-1
"Alright, where's the pot of gold?" Beast Boy muttered groggily, too out of it to make intelligible speech. Slowly, he came around to find himself in shackles. "What the hell?" He wondered. Before he had a chance to transform or even think of anything, he heard a voice.
"Finally come to, eh?" Beast Boy's head snapped up to look at a thirty-something year old man in a U.S military officer's uniform. Behind him were thirty men who appeared to be infantry, each with a gun at their side.
"Who the hell're you?" Beast Boy wondered. The man laughed.
"I am Colonel Hark, 1st in command of the good ship Charger. And you?" He inquired. Beast Boy narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not telling you a damn thing until you tell me why I'm here and why you're here," He said firmly. Hark laughed again.
"Fair enough. We are here on information from a source that is, apparently, quite reliable. You see, roughly two weeks ago we received word from a strange man who called himself Deathstroke of an attack coming from Tamaran. Sure enough, they hit Washington, targeting the White House," He began.
Beast Boy nodded. "The 'gas line' explosion," He guessed.
"Right. We had to cover it up. Anyway, Deathstroke gave us all the information we needed on Tamaran and it's inhabitants. We're here on a counter-attack mission. However, there have been…complications, specifically with this other army attacking Tamaran. Apparently, they seem to think we're a threat too, because they've been firing on us," He continued.
"And why am I here?" Beast Boy asked again.
"We were unsure of who you were and what allegiance you pledged. Your ship had no designation on it, so we simply considered it a threat. Now, who are you?" He replied, this time more firmly.
Beast Boy nodded, satisfied. "Alright. My name is Garfield 'Beast Boy' Logan. I'm with a group of heroes named the Teen Titans. We're from Earth, and we came here because-" Hark cut him off.
"That's all I needed to hear. I thought I might've been right. Deathstroke warned us about you and your little group. He told us about the Teen Titans, Tamaran's secret task force. Your success lies in your small number, according to him, and it appears we were right in our assumption," Hark said smugly.
Beast Boy was confused. "Who exactly was this guy? What'd he look like?" The changeling questioned.
Hark looked at him hard. "He was rather strange. Wore a mask that only showed one red eye. Had a load of weaponry on him at all times. He looked like a bounty hunter, honestly, but he's a reliable information source regardless," Hark replied.
Beast Boy froze. Slade? How the hell? And what's with the new name and guns and shit? What the… "Look, I think I know-"
"He also told us you would try to make him out as a bad guy, so save your breath. You will be held here until further notice," Hark said. Suddenly, a computer screen began to flash. Hark ran over, squinting downward.
"Well, this is interesting. It looks like a special one-on-one battle is taking place in the sky. Let's see… That's Tamaranian royalty, I believe? Battle of the queens, perhaps? If one overtakes the other, we might be able to clean up the rest," He mused to himself.
Queen vs. queen? So Starfire versus… who? Who the hell is Azarath's queen? "Any chance you could bring up a visual?" Beast Boy asked. Hark shrugged and hit a button. A wall-mounted monitor lit up, and Beast Boy could see the two figures going at it. He saw Starbolts fly, and he smiled as he recognized her signature green eye beams.
Then he turned his attention to the opposition. Who was that? A cold feeling grew in his stomach and his heart leapt into his throat as he suddenly saw a-
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"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Richard screamed as he woke up. His head jerked left, then right, and he froze in shock. He was…in bed. In Bruce's manor. As opposed to being on Tamaran, where he had JUST been, or at least he could have sworn it.
"What the… hell? No way it was a dream…" Richard slowly sat up. He waited momentarily, expecting Bruce or Alfred to enter the room. "Must be in the Cave," He muttered. It had seemed so real. He had seen the whole thing happen; Starfire conversing with her people, Raven doing the same, the battle between them, Beast Boy's situation… He had practically been them, hearing their thoughts, seeing things from their view as the events unfolded.
The Boy Wonder shook his head, sighed and put a hand to his forehead. It came back wet with cold sweat. He sighed again, pulled on a plain white shirt and blue jeans, and looked at the clock. "Five thirty," Robin read the display. Just about the time he usually got up, except he usually woke up to pleasant dreams instead of ones involving his friends fighting to the death.
"Ugh. Why the hell is all this happening to me? First the hallucination at the Tower, now I dream about my friends nearly killing each other? What's up with this crap?" Dick wondered aloud as he opened the refrigerator, picking out an apple and some milk to add with his Raisin Bran. He ate slowly, his mind not being able to jerk away from the dream. He clearly remembered it all. They had found Blackfire and wound up separated on Tamaran, where a war between Earth, Tamaran and Azarath was taking place… Slade had a new name and the two people he was closest to on the entire team were duking it out. Beast Boy was just about to find out that Raven was fighting Star…
"Does it mean something? Is there some deep meaning to it?" He wondered. He pondered his thoughts for a while before an idea came to him. He whipped out his communicator and dialed up Raven. A moment later, her face appeared on the screen, slightly red and a tad loopy.
"This had better be - Stop, I'm on the comm! Sorry," She apologized, glaring off screen. "As I was saying, this had better be good. You aren't supposed to be talking to me right now," Raven reminded him. Richard nodded and relived the dream to her, detailing just how vivid and real it had seemed. When he had finished, she seemed rather concerned.
"Well, the most serious thing we've had happen all week was Beast Boy getting beaten down by Terra for forging a love letter to Drake in her name. I personally think she got a little too angry for her utter denial, but…" She smirked and trailed off. Richard rolled his eyes as he caught the implications. Seeing that her attempt at humor had clearly not put him at ease, she frowned. "Listen, nothing like that has or will happen. The fort is being held down here fine, more or less. I'm glad you came to me about it, but all is well. You've got five days. Use them wisely," She advised before cutting the link.
