Chapter Two
Promises Broken
Well here's another chapter of Fooling Yourself. I just wanted to thank all my reviewers for telling me what they thought. For everyone that I couldn't (or didn't) Reply to I want to say thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: There is no DC in IGAF-kun.
Robin quickly pulled Starfire into the training room and shut the door, looking at her with a firm gaze. "Okay Star. Mind explaining what just happened back there?" He asked.
Starfire turned away and looked down at the floor, dejected. "I... I was..." She sighed as her shoulders sagged and her back hunched, making her appear to be shorter than her leader. "It is... nothing." She could feel her tears resurfacing and brought her hand up to wipe them away.
Robin beat her to the punch. "Star," In a single motion, he stepped forward and gently cupped her cheek with a gloved hand and brushed off her tears with his thumb. "When best friends are at each others throats, it isn't nothing. C'mon, I'm not mad at you. I'm just worried, that's all." He lifted her face to look her in the eyes. "You can tell me."
Starfire sniffled as she pulled away from his hand. "I... was angry."
Robin suppressed the urge to smile and kept his expression (fairly) neutral. "I could see that. What I want to know is why."
Starfire hesitated. "She was..."
"Remember, you can't tell Raven a thing, kay?"
Starfire looked at BeastBoy, confused. "But why?"
"Dude!" The green teen grabbed her by the shoulders, his eyes wide and panicky. "You already went through with the most supreme pledge man ever made!" He let go and waved his arms in the air frantically. "You can't tell her even if you wanted to!"
"I have?"
"Yeah!"
The alien placed a finger on her chin in thought. "Hmm..." What did she do that had initiated such an oath? Perhaps she missed something again... A tiny thought struck her. "Was it the interlocking of the smallest digits on our hands? The act that you called 'the swearing of the pinkie'?"
BeastBoy calmed down and sighed in relief. "Yeah," He looked at her with a seriousness rarely seen on the changeling's face, "So you can't ever tell her unless I say it's okay."
"But why would you wish to keep information such as this unknown to her?" She asked, genuinely curious.
"Heeelloooo! She's thrown me out the window for less! You think I'm gonna risk getting torn limb from limb?"
Starfire gasped, "Friend BeastBoy, you know that she would never commit such an act to one of her friends!"
BeastBoy laughed "I was joking, I was joking! But seriously..." His eyes became distant as his smile grew more wistful for a moment. "We both know what she'd say."
Starfire she leaned against Cyborg's weight set and sobbed heavily into her hands. She had tried to convince her friend that he was wrong. He had to be! There were too many times she saw that had spoken volumes to her! She had believed with her whole heart that he was merely paranoid, but sadly, it appeared that he was right all along.
Strong arms gently wrapped around the Tameranian as Robin pulled her against his chest in a comforting gesture. Her sudden outburst of tears had surprised him, and he did the only thing he could think of. "Uhm, It's okay Star." He spoke nervously while patting her on the back, "I didn't mean to upset you. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
The touch of his gloved hands around her and the sound of his voice sent a whole new wave of tears through her. She hugged him back with all the strength she would dare and buried her face in the crook of his neck. "Oh Robin! She said so many horrible things about BeastBoy! She does not care that he has died despite everything he has done for her! I became so enraged that I wished to do a great deal of bodily harm to her for her speaking of his passing so carelessly!" She whimpered into his neck as her legs gave out and collapsed under her weight, dragging them both to their knees on the floor.
Robin's eyes went as wide as his mask would allow when he barely caught the last few words from her mouth.
"Slade!"
Robin handed the child to Starfire, grabbed an explosive disk from his belt and hurled it at the villain. You can imagine the surprise all the Titans shared when it passed through his head and detonated on the wall behind him.
"A ghost!" BeastBoy shrieked.
"No..." Cyborg corrected, "A hologram!"
"A hall of what?"
"Nevermind."
Slade shook his head and placed his arms behind his back. "You disappoint me Robin. Did you really expect me to stay here after arming a bomb that was capable of leveling the city?" He took in the surrounding area. "I must admit, your demon friend had much more power than I thought a halfling could have. Very impressive."
