First off, I wish to thank blufirestar for clearing up the whole vigilante thing for me, muchas gracias!
Second off, there will be no, I say, NO Terra bashing in this story! Ya want to see this girl getting bashed? Turn your attention to the proper C2 community
I guess by now, you've been able to realize the plot line after Terra's joining. Well, I'll try to make it as unpredictable as possible, so you won't get bored. On with the show!
Chapter Twenty-One: Back in Our Lives
"Cold"
"Grey"
"Hard"
"Stainless"
"For Pete's sake!" Beast Boy's mind screamed. He has been looking at Raven's closed door for the past hour and a half, hoping it would somehow open and the girl of his dreams would come out. He wanted to see her; after all, he did love her. The changeling walked a semicircle around the door, turned around, as if walking towards the other direction, and snapped his eyes back in a lightning fast motion. Sighing, he brought his fist within knocking range of the door, but withdrew and walked away. He knew what she was doing was important, what was she doing? He didn't have a clue; only that it's very important and that she should be left alone while doing this. After all, that's what she told him when he knocked
"You can't come in, I'm busy" her words rang in his mind, just like she used to. He punched the wall, it hurt, but he didn't care. He kept his march down the hall, and reached the living room, where he found Lisa, sitting with Cyborg beside her. The two androids were hugging each other, not willing to interrupt them, he turned around and back to the hall.
He had to do something.
"GameStation? Nah. Sleeping? Did that. What's left to do?" he ran a process of elimination, wiping out his options one by one. As the last option was crossed out, he looked at his surroundings, as it were; he reached the roof in his little unnoticed trip. He took a deep breath of the sea air, allowing the aroma to enter his system; it had a cleansing affect, taking all of his worries away. He sat down on the ledge and gazed at the open sea
"For the same reason Robin keeps fighting Slade in the simulator and Starfire always checks with the Centauri prison wardens about Blackfire; we're afraid that they'll come back" He remembered their conversation. They were sitting at same place as he was, also staring into the wide open sea. He missed her
He missed Raven
"I wonder if she's done" he said to no one. The sky replied with its all knowing silence
"Yeah, I bet she is, besides, she won't mind if I-"
"Hey" came a voice from behind him; he jumped in panic and fell off the ledge, only to come back up in the shape of a green hawk
"Don't you ever-" he started once resuming his human form, but stopped as soon as his eyes rested on the one who startled him
Raven
"I just…thought you could use a little company" she said. Her hood was down, so Beast Boy was able to spot two red stains below her eyes; she was blushing
"Well, yeah, I… Sure!" he smirked, revealing the trademarked fang. Raven smiled and sat next to him
"You came up here to think, right?" she asked him and lied down on the concrete roof
"You might say that, yeah" he replied and did the same as she did, continuing his sentence
"I thought you were busy in your room" she gave him an odd look
"Well, I am, but I had to take a break. Red-X is a tough nut to crack" he grinned and ran his finger across her cheek
"Maybe you should work some of your Raven Mojo on him. That always does me in" she giggled
"I can't" she started "He has do to that on his own" Beast Boy sat up
"Then maybe we should check on him, to see how he's doing" at those words, Raven shot up and brought the changeling back down with her two soothing hands
"I…I don't think we should do that" she stammered "He can't go in there!" her mind screamed "I mean, things are pretty violent down there, that's why I came up here" Beast Boy looked at her, right into her eyes, she could swear he was reading her mind. Her palms were sweating, heart rate going up; she didn't want him to know she was hiding something from him. And then he shrugged
"Okay" he said, smirking
(S!)
