Disclaimer: Still don't own Teen Titans.
A/N: Heh heh, sorry for taking so long. Only the epilogue left after this! There'll be 30 chapters total, which I think is a nice number to end on. The main action has already passed, so this is mostly closure and fluff. I hope you guys like it, and thanks again for reviewing!
Demon Hunters
Chapter 29: Breakfast
"Who wants waffles?" Cyborg called cheerfully, to be answered by a chorus of affirmatives.
Lunis and Solaris sat at the Teen Titan's breakfast table, clamoring as eagerly as any of them. When the heaping stack arrived, they dug in just like the others.
Once everyone had some food on his or her plate (and in his or her stomach), they settled back to conversation.
"So Pax is going to be okay?" Starfire asked politely.
Lunis nodded. "Relatively speaking. He should be joining us shortly…"
On cue, an astral figure glided through the ceiling and settled to rest on the vacant chair in between Lunis and Raven.
-Sorry I'm late.-
"Where were you?" Raven asked, shoveling a bite of waffles into her mouth.
-Doing one last sweep of your city. It's clean-- not even a trace of dark energy. Other than…-
"Me," Raven finished dryly for him.
If it was possible for an astral form to blush, Pax turned the slightest tinge of pink. –Well, it's free of any malevolent dark energy. Your people are safe for another day-
"Which means it's time for us to move on," Solaris said with a grimace, wondering what she would do without the impromptu waffle breakfasts she was just getting used to.
"Are you still going to go around killing every demon you find?" Beast Boy asked, ignoring Cyborg's panicked attempt to steer him away from this sensitive topic with swift kicks under the table.
Lunis laughed. –It's okay, Cy,- she whispered in his head before continuing aloud, "You've given us a lot to think about," she said, addressing all of the Titans. And then, looking at Raven, "And we won't quickly forget that."
"What Lunis is saying," Solaris interjected, "Is that we're still going to hunt demons, but we're going to make sure they're the kind that like to kill. Once we know they're the kind that attack humans, we can't just stand by. But we won't trouble any demon that doesn't give us trouble first."
Raven took another bite of her waffle and chewed it slowly. This wasn't a perfect solution. There were plenty of demons that might attack first just because of the Hunters' reputation for brutality. And aside from that, if it was a demon's nature to attack, what gave them the right to kill it? Still, it was progress, and something in Pax's luminescent eyes told her that he would keep his sisters in check.
Breakfast was devoured quickly, and the Titans turned to helping the Hunters prepare for their journey.
"We really don't need anything," Solaris insisted again, but Robin waved her objections aside with one gloved hand and handed her a pack of food with the other.
After the preparations, the group gathered at the door and the final goodbyes began, starting with Starfire who took it upon herself to heartily embrace each Hunter, except for Pax, whom she simply fell right through.
"We won't be forgetting you," Robin said to Solaris, handing her a Teen Titans communicator.
Solaris smiled and accepted it.
Lunis sighed happily and leaned ever so slightly against Cyborg. "We'll be sure to visit," she said, so nonchalantly that almost no one noticed that she was really saying it to Cyborg.
Cyborg passed a small electronic device to. "Here."
"Is this…?"
"Yeah. It's what we've been working on."
"But I thought it wouldn't be ready for weeks!"
"I stayed up last night working on it," Cyborg said with a yawn.
Lunis smiled, just at him. "Thank you." To Solaris, and the others, "It's a tracker with four times the power… which means it can cover much more distance."
The two leaned over the contraption, beginning to put it to work.
-Which reminds me,- Raven thought to Pax. –I have something for you.-
She teleported to her room, melting into the shadows so swiftly that the other Titans weren't aware she had left. She appeared before her table, which held on it a mirror. It was smooth and round, a perfect circle framed by dark claws curving around it. The interior was a murky black mockery of reality. Raven held it before her, watching as her face was distorted by the mirror.
-What is it?-
Raven didn't jump—after all, she wasn't the type that startled easily. Instead, she turned calmly to Pax. –I intended to bring it down to you,- she told him.
Again, Raven wondered if ghosts could blush, and if that was the reason for Pax's complexion changing just the slightest bit.
-Sorry.-
-It's fine. Here.- She handed the mirror to him, and held her breath, wondering if it would fall through his hands like most objects.
He reached for it without thinking, and it settled in his hands. It was only after he felt the weight of it, after feeling nothing for so long, that he looked at her with surprise.
-It's got one foot in the astral plane, so to speak,- she explained. –Just like you.-
-What is it?-
-An astral dimension that you can banish some demons to.-
-So we don't have to kill them.-
-Exactly.- Raven smiled as Pax ran his hands over the clawed edges. –I think it'll help, at least for some of them.-
He looked up at her. –You have an answer for everything, don't you, Raven?-
She would have laughed, if his eyes hadn't been so intense.
-What's your answer to this?- He leaned near her and she felt the brush of an astral kiss against her face.
-Pax! We've got a fix on the new demon,- Lunis called in his mind. Raven heard the call echoing through her own mind.
Pax disappeared, leaving Raven alone in her room, eyes wide and one hand pressed against her face.