I have nothing else to do, so I'll begin chapter 4.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans or anything affiliated. I do however own Charly and the storyline.
Charly leapt from the bed, almost through the door into the main apartment due to an involuntary spasm from his wings. He stared in horror at Jinx, who was grinning at him from the bed, until he noticed a cool breeze and realized he was naked.
'Oh shit!' He covered himself as best he could with his arms and wings, causing a quiet giggle from Jinx.
'Aw, come on. I've seen it all anyway, last night.' She mock whined.
'No, you didn't! Nothing happened!' Charly yelled, demanding that she agree.
'If that's what you want to tell yourself, go ahead. I'll always have the memories to keep me company on long, cold nights.' Jinx purred, getting out of the bed herself. Charly noticed she too was naked and covered his eyes.
'Could you put something on please?' He asked, looking away.
'Well, you weren't saying that before.' Jinx seemed to be mocking him.
'Right, fuck this.' Charly yelled, stopping time and throwing on his clothes. He sprinted out of the apartment before letting time flow normally again.
He glanced around the streets, trying to get his bearings, until he spotted the video store the Titans always used to rent from. He was right in the middle of the city. He checked his watch, 5:30, before sprinting in the direction of the Logan's mansion home.
'If I get back in time Tara will still be asleep. I can say I didn't want to wake her so I slept on the sofa.' He told himself through heavy breaths.
'Yeah, good plan. Got a long term idea?' Wisdom accosted him in his head.
'No.'
---
'…So I slept on the sofa down here because I didn't want to wake you up.' Charly finished before ramming a whole slice of toast into his mouth.
'Aw, that's so sweet of you.' Tara planted a kiss on his cheek before refilling his glass of grapefruit juice.
So far she didn't suspect a thing, Charly was beginning to calm down a little and form a rational plan for what to do next before he noticed that his sister kept glancing at him strangely. He sipped a mouthful of juice just as she began to speak.
'So, I saw you leave with Jinx last night after you said goodbye to us.' Rachel intoned, opting for her old monotone voice.
Charly drenched Gar in a cloud of juice before spluttering on the small amount he had managed to inhale while simultaneously exhaling. He wiped his mouth and apologised before speaking again.
'Yeah, I met her on the way out and we went to a little coffee shop to catch up. She's doing good, got a job now and I think she's really beginning to get into this 'normal life' thing.' He spurted, eyes darting from person to person.
Tara eyed him for a while before returning to her own breakfast. 'That's nice for her.' She replied, rather flatly.
Charly grinned sheepishly, trying to hide it by practically inhaling another piece of toast. Rachel caught his eye again and nodded to the door.
'Charly, can I talk to you for a sec? In there.' She pointed to the door she had already indicated.
Charly simply nodded and moved for the door, staring at his feet. Rachel followed close behind and closed the door softly before hissing angrily at him.
'Let's make this more private shall we? Stop the temporal dimension or whatever it is you do.' She spat. He did so, before nodding for her to continue.
'What the hell happened last night?' She really began to yell.
'Nothing! I had a chat with an old friend.' Charly didn't raise his voice; he hadn't been known to do that in a few years.
'Don't give me that, I've seen the way you've been acting. I don't even need to be psychically connected to you to know what you did.' Rachel yelled louder.
'I swear to you, I didn't do anything.' Charly dropped the exasperated tone in his voice, hoping his show of restraint would calm his raging sister. It seemed, however, to infuriate her more.
'I cannot believe you would do that to Tara! I can't believe you slept with Jinx! Jinx, of all people, too! You know they don't get on!' Rachel was really laying into him, a lamp had even cracked, something that also hadn't happened in years.
Something in Charly snapped, perhaps it was simply having Rachel scream at him in this way, perhaps it was the years of pent up anger he had cultivated. Or perhaps it was because he was being reminded of his betrayal, which stung him the most. In any eventuality, he was not going to stand by any longer.
'I did nothing, Raven. Nothing! I don't care what you see in here!' He slammed a finger onto the side of his head, not noticing the look on her face when he used her real, given name. 'I don't even care what I saw myself! Nothing happened! I wouldn't do that! Not to her.' The lamp that had cracked during Rachel's torrent had shattered into thousands of fragments and burned to ash on the expensive carpet. For the first time in years, Charly had yelled in anger.
So surprising was it that Rachel had in fact sat in a nearby chair, a look of shock and confusion etched into her features. Charly's rage collapsed in on itself once more and he seemed to sag a little.
'I wouldn't.' He almost whispered before becoming silent and still with wings bared, like some gothic statue on an ancient cathedral.
