Disclaimer: No, I don't own Teen Titans.
Chapter 63
"Careful, Marie. Remember, intention is everything."
Marie ignored her, continuing to focus her energy on the eggs.
"It takes only a second to crush an egg beneath your foot," Ravager continued, stepping leisurely around the child, "but it's useless afterwards."
Marie growled, straining from the effort as she shrunk her field of power from the whole table to the open carton itself.
"The key, is to-"
"Make scrambled eggs with mustard an' cheese an' sausage an mint ice cr-"
"Yes," Ravager nodded at Ryan, "though we do use our powers to break," Ryan leaned in closer, drinking up every word from his seat, "we should never do so without foresight."
"What is four-height?" Ryan asked as he played with the bowl in front of him, and even Marie allowed herself a furtive glance at Ravager.
"Seeing beyond the present," Ravager lifted a hand in front of her, for added effect, "being able to anticipate whatever the future might hold."
Ryan moved to speak.
"By 'anticipate'," Ravager answered before he could ask, "I mean predict-or tell," she used the layman's term.
One thing Ravager had come to realize throughout the children's tenure; they were very curious. Not about training, though they were following her lessons, not about manners, though they were improving with her constant admonishments, but about understanding things. Everything. At dinner, Ryan asked "what's mustard made of?" At lights-out, Marie asked Ryan if he thought everyone slept on the floor before there were pillows, and then, to Marie's chagrin, he called Ravager and asked when pillows were invented. So when Ravager used a word they didn't recognize, they asked for clarification.
Ravager didn't have to provide it, of course. She was in charge, after all. But uninformed, illiterate, uneducated henchmen were rarely as formidable. And Ravager's apprentices would be nothing if not capable - both physically and mentally. She had to admit that Ryan - who had earned the use of his own name after an inspiring act of valor during training, where he knocked Ravager down then stopped to help her up, because "teammates look out for each other," which was a large step upon the road to loyalty - for all of his eagerness, was woefully lacking in the natural intelligence Marie so clearly exhibited. But there was something to be said for his effort.
What powers did Robin have, beyond his stubborn refusal to cease and desist? He wasn't born with any impressive abilities - he was just a boy with slightly above-average intelligence, that put in the time and effort to attempt to broach the level of his peers. He achieved it by fulfilling roles the others couldn't, or wouldn't do as well. Not just as a leader, for all of the titans had proven themselves capable, but as a strategist, a detective - the many things that required careful observation and hours of scrutiny over minutia that none of the other titans had the patience for. Was Robin truly gifted? Was he a superhero, in the truest sense of the word? No. But he had proven himself enough that Slade had chosen him over his teammates, over his own daughter, as his successor.
Ryan was less mentally gifted, that was true. But that just meant that he would work even harder to prove himself. And when one was as motivated as he, there was no telling where their efforts may lead them.
"I anti-paste," Ryan announced, "that Marie's gonna make scrambled eggs."
"As long as those eggs are shell-free," Ravager laid an approving hand upon his shoulder, "then I would have to agree."
Ryan beamed.
Marie continued scowling as she struggled to contain her powers.
"Perhaps controlling all twelve was overly ambitious," Ravager suggested, dropping her hand from Ryan's shoulder, "why don't we focus on just one?"
Marie glared at her, then, returning her gaze to the eggs, proceeded to lift the individual eggs simultaneously.
Ryan nearly jumped from his seat in excitement, shoving the bowl beneath the eggs.
"Remember-"
CRACK
Marie's eyes glowed as the eggs were split in unison, each one with its shell divided in two perfect halves, which opened to allow the yolks to fall into the bowl below.
"AWESOME!" Ryan cried, rushing over to Marie.
She all but fell into his bone-crushing hug from the exertion, but still managed to push him away with her usual impatience for continued physical affection. She smiled at him as she did so though, clearly pleased with her achievement.
"Well done," Ravager clapped slowly, and Marie's smile was immediately replaced with a scowl, "I wasn't sure that you could do it. Yet you continue to impress me."
Marie smirked.
It was almost cute, how easy she was to manipulate. While in her care, Marie operated almost solely out of spite; something Rose was all too familiar with. She had been the same, when she had first been taken in by that family, after her mother's demise. She had been angry, and sad, and lost, and despite all of her lashing out, these...strangers had accepted her. Loved her, even, if someone cared to venture into that particular level of sentimentality.
