See? Not too long of a wait, right? Enjoy chapter 9 :)
Chapter 9
"That can't possibly be all you're eating," Gar commented around a mouthful of black bean burger.
Across from him sat Raven, using a fork to poke at her wilted caesar salad with thinly-veiled disgust. She raised her eyebrow at him, then smirked as she reached across the table and plucked a sweet potato fry from his plate, taking a bite and blanching at the taste.
"How does a sweet potato even become imbued with that particular flavor?" She dropped the fry on her own dish as her phone began to ring, ignoring Gar's sulking while she dug around in her small purse. "Oh, it's Richard."
Gar continued snacking on his remaining fries while Raven conversed with their former leader, mildly annoyed that their dinner was being interrupted, until he watched her expression shift from curiosity to horror. His concern mounted as she hung up without a word and jumped from her seat, sending a butter knife clattering loudly to the stone floor.
"We have to go," she said with a watery urgency that had his heart pounding in response. "Now."
The rest of the evening was a blur. Gar's memory of the night was nothing more than mere fragments, what with how quickly everything took place. As far as he could recall, one second he was enjoying a meal with Raven at a pseudo-fancy restaurant, and the next, he was being teleported to S.T.A.R. Labs and providing first aid to a gunshot wound in his best friend's head. After stabilizing Vic and watching him get airlifted to the hospital, Raven had teleported all three of them there as well, effectively draining her energy.
Gar glanced down at the empath fast asleep on his lap, and even with everything going on, he couldn't help the soft smile that played at his lips when he looked at her.
No matter what happened, her loyalty never wavered. She had a tendency to make terrible choices, along with some serious trust issues, but at the end of the day, Raven wanted to be good. She wanted it more than anything, no matter how pre-determined her fate. And if it weren't for that, for her being one of the most loyal friends a person could have, Victor would be gone.
With all of his experience as an EMT, Gar had no doubt that it was true. The wound Vic had sustained was gruesome, and he was sure that there was no hope of survival, until Raven managed to patch the most intricate, and most deadly, pieces of the injury and hold him over until the LifeFlight arrived. He winced at the recollection, at seeing his friend in such a horrific manner, not to mention watching Raven absorb as much of the pain as she could stand to save his life.
He dragged a hand down his face, a groan escaping his lips as he did so. Therapy. He definitely needed some therapy after this.
Raven stirred in his lap, and he grimaced as her eyes fluttered open.
"Hey," he cooed, "Sorry if I woke you up."
Raven sat up slowly, rubbing at her eyes. "It's fine," she replied groggily, peering around at the dingy waiting room. "How long has it been?"
Gar glanced at his watch, a pang of worry stabbing at him anew. "Nearly six hours. Haven't heard anything yet, Dick is in there with him now. Kori said she was going to the vending machine about half an hour ago, so she might be stress-eating through their life savings-" He was interrupted by a chime from his phone, and he anxiously patted all of his pockets before Raven reached across him to grab the device from a side table, handing it over gingerly.
"Thanks," he said sheepishly before steeling himself to look at the screen, a sigh of relief escaping his lips as he read the message. "Dick says he's awake."
Kori didn't even notice Garfield and Raven rushing down the hallway as she flew past, though they managed to arrive at Victor's room just a few moments after she did. As they crossed the threshold, they found that Kori had already flopped her body over Victor's, and was weeping quietly while Richard rubbed soothing circles on her back. Vic patted her arm, nodding to the pair as they entered.
"Oh my god, Cy," Gar let the old nickname slip, rushing to the empty side of the bed and clapping a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Glad you're not dead, Tin Man." Victor smiled at him and he turned away, trying and failing to hide the tears he quickly swiped from his eyes.
"Aw, don't go getting all sappy on me, Green Bean," Vic chuckled. "Guess it's a good thing you chose the career path you did, huh?"
Gar rubbed at the back of his neck shyly. "Thanks man, but it was actually Raven who saved your ass. While we were waiting for help, she pulled some wild voodoo stuff- wait, vooglue!" he interrupted himself to laugh at his own joke, while an unamused Victor waited for him to continue.
"...Be-because she pieced your brain back together. Get it?"
The room went quiet as everyone looked to Raven, who seemed to revert to a teenager before their eyes, hiding her face beneath the hood of a sweatshirt she'd borrowed from the back seat of Gar's Prius.
