Teen titans
Robin reborn
Episode II: What type of hero?
by secondchild02
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, if I did I sure wouldn't still be living in my parents' house would I? The only thing I do own in this story is Havelock and Vengeance (who? you say!) they aren't worth much. I don't have any money so please don't sue me. If I annoy DC Comics by writing this I'll go and clean their cars for a month, I promise, I'll even polish them, how's that for a deal?
Starfire sat on the roof of Titans tower, the place she spoke to him last and thought of Robin. Their leader, her best friend, her boy. She had called him that once, when he had been battling Fang, the spider headed boyfriend of Killer Moth's daughter. She had been so sure, so certain that there would be a future for the two of them it seemed impossible that anything would happen to any of them.
Wrapped around her hand was the scrap of fabric that had been his mask, she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, it still had his scent. Robin had faced Slade countless times, how was he defeated this time? In her mind a smiling young girl with blonde hair presented herself, Terra, it had all changed since they had taken her in. She had befriended them, acquired their trust, and even had a thing with Beast Boy, but in the end had betrayed them to Slade. She had given him everything about them, flaws, weaknesses, perhaps even who they really were. A spark of anger flared inside Starfire, a sense of unfairness that perhaps Slade knew about who Robin was beneath the mask and not her. But now she would never truly know, yes she could find out from the objects in his room and his personal database but she would never truly know because he would never tell her. Never would Robin remove his mask, hold her by the hand and say "My name is..." because he was dead. She had watched him die, saw the last spark of life fade from his eyes, the eyes she had never seen before that time. She had imagined them as a cold, logical blue, as unreadable as his mask was but occasionally softening as he looked at her. She would never have thought them to be a soft brown and alive with a childish exuberance that matched her own. She smiled, but the smile froze as she remembered she would never see them again. Slade would pay with his own life if necessary despite it being a fundamental belief of the Titans to never kill but instead to bring wrongdoers to justice. The ideal had been believed in most strongly by Robin, and had been a little hard for some of the Titans to follow sometimes when tempers got out of control, Raven especially. But he was always there to explain it to them, always there to tell them why that had to be the way; "It's what makes us better than the villains we fight," he had said "because when we break down, it all breaks down" Starfire believed that too, but now Robin wasn't there to explain why and without that would the Titans be able to control their rage.
Robins' body lay on a slab in the warehouse which was surrounded by complex runes and symbols all drawn in a huge circle that took up most of the buildings floor. Jinx stood a little behind Slade watching Havelock wander around the circle putting the finishing touches to the strange symbols that were all around it. "What's he doing?" she asked
"He is finalizing the preparations for the ritual" answered Slade, in truth he had no idea what the demonologist was up to.
"What ritual?"
"The one that will apparently channel untold power into this world for me to command" that was all Slade was certain of. "And why did we need Robin?" Jinx was getting annoying now
"Personal preference, my dear, personal preference" In truth Slade wanted Robin because he was his first choice as an apprentice and had slipped through his fingers owing to Robins' inherent stubbornness. This time he would have Robin not as an apprentice but as a tool for him to use and then discard when the he had outlived his usefulness.
Havelock finished drawing a complex rune that made Jinx's head hurt to look at, looked up and nodded at Slade. "Proceed" the masked man replied. Havelock turned round and began to speak in a loud voice a language that sounded like he was clearing his throat. All the runes began to glow a bright yellow that built in intensity until they were nearly blinding and the air began to shimmer like heat haze. Havelock raised his hands above his head and continued, the runes began to flash different colours, purple, green, red and blue this happened slowly at first but it quickly built up in speed until the warehouse was a storm of colour. Jinx shaded her eyes and looked up at Slade who was leaning on the railings and staring straight into the blinding heart of the circle, she could tell from his body language that he was grinning beneath that mask of his. Slowly the inner circle of symbols began to dissolve in a stream of coloured dust that streamed towards the slab in the centre and began to cover Robin's body from head to toe. Havelock began to speak very quickly now with his strange words taking on an urgency that hadn't been there before and with each syllable Jinx felt an ever growing pressure over her whole body. She fell to her knees and tried to scream but the pressure had forced all the air from her lungs, looking up she saw Slade straining to remain standing. Before she blacked out she heard Havelock utter the final word of the spell and then the strange ringing silence that followed. She never heard the explosion.
