The law of Conservation of Energy states, simply, that energy is constant and can be neither created nor be destroyed.
"Oh, this is priceless," Raven groaned.
Mercury stirred on the couch in the living room, abruptly jarred awake by Raven's deadpan voice. She looked around to see the soft glow of dawn and squinted so her eyes could adjust.
"Raven?" she moaned, still waking up. "What are you...?" Mercury shifted on the couch and felt a weight on top of her.
Beast Boy yawned loudly and stretched his arms. "Dude, what time is it?" he asked before realizing he was laying on Mercury. "Whoa!"
"Hey!" Mercury grunted. "All that space and you're laying on me?" she questioned as Beast Boy morphed into a cat and leaped to the coffee table a few feet away. "Oh, and now you're a cat so I can't be mad?" Mercury stood from the couch and put a hand on her hip. "Real fair," she sassed.
Raven watched them from across the room. "Are you done?" she asked.
"Huh?" Mercury turned to look at the sorceress. "Oh, yeah. What's up?"
"Follow me."
Mercury raised a brow as Raven glided through the living room toward the stairs. The dark girl clearly had no intention of telling them what was on her mind ahead of time. Mercury scooped up Beast Boy before he could scurry away, cradling the unnaturally green cat in her arms. Beast Boy mewed and squirmed to get free of Mercury to little avail. She smiled.
Raven was silent on the way upstairs. Mercury followed her for what seemed to be ages until they reached the top of the Tower. Raven pushed the door open and then walked out onto the roof of the Tower. Mercury joined her moments later and felt cool, thin air rush around her as she looked from this incredible vantage at the water, the shore beyond and of course Jump City resting in the distance, glittering from yesterdays rainstorm.
"Wow," Mercury said, astonished by the view. She had never seen anything like this except for the time Starfire carried her into the sky to avoid the bunker explosion. That and the event with Project Hydrogen and the nuclear blast from last night were eerily similar. The difference this time was that Starfire was also in danger, not just the people she was saving.
The thought of Starfire changed Mercury's awe into something more serious. "Why are we here?" she asked Raven. Part of her hoped it was about Starfire, part of her wished it was something, anything, else.
"How do you feel?" Raven asked.
Mercury shrugged. "Like I didn't get nearly enough sleep or food yesterday," she said. "Why?"
"I meant your implant," Raven clarified.
"Oh." Mercury shrugged. "I don't really notice it anymore," she said, petting Beast Boy absently. "I guess I 'cleared my mind'?" she asked, thinking back to the advice Raven had given her when they first met.
"Not quite," Raven replied. "Though, you have made progress." The dark girl removed the hood of her cloak and looked at Mercury.
Mercury felt her spine stiffen but didn't look away. There was something else on Raven's mind.
"I know you are holding hope for Starfire..." Raven said.
Mercury's breath caught in her throat, scared of what Raven was going to say next. Raven brought up Starfire, just as she had feared. The breeze above the Tower fell still in anticipation. Mercury was tense all over and wondered if she was ready to hear the truth.
"She is alive," Raven announced.
"What?" Mercury said, dropping Beast Boy in surprise. "Are you sure?"
Beast Boy landed on his feet and then reverted to regular form. "Raven, for real?"
"Look up," was Raven's only response.
Mercury and Beast Boy did as Raven said, looking up into the dewy dawn sky to see a shockwave ripple through the upper atmosphere, a white dot at its center. It resembled a star at first, burning so brightly so as to be visible in the morning sky. However, the star grew larger as it approached, wreathed in the flames of re-entry. Mercury watched intently and the glowing object grew even closer. Within the flames Mercury swore she saw a the form of a certain Tamaranean female. Could it be true?
The figure slowed her descent as she fell towards the rooftop of the Tower, stopping short to hover the rest of the way down. The blinding fiery energy faded around her and when the light cleared, Starfire was revealed, hovering above them, her brilliant red hair fluttering in the wind.
"Starfire!" Mercury cried out, the sky seeming to glow around the alien hero. "You're alive..."
"Friends!" Starfire cheered. She hovered down to the rooftop and Mercury ran to hug her. Starfire returned the embrace eagerly but pulled when she noticed Mercury was crying. "Ashley, I do not understand," Starfire said. "Has my return brought you sorrow?"
Mercury wiped her eyes. "No! Not at all!" Mercury said, wiping her eyes. "I'm so happy you're back! I thought... We..."
"Worry not," Starfire told her. "I took the danger into space and then continued flying until I also was a safe distance away," Starfire explained. "I had yet to encounter the so-called 'nuclear' weapons so I may have been gone longer than necessary."
Mercury looked into Starfire's eye in awe. She thought the Tamaranean could fly fast before, but this was a new height of power Mercury had never imagined. "Starfire..." Mercury said, driven only by her truest emotions in this moment. "I love you," she confessed.
"Dude..." Beast Boy said, stunned.
Starfire held Mercury's hand and looked her in the eyes, starting to say something. She decided not to, reaching a gentle hand to Mercury's chin instead. Mercury felt Starfire tilt her head upwards before the Tamaranean leaned in for a kiss.
