Control

Chapter 3: A Night We'll Never Forget: Part 2

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone continuing to read this story! Here's chapter three!

Damian Wayne sat on a metal chair that he had pulled away from Raven's vanity and placed beside her bed. He watched over her as though he was a guardian angel. He hadn't left her side since he had carefully laid her on top of her black sheeted bed. A good amount of time had since passed but Damian didn't care, he cared only for her wellbeing and safety. The other members of the team had come to check on her every so often, most checking to see if she was awake yet, which she wasn't.

He admired her face, the dark circles that sat beneath her closed eyes. Her high placed cheekbones, that most girls would die to have. Her lips. He noticed that a stray strand of black hair had fallen over her face, he reached out gently brushing it back behind her ear.

"She's lucky to have you," a voice commented.

Damian turned around, not noticing that anyone had been standing in the doorway. The person who had spoken the words was known other than Dick Grayson, his adoptive brother, even though Damian was sometimes reluctant to admit the whole relations part.

"Why do you say that?" Damian asked flatly.

Dick entered the room coming to stand next to Damian. "Because you genuinely care about her."

"I care about everyone on the team."

"Well, then I guess you just care about her more."

Damian paused; thoughts overtaken by the sentence that had just left Dick's mouth. Part of him knew that he was right, he did care about her more. He wasn't as close as he was with Raven with anyone else, not even with his own mother or father. Not that either of them had ever made an active effort.

"…It's getting late. You should start thinking about eating dinner." Dick said.

Damian mumbled an incoherent response, which Dick figured meant he was fine where he was. Stubborn as always.

Dick shook his head, and quietly exited the room, leaving Damian and Raven alone again.

Only a couple of minutes had passed, before Raven's eyes started to flutter open. The first thing that she saw was Damian seated before her.

He soon noticed she was beginning to wake up.

Raven was confused at first, not fully knowing why she was in her room, and why she had almost no recollection of what had caused her to end up here. She abruptly sat up, unnerved by her lack of knowledge of what was happening. She blinked away the slight fog that clouded her vision.

"What the hell happened?" she asked, trying to move from the bed.

Damian quickly stopped her, standing up and softly willing her to sit back down.

"Calm down, alright. You passed out."

Raven rested her head in her hands, "How long was I out for?"

"About an hour."

She sighed and paused, "…You must think I'm weak."

"Raven, you're one of the strongest people that I know. I don't think you're weak."

She looked up at him, wondering how on earth he always knew the right thing to say.

"How do you feel now?" he asked, furthering the conversation.

"Fine."

In truth, she still felt pretty bad, but her head wasn't pounding anymore, which was definitely something. Knock on wood.

He slightly narrowed his eyes, reading Raven's facial expressions as a way of telling how sincere her words were. If she wasn't feeling okay, she was hiding it well. Well enough at least to not let him see.

"Have you been in here the whole time?" Raven motioned to the empty chair, at her bedside.

"…Yeah. I just- didn't want to leave you alone."

Silence encompassed the room, neither one knowing what to say next. After a few moments Raven decided to get up from her seated position on the bed, she went to stand, but she hadn't quite anticipated her legs feeling like jelly beneath her small form. Her knees buckled before she even had the chance to take a single step. Damian was at her side in an instant, keeping her from touching the floor, he placed an arm around her waist, giving her support.

"Are you okay?"

Raven nodded, regaining her balance, and planting her feet in the ground. After a few seconds, she had recovered from her falter.

"Are you sure you're fine?" Damian asked again.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Damian reluctantly removed his hands from his friend, wanting to make sure that she was all right. She didn't collapse when she was on her own, which was a good sign.

Out of the corner of her eye, Raven spotted Starfire walking past her bedroom. Star backtracked as soon as she saw that the young girl was conscious.

"Raven! You're awake! We were all so worried about you. Are you okay?" she stepped into the room.

"I feel a lot better than I did."

"That's good… Both of you should get something to eat. You need to keep your strength up."

"We will," Damian assured her.

