A/N: Happy 200 reviews, everyone! By the way, the 200th reviewer was Tammy Tamborine. Now, this is the second to last chapter. The Titans are fighting for most of the time here, but not the whole time.
PS: Yes Kara, I like Avatar. :)
Chapter Seventeen: Together
By the time Robin and Starfire had caught up to Mother May-Eye, she was peacefully sitting on the grass at the park, knitting. Robin and Starfire exchanged confused looks and crept up to her.
Their sneaking was disrupted however, when a flying Cyborg came crashing down in front of them.
"Cyborg!" Robin exclaimed. "We didn't even call you yet. So you know about Mother May-Eye?"
"Mother May-Eye?" Cyborg asked as Starfire helped him up. "I got a call from Raven to help catch Mumbo."
"We know about Mumbo too," Robin told him, as he punched his fist into his other hand. "It's amazing. How did they both break free from Paris...and where are the other villains?"
"Don't use that word, dear," Mother May-Eye said to him peacefully, while smiling. "'Villains' is such a harsh adjective. They are still in Paris by the way...they were never good to Mother."
"What's Mumbo done that's been so good to you," Robin growled while grasping his utility belt. He tilted his head towards Mumbo who was still fighting Beast Boy and Raven on the other side of the park.
"He gave me a pie once upon a time," she simply said. "He said he fancied me. It was the best gift I could have ever gotten! So fresh, and so many people loved mother. When I finally managed my way out of the ice, I surely helped him."
Cyborg's eye twitched. "Well, you may be sweet, but not enough for me to like you." He pointed his sonic cannon towards her, when a large Mumbo stomped over to where they were. He held up a tied up Beats Boy and Raven.
"Don't hurt her!" he cried while shrinking back to size. Beast Boy turned into a rat and bit through the ropes and Raven struggled to get out as well. Once she did, Mumbo noticed her out of the corner of her eye and hit her with a wave of his glove.
Raven flew back and regained her balance quickly. She floated over Robin whose hand was still tightly gripping his utility belt. Beast Boy ran next to him, and went from a rat to a tiger, breathing hard. Starfire flew over the changeling, starbolts ready for action with her eyes glowing fiercely, and Cyborg stood in the center, his 'dusty' sonic cannon ready while he grinned. "It's about time we got some action."
"Titans GO!" Robin cried, as he took out his bo staff and leapt into the air. He kicked straight for Mumbo's face and Mumbo cried out, "Hitmenot!" Robin's kick backfired and nearly hit Starfire, who caught him. She shot her eyebeams which headed for both of the villains.
"That isn't very kind to do, Koriand'r. Humans are not aggressive," Mother May-Eye peacefully said. "And I thought you loved me."
"You sick woman," Starfire growled as her eyes still glowed. "You will not call me Koriand'r and I do NOT love you."
"None of us do," Raven added. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" She pulled Mother May-Eye's bonnet over her eyes and she screamed, "How am I going to watch my children!"
Starfire set Robin and he went to help the others. "Raven, get the ropes you were tied in!" she said to her.
Starfire flipped Mother upside down by her feet as Raven retrieved the rope. "Ooh!" Mother cried, as her skirt flew down. "Bad children!"
Raven tied the rope around the villain's feet, as tightly as she could and the two girls exchanged a look of praise to one another.
Robin and Beast Boy headed for Mumbo, as Cyborg threw endless punches at him. "He's too busy looking at Cy," Beast Boy said, breathlessly. "We should get him from the back."
"Good idea," Robin agreed.
They charged towards the villain. Beast Boy turned into a rhino and rammed Mumbo down as soon as Cyborg moved out of the way. Robin leapt on the villains back and tugged on his hat.
"This thing has to pull down some more," he said to Cyborg and Beast Boy, "I've seen it happen before."
"Not to this magician!" Mumbo said, while standing back up. Robin tumbled off of his back and Cyborg caught him.
Raven, watching their difficult situation gasped. She felt like slapping herself as she had just figured out how to defeat the villains. "I have an idea!" the boys heard Raven shout, as she flew up to them. "Beast Boy, find the book! Go and write what happens to Mumbo in the book!"
"Where is it!" he called back, searching around, while avoiding Mumbo. The magician had gotten back up, and was fighting Robin and Cyborg once again.
"It's probably where the bench once was!"
Sure enough, the book sat on the ground which would have been under the bench. He scrambled over to the area and picked up the book. "I need something to write with," he said suddenly.
Raven flew over to the pile of miscellaneous objects from Mumbo's attack and quickly searched for one.
"Hurry!" he cried to her. "Cy and Robin need help!"
Starfire flew from where Mother May-Eye laid and dived into the pile. Moments later she flew back out. "I have retrieved a pen!"
Beast Boy ran to her and took the pen. He flipped open the book and paused. Man, I can't write, he thought, What should I put?
"Give me it!" Starfire cried. She grabbed the pen and book from Beast Boy and without hesitation, she wrote what she needed to while speaking it out loud, "And the magician and the maid were trapped in the—"
"Dungeon!" Beast Boy cried. "Write that...for as long as they lived."
