All-Purpose Disclaimer

Teen Titans is a registered trademark of DC Comics and Cartoon Network Inc. All trademarked characters, locations, themes and ideas are used without permission in a work of fan-created fiction. The following has been done without profit and purely for entertainment purposes. All original concepts, characters, themes and ideas within are the copyrighted property of the author, not to be reproduced without prior consent. Additional information used in creating Teen Titans: Avatar courtesy of Titans Tower Online.


The flat monitor froze Terra with its single, unblinking red eye piercing through the matte black screen of an untraceable connection. Its critical gaze from the top of her coffee table pressed her back into the folds of a worn, secondhand couch, a necessary purchase made with Beast Boy's help after the extravagance of her brand new furnishings had become unbearable. But even the rough and slightly odorous upholstery could not comfort her as it usually did; her worry, as she eyed the plain paper package beside the computer, was absolute.

"You have received it?" The computer spoke in a scrambled, artificial façade of the human voice on the other end. She would have traded every small comfort she had in the Tower to hear his true voice. Surely hearing his voice would defeat all the doubt and anxiety left in her.

Leaning forward, Terra reopened the package and drew out a small, polished stone. Its deep black color belied volcanic origins. The only breach in the stone's flawless surface was a single, elegant symbol carved into its face. Terra had never seen the symbol before, and understood its function only because the scrambled voice had explained it to her. "Yes," she said.

"Good," the voice said, while its circular eye drilled deeper into Terra. "Their sorceress will not detect it in time. Activate it with a drop of your blood, and then hide it."

Terra turned the stone over in her palm, gazing into the great distance under its glistening skin. The sheer emptiness she found therein stole the anxiety from her spirit, as though her negative emotions tried to fill its void. She shivered as that void spilled into her in return. The stone vanished as she gripped it hard in her fist, forcing her eyes up. This close to the end, she couldn't afford to succumb to a sudden case of nerves.

But then her eyes found something else to fuel her concern.

"The operation will begin in one hour. All other units are standing by. Do you understand your part?"

"Yes," whispered Terra. She stared across her room, overlooking the unblinking monitor for the picture on her nightstand.

There was a brief pause. Then the voice said, "This is what we've been working toward. Simply follow the plan, and everything will be fine. Be careful."

Terra stood and crossed the room as the computer's red eye blinked out. Their plans, months in the making, had been drilled into her every which way. She didn't need to hear it again; it made her think that he had no faith in her. That made her nervous again.

More anxiety flitted from the open door of her closet, upon which a long plastic bag hung. Inside the bag was a beautiful red evening gown, an expensive delight she'd bought with Titan money for her plans tonight with Beast Boy. Its low neck and generous slit flattered Terra in all the right ways (while hiding her knobby knees), and was sure to grab the eyeballs right out of her changeling's sockets.

She fingered the black plastic a moment before continuing across the room to her original point of focus: the nightstand photo. The remembrance of her true plans that night chased away all thoughts of the evening gown as she sat upon her bed and lifted the framed photo. Two teenagers, one green and one pale, gave her dopey grins as they sat atop a rock next to Titan Island's frozen seaside. "I'm sure about this," she told the photogenic pair, wondering if she sounded more convincing to them than she did to herself. Her whole life, she hadn't been sure of anything. Even after the months of planning, she still wasn't sure. She was never sure. She had suffered too much heartache and disappointment for that.

Her eyes fell into the smiling green face. She couldn't help but smile back. Even as a photo, Beast Boy never failed to elicit a smile from her gloomiest of moods. Resting her head against the top edge
of the photo's frame, she heaved a sigh that fogged its glass, and asked, "What am I gonna do with you, Garfield?"


Teen Titans
Avatar

by Cyberwraith9


Date Night: Couples

"When there's babeage, you know who's to blame... It's Beast Boy! Ladies think the other guys are lame... They love Beast Boy! Doo-dee-doo-doo, something like that! Doo-dee-dah, doo-doo bikini strap!"

Robin clenched his eyes shut and prayed for an aneurysm to end his suffering. Tightening the lines of his suit jacket, he turned from the full-length mirror of his closet door and glared daggers into the back of an emerald crop of hair. "Gar, honest to God, if you don't stop singing that stupid song, I can't be held responsible for the consequences," he said slowly and calmly.

A nervous expression seated atop its own pressed suit turned to smile back at him. "Sorry, Robin," he said. Chuckling, he ran a hand across his scalp, ruining the effort that Robin and two tubes of gel had put into making his 'do presentable. "I guess I'm still a little nervous about this whole 'date' thing, y'know?"

