Alrighty. Sorry I haven't updated. Homework has been a pain lately.
Disclaimer is the same as always.
Chapter 10
Nothing was making sense anymore to her. She had once had a best friend, but that friend had just revealed something almost unforgiveable. Had she not made it painstakenly obvious what her feelings were? She had once had a close friend, but now he was gone, and he was part of the conspiracy as well. At least with him, though, there was a sliver of hope in there somewhere. Raven had said that there were feelings present for her as well, had she not. Now all she had to do was make the first move before Raven...
She hung her head in shame. She knew that she should not hold this against her friends. They were all perfectly entitled to their own emotions, even if it interfered with her own feelings. But to hear of it from Raven as an afterthought, and not immediately worried her. How far had the two of them progressed in their time alone together? Red X had referred to Robin as Raven's "boyfriend". What all had he seen that she hadn't?
A glimmer of red caught her eye as well as a small green figure following the red trail. She smiled. Beast Boy had found something, apparently. Signalling wordlessly to Raven, the two of them touched down on the rooftops to watch him look around. The trail had ended here for some reason and did not go any further. She was about to call out to their friend when he disappeared into a tunnel, but from whence it had come, she could not tell.
"Beast Boy!" Raven cried out, unable to control herself, really. Starfire smiled. Perhaps if she encouraged this relationship, Raven would eventually move on from her Robin and end up with Beast Boy instead. She put a hand on her friend's shoulder, the first gesture of kindness she had shown towards the girl since the breaking news.
"It is okay friend Raven. Beast Boy has found where they may be holding Robin, so now we must contact the others," she said. She bent her knees slightly so that she could stare Raven straight in the face. "Beast Boy will be alright, Raven. Do not worry about him." She hoped she wasn't being too obvious about it.
Raven nodded with a determined look on her face, as if she were trying to hold something in. Truthfully, she felt as if she were about to burst into tears. The two boys with whom she had shared so many memories, and maybe even deep feelings greater than any friendship, they were now deep below the surface and she didn't know how to get to them. Taking out her communicator, she struggled not to choke on her words as she said, "Cyborg, we found the entrance to Doctor Light's lair. Beast Boy went in alone. Should we go after him?"
Red X's voice came over the line. "That idiot! What did he do that for? Doesn't he get that Doctor Light is dangerous? You would have thought that after Robin got captured-"
"That idiot is trying to help Robin, and you'd be well off if you take my advice and keep your mouth shut about the both of them, thanks!" Raven snapped back, a bit on the defensive side, which was not at all like her. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts of all emotions. Why was she having this much trouble with them? The first thing she was going to do when she got home was meditate for hours on end until she could get this whole thing sorted out.
"Raven, perhaps we should go after him if you feel so strongly about his safety," Starfire suggested meekly.
Now she wanted to lash out at the Tamaranean, but she kept her feelings from surfacing, which was no small feat, considering how strong Hatred was inside