A/N – This chapter is incredibly, exceptionally, embarrassingly short. I know it might irk some people now, but trust me when I say the next chapter wouldn't have worked had I tacked any of it the end onto this one. Please bear with me. I promise I know what I'm doing.

4. Speedy

They had a new teammate. His name was Speedy, though he wasn't especially fast. He had no special powers – no enlarged brain, no robotic parts or genetic augmentation. He wasn't even a metahuman.

But he had worked with Green Arrow for most of his superheroing career, and he was something of a genius in projectile weaponry. Like his mentor, he favoured a souped-up bow and plethora of arrows, a lot of them more than simple pieces of wood. It made him almost useless in combat that was up close and personal, but great at taking out enemies from a distance. He poked around in the wreckage of the lower-east side a lot, where the laboratories and factories used to stand, and did wonders with what he found. Sometimes, even Cyborg was impressed.

He said he'd come to Jump because he was ineffectual anywhere else. He didn't talk about why he wasn't with Green Arrow anymore. The Titans presumed it was because he was dead – not because of anything Speedy had said or done, but because it was the way so many heroes' stories had ended.

Terra felt a little intimidated by Speedy. He was a seasoned fighter, and it showed in everything he did. Yet he was also dispirited enough that he allowed Robin to remain leader when he could have challenged – and perhaps even beaten – him. He wore a mask over his eyes, but there was pain to the set of his jaw and an arrogance that sometimes echoed in the slope of his shoulders. And, like always, nobody quizzed him on it. It was the etiquette of the new millennium.

But there was something about Speedy that also endeared him to the Titans, Terra included. With him on board, she was no longer the newbie – at least, not in the truest sense of the word. She found herself pleased when she had to explain the workings of Jump to him – the infrequent chaos vents, the nests they'd already destroyed, the theories they had on the increasing Misshapen population. Speedy listened and nodded in all the right places. He wasn't much of a talker, but he was a good listener.

He'd lived a colourful life that he talked about in shades of grey, when he talked about it. Yet there were also slashes of colour to his personality – hot reds and yellows and other startling hues that showed up mostly on the battlefield. Times like that, they were all glad he was on their side. There was an air about him that suggested a boy-man whose adherence to military-style discipline was cut only by an understanding that soldiers are also people. He knew a vast number of dirty jokes and could tell them without ruining his own mystique. He once found an unbroken mirror, of the type women used to keep in their handbags for a quick make-up check in taxis and powder rooms. He kept it in the part of the caves he was assigned as though it were his most prized possession next to his bow, quiver and arrows. He was smart and sharp and tactical. And he was always armed.

Raven hated him. She glowered every time he appeared, sparing him the full evil eye only because the last part was reserved for Robin. Whatever she'd said when they did the group-huddle thing, whatever surrender of judgment she'd made, admitting Speedy into the Titans had been a unanimous decision in nothing but strategy. They needed firepower. They needed manpower. In Speedy they got both, but that didn't mean Raven had to like it.

Terra watched them sitting across from each other, the small fire a bright wall between them. They talked, but not to each other. They looked around and made eye contact, but only to their lefts and rights. Once, Speedy cleared his throat and asked Raven if she needed any help with what she was doing. Raven replied by levitating from the room with her hood up.

Terra watched her go, a coppery taste in her mouth. Her lip was so nibbled it had started to bleed.

Raven was 'broadcasting' Starfire's mental signature into space. It had taken Cyborg months to scrounge enough spare parts to construct some sort of amplifier for it. More than once he'd pulled all-nighters trying to figure out a match between Raven's spiritual powers and Earth technology that would serve their purpose. Now, after some prudent suggestions by Speedy and the donation of a combustible arrowhead for fuel, they were kicking.

Terra had taken up a spot outside the part of the cave they were using. Raven had called for complete solitude to help her work to the best of her abilities, so they'd set up a blockade of sorts across the cave entrance. Starfire had assured everyone that Tamaranean court habitually kept a collection of psychics around. Traditionally, they were to help the Emperor prepare for war, but they could also pick up signals from off-planeters if they had to.

Terra wasn't sure why she was there, since the other two girls were progressing quite well without her. She had nothing to add to the procedure, no way of helping. By rights, she should have been catching some downtime while she could – writing in her notebook or napping. Instead she sat there, knees pulled up to her chest, staring at nothing.

There's no such thing as complete silence. Still, it was pretty unnerving to get that close. Terra listened to herself breathing, regulated her breaths to form a sort of pattern, and experimented with how long she could hold in a lungful without going light-headed. She raised her hand and traced patterns on the opposite wall, counted the cracks in the ceiling, and wondered for the millionth time what she was doing there.

