Hello! Long time no see, yeah? I've missed you!
Well, I've revamped, redone, and pretty much did over this story, so if you liked the old version better...
SCREW YOU!
That is all.
P.S.
There is one thing you should know. I do not go by length in my stories, I go by the number of words in each chapter. If you count them, every chapter should have about 1000-2000 words, or more. So there!
Now, that is all.
P.S.S.
Random quote #1: "Put your troubles in a pocket with a hole in it." –Old Postcard
Random quote #2: "We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails." –Anonymous
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the way I think. And write. And the way I say 'scuba'.
Heh heh... Scuba... ... ... scu-ba... ... ... ... ... ... ... scuba!... ... ...yup...
Tools:
Blah" talking
Blah' thoughts
Words with (number) after them have definitions at the bottom of the chapter because I encourage learning!
Enjoy!
Now really, that is all.
"Did he come out from his room yet?" Robin asked camly to the back of Cyborg's head as he leaned against the kitchen's counter top. His arms were crossed in a casual and nonchalant (1) manner that wouldn't have emitted any dwelling and worried vexation (2) if it weren't for his betrayingly revealing fingers that tapped continuously on the side of his arm. Even with his concealingly mysterious mask on, one could tell his eyes harboured feeling of sorrow and regret for something that wasn't even his fault, something that he couldn't forestallingly (3) prevent.
"No." Cyborg sighed after a contemplating and pondering silence. He turned off the screen in front of him he'd been watching in hopes of taking his mind off matters he had no ascendancy (4) or control over and let his thoughts be lost in the mind-numbing delirium that is day-time television, but there was nothing on that caught his attention. He laid backward against the soft and cool leather of the rounded and bicephalous (5) couch and closed his eyes tiredly as the events of day behind them finally caught up with him.
'How... how did this happen?' He thought to himself as his hand reached up and rubbed his eyelids, mechanical fingers working in circles to subdue the weary uneasiness he felt.
Soon, an uncomfortable silence persued them, as the bitter, unrelenting winter snow does the unexpecting and unprepared ground. Though it is merely a drifting follower of cold and hard times, caught in an ancient routine that God laid down himself, it is determined to destroy all hopes of warmth and thoughts of consolation.
"Why is he doing this to us? To himself?" Robin asked the incommunitave wall across the room suddenly and piercingly, breaking the snowdrift of quiet. "We're all worried about her, but..."
He couldn't continue. Talking about them hurt, as if someone had taken a rusted and dull blade and stabbed his already bruised and suffering heart. He knew Beast Boy loved Raven, adored her, with all that his devoted heart could ever hope to give. Everyone did. All with the exception her, and now...
'He may never get the chance to tell her.' His mind promted to remind him, conclusively finishing his sentence for him.
"Any word from Star?" Cyborg asked, opening his eyes wide and looking at Robin with an effortless expression that seemed insoucient (6), but one could listen to it in his voiceless articulation and witness it in his eyes. He was terrified of any news.
Robin was nearly about to say no, when the door opened slenderly. He and Cyborg looked toward it, wishfully hopeful and anticipative, yet despairing at the mentation (7) of what was to befall them, of who walked though that entryway.
In the somewhat ajar doorway was Starfire, tears falling down her slightly reddened cheeks. Her downcast and bloodshot green eyes looked lost, desperate, as if she was looking for something- anything- that could soothe her, despirited as she was.
"Star..." Robin said, losing his calm demeanor as he stood away from the counter he had been tilted against, reaching out toward her, knowing it was the least he could do.
She looked at him, shocked eyes widened, as if she couldn't believe it was truly his voice.
"Robin!" She raspingly sobbed, running toward him, and into his awaiting arms.
"Robin..." She gasped again.
"Shh... Starfire, it's okay. Just tell us how she is when you're ready. Just tell us when you're ready..." Robin cooed softly, supportingly holding her, and gently rubbing her back in circular motions, trying to assuage (8) her from her pain. He slowly bent his neck to set his head on her tembling one, closing his eyes and daring himself to not fall victim to his emotions.
He had to stay calm, strong, for her.
For everyone.
Cyborg watched from where he was seated on the couch, not wanting to rupture the silence that, once again, appeared to blanket them in its chilling slowness. He feared the news Starfire would bring. Whether good, or bad, he hoped... they all would be capable of handling it.
"Raven is..." Starfire heavy-heartedly uttered into Robin's chest, "Raven..."
She paused to swipe the glistening tears from her eyes. Saying her name greatly aflicted (9) her.
"... The doctors at the place of healing say... ... say she only has a few days, if her condition does not... improve." She murmured quickly and almost noiselessly to the unanswering floor, not wanting to have to look at the two others who occupied the room, "They say it... does not look good."
Finally, Starfire gazed up into Robin's hidden eyes, her own watering rapidly, and said only this:
"She's in so much pain... so much pain..."
Starfire continued to cry mutedly as Robin held her closely to himself, afraid if he let her go, she would fracture like a porcelian doll, frail and unacostomed to such a harsh and unyielding enviroment. He whispered comforting nonsense in her ear, silently hoping all the benevolently fortunate things he spoke of were true.
Cyborg looked downward at the cold, hard floor, thoughts drifting like a lost vagrant (10) to the day before where things had been better, where he did not have to ameliorate (11) the situation with false hopes and meaningless solace. He let his head fall down into his cupped metal hands as his elbows arranged themselves on his knees.
