capeandcowllogs | Running along the top of a rail [Incomplete]

Running along the top of a rail [Incomplete]

WHO: Robin III, Raven.
WHERE: In the Clocktower.
WHEN: March 12 after he talks to Kon yeah. For maximum HHHHGODANGSTGUILT.
WARNINGS: Um more DC brand angst I guess.
SUMMARY: Raven has something to tell Tim about Odysseus. Who could the PhantSlade.
FORMAT: IDK whatever we feel like probably quickpara.

Tim made his way towards Raven's room in the Tower. Whatever she could tell him about Odysseus, he needed to know. Just why she hadn't told him sooner - something he gathered both from their last conversation on the matter, and this one - was only of secondary importance. He knew that Raven sometimes acted in ways that she believed were best for her team, her family, without telling them - just as he would, in some ways. It didn't mean that he appreciated being kept in the dark, but he could at least understand her reasoning.

Now, however, it was time for answers. He knocked on her door.

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She had been pacing in her room from the moment that she first contacted him about it - the racing in her mind wasn't about to stop either. It was in times like these that she missed having void emotions, where she was free from feeling much of any kind of stress.

But here she was, fretting over the situation. Like all the other situations she had boggling in her mind right now.

The knock on the door shot her out of her personal thoughts, causing her eyes to widen in a stare before her mind registered a proper reaction.
"It's open..."

Tim opened the door and stepped inside quietly, shutting the door behind him - he knew that privacy was important here. But so was talking as teammates, so he stepped closer to Raven with a small smile.

"Raven. I'm here to listen to whatever you want to say." And that meant that she could talk about his... current issues as well, after addressing Odysseus.

He looked too kind, too sweet. She had to rip her eyes off him and keep them focused on the far wall to resist spilling everything right then and there. Her conscience had never been a major issue before, but now... here... he was all she really had. It was killing her inside.

She slowly sat down on the edge of her bed, tucking a piece of dark hair behind her ear.
"... I know you are, and I appreciate you making time for me." she inhaled deeply before managing to slightly look up at him, "Sit, please. It would make it easier on me if you did so."

Tim nodded and spent a moment choosing between sitting on the bed next to her or pulling up a chair. In the end, he decided on the chair - it would be less uncomfortable if she needed to tell him something difficult.

"Okay. Tell me about Odysseus first, please."

A deep inhale - it was all she could manage at first before slowly lifting her eyes to him again.

"I should have been straightforward with you to begin with, Tim. I knew nearly everything I needed to know about him by the first time we spoke on the matter. You were..."
She paused, choosing her words carefully. "... are, in no emotional state to have to deal with it."

She gave him a knowing look at that, attempting to drive that point in before continuing on. She was going to admit to knowing things, but the details were going to be harder to come by than a simple conversation.
"He is far more powerful than you would ever imagine - darker. Deadlier."

Tim raised his eyebrow, but nodded almost imperceptibly. He could accept that his emotions were... unsteady at best right now, even though he was doing his best to maintain control. He leaned forward, steepling his hands under his chin.

"If I am correct in my suspicions about his being the one who held me captive, Raven, then that does make sense. My captor exhibited an inhuman resistence to pain when I tried to escape." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "Are you saying his powers are something demonic in origin, and that's why you could sense them in him so clearly?"

He hit the nail on the head - damn Robins, they always did this to her, catching her off guard, figuring her out before she had a chance to process it through her mind herself.

"... I never said those words myself." her tone was even but firm, she didn't trust anything around her anymore, not now. She knew that even her body language could be seen as paranoid and nervous, even jittery. Just the thought of anything remotely tied to her father sent her into a fit of anxiety. She didn't want those here to be hurt by his influence like so many had been before.

Tim regarded her evenly, calm and thoughtful. "No, you didn't. Because you wanted to protect me from the truth." He took in her nervous body language, the defensive statement about her words, and narrowed his eyes just slightly.

"Or protect yourself from something more personal. It wasn't just any demon's influence you sensed in him, was it?" He hoped that she would prove his conclusions wrong, tell him that it was some other demon, but all his instincts told him otherwise.

Her leg seemed to twitch the longer they spoke, the ball of her foot pressing rapidly against the floor to cause her knee to rise and fall rapidly. She hated this conversation, she hated the idea of having let him down. Her head swam with a variety of responses to that - a part of her wanted to throw herself against him and break down from the inner fears she held, another part wanted to throw him out of the room and lock herself away forever. It was completely conflicting.

