Rose's eyes fluttered open.
For a blank second, she was confused, wondering what the beige material shifting slightly above her was doing there. Then the memories and emotions of the previous day came flooding back; the shock she felt as she first saw the boy watching her playing with water; the surprise when he wasn't afraid of her; the timidity and fear of rejection when she was introduced to his other friends; but most of all, the longing in her heart, for she had finally found some people who were like her, and that maybe, one day, she could belong with.
Rose stretched and rolled over, blinking blearily. Luckily for her, the Titans had brought an extra inflatable mattress along in case one was damaged somehow. It had been lent to her to sleep on while she stayed with them.
She had been placed against the wall of the tent. There was a walking space, then Starfire's mattress, then another walking space, then Raven's. Starfire was in her sleeping bag, fast asleep. Rose carefully sat up, trying not to let her sleeping bag rustle. Raven's bed was empty.
Rose quietly climbed to her feet, dazedly untangling herself from her sleeping bag. She painstakingly unzipped the tent flap so as not to wake Starfire, and exited, half-closing it behind her.
She stood looking around the campsite, shivering and rubbing her bare arms – she was dressed in her pyjamas, which consisted of a pale pink singlet and hot-pink silk pants. Not exactly enough to protect her from the cool morning.
The campsite looked strange with nobody bustling around it. The chairs were scattered, deserted where they had been left last night. One was overturned, probably due to some wind in the night time.
With nothing better to do, Rose righted it, and set herself down in it to wait for someone else to wake. She absently pondered about where Raven had gone; by the sound of it, she did a lot of meditating... maybe that's where she was.
Without warning, a loud zipping noise rang through the air. Rose jumped in surprise, and watched the tent flap of the boys' tent as it was unzipped. Robin emerged from it, fully clad in his clothes, mask and all.
"Good morning," she said with a shy smile.
"Hey," he replied. He glanced around. "You the only one up?"
"Raven isn't in the tent, but she's not here either," Rose said. "Otherwise, yes."
Robin looked at the girl he had met yesterday sitting alone in the chair, watching him cautiously. She looked so tense, and his curious nature made him want to know why. Why was she so timid? It was a mystery, and mysteries had to be solved. Perhaps Beast Boy knew… but in the meantime, the only way to get information out of her was to get to know her. He might as well learn a little about her.
"We don't really know each other very well," Robin said, walking over to the clean dishes container, and beginning to set out the plates on their plastic folding table. "So… tell me about yourself."
She visibly stiffened. Okay, maybe that could've been a little more subtle, he thought.
"Well… I… I like cooking," Rose said hesitantly.
"You're good at it, too," he said with a smile, eager to smooth over his clumsy mistake. If he ever wanted to earn her trust, he realised, he would have to be very careful at judging what to say and when to say it.
"Thanks," she said nervously.
"Would you like to make breakfast tomorrow?" he queried. "We can buy some ingredients from the dairy down by the entrance today if you want."
"Sure!" she said eagerly.
"So, what do you want to make?" Robin asked, beginning to pour himself out some cornflakes into his bowl. "Beast Boy's a vegetarian, by the way."
"Is he?" Rose's eyes clouded over slightly as she thought this over. A small smile twitched her lips up; she didn't even notice.
Robin turned hid his face by intently reading the back of the cereal packet so she wouldn't see him grinning. "Yeah, that's right. So you'll have to take that into account."
"Okay. What about… pancakes?" she asked after a moment's thought.
"Sounds nice," Robin encouraged. "Oh yeah, by the way, we're going to go swimming after breakfast. So…" He left the suggestion open.
"Oh, okay," she said, picking up the hint that she could finally show them her powers, but not knowing how to respond to it. "Um… whereabouts?"
"It's some river just out of the campgrounds," Robin informed her. "We're going to go by car."
She looked dismayed by this. "How long will you be?"
"You're coming," he laughed, misinterpreting her chagrin.
"Oh, right!" She forced a laugh.
He could tell that for some reason, she was unhappy. At least she made the effort to seem content, Robin thought with a shrug as he started chewing on his cereal.
X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X
"Beast Boy, you're on dishes," Robin enlightened the changeling as he passed him on his way to the tent.
