Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or settings; all belong to their respective creators and DC. This story is only for entertainment; under no circumstances is this story to be used for profit.
This story is rated "T" for violence and language.
Author Notes: Before you start reading the first chapter, "Beginnings" below, I'd like to just say a few words in regards to the story; this is, essentially, a 'one-shot', originally typed out as one very long chapter, but split up to balance out the reading experience.
This story used to be posted under the title "Mortality", but due to heavy editing, and, to be honest, lack of hits, I've taken down the previous story and present a much more balanced tale. The story is complete, but I will only be releasing two chapters a day; this will, hopefully, generate more attention to the story, and perhaps provoke more reviews.
This story is based on the Teen Titans cartoon primarily; however, I also combine hints of the comic book and the cartoon The Justice League. As the two cartoons do not coexist within the same 'universe', I've left many things ambiguous, straying away from pinpointing certain events, besides a few; the story takes place after both cartoon series have ended, giving me plenty of creative room, and the Teen Titans move, Trouble in Tokyo, never occurred.
The primary reason I ignore the movie is due to the various relationships that are presented and feasible within the cartoon; as a fan of canon relationships, I accept and approve of the romantic bond between Robin and Starfire. However, the two characters presented in the cartoon of Teen Titans don't fully capture the passion and compatibility as their comic book counterparts. As much as I initially avoided the shipping of Robin and Raven, I was eventually drawn in, and, to my annoyance, did find that the two characters shared much in common and connected extraordinarily well, giving a potential of romance between the two plausible. Thus any romance relationships presented within the story are mostly ambiguous; the reader may draw their own conclusions.
This is a story about Robin, an idea that lodged itself within my head and refused to leave until I blurted it out; while I do try to make logic of what happens within the story, the 'why' or 'how's of certain plot points should be taken as is, letting the mysterious happenstances of a heroic universe take it's course. I do hope you enjoy the journey, and if you do, please review.
*Note* I have done some major rewrites to a few of the chapters, a few times now, in particular with the time of certain plot points; they may be needed for a possible sequel that, given that I have the time, I hope to finish. Enjoy.
Beginnings
In hindsight, they really should have expected it.
After all, it was the perfect day; or, at least, it started as the perfect day. Being spring, and a Saturday, the day already had two things going for it; combined with the perfect blend of warm air and a cool breeze and a picturesque cover of clouds hanging like cotton in the sky, everyone looked forward to the day. It was a day for being outdoors with family and friends, for picnics and barbeque, for lounging in the sun; none could resist the alluring call of nature, the warm rays drawing out even the most reclusive of people, tempting them to abandon their solitary dwellings for the bright sun.
It was a day for revelry and feasting, for relaxation and fun; it was a perfect day in Jump City, and the resident crime fighting team, the city's beloved protectors, the Teen Titans, were making the best of this once in a lifetime day, enjoying a late lunch, sitting at their favorite table, at their favorite pizzeria. Spread out before them were the remains of their meal, two large platters that had once, not too long ago, contained warm, delicious pizza pies.
There were a few signs that the day was too perfect, the most obvious being the lack of an argument between Beast Boy and Cyborg about toppings for the now consumed pizzas. The two fought over every meal, Cyborg insisting bacon went with everything and Beast Boy attempting, unsuccessfully, to point out the finer qualities of tofu. Yet when the waitress approached their table, asking what toppings they wanted, both, without even looking at the other, stated, simply, cheese. This seemingly innocent act, combined with a crime free month, something that was unheard of, should have been enough to warn them.
But no, they were all blissfully unaware, happy just to be alive and in the company of close friends; a few years had passed since the defeat of the Brotherhood of Evil, and, overall, they had been good years for the young heroes. The team was even more close-knit then ever, the years of training honing all of their even then impressive skills; some had changed more then others, physically mostly, but emotionally and mentally, too.
Least affected by time was Cyborg, his cheerful and responsible attitude unchanged, along with his abnormal hunger and obsession with his mechanical creations. Starfire, her figure fuller and more feminine, was still full of emotion and optimism, although most of her naivety was gone, the beautiful alien grasping most of the human customs she was unfamiliar with when she first arrived to the blue planet. The team's empath, Raven, her eighteenth birthday having passed a few months ago, had also grown taller, becoming the adult she never expected to be; aside from growing out her hair, little else, physically, changed for the young goth. However, her friends and fellow super hero comrades did notice an emotional change in the young woman; while she would never be as expressive as her friend Starfire, Raven had become softer, friendlier, more open to her friends. Laughter was still rare, but she smiled more, the light in her violet eyes brighter than when she had first met the team.
