Chapter 5
The five remaining teenagers kept a close eye on the icy behemoth, all of them notably uneasy, especially Robin, who was uncharacteristically jittery, as if he had chugged down a half dozen cups of caffeinated soda. Springing into action, the sales clerk noiselessly crept as fast as she could up her aisle in order to get a better view. Hiding underneath the shelving, she immediately refocused on the creature, appearing as concerned as a Titan would for a missing teammate.
Since the chaos had come to an abrupt standstill after Starfire had been absorbed, it might have seemed logical to continue their attack while the beast had paused to gloat about swallowing her, but the Titans were beyond worried that harming the creature would harm their friend as well. Adding to the intensity of the moment, oddly enough, the monster was not turning orange, like the Tamaranean it had just engulfed, even though it had always shifted colors to match each new substance it came in contact with. More worrisome was its glass body, which, although transparent, did not provide a single sign of Starfire through its icy, crystalline form. The group's angst grew during this uncomfortable silence, causing them to share swift, quizzical glances; they were obviously thinking the exact same thing: What is going on inside this creature? Is she being consumed alive or will Starfire be able to escape?
In the midst of the apprehensive lull, an enormous green blast came spraying out in every direction from the monster, shattering its body into chunks of cracked glass shrapnel. As if she had read the team's minds and wanted to reassure them that she was perfectly fine, Starfire flew out of one of the openings of splintered glass, coming to stand next to her friends.
The young employee breathed a deep sigh of relief, but no such sign of celebration circulated amongst the Titans, who were determined to complete the business at hand of permanently stopping, if not destroying, this menace to society.
Robin immediately began examining the remnant of the creature's face, which appeared to him like the shell of a head. Intriguingly, perhaps due to the lack of a mouth and nose, the eyes seemed to dominate its face, which manifested an unusual trait: metallic circlets. Understandably when in the heat of battle, random details can escape even the most observant warrior, but Robin was somewhat taken aback that he hadn't noted this peculiar feature during his previous close-range strikes. "Interesting...," he said to himself. "Is this what I think it is?"
"Is what...well, what?" Beast Boy asked, causing the other three to change their focus from the splintered creature to their leader.
Holding up the mask-like head to the others, Robin replied, "Look at the metallic whirl of its eyes. This is most likely a visual system to analyze prey better. But why would it have been doing that? What did it need to discover about us? We never did figure out its purpose for the attacks, and whether or not it's working for a master or autonomously. I feel like we haven't done everything we could have, or even needed to." Assessing the situation outloud to the group, he surmised, "If it's just a pawn in someone else's plan, we'll learn soon enough, because if there is a criminal mastermind behind this attack, they will eventually send another of their puppets or come in person to complete any unfinished business."
Robin continued, "It's still extremely disappointing that we don't have any lead on its possible master, and we don't know if its mission is to destroy the Teen Titans or dominate or destroy our city. I highly doubt it's working for Slade now, since he already learned enough about us through Terra."
"Don't ever insult her!" Beast Boy demanded.
"Calm down, man. Robin's just speaking the truth," Cyborg pointed out.
"But we have learned his overall plot," Starfire began, causing everyone, including the outsider, to stare at her in confusion. "When inside him, I was able to communicate with him through telepathy. This trait helps to validate his origins, because from what I gleaned, he is a Lufetahnese. He merely journeyed to Earth because his king sensed the presence of a Tamaranean somewhere in the Lufetahnese quadrant closest to Earth,"—the Titans all wore shocked expressions that there could have been a Tamaranean anywhere near Lufetah, let alone Earth, other than Starfire—"and the King of Lufetah was simply following the directive of his people, which began that horrendous day between our two species. According to this Lufetahnese," she indicated the shattered remnants scattered before them, "his king was giving out orders to him, his loyal subject—annihilate the perceived threat, in other words, me."
"Nice guy," Raven derided.
"The king or his foot soldier?" Beast Boy asked her with a weak smile, attempting to lighten the mood a bit as the new facts seemed to create a sense of doom amongst the team; but Raven didn't bother responding, and so Starfire carried on.
"He attacked you because you defended me that day of our introduction at the brick wall. Once he had located his target," she nodded, indicating herself, "the Lufetahnese initiated his plan of attack and started infiltrating the district in order to draw us, or rather me, out."
She paused here to give the team time to take in her words, because her friends had not been privy to the conversation even though they had borne witness to Starfire's entrapment. "I attempted to inform him of the truth, and the Lufetahnese actually responded."
"So maybe that was why he didn't transform with you inside!" Beast Boy interrupted.
"At this point, he refuses to believe his king is mistaken; it is easier for him to assume that I am purposely attempting to deceive him." This statement caused the Titans to groan in response. "He left me with the certitude that he will not cease to complete his mission on Earth until all the 'trouble' on Lufetah has abated, which means completing the task of eliminating me in order to satisfy his king."
