Chapter 11

I stood on the edge of Raven's mindscape, drinking it all in. This was amazing. I never knew that Raven was so experienced in her meditation. I knew she had problems when she let her emotions get a hold of her, but I never knew she went to such great lengths to separate them from herself. Or was so adept at it, for that matter.

The gray cloaked figure was the first to notice me. She squeaked, and hid behind the Green clad copy of Raven.

That one must be fear.

Gray's sudden movement caught everyone by surprise. They all whirled to see what had frightened the skittish emotion, only to see a ribbon of rainbow colored light floating towards them. I was yet to take on any form, and until I did, she would only see me as the glowing river of light that she saw now. The light seemed to flow around all of them, bringing a soothing feel with it. I was emanating the feeling to calm all of the emotions. I could see the Green one getting worked up, and the Gray one was already hiding from me. Slowly, all the emotions gave up on their own separate ideas, with curiosity taking over all of them. The blue clad Raven turned into the light, letting it flow over her.

"Ryk?" she said, "Is that you?"

My voice radiated from the light again. 'Yeah, it's me. You want to talk here? Or somewhere else?'

Raven sighed. Her mindscape was her escape, her place of sanctuary, but it was also her strongest point. If anything were to happen, this would be the best place to make a stand.

"We can speak here."

The swirling river converged into one point, and from that point my 'body' appeared. I was wearing the typical fighting uniform I had when I had fought along side of them.

"OOOOoooo!" the pink one squealed, "He IS cute!"

The pink clad figure burst into a fit of riotous giggles.

Both my own, and the blue clad Raven's faces blushed a brilliant shade of red. Blue turned quickly to the rest of the emotions, and shooed them away to another part of her mind. This must be the true Raven, the one that she let see the outside world, anyways. I could sense the control coming from the blue clad figure. Yes, this was her true consciousness.

We were left alone in on her mindscape. I noticed a rocky area a distance off, but I did not concern myself with it. I was here at this girl's call, and I was here as a guest. I would keep my wandering mind in one place, and respect her privacy. I may be an outsider now, but the fact that Raven had been my friend still kept me from rutting through her memories.

Raven's mouth opened and closed, searching for the right things to say. She started to say something several times, and stopped herself. Finally, she reached out, pulled my image into a hug. She held on, squeezing me like a little girl might hold on to a favorite teddy bear after it had been lost and found again. I stood there, shocked for a moment before letting my own arms encircle her shoulders. I held her like that for almost an entire minute before we finally backed away from each other.

"I was so sure that you had died." she whispered.

"Lady Luck was smiling heavily on me that afternoon."

"But I could feel death hanging so heavily around your car, who died?"

"Nobody died."

"……………."

"I put that field there myself. I know that there are more out there like you and me, and I wanted them to think that the bomb was successful."

Raven nodded, understanding now why the feeling of death was so strong. Usually it would take many people dying for it to be that strong, but she had attributed it to the fact that I was her good friend, and closely tied to her feelings.

Her head dropped, and she turned away from me. I could barely hear her as she spoke.

"You weren't lying when you said you had quit, were you."

I slowly shook my head. "I promised you I had given up that lifestyle. My word is one of the few things I have that matters in this world."

She stood with her back facing me. It was here in her mindscape, away from the rest of the world that she could actually express her feelings. She had already sealed away her 'emotions' away from her, so anything that she did here was strictly between her and me. Not even the rest of her was aware of the emotions that she gave into here. For that, she was glad. It kept her from holding everything back every hour of the day. There had even been times when she had gone to meditate just so she could scream in frustration, or cry for her friends. She was crying now, I could see her shoulders shuddering, the choppy breath from her throat echoed in my ears. I walked over to her 'image', placing my arm around her shoulder. She jumped slightly, not expecting the move. Not to mention I had covered several yards instantly to be there with her. That was the beauty of the mind, though. You could move anywhere, be anywhere, anytime you wanted to.

