Teen Titans – Heart's Word
Disclaimer: If you don't know it already, yeah...I know I should have put this in the first chapter, but deal with it! Anyway, don't own Teen Titans or anything about them. The only things that are rightfully mine are the things made up in my imagination.
Losing Humor –
A/N: I thought this was an appropriate title for this chapter considering what happens in it. This chapter focuses more on Beast Boy and Raven than any of the other chapters. This will also be the last chapter written in this Teen Titans fan fic. It was a short sequel, true, but I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Robin was going a good 50 mph. on his motorcycle with Cyborg tailing him in the car, which also held Beast Boy. Raven and Starfire were flying overhead, barely able to keep at his speed. They were tailing four jewel thieves, all of which seemed to not be entirely human. Robin fiddled with his Titan communicator until he got it to transmit to the other Teen Titans, "Alright," He said, never taking his eyes off the thieves that were running from them, or the road, "Listen up. Cyborg, you take Trigo, Raven and Beast Boy, you two will take Amith. Starfire..." he hesitated for just a small moment, but it was enough to tell all the Teen Titans that he was uneasy about sending Starfire into battle without his help. He shook it off and continued, "you'll be taking Gourt, and I'll take Rickson. Everyone got that?"
There was a chorus of "Yes" answers. "Alright then, lets go." He slowed down his motorcycle just as the jewel thieves took flight, landing on the roof of a nearby building. Robin's motorcycle came to a stop. He put it in park as he reached for one of his wires to pull him up the side of the building. Cyborg had stopped the car he was driving and made his way down the alleyway to the only criminal who could not fly. Beast Boy turned into a hawk and flew to the top of the building with Raven and Starfire, while Robin swiftly scaled the side of the building. When Robin was halfway there, however, Starfire refused to make him scale the rest of the way. She sailed back down to his level from the top and gently took him in her arms, lifting him over the top of the building. Robin was blushing very hard by the time they got to the top. When Starfire had firmly set Robin on his feet, she let go of him and faced Gourt.
Wasting no more time, Robin faced his opponent. He took out a sharp, circular, ninja-like weapon. Then running forward, he threw it. It hit the thief's wings, making it hard for him to fly. Then with a leap in the air, Robin landed a kick on Rickson—a rather built person with longer-than- normal brown hair—sending him to the ground.
Nearby, Starfire was throwing star bolts at Gourt—a thin teenage boy with brown highlighted hair, who seemed to fancy his fast speed more than his skill with anything. Starfire's star bolts kept hitting the building rather than him, making her irritation build. Her frustration was starting to get to her when Gourt dodged yet another set of her star bolts. Starfire threw a star bolt in the opposite direction, just as she launched herself in the air, landing a fast twist-kick on the boy. This was enough to stop him momentarily from moving. Starfire threw a stream of star bolts at him, causing a lot of dust to suddenly cloud her vision.
Next to this, Beast Boy and Raven were putting a number on Amith—a woman of her early twenties, with a muscular body and purple and blue dyed hair that was elegantly wrapped in a pinned knot at the back of her head. Her wings were a navy blue, surprisingly enough. They blended perfectly with the other two male criminal's wings that were a true black color. She wore a two-slit dress, which struck Raven and Beast Boy as odd, considering she had just been robbing jewelry stores. Raven had been throwing pieces of cement at her, coming from the building. Beast Boy had turned into a cheetah and was charging and biting at her. Besides her exotic look, she had seemed actually pretty harmless. So far, she had barely put up a fight at all, making all of Raven's and Beast Boy's attacks hit dead center. One in particular, knocked the young woman off her feet and created a rather large cloud of pink smoke.
Bellow all this, Cyborg wasn't having much trouble with fighting Trigo—a man of no more than nineteen years old. He was a lean, dark-skinned man with black hair that fell in braids to his shoulders. Cyborg ran forward, having his hand meet with Trigo's jaw. This sent Trigo flying backwards and landing against some cardboard boxes. Cyborg could see that he had knocked him out. "Done here, Robin," Cyborg said into his com. There was silence for a moment before he heard a screeching of something metal hitting cement and the flapping of wings from the other end. Finally, a breathless voice came onto the com, "Good work...We all should all be done in good time." Cyborg was about to ask why Robin sounded like he was really struggling with his opponent, when he heard another flapping of wings and a strangled "Whoa!" No doubt, from Robin. The com went off on Robin's end at that moment, leaving Cyborg standing silently in question. He wondered what it was, exactly, that Robin was fighting.
