a.n. For all you Slade/Raven-ers out there, you might like this chapter. :3
Dang, after that FF mess up a couple of days ago, it deleted all the hits to my story. x.x;
ShadowDevil- Hey, long time no see. :) Well, Raven's not going to suddenly wake up one morning and be spawn-of-satan evil. It's a slow process. LoL. kidsnextdoor112- Thank you very much. Glad you liked. Kendra Chetnova- Eeee! They're in character?. :D It's so hard for me to tell anymore, seriously. -ego is so boosted now- XD;; Slade/Raven or Raven/RX... eh, I'm as confused as you are. hehe. I'll find out when I finish the story... then I'll letcha know. ;) Aietradaea- Wow, 12 chapters all at once. o.O; I probably would've lost interest in something long before then. LoL. "The dark girl" is repetative? I suppose so... I just wanted to call her something besides her name all the time. And just "the girl" might've gotten confusing with Starfire around (in like... half of the first chapter XD; ). But I can try to cut down on it. However, when Jinx shows up (yes, next chapter), I gotta differentiate somehow. But glad you liked. :) lolopixie- Thank you very much. :3 Not really a cliffhanger this time... but I shall try to write another one soon. X3; Ooh, and what really annoys me is the misusing of "there," "their," and "they're." I do it occasionally, though, but sometimes I catch them. There's not too many grammar problems in here, are there? psycicflower- I like X, too. He's fun to write. But I like writing Gizmo even more. X3; (Next chapter.) X, although he seems slightly clueless here, is in this chapter, too. My Halloween was spent driving through the Cleveland Metropark woods at night. I kept watching out for psychos or vermin... LoL. How was yours? And how was your b-day? VampireSelene- I was wondering when you'd reply. :) I am very, very glad you like it and I hope you'll like this chapter just as much. Boldprint56- I'm ecstatic you all like the story so much! :33
Chapter 13
Raven jumped back, the scream she had tried to suppress came out as a loud gasp. It couldn't be possible.
Slowly determination took hold of her features and she sunk through the floor on her hunt for Slade. After searching several corridors and rooms, she found him not far from the training room, rattling off more orders to a small group of soldiers. With a wave of Raven's arm, shadow engulfed the man and his body followed the dark girl as she returned to the living room through several stories.
Once Slade had been released on the floor near the screen, he instantly shouted, "What is the meaning of this?"
"What is the meaning of that?" Raven shouted back, pointing fiercely at the screen with a picture of the fleeing ship, four Titan signals aboard. "I want answers, Slade!" The man clasped his hands behind his back and a sound like a sorrowful sigh issued from his mask.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, Raven," he said slowly, in a calmer tone.
"That's not the kind of answer I want!" exclaimed the girl, darkness covering her fists. "You know something! TELL ME!"
"Calm down," Slade replied in a bored voice, looking from the screen to Raven and back again. "They returned earlier in a Tamaranian ship. Blackfire was with them. They saw all my guards here with me and figured you joined me to be their enemy." Raven's eyes widened. All her anger had drained away, replaced by horror.
"That can't be true. You said they weren't coming back!" she said, raising her voice.
"I assumed they wouldn't since they hadn't returned yet. The only conjecture I can give is that Starfire wanted to save her sister from sentencing. However, when they returned they found my robots walking freely all over the tower. I noticed them scouting the tower out earlier. No doubt they saw us together and figured you joined me, their enemy, which makes you their enemy, too. Therefore, they left. There was no way they could retake their home. But like I said, it's just my guess."
Raven felt like she was on the verge of tears. It was a strange sensation, since she almost never cried. The dark girl had probably cried once in the last three years.
"But when Robin... and Terra... we saved them... we never gave up on them," Raven gasped, fighting back tears. The girl's speech was slow and broken because it was hard for her to make sentences while she was searching frantically for any logical reasons the Titans had for leaving her.
"My dear, think about it: Robin was the team's leader- he was friends with everybody. Of course they'd go after him. Terra was outgoing and a friend magnet. Not to mention Beast Boy was interested in her. You, however... your motives are far less easily discerned. I wouldn't doubt it if the other Titans were just waiting- expecting you to switch sides. They probably figured it was a lost cause, trying to save you."
Raven's hand clapped over her mouth to keep her lower lip from quivering. Her eyes stung as she fought back more tears. She felt betrayed, unloved, forgotten. Her friends had been here, in full view of the tower, and they just left. They left her.
A harsh sound buzzed from the screen, informing her that the ship was now out of range. The lock on the Titans' communicators was gone; the screen went blank.
They didn't even try- didn't even care. That whole time they had been nice to her, inviting her along with them, playing games, movie marathons... they had really been expecting her to become their enemy? And now that Slade was in their tower, did they think their expectations had come true? That she betrayed them? No- Terra betrayed them. But they betrayed Raven. Maybe Slade had been right all along. She had no real friends. But the Titans had been the closest things to friends the dark girl had ever had. And they just... left.
