Alas chapter 4, the wonderful and magnificent chapter 4. Well, not really. I jus thought it would be an interesting beginning, don't you think? Anyways…I have a lot of thought on what is going on through the story, and you can tell not much movement has been done…but the story still goes on. It is still the beginning, and it still goes on. If you have any impute on how to make it more interesting if you find it boring, please tell me. I enjoy hearing what you have to say about it.
Thanks to those who reviewed. Your reviews keep me writing, or typing…and the life of us all must go on. A special thanks to:
Mystyre, Kiozona.pop,riawolf, beautifully-evil
Disclaimer: If I own the Teen Titans they all would be boring as hell.
Onto the lovely chapter
Chapter 4The ticking stopped. All was still, no breathing, no source of any movement. The sound from the city didn't seem to make any noise either. All was still.
Beast Boy didn't really like the silence. He preferred loud things. It was more calming to him in a way. Silence gave him the creeps, like an unknown creature ready to jump on his back and scare the hell out of him. "A warning?" he asked. As soon as he spoke, the buzzing came back from Jump Town, the breathing in the room continued, and movement appeared once again. The girl nodded, even though they could hardly tell if she even moved their head. Beast Boy figured it was a nod. She didn't seem as befuddled as the rest of the Titans were.
"I remember," Raven said quietly. "I remember what that clock was. It was the Sound of Time, or The Time of Warning. I have never heard it before…very rarely it appears…"
"I guess we are the lucky ones," Cyborg said sarcastically.
"Very interesting," Beast Boy said. "Why us though? Why would someone want to warn us with this 'magical' clock thingy?" He directed the question towards the girl.
She didn't say a word. She would only speak if they would ask her something that could be only of a slightest answer. Even then, she would try to make her words limited. It was forced upon her to do so, and that she would do.
"Who or what is it from?" Robin asked.
All eyes were on the girl. She knew she had to tell them something, not everything, but what they needed to know at this time at least. The rest would be known sooner or later. Some time. Some place. They would know it if they liked it or not.
When she didn't speak, Robin moved onto his next question. "Who are you?" He felt he asked the same question a billion times and had been over budgeted over its use of the words. It didn't matter; all he wanted was the answers. He wanted them now.
"I am an orphan."
"What is your name?"
"Anielle. Anielle Demstron." Raven suddenly winced at the name. Raven didn't know why, but it sounded so familiar to her. Her name told all of it, made her want to glare at the girl menacingly, that the girl would never be trustworthy. She couldn't trust her even if the rest of her team gave into it. Yet, Raven still didn't know why, but her thoughts folded over one another. Making her want to trust her and to not trust her all in the same instant.
"Uhh…Anielle…how did you know this thing or whatever it is or was…was a warning? What is the warning from, another planet? Aliens? Who did it and uhh…. and why? When-" Beast Boy stopped his jumbled up questions when Cyborg gave him a curious look. Trying to be the detective never worked for Beast Boy, always fruitless at the times he would try.
"Just tell us everything about the warning," Cyborg said.
"The warning…" Anielle took a deep breath. Her brother would torture her if she told too much, and he would still torture her if she told too little. The choices were limited …the instructions complex yet not too hard… It was too much for her, all too confusing. What was she made for? Why won't they say? Why control me in such a way? She wished that they would just kill her, end her life, let me die, but she knew they never would. They would leave her at the edge of death, suffering, forever. Nothing could end her life. She was cornered… unless she could do something about it.
"The warning is from an old man, warning you to stay back…or he will…. stop Time again…and it never will continue."
Beast Boy was about to say something, but Robin beat him to it. "Who is this old man?" he asked.
"I…I don't know…"
"You have to know. Tell us everything."
Everything. Everything is a lie. Everything is nothing.
"He's…a man…old…very old. Older than many centuries…he's…he's not exactly what anyone would call…. human."
