The Raven Haired Sakura

Part Two

A/N

This chapter is dedicated to The Goth Witch.

…

Celine's frustration at her failed prototype didn't last long. She sat Indian style in the floor of her control panel; a newly created, and newly deemed fruitless, device sat in front of her. She sighed and removed a mini screw driver from her kit and began dismantling the machine.

It had never taken her three weeks to do anything outside of being potty trained, but that had more to do with defiance than inability. She wanted to say that it was because leads on Blood were getting hot and that Bumble Bee would be returning in a day or so that she was just too distracted to employ her absolute genius on this project.

But if she was going to be honest with herself, she just didn't have a clue on how to make this work out. Reverse Engineering just didn't make sense to her. The concepts were so bizarre, so foreign and so mathematically impossible, that Celine almost believed that she couldn't learn it. But she couldn't quit, she didn't think she could bear to. Not just because the shame of defeat was the only excess she carried with her, but because she didn't think she'd be able to tell Beast Boy that she couldn't help. The little green sprite had become very close to her heart over the weeks. She thought he was funny, no matter what Raven said, and a nice guy like Beast Boy wasn't going to finish last… if she had anything to say about it. Celine continued to take apart the Preparation E of her Reverse Petrifaction Device.

Celine stayed in Terra's room even after the guest room¹ had been prepared. She could have taken Bumble Bee's spare room also, but she didn't want to go. She had hoped being in the place where Beast Boy felt the most calm about Terra would provide her with some sort of inspiration. Instead, her nights remained restless and Cyborg had been spending less and less time there.

Celine pulled off her scouter and paused a minute. Her red hair fell over her shoulder as her breath quaked. She picked up her mini tools and finished disassembly of Preparation E. Celine, girl, what have you gotten yourself into?

…

"Wait a minute! If Sakura is Japanese, then that means Robin is too!" Beast Boy yelled over the table. The group sat at the round table, hurling questions and answers in various directions, some times no where at all.

Robin shrugged. "Couldn't you tell by the awesome hair?"²

"Actually, I'm half Japanese-half American and half related to Robin. We have the same mother."

Beast Boy still could not get over his shock. It had been nearly an hour since Robin brought Sakura into the common room, where the rest of the Titans gathered around the girl and threw out questions immediately. She had told them for the last few years had been studying at a temple in China, then living with her father in Gotham. Noting Robin's desire for maintaining secrecy about his past, the dark haired girl dodged any questions about him as a child or their family or what exactly Robin had been doing before he became a Titan. She did tell them that she was a master martial artist and acrobat, which no one doubted seeing as she shared chromosomes with the Boy Wonder. Beast Boy asked about the giant parchment covered thing that Sakura had strapped to her back. She gave a crocked smile and told him she hoped he'd never have to find out. The questions returned to her fighting style and she admitted to preferring Xing Yi based Kung Fu, which immediately sparked the question of was she better than Robin. Sakura smirked and so did Robin. It seemed that both of them were up for the challenge.

Beast Boy pointed a finger at Robin over the table.

"Dude! I didn't know you could even have a sister, but she's not a masked vigilante!"

Sakura leaned over to Raven, holding a hand up to block the sight of her lips moving. "He's like this all the time isn't he?"

"No… this is Beast Boy extreme."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Do you all do extreme here?"

"No… my extreme is Armageddon³."

Sakura righted herself. Raven turned to Beast Boy. "Could you please calm down?"

Beast Boy immediately turned his attention back to Robin. "I didn't know you had a sister! I didn't even know you had parents! I thou-" Beast Boy's chair broke beneath him. Under the table he rubbed his head sourly. There he caught a glimpse of the dark energy retreating. "Raven! What was that for?"

"HUSH!"

Beast Boy frowned before his head swelled ten times its normal size. "You knew all this time didn't you? You knew about Robin and you never told us! We've been dying to at least know something about him! Your little trip into his head told you something you could have told us!"

"It doesn't work that way Beast Boy. I didn't read through his life like a script. I only saw some things but they were jumbled images and I didn't pry."

Beast Boy pouted. "But this is huge! Robin has a sister! And she's beautiful! What is this? A slew of beautiful girls are entering our lives? How did we get so lucky?"

Robin turned to Beast Boy as if he had just said the most unintelligent thing he'd heard all day. "You've seen Raven and Starfire, did you think that that the girls would stop coming?"

A blush ran up Raven's whole body, while Starfire smiled sweetly. In the distance a distinct explosion was heard. The group turned to Raven. "It wasn't me!"

"No… it was me."

The Titans turned their surprised heads to the communications screen. Celine's fingers flew over her control board. A few flips of switches then Slade's image came in loud and clear.