If asked who had changed the most over the years, the Titans would eye both Beast Boy and Robin critically, unsure of their answer; the green changeling, still the youngest of the group, was no longer a scrawny kid; the team's meticulous training regiment, drafted and controlled by Robin, of course, added a noticeable mass to the clownish vegetarian, and a long overdue growth spurt changed his once diminutive height. While he was still fond of cracking jokes, most hilarious only to himself, the lessons learned and responsibilities gained from the defeat of the Brotherhood had matured the green man; while he had leadership capabilities, Beast Boy was still weary of taking on that mantel, preferring to be led then to lead.
Like Beast Boy, Robin's body had been forged under the stress of training, his thin and lanky frame built up, the young man faster and stronger than he was when the Teen Titans first formed. His leadership skills were still strong, the driving force behind the group, the bond that kept them all together; still, there were some changes that were noticeable. He no longer obsessed about missions or foes anymore; life lessons, and some personal growth, had settled some of his lingering demons, and the infatuation with Slade, among other things, had dissolved. The young hero's attitude less grim, Robin had distanced himself from his mentor's persona. The young leader's arrogance had also faded, replaced by confidence, the young man finally able to tell the difference between the two, in not only himself, but also in his team.
And it all came down to the team; with all else in the world on uncertain grounds, the Teen Titans had remained stable and strong. So it was on the perfect day that this perfect team, according to Beast Boy, who was, to be honest, biased, relaxed in the sun, a serious but not so serious conversation drifting among them; with all things in harmony, Beast Boy, already contemplating a change to his own heroic name, brought up, yet again, a point of conversation that he had argued for the past few months. Wiping his mouth on a napkin, causing some eyebrows arching in surprise at the unusual display of, well, manners, he lightly tapped the table with his fist, declaring yet again, "I still say we should change the name to… Team Titans! …or Titans Team!"
Cyborg sighed, resting his hand on his forehead, not really wanting to argue this point on such a pleasant day, "Man, why bring this up again, BB? We've already rejected 'Green Team' and 'The Beasts'; besides, why bother changing the name?" He paused, tapping his lip thoughtfully, muttering, "…Well, at least those ones don't include your name or likeness somehow, so I guess that's an improvement…"
"While I am delighted with your sharing of ideas, friend Beast Boy," Starfire piped up, unconsciously hovering about an inch off of her seat, "I will also ask once again: why the sudden need to change our name? I am very fond of who we are!"
"Duh, we're not really 'teens' anymore, Starfire!" Beast Boy exclaimed, gesturing to his friends around him, "I mean, technically a few of us are still teens, but, I mean, we're not kids anymore! Raven and Robin are now, legally, adults, Cy's gotta be, what, thirty by now?"
"Yo! Not funny, bro!" objected Cyborg, throwing a used napkin at the grinning changeling.
Beast Boy didn't bother to dodge the trash, the soiled paper bouncing off his forehead, and continued as if never interrupted, "…And Star… well, I don't know how old you are, but you no longer look like a teen."
The alien gave Beast Boy an irritated look, her cheeks puffing out as she huffed, "You should know very well that we will be celebrating my 83rd v'klabdar in two Earth months time!"
There was a few moments of silence as Beast Boy stared at her, before he finally blurted, "Dude, I don't even know what that means!"
Robin, having already been through this particular conversation with his younger friend many times before, cut off the two heroes, speaking quietly, "Beast Boy, how many times do I have to explain this to you? A v'klabda is the Tamaranean life-day, what we'd consider a birthday; and you also already know that Tamaran has a much shorter year then Earth does. Don't be obtuse; you know Starfire's age is equivalent to ours." The young leader suddenly grinned mischievously, ignoring Beast Boy questioning of what 'obtuse' meant, "And you should also know better then to ask a woman her age."
Beast Boy's cheeks darkened as he mumbled an apology to Star, who graciously accepted, casually stating that she expected more presents for her celebration. As the green teen whined and tried to wheedle his way out of the extra gifts, Raven spoke, effectively shutting Beast Boy up, "As much as it pains me to say it, I think Beast Boy is right with this."
