Here is chapter two! I hope you enjoy and review!
Thank you to all those who reviewed previously, you have no idea how much motivation you give me to continue.
Next chapter will be up quicker.
Thank you!
Next chapter will also be longer, because all the Titans reunite!
Chapter Two
Raven held one of the photos in her hands, staring at the slightly blurred image; it was of Embern and Skye, holding hands exiting the airport with their school. She placed it down and picked up another, this one was of her sitting in her office reading the newspaper. She turned to look at Bruce; his arms were crossed firmly against his chest, stern look on his face.
"Where did all these come from?" She asked softly turning back to the desk covered in photos of her and her children, they made her uncomfortable.
"They were mailed to me this morning." He answered. "… They know exactly who you are…"
"Of course they do."
Bruce placed his hand on her shoulder; once more trying to reassure her all was fine; even if she didn't believe it herself. "This is why I have brought you here."
It didn't make her feel better, this whole situation made her incredibly uncomfortable for more than one reason. Her children's safety was, of course, her top concern. She had tried hard to get herself away from 'The Teen Titians' ever since she had left Jump City. The media knew her as Rachel, no last name, no other information; just Rachel. Bruce had managed to avoid most questions when it came to Raven's personal life, she was thankful for that. No one picked up on the fact she looked like 'that creepy girl' from the Teen Titans, she found herself thankful for her teenage 'creepiness'.
Raven sighed, her mind was racing but she couldn't really think. "So what do we do?" She finally spoke after what felt like forever.
"You and the children stay here for now, until I figure out what our next step is." Bruce answered the tone of his voice made her feel safe. "It won't be too long and now that I have a grandson and daughter, I will do whatever it takes to find whoever this person is."
Raven stared at Bruce blank faced but on the inside she was beaming, he was her saint, he had done so much for her and her children and even though now he knew the children's fathers, he still saw Skye as part of his family. "Thank you, Bruce."
"We can't do much right now so we'll have to continue on as normal. No doubt they know you're here now. It's their move."
Raven nodded, she threw one of the photos of her and Neel cooking dinner together back into the box in which it came. "Do you think Neel is in danger too?""Can't be too careful." He replied in a dark voice, Raven knew when Bruce fell into 'batman' mode; he was distant, hard and dark. He wasn't the Bruce Wayne who felt like her best friend and saviour.
"Thank you, for bringing us here and showing me this." Raven pushed on the desk, rising to her feet. "I haven't seen my children for what feels like a life time. No more about this until the next step."
Bruce nodded moving towards his office door to open it for her. "Raven, this is going to be big." He said. "Be careful, always."
Raven returned his nod, knowing quite well that this was just the very tip of the iceberg. Bruce pulled open the door, holding it open for her while the two exited his office and made way for the kitchen.
Skye ran up to her mother with her arms outstretched, Raven smiled and bent down to scoop her up in her arms. "Mama, Neel said we can make cupcakes for our birthday!"
"I'm sure you'll have fun, Skye." Raven smiled softly carrying her daughter towards the two male butlers. "Thank you for watching them while Bruce and I spoke."
"That is quite alright, Miss Roth." Alfred smiled politely. "It has been wonderful catching up with the children."
"Alfred I'll need you to hurry up and prepare for tonight."
Raven turned to look at Bruce, an eye brow raised in confusion. "What is tonight?"
"We have a business party to host; this has been planned since January." Bruce replied.
Skye's face broke into a huge smile, her grip on her mothers shoulders tightened; a cruse muttered under Raven's breath, she had sharp claws. "Can we attend this one?" She shrieked causing all adults in the room to cringe.
"I don't know…" Raven began, glancing at Bruce as if begging for help out of this; she hated the idea of her children being around the media.
"Please, mum?" Embern asked stumbling out from behind the kitchen counter. "We promise to behave!" "Yeah we'll be extra good!" Skye chimed.
Raven was at a loss for a reason as to why she could say no, the party was at the Wayne manor as it was; it had been the second time today her brain her betrayed her. "… Ok…."
A loud squeal from Skye had interrupted her mid-sentence as she pulled out of her mother's arms, dropping beside Embern and taking his hand. "To our room!"And within second Embern had melted the two of them into the ground, disappearing from sight. Bruce was chuckling quietly to himself. "They got out before you could change your mind."
"You could have helped, Bruce." Her voice wavered on dangerous, her eyes slanting into a glare.
Bruce just gave her his typical 'playboy' smirk, receiving a roll of the eyes in return. "I see no reason why they shouldn't, Raven. From the looks of things neither did you."
