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Hello, you fool,
I love you,
C'mon join the joyride -Roxette, "Joyride"
Chapter 6
My dear...I am here to help. Do not be afraid...do not think this is simply a dream...the clock...you have the key to the clock...you are the only one...
Starfire awoke to see an orange sherbert sunrise and heard the sound of an early bird training hard. She cleared the fuzz out of her head from the weird dream she had and padded downstairs for some of the 'Tylenol'- a marvelous invention of earth's that never ceased to make her feel better.
Her soft green flannel pants swished against the kitchen tiles as she rounded up a small breakfast for herself after partaking of the medicine. She was careful not to eat any bagels, as those were Speedy's. The Titans East certainly had some curious tendencies.
As she munched a piece of toast, the Tamaranian mulled over life. Heringard, Slade, and now odd dreams. It had been too much to wish for lasting peace. There would always be bad in the world. And, she thought with a twisted little smile, it seemed there would always be Slade. He turned up at the unexpected moments. And after two weeks, he was due for another drop in.
But that was depressing.
Starfire heard another crack from outside and smiled. She floated out to talk to Robin, the only other person awake at this hour.
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It had been two long weeks of silence.
Robin despised it. Slade was back, and had an assistant, who had a clock, which had, as Raven put mildly, 'awesome capabilities to ensure destruction'...and two weeks had passed without so much as a bank holdup.
Robin utterly despised Slade.
Thunk. There went the head of his training dummy. Wham. If that stuffed thing had been real, he'd be out. Crack! Robin's bo-staff broke the stake that tied it to the ground.
The team was getting better with its new additions. Speedy and Aqualad were healing quickly and Bumblebee's was a profitable opinion to have when it came to techniques in battle. Providing there actually was a battle.
Robin gritted his teeth and performed a complex backflip, stabbing his bo-staff into yet another dummy as he passed. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned around when he heard the applause.
Starfire jumped up happily, saying, "That was glorious!" She wafted over to stand beside him and surveyed the partially destroyed training field. "How long have you been awake?"
"Just a couple hours," Robin mumbled. Starfire's emerald eyes popped with disbelief, then she smiled.
"You are restless," she said. Robin looked sideways at her and grinned, wiping some sweat from his face.
"So much," he replied," I would welcome Control Freak with open arms." Starfire giggled in reply. Robin smiled down at her. She had the most beautiful laugh in the world.
He leaned on his staff and watched her. Starfire felt his eyes and stopped laughing, cheeks pink and eyes glowing. There was a moment of silence that fell somewhere between awkward and meaningful.
Robin's mind screamed at him to stop watching her and he started to walk back to the tower. "Anyone else awake?" he asked. Starfire shrugged her shoulders.
"I came straight downstairs, so I do not know," she replied distantly. The Tamaranian was still pondering the meaning of these looks that Robin had been giving her lately. She knew what she wanted them to mean, but it was still possible that there was nothing behind them.
But Robin had saved her from falling rocks, and from giant moths, and most recently from drowning...and he talked to her most, and she always felt happier, safer, more complete, whenever he was nearby. He meant the world to her.
"Robin?" Starfire said softly. "I never thanked you for saving me."
"And you'll never need to," Robin replied, pausing to give her a wondering look.
Starfire looked at the sun over the water. "You are always there for me..."
Robin jumped so that he was loking directly into her eyes. "I always will be, Star," he said. "That's a promise."
There followed a moment of silence that most definitely fell under meaningful and important.
Starfire leaned forward slightly towards Robin. Robin tilted his head down slightly and simply looked at her, mouth turned up at the corners.
She then grabbed his arm and leapt into the air. "Come," she said happily,"Let us see who else is awake, and you shall partake of the breakfast!"
Inwardly, the young princess cursed her cowarice as the image of his masked eyes looking down on her played over and over again in her mind.
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Beast Boy woke up with the insatiable need to do something. He looked above him- Speedy was still asleep, his feet sprawling over the end of the bed. Probably sleeping off his embarrassment, Beast Boy thought with a smirk. He had lost his cool over a silkworm, and Speedy was not one to lose cool.
