Disclaimer: Characters and locations (except for the school and the unnamed forest outside Gotham; those I made up) belong to DC. No copyright infringement intended.

Fully Alive

Chapter One: Merciful Dark Alleys

As she followed the emergency escape route, which she had planned out for herself several months ago, Raven tried to clear her mind. The pulsing fury and indignation gradually faded to the background of her mind as she considered her next move.

She had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but those girls, those abominable, insecure, vapid, harassing children. It wasn't as if she was fickle or cared about what they said, but when one is trying to hide their supernatural, emotion-fueled powers, there are only so many awful pranks and ignorant, insulting words one can take before they come out. And those shrews had crossed that line today.

The anger rushed back.

Blackness coated several ancient trees around her and ripped them out of the ground, leaving them to crash down around her. The falling forest forced her to her knees. Her hands above her head to feign protection, she waited, tears of fear in her eyes, for the destruction to stop. Blackness once again engulfed the trees as she ducked her face to the forest floor and wrapped her arms around her knees in a fetal position, trying, failing, to hold in her terror. The trees flew away from her.

Because the blackness came from her.

Though her knees shook and bled, she forced herself to her feet so she could continue on her path. This accident had no doubt attracted the attention of the idiots still pursuing her, after all the work she'd done to lose them, too. Damn it. She had been running for nearly an hour at her full speed; when would they give up? She was already tired and this skirt was not made for running.

Checking some markers carved into the hiking trails that filled the forest, sighing in impatience, she realized that her long run had only carried her less than a quarter of the way. And now, to ensure that she had lost her tail, she would have to leave the path and run further. Suddenly she felt thankful that her school- former school- upheld such a rigorous physical education department. She also thanked herself for constantly ignoring the school's dress code, and wearing black Chucks instead of the Mary Janes she was supposed to.

Her relentless pace through the dense greenery wore her down as the miles passed. Nevertheless, she kept up a continuous run, though, not thinking about anything besides her next step, her next breath, not tripping, not losing her way, not feeling emotion. She would not think about the shin splints she had developed, or the stitch in her side. She would not think about the damage she had done. She would not think about the people who had made her powers lash out in heated, passionate fury, and she would most certainly not think about the people who had gotten hurt because she couldn't control her demonic powers. She would not think of herself as a monster.

What could she do? No one had ever taught her how to harness her soul-self. She received no instruction, so her powers remained volatile. Her mother compared her to dynamite: not careful, and she'll blow.

Mother...

More black-coated rocks lifted off the ground, only to crash back to earth loudly when she managed to release the magic.

Damn it, usually she had more discipline than this, even if she sometimes slipped. What was wrong with her today?

How had a group of childish teenagers made her powers lash out so violently? How was her control so weak as to tear down half a school building because of their harassment and pranks?

She was a loner, a goth, and a scholarship kid. Those could have been reasons they focused their animosity on her, but she knew they weren't.

They antagonized her because, by virtue of some deeper instinct, they feared her. As well they should.

Guilt replaced anger as she thought about the nine innocent students and teachers who had been injured when the walls crumbled under her fury- thankfully no one had died, but they might have had she stayed and encountered the angry mob that seemed to have at last stopped following. Her unbalanced emotions were more than she could control right now. She wanted to sit on the ground and try to relax, maybe do some yoga or meditation, which usually helped curb her powers, but the sky darkened even as she considered it. She had to get out of this forest. As scary as Gotham City is at night, she would prefer it to being alone in the wilderness.

The sun had set fully and sky changed to black by the time she reached the outskirts of the city. Exhausted from the trek and paranoid of the darkness behind her she practically jumped out into the street. The part of town she had come out in was only sparsely inhabited, and mostly warehouses surrounded her. However, even at this time of night there were people walking Gotham's gritty streets, and the few people who saw her gave her dirty looks; how dare she act odd and jump out of forests while they were there?

Raven thought the paranoia would leave once she exited the trees, but she found that now, as she walked quickly through the near-empty streets, she felt like someone was watching her. She knew the feeling in the forest was mere fear of the dark, but this very real sensation sent chills down her spine.

Walking became harder on her desperately aching feet and knees, and her poor exhausted legs started to shake. Passing a bench, stubbornly forgoing rest, she walked on towards a more crowded part of the city. She needed to find someplace to sleep for the night. Then in the morning she would leave the city and go somewhere solitary; maybe a mountain, where no one would look for her, where she could try and teach herself to control her powers and maybe stop her father... She shuddered in fear. That subject trumped even her mother for first place on the long 'list of things she can't think about right now in order to keep her powers from exploding again.'

A shadow flashed above her, moving from one building to another. She felt chills again. Again she tried to walk a little faster, but stumbled and forced herself to calm down and proceed slower.

Her back straight from the tension and legs wobbly from weariness, Raven searched for a place to stay. She had no money of course, but she planned on finding a vacant room in a hotel and teleporting inside of it; that was assuming, of course, that she could get that power to work today. With her fluctuating emotions, somehow she kind of doubted it.