The pressure of the spell released and blew every window out in the warehouse and destroyed most of the Sladetrooper robots that filled it. Havelock was blown across the huge room and Slade was sent running for cover as razor sharp glass and red hot machine parts filled the air. At the centre of the circle Robin's body flashed white and arced its back like it had been electrocuted, the eyelids flickered a bit but then it fell back to the slab and remained still.
Jinx came to slowly, the slow sound of movement could be heard, someone was making their way towards her through the debris. She felt hands picking her up and steadying her against the railing. "S-slade?" she asked opening her eyes slowly. "Wrong" came a voice it was a bit muffled as her ears were still ringing from the spell. "Havelock, what happened?" she finished opening her eyes and saw a face that was familiar but unexpected, she recoiled in fear "You!"
"Again, Wrong" said the person as their eyes flashed red from edge to edge, "but where is he?" Jinx screamed. As she blacked out again twisted laughter filled the air, deep, dark and terrible that hinted of mayhem and murder.
The four remaining Titans were gathered in the main room of Titans Tower, they all had an air of unease which was not surprising given recent events. "Where do we go from here?" asked Raven the others looked at each other "We find Slade," said Beast Boy "and take him out"
"Don't you mean take him down?" Cyborg asked
"You heard me" Beast Boy looked back at his friend with a strange look in his eyes.
"I disagree with Beast Boy," said Starfire in a small voice "but Slade must be dealt with in the most severe manner". Cyborg looked at Beast Boy, his eyes wide with disbelief "I can't believe you're talking about killing someone, even if it's Slade" he looked at Raven "What do you think about all this?". Raven lowered her hood, "I think the time for trying to bring Slade to justice is over," she said "I think it's time we put a stop to him once and for all"
"Yeah, we bring him in for the courts to deal with, we've done it to all the other villains, weirdos and bad guys we've gone after"
"None of them killed one of our friends, Cy, the thought of killing isn't one I like but it's time to take the gloves off" Beast Boy had began pacing back and forth
"Yeah, we get tough but we don't have to kill, remember what Robin taught us; when we break down it's over we end up no better than them!"
"Well maybe it's time to fight fire with fire" Raven folded her arms across her chest "Robin got the closest of any of us to Slade when he was Red-X, he recognised that only through being like him could we get near him" Starfire looked up from staring at her feet and spoke in a quiet yet commanding voice,
"From us he took a leader, a team mate and a friend. He did so easily and without hesitation, Robin was defeated because he cannot kill," she sniffed as a tear rolled down her cheek "I also would be unable to take a life. On Tamerran even the accidental slaying of the smallest insect is cause for grief, the thought of murder," she shivered at the word "even of someone such as Slade would be unforgivable and I would not be able to continue living if I aided in that. We must as Beast Boy says 'remove our gloves' but Slade must be apprehended and not slain by our hands" She looked back at her feet again and fell silent.
"Starfire," roared Beast Boy "how can you say that after what he took from us, from you, we know you and Robin were-" Raven flashed him a look that would have melted steel
"Shut up, Beast Boy"
"What?, everyone knew they had a thing for each other, it was obvious" he flopped down onto the sofa and snorted "I just don't get how she can stand there and not be mad" he looked up at Starfire and realised he had made a huge mistake. Tears were rolling down her face uncontrollably and her eyes were screwed shut in an effort to block out the outside world that had recently gone mad around her. "Star', I'm so sorry" he said and walked forward but Cyborg's hand appeared on his chest stopping him "I think you've done enough, man" Raven walked over to Starfire and put her arm around the girls shoulder "Come on." she said and steered Starfire towards the stairs who was now wailing loudly and shaking. "Star'?" asked Beast Boy, Raven once again shot him a look and took Starfire upstairs. "I'd hate to be you when she comes back down" said Cyborg looking down at his shorter friend who looked back at him wide eyed with confusion and panic who said "What?"
