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i.
“Monty said that the convenient mart’s alarm was triggered about five minutes ago,” Emori comments, as Raven and her walk through the parking lot of the store, passing the gas pumps and heading towards the glass doors that are shattered across the concrete.
They make their way into the store, listening carefully for any sound.
The store is dark but for the illuminated drink cases and a backdrop light behind the counter, and aside from the broken glass shattered across the ground, nothing else seems to be disturbed.
Raven halts in her movements, Emori following her lead as they stand still and listen for any sign that they’re not the only ones in here. Just when Raven opens her mouth to suggest sweeping through the store to assess any damage, the shuffle of a shoe across the floor echoes through the silence.
One blink, and Raven’s watching Emori frown at the sound, the next, and Emori’s disappearing out of sight as if she was never even there.
Logically, Raven’s seen her do this a thousand times at this point, but it always takes Raven by surprise when Emori goes invisible.
Raven steadily progresses down each aisle, raising her hands as she goes, checking each one and finding nothing. She can only assume Emori is doing the same. But once Raven turns down the last aisle and starts walking along the coolers, there’s still no one in sight.
About halfway down the aisle, Emori makes herself visible again, appearing directly in front of Raven. “I don’t get it,” Emori says, glancing back down the direction she came.
“Maybe–,” Raven starts to say, only to be cut off as she startles at a guy appearing in between her and Emori out of nowhere.
“Maybe you should be more aware of your surroundings,” he tells them offhandedly with a shit-eating grin on his face. Raven wipes it right off when she flings her arms out at him and sends him hurling into the chip display directly behind them.
Emori squeaks in surprise, watching as the guy crashes into the shelves and knocks them over in the process, chip bags flying everywhere. The guy groans where he falls.
Emori’s already composing herself and storming over to him angrily as Raven watches on in confusion.
“Dammit John!” Emori yells at him as she reaches an arm out to pull the guy to his feet. “What the fuck are you doing in here?”
Raven holds her ground with her hands raised in case she needs to throw him again if he tries to attack Emori.
The guy winces as he stands up, bending over with a wince before straightening himself again. “Telekinesis,” the guy says, acknowledging Raven. “Nice.”
Emori’s still glaring at him with her hands on her hips and Raven’s still trying to catch up with whatever the hell is going on.
“You wanna tell me what powers let you sneak up on us like that?” Raven asks, taking a step closer to him and Emori and dropping her hands. Emori’s stance is more annoyed than anything.
Emori rolls her eyes, glaring daggers at the suspect. “He snatched mine,” she explains, folding her arms across her chest.
Raven knows her eyes widen in interest at her words, turning to look at the guy in a different light. He turned himself invisible just like Emori had.
“Come on Em,” the guy says, lifting his arms at his sides. “You used to like it when I did that,” he jokes with a teasing glint in his eyes.
Emori scoffs.
“So what,” Raven cuts in, not interested in getting involved in whatever weird tension is going on between the two of them. “You just snatch other people’s powers and take them as your own?”
The guy, John, scrunches his nose at her question. “I mimic the powers of those surrounding me when they’re in close enough proximity.” He emphasizes the point by lifting his hand, the shelf that he knocked over rising with the movement to settle back into its original position.
Raven’s eyes widen in shock as she watches him perform the action using her powers.
“His power picks up on the energy that others emit when they use theirs, and allows for him to temporarily use the power as his own. He turned invisible the second after I did,” Emori reveals at Raven’s surprise.
“There’s patterns between superpowers,” he explains. “I’ve picked up on them over the years. The name’s Murphy, by the way.”
“Raven Reyes.”
“Cool powers, Reyes,” Murphy offers, continuing to use her telekinesis to lift the scattered bags of chips neatly back in their spots.
“I like to think so,” she shoots back, lifting her own hand gently to lift the stray candy bars that got displaced as well. “Not sure why a robber is taking the time to clean up after being caught though.”