"It was nothing," she mumbled, "I'm also glad you're not dead."
A grin sprouted on Vic's face, and the mood of the group lightened noticeably.
"Alright, well hit me with it! What'd I miss? Who the hell shot me?"
"About that," Richard quickly took the mantle, stepping forward as the room's occupants shifted their attention to him. "Does the name Zachary Gadzinski ring a bell for anyone?"
Kori and Raven shrugged as they looked at each other, but Garfield piped up when a tinge of recognition crossed his features.
"Wait... Gadzinski? Like John Gadzinski, the football player?" Richard nodded in confirmation, eliciting a groan from the cot's occupant.
"Of course..." Victor muttered, his head flopping back onto the pillow dejectedly. "In case my biggest professional failure wasn't bad enough, now I almost get killed for it." He took note of the confused expression his friends shared, and continued with a sigh.
"John was a nice guy. He deserved to live. I did everything I could, made promises I couldn't keep, and at the end of the day, I couldn't save him like I thought I could. I shouldn't have been so cocky, I think I gave a lot of people false hope because I wanted to be the guy who saved the star player. It was my first major project, and it ended up being a failure. Zach was just a kid when his dad died, but it's no wonder he blames me."
The room remained quiet as Victor concluded speaking. He sniffled uncharacteristically, then suddenly pounded his fist on his cybernetic thigh, a metallic clang echoing throughout the room. Wordlessly, Raven stepped forward and took a seat beside him on the bed, placing her hands in her lap and looking at the floor as she spoke.
"It's not your fault, Victor," she said softly. "Everyone here knows that you did everything you could to save him, because that's who you are. His son needed someone to blame, and unfortunately he settled on you, however misplaced." She looked to her friend, offering a barely noticeable smile, which he returned hesitantly. "No more of this. We've all made mistakes, but it doesn't justify him trying to kill you."
Without waiting for a response, she stood and shuffled back to her spot near Garfield, not allowing any room for argument.
"How do we find him?" the changeling directed his question toward Richard, who launched into everything he knew about the jaded young man.
When no one was watching, Gar slyly took Raven's hand in his own and squeezed, never taking his eyes off of Dick, even when Raven looked up at him in surprise. A small, traitorous smile appeared on her lips before she could stop it, and she mentally scolded Happiness for acting like a giddy schoolgirl. She could practically hear the emotion squealing in delight as she was shoved back below the surface. After a few moments, Gar released her hand, and she stuffed it in her pocket, not particularly fond of the cold sensation that steadfastly replaced his warmth. She looked up then, only to be met with Kori's smug expression across the room, and- was that a wink? Raven narrowed her eyes at her alien friend, but shifted her attention to Dick as she figured she should probably pay attention to at least some of what he said.
"-and lastly, we need to be on our toes in case this Nightwing character makes another appearance; He hasn't done anything concerning, but it's always wise to be cautious with these vigilante types."
The group went silent once again, and, as if on cue, a cricket that had made its way inside chose that very moment to begin chirping unapologetically. Everyone jumped when Vic barked out a boisterous clap of laughter, and after a brief moment, Gar joined in with increasingly manic chuckles. A series of giggles erupted from Kori, though she tried to hide them behind her hand, and even Raven eventually sported an amused smirk.
"...So you all know, then," Richard deadpanned during a pause in the laughter, immediately spurring another bout. He rolled his eyes at the group and muttered something about getting a cup of coffee, leaving them behind to regain their composure.
Another several hours passed by in a gloriously dull manner. By the time the sun's glow began bleeding into the night sky on the horizon, four of the former Titans were asleep in the hospital's waiting area; Visiting hours were long over, and though staff had made an exception for the group when Victor first awoke, they hadn't been allowed to stay in his room overnight. Instead, they'd transferred themselves to the lobby once again, making do with the uncomfortable accomodations until morning came.
While Richard and Kori were curled up in a makeshift bed (a.k.a. six chairs shoved together to form a small, lumpy rectangle of cusion) in the corner of the room, Gar had sprawled out on an empty gurney pushed against the wall. Several nurses had chided him for his chosen bed, but he'd ignored them by pretending to stay asleep, fooling no one. When he first laid down, he'd patted the sliver of space next to him, beckoning Raven to join him. Instead, she'd rolled her eyes and settled into a nearby wide chair, curling her small frame into the most comfortable position she could muster.
