Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. Sorry for the long wait, school work and such.
"How large IS this thing?" Raven grumbles under her breath. She shoots upwards at a fast pace, wanting this climb to be over with.
"I have no idea." Knowledge replies honestly, only sparing a moment in human form before turning back into a cat. His lithe form darts up the tree by gripping the vines.
"Squeak!" Timid adds, not bothering to shift out of mouse form. He is barely visible at all under the tangle of vines as he scampers up the trunk.
Beast contributes a grunt to the conversation while climbing up the tree with ease thanks to his sharp claws. Of course, he is still holding Brave in one hand, but he's still fast none the less.
Speaking of Brave, the vines around the trunk have started to become more active since he was defeated, to the point of weakly grabbing at the empath as she flies by.
"Stupid vines..." Raven growls, swatting them away. "I don't think I'll be hanging around here very often."
"I would hope not." Groans a certain blue-skinned boy, just waking up. "It'd be kinda annoying to have to chase you off every time you dropped by."
"The sleeper wakes." The empath replies dryly, eyeing Brave with a raised eyebrow. "And good luck chasing me off, I just knocked you out and I'm not even worse for wear."
"I wasn't myself!" Brave protests, freeing himself from Beast's grip before latching onto vines. "If I had been in the right state of mind you would have been down for the count in less then a minute!"
Beast gives a warning growl and cuffs Brave on the head upon hearing this. The blue emoticlone shoots him a glare and doesn't continue the conversation. He climbs the tree without the need to shift to a different form.
The silence doesn't last long. Most of Beast Boy's emoticlones are just as chatty as he is.
"So Rae..." Brave asks, hopping up to a nearby branch. "What made you decide to free Beast Boy first?"
"What makes you think I did?" The empath replies, narrowing her eyes.
"Because if you had freed someone else they would have insisted on helping to free the others."
Raven sighs. She can't really argue with that. "Honestly? Happy chose for me. She played Ennie, meanie, miney, moe."
"She didn't tag along?"
"She tried."
Brave edges further away from the empath.
"What?" Raven snaps, scowling at the blue emoticlone. "You think I did something terrible to her?"
"Uhh... No?"
The half-demon sighs as she looks sideways at the blue boy. "She's a part of me. I couldn't do anything bad to her or I would be having problems myself."
...
"Are you implying I have problems?"
"Maybe" Brave responds, whispering.
"Oh dear." Knowledge thinks, watching Raven warily.
###
From a rock floating in endless black space, a certain pink-cloaked girl waits, sitting patiently on a stone. She swings her legs back and forth, bored out of her mind.
Or, err... Raven's mind? Do emoticlone's have minds of their own? Whatever, I say they do, so they do!
The girl, known as Happy, sighs as she gazes at the entrance to the jungle.
"I wanna help!" She thinks to herself, whining mentally. She hops off her seat and paces back and forth. It is against her nature to stay still for long. "Maybe I should just go in. If I end up helping she'll forget all about telling me to stay out here, right?"
...
"Who am I kidding?" Happy sighs sadly, slumping to the floor. "But I wanna help..."
"Then go."
The pink girl's head whips around to see one of her counterparts standing behind her, hands on her hips. The green emoticlone raises an eyebrow and grins.
"I'd go instead, but I just smash stuff. You'll be much more help, so go."
"Really?!" Happy's eyes shine as she looks up at Brave.
"Yeah, really. Now go before I start thinking logically."
"That's Knowledge's job." Happy laughs, springing up and dashing for the trees. "Thanks Brave! Make sure to pull us out if we call!"
"Sure, whatever." Brave mutters as the pink girl disappears into the treeline. She stretches her muscles and drops into a fighting pose and starts punching the air, exercising as she waits."I hope I didn't just make a big mistake... But Rae definitely isn't the best at this emotional stuff, so Happy it is."
###
"Are we done here? These vines are different, they're... Looking at me." Raven says, glancing around the inside of the tree.
"That would be because they're snakes." Knowledge says, not even bothering to look at the empath. He inspects a part of the tree that seems to be glowing before moving deeper inside.
"I hate you." Raven growls, following behind him.
###
It takes nearly an hour for Knowledge and Brave to finish... Whatever the hell they were doing. As far as Raven can figure, they were talking to a tree and making things glow.
Primal magic, ugh. She was right, Beast Boy's mind IS weird.
It doesn't help that Brave seemingly doesn't trust her. What did she ever do to him?
"Why didn't you let Happy come then?" The blue boy asks, keeping his narrowed eyes on the empath.
"Like I said before." Raven says, gritting her teeth. "It wasn't necessary."
"Hmm..."
A vein pulses in the half-demon's temple.
"She would have just hindered my progress."
"Right... Cause you're amazing at this emotional stuff, right?"
