"You get used to someone—start to like them, even—and they leave. In the end, everyone leaves."
~Rachel Ward

–•–•–•–

"She...she..."

"Gar, we must tell Dick and Vic! Perhaps telling them this will make them apologize! Maybe that will be enough to change her mind!" Gar was silent. He was frozen with shock. So many things just got thrown at him at once. She kissed him and then she said she was going to forget him.

On her own terms.

He didn't know what to think about it.

"Gar?" He purses his lips as he turns around.

"Yeah. Let's go." The two run home holding the jackets closed as the wind whips through their hair and chills their skin.

Kori opens the door and they run up the stairs in a slight panic, although Gar is the only one that shows it.

As soon as she gets the keys out Vic opens the door.

"You guys alright? Where'd you get the jackets?" They push past him.

"Where's Dick?"

"I think he's on the terrace." The two storm to the back of the appartment and Vic follows cluelessly. "What's going on?"

"Dick!" Gar slams open the door. Dick appears to be brooding.

"Finally come home have we?"

"Enough dude! We have bigger problems right now!"

"What do you mean?" He stands up straight.

"We found Raven. Well, she found us. She said she talked with you." Kori says.

"She did." Vic replies. Dick doesn't seem to want to answer.

"Did she say anything to you about what she was doing?"

"Other than the fact that she turned the couch and the coffee table into thin air, no." Vic answers steadily.

"Because of all the bull you pulled she's going to make herself and everybody else forget everything." Dick's eyes grew wide.

"What?" Gar continues to explain.

"She feels bad for getting us into her problems that 'we can't fix'."

"By everybody what did she mean?" Dick asks clearly concerned.

"If I were to take a guess, I'd say anyone who ever knew who she was."

"What? When'd she say she was gonna do this exactly?" Vic asks equally concerned.

"Tomorrow." Dick and Vic's faces slowly turn from faces of concern to faces of regret. Dick now realized the error of his ways, and Vic realized the error of following Dick's ways.

They didn't want this to happen. They didn't want her to erase herself.

"Did she say or do anything else?" Dick asks.

"She...I...uh..." Gar looks at the ground. His cheeks get extremely red as he remembers what she did.

"She kissed him." Kori answers for Gar. His mind flashes back to the exact moment. In the few seconds it lasted, he felt content, warmth, love all at once.

"Really?" They nod.

"Then she just left."

"We need to find her." Dick suggests.

"No shit Sherlock!" Vic raises his voice.

"Hey! Don't yell at me! This is just as much your fault as it is mine!" Dick retorts.

"Me?! I was just following you lead!"

"You didn't have to follow me! You can make your own decisions Vic!" Kori quickly backhands the both of them. Hard. They're left with red hand marks on their cheeks.

"This is exactly what Raven was talking about! Now you if you idiots actually care about her you will start looking and stop fighting like 5 year olds! Clean up your acts and actually help instead of trying to be better than one another!" Then she slaps both of them again. Even Gar is shocked. None of them had never seem Kori so angry about anything. "Somebody must be the mediator." Then she yanks the two by the ears out the door. Gar follows.

–•–•–•–

Raven flies out into the Pacific looking for one of the objects she needs for her plan.

"Nope. No... Not there." She stops and looks into the water. She closes her eyes slowly and dives under. Soon she comes up with two sand dollars. She heads back to the beach and puts them in a royal purple velvet pouch. Inside are some odd mushrooms from the park that looks like 5 too many people stepped on them, some soot from 3 different chimneys, and a small vile of deep sea water. She had spent the last two or three hours getting them. And making sure she had the right amount.

"Now what else do I need?" She tightens the pouch with the drawstring and looks around. "Hmm."

She flies towards the city and picks up a penny off the ground.

"I guess this will work. Hmm." She tries to remember the recipe.

1. Shrooms that are abused
2. Ash never used
3. Salty liquid from the ocean deep
4. a coin to go to sleep
5. An item that is most important
6. A part of you that is accordant
7. Something from the five persons that are closest to you
8. Sand that has been tinted by the moon's vibrant hue

On the stroke of midnight and the items are prepared, hold them in your hands and no one will be spared.

She goes back to the appartment.

She senses nobody is there.

They must be out looking for me... She thinks.

She morphs through the walls and goes to their appartment.

She finds the empty apartment. Nobody there, not even Silkie is making a sound. He's fast asleep in Kori's bed.

She looks around for something she can use.

She looks behind the exploded TV. But before she does she sighs and fixes it. She also returns the couch and the coffee table.

Nothing of use to her.

She decides to check their bedrooms.

She goes to Kori's first. It is so pink that it hurts her eyes.

Better make this quick.

She looks around for something of some value to Kori. That's the only thing that will work.

She sees a plastic hair hair pin on the nightstand. It has a bright green gem and a black clip. It shines beautifully in the moonlight. She stuffs it in a bag and replaces it with a gem from her belt.

Kori's crafty. She can make that into a clip.

Next is Dick's room. She doesn't even pay attention to the aesthetics of the room. She's just looking for a valuable item of his.

Out of the corner of her eye she spies a bolt labeled R.G. for Richard Greyson. She goes down to take it but then something clicks in her mind.

"This is too valuable." She retracts her hand and keeps looking. She looks in the closet and finds an old superhero dress up costume. "Must be from when he was really young. Bet he won't miss the mask." She grabs the black and white domino mask from the red and green costume and leaves the room after stuffing it into the pouch.

She travel's to Vic's room. She looks around and sees a few nuts and bolts on the table.