This caused a small stir; Cyborg, who was sipping on his soda, choked, spitting out the carbonated beverage as he stared at Raven in amazement. Beast Boy, too, was speechless, his jaw open and eyes wide. Starfire looked only curious, and Robin casually arched an eyebrow; embarrassed by the sudden focus of attention, Raven muttered, "What? Is it so strange for me to agree with Beast Boy?"
The changeling stuttered, "I… Ah… Um… Yea! You, like, never agree with anything I say, Raven!"
The empath was silent for a moment, suddenly unwilling to share her thoughts; however, a light touch on the arm and a supportive grin from Robin prompted her to continue to speak, "Regardless of the magnitude of my simple statement, we really should think of dropping the 'teen' from our title; we're growing, and our image needs to grow with us. Beast Boy is right: we're not kids anymore. We need to show everyone, villains and the superhero community alike, that we need to be taken seriously; our team's name has to change."
Beast Boy gaped at Raven for a moment, amazement clearly written on his face, before giving out a loud whoop, turning to the startled Cyborg, exclaiming, "See! See! Even Raven agrees with me! You know we gotta take this seriously now, right? This may be the only time that I have her on my side! Quick, before she changes her mind, let's go with… um… The Fantastic Five!"
Raven sighed, cradling her face in her hands, shaking her head slightly; leave it to Beast Boy to over dramatize things. Still, she grinned as she heard her friends jovially bicker amongst themselves, Beast Boy throwing out stranger and stranger names for the group, with Cyborg shooting down everything the youngest suggested, the tin man turning to Starfire for support. The only sound coming from their esteemed leader was a low chuckling, such a warm and uplifting noise that it caused Raven to uncover her face, and show her rare and beautiful smile to her friends, enjoying the time that they had together.
And then all happy feelings were suddenly gone, the perfect day turning to hell on earth.
No one noticed it, not even the ever observant Robin; no one could notice it, as it happened so fast. Beast Boy was even mid laugh when the sky suddenly burst into flame, a large fireball tearing through the earth's atmosphere at a blinding speed, shattering the sound barrier, barreling overhead of the peaceful city. All within a few heartbeats did the burning object crash into the eastern part of Jump City, all glass shattered by the massive shockwave in its wake, the shards raining down upon the citizens, causing damage and chaos, a terrible, gigantic explosion rocking the city as the meteorite collided with the earth. The Titans would come to quickly find out that the comet had crashed over three miles from where they sat, yet they could all feel a noticeable increase of temperature from the heat of the collision from where they were.
The sound was deafening and the light was blinding; for those without protection, it would take many precious minutes for both of their senses to return. The Teen Titans, however, even with the unexpected calamity, were better prepared then one would expect; none had full protection from the ear-shattering noise, and some would suffer more then others, but all had rather effective defenses against the flash, some lucky enough to be facing away from the blinding light, and some having techniques or technologies to dampen the brightness. Thus, even with all this chaos rolling around him, Robin noticed something the others did not.
Raven was screaming.
It wasn't in terror like others, hero or civilian; fear did not grip the young empath, but it was something else, an early warning sign that Robin could not decipher, the first inclination of what would befall the day. All Robin could understand and see was that Raven was clutching her head as in pain, the small chakra embedded into her forehead burning with a dark glow. Robin was no expert on mysticism, but he could tell that whatever Raven was feeling, or seeing, could not be a good thing.
If the empath could hear her leader's thoughts, she would wholeheartedly agree with him; but she knew not what Robin was thinking, and could only feel the faint hint of concern through their mental link. Normally she could feel more, but in this instance she was not concentrating on the bond she had forged with Robin; no, she was too busy fighting for her consciousness, for the meteorite that had sped overhead was far from normal. It had lasted only a moment, less, but the pain that wracked Raven's head had lingered for much longer then it should have; for that one agonizing instant, the empath had felt an overwhelming, terrifyingly devastating feeling of such hate and rage that she had never felt before, nor would she ever want to feel again.
Raven had no time to process what had happened to her, however; for, as suddenly as the fireball appeared, the impact was over, and after the few, terrifying moments of noise, a brief, horrifying second of silence hung over the air; then the aftermath came. Chaos erupted across the city, and the Teen Titans were needed; but even the most experienced hero would be staggered by this cataclysmic event, and the young heroes were no exception. For long moments they could only clutch the table or chairs for support, unable to act, trying valiantly to throw off the stunning effect of seeing part of their city destroyed. Still young, and brash, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire tried to act before they had fully recovered, all speaking at once, their legs weak and heads dizzy. Raven had no thoughts of standing any time soon, the empath concentrating on subduing her emotions and forcing her mind into a blank state; Robin was more cautious then the rest, remaining seated, his left hand clutching the side of his head, the young man feeling a sudden pain ripping through his skull.