This knowledge sent shockwaves through the group, but Starfire proceeded without fielding any questions. "The Lufetahnese did concede that if he is on the verge of being terminated while on this quest, he is to return to his king to divulge that he failed his mission; but in addition, he is to pass on my communication even though he believes it to be false. As a note on the side, the whirl of each eye is actually a natural trait to a Lufetahnese; it is a tool he uses to continually zero in on his prey and assess potential intelligence and skills. Unbeknownst to us, he was determining if he would be able to entice us into engaging in battle with him as well as simultaneously creating an estimate of his probable success rate at destroying us, or at least me, since I am his official target.
"However, despite the fact that he made adaptations and increased his strength and tactics when we combined forces against him, the five of us certainly overwhelmed him at times. He was forced to retreat and regroup, in order to ensure that his power and confidence had risen to the new level of physical and tactical demand needed to destroy the enemy."
Not trying to scare them but inform them, she continued on. "But I could not determine, at the moment of impact, if this creature had actually been obliterated." Ruminating out loud, she added, "We originally thought he had melted into nothing when he had been slammed against the barrel of molten metal, but he simply absorbed that material. The same goes for when I successfully blasted away a section of his left arm in our previous battle—he was able to heal his body back to an original state of perfection when re-forming himself with bricks. At this point in time, we just do not have the data to support annihilation versus defeat."
As if wanting to clarify any doubt, glass fragments suddenly began eerily vibrating. Within seconds, the shards gravitated at hyper speed back to the main remnant of the monster's body as if they were being gathered by an invisible, yet powerful Herculean magnet. Almost miraculously, the Lufetahnese began changing form from clear glass to a brown but oddly transparent material, and then without warning, the mask was forcefully yanked from Robin's hand, allowing it to come to rest back squarely on the shoulders of the behemoth, who was now transformed into one perfectly complete, wooden monster. Taking advantage of the team's shock, the beast withdrew from their sight and blended into the supermarket's back wall.
"How're we supposed to defeat this thing?" Cyborg groaned loudly. "It's invulnerable! It doesn't die!"
"It must have some weakness!" Robin exclaimed. "There's no way it can come back to life if we vaporize it into nothingness, right?!" Without warning, through one of the store's side windows, he spotted one of the creature's legs on the grass.
"Hurry up!" Robin yelled. "It's on the move! Let's get ahead of this Lufetahnese for once!"
The Teen Titans swiftly exited and sprinted to the empty field that lay behind the store, where the Lufetahnese surprisingly remained standing; he was obviously attempting to bait Starfire to draw closer.
The bystander, who had been looking on this whole time, followed suit, her adrenaline washing away any fear and uncertainty. For camouflage, she decided to hide behind an abandoned car in the adjoining parking lot, which allowed her to safely glance through its windows to observe the fight about to take place. As the battle went into full swing, the girl became impressed by the team's persistence as they attacked again and again. Regardless of all the damage being done, however, the beast didn't appear to lose much energy or power, especially as he proceeded to transform his body from one material to another.
As they soldiered on, the sun began to beat down on the team, its light ironically shining as if it were a perfectly normal summer day; but Beast Boy knew better, the streaks of sunlight causing him to cry out, "It's already morning! There's no way we're gonna make it!"
Raven glanced at the sun for a split second, mentally registering that dawn was upon them, but then countered Beast Boy's pessimism with a fierce staredown of their opponent. "Yes, there is!" she exclaimed. "Azarath...Metrion...ZINTHOS!" Upon the sound of her commanding words, a large, midnight black raven emerged from her body and seized the creature in her claws, immediately creating a force-field of darkness around him. Despite vigorous attempts, the Lufetahnese couldn't break free from her grip, which encouraged Raven to continue on her quest; high up into the sky she flew, constantly surveilling the galactic landmarks in order to locate the creature's home planet. She stayed the course, not willing to give up on saving innocent Earthlings or her friends. I defeated Trigon, the most powerful interdimensional demon in the universe; I can defeat this creature as well, she thought.
When the monster stopped writhing and instead grew terrifyingly calm, Raven knew to take a more indepth look at the creatures on the planet she was approaching. The moment she came across visually identical beings, Raven knew she had finally reached Lufetah and that her quest to rid Earth of this monster was nearly complete. Immediately after placing her prisoner upon the first piece of solid land she determined safe, she whispered, "And don't come back!"
It wasn't a surprise to find everyone on pins and needles upon Raven's safe return. As Raven's body and soul reunited, she could hear the group's collective sigh of relief, except for the shop employee who seemed to maintain her intense stare from behind her hide-out spot.
"About surviving that battle, you were saying?" Raven proudly sassed, a sliver of one of her legendary smiles victoriously pasted across her face as she focused her attention on Beast Boy.
"Nice one!" he hastily complimented her, giving credit where it was due.
Meanwhile, back on Lufetah, unbeknownst to both the humans and the Lufetahnese peasants, leadership inside the castle was viewing both Earth and Lufetah's goings-on from an enormous screening room, tracking their subject throughout his failed quest. "Well, well, well, looks like we have some work to do," the creature said in English, as if to mock the humans' inability to hear—the voice filled with deadly venom.
"Let's get back to the tower," Robin said with a combination of satisfaction and determination. "We've got a bunch more tasks to get through. Of utmost importance, we need to prove to that king he's erroneously accused Starfire of entering a Lufetahnese quadrant so that these violent attacks cease. We don't want him or his subjects coming back to finish the job. So priority numero uno—we need to figure out how to communicate this mistake to the king."
