of Allies and Enemies

by Imaginationqueen87

Blackfire is back in Jump CIty and has put a target on Raven. Is there more than meets the eye here? What will Starfire do when faced with having to choose between her biological sister and her beloved adopted sister? (Sequel to Titan Arrow)

6. Chapter 6

p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"The Titans rush into the Tower, Nightwing taking point to see Syphon is standing over Jean with a smug smile on his face./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Oh, that sounds like fun" Syphon said sounding as if someone had whispered an idea into his ear./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""What are you going to do?" Jean asked trying to hide his fear at all the options Syphon had at his disposal./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""You'll find out" Syphon replied and suddenly a wave of power hit Nightwing doubling him over before he fell to the ground unconscious./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""NO!" Jean cried and started to Nightwing's side, but Syphon got in the way taunting him with the reminder that Jean was powerless./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Amanda got to Nightwing's side and tried to help pull him back to consciousness but is dragged down as well./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"The others tried to help but are one by one taken down as well leaving only Jean, Syphon and Raven on their feet./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean glares at Syphon as a black bubble formed around Raven's left hand, she might be injured but that won't stop her, the problem is the magic bubble falters and fades quickly as her powers have been partially weakened by the time in Syphon's bubble, but she has yet to put all of the pieces in place to figure out exactly what is going on with her./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""What did you do to them?" Jean demands./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""These are the people you've trusted the most… let's see how they do in a fight against themselves." Syphon smirks then creates a portal and leaves./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean runs to Amanda and Nightwing as Raven kneels beside Beast Boy and uses what power she has to bring him around. Jean is looking at Amanda, tears falling down his cheek onto the young witch's face./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""I am so sorry; this is all my fault I never should have come here."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Raven bites back the part of her that wanted to tell him off, wanted to kick him while he was down. That was harsh even for her, so she turns to helping Beast Boy while biting down painfully at the rant that wants to come out of her mouth./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Beast Boy is muttering something about evil hot dogs and tofu when she pulls him out and he wakes up breathing like a marathon runner still muttering about killer hot dogs to which Raven merely glares at him effectively cutting him off./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Beast Boy looks around in confusion then at Jean./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""What happened?" he asked but Raven didn't answer him. She just stood and walked over to Jean./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""We can debate what you should or shouldn't have done later, right now we need to find a way to get our friends out of this, then find and stop Syphon" she said in a pure monotone./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean nodded wiping the tears from his eyes then looked at the others noting that she had already gotten Beast Boy up and about and he was looking around dumbly./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Without my powers I can't do anything about most of them but…" then his eyes fell on Cyborg "I think we can help him… if we can cause his system to reboot we might wake him up."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Raven nodded mutely as Beast Boy joined them looking like he was finally catching up with them on what was going on./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""So how would we do that?" Beast Boy asked in confusion./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""We have to shock him…" Jean said./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""So, like Frankenstein?" Beast Boy supplied./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Raven looked at him, one eyebrow quirked in confusion./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""What I saw the movie!" Beast boy shot back at the unasked question of how he knew anything about Frankenstein./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Anyway" Jean trailed "We need a way to plug him in."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Either his room or the garage" Raven said, "His chagrining equipment is in his room so I'd say that's the best option."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean nodded "Show me…"/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Raven led the way as Beast Boy took his yeti form and threw Cyborg over his shoulder with little effort and followed them to Cyborg's room./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean didn't need his powers to realize that Raven was worried about why she couldn't heal her wrist and shoulder like she should have been able to do. He didn't say anything then as there were too many big issues at play, but he would talk to her about it eventually and see if they could put their heads together and figure out what was wrong./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Beast Boy put Cyborg on his charging table, and it didn't take Jean long to realize how to hook Cyborg up to his equipment since Raven wouldn't be able to one handed. He then went to the computer and started typing rapidly, not speaking to Beast Boy or Raven./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""So how are you going to electrocute him…" Beast Boy asked./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""I was about to ask the same thing; these chargers are designed specifically to filter out any surges that could damage his critical systems." Raven added./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Beast Boy I'm going to need your help with this."