My friends! We reach the penultimate chapter of Remember the Titans (at last)!
Lookit, I'm finally getting myself back in gear with updates… it's just a pity the fic is practically over.
Ah, well…
Thankyou to: SylverEyes (I think every fifteen-year-old Teen Titans fangirl thinks she pioneered the RobinxRaven pairing because it's just non-canon… I remember coming to FFNet and seeing it everywhere and being like "Oh… There goes my claim to fame…"); Guardian of Azarath (yeah, you should get back to writing… Did you ever update your story? :D); TheFallenAngel67 (Cyborg is not fond of Static Shock not because he is also African American, but because he is a freeloader. Hey, can't argue with that…); LoopyLouise123 (yes! Added Batman-ness! Like, fifty percent more Batman-ness! It's healthy!); DragonPrincess1988 (yay! Here's more right here!); Narroch (oh, god… truthfully, as proud as I am of this fic, mostly because this last part of the trilogy alone is approx 300,000 words long, I don't think I would have finished it if it hadn't been already written like two years ago… It's enough effort just to update it… It's just that Poison Apple is more epically gay and thus entertains me more…); The Fate of an Amaryllis (RobinxRaven most certainly was the "first pairing I latched on to", looooooooong before I went off on my short-lived-but-very-intense RobinxSlade rampage… You know, I might have killed The Joker off in Asylum… Did I kill him? God, that's bad – I don't remember. I either did kill him off or meant to in the original plan for Asylum but didn't…); Simmie (eh heh heh… my exams… They're going okay, I think – I even wrote about the importance of hockey as Canada's "national pastime" last Thursday…); and Me (you're upset that there's only two more chapters? I'm very flattered that you like Remember the Titans, but surely you're sick looking at it by now…? I know I am…).
Quinn and His Quill… review or else – I know where you live. I also know Jedi Mind Control, your name and face and how to create a Spirit Bomb. We can go all day with this…
IRONY: The reason it took me so long to update the last chapter was because I wanted to add that extra stuff about Marcus, Jonathon and Arella, and then… not one single person mentions it!
Ha, guess you all found Robin/Cyborg/watching-trash-TV/bitching-about-Static-Shock more entertaining…
Forevermore
Dropping from the sky; reeling in his grappling hook as he fell, his cape fluttering behind him like wings, Robin landed gracefully on the roof of Wayne Enterprises and looked around quizzically.
Batman was nowhere in sight.
Typical; and Robin had been hoping not to stay here long, due to the bad memories this roof conjured up.
Memories the word "apprentice" brought up.
Starting across the huge roof, Robin smiled as he thought that maybe he was actually here before Bruce. That would be a first—
"You're late".
Robin jumped and wheeled to see Batman slipping out from the shadows behind the huge "A" of the massive "WAYNE" adorning the roof of the Gotham skyscraper.
"Are you sure you're not just early?"
A trace of a smirk crossed Batman's stern face.
"Quite sure."
"Yeah?" Robin folded his arms. "Well, if you're about to lay into me for something, let me just put my two cents in first; I was not pleased with the way you landed us in it today. My schedule today went from one extreme to the other…"
"Oh?" Batman folded his own arms, perhaps mimicking his sidekick, or maybe it was Batman's trait all along and Robin had unconsciously picked it up from him.
It hardly mattered.
"Please do regale me," Batman went on, his voice a little mocking.
"Well, if you must know, I've had a tough week; actually, make that a tough month. And today I was just hoping for a lazy day to get some R&R, and, well… I think it got off to a pretty good start. I didn't get up until eleven, and then I had a shower and ate some junk food and ice cream… But then you opened your mouth on live TV to Lois Lane, of all people, and there goes my entire day of lazing on my butt watching brain-rotting cartoons and Jerry Springer."
"You don't like Jerry Springer. You once said to me that Jerry Springer was utter garbage."
"That's not the point," Robin snapped. "The point is that I had Lois Lane on my case all afternoon, and at six Cy, BB and I had to go down to the TV studios, where she basically just asked me the same stuff she asked Superman this morning. And then we went to get pizza to bring back for the girls, only we never got around to it because Dr Light was causing trouble at the gas station – and don't ask why he was at the gas station, because I don't know, and he probably didn't know either… He probably thought he was at the bank or something…"
Batman gave a low, rare little chuckle.
"Alright, I do take full responsibility for the Lois Lane thing, but Dr Light? Robin, that's not my fault…"
Robin sighed heavily.
"I know, I know… I'm just so trashed right about now and I could have done without Lois breathing down my neck today… I think I'm just going to sleep all day tomorrow…"
Again Batman laughed; clearly he was not taking this seriously at all.
