AN: So here's teh update. Kinda tired so not much to say other than hope you enjoy and please review.
Alienvspredator5- Hopefully Jake wont have to endure too much more torture. Thank you for teh review and enjoy teh show.
whisper dark rose- Well can't say I didn't try, you'll probably enjoy this chapter to. Maybe. Also, having few friends to laugh at the pain of others is well worth the trade off. Thank you for reviewing and enjoy the chapter.
ON WIT DIS SHIT
Raven jumped awake like she'd just been zapped by a high voltage power line. Her eyes darted around her room, quickly confirming she was indeed in her room. Breathing a couple of deep breaths she cleared her mind of the images that brought her to this state. The all to vivid visions of things to come. Courtesy of her father.
She brought her hands to her face, in an effort to brush away the strands of hair plastered to her face. When they past before her eyes she saw they'd been painted red and closer inspection revealed four semicircular cuts in each of her palms.
Sighing she gathered some energy to heal herself. Each of the cuts glowed a blinding white for a second before fading to reveal unbroken skin. Her physical wounds out of the way she stood from her bed and proceeded to open her closet and pick out a fresh uniform.
While she went about her morning routine her mind was a striving to find the source of the nightmares that had been plaguing her as of late. But with every new theory newer questions arose. Most none to pleasant to be thinking about, especially this early in the morning.
Her thoughts were interrupted as water from the shower struck her outstretched arm. Striping off the last nights sleep ware she stepped into the scalding spray. Reveling in its ability to wash away the problems and worries of the day, if only for a few minutes.
Just across the bay, in the heart of Jump City there was another Titan receiving a shower of sorts. Jake's body seized uncontrollably as the jets of water from the fire hose wielding Artemis struck his skin. The girl's excited expression never once faltered as she systematicly tore through Jake's defenses both physicaly and mentally.
"Come on Jake, you have to realize were not going anywhere until you accept what's already happened." She said turning off the hose. "And what's going to happen."
Jake dug deep within to find the strength to lift his head to look at Artemis. "You don't know… you don't understand a god damn thing." He dropped his head, staring blankly at the floor he continued, "Your only wasting your time."
Artemis walked up to him and picked up his chin so she could look him in the eye. Jake didn't bother to hide the wince that the feeling of her touch brought. "I don't think you understand Jake, no one is coming. The Titans, your 'friends' have already given up. She snapped her fingers and held out her hand. From an unknown person in the shadows was tossed a newspaper.
She turned it around so Jake could see. His obituary, detailing the last few months of his life. It was surreal seeing an article detailing your own death. The picture staring back at him seemed like an entirely different person. As he looked at this person he used to be the memory of that day flowed into his mind, and with it the memories of his squadmates.
Jake shook his head loose from her grip, and directing a stare that would make a hardened killer piss his pants straight at her, he spoke in a tone cold enough to freeze the very fires of hell. "You still don't fucking get it. I won't break because there's nothing for you to break. Blood took everything from me. EVERYTHING! Family. Friends. My whole fucking life, all gone in the time took to fire three bullets." Shaking his head he directed his stare a a section of wall to her right. "I'll die before you break me. There's nothing you can do to change that."
Artemis was shocked for a moment, but quickly recovered. She touched hand to his arm and concentrated a spike of cold, freezing the skin and penetrating deep into the tissue beneath. But he never moved away from it, didn't grunt, hell he didn't even blink. He just stared at that wall with enough ferocity to kill whoever stood on the other side.
She upped the pain in every way she knew how to. Hot, cold, fire, and even to the point of high voltage electricity. All were met with that unmoving stare. Minutes past into a full hour, he never once showed any sign of slight discomfort. She never had this happen before, normally they'd be begging for mercy after the treatment she just gave him. But now, he looked like he honestly wasn't effected in the slightest.
'This could prove quite troublesome.'
Before another thought could enter her head a voice called out. "Miss Shepard, there's been a slight change of plan. We're relocating the cell, there's a chopper inbound to take you all to the new location."
She was still contemplating how to get through to Jake, and gave only the slightest acknowledgement. So caught up in her thoughts while she packed up she didn't notice Jake fiddling with his hands bound above him.
Raven took another sip of the tea in her hands, staring out the window over the ocean. The sun was just coming over the horizon, the darkness retreating back toward the city like the a criminal on the run from the law. She went to take another swig of the herbal remedy that helped put her mind at ease, only to find there was none left.
Her cup empty and the others soon to invade her alone time she retreated to her favorite place to think, the roof.