The changeling jumped quietly out of the room as a cat so as not to wake his archer roomie. Now then, what was there for a guy like him to do?
Beast Boy went downstairs, seeing Starfire exit the Tower. The Tamaranian didn't notice him. He walked through the living room (empty but for a snoring Aqualad), to the kitchen, to the garage.
The R-cycle sat as a gleaming solution to Beast Boy's desire for action. The green guy grinned and almost took off right there, then wondered at another possibility. He ran out of the garage and up the stairs once more.
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"Terra! Terra!"
The skinny blonde opened her eyes and saw yellow. She sat up and realized it was her hair. However, hair did not yell out to the head it was attached to. She removed the hair from her face and saw Beast Boy, jumping up and down with excitement. She grinned and leapt out of bed, though still in an oversized pajama shirt that slipped off one shoulder. She noticed Beast Boy's mouth twitch slightly and almost laughed.
"What's up, BB?"
Her green friend recovered from his momentary stupor and stopped jumping up and down. He stepped towards her and, with a measure of wit that must have come in the time she was gone, asked smoothly, "Wanna go out?"
Terra was frozen with happiness for a long second, then finally nodded eagerly.She kicked him out of her room, saying, "Let me get dressed real quick!"
All thoughts of Slade vanished, and she grinned. Beast Boy made her feel like everything was okay with her. Like the time...he saved her from that tornado when they had first met...
Terra's grin grew even wider as she remembered the pleasant memory of arms around her. A small wave of sadness tugged at her, but it soon receeded into the recess of her mind when Beast Boy knocked on her door to make her hurry up. Terra ran a comb through her blonde locks and ran out of her room straight into the changeling.
Beast Boy was feeling bold today. He grabbed Terra's hand and led her down to the garage quickly. The shapeshifter sat down on the motorcycle, Terra behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and the two left the tower, Beast Boy whooping with excitement- not just because the girl he loved was afraid of falling off and had grabbed him tightly.
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Cyborg awoke with a yelp at the sound of a motorcycle pealing out of the garage. He carefully unplugged himself and walked sleepily down the hall. As he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he caught a glimpse of another rising Titan.
"Robin- Oh, yo! Morning, Speedy," he said cheerfully.
Speedy turned breifly and said coolly, "I'm not Robin." He walked down the hall into the kitchen, where Bumblebee was eating some cereal. Cyborg rubbed his neck sheepishly. Speedy was apparently not a morning person. He followed the grumpy archer into the kitchen, mouth watering at the prospect of bacon.
"Hey Bee, your hair's lopsided," Cyborg teased. Bumblebee gave him a grin between shoveling spoonfuls of what looked like Honey Nut Cheerios into her mouth. Speedy grabbed a bagel and dropped it into the toaster when Aqualad walked in, sporting some serious bedhead.
The teen was like a zombie, walking through the kitchen to the sink. He splashed some water on his face and then blinked a couple times, almost as if he had just noticed the other people in the room. "Mornin' guys," he yawned. "Cy, can I have some bacon?"
The robot nodded his approval, and was cracking some eggs when Starfire flew in the window with Robin. Bumblebee laughed and asked, "Have a nice flight?" Soon everyone was settled in for breakfast.
Speedy glanced around the table. "Where's Beast Boy and Terra?" he asked Robin. The "Teen Wonder" shruged his shoulders and started shoveling eggs into his mouth again. Cyborg looked towards the garage.
"Robin," he said slowly,"I thought you were on the R-Cycle..."
"Terra and Beast Boy went on a date, I guess," Aqualad joked, thinking of what Raven had said to him the other night. "Hey," he asked,"Where's Raven? Shouldn't someone wake her up? She's gonna miss breakfast."
"She sleeps late," Starfire said.
"And I wouldn't wake her up," Robin added.
Aqualad chewed his bacon and nodded.
"Actually, I'm up a little early today." Raven walked through the kitchen, putting on some hot water for tea using her telepathy. She sat down between Aqualad and Starfire. "Morning, I guess," she said to everyone. Cyborg and Robin were looking at her in disbelief, and Starfire smiled.
