Through the Grapevine

I ran a comb through my hair and studied my reflection in a still pond. I looked okay…if hair that was the same intense shade as Poison Ivy's could be called "okay."

"My life just hasn't been the same since my village discovered what I could do four months ago."

I remembered that day like it was yesterday:

A tree was struck by lightning in a storm and, burning, it tipped towards the mayor's house. I stood firmly, hair soaking wet, and raised my hands, willing the tree to catch itself and straighten back into its place. And it did. Breathing hard, I looked around at my neighbors. They were all staring at me, with fear and suspicion. The mayor thanked me for saving his home, and said that since I'd used my powers to protect, I'd be allowed to leave the village unharmed. They didn't trust me. I nodded and left quietly.

"If I'd just stuck to helping my garden grow more plentiful, I'd still be living in the village right now instead of the jungle."

Well…living out here wasn't all bad. It was like having a gigantic garden of my own, that I could nurture and raise to be big and healthy, and I certainly didn't lack for food, shelter or privacy.

Maybe a bit too much privacy, though. I may have spent a lot of time just talking to plants, but at least back in the village I had access to subjects who could talk back.

I slipped back into my hollow tree, dropped underground, and touched a flower bud. It opened into a glowing flower.

There wasn't much down there. Every plant down there grew because of my presence. There was my light-flower, a living bed, a small garden, and a single grapevine along one wall. That was my new phone line, to keep me connected to my village and stay up on the news. You know, like the saying "I heard it through the grapevine"?

I'd decided two months ago that that was what I would be called. I didn't belong to my old name anymore.

Now, I'm Grapevine.

Speaking of which…

I tapped the vine, and a couple of flowers opened. Sitting next to it, I listened to all that was happening in my jungle, and what was being talked about in the village.

I hissed softly to myself. "That creepy snake-man thinks he owns this place! And he thinks nobody can stop him! The only reason I haven't yet is because he hasn't exactly damaged the plants, so he hasn't actually gotten me mad."

The village talk was…worrisome.

The mayor spoke first. "Yes. We, um, banished her some time ago. We had been a little…overreactive about her…abilities. But now, we believe she's carrying out some form of revenge against us. If one of us goes into the jungle, that person disappears."

Then an unfamiliar, strong voice answered with a question. "Wild animals?"

"We all know how to handle wild animals. This is different. It's like the very plants are rising against us."

Exaggerator. Just because nobody who's come into the jungle has come back out, doesn't mean it's the plants' fault. I know exactly what's happening. Nobody in the village knows how to handle a snake-man.

Another unfamiliar voice spoke, female this time. "So what is it you wish us to do?"

"Find her. Find her and get rid of her, however you can."

Yet another unfamiliar voice piped up, another male who sounded… cocky. "Don't worry, we'll make the jungle safe for everybody!"

Who are these people? Well…I suppose I'll find out when they enter the jungle.

I lay out on the moss that made my carpet and closed my eyes, listening to and feeling the outside world through the plants.

It wasn't long before I felt five pairs of feet crossing through the grass: three pairs of thick-soled shoes, one pair of heavy metal shoes, and one pair of soft slippers. Ferns and branches brushing against them all told me more about them. One boy had queer items hanging from a belt around his waist and a cape on his back, Soft-Slippers had a cape and hood, and one was – whoa! Metal-Shoes was almost completely made of metal!

I tuned in to what sounds the plants could take in, which is much more than one would think.

"Uh, Rob? Are you sure going somewhere where plants are against people is a good idea?" the cocky voice, now much more worried, asked. Suddenly, the plants were telling me that where one thick-soled boy had been, there was instead a deer! What in the world?

"We don't have any other leads, Beast Boy," the strong voice answered. "We might as well look around and see what's going on."

"Uh…" a louder voice asked, "what do we do if we find this girl?"

Silence met that. Finally, a low female voice spoke up: the one person who hadn't actually said anything until now. "Please tell me we aren't going into this without some sort of plan?"