"Aliens? I knew it! Sorry Star…not that kind of alien. You know…. the brain sucking ones?" Beast boy grinned. He was about to add on to his brilliant thought, but Anielle look into his black eyes and shook her head slightly, even though her head barely moved. He didn't like those eyes. They scared him, and if they looked into him any longer, they would haunt him in his sleep. So knowing, so regretful, so unknown, unseeing…he didn't know what was hidden behind them, but he sure didn't want to find out. He looked down at the ground. He liked the silence better.
"Beast boy, you watch too many movies on brain sucking and stuff," Cyborg said, shaking his head. "There are no aliens like that."
"How do you know?" Beast boy asked.
"I know, because they are just fiction. You come up with the strangest things."
"Or it could just be him," Raven commented. Beast boy glared at her.
"So you're saying he is older than a regular human?" Robin asked the girl.
"Yes…he is some kind of…magician…I think, a man, the man, yes, the man…who was the one who stopped…" Anielle thought she said enough.
"Stopped what?" Robin asked.
She didn't answer.
"Stopped people from dying? Life? Someone from doing something?" Cyborg guessed. "Stopped us? Him? Uhh…"
"Time," Robin said. "I'm betting he is the one who stopped time, am I right?" He gave the girl a long stare. She slightly nodded.
"So," Cyborg said, "He is the middle of this."
The man was the master mime. He was the one to stop.
"We got to stop him." Cyborg's robotic fingers formed into fists. "Even though he only stopped time, who knows what else he can do? Kill off every single being? Destroy the planet? This doesn't seem right. We need more answers."
It seemed to be a kind of rotation to Robin, a cycle, a never-ending circle, this man, the center of it. The cause of it. The one causing these happenings, events, strange things. And what about the girl…Anielle? What did she have to do with all of this? Was he using her? Her name sounded strange enough, along with her last name, though it was usual to have cultural last names in the world…but…and Raven had an interesting reaction towards it. What does she have to do with it?
"What else do you know about him?"
I know everything, Anielle thought, I know everything. I know every single detail there is to be known. They are all in my being, in my mind, but they slip away from my reach, from my free will, from my touch and sight. The information was there…but would only reveal at times in front of my…my unwillingly seeing eyes…
One word popped in her head. Yes…they would want to know this…."His name…I know…"
Suspense filled the room. His name. That was important. It would help them find him. Definitely.
"But…"
"But what?" Robin asked.
"It is dangerous to speak his name."
"How is this so?" Star asked. "Is this some kind of magician type shield?"
"I…don't know."
"You have to know," Cyborg said, growing a bit impatient. "Just tell us. He has to be stopped."
"Tell us," Raven said.
"His name…his name…I only know the first of his name. Yet it still might be dangerous to speak it…"
"Spit it out," Cyborg said curtly.
The Titans were surrounding her in a half circle around the table. Anielle didn't like so much of the attention. She was so used to being ignored all the time, that it felt strange to have so many eyes at once on her. She now understood that she had grown to love being simply ignored. They were all waiting for her to speak…waiting! No one waited for her about anything, even though they were waiting in a negative way. Yet, she was the one always waiting. Waiting for answers. Now it was the praised ones, actual heroes people cared about, waiting for Anielle, someone who people could care less about, for her to speak. She felt speechless.
She shifted uncomfortably on the hard cold metal of the table. Why did they not lay her on one of the comfortable ones that was an actual bed? Probably because the found her a pesky burden. It felt like an operating table of some kind. Would they operate her? Anielle was surprised that she didn't cramp up from laying on it for so long. She silently thought about what had happened…in some way enjoying the few seconds of being impatiently waited on…
Anielle had fainted, the cause she couldn't remember or how she fainted. Then she arrived in the Tower, which many of the giggly girls back at the orphanage dreamed to be at. She was there. Inside. And they knew her. Well, they didn't trust her, that's for sure. How could they? Yet she was living the dreams of those giggly girls. Giggly girls. Giggly girls. Giggly girls. That's all she had ever referred to the other orphans that laughed with such high pitch that it got very annoying. Anielle always wanted to punch them in the face to shut them up. Giggly girls. Now she wondered what they called her. The Idiot? The Dead Girl? The Moron of All Moronicness? Anielle didn't even think 'moronicness' was a word. She didn't quite own a dictionary, or a single thing, for the matter.