Garfield's eyes snapped open, though he didn't move right away, the ache already seeping into his bones from his time spent upon the stiff stretcher pad. The area was quiet, almost eerily so, and as he peered around, nothing seemed to be amiss. He smiled at Raven's sleeping form across from him, trying to decide if he should wake her as she was dangerously close to fallling from the chair. Slowly, he sat up, struggling not to groan loudly as he stretched his limbs. He wondered what could have woken him, but he was pulled him from his thoughts by a soft clattering noise just outside.
Well, that answered that.
He looked around at his friends again as the noises continued, sporadic and quiet. They didn't stir at all. His honed animal senses were picking up on sounds they couldn't hear, so he decided he would just check it out himself. He'd probably just run into a janitor or some other worker doing their job, not wanting to be disturbed, but with everything going on of late, he couldn't bring himself to simply ignore the noises.
With a soft grunt, he jumped off of the gurney and stretched again before heading toward the exit doors, coming to a stop as they detected his presence and wooshed open ahead of him. There he was, face to face with... nothing.
Gar raised a brow when the sounds ceased abruptly, and as a gentle breeze fluttered in from outside, a scent that was just barely familiar wafted into his nose. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it put him on edge nonetheless, and he inched through the doors, senses on high alert as he tried to figure out what was making him feel so uneasy.
The doors closed behind him, and again, there was nothing. Cool wind rustled his hair, and Gar breathed in deeply as the smell of an incoming storm almost overpowered the lingering scent from before. The stench managed to grow a little stronger as he stood there, but as he was still unable to pinpoint its identity or even location, he figured it must just be some hidden memory after years of working in a hospital. When nothing else happened after several minutes of waiting and watching, he shrugged and turned to go back inside.
The double doors slid open once again to welcome him in, and he narrowly dodged the dagger that came flying toward him, a less-than-manly shriek escaping his lips as he stumbled and landed on his ass.
The others were awake and standing in an instant, but Zach Gadzinski was already wielding another small knife, his arm pulled back at an odd angle as he prepared to throw again.
"Titans, go!" No one questioned the slip-up when Richard shouted out of half-awake instinct, and he and Kori rushed toward Gar's attacker while he jumped back up and morphed into a grizzly bear.
Zach pulled yet another blade from his belt with his free hand, hurling them in opposite directions- one once again flew toward the massive green bear, the other soaring straight toward Dick's chest. Gar swiped at the thing before it could make contact, earning him a decent-sized cut on his paw, which he figured was better than being impaled. Richard was less equipped to avoid the knife in his very human form, but Raven, further back than the others, caught it with her magick and flung it away just before it reached its target. Kori, after seeing that Richard was safe, turned on Zach with glowing green eyes, righteous fury taking hold after what would have surely been a fatal attack on her fiance.
While her friends continued fighting, Raven took advantage of the distraction to make her way toward Victor's nearby room, having recognized Zach and assumed what- who- he must be here for. As she slowly, quietly walked backwards, she glanced behind to make sure the path was clear, not daring to take her eyes off of the situation for more than a second. However, that split second turned out to be all the time the crazed man needed to launch an attack at her as well; before she could even return her stare to the fight taking place, a long, thin blade imbedded itself deep in Raven's shoulder.
Raven hissed in pain and stumbled back, bracing herself on a flimsy column of drywall.
"Raven!" Gar was back in his human form, shouting her name from his place near the exit, looking for a way to pass their attacker and get to her.
"I'm fine!" she called back, though her voice was strained with the pain shooting down her arm. When Zach returned his attention to the others, she squeezed her eyes shut and gripped the blade's handle, steeling herself. With a sharp cry, she yanked the instrument from her arm, fighting the woozy feeling that came over her as she inspected it, her own blood trickling over her fist.
"A scalpel? Are you fucking kidding me?!"
Raven tossed it behind a nearby desk unceremoniously, squinting her eyes at Zach's belt and trying to discern its contents. She watched as he pulled another scalpel from the large pack at his waist, and groaned when she realized that he could have hundreds at his disposal. Although the blades were small, enough of them used in succession could do some serious damage, even if he now appeared to have forgone his larger weapons. The belt had to go.
