She woke up with a startled gasp, her hands setting up a motion under the blankets before she stopped herself and took stock of her surroundings.
She was in a little room, a well ventilated one, with how big the windows were, and sleeping on a soft bed and a snuggly pillow.
She let out a deprecating sigh. "So comfort equals nightmare. Of course, why wouldn't it?"
The fact that she had woken up in a slight panic due to feeling too comfortable, even in her dream state, said a lot about how her life so far had been and how steep her expectations were.
"Right. I saw a man kill three demons with a stapler and followed him home." She would have laughed if she actually reciprocated with humorous thoughts.
A look at the sun's position outside her window showed that it was barely past 9am, which means she slept for almost eight hours. Fours hours late from her usual rising time.
Her thoughts went to the demons from last night and her naturally pessimistic thought whispered that the kind-yet-suspicious man was probably dead in his room with his blood writing a warning on his walls and mirrors.
Her empathetic senses covered the entire house in reflex, searching for his mind or the familiar feeling of an opaque wall—
Soda.
That was the bare thought she picked up from inside the kitchen.
She sighed in relief. He was alive. At least for now. It would suck major if the one peaceful night she's had in the last year was marred with a battered corpse.
She took a few minutes to meditate and get her mind in the right frame to start the day. She pushed the bulk of the rampant morbid thoughts to the darkest part of her mind, washed her face and finally went down to confront whatever awaited her for the day.
...
She found him in the kitchen idly flipping pancakes with one hand as he sipped slowly from the drink he had in his mouth.
"Um…. Good morning." She greeted softly from behind, making him pause his routine motion in order to look at her, before giving her a nod, one that felt satisfied from what she picked up.
"Morning." There was the even tone to his voice that almost made it sound like background noise if you weren't listening. "Juice?" He pointed at the fridge.
"Uh… um thank you." She replied uncertainly, not knowing how to react to his kind offers. She wanted to refuse and go for the polite reply of preferring water but her voice stuttered out under a stare that she couldn't make anything of.
Her heartbeat was steady as were her steps slow and counted as she walked over to the fridge, not knowing what to expect from opening it.
Her experiences with fridges weren't exactly the best. Demonic influences had a way of taking normalcy from the most basic of things.
She went for the safer choice of orange. Honestly she just picked the one closest to her hands, not especially caring about which one was better between orange, watermelon and apple. She could only thank her small graces that the spontaneous mocking visions of a severed demon's head didn't lunge at her upon opening the fridge.
"Watermelon better." Her head whipped around to see him behind her holding up two plates of pancakes before walking out to the dining room.
"How does he do that?" She whispered to herself with barely suppressed curiosity. He had a way of seamlessly slipping through her senses at times.
She watches as he deftly spun two cans of whipped cream and chocolate syrup between his fingers before drizzling them graciously across the plates.
He seemed to be having fun with such simple actions, was what her sense told her.
"I–" She started only to be cut short.
Eat first. Questions later. His finger pointing at her plate seemed to say.
She couldn't exactly complain when she was grateful for the breakfast, and also was planning to ask him for his help to get to Metropolis… or Washington DC if the former didn't work out.
He seemed content seeing her eat with barely restrained gusto and even refilled her empty glass without her knowing… until the fourth time he did so when she finished with her plate.
"Thank you. I really mean it." Her voice was even and once more she hated her curse that made it a risk to even properly express her gratitude.
"Mm."
She stood by the door watching him clean the kitchen, one of her arms nervously rubbing against the other.
"…" She wanted to speak but held herself back, unsure of what type of consequences may arise from it. But she felt this much was the least she could do with the unexpected care she was receiving.
"R… Raven. My name is Raven." She managed to say in an even tone, ignoring the initial stutter.
The pudgy man stood in the most bland posture she ever saw anyone stand in with a small towel hanging off his shoulders.
It was the slight ruffling of his mustache that revealed he spoke something, but her ears caught it nonetheless.
"Taro." He replied and paused, seemingly contemplating something before adding. "Or old man. Either is fine."
It seemed rude to simply call him old man so she settled for Taro. He didn't seem to mind either way.
Seeing that they finally got the basic introduction out of the way, only after eight hours but details, she couldn't help but finally ask the most curious question that remained stuck in her head since the previous night, especially as she took in the unflattering physique of the slightly obese man.
"Taro," She tried cautious, only continuing when she saw no negative reaction, "How did you do it last night?"
His head tilted in confusion, making her wonder if he was playing dumb. Regardless, she pressed on.
"Those demons," she started, watching his reaction intently as she did, "you did not look surprised by their existence. Have you seen them before?"