Murphy shrugs. “I just wanted a slushie. Didn’t plan on making a mess of the place.”
Emori scoffs again. “Well then getting your fucking slushie and get out.”
Raven tilts her head at that. “We’re just gonna let him go?”
When Emori looks back at her, Raven knows there’s no point in arguing.
They watch as Murphy stops cleaning up, heading toward the slushie machine and leaving Raven to move the rest back with her own hands.
A loud slurp draws her attention from where Murphy is now standing in front of the shattered doors, illuminated from behind by the lights out by the gas pumps.
“Catch ya around, Em,” he says, raising his slushie to her. “Reyes,” he toasts her as well before turning himself and the slushie invisible without another word.
Emori helps her pick up the last of the discarded food before they head back to the shop, the incident with Murphy having carried them over into the end of their patrol.
When they get back to Raven’s car shop, they head to the lower level where Spacekru’s set up their hideout.
“So…,” Raven starts at last, unable to hold it in any longer. “You know Murphy?”
Emori chuckles. “I’m impressed with how long you held that in,” she teases, before sighing and plopping down on the nearest couch, the common space empty like always. “He’s my ex. We broke up before I joined Spacekru.”
Raven nods, trying to process the information. “You used… to date… a villain?” She concludes, thinking aloud as she sits down next to Emori.
Emori shakes her head with the slightest of smiles. “Murphy’s not a villain.”
“Well he’s certainly not a hero,” Raven points out.
Again, Emori shakes her head, only this time, Raven feels like it’s directed at her. “It’s not as black and white as villain versus hero, Raven. There’s a whole grayscale of people with superpowers,” Emori explains, looking up to meet Raven’s eyes. “Like Miller and Octavia. Like Clarke,” she adds on carefully, watching for Raven’s reaction.
Raven feels herself tense, like she always does whenever Clarke is brought up.
Because the only thing that Raven can think of every single time she is, is the image of McCreary with a gun to Madi’s head.
How Clarke chose to use her powers of healing against him to slice hundreds of cuts across his body.
How he bled out when Clarke could have saved him.
How she chose to wrap a blood-soaked Madi in her arms and tell Raven that they had to leave.
“Clarke’s a villain,” Raven states with finality, like every other time the discussion is brought up. Nothing is going to change her mind on that.
Emori’s mouth quirks like she wants to say more. “Well I certainly don’t think that stealing a slushie is on the same level of villainy as Paxton McCreary or Cage Wallace,” she decides to say, glancing down at Raven’s braced leg.
Raven ignores the remark, standing up.
“I’m going to go update Monty,” she tells Emori before heading to the control room.
She ignores the disappointed sigh Emori always lets out whenever they talk about Clarke.
ii.
The next time Raven runs into Murphy, it’s when she’s on patrol by herself and the alarms are triggered in the Apple store inside the TonDC mall.
The mall’s in Spacekru’s jurisdiction, so she’s close enough that she can get into the mall and to the store before the alarms stop blaring.
“You by yourself tonight, Reyes?” His now-familiar voice calls in the open space of the store, Apple products worth hundreds of thousands of dollars all around them.
Her eyes follow the voice to find Murphy walking out of a back entrance, piles of boxes already lined up on the counter from the back stock. He has the audacity to use her telekinesis to pull the next load of boxes from the back.
“Don’t tell me you broke into here for a slushie too,” she says, walking towards the back with her hands raised and ready.
“Don’t be silly. Dairy Queen’s right next door.”
Raven rolls her eyes at that. “Emori said you’re not a villain, and yet here you are. Trying to steal thousands of dollars’ worth of product.”
He carries on with his work, completely unbothered by the fact that Raven’s here to stop him.
And it’s really starting to piss her off.
“A guy’s gotta eat somehow,” he tells her. “I pick up jobs here and there, have the heroes who come to stop me help me out a bit with their own powers. It’s nothing personal Reyes, just business.”