But Rose had challenged them at every turn. Each refusal to eat, each untouched school assignment, every word met with scorn or silence - they were questions. With each unruly action, young Rose was asking - will you leave me now? She had assumed, at some point, the answer would be yes. And yet it wasn't. They had provided her with support, and compassion, and, some might even argue, love. They had won her over. Or they would have, if they'd been given more of a chance.
But, as with everything Rose cared for, they had been cruelly ripped away, in a flood of crimson tears and torn fabric. Slade had saved her. And after that? Well, it hadn't taken long for her to crave his approval, to thirst for even a semblance of the acceptance she had so carelessly dismissed before. In the face of what she'd lost, Rose realized what she could have had. Not the overwhelming, all-encompassing love her mother had afforded her, but the painstakingly built relationship of people that met and accepted you for who you were - or who you could be, and not simply because you were their flesh and blood. Slade was her father, so she had expected the former situation. But his approval had been so, so much harder to obtain.
Rose was familiar with Marie's tactics. She knew the more she challenged the little girl to do things that would benefit her, the more subtle support and overt affirmation she provided, the more Marie would come to appreciate the life she had. It would take time, yes, but it would work.
"Are we making breakfast or not?" Marie demanded.
"Of course," Ravager offered a polite nod, "if we separate some yolks, we should have enough scrambled eggs and waffle mix to last the week."
"Waffles?!" Ryan cried, salivating.
Marie tried to hide it, but Ravager caught the grin right before it was banished from her face.
Rose smiled back.
/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\
"Dun, dun, da-na-nun."
WHOOSH
"Dun, dun, da-na-nun."
BUMP
"Dun, dun, da-na-nun."
SWISH-SWISH
"Dun, dun, da-na-naaa-" Cyborg clapped a hand over his mouth and ducked back into the alley, hoping his voice hadn't alerted his stalk-ees.
"Man, I gotta learn to sing in my head."
He peeked his head around the corner again. No sign of them. He breathed a sigh of relief.
Cyborg had been on the trail for hours, but keeping up with BB and Rae was harder than it sounded. "Follow them," Robin said. "Be discreet," he said. Did he have any idea how hard it was to follow two people that could fly?! Yeah, they walked sometimes, and they stopped to check some pieces of paper every once in a while, but after that it was all up in the air. How was Cyborg supposed to follow them when they flew over places that didn't have roads?! Was he supposed to just bulldoze through a hotel lobby with the T-car?!
That was another problem. Having to stick to the roads and parking were wasting a TON of time. He'd brought the T-car because of the speed issue - Raven and Beast Boy were way faster then he was - once they were flying. Cyborg was definitely a good match for them on the ground. When BB was human, anyway. So the hologrammed T-car seemed like a good idea. It looked like any old black SUV. Though his baby was obviously 500 times cooler, and faster, and had jet propulsion, and-
Cyborg shook his head. He had to focus.
Flipping up the panel on his arm, he checked his teammates' location. They seemed to be right next to him. Cyborg shot up and looked around. The only thing next to him was a dumpster...and a building. Great. The last time those two went inside a low-rise, he'd been stuck waiting for over a half hour. This building, Cyborg looked up, estimating its size, was at least three stories higher.
"Ughhhh," he leaned against the brick wall behind him, letting himself slide onto the ground.
He should have added another disguise to the holoring. Given himself hair or something. If he put it on now, they'd both recognize him; which was exactly why he was sitting on his butt instead of going in and tailing them. How was HE supposed to know they'd be going into random places for hours at a time?! What were those two even doing?
He checked the time on the panel. 4pm. They HAD to be finished soon...right? He shoulda payed more attention to when the grass stain was getting home every day. At any given time Cyborg could be playing video games, or working on the T-car, or eating - and none of those things stuck to a schedule. so if Beast Boy and Rae got home at 2pm or 9:30pm - Cyborg wouldn't know the difference. He sighed. Maybe this was the world's way of telling him to focus on other people and not just meat and electronics.
Cyborg pulled out his communicator, and stared at the blank screen. Enough was enough.
"Cyborg?" Robin's voice crackled through the device.
"Hey, Robin, we need to ta-"
"Robin?" Starfire called offscreen, "I though we were doing the-"
"I'll be there in a minute!" Robin cried over his shoulder, in some vague direction down the hall
Cyborg raised a brow.
"What're you guys doing?"
"I-It doesn't matter!" Robin reddened, "I told you NOT to call!"
Cyborg glared at the screen.
"if you sent me out to spy on Beast Boy and Raven JUST so you could get some alone time with Star-"
"I DIDN'T!"
