Title: Mind's Obsession
Author: Blair Lebeau, SocialButterfli
Summary: SEQUEL TO HEART'S DESIRE; The Titans are looking for Terra and Terran, and when they find someone who knows where they are, their partnership with this person results in more than they could have imagined. RobStar BBRae CyOC (finally)
Disclaimer: Obviously, I still don't own the Teen Titans. Why would I be writing a fan fic if I did? I also don't own WARD's Jewelers, if that exists.
Chapter 10 – Let the Light Shine
Terra lazily thrust her hand forward. A large rock behind her followed the motion, crashing into the window of WARD's Jewelers. People from inside screamed loudly. Another rock followed, this time directed by Terran, sitting on the ground beside his twin sister. The customers of WARD's Jewelers quickly began flowing out of the store in a frenzy. Soon the store was empty except for the employees who were cowering in a corner.
"This is too easy," Terra remarked, idly. "It's been so long since we've bothered to do anything that I'm actually bored."
"Yeah, well, it'd be more boring to continue doing nothing. Besides, won't it be fun to play with the Titans again?" Terran asked. Terra gave her brother a withering look.
"No."
"What, still pissed that the green one got over you so easily? Come on, Ter, you shouldn't be so surprised. After all, you did screw them over."
"Shut up!" Terra yelled, and for a second, guilt washed over her. They had given her a home, friendship, everything one could ever want, and she had thrown it all away for an idiot who in the end had gotten himself thrown in jail....
"I wouldn't mind seeing that redhead again," Terran said, smiling broadly. "I liked her. A lot."
"You seem to be forgetting that she chose the Boy Wonder over you," Terra shot back.
"Bitch," Terran said, remembering.
"Me? I'm the bitch? I'm not the one who kissed someone who obviously belongs to someone else. I mean, it's clear that Starfire and Robin were going to get together eventually, and you just kind of went in there and screwed everything up. Not like me. Beast Boy was mine first. And Raven, she's just like you, going and...."
"Let it go, Terra. You gave up your 'rights' to him when you betrayed them. Besides, the way you're talking it sounds like you actually regret what you did." Did she?
This made Terra stop and think. After all, she had lost out on a lot, and for what? To gain control of powers she loathed and to be reunited with her idiot brother? It had seemed like a good idea at the time but now it felt like she'd given up more than she'd gotten. Power and family, it sounded good in theory, but the power was fickle and was always either too much or not enough, and the Titans had been a better family to her than Terran. At first it had been nice, but the twins were so alike that now all they did was get on each other's nerves. And they were all each other had for company. It was, in reality, hell.
And Titans Tower, where she escaped the loneliness that was her life, had been a haven.
She had to stop thinking like that.
"Fuck it," Terra swore, regretfully and almost wistfully. She chucked another rock at the counter where two WARD's clerks were trembling. They shrieked and scattered to the safety of the back of the store.
"Yo Terra!" The scrawny blonde girl looked up to come face-to-face with Cyborg and the rest of the people whose trust she once had. Minus one. "I think it's time to clean up your act, and maybe your mouth, too." (Yeah I know that was BEYOND lame but all the Titan battle lines are lame, have you noticed that? Like that one in "Transformation" when Raven was attacking the chrysalis eater with spiders webs and was like "I think it's time to wrap this up." And then she wrapped her up with the spider webs. Har har. You get my point.)
"Well, well, well, the Teen Titans," Terran said, standing. "Long time no see." He picked Starfire easily out of the four of them, her red hair a dead giveaway. But something was different about her; she seemed shrunken and less alive. It reminded him of their last battle, when he had kissed her and all the fight went out of her. Why was she like this? Then Terran realized the leader was not who it used to be and the fearless five were now only four.
"I think you need to stop terrorizing innocent people," Cyborg shouted. Terran smiled maliciously.
"You've got a bigger mouth than usual, Tin Man. Could it be because your courageous leader is missing? Where is the little asshole, anyway?"