"I know this is a stressful duty, Robin, but really; suffering a midlife crisis already? You're only sixteen!"
"Ha," Robin deadpanned boredly.
Midlife crisis my foot; would you believe that whole Avenger/rape/possession/fake prophecy/real prophecy/pregnancy/near-death-several-times/séance/Wiccan magic crisis…?
Batman, of course, knew nothing of any of it; and Robin thought it was better that way. There was no point in trying to explain the entire complicated "tale" from start to finish when there was no need for it.
"What do you want, anyway?" He asked eventually, tapping his foot. "Not that it isn't nice to see you and everything, but… I mean, this is kinda weird. Calling me up here at this time of night, I mean…"
As before, on the phone, Batman offered nothing but a long awkward silence.
"You know… I'm not quite sure…" He said finally.
Robin turned and blinked at him.
"You… aren't quite sure?"
Batman shrugged his broad shoulders.
"I… just felt like I should. I guess… I wanted to talk to you, but now that we're here, I don't know what to say…"
"Okaaay… um, you got a new rug in the drawing room?"
Batman frowned.
"Uh, no."
"You put all the bats from the Batcave into a box, and then, at night, sneaked over to Clark's apartment in Metropolis and let them loose in his bathroom?"
"No!" Batman said, sounding both incredulous and amused.
"You're pregnant?"
"Oh, yes, that was it," Batman replied dryly. His gaze hardened. "And speaking of… where did that ridiculous speculation about your team-mate come from?"
Robin shrugged helplessly, realizing that Bruce could probably see through him anyway.
He knew.
"Just stupid press." Robin smiled sweetly at him.
Batman's hard, piercing gaze did not budge or soften a millimetre.
"You can't prove anything, you know," Robin added coolly.
"Because you got rid of the evidence?"
"There was no evidence."
Itwas true; Batman did not believe him, but there was no evidence. Yesterday, Raven had been in labour; now she was completely fine, and it wasn't because she had given birth. There was no trace of the demonic child anywhere in this world at all, because it hadn't been aborted and destroyed.
It had been slain and disintegrated to nothing by a spell.
And that was something, in his ignorance of this entire situation, that Batman could not rationally explain away.
"If you are hiding something from me, Robin, you know that I will find out about it sooner or later," the Dark Knight said eventually.
"I know, World's Greatest Detective," Robin answered coolly, irked by his mentor's mistrust of him.
Even if Robin was lying.
"So if you are hiding something, it would be better if you told me now," Batman went on. "Because I will be angry if you lie to me and then I find out about it."
Robin rounded on him.
"Look, I know you think I was stupid and got my team-mate pregnant, but it wasn't like that, and she is not pregnant, okay? You can stop by the tower and see her, if you want." Swinging away again, angered, Robin presented Batman with his back. "So, if that was all you wanted… Nice talking to you, Bruce. See you around…"
Batman caught his arm to stop him from walking away.
"Robin… Dick, I'm sorry… j-just hold up a second, okay? Don't storm off…"
"Bruce, what do you want?" Robin asked in exasperation, turning back to him. "Why did you call me out here? BB and Cy went to the drive-through and I couldn't go with them because I thought you had something important to tell me, and this is it?"
"I…" Batman trailed off and let go of Robin's arm. "… It was just stupid… You go catch up with your friends, okay? Sorry to have dragged you out here…"
"Nuh-uh." Robin shook his head, ticked. "If you were sorry, you'd just tell me so I wouldn't feel like I'd completely wasted my time and missed Revenge of the Blob Monster."
"Oh, by the sound of it, you're missing some top quality stuff there," Batman muttered dryly.
"BB's choice." Robin's eyes narrowed. "Bruce. Spill. Now."
Batman gave a weary groan and then even looked a little embarrassed.
"Look, I had this… dream…" He averted his eyes from Robin's face. "Last night, after I got back from shoving the last of those lunatics back in Arkham with the League… I just remember being really tired, and Alfred said… something or other, I can't even remember. And I just got into bed and fell into… well, the deepest sleep I've had in a long time. And the dream I had… it was so vivid, really indescribable… But what got me was that I wasn't really in it." Batman drew a deep breath and looked back at his Boy Wonder. "You were. It was about you."
"Doing… what, exactly?"
"Well, I couldn't really make sense of it, it was all these different images, like… visions or something… But you… in all of them, you were very brave. You were strong, agile, you used your head… A real hero, just like I taught you to be…"
"Modest-much?" Robin teased, slightly embarrassed; and inwardly knowing that that wretched Jonathon Vaughan had something to do with this…
"Just honest. I trained you to the utmost of my ability, and Alfred did his fair share too. I wouldn't expect anything less from you…"
"That your way of saying you're proud of me?" Robin asked, quirking an eyebrow.
