Chapter 25: The Exchange
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Matt knew he shouldn't be, but he was worried about her.

Yes, again.

She even just told him that she wasn't ok. Or was she talking to someone else? He got the feeling that she was speaking to someone other than him. Most likely her father.

Maybe... no he didn't want to think about that. Well it was too late. It had already flashed across his mind multiple times.

Could she be going crazy? How can I believe that she's talking to her father inside her head? He questioned skeptically.

And then the worst news report ever interrupted the music playing in the car on the radio.

"We interrupt your previously scheduled programming to give you this breaking news report!" Said one announcer.

"This just in! Scientists from the JCCCP (or the Jump City Center of Criminal Psychiatrics) have just released to the public their study on Nightengale."

Raven, who had stopped mumbling to herself blandly looked over to the radio and relaxed in her chair again. She crossed her arms and her legs.

Matt listened intently as well as trying to not crash Raven's car.

"After studying Nightengale's movements, tendancies, her murder patterns, and even down to the way she speaks, scientists have deduced that Nightengale is clinically insane." Matt's eyes grew wide. "She exhibits many signs of an insane criminal. Now she is no Joker, then we'd have a much different issue on our hands, but she can be likened to many of the insane criminals of Gotham and Jump City's—" With a glare from four of her red eyes, the radio burst into sparks. Matt looked over and saw the four red eyes beaming at him. He had never tried so hard to keep his hands on the wheel. After he had...gotten his fill of her, he returned his eyes to the road.

"You're afraid of me, aren't you?" She said in a warped, distorted version of her own voice. "You're afraid of my twisted, abnormal, and unfamiliar face. My viciously distorted voice," she leaned dangerously close to his ear. "And my newly sharpened fangs." She purred out directly into his ear, sending more than just shivers through his body.

"I..." He didn't know what he was more of, paralyzed in fear or paralyzed in shock.

"Tch. Of course. Everyone is the same." She moved back to her seat, closing her eyes only for them to be back to normal as she opened them. "Everyone 'loves' me until they see who I really am." Her voice turned back to normal as well. "I'm 'beautiful, exquisite, deadly,' and now I'm 'insane.'" She said quoting an article she once read about herself.

"The first time that happened it was an accident. I wasn't scared then. Just shocked." Matt answered.

"What about just now, huh? Don't lie to me."

"Then I won't lie. I was surprised."

She sighed: "Typical. You can't even tell me the whole truth."

"C'mon, Rae don't be like that. I just don't want to hurt you any more than you already are."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me." His grip tightened. "I don't want to hurt you." No verbal answer from her. But she did answer him a different way. After looking at him for a few seconds, she grabs his hand in hers and positioned them on the median.

"Me neither. That's why I asked."

They sat like that for who knows how many hours. Time seemed to move a lot faster. Raven was asleep and the sun was setting. The clock in the car said 7:26. He let go of her hand to shake her awake.

"Hey Raven? How close are we?"

"Huh?" As her vision cleared she saw where they were. "Oh, next exit." She directed groggily.

"You sure?"

"Yep." She sounded drunk. The only reason he asked was because it didn't look like they were heading into Star City, but he was just going to go with it.

I'm not insane. I can't be. Not yet at least. I still have my wits about me. I won't let him run my psyche into the ground. She thought, lazily gazing out the window.

Yes you will.

"Shut up." She said through clenched teeth in a low voice.

She can't be insane. I won't believe it. Especially not from those damn scientists. Not until I see it for myself.

"Right here. Then a quick left. Won't be much longer till we get there."

"Alright." Within the next ten minutes they pulled into a dark parking lot with one working street light. What a place for her to meet this dealer.

"Good. We're early. I have time to change.
Azerath Metrion Zinthos." She dragged her hands up her body and soon her suit was on. Why did she just then realize how powerful her suit really was? "Here." She made him a mask and handed it to him. "Just in case I need you." Then she morphed through the roof and landed in front of the car.

She put a finger in front of where her mouth would be if she had a mouth on the mask, telling Matt to be quiet.

He nodded and watched.

Raven stood there with her arms crossed, waiting.

"Well well if it isn't the little bird herself? You really want this stuff don't you?" A tall man, probably at least 6 and a half feet tall, strode out of the shadows. Eventhough she had before, she scanned him.

Name: Jaxon Dalton
Height: 6'10"
Weight: 236 lbs
Age: 31 years
Hair: short, brown
Eyes: blue
Race: Caucasian
Occupation: Weapons and drug dealer
Criminal Record: caught several times for being connected to or affiliated with many criminals; known for striking up impossible deals

His criminal record has changed since the last time. Before it was only her that he had gotten caught several times for. Someone's been busy.

He smugly stood in front of Raven with a mischievous smirk.

"Where is it, Jax?"

"You know the deal, Bird Brain."

"I don't want to do it this time. I'll give you the money, you give me what I want, and we don't speak to eachother for another few years." She stood her ground confidently.

"Where's your partner? In that car?" He motioned to the almost invisible black car.