Rather than walk up the stairs or wait for the elevator she teleported straight to her quiet place. As the pool of shadows retreated back under her cloak several birds that had been perched on the railing too flight. Leaving her alone on the desolate rooftop.
"Well at least I'll have some peace and quiet." She thought as she watched the birds flock toward the distant city.
High above the city streets and alleys, on the edge of a tower so high it may as well have been the edge of the world there stood five well armed soldiers and two others. One appeared to be a young teenager, and the last person stood captive in the midst of the soldiers, looking like he had just crawled through hell.
One soldier checked his watch, their ride was late. He looked over his men, all of them on edge. Few minutes late was one thing, twenty behind schedule. That was flat out wrong, and when something went wrong in the Hive. People got hurt.
Meanwhile Artemis was starting to get well and truly bored. She was told they'd be waiting for a few minutes max. That was almost half an hour ago. So, having nothing to kill time with she now occupied herself sitting on the edge of the building, kicking her feet over the side. As she stared out over the cityscape she let her mind wander as she waited, to no ones surprise it ventured to her and Jake's playtime earlier that day.
That was the third time in one week she got to pull out her favorite kit, and each time the sessions when on longer and using more and more imaginative ways of getting through to him. Until their little latest episode.
She could honestly say she didn't know where to turn next. He didn't respond to anything. Not even their "friendly" conversation. He just stood there like a soulless shell. A body without a mind. She had ben thinking nonstop since he delivered his last words, what could have changed?
She was so caught up with her thoughts in fact, she had lost one of her needles after her last session. It was nothing important, she had hundreds of others exactly like it. But the fact that she misplaced something on a job was so unlike her. Writing it off as just a little absent mindedness after a long day she continued on with her business like nothing had happened.
She threw a glance over her shoulder at Jake and couldn't help but notice his expression had yet to change at all. The way he was starting out over the horizon, so unlike him. Truth be told she was slightly unnerved at the sight.
Jake stood perfectly still in his place between the five guards, hands cuffed behind his back courtesy of said guards. The distant stare, merely an act. In his silence his mind plotted, accounting for numerous unknowns and variables subject to change. All to achieve such a simple object. A contingency he'd accepted he'd need to use. But first he needed to send a message. And a plan had come together that sent it perfectly.
He had already examined the guards' loadouts, Mp-5s with noise suppression and laser sights. Two clips of stun rounds, three of live ammunition, two flash grenades on the right side of their belt and two fragmentation on their left. Light though it may be, all of it was meant for him.
His head snapped to the left, a distant high speed drumming on the wind. Their ride was here. Rounding a distant skyscraper was the flying behemoth know as the MH-53 Pave Low. Half a ton of armor, three 7.62 gatling guns and six bladed rotor designed to be the most badass chopper in the sky, all flying straight toward their tower. Maybe it was a little much but the Hive had never been for subtlety.
As it drew closer Artemis stood from her spot on the edge and strolled over to stand beside Jake. "Oh, looks our ride is here Jake." She said leaning over his shoulder.
They all stepped off the oversized helipad to make room for the monster about to land. While it hovered a few meters above the roof Artemis was thinking that this was what it was like inside a tornado. Lower and lower it came until its landing gear stomped the asphalt. Then the door slid open and several more soldiers poured out, all with the same equipment the ones surrounding him had.
The man ahead of Jake stepped forward, and the man behind him gave his shoulder a rough shove to get him moving. In just a few steps he was being roughly thrown into the heilo and escorted to his seat.
The door slammed shut and immediately it grew significantly quieter inside the cabin. The craft lurched forward and their journey began. Starting out the small glass portal that served as a window Jake noted their direction based on what buildings the past.
His conclusion, they were headed out over the ocean, most likely out of the country. But before the hit open water they had to fly over the bay. "Perfect." He thought.
The plan was set, and it was a clever one if he said so himself. In Artemis' and his latest session, just before the end he removed the needle buried in his wrist. After she had unhooked all the needles and started packing he carefuly buried it in his left forearm. Just enough sticking out to grasp with his finger nails but not be noticed on a courtesy inspection on his way back to his cell.
Now, seated with his hands behind his back he removed the object and proceeded to use it as an impromptu lock pick. Two minutes and the steel shackles opened. He glanced to his left and right, fearing the guards seated beside him had heard the metallic clicking that was caused by his freeing his hands. Luckily they seemed none the wiser.
"And now we play the waiting game." He thought. He was only going to get one shot at this, and he would not miss it. Not with him so close.
