The Confession
"Raven. Are you hurt? Where's Hunt-?" Robin was stopped in his tracks as he looked around and witnessed the carnage brought about by the rampant Beast. Raven had healed all of Titans East but they still lay strewn about the floor. She had made her way to Hunter's exhausted body and noticed that his breathing was shallow.
"It was stronger than before, Robin. I haven't seen anything like it. If I'm being honest, The Beast could be stronger than me when I've lost control." Raven said solemnly as she looked up at her already speechless team leader. The others made their way to the garage as well after checking for any other intrusions or suspicious activity. Much like Robin, they stood paralyzed as they witnessed the destruction brought about by The Beast. Cyborg was the first to snap out of it as he went around checking the vitals of the members of Titans East to make sure they were alright. Starfire was second as she burst into tears and ran to her room. Robin had managed to close his mouth and set to work examining what remained of the machine which had imprisoned Raven not too long ago. Raven watched the team work as she thought about what had happened had she not prevented The Beast from continuing its rampage.
She was shaken from her thoughts, however, as Hunter started to stir. He opened his eyes slowly and painfully. Confused about where he was, he looked first to Raven's concerned face, and then around the room. Realizing what had happened, Hunter's face froze with shock. Raven could sense his fear and disappointment as well as his anger at himself. She tried to console him by inching closer and holding him to her chest only to have him withdraw in alarm. She knew why he was doing it. He was scared of hurting her.
Hunter was disgusted with himself. How could he ever be week enough to allow The Beast to take control. He had to get away before he caused anymore damage. He had to stop crime-fighting. Anyone that's uncontrollable enough to hurt his closest friends doesn't deserve to save lives he thought as he inched away from Raven. How could he live with himself had he hurt her of all people. No. He had to leave. Joining the team was a mistake. By now the team had realized he had awaken and both Titans East and West all stared at him in fear besides Raven. Unsure of whether or not he was truly in control, Aquaman and Robin both took a steps forward in case he attempted to attack any of the Titans. Realizing how terribly he had hurt them as The Beast, Hunter vanished and reappeared in his room. There he stayed for nearly three weeks. Refusing to come out for any reason whatsoever.
At the start of the third week, however, he heard a knock at the door that he hadn't in a long time. He used his powers to see through the door as he sat at the edge of his bed and saw none other than Raven standing there holding a plate of food and trying her best to smile. Hunter grudgingly opened the door. Raven toon a few steps inside, placed the plate of slightly less burnt tofu on his night-table and sat down next to him. He tried to smile weakly as she spoke.
"Hunter. Listen, I know you blame yourself for what happened but it wasn't you. The person who did all of that was The Beast, not Hunter." She said as she grabbed his hand. Hunter solemnly looked at the floor as he replied.
"I know that. But that doesn't excuse the fact that I allowed it to take control. What if it had killed someone, or worse, killed you." Hunter said, not realizing exactly how much he'd said. Raven breathed in sharply to keep her emotions in check. Did Hunter love her too? No. He must have misspoke. Recollecting her thoughts, she replied.
"We need you Hunter. Much like before, when you're not around, the team just doesn't feel the same. I don't feel the same. Everything's just all work and no play." Raven rambled as she squeezed his hand harder willing him to snap out of it.
"I appreciate the thought Rave, but I think I'm not cut out for rejoining the team after-all. Everyone'll just be safer if I leave. I'll pack my things and be gone by tomorrow, tell the rest of the team I loved every minute of the short amount of time I got to spend with them." Hunter said as he let go of Raven's hand, got up, and began to pack his things.
"I understand. Just...think on it? Please?" Raven pleaded as she got up to leave the room.
"I will." Hunter said. Raven left the room feeling awful until a brilliant idea came to mind.
"Hey guys. Can you all meet me at the supercomputer in the next fifteen minutes." She said through her communicator to the other three members of the team. They agreed and Raven got to work designing her plan smiling slightly all the while.