"You knew we'd be able to stop it." Robin growled. "Why else would you be here as a hologram?"
"Don't flatter yourselves. This program is here just to make sure you have been eliminated." The virtual villain seemed to be grinning from beneath his mask. The tone in his voice was a dead giveaway. "Look at your teammates Robin. All of them are battered and bruised" Slade glanced at the fallen Raven. "Some not even able to stand."
"Face it Slade. We beat you. You lost, again."
He casually pulled a hand from behind his back and pointed his palm facing out towards the heroes. "Though I do commend you for your efforts, you will not be getting out of this building alive."
"What're ya gonna do? Talk us to death?" Cyborg taunted.
"I can see that despite your expertise in the field of science, you know nothing about holographic technology." The Titans gasped as an intense shaft of light shot out of his palm and streaked across the library at light speed. Robin collapsed to the ground clutching his leg as the laser tore through his calf, the sound of burning flesh mingling with his cry of agony. "Lasers are used to create a three dimensional image."
"Robin!" Starfire had barely begun moving before the beam struck her abdomen, ripping completely through her and sending her tumbling to the ground, the child still in her arms.
"Of course, with the correct technology, the lasers can also be redirected into a powerful destructive force."
The Boy Wonder groaned in pain. "Star—fire..."
"Tell me Robin." Slade said as he took aim again, this time at the half-metal man. "How does it feel to see your friends fall around you..." Cyborg armed his sonic cannon, but his left leg exploded at the kneecap before he could fire, knocking him to the floor and rendering him completely immobile. His cannon fired as he hit the ground, sending blue energy slamming into the ceiling. A large crack spread from the impact point causing a small portion of the library to collapse, but since no one was near that part of the building, the marble ceiling harmlessly fell to the floor. "One at a time, and you completely powerless to stop it?"
"BeastBoy look out!" Cyborg yelled.
Slade's image flickered for a few moments, preventing him from firing again, giving BeastBoy enough time to change into a fly and zip out of sight.
The villain chuckled as his image was restored. "So this is where your friend's true loyalties lie." He approached the fallen teenagers with the usual air of superiority. "His own selfish survival." He took aim at Raven's unmoving form and spoke loudly. "What'll it be changeling? Will you stay hidden and watch your friends die? Or will you show yourself and give them a few precious moments more to live?"
"Dude, you really need to work on your one-liners!" Slade turned around to see BeastBoy far behind him holding a rock the size of a dinner plate over his head.
"You really are the stupid one aren't you?"
BeastBoy smirked. "Maybe, but I'm not as dumb as you are."
"Really. And what do you plan to do with that rock?"
"You'll see." BeastBoy threw the marble slab as hard as he could at the holo-villain... and missed by at least ten feet.
Slade shook his head. "Pathetic excuse for a h—" As soon as the rock hit the ground, he once again began flickering in and out like a distorted TV station. "What!" He looked at his sputtering form in surprise.
"I wasn't aiming for you anyway. Duh! I could hear your holo doohicky all the way over here." Sure enough, underneath the rock was a tiny smashed electronic cube that had, at one time, been creating the holo-Slade.
Slade narrowed his eye and spoke as the hologram re-established its form, though the image was almost completely transparent. "You are beginning to get on my nerves, boy." He then immediately fired a blast directly into BeastBoy's chest.
Cyborg gasped in horror.
"Raven?" He ran over to the empath that was slumped over by the entrance to the common room. "What happened? You okay?"
Raven didn't acknowledge him and just stared ahead.
Maybe she wasn't completely recovered from the incident at the library. "Rae?" Still, she didn't respond. "That's it, you're goin to the med room so I can check you out." He crouched down and gathered her up in his arms before standing again.
"... Tea."
Cyborg stopped at the sudden verbalization of her thoughts. "Wha?" He asked, confused.
She turned and looked at Cyborg, her face donning the normal 'don't mess with me' look, "I need some tea, so Put. Me. Down."