Raven frowned, which only made Bruce's smirk grow bigger. "If the party is tonight, why is the manor nowhere near ready?"
"Alfred does his best work under pressure." Bruce answered looking at his butler who kept his face blank but raised an eyebrow which caused Raven to crack a smile. "He's just being modest, plus he has help now."
Before it had even clicked with Raven about what he meant Bruce had vanished leaving Raven with the two butlers, she glanced towards them once more and gave a shrug. "We're happy to help, Alfred."
"Are you sure, Miss? Alfred and I-""Nonsense Neel." She interrupted waving her hands. "I'm the one with the powers after all." She gave the two boys a flash smile and turned to look down the hallway. "Skye! Embern!" Raven had found out a lot about her and her children's certain connections, she could telepathically communicate with them as long as they were within radius of her.
A dark puddle appeared on the floor just in front of her feet, in the distance she saw a blur of tan and black spots sprinting towards her; Skye had gotten much faster. Skye ran hard giving a leap towards her mother, skidding to a stop just as Embern appeared."I won!" Skye panted beside the two of them, her cheetah tongue flopping out of her mouth. "I… actually beat you!"
"Awesome!" Embern grinned giving her a ruffle of her head fur. "You're getting quick!"
Skye was bounding around him, her tail whipping about in excitement. "I know!""Sorry for interrupting your party here, you two, but I called you for a reason." Raven said, folding her arms across her chest and raising an eyebrow at her twins.
"Sorry mama." Skye panted, still not able to catch her breath from the race.
"We're going to help Neel and Alfred set up for the party tonight, that's they deal. If you two want to go you have to help out, okay?" Raven folded her arms across her chest and gave both of them a stern look. "And I mean help."
"Yes mum." They both droned out simultaneously, Raven rolled her eyes; they were so 'twin-like'.
Surprisingly the afternoon passed quickly and the work even quicker, Alfred found it a joy to have them help him like this. Raven felt it was amusing how Embern would boss about Skye, standing on things to make himself taller then pointing to where he wanted Skye to put things; just like Robin would. As soon as the work was done Alfred collected the children to get them ready while Neel took Raven to her room, giving her the outfit he had picked out for the event.
"Neel." Raven sighed from behind the bathroom door. "This is… this isn't me…"
"That's kind of the point." He answered bluntly standing in front of the door waiting for her to exit the bathroom in her dress, he was getting over this banter the two constantly had.
"You know if I didn't like you so much you'd have been fired by now."
"My dear lady, if I didn't like you so much I'd have quit by now."
Raven laughed, she loved Neel and his ability to give it back to her just as much as she gave it out; she was grateful to have him. She pulled open the bathroom door with a dramatic sigh attached to it, her hair was in soft ringlets, make up dramatic around her eyes yet still very gentle, her little black dress hugged her curves and showed off her gorgeous legs. Neel felt his heart skip a beat; she had a grin on her face, still amused by his earlier comment, pushing the hair out of her face.
Raven saw him just staring at her and sighed. "See, I look ridicules."
"You look beautiful, my lady." Neel replied all too quickly, he cleared his throat and added. "The perfect face for Mister Wayne's company."
Raven sighed once again stepping to his side and looking in the large mirror in front of them, she tugged down on the dress, trying to make it longer. "Thanks Neel." She spoke softly, nudging into his side.
"Any time my lady…" Neel answered just a quietly, clearing his throat once more and swallowing hard.
Raven tilted her head to look up towards him, her eyes catching his as soon as she did, a smile on her lips. "Mummy! Don't I look beautiful?" Skye sung bursting into the room, spinning as she did so.
Her dark green curls spun around with her, along with her lovely pink dress which went down to her knees showing off her cute black shoes. Embern stood beside her in his suit, hair spiked up still but he looked very handsome. "You both look so old." She said in a monotone. "Stop growing up."
"We'll stop when you do, mama." Skye answered flashing her famous Beastboy toothy grin, it pained a little too see it… she missed him… both of them… all of them.
Raven smiled gave her daughter a smile. "Now you two have to promise to behave, I am at this party to work."
"We all know Skye will be stuffing her face the whole night." Embern smirked at his sister, nudging her side and receiving a squeal. "I'll behave mum, promise."
Raven nodded holding her hands out for her children, the two took her hand and walked by her side while Alfred and Neel lead them too the event for this evening. Once the children entered the main hall they quickly released their mothers hand and ran off in different directions, Raven frowned looking in both directions. Neel touched her arm lightly forcing her too look towards him, he moved his head in the direction of Bruce before following after Skye.
