Replacement
Chapter Four
Raven felt her body shudder in the cool darkness surrounding her. She lay on the cot and stared at the ceiling, listening to the deep, even breathing from Wally, who, for all intents and purposes, was dead to the world. Somewhere outside she knew the sun had risen, and world was continuing on with its daily routine, but they were forced to sit here and wait for a moment to escape. What if that moment never came?
She brought a hand up to cover her face, mumbling a curse under her breath. What had they gotten themselves into? Raven swore that she would never find herself in that situation again, that she would stop Deathstroke before it ever happened again. But she didn't. And now Raven was severely injured and Wally had been pushed far past his personal limits. Something in her chest pulled tight as she turned and looked at him. He must have been exhausted, but she couldn't blame him. He managed to save both of them from certain death, he deserved a little bit of rest, at the very least.
Raven slowly sat up, feeling her joints crack and pop under the new pressure. Her body was still a little tender, and it didn't seem to move quite the right way, but it was going to have to do. They didn't have time to wait for her to be fully healed. If Raven knew anything, Deathstroke would have found them by now, and he would be waiting like a sleeping cobra for them to make the wrong move. But, if she was lucky, he wouldn't have found their trail just yet. She wouldn't hold her breath. The silence outside was just to coax them into a false sense of security. He was there.
She pushed herself off the cot and on to her feet, teetering slightly as her raw skin twisted and screamed with the new weight. Everything burned on her left side, her skin, her muscles, her organs, and even her new, lower rib felt like warm gelatin. She couldn't take much more damage, or her body would collapse in on its self, new organs and all. Then again, she didn't have much of a choice, it wasn't like she could wait around here forever.
Wally mumbled something in his sleep, and his head teetered to the side, exposing his face. For a moment he almost looked handsome and innocent, but she knew better. Behind that "Sleeping Beauty" look, the chaotic, reckless mind of Kid Flash still lived. Raven glanced down at her bra and panty clad self and felt embarrassment burn her face. That's right. In her pain-induced stupor she had asked Wally to help undress her. Great. Now, he was going to have the memory of her being mostly naked in front of him… and did she let him touch her scar?
Raven's heart skipped a few beats and her hand flew to the gruesome scar on her left shoulder, fingering the jagged edges. What the in hell was wrong with her? She didn't even let Cyborg touch her scar when it needed to be healed. It was precious to her, a reminder of sacrifices that needed to be made, but she let Wally touch it…
That wasn't all that Wally touched.
"Fuck." Raven's fingers moved from her scar to her lips as she stared at his sleeping face. They kissed. And not just any kiss, something passionate and adrenaline fueled. He kissed like a Casanova, all lips and teeth and tongue, and tasted like a cold winter's wind. Raven took a few steps backward, her legs connecting with the blood-soaked mattress on the cot. What in the world was this… this… boy doing to her? She didn't even like him! He was childish and volatile and impulsive. The world was a joke to him, and he was the one telling the punch line.
His fingers clenched in his sleep and he mumbled something else. Raven sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead. This was terrible. How could this have happened between them? Furthermore, how could she have let it happen?
Mumbling another curse, she pulled on the tattered remains of her uniform, hoping to find some dignity in this whole situation. It was hard. Of all the scenarios that had played out in her head last night, that was certainly not one of them. There wasn't even one remotely close to it. Death, capture, dismemberment, and explosions… but being half-naked and kissing the one person she found more annoying that Beast Boy? Nope. Not in an infinite amount of worlds did she ever expect that.
Raven hobbled to her cloak and fished around in the folds before pulling out the communicator. A sigh of relief passed through her chest. Well, one good thing came out of last night's debacle, they still had the documents from Luthor Corp. There was still some of the intel that they needed to gather.
"Running away?" He leaned back in the chair and stared at her.
Raven turned and looked at him, feeling color pass over her face. Why couldn't he have just stayed asleep? That would have made things far less awkward. "No." She held up the communicator and kept her face blank. "I managed to save the data we found last night. I wanted to make sure I logged it into JLA's database in case something happened."
"It's always work with you, isn't it?" He lifted his feet so they were propped up on the old, worn mattress. He pretended not to notice the blood staining most of it, but Raven could tell he was a little grossed out. "You can't just hang out and wait for the storm to pass?"
"The storm will never pass, Wally…" Raven sighed and pinched the bridge on her nose. Really? Of all the suitable candidates in the world, she let him kiss her? What in the world was she thinking?"He'll always be waiting for us. That's kind of his thing."
The air grew thick and a dark shadow passed over his green eyes, almost too fast for Raven to notice. Volatile. It didn't matter what kind of front he put on, there was still something subtly dangerous about him. Again, why did she let him kiss her?
