The Titans and The Lost Boy – Camping Trip
Chapter 6
I don't own Teen Titans or Ranma One Half.
Stuff happens, People talk, Food is prepared, yes, this chapter has it all, and MORE!
Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't
Ryouga looked at the withered old Ghoul in disbelief. "Are you crazy? I couldn't do the Hiryua Shoten Ha if my life depended on it." Really, what was she thinking? He didn't have the mentality to even attempt the powerful technique; it relied on a state of mind that was beyond his comprehension.
Cologne glared at him. "Don't be foolish, you already know how to do the technique, you were there for the bulk of the training and I explained clearly the theory behind the move. You even experienced the technique once yourself. Are you telling me that while I was telling Ranma how to perform the move you weren't listening at all?" she asked incredulously.
He laughed a little nervously and backed away. She seemed to be insulted at the idea that he might not have been listening to her oh so long ago. He waved his arms to ward off her ire. "That's not what I meant and you know it! Sure I know the moves and how to do it and everything!"
She nodded happily. "Indeed you should. There is only the one crucial element that you are missing. The Soul of Ice, once you have mastered that -" she motioned to herself and the floating Tamaranian "- with our help, the move itself will be simple for you to perform." Starfire waved again, giggling happily at the thought of getting to help out.
He shook his head. "No offence Granny, but that seems like a lot of trouble to go to, to learn one technique. I mean, the Perfect version of my chi attack is more powerful and doesn't need nearly as much set up," he argued.
'Ouch!'
Only for her to club him over the head with her damnable staff again. He fought the urge to smash it to kindling, but knew that she'd likely just do something worse to him for that. "Your chi blast is impressive, but in no way does it measure up to the grace and power of the Hiryua Shoten Ha! The whirlwind formed by it is fed by the power of your foe, making it less taxing on yourself, but also means that the more powerful your opponent is, and the stronger the attack. Your attack will never be any stronger than you can will it to be. Not to mention the terrible side effects of using the Shi Shi Houkodan in and of itself," she lectured him.
He grumbled, rubbing his abused cranium. "Fine, I get your point. And I admit it is a powerful move." He glared at her pointedly. "And at least I already know that this technique works on people as well."
"HOHOHO! Did you really think I would teach you such a deadly maneuver, let alone to use on my future son-in-law? Though it's strange you should mention that. Since, much like when I taught you the Bakusai Tenketsu, your learning of the actual Hiryua Shoten Ha maneuver itself is only the secondary benefit to this training." she chortled, somewhat confusingly.
Secondary benefit? What could possibly be more important than the attack itself? With the Bakusai Tenketsu he had received a remarkable resistance to attacks, but what was the secondary benefit of the whirlwind attack? An irresistible desire to tango?
He shrugged helplessly. "Alright, I give up, what's the point of this training then," he asked her.
She sighed sadly. "You disappoint me boy, the point is as obvious as your sense of direction is lacking." she joked. He grumbled angrily but waited for her to continue. "The Soul of Ice technique is the true intention of this training, teaching you to fight with a level head. You lose yourself to your anger in almost every fight, even when you fought young Robin, a person you treat like a true friend, you lost your temper and went berserk."
"It was most worrying on my part to see the two of you fight so fiercely," added Starfire. She gazed at him sadly. He hung his head at that. Now he felt bad for making her feel bad.
The Elder then continued. "You are an exceptional fighter boy, even losing control as you do; you are still almost a match for my Son-in-law, if you could fight with the same concentration with which you train, the gap between the two of you might vanish completely." She spoke sincerely; her words were even beginning to pierce the heavy veil of his pessimism.
The Elder's words sure made sense. It took him back to his training under Genma once more. The elder Saotome's subtle influence had kept him calm and calculating during that fight. He'd never fought better, before or since really. A sudden shudder ran up his spine. He had just recalled what the Soul of Ice training had entailed for Ranma.
He looked over to the again giddy Starfire. "So you two are going to be embarrassing me until I can control myself in a fight like Genma did with Ranma?" he asked nervously. The lost boy wasn't quite as sure about this anymore, he didn't like being embarrassed. Really, it happened often enough on its own, he didn't need any help in that department.
Cologne's face took on a sinister cast. "Oh no boy, such simple techniques worked for Ranma, but for you we are going to need to go to far more extreme depths." She paused ominously.
"We're going to make you angry."
Beast Boy was sweating from the exertion. Cologne had devised a new form of torture before she had mysteriously vanished, taking the lost boy and the alien girl with her. Every muscle in his body was burning, every nerve was crying out in agony. It took all of his will power to keep his focus on his goal.
The children jumping around on his back were not helping at all.
He had been stuck in the form of a terrible thunder lizard for nearly twenty minutes. The brachiosaurus form was one of the biggest forms he could imagine, short of his whale form, but he didn't want to crush himself under his own weight here. He had never held such a huge form for such an extended period of time, and it was starting to take its toll.
The old woman's line of thought had been pretty simple. Work on his concentration and his endurance at the same time by trying to stay in the largest form he could for as long as possible. It had seemed simple enough; he had actually worked his way from elephant to tyrannosaurus before he had finally pushed himself to something even larger.
Of course then the children started playing on his back. What, did these kids watch the Flintstones or something? Whoever told them that it was fun to play with dinosaurs? Between the strain of holding such a massive animal and the bouncing of the munchkins on his leathery hide, he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep it up.
Finally his concentration lapsed. He snapped back to his fuzzy green elf body, leaving the nimble Amazon children hanging in midair. The changeling wasn't at all surprised when they all landed safely, rolling and flipping in midair while whooping loudly. He was pretty used to what these crazy people were capable of.
He rolled over onto his back, swallowing the fresh country air in large gulps. Beast Boy couldn't even sit up after that last transformation. And yet he felt strangely good too, pushing his limits, really seeing what he could do. He wondered idly if this was how Robin felt after a particularly grueling training session.
The changeling continued to lie there, enjoying the sun, loving the clearness of the air, until a shadow cut him off from the warming rays he was bathing in. He looked up to see the lovely Spice standing over him. She was smiling cutely and holding a canteen. He smiled and waved back.