Batman was silent for a while.
"Yeah," he said finally. "But in more ambiguous words."
Robin smirked.
"You called me all the way out here to say that?"
Batman shrugged.
"Well, I wouldn't expect anything less from you," Robin went on mirthfully. "If you had just said you were proud outright, I would have been worried about what had happened to the real Batman."
Batman sighed and shook his head.
"Dick Grayson, I am going to cut your sharp tongue out with a batarang one day…"
Robin grinned.
"You'd have to catch me first, Bruce…"
The sudden sound of a disruptive ruckus drifted up from the street below and Batman and Robin both looked over the edge of Wayne Enterprises. It was difficult to see because they were so high up, but they could both tell that someone was up to no good.
"And speaking of catching," Robin muttered as a figure in dark colours began to flee down the street, chased by three others.
Batman pulled out his grappling hook; and then paused and looked at Robin.
"Are you coming or not?"
Robin pulled out his own strong grappling cable and deftly tossed it from his left hand to his right.
"Duh… Wouldn't miss it." A wicked grin stole across his face. "And from up here, we won't miss him."
Batman sighed wearily.
"Do you ever stop?"
"Oh shush, you love it…"
"Hm." Batman actually gave him a little smile. "Just how do I survive without you?"
Or was it a smirk?
Robin didn't know anymore.
All he knew – as he soared through night sky after his mentor – was that he was home.
In all senses of the word.
Sitting on the edge of the roof of Titans Tower, Robin took a deep breath of the cold air, and then wrapped his cape around his shoulders.
He smiled.
He had returned to Jump City and the tower at almost three o' clock that morning and simply hadn't gone to bed; instead he had made himself a coffee, raided the fridge and grabbed the best leftovers seeing as Cyborg hadn't had it in him to come down that particular night, and then simply come up here and sat, awaiting the dawn.
As he would tell Raven much later, he loved sunrise.
It promised endless possibilities; with the sun rose hopes and dreams.
He had learned a lot about that now.
Dawn in October was cold, though…
"Mind if I join you?"
He looked over his shoulder to find Raven standing a few feet back from him; fully clothed back in her everyday attire of that tight black leotard and the purple cloak, which swirled and flapped around her legs and feet in the slight morning wind.
Her hood was down and her large violet eyes glittered.
"Hi, Raven." He beamed at her and patted the roof beside him.
She sat next to him, placing her hands on her lap.
There was a very long – and yet not awkward – silence between them; and when they finally spoke, it was simultaneously;
"So, are you-?"
"I suppose I should-"
Each cut the other off; and then Raven gave a very rare giggle.
"Sorry, you go first…"
"Um, okay…" Robin looked at her pointedly. "You're… okay, right? Everything's fine? You aren't… I mean, there aren't any side-effects from the spell or anything, are there…?"
Raven shook her head.
"I don't think so. It took me a long time to heal myself, but that was because the protection spell stopped me from dying, but not really from all of the damage."
"It's gone?"
Raven looked down at her completely-flat stomach.
"It's gone," she said quietly; and he couldn't be sure if her tone was one of sorrow or not.
"Ray, I…"
She looked up at him again as he trailed off.
"You're sorry?" She smiled at him when he gave a little nod. "Don't be. You did what you were supposed to do. If it means anything at all to you… I'm proud of you. You worked that spell out by yourself, you perfected it and you performed it flawlessly, without any prior knowledge of magic."
"Raven, if it wasn't for Jonathon, you'd be dead."
Raven shrugged.
"Well, that's exactly my point," she countered. "Sure, maybe Jonathon helped you; but what you just said… that I would be dead. You saved me, Robin; if it wasn't for you I would be dead. I can only thank you for that."
"That's kind of countered when you take into account that I'm the one that got you pregnant in the first place," Robin pointed out gloomily.
"You may blame yourself for that, Robin, but I don't hold you responsible. Seth got what he wanted out of both of us… or rather, he would have…"
"Yeah, guess we blew his little "Evil Scheme" stand…"
"And once again, we save the world and nobody knows about it but us," Raven added softly, her voice droll.
"I really think it's better if the Teen Titans keep this one to themselves."
"That reminds me…" With a rustle, Raven pulled a newspaper out from beneath her cloak and handed it over. "Seems all of Jump's journalists took notes when Lois Lane's interview was broadcast. We're all off the hook."
"How do you know about that?"
Raven snorted.
"Starfire videotaped it. She kept going on about how… well, it was a Tamaranean word, but I think it might have been the equivalent of "cute". Or maybe "hot". Anyway, she said you were really… something on camera." Raven raised her eyebrows in amusement. "You know how "totally into you" she is, right?"
