Teen Titans
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By Cyberwraith9
Red Robin: Power
Cyborg stormed out of the Tower and into the midst of the camp. Beast Boy loped behind him, hard-pressed to keep up. Together, they marched to the girls' tent, which Cyborg opened without preamble.
"Wake up," he barked.
Bleary Starfire roused first, sitting up with her zipped sleeping bag wrapped around her. She appeared as a purple caterpillar with a beautiful face and bed head as she sleepily asked, "Cyborg? What is the time?"
Quiet rage furrowed his features. He looked years older than he had only hours ago. "Get dressed and ready," he said.
Starfire extricated her arms from the bag and reached to the slumbering Raven at her side. Pulling Raven's earplugs, she echoed Cyborg's command, to which the sorceress grumbled and removed her sleep mask. Then Starfire looked past Raven to where a comatose Tek lay sprawled against the back of the tent. Starfire asked Cyborg, "Shall I—?"
"Leave her. Just you and Raven."
Cyborg zipped their tent shut and waited impatiently for them to exit. Through the rustle of clothing and Beast Boy's attempts at conversation, he stared back at the city in silence. Guilt and anger warred behind his glare for control, though he knew that neither emotion would help him in the coming hours.
After an unbearable thirty seconds, Raven and Starfire squeezed out of the tent dressed in their rumpled uniforms. Yawns struck their mouths in near perfect synchronization. "What now? Is the Puppet King stealing someone's box lunch?" Raven asked.
Cyborg struck her dumb with two words. "It's Robin. Smith just called. Robin and Superboy had a major brawl downtown. It didn't end well for Superboy. They just pulled him off of a flagpole with serious burns and contusions."
"Will he—?" Starfire began.
"He's being taken to S.T.A.R. Labs for treatment," said Cyborg.
"Why would—?"
"We don't know," he said. "Nobody knows who started the fight. But we have dozens of eyewitnesses that say Robin sure as hell finished it."
One after the other, Beast Boy and Raven calcified their expressions to match Cyborg's. Only Starfire remained in disbelief. "Robin would not do this," she murmured. "He would not hurt his friend."
"I think Red X would disagree with you," Raven reminded her.
"So would Red Robin," said Cyborg. "We're mobilizing now, y'all. We're taking care of this tonight."
The mismatched pair to his left nodded their silent agreement, and then started toward the shore. Cyborg turned to follow when he noticed that Starfire hadn't budged. She stood frozen, staring into nothing, her lips pursed with confusion. At Cyborg's questioning look, she said, "This cannot be Robin. It cannot. Robin takes things too far, but he does not hurt his friends. Not like this. Robin is not like this."
"He is hurting people, Kory," he said, and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Whatever his reason, he's crossed a line. And we haven't done anything until now because he's one of us."
Her voice cracked. "But surely someone else…the Justice League, or…?"
"He's one of us," Cyborg said again, slowly. "This is…this is something we have to do ourselves. Something we owe him. Something…" Closing his eye, he finally admitted, "It's something we've owed him from the moment he did wrong by us."
Starfire would not be swayed. "No. We cannot…"
With aching tenderness Cyborg squeezed her shoulder. Then he stepped back, knowing full well that she would not, could not, follow him. "We don't have a choice anymore, Kory. And I'm sorry for that."
He left Starfire standing in the shadow of their husk of a home. As he, Beast Boy, and Raven vanished into the ether, Starfire gazed out at the city, and wondered how so much could go so wrong so quickly. "Robin would not do this," she repeated to herself over and over, becoming less convinced with each repetition. "Robin would not do this."
Then, with a glimmer of realization, she stopped and mulled over her words. She tasted them slowly, savoring them in a new light. "Robin would not do this," she drawled.
Robin felt good.
When Superboy had defied him, he still felt regret. But more than that, he felt right. Raw righteousness filled each blow he meted out for justice. It lifted him to new heights. His symbiote—his partner—took his sense of justice and turned it into power. Power that filled a void he never knew. Power that made him whole.
He patrolled the streets atop that sense of justice. Scarlet light shimmered on the buildings wherever he flew, sending those few people still outside scurrying into their shelters. So much the better. It was no longer safe for people to walk the streets, not until he made it safe again.
Then he heard a sound that had become a rarity in Jump City. A motor rumbled around the corner. Curious, Robin dropped to street level, and came face to face with the angled windshield of the CUTTER.
