"So…"
Damian sighed, his fingers pausing in their rhythmic taping on the computer keyboard. Sometimes he thinks he should listen to his father and enforce absolute discipline on Jonathan Kent – not that he wasn't disciplined now, it was just that Damian allowed him much more lee-way than any of the other Titans – but if he did that Jon might consider their friendship over and Damian valued their friendship; despite his best efforts, he actually enjoyed Jon's company and besides, it was like having a nuclear weapon as a friend, all too willing to detonate in any direction you pointed them.
"What's with the white witch?"
Damian clicked his tongue. "White witch? I don't think that term's entirely appropriate, do you?" He was teasing of course, the red flush that spread across Jon's cheeks and his stammering response made Damian chuckle internally. Was he getting soft? Between Jon and Raven, he now had emotional connections to two of his teammates.
That caused him to pause. Since when did he consider himself to have an emotional connection to Raven?
"Okay," stammered Jon, still embarrassed. "What's with this second witch? I thought you had a thing going with Raven?"
"Maybe I'm board of Raven," said Damian, airily.
A long silence from Jon made Damian glance round. His friend was smirking at him with an eyebrow raised. Damian recognised it as one he himself often wore when he didn't believe a word of what someone had said.
"Alright," the assassin growled. "Maybe I'm not. But there's nothing wrong with making her a little jealous."
"Jealous?" Jon screwed up his face. "I don't think Raven's jealous. I think she's been looking like crap for the past few days."
Damian frowned minutely. Yes, he had been observing that as well. The demon-girl had objected to their hostage the first time she had been able to corner Damian alone after they brought her back to the tower.
She had claimed to just find her presence distasteful at the time, but over the past few days Damian had noticed a distinct change in Raven. She had stopped eating at meal times; her skin was looking sallow and clammy; during combat training, her reflexes were slow; and she seemed either constantly on edge – to the point where a small teasing remark from Blackfire had resulted in the alien's current internment in the medical bay – or apathetic to the point where Damian had practically fucked Wonder Girl on the table where Raven was drinking a cup of tea and she had just stared at them with dull eyes.
She had even stopped coming to the Tower roof in the mornings, her lack of presence seemed to take some of the serenity out of his morning routine.
"Well, what do you want me to do Jon?" Damian huffed in annoyance.
"Kill the hostage," Superboy replied simply. "I don't really care what weird kind of foreplay you and Raven are doing, but I do not want to go into battle with a dangerous whatever-the-fuck-Raven-is in the state that she's currently in!"
"I can't kill her yet," muttered Damian. "I can't," he repeated at Jon's disbelieving tut. "We need to find out about the resistance movement and my father has ordered me to keep her alive until he can take care of her interrogation personally."
"If we needed information from the group, why didn't you tell us to keep more of them alive during the raid?"
"The night after the raid, I found some interesting activity on their computer that indicates they may have been in contact with others." Damian yawned and stretched his arms, looking back to the computer monitor in front of him. "We have to keep her alive and in the tower; father doesn't trust Klarion to guard her and I can keep an eye on Raven to make sure she's doing her best to keep the bitch from breaking free."
xxx
Raven was not happy.
A pure magician? Raven felt sick just being in the same building as It.
The sheer goodness of the power It wielded was sickening. During the battle, that little bitch was just lucky that one of her teammates had been occupying Raven's attention, because one blast of Hellfire would have turned her very bones to ash.
And now Damian had given the angel her own room in the tower? What was he thinking? That little-miss perfect would agree to join the Teen Titans? Was this just another round in this game between her and Damian? If it was, he was making a bad gambit; Raven was less attracted to him because of this.
There was another unpleasant heave in her stomach.
And now It was trying to escape again.
It hadn't been so bad that first night when It had been unconscious; at least Raven hadn't woken up after only a few hours' sleep to throw up because It was using It's magic. But Raven had hardly slept for almost two weeks now. It felt like every time she closed her eye, the little bitch decided to test her shields or open a portal or fucking create a source of light. By now, Raven was pretty sure that It was using magic just to piss Raven off.