"Yeah, I was kinda getting that vibe from the way she attacked you the other morning…"
"Just checking."
Robin scanned down the article; it was one which basically condemned all of the previous day's scribings. Just a hunch, but he was betting it was a different journalist who had written this article.
Journalists were pretty good at slagging each other off without making it too apparent.
"…It can now be confirmed that certain accusations and attacks on the Teen Titans made earlier this week have proven to have been made on false and inaccurate information. The teenaged superhero team, resident to Jump City, has collectively denied that female team member Raven, noted for her telekinetic abilities and goth-like appearance, is, and has ever been, pregnant. Team leader Boy Wonder Robin, originally of Gotham City, stated of the incident in an interview with Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane; "Perhaps it was a look-alike trying to tarnish our reputation". It must be noted that ministrations of a similar nature have taken place before, whereupon crimes are committed by criminals posing as superheroes or celebrities in an attempt to frame them. We must then not dismiss this theory; however, in an ironic twist, it was the Titans' leader who received the highest number of votes in our "Which Titan is the Father?" poll in Thursday's edition…"
"So… we're not entirely off the hook, but as good as?" Robin stated finally.
"I guess you could say that," Raven agreed. "That checkout girl definitely did see me in a maternity wear store; I suppose the one thing we can count on is that Happiness doesn't act anything like me. When the checkout girl reads this paper, she'll probably decide that it was an impersonator. A very badly acting one, too."
"Who ever thought we'd be thanking Happiness and Lois Lane all in one day?" Robin mused dryly, tossing the newspaper onto the roof behind him.
"I think it's quite interesting that you won that poll with a landslide victory," Raven put in, not answering his question.
"You would."
"Well, I just… Because they were right, but they were only guessing. And I mean, the people who voted don't know anything about Seth or anything, so… I just think it's kind of strange that they got it right…"
"Oh, please…" He snorted. "I know what you're trying to say – and thanks a lot, by the way – but it's perfectly logical that I won."
"Uh-huh." She raised her eyebrows at him. "Because you think you're the "team hottie", as Beast Boy put it, or because you seem to have accumulated some kind of playboy persona?"
"Neither. I'm quite sure you'll find that Batman has a lot to do with this."
"What, he's getting the blame for not equipping your little utility belt with Bat-condoms?"
"Partly."
When she looked surprised, he rummaged through his belt and pulled out a folded-up sheet of paper.
"Look, I had a feeling that Batman might be part of the reason that I pretty much got the finger pointed at me, so I did a little digging on the Jump City Times online archive," he explained, handing it to her. "Turns out that my hunch was right; Thursday evening's edition had a big write-up on the whole scandal, but unfortunately the journalist who wrote it is a well-known rampant critic of superheroes in general, and particularly abhorring of Batman. At least half of the article was just one big jibe at him, saying that he was an… hang on…"
Robin tilted the printed-out article towards himself and scanned down it.
"Oh yeah, there it is… He called him "an unholy satanic incarnation who preys on man's greatest fear – that of the unknown". And basically he allegedly couldn't have been a very good influence on me, soooo…"
"What, ah…" Raven read the journalist's name; "What Hank Wallis is saying is that if you ever got a girl pregnant at such a young age, he wouldn't be surprised, because Batman probably told you that it was okay to just do whatever you liked because you were practically untouchable?"
Robin shrugged amiably.
"Pretty much. In fact, I'm sure it says somewhere in that article that I've probably gotten other girls pregnant too, but because they aren't "celebrities" like we are, nobody knows about it." He scratched his hairline thoughtfully. "Jeez, he must think that superheroes just sit around and crow over the people they save."
"Come to think of it, I've read stuff by that Wallis guy before," Raven realised, lifting her head. "He's the one that grilled us in the Jump City Times for that mess-up down at the docks about three months back, right? He said we were incompetent children trying to do the work of the police because we thought we were special?"
"That's him, yeah."
"I didn't think journalists were allowed to be so opinionated," Raven said in disgust, glancing back down at Hank's article. "I mean, this… this is pretty much an attack."
"Doesn't matter. The article you just showed me shot him down big time. We don't have anything to worry about."
"How come he hasn't been fired by now? I mean, writing for the newspaper of a city protected by superheroes…"
"He used to write for the Daily Planet, according to his profile on the Jump City Times archive. Seems he criticised Superman just once too often… But I had a look at some of his archived articles and Batman seems to be the one who really gets to him. Seems only natural then that's he's not my greatest fan either."
"So the real reason that nearly everyone voted for you was because of Hank Wallis? Because of this article?"