"Hello Green Hair Girl, is too nice to see you!" he greeted her, his Chinese was a little patchy, but he was amazed at his progress. Considering he was immersed in the culture and being drilled by a very proficient teacher, he probably shouldn't have been really.
She giggled at his accent and bad grammar, and then held out a hand to help him up. "Hey there Beast Boy, you look pretty tired after that display. I was really impressed." she blushed slightly as she helped him to his feet.
Spice handed him the canteen and he grabbed it eagerly, draining most of it in one long gulp. His Chinese wasn't that great yet, but she was kind enough to speak slowly and use simple phrases for his benefit. "Thank much for water bag!" he thanked her . . . well he was pretty sure he did anyway. He offered her his best smile to cover up any mistakes he might have made.
She giggled again. "Come on, that is enough for now, let us go see how your friends are doing." She offered. She then suited word to action, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the large vacant area he had been working in.
He nodded "We go now! Is good!"
They passed Robin, in the midst of his training with the younger girls. It appeared their leader had caught up pretty easily over the past week or so with the young ladies around him. Beast Boy couldn't resist waving cockily to the masked boy as Spice and him walked past, arm in arm.
If Robin noticed, he was either ignoring him, or was too engrossed in his training to care. Knowing his friend like he did, Beast Boy was pretty sure it was the latter.
A few more minutes of walking brought them to the remains of the T-Ship, where Cyborg and Lotion were busily resurrecting the metal beast.
"Yo Cy, how's things going with the repairs dude?" he asked cheerfully. Cyborg looked up from his work and walked over to greet them.
"It's goin great BB, my babies gonna be back in the air in a week or two tops!" replied the metallic man in nearly flawless Chinese.
"You I hate." Beast Boy muttered in a low and embarrassed voice, his new language skills failing him again. Damn Cyborg! He would have nearly mastered the language in a week. The big guy was such a show off; it wasn't fair, Lotion was giving him extra tutoring on the side.
Spice giggled at his distress. "Don't worry BB, you'll get it soon, you're making amazing progress really." she offered helpfully. Behind the ship Lotion wiped her hands free of some grease and glided over to join them. "Yes, your attenuation to our languages verbal strata is quite an accomplishment." she said, in perfect English.
Beast Boy groaned loudly. "Man! What language are you speaking now! I didn't understand anything you just said!" he complained loudly. Heh heh, the look on the intellectual girls face was priceless! Cyborg and Spice were both cracking up now too! Heh and Raven said he wasn't funny!
A new voice interrupted their little meeting. "What's this? Four little children with nothing to do but talk!" the voice was authoritative but held a trace of humor. They all turned to see the new speaker was none other than Elder Perfume.
"Well, since my own gifted pupil was so rudely taken from me, I believe I will have to fill my time by filling your time." She gazed at each of them like a hawk evaluating a group of rabbits.
Cyborg raised a hand hesitantly. "Um, but I gotta fix our ship, and Cologne said I didn't have to train if I didn't want to." He pointed out, he sounded nearly as nervous as Beast Boy felt.
She focused her gaze on Beast Boy's Titanium friend. "Well Elder Cologne isn't here now is she? And since the four of you seem to enjoy wasting time together, I think it only fitting that you focus your collective efforts towards improving your meager skills. Don't you agree?" she left the question hanging ominously in the air. The Elder was just daring any one of them to question her decision.
Meekly the four of them nodded in agreement. Not that they really had a choice.
Perfume smile brightly at their nods. "Good, now follow me, we'll begin immediately!" and she started walking off to the edge of the village.
Immediately! He still hadn't recovered from his last training.
Beast Boy sighed loudly.
Raven sat meditating, encased in a cocoon of her own ebon energy. Her aura now filled the entire room, encompassing every object, penetrating every crevice. She was now at one with the room. She remembered some time ago telling Cyborg that when she used her powers that she placed a little of her soul into the objects she manipulated.
Now she was beginning to sense the energies that were there already. This chi energy that the Elder and the lost boy spoke of. It was startling similar to her own energy, in some ways anyway. And everything seemed to possess it as well, even if only in trace amounts. The wooden planks of the floor, the course wool of the blankets, though her eyes were tightly closed she could sense everything in the room in a way that made sight seem like a handicap.
True, this particular meditation had been on one of the more advanced scrolls Cologne had given her, but after glancing through them, she couldn't resist trying it out. This felt like a good first step to really gaining a new understanding and mastery over her chaotic powers.
She could feel her energies as they flowed through her body. She could feel how they interacted with the energy of the objects in the room. Slowly, hesitantly, she started to lift several of the objects at once, then more, then more, until everything that wasn't nailed down in the room was gently floating in a sea of black.
It was amazing really, such fine control over so many delicate items, and simultaneously as well. Dancing to her will, the chairs and dressers and even the combs and pictures and whatever else hung in the air, they all started to move independently of each other, a ghostly dance for her amusement.
Idly Raven thought it probably didn't look all that impressive, considering she could just as easily lift a tractor trailer and toss it like a rag doll, but she was proud of her achievement nonetheless.
She sat in wonder as she felt the objects in her mind's eye. Felt them float. Felt them dance. Felt . . . felt her leg starting to cramp up!
Raven desperately tried to straighten out her leg before it was – Ouch! Ouch, ouch ouch ouch! Her leg cramped up painfully and she started forcefully trying to rub the knot from her agonized limb.
A loud crash filled the room as everything fell back to the floor. Damn she hated sitting on the floor like the old ghoul had insisted, meditating was so much easier when she levitated. Easier on her poor legs at any rate.
With agonizing slowness she finally worked the cramp from her leg and finally took in her surroundings once more.
She felt glad, glad that no one was around to see this.
Ryouga nearly laughed out loud. He stared at the shrunken elder and the floating alien in turn. He then pointed to Starfire in amusement. "You brought her to make me angry? Heh heh heh I think you missed your target there, even Beast Boy would have a better chance then her!" he barked out.