The demon rose slowly to her feet, bracing herself on the vanity unit to take wight off her slightly shaking legs. Sighing, she flushed the expelled contents of her stomach down the toilet before moving to the sink and slathering a generous amount of toothpaste onto her toothbrush (one of the advantages that Earth had to offer). Soon, the minty foam had washed away the acidic taste in her mouth and a splash of cold water had relieved some of the clamminess in her face. She was still shivering slightly.
That had been a desperate escape attempt. Something must have spooked It, but Raven's containment spells were nothing to be sneered at.
Damian had forced her to spend four days re-enforcing that room with shield charms and anti-portal enchantments. She had even had to ask her father for advice after exhausting her own limited knowledge on the subject.
Raven smirked just thinking about some of the suggestions her father had made. Oh, it would almost be worth the nausea for the girl to try performing some really advanced pure magic and find some of the treats Raven had stashed away in the walls.
But no; It was just trying to keep things simple yet strong.
Raven's stomach gave another unpleasant lurch.
Growling, she let out a wave of hell magic, making sure that it flooded the room where It was. At once, the offensive pure magic cut off. Good.
As she walked out of the bathroom, Raven glanced, bleary eyed at the clock on her bedside table. 04:28.
Fuck.
All she wanted was a decent night's sleep, was that too much to ask?
Another wave of pure magic, stronger than before. A retaliation.
Letting out a scream of frustration, Raven stormed out of her room. As she stalked down the corridor, tendrils of black and purple smoke covered her naked body before dissipating to reveal her usual outfit of form-fitting leotard, tights and purple cloak.
Another burst of pure magic, powerful and desperate sent Raven falling to her knees. She retched but her stomach had nothing left to dispel.
With a growl, Raven wrapped herself in magic and flew towards the room. Her bird-like soul-self rushed through the walls of the shielded room, and she made sure to pass directly through the annoying bitch in it. Raven was glad to see that It collapsed after the first pass, but she was tired and felt sick and wanted revenge, so she made a sharp turn after hitting the girl and swooped down yet again. This time she allowed her soul self to smother the girl entirely.
It was a strange sensation having another being inside her, struggling against the evil energy that contained them. The pure magician couldn't use her magic now; Raven's power was in every particle around It and It had nothing to draw upon that wasn't corrupt and rancid and everything opposite to what It needed.
Raven felt It's struggles weaken, felt It sink to the ground, felt the despair and the fear fade as the life drained from It's body.
Then the door to the room crashed open.
Raven's head, or the head of her soul self, snapped up. Damian was framed in the doorway, the light from the hall casting his features in shadow.
Even though she couldn't see them, Raven knew that he had his eyes narrowed at her.
Slowly, reluctantly, she unfurled herself, allowing her human form to regain its solidity. Raven stared sullenly at Damien, but didn't dare make a move towards the prisoner; she knew that the orders of the Teen Titans was to leave it unharmed and there were only too many painful bruises and scars littering her body reminding her of the few times she had tried to disobey the assassin. They might be playing their own little game of seduction, but he was still the leader of the Teen Titans and she knew it.
Raven watched as Damian seemed to take in the scene before him: It unconscious on the ground, barely breathing; and her standing sullenly over the body.
She was in no way feeling guilty. Demons didn't feel guilt. She was just … a little sorry that she had disobeyed her leader. That's why she couldn't meet his eye.
Her head rose tentatively as Damian moved.
He took a few decisive strides towards her and struck her in the face, hard.
Raven's head snapped to the side with the force of the blow; her head – already fuzzy from lack of sleep – was reeling. She fell to the ground, coughing and gasping. She retched again but as before only a disgusting noise sounded throughout the room.
She was so tired. So tired and feeling so sick and she was starting to feel the shame that she should never feel creeping up on her.