'So grateful' Raven thought with a relived sigh, making her way though the guests and towards Bruce. Bruce looked handsome as always in his top of the line business suit.
"Ah Raven, you look beautiful." He said once she reached his side. "Neel always picks well for you."
Raven rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. You look nice."
She stood beside Bruce, clearly uncomfortable; she couldn't stop fidgeting with her fingers, hair, and dress. "Raven." He said in a calm, quite voice. "Stop fidgeting."
"I don't want to be here." She growled, tugging at her 'much-too-short' dress. "Why did Neel pack this?" She was more muttering to herself now, pulling the dress down as much as possible.
Bruce saw the media advancing on them and quickly slid his arm around Raven's waist, pulling her against him. "Stop fidgeting." he muttered giving a grin towards his media.
Raven knew the routine, she had been his work partner for a little over five years now, she plastered on a fake smile and tried to act as normal as possible. "Can we get a picture?" One of the reports called out first before the explosion of noise that followed it.
Bruce held up his hand to signal them to quite down and within seconds they had silenced again. "One at a time."
"Is it true, Mister Wayne, that your son is here?"
"What?" Raven and Bruce spoke at the same time, shocked expressions could be shown across both their faces for a split second before they quickly regained themselves… well while Bruce did.
Bruce could tell by Raven's reaction that she was about to panic. He had forgotten to take his son off the list for tonight's events, he had forgotten because Richard Grayson never attended any of his invitations to business parties; ever. "Yeah he was seen entering the Manor." One of the reporters called out, Raven couldn't see which one."Ah that is wonderful news; my son isn't able to attend most my parties." Bruce gave a hard squeeze of Raven side to which she jolted in response, she looked at him to glare but Bruce gave a fake laugh and Raven knew she had to play her looked towards the reporters and gave a charming smile, stepping forward and out of Bruce's grip. "Mister Wayne has invited you all along for a reason, please if you will follow me." She held out her hand, gesturing which way she wanted them to go.
She lead the group through the grand hall in which Wayne Manor hosted the grand event, even though she had helped Alfred and Neel decorate it, along with Skye and Embern; she couldn't help being in awe of how beautiful it truly looked. She had been distracted by the large chandelier hanging from the ceiling and the memories of getting it up there that she hadn't seen a man step in front of her.
She felt herself hit something slightly hard; she let out a surprised kind of yelp and reached up to her forehead which now throbbed lightly. "Oh, forgive me, sir." She spoke through gritted teeth, oh how she hated being 'Rachel'.
"…Raven?…" The voice froze her to the core, she couldn't move, she couldn't breathe; she didn't even have the courage to look up towards the person.
"…Richard…" Bruce tried to hide the strange emotions in his voice, he took a hold of Raven's upper arm and tugged her back to his side. He knew his sons eyes were still firmly placed on Raven and shock was across every inch of his body.
Her eyes met the familiar yet incredibly different bright blue eyes, they seemed to look straight into her soul. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't think; her stomach was twisting and knotting, for a moment she wasn't sure if she was going to be sick or not. She knew all eyes were on her but her site never wavered from him. It was an unexpected and unbelievable pain that crushed her, it was pain from so many things at once but not one thing in particular.
"…Rae…? Is that…"
She felt her control on her powers slip and although nothing else made sound to her at all she knew her powers were shattering or exploding things all around her, she sensed the people around her ran away from the exploding objects but her eyes were stuck on Richard's and his her, she couldn't think, she didn't know what to do.
This was bad, this was very bad.
Without another thought she gripped onto Bruce's arm and within a second the two melted into a puddle of dark purple. She couldn't think, she didn't know what to do so her first thought was to head to the roof. The two appeared atop the Manor, the cool air blowing against the skin immediately.
"Shit! Why did I come here?" She growled releasing her grip on Bruce's arm. "He will come looking for me here, he knows me!"
"He knows you're here now, Raven."
Raven paced frantically in front of Bruce, not only had she just used her powers in front of the reporters but she probably had about five minutes max before Robin would reach the roof of this building. Bruce seemed relatively calm and relaxed which made Raven even more irritated. She held her hands out in front of herself and her hands began to glow a faint blue, eyes shinning white and within a second her children appeared in front of her; Skye was stuffing her face with food while Embern had a book in his hands. The two turned to look at their mother with a frown, Skye giving out a whine; she knew they hated it when she teleported them.
"What did you do?" Bruce asked unfolding his arms, eyes opened in slight shock; ha Bruce Wayne wasn't so unshakable.
"We have to go, we can't stay here." Raven took a hold of her children's arms, gently pulling them towards the edge of the building.
