Chapter Three: Medical and Legal Needs
Starfire walked along the deserted beach slowly and uncertainly, watching as the calm waves lazily licked at the sand. Her eyes darted everywhere for her beloved friends, but it took a few minutes before she found them.
Slumped against the side of a boulder, just as Cyborg had said, lay Robin and the crumpled wolf form of Beast Boy.
Starfire ran to them instantly and looked from one to the other, unsure of what to do.
"Which of you is in mortal danger?" she asked herself. Then she shook her head with a sad frown. "It is a useless question."
Beast Boy gave a small whimper.
"Beast Boy!" Starfire exclaimed, running to the wolf. The wolf licked her hand to show he was awake. "Can you not change?"
The wolf jerked a moment, but it only gave another groan of pain.
"I shall take you and Robin to Titan Tower and there I will heal you with herbs," she said, resolutely. "Stay there, I must look at Robin."
Beast Boy raised a wolfy eyebrow at the odd girl.
"Of course," said Starfire, turning beat red. "How could you go anywhere?"
Starfire turned her attention to Robin, who was still unconscious. Dried blood matted his black hair and his skin was pale and cold to the touch.
Tears overwhelmed the young alien girl and she let them fall over her comrade's body.
"Oh Robin!" she sobbed. "Oh Robin, please be alright! I beg of you, you must wake again! Please, Robin, awaken!"
Starfire shook Robin's body to no avail. She lifted him up in her arms, which was an awkward task and immediately flew him to the Tower. After laying him in his bed she returned swiftly to retrieve Beast Boy.
The dog moaned in pain as Starfire tried to discover the easiest way to carry him. There was a yelp from the wolf as her hand held a wound.
"Oh, I'm sorry my friend," she said, pulling her hand back to see it covered in blood. She bit her lip and took a deep breath. Finally she lifted him over her shoulder and returned to the Tower. She laid him on the couch Raven and herself had been sitting on an hour earlier.
As she was trying to figure out how to dress Beast Boy's wounds, the elevator arrived and Cyborg stepped into the room looking jaded.
"I always thought that was something I'd never have to do," he said, sounding regretful. Starfire looked up at him.
"Cyborg, can you help me to nurse Beast Boy and Robin back to their full health?"
Cyborg gave her an inscrutable look before sighing. "Right now, Star, I have to recharge. You can handle it until I'm energized again, I'm sure."
"But I do not understand this task! How am I to wrap this wound on Beast Boy's stomach?" Starfire looked at the book open on the coffee table. "And how should something as common as salt help the healing?"
"It sounds like that book is telling you all you need to know," said Cyborg. "Just do what you can now, Starfire, and I'll look over what you've done when I wake up. It shouldn't take more than a few hours. That night in the water really drained me. And some of my wires may need repair…"
Cyborg started down the hall, still muttering to himself.
Starfire looked from the book propped open on the coffee table to Beast Boy nervously.
"Perhaps we should take them to a healing center?" Starfire asked herself. She then sighed in frustration. "But where is the healing center?"
Beast Boy looked at her and gave another sad whimper. Starfire smiled and scratched him behind the ears. He kicked his hind leg weakly in appreciation.
"Perhaps when you have regained your strength you shall be able to turn back to normal," Starfire told him as she prepared the bandages.
With Beast Boy finally sleeping restfully on the couch, Starfire went to Robin's room to find that his ailment would not be cured with a simple bandage. She wrapped his head wound, and although he appeared to be sleeping normally, there was an odd air about him that baffled the poor girl. She flipped frantically through her book as if it would have a solution.
"Wake, please, Robin," Starfire pleaded as she looked through the book. "You must wake!"
Suddenly, he moved and Starfire froze. He turned his head from side to side as if to rid himself of a nightmare. His hand lashed out at Starfire's wrist and she gasped as he pulled her close to him hastily.
"Find Raven," he hissed into Starfire's ear before dropping his grip and falling back into his deep sleep.
Starfire was dumbstruck. She needed to find Cyborg.
But Robin's words chilled her to the very bone…
She didn't need Cyborg. She needed Raven. A fire burned in her eyes, as she planned her next move.
The police, however, were being uncooperative.
"But I need to see her!" Starfire cried. "It is a most important matter!"
The chief looked indecisively over to where they held their temporary prisoners.
"I can't help you right now, I'm sorry," he said. "She's only here for tonight and then tomorrow morning, she's off to the city penitentiary to await trial."
"Which makes it more important that I speak with her right now!" Starfire demanded. The Chief of Police looked at her long and hard.
"You don't understand," he told her. "Raven is a top security prisoner at this station. She cannot see any visitors. If you wait a day, she will be taking visitors at the penitentiary where the security is tighter."
"But there is no need for this tight security!" Starfire exclaimed. "She will not hurt anyone now. I have just spent a morning with her."
"She is responsible for the attempted murder of three of her friends," said the officer.
"Has she been condemned already of this crime by your legal system?" Starfire demanded. The chief frowned in confusion at the question.
"She's not condemned until after her trial—"
"Where I am from, sir," said Starfire dignifiedly. "We have a rule. It is that one who has been accused of a crime is not to be condemned until there is applicable and verifiable evidence!"
"You mean like innocent until proven guilty?" the chief offered raising an eyebrow.
"I suppose it is something to that effect," Starfire said, thoughtfully, never having heard it put in those words before.
"Are you her lawyer?" the chief asked suspiciously. Starfire blinked at the man impassively as she thought carefully of her response.
