my lame cover-up as a 'drop it and leave it alone.' Unfortunately he didn't.
"You know what I mean, Rob." Cyborg was constantly pushing and the conversations all ended in the same way.
"I know, Cy. Just… let it go." I leaned against the trunk, bark scraping my back through my robe uncomfortably but I endured it. In the distance I heard another one of Karen's disk exploding.
"How can I let it go? You're never going to. It's been four years and you're still giving her puppy-dog eyes. Confront her and do it soon. Rae's a great girl and can have any guy in this school she wants. Do you think she's just been rejecting guys left and right for no reason? That she isn't waiting for you to wake up and do something? You know why she broke it off with-"
"That was a rumor and nothing more. Do me a favor and mind your own damn business." I walked away and felt his eyes burning a hole in the back of my head but I ignored it and headed for the hall. I sensed another pair of eyes, maybe her eyes, but that kind of hope had long since abandoned me.
Inside the dining hall, only sophomores and juniors were there. I guessed the freshmen left early to prepare for training.
I had entered through the rear door and had went unnoticed until some lagging first-year knocked into me. I held my ground, feet firmly planted while he collapsed to the floor and apples, oranges, and bananas from his pockets.
I was not at all shocked from his… unique characteristics. He was green, every other body part a different shade. His hair was forest green, his eyes were jade, and his skin was somewhere in between.
He scrambled to gather his fruit and I knelt down to help.
"Dude, I'm so sorry. I mean… uh… sir, um, mister…dude, this is just-"
"It's okay. I wasn't going anywhere for now." I really didn't. It was half an hour before breakfast was over and I planned on roaming the grounds, probably ending up in the gym.
"Great… um, since you're not doing anything, how do we prepare for training? Doesn't training usually prepare us?" He shoved the remainder of his breakfast into his pants again, bulges forming on his thighs.
"Many meditate to clear their minds in order to perform better." His blank face ordered further explanation. "We mark you in how you do. The better you are, the higher your grade." I spoke clearly and slowly and he eventually brightened.
"Cool, I guess. I never got good grades in regular school but this is ninja school! Anything's possible here!" He was very eccentric and positive. He'd need those qualities to continue for the next four years.
"I'm Garfield Logan, shape shifter extraordinaire!" Before my eyes, he shrunk in size in midair to become a hummingbird and zoomed around my head. After a few seconds, he froze and fell to the ground as a rattlesnake. He shook his tail in a smooth rhythm and I smirked. It was quite a talent. I assumed he could take the form of any animal. Then he was a boy again, brimming with pride.
"Richard Grayson, just human." I rivaled Raven's monotone in that short sentence but was no where near as dry as hers could be.
"Grayson, Grayson… you're with Roth, right? On the black team?" He tapped his chin, his elbow resting over his other arm which was draped across his torso.
"Yes. Shouldn't you be going?" I noticed the five minutes he had been wasting with me.
"OH! See ya later, Grayson!" He literally flew through an open window and I watched him go. So we have yet another metahuman. Most of the temple's student body were metahumans.
It's rare to be 'normal', some would say, and be 'different' at the same time. I sometimes wondered what would everything be like if I were different, like them, but I knew it was never meant to be. Even though at times powers would be useful.
Flashback:
October 2003
The shrill blare of the alarm bell rung through the night air. I jumped up, not bothering to grab my robe, only my shoes, and sprinted through the door with Roy directly behind me.
When we reached the front gates, an eerie feeling spread through me and I was sure Roy felt it as well. The rest of the school's attendees slowly filed in around us. A fourth-year, I believed his name was Justin, eyed Roy's bow he had brought with him and the case full of copious arrows draped across his back.
Raven was levitating a few feet off the ground in her black silk pajamas and her feet were bare. Garth was not too far behind her and Karen and Cyborg were accounted for but Terra was no where in sight.
Master Fung made his appearance although it might have been better if he had not. As soon as the students saw him, all hope dissipated. I saw him clutching his arm loosely and swaggering with each step. His eyes were dull and blinking slowly as if he was on the verge of unconsciousness. If someone could put Master Fung in such a weakened state, how could we stand up to our infiltrators?
"Students, you must protect our home…" His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he tipped forward. I ran to catch him but he was encased in black energy. Master Fung floated before Raven and was settled gently on the ground. He wasn't bleeding for his night clothes were still a pearly white. On his forearm was a gash surrounded in discoloration. His skin was pale and I wondered where the other monks were. Were they in the same state as Master Fung or maybe worse?
Silence drifted over the crowd as Raven analyzed him.
"He was poisoned. Dilated pupils, clammy skin, shaggy breathing… these are all symptoms of a rare poison that can only be created by black magic." She took hold of his arm, stroking right below the cut with her thumb.
"Can you reverse it, Roth?" Raven's team senior, Ryan, asked. Raven practiced magic, with her intelligence she was far ahead of schedule and was the lone student in the magic healing course, but she was only fourteen and no one knew of how well she could execute major spells.
"No. It's far too advanced but an antidote for it is written in one of my books back in my room."
"We don't have time for you to get back to your quarters, Roth! Here are your orders: the top five pupils of each year will fight our adversary, whomever it is, directly. The rest of you shall hang in the back and…OW!" A book connected with the back of Justin's head and landed on the ground with a smack.
Raven craned her neck to view the ivory white book and the golden words in the bottom right corner assured her assumptions.
Raven
"That's the book! How-" Her head snapped up into the sky as her eyes were veiled in a milky mist.
"I thought you might want your little spell book back." A voice came down from above.
"Terra? You did this?" I found myself squeaking out. Golden light was clouding her body which was standing professionally on a flat rock and her clothing was the same style as our uniforms but it was entirely black except for symbol embroidered across her chest. She was too far away to see it clearly.
