The Albino Telepath Saga

by DBAinsw

Discontinued: I keep this long, long story around as an example of what NOT to do. Once this was my superfantasy played out in a forum others might read it in. Now I see it as typing practice with an embarrasing garystu focus.

22. PIT pt3: Connections

Intro:

Oh my god but this is a good one. I'll mention that I finally get into the ultra juicy parts of Skye's origin and that the relationship between him and Raven begins to sizzle more than Canadian bacon, so stick through the start to get at the ass kicking end.

Chapter 22 (Section 5, part 3): Connections

Robin's Room—Dusk

Robin's room was the same dark, featureless refuge it had always been. With the sparse lighting all dimmed, it was impossible even to make out the newspaper clippings on the wall or the case files and clues strewn across the expensive mahogany table that was the only stick of furniture in the main area. The large computer terminal with its window-sized flat screen terminal that dominated the right wall was running a slideshow screensaver of photographs with the Titans in various jubilant occasions they'd enjoyed over this brilliant but too-short time together, and the changing scenes brightened and darkened the room as they switched. The soft breathing of the room's only occupant whispered through the utter silence, emanating from the lavishly upholstered, high-back leather chair in front of the computer.

After Robin had ended a few too many late nights asleep in front of the master computer out in the common room, Cyborg had installed a private access terminal so he could work himself to death in the comfort of his own room. The exceptionally luxurious chair had been a gift from one of the Titans' 'corporate benefactors,' and there was a twin to it getting well-used in a bat-infested cave on the other side of the country. These days he slept in the chair as often as in his own bed, and he truly felt no worse for a night in the magnificently padded and expertly custom-fit recliner. As it was, he lay sprawled out in it quite beyond reach, the antidote to the chemical sleep inhibitors he'd been popping clutched in one hand still.

An insistent buzzing sprang up without warning, bleeping out of his computer in a toning blare acoustically optimized to pierce the deepest slumber. When combined with the harsh flashing messages springing up on the suddenly very active computer, it was only a second before Robin was jerking and thrashing in the chair, moaning in exhaustion and cursing with complete disorientation. The last thing he remembered was injecting an auto-hypo full of wake-up juice inhibitor, and the undeniable activity of his terminal might as well have been the next instant.

As he finished cursing his way to wakefulness, he noticed the caller ID up in huge letters on his massive computer screen, and started cursing for an entirely different reason as he kicked his chair out of reclining and ran his hands nervously through his hair. Catching a glimpse of himself in a reflection off of one of the many smaller sub-monitors around him, he prepared himself for the worst, twisting his face into a neutral smile despite the gurgling in his intestines these particular calls always brought on. With a sigh, he activated the connection.

"Hello Mr. Mayor."

"Ahhh, Robin, boy wonder, caped crusader, how nice of you to finally take my call." The person on the other end of the video connection was a patrician looking fellow past his prime, tall, thin, and graying, but still possessed of an undeniable vitality and a dangerously intelligent gleam in his washed out blue eyes. He wore a fine blue business suit and a deep red tie, and he was seated at a tidy desk with dozens of reports and forms spread out for his inspection. The seal of the city government was on the wall behind him in white on blue, and the whole scene granted the man an air of authority that he wore like a favored old jacket. He'd been mayor for ten years, and he'd been a powerful political figure since well, well before Robin had even been born.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that sir, but things were breaking down here so I ordered everyone to get some sleep." Over his extensive dealings with the other man, Robin had learned a few tricks to dealing with him. One was to always appear to be in complete command in the Tower, no matter how casual his actual leadership ever became, because he was talking to a man who respected power and decisive command, not friendship. "It wouldn't do for us to be dead on our feet if something untoward should happen to the city again."

"Granted… granted…" the Mayor grudgingly agreed, the fire in his eyes from Robin's recent and fully intentional snubbing, where the boy wonder blocked the Mayor's calls while he got a minimum of sleep, fading somewhat as he was reminded of the necessity and utility of the person he was talking to. Then they flared again as his anger took front row over any restraint he might have possibly felt.

"The thing is," he began, his voice edged with heat that he was barely suppressing, "the Press has been breathing down my neck for answers I can't give them. I tell them, 'At this time, the situation is under investigation by the police and the Teen Titans, and details are forthcoming.' But you know Robin… details aren't forthcoming. The police are clueless, no matter how much I yell at the Chief, and so I've been lying to the press to cover for their incompetence while I wait for my million dollar babies—you and your friends—to return my calls. So perhaps you can understand my relief to have finally gotten a hold of you again. Our last conversation wasn't exactly enlightening after all."

"Mr. Mayor… sorry. I hate to leave you in that situation, but we're still going over things here. We have facts that may well hold up into theories, but we haven't had time to prepare a statement. Besides sleep, there were injuries to take care of and—"

"Injuries? Good lord Robin, why didn't you call the paramedics again! I keep a staff of the best, most discreet doctors in the state on call at virtually any hour of the day!" The Mayor's demeanor had changed drastically, and Robin would have been touched if he'd thought for one second that it was anything but the man's towering proprietary instinct speaking. He couldn't stand the thought of loosing his investment in them, not considering what spectacular returns he'd been getting.

"Please, it was nothing like that sir. Not like before anyway, I mean no one's life was in danger. Sir, please, just give us a little more time. If you can keep the press at bay for just another few hours, I can prepare a statement. By tomorrow you can hold a press conference and we can address the public with full disclosure." The mayor gave him an imposing glare of unhappiness in response, then cocked his head to one side slightly and rubbed his temple as he began to talk.

"Robin, perhaps you don't understand the situation I'm in down here. Locked up in that fortress out in the bay, I can imagine it would be difficult to get a finger to the city's pulse, so I'm going to try to illustrate for you just what I'm facing. An office building has collapsed in the commercial district, causing numerous deaths and innumerable injuries, blocking roads and totally screwing the water and electrical service for the entire block. A four alarm fire burnt down thirteen buildings in the financial district, and the fire chief said some of the damage resulted from heat on a level he'd never even imagined possible, much less seen before, leaving stretches of warped stone that will be warm to touch for months. The Pier Park—the same park on our bestselling souvenir postcard—the same park that brings in more tourist dollars than the bay bridge—is now twenty feet under the surface of the ocean along with one of the most profitable stretches of boardwalk on the western seaboard!"

"Robin, the people are afraid to leave their homes, others are fleeing the city even as we speak! This does not reflect well on me, nor on you, and the Press will not miss an opportunity to describe this in great detail unless I can give them something else to run. Come now, can't you give me something to feed them? Any change at all will shut them up until your statement later, but I can't wait any longer if I want to salvage the next election. Need I remind you that my opponent Roy Donners has been mouthing off to interested ears about his plan to eliminate the Titans budget and spend half the difference on extra police? Neither of us wants him taking my place…"

As the Mayor went on, Robin began to get a terrible headache. Despite the sleep he'd gotten, which surprisingly had been more than enough to clear his mind, politics always managed to mess with his system. He didn't know how the old man could stand the press, which Robin allowed onto Titan's Island only with great reluctance (it helped keep paparazzi out among other things), and if he'd made the plead on any other premise Robin would have just left him to deal with it. As it was…

"Okay, I guess I didn't realize haw bad things had gotten out there with all the stuff going on here. This is what I can tell you now with complete faith that the press won't be able to disprove it and we won't end up contradicting ourselves: Last night was a battle between two powerful criminal organizations that, until now, had been dueling silently for supremacy over the city. The first organization is well known, the second was so secretive in its infiltration of the city that it only recently came to our attention. Since it's already probably all over the streets, you can go ahead and confirm that the first is a resurgence of Slade's syndicate lead by the masked man himself."

"JESUS! Slade?" the Mayor nearly stood up in his shock, his wrinkled hand rising to hold his balding forehead as he came to terms with the news. "That psychopath is still alive? For god's sake Robin, I didn't even know that yet, and you're telling me it's probably on the streets? The press is going to have a field day with that. I can see it now 'Reports of Slade's death greatly exaggerated by overconfident crime fighters.' It's going to be a nightmare toning it down…"

"Trust me, it came as a shock to me too. I have no idea how he got out of that volcano alive, but he won't get away from me the next time around. Anyway… the second group is brand new, exceptionally vicious, and perhaps more dangerous than Slade ever was. We really have no clue where they came from, but they don't seem to have any compunction whatsoever about using flagrant deadly force to get what they want. I don't know if you want to confirm this to the press just yet, but the attack of two days past was definitely their way of saying hello, and a very nearly successful assassination attempt on us."

"My god…" the mayor thought once more about the massive property damage that had been caused, and then considered that it had been an attempt to eliminate the only obstacle standing between them and a group capable of such an attack. He shook his head in disgust at the thought of that fool Donners and his shortsighted number crunching, wondering what in god's name had saved the city from crumbling under the weight of these weird, extreme crises before he'd personally spearheaded the operation to attract their own group of supers.

"Robin, thanks. That'll be more than enough to sic the Press on for now, but I'm just going to warn you that they're going to be rabid with questions by tomorrow, so you'd better be ready. The rumor mill has been cranking out whispers of a new Titan, of ghosts frightening people away from Green Construction before it collapsed, and all kinds of other crazy nonsense. If it was any other city I'd just put it down to hysterics, but around here… well… I'll let you go now. Get me a full statement in time for the eleven o'clock news, and please give the medics a call if they're needed. This sounds like it's far from over."

