AN: Firstly I would like to apologise for how long it has been since I posted the first chapter (two years ago, roughly). I hadn't realised it'd been that long. For those of you that haven't heard, I'm now working 12 hour days in a very demanding job, so I don't have much free time, but I am still writing, abet a bit slowly. I'm also using my tablet, which has a slightly faulty screen so if there are any typos I apologise, however due to only being able to use the keyboard and edged the screen its really hard to edit anything.
(….)
"So how much have I missed?" Raven asked as she pushed her breakfast around her plate with disinterest, ignoring Jinx's glare.
"You mean apart from all the media coverage or..?" Cyborg asked. "All the hostages are out of hospital and with their families, minimal damage done and the Shadow has officially been declared dead, though we never found a body."
"You wouldn't, he dissipated," Raven said, the same thing she'd told Robin last night.
"There was about a week's worth of media attention before it started dwindling down, mostly just focusing on your recovery, though it was all bull because we didn't give them any real information about that," Cyborg finished.
"And since then? With the team?"
"Well, as you know, Jinx has been here which has made it quite difficult for us to respond to call outs," Robin answered, not sounding happy. "The public weren't the only ones interested in your state of recovery. Dr Light, Killer Moth, Johnny Rancid and Red X – to name a few – have all tried their luck since the incident."
"And they're all behind bars. Well except for Red X but that's nothing new," Beast Boy added. "Oh, and we had a few surprise visits from the police commissioner, and one from Kid Flash."
"But Jinx-"
"Is very good at hiding," The thief interrupted. "Now eat – you need it."
Raven scowled at her, but took a bite of bacon. "Have you spoken to your teammates?"
"A few times," Jinx shrugged, "They're not very happy but so what? I didn't want to leave before you woke up."
"You almost did," Raven pointed out.
"Yeah, well a month's a long time to sit in one chair," Jinx replied, but didn't say anything else about it.
"What did Kid Flash want anyway?"
"To see how you were, and drop off his card personally," Starker smiled, before gasping, "I almost forgot!" She had left the room before anyone could ask her what it was she'd forgotten.
"I know you feel like you don't have any friends outside of this team, but you at least got a card of every honorary titan. Several called to ask us personally how you were doing. Argent, Kid Flash, Kole and Gnark, Bee, Herold…" Cyborg told her, smiling.
"I highly doubt every honorary titan did that because they consider me a friend. I've never even spoken once to half of them. It's just a formal nicety."
Starfire flew back into the room, a large envelop in her hand. "This is for you!"
"Apparently I have about twenty of them. Can't it wait until later?"
"You will want to open this one now," Starfire shook her head. "I collected it personally off, well you will see. They would most appreciate knowing you are better."
Raven frowned but opened it. A simple white piece of card had been folded in half, the action having being attempted several times if the creases down the spine were to attest to anything. On the front there was a childish drawing of what she could make out to be a large bear, a girl, two boys and herself. Someone had also tried to draw a gorilla lying on the floor, only recognisable due to the convenient arrow someone had drawn, labelling the grey, scribbled mass as 'monkey man'.
Raven didn't realise she was smiling. Inside, also written in crayon was 'To Rayven, get beter soon, love Melvin, Bobby, Timmy and Teether'. Each child had written their own name, and the last was barely more than a scribble even though someone someone had given him guidelines to follow.
"I should probably call them," Raven murmured, before asking Starfire, "You picked this up?"
"I did. From the orphanage. I assume Melvin saw it on the news."
"They rang you the day after it all went down," Beast Boy grinned. "We told them you were too poorly to answer your communicator. We didn't want to worry them too much."
"Who is it from?" Jinx frowned, staring at the card.
"Rae's kids," Cyborg grinned. "Also known as our youngest honorary titans; those kids have some guts. You probably saw them during the fight against the brotherhood. They were with some bear that stands about 15 feet tall."
The thief frowned at her girlfriend, "But you told me you hadn't-"
"Azar, Jinx! They're not actually mine! I spent a few days babysitting them because the brotherhood was after them." Raven scowled at Cyborg a moment before telling Jinx, "It was a nightmare, originally. I don't know the first thing about children, but we got along in the end."
