AN: OK, my link in the last chapter didn't work. If you want to see the Kaila Tanaka pic, just go to the link on my author page and it should be there on my fanart central page.
Only a few more chapters togo. The end is coming. And reviews do make me write faster. hint hint
Raven glared at Kay. "No, he won't," she said firmly, fire in her eyes. "He'll be fine."
"There is nothing we can for him," Kay said. "Already, his cells are beginning to die. It won't be long before, even if we CAN heal him, he'll be little more than a vegetable. That kind of brain damage is irreversible."
"Cyborg, you know a bit about surgery, right," said Robin.
The big guy shook his head. "If you're asking if I can operate on him, the answer is no. I don't know much more about alien physiology than any other doctor. Besides, I'd have to do some pretty extensive internal work. I simply don't have the tools for that."
"My powers could help," suggested Raven.
"They're not precise enough," countered Kay.
"You know, I'm getting really fed up with you," Raven growled. "Why don't you write him a frickin' epitaph already, huh? If you're not going to try to help him, then just go."
"Are you always this dense, or is it just today that you've decided to ignore your brain? Your powers can't help him. It's a fact. Here in the real world, that's what we go by."
"You arrogant bi-"
"Hey!" Robin snapped. "That's enough! Both of you!" He whirled on Kay. "Kay, it can't hurt to try. If we do nothing, then he's going to die for sure. As you yourself said, 'It's a fact'."
Having her own words turned back on her didn't make Kay very happy, but she backed down, throwing her hands in the air. "Fine. If you want to try it, try it."
Robin nodded. "Raven's powers may come in handy. Cy, I need you to unfreeze Beast Boy, but only after you and Raven have prepared. From what I know of the process, you'll be running on borrowed time."
"And the rest of us?" asked Starfire.
"We stay posted by Takahashi round the clock. No one leaves the safe house without backup. No exception. These two psychos have targeted us now, and we can't take any chances."
"They're also willing to play dirty," Kay added. She reached inside her pocket, fishing out two black cylinders. "We found these in his shoulder." She tossed them to Robin who caught them deftly as they sailed through the air.
He looked at them, holding them up to the light for a second. "Tranquilizers."
"Potent ones too. Three times the acetophenzine dosage in each tube. Each one of these could knock a grizzly bear silly."
"I want find them," Robin said in a dark tone. "And then I want to show them what happens when you mess with a Titan. That said, any suggestions on how to find them?"
"No. Actually-"
"Why not do a search on their fingerprints?" asked Starfire. She had been silent throughout the entire conversation.
"That's silly. Where would we get a sample from." Said Kay dismissively.
Starfire took one of the tranquilizers out of Robin's hand. "We could try these."
Ana carefully fingered the long red scars that ran down the left side of her face, eyes glowing with rage. When she had first received the injury, the scars had been open gashes that had rendered her nearly unrecognizable. Thanks to her healing abilities, they were little more than red lines and would fade away completely by a weeks time.
Beast boy had certainly proved more resilient than she'd imagined. They had ambushed him perfectly, but he'd displayed the rather animalistic tendency of gaining even more strength when backed into the proverbial corner. Some of his morphs had been quite difficult to deal with, especially the prehistoric ones. Contrary to popular belief, T-Rex wasn't the only formidable fighter in earth's primordial past.
In the end, combination of exhaustion and tranquilizers proved too much for Beast Boy. They had made sure that he was dead, or as close to dead as possible, and then left him in the alley.
She had several other scars and wounds, and she hated Beast Boy and the other Teen Titans al the more for it. Her beauty, more precious to her than anything, had been marred by that green-skinned freak. That would never happen again.
"Relax," said Karl, "It'll be gone in a few days." He too sported physical evidence of the fight with beast in the form of a long slash running down from his forehead, through his left eye, and down his cheek. He could still see as the talon had not hit the actual eye. Furthermore, he rather liked the scar, which made him look more roguish in his opinion.
