Chapter 15
Eye Candy...
"Where's Polybius?" Cyborg asked as the team exited the mine.
"He covered the entrance." Raven quickly lied.
"And he didn't hop down inside with the rest of us?" Beast Boy questioned "Lame."
"Lay off him." Raven quickly spat.
"Alright, geez." Beast Boy said, "What's your problem?"
"I'll tell ya what her problem is." Cyborg said before Raven could answer "She's afraid Terra gonna win over Polybius."
"I'm not!" Raven quickly shouted as the two as they began to laugh "It's more serious than that!"
"Yeah, seriously a threat!" Cyborg added.
Raven let out an angry grunt before quickly flying away, leaving the two laughing as they headed back to the tower.
Raven quickly began resuming her search for Polybius, this time, heading outside of the city to see if she could find him out there. And while it took two hours, she spotted a lone man, dressed in all black, crawled up against a tree, head in his knees.
"Polybius!" Raven called out immediately spotting him.
Polybius looked up briefly to see that Darkbius had gone and was now replaced by the rapidly approaching Raven.
While Polybius only peaked up for a split second, it did allow Raven to see the tear lines on his face, indicating to her that he had been crying.
The mute Titan quickly got up and began to move away, but Raven chased after him. She used her powers to stop as he tried to hide his face from her.
"Polybius stop!" Raven ordered, "What's wrong?! Why are you crying?"
While it was uncharacteristic of Raven to get involved in other people's business, she couldn't walk away from this. Her friend was hurting a lot worse than she had previously thought, and whatever it was, she needed to get to the bottom of it.
However, as she placed a hand on his shoulder, something that she couldn't detect appeared.
"Oh look!" Darkbius said "The most detached Titan is going to comfort you! This'll be fun to tear apart!"
As Polybius turned and faced Raven, he made an effort to hide his face using his hands and hat.
"Polybius, what's wrong?" Raven asked again "I know I may not be the best person to talk to, but at least let me know something."
Raven then pulled out Polybius's notebook that he kept in his coat at all times. She then held it up for him and insisted he write something.
"Come on." Raven persisted "I can't walk away from this. What's wrong?"
Polybius lowered his hands. However, instead of taking the notebook, he instead pushed Raven away. Not hard, but enough to knock her off her feet. Once she landed on the ground, Polybius turned away and looked up, but he did not run away.
"Polybius?" Raven asked.
"She sees you as nothing more than eye candy!" Darkbius stated "Don't tell her anything! Keep pushing her away! Hell, even run away! Terra would make a good replacement!"
The mute Titan moved to a tree and put his back to it. Now facing Raven, he slid down the tree into the same position he was before.
Raven then slowly approached the mute Titan, who had taken up the fetal position and tucked his head in his knees again. She then took a seat next to him, notebook in hand and, despite her normal character, put her arm around him in an attempt to comfort him.
However, unknown to Raven, Darkbius also took a seat on the other side of Polybius. He was ready to do whatever damage he could to Polybius and see just how far he could break him and achieve his goal.
Raven began rubbing his back as Polybius began to silently cry again. She had no idea how to really comfort him but was committed to doing her best. She decided that right now, the best thing to do was sit there with him, and let him cry it out.
"Aw come on Polybius!" Darkbius said "Men aren't supposed to cry! Especially in front of women! All you do is look weak! But then again, that's exactly what you are!"
After a while, Raven tried to offer the notebook to Polybius. Which this time, he did take. He began writing things down but stopped halfway.
"Don't tell her." Darkbius insisted "All she's going to do is take this knowledge and hurt you with it!"
Raven didn't say anything as she waited for Polybius to continue. And after what felt like an entity, the mute Titan did begin to write again and handed it off to her. Raven quickly read on the page and felt her heart sink as she read the question.
"No Polybius." Raven answered, "We don't see you as eye candy."
"Liar, liar, cloak on fire!" Darkbius stated "Remember Aqualad's cave? When she and Starfire were discussing who they thought was cuter? And they both chose you!"
The mute Titan shook his head as she handed the notebook back to him. He was quick to write down a counter. He handed it back to Raven and she quickly read it.
At first, she was speechless. Her mind had a flashback to the cave where indeed she and Starfire were talking about that. However, they were doing it behind a rock in an attempt to not be heard by Polybius. She had no idea that he had heard it and was feeling upset about it this whole time.
However, it all suddenly made sense to her. When Terra began talking about his ranking, she was almost positive that what he did was go up to his room and search online either on his phone or on his laptop. And Raven knew exactly what he found because just last month, Beast Boy had done the same thing in a false hope to prove a point. But rather than finding himself on any of the lists, he consistently found Polybius near if not at the top every time.
