(Read, review, and enjoy as always : ) ~RavensMind~)
Chapter 7: Acceptance
Outside Titans Tower, the Titans assembled near the still smoldering crater. After sweeping the city to try and trace the source of the missiles, Cyborg surprised everyone when he said that he found three possible sites. Of course, this didn't dismiss the idea of there being more than three; it was possible that others were better hidden. Terra and Cyborg decided to split the team into groups to go and investigate the three sites.
"So, we'll be fighting right? No way these things will be unguarded, right dude?" Beast Boy asked Cyborg.
"It looks like it," Cyborg said.
"We'll pair off and see what we find at these sites. Cyborg and I will search the site on the far side of the city, Razor and Starfire will search the site near the docks and the woods, and Beast Boy and Valora will go and search the site by the stadium. Everyone cool with that?" Terra asked.
"Yeah, could I join Starfire instead?" Valora asked.
"Figures," Beast Boy said.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Valora asked.
"Look, just go with Beast Boy, I want to search these sites as quickly as we can," Terra said.
"Alright," Valora said, grumbling softly.
"Report in on the comm when you've searched the site, even if you haven't found anything," Cyborg said.
"Must we return here at a certain time?" Starfire asked.
"Depends on what we all find, Star," Cyborg said.
"Guess we'll just march off to war then, huh?" Razor asked.
"We don't know what we'll find," Terra said.
"Right," Razor said.
"I hope we do find 'em, we'll teach them to mess with our city," Beast Boy said.
"Damn right. Titans go!" Cybrog said.
Splitting off into pairs, the Titans flew to their sites, preparing for whatever they may find. Valora and Razor hadn't trained with the rest of the team yet, so whatever they found would be as surprised to witness their abilities as the other Titans. Valora and Beast Boy had a deathly silent trip to their site, while Terra and Cyborg went over some plans for the team in the evening, and Starfire wouldn't stop asking Razor random questions. Even as each pair neared their site, they anticipated trouble.
Sitting at his computer, looking over images of the missile sites that Cyborg had sent to him, Robin tried to find some detail that would tell him something, anything. Even if it was the word "hi," he really didn't care at this point, as long as it led them to the cult. He wasn't even supposed to be working on the case, as Raven pointed out – the team could handle it, and looking into it doesn't show much confidence in them. While he agreed, he knew that if he was still running the team, he'd want every resource, everyone he could get, to work until they had the situation resolved. Raven had gone back up to her room to meditate, in preparation to finish the first group of spells and powers she had acquired.
As he poured over what information they had, he leaned back in his chair and focused on the sites arrangement, wondering if they had something to tell. It seemed like he was reaching, but it wasn't impossible. Not a few seconds later, Robin heard Azar's voice in his head:
"If you are not so indisposed with wasting your energy, I need your help with Raven," Azar said.
"I'm not wasting my- wait, what's wrong with her?" Robin asked.
"Nothing, but we need you to help her mind accept these powers and spells," Azar said.
"So, what do you need me to do?" Robin asked.
"Find Raven's meditation mirror in her room and enter her mind, you need to talk to some of her emotions, and a new figment in her mind. She'll be aware that you're in her mind, but she won't be able to tell what exactly you're doing," Azar replied.
"Figment?" he asked.
"You do not need to understand yet, it will become clear once you do as I have asked," Azar said.
"And what do I say? Will this hurt her at all?" he asked.
"Convince her emotions to accept the figment, as well as your presence – if it seems to demand that you do so. As far as this hurting her, I can say only that it may have some future consequences, but it is very important that you do this for her now," Azar said.
"Right…Can I talk to her first?" he asked.
"She is in a deep trance at the moment, honing her abilities, and you need to help her by doing this," Azar said.
"If you're lying, or trying to "fix" something…" Robin started.
"I promise, I would exact the implied righteous vengeance on myself, if it was so…" Azar said.
"So what are these consequences?" he asked.
"You will gain some measure of her power, and since you don't know how to wield it properly – you could hurt something. As much as I protested, she insisted that I help her help you with this," Azar said.
"Woah, I'm not sure if I'm okay with that, but…I guess I have to help her now. Anything else?" Robin asked.
"She'll have to meditate longer and may cause some pain to do so, but is nothing she cannot handle. Her temper may also be shorter and slightly harder to control, but that shouldn't cause you any concern. Criminals may not appreciate it, but…that is a bonus," Azar said.
"I'm not exactly supporting this, but if it will help us, I guess I'll get over it," he said.
