Disclaimer: I don't own the TT
Where we left: "Bumblebee?"
Now with the story…
Reality is nothing but the palpable existence of an initial Fantasy
Chapter 3
"Oh Bee, you have no idea how glad I am to see you here!" Cyborg exclaimed happily. "But, how did you get here? Is the rest of your team with you or did the light only reach you? And…where'd you get the clothes from? You're more intelligent than I thought; you figured out what to do without our help. But anyway, I'm gonna shut up now and let you answer my questions."
Cyborg only received a blank stare as his answer, as if the girl didn't know what he was talking about; maybe he had spoken too fast and she couldn't understand him but by now the Bumblebee he knew would have said something, anything, but some kind of answer he would have received. So yeah, the girl before him was wearing a yellow dress similar to the ones Raven and Starfire were wearing and the belt around her waist was what gave away the fact that she had some nice curves, the brown shoes were like the ones he was wearing and she didn't have any kind of cloak on so he could see perfectly her curly black hair falling down to mid-back only with a little braid hanging from either side of her head to frame her face; but she looked just like the girl he had met at that sub-aquatic base and had become one of his best friends.
"C'mon Bee, say something!" Cyborg said urgently tired of the silence.
"Who are you?" The girl finally asked looking strangely at him and taking a step backwards as if she was afraid of him; the strange thing was that she had a British accent much like Rorek's.
"What?" Cyborg asked astonished "Bumblebee, it's me; Cyborg… Sparky? You remember me right?"
"I… I apologize, but I have never seen you before," The girl said truthfully "You must be mistaking me to be someone else."
"Someone else?" The dark-skinned boy questioned walking closer to her "Hey girl; you're one of my best friends. Is something wrong with you? You do recognize me, don't you? You saw me this way back at the HIVE."
"Please, do not come any closer." The girl pleaded walking backwards as to get farther away from him.
"But… Bee-"
"Cybo- I mean, Victor!" Cyborg's head snapped to the side after hearing Beast Boy's yell and saw his friends walking towards him; they soon reached their destination "Dude, we lost you for a moment there- Hey! Bumblebee, is that you?"
"Bumblebee?" Rorek questioned with a raised eyebrow, the girl was doing the same.
"I am no bug!" She yelled defending herself "Rorek, who are these people?"
"You know each other?" Asked Robin puzzled, something was wrong here.
"But of course!" Rorek exclaimed "She is one of my closest friends in the village."
"She is?" Asked Starfire very curious "But she is also our friend, we know her as well."
"I insist you must be mistaking me for someone else," The girl said exasperated "I have never seen you in my life; I am confident of that."
"It must be it," Rorek agreed with a nod "Please meet Karenna; she is a very good person."
"Karenna?" Asked Cyborg not believing what he was hearing "Are you sure your name ain't Karen?"
"Absolutely," Karenna assured "And may I know your name, stranger who speaks in a different tongue? Your friend's yell was confusing."
"A different tongue? But I-" The tall boy stopped himself, of course she would consider him to speak in a 'different tongue' because of some expressions he had used and the accent he had "Sure; my name is Victor."
"I am pleased to meet you Victor; I apologize for my reaction after your first words to me." Karenna said with a little bow. "And may I know what the rest of you are called?"
"Karenna, let me introduce you to my new friends;" Rorek started motioning to each Titan as he named them "She is Kori, she is Raven, this lad is Logan and the other lad is Richard."
"Richard? That is the king's name." The dark-skinned girl said looking up for a moment before turning back to the new people and noticing something. "Are you… wet?"
"Well… Yes, I had some sort of accident with a water pail." Robin answered glaring at the sorcerer who didn't acknowledge him in the least.
"What are you doing out here Karenna?" Asked Rorek changing the subject.
"I need to buy some things for tonight's dinner." The questioned girl answered. "My brothers must be near, getting some things they need to work."
"You have brothers?" Asked Raven surprised, surely this girl was one of Bumblebee's past lives but she never thought she would find her with brothers.