The Tamaranian in question seemed somewhat offended, looking away in a huff. Cologne pierced him with an intense gaze. "Starfire is here for a number of reasons, reasons that make her the only suitable candidate for training you. First, her natural strength and toughness mean it is unlikely that you will be able to seriously hurt her while training. Second, she can fly, so even if you perform the Hiryua Shoten Ha on her, she will escape the worst of it. Thirdly, her aura is naturally hot, meaning that we don't have to track someone down that wants to kill you, not that that would be hard." the old woman muttered the last part in a low voice.
She then continued. "Next, I have noticed that Miss Starfire is a very likable person and most people would never wish her harm.-"Starfire beamed brightly at that, giggling happily. "-Which is why I have chosen her to be your sparring partner; you will be fighting her while I do my best to enrage you. This should help you control your temper as well."
Well, that sort of made sense, he doubted that even he would lose his temper if he was up against Starfire. Still one thing bothered him. "But Cologne, she's a girl, I don't fight girls, it's not honorable."
The Elder rolled her eyes. She then passed on a strange look to the Tamaranian. Starfire seemed reluctant "Are you certain of this course of action?" she asked Cologne. Cologne nodded her head sagely.
What was that all about, these two were acting so weird. He stared intently at Cologne trying to figure out where she was going with this. He stared so intently that he didn't notice Starfire until she stood right in front of him. "Um, what are you doi-"
POW!
She reared back and slugged him across the jaw for all she was worth. He went sailing, crashed through at least two trees and dug a small furrow in the earth before he finally came to a stop.
OUCH! That had hurt! Cologne stood over him again. "Oh yes, there was one other thing, the lovely Starfire is also powerful enough to give you a good incentive to actually dodge her attacks when we start working on the spiral part of the training. Heh heh heh, I think we're going to have a lot of fun here my boy." She stated evilly.
Starfire slowly raised one hand and waved her fingers in apology, she looked like she felt a bit bad for hitting him so hard. The Matriarch bounced over to her. "Now remember, this is training for you as well, you are to do your best to hit Ryouga, he is fast and skilled so it will be a good challenge for you. Hopefully your training under Perfume will help you wipe the sexism from the lost boy's mind." She cackled loudly.
The alien girl nodded solemnly. "I am sorry friend Ryouga, but I must do my utmost to thrash you soundly, it is for the advancement of both of our skills." she stated for him.
He rubbed his still throbbing jaw. This didn't sound nearly as funny as it did when Ranma was going through this training. Embarrassing pictures he was pretty sure he could deal with. But this?
Why did the bad things always happen to him?
Cyborg let out a quiet curse as Lotion swept his legs out from under him. He thought she was supposed to be a bookworm! He accepted her graciously offered hand and used it to pull himself to his feet. They weren't actually fighting, just running through drills of certain maneuvers, each person taking turns on the other.
He looked over at the other pair. Slowly he shook his head; at least Lotion wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about tossing him around as Spice seemed to be with Beast Boy. Heck, the grass stain could barely stand as it was.
Cyborg had seen the boy's earlier training. His internal chronometer had clocked him at twenty one minutes and thirty two seconds. Cyborg was amazed; he'd never seen BB hold a huge shape like that for so long.
He swept out his leg, knocking Lotion to her back. Unlike him though, she rolled quickly and was already up before he was even standing from the attack itself. He was glad of that actually; he definitely didn't want to hurt her.
Man! He wasn't even supposed to be here, he could hear the T-Ship beckoning him, taunting him for abandoning it in mid fix. And he had certainly enjoyed his quiet time with the tall Amazon before him a lot more than getting driven into the dirt by her.
He leveled a glare at the slave master that was tormenting them so. Perfume was obviously ticked at having lost her favorite playmate. Cyborg sure hoped that Granny brought her back soon so that Starfire could deal with the sadistic lady.
She noticed his glare, and BB just barely dragging himself to his feet after the last knock down. The elder seemed to relent for a moment. "Alright, you're all starting to look tired, so we'll take a break." Beast Boy's yell of joy nearly knocked the changeling off his own feet. "After we do a set of over shoulder tosses." finished the cruel and evil Elder.
This time BB did collapse. Heck, Cyborg felt like collapsing himself.
Why did the bad stuff always happen to them?
Robin paused for a moment from his training.
He loved this place!
The titan leader resumed working out.
Starfire managed to tag the frantically dodging boy again; her fist connecting with his shoulder sending him spinning like a top till the ground stopped him. The lost boy growled loudly in frustration and anger, and seemed like he was about to jump her when the suit he wore constricted painfully and dropped him to the ground in a little bundle.
Cologne had told her that the suit reacted to the chi of the user. If the owner's aura heated up, from anger or embarrassment, it would contract tightly, tying up the wearer. Truly it was a fascinating device.
"Friend Ryouga, please calm yourself, you will only further your entrapment by struggling." she called out emphatically. The Tamaranian still was not fully certain she was doing the right thing. True, the training seemed interesting, but her friend seemed to lose his temper so easily.
There was no reason for him to doubt his skills; even with her recent training there would have been no way she could have hit him in a normal fight. The only reason she had been able to hit him so often was because the spiral design he was forced to follow limited his mobility greatly.
That did not seem to make it any better to Ryouga though; he seemed to take every hit as an insult. It was almost enough to make her want to cease. And what worried her more was the fact that Cologne had not even begun her stratagem to truly anger the Japanese martial artist. He was losing his temper easily enough already.
She floated over to the angrily struggling fanged boy and gently lifted him from the ground. "Ryouga, you must control your anger, I fear you may harm yourself." she pleaded with him. Her words finally seemed to get through to the young man. He looked her in the eyes, and she could see the anger leave them slowly.
"Sorry Starfire, I'm working on it, it's just so hard for me, you know?" said the lost boy. Slowly the suit began to unbind and he was able to stand under his own power again. She nodded and pulled him in for a quick hug before releasing him. The Tamaranian then floated back to the beginning of the spiral.
"Shall we begin again?" she asked him quietly. Ryouga nodded and moved back to his starting position, taking up a defensive stance.
