Give Me Back My Mind!
Perfect Days and a Slice…
At nineteen Raven was very shocked to still be alive; not that she had thought she was going to die or drop dead at any second, it was just a shock because she hadn't ever expected to live past fourteen. After the disaster with her father, Trigon, she wasn't expecting to live her life.
However, here the Gem of Scath was celebrating her nineteenth birthday, in a garage no less, as she read in the corner and helped Cyborg with his latest project.
Raven found herself spending a lot of time in the garage to avoid the noise of the upper levels, besides, she liked Cyborg's company; he was like a big brother.
Since the start of last year Richard Grayson and had decided he would help expand the Teen Titans, true there were the Titans East, Titans North, Titans West, and Titans South. And while their Teen Titans organization was not small by any means, but Dick felt there was a change in order. True the Teen Titans were all about heroics still, and they weren't changing what they were doing, but Starfire and Dick had decided that the Teen Titans could be better applied as teachers instead of the Justice League taking on that task.
Raven saw the logic in it, there were many young children out there who were gaining abilities and many adults who wished to exploit them. By offering these children a home they could safely learn their abilities and their powers without fear of falling apart or being taken advantage of, like Terra had been. Also, by being with the Teen Titans, their Justice League mentors weren't there to hold them back or hinder their growth.
Yes, Raven saw much of the logic in this.
However, what she did not see the logic in was the group of young teens she was now in charge of because of Dick and Star!
Which was also another part of the reason she was hiding out in the garage.
Dick, now Nightwing, had assigned her to the mentoring of his younger brother; Damian Wayne, and while Tim Drake; now Red Robin, and Richard Grayson thought of this being a brilliant idea, Raven could only say that they were insane. Their logic being that perhaps a half-demon could teach their demon-like little brother how to be a little more human. Needless to say, Raven felt she had somehow drawn the short straw in this arrangement.
Not that Damian was a bad child, he just was… intense, foul tempered, pragmatic, cold, prying, annoying, demanding, disrespectful, and arrogant. There were times she was exceedingly tempted to send him to another dimension, but she didn't.
Also assigned to her group was Blue Beetle, a.k.a. Jaime Reyes, a young man with peculiar armor which Star thought she could help him learn about because it was from some unknown dimension or something. Honestly, she had stopped listening as Star suckered her into taking on that kid too. He was a kind boy, sweet, but him and Beast Boy could go all day and there were times she wanted silence; neither was good at that.
And then there was Terra; Raven had researched, and researched; desperately seeking a way to reverse Terra's 'condition' so as to make Beast Boy happy again. Raven had accidentally found the reversal, and Terra had come back to the Titans. The only condition (one which was enforced, against Raven's will, and shoved upon her by the other founding Titans) was that she be the one to teach Terra. Strangely Beast Boy was the one to make this demand, and both Robins, and Starfire, and Cyborg thought it was a good idea; Raven felt it was a terrible idea because despite it being a half a year since Terra's revival, she didn't trust Terra. Terra had been revived at the original age she'd been encased in stone, and Raven really despised the now sixteen year old.
Raven had asked Cyborg to be her second in command, mostly because he had the most patient, and he would help her keep calm. If she had one person on her team who knew her limits then she wasn't likely to lose control or strangle any of the infuriating teens.
Which brought her to hiding in the garage.
"Socket Wrench Rae," Cyborg ordered from beneath the car, she levitated it to him. "Aren't you supposed to train the kids today?"
"Nope," she answered.
"Oh really,"
"Beast Boy took Terra on a date, Dick and Tim took Damian to a Wayne Enterprise function, Star and Beetle went to the Titans East to consult with Bumblebee about his armor. Today is my day off," she answered.
"And you're spending it with me in the garage!" Cyborg grinned. "I'm touched."
"I felt it was safe to hide elsewhere beside my room," she shrugged as she looked up from her book.
"And I know you don't like making a big deal of your birthday, but check the top drawer of my tool box," Cyborg instructed her. curious Raven lowered her feet to the ground as she walked over to the drawer and opened it. Her eyes widening when she saw it.
"That's the one you wanted, right?" he appeared behind her grinning and she chuckled then.
"Yes, thank you Cyborg," and she picked up the old magic book she'd been searching for before turning to him with a small smile. He really was like her big brother, and she loved having that feeling at times.
"Great! You would not believe how hard that was for Beast Boy and I to find, Zatanna kept trying to take it first," he stated.