The Titans leapt from their chairs and turned to face the monitor.

"Hello Titans… I must say, you have changed quite a bit since I saw you last… Look at the new faces, pretty faces… New friends for me to break? Robin? Raven?"

Robin growled and stepped forward as Sakura reached underneath the table for her parchment covered package.

Another rumble rocked the tower. The Titans looked around as Celine's scans hummed and whorled at her control panel. Monitors were shifting around Slade's image, angles of the Titans' base came into clear view.

"Bombs. He's trying to blow his way in."

"Bombs again! Dude! I'm starting to take this personal! Would all the bad guys please stop blowing up our home?"

"Don't worry guys. Slade can't get in the tower, not with the defenses up."

"Celine, don't for a moment think you know anything about what Slade can do."

"That is very good advice Robin. You were always the smart one."

"Robin…"

Slade's profile took over the entire monitor, one eye holding the intelligence that made him so dangerous.

"I must admit that your new defensive system is quite impressive. I hadn't encountered design this well crafted in years."

"You've never encountered design this flawless." Celine shouted, red scouter throwing figures across her eye.

"Confident in our skills are we? So am I. We can do this one of two ways Titans, and because I so enjoy the idea of you choosing your own doom, I'm going to let you pick. Deliver her to me or let me take her."

Robin didn't say a word, he put himself in front of Raven, Starfire and Cyborg did the same.

"We aren't going to be lured out Slade."

Slade laughed as he spoke. "Robin, you misunderstand. I'm not trying to force you out… I'm forcing my way in. That was always the plan: meeting you face to face, in your home, close to where you sleep at night… and in the darkness, take her away. Raven has a world of work ahead of her." Slade paused and looked into the monitor, his eye trained perfectly on where Raven was standing. "I did promise to come back. Why so surprised dear girl?"

"What do you want with her?" Sakura demanded.

"It isn't about what I want. Not really. Its about what she must do… we must all do our part in the end of the world."

"You can't have her! She isn't yours to take! She doesn't belong to you or Trigon and I won't let you use her like some soulless puppet!"

Slade's image pulled back and behind him his drone army marched, strapped in black. Their sensors targeted on the tower. The drones seemed unable to press forward.

"You don't scare us Slade. You can huff and puff…" Beast Boy taunted. Above his head, a breached security banner flashed. Beast Boy deadpanned. "And knock a hole through the tower with bombs."

Celine's fingers flew over her control pad bringing up a diagram of the breached sector. It wasn't at the base of the tower. It was from the roof.

"Titans! Drones have leaked in from the roof top. They're spreading fast. Take them down. Raven, stay here with me. This room is the best guarded."

"But I can…"

"Raven, Omicron is right. This is where we can keep you safe. Cyborg. Beast Boy. Star. Sakura. Stop the droids and don't let them in this room. Aqualad, come with me."

"Robin! Wait!" Raven called. Robin turned back to the dark sorceress. "Don't worry Raven. Slade isn't going to get another step closer. I promise."

Raven watched the others run out the room. Sakura paused at the door, readying her parchment package, which Raven decided had to be a weapon. The door slide closed giving Raven a glimpse of Sakura taking off down the hall. Raven turned a worried eye to Celine.

"Don't worry Raven. I have faith in the team and so do you."

Outside the door, Beast Boy swung his massive gorilla paws, hurling a drone into the floor. His roar echoed up the hall and past Cyborg as he blasted a path to the roof. The explosions had stopped below them. Either the bombs were done or the worst was yet to come. Knowing Robin and Aqualad were running in that direction made him hope that it was the former.

Sakura scanned the roof top in the middle of the melee. She had followed behind Cyborg knowing he was going to the source. Beast Boy had pulverized the few drones that made it deep into Titans' tower. Beast Boy lapped her in his wolf form, knowing too that the real fight would be on the roof. She counted quickly, accurately before pulling her unveiled weapon in front of her. She tore away the parchment and exposed to the night air a weapon that made Cyborg and Beast Boy's faces vault.

"A giant boomerang?"⁴

Sakura pulled her weapon back, cutting through the night air like a razor across a wire. One sharp flick of her wrist and an expert throw hurled her boomerang through the air at lightning fast speed. It turned and pivoted, flying at the drones with deadly accuracy. The first swoop took out half of the drones and the return finished the job. The huge weapon returned to Sakura's hand, the excess energy slamming itself into the roof of the tower making a considerable dent.

"That might have been the coolest thing I've ever seen." Beast Boy admitted.

At the base of the tower Aqualad realized his role in accompanying Robin. Robin was going to fight Slade and Aqualad was the insurance that nothing interfered. If a single drone moves a half-step, Aqualad would throw the sea and clear them all away. He'd only do it if necessary. Manipulating large bodies of water exhausted him and he wanted to make sure that he'd only have to do it once. Another swarm of drones would be too much for him.