"Those I can take." She snatches them up and leaves a few of her own, enchanted versions of them.

She grabbed a pair of scissors on the way out.

Gar's room was last. She didn't want to do this. But she knew it had to be done. She looked around, spied a shark tooth necklace, and grabbed it.

Before she left she put the necklace he made for her where the other one was. She had out it all back together. All except one gem that was missing.

She quickly left the house for the fear she was about to cry and headed to the side of town where she first came.

"C'mon where is it?" She frantically combs the grassy ground looking for a raised area on the flat ground. "There it is." She gets on her hands and knees and pulls up the top of the grass cap she made to hide a treasure. A little black box was inside. And inside that, after she opened it, she saw a golden locket with intricate designs all over it. She opened the locket and had an overwhelming sense of remorse.

A picture of her and her mother when Raven was only 5. Back when she smiled all the time.

"I'm sorry Arella." She stuffs the locket in the pouch, closes the box and puts it back into the ground. She no longer needs it.

–•–•–•–

The four of them have searched all night for Raven. It was close to midnight. About 15 of. They were starting to loose hope fast.

They had essentially made a big loop around the city. They thought they saw her in the park but it was just the shadows playing tricks on their tired and weary eyes.

Or was it?

"Were else can we go? Any ideas?" Gar asks dejected.

"I am afraid the only place we have not been is the beach." Kori replies exhausted.

"I hate to sound like a brat, but I'm tired. What are the chances that Raven will be just sitting on the beach waiting for us?" Vic complains.

"Nobody ever said that she's just be sitting there. Nobody even said she'd be there." Dick says dryly.

"Kori implied it." Vic replies.

"Perhaps we should look. It would do us some good to cover everything. Maybe she was bluffing?"

"Does Raven look like one to bluff?" Kori shook her head at her boyfriend's question.

They were en route to the beach anyway. Since they were so tired and their feet were killing them, soft sand would be nice. Anything positive would be nice in this situation.

They get there at 10 of to see a figure in a cloak picking up white, moonlight-tinted sand.

They watch the figure go over to the shore and produce a pair of scissors. They knew who it was.

Upon growing closer they grew silent as they watched a girl with purple hair cut off some of it and put it into a pouch.

"Raven..."

"Friends should we not do something?" The other three don't answer. They are too curious about her actions.

They watch Raven pull the missing red gem from the necklace out of her pouch. She places it, and a penny in the sand. She also takes out the vial of deep seawater. Then everything else in the bag stays. She waves her hands over it and says a few inaudible words. Then when she dumps it into her hands, it's a multicolored pile of sparkly dust. She crushes it in her hands until it's a ball. And then crumbles it back into the pouch.

She then uncorks the vial and pours the water into the velvet pouch that doesn't seem to be effected my the water in any way.

Then all of a sudden, a bright red glow comes from the pouch. It seems to almost mesmerize Raven in that she sits there for a moment just looking into it.

5 of. She puts the penny and the gem into the pouch, shakes it, the takes them out and places them gingerly in her two hands. She haphazardly drops the pouch and it's contents spill everywhere.

When she rises up into the air they know that they've waited too long.

"Raven wait!" She looks back at them expressing no suprise on her face. She knew they were there the whole time.

"What is it?" They run up to her.

"You don't have to do it! We can fix it! We can help!" Garfield tries to convince her.

"You can't fix who I am and you can't change what I did. The past is the past for a reason." She replies calmly.

"Raven, I'm sorry." She pops her eyes open.

"I was just looking out for them. My dad told me to. I got a little carried away. You don't need to do whatever you're gonna do. It doesn't need to be this way." Dick apologizes.

"Its...ok. I think I overreacted. But that still doesn't change what happened."

"Raven please? I do not want to forget you. Who you are does not matter to us.

3 of.

Raven turns around and her eyes are red and have doubled. She has a red 'S' mark on her forehead and she looks a bit angry."

"This doesn't matter to you?" They take a step back. "Thought so. I'm stopping whatever I plan to do right here. I don't want to be a burden or a problem to anyone anymore. She closes her eyes.

1 of.

"Step back." She orders. They reluctantly follow her order. They have to accept the fact that she doesn't wish to cause any more problems.

Midnight. The church clock strikes across town.

"Azerath Metrion Zinthos, Metrion Zinthos Azerath. Mortishem Viscoray Zenthat. Azerath Azerath!"

They all look up to see the clouds grow grey and start to swirl above her.

At the 4th strike of the clock a black bolt of menacing lightning comes from the spiral and inches down every strike. By the eleventh strike Raven has closed her eyes and accepted her fate as the bolt is right above her head.

Do I...really want to do this? Or am I just saying I do?

Or did she accept it? Second thoughts at the very last moment.

They have to accept the fact that she doesn't wish to cause any more problems. But Garfield could not.

He went and pulled on Raven's cloak as soon as she opened her eyes. She had changed her mind.

All in an instant, Raven teetered and the gem from the necklace and Garfield went flying as soon as Raven got hit by the bolt.

All in one moment, everything had gone wrong. With a large flash of light that lasted mere seconds, all five teens were unconscious on the sand, apearing that they had fallen asleep.

–•–•–•–

"When the news predicts a snowstorm, expect to go to school. When someone says they'll get you a game console, expect a pair of socks. Never get your hopes up, because if it doesn't happen, you set yourself up for disappointment."
~Scruffy447

This is the end of part 1 of the book.

Part 2 is coming very soon. This book is so much fun to write I decided to continue it on!

You, my readers, are very welcome.