Accompanying Chapter 5 will be a summary and explanation of confusing events. I think that some of the stuff I wrote before could be a little confusing, since I'm trying to be a little ambiguous on a lot of the details.
Also, a new disclaimer:
Official Looking Disclaimer I do not own Teen Titans. Therefore, don't sue me. Eight cents, a paperclip, and a ball of lint just aren't worth it. Also, I do not own the band "Frankly Scarlet."
Summary of Confusing Events
First is in Chapter 1. A few paragraphs after Raven faints, you see her powers referenced as attacking Cainis. This is not a mistake. She just wasn't out long and I had no need to tell you that she woke up. Just thought I'd clarify that.
Also in Chapter 1 and subsequent chapters when Raven gets all itchy, it is supposed to be along the places she has the runes on her skin in the episode "Birthmark." The scars on Michael are also in the same places, and run down his legs as well. As for what they said, I can only say that they are probably much different from what we will learn Raven's say in the upcoming episode "Prophecy."
In Chapter 2, when re-reading my work, I found that it seemed a bit confusing to mention the alarm and then have Michael training in the next scene. Here is the explanation: When the alarm sounded, Michael was asleep. He didn't hear it, so the Titans were out fighting a villain (possibly random villain #6752). He slept for about forty-five minutes, then got up to train. Afterwards, when he bumped into Cyborg, I thought I had sufficiently explained that the Titans had just gotten back. Oops. Also in this chapter, when I said that the power Michael has is rare, I didn't mean that. Check back some time to that chapter, because I'll update it with the correct information. Also, I'll write it here: The power is bestowed upon the followers by the masters of the Cult. Therefore, the more people that join, the more people that have the power. It's still connected to Raven, though. Oh, and, before, when I said that Michael's powers weren't visible… I lied. They're white with a black outline. Um… Yeah.
For your convenience, I will write a little time line of events right here. The story starts on a Sunday. Michael is out for three days, making it Wednesday when he wakes up. He talks to Robin on Thursday (I even forgot that myself and got confused when I read that part). His little training session is on Friday. Raven and Michael also raid each others rooms on that night. Saturday is when Dr. Light attacks. So. Considering all this, betcha can't guess what happens now, on Sunday, seven days from Cainis' appearance.
I'm going to try to fix all errors in previous chapters before I post this, so they should be fixed by the time you're reading this. Enjoy!
PS. Oh, yeah, since I haven't paid much attention to BB, I'm starting the chapter off with him. Not much, but it foreshadows something. :D
Chapter 5: Birthmark
(Beast Boy)-
A deafening alarm sounded, smashing through the paltry defenses of the ear drum. The siren had begun its relentless attack. A weak hand reached up sluggishly, preparing to defend from this evil attack. Swiping down with all it's strength, the hand found the 'off' button and forcefully slammed it.
Beast Boy slowly sat himself up on his bed, looking evilly at the eviler alarm clock. I shall best thee one day, vile sorcerer of the morn! Rolling slowly in an attempt avoid the rushing of blood to ones head, Beast Boy flopped rather unceremoniously onto the floor of his bedroom. Why…must…I sleep… on…top bunk… Pushing himself up once again and putting on a shirt to cover the parts his pajama bottoms didn't, he made his way drowsily to the kitchen. (a/n: Ack! Running out of tiredness adjectives!)
Finding his way to the refrigerator, which held his prized tofu pop tarts (a/n: If those actually exist, shoot me), he sat down at the counter and bit into their scrumptious goodness. His mind was occupied by his last nights dreams. Or, more specifically, what he had dreamt. He couldn't necessarily remember, but seeing as they made him completely reluctant to wake up and almost miss some good TV time meant they were pretty nice.
Beast Boy turned his head to the sound of Michael coming through the door, looking like he was ready to leave for somewhere. 10:04? And he's up and ready? What's with this guy? Eyeing Michael as if he were some sort of bizarre specimen of bug that he had never before been seen, he continued to nibble on his tofu tart.
