Disclaimer: See chapter one.
Alright, time for a bit of a deal. Tlegg11, I've decided that the last story in the Ebony Saga will indeed have Terra in it, but it will be a Robin/Jinx. I promised another reviewed that I'd do that. She's been begging me! Starre, the last story will have Robin/Jinx. Okay? Cool! Let's finish up "Death Is Too Easy" so I can get on with that last story.
~*Chapter 6*~
Raven looked to the calendar hanging in her room. The month was April. The day was the fourteenth. It was a Sunday. It was the day of Ebony's funeral. Tears filled Raven's dark eyes. She used telekinesis to tear up the calendar, leaving tiny bits of paper scattered across the floor. She didn't bother to pick those up. Instead, she looked through her closet. She and the rest of the Titans had agreed to dress up for the occasion instead of wearing their normal superhero outfits. Raven frowned as she scanned the clothes on the hangers. She didn't really have anything nice to wear to something like a funeral. She had a lot of black stuff, but it was all her robes and leotards. This was not good. Raven sighed. She got desperate.
Raven knocked on the door of Starfire's room.
"Starfire, are you in there?" she asked. "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I need to borrow something of yours to wear to the funeral."
Starfire didn't answer.
"Uh, can I have a little help here?" Raven asked again, getting annoyed. "I don't do fancy dress-up."
"Please wait for one moment!" Starfire called from inside. Raven crossed her arms and tapped her foot in impatience. When the door finally opened, Raven took one look at Starfire and stood there in surprise.
"How do I look?"
"Oh, my God. You're wearing that to the funeral?"
"Yes!"
"It's not a punk rock concert, you know."
Starfire stood in the doorway with the outfit on that Ebony had forced her to buy from the Hot Topic when the girls went to the mall before they battled Blackfire. Raven's eyes grew wide. She slowly shook her head and gently closed her eyes.
"It's supposed to be a fancy event where you need to show your respect for the person that has passed on," Raven pointed out. "You can wear that next time we go to a dance or party."
"Oh," Starfire sighed, "I guess I should change then."
"Uh, yeah. Let me help."
Raven walked past Starfire into her room. Starfire followed, looking at her curiously. She scratched her head and stood in front of the closet with her fellow Titan. Raven searched the closet.
"This is nice," she announced, holding up a dark gray dress. It had black flowers lining the u-shaped collar and black sparkles down the long sleeves. She held it up against Starfire. "It looks like it fits you. Try it on."
Starfire took the dress from Raven. She observed it for a moment and frowned. Reluctantly, she took off the shirt, skirt, and fishnets. She slipped the dress on and looked at herself in the mirror.
"It's okay," she sighed.
"What were you wearing those clothes for anyway?" Raven asked, crossing her arms.
"Ebony and I bought those clothes together," Starfire replied. "I thought that if I could wear something that she bought with me, I'd be showing respect."
"Oh," Raven said, "I'm sorry. It's just that, well, I want this event to be as normal as possible. That's why I'm going to dress up, too. Take off the spike bracelet and the combat boots. You can wear when everything's over."
Starfire smiled and took the bracelet and boots off. She slipped on a pair of dress shoes and a Tamaranean diamond necklace. She looked at herself in the mirror.
"You look good," Raven commented. "Now let's find something for me."
Raven rummaged through the closet, throwing a few outfits on the floor as she passed attire she didn't like. Starfire's face went neutral. She ran a brush through her long, red hair. She sighed. It was going to be a very depressing day. She jumped up went she felt a tap on her shoulder.
"What?"
"What do you think of this one?" Raven held up a black sleeveless sweater with a turtleneck collar in one hand. In the other one was a long black skirt.
"Um, it's nice," Starfire replied weakly. "You can actually have that outfit if you want."
"No thanks. I just need something for the funeral. I'll give it back as soon as this whole thing is over with. To be honest, I do want to go to this. It's pointless to say good-bye to someone that has passed. We should have said good-bye back after we fought Slade."
"I'm sorry to bring this up, but the rest of the Titans and I were separated and kidnapped by captors! I was transformed into a puppet by that horrible Puppet King!"
"Oh, shut up," Raven spat. "I'm right, you're wrong! Get used to it!"
Of course, Raven's anger triggered her power. She outfit she had in her hands split in half as well as the one Starfire was wearing.
"Well, that was such an amazing move," Starfire announced sarcastically. She sighed. "I guess we have to wear our usual attire."