"More than got along. Those kids really look up to you," Cyborg told her.
"Yes, thank you for your input, Cyborg."
"Hold old are they?"
"Ten, five and three, though Teether will be four in a few months," Raven answered Jinx without hesitation.
"And they fought the brotherhood?! But then they would have been…" Jinx fell silent as she did her mental math.
"Nine, four and two." Raven told her.
"You took a two year old into a fight?!"
"They wanted to come. Besides, they held up their own against Monsieur Mallah." Raven shrugged as she reached for her communicator. "They're tough kids. They'll make a great team one day." She gave Jinx a pointed look to let her know she was no longer discussing the matter and flipper her communicator open. "Raven calling Melvin."
A minute passed before anyone answered, and when they kid, she found all three kids trying to fit their faces into the camera. "Raven!'
"I got your card."
"I told them you'd be alright," Melvin instantly boasted. "They wouldn't say it but they were really worried but I know you're strong."
"They?"
"Your friends," Melvin smiled. "That lady's nice. She speaks funny though."
"So would you if English wasn't your first language," Raven told her, glancing at Starfire.
"Did you like it?" Timmy asked, pushing Melvin aside so his freckled face filled the screen. "I drew me and Teether!"
"Monkey man!" The youngest shouted from somewhere in the background.
"It was very good. Someone needs to work on their spelling though."
"Melvin did that!" Timmy was quick to push the blame.
The blonde moved Timmy away from the camera so she could be seen again. "I did good though, right?"
"Just lose the 'y' in Raven and 'better' has two 't's. How have you free been anyway? I hope you haven't been giving the staff at the orphanage too much hassle."
"We're good, I suppose," Melvin answered. "Well, Timmy's been suspended from school because he screamed in class."
Raven raised her brow. "Timmy?"
"Well it's not just me! They won't even enrol Teether into a preschool because he's still biting people!"
Teether broke out into giggles as though he was rather pleased by this.
"Melvin, please tell me you're still in school."
"I am. Bobby stays here though. He doesn't like school much."
"Pretty sure school doesn't like him," Raven heard Cyborg murmur, followed by Beast Boy's laugh.
"As he should," Raven told her, ignoring her teammates. "I've told you about using your abilities in school. You could hurt one of the other kids. If this keeps happening you end up being home schooled. Is that really what you want?"
"No," Both Melvin and Timmy replied reluctantly, before Teether piped up,
"Raven teach!"
"No," she said quickly, aware of the smiles as soon as they had appeared on the kids faces at the idea. Speaking to Teether she frowned, "You're still not using full sentences."
"He cant," Melvin told her, "And the adults here have given up trying to teach him."
Raven scowled. Almost at the age of four, Raven knew his speech shouldn't be perfect, but it hadn't changed at all during the time she'd known him.
The oldest looked round at something behind them, quickly tell her, "We've got to go."
"I'll see you soon then."
Melvin's head whipped back round, a smile on her face "Really?"
"Maybe."
"That's a yes, then," Melvin grinned before hanging up.
"So, what exactly can they do?" Jinx asked as Raven shut her communicator.
The empathy frowned slightly, as though wondering if telling the thief was a good idea or not. She eventually shrugged, saying "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. They're only kids. I doubt they're even scratching the surface of what they can do, Melvin and Teether in particular. Timmy reminds me of Black Canary. He can create sonic waves with his voice as an attack. He hasn't learnt how to control it yet though so it's happening every time he gets upset and at different frequencies. Melvin can manifest things using her imagination alone. That's where Bobby came from. Again she hasn't created anything else, just him, but I think that's down again to her level of control rather than her ability. Teether eats things. Metal, plastic, rubber, leather… I haven't seen him find something he struggles with yet. He will also eat all that unless you stop him. Once I've seen him use those things as projectiles once chewed so there might be a lot more to it than what we're seeing at the moment."
"And they live at an orphanage?" Jinx frowned.
"I don't know why. I do know they're not related. They banded together because of their similarities and the orphanage have been unable to separate them since."
Jinx processed that before grinning, "I never would have pegged you as the maternal type."
"I'm not," Raven scowled.