The mayor hung up the line and his image was replaced with Robin's desktop and wallpaper, a plain black letter R with gold outlines on a red background. Robin leaned way back into his comfortable chair and sighed deeply, lamenting over the amount he'd had to guess and assume to keep his boss happy. The guy really wasn't so bad, but the forces he had to appease were so often at odds with anything Robin cared to spend time on that the friction just drove him nuts. For now, the Press was keeping him from asking uncomfortable questions about why there was a new mesa smack in the middle of the commercial district, and that was more than enough for Robin to feed him whatever he needed to stave off the media dogs. In any case, it was time to get everyone together for a talk.

Titan's Tower Residential Floor Hallways

Beast Boy was wandering aimlessly toward the common room, sleep burdened eyes matching his slack jaw and stooping gait. He'd awoken from a dreamless sleep to the sound of the rumbling in his own stomach, and the pleasant fuzz of exhaustion was currently insulating his mind from any and all concerns in this world. With one hand against the wall to support himself, he took one stumbling step after another, propelling himself with difficulty toward the most likely source of food in the building. With uncomprending eyes, he took a moment from his slow progression to pause and watch a striking blond walk slowly by. He then faced forward again and began to progress toward the common room once more.

Somewhere in the vast empty space currently populating his head, two electrical impulses circled and swirled like teasing lovers, never quite touching as they flickered and leapt through a complicated pattern of mutual attraction. Eventually the relationship overcame the impediment of the space between them, and a thought was born in his mind with the force of a dying star. His whole body went stiff as the thought shot through him like an electrical shock, and there was a resounding thump as he smacked face first into the floor, dropping like a tipped cow. It was several seconds of his bulging eyes pressing into the tiling before the shock wore off enough for him to move.

"TERRA!" he observed quite loudly, his chin pressing uncomfortably into the floor. In an instant he was in dog form, up and dashing back toward the woman that had passed him before. The skittering of claws against tile announced his complete failure to make any progress, the only place his bounding leaps were taking him was off balance, as evidenced by the stinging smack his face took against the floor, dog form crumbling back to human with the impact.

"TERRA!" he made his battle cry heard once more, looking up at the blond haired woman walking slowly away, oblivious to his shouting. This time he was a darting reptile, the lizard's clinging toes launching him across the floor like a living arrow and overtaking her in an instant. Shifting back to full size human form at full blast, he skidded by her before he could even get a glimpse, his momentum carrying him backward into an open broom closet at the turn in the hall with a clattering of buckets and mops. Leaning his head forward off the floor, he could just see the woman making her way around the corner and out of sight from under the bucket's rim. Pulling himself out from under the pile of cleaning supplies, he attempted to leap to his feet only to catch a soapy spot underfoot and fling again too the floor. Clang! His bucket-coated skull smacked into the ground a third time and stunned him momentarily.

"TERRA!" this time his shout was muffled by the bucket, but the fevered urgency was no less palpable for the metallic ring of the still-vibrating water basin over his skull. A hummingbird took off from the closet, rounded the corner, overtook the woman, then transformed into a young man with arms outstretched to halt the woman's progress. Beast Boy's wide, staring eyes attempted to comprehend what he was looking at as he stood in silence before her, smarting badly from the lumps on his head.

She was wet, as though she'd just gotten out of the shower, her long hair hanging limp and damp down her shoulders and covering her face partially. As his eyes drank her in, she pushed the hair out off her face in an age-old gesture that made his heart race, the golden drapery settling around the fluffy white bathrobe she sported. His pulse pounding like a raging primal beast caged in his chest, he struggled for breath as the enormity of what he was seeing shattered his mind. He gurgled out several attempts at talking as she continued to stand calmly before his obstructive presence.

The scene stretched out, Terra continuing to stand in silence and Beast Boy continuing to gurgle inarticulately in a complete failure to say all the millions of things he wanted to say as he stood frozen in an obstructive posture in the middle of his own home. Nothing at all changed, in fact, until Beast Boy's wandering stupefied gaze finally found Terra's eyes, and found them to be empty. His heart almost stopped as the past days came back to him in a flash of comprehension that left him on his knees gasping for air, and the moment he was no longer blocking the hallway she stepped around him to continue her progress to her unknown destination. As she moved away, something inside of him panicked and he reflexively reached out to grasp her wrist, to keep her from leaving him again. It was a mistake.

The next thing he new he was chewing wall, his whole body numb from the high speed impact he'd been flung through. A stinging grip twisted his arm up and behind his back, pinning him effortlessly against the plaster he was already smashed against. He would have screamed in pain if there had been any air left in his lungs after the impact, but even this became a null point as another hand gripped the back of his head and cracked his skull against the wall a second time. The fourth lump was a charm, and he sank woozily to the floor as the world faded from his eyes. The last thing he saw was Terra's slim form striding calmly into a room that hadn't gotten much traffic for weeks now. Hers.

Titans Tower Common Room

"Raven, come quickly!" came Starfire's frightened voice from down the hall, and Raven snapped her book shut and flashed to her feet as she turned toward the call. In a whiff of black energy, she was emerging from the wall behind Starfire and looking down at the prone form of Beast Boy sprawled on the hallway floor. The fair young woman was supporting his head as his unfocused eyes wandered around and he mumbled incoherently. In a glace Raven was able to tell that he was merely dazed, and the quickening of her heart calmed as she instead wondered what in the hell had happened to him.

"Beast Boy, what is the matter friend? Who has attacked you?" Starfire voiced queries so Raven didn't have to, and she turned from the rather futile attempt to exact something understandable from the green one and began to examine the scene. Her every sense was on a razor's edge, primed to detect whatever had accosted him, her temper heating at the thought of someone loose in their home. After all the crap they'd weathered last night, for someone to be sneaking around… they'd just better hope she wasn't the one to catch them.

"Raven, who could have done this?" asked Starfire, a mixture of anger and fear in her voice as she gently lifted Beast Boy's dead weight from the floor and supported him on her shoulder, his arm wrapped around her neck. He'd moved from mumbling to moaning in pain, but was still completely unresponsive.

"I really couldn't say Starfire," Raven answered, allowing utter emptiness to posses her lest her anger begin to disassemble the building around them, "But I know just how to find out. Stick close to me and keep an eye on Beast Boy." With that she flipped out her communicator and keyed up Cyborg.

Rather than a response, Raven was granted ring after ring, and her pulse exploded again as she realized she had no idea where he was or if he needed help too. She hadn't heard from him since she'd sent him away from her room this morning, and the fear was almost painful as her mind raced with all the things that could have happened to him. Without giving it a second thought, she overrode the ringer and opened the line directly, breath quickening in anticipation. The screen showed a visual of a room with dimmed lights, revealing nothing, and the view kept moving, which meant the camera in Cyborg's wristcom was moving.

"Cyborg? Cyborg are you there?" her voice was even, but it held an edge of panic that even got Starfire's attention, and the other woman shifted her attention from trying to keep Beast Boy's limp weight upright to what Raven was doing, allowing the green one to hang almost comically from her shoulder in a boneless sprawl as he continued to moan his agony to the world. There was at first no response, and Raven found herself holding her breath as the image continued to move.

"Cyborg, damn you, pick up the line before I have to come down there!" she gambled, placing her hopes on the line as what she fervently wished to be true was placed up for examination. Of course, there was a reason she always won every bet against the others. The picture pitched through a wide arc before coming to rest on the haggard, run-down face of their cybernetic ally.

"Raven, what the hell is so damn important that you hafta scream at me? I'm mindin' my own business down here in the workshop, which I kinda hoped would send a message to everyone else up there." Raven's fury at his nastiness in the face of her epic concern was counterbalanced by the flush of relief at the fact that he was fine, leaving her just about even enough to respond to his crappy attitude in kind.

"Just shove it Cy, this is business. Star and I found Beast Boy semiconscious in the residence hallway with signs of a struggle." Signs of a struggle—heh—the multiple impressions in the wall, scratched tiling, and the mess made out of the supply closet made it look like a herd of wild animals had had free reign… witch would be consistent with Beast Boy in a struggle to be sure. "Run back the security tapes and give me good news."

"Shit, B.B.'s hurt? God damn it, someone picked the wrong afternoon to screw with my friends!" Cyborg's threats were comforting if only because it indicated to Raven that his heart was in the right place, even if he had found reason to mope in his workshop with the lights dimmed. "I'm running back the tapes now—I mean damn, I look away for freeking two hours and somebody jumps B.B.! Hold on, residence halls… okay… uh… WHAT?" That caught her off guard, and Raven was consumed by curiosity at the particularly ripe tone of exceptional shock in his tone. Starfire was too, and Raven tried not to roll her eyes too much as she held the com unit up so the other woman wouldn't have to lean so closely over her shoulder.

"I don't—how did—she was just—" Cy began to sputter, "I mean how in the hell… and why would she… if Skye… but…" he continued to say a great deal without actually revealing anything, and Raven wasn't about to stand for it anymore.

"Out with it! What the hell happened?" she snapped so fiercely that Starfire squeaked and moved away from her reflexively as a cloud of fierce black energy kicked up around her. Raven might have regretted it if she wasn't so tunnel visioned on the way Cyborg's panic-stricken visage mutated into a mask of fantastic excitement. In a moment he was beaming with almost divine ecstasy, and Raven would have killed to know what he was thinking. "Cyborg, I'm not kidding, what the hell is going on!"