"Rob" answered. "It's not that we don't have a plan, Raven, as that we've got a couple of options to choose from, depending on how we find her."

Raven took that and fell silent again.

I could guess what those plans were. If I tried to hurt them, they'd fight. If I chose to be peaceful, they'd be nice to me.

Well, let's settle the problem. I turned my attention away from seeing them indirectly...

To herding them.

Robin

The first we noticed something was wrong was that suddenly, we couldn't go forward anymore. The ferns were just too thick, and they hadn't been a minute ago.

Beast Boy turned around and freaked. Then he turned back. "We can't leave! We just walked into her sinister plan to destroy us and use us for fertilizer!"

Raven hit him.

Though it was true we couldn't go forward, or back, or – I looked up – fly out of the jungle.

"What do we do?" Starfire asked, sounding worried.

I took a deep breath. "Raven?"

She held her hand out just inches away from a flower. It moved a little, turning more towards the palm of her hand.

"There is no malice in the action of the plants. They're simply guiding us." And she started walking down a path that hadn't been overgrown.

There wasn't really anything else to do, so we followed her.

The path led us all the way to a large tree, probably the largest tree in the jungle. In front of that tree, there were five giant red flowers, with short enough stems – if there even were stems – that one of us could just walk onto the flower easily, if we wanted to.

"So…" Cyborg asked, "now what?"

Raven 'consulted' with one of the large flowers. Then she looked at us. "We go visit her. She's underground right now."

"Oh, that's great!" Beast Boy sounded frustrated. "And how do we get down there?"

Raven stepped up onto the flower and straight to the center.

The flower closed up! And then it vanished into the ground!

"Raven!" Starfire panicked.

"It's okay," Cyborg reassured her, "I'm still getting her life readings. She's fine."

I stared for a long time at the remaining flowers. Then I sighed. "Titans, let's go." And, without looking to see if they were following my example, I stepped up onto the center of another flower.

For some reason, I wasn't alarmed when the petals folded up around me. I did almost panic when I dropped, though.

My landing could have been better, but Beast Boy was worse and Cyborg was louder. Starfire didn't land at all – she started hovering.

The room was a little small for all of us, but we managed to stay calm and look around. Finally, I turned my attention on our hostess.

She had pale skin, bright red hair, and deep purple eyes. Her clothes – a tank top, skirt and shoes – were made from large leaves, and I laid a bet with myself that her powers were keeping them green and strong. I also kind of compared her in my mind to Poison Ivy, back when I was living with Batman. Bad memory.

"Hello, Titans." Her voice was quiet. "I understand you were looking for me."

"Yes," Starfire answered, trying to sound confident. "We were told that you are capturing members of your former village. You must release them at once."

She shook her head. "I'm not responsible for that. I am aware of it, and I am aware of who's doing it, but I'm not responsible." Then she smiled. "But where are my manners? I am Grapevine."

I smiled back, trying to remember that just because she resembled one of Batman's usual antagonists didn't mean she was evil, and held out my hand. "I'm Robin."

She shook my hand – her action almost as shy as her voice seemed to be. Could she tell my smile was slightly forced? "It's nice to meet you." Then she looked past me. "Beast Boy?"

He jumped. "Huh?"

"Please drop the nervousness; I really don't hurt humans, no matter what they look like."

Cyborg asked, "How did you know his name?"

She grinned, looking almost impish. "Oh…I heard it through the grapevine. I heard Raven's name, too."

I outright laughed, and so did Cyborg. We'd heard that song! "Is that where you got your name?"

Still grinning, Grapevine nodded.

Starfire flew down and touched Cyborg's shoulder. "This is Cyborg, and I am called Starfire. But if you are not responsible for the disappearances, who is?"

Grapevine's smile vanished. "A snake-man. I haven't seen him with my own eyes, but I'm connected with the jungle's entire flora, and they've felt his movements for the past two months. I don't know how to use my powers to fight, or I'd have driven him off when he first came. I don't know why he's taking prisoners, he hasn't said. I've mainly assumed the worst and tried to warn the villagers off by growing the ferns too thick for them to come in. They come anyway, probably because they feel like they have to, but…"

"Is that why the mayor said it was like the plants were against them?"