Raven couldn't contain it any longer. Tears began flowing freely down her face as she sobbed into her hand. Slade, who had never expected to see the girl react this much, was taken a little off guard. However, he was sure that in a few moments her powers would get out of control and the whole room, if not the whole tower, would get wrecked.
Slowly he neared her, trying in vain to think of something that would comfort her. He was urged on only by the fear that she was deadly when so emotionally unstable. Slade awkwardly patted her shoulder, trying to sound soothing.
"Calm down, Raven. I'm sure it's for the best this way." That only made her sob harder. Already large objects where being covered in shadow. Pretty soon they'd be flying around the room.
Slade had no better idea than to pull Raven into a tight hug, clutching her as if he was trying to keep a bomb from detonating.
"Get a grip," he told her firmly. The dark girl didn't hear him for she was crying so hard into his chest; she was too short to reach his shoulder.
She had only one thought, but it was resonating so much in her head that it could keep her crying for the rest of the day: The Titans, the only people who had really looked after her and seemed to care for her, were gone, possibly forever. They had just left her.
More objects in the room were engulfed in shadow. Smaller objects were already shaking.
"If you let this upset you, then you're letting the Titans control you- control your powers," Slade said quickly. His embrace wasn't very comforting, in fact it was a little uncomfortable with all his armor, but it gave her something stable to hold onto and she stopped crying so loudly.
However, little items around the room were already in the air, larger objects were slowly levitating, and darkness was spreading across all the windows.
"Raven, listen to me: Forget about the Titans. You don't need friends; they just hurt you. If you calm down, you can meditate, and you'll feel better," Slade said, eyeing all the dark, floating masses in the room uneasily.
"I won't feel better," cried Raven, sniffling. "I'll feel lonely. I always feel lonely." She rubbed her nose on her sleeve near her shoulder then buried her face in the part of Slade's shirt that wasn't covered in armor.
The small object began whizzing around the room, as if caught in a tornado with Raven at its center. The big things slowly followed, but were knocked into repeatedly by the little items on a much faster path. The shadows were putting pressure on the windows and Slade could've sworn he heard a cracking noise from the wall of glass behind him.
"If you don't have friends, it doesn't mean you'll be lonely," the man reasoned, trying to comfort her by patting her head. "Life is much better when you're on your own. You can-"
"But who will I talk to? Play games with? Watch hours and hours of stupid movies with?" whined the girl in a muffled voice.
"The robots?" Slade suggested hopefully. More sobs came from Raven. For once, the man didn't know what to say. He used to pride himself on being able to talk his way in or out of practically anything. Now, however, he was clueless. He was also becoming soaked by the girl's tears.
Impatiently, Slade grabbed Raven's shoulders and pushed her to arms length. All the floating things sped up, and the newly replaced window shattered. Cracks were spreading along other windows, as well.
"Earlier you seemed just fine with the idea your teammates weren't coming back. Now you're a wreck and about to destroy this room. Why did you change?" he asked quickly. Raven sniffled again, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand.
"I dunno," she mumbled, gasping for air in short, repeated breaths. "I guess it didn't... didn't seem all that real before when you told me... But now, they were here... I saw them. I saw them leave!" More short gasps for air. Slade reached out and grabbed a napkin that was sailing by and handed it to Raven.
"You said you wanted closure. Now you know for sure. But now you have to move on. Let it go. Nothing has changed since yesterday. You're still here and your friends are still gone. Calm down," he said firmly. The man couldn't see how Raven could carry on like this. It seemed very illogical and too emotional for her.
The dark girl used the napkin first to dry her eyes, then blow her nose. Slowly, the tornado of flying furniture calmed. The shadows receded from the windows. The largest items crashed down first and the smaller stuff gently glided down like feathers. One of Beast Boy's socks landed on Slade's head, which he quickly removed.
"You're right," Raven said at last, her voice sounding strange with her nose clogged. She used the napkin to blow her nose again, then looked around the wrecked room with miserable, puffy eyes.
A pang of guilt shot through the girl as she surveyed the damages. She had lost control of her emotions and her powers. Raven let her hair out of its ponytail and just stood there, sniffling, watching the ground.
"No more training today, Raven. Go rest or meditate or... whatever you need to do," Slade said almost nicely, laying a hand on her shoulder. The girl nodded in a distracted sort of way, but kept staring at the floor. After a moment of silence when Raven still didn't move, the man grabbed her shoulders, spun her around, and pushed her toward the door.
"I want you to get a better control over your powers, Raven," Slade said abruptly, startling the girl out of her miserable thoughts. Suddenly darkness spread over the floor around Raven's feet and she simply dropped through to the lower story.
Just as she left, a robot guard entered through the front doors. Earlier Slade had positioned most of his soldiers around entrances, or anything that could be used as an entrance, while the rest of them went to see Blackfire off.