All she could manage was to look up with the slightest of tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

Tim's eyes widened and he stood, reaching out to hold her shoulder. "Raven - I'm sorry. I should have had more tact. But you know that, if it's your father's influence at work, the Titans will always be there to help, right? That includes talking to us about it." He didn't smile, but his expression was one of reassurance. "We can deal with him together."

"No."
For the first time in the entire conversation she spoke deep and firmly, with as much authority as she could will in her voice. By Azar... he had looked so much like Dick in that one moment, it struck the very pit of fear into her stomach.

"I won't let you face him, I won't let ANY of you face him. I cannot lose any more of you..."

Tim frowned. "Raven, you can't say that. You can't face him alone. As much as you want to protect us, don't you think that we want to protect you, too? What if we lose you because we weren't able to be there, with you, supporting you? I don't want that to happen."

She grew more frustrated with his words - of course he didn't understand her wishes, she was holding back further information from him... however her mind was processing this more as his unwillingness to listen to her wishes. The hormones in her teenage body had her emotions bouncing off the walls, and the past week of staying in the tower, simply taking in everyone else's rampaging emotions had left her anything but rational.

She stood abruptly, tightly grabbing onto the sleeve of his shirt with her hand as she stared at him, panic-stricken.
"Listen to me. This is far above what you've seen or been told about my father. This time I may actually lose you."

As the words left her mouth she quickly regretted them - it was most likely only going to make the situation worse for him. She slowly released his sleeve, eyes staring down at the floor between them.
"I-I apologize. That outburst was uncalled for."

Tim took his hand back, keeping it in the air between them, and stared at her for a moment. There were questions bubbling in his mind and he had to fight a freezing feeling in his chest - if Odysseus really was the person who'd kept him captive like he thought, then - was that what Raven meant? Did she sense his intentions were focused on Tim? Or was it something else, something he really couldn't imagine?

"Alright. Tell me about it. Why are you afraid for me?"

Just the look on his face was more than enough to know she had made things worse than they already were. She slowly sank down onto her bed again, trying to recover her emotions before she happened to explode again.

Her voice was soft, weak, and it was all that she could manage. This entire situation had made her exhausted.
"He is after you, however you already have suspected that. But if that's the case, then doesn't that mean that for some reason, whatever reason..."

She paused to look up at him again.
"That my father is after you too? Tim you are all that I have here..."

The words hit him like wave of ice, and he just looked shocked for a moment. He really couldn't understand it - Trigon, after him? It didn't make sense, there was no reason for the demon to want him, no purpose to it, surely. The only reason he could conceive of was to use him against Raven, but he'd been taken before she was even here, it didn't follow.

He swallowed. "But - why? Why me? Raven, that doesn't make any sense - there's no reason your father could be after me. If there was something, surely you would have been able to sense it, wouldn't you?" He shook his head. "I don't intend to go anywhere unless we all return home."

"I never said it made sense." she lifted up a hand to slowly massage one of her temples. "And I am probably being paranoid about the matter, however I know I sensed my father... and Odysseus knew my true name."

She paused to collect her thoughts, trying to calm her emotions down, and in turn, help to ease him as well.
"... regardless of if my father is behind it or not, you do have someone after you. That should be reason enough for my concern for you, Tim."

Tim nodded absently, bringing his hand to his chin in thought. "I see. Alright, let's leave the involvement of your father in the possible but unlikely file unless you sense him acting more directly, or some reason becomes clear." Not that it would stop being a concern for him, but until they had proof either way, it wasn't good to focus on it to the exclusion of any other possibilities.

"I don't like having someone after me, but it's not the first time I've had to deal with that sort of situation. I suppose you could call it a hazard of the job." He gave her a faint smile. "I truly appreciate the concern, but I can take care of myself. I'll be careful. But neither of us should face him alone in that case, right?"

Raven watched him quietly for many moments, taking in what he said and nodding softly at his question. She hated how the bells went off in her mind the moment her father became involved in something - things were blown way out of proportion for her - it usually took someone like Tim to refocus her again. Sure enough, here he was; the thought nearly made her smile, if not for the present conversation.
She agreed with what he was saying, completely, and finally felt the burden she had been carrying around in her mind begin to lift.

"It's... not like we haven't gotten through worse things, right?" a question filled with forced hope, and a vain attempt to lift the spirits in the room.

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Running along the top of a rail [Incomplete]

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