"No, that's enough of that for now." called out Cologne's withered and raspy voice. "You're not making any progress like that. Something else is obviously disrupting your concentration, when you weren't burning with anger or being pummeled into submission, you were barely paying any attention to the fight at all." She accused him, quite accurately as well as far as Starfire could tell.
She noticed that almost every time that she had landed a blow, that his eyes had been unfocused, like he was looking at something far away. It was as if he was becoming lost in his own thoughts. Possibly that was part of the reason he got so angry whenever she hit him as well.
"What she says is true Ryouga, you are preoccupied with some other event perhaps?" she inquired gently. She did not want to push him if he did not want to answer her.
The emotional martial artist sat back on his haunches and grunted loudly in frustration. "It's none of your business Cologne, so don't worry about it." he barked back grumpily. Not at her she noticed, just at the Elder Amazon. Well, they had tried their best-
"Not good enough you half wit of a Hibiki!" she barked back, just as grumpily.
Hey! That was not a nice thing to say at all! She prepared to scold the kindly old woman quite soundly.
"This isn't the normal pit you throw yourself in, something happened which drove you out this far into the wild, and this training doesn't have any hope of succeeding if you keep dwelling on whatever it was." Cologne continued, her voice becoming more concerned as she went on.
Starfire decided to remain silent, unburdening ones self was very important to one's mental health. If she could actually get him to confront his past, perhaps he could get past it.
The lost boy in question seemed to consider this carefully. She gave him an encouraging smile and a hopeful nod, hoping to nudge him towards explaining things to them. He finally succumbed to their scrutiny.
"I did the right thing I guess." he began slowly. "Somehow the right thing always seems to be the dumb thing to do though." Starfire had no idea what the boy was talking about. However Cologne's eyes widened in immediate recognition of what he spoke of.
"You didn't?" she asked, the shock in her voice apparent.
He nodded back sadly. "As you can imagine, she didn't take it very well. It seemed like she screamed at me forever, I don't really remember how long it was . . . then the slap. I felt my heart shatter into a thousand pieces when it landed." his voice was thick with emotion, his shoulders shaking with barely repressed tears.
Cologne nodded; she seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. "But why did you do it boy? Why now of all times?" she asked curiously.
"It – I . . . don't know really, it just felt like it had gone on too long, I didn't want to hurt her anymore, even if she didn't even know I was." he explained to them.
She wished she knew what he was talking about. Obviously it was someone that he had cared about very much, someone that he had somehow hurt. That he would do whatever he did, even though it seemed like he knew it would hurt him, for that person, seemed terribly and tragically romantic to her.
She knelt beside the boy and wrapped him in a comforting hug. Cologne sat down as well. "Well boy, I know it probably doesn't mean much now, but you did do the right thing. And that you did it yourself instead of waiting for fate to do it for you; that took courage. I imagine my future son-in-law was rather shocked as well?"
Ryouga let out a wry chuckle at that. "Heh, once he found out why I was there, he did everything he could to talk me out of it. He knew how mad she would be, at both of us. The strange thing is, I think he was more concerned about her, and even me, than he was about what was going to happen to him." he shook his head in disbelief.
"That boy never could stand to see anyone hurt, it is one of his better traits." mused the old woman. Starfire couldn't stand it anymore. She needed to know what happened between Ryouga and this person for whom he had cared so much.
"Excuse me, but I am very confused. Could you please explain to me what you speak of?" she asked both of them, either of them really.
The Amazon stared at the lost boy. He nodded. "Alright Starfire, but it's a really long story. It all started when a boy I knew, named Ranma . . . . . accidentally . . . knocked me into one of the springs of Jusenkyo. The spring I fell into was Heituenniichuan, the Spring of Drowned Black Piglet."
Starfire listened with rapt attention.
Raven arched her back, trying to straighten out the stiff muscles. Sure all that meditating was good for the soul, but her back was killing her. And she was starving too. Apparently no one had thought to come up and get her for lunch or dinner, and she had been too wrapped up in her training to notice herself.
The dark Titan walked down the stairs to the house's living room. She discovered that she also had a slight limp to go with her aching back as she hobbled down the stairs. That's it, tomorrow she was either taking off or she would go see what Ryouga was doing with his time.
The sight that greeted her at the bottom of the stairs did not inspire her, though it did explain a few things. Robin was still absent, not that that was any surprise. The two occupants that were there however, were strewn across the two benches by the walls very much like sacks of dirt.
She was almost tempted to check if Beast Boy was still breathing. Luckily she didn't need to, dead people didn't drool nearly that much. Cyborg didn't seem to be quite as bad off, but what on earth had he been doing to get in that shape. Wasn't he just fixing the T-Ship?
Raven slowly limped over to the laid out Cyborg. "What happened to you?" she asked dryly. His human eye opened slowly, as if he was fighting off the Grim Reaper. "R-Raven, is that you? Everything is so dark – so cold." he whispered faintly.
She rolled her eyes, talk about over dramatic. "Oh give it up, why are you two laid out like a pair of cadavers?" she asked again.
He chuckled a bit before gingerly sitting up to face her. "Perfume is what happened. Ever since Cologne dragged Starfire and Ryouga off into the woods, that crazy woman grabbed BB, Spice, Lotion and me, and turned us all into her personal torture victims. She trained us from lunch time till pretty much a half hour ago; you do not know the suffering we endured!"
She rubbed her back again; hmm well perhaps a sore back wasn't all that bad after all. Her eyes floated over to Beast Boy. "He didn't seem to handle it too well. Not a big surprise there." she droned.
Cyborg looked at her incredulously. "Are you kiddin Rae! BB was a machine, he was workin out all mornin on Cologne's plan, and then Madame Evil came and grabbed us all and ran us into the ground. You shoulda come outside this morning, BB held a brachiosaurus form for over twenty minutes!" he exclaimed excitedly.
Her eyes widened in shock. A form that large for that long? She'd never seen the emerald youth do something like that before. Concern and pride jockeyed for position on her features. "He really worked that hard today?" she asked quietly.