"Oh, man!" Beast Boy groaned as he swallowed the last of his cereal. "I always have to do everything!"
"I'll help you," Rose said immediately, jumping at the chance to be alone with Beast Boy. She climbed to her feet and grabbed the dirty dishes container, heaving it over to Beast Boy.
He stood and carefully balanced his bowl on top of the pile in the box. "Why are you so eager?" he grumbled, wrestling the heavy plastic container from a reluctant Rose.
"I can show you where the sinks are," Rose said loudly. As they began to walk down the road, she hissed under her breath, "I really need to talk to you!"
He looked slightly surprised. "Uh… about what?"
"We're… going swimming today, aren't we?" She watched him out of the corner of her eye. When he looked at her, she quickly looked down at the road in front of her.
"Yeah," Beast Boy confirmed, still looking lost. "Oh… you're afraid of showing the others the thing with the water," he said as it dawned on him. "Look, they-"
"No, it's not that," Rose cut him off, glancing around nervously. "It's something else."
"Huh…? It is? What?"
"We're going in the car…"
"T-Car," he absently corrected her.
"…I… I can't."
"You can't?" he raised an eyebrow. "Can you… elaborate on that at all?"
Rose sighed. Might as well get it over with. "It's just… I'm not very good in vehicles like cars, buses, trains… especially trains." She shuddered.
"You mean… you're scared of them?"
"Yeah," she admitted. "I hate travelling almost any other way than walking. And… well… um, this might take a while to explain…" she hesitated.
Beast Boy smiled. "I've got time," he said. Rose instantly felt comforted.
"Here goes… Well, with my… power… I kind of need to use it, if that makes sense."
"Nope," Beast Boy said unhelpfully.
Rose sighed. "Well, if I haven't used it for a while, it starts to tug on me. In here somewhere." She tried to pinpoint the area with her hand, eventually ending up just below her collarbones. "It pulls and pulls, the longer I go without... linking myself to the water." She laughed self-consciously, abruptly relieving the serious expression on her face. "I'm talking gibberish."
"Keep going," Beast Boy prompted.
"Mm…" Now that she had stopped, she seemed unable to continue. Finally, she forced her tongue to start moving again. "See, the pulling, it gets painful, if I go for too long. It's like… I can't describe it! I'm connected to water. Everywhere around me, I can feel it. For you, it's… maybe similar to feeling the warmth or coolness of the air. You know?"
Beast Boy didn't, but he said yes anyway.
Growing more confident at his understanding, Rose said, "Well, yeah. I can reach out to this connection at any time, and gather the particles of water near me…"
She raised her hand. Almost instantly, a ball of mist rushed into existence. It floated above her hand, rotating, swirling. "See? That was just from some of the air near us. I can shift the water around, even to another form." To demonstrate, her brow furrowed slightly, and the mist collapsed in on itself to become instead a tiny globe of water. Rose smiled triumphantly, as if she hadn't really expected it to work. "It's harder making mist go to water, than vice versa," she explained. "Because you're like, compressing it, and you have to make sure it all goes in the right places… but it knows where it's supposed to be going. It helps me. …I sound like a lunatic."
Beast Boy chuckled. "Don't worry. Everyone thinks I'm a lunatic."
"Only cuz you are," Rose teased, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief.
"See?" he whined. He didn't show it, but he was secretly surprised at her reply. That was quite possibly the first relaxed joke he had heard her make. "So where are you going with all this, anyway?" he probed.
"Oh, right. Well, the point is, it's part of me, wherever I go. Always at the back of my mind. I'm linked to it.
"Playing with water makes me feel comforted. It's like, if everything's just getting too much for my brain, and all my thoughts are getting tangled around each other so I can't sort them all out, it helps. It sorts through everything. While I'm drawing power through the link to water, I'm… at peace with the world."
"I see."
"Okay, good, so far… Well, when I feel an emotion really strongly, like fear for example," Rose continued, starting to sound uncomfortable, like she was guessing he wouldn't like what he was about to hear, "I unconsciously access the water, looking for support, you know? But it's unconscious, so although I can feel the link being drawn on, I'm not aware of exactly what water I'm connecting myself to, or how much of it there is. Do you… understand?"
