"What are you listening to?" His question was innocent enough, and so Raven held an earbud out for him.
Normally, she would just read but the movement of the car had proved to be a bit too much for her stomach - music (especially with lyrics) wasn't something she relied on often. She really wished that they could've just flown, or done something else to get there quicker.
Cyborg insisted, and no one really wanted to take the joy away from them.
She turned her attention to the clementine in her crossed legs as the changeling made funny faces next to her. She'd grabbed it from the counter just as they left. No guarantees it would've been safe to eat by the time they got back - whenever that would be. Deft fingers pulled back the thick skin of it, and she tried to just focus on that - ever since her nightmare, things were not how they should've been.
She felt as if she was losing control, and that got under her skin. The fact that she couldn't kick her trepidations out from under there, that was even more frustrating.
"Rae, what's this band called?" He had startled her, so she blinked for a moment but didn't move her gaze. He sounded genuinely interested, and then she looked at him from the corner of her eye.
"Dead Man's Bones." Her voice was soft, but terse nonetheless.
"Morbid." He made a face, and stuck his tongue out. Maybe he was trying to parody a corpse.
"I could make you a corpse, easier than that." Raven deadpanned listlessly.
"Jeez, I was just trying to make you smile..." For once in their lives, it was his turn to roll his eyes.
Raven made a small smirk, and he saw it. He returned it with a beam, and quickly the empath was back to glowering.
A small smile proved to be enough, though, and Beast Boy leaned back, putting his hands behind his head. Little red smirk, framed by thick, wavy, purple hair and violet eyes that betrayed more than they knew - he could sleep soundly with just that image in the front of his mind. His elbow rested behind Raven's, but she didn't shoot him a look or say anything.
Mild discomfort was worth the silence.
Every now and then, he'd speak up.
"What's this?"
"VCR, by the xx."
"What about this one, Rae?"
"Raven. Fake Empire, by The National."
They stayed in their own little bubble, and for once she didn't mind it. Seclusion was her forefront, and she never would've imagined that having Beast Boy inside her seclusion could be so comfortable - the best trick he'd learned to date was shutting up at the right moments. Cyborg was chatting Star's ear off about mechanics, and Robin was just trying to snatch at the radio from beside Beast Boy - he was in the middle of the back seat. Beast Boy had created a cushion from the boy blunder, and so Raven was left in peace.
Spider fingers pricked into the soft flesh of the clementine, and she popped the section of it into her mouth. It felt like an empty action - the mundane task of pulling it apart had been what was keeping her occupied.
When she looked at her fingers again, sticky from the tart juice, they were different than what she expected to see. Instead of citrus sticky, her fingers looked like they were melting. Discolored, now they shifted to black.
Tar.
Shaking them quickly, Raven bit her lip quickly and tried to stifle everything she felt. She must've done a good job - Beast Boy only looked up momentarily.
"You okay?"
"Of course," she hardly stumbled in her speech, and grabbed the mp3 player, "Hey, listen to this. At the Hop, by Devendra Banhart."
"Makes me want pancakes." He smiled - she was alarmed at how she suddenly felt better with that smile. Out of hundreds of combinations of those muscles, he came up with this protective, relaxed smile that made her relax a bit into the seat.
She didn't return it though.
The last lines rattled out, as they pulled up to Titan's North, and the empath found herself clutching at her thighs - anything to just calm down a little bit. Crooner that he was, Devendra Banhart had no problem pulling the anxiousness out of her chest.
Although she wasn't in any mood to meet new people, she walked in with the rest of them. Two seconds of thought, and a familiar, albeit blank, mask settled comfortably on her features. After a beat, she remembered that these weren't new people - she'd fought along side them comfortably enough in the past. A stiffness she hadn't noticed in her shoulder's suddenly dissipated.
Starfire immediately flocked to Argent and began spilling out all these apologies for leaving so quickly forever ago. Leaving her in the mess of the Brotherhood, that was. Since Argent had been one of the Titan's frozen, Starfire had always carried a bit of guilty grief for something she wasn't able to prevent.
"Star," Raven pulled the syllable out, her raspy and low voice making it seem even longer. "That was like a year ago."
"Yes friend, but still - "
Argent made a wilting face for a moment and then finally spoke up, interrupting the Tamaranian.
"Nah, she's right - it's in the past." When Starfire looked like she was ready to dispute the both of them again, Argent continued "What's important is you're here now! And, er, there's no time like the present...?" It was an attempt, but the overactive girl seemed placated.