"Robin - do not forget the oil of mas-"
"I'll be there in a SECOND!" Robin cried.
Cyborg fumed.
"You spikey-haired little-"
"I DIDN'T SEND-" Robin looked behind him then back at Cyborg, and in a hushed hiss continued, "I didn't send you on a fake mission. I really do need to know what they're doing!"
"Well, so far, they're just going into random buildings and houses carryin' around some old papers!"
"Are they handing them to anyone? Exchanging them?"
"The papers?"
"Yes."
"Not that I've seen. Just talking to people about stuff."
"What do you mean by 'stuff'?"
"I don't know," Cyborg shrugged.
"What do you mean you don't know?! You're supposed to be FOLLOWING them!"
"I AM," Cyborg retorted, "but it's not like I can go up and stick my ear in their faces! You said you didn't want them to see me!"
"Can't you hide in the shadows or something?!"
"I'm not a BAT!" Robin took a quick intake of air, which Cyborg didn't catch as he continued, "I'm half metal, man! I make NOISE - and I'm twice your size!"
Robin scowled at the belittling of his person.
"I can't just disappear like you do!"
Robin frowned in silence.
"Boyfriend Robin?" Starfire called in the background.
"Fine," Robin sighed, "just...let me know if you find out anything else, ok?"
Cyborg nodded.
"They're fine Rob. They're just acting like a couple of telemarketers."
"Telemarketers?" Robin's brow furrowed.
"Robin? Would you prefer that I do the removing of-"
Cyborg cut the transmission. He didn't need to hear any more of THAT. Creeping on Beast Boy and Raven was way less uncomfortable. And that was saying something.
Holding his communicator in his hand, Cyborg considered calling Beast Boy and claiming there was an emergency at the tower, just so he could trick the grass stain into walking in on...whatever Robin and Starfire were up to. It would have been AWESOME...except that Raven was with Beast Boy, so pranking him would ALSO end up pranking Raven, and she wasn't as forgiving. It wasn't like Beast Boy was, either; the difference was that when Raven pranked, she went hard. He still remembered the hot pink paint she'd poured all over his baby, and, when he'd finally cleaned her off and started her up, how the ignition triggered glitter guns to explode all over the interior. He'd always thought that working on the T-car together bonded him and Rae. But, apparently, Raven wasn't above using that knowledge to mess with him. It had taken weeks to get the last of the glitter out of the upholstery. He grimaced at the memory. Yeah, no WAY was he messing with Raven.
"Eighteen down," a monotonous voice drawled, "how many more do you want to do today?"
Speak of the devil-er, demon.
"I don't know," a rustle of paper accompanied Beast Boy's words, "we're still not even halfway through the list," he noted dejectedly.
"More like a quarter," Raven deadpanned. Or not. It didn't really sound like she was joking.
Cyborg stood up and pressed his back against the wall as he listened.
"People should be coming home from work in a few hours," Raven offered, "we'll have a better chance then."
"UGH," Beast Boy groaned, throwing the papers on the ground, "we've already had to redo like fifty houses already!"
"You can't really expect everyone to sit at home waiting for you to bother them."
Cyborg increased his audio volume as his teammates stepped further away from him.
"Why is this so HARD?!" Beast Boy cried, throwing himself against the building's exterior, and letting himself slide onto the ground.
"Nothing in life is easy," Raven stated, "in our life, anyway."
Beast Boy stared up at the clouds as Raven sat down beside him.
"I don't think this is helping," he admitted to the air.
"Sitting on the sidewalk?"
"Maybe we should just give up," he picked up the list and let go, the breeze picking up the papers and lifting them away.
They turned black before they escaped, and returned themselves to Raven's hands.
"This was a stupid idea."
Raven said nothing.
"Wow," Beast Boy noted, "thanks for the support."
"I agree it's not sustainable. We're exhausting ourselves."
"I guess."
Cyborg listened closer. A tell-all moment was coming. He could feel it.
"I'm sorry I wasted your time," Beast Boy wrapped his arms around his knees, "this whole thing was pointless."
"There's nothing pointless about it," Raven objected, with a resoluteness to her tone that made Beast Boy look up at her, "would you rather be patrolling for nonexistent clues? Because I don't think that's a great use of our time, either." Raven looked back at the papers in her hands, "at least this feels like we're doing something worthwhile."
"Really?"
Raven nodded.