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Beast Boy grins mischievously then in his best Egor impression says, "Yes master" and goes to the other terminal./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Raven rolls her eyes and steps back trying not to imagine the infinite ways that this could go bad./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Okay, this is a very delicate piece of equipment… best press every button." He chuckled while he worked to keep things from going too far sideways./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Neither of them noticed that Raven has created a forcefield around herself to keep from getting further injured if things start to explode./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Suddenly a surge rushed through the cords and Cyborg cried out before going limp and all of his systems began to reboot, one by one. He began to come to, and Beast Boy continued his Egor impression with an impressive cry of "It's alive!"/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""That's enough…" Jean said./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Oh, come on I saw that look on your face" Beast Boy shot back./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Cyborg looked around the room as Raven's forcefield fell./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""What happened…" he paused looking at the computers "And what the hell did y'all do to my computers?"/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""You're welcome" Beast Boy retorted as Jean looked away guiltily, they wouldn't have had to do any of this if it hadn't been for him bringing Syphon into their lives./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Cyborg then gets back with it enough to see that Raven's wrist still hasn't been placed in a proper splint and prays he doesn't have to break it over again to get it properly set. Under any other circumstance he wouldn't have to worry about setting her wrist it would already be healed properly but with her magic being so out of sorts he wasn't sure it was healing the correct way. So, he figured it was better to set it; then risk having to put her through the pain of a re-brake to set it over again./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""C'mon Rae, let's get that wrist fixed before it gets any worse…" he said disconnecting from the chargers trying to remind himself they were only trying to help by damaging them in the first place./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"They got to the med bay and Cyborg finally got a proper x-ray of her wrist to see it hadn't healed enough that anything would have to be broken again. He put the splint on her tightening it enough that it put all the bones where they belonged without cutting the circulation off to any part of her hand. She glared at the offending, uncomfortable device but said nothing, it was, at this point, a necessary evil./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"They return to ops and are taking the others to med bay as Supergirl returned looking extremely worried./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""What did I miss?" she asked lifting Starfire to carry her to med-bay./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Syphon showed up here in the tower." Cyborg said picking up Nightwing to take him as well, they had already moved Amanda./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Why are they unconscious?" she asked following Cyborg./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"They put Nightwing and Starfire on beds and Jean sat beside Amanda./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Syphon…" he said simply./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Wait… he did this to them?" Supergirl inferred looking at the ones that were still down./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Raven is standing over Starfire, her eyes glowing white and soon Starfire wakes with a start./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""What happened…" Starfire asked in confusion looking between Raven and the others then to Supergirl "When did you return?"/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""About ten minutes ago…" she turned to Raven who was standing over Amanda but clearly too exhausted to continue, plus it was clear something was wrong with her. She suddenly turned to Jean, her eyes glowing blood red with rage./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean fell out of his chair stumbling to his feet and backing up until his back hit the med-bay wall./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""You…" she said in rage a strange echo in her voice made it all the more terrifying./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""… This is all your fault! If you hadn't come here none of this would have happened!"/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Supergirl and Starfire look at each other in terror, not sure what to do or if there is anything they can do./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Cyborg begins to type furiously at the computer trying to figure out if there is anything he can do to stop Raven's wrath. Then Beast Boy decided it was up to him and walked up behind Raven pulling her into a bear hug from behind. He was getting taller than her, getting stronger than her and the way he held her meant that she couldn't pull her arms from her sides for a physical attack, but she would be unharmed except for the pain in her shoulder he was sure he was exasperating. /span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"The pain from her shoulder draws her back to her senses and her eyes return to normal./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""What… no… what was I doing?" she asked in fear filled confusion./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""You were about to attack Jean…" Supergirl replied./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Beast Boy lets Raven go at realizing she was no longer a threat to Jean who looks furious. Raven sees it as well and shrinks back putting her hood on and using what little power she had to teleport herself to her room./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean takes a deep breath and looks to Supergirl./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Do you know of anyone with telepathic powers?" he asked./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Um, there is the Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian… they're telepaths." She replied./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Got Mento too but I wouldn't ask him for a damn thing." Cyborg added./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean nodded at the sentiment./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""See if you can get ahold of one of them, maybe they can help get Nightwing and Amanda out of this… I need to help Raven."