Chapter 27: Him
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Everything was ringing and blury. Her face stung as the air touched her wounds. All things in front of her were a red and orange haze. The constant ringing in her ears was annoying to say the least, and disorienting to say the most. She could barely make out police sirens in the distance.

As her vision started to clear, the blury shapes and movements gained a hard outline, then soon their individual details. Raven looked around, confused and feeling on the verge of death.

"Ugh... How am I alive?" She tried to stand up. She was on the sidewalk. In front of her were her flaming black car which now looked like an overcooked strip of bacon, and the mysterious driver's car with the nose dented inwards. Noticably less damage than Raven's car had sustained. The driver's side door was open. The driver must've took his leave after he wrecked her car. As much as she wanted to solve the mystery of who almost killed her, she had more pressing things to deal with.

When she got her balance she winced at the pain. Looking down groggily at her pained leg she saw that her knee and her ankle were swollen, very swollen. Her knee and her ankle were probably completely and utterly shattered. How she managed to stand she had no clue.  The more she moved the more she felt the fragmented debris of the break in her joints move around and prick the inside of her leg, while the main two bones that broke were painfully piercing against the deepest layer of skin, begging for an exit.  She winced again, she had never broken anything before. She wasn't ready for this amount of pain at all.

She took a look at her hands. Almost covered in blood. Some of it was dried, but some, mainly the top layer, was clearly fresh. Fresh blood from newly opened veins seeping their life into the air and apparently onto Raven's hands. It wasn't the blood itself that worried her. More of the question of "who" rather than "what". As good as she was, differentiating the blood that stained her hands was next to impossible. Whether it be from her heavy lacerations or the ones Matt obtained was unclear.

Matt!

The police!

She had to find him and get out of here before the cops pulled up. She couldn't let them find her, eventhough she wanted to go to the hospital badly. The hospital was perhaps the only place she was safe.

She attempted a movement towards the car but as soon as the most tiny sliver of weight was put upon the crippled leg a shotgun spray of pain tore through her leg. It took all her strength to not belt out in a pain infused shriek. Eventually she hopped her way over to the car and surrounded herself in her magic to keep her safe from the flames. She didn't need anymore injuries.

The quickest way she could think of doing this was with her mask. And time was of the essence. She quickly put on her mask and scanned the wreckage for a heart beat. She scanned multiple times but no dice. As the sirens of the police cars blaring in the distance grew nearer, her hope waned. Then finally, a heartbeat — a faint one — was detected.

She crawled in through the busted driver's window. without her protective spell she would've gotten even more wounds on the already bloodied remaining shards of glass.

She couldn't see much through the fire, and every inch she went forward was excruciating agony for her leg. She shouldn't be doing this at all. She felt as if she had to though.

She made it to where she found the heartbeat. Somehow, Matt had made it to the backseat. Nevertheless she surrounded him in her power and yanked him out as forcefully as she could without hurting him.

On her way back out something gleamed in the corner of her eye. It was the briefcase. Acting without a first thought she snatched up the briefcase as well.

Being that he was a lot heavier than she could support, the two didn't last very long more than three feet off the ground and they collapsed on eachother. And of course Matt's body full of dead weight fell straight onto her leg. Her breathing hitched and then sped up tremendously as the weight of Matt pressed against her broken leg.

Matt was unconscious. She wanted to look at and tend to his wounds but she didn't have time. She checked the licence plates to make sure they were burned (they were. And thoroughly so) and then flew upwards with Matt on her good side. As they went she put out the fire on the briefcase and attempted to heal Matt as much as she could. Even flying was a challenge for her.

They got to a safe area and she teleported them home.

They collapsed again onto the floor, this time, he didn't crush her leg. She didn't even have the strength to put him on the couch. She scooted herself into a sitting position and examined Matt.

Part of his right arm was burned, only a horizontal line on his upper arm was clear. At least in that area. That was where she had hugged him. Raven looked at her arm she was burned at her wrist. How did she not notice that before?

His clothes, like her's, were burned as well. Burned and ripped. Blood stained his shirt. He had a large gash on his face too. There wasn't any swelling though, so it didn't look like he had broken anything. How she would probably never know.

