The heat licked at her porcelain skin, a kiss like velvet across her fingers. The slight tingle against her hands was welcome, more so as the energy strengthened and curled into a dome around her small limbs. Though the intense terror still remained rooted in her skin, she smiled.
The heat was gone from her skin in an instant as the scuffle of feet twigged against her ears. Her slight frame shivered as a body slammed against the floor, a muffled cry breaking through clenched teeth. A hand, wrapped in gauze and littered with blood spots that looked like teeth marks, curled around a beaten and bruised shoulder. The boy, now swearing in a language she didn't understand, was ripped from the ground, and he was only silenced when a hand connected with his cheek, throwing him to the dirtied ground.
Her fingers clenched around the bars in rage, in fury. But her touch was only loosened when she felt soft fingers on hers, yet she didn't jump. Her own digits curled around the larger ones, gripping them in an iron-wrought hold.
But her breath disappeared on her tongue, dissolved like cruel medicine, as the boy looked up. A sharp scream pulled from his lips as his hair, once midnight black, started to lengthen in silver strands that brushed past his ears. His eyes, almond shaped and dark, brightened to a transparent silver. The pain was evident as it curled across his face, how his genetics twisted and moulded to create something that wasn't him. Unfortunately, the man holding his shoulder in a tight grip turned blind to this and threw the boy into his cell.
The bars vibrated as the cell door fell shut, and the boy fell against the wall like a thrown doll, defeated as the pain turned his nerve endings to ash. The footsteps disappeared down the hall, a voice muttering into an intercom around his ear, recording the successfulness of an experiment.
Once the elder had left, her eyes turned on the crumpled figure. The hand still wrapped around hers had not yet tightened, in fear of harming her. She only felt a tight squeeze as the boy in the cell shuffled forwards, green hues alight in the lamplight. He fell into the light, dirtied blond locks obscuring the green eyes, sunken in and ringed with dark circles. His skin was pale in the lamplight, with a large plaster over the curve of his jaw, an angry red protruding from the flimsy skin of the plaster.
Blinking rapidly to rid the sweat from his eyes after his own ordeal, he smacked a hand against the bars of his metal cage, causing them to vibrate and create a soft clink noise. "Hey, hey kid!"
His whispered voice caused movement, the boy's muscles twitching in fright, causing both to flinch at the familiar sight. He'd already grown used to the beatings when they didn't accomplish whatever task was set out for them.
A soft groan pulls through clenched teeth. "Kid, don't ignore me."
My name is Tamkeen!" he hisses, his body twisting upwards and silver eyes glare down at the blond haired boy. She jumps in her seat, knees folding against her chest, as if to shelter herself from the world. She's had enough of yelling.
The silver-eyed Indian boy slithers his gaze over her, and his nose turns upwards at the sight. They're polar opposites, as even though his clothes have been changed, his silver jumpsuit is impeccably clean. Whilst her own is a dirty blue, dried with blood and sweat. He turned to the boy in the cell beside her. "What the heck do you want?"
Beside her, the elder of the two chuckled humourlessly, holding his hands up in defence. "Easy there, man, I just wanted to know if you're okay, if they were easy with ya'," the southern drawl is soft, like butter on his tongue, yet it's hardened around the edges, threatening to crack like glass at any moment. "My name's Jason, or Jase. Take your pick, can I call you Tammy?"
Tamkeen folds his brows downwards, brow crumpled like a fallen building, and his hands shake. In anger or fear, she doesn't know, but she curls further in on herself all the same. He nudges a shoulder towards her. "Whose she?"
Jason tilts his head, peering through the bars and once his gaze has locked onto her, he shrugs. "Dude, I have no idea. At all. She doesn't talk much."
Groaning, Tamkeen's large hand swipes across his face, the effects of the day playing across his features. It's amazing he hasn't started sobbing yet – new arrivals usually do. But with all the confidence of a boy who's never known a day of struggle in his life, his shoulders square and his chin lifts. "I'm gonna get outta here, you know."
Jason pulls his words together with all the force of an army in his throat. "No, you're not."
His silver eyes seem to flare in anger. "I will! I'll get home to my family, I'll tell the police about this place. Just 'cause you two haven't escaped doesn't mean I won't." His large fingers, caked in blood, whether it's his own or not, curl tightly around the bars of his cell. But his hands started to shake around the bars, a reminder he was still caged.
A slight tremor tugs at Jason's body, a soft sign of his anger. She pressed her back to the wall, but before either of them could launch into an argument, her soft voice filled the air. "Who do you think sold you?"
