Waterbird
*~`5~*
Aqualad swims nearby Raven as she explores the reef, keeping tabs on all the dangerous creatures that she doesn't yet know about. He thinks again that if she is going to stay here there is so much that she needs to learn.
Raven stops suddenly. She was feeling so much better when she awoke, but now she doesn't feel well at all. She turns looking for Aqualad.
He quickly picks up on the change. Aqualad doesn't like how quickly it came over her as he swims to her. When he reaches out to her, despite the coolness of the water she feels very feverish.
She clings to him as he takes her in his arms. Raven isn't in pain like before, but she aches all over now as if she has come down with a bad case of the flu.
Rather than take her back to his place Aqualad rushes Raven to Atlantis so that the doctors can check her out.
*~`'~*
Aqualad waits as the doctors confer with the scientists. He looks down at Raven resting on an exam table once again unconscious. He looks up as one of the doctors approaches.
"The chemicals from the mutation process are at toxic levels in her system. There were early indications that perhaps they might be filtered and kept at low levels by her natural body processes. The mutation has caused complications and that has ceased to work now. The chemicals are building up and slowly poisoning her."
"Isn't there anything you can do?"
"We could attempt to filter her blood, but its only a temporary measure. The chemicals leached into her mutated bones. They will continue to be released into her bloodstream. I'm sorry but, eventually she is going to die."
Aqualad looks down at Raven in shock. He thinks that she has finally found something to make her happy only to have it snatched away from her.
Sometime after the doctor leaves them alone Raven opens her eyes and looks up at Aqualad.
"Raven-"
"-I heard."
"I'm sorry..."
"...I'm not. I would rather have one day like today, than spend years without experiencing something so amazing."
*~`'~*
One day...Aqualad looks over at the Titans. Thanks to the doctors she had gotten to have many more over the last year. He thinks they can all take comfort in the fact that she was happy at least in her new life as she passed on.
It was intended but when I got to this part I just couldn't bring myself to actually write a death scene. If you hate the ending it has been marked tragedy all along so on some level you had to know that something bad was coming. No sequels, I'm just the editor who had to stick this in my account because my cousin refuses to claim it and post it in her own account.