"It is nice to see you before noon, friend," the Tamaran princess said happily. Raven gave a small grin and yawned. Aqualad looked at her out of the corner of his eye, and breakfast continued as normal. Raven looked at him too from time to time, amused by his bedhead.
"Where's Beast Boy and Terra?" Raven finally asked. "I thought I heard a yell from Beast Boy- that's what woke me up."
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The two missing Titans were miles away from the Tower.
Terra screamed as they sped across the bridge, weaving between cars. She watched as the sun sparkled across the water, bathing Jump City in golden light. She buried her head into Beast Boy's back and giggled. Her hair flew behind her, and she felt free.
Soon they were on the outskirts of the city, and the R-Cycle sputtered to a stop. Beast Boy removed Robin's helmet and twisted around to look at Terra. "Wanna play on the swings?"
Terra let go of him and looked at the playground Beast Boy had driven her to. She loved swings. She carefully got off the motorcycle and smoothed her hair unsuccessfully.
"It looks fine," Beast Boy assured her. She gave him a smile and ran to a swing, jumping into it and pumping her legs to go high faster.
The changeling followed suit, and soon they were both out of breath from swinging so hard. The swings slowed and the pair chatted for awhile, happy in each other's company.
"So...if you could be any animal, what one would you be?" Beast Boy asked. After running out of things to say, the two had resorted to asking random questions, back and forth.
Terra scrunched her nose, deep in thought. "I'd be a horse," she said," because they run so fast and they're so elegant." Beast Boy immediately turned into a green horse, and Terra laughed. "You're so lucky, you can be anything you want," she said. "Hmmm, my turn...your most heroic moment?"
Beast Boy turned human again and immediately dove into the story of the tofu that tried to take over the world, and how he stopped them with a moped and a water gun. This one made Terra laugh even harder.
Beast Boy grinned. "One thing you want more than anything else in the world?"
Terra sighed. "My memory," she replied. Beast Boy's comical face turned serious.
"It'll come back, Terra," he said," Just don't worry."
Terra smiled. "If only everyone was as laid-back as you are." She scrunched her nose again, and looked at him, her eyes boring into his. "The scariest moment of your life?" she asked with mock graveness.
Beast Boy returned the gaze, but with genuine sincerity. "When you sacrificed yourself, and when Slade told me that you were his apprentice."
...Terra...you were the best friend I ever had...
Terra's eyes grew wide, and she realized how close their faces were. "Why would you be so scared for me?" she asked quietly. Beast Boy rubbed his neck awkwardly.
"Because I...well,...aw, geez..." He looked at her uncertainly, and smiled.
Next thing Terra knew, Beast Boy was kissing her, and her heart was flipping and flopping, and she forgot where they were, but at the same time it was stamped forever in her mind, and she thought about how she could have this every day and it still would never get old...She put her hands on either side of his face and felt his hands in her hair, and she felt her shirt catch on one of the links in the swingset but she didn't care...
All of a sudden their communicators beeped loudly, causing the two teen to jump a mile away from each other. Beast Boy flipped his open and squeaked, "Yeah?"
Robin's voice blared over the link. "It's Heringard- he's sent us another video," he said grimly. "He's got a captive that Cyborg appears to know closely...You and Terra get back here right now! And I hope you know that the R-Cycle is NOT FOR JOYRIDES!" Beast Boy flinched at that last part.
"Roger, we'll be right over," he said, and he flipped the yellow walkie talkie shut. Terra was already waiting on the motorcycle, and held out the helmet for him. He took it from her and she held his gaze for a moment then smiled, silently communicating her approval of what had just happened. The shapeshifter returned it. Beast Boy clicked the helmet on his head, and soon they sped back to the Tower.
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Speedy paced the length of the main room in front of the TV screen. He looked up as Terra and Beast Boy burst through the door.
"Have a nice time?" Bumblebee asked, eyeing Terra's still slightly dreamy expression. Beast Boy walked forward. "What happened?" he asked.
