"Morning Rae." Cyborg greets as he walks in, carrying a tray with breakfast on it.
"Cyborg." Raven yawns from her chair, having grown used to sleeping in it rather than dealing with the hassle of getting in and out of it needlessly.
"You look terrible." He notes as he puts the tray down on her chair.
"Injuries taken in my other shape make themselves felt when I change, don't worry I'll mend." She waves off while noticing the cup of herbal tea.
"Guess they don't mend in the other shape?" He says as he sits himself down on the bed next to the still sleeping Cerberus.
"Don't know really." Raven says before she takes a sip of the tea. "Not that I want to stay in that other shape long enough to find out."
"I can understand that. So I hear you have been told not to try and mend yourself?"
"I have to stay in here if I try. The concussion will make even low key magic risky if I get a sudden jolt or bump. So for now I just settle with doing it in my sleep, will only speed things up slightly." Raven explains. "So how is everyone else?"
"Well word from the Doom Patrol is silent; most people are worried about you though. Even them." He says while throwing a thumb at the window. "Oh and some guy called Harold Turner wants to talk to you at some point."
"Oh, I thought he would have forgotten all about me by now?" Raven looks up from the bread she was about to bite down on.
"Doubt it; think you made his career somehow." Cyborg shrugs as he unconsciously begins to pat Cerberus.
"Huh, didn't think it would be that good." Raven says, a little dumbfounded at this.
"Guess it was, oh and old Mario hope's you will be back, free pizza for scaring off that group of punks." Cyborg says while giving her a smirk that in the old days would have compelled her to go.
"They deserved it." Raven shrugs with a smirk. "So what about you? Seems all you do it worry about me."
"You gave me permission." Cyborg says with a smirk as well. "But I sent in my exam papers while you were stuck in Tartarus. But for the moment, I get to help out here on the satellite; you won't believe the stuff they have cooking up here."
"So you are happy, being back 'superheroing'?" Raven asks.
"Well for the time being I am back in the groove, but I still don't want to do this forever." He replies. "You?"
"What else can I do?" Raven shrugs. "I don't want to hide, and there are too many people who would want to get to me if I settle down amongst regular people. Besides, the education I have from Azerath probably won't mean anything here."
"I'm sure we could work something up if you decided to come down and try living amongst the rest of us." Cyborg says giving her a smile. "Besides, there is a society on that island of yours, not that I want you to stay over there." He adds the last part quickly as if she would suddenly get up and walk out the door and leave for Themyscira.
"Well, Queen Hippolyta was close to beheading me last time I was there so let's see how that turns out first." Raven sighs.
"Really?" Cyborg asks a little alarmed. "She thought you…"
"Basically." Raven cuts him off. "Not that I can blame her."
"Guess not." Victor shrugs as the automatic door opens a man in a black cape with pointed ears, backs in carrying a tray almost identical to the one Victor came in with; the man almost seems jovial till he sees the percent tray. "Erm… morning… I think I better go now, cya Rae." Cyborg says as he gets off the bed and squeezes his way past Batman and out the door.
"And here I thought I was the original one." Richard sighs downhearted.
"Thank you." Raven replies. "We could just share it." She suggests while shifting her tray to make room for his on her chair. He instantly appears happier and puts it down next to the other while sitting down on the bed. "So what's the occasion?"
"An apology, I shouldn't have gotten angry with you. I think I am getting lost in the act." He sighs while picking up a piece of buttered white bread.
"If you intend to eat breakfast with the cowl on, I think you will." Raven mentions, before taking a bite herself, he gives her a look before pulling the cowl back over his head. "You look terrible." She notes at the bags under his eyes.
"I'm not sleeping enough." He admits while rubbing his eyes. "Never thought Gotham could be so big without him."
Raven knows Bruce is listening, as always. "It's not, unless crime is on a rapid rise?" She replies.
"It is actually on the rise, has been ever since a month before we met. Getting Roman put a damper on it, but its rising again. I don't know how Bruce managed it alone." He sighs as he takes a bite of his bread.
"Organizing and keeping with priorities." Bruce mentions from the inside.
"I think we are back in the Tower." Raven says, getting a questioning look from him telling her to elaborate. "Like back then, you are trying to prove you are as good as him, if not better. And like back then, I fear you will end up working yourself to death."
"I think you are about to hit me with my obsession over a one-eyed man in a mask." Richard replies.
