Chapter 11: Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Once they were in the T-Sub and cruising along the ocean floor, Raven found herself thinking about her missing fiancé. The two had been meditating together in the evenings, performing a special meditation that Raven had discovered for couples. To her surprise, Beast Boy had caught on rather quickly, and the connection between them grew. The meditation had required looking directly into one another's eyes, something that had taken quite a bit of practice for Beast Boy to master without succumbing to the need to kiss her, they had managed.
Raven wasn't all together certain that she was ready for their wedding night. She loved Beast Boy and was sure she was ready to marry him, but she hadn't been able to handle the idea of another man taking her clothes off, even if it was her husband. Now that she knew that he was in mortal danger, she began to regret pushing him away.
He had tried to hide his disappointment when she panicked one night. They had been kissing after the rest of the team had retired to bed, and Beast Boy very gently nudged her backwards against the couch cushions. He moved from her lips to her neck and as good as it felt, the drug-distorted images of what happened the night she was assaulted were still as clear as the night it happened. She had pushed him away from her and cried out, "No! I can't!" Saddened, Beast Boy reached for her, wanting to hold her until her fears were gone again, but she wouldn't hear of it. He had followed her downstairs, but only kissed her cheek before retiring to his own room.
Returning herself to the present, Raven choked back tears. Now she may never get the chance to redeem herself. What she wouldn't give now for the chance to let him hold her, let him kiss her, let him...
They were getting out of the T-Sub now, walking out onto a man-made island and Raven hadn't heard a word of Robin's instructions. Batman saw this and leaned down to the young woman's ear as he rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"We'll find him, Raven," came his deep voice. Raven swallowed a sob and nodded, but several seashells on the beach still exploded as she stifled the feelings inside her.
"I know we will," Raven replied, her voice raw with emotion.
"Chin up. He'll need your strength tonight as well as his own. Wherever he is," Batman added. Raven didn't need to be told twice. She lifted her head, straightened her back, and turned her eyes toward the cold stone building ahead of them.
"Cyborg's signal is getting stronger. We're getting closer to them," Robin said checking his scanner for the signal.
"Be careful, everyone. We have no idea what kind of traps Slade has planted in this place. There could be traps wired to his prisoners. If we bump or hit a specific target, it could cause harm or death to one of the others," Batman warned. The three young adults around him nodded in acknowledgement. Each of them took a deep breath and proceeded to the entrance.
"Raven and Torque take the basement, Starfire take the roof and the exterior walls, Robin, you're with me," Batman commanded, watching as each of the kids nodded in acknowledgement. Robin craned his neck to watch the girls take off in their respective directions.
"I know what you're thinking. She'll be okay, Robin," Batman said as gently as he could.
"Oh, I know she will. It's just that I've never worried about her like this before," Robin said with a soft smile. Batman smirked and grinned.
"I'm afraid that us superheroes have only a select few within our scope and most of them could pretty easily take us out," Batman commented, sighing. Robin grinned slyly.
"So, Wonder Woman can kick your butt," Robin replied with a grin. Batman scowled good naturedly and took Robin's head under arm and into a headlock, smiling as the younger man giggled softly and squirmed. Batman released him as he heard the metallic thud of robotic feet. Slade's henchmen were nearby. The scanner in Robin's hand went crazy.
"We must be close; Cyborg's signal is getting stronger. Maybe we found them," Robin said.
"Don't get your hopes up. It may be just Cyborg. Perhaps the girls have already found one of them," Batman replied. As Batman and Robin glanced around the corner to see how many bots there were, they had no idea how right Batman had been—Starfire had found Beast Boy.
As she flew up over the roof of the building, she spotted a low platform across the way on the other side of the roof. Suspended from the scaffolding, one limb confined to a long chain at each end of each corner, was Beast Boy. The top half of his uniform had been ripped off, his utility belt was crushed on the ground and he was unconscious. Starfire could puddle on the ground beneath her green-skinned friend. It looked thick and in the twilight of the sun and moon changing their watch, the liquid appeared nearly black. Starfire's heart thudded against her ribs as she came closer. When Beast Boy didn't respond to her touch, she flew around behind him and discovered the source of the puddle of liquid beneath him. If Starfire had had anything in her stomach, it would have come back up when she saw Beast Boy's back. The shape-shifter's back looked as though it had taken 50 lashes with an ordinary whip and then some sort of claw had been used. The blood from his wounds was what Starfire had seen. Reacting out of sheer panic, Starfire used her starbolts to blast the chains from their anchor points and Beast Boy fell limply to the ground. Starfire rushed to his side and wept as she desperately tried to find a way to hold him that would not cause pain to his wounds.
"Beast Boy!" Starfire cried. "Oh, Beast Boy please awaken! Beast Boy!" When he didn't respond, Starfire fumbled for her communicator.
"Robin!" she begged. "Oh, Robin come in, please!" she was still crying and her hands were shaking as she held her communicator. Seconds plodded by like lead weights being dropped into the pit of her stomach. Robin's face appeared finally in the tiny screen.
"Starfire, what's wrong!" he demanded, wild-eyed fear evident in his voice and expression.
"I have located Beast Boy but he is injured so badly..." she couldn't seem to finish her sentence. Starfire felt her throat thicken with nausea. Her palms were covered with Beast Boy's blood and in the distance she could hear approaching reinforcements of the guards running toward the basement. Raven and Torque must have been discovered.
