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SM/DC Chapter 166 : Watched
🕑 Added 2025-07-03 21:01:29 +0000 UTCGOTHAM CITY – SMALL CORNER CAFE - EVENING
The café was small, tucked into a quiet Gotham street where the noise of the city seemed like a distant sound. Warm light spilled from the windows, gold against the evening dark, and inside the scent of coffee drifted through the air.
Arthur stepped in, the bell above the door giving a faint chime. He looked like any other man in Gotham dark jacket, worn boots, the kind of tired posture that came with long nights and heavier burdens. But his eyes held something deeper. a man that had stared across galaxies and still made it back in one piece.
He spotted her in the corner booth, already seated, her presence as still as ever like the eye of some internal storm. Raven didn’t wear her usual cloak tonight. She had on a black sweater, subtle jewelry, her dark hair loose around her shoulders. She stood as he approached, stepping forward with a look that held more emotion than her usual stoicism ever allowed.
She hugged him tight, pulling him in as if to make sure he was real. Then she tilted her chin up, kissed him once, and smirked.
“Took you long enough,” she murmured.
Arthur smiled against her lips. “You weren’t worried about me?”
Raven pulled back slightly, studying his face. “I couldn’t detect you. But I knew you’d handle whatever you were up against.”
He chuckled and followed her to the booth. They sat opposite one another, hidden in the warm noise of the room.
“So,” Raven said, crossing her legs beneath the table, “what were you up against this time?”
Arthur rubbed the back of his neck, then let out a slow breath.
“You heard about that Justice League fight with the Yellow Lanterns, right?”
“I was busy with your little task,” Raven replied casually, “but yeah, I heard.”
“Well…” He paused as the waiter brought over his drink black coffee. He took a sip, letting the warmth ground him.
“I kind of… went to their world.”
Her brow arched. “Their world?”
“Qward.” He met her gaze. “And I wiped them out.”
For a second, Raven said nothing. Just blinked at him.
“The Sinestro Corps?” she asked quietly, as if checking if she’d heard him wrong.
He nodded again. “Gone. And for good.”
She stared, caught between shock and disbelief. But then Arthur reached out, hand palm-up between them, and summoned the ring onto his finger. It pulsed softly a black band etched with strange symbol, radiating a violet-glow that twisted like the void.
“I did get something in return,” he said. “You’re looking at a one-man Lantern Corps… if it can even be called that.”
Raven leaned closer. The symbol wasn’t like anything she’d seen. Not the green one. Not yellow. Not red, or blue, or even indigo. It was totally unknown to her.
“I’ve never seen this kind of power ring,” she said. “And I’ve studied every Corps.”
“Well,” Arthur said with a faint grin, “I may have disrupted the cosmic emotional spectrum a bit… But it shouldn’t matter.”
Raven narrowed her eyes, leaned back, and facepalmed. She didn’t even speak just held the gesture like she’d run out of energy to react properly.
Arthur laughed softly. “What, no lecture?”
“I’m… reserving judgment,” she muttered. “You might’ve just broken something fundamental.”
“The universe Is still standing,” he said casually, sipping his coffee.
“I guess.”
He smiled, leaning back in his seat as the tension between them dissolved into something more familiar. The silence stretched for a moment. Then he glanced over.
“So… about the task?”
Raven lifted her cup, blowing on the steam before answering. “Done. Your little base? It is sealed and protected. Off-grid, off-map, magically insulated. Not even I can teleport there unless I break the enchantment.”
Arthur’s eyes lit up with honest surprise. “Seriously? That's great.”
She nodded. “If someone breaks in, it’ll be someone with stronger magical power than me. And I don’t say that lightly.”
He leaned forward with a grin. “I doubt there’s anyone like that.”
Raven’s cheeks flushed lightly at the words. She glanced away, trying not to show it, but he’d already seen the smile tug at her lips.
Arthur was mid-sip when it hit him.
The warmth of the coffee, the hum of the café, the soft murmur of conversations everything dulled at once. Like a thick fog had crawled across his senses. He lowered his cup slowly, eyes narrowing. A faint chill danced along the back of his neck, and he looked up not in panic, but in sharp, trained awareness.