Finished with his suit, Robin took pity on his comrade and went to his aid. A few deft tugs tamed the bow tie at Beast Boy's neck. Then they tackled his crow's nest with a comb. "Just relax," Robin told him. "That's why we're doing doubles tonight. If conversation starts to run dry between you two, Kory and I will be right there to pitch in."

"Thanks," said Beast Boy. "I feel a lot better about this with you guys there. You must have a lot of experience with this stuff, huh?"

Thinking, Robin turned back to his desk and poked at the pair of professionally plucked bouquets they had ordered for their respective ladies. In a measured voice, he said, "There was one time. Early in my sidekick days, I met this girl. She couldn't remember who she was, so I named her Annie. After the doll."

Beast Boy craned his neck, trying to catch a glimpse of the Teen Wonder's inscrutable face. "What? Things didn't work out?" he asked.

"She wound up being a piece of Clayface. He reabsorbed her."

A sour expression swallowed Beast Boy's nervous smile. "So, the best advice you have is..."

Robin turned with a wan smile. "Don't let a mud monster eat your girl," he said.

The points of Beast Boy's ears dipped, and then jumped at the knock on Robin's door. Beast Boy caught his bouquet as Robin threw it and took up his own. Together, they rushed to the door. An identical breath lifted their shoulders to slow the racing of their hearts. Then Robin touched the door control and painted a wide smile on his face to greet their dates.

"Hey guys," said Terra. She stood opposite them in the hall, folding her arms across a rumpled uniform she'd pilfered from her hamper. Her eyes lingered on Beast Boy, swallowing whole the delicious sight of his formalwear. Then she looked back up and said, "Change of plans. Gar and I are painting the town red on our own. Tim, you and Kory will have to fly solo tonight." Glancing back to Beast Boy, she said, "Now, let's get you out of those clothes."

Beast Boy looked from an insistent Terra to a smug Robin. "Wait. What?" His heart raced once again. He stumbled forward as Terra snagged his arm and dragged him down the hall. "But...dinner?"

Robin felt doubly glad as he waved them off. Now Beast Boy wouldn't be stuck in a four-star restaurant wondering what fork to use, and he could enjoy a night alone with Starfire. "Have fun, guys!" he called. Then, frowning, he asked, "Is Kory ready?"

"Don't know," Terra called back. "Haven't seen her since this afternoon. She with Raven?"

"No," Robin said, more to himself than to Terra. "She and Tek left for town a while ago."

Terra had just dragged Beast Boy around the corner when she popped her head back in time to turn Robin with a shout. "Tim?" she called. When he glanced back, she traced a path around her eyes. "You might want to ditch the raccoon look. You know how Kory feels about it."

Robin touched his face as she vanished around the corner again with Beast Boy in tow. The smooth, cool edge of his mask met his fingers just above his cheek. He blinked. Had he been wearing the mask this whole time?


"Definitely the green one. It matches your eyes."

Starfire smiled and took the jade hairclip from her vanity dresser. Gathering her scarlet hair, she closed the clasp, pinning her locks up in an elegant fold. The silky fire trailed from her clip and over her shoulder, spilling onto the strap of her shimmering black evening gown. A deep breath tested the low neckline of her dress as she sighed with satisfaction at her reflection. "A most excellent choice," she said.

"Well, duh," said Cyborg, standing behind her chair at her vanity dresser. He watched her examine the tight lines of her dress with a smile. It had been a good long while since he'd seen her so happy. "Now, let's talk about the rest of your accessories," he said.

"You are very kind to help me in my preparations, Vic," she said, while they perused her expansive collection of jewelry. "Surely you have other activities you would rather perform."

He pointed to earrings that would compliment the Centauren moon diamond draped from her neck. "As if there's anything more important than this," he said. "Now, remember, silverware goes from outside to in, bread is the only thing you eat with your hands, napkins go in your lap and not on your head, and don't give him anything on the first date." She giggled and pinned her ears with emeralds as he insisted, "Make him earn every inch."

Starfire stood and turned, showing them both the final product. Her golden skin glowed with excitement. "Thank you, Victor," she gushed, floating up to kiss his cheek. Adopting a concerned expression, she asked, "You are certain you do not wish to accompany us? I must confess that I do not like the notion of you remaining alone in the Tower whilst the remainder of us are cavorting the city."

Cyborg snorted. "Come with you guys so I can be Mister Fifth Wheel? Thanks, but I'd rather chill here than play referee for all that tonsil hockey y'all have planned. Besides," he said, "You and Timmy-boy need some real couple time."