Without her choice, her lips moved shaping the name without difficulty. "Ramkanakaiya." The name echoed when Anielle said the name, making it seem to flow within itself. Nothing else happened after that. Just the haunting echo. She thought there would be more to this when it was spoken, but maybe it would have been the whole name. The whole name was dangerous. "Or for short…. Ramka."
"Ramka," repeated Raven. Memory filled her mind once the name had been spoken. She remembered. "Ramka. He was from Azerath."
"How do you know?" Robin asked.
"I'm not sure…it just suddenly appeared in my mind," Raven said.
Yes, Anielle thought. The name caused memory to be revealed when his name was spoken. That was it. That was what Ramka wanted. What he and my brother had planned. They would be thrilled.
"He's an evil man. Not a person anyone would like to meet. He is older than anyone's greatest ancestors, older than probably the Earth." She paused, letting her words sink in. "He's not a magician, no not even close. Wha…what he is…h-he…is…"Raven stumbled upon the words she was about to speak. They were frightening, deadly even. She did not wish to speak them, but her friends had to know." He is an ally of my father."
The other four Titans stared at her, disbelief in there eyes.
There was nothing good about it.
Maybe better left unsaid, unknown.
Undone.
Anielle knew this already. She wasn't the one to tell.
"That's…definitely not good," Cyborg said.
"No it is not," Star said sadly. " We shall find a way to beat him, right dear friends?"
No one answered, for there was no answer.
"Raven, what else do you know?" Robin asked.
What else did she know. To Raven, the information seemed to be laid out in front of her, ready and waiting to be spoken. Just waiting. Someone's information waiting to be said, waiting to do its bidding. "He is called Faceless, because no one can remember what his face looks like."
"That would explain a lot," Cyborg said. "Man, I wonder if that guy is butt ugly."
"He probably is," Beast boy said.
"What can he do, besides being able to control time and send us warnings?" Robin asked.
"I was never told. Only to keep away from him. Far away from him. Rumors were spread that he had such a wicked and messed up mind that it was unpredictable, even to my father."
"He is a Schughz Kahnz," Anielle said, biting her lip. She wasn't supposed to say that. It slipped. She had control over exactly what he was, but wasn't supposed to say…and now she would pay. Anielle silently braced herself.
"A what?" Beast Boy asked.
"What kind of language is that!" Cyborg exclaimed, eyeing Anielle whose lip began to bleed from her biting to hard on it. The blood trickled down her chin. She swiftly wiped it off with the back of her hand.
"Demon Language," Raven said in a low deep voice.
"OK then…" Beast boy said. He decided to ditch his alien theory. Demons now…hmm…
"Whatever that is, I don't like the sound of it," Cyborg said.
"What does it mean?" Star asked.
Anielle didn't answer right away. She couldn't. The answer hid away in her mind. Too much would be yet known…not at this time. NOT AT THIS TIME! Yelled in her head. Her not answering would intrigue them into going right into their trap. It would. It would…
Her brother was always there. Always listening, always watching. Anielle had missed her brother so over the years, wishing for him to miraculously come back to life from an unforgettable death. Now that she thought of it, she only wished it because it was utterly impossible. Now that she learned he is alive…she would say he was too close for comfort. Her brother lurked in the shadows of her mind, listening to what she said, feeling within those words. He was in her personal feelings, her personality. He was always there, and would never leave, even though Anielle desperately wanted to rid him away. But he stayed there like a piece of annoying flesh sticking to her face…but it was her mind. Her brother watched through her eyes, listened through her ears, and erased thoughts of what he thought should be tossed away into nothingness.
