A/N: So, I hadn't planned on updating this until the 26th, but then I thought, 'eh, what the hell?' Many thanks to evilsangel for looking over this for me! And thanks so much for the reviews on the first chapter! I hope you all continue to enjoy! That said, read, enjoy, and don't forget to feed the author!
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"This doesn't change anything," she'd said. And this is what it all boiled down to—he had to know whether or not that was true.
Pushing aside the anxiety and doubt in favor of casual indifference, he decided that now was as good a time as any to find out and dropped from his place in the shadows.
"Well, if it isn't my favorite bird."
Chapter Two: Swept Away
"Relax. The world will spin beside itself and suck you in, with threats and hopes beyond compare." –Phish, Frankie Says
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Raven went stock-still. God, of all the criminals in Jump City, why did it have to be—?
"X," she acknowledged calmly.
"Did you miss me, Sunshine?" The question came from somewhere behind her, but Raven had yet to move; she wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of watching her squirm.
"Like a case of herpes," was her scathing reply.
"Ouch," X feigned insult. "Really, I'm hurt."
"Trust me," she began, eyes glowing and dark light swimming around her fists in anticipation, "I can make it hurt."
"Ooh…promise?" The suggestive remark came as little more than a whisper in her ear, and Raven spun to send a stream of dark energy blazing from her palms. A shower of glass shards and mummified cat remains told her that not only had she missed, but that she'd also just relieved the museum of a $100,000 dead cat.
This was so not her day.
He clucked his tongue mockingly, and Raven spun again and this time met him face to face. He had her by the wrists and up against the wall at arms length before she could even breathe the words of her incantation.
"Temper, temper," he chided in a singsong voice. "I'd take it easy on the magic in here, Sweets—you know, collateral damage and all."
Raven ground her teeth together as an angry flush painted her cheeks. Whether she liked it or not, X had a point. This was a damn pricey place for an all out war; besides, she didn't really want to be responsible for blowing up pieces of history if she could avoid it.
Not that she was going to let a little thing like that stop her from beating his arrogant face in.
Raven's eyes burned white again, and before X could put space between them, she had released the darkness to swallow them whole. His grip tightened in surprise, and Raven nearly winced as they emerged from the shadow out into the street.
"Well," he breathed, swaying forward enough that Raven could have felt his breath brush across her face if not for the mask. "That's a hell of a parlor trick."
"News flash," she hissed and let her body go slack just long enough to upset his newly regained balance. He stumbled, and Raven took the opportunity to bring both feet up and deliver a vicious blow to his midsection that left him skidding painfully across the asphalt on his back. She followed through the arc of her attack to flip back gracefully and land squarely on her feet. "I don't do tricks."
"Rather touchy on the matter, aren't we?" He was on his feet in a heartbeat, but his stance was as casual as if they were old friends.
Raven narrowed her eyes in suspicion as he brushed the dirt from his suit. Why wasn't he attacking her? She exhaled through her nose in irritation and no small amount of confusion. Of course, when it came to Red-X, confusion was the standard in her mind as of late. She pushed it back to the dark places along with the annoying twist of her stomach that seemed to accompany him; she'd let Intelligence sort it out later.
"Enough," she dismissed pointedly. "Give it back, X."
"Give what back?" he feigned innocence.
"Stop it," she snapped, more than a little annoyed. "Just hand over whatever it is you stole, and things won't have to get ugly."
"I'm quite sure I don't know what you're talking about," he replied flippantly. He strode forward then, ignoring how she tensed and summoned the dark energy to collect in her fists, before stopping a mere foot away. "Though I suppose if you'd like to search me—"
X just barely managed to dodge the abrupt blast of dark light that came screaming toward him. He flipped back to land several feet away, chuckling, as he stood upright. Raven nearly growled; he was toying with her, and she got the distinct impression that it was just to see if he could.
"Well, if you're going to be that way about it…"
And then the game was on...really on.
Raven had only a fraction of a second to react as X sent a barrage of shuriken sailing her way. Time and again she brought her palms up in sweeping arcs of black light, deflecting all that he could throw at her. She dipped and dodged nimbly, but the thief was equally swift, and just as she thought she might get a moments reprieve to gain the upper hand, he shot a line of dark red adhesive from his palm to coil around her feet and jerk them out from under her.
Raven hit the ground with a pronounced thud, and it took all of her concentration to will the gray spots from her vision. When at last she could see, she realized just what a mistake that had been. Red-X was kneeling over her, blade in hand, at rest just below her chin. Her breathing hitched, and she could feel him smirking beneath the mask.
The jackass.
"Well, pretty bird," he said in that triumphantly cocky voice that made Raven's blood boil, "Not that I haven't enjoyed our little tea party, but I believe this is where we say adieu." Lightly, he traced the line of her jaw with the razor's edge, slipping it behind her ear to brush the cowl away from her face.
The air stilled around them, and Raven awaited his next move with baited breath, a million and one options for escape running through her head. But X did not move. He did not speak, and he did not breathe, either. Instead, he merely watched. Waited.
Once again, Raven was confused.
Had she not known any better, she might have thought this moment, this…look had been his objective all along. Then again, the artifact she sensed stashed away in the hidden compartment of his belt suggested otherwise.
She should do something, she knew, but while the thought echoed in the walls of her mind, it wasn't until she heard the impact of steel-toed boots upon concrete that she snapped out of the haze that had settled between them. Red-X must have heard it, too, because he heaved a sigh and muttered, "Leave it to the Boy Blunder to ruin a perfectly good party."
"Raven!" Robin cried as he and the rest of the Titans came rushing onto the scene.
"You will release our friend at once!" Starfire demanded, her eyes and hands heating with green fire. Beside her, Cyborg readied his cannon, and Beastboy assumed the body of a panther.