Robin had taken to throwing electric disks at Rickson. Unfortunately, this had only succeeded in angering the black winged man. He was currently dodging the wings of his opponent as they tried to close in around him. Rickson was holding what Robin could only guess to be some sort of jeweled knife. He wanted nothing to do with the weapon in the man's hand, so he decided to keep a safe distance from Rickson until he could find a way to defeat him. Suddenly, the wings extended and closed in around him. Fear struck him, not really knowing what to do. Without thinking, he took a fist full of his tiny, sharp, circular weapons, throwing them at Rickson. Using this as a diversion, Robin gathered himself and leapt in the air, shifting all his weight to his leg as it came down on Rickson. This succeeded in giving Rickson a major blow to the head. Rickson's wings flopped, his eyes closed, and he fell backwards to the cement roof in a limp fashion.
Starfire, was once again having trouble with her opponent. He had gotten back up very quickly after she had knocked him down earlier. He was light on his feet and fast in the air. His black-feathered wings had a tendency to throw a lot of dust in her face whenever she would just about have him pinned down. When Gourt had thrust a wing in her face to catch her off guard, she had fallen backwards to avoid getting injured. It was then that her star bolts became more powerful then before. She threw row after row of star bolts in the whole vicinity of where he was. Then, seeing that at least a few had hit him, causing him to stand still for just a moment, she picked herself up and launched herself forward, her leg extended. Her kick landed hard, knocking him out cold. Satisfied, she turned her attention to Raven and Beast Boy, who's opponent was not nearly as puny as she had previously seemed.
Amith was throwing out moves at them that even surprised Raven. so far, Beast Boy had been thrown down to the cement roof four times and Raven had been thrown into a pile of crates. Beast Boy had turned into a wolf and was charging with teeth bared, at the woman. Raven was going to throw a giant chunk of cement at her while he did this to distract her. The only problem was, when the time came to put the plan into motion, Amith closed her wings around her, repelling the cement. If that wasn't bad enough, a dagger appeared in her hand just as Beast Boy got to her. She ran it swiftly and cleanly across his side and into his flesh, making him yelp in pain. With a swift stroke of one of her wings, she pushed him off the edge of the building. Before he fell, though, he changed back into Beast Boy, and the sight of him bleeding through the huge gash in his side while being pushed over the edge of a building triggered something inside Raven that she could not remember feeling before. Without thinking at all, she took off after Beast Boy, fear and anger had leapt in her heart, making her fly that much fast. Beast Boy was more than half way down from the building when Raven caught him.
Robin and Starfire had taken over fighting Amith. It was useless, however, every kick that Robin landed and every star bolt that Starfire threw at her, were repelled by her navy-blue wings. Robin threw a bunch of his energy charged weapons at Amith, in an effort to injure her wings just a little bit so that she wouldn't be able to repel their attacks so easily. She opened her wings just long enough to throw a vile of something in their direction before closing her wings to repel Robin's electrically charged weapons. One of them shattered the vile of what ever it was that she threw at them. It didn't seem to have any affect on Starfire, but Robin started coughing so violently that he fell to his hands and knees. His lungs burned and he could feel sweat breaking out over his entire body. Starfire would have gone over to him the moment it happened, except for the fact that Amith was still attacking her. "What was that?" Starfire demanded as she dodged a wing.
"That," Amith said through a smirk, "was a vile of a modified flu virus. He'll be lucky if he's only down for a week." She thrust another wing at Starfire, knocking the girl off balance.
Starfire was too horror struck to say or do anything at first in response to what she had just heard. She knew that Robin—even with the healing power that was transferred between her and him whenever they kissed—could not stand up to much more illness. He had just gotten over a particularly deadly case of dust pneumonia. She was too worried about what this added strain to his already battered immune system might mean for him. It was then, however, that Raven appeared with Beast Boy laying in her arms. Her cloak had turned a deep red color, telling Starfire that Raven was very angry.
