Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.
Not Set in Stone
Chapter Two
"Damn it!" Dr. Light cried, grabbing the nearest object without noticing what it was and threw it against the wall where it ricocheted off with an unholy clatter. He was past caring about whether or not anyone would hear him in his lair.
This had not gone the way that he had thought it would. Things often did not go the way Dr. Light planned, he was slowly learning, but he had spent months, months making sure that this plan would go perfectly. He had thought that he had now worked out all of the kinks and inconsistent bumps had been smoothed out and practically forgotten. His meticulous planning had now gone all to waste due to those accursed Titans.
Next time he did something like this he would be sure to get his equipment from a more reliable source. He should have expected something like this to happen when he had paid those thieves to get this time machine for him. They had promised him that nothing like this would happen, and that they had stolen it from this best. If you want a job done well, do it yourself. How could he have forgotten that?
The Titans had somehow found out about his plan. That had to be the only way that they had been in the right place at the right time. But how? He flipped quickly through his memories, because he knew that he had to have some of this time period since he had evidently done this before, but there were so few of them that he hardly spent any time doing it. His brain had been so scrambled that most of his life, through his eyes at least, had been forgotten.
There was a whimper from the ground, and Dr. Light looked at his younger self in disgust. How had he gone from genius to that? It was despicable, the Justice League had robbed him of far too much. "W-w-who are you?" his younger face looked up at him fearfully. "What do you want from me? I don't have anything that you would want! I don't have anything. Look!"
Indeed the room was mostly empty. There was a desk shoved in the corner and on top of the desk was a desk lamp and several papers scattered everywhere and a chair had been pushed hurriedly underneath it. In the other corner there was a cot with a quilt thrown over it and was currently folded up. There was an electrical outlet, just one, that had a plug plugged in that led to nowhere. Light bulbs were scattered everywhere, most of them broken but a few of them whole. Not exactly the prime place for a super villain of Dr. Light's pedigree to stay, but it would have to do. It was the only place that he had.
"I'm you, you twit. How can you not see that?" He snarled this at himself and watched as he cowered away. Despicable.
"What are you talking about? There are only one of me." This was like handling a child, and a rather stupid one at that. He had been simple, that was the only way that he could think to put it. This would not do. He could not work with an incompetent helper.
His patience running thin he pinched the bridge of his nose and tried not to shout. "I am you. I am from the future. Understand?" he spoke slowly and clearly enunciating every syllable, like you would to a especially idiotic foreign exchange student.
"No." Looking at the other Dr. Light's expression he quickly back tracked. "I mean, yes. Yes, of course. You're me, and I, I'm you!"
"Very good." At least now they were almost getting somewhere. "I came back here to help you get revenge."
"Revenge?"
"Yes. Revenge." Dr. Light said this with relish. At least now they were getting somewhere. "Now, who are the people that you hate the most in the world?" The Justice League, he answered privately to himself, but he didn't dare say that out loud lest he confuse the dim witted person in front of him.
"I don't know!" The younger Dr. Light winced, watching his older self's facial expression. It must not have been a pretty one. "Wait, yes I do. The Teen Titans, right?"
"Bingo."
..O..
The first thing that the Titans had done the next morning was make sure that all of the older Titans were called by their real names. Things had gotten far too confusing having two Cyborgs, two Ravens, and two Starfires. The six of them had been constantly looking over at everyone that had said their name, causing the person talking to have to say, "No not you, the other you," which had just ended up confusing everyone more.
So now the older Starfire was Kory, Raven was Rachel, Cyborg was Vic, Nightwing was Dick, and Changeling was Gar. This made everything far more simple, which was a easier thing for everyone right now. Simple was good. Simple was easy. Things being simple made for a less bewildering day.
That was a good way to describe Starfire at present; bewildered. She had been that way constantly from the day that their future selves had come into the present. Starfire had not been aware that Dr. Light had something like this in him. She had gotten used to the fact that Dr. Light was just a criminal that had a knack for getting out of jail easily. Should she have realized that perhaps the reason that he had been able to escape so quickly was because in places in his mind that he couldn't access he was a genius?
Robin had done some quick research on Dr. Light last night, something that they had never even thought about doing before because there wasn't any point in it. Why waste that much time on someone who made it obvious that they didn't know what they were doing? They always had no reason to try and delve further into him or his past.
Dr. Light was actually Dr. Arthur Light, a child prodigy in mathematics and chemistry that had began fighting against the Justice League, and had evidently had given them a hell of a time, too. After the League had defeated him he seemed to disappear... and then he suddenly appeared in Jump City where the Teen Titans had defeated him, one of their first victories. What they had said yesterday made a lot of sense. Too much sense.
But Starfire couldn't see the League doing that to someone unless they really deserved it. Being a Teen Titan a small part of her almost hero worshiped the group of older heros. They stood for the same things that the Teen Titans did, did they not? She just couldn't think of them for doing it for no reason. Her team certainly wouldn't do that to anybody, she was sure of it.
While this was Starfire's most pressing bewilderment her other one was, quite simply, herself. Starfire had always thought of herself as an open and warm person. She was the one that went to others when they were upset and tried to comfort them. She had no qualms about showing her emotions openly and fully. That was the way of her people, and just an ingrained part of her nature.