"None of your business," Beast Boy said. "We came to finish what we started the last time we battled. We took Slade down. Now it's your turn."
"Last time you escaped, but you won't be getting away this time," Raven growled.
"You ready to fight?" Cyborg asked, and the twins stood side by side, their hands beginning to glow yellow.
"Born ready," they said in unison, then cracked the earth underneath the Titans so they began to fall through. The twins hadn't expected it to do much, it was just supposed to be a beginning attack, because Raven could levitate, Beast Boy could turn into a bird, Starfire could fly, and one of them could grab onto Cyborg.
But neither of them knew that Starfire's ability to fly was powered by happiness, and neither of them knew that there was not a single happy thought in Star's mind. So both Cyborg and Star began to fall. Beast Boy morphed into a pterodactyl and grabbed Cy by the shoulders, but Raven, the only one who knew how Starfire's power of flight worked, realized too late that she wasn't able to think happy thoughts. (Wow, very Peter Pan, never noticed that before.) She went after her and grabbed her before she fell too far, but as she rose back up the ground began to close above them. In a second they were trapped in pure darkness. Normally, Raven liked the dark, but now she felt a strange fear of it. Starfire being unhappy had sort of turned things upside down for Raven, and everything seemed wrong now, like right was left and up was down. And now, with an emotionally broken Starfire in her arms, Raven could feel the heaviness of the situation setting in on her in a way she couldn't handle. Ever since she had gotten together with Beast Boy, her emotions had been mostly under control because she knew that he would never hurt her like she had been hurt in her past. But that didn't mean they couldn't get out of hand in other circumstances.
Raven slowly lowered herself until she felt her feet touch ground. She felt around and it seemed safe, so she set Starfire down and sat down herself, taking deep breaths to calm herself.
"I thought you liked the dark," Starfire whispered so faintly that if it hadn't been completely silent she wouldn't have been heard at all. Raven looked in Star's direction but couldn't make out her face for the sheer blackness of their surroundings, which made her even more anxious.
"Normally, it's calming," Raven said, hoping to keep up conversation so as to help the both of them. Conversation for her would be reassuring, and conversation for Starfire might help build her back up. "But now....it's....scary. I mean, they're up there fighting, and we're down here, trapped. And we can't see." Suddenly a faded green light dimly lit up the girls' faces, and Raven smiled.
"You have enough strength to do that?" The light wavered, but then stayed steady. Raven noticed the sudden determination on Starfire's face.
"Yes," she said, her voice a little louder. "I....I do not want to hide anymore. You admitting that you are afraid made me realize that I am just being foolish. I...." Starfire gulped, but continued. "I love Robin, though he does not continue having feelings for me. I believe that I will always have this warm feeling for him, and it will not go away. And I do not wish it to, not matter how painful it is. I want to go back up there and fight for him though he is not here." Starfire closed her eyes, and the light grew a tiny bit stronger.
"Let's get out of here," Raven suggested quietly.
"I will need more assistance than usual."
"We can do it." Raven smiled a rare, genuine smile that in turn put a small smile on Starfire's face, the first in a week. The light grew. "Together." A sort of last minute thought came into Raven's head and without thinking she pulled the redhead into a hug that wasn't embarrassed or quick but a real, sincere, caring hug. To Raven, Starfire was like the sister and companion she never had. Beast Boy was her boyfriend, but Star....Star was the only person Raven would consider a "best friend". And a best friend was worth telling the truth that you were scared, and giving up your usual standoffish persona, and opening yourself up.
Focusing their energies, the two girls meditated together and forced their power upward in unison. The ground above them started breaking, and the light came streaming in.
Aww, I always felt like Raven and Starfire have this unsaid bond that I absolutely loved in "Switched" so I just had to have a sisterly moment.
Sneak Peak: The battle escalates with a face-off between Terran and Starfire. Robin faces the team for the first time since he left.
Review!
Blair