"Well, you did spend countless hours locked in your room with his case." Raven finds it polite not to point out the hours were largely wasted. "And it's not like you are alone in defending Gotham."
"I know, I just try to do it his way so it doesn't seem suspicious. And I feel like it's a defeat to ask for help when Bruce never does."
"I do when it's needed. I'm just good at hiding it."
"I think you need to focus your efforts, if I may. Try as you might, you can't save Gotham alone, I doubt anyone can, focus on where your help is needed most." He nods at the suggestion, having heard it from both Barbara, Tim and Alfred already.
"And then there's the company." He groans making Raven realize he has a list of things that's getting to him. "I swear most of those Board of Directors members look at me like I have two heads or something."
"I guess you haven't brought up LexCorp yet?" She asks.
"No, I can't bring that up, not alone. I'm still too new a face to them and something like this… it's complicated. I tried bringing it up, casually, with Lucius Fox but he just waved it off as too dangerous for me."
"Dangerous?" Raven raises an eyebrow at this.
"Like Bruce, I actually have an image outside of costume. And it's apparently something the company rolls its eyes at." He says while covering his eyes with his hands as he leans back on the bed, it doesn't take an empath to tell he's somewhat embarrassed at the admission.
"Dick Grayson, Gotham's most eligible heir, playboy and public disgrace." Superman mentions. "Takes after Bruce to a worrying degree with it comes to leisure time and work."
"Try working with them, or just hit them with the numbers." Raven sighs.
"Will do."
"Where have they put me for the time being?" Bruce asks from the inside.
"Where is Bruce?" Raven asks, getting a questioning look from Richard for a second.
"Bahamas, enjoying the sun, doesn't want to be disturbed." He replies after understanding what she meant.
"Can I talk directly?" Bruce asks waiting a second; he knows Raven is forcibly clamping down on them all after the meetings with the Kent's, Hippolyta and the barbeque in Wally's back yard. "Depending on how long LexCorp can keep their problems out of the media, I can see a solution to this." He continues, waking both Cerberus and startling Richard. "There is one problem with it." He says.
"Which is?" Richard asks, still thinking it to be really weird hearing Bruce's voice come out of Raven's mouth, to his worry, as he looks her face actually slowly appears to be changing shape, as if Raven was unconsciously trying to look like the person that's speaking.
"Raven's condition." Bruce replies, getting a few blinks out of Raven.
"What do I have to do with this?" She asks sharply, getting the feeling Bruce is enjoying this, while her own features return.
"While enjoying myself in the Bahamas, I met a young woman who slipped me a very interesting set of documents. Now with me being me, I just had her give me the short version. The offer proved interesting enough for me to prompt her to contact my ward, who in turn asked her to present the material to the board." Somewhere along Bruce Waynes casual explanation, Raven's record slips off the track.
"Hold up, you want me to present material that takes years to learn in business school to the men running your company?!" She asks.
Richard just looks stupefied at the idea, for one; the thoughts of what was reported to happen between Bruce Wayne and the women while Raven being involved. The second; the idea that the usually withdrawn and stage frightened Raven should walk in and give a presentation to anyone, let alone on a subject she doesn't know much about.
"Bruce, are you sure that's such a good idea? I mean I don't know how much Rae knows about economics to begin with, no offense." Richard asks as he sends her a nod. "But stuff like this would require her to know the details about LexCorp's problems. Not to mention she has to be able to give a plausible reason for having these papers in the first place."
"She kept the Tower running, didn't she?" Bruce counters.
"I… that was mostly set up with the bank by Richard." Raven argues. "Wasn't it?" She asks looking a little lost. Richard just holds up his hands in front of him.
"I didn't." He says. "Rae, how exactly did you manage?" He asks.
"I… I took inventory of the entire Tower once a month, added any repairs or additions I needed, subtracted anything I had stopped using, checked water and power usage." She admits. "Didn't you do that?" She asks.
"I… only once every three months." Richard admits.
"Then why were you always running around with a checklist at the end of the month?" Raven asks.
"I… I was checking up on the security system I set up on my own." He sighs knowing he had been cornered. "I set it up in case someone got hold of the official blueprints and the system Cyborg set up. None of it went into your rooms, I swear!" He exclaims noticing an almost visible red glow appear in Raven's eyes.
"Sounds like someone we know." John adds.
"And after you left?" Raven asks, wondering if he had been spying on her for three years.