"Uh huh."
"Moving off the kids, how are you feeling Rae," Cyborg asked.
"Sore," Raven replied, glad for the subject change. "My legs and back keep seizing up."
"Do you feel up for visitors?" Robin asked. "Commissioner O'Connell will want to know you're awake."
"He'll want a statement, you mean," The empathy nodded. "Sure, why not. Might as well get it over and done with."
Robin nodded and turned his attention onto Jinx.
"I know – I'll go hide in the basement or something again."
"You said you were staying until Raven woke up. That was yesterday."
"Pushy much," Jinx frowned. "I'll leave tonight."
"This morning," Robin countered.
"Tonight. It's not like Raven's in any shape to drop me off anywhere. Do you really want someone to see me leaving the tower in broad daylight?"
Klaxons filled the room before he could answer and, wearing a scowl, he got up and went over to the computer. He switched the alarm off before saying, "Mumbo Jumbo, westnet bank."
Beast Boy and Cyborg both groaned unhappily. The villain wasn't particularly dangerous, just annoying, his show tricks – as Raven called his brand of magic – making catching him just very time consuming.
"Just snap his wand," Raven reminded them.
"That's easy for you to say," Beast Boy grumbled. "You're not the one who's gotta try and get hold of it in the first place."
"Come on Titans. Lets get this over and done with." Passing the table, Robin stopped near Jinx to tell her, "We'll talk about this when we get back."
Jinx didn't reply, waiting until everyone had left the room before looking at her girlfriend.
"Seriously though? Kids?"
(….)
Jinx had won the argument with Robin and when the door bell had gone off, had stayed true to her word, going to hide in the basement, one level below the garage. Raven was still sat at the table in the common room, though her uneaten breakfast has been replaced by a chess board. She'd been playing a game with Jinx who had proven to be almost as challenging as Robin. Almost. Ignoring the time Cyborg had beaten her with his maxed out hard drive, Raven was the tower's unbeaten champion.
Commissioner O'Connell sat across from her where Jinx had been sat not ten minutes earlier. "First of all, it's good to see you up and about. I think all of Jump City have been quite worried about you." He cleared his throat before asking, "How long until you're back on the field?"
Less than a week, if she could get her back and leg muscles to stop seizing. She'd been without flight the first day she'd spent awake, but that had slowly come back, as were the rest of her abilities. Robin had warned her about being too forward with her healing abilities however, so she shrugged in answer to his question, telling him, "Whenever Cyborg decides to give me the all clear."
"Well, you look a lot better than the last time I saw you. You're injuries were quite… well. The paramedics on the scene said you wouldn't make it. Your healing is incredible, and how you didn't suffocate under the rubble in the first place…"
"I have some remarkable friends, and that's all there is to it," Raven told him before saying, "Enough with the pleasantries, I know why you're here, so lets get it over and done with, shall we?"
She was talking about her statement. A statement that, for the most part, would be skipping out a lot of the details. Past getting the hostages out, it wasn't as though she had to worry about her version of events not matching up to anyone else's. The only other witness was Damien, and he was dead.
The man produced a form from somewhere and slid it across to her, taking care not to nudge the chess set and it's half finished game. "Who's winning?"
"I am," Raven replied.
"Well, I'm sure you've seen enough of these to know what you're doing. Just write as much as you can remember. You had a building dropped on your head after all – no one is expecting a perfect recall."
Raven nodded, taking the pen he offered. The empath didn't like witness statements. She had absolutely despised the first one she had done. She didn't believe half of the personal information they asked for was relevant or needed, and back when she'd been majorly paranoid about people discovering her heritage hadn't wanted to part with so much as her last name. Robin had sat with her to guide her through the first statement she ever did, and Raven rued the day she admitted to her leader Raven was her real name. She'd been under obligation to use her last name on every form ever since, something she didn't find fair considering Starfire used her real name even if it was a translation but she did not need to put down a family name and Raven knew she had one, even if it wasn't used quite the same as on earth, while everyone else got away with using their alias.