The door slide open. Raven and Celine turned sharply. Raven's dark energy encircled her hands. On the floor, a half demolished drone clawed its way towards the girls. Celine swung from her seat, the Fire Fly clutched on her shoulder. Energy began flowing through the thrusters and ran into the giant cannon. Celine finds the drone in her sights. "You didn't think it was going to be that easy did you?" The drone didn't get the chance to react. Her high-heeled boot dug into the carpet as she squeezed the trigger. The whorls of energy collected and in one powerful thrust escaped the barrel and tore through the air before ripping through the drone fraction. Celine smirked at her handiwork. "Sometimes it's hard being this good." Raven said nothing and turned back to the monitors, knowing any second Robin would be encountering Slade.

Slade seemed to be waiting for Robin. He hadn't moved an inch. That was why it was so easy to find him. The drones parted like the holy waters as his stride brought him to Slade's side. The man turned to him and waited for him to speak.

"Their defenses are down… will you not go and take the gem?"

Slade shook his head at his companion. "She isn't ready yet… when the time is right; I'll send her an engraved invitation."

"Then why are we here?"

"I like keeping Robin on his toes."

Just as the door to the tower opened and Robin poured himself out of it, bird-a-rangs clashed together in their long blade state⁵. Slade didn't turn him an eye as he and his army turned its back to the Boy Wonder and vanished like a haunt in the night.

Robin gritted his teeth. He was playing with us… And we fell for it again… He sighed hard and returned to the tower, his bones ready to collapse whether he admitted it or not. The other Titans were feeling a similar weariness and they separated with only Star managing to mean her wishes for pleasant dreams. No one else wished the chance of dreams on the other.

Against her better judgment, Celine had entrusted Beast Boy to scan the spare bedroom for any left over surprises. He mashed the device against his fist before pointing it to the door.

"Celine's scanny thing says your room is all clear. The drones didn't do anything bad to it. You can get some sleep."

"Umm… thanks Beast Boy, I guess I'll put my stuff away before I…" Sakura's sentence was cut off when a boom resonated from her room, blowing the door from its hinges. The wind from the blast pulled her pony tails and her cape to the right. Beast Boy's eyes widened in surprise: pupils blank and ridiculous. Sakura scowled and turned to Beast Boy who tapped Celine's "scanny thing" against his hand innocently.

"Must be busted."

Beast Boy laughed nervously. Sakura sweat dropped. Celine and Cyborg came running down the corridor.

"We heard an explosion." Cyborg said, before turning and seeing exactly what the damage had done.

"Beast Boy!" Celine yelled. "I thought you said you knew how to run the scanner!" Celine took the device and turned it on, then pointed it at the room. Sure enough, a bomb had gone off in there.

"I thought I did too. Looks like Sakura will need another place to stay."

Celine thought for a moment and didn't even turn an eye to Cyborg before saying "Well, she can stay with me. Sakura, how do you feel about sleep?"

Sakura's eyebrows rose at the question. "Um… pro?"⁶

Celine laughed. "I meant are you a light sleeper? I run on about three hours, is my being up all night going to bother me?"

Sakura shook her head. Celine grabbed Sakura's bag. "I'll help you move your things."

"First, I'd like to talk to my brother. Which way is his room?"

…

In the center of his room, Robin stood perfectly still. Every time Slade made a move, they were drawn closer and closer to the center of a web that they didn't understand. They all wanted to protect Raven; they all wanted to stop Slade. The two switched back and forth in Robin's mind, but they had been at the top of his priorities long before Trigon was revealed.

Those years ago when Raven had come to Gotham, she was looking for help. It was probably Trigon she feared all along, but never said a word of it. She had come to Gotham looking for Batman, but was willing to take his charge instead. Robin had accepted without hesitation. He had known it was his time to leave, he was ready to forget about the dark life he had, in the shadow of Batman and the past that he couldn't escape… not while in Gotham.

Robin sighed. He had run so hard, but it still followed him, caught up to him and played games with that only delicate place in his life: his heart.

Sakura's entrance played over and over in Robin's head.

She was standing, breathing, living in front of him as if the past hadn't happened. When he walked away from Gotham all those years ago, he left her and his past as well. From his memories she shouldn't be standing, acting a hero and helping to protect Raven from a danger she didn't know about… but that was how they were raised.

It was what mother and father wanted for us… to be strong, to be brave… to be happy… They only lived to see the last one… his childhood, for the most part, had been very happy.

The knock on his door startled him.

"Raven?"