While in the process of putting his shoes on at the couch, Michael finally noticed Beast Boy's intent stare. "What?" he asked eloquently.
"It's 10. You up. And ready. Me tired. How?"
Michael just had to laugh at the grogginess of Beast Boy's speech. "I'm heading off to church this morning." Michael felt obliged to elaborate at the dazed look on Beast Boy's face. "Church. Praying place. It's Sunday. Beast Boy?" Beast Boy had, of course, fallen asleep about the time Michael had started talking, and was just starting to wake up again at the end. After waving his hand in front of Beast Boy's face, Michael chuckled. Turning around just in time to see Robin come in the door, he had to stop himself from laughing more. "Robin… You're in a tux. You have a mask on. What the crap."
"Yeah? What's wrong with it?"
This time, Beast Boy chimed in. "Michael's wearing casual." Confusion etched itself onto Robin's face.
"You don't have to wear that to my church. We wear pretty casual stuff there, except on special occasions. As for the mask, though…" Michael paused for a moment, his mind switching tracks. "Waitaminute! Beast Boy, you have coherent thought right now?"
Eyes twitching, Beast Boy merely shoved the rest of the tofu tart into his mouth and grumbled his way to the couch. Both Robin and Michael chuckled there way down to the garage.
Several minutes later, Raven entered the room to prepare her normal tea. Glancing around the room and seeing a tux hung over a couch, she raised her eyebrow inquisitively. Just as she was wondering what it was there for, Michael ran into the room. Glancing in her direction while running towards the discarded suit, he smiled. "Forgot my Bible," he explained absently. He ran through the hall to his room, then rushed back out towards the bottom of the tower. All the while, Raven stood, arms folded, a more than annoyed look on her face.
(Michael)-
Five minutes after the morning service ended, Michael and Robin sat in the office of his youth pastor, Anthony Silvis. His office was decorated with various Christian Rock groups, including one that started in Michael's old hometown. He smiled as he let his favorite song play itself in his head, 'Reunion', by Frankly Scarlet. He was interrupted midway, though, when Anthony stepped through his door into the office.
Nicknamed 'Ant' jokingly before Michael had even begun coming to the church, he was an easygoing and straightforward guy who didn't just say he loved everyone. He did. Ant had taken Michael's life and helped make it pull a 180 into the right direction. He had helped Michael reorganize his life into one more driven by God. Michael owed much to him.
Aside from these things, though, Ant also knew of Michael's full past, something that was never told to anyone else. This was the reason Michael was talking to him today. Walking up and shaking Michael's hand, Ant began the conversation. "You've been through a lot, Michael. Praise God you're holding up."
Michael responded with a sad smile and a nod. "Indeed."
"Where have you been staying? At your house?"
"No," he responded. "I've been staying with some new friends. Ant, meet Robin. Robin, Anthony Silvis." Ant's eyes widened for a moment at the mention of Robin's name, but he didn't break stride. The two shook hands, exchanging their 'Nice to meet you's. "They let me rest at their tower, and after a couple of fights, they say they might let me join."
Ant chuckled at this. "I had a feeling you were allowed these powers for some reason."
"God does everything on purpose," Michael shot back, now grinning himself.
Robin suddenly cut in, saying, "I thought we came in here to ask him something?" He was all business as usual.
Michael's smile faded and was replaced with a more serious tone. "Ant, do you remember how I asked you to look up anything on the Gate prophecy?" Ant nodded, looking concerned.
"Yes," he said, "I do. I've been reading them constantly, but when I tried to access the files on Wednesday, they were gone. From every website they were on, too. I'm not really sure what to make of it." Robin's eyebrows raised.
"Know something?" Michael asked.
Robin took a second to answer. "The call that we got, on Friday. When you were asleep. The owners of a web server were among the victims. Their equipment was also destroyed."