The stars in her eyes blinded Starfire to Cyborg's sour look. "Yes," she breathed. "I am most excited to at last begin 'The Dating' with Tim." It had been weeks since their fateful tropical confession. She'd hardly had two minutes alone with Robin in all that time. His investigations into Slade's activities had left him all but a ghost around the Tower, but his sincerity on the sandbar had rekindled her hope. Now, on a night of his suggesting, she hoped to truly launch something special between them.

A cold metal hand pressed on her shoulder, settling her strappy high heels back to the floor. Cyborg took her other shoulder, curbing her glee with a somber look. "Yeah...Kory, have you noticed anything odd about Robin?"

Her delicate beauty crinkled. "I do not understand your meaning. Is something the matter with Tim?" she asked, growing concerned.

"I just..." Cyborg struggled to voice his concerns. He had yet to find one iota of concrete evidence to back his theory. "Be careful tonight, okay?" he asked. "For me."

She smiled and patt3ed his cheek. "Your concern is unfounded, but appreciated," she told him. "Tim and I will be fine."

He wanted to say more, but a knock at her door broke the conversation. Starfire sped to the door, a living blur of black against the pinks and purples of her room, and pounded the door control. It split apart, revealing crystal blue eyes that ate her loveliness alive.

"Wow," Tim whispered, forgetting the eight different lines he'd rehearsed in the hall. Luckily, Starfire stared adoringly into his eyes, giving his gaze an abundance of time to traverse the curve of her dress up to the brilliant smile waiting for him. "You look...I mean, you're very..."

Starfire took the bouquet from his limp hand before he dropped it. "Thank you," she said. "I return your sentiment in kind." She drew a long, fragrant breath from the flowers. "These are most beautiful. Thank you," she said again.

Tim watched her add the bouquet to a vase of fresh flowers she kept by her beside. "Beautiful," he echoed dumbly. Only a loud and awkward cough from Cyborg ended the hypnotic spell of her swaying hips. "Huh? Oh, Vic. Didn't see you there."

The towering mass of muscle and armor snorted. "Yeah," said Cyborg. "I noticed." As Starfire finished her floral arrangement, he made a series of silent gestures to Tim that indicated it was in his best interests to keep his eyes high and his hands clean that night.

"Well," said Starfire, startling both boys straight as she stood and gathered her purse. "Shall we go?"

She offered her hand to Tim, who took it gladly. But the touch of her golden skin sparked a sudden realization in him. "Oh, wait a minute. Don't forget your watch, Kory."

"Oh. Of course." Starfire returned to her dresser and drew out her slim, silvery watch. A touch of her fingertips activated the device, draining the gold from her pallor and leaving a pale, milky white. Pearly color swallowed her eyes, sparing only her irises, while faux red sprouted across her forehead from her shapely dotted brows. Now the model of earthly beauty, she asked, "So?"

"Much better," said Tim. He took her arm in hand and led her to the door with a gentlemanly air. "Don't wait up, Vic."

Cyborg knew it was now or never. "Say, Tim," he said in his best impersonation of a casual voice, "I was wondering if you knew what happened to that upgrade pack I made for Tek's armor. I finished it, and it was sitting in my lab."

Before Cyborg could accuse their leader of thievery, Tim shocked him by shrugging and saying, "Oh, right. I meant to tell you. I took care of that."

Took care of that? Cyborg had built enough hardware into that upgrade pack to level a building in the blink of an eye, and Tim had taken care of it? "So where is it?" Cyborg asked, trying to sound calm.

"I told you," Tim said as he led his adoring date out of her room, "I took care of it. Don't worry about it."

Cyborg couldn't even return Starfire's wave as the pair disappeared through her door. "Sure," he muttered to the empty room. "You kids have fun. I'll just 'take care' of things here."


Stalking through a maze of high shelves, Raven sought shelter among her one true passion from the persistent ball of anxiety trailing behind her. She buried her hands in the pocket of her hooded sweatshirt and delved deeper into A Nook for a Book, which had been rebuilt nicely since its troubles all those months ago. When she realized that no amount of walking would escape the anxious ball, she sighed and said, "It's okay."

"I'm sorry," Tek said again, following Raven into the Poetry section of the store. She, like Raven, wore civvies in place of her Titan uniform; a loose T-shirt and rumpled jeans hung awkwardly from her gawky body, occasionally tripping her up as she paced the elegant sorceress. Her apologetic face sharply mismatched Raven's scowl. "I'm really, really sorry."

"I don't care," growled Raven. She tore a book from the shelves at random and thrust her nose between its pages, never caring to read it so long as it hid her scowl from her temperamental teammate.