Shrugging away the pain, and ignoring the fuzzy whooshing sound that was ringing through his head, Robin's quick mind was already turning, thinking of what must be done; fist and foremost was calming his team. Drawing a great breath of air, the young leader bellowed, "All of you sit down and shut up!"
The effect was immediate; with surprised looks, even from Raven, whose eyes were still clouded with pain, the three heroes who had stood sat down without hesitation. A wave of vertigo rushed through Robin's head, the young man still not fully recovered from the debilitating effects, and he clutched his head harder, his fingers digging into his scalp; Cyborg was saying something, but for the life of him, Robin couldn't make it out. Whetting his lips, Robin asked, "What?" again Cyborg's lips moved, his voice sounding garbled to the dizzy man, so Robin asked again, louder, "What?"
Cyborg's mouth thinned with worry, repeating his question and almost bellowing, "I said 'What's the plan!'; and why you screaming, man? We're right here!"
The words confused Robin, the young man frowning in response, muttering to himself, "Was I?" he knew he had raised his voice for his rallying order, but it was that loud? He shook his head to clear the fog that was clouding his mind, opening his mouth to speak when he noticed that everyone was looking at him in shock; worried now, he asked, "What?"
Raven, seated to the left of Robin, grasped his forearm, pulling his hand away from his head, telling him in a raised voice, her violet eyes lined with concern, "Robin, you're bleeding."
The boy didn't respond, staring at his blood-soaked hand; the empath was right, Robin was bleeding from the ear. It was from the shockwave the meteorite caused, and Robin should have recognized the wound from the start; the vertigo, pain, and ringing sound that lingered for him, all pointed to a damaged ear. He saw Raven start to reach out to him, her hands lined with a dark glow, no doubt intent on using her healing abilities to help the young man, but Robin drew back, forcing his voice to a normal level, knowing that this whole time he had been yelling at them, "Don't, Raven, save your strength; I need you at top condition." He gave a slight grin, turning his gaze to his doubtful friends, "Besides, I'm fine, it's only a light wound." To prove his point, he removed a super-absorbent cloth from his utility belt and mopped up the blood that covered the side of his face, subtly placing a medical plug into his ear.
Technically, it wasn't a good idea to plug up the ear, and Robin knew that he should let the bleeding stop on its own so the canal didn't block up, but the young leader needed his team's attention deflected from him to the task at hand; Robin's bluff worked, and the Titans nodded, accepting their leader's words, although their faces were still lined with worry. Making sure his face was controlled, Robin began to speak again, "Here's the plan: Beast Boy, take flight and start to scout the disaster area. Pay attention to any pockets of survivors or sections of immediate collapse; once you have a good idea what's going on, report to Cyborg, who will be gathering any and all emergency personnel Jump has to offer. The JPD and JFD will be able to handle most of the grunt work, so I need the two of you to start getting into hot zones, doing search and rescue as well a preventing further damage to the city. Understood?
The two nodded, their faces grim and determined; Robin returned the nod, continuing, "Good; while you two rally the emergency response teams, Starfire, Raven, and I will examine the impact site, to make sure that the meteorite, or whatever it is, isn't dangerous or radioactive. Once we've secured the area, we'll rendezvous with you." Robin paused, his mind busy planning, before he finished his orders, "I'll use our communicators to coordinate the rescue with the police chief and fire marshal, and Raven and Starfire will join you two in the hot zones."
"You won't be joining us in these warm zones?" Starfire asked, her large, green eyes clearly showing her concern and confusion with Robin's statement.
The young leader shook his head, "No, someone has to represent us and coordinate all rescue efforts; my skills are the least relevant to this kind of operation, so I'm the obvious choice to remain at 'HQ', so to speak." There was a slight frown on his face as he spoke, but gave no one time to read deeply into it, as he asked, "Any more questions?"
Yes, some still had questions, but no one voiced it, so Robin stood, able to control his vertigo so no one noticed, giving a small grin, "Titans, go."
Beast Boy grinned, turning to his cybernetic friend, telling him, "I'll give you a ride to the PD before I head out." As Cyborg nodded in agreement, the changeling morphed into a Pterodactyl, flapping his great wings and becoming airborne, grasping onto Cyborg's shoulders before carting the metal man away.