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""She attacked you and you want to help her?" Supergirl asked in confusion./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""What happened wasn't her fault… I have to go."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Beast Boy is headed towards the door to try to help his girlfriend, but Jean stops him./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""No… she loves you dearly and wouldn't be able to live with herself if she hurt you." Jean said firmly which sends Beast Boy back./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Yeah… but you don't have any power to defend yourself" Cyborg pointed out bluntly./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Not to worry, I'll be fine…" he sighed "I will show her I can be trusted by putting my trust in her."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Okay…" Cyborg said resisting the urge to say, 'It's your funeral'./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean went to the kitchen and made a cup of calming tea and went to her bedroom in order to attempt to help her get things together mentally and physically./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Raven opened the door when Jean knocked just enough that she could put her face in the crack between the door and the frame./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""What do you want?" she asked her voice weak, smaller than normal./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""I made you some tea" he said, "it should help."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"She pushed the door open further eyeing him suspiciously, she had just tried to attack him, she felt his rage, why was he now being so kind to her when she knew he was furious with her moments before./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"He looked into the liquid and sighed./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""That wasn't your fault." He explained as he presented the cup to her "Drink it and I will explain… trust me, it tastes better hot."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"She took the cup and took a sip not sure what to expect. Part of her feared this was a trick and something in the tea would render her powers more muddled, harder to control than they were or worse render her powerless./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""He was speaking to you… wasn't he?"/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""I heard something… I didn't realize what it was…" she admitted "he was goading me pushing my rage to the forefront and that is dangerous."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""He was trying to get you to attack me" Jean supplied./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Yes.."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Suddenly a surge of pain went through Raven's mind and the cup fell from her hand shattering on the floor as she cried out. Jean pulled her into his arms scared of what was happening. He closed his eyes clutching her tightly. When he opens his eyes again he realizes they are no longer in her room but outside a strange, locked door./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""What is this place?" he asked in bewilderment./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""This room was created… created to prevent my becoming my father's portal. It didn't work to stop the prophecy that day, but it should hold me should I lose control again." She explained her voice cracking with pain./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Why are you showing me this?" he asked./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Because I have run out of options… this is all I have left to keep everyone safe… you know Syphon better than anyone… you can tell me about him so maybe I can evict him from my mind." She explained as the door to the entryway opened with a hydraulic hiss./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""What is going on in here… I thought we only used this space in an…" Cyborg's voice trailed as his brain caught up with what he was saying. "Rae are you sure… have things really gotten that bad?"/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Yes…" she replied still leaning on Jean in pain./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Cyborg looked at Jean as if asking for his input in the situation as things were still not making sense./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean laid out the story as to what was happening, and Cyborg toyed with the idea of getting her meditation mirror to see if anything could be done on the strange landscape of Nevermore but decided against it fearing that more harm would be caused that way. He knew her, she likely already thought of that and dismissed it. He then let out a breath and turned to Raven the questions mounting in his mind./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""You sure you're okay with him knowing about this, Rae?" Cyborg asked pulling her out of Jean's embrace and holding her close to himself./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Yes… we don't have many options left… he knows Syphon he can help me try to get him out of my mind… help me get the barriers back in place to protect myself from Syphon's attacks." She explained./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Cyborg reached over to the locking mechanism triggering it, so the door opened his heart heavy as he wanted to be anywhere else doing anything else than this. Raven stepped inside and nodded as Cyborg closed the door, locking it behind her. He then turned to Jean indicating a handprint scanner on the wall by the door./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Put your hand on there… this initial scan will authorize you to enter should things go really sideways, and we can't get in fast enough." Cyborg explained./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean nodded, followed the instructions and sighed as his biometrics were added to those authorized to open this particular door. He was fascinated by the room he saw how it was able to hold such a supernatural force as powerful as Raven. He briefly wondered if it would be able to contain him as well, but prayed they would never have to try guided Jean into the observation room where he looked down to see Raven floating in the middle of the room attempting to meditate. He then indicated a button and microphone./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""This will allow you to talk to her while she's in there." He explained "I have to go back to the med-bay, Supergirl has gotten in touch with the Martians, and one of them should be here soon."