Chapter 4: New Markings

More chapters! Huzzah! I want to try and get at least this and one more done before Thursday because then I'll be out of town for a few days to see the Backstreet Boys. Because I'm an adult. Boom.

Robin was pacing back and forth in front of the window, his eyes focused on the villain across the bay. Raven was behind him, meditating on the hospital bed. Turning away from the window, Robin walked back towards her. A calm and gentle expression had settled over her features, replacing the troubled and pained one from earlier. It was a nice change, Robin thought. He glanced over her exposed skin and noticed her injuries were faded. It was time to draw her from her trance.

"Raven," he said. Slowly, she began to come out of her meditative state and settle back on the bed two inches below her hovering form.

"What?" she asked, clearly annoyed at the interruption. Her hard eyes softened a bit upon noticing Robin. She didn't think that crease had left his brow in hours.

"I need to check your injuries again," he told Raven. Taking one of her arms, he unbandaged it to find the cuts and burns completely gone. He looked at her inquisitively.

"That's why I was meditating. I was healing myself," she said. "Most of the injuries were surprisingly shallow, minus two or three."

"And the burn?" Robin said as he quickly grabbed her left wrist and unwrapped it. He saw her wince.

"I couldn't get rid of that mark. Everything else is better, but, but not this," Raven said quietly, drawing her hand back to her and closing her thin fingers around her wrist. "It still burns. And it hurts around the mark, not just on it. It shouldn't, but it does."

Robin felt his hands ball into fists at his sides. There were injuries, and then there were injuries. A brand. The deliberate nature of it, the aspect of labeling behind it… it was almost sickening. Robin remembered the marks on Raven's body during the prophecy and how she had struggled to hide those. He remembered how she told him how those were almost as bad as the actual prophecy. They didn't hurt badly, but the fact that she was like property with them displayed to the world was a kind of psychological battle she never wanted to face again. And here they were with this on her wrist.

Raven noticed Robin's tense shoulders and the veins throbbing in his exposed forearms. He looked how she felt. Her wrist suddenly pulsated with pain and she felt her heart heave in her chest.

"So, everything is better except your wrist?" Robin said, placing a hand on her arm as he bent down to look her in the eye. Raven forced her eyes open and she looked back at him.

"I think so," she replied in a tight voice. Robin saw the grip she had around the wound and he took her wrist in his hand, gently pulling her fingers off. Reluctantly, she released her grasp and allowed Robin to study the mark. Both of them gasped as their eyes met over the brand.

…

Tempest watched with an amused look as the metal man and alien charged at him from their not-so-secret hiding spot. Smirking, he drew one of his swords.

Cyborg stopped halfway to Tempest, Starfire screeching to a halt above him. Their villain was watching them with amusement? Cyborg growled. The Titans were nothing to be laughed at. Electricity sparked as Tempest touched the sword, the yellow and white light traveling to the blade and creating a charged halo around the metal edge.

Tempest's amusement faded to annoyance. The two were just sitting there, staring. Though to his credit, the metal man had the sense to at least look angry and not like an idiot. That redheaded flying girl, though. Her head was cocked to one side like an idiotic puppy. It would be up to him to make the first move. Drawing more energy from the sky, Tempest spelled out the words 'Bring it on' above him against the dark clouds. This snapped the two out of whatever trance they were in and the redhead fired a bolt of green light at him. Raising his sword, Tempest swung at the bolt as it whizzed by him.

"Batter up!" he cried.

…

Robin was the first to recover from the initial shock.

"That's the name of the villain. Tempest," Robin spoke as he and Raven studied her wrist. No longer was it only a lightning bolt. The name of their foe had burned itself into Raven's skin above the original mark.

"Well that's original," Raven choked out. Robin gave her humor a sad smile. If he were an empath, he was sure he would be able to feel a maelstrom of emotion flooding off her right now. Anger, fear, confusion…

"The others should be fighting him right now." Robin stood to check the window, watching Raven from the corner of his eye. As much as he wanted to pull her into his arms and comfort her, he knew that would only make things worse right now. Raven was independent and strong, and this mark on her wrist was taking serious hacks at how she perceived that in her mind. She took her burnt and torn cape from the floor and threw it over her shoulders before joining him.

"Well this guy is impatient, that's for sure," Raven observed as 'bring it on' appeared above the distant shadow.

"He got Starfire fighting," Robin replied as a neon green starbolt flew from the dark up towards Tempest. He saw Raven try to pull her hood over her head, but there was no hood left to wear. He pretended not to notice as her hands grasped at air and fell back to her sides. Robin cleared his throat.

