Secrets Aren't Meant to be Kept

The Past (6/7): Raven

The Past (6/7): Raven

Rachael Roth. That was the name that she had chosen for herself.

She was currently moving into her new place, dragging the last of her luggage up the stairs. She didn't have many items; most of her belongings from the Tower were kept in a storage in another dimension. However, her precious items that she couldn't place there were in the chest that she was bringing up the stairs.

She would have used her magic to carry it up, but there was a little boy who hadn't let her out of his sight since she had arrived.

She paused on top of the step and took a small break. She really needed to work on her cardio. Robin was right; she relied too much on her magic and had neglected her physical strength.

She immediately grabbed the handle again to her luggage to drag it to her new room.

She didn't want to think about Robin or the team. She didn't want to leave the team, but Starfire's departure had created a chain reaction. Cyborg left next. He and Robin had teamed up with the Justice League on a mission. Afterward, they offered them both a place on the team. Robin had declined. He wanted to separate himself from his mentor's shadow. However, Cyborg accepted.

It was the three of them until Robin decided that he wanted to move on. He wasn't sure where. He just knew that whatever he was looking for wasn't in Jump City anymore. Beast Boy, feeling the same as Robin, wanted to leave too. So, when they turned to her during one of their last meetings as a team to ask what she wanted to do, she lied and told them that she wanted to move on as well.

Somehow, she ended up across the country, enrolled at Hudson University in New Carthage, getting a degree that she wasn't sure that she wanted. But something had led her here, just like it led her to room with the undergraduate student who had a little boy that was staring at her.

Once her luggage cleared the doorway, she closed the door and cried a little, being careful of her powers. She was alone again. Her friends had abandoned her, and she had nowhere to go.

Why did she always find herself alone?

Why hadn't anyone contacted her to ask her to join them?

Why did they leave her behind?

There was a knock on the door. She quickly wiped her tears. She didn't want her new roommate to see her crying. Well, temporary roommate. She was planning on leaving after she found a cheap place and a job.

While she took the Wayne Foundation scholarship to cover her tuition and school necessities, she didn't want the extra money to cover her living condition. After all, she knew the real reason why she was granted the scholarship in the first place.

Call it pride. However, she wanted to be independent and normal from now on. That meant she didn't want to become a superhero charity case.

She opened the door. Instead of her roommate, Mari, she was looking down at her son, who was holding a lollipop up at her.

"Cheer up." He said. "It will be okay." She raised an eyebrow as the boy, Trent, smiled at her. "We are family now. Family makes things better."

He handed her the lollipop and went away.

Family. She looked at the lollipop and chuckled bitterly on the inside. A family was something she could never have or keep.

As Rachael ran through the rain, she wished for the fifth time that she hadn't been so prideful and taken the money that had been offered to her. The money would have helped with the bills, groceries, and other stuff that a college student may or may not need. The money had been very generous that she could have bought a car.