"I think it's safe to assume that he practically brainwashed people into voting for me, yes. I suppose, in a way, it's kind of like a crack at Batman…"
"Well, I suppose if you ever decide to run for President, you know of a good campaign manager…" She handed Robin the paper back and delved under her cloak again. "I did a little research of my own, actually."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Raven held out her hand and opened her palm; on her pale skin, the ruby and platinum ring glittered in dim light of the dawn.
"What about it?" Robin asked.
"I figured out why you couldn't get it off."
Robin's interest was piqued.
"Oh?"
"Mm-hm. Turns out that Seth enchanted it so that anyone with any kind of human heritage couldn't take it off. So I couldn't take it off myself, being half-human, and you certainly couldn't take it off, being a full human, and although Cyborg and Beast Boy didn't try, they wouldn't have been able to get it off either…"
"But Starfire…" Robin took the ring from her hand and held it up. "Star hasn't got any human heritage at all, because she's Tamaranean."
"Right." Raven nodded. "Once again, Starfire beats the system."
"He had a real issue with humans, huh?"
"Yeah. I'm not sure why, but he really hated them… Or, well… mortals, at any rate…"
"So that was pretty much everyone?"
"Yeah. I suppose, being "dead", he wasn't exactly mortal himself, so…"
Robin pulled a face.
"Well, let's hope he doesn't figure out how to invade people's dreams…"
"I don't think Seth will have that kind of freedom. Jonathon was a good person; Seth wasn't."
"You think he went to Hell?"
"Or… well, whatever. The equivalent of." Raven looked out at the brightening horizon; the faint sliver of sun casting a glittering sheen across the dark river. "I'm not really sure what is beyond this life. There is so much we don't understand; religion tries to offer answers, but they all contradict one another. Christianity, Islam and Judaism promise eternal peace in Heaven or eternal damnation Hell; but Buddhism and Hinduism believe in the cycle of rebirth and karma. Which of them is right? And if you reject them – if you reject religion – and follow other paths; Wicca, Paganism… There are so many worlds and dimensions, each with their own beliefs and legends, out there. Truly, there is no way of knowing what awaits us. Are sinners like Seth punished for their wrongs? Or—"
"Whoa." Robin held up his hands, stopping her in her tracks. "Jeez, sorry I asked…"
"It was a good question."
"And that was a scary answer."
"It was the best I could give. I know you think me knowledgeable, Robin, but I do not know everything. I perhaps do not even know as much as you think I do."
"You try. You try. That's what matters. That's all we ask."
"And what about you?" Raven asked, focusing on the rising sun. "Your position? I assume you've taken back your vow to quit?"
"Obviously." He sighed. "I never really wanted to quit, I just… I was having a bad day that day. You know, the day we went to Azarath."
"I know you were having a bad day. I should think that having wings burst out of your back would sour up anyone's day."
"And, if you remember, you guys locked me in the Operations Center because you wouldn't let me go on the mission—"
"That wasn't the worst thing that happened to you that week."
"No, I think turning into a demon takes first place in that category."
Raven gave a deep, sad sigh.
"I'm sorry," she said softly.
Robin blinked.
"Why are you sorry? None of this was your fault."
"If you had never met me-"
"It wouldn't have changed anything." Robin looked down at his hands; beneath the fabric of his gloves, they were still stinging like hell. "The prophecy – the real prophecy – said that Seth needed mine and Slade's souls. And put it like this; if my parents hadn't died eight years ago, I wouldn't be Robin. I'd just be Dick Grayson; some high school kid back in Gotham. I never would have met you, that's for sure; hell, I wouldn't have met any of you, and I wouldn't have met Bruce, and I wouldn't have met Slade. But that doesn't matter, because Seth needed my soul, and he needed Slade's soul, and he would have brought us together in the future anyway. I guess that my being Robin made it a lot easier for him, but I'm sure he'd have found a way around it. My being Robin doesn't change the fact that he needed my soul; wearing a mask doesn't change who I am inside. So this would have happened anyway, Raven. And you know, I still think he would have gotten around the conception of his child. You know, maybe he wouldn't have used me; maybe he'd have used one of the senators instead, seeing how you wouldn't have known me. Maybe Marcus, or Jonathon, or—"
"Ew." Raven cut him off with her hand. "Stop right there."
"Oh, you know what I mean. Your being a part of the team and my friend… that doesn't make any difference. None of this happened because of you, Raven; my fate wasn't sealed the day I met you. My fate was sealed by Azar over seven hundred years ago. And besides…"
He smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder, making her look up at him.
"…You saved me. More than once, I might add. I owe you my life about four times over."
"And you repaid that debt two nights ago, by destroying the child."
"That's hardly fair. You saved me from the demon, and from Seth, and I would have died from the injuries Slade gave me if you hadn't healed me. That's three times compared to only one. We aren't even."