"I saw the way you looked at me, Richard. At her. And when you found out about my powers…" She didn't answer my question and trailed off after her voice had quivered.
I couldn't bring myself to speak. This was because of me? Of course I freaked when she had lost control that time! What's a guy supposed to do when he is almost squished into a pancake by a gigantic boulder?
"Terr-"
"I guess you'll get to see me differently now!" Determination and hate dripped from her soul, it was almost like I could feel it. With only the warning of Terra's battle cry, sharp jagged rocks shot up from the ground before us.
I watched as Speedy aimed his bow with explosive arrows and released them, shattering the stalagmites but they continued their path. Justin gestured for Raven and I to follow him and we nodded. She flew after the senior, whose power was also telekinesis and a limited amount of telepathy, and created a black disk to transport me. I crouched down on it, gripping the side in front of me tightly. I heard the whir of Cyborg's sonic cannon below us and subsequently there was a BOOM! and a cloud of dust rose. It provided cover for us and we saw Terra's silhouette. Suddenly, we separated, going into a triangle formation. We blasted through the cloud and saw her smirking arrogantly.
Her control had grown extremely for at the same time, without notice, three pillars of stone struck us simultaneously, sending us through the air. Raven grabbed me under my arms, me facing away from her and got us back on track.
'How's your hand-to-hand?' Raven's voice rang through my head telepathically.
'Never better.' I replied and she nodded. Justin was dodging through Terra's element and Raven was sneaking above the geokinetic. He was fairing well until she broke one of the pillars and flung it at the back of his head. He grunted and started to fall again rapidly when the sorceress released me and sped off to catch the senior. I was free falling and she didn't notice me until it was too late. I twisted my body in midair and delivered a roundhouse kick directly to her jaw. She stumbled and fell but managed to grab a corner of her earthen platform. I landed right in front of her on one knee. Hard. But I ignored the shooting pain that traveled all the way to my hip.
"Richard… help me… please." She strained trying to tighten her grip. I didn't hesitate and offered her a hand but when it was firmly planted in hers, she yanked unexpectedly, dislocating my shoulder and pulling me over the side. I cried out, in both pain and the incredibility of my stupidity, and she leaned down to whisper in my ear.
"Too bad you won't be able to say goodbye to your little birdie. You know…I cared about you and the whole time we were together, you loved her. I'm not stupid. Humans… not capable of anything but an unfailing sense of compassion. Being so is your downfall. Speaking of falling…" She let go of my hand and I spiraled down, falling once again.
'Being human…' The last thought that sounded in my mind before my head hit a piece of floating rock and black shrouded my vision. The last thing I remembered was thick arms catching me before I slipped into the farthest recesses of my mind.
I woke up a week later. Many other students in the temple's infirmary with me, including Raven. By her bedside was Garth, holding her hand in his sleep. With that vision, I fell asleep again.
I was informed after my release, that Terra had been stopped by Headmaster Houkin but she had escaped and he was the one who had caught me.
End Flashback
The bell rung and the entire dining hall was soon empty. I sighed as Cyborg and the others came in through the same door I had used, taking their sweet time. Raven placed a hand on my shoulder and I forced a smile on my face.
'You okay?' She mouthed and my smile broadened. She took that as a 'yes.'
"Let's go get our fresh meat." She ruffled my hair, which didn't make much difference, and we all left to go collect our first-years.
This took me 5 hours to write. Don't get used to these twenty-four hour updates but second term is just starting for me and the workload will become four times as heavy next week.
Notes:
1.) Con-demos are tests that see how well you handle stress and maintain your concentration. Everyone takes them but they become more tedious with each year.
2.) Roy and Richard were roommates their second year.
3.) Richard was very serious this time which I think was the tone of the entire chapter. It was mainly focused on him and the next chapter will probably be on Raven.
4.) The fight scene was not very descriptive or good, in my opinion, because I don't have much experience in this area.
5.) The triangle formation order was given to Raven telepathically and she was moving Richard, so…yeah…
Reviews:
Tecna- I'm sorry! I hope you feel better. Thank you and I hope this chapter is for your liking.
Aurora Mikayla- Originality is something is strive for. Richard is complicated and I'm glad you think he came out okay. Thanks!
DierDier Shant- I made this a little bit longer. Is it okay or does it need more length? Signing up for AIM? I guess that's what you're asking about. And yes, it is free.
Sariii- I'm not going to be a Starfire basher. I never have been. She is innocent, a casualty in the triangle of love. Your last review wasn't a flame, at least I didn't see it as one. It was constructive. I'm glad you understood my explanations. I was half into dreamland when I wrote the 2nd chapter. Thank you so much for reviewing!
ravenrouge19- Here's your update and don't OD!
Hound Archon- The Richard fan club was kinda like a hyperbole but I may put it in to some kind of extent. Not an actual club with a clubhouse and whatnot but a large group of girls that adore him. Thanks for your input!
BrokenHummingbirdWings- Robin's tattoo was just something that came up because I needed something to bring his nickname into existence. Thanks! I like to keep people guessing.
raven1777- Thanks for the review! They just keep on coming!
alena-chan- I kept the Rob/Terra kinda short because it was making me sick to write. He didn't really care for her but it was like… the invoking-jealousy-into-someone-you-really-care-for relationship type thing. Not much of Rae/Garth but I'll have the reason for their break-up next chapter. You have my eternal gratitude for reviewing!
RavenEmpressofAzarath- YOU ACTUALLY THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY? No one has said that I was funny before! Thank you!
If I left anyone out I'm sorry…
I send you love, peace, happiness, and all that other stuff,
BirdsOnTheBrain