"So, with the exception of an amazingly freaky wrist, you all good to go?" Robin asked Raven. She was quiet for a moment, studying the scene outside the window. Robin let his gaze linger over her face. Her incredibly beautiful face, he thought as a flash of lightning lit up her features. Most of the marks on her face were gone except one thin line that stretched from her forehead to her cheekbone, but even that was fading fast. Some of the tips of her hair were singed, her cape was a dirty torn mess of mud and scorch marks, and her leotard was shredded on her left arm and ripped other places. But she was still the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

Raven felt some heat begin to creep up the back of her neck at the emotions coming from Robin. She forgot when, but at some point a few weeks back, he had completely forgone any sort of control over what he knew her empathy could pick up in close proximity. Like he wanted her to know about these feelings, but wanted her to be able to make a decision about something (she wasn't sure exactly what that was) without any words spoken. The whole situation was an annoying mixture of confusion and clarity. Robin's strong emotions towards her, her uncharacteristic acceptance and embrace of them, but no words were ever spoken regarding them. It was weird. Raven didn't think this was how earth relationships were supposed to work.

"I don't get it," she said, turning to look at Robin. He looked startled and she held back a laugh. "How could he etch his name into my wrist? He's all the way over there, and we're all the way over here," Raven said. She could see Robin slowly shifting gears in his mind as he gathered his thoughts and digested what she had said.

"We'll figure that out later," he responded. "I think the others are struggling a bit with our new guy." Robin pointed back out the window to a battle that didn't seem to be going so well.

…

Tempest had deflected most every starbolt and cannon shot thrown at him and he was growing bored of his baseball game. Giving out an exaggerated yawn, he called out to the tired Titans below him.

"I'm getting rather bored up here. What else you got?"

"You want the real thing, lightning boy?" Cyborg shouted. "Then ready or not, here we come!" He swiftly closed the distance between him and Tempest with Starfire right behind him. Jumping into the air, Starfire caught Cyborg's arm and flipped them both around. Using the momentum, she flung him down towards Tempest and Cyborg brought his fists crashing down into the ground. The earth shook a little and small fissures ran in jagged lines away from the small crater. It was an attack designed to knock opponents back, to stun and give an opening for a quick follow-up attack. Cyborg looked up, eyes wide in surprise. Tempest stood balancing on his sword a few yards away, the tip of it neatly stuck in one of the cracks in the ground.

"I said I wanted the real thing," Tempest said coolly, flipping backwards and landing beside his sword. "Please tell me that wasn't it. I'd be quite disappointed."

"That was most certainly not our greatest!" Starfire yelled. "There is, um, more where that came from!" She quickly shot off an eyebeam and caught Tempest in the chest. Falling backwards, he used the force from his fall to somersault backwards and land in a crouch. He smiled.

"You hit me. Congratulations. But now," his smile turned to a smirk and his gleaming silver eyes narrowed. "Playtime is over, kids." Springing forward, he yanked his sword out of the ground and leapt into the air.

"Beast Boy! Now!" Cyborg shouted as Tempest came flying towards him. A screech echoed across the hilltop as a green pterodactyl came rocketing across the grass. A pained look crossed Tempest's face as his leap turned into an uncontrolled flight over the Titans' heads. He caught a fleeting glance of the green boy standing cockily behind him before a rough jolt and a mouthful of dirt brought him back to the task at hand. He tumbled head over heels down the steep slope of the hill, only stopping when he crashed into the rocks below where the metal man and redhead had been hiding earlier.

"Friend Beast Boy, that was most spectacular!" Starfire clapped her hands together gleefully.

"Man, you were right there for that!" Cyborg laughed as he bumped knuckles with a smiling Beast Boy.

"Sorry to rain on his parade, but the forecast today is a one hundred percent chance of whoop ass!" Beast Boy laughed at his own joke.

"There is a parade?" Starfire asked. Cyborg slapped his face with his palm.

A hundred yards below them, a dark shape was stirring. Tempest bit his tongue as a ripple of pain shot across his body and he quickly banished it from mind. He slid a hand across the dirt towards his sword and grabbed the handle. Rising slowly, he began his slow creep up the hill.

…

Robin and Raven had been heading out the door to join their teammates when Raven heard a faint shriek from the window. She had dragged Robin back just in time to see Beast Boy slam into Tempest. Rather, they saw a shape fly into a leaping shadow and decided to stay and watch to see what would happen next and try and get the others up on the communicator.

"What the hell are they doing? He's right behind them!" Robin said frantically as they watched the three shadows stand around while another slunk up the hill, barely visible through the rain. Robin clicked the 'call' button on his communicator again but there was no response. Raven snatched her own comm from the hospital table.

"Stop laughing, you idiots! He's right behind you!" she yelled into the speaker. Raising her head back to the window, she saw a long object with crackling energy around it swing down at one of the larger shadows—Cyborg most likely. The weapon continued down as the head of the shadow glanced at its arm. As if in a bad dream, the object hissed through the air and right through Cyborg's head. Raven's breath caught in her throat as she started to sway back and forth. Feeling a firm body behind her, she let herself fall into Robin's arms.

Robin caught Raven around the waist and slowly lowered them to the chair by the window. He forgot how much energy her healing powers took, and then Cyborg—he wouldn't think it. Cyborg was fine. Gently prying the communicator from Raven's hand, he pressed the button on the side.

"Cyborg? Do you read?" Robin said hoarsely.

Yeah, yeah, cliffhanger. It's not like you don't already know what happens though, right? =) More later!