Push

Your body moves with instincts you didn't know it had. In an instant you have pushed Raven out of the way. She falls back, still clutching the amulet. For an instant you feel...something wash over you. It's strange and unfamiliar and doesn't make sense.

And then you feel the sudden impact of several hundred pounds crashing down on you. Honestly, not the best feeling. As tough as you are you're still mostly human-ish, and while your durability may let you shrug off small arms fire, there's a big difference between a hand gun and large, heavy gym equipment accelerated by that wonderful **** called gravity.

You assess the damage and...yup. One of those weird bendy bar things is definitely piercing through your leg right now. And that's a dislocated shoulder. That's a cracked wrist. And oh my broken ribs, you decided to join the party too! Did you bring your friend internal bleeding as well?

You release an unrestrained grunt of pain as the machinery starts lifting off of you. Briefly you feel relief before recognizing that your leg is now bleeding freely without the metal bar lodged in it. Shit! That's something that could actually kill you. Your breathing is shallow, the cracked ribs making every inhale agony and every exhale burn. Maybe a smattering of other less important things...strangely enough, you'd take your present state over waterboarding training any day. After father found out you could still breathe though the water he'd switched to gasoline instead. Now THAT had been an awful weekend.

You coughed spluttering red as the pressure on your chest was suddenly taken away. Your body surrounded by a dark aura as it levitated. Your hacking continued and you felt your rib shift floating inside you. Another worrying thing. One wrong move and your bone would start stabbing into your vital organs. You guessed you were at least a little terrified. You didn't think you'd ever come this close to actually dying before. And for what? Why did you do that? Why did you push her?

All at once you felt the pain evaporate from your body. Creaking your eyes open you note the two luminous white pools of light tucked beneath the blue hood. She's chanting something but you can't make it out through the white field that has encased you.

That's right...Raven's a healer isn't she? Honestly this result was completely expected. As soon as she saw you injured from saving her, she would jump into action and try to save you no matter how injured you were. It was somewhat akin to the Ben Franklin effect; ask someone to do something small for you and they'd be more willing to do larger things for you. Having put time and energy into saving your life, she'd naturally put more value on it than if she hadn't done so. Yes. Completely predictable.

You let out a sigh of relief as you felt your wounds close. Your ribs float back into position and refuse. Your shoulder relocate and your wrist arrange itself back into its proper position. Well you're certainly feeling tired now aren't you. Maybe if you just closed your eyes for a bit...

...

When you awaken it's to two deep violet eyes staring down at you, a look of concern on her face. "Why did you do that?"

"Huh?" you're still disoriented. Still confused.

"Why did you push me out of the way?"

Oh. That. "It seemed like a good idea at the time." You answer, your head still full of fog. It's not a comfortable feeling. In fact it's worrying.

She lets out a breath and seems surprised. "Why are you here?"

"Cyborg invited me in." It was honestly surprising how trusting the man was.

"Why did come you talk to me?"

"You looked lonely." She really had. You heard that it's worse to be alone in a group than it was to be alone by yourself. You'd never really experienced that of course. Your father was the only company you'd required during your training.

She paused after that. Biting her lip. She seemed to be thinking.

"When I mentioned the prophecy...you didn't question that. Why not?"

Things were starting to make sense again. Going back over the conversation, her statement had been a leading one. If one didn't know about the prophecy and her necessary emotional castration, then her statement would have made no sense. You however hadn't questioned it. Hadn't asked for clarification or why she was suddenly "free." It was a bit of an obvious trap to test if you had knowledge that a normal pizza delivery boy shouldn't have.

"Because I already knew it" you respond. If she can detect emotions, then there's no reason she couldn't detect other things, like sincerity as well.

Her gaze fixates on you intensely.

"How?"

"I did research." You swallow trying to regather your thoughts. Say it. Mean it. Believe it.

"I'm actually a bit of a fan. I'd say you're probably my favorite titan. You have a level of discipline and self understanding that the others seem to lack. I find that admirable."

Raven blinked as you spoke seemingly taken aback. Was that a blush?

"W-what about Robin and Starfire. How did you know about them?"

"I told you before, rumors. I'm also very good with computers."

She seemed to grumble a bit.

"Why did you try to get me alone."

"It seemed in bad taste to try to talk to you in that atmosphere. You know, with what is basically your ex-girlfriend giving an open invitation to a room full of horn dogs."

"She's not my ex!"

"Azarlebrow, I know. But to me it just kind of sounds like an ex that you keep in contact with."

"It's...different." Well now she just looks like someone kicked her puppy. Huh...it doesn't feel very good when she looks like that.

"My necklace?" you hazard.

"Over there" she points.

You tilt your head and recognize three things at once. The first is that even if you've been healed you are still very stiff and sore. The second is that the gym seems to have been put back together. Probably by magic. How long were you out? The third is that your head and now face is actually on something very soft...waaaaaaaiiiit a second.

You wince as you bring your hand up and feel. Hm. Soft. And based on your present position...yup that is definitely a lap. Why is it getting warmer? Oh and now gravity is gone.

You flail in the air for a moment before skidding across the floor. Wincing as the impact jar's your recent injuries.

You struggle to your feet, turning around and noting the hood pulled tightly over her head.

Embarrassment? You blink your eyes rapidly the haze failing to slip from your mind. "Sorry" you mutter as you stumble over to the amulet. "Shouldn't've grabbed-" All at once things clear up. As you grasp the amulet the haze over your mind is gone. You blink as you recognize that some faculty denied to you has been restored.

"Did you put a spell on me while I was sleeping?"

Her eyes widen and she seems to flounder for a moment before settling into an accusatory gaze. "What are you doing with a nullification talisman?"

Slipping it back on you try your best to sound indignant. "I live in Jump city. Aliens, mad engineers, experiments gone wrong, meta humans and magicians walk the streets on a daily basis. My uncle gave me this to keep it safe from at least one of those things."

"So is your uncle a magic user?"

"Yeah, kind of?"

"He'd need to be pretty powerful to make something like that"

You shrug "We talk like, maybe once a year. I honestly don't know him that well."

She's silent for a moment. "What's your name?"