"Raven… just… look in Terra's room. That's where she disappeared to… you'll understand then. I'll be up in a minute." He cut the connection and left Raven with an afterimage of his utterly brilliant smile and little more in the way of answers than she'd had before she called. Storming with the black energy of her frustration in a crackling halo around her body, she stalked the dozen or so steps over to the forgotten corner where Terra's room stood, leaving Starfire behind in an almost traumatized daze from the force of her ire.

Hardly possessing enough patience at this point to keep from blind-jumping into the space, Raven walked through the wall like it wasn't there, arriving in the area Beast Boy had been preserving so lovingly and so futilely over the woman's long absence. Everything was exactly as it should be, and Raven was seconds away from teleporting to Cyborg's workshop and giving that metal bastard a piece of her mind, when instead she caught sight of movement over by the wardrobe. She blinked in surprise as her anger dissipated, so completely did the unexpected sight displace everything from her mind.

With a few numb steps to one side, she got a good look at what was behind the wardrobe's open door, and her jaw almost fell off her face. For three full seconds of utter and enduring, mind-numbing surprise, she stared at Terra. The other woman was halfway dressed and still dripping wet from her shower, the deathly pale skin and pronounced ribs disappearing behind the loose shirt she pulled over her nakedness as Raven watched slack-jawed. Little starbursts of black energy began to crackle and pop off of Raven's body in minute explosions that spread a spectrum of black, purple, and deep blue auroras around the room.

Terra was halfway through pulling the rest of her cloths on when Raven's mind hit the reset button and clicked into activity again, and she snapped backward out of the room, passing through the door again, then jerking to a stop in the hallway where Starfire looked on timidly, confused and clearly afraid she was going to explode again. Raven's mind kept getting to the part where Terra was up and around on her own, then would skip badly and wind up at the start again, repeating over and over as she stared at nothing, causing Starfire no end of concern and motivating the frightened young warrior over to Terra's door. It was about when she started to open it that Raven's mind finally completed the thought with—

"SKYE!" she shouted, turned on her heel to stare in the direction of the common room, then was standing next to the couch in a whooshing swirl of black energy. He was still lounging on the couch, apparently oblivious to his surroundings with his mind vagrantly traversing an alternate phase of reality. Not about to stand for this, Raven wound up to smack some life into him, thought better of what that could do to her hand, then pressed some power into the cushions below him and ejected him from his seat. Halfway through his high arc, his mind exploded to life and he finished the trip with a flip and two twists that landed him on his feet facing Raven with his guns out and a vicious tension in his frame. She glared at him until he was sufficiently aware of his surroundings to drop the guns and look puzzled, then went off without mercy.

"What did you do this time?" she opened strong, expressing her frustration at his constant medaling with a single phrase of concentrated viciousness. Skye had the decency to at least pretend to quail in the face of her unexplained accusation, no matter the curious neutrality she could tell he felt.

"I don't even know what you're talking about yet Raven. What is it now? I'm certain I can explain." The concentrated shock she'd been unloading as nastiness at him couldn't help but disintegrate in the face of his calm, mostly because she knew if he wasn't concerned already then nothing was actually wrong. Left high and dry then, her next words were a great deal more subdued.

"Uh…" she'd stalled somewhat, but picked up much more calmly with, "It's Terra Skye. What did you do to her? She's up and around, she took a shower, she's getting dressed in her room right now. How the hell did you manage that?" Having articulated her confusion accurately, finally separating it from the pressure of her shock, she was once again surprised, this time by the change in Skye's expression. He placed a hand to the side of his head in concentration, then brightened considerably in a strange mimicry of the excitement that had overcome Cyborg.

"Holy Hell! You're right! I… I don't fucking believe it!" He was shaking his head in wonder and Raven was able to pick up weird fluctuations of emotions from behind his casual shields, the peaking and dipping unlike anything she'd seen before. "I can't believe it! Two hours ago her ego-motivational processing area was so shot I'd have sworn it would take a month to get her moving under her own volition, and now… she's grooming! This is incredible. This is… it's epic! It shouldn't even be possible… oh lord, wait… not unless—"

Suddenly Skye broke off and glanced distractedly away, calming down to emptiness in an instantaneous flash, dumping all emotion in a wave of cold that blew over Raven's senses like an icy draft. There was a piercing scream from out of the hallway leading to their rooms, and before she could even process the sound, he was already gone, dashing into the hallways and over toward Terra's room. Acting on impulse, she leapt through space, snatched him from reality in a sweeping black cloak, then dumped them both in Terra's room the next instant. He took the unexpected translocation in stride, turning and snapping out "Terra, stop," in an utterly calm, clipped tone.

He'd managed to say it before Raven had even finished materializing them into the prime material again, and so it was a moment after she heard the words that she saw what he'd put a stop to. Terra was standing in a taught, perfectly balanced martial arts stance that Raven recognized as Slade's own. Her oversized white shirt with its huge superman insignia bellowed around her body so loosely that one could barely see the outline of her body or even the tight black shorts she'd donned, but the threat in her stance was not masked in the slightest. Starfire hovered back next to the door, eyes aglow and with blazing haloes of green fire around her fists as she kept up an expert defensive stance, the conflict here rather clear. This scene was imprinted into Raven's mind for the instant it lasted before Skye's words took effect.

Immediately Terra loosened up, the look of empty ferocity on her face replaced by an abstract calm as she took up a casual stance. Starfire had a hard time catching up, but a few seconds after Terra stopped threatening, she too let her guard down, looking back and forth in confusion between Terra and those who'd just blinked into the room. She took to absently rubbing the back of her head, and a curious glance around by Raven showed a tumble of chairs and a small table that had been knocked down in the conflict before they'd arrived. It didn't take psychic powers to know the gist of what had happened, but after running through her myriad of options, Raven decided listening might be the best course of action to fill in the gaps here.

"Um, friend Skye, would you…" and there was a terrible tremor in her voice, "happen to have knowledge of why Terra struck out at me? And perhaps… perhaps too why she has now stopped? If it was part of her condition, I am truly sorry, I merely meant to greet her when I saw that she was functioning again and… well… she would not turn around… and so I touched her shoulder…" Starfire trailed off, her confusion deepening into embarrassment and shock as she looked around at the mess the room had been left in the wake of the conflict and realized that one of her most beloved friends had just tried to throw her through a wall. Skye picked up the ball smoothly, sliding into that confident and assuring persona, one of many Raven had seen him don.

"No, Stafire, I should be the one apologizing," he said with a reassuring force that Raven could feel, even armed as she was with knowledge that he was faking what he showed now. "It was inexcusably remiss on my part to have failed to warn you all that something like this could happen. I'm sure you were quite overjoyed to see Terra up and about, but you need to understand that I've only completed the first phase of her healing process."

"What do you say to me?" Starfire began to loose her grip on English as she correctly interpreted Skye's news as exceptionally distressing, "Terra is fine. You've healed her and she now walks with us again! Surely she attacked me out of some kind of confusion?" The desperation in Starfire's voice, the deep desire to know that the pain of Terra's loss could finally be lifted again, was completely apparent to Raven, and even mimicked in the darker woman's own subdued way. The flash of unbroken hope and joy that had nearly ripped her apart when she'd first seen Terra moving and up again was still fresh in her mind, and she listened for Skye to elaborate on what the catch was.

"I'm afraid I just can't tell you what you want to hear," Skye admitted calmly, as he caught the indifferent blond woman's attention with a wave of his hand and directed her to sit on her bed. Terra obeyed without word, and Raven began to get a creeping, frightening inkling of what was going on. "You see, her mind was quite seriously eradicated by the forces that stole her away. I've… how should I say… created temporary replacement parts for pieces of her consciousness that were destroyed. It gives her the ability to walk around and appear quite healthy, because in essence, she is. However, deep within her mind, in the places that make her the person you know, the friend you all love so dearly, she's still badly broken and in need of much restorative effort."

"So… she is not healed?" and the crushing disappointment in Starfire was unbearable, so perfectly mimicked by the hidden heartbreak Raven experienced. Raven lashed her powers down fiercely to keep it from bursting forth, but the anguish was quite real, and she couldn't be sure if she'd successfully hidden it from Skye. "Terra!" Starfire shouted with tears in her eyes, and Raven's attention went instantly back to her as she zipped through the air to intercept the blond woman in a desperate embrace. Raven had just enough time to notice the flash of panic through her casual link to Skye before everything happened at once.

"Starfire wait!" she heard Skye snap, but Terra was already done with an expert roll off of her bed, coming into a rising snap kick aimed at a completely surprised red head who'd been flying at a stationary target the last she'd noticed. Terra's foot seemed to come at Starfire's stomach in slow motion as she rose off the floor, and Raven's mind raced futily for something she could do, so utterly had this taken her off guard. The person who had anticipated it was already in motion, however, and a strong hand caught Terra's foot and twisted it expertly to dissipate the force, flipping her over and away from Starfire. In a flash, Skye was on a knee next to a suddenly prone and motionless Terra, one hand pressed against her forehead. Raven could feel his power pulsing into Terra's skull as she stood in semi-stunned silence, she and Starfire looking on in silence as he worked at whatever his mysterious purpose might be. After a moment, and without pausing in his work, he began to explain.

"I'm sorry about that, I didn't have a chance to warn you of that either. For her own safety, I gave her the ability to defend herself with all of her fighting ability, that being the only thing left in her head that was still hooked up and functioning. Because I didn't expect her initial recovery so soon, I didn't finish imprinting all of you as friendly. She attacked Beast Boy, she attacked you Starfire, and she attacked just a moment ago, all because she was threatened. I'm not exactly sure what's given her such an ingrained aversion to being touched (Raven's mind prickled with an odd sensation, and she knew this last statement was a bald-faced lie), but trying it for the time being is not suggested if a person would want to keep all of his or her teeth and various other bones intact."

