(A/N: Hey folks, I'm Epsilon Indi, writer of X-Men: Evolution, Arrival and X-Men: Evolution, Hellfire. Nice to meet you all! This is my first foray into the world of Teen Titans, and I hope you enjoy it. I'm warning you now, it's BB/Rae, so if that's not your shtick then turn back now. Also, PLEASE review. Reviews are, as I'm sure most of you know, the metaphorical fuel for the fire, and it's what keeps me writing my stories. So read, enjoy, and review! Oh, also, note: I've fixed the paragraph spacing in this chapter.)
Silence. But, the young man noticed, inside the silence something was pushing them forwards. Towards one another, as they had been in the beginning. The biological misfit, the half- human half- machine, the demoness, the alien, and their traumatized leader. There had been no worry in the young man's heart as he pulled himself out of the rubble that had caught him in it's descent from it's place and now, after laying in his closet for almost a half hour as he regained his wits, worry flared in his heart. Not for himself, but for the others.
With a grim smile he realized that now his dirty clothes were the very least of his worries. His bunkbed had been thrown across the room, blocking the door. Well, considering that he was jammed awkwardly in his closet, which looked across his room (Which now hung at a fourty-five degree angle) and that the bed was wedged at the 'top' of his room, this was no small achievement. They had been hit with something, HARD, and it made the young man angry. Below him, where his bed HAD been, was the stone of the bottom of the bay, below the island on which they had made their home. If the house shifted, even a little, then his room would be flooded and that would be the end of him.
He struggled, then kicked the door to his closet clean off it's hinges, jumping out and sliding down the floor to the gray, wet stone below. He groaned as his chest flared painfully. But he couldn't worry about that now. He had to make sure his friends were ok first. He dug deep into himself, found what he was looking for. A giant gorilla was suddenly the sole occupant of the room, but easily twice as big as any male silverback. That, and the fact that it's fur was a deep forest green and it's skin a lighter green, made it very unlike any other. It reached up and, with a grunt, pulled the bunkbed out of the doorway.
The young man climbed out of his room and lay against the wall, panting. Just down the hall was the room of the one person he didn't think he could make it without. He struggled to his feet, ignoring the pain flagging in his chest, and gritted his slightly sharpened teeth, limping towards her room. His pointed ears flicked at every creak and groan. No breeze ruffled his forest green hair. He wrapped an arm around himself, as if to hold himself together. And Garfield Logan, better known to the world as Beast Boy, felt his heart jump slighly. Because a small, pained groan from behind the dark black door reassured him that she was still alive.
It was the dripping, really, that had brought the young princess back to awareness. There should be no dripping in her home, she decided. She squeezed her eyes open, and she realized what the dripping was- it was coming from her, her drool. She was pinned against the wall, in between her dresser. Her room was almost vertical, and she frowned. Her room should not be so, it was not right. Had her friends decided to play a 'prank' on her? It was quite likely.
But no, she realized, that this was well beyond the scope of their deeds. The lights of her room flickered. She gave a mighty heave, and the dresser (Which had been bolted down) ripped from it's legs and flew across the room. She held up a slim orange hand, and a green nexus of energy appeared around it. She examined her dimly lit room with some better lighting. Her communicator chirped; She stooped and picked it up. A face appeared on the screen.
"Friend Robin!" She exclaimed happily, wishing he was there, to help explain what was going on. His voice, crackly and laced with static, and pain, emitted from the small speaker on the burnished gold communicator.
"Starfire? Are you ok?" She nodded, eyes wide.
"Can you move?"
She nodded again. "Quite freely, friend."
Robin disappeared from the screen for a moment as he spun the comm around. It revealed that he had been pinned between his bed and the wall, his leg trapped. "I need help." He said in his gruff voice.
She passively wondered, as she tore the door to her room off it's hinges and flew down the hallway towards his room, how he had gotten his mask on. Did he sleep with it on? Or did he just keep it close at hand for just such a situation? She mused on this as she floated down the hallway, using light from her hands to show her the way. What she saw deeply saddened her. Rubble and broken items littered the ground. Holes in the ceiling, walls and floor showed that the entire tower was damaged severely. She frowned, as she neared her destination. What had happened to their home? And why?