Beast Boy's brow was furrowed as he thought this over, then slowly smoothed out as realisation crept through him. His eyes grew wide, unusual dark green pupils seeking out her face. "So… what you're saying is that for all you know, you could be causing a tsunami over the other side of the world?"
Rose laughed hesitantly. "Somehow, I don't think my powers are that strong," she said.
Remembrance of the mission he had been given last night flooded back into Beast Boy's head. He had better seize the opportunity while they were on the subject. If he put it off now, when he asked her later, she would probably go into porcupine-mode. And he definitely didn't want that.
"Just curious," Beast Boy said cautiously, "But how strong are your powers?"
Strangely enough, she didn't seem to mind the potentially extremely personal question. She looked surprised, but when she spoke, it became apparent that it wasn't because of the nature of his question. "How strong are they? I don't know! I've always tried to use them as little as possible because the more I used them, the more likely it was that someone would notice."
"Well, what's your guess?" Beast Boy asked, seeing he hadn't been rewarded with any more of an idea than before he had asked.
Now she was looking slightly suspicious at his persistence. "Why do you want to know?"
He shrugged casually, mind racing for an answer. "I was just thinking, if, uh, you do end up coming in the car, we need to know, if you, er, would – cause any damage. You know?" Warming to his surprisingly passable answer, he added, "I just wanted to know how dangerous it would be. Like, whether to bring you with us would be endangering the people and animals, and land and stuff."
Rose paused thoughtfully. "Mm… I don't think so. I mean, for starters, I'm pretty sure I can only access water within a certain range…"
"But how much of it can you 'access' at a single time?" Beast Boy pushed. "Please, we need to know."
Rose's legs stopped moving, and she turned to him, hands on hips. "Should I try?" she asked, fear and excitement flickering in her eyes.
"Uuh… sure," Beast Boy replied, a little uncertainly. "Just… make sure you start smallish, you know, so you…"
"Okay."
Rose turned from him, her eyes closed. Her hand slowly outstretched, and started to move in different directions in the air, like she was searching for something. Suddenly, it halted.
"Stream," she murmured, mainly for her single-person-audience's benefit.
Rose opened her eyes.
A thick tendril of water burst from the trees from the direction her hand was pointing. It snaked straight towards her open palm, then suddenly veered off to spiral around her, whirling in a loose corkscrew upwards. The flow of water finished, and the last slivers of liquid twisted around her to join the rest, floating above Rose's head. Slowly, it swirled around, to become a large clear sphere, suspended above her. It was slightly larger from one side across to the other than Rose was tall.
Rose turned back to Beast Boy, who was staring up at the water in astonishment. She smiled shyly. "I… haven't really tried more than that before," she said.
"Do you think you can?" Beast Boy asked.
Rose, for once, looked confident and eager. "Yes!"
A ribbon of water glided from the forest to circle Rose. It was joined by another, then another. Soon, there were vines of water curling gracefully all around them. They formed a looping, winding pattern around them, but none of the water actually touched either of them.
"Wow," breathed Beast Boy, staring up at the floating snakes of water, which was still appearing, from more than one direction now.
Rose smiled. She was twirling her hands slowly, the water matching her pace. It all seemed to be a part of a gentle, serene dance. Beast Boy held out a hand and placed a finger on a tendril of water that was floating past in front of him. It split around his finger, no water actually touching him.
Rose giggled. "I like having so much at once," she told him. Her hands began to move slightly faster. "It's like… eating a bar of chocolate. Before I was scraping tiny scraps off to have, and now I'm taking enormous, satisfying bites. It's so rich. I can feel the power welled up inside so much of it… I… want to use it."
"Well, be careful," Beast Boy warned nervously. He was picturing the many ways this experiment could go awry.
Rose nodded, and her hands moved quicker. A smile grew on her face as the water around them increased its pace. Faster and faster it went.
Beast Boy tensed, bracing himself for the moment of uncertainty where everything went wrong, and he was left to help her collect her shredded pride and confidence.
But Rose was laughing, her eyes closed in delight, and the water was still coming. Tendrils of it whipped around her body, through her splayed fingers, over her face, around her ankle. Still her hands moved faster until she was positively flinging them about.
"Rose?" Beast Boy frowned. He had to raise his voice because of the wind generated by the rapidly-moving water. "Are you okay?"
