The horse he rode in on.... [Open]

[Bry]

     Raven blinked once more when he grasped her forearm, tensing ever so slightly at the assumed attack. But she hesitated a moment when his emotions read positive, nothing saying he was about to engage her in battle, and it was a good thing she did.

     After a moment, he released her arm with no harm done, and Raven put two and two together to gather he'd just greeted her in his own way. Interesting.

     His description of his home sounded much like a poem Raven remembered reading a while ago and, like the poem, left much to the imagination. But he'd supplied her with the name, and she was satisfied for the time being with that much.

     "Welcome to earth, Kaedan," Raven said by way of a rather belated greeting.

     In answer to his second question, Raven fell silent a moment in thought. Technically, it was not her earthly side that gave her any of her powers, but she was rather hesitant to inform this stranger of such. That secret was guarded and personal, and Kaedan was nowhere near close enough to her trust to know her lineage.

     Instead, she shrugged.

     "No," she said simply. "Not everyone on earth is more than human.... But some are."

     And then an opportunity arose, to find how Kaedan identified himself....

     "Some of us use what makes us different in the name of good. Some of us not so much." She narrowed her eyes. "And some of us fall to the side of evil.... Where, Kaedan Shadowblade, do you stand?"

[Deleted]

Kaedan frowned slightly, he didn't really know the answer to this question Raven had just asked. "I... don't know." Kaedan replied sincerely.

"I've mostly followed orders for most of my life." He explained, he had a far off look in his eyes. He recounted all the battles he had fought in, all of his kinsman that he had saved. He didn't know.

"I would hope that I am good, but... I don't rightly know." Kaedan's frown deepened. It troubled him that he didn't know this, he considered himself honorable, but was that the same as being good? His mind was in a state of confusion. Were all the things he had done good or evil?

Kaedan grimaced in pain as another wave of pain crashed over his body. He needed to treat himself after this conversation with Raven. He wondered, not for the first time, how much damage his body had sustained in the fall.

[Bry]

     Raven watched his frown deepen, watched him lose himself in his thoughts, and reached out to consider his emotions as she did so. His words troubled her to a degree, but.... At the same time, a few years ago, she'd have likely given the same answer.

     Speaking quietly, giving her words a decent amount of thought before saying them, Raven said, "Kaedan.... No one simply is good or evil. It's not something you are born with, but instead something you choose." She cocked her head to the side a bit. "If given the chance, which side would you choose?"

     And then he was grimacing and Raven stepped a step closer. "If you will allow me, I can ease your pain...." Considering he'd wrecked an entire freaking spaceship, and his wounds were likely to be great, Raven wasn't entirely sure she could heal him entirely. Or else, she wasn't willing to, putting herself in such a weak position while still knowing so little about him, and not yet having an answer on the subject of his alignment.... But she could help. If he'd let her.

[Deleted]

"I... do not know what I would choose, given that I have never had the chance to really choose my own fate. The only time I had, I was punished for... Insubordination." He said, shifting a bit uncomfortably at the memory of disobeying his commander to save his comrades. He couldn't have let them die, not like that.

Kaedan looks at Raven as she asked the next question. He thinks it over for a bit, Raven could probably easily kill him while 'tending' to his wounds. Then again, she probably could have killed him many minutes ago. "I would be grateful, but... "Kaedan hesitated, he didn't know why.

"I am of a different species... wouldn't that affect your healing methods?" Kaedan asked. It was a logical question.

"If...." He grimaces again as another wave of pain envelopes him. "You believe you can help... proceed. I doubt you would try to kill me now, given that you have had the entire time to do so." He lets out a warm chuckle, an unusual and rare sound from Kaedan.

[Bry]

"I will not kill you," Raven said in agreement. "It would be a pointless waste of life and energy." Not to mention, he hadn't done anything near warranting a death sentence. And Raven wasn't an executioner anyway. Even if he had shown himself her enemy, there were a hundred options she could and would've taken before erasing his life.

Stepping forward slowly but deliberately, Raven placed a single pale hand on Kaedan's arm. She met his eyes for a moment, hoping he understood that as much as he was trusting her, so was she trusting that he wouldn't hurt her during the healing process....

Not that she wouldn't be ready for it, if he did betray her.