Everyone grouped up then, just for a moment. Inevitably, Raven was left with Argent - honestly, she doubted that they had much in common. The other Titans - and the media, to boot - always lumped them together, like they should be friends.
Sure, fashion choices had been some kind of link at first, but now that they were older they were more subtle. Not to mention, Argent was laid back whereas Raven was uptight. If she ever appeared relaxed, it was more that she had finally achieved some level of apathy that was much more comfortable than being painfully aware of everyone around her.
Finally, she decided to bite the bullet and say something.
"So, do you know where we'll all be staying?"
The other girl opened her mouth to answer, but something else caught everyone's attention.
Nine communicators buzzed, but Kole was the one to confirm it -
"They're back."
Two ominous words and everyone jumped.
With nine Titans en route to the two dimensional-interlopers, Raven could feel their pounding thoughts around her. She swore she was the only one that remembered they were still kids - their emotions wouldn't let her forget it.
Kole worried for Gnarrk, Gnarrk worried for Kole. Red Star felt the same apprehension before every battle - what if something happened again, what if there was some unforeseen incident and he decimated the whole town while only trying to help? Robin was always a strange cocktail of angst, some misplaced desire to prove himself, and zero self preservation. He was a jock, but he teetered on the edge of the world. Starfire had her boughs of insecurity as well, but she balanced them more carefully. By that, she simply wouldn't acknowledge them. Raven felt some admiration for her, in that manner. Cyborg was determination, protectiveness, and a sharp edge of loneliness. That third one was always hiding on some angle of his conscious, and it made Raven worry for him. Beast Boy had the same self-preservation complex as Robin, and the emotion between his ribs bellowed out freely now. She still couldn't place it, and in his animal form his emotions tended to be less trifling.
The air smelled dry, when she placed her feet on the ground. She'd ended up closer to one opposite than the other. The ram's shirt was dusty, disheveled, the hair on his arms and the back of his head was nearly white with desert sand. His mouth probably tasted like sand paper. Raven looked around quickly to see who she was with - Beast Boy, Red Star and Argent. She and the other girl shared a quick nod. Their powers were a bit alike, and so they ended up lumping themselves together.
Raven levitated herself only a handful of feet off the ground - she didn't need to be high up, but maneuverability was easier when levitating than on her feet. She was quick on her feet only moving forward; dodging things on foot was more for Star. She looked at the scene and the boy on his fabricated plateau, taking it all in. It was hard to decide how to start - Red Star was already sending small bursts of radiation at the ram, but he seemed unfazed. Beast Boy was a jaguar, stalking low, trying to decide where to strike like she and Argent were.
They were all in the dark, looking for his weak spot - or just trying to decide how to maneuver this. Raven decided to make the first real move.
She touched her ring fingers together, thinking of the crown chakra, and pulled them apart quickly. Her palms were flat, and she repeated those three key words before letting the energy fly from her life line.
For a moment, her throat closed up when her soul self looked so much like tar. That's because your soul is tar, stupid girl. Raven knew it was her mind playing tricks on her, and swallowed the painful lump in her throat in order to surround the ram and hold him still.
Once that was done, though, she didn't know what to do with him. In her palms was a creature she was certain was not from this planet - no matter where she put him, he would escape. All this effort suddenly seemed very useless and disheartening. A wave of smugness rolled off of him, and his chin tilted up a bit. He must've noticed the conclusion she came to.
Suddenly, her force was faltered. Raven broke concentration, just for a moment. She felt a chill, and without searching found the eyes of the other raven - well not eyes, per se, but an intense stare. It was an unbroken feeling, but it was more than vision. Gentle force on her constant barriers. There was something about that look... that girl had been the one to make her break concentration...
"Raven!" It was Argent's voice, accent making it sound more urgent than it might've been.
She turned to see that her energy had dissolved in her brief repose, and a great, desert rock was hurtling at her.
She merely blinked, not thinking fast enough to do much about it. Time decayed rapidly for her. Raven's mind felt lazy, like it was moving through something much thicker than just consciousness. Something about that raven... she couldn't even focus on the hunk of earth on a collision course with her. That damned girl...
A caribou pushed itself off torn up asphalt, reaching Raven's low altitude and bounding in front of her. A flash of emerald, a flash of rippling fur. Arch of the neck, twin antlers pointed towards the makeshift-missile. They were soft, still covered with downy velvet - what a stupid thought, to dwell on when they would fall off in a bloody spring. They did release the brunt of the damage, creating fissures in the compacted sand so that it broke apart easier when it crashed on the deer's ribcage.