She staggered blindly over to him, liquid soaring through all the gaps in the air around them.
"That's enough! Make it stop!" Beast Boy yelled, but his voice was torn away. As Rose reached him, strands of water tearing around them both about a centimetre off their skin, they both extended their hands to each other. She entwined her fingers with his, leaning drunkenly towards him, her laughter growing hysterical. Still, the amount of water she was accessing grew, faster and faster.
Beast Boy looked upwards. A dome of water arched over them, swirling faster and faster. For the first time, real fear set in. Why wasn't she responding?
"Rose!" Beast Boy screamed at the top of his voice. He yanked his fingers away and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. She was sickeningly limp. "ROSE!"
She collapsed on him. He shifted his feet to support her as her slim body collided with his, a smile still on her face. She did not answer.
A terrible chill fingered its way through Beast Boy's stomach. He moved her arm so it was over his shoulder, holding her close, staring up at the sky; or where the sky had been.
Now there was only a churning vortex of liquid, surrounding them. Inside the vortex, the tendrils of water still whipped around, moving dangerously rapidly. The wall of water grew nearer to the two of them as the space inside the funnel shrunk. Still, no water had even brushed against Beast Boy's skin, nor, he was sure, had it touched Rose. All the same, he was absolutely terrified. "STOP!" he yelled at Rose.
If her lips hadn't been so close to his ear, he doubted he would have heard her reply.
"Why would I want to?" she whispered.
Beast Boy stared at her in horror, unbearable cold tightening around his gut. There was something horribly wrong with her.
Rose was starting to slip downwards, her legs uselessly crumpling beneath her. Beast Boy carefully lowered her, shifting her weight from his shoulder to the ground. She still had that same exhilarated smile on her face, and that scared him more than anything.
"Rose," he said. This time his voice was quiet, and filled with terror. "Stop it!"
Rose's eyes opened, and he could see a sliver of dark blue. "Why? Why…?" she murmured. "No…"
"I'm scared," Beast Boy pleaded. He was sure that he could make it out of this; he could rely on his many different animal forms to get him out of almost any situation. But Rose? He cradled her upper body in his arms. She felt so frail and helpless. "You're… you're scaring me. Please, stop."
For a moment, he thought she hadn't heard him. Then the smile began to fade off her lips, and her eyes closed, then fluttered open again, fully this time. She stared up at him in a dazed fashion, eyes narrowing slightly as they focused. As if seeing everything for the first time, her eyes widened as she glanced around. Whatever trance she had been in, it was broken now. "B…Beast Boy? What have I done!" She clutched his hand in terror.
"Can you make it stop?" was his only response.
"Help me stand," she said, but it was more a plea than a request.
Beast Boy slid his arm around her waist, letting her grip his other arm as, together, they pulled her to her feet. Rose wobbled slightly, and for a second it seemed like her legs would be unable to hold her. Then she steadied herself, and raised her face to the sky. Her arms fell to her sides, then, abruptly, she flung them heavenwards. Instantly, the water responded. The ribbons and strands curling about their figures retreated, hesitantly at first, then streaming away, to an enormous globe, hanging in the air. Rose regarded it for a moment. Then she hurled her arms out to either side of her, stretching as far as she could. The water raced away.
As suddenly as it had first appeared, it was gone.
There was silence. Rose's face was turned away from Beast Boy.
"Rose… are… are you okay?" he asked, yearning for and yet terrified of the answer.
She slowly turned to face him, sadness etched in every aspect of her. "Are you? I'm so sorry, I'm so stupid, you could've been hurt…" She hung her head, touching her temple with her fingers, looking utterly appalled at herself.
To her astonishment, he pulled her into a hug. "If you're all right, I'm all right."
Awkwardly and gingerly, Rose hugged him back.
He released her. "So…"
"So," she agreed, nodding slowly like it was a deep and meaningful thought.
Beast Boy smiled. "I guess we'd better get back to the dishes…" he suggested, wordlessly offering to put the whole ordeal behind them, at least for now. He bent down to pick up the near-forgotten container of dirty dishes.