But this Starfire, Kory, was not like that at all. Kory was about as reclusive as she could be. She spent her time in the main room with the rest of them, of course, but she did not join the group. She hardly ever spoke, but when she did her voice was clear and crisp and direct, not a hint of feeling everywhere. Their warrior heritage had never been clearer than it was in Kory.
Kory's face, while still very beautiful, was not the same kind of beautiful that Starfire's face showed. Kory's face was hardened and cold and looked almost cruel. Her mouth was a thin line most of the time and her face was flat. It was different.
And Starfire had no idea what could have caused this sort of change in herself. She could not imagine being like this, ever. She could not imagine what could have caused this sort of change in her. What could have been bad enough that it would have caused Starfire to close and distance herself away from her friends?
The one time that Starfire had tried to reach out to Kory and ask her what had happened had almost ended badly and she had not done it again.
Kory had been looking out the window and into the city calmly. The others were talking to their future selves, and Starfire had been unable to do this with her own self. She had been too timid to even try to approach this fierce woman, but maybe now would be the right time...
"Kory?" Starfire had put a hand on Kory's shoulder tentatively, which may have very well have been her mistake. Kory had whipped around, starbolt in her right hand, obviously ready to attack. When she saw who it was, though, she had relaxed.
"Oh," she had said, seeming slightly chagrined. "I'm sorry. I only thought... Well I am sorry," and with that she walked away again leaving a very stunned and confused Starfire behind her.
But this wasn't even the worst part. The worst part had to be the fact that there was no interaction between Nightwing and Kory at all. Starfire had always pictured her future with Robin firmly in the picture, but she was now left wondering if this was not to be after all. The two of them never spoke to each other directly, and didn't even look at each other in the eye. If they were forced to be in the same room they were more often than not on opposite sides without any hope of being nearer to each other.
There had been one time when Nightwing had attempted to speak to her in passing and she had just sent him a bone chilling look and he had dropped the attempt.
To be honest Starfire had always imagined an older Raven to be like this... not herself. It scared Starfire. The future had once been a place that, while not in her grasp just yet, tasted sweet and pleasant and was tinged with excitement. It was the next great adventure and Starfire was always ready for it, going a day at a time.
But suddenly now she wasn't so sure that she wanted to know what would happen to her. All of a sudden it was filled with uncertainty, and even fear. Who wanted that for their future?
What possibly could have been so bad that it turned her into a cold monster?
..O..
Robin wasn't sure what to make of himself. His future self, that is.
Nightwing, while looking like what Robin had pretty much expected himself to look like in eight years, was not the person that Robin had thought that he would turn into.
Nightwing was still the leader of the Titans, he was still friends with everybody (with the exception of one pretty important somebody), and he still kicked butt. Robin and Nightwing (he couldn't call him Dick, he just couldn't. It felt... wrong, using their Christian names after only using their 'other' names for so long. He had hid behind the mask of Robin for so long that referring to himself, even if it wasn't exactly himself, as Dick just felt unnatural.) were still almost all business, which was not a part of himself that Robin knew that he was going to lose lightly.
But Robin still felt uneasy around his elder self. He felt like Nightwing was hiding something, that he was hiding more beneath his mask than just his eyes. Nightwing seemed to have seen more of the world, and possibly suffered more than the others had. It was a bit disconcerting, to say the least.
Sometimes he noticed Nightwing watching him when he thought that Robin wasn't paying attention, but he was. Robin got the distinct impression that Nightwing wasn't sure what to make of his younger incarnation either, but they both hid it well when they were together, which wasn't that often. Robin was actually spending more time with Starfire now that the others were with their older selves.
Starfire was the only other Titan that was just as uneasy about their older self as he was. In fact, often times Robin thought that she probably had it worse than he did. The others had become friends, or something like it, with their other selves. At least he knew (at least partly, he didn't expect to know everything), though, why Nightwing was the way that he was. It was an unchangeable part of their nature to be slightly apart from everyone else, to hold secrets back if they thought that people couldn't bear them.
But Starfire... there was no reason that Robin could see that would change her to that degree. The new Starfire, Kory, was hardened by time and aged by grief. If Robin was paying attention sometimes he could tell these things about people, and this was very evident to him in Kory.
The Starfire he knew, the girl that he was in love with, was the exact opposite of Kory. The only thing that he knew was that he was pretty sure that he was, if not the reason, was a reason.
It was painfully obvious in the way that Kory acted around Nightwing and the way that Nightwing acted around her. Whenever they were near each other, which was not very often at all, Nightwing tiptoed around like she was a volcano about to explode. Kory just acted like he didn't exist when he wasn't being leader, but she couldn't hide the sneer that played around her mouth when she looked at him or he was near her.
Robin could tell that Starfire was distressed. She didn't understand anymore than he did, but at least he was hiding it better than she was. Starfire was often obvious about trying to get Nightwing and Kory to talk, with absolutely no results other than the occasional glare from Kory.
If he was being honest with himself he would admit that Kory terrified him, and not just because every time he was near Starfire, especially when he was touching her, she would give him a steely look that would have made a weaker man than Robin pee his pants. She also seemed like she just didn't care about hurting people anymore, that she just like the fiercest of Tamaranians, was all warrior and little else.
A/N: I know, short chapter, but I just wanted to get it up. I've been gone for a very long time, and I'm sorry. It's nice to be back. :) I hope you all enjoy!
