Scath Roth (Jinx x Raven)

Chapter 18: The Bat Family in Action, Part 2

Saturday, February 27, 1999
On a mission, 02:00

*Raven POV*

Bruce and Jason head to the hideout on the docks. It's an abandoned warehouse filled with money and other valuable items they've stolen.

Barbara and I head to the other hideout, an old gym downtown about 10 miles from their other hideout. It's where they store all their weapons and stolen vehicles.

We pull up the same as we did with the bank and head in. We use my soulself to faze through the roof and survey the area. There's not many of The Polar Pups here as most were in the raid at the bank, and the remaining had to split in half.

We split up, silently taking the members out one by one as they patrolled the gym. We group back up at the back of the gym where a group of six remain, playing poker at a table where they bet on their stolen goods.

Seeing them like this pisses me off and I use my soulself to send Barbara back on top of the roof and reclaim that piece of my soulself. I then let my powers escape enough to wrap a tendril around each of them, lift them up, and slam them all into each other and down onto the table so that they crash through it. I then throw them apart, all of them crashing into a wall or crate.

They all fall unconscious, some obviously braking a few bones here and there, if the cracking sounds are any indication. I then cuff all of them and bring them to the front, where a confused and angry Barbara is waiting for me, with the rest of the apprehended goons.

She doesn't say anything when she sees the state of the criminals I'm hauling with my soulself. She just shakes her head and starts writing a note for the police telling them that these are the remaining Polar Pups and where they can find all the weapons and vehicles inside.

Then she finally turns to look at me. I'm scared of the disappointment I'm sure she feels, so I keep my empathy on lockdown and refuse to meet her eyes.

She grabs my hand and leads me out of the building and to an alley next to the gym and I follow without argument. She squeezes my hand letting me know she wants something. Knowing her for as long as I have, I understand immediately and wrap my soulself around both of us.

She leads us to a tall building nearby where we sit and look out at the city. She's quiet for a few minutes longer before she finally speaks up.

"Why did you do that?"

"They made me mad. It's not like they didn't deserve it," I replied defensively, not wanting to hear about how wrong she thinks it was.

"That's not what I meant. Hell, I was mad enough that I would have done the same, given the chance," she says surprising me. "Why did you make me leave when you did it?"

"I didn't want you to see me like that. That angry and vengeful person. I don't want you to think about me like that," I say, worried she'll see me as the demon I was born as. The demon I've tried my whole life to lock away.

"Raven," Barbara says trying to get me to look at her. But I'm too scared that if I look, I'll see disappointment, or worse, fear of me.

"Little bird," she tries again, in a softer voice. This time I look her in the eyes and see nothing, but love in her eyes. "I could never think about you that way. We all get angry sometimes, it's part of being human. And sure your moral compass is a little different than the average human, but that doesn't make you evil, Ray. That blood of yours does not define you. Your actions do, and you've always fought against your darker urges. You have a heroes heart, Ray. Nothing could ever change that."

"Thank you, East," I say choked up on my tears. We hug tightly for a few minutes, looking over the city some more.

"Alright, Birdy. Let's go home. My butt is starting to hurt from sitting on this concrete," she says making us laugh. I teleport us to the bat cave where Father is waiting for us.

"Welcome back, ladies. Master Bruce and young Master Todd have already went upstairs to shower and ready for bed. Master Bruce said to inform you that their mission was a success and that they'll meet you down here for debriefing in-" he pauses to check his watch, "47 minutes."

"Thank you, Father. We'll be back down soon." I say with a small smile as Barbara and I walk past him to put our suits away and change into our other clothes before heading up to shower.

Barbara stops me and gives my hand a small squeeze letting me know she wants to faze us again. I roll my eyes at her, but smile to let her know I'm just playing, before wrapping us in my soulself.

She fazes is to the top of the stairs that lead to our rooms, and I recall my soulself. We head the rest of the way on foot and reach my rooms first. She lets go of my hand to hug me, and then heads to her own rooms.

I shower and then check my phone for any messages. I have a few from each of my teammates, just wanting to catch up and one from Jinx, letting me know that she made it home safely and that she's in charge of our next date.

I roll my eyes at her text, but can't keep the large smile from my face.

I reply to my teammates first, telling them how I've been. It's a group chat so I only have to tell them once instead of copying and pasting, or typing it to each individually.

Then I reply to Jinx: "I'm glad you made it home safely. Just got back from a mission myself. Who gave you permission to take charge? I don't even remember you asking me out..." I send and start making my way to the bat cave.

As I reach the end of the hallway, I feel my phone vibrate a few times in quick succession. I check it to see that my team replied. They all wished me good luck on my mission to find my mother's family and that they're glad to hear I'm doing well. In their own ways, that is.

I make it down to The Bat Cave where everyone but Barbara is already waiting to debrief. We make small talk for about three minutes before Barb shows up.

The debriefing goes over smoothly and we agree to head to bed, with our comms nearby in case of an emergency.