Name: Raven Roth
Date and Place of Birth: 06/06/86, Azarath
Occupation: Teen Titan
Address: Titans Tower, Jump City, California
Contact No.: N/A
The commissioner cleared his throat before commenting, "You know, it's come to our attention that you still haven't applied for residency."
"Really?" Raven asked dryly.
"The government brought it up during the warrant application after they couldn't find any registered files for you on their system. They almost denied it because of that."
"Are they planning on deporting me?"
"Well, no." The man shifted in his chair uncomfortably, "You've done the country a great service many times over, and it has been noted."
"Then I don't see what the problem is." The empathy told him curtly. "Starfire isn't a resident either."
"I've been told the princess is a royal guest of the president himself and here under asylum due to the conflict on her home planet as a way of-"
"Maintaining a good relationship with Tameran, I know." Raven raised her brow. Whether or not Tameran cared Starfire was living on earth for that reason she couldn't say. She did doubt it though. "That isn't supposed to be common knowledge however."
The arrangement had only happened after Starfire had returned from Tameran after denouncing herself as Queen, not that anyone outside the titans knew that bit. Many from earth hadn't even heard of the planet in the first place.
"It's restricted information," Commissioner O'Connell nodded. "It would just make things easier for you. You'd have a passport, national insurance number-"
"Until the foreign office push the matter, I'm very content as I am, thank you."
There were several reasons for why she didn't want any government files on her for anything oþer than being a Teen Titans. Number one was the matter of her mother and having to provide evidence she had all rights to the minimum of a dual nationality passport, though Raven wasn't sure how that would work out with Azarath. She just didn't want to be on record, period. Being a demon Halfling, staying under the radar was the best thing for her. Raven turned her attention back onto the sheet in front of her, writing,
-Date of incident: 22/04/06
-Related Case: unidentified serial killer, Jump City
- Specific Event:
-At 17:09 we tracked the suspect to a location, abandoned buildings in section C of the city.
- First at the scene, I teleported inside having suspicions hostages were being held at that location. Total of five hostages were found. Suspect was not there.
- I began to remove the hostages along with Teen Titans Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy upon their arrival. The hostages had been tied down to chairs and seemed drugged (see investigations to missing medication reported from several Jump City businesses)
- Suspect arrived at scene and was immediately hostile. I engaged in combat while Robin, Cyborg, Starfire and Beast Boy removed remaining hostages to safety.
-Collateral from the fight damaged much of the building's structure. Note that the suspect had unusual strength and endurance.
-I carried out the warrant at roughly 18:00 (exact time not known).
Raven hesitated. She had killed someone – something. She was willing to admit that, it had been done lawfully, however she wasn't sure if admitting she had beheaded Damien would do anything to help her out. The needle, or a quick bullet. That was the way the law killed. Not decapitation. That was almost medieval. It wasn't as though they found a body and there was no forensic evidence that could contradict her statement. No one would be any wiser. Coupled along with the fact that she hadn't used a weapon, Raven knew exactly how it would make her look. She felt as though it was something she needed to discuss with Robin, but knew that wouldn't be allowed.
-Suspect (named by warrant) was executed by means of decapitation. No weapon was used. The body (a vessel of pure energy) dissipated upon death, witnessed by myself.
"And then the building collapsed. Or so I'm told," Raven slid the paper back to the Commissioner. "But I don't really remember that so I'll leave it off."
O'Connell scanned the sheet. "You're better at this than most of my officers. I'll attach the warrant to the statement back at the station so there's no confusion when the case is reviewed in the future." His eyes moved over the last paragraph again. "Don't worry, this is all strictly confidential, at least for the first five years unless the case is re-opened, which I highly doubt will happen."
"Good."
"You know, that counsellor is still there, should you ever need them."
"No, thank you. I'm sure you have men on the force that need it much more than myself."
"You killed a person – it's something that can take a big toll on even the most stable mind."
"I killed an energy form, not a person, Sir." Raven disagreed. "The Shadow, previously known as Damien, had been dead long before we met him. I just put him back where he belongs."
The man stood, discomfort radiating off him. "Yes. Well, I must get this back to the station. Good luck with your continued recovery."
AN: not a terribly long chapter but it does get me back into the flow of things. Reviews are always appreciated. :)