"Possibly."

A lot was starting to make sense. Grapevine wasn't a fighter, so she tried to protect her village the only way she knew how. They took it as an attack on their survival, though, and called us in to get rid of her. But it wasn't Grapevine we needed to get rid of…

"Where is he?"

Her head snapped up. "The snake-man? He sleeps at this time, but he can't hide from me. He's in what used to be the deer-thicket until he came. Why?"

"We need to deal with the true problem. Can you take us there?"

She hesitated. "Not the same way I brought you here. He'd notice that. It'd have to be on foot."

Cyborg answered that. "We're used to walking. Just clear the way!"

She nodded, walked over to a wall, and touched a thick root. It cracked, and opened into a shaft that had light coming in. "This is my usual way out. Cyborg, you'd better go first, so that I can help you along; it's kind of narrow."

He shrugged and pushed in.

Grapevine set her hands against the root and closed her eyes. I recognized her expression. It was a lot like Raven's when she was really focused. After about a minute, the crack opened again and she looked at us. "The way's clear!"

Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy all flew out. Grapevine and I looked at each other for a minute. Then she said, "You go on. I need to close it from inside the root."

Nodding, I slipped in and pushed up to the surface. Cyborg helped me out.

Grapevine slipped out easily and closed the tree again. "The thicket's this way." And she started walking.

Grapevine

I was pretty nervous. I mean, I'd never actually seen this snake before, but I knew he was big…really big.

"Hey, Viney," Beast Boy asked, "What kind of snake are we talking about – poisonous or constrictor?"

"Constrictor. He's, oh, about eighty feet long. Maybe – I'm not good at measuring lengths."

That earned a stare, though they seemed to shrug it off kind of easily. Why?

When we got to the deer thicket, I stopped. "I can't go in there."

Robin cocked an eyebrow at me. "Why not?"

"I just…can't." I was scared. That was it, pure and simple.

He set a hand on my shoulder. "It's okay. Just wait out here. We'll be back out soon."

I lifted one hand and pointed at the thicket. Two of the trees curved their trunks apart and the branches lifted. "I'll keep an eye on you through the thicket." What I'd do if they needed my help, I didn't know. "Just to warn you, there's not that much room in there with him inside."

"Thanks for the tip," Cyborg answered dryly, and they all slipped in.

Cyborg

We went slowly in, and it didn't take long to see the thing. It was greenish-brown and curled up so much that we couldn't see the part that was humanoid.

Then Beast Boy stepped on a twig.

The whole thing tensed, and we held perfectly still, waiting. Then it lifted up out of its coils. Man, was that thing ugly!

"Who disssturbsss Pythaloid?"

Robin delivered a great line, and we leaped in to teach him a lesson about threatening villages.

The small amount of space left in the clearing was probably the main reason we were getting our butts handed to us. Besides, neither my Sonic Cannon nor Starfire's star-bolts were having any effect on his scales!

We'd barely been fighting for two minutes before Robin ended up in that guy's coils! By the smirk on that creep's face, he knew he had us cold.

Then the thicket started moving. Not with the breeze, either.

The first thing to happen was that we were caught by branches and moved backward, away from Pythaloid and Robin! Though I thought I heard a faint whisper through the branches: "Sorry about this, but in order to do what I need to, I need you out of the thicket."

We were set down outside the thicket, and then all we needed to do was watch the show.

Grapevine

I stood outside the thicket, with my hands lifted high. Even though my eyes were closed, I knew exactly what was happening.

Pythaloid tightened his coils around Robin, hissing something about how his team had abandoned him. Right. The trees reached forward, extending longer-than-normal branches and extremely strong vines to catch hold of Pythaloid's arms, neck and body. He was slowly straightened out, with more vines latching roots onto the edges of his scales to keep his coils from moving with him without being uncurled. One more vine reached down from above their heads and coiled around the only real thing on Robin that was free: his neck. I was going to adjust it as soon as Robin was loose enough to grab otherwise. Carefully lifting and pulling, Pythaloid was fully extended, and at least partially out of the thicket, and Robin was suspended inside the thicket – oh! He grabbed hold of the vine to ease the load off his neck, good boy Robin!

