Orbits of Glass
Chapter Six
She hadn’t been the same since Senior Prom. True, she put on a happy face at graduation and she spent time with her friends. But, late in the evening, she would sit by a window without saying a word. At home she didn’t ramble on about the psychological damage of having ghost hunting parents or use big words that only Mom understood.
Sometimes she looked sad and confused, other times she was angry. However… slowly, she was returning to the Jazz we all know and love. What scared me were the times I would find her sitting by the window with that love sick look. Then she would see me and turn away, running to her room. That was the time after the kidnapping and before the accident. The twilight that would either break her or make her stronger. But fate never gave her a second chance...
Danny’s Journal
He was in the passenger seat of Jazz’s pink Volkswagen. The car was a junker and just the perfect thing for a freshman at college. His sister had turned down Ivy League schools, settling for a very respectable university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There was only a week until she left for her first year of college and the two of them decided to spend the night out on the town, bonding.
“So what movie do you want to see?” she asked offhandedly.
“Don’t you know what’s out?” he asked his sister. She was the one that suggested they go to a movie and then get ice cream afterwards.
“No,” she said. “ Do you?”
“No.”
They both laughed and Jazz smiled like she used to. She was finally coming out of the funk that had lasted all summer. It was weird. She was going to college and he was going to be a sophomore. Soon she would be gone. She told him that she was just a phone call away… that she would just have to mother hen from a distance. It just wasn’t the same for either of them. His sister was very anxious about leaving him alone with their parents. He also thought it was nerves talking. Neither he nor Jazz had spent more than a week or two away from home. College was a huge step for her.
He leaned back in his seat before speaking.
“We can always go to that weird kid’s movie and enjoy it MiST style. You deconstruct the characters and we both make fun of the dialogue.” His suggestion earned a glance from the driver.
“What if the theater is packed?” was his big sister’s concern.
“Hasn’t stopped us before.” There were some horrendous movies out there that begged to be heckled while in a public place.
“Hey, when did you learn the term ‘deconstruct’?” Jazz asked him.
“It’s your bad influence. You’re corrupting me,” he answered dramatically.
Her laughter sounded over the sound of the rain and windshield wipers. Up ahead the stoplight turned red and Jazz slid to a stop.
“First time stopping at a stoplight?” The roads were slick with rain. She took the chance to look over and give him a dirty look. At his own hurt look, the giggling started again. Rain kept pelting the windshield while they laughed, waiting for the light to turn green.
Light filled the interior of the car and Danny’s heart stopped. The world spun around him in a tight circle and he became numb. His heart started and he opened his eyes. The interior of the car was impossibly small. Metal twisted against his side and the space that had become impossibly bright was now dark and claustrophobic.
Jazz’s laughter was gone and the rain replaced it. He tried to speak, to call out to his sister, but words escaped him. He tried a different technique. He turned his head to the left.
His sister was still buckled in the driver’s seat. Something was wrong with his vision, everything was skewed and leaning to one side. He blinked his eyes but everything stayed blurry and wrong.
He reached out with his left arm and gently brushed his sister’s shoulder. She didn’t move or make a sound. Her hair was falling over her face. He couldn’t see her face.
Time moved faster. Voices overtook the sound of rain. They were loud and concerned but what they said didn’t penetrate the haze in his head. Then a new sound covered the rain and the voices. The whine of metal cutting metal filled his compacted world.
They pulled his sister away from the wreck first. The voices were shouting as she disappeared from sight. He had to wait in the car; they still had to cut his arm out of the wreck. Then it was his turn. He felt like a living rag doll. There was no control as he was dragged out of the car. Rain fell on his face as he was placed on the backboard and carted into the ambulance. A hand gently gripped his left hand. A face appeared above him, blocking out the rain. She said that they would take care of him, his angel in the rain.
Things faded to black. The car and the female EMT disappeared. The rain stopped falling. As he faded he could finally hear. “1028, 15 year old male, restrained passenger,” a man rattled off different vitals. “…coming in lights and siren.”
