The Raben Project
By
Agent X
The Incomplete.
A/N: So, we've finally reached the ten-chapter anniversary (and also the twenty-reader mark)! This is the first fiction of mine to go beyond four chapters. In celebration of this event I have for you the RaeRob challenge of the week:
In which Fanfic does Cyborg become the President of the Robin/Raven Fanclub?
Cookies to whoever can solve it! I have another request, but shall place it at the end of chapter so as not to delay you any further. Enjoy!
Moment: Episode 12 (Apprentice I) – Raven captures Robin with her energy [Part II – Quote in footnotes]
When Robin starts to loose control, Raven is not angry. She is not upset, or worried or scared or any other of the myriad emotions that the rest of the Titans are feeling.
She cannot be surprised either: she should have realised it was inevitable, especially when she can see that tenuous balance between dedication and obsession that Robin is clinging to.
Even so, when Raven pulls Robin away from the unlucky bystander he currently has against the wall, she is not doing it at the urging of her team mates. She does not do so because it is her duty as a Titan; nor because she is the one most capable of completely immobilising him, though any of these reasons would have been enough.
When she reaches out her powers towards him, she does not think of any of this. Instead, Raven is recalling a time when she had been on the brink of atrocity herself, and someone had reached out to her.
But when her powers do grasp Robin, the strength of the emotions around him are fed directly into her, and Raven remembers instead the other time she has had him constrained. She remembers the conviction, the intent and the single-minded focus, which wisped through her. And whatever danger, whatever repressed anger she felt then; it is nothing to the oppressive wrath she experiences now.
Robin has always had this potential, this energy and darkness in him, and he always will. But it is not the sudden awareness of it that prompts her to speak, and what she tells him is more than what she says.
It is a reminder. If Robin cannot maintain control, then Raven will do what is necessary to eradicate the danger (just as he was prepared to do for her).
What she keeps to herself is this: that until he crosses that line, she will continue to feel nothing. She will not be upset, or angry, or scared; and she will not judge him.
This is because Raven knows; she should be the last person in the world, to hold the fact that someone could be dangerous against them.
The Quote:
Raven: You said you could handle it.
Starfire: You promised.
Okay, so, for those of you who have been following – perhaps watching the series alongside – I need to know: do you see any strong RaeRob moments in Apprentice II? I have watched it, but nothing really sticks out (the closest I got was Raven's long speech at the beginning about attacking him). So unless anyone strongly objects, or has something to suggest, I shall continue on to wrap up Season one.
Interesting thing about this chapter: I spent three days writing it all out, then decided I didn't like it, deleted it all, and rewrote it in an half an hour.
I think Robin's darkness comes out a lot in the series, and mostly due to Slade. Apprentice (II) is one example (I love the 'I already have a father' line). And in The End, where he practically kills the super-villain. Unfortunately for him, Slade is a zombie by that point.