"Well…" Raven actually offered him a little smile of her own. "Maybe you'll get another chance to save me someday. Or, if you really want to make it up to me… you could make me some of your amazing French toast for breakfast…"
He grinned.
"Deal."
The sun was fairly rising now, and brilliant gold light washed over them both as they sat side by side on the roof of Titans Tower.
"There are a few things I wonder about," Robin said finally.
"Like what?"
"Terra."
Raven gave a barely-perceptible snort.
"What about her?"
Robin gave an offish shrug of his shoulders.
"What will happen to her, I guess."
Raven fixed her piercing gaze on him.
"Why do you care?"
"She was our friend-"
"And in case you didn't notice, Boy Wonder, she isn't anymore. She lied to us and betrayed us, let Slade's army into the Tower, helped Slade possess you with that demon, then helped us get it out for some strange reason, and then Slade sent her here to destroy the Tower, she fought Starfire and Beast Boy without any kind of remorse, and then she left you for dead in that mine. How can you still care what happens to her? Do you hope that she'll see the light?"
"Maybe." He sighed. "I know it's difficult for you to understand, Ray, especially as you never trusted her, but… I've seen her. A different Terra. A Terra truly repentant for her sins, a Terra alone and—"
"Thirty-one years old in an alternate future," Raven snapped. "Yes, I saw her too, Robin, remember? And I will admit that she was different. But that's just it; she was different. As in, a different person. She was an alternate persona – not our Terra. Not the Terra who's out there now, doing Slade's bidding. I'm not talking about the "sorry" Terra; I'm talking about the psychotic one we have to deal with."
"Beast Boy cares," Robin said softly.
Raven's expression became rather cold.
"Beast Boy is an idiot. He's too trusting. Love may be the most powerful emotion in the world, Robin – but it is blinding. He could never see the faults in Terra. And even now… if she was to turn up on our doorstep right now, he would welcome her into his arms. Even Starfire is not that trusting, especially when a person has wronged her. But Beast Boy… he just keeps going back for more where Terra is concerned."
"He can't help it. He should, but he can't. Ray, he… he really likes her. I mean, he punched me over her, remember? Even though I could knock him out if I hit him back. You're right, he is blind when it comes to her, but that isn't his fault. She was really the only person who has laughed with him rather than at him." Robin scratched his hair. "Face it; we're all guilty of mocking him or yelling at him at one time or another, even Star. But Terra never did."
Raven looked down at her lap.
"Robin, I do not sense a very happy ending for Terra," she said finally, her voice little more than a whisper. "And before you ask, I have no idea what that may be. I am not a precognitive. I can merely… sense things."
"Then we have to save her," Robin said, clenching his fist; and then wincing.
"I think it is too late for that now. The only person who can save Terra is Terra herself, and I do not think she is strong enough to do so. She never has been – that's why she went to Slade in the first place. Because she couldn't save herself."
Raven took Robin's hands and pulled off his gloves in the silence that followed.
"Ray, what are you…?"
"Sshh." Raven unwrapped the bandages on his hands; and winced herself when she saw the burns. "Why didn't you tell me?" She asked, looking up at him.
Robin pulled his hands back.
"I'm not having you hurt yourself over a couple of burns."
"Robin, those are serious; and, incidentally, wrapping them up like that under your gloves is a very bad idea. They won't heal properly and the skin will split."
"That's my problem."
"It'll be everyone's problem when it affects your martial arts. How do you expect to punch and fight with your staff with your hands wrecked like that?"
"They'll heal on their own."
"They won't; they're too severe." She put out her hands. "Come on, don't do something stupid for the sake of being noble. It only hurts me for a second. Which is infinitely better than having those hurt you for weeks."
"They're fine," he insisted, turning his head away.
Raven's gaze flickered up to him for a second or two; and then she looked back at his hands.
"Robin. Your hands. Please."
He ignored her for a second or two; and then, with an exaggerated sigh, he held them out, still not looking at her.
"Thankyou."
She muttered her archaic chant, drawing the wounds into her own body and dispelling the pain.
"Now I owe you for four things," he muttered, taking his hands back and looking intently at his perfectly-healed palms.
"I'll give you that one for free, since you got them from the knife which you used to save me."
"Gee, thanks…" He picked up his gloves and pulled them back on.
Raven rolled her eyes.
"You're welcome…"
Silence ensued again as they both looked out over the river; and at the fine blanket of glittering gold laid across it, cast from the rising sun.
"New beginning," Robin said finally, his voice very soft, as though he had been hoping she wouldn't hear him.
"How so?" Raven asked, hearing him perfectly. "The dawn?"