“1020. Trauma Room Two is ready for you."
As they talked a third voice came over the radio accidentally. “Code Blue, Trauma One…Code Blue, Trauma One…” He knew who it was. No one said her name, the nameless Code already dying at the hospital. No one said her name so he said it for them.
“Jazz…” his broken voice whispered to the sirens and the Paramedics. Under the breaking storm he whispered her name as the pain overtook him...
The phantom pain woke him up. He stumbled to the bathroom and threw up in the toilet. Pounding footsteps followed him into the small room. Arms half supported him as he collapsed on the floor. His love drew him into her arms as he lost all control. He leaned backwards, resting the back of his head on her chest and sobbed. Val ran a hand through his hair. “It was only a dream,” her soft voice told him.
Above him a light was turned on. He closed his eyes, an electric green with emotion. Valerie hugged him tighter as the soft sound of footsteps and crutches entered the bathroom.
“Robin, go back to the living room. You should be asleep,” Damian’s voice was gentle.
“I know,” the boy said.
His voice shook Danny. It was worried and concerned and determined. The hero drew closer and the ghost unwillingly looked up. The boy’s blue-green eyes looked at him with sympathy. It was too much.
He roughly pulled out of Valerie’s grasp and dodged the others. He took off towards her bedroom. By the time he stepped out of the room he was dressed and the others were arranged in the narrow hallway all looking worried. Claustrophobia clawed at him and he fled. He ran out to the alarm of everyone assembled. He left so fast he missed the shocked look in Robin’s blue eyes. His own green eyes didn’t see the apartment at all. He was lost to the present.
He fled, he became Phantom in the hallway and flew into the twilight of Two A.M., fleeing the nightmare. But he couldn’t fly fast enough. He didn’t have the power to change the past. He was already too late to save Jazz.
oOo
Robin leaned on the crutches the way that the physical therapist always yelled at him about. He didn’t have the strength to stand alone.
He knew what he saw, the green eyes haunted him. They glowed in the dim hallway, filled with pain. Not the light blue of daytime. He was shirtless too. Robin had never seen the other boy without a shirt. The scars on his bare chest and arms whispered at stories not yet told.
He was distracted when Val went into one of the bedrooms. Something compelled him to follow her. She did not speak, only sank onto the bed holding her head in her hands. Robin looked around and an open book caught his eye. He picked it up off the desk and read the last couple of paragraphs. ‘But fate never gave her a second chance...’
A picture fluttered out of the journal as he started to turn the page. It fell to the floor face down. A dark hand picked up the picture before taking the book away from him. The photography replaced the book in his hands. There were two people. One person was Danny, smiling wide for the camera. The other person was a girl with red hair and light eyes. He tore his eyes from the photo, his own bright eyes seeking answers from another face.
“You have her eyes,” she answered the question she didn’t ask. “They remind Danny of her.”
“What’s her name?” he quietly asked. They looked so happy in the undated photo.
“Jazz.” The name didn’t mean anything to him. It only gave a title to the stranger in the photo.
“Is that why he ran?” He made his way over to the bed and sat down next to the other teen.
“You really can’t run from your memories.” She said cryptically.
“But you can try.” He understood that feeling too well.
“Why are you here Robin?” she asked. She used his name, a first for her.
“I’m running, just like him.” These people saved him but that didn’t mean he trusted them with his secrets.
She looked down at her lap and the book sitting on her legs. “He…” she stopped. “The therapist said it would be easier if he wrote all his thoughts and memories down. He said it would be easier to deal with.”
“That’s a good idea.” She made a noise of agreement. He searched her face seeing the emotions no longer hidden under the surface.
“And you’re frightened?” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Danny is …I worry for him so much. I mean… a lot of things happened to him in a short time. Any one of them could have pushed over the edge.”
“He remembered something from his past?” Robin questioned her. “Is that why he freaked out?”
“It could have been a dozen different things.” The confession sounded like it pained her.