Raven then knew what the mute Titan was thinking. With every female he had ever met calling him sexy, he had to be thinking that she, and every other female, only saw him as eye candy. And with what he just saw online, it would seem that way to him.
That made Raven wonder if he had also seen the memes.
After Beast Boy posted the image of him and Wonder Woman shaking hands, it wasn't long after that on Reddit, a new meme started. The hottest woman meets the hottest man meme. It blew up and across the internet, people did photoshop of the two shaking hands and adding in all sorts of texts. But the original concept was still the same. And many people stayed true to the hottest meets hottest part.
After thinking it over, Raven decided to approach the situation in an attempt to ease his mind.
"Okay, so it is true." Raven said "I did say that. But it's not what's on the outside that matters. Physical appearance can't make up for a poor character. I mean look at Justin Bieber. He's not an ugly looking guy, but most people would agree that he has a very poor character. You, however, you don't."
The mute Titan wasn't really following what the girl was saying.
"And you are not the only one who has to deal with that." Raven added "Both me and Starfire go through it quite a bit too. Albeit not as much as I've seen you go through it. Guys love to look at us as nothing more than eye candy. Talking about how they want to smash us. I get what you're saying. You want people to see you for who you are, not what you look like."
For the first time since they started talking, Polybius turned his head and looked at Raven. She could see the tear streams on his face, but there was also a small, but characteristically warm smile on his face.
"No!" Darkbius shouted "She lies! Don't listen to her!"
His words fell on deaf ears as Raven returned his smile. The two shared a warm moment before Raven went on.
"Look, you and I both know that we can't stop people from calling you cute. And that you can' t express that you don't like to be called that without people giving you the time to respond. And even then, people have to read your words. But you know as well as I do that your friends see you as more than what you look like. We see you as Polybius! Not as some cute guy we wanna bang."
Polybius's smile grew even larger and warmer.
"Come on." Raven said "Let's get back to the tower. Terra has already been told not to call you cute, hot, sexy, or anything else along those lines again."
The mute Titan stood up and wiped his face clean of tears with his jacket. As he did this, he took a quick glance down to where Darkbius had been to see that he wasn't there.
"Why don't we walk." Raven offered, to which Polybius nodded.
The two began walking back to the tower in relative silence. It wasn't long until they came upon the suburban district that Polybius was able to see from his window.
However, as the two passed by one of the houses, Polybius only caught a quick glance of a man that had a very uncanny resemblance to him. The mute Titan made a quick mental note of the address as the two just walked right by it.
Inside that house, Montezuma continued to watch TV. He was flipping channels when he saw the news come up.
"Yes, that's right folks. A massive storm of asteroids, meteors, and other space rocks are headed straight for our solar system. Some of these rocks are many times larger than our planet, and even our own sun. And while this would have spelled the end for humanity a mere thirty years ago, now with the Justice League, this crisis will surely be dealt with swiftly and tirelessly."
"You see." The voice of the Sun God "Wonder Woman is going to get tied down with that for a few weeks, keeping her off our trail as we finally begin the next phase in our plan."
"Oh, we are?" Montezuma asked, eating some of his leftover Applebees.
"Yes." The voice stated "Tomorrow, I want you to tease her with the outside. The illusion of escape and freedom. Don't actually take her outside, but put her face up to that basement window you've got covered down there and look through it."
"That's an odd request." Montezuma commented "But, you are the boss. And I will do as you say."
"Exactly." The voice said, "And maybe if things go just right, I will finally allow you to sacrifice her soul to me."
"Really!?" Montezuma asked, getting excited.
"Yep!" The voice said "But that is a maybe. Depends on how I'm feeling tomorrow. Otherwise, I may just have you force her to watch another sacrifice."
"You got it." Montezuma said.
"Oh yeah. It's all coming together now." The voice stated.
"It sure is." Montezuma agreed.
A few hours later, back at the tower, the team sat down and began discussing whether or not to add Terra to their roster. Ultimately, despite Raven's heavy protests, she was outvoted by all of the others, and they agreed to add her to the team.
However, apparently, Terra and Beast Boy had been spending a little more time together than anyone else was aware of. And when it was brought up that she couldn't completely control her powers, she left almost as quickly as she appeared. Not even so much as saying goodbye.
Regardless, after she left Polybius pulled out his phone and began texting Wonder Woman.
'I think I've got an update on Montezuma.' Polybius texted.
He almost got an immediate response back from the Amazon.