"Hold it!" Cyborg yelled. "We are not going to determine anything about that Lufetahnese beast or his king right this minute! Like you were saying, Robin, how are we supposed to talk with the king anyway?! He wouldn't understand us in any language other than his own. And secondly, Star's species is banned there, and there's no way we could learn how to communicate from Star,"—Cyborg froze momentarily, his own words giving him an idea. "Waaait a minute—it's a telepathic language, right?" Directing his gaze to the woman of the hour, he said, "Starfire, you could go into our minds and teach us!"
"Forgive me, friends, but I do not have the ability. Telepathy and language are two different beasts; telepathy is the skill of seeing inside one's mind, while Lufetahnese, although silent, is still a language able to be learned like any other. That being said, the ability to read minds remains impossible for me. However, not for Raven," she added knowingly as she glanced over at her teammate.
Starfire was able to communicate with the Lufetahnese telepathically because, when he seized and absorbed her, his invisible mouth touched hers, thus sparking the Tamaranean ability of learning a foreign language upon lip-to-lip contact, regardless of the fact that this language is only communicated through telepathy.
"Could you, Raven?" Robin immediately asked.
Raven shook her head, knowing Robin's request was not a simple one, making her demeanor appear a bit more grim than usual. "Although my powers enable me to enter the Lufetahnese's mind, for some reason, I still wouldn't be able to comprehend what he was thinking due to not understanding the language he thinks in, most likely his native one."
"What?!" Beast Boy shrieked. "Why?! This magic...it doesn't make any sense!"
Raven gave him an odd look, as if to say, 'Since when did magic ever make sense?'
This had Starfire tilt her head in contemplation, before adding, "I have been on Earth for so long, I occasionally not only speak but think in English instead of Tamaranean."
Even with the severity of the issue at hand, the other Titans displayed relief that absolutely no one but Raven had the capability to comb through their minds. And although Raven could acquire the language from Starfire and then teach the rest of the team, she definitely wasn't volunteering for the job while running on fumes.
"Well, anyway," Cyborg started up again, "we're not going to figure anything out right now—no—way!"
"Can't we do that tomorrow?" Beast Boy whined in agreement with Cyborg. "It's six in the morning!"
"For once, I agree with Beast Boy," Raven acknowledged.
"I concur," Starfire added.
"All right," Robin capitulated, their normally serious leader oddly not sounding or appearing disappointed.
Meanwhile, the teenager, who had been hovering in the shadows, watched the Teen Titans as they slowly turned toward Titans Tower. Once they were out of her line of sight, she set off to her own meager apartment and pondered the night's events as she watched the news about what had happened in the store earlier in the evening flash across the screen.
Reaching the tower, Beast Boy walked, as if on autopilot, to his bedroom and slammed the doors shut, obviously worn out by more than just fatigue. Robin, however, placed a gentle hand on Raven's shoulder, turning her to face him. "I know you're all exhausted," he addressed the group, "but there's something I'd like to talk to you about."
"Don't—even—think—about analyzing that alien right now! I need my beauty sleep," Cyborg joked, passively trying to remind Robin to not push the group too hard.
"And what of Beast Boy?" Starfire added, flashing a worried glance over to his bedroom door, concerned that the team was going to have a crucial conversation without him.
Robin attempted to calm Starfire's anxiousness by holding her arm reassuringly. "We'll tell him once we've found a logical explanation, but I still think he'll need some time before he hears it."
"This has to do with Terra, doesn't it?" Raven realized. "And figuring out how she could possibly have been released from her stone statue form into that schoolgirl, and how she could even put a schoolgirl uniform on, since Slade's apprentice outfit was attached to her nervous system. And furthermore, discovering the truth about her memory and whether or not she truly doesn't have any recollection of her past."
"Exactly," Robin answered with a sharp nod.
Beast Boy went straight away to his bed, but insomnia settled in as a plethora of thoughts raced through his mind. Unbeknownst to the other Titans having their private meeting, Beast Boy was having his own internal dialogue in both his mind...and his heart.
The last of the final conversation he'd had with that schoolgirl replayed over again in his mind: "Things were never the way you remember…. Things change, Beast Boy. The girl you want me to be is just a memory."
If things change, Terra, then how do you know you won't change again, into the Teen Titan that you were? he asked himself, as if speaking to her. Memories do come back, you know.
An ominous whisper of a voice slowly responded in his mind: Terra will never return…. She's the happiest she's ever been…. Why would she go back to a place that caused her nothing but harm…?
Slade was the one who harmed her, Beast Boy argued, so groggy that he had not bothered to take into account that he had begun a conversation with a voice without a presence, nor of how similar it sounded to Slade's. He forced her to be a traitor to her friends even though we all had a great time together against the other villains. I know she's trying to start over, begin a new life…, but I will never give up my memory of her...just as I will never give up hope.
Terra will come back, he encouraged himself. Every Titan comes to the aid of friends and teammates, he thought before the relentless black hole of sleep swallowed him up.
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