Well, I'm back again, ready with another chapter for the Rob/Rae fans of this site. I've been mapping my plot out, and I really think I'm going to like writing this…maybe I should write more fics based off this pairing. It's kind of convenient: Why? All the stuff about Raven is usually weird and about the supernatural, and everything with Robin has a lot to do with balancing the darkness inside you and overcoming it…and there's also Slade. You have to admit, he's pretty cool. But—that is not the point! What I'm trying to say is that their personalities compliment each other and make for good main characters. Well, on with the story!
Chapter One: First Effects
The first thing he noticed was the splitting headache, smashing into his skull over and over again like an invisible hammer. Robin could barely open his eyes without his head being attacked by it. Why was that? He had been getting pretty good sleep the past couple of nights, staying up only until two—pondering Slade's motive behind the dust, of course—rather than the whole night. Oh well…
The second thing was the sunlight, streaming through the gap between the end of his door, and the floor. Light meant that it was at least seven. That made him even more uncomfortable, as he disentangled himself from the bed sheets. Robin had made it a personal goal to always be awake by at least five, so he could be ready for any action that might occur during the earlier parts of the morning…even if it only meant getting about three hours of sleep every night. In the two years he'd spent with the Titans, there had never been a call for help that early into the new day. But Robin was a creature of habit; he couldn't risk anyway. He'd studied the average criminal mind and learned that many of them were compulsive, jumping at an idea with only half a plan formed in their brain. There was always the slightest possibility that the one time he stayed in bed, something terrible would happen. Better not to take that chance.
Though the task of standing was surprisingly difficult, Robin somehow managed to struggle to his feet and stumble to the bathroom where he ran his head under cool water, hoping to ease the violent pounding that seemed bent on making him pass out.
The instant his body felt contact with the icy jets, the Boy Wonder began shivering horribly; but the tactic seemed to be working for some reason, so he held his breath and ducked back under, wondering what his friends were doing at the moment and if he'd be able to make it through even an uneventful day without collapsing.
R-R-R
"Please, friends! Will you care to sample the dish of glorkon beast from my home planet?"
The three other Titans shared uneasy looks at the mention of food from Starfire's planet; Raven, not one to mince words, stepped forward without waiting for Beast Boy and Cyborg's consent.
"No, Starfire, not really."
The alien's shoulders sagged, and, glancing unhappily down at the bowl she cradled in her arms, said sadly:
"Oh…But I have taken several of your Earth hours to prepare my feast. I thought that the buds of taste would enjoy it. I believe it is of the equivalent to what Earth people call the Cheese of Booger."
"I think you mean cheeseburger," Raven began, indifferent to whether Starfire's food tasted like meat or the slime under a rock, but at these words, the expression on Cyborg's face brightened.
"Cheeseburger? Really? Let me have it!"
Starfire grinned widely and zipped off towards the kitchen, twisting in a few spirals out of joy. Raven glared at him.
"You weren't supposed to encourage her," She snapped bluntly. Cyborg looked surprised.
"Why?"
"Because no matter what she says, her food always turns out disgusting. But if you feel like spitting goo out all over the wall again, it's your choice."
The half-machine, half-human stuck his nose in the air and shuffled off the kitchen as well, looking offended. Beast Boy shook his head sadly.
"Those poor cows…or whatever they have back on Tameran that looks like a cow…"
Raven, not looking forward to listening to another vegetarian lecture about "no eating meat!" changed the subject with lightening speed.
"So, is Robin still asleep?"
Beast Boy nodded, still glaring furiously at the kitchen door.
"He must be tired," She concluded, talking more to herself than the stiff changeling standing beside her. "I wonder why?"
"Slade, probably."
"You think so?"
"It's only been a week since the dust."
"I suppose…"
Raven gazed blearily out the panel of windows that took up a wall of the main room, wincing a bit as the sun burned multi-colored spots into her irises. Through the eyes of another—leaning mostly towards the unaware minds of those who dwelled in the city, or even to the other Titans that lived along side him—Robin seemed to be recovering from his traumatic experience pretty well, all by himself. Raven wasn't so easily fooled though: Her powers were locked with empathy, clueing her into the emotions that ran through the Tower. Even though Robin faced them every time with a small, weak smile—supposedly reassuring him that he was fine—she sensed lies within his actions. She would've talked to him, except for one slight problem.
Robin had a strong sense of pride coursing through his veins. Sometimes Raven wondered if that was why he failed when it came to resisting the temptation of obsessing over Slade.
