Author's note: Hiya, here it is, chapter 3 :D But first I'd like to thank Thomas for helping me come up with ideas and checking my work for mistakes, it helps a lot! I'd also like to thank iymartinez89 for his review, it motivates me to keep writing ;). Anyways, I hope you like this chapter.
Raven woke up, still not fully awake. She remembered she had a nightmare . Raven frowned, what was it about again? Then it dawned on her. "Of course..." she mumbled. It wasn't a nightmare, the stranger was really there and she still hadn't found a way to help him. Raven sighed, she could look through some of her books, there was bound to be something that could help in there. But first she'd take a shower and meditate on the roof, it'd been way too long since she'd last meditated and she needed to calm herself, gain back control. When she stepped out of the shower, she got an idea. She was going to meditate to control and calm her emotions, but wasn't that exactly what the stranger needed as well? She smiled, glad she had finally found a solution. She got dressed and walked over to the guestroom. She took a deep breath. "Here we go" she said to herself and she knocked on the door.
The stranger was still asleep when someone knocked on the door. Slowly he opened one eye. He noticed he felt better than before, his head didn't hurt that much anymore, and his thoughts were stable, or at least more stable than yesterday. He got up, still fully dressed because he hadn't bothered taking is clothes off before going to sleep, and walked to the door. When he opened it he saw Raven standing in front of him, a look of agitation and impatience on her face. "Well, you certainly took your time." she snapped and she turned around, heading to the stairs leading to the roof. She probably wanted him to follow her, so he shrugged his shoulders and walked after her. Once on the roof Raven turned around and gestured him to sit down on the ground. She then sat opposite to him in her meditation position: eyes closed, legs crossed and arms resting on her knees. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again, looking at the stranger. "Okay, I think I know how I can help you, but it'll take a lot of discipline from your side." she stated. He nodded, taking the same position as she had. "What we're going to do is called meditation, it helps you relax and master your emotions. And that's exactly what you need." Raven said. The stranger just nodded and Raven noticed he had already calmed his breathing and relaxed his muscles. She smiled, she had been afraid this first step would've been much harder. Some people just can't meditate, they're just too full of energy to sit still for so long, Beastboy crossed her mind as she thought this. "Okay, looks like I don't have to teach you all the basics since you're already in the right state as it is. There is, however, one other part to meditation. You repeat a set of words, that help you focus, over and over again, like this." Raven closed her eyes and started chanting her usual mantra. "Azarath, metrion, zinthos." She felt the stress from yesterday slowly leaving her body, her mind processing all that had happened and storing it away, leaving nothing but tranquility in her. After a couple of times saying her mantra she noticed the stranger was saying a mantra as well. She opened one eye, he was saying exactly the same as she was! She wanted to tell him to stop when she noticed she didn't really mind it. He was saying it completely in sync with her and his voice sounded calm and pleasant, it was actually helping her relax more. She closed her eye again and smiled, she had really dreaded the idea of meditating with someone else, unless that person was starfire, who was surprisingly good at meditating. But this wasn't all that bad, she could get used to this.
Robin woke up from an irritating knocking sound. He looked around, seeing his alarm clock. "Shit!" it was already ten in the morning. He heard the knocking sound again, along with the voice of Beastboy. "Dude, you never sleep this long, like, never! Are you okay in there?" he asked. "Yes Beastboy, thanks for the wakeup call." Robin replied. He sighed, remembering the reason he had overslept. "Beastboy, is he up yet? Robin asked. It took a couple of seconds for Beastboy to answer. "Yeah, about that..." he said. Robin swallowed, the worst scenario's going through his head. "According to the tower's security system both raven and the stranger are on the roof for three hours straight now." Beastboy continued. "Cy and I are starting to get worried, but we're way too afraid of what'd Raven would do to us if we disturbed her." Robin was silent for a second, not expecting this scenario. "It's okay, I'll check up on them, Beastboy." he said as he started getting dressed.