"Okay," and he stopped pressing power into Terra's mind, "I've finished designating you all as friends, so she won't try to jump you anymore. As to touching her, you can, but I'm telling you, on a level that goes deeper than active desires and thoughts, on a level basically engraved into the foundations of what's left of her soul, she doesn't want to be touched by anyone ever again. Just as a heads up." Without explaining one whit further, and ignoring the myriad of unspoken questions and doubts on Starfire's face, he stepped around the various broken and tumbled furniture in the room and found Beast Boy lying forgotten in a corner. The green one stared into space vacantly, having even given up on moaning for the time being, and he was completely unresponsive as Skye waved and snapped his fingers in front of his face.

"Mild concussion," Skye commented, as though he were describing a piece of fruit and not a person. Without the slightest bit of concern on his face, he reached behind his back under his over shirt and brought his left hand back around wearing one of those gauntlets. In a second his hand was covered in blossoming silver ribbons, and the next moment he had his hand pressed against Beast Boy's forehead. Starfire stood in silence, seeming to look into herself, occasionally glancing at where Terra still lay passively on the floor. Raven was torn between so many desires that she didn't trust herself to move, and waited quietly for a chance to speak with Skye privately. For this conversation, merely restricting it to telepathy wouldn't be private enough.

"Oohhh my head…" Beast Boy uttered the cliché on cue as Skye finished up and stood away from him, and the changeling sat up slowly as he tried to get his bearings. He took a long look around the room and nearly collapsed again when he saw Terra prone in the other corner. After the initial shock he was up and running toward her before anyone could say a single thing in explanation.

"NO!" Raven and Starfire shouted simultaneously, and they grappled with him, each grabbing an arm as he tried to get over to the spot next to her bed where she lay passively. Despite the fact that they had him outnumbered and supremely outmuscled in the form of Starfire's iron grip, it was still a huge struggle to keep him back, and the only sound in the room were their grunts of effort as they worked at it. Raven, finally getting fed up, gripped at him with her powers and bound him up in a coating of black force, holding him in place like a statue as the two women stood back and caught their breath. Beast Boy continued to struggle uselessly in place for some time, ignoring everything but the woman on the ground.

"Beast Boy!" Starfire shouted, laying a ringing smack across his jaw so forcefully that fully half his face began to glow a heated pink right away, finally getting his attention. He looked at the two women as though seeing them for the first time, then began a broken rant without further pause.

"Starfire, Raven, did you—did you see? Terra… Terra is back! She's better, she's—I saw her walking around in the halls! I don't know why she's lying down right now, but—I saw her walking around again in the halls! Heh, heheheh, I—I've always hoped—but I never—she was walking around in our halls, under our roof again!" The happiness in his eyes was almost manic, and neither woman was able to meet his gaze, each looking away in turn as he tried to exact matching happy glares from them. Because he seemed to have calmed down, Raven released her grip, and he stumbled as he took his weight back onto his own feet.

"Beast Boy, there is something of which we must inform you…" Starfire began to beat around the bush, but the green one was already tuning her out, focused totally on Terra as she stared at the ceiling, apparently fully lucid but still oh so empty behind her blue eyes.

"Oh Terra," he began, and at the sound of her name as a direct address, she automatically sat up from the floor to look at who was talking to her. Beast Boy was so struck by the pure physical sight of her moving on her own that he ignored all the signs of her mind's vacancy, just as Starfire and Raven had at first. "I thought—eheh… I thought I'd never get another chance to talk with you. Please, I just—I just need to see that it's really you, after all this time," and he reached out toward her. Lost in the emotional quagmire coating his soul and still not fully free of the murk of his recent concussion, he didn't notice the revulsion that came over her, and the base, mindless emotion written across her face passed through him without imprinting at all.

As he reached out more quickly, he managed to brush her shoulder slightly, and she flinched away as though struck, hissing like an angry cobra and doing a spinning flip off of the floor to escape, backing away behind Raven in a flurry of quick steps then eyeing Beast Boy dangerously, never once gaining more than the most infinitesimal gleam of real intelligence in her sapphire twins.

Beast Boy sat in place, never moving from the position he'd held when she'd flinched away from him like a frightening stranger, the altercation from the hallway coming back to mind to strike him like a baseball bat to the spine. Raven could feel his emotions crumbling with his hopes and desires, the whole mess disintegrating into a mire of misery that it had only just begun to rise from in the first place. A few slow tears dripped down his face as he knelt, wallowing in his pain silently.

"What's wrong with her?" he asked quietly without moving. Starfire knelt down next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, forcing him to give up some of the weight of his misery through direct contact.

"I attempted to inform you…" she began, drawing his gaze away form the floor and up to her face, trying to pull him up out of the bog of pain he'd thrust himself into.

"She's not done yet," Raven cut in, and Beast Boy, startled, turned to look up at her instead. She had her arms crossed and was staring into a vacant corner of the room, but continued with, "Skye has only finished the first stage of healing her mind. If we want her back, mind and body, we'll just have to be a little more patient." She spoke as though his misery were a child's petulance, maintaining a cool tone with the slightest edge of annoyance, as though his complaints put her in a huff. It worked beautifully, and he stood up quickly, incredibly angry at how she was treating him and completely oblivious to the evaporation of his sadness.

He screamed at her for a while, and when she'd felt she'd given him enough time to vent, she turned upon him the icy glare she'd been building steadily as she looked into the corner. He shut up immediately under that look, stopping mid yell with his mouth wide open as he quailed, but then immediately shifted his anger to the next most visible target. He leveled his own nasty stare at Skye as he crossed the room to be near him.

The other man seemed distant, leaning against the wall as he fingered the texture of his left gauntlet with his bare right hand, eyes masked by ever-present sunglasses. Beast Boy approached, heat fresh in his body, a glorious replacement for his misery, but with every step closer to the other man felt that heat leave. By the time he was actually next to Skye, looking up at his blank, distant expression, he didn't have a single drop of anger left, and he also felt quite cold, as though a draft was piercing his body down to the bones. His shouts and threats died a lonely, frozen death in his throat, and he sighed deeply before looking away from Skye. "Just tell me… tell me you really can fix her."

"Hmm?" Skye perked up, as though he hadn't noticed Beast Boy's presence until then. Before he said a single word, Raven noticed a change in him, and when he spoke it was with that quirky, intellectual/amicable fellow persona, and also an almost bubbling exuberance. "Yes, yes I'm quite confident of her recovery. This—right here—this is already an advancement on the timetables I predicted. The new type of regenerative matrix I planted in her mind is working incredibly well—I honestly can't say I really believe just how well myself. It's truly remarkable, a breakthrough no less. If I can reproduce results like this in other subjects—why, I've got the Pan-Galactic Award for Medical Achievement sewn up! Honestly, I've been working on this particular technique for a while now—y'know, tweaking it with each consecutive patient—but the one I used this time was quite a departure, and I must say I'm exceptionally pleased with the results."

"Hold it!" this time Beast Boy was not stopped by the chill of the air around Skye, launching full into to his haranguing with, "are you telling me you used an untested, unapproved technique, one invented by you, a teenager, to heal the delicate, irreplaceable mind of my friend?" Beast Boy's eyes were bulging now, his mind boggling at the very thought.

"Yeah," Skye spoke in the same tone he had before, as though Beast Boy hadn't said anything, "I've been burning my own trail in the field of mind healing for some time now, working at the cutting edge out where others fear to tread and whatnot, you know, the only interesting place to be. I'm telling you, that medical achievement award is in the bag this time!" Skye was apparently oblivious to Beast Boy's horror, and Raven was torn between her amusement at the farce Skye was acting out and her own horror at the incredible risks Skye was nonchalantly engaging Terra in. Of course, one couldn't argue with results, a fact that both she and Beast Boy were forced to admit as Skye continued.

"Trust me guys, I really do know what I'm doing. If you need proof, simply see that your friend, who had null brain activity a few hours ago, is now acting on basic negative-feedback driven personal volition. Not much of an improvement, but it's happened about twenty times faster than anyone else has ever managed it in recorded history. The fact is that, for… very good reasons… (Raven could taste the epic concealment here) I've devoted my life to mind healing. I'm quite the expert in my field—but considering how pathetic and unorganized it was before the push to make it a science really took off a few years ago, that isn't saying a whole lot."

"At a certain point, every really talented mind healer, myself included, begins to develop their own original techniques so the less talented can use the examples to learn for themselves, therein ensuring an ever greater source of soldiers against the universe's mental maladies. This technique is my own creation, and it may yet make me rich and famous, though that would be secondary to the lives saved from madness and brain death. Relax, be patient, and I can basically assure you that I'll use every resource in my arsenal to bring your friend back from beyond oblivion." Skye smiled now, and Raven knew that this was real, really real, and she felt the cold in the room lift somewhat with that smile. She didn't know about Beast Boy, but her fears were settled right there, if not any of her deeper questions and curiosities.

"Ugg," Beast Boy sighed deeply, shook his head in resignation, then looked over at where Terra stood, noticing the fact that she'd completely forgotten about him and was once more staring obliviously at her surroundings. "Hurry, please, but more than that, do your best. I want the woman I knew to come back home." With that, Beast Boy turned and began to leave the room. All eyes followed him, but became distracted quite completely when Cyborg burst suddenly through the door.