A few hours had passed and Raven was standing outside the door to Robin's room. She had had to put Starfire in a trance to get her to sleep because she was crying so hard she was forgetting to breathe but now she had something to do. With the wave of a hand the security keypad on the door turned black and four buttons depressed in a sequence that caused the door to slide open. She entered Robins room, she had never done so, she suspected not one of the Titans ever had. It was dark but a short investigation by the door frame found the light switch, it didn't improve matters much. One dull light bulb hung from a shadeless light fitting in the middle of the rooms ceiling, there was a bed that looked thin and uncomfortable, a desk that was littered with papers and bits of inventions Robin had been working on and a wardrobe that was built into the wall. A computer lay on the floor in the corner, it was off. It didn't look like a place someone lived but instead a place where someone came to sleep and even then not for great periods of time. Raven walked over to the wardrobe and slid the mirrored door open, the contents were perhaps the saddest thing she had ever seen; One Robin suit, One pair of green trousers, a spare utility belt, another pair of boots placed neatly at the bottom beside a shoebox that when opened contained a few spare masks. The only other item was a dry cleaning bag, she opened it, it held a pair of jeans and a brown t-shirt with "T.D." on a label stitched inside the collar. Raven found herself wondering what the initials stood for when she spotted something next to the bed, it was a photograph. Actually it was four photographs in a strip that had come from a photo booth and they were of Robin and Starfire. In each one they were in a different pose laughing and joking, shoving each other around but it was in the last one that Robin was standing behind Starfire with his arms around her shoulders. It looked funny because he just a little shorter than Starfire but they were both looking right at the camera and both looked so happy, Raven noticed the strip of tiny photographs had been wrapped in plastic so to keep them safe.
Looking around the bare room it was easy to see why Robin was like how he was, he wore it all on the outside and didn't have anytime for much on the inside. He trained harder than anyone else, worked long into the night to catch Slade, denied himself a relationship with Starfire, slept in this barren cell of a bedroom and wore that mask. 'Why?, he was no different from the rest of us,' thought Raven but she was wrong. Robin had been the only one of them who was, when you got down to it, normal. The rest of them couldn't walk down the street without attracting some form of attention. Cyborg was, well, a cyborg, Beast Boy was green, Starfire didn't understand Earth and she was so pale her skin was grey. Even if she changed out of her robes and body suit she would still look odd but all Robin had to do was take off his mask and wear those jeans and that T-shirt and he would just blend right in. She then realised that he had to do all those things to himself so he could set himself apart from everyone else, even the rest of the Titans. Was he punishing himself for being the only one of them who could have a normal life? Raven once again looked around the empty room and felt a shiver pass through, her she whispered "Who were you?"
Slade sat on a pile of debris in the warehouse resting his chin on his hand examining the figure in front of him. It kept flexing its' fingers and stretching its' arms, doing the occasional back flip and laughing. "Who are you?" he asked quietly. The figure stepped forward and looked at Slade critically,
"Who asks?"
"My name is Slade, what is yours?". A few seconds passed while the figure thought about it
"Vengeance, my name is Vengeance"
"Very well," said Slade "I have summoned you here for a purpose, Vengeance" Vengeance's eyes flashed red and the air crackled with barely contained fury "No one summons Vengeance!" the building shook at the roar "I am called and I judge if you are worthy to receive me"
"And am I worthy?" asked Slade. Vengeance grinned evilly
"I am here am I not?". There was a noise and a cloud of dust from the other side of the warehouse, Havelock stood up and shook his head, "Did it work Mister Slade?" he rushed over, tripping over his long coat and bits of debris until he was a few feet away from Vengeance. "Did it work, did it really wor-" Havelock grabbed at his throat, Vengeance was staring intently at him frowning. "You will speak when spoken to worm!" Havelock was making gagging noises as he fell to his knees. "Slade, who is this?" Vengeance continued staring at Havelock who was turning blue. 'He is the one who allowed you to enter this world and who can keep you here so I advise you to not damage him" Slade had stood up now and had walked over to Vengeance, he put his hand on Vengeance's shoulder. Vengeance turned round suddenly and focused his full attention on Slade, Havelock gasped as he could suddenly breath again while the air around Vengeance distorted like a bubble and blew Slade across what was left of the warehouse. The man hit the far wall and slid down to hit the floor yelling in pain as his left glove had been burned off and the skin beneath was bubbling and blistering. "Do not touch me again, Slade" said Vengeance quietly.
"Impressive," the injured man said "the Titans will be no match for you"
"Who are the Titans?" asked Vengeance "Your enemies?"