"Fine." She motioned to Matt in the car to come out. "Don't forget your mask." She freely called to him. Matt quickly put on the mask as he got out of the car. "This is all you're gonna get. Take it or leave it."

Jax grunted, then snapped his fingers as if he was calling for someone. Two men about the same height as him came out of literal nowhere and stood next to him. One was holding a steel briefcase.

"Who's this one? He doesn't look like the last one." Raven narrowed her eyes.

"Because this isn't the same one. I killed him."

Jax scoffed.

"Wow. You really are insane." Raven clenched her fists. She felt the anger boil intensely inside her. Matt didn't even need a sign.

"If I were you I'd shut up. Don't forget who's giving you the money."

"Grr. You always have your damn people take care of your business, Nightengale."

"Like you don't." She replied, fists still balled. She restrained herself. Then one of his men spoke up.

"Enough with this. We sound like kids. Give us our money, bitch, or we walk away." Jax grinned. Matt sighed.

"Do you guys have a death wish or something?"

"Nope." Matt had a feeling he knew what was going to happen. "We just have a way with getting what we wa—"  Raven stopped him from talking with a bright red hand instead of an inky black one. Even the eyes on her mask glowed red.

"Nightengale!" Matt tried to stop her, but it's like she wasn't even listening.

"Never speak to me like that." She spoke to Jax. Her voice was warped again, striking fear into their eyes. "You can probably tell that I'm not in a good mood. So here's what's going to happen," Raven pulled Jax to her hand and wrapped both of her hands around his neck, stealing the oxygen from him. 

Matt called her again. "Nightengale!"

She ignored him again: "I take what I came for right now and I don't send you to jail or murder your ass right here,"

She threw Jax on the ground and didn't give him time to catch his breath. She pinned him to the ground with the sharp heel of her shoe hovering over his throat.

Again: "Nightengale!! Stop!"

"Or I kill you, take the case, and make sure your friends here never see the light of day. You have 5 seconds." Maybe she actually couldn't hear him?

There was silence. Her red eyes lit up the alley. Nobody wanted to see what was underneath the mask this time. Matt was afraid to say anything, nor did he think it would do anything.

Then Jax finally said: "You're a crazy, psychopathic killer, Nightengale." You could literally hear her restraint snap into a million pieces. She readied herself to puncture his throat with her heel, but a quick hand on the shoulder stopped her.

"Don't do it. He's not worth it." He said through his mask.

Her eyes faded back to the purple of her mask and she realized what she was doing. She sighed and removed the lethal shoe from Jax's neck.

"Get up." Jax slowly got up from the ground. He looked totally calm but he was sweating bullets.

Without a word from him, Jax grabbed the steel briefcase and handed it to her. Then he walked back from where he came from, his two men following him. Leaving Raven and Matt there to themselves.

None of them could see it. Raven was crying under her mask.

As soon as the three of them were out of earshot and out of sight, Raven kneeled down to approximately where she had Jax pinned down. She just stared, and she started to sob quietly.

Matt kneeled down with her and put his arm around her. Then Raven ripped off her mask and threw it against the wall. The mask hit the wall with a loud sound of hard plastic hitting concrete. She fell back on her butt and stopped crying.

"I hate this."

"Hate what?"

"Everything."

"You don't hate me do you?" Raven looked up at him and he was smiling, which in turn made her laugh. "Gotcha. Haha." He stood up and reached out his hand. "C'mon. Let's get back home. You have somewhere to be tomorrow."

She took his hand and stood up. She walked over and picked up her mask and made it disappear in her hands. Her suit disapeared from her body and she returned to her street clothes. Matt's mask disapeared from his hands as well.

Without words they got back into the car. There were no qualms when Raven jumped in the driver's seat. It was a deadening silence. Yet a comfortable one. Raven even had a smile on her face.

That is, until they were on the road for about half an hour.

Enjoy this while it lasts, daughter. Because this won't last much longer.

She looked over at Matt. He was fast asleep. He could probably sleep through anything but a car crash at this point.

"What are you talking about?"

You're going to have a rude awakening when you get back to Jump City. I'll make sure of it. Just to keep you on your toes...

She had a striking pain in her arms, like she was stabbed right on the inside of her elbows.

"Agh!" She winced. She somehow managed to keep her hands on the wheel. Nobody was ahead of or behind her, so she took the opportunity to look at her arms.

She was bleeding. Actually bleeding. The rumbling of the car caused the thick red liquid to slide from the crevice of her arm and onto her white skirt, leaving dots of red on it.

She felt the pain. She felt it every time the car jerked or jumped. The pain was real. The blood was real. This wasn't a hallucination. It was real.

"You...hurt me. How did you hurt me?"

Haha. You'd like to know wouldn't you? Consider this a precursor, Raven. I'd say be prepared, but nothing can prepare you for what is going to happen.

"What? Father?" Silence. "He's gone again. Don't let him get to you. He can't do anything. He can't even escape from his prison."

"He can't do anything."