"We have depleted their team by a fifth, not to mention instilled fear and anger in them. They will be careless adversaries, especially if we can continue to catch them alone."
"That won't happen anymore. Weak, they may be. But stupidity is not an attribute I'm going to start relying on."
"We can handle them as a team."
"We barely took care of the changeling."
"Ah," said Karl, "But that was because we underestimated him. We will not do so with the Titans. Especially since we have so much more to lose."
Without Vergil, Kay was not as confident as she had been when she started the job. Her boss had not accompanied them to the safe house, and so she was officially in charge of Takahashi's security ( a role she shared with Robin of course). The responsibility was beginning to way heavily. She was only sixteen and although her combat skills were formidable if not legendary, she had never had to protect Takahashi from such a powerful foe.
She had no powers, a fact that normally would never have bothered her. However, being in the presence of teens her age who could turn into prehistoric Mastodons or generate destructive bolts of energy had driven the reality home to her. More than once, she wondered if she was out of her league.
There was always Robin of course. Perhaps part of the reason she felt so drawn to him was that he was like her. He had no superhuman abilities to speak of, but he had fashioned himself into a trained fighter like she had. His skills were amazing. Olympian. Surpassing even hers, as hard as it was on her ego to admit it. That was special.
Nevertheless, their enemy had managed to strike down one of their own. Nearly killing him. Whether they had succeeded was now being resolved by Cyborg and Raven who were working furiously to save Beast Boy. Looking back on her own words, she realized why Raven had responded the way she had, and grudgingly admitted to herself that the other girl had been right. If it were Robin instead of Beast Boy in the coma, Kay had no doubt that she would be desperately trying to save him, not giving up hope until his last dying breath.
It was thoughts like these that were passing through Kay's mind when Takahashi came to sit across from her on the semi-circular couch.
"Mr. Takahashi!" Kay had been startled.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
He hadn't been seen much as of late, staying in his room either on his computer or his phone most of the time. He looked weary. Haggard. It wasn't very uplifting for Kay.
"Did you need something, Mr. Takahashi?"
"Yes. Or rather, I wanted to tell you something."
"About what?"
"Rupert Thorne."
Kay's reaction was surprising. Her eyes searched Takahashi's face, but she didn't say a word for a few moments. In her mind, she was praying that he wasn't about to tell her what she thought she was going to.
"Let me guess," she said slowly. "You've had some sort of connection with Rupert Thorne that you kept secret from the rest of us."
If he was shocked by her guess, he certainly didn't show it. "Correct," he said. "I won't ask how you knew, curious as I am."
Kay did not look amused. "I had no idea, sir. I mean-how-how could you lie to me?"
"It was necessary. Then. Now, however, it is best that you know the truth."
"We put our lives on the line to protect you, sir. Beast Boy nearly died for God's sakes! And you couldn't even give us the decency of telling us the truth?
"It was a mistake-"
"You got that right. Why the heck would you even associate with a lowlife like Thorne?"
"It wasn't that I associated with him. It's that I took something from him."
"And now he wants it back."
"Exactly."
"What was it?"
"A relic of sorts."
"How valuable?"
"One hundred dollars, give or take. On the collector's market that it. It has much more value to those who know its secret."
"Like you?"
"Like me."
"Ah, I see. And what exactly is this secret?"
"It prolongs youth."
"Excuse me."
"It prolongs youthfulness. You want to avoid old age; this thing will give you youthfulness. For a price."
"And what is that?"
"Every five hundred years, the ritual must be repeated or else the person who used it will die, aging all of the years that they skipped in seconds. It's a gruesome experience. I've only seen it once and I don't care to see it again." Up until recently, it was in the Egyptian governments possession, one of a hundred items in one of the museums."
"And then?"
"And then Thorne stole it. I have no idea how he knew about its secret, but he found out somehow. He hired mercenaries to rob the museum. Of course, the Egyptian authorities were not that inclined to pursue the matter since the only item missing wasn't that valuable anyway . . .or so they thought.