The girl's face turned up into mine. Tears were slowly rolling down her cheeks. I reached down, my forefinger brushed gently across her smooth cheek, and softly wiped her tears away.

"I'm ok," I said. "I can take care of myself."

"That's not the point." she hiccupped, "the point is we should have been there to help you."

I smiled, now where had I heard that one before.

"We threw you out without so much as giving you a chance to prove yourself," she said, trying to get a hold of herself. "when in fact, you had already proven yourself so many times over to us."

I nodded, letting her go on.

"I wish you were still with us. You were someone that…that looked out for us, looked out for me, like my own guardian angel."

I spoke up again, breaking my own silence. "You know I can't return to the team without all of you being ready for me to be there."

She nodded. She understood that even though she could use her pull as a charter member of the Titans, she still couldn't rid the team of the mistrust that would be there.

"Well, I had better let you get back to the rest of the team." I said, knowing they were getting nervous waiting next to Raven's meditating body.

She nodded, biting her lip. With what seemed to be great effort, she dried her eyes, and her face slowly returned to its normal solemnity. I was just about to pull my link to her, when something hit me.

"You know," I smirked, "if you want me to, I can leave a part of myself here so you can get a hold of me anytime you need to."

Raven gave me a confused look.

With a motion of my hands (more for looks than the fact that it actually did anything) a 'telephone' was left sitting in the open air of her mindscape.

"I cannot link to you through that path unless you pick it up," I explained. "And if you pick it up, I will be here almost instantly, I promise."

She nodded her head, and watched as my image dissolved into the river of color once again, and retreated from her mind. She sighed, and broke her concentration.

-------------------

I broke my meditation with a jerk. Jinx was kneeling in front of me, staring at me. I gasped, falling backwards.

Jinx laughed so hard, she fell over.

"How long were you waiting for me to break out of that?" I questioned, regaining my composure.

"Only about three minutes," she giggled. "you forget, I know when things are going to happen, it runs in my blood."

I smiled, relieved to have something a little less serious after my conversation with Raven.

--------------------

Raven looked up at the rest of the team from her position on the ground.

"We failed a fellow Titan," was all she said.

She stood, and began to walk away, her solemn face held a touch of pain in it. Not physical pain, but an emotional pain that she was struggling to put down. Robin caught the look, and stood with her, walking with her to the door.

"What do you mean we failed a Titan?" he questioned.

"Exactly that."

Robin stopped cold in his tracks. What had they done?

"Y-you mean…?" he stammered.

"I invited him back to my own mind, that's why I suddenly had an easy time with the meditation."

"Are you sure that was safe?"

"No, I wasn't, but I took the chance."

"……oh. So you trusted him with your own secrets?"

"Robin," she finally turned to look at him, "I still trust him. He is still my friend, even if the rest of you don't agree with me. I don't care."

The boy wonder stared at her, not knowing what to say. How could she still have any respect for this deranged killer after she knew his past?

She answered that one for him without him even having to ask.

"Anyways," the dark girl droned, "I searched his feelings while I had him inside my mind. There is no malice, no underlying motives, nothing other than the genuine desire to repent for what he has done. I could feel his hurt as well. We were his friends, and we destroyed that friendship."

"But Rae, we fight people like him almost every day!"

"No, we fight people like who he used to be. He's changed Robin."

"We aren't sure of that!"

"Well, 'we' might not be, but I am."

"You're serious about this, aren't you?"

"When am I not?"

"……………"

Raven turned, her blue cloak billowing out in the morning breeze. She stiffly walked through the door, and back into the tower. This conversation was over, and she was making it clear that she was done talking about it. She didn't even want to think about it, but that face, that black haired, silver eyed face kept working it's way back to the front of her memory, haunting her and what she had allowed the Titans to do to him.