Raven gave Starfire a stubborn look. She stormed out of her fellow Titan's room and trudged her way down the stairs to the boys' rooms. She stopped at Robin's first.
"Robin," she said, rapping on the door, "forget dressing up nice. We're all going in our usual outfits instead."
"Why?" Robin asked from inside his room.
"Starfire triggered my anger," Raven replied flatly, leaving for Cyborg's room.
Eventually, Raven got to all the rooms of Titans Tower. The Titans met up at the front door, standing together, all of them: Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy, and Aqualad with Tramm. They were all thinking the same thing, and they could tell. None of them wanted to go to this funeral. It would be excessively depressing and hard for anyone, even Aqualad who didn't really know her, to say good-bye to Ebony.
"I guess we should go," Cyborg announced, shuffling his feet somewhat.
"Yeah," Beast Boy agreed. Raven shook her head and walked out first with her hood pulled low on her face making it more in shadow than it usually was. The rest of the Titans followed, making nervous moves, unsure of what was going to happen.
At the cemetery, the Titans stood around the casket about to be lowered into the ground. They as well as a few other people were there. The Titans had decided that Ebony should be buried on Earth instead of on Azarath. That way, they could always visit her when they weren't on the job.
"Well, do the Titans want to say anything before we pay our final sad good-byes?" the priest asked. "I understand they have a few things they'd like to give Ebony. Robin, why don't you go first?"
"Alright,"
Robin stepped forward, a book in his hands. "Uh, wow, this is harder than I thought it would be," he announced, scratching his head. "I guess all I can say is that Ebony brought smiles. Even though she was a little strange, well, it was sort of a sweet way. She made me happy." He looked at the book. "Ebony, I know you like books of poetry. Heh, just like your sister. You never bought that one book from the mall, so I bought it for you. Here." Robin placed the book on top of the casket and stepped back.
"Cyborg?"
Cyborg stepped forward and cleared his throat. "What to say about a girl like Ebony," he began, scratching his chin. "She was a lot of fun. She liked candy and junk food. She liked to sleep, too. Whenever she slept, she drooled, and that was funny. I think she once talked in her sleep. I couldn't exactly tell, but I heard mumbles coming from Starfire's room that night. I burst out laughing and then Raven told me to shut up, but that's not the point." Cyborg stopped and realized he was talking too much. "Uh, my present to Ebony is this. Girl, I must've gone to three candy stores, but I got you one." He held up a lollipop. "It's the triple sour watermelon kind with the bubblegum in the middle!" Cyborg placed the lollipop of Ebony's casket and stepped back.
"Starfire?"
"Ebony," Starfire mumbled, stepping forward, "I miss you so already! I love you so much! I wish I could've celebrated at least one Blorthog Day with you! You were so much fun, and you were such an amazing friend. You accompanied me to the mall of shopping and we had sleepovers and we played electric forms of amusement on the giant image-viewing device." Starfire sighed and held up an outfit. "This is the outfit you bought at Abercrombie and Fitch. I'm sorry I made you buy it, but you just looked so adorable in it. You said you looked hot in it, whatever that means, so I figured that you might want the outfit you bought there." Starfire laid the outfit down and backed up.
"Beast Boy?"
"Yeah," he agreed, stepping forward. "I liked Ebony a lot. She was cool. She was awesome at video games and liked comedy movies. She liked to play, too, and go outside and run around. It was fun but we can never go back to it. I miss all those great things we did together, no matter how short it lasted." Beast Boy held up a box and sighed. "It's mix for tofu pancakes," he announced. "I know how much you like them. It made me feel good when you said that you liked my tofu stuff. Even if you were just pretending, thanks anyway. I love you, dude." Beast Boy set the box down and stepped back.
"Raven?"
The world went silent. Raven stepped forward and pulled her hood off her head. She hid her body underneath her cape and held a straight face, giving her a blasé look. She took a deep breath and said, "Ebony was a liar. She was secretive and didn't want anybody to know anything about her. She made many stupid mistakes in life. She never told us about her early childhood, and even I, as her half sister, didn't know anything about it. I now even know that we're not completely related. That was a shock, but I'll deal. If she was alive today, well, none of us would be here, but Ebony would deal, too. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I loved her no matter how much of an idiot she acted." Raven squirmed in her spot. "I don't have anything material to give to Ebony. All I have to give her is my respect as a sister. I loved Ebony from the moment she was born. Sure, our 'family' is complicated, and we have a lot of problems, but I have no doubt that we can make it." Raven stepped back. For a moment, nobody spoke, but then everyone at the funeral applauded Raven and her speech.