"Terra! Hey baby, come give your buddy Cy some sugar. I've been dying to see you again!" He rushed across the room, and everyone stiffed and jerked into action at the same instant.

"NO!"

Teen Titans Common Room, a while later

Everyone was gathered, washed, and rested, pretty well for the first time since Skye had brought them together to begin explaining his origin and objectives. Robin and Starfire sat curiously close together at one end of the huge curving couch, drawing discreet knowing looks from Raven and curious ones from Cyborg and Beast Boy. Raven was on the edge of the couch nearest them, keeping to herself as usual. Beast Boy and Cyborg were fighting for elbow room in the middle, their antics a reassuring message that things were regaining a sense of normalcy after all the crap the past few days had thrown at them. Skye occupied the other edge of the couch, brooding silently and expressionlessly about something behind those dark glasses, maintaining an icy posture as physically far from the others as he could possibly manage without leaving the couch. Terra sat cross-legged on the floor nearby, snacking blankly on a small amount of leftover something or other Skye had pulled from the fridge for her. Start small he'd said, to get the body used to solid foods again.

The sun had set a little while ago, and the quiet hum of conversation between Starfire and Robin competed with Cyborg and Beast Boy's play-fighting as the only source of sound in the entire room. It had only taken a little while for everyone to gather after Robin had called them into one place to review their actions. After they'd met, they'd gotten to talking, and it turned out that Starfire and Robin had a great deal of heated whispering to do, and so the time had worn on, not a single one of them regretting the calm, subdued, completely normal atmosphere after the nightmarish horrors of nights past. Eventually, however, it had to end, the spell had to be broken, and Robin was the one to do it.

"Well guys," he began simply, "it's been a crazy couple of days."

"Understatement!" snapped Beast Boy, and there was general agreement from the other Titans, a rarity for his comments.

"Okay, so it's been a series of ever worsening nightmares," Robin amended himself, his tone sharpening in amusement, overjoyed that Beast Boy was already back to joking after the young man's very personal trials. "But we got through it, we're all here together again… all of us." At this reference, all of the Titans glanced at Terra where she sat in silence but for her gastronomical actions, and there was a general lightening of the spirits for all of them.

"Unfortunately, we won't get much of a chance to rest," Robin broke the bad news next, and the others were just happy enough about Terra to avoid a general groan at what they new was coming.

"Debriefing Time," everyone said at the same moment as Robin, most of them mocking his voice, an easy feat considering the fact that he said the phrase exactly the same way every time.

"Yeah right," Robin chuckled happily at the almost jovial atmosphere the room had taken on, basking in the feeling of togetherness before continuing. "We're each going to report what happened last night in turn, and afterward we're going to try and figure out what the hell we're supposed to do next. I've already ordered the pizza, and it should get here around the time the brainstorming begins. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get delivery service with the city in the state it is right now. Anyway, I'll go first."

Robin detailed his actions from the moment they'd split up on the road to the moment he'd gotten out of the squad car back at the Tower. Of course, he left out all the juicy personal moments he and Starfire had shared, and she ended up following this lead when she confirmed his tale next. The others expressed their concerns about the somewhat ridiculous powers of the aliens Slade had dredged up, and all congratulated Starfire for her spectacular stand against the pyrokinetic. All except Skye, who, as he had all along, remained mysteriously silent.

Next up were Cyborg and Beast Boy, who had quite a bit more dramatic flare in their tale. Getting off the couch and retreating to the big open area behind it, they implemented full pantomime in rendering their adventure to the others, not skimping on the sound effects and extravagant exaggerations. Particularly good was their retelling of the spectacular, skin-of-their-teeth escape they'd pulled off, the epic slide for the ocean access portal done so realistically that they managed to dump quite a bit of furniture over before they were done. There was laughter and general excitement from the others, but Skye remained as silent as the voracious Terra, quieter without the sound of her munching.

Finally, because she'd noticed Skye's silence all along and didn't care to hear what he felt was relevant enough to relate to the others, Raven rendered her tale, simultaneously the longest and most ambiguous of all. She described being with Skye when he felt the imminent violence of the night creeping up on them, but failed to mention why they were up and together after midnight. She described the altercation with Slade, the discovery of Terra, and her injury and subsequent rescue by Skye, but mentioned only that he was injured in the process of rescuing her, omitting a great deal of violence. She detailed in depth the harrowing near thing with the assassin robots at the disaster site, but skipped completely over their time on the astral plane. Finally, she told them of Skye's last-ditch strike to rescue Terra, but was more than a little vague when it came to her weird transformation into a white avatar. The others were riveted none the less, and there was a great deal of excited questioning and commentary when she finally finished with their arrival at the Tower.

"Okay, okay guys, lets just take it down a notch now," Robin tried to get some order in the room, but just then Cyborg perked up considerably, informing the rest of them that the pizza guy had just arrived. He left to get their stuff from downstairs (way downstairs, the pizza guy accessed through the underground parking lot), and Beast Boy and Starfire went back to chattering and commenting excitedly about all that had transpired so far, impressing Robin with the futility of gaining order and inducing him to join in for the time being. Raven, Skye, and Terra were all completely silent. Skye had never stopped being completely silent the entire time.

Cyborg got back with a stack of pizza boxes a little while later, the top one open and its contents already half gone. Very soon, almost all the pizza was gone, all discussion slowing considerably as food became a major application of mouths for a while. Raven had her usual few slices, Starfire ate two entire larges with extra salt, mustard, and hot sauce, Cyborg had more than his fair share (considering how small his actual food needs were with so few organic body parts), and Beast Boy pretty well polished off what was left. Even Terra had some, though she had to eat very, very slowly considering how long it had been since her stomach was occupied by actual nutritious solids. Though no one else seemed to notice, Raven was highly aware of the fact that Skye ate nothing. When all the pizza was but a pleasant memory, Robin gathered everyone's attention and got order in the exceptionally casual debriefing. The time had come to start deliberations, and he was about to get the ball rolling himself when Skye spoke up for the first time that night.

"I think I've got things pretty well figured out," he said calmly, but with such authority that everyone immediately switched their attention from Robin to him, including the boy wonder himself, "so listen up for a minute and see if I'm making sense or not. First of all, I'd like to make it clear that, to the best of my ability to divine, we are currently sitting very well as far as the impending apocalypse is concerned."

"Well that's a load of my mind," muttered Beast Boy sarcastically, the joke being that he'd forgotten all about that in the excitement of last night and Terra's return, so little had the abstract threat come up. Well… no one got it, and he was pretty well ignored as Skye continued.

"It still exists, so they're not completely beaten, but I think Slade's attacks and the ruckus Beast Boy and Cyborg caused in that drone base have set them back for some indeterminate period. If he wasn't such a vicious, murdering scumbag, I'd say we owe Slade some thanks on this. It was his violent territoriality that drew out our opponent's resources and core members so quickly and fucked up their operations so badly. Without him, I'd say we'd still be sniffing around cluelessly for the slightest inkling of their location."

"Well if you like Slade so much, why don't you marry him?" Cyborg taunted immaturely, merely intending to make his own contempt for the persistent, utterly deadly cockroach as clear as possible. Skye understood this and countered icily.

"Normally I'd give the suggestion due consideration, but after examining what all was done to Terra under his ministrations, I fully intended to use my every power to execute him the next time I lay eyes on him. I suggest you all do the same." The threat was delivered with perfect emotionless power, and a chill ran through all present at the utter, undeniable resolve in his tone. Robin frowned deeply, considering his own lust for Slade's blood as he replied.

"This from a man who's proud of his lifetime zero body count," Robin called Skye's bluff powerfully, and the others couldn't help but feel pride in the way their leader handled himself.

"That's a zero innocents body count," Skye countered expertly, "I've had the unfortunate duty of eradicating many beings who were directly threatening my life or that of others, and Slade is nothing but another deadly threat that should be met in kind. At least that's the way I see it." His tone was still dangerously empty, and the others glared at him, highly aware of how little they actually knew him. Robin noticed this distancing, then struck out to dispel it as best he could.

"Hey, whatever your philosophy is, just remember that we're the law around here." Robin's voice got really grim here, and everyone listened intently as he finished with, "If you off anyone in cold blood, even if that person deserves it as richly and completely as Slade, we'll take you in." There was a long pause.

Everyone burst out laughing at the same instant, and the icy atmosphere was broken a million times over by the explosion of humor. It was a little while before everyone could calm down again, but when they did, Robin got the ball rolling again.

"So Skye, what do you think our next move should be? You know these guys, right?"

"Well, there is of course that big oaf I managed to ID the other day. From the descriptions you guys gave me, I can make a good guess at who that pyrokinetic is. I spotted another I recognize when Raven and I went after Terra last night. A fourth came to my attention through my own means, and with him I think I begin to get a decent picture of what they'll try to do now." He paused, apparently in deep thought again, but Robin had an eye on the time and the mayor's ultimatum in mind, and so he tried to hurry it along.

"Which would be?" he asked pointedly, and everyone but Skye gave him a glare for his clear impatience.

"They're going to go to ground," he continued, ignoring Robin's faux pas and maintaining his steely emotionless presence. "After last night, they can't afford anymore big, flashy villain battles in the city lest higher powers come to intervene. Now that they know I'm here, they're going to assume that any overt operations are going to be highly risky, and so they'll bring pretty much everything to a stop while they try and get rid of me, and by relation, all of you. It won't be anything obvious, some of them are masters of the viciously subtle, and it's likely none of the coming attacks are even going to seem like attacks until we've already been hit hard. The weapons of choice for this kind of fighting are despicable: politics, public opinion, bribery, shady dealings, and all the stuff that makes me ill."

