Resolve | Open to Titans

[aria]

Aria stood alone in the storage room, her eyes on the items on the pedestal before her. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but her face showed no emotion, except for the profound sorrow in her eyes. Crossed at their midpoint, Judicium and Salus gleamed in the dim light. The sheath sat behind them, and the plate at the base of the platform was marked simply: "Ferus". It seemed horribly inadequate to sum him up with just that name. Ferus. Feral, wild, untamed. It completely missed what she had known about him. Sweet, selfless, brave... Never once had he raised a hand to anyone except to stay alive.

She could still remember him, almost see him before her eyes. The world felt all wrong without him in it. She could remember...

His face that night after the last surgery, somehow peaceful despite his pain. With a lot of...convincing... She had gotten permission to be with him that night. His scent was that of the wilderness, his sweat was dripping down his skin as the medication had its side effects on his system. She had been there, keeping watch over him, fragile as he looked. No feral glint to his eyes, his muscles slack rather than tense and intent as they usually were. Her lips touched his forehead and she wiped the sweat off of his face. Then he opened his dark eyes, and smiled. It was such a serene smile, and his eyes were gentle.

"I love you, Aria," he whispered. "I'm so glad you're here."

"I know, Kev. I love you, too," she whispered back, a worried smile on her lips.

Then he passed out again, and Aria stroked the smooth muscles of his forearm as he slept fitfully, the cuts along his spine making it terribly uncomfortable for him. That smile was such a light in the pit of darkness that was the lab. It was what could lift her spirits when the world was against her, when the collar around her neck felt as if it would choke the life out of her and the walls would close in. It was the world, and the best parts of it, the only good part of it.

And now he was gone. She stepped closer and ran her finger along Salus's hilt, remembering his hands as he had held them. Where would he want her to go from here? The children were free. But not all of them. Is that what she should pursue?

[Tim Drake]

Robin stepped into the temporary storage and evidence room, and paused when he saw Aria looking mournfully at the swords Ferus had left behind.

Not wanting to encroach on the private moment she was obviously having, the signs of reminiscing clear on her face to anyone trained to read people, he waited for a moment until he felt that it was okay to venture in. Walking into the room with a hand full of files and a chain with a flash drive, he went to a square door in the wall, and pressed it, the door sliding out to open, a small case ID that read "The Labs" on the sides of the drawer, the files fitting in neatly in the mostly vacant file drawer, the flash drive going into a small section in the front.

Once everything was put in place, Tim pushed it closed and then turned to face Aria, his arms crossing lightly over his chest.

"He made me promise to save you, all of you... After saving my life, I owed him that much, and likely so much more..." He stopped and then locked his masked gaze on her for a few moments, and then spoke softly; "The question now is... What are you going to do next?"


It was a simple, pointed, and reasonable question, Aria had been a guest of the Titans for just two or so day's, but Robin and Violet where playing a hunch that Aria would take up the fight where Kevin had left off, if not on the front lines, then perhaps, in a primary supporting role...

[aria]

Aria was silent for a moment, staring at nothing before she turned to look at the masked hero. Though there were still tears on her face, her pale blue eyes were resolute as she gazed at him, despite the meekness that her thin and emaciated form suggested. Her willpower was something she had shared with Kevin, and it was something that they had needed to survive so many experiments. The will to stay alive, the will to protect each other, the will to stay grounded in a world that tried its utmost to break their wills; the true survivors all had it in common.

"There are still dozens, maybe hundreds of children still in labs like that one," she said, her melodic voice quiet. "Now that Kevin is gone, it falls to me to take his place in the fight to free them."

She still had some fairly recent burns on her neck from the electric shock collar, and the angry redness hadn't faded from where it had rubbed, but she left her neck bare, the ugly barcode tattoo visible along the right side of it, next to the spine. It marked them as what they had been, just materials in a sick experiment. Now they could take matters into their own hands, and become a bigger player in this fight. She wouldn't hide it like Kevin had. He had hidden it for his own protection, but now that they had allies in the Titans, she didn't have to fear the corrupt officials fabricating charges and tracking them down. Kevin couldn't have known all that he had done for them when he'd saved Robin.

Of course, there was little chance that she could do much in the state that she was in. The food that they'd been given had always been just enough to keep them upright, and she didn't have a great deal of muscle mass. Training, yes, but not to the degree that Kevin had been given. Kevin had been trained specifically as a combat soldier, but she'd been trained more specifically, due to her abilities. Her control over her abilities was minute due to her training. With a little time and effort, she could surely become a valuable ally.