"Look, I don't know why I told you all this," Rose said, her voice barely above a whisper. She tilted her head forwards, brown hair slipping like a barrier between her face and the world. She glanced tentatively up at him through her spiralling strands of hair. "I'm sorry. I don't want to burden you… so if…"
"You told me because I'm your friend," Beast Boy said matter-of-factly, like he was stating some random little snippet of information that had no significance. "And you have gone without a friend for far too long."
She smiled at him, her cheeks reddening slightly.
"We'll make sure you stay calm in the T-Car," Beast Boy continued. "Don't worry… I'm sure you'll be sweet."
X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X
"Okay," Robin said. "Everyone got everything?"
"We are nearing the time of departure," Starfire informed her friends, in case they hadn't realised.
They were all standing around the T-Car, piling bags of towels and swimwear into the boot of the T-Car.
Robin glanced at Beast Boy, then at Rose. "Rose, are you…?"
"Yeah, I'm coming," Rose answered.
"Cool," said Robin with a shrug. He opened the front passenger door of the T-Car and seated himself beside Cyborg.
Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy and Rose glanced at each other, each realising the problem.
"There are three available seats," Starfire stated, "And four of us who wish to sit in one each."
"Beast Boy can change into something small," Raven suggested.
Starfire clapped her hands together, green eyes shining. "Of course! Then the T-Car will be able to accommodate all of us!"
But Beast Boy shook his head. "No, I need to be in human form."
Raven raised an eyebrow. "And… why exactly is that?"
"Rose needs my moral support," Beast Boy announced. He was met with a confused stare from Starfire and a disbelieving snort from Raven. "It's true!" he insisted. "She…"
Rose cut pointedly over him. "I'm afraid of travelling in cars, trains, et cetera," she explained, glancing at Beast Boy. "And my powers can get a little out of control."
"That's what I was going to-" Beast Boy began, puzzled.
"I thought it was better for me to tell them," Rose said evenly.
"Oh, right," said Beast Boy blankly.
"What about if Raven and I each have a turn at flying overhead?" Starfire suggested. She looked at Raven. "Is that a satisfactory arrangement?"
"Whatever," Raven replied. "I'll go first."
"Thank you much, Raven," said Starfire. She opened the back door of the T-Car and seated herself.
Rose went around the other side, carefully climbing in. She slid along to the seat in the middle and fastened her seat belt. Beast Boy clambered in after her, shutting the door.
"Where's…" Robin began.
"Flying overhead," Beast Boy said.
"Seatbelts on, y'all?" Cyborg asked.
"Yes," they chorused apart from Rose, who was too busy being terrified out of her mind to reply.
Cyborg started up the T-Car, and brought it forward so that its nose was slightly over the road. He peered down the road, checking to see if there were any other cars coming, and then pulled out in a burst of turbo. This extracted a small shriek from Rose, earning her a couple of startled glances.
Rose bit her lip and gripped her knees, squeezing her eyes closed. The car moved around her, bumping over the stony road. Her hands tightened on her knees.
"Rose?" came Beast Boy's voice. "Are you okay?"
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Her eyes were still firmly closed.
"Because if you're not, us two can stay behind," Beast Boy offered.
Rose's head shook determinedly, although her face was looking much paler than usual.
Beast Boy shrugged, and turned to look out the window. Trees whooshed past in a blur of green foliage. The sky stretching above was deep blue, adorned with small fluffy puffs of cloud. A perfect day for a swim in a river, thought Beast Boy, his ominous mood lifting slightly.
They were nearing the entrance of the campsite. More and more tents began to appear around them. The people dwelling in them watched the strange car in amusement before it disappeared out of sight.
The Titans had deliberately requested an isolated area for their tent. Naturally, being who they were, they wanted privacy. Most people wanted to get as close to the entrance, which was also where the bathrooms and stoves were, as possible. Therefore, it had been no difficulty for the Titans to attain one of the sections that were deeper into the forest, and further from the facilities.
Cyborg brought the T-Car to a halt at the mouth of the campsite and waited as a couple of cars zoomed past on the street in front of him.
Rose cautiously lifted one eyelid. "Are we there?" she said hopefully. "I guess that wasn't so bad…"
Cyborg pulled out onto the road.