She retreated to her room, locking the door behind her. A few steps later, she was standing in front of her dresser. She pulled open the top drawer, and stood there staring at the top, neatly folded outfit. A simple white shirt and black pants. She never got a chance to even thank him for the little gift.

A quiet knock at the door brought the pale sorceress out of her trance. She quickly slid the drawer closed and strolled over to the door. The door swished open, and Starfire was standing quietly outside.

Raven's eyebrow raised slightly. Star started the conversation.

"Robin told us what you two talked about."

"Great, now everyone's gonna hate me for still liking the guy."

"Rae," Star's green eyes locked with Raven's blues, "I agree with you. Ryk was a good friend, and a protector of justice like ourselves."

"And what about Beast Boy and Cy?"

"They are…" Star's gaze fell, "they are still confused."

There was a long pause, which was once again broken by the Tamaranian.

"Did he tell you an easier way to get a hold of him? I would very much like to speak with our friend."

Raven's thoughts drifted the "phone" I had left behind for her. I had left a part of my mind in hers, a link that had not been broken, and yet she had not even argued the fact.

She nodded. Starfire clapped her hands together, and Raven started towards her 'spot' in her room where she meditated, telling Star that it would only take a minute.

And the alarm went off.

An aggravated look came over Star's face as she spun from the doorway. Raven shrugged it off, just like she always did.

Robin informed them of the problem, and they were on their way. It was nothing new, a warehouse snatch and grab done by a couple mutant thugs. The miles sped past, and soon they were all standing outside the place. It was old, run down, and generally crappy looking. Just like every other warehouse on this side of the town. Who knew what these thugs where after, all they knew is they had to stop them. The plan was quickly drawn up, and the team stormed the building.

ZZZAAAAAAAAAAPPPP

Cyborg blew the front doors off the building, and each Titan charged in, wielding their respective powers and surprising the powers at be that were there. Starfire cut loose a flurry of her starbolts, melting away at the plastic riot shield one thief had ducked behind, Raven was chucking random inanimate objects at random animate people. Off to the left side of the building, a green T-Rex was stomping towards a trembling thug. Robin was being his usual bad-ass self, and kicking the crap out of anything that came into his reach. And two pair of eyes watched menacingly from the rafters.

The thugs dropped as easily as any others under the incredible fury of the Teen Titans. The Titans were in the process of handcuffing the troublemakers, and were completely unaware of the fact that they were still being watched. The two pair of eyes looked towards each other, looked back down, and promptly fell from their perch. A huge green creature landed on top of Beast Boy, who had just reverted to his elf form.

BAM

The green creature got up, BB out cold on the ground. Robin growled, spun, and charged the creature. It prepared itself, grunting out an unintelligible challenge. Robin pulled his staff, spinning it wildly above his head.

FWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH

The fireball connected with the Titan leader's midsection. For some reason, it didn't burn him, but it did succeed in throwing him clean across the room, and into a pile of boxes. The disturbed stack of crates promptly crashed down around and above him, effectively trapping him.

A female version of the green demon stood there, holding another fireball in her hands.

Cyborg's eyes widened. Trolls! He thought they were nothing more than a myth, yet here they stood, challenging all of the Titans. One male, a warrior it seemed. The other was a female, and she was most definitely a fire wielder of some sort. The titanium titan rushed the male, hoping to surprise it. He did anything but that. The giant beast slapped him aside with a simple swing of his hands. Even Cyborg's strength was nullified by the hulking green monstrosity.

Starfire swooped towards the female, releasing her righteous fury her. A simple wave of the troll's hand, and the starbolts pinged harmlessly off of an invisible wall of magic. A huge ball of ice barely missed the alien beauty as she flashed over the troll's head.

Raven floated in mid-air, her eyes glowing black, along with her hands. She gracefully lifted her arms, bringing with it a huge steel crate. She flung the enormous object at the male, pushing it with everything she had.

WHAM.