"Yes I do; I have 4 brothers." Karenna answered with a nod and a second later she saw the new people gawk at her with their mouth open. "Is something the matter?"
"Four brothers?" Asked Beast Boy stunned "How can you stand having so many siblings?"
"It is not hard; we all can be together without a lot of arguments." Karenna said curious about their reactions; it was nothing to be surprised about.
"Karenna!" Everyone heard someone yell, the voice was strangely familiar "Karenna!"
"I am here!" Karenna yelled back waving an arm in the air, the Titans looked to their side and couldn't believe what they were seeing.
"Sister, there you are!" One of the four boys that approached them exclaimed with a relieved sigh. "We were not able to find you and we thought we had lost you."
"The village is not big; and I know that if I cannot find you I have to go directly back home." Karenna said waving a hand in the air. "And Rorek just introduced me to his new friends; they are good but a little strange."
"Gee, thanks." Beast Boy said sarcastically; he knew he was strange in that time but he didn't want to be reminded of that. The rest of his teammates were still too shocked to say anything; the newcomers were… Well…
"Good afternoon," A tall boy wearing black trousers and shoes and a blue blouse said with a bow hiding for a moment the brown belt around his waist that was holding a rather large knife. But the shocking thing was his looks: he had black hair that reached his upper back, tanned skin and dark eyes; he was just like Aqualad! "It is nice to meet new friends of Rorek's. My name is Gareth."
"Hello…" Four of the five Titans managed to choke out, Beast Boy opted for staying quiet; he still was a little mad at Karenna's words but that didn't stop him from being just as shocked as the rest of his team. The two Titan girls for their part were happy to see he was just as good-looking as before… Or was it after?
"I am Raymond, but you can call me Ray. It is a pleasure to meet you." This boy was wearing a maroon blouse to go with his trousers while he had a brown belt around his waist to compliment his shoes; his knife was even larger than Gareth's one. But again he reminded them of someone; orange hair, hazel eyes and white skin: it was none other than Speedy's reflection in the Titans' eyes.
"The pleasure is all ours…" The Titans said at the same time again; this time Beast Boy joined them.
"I am Marcus and he is my twin brother Manuel." A little boy around 10 told them motioning to himself and his twin; apart from the fact that they were speaking English, these boys looked exactly like the Hispanic twins Mas and Menos: dark eyes, white skin, freckles, reddish brown hair and one of them –Manuel- was missing a tooth. They were wearing maroon trousers and white blouses, but the belt around their waists had no knife; apparently they were too young to carry one yet.
"Hi…" Raven said astonished for a moment before recovering her composure and clearing her throat "My name is Raven."
"I am Kori," Starfire introduced herself with a little bow.
"Call me Victor," Cyborg said smiling; maybe these guys weren't the real Titans East but it was almost like having them right before him.
"And I'm Logan." Beast Boy chipped in with a toothy grin letting the newcomers see his canines.
"My name is Richard," Robin finally introduced himself; he was going to offer his hand to shake but there were five people before him so he wasn't sure who to offer his hand to.
"Richard? Like the king?"
"Yes, Gareth." Robin almost growled; was there anyone in the village who wouldn't tell him anything about having the same name as the king? "Like the king."
"Poor king," Ray sighed sadly. "I think it will not be much longer before he passes away."
"That is what I fear the most Ray." Rorek said crossing his arms over his chest. "I am afraid it will all be worse once the king stops breathing."
"Let us wonder about that later; we have things to do." Gareth said before turning his attention to the new people. "I hope to share more time with you soon."
"So do we." Raven said with a nod as the five siblings turned around and started to walk away from them. The sorceress noticed amused how Karenna shot one last glance at Cyborg before turning to the side and disappearing from their sight.
"Victor;" Rorek said earning everyone's attention after an awkward minute of silence. "You better keep away from Karenna."
"What?" Cyborg asked surprised by Rorek's words. "What do you mean?"