He could never bring himself to speak to anyone—especially her, for he knew she could see through falsehoods—about what he was going through. No…he'd deal with it on his own. Usually, he solved it by locking himself in his room, separating himself from the rest of the team for as long as a month…Robin needed counseling, but he'd never allow it…
Raven turned abruptly towards Beast Boy.
"I'm going to see Robin's awake yet."
"Yep."
As she left, she heard gagging and hacking coming from the kitchen, followed several triumphant shouts of Beast Boy's "Ha, ha! That's what comes from eating meat! Told you so!"
R-R-R
About ten minutes later, Robin felt that it was safe enough to continue with his day. He exited the bathroom, massaging his temples, trying to ease away the grinding pulses that occurred every five minutes or so.
He was almost entirely dressed already, preferring to sleep mostly in his uniform, in case of a late night call; all the Titans did. Swiftly, he pulled on his boots and gloves, before fastening his cape and heading towards the door. It was then that he passed the mirror. Robin paused in front of the glassy surface, running a hand through his hair—something he did only when he was thinking; he'd picked it up from Bruce, whom he'd watched pace for hours into the evening, muttering to himself about the recent schemes the villains in Gotham had created.
Slowly, almost hesitatingly, Robin pulled off the mask that covered his eyes, the only thing that made him feel like he was something more than just a regular human, something more than Richard Grayson. There were dark circles underlining his eyes, revealing the nights spent studying the same newspaper clippings, searching for a hint, a bit of information he might have overlooked the first eighty times…and sometimes he just read them out of routine, the same old question circulating around and around inside his head…not that it did him any good.
Knock, knock.
Robin jumped and slapped his mask back across his face in an instant. What had he been thinking!
"Come in," He said gruffly, turning to face his visitor as the steel door slid aside with ease. Raven stood in the metal frame, watching him with those seemingly endless black eyes. Robin felt some of the strain lift off his shoulders as he saw plainly that it wasn't anyone else. He'd had too many discussions with Starfire, and he never felt that he got far, even when she was being serious. There was a certain level of comprehension that he could never reach with her; Robin never had the sense that she completely understood how the situation with Slade was affecting him. With Raven…things were a bit easier.
"Hi," She said in her typical, unfazed voice, looking him over. "I was just wondering if you'd be coming out anytime soon."
Robin tried to give an uncaring shrug, but Raven had already had enough time to examine and interpret the emotions that he hadn't hid fast enough. There was anger, fear, and…a pinch of relief? Why? Because of her, or another thing? The demoness tried to breeze past it and continued with:
"Are you okay? You slept in late."
Robin gave her the regular, tight grin that told him he was anything but "okay."
"Just fine, aside from this headache."
"Ah."
"I don't know why I stayed in a couple hours later than usual. It's strange, right?"
Raven couldn't hide her surprise as well as she might have liked, and Robin, just as perceptive as her at times, caught it.
"What's the matter?"
"Um…" Raven nodded toward the clock on his bedside table. "Is your clock still working?"
"Why?"
"Robin…it's already ten."
"What!"
"Yeah…" Raven tried to laugh a little, though all that came out was a rough, grating sound. "You must have been exhausted. You just came in here last night and crashed."
She could tell by the deepening frown appearing on his forehead that she had better switch the subject quickly.
"Are you hungry?"
"Not really."
"Hmm. Well, you should at least come out; you aren't going to spend the entire day in here, are you?"
Robin, though he looked like he was seriously considering the prospect, nodded curtly and followed her out into the hallway, stopping only to shut the door behind him. Raven couldn't help herself, and before she knew it, the question spilled out of her mouth.
"Why do you do that all the time?"
Robin raised an eyebrow, looking a bit interested by her sudden outburst.
"It's to keep my evidence from being scattered around. I need to make sure it's compiled into certain categories, so I don't get my notes mixed up with each other. It's also to keep anyone from coming in and messing with my stuff. You see, research like this takes a lot of precision…"
The conversation remained on the same topic, all the way down the plain hallways and into the main room.
R-R-R
Artisan Labs Inc. had been founded over four years ago, by young—and brilliant— twenty-five year old, Nigel Wolfe, and had steadily grown, over time, into one of the nation's biggest technology labs, constantly creating different computers to assist every type of person, from the simple child doing their homework after school, to a well-known detective requiring a laptop with the perfect stealth system.
Needless to say, Wolfe was one of the richest men in the world under thirty, and proud of it. When he had been only twenty-six, he had decided to prove the full extent of his work by building his main facility in the middle of Jump City, populated by several of the most brilliant criminal minds in the world, such as the secret organization that called themselves the H.I.V.E, and the strange, ever present silhouette of a man called Slade, who wreaked havoc within the city while remaining in the shadows. It was an especially daring move after the break-in at one of Bruce Wayne's buildings, though the thief had never been caught.