"Let's start by the basics" said the blonde girl and stepped towards a dead tree "This is a neutral ground, not affected by neither good nor evil-"
"Yeah, looks like a nuke came down and killed everyone, charming" the thief interrupted and chuckled
"Do you mind?" she snapped, took a breath and started over "Anyway, it's excellent for your training-"
"Whoa, hold it, Blondie Mc'Bleach, I don't need training, I'm already the best there is" he interrupted again, crossing his arms on his chest, grinning under his mask. Terra sighed and looked at her surroundings. It looked similar to Nevermore; the forbidden land inside Raven's mind; the surface was composed of flying boulders, big enough for two, maybe three persons and occasional stony paths that flew by, surrounding them was darkness, utter darkness, with two red circles lighting up the skies and some dead trees shaped in frightening ways
"And that's your first mistake" she told him. He raised an eyebrow
"Thinking you're invincible made you the way you are, evil. You have to realize you're not the best there is" He leaned towards her
"But I am" he replied, grinning. Her eyes narrowed, she held a finger in front of his skull shaped face
"No, you're not" she shot back. He leaned closer to her face
"Yes, I am"
"No, you're not"
"Yes, I am" She leaned back, causing him to lose balance and almost fall on his face, a victorious grin on her face
"Prove it" she said. An eye slit grew wide
"What?" he looked at her with disbelief
"Well come on, Red-X" she threw her arms aside and clutched two fists "Attack me!". His eye slits narrowed
"You asked for it" he hissed and lounged forward, using the opening in her defenses, he buried a right fist into her gut; the seemingly tough looking armor covering her midsection apparently didn't do it's work as she let out a sudden gasp for air and tried to clam herself shut, bringing her head and knees together, her hands closing from the sides to defend her exposed body
And then the second fist came; the gloved hand crashed against Terra's fine jaw line, sending her flying in a back flip, which she ended by lying on the ground, hands used to cover her waist
"Are we done here, Miss Spears?" asked the thief and crossed his arms on his chest. Terra forced out a chuckle
"Actually, we're just getting started, rookie" she said and grinned, her palms glowed in a fade touch of yellow, something that should have alerted X, but it didn't.
A circle of rock, on which the criminal was standing, suddenly blasted itself upwards with no sound but that of rocks crumbling. X looked up to see another floating rock, heading towards him, he jumped off the turbo elevator, which crashed a second later into the second rock, only to see a spike of land, aiming to skewer him like a cocktail winner. Quick thinking took place, he reached down for his belt and tapped the buckle, vanishing into the signature black shimmer and allowing the rock spike to keep on its course without any interference
As he phased back into the material world behind the girl, his right backhand cross blade was already drawn and he drove it towards her neck, he was going for a kill. A slab of rock that rocketed out of the ground blocked his attack, jabbing the blade deep into the stone, he pulled back and was assisted by Terra's roundhouse kick to his stomach, the plated silver boots hammered into his stomach, releasing the blade and sending the masked teen to the ground
He looked up just in time to see another rock spike diving towards him from the blackened sky, nailing his cape right between his spread legs. Looking ahead, he saw the girl running towards him and leaping into the air, diving at him legs forward
"That's my move!" he exclaimed and again phased into a black shimmer.
Terra landed a few inched ahead of the rock spike, one leg tossed sideways, the other in a strange kneeling position, looking forward, she saw a black shimmer; X was phasing in, and as he did, he welcomed her with a hail of X shaped shuriken
"So obvious" she thought and raised another rock slab, absorbing all the projectiles. If she could only see his eye slits narrowing, she would have known she played right into his hands
The two handfuls of explosives went off, lighting up the black void with yellow and orange, breaking the large rock on which the two were standing to bits and pieces. As Terra summoned a snake of stone to break her fall, she saw the thief landing couched on another floating rock and unleashing yet another handful of explosives towards her stone serpent, seconds before the explosion, she could only think about one thing
"He planned this all along"
The impact had her stunned, but not too stunned to still fight back; when she touched down on her own floating boulder, she raised a glowing open palm into the air and closed it shut, causing pillars of rock to emerge around X, securing and trapping his hands, legs and neck before he could even respond. The blonde earth shaker got on her feet, dusted her battle armor and shook some small pebbles from her long hair. She cleared the distance between herself and the trapped ghost by walking on steps of rock that emerged from the rock she was standing on and the one X was at.
"You just couldn't win this" she said and traced her gloved finger on the edge of his mask. X said nothing, just narrowed his eyes
"Don't feel so bad about it, though" she said in a low voice, teasing him "I'm more veteran than you as a spirit, and it granted me a lot of time to improve control over my powers" her finger now traced a line down his neck and the middle of his chest
"You really didn't stand a chance since the first moment" she kept teasing, moving her finger on his stomach muscles, going lower and lower
"Jackpot" in a lightning fast motion, X threw his pelvis backwards, then forward, causing it to rise a bit, just enough for Terra's outstretched finger to touch the belt's buckle
Zzzring
Terra was stunned to find her restrains holding nothing, but the real shock came when the feeling of X's forearm being wrapped around her neck, and his leg, sweeping both of hers from the ground. He tossed her backwards, sending her flying high.
As she landed, the stunned Terra glared at the bandit with glowing yellow eyes, the earth under his feet literally exploded, sending him crashing to the rocks below, Terra jumped off the edge and awaited him to come into her visual range, so she could launch another attack.
Ting!