"I noticed the way she looked at you after everything was explained and I tell you to not mess with her." Rorek explained. "Gareth knows how to get more fish than anyone else in the village in one day ad Ray is the best hunter of the village; they can hurt you if they think you are not worth their sister."
"But I didn't do anything." Cyborg defended himself raising his hands in the air as if in surrender.
"It is only advice Victor, but I suggest you to follow it." Rorek said and Cyborg understood he didn't want to say anything else.
"Ok, I understand."
"Stop!" The pack looked up searching for the source of the yell; the Titans being who they were felt the necessity of doing it to make sure everything was all right. "Stop! You must surrender to us!"
Suddenly they saw a cloaked person run out of the castle's principal door carrying some kind of old sack in their arms; some castle guards were chasing after them but they could hardly keep up with the thief. The people only saw as they continued with the chase nearing the village; it was obvious the first yell had come from a guard using some kind of horn or something to make it sound louder. Soon the Titans saw a group of four more guards come out of the castle but this time they were riding horses making it easier for them to chase after the thief.
The thief ran into the village and the people opened a path for them to run through but it also allowed the guards to continue running after him. Not long after, the ones riding horses entered the village too; if the thief didn't do something soon they would be captured for sure so the robber did the first thing that came to mind: They climbed up the side of one of the huts and started running from roof to roof with such grace they didn't damage any of the roofs in any way. The guards were still following, running on the ground, the ones that were running on foot had been left behind and now only the ones riding horses were still chasing after the thief.
The people continued to get out of the way so they wouldn't be hurt; the guards didn't really care about who they hurt, they only wanted to capture the thief and take it back to the castle so they could be punished as they deserved. The thief continued to run but now the horses were keeping the same speed as them so the moment they touched the ground, they would be captured and taken to the prince.
The thief suddenly turned to the side leaving the pursuers confused for a moment long enough for them to run into the forest using the trees to hide themselves. When the guards discovered that, they didn't waste time getting into the forest and look for the thief, hoping to find them before twilight.
The people of the village tried to re-accommodate their things once they knew the guards would be gone for a long while looking for the robber. They received help from others so they could make it all faster and could go back to work as soon as possible. The Titans and Rorek weren't helping though; what they just saw was something the Titans weren't expecting to see so soon and it surprised them the fact that the people seemed not to be the least bit affected by what had just happened.
"What was all that about?" Asked Beast Boy pointing a finger to the forest.
"My friends," Rorek started to explain in a tone the Titans always heard from a teacher to the student "You just saw the chase of the most, and only, wanted thief in the kingdom."
"You mean this isn't the first time that's happened?" Asked Robin getting down to business; old habits die hard and he couldn't help but start an interrogation.
"No, it is not." Rorek shook his head "This has been going on for a very long while; he enters the castle, steals some coins and then escapes. He has never been captured; if so he would be dead by now."
"He?" Asked Raven with a raised eyebrow "You mean you know the thief?"
"Everyone in the village knows him, my la- I mean, Raven;" Rorek corrected himself before continuing "He is of great help to us."
"Great help? How?" Robin continued interrogating.
"Once the guards have definitely lost him, he comes to the village and shares the coins with us so that we can still maintain our families."
"Like a real Robin Hood?" Asked Beast Boy, exited "Dude, that's so cool!"
"He must be a really nice person to share his earnings of the day with everyone." Starfire said with a smile before becoming serious "But it is not right to steal."
"The prince has stolen a lot from us, my lady;" Rorek said as his hand morphed into fist "It is only fair for him to give us something back for everything."
"He's right on that Kori," Raven spoke up "Perhaps stealing isn't good but sometimes it's only necessary."
"There are a lot of things one does out of necessity;" Cyborg agreed. "So this kind of stealing isn't that bad."
"Agreed." Rorek said with a sigh "Follow me friends; I need to see if anything needs to be specially fixed or if I can find some friends that aren't that busy so I can introduce you to them."
"All right."
The group walked for a moment looking around; nothing seemed to be too damaged, only somewhat messed up. After a minute or so Rorek sped up and went right to a hut near them; the Titans followed him, clueless about his sudden change of direction.