The half-machine man opened his real eye and blinked blearily. His other eye, covered by a red lens that allowed him to see in many different spectrums, infrared, and anything else you could think of (Except a low ultraviolet color) flickered dimly, and powered up. His eyes widened, looking around his trashed room. He felt like the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz, which they had watched just the other day. 'They took my chest out, and threw it over there! And they tore my arms off and threw 'em over there!' He was in a similar state of disrepair.
His torso and pelvis were connected to the recharging system, the wires behind him forming a faintly glowing blue web, connected into thousands of different ports. But his legs, and arms, had been knocked out of the grip of the mechanical arms responsible for putting him back together in the mornings. He groaned inwardly, then realized something. His mind was still connected to the mainframe, and he closed his eyes and focused hard, to turn the power back on.
The lights flickered. They remained off. But, further down, he was delighted to find that the landlines connecting them to the generator under the ground were still connected, and he booted up the tower mainframe. He was welcomed by handshake infra-signals and password input screens. But when he tried the passwords that should have re-booted the tower, he got goose-egg. He frowned a bit.
He realized, whoever had attacked them must have restored the factory settings of the mainframe. He couldn't remember the original password (He'd just hacked the system anyways- so much easier than looking for the manual) so he decided to just hack the mainframe. More handshake system-link and infra-structural signals. He danced around them. Childs play. He slipped into the system like a greased eel, purging the system and rewriting it in seconds flat. He regained control, and reviewed the security footage, curious as to the near-vertical flip of his room. Something rather big had hit the tower, apparently. But, the video files were corrupted, and he couldn't glean anything other then that. It had been knocked over. He closed his eyes and waited for one of the others to find him, as he knew that one of them would.
'Things could not get any worse'.
That's what the demoness had thought as she had gone to bed the previous night, early, as usual annoyed by Beast Boy's futile and repeated attempts to make her laugh and smile. She'd found that Beast Boy had upped his attempts since the Brotherhood of Evil had nearly finished them. And the night before Beast Boy's jokes had been especially corny, especially stupid, and especially funny.
And he'd gotten her to laugh, which hadn't improved her mood, because Cyborg and Robin just HAD to rub it in. But she'd found, much to her disappointment, that it could get worse, and lo and behold, it had. She woke up to find herself laying on the wall of her room. Luckily for her, all her belongings were bolted down. The shelves of her dresser, however, were not. They'd fallen on her, and while they were mostly empty, they still hurt. The books in her bookcase had fallen, and her head was throbbing. She groaned quietly, putting a hand to her head, and looking over to see one of her larger spellbooks next to her.
I'm going to kill whoever said words can never hurt you. Her mirror was next to her. Where were the the others? Why was her room vertical? She shook her head, picked up her mirror, and fell into Nevermore.
Raven landed on the ground easily, as always. She looked up at the dark, abysmal space, which had turned from black to a shade of violet. It meant she was mending. She was able to more thoroughly express emotions, without blowing something up. She passed through the realm, looking around at all the portals. It started with white, Purity, though she had only tapped into her power three before. She started the spectrum. She looked up at the hot pink of Happy's portal. She could hear Happy laughing from outside. Keep walking, she thought to herself. Next was Angry. She considered talking to Angry about the previous night, but didn't feel up to the insults and ignorance. Ever since Trigon had been defeated, Angry had stopped being Rage… although she was still well, angry.
She passed that portal, lined with dark, bloody red. She looked past it, at the next portal. It went like a spectrum, starting at white, and going down the line, until it reached black, Bored. And after Bored , in full circle, was the white portal that lead to Purity. She kept walking past blood-red Angry, past russet- brown Intelligence, and saw Crass's orange portal. She didn't like Crass too much, it was tedious to deal with her being so… crass.