"When I left Jump, I had them short circuit by remote control in case someone else hijacked it." He sighs.
"Something tells me we need to search the satellite." Shayera mentions.
"No, it's a precaution if someone goes rogue and seizes the Watchtower security systems." Superman says.
"Good." Raven says firmly though she wasn't entirely comfortable with the questions forming in her head. "What kind were they?"
"Only motion sensors and camera's in the main passageways, I only checked on them if I suspected anything was wrong."
"Back on topic, I think Raven should present the material. It seems more plausible if she comes in person." Bruce cuts in. "You can always say I told her to." Raven sighs.
"He's getting back at me, I know it." She says, getting the feeling Bruce wasn't going to appear in person for this.
"What?"
"Bruce and I have had a few arguments." Raven sighs.
"He isn't constantly berating you for everything you do? Is he?" Richard asks, wondering if Raven would tolerate something like that in a longer run.
"No, it's me picking fights with him." Raven admits. "For his own good." She adds quickly as he raises an eyebrow. "And no, I am not going to elaborate."
"He was having doubts if he had the right to come back or not? Didn't he?" Richard asks while fixing her with his own stare, telling her he knew Bruce's mindset better than her.
"He thought he was wounded, I disagreed." She replies, while he was spot on, Richard didn't need to know what Bruce had said and done, besides Bruce appeared to have left it for now.
"She kicked the crap out of him." Shayera says, getting Raven to clamp her mouth shut.
"Rae?!" Richard complains as if he was a child getting cheated.
"Ok." Raven sighs while grabbing the opportunity to divert the conversation in a more harmless direction. "Their dreams and conversations are beginning to leak into me; some of my emotions are having a hard time telling mine from theirs. Tonight the others were assaulted by a group of their own nightmares, Bruce thought he was wounded by his and I had to convince him otherwise."
"By making it worse?"
"Can't hurt a soul Richard, not by punching it, not even with another soul." Raven shrugs. "Besides, it was his idea to curb their emotions by training with them."
"And how long are you doing this?" Richard asks.
"An hour after I fall asleep, won't affect my sleep that way. Anyways, I think I better go see if anyone needs the company at the monitor. Thank you for the breakfast."
"No problem Rae." Richard says with a tired smile as she moves the chair to the door and Cerberus jumps off the bed to follow her.
"Get some rest Richard, you need it." She continues before disappearing out the door, leaving the man to collapse onto her bed.
Tower of Fate, Salem;
"Hmm, this is not a dragon's claw." Jason notes at the hook shaped piece of bone Fate had found.
"I know, it's a griffon's. I was certain I had one." Fate says to himself while browsing the book shelf lined with jars and pots with all sorts of mystic ingredients, one of many that line the huge room, as Zatanna appears in a puff of pink-purple smoke. "Any luck at Curio's?" He asks as he looks up.
"No, Sid sold the last claw a week ago and he hasn't had any hair for months." She replies, having been sent out since Fate had a suspicion he wouldn't find the missing claw when it wasn't where he thought it was.
"Hmm, I will go ask if we can get a fresh claw." Jason says as he puts the griffon claw down. "Raven mentioned a dragon corpse having come into the possession of Tala, perhaps she can be persuaded to part with it." He continues before leaving the two.
"Leaving us with finding the hair from an ageless mortal, is that even possible?" Zatanna sighs.
"There are a number of obscure and difficult spells and natural phenomena that prolongs a normal lifespan greatly that would suffice." Fate says without turning from the rack. "Problem is that one needs to repeat the ordeal again when age again begins to take its toll if one wishes to endure."
"Hmm, that reminds me of someone I've heard about, but I don't know where." She says as she puts a hand under her chin and thinks for a few moments about various people. "I think I might know of one, but he is not going to part with any." She says suddenly.
"Who?" Fate asks as he turns from the rack after putting a pot containing several bony spines back on the shelf.
"One of Batman's headaches, a man called Ra's al Ghul. I'll go confirm it. annataZ ot eht rewothctaW!" She says before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
She appears again on the floor of the Watchtower arrival hall, startling a few of the workers.
"Zatanna, as you are not a member of the League, I will have to ask you to vacate the station." Captain Atom says from the monitor womb after spotting her.
"I need to speak to Raven." Zatanna replies as the woman in question hovers into view besides the main console as a glowing green screen fades from view before her.