Ever calm, Raven did not make a sound as the deer collided with her as well. It wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be; two opposite forces had met, and slowed down she was no longer in the line of fire. He hit her legs, knocking her backwards. For a moment, she was loose from her own gravity. She steadied herself in the air, and looked at a newly transformed Beast Boy, laying in a heap of sand. Chunks of it were strewn in his green hair, one pointed ear was buried, along with a right leg and a good portion of both arms. She shook her head quickly, a degrading but silent promise that she'd be back in a moment.
"Don't hold back!" Her voice echoed among buildings, and through the chaos (and several overturned cars, pulled up asphalt and decimated streets) the other squadron of Titan's heard her. Five pairs of eyes - four, actually, since Kole was currently occupied - flashed up in recognition of the steal in her voice. She supposed she had quite a reputation, if those who didn't even know her that well had a reaction to her change in tone. Everyone seemed to trust Raven on this front, and listened. Her words had been aimed at Red Star, mostly - she knew his fears.
Argent had created a great baseball bat with her plasma energy and was hurling masses of radiation that Red Star supplied towards the ram. She chuckled lightly.
"The American past time... it's funny, becos - you know, neither of us is American."
Red Star gave her an exhausted smile. Clearly he was used to flat jokes like this.
They had the ram under control for a moment, but there was fatigue riding heavy on everyone. They hadn't been fighting for too long, but this was a war they didn't know how to wage. Energy was being wasted with clumsy ignorance. No matter what, their fighting was useless - they wouldn't know what to do when they won. (And when they got close to winning the ram would escape, which they knew.)
Convinced that the ram was being dealt with, and pressed with the issue of Beast Boy staring up at the sky like he just now noticed it was blue, Raven let her counterpart slip her mind. Tragic, that.
"A damn deer," she muttered, and he smiled weakly.
Practiced fingers probed his ribcage, memorizing where every painful face was made. That rib was broken, the ligaments that connected his hips with his spine were contracted in what was probably a very painful manner. Movement would be weak there. She racked her brain to think about his head - no, he'd still been a caribou when the initial impact had hit, so his neck would've taken the strain differently. No direct head injuries, so no concussion. She probed further, and he looked dizzy.
"You can't pass out - you're twice as big as you used to be, and I can't carry you when you are stupid anymore." Something about her biting honesty kept him awake long enough for a retort.
"You're a saint for saying what's on your mind." That puzzled Raven, since it didn't really have to do with anything and was hardly the retort she'd been expecting. She opened her mouth to speak, and his eyes rolled backwards.
"I'll remember that," she muttered to his unconscious body, "You passed out from moderate pain, you're not living that down."
The words fell flat towards the end when she finally remembered the raven.
"Don't let the raven touch you!" She'd flung herself from the ground, a heavy Beast Boy hanging from her shoulder, weighing her down. Desperation painted her figure, and she wouldn't forgive herself from forgetting that the half-wit interloper had tried to get into her head.
Unfortunately, her warning had gone too late to be heard.
The raven had made it dangerously close to Robin; he was fighting only defensively now - she wasn't giving him room for offense. He was using up energy, and she was finding holes in his defense. Starfire was coming to his rescue, but too late -
For the second time of the battle, Raven's standard of time began to decay once more. The girl lifted the beak of her skull back revealing the bottom portion of her face. The skin was pale there, too, with a slather of freckles across a petite nose and chin. Her lips were small and tart, like two halves of a cherry. Except they were only red towards her mouth. The outer edges were blue, like she had been drowned day after day.
She was impossibly close to Robin now. Her chin tilted, and she planted those mermaid lips against Robin's pursed and surprised ones.
"God dammit." Raven just muttered under her breath.
A/N: So my holiday gift to you all is a cliffhanger, yipee!
Also, those songs (which you should all totally go listen to) were chosen carefully. It's no small secret that I'm writing this mostly because I've been unnerved by the way a lot of people portray her. That little song bit was just my way of disputing the goth thing that I think even the series itself tried to place on her, like a trite kinda thing?
Ah, anyway this chapter gave me a lot of trouble, which is why it's a bit late (by my standards, anyway) and it was supposed to be two chapters.
Thank you so much for all the follows and favorites thus far - that's really been my motivation in this, knowing that people are interested!