'Really!?' She texted back
'While I was out today, I saw a guy who looked almost exactly like me. If he still looks like me, then I know where he lives.' Polybius texted.
'Go for it!' Wonder Woman texted back.
'I will tomorrow. It's too late at night now to investigate this lead. He's asleep and I only caught a glance of him. However, I think this might be it.' Polybius texted.
'It had better be. After everything this guy did, make sure you rough him up good if it is him.' 'Wonder Woman responded.
'You can't make it?' Polybius questioned.
'Can't. League's got me dealing with these space rocks that just appeared out of nowhere. I'll be tied down with this for at least a few weeks.' She shot back.
'Alright.' Polybius responded.
'However, after everything you've shown me, I have full faith and confidence in you that you can bring this guy down. After all, you managed to fight off me. And while neither of us really won, the fact that you could take me shows just how good you are at what you do.' Wonder Woman expressed over text.
'Thanks.' Polybius texted back.
'No problem. Also, if my sister Donna is still alive by some miracle, please take good care of her. She's probably scared to death right now if she is alive.' She responded.
'Will do.' Polybius finished the text conversation.
With that, Polybius headed off to his room. Once there, he laid down in bed and looked up at the ceiling and began thinking about what he had told Raven earlier. And despite how distant she could seem at times, she really pulled through for him. He was so thankful that she made Darkbius go away.
Meanwhile, back at Montezuma's house in the dark, Donna Troy was being forced to watch yet another sacrifice. The Aztec warrior ripping out a still-beating heart of some poor black woman and then eating it. She knew for a fact that sometime in the future, that would be her heart getting eaten by the scary man.
"Ah, ha, ha!" Montezuma laughed as he finished the heart.
The man then looked over to Donna, who was stuffed in her little dog cage. He couldn't help but give a large, evil smile as he looked at the completely broken and defenseless girl.
"Don't worry my dear." Montezuma teased "Your time will soon come. I shall feast on your heart to satisfy the Sun God!"
Donna shook her head as tears began to run down her face. She didn't want to die like this. She didn't want to live like this either. All she wanted to do was go home. She wanted to see her mother, her sisters, her friends. She just wanted to be safe.
But no, here she was, tied up, completely broken, humiliated, hurt, tortured, and petrified of a man. She couldn't help but think everything her mother said about men seemed to be true. Not only that, but it was far worse than she could have ever imagined. She was baffled as to how her older sister Diana could live in such a horrible world.
"And when you are given, the wrongs of Hernán Cortés will be rectified, and this European, imperialist world shall crumble before the proper Aztec way of life! Ha!"
Montezuma pumped both of his fists into the air in a sense of victory. Donna only dreaded hearing him talk. That voice, it was never going to leave her. And never would she be able to hear that voice and not think of him.
"But I guess, for now, you'll just have to suffer down here." Montezuma said, "Suffer here while I go finish up my Applebees leftovers."
The Aztec then headed upstairs and turned off the light, leaving Donna in the very so familiar darkness.
For her, the darkness was now providing a sort of comfort level she never thought darkness could. Because she knew for a fact that if the light wasn't on, then most likely Montezuma wasn't here. However, he had occasionally surprised her by suddenly attacking her in complete darkness.
As Donna continued to cry in her small prison, Raven meanwhile tried to meditate, but couldn't focus her mind. She couldn't stop thinking about Polybius.
Out of all of the Titans, everyone agreed that Polybius was the toughest. Not only physically, but also mentally. Since she could not detect his emotions with her powers like she could everyone else, it really made him an enigma to her.
She didn't think he was depressed. Raven tried to put herself mentally in Polybius's boots as best she could. And seeing how crushing of a blow it would have been to him to think that every female in the world saw him as nothing more than eye candy. And while she had run into some really degenerate males in her time, there were still those, such as her teammates, who didn't look at her like that, and she knew they didn't. Yet with him having overheard that one time she said it out loud, it was enough to crush him.
However, none of that really mattered now. What did matter was that he was safe and with them. He didn't run off and do anything really stupid like a few certain emotionclones feared. No, he just ran off to the forest. Why the forest was a mystery to Raven, but that didn't matter.
All that mattered was that he was safe and happier than he was earlier. The mute Titan really meant a lot to Raven. And while some of it she would never say out loud, she did look up to him. She envied his resilience and forgiveness. She just couldn't understand why he was so forgiving. She wished she could be as forgiving as him, but with her personality, she knew it could never happen.
Regardless of all of that, however, she was glad to have him. Polybius was a really valuable member of the team, and she would have a heart attack if anything bad happened to him.
I hope you enjoyed that chapter and have a good rest your day!