Fan Fiction ❯ Broken ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

Priestess: If you didn't notice from the summary, Raven was just sent backwards in time. From now on, the names Raven, Cyborg, and Starfire will all be in either italics or bold The future selves will be in bold, the past selves in italic.
There are exceptions. If they are being thought or spoken, or if both are being referred to (example='Cyborg is an orphan'), or if it's a flashback, then there isn't italic or bold (well, flashbacks and thoughts are always in italic, but you get what I mean)

***

Raven stumbled, falling backwards and barely managing to catching herself in time to keep from hurting herself-not that it would have actually been able to hurt her, but still. She looked at the couch she had grabbed onto and her eyes widened.

Glancing around, she realized with disbelief that she was in Titans Tower.

But not the Titans Tower she had left a year ago, a singed wreck damaged to the point of devastation by a fight that had occurred mere hours before. It was the Titans Tower of over three years back, almost two years before everything had changed…

She took a step, tentative, wondering if she was dreaming. As she passed by things, she ran her fingers over them to see if they felt real-they did.

I can't be here, Raven thought with a rising sense of horror and panic. I-I quitthe Titans…and most of this stuff doesn't exist anymore! It was all demolished…

It didn't look particularly demolished to her.

Raven touched the chair she used to sit on and read, trying to ignore Beast Boy and Cyborg making fools of themselves. She had seen it burn, she knew she had.

Before she could think this over, an unexpected noise made her jump and whirl around. She could hear voices that, after all these years, were still painful enough to make her want to curl up and cry, and footsteps that were coming closer and closer.

***

Nightwing punched the punching bag again. Kick, pivot, punch, dodge, punch, thrust, dodge, kick. When he first learned the routine, it had seemed too simple for his standards, but it did make for rigorous training and it ate up plenty of time.

Which wasn't necessarily bad. It just wasn't necessarily good either.

"Nightwing?"

Nightwing jumped and just barely dodged the swinging punching bag in time. Trying to compose himself, he smiled at the red-haired figure in the door. "Um…hi Starfire. What are you doing here?"

Starfire, too, had developed over the past few years. Her outfit was a bit different, her hair was thicker, her pale skin was tanned, her figure had…filled out, so to speak, and her eyes were now always glowing eye-shaped emerald lights instead of green bug-eyes.

She was also less innocent and more fluent than the Starfire we know from the cartoons, though I suppose she's still a bit more innocent than she ought to be if she drinks mustard.

"Well, Cyborg is singing, and Larissa and Changeling are talking about a concert of Larissa's favorite singer, so I thought I might train with you."

Nightwing blushed, but tried to hide it. "Um, sure Starfire. I would love to-"before he managed to finish, the punching bag swung around again.

And this time…well, let's just say he didn't remember to dodge.

***

"That was so much fun," remarked Cyborg as they ('they' consisting of him, Robin, Beast Boy, and Starfire) entered Titans Tower. He shook his head. "I can't believe Raven missed it."

"Yeah," Beast Boy agreed. "I swear, she spends so much time in that creepy room reading that she may as well move to a library-though I suppose it would have to be a haunted library to be creepy enough for her."

They both chuckled, and under the couch Raven felt her heart clench. So they taunted her when she wasn't around, did they? But they spoke as if she was still a team member…

"I heard that," said a voice even more familiar than Cyborg and Beast Boy put together, a soft voice that made said heart stop beating altogether.

Raven's birdlike cape swished quietly as she landed, hands on her hips. Her head was tilted to the side, pale face wearing a predictably unreadable expression. "What took you so long?"

Cyborg opened his mouth to reply, but he stopped when he noticed her dark eyebrows knit. "Is something wrong, Reye?"

Raven's heart ached again. Reye…Cyborg's pet name for her. How long had it been since she had heard it? Over a year at the very least.

But she it wasn't as if Raven had that much time to feel heartbroken-or at the very least heartsick-because of what Raven said next.

"There's someone hiding under the couch."

***

Cyborg picked up the guitar and stood up, finished for the day. He gazed down at his reflection and sighed.

It wasn't that he wasn't happy to be human again, especially since he could be human and not lose his powers. It wasn't that at all.

It was just that he kept wondering what she would think if she saw him. It wasn't that she wouldn't recognize him or anything like that-she had seen him in his human form before.

But, if she were to see him walking down the street or something, what would she think? Would she be happy for him? Would she even care?

Quit kidding yourself, man, a painfully honest part of his voice told him. You're never going to see her again, anyway.

***

Raven held her breath and desperately tried to still the rapid pounding of her heart. Forget, she willed them, trying to summon her powers. Forget you sensed anything…Immediately she sensed a block and cursed herself mentally. Of course Raven would be able to block her own energy-and she would recognize it, too.

"All right!" shouted Cyborg, and she heard him come closer and sensed him powering up. "Come out with your hands up!"

Raven's strikingly eyes narrowed angrily and, in a rash decision, she kicked the couch away with literally inhuman strength. Raven stopped the couch from flying at them as her future self stood up with her hands braced on her hips, glaring at them.

Even if her hair, face, and figure had undergone changes both massive and imperceptible, those sad fierce eyes would never change.

Cyborg gaped at her, glancing from Raven to Raven and back again. After about three minutes of this, he cried, "Raven?!"

"Aw, you remembered me," Raven spat, speaking more harshly than she had intended. "I'm touched." She hadn't meant to sound that mean, but it was bad enough having to hear them-especially having to hear them insult her-but actually being forced to see them?

How much was one person supposed to bear?

Raven's eyes, from under the hood of her cloak, were wide. They were the same eyes-haunted and piercing, a startling but at the same time beautiful shade. "H-How…? Did you…? What…?" She trailed off, swaying slightly. If Raven hadn't known herself better, she would have thought Raven might faint.

"Time-travel?" Robin suggested, looking at Raven for a confirmation.

"Duh," Raven replied, still irritable. Inside, her mind was reeling, searching desperately for some explanation. She felt ill.

"Why are you the only one here?" asked Beast Boy. He was as stupid as always, but I suppose that isn't fair-anybody could have asked that question. They didn't know…couldn't know…

"Because it just so happens that I was the only one there," she retorted, absentmindedly fingering the silver necklace she always wore. She was not telling them the truth. There was no way.

"Out of sheer curiosity, how far in the future are you from?" asked Robin, tilting his head. Same eyes…similar features…the rest was different. Even her eyebrows were different, the dark dramatic ones replaced by thin neatly plucked ones. Her very fingernails were different, long and shiny with a fresh manicure.

"What's the date?" Raven asked.

"October 14, 2004," he replied automatically.

"Two years, eleven months, and eighteen days, then," Raven replied, her heart pounding. The very words made her feel ill as the significance of the situation struck her.

I'm stuck almost three years in the past, no way to get home, surrounded by ex-friends who aren't even aware that I'm not one of them anymore.

What am I going to do?