I little bit later, everybody walked away from the burial site after the casket containing Ebony was buried. Raven slowly walked away with her face in shadow of her hood. She stopped in front of a tree and leaned against its hard bark.
"Sad, isn't it?"
Raven jumped up in surprise and looked around the tree. She saw long, black, shiny hair flowing in the wind. She closed her eyes and remembered something that happened a long time ago.
"Hi, Blackfire," she said.
"Today was sad, wasn't it?"
"Uh-huh. But why did you come?"
Blackfire hesitated and finally said, "Ebony was my friend when we were little. You know that. I figured that it would only be right for me to show up." She sighed. "I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thank you," Raven replied. She looked at Blackfire and saw how injured she was from the battle with her a while ago. Blackfire had a cast on her right wrist and a few bandages around her head. "Have you healed from most of your injuries?"
"Mostly," Blackfire said. "This is just a little bit of stuff left over."
"Oh,"
"Yeah,"
Raven became quiet and walked away from the tree to leave Blackfire to her thoughts. She strolled over to a small patch of flowers sitting against rock. She frowned and sat down on the rock. She buried her face in her palms and let a single tear fall from each of her eyes.
"Raven?"
Raven looked up to see Thunder and Lightning looking down at her. Lightning offered his hand and pulled Raven to her feet.
"What are you guys doing here?" she asked.
"We were thinking about what you had said earlier about siblings and wanted to show respect to your sister," Thunder replied. "We thought it was only right."
"Thanks, guys."
"We're sorry about letting Slade get away, too," Lightning added.
"It's not your fault," Raven reassured. "I don't think it's any of our faults. Maybe we'll catch him another time."
"He just better not even think about infiltrating Fixit's place again,"
"Yeah,"
Beast Boy came up behind Raven. He put his hands on her shoulders and smiled at her.
"Are you ready to go back to Titans Tower?" he asked. Raven nodded and turned. She walked with him to the rest of the Titans waiting for them on the other side of the cemetery. Raven looked back. Blackfire stood in the shadows of the tree with her arms crossed. Thunder and Lightning stood next to the flowers. All three of them waved. Raven waved back knowing she would see them again.
~*End of Chapter Six*~
Alright, time for a bit of a deal. Tlegg11, I've decided that the last story in the Ebony Saga will indeed have Terra in it, but it will be a Robin/Jinx. I promised another reviewed that I'd do that. She's been begging me! Starre, the last story will have Robin/Jinx. Okay? Cool! Let's finish up "Death Is Too Easy" so I can get on with that last story.
~*Chapter 6*~
Raven looked to the calendar hanging in her room. The month was April. The day was the fourteenth. It was a Sunday. It was the day of Ebony's funeral. Tears filled Raven's dark eyes. She used telekinesis to tear up the calendar, leaving tiny bits of paper scattered across the floor. She didn't bother to pick those up. Instead, she looked through her closet. She and the rest of the Titans had agreed to dress up for the occasion instead of wearing their normal superhero outfits. Raven frowned as she scanned the clothes on the hangers. She didn't really have anything nice to wear to something like a funeral. She had a lot of black stuff, but it was all her robes and leotards. This was not good. Raven sighed. She got desperate.
Raven knocked on the door of Starfire's room.
"Starfire, are you in there?" she asked. "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I need to borrow something of yours to wear to the funeral."
Starfire didn't answer.
"Uh, can I have a little help here?" Raven asked again, getting annoyed. "I don't do fancy dress-up."
"Please wait for one moment!" Starfire called from inside. Raven crossed her arms and tapped her foot in impatience. When the door finally opened, Raven took one look at Starfire and stood there in surprise.
"How do I look?"
"Oh, my God. You're wearing that to the funeral?"
"Yes!"
"It's not a punk rock concert, you know."
Starfire stood in the doorway with the outfit on that Ebony had forced her to buy from the Hot Topic when the girls went to the mall before they battled Blackfire. Raven's eyes grew wide. She slowly shook her head and gently closed her eyes.
"It's supposed to be a fancy event where you need to show your respect for the person that has passed on," Raven pointed out. "You can wear that next time we go to a dance or party."
"Oh," Starfire sighed, "I guess I should change then."
"Uh, yeah. Let me help."
Raven walked past Starfire into her room. Starfire followed, looking at her curiously. She scratched her head and stood in front of the closet with her fellow Titan. Raven searched the closet.