She hopes he considers her hand sending an iPad straight at his head ‘just business’ too.
He dodges it at the last minute, eyes following where it shatters on the ground before looking back at her in surprise.
“Are we seriously going to do this?” He asks, raising his own hands with what looks a bit like excitement in his eyes.
Raven holds her stance, smirking back at him.
It’s been a while since she’s had a good battle.
Murphy juts his arms out, sending the boxes on the counter flying at her one after the other. She dodges them easily with quick flicks of her wrist, twisting them back around to nail Murphy on the return.
Raven’s honestly impressed, until she’s being slammed from behind by one of the display tables. It knocks the breath out of her as she falls to the ground before her body’s being flung into a shelving unit full of cases.
She’s completely caught off guard and left gasping for breath as she tries to stand. She’s going to fling the asshole through the ceiling tiles.
As she moves to stand though, she finds herself collapsing back to the ground as her left leg gives out. She tries again, reaching for something to grasp on to, and falling again when there’s nothing but the flimsy case shelf.
She looks down to find her brace doing nothing to support her leg.
“Fuck,” she whispers.
She uses her telekinesis to try and lock the screws back in place so she’ll at least be able to walk, but the brace remains loose and next to useless. “Fuck!” She yells this time, glaring down at her leg, and then to where Murphy is watching her.
“You fucking broke my brace,” she waves her hand angrily at him from where she’s still on the ground.
Murphy’s face is unreadable in the dark as he scrutinizes her form. He’s still standing by the counter with all of the boxes he’s trying to steal. “You can’t walk without it?”
“No, asshole,” she spits back.
She feels stupid yelling at him from the ground, so she works to balance herself on her right leg, wobbling a little before she’s back on her feet with her left leg bent to relieve the pressure.
She feels Murphy’s eyes on her the entire time, and when she’s finally standing and looking back at him, his jaw is locked in place.
He walks over to her, and Raven’s just about to raise her hands to attack when he lifts his cellphone. Raven hesitates, watching him with narrowed eyes. “I’ll text Emori and tell her to come get you,” he offers, eyes still on her even as his fingers move to unlock the phone. “Would you let me help you to one of the benches outside the store?”
Her gut response is to tell him to go fuck himself. But the thought of hobbling out there herself after Murphy inevitably makes off with the stolen tech sounds even more painful. Maybe Emori will get here in time to catch him.
So instead, she nods her head and lets him carefully wrap an arm around her waist as she throws one over his shoulders.
In no time at all, she’s falling down onto the wooden benches right outside the store, the mall dimly lit by emergency lights.
She’s breathing heavy from the exertion, and refuses to meet Murphy’s eye as he plops down next to her. “I’m sorry about the brace. I didn’t mean to damage it.”
Raven chuckles humorlessly at the fact that a villain is apologizing to her. “It’s nothing I won’t be able to fix at the shop,” she says, after letting the silence hold.
“Still,” he says, twisting his hand.
“What are you–,” she tries to ask, stopping herself when she sees two ice cream cones floating towards them from the neighboring Dairy Queen.
Raven laughs at the sight, watching as they land in Murphy’s outstretched hands.
“It’s not a slushie,” he tells her with a grin as he holds one out to her, “but it’s close enough.”
Raven eyes the cone, hesitating. She shouldn’t take the stolen ice cream cone.
“Oh come on,” Murphy teases with a roll of his eyes like he can hear her thoughts. Maybe somebody with mind reading powers is nearby and he actually can. “You can leave an extra tip the next time you’re here to make yourself feel better.”
At that, Raven laughs.
He’s still holding the ice cream, almost like he’s challenging her. She takes it, licking it for good measure when he smiles at her.
“Welcome to the dark side, Reyes,” he tells her with a glint in his eye.
They sit there in silence eating their ice cream, and Raven’s left wondering how the hell this is her life right now.