Mercury gasped as their lips touched, the contact sparking a flood of images and thoughts and feelings.
They rushed into Mercury, overwhelming her. She saw flashes of infinite stars, endless galaxies, and countless planets. She felt a scorching swell of passion in her heart; joy, pleasure, and strength all burning together at a magnitude Mercury had never experienced and would never know ever again.
Reality shattered around her, feeling only Starfire's tender kiss and gentle caress outside of the magnificent turmoil that stormed within herself. When Starfire pulled away, the world returned in an instant and Mercury brought a hand to her chest, breathless.
"I don't know what to say..." Mercury said between gasps for air. What did Starfire do to her? She had no idea. Was it a vision? A glimpse into what went on inside Starfire's mind? Mercury couldn't tell if she fully understood Starfire now or was even further from grasping what she was all about.
Starfire smiled.
"More words would ruin the moment," Raven said.
Mercury looked at Raven and then turned back to Starfire. It made sense in a weird way; explaining what just happened would take the magic out of it. Mercury, currently somewhere between bewildered and enlightened, held hands with Starfire as the breeze of the Tower quietly drifted by.
Moments later, Robin and Cyborg came up from the stairway. "We saw the light above the Tower-" Robin said before seeing Starfire standing with Raven, Mercury, and Beast Boy. "Starfire," he said, seeming to not believe his eyes.
"Well we sure are glad to see you!" Cyborg shouted. "Booyah! Star's back, baby!" He jogged over to join the other Titans and proceeded give Starfire a bear hug which turned into a group hug with Mercury and Beast Boy joining in.
"Yes, I am most pleased to see all of you as well," Starfire said, laughing from all the affection she was receiving. "Tell me, was Doctor-of-the-Element defeated after I left?"
"Yes, he was," Robin said. The Titans turned to look at him as he walked over. "Also, Mercury is now officially a Teen Titan," Robin said, grinning. He tossed Mercury her very own communicator. "Welcome."
The announcement was followed by a chorus of cheering and clapping from the Titans, even Raven, though, less enthusiastic. It was now Mercury's turn to be embarrassed by the flood of praise and approval from her allies. "Oh, Ashley," Starfire said. "This is wondrous news!"
"Yeah, it's great," Mercury said, her words failing to describe how this made her feel. "Thank you so much," she said, choking up. "...all of you." She looked around at the group of heroes around her, the groups heroes that she was now a part of. This was better than any party.
"Now let's get to training," Robin said.
Mercury looked at Robin. "Right," she said with a nod.
"Not before she fixes my control room!" Cyborg shouted.
Mercury laughed nervously. "Yeah, about that..."
Somewhere in western Europe a young woman and aspiring physicist stood with arms crossed in a glossy white room, polished floor and walls gleaming around her. She pushed slim black frames up the bridge of her nose as she watched the D.C.E.E building in Jump City burn to the ground, emergency teams dousing the flames but unable to save anything inside.
The woman sneered at the screen. "So he achieved his 'perfect energy' and didn't bother to tell me?" A doctor and scientist in her own right, she had taken the alias of 'Alkali' to disguise herself when conducting highly 'ambitious' research.
An artificially intelligent drone floated over her shoulder, a personal robot aid by the name of 'Valence'. "It seems so," the bot chimed.
"Hmph." Alkali shook her head. "...and now he's gotten himself thrown in jail." She brushed strands of black hair away from her face and rolled her eyes. "Forgive me if I don't care to break him out."
Valence turned to Alkali, scanning her with its single sensor. "How will you proceed, Doctor?"
"Pull up his last file update," Alkali instructed. "I'd like to see this 'perfect energy' for myself."
"Accessing Doctor Element's discreet server..." Valence interfaced with the monitor Alkali was looking at, replacing the news with the data from Doctor Element's network.
"It would take ages to rebuild this from scratch," Alkali said after scrolling through several dozen pages of schematics. When she reached the end of the energy core, information from the Periodic Projects began scrolling past.
"Those blasted projects," Alkali groaned. "Such busywork." After thinking for another moment, however, she changed her tune slightly. "Though, they would be useful right about now..." She turned to Valence. "Where are Platinum and Lithium?"
"They are lost, Doctor," Valence said. "Their implants are offline."
Alkali made a face. "Hydrogen and Chromium?"
"Projects Hydrogen and Chromium are offline as well," her robot replied.
"What projects do we have left?" the young doctor asked.
"Project Zirconium was captured with Doctor Element," Valence explained, pulling up reports from the battle in Jump City. "There's also Project Tungsten, Project Gold, Project Mercury-"
"Project Mercury?" Alkaki repeated.
"Yes, Doctor," Valence confirmed.
"Pull up the data."
Within seconds Valence displayed all of the information regarding Project Mercury. Alkali read the data and was thoroughly intrigued.
"Incomplete: Ninety percent?" she asked, wondering what the story was behind that quirk in the file. She continued to read. "Metal manipulation, temperature manipulation, and radiation resistance..."
Alkali grinned.
"Yes, that one will do nicely."