Birds of a Feather

27

While in healing trances it usually takes no longer than a week or two to heal my physical wounds. My mental state however was not so easily fixed. I could tell my body had fully healed when I regained awareness. It meant I wasn't dead but clearly, I was in the trance still so that my mental state could be repaired.

The strange thing was though I felt fine mentally. I could tell that Rage and Lust had been put away safely and that the other emotions were no longer running amok in my head. In fact I knew that somehow, I felt more in control than ever before. Something about my lack of control in the asylum must have jump started the healing process for my emotional power outbursts.

I hadn't heard anyone talking when they came to check on me, though I could tell someone was there because every so often a door would open. I could hear beeping faintly coming from my left which I had assumed was my heartrate monitor.

As I began my descent from my healing trance, I didn't dare check to see who was there. I kept my eyes closed for as long as I could in order to save myself from the inevitable confrontation. Unlike the time Slade had controlled rage, I could remember every detail from the night in the asylum and had to relive it over and over again during my trance.

"I know you're awake." I heard a deep voice say. I peeked one eye open and to my surprise I saw Bruce Wayne sitting to my left. Past him I could see another hospital bed with flowers and cards hiding who was in it. Bruce offered me a glass of water which I gladly took. I could sense his anger and resentment and knew that whatever he was here for it wouldn't be good.

"I'm going to assume you're here to discuss my position as a hero." I said as my gaze diverted to the ceiling. Bruce cleared his throat and adjusted his spot on his chair.

"I really want to trust you Raven I do. But Dick's my son, whether he likes it or not and he still hasn't woken up. There are many gifted people Raven and what makes them a hero is how they choose to use that power. I want to believe that you are a hero, but how can I?" He said sternly. I sat up slowly as my head started pounding from the lack of water. I could now see that the bed to my left had a beaten and bruised Nightwing who was clearly still in some kind of coma. We were clearly in some form of hospital room as there was medical equipment everywhere, but this was certainly far more high tech than the one at Titans Tower.

"Where are we?" I said, avoiding his question. There were no windows in the room so I had no other view but that of the four white walls around me.

"Still in Gotham. The league thought it best to keep everyone here until we could get reports from all parties involved. Including you." He said.

I nodded and made my way carefully out of bed; I couldn't help but notice all of the Titans from around the world had sent flowers and cards for Nightwing that were scattered around on various tables. He was clearly still alive and visibly breathing but he was still shades of yellow and green from his healing bruises. I couldn't help but notice that even in my deep state of regret and sadness nothing was blowing up or going haywire.

I turned to Bruce who was staring at me coldly, clearly still not trusting me to be close to his son. "I need you to do something for me please?" I asked timidly. His eyebrows furrowed at my request.

"You're not really in a position to be requesting things." He said. I nodded and glanced back down at Richard. I took a deep breath and placed my hand over his cold one.

"I will likely collapse from this but please just move me to another room. When I wake, I will answer any questions you may have then go to Jump and pack my bags. I'm sure if you asked someone they will take over the hero work. I'll leave, just don't tell Richard. Keep him as far away as possible. Tell them all that I left." I said quietly as my head moved to look at Bruce. I needed to know that he was going to do this for me and not just leave me in this city to bear the sight of my disappointed and angry friends. He simply nodded and so I took that and his overwhelming aura of curiosity as my cue to heal Richard.