Raven set Beast Boy down on a safe part of the roof before joining Starfire. Anger, now radiating from both Starfire and Raven with such intensity that you wold have almost been able to see it. Without realizing it, Raven had picked up a huge chunk of cement pelting it at Amith, at the same time Starfire had pelted an entire line of star bolts at the woman. The result was less than amazing. The star bolts mingled with Raven's magic and the pieces of cement, making the whole thing powerful enough to break through Amith's defenses, leaving her unconscious. Raven magically bound the woman, her cloak still glowing a vivid red color.
When Starfire's eyes were still glowing green and Raven's cloak was still a very angry red color as they descended from the top of the building, Cyborg could tell something was very wrong. The other thing that alerted him, was the fact that Raven was carrying Beast Boy and Starfire was carrying Robin. Now, Cyborg would have passed off Starfire carrying Robin as normal, had she not been carrying him with one arm under his back and the other under his knees. This was the same way that Raven was carrying Beast Boy.
This became very unnerving to Cyborg as they reached the ground. Cyborg didn't have to be told what they wanted him to do. By the look on their faces, he already knew. He picked up his com, pressed a button on it to call the police, then walked back to where Robin's motorcycle was, attaching it to the car. He got in the driver's seat of the car just as Starfire and Raven got in the other sides of the car, careful of how they were positioning Beast Boy and Robin.
When they arrived at the Titan Tower, Raven and Starfire got to work right away. They carried Beast Boy and Robin up to each of the boys' rooms with the occasional help of Cyborg. When both Robin and Beast Boy were laying on their own bed, Raven and Starfire went scavenging around the house for the things they needed to help the people so dear to them. The two girls were constantly crossing each other's path to get what they needed: bowls of water, cloth, bandages, medical tape, medicine, and various other items.
After Starfire gave Robin some medicine, she gently took his hand in hers. True, Robin had been sick before, but never so often and so harshly. He had barely gotten over the dust pneumonia before this struck him down. She wasn't entirely sure that he could get over another disease right after something that strong, but she couldn't tell one way or the other right now. She guessed that even though he was currently asleep, he was not well at all. The fact that he had passed out on the rooftop was enough to worry her greatly. Starfire sat by him, feeling completely helpless. She knew that she couldn't help him anymore than she already had in the past. He was going to have to find a way to pull through on his own. She brushed a few strands of sweaty hair out of his eyes. In a way, he seemed so peaceful laying there, but she didn't want him to look peaceful, no matter how selfish that seemed. She wanted him to be talking and laughing with her. She wanted for him to wake up, to look at her and ask why she was sitting there, to tell her that he felt fine, but she knew that wouldn't happen for a while. Besides, why was she worrying, anyway? He would be fine in a week or two...right?
Starfire couldn't make herself agree. She wasn't sure if his immune system was strong enough to fend off a new disease so close to the other one. She should have never let Robin fight Amith on the roof top, no matter what it took, but how could she have known that Amith was waiting to use something like this on her and Robin? True, her immune system was too advanced to be affected by the virus—modified or not—but she knew better than to think the same about Robin.
Cyborg watched Starfire from the hall, she looked very worried. He shifted his gaze to Beast Boy's room, which Raven was still at work in. She had completely discarded Beast Boy's shirt, using a certain medical tape in the place of stitches. She had cleaned the wound and mostly stopped the bleeding. She couldn't tell exactly how deep the wound was, but it didn't seem to have damaged any internal organs. Even so, she was sure that he had at least three broken ribs. She was still bandaging Beast Boy's wounds with an unnaturally gentle touch, for Raven. Raven's cloak had gotten rid of its blazing angry red color, and had resorted to shifting from a sorrowful gray to an all feeling white.
Raven hadn't been sure, even now, why she had reacted the way she did on the rooftop. She still wasn't sure why she cared so much about what happened to Beast Boy. After all, she and him had never been what anyone would call 'really close.' It wasn't just that he was injured that bothered her so. There was a kind of rage that had taken over her at his injury. What set this off in her mind, she couldn't be certain, but something about their enemy injuring him had made her very angry. Something had happened on that rooftop, whether she was willing to admit to it or not. She had been more scared than she could ever remember feeling. But why? It was not her life that was in danger, why had she been so terrified about someone else losing their life? Sure, he was someone she knew, someone she heard and saw on a daily bases...but...what made her so terrified about losing him? She knew that she would have perhaps not felt at all happy about losing someone like Robin, Cyborg, or Starfire...but with Beast Boy...she had been truly afraid to lose him. What made him any different than any of the others? These thoughts swam in her mind, chasing each other over and over again through her head. She didn't have an answer to any of them. The thing that made her the most uneasy, however, was not all these questions. It was the fact that she was still worried about Beast Boy. What was he to her that no one else was? And why?
