WOW. I'm… I'm not… dead. W00t! This is a development. This is also very late. Very, very late. Uhm… sorry! meekly cowers in shame Maybe I should actually write the chapter now, instead of sitting here babbling excuses.
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Time is relative. A month can pass in moments, like when you look back on summer and realize that the days just trickled though your fingers like water and are now gone forever. The same month could last an eternity, crawling past as the monotonous seconds pound your mind into a state of endless limbo.
Raven traced a pattern on the window with a finger. Yes. This was definitely the slowest month she had ever experienced. Sun shafted though the dust in the air, illuminating Raven's usually dark room with thick, silent, golden light. She leaned her forehead against the glass, perfectly expressionless. This was the first day that they hadn't been back.
Back to the park.
When Beast Boy hadn't returned the day after that strange incident at the park, none of the Titans had been too worried. BB could fend for himself pretty well, and he would call if he needed help, right? He would show up soon enough, there was nothing to fret over, it would all be fine. Despite the reassurances, there was an undercurrent of panic. Faint though it was, Starfire couldn't live with the feeling, and nervously suggested that they check the park, just in case Beast Boy had gotten stuck there somehow. In the mud at the gates, they found his shoe.
By the end of the first week, there was no more signal from his communicator.
The police were notified, people were questioned. No one had seen anything that rainy day. Everyone had retreated indoors, deserting the park and the scene of the disappearance. At the beginning of the third week, Robin had begun to suggest that maybe – just maybe – Beast Boy wasn't coming back.
The Titans kept going. They cooked meals, went shopping, fought crime. Raven meditated every moment that wasn't occupied with life's basic necessities or searching for Beast Boy. She even stopped reading, abandoning books in favor of the blank calm of an empty, emotionless mind. And every day, they went to the park. The search grew wearier, more listless. They knew it was hopeless now.
So they stopped. Raven didn't know what to do with herself. There was nothing to do with herself.
Forget. Raven shut her eyes against the sunlight in her room. That's all I can do. Forget, and move on. I'll forget that there was ever a person who knew… Who knew how to make me… happy. She stood and let the warm honey light wash over her. Then with one sweeping motion, swished the curtains shut and stood alone in the dark.
oooooooooooooooooooooooo
Click. An armored finger tapped a button and the blackness of the room was illuminated by the pallid glow of a huge computer screen.
"Blessed silver for the demon girl."
Click. The screen flickered gently to a different diagram.
"Tamaranian steel for the alien."
Click. Another flicker.
"Charged copper and titanium for the robot."
Click.
"Ah, yes, the carbon matrix for my favorite brat. I was impressed that you knew about that one. Seeing exactly how untrustworthy you are, I'm surprised he provided you with that information." Slade didn't bother to look behind him. He could sense the wince, feel the pain and shame emanating from the green boy who stood there.
"It was just- just mentioned in passing," Beast Boy muttered, looking down at his bare feet, shoulders hunched. Slade laughed darkly.
"Of course. Why would he tell you directly? Even he must have doubted that you would understand at all." Slade closed the blueprints displayed on the screen, typing in codes to hack the Titan's main computer system. "You have proved to be more traitor than I could have hoped. Perhaps I shall reward you: I will let you be the one to announce your betrayal of your friends. I am sure that you will be well-received by those you sold to their enemies."
Beast Boy's head twitched, as though he had been about to look up in shock, but controlled the reaction. C'mon. C'mon. I've gotta remember the plan. I know it'll work, it has to work. I can't believe him, I can't start believing it's true. But what if they hate me even if it does work? Maybe-
Beast Boy was jerked out of his reverie by a blow to the ear that knocked him to the floor. He got up slowly. A month of such treatment had taught him the faster you recover, the sooner you get hit again. Slade stood, glaring at Beast Boy from inside his mask.
"Stay out of sight." That was the only command needed. Beast Boy knew what would happen if he didn't follow it. As a tattered dog, he slunk to one side, curled behind one of the huge pieces of silent machinery that sprouted from the cement floor.
God, I hope I know what I'm doing. As he huddled in the cold, he kept one eye cracked open, fixed upon Slade and the soulless light of the computer display.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"RAVEN!" Cyborg pounded on Raven's door. "Raven, get your butt down here, I think we've found something!" The door slid open a fraction, and Cyborg was met with the most horribly blank stare he'd even seen. He stepped back nervously, disturbed by the utter emptiness of Raven's eyes.
"What?" she droned.
"Beast Boy," Cyborg stated bluntly. Raven's eyes flashed wide, and there was the sound of an explosion behind her. She slammed the door open with a violent burst of black energy and flew past Cyborg to the main hall, leaving the robotic man to stand stunned for a moment before following his teammate at a run.
In the huge main room of Titan's Tower, Robin and Starfire were already standing grimly in front of the hugely magnified mask of Slade, which glowed eerily from the computer screen. As Raven burst in surrounded by a barely-controlled storm of magic, Robin turned to face her.
"This was a recorded message. We can't ask questions, we don't know anything more than what he says. But it's all we have." Robin beckoned Raven and Cyborg, who had just entered, to the video recording and pressed play.
Slade had recorded himself in utter darkness, only his face illuminated, so as to give no clue to his location. He spoke only a few short words before the image cut to static and snow:
"Beast Boy isn't dead. I am the only one with information. Come to the park tomorrow at four in the morning. You know the exact location already. Don't be late."
And then there was nothing but salt and pepper fuzz blasting over the cold, flat wasteland of the television screen.