Chapter 5: Sheer Instinct
"The wild deer, wand'ring here & there,
Keeps the Human Soul from Care.
The Lamb misus'd breeds public strife
And yet forgives the Butcher's Knife..."
Sunday morning, as the sun was rising over the misty horizon, Raven's contractions had grown stronger and as Mammoth lifted his head in sleepy disorientation, he heard the empath gasp.
"What is it?" Mammoth murmured. Upon inspecting the situation, the drowsy villain discovered that Raven's water had broken. Raven whimpered softly under the pain.
"I thought I could use my powers to deliver the babies myself, but my powers are too out of focus...I can't even move a chair across the room..." Raven said. Another contraction started right at the end of the last one and this time, Raven cried out in pain and tears glistened in her eyes. Mammoth's eyes grew wide as he adjusted the blanket he had placed over Raven and forced himself to check her again. Seconds later, his face became serious and he sat up a bit straighter.
"You need to push," he ordered, helping her sit up a bit so that he could push extra pillows behind her. After several pushes, one of the twins was well on the way and to Mammoth's horror, Raven passed out from the pain. The man-beast gave the fear in his heart no more than five seconds before he reacted, calmly placing pressure where it was needed and helping the baby the rest of the way out. Raven came around as Mammoth cut the cord and the baby wailed. Crying under the pressure and pain, Raven resumed pushing, afraid that if she didn't, Mammoth would not be able to do anything to save her or the baby. Then the impossible happened: the second infant's shoulders became lodged in Raven's birth canal. All of her pushing did no good, the baby wouldn't come.
"I can't push any harder!" Raven cried, "The baby's stuck!" Mammoth reacted once again with determination and aided the infant, very slowly pulling as Raven pushed. Once again, as Mammoth expected, Raven began to shake for a moment and then passed out again. This time, she didn't awaken again until after Mammoth had cleaned up the area and tucked Raven into the bed in the room. Very gently, he placed her newborn children in her arms and then sat back in a chair to look at his work. Despite complications, Mammoth had managed to keep Raven alive and deliver both of her twin children. Mammoth looked at the twins, a boy and a girl. The baby boy looked very much like a normal human with the exception of a shock of blue hair on his head. This was not the same purple-blue of his mother's hair, it was shocking, electric blue, and when Raven awoke, she declared that he had gotten it from his grandmother on Raven's side. The baby girl on the other hand, was a spitting image of her mother, from her purple hair all the way to her tapered fingers and powerful lungs.
"What are their names?" Mammoth asked.
"Toby Gar and Olivia Arella," Raven replied. Even though she had been pregnant no more than a few days, she had chosen these names for her children when she and Beast Boy married. Mammoth couldn't resist how peaceful the scene before him was. Raven was holding the twins to her and tears still slipped down her face, this time for joy. When the new mother and her children were asleep, Mammoth pressed a light kiss to Raven's forehead and then wrapped her in the blankets so that he could carry them. It was high time he took the weary Titan home.
Back at Titans Tower, Beast Boy pried open the doors of the lab and smoke billowed out. He coughed and pushed inside, tripping over the overturned objects in the room before the exhaust fans kicked in and the smoke was steadily sucked out of the room. He could make out Jinx on the other side of the room, face down on the floor and he ran to her.
"Jinx! What happened?" Beast Boy screeched, dropping to her side and shaking her shoulder. Jinx lifted her head and pointed across the room.
"Look!" Jinx cried. In the corner, as the smoke lifted, Beast Boy could see a figure in dirty, messy blonde hair and a rusty power suit curled up in fright with her face buried in her arms.
"Oh, my God," Beast Boy muttered in shock. Jinx had managed to free Terra.
"She hasn't got anything but basal brain function. She's running on instinct. I need to perform surgery to remove the rest of the suit," Jinx replied. Together, Beast Boy and Jinx managed to subdue Terra and prepare for surgery. They moved her up to the medical lab on the fifth floor and from there, Jinx asked Beast Boy to stay out in the hall.
"Why? You may need help in there," Beast Boy insisted.
"I appreciate that, BB, but I concentrate much better alone. Please, if you guys ever trusted me before, please trust me now. I can do this, but I have to do it now or she could die of shock," Jinx replied. "When the suit is removed, her higher brain functions will return." Beast Boy's eyes welled with tears.
"If you do manage to save her," Beast Boy replied, "I'll make sure Robin makes you a Titan." Jinx nodded gravely.
"I won't let you down," Jinx said.
Meanwhile, back at Wayne Manor, Robin, Torque and Cyborg had located the problem with the Batmobile. A second transmitter had been affixed over the original and wired around to override it. Just as Robin was getting ready to turn the key of the vehicle, the smell of food invaded his nostrils. The intercom clicked on and Alfred's voice echoed into the expansive Bat Cave.
"Lunch is served, Master Robin," Alfred announced.
"Smells great!" Torque said, stretching as she stood up.
"What is that enticing aroma?" Cyborg chimed in, grinning from ear to ear. All three Titans looked at one another and shouted out all at once, "PIZZA!"
Arriving in the kitchen, the Titans were immersed in the tantalizing smells of not one, but five large pizzas. Behind the center island, smiling triumphantly, were Alfred and Starfire. Both wore aprons and Starfire had a poufy white chef's hat on her head. Torque giggled and Starfire beamed.