"Um, Okay..." Cyborg sat her to her feet, and watched her pull the dark blue cloak around her. 'I don't think I ever seen her this emotionless... better stick with her for a few minutes to make sure she's okay.' With that thought, he quickly followed her into the kitchen and stood by the fridge with his arms crossed over his chest (in a pathetic attempt to act casual).
Raven ignored his presence and continued to rummage through the cabinets at an almost lethargic pace. He inwardly sighed at her impassive face. He knew from his and BB's trip in her head that she couldn't show her emotions like the rest of the team, but seeing her go through the day like nothing had changed was slightly disturbing.
The half man was shaken out of his train of thought and scared out of his wits when the refrigerator door blew off its hinges and imbedded itself into the far wall. Raven stood unmoving, her pale hand gripping the cabinet door so tightly that it turned white. "Is this someone's idea of a sick joke?"
"Huh?" Cyborg looked at her from the floor where he had taken cover.
"Where's my herbal tea?"
"It isn't up there?"
"No."
He stood up and scratched his head. "It should be up there. Rob and Star got some for you yesterday."
"This?" Raven asked, pulling out a box of tea and turning to face him.
"Yeah! That's it."
"This isn't herbal tea."
"It isn't?"
"No it isn't." She growled.
Cyborg took a step back "Then-uh-what is it?"
"Read it." Raven tossed the item in question to his outstretched metal hand.
"Green tea with herbal spices... Oh."
"Don't 'Oh' me." She spoke angrily as all the food in the fridge spontaneously combusted in black fire. She couldn't believe it. These were her friends, and they continued to rub her face in the fact that he's dead! 'Can't they leave me alone about it?' "Do you three take pleasure in messing with me since BeastBoy's not here to do it?"
"No!" Cyborg waved his hands in front of him in surrender. "Rae, it was just an accident. They just didn't know what kind of tea you drank." He laughed nervously. Inside, his mind was reeling. 'Where the heck did she get that idea?'
"When have I ever said, 'I want green tea' around you or anyone else in this Tower?"
"Um, None?"
"Then why did they buy that?" She asked as the box exploded in his hand.
Cyborg coughed and waved his hand back and forth trying to blow away the offending tea leaves. "Jeeze, Rae. Calm down! It's just tea."
"No it isn't. And don't call me Rae."
"Okay, okay. I won't, but you need to calm down a little."
"So now you're telling me what I can and cannot feel?"
"No! I wasn't saying that at all! I was just saying that—"
"I know exactly what you're saying." Many painful memories came to mind, forcing her to fight back the onslaught of tears that attempted to break free. "I'm creepy and boring. I need to lighten up. I shouldn't stay in my room all day..." 'Focus. Don't cry. I can't cry.'
"Rae, what are you talking about?" Cyborg was completely confused. "When did I call you creepy or boring, or any of that other stuff?"
"I know Raven is a whole two syllables long, and will be stretching your already 'well developed' vocabulary..." She droned, sarcasm dripping off her words. "But it would be in your best interest to use my full name—" The empath froze, realizing what she said, and to whom she said it to. She looked up at Cyborg like a deer caught in the headlights and hoped that he didn't realize what she meant.
He did. "Oh geeze... Raven..."
"I-I need to meditate." The half demon pulled her hood over her head and turned around to leave the kitchen, but Cyborg caught her arm before she could get through the door.
"Wait."
"Let go of me." Her voice began losing its monotone and was replaced by slight desperation.
"No." He held firm.
"Please, let me go." She tried to pull her arm away but to no avail.
"I think you need to talk about it."
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Rae."
"For the last time Beas—" She stopped struggling and turned to look at her friend with wide eyes. "I-I mean Cyborg..." Her gaze dropped to the floor as Cyborg let go and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"You need someone to talk to?"
"... Yeah."
I Hope you enjoyed it! Please Review and tell me what you think. I don't mind any kind of review and I promise that I'll get the next chapter out as soon as possible.
Thanks again!