In the cell opposite them, Tamkeen blinks in shock, as if he'd never heard the slight swell of a shaking voice. His gaze turns towards her, silver eyes blazing with anger at the statement. "What did you just say? Parents don't sell their kids, you idiot! I –"
Don't speak to her like that," Jason contorted with anger, his hands curling into the metal of the bars. Her body flinched at the crescendo of voices, hands falling over her ears. "She's right! What, do you think you just landed in their hands, even though no-one knew where you were!?"
Jason's voice loses its strength, it's power behind the twisted words, as his gaze lowers. The memories are still sharp in his mind, piercing his chest like splintered glass. Tamkeen's breath shatters behind his teeth, and he falls back, swearing and doubting in a mix of English and Indian, the tears finally falling across his cheeks. Her own fingers curl over her ears, to drown out the body-wracking sobs, as her own body crumples against the wall.
Jason's hands pull back from the cell bars, an indent of his fingers in them. Footsteps stop outside her cell, and when she looks up, a man in a lab coat is staring at her with little emotion. "Experiment 622017 must report to testing area immediately."
It's late and a few days past when she finds him. His fingers are clenched, his body is quick as he sends blow after blow to the dummy's unsuspecting straw body, with grunts as loud as a bull's. But her emotionless gaze stays emotionless in its sweep, and her body crawls from the shadows. As he punches through the air and sends the bag reeling, screeching against its iron restraints, she watches as parts of him leave his body and wonders how much is left of him as he tortures his mind.
But she's slightly surprised when he calls her name, as if every gaze she had sent across his skin felt like a scrape of glass. "Raven, I know you're there."
She pulls down the twitch of her smile as she joins him, when his hand clasps around the metal throat of the swinging bag, silencing it in his palm. "You always do. Look, Robin –"
"Don't say it wasn't my fault, alright," he hissed, another crushing punch sent to the bag before his arm reached upwards and unclasped the bag, dragging it behind him like a child's blanket. As he pushed it into a closet filled with weapons, he sighed, pressing his forehead to the door. "I should've seen him – I was in front – and I should've warned you before you all got hurt."
Raven's arms cross and a delicate brow arches. Annoyance clouds her face and she joins him, leaning the curve of her shoulder blade against the wall beside him. She sucks on her bottom lip as she talks. "You know, I've never met a hero who was genuinely happy with everything they did."
"What're you talking about?"
"You made a mistake, Robin, we all do," she answers, and turns herself onto her back against the wall, sighing at the comfort that the chill of it brings through her cloak. Her leg lifts and she places her foot against the wall and averts her eyes like a child scorned. "You just didn't see him, so don't beat yourself up for it. It's alright to make mistakes."
Robin twists, leaning back against the wall and crosses his arms, nestling his chin into his chest. His brow folds and the years of responsibility make him appear young and old in one frail look. A shudder wracks his chest. "You're right, but...he was with Slade, and how anyone could want to work with him is just..."
He searches for the words inside his throat, behind his ribs but he finds only his lungs, which seemed to be crushed by the shock and embarrassment of being so easily defeated. His gaze turns downwards, to his hands, which are still dusted with the remnants of the fight and he can see them shake. Groaning, he shoves them deep into his pockets, as if that will stop the tremors that roll across his skin like water.
The enchantress tilts her head, eyes catching the lamplight above and she pushes off the wall. "I know, you've got a thing with Slade. But we're going to find out what he wants, what Illusion wants," she spits his name out like a bitter taste on her tongue, and her eyes roll. Her gaze turns to Robin in slits. "But first, we break it down. What'd he say to you?"
Robin's mind reels back, to concrete and ash and finds silver eyes in front of his own. A mouth moves around deafened words, which fall though Robin's mouth. "Tell my sister I said hi. Whose –" the realization is quick and a stab of anger pierces his skin like a hot poker rod. A face clouds his mind with chopped short brown hair and innocent brown eyes, but he doubts if they are innocent.
But his thoughts are broken when a slight shape barrels through the door, green eyes wide in horror and her mouth tilted open, calling for the two absent titans. Robin's quick to catch her hand as she races to dart off down the hall again. Raven's already flicked up her hood and sped past. "Star, what is it? What's happened?"
"Oh Robin, it is friend-Esper, Beastboy says she has collapsed," her voice breaks is fright, and he realizes how serious it is, "and Cyborg says she may not awaken."