She had to know. She didn't know how long he was there but she was sure he definitely saw her use magic. Not that the upturned road was any subtle either.
The fact that he looked experienced against the demonic ilk and even took her in threatened to bloom the tiniest bud of hope in her.
Was he similar to the people of Azarath? It seemed too good to be true but it wouldn't hurt to ask. She wasn't in a position to refuse an helper of any kind.
He tapped his chin, or rather the mass of flesh he had for one - not that she was judging or anything, just pointing out what she saw - before shrugging with a slow shake of his head.
It wasn't an outright no. A maybe, perhaps?
Her brows creased. "Then how did you kill them so easily? And why did you take me in so readily?"
"You were in danger." He simply said. Well there was no way he knew she had been preparing to portal out of there so he wasn't lying.
But that left her with more questions.
"So what are you? If you don't mind me asking." She asked. She needed any header she could get. "Are you a sorcerer? A warlock? Or like those enhanced people, erm, metahumans?"
Once again he shook his head. "Human."
She might be late in realizing this but Taro was one for fewer words than she was.
She clearly didn't believe he was just human. There was something else there. Average humans don't just stumble on a group of demons and kill them with a stapler in less than 10 seconds.
'And there is also his mental barriers.' She knew a few warriors just like him, back when all she had was childish dreams when she slept. Disciplined and trained in not just magic, but in body and mind.
She bit her lips, weighing her options as she followed Taro to his shop through a door adjacent to the garage.
She asked a few questions here and there as he did a quick check on his mini-minimart before flipping the sign to start the day.
Raven finally came to a decision, one that posed certain risks as well as doubtful rewards. She raised her hand towards a magazine Taro was reaching for and lifted it across the counter to his hands.
'No flinch or surprise. So he knows. He's that used to magic. It might explain his mental barriers.' She theorized, deflating a bit as all he did was throw her a thumbs up and plopped into his seat.
Since he seemed cavalier about everything so far, Raven decided to inch a bit further.
"How are you guarding your mind and emotions? I can barely feel anything from you even when I'm standing right in front of you." She was blunt and direct. He seemed to think nothing special of helping her out, even going an extra length to accommodate her as much as he could.
She saw him dropping the magazine just below his glasses to look at her so she continued. "I'm an empath."
To her knowledge, empaths weren't the most accepted bunch due to their lacking sense of privacy. She risked that revelation and yet he seemed unperturbed.
She didn't know what he was thinking or felt on the inside, but his surface vibe remained casual.
"Can you help me? Constant meditation and a mantra is all I have." She pleaded with a hint of desperation in her voice.
Just because the morning has been pleasant so far didn't mean she forgot why she was traveling in the first place.
Taro dropped his magazine to give her a straight blank look before abruptly standing up and went to a small old drawer and pulled out a book that he tossed at her.
She caught it, taken aback for a bit, looked at the title of the book and leveled him her pending deadpan glare.
"'Mastering Stoicism: The Path to a Calm and Unshaken Mind'." As she read out the title, her voice dropped lower and lower until it was just a bland and frigid sound. "Are you joking?" It was a genuinely curious question. And she hoped he was.
He nodded. A wave of confidence flowed from him. "Gives good poker face."
"I have a good poker face."
"… Gives good poker mind?"
At this point she didn't know if he was having fun at her expense or he was being genuine in his own way.
Just then the bell rang as the door was pushed open to welcome their first customer. A child.
"Morning, Uncle T. Mama said I fell asleep at Ted's party so I missed the closing games." The boy walked through the aisle with an air of familiarity, grabbed a few things off the shelves, returned to Taro who gave him a small sealed package for his mother before he bolted out the door.
"See ya later, Uncle T."
Raven idly watched the whole interaction as her eyes skimmed through the book's first few pages before putting it down, not at all surprised by how useless it was.
Since there was nothing to do, she used the time between customers to organize her thoughts and temper her mind as she prepared for the inevitable departure.
More than ever, the Justice League needed to know what was coming. It was the worst case scenario and yet it only felt inevitable to her. But this time, she'd rather die than let a repeat of Azarath happen here.
Question.
"Hmm?" She raised her head to look at the old man at the counter who was staring straight at her. It was the first strong impression she got from his mind and it was so clear that she might have just heard his voice.
"You want to ask me a question?" She asked, gaining a nod in reply.
"Where to?"
"Metropolis, or Washington." The reply came out natural and she could guess the next question in line. In a way it almost felt like a textbook cutout.
"Why?"
