Eden lay on the floor. Her face mutilated. Eden was unconscious, unable to feel her face. Jaime strode over his scarab still in control, he readied his cannon, but was cut off by a green bolt.
"Enough!" Exclaimed Starfire, her arm raised. The bolt clearly coming from her. Jaime lowered his arm and shook his head, as if he was trying to shake of the guilt of what he had just done.
"I tried to stop it," he proclaimed, his armour slithering away from his face. Damian still held Eden in his arms, he was hurting. It was all his fault. He did this to Eden. He was never going to be able to see her face again. His lip quivered slightly as his uncaring demeanor turned into a look of anguish and guilt. "Dios mio is she dead?" Starfire knelt down beside Eden, moving her hand towards Eden. Starfire removed as much of Eden's mask as she could, although it was hard as it was burnt to her face.
"She's still alive," reported Starfire.
"Barely," Damian growled. He looked down at the girl in his arms. The hair on the right side if her hair had been burnt to a crisp, leaving locks of burnt brown hair all over the ground.
"This is going to be an awkward call to Batman," Garfield said, trying to lighten things up slightly, but Damian shot him down with a single harsh glare. Raven stepped forward towards Eden's mangled body.
"Everyone get back," ordered Raven. The Titans moved, but Damian didn't budge, instead he wrapped his arms tighter around Eden, drawing her closer to his chest. "I won't be able to help her if you don't step aside." Damian moved away reluctantly and with a huff, as he gently set Eden down on the floor. Raven crouched down and gingerly placed her fingers in either side of Eden's temple.
"By the powers of Azarath I beseech you," Raven chanted. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." Raven started to glow, a bright, purple light surrounding her and she felt herself sift through Eden's memories. Flashes of a younger, Eden appeared. With her eyes lit up, full of wonder. Raven saw Eden as she grew up, the wonder and hope left her eyes as time grew on. Raven saw two figures, lying unmoving in a dark and bloody room. Dark red splotches covered to floor and little specks and been flicked onto the walls. Eden stood in the middle of the horror, no older than seven. She gazed upon the scene, one of the figures had a sword protruding out of their chest, the other their legs were on the other side of the room. Raven saw Eden's life spread out in front of her, like a movie playing in her mind. She saw Damian, with a small smile placed upon his face as Damian sat in front of Eden in a burger shop. She saw a computer as Eden read a file with Damian's name right at the top of the page. She saw snippets of Eden's life inside of Wayne manor, she saw the face of a woman, just her face. As each scene played in Raven's head Eden's face healed, the burn retreating as the skin of her face knit itself back together. Suddenly Raven's eyes turned a bright white, they shone brightly. Raven felt herself yanked out of Eden's memory, as she collapsed onto the floor. Damian stared at Eden's face in wonderment. It looked new, not a burn in sight. Starfire lifted Raven's head up from its place in the floor, as Damian knelt back down beside Eden and took her into his arms.
"We need to get her back to her room," declared Starfire. "Garfield?" Garfield's body shifted as he turned into a large, green, Gorilla. Garfield lifted Raven into his arms.
"I've got her," he said solemnly, carrying Raven away. Eden let out a groan of pain. As she shifted, Eden's eyes opened in panic, as she found herself in unfamiliar arms. Eden's reflexes kicked in and she pushed herself out of Damian's tight grip. Eden turned looking at Damian who had a guilty look plastered all over his face. Eden's hands shot up to her face, feeling the tender skin underneath the gloves on her hands. It wasn't burnt or bloody, like she expected it to be. It was smooth and new. Eden looked at Damian innocently, confusion written all over her face.
"What happened?" She asked looking at Starfire who was now standing.
"Raven healed you we have to tend to her," Starfire said. "And Eden, thank you for trying to intervene." With that Starfire walked out of the room to tend to Raven.
"I'm sorry," Jaime said sincerely. Eden waved him off. Jaime gave Eden another apologetic glance, but Eden sent him an irritated glare, indicating that she was getting annoyed. Jaime left quickly before Eden decided that she changed her mind. Once Jaime had left it was only Damian and Eden who occupied the room.
"Eden I didn't mean-"
"That's the point," Eden snapped cutting him off. "Your arrogance blinds you and you think that you need to prove that you better than everyone." Damian gave Eden a pleading look.
"Eden please," Damian said quietly. Eden stared at him in shock. Damian never said please.
"No," she said sternly. "Damian you are a massive asshole." Damian looked like he was about to speak, but Eden continued, not giving him a chance to.
"Damian you are the first friend I have ever had, and I know that being a dick is a part of who you are, but you don't know how much it hurts when your only friend tells you that they would rather work alone over working with you," Eden's face was steely, but her eyes betrayed her and they grew wet, making hard for her to see out of the haze. Damian looked at Eden his face full of shame and guilt.
"I can't pretend anymore. I can't pretend that what you said doesn't hurt me. So you can have want you want Damian. Now you don't have a partner. I hope your happy." Eden turned away trying to walk away from the boy in front of her, but she felt a glove wrap around her wrist and she turned to see Damian's masked face looking down at her.
