Si era libre

If I were free

Raven awoke with a start, her eyes wide. It was still dark out and her eyes took a minute to adjust to the dim light that the moon light provided. She was lying down, still and not bobbing up and down, and someone was drawing a blanket over her.

"Go back to sleep, there is still plenty of night left." A deep voice coaxed her gently. Raven pushed herself up to her elbows so she could get a better view of the person to whom the voice belonged. As she expected it belonged to Cyborg, who was leaning over her as he had been drawing up the blanket. What she didn't expect was to find their faces merely inches apart.

"You should sleep. It's about 2 in the morning." Stone spoke softly.

"You didn't have to push yourself to here so quickly." Raven breathed.

"The nights are cold down here; I thought it best if you had a warm bed to sleep in for at least part of the night." Stone replied quietly.

Raven leaned up and placed a quick kiss on Cyborg's lips. "That's for being thoughtful. This" Raven gave Cyborg another chaste kiss, "is for taking care of me when we were out there." Raven couldn't really tell, due to Cyborg's dark complexion and little visible flesh, but she was sure the former Titan was blush, if only ever so lightly. Fortunately for Raven her unique light gray complexion and the darkness hid her own blush.

Truth be known, it had been a long time since Stone had someone say he was thoughtful and actually mean it. Being at the top of the heap meant that everyone below you sucked up to you like nothing else, especially when you were known for your combat skills.

"Sleep." Stone whispered before tearing his gaze from Raven's and walking into the smithy section of his apartments. There he replaced his damaged parts with spares as quietly as possible. When he was done the Lord General walked back into the bedroom to check on Raven.

"Where are you going to sleep?" Raven's voice penetrated the night. She had only whispered but in the quiet of night it seems much louder.

"A chair will suffice." Stone answered. He had been sleeping in one every night since he brought Raven down with him. After all he only had one bed and he had been letting Raven sleep in it. It would be rather inappropriate for them to sleep in the same bed, especially given their early relationship as captor and captive.

Silence followed. Raven knew that Cyborg had been sleeping in a chair ever since she had claimed the bed in her injured state. Now she was well and on top of that she was, in all technicality his "guest." She was the princess, and he was the Lord General, which as it turned out made him the higher ranked person. She really should turn the bed over to him since it was his after all but she wasn't going to give up the comforts of a feather bed. "You could sleep with me." Raven said the words before she knew what she was saying.

"It wouldn't be right. Here you don't have to play the part of my consort." Stone replied. As much as Stone wanted to he was going to have to pick the chair over the bed.

"Look, the bed is pretty big. You can stay on one side and I'll stay on the other. Besides, we 'slept' together the other night and it was fine." Raven reasoned with Cyborg. It really was the least she could do for him since he had carried her the entire distance from the camp to the citadel.

After a few more minutes of useless arguing Stone conceded, he knew Raven wasn't going to let him rest until he was in a proper bed, though he was sure to stay on his side of the bed.

Stone awoke noting that there was someone curled up next to him. Stone opened his eye to find Raven and himself spooning in the middle of the bed. It was apparent that they had both migrated to the middle of the bed and sorted themselves out during the course of the night.

Stone smiled. He felt comfortable having Raven's body next to his own. Under normal circumstances Stone wouldn't let most people this close to his person but he felt safe around Raven, a feeling that had long eluded him until now.

Gently as he could, Stone got up trying not to disturb Raven, and slipped into his personal forge/equipment room which was part of his quarters. Once there Stone stripped off his chest armor.

Hearing a gasp Stone whirled around and lowered himself into a defensive stance, arm blades extended. Seeing that it was only Raven Stone retracted his weapons.

Despite Stone's best efforts Raven had awaken due to the lack of his presence close to her, and had followed him into the armory. As if in a trance Raven had watched him remove his chest armor. She knew, from her vague recollection of what was becoming over 11 years ago, that Cyborg was still vary much human in many ways. What she hadn't expected was to find were the multitude of scars that canvas his body.

"Raven."

Cyborg's voice brought Raven back to reality.

"What?"

"You should take a bath. I'll have breakfast brought to you. I need to take care of some… business before we go to the service." Stone informed Raven who nodded before slowly turning around and making her way to the bath house. She knew that Lord Stone was a fighter, that he fought a lot, but the sheer magnitude of seeing so many scars made Raven realize the how tough her former teammate was.

Stripping down and slipping into the tub Raven thought back to when Cyborg and herself were still Titans. Everyone took their fair share of scraps but now that she thought of it, Cyborg was always taking far more punishment then he had to. He was always the first one in and the last one out when it came to fighting the physically larger enemies like Cinderblock.

In his equipment room Stone changed his armor to a suit that resembled his old look. On the surface, if he was spotted and identified by someone, at least his former superhero persona would give him some room to wriggle around. On top of that Stone had made some modifications to his armor so that it could absorb Tamaranian energy discs. His spies on the surface had been feeding the powerful Lord intelligence of the changes caused by the invasion of Earth by the Tamaranians. Stone didn't care what they did to the surface world as long as they left his lands alone down below.