Her African American friend nodded, pride on his face as well. "You know it Raven. Heh we were both so dead when we got in we couldn't even argue about whose turn it was to cook." he told her jokingly.
She nodded absently. Now she felt bad for belittling her friend, even if she hadn't really meant it. "How about I make us all some food, it's nearly dark out anyway."
Beast Boy rose like a vampire from his crypt at the sound of the word food. "Food! Where! It's not some crazy Chinese animal is it!" blurted out the young changeling in rapid fire.
Raven and Cyborg got a good laugh from his antics. She decided to raid the kitchen and see what she could make that would satisfy her unusually diverse friends appetites. Maybe there were some ingredients for pancakes in there somewhere.
Halfway to the kitchen she stopped dead in her tracks. Slowly she turned to face her friends.
"What do you mean Cologne dragged Starfire and Ryouga out into the woods?"
"- and that was when she slapped me and told me that she never wanted to see me ever again for the rest of her life." wheezed the lost boy, emotionally and physically drained by the story which had taken almost the entire afternoon and evening to tell.
Starfire could only stare in morbid fascination at this point. The story had been an emotional roller coaster, ranging from her wanting to cry for the lost boy, to wanting to kill him herself! The things he had done to that girl, Akane, were unforgivable! But the things he had done for her, they were unbelievable.
She was sure that not even Raven's most dramatic novels held a story of a boy that had loved as tragically as Ryouga had. He had explained all of his feelings in fine detail, wanting her to understand the reasons for everything the boy had done. Ryouga had loved Akane so intensely; he loved her so much that he had let her go because he knew that would make her happy.
And she had never even known! Somehow this Akane had never seen his devotion to her. She also never realized that her pet pig was the cursed boy, despite all of her fiancées hints.
Actually this Akane girl did not sound to be the sharpest knife in the cabinet. But Ryouga had painted her to sound like a living Goddess. Cologne had interjected a few comments from time to time, usually when the lost boy started ranting about the Ranma person, or when he started glorifying Akane.
Really, did Ryouga have no middle ground when it came to people?
"I do not approve of the fact that you used this "P-Chan" form to take advantage of Akane's kindness to you." she started bluntly. He nodded in acceptance, looking more depressed than she had seen him in a while.
"However if what Cologne and you both say is true, you only did what at the time you believed to be right, as warped as your idea may have been. As well you did not watch her change or bathe; I do not believe you to be a pervert. You even went so far as to protect her while in your cursed form, despite your weakness." She continued.
Cologne nodded silently. The lost boy looked up to meet her gaze, looking slightly hopeful.
"In the end, you did the right thing, which is all that anyone could have asked of you." she stated sympathetically.
Ryouga nodded as well. "Maybe, but that doesn't make it alright. Just because I was a little lonely didn't give me the right to hurt her like I did. And now I've lost the only person that I've ever loved, you can't even begin to imagine how that feels." he droned somewhat depressingly.
Her sympathetic smile dropped a bit at that and her mood swung back over to wanting to club him with Cologne's staff again. How presumptuous of him! She firmly grabbed his chin between her fingers and forced him to match her gaze.
"Do you truly believe that you are the only person to experience pain in their life?" she asked somewhat harshly, for her at least.
He looked into her intense eyes and could only stare dumbly.
"My own sister, whom I love unconditionally, hates me with every fiber of her being. She has done . . . unspeakable things to me, things I cannot ever repeat. You have but lost a friend; can you imagine what it would feel like to know that your own flesh and blood detests you so? Tell me Ryouga, can you?" she inquired passionately. She could feel green tears threatening to form in her eyes from her emotional admission.
Both of the humans before her wore shell shocked expressions, neither one could even begin to form coherent sentences yet.
"When I told you why I had come to Earth earlier, I was not totally honest with you. I did not come here because I chose to, rather I fled here to escape from an alien race that had captured me and were going to condemn me to a life of slavery on their home world. Can you know what it feels like to have your freedom taken from you human?" she continued hotly, lost in her own pain now.
She then let go of the lost boy's chin; turning away from the two humans to hug herself.
Ryouga exchanged disbelieving glances with Cologne. How was that even possible! For someone as wonderful as Starfire to have experienced such tragedy in her life. The Amazon seemed to be at just as much of a loss as him.
She had suffered worse than Ryouga would wish upon anyone, no matter how much he hated them. Her question rang loudly in his head now. Did he really believe that he was the only one that suffered, that was lonely? It seemed so ludicrous to him now, had he really been buried so deep in his own personal problems that he didn't consider that other people might deal with the self same problems?
And yet the beautiful alien girl before him was not angry or bitter, not bemoaning fate or cursing her own existence. Quite the opposite in fact, she embraced life, lived it to its fullest. Ryouga suddenly felt very small indeed.
He gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry Starfire; I never should have said what I did. It's just that your so happy all the time, I never imagined you could have gone through things like that. I mean, your own sister?" he shook his head sadly.
Cologne moved before the Tamaranian and bowed deeply. "Now it is I who am honored young one. You have shared something very private with us, and your determination to live your life rather than succumb to your personal demons, it has inspired this old woman."
Starfire turned to face both of them, giggling slightly. "You both embarrass me. It is only my hope that my examples may help you get past your own grief friend Ryouga."
The lost boy shook his head ruefully. "Starfire, I think things will go a lot better now, I can't tell either of you how much better I feel after getting all that stuff off my chest."
He meant it too, he was just glad he had had someone as understanding as Starfire there to unburden himself to. As it was he was ready to pass out now.
Cologne looked on and chuckled. "I think we made very good progress for our first session. I think we should call it a night and continue tomorrow."
And with that they slept.
Robin toweled off the sweat from his training as he made his way back to Cologne's home. The day had passed like a flash, far too fast for his liking. He had learned so much this week, learned things he had never even thought possible. In fact, a few more weeks of this kind of training and he might just have to schedule a trip to Gotham to give a certain detective a very personal demonstration. Heh heh, oh yeah, this trip was turning out better than he had hoped.
And he didn't even have to worry about the city either. Speedy had, after bugging him incessantly about losing their ship, agreed to watch over things while they were away. The guy might be a shameless narcissistic show off that hated losing, but he was a good fighter and Robin trusted him implicitly.
