FRACTURE FOUR


Foreshadowing

Continuity – Somewhere between 'Titan Rising' and 'Betrayal'

There's more to them now than Beast Boy ever could've predicted. Oh sure, he'd recognised the crush as soon as it landed. The being tongue-tied, the unintentional shape-shifting, and that funny squishy feeling in the pit of stomach had been something of a gentle hint. But somehow he'd got past that, into whatever it was that came after flirting that wasn't actually kissing, and never noticed the point where it changed.

He couldn't isolate in his memory the moment he first noticed the soft vulnerability that sometimes filled her eyes, when she stopped being carefree and let herself relax properly. That strange, not-quite-sadness that made him want to protect her from all the bogeymen and make sure she never wanted to run away again.

Pfft. Him, protect much-more-powerful her? Yeah, right. Pull the other one. She didn't need protecting. And even if she did, she could handle it herself. She was capable like that.


Morbidity

Continuity – Anytime.

The world is full of evil.

People tell me I'm gruesome when I say things like that. But it's true. You only have to look out the window, or turn on the TV to see stories of the despicable things human beings routinely do to each other. It's revolting, really. Sickening.

Starfire would say it's lucky I've seen good things, too. And I supposed she's right. Otherwise, what am I fighting for? There are good people out there. I've seen a few of them. Worked with some. Saved a few more. They're the reason I risk my life every day. Because me? I'm already ruined.

Cyborg hates when I say things like that. Robin hates it even more, but it's true. So I might as well make myself useful in the interim.

Beast Boy's the worst. He refuses to let it drop. He continues to think I'm secretly as pure as the rest of them, but the only purity I can lay claim to is purging the world of other types of evil.

And I'm frightened when I start to wonder if maybe the world would be a better place without people in it.


Bed Dream

Continuity – Anytime, really

Not so long ago, Jinx used to dream about owning a king-sized bed. That was when she first entered HIVE, before she even graduated onto a proper team. She would stare at the backs of attractive heads in class and wonder what it would be like to muss the hair of each and every one. Sometimes she'd let herself daydream. That was how the king-sized bed wish was born. She was sixteen years old, hormones on overdrive and surrounded by people who were, if not outright gorgeous, then at least attention-grabbing.

She thinks about the king-sized bed dream now, and she's surprised that a part of her still wants it. It was only two years ago, but she feels like she's grown up so much since she wanted to muss hair on goose-down pillows. This is her world now – this moving from one bolt hole to another, this flare of bloodlust and the psychotic buzz of courting death alongside Gizmo and Mammoth. There's no room for airy dreams here.


To be Human

Continuity – Between 'Titan Rising' and 'Betrayal'

Raven is a girl. So are Starfire and Terra.

Some days, it feels like that's where the similarities between them end.

Terra is exuberantly human, and while Starfire's blood says she isn't, she still embraces everything Raven has taught herself to revile. They relish their own mortality and luxuriate in an almost psychotic addiction to feeling that should make them weak, but seems only to make them stronger. They feverishly thrust themselves into the world, almost as if trying to hurl themselves right out of it, or else catch the coattails of whatever passion motivates them.

And though they try to include her, to drag her with them into their delicious insanity, Raven is always aware of how she can't follow their example.

Painfully aware.


Spyware

Continuity – Between 'Titan Rising' and 'Betrayal'.

BREEP-BI-DEEP.

"Please shut up." The words left Terra's lips before her brain registered that it's generally impossible to plead with a computer. She turned over in bed, pulling the pillow to wrap around the back of her skull and cocoon her from the still-not-yet-dawn world.

The computer didn't beep again, but a pleasant-sounding voice trilled, "You have mail," from the dresser.

"Piss off," Terra mumbled, until a few important details clicked back into place. "Fuck." She kicked off her quilt and stumbled muzzily across the room.

The subject read like a barcode, and the inside had to be deciphered, as usual. She opened the relevant programme, but paused, eye caught by an uncoded sentence at the bottom of the screen.

You look peaceful when you sleep.

She looked around, stared at the screen, swallowed. Then she slammed the laptop shut and took the bed at a run, covering her head like she used to as a kid, when the bogeyman was coming to get her.


Playing Dress-Up

Continuity – Between 'Titan Rising' and 'Betrayal'.

"I feel like an idiot."

"Well I think you look cool. You should dress like that more often."

Raven stood in the doorway to the changing room with arms folded, not entirely sure how she'd been talked into this. Her clothes were a basic testament that grunge was not truly dead in Jump City – torn cutoff shorts plastered in patches over plum woolen tights, a black tank top under a shabby flannel, and an assortment of mismatched necklaces and earrings. The jewelry was Starfire's fault. Like some sort of intergalactic magpie she had descended on the revolving rack the moment they walked in the store, and then darted about, attaching things to Raven without asking permission. The rest of the outfit, however, was all Terra's doing.

Terra stood to one side, a camera in her hand. She's used up almost a whole roll of film capturing this shopping trip. Raven might have wondered why, had she not been devoting so much attention to seething.

"Tell her she looks good, Star."

"Truly, you look most marvelous, friend Raven."

Raven glared at them. "I wish you both hideous boils. It's important you know that."


END FRACTURE FOUR