"The young mistress was most solicitous of any culinary techniques I could teach her, so when I decided that a pizza was in order...well...you can see that we got a bit carried away," Alfred explained. The Titans were stunned. Alfred managed to teach Starfire to cook?
"Come, husband! I created this pizza just for us!" Starfire cried, pulling Robin over beside her. Robin wrapped his right arm around his wife favored her with a kiss before he smiled and said, "It looks great, Star. What's on it?"
"Well," Starfire began with a grand sweep of her hand, "First, since Cyborg is such a fan of the meat, here is a sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and roasted chicken with barbeque sauce and extra cheese!" Cyborg drooled helplessly and passed out on the floor.
"And for Torque," continued Starfire, "A supreme pizza with pepperoni, green peppers, olives, sausage, mushrooms and cheese." Torque gasped and inhaled deeply of the aroma.
"And last but not least, Robin, the pizza I created myself! It includes lots of cheese, olives, mushrooms, and mint frosting!" Starfire declared. The other four people in the room stopped and blinked at her. Starfire was still smiling, and Alfred shrugged. All at once, all of them began to laugh and then pulled chairs up so they could eat their lunch at the island.
An hour and a half later, the youngsters were getting ready to go back to Titans Tower. Alfred joined them out front and handed an extra pizza box to Robin.
"I had also prepared a vegetable pizza in anticipation of your vegetarian friend. Perhaps he would like to have it when you return home," Alfred explained.
"Thanks Alfred—for everything. Tell Bruce he can call me when he gets back home," Robin instructed as he handed the pizza box to Starfire and then threw his arms around the older man.
"I will, young master. You can be certain. Be careful on your mission, Master Robin, and do not hesitate to call should you need assistance," Alfred offered. Robin smiled and got on his motorcycle. When the young Titans had gone, Alfred sighed. The mansion seemed empty again. He returned to the kitchen, chuckled at the disaster he and Starfire had created and didn't complain once as he cleaned. It had felt good to have people in the house. It made the massive residence feel a little more like a home and a little less like a mausoleum.
When the Titans arrived home, they hardly expected the commotion that greeted them. Beast Boy was in the living room, his head in his hands and his eyes red-rimmed and puffy. The television was on, and a pretty brunette newscaster was describing a crime scene.
"Police are now searching for suspects in the break-in of this antique hotel in the East quarter of Gotham City. Nothing appears to be missing, and only one room appears to have been touched, but the grim details speak for themselves," the newscaster said. The picture blipped to photos of the crime scene, the police pointing out a blood and fluid soaked blanket on the floor and a torn black garment near the bed.
"Investigators have not yet located a body or a murder weapon to accompany this apparently vicious crime, but early evidence analysis tells us that the victim may have been a young woman. Other details were not available at this time..."
The rest of the newscast was lost on Beast Boy. He had heard enough. He would have recognized the torn uniform anywhere. To all appearances, his wife had perished at the hands of their enemies, while downstairs in the lab, Jinx was busy saving Terra. There had never been a time when Beast Boy was so torn. He wanted to be happy for Jinx—to share her joy in her victory over the certain death of their friend, but at the same time, Beast Boy's heart was threatening to pound out of his chest: his wife and unborn children was dead.
As evening fell, Beast Boy stood on the roof of the Tower in his wolf form, took a deep breath as he faced the full moon and howled, allowing the tears to flow from his eyes. Meanwhile, downstairs, Jinx finally emerged from the lab, still wiping her hands after washing them. She looked exhausted. She lifted her eyes to face her teammates...
"I did it. Terra is going to live."
An hour after the Titans had retired for bed Mammoth came beneath the shadow of the massive Tower. Raven was still wrapped in the blanket in his arms, protected from the chilly spring night. Her torn uniform had been an impediment to the delivery and care of her infant children, so she had improvised her cloak to do the job. As he walked, Mammoth noticed something—Raven was smiling—she was humming—he had never seen her happy before this day. Occasionally, one of the twins would make a tiny, soft, baby sound and the bulky villain would smile. He held them a bit closer and pressed on, letting Raven use her powers to press the keypad that granted them access to the Tower. As Mammoth walked along the lower hallways, Raven looked up at him and said, "I want to thank you again, for everything you did for me. You didn't have to do. You could have just done as Gizmo said. You made a good choice, Mammoth." Mammoth smiled shyly but said nothing. When they reached the bedroom floors, Raven decided it was a better idea not to wake Beast Boy. She could tell by his breathing as she listened at the door that it had been as bad a weekend for him as it had for her. Mammoth conceded to place her on the couch and then bid her farewell.
"Where will you go?" Raven asked softly.
"I don't know. I need to go away for a while. I need to think about some things," Mammoth replied.
"I understand. I want you to know you will always be welcome here as my guest," Raven replied. Mammoth stroked her hair and ran his thumb over her cheek.
"Take good care of the twins...and take good care of yourself. The green guy's lucky to have you," Mammoth replied. Raven smiled a thank you and then closed her eyes as Mammoth tucked the blanket around her again and disappeared. Raven snuggled into the blanket and kissed the delicate heads of each of her children. She was so glad to be home.