Read and Review
I do not own Teen Titans
Raven's communicator beeped indicating that there was a new message.
"Scrub and burn." She read out loud.
Up until this point, the girls' walk had been quiet, neither of them wanting to address the very emotional and intense conversation on the pier. Instead, they had silently focused on their walk and what lay ahead.
At Raven's relation of the message, the two women exchanged concerned looks. They did not question the message however and followed protocol.
Pressing the self-destruct buttons on their communicators, they each disposed of the small device. Kori chose a dumpster in the alley next to them, pitching it like a pro baseball player. Raven simply chose an empty mailbox on the sidewalk (yes she checked). The small explosion that occurred from the self-destruct button was more "flash and bang" than an actual explosion. It was not big enough to hurt anyone nearby or destroy anything other than the communicator.
A few seconds later two bangs followed by plumes of smoke could be heard and seen from the dumpster and the mailbox, but the female Titans did not notice. They simply kept walking.
Once they reached the construction site they paused.
They stood at the top of a hill looking down at the construction site to be more accurate. The site lay at the bottom of the hill, at the end of a dead-end street, surrounded by tall buildings, fenced-in alleyways, and blocked-off streets. The site itself appeared to be abandoned, as did the buildings that surrounded it.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." Raven muttered.
"As do I," Kori whispered.
Raven examined the area with critical eyes. Tall scaffolding as well as the tall buildings around the site created a vantage point problem. There were also several places where someone could hide undetected and jump out in an ambush. Going into the site would be walking into a walled-in hole. They would be waltzing into a trap with their eyes wide open.
Normally Raven would have used her powers to scan the area to see if any people were hiding within the construction zone, lying in wait for an unsuspecting Titan to walk in unaware. But currently, she was so weak it was taking all of her strength to stand. Her head was still throbbing, and she still felt dizzy and weak. If it came down to a fight, which it probably would, she did not know how well her powers would hold out, if she could manage to muster them at all. And with Kori's current state of mind and new physical risks, they were not exactly ready for a fight.
But they had little choice. Someone had to go down there and check out the site and there was no telling how long it would be before the guys showed up. And without their communicators, there was no way to contact them or track them to see how far out they were.
"You stay here and wait for the guys. I'll go down and take a look around." Raven said. She did not want Kori going down there alone and someone needed to stay at the top of the hill as a lookout in case anything happened.
"No Raven, I will go, you stay. You do not look well." Kori protested.
"Kori I'm fine. I promise. You don't need to be going down there, in fact, you shouldn't be here at all. It's probably best that you go back to the tower."
Kori crossed her arms and gave Raven a scrutinizing look.
"I do not believe that you are "fine". You are far paler than usual and your limbs are shaking simply from the effort it takes you to stand. And why should I go back to the tower? Am I no longer capable of providing excellent warrior skills in battle?" She raised a brow challenging Raven.
"That's not what I said."
"It is what you meant."
"No, Kori, it's not." Raven winced and rubbed her temples willing her now worsening headache to go away. She sighed as she tried to find the right words to explain herself to the sensitive Tamerainian.
"I simply meant that it would be safer for you back at the tower. It has nothing to do with your capabilities or your skills. It has everything to do with the fact that the last thing I need right now is my best friend and team leader's girlfriend and unborn child to get hurt or worse on my watch."
Raven sighed again, giving up on the head massage. It was doing her no good. She looked Kori in the eye and tried to be as gentle as possible. With her patience this thin it was often easy for her to be cold and unfeeling out of habit, which in turn hurt her friends.
"Look, your decisions and actions are your own. You are free to do what you want. I was simply trying to look out for you and the baby. Just promise me that you will remember that you are no longer making decisions for yourself and that when you do go into battle, you are taking your child with you."
It was Kori's turn to sigh.
"My apologies. Of course, you did not mean to offend me, merely to protect and care for me. I am simply tired and still trying to get used to this," she motioned vaguely at her stomach, "it has been less than a day and already I am making horrible decisions as a mother." She sniffled as once again her eyes watered with tears.
Raven closed her eyes, trying not to sway. Her knees were shaking and threatening to buckle underneath her weight.
"Kori, relax. You are not making horrible decisions as a mother. You said it yourself, it's been less than a day. You are still processing and getting used to it."
"But you do not need time. Already you have thought of things that I have not."
"Kori, trust me, if it were me, I would need time. There is nothing wrong with needing some time."
She nodded, still sniffling. She looked down at the construction site below them.
"Then what are we to do? If I cannot go down there, and you cannot go down there-"
"Kori, I'm not pregnant. I can go down there."
Kori looked at Raven as though she had grown another head.
"Friend Raven, you are unwell. Why, I do not know, but I do know that you are far too unwell to go down there alone."