Five seats down one of the occupants stood from their seat. From the corner of his eye he could make out the form of his newest acquaintance, Artemis, grabbing hold of an over head rail, slowly making her way forward. She glanced at him as she past, still he was staring at the guard across from him intently. She swore he hadn't yet blinked since he snapped on her.
She walked to where she had her gear stored, and started digging through the bags. Finally a small red case was produced. Water sealed and fireproof, it was the only thing she trusted her personal affects to be stored in. She undid the latch and removed a small silver cell phone, and as it powered up she noticed the green blinked light signaling she had received yet another message.
As she pocketed the device her attention was grabbed by a pack hanging from the wall. She ran her eyes over the oversized backpack Type T-10D parachute read on a small tag on on of the shoulders. "Well at least we're not completely fucked if something happens." She though.
Jake tapped his foot and took several deep breaths. "This will either work or it won't" was the only thought in his head. Slowly he snaked his left hand towards to the flash grenades that his guard on the left had. Hooking his fingers through the pins he paused for a moment. Thinking of all the ways this could go wrong. "No time like the present"
In one swift move he pulled the cylinders free while pulling the pins loose. He tossed one to the right and the other to the left. Everyone started to pull their weapons as two simultaneous bangs resounded throughout the hold. Jake for his part, though ears were ringing, had closed his eyes and so was mostly unaffected.
As he jumped up from the seat he pulled to pins on the fragmentation grenades of the guard beside him. He turned and sprinted to the front where a partially blinded Artemis was crouched rubbing her eyes.
When he reached her some guards were starting to recover and open fire, albeit inaccurately. Rounds pinged off the walls as he pulled the emergency release on the door. As soon as the release clicked the door fell away Jake fell with it.
Behind him a large explosion rocked the heilo and seconds later it was engulfed in a hellish fireball.
Then as the door moved from in front of him he realized just how high he was, and just how fucked he was. Spreading his arms and legs in an effort to control his decent the only thing that entered his mind was "damn thats a long drop."
As his heart tried to escape his chest through brute force he risked a glance over his shoulder. To his amazement there falling behind him, the blue haired Artemis. Wearing a pack on her back, what he guessed to be a parachute.
He brought one hand to his chest and let the drag from the other hand flip him over to face her. Now falling with his back to the water he noticed it grew surprisingly quieter. He could feel the moisture in the air now, "just a few more seconds now."
Crossing his hands over his chest he extended a single finger on each hand. A smirk present on his face a he watched her face. And for the first time her happy, excited facade fell.
Oddly in his last seconds he felt a strange sense of peace. One he hadn't felt in months, since his encounter with the Hive so long ago. Finally, he was free once more.
Raven cracked an eye from her meditation at the sound of a helicopter flying extremely low. She hated when a plane flew over the tower, always interrupting her. Once she even asked to instate a no fly zone over the tower. But it was quickly rejected, dismissed as not important enough to redirect traffic.
She eyed the militaristic looking bird as it continued along its merry way, disrupting the peace wherever it may fly. She continued tracking it as it flew and just before it past the tower something caught her eye.
Though far away she thought she saw a flash of light through a small porthole in the side of the craft. Seconds after the light faded away a door fell from the bird and a person behind it.
Now red flags went up all around in her mind. Without a seconds hesitation she took flight as fast as she was able to the falling person. Just as she cleared the island the heilo shook like it had just been hit by an RPG and part of its body were blown off into the waters below. Another jumped or fell, just as the helicopter was engulfed in flames. The girl as she appeared to be wore a parachute at least.
But to her amazement, the girl didn't open it right away, instead she pinned her arms to her sides and tried to catch the first guy.
As she drew closer the blue haired girl had almost caught up with whoever they were chasing, but they were running out of time. Then the person below flipped over to face his follower, and when she saw his face she was stopped dead in her tracks.
"Jake?" Her mind raced, trying to discern how that was possible. Milliseconds ticked by like hours as she watched him fall. Then like a ton of bricks it hit her, Jake was falling.
Taking of with enough speed to put a rocket to shame she flew inches over the water to catch him. The other girl's parachute deployed, leaving her his only life line. Pulling from reserves she didn't know existed she flew faster still.
But try as she might, she couldn't fly fast enough to intercept him. Her heart sank as she watched him fall just out of reach. An overly loud crack shattered the silence over the bay, sounding more like something hitting concrete rather than water. And the realization hit home, she was too late.
AN: Like it? Hate it? Drop me a review and let me know.