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The Titans: Triptych	By : hentaigoten Category: DC Verse Cartoons - Teen Titans > Crossovers > FemmeSlash Views: 1932 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or JLA. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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#4

The Sundering

Chapter 4 of 6: Benighted

She sat cross-legged, levitating a couple of feet off the ground, studying the lay of the land before she made any decisions.

One of the major highways had folded in on itself. Hundreds of cars were jammed up on it, dozens more spilled over the edge, smashed. Fires, small and isolated, were burning throughout the city. The city’s fire department didn’t have time to put them out.

Thousands of people were leaving the city on foot, heading towards the camps the military and the League had set up just outside the city, in the suburban parks. Hundreds of thousand would no doubt be doing the same by the next dawn.

The fires lit up the night sky beautifully.

“We fly in.” Raven announced. “We go low, keep our eyes open. There are plenty of other flyers in the area- we won’t even be blinked at, so long as we don’t do anything stupid.”

“Very well, then. Do you think he will be there?”

“Undoubtedly. This is the city he became protector of. It’s what he committed to. It’s…where he belongs…”

“Yes…he said as much.”

Raven kept quiet. Yes, Robin had said as much…the night he had left.

Raven hadn’t said anything in reply then, to either his departure or his putting her in charge. None of them had said much. Beastboy had been in shock, if anything. Cyborg had already left to take command of the Titans East barely weeks before, and it had hit him hard. Kory had been upset, in tears…

She didn’t want to see him. But, they always helped one of their own…it was the way things were. Raven knew it painfully well.

The bastard. He just had to be tied to Gotham.

She didn’t want to…

She shook the thought off. She was here now. She had to commit herself.

“Let’s go.”

Un-knotting her legs from beneath her, Raven took off into the night sky, Starfire on her left, barely half a metre away.

“Garfield said he was heading here as fast as he could, didn’t he?”

“Yes, he did.” Raven replied. “He’ll be here soon enough, Kory…a day was his guess. We don’t have time to wait.”

“I know.” Starfire replied. She was about to say something else, but she stopped, changing her track and saying, “I don’t think you have ever called me Kory before? Always my full name, or my codename.”

“Must be slipping.” Raven said, her tone suddenly utterly level. “We need to get ourselves in gear. We don’t have Beastboy to watch our backs, remember. There’s only us. Only us.”

“For now, at least.”

“Yes.” Raven said, her voice dropping away. “For the moment…”

The teleportation pad, and the banks of equipment surrounding it, were lit up by the bright, blinding light produced when the pad activated.

An instant after he had materialised inside the Cave, Batman strode off the pad, making his way to the main computer station. Huntress leapt off the seat, which span round a couple of times before Batman stopped it, seating himself before the consoles.

“Well? How’d they take you glaring at them throughout the meeting?” She asked almost blithely, but for the slight tone that indicated she enjoyed the thought of Batman glaring at the League.

“They claim they’re doing what they can.” He responded.

“And you don’t agree, right?”

“…I’m not well liked there. None of us are.” He responded, eventually.

“Gee, I wonder why that could be…?”

“Our methods. Your attempted killing of a known mob assassin and don. My pushing for non meta League members. My disagreements with many of their tactics and methods. I could go on.” Batman said, his hands already darting across the computer keyboards arrayed before him.

“Don’t, I don’t think I can handle yet more blinding compliments of my motivations…”

“I didn’t mention your motivations.”

“But they’re always there. Just like yours.”

He didn’t reply for a while, and for a moment she thought-

“Take a vehicle and move out to the east side. Search and rescue squads are moving at a crawl through there, and there a great many underground structures in their residential sectors. There are twenty nine subway stations that have yet to be fully checked out, and given usual transportation figures at the time, there will probably be an estimated ten thousand still trapped underground.” Batman said, his voice grave and serious as ever. “Leave immediately.”

She gazed at the back of his head for a moment, before turning on her heel and leaving for the lower levels of the cave. A minute later, and the sound of her bike tearing out of the cave reached the main computer station.

Batman sat for another twenty minutes, analysing the data before him, before giving terse orders over the radio frequency they were using tonight. He focused his efforts on the east side. He hadn’t been overestimating when he’d given Huntress her orders.

Search and rescue were doing what they could, but they were moving through a major metropolitan area, with a massive subway system that had been hit at a peak travel time. Buildings on the east side were not designed to withstand the type of punishment they’d endured just over twenty-four hours ago. The area was too poor to warrant proper revamping by the city council. Which meant cheap housing costs.

The poorer elements of Gotham filled the east side to the point of overflowing. The population concentration was unhealthy, given the poor building design and civil services in the area.

Rising from his seat, Batman made his way to the Batmobile and from there, to his stricken city.