"Did she leave by herself?" Slade asked it, pulling the front of his shirt away from his skin. The wet material clung to his chest and made a funny suction noise as it finally separated. He looked up just in time to catch the tail end of the robot's nod. "Do you know where she's going?" The guard shook its head.
Slade thought for a moment. "Fine. I want all the codes to the tower changed again and this time make them harder to hack into. And from now on, don't tail Raven. She can walk freely around."
He dismissed the soldier and headed for the computer, wading across the debris-strewn floor. Slade quickly contacted Blackfire's ship and the woman appeared on the screen soon after. She was in the pilot's chair, one leg crossed over the other and reading a magazine. The way she was holding it, it appeared as if she had just done her nails.
"Not for your sake, but your cargo's: I hope you're on auto pilot," Slade said briskly, folding his hands behind his back.
Blackfire lowered the magazine slightly below her eyes. "Calling to check on me so soon? I never knew you cared." The man merely sneered in reply.
"Where are you headed?" he demanded quickly.
"What's it to you?"
"Considering we are still business partners, your intentions are most relevant to me. Now, where are you going?"
Blackfire scowled. "Well, Nosy, Monaco. I just had to see a real, adult earthling kind of party."
"Europe. Well, at least we're separated by an ocean now. However, since Monaco is the gambling center of the world, how do you expect to pay for anything?"
"I've got a plan," the woman replied with a grin that made her nose crinkle. With a careful wave of her hand to make sure her wet nails touched nothing, she terminated the link.
Slade vented a growl as he turned away from the screen. "She better not get herself on international news..."
.
Raven appeared in her room and immediately dropped onto her bed, clutching a pillow. How could she let her emotions get so out of hand? The dark girl had thought she had a tight hold on everything- her temper and powers. But seeing her friends leave... A wave of powerful feelings had come over her then, too much to control. Raven had never cried so hard before. But then again, she had never had friends like the Titans before.
The dark girl felt like crying again, but knew it was pointless. Her tears would not bring her friends back. They would only serve to weaken her mental hold over her powers. Slowly, she forced away her grief and miserableness. The stuffy nose, however, Raven had to deal with.
She was startled when she heard her window being opened, and her head jerked around to see X jump in.
"It's not even safe to stay here twenty minutes anymore," he said, looking carefully back out the window to make sure he wasn't noticed. Raven's eyes narrowed upon seeing him. The thief was the one who told her to watch from the window so she could see something "interesting." It must've been X's idea of a joke to show her her friends leaving. For that, Raven despised him.
"I couldn't stick around for it, but did you see that thing back at that time?" he asked cryptically, sounding pleased with himself. The dark girl had to fight to keep her powers under control; she would've liked nothing better than to smash the thief between a bookcase and a wall.
"Yes," she forced out.
"I figured. I saw stuff flying all over that room from where I was. But anyway, so now you know. What I wouldn't've given to be there to watch it," said X with a chuckle. Raven clenched her fists. He wanted to see her lose control of her powers? And he knew about the Titans all along?
"You probably knew the moment they came back with Blackfire," she hissed, taking a threatening step forward. The thief nodded, his arms folded smugly across his chest.
"Yep. But I knew I shouldn't interfere too much. I saw 'em, actually, yesterday. When Slade was out. And I heard everything-"
"Well I don't want to hear any more!" Raven snapped. After all that she had been through, wondering every day where her friends were, and all X put her through, always seeming to know one more vital piece of information than Raven did, that thief had the nerve to show up and boast like this?
"But I saw it all," said X quickly, taken aback at her outburst. "I was hiding in the woods next to Blackfire's ship when-"
"Stop!" cried Raven. "I don't want to know what anyone did or said." The dark girl knew she couldn't bear knowing any of her teammate's conversations about her or plans to leave. "Slade told me everything." X's arms dropped out of their smug position and dangled at his sides. He blinked.
"He... did?" the thief questioned, clear disbelief choking his tone.
"Yes. Now there's no reason for you to stay or 'help' any further. Leave."
"But... but don't you want to go after them?" X asked, stunned. The conversation obviously was not going as he had figured.
"What? Why? There's not point," replied Raven, her voice growing softer. Again she felt like she was going to burst into tears. It hurt too much to talk about the Titans. "Just leave," she finally managed to say in a stronger tone.
X was at a lost for words; Raven knew Blackfire had her friends captured, but wasn't going to go rescue them? Then something in his mind clicked: Slade had told her everything.
"Hang on, what exactly did-"
"OUT!" shouted Raven, pointing back toward the open window.
X looked hurt and surprised as he backed up, but figured he shouldn't protest anymore. He shrugged his shoulders in a defeated sort of way.
"See you around, kid," the thief sighed before hopping out of the window.
..
Next Update: Nov. 14th. National Hug-A-TV Day.
...just kidding.
btw, if anyone's out of character, please tell me.
Ooh, almost at 100 reviews. :DD Ok, 100th reviewer gets a sneak peak at whatever the next chapter is. I'm in a game-kinda mood tonight. X3;