Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.
Rating: Maybe a little harsh language, certainly some violence, but nothing worse than on BtVS.
Spoilers: Diverges wildly after Halloween for BtVS with possible spoilers up to the season eight comic and pretty much up to current DCU.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: YAHF. When a young man comes back from the dead, how will his friends react?
Author's Note: Yeppers. Another bunny that wouldn't leave me alone. I guess I'm about due another barrage of new WIPs.
"That's it?" Cyborg scowled. "Based on... that, you let him into the Tower?"
"I didn't just walk up and fly him off, Cyborg," Cassie scowled right back. "I did some research. I may not be as good as Robin, but I'm not totally incompetent."
"Besides, all that aside, I know him," Rose added. "I met him before my father... did what he did to me. He was... a really sweet goofball, loyal to a fault. He'd die for his friends, Cyborg."
Cyborg's gaze swept to Ravager, then back to Wonder Girl, "Come on, Cassie, if she trusts him-..."
"I said before what my father did to me," Rose interrupted, grabbing Cyborg and leaning into his face angrily. "Before he shot me up and before I carved out my f---ing eye!"
"Everyone, calm down," Robin said, stepping between them. "What's done is done. The question is... what do we do about him now?"
"You know where I stand," Cassie replied, crossing her arms.
"And rare as it is," Rose added, moving to stand beside her, "I'm with Wonder Bi- Wonder Girl."
"Me too," Miss Martian, aka Megan Morse, added, flanking Cassie opposite Rose.
All eyes turned to the last female there: Raven.
"What?" she asked. She glanced at all of them, "As it happens, I agree with Victor. We don't know him. He can't be trusted."
"Neither can you, when you get right down to it," Kid Devil said quietly, walking over to stand by Rose. "Neither can I. Neither can Rose. Or Jericho. Or Miss Martian. Heck, for all we know, someone could hack into Cyborg and turn him against us."
"You're right, Raven," Megan said. "We don't know him. Yet. But we never will if we don't give it a try, will we?" She looked at Cyborg, "I told you why I left. Because the Titans weren't really a team. Because no one trusted or even liked each other. Because everyone treated everyone else exactly like you're saying we should treat Superboy."
"He's not Superboy," Robin interjected firmly.
"Not yet," Cassie shot back. "But he can be. With our help. He did that S proud tonight, Robin, and you know it."
Robin scowled, then nodded, "Fine. We'll invite him in. If he really has all of Conner's memories, he's too dangerous to let loose anyway."
"Oh, that'll go over well," Rose sneered. "Is that why you keep me around? To keep an eye on me? Because you don't trust me?"
"That's not it at all, Rose."
"Yeah," she spat, turning on her heel and stalking off toward the T-Jet. "I'm sure it isn't."
"Hey."
"Hey, Cassie," Xander said, still staring out across San Francisco Bay. He was sitting on the edge of the roof of Titans' Tower. "So, how'd it go?"
"Not as well as I'd hoped," she admitted, sitting next to him, "but better than I expected. You're in, if you want. I'm speaking unofficially, of course. Robin wants to be the one to make the offer."
"I see," he said quietly.
They sat there for a long moment.
"Penny for your thoughts?" she asked gently.
"Just wondering how they took the news about what I told you about Jesse," he said.
"You didn't tell me much," she said, looking away. "So I didn't mention it. Neither did Rose."
"Bad move," he replied. "Something like that... it'll come out, could break the team apart."
"Hmm," she said noncommitally.
There was silence again.
"Tell me about Jesse."
"I..." he hesitated, shootiong her a sidelong glance, then looked away. "He was my best friend, Cassie. My brother in all but blood. It was just under a year ago. Y'see, Sunnydale High's built on the mouth of hell. Only, we didn't know it. The place is Vampire Central... and they turned him. Back then, I didn't really accept that the soul was gone. I tried to reason with him. I had a stake, and then... the crowd... he just got shoved right onto it."
Cassie placed a comforting arm around his shoulders, and he patted her hand, "So, now you know." He turned and looked over his shoulder and added, "Now you both know."
Cassie looked over her shoulder in surprise and saw Rose standing on the roof behind them. She felt a flash of irritation and glared at the other Titan, but Rose ignored it and walked up to Xander. She looked him in the eyes, "It wasn't your fault, Xander."
"As much as I hate to say it," Cassie said, "she's right. You said it yourself. His soul was gone. You didn't kill him, Xander. The vampire who turned him did. You just killed the monster wearing his face."
He chuckled bitterly, looking back out over the bay, "I know that. Don't you think I know that? But there's a way I could've had him back, if I hadn't dusted him. There's a vampire we work with. He was cursed a hundred years ago by gypsies. They gave him his soul back." He looked at Cassie, "Come on, Cassie. Can you honestly look at me and say you don't see the same thing with Conner?"
Xander shoved himself off the roof and drifted down to the ground.
Cassie could only stare after him, frozen in shock at the accusation. A hand on her shoulder snapped her out of it. "I'll talk to him, Wondy."
She frowned and looked that platinum blonde with suspicion, "Why are you being so... nice to me? We hate each other's guts, remember?"
"Yeah, we do," Rose agreed, "but Xander's my friend, and he's clearly got some serious issues he needs to work out with you. Unlike some people, I don't have friends to spare," she said, turning back toward the roof access. "And besides, I know what it's like to have identity issues."
"Xander."
"Hey, Rosie," Xander turned and waved. He was standing near the statue and had been staring up at it, lost in thought. As she sidled up next to him, he asked, "Is this gonna be, like, a recurring theme or something?"