"Yes, I am the lawyer of Raven," she said. The chief gasped.
"You should have said so in the first place," he said, coming out from behind the desk. "I'll take you to her now."
Grinning gleefully, but not quite sure what had just happened, Starfire followed the police chief to Raven's holding cell.
Hearing the door to her cell open, Raven looked up to see Starfire step in.
"Starfire!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here? I'm dangerous, remember?" Raven said the last comment sardonically as if it were the newest ridiculous food Beast Boy had invented.
Starfire held her tongue until the chief had locked the cell door and returned to his desk outside.
"I have come to ask if you could tell me why you would do such a thing to your friends," Starfire said flatly. Raven turned away from her looking angry.
"Right," she said. "You think I did it because I wanted to, because I was feeling sadistic and they were annoying me, right?" she asked.
Starfire said nothing.
"Let me just tell you that no matter how annoyed I get with any of you guys, or how sadistic I maybe feeling, I would never in my life hurt any one of you of my own free will."
"Free will?" Starfire repeated. "Did someone force you to do it?"
Raven looked surprised. "N-no, I… I don't know!" she hissed, incensed that Starfire had caused her to stumble over her words. "I told you, I don't remember a thing from last night. I don't know why I would ever…" Raven broke off and pulled her cloak tighter around her.
"But leave me alone," she said. "It doesn't matter now. What's done is done, and if I really did do it, as Cyborg says I did, then I deserve this. It doesn't matter why it happened or how, just that it did and there is nothing I can do to repent except sulk in a dirty jail cell for the rest of my life."
"You want to stay behind these ugly metal bars?" Starfire was confused. "But why?"
"Because of what I did to my friends," Raven said. "They should never have trusted me in the first place. I… I'm unstable. I'm safe here, where I can't hurt anyone."
"But as you said," said Starfire slowly. "You would not hurt your friends of your own accord…"
"It doesn't matter now, Starfire," Raven repeated with the defeated, condescending air of a hopeless mother speaking to her naïve child. "Just go back to Titan Tower and help the others…"
"But this could be bad!" Starfire said suddenly. "If you would not do this of your own accord, then something or someone must have—"
"It's over," Raven said in a whisper. "Just go home."
"No!" Starfire shouted determinedly. "I will not let one of my friends live in a tiny room with moldy metal bars!"
Raven looked up at her with her inscrutable frown and mocking eyes. "There is nothing you can do."
"Raven, I will find out what did this to you, and I will destroy them for harming my friends!" Starfire's eyes burned and Raven rolled her own eyes.
"Star, just give it up, would you?"
"You were meditating on the beach?" Starfire asked.
"Yeah, but—"
"What were you meditating about?"
Raven glowered at Starfire angrily. "You don't meditate about anything!"
"Well what were you thinking?" Starfire asked.
"The whole point of it is you're not supposed to be thinking anything!" Raven snapped. "I was opening my mind to my powers and… wait…" Suddenly, Raven groaned. "Oh no…"
"What is it?" Starfire asked.
"I forgot to close my mind," Raven said, as if it were like forgetting that 11=2. "The most fundamental rule and I…" Raven looked up at Starfire, the flame of defiance rekindled in her eyes. "You're right, I was forced into this," she said. "But leave it to me, I know exactly how to fix this."
"You do?" Starfire sounded excited.
"Yeah," Raven said. She looked around at her cell. "The only problem would be that I don't know how well I can think in a place like this…" She winked at Starfire who knew for once exactly what Raven was saying the first time she said it.
Starfire kindled a starbolt in her hand and launched it at the wall behind Raven to the outside.
"I was thinking of bending the bars, but this'll do," Raven said with a shrug.
Suddenly, the alarm went off. Starfire looked sheepish as Raven groaned.
"I think our welcome has expired," she said.
"Sorry," said the bashful Starfire.
"No time for pleasantries, let's get out of here," Raven said as she grabbed Starfire by the hand and dragged her out of the hole.
By the time the police arrived at the cell, their prisoners were flying into the sunset.
Author's Note (It's about time for one, yeah): Wow. Can I just say I did not expect this story to be so popular, nor did I expect I would be writing it so fast. I've gone like fifteen pages in just over 24 hours. Summer vacation really does give a lot of free time. I would like to thank all of you reviewers, mysterymaiden7, Zako Lord of Randomnessness, dana1313, DarkMystic, Blowfish the Monkey Tamer, Hoshigami Takahashi, Ravenn03, Bubblebean022, Fading Into Darkness, Raven-Vegeta, and especially Instant Coffee (I look forward to chatting with you). To be honest, this story was going to be posted a chapter a day, but because of the feedback, I'm actually posting-- and writing-- a lot faster. For those itching to know, yes, I do have a plan for this story, and I am the only one who knows exactly what's going on (at this point in time). Yes, it will have an ending, and at the rate I'm going, hopefully soon. Writing-wise, I am just before the main climax, which is good because it's towards the end. I am very pleased with this, seeing as it is my first Teen Titan's fic (I normally write Harry Potter, etc.) and I didn't know exactly how well I'd fair. As always, I appreciate your constructive critisicm as much as your praise (thank you again Instant Coffee for not being afraid to state the critisicm) and encourage you all to pick at the little things I've done wrong (I myself, when re-reading, can find a few). Although I am not ASKING you to flame me, lol.
Thank you again for being such a great friendly bunch of people!