"Up here Zatanna, what's wrong?" Raven asks as Zatanna climbs up to them.
"We are having some problems with the hair, but I think we know where we can get it." She says. "I need to know more about Ra's al Ghul, how old he is and how he stays alive."
"According to himself and several sources, he's lived for centuries due to the effects of the Lazarus Pits, naturally occurring pools of chemicals." Bruce explains the most basic part of his knowledge about the man. "He is one that must not find out that I am gone."
"Why is that?" Atom asks.
"He is an eco-terrorist with plans that spans the globe. But he has a grudging respect for me and holds a number of his plans, especially those targeting Gotham, on standby because he hopes to sway me to his side. Also he is the master of the League of Assassins an order with countless lives on its consciousness." Bruce replies.
"And I guess he can tell you from Nightwing?" Raven asks.
"Yes." Bruce replies flatly.
"How about if Raven lets you go?" Zatanna asks.
"Ra's isn't stupid, he will suspect something amiss merely if I appear at his hideaway even more so if I ask for some of his hair." Bruce replies.
"Can we locate him and storm the place?" Atom asks.
"No, Ra's will have fail-safe's in case he is threatened, one's that will most likely involve biological weapons." Bruce sighs.
"So how do we get to him? If he fits the bill, that is?" Raven continues.
"First he will need to be found, Nightwing will have a list of likely locations in the cave. To approach him, you will need a small team to survive the welcome wagon and to appear relatively non-threatening, perhaps then he will speak to you." Bruce explains. "Proving we have to."
"So he tries to kill you before wanting to talk to you?" Zatanna asks.
"40 or so members of his League seems to be the usual amount of men he has around him, if he is in a bad mood there his bodyguard, Ubu, as well."
"So how does a small team survive an attack like that and still appear non-threatening?" Zatanna continues, feeling a headache creeping up on her.
"Simple, you fight hand to hand and impress him." Bruce replies.
"Seems a team needs to be organized." Atom says. "I suggest Ms. Troy."
"Too obvious, he would be threatened if Wonder Woman shows up, since she could take them all on her own." Zatanna says, having seen Donna on TV posing as Diana.
"And she doesn't pull punches." Bruce continues. "Donna angers easily."
"She does." Diana mentions.
"That shortens the list considerably." Atom sighs.
"Leaves, Katana and Nightwing and perhaps two or three outside the League." Raven adds figuring it needed to be a human only group.
"And you." Atom adds. "You're supposed to be pretty nifty with the martial arts."
"And I can do a lot of things that would set Ra's off if I came within twenty miles of him." Raven replies.
"You can show restraint?" Zatanna suggests.
"It's a risk, if he knows Bruce as well as he thinks, he could very well realize that Bruce is missing." Raven counters.
"Possibly, or perhaps my presence here is what will get you to talk with him." Bruce mentions.
"I think he wants you there." Atom mentions.
"Better just roll with it, or he will get grumpy." Zatanna mentions with a slight smirk, Raven just groans in reply.
"Fine, but I think I will need a vacation when all this is done." She sighs, getting a smirk out of Atom. "So what about the other ingredients?"
"Jason is asking Tala about the claw. We haven't tried contacting Constantine yet, but rumor has it Lucifer is somewhere in the southern states." Zatanna replies as Cerberus begins sniffing her shoe. "Is that yours?"
"Yes…"A sour expression crosses Ravens face as a smell races up to her nose. "Oh phew… Cerberus, go do it in here." She says while opening a portal that swallows the dog while she waves the air away from her.
"Charming." Zatanna notes. "There's something about it."
"It's the mythological Cerberus. Found him in Tartarus, turns out he is one of my father's demons." Raven shrugs. "Got stuck down there when his previous owner tried storming Olympus."
"Uh-Hu so you keep a Hellhound as a pet?" Zatanna notes before something strikes her. "What where you doing in Tartarus?"
"Got trapped down there." Raven sighs. "The memories from there were the memories I didn't want you to have."
"I don't think she knows." Atom mentions.
"Know what?" Zatanna asks a little confused.
"Only that Raven got initiated during her stay on Themyscira." Atom says offhandedly while turning to a blinking light on the console.
"Initiated… you what?!" Raven just gives her a weak smirk.
"Amazon. Got stuck in Tartarus when I had to lock myself in when some kind of giant tried to get out. Got caught by the locals and accused of being part of a rebellion, ended up staying for two weeks it turns out before the others got me out, picked up Cerberus on the way out." Raven explains; Zatanna just looks dumbstruck.