Robin felt torn. There were so many questions he needed to ask. The whole family was a huge mystery. It brought out the inner detective in him. The silence grated on his nerves. Valerie started speaking again, drawing him back out.
“I’m scared. I stopped him from self destructing the first time. I… he wanted me to kill him. He begged me but I couldn’t hurt him. I watched over him after that, rescued him from his nightmares. He blamed himself about Jazz but it wasn’t his fault.” She finally broke down. He hesitantly put an arm around her shoulders.
“I shouldn’t be telling you this,” she sobbed, hating herself.
Robin didn’t have any words of comfort. He was starting to get scared. He was over his head.
An image of green eyes flashed in his vision…He was definitely over his head.
oOo
The room was dark and cold. Candles made a circle and illuminated the girl in the center. The dim light reflected off her gray skin and sparkled off the sweat that dripped from her brow. Outside the light three figures waited without a sound…almost.
“What’s taking so long,” Beast Boy whined.
“Just be quiet. She’s trying to work,” Cyborg reprimanded.
“If the two of you don’t stop you won’t be talking ever again.” The deadpan voice shut them up fast.
A quiet chant began again, different from her normal ‘Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos’. The candles flickered unsteadily. They died for a breath before flaring to life as white flames. Raven’s eyes opened to reveal white orbs that did not move. She didn’t blink.
Hope stirred in the hearts of the conscious Titans. Only this morning Raven came across a spell to seek out missing souls in their sleep. They had to wait for nightfall to search out Robin. They waited with hope for the demoness to end her trance and bring back news. Finally her eyes closed and with and exhale all the flames vanished. The normal lights were turned on by an unseen hand.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice startled them all.
“Were you unable to see anything Friend Raven?” Starfire asked dejectedly.
“He’s alive and is towards the east. He woke up before I was able to find out anything more.”
“But that’s good, right? He’s out there.” Beast Boy spoke hopefully.
“At least we have an idea where to look. We know he was in Gotham City when he disappeared. Maybe he’s still around there.” Both BB and Star perked up at Cyborg’s logic.
“Does this mean we are leaving?” Star’s eyes were large with hope. Cyborg nodded and she squealed with delight.
“I call shotgun,” Beastboy shouted as they both ran out of the room. Only Raven and Cyborg were left in the room.
“What did you really see, Rae?” Raven looked guilty but covered it up as she sat on the edge of Robin’s bed. They were in his room to perform the ritual. She looked around the room before answering Cy’s question.
“He’s hurt. I was able to tell that before I was forced out of his mind…I ended up in someone else’s dream, someone who was physically near Robin. I don’t know who it was but he’s not human.”
“Do you have anything on this other guy?” he asked.
“No. But he’s powerful.” The answer made the Titan pause and stare out the lone window in the room. In the reflection he could see himself and behind him Raven remained on the bed.
“What did you see in the dream? Maybe we can get some leads from it.”
“There was a car accident,” she said slowly. “It could have been anywhere and happened to anyone.”
“So no clues,” he elaborated for her.
“Just that the driver was a girl named Jazz.” Cyborg glanced back at her before returning to the view outside the window. A storm was brewing, both figuratively and literally.
“Pack up,” he finally ordered. “The Easterners will be here in an hour and after they’re settled we’re heading to Gotham.”
“So we’re going to ignore Batman’s advice to stay away?”
“The guy is emotional and he’s not thinking very clearly.” He paused. “Whoa, that’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.” The half robot left the room to finish packing and to put things in order. Raven was alone; the smoke from the spent candles her only companions.
She took Cyborg’s place at the window. An unwanted emotion clawed at her heart. Her emotion had a name that she told the coming storm.
“Robin…where are you…answer me…Damn it!” Behind her there was a crack and the overhead light exploded. Any other time he would have answered her but her communicator and mind were silent. Lighting flashed and in that light she could see Robin’s damaged face. In her heart she was afraid for him.
Chapter Seven