Murphy’s phone buzzes, and he looks down at it before he frowns. “Emori said she has to stay in the control center because Monty and Harper are out patrolling. Echo’s on a case and Bellamy’s MIA.” He looks up at her, and she knows he sees the disappointment on her face before she can hide it. “Aren’t there more of you?”
His question hits her right in the gut, because yes, there used to be.
Raven sighs, staring at her melting ice cream as if it has all the answers. “There used to be,” she tells him, not wanting to look at him. “We made this close-knit family made up of ragtag supers who didn’t have anybody else and then it completely blew up in our faces.”
She dares to glance up at him to find him listening with interest.
“It started with Cage Wallace shooting a rusty nail at me and hitting my spine, and it kind of spiraled from there. Octavia turned evil, Madi got kidnapped, Clarke murdered McCreary and ran, Miller followed them, Bellamy became distant, Octavia tried redeeming herself.” She lists off every event that collectively nailed the coffin in the family Raven thought she had with Spacekru.
Now they’re just a shell of what they used to be, and Raven can’t forgive them for choosing to be villains over their family.
She tells Murphy as much, who looks back at her thoughtfully. “It sounds more so like you all chose not to stick together.”
Raven gawks at him, ice cream gone by now. “Were you not listening? They left. They chose to break the law and become villains despite knowing how it would hurt us.”
“Imagine what they’d think of you – breaking the law with a stolen ice cream cone,” he teases, gesturing to the balled up napkin in her hand.
“That’s– that’s different,” she tells him firmly, her hand curling into a fist around the sticky napkin.
“Maybe,” he says with a shrug of his shoulder. “Or maybe not,” he says, standing from where he had sat.
He looks down at Raven. “Maybe things aren’t always as straightforward as you want them to be.”
He walks back into the store before she can respond.
iii.
Raven and Echo are on their way to the movies to see Birds of Prey when Raven’s cell starts ringing with Monty’s face.
“You didn’t happen to get to the theater yet, did you?” He asks upon her answering, Echo glancing over for a signal to pull over or turn around at Raven’s word.
“Not yet…,” she tells him. “We’re off duty tonight,” she reminds him.
“I know,” Monty says through the phone. “Can you check out the Eligius Factory quickly? Possible break-in.”
Raven points her finger left so that Echo knows to turn the car so that they’re heading towards the factory.
“It won’t take long,” Raven confirms with Monty.
“Ten minutes tops,” Monty assures her before hanging up, leaving Raven to pass the information along to Echo before they pull up in front of the factory.
“I’ll do a quick aerial scope and meet you on the inside,” Echo tells her before shifting into a sparrow and taking flight into the air.
Raven watches her fly up above the building before unlocking a side door with a twitch of her finger and walking inside the factory.
It’s eerily quiet, but she supposes that’s expected since everyone has undoubtedly gone home for the weekend. She weaves through the heavy machinery, trying to listen for anything out of the ordinary.
“Fancy seeing you here, Reyes,” Murphy calls from somewhere that leaves his voice echoing.
Raven looks down ahead of her and the way she came, but doesn’t see him.
“Look up.”
She does just that, glancing up to find him standing on a metal beam stretched across the ceiling, arm nonchalantly gripping onto another beam as he leans sideways and smirks at her.
She watches him disappear from the beam and pop up next to her. She jumps back in surprise, even though this power isn’t a new one to her.
Miller must be somewhere here in the factory too.
“What job did you get roped into doing this time?” She asks him steadily, refusing to let him unsettle her.
He morphs into a giant tiger right before her eyes, which tells her he knows Echo’s here too.
It’s remarkable that she can see his trademark shrug as he prowls towards her.
He transforms back when he’s directly in front of her as she holds her ground. “No job specifically,” he tells her. “Seems like a hotspot that will result in a job eventually.”
Raven shakes her head at him. “So you’re getting yourself arrested for trespassing for no better reason than because you felt like it?”