Then she closed her eyes and let her soul self take over. Little tendrils of magic spun their way from her fingers, enveloped his arm, seeped into the fur itself and into the muscle, seeking the pain and its sources. She winced, slightly and subtly and covering it as soon as the expression crossed her face. Slowly, she drew the worst of the pain from his body and took on the pain as her own. Most major injuries wove themselves back together, if not completely healed then in a state that suggested he'd had weeks to recoup, not minutes. When at last she pulled her hand away and opened her violet eyes, Kaedan should have been left with naught but aches, pains, bruises and scabs.

She blinked once to get her bearings and met his eyes again.

"Now. Returning to my previous question." She held his gaze. "What did you choose, the one time that you did? Good or evil?

And would you choose it again?"

[Deleted]

Kaedan sighed in relief as the pain dulled. "Thank you, Raven. I am in your debt." He said as she returned to her conscious state.

He looked at Raven as she continued and frowned slightly. He sighed. "I guess I will tell you the tale and you may decide if what I did was good or evil." He said, he believed he owed Raven something and that this story would perhaps be payment for the kindness she had given.

Kaedan then began his story. "I was part of a special group in my race. I... Im not normal, the others weren't either. We were 'runts'. The weak, the honorless, and thus we were made into a secret taskforce. The leader of our squad was one of the purebloods. He wasn't leader of our squad by choice, he had done something though we never found out what."

"He organized a mission to steal some important battleplans from our enemies. He divided the team. Me and him scaled one side of the keep, the rest of the squad scaled the other. It was a trick, he sent the other part of the squad into the most guarded area of the keep. He would've sacrificed them so that me and him could complete the mission. No doubt with the destruction of the squad he would've been promoted to a higher rank as well." Kaedan continued.

"I.... I couldn't let them die, not like that. I abandoned my captain against his orders, to save my comrades. I distracted our enemies and we retreated. Some of my comrades were injured, and we didn't see our 'captain' for a very long time. We thought he was dead. Now, to answer your final questions. I would do what I did again, even if my life was forfeited. I could not leave my squad to die, they didn't deserve that." Kaedan looked down, remembering his friends.

"and yet.... I left them in the end.... to save my own worthless hide...." Kaedan felt sadness in his heart. Though they weren't close, he and his team had lived, fought, slept, and ate together.

[Bry]

Raven listened intently to Kaedan's story, her violet eyes watching him carefully as he spoke. It was an interesting tale, and while she did not necessarily hold herself in the highest regard as a judge of good and evil, she did trust her own instincts. Those instincts now were telling her that this was not a being of evil intent standing before her.

He concluded his story, and Raven gave a subtle nod. He'd been selfish, perhaps, running away to save himself.... But he'd also offered his own life to save theirs, once upon a time. There was a difference, she knew, between a selfish act, an act of darkness, and the very evil itself.

Turning her head as she thought on this to gaze into the distance, as sirens rose up from the city on their way to finish off the still-burning embers of the spaceship, Raven came to a conclusion. She turned to look upon Kaedan once more.

"Do you intend to stay on earth?" she asked him, before doing much else. Her next move would depend on his answer.

[Deleted]

Kaedan became very alert at the sounds of sirens and looked at Raven suspiciously, thinking she may have called them to detain him or something. Then again though, he remembered that she could've have probably already captured him. He relaxed again and then she asked a question.

"I have no home, no place to go, no ship, and...... no purpose anymore...." Kaedan replied solemnly

That reply pretty much made it clear that he had no other choice, but to stay on earth, at least for now. He didn't know what to do now that he was left without a superior. He had no orders to follow, no mission, no purpose. He regretted, not for the first time, that he hadn't tried harder to resist his comrades to stay and fight with them. He wished that he could've recovered fast enough to have jumped out of the fighter after they had shoved him in and sent him off.

They knew him though, they knew that Kaedan would've stayed and fought with them. They had no choice, but to force him to leave.

"I am here, and I believe I will be staying, at least for now. Unless something happens in the future. Though I can only guess what will happen." Kaedan replied.

He looked at Raven's eyes, she was thinking something, but he wasn't sure what exactly.

"If I am to stay, I will help with anything and any way I can. It is the least I can do for..." He trailed off, gesturing towards the crash.

He had caused damages and he was going to make amends for it. Raven had been rather kind to him, kinder to him than he had ever experienced.

[Bry]

Raven nodded once more at his answer, satisfied with it for the time being. There were a few certain things here, and a few uncertain ones, and she sorted through them mentally to decide on her next course of action.