Hands wringing, lip-biting, Tek hesitated at the aura of cold emanating from Raven's shoulder. "It's just that I've never been to a poetry club before," Tek said, deepening the hunch of Raven's posture. "You left our table to get us those waters, and then this other guy said that first-timers had to..." Sorrow twisted the pale and dark makeup of her face, a cake of insta-goth hastily applied to her features by the club's resident jokers before they had thrust Tek upon the stage. "I didn't mean to embarrass you. I just tried thinking of words you use, and—"

Raven held up a hand, still refusing to meet Tek's eye. Even now, she had a hard time keeping Tek's haunting improvised ballad, "Cyborg Ate My Last Slice of Pie," from rotting her insides. "Just...don't worry about it," Raven said through her teeth. "Poetry isn't for everyone."

Tek whined, "I just—"

The wafer-thin remnants of Raven's patience surrendered and shattered. "If you feel that bad about it, why don't you just go get me a coffee?" Raven said slowly, measuring each word. Raven knew her naïve teammate was only trying to endear herself to everyone around her out of some pathological need to be liked. But Raven also knew that one more second of listening to that stammered apology would make her seriously reflect on her life choice of heroism over villainy.

Incredulity worked into Tek's apologetic features. "You mean, coffee's all it'll take to make up for humiliating you in front of all your friends?" she asked in a small voice.

Raven yanked her sweatshirt's hood up around her head to hide the tic working through her eye. "Like magic," she said through gritted teeth.

Tek vanished in a heartbeat, whisking through the bookstore to find its coffee bar. The anxiety left in her wake waned, allowing Raven to release the breath of tension she'd kept clutched in her chest. She replaced the book in her hands to its proper place, and then scanned the shelf before her for something interesting. With only the background noise of emotion in the store to deal with, she decided to make good use of the empathic quiet left in Tek's absence.

Raven spied an interesting tome upon the book stack's top shelf, just out of reach. She was about to levitate herself when an arm appeared from behind the blocked peripheral of Raven's hood and plucked the very volume from its place. Raven swiveled her gaze to follow the book, chasing it to the owner of the thieving hand and readying an annoyed glare with which to reclaim her book.

A tall figure stood next to Raven, previously hidden by her upturned hood, and offered her the book on a platter of his porcelain palms. "This was the one you wanted, right?" he asked, lifting the book higher toward her glare. His pale face cracked in a slight smile. "I thought you might need a hand getting it."

She eyed him from soles to smile. He was a lithe frame of relaxed muscle, shifting gracefully beneath a bulky sweatshirt and stained khaki pants. His hands were paler than any she'd seen outside of her own, and remained in an open, generous gesture as she divested them of their book. Shaggy red hair fell across one of his eyes. The other eye, colored like a shimmering emerald, sparkled at her with no notice of her unpleasant look.

A sniff worked through Raven's flared nostrils at the expectant boy, who looked little older than she. Did he expect some kind of reward for picking up a book? Did he think she needed help because she didn't have his strapping height or sinewy muscle? "And you are?" she asked, forcing extra disdain into her voice.

The boy grinned. "I'm Nobody," he said. "Who are you?" Before she could respond, he continued, "Are you Nobody too?" He shocked Raven's eyes wide and tripled his own smile as he took her ashen hands in his. "Then there's a pair of us! Don't tell. They'd advertise...you know."

Raven was mere nanoseconds from telling this stranger where he could stick his verse. But upon his touch, her mind and lungs froze as one. Physical contact overrode a majority of her empathic defenses, bombarding her thoughts with the feelings and impulses of the one she touched. It was why she wore such a heavy cloak, and why she hated being touched.

But upon the merest brush of his skin, Raven felt nothing. Nothing, in absolute, in total. His was a vacuum of emotion, with thoughts and feelings so tightly maintained that she heard nary a whisper of his mind or heart. His silence was so powerful, it drove those ambient feelings that permeated the air—like a thousand different whispers that merged into a constant roar she could never silence—into a sudden and jarring quiet she had never before experienced. For the first time in Raven's life, she heard and felt silence.

Her first impulse was to weep.

"How dreary," Raven replied breathlessly, "To be Somebody. How public, like a frog."

"To tell one's name—the livelong June," the stranger continued. He drew her closer by their collective grasp.

Raven drifted obediently. "To an admiring Bog..." she whispered. Adrift in the stranger's tranquil touch, Raven felt lost and found all at once. She stared up into his gaze, searching for something to say. "Emily Dickenson," was all she could come up with.