"Thorne had beat me to the punch. Although I was not going to steal the artifact, I had intended to purchase it, and now that was impossible."
"Why did you want it?"
"Profit. Imagine the result if I could develop the technology to give prolonged, perhaps even eternal youth. It would revolutionize the world. I would be famous. The entire corporation would gain unimaginable power."
"So greed, in other words."
Takahashi shrugged. "Call it that if you wish. I had been watching Thorne for quite some time. I knew he had it and I knew where he kept it. My job was made easier by the fact that he thought no one knew he had it. It was child's play for my own mercenaries to snatch it from right under his nose."
"Had he already used it?"
"No. The artifact itself gives no clue as to how the proper ritual is to be initiated. The language is meaningless form our syntactical standpoint. The rules that govern our language and communication do not apply here. He couldn't even begin to translate the inscriptions, much less initiate the ritual. Not that I've had better luck, mind you."
"So he stole it from a museum and you stole it from him, pissing him off in the process. Now he wants your head and has been ordering raids of your facilities and attacks on your life. I leave anything out?"
"No, you pretty much covered all the bases."
Kay didn't say anything for a moment. She didn't know whether she felt more hurt or angry or disappointed. Takahshi had broken the law and lied to cover it up. Lied to the very people risking their lives to protect him. All for money and power.
"Robin tried to tell me," she said finally.
"He's a smart kid."
Kay said nothing.
"Kay, I know I screwed up-"
"Big time," the girl interjected bitterly.
"Yes. Big time. However, I need to know that ultimately, your loyalty is with me and the company."
"Honestly Mr. Takahshi, I'm not sure that I'm going to be with the company for much longer."
"Hear me out. Please. I know I made a mistake, but don't forget Kay that it was I who put you where you are today. Were it not for me, you would still be another homeless girl who would have eventually turned to drugs or prostitution or god knows what, given your status. You would have been a statistic."
"Is that supposed to make me feel remotely better?" Kay asked sharply.
"I took you out of that though," continued Takahashi, ignoring the comment. "I should think that would count for something."
"Beast Boy could die thanks to you."
"He knew the risks-"
"No he didn't!" Kaila was angry now. "No one, not them and sure a hell not me knew the risks!" You screwed up and you invoked the wrath of a crime lord who now has everything to lose by letting you live. We had no idea that was the case!"
"All I ask is that you keep this information between you and I."
"Unacceptable. The Titans deserve to know."
"It won't give them an edge they didn't already have, Kaila. Right now, spreading this information would be nothing but detrimental to their ability to protect me. Beast Boy's situation has given them an accurate assessment of the enemy already."
Kay had to admit to herself that he was right. Yeah, Takahashi had done wrong, but that was the least of their concerns right then and having the Titans ticked at Takahashi (no matter how entitled they were to feel that way) would not help defeat Thorne or the deadly twins who'd beaten the crap out of Beast Boy.
"This artifact, what was it exactly?" asked Kay.
"A gourd."
"A . . .what?"
"Gourd. It's a cup. This one of course has magical properties, but that is what it is, in essence."
"I see." Kaila stood up. "I won't tell them," she said. "Yet. Once this is all over . . .it'll be a completely different story, sir." The word 'sir' was laced with sarcasm.
Nonplussed, Takahashi stood as well. "Fair enough."
Raven left the makeshift operating room discouraged. Beast Boy was still in a coma. He was better, there was no doubt of that. However, that didn't negate the fact that he hadn't regained consciousness. Of all the Titans, he possessed the highest recuperative abilities, but his attackers had done quite a number on him.
"How is he?" It was Kay, waiting outside the doorway. Raven ignored her, purposely avoiding looking at the girl.
"Listen, Raven."
No answer.
"Look, my attitude earlier was crap, OK. I'm sorry."
"Whatever," said Raven. With that, she continued walking.