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean nodded his eyes not leaving the space in front of him, the walls were of a dark steel blue with a line of cyan circling the room approximately midway up the wall, a strange, different magical rune is in the center each of the four walls. In the center of the floor is a large glowing white circle that acts as a light source she is floating over it attempting to find that headspace to meditate and perhaps push Syphon out of her mindscape./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean pushes the button./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Testing… testing… Raven, can you hear me" he says his voice soft with concern./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Yes…" she replies settling back to her feet as she realizes meditation isn't helping./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"He let go of the button and continued to watch her for a moment./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Go…" he says to Cyborg "I will look after her see if keeping her focused on me will help her keep Syphon at bay." He sighed./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Don't forget that's my baby sister I'm trusting you with… if anything happens to her there won't be any stopping me." Cyborg promised./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean shrunk a little bit./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""I understand… no problem."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Cyborg activated the microphone./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Don't worry Rae, we're going to figure this out… I'm not going to rest until you can come out of there." He said softly./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""I know, Cyborg…" Raven replied softly, "Thank you."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""I love you… Rae… you know that…"/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""I know, Cyborg… and you know I feel the same about you… all of you."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""We know," Cyborg let go of the button his expression heavy with regret./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean stayed quiet, stepping back to be as unassuming as possible to give Cyborg this moment to try and soothe Raven the way only he could. He could see that Raven looked up to Cyborg like a brother as much as he looked at her like a little sister and would give his last breath if necessary to protect her./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Cyborg leaves the room still clearly unhappy with this whole situation, but it is clear there is nothing he can do about it in there./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean took a seat adjusting the microphone so it will pick up his voice from his new seated position as Raven sits against one of the walls of the room, hugging her knees./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""He's talking to you again, isn't he?" Jean asked through the microphone./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Yes…" she replied her voice strained; her head rested on her knees./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""How about this… you ask me any questions that cross your mind, and I will answer them honestly…"/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Who is Kathy?" she asked, "When I was in your mind she's the only one that was identified to me by his or her actual name."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""My cousin… and my best friend… we grew up like brother and sister" Jean replied./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Does she have powers?" Raven asked./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Yes…" Jean replied, "She is a telepath much like her father and me, but not as powerful as me… but she also struggles with her mental health… after her mother's murder she… she struggled with depression and was recently diagnosed with a condition known as bipolar disorder."/span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""So, her emotions are her enemy as well…" Raven assumed./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""You could say that…" Jean paused as his thoughts returned to Kathy and the struggle she had fought with her mental health her entire life./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""You said something about your uncle running a school… what is that like… do you think he would have risked it with someone like me?" Raven asked turning so her cheek rested on her knees./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Jean sighed a smile playing across his features./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';""Without question he would have opened his doors for you." Jean replied, "Uncle Charles would take in anyone willing to learn. Anyone that needed his help." He then went into the story about how they attempted to take in Toad and how it had failed./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"Raven cringed at the description of Toad but in that story began to understand the man Charles Xavier was and wish she had the chance to meet him./span/spanspan class="eop"span style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';" /span/span/p
p class="paragraph" style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"span class="normaltextrun"stronguspan style="font-size: 14.0pt; font-family: 'Harlow Solid Italic'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Segoe UI';"To Be Continued…/span/u/strong/span/p