The shipping crate stopped cold. The troll was holding it in his own two hands, grunting into the weight of it. Shocked, Raven lost her concentration. The Troll spun twice with the thing in his grasp, and released it towards the pale sorceress.

Raven gasped as the container flew her direction. She hadn't the concentration to stop it, nor the time to move. How she wished she could fly like Star could.

The next thing she remember was her breath being all but knocked out of her, and being accelerated away from where she floated. But not by the container. A black steel arm was wrapped around her waist, a silver trimming on the sharper edges. The realization of who it was hit her like a ton of bricks.

I looked down at the pale girl I was carrying. I had almost been to slow that time, but I hadn't wanted to interfere unless I had to. These trolls seemed to be a new challenge for the team, something they had no idea how do deal with. Then again, neither did I, I had heard of them before, but never had the pleasure of being picked to take a hit against one.

I released my burden safely off to the side, and turning, revealed a new upgrade on my suit. I had a pair of 'angel wings' on my back. The thrusters hidden inside of them, instead of the bulky backpack they had been in before. I looked up, over the crate I had flown behind, and flexed my wings. Their silver-tipped, black 'feathers' shimmered in the fluorescent overhead lighting. They spread to their full wingspan, and I lit off the thrusters, rocketing myself over the crate. I came up at almost supersonic speeds behind the male troll, who was tossing wooden crates aside, looking for the buried Robin. I never slowed my flight, exploding into his back in perfect football form. A snarl formed on my lips as I pushed my thrusters harder, driving the both of us clean through several walls. I flipped agilely away from the marauder, adjusting my wings instinctively to land myself nimbly on top of a wooden crate. I heard explosions from the other room as Starfire and the magician fought on.

The warrior let out a savage war cry, and charged me. I was more than ready. A burst from my needle gun stabbed deep into his arms, causing him to stop and fight to pull them out. I never gave him the chance. In my research, I had found a weakness in the troll race. I spun a powerful roundhouse, assisted in my spin by my hypersonic thrusters. I felt his neck snap to the side as I made contact, and he fell hard. I knew he wasn't dead, but I had flattened a major vein that supplied blood to his brain. He would be out for a few hours until his body was convinced that he was alright to reawaken.

I turned, and flew back to the main room, gasped, fired my thrusters for everything they were worth, and barely caught an unconscious Starfire. Raven was throwing everything that she could imagine, but everything bounced off that invisible shield the caster was throwing up. I caught Rae's eye, and motioned for her to stop. She flung a few last objects at the caster, and pulled back out of the way, landing next to me. The female troll noticed me standing there, and realizing that I must have defeated her male counterpart, she chanted a quick incantation, and something along the lines of 100 tiny gremlin like things appeared between myself and her. They all were hopping up and down, babbling in an unknown tongue. All except one. He pulled his hands down to his side, and shoving them forward, released a surprisingly large fireball. I barely dodged it. The little urchin was jumping up and down, laughing.

I was about to revert to an old, bad habit, and I welcomed it openly.

I pulled off my helmet, and handed it to a stunned Raven. She held it, looking at me dumbly. I reached into an armored pocket, and pulled out a mp3 player. Both the troll and Raven were staring me, confused. I carefully placed the tiny earphones into my ears, and flipped through the music stored on the player. A smirk appeared on my face, and I selected a particular song. Returning the mp3 player to its pocket, I reached over, took my helmet back from a still stunned Raven, placed it back on my head, and let the music flow through me. Drowning Pool's "Bodies" snarled its way into my soul. My head started to n6dded slightly in time with the music, my foot gently tapping on the floor. I spun, and knowing exactly where they were, pulled my own blades out from under Raven cloak. She had carried them just in case she might have needed them, and now she was gasping in surprise as I flashed towards the horde of little demons dancing around in front of me, my body in perfect tune with the music, using it's beat as a rhythm for my attack.

The fire-throwing urchins all stopped dancing, as this vision of death rocketed towards them. They all began charging up their fireballs.