"Eden," he said gently, looking and Eden with glistening eyes.
"NO!" Eden roared, ripping her arm out of Damian's grasp. "Just, no." Eden reached behind her and pulled up her mask, hiding her face from view, covering her emotions with a mask. Eden stomped away angrily, her eyes filled with unshed tears as she left Damian before he could finish. Damian slid down to the floor, guilt and regret were the only things he felt as he sat on the floor.
"No Eden, I'm not happy," he whispered. It was uncharacteristic for him to be gentle. When growing he was told that emotion was weakness, and to never show any weakness. But Damian was also human, he need to show emotion even if it was only for a couple of minutes.
******
Eden was back in her room, free from her suit and now in her familiar black clothing. Her suit crumpled up messily on her bed. Eden sat at the foot of her bed, her beloved sword and bow laid out in front of her, a cloth placed in her hand. Eden ran the cloth up and down the blade, being careful so that she didn't cut her fingers on the sharp blade. Eden tried hard to push all of the emotions out of her head, her hand moved faster up and down the blade, as she cleaned it viciously her mind no longer on the sword. Eden got absorbed in her anger, her face becoming crude and her eyes turning harsh. Her dark blue eyes turning even darker. Her hand moving rapidly against the blade the palm of her hand got caught the palm splitting open, warm blood flowing onto the blade. Eden let a out a cry of frustration as she threw the blade forward sending it flying through the wall, the sword digging itself into the wall. But there wasn't just the sound of one blade impaling itself into the wall, there was two. Damian had also thrown his sword at the wall. Garfield let out a yelp of surprise. As Damian and Eden's rooms were on either side of Garfield's room. Garfield turned into a bear and got off his bed, not noticing Eden's sword which was on the other side of the room.
"Hey! What is wrong with you?" Garfield yelled banging on the wall to Damian's room. "That is very dangerous! You could put out an eye with that thing! Didn't your mother tell you never to play with knives?" Eden scoffed and turned, looking out the window, where a soft yellow light, that broke through the darkness of the night. The light could be seen in amongst the trees a figure shrouded in purple basking in the light. It didn't take a genius to figure out who it was. Eden quickly walked over to her chest of drawers and rummaged through, trying to find a jumper, when she heard yelling.
"You too Eden?!" Garfield yelled, only just noticing Eden's sword. "Is that blood?" Eden just smirked and looked at her hand. It was still bleeding, her hot blood collecting at her fingertips. Eden exited her room. The door slid open revealing Garfield, a worried look evident on his features.
"Are you okay?" He asked. Eden nodded her head.
"Fine, I just cut my hand a little," she said lifting up her hand to show the cut. It was deeper than Eden thought it was. What Eden first brushed aside as a simple cut was actually a deep cut.
"Little?" Garfield said, his eyebrows raising.
"I've had worse," Eden said simply, retracting her hand, covering it with her jumper. "As you saw today." With that Eden worked her way through the tower, finding her way outside. Eden saw the yellow light, following it, trying to find her way towards Raven. Raven sat in a clearing, casting a spell on her friends to protect them from the evil that Raven feared was coming. A blue light surrounded Eden, but she didn't notice as she found the source of the yellow light and in turn she found the clearing that Raven was sitting. Eden walked up to Raven, standing in front of her. Raven was sitting cross-legged hovering just above the ground, the bottom of her cloak just touching the ground. A little golden bowl sat in front of her, the sticks sticking out of the ashes that were in the bowl. Eden sat down in front of Raven, uninvited.
"I just wanted to thank you for healing heal," Eden said. Raven opened her eyes that were previously closed.
"Um... you're welcome," Raven said, not really wanting to talk to Eden.
"It felt weird having you inside my head," Eden continued. "It felt like my entire life was being played like a movie, it was unnatural."
"I'm an empath and if makes you feel any better, I didn't see it as much as felt it," Raven said closing her eyes as if she was trying to shake off the feeling. "I've been trying to shake it off ever since."
"So then you know about my father, and you know that I didn't feel sad when he died, you know that I felt relief," Eden said. Eden didn't like that now some knew all of her deepest darkest secrets.
"Yes, I know all about your father," Raven said monotonously. "He was a demon and believe me I know my demons."
"You don't have to tell me," Eden muttered. "You sound as if you speak from experience." Raven stayed silent as if she was trying to ignore Eden.
"I don't mean to be rude, but can you get the hell away from me?" Raven asked breaking her silence.
"Yeah sure," Eden said getting to her feet. "It's just that, when you were looking through my head I saw something that wasn't mine. It looked like a man, but something was off about him. Was that yours?"
"It was nothing," Raven said quickly. "A nightmare." Eden looked at Raven with sympathy.
"I don't think it was Raven," Eden said gently. "It felt real, who- what was it?"
"It's none of your business," Raven said harshly, getting up quickly. "Who are you to judge my life."
"I wasn't judging," Eden said.
"You have other things to fix," Raven said, opening a purple portal. "Talk to Damian. And please stay away from me." Raven walked through the portal leaving Eden in the clearing. The yellow light gave her skin an eerie glow as Eden was left with more questions than answers.