"Dominic Smith, actually," he said, pulling back to offer her a shallow bow. Raven kept hold of one of his hands insistently, feeling a pang of panic at the thought of losing the calm she had only now discovered. With a wry look, Dominic added, "Though I'm told the resemblance is uncanny."

A giggle crossed between them. Raven didn't recognize it as her own until she saw Dominic grin again. Her hand flew to her mouth, as though more alien sounds would emerge from her lips. "I meant the poem," she said helplessly.

"I know," he assured her. Staring at her a moment more, he squeezed her hand gently. "You have me at something of a disadvantage, miss," he said amiably. "I've told you my name, but I still don't know yours. There's no way I can let such a beautiful poetry aficionado walk out of here without at least getting her name."

The stillness rang through her, stealing every thought from her head. Her own nervous silence brought rare color to her cheeks. Lost for words, she could only manage a hoarse whisper of her name. Dominic grinned and pulled out a pen, offering it to her. When she took it in confusion, he pantomimed a telephone with his hand. "Oh," she said, "I don't really have a phone."

Dominic responded first with a short laugh, studying her face for signs of jest or a brush-off. Then his gaze widened. "Wait," he said, examining her pale pallor. "You're that Raven? The Teen Titan?" At her meek nod, he scoffed and slapped his forehead with his free hand. "Wow. I am so... This is really embarrassing. I had no idea I was hitting on my favorite super hero, who probably thinks I'm a total sleaze now, and that I'm a spaz, and I'm babbling right now..." He trailed off, rubbing the back of his head. His other hand was still firmly in Raven's tight grasp. "I'll just go."

She felt the tempest of ambient emotion surrounding them spilling back into her as he began to pull away. Like a woman dying of thirst, she clutched his fingers tight and drank of his retreating peace. "No!" she cried, stepping after him. At his surprise, she hesitated. "I mean, no. It's okay. I...I'm your favorite hero?" she asked.

Embarrassment flushed into Dominic's cheeks. "Seriously, I'm sorry. You probably get this kind of thing all the time."

"I don't really get out much," said Raven, looking sheepish. Before she could stop herself, she added, "I might get out more often if I got a reception like this every time."

Raven clapped a hand back over her mouth, renewing the smile on Dominic's face. "Then I hope I'm around the next time you get out. Maybe I can give you a reception without the mindless babbling." Pocketing his pen, he gave her a nod and slipped from her clammy grasp. Raven's ethereal senses squalled with the sudden return of a world of stray emotions that pounded her from every direction. The careless feeling of others deafened Raven as she watched Dominic disappear behind a row of shelves. She couldn't bring her jellied legs to follow him.

As she stood there, stunned in the wake of a mind like none she'd ever encountered, Tek wandered back to her with an armful of balanced cups. She cast a confused look over her shoulder at the tall figure winding away from them, and asked Raven, "Who was that?"

"I don't know," Raven murmured from a world away.

Tek shrugged and began extracting the plethora of coffees from her arms. "Kay. I didn't know what you wanted, so I got you a mocha, a latte, a cappuccino, a chi tea, a mochachino, a cappalatte, and a chi mochachinolatte with an extra shot of espresso."

She pressed one of the cups into Raven's hand. Furious anxiety flooded into Raven at Tek's touch. She choked and pulled away, reasserting her feeble mental walls too late to block the unwelcome feelings. The drink fell between them, striking the floor and vomiting fragrant brown liquid onto Raven's sneakers. Raven rubbed at her temples and ejected the borrowed emotions from her mind, wincing at the piercing headache that followed their passing.

More apology blared from Tek's sorrowful face and into Raven's ethereal barriers. "If you didn't like those, you could have just..." She trailed off as she watched Raven bend over in mental anguish. The sorceress clutched at her head in a manner Tek had never before seen. Her own guilt faded as she crouched after Raven, concerned. "Are you okay?"

Raven released a slow breath as the emotional noise faded to its familiar, manageable din. She straightened and felt the pounding in her head began to lessen. "I'm fine," she said. She tried with all her might to remember the feeling of peace she had drawn from Dominic, never once questioning how he could do something so amazing to her with just a touch. To her dismay, she couldn't quite recall the feeling. It remained out of reach, like the book that had acted as catalyst between them.

"You look pale," said Tek. She made a face, and added, "Paler than usual."

Raven was about to retort when the floor began to quake. Books rained from their shelves, bouncing off the panicked patrons of the store. Earthquakes were common occurrences in Jump City, but rarely did they reach this scale. Raven grasped Tek's hand and dragged her out of the row of shelves toward the front of the store, keeping them both well away from the broad glass windows. "Stay calm," she told Tek. "We just stay out from under falling objects, and we'll be fine."