Then my vines tying Pythaloid up started producing a great deal of sticky sap, and wrapping around him tightly, the leaves also sticking to the sap, making a very solid sort of cocoon that he wouldn't be able to get out of. When he was fully tied up until all that could be seen was his head, the trees took hold of his cocoon and, pulling him fully out of the thicket, started moving him towards the village. Now that the trap door was uncovered, below Robin the captured villagers started coming out, looking scared, but not overly so. Robin called down to them that it was safe and the threat was gone. I moved Robin's vine out of the thicket and over to us.

When I opened my eyes, I felt very drained. "Pythaloid's probably resting just outside the jungle now."

The other titans were staring at me as I lowered Robin back down to the ground and unwound the vine from his neck. The villagers were staring at me, too, though not with the suspicion of before.

"Boy," Beast Boy finally said, "Nobody underestimate the power of veggies, huh?"

I rolled my eyes. I was too tired to appreciate his attempt at humor.

"Ah, let's just get back to the village." Thank you, Raven.

The look on the mayor's face when he saw the giant cocooned snake was priceless. "And Sarah did all this? We may have to rethink our decision of casting her out and invite her back."

"My name," I snapped, feeling very tired, "is Grapevine, and I much prefer living in the jungle now, thank you."

Seeing the hurt look on his face, I relented. "I'll still guard the village, though. I'll just do it a lot better from the jungle."

Then Robin walked over to me. "Um, could we talk privately for a second?"

I shrugged and snapped my fingers. A small tree grew up swiftly around Robin and me and sealed off. "They can't hear us in here, and I'll just put it back afterwards. What do you want to say?"

"Well…" He seemed embarrassed. "I just wanted to apologize."

Huh? "For what?"

"When I first saw you, I thought you would be just like a woman I…met once named Poison Ivy. She was…"

"I've heard of Poison Ivy," I interrupted.

He looked even more embarrassed now. "Yeah... And even when you started proving you were different, I was having trouble shaking that off."

"Hence the forced smile?"

His smile was wry. "You noticed that."

That didn't require an answer. At least, not on that subject. "Let me guess: you're fine with me now, as long as I don't have a poisonous kiss?"

He looked very, very embarrassed now, along with sheepish. "Yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying."

I hesitated. "I actually don't know if I have a poisonous kiss or not. I've never kissed anyone."

We stood there inside the tree for an awkward moment of silence. Then he held his arms out until his hands touched the sides of our little room. "I'm spoken for."

All I could do was laugh.

"Anyway," and he waved at the tree, "and you can put the tree away, what I want to say next is…"

I snapped my fingers again, and the tree cracked open and receded back into the ground.

He straightened his shoulders, going remarkably formal, and said, "Thank you for your assistance, Grapevine, and for saving my life."

Was that what changed his mind about me?

"I'd like to make you an honorary member of the Teen Titans." And he held out a round, flat metal gadget.

What? Did he just say what I thought he said?

I took the thing and studied it.

Cyborg spoke up. "That's a communicator." Like I wouldn't know what it was.

Okay, I didn't know what it was until he said it.

"What does it mean to be an honorary member?" I had to know that.

"It mostly just means, stay in touch. When there's trouble…"

This sounded familiar. It wasn't like I'd never heard of the Teen Titans. "I'll call. Or you'll call me if you need me."

He nodded.

I thought about that. Then I asked, my voice going wistful, "Could I be called for parties, too? It gets a bit lonely in a garden all alone."

Bonus! I got them to laugh!

Well, most of them; somehow, I doubted I'd ever get Raven to laugh, and I'm not sure Starfire got the joke.

"Of course you can be called for celebrations!"

In fact, I know she didn't. I smirked. "Thanks."