Kori smiled, and with a little wave, left the room.

"We should probably go find some food, that's the second time tonight someone has mentioned something to me."

The same day, 9:48 p.m.

After having a much-needed meal, and catching up with the rest of the Titans, the team had decided to do something that would get their minds off of the current situation. Nothing crazy or shocking had happened since the whole blacking out incident, but everyone was still on watch, not wanting to be caught with their guard down.

"Let's watch a horror movie." Beast Boy had stated.

"You're kidding, right?" Donna asked.

"Nope. I'm dead serious. We never have this much downtime. I say we take advantage of it as much as we can."

"But there are so many other things we could be doing."

"Like what?" Gar quirked an eyebrow.

"Uhhhhh… okay, I don't know, alright, but still, I want to be able to sleep tonight."

"Don't be a wuss." Jaime jibed.

"They're right, the only thing to fear is fear itself," Damian added.

"So philosophical, Dami." Donna said, "…Fine, you know what, I'll watch one, but if our lives turn into the freaking Babadook or anything else like that, I'm sacrificing one of you guys first."

Damian rolled his eyes at the irritating nickname and her latter statement.

"Great! One of you go get Dick and Kori. I'll pick the movie." Gar beamed.

An hour and three bowls of popcorn later the entire team was sitting on the couch. Dick had Kori snuggled into his side on one end of the sofa. At the opposite end Donna sat between Gar and Jaime, a blanket splayed across the three of them, with Donna holding it over the bottom half of her face, and in the center of the couch were Raven and Damian, who both were way less on edge then the rest of their friends but still a little anxious, even if neither wanted to admit it. They were about three-fourths of the way through the movie that Gar had chosen, Lights Out, much to Donna's dismay.

A particularly suspenseful scene was being played on the screen at this point, Donna brought the blanket up even further and moved closer to Jaime. Raven looked over to see Jaime and Donna's eyes as wide as the moon, fear, and apprehension laced in their gazes. Jaime casually took Donna's small hand and interwove their fingers together. The action puzzled Raven, taking her attention off of the movie for a second.

As the music grew louder in the movie it brought Raven out of her trance, and she focused back on the screen. The main character moved carefully through the darkly lit house, and as she did so Raven started to get antsy, nervous for the impending jump scare. She shifted towards Damian; her movement didn't go unnoticed by him. She knit her hands together, holding onto herself for some sort of comfort.

When the jump scare hit, it hit hard. The familiar ring of music when coin terrifying scenes in horror movies happen resounded through the room. Everyone jumped, even Damian, and at the most coincidental time in history, a loud crash was heard from the level above in Titans Tower, it took everyone off guard for a few seconds, and most of everyone thought that something must've fallen over. What everyone wasn't expecting was for another jump scare, right after the first. At the exact moment, it happens, the electricity in the tower goes out, leaving everyone in complete darkness. Donna screamed Gar jumped about three feet off the sofa, Jaime was clinging to the blanket for dear life, Star had her face buried into Dick's shoulder, and Raven was holding on to Damian's arm like it's her only lifeline. The team is afterward in stunned silence. No one dared to breathe for about a whole of three seconds, before people are started lunging off of the couch, springing to their feet.

"What the hell was that?" Donna asked, her voice cutting through the pitch black.

"Stay calm," Dick said.

Footsteps. They echoed across the tile of the tower and could be heard from all directions.

"Are any of you guys walking?" Gar asked.

"No." a collective statement.

Raven's heart just about stopped. Starfire held a star bolt in her hand, the green glow emanating around the room, lighting up everyone's scared faces. Almost as soon as she had done it, a masked figure appeared behind Dick, landing a swift blow to his head. Deathstroke. Dick fell to the ground, out cold. Before Raven knew what was even fully happening, she was being slammed into the glass coffee table, back first, it shattered on contact, the abrupt force ramming Raven to the ground. Pain seared throughout her. Slade hovered over the girl, but only for a few seconds before Starfire started blasting him. He rolled off of her, giving Raven enough time to get up from the ground. She pulled a random shard of glass out of her side as she did so. They could barely see; everything was happening so quickly that no one knew what went down. All that was evident was that the green of Starfire's star bolts was no longer to be seen.