After dressing, Stone set out to find Dick. A talk with him was something that Stone had been meaning to do but never had the time. Guarding Raven was a full time job on top of being a Lord General had kept Stone very busy. The talk he would have to have to with Dick was going to be short, sweet and very hard hitting.

Stone found Dick in his room as it was still early enough in the morning. Between recovering and being an old friend Stone had seen to it that Dick was taken care of.

"Dick, get up. We have to talk."

Dick mumbled something Stone couldn't quite make out but from the sounds of it Dick wasn't planning on talking anytime soon.

"Dick whether you listen to me or not really doesn't concern me but I will say this once. The Tamaranians have invaded the surface. Now the entire planet is under their room. Starfire was the spy they sent to gather intel on planetary defence and she led the initial invasion teams. She's a colonel now and spends a lot of her time in the old Tower. That's where we are going so you may see her there. Once on the surface you are free to go. Raven will remain in my care."

With that Stone turned on his heel and marched out of Dick's room. His little speech should have his older leader's mind racing. After all it had been close to 9 months since he had last seen his wife and the gods only knew how long it was since either of them had any action.

Stone figured that it was Star's guilt that led her leave Dick before the invasion happened. It would make sense based on Star's character and her unwavering devotion to Dick. Saying that she was a spy would have crushed Dick.

Stone pushed that train of thought to the back of his positronic mind, he had to get something and then scout out the Tower before even bringing Dick and Raven up. It wasn't safe for Raven to stay in the Hells much longer but he wasn't going to be careless. Carelessness was what Tir'eir had been and now the once powerful mentor was nothing more than a puppet. A puppet he would be forced to leave in charge. Still despite his age there were few that would dare defy the words of Lord Tir'eir or his angelic daughter Maria.

Speaking of which, Stone ran into the angel herself and explained that he was holding her responsible for keeping her father in check during his trip to the surface.

"Status Quo Maria, I want that maintained. If it isn't, I'm going to personally torture Jacob with you watching." Stone threatened knowing just how the family butler had slowly become something more the Maria.

"I'll do my best." Maria replied quickly.

Next Stone ordered breakfast and brought it back to his room. Setting it down on a table Stone made his way into the study and unearthed a jeweled choker; gold encrusted and set with a simple stone.

Stone sighed; Raven wasn't going to like what he had done with the stone. It was the same stone that Tir'eir had given Cyborg to absorb the excess Dark Energy Raven had produced on the surface. Stone had taken the little gem and in preparation for this day had altered the powers to include a control bond between the choker and one of his arm plating pieces. That way Stone would be able to know and if need be control Raven by immobilizing her. He knew she would never approve but if she didn't know of the effects of the choker then she would have no reason to refuse the gift.

Unsure of if Raven was done bathing Stone called out and told her that he left her a present with her breakfast before the general went to talk with some of his "trusted" officers. Once preparations were set and things settled down enough for the Lord General to take his leave, Stone would do exactly that taking both Dick and Raven.

Raven was quite surprised to find the golden choker. Set in the center was a pink stone that was shinnying brightly. Little did she know, that stone was reflecting her emotional state. Currently it was reflecting her embarrassment at receiving such a lavishing gift. No one had ever given Raven jewelry before. After admiring it sufficiently Raven up it on and sat down to her breakfast. As much as she didn't want to admit it out loud, being treated like royalty was something she was becoming accustomed to and enjoyed. So much so that Raven would almost admit that Stone had broken just a small part of her defencive walls. Treating a girl like a queen did have a certain effect on how that girl acted towards the one treating her.

However the long months below were having there toll on Raven. Though she had shoved the thoughts to the back of her head, Raven was missing for her old bed, the Titan Tower, her café. They all represented the past, before her darker past had caught up with her once again, a time when she wasn't happy, but content with what she had made herself into on her own. In the Hells, her supposed realm, Raven was nothing more then a puppet. Raven knew that there was a slim chance if any that she would ever wield any real power, both politically and physically as her powers had left her upon her entrance below, and that Stone would marry her to take her throne. Admittedly, marrying Stone wasn't such a bad thing but Raven wished it wouldn't be because of political motives. And marrying him would mean she would spend the rest of her life powerless, literally, stuck below for who knew how long she'd live.

The thought of such a future wasn't very appealing to Raven. While in the past she wasn't completely happy and was living half in the present and the past, at least back then she controlled her destiny.

Suddenly thinking about what she had, Raven really missed how she used to live. That train of thought led to when the Teen Titans were still together, to when Stone was still Cyborg. The trip down memory lane finally got to Raven and the heiress to the Blood Throne wept silently, unaware that the stone in the choker had turned a dark blue.

A/N:

Not very long update but an update none the less. University has a way of taking up your time. I plan to finish this so stick around, but I can't promise constant updates until summer.

The LockDown