"Everything," he said quietly. "For the first time, Raven, neither of us are being controlled by some up-himself jerk for his own gains. For the first time… we truly are free."
Raven didn't look at him.
"Yeah…" She didn't sound very enthusiastic.
"Doesn't that make you happy? Everything worked out… in the end, anyway… Seth isn't playing around with us like dolls, the baby is gone, we're all off the hook…"
She shrugged.
"It isn't over, you know…"
"What isn't?"
Raven shrugged again, this time more helplessly.
"Just… everything…"
"That's what Jonathon said."
"I know." She finally turned to him. "I know what Jonathon told you, because he told me."
Robin blinked.
"He visited you as well?"
"During meditation. I admit I was expecting it…" She looked hard at him, unblinking. "But I knew a lot of what he told you anyway. I noticed it myself…"
"And that would be…?" Robin was strangely irritated; didn't anyone have anything better to do than study him?
"Robin, as Teen Titans, we are all outsiders; every one of us, under one roof. I'm… well, half-demon, among other things, Starfire is an alien, Beast Boy is green and Cyborg is half-metal…"
"And where do I fit in?"
"That's just it, Robin," Raven replied quietly. "You don't. You're an outcast among outcasts."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Thanks for the ego-trip, Raven-"
"Don't interrupt," Raven snapped wearily. "You must see what I'm saying; I know you have often thought it yourself. You've asked yourself why you are here among us; why you lead us, when you have no powers of your own. Admit that sometimes you feel a little bit left out; that sometimes you even feel a little envious and wish for powers of your own. I understand that it must be frustrating for you to watch your friends each display their own fantastic outworldly powers when you have to make do with nothing but skill you have had to train to achieve."
"Sometimes…" he muttered.
"Sometimes you think yourself unworthy of your place in the team; you ask yourself why we listen to you when we are all so much stronger than you…"
"Raven, if you're trying to make me seriously depressed, it's working…"
"I'm not. I'm only telling the truth. And I am, aren't I?"
He looked up at her.
"Yes."
"And you were brought into this world of superheroics by Batman; named the World's Greatest Detective, Gotham's Finest… He trained you to be the best, he taught you – and maybe even wrongly – that it isn't okay to lose. Because Batman never does lose, does he?"
Robin shook his head.
"No, he doesn't…"
Raven pushed a lock of violet hair back.
"That can't be an easy mantle to uphold; and admit it, Robin. You do feel as though you have something to live up to. Every time you lose, you feel as though you are letting him down. That whole business with Slade all those months back, when you became obsessed with him? Why was that?"
"Jeez, what are you, some kind of shrink?" Robin asked grouchily.
"Tell me, Robin. Or rather, don't, because I can tell you. Because you knew that Batman wouldn't lose to Slade…"
"That's the way he trained me," Robin replied snippily. "To never give up. I told you that, remember? Back in… well, the future, if that makes any sense… I'm sorry if it's not in my nature to be a slacker."
"That's not what I said. You are a very hard worker and we are all glad. But you are too hard on yourself. You can't be perfect. And you have to stop comparing yourself to Batman, because it isn't a fair comparison. You're only sixteen – he's, what…? Thirty-something?"
Robin nodded; and then he aborted that motion and began shaking it instead.
"Raven, what are you saying?"
"The same thing Jonathon tried to tell you." She looked at him pointedly. "All this time, Robin; despite what you may believe, way down deep inside, you still think of yourself as someone's sidekick. The third wheel on the bike. And even when you went out on your own, you compared yourself to us, when you shouldn't. All around you, you've been searching for some kind of hero – some kind of strength beyond what you are. Within you, there are elements of Batman, because Robin… those are your roots. Batman and Robin – it's part of who you are. But it's not the whole person; I know there is something behind that mask, because I have seen it, in every way imaginable. I think that if you look deep inside yourself…"
She took his hands the way Jonathon had, pressing them together; she muttered a few words and then parted his hands again.
And, as it had happened in his dream, a shimmering stream of physical magic fluttered out.
Not bats.
Butterflies.
"…You'll find you're the hero you've been searching for all along…"
He watched them go.
And then he hugged her.
It took her a while to respond, but eventually she hugged him back.
"I love you, Ray," he said softly.
"I love you too." She pulled back a little bit. "But I don't want to sleep with you."
"Even if I bring Bat-condoms?"
"Even then."
"Okay."
They embraced again.
And then it was his turn to pull away.
"Butterflies?"
Raven looked at him boredly.
"If you must know, bats are very tricky to do. Butterflies are a lot easier…"
"Sorry."
They couldn't seem to let go of one another; as though there was a magnetic pulse between them, and they kept embracing, because it felt right to do so.
"Ray…"
"Mm?"
"When… when we were in the church, in the future… You said about… like, that I knew things that I shouldn't."