His watch was gone too.

Raven meekly put her hand on his chest. His heartbeat was starting to increase. She sighed in relief. In turn she felt like her's was declining. Or maybe that was just her imagination.

Nevertheless, she still tried to continue the healing process. He was more important than she was.

Then all of a sudden Matt's skin faded to green. His hair too. All green.

He turned into a fairly recognizable person to her. She sat shocked and stared at him in disbelief.

The man in front of her groaned. He was coming to.

"Ugh...Raven?" She looked at him. His voice... "Why are you looking at me like that?" Then he noticed his skin. "Wait! Raven! I can explain!"

"You... You're...Gar..."

"Rae, I know you're upset, just calm down and–"

"Don't your dare call me that!"

"Ok! Ok. Let me explain." He made an effort to keep his voice calm.

"You have a helluva lot explaining to do! Which one of you was lying to me?! Who's the one that's an actual person?! It has to be one of you!"

"I am. Gar. Matt was a name I made up. Matt was what a I looked like before I got sick."

"..." Raven was crying. The tears wouldn't stop.

"Look, Raven, I hated my friends and the way they treated me. I hated the company. That's why I went to Slade and he assigned me with you. Then you came into the office as Rachel and fixed all of it. All the negative things about the company you fixed."

"Then why did you continue to help me?! You could have just left!"

"I kept helping you because Grayson Inc. still needs to fall. We have plans that shouldn't happen. I don't have the authority to change anything, contrary to what you might believe."

"Then what about all that stuff you said to me?Matt or Gar, I don't give a crap who you are! You changed me! You're part of why I'm like this now! Why the public thinks I'm insane! You confused me and made me feel things I hadn't felt in a long time! I trusted you!"

"I never lied when I came to that, Raven. I care about you. That's why I didn't want you to find out on your own."

"Well, I did."  So many things went through their minds.

Her's had anger, frustration, sadness, doubt. She was lied to and mistrusted.

He was scared, worried, unsure. He was dishonest and conniving.

But they both felt guilt.

"Raven, I love you. I'll admit I should've told you earlier, I just couldn't find the right time." Raven stared at his sorry face for a while.

"I thought I loved you. But I guess I don't know what love is, because I've messed up twice already. No matter how high my walls are, they're thrown down with the right punch." She looked at her bloodied hands. "I'm pathetic."

"Raven, don't say that. You're not–" He noticed her leg was red swollen. "Your leg..." He exclaimed in awe.

"My leg is broken. Not that you'd care." She crossed her arms, tears still flowing from her eyes.

"I do care, Raven. Let me help you." He reached down to her leg and she grabbed his hand before he touched her.

"Don't touch me, you lying son of a bitch." She threw his hand back at him with incredible force. It wasn't just the force that hurt either.

"Raven...please? I can fix this."

"Fix?!" She asked indignantly. "How the hell are you going to fix this?! You lied to me! And you even asked me how I feel about someone lying me! This is exactly why I don't form relationships! I'm not just someone to be used! Gar, I helped you out of a FLAMING CAR WITH A BROKEN LEG!!! I could've seriously hurt myself! Or just flat out died if it weren't for my magic! I SAVED YOUR LIFE! And this is what I get as thanks..."

"You saved me from the car?"

"Yes! I didn't want you to die!"

"How'd you get outside of the car in the first place?"

"The hell if I know! And stop trying to change the subject!"

"I'm not! Raven, I don't want you to leave! Tell me what I have to do to get you to stay with me!"

"Die, Garfield."

"I..."

"The only way I want this to happen is for you to die. I want you dead. I want every single one of you to die." She said morbidly, tears still flowing the tracks on her cheeks and more welling up.

They stared at eachother for a long time. Probably longer than what was naturally deemed reasonable. But they were thinking. Finally, after a long period of silence, Raven spoke.

"Logan, get out of my house. Now." He hesitantly without any qualms got up and left.

As soon as the door shut Raven broke down into tears and sobs.

Garfield leaned up against the wall with tears in his eyes.

What did I do?

Raven clenched her fists and with a blood curdling scream, every mirror in her house broke.

"I'll make sure that none of them survive that trip."