"Did you really think that I wouldn't come back to finish what I started?" Slade's sinister voice sneered, "All of you will be dead by daylight."

No one knew what to do. Everyone seemed to be frozen in place, not wanting to risk being heard. Starfire and Nightwing were both probably unconscious, Damian was unarmed, Raven had just been body slammed into a glass table, and the entire tower was pitch black. They knew they were all thinking the same thing. Run. Run and keep running until they could think of a plan. Until they could figure out how to turn the lights back on.

The team seemed to make the same decision all at once, each one of them running through the darkness as fast as they could.

Raven's feet carried her throughout the tower, not knowing where to go, or even where she was going. Nonetheless, she continued on, racing for anywhere that she could hide and wait it out. She hadn't a clue how long she ran for, all she knew is that it felt like a century. She reached out with her hands, trying to find anything that felt familiar. Her hands only grasped air. She slowed her pace to a walk.

Raven heard loud noises and crashes, the undeniable sound of flames flying through the air and charring anything in its path. Doors slammed shut and opened continually. Slade was searching. Despite the ever-present noise surrounding her, Raven had no clue where the sounds originated from. The only thing she was aware of was the pain that she felt, when the table broke it had lodged a piece of glass into her side, and the pain was still there as though she had never taken it out. She didn't even know how deep the cut was.

Right when she thought about giving up, her outstretched right hand, brushed against wood. Raven frantically pressed both hands over the solid wall, which she had deduced was a door when she felt the metal shape of a doorknob. She quietly opened the door, stepping into the room, and closing it behind her. Raven wandered in the dark, looking for hints of where she was, and that's when she bumped into something metal. It took her only a few seconds to figure out what it was. The chair that Damian had pulled away from her vanity. She reached a little farther out and felt the soft cushion of her bed. She breathed a sigh of relief. Ironically, she had ended up in her room, of all places.

Carefully she sat down on her bed. Raven took deep breaths, trying to still her racing heart. Every bad emotion possible hit her all at once. She felt like crying. She so desperately wanted to release the pressure from the dam that was building in her mind. She couldn't though, she wouldn't. Now was not the time. There were more important things to do, or more specifically worry about. Raven had no idea where anyone was. They could be dead. Or worse. She knew everyone was perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, but Damian didn't have any weapons on him at the time of the attack, well at least none that she knew of. Raven was immensely worried, about every single one of her teammates. Guilt hit her next. She had caused this attack. They wouldn't all be running from a trained assassin who had been resurrected by her father, at eleven o'clock at night, if not for her. She had to find them, that's what she told herself.

You can do this.

She was surprised her father's voice hadn't answered her own. Once again, knock on wood.

Gathering all her courage she pushed back the fear, and somehow managed to exit her room.

Time passed by as she walked aimlessly, hoping to find anything that could lead her to her lost teammates. No matter how hard she tried to keep track of the minutes passing by, she soon found it almost impossible. For longer than she could remember, she walked only in eerie silence. Until she heard that deafening scream, she realized with a jolt it belonged to Donna. She stopped only for a moment before she ran at full speed, her feet pumping along the tile. Her thighs burned, her side ached, she didn't care. She carried on forcing her feet to continue moving. More crashes. More sounds of distress. She urged her legs to move faster.

Out of nowhere, Raven rammed straight into something, or rather someone. The other person wasn't expecting the collision either. The force of Raven running at full speed knocked the other person off balance. She seemed to trip over her own feet and gripped onto the person in front of her. They both fell over, a sound of surprise escaped Raven's mouth as she landed on top of the other person. Before she knew what was going on, the unknown individual flipped them over so that they were on top of her. Whoever it was, was strong, and quick. Easily keeping them low to the ground. It was probably a guy, she concluded. At first, she thought he might've been an attacker. She squirmed under his body, trying to get free, pushing up on his firm chest. A noise of struggle came from her. The person on top of her, quickly pressed a hand to her mouth, keeping any other noises from leaving it.