And the killing began.

I spun, swooped, ducked, dodged, sliced, dodged again, my dance of death a blur of flashing blades and sprayed blood. Tiny demon bodies were devastated. Some of them were even left unrecognizable by the flashing silver blades that sliced mercilessly through them.

And I was done. I stood back next to Raven, her mouth open, her shoulders quivering. Two tiny demons stood their guard between myself and the magician.

A scream of pain escaped both of them at the same moment, then a gurgle, and blood spilled out of their mouths. As if on cue, both of them disintegrated into a thousand miniscule pieces.

Even Raven grimaced at the sight of their exploding tiny bodies. I never so much as twitched. The song finished right on cue, and it moved on to the next. I switched beat, and switched styles. My first move brought a silver wing across in front of Raven's face, flinging a fireball up into the rafters. And then began the dance of death. I flipped, fell, danced, flew, and sidestepped towards the sorceress. I finally got within striking distance, and slung my blades at her. I bounced harmlessly off the invisible shield, but I felt it give. It wasn't a perfect shield, but it was a formidable protection.

I spun away, gracefully dodging three different bursts of both fire and ice. My return fire was a mix of both my needle gun, and the machine gun in my opposite hand. The barrage eventually ate through the shield. One lucky needle caught the witch in her shoulder, breaking her concentration completely. Her shield promptly fell. Without her magic protection, she was nothing. My right forearm quickly found it's mark on the side of her neck, and she wilted promptly to the ground.

I stood over the trolls fallen body, looked towards the back of the building, and saw Cy dragging the unconscious male troll out towards us. A rattle amongst the boxes, and I saw Robin's facemask emerge. Starfire was shaking off the dark weights that had been laid upon her eyes, and BB was groggily stumbling around the floor. Raven still stood shell shocked, staring at the black hard suit.

I spread my wings to their full twelve foot span, and quickly pulled them all under their protective spread just as the hidden explosives around the building went off. I was the only one that could see outside of the protective cover of my wings. The building went up with us inside of it, and I learned that the entire building was full of nothing but boxes of gold bars. The wooden boxes were consumed instantly, and I watched the as the metal melted. It pooled and ran through the uneven floor, forming molten streets of liquid gold. I felt as if I had front row seats to the burning of heaven.

I stood there, enduring the heat. My suit's cooling capabilities had been instantly overloaded. They still struggled to cool itself down, keeping the heat barely survivable inside the suit. The air from its contained emergency supply was hot and dry by now, burning the inside of my lungs. The rubber joints were built to withstand a great deal of heat, but I could feel that they were getting close to their melting points. My sensor suit I had to wear underneath was hardly any protection from the heat of the steel. I had to do something, and I had to do it fast. I used the suit to amplify my voice to a level where it could be heard by those I protected.

"Hang on!" I shouted

I felt a strong titanium arm, followed by a slim but powerful arm wrap around me, next was Robin's powerful arms, a snake wrapped itself around my left arm, and finally a pair of slender arms pulled my right hand around a familiar waist. I pulled Raven up against the other Titans, and used my other arm (the one with the green snake curled around it) to add a second security to those holding onto me. I gently lit off my boosters, and with an agonizingly slow pace, I rose from the ground, watching the molten gold run where I had stood only moments before. I pulled tighter, ensuring myself that I was not going to lose any of my friends, and gently rolled out of the smoke above the building. I wanted to take off flying, letting the cool evening air remove the heat from my suit. But my burden was most important. I knew that they could feel the heat from the fire, but my wings had protected them from most of it. They had no idea the hellfire that they had just survived.

I gently landed a few blocks away from the building, still wary of any secondary explosives that could have been planted.

It was only then that I let my wings unfurl themselves, releasing my wards back to the outside world. They all walked out from my protection completely unharmed. I smiled to myself from behind the protective mask. I was still their guardian angel.