A lustrous and shining tear from his one real eye fell, making a soft noise of water against metal as it hit the palm of his no longer genuine hand.
"Why?" Was all he could choke out before, he too, was overcome with painful, undesirable emotions.
'How did this happen?' His mind cried to him, whole-heartedly knowing, that he did not yet cognize (12) the answer.
"Why? Why did she have to risk herself for me?" Beast boy loudly weeped into his pillow, his wavering voice slightly muted from it.
He had been lying there, nearly drowning himself in an ocean of grief and regret, ever since they made their way back to the "T"-shaped tower. His body ached languishly (13), both from the strenuously grueling battle that left them all a tad bit worse for wear and then having to carry her bleeding body the enemy had phlebotomized (14) from the entire distant to the hospital...
A new set of emotion-filled tears, so unenviable (15) they made him feel embarrassed and vunerable, came rushing hastily down his drawn, green face from his bloodshot eyes. They amalgamated (16) with the old, drenching his pillow even further. If it were possible.
"How could I have let it happen?" He questioned himself, pounding his fist against the mattress along side him, only to have it rebound into the air once more. "Was I so out of it that I couldn't even save myself? That I had to have some one else do it for me?"
He paused, just momentarily, to catch his breath before he continued the painful remembrance of what had happened.
"I saw it coming!" He began yelling a ear-splitting vociferation (17) not long after he had enough air to do so, shoving his face further into the pillow so no one, but himself, could hear him as he demanded an awareness of knowledge of himself for answers to the dubious questions he asked. "Why couldn't I have just moved out of the way!"
Beast boy continued to sob sadly, filled with a feeble sense of powerless debilitaltion (18). The guilt was just too overwhelming.
He blamed himself for what occured in the heat of battle and he believed with considerable certainty that everyone else did too. Even Starfire would, with a heart that knew only how to love and care for others, a heart that couldn't detest anyone.
He cried until he couldn't any longer, feeling his desiccated (19) eyes pain as they went dry with out any tears to dampen them.
And soon he was just lying on his side, which moved only when he gave a racking, shuddering breath, to the still, lull air around him.
He lay there, staring at the dark, acherontic (20) wall across his cluttered room.
Thinking.
'How could this happen?'
A door opened in the distance. Beast boy shot upright and statant at the familiar sound, nearly smacking his head on the low-level ceiling above his top bunk, and listened labouriously (21).
It was Starfire.
Beast boy got down from the higher bunk of his bed and walked over to the door. He knew she had stayed with Raven at the hospital and also that she would bring news of her condition. Whatever it may be.
He pressed his sagittiformly (22) pointed, green ear against it. He could just distinguisha few words of what she was saying.
"Robin!"
"It's okay Star...tell us when... ready... your..."
'That was Robin.' He thought to himself, straining to improve his hold on what he was hearing.
"...Raven..."
There was a pause as he heard Starfire snivel a bit, but shortly after she continued.
"The doctor's at... only a few days... condition does not improve... not look good..."
"What?" Beast boy gasped to himself, not quite believing what the alien girl outside his door had said. "No, ... this... can't be happening..."
"She's in so much pain... so... pain..."
Beast boy's eyes went wide, as if he was trying take in all of a broad, emcompassing (23) landscape at once, as he realized that what he was hearing wasn't a nightmare, but a harsh and tragic incubus (24) he had come to know and hate so well as his cruel reality.
"Why?" was all Cyborg said. He sounded so melancholic (25), so helpless.
Starfire started crying then. He heard Robin saying something, but he couldn't make it out.
Beast boy placed his head lightly, gently against the metal door, that though which, he heard every last one of his fears come true.
No tears fell from his eyes to the floor, they had vanished from his grasp long ago. He just slowly, vertiginously (26) sank to his knees and curled into a small, diminutive (27) ball of green. He shut his eyes tightly and swayed back and forth ever so slightly.
"No." He choked out, wanting it all to just leave him ungregariously (28) alone.
'How did this happen?' He thought, unknowingly mimicking Cyborg, as he cried, tears small but real all the same.
Well, that's the end of that chapter. Woo! I think I did a pretty good job revamping, if I do say so myself. !
Definitions in order of appearance:
1. nonchalant: casual; unconcerned
2. vexation: someting that annoys, troubles, and/or distresses
3. forestallingly: preventing something by knowing that is to happened
4. ascendancy: the state where one person or group has power over another
5. bicephalous: shaped like a cresant moon
6. insoucient: casual; unconcerned (A/N: That sounds familiar...)
7. articulation: expressing in coherent verbal form
8. mentation: thought
9. assuage: comfort
10. aflicted: pained
11. vagrant: a person who doesn'thas a specific home; wanderer
12. ameliorate: to make better
13. cognize: know; acknowledge
14. languishly: feebly; weakly
15. phlebotomized: draw blood from
16. uneviable: too embarressing to be evnied
17. amalgamated: joined together; mixed
18. vociferation: a loud utterance; shout
19. debilitation: weakening or loss of energy
20. desiccated: dried out
21. labouriously: straining physical effort
22. saggittiformly: shaped like an arrow-head; pointed at one end
23. emcompassing: broad in scope or content; large
24. incubus: a situation that seems like a terrible nightmare
25. melancholic: expressing sadness
26. vertiginously: dizzily; light-headed in nature
27. diminutive: very small
28. ungregariously: alone
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