Chapter 7: Chapter 5: Rage and Control
Keith was lucky that shit had spiralled in the direction it had during the weekend. He got to keep his job, so he slipped out of Titan Tower and back to his apartment for his normal clothes and headed to the university.
His day was his usual day, except he made noticeably less sound when he moved. He left at his earliest opportunity, heading back to Titan Tower in full Blindside gear. It was time to discuss how to kick Trigon's ass. The Titans were very much fed up with Trigon taking over Raven's mind here and there. Keith tuned out most of Robin's briefing, only taking note of the important things. When it was over, he asked Raven to come with him to the living room area.
There was relative confusion on everyone's faces, but they went with it. This was where he made use of another avenue of his powers. He didn't use it often, primarily because of the side-effect, but he felt the need here. Raven sat down on the couch, and Keith sat on a cushion-y chair in front of her. "Robin, when I'm done doing what I need to do, I request that you knock me out immediately. I will be, for all intents and purposes, a new person after I do this. For liability's sake, have your staff ready." He didn't give any explanation following this, and switched to his sight, all sense of hearing blocked out.
He placed his hands on Raven's temples and whispered, since that could be done mostly with straight breathing, "Don't blink please." He began staring directly into Raven's eyes, until, half a second later, he was staring through her eyes and into her soul.
He saw a storm of turmoil, of sorrow and of fear. Fear of herself and fear of her father. In the far corner of her soul was a crimson red anchor of sorts. He could only assume that it meant Trigon was manipulating her via the anchor he held within her very soul.
He took advantage of his ability for a moment, imparting a subconscious message to Raven about why he would be a different person in a moment, and then everything appeared to rewind.
He receded from her soul, back to stating directly into her eyes, and his sense of humor vanished entirely. "Black is my favorite color. If you need me, I'll be at Hot Topic." He turned off his speech in favor of hearing and moved like a sassy goth queen. Robin immediately knocked him the fuck out and Keith was unceremoniously dumped into his hammock.
Afterwards, while Keith was passed out, Raven gavw a quick rundown of what she somehow knew. "I...I think he looked at my soul. Literally. And...maybe my personality and soul threw his off? I'm not sure. For some reason I just know that."
The Titans were left with more questions than answers until Keith came back half an hour later, pale as all hell. "I need coffee. Stat. Then I'll answer questions."
Keith was a quiet mess at the moment, with the slightest of shakes to his hands. This was a sscondary side-effect, and by far Keith's least favorite. Going to sleep restored him back to himself, but in order for that process to complete itself, he had to relive every event that made him who he was. He had to relive each and every scar. Everytime that...that monster tortured him.
He shook his head and poured a cup of coffee to calm the shakes. He downed it quickly,shaking his head at how little difference it made, and produced a flask of whiskey to spike it. "Irish whiskey for an Irish boy. Calms the shakes." He joked aloud to nobody in particular, more to calm himself down than to make anyone laugh.
He was unaware, however, of Raven's emotion detection. Initially, she took his fear and apparent trauma to be a result of what he saw in her soul, but she noticed an aspect of it that felt targeted at some event in the past.
Keith took a few deep breaths before he went and sat down on the couch. "What you saw me do is something I have only done 2 other times. Raven, I apologize for the intrusion upon your soul, I really should have asked beforehand." She shrugged it off, but she also felt kind of weird about it. Almost awkward in a way. He continued. "I literally stared at your soul. But, doing so affected my own self. I needed to sleep in order to return to my own self." The only person in the room to pick up what he didn't say about his recovering back to himself was Dick, but that's only because Bruce taught him to read body language. "What I was looking for when I did it, was something within Raven's soul that allowed Trigon to have an anchor. I found one. There is a strand of crimson energy in the recesses of your soul. I'm aware of how much meditation you do, and I can only encourage it. Trigon's anchor there would be unchecked without your meditations. That said, I don't know what we can do about severing that anchor. I think, in the short-term, severing that anchor is the best course of action." Dick immediately ducked away to make a call to Bruce, see if he knew anyone who could assist with it.
Shortly thereafter, everyone went back to their rooms, except for Raven, Dick, and Keith. Dick crossed his arms and tapped his foot, as Keith finished off his spiked coffee. "What?"
Robin sighed. "I know you withheld something about what you did." Keith was about to make an Oscar-Worthy act of the dumb variety, but Robin interjected. "Don't play dumb. I was trained by the best detective in the world, I can read body language like an open book with notes in the margins."
Keith sighed, defeated. "...Fine. When I sleep to recover from the influence of another's soul...I'm forced to relive the events that molded my own soul. Sort of like I retrieved it." He was curt, aggressively preventing himself from spilling his haunted guts.
Raven and Dick, both having seen Keith's back, went deadly quiet. They could only imagine what he had lived through.