He caused her much pain, too much to bare now. It was a snake biting inside her stomach, making her hunch over even more. The yelling wouldn't cease; the pain would not let her go…
Anielle wanted him gone. In her mind, with every weakening power she had within herself, she fought a silent war for control over her thoughts, for her being. She kept safe priceless memories deep within her, a small part of her. Her brother already controlled most of her, owned most of Anielle, but not everything.
A sudden memory flashed before her eyes. That boy who she saw in the shadows of the orphanage, watching her. The boy who she thought was just a piece of her mixed up imagination. But it wasn't. He was more than that. He was ageless. He was Billy, the name she would never call him ever again…he was her brother…
All five sets of eyes were staring at her, waiting for her to say the meaning. Anielle didn't move. She still sat up, bent over her long legs that lay straight in front of her on the silver table. She didn't know where her arms were, since she could not feel them, possible chopped off and thrown away, numb. She didn't trust her eyes, for they told her they lay in her lap. She knew they weren't really there. They were gone.
"What does it mean?" Robin said forcefully.
The answer still didn't come into being in her mind. It had been conquered over, yet for her not to tell. Not to remember. Anielle truly wanted to tell them everything, ever last detail, but she couldn't. She just couldn't.
"Well, I guess she won't tell us," Beast boy said. Raven walked out of the room.
"If you won't tell us what it means, than what will you tell us?" Robin asked harshly.
Yup, Anielle thought, they never will trust me. They have no right to. She did have some will power over the answer she planned to say. It was the truth over all of it. The question was… would they believe it? "I will tell you that…I have no control," Anielle whispered.
"Your saying you have no control over this. How are we supposed to believe you?" Robin felt that he turned the Medical Center into an interrogation room. He was about to burst with questions. One at a time. One at a time.
"You can't," came Anielle's reply.
"So your saying all your answers are all lies?" Beast boy asked.
"I wouldn't be surprised if she was telling us all the wrong details," Cyborg said, smirking.
"Tell us the right answers, then, if they aren't true," Robin said. "We would like to hear them."
"I have said the answers…"Anielle knew this would happen. They were mad at her, the praised ones were mad at her. Somehow they would believe them, since there were no other answers she would say. The only answers she was enforced to speak.
"Look, you either have the answers or not," Cyborg said. "You are either part of this or your not. You are either on their side or your not. Which one is it?"
Star felt like a bystander watching questions being thrown at the girl. She looked so sad and innocent… forcing her to pity her. Starfire knew she had no right to, but she did anyways. She believed her, but she knew the guys wouldn't believe. What if she is trying to run away from this? What if she is fighting it? What if she is just being used?
"This man, we can't trust him," Star said. "But we can try to trust her."
"Dude! You're taking her side?" Beast boy said, outraged. "She's the bad guy! Girl…Starfire, she can't be trusted."
"Friends, give her a chance," Star pleaded. " She could help us find this guy and put a stop to his plans, and we can possibly help her. She is the one with the answers. The only answers we know right now. Please, we have to believe them."
The Titans stood there in silence. She could help them find this man, the Titans knew, but would Anielle be their death?
Robin remembered a little while ago when he told Cyborg that she could be in some kind of pain. She could be, or even worse, the way she looked so cold and lonely, that she might be fighting it. Something had gotten into his mind, telling him that she was the villain in this. He remembered his words that he had spoken only an hour or so before.
'Something about her is telling me she isn't part of a magical source.'
'Maybe she is…fighting it somehow.'
He had spoken those words, and now he was denying them. What was wrong with him? Robin was holding up all this anger. He wanted to just throw it out on the girl. He wanted to rip her apart. Those questions he wanted answered….he wanted the answers. Robin would do anything for the answers. Every emotion he felt was unexplained. Why is this happening?
"Star is right, we should give her a chance," Robin said.
"What! Man, you gotta be kidding me," Cyborg said. Starfire smiled. She knew Robin would agree with her.
"She is the one with the answers. We have to trust them or we won't be able to find the man at all."
"Raven might know," Beast boy said.