She waited patiently, applying pressure to her wound as she watched him attack her friends fervently, thankfully missing most of his attempts to injure them. But... he wasn't slowing down. Wasn't growing tired or showing any noticeable signs of giving up any time soon. And the more she watched him, the more details began to stand out to her- like the way he moved with a slight limp, one leg appearing to be just a little longer than the other. Or the small, pale, wrinkled patches marring his otherwise olive skin. Most notably, though it was easy to miss if you weren't paying close attention, every movement he made seemed to involve some sort of unnatural angle- an elbow bending the wrong way briefly, or his head swiveling past the point that should be humanly possible.
With a start, Raven realized that this was not some random civilian trying to exact revenge for his father's death. She knew, without a doubt, that this was somehow related to the incidents with Adonis and Madame Rouge, and it made her blood boil. Zach turned abruptly and she finally caught sight of the utility belt's plastic buckle; with a bright red flash of her eyes, she jutted her hand out and clenched her fist, snapping the buckle easily. She engulfed the belt in black magick before it could hit the floor, trying to pull it toward her, but he managed to catch the end of it just before it flew out of reach, holding on for dear life.
The other three approached the assailant slowly, and his eyes darted around wildly, searching for an escape. Raven held the belt securely with her powers, but didn't pull any harder than she needed to simply keep him there, hoping to avoid injuring the man. He may be disturbed and bloodthirsty, but at the end of the day, this was still a civilian- one who, in her opinion, wasn't even acting of his own accord.
"Please, no more," Kori spoke gently as they closed in, only a few feet away on all sides now. "We do not wish for further violence, just drop your weapons-" she stopped talking abruptly when, surprisingly, he obeyed.
Without a word, Zach released his hold on the belt, slumping dejectedly as he seemed to accept defeat. Raven wasted no time in bringing the strap to her, clutching it from the air and surveying its contents. There were several loops intended for holding larger knives, as well as the two sizeable pouches he was using to contain the ridiculous amount of stolen scalpels he was carrying. She counted the loops where he'd been storing his weapons, realizing with a sinking feeling that one was unaccounted for. She scanned the floor and tried to recall how many he'd thrown before resorting to medical instuments- she was sure he'd only loosed three daggers, but there was space for a fourth, and she opened her mouth to warn the others-
He moved impossibly fast, pulling the last blade from its hiding spot in his waistband and flinging it toward Raven. Time seemed to crawl, but in reality, the whole thing happened within an inhuman amount of time; it was the blink of an eye, the flap of a housefly's wings, and without even a fraction of a second to react, a large hunting knife found its home in her stomach.
Raven sputtered, falling to her knees as all hell broke loose. There was a roar as Garfield lunged for Zach, Richard doing what he could to restrain him, and the three men struggled distantly as Raven dropped her gaze to the wooden handle jutting out from her abdomen. She willed her hand to reach for it, to pull it out as she had with the scalpel and allow her magick to do its work, but her limbs felt disconnected from her mind and the hand refused to move. Her vision swam as the world around her grew quieter and quieter, and she found that she was suddenly very tired, which was odd, she thought, considering she'd just awoken. Bright orange hair engulfed her vision for only a brief moment before her eyelids became far too heavy to hold, and just like that, she was thrust into dark nothingness.
When Raven opened her eyes again, she was in Nevermore. Her brows knitted together in confusion as she took in her surroundings; she was certainly inside of her mind, that much she could sense, but it was rare that she was pulled here like this, without trying to enter. She laid a hand over her stomach, and unsurprisingly, her injury hadn't followed her to this place.
This place... she peered around again, but this wasn't an area she recognized. She found herself standing in a field of violets, a sea of blue and purple as far as the eye could see, barring the endless black row before her. She stooped to feel the charred ground beneath her feet, pinching a blackened petal between her fingers and letting the ashes fall away.
Raven looked back up, shielding her eyes from the eerily chilly sunlight and wondering what this all could possibly mean, but something in the distance caught her eye and interrupted her train of thought. Rising slowly, she squinted hard, vision blurring as she concentrated on the tiny black dot that was slowly growing in size... Oh.
Oh.
Brows furrowed with determination, Raven lowered herself into a lotus position as the object continued hurtling toward her. She loosed a long breath, emptying her lungs as the thing grew larger and closer, now vibrating visibly with the intense speed it was traveling at. She stared ahead, taking deep, even breaths, until it was only seconds away and she let her eyes drift shut. Azar, she hoped she was right about what was happening right now.
