Chapter 16: I'm Gonna Take You Out
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"Dear Nightengale. It is time for your grip on this city to loosen. You've had more blood on your hands than there is in your entire body." His mouth was inches from her ear as she slept peacefully. "Your wrong doings have caught up with you, Raven." The cold metal of the knife in his hand pressed against her neck and woke her up. Not realizing what was happening she lurched forward slightly only to be stopped by the pressure of the knife pushing into her neck.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house?" She said calmly. Her heart was racing at the creepy feeling of his breath on the back of her neck.

"You didn't heed my warning."

"What do you have against, Matt, asshole?"

"I have nothing against him."

"Then why are you holding a knife to my neck?" She stayed as still as possible. He didn't answer her though. He simply brought the knife into her neck slightly, giving her a thin cut. "Agh!"

"It's time to go to sleep, Raven." The knife used the slit it already made.

Raven shot up from her bed, gasping for air and holding her neck, and then was immediately blinded by the light pouring into her room from her window. Good thing she decided to reactivate Agent last night.

"A-agent, please close the blinds."

"Certainly, Ms. Roth." The room became dark again and Raven tried to process what just happened.

"..." She looked around her room. "Agent..."

"Yes Ms. Roth?"

"What day is it?"

"It's Saturday May 4th."

"Saturday..." She mumbled, still weakly clutching her neck. "Matt..." She looked over at the clock. It read 5:59 AM. Her hand darted for the phone.

"Ugh...Raven? Why are you up so early on a Saturday?"

"What are you a 7th grader?" Her shaky voice didn't match what she said.

"Are you— Uh, why is your— ugh screw it. Are you ok?" He sounded really tired.

She groaned: "I...appreciate the attempt, Matt. No, I'm not ok."

"What could have possibly happened to you at 6 AM?"

She rubbed her neck. "I'm...not...telling you over the phone." She insisted

"Really, Raven? Don't do that to me."

"Matt...please? It's important." She sounded desperate.

"I don't want to come over this early." He complained.

"You're starting to sound like a 7th grader now."

"Raven, I'm serious. You dragged me to the pet store and now you want me to come to your house at 6 in the freaking morning. I'm your partner but I have a life too you know."

"For godsakes, Matt! Someone has given me death threats and you want to act like a moody teenager!"

"What? Death threats?" Now he was awake. Wide awake.

"Yes, Matt. Death threats." She still had her hand around her neck.

"Don't you always get death threats?"

"Yes, but this one's to me, not to Nightengale." The line was silent for a moment.

"Tell me what happened, Raven."

"I told you, I don't want to talk over the phone."

"I'm not coming over just to have a conversation."

"Matt–"

"Raven I swear if you don't tell me..." She thought about saying what she was planning to say over the phone. She sighed.

"Agent, get out." She said forcefully.

"Very well, Ms. Roth." He hovered away.

"I got a call a few weeks ago the morning I started at Grayson Inc. He said that he knew who I was, called me by my full name, and that you were lying to me and I'd be killed if I trusted you."

"...what?"

"Then yesterday I got a call at work."

"At work?!"

"Yes, and thinking it was a call from Starfire or Cyborg I put it on speaker because I was doing some other work. It was the same man. He called me Raven and said that I didn't 'heed his warning' and that I'd 'pay dearly'."

"Do you think he knows you're Nightengale?"

"I...I don't know. He might. If he called me Nightengale in the office I would have been screwed."

"Wait was someone with you in the office?"

"Gar was."

"Then you must've had a pretty smooth save. He cares a lot about his friends and the people who work for him."

"I told him that it was probably a wrong number. That I don't know anyone named Raven." She realized what he said. "What do you mean by that, Matt?"

"What? The friend thing? I dunno. I assume he thinks of you as a friend based on how much you helped him."

"How do you know how much I've helped him?"

"You kidding me? After you left for lunch gossip spread like the plague. No one's really tried to console him before. They just let him have his little tantrums in peace. Besides. I thought that was our plan. Make friends, get info, shoot to kill."

She smirked: "Who says I'm shooting?"

"There's the Raven I know and love." He chuckled and for some reason she felt happy. "We should do something. You seem pretty stressed out."

"W–what? Matt what are you saying?"

"Hmm. Yeah... I'll take you somewhere. You're too uptight all the time. Plus you need a break from all this Nightengale crap, Raven."

"Matt, I don't have time to do anything today. I have a doctor's appointment at 11, I have to go out of town for a bit in the afternoon, I have to go to the grocery store and then I have to see my weapons dealer tonight."

"Damn. You are fully booked. Hmm... You said weapons dealer? What time will you get back?"

"I don't know. I guess 11? I don't go out for these things unless it's dark."

"I know a club that's open until 3 AM." He was the one smirking now. He couldn't help it. He bested her attempts to avoid him.

"Matt, seriously? A club? I haven't been to a club in ages."

"Well then find somethin' nice to wear because I'm picking you up at midnight."

"Matt?" He hung up. "Matt! Dammit Matt!" She didn't have to do those things in the afternoon. She just had to grab some meds from the drugstore. She did have to go to the doctor and her weapons guy though. But her afternoon was completely free. She didn't think he'd come up with a club. Maybe it would have been better to just say she wasn't doing anything. "Ugh!" She anxiously rubbed her neck.

It's not like she didn't have a dress to wear. She has tons from past assignments and just for her own use, but she did not want to wear them in front of Matt.

