B'shert

War is Kind

Chapter Fourteen

(A/N: so high! Once again I'm updating from my phone so no formatting or anything like that. But....

WARNING THERE IS CHARACTER DEATH AHEAD! MINOR CHARACTER DEATH IS MENTIONED, NOTHING DESCRIPTIVE BUT ITS THERE???)

The first time Raven meets Zatanna has everyone on their toes.

This shouldn't be too surprising considering the fact that the Justice league was just in space fighting their way into the mother ship of another lot of alien invaders while other superheroes around the world had been handling the alien ground troops. It was another one of those very well planned mass scale invasions, which involves alien operatives having been under their noses for MONTHS now without anyone knowing. Well when the cards are down, and the aliens, the Gamari, had officially attacked, and like during any other world level threat event the heroes had had organize themselves, dividing their man power across the world so that no where would be left defenseless. (You know coordinated attacks and crowd control in their areas and that sorta shit.)It just so happened that Zatanna had to be in Jump city during this particular crisis and goes to the Titans to help out. Most of the team had already left and it had just been Nightwing and Robin left, which was how she ended up with them.

"Just like old times huh Zee?" Dick yells, turning to look at the sorceress after using his staff to take out one of the Gamari soldiers. Zatanna's about to reply but then she extended her hand and wraps another Gamari who'd been coming towards Dick in a giant and obnoxiously yellow bow. "Just like old times," she says with a small smile.

And Damian rolls his eyes and takes out his frustration on having to put up with Grayson and his ex girlfriend on the unsuspecting alien invaders.

And then after seemingly days the fight was over because the Justice league had managed to take down the mother ship. There's definitely bound to be casualties on their side, non civilian casualties, of course there are. Because every fight has them, and it's only by some sort of divine interference that they get out alive at all half the time. Damian knew that Raven and Kori were alive (bruised and not without a broken wrist but fine). He hoped that Conner, Cassie, Jaime, Bart and Gar were too.

(They're fine save for the fact that Bart has three cracked ribs and a broken hand- this for some reason makes Dick smile sadly, expression far away remembering something long past-, Jaime is mostly fine safe for the fact that the fight has the bug blood thirsty, Conner is wiped, Cassie has bruised ribs and a stab wound on her arm and Gar has a sickening gash across his forehead and many, many bruises. But, they're alive.)They all had ended up in the infirmary at Titans tower though, and that's when Raven first meets Zatanna.

Damian's having his wounds looked over one minute and then there's some sort of irritated flaring in his head. Only it's not his head. It's in Ravens head and its leaking over to him through their link. He turns to look at the dark haired girl and she looks around, her eyes locking with Zatannas. The two of them stare at each other, and somehow there's a dangerous charge in the air. Damian's not the only one who notices it because everyone is looking between Zatanna and Raven warily. Dick clears his throat and Zatanna snaps her attention towards him, blinking a few times and then coughs. "Eh...well I guess I'll be going. I'm visiting a friend and I want to make sure she's alright," She casts a final glance at Raven before walking out of the infirmary, Dick following her. There's silence. "Um guys? Is it just me or did something just...happened?" Garfield asks, scratching the back of his head.

"It was just you," Raven says, getting off the biobed and stretching her hands. "I'm gonna take a shower," she says before leaving as well.

'We'll talk later,' she says, and Damian almost nods before he catches himself. He's EXHUASTED.

Anyway,

'Later' doesn't come for a while because the casualties start coming in. Thousands of civilian casualties and many heroes as well. Red Robin and Tim Drake are on that list.

And that's... Damian doesn't know what to do with that. Because he's seen death before, his father had supposedly died, his grandfather had been murdered. Most of the death Damian has seen has not been due to old age. And this...

At first he's angry and refuses to go home. He stays at the tower and locks himself in his room because he doesn't want to talk to people. (Those who knock on his door are told to leave him the fuck alone.) Raven gives him a day before opening a portal into his room and then to Wayne Manor and forcing him through it because "Damian I know it's hard, I UNDERSTAND you're hurting but being angry hasn't ever taken away the hurt before and it bloody hell won't start now. You need your family now so you're going to be with them." She says, and they're in the east gardens. Selina had taken over this part and had insisted on planting SOME flowers because the sight of green as far as the eye could see was sickening. And Raven is glaring at him, but he avoids her gaze. (To some his girlfriends methods may seem unsympathetic but Raven has long since understood that the best way to make Damian aware of his errors was to be cold, and brutally honest when calling him out on his bullshit) But Damian still fights tooth and nail, because HE doesn't want to be here. He can deal with this on his own. Because people die, there are causalities in their line of work. He's seen death since he could understand what it was. This is nothing. He'll deal with it the same way he always has. (It's not exactly his choice; it's just default coping though he'll never admit it.)

"And they need you." Now her voice is gentle. She sits down on a stone bench and pulls him down next to her.

'Let me help you,' and her voice is pleading.

Because she has seen, see's the way that anger destroys him. How it hurts him. They've been over this time and time again. About the fact Damian should let himself feel when it came to things that weren't her. He wants to, he tries to she knows. But he can't help the way he was raised. He can just try to rise above it. But it's just really hard. It's really hard to ignore years of being taught to control and bottle up your emotions, and then convert them to anger if you needed to get it out. But she'll always be there to help if he lets her.

"Alright,"

Raven nods, taking his hand as she places her other hand on his temple. She closes her eyes and enters his mind.

The anger is hard to overcome, to get past. It's hard to find the bit that covers up his grief over Tim, it's hard to grab it and tear it away. But she does. She goes through the maze that is his mind, which she knows by some sort of instinct, and she takes away this anger (she wouldn't take away all of it because that would be too much. That shock, that feeling of unknown would be too much. She can't help with everything.) But she can help with this. She takes it way and he's left with hurt. It's raw and gnawing and awful. It's just like she remembers the hurt he'd felt when his mother had betrayed him.

This grief is because Tim was his brother. His annoying older brother who he'd never meant to grow fond of but had. Because Tim was a good person who deserved better. Because it's unfair. It's unfair that he was taken from their family, from the world so soon. He squeezes his eyes shut and turns away because he doesn't want to cry. He's not used to crying. There's silence, broken only by the sound of the wind rustling through the trees. He doesn't turn back to look at her for a long while, but Raven's patient, and holds his hand in hers while she waits.

And later when they finally go into the mansion Alfred shows Raven to her room, the same one she'd been in last Christmas, and Damian goes to talk to his family. "Is there anything I can do?" she asks the old man awkwardly. Because she's still not too good in social situations.

The butler gives her a small kind smile. "You've done more than enough in bringing him here Miss Raven. They all need each other right now." Raven senses Alfred's own hurt; she senses the pain of a man who'd buried many friends and family.