The lightbulb in my bedside lamp exploded, spraying my face with tiny shards. I came awake in an instant, and by the time I sprang up in bed I already had a birdarang clutched in my hand. Disoriented by the darkness and my abrupt return to consciousness, it took me a second to realize that the threat was not in my room. Not willing to take any chances, I scanned my room for signs of anything out of place, and considering the state of things that was easier said than done. The pieces of my uniform were scattered all across my floor. Work out clothes formed a large heap surrounding the laundry basket in the corner. My desk was hidden beneath mounds of paperwork and balled up pieces of paper where I'd scratched out possible locations of the various criminals still at large in Jump City. Finally my eyes fell on the lamp next to my head.
There was nothing left of the bulb, just a fine white powder that dusted the surface of my bedside table. The alarm clock wasn't blinking to suggest a power surge, though it was hurting my eyes with the large red 6:45 it blared at me. I set down the birdarang and pinched the bridge of my nose. At the crack of dawn with no enemy threats or power surges to blow things up there was only one explanation, and I groaned. What had Beast Boy done to Raven now?
I considered going back to sleep and letting Raven deal with it. At 6:45 in the morning a portal to hell sounded like a mild punishment. Once upon a time I used to be a morning person, believe it or not. But those days were long gone, traded in with my sequined circus tights for body armor, a mask, and a cape.
On the other hand, I thought, we'd been living together for over a year now and it wasn't like Raven to get upset enough to break things in other rooms unless something big had happened. As the leader it was my responsibility to go save Beast Boy before she castrated him or worse.
Grumbling under my breath, I leaned over the side of my bed to snatched up one of the many shirts lying on the floor. Hopefully whatever needed to be said could be over with quickly enough that I could grab a glass of water and get in a couple more hours' rest.
Turns out I wasn't the only one who'd been awakened by Raven's magical spasm. As I opened my door the panel across the hall cracked open enough for Starfire to poke her head into the hallway. Her long red hair fell in ruffled waves nearly to the floor. Judging by the glimpse of bare shoulder I could see, she wasn't wearing much of anything-not that she ever did-and my mind instantly threw up barriers to prevent me from following that train of thought back to the station. When she saw me standing there she gasped, bit her lip, and blushed. I pinched my lips together hard to keep from drooling all over myself.
"Good morning, Robin. Were you also disturbed by the shattering of the bulbs of light in your bedroom?"
Still stuck on the whole 'she's not wearing anything' thing, I was a little slow to respond, and when I realized that I was expected to speak the only thing I could think was, 'She's going to smell my morning breath.' mentally I shook myself and brought my mind back on track.
"Is she in there?" I asked, nodding toward Raven's door. The girls' rooms were side by side. If something had startled Raven enough that I was effected across the hall then surely Starfire would have heard it too. And if something was wrong, Starfire was the first person Raven would tell. Despite everything had happened with the Psions and the Gordanians last year it wasn't until one random mission when the girls' switched bodies that they really got to know each other and become close. Not that Raven was really close with anyone, but if she had something she wanted off her chest Starfire was the person turned to.
Starfire shook her head.
"I heard her emerge not long ago. Wait one moment, I will assist you in locating her." She ducked back into her room, leaving the door cracked. It was a special kind of torture standing there in the hallway outside Starfire's door pretending that I didn't catch glimpses of an orange elbow, shin, of knee as she quickly pulled on something to wear and wishing it wasn't more interesting parts that I could see. In her mind I was Robin, her best friend, who would never consider spying on her while she changed. I suppose that was my fault. I let her think that the thought of anything beyond friendship didn't interest me. I parroted the words Bruce had drilled into me about responsibilities and priorities, knowing that I was full of it and that I wanted to gag myself on each and every one. Ironically, Bruce's words were true, it just wasn't my responsibilities that mattered.
Starfire was the crowned princess of Tamaran. It was only a matter of time before a suitor was chosen for her by her people and she was expected to return to her home world and get married. Nothing I said or did was going to change that. If anything, it would just make it harder to let her go. Already I got jealous just thinking about handing her over to some strange alien she'd never met, but what if she was my girlfriend and she asked me to give her away to the guy she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with? I didn't have it in me to be that selfless.
"Perhaps she is in the Common Room," said Starfire, gliding along beside me with her feet drawn up so that they didn't touch the floor. Her soft voice interrupted my dark train of thought. I wanted to ask her how much longer before Tamaran demanded that she return. I was amazed we'd held them off for a year. It had not been easy, but it had been necessary. She needed this time to heal after the attack.
