Blackberry Tea

Lemon and Honey

I do not own them kids. Them Titan kids.

Up on the roof Raven was once again hovering in the air, legs crossed in the lotus position. Silent tears were streaming down her face but she showed no sign of movement otherwise. This was part of her preparations. She was teaching herself to allow strong emotions of sadness to come up to the surface but it was a sorry sight. A finger on her right hand twitched involuntarily as she tried to force herself to feel and not shut down the emotions. Years of experience and practice controlling her emotions were working against her. She wanted to reflexively shirk into a state of apathy but she was forcing herself not to. A low sob shook her chest and her figure visibly sunk in the air. She was forcing herself to face all of the sharpest memories she had that could cause her pain.

She remembered when Robin and Starfire had broken up and how seeing her closest girlfriend struggle to fly made her heart ache. It took her weeks to regain the ability to fly. It took her months to smile at Robin without visibly cringing like she was in pain afterwards. Raven still could hear the shallow sobs of her best friend late at night when the rest of the Tower would have been asleep. The worst was Starfire never wanted to talk to Raven about it. Not that Raven would have been of much help but apparently the pain was so bad for her usually lighthearted friend that she couldn't bear to talk about it at all, not even with her. She would still hear her soft cries in the middle of the night after especially hard days for her and Raven couldn't empathize with her. The intensity of Starfire's emotions was enough to knock Raven off her feet. A fat tear rolled out of Raven's eye and down her cheek as she felt so useless. This training was the most she could do for Starfire at the moment.

She remembered the months she was desperately worried about Cyborg after he had been captured by a rogue arm of the league of assassins. She was supposed to watch his back in battle and she had been knocked out of the fight early. Cyborg was left wide open. They had sliced one of his cybernetic limbs off and dragged him away. Raven's ears were ringing and she could barely see straight at the time but the screams that came from her Cybernetic friend as he was dragged away still haunted her. It was a hazard that came along with her job but it still shook her to the core. Every night for months she had lied in bed wondering where in the world her friend was. Every time they had been close to finding the location they were holding him at they would move again. Each time Raven blamed herself. If she hadn't gotten distracted. If only she had reacted faster. If only she had been more in control. Eventually the assassins fell into a trap by the Justice League who were hunting them for their own reasons and they thankfully got their cybernetic friend back. He was in high spirits when he returned but Raven could sense a shadow in him. He didn't seem to blame her for what had happened to him at all: saying that he had gotten careless too thinking it was all a routine call. Raven wanted to believe him but being held captive and tortured for months had clearly taken a toll on him.

She remembered a battle the team had had with the Hive five a few weeks before. They had all targeted their designated opponent but Raven was having a harder time than usual with taking down Kyd Wykkyd. Everytime she thought she knew where he was going to be he would move again and it was like he was playing a game of cat and mouse with her. It seemed like she would never grab him when a car came flying out of nowhere and tripped him up. Raven looked around confused and then she spotted an oversized green gorilla waving at her from a few yards away. She grinned wickedly and took the opportunity to take a hold of the stunned Kyd Wykkyd. She easily restrained him and looked back over to where Beast Boy had been just in time to see Mammoth brutally launch Beast Boy's very human form into the pavement. He landed head first and his skull gave off a deafening and sickening crack. He landed an unmoving heap of green and Raven's self control began to wane. She didn't want to lose control. They were in the middle of a very busy street in the center of the city and there were still some straggling citizens that weren't quick enough to catch the hint that they weren't wanted at present. She was trying to soothe her temper as she shot towards the duo but Mammoth was already on top of Beast Boy pounding on his chest. She was barely restraining herself from reaching into the overbearing brute and ripping his soul to pieces. The only thing that stopped her was Beast Boy's peaceful yet deformed visage. She knew her eyes went red, she knew she had six eyes, she could hardly care. All she wanted to do was end the cause of Beast Boy's pain.