Michael mulled this over for a moment. "So you think it could be Cainis behind all of this?"
"It seems the most logical answer right now. It's almost a given."
Michael nodded. "It sounds like his style. Kill everything before it can…" He stopped mid-sentence, realizing the information he had mistakenly given out.
Robin caught it almost immediately. His eyes narrowed considerably. "You know more about this guy?"
"Well… uh… yeah. I… kinda do."
"And when were you planning on telling us? The next time he decides to wipe out thirty people?"
Ant patiently stared at the walls of the office. Sighing, Michael said, "I've heard about him. Read about him, once. But not much more. The stuff I know, Raven probably already knows as well. She has enough books, I'd be surprised if she hadn't heard of him." I've gotta choose my words more carefully. At least I didn't let slip that I've been in her room…
Silenced stretched for a minute until Ant spoke up. "Well, I'm sorry I can't help you, but if there's anything else I can do, just tell me."
Shaking his head, Michael replied, "Nothing, except for the other thing I asked you to look for."
"If I find her, I'll tell you."
"Thanks. Until next time, brother." The two believers embraced for a moment. Robin stood from his chair, shook hands with Ant, and then left with Michael, his face a mixture of confusion and annoyance.
(Beast Boy)-
Meanwhile, deep in the bowels of the T Tower, Beast Boy sat hard at work, typing away at the Tower's mainframe computer. His face exuded concentration one would not think possible from such a comical personality. Dressed in all black, he blended with the natural shadows of the area. His agile fingers, conditioned from years at the game controller, blazed across the keyboard. File after file flashed across the screen, data bit after data bit flying infinitely quick through the massive processor. Suddenly, everything stopped, from the clicking of the keyboard to the whizzing of the files. Victory…
Some time later…The smile was now uncontrollable. It contained all the deviousness it's master could throw in. On Beast Boy, it was terrifying. It was alarm-raising. It put the pure essence of horror cleanly into Robin's heart.
"What did you do now?" Robin asked, almost too calmly. He set down the report he had been reading, readying himself for anything. Beast Boy merely continued to smile.
By this time, Cyborg and Starfire, the only two other occupants of the room, had noticed the malicious smile covering Beast Boy's face. Cyborg's sensors shot up, scanning the room for prank-type threats. "Everything looks clean," Cyborg informed the rest of the team, eyes continuing to shift around.
"I found out what day it is." Beast Boy's already enormous smile stretched even wider. The three assembled Titans waited expectantly. "It's her birthday!"
Starfire's brow lowered in confusion. "Whose day of birth?"
"Raven's." The smile passed beyond physical limits.
Starfire grinned joyfully. "Oh, what joy! We must set up a celebration for this joyous event!" At this, she began to hop around the room in a (yep) joy-filled manner.
Tearing his eyes away from the clearly ecstatic alien, Robin looked sternly at Beast Boy. "How did you find this out?"
Beast Boy's smile gained ten more devious points. "Oh, you know, I kinda… found it. Lying around."
"…In the forbidden files section," Robin and Cyborg finished at exactly the same time. "You didn't use mjy computer again, did you?" Cyborg asked warily.
"No!" Beast Boy quickly yelped, smile fading into a more defensive look. "I used the Tower's mainframe computer."
Robin's face fell, and an audible 'pop' emitted from Cyborg's head. "You used WHAT?" the boy wonder demanded.
Beast Boy's eyes darted around quickly, searching for an escape route. "Uh… It's Raven's birthday?" he offered meekly.
(Raven)-
A knock on the door was definitely one of the last things Raven wanted to hear while she was trying to meditate the day away, nuclear fallout being about the only thing lower. Sighing a great sigh, she gracefully floated off of her bed, unfolding her legs in midair, and landed perfectly in front of her door. Unfortunately, the clock she had set in her lap and forgotten about didn't have such a gentle landing. It clanged to the floor, the two little bells inside jingling once before bringing quiet back to the room. Great… she thought.