He gave a nonchalant, one shouldered shrug, but there was still severity in his expression. "You've barely healed. Don't go throwing yourself in front of danger, Raven."
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "We're heroes, Wally… that's what we do."
"Your rib still isn't healed completely."
Raven's lips twitched as she fought back the longest string of curses imaginable. How in the world had he noticed? She hadn't even moved since he woke up.
His lips twitched, as if he'd read her thoughts. "You're favoring your right side."
"Please shut up." Raven turned away from him and started to fidget with her communicator, trying to pull the hard drive from inside. Tacky remnants of her blood were jamming some of the access panels, and Raven wondered how much damage her communicator had suffered during the battle. "I don't need you telling me I'm over exerting myself."
"Sure, because you can see that all by yourself." He gave another shrug, but continued to watch her. Did he have to keep staring at her like that? "Are you okay?"
"Fine." Raven continued to tug at the access panel, pulling the pieces apart. "Cyborg made this damnable thing nearly unbreakable…" There was a snap and the back access panel came off, revealing the innards of her communicator. Raven bit back another curse. Most of the components were drenched with her blood. She'd be lucky if it could even connect to the other communicators, let alone access any saved data. Great. Just, fucking, great.
"Your blood is over everything, Raven." Wally finally stood up and walked toward her, looking at the remains of the communicator in her hand. "I mean… I didn't expect you to survive the night with everything you lost."
She looked at the dark stain on his uniform, the stain on the bed, and the stained components of her communicator and sighed. He was right, unfortunately. "That doesn't make me feel any better, Wally. Now you're just making me feel like an invalid who needed saving."
He rolled his eyes. "Sure. Whatever. Forget that you were the one who made it possible for me to escape with you." She could feel the indignant tones start to boil to the surface. It didn't matter how happy-go-lucky or laid back he tried to be, Wally was still dangerous.
Raven took a half step back to put space between them. Okay, how did she calm him down? She needed to stop his anger before it got out of control and started to affect her… much like last night's kiss. Oh, Goddess… why did she think about that? "Stop getting upset. It's not my fault we found ourselves in this situation. Neither of us were anticipating on Deathstroke being at that location, it was a mistake and we're lucky we didn't seriously get hurt."
"Didn't get hurt?" He forced out a bark of incredulous laughter and crossed his arms over his chest. A wave of cynicism and anger washed over her, and Raven hobbled another step back. The space didn't really help calm either of them down. "I'm sorry… did you just say that we're lucky neither of us got hurt? Because I'm pretty sure I remember him reaching into your chest, yanking out a rib, and nicking some organs? Oh, and then I seem to remember exhausting my energy to get us here so you could exhaust your energy to heal. Tell me, Raven, what part of that is considered not getting hurt?"
Low blow. The thick, slimy feel of his emotions wrapped around her heart, and Raven snarled, unable to stop herself from reacting. She pushed herself forward, pressing a little closer to him. "Are you arguing my ability to protect my friends and teammates? Are you questioning my capabilities of handling responsibilities?"
"No." Wally slid a few inches closer so that his nose almost touched hers. "I'm arguing your ability to see when we've taken too much. You need to rest and we need to get a hold of our friends. We can't face Deathstroke again like we are now. We need to retreat."
"I know that, Wally." Raven pushed at his shoulders and he took at step away from her. "I know. But I also know that he'll be waiting for us. It doesn't matter if we're down here for an hour or a year. He'll wait. And he will not give us a 'head start' like he did before. There will be no escape."
"Then we fight."
Raven sighed and leaned against the table behind her, looking at him. His innocent delusions of heroics were almost cute, if they weren't going to get them both killed. "We fight? Weren't you the one who just told me that we're both exhausted of our powers? So how do we fight if neither of us has powers, and we cannot contact our friends?"
"Have strength and a little faith." He gave her that stupid, cocky smile and Raven wanted to punch him straight in the jaw.
"In case you forgot, Wally…" Raven let down her guard as her extra eyes glowed red at him. He stumbled backward again, and she gnashed her teeth at him. "I'm a demon, we don't exactly do the whole 'faith' thing."
"Well, you're scary enough just like that… Deathstroke might up and run away."
Raven returned to normal and she sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted. Sometimes it was like arguing with a brick wall. An extremely stupid brick wall. Her shoulders slumped and her head teetered back so she stared at the ceiling. "Is there ever going to be a time when you take things seriously?"
Wally shrugged and leaned back on his heels. "I don't know… Maybe?" There was a long, slow pause as she picked up her head and stared at him. He shook his head and laughed. "Probably not."
"So, how do you propose we go about this, then?" She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him, waiting for another stupid comment. "Just burst into the forest and hope he doesn't hunt us like lions hunt antelope?"