It was a while before Rachel came to her senses and noticed the single tear on her brother's cheek. She stood to comfort him but he moved away, wiping at the tear with his sleeve. He glared at her for a second before he was unable to keep up his charade of anger. He was hurt, confused and he felt alone. Rachel picked up on this however, and managed to say exactly the right thing to help him.
'I believe you.' She told him quietly, before stepping towards him again. This time he didn't move.
He looked up, into her eyes, and found nothing but the truth there. He allowed a small smile to grace his lips.
'I believed you from when you said you wouldn't do this to Tara,' Rachel continued, putting a hand on his shoulder, 'I know that to be true, no matter what happened. You died for her, and I know I'd be right in saying you would again.'
'In a second.' Charly answered, almost angrily. He collapsed into her comforting embrace and tried to work through what had happened.
He told her everything, that time between two ticks of a clock seemed to last all day, and when he eventually finished Rachel looked both relieved and confused.
'I don't know of anything that she could have used that would have that effect. At least on you, I thought your body burned all drugs before they took effect?' She asked him.
'Here's the kicker: it does.' He paused before touching on something else, 'You can not tell anyone else!' He pleaded. She gave him a reassuring nod.
He let time affect Rachel normally, but remained in the frozen state on his own for a little while, working through what had happened once again. When he felt he was ready he finally returned the flow of time to normal and they ventured back to breakfast.
'That was fast. What were you discussing that needed you to stop time?' Tara asked without looking at Charly.
'Oh,' he began, hesitantly, 'just some… arrangements, nothing important really.' He finished lamely, hoping she would buy it.
'Ok Charly.' She answered simply, still not looking at him.
He sighed quietly in relief and returned to his breakfast.
By midday Charly had received word from the Justice League that Roy would be arriving in the city that afternoon, so he collected Tara, who hadn't spoken to him much that day, and went to the airport just outside the city.
By the time they got there Roy was already waiting outside for them.
Roy Harper, formerly Speedy, had hung up his quiver long ago and become Arsenal, preferring now to strap on holsters instead. This fact made Charly less than fond of him, since he had a deep hatred of guns. A fact that he mentioned to Roy on the drive back to the Logan's.
'Well you would too, if you'd been killed by one.' Was his reason when Roy snorted derisively at his comment.
'So someone fill me in, the JL didn't tell me much. Multiple fatalities somehow connected.' Roy asked from the backseat. Tara turned to answer him, flashing a quick glance at Charly who despite watching the road still managed to catch the strangely empty look in her eyes.
'You know as much as we do, we were waiting for you to arrive before we went to the police, so that's where we're going now.' She told him quickly.
Charly pulled up outside the JCPD and the occupants of the car filed in and straight into the Commissioner's office.
'Ah, there you are,' Commissioner Valentine was a portly man, but one who emanated an air of power. He was the kind of man you would expect to be the police Commissioner. 'I've been waiting for you all. I take it the League has told you about the situation?' He looked at their blank faces.
'Not really, sir, no.' Charly answered, feeling like he was back in school.
Valentine looked impatient but not surprised.
'Well, multiple fatalities, connected most definitely. All the bodies were drained entirely of their blood. No evidence at all, the forensics team can't find anything out of order. Besides the wounds that is; bite marks on the necks of the victims, but no DNA and no matching dental records.' He finished and sat further back into his large leather chair, seeming to enjoy the look of confusion that passed through the three young heroes.
'Someone playing vampire?' Charly asked Tara quietly. 'We've seen that before.'
'Well, yeah,' she answered, 'but they've never managed to drain their victims entirely.'
'Maybe it's the real deal then.' Roy put in, gaining a pained look from everyone. 'Hey, we've seen weirder.'
Charly was about to add something else when the door flew open, causing Roy to spin and draw his guns, this in turn caused Charly to drop into a fighting stance and hiss ferally at the weapons.
'Commissioner Valentine! We've got another!' The officer who seemed oblivious to the hissing man or the double 45s trained on him.
Tara gave Charly a look that made him straighten up and grin sheepishly.
'Sorry, force of habit. Y'know, demonic hissing habit.' He finished rather haltingly.
Valentine turned to the three and grinned again.
'Looks like you'll get to work sooner than expected.' He chuckled.
'But Commissioner, this one's still alive!' The officer yelled, almost frantic.
'Let's roll!' Roy yelled, chasing the sprinting officer through the department.
'Let's roll? I had no idea we were in an 80s cop show!' Charly joked, fishing for a laugh from Tara; normally she would at least smile at something that bad.