Robin narrowed his scowl, his gaze peering past the dense alloys of the tank to find a single occupant in the driver's seat. "Cyborg," he said to the idling tank, "there's a curfew in place. Take your toys back to the island."
The forward turret atop the CUTTER swung around. Its double barrels rested their aim squarely on Robin.
Robin smirked. Apparently this night was destined to become one long contest for dominance. Honestly, he had expected something like this, but after a greater buildup. But he wasn't about to complain. Out of respect for their former friendship, he said, "Victor, don't be stupid. This will only end one way. So turn around and save yourself the embarrassment."
The moment stretched on. Then the CUTTER slowly backed away, its treads crunching against the perpetual carpet of flotsam strewn through the ailing city. Robin smirked again. Then his expression fell at the flash of the turret, which was the only warning he received before burning force enveloped him and threw him down into the sewers.
Cyborg lifted his thumb from the trigger and glowered into the spray of pavement into which Robin had vanished. The wireless link connecting him to the CUTTER let him shift into reverse and activate its other weapons hands-free while he tapped his communicator. "I found him. Thirty-Seventh Street."
"On our way. Don't take him on without us," Raven's voice answered.
"No chance of that. Come in with guns blazing. Out." The CUTTER kicked up a dusty cloud as it backpedaled down the street. Cyborg smashed the brake, locking the tank's treads at the end of the block. Then he waited.
He gritted his teeth. That first shot had been the hardest he had ever made. He only hoped it would get easier. A clattering drew his gaze to the yoke. His hands shook. He gripped the yoke harder, cracking its plastic.
The gaps in the street flashed red. Robin exploded out of the pavement. He hurtled at the CUTTER with blazing fists. Cyborg punched the throttle forward and met Robin's charge with plasma blasts from the CUTTER's turrets. Robin dodged high, just as Cyborg predicted. The glowing teen flew into Cyborg's crosshairs, which directed the missile racks that sprang from the tank's sides. A wave of explosions bounced Robin from one end of the sky to the other.
Cyborg fired until the missile racks emptied. Then he scanned the smoky haze. Robin was nowhere overhead. Instead, Cyborg found him when the windshield began to glow and melt beneath a scarlet onslaught. Hastily, he grabbed a thick cable he had propped in the navigator seat and plugged it into his chest.
The windshield ran like melting butter under Robin's hands as he parted it with a gesture. "I didn't think you were this stupid, Vic," he called into the widening hole. "Maybe this is just a cry for—"
When Robin breached the CUTTER, he saw Cyborg standing on the other side. A sonic cannon sat leveled at Robin's nose, with Cyborg's glare behind it for aim. A glowing cable dangled from Cyborg's chest, throbbing with the same power that shone in Cyborg's cannon. Blue sonic energy enveloped Robin's head, louder and more powerful than anything Cyborg had ever produced. Every molecule in Robin's head shook as he tumbled back and struck the ground hard.
Cyborg climbed out the windshield and stood on the CUTTER's nose. The cable snaked after him as he jumped to the ground. "I'm sorry, Robin," he said.
The after-resonance in Robin's ears made Cyborg's words mere whispers in the din. Robin rolled over and shouted, "Sorry for betraying me?"
Another sonic blast struck Robin in the chest and drove him through the pavement. He grinded to a halt with a pile of broken street behind him. His scream was lost in the shrieking sonic. Cyborg approached until his cable drew taut. He kept his beam centered on the writhing renegade. "I'm sorry I didn't realize sooner, man," shouted Cyborg. "You need help."
Pencil-thin beams shot from the blue sonic mess and sliced through Cyborg's cable. Separated form the CUTTER's power, the cannon lost its advantage. Its stream shrank into a mere trickle by comparison. Robin forded the stream to its source, and stood before Cyborg. The sonic cannon hardly made him quake.
"Looks like you're the one who needs help," Robin sneered.
As Cyborg ceased his cannoning, an impossible blackness blossomed in his armor from which Raven erupted. Ribbons of ether trailed from her fingers. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" she cried, and struck Robin with a pile driver of pure thought. Robin flew back, leaving Raven time to turn to Cyborg and remark, "You couldn't talk him down?"
"He tore open my tank," he said.
"So, 'no,' then."
Cyborg knocked her aside and took the full force of Robin's retaliation. Red bolts hammered his armor, smashing him back into the CUTTER's grille. Raven saw Robin streaking at her in a flash of red. She pulled her soul-self around her in time to ward against his fiery punch. The force of the blow rattled her inside and out.