Raven frowned at that information but said nothing about this. It was very clear to Raven that Zatanna was never going to trust or like her and while that was a good thought, Raven went to great lengths to ignore and avoid the Justice League magician. Ever since Zatanna had found out about her, Raven's life had gotten harder, and if it wasn't for the fact that Nightwing, and Red Robin were backing her, which brought the support of the entire Bat clan, and her original Team, she had no doubts Superman would have pitched her ass into the sun and never looked back.
Not a pleasant reality for her.
But she couldn't blame the world, she had an interdimensional demon for a father, and he was hellbent on destroying the worlds he could touch, and she was his portal. 'Was' being the operative word here, but no one seemed to dwell on the was part of this statement.
"This is the one I wanted," she smiled.
"Good, now, can you lift the engine, and we'll put it in," he asked. She smirked a bit as she lifted her hand and used her powers to help Cyborg build his latest toy.
The alarm signaled then as she put the engine down.
"Time to get to work," Cyborg chuckled as he got up and she created a portal for them as they went up to the mainframe for the alarm.
It was a nice quiet day, even with trouble, and Raven liked it.
~~~*~*~*~~~
To be clear he was a contractor, he acquired the goods he was contracted to collect, and as he sat there with his current upstanding client he blinked dumbly behind his mask as he assessed the black-haired woman.
"You want what?" he repeated, he just wanted to make certain he had heard the 'where' of what he was stealing correctly. It wasn't that this would be a difficult job, but rather that it wasn't going to be easy and he wanted to make certain about this before he did it.
"I need you to steal this book from the Teen Titan, Raven," the woman informed him as she slid the picture of the book back to him. Behind his mask he was smirking a bit, at the challenge of all this. "It's in her room, or so I'm told, I'm certain that it will be in Titan's tower either way."
"Why don't you just ask her for it, you're a League member." He pointed out the obvious to the woman who rolled her eyes then. The young woman seemed to think he was missing the obvious; he wasn't, and if he wasn't being paid an astronomical amount he'd take it just to fuck with the Bird Brain Trio, and he'd enjoy every second of it.
But that wasn't his problem with the job.
No, his problem was that he was being contracted by a member of the Justice League to do this job and the implications of what that could hold for him weren't good. They weren't bad either, but they weren't good.
"That demon spawn cannot have that book, retrieve it before she can use it and you're paid well, where's your problem!?" the woman snapped.
"No problem, princess, just wondering why you don't just ask for it," he said.
"Because she's a demon's spawn!"
"Fine, fine, half the payment now, and half on completion and we walk away. Set me up or double cross me and you'll deal with the other guy," he informed her as he grinned behind the skull mask.
The woman waved her hand and pulled out a tablet. Until he heard the ding from his account he didn't move, once he checked the numbers he smirked.
"Pleasure doing business with you," he nodded and then pressed a button on his belt which had him teleporting as he landed lightly next to his bike and straddled it. Revving the engine he blasted through the city and checked for a tail, just in case.
Once he was sure it was safe he took his bike to his back up hideout and sat back before pulling off his mask and smirked.
Raven.
He hadn't thought about her or the Teen Titans in nearly three years.
Oh, he'd had fun messing with the Bat family in different ways over these past few years. He loved driving them up the wall; seriously, all of them were wound so fucking tight he didn't know how they hadn't snapped already. Especially the new Boy Blunder. Though he had to admit the new kid had serious skills and knew how to use that sword.
Smirking he pulled off the Red-X mask and then stripped before changing into civilian clothes and taking the other bike out the other entrance he could use and zipping through the city.
Pulling up to his apartment he slid off the bike and jogged up the stairs.
He was slipping at times, he could feel it when he felt the manic fill him, and he resisted the craving to laugh and go on a rampage. It wouldn't do to draw attention to himself.
Not after having successfully escaping his second death.
Grabbing a beer from his fridge he thought the job over, he could do it, it was easy money. The Titan's security was a joke.
Besides, 'Sunshine' would be thrilled to see him again. A smirk tugged at his lips as he remembered the quiet, dark, monotonous Titan. The tabloids had dubbed her the Ice Queen, he felt they were so wrong about that analysis that it was amusing. The Raven he knew was a terror to meet, she had Dr. Light voluntarily going to jail when she showed up. Granted Dr. Light was not the brightest guy in the criminal underworld, but the point was, if she could have bad guys willingly, and voluntarily going to jail; even if they were idiots; she was someone to feared. The thrill of going toe to toe with her was something he was actually looking forward too.
And he didn't care about the item in question, he was actually kind of looking forward to a fight with the Titans, he'd been off the radar too long. This could be fun.
Sipping his beer he fell on the couch and grabbed his computer before he started hacking into the Titan's Tower again.