‘What is this presence…?’
His pulse hadn’t quickened, but his body knew something was wrong. That weight familiar, unbearable pressed against his shoulders like a god's breath. His ring was in his pocket, inert, and yet the instinct inside him screamed danger.
‘It’s the same one from…’
The bell above the café door chimed.
A woman walked in.
No flash of light, no spectacle. Just the quiet tap of boots across the tile. She looked like any other citizen, poised, dressed in a black top and jeans and a matching black wide-brimmed hat. Her face was mostly shadowed, but her posture said everything; calm, knowing, assured.
She moved to the counter. Ordered something. Her voice was low and smooth, barely audible over the café’s ambience.
Then she turned.
Arthur froze. His eyes widened.
She glanced at him casually just a flick of her gaze, a small curve of her lips and smiled.
It was her.
‘It’s her again…’
He’d seen her once before fleeting, in another world, and even then, she left an imprint that refused to fade. A presence that had no business existing in this reality.
He turned to Raven, his voice low. “Can you feel anything?”
Raven blinked, setting her cup down. “Feel what?”
Arthur looked at her, gaze searching, but saw no recognition in her expression. No alarm. No tension.
“Never mind,” he muttered, turning his eyes back to the woman. She was facing away now, waiting for her order. Just another figure among the city.
But to Arthur..
Her very existence was a void made flesh. It felt like his lungs were shrinking. Like every molecule of air in the room bent around her.
He stood.
“Arthur?” Raven asked, confused.
“We should leave. Now.”
She looked around. “What? We just got here. You didn’t even finish your—”
“I said we’re leaving.”
His hand closed around hers, firm but not harsh. Raven was too surprised to resist, stumbling up from her seat.
“Whoa. Okay—wait.” She held onto his wrist as he pulled her past tables, their unfinished drinks left behind. “What’s going on? Arthur..”
“I just remembered something important,” he said quickly, keeping his eyes fixed on the door.
“O… kay?” she muttered, following him with furrowed brows, but sensing the seriousness in his tone. He wasn’t the type to panic. And this wasn’t panic. This was calculation urgency sharpened by instinct.
As they exited onto the street, Arthur cast one last look over his shoulder.
The woman remained at the counter, her back to them.
But he knew she was aware.
And as he led Raven through the alley, heart steady but thoughts racing, he spoke only to himself his eyes faintly glowing blue beneath the hood of twilight.
‘I don’t know what to expect from her… or why she showed up here of all places…
But I’m not waiting to find out.’
****
The café had settled again after Arthur’s swift departure. Chairs creaked. A spoon clinked in a ceramic mug. Life moved on at least, for everyone else.
The woman in black stood still by the counter, her posture calm and her breath steady. She stared toward the now-vacant table across the room, where two untouched cups of coffee still steamed faintly in the warm café air.
Her gloved fingers tapped once against the counter, then slowly curled into a loose fist.
"You didn't have to leave like that…" she murmured under her breath, voice barely above a whisper. There was no anger in it. No resentment. Just a faint sigh at the end ,disappointment.
The barista returned with a smile and a warm paper cup.
"Here you go, miss," he said, friendly and oblivious. "Extra cinnamon, like you asked. Hope it brightens your afternoon."
She tilted her head and looked at the man. Her expression softened, just slightly.
“Thank you,” she said. Her voice was like velvet low, smooth, and somehow hollow beneath its grace.
He nodded and moved on, already greeting the next customer.
She didn’t drink.
She just held the cup with both hands and walked slowly toward the window. The light outside caught the curve of her jaw, the edge of her cheekbone, but her eyes were downcast, half-hidden beneath the brim of her hat.
She looked into the reflection on the glass, not at herself… but through it.
Through the city.
The faintest smile played at the corner of her lips one touched with something ancient.
"I'm only here for a drink," she whispered to herself.
Comments
CkLance
Arthur doesn't know that Death the Endless is one of the chillest? The best way to find out her thoughts on him is to actually talk to her. Since there's no running from her if she wants to find you...
Cobalt
Oh cmon dude death is pretty chill, chaos is who would constitute that reaction 100% but as far as multiversal concepts go death is the one I'd rather deal with