"Doom, Armageddon, Apocalypse. Take your pick." She said evenly, not fully able to hide the sliver of fear as a certain memory flashed across her mind. She didn't doubt he saw it too.
"And the demons?" He asked, mulling over her last words with a casual posture. Either he didn't believe her or didn't believe the scale of her words, she thought bitterly.
Still she answered. "Sent by the followers of an eldritch dimensional evil warlord god to kidnap me for a ritual that will let him come to earth and conquer the planet along with the universe."
It couldn't get more literal than that.
She decided to ask a question of her own before he got the next one in. "How much do you know about demons and the dimension they reside?"
A shake of his head. So nothing huh? She didn't want to think about if he was lying to her. He accommodated her to the fullness of his abilities. That was more than she could ask for.
"Raven." He spoke, it was his first time saying her name. "You alone?"
Ah. So he knew, or suspected. She didn't try to make a call to anyone even after almost dying. It wasn't hard to come to that conclusion.
"They are all gone." She answered. Even to this moment she didn't know whose fault it was. Hers for losing control, or him for wanting her under his control. Whoever the blame laid with, it didn't change the fact that Azarath was gone. Her only home was gone.
She had been looking at the floor when she replied, half drowning in her memory pit and half reigning her emotions to a base.
When she raised her head she saw Taro's towering form in front of her and before she could berate herself for losing sight of his movement, her thoughts froze when he simply wrapped his huge chubby arms around her and pulled her into his embrace.
It was a soothing hug. He was so soft and embracing that even the snuggly pillows he gave her couldn't compare. Well, it was probably because of all the extra mounds of flesh.
Her thoughts slowly came back when she felt him patting her soothingly on the back.
And in that moment, the young child, Raven, never hated her inability to express her emotions as she did in that instance. She couldn't even freely hate the one that put her through all this. She couldn't loathe him from the depths of her soul, because she literally couldn't and she was sure that if she actually could he'd laugh with sickening malice and even encourage her to hate him more.
And that was the tamest vile thing she could think about her father.
When they separated, she almost felt hurt at the poker face she wore as they looked at each other with his hands on her shoulders.
He ruffled her hair and she let him do it because she was fighting the simmering boil in her guts.
"You are not leaving today." He suddenly said, snapping her out of her daze.
She frowned. "Why?"
He looked at her, really looked at her, and gave her his direct blunt words.
"You are a wreck."
She was not surprised by that. She would acknowledge that she was like pieces of a broken mirror blindly glued together to form the façade of being whole.
But Taro didn't stop there. He wanted her to know how close she was to the edge, even if she couldn't tell.
"You are unstable. You are lost. You are desperate." He said unhurriedly, articulating every word so she could see the reasons why.
"You are tying a noose around your neck with the same thread you are hanging on."
She blinked. She understood what he was saying. She knew she was running on fumes and desperation, but she had no choice but to thread on. Only she knew the result if she didn't. She had seen it once, and once was enough.
"Taro…. I don't have a choice. Everything will be meaningless if he finds a way to this dimension." Her voice was so frail like a leaf in the wind that it might as well be a whisper.
Taro looked at her, and while she could finally understand his general feelings on the subject, she had no idea what was going on in his mind.
"How long?" He asked but she shook her head.
"It's not a fixed calendar thing. He will keep trying every now and then to step through. This is just his latest attempt."
He tilted his head in a thoughtful way, a comical look Raven thought, and suddenly exhaled heavily through his nose like a bull and grabbed onto his other hand as he flexed his muscle. Or at least that was the intention behind the gesture.
She was staying until she was no longer a suicidal wreck, his aura told her as much.
"You will rest for now." His voice was back to their fading whisper volume.
What is preventing him from appearing right now?
She sensed the next question he was going to ask and bit her inner lips, unsure of how to answer. As well-meaning as Taro has been so far, she just couldn't bring herself to tell him, who was basically a stranger to her - her benefactor yes, but still a stranger -, what was currently restricting the Devil of Worlds and inadvertently giving him an idea on how to easily release him.
She couldn't tell anyone this except for the Justice League. They were the heroes, earth's strongest, who would rally to fight her father if he ever crossed over.
She looked at him and knew he understood the difficulty she was feeling and yet he remained looking at her silently. Not pressuring, she realized, but just waiting for her decision. All this screamed suspicion and backstabbing.
"You will be in danger if you know. Not just you, but everyone you know as well." She said, trying to dissuade his interest and make him realize the danger he was ignorantly prodding. "That kid this morning, his mother, and everyone from the birthday party – he'll make sure to kill them the first chance he gets."
For a brief moment, Raven thought she saw something, a sharp edge, gleaming off his glasses.