"Well I wouldn't worry too much about the political front at least," Robin began to think out loud when Skye had finished. "We're back by the mayor as far as anyone could ever be, and his political position is secure. We're going to have to do a few things to ensure that security—"

"Oh no, now what does he want?" Raven complained, and she was backed by a general groan from the others. The mayor's PR schemes were always legendary, and they were never terribly considerate of a Titan's desire for privacy. Raven in particular was still angry about the camera crew that had tried to sneak into her room during their tour of the tower, not to mention the teen girl's magazine that he'd set her up with an interview for. The other's experiences weren't quite as bad, but no one particularly enjoyed the stunts.

"Chill guys, it's nothing special this time. We've got to hold a press conference and assuage public fears, y'know, generally get the Press of the mayor's ass. We're pretty much the only people that can assure them that the city isn't going to be blown up or set on fire anymore."

Everyone agreed reluctantly that this was indeed their duty, and there was general muttering among Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg about what they thought of the press. Raven didn't bother to express her contempt as it was well known, particularly by the several paparazzi cameramen who still had terrible nightmares that doctors and psychologists where helpless to explain or prevent.

"Anyway, I'm interested in hearing what you think we should do next Skye," and Robin gave the guy a look, trying to draw his attention. The way he kept looking off at nothing so fixedly was clearly getting to the rakish leader.

"What can we do?" Skye expressed his helplessness in an unexpected turn. As of yet he'd never had quite this tone of abject uselessness, and it was more than a little surprising. "For the time being, we're completely back on the defensive. We don't know where they are, they have all they technology they could ever need to prevent me from locating them with my powers, and all inroads to discovering their location were eradicated when Slade drove them underground with his attacks. All we can do is wait for their next strike and hope there's enough of us left afterward to trace it back to the source. Barring some kind of spectacularly lucky break on our part or an extremely unlikely screw up on theirs, there's really nothing we can do for the time being."

"So we're helpless?" exclaimed Cyborg, effectively articulating the common disbelief in the room. They looked at each other, and it was clear they were imagining what it would take to keep them from stopping someone. Even Slade, an ultra-mastermind, had fallen eventually before them… sort of. As it began to sink in, the mood started to disintegrate.

"Not helpless, no." Skye was being mysterious again, and now everyone was annoyed. Before he could get yelled at, he elaborated with, "As Robin pointed out quite astutely, you are the one and only force capable of lifting the blanket of fear off the people in this city. We've driven the enemy back, set them on their heels, we're forcing them to strike out from the shadows rather than risk the flashy assassinations they've been only too happy to train on you all and me both. Round one goes to us, and round two will be won or lost in a public arena unlike any battlefield a weapon is useful on."

"Our first move should be to dissipate fear, and to do that, you should go back to your regular lifestyles as quickly and publicly as possible. There will be exceptional danger of a sneaky strike from our friends in their rat-hole, so I'd advise against ever going out of your fortress here alone, but you need to be very publicly calm and active so people get it into their heads that there isn't anything to be afraid of anymore."

"But…" and it was Beast Boy who was confused this time, "there are five ultra-deadly space aliens running around in the darkness with blood on their minds! What's NOT to be afraid of?"

"That's the whole point Beast Boy," Robin answered before Skye even had a chance, "our job is to make people feel safe when there isn't any reason to feel safe, because there's never a good reason to feel safe. This city is a powder keg that could go up at any moment, and it always has been. Why do you think the mayor backed us and got funding for this highly visible symbol of our presence we've been living the high life in?"

"Uhh, because that's the kind of star treatment I deserve?" and the sad part was that B.B. seriously meant that. Cyborg beat Robin to giving him a hearty smack to the side of the head, then picked up where the shorter man left off.

"Robin and Skye are right, and I agree with their plan. We need to get the city back to normal as quickly as we can, then wait for these alien scumbags to slip up. That much at least is obvious, but what I wanna know is what we plan on doin about Slade!"

"Oh yes, he is owed a great deal of pain—I so swear on my hraknar'bijon!" Starfire jumped in immediately, her eyes glowing dangerously at the thought of getting her burning hands around that monster's armored throat.

"I wouldn't worry about him," Skye commented, almost smug this time as the slightest grin split his features for the first time all night. "He's already reaping what he's sewn in the form of retaliation from the ones he struck out at."

"And how do you figure that Mr. Psychic Man?" Cyborg asked contemptuously, tired of him always knowing about things. It was a common emotion to everyone that had had their desires for revenge scoffed at a moment ago, and Skye was getting three unpleasant glares currently. Robin already had an idea of what he meant, and had gotten past his own frustration a while ago.

"I'm just saying, that guy bit off more than he could chew when he went after the guys we're up against. Or rather, he may or may not be able to chew what he's got on his plate right now, but he's beyond doubt too occupied with that for us to have to worry about him. What I'm saying is that one of the criminals I identified earlier was a vegoid criminal mastermind who's more than earned an epic reputation with the IDP. My guess is that he caused her a few massively hemorrhaging puncture wounds and thought he had her at his mercy, I can't imagine any other scenario that would have him taking that viper into his custody."

"I'm still waiting for the part where Slade faces trouble man," Cyborg expressed his impatience with Skye's narrative technique, and the deepening glares from the other end of the couch reinforced this.

"Well, damn," Skye shook his head, "I'm just saying that there's no way you can kill a vegoid with puncture wounds, the bastards are more resilient that the weeds they evolved from. I'm willing to bet anything that Slade's having very unique trouble with the vegetation in his base right now, the kind that, if it doesn't kill him, will certainly eradicate what's left of his power base after the battles he leapt into. I'd feel sorry for the trash if I was capable of giving a damn about such living filth. Those aliens… they'll do far worse things to him than any of us would ever even consider."

"Well I had some rather 'unique' plans for him—" Beast Boy began viciously, but Skye gave him a knowing look and a shake of his head.

"Worse than that dude, much worse," Skye informed him, and Beast Boy paled seriously, wondering what could possibly be worse than what he'd been planning, then deciding that it was better for his peace of mind that he never find out.

"Besides, he's not the one I want, at least not primarily in connection with what happened to Terra here. I'm much more interested in getting my soul-eradicating grip around the animal that raped her mind. I… I got a good enough taste of his powers… y'know, from what he'd left inside of her head… that I may be able to make up a composite sketch of him. You might even know the guy, which could make my job a little easier."

"We'll do what we can," Robin was supportive as Skye became hesitant, the exceptional hate he was masking with that hesitation apparent only to Raven, who added it to her list of things to ask him about. "In the meantime, now that you've brought up Terra, do you mind letting us in on, well, how she's doing and all?" There was a murmur of agreement from around the room, and Skye was no longer the object of any emotion other than hope.

"There's some good news at least," he began, and there was a kind of sigh through the gathered people in response. "The new technique I devised is working beautifully, and she should be ready for the opening stages of memory recovery by tomorrow. It's a delicate process, I mean, I've got to reconnect the endlessly complex matrices of her mind in such a way as to balance recovery with the ever looming threat of overburdening her recovering ego and melting her personality beyond recovery. That sounds bad, but I'm an expert at this, and all it means is that it's going to take a while before the person you know will look at you with comprehending eyes again."

"Can it really be that hard?" Cyborg asked, fully aware that he was utterly ignorant of what it took to put a mind together. In the end, he just wanted as much assurance as possible that his friend was coming back.

"The human mind is a bundle of untold billions of connecting neurons linked in networks that put the complexity of any computer this planet has ever produced entirely to shame. Tracing and repairing those connections is a process of repetition, exploration, and constant backtracking. In the end, its hundreds of times more complicated that destroying a mind could ever be, which is one of the reasons I like healing minds so much. It's a challenge that never gets old. Terra is going to be fine."

"Except," and with this one word he put the entire room on edge, "there could be a minor complication with one aspect of her recovery."

"Well what is it man?" Cyborg continued to be the spokesman of those hanging on Skye's every word for want of Terra's restoration.

"Her language center: quite totally eradicated. Technically speaking she should be able to talk right now, though I couldn't imagine what she would have to say, but the part of her brain that handles the interpretation and expression of words is utterly shot. I've given her the ability to comprehend basic requests through a stopgap technique that will never work for actually curing her aphasia, and I'm currently quite stumped as to how to fix that aspect of her injury."

"You mean…?" Cyborg didn't dare finish the thought, and Skye didn't bother to either. It was clear that he meant there was a chance she'd never talk again, and everyone began to pray silently that this would not be the case.

"I'll do what I can, I'm certain there's a way to fix the problem… I just… haven't invented it yet." The room was back to being depressed again, and he continued in a more subdued tone in sympathy with this. "The only other thing I can think of is the fallout from the physical aspects of her abuse." That returned the room's attention to him quite utterly.

"Her malnutrition is going to be a snap. A little metabolic manipulation in the right parts of the brainstem and she'll be back to her ideal weight inside of a week, a little exercise will take care of the rest from there. The question I gotta ask you guys is weather or not you want to have the brain surgery preformed."

"WHAT?" and it was everyone, including Raven, that stumbled over this statement. Skye just looked at them all like they were messing with him, then waved at Terra and asked her to come over. Standing, he passed a hand near her head, causing her to slump forward limply into his arms. With the room looking on in suspense, he pulled back a fold of her long hair to reveal a shining metal fixture imbedded into her skull.