Her door grudgingly slid open a slit, revealing a patient looking Michael on the far side. "Go away," she eloquently began.
Stuffing his right hand into the door, Michael held it open. "Uh, I wanted to say something…"
"You can say it tomorrow." Several pops echoed from Michael's hand as she pushed the door harder. His hand held firm, though (as if it had anywhere else to go at that point), and with a grunt of effort, the door slid ponderously open. Raven finally gave up the battle, allowing the stone obstacle to move aside. "Alright. What do you want?"
"I just wanted to apologize for the way I've been acting. I've been… a bit rude to you." Not a trace of a lie could be found in his words.
"You haven't done anything wrong." Raven reached for the door, but Michael spoke before her hand could complete the journey.
"Yeah, I have. I've been talking about things that apparently offend you. I shouldn't be doing things that could potentially break apart this team like that."
Raven stared at him evenly. To tell the truth, I really didn't expect this. She didn't let this distract her for long, though. "Apology accepted. Now go away." The door turned black and slammed shut before Michael could even react.
"Crap," Michael stated simply. That went well. Of course, I wasn't expecting much. Maybe some food will take my mind off this… He stood there blinking for a moment more, then turned and headed in the direction of the living room, popping his right hand knuckles and working as much blood as he could back into them.
Scooping up the clock from the blue carpet, Raven made her way back to her bed, continuing her wait for the end of the day. She sat cross-legged on the bed for what seemed like an eternity. Sometimes meditating, sometimes just staring out at the sky, she waited. And she waited. Minutes crept like hours, hours like weeks. Eventually, she glanced at the clock.
"Six pm. Just six more hours and it'll be over. Six more-" Her sentence was interrupted by a loud slam against her door. She sat up instantly, ready for action, moving towards the door. "Hello?" she asked, but only the emptiness of her room responded.
Her door opened quickly, allowing her to step out and survey the area outside her room. She looked down one corridor, then turned suddenly at a noise from the other. Walking warily yet determinedly, she followed the sound.
Prepared for anything, she walked through the doors of the darkened living room. Almost ready to turn around and check another room, the lights burst on, revealing…
(Michael)-
"SURPRISE!" The combined force of five sets of lungs screaming one word in unison blew back Raven's dark purple hair. She let out a scream of pure, unfiltered… well, surprise. It didn't take long for her to recover, though; almost while in mid-scream, she fell into the floor, disappearing from view.
Cyborg was the first to break the silence. "Uh… Raven?"
"It is merely us, your friends, with warm wishes for the day of your birth!" Starfire piped up next.
Robin glanced around almost knowingly. "I told you a surprise party was a bad idea." He glanced over at Michael, who nodded his agreement.
"Me too."
Behind Beast Boy's feet, a pool of darkness formed, expelling a most definitely annoyed Raven. Beast Boy, taken utterly by surprise, shrieked and retreated back towards the others.
"How did you know it was my birthday?" Raven sinisterly asked. Michael glanced from Robin to Raven, unsure of what the next move was.
Fidgeting his hands nervously, Beast Boy provided the explanation. "Um… Remember last night, how you made that big deal about tomorrow?" He stopped for recognition, but continued when all Raven did was glare. "Well, we started wondering what tomorrow was, so we did some snooping…" Before he had even uttered the word "snooping", Beast Boy had five sets of eyes staring him down. "Okay," he began again, "I did some snooping… and I sort of found a restricted file in the off-limits area of the Titan's computer, and it… kinda had your birthday on it…" His voice faded to near nothingness by the end from the sheer power of the stare he was receiving from Raven.
Starfire finished for him. "And we have been preparing your celebration ever since!"
"We put up tons of decorations!" Beast Boy popped back in.