Richard made a sound between another sigh and a growl. He wasn't going to get anywhere by living in the past. His identity lay in the present. The question, he reminded himself, is "Who am I?", not "Who was I?". Robin nodded decisively and finished his breakfast. Afterward, he scrawled a note to Bruce letting him know that he was returning to Jump City. Grabbing what little things he had brought with him, he took the bus back, hoping that he was making the right choice.
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"Damn, I worry more and more about him each day," Raven shook her head as she closed her communicator. She had barely even gotten up off the couch in the common room before the doors opened. Raven yelped as Starfire practically flashed into being, shooting from the door up to her.
"I have glorious news!" She shouted, almost causing Raven's eardrums to die.
"Gah! Star, dull roar please," She begged. Starfire reddened.
"Apologies, friend. However, I do indeed have exciting news for all of you," She said happily. Raven cocked an eyebrow.
"Being…?"
"Exactly six Earth days away from today is my Tamaranian birthday!" She squealed. Raven's brow now reversed, furrowing with its fellow eyebrow.
"Tamaranian birthday? Didn't you just have a birthday like…," She counted in her head, "three months ago?" Raven asked, confused.
Starfire nodded up and down so fast that Raven was sure the girl's neck had to have been broken in three different places. Raven cocked an eyebrow.
"So… what gives?" She asked, confused.
"Tamaranian time is not the same as Earth time. By Tamaranian standards, today I turn 40 Glenkins old!" She announced happily. Raven sweatdropped.
"O..k. Do you want another party, or…?" Raven attempted to poke at the actual point of this seemingly fruitless conversation.
"No… But there is a tradition on my planet. When a Tamaranian of the royal family turns 40 Glenkins, they are to present a mate to the king for approval… If I do not return briefly to Tamaran with a mate, they will consider me… rebellious. That is the best way I know how to describe it in Earth terms," Starfire finished, finding a small scuff on her right shoe the most fascinating thing in the world in that instant.
Raven smiled. "Oh. So you need Robin to come around before then?" She finished.
"Er…well, yes," Starfire admitted sheepishly, twiddling her thumbs and beginning to redden in the face. Raven smiled and shook her head.
"He'll work things out, don't worry about it. I'm doing all I can to help him out. We all are. You need to be working on how you're gonna convince Robin to attend a big ceremony like that," Raven told her teammate. When Starfire still looked unsure, she frowned. "If you want, I can go find him and try to give him some extra incentive," She added.
Starfire clasped her hands together. "That would be wonderful, Raven! Oh, how I thank you!" With that, she squeezed the life out of Raven and happily floated out of the room.
Outside the door, Starfire laughed quietly to herself. "I can't believe Raven would fall for that. Glenkins… and exactly how many days he has left in his week?" The Tamaranian giggled again as she floated away.
Back inside, Raven shook her head. "As if I'd fall for a lie like that. Glenkins? Not to mention being exactly the time Robin gets off his week," Raven laughed and shook her head again.
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Richard was yet again lost in thought as he walked the streets of Jump City. What the hell is wrong with me all of a sudden? Hallucinations, insecurity, reliving the past… There's got to be SOMETHING I'm missing! Richard put a hand to his forehead as he sat down on a bench outside the local museum. He looked down at the ground momentarily, clearing his head, looking abruptly upward again when his eyes met a shadow in front of him.
"Hey," Cyborg said as he took a seat next to Richard on the bench, causing it to nearly break. Looking down, Cyborg laughed nervously. "Maybe we should go sit somewhere for lunch," He suggested. Richard smirked and nodded.
"So what're you doing here? I thought the Titans and I weren't supposed to have contact?" Robin asked. Cyborg looked rather like a mischievous child.
"Well…Raven doesn't know and doesn't need to know that I'm here. Neither do any of the others. So keep it on the down low when ya get back, alright?" Cyborg said. Richard nodded.
"Okay… but why did you come here? Just to shoot the breeze?" The Boy Wonder asked again.
Cyborg smiled. "You look like you needed some man-to-man conversation," He replied. Then he sighed. "Look, man. That stuff at the Tower, that wasn't you. Raven's been having all these great ideas to try and cajole you into coming at ease with yourself. She figured that if you saw what she thought would be a good look at the future without you, you'd…I honestly don't know. It was all holograms," He explained. He proceeded to explain to Richard all of the things Raven had done, from the talking reflection to the incidence at the Tower.
When he was finished, Richard was seriously annoyed. "So I'm not going nuts. Raven's just being overzealous?" Cyborg nodded. He sighed in relief. "So wait. What's Raven getting at? What's she trying to say?" Richard queried. Cyborg rolled his eye.
"She's trying to tell you that you don't have to be one or the other. And she's right, man. Robin… yeah, it's what we call you by, but that's all it is: a name. It's not an identity. It's not a separate person. It's all you, all Richard, all Robin. You are Robin. No one else can be. Without you… without you, there is no Robin," The cybernetic teen finished. Richard looked down.
"So…" Richard bent down and reached down into his bag. He extracted his smuggled uniform. "I'm…both? How can that be, Cy? Look at me. Right now, I'm this," He gestured to himself, "and to be Robin, I'd have to change to this," He gestured to the costume. No sooner had he done it than an enormous explosion made both heroes jump out of their seats. Ahead, they saw Cinderblock storming up the street, tearing it up with each enormous footfall. The two looked between each other.
Cyborg smirked. "You gonna take time to change into that first?" He asked before running at the villain, leaving Richard staring both at himself and at the costume. Looking up, he saw in the distance the other Titans making their way to the scene. Smiling, he snatched the utility belt out of the bag, clipped it on, and ran to assist as the other Titans joined the fight.