Raven landed on a rooftop of a stable looking building, Starfire seconds behind her.

“How many does that make?” She asked, looking out over the city.

“Four fights over food, seven times pulling someone out of rubble.”

“…this will take forever.” Raven said, sitting down on the floor, leaning against an air conditioning vent. Starfire sat next to her, and Raven slumped against the taller woman gratefully.

“How are we gonna find him? He’s probably blending in with the shadows. It’s not like he projections green shapes out his ass, or stretches, or looks like he’s got serious daddy issues.”

“‘Daddy issues’?”

“Eh, Plastic Man. He looks like a lunatic. Must have daddy issues.”

“Oh…okay then. I shall be sure to be careful not to mention his father if I meet this Plastic Man you speak of. I would not wish to not be friends with him over such a thing.”

Raven smiled absently into the distance.

“That’s the thing about you, Koriand’r…”

“What thing?”

“Just…” She shook her head fractionally. “Never mind. We don’t have time to rest. We have to find one of them. You know, any of them wearing the Bat. Even, you know…”

“The Batman?”

“Yeah. Or ‘Batman’. No one really knows if you’ve got to say ‘the’ first.” Raven said, slowly pushing herself to her feet.

“He is quite…” The alien princess paused, trying to find the right word. “Imposing.”

“Yeah. He’s got a real mad on for something or other. Robin had a bit of that, but from what I hear, his mentor makes him look like you.”

“I see. Perhaps he merely needs the Milkshake Of Peace…?”

“Doubt it.”

“So, you have never met this man of bats?”

“No. Not many people have. He doesn’t hang around over super heroes. Just does what he has to do, I suppose.” Raven said, taking off into the air.

“Well, maybe I can-”

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Raven said, Starfire flying in close formation. “I would worry about you calling him ‘man of bats’ when he’s in the same city as you, though…”

He watched the two men argue for a moment longer. He saw a man reached inside his pocket, he saw the other sliding a blade out his sleeve.

He’d seen enough.

A series of blinding flashes went off inches away from the men, smoke discharging from pellets around them.

There was a blur, a noise like the flapping of giant wings, cries of pain as arms were twisted round, pressure points hit expertly.

“Do not.” A voice from within the smoke and darkness intoned. “Fight over scraps.”

A pair of thuds, and the men reached forward, finding large, square boxes. A looming figure glowered at them, and they gazed back in slack fear.

“Rations. Enough for you and the ones you claim to fight for. Long enough to last until you reach a refuge centre.”

There was some stilted movement from either side, from within the ruins.

“Go.”

The two men ran, scooping up the boxes, forgetting any animosity as they fled from the voice in the smoke and darkness side by side, a small gaggle of people joining them as they went.

He stood motionless as the smoke slowly dispersed. The fighters he had split up had long since gone by the time the smoke had.

Only then did he look up at a nearby building.

“You can come down now.”

There was a moment’s hesitation, and two figures jumped off the building, floating down to the ground.

“Batman, I am-” One of them, a woman in a cloak, started to say, before he cut her off.

“Raven, leader, Titans.” He said. “You’re team hasn’t been deployed here.”

“No.” Raven replied. “We’re here because of…our former leader.”

“I see.” He gazed at them, assessing them ruthlessly. A long moment passed. “I understand. But once you’re done, link up with the League. They’ll put you to some proper work.”

“Of course.”

“For now, and only now, Gotham needs more than what I can provide.”

“I understand.”

“Good. He’s two kilometres west. I’ll let him know you’re on your way.”

“Thank you.” Without another word, Raven headed skywards, her companion close on her heels. He’d already keyed his radio before they had left.

As he waited for the brief second it took to get a response from him, Batman privately decided that Grayson had made a good choice. She seemed to have her head firmly screwed on her shoulders.

He hadn’t expected anything else, but still, such literal reminders were…pleasing.

They found a shape, moving amongst the rubble. Prowling through, searching for survivors.

Raven ruthlessly stamped control over her emotions as they neared him. Starfire flew ahead, landing ahead of her.

She wouldn’t allow him the satisfaction. She wouldn’t let him get to her, make things worse for anyone around her. She wouldn’t loose control. She couldn’t appear weak in front of him.

She couldn’t. Not while…

“He said you’d be here.” He said, pausing in his search but not turning as Starfire tenuously walked towards him.

“Robin, are-”

“Not Robin. Nightwing.” He turned around, looking at them at last. “It’s… good to see you, Starfire. You too, Raven.”

Raven kept silent. She wouldn’t reply, not until she was sure she could speak without emotion on her voice.

She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

She wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.

Some things you just couldn’t do.
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The Titans: Triptych