Raven was completely lost in thoughts, the outside world being a far away memory. She was deeper in trance than she'd been in years, and she was feeling better en more peaceful every second. Then she felt a light ticking on her shoulder. It started soft, but became harder and more urgent. "RAVEN!" a voice shouted in her ear, causing her to instantly return to the real world. It also caused her concentration on levitating above the ground to falter, making her fall down. "In Azars name! what just..." she cursed and she looked to who had scared her like this. "Sorry Raven, but you weren't responding to anything else." Robin apologized, helping Raven back on her feet. Raven wiped the dust off her cape and looked to Robin, one eyebrow raised. "Aha, and was there a particular reason you had to interrupt my meditation?" she asked. Robin looked at her in surprise. "Raven, you've been meditating for three hours straight, we were worried you were in trouble again." Robin answered, glancing at the stranger behind Raven. He was still in his meditation position, eyes closed. Raven cursed to herself, this stranger had a very annoying influence on her. "Again? Great..." she mumbled. However, the hours of meditation had bound to have helped the stranger, and Raven was really curious about the results. She looked at the stranger, who was getting up now. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm hungry!" He said cheerfully. He looked at Robin and Raven. "Say, mind showing me the kitchen?" he asked, a big smile on his face. Robin looked at Raven, then at the stranger, then back at Raven. He opened his mouth to say something, but changed his mind and just closed it again. Raven looked just as surprised as Robin. "Uhm, are you okay?" she asked the stranger, getting a little bit creeped out by this sudden change. "Of course I am Raven, this meditation thing is amazing!" he replied laughing. "We should do this again sometimes." he added. "but first, I could really use some food." Raven just stood there. It looked like the meditation had a positive effect on his attitude, she just didn't know if it also made his mind more stable. "Okay, let's have breakfast, just follow me" Raven said, as she floated towards the stairs.
Beasboy and Cyborg were sitting on the coach, eating their breakfast and watching television. "this is just so wrong, I just don't trust this guy." Beastboy said, poking at his plate with his fork. "Well, I guess Raven knows best how to deal with this, having these powers and stuff." Cyborg replied, shrugging his shoulders and grabbing his drink. "Raven's acting weird too dude. Why is she sitting on the roof with that guy for three whole hours!?" Beast Boy exclaimed. Suddenly he heard a voice behind him. "Sounds like someone's jealous." Cyborg laughed, almost choking in his drink and beastboy quickly turned around, his face turning red. "Dude! That's not…" he said, but he stopped when he realized it was the stranger. Beast boy turned himself into a gorilla, roaring threateningly. The stranger just laughed, raising his hands as a gesture to apologize. "Sorry dude, just couldn't resist it, ya know?" he said, walking over to the kitchen. The door opened again and Raven and Robin walked into the room, Raven raising her eyebrow in surprise when she saw beastboy in his gorilla form. Beastboy transformed back into his human form and sat down on the couch again, not saying a word and his face still red. Don't worry y'all, BB here just got crushed in his own game." Cyborg explained, grinning wickedly at Beastboy. Raven decided she didn't really care what happened, she was way to hungry. All she wanted now were waffles, and lots of them.
Not much happened during breakfast . The titans were too busy eating, so none of them spoke much. Just the occasional joke from the stranger. When they were finished, the stranger offered to clean the dishes, to the surprise of the titans. "I don't know what you did with him raven, but I like him better already." Cyborg said, sitting down again. It had been his turn to clean the dishes. Robin nodded in agreement. "But we can't keep calling him "that stranger" forever, he needs a name." He said. They all nodded, thinking about what to call him. Raven thought about a book she had read, it had this mage in it with similar powers as this stranger. "Will" she said to herself. "Will eh? It sounds nice." The stranger said. He was done with the dishes and was sitting down on the couch again. "Yeah, I like that. From now on you can call me Will." He said, a big smile on his face. "Well, Will, do you like games?" Cyborg asked, pointing towards the television. "I don't know, let's find out shall we?" Will replied. Raven looked at him, it seemed the meditation had completely fixed all his problems, but could it really be so easy? That was the moment she felt something change . The aura around Will had been stable for a while now, but she noticed a change, something was wrong. Will noticed it too, the smile that had been on his face for pretty much the entire morning had disappeared. He looked at Raven, and she could see traces of fear in his eyes. Raven sighed. "Of course it isn't that simple, it never is." She said to herself.
Will felt his control over his mind deteriorate, his thoughts and emotions becoming unstable. He felt fear take control of him. What if he lost it, what if he hurt the only persons he knew, who took him in and helped him? He jumped up and looked at Raven, she was the only one who could help him now. "please, help me." He whispered and he sprinted to the door. Raven cursed, things were getting out of hand really fast, really sudden. "Don't follow me!" she told her friends as she stood up and floated through the ceiling, she knew were Will was going.
Raven found Will on the roof, frantically trying to calm himself, his eyes filled with fear. Raven grabbed him by his shoulders, forcing him to look at her. "Listen to me Will! You can do this, you won't lose control again. Now sit down and do what I do!" she said, making sure her voice sounded calm and confident. She saw the haze in his eyes lift a bit again, and he sat down in front of her in meditation position. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." Raven started to chant. It took a couple of seconds but then she could hear Will repeating after her, in perfect sync and his voice calm."Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos" They chanted. Raven sensed Will's aura stabilizing again. She could also feel her own mind relaxing, but she couldn't let herself get too deep in to trance. She had to focus now, make sure Will didn't lose control again.
Well, that was that, another chapter finished. I know some people probably think the start of this story is a bit slow, I totally agree with you :D The next few chapter will be a bit different, though. Bit more action, and probably some horror, I don't know yet ;)