Wolfe had designed what he announced was the "most secure vault in the world," where he stored all his latest ideas, as well as his extensive wealth. He had sworn that it was next to impossible to crack the code and manage to exit the building with the money.
Unfortunately, according to a certain boy genius's readouts, Wolfe was dead wrong.
"C'mon, you scrum-buffers, hurry it up!" Gizmo hissed in his microphone. There was a moment of silence, before:
"It's done," Jinx growled on the receiving end. "Keep your shirt on, eh? Give us a second to get out of here, and then hit the detonation button."
Gizmo cackled—sounding rather evil for someone his age—as though he were a toddler given the permission to break a toy in half.
"This is gonna be so much fun…"
R-R-R
Sirens went off in Titans Tower, alerting the powerful five. Cyborg pulled up the computer screen, carefully looking over the information they were receiving.
"It's the H.I.V.E.," He growled, cracking his knuckles. "I've got their coordinates. Come on—Beast Boy and I can take the T-Car, Rae and Star can follow, and—"
"I'll take the R-Cycle," Robin said shortly, cutting his mechanical friend off. "If we hurry, we might be able to trap them before they can get very far."
His team nodded and hurried to their positions; Robin trailed behind them though, instead of taking the front like he often did…Damn, his headache was coming back…and it hurt like heck…
R-R-R
Gizmo giggled wickedly as he pulled up multiple windows on his laptop.
"This is brilliant stuff—too bad I'll be the one using it! Jinx! Mammoth! Take a look at this!"
Mammoth lumbered over to peer over the midget's shoulder, but the pink-haired sorceress continued running her hands through the piles of dollar bills and coins within the vault.
"All this money—think of what we could do with this!"
"Purchase doomsday weapons for Brother Blood—"
"Bribe politicians into infiltrating the government and spilling all their secrets—"
"Hire new criminals to join up with us—"
"How about giving it back?"
The three teenagers jumped and looked towards the catwalk above them, where the Teen Titans perched, looking as dangerous as ever. Robin glared down at them, whipping out his bo-staff with ease.
"Explosives? I thought you guys could come up with something a little bit more creative than that. Shame; Titans, go!"
Jinx straightened and, smirking with glee at the battle, shouted:
"Team! Attack Pattern Gamma!"
The two sides attacked one another: The clash of the Titans. (Rebel: Ha, ha. Forgive the lame pun. I couldn't resist.)
Robin swept his bo-staff through the air, the metal singing as it cut through the air to connect with Mammoth's head. Beside him, Raven sent dark spirals soaring from her palms to create a barricade against Jinx's neon power. Starfire came to her assistance, hurling green starbolts at her Gothic friend's attacker; Jinx was forced to backflip in order to evade the speeding disks.
"Man, you little pest! When I get my hands on you—"
Robin glanced over his shoulder to see Gizmo run past, screaming in terror, Cyborg in pursuit, one large hand gripping the small boy's backpack.
"Get away from me you barf brain, dirt muffin, crud head—AHHH!"
Beast Boy, in the form of a tiger, leapt in front of him, growling darkly as if implying that if Gizmo took another step, he'd be torn, limb from tiny limb…which was probably true. Robin grinned and, with another sharp crack, knocked out Mammoth, who had been preparing to charge him.
The battle was already won; even though Jinx was putting up an impressive fight all by herself, she didn't stand a chance without the assistance of her fellow team mates. For the first time that day, things felt like they were going right…
And then, just like that, it all ended in one swift motion.
His headache, which had seemed to disperse for the time being, came back with a sudden, powerful jolt, racking his brain with an intensity he had never experienced before. Robin had no time to yell in pain, before he collapsed to his knees, eyes clouding over with a thick, black fog that seemed to block out all his senses, enveloping his body…he was falling, falling through shadow and mist…
The last thing he heard before he blacked out entirely was a single voice, screaming his name…
"Robin!"
To be Continued…
I feel kind of stupid. I'm writing out tons of chapters for posting, because, well…I've become totally addicted to it already! I like it just as much as "Face to Face," and "Thieves and Heroes," and that's saying a lot, seeing as I happen to be extremely attached to those two…Hmm. Well: The evilness of a cliffy! What's wrong with Robin? Is Raven falling for him? And what does Slade have to do with all of this? Find out next chapter!
Until then, keep rockin', keep writing:
Rebel-Aquarius