"I baked my famous eight layer cake," Cyborg said, lifting up a platter with a gigantic lid, "with three kinds of frosting." The lid came off, expounding a cake that was much larger than the lid, and did, in fact, have an enormous eight layers, and yes, three kinds of frosting.
Starfire popped up in front of Cyborg once more, saying, "And I have assembled for you a traditional Tamaranian Throknar, the Crown of Meat!" She lifted up a slab of some sort of meaty substance shaped messily into a crown. Raven's frown only grew more pronounced with every word.
Exchanging looks with Michael, Robin spoke the thought going through both their minds.. "I… hope this is ok. We just-"
"No, it's not," interrupted Raven. Her frown softened from her face, replaced instead by a look of weariness. "Look… I really appreciate what you're trying to do here, but I'm not interested." She turned quickly away and had made it halfway to the door before the infallible Starfire intercepted her.
"But there will be music, and the iced cream, and a strange game involving pins and the behind of a donkey!" Michael let out a groan as Cyborg stepped in to support Starfires argument.
"We got a piñata shaped like Beast Boy!" His smile turned devious. "Y'know you wanna smack it."
It had been their last line of defense, but it had still failed them. "I said NO."
"C'mon Raven, I know you hate fun, but it's your birthday," Beast Boy intercepted once more, obviously not knowing when to give up. "It's special. You can't let this day end without-"
"NO!"
Michael felt it coming before he saw it- a buildup of rage and dark energy. His own field surrounded him just in time to catch simultaneous debris of cake, meat, and the occasional piece of candy from the maimed Beast Boy piñata. Everyone else without these powers, however, were drenched in the stuff. Michael looked everyone over to see that they had not caught plate fragments in the face, then glanced just in time to see Raven stalk out of the room without another word.
"I told you a surprise party was a bad idea." Beast Boy, of course, with his sarcastic finale.
"Give it a rest," Robin said, pushing past him to the door. Before he could get there, though, (a/n: RobRae shippers are going to kill me… now) Michael caught him by the shoulder.
"Maybe I should go talk to her."
Robin turned around, slightly confused. "Why?"
"Because… I might have put her in a bad mood earlier. I went to her room to apologize for something else, but it didn't go very well. I think I need to apologize to her again." His eyes trailed to the ground.
Robin stood his ground, debating whether or not it was a good idea. After a moments consideration, he smirked and said, "Sure, why not. It's worth a try." Michael smiled, spouted a quick thanks, then rushed past him and through the door to chase down Raven.
"Raven! Wait!" His words echoed across the hallway, stiffening Raven's body. She slowly turned around, a menacing look in her eyes.
"What?" she asked, irritation painfully obvious.
"I'd just like to say sorry. Again. For earlier."
Raven's eyes narrowed. "You think that's what this is about?"
"Well, you're in a bad mood, so I just thought that…"
Raven's look softened for a moment. "Don't blame yourself for everything. It's not good for you."
Michael's eyebrows descended with confusion as he scratched the back of his head. "Then… what's the matter?"
Raven's face took on a blank look, but her body language betrayed her lack of truth in the statement. "It's… nothing. Nothing you need to worry about. I have to handle it."
"Raven, don't try to handle everything by yourself. You'll just end up falling." His voice didn't hold the signature of irony it could have; instead, sincerity presented itself. "Sometimes you have to let others in to help."
"I don't need anyone's help. Not for this." Raven turned quickly and made for the hall leading to her room.
Just before she disappeared behind the wall, Michael asked, "How old are you today?"
Raven stiffened for a moment, then answered, "Sixteen." Her footsteps echoed down the hallway as shock replaced the look of suspicion evident a moment before.
"Sixteen," he said to himself. "Sixteen… So. This is the day that it starts. The day the Cult always waited for." His eyes lingered on the place she had been moments before. "I see why you're acting like that. Don't worry. I'm here to help." His monologue ended, Michael turned around, but instead of heading back into the living room, he walked quickly and purposefully back to his own room.