Rose shrieked, grabbing the shoulders of the two front seats. "You're going too fast!" she yelled, eyes wide in panic, leaning forward so that her head was level with Cyborg's and Robin's.
"He's way under the speed limit," Robin pointed out, looking seriously lost.
"Rose! It's okay!" Beast Boy shouted from the back.
"Stop! STOP!" Rose screamed.
"Trying to concentrate here," Cyborg hinted, slowing slightly for a corner, then speeding up as it straightened out.
Rose swung herself around, unbuckling her seatbelt in one fluid movement, and clambering up onto her knees on the seat of the car. She practically threw herself on Beast Boy, scrambling for the door handle of the car. "Let me out!"
"Yo! Get your shoes down off the seat, and your butt back on it!" Cyborg protested, glancing back at them via the mirror hanging from the roof.
Beast Boy grabbed Rose's flailing arm with both his hands and jerked it away from the handle. "We're going at 50 miles per hour!" he exclaimed.
"What the-" Robin turned around. He recoiled as Rose's left foot thrashed dangerously near his face. "Rose!"
"Starfire!" shrieked Beast Boy. "A little help! Oof," he involuntarily added as Rose's elbow connected with his stomach.
Starfire reached for Rose's other foot. "Friend Rose!" she said, raising her voice to be heard over the racket Rose was making. "There is nothing to fear! The T-Car is a wondrous object, it will not harm you!" When that produced no change in the situation, she simply seized Rose's ankle and pulled Rose back away from the door with her alien strength.
Rose let go of a deafening scream. Beast Boy leaned over her and clapped his hand over her mouth, cutting it off abruptly. She was now spread right over the three back seats, including the knees of the changeling and Starfire. Still she struggled to get to the door.
"Rose, it's okay, the car is safe – OW!" yelled Beast Boy. His hand shot from over Rose's mouth. "She bit me!"
"This game has gone on for long enough!" Starfire decided. She leaned across and wrapped her arms around the girl's waist and upper arms, dragging her off Beast Boy.
"Help! HELP!" wailed Rose. "Stop! Let me out!"
Then she opened her mouth and screamed at the top of her lungs.
"ROSE!" Beast Boy yelled. "Shut up! It's okay!"
There was a sudden silence, Rose's scream still ringing in the air. Starfire let go of the suddenly stock-still figure. "Rose?"
"Wow, I didn't expect that to actually work…" Beast Boy said.
Rose turned to Beast Boy. A new fear was in her eyes. "Beast Boy! It's happening!" she cried. "I… I can feel it slipping through…" She clutched her head.
"What?" Robin demanded, looking from Rose to Beast Boy. "What's happening?"
Starfire gasped. "Are we witnessing Rose losing control of her powers?"
"She's not losing control of them," Beast Boy explained briefly. "She's using them without knowing what she's controlling!" His team mates looked even more confused than before, but he ignored them, turning to Rose urgently. "Can't you use the link thingy to track the water?"
Rose moaned softly, seeming not to hear him.
"Cy! Can you go any slower?" Beast Boy asked. "Maybe then she'll calm down…"
At that moment, they shot out onto a long bridge. Rose's whimpering stopped, and a tense silence developed inside the T-Car.
Beast Boy glanced out the window. The bridge was over a river. His eyes widened. "Uh… Rose? I think I found the water you're connected to," he gaped.
Ominous rolls were gliding through the river, each growing larger than the one before. As every wave went, ribbons of water split from the surface. They darted about, skimming over the river in a hysterically agitated fashion. As if they suddenly sensed the source of Rose's terror approaching, they stilled. Then, as one, they shot up towards the T-Car.
"Cy!" Beast Boy cried. "Watch out!"
"Huh?" Cyborg glanced back at him. "For what?"
Beast Boy had no time to reply, because the T-Car was suddenly hit by a succession of thumps. One thudded into Beast Boy's window. He stared at the water as it clung unnaturally to the car, quivering slightly. His relief that the water hadn't actually damaged the car or interfered with Cyborg's driving soon gave way to horror as, from the centre out, small fingers of ice began to spread.
"We are under attack!" cried Starfire.
"What is that stuff?" Robin gasped.
"It's just water," said Beast Boy. "And… ice."
"In this weather?" said Robin incredulously. "That can't be normal!"