"Hey, you're the one that keeps wandering off alone, forcing one of us to come find you," she retorted. "You want to talk about it?"
"What's there to talk about, Rose?" he shrugged helplessly. "She hasn't gotten over him, not yet. And until she does, she won't see me as anything but a replacement for him." He looked over at her, "How about you? Anything you want to talk about?"
"Like what?"
"Like, I dunno, what's up with the pirate impression?"
She unconsciously reached up to touch her eyepatch. "I was going through a bad time," she said quietly. "I was... I was trying to prove my loyalty to my father."
"I guess... that didn't work out, huh?" he asked gently, reaching up to her face.
She caught his wrist and shook her head, "No. It really didn't."
"I'm sorry," he said, pulling back.
"How do you do it, Xander?" she asked. "How do you live with something like... like Jesse's death? How can you act like everything's normal between us after all I've done?"
"I don't-"
She pinned him with a glare that stopped him mid-sentence. "Don't lie to me, Xander. You have Superboy's memories. You've seen what I've tried to do. And not just me, but Joey too. God damn it!" She whirled away and stalked off a few steps. "He tried to break up the Titans, nearly killed Bart, and I tried to kill my own brother! What kind of f---ed up family are we?" She hugged herself and shuddered.
Xander placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her around, pulling her into a hug.
"Hey, Rosie, come on," he said, "it'll be all right." She looked up at him, and he stroked back her hair and continued, "You're strong, Rosie. Most people would have broken after what you've been through, but you didn't. You changed with it. You adapted. You survived." She buried her face in his shoulder and sniffled.
They stood there like that for several long moments before she suddenly stiffened.
"Xander?"
"Hmm?"
"Please remove your hand from my ass before I remove it from your wrist," she said, smiling sweetly.
He grinned cheekily back, "Make me."
Two minutes later...
"Ow, ow, ow, ow! Okay, okay! I give! Uncle! Uncle!"
"Ya big baby," Rose snorted as she released him from the joint-lock. "You could've used your powers to break out any time."
"Don't be so sure," Xander replied, massaging his shoulder. "I only seem to have the TTK, and that needs concentration to use, and it's kind of hard to concentrate-"
"When you're in pain like that," she nodded in understanding. "You might want to work on that."
"Actually, that wasn't what I was going to say."
She looked at him and frowned, "It wasn't?"
"Nope," he shook his head. "I was going to say is that 'it's kind of hard to concentrate with your chest shoved in my face like that.'"
Thwap!
"You haven't changed a bit, have you?"
Swishhh-THUNK!
Swishhh-THUNK!
"Superboy?"
Xander turned toward the door. He had found the archery range once used by Speedy -- Mia Dearden -- and had been spending time practicing.
"Hi, Megan," he waved. Yup, he thought. Definitely a recurring theme.
"Robin's looking for you," she said.
"I know," he nodded. "I just... needed some time alone to think." He turned back to the range.
Swishhh-THUNK!
"Oh," she said. She looked over at the cluster of arrows in and around the bull's eye. "You're quite good."
"Yeah," he said. "I seem to have a knack for it. I've only been at this for a little less than a year."
"Why did you start?"
He shrugged, "That was about the time I started hunting vampires. Dusting from a distance just seemed like a good idea. I'll never be as good as Team Arrow, but I'm good enough."
"Oh."
Swishhh-THUNK!
Swishhh-THUNK!
Swishhh-THUNK!
"You're not going to stay, are you?" she asked, breaking the silence.
Xander mentally debated what to say.
"No, I'm not. I can't stay here, Megan. Aside from you and Jericho and maybe Kid Devil, no one here really sees me for me."
Swishhh-THUNK!
Outer edge of the bull's eye.
"Cyborg and Robin see me as a threat -- which, granted, they have good reason to -- but having someone the Titans' senior members don't trust on the team is just going to make things harder, especially since the team's just barely starting to get together."
Swishhh-THUNK!
Near the center of the bull's eye.
"Raven isn't comfortable with someone who grew up on the hellmouth and spent the past several months hunting vampires and demons, and Rose still sees me as the goofball she met last year."
Swishhh-THUNK!
Dead center.
"I've changed a lot since then, not even counting the whole Superboy thing, and she can't see that."
"And Wonder Girl?"
Swishhh-CRACK!
Xander blinked as he realized he had split the last arrow with his last shot. He shook his head and sighed, putting the bow down and looking at the Martian girl.
"She's the main reason I'm leaving," he said quietly. "She looks at me and sees Conner, and that's not healthy. I can't do that to her."
"You really care about her, don't you?"
He snorted, "I've got Conner's memories. All of them." He voice dropped, "I can't not love her, Megan, but until she stops seeing me as a replacement for Conner..." He trailed off and shook his head.
"And if you never let her learn who you are, she'll never see anything but Conner in you." Her voice dropped, "And... I would like you to stay."
Neither realized that there were others listening in. All in all, it was a surprisingly large audience at that.
Author's Postscript:
Yes, thanks to Mythbusters, I do know it's not possible to actually split an arrow in real life, but in the DCU, it is possible.
One of my readers have asked why Cassie didn't get jealous when Megan kissed Xander last chapter, and I realized it's a valid question. The answer is actually pretty simple: Who said she didn't get jealous? That scene, along with most of the chapter, is told from the third person limited perspective from Robin's POV, and while he's been trained to read body language, he doesn't read minds, and he isn't paying attention to Cassie at that moment.