"Indeed, Vengeance, indeed. I wish you to destroy them for me". Vengeance grinned again,
"Finally the fun part"
It had taken some time but the Titans had tracked him down, Gizmo was robbing another bank which seemed to be his crime of choice these days. Beast Boy and Cyborg exited the T-Car and stood watching the pint sized super-criminal stomp about on his four huge mechanical legs that grew out of his back-pack as he packed sacks of money into a van. "He never learns does he?" muttered Cyborg as they walked towards the bank. "Hey Gizmo!" Cyborg fired a sonic blast from his cannon that took out one of Gizmo's mechanical legs. The boy genius balanced on the three remaining legs and scowled at the approaching trio, "If it isn't the Teen Snotbags," he sneered "say, where's the Goth, Bird-Boy and the Bimbo?" Beast boy transformed into a huge green gorilla and jumped in front of Gizmo and roared until he ran out of breath. Gizmo blinked and with a flick of his wrist produced a remote control that launched two missiles from the van at Beast Boy, there was a white light and he was blown across the street in to a mail box. Burnt and still flaming letters precipitated around Beast Boy who himself was dazed and smoking. Reaching up to his head he moaned "Dude! You ruined my do!" Cyborg ran screaming at Gizmo and in a second had ripped off two of the remaining spider legs that grew out of the boys back-pack. "Where's Slade, Gizmo?" Cyborg had Gizmo by the collar of his jumpsuit "we know you work for him sometimes so where is he?"
"Even if I knew would I tell you?, Tin-man"
"Oh you'd better start talking soon, Kid" Cyborg tossed Gizmo back on to the ground and aimed his cannon at the him. "You think that scares me, you good guys can't hurt me even if you wanted to that's what makes you the good guys" Gizmo smirked and stuck his tongue out at Cyborg who lowered his hand. The punk was right, they couldn't hurt him just to get information after all they weren't that type of hero. Robin had told them stories about some of the things Batman had done to get information out of crooks and they could tell Robin wasn't exactly comfortable with some of his methods. He looked down at Gizmo, the kid couldn't have been older than about ten and here he was threatening him with a sonic blast to the face. What was happening to them? The world blurred as he felt an impact on his side and went skidding across the tarmac sending up sparks as his torso plating met the asphalt. He heard a loud crunch and then a scream, he managed to look back in time to see Beast Boy transform back to his human form from that of a huge tiger. Gizmo was hunched over screaming,, blood was pumping out of his wrist, no, it was a stump where his wrist should be. Beast Boy had bitten off the boys' hand. Cyborg froze as he saw his friend who was normally such a huge goof ball quivering with rage, blood covering his snarling teeth and dripping off his chin. Beast Boys' eyes burned with hatred "Where is Slade?" he yelled sending bloody spit all over Gizmos' pale, shaking face. "Where is he?" he yelled again "or do you want to lose a leg next?" Cyborg couldn't believe this was happening. Gizmo managed to stop screaming for a second to blurt out "I don't know but I heard Jinx did a job for him in Gotham" he cried in pain again before looking at Cyborg with pleading eyes "Cyborg, call him off, please!" Beast Boy turned sharply on his heel and headed back towards the car, he pulled his communicator out and flipped it open with a chirping noise "Raven, find Jinx" he snapped it shut before Raven could respond and got back in the car. Cyborg got slowly to his feet and ran over to Gizmo who had passed out and he used his own communicator to summon an ambulance to the scene.
As the lights from the ambulance faded in to the distance he got back in to the T-car where in the passenger seat Beast Boy sat staring straight ahead. "Have you lost it?," he said "you could have killed him"
"So," Beast Boy's voice was level and cold "we have to do whatever it takes to find Slade remember? and if you won't then I will" Cyborg recognised the tone in his friends' voice and it was the same one that Robin had used when he'd talked about Slade. "That doesn't mean you can bite off peoples' limbs, man" Cyborg put his hand on his friends' shoulder "what's gotten into you? I know Robins' death has sent us all on a bit of a trip, but you got to calm down or you'll kill someone" Cyborg felt his friends shoulders sag a little
"Vic?" said Beast Boy which caught Cyborg a little off guard.