Usually, when Raven was well rested and in complete control of herself, she was able to disregard her pitiful human-side. Those disgusting, contemptable feelings she had inherited from her worthless mother. But when she was compromised, like she was now, she could feel those emotions that she usually kept at bay. She could feel them welling up now, terrible and painful and relentless.
"I'm sorry," she sobbed. To her absolute horror, she felt tears, red and hot and humiliating, rolling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry. She just, I can't … I need her gone!"
And she found herself wailing hysterically, as she curled into a ball on the floor. She didn't feel ashamed, there wasn't enough left of her brain-function to process anything akin to emotion anymore. She just lay and sobbed.
Then she wasn't on the ground anymore. She was sitting, or at least leaning against something, something hard and solid and warm, something that smelled wonderful. She clutched against it and realised belatedly that it was a person. Damian, she was crying hysterically against Damian.
If she had been coherent enough to think about it at the time, she would have berated herself for losing so many points in their little game; clutching at him like a child and soaking his shirt with tears was in no way sexy. But she wasn't thinking clearly and he was so warm and smelled so nice, and she felt so secure, safer than she had ever felt in her entire life.
Slowly, her sobs died away, her hitched breathing smoothed into deep, calm motions. Raven slept peacefully for the first time in weeks, curled up against the young assassin, as he rubbed calming circles into her back.
xxx
Damian didn't know how long he stayed there, cradling Raven as she slowly cried herself to sleep. How could he have let things go this far? She had clearly been affected by the presence of the rebel magician, but he hadn't realised it was this bad.
As soon as the demon-girl was taking deep, steady breaths, Damian scooped her up into his arms and carried her out of the room. Pausing only to ensure the security measures on the prisoner's room were back in place, he made his way to Raven's room.
The motion of the elevator made Raven shift slightly in her sleep and the assassin worried that she would wake from her much-needed slumber, but she merely angled her body towards his own and buried her head into his shoulder, her hand clutching at his shirt.
She looked … cute, curled up against him.
Damian felt an odd stirring in his chest as he gazed at her beautiful face, smooth and relaxed in sleep. He had done this to her, he had pushed her to this point of utter exhaustion. Grimacing angrily at himself, he tightened his arms possessively around her and he surprised himself by bending forwards and kissing her lightly on her head. He would never let her suffer like this again.
The lift gave a slight ping and Damian stepped out into the long dark hallway of Titan's tower. Turning left, he made his way along the girl's side of the sleeping quarters until he came to Raven's room.
Each bedroom had a fingerprint scanner next to the door to prevent access from anyone but the owner. Damian of course, had his own override though. He merely pressed his thumb to the pad and turned the door handle.
He walked into Raven's dark room. It was an eerie, menacing place. Every shadow felt alive with silently watching evil creatures; the ancient books on the shelves looked as though they were capable of independent thought and on every wall detailed symbols and circles were scrawled, one circle in particular glowed a dull purple.
Damian had been in here before of course; he regularly and randomly inspected the rooms of each Titan without their knowledge and even in daylight he had found it creepy. Now though, with Raven delicate and fragile in his arms, the room seemed almost welcoming; the shadows, a little less malevolent.
Damian carried Raven over to the bed and lay her gently on it. She sighed and gripped his shirt tighter.
He found himself smiling at her behaviour. For all the bravado and swagger she put on when trying to play their game, he could always sense a girl who was just as insecure about herself as every other hormonal teenager.
Gently, Damian prised the material from her fist and kissed the back of her hand before placing it gently back on her chest.
There was no one there to watch him or judge him, so Damian allowed himself some time to just stand by her bed and watch Raven sleep. A slight frown marred his face as he tried to understand just what was happening with him.
After almost an hour, Damian turned away. His eyes were cold, his face the expressionless mask of a killer.
This game of theirs was over.
xxx
A/N: A shorter chapter than usual, but it's quality not quantity right guys?
Poor Zatanna; I actually quite like her as a character. Actually, I quite like all the characters I'm screwing over in this story, and all the characters I'm making miserable and evil in this story