[Tim Drake]

Robin nodded to the girl, who was only a year or two younger than himself, but looked much younger and weaker due to the years of treatment she had endured under, from barely enough food, to almost over activity, and the medical treatments and experiments she and the others had suffered through.


Shutting the cabinet he looked away for a moment or three then looked back to her with a dead serious look on his masked face as he spoke evenly and clearly; "Then keep fighting... We can, and will help you, and we will fight who or whatever is doing all of this, every step of the way, until they are brought to justice, and held accountable for what they've done... I wasn't as close to Kevin as you where, but I know he would have wanted that..."


Sizing her up, reading her face, Robin then gave a short grim nod to her, as despite her current stature, he could tell, she was much stronger than she looked, and it wasn't just physically either, there was a strength of spirit about her that could make all the difference in a person, and it was a strength he had seen in all of his friends in the Titans.

Aria, despite common convention, had the look of a Titan...

[aria]

At Robin's words, Aria nodded grimly, righteous fire in her pale eyes. What they had done. Fierce anger blossomed in her chest. The deaths of uncountable children, the permanent scarring of the others, the breaking of the minds of so many others to satisfy their curiosity... The crimes were great. They would not get away with it. She knew that she didn't seem up to it yet, but she had information that could potentially help them track the labs until she was more fit to aid them in the raids. When she spoke, there was a determination in her tone that seemed unbefitting someone like her.

"I won't let his mission fail," she said. "Until the children are freed, I will aid the Titans in whatever way I can, whether or not that means physically fighting at first."

She had to exercise restraint to keep her powers from entering her voice as she spoke, as they had a tendency to do when she got worked up. It would not do to have Robin caught in an illusion of her memories when she was talking to him. For one thing, she rarely if ever lost control of her powers, and it was really embarrassing when she did. For another, an unintentional use of powers could mean something other than a sensory illusion. It could mean his eardrums bursting, or a mental nudge into less than sane places, maybe even a sonic physical attack. As it was, she kept her grip on her powers. It was only when she was really not paying attention that there was any danger of it being otherwise.

"Where do you need me to start?" she asked.

[Tim Drake]

Robin nodded back to her in understanding and respect before he uncrossed his arms and reached behind himself, and slipped something from his belt, and then held it out to her.

It was a brand new Titans Communicator...

"Step one: Take this. Step two... Rest, and gain you're strength, Darkbrand, and I, and I'm sure the others as well, will be more than happy to help train you, teach you any and everything we can, from fighting, to detection and investigative skills, and all points in between, we need your help as much as you need ours, because I have a deep down and dark hunch that whoever is doing this, is somehow tied to some of our other enemies, and they are all closing in on us for one reason or another, and we're going to need all the strength and help we can get, and Aria, you have the look and heart of a Titan, I can tell, and I don't say that lightly. Not ever."


He was honor and duty bound to see this whole mess through, however, he also understood that too many things where falling into place, the big picture was pointing to a massive storm of chaos and trouble that could test the Titans like never before, and he wanted to make the team, his friends, as strong as he was able to, to both end the horrors being committed, and to stand against what evil that would follow...

[aria]

Aria took the communicator and looked at it, curious. She'd never heard of these before she'd seen Violet's. She correctly guessed that there was more significance in the gesture than just a means to communicate. Violet had told her that Robin gave them to all Titans. It signified her acceptance into the Titans, or at least Robin's approval of her application to try. His words agree with that assumption.

She knew little about the Titans and how they worked, since she had been in a laboratory since their founding. All that she knew was from the stories that the younger newcomers had told, the ones that had come to the lab much later than she had. She had always encouraged the children to dream, to imagine. It helped them to keep up hope that they would eventually be free. If they gave up hope, they would either die or lose their sanity. So, as little as she knew of them, they were very important to the kids in the labs, both because they were the best hope for freedom and because they gave the children something to dream of.

"Grazie," she said, looking back at Robin after a moment. "Robin, while I'll never be able to fully repay you for setting the children and me free, I will try my best to be of use."

Her blue eyes were grateful as she pocketed the communicator and wiped the last traces of tears from under her eyes with her thin fingers. With a last glance at Judicium and Salus, she exited the dim storage room and headed to the room that had been given to her, originally temporarily, now probably with a greater degree of permanence. Soon, her training would begin.

[Tim Drake]

"Siete i benvenuti." Robin answered with a slight smile, once she had answered, and with her answer, Robin knew he had made the right choice.

"We all owe someone something, and many times, we'll never be able to fully repay them, but Aria, you've made a big step forward in honoring Kevin, and in protecting those kids... I'm glad you're here."


He gave her one last nod before she left, and then he went about with the last of the files he had for this latest adventure, and the current problem, his mind always at work on the next step...


{END}