It wasn't just him that was benefiting either. He had seen Beast Boy's rather impressive display that morning, it was quite the feat; Cologne really knew how to push the little guy. As for his learning Chinese, if she could actually give Beast Boy's brain a work out, well they'd all be grateful for that.
Raven seemed to be doing well too. She had been more outgoing and social after each day she had trained, as if she was starting to lose her fear of her own power. Anything that helped Raven feel more at peace with herself was absolutely a good thing in Robin's book. This put Ryouga in his good books as well. The dark hero and the dark wanderer seemed to be getting along very well, each of them drawing the other a little more out of their mutual shells. He almost wondered if Ryouga might join them back to the city after this, he knew he wouldn't be opposed.
Cyborg seemed to be enjoying his time here. True he was just working on the T-Ship, but then that was what he really loved to do anyway. And the girl that Robin had seen hanging out with the big guy lately sure didn't seem to be doing anything to hurt Cyborg's enjoyment of their unplanned vacation.
As for Starfire . . . actually, he hadn't seen much of her lately. That young looking Elder, Perfume was capitalizing on his friend's time. He was slightly curious of what they spoke of so much. He was also slightly annoyed that he didn't get to spend more time with her as well.
Oh well, time to grab the leftovers from whoever cooked and crash until the sun rose.
A sudden high pitched and girlish scream startled him from his reverie. It had come from Cologne's house!
He ran and viscously kicked the door, sending it flying open, and rolled into the building taking up an advanced fighting stance.
He was not prepared for the horrors that awaited him there.
Raven had made "Pancakes"!
Another scream echoed through the night.
Raven woke up, stretching luxuriously and for once, actually enjoying the feeling of the sun that awoke her. She was still mad about last night though. Stupid jerks didn't need to put up that much of a fuss over her cooking. She thought the pancakes had turned out pretty well considering she had never cooked before . . . or the fact that all the labels in the kitchen were in Chinese.
Raven was pretty sure that she knew flour when she saw it. Really, what else could that white powder have been?
Well, it'd be the end of the world before she cooked for those ungrateful jerks again.
She finally dragged herself out of the large bed and slowly got dressed. She momentarily considered doing some stretches or meditating, but didn't really feel inspired to start so early. She'd had enough meditating for one week really
And she was still a little hungry, the young Goth admitted that her pancakes hadn't exactly been . . . um . . . filling, yeah that was it. With that in mind the pale titan levitated, screw walking today, down the stairs and floated back to the kitchen.
Raven decided to keep it simple this morning, she found some bread and cheese and started boiling some water for the tea that she was sure Cologne had actually pointed out as being tea. She had hallucinated enough for one night, thank you very much.
After the water was ready and her tea prepared, the dark titan then retired to the table to enjoy her meager breakfast. Predictably Cyborg was the first to join her. Slowly trudging from the room that he and Beast Boy shared. He silently sat in the chair opposite her and grabbed a chunk of bread and poured himself some tea.
"And a good morning to you too Cyborg." she started wryly. He looked back at her groggily, almost accusingly actually; maybe she hadn't been the only one to have the hallucinations. "Good morning Rae, yadda yadda yadda. Since when are you a morning person? I thought Robbie was the only guy that liked torturing himself like that?" he replied.
She shrugged slightly. "My room is on the east side, somewhat hard to sleep in. Though I think Robin is getting better, I didn't hear him leave at all this morning, though his room was empty when I went by. What about you and Beast Boy, what are your plans for the day?" she asked idly.
Cyborg stretched broadly, finally starting to look excited again. "I'm getting back to my baby today. I wasted way too much time yesterday eatin dirt. Beast Boy I figure is either gonna sleep in until tomorrow morning or get back to what Granny had him doing."
Raven nodded at that. Sounded like a good plan, as nice as it was here, she didn't want to become a permanent resident. Besides, Starfire could deal with Perfume so Cyborg could work in peace.
"So when did Cologne and Ryouga end up getting back in last night, it must have been really late." she asked her cybernetic companion. He looked back at her confused. "What do ya mean Raven? They didn't come back last night at all, my sensors would have triggered if they had." he replied.
Her left eye twitched slightly. "So her, Ryouga and Starfire spent the whole night out in the woods? Alone?" she asked calmly. Cyborg slid back a few inches nervously. "Um yeah, I guess so; don't know what the big deal is yo."
Suddenly the much larger titan froze in shock. "Wait a sec, if Granny didn't come back, and Ryouga didn't come back . . . that means that Starfire isn't back today either!" his eyes widened in fear and he started looking back and forth quickly like a caged animal.
"That means that Per-"a loud knocking at the door interrupted what he was about to say.
Perfume's voice sounded loudly through the door. "You lazy males have slept in long enough; it's time to get back to training!"
Beast Boy's scream flooded out of his room and rang loudly through Raven's ears.
Raven sighed in relief. She had just escaped the zealous elder's rampage into Cologne's house. She had managed to teleport through the floor, bravely ignoring Cyborg's imploring look to take him with her. She gave a silent prayer to Azar for her fallen comrades. It seemed to be a case of the living envying the dead.
But she had more important things to do today, well actually pretty much anything ranked higher than being subjected to the physical torture that Cyborg and Beast Boy had described to her the night before.
She had a higher purpose, she amended. Raven wanted to know exactly what her three colleagues were doing that required them to be out in the middle of the woods over night. Not that she was worried about Starfire; she knew she could trust her friend with her life. She wasn't worried about Ryouga either; he was far too shy to do anything like that.
Come to think of it, why was she so insistent on seeing what they were doing? Oh well, she'd figure that part out when she got there. She did promise herself last night that she would see what the lost boy was up to today after all.
It only took a few moments of asking for directions to find out where the trio had traveled to the day before. A short while later she found herself in the middle of nowhere and not sure where to go. She must have been hanging around Ryouga too much; she was starting to get lost now too.
"Ox-brained fool! Gosunkugi has more talent than a loafer like yourself!" Cologne's loud, and offensive yell, caught her attention.