She walked straight past him without a backwards glance.
The crime scene was an apartment downtown, not far from where Charly had awoken that morning. To say it was obvious there had been a struggle would be a little pointless.
'This place is trashed. It's worse than Beast Boy's old room!' Roy said, kicking his way through the piles of papers and other, slightly denser materials.
Charly gave him a look and moved to the back of the room, where a paramedic team was doing their job on whoever was on the floor; he went to stand by them while Tara and Roy moved to the three officers stood nearby.
'Terra, Arsenal and Spitfire of the Justice League, we're here to assist the investigation.' Tara flashed her League membership card as she addressed the officers.
'Uh, freelancer over here.' Roy pointed to himself. 'No League connections.'
Most police departments were wary of, if not openly disdainful towards, the Justice League so having a freelancer to work with helped no end. Something Tara and Charly learned during some of their earlier missions.
'Right, the paramedics are just finishing up with the victim, forensics haven't found anything and the guy wont talk to us. You think you can do better, be my guest, Doll.' The middle cop told Tara while Roy wandered around looking at the apartment.
As Tara turned to join Charly by the victim he spotted one officer turn to the others, gesture towards Tara and silently whistle his approval, the others nodded in agreement. Charly grimaced and stalked over.
'You will show some respect,' he quietly told them through gritted teeth, 'and you will be more careful who sees you 'checking out' Terra.'
'Hey man, I was respecting her,' the officer chuckled, 'right then I was respecting her fine ass.' His buddies laughed along with him, causing Charly to growl.
'What's up Super Hero? Insecure about your girl? You been unfaithful?' Another jibed.
Charly's growl neared angry lion proportions but just as he readied himself to teach this jerk a lesson a voice stopped him.
'Spitfire!' Nightwing stood in the doorway, wearing a slight smile that only people who knew him would notice, as such, the police didn't. Charly shot him a smile of his own, accompanied by another short growl before stalking back to Tara's side.
'You boys need to be careful about winding him up. The League is still considering whether to keep him on the payroll, he has… issues. That and being part demon makes him kinda antsy. Also, dying didn't make him any more relaxed. Still,' Nightwing moved to stand with the Leaguers, 'if you want to piss him off, be my guest. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes if you really hit a nerve.'
'Let's talk to this guy then.' Richard said, as the paramedics moved aside.
The image laid out before them was less than pretty. The man's blood had stained all the bandages and the carpet around him; it all seemed rather fresh too. Roy turned away and covered his mouth, Tara moved a hand to her throat and Richard inhaled sharply. Charly simply stared at the man, stoic as ever.
'Sir, I know you're weak but we need to know who did this, while it's still fresh in your mind.' Charly asked the prone figure.
For a long time nothing happened, eventually Roy spoke up.
'Right, he's not talking. We'll come see him in the hospital.' They all turned to leave.
It was then that the man began to yell.
'BLOOD! BLOOD, THE BLOOD!' He jerked up into a sitting position and frantically looked around, causing the paramedics to administer an anaesthetic. He began to quietly moan as it took effect.
'Blood, the blood. The blood…' He mumbled something else which caused Charly to start. Tara noticed this and placed a hand on his shoulder, sensing he needed to feel the contact.
'What did you say?' Charly leaned in close to the man's face.
'Blood. The blood… The Brother.' With that the man lapsed into unconsciousness.
Charly took a step back, knocking over more ornaments that were behind him. He was stopped by Tara, who put her arms round him from behind and whispered reassurances in his ear. He didn't hear any of them however; he was trying to piece together what the man had said so that it didn't lead to the inevitable truth. He was failing.
It was Roy who finally broke the near silence.
'What does 'the blood, the brother' mean?' He asked, confusedly.
Charly shot a look of pure, unadulterated hatred at him and swept from the apartment.
'What was that about? I only asked what the guy meant.' Roy looked for support. 'What did he mean anyway?'
'Brother Blood.' Nightwing intoned.
Sorry about the sort-of cliffie…
Actually, no I'm not. Mwa ha ha!
What I am sorry for is the wait for this chapter. I've had a lot of work to do and a lot on my mind recently. Troubling things that keep me up at night, writing fanfiction rather than having to lie in bed and face them. Still, that's no excuse.
It's been this long also because I've had more time on my hands, which I've been spending with my friends. I've also had my Prom (what a waste of time) and my media studies Oscar evening. (My film was nominated for six categories, won two)
So thanks for sticking with me thus far.
Reamis, for now at least, out.