With a primal cry, her eyes snapped open again, a blinding white shield manifesting around her. There was a deafening crash as the thing collided, shattering on impact, and for a moment it sounded faintly like something was shrieking in pain, before thousands of glittery shards were suddenly flying back down the blackened row before her. They were gone in an instant, and Raven found herself thrust back into silence, a lingering smoky scent now the only indication that anything had taken place here.
With a blink, Raven was pulled back to reality, wheezing. She shot up in bed, gripping the sheets with white knuckles as she tried to catch her breath.
"Raven-"
She could hear Garfield's voice distantly, but she kept her eyes squeezed shut, fighting the fire in her lungs with each painful inhale. A dull ache pulsed through her core with each breath, but as the intense burning in her chest dwindled down to an uncomfortable warmth, she wrenched her eyes open and found that she was safe. The knife had been removed from her gut, and as she pressed down gently on the spot, hardly any tenderness remained. With a sigh of relief, she flopped back in the hospital bed, dragging her hands over her face with a groan.
"Raven," Gar tried again, hesitantly. She rolled her head to the side to look at him; the poor guy looked downright petrified, his hands hovering in the air awkwardly as he was clearly unsure if he should touch her.
"Sorry," she breathed, raking a shaky hand through her hair and grunting in annoyance when it caught on a tangle, "I'm okay."
Gar loosed a long sigh, dropping his face into his hands. "Dude," came his muffled voice before letting his hands fall back to his lap. "You have got to stop scaring me like that."
"The getting stabbed part? Or the not being able to breathe?" She couldn't help the small smirk that arose when he rolled his eyes at her, mussing his hair in frustration.
"All of it, preferably," he replied, an air of seriousness befalling him again and wiping the smile from her face. "You flatlined, Rae."
"...Oh."
"Yeah. So, um, don't do that again, please."
Raven had always rolled her eyes at Garfield's goofy nature, often getting downright pissed off over the years at his inability to take things seriously. But now, as he stared at her with watery eyes and an expression that would make anyone doubt this man had ever cracked a joke, she found she much preferred to see him happy. The weight of emotion exuding from him made her uncomfortable, and she looked away, picking at a bit of tape that pinned a wad of guaze to her arm.
"Sorry," she repeated quietly, earning a humourless chuckle from her companion.
"It's not like I actually think you did it on purpose, Rae," he said, anxiously rubbing at his arm. "I just... I really don't want to lose you again."
She glanced at him again, and something about the way he was looking at her sent a shiver down her spine, the discomfort dissipating instantly and her heart swelling in its place.
"I'm not going anywhere, Gar," she said confidently, offering him a small but reassuring smile.
"Good." His trademark toothy grin finally made a comeback, and Raven nearly sighed in relief. Straining to pull his phone from his pocket, Gar rambled on, chipper attitude back in full swing.
"Kori is gonna have a conniption. You've been out for two days and she's been asking about you nonstop, even though she's supposedly been working- you think we'll catch her on her phone if we turn the news on? Richard too, he's been investigating everything that's been going on- oh yeah, I may have told everyone about the mind control stuff. Sorry," he chanced a glance up at her, grimacing when he saw her expression.
"It's just, I noticed some things about Zach during that fight, like the way he smelled and the way he was moving, and I put two and two together, and- Rae, I think he's got something to do with all the other stuff that's been happening."
She opened her mouth to share that she'd come to the same conclusion, but Gar went on, oblivious, and she pinched her nose in annoyance.
"Oh! And Vic is still here too, but he's doing great thanks to you and should be discharged by next week. How do you feel? You can breathe okay now, right? Are you hungry?"
When the room was quiet for more than a second, Raven finally opened an eye to look at him, peering around the fingers still holding the bridge of her nose. Gar buzzed in his seat, looking at her expectantly as his leg bounced incessantly.
"Are you done?" she asked flatly, causing his cheeks to tinge red.
"Yes," he mumbled dejectedly.
She didn't mean to be rude, but really, when had it stopped her before? They could discuss all of that later; right now, she was absolutely sick of being in this hospital. And so, disregarding his rant, she instead responded:
"Good. Can you get me out of here?"
We are slowly approaching the end, folks. I think this story will end up with maybe 12 or 13 chapters? Not entirely sure, but we are getting there. I hope y'all are enjoying where this is going, things are ramping up! Stay tuned for chapter 10, which should be up within the next few days or so. Until next time!