Chapter Fifty-Four: "Evil Jewelry"

The day passed by rather quickly. Beast Boy slept in his room; Raven slept in her room; Star and Robin slept in Star's room, and Cyborg slept in his newly acquired queen sized bed.

It was a beautiful day, the sun shinning, the birds singing and Victor was playing football with all of his old high school friends.

"Go LONG!" Victor called out.

A rather tall, dark man ran as quickly as he could as Victor Stone threw the football in his direction. The tall man missed it by a few centimeters and it flew over a six foot fence.

"Man, I'm NOT getting that." The man called out to Victor, who was making his way over towards him.

His other team mates gathering around.

"Fine, I'll get it." Victor gave in.

As soon as he reached out for the fence the scenery changed. A giant gray cloud slowly washed away the blue, sun lit sky. The grass in which he was standing on began to die and weeds began to take its place. The few trees that were within view turned into weeping willows. Wind began to blow, taking away the warmth that the sun had left behind. Victor turned around to find his friends were turned to stone. He walked cautiously up to one of them and touched him lightly; he pulled his hand back rapidly when he heard a whispering voice.

"Who's there?" He demanded, turning his body around and making it impossible for anyone to surprise him.

Keyda walked out of the shadow's, that appeared to be every where now.

"Keyda?" He asked softly.

"I am sorry. I could not survive your current visions." She said, gesturing to the sky.

"It's ok. I thought something bad was going to happen." He smiled, blushing slightly.

"You mean, this is not bad?" She asked, looking at everything.

He blushed, "Not when you're around." He looked away quickly. "So what are you doing here?"

"You called for me, did you not?" she asked, surprised that he even had to ask that question.

He looked up at her, "No, I don't have any kind of power to do that."

Keyda smirked, "Forgive me; I did not include instructions of any kind."

"There are instructions, to what?" Victor asked quickly.

She walked up to him, but leaving a few feet in between them.

"The crystal that I left in your hand, did you keep it?" Keyda asked.

"Of course."

"That crystal is—" she paused, walking past him, "—it's a special type of crystal. Nobody knows much about us Shadows, and what I tell you, you must promise never to tell anyone else. Not even Raven."

Victor's face changed to a serious expression, "I promise."

Keyda turned around and faced him, "The crystal you hold is a tear drop. You may have already known this, but you also may know that no one has ever seen a Shadow cry."

Victor looked at the crystal that was handing around his neck, he had made a special necklace for it so that he could wear it. "Raven told me she never knew that Shadow's expressed sorrow."

"She was correct. We don't, normally. When a Shadow wants something badly, and she knows that what she wants can not be obtained she cries a single tear. This tear, is quickly turned into a crystal. Usually we hold them in a special, secret place so that no one knows about it. However, I gave you mine because it's a part of me. I gave you your deepest desire, your human body. In the process I have left you vulnerable, I took away your strength and your weapons." She paused, walking towards him only slightly, "That tear came from me, and that means that it also holds some of my power. For me, it's only a fraction and its not enough to worry about, for you, however, it's a great responsibility. That crystal, if fallen into the wrong hands, could destroy your entire city, your world in which you live."

Victor's eyes widened in shock. How could she have trusted him with such an item?

"I give it to you so that you will be able to protect yourself and your friends." She smiled weakly.

Victor took a few steps towards her. "What—how does it work?"

Keyda chuckled innocently, "All you must do to access its powers is to desire it. You desired to see me, thus why I am here."

She looked around; the scenery began to change again.

The ground turned into a sandy landscape, the winds picked up, water began to form to create an ocean. The sky was the only one that stayed the same.

Victor looked out at the ocean his mind had created.

"What a lovely view." Keyda stated. "It is time for me to leave."

Victor ran up to her, "Don't leave me. Please."

Keyda's eyes searched his with concern, "Victor I can not stay in your mind much longer. I must leave."

"I don't want to lose you again." Victor stated softly and urgently.

Keyda smiled lovingly, "I will always be with you."

Victor wrapped his arms around her, and she wrapped hers around him. He felt her disappear, he tried to hold on tighter, but within a few seconds she was gone.

The scenery changed back to the park, his friends looking at him with concern.

"Are you ok Vic?" the tall man asked.

Robin woke up to find that it was still dark outside. He looked down at the orange tanned arm that was lying across his chest. He smiled; she looked so beautiful and so at peace.

He looked at the clock and sighed. Why am I awake? I was having a good dream. He looked at the hand that was lying on his upper chest, where his heart was, and picked it up. He examined it, her skin soft and perfect. He looked at the ring that was given to her by the jewelry salesman. Jealousy began to fill his mind, but it quickly disappear because he saw the ring glow.

"What in the world?" he whispered, watching it glow.

His concentration was broken when Starfire began to squirm. Her face now showed discomfort and sadness. The ring stopped glowing and she looked at peace once again.

"This isn't a normal ring." Robin stated.

He gently took the ring off of her finger. As soon as he took it off, Starfire's breathing became irregular and he could feel her heart skip beats.

"Starfire?" He asked alarmed. "Starfire!" he cried.

He looked at the ring and back at his beloved. He quickly placed the ring back on her finger. The ring glowed and her breathing and her heart beats returned to normal.

"She's in danger again." Robin whispered.

Beast Boy was rolling around in his bed, obviously having a nightmare.

CRASH!

Beast Boy woke up to find that he had fallen off the top bunk bed.

"OW!" he cried. He slowly got up and stretched his back out. "What was that all about?" he asked himself.

"Love will you please stop thinking of Beast Boy." Raven demanded.

Love started bring up more memories, "Let me think, no!"

Rage was fuming, "I hate him."

Love faced Rage, "You hate everything."

Raven walked around and found Logic.

"What is going on with everyone?" Raven asked her.

Logic looked up from the object she was inspecting, "I'm not quite sure, but I think this has something to do with it." Logic stood up and stretched her left arm out, showing Raven what it was that she was looking at.

"That looks like the ring that the jewelry sales man gave me." She took it from Logic.

Logic frowned, "It is, and almost all of your emotions are wearing it."

"How is that possible? It's a solid object, and if I'm wearing it then how can it get into my mind?" Raven asked.

Logic took it back from Raven, "I'm afraid that the ring you are wearing is evil. Every time an emotion finds one they put it on and it glows, and after it glows the emotion wearing it gets extremely, well, emotional. I have yet to put it on because I've never been fond of jewelry."

Raven was glad for that. "So what do we do?"

Logic looked around, "I don't know."

"Well lets go take them off of the other emotions." Raven ordered, she began walking towards the others.

Logic grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Bad idea, taking the ring off of any of your emotions will cause your heart to skip beats and your breathing to become irregular. It could kill you."

Raven's eyes widened.