Haha longest chapter yet...
I officailly held the promise :-D
So... last chapter i was gonna dedicate it to Starbolt but i didnt think she deserved the last chapter... so today i dedicate this to Starbolt
Wedding Bells
Chapter 8 Dropping the Eaves
The sunset was a mix of autumn colors: the pinks and reds, the oranges and yellows. Nightwing forgot the beauty of the sunset; just sitting there, on top of the abandoned 'T', looking at the millions of colors above the shimmering waters.
He had enjoyed lots of sunsets on top of the 'T'… actually they would come up here everyday, just sitting here, talking, laughing… and watching the sunset… sharing a kiss or two. Yup, this was their unofficial 'spot'… his and Kory's.
And that's where he planned to have their 'get together'.
He wasn't that excited to be reunited with Starfire. He knew how she would be. After the event two days ago, he didn't wish for a confrontation any more. He wished for a miracle. Maybe Terra would be his miracle? Or Raven?
As if on cue, something the size of a small car flew above him to touch down a feet away from him. The huge floating rock had a big piece of a metal pipe sticking out at the middle of it that made Nightwing wonder exactly where Terra had taken out the earthly chunk. On top of it sat Starfire, braiding a long piece of plastic gimp; beside her was a clocked woman that he'd last seen at her own wedding… Raven, also braiding gimp, but a much shorter piece.
"That was fun!" Terra's voice was nearly blown away by the wind. Starfire looked up from her gimp, but didn't look at Nightwing, or his direction.
"Yea… we should do that more often, instead of driving…" Starfire, Nightwing noted, was wearing her Tamaranian suit. Raven was probably wearing what she wore when they were still Titans, but he had no idea since Raven had her cloak tightly wrapped around herself. But Terra was in normal jeans and tee, having no uniform of any sort while with the Titans.
"I still say traveling with my powers would've been more faster and less cold." Clearly, this argument was argued before.
"But people would've been suspicious with a huge, gigantic black raven thingy in the sky…"Terra defended.
"Yeah… " Came Raven sarcasm, "A huge flying rock the size of a car is not suspicious at all…"
"Terra, I still don't understand the reason why this rock has to be so big… And we could've just used our own powers to fly." Starfire said while keeping her eyes firmly glued on her gimp. They all seemed to take no notice whatsoever of Nightwing, who was watching their argument like a Beast Boy/Cyborg one.
"Well… since the boys were so sure their powers were greater then ours, I figured we could kick their butt and do it in luxury."
"A flying dirt mound is such a luxury… especially compared to the New and improved T-car that Cyborg just happen to build… " Raven accompanied her statement with a roll of her eyes.
Nightwing couldn't keep quiet any longer. "Cyborg built a new T-car?"
The girls spun around as though seeing Nightwing there for the first time, all except Starfire, of course, whose eyes never left the gimp braid that she seemed so interested in. Raven, however, forgot all about it the moment Terra landed.
Raven opened her mouth to answer but Terra was faster. "Yes… sort of, and no. He did build another car that's like the T-car… but he calls it the 'Cy-car' and/or his 'Baby'" Terra finished it with a cheeky grin and looked pass Nightwing to the drawbridge that connects Titan's island to Jump City. Coming towards them on it was a blue car that looked like the T-car on the outside, but was probably very different on the inside. Unless this was the old T-car, which Nightwing doubts. Cyborg would not miss a chance to show off his new and improved Baby.
It stopped at the overgrown driveway of the Tower. Amazing how much weeds five years of neglect can breed, huh? The door opened and a hulking figure with a red eye, very visible through the dark, Cyborg, and a still scrawny, but with a lot more hair, Beast Boy, climbed out. When they looked around and saw no one, they cheered and gave high fives; apparently, they didn't hear Terra and Starfire giggling loudly on the roof.
When the boys (not including Nightwing) did a victory dance, Raven, Starfire, Terra on a piece of rock, and Nightwing on Terra's rock floated down and disturbed their hip bumping with a loud 'Ahem'.
Cy and BB suddenly stopped dancing to look at the floating girls with horror on their faces. Terra jumped off the rock and walked over to them, smirking in a 'we won' way.
"See? What did I tell you? Girls rule. Girls rule. Girls rule…" She gloated in a singsong voice that Starfire joined enthusiastically.
"Oh, man. See, BB, its all your fault. We could've got here faster if you hadn't suggested we fly here as a pterodactyl."
"No way, Cy, we would've came here faster if we drove through the short cut I told you about. And we would've been here faster if I was a pterodactyl." Beast Boy added as an afterthought.
"Ya little grass stain, no way would I go through that place. It's not a road and the branches would've scratched my little baby – "
"So even if you did fly, or take that short cut, we still would've whooped your ass." Terra cut in.
