In Changing the Future
A Teen Titans fanfiction by Jay.
Disclaimer: Teen Titans is not mine, and it never will be.
The party was over.
The food had been consumed, the games had been played. Beastboy had fallen asleep on the sofa in his exhaustion – Cyborg had brought him to his room, and soon he himself had retired for the night. Starfire and Robin stayed behind, both opting to clean the main room instead of leaving it until the next morning. And Raven…
Raven was alone on the rooftop, her chin tucked between her knees; her arms wrapped around her legs. Beside her laid an old-modelled clock, indicating that the day she had dreaded for so long had already ended for quite some time, and that a new one had already begun.
Not that she cared any longer.
Despite all her efforts to avoid it, the message has been delivered to her. A message that spelled doom for all life on earth, of which she would be the cause. And the more the clock ticked; the more the second hand moved, the closer it came to the point in time wherein she could find herself fulfilling what destiny had dictated for her since the moment of her birth.
If there had ever been a moment in which she wished that time would stop forever, it would be now.
Raven sighed.
"Raven?" a voice said gently.
She didn't need to turn around to know that Starfire was looking at her back with concern etched across her face. Turn around. Go away. I want to be alone! Raven wanted to say. But for some reason, she had lost her voice that night, and remained silent as the Tamaranian sat beside her.
Raven had expected her to speak, as was Starfire's nature. Yet to her surprise her friend had stayed as silent as she was. For a moment, nothing had been said between them as they stared at the stars that shone brightly at the skies above them. Raven knew that Starfire wished to talk to her, and was only patiently waiting for her to open up first. It was the alien girl's way of respecting her, in which she gained respect from Raven in return…
"Is there something you wish to ask?" Raven finally said.
Starfire shook her head. "I am not here to enquire, my friend, but to give you comfort. Despite your willingness to participate in the celebration of your birth, I could tell that the events that took place yesterday evening had still been bothering you."
Sometimes Raven wondered if Starfire was more empathic than she was.
Raven gave her a small, unfelt smile. "I was just tired, Starfire. That fight with Slade – it took a lot out from me."
But Starfire wasn't convinced, as was displayed by the emotion on her face that Raven could so clearly read.
She truly envied her sometimes.
"I heard what Robin said."
Raven stiffened.
"And although I am truly saddened that neither he nor the rest of us had been able to prevent that unfortunate event you were expecting on your date of birth, I am certain that no other harm would befall you. Not as long as your friends are here. We will protect you, and shall be victorious, as always -"
"Stop it!" Raven snapped.
Starfire paused, and stared at Raven with wide emerald eyes.
"You don't even know what happened between me and Slade! None of you have an inkling of what has been foretold of me! You can't tell me that everything is okay, that everything is going to be all right, because none of you know anything!"
The light bulb hanging above the door that led back inside the tower had shattered. Raven was glaring at Starfire, hate all across her face.
But her companion remained calm all throughout her outburst.
In what seemed like an ironic twist, their roles had been reversed.
"I am assuming, by way of your reaction, that whatever it was that has been foretold of you have been the reason for your grief. Tell me, friend Raven, shall something truly bad happen, aside from the events of yesterday?"
Raven couldn't speak. She turned away. Yet that was all that Starfire needed to know.
And to Raven's surprise, Starfire sighed. A sigh not of exasperation or disappointment, but that which seemed so heavily burdened with guilt. "I am… sorry."
"…what for?"
"If something evil should take place in our near future, then perhaps it had been all my fault."
Raven looked at Starfire. The Tamaranian was hugging herself, her face so full of sadness, as if she had truly done something wrong.
"Starfire, I don't understand -"
"I had been from the future, Raven."
This time, it was Raven's eyes that had widened. Of course. The battle against Warp, which had taken place how many months ago. She had forgotten about how they had almost lost her; how Starfire had been so full of remorse when she saw that her beloved friends had drifted apart 20 years into the future.
20 years…
"The city had been so cold… so dark and uninviting. Everyone had separated. But all of you were still there. Cyborg, Beastboy, Nightwing… you… despite everything, you were all alive and relatively healthy."
Alive and healthy… and yet Raven's vision of the near future had shown everyone encased in stone, the city practically non-existent.
"But despite of what Warp had said… that the past cannot be repaired, and that the future cannot be altered… I refused to accept what has happened to our friendship. I was determined to change the past… to change the destiny which I had been foretold."
Starfire sadly looked at Raven. "If all was still well in the future I had seen, then the evil you were expecting must not have taken place. But since I had attempted to alter the future, then perhaps this is the effect. Now you are suffering because of my selfishness… and for that, I am sorry."
Raven was silent.
That couldn't be right. It had been foretold from the start. It was difficult to believe that the prevention of the end of the world by her hands had happened due to some fluke caused by the disappearance of one girl into the time stream.
But what about the future that Starfire saw? One that took place years beyond that of which she feared would take place? The future that resulted due to the absence of the Tamaranian?
Unless…
"The past cannot be repaired… the future cannot be altered."
No…
Raven stared at Starfire. If destiny truly cannot be altered, then Raven shall fulfil her prophecy as foretold. But once again, if destiny cannot be altered, they would still be alive in the future…
Without Starfire.
And the other way for them to lose her would be through…
NO! Raven shut her eyes and shook her head desperately. I can't let that happen! I won't let that happen! Not because of me!
"Raven?"
Tears began to fall down Raven's cheeks. And yet she let them go unabated.
The message Slade had given her had been that she would wreck havoc upon the world due to her demonic powers.
The future Star had given her had been that in which her Tamaranian friend was gone, for one reason or the other.
Both are prophecies foretold. Both are paths that destiny had set for them.
Isn't there a way to prevent any of them from dying! Can destiny truly be changed?
Suddenly she felt warmth as bronze arms embraced her from behind. Once more, Starfire didn't utter a word. She just held her friend as Raven released her pent-up emotions, not wincing even once as glass exploded and metal bent around her.
Finally, Raven has succeeded in calming herself down. She didn't shrug away from Starfire's embrace. Rather, she continued to welcome it, providing her with feelings of safeness and comfort which she had so sorely lacked as of late.
"Starfire?" she whispered.
"Hmm?"
"You do realize that you're not alone in your struggles anymore."
"Alone in what struggles, my friend?"
"In changing the future."
Starfire smiled, and held Raven even closer. "Yes… that is true."
The visions they had seen may lie in the same timeline as Raven feared, or one vision could have been the result of the attempt to change the other, as Starfire had thought. But at the very least, it comforts both girls to know that no matter what path they had been shown, they were not alone in trying to change it.
He could have called them in, as he was worried that both girls could get colds from staying up on the rooftop all night. But as Robin looked on, he didn't have the heart to interrupt them. Instead, he returned to the main room, where he grabbed some blankets and prepared some warm, hot chocolate, soon laying them down beside the door leading to where the two girls were bonding, in hopes that they would still be able to appreciate the warmth he hoped to extend. After their own healing had been done.
-The End-
Author's notes:
This story popped into my head as I laid down on my bed to rest last night. It was written by a completely exhasuted person who insisted on writing anyway because she was worried that she might forget all about it by the time she got back from work the next day... So I apologize in advance if I had only succeeded in making you confused, or if any of the characters became OC at any point within the fic.
These are my thoughts pertaining to the events that happened in Birthmark. If I was not able to convey my thoughts clearly, please let me know, and I shall attempt to edit the fic, provided that I'm not half-dead by the time I get back from work for having stayed up to 4am in the morning working on this story.
Constructive criticism welcomed!