"Mostly. What other plans are there?"
"How about you take the chip and get the hell out of here before he finds you." Raven handed him the hard drive from her communicator. "Cyborg will be waiting at the hotel and he'll be able to extract the information from it."
"And leave you here to fend for yourself? Try again." Wally pushed the chip back toward her, clearly angry that she suggested that she put herself in front of danger again. But what was she supposed to do? There was no way that they were both going to escape. And there was almost no way she could fight in her condition. She would have just held him back. She knew that, why didn't he? At least if he had the chip, he could escape and give some purpose to this whole ordeal.
"I'm fine against him, Wally." That was a lie, but he didn't need to know that. "Just take the stupid chip and get back to the city. This is the whole reason we came out to Rhelasia and got ourselves in this mess. We can't give up now."
"Fine." He sighed, as if sensing her frustration, and took the chip from her, frowning. "I'll take the damn chip, but I'm not leaving you here to die, Raven. You're my teammate and my… friend… I guess. We don't let each other die because we have some important mission. What's important is our lives."
"Oh." Raven didn't quite know what to make of that. Was she really his friend? After all the arguing and death threats, after all the suspicion that he had for her, after everything that had happened in the past three days… did he really consider her a friend? And if he did, why?
"You're looking at me like I'm nuts." Wally frowned at her.
"That's because you are." Raven frowned and looked away, frowning. Whether or not she was his friend should be the last of her worries right now. She needed to focus on important things, like the fact that there was a dangerous mercenary lurking outside in the jungle waiting for them to make a mistake so he could kill them. She heaved a sigh, and then winced with the strain it put on her body. "So, what do you suggest we do? Just make a break for it?"
"I guess…" He caught her stare and shrugged. "I mean, what else is there to do? It's not exactly like we can make a plan for fighting a merciless killer, who happens to have some personal vendetta against you and your team."
Raven stared at him blankly. "You're an idiot, do you realize this?"
"Awe, come on, Rae…"
Raven felt something in her chest flare up at the nickname. Something that sat between embarrassment and pure, unadulterated evil. She glared and let her eyes glow red again. "Not funny. Next time you call me that name, I will rip your tongue from your mouth and feed it to Deathstroke myself. Am I clear?"
"Crystal." Wally swallowed hard and took a step back, careful with the space between them. "Sorry."
"Hm." Raven pushed past him and moved toward the stairs for door, feeling Wally follow carefully behind her, as if stepping on eggshells. Good. Maybe he'd actually learn something from this. Like, don't piss off the demon who could disembowel you with a flick of her wrist. That was a good lesson to learn.
"Come on, let's go." She started up the stairs, feeling her skin and muscles burn with every step. It was like torture, and her fingers wrapped tightly around the cold, steel hand rails, searching for support. This was bad. Her eyes closed and her movements stilled. She hadn't anticipated on her body being this raw and this weak. If she couldn't find the strength to move herself, how was she going to protect herself and Wally?
"This is stupid." Wally's hand closed around her wrist and she looked down at him, wincing with the movement. He frowned at her and shook his head. "You're not even able to walk up a flight of stairs. How are we going to make a break for it if your body is going to collapse in on its self?"
"It doesn't matter." Raven pulled her hand away from him and glared. "I'll be fine enough."
"You're going to get yourself killed." There was a long, heavy pause between them and Raven couldn't help but look into his eyes again. Freakishly green and stormy, and every inch closer to him made his emotions just that much stronger. Didn't he realize it? Didn't he feel what he was doing to her and her powers?
Raven's eyes slid closed and she took a deep breath, trying to calm the rapid vibrations coursing through her. It felt like her whole body was a tuning fork, just humming painfully. "I'll be fine. We don't have a choice right now. Either we stay or we run, and staying isn't exactly at option."
The slimy texture of his emotions rippled strangely against her heart, and she opened her eyes to look at him. He was frowning, and his eyes had darkened even more. He knew. Damnit. For playing the happy-go-lucky idiot, he was damn perceptive. It was going to be impossible to win any battle if he could see through her intentions.
"You plan on sacrificing yourself again. Don't you?"
Raven sighed and took another step to the door. "I plan on giving you a moment to run."
His emotions twisted again and he frowned. "Yeah. Don't."
"You don't get to make that decision."
"I think I do." Wally crossed his arms over his chest and stared up at her. "You're trying to protect my life, I think I have a say in what happens to it. And how your decision affects it."
Raven had the strongest desire to kick him down the stairs. Just one kick to the chest and he would have learned his lesson. It was so tempting… She frowned down at him, but he didn't seem to care about his imminent death. Stupid boy. "Your logic is somewhat flawed."
"So is yours."