"This is nice," she announced, holding up a dark gray dress. It had black flowers lining the u-shaped collar and black sparkles down the long sleeves. She held it up against Starfire. "It looks like it fits you. Try it on."
Starfire took the dress from Raven. She observed it for a moment and frowned. Reluctantly, she took off the shirt, skirt, and fishnets. She slipped the dress on and looked at herself in the mirror.
"It's okay," she sighed.
"What were you wearing those clothes for anyway?" Raven asked, crossing her arms.
"Ebony and I bought those clothes together," Starfire replied. "I thought that if I could wear something that she bought with me, I'd be showing respect."
"Oh," Raven said, "I'm sorry. It's just that, well, I want this event to be as normal as possible. That's why I'm going to dress up, too. Take off the spike bracelet and the combat boots. You can wear when everything's over."
Starfire smiled and took the bracelet and boots off. She slipped on a pair of dress shoes and a Tamaranean diamond necklace. She looked at herself in the mirror.
"You look good," Raven commented. "Now let's find something for me."
Raven rummaged through the closet, throwing a few outfits on the floor as she passed attire she didn't like. Starfire's face went neutral. She ran a brush through her long, red hair. She sighed. It was going to be a very depressing day. She jumped up went she felt a tap on her shoulder.
"What?"
"What do you think of this one?" Raven held up a black sleeveless sweater with a turtleneck collar in one hand. In the other one was a long black skirt.
"Um, it's nice," Starfire replied weakly. "You can actually have that outfit if you want."
"No thanks. I just need something for the funeral. I'll give it back as soon as this whole thing is over with. To be honest, I do want to go to this. It's pointless to say good-bye to someone that has passed. We should have said good-bye back after we fought Slade."
"I'm sorry to bring this up, but the rest of the Titans and I were separated and kidnapped by captors! I was transformed into a puppet by that horrible Puppet King!"
"Oh, shut up," Raven spat. "I'm right, you're wrong! Get used to it!"
Of course, Raven's anger triggered her power. She outfit she had in her hands split in half as well as the one Starfire was wearing.
"Well, that was such an amazing move," Starfire announced sarcastically. She sighed. "I guess we have to wear our usual attire."
Raven gave Starfire a stubborn look. She stormed out of her fellow Titan's room and trudged her way down the stairs to the boys' rooms. She stopped at Robin's first.
"Robin," she said, rapping on the door, "forget dressing up nice. We're all going in our usual outfits instead."
"Why?" Robin asked from inside his room.
"Starfire triggered my anger," Raven replied flatly, leaving for Cyborg's room.
Eventually, Raven got to all the rooms of Titans Tower. The Titans met up at the front door, standing together, all of them: Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy, and Aqualad with Tramm. They were all thinking the same thing, and they could tell. None of them wanted to go to this funeral. It would be excessively depressing and hard for anyone, even Aqualad who didn't really know her, to say good-bye to Ebony.
"I guess we should go," Cyborg announced, shuffling his feet somewhat.
"Yeah," Beast Boy agreed. Raven shook her head and walked out first with her hood pulled low on her face making it more in shadow than it usually was. The rest of the Titans followed, making nervous moves, unsure of what was going to happen.
At the cemetery, the Titans stood around the casket about to be lowered into the ground. They as well as a few other people were there. The Titans had decided that Ebony should be buried on Earth instead of on Azarath. That way, they could always visit her when they weren't on the job.
"Well, do the Titans want to say anything before we pay our final sad good-byes?" the priest asked. "I understand they have a few things they'd like to give Ebony. Robin, why don't you go first?"
"Alright,"
Robin stepped forward, a book in his hands. "Uh, wow, this is harder than I thought it would be," he announced, scratching his head. "I guess all I can say is that Ebony brought smiles. Even though she was a little strange, well, it was sort of a sweet way. She made me happy." He looked at the book. "Ebony, I know you like books of poetry. Heh, just like your sister. You never bought that one book from the mall, so I bought it for you. Here." Robin placed the book on top of the casket and stepped back.
"Cyborg?"
Cyborg stepped forward and cleared his throat. "What to say about a girl like Ebony," he began, scratching his chin. "She was a lot of fun. She liked candy and junk food. She liked to sleep, too. Whenever she slept, she drooled, and that was funny. I think she once talked in her sleep. I couldn't exactly tell, but I heard mumbles coming from Starfire's room that night. I burst out laughing and then Raven told me to shut up, but that's not the point." Cyborg stopped and realized he was talking too much. "Uh, my present to Ebony is this. Girl, I must've gone to three candy stores, but I got you one." He held up a lollipop. "It's the triple sour watermelon kind with the bubblegum in the middle!" Cyborg placed the lollipop of Ebony's casket and stepped back.