“Haven’t been arrested yet,” he says in challenge, grabbing a hold of her hand and teleporting them both back up onto the beam she first saw him on.
“Murphy.” Raven grinds the word out as she wobbles on the beam unsteadily, gripping on to him for dear life as she tries not to look down from fifty feet up in the air.
Next to her, Murphy is holding on to the same beam tightly, his other arm holding her firmly. “It’s okay, I’ve got you.” She looks up at him to find a sincerity there that she oddly enough trusts.
She relaxes her grip on him as he continues to steady her. “Now this is how you scope out a factory,” he says against her ear, sending a thrill up her back at his close proximity.
She turns to face him again, planning to demand him to bring them back down, but halting in the process as her nose brushes his and she finds him already staring back at her.
The intensity in his eyes takes her breath away, and somehow, she finds herself leaning in closer to him. He mirrors her movements, until a loud squawk draws their attention.
They both turn their heads to find a judging sparrow flying in front of them.
“I take it this is the animal shifter,” Murphy says.
Echo lets out an indignant cry before diving down to the ground below.
“I guess that’s our cue to head down,” Murphy says before teleporting them back down to where Raven was to start. Murphy’s hold on her lingers, and she lets it, until someone very unsubtly clears their throat from behind him.
At that, they step out of each other’s space and turn to find Echo and Miller staring them down with identical stances – arms crossed, eyebrows raised – and equally unimpressed looks – mouths quirked, all too amused for Raven’s liking.
The awkwardness lingers as Raven comes up short on an explanation, Murphy doing no better.
“Miller said they’re willing to let us escort them off the premises so that we don’t miss our movie,” Echo finally breaks the silence.
Raven nods her head, looking to Miller. “We wouldn’t want you to miss your movie,” he tells her with a wink.
At that Raven rolls her eyes, moving to walk determinedly past him. “Well then let’s go. Trailers start in fifteen minutes.”
“Five,” Echo corrects, falling in step with her as they head towards the exit, the boys right behind them. “You were up on that beam for longer than you thought,” she notes.
They part ways once they get to Echo’s car, Raven leaving them with a stern warning to stay away from the factory that she’s sure they won’t follow.
They make it into the theater with their tubs of popcorn just as the movie’s about to start, settling into their seats.
“So…,” Echo whispers, not wanting to disturb anyone around them. “We aren’t going to talk about you flirting with the dude trespassing?”
Raven flings a piece of popcorn at her in response.
No, no they are not.
+i.
Raven only answers the call about the aquarium because she’s driving right by when it comes through.
She parks her car in the back of the aquarium, eyeing where one of the back doors was forcibly opened and making her way through the door. Following her gut, she finds herself heading towards the shark exhibit, navigating the back tunnels the employees use to access the animals in the tanks.
Looking around, Raven still finds nothing amiss as her eyes catch on the creatures swimming in the water from where she stands at the top of the tank.
That is, until she squints at the surface as an orb of water begins forming just above the surface, one of the sharks caught inside swimming around the small space with nowhere else to go. Raven’s jaw drops at the sight as the globe of water becomes firmer, slowly starting to carry the shark across the surface of the water.
She glances around, trying to figure out what the hell is going on when her eyes catch on the blurry form of someone through the water on the side of the tank.
She barrels down the metal stairs as fast as her leg will allow to head towards where Murphy is slowly bringing the shark closer to him.
“What the hell are you doing!?” Raven exclaims when she’s close enough. Murphy startles at her words. Water splashes from above them in the tank, and Raven looks up to find the almost-kidnapped shark swimming freely in the tank again.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Murphy asks, looking at her like he can’t believe she’s here. “Spacekru doesn’t cover the aquarium.”
Raven stares at him, unable to wrap her head around what he’s doing. “Let’s focus on the fact that you’re trying to steal a fucking shark.”