Raven circled the bandage around Beast Boy's waist for the last time, tying it at the end. She had never been much of a nurse, so she hoped that her attempt to bandage Beast Boy had at least halfway served its purpose. Raven picked up the bowl of water that had turned red with the blood from Beast Boy's wound. She slowly made her way to the bathroom sink, dumping it down the drain. She recoiled slightly at the smell and look of the blood colored water as it went down the drain. Silently, she washed the bowl out thoroughly with dish soap before filling it with cool, clean water once again.
Setting it back on his nightstand, where a plate of mostly-eaten, two-day- old tofu and a half-drunk glass of outdated vegetable juice still were, she sat down in an overstuffed chair that she had dragged next to his bedside. She suspected that this kind of disorder was what Beast Boy considered normal. Compared to her almost empty room, Beast Boy's room was completely packed with nothing other than useless junk. It felt both repelling and inviting to Raven, putting her somewhere in neutral.
It was dark outside and she could hear the rain pattering against the windows in rage. Rage at two good, young men getting ill and injured by a woman so evil. Rage at the horrible nature mankind was able to harbor. Suddenly the lights went out, leaving the Titan Tower completely dark and still. Raven waited uneasily in the dark, remaining still. There was something that felt lonely and spooky about this kind of darkness. There were no comments from Robin and no panicky remarks from Starfire or Beast Boy. Within, a few seconds, however, Cyborg was shinning a light at her from the hallway.
He walked in and gave her a flashlight, "Here, you might need this." Raven nodded, turning back to Beast Boy. Turning back to the hallway, Cyborg made his way out of Beast Boy's room and started in the direction of Robin's room. When he walked into Robin's room, however, he found Starfire slumped back in her chair with her eyes closed and a hand reached out towards Robin's hand. Cyborg took another step inside the door to get a better view of Starfire. She looked just as exhausted as Robin did. Robin had been out cold for over two hours now, and Starfire had been in his room for every second of them, never leaving Robin's side.
Cyborg had guessed that there was a much deeper bond between Robin and Starfire than any of them knew, but perhaps they would find out someday. He secretly wondered if any of them would truly be back to the way they were before the mansion collapsed. Cyborg shifted his gaze to Robin. The young man that he had considered his friend for so many years truly looked like death warmed over. Robin's skin was white, his hair was matted to his forehead due to all the sweat his body was giving off, and Cyborg could bet, if he touched Robin, he would have gotten a very warm palm. He shook his head and made his way out of the room, silently.
It was a good three days before Robin gained consciousness again. Starfire had resorted to making large bowls of "pudding of sadness" as her next to only source of food while Robin had been unconscious. She had barely ever left his side at all during the three days, but when he finally awoke, she refused to leave his side at all. Robin hadn't been very well looking when he had finally come to, but at least he was awake. He had insisted that he was fine; that he was just going through a routine cold, but Starfire knew better. She hadn't let him get out of bed accept for the essential needs that required his absence from the room.
In Beast Boy's room, he had woken up the next day, after his run in with Amith's knife. Raven hadn't left his side either. Her excuse for this was simple; Cyborg had volunteered to do all the house work while Robin and Beast Boy were ill and injured. In return, Raven and Starfire had told him they would watch over Robin and Beast Boy. So, it seemed only fair that she would hold up her end of the bargain. What Beast Boy didn't know, however, was that Raven and Cyborg had come up with the idea together, and that Cyborg had only agreed because her cloak was shifting from gray to white the entire conversation, indicating her unhappiness about Beast Boy's injury.
Other than the recovery of Robin and Beast Boy, the days passed by uneventfully. It was at this time that Raven and Beast Boy discovered a little more than friendship between them. It wasn't something that either had really tried very hard to happen, it just happened. Eventually, the Teen Titans went back to fighting crime in there small part of the world. Robin and Starfire continued getting closer as time passed. So where did this leave Cyborg? He found a girl too. He fell in love with a girl that he met at the ball in the mansion. It turned out that she had a super power of her own, as well. So the superhuman of the machine element and the superhuman of the fire element came together to form an adorable couple as well.