Raven turns slowly towards the blue emoticlone.
"Are you saying that I'm not being helpful?"
"Well-"
"You weren't exactly in your right mind until I came along and set you straight!"
"Hey! That's-"
"Because you got hit, and I was the only one who wasn't. So I suggest you STOP PISSING ME OFF and help the others."
Brave holds Raven's gaze, distrust written across his face.
"Brave..." Knowledge sighs. "Stop already, Raven is our friend."
"But-"
"Not now. We can debate this later."
The blue emoticlone continues to hold the half-demon's gaze for a few more seconds before turning away, growling.
"Sorry." Knowledge sighs, walking forward and putting himself between Brave and Raven. "He's not the most trusting. Being brave seems to mean being paranoid to him."
"And if it means that to Brave, it also means that to Beast Boy." Raven thinks to herself. She acknowledges the yellow boy's apology with a nod of her head and goes back to scanning the jungle.
"We should be getting close to Rude's territory soon." Knowledge says, swatting a large leaf out of his face. "With any luck, he'll come to us."
"Since when has luck ever been on our side?" The half-demon grumbles.
Beast snorts, agreeing with the pale girl.
"I suppose I just jinxed us, didn't I?" The yellow-skinned boy sighs, rubbing his glasses clear of fog.
"Hope Timid doesn't freak." Brave snorts.
...
"Hey..." The blue boy says slowly, glancing around. "Where the hell is Timid anyways?"
###
How could he have gotten separated? He looked away for just one moment and they were gone!
The little grey mouse glances around fearfully, reacting to every small noise it hears. Each rustle could be a snake, each chirp a bird. The Great Tree was bad enough, but those snakes were just defenders. Now that he's back in the jungle...
"I could turn back into a human." Timid considers. "But then I might alert a panther! Or a lion! Or-!"
A whisper cuts off the paranoid boy's train of thought.
"Wow... These trees are huge..."
"That sounds like Raven!" Timid thinks in relief. "Maybe they didn't go as far as I thought."
The grey mouse scampers up a tree and along the branches, trying to locate his empathic teammate. He constantly flicks his ear around, trying to hear her.
"Ohhh! Look at this one. It's even bigger than the rest! And there are so many vines..."
"She's back at the Great Tree?" Timid dashes backwards, slightly confused. "We don't need to do anything else there, why would she come back?"
The mouse crawls cautiously into the clearing around the Great Tree, balancing on a long branch. He looks around, not seeing anyone.
"Mousie!"
"Raven does NOT say 'mousie'." Timid thinks. A few seconds later another though hits him. "Wait... I'm a 'mousie'!"
A shadow falls across the grey emoticlone, and he looks at the cause in panic.
"I'm done for."
###
"Timid!" Knowledge calls out, pushing aside a branch. "Timid!"
"C'mon Tim, not now!" Brave shouts, hopping from treetop to treetop.
"Awooooo!" Beast howls, raising his head up high. "Awooooo!"
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." Raven murmurs, ducking under Beast's outstretched arm, her eyes glowing black. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."
The half-demon ignores get yelling of the others, instead allowing her empathic abilities to lead her towards Timid by sensing his emotions.
"What did you do to Timid?" Brave drops down from the tree was was standing on to land directly in front of Raven. "You made him disappear because he was annoying, didn't you?!"
"Azara- What?" Raven stumbles, grabbing on to the nearest branch. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm Beast Boy's friend, I wouldn't mess with his mind like that!"
"Sure you wouldn't..." Brave says icily, crossing his arms and allowing sarcasm to roll into his tone. "It's not like you haven't before."
"Name once!" Raven challenges angrily.
"Remember that time when you forcefully changed him from a fly to a rat? You did that by tricking his mind into believing that's what he wanted."
"Err..." The empath flinchs slightly.
"Or how about the time all those times you threatened him?"
"I wasn't serious!"
"My point exactly. You lied; MULTIPLE times, and never bothered to inform him that you weren't serious."
"I-I..."
"ENOUGH." A deep, raspy voice cuts into Brave's little rant. "As much as I enjoy a good fight, this isn't the time."
Everyone turns to look at the red-skinned boy who stands where Beast had been only moments before. He glares at Brave with angry red eyes.
"I agree with you Brave, but this is not the time to bring it up. You can chew her out later." Rage growls. "Right now we need to find Timid, and I believe Raven knows how."
"I was tracking him before Brave interrupted." Raven informs them. "Just stay silent and this will be much quicker."
Brave glowers at the half-demon, but doesn't speak. Knowledge is silent, glancing at each of his teammates in turn. Rage huffs before shifting back into the form of the Beast. Now that Raven had seen his normal form, she wondered why his skin color didn't stay the same.
That was a thought for a later time. Finding Timid was top priority now.
Chapter 4 complete.