"Hey Rave. Is everything alright?" Cyborg said concerned as he entered the room followed by Robin and Starfire.
"Yes. I have a plan to get Hunter back on his feet." She replied, as close to a smile as she's ever be.
"Okay, we're all ears." Robin said surprised by her behavior.
"Well. What if we fake a crisis that we can't solve. We act like we got captured or defeated which would then force Hunter to 'save' us." Raven said, "That way, he would save us and be reminded that we do indeed need him." She added.
"That could work. But we have to be careful of his telepathy. We can't have him knowing what's going on until he's successfully 'saved' us." Robin replied, thinking.
"I agree. I'm down to try anything if it snaps B out of whatever he's in." Cyborg chimed in.
"I too am in agreement. Let us do it for Friend Hunter." Starfire said as she smiled with glee.
The next morning, the alarms blared signaling another crime. Hunter groggily got up and considered joining the team before being hit by a flashback. He shuddered as he remembered feeling completely helpless while The Beast utterly destroyed everything around it. He rolled back over and lay awake as he heard the commotion of the team leaving to fight crime. Wishing he could rid himself of The Beast, Hunter drifted back to sleep.
After what seemed like mere minutes, Hunter sat upright. Something was wrong. He didn't quite know what, but something was causing his hair to stand on end. Immediately concerned about the team, Hunter left the darkness of his room to see the alarm lights still flashing.
'These should be off.' Hunter thought as he made his way to the supercomputer. He stared at the screen in horror as he witnessed the entire team unconscious and in cages. Anger boiled within him as he saw his closest friends captured. As soon the computer got the coordinates, Hunter nearly broke the sound barrier flying to their location.
He arrived at a strip of abandoned warehouses overlooking the Jump River. He found it teeming with some sort of hired mercenaries. These mercenaries, however, were quite unlike the ones he's been fighting previously. They were organized and seemed to be quite competent. Deciding to forego a direct approach, Hunter shifted into a fly and attempted to locate which warehouse held his friends. Unable to do so as there was an equal amount of guards posted at each one, Hunter decided to just take them all down one by one.
Starting with the leftmost warehouse, Hunter went to the back entrance, turned back into himself and disabled the two guards standing at the back door. Looking around to make sure he hadn't been detected, Hunter grabbed a keycard from one of the guards and opened the door. He looked in to see an almost empty warehouse. Sighing in frustration, Hunter moved the unconscious bodies of the mercenaries inside the warehouse and closed the door.
Moving on to the next warehouse, Hunter noticed that the back entrance of this one had nearly eight guards just standing around and talking. Realizing this one was the one, Hunter attempted to simply phase through the wall. Surprisingly, he was unable to. They were definitely a step up from the thugs he'd grown accustomed to fighting. Realizing he would have to come out of hiding, Hunter flew to the back entrance and turned into a mouse. He gained speed as he ran towards the door before turning into a rhino at the last minute and successfully knocking the guards and the door aside. He returned to normal and dodged gunfire just in time as he looked around to see nearly twenty mercenaries.
All of a sudden, an alarm began to sound and mercenaries began to stream in from the warehouse garage door. Meanwhile, Hunter was constantly dodging fire from various high and low caliber guns. He growled in pain as he was grazed on the right shoulder by a bullet. Realizing he couldn't outfight them by evading them, Hunter closed his eyes for a moment as he tapped into his instincts. Drawing from his full power, Hunter created a massive ethereal lion. He roared loudly. Surprised as the mercenaries stood, unfazed, Hunter began to claw and bite at any mercenaries foolish enough to come close. Hunter growled again as the mercenaries behind him began to get through his ethereal form and hit him instead.