"Starfire?"
"Ebony," Starfire mumbled, stepping forward, "I miss you so already! I love you so much! I wish I could've celebrated at least one Blorthog Day with you! You were so much fun, and you were such an amazing friend. You accompanied me to the mall of shopping and we had sleepovers and we played electric forms of amusement on the giant image-viewing device." Starfire sighed and held up an outfit. "This is the outfit you bought at Abercrombie and Fitch. I'm sorry I made you buy it, but you just looked so adorable in it. You said you looked hot in it, whatever that means, so I figured that you might want the outfit you bought there." Starfire laid the outfit down and backed up.
"Beast Boy?"
"Yeah," he agreed, stepping forward. "I liked Ebony a lot. She was cool. She was awesome at video games and liked comedy movies. She liked to play, too, and go outside and run around. It was fun but we can never go back to it. I miss all those great things we did together, no matter how short it lasted." Beast Boy held up a box and sighed. "It's mix for tofu pancakes," he announced. "I know how much you like them. It made me feel good when you said that you liked my tofu stuff. Even if you were just pretending, thanks anyway. I love you, dude." Beast Boy set the box down and stepped back.
"Raven?"
The world went silent. Raven stepped forward and pulled her hood off her head. She hid her body underneath her cape and held a straight face, giving her a blasé look. She took a deep breath and said, "Ebony was a liar. She was secretive and didn't want anybody to know anything about her. She made many stupid mistakes in life. She never told us about her early childhood, and even I, as her half sister, didn't know anything about it. I now even know that we're not completely related. That was a shock, but I'll deal. If she was alive today, well, none of us would be here, but Ebony would deal, too. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I loved her no matter how much of an idiot she acted." Raven squirmed in her spot. "I don't have anything material to give to Ebony. All I have to give her is my respect as a sister. I loved Ebony from the moment she was born. Sure, our 'family' is complicated, and we have a lot of problems, but I have no doubt that we can make it." Raven stepped back. For a moment, nobody spoke, but then everyone at the funeral applauded Raven and her speech.
I little bit later, everybody walked away from the burial site after the casket containing Ebony was buried. Raven slowly walked away with her face in shadow of her hood. She stopped in front of a tree and leaned against its hard bark.
"Sad, isn't it?"
Raven jumped up in surprise and looked around the tree. She saw long, black, shiny hair flowing in the wind. She closed her eyes and remembered something that happened a long time ago.
"Hi, Blackfire," she said.
"Today was sad, wasn't it?"
"Uh-huh. But why did you come?"
Blackfire hesitated and finally said, "Ebony was my friend when we were little. You know that. I figured that it would only be right for me to show up." She sighed. "I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thank you," Raven replied. She looked at Blackfire and saw how injured she was from the battle with her a while ago. Blackfire had a cast on her right wrist and a few bandages around her head. "Have you healed from most of your injuries?"
"Mostly," Blackfire said. "This is just a little bit of stuff left over."
"Oh,"
"Yeah,"
Raven became quiet and walked away from the tree to leave Blackfire to her thoughts. She strolled over to a small patch of flowers sitting against rock. She frowned and sat down on the rock. She buried her face in her palms and let a single tear fall from each of her eyes.
"Raven?"
Raven looked up to see Thunder and Lightning looking down at her. Lightning offered his hand and pulled Raven to her feet.
"What are you guys doing here?" she asked.
"We were thinking about what you had said earlier about siblings and wanted to show respect to your sister," Thunder replied. "We thought it was only right."
"Thanks, guys."
"We're sorry about letting Slade get away, too," Lightning added.
"It's not your fault," Raven reassured. "I don't think it's any of our faults. Maybe we'll catch him another time."
"He just better not even think about infiltrating Fixit's place again,"
"Yeah,"
Beast Boy came up behind Raven. He put his hands on her shoulders and smiled at her.
"Are you ready to go back to Titans Tower?" he asked. Raven nodded and turned. She walked with him to the rest of the Titans waiting for them on the other side of the cemetery. Raven looked back. Blackfire stood in the shadows of the tree with her arms crossed. Thunder and Lightning stood next to the flowers. All three of them waved. Raven waved back knowing she would see them again.
~*End of Chapter Six*~