Tek's eyes bounced as the store rattled around them. Her hands pressed into the crook of her elbow, where she felt the dull sting of an hours-old needle prick. It helped her overcome the icy fear she felt as her inner beast clawed at its tranquilized cage in the throes of the quaking chaos. Then her eyes fell upon the ceiling, and she discovered a new reason to be afraid. "Raven!" she cried, pointing up.

Ready to dismiss Tek's latest concern, Raven gave the ceiling a cursory glance. Then she looked again, scowling at the drywall as it bubbled away, oozing burgundy slime down the walls. The shaking began to subside as more of the slime ate through t he wall. Yellow eyes surfaced in the slime, narrowing immediately on the Titan ladies. A shrill, inhuman screech filled the Nook, drawing a wince from Tek and a scowl from Raven.

"I think I recognize this guy from the files," Tek said. She pulled the oversized T-shirt over her head, revealing her teal, open-backed jumpsuit underneath. Shucking her jeans, she asked, "Is this the actor who turned into clay or the sleeping guy made out of toxic waste?"

Raven watched the walls around the ooze darken and decayed in a familiar fashion. Civilians still in the store screamed all around them, too frightened to run away. Raven's head pounded as she drew out her communicator. "This is one unlucky bookstore," she muttered.


The sound of clacking keys kept Cyborg company, as it had for many nights in recent memory. He hunched over the keyboard of the Titans Tower mainframe, his bleary eyes leveled at the enormous monitor comprising one wall of the Mainframe Room. Coffee steamed beside his keyboard in a mug which promised, "Instant Human: Just Add Coffee." Files flew on and off the monitor wall at speeds most humans couldn't follow, displayed in binary so his computerized mind didn't have to bother with the trifle of reading.

Cyborg bit down on a yawn and flicked on the recording function of his implants with a thought. "Investigation, Day Thirty. Victor Stone recording." The data stream on screen paused while he rubbed his eye, blinking hard. Weeks of searching hadn't revealed much more than circumstantial suspicions, but his perseverance had started to yield results. "I've begun to put together some of the pieces of the puzzle," he said to his phantom listener. "While I have no proof that Robin is a double-agent for Slade, I have discovered several anomalies in his behavior that, coupled with evidence taken from the Mainframe, supports my theory.

"First is a strange series of communications made by Robin over the last few weeks. Robin attempted to delete all records of these communications. Only my brilliant forensic programming skills were able to detect and recover the deleted files." He paused for a self-congratulating smile before continuing both the recording and the streaming data. "I've been unable to trace all but one of the calls made. That call was placed to the Justice League Watchtower in orbit. The nature of the call is unknown."

Scowling at the dancing codes on-screen before him, he said, "Additionally, Robin has been receiving strange materials here at the Tower. I've found receipts for no less than eight deliveries made to the Tower, each of them from different courier services with no return addresses, and each of them signed for by Robin. All attempts to track down the received materials have been unsuccessful."

The chair beneath him creaked in muted protest as Cyborg rose. A sudden and inescapable rumbling had set his stomach aflame. As he had already downloaded the pertinent data from the mainframe, and the recording device was built into him, Cyborg saw no reason not to continue dictating his findings on a quest bound for Ops' bountiful kitchen. "That wouldn't be so bad," he told his recorder, "If those were the only materials unaccounted for. But two more pieces of serious equipment have gone missing. The first I mentioned in my last log: one of the four LexCorp construction drones we use around the Tower for repair and renovation. But a new disappearance has me more worried: the upgrade I designed and built for Tek's armor, designed to interface with the hard-point energy shunts built into it (reference Technical File Six point One). When confronted with the disappearance of the upgrade, Robin confirmed that he had taken it, but refused to reveal where."

A grimace crossed Cyborg's shadowed features. He entered the stairwell and began the long ascent to Ops. Both his footsteps and his voice echoed with an eerie quality through the expansive space. "Robin has been gathering information and equipment, and is frequently and inexplicably absent for long periods of time. While I can't comment on the exact nature of his absences or gathered materials, I suspect that both will be employed against us tactically. Robin has done this before, using the alternate persona of Red X to fight the Titans to a standstill (reference Case File One point Nine)."

He reached Ops, shouldering through its doors and into the equally dark center. His expression dipped further into a scowl. "I'm not going to let him get away with it again. Whether or not Robin has become Slade's Apprentice willingly, I won't let him tear this team apart again."