As Hunter was slowly pushed into a corner by the overwhelming amount of mercenaries, he released all control and fully gave into his instincts. Finally beginning to fight as he had before The Beast incident, Hunter began to tear through the mercenaries by the tens. He roared loudly causing nearly twenty mercenaries to be thrown back and another twenty to be knocked unconscious. Emboldened by his success, Hunter changed back to his normal form and began using his elemental powers to fend off his enemies. Creating mini tornadoes and thunderstorms, Hunter brought an untold amount of chaos upon his friend's captors. Shortly thereafter, Hunter felled the last mercenary by a sharp jab to the stomach. Looking around for the team he spotted them in cages on the second floor of the warehouse. Moving quickly before more mercenaries appeared, Hunter teleported to the cages and broke them with sheer strength before grabbing hold of the Titans and phasing all of them back to the safety of the tower.
As he inspected them to ensure they were okay, however, he was confused as they began looking at each other and smiling.
"What?" Hunter asked, confused.
"It worked. I can't believe it worked!" Raven exclaimed as she embraced Hunter in a tight hug. They pair blushed slightly before Robin took pity and explained the situation.
"We set you up. Raven figured that if you saved us then you'd realize how important you are to the team." Robin said, chuckling.
"What...no." Hunter replied as he looked to Cyborg for an explanation.
"Yep. It was all planned." Cyborg added.
"I...well. I mean...it worked I guess. I feel a million times better." Hunter stuttered as his mind was blown.
"Yes. It did." Raven said, smiling. The rest of the team began to smile too and Hunter couldn't resist but to join in.
"Thanks Raven." Hunter beamed. Finally feeling like a team after the long weeks of depression, the Titans celebrated with video games, food, and laughs. When all was said and done, however, Raven and Hunter still had unfinished business.
"Night Robin. Night Starfire. Do what you do Tin Man." Hunter called as the three waved him off in mock anger and walked out of the room leaving just Raven and Hunter. They had just lost a disappointing game of Uno to the one member of the team who hadn't played it for nearly five years.
"What can I say, Rave, beginners luck is a real thing. I just wish I had as much luck with keeping The Beast contained." Hunter said as his smile vanished. He looked at Raven. She looked so much more open than she used to. He remembered the time when she would do nothing other than sit on the couch and read a book or meditate. Yet here she was, playing Uno and doing her best not to blow up the tower with her smiles. He couldn't love her any more than he did right now.
'Whoa, where did that come from.' he thought as he recollected his thoughts and awaited her response. 'There was no way a relationship between them would work out, right?'
"Listen Hunter, you can't let The Beast control your thoughts. If you do, he's already won. It's just like with my emotions, only not as bad." Raven said as she cracked a slight smile.
"I know. I'm sorry, I didn't even think about how hard it is for you. I just need to be stronger." Hunter replied.
"No, not at all. I'm always here for you if you need me. Losing you taught me that it's best to value those you care about a lot before they're gone." Raven rambled before covering her mouth. 'Oh no! What if he doesnt't feel the same way?' She thought as she looked at him apologetically.
"You care about me? A lot?" Hunter said, mind crashing down around him.
"I...I...yes." Raven stammered as her emotions threatened to take control. Hunter's mind went numb. Did Raven love him too? Rebounding quickly, Hunter spoke.
"Well...I been wanting to tell you this for awhile now. As in, since before I left...Raven, I...I love you." Hunter said with a sigh of relief as he finally verbalized his deepest desire. Raven's mind exploded as a nearby glass of water did too. She couldn't believe it was actually happening. Her mouth hung slightly open as what he just said dawned on her. Taking considerably longer to respond, Raven finally spoke.
"I...I love you too." Raven said as the duo leaned in. In a moment that felt like ages, they locked lips solidifying a truth that they had both known for a while now. The world exploded as the two strongest Titans shared a rare moment of vulnerability. Glass shattered and appliances flew around the oblivious couple as they shared a passionate first kiss. When their lips finally parted, the room was a mess with only the sofa intact. They had accumulated an audience in the other Titans as they all stood at the entrance of the living room, shocked. Blushing hard, Raven got up and hugged Hunter who simply smiled and held her close.
"Finally!" Cyborg yelled receiving four glares all at once as he smiled, cheekily. The room erupted in laughter as they all got to work restoring the sanctity of their living room.