"You haven't called me that in three years, Gar, what's up, man"
"He was the first person I ever met who wasn't afraid of me, the first person who treated me as if I was a human being and not some freak. He found me in an alleyway eating out of a dumpster, in those days he worked out of a loft downtown, and he took me in. He made me into a person, gave me my name 'Beast Boy' and taught me that I was a man who could turn into animals but still be a man on the inside. He gave me the life I have today, I owe him everything and now he's gone I'm scared I'll lose it all." Beast Boy was now crying, much how Starfire had cried earlier, uncontrollably and driven by runaway emotion. "Garfield," said Cyborg "you will never lose it all, you're a part of our team, of out family. People like us, like you, me, Raven and Starfire don't fit in and never will so we use our abilities and skills to help others and in doing so gain an acceptance of sorts. As long as we have each other we'll be okay"
"Yeah, you're right" Beast Boy sniffed "lets hope Raven gets more information out of Jinx"
"We'd better hurry and track her down" Cyborg started the engine and moved the car away from the bank.
"Yeah, Jinx'll tell us where Slade is" Beast Boy had that tone in his voice again.
"No, Raven"
"Huh?" Beast Boy looked confused "why?"
"Coz if she gets mad it's all over". Cyborg sent the T-car sliding round a corner and sped off into the night.
It was in a coffee house on a side street downtown that Raven found Jinx. It had been a cellar of an old town house so the ceiling was low and the lack of windows made it nice and gloomy, just how Raven liked it. Her cloak was shut and her hood was up so all that could be seen of her was the lower half of her deathly pale face. The air inside the cafe was so thick with smoke from all the people who gathered there to smoke whatever drug was in fashion that it looked like fog. However, it drifted harmlessly around her so that she was left in a bubble of unpolluted air. She spotted her quarry in a booth by the juke box where Jinx was flirting and being fawned over by some guy in a leather trench coat. As Raven walked over with her cloak swirling around her the candles on the tables flickered and behind the dry bar milk turned to cheese in the fridge. Jinx and her companion didn't notice her appear at the edge of the table being too busy whispering to each other to notice. Raven grinned an unhealthy grin and looked at the young man Jinx was with, "Leave!" she said calmly but her voice had a dark edge to it. Jinx looked suddenly up at Raven, her eyes narrowed and glittering with malice. Her companion simply went slacked jawed, blank eyed and stood up and walked out of the coffee house. "Nice party trick, Raven," Jinx taunted the Azarathian "when will he stop walking and remember who he is?"
"When he gets to Metropolis, Jinx" Raven had sat down and taken her hood down, her piercing dark blue eyes were cold and empty as she looked at Jinx. It was taking all of Ravens' control to not rip the little witch apart, she had been there when Robin had died, correction, been murdered by Slade. "So what brings you down here?, bored? or just lost?" Jinx crossed her arms and cocked her head to one side "maybe you're cruising for boys?" a wry smile appeared on her lips "but I don't think so, you would have brought the other one with you too but she's hung up on the Boy Wonder isn't she? Can't blame her though, he's got a great butt". Raven cracked her knuckles beneath the table as she did so a mug on a far away table exploded.
"Where is Slade?" Ravens' eyes flashed red.
"Don't know, but if you see him be a good goth tell him Jinxy's looking for work" Jinx sipped her coffee and stood up only to be slammed back in to her seat by an invisible pair of hands. "Where is Slade? what did you do for him in Gotham?" Raven asked again but this time her voice had a strange reverberation and the iris's of her eyes slowly changed to a blood red and she seemed to get even paler, if that was possible. "Now we all know what happens if little Raven loses her temper, don't we?" Jinx was audibly annoyed now
"What?, this?" her eyes briefly flickered to a young man sitting on the floor by the bar hatch with glazed eyes and spit dribbling out of his mouth. He flashed black for a second and began to contort into weird shapes, his mouth could be seen locked in silent scream of unspeakable pain. The black aura vanished and what was left was a grotesque parody of flesh that looked more like some hairless dog than a human being. Jinx was silent with horror, her eyes wide, face grey with nausea "Feel like making me lose my temper?" Raven growled at her. Jinx gulped trying not to vomit, the thing steamed and stank like death and felt the invisible hands that held her down reach down inside her and wrap round her heart. "Tell me what I want to know and you might make it out of here alive, you little bitch" Raven purred as she traced little figure eight with her finger in some spilled coffee. "Go to hell Raven, Slade's already sent someone powerful after you and your friends"
"Really, who would that be?" Raven smiled, that alone unnerved Jinx. "who would that be?"