Raven answered by clicking on the TV, and a movie played back. Heringard's calling card seemed to be movies.
"Hello again, Titans," the malevolent voice crooned. "Due to your failure of two weeks prior, I have control of the Clock of Azarath. But, I give you all another chance. There is a volcano somewhere around the city. My employer says you know where I speak of. Meet us there in an hour."
Aqualad noticed Raven tense at the mention of the clock.
"And just to prove the Clock works, let me show you my specimen, brought back from the past." The video focused behind him, and a young girl with dark brown hair and jet colored eyes squirmed, tied up in ropes. Her clothing was an old brown burlap dress with some twine around the waist. She spat at Heringard, looking venomously at him then glanced into the camera. "Help me, please!" she begged to the screen.
Cyborg's fists clenched and he bared his teeth; but this anger was also linked with surprise. Raven also looked wide-eyed at the picture of the girl on camera.
"Sarasim," Cyborg whispered.
"He can't already have figued it out," Raven said. "This is bad."
"He is intelligent," Starfire replied without emotion. " Heringard will do anything that he puts his mind to."
"Who is Sarasim?" Bumblebee asked. "And what exactly is the Clock of Azarath?"
Cyborg kept loking silently at the screen. "It's a long story," Raven said,"But to summarize: Cyborg was blasted into the past and met her there. And the clock...that is an even longer story."
"It would help if we knew why it was so dangerous," Speedy said. "I don't suppose you could summarize that to?" Aqualad and Robin nodded in agreement.
Raven sighed.
"Long ago, on Azarath, there was a great battle between the Azarans and-" she glanced at Starfire"-the Tamaranians." Starfire nodded, encouraging her to continue.
" The King of Azarath had stolen something that belonged to Tamaran. He was greedy for power. There was legend of an artifact from Tamaran, something that would make its holder the Keeper of All Times. The Keeper would be able to travel through time, controlling it and bending it to his will. The Azaran king thought it would make him immortal, and so he planned to steal it. Therefore, The Clock of Azarath is really the Clock of Myand'r of Tamaran. Myand'r, the ruler of Tamaran at that time found it one day in a secret passage of the palace and felt the dark magic deep inside it. He took it apart, keeping one piece around his neck at all times. This piece was the one that could both destroy the Clock and complete it. But then some Azaran bandits stole it for the King...and that was the start of the war." Raven laughed softly, coldly. "Pointless, really," she said. "Myand'r had already used magic to seal part of the clock inside of himself. It's probably still in his descendants, but I don't think anyone knows who his descendants are. They say he had lots of...women, so who knows which line it's passing through. Azarath got the clock in the end, and the King could travel through time, but at a great cost," she said. "Every time, it sapped more of his strength until he died. The Clock stayed on Azarath until the planet was destroyed, and it came out of the sky to Earth."
The Titans were gathered around the purple haired girl with wide eyes. Robin was the first to speak. "Then shouldn't we just let him sap away his own strength?"
Raven shook her head violently. "He can change anything he wants if we just wait- past or future. He could cease our existence. We have to get that clock back."
"What if he's the descendant you spoke of?" Aqualad asked.
"Then he has the key to destroying it, and he won't use that. Unless we kill him, he cannot be stopped."
"Where do we find him, then?" Terra asked.
"He's at the volcano where you turned to stone," Beast Boy said, coming up behind her. "That's the only one in Jump City."
"It may be a trap," Speedy said. "Why would he give away his location? Not just to give us another chance. that's too easy."
"You heard Raven- even if it is a trap, we need that clock," Robin replied.
"Let's go then." Cyborg stormed to the garage.
"He cares for Sarasim then?" Bumblebee asked with a miniscule hint of sadness. She followed to the garage. "You heard Sparky," she said. "Titans..." she turned to Robin, and the masked hero finished her order.
"GO!"
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well then, chapter six- a dream, a breakfast, a kiss, a legend. Doesn't it all make you want to review and share your thoughts? Chapter seven up...whenever, i guess.
I just saw Castle in the Sky and I'm obsessed. :)
-Silver Miracles