"But WHAT are you doing?!" Cyborg seethed from his hidden perch. He was so, SO close to being able to leave. And he wasn't sure how long he could keep this up without his stomach growls giving him away. He'd only had breakfast this morning. And that one pre-mission burger. Or three. But he was a growing cyborg.
"So...what do we do now?" Beast Boy asked.
"We come up with a new plan."
"Does it still have to be a secret? Can't we just tell Cy-"
"No. I told you - I'm not comfortable with that."
"And I'm not comfortable with you letting yourself into my room without warning me!" Beast Boy dredged up her earlier infraction on his privacy.
Raven rolled her eyes.
"I don't need to warn you if we have plans."
"I know we're married in the future," Beast Boy retorted, "but right now we're not at the point where I want you portal-ing in on me!"
"And I'm not at the point where I want you touching me without asking," Raven brought up her own oft-repeated grievance. Two could play at that game.
"Well I don't want you pretending my room is a free for all!"
"Same here."
"And I don't want to keep sneaking out all the time to do illegal stuff!"
"I think you meant illicit 'stuff'."
"What does that even mean?!"
"BEAST BOY!" Raven demanded, putting an end to the argument, "we're both tired, ok? Let's just go home and meet up again tonight, ok? 12am?"
"There's a 'Clash of the Planets' marathon tonight - can we do it later? Like 3am?"
Raven glared at him, clearly displeased at the anticipated lack of sleep.
"Fine."
"Cool!" Beast Boy grinned, standing up and offering Raven his hand.
To Cyborg's surprise, she took it. But that was the least of his concerns.
"Do you wanna stop for some pizza on the way home? I'm starving."
"I could do pizza."
Cyborg stood in silence as the two departed, not even bothered by the fact that he had planned on getting pizza, and now had to make an alternate food plan to avoid being caught. No, there was far too great an information overload to process, for him to even consider food.
Cyborg played back the clips he's recorded in his auditory memory.
"Does it still have to be a secret?"
"...we're exhausting ourselves..."
"...letting yourself into my room..."
"...touching me without asking..."
"...sneaking out all the time to do illegal stuff..."
"...illicit stuff..."
"...can we do it later? Like 3am?"
Cyborg shook his head, violently trying to rip the audio clips from his memory card. He had to be misinterpreting, right? There was no way Raven and Beast Boy were...
Cyborg shuddered. Was this the kind of thing Robin was looking for? Was this the kind of thing he should tell Robin? Were Beast Boy and Raven entitled to the same privacy Robin was, with his whole...whatever it was he was doing alone with Starfire for the day?
Cyborg held his head in his hands, trying to calm his overheating brain. Next time, there was no way Cyborg was letting Robin talk him into doing his dirty work.
/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\
"And that was it?" Robin demanded, "you're sure there wasn't anything else going on?"
"They were just handing out flyers for a lost cat, then went to get pizza. That's it."
Robin frowned.
Cyborg did his best to stop his human skin from sweating. Robin was scouring his face for cracks, and he had to stay strong. For BB...and Rae.
"They weren't deliberately disobeying orders? Going to dangerous areas without backup? Putting themselves in unnecessary danger?"
"They hit up some apartment buildings then got lunch. That's it."
Robin stood on tiptoes, as subtly as he could, so he and Cyborg were eye to eye.
"You're sure?"
Cyborg forced himself to look into his leader's eyes and force out, "yes."
Robin backed down, but his scowl remained.
Cyborg had to think quickly, before Robin had time to continue the interrogation.
"So," Cyborg grinned, "what were you and Starfire doing today?"
"N-nothing."
"Mhm. I'll just ask Starfire."
"No!" Robin cried, blocking Cyborg's exit from the common room.
"Then we're done here?"
"...yes," Robin left the room begrudgingly, muttering something about nosy metal garbage cans.
Cyborg sighed in relief.
"Hey Cy!" Beast Boy bounded into the room, and leaped over the couch to sit on Cyborg's right, "whatcha doin'?"
"Video game?" Cyborg forced, avoiding his gaze.
"Dude...why're you acting weird?" Beast Boy raised a brow.
"Maybe you downloaded another virus onto him," Raven suggested drily, emerging from a portal with her current book of interest, and sitting on Cyborg's left.
Cyborg stared straight ahead for a moment, actively avoiding either titan's gaze, then said, "I-I have to go...work on the T-car," and ran from the room.
"Need any help...?"
But Beast Boy's words fell on non-present ears, as Cyborg was already far from the room.
"What's his deal?" Beast Boy asked aloud.
Raven shrugged.
"Not a clue."