Starfire did so and closed the book as she watched Mumbo and Mother May-Eye rose slowly from the ground. As he flew up, Mumbo swam towards the book and tried to pick it up with his wand. "Open, says me!" he cried and it opened. Mumbo waved his wand once more and it flew out of Starfire's hands. Beast Boy was quick to turn into a hawk to retrieve it. He clutched the book in his beak, but his beak seemed to be too small to carry it, and it dropped somewhere in the rubble. The two fuming villains flew higher and higher, and stopped in mid air over the jump City jail. Even from their distance, the Titans could see their angry faces, and soon they plopped down into the jail.
The Titans cheered and Raven gave a small smile. Robin walked over to Starfire and helped her up. "Nice writing," he said, "I guess that class was kind of handy."
oOo
The fight was definitely over, and for the next few minutes, the Titans were stuck cleaning up the park and explaining to bystanders what happened. They sure had made some mess, and "Do not cross" warnings were everywhere.
"Robin," Starfire started. "What about the people in my class? Who will tell them about 'Miss Angles'?"
"I'll go do that," Robin said. "We have a lot to explain to them anyway...I'll bring Cyborg with me too."
"And I will go check Mother May-Eye's classroom and see if there are any more suspicious villain devices," Starfire told him.
Robin nodded and called Cyborg. After he did, he spoke to all of the Titans. "We'll meet back at the tower," he said to them. Then he looked at Raven. "Are you ok? You're going to have to tell us what happened at the tower."
The other Titans glanced at Raven, worried, as she sighed and looked back at them. She managed a small smile, to assure them that she was okay. "Go ahead," she told them. "We'll be back at the tower soon as well."
Once the three Titans had left, Raven searched around the rubble and in the destroyed area. She didn't know a battle between two such silly villains could make such a mess.
After a good while of searching, she couldn't deny what she didn't want to believe to be true. The book was gone.
The story had become so familiar, and not because she wrote it, but because it was like seeing her life through another person. She was able to smile at Darcy's rare mistakes and hurt Lorenzo without actually hurting the real bane of her existence. She was able to see Darcy and Lorenzo fall in love, right at the tip of her pen, without doing so herself.
That happened to be her favorite part to read.
She leaned against the wall and drew her breath. Not only was the story gone, but it seemed that in the end all of those moments with him meant nothing. It was only the work of Mumbo's meddling book.
Raven exhaled and closed her eyes. She was not going to cry, she wouldn't be able to control that. I'm not going to cry, I won't cry…
"Here." She opened her eyes to see Beast Boy handing her the withered book on a solemn note. He was dirty all over and she could tell that he searched for it as well. It could barely even be called a book at that point anymore though. The pages were freshly simmered from the tip of Mumbo's wand, and mud was caked on a good portion of the pages. The first half of the novel was ripped out and nowhere to be seen.
Raven took the book from him, and flipped through what remained of it. She gave it not even a second glance after that. Unemotionally, she tucked it under her cloak, and faced the changeling. "You saved it."
"But I'm sorry I didn't get to save the rest of it," he said, while tugging at his collar. He didn't know what to expect from Raven these days. She yelled at him for some things, and commended him for others. Would he yell at her for being the reason that her hard earned novel was now destroyed?
"It's ok," she murmured, "You tried. It was…my favorite part of the book you found." The end of the novel was saved. Not a moment passed when she abruptly pulled him into a tight hug. Without hesitation, Beast Boy embraced her as well.
While slowly doing so, Raven was the first to let go. She didn't look disgusted as she did when she first read the book out loud to him, or chastise him for touching her. She gave a shy smile this time. "We should really go meet back up with the others at the Tower."
"Will do," Beast Boy grinned at her. "Oh yeah…I noticed that I didn't have to say, "Open says, me," that last time I opened the book."
Raven shrugged. "You're probably one of its rightful owner's now then. That's why I never had to say it."
Beast Boy gave a happy look as he thought about the fact of being on owner of the book. Finally.
He slipped his arm in hers as they started walking back to the tower and Raven didn't seem to take notice to his action.
"Raven?" he asked. "You know how Mumbo said everything that happened in that book would be similar to something to us?"
Raven nodded. "Yes."
"Well, I was…kind of thinking about that scene when Darcy and Lorenzo were about to well…um…kiss. Why didn't that happen to us?"
Raven swallowed. "I might have erased it," she quietly said, and Beast Boy's face fell.
"…or we just haven't gotten to that part yet."
Beast Boy smiled to himself and changed the subject. "We should write our own book one day. You know…one that isn't the work of a villain."
Raven gave a smug smile, not even noticing Beast Boy's action. "Why? It'd probably just get destroyed again."
Beast Boy didn't even try to discourage her negative attitude. Instead, he nodded in agreement. That's my pessimistic Raven, he proudly thought. And he'd have her as no other way.
A/N: This was originally going to be the last chapter, but I realized that there was much more to explain. Before I post the last one on Wednesday, I just want to ask a question…what was your favorite chapter in this fanfic? Please don't say none or all, because I just want to see something.