"You wish." BB and Cy said together. Nightwing chuckled. No matter how much they argued, they were still one mind. Well… sort of, close enough.
"What are you laughing about, Boy Wonder." Terra shot in his direction.
"You guys never grow up. It's like… having the team back again…" Nightwing whispered the last part as if to himself.
"Yea right." BB snorted as if to agree with Raven.
"Look guys, I'm really sorry… I should have never… you know…" But Cyborg cut in.
"Don't sweat it, man. We forgive you. It was a mistake. We all make mistakes sometimes, even our fearless, bossy leader."
"Really? I – hey! I'm not that bossy."
"Keep telling yourself that, Boy Wonder." Ouch… Raven's sarcasm sometimes hurt…
"Um… this is really fun and all, but why are we here, Nightwing?" Starfire finally spoke up.
"Never mind that, Star, don't you wanna see our tower?" Cyborg didn't wait for her answer but walked to the tower and activated the security system. A few minutes later, with the whole group behind him, the system said 'Access Granted' and the door opened ever so smoothly as if the Titans never left.
"Wow, Cyborg," Nightwing said, looking around. "Your system must've been very good. The place looked like we never left." And it was true. The insides looked like the Titans still lived here.
"Of course." Cy said buffing up his chest. "I only used the best system."
Raven, while looking around with Starfire and Terra, muttered something barely audible sounding suspiciously like "Men".
They walked in to the common room and the first thing BB did was look into the fridge. But he pulled back as fast as he could, pulled something fuzzy, blue and square looking.
"Dudes! 5 year old TOFU!" he annouced, shaking the fuzzy thing.
"Raven," Starfire suddenly said, after BB made his announcement. "What is it like being married to Beast Boy? Are you enjoying his delicious lunches, breakfasts, and dinners? With a supper in between?" At the last comment, her face split into an all too familiar, ear-to-ear, innocent grin. Raven, however, shot her a look.
"I respected that he doesn't eat meat. And he respected that I don't eat fake meat." Then she smiled and said. "It's all right."
"So… Nightwing?" Terra looked at him expectedly.
"Ok. I know we are no longer the Titans… so would kinda miss saying the old 'Titans, Go!' But I guess its kinda my – "
"Dude. Stop kicking yourself. We all agreed that it was a mistake – "
"A costly one." Starfire hissed in what would've been a quiet whisper… but the room was already too quiet. Nightwing looked at her full in the face for he first time that evening. So did Terra, and Raven, and everyone else. She mumbled a soft sorry, and Nightwing continued.
"Ok. A few days ago, Red X returned." BB, Cy, and Raven looked shocked, and then they looked suspiciously at Starfire, Nightwing, and Terra who had no reactions.
"What?" Terra asked innocently. "Star was attacked, Nightwing rescued her, and I heard about it from my best friend at 3 in the morning." She said it like it was normal to discuss something like that at the middle of the night.
Raven gave Nightwing a curious look and got a 'talk-about-it-later' in return.
"But… I thought you stopped him." BB looked pointedly at Nightwing.
"I only took his utility belt. Apparently, X is smart enough to make his own toys. I saw him return, BB, I fought him." his hand went unconsciously to his side, where, Starfire was sure, he got that cut from Red X. Suddenly Starfire felt bad for leaving him that night, he did save her after all.
"So I got us all together so that we can find out who Red X is and stop him once and for all."
"So… how do you plan to do that?" Raven asked.
"By tracking him down and locking him in a cell. For good."
"Oh… um… Rob- Nightwing," Terra changed hastily after a glance from Nightwing, "You aren't gonna… you know… ob – "
A knock on the Tower's door interrupted her.
"I'll get it." BB said hastily, jumping up from where he sat on the ground, transformed into a cheetah, and ran off.
A few minutes later, he reappeared again, in human form this time, with 5 people following him.
"Bee!" Cyborg called out. "What are you doing here?"
"Hi, Sparky, good to see you too. And I had to see everyone again. Nice cape there, Boy Wonder." Bumblebee smiled him, her hair in their usual buns. She got an odd look in return. Aqualad behind her whispered in Beast Boy's ears and he giggled. Speedy nodded his greeting to everyone, and a smile at Starfire that made Nightwing squirm with jealousy. Mas y Menos greeted them the same way they greeted them before: a jumbo of Spanish and a bunch of flowers for Starfire. Why does everyone have a thing for Star?
"Hey Titans East. What are you doing in Jump City?"
"Like Bumblebee said… we wanted to see you guys… together… again…" Aqualad finished lamely.
"Well… it's great to see you too. By the way… I was hoping to clean this tower a bit… you know… get all the systems working… so we use this again to track down Red X." Nightwing said, "Maybe you wanna help us?"