"Raven, it's me," he whispered.

Damian. A weight felt like it had been lifted off of her. She relaxed. He removed his hand.

"Damian…" she trailed off.

Suddenly they both heard the familiar noise of a person walking; it was clearly evident that it was coming towards them.

"Shhhh," he cooed.

From Damian's point of view above Raven, he could see a bright orange light dusting the halls past them. The glow came from a flame, and the flame came from one of Slade Wilson. Deathstroke's prying eyes could only see what the fire illuminated, thankfully it seemed as though Raven and him were out of sight.

Raven stayed silent, her hands still resting on his upper body, she felt a tad bit nervous when she registered how close their forms were. She tried to keep her frantic breathing, from running, under control, not wanting to alert Slade. Speaking of breathing, they were so near to each other that Raven could feel Damian's breath against her neck, setting the nerves there on fire. The position they were in felt a little clandestine to her. The moment soon passed though, as soon as Damian deemed it safe to move, he removed his body from atop hers.

They both quietly got up from the floor, Raven reeling a little when her side protested. Barely having a second to get adjusted Damian had already grabbed her arm and pulled her into a room, producing a flashlight and setting it on a dresser. His dresser, she noticed they were in his room.

She could finally see, even if the flashlight didn't light up the entire room, there was enough of it that she could see Damian. He thankfully looked unharmed. His green eyes were bright and alert.

"Are you okay?" Damian stepped closer to her.

His eyes glanced over her, and he soon noticed her blood-drenched side.

"You're bleeding…"

Her gaze followed his line of sight.

"Damian, I'm fine."

He knew she was lying; he could see the pain laced throughout her expression.

"Can you heal yourself?"

Raven remembered what had happened earlier tonight when she had healed him. It wasn't a good idea to try it, but if he would stop worrying it would be worth it.

"I-I can try."

He nodded in understanding gently leading her over to his bed, so she could sit. As soon as they were both seated, Raven began to try to activate her healing powers. It took a lot of focus and a lot of strength, but eventually, a purple light glowed around her, signaling her powers doing their job. Within a few seconds, she had been completely healed, but Raven felt worse than she did before she healed herself, because her powers were severely diminished tonight. The purple faded from her form, and she dropped her head, taking a second to gather herself. Her hair fell over her face.

Damian tentatively reached out, concerned, and brushed her hair behind her ear. He honestly didn't know why he did it, maybe to give her some sort of support or comfort. He didn't know, but at the same time, he did.

Raven looked up, her eyes skimming over his worried face. She noticed that his eyes did the same. No words were said between them, as they just took a moment to enjoy the presence of the other.

But then, Damian's emerald eyes started traveling to the lower half of her face, almost out of his control they landed on her lips.

"Raven…" he said.

Her heart sped up, her senses alight with the thought of what would happen. She involuntarily leaned closer. Damian was about to, too, but the door to the room abruptly opened, startling the two teens.

Donna entered the room, swiftly closing it behind her, and jumped two feet back when she realized that Damian and Raven were in the room.

"Oh, thank God." Donna breathed.

Raven looked over Donna, she looked disheveled, with a cut across her left cheekbone, and her hair in disarray.

"Are you alright? I heard you scream." Raven asked.

"I'm good for the most part. Ran into Slade, once, but thankfully got away. What about you guys? Have you seen any of the others?"

Raven shook her head, "It was a miracle I even ran into Damian."

"Yeah, how exactly did you guys find each other?" Donna kept her voice low.

"I ran into him. Literally."

Donna's eyes widened.

"We need a plan." Damian changed the subject.

"You're right, but what the hell are we supposed to do? It's pitch black, Raven isn't at her full strength. You don't have any weapons, and there's a maniac wandering the halls."

"…We should start by finding everyone else."

