Disclaimer - I do not own Teen Titans

Chapter 8: In Training

Scorpio's memories...all of them...always ended in pain. She couldn't control it, her sister couldn't, her mother couldn't, and even her father couldn't before he passed on. It was always her fault. That her father had been born of Scorpion blood and killed, that the blood lived within her, that the Saphirian war had taken place, that her mark had came one year early when she turned 13. All of it...

As her tears fell silently down her cheeks, Scorpio threw the journal in the pool. It made a small splash and water flew in all directions. She remembered how she had opened it, and written in it, and how now it was probably rotting away at the bottom of the pool. She wouldn't know. Taurian hide was water proof and very rough, almost impossible to break, and Scorpio shelling metal was rust resistant. As long as it was away from her, out of her sight, she wouldn't mind. She missed writing in it, yes, but she did not miss her memories.

Her digital clock on the night stand struck 5:00 p.m. and she decided she would go see if the Titans were finished eating. Maybe they would need her for something, she did owe it to them. They had treated her kindly since her arrival, and she knew she would make it up to them, no matter what.

-----xXx-----

Though it was still only 5:05 p.m., the hallway and the sky outside of her window was dark. October was harsh here, as it had been in Saphiria. The air was cold in the tower, and she could almost see her breath. Had it always been this cold? When she had been cleaning she hadn't had felt the temperature. She shivered a bit and ran back inside her room to grab her zippered hoodie, which reminded her so much of her cloak.

She continued down the hallway to the main room, where all of the Titans were going about their average day activities, doing nothing in particular and everything in general. Raven was reading on the red couch, next to Star and Cyborg who were "video gaming". Beast Boy was still eating some tofu dogs that Scorpio had made, and Robin was listeing to his CD player. When she walked in, everyone noticed but they didn't make a big deal out of it. She sat at the table across from Beast Boy, who smiled broadly with a mouth full of tofu.

"Hey Scorpio," he said. "Thanks again for the food and the cleaning and stuff."

She smiled faintly at him, until he noticed the tear stains from her rememberence and his facial expression changed. He put down his food and asked. "Is something...wrong?"

Surprised that he had noticed, she wiped her face on her navy sleeve. "No, nothing...really," she stammered.

Robin had put down his CD player and came to the table, grinning his proud grin. "We really do owe you thanks. I do especially, it was my turn to do dishes." I still don't like you...

"No problem, it was nothing...really."

"If you're feeling up to it," Robin continued, "we can start training right now."

Scorpio was tired, but she knew what Robin thought about her, the same thing everyone in Saphiria had. She nodded and passed a small, fake smile that hurt her mouth. She didn't want to train, but only Raven would be able to tell. She followed Robin to the training area in the tower, expecting the other Titans to follow, but they didn't. They knew that new recruits always had to train with Robin first, and he'd size them up afterward.

Robin walked fast, and she could have been able to walk fast too if she hadn't had been so tired. They went down the elevator and into a large, gym like room, with punching bags and weights scattered around in the corners. The floor was concrete and the room itself smelled like B.O.. She wrinkled her nose at the horrible stench, but Robin just took it in.

"This is the East Gym," he told her. "It's where we train when it's cold outside. Either here or the West Gym."

Scorpio nodded. "OK...um...what should we do first?"

Robin shrugged in indifference and thought for a while. "It's up to you. When I started training I always had a choice of what to do first."

"What are my options?"

"Hand to hand combat, regular exercises, or swimming and running." Robin shrugged again and sat down on the bench next to them. "It's up to you."

She was too tired to swim or run, and regular exercises like push-ups and sit-ups didn't sound too great at the time. "Hand to hand combat sounds good."

Robin smirked and stood up. Great..."Alright, but it was your decision." Without warning he kicked in her direction, but Scorpio was quik and dodged it.

"Against you?" She asked.

"Who did you think?" He asked her back, running towards her. She's going to have to strike back.

Robin flung 3 birderangs at the running Scorpion, who dogded two of them and caught the last one. She climb up the teathered ropes and shot the birderang back at Robin, who was now well below her, dodged it in turn. Wasn't this supposed to be hand to hand?...

Robin shot 3 flat ice bombs, and the 3rd one that she was not able to dodge froze her ankle and covered it like a heavy sheet. She bit her lower lip and jumped down off the rope, about 13 feet down, to break the ice. She rubbed at the sores and watched as Robin came running towards her...

Think fast...'You are talented, Rella, you will go far...'

She was tired of Robin hating on her all the time. The other Titans accepted her, why couldn't he? Wasn't she the one that had done dishes when it was his turn? But then again, wasn't he the one that had given her the communicator and allowed her to stay?

When he was close enough, Scorpio stuck out her still sore ankle and leg and swung it around, tripping the boy wonder flat on his face. She got up quikly and then did something that he wasn't expecting. The ice shards from her ankle started to vibrate on the ground. Then, in a blue aura, they flowed up and pinned Robin to the ground between his clothes and his sweating body, craking the concrete to secure the ice shards. He tried to move, but he couldn't. He couldn't even see Scorpio's face, which was smiling broadly.

She crouched down next to him. "Did I do a good job?" She asked playfully. She knew Robin hated his pride being shot down like this, she knew his type. But it brought her an ease to feel that he wouldn't be able to hurt her, as she was afraid of him. It also would mean that she was a good fighter, and that she might help the Titans next time they were to go out on a mission.

Robin grunted and tried to move out from the ice's grasp. He breathed heavily realizing that the only way he was going to get out was to rip off all of his clothes. He sighed. "Yeah...you were OK..." He wanted to ask her to remove the ice, and how she had gotten it to obey her in the first place, but he had had his pride hurt enough.

Scorpio got up and the ice slid out of place in their blue aura again, leaving holes in the sides of Robin's clothes, from his shoulder down to his ankles. He got up and dusted himself off, inspecting the holes. This was my good shirt damn it...

Scorpio looked more serious this time, and her tone had changed from happy-go-lucky to apology. "Sorry..." she began.

Robin was still looking at the holes, which were almost a perfect length apart and went down both sides of his body. Not one had scratched his skin, and not one seemed out of place. "Don't be, just explain this to me." He said, in an equally stern voice.

Scorpio suddenly let out a small grunt of dissatisfaction. She didn't want to, but she would have to. If she were to stay, Robin had to know. "In Saphiria...um...my people...have powers and..." She thought for about another second. "Water is our element...and so ice is water, and that can pretty much explain the rest of it." She stared down at her shoes, expecting the worst.

Robin did something she wasn't expecting. Instead of a blow to the head or a shriek of disgust, he actually smiled at her. It wasn't just a fake smile either, like the ones he had been passing here and there before, but it was true and genuine. A smile, from the Titan's leader. A smile of approval.

She smiled back, faintly really, because her powers took a lot of energy. And trying not to hurt Robin pysically in the process had been very hard.

He placed his hand on her shoulder, which made her blush madly, and kept his smile. "You did a good job today," he told her. "We can use any help we can get for the team, but you still are going to have to train. That's still a must."

She moved from his grasp and nodded. "I will, I promise." But he was staring at her ankle, which was now swollen and slightly blue. She bit her lower lip again and closed her eyes tight. "...It...hurts..." she managed to say. And then she fainted.