"Now, if you'll just go and do as I've asked, we can get this over with," Azar said
Getting up from his chair, Robin left the office and made his way across the hall and ascended the staircase. Navigating through the twisting halls, he reached Raven's room and entered. Hovering in midair over a pentagram on the floor with a book and several rose pedals in an obsidian chalice in front of her, Raven appeared completely focused. A faint ring of blue light looked as though it was surrounding her figure at the waist. Turning from Raven, Robin walked over to the dresser and picked up Raven's meditation mirror and stared into it. Before being torn from the room and shot into the mirror, Robin heard Raven's voice in his head: "Don't be unsettled by what you find– I'll be here to bring you back no matter what… Nightwing."
As they approached what they presumed was the site location, Starfire and Razor began looking for any sign of activity in the area. Letting go of Starfire, Razor dropped onto the ground. Landing beside Razor, Starfire got her communicator out, preparing to call the others if they found anything. They had touched down at the edge of the woods, expecting to be met swiftly by whoever was guarding the site. They found some tire tracks in the mud that led into the woods from the nearby warehouses. Razor bent down and picked up a badge of some sort, bearing the mark of Scathe.
"What is it?" Starfire asked.
"Convenient, more than anything else…but I haven't seen this before, do you know what it is?" Razor asked, tossing it to Starfire.
"This is the mark of Scathe, it is the symbol of Trigon, but we defeated him," Starfire explained.
"Maybe you defeated him, but his followers seem very much alive. Report in and tell the others what we've found," Razor said.
"Yes, I will," Starfire said.
Starfire used the communicator and reached Terra as Razor poked around the tree line.
"Hey, you guys find anything?" Terra asked.
"We've discovered a badge with the mark of Scathe on it by some tire tracks," Starfire said.
"Tire tracks? We've found some as well," Terra asked.
"Might be a truck hauling a SCUD missile," Razor said, examining the treads.
"Hmm. Well, try and find the truck and then get the badge back to the tower, we've almost finished here – we've found a broken cell phone here that we'll bring back as soon as we can," Terra said.
"Very well, I wish you luck," Starfire said.
"Thanks, I'll let Beast Boy and Valora know what you found too. See you soon," Terra said, ending the call.
"Shall we follow the tire tracks?" Starfire asked.
"Well, it looks like the truck is still in the woods, but we should know where it came from as well, don't you think?" Razor asked.
"Yes, that would be helpful. Shall I go and find where it came from while you search for it?" Starfire asked.
"Alright, if you need help or find something just call me on the communicator, and I'll call you if I need help or find something," Razor said.
"Of course," Starfire said.
With that, Razor turned and began following the tracks into the woods as Starfire flew in the direction of the warehouses.
After several minutes of following the tracks into the woods, Razor quickened his pace as a structure came into his view. It appeared to be some sort of stone crypt, but there were no gravestones around it or any other sign of civilization. Who would put something like this all the way out here, and why? As he got closer, Razor saw a group of people just off to the side of the structure, getting a battering ram of sorts off of a truck. Continuing to approach, Razor noticed that the truck was military grade, long enough to theoretically carry a missile. One person in the group ahead spotted him and alerted the others. Without warning, the group took out pistols and began to open fire. Razor dived behind a tree and took out his sword. Climbing the tree, he leapt to the branch of a tree closer to the group.
"That the new Titan?" one person asked.
"Know of any other costumed freaks around here?" another asked.
"Come on out and fight!" one asked.
There were about twelve people on the ground holding pistols, it didn't seem like taking them down would be too difficult.
Robin landed on a rock platform floating in a black sea. Strange, Beast Boy and Cyborg described this differently… Looking around, he saw no endless platforms in space with dark birds flying about. There was a stone pathway from the platform up to a large, blue gazebo on top of a small mountain. Taking the first step towards the gazebo, he felt the atmosphere change slightly; there was a faint sense of dread. Taking a few more steps, Robin saw a gray-robed Raven slowly rise from the black sea, and hover over to meet him.
"Raven?" Robin asked.
"No, not anymore, I've been made to see that I am one of her emotions, for all the good that might do – but I don't think it'll help," the Raven said.
"And what emotion is that?" he asked.
"Fear," she said softly.
"So why are you meeting me here?" he asked.
"I'm sorry, I don't know why yet, I was just sent here. You won't like what I say. Nobody does," she said.
"But you don't know that. You know me, you know I care about what Raven says," he said.
"Yeah, I know you care, Love won't stop bringing it up, and Cleverness agrees with her, but in the end I know that will end someday," she said.
"How do you know it will end?" he asked.
"Even though you will be with her for all time, you'll have to forget everything when your body dies. There's no guarantee that you'll still care when you're reborn, if THAT will even work," she said.
"Do you need a guarantee? Is there some way I could give that to you?" he asked.
"That's sort of why you're here now that you mention it…Raven wants to make you one of us so you can share and bolster some of her powers, as well as help managing me and the others. But even that's a long shot, everything fails in some way," she said, looking down into the sea.