The three friends walked silently through the tower, trying to find the rest of their missing comrades. They had, had no luck so far. They hadn't heard a single noise, which Damian found slightly peculiar, but didn't say anything about it. They walked in darkness, even though they had a flashlight, not wanting to draw any unwanted and unnecessary attention to them.

Though the group was supposed to be focusing on the task at hand, Raven's thoughts drifted to other things. Such as, what would've happened if Donna hadn't entered the room at the exact moment she had. If that were the case, Raven knew she would've followed through with what was unraveling. That's what really confused her. She wondered how long she had suppressed the way she felt.

She was forced out of her head by Slade's haunting voice, "Tell me where the girl is."

His voice was close, so close that the group was able to follow it to where it led. They ended up at the entrance to the living room, and saw Deathstroke with his back to them, holding Blue Beetle by the neck, his feet dangling above the ground. He struggled against his grip. Fire lit up the room, from Slade's free hand.

Fear struck Donna, and Raven noticed the worried look in her eyes.

Suddenly Beast Boy, who was currently a tiger, collided with Slade, causing him to release Jaime.

Raven saw Dick beginning to run towards Slade. Before he could he spotted the group, standing off to the side, he covertly went over to them. He abruptly crowded them out of sight from the others.

Dick looked battered, but at least he was alive.

Donna tried to get past him, itching to help the others. Dick wouldn't let her pass.

"You guys can't let Slade see you. You need to get out of here."

"What are you talking about?! They need our help!" Donna cried.

"We can handle ourselves. Our priority is keeping Raven from him. This is our only shot at that." he paused, "Raven, I need you to make a portal, and get Damian, Donna, and yourself as far away as possible."

"Dick, no, I-"

"No. Even though I'm not the leader of this team, I need you to trust me on this."

She stopped, not knowing what to say. Partly because she knew he was right.

"…Okay."

Raven took her stance, holding out her hands, directing where she wanted to produce the portal. Focusing her energy on a particular spot, she tried to summon a portal. It proved to be much harder than she thought it would be. The magic wouldn't leave her, only sparks of it. She shut her eyes, breathing in.

I'm so close to being free, you think running now will help anything. Ha! You're more idiotic than I first thought.

Her eyebrows knit together when an intense pain overtook her.

You're weak. Give up. Give in. Surrender to me. You'll never win.

Her breathing grew ragged and pained, tears pricked the edges of her eyes. She couldn't will anything but blips of a portal to happen. She started believing her father's words, that she was weak, that she would never win. She broke out of the trance, dropping to one knee, and trying to get air into her lungs. She felt faint, and out of breath.

"I can't. I-I, I'm s-sorry." she stuttered, "I can't do it."

Damian crouched next to her, wanting to make sure she was alright.

Raven felt something trickle down her face, she touched below her nose and felt a thick liquid. She pulled her hand away to see blood.

"Don't push yourself," Damian said, slowly helping her up.

Raven swiped away the rest of the blood from her face.

"It's alright, Raven." Dick pulled something out of the pocket of his pants, "Here, Damian, take my car, it's outside."

Keys were placed into Damian's hand.

"Are you sure you trust me that much?"

"I don't have much of a choice, right now." Dick glanced over the three teens, "Take care of each other, and don't get killed."

"Great pep talk." Donna griped.

"Your welcome, now get out of here."

Dick turned away from them and placed himself back into the fight. The group of three was left alone.

Not a single word was spoken until they had maneuvered their way outside, and into the car. Dick's high-end Lamborghini seated four people, with Damian in the drivers' seat, Raven riding shotgun, and Donna looking unamused in the back.

Damian pressed the automatic start button on the car, put the car in reverse, and slowly backed out of the driveway. He shifted gears, pressing his foot down on the gas pedal, as he sped along the bridge that connected Titans Tower to the city.

Silence still ensued.

Raven watched the surroundings pass by as the car picked up speed, hoping that this wouldn't be the last time she ever saw it. She forced herself to look ahead, literally and metaphorically. She couldn't think about what could be happening to her friends. To her teammates. To her family. She was leaving to protect the family that she had chosen, from her only living blood relative. It was ironic. To be fair though, she wasn't doing a great job at it.