Cringing, Raven tried to gather her focus. "Robin," she said, gasping as his next punch struck her bubble, "snap out of it. Even you have to see—"
"The only thing I see is a poor taste in teammates," Robin shot back. The bubble shattered beneath his fist. Raven cried at the psychic backlash. Then she yelped as Robin's grasp twisted her cloak. He drew their faces together and shouted, "You people were the worst mistake of my life. I should have known I couldn't trust any of your kind."
A green leopard pounced on Robin, knocking him away from Raven. Robin fell on his back and kept the snarling cat at bay with one hand. The cat shrank back into a gangly boy, who crouched on Robin's chest with a pleading expression. "Dude, this is nuts," Beast Boy simpered. "You can't seriously think—"
Robin batted Beast Boy off. He snarled and stood to watch Cyborg catch Beast Boy. Cyborg set the changeling down, and then stood with Raven against Robin's glare. "You people are pathetic," spat Robin.
"Even you knew where to draw a line, Robin," Cyborg said. "What you did to Control Freak and Jonny Rancid was way out of line. But what you did to Superboy…"
Beast Boy stood tall, and hoped that no one could hear the terror in his voice when he said, "You're the reason we're a team."
Raven looked into Robin, and blinked. She had only seen anger like this once before, and the sight of it in him made her knees buckle. "You're out of control. You need help. You need to stop."
The light masking Robin's eyes flared. "Pathetic," he said again. "You people weren't a team. You were a means to an end. I've outgrown you."
They scattered at Robin's charge, which tore the street apart. He pulled his fist out of the ground and blasted Raven through a lamppost. A burst from his eyes chased a green kangaroo back. Then he followed a sonic blast back to its origin and grabbed the cannon. A simple twist tore the aperture from Cyborg's arm.
Cyborg cried out and clutched his sparking stump. Red light washed his shadow away. He looked up into the bolt gathering in Robin's palm. "You're the weakest of us all, Cyborg," Robin told him. "You're a little boy trapped inside a monster. Desperate for anyone's acceptance. Desperate for anyone who needs you more than they want to get rid of you."
A green lynx leapt on Robin's back and latched on with its claws. The lynx gnawed on Robin's head to no effect. Robin took off like a shot, flying hard and fast, and smashed his back into a building, sandwiching the cat. When he pulled back, a dizzy Beast Boy hung in the building's façade.
"And you. A monster trapped in a little boy." Robin pulled Beast Boy out of the crater by his neck. "You're not fooling anyone, little jester. You aren't human. You're barely an animal."
Beast Boy felt his windpipe clench beneath Robin's grip. His vertebrae creaked as his vision tunneled. He thought he was losing consciousness until he felt himself slip through Robin's fingers and reappear at Raven's side half a block away.
Wisps of her soul trailed off his body. He shivered from the unearthly cold and then again at her touch. "Thanks for the 'port," he wheezed.
"Don't talk." Raven reached for his bruised throat with glowing hands.
She jerked back as Robin slammed into Beast Boy. Beast Boy screamed as his lower half cracked into new angles beneath Robin's thunderous landing. He rolled up and clutched his legs, sobbing, blinded with pain as Robin stepped off him to round on Raven.
"You," Robin spat at her.
Raven's soul-self wrapped around Robin, cocooning him from shoulder to toe. With a chant of her incantation, Raven willed the cocoon to contract. She held Robin in the air and crushed the fight out of him. His face grew red with blood and rage. "This is where you tell me something about myself?" she said snidely, fighting his strength with her concentration, which struggled with Beast Boy's agonized screams. "Go ahead. Tell me that I'm lonely, and I desperately want to be loved."
The soul-self around Robin's arms began to crack. He flexed. He strained. The cracks grew. "No," he grunted. "We both know you hate everyone, your friends included."
Red beams shot from Robin's eyes and hammered Raven's chest. She tumbled back, smoldering, and beat the flames from her uniform. Smoke stung her eyes as her skin bubbled around the raw, throbbing burn between her breasts. Had it been deeper, the blast would have cooked her lungs.
With a roar, Robin burst from the soul cocoon. He floated upon her with brimming fists of light. "You're just another girl rebelling against daddy. Doing good just to spit on the family legacy." At her astonished horror, he grinned. "Was I not supposed to know that?"
His fists erupted. Raven pushed a soul shield against Robin's beams. The shield began to buckle immediately. Desperately, she looked around, and saw Beast Boy collapsed in pain. "Beast Boy!" she screamed.