"What the fuck is that man?" Cyborg snapped, most of the rest too nauseated to say anything right away. He recognized cybernetics when he saw it, but he'd never seen one like that before.

"You guys… sorry, I keep forgetting that I have deeper perception than you guys. I thought you noticed this. To answer your question, it's a very primitive neural interface that's been surgically integrated into her brain. I can only imagine what it was used for, and I'll spare you the details, but I wanted to know if you want it taken out or not."

"FUCK YES!" snapped Beast Boy, who was gripping his stomach with one hand and head with his other, trying not to imagine what it was like to have a piece of steel in his skull. Reconstructive work like Cyborg's was one thing, but the plug in Terra's brain had no place being there.

"As I assumed, but the fact of the matter is that the operation to remove it is even more dangerous that the one that put it there. I'm qualified for the surgery, but I'll need an O.R. staff, and I don't know if… well…"

"Terra is still a wanted criminal," Robin supplied without preamble, "Even if she is currently pending on her death certificate. Breaking her presence to the public is going to be tricky, and we can't risk it until after her mind is restored. We'll leave the call on the surgery up to her once she's competent to make it for herself." His words were quite final, and everyone sort of nodded, none willing to think too hard about how they would ever convince the people to trust Terra ever again.

"Quite right Robin, I had sort of assumed that's how we would handle it. Anyway, is there anything else? It's getting kind of late, and I wanted to do some prepatory work to get ready for tomorrow's operations on this one," and he hefted Terra fully up into his arms, her slight body lying limply.

"Yeah, sure, just… nah," Robin aborted whatever it was he had intended to say. "I've got a call or ten to make, the rest of you should get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be another LONG day." With that, Robin pushed himself up, did a back flip over the couch, and began to walk towards his room, deep in thought. Starfire watched him leave over her shoulder, then turned back to the others.

"Friends, I must excuse myself as well. I think I will do the 'turning in' early tonight, I am still quite exhausted from the battle this morning." With that hastily made explanation, she took off toward the same hallway Robin had gone down, interesting because her room was closer if one went down the opposite one.

"I've got to get some work done on Terra," Skye put in his two cents, "and I figure her room would be the best place for that. The psychic imprint she left on everything in there should aid the process somewhat." Without waiting for a response form the others, he began to carry her back to her room. Beast Boy stood up in flash and began to follow, muttering.

"Be damned if I leave him alone in there with her," was the gist of it, and Cyborg actually got up and followed.

"Hey, I'll stick around for a while too, but I gotta go get to work on breaking out the spare Birdcycle before it gets too late. I swear Robin wrecks way too many of those things, I can't believe Wane Industries keeps sending him replacements!" Cyborg's hasty egress left Raven alone in the common room with nothing but a couple of empty pizza boxes and the lingering smell of pepperoni. She found herself deep, deep in thought, and for that being alone was definitely best.

Titans Tower Rooftop, very late

Raven sat alone, meditating in the moonlight cast so starkly on the concrete, metal, and black surfacing of their lonesome fortress. A calm wind blew gently through the late-summer night, bringing with it the scent of smoke and rubble from where buildings were still smoldering in the city. The bay was so calm it might as well have been a sea of grass, the sound of gentle breakers splashing against the cliffs below the only thing disturbing the pristine stillness that this hour of the morning brought. Hovering in midair, Raven was easily able to reach complete oneness, a delightful change from the tormented struggle it had been at the same hour yesterday. Exactly like yesterday, however, there was a sudden presence at her side where none had been before.

"Hello Raven," said Skye, and Raven was so startled she actually fell out of the air and smacked into the roof below.

"Ouch! … Damnit…" she needed to say nothing more, and was simply grateful that there was no hint of humor from Skye now that he'd proven he was still able to mask himself from her well enough to sneak up on her.

"Sorry about that, I had to at least try. Professional pride and all." Skye had switched to telepathy, and immediately Raven was granted a buzzing connection to his mind that tickled and danced along her senses like delicate frost.

"I'll show you where you can stick you professional pride you asshole, and if you EVER do that again, I'll DEMONSTRATE where you can shove your professional pride using a CACTUS!" Her anger rang empty, and Skye actually did transmit a touch of humor from the cold pits of his soul now. After a moment of trying to feel upset, Raven matched it with a similar wisp of humor, unable to keep herself from delighting in the intricacies of the mental contact they were now sharing.

"What are you doing up here Skye?" Raven found herself asking, though she already knew the answer.

"You wanted to talk, so let's talk. I doubt we'll cover everything tonight… but there's nothing to say we couldn't make a habit of this." Raven was picking up a touch of something… she couldn't tell quite what, but suddenly she was aware of him as more than just another friend, and she ran her powers through the wringer to keep that down. She'd almost forgotten he could have that effect on her.

"Okay, yeah, I did have some questions that couldn't wait. That and there were some things we should… y'know… go over." Skye met her suggestions with a feeling of openness without actually transmitting any words, and once again she was impressed with how accomplished he was at such communication. It made her regret how little opportunity she'd had to practice in her life.

(All dialogue is telepathic)

"First of all," she got started before he could begin to analyze what she must be transmitting to him, "we need to talk about what you told us about Terra's healing process. You weren't being totally honest with us were you?"

"I was wondering how much of that tissue of lies you managed to catch. I'm glad you understood their necessity, what I told Beast Boy was already enough to worry him after all. No, actually, that was the first time I've ever used that technique. I got the idea from the control structure that was dominating her mind, then just combined it with my favorite regenerative force construction and viola—the most impressive reconstructive tool I've ever lain senses on. It really is a breakthrough—I can't wait to submit it to the medical society."

"There was something in particular though," Raven persisted, the thing she'd been wondering about cropping up, even though she knew she probably shouldn't ask about it, "You said you didn't know why Terra was afraid of being touched, and you were lying."

"Oh," and Skye was flushed with an incredibly uncomfortable feeling that passed through Raven just as fiercely. "Terra… that would be what happened to her during her captivity. Its not the kind of thing that you'd appreciate me telling you about, not tonight. We'll have to talk about it eventually, so lets just leave it until it cant be avoided any longer. You'll thank me." The utter certainty she picked up from him along with the undercurrents of revulsion and sadness relating to what he was concealing convinced her that she'd been right to fear asking the question, and she let the matter drop.

"Well, okay, I'll take your word for that. I suppose the only other thing that was bothering me was that… it's a little hard to believe someone so young is doing medical research for ultra-tech alien think tanks though." She'd stated her mild doubt, and was gratified to sense that he felt it was only natural.

"I get that a lot. I did most of my learning in the few spare hours I had to myself when the stuff the IDP was jamming down my throat let up. Age eleven to twelve was the duration of their training program, the one they give involuntaries, which is what I became when they realized I wasn't susceptible to hypnotic indoctrination. I spent my extra time learning mind healing on the net. Combine a photographic memory with subconscious information condensing technology they use to teach nowadays and it didn't take long at all for me to know everything there was to know about it."

"Over the years I've taken similarly condensed courses on everything from comparative xenobiology and biochemistry to a complete surgical primer and confirmation course. You'd be damned surprised what you can learn on your own when you've got the mind for it, and I pretty much never stop reading, studying, and improving myself in the dead time between missions out in space. It's kind of my hobby, considering I'm always too alone to have a gregarious pastime."

Raven considered his words, took into account that there was nothing to suggest he was lying, then accepted it as truth. She'd known there was something she liked about this guy, and that he was a voracious reader certainly struck her as a brilliant plus on the likeability scales. She formed a rather clumsy impression that she believed him and transmitted it as best she could, and got back immediately an appreciative sensation.

"That certainly explains a lot," she commented blithely, very aware that her mood was at a high point she hadn't experienced in as long as she could remember. Something about being out here like this, talking with him like no one else she knew could communicate… it made her happy. It was exactly as pleasant as she'd imagined it being, which was an incredible thing, because nothing she'd ever expected to enjoy had ever delivered, other than a few books and some of the stage dramas Robin had dragged her to at the theatres back when they were still getting to know each other. The best part was, she could tell he was enjoying it too, and he couldn't deceive her like this, not anymore than she could deceive him. She wondered for a while why she'd ever hesitated to touch another's mind this way, then recalled that she'd never met another capable of it and had been too frightened of Skye until quite recently to even consider it.

"Well I'm glad I could alleviate some of your concerns. I'm also glad you're not getting all uptight on me." There came a strange feeling with this thought, and she raced to interpret it, her confusion pushing on him and motivating some explanation.

"I just mean," He continued, "I was something of a child prodigy, and that meant a great deal of isolation. Most people think me arrogant and distance themselves when I tell them why I'm able to do what I can do, but you… just haven't. It's a nice change." That assuaged her confusion alright, she knew about childhood isolation. It was hard for a half-demon to get friends among an icy monastic order in an alternate plane. She did her best to communicate this understanding, and suddenly things were close, really close.

Skye had been standing right behind her, the both of them staring out at the bay and the brightly lit cityscape. This odd proximity she felt compelled her to turn back to him, and she looked up to notice he wasn't wearing his sunglasses. His empty white eyes caught her violet ones, and they stared into one another's souls through the open portals. She saw the numbness, the ice within his heart, and he saw the heavy bonds attached to her wild passions, and there was a terrible ache to go with the kinship they felt in that moment. Quite the pair, quite the miserable, forsaken pair they were.