She passed Crass and saw the light yellow-orange portal, Exhuberance. Exhuberance was always so excited about everything, she took every emotion either felt to the extremes… so definitely not who she wanted to see. She looked up at the yellow of Wisdom's portal and sighed. She decided to remind herself of the other emotions… more had appeared after Trigon fell, Exhuberance being one of them.
Past Wisdom was light yellow- green of Jealous. She didn't like Jealous, only having met her once before. She looked past Jealous's portal to the forest green of Bravery. Past Bravery was the light aqua-blue of Serenity, whom she knew best, tapping into her whenever she meditated. Past Serenity was the deep blue of Sadness, another emotion she was familiar with, though she didn't like it that much. Past Sadness, was the deep violet color of Affection. She tried to avoid dealing with Affection, she was always ranting on about someone, but wouldn't tell her who. She had a sinking suspicion she knew. But, past Affection was Timid, and past Timid was Bored, and thus the cycle was complete.
She sighed. Enough stalling. She walked up to enter Intelligent's portal for some answers, but bounced off the barrier, a sharp pain in her forehead bringing her out of Nevermore.
She cried out a bit as her head snapped back. Blocked? How and why, would anyone block her from Nevermore? She tried to move, sat up a bit. A knock at her door.
"Rae?" A weak voice from outside. Beast Boy. He sounded hurt.
"Beast Boy?" She hauled herself to her feet and staggered over to the door. She hit the open button. Nothing happened.
"Beast Boy, basic systems must still be offline. Step back." She closed her eyes. "Azarath, Metrion, Zynthos!" She held up her hands. From the other side of the door, Beast Boy said "Uh, Rae? Anytime now." She growled. "Shut up, Beast Boy." From the other side of the door, she heard a slight noise.
"Raven, stand back." Beast Boy's voice warned her away from the door. The door flew off it's hinges, clattering up into her room. She looked into the hallway. Beast Boy was slumped against the wall, arm wrapped around his midsection. His eyes were squeezed shut, and his breathing came out in short, ragged gasps. She frowned. "Beast Boy?" She dropped down from her room onto the wall of the hallway below, next to him. His legs were on the floor, as if he were sitting with his back to the floor and his legs on the wall, had the tower been right side up.
"Beast Boy, you're hurt." She realized, his room was at the surface of the tower, so it must have seriously torn his room up when it landed. She peeled his hand back from the wound. He whimpered. She'd never heard him give any acknowledgement of pain like that. Usually he just shrugged it off. "Oh, Azar." Beast Boy's glove was covered in blood, as was his side. There was a ragged gash in his side, a serious one. "Beast Boy, what happened?"
He shivered, but his eyes stayed shut. "Hurts." Raven could feel his emotions. The pain of his side, which undoubtably opened more every time he changed.
"Beast Boy, why didn't this heal when you changed?"
He gasped again as she put a hand to his ribs. "Only works with… bones." He wheezed. She tried to summon her powers to heal him. She groaned weakly, an a light flicker washed over her hands. She focused harder. She exhaled. "Damn." She couldn't summon ANY of her powers. But she could still sense Beast Boy's emotions. Perverse irony, Raven thought, that she could still sense others emotions, but couldn't access her own. She tucked her mirror into her cloak, and threw Beast Boy's arm over her shoulders. He whimpered again as she lifted him. "Come on, Beast Boy, let's go find the others." She helped him along down the hallway. She needed to find the others. Otherwise, Beast Boy may not live through the night.
Robin hobbled after Starfire, who was floating slightly off the ground and providing them with light. A faint blue glow emnated from Cyborgs room.
"Robin!" Starfire looked up and pried the doors open. Robin limped over and looked up into Cyborg's room. He was still strung up to his recharge unit.
"Cyborg?" He opened his eye and looked down at them. "'Bout time you two got here, now would y'all please get me down?"
Starfire flew up, and began the meticulous process of unhooking their mechanical friend. "Friend Cyborg, do you know the location of Raven and Beast Boy?"
Cyborg nodded. "I do, and that's why ya gotta hurry."