Somehow, Beast Boy heard her, for he rolled over, and witnessed Robin advancing on her shield behind a continuous stream of scarlet death. Tears blurred his vision. Pain wracked his throat. He tried to call back, but his voice erupted in another scream.
Raven sweated at the waves of heat rolling off the inside of her shield. Her burn throbbed. Her concentration waned against the onslaught. Crushing shut her eyes, she yelled, "You can't have broken legs, you idiot! You're a shapeshifter! Quit screwing around and help me!"
Her soul shield evaporated. Red light enveloped her. Raven screamed as the unbearable heat tore through her. Black flakes peeled away. Skin or cloth, she didn't know. Pain consumed her inside and out until her mind shut down in a desperate bid to preserve her sanity.
Robin caught the collapsing sorceress by the scrap of uniform still clinging to her raw skin. His eyes flared, smoldering a point between her eyes. "Time to send you home to daddy," he said.
Cloven hooves kicked Robin far away from Raven. Before he could recover, he was tackled by a green creature unlike any he had ever seen. The creature's tail was a serpent that plunged its dagger fangs into Robin's side. Hooves pinned Robin's arms to the ground as the creature's leonine mouth bathed him in an ear-splitting roar. "Get away!" the creature snarled.
The green creature belched fire full in Robin's face. Its tail gouged a poisoned arc in Robin's chest. For the first time in a long while, Robin felt pain. Mortal pain. It filled every corner of his steely heart with rage. Roaring back, Robin grabbed the ugly chimera by its hooves and threw it as hard as he could. The creature disappeared like a bullet through the nearest building, and did not return.
Robin staggered to his feet. As he wiped the char from his face, he felt a gnat buzz against the back of his head. He turned and saw Cyborg, who cradled his remaining hand. Quick, precise, Robin struck Cyborg again and again, denting his armor, breaking his circuits, until Cyborg fell to his knees, bleeding sparks and coughing hemotrolium.
"If you Titans can't handle the new order of things, then there's no room for you in this city anymore," Robin decreed.
Cyborg glared up at Robin. "Judge, jury, and executioner, all rolled into one," he spat contemptuously.
His hand poised to finish the job, Robin said, "This city needs justice."
"This city does not need your justice." Both foes looked up. Starfire stood on the air overhead. She glared down at Robin, her eyes a glowing mask reminiscent of Robin's, her arms folded across her chest.
Robin shoved Cyborg aside and levitated to her. The air around them shimmered with power, shifting back and forth, as though their respective angers were pushing against each other. "What happens now, Kory? You beg me to stop? You tell me how much you need me?" he asked mockingly. The air around him flooded with his rage, outshining hers in scarlet brilliance. "Are you going to cry?"
Starfire remained silent. Her lavender uniform smoked beneath Robin's spiteful aura. If it hurt, she did not react.
"You disgust me. From the moment you landed, I've done nothing but carry you. I did everything for you. I taught you to speak! And the one time I needed you, you turned on me. You betrayed me!"
"I am sorry you feel that way," she said.
"Sorry? Sorry doesn't…" His aura flared as rage choked his voice. Cyborg below flinched and shielded his eyes, but Starfire didn't blink. "Sorry buys you nothing, girl. Your fate will be the same as theirs," snarled Robin.
"If that is how you feel…"
Robin laughed derisively in her face. "Why are you even here?" he taunted.
Her punch drove Robin through an abandoned office building. He plowed through brick, mortar, wood, plaster, steel, and glass. When he exited the other side amidst a spray of building, Starfire was waiting for him, floating, her arms folded once more as though she had never moved.
"I want my Robin back," she said.
Starfire ducked his punch and hammered his kidney. The blow stunned Robin, leaving him helpless against a kick that doubled him over. She rested her heels on his heaving back and shoved him ten stories with a single push. Her starbolts met him on the ground, blossoming in a blast that shook the neighborhood.
Debris rattled around Robin as he pulled himself out of the street. He tasted copper, and spat red. Then he glared at the lilac speck hovering high above him. A low growl bit into his shout: "How dare you?"
A scarlet explosion sent Robin hurtling into the sky. Cyborg rounded the corner in time to catch the explosion and stumble back. The metal Titan watched as red and green collided over the city. Colors danced and clashed, disappearing from his view for a more distant part of the horizon. Groaning, Cyborg rose on shaky legs. He started to follow, but an ashen form lying still in the street made him reconsider.