Keith shook his head. "I'm gonna go do a patrol around Gotham. Clear my head a bit." He left back to Gotham, doing circuits around the city for problems that would need his involvement.
(I'm about to dig really really deep into Joker and Harley lore here. This is true, and in the comics.)
Keith heard screaming then. Accompanied by a familiar laugh. It was. coming from the seedier side of Gotham, not that there was much of a difference. Keith ran that way, making it to the source in no time. What he saw sickened him.
He had made his way into a basement, now standing at the top of the stairs going down. Before he went down, he recorded the shit heard. When he busted open the door, he simultaneously sent the recording and the pictures to Batman, accompanied by the statement, "This is my last kill before I go straight. But this one may be the most impactful act I ever make in this regard. You might not like who it is, but Idk how your broody-ass brain works."
What he had found, was Harley Quinn, chained up in a basement surrounded by decaying corpses wearing similar Harley-esque outfits. In front of her, was the supremely insane Clown Prince of Crime. "Other Harleys! What, you thought you were the first one?! I can tell you this, you won't even be the last." He burst into a short fit of laughter. "And like all of them, you will stay down here and die. And no one will ever know what happened to you. In time, you'll just be forgotten." He burst into a longer fit of laughing.
Keith, standing behind him for a distance, felt rage building in him. He had never actually faced Joker. He didn't he ever would, at least not on a random patrol. But he also didn't know he would kill the lunatic. As he rocked his arms back, his staff in hand, he began swinging heavily towards Joker's neck, aiming to snap it on impact.
Instead, time stopped. And Keith was suddenly in a very red shrine of some sorts. He noticed, immediately, that his senses were all with him. His sight and hearing were happening simultaneously, which let Keith assume that his speech would work as well. He tentatively spoke. "Hello?" His Irish accent felt even more his own, confirming that within this dream, he was no metahuman. Just an ordinary guy. This is how he usually was in dreams that weren't just PTSD flashbacks. He wandered around for awhile before he heard a thunderous sound originate from behind him. He turned, only to find a red ring floating in midair. A low voice began booming through the shrine then.
"Keith William Kelvin. You have been selected to bear a red lantern ring. However, we have not our regular issue ring for you. Your astronomical level of rage, combined with your equally high willpower, have destined you to be the most powerful and most lawful Red Lantern in the history of the Red Lantern Corps. This ring is considered among the more worldly lanterns to be defective. But the rings and the emotional spectrum they come from, have designated this ring as being capable of channeling 3 different colors at once, regardless of one color's influence on another. Bear this ring with honor. The side effects of the Red Lantern Ring do not apply to you, for this is a different ring than that. In time, your ring of power will show you how to use it. A new oath is destined for you, outside of the traditional oath. Repeat quickly hereafter, and smite down the scum before you.
With torment and rage of crimson red,
Balanced and even from end to end, With my rage my hope and my will,
I'll bring pain and torture upon those I should kill
With this oath, you accept the power of the red ring of power, you open the doors to the green and the blue, and you accept to never, after your kill of initiation, channel your rage into death. Upon those whom you would kill, bring suffering and pain and torment equal to their victims'."
Keith took about 30 seconds to re-hear all the words in his head, before he shrugged, repeating the oath. The ring flew at him rather than to him, slamming onto his right ring finger. Unlike the tradition power ring, with the band and the lantern insignia, this ring appeared to be three shades. Red, grey, and black, seprated into three sections of color. His eyes blazed red for a moment before he found himself back in his own body, his staff now enveloped in the red energy of the power ring. His eyes behind his eyelids blazed red, shining slightly through. His staff slammed against the back of the Joker's neck.
Throughout the whole basement, and throughout this block and the next three from it, a colossal snap could be heard. A crying and terrified Harley Quinn gasped, watching as the Joker's head fell very very limp, his facial structure itself falling apart. His entire head now looked like a white, green, and red bag of bones attached to the Joker's shoulder.
Keith's ring faded away to just a band on his finger, his normal costume replacing what he was just wearing during the hit. His nostrils flared for a moment before Keith dragged the Joker's body into the street and left it there to rot. He went back down to the basement and untied Harley. "You're free from his abuse. Forever. He will never again manipulate you into doing his bidding and into loving him who did not and never did love you." He proceeded to leave then, heading back to his apartment for the night to sleep and think about what responsibility he had taken onto his shoulders.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Drax152
Drax152 I'm really trying to nail Raven's powers the right way. She has a lot of them. Kinda OP, ngl.
I'm realllly leaning towards a single romance here, with Raven. But that doesn't mean other relationships won't happen on the way to that pairing. Gotta be realistic here.
Enjoy the long chapter! And I hope you like where I'm going with the Lantern stuff. I have reasons for including the blue, just stay tuned.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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