"Ryk!" Robin exclaimed, finally realizing who I was.

I nodded at the boy wonder. Guessing at what was to come next. Either he would chew me out about coming into contact personally with the team again, or he would strike up as old friends.

He did neither.

"Ryk," he repeated. "I desperately need to talk to you."

Desperately? Now there was something I had never seen the boy wonder say before about himself.

"Ryk…"

Why did he have to use my name to start every sentence?

"…I want to invite you back on to the team." There, he had said it. He had wanted to ask Ryk to rejoin them ever since Raven's 'talk' with him. He trusted her judgment almost more than he trusted his own. The girl was always right, it seemed. The first time he had ever seen her flustered was over Ryk's reappearance after his 'death'.

A horribly long silence followed, as the possibilities swirled inside of my head. How many times already had I dreamed about this day? And here it was, but…

I shook my head. "You know I would love to get back on the team," I said, "but right now, I have other responsibilities."

Robin's eye mask narrowed.

"My sister." I finished. "And I don't think she's quite ready to join the Titans just yet."

Robin nodded slowly, understanding my predicament.

"All I am now is a responsibility!"

We all looked up at the voice, and watched as a pink streak flipped down from the top of a nearby building.

I smiled at my sister, she glared back.

"I thought you were going to tell me next time you went out!" she exclaimed.

My eyes rolled around in their sockets. She sure was difficult.

"I didn't think you would take to kindly to me playing Guardian Angel to the Titans."

She pouted. "I don't care who I'm protecting. I just wanted to fight on the right side."

The Titans stared at her.

"What?" she spat.

Her gaze shot back at me.

"And why are you turning down the offer to rejoin the Titans?" she questioned.

"I'm going to see to you first, then the Titans. I can always play guardian angel if I need to, but you're the priority right now."

"Hmph," she snorted, "and that's why I'm leaving."

"WHAT?"

"That's right, I'm leaving."

My jaw dropped.

"Don't worry, silly, I'll keep in good contact!"

I nodded, dumbly.

She handed me a page, and I stared down at it. It was the papers for the apartment. On it was a stamp showing that the contract had been broken, and we were no longer owners of our little place.

"All your stuff is in a storage facility a mile from the Titans Tower," she added, tossing me a key.

I looked down, and recognized the name. I knew exactly where to find it.

"And…"I started

"Don't worry about me," she cut me off. "I'm changing locations. Maybe a new area would be good for me. This place may be your redemption, but it holds to much wrong for me."

I nodded, understanding. I could never return to Detroit, just like I knew she would never be able to return here.

"Besides," she smiled, "I hear downtown the city of New York could use a superhero around."

It was a big project. Then again, so I was mine.

I nodded, smiling at the girl. She stepped into me, wrapping her arms around my steel coated body. And squeezed for everything she was worth. She stepped back, and I bent down and kissed her on the forehead. Not a romantic kiss shared between two lovers, but a kiss of common love between siblings. She kissed my cheek back, turned, leapt to the top of the building, and she was gone. It would be a long time before any of us saw the mistress of luck again.

I turned back towards Robin, my helmet tucked under my arm. A broad grin covered my face.

"Offer still open?" I smiled wider.

"Of course," he smiled back, "for you, the door will always be open."

I nodded. "I accept."

Beast Boy cheered, Cyborg whooped, and I received another bone crushing hug from Starfire. This one wasn't so bad, though. I had my armor protecting me, and her lung crushing hug felt nothing more than a bit of a squeeze. I walked over, and hugged Raven. She stared at me, not even moving to either accept or deny the move. I held her for a moment, and whispered a quiet thank you into her ear. I turned my attention back to Robin, and reached to shake his hand. His grip met mine, and when it left, there was a shiny new Titan communicator in my grip. I smiled proudly and slipped it into a 'pocket' compartment on my suit.

"Welcome back." they said in unison.

End Chapter 11