Concern and confusion spread over Starfire's features as she lifted Cyborg's torso out of the web of tangled wires.
Robin frowned. "What do you mean, Cyborg?" He sighed. "It's BB. He's hurt."
Robin's mouth hardened into a hard line. Was it their attackers? Or just the fall? Cyborg must have read from his facial expression, because he blinked.
"The fall did it, Rob. It hurt him pretty bad. Raven's with him, but her Biomonitor reads that somethin's wrong- maybe head trauma, my systems signal ain't strong enough yet to be sure."
Robin narrowed his eyes in a very Batman-esque way. "In other words, she cant use her powers." Cyborg nodded. Starfire deposited him against the wall next to Robin.
"I will find your limbs, Cyborg, and then we can escape." Starfire floated back up into the room. "Friend Cyborg, I am most sorry, but the limbs in this room are unsalvageable."
Cyborg sighed. "Damn. We'll have to-" A low thump resounded through the hallways, followed by the tinkle of shattering glass. "I do not think that was Raven." Starfire said quietly. Robin pulled out a birdarang.
"Starfire, take Cyborg and let's go find Raven and Beast Boy. Now." She flew down out of the room, picked up Cyborg, and followed Robin down the dark hall.
Beast Boy's side ached, and every step he took made him feel like his side was being pulled apart. He couldn't shapeshift now, added to the pain that usually accompanied it he wouldn't be able to take the pain in his side. Raven was getting tired, he could tell- Her expression hardened every time they came to a bend in the hallways or a turn that would force them to either jump, or climb. Raven's head was clearing a bit, and she had regained menial control of her powers- she could lift small objects and break her fall gently. But, she couldn't fly, and she couldn't lift anything she wouldn't be able to lift herself.
Beast Boy lapsed in and out of consciousness sporadically, and every time Raven woke him he asked the same thing.
"Have ya found the others?" He would murmur. He knew it was grating on Raven's nerves. But he had to ask. He had to know. The seventh- or was it the eighth? He was losing count- time he woke up, he was stretched out on the ground, with a crude bandage wrapped around his chest. Raven was sitting against the wall with her head in her hands.
"R-Raven?" He croaked. She looked up at him briefly. "Shh. Rest. You're gonna need it." Fear started thumping in his heart as he heard footsteps approaching, and an alien scent invaded his head.
"No. Someone's coming. We need to get out of here." He said hoarsely. Raven's expression immediately became alert, and she hurried over to him, lifting him gently. Before they could get out of sight, they heard voices, and a light lit up the space in front of them.
"You're sure you sensed them, J'onn?" A stern voice said, and the green glow came closer.
"Quite certain." A gravelly voice. The light grew nearer, and the teens stood, rooted to the spot in fear.
"Raven." Beast Boy said. "Run. Leave me here. Just go." She looked into his pained, glassy eyes, and he nodded tiredly. "Go. I'll be ok, I promise."
He tried to give her one of his trademark face-splitting grin, but it came out more as a grimace of pain.
"I can't just leave you, you dunce." She hissed at him, trying to keep her voice quiet.
His expression hardened. "Just go, Raven. I'm wounded, and you can't use your powers. What use are we to the others captured or dead?" Her face pouted. He loved her face when she pouted, but he knew she hated it when he was right.
"Fine." She grumbled in her low monotone. "But I'm coming back for you with the others. Got it?"
He nodded weakly, then leaned against the wall, and Raven ran off. Beast Boy pulled off a glove. He looked at his hand with a certain amount of hatred. Then he unsheathed his claws. Claws he had sworn never to unsheathe unless he absolutely needed to. They reminded them of how much he had changed. He'd found out about them after the Beast manifested. Only Robin and Cy knew about them, and they had promised not to tell. He flexed his hands, and waited to start a fight he knew he could never win. The green light, and it's source, rounded the corner, and Beast Boy leapt at them with the ferocity of a cornered animal.
(A/N: Who could it possibly be!? For all of you die-hard DC fans out there, shouldn't take you too long to figure it out! And I've got some good plans for this story... muahahahaha...)