Raven opened her mouth to respond with something witting and crude, but her words were cut short. The whole room seemed to vibrate with power and cracking energies, and the small, heavy access door flung from the hinges to smack both of them in the chest. Shock and pain coursed through her body as Raven and Wally went tumbling head-over-heels before landing in a broken pile on the other side of the room. Debris was still airborne, and crumbling down from the walls. Dust, dirt, and sparks threaded through the room, silhouetting the broad shouldered man filling the doorway.
"I'm quite sick of waiting for you two." He stepped down the stairs slowly, as if this were all a very amusing spectacle and he had all the time in the world to watch it play out. "The game was fun while it lasted… but alas, all good things must come to an end. And all people must die."
Raven pushed herself into a sitting position and fought with piece of a desk that was pinning her legs. It nearly crushed her right leg, and she was almost positive her ankle was sprained in the fall. She managed to push it off her and stand up, but it was hard to stay upright. Everything seemed a bit fuzzy around the edges, and somewhere in her peripheral vision she could see Wally's body sprawled out against the wreckage. Was he okay?
She would have to assume so for right now. There wasn't a whole lot of time to stop and check his vitals. Not when Raven was being slowly cornered by a deadly mercenary. She turned and looked at Deathstroke, whose eyes were trained on her. "I see you haven't lost your theatrical touch."
"Theatrical?" He cocked his head to the side, and Raven could feel him smile slowly under his mask. "I don't believe I'm the one teetering on the edge of life, still trying to hold onto my silly, honorable beliefs. If that isn't some form of sappy theatrics, I don't know what is." He stepped down the stairs, picking his way through the wreckage.
He moved a few inches closer to Wally, and Raven's anger flared up before she could stop it. "Stay away from my friend!" Her powers flew out and stopped his movements.
"Friend?"Deathstroke laughed and looked at her again, cocking his head to the side. "You're a demon seed, Raven… exactly what do you need friends for? Why should you need friends when you are destined to be used and discarded?"
Raven couldn't stop the insult from hitting her heart, and she felt her body shake under the pain. He knew what he was doing. He was ripping apart her defenses to get inside her and break her from within. But she wouldn't let him win. Not again, and not like this. "Shut up." Well, that was a genius response.
"Clever." He leaned over Wally's unconscious body and prodded his limp arm with his boot. Wally's left wrist was twisted at an unnatural angle, and it looked as though some bone was trying to come through the skin. Deathstroke raised his foot and smashed it down on his forearm, breaking the bones on the cement. Wally screamed and twisted in the debris, barely comprehending why he was in pain.
"Stop!" Raven ran forward and shoved her shoulder into his chest. Deathstroke was unimpressed and used her momentum against her, tossing her to the ground. She knocked her head on a shard of metal, and the world went black for a moment. She could feel his strong grip as he grabbed her cloak and brought her face to meet his. Bright lights and fuzzy shapes passed across her eyes, but she could still see him staring at her, promising death.
"How interesting… little demon. I never thought I'd see you so attached to a cocky, useless superhero."
"He's not useless!" Raven's weak attempts at freeing herself only seemed to amuse him.
Deathstroke stared down at her before throwing her body against a wall as if she were nothing more than a broken toy. "Forget it, Raven… you've lost. You have no friends, Kid Flash is broken, and you have exhausted all your powers just trying to heal a silly little wound. What are you going to do? You have failed. Now, hand over the chip and I will give you a quick, merciful death. Kid Flash… may not be so lucky, but you have been a fair opponent."
"No." Raven glared up at him and spat. "You will not kill me, and you will stay the hell away from my friends."
"Unlikely."
"Fuck off." Raven could feel the emotions in her body take over before she had a chance to stop them. Power welled up from the deepest corners of her soul, darkness, light, anger, passion, honor… everything seemed to hit her at once. A million pieces of her, all wrapped into pure energy. The world grew white and her body raised its self above him. "You will not hurt my friends!"
All the energy of her soul seemed to escape her, and Deathstroke was powerless to stop it. He was tossed into the power like a raft in a hurricane, his own soul breaking and ripping apart with every attack. Minutes passed, maybe hours. Time had no meaning, pain had no end.
And then it stopped.
Raven had exhausted herself.
She tumbled into a heap on the floor, feeling the world turn thick with emptiness. Her eyes started to close, but through the slits, she could see the retreating form of Deathstroke, his curses muffled under her own pain. She was lucky. She'd won again, but how many more times could this happen before she lost?
Her head tilted just enough to catch a glimpse of the shuddering form of Kid Flash. Her eyes started to drift close again, a hot afternoon breeze pouring into the safe house. He was alive, so right now it didn't matter if she lost after this. Right now, she'd won.
)O(
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