He lurched to Raven and cradled her in his stubbed arm. His remaining hand rapped her cheek as lightly as he could manage. Her skin glistened with blistering burns where her uniform had been scorched off. She awoke with a heave that arched her back. Cyborg laid her gently on the rubble while she screamed with her eyes and bit her cracked lip.
It was another minute before she could speak again. "I'm okay," she rasped. Her words shook. Cyborg could hear the agony bottled behind them. It was nothing short of a miracle that she stood and tore away the remainder of her cloak. "What happened?" she asked.
"Starfire happened. She looked like she was holding her own." Cyborg looked up in hope, but saw only a smoky sky.
"Where's Beast Boy?"
Cyborg didn't know. Ignoring her protests, he picked her up and carried her. They tracked Beast Boy's path three blocks until they found him facedown in a trench of his own making. Raven pointedly extracted herself from Cyborg's arms and helped him roll Beast Boy. Even she couldn't help but gasp at the sight of his face.
"Buh," Beast Boy slurred through swollen lips. Bloody mucus ribboned from the pancake his nose had become. Bruising seeped beneath his skin and dribbled from a grimy cut that spanned his forehead. His eyes were dilated and disjointed.
A quick scan confirmed Cyborg's fears. "He's got a concussion," Cyborg said. Raven's glowing hands were halfway to Beast Boy's forehead already. He knocked her healing touch aside, and said, "Can you heal him and still keep going? Would either of you be ready to fight?"
Raven hesitated. She could feel Beast Boy's pain boiling against her psychic defenses. To heal him, she would have to open herself and accept his pain in full. She would feel as concussed as he did now. "No," she admitted.
"Then don't," Cyborg said. "He'll live, and I need you."
"But—"
Cyborg scooped up Beast Boy, who stared groggily into his friend's cracked eye. Seeing firsthand what Robin had become, what he was willing to do, Cyborg knew they had only one choice left. "Let's get moving. This isn't over yet," he said.
"You ungrateful little nothing!" Robin shouted. He dove upon Starfire and knocked her through a cloud. Jump City spiraled beneath them as they grappled with burning hands. Their auras blended into a crackling yellow that flashed like lightning in the overcast sky. "Child! Weakling! You can't match me!"
Starfire glared into the visage of the horrible creature who dared to wear that face. His taunts did nothing but fuel the fire inside her. She lashed out and struck his chin, turning away his blazing eyes. She struck again, and felt the bones of her hands crack.
Her body hurt. Her skin burned. Her innards grew cold as she took their fire and poured it into the creature's ugly face. Let it hurt. Let it burn. She refused to be bested. She was Koriand'r of Tamaran, and she fought for her heart. Everything else was just noise.
Robin grew stronger with every blow. His body weakened, but his rage burgeoned. His chest swelled, pushing back the ribs she cracked beneath her heel. His hands filled with seething hate, which he rained upon her. "I'm stronger than you! I'm stronger than all of you!" he screamed.
A scarlet bolt struck Starfire's eyes. Her lashes crumbled as she reeled, blind. A burning punch struck her middle, branding Robin's knuckles into her midriff. Roaring, she threw back her head and summoned a wave of righteous fury that painted the sky green.
He rode the wave, buffered by his scarlet aura. "Jealous little speck," he spat. "You sit in your ivory tower with the power of a god, looking down on mortals like me. Well, now I have the power. I have more power than you could ever dream of, and I don't need you anymore!"
His eyes lit with that power. Starfire caught the beams with glowing hands. Her fury struggled to counter his, but her voice remained apart from the fight. "Give me back my beloved!"
Martial arts met Tamaranian training. The sky shook. Blows came too quickly for Starfire to follow. Reaction guided her hands and feet in the deadly dance. She felt herself weaken, but pushed harder. Her boot cut his cheek. His elbow shattered her collarbone. Her fingers scorched the symbol from his chest. His glare cut her hair in half, narrowly missing her neck.
Starfire trapped Robin in a bear hug and tilted down. Their combined speed hurled them toward the city. Yellow sparks showered from their clashing auras. It was all Starfire could do to contain his struggle as she guided them through a long-abandoned warehouse. The building mushroomed and collapsed as they punched through the ground to the complex below.
Slade's lair quaked at their landing. Rusty cogs fell from the walls. A carpet of chains leapt and fell, ringing against the dusty floor. Once of the tremendous screens shook from its housing and collapsed. It crushed the upper deck in a tumultuous song of rending metal. Then, silence.
