ROGUE| DICK GRAYSON

xliii. god of thunder

Rowan was pulled up from the ground, the crowd cheering around her. 

She was in the pit and her opponent lay dead on the floor. Blood oozed out of Abaddon, letting everyone know she was hurt, but nobody seemed to care. All they wanted was for one of them to die and they got what they wished.

Hands grabbed onto her arms, restraining her from attacking them like countless other times. The guards pulled her up, but she didn't fight back. There was a stab wound in her thigh and blood poured out of her like a waterfall. 

Her brunette hair was mangled and knotted to the point where she was sure that nobody could untangle it. The guards pulled her to the door, her eyes finally leaving the dead woman who had too much hope that she would survive. 

Once she was dragged inside, Rowan finally began to feel the blood loss hitting her. The concrete walls didn't allow any light to come in, causing candles to be lit on the walls. Cages upon cages were lined up on either side, but a lonely door stood at the end of the hallway. Once people enter that door, they never came out the same. Rowan was lucky enough to never go in there yet.

The girl saw the white-haired girl who sat in her cell. The guards opened up the door and pushed her in, causing her to tumble to the ground ungracefully. Rowan let out a little whimper but didn't express more. She moved to sit up against the wall, feeling herself get woozier.

"Rowan?" Valerie crawled over to the brunette, "A-are you okay?" 

The girl nodded but didn't reply out loud, trying to save her energy. She could see the white-haired girl about to cry, so she shakily raised an arm and threw it over Valerie. Rowan pulled the girl in close, letting the eleven-year-old cry into her shoulder.

Rowan's voice was croaky as she spoke, "It's gonna be fine, Val." Her hand wove into white hair, brushing through it, "We're all gonna be fine."

The girl's southern voice spoke up, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Rowan nodded, "I promise."

Just then, their cell door opened, causing the brunette to put her hand out in front of the little girl, trying to protect her. But, all the guards did was just shove a blonde boy into the tiny room.

The boy stood up, looking at the two girls as if he was judging them. He had to be about Valerie's age and his thin arms deduced he hadn't been here for long.

"Who are you?" Rowan asked.

He stayed quiet for a beat, "I'm Thor, god of thunder. Who are you?"

The girl's eyebrows shot up. She always envisioned him to be older by a couple of thousand years, "I'm Abaddon and this is Valerie." Rowan learned to start calling herself by the myth as it gave her more of a reputation.

"Like, The Abaddon?" Rowan nodded, causing him to smile, "Awesome!" He looked over her wounds and pointed to them, "You need help?"

The brunette's eyebrows furrowed, "You know how to stitch someone up?"

Thor nodded and grabbed something from the pockets of his pants, "All I need is floss and a needle. Lucky for you, I have those things." He kneeled down and started to work on the girl, "How'd you end up here?"

Abaddon closed her eyes for a second as he pierced the skin, "My father." She looked at him, "You?"

"My father," He chuckled slightly, "He saw I was getting stronger than him, causing him to ask Zeus to put me down here, which he did."

Rowan huffed, "Fuck Zeus, man."

Thor's eyebrows furrowed, "Fuck?"

The girl laughed slightly, "It's universal. It's a bad word on Earth." She paused for a second, "I'll tell you all of them if you keep patching me up, god of thunder."

"Okay, deal." He looked at the other girl, "You're Valerie, right?"

The white-haired girl nodded, "Yes, you're Thor."

Thor hummed, "Can I call you Val? Valerie is a mouthful."

The southerner laughed slightly for the first time in a while, "Yes, you may."

Once the boy was done with her wounds, Valerie and he talked for a while. Rowan smiled slightly as they were soon-to-be best friends in her mind. It seemed like hours when they both fell asleep next to each other, holding each other's hands for comfort.

"Young love." Rowan turned her head to see her cell neighbor. It was an old lady that seemed to always go in that one room that nobody ever came out of the same, "I give it one day."

The brunette scowled at the woman with grey hair, "I give you one day before you die of old age."

The lady laughed like a witch, "You have a sharp tongue, dear. I'm sure nobody back home liked it."

Rowan was about to snark back, then decided not to as she didn't even know where home was. But, she guessed it was the pit now. So, the girl just sat there, not responding.

"You killed my daughter." The brunette looked back at the old lady, "She's the one that gave you that wound on your leg."

Rowan hummed, "Well, I'm the one that twisted her neck." She didn't care if she sounded rude. Abaddon needed to uphold a reputation with the other cellmates.

The old lady nodded, "Y'know she was slowly becoming the greatest witch of all time back on my planet."

"Then, why didn't she use her powers to kill me?"

"She was too afraid to kill." Rowan clenched her jaw, refusing to feel guilty, "But, I always told her that it was going to be her downfall."

The girl nodded, "It was."

The old lady met eyes with Abaddon, "Now, I'm just waiting for yours."

Rowan sat in a green chair, looking into Canary's eyes. She was requested to be in the 'therapist' room as the blonde wanted to see how she was doing on Earth once again.

"Is there any specific thing you need to talk about?" Dinah asked, wanting to cover all the bases.

The brunette sat back in her seat, "You didn't keep your promise." Canary sat up straighter with a sigh.

"You're basically my daughter, Rowan." Rogue didn't dare remove the eye contact, "I hate myself that I let you go there, so you must understand."

The girl nodded slowly, trying to suppress any anger that she felt, "Yes." She paused, "Now, why did you want to speak to me?"

"I'm worried," Dinah started, "You used to be so close to the team and now you act as if they're strangers."

"It's because they are. They don't know who I am anymore and the same goes for me. We've been apart for years—"

"Then get to know them!"

"No." Dinah's eyes widened at Rowan's tone of voice, "If it weren't for Conner and Thor, I'd be gone right now." She sighed at seeing the hurt swirling in her blue eyes, "Look, I love you, Dinah, I do. But, I'm not the same person I was when I left. I've been through things that no one should even see. I'm not asking for pity or mercy. I just want you to understand that you're hoping to see someone who's already dead."

Dinah shook her head, "You're not dead."

"I'm not, no. But, that little girl who you raised? She's been dead for a while and you have to realize she's never coming back."