The certainties. Kaedan was alone, was stranded here, was in trouble, and would likely be in much worse trouble should the two of them still be around when the firetrucks and police arrived. Perhaps it wouldn't be a problem if he was from earth and knew what he was doing, but he wasn't, and Raven could only guess at the things that might be different here than on his home planet. That made him a risk, albeit not an intentional one. He didn't appear hostile, and Raven sensed no reason to doubt herself on that, but ignorance of customs and rules could factor into the problem.

The uncertainties. Kaedan's allegiance. He hadn't explicitly said he wasn't on her side, but he hadn't for sure made a decision to join her either. All she knew was that he wasn't about to go on a villainous rampage, and that aside, he was still a question mark, especially considering the fact that he was craving leadership.

She knew all too well what happened to lost souls craving a leader, when the wrong leader found them. And she did not want Kaedan as her enemy, should that happen.

All this contributed in a few seconds to her next decision.

"Kaedan, you have an open future and considerable power. You could use it for the good of mankind, for the good of YOUR kind as well.... Would you be willing to join the Titans, even if only as an honorary member?" She gazed into the distance once more, noting that the sirens appeared louder, then looked at him again. "I can offer you shelter, purpose, and leadership, in return for your agreement to follow our code of conduct while aiding and protecting the citizens of Jump City."

And then she held out a spare Communicator on her open palm and held his gaze. It would be obvious that his answer was yes, if he took the Communicator from her.... She'd deal with the consequences if he did not, only if it happened. One step at a time.

[Deleted]

Kaedan thought about Raven's offer. He didn't really know what this group that Raven talked about, stood for. He didn't know the rules, but given that she had said they had a code of conduct, they couldn't be that bad. Again though, he didn't even know what bad really was. He then resolved himself that if this group went against what beliefs he did hold to, he could always leave and try to right the wrongs he'd commited, if he did commit any.

Gingerly, Kaedan reached for the strange device and took it. He looked at it, tilting his head and looking questioningly at it in his paw.

"Is this the insignia of your order?" He asked, he too noticed the sirens getting closer and was becoming more wary of them.

He looked up from the device to Raven, waiting for her to decide on the next course of action. This was her home after all, he guessed. She would know best what to do and where to go. More importantly, she probably knew what the Sirens meant.

Kaedan still held the communicator in his paw as he looked at Raven.

[Bry]

"It is," Raven answered, gazing almost fondly at the Communicator in Kaedan's paw and at the obvious T that marked the back of the yellow device. "We are the Teen Titans." Here, she paused, met his eyes with a hint of a smile. "And now, so are you."

Getting closer to him, as the sirens did just the same, Raven placed a gentle hand upon Kaedan's shoulder. "Please trust that I will not hurt you," she told him quietly. Or rather, she asked. Once she'd given him a second to comprehend that, Raven stole them both away from the dimension in which they had been standing, whisking them both through space and other planes until she returned with him to earth. The entire trip took perhaps five seconds.

Standing now on the edge of a beach, water just missing their feet as it rose and fell, Raven looked to Kaedan questioningly, wanting to make sure her teleportation hadn't disturbed him. It had the ability to do such, especially with individuals who were not expecting it. But she hadn't had time to prepare him before some of Jump City's finest showed up.

A shadow obscured what moonlight had been falling upon them in their last location and Raven looked up at the cause. They stood now beneath the T-shaped building she called home, though still outside of it on the island. The next step for Kaedan was meeting Robin before having the team and their ranks explained to him. Raven took a step back from him, looked up at his furry face.

"Welcome to the Tower, Kaedan."


OoC:
Okay, one? I apologize for the mild god-moding there, with her teleportation. I was trying to get them both to the island and out of the way of the firefighters, so the thread could come to a nice close. But if there is something you'd like to have added there, I will be more than happy to go back and rewrite her reply. C:

Two. It seems like a decent way to end it here, but if you'd like to continue this thread, lemme know and we can keep going!

[Deleted]

Kaedan had tensed but had decided to place his trust in Raven. He was a bit disturbed when he was teleported, but he was well trained and kept calm.

He looked up at the structure in the shape of a T before him. His eyes widened slightly and he looked at Raven.

"Thank you." He said simply, bowing his head slightly in a small gesture of respect. He looked back at the tower.

In his mind he thought. 'I have a purpose now...'

OoC: Nah its alright. One last post from me though. XD Would I continue this by posting in a tower thread or... what? .3. Ugh who knew 3 weeks away rusted my RPing ability >.<