"You do." Raven said it into his shoulder. "But we have been through so much, and Seth… well, he tried to tie two prophecies together, so I couldn't expect you to know… nothing."
"You said… you couldn't tell me. That you had a destiny that you wouldn't wish on anyone else, but you couldn't tell me, and you couldn't… You said I couldn't help you…"
"You can't." She looked up, but out across the horizon rather than at him. "You will know. You will all know. But help…?"
"I will help you, Raven. Please…" He made her look at him; and the gold of the dawn shone across his face as though he had a halo over his head. "We have been through so much together. I care so much about you, and… I will help you. That's a promise."
Raven looked at him long and hard in the face of the rising sun.
Finally she touched his cheek.
"Maybe you will," she said softly.
She drew away from him with a little smile and they sat again in silence; after a few moments, the doorway up onto the roof opened and they both turned to acknowledge the new arrival.
Starfire stopped when she saw them together.
Her smile flickered slightly.
"Oh, I apologise for my interruption…"
She turned away to go back the way she had come.
"No, Star, wait!" Robin called after her desperately.
She stopped and looked at him over her shoulder.
"Yes?"
"Well…" He patted the roof beside him as he had done to Raven. "You weren't interrupting anything, and you don't have to leave. Come and sit with us."
She hesitated, looking from one to the other and then back again; as though she maybe even suspected that they were playing some kind of joke on her.
"You… desire my company?"
Robin smiled at her.
"Always."
She smiled then; and floated to join them, sitting on Robin's other side so that he was sandwiched between them.
And the three of them sat in silence as rays of gold washed over their bodies and the cool, fresh morning wind played with their hair.
Twice, Starfire opened her mouth, but no words came, and she fell silent again.
"Something you want to say, Star?" Robin asked casually, stealing a glance at her.
Starfire gave a sweet little smile and shook her head.
"It was nothing…"
Robin opened his mouth to reply—
"A threesome? Well, Robin, I never realised you were into such kinky things!"
Only Starfire turned towards the source of this accusation; Robin and Raven didn't even look.
Beast Boy and Cyborg had decided to join them, and Beast Boy was wagging a mockingly-reproachful finger.
"Oh, there is so much you don't know about me," Robin replied airily, pretending to examine his fingernails even though he was wearing gloves.
"Figured that," Cyborg answered as he and Beast Boy plonked themselves down next to Starfire; so that the five of them were sitting in a row. "What I wanna know is why BB an' me weren't invited, yo."
"Because it wouldn't be a threesome then, would it?" Robin responded scathingly.
"Ah, details, details…"
Starfire giggled; and they all had a pretty good idea that she didn't even know what a threesome was.
Or then again…
You just couldn't tell with Starfire.
"Isn't that the greatest view?" Beast Boy said finally, the utterance not really a question.
He pointed out to the horizon, then slowly let his arm drop. The sun was now a semi-circle of gold above the sparkling water, and the light glinted off the mirrored windows of the high-rises and skyscrapers of Jump City.
"It's pretty breathtaking," Robin agreed.
"Aw, we got the best island on the river," Cyborg put in cheerfully.
"It's the only island on the river," Raven pointed out flatly.
"Yeah, and it's ours…"
Raven rolled her eyes.
"My friends, I agree; this sight is truly glorious," Starfire said, clasping her hands. "This world is so beautiful and I am both jubilant and proud to call it my home. For every hideous thing, there is something of beauty; for everything evil, there is something good and virtuous; and for every terrible thing that happens, there is love and hope to help pull through…"
She smiled at each of them; and in this contagious mood and moment of close-knit friendship and team spirit, they each returned it.
"I only express my joy to be here now with you, my very dear friends, to greet another beautiful day…"
"Right back at you, Star," Cyborg said softly.
"Well said," Beast Boy added with a grin.
Raven gave her a little nod.
Turning to Robin, her green eyes met with his masked ones.
He said nothing.
Only smiled truly and sincerely.
And that smile promised all of the sunrise and so much more.
It promised everything.
As the Teen Titans sat together on the roof of their tower, overlooking the city which they were sworn to protect, Richard Grayson's smile promised everything above and beyond infinity.
Hidden heroes.
Strength. Hope. Love. Dreams. Friendship. Victory.
Because they were all in this together, for better or worse; they were a team.
Forevermore.
It's quite hilariously sappy, non?
Not that Teen Titans didn't occasionally dander off down this road during its run…
Seems like the end… and it would have been, I guess, were it not for a certain blonde earthmover.
Stay tuned, because there's one more chapter—
And one more twist.
:)
RobinRocks xXx
(Hurrah for Season 4 foreshadowing!!111!!11!)