Robin rose first. His uniform hung in tatters stained with his own blood. He pulled himself out of the floor and grasped the ginger hair at his feet. Starfire cried as he yanked her head up and caught her by the throat. "Your Robin!" he snarled, shaking her. "Your Robin! Like an infant mewling for its toy. You don't own me."
He threw her through the central platform. Its consoles crunched at her passing. Starfire came to rest on the other side, covered in cuts, with silicon bits stuck in her hair. Robin stalked across the ruined platform. He plucked its throne with one hand along the way. The heavy chair swung in his grasp and belted Starfire in the face.
"You costumed freaks ruined my life!" he yelled between blows. The throne bent each time he struck Starfire. "You can't anymore! I have the power! I decide! Me!"
He rolled her over with his boot. Blood slicked her swollen face and pooled on the floor from a dozen cuts. It matted her hair and dribbled from her lips. But her eyes were hard and bright. They glared through Robin as he let the throne drop. His blood dripped from his chin to join hers. Hands shaking, he drew a killing stroke between his palms.
"I'm not yours. I'm mine," he said, cupping the deadly glow.
An engine roared at the mouth of the lair. With a flash of headlights, the CUTTER nosed over the cusp of the hole and plummeted. The lair quaked again as the CUTTER crumpled and thumped onto its treads. Robin's bolt split between his hands to cover Cyborg and Raven staggering out the melted windshield.
Cyborg faltered and held up his stub against the imposing glow of Robin's bolts. "Don't make me do this, man," he pleaded one last time.
Robin laughed once, a dark and ugly laugh that chilled Cyborg. "Like you could stop me."
One glance from him told Raven everything she needed to know before Cyborg lunged at Robin. His broken sonic cannon smashed against Robin's bare chest. Robin laughingly let him come. The laughter stopped when the sum total of Cyborg's power cell poured through the exposed circuitry in the cannon.
Electricity arced across Robin's scream. He tried to pull away, but Cyborg persisted. He tore whatever of Cyborg he could reach, but Cyborg would not let go. The Titan grappled Robin and held on with everything he had left as everything else poured out his broken circuits. Static filled Cyborg's vision and hummed in his ears. "Raven, NOW!" he bellowed. His implants dimmed, and his eye winked out.
Robin tore free from Cyborg's dead grasp, wrenching the arm clean from its socket. The remnants of the power cell danced in Robin's oozing wounds. His vision refocused on Raven, who limped toward him with hands aglow and face aghast. Static sparked from the finger he jabbed at her. "You see?" he bellowed. "You can't stop me! Nobody can!"
Raven paused. Robin could not know of the concentration she gathered inside his left ventricle. With a single thought, she could expand that concentration into a soul-self bubble the size of a shooter marble that would tear his heart apart, killing him in seconds. She hesitated. The arcane in her eyes faded into twilight despair.
"Please," she said. Tears cut twin trails through the grime on her cheeks. She cried not because she could not kill him, but because she knew she would. So she begged him in a soft voice, "Please stop."
Scarlet death gathered in Robin's eyes, irradiating the face of her friend with monstrous light. "Too little," he told her darkly, "too la—"
Green fire erupted from his chest. Robin arched and howled as Starfire pressed her hand to his back and emptied herself. Her fire lanced across the room, carrying with it a small, black shape that bounced off the wall and vanished amidst the debris. Starfire's scream joined Robin's for one final, blinding wave of emerald light. Then they collapsed together.
The fight's crescendo drew a dizzy Beast Boy out of the CUTTER's wreckage. He staggered, fell, and picked himself off the nose of the tank. Raven was already across the room. He watched her pull Robin and Starfire apart. Questions bounced around the inside of his skull, but they couldn't find their way through the concussive haze. He summed his questions instead with, "Raven?"
She looked upon the pair with growing horror. Robin's chest sported a hole through which she could pass her fist. Wheezing gasps bubbled in his lips and in the hole. His body spasmed violently in its final seconds. Starfire, conversely, lay upon the floor as stilly as a tomb. Her eyes were wide and blank, and hauntingly white. Blood pooled rapidly beneath them both. Raven knew she could only heal one of them.
"Garfield," she shouted, "call for help."
She held her breath, and chose.
To Be Continued
Don't expect the next chapter as soon as this one. Even I don't know how it came this quickly. And remember to leave a review if you liked or hated it.