The Teen Titans slowed their pace as they arrived to the old, worn down factory. "We'll go in for an ambush," Robin muttered after leaving his precious motorcycle in safe place, and they all quietly crept towards the broken building.
"Who's causing trouble anyways?" Beast Boy asked trying to suppress a yawn. "Mammoth? Mumbo? Cinderblock?" he said tossing out a few names
"We don't know," he whispered with a shake of his head, then held up his cannon, and the rest of the Titans prepared to ambush as well.
"Titans! Go!" Robin shouted and they all burst in, and someone shouted. "Wait stop!" and a yellow arrow shot at them, but Raven quickly flipped her hand forward and created a force field, and it bounced off. "STOP!" the voice shouted again, and a figure jumped down from the darkness. Starfire held up her glowing fist for light, and Aqualad's face came into view.
"Aqualad!" Robin said staring slightly. "What..what are you doing here?".
"Same reason you are," he replied calmly. "We picked up strange activity going on here, but when we arrived...it was nothing," he said and there was some a buzzing and Bumblebee fluttered down, the two Spanish twins raced up, Terra came up beside Aqualad and Speedy followed, holding his bow, looking sheepish.
"Sorry about that..." he muttered and Raven nodded off his apology.
"What do you mean nothing?" Robin repeated looking around with a slight frown.
"Nothings here, no one is here," Bumblebee replied. "We checked the whole place out, there's nothing,"
"You sure? Maybe you missed something?" Cyborg suggested innocently with a small smirk, and Bumblebee glared and started to advance on him but Aqualad stood in between them and kept them apart.
"Titans, split up and search for anything," Robin instructed and he and Starfire took off in one direction. Beast Boy looked around eagerly trying to spot Terra out, but Bumblebee hooked arms with her roughly and jerked her off. Slightly crestfallen, the green titan watched after her for a moment before Cyborg marched over and started pulling on him. He quickly glanced at Speedy who was gazing after Terra and Bumblebee then smirked as he went off on his own. The twins took an area to search, and Raven and Aqualad shyly paired up. After 20 minutes of searching, Robin shouted from the far side for everyone to come quickly. Everyone ran over and circled him to see what he had found, and he held up a cracked mask. Slade's old mask. Starfire let out an audible gasp, Raven's eyes narrowed before beneath her hood, Terra backed away from it and Beast Boy let out a slight growl. "Slade," Robin said quietly.
Everyone stood, frozen and speechless. The Titans East gazed at the other Titans, who looked the most grave. "It..it cannot be.." Starfire cried, clutching her hands together tightly close to her heart. Robin whipped out his staff, then prodded the mask, expecting it to come alive. When nothing happened, he squatted down, and carefully picked it up.
"Careful Robin," Raven warned, gliding up behind him.
Robin frowned and didn't answer her, and simply turned the mask over and ran his hands along it, then looked back at everyone else. "What does this mean?" Cyborg asked, also taking a step forward.
"Either he's back or, I don't know..." Robin said voice trailing off and he lifted his head. Beast Boy stood and crossed his arms uncomfortably. No. It couldn't be. Slade. After coming back when Terra destroyed him, and then the whole huge affair with Trigon and Raven...Beast Boy shook his head and snuck a glance at Terra. She was holding her elbows anxiously, and glancing around nervously, expecting an attack.
"Ter-" he began taking a step towards her, but Robin stood up, his voice over lapping the green titans.
"Titans. Move out," he said starting to head back towards the entrance.
"But Robin.." Cyborg said staring after him.
"I said move out!" he ordered. The Titans stared after him wide eyed, then headed after him, while the Titans East continued to stand in silent. Beast Boy glanced at Robin, but moved towards Terra again, and pulled her to the side slightly, ignoring the obvious glare from Speedy.
"Terra..listen.." he whispered, but she refused to look at him, and stared strait forward at the ground. "It'll be okay Terra, if you ever want to talk you know I'm here for you," he said meaningfully.
She looked up at him with her big navy blue eyes, which were full of emotion. Fear. Anger. Guilt. She nodded slowly, then watched as the Teen Titans were nearly out of site.
"Come on Terra, we're leaving," Speedy said walking up, but looking at Beast Boy with a smirk. Beast Boy returned the expression, and watched them turn to leave, and stiffened and clenched his fists together, spotting Speedy lightly put his arm around Terra's shoulder as he gently guided her out. The lone titan shifted into a wolf, growled, before turning and tearing after his friends.
"Robin..it has been many hours you have sat staring at that mask.." Starfire's concerned voice said from the doorway. "Please Robin, you must get sleep, and go to the land of the dreams-"
"Starfire, I need to figure this out," Robin mumbled. The mask was in a glass case, and he was standing with his arms leaning on the table to support him. "I just need a few more hours...I'll figure it out.."
"Robin, you shall not figure anything out looking at a mask in a case," Starfire said quietly and gently touched his shoulder. "Please, sleep, I shall not rest until I know you are sound asleep"
Her leader sighed, then rubbed his eyes. "Alright Star, I'll be there in a minute," he said taking one last look at the mask, then turning and heading out of the room, then tapping some buttons on the security system outside the door, then following Starfire to the bedrooms.
Beast Boy sat holding his feet, and rocking back and forth anxiously. He had just lost a 7th time to Cyborg at their video game, when Cyborg had stormed off to claiming he wasn't trying. But the green Titan had a lot on his mind. He turned his head to Raven, who was meditating.
"Raven?"
She cracked an eye open and peered at him, then frowned. "What?"
"Do you really think Slade could be, back?" he asked and Raven's frown deepened.
"Well he had always been back, since the whole..." She paused. "Trigon incident. But I didn't think he'd still roam around Jump City"
"Why do you think he's back? Do you think maybe he's after Terra again"
"No," Raven replied with a slight smirk.
"Well why not?" Beast Boy asked defensively. "She defeated him, why wouldn't he come back for revenge"
"We've beaten him too and he's never come back for revenge," Raven said with a roll of the eyes. "He's probably just back, stirring some trouble. It's nothing to lose sleep over," she said eying him then swept out of the room without goodnight. Beast Boy sat on the couches staring out the huge windows, where rain was trickling down. Thoughts swirled around in his head, and he kept thinking about what Raven said. 'It's nothing to lose sleep over,'. But in the end, that's exactly what happened, and he had finally nodded off to sleep when the sun peeked from the horizon.
(Well, more to come next chapter :D Strange things will start to happen...)