"Gosunkugi? The guy with the candles tied to hi-"the lost boy's angry reply was cut off by a loud thumping sound, it was quickly followed by the loud crashing sound of something colliding with the ground at high speed.
Apparently she was closer than she had thought. But now she was even more curious of what was going on. She rushed over and found herself overlooking a make shift training ground. For some reason in the center of the clearing, someone had drawn a large spiral diagram. How unusual.
More unusual was the fact that the clearing looked like a war zone. Craters were every where, furrows torn in the ground, trees collapsed. What were they practicing here, clear cutting?
Near the center, imbedded in what appeared to be a fresh new crater, was the target of her search. Starfire was standing close by, alternating between apologizing and giggling. Farther outside the confines of the spiral, perched on her staff, was Cologne.
"Get up boy; you weren't even close that time. This is getting embarrassing, maybe I should go find that Kunou boy, at least then I'd have someone worthy of my training!" she barked loudly.
From Ryouga's bark of mirthless laughter, he obviously didn't think much of her alternate choice. My, but the old ghoul seemed to be in a foul mood this morning. Maybe this is what happened when she didn't sleep in her coffin at night. She silently snickered at that. Alright, being cooped up in the same small house with Beast Boy for a straight week was starting to warp her fragile mind.
Strangely Starfire didn't seem to mind the insults either; Raven would have felt certain the Tamaranian would have been defending him for all she was worth. As it was the young alien simply floated back to stand on what looked like the end of the spiral diagram.
"Do not worry Ryouga, you did much better that time, I am sure you will have it soon . . . um I mean, um you are a Chlorbag! Yes, that and many other hurtful things besides!" she added lamely. Strangely rather than get mad, Ryouga laughed while Cologne seemed to get annoyed.
"Starfire, I can't get mad if you insult me in a language I don't understand." he said jokingly. Cologne piped up as well. "And stop congratulating the lost boy as well, we're trying to get him angry remember?" she complained, obviously exasperated.
Starfire giggled cutely in apology. Slowly Ryouga moved to stand before the orange hued girl and took a strange fighting stance. Starfire mimicked him, getting into a fighting stance of her own, very different from his.
Then Cologne barked out an order and the two suddenly began fighting furiously. Raven's eyes nearly popped out of her head! Starfire must have improved immensely over the past week, she had Ryouga on the ropes almost immediately; her attacks were lightning quick and extremely varied. The lost boy wasn't even able to mount a decent defense let alone fight back. It appeared to be all he could do to avoid her attacks, dodging frantically, but being inexorably pushed back.
The dance went on for several moments, it was nearly dizzying in intensity. She was starting to wonder if the whole thing had been choreographed the day before, the moves were so sharp and controlled.
Suddenly it hit her; Ryouga seemed to be walking back along the line of the spiral. But that made no sense whatsoever, what kind of training was this?
"You're a coward that has abandoned all his friends in Nerima to hide in the wilderness!" Cologne's sudden and stark out burst caused her to gasp in shock. She wasn't the only one either. Ryouga's face went red and he turned to yell at the old woman. Then several strange things happened.
Starfire's fist collided with his chest, sending him flying out of the spiral entirely. Then the strange suit that she just noticed Ryouga was wearing clamped down on him, pulling his arms and legs painfully behind his back, even as he flew through the air. After that it was an unfortunate series of uncontrolled crashes and bounces before he skidded to a stop some thirty or so feet away.
There was no way she was going to accept that this was any kind of training! She teleported instantly to his side and knelt beside his prone form. "Ryouga! Are you alright! What are they doing to you!" she asked in a rush.
The lost boy looked up at her, surprise on his face. Suddenly the suit loosed it'd hold on him for some reason and he sat up beside her. "Raven! What are you doing here?" he asked, obviously curious but strangely he didn't sound like he was under any form of duress.
"I just wanted to see what you were doing out here, I didn't know they were torturing you out here." she leveled a glare at the approaching females. Starfire noticed the glare and stopped short, looking a bit embarrassed. Cologne just rolled her eyes. "Fine, take a break boy; we'll get back to work after you've let the half demon lick your wounds."
What the hell was that supposed to mean! She was about to stand but suddenly found herself bound to the ground as Ryouga's limbs suddenly snapped back behind his back, catching her cloak and very nearly her arm as well. Red faced the lost boy yelled out. "That's out of bounds Old Ghoul! You can't insult Raven like that!"
The old woman turned back to face them. "Well perhaps if you were able to control your temper you would be able to stop me, but as it is, I can't see you doing much of anything at all." With that she turned and pogoed back to the clearing. Starfire went back with her; she appeared to be whispering some pretty harsh things to the old woman.
That was good at least, someone needed to say something.
She turned back to her hopelessly bound companion. "Why is she treating you so terribly? I thought she liked you, but now she's acting like she hates both of us." she spat out angrily.
Ryouga looked back at her and slowly started to smile. Once again his limbs slowly began to loosen up.
What was up with that? Did nothing make sense anymore?
"Sigh, I'll try to explain Raven, it's a – a little complicated." he replied.
"Try me, I've got all week."
Cologne apologized to the Tamaranian again. She supposed it might have been a bit below the belt going after Raven like that, but she had seen an opportunity and had taken it before she had even realized. Still, they were actually making progress, slowly but surely.
Simple things like failure at the exercises and mere insults didn't faze the lost boy at all now. So she had started upping the ante. The Matriarch knew the lost boy was still sensitive about what had happened in Nerima and she intended to use it against him until he got over it.
"I still cannot believe that you would say something so cruel to my dear friend Raven!" Starfire complained again.
"Again I am sorry child, I meant no insult to her; I only wanted to anger Ryouga. You know I hold Raven and the rest of your friends in high regard." She tried to capitulate to the alien girl to get it over with.
Yes, the more she could get Ryouga to deal with the mistakes of his past, the less hold they would have over him. Still, it was unfortunate she had to go to such lengths with the lost boy. This had been so much easier with Ranma, but then he had been much closer to the Soul of Ice to begin with. He had only needed to learn to focus past distractions so that he could keep his concentration.