It was dark and she was hungry. Starfire slowly opened the door to her room and peered out into the dark corridor. Raven had dressed her in an oversized purple T-shirt before she had put her in a trance so she could sleep and the still air of the tower felt icy on her bare legs and feet. Thunder rolled round the outside of the tower "Eep!" Starfire let out a small cry of fear at the noise before realising it was just thunder. Robin had explained to her that it was just the weather and not an alien attack. She put on her pink bathrobe and went out into the corridor, lightening flashed at one end showing the staircase down to the main room. Shivering she set out towards it, the floor was cold on her feet but she didn't notice and slowly she began to descend the staircase. At the bottom she froze, in front of the big window that looked out over the city someone was there.
The coffee house was empty now, everyone had ran off when the fight had started. Jinx rolled behind a smashed up table as a blast of black power sizzled past her head and struck the wall behind her. The stones flashed white hot and bubbled out onto the floor. "Tell me about the Demonologist, Jinx. I know he has one working for him" Raven cartwheeled out of the way of hex and landed by the bar, her eyes flashed white "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" she cried and moved her arms in windmill motion. All the tiny fragments of smashed coffee mugs picked themselves up and zipped towards Jinx's hiding place with some bouncing off the overturned table and some going through it. Jinx tried to dive to one of the booths for safety, Raven simply followed her with her eyes and sent on huge piece of debris smashing in to the girls' calf muscle, blood splattered the mirror on the wall and Jinx howled in pain. Raven strode over to where she was nursing her injuries to see that most of her right calf was gone, it was like something had bitten her. "Tell me or I will really hurt you" Raven looked bigger and her now red eyes glowed infernally.
"Eat me, bitch" snarled Jinx. Behind Raven a string of coffee mugs rose from the bar surrounded by a black aura and snaked through the air towards Raven where they parted and flowed round her head smashing into Jinx's face one after the other at incredible speed. Jinx lay wheezing in the remains of the booth, her face all bloodied up and swollen. "I ask again, tell me about the demonologist?" Jinx smiled a grotesque smile and bloody saliva ran between her remaining front teeth "You're too late, it's been done already"
"What has been done?, what is Slade up to?" Raven demanded. Jinx had a far away look in her eyes and spoke in a sing-song voice "He's gonna get you" she chuckled. Raven roared with all her fury and Jinx looked up into four red eyes as two hands grasped the side of her head. "As you won't tell me," a deep echoing voice said "I will take it from you". Jinx grinned as white light engulfed her vision.
"Who is there, Identify yourself" Starfire stood at the bottom of the staircase looking at the intruder as they stood framed by the lights of the distant city in the window. The figure stood silently looking out at the city. "Again, identify yourself, stranger or I will awaken my friends and there will be unpleasantness" Starfire took a step forward. "You are alone in the tower, Starfire, the others are out there" the figure nodded towards the city. "Who are you, the voice is familiar but it cannot be as I do not know who you are" Starfire was now a few feet away from the figure but couldn't see him clearly as it was dark and Ravens' trance still hadn't worn off fully. It turned in a swirl of cape to face her "Of course you know me, K'ory" a pair of soft brown eyes smiled at her. Starfire melted inside, the world had swung back to normal "But I saw you die"
"It was a dream, K'ory, just a dream" two strong arms wrapped round her shoulders, Starfire did the same and pulled herself close to the other person, she couldn't believe it though. "Then I am happy, I could not bear to lose you even if it was only an imagining"
"K'ory, there something I have to tell you" was whispered in her ear;.
"Yes?" she was trembling.
"I haven't been honest with you"
"It is okay, whatever it is, it is okay" she pulled out of the hug and looked at those eyes again.
"K'ory," Starfire looked back with big happy eyes "It wasn't a dream"
Cyborg made his way down the steps into the broken shell of the coffee house, he'd made Beast Boy wait in the car "Raven?," called Cyborg his shoulder light snapping up and on "you in here?" There was the sound of meditative breathing from the corner. He switched his eye to thermal scanning and found a slight figure sitting in the corner behind an overturned table. He picked it up and found Raven sitting hunched up in a ball with her knees drawn in against her chest, her hood was up and her eyes were closed. "Hey Rae, you okay?" Raven pointed towards the booth behind Cyborg. He turned slowly and saw Jinx. She was kneeling with her arms outstretched like she was trying to defend herself, completely frozen. "What did you do?" Cyborg asked.