"Kori, I'm fine."
Raven was not fine, but she wasn't going to admit that. She did not need Kori to be more distressed or worried than she already was.
Raven swayed as her vision turned black for a moment, then returned with red spots. She felt a chill run down her back and could feel sweat beginning to form on her brow.
'Great, a fever. This day keeps getting better and better...'
"We could wait for the boys," Kori suggested.
"No, that might take too long. Whoever it was that was loitering might be gone by then. They might be gone now, but on the off chance that they're still around-"
"Alright, well what do you suggest we do? Neither of us will allow the other to go down there alone."
Raven surveyed the area again as best as she could with her spotting vision. Once again she had the mental image of walking into a trap with their eyes wide open. This time it was accompanied by the mental image of ducks in a barrel.
"Ok, let's try this: you fly up and keep a lookout from the air. Provide cover in case of an attack or ambush, and if you see anything wrong or off in any way, you fly down and get me out of there. I'll go down into the site and have a look around."
Kori tilted her head to the side looking thoughtful for a moment. Finally, she nodded in agreement.
"That sounds like a reasonable solution."
"And hopefully the guys will get here before anything happens or we have to do too much looking around," Raven said, more to make herself feel better, but Kori seemed to draw some comfort and reassurance from the statement.
With a final nod of acknowledgment to each other, Kori took to the sky and Raven began the arduous task of walking several yards downhill. She grumbled to herself over having to walk. She would much rather have flown or levitated herself but thanks to her stupidity she needed to save her energy in case they were attacked and she needed to fight. So here she was, walking.
By the time she got down to the bottom of the hill, she was out of breath. Her vision was a narrow tunnel, and her legs felt like limp noodles. She had no idea how she was going to make it back up the hill, but she would deal with that problem later. For now, she needed to focus on trying not to fall over from weakness and exhaustion.
After a moment of trying to catch her breath, she looked around, evaluating the site from her new vantage point.
Now that she was at the bottom of the hill the setup felt more like a trap than ever. The walls of the buildings seemed taller, the scaffolding, blocked alleyways, and dead-end streets all seemed planted as though it had been someone's exact intention to use this setup as a trap.
Everything in her was screaming, "ABORT, ABORT, ABORT!" But it was too late. She was already down the hill, and as something flashed in the corner of her eye, she knew with a sinking heart that the guys would never get there in time.
They had walked right into the League of Assassins' trap, and she deserved everything that was coming for her stupidity.
It started with flashes of movement.
Shadows moving in between the structures.
Then they came.
At first, it was one or two.
Then four turned into ten which turned into more than twenty.
Raven summoned all of the energy she could find that was left in her body. Assassins dressed in black garb came at her wielding numerous weapons. She fended them off with her powers, pushing them back, throwing them away from her body, and shielding herself from the weapons that were thrown at her.
She focused on keeping her attackers away. She didn't need to fight them off for long, she didn't even need to defeat them. She just needed to protect herself long enough for Starfire to come get her.
Sweat poured down her face. Her powers grew weaker. She strained to keep her vision focused. Her arms and legs screamed at her. Her reflexes slowed.
Raven winced as a stray knife nicked her shoulder. Another assassin landed a lucky blow to her ankle with a bo staff. Her power shields had grown small and ineffective.
'What is taking Starfire so long?'
Raven spared a glance up to the sky and her stomach sank.
In the air Starfire flew erratically, trying to dodge flying arrows and ninja stars. Her movements were stiff and awkward and Raven realized that she was trying to fight and shield her stomach from the attackers at the same time. A trail of red down one of Starfire's legs told Raven that she was already paying the price for doing so.
A grunt off to her side warned Raven just before a sword swung toward her head. She barely managed to avoid the strike and caught another knife to her side in the process.
She grunted in pain but kept going. They needed to end this, but everywhere she looked assailants poured forth, ready to take another's place to attack. There was no end in sight.
Raven's breathing was labored.
Her powers were giving out.
She needed a new plan.
Raven dropped her power shield and raised her fists. The next attacker lunged seeking to exploit this new opportunity. Forming a fist Raven pulled back and put all of her weight into the punch. Not expecting her to use her bare hands, her attacker did not have time to pull back. Her punch landed on his chin, and she heard and felt a crack from within his mouth. His body flew back into the crowd, colliding with another assassin's body.
Someone else tried to come up behind her, but Raven turned and lashed out with her other fist. The next one that came received a swift kick to the gut. The next had their legs swept out from underneath them.
She continued to fight in hand-to-hand combat, using hands, feet, legs, and whatever else she could to defend herself. She received far more cuts and bruises than she did when she used her powers, but in the end, she thanked Azar for Nightwing's obsessive over-training. It was the only thing that kept her alive.