Without words or transmitted thoughts, going on the pure sensation of the moment, each of them raised a hand, bringing them close together, bridging the space between them with an arm each. When they were still almost an inch apart, their opposed palms began to leap and spark with stinging black and white electricity, and they dropped their hands, sighing in unison. Skye turned to look out at the stars, those pure white orbs wincing even at the weak glare of the gathered pinpricks of flickering illumination. Raven too turned away, her happiness in the utter rightness of the night tempered by the necessary understanding that came with it. They could never touch one another.

"Do you have any new theories about this?" she asked him, with little hope in her heart. His response was iced, as though he too were dealing with the ache she felt, and didn't care for her to feel his and vicea versa.

"I've been giving it a little thought, and I may have an idea. To explain it though, it's going to require a bit more trust than either of us has ever really given another person." He made the statement neutrally, and so Raven was unable to determine what he wanted from her, probably exactly as he intended. Her body stiffened as she realized she'd have to choose, entirely of her own volition, to let him in where she hadn't let anyone, ever. It took her a minute.

"Okay," she eventually agreed, as completely neutral as he was at this point. The happiness was still there, but silent, because now she was also determined. Utterly and completely determined to know why the universe could get off visiting Skye and herself upon one another as it had. It was like some kind of sick joke, and now that she was a little less wary of him, she understood why he'd laughed the night before.

"For my part, I'm going to tell you something that I have never even considered telling another living person ever before. I'm sorry, I know you don't like hearing other people's secrets." Skye was truly apologetic, and she actually took some comfort from the feeling he projected to complement this.

"Just go ahead. I've resigned myself to this now."

"I'm not a natural born human Raven," he said flatly and immediately, and Raven's heart skipped a beat as her deepest suspicions were confirmed. Somehow, she'd known nothing quite like him could come into existence by chance, no more than something like her could. "I am not like other people primarily because I was made to be unique in this universe. Every aspect of my physiology and inborn ability, from my assortment of powers to the acuity of my mind, it was all an attempt at creating a eugenically optimized super being for a singular reason. My parents were indeed scientists abducted by the IDP, specifically they were genetic engineers, and I was one of their early experiments. I suppose it should suffice to say that I was created, created by real people with a specific purpose in mind."

"Just like me," Raven supplied, and she felt the connection to him stiffen as she presumably confirmed his own suspicions about her.

"I kind of figured your patralineal ancestry had more than a slightly active hand in shaping what your powers would do. You are quite genuinely the most spectacularly adept shifter of reality I've ever even heard of, it was so natural to you that, along with what I gleaned from my confrontation with your nasty side, it became quite clear what he meant for you to be."

"A gate," Raven supplied a second time, feeling the deep ache as she remembered the prophecies the Sect of Azar had spoken of constantly during her youth. "A portal through which he'd invade the prime material and finally achieve another stage of his vicious, bloody ambitions."

"Quite. Your soul, your body, everything you were born with, is all attuned to the manipulation of reality, to the forceful motivation of trans-dimensional physics into stages it has never before been able to achieve. That is where the conflict in our souls arises, at the level we had no say in, in the features of our spirits that our parent's chose for their own selfish ambitions."

"What?" Raven was shocked, finally realizing what he was saying. He'd been used by his parents too, but for what, what could possibly have made him an antithesis to her?

"I was never the product my parents were after. I was the preliminary experiment, the prototype, the trial run, the guinea pig, and eventually, the control mechanism for the real products they completed later on."

"Later on? You mean!"

"My little sisters. The crowning achievement of my parent's ambitions, beings with powers that can only be imagined, power over reality, the power to create and destroy. That's what they were named after, 'Ora'— short for Oraborous, the infinity of all existence, and 'Zeph'— short for Zephyrum, the nothingness of ultimate oblivion. My kid sisters, the weapons of mass destruction."

"Oh Skye," and Raven felt an outpouring of sympathy she hadn't thought herself capable of anymore. It flowed out of her and into him, only to strike a wall that she didn't dare try to penetrate. She had one of her own after all, the wall that separated her from her deepest, most terrible pains lest they overcome her.

"Thank you, really, but that is my own pain as yours is your own. Neither of us is ready to share that. Anyway, we were one big dysfunctional family, my parents the mad scientists, my little sisters the 5 year old manmade demigods, myself the limiter, designed to keep my sisters from getting out of hand, and… my brother… the instigator, designed to initiate their abilities to their obscene upper limits."

"By Azar… I… I'm sorry," and for a while Raven could say nothing more. He did have deep dark secrets, and they were every bit as terrifying as her own. That such a twin spirit to her could exist in this universe was almost beyond her comprehension, and the two of them stood in silence for some time as it sank in. Finally, she tested her new comprehension.

"I was created to be a facilitator of dimensional manipulation, and you were designed to be an inhibitor. We can never touch one another because we were both sired by beings with power over creation but no care for the created or how they would suffer from their abilities."

"Such is the cruel poetry of life." The statement was an utter dismissal, a clear declaration that Skye refused to let the facts of their twin miseries get to him. Raven took solace in that, reinforcing her own spirit until she too was able to handle the knowledge. The silence stretched out for another long while, and she began to get curious once more. He knew this, and a sensation from him invited her to ask whatever she wished.

"Why didn't you ever say anything about your brother before?" She asked, and she immediately knew that he'd anticipated her question.

"That man… that thing… was never my brother. He and I, we were twins, just like my Ora and Zeph, identical in features but as different as two people could ever be. Unlike my sisters, we always detested one another, and ours was a sibling rivalry marred by his boundless cruelty and my remorseless revenge. I… the only other thing I'll say for now is that he's the reason my sisters were trapped and I was pressed into working for the IDP. If not for him, I'd be living freely somewhere with my family."

"What about your parents?" Raven asked, unable to believe the people who'd created such fearsome beings would have simply allowed the idealistic lifestyle Skye so longed for. Her own father certainly wasn't letting her live her life the way she wanted it.

"Those nut jobs? They were no parents to me, nor to my brother or my sisters. I was effectively raised by robots designed for the purpose, leaving me utterly starved for human contact until my little sisters came along. In the end, the only good thing my brother ever did for me was put them out of their insanity so I didn't have to. They were standing in the way of his plans for intergalactic conquest, and he wasn't about to put up with that. Then, to get us out of the picture, he… disabled… my sisters, and left us to be collected by the IDP, who my parents had fled from successfully some years before."

"Disabled…" and Raven recalled something from earlier, something he'd been concealing, and then made an impressive intuitive leap that she immediately knew was correct. "He mindwiped them. That's why you—"

"Heh, yes, exactly. The IDP secured them for study in crystal stasis, so at least they aren't loosing biological years while their minds are gone. I wonder if they'll even recognize me after I reconstruct them."

There was nothing she could say that could possibly impact the sadness in him at this moment, and so she stood silently while his powers robbed him of it. He had been right; learning the depth of his problems had done little but depress her, mirroring so terribly as they did the magnitude and span of her own horrific troubles. Two spirits, alone in ways that regular people would never be able to understand, burdened with problems that would break the average person, and cursed by their makers to be incapable of true love, even for one another. A sick joke.

"That's a lot to handle," she said simply, but the feeling passed between them, and they knew it was time to put a stop to the sharing, for tonight at least.

"But we're used to that by now," and Skye was totally right. Armed with knowledge now, if suddenly burdened by all kinds of new questions, Raven felt secure, complete, and able to deal with the world again in a way that had eluded her since she'd first come into contact with the incredible, frightening, magnificent man she'd met. This couldn't be last of these little chats they had, not if she was to maintain her sanity after the first taste of his life he'd given her.

"We should continue this talk sometime," Raven commented, and the shock of pleasure this caused Skye blasted straight back to her. She couldn't help but reciprocate, and they looked at each other, sharing a smile this time. "Just, I'm more used to mornings than nights. Do you think we could move this to after my morning meditation?"

"Uh, sure," Skye was taken off guard by a return to such mundane issues, but managed to take it in stride, "Just remember that I can't stay too long if it's at dawn. The rising sun, well, there isn't a lot of shade up here, and my skin…"

"I'm sure it won't be a problem. We can start tomorrow… so I guess I'll see you in a few hours. Good night." Skye barely had time to return her farewell before she'd slipped through space, and he caught her presence the next instant down in her room. If it hadn't been for the happiness that had been virtually dripping off of her, even after he'd burdened her with knowledge of his tribulations, he'd have thought he'd frightened her off. As it was, he couldn't, for every shred of his vast perceptions, comprehend how he'd been so spectacularly lucky as to have met this woman. Or how cursed. He turned his empty white eyes away from the stars and focused them on his hands. What the hell was he getting himself into?

Downstairs, safely enclosed in her room, Raven was still coming down from the incredible high talking with him like that had given her. Chance had gifted her with a person uniquely equipped to understand her, and no matter what other misery might come along with this gift, she could not completely suppress the dangerously powerful joy this brought her. She exercised her powers on some objects she kept around for just that purpose, her mind racing with the things he might be able to help her with, or the things she might be able to help him with. At long last the universe had given her an opportunity, however maniacally bittersweet, and this one was not going to pass her by. At the same time, she couldn't help but wonder what the hell she was getting herself into here.

Preview:

Now did that kick ass or what? I read that ending section four times and still got chills. The number of different ways I can proceed from here is limitless, and just beginning to think about them allows me to completely forget how badly I'm failing my math class right now. In any case, the next chapter is going to be another dark one, a return to Slade and the color criminals. The plot will thicken like damp wood in—Chapter 23: The Other Side