"We're less than 15 miles from the Tower. Take Beast Boy and fly him home. Stay there and take care of him. We can handle the rest of this without you. Quickly, Starfire, go!" Robin ordered. Starfire dried her eyes and nodded. Gingerly lifting her friend, Starfire rose into the air and took off toward Titans Tower, skillfully dodging weapons fire from their enemies as she went.
In the dark, dank lower floor of the island complex, Raven and Torque were using everything within reach to fight the swarm of robot henchmen that came at them from all directions.
"Batter up!" yelled Torque, projecting her powers to pull together a group of the marauding robots. Once she had them in her grasp she turned around and slung the group across the wide open basement room where Raven was poised with an oak log from a stack of unfinished materials. Using her powers to energize the log she wielded it like a baseball bat and not only did Torque's handful of robots meet a violent end, but the corresponding rebound of the robots knocked out many more.
"Home run!" cried Raven. "Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" The log fractured with a loud crack minutes later, forcing Raven to turn to the next one in the stack. Another wave of the bots charged through the door and Raven screamed, "There are too many! We'll never make it out of here!"
"Leave it to me!" Torque shouted back. Summoning her powers in a thunderous bolt of orange energy, swept all of the bots into one grasp and pushed them together toward the wide open doors to the outside. Taking one last slap shot with the tree trunk, Raven joined her, using her own telekinetic powers to push as well.
"On the count of three!" Torque growled, gritting her teeth as she strained to keep the rabble together. "One! Two! THREE!" Raven gave the group one more good shove and Torque squeezed, instantly turning the room full of robots into one neat, compacted square bale of scrap metal. Torque and Raven stood for a moment to admire their handiwork.
"Nice work," said Raven.
"Not bad," said Torque, smiling. "Let's go find the others." Just then, Starfire's desperate call for help crackled over their communicators as well as Robin's reply. Raven's already pale complexion blanched even more when she heard Starfire's report. It frightened her to see Starfire panic so badly. Granted, she was typically emotional to the point of irrational, but this was a different panic. This was a 'I don't know if he's going to live or die' panic. Raven's cerulean eyes flashed with fear as she and Torque listened. When the messages ended, Raven made a move for the door and Torque grabbed her by the wrist.
"You can't just leave me here!" Torque cried. "I need your help! Cyborg and Jinx need you! Starfire took awesome care of Robin when he was recovering from that horror house of Slade's. Trust her to take just as good a care of Beast Boy. Now come on! We don't have much time left!" Torque cried. Raven tugged her wrist away and gave Torque a look of helplessness. One direction led to more battles, to saving Jinx and Cyborg and to defeating Slade and Brother Blood. The other led back to Titans Tower, to safety, and to the side of her ailing fiancé. Raven let a tear slip down her cheek as she swallowed hard and said, "Because I love him so much, I can't disappoint him now. Which way do we go?"
Finally ducking into the hidden emergency entrance to Titans Tower, Starfire gently placed Beast Boy on his stomach on the bed in the Titans small medical bay. It was rarely needed, but today, Starfire was glad they had it. She knew little about medicine beyond simple first aid, and that would not be enough for this. All Starfire knew was that it was a good thing he was unconscious, because it was going to hurt worse than anything she could imagine when she tried to clean his wounds. She was also going to have to try to use the spray-on wound adhesive that Robin had found one day while gathering supplies for the Tower. It worked better than a bandage, and worked well for larger wounds. By the time Starfire was done, she had had to wrap Beast Boy's entire torso in white bandage in order to cover his back and sides. The adhesive seemed to be holding, and as Starfire finished gently cleaning the dirt, sweat and tiny clumps of blood out of his hair, Beast Boy started to come around. The first thing he felt was a nice cool washcloth being swept over his head and face. It felt so good he was content to just lie there with his eyes closed and allow whoever was doing this wonderful thing for him to continue. When he felt his caretaker lift his head into her hand and softly wash his face, he allowed his eyes to blink open.
"Beast Boy?" Starfire ventured, seeing his eyes opening. Lightly, she relaxed his head back onto the bed and watched intently to see if he would be all right.
"Starfire...where am I?" Beast Boy murmured. He couldn't seem to move without some part of him hurting. Every muscle movement caused a shooting fire of pain and he listened as Starfire recounted the ordeal to him. He heard most of it. He managed to stay awake long enough to hear that Raven was alive and that, as far as he was concerned, was all that mattered. Beast Boy gulped down several glasses of water that Starfire offered him and then his dazzling emerald eyes drooped shut. Starfire saw this and covered him with a warm blanket before turning the lights down but not off, and turning on the monitor that tracked a patient's vital signs. She stood for a moment and looked at Beast Boy, thanking her goddess that Beast Boy had lived.
Starfire walked out into the hallway and clicked on her communicator. "Robin, can you hear me?"
"I read you, Starfire. How's Beast Boy?"
"He is resting. He will recover completely," Starfire replied. She could almost feel the relief that this gave not just Robin, but the others that were listening. Robin and Raven's smiles were all the thanks she needed.
"Is he awake?" Raven asked.
"He is not. He fell asleep several minutes ago. Have you located Cyborg and Jinx?" Starfire replied.
"We're standing outside the chamber now. We'll report back in about an hour," Robin told her.
"Understood," Starfire said, closing her communicator. Too exhausted to do much else, Starfire went upstairs to the kitchen area and fixed herself a snack before sitting down on the couch and falling asleep herself.