Terra looked down to see the red object jabbed right in the middle of her breast plate, she heard a low hum that grew louder and louder. She was blasted by the Xenothium weapon's energy discharge, sending a shocking electric current through her body, and fell down to the ground, fists clutched, teeth ground.
"I'm asking again, are we done here?" X hovered in front of her, looking down on the battered girl at his feet. Terra's response was a feral growl, the earth exploded, sending X doubling back. As he steadied himself, he looked ahead at Terra, and was mortified; streams of magma were bursting out of the void, heading towards the girl, engulfing her, encasing her, morphing her.
"HOLY –" he dodged a stream of hot molten lava, ducking down below it, a second one came, he had to jump, but decided to roll sideways, poising himself in front of the girl, he attached his palm to the ground and unleashed a violent Xenothium stream that tore an X shaped gash into the rock, sending the creature formally known as Terra, falling down the void. As he walked up to see her, he noticed the grey rock gaining a yellowish color, and getting warmer.
He jumped off the rock just before another stream of molten earth pierced through it, reaching the lowest, biggest rock in the black void. Once landing, he readied a set of explosive shuriken and hurled them towards the fiery monster, but the X projectiles didn't even hit her, the heat surrounding her body caused them to explode. X not took a good hard look at the girl; she resembled a cat now, made out of flames, standing on two legs and having quite an attractive figure, if X dared thinking that.
"Don't you see? I outmatch you!" roared Terra. X grinned maniacally under his mask and reached for his belt, undid it and threw it towards the girl
"Yeah, you're right, you're much better than I am" he said, trying his best to look sad. It seemed like Terra fell for it, as she picked the belt up and held it in her arms
"See? Doesn't that feel much better?" she retorted. X's eyes narrowed
"No, but this will" he shot at her. It was then when Terra's human ears heard the slight beeping sound, she lowered her eyes and looked at the belt, the X shaped buckle was blinking red
"The power core" she thought
And was engulfed in a huge red explosion of energy.
(S)
"We're on route to Crystal Beach, Robin. You should have the tower pretty much all to yourselves" Cyborg's voice came through the communicator. Robin smiled a bit
"And…you can make up for some lost time with Starfire, you know what I mean, explain to her that you're not psycho anymore" Lisa's voice joined
"Thanks guys" he replied and broke contact. Looking round the living room, he did feel lonely, in an unnoticed way, even though he always insisted that he does his best work alone, he needed his friends, and now, no one was around.
He strolled around the living room and looked from behind the slashed couch at the empty hole that used to house the big screen T.V; a living memory of that faithful battle. After a few moments of silence, he decided he just couldn't take it anymore and headed towards his room, where he spotted Starfire, looking into his room
"Uh, Star? What're you doing?" he said and hurried towards her.
As he came closer, he could see what she was staring at; placed on the wall in front of her, the Red-X mask
"It puzzles me" she said, throwing a meaningless sentence into the air "How can a simple mask cause so much pain and sorrow"
"Don't worry Starfire, X is in good hands, he's healing" he tried to calm her, but by the look in her eyes, he didn't do much of a good job
"It was still my wrong doing who lead us to this situation. If only I had given it more thought, I wouldn't have used the red-X as..." she lowered her head
"As a what, Star?" Robin asked, placing his hand on her shoulder. He eyes clamped shut with tears
"As a mean…to get your attention" she said and choked on her tears. His masked eyes widened
"So, you were dating him to make me jealous?" He was breaking inside, emotions were exploding inside him, colliding, crashing. Without words, she nodded
"Yes" she said and again choked on tears. Robin's lip began to quiver, he couldn't control it
"Starfire…" he sounded more sad than shocked "If you wanted to tell me something, you could've just said it. I knew I was being a jerk, but… but I thought you knew I was doing it for you, for us; I wanted to capture Slade"
"I understand" she replied, weakly "Slade plays a key roll in your life, Robin, even though you hate admitting it, Slade is your 'drive', he is the actual reason for your life"
"It's not true!" he screamed, it scared her. He saw it in her eyes, it was the same look she gave him back then, when Slade pulled his 'last trick'; the chemical reagent.
"It's not true, Starfire, you are" he said through quivering lips. A little smile spread on her lips, she loved hearing him talk like that
"If so, I ask you for one thing" he raised a curious look at her
"What?"