As she and I roamed the corridors trying to find Raven I reminded myself that Starfire was happy. It still amazed me that she could find something to smile about after all the terrible things that had been done to her during her time with the Psions and the Gordanians. But there she was, humming softly to herself as we rounded the corner that led into the kitchen.
Raven was standing at the island with her back to us as we entered. Spread out in front if her was a newspaper. When she heard us, she whirled around and I narrowed my eyes suspiciously as the newspaper disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
"You're never awake this early," she said to me. I lifted an eyebrow at the defensiveness in her tone.
"I wouldn't be if someone hadn't blown up my lamp a foot from my face. You're lucky I was asleep or I'd have glass in my eyes," I said sternly. Her mouth pinched in a frown, and I noticed that she purposefully ignored Starfire. For some reason she'd rather pick a fight with me than risk Starfire seeing whatever she was hiding from us. If it was in the newspaper I already had a good idea of what it must be.
Any time the Titans stepped off our island we made the front page of every newspaper in Jump. It didn't matter if we were just making a trip to the grocery store, the tabloids would spew all kinds of nonsense about us, or if a mission had gone down then there wold be new action shots of us plastered everywhere. Starfire was their favorite. It didn't matter that her skimpy uniform served a purpose by allowing her to absorb as much sunlight as possible in combat, they saw it as a desperate cry for attention they were more than happy to answer.
She couldn't really help that she was a target. She didn't understand Earth's cultures and the paparazzi loved to bait her into saying things they could twist into something she didn't mean to say. Then of course there was constant speculation over which of us guys she was currently dating-naturally no one believed that the hot alien princess was single. They paired her with everyone from me, to Beast Boy, to Batman-though the last one made me chuckle. If the media only knew how hard Batman was pushing to send her home they'd never think there was anything more between them than bitterness.
Starfire had gone to the park the previous day. I knew because she came back and told me about fetching a little boy's kite that had been jerked out of his hand by a particularly hard breeze. Had something else happened that she hadn't told me? Call me over-protective if you like, but I always worry about her when she goes off alone. When I'm around the fanboys tend to keep their distance, but when I'm not she comes back with all sorts of weird questions based on the things they say and do around her.
"Care to explain why Cyborg's going to have to go out and buy us all brand new bulbs for all the lamps in the Tower?" I asked pointedly, folding my arms to let Raven know that she wasn't fooling anyone. Her violet eyes slid sideways toward Starfire again, and I saw something like pity soften her expression. Whoa, it must be really bad then. Just as she opened her mouth to tell me what it was the doors slid open behind us and Beast Boy and Cyborg walked in.
"Hey Raven, what gives? You nearly fried my generator with that power surge," Cyborg complained. Beast Boy stood beside him rubbing his eye with is fist.
"Yea, and your raven thingy came into my room and screamed at me. What did I do this time?" Beast Boy gave a long-suffering sigh and folded his arms expectantly. All eyes turned to Raven then. I was surprised she'd sent her soul self into Beast Boy's room, though it didn't surprise me that she'd used it to yell at him. None of us went into his room. Mine fields were safer than that death trap.
Irritated now, Raven waved her hand and the newspaper reappeared. I grabbed it from her before the others could see, needing to know how bad it was first so I could soften whatever blow was about to come Starfire's way.
I read the headline once and my fists clenched so quickly that I ripped the newspaper nearly in half. So much for subtlety.
"How did they find out?" I snarled at Raven. Her anger was influencing mine, I could feel it, but I didn't care. Curious, and oblivious to my rage, Cyborg reached over my shoulder to take the torn pages from me. Starfire glided closer as well and my tongue locked up on me. I should stop her, but it was already too late. She read the headline haltingly as she mentally pieced the page back together, and when she paled her vibrant orange skin turned a sickly yellow so fast I half-expected her to fall out of the air. Instinctively, I twisted toward her just in case I had to catch her.
Tamaranian Princess Responsible for Alien Abductions, Experimentation, and Torture of Human Hostages.
Oh, this was bad.
A/N: okay, here's the beginning of the sequel to Foundations. A bit of a time jump because I wanted to write about their relationships after they've had time to develop. Assume that this story takes place instead of Betrothed. Anything from the show that happened before-minus Sisters-has happened.
Since it appears to be necessary to state, I don't own anything, but I'm pretty sure you already knew that.
I wanted to also thank everyone who commented on Foundations. The reviews really kept me motivated to stick to my writing schedule and keep posting.