Eventually, the adrenaline of a new fight began to wane and she grew weaker and weaker.
A plan formed in her head.
It wouldn't be pretty, or smart, but it would give them a chance. It would give her a chance. One, last, desperate chance to get away. And if she managed to get away, then that would be enough.
With all the strength Raven had left in her, which wasn't much, she threw her head back, and her arms out and released the last bit of her power. A dome of dark energy formed around her and then quickly exploded, blasting the never-ending wave of assassins. They were thrown away from Raven and Starfire back into the buildings and other structures that surrounded them.
Crashing sounds accompanied the harsh landings and wobbling poles warned of weak scaffolds that were ready to fall. A collective groan rose from the various landing spots as numerous attackers tried to move.
Raven swayed as she looked up. Starfire floated above her, fists raised, star bolts and eyes glowing, ready for another attack.
"Starfire Go!" Raven shouted as loud as she could. Her chest tightened, her heart ached as though a fist was squeezing it, and her lungs struggled to re-inflate with air. Spots danced across her vision and her knees buckled.
Starfire began to descend toward Raven, but an arrow flew past her, scratching her cheek. Starfire turned, distracted and Raven wanted to scream. An archer stood on top of the tallest building, above Starfire, and was aiming another arrow at her friend's heart.
From her knees, Raven watched in horror as the archer released, and the arrow flew through the air. Starfire dodged and flew toward the new attacker with renewed vengeance.
"Starfire leave him! Get out of here! GO!" Raven managed to scream around the massive lump in her throat. Starfire either did not hear her or was ignoring her. She began throwing star bolts at the archer as he retaliated with arrow after arrow.
Out of the corner of her eye, Raven saw movement warning her of another oncoming attack.
Reprieve over, Raven grasped a metal pipe from the ground a few feet away and swung hard. The pipe connected with her attacker in the knee hard. He fell forward and she ducked allowing his body weight to carry him over her body.
She struggled back onto her feet, feeling shaky and unbalanced.
Several attackers came at her at once, having recovered more quickly than the rest of the assassins. Raven swung the pipe like a baseball bat, channeling all of the anger and frustration she could muster into her swings. She was terrified for her friend and the baby. She was angry that Starfire hadn't escaped when she had the brief chance. She was furious with herself for getting them into this mess. She was frustrated with Gar for pushing her into practically admitting her feelings for him. She was annoyed with herself for having those feelings in the first place.
She was confused, hurt, tired, and a thousand other things that would have caused her powers to explode if she had any left. So instead she focused on each emotion and channeled them into every single swing of her pipe.
Every time she made contact with someone the hit was so hard it shook her arms and rattled her skull. She grit her teeth and kept going. Azar be damned if she let some assassins get the best of her.
"Raven!"
The shout came from above, and off to the side.
It was a male voice.
Raven slammed her pipe into the head of her current attacker and swung around toward the hill to find another attacker ready to stab her. Her arm already in motion from swinging around, slammed into the attacker's ribs.
Raven glanced up.
There, at the top of the hill, stood Changeling and Nightwing.
'Thank Azar...' She thought in relief.
Nightwing was looking down at the situation with a brooding frown. Changeling looked worried. And angry. They started to make their way down the hill, Nightwing drawing out his escrima sticks, and Changeling next to him, never taking his eyes off of Raven.
Time seemed to slow and freeze as she met Changeling's eyes. There was something there, something dark and intense. Never had she seen or felt so much concentrated rage coming from him. She could see the pulsing muscle of his clenched jaw from where she stood.
She gulped hoping against hope that it was the Beast poking through, knowing that some of that anger was directed at her. But with a chill, she realized that it was all Gar.
When the Beast was in control there was a wildness to the anger, a primal chaos that seemed to show physically even in his human form. But while the rage still felt primal, it wasn't quite as wild and none of it was chaotic. His body language was pure Gar. It was all focused and calm.
And calm rage was far worse.
Raven's heart skipped a beat and her breath caught.
Raven blushed and her heart fluttered more as she realized that she found Gar's dark intenseness...attractive.
'For Azar's sake...' She proceeded to curse in both English and Azarathian. She needed to focus on the present problem. Not her befuddling emotions.
"Ooooo...you're gonna get it now!" Love chirruped from inside Nevermore, clearly excited.
"Hey! We are not befuddling!" Happy protested, clearly insulted.
"FOCUS!" Brave screamed, clearly frustrated.
Raven didn't get a chance to respond.
Changeling's eyes focused on something behind her and widened in fear. That was all the warning she got.
Raven started to turn but before she could lay eyes on her attacker, something slammed into her temple.
She collapsed, her vision going dark.
She heard a scream of, "Friend Raven!"
She heard a distant roar.
Then everything faded away.