"You keep surprising, you know that?" She says.
"I guess." Raven shrugs.
"And I'm lucky you didn't punch my head off." Zatanna notes with some dissatisfaction.
"I wasn't about to see if you could just kill me with two words." Raven notes.
"Bruce said the same thing when someone else did that to me, unfortunately I could feel it back then." Zatanna says as Raven opens a portal to let Cerberus out. "Isn't he supposed to have three heads?"
"He does, but like me, he can change shape if I ask him to." Raven says while looking at the dog that woofs once and changes. "He takes up most of a road if he's in his actual size; it was actually because of him the League could track us to Jump City."
"He followed you?" Zatanna asks. "I thought you all tracked Wonder Woman there?"
"No, I was caught with her and the facility was otherwise shielded, I am not entirely sure how he tracked me. Luthor thought I was a normal Amazon."
"Didn't Tala or Circe tell him otherwise?" Zatanna asks, knowing that the pair would have known what Raven was just by looking at her, but that one could never be sure if they had motives to not say anything.
"Tala had a bad feeling around me, but Luthor waved her off with a note that she was just worried that he would kill her, again, apparently."
"Heard he did that when he tried to put Brainiac back together by mystical means, Tala, I think, changed the target and brought back Darkseid instead. Maybe she wanted to spoil Luthor's plans again?" Zatanna says getting a nod from Raven as she thinks it over. To her knowledge demons in general rarely if ever forgave treachery, if they had to spend decades waiting to repay it, they would. And the ones like Tala could be extremely subtle about getting even. "Anyways, I think I better get going before the Captain here decides to throw me out the airlock." Zatanna continues as she gives the army man a smirk.
"I didn't see you." The Captain says without turning to face her.
"Take care of them Raven, and get well. annataZ ot rewoT fo etaF." Zatanna says before she disappears again.
"A few years ago, Captain Atom would have not even have let her have this talk." Diana mentions.
"Neither would I." J'onn continues.
Raven later returns to her room to find an envelope on her bed; an invitation to a memorial to the lost Titans, scheduled to take place on the Watchtower a two weeks from now. Along with the envelope, there is a brown file Raven take's a single look at before hurling it into the trash bin; it was Terra's psychological evaluation. She tells the others that she does not want to have anything to excuse Terra's actions, Raven wants a monster and she will have it.
The weeks pass slowly for her, with monitor duty during her waking hours and an hour of different kinds of training with the Founders during the night. Superman went ahead and fought her the way he could, Diana and Shayera instructed in armed combat. Wally raced her in her other shape. John taught her a few boxing moves and a few things about concentration under fire and lastly with J'onn she practiced shapeshifting. During this time, she noted Bruce had taken up drilling the others in various subjects, even arranging field trips into the emotional realms. Covert missions into Rage's realm, where Rage pretends not to notice them being in her realm and sparring matches against Bravery, which always ended with the emotions victory. What he did not expect was to encounter the representations of himself and Diana inside Happy's realm, much to the amusement of the others, Diana had been just as amused and commented on how it didn't look too bad.
Raven hardly hears anything from the mystics; only that they were progressing. This annoyed her to a degree, since she is supposed to play a key part in the ritual but is currently being sidelined. The Titans however were mostly preoccupied with making ready for the memorial and continuing with their lives. Starfire and Beastboy were another matter, as Raven learned; Starfire had become the talk of the Jump City since her return and was often down there to talk about herself, often accompanied by Beastboy. Since he brought her breakfast, she hardly hears a word from Richard, but she did hear rumors that he and Palmer is working on something along with Cyborg.
One by one, the deceased Titans were picked up by relatives, each thanking the other Titans for finding those who had been missing for months and for catching the culprit. With Raven on almost a permanent monitor duty, she was the one that got to handle them all, often followed by a session of meditation because of the emotional turmoil the meetings left her in.
Despite Mid-Night's warnings and eventual heavy protests when he found out, Raven kept her healing powers running at a very low key. The two ended up in an argument where Pieter threatened to cut the power to her chair, Raven had countered that she would then be forced to levitate herself around the station. Much to his relief however, her head was sufficiently healed for him to discharge her from his care during the morning on the day before the memorial. Raven spent the rest of that day powering up her healing so she could be completely healed in time for the memorial.