"No need to get all bent out of shape, Cutie, we were just having a little chat." Red-X had yet to move from his position, but he had at least turned his attention to them.
It was all the distraction Raven needed.
Her eyes glowed, and the rock garden just outside the museum entrance took on a life of its own. X had no choice but to dart away as the hailstorm of sharp rocks and various items of cement landscape ornamentation came flying at him from all directions. He flipped end over end, shooting blasts of adhesive as he went to snatch the larger pieces and disrupt their trajectory.
"Titans, go!"
They wasted no time. Beastboy charged the thief with a snarl, and Starfire took to the sky, hurling starbolts as fast as she could make them. Cyborg was just behind but stopped short when he reached Raven and dropped beside her.
"You alright, dark girl?" he asked, worriedly, as he went to work on the sticky substance trapping her legs. "He didn't hurt you, did he?" He finished cutting the glue-like matter away from her limbs and offered her a hand up, which she gratefully accepted.
Robin lingered a few feet from them, an undefined expression etched into his features like stone. She caught his eye and gave them both the reassuring, not quite grin that only Raven seemed capable of.
"Not nearly as much as I hurt him," she spoke, uncurling her fist to let the amulet she'd pilfered from his belt moments ago dangle from her fingertips by its chain. "He just doesn't know it, yet."
A slow smirk crept its way onto Robin's face, and Cyborg laughed out loud. "Now that's what I'm talkin' about baby!" the older Titan crowed.
"Nice work, Raven," the Boy Wonder complimented as he extended his bo-staff and let it slice the air before him with a sharp whistle. "Now let's take this creep—"
Starfire screamed, and they looked up just in time to see their teammates caught up in the same blast of red goop. X pulled the line taut and then abruptly let loose, sending the pair spiraling like a flaming bullet through the air and directly into their waiting comrades.
Cyborg cursed as they plowed into him with the force of a Mack truck. The three went tumbling as one, straight through the wall of the neighboring office building, before barreling into the rather ornate fountain in the lobby.
A chorus of groans came from somewhere within the rubble. "Dude," Beastboy moaned, "I think I just swallowed my spleen."
Raven felt her heart start again. They were alive—a little worse for wear, perhaps, but alive nonetheless.
Robin and X were already in the thick of it when she turned back again. The electric ring of steel echoed throughout the streets as their weapons met again and again. Their moves were fluid, relentless, and full of such fire that Raven felt they might burn up right before her very eyes. It was more than just stopping a robbery, more than just making a quick escape. It was personal.
She couldn't have interfered if she'd wanted to. And she most definitely wanted to, but Robin was close—too close; so, she had no choice but to sit back on the sidelines and wait for her chance. It came sooner than she might have expected.
They squared off, weapons locked together and neither one giving an inch. Finally, Red-X spoke, breaking the tension around them. "Look, kid, much as I'd like to stay and play bowling for Titans, I've got some place to be."
"You're not going anywhere," Robin growled.
"Guess again." And then X made his move. Spreading his arms farther to slide the two hand-held blades in opposite directions along the surface of Robin's bo, X turned his shoulder in just the slightest bit, upsetting the balance of pressure between them. Robin had no choice but to follow through with the bend, leaving his back entirely exposed.
What happened next was something of a blur, and from what Raven could tell it involved a well-placed kick into the side of a building and an explosion, but beyond that she couldn't be sure of anything other than the fact that Robin was now out of commission.
"Robin!" she cried. Her gut reaction was to go to him, dig him out of the debris; and she would have, but when the smoke cleared she was facing the devil once more.
"Looks like it's just the two of us, again, Sunshine," he remarked casually.
Her eyes burned with white flame, and Raven felt herself getting dangerously close to losing control. "Not for long," she hissed.
And with that, dark energy encompassed a pickup truck parked along the curb and sent it screaming toward the thief. X didn't so much as flinch, though, and the second it came into range he leapt onto the hood. The thief ran the length of the vehicle and used it as a springboard to flip from the back of the bed. He landed directly behind the sorceress, gracefully, and immediately crouched low, striking out with a powerful kick to sweep her legs out from under her.
She jumped straight into the air, barely missing the assault aimed toward her legs, but by the time her feet hit the ground he was standing upright. He grabbed her wrist painfully tight and jerked her toward him.
"Not bad, girl," he commented, squeezing her wrist until she gasped and the amulet she had clenched in her fist dropped to hang from her fingers again. "But I'll be taking this back."
"Not on your life," she retorted, making a grab for the body of the medallion with her free hand just as he did the same. Arms locked as they grappled with it, both unwilling to lose even the slightest hold. He was strong though, physically, much stronger than Raven, and she knew it was just a matter of time before he overpowered her completely. It was time to end this.
Magic pooled into her fists, and X tensed as she spoke. "Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos."
And that was when it happened.
It started as a whine, a low, keening wail from far away, and Raven felt dread settle into the pit of her stomach as their palms began to shine with a strange golden glow. The energy began to snake its way around their arms and down the length of their bodies, freezing them up from the inside out—set in stone and unable to let go.
The howling got louder, and the light got brighter, oscillating in a whirlwind around them. The markings around the thick, gold perimeter of the talisman lifted and burned into the flesh of their palms, causing them both to cry out in agony. The emerald set into the center morphed into something unknown, a swirling mass of luminescence and a shrill cacophony of screeching and bitter cold.
The wailing came full force now, like a freight train screaming down the tracks, and Raven could barely make out the muffled cry of her name from somewhere outside her prison. It was the last thing she remembered before her body deconstructed, pulling itself apart like a house of sand, the scream in her throat lost to the wind.
Just like the rest of her.
Thanks for reading! Peace, all.