"Oh, friends! It's good to see you again! Please stay! We had never really got to know each other…" Starfire gave a smile to Bumblebee, and added, "Bumblebee can spend the nights with us girls! And we can have some Girl Talk!" Nightwing smiled, this was sounding like the old Starfire, before real life hardened her.
"Yeah, Bee," Terra added, "It must be a drag hanging out with boys all the time. It'll be fun, right, Raven?"
"Yeah… what she said…" Raven said in her monotone, with no trace whatsoever of enthusiasm, of encouragement, or of anything…
So it was settled. And the Titans East and the ex Titans decided to stay here for the night, and maybe over the weekend, since Saturday was tomorrow. And they each went to their own rooms and washed, and dusted and cleaned until 11:36pm. That's when they decided they had enough and went to their newly cleaned beds to sleep.
During those few hours, Nightwing had cleaned his old room, laundered the sheets of his bed, and helped clean other rooms. For, when they all made the harsh decision to leave 5 years ago, each of them had just packed their bags and left. No one really did take everything away. Probably no one wanted to.
Nightwing looked at the big windows in the common room. The stars where shinning as brightly as ever. He hadn't counted on the fact that they would end up staying here, he just wanted to tell them the reason why he needed the Titans back together again. He hadn't counted on the Titans East coming here, and he definitely didn't count on Star's sleepover suggestion. He had thought that he would just tell them about Red X and go home back to Gotham. And now that they are back together again, he couldn't contain his excitement. This would be like old times again.
Ever since the Titans disbanded, he never had any chance to enjoy himself. He had always thought that it was his entire fault, no matter what it appeared like on the outside. And ever since reading the biography of Kory Anders, he had always blamed her early sufferings on himself, no matter how successful she might be right now. He was always kicking himself.
Now, it's like old times again, and naturally, he couldn't sleep.
He walked out of the common room, and towards his room, when he walked past the stairs to the roof, he decided to go up and look at the stars from the roof. Maybe stargazing would help him sleep a bit.
He opened the door silently and he heard murmuring coming from the roof. His curiosity immediately fought the rights to give people privacy.
But curiosity got the better of him when he heard a single, distinguishable word: "Kory!"
Nightwing silently walked forwards and took cover behind the smoke stand. Before him, were two figures, one naturally Kory, had her back turned from the other, and the other could be anyone besides Mas y Meno, Aqualad, and Cyborg. So he was either BB or Speedy…
"But, Kory…" when the dude whispered to Kory, he moved, exposing the quiver on his back. Speedy?
"Please, call me Starfire here."
"Ok, Star, listen. I –I still – "
"No, we had this talk before, please, we are over." Kory seemed to be stressed. She kept rubbing her forearm as if she was cold.
"It's that Richard Grayson isn't it?" Speedy twisted his name into a sneer. It made Nightwing feel like walking up to him and punching him right off the roof.
"Look, Speedy, you're a really good friend, but you and me, we are over. I've had this talk before, I – I have to go – '
"It is kinda cold outside isn't it?" It's not cold at all Nightwing thought bitterly as he watched Speedy put his arms over Kory, and even more bitterly as Kory made no move to move away. They were together before?
"Do you even know who Richard Grayson might be?" Speedy said into her hair. Nightwing was probably about to burst with jealousy and anger.
"Of course I do. He is the heir to the Wayne Enterprises and he's a very nice man."
"Haven't it ever occurred to you that the Wayne Enterprises are some of the only corporations that manufacture, use, and store Xenothium ore?"
"What is that supposed to mean?" even in the dark, Nightwing could almost feel her eyes narrow in suspicion.
"Have you ever thought that hecould be Red – " Starfire didn't let him finish. A starbolt found it way to Speedy's mid-section without any warning at all.
"Listen Roy Harper, you are a great friend and all, but not a really great ex. If you can't be happy for me at all… then – then just… don't be!" and at that she stormed away towards the door, opened it, went through it, and slammed it so hard the cement around it cracked. Speedy was still doubled over and clutching his guts. But after a few moments, he, too, got up and went away. Maybe if they weren't so mad, they would've seen him behind the smoke stand. Then again he was too good, and too stealthy.
Wait a minute, did Starfire just call Speedy, Roy Harper?
This is probably gonna be my last update before skool starts so... i must prepare for: homework,less computer time, and more homework (did i mention homework?) and u must be prepared for slower updates... i really must appoligize
The reviewers i wanna thank for their... well... reviewing... starfire the golden one, Anime Chick009, julianna15, starbolt, strodgfrgf, Sasscreech, Samanthe2121, april4rmH-town, for reviewing!
p.s. i always keep my promises:-D
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