At that, Murphy winces. “Look Reyes, a job’s a job. And my contact needs one of these sharks,” he tells her while gesturing to the tank. “I need to get it before Luna gets any closer.”
Raven scoffs. Well now she knows where he picked up the water manipulation. “You can’t possibly think I can let you do this.”
Murphy rolls his eyes. “You don’t need to let me do anything. This isn’t your jurisdiction,” he says simply, before lifting a different shark up into the air and bringing it over the surface of the tank to float in front of them.
“Juris–,” she goes to repeat in exasperation, ready to storm towards him, when another voice calls out from behind them.
“Oh good, you found him,” the female voice says, pulling both Murphy and Raven’s attention to her.
Raven hasn’t had much interaction with Luna, or any of the members of Floukru for that matter.
Murphy’s hands hold the shark in the air firmly, even as he tenses at the sight of Luna.
Luna’s movements are graceful, even as her wild hair bounces with each fluid step forward she takes.
“I did,” Raven says, taking a step in front of Murphy for reasons she can’t begin to explain. “He was just going to return the shark to the tank,” Raven states, turning to relay the order to Murphy with her eyes.
And she thinks he really would have, if an icicle didn’t come out of nowhere and stab him in his stomach before Raven can fully grasp what is going on.
The water globe with the shark crashes to the ground as Murphy hunches over and collapses, Raven rushing over to him without a second thought, ignoring the flailing fish on the ground.
“No need,” Raven hears Luna saying calmly, “I can do it.”
Luna must put the shark back, but all Raven can focus on is the chunk of ice protruding from Murphy’s stomach as he gasps for breath.
“It’s okay,” Raven reassures him as his panicked eyes search hers. Her hands float around the icicle, afraid to touch it and make it worse as blood starts to soak through his shirt.
She whirls back around, glaring at Luna. “What the fuck is wrong with you!? He was putting it back!”
Luna faces the tank, mesmerized by the swimming fish. “He’s a villain,” she says simply, still watching the fish. “He needed to be stopped.”
“By stabbing him!?” Raven yells, taking an angry step towards Luna. “What kind of hero fucking attacks somebody without cause!?”
Finally, Luna turns to face Raven, tranquil smile in face. “Heroes stop villains, no matter the cost.”
Raven takes a startled step back at the words, a chill coursing through her.
“Raven–,” Murphy calls to her, which only scares her more because he’s never used her first name.
She races back over to him, falling to her knees to look at him. His shirt is soaked red, and his face is draining of color. “Raven, I–”
She shushes him. “You need to save your energy. I have to get you out of here,” she tells him determinedly, standing back up to face Luna again.
“Luna, he needs help.”
She’s back to watching the fish, and Raven has the urge to throttle her. “Nature will take its course for the villain.”
“He,” Raven grinds out, taking another step towards Luna, “has a fucking name.”
Luna opens her mouth to speak again, but Raven doesn’t have time for this bullshit. Raven flings her arms with all her might at Luna, taking hold of her and hurling her into one of the extra fish tanks, glass and water flowing everywhere.
Raven doesn’t watch the aftermath, racing back over to Murphy to help him stand despite his grunts of pain.
“What are you doing?” He wheezes out as she drags him past the shattered tank, Luna lying unconscious inside of it.
She’s doing what’s right, heroics be damned.
Twenty minutes later, Raven’s standing outside a door she never thought she’d be at again, holding all of Murphy’s weight up as he struggles to stay conscious next to her.
“We’re almost there,” she reassures both him and herself. “You’re going to be okay.”
She urgently knocks on the door again, only for it to swing open mid-knock.
Clarke stands on the other side, mouth dropping open at the sight in front of her.
“Please, Clarke,” Raven begs, voice cracking on the words. “Please save him.”
Madi comes up behind Clarke, eyes cautious as she takes in Raven and Murphy.
Clarke’s features lock in determination. “Madi, go strip the bed in the guest bedroom. Bell?” She calls. “I need your help.”