"Yeah, she might know," Cyborg said.
"Hey, where did she go anyways?" Beast boy looked around.
"Anielle, tell us everything you know. We can help each other just like Star said." Robin waited silently for her to speak.
Anielle knew this would happen. She didn't want this to happen, but had no choice. Two trusted her, two disliked her, one she wasn't exactly sure about. Anielle looked at Cyborg and Beast boy, who stared at her back with distaste in their eyes. They would be the suspicious ones. That was good. It was good for her. She would be the traitor, she would never be fully trusted. This was what she wanted.
Raven had slipped out of the room, a memory screaming in her head, giving her no choice but to find it. This girl, she reminded her of something, yet she wasn't sure. Once in her room, Raven went through piles of books she had read, looking for one that recalled such an event. A book she might have read about…a week ago? Two weeks? It was a strange color, she remembered, which almost discouraged her of reading it.
She had gone through a couple of piles of books, but hadn't found it yet. She now thought of sorting them, being a bit more organized. Maybe she needed bookshelves in her room…
"It's here somewhere," Raven whispered.
Yes, yes there it was. There was the book. The nasty colored book…but wait. This wasn't good at all. It was the same color as that building Beast boy had described as a 'throw up' color green. The building of the orphanage. The one where Anielle was from. The one Ramka had been looking at.
Raven flipped through the book, looking for the right page. Souls the book was called. What did green have to do with souls? She wasn't sure what page it was on out of all the 1,000 pages it containted, but she had to find it. She rushed back to the Medical Center, ready to tell them what was going on. They had to know.
Raven came back into the silent room, holding a book in one hand and flipping through the pages with the other. Beast boy raised an eyebrow, and said, "Uhh, Raven? It's not a time for reading, or are we boring you?"
She didn't answer.
"That book…" Anielle recognized that book. That was the book called Souls. Raven would tell them what they wanted to hear, what her brother and Ramka wanted them to know. This was the answer to all the questions. Where he was. What road to take. The Trap.
"Raven?"
Raven still didn't answer. She was almost at the page. Almost, it was there. She just had to find it, she was almost there.
Beast boy looked at the cover of the book. It was that color green. That color green. It was so familiar. So moving to him. That color green…
A flashback filled his vision. He and the rest of his friends were walking down the street to get some pizza. It was a regular day in Jump Town, a day they decided to take off, unless there was trouble. There was a weird looking building they had passed across the street. A building they had always passed, the strange colored one, but now stuck in his mind. He didn't know why that day the building made such a monument, but he kept a look out for it.
Another day had come, and yet again they went to get pizza. To Beast boy, they always got pizza. It was what they lived for. They once again passed that building. That building. An old man was standing by it, looking into a window that faced towards the street on the second floor. He seemed to be studying it somehow. Why would you study a window?
A week later they went out for pizza…and that same window studying man was stalking them. Or it could be that he was getting pizza too…but to Beast boy it seemed that he was following them, eyeing them…studying them just like he was studying that window…were they windows to him?
And yet again there was the man studying the building.
And so on and so forth, it seemed to come out as a pattern. While the others were busy wolfing down there pizza, he was deep in thought about that old man.
Then again, the man was looking at the building. Beast boy knew he would, because the last time they had gone out for pizza he had stalked them. It seemed so strange…too strange…but this time when the man was looking at the building, he was exiting out of it while he was looking at the building. Beast boy noted the way he walked out of the building,like a professional man, the 'all knowing man, the old dude who owned the building. The man looked over at Beast boy who slowly tagged along after his friends, and their eyes locked for a millisecond.
There, in the eyes of the man, Beast boy saw the true him. What he really was. In that same instant he saw all his facial features. The real age of him. High cheek bones, long grey hair that reached down to his forearm, a thin line for his lips, a big nose that didn't fit onto his face, and hard eyes. Those eyes he would never forget…the color too strange to be an actual color…yet it was a color..
The color of his eyes didn't seem possible.