From the corner of her eye she saw the shadow flash on top of a building again. Whatever that shadow was, it was the one staring and giving her chills, she could sense it. For a moment she, putting on a false facade of bravery, glared at the place where it had disappeared.

To hide the shaking in her hands she shoved them into the pockets of her dirty blazer. She needed to find somewhere to go, and soon, or that thing would get her.

She shivered and ducked into an alley. A hotel sign shone on the other side, and she was drawn to it like a moth to flame.

Gotham City does not treat with mercy those who enter dark alleys.

Three drunk men, all looking around college age, though not nearly intelligent enough to be actual college students, stumbled into the other end of the alley. Raven continued walking forward, stubbornly defying the instinct that told her that these men had cruel intentions. She wanted to stay out of sight, because the shadow following her scared her much more than three weak-looking buffoons.

Unfortunately, they weren't as weak as she originally thought when they grabbed her. Mouth covered by a dirty hand, she couldn't scream, but her outrage and disbelief begot terror and fury, which rose from her stomach and into her pounding heart, seeming to pulse out of her very being. One man tried to touch her, slurring pick-up lines he thought were charming- they weren't. Raven's eyes glowed white without her volition. Seeing the fear in their eyes, she knew what she was about to make happen; but made no move to stop it. A cornered animal will fight.

A wave of blackness slammed against the men. The powerful force slammed them back into the bricks across the alley. One fell into a pile of garbage bags. They other two lost consciousness from the blow to the head, but the one in the garbage dug himself out while she tried to calm her racing heart. As he got up, the first thing he saw was Raven. His vision blurred red in anger at being attacked, and he decided, through his alcohol-induced haze, to direct his rage at her.

Watching him drunkenly rush to assault her, she tried to recall the anger that released her power, but failed as she only felt shock. She cringed against the wall, resigned to the approaching hits, but they never came.

After a moment that lacked in attacks on her person, and hearing a grunt of pain, Raven looked up, rapidly shaking off her cowardice. Her eyes widened in amazement at the sight before her.

A young boy, her age or maybe just slightly older, dressed in a cape, green pants and gloves and a red shirt, incapacitated her attacker with three precise blows from his metal staff. His eyes, covered with a domino mask, turned to her then. Not surprisingly, she recognized him; anyone in the country, especially those who lived around Gotham, would.

Robin, Boy Wonder, had just saved her.

She smirked weakly at his title. She had always thought it was a little comical, even in these circumstances.

The girl, quickly losing the adrenaline rush once threat of attack was gone, slid down the wall to a seated position on the dank alley floor. The sidekick vigilante only feet away had been watching her as she swayed on her feet and her eyes glazed over, and rushed forward to hold her up when she collapsed.

As he held her in his arms bridal style, he checked her for injuries, but found nothing serious. Her legs were covered in scratches and dirt. He noticed tears in her skirt and a twig in her hair. Her purple hair. She wore a uniform from a nearby private girls school, which was ripped in several places. With how exhausted she seemed, he supposed she probably ran the whole way from the school to the city. All twenty-eight miles through the forest.

Her eyes flickered open and his white mask grew slightly in what looked like shock. Her eyes, though dull from exhaustion, shone a bright violet, matching her hair.

She stared at the hero, making connections slowly through her clouded mind. She mumbled so low that he had to lean in to hear her, "You were the shadow following me."

He nodded. He had, in fact, followed her since she burst out of the trees like a bat out of hell. As a protector of the city he had a duty to ensure that strange figures do not pose a threat. He had quickly decided that she was more threatened than threat, so continued to watch over her. When he saw the three men attack her he had prepared to swoop in and save the day, but instead she turned out to be a meta, to his surprise. However, he believed that she didn't seem to be in complete control of her abilities, otherwise she would not have backed down from the final man.

For a moment he merely looked at the girl. She seemed to be about his age, fifteen. She was petite and very pretty. Her eye color was natural- no contacts- as her hair color seemed to be- no visible roots- and they made her seem mysterious and mystic. He wondered about her powers and how she acquired them. Was she not human, like Superman, or was it the result of some scientific accident, like the Flash?

"Who are you?" he asked.

Her chest rose and fell with slow breathing. Later she would realized that she wouldn't have given her real name had she been entirely lucid. But she would also realize that she knew from the first moment he had picked her up off of the ground that she trusted him. She answered quietly, "Raven."

She's a bird just like him, he thought with a small smile at her. "Where did you come from? Do you have family I can contact?" His voice held worry, for her.

Her eyes narrowed infinitesimally. Thinking of her mother, who had had to deal with her enough over the years, who finally had a chance to live a happy and peaceful life now that she had gone, she said, "I left my boarding school. I have no parents."

He nodded. He didn't have parents either, so he wouldn't pry. "Alright." He started walking out of the alley. "You can stay with me for a while until we figure out what to do with you."