"That you forgive me and the red-X" he tried his best to smile, seems as though she bought it
"I will, as long as you convince X to forgive me" Robin said. Starfire broke their contact, placing him in front of her, holding both his hands in her own
"We are, okay then, yes?" the Boy Wonder couldn't help but chuckle
"Yeah, hopefully everything will be back to normal as soon as possible" he added
(S)
"Dude, come ON!" Beast Boy exclaimed. It was late night; he and Cyborg were creeping across the hall, with the changeling in the lead.
"B, are you sure that's such a good idea? I mean, you remember what happened last time we-"
"Yeah, I do" Beast Boy cut him off "But we'll be more careful this time" a few more paces, and they reached their destination; the grey stainless steel door engraved with five black letters
RAVEN
"Now, are you sure she's not in?" Cyborg asked carefully, he wasn't too confident in his friend's 'bullet proof plan'
"Yeah, I'm sure!" Beast Boy replied, sounding offended "Lisa took Star and Raven out to town and Robin's down at the machine shop, working on his new- Hey, wait a minute!" he smacked his forehead
"You got all those techno gizmos thing-a-whachits, can't you just scan the room for life forms or something, like Predator?" (A/N: I don't own The Predator) Cyborg felt pretty awkward, not remembering his own technology. He gazed into the room; his electronic eye turned blinding blue for a second. Beast Boy was right, infra red scan detected no life forms what so ever, though a slight anomaly was picked up in the eastern side of the room. Cyborg neglected it, a glitch in the system, happens once in a while, just need to recalibrate the system.
"Coast's clear" he said. In response, the green boy turned into a small fly, slipped beneath the door, and opened it from the inside
"Okay dude, spread and search, and remember, don't touch the magic mirror like last time" said the changeling
"It was you who touched it last time, man!" Cyborg retorted, furious
"Is it really the time to point fingers?" Beast Boy replied innocently "We got a mission to do" he then proceeded into digging into Raven's drawers, sending items flying in all directions.
After twenty minutes of search, Beast Boy threw his hands into the air
"I give up!" he yelled "If Raven's trying to hide something from me, she's doing a really good job! We didn't find squat!"
"That's not completely true, man" Cyborg said "When I scanned the room; I found something, I think it's just an anomaly, but if you want, I can run a full spectrum scan and-"
"Yeah, do it! I gotta find what she's hiding!" Beast Boy jumped up and down like a little boy, about to get his candy. Cyborg's eye again turned blue, this time for a more prolonged time. In the meantime, Beast Boy was putting all the thrown clothing items back in place
"Ok, I got the data, let's vector off" said the android and left the room. Beast Boy left a few seconds after him, closing the door.
Minutes later, in Cyborg's room, the two were staring at the computer screen, which displayed the data Cyborg has uploaded to it
"There…see?" Cyborg said and pointed at a rectangle shaped object containing a red blur "Whatever it is, it's inside Raven's closet" he said
"Well why couldn't we see it? We looked there, I even did it twice!" Beast Boy exclaimed. In response, Cyborg took a long breath
"That's a spectrum image, that blur you see there means that whatever's there, it appears in the Sub-violet zone of the spectrum (A/N: This is NOT real, I don't know squat about the light spectrum), it's between the lowest ones there are" he sounded surprised, Beast Boy nodded, pretending to understand
"Can't you clear it up a bit?" he asked. Cyborg nodded and the picture was painted in deep purple. After a few minutes of watching, Beast Boy jumped
"It's a chick sitting!" he exclaimed. The android gave him an odd look
"You're seein' things, dawg" he told him. Beast Boy shook his head violently
"No, dude, seriously, look; here are the legs, that's the body, and here's the head" he said and pointed at the relevant parts of the image
"Can't you, like, magnify it or something?" he said. Cyborg grinned
"Well, I did get my hands on a bootleg copy of an image enhancing program I've been dying to try" he typed for a few seconds and the screen turned black
-Scanning Picture-
-Resizing desired sector-
-Enhancing resolution-
-Please Wait…-
As the enhanced image was revealed, the boys' jaws dropped. Cyborg turned pale, and Beast Boy was colored like a washed out green rag
"What in the world…" Cyborg half mouthed, half said
"Terra" Beast Boy said, and fainted
Author notes!
Woohoo! Good to have this finished. Again, thanks to all my loyal reviewers and don't worry, I've been able to think up an extra additive to the plot that'll completely shock you! I leave you to guess what it is.
Oh, and by the way, raven'smylife asked why I'm not writing the Titans' replies anymore. Well, the answer is quite simple. Every time I try, the file gets corrupted and I have to write the whole chapter from the beginning!
Remember to review!
See YA!