"Raven…" Bruce sighed walking after her.
"Raven!" She knew it was his voice, she had heard him yell out her name in anger many times. She turned to look towards the door that lead out to the roof and watched it fling open, hitting the brick wall beside it with a loud thud. "Don't you dare!" He yelled pulling out a bird-a-ring.
Embern and Skye saw this strange man arm himself and within seconds they were in front of their mother, Skye morphed into a large T-rex while Embern stood in front of his mother, hands and eyes glowing a dark blue. Bruce had moved forward and grabbed Robin, holding his hands behind his back.
"Wait!" Raven yelled throwing her hands up, a large black shield separating her and her children from Bruce and Robin. "He wasn't going to hurt me." She breathed unevenly, eyes wide, hair now a mess. "He was going to stop me from running away, Skye, Embern, stand back."
Skye gave a low growl from the back of her throat, turning to look at her mother, Embern keeping his hands and eyes alight. "But mum." He began in a whine."Skye, Embern, back!" She barked in her 'mother' tone and slowly Embern's glow faded, Skye morphing back into her human form.
Robin pulled himself from Bruce's grip and walked up to the shield Raven still held over her and her children. "Where the hell have you been?"
"It's complicated." Raven murmured looking at the shape of his face through the black shield. "You wouldn't understand.""So you up and leave us? Without a word? Just like that? Without a care about us?"
"Don't you dare tell me I didn't care about you!" Raven growled. "What I did was for you!""Bullshit!" Robin yelled throwing his fist into her shield, the thud sounding inside the shield."Richard." Bruce spoke in a tone that brought Robin back to his childhood. "You need to calm down and let her explain.""You knew about this, about her being here, all this time!?"
Bruce met his son's angry eyes but kept his face stern, he folded his arms across his chest and stared right back at him. "I hired her, kept her safe, and kept her alive; for you."
"Why didn't you tell me? You knew how long we looked, the days we spent searching for her." Raven heard the disgust when he said the word 'her', he was angry and it showed.
"She asked me not to, Richard, she had her reasons and if you want to hear them I suggest you calm down."
Raven felt her energy drain the longer she held the shield, but if she let the shield drop Robin would be able to see Embern and it would click for him in an instance; Robin was smart. That is why Embern was so incredibly intelligent.
"Raven he has found you, you wont be able to hide it now." Bruce called out to her softly. "It will be tough but you have to now, that shield wont hold forever."
Raven knew Bruce was right, Robin was stubborn. He had found her now, it wouldn't just stop here, and he wouldn't just drop it. He would try to talk to her everyday if she didn't stop this now. She turned to look towards Embern and Skye but Embern was the one her gaze caught. "I'm so… so sorry." She whispered.
Slowly she lowered her hands, the black shield slowly disappearing as she did so. Robin stood with his hands in tight fists, anger across his face but still so like the boy she had fallen for eight years ago. He looked just like the photos in the paper, tall dark and handsome; just like Bruce which Raven found funny considering the two weren't actually related. She saw him look her over, unlike her, he hadn't seen her since she was a fifteen year old weirdo.
Embern didn't like this angry man staring at his mother this way, he moved towards her, frown on his face, arms out stretched to protect her. Raven watched Robin's eyes dart to the little boy and shock hit him in an instance. "I don't care if you are who I think you are." He stated in a loud, clear voice. "You stop being angry with my mum."Bruce laughed to himself. 'so like Richard.' He thought with a soft smile. "Who do you think he is, Embern?"
Embern shifted uncomfortably, eyes changing from Bruce slowly back to Robin's. "He's my dad."
Raven felt her heart stop, breath catch harshly in her throat and she knew Robin did the same. Raven dropped to her knees, grabbing Embern's shoulders forcing him to turn and face her. "What did you say?"
"Embern figured it out two years ago, mama." Skye spoke up seeing Embern shut down into his shell. "He figured out who you were… and who our dads were…"
"…dads?" Was the only thing Robin managed to squeak out.
Skye looked towards the man warily. "You aren't my dad." She said quietly pulling on her fingers nervously. "Only Embern's…"
A faint beeping sounded through the awkward silence and Raven knew all too well what the sound was, she looked towards Bruce and saw that look that crossed his face when something was bad. "Bruce… What is it?"
"There's a security breech." He answered, no longer Bruce Wayne, he was now batman.
As if on cue a loud explosion sounded from below, the foundations of Wayne manor shaking beneath their feet, Skye grabbed onto Raven's legs to keep her balance while Embern stumbled about, being steadied only by Bruce.
"Raven… I think this is their move."