How could I be so useless? I had a chance to finally help, and I blew it. I couldn't even conjure an easy portal spell.

She reprimanded herself, beating it into her, that she couldn't do the one thing asked of her. Granted, she was weakened by her father's strength, and had just used a good bit of her magic healing herself, prior to her trying to make a portal emerge out of thin air. Despite the circumstances she knew worked against her, she couldn't convince herself that it wasn't her fault.

How many more people have to get hurt because of me?

Her eyes felt increasingly heavy, her body's way of signaling to her that she should get some rest. She needed to stay awake though, she needed to stay alert. The hazy feeling, she had felt before still lingered, begging to be given in to. She subconsciously wanted to so badly just pass out, that wasn't an option. The dull ache in her head was also deciding to stick around, adding to her exhaustion. In return she tried to keep her breathing at a steady pace, maybe focusing on that would help, she thought. It didn't really, the breaths she drew felt shallow. She had definitively done it; pushed her body so hard she could hardly keep her eyes open. Deep down she knew she wasn't yet at her breaking point. Her nose bleeding before was a clear sign of that, but if need be, she would force herself to give all she had.

Suddenly she was snapped out of it, the car slowing to a stop, now that they were deep enough into Jump City, they had begun to hit traffic lights. Damian looked over at her, realizing how indisposed she was. He rested a hand on her thigh, running the pad of his thumb back and forth over the sheer leggings that she wore. He realized that she never had changed out of her superhero attire.

Raven was caught off guard by Damian's comforting gesture, he usually wasn't this touchy-feely. She liked this side of him, she'd rarely ever been allowed to see his soft side. His hand against her barely covered skin, made her feel slightly more awake.

"Are you okay?" he kept his voice just low enough.

"Yeah." she lied.

He sighed, "Raven, I can tell you're struggling. It's okay, to not be okay."

She shook her head, "Damian, I just… feel worn down."

"I wish there was something I could do for you."

Raven leisurely placed her hand over Damian's, "I know."

Damian's eyes glanced over her face and took her hand in his interlacing their fingers.

Donna who was in the back seat could tell they were speaking in hushed voices, but decided not to interject herself into private matters, besides she could barely even hear what they were saying, instead, she had focused on the outside environment.

"You should try and get some sleep. Donna and I will keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary." Damian advised.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." his answer didn't leave room for rebuttals.

The light turned green, the cars ahead of them continued ahead, and Damian followed suit, taking the hand that was holding hers and placing it back on the steering wheel. Raven let her eyes travel over his side profile, watching him with affection, not quite understanding why her heart was beating so quickly. She resisted the urge to just stare at him, and turned towards the side window, resting her head against the edge of the seat. Eventually, as she watched the dark roads flash past, her eyes started to flutter shut, giving in to her fatigue. Her breathing slowed, finally evening out, and before Raven had time to register that she was fading into sleep, she was already asleep.

"You care about her a lot, don't you?" Donna asked Damian.

"It's starting to become a trend to ask me that, isn't it?"

"Don't deflect."

He paused, "Of course, I care about her."

"Understatement of the year… Anyways, how exactly are we going to get through this? The sun doesn't rise for another good five and a half hours."

Damian rolled his eyes, at Donna's first comment, and tried to ignore the nagging urge to make a retort.

"Our best chance is to keep moving."

"What about the others? We just left them. They could be dead for all we know."

"I'm not exactly an optimist if you hadn't noticed, but as Dick said, they're capable of handling themselves. Besides Slade isn't after them, his real goal is to find Raven. And if what Raven said was true about him having until the sun came up, then I doubt he'll waste any time on unnecessary things."

"I hope you're right."

So, do I.

Author's Note: Please review, favorite, and follow if you liked it! I'll see you again next Monday! Speaking of next Monday that's when I'm starting my junior year of high school. Thankfully I'm homeschooled so I don't have to worry about the Coronavirus, but still, it sucks having to go back to school.