"Tadeo, Gael; are you undamaged?" They heard Rorek ask a couple of boys, but again they stopped dead in their tracks upon taking a good look at the boys.
"Yes, but neither our shoes nor our wood seems to be that well," One of the boys answered; he was a thin brown-eyed blonde boy but he wasn't that tall; he seemed to be just a little shorter than Starfire. And even wearing a pair of light-brown trousers and brown blouse he looked still so much like Lighting it was hard to believe.
Right beside the Lighting look-alike was a big boy that had a body that could compare to that of Cyborg's, black hair that reached the nape of his neck and blue eyes made him look good enough. But his face; it was exactly like Thunder's face in every way. He was wearing pretty much Gareth's same attire but, instead of having a knife hanging from his belt, he had an axe hanging on his back.
"And I had just chopped that wood this morning," The Thunder look-alike complained, picking up some of the fallen wood that hadn't been damaged and trying to re-accommodate it near him.
The Titans woke up from their trance and neared them wanting to help clean up the mess. Rorek's friends looked up as they neared them and the Lighting look-alike moved his hand to his belt as if to retrieve his knife; when Rorek noticed it he let go of the shoes he was picking up and stepped in-between both groups.
"Fear not, Tadeo," Rorek said before motioning to his new friends "These people are good and they will not steal anything from you."
"Are you sure about that, Rorek?" Rorek nodded and the so-called Tadeo lowered his hand "If you say so."
"They are friends of mine, I assure you they have good intentions." The sorcerer said confidently stepping aside.
"If you are Rorek's friends then you are mine also." The black haired boy said with a bow "My name is Gael, and he is my brother."
"Tadeo; it is nice to meet new people." Tadeo also bowed as he introduced himself "Where do you come from? I have never seen you here before."
"We… Uh…" Robin started not knowing how to explain himself.
"They come from a close village," Rorek answered realizing the others wouldn't be able to give a concrete reply, he walked closer to Raven and put a hand on her shoulder "The same one me and my sister come from."
"It must be nice to have someone from your home village coming to live with you." Gael commented smiling kindly, he seemed to be a nicer person than his brother just like the Thunder and Lighting the Titans knew.
"May we know your names?" Asked Tadeo with a raised eyebrow.
"Sure; I'm Logan!" Beast Boy happily said appearing between Raven and Rorek and putting an arm around each of them; the two sorcerers looked strangely at the short boy but didn't say a thing.
"My name is Raven," The girl said with a nod, to which the brothers replied with their own.
"I am Victor and she is Kori." Cyborg said motioning to himself first and then to his alien friend who bowed just as she had done back when she had first met the brothers 1000 years in the future.
"And my name is Richard." Robin said walking towards Beast Boy.
"He's named just like the king!" The green-eyed boy exclaimed before feeling himself being pulled away from the sorcerers by the back of his collar. It was Robin who was pulling him away and he had a very annoyed expression on his face.
"Did you have to bring that up?" Asked the Titan leader pushing Beast Boy towards Cyborg, the boy barely kept from falling but managed to stay on his feet.
"Well, it's what everyone says." Beast Boy retorted with a shrug.
"These shoes are very well done." Starfire said out of the blue changing the subject, she was holding a pair of shoes and taking a close look at them.
"Thank you my lady," Tadeo thanked, smiling "I made those myself."
"You are the creator of such magnificent work?" Starfire asked astonished; she always thought shoes were made in factories, but she didn't see any kind of factories or any kind of technology near by for that matter. She knew little about the middle ages but actually living in them was giving her a better History lesson than any book ever could.
"I am a shoemaker," Tadeo said. "That is what I do to get some gold."
"Glorious!" Starfire exclaimed happily before turning to the other boy "And you, new friend, what do you do to get gold?"
"I'm a woodworker," Gael explained motioning to his axe "Without me, a lot of people in the village would not be able to warm up or have fire at all; it is thanks to me that they have firewood."