"Is raven haired good enough?" Sakura entered the room, the sliding door falling closed behind her. Sakura waited for Robin to move, but he didn't. He looked at her as if he was relearning her… it had been so long ago when she last stood in front of him… But it almost felt the same. He was the little brother; looking up to his sister and she smiled down at him, waiting to give him the best that she's got.

"Take off your mask."

"No."

"You don't have a secret identity from me. I already know who you are."

Robin didn't say anything. He wasn't disagreeing, but wasn't sure if he believed that she was totally correct.

Sakura's voice changed, shifting into a language she hadn't used in a long time. "Naze wa shinjitsu o tsugeremashitaka?" (Why have you not told them the truth?)⁷

Robin slipped into his birth language without thought. "Watashi wa usoki janai." (I haven't lied to them.)⁸

"Anata wa senaka no nigiru. Karera wa tomodachi desu ne? Anata wa chuui o takusan desu. Naze wa shinrai nai desu." (You're holding it back. They are your friends; I can tell you care for them very much. Why do you not trust them?)

Robin stared at the girl for a moment. He reached to his mask and slowly peeled it from his face. He sighed, turning his eyes away from her. He collected his thoughts and turned to her. His eyes met hers: fear and something like relief swirling in his irises. Sakura wanted to smile, she remembered those eyes. Still to this day she wished that she too had eyes like their mother. Robin's deepened voice reminded her that there was something wrong.

"Ano nai... Etowa, dareka ga kyokanai izenni te seinei desu." (That isn't it... if I admit to anyone else what my life was before them... I'll have to accept it as the truth.)

"Keno-"

Robin turned a panicked eye to his sister. "Don't!"

Sakura paused and seemed to think a bit about the consequences of her next words. "Your charade won't turn time back. What happened… happened and will always be what happened."

Robin's body shook at her admission. He knew she was right… but, he couldn't…

"I can't… It's so much easier to run."

"Even from the good memories?" Sakura asked.

For all the world Robin's beautiful eyes looked like they would shatter from the sadness in his heart. He turned to face the mirror. Sakura and Robin stood silent for a moment. Sakura prepared to leave when in a scared voice, that she hadn't remembered Robin ever possessing, whispered his answer. "They only remind me of the tragedies…"

…

Azarath! Azarath! Azarath!

The sweat was killing her. Even with her hair short and her hood pulled away from her face, the heat was brutal. Raven sat in the center of her floor, throwing salts and powders into a blue flame candle. She needed to get away, if only for a short time. She needed to go home, with Trigon and Slade so close, she needed help. Raven chanted and shifted her life force, sliding into her soul self. She had to make one more attempt at the gate.

It was like flying, but it didn't require much control. This was her soul moving to where it desperately wanted to be. The Azar had to know, had to look past the absoluteness of the prophecy and give her one ray of hope that this wasn't the end.

The deep wings of Raven's soul arched and spread at the gate of Azarath. "Please, let me in! Please! Don't deny me… I need help!" The gate pulsed and vibrated, shaking energy waves into the space between Raven and her chance to get home. The gate had rejected her and like last time, when she had tried to desperately get back to Azarath when her friends were stumbling on the secrets of her pedigree, the gate was not going to let her in.⁹ "No! Help me! Please! Show me how to stop this!"

The void around her flexed and took to life. A pair of demonic creatures, both with her body but no face, extended their hands from beneath a white and a red robe. Like a spider web, sharp blue energy waves seeped from their fingers. The sharp black wings could not throw off the enslaving blue ribbons. The universe caved in on Raven, the ties of time and fate¹⁰ holding her there. She couldn't escape. The stars and the echoes of history were not going to let her break away from the world's doom. She couldn't run from herself… there was no where for her to go.

Raven's body slumped over to her floor. The blue candle shattered, the fire dimmed out as the girl passed into an uneasy sleep.

End of Part Two

¹ You would think the Tower would have more than one extra bedroom.

²I know, I know. Hair gel is Robin's best friend.

³ This is one of my favorite lines from Titans fanfiction. Feint14 you're brilliant.

⁴ A hiraikotsu, like Sango has in Inuyasha.

⁵Robin's creativeness is amazing. Who else could make two bird-a-rangs into a sword? Honestly, Robin is sick with it.

⁶My roommate freshman year asked me that same question… that was my answer.

⁷ A HUGE thanks to the Goth Witch for translating for me! I adore you!

⁸ For the scholars amongst us, the translations aren't exact. But there is enough correlation that reading either way will provide the important times.

⁹I didn't really like how Azarath looked, so I'm going to pretend that she never made it there so I can change its appearance.

¹⁰I used a thesaurus to look up another word for fate. One of the choices was 'doom'.