Guess he didn't leave her much of a choice.

She dragged her hand down her face realizing how tired she actually is and headed for the bathroom for a wake up call.

The hot water and the steam calmed her down a bit, but she was still unnerved by her dream and that she didn't tell him about it.

She wrapped the towel around herself and stepped out of the shower. She looked at herself in the mirror, her hair sopping wet.

Her hand met her neck again with little resistance.

"Why do I do this to myself? I can always stop... Why do I keep going with this?"

"She doesn't have a conscience." People whisper.
"She's got no heart." Others say.
"She mercilessly kills people for fun." More say.
"She's a monster." They all agree.

Nightengale has this stigma that's she's an evil, heartless being that has no love for humans or human life. It's true, some people happen to think like that, but she does not.

She does have a conscience.
She has a heart.
She never kills an innocent just because she can.

She just simply doesn't allow it—all the people she's killed, all the families she's hurt, all the ridicule she gets—to bother her. It's par for the course of a job like this.

She also doesn't form emotional bonds with anyone. Which is why she has no friends.

No friends means no connections. No friends means no accomplices. No friends mean no betrayal. At least that's what it used to be.

This mission is starting to change her. The way she thinks, the way she acts towards people, she knows that. She realizes that. She just won't admit it.

She's never made so many mistakes on a mission either. Telling the public of her plan was stupid, and the way she went about finding the basement was sad to watch. Both of which have made this increasingly difficult. She did it to herself, and she didn't know how to undo it.

If she even could.

....................

The doctor's office unnerved her. Dr. Beecher had called her in this time. Something about some MRIs she took of her shoulder a bit ago. Raven didn't like it.

"Morning, Doctor." She greeted calmly.

"Morning, Raven. How is everything going?"

"Fine."

"Ok. I think I'll just get right to it because I know you don't like to mess around. The MRI I took of your shoulder two sessions ago, I was looking at it and I noticed something odd. I wanted to take another one."

"Uh...ok." She was definitely not ready to deal with this.

It took a while, but they got it done. Raven was happy with what she saw.

"Hmm. I guess you healed rather nicely." Dr. Beecher stated looking at the scan.

"What did you see before?" Raven asked inquisitively.

"You had a lot of scarred muscle tissue and I noticed some ligaments were starting to tear. I know you heal quickly from injuries but I had to be sure there was nothing wrong."

"Yes. Completely understandable."

"I'm glad you understand. I'm only going to do a few more things and you can leave.

The only reason that MRI didn't show up was because she messed with the machine. At least she knew what she had to do.

After she left the doctors office she darted home and got to healing her shoulder. Wouldn't be good it one of those torn ligaments finally snapped during a fight or something like that. All that was from the numerous times she'd been fast enough to dodge a bullet to the chest, but not enough to clear her body entirely.

She sighed. She had to be more careful.

....................

*Ring ring*

"Cy? I thought you had to go into work today?"

"Eh. Dick let me come home on my lunch." Vic shrugged.

"What? Why?"

"How the hell would I know? Beast Boy, you know he likes to do things by himself all the time. I'm fine with it. Beats working 'till 10."

"Yeah no kidding. Did Star go in?"

"No. I think she stayed home. Probably went to go see her sister in jail." Gar faceplamed.

"Ugh."

"Same man."

"I don't get why she always visits her. Komand'r doesn't give a crap about her. She only hurts her." Gar remarks.

"I don't know. I think she needs another girl to talk to since she's hanging out with us all the time." Vic blatantly says what's on his mind. "I hope Rachel suffices at least enough to stop wasting her time at the jail."

"What do you mean?"

"After lunch yesterday she told me they talked and that Rachel really helped her."

"Oh. That's good." He was trying so bad to sound genuine.

"Maybe she can help us understand what's going on in Dick's head." He joked.

"I bet she could if she wanted to." Then it was like somebody switched on a light in his brain. "Oh!"

"What?"

"Nothing. I just realized something." That was definitely not a lie.

That's why Raven hasn't figured out who I am yet. She doesn't want to! Wait, she doesn't want to? As much as she didn't trust me when she first saw me?

She's been respecting my privacy...

"Well maybe you should ask her if you get the chance?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

I can think of a helluva lot of reasons why not.

"I'll see. It's not like I see her during the weekends, Vic."

"Ha. I bet you want to though." Victor sneered.

Gar groaned: "What are you talking about Vic?"

"Man, I see the way you look at her. And you told her to stop calling you 'Sir'."

"How do you know that?"

"She was talking to me the other day and she called you Garfield." Gar blushed heavily.

"I hate you."

"Love ya, buddy!" Garfield hung up the phone and Victor went into fit of hysterical laughter.

"Just focus on having a good time tonight. It's for Raven. To help her relieve stress. That's it."

"Mr. Logan, who are you talking to?"

"UGH. Nobody, Agent." It was getting to be almost 9. He had finished all the work he left for himself to do, but he still had at least 2 hours before he had to get ready. He looked around his appartment and saw something under the leather sofa. He went to pick it up and he was suprised at what he found. "My Game Station controller?" He hadn't played that thing since he first moved into that appartment.

A wave of nostalgia rushed over him from his high school and college years. He turned the TV on and sat down on the couch with the familiar feeling of the controller in his hand.

"Just this one time." He whispered to himself.