"Hey, I'm here, and I'll do whatever I can to keep Raven, but I need you to help me, okay?" Robin said, putting his hands on her shoulders.
"But you might not like me later, no one does, this won't work, and you'd be better off leaving now," she said.
As Fear finished speaking and looked back down into the sea, Robin pulled her close and put his arms around her. Taken aback, Fear almost jumped.
"Just stop looking ahead and focus here – I will help Raven and you need to help me so I can do that," Robin said.
"Alright…You need to go and talk to Love and then Cleverness; they'll help you from there," Fear said.
"Why can't you come with me?" Robin asked.
"It's not how this works…but I'll meet you later, maybe, but I doubt it," she said.
"Thanks for your help," he said.
Without a parting word, Fear hovered over the water for a few moments before disappearing back into the sea. Moving along the path towards the gazebo, Robin tried to make sense of what exactly was going on. As far as he could tell, Raven's emotions were going to be meeting him to try and figure out if they could deal with him. Yet, he didn't know much beyond what Fear, Azar, and Raven had said, maybe there was something more troubling to come. At any rate, he had to find 'Love' and 'Cleverness' to see what needed to be done.
Reaching the gazebo, he took a few steps towards the center. As he did so, he became increasingly aware that someone was watching him. Looking around, he spotted a purple cloaked Raven with long hair leaning on a wall of the gazebo. There was a sense of adoration that radiated in her eyes and it drew his senses to her. She wasn't smiling, she had a blank expression on her face, seemingly waiting for him to draw a smile on it. He felt like she was holding something back that was there earlier, but was suspended for a purpose.
"Hey…Love, I'm guessing? It wouldn't be anyone else, would it?" Robin asked.
"Yes. You met Fear, I can tell…sorry she was the first to speak to you but it was, well, out of anyone's control," Love said.
"Right…Is she around often?" he asked.
"More often than you might think, unfortunately, but we can talk about that later," she said.
"So, you have something you need to tell me?" he asked.
"No, but…" she started, hesitating.
"It's something difficult, isn't it?" he asked.
Averting her eyes before gliding swiftly over to him, she tried to find the words.
"I wish I didn't have to do this, but I can't be gentle, as I've been instructed not to," she said.
"Instructed?" he asked.
"This isn't just for us, it includes the other emotions, and we've agreed on what we would do to see how we will accept…this," she said, taking his hand.
"Are you saying Raven hasn't figured out if she really cares about me yet?" he asked.
"No, of course not. She has, I wouldn't be here with you if she hadn't…but some of the others haven't. They are not convinced that they can accept you as their equal," she said.
"This is just…" he started.
"Strange? Silly? Ridiculous?" she asked.
"Well, yeah," he said.
"It's what Raven has to deal with every day, and you being a part of this is what we all need, though some of the others can't figure that out. You need it too," she said.
"I…can't be frustrated with you, can I? You're really one of the few supporting this, aren't you?" he asked.
"With all my power," she said, taking his other hand.
"Right. Show me how I can help," he said, smiling at her.
"Close your eyes…Nightwing," she said.
Doing as he was told, Robin shut his eyes, waiting for whatever Love had in mind. He felt her let go of his hands and step away.
"Open them," she said, a few moments later.
When he opened his eyes, Robin didn't see Love anywhere, he was alone in the gazebo. As he started to glance around the room, he caught something out of the corner of his eye that made him spin around. Off to one side of the room stood Batman and Alfred who were chained to the wall, on the other side sat the profile of the Caller he had been working on with missing info, to the left of that there was a model Titans Tower in flames, next to a tearful Starfire, and directly in front of him was Raven, meditating in a steel cage.
"When all you care about is in peril, which do you tend to first? Would the ones you neglected while you worked for another forgive you? It really depends, doesn't it? The choice is before you: save one, risk the others, and possibly their wrath," Love said, her voice echoing in Robin's head.
"Really? Mind games?" he asked.
"I'm sorry – I truly am, but the others need to know – I don't, I already do," Love responded.
Looking from one choice to the other, Robin struggled to decide which would be the most beneficial. If he helped Raven, they could help Batman and Alfred, then tend to the Tower, and then search for the Caller. ..-
"Interesting that you're not considering helping Starfire in that constellation of choices," Love said.
"Starfire being sad isn't nearly as serious as the other problems," Robin said.
Returning to the choices before him, Robin knew what the obvious choice was, but wasn't sure if it was the one he'd be judged by. He also knew that Raven would forgive him if there was a serious problem, they worked that out when they were leading the Titans. The only question was if the emotions would know that…
(Hope I didn't reach too far with the emotion piece, let me know…~RavensMind~)