I'm standing guard, she told herself, just like she'd told Beast Boy when he asked. I'm like those dudes with the big hats outside Buckingham Palace. Only female and blonde and American. And stuff. ­

All cities were the same underground, she figured. Not in the subways and the basements, but deeper. Go far enough, and there was always bedrock, ancient stone that knew stories about when the world had never heard of man. It was a little humbling, to be surrounded by something that remembered a time before your ancestors were beyond the single-cell stage. Humbling, and comforting, because something that old, that wise was too vast to be bothered about what they did down here. It would protect them without judging them. It would keep them safe, whoever they were and however they felt about each other.

The creak and grind of metal on stone. Terra jerked her head up; at the same moment realising it had dropped forward onto her chest. Shit, she'd been asleep? Some guard.

By the time she had sat up properly, Raven was standing there. Her cloak was wrapped tight, shielding every inch of her below the neck. Her eyes were not quite blank, but still closed off.

"Did it work?" Terra asked, scrambling to her feet. "Did you get through to Tameran?"

Starfire appeared over Raven's shoulder. By contrast, her expression spoke only of unbridled sadness. It made Terra's heart sink.

"You didn't make it, did you?"

"We achieved contact," said Raven.

"And?"

"The… Empress," Starfire said slowly, as if testing the measure of truth in her words, "does not wish to concern Tameran with the troubles of Earth. She determines this planet's woes as unimportant, as they do not distress my… her homeworld, and so she has declined our request for aid."

Terra's heart was back in her lower bowel. It stayed there this time. "Oh."

"Indeed. Oh." Starfire's gaze was rooted to the floor.

Terra craned her neck back, appraising. "There's something you're not telling me."

Starfire bit her lip. She bowed her head, blinking rapidly. Terra had no idea whether Tamaraneans could cry like humans did, but it sure looked similar – albeit with green tears.

"Star?"

It was Raven who answered, stepping in front of Starfire as if to shield her. It was a strange thing to see without the swell of battle around them to prompt it. Consideration just wasn't something Raven did. "The Empress has invoked her powers of state and excommunicated Starfire," she said simply.

"Excuse me?"

"She's been officially cut off and told not to come back."

"Dwa - ? They can't do that!"

Raven's face was stony. "They can. And they did."

Terra looked between them. Then she hung her head. "Aw, crap."

Starfire was the toughest person Terra had even known, second only to Superman in sheer physical resilience. Yet Robin treated her like she was made of glass. He didn't hesitate to send her out of dangerous assignments, but he spoke to her like a harsh word might kill her. When they were gathered around the fire and he reached for her hand, he held it very, very gently. Nobody had even realised he could be that gentle.

Cyborg wore a smug, I-told-you-so expression in between the oh-crap-this-is-bad-and-we're-all-gonna-die expressions. When Terra, Speedy and Beast Boy went scavenging for mechanical parts with him, he couldn't keep from mentioning how he'd seen that one coming a mile off.

Beast Boy hit him upside the head with a rotten banana skin.

To Be Continued…

Again, apologies for the shortness. I feel such a fraud…

Review Replies!

You know something, Water81? Of all the reviews I've ever received, I've never been told anything I wrote was special. So thank you for that. You really made my day.

A little more sense, Squeegee779. And regarding the triangle element of the fic … I ain't sayin' nuthin'!

Um … thank you, Serve the Abbalah?

Having read over your review, Raven's Girlfriend, I have a feeling you'll like upcoming events. And that's all I'm going to say.

Shall do, AnimationWickedRaven!

I've recently been both ill and busy with university demands, Jefepato, (dissertation, exams, presentations, several other essays, job and PGCE interviews and some other stuff) so when I got time to write I wanted to write new things rather than go over old stuff. And since most of what I have for Strange Glue was written in 2004, it kind of got put on the back burner. I'm making excuses, I know, but if you were wondering why then now you know. ;;

As I said last time, Forlorn Melody, I originally wrote Strange Glue as a single story, but it eventually grew too long to be uploaded that way. However, the jumpy timeline was intrinsic to the nature of the original plan, and I felt I couldn't go back and 'fix' things without ruining the little bits and pieces I was, for once, proud of (trust me, I'm rarely proud of what I write). Still, later on things do get a little smoother, and the time-jumps aren't so glaring, so maybe that'll be better for its new multi-chaptered form.

Cheers, TheAlabamaKid.