Cyborg paused the recording. He leaned against the face of their refrigerator and ran a cleansing breath through his world-weary frame. "All this intrigue and exposition is making me hungry," he decided aloud. Sickly yellow light painted his circuitry green as he opened the fridge and plumbed its depths for suitable consumables. In short order, his snack became a team effort: Robin's deli-sliced swiss cheese, Raven's organic cottage bread, Beast Boy's assorted greens, Terra's leftover boneless chicken wings, Starfire's mustard, and Tek's abandoned hot peppers would team up to form the mightiest snack in all the land.

"Nothing calms the nerves like a light snack," Cyborg assured himself. His stack of containers wobbled atop his palm as he pulled out of the fridge. "Makes you forget all your—"

As the last of the light vanished behind the closing fridge door, Cyborg caught a fleeting glimpse of a glare watching him from atop the counter. Scowling, he dropped his food and blinked, switching his optic implants to night vision mode. The room flared bright as day. Then Cyborg's eye bugged.

Try as he might, Cyborg couldn't find a square inch of Ops' shadows that didn't hold a dark, skulking figure. Dull circles of color bisected each of their scowls, which were leveled at Cyborg, and glinted with murder. Now discovered, the roving packs of graceful, silent figures ceased their circling, shifting instead into a slow advance on Cyborg. Every avenue of escape held a dark soldier waiting to catch him. He was cornered.

"...troubles," Cyborg finished. His arm mechamorphed into a sonic cannon and thrummed dangerously. Questions of how his latest security upgrades had failed him fled from the tension of the impending battle. He clenched his knuckles, gritted his teeth, and steeled himself for a rough night.


Terrified trembling overtook his twiggy frame as the fearsome ratcheting sound dragged him higher. He could practically see eye to eye with clouds, and they were still climbing higher. A thousand different birds flitted through his mind, teasing him in their flight. Their shapes were his to have if only he could concentrate enough to take them. But he was too afraid to show fear in the face of the bright smile at his side, so he gripped the iron bar across his lap and pasted a smile over his terror.

"Is this a bad time to mention that I sometimes don't do well with heights?" Beast Boy shot sidelong through his teeth.

Terra pulled her gaze back over the edge of their car to give him an incredulous look. "You have to be joking," she said. Her eyes strayed to their ascending track, which their car consumed beneath its undercarriage. In another few seconds, they would reach the top of the track, and the ride would begin. She savored the remaining time with a breathtaking look out across the fair. Tiny thrill seekers milled among the dancing lights and excited screams far below, all of them the size of ants to Terra. The perspective made her smile. "You fly all the time," she said distractedly.

Beast Boy tugged on the "safety" bar holding him down. "Maybe. But that's not when I'm strapped into a screaming metal death trap put together in a day by carnies."

Their car, the first in a long train that trailed along the track behind him, reached the apex with an ominous pause. Terra grasped Beast Boy's hand from the bar and squeezed it tight. "Shut up and scream," she told him, and grinned.

The next two minutes went by in a stomach-tossing blur for Beast Boy. He had prowled the skies as a falcon and ridden in a futuristic jet at speeds the envy of sound, all without a twitch of acknowledgement. But strapped into a quickly constructed roller coaster, Beast Boy screamed himself hoarse, and flailed his free hand as though he were in mortal peril. The bone-jarring jerks of the coaster's path sent his insides tumbling. Only the warm, pink hand wrapped around his pale green knuckles kept him in human shape and in his rattling seat.

Beast Boy wasn't sure when or how they got off the ride. After the blur of g-forces and swirling fairgrounds, he became aware of solid dirt beneath his boots and a soft hand still clutching his. The owner of that hand pumped her free fist as she dragged him through the ride's exit. "That was the best!" she cried, spinning them both.

The lights and sounds of the fair blended around him into a nauseating blur. "Feelin' woozy," he said, and urped.

Terra gave Beast Boy a wry sneer. "Never would have pegged you for such a weenie, Gar," she teased. When her laughing eyes left his greener-than-usual face, they found a crowd of gawkers consolidating from the packed booths and rides of the fair. Her gaze narrowed at the unwelcome attention their Titan uniforms were garnering. Whispers began working through the edge of the crowd, dulling the edge of her good mood. "I'm getting bored with this scene," she said loud enough for the nosy gawkers to hear. "Let's get out of here."

"Nng... Sure," muttered Beast Boy. He rubbed his head and groaned. "Where we goin'?"

One look at his lolling eyes returned Terra's smile. She took Beast Boy's arm and looped it through hers. "Let me worry about the driving, handsome. I wouldn't want to explain a pterodactyl stuck headfirst in some water tower."