Ryouga on the other hand, actually needed to learn what the Soul of Ice actually meant. He was so swept up in his emotions that the entire concept likely felt completely alien to him. She felt that if she could actually help him control his emotions she wouldn't just be helping him as a martial artist, but as a person as well. She was certain if she helped him attain the Heart of Ice, even if only once, then he could start to come to terms with it at his own speed and under his own conditions.
"What exactly did you mean by that remark Granny?" came Ryouga's deep voice. He seemed calm now and was approaching on his own two feet. That was good; he was recovering from his anger faster now at least.
She turned to face the approaching duo. "I didn't mean anything by it boy, I was just trying to use Raven to get you angry, I apologize." she told the boy.
He shook his head. "I knew that, I meant the comment before that, about Nerima." His features darkened, but not enough to trigger the suit.
Oh! That! Well, that she had meant that comment. "I meant it Hibiki. Because your precious Akane doesn't want to see you again you've sworn to never set foot in Nerima again. What about your friends there, do they mean nothing to you because of the words of one spoiled child?" she asked pointedly.
Ryouga looked back at her frowning. "I don't have any friends in Nerima, she was the closest thing to a friend I had there." he practically growled.
Hmm, fool boy, was he so blind. "What about Ranma? Is not he your friend? The two of you have helped each other numerous times, and you even said that he tried to stop you from revealing your curse to avoid this from happening." she retorted.
He scoffed loudly. "Ranma is my enemy, he's ruined my life at every opportunity he could. Besides, he lives with Akane, I doubt I could see him without seeing her." he argued, still maintaining his composure.
She rolled her eyes at that. "What of Shampoo?" He just returned her stare, not needing to say anything. "Okay, that was a bad example; the two of you didn't exactly get along. But what about Mousse? The two of you worked together before."
He nodded at that. "Yeah, I guess Mousse wasn't too bad. At least the two of us got along better than most of the guys in Nerima. I suppose I wouldn't mind seeing him again, but he's so obsessed with Shampoo I doubt he would ever even notice if I never went back." he riposted.
She conceded that point. Well, it was time to bring out the ace from her sleeve. "Very well Hibiki, but what of the Chef, Ukyou. There is no way that you can deny that the two of you were friends."
He scoffed again. "Bah, she just used me to get what she wanted. All she was interested in was her precious Ranma." he said moodily.
BONK!
She retracted her staff from his head. "Don't be a hypocrite boy. All you were interested in was your precious Akane, and you didn't seem to mind using her superior intellect to get what you wanted. At the very worst you used each other. A more open mind would say that the two of you were allies with a common goal, perhaps if you weren't so blinded with your obsession you would have seen that!" she scolded him angrily.
The hit to his head must have done something; the gears in his heads seemed to start slowly moving as the boy considered what she had just said. "Th-that's exactly what it was, wasn't it? Obsessed, we were all so obsessed with the people we were after. Ukyou after Ranma, Mousse after Shampoo, Me with Akane, Kunou with, well with everyone pretty much. Even Akane and Ranma were obsessed with not being with each other. We were all so obsessed with the people we did want, that none of us even saw that perhaps the rest of us could have been friends." he mused at length.
Cologne nodded solemnly. "So you finally see boy, if you focus all of your energies on one thing, a dozen other possibilities are likely to fly past you. I mean, look at what's happened to you since you've given up on the Tendo girl, you've already made a handful of new and interesting friends." she smiled. Perhaps more, she thought to herself, noticing the closeness between the fanged boy and the violet eyed girl beside him.
The look on his face was priceless. "You know, you're right Granny, once I stopped worrying about her and Ranma, it's like I was free to do anything I wanted. Heh, I think I'm feeling ready for more training, I think I'll have this down in a few more days at the most." Newly energized the lost boy walked over to the beginning of the spiral diagram, beckoning for Starfire to follow.
The Elder smiled and looked to the pale skinned girl still standing by her. "We may want to move back to a safe distance, you might be slightly surprised by the results this training may have." she told the girl cryptically.
With that she ordered the training to begin.
That was one issue down, but she already had a whole slew of others ready to take its place.
The Headmaster read over the report that Jinx had prepared for him once again. It was truly fascinating reading. This Ryouga fellow that they had met seemed to be an interesting person indeed. Fighting skills that surpassed Jinx's, who was one of the more technically skilled fighters in the academy. Strength and toughness that seemed to be beyond human norms, if Mammoth's sub sections of the report were true at any rate.
According to Jinx, the boy also professed that he was not a "good" person, hunting and attempting to kill a person that he had claimed was his friend. The boy had even let his students escape after foiling their plan. Any self proclaimed hero would have locked the trio up for life simply for being who they were.
It baffled him that the boy had stopped them in the first place. Jinx had said he didn't want them using the water on anyone. He supposed that made sense, the boy did seem to have a broader knowledge of the cursed pools than he did.
His eyes flipped back to the other set of reports. The two reports concerning the testing on Gizmo and Mammoth and their newly acquired curses. His scientists were totally baffled, they couldn't explain anything at all, they couldn't even agree on the temperature of the water that triggered the change yet. Where did all the mass disappear to, how did such simple animal brains hold the complex human minds of the two students.
Well okay, that wasn't as much of a mystery concerning Mammoth; really he considered that to be more of a sideways move on the evolutionary scale for him than a downward one.
So far they had not even begun to speculate at a cure for the two. Not that the Headmaster cared whether or not the two spent the rest of their lives as animals or not. But it was inconvenient to have two such exposed students having such crippling vulnerabilities.
Perhaps Jinx had a point about not using the cursed springs. The potential for their plans to backfire disastrously was far too high, especially if what Jinx had said about the chaotic energies of the valley was true.
For now, for now he would put the Jusenkyo project on the back burner. Now that they had two test subjects, they could increase their knowledge of the curses before they rushed blindly into using them.
Besides, as fate would have it, a much more interesting project had arisen.
It had been some time since he had recruited such a talented new student after all.
His evil laughter echoed throughout his chambers.