"Rorek, did you not say these guys were from the same village you come from?" asked Tadeo curious again, changing the subject.
"They are." Rorek assured strangely "Why do you ask?"
"They sound different from you," Tadeo pointed out noticing the accents of the foreigners "The way they speak is something I have never heard before."
"It's because our families are not from the Island," Raven spoke up, Rorek had called it an Island before so she thought she would do the same "They come from farther away."
"Are you from the other end of the sea?" Asked Gael very interested. "I mean, are your families from the other end of the sea?"
"Yes, that is the reason for us to sound so different from you, our parents come from other places and they taught us to speak the way they used to." Raven explained with a nod.
"Are all of you siblings?" Asked Tadeo "Because you do not look alike."
"No, we are not," Robin was the one who spoke up this time "Our families were travelling together and they became friends just like we are now."
"Oh, well; that explains it." Gael finally conceded not wanting to let his brother inquire any deeper "We shall not inquire anymore and it was a pleasure to meet you. We can handle things from here."
"Are you certain you do not wish for us to help you a little more?" Asked Starfire kindly to make sure everything was ok.
"We are." Gael assured "We shall meet again."
"Of course," Rorek assured turning around "If you need anything you can come to me."
Without replying the brothers continued to pick up their things to get back to work and hope they could still sell something that day; at least they hoped the wood would be enough for the day or Gael would have to go to the forest again.
"Man, those two looked a lot like Thunder and Lighting." Cyborg commented to his teammates who nodded in agreement.
"And what about the family that looked like Titans East?" Beast Boy put in his two cents "Dude! It totally creped me out!"
"They must be their past selves," Raven said evenly "You know; one of their past lives."
"You mean that they're something like an old Titans East or something?" Asked Beats Boy, Raven shook her head.
"They're not an old version of our friends; they're the past of our friends." Raven explained. "You see, a person can have more than one life and they can either stop living definitely at one point or continue going on and on eternally living always different lives either to emend some kind of mistake made in a past life or perhaps do something they couldn't do before or something of the sort."
"So these guys we met have the same spirit our friends in the future have?" Asked Robin trying to understand.
"More or less," Raven explained. "It's complicated but take the fact of Karenna and the boys being siblings for example."
"What's with that?" Cyborg questioned not understanding the point.
"It is an example of how the Titans East were destined to be together in the future; if they were together for 1000 years already –or maybe even more- then it means that, if they have more lives ahead of them, someway or another they will always be together." Raven explained quickly trying not to be heard by other people. She knew Rorek was looking out for that too; it was impossible for him not to hear the chat and he didn't want anyone else to hear because it would cause them trouble.
"Oh! I get it!" BB explained before realizing something "Hey, why haven't I seen any of our past selves yet?"
"Maybe we don't have past lives yet," Raven replied with a shrug. "Not everyone starts living at the same time, you know?"
"Shall we go home now so that you can finish your explanation there?" Rorek requested suddenly "No-one must hear us talking about this."
Suddenly Cyborg's stomach growled loudly and made the tall boy blush at that. Rorek only laughed softly before speaking again.
"And I could also give you some food."
"That would be great," Robin said agreeing; he was a little hungry himself.
"I hope that doesn't bother you," Raven said looking Rorek directly in the eye; she thought she saw some kind of glint in his eyes but it was gone in a second not giving her enough time to figure out what was he feeling; perhaps it was happiness for being able to help them or it could be worry because it could actually cause him trouble but just didn't want to tell.
"It will be my pleasure," Rorek said with a bow walking to the other side leading the way back to his hut "But I do have to wonder how much Victor can eat."
Reality is nothing but the palpable existence of an initial Fantasy
Ok, a new chapter for this story. I think it'll take a little longer to update the other fics seeing as how my beta is busy at the moment with some exams. Let's wish her good luck!
Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, please leave your reviews.
Next Chapter: Yeah! They can finally eat… Right after they get the meat and vegetables to cook; and that's the easy part, wait until you see who else they meet.