Raven watches as Bellamy comes into view, shock written across his face as he breaks into action, lifting Murphy’s weight off of her and carrying him through the apartment. She can’t even find it in her to comment on where Bellamy’s been disappearing to.
She follows behind Bellamy, kneeling beside the bed he lays Murphy on as Clarke immediately gets to work on slicing through his shirt.
“What was he stabbed with?” Clarke asks, clinical as ever, the ice having already melted.
“Luna stabbed him with an icicle,” Raven tells her, sounding very much like she’s going to break. “He didn’t do anything to warrant getting stabbed.”
“Hey,” Clarke says, pulling Raven’s attention back to her. “I’ll do everything I can to save him,” she swears, and Raven believes her.
Raven watches as Clarke raises her hands to get to work, gripping Murphy’s hand tightly.
Raven wakes up to Murphy’s groan of pain from where she’s hunched over on the side of the bed.
She lifts her head blearily to find him already watching her, her hand still holding onto his firmly.
“Hey,” she whispers softly, eyes raking over his face. “How’re you feeling?”
“Like I was fucking stabbed.”
Raven finds herself chuckling a little hysterically at that, at the fact that he’s really okay.
“Where are we?”
“My friend’s apartment,” Raven says, the words coming easily. “She’s a healer.”
Clarke healed Murphy without hesitation, despite all the awful things Raven has said and thought about her.
“I thought I was going to die,” he tells her, making her gut twist. She reaches her other hand up to trace down his face, him tilting his head into her touch. “I thought I was going to die and not even get the chance to–”
He stops, looking up at her with uncertainty.
“The chance to…,” Raven prompts, leaning closer to him, her smile growing as his does.
His hand reaches out to thread into her hair, pulling her in until their lips are colliding.
Raven settles one knee on the bed, bending over him to deepen the kiss with a swipe of her tongue, even as she can’t stop smiling.
Murphy’s grunt of pain halts her movements though as she accidentally bumps his bandaged torso.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers as she pulls back far enough to rest her forehead against his.
“I’m not,” Murphy tells her with a grin, eyes opening to look into hers. “I’ve been wanting to do that since that factory.”
If possible, Raven’s smile grows wider.
“Alright, alright love birds,” Miller says from the doorway of Clarke’s guest bedroom. “We get it. You figured your shit out in a do or die situation. Try for some originality next time.”
Murphy flips him off as Miller moves into the room, Clarke, Bellamy, and Madi following him in.
“Thanks Clarke,” Murphy says when he sees hers.
Raven watches Clarke smirk at them. “Anytime Murphy.”
Raven looks between them. “You guys know each other?”
Murphy hums in affirmation. “Us cockroaches stick together. Ain’t that right, Miller?”
“Well it looks like we’re all cockroaches then,” Monty announces, walking into the room hand-in-hand with Harper. Emori, Echo, and Octavia trail behind them.
And suddenly, the room is crammed with every single person who matters to Raven more than anything in the world, whether she’s let them know it or not.
“Word’s out that Raven attacked Luna,” Harper reports, though she looks more proud than anything. “Floukru’s calling for the destruction of Spacekru.”
“Then let them,” Raven finds herself saying, pulling everyone’s attention to her, most of them in various states of surprise. “Spacekru’s fallen apart anyways.”
Murphy squeezes her hand.
“Well we can't be called The Cockroaches,” Madi speaks up, nose scrunching in distaste at the name. Everyone starts throwing out ideas, names flying across the room at rapid speed.
Raven doesn’t care what they’re called, as long as they’re all together again.
Not a kru of superheroes, not a band of supervillains.
A family. The way they used to be.
“What about The Delinquents?” Madi pipes up again, bringing everyone to silence.
“The Delinquents,” Emori repeats, testing it out. “A family full of morally gray supers.”
Raven’s throat clogs with emotion.
“It’s perfect.”