"I know what he's planning Cyborg" her voice was the same as always; level, without emotion.
"How do you know?" but Cyborg new the answer to that question. He looked again at the living statue that was Jinx. "We won't be able to stop him, Cyborg" Raven still had her eyes firmly shut.
"We've stopped Slade before, we'll do it again"
"Not Slade, this time it's someone else"
"Who?" Cyborg asked "Raven, who? why won't you open your eyes?"
"Because it won't go away!" she threw back her hood and looked at him, the colour of her eyes was blood red. "Raven," Cyborg picked her up, normally she would have pushed him away but it had been a strange week "let's get you home"
He placed her in the back of the T-car lying her across the back seat, he had wrapped a white bandage round her eyes and drawn her cloak round her. As they sped through the city back to the tower Beast boy turned to look at her. "What's up with her eyes, man" he whispered back at Cyborg
"I don't know, I just don't know" Cyborg looked at Raven in the rear view mirror, the regular rise and fall of her chest indicated she was asleep. Beast Boy noticed it too and uncharacteristically left her alone. Beast boy pressed a button on the control panel in front of him, suddenly a loud Claxton filled the cab,
"Whoa!, wasn't me" Beast Boy threw up his hands in a gesture of innocence.
"It's the tower alarm, something's happening at the Tower" Cyborg shifted down a gear and stomped his huge steel foot to the floor. The T-car's engine howled like an angel at mardi-gras and the outside world blurred past the windows. a switch was flicked on the steering column and every traffic light in front of the Car went green, they had a clear run to the tower.
The long bridge to Titan Island raised from beneath the bay and they rocketed across it hitting sections of it just as they locked in place. The tower loomed above them, the top level of the giant T had every window blown out. "Starfire!" it was Raven, she had woken up, her eyes were still covered but she was reaching out towards the windshield. "Hurry, we haven't much time". Cyborg nodded and hit the afterburner.
The main door was smashed aside as the T-car skidded to a halt and collided with the back wall. The Titans piled out of the car and ran up the stairs, Raven teleported in the form of a giant black bird that passed soundlessly through the ceiling. When Beast Boy and Cyborg burst in to the main room Raven had thrown her cloak over Starfire who was lying on the floor. She was covered in small burns and her hair was matted with blood, one eye was swollen shut. Raven was pressing two of her fingers into the girls neck "Her pulse is weak, Cyborg get her to the medical bay" the mechanical wonder stepped forwards and picked up the slight girl in his arms. he turned to take to the towers med-lab. "Wait," Beast boy had leapt forward and grabbed Starfires' hand, there was something in it. He slowly prised her fingers open and took out what she was holding. It was a small black disc made of metal and it was covered in dried blood, he looked back at Starfires' hand and saw the palm of which was sliced in a circle. Whatever it was she had held it so tightly she had cut her hand open with it. Beast Boy watched Raven and Cyborg go down to the medical bay as he scraped some of Starfires' dry blood off the thing she had been holding revealing a tiny flake of yellow. He rushed over to the sink and washed off the rest of the blood. After drying it he saw what it was, his green face went almost white. It was a black disc with a yellow R on it.
R for Robin.
To Be continued
Is robin alive? if so then why would he almost kill Starfire? will Beast Boy go Wild? will Raven get her eyes Back? What does she know about Slade's new plan? and who is too powerful for them to stop?
you have to wait for
Episode III; Echoes of a soul
Authors note; that's episode 2 done. a bit darker than the first one but that had to be expected. I wanted to try and guess what they would do if they had lost robin, yeah BB is acting OOC but he's lost one of his closest friends of course he's act weird. I know there isn't much for Starfire to do yet except stand there and be helpless and cry about her lost love but that's the kind of person I think she is, I promise you she'll have more to do later on. Yeah I kinda made raven lose it again in this episode but again she's not exactly a good guy in my eyes. She's capable of so much darkness and I picture her of having a kind of Batman like attitude to getting information from people so she aint afraid to hurt people to get what she wants. I promise we'll hear from the old man next episode. till then.