"The road's blurring a bit," grunted Cyborg as ice webbed out over the front window, "But it's straight right across the bridge, so we should be fine til then."
"And after that?" Robin asked, shocked. Cyborg didn't answer.
"Who is assaulting us?" Starfire questioned, starting to panic.
"It's Rose," said Beast Boy. "But she doesn't mean to!"
The Titans gawped at him.
"Rose-" Beast Boy went to place his hand on Rose's shoulder. Just then, there was a sickening grinding noise from beneath them. Beast Boy froze as the car started to shudder, his hand hovering over Rose's shoulder. "What was that?"
"Ice on the wheels," Cyborg informed him grimly. "The sooner we get off this bridge, the better."
There was a jolt, then another.
"Now what?" Beast Boy shrieked, gripping the back of the seat in front of him.
"Ice on the road!" Robin yelled. "Cyborg, pull over!"
"Where?" Cyborg replied. "We'll get hit by another car!"
Beast Boy pressed himself to his window, and stared at the road. Water was flooding unevenly onto the tar in front of them. As he watched, it all hardened, becoming ice. He had no time to react before they hit the closest mound. The right side of the T-Car jerked roughly upwards so that the entire car was on a tilt. Rose slid limply down onto Starfire; Beast Boy was restrained with his seatbelt.
"We have no choice!" Robin screeched. "Pull over!"
Cyborg jammed on the brakes. The T-Car went skidding, brakes uselessly trying to get a good grip on the wheels. Starfire screamed as the car went spinning wildly out of control. Finally, it slid to a halt. No-one dared to breathe.
The back half of the car was dangling off the bridge.
"Nobody move," said Robin, even though they were all too stunned to anyway. "Okay. Cyborg and I can't move until the rest of you are out, or else…" he trailed off. The T-Car would fall into the river, each of them silently finished in their heads. "You three, unbuckle your seatbelts."
Beast Boy and Starfire, moving painstakingly slowly, carried out the order.
"BB, change into an insect, and fly forwards," said Robin.
"I'm not leaving Rose," Beast Boy protested. "I think she's unconscious."
Robin scowled. "Now is no time for stubbornness!"
"I won't do it," Beast Boy insisted.
Robin sighed, seeing the changeling was not going to change his mind any time soon. "Fine. Starfire, can you…"
"Rose is over me," Starfire said. "I cannot move without moving her. And we need to keep as still as possible, correct?"
"Rose…" Robin began.
"…Is unconscious," Beast Boy reminded him.
There was a cracking noise from the road in front of them.
"I think ice is starting to build up underneath the front wheels," Cyborg said. "We can't stay like this for much longer before we slide off completely."
"Open the doors," Robin said suddenly. "Beast Boy, you can change into a bird, Starfire, you hold Rose. You can both fly out."
"Magnificent idea!" beamed Starfire.
"…But… the doors are iced shut!" Beast Boy grunted, trying his. Starfire heaved at hers, but even her strength could not break the chunky ice spread over the door. The front of the T-Car was now starting to slowly rise.
"Are you sure?" Robin's masked eyes grew round. "That means we can't get out at all! Unless we break the windows… but the ice might be thick there as well, anyway…"
Cyborg emitted a small, pathetic noise of pain.
"Dude!" Beast Boy yelled incredulously. "You're worried about your car?"
"My baby!" Cyborg cried, sounding heartbroken.
The front of the T-Car jerked up noticeably. They began to inch backwards.
"Guuuys," Robin warned in a low voice. "Now is not the time…"
"Tell that to Cyborg!" Beast Boy scowled. "We have to smash the windows to get out of this thing!"
"And we're just gonna leave her to drop?" Cyborg gaped. "But…"
Starfire screamed as the back of the car began to dip down off the bridge like a see-saw.
"Do something!" yelled Cyborg, to nobody in particular.
"Titans, get ready for the drop," Robin said, gloved fingers tightening on the handle above the door.
Beast Boy slid across and gathered Rose into his arms, determined to protect her; Starfire blankly buckled her seatbelt, then went to unbuckle it again, realising that if she wanted to escape, this might be a hindrance; and Cyborg, he just sat there looking devastated.
Then down they were plummeting, down towards the churning waters of the river.