The mud at their feet rose in a perfect circle, forming a thick disc that whisked the teens into the air. Their onlookers gasped in appreciation as the pair vanished into the starry night. Still a touch disoriented, Beast Boy wrapped his arms around Terra's slender hips and stayed close. The smooth flight of Terra's earthen pedestal easily bested any roller coaster in his opinion. "No sudden moves, okay?" he asked.

Terra felt his breath tickle her ear, and she blushed. "Long as you promise not to fly away," she said.

City lights shrank with distance as they ascended higher. Soon the world below had faded into a blanket of twinkling lights that mirrored the stars above them. It felt to Terra like they had floated into heaven itself. There, their flight drew to a halt, hanging between worlds with only each other.

"There," she said at last, gazing through the cloudless refuge at their sprawling world. "That's much better."

Gripping the edge of their disc, Beast Boy looked straight down. There was no vertigo to spoil his balance now that he was free to shapeshift as needed. But he did cast an uncertain look at the golden twinkle in Terra's blue eyes. "You can hold us up here?" he asked.

A bashful smile pooled between Terra's dimples. Her hands fidgeted between them, playfully teasing his into her grasp. "I'm not that same dusty little girl you met in Jump Canyon, Gar," she told him.

The disc beneath them quadrupled in size, thinning out to no thicker than half an inch, remaining solid as a rock. She pulled him down on their blanket of earth so they sat eye to eye. Their noses brushed one another at the tips.

"You'd be surprised what I can do," she murmured, and lowered her lips toward his.

A yawn exploded from Beast Boy's mouth at the worst possible moment, chasing Terra's kiss back. She gave him an annoyed look while he finished his yawn. His eyes watched her over the rim of his mouth, brimming with apology. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "It's not the company, I swear. I just wasn't expecting so much tonight. Shooting pool at that diner, walking through downtown, going to the fair..." Stifling another yawn, he said, "Maybe we should call it a night."

"And waste this view?" she asked. A playful punch to his arm gave him a smile to match hers. "C'mon, the night's still young. Or," he amended, "Maybe the morning is, I dunno. Let's go find some excitement!"

Beast Boy laughed. His guffaws elongated into another yawn. "Seriously, gorgeous, I'm bushed. And Commandant Red Bird is probably going to bust us out of bed in four hours for another surprise combat drill." At her disappointed look, he rubbed her shoulder and said, "Cheer up, cute stuff. I promise this won't be our last night with your emerald Prince Charming. We could even go out tomorrow night, if you want."

Terra's expression sank slowly into solemn stone. She looked down in silence, considering the irrelevant world spread far below them. "And what if we couldn't?" she said. Looking back into his eyes, she asked, "What if we only had tonight?"

His brow crinkled. "Yeah, but we don't. We have all the time we need," he said.

Terra watched his face grow more curious, keeping hers a blank slate. Then, slowly, she leaned into him and kissed him, softly at first, but with a growing need. Her hands found his chest and spread across his ropy muscle as she pressed him to their floating piece of heaven. Her lips became insistent, desperate, parting for her tongue to explore him insatiably.

Shocked at her aggression, Beast Boy broke her kiss. He stared up at her from the flat of his back as she slid her legs around his waist. "Tara, what...uh, what are you..."

Terra's lips silenced him softly. As they kissed, her hand reached down and drew a handful of dirt from their platform. She drew back, capturing his eyes with a soulful look. "My whole life has been one screwed-up disappointment after another," she whispered. "I didn't think I could believe in anything anymore. But I believe in you. I'm sure about you."

She brought her hand up, dirt and all. Her fingertips lifted the edge of his uniform shirt. There, her borrowed dirt elongated and sharpened, arcing beneath his shirt and up his chest into a long, rigid foil. With one swift pull, she split his uniform open, drawing a gasp out of him that made his bare chest heave.

Unable to speak, Beast Boy became a willing victim. Terra bent low to kiss the shallow ravine of his chest. She worked her mouth up his neck and across his jaw until they were face to face once more. Her hands slid down the smooth skin stretched across his ribs and reached the hem of her black, cropped shirt. She dug her fingers into the stretchy material, preparing herself with a penetrating study of Beast Boy's mouth. Then she sat up, and tugged the hem of her shirt past her ribs.

Beast Boy caught her hands, holding them at bay with a kitten's strength. His head spun furiously. With shaking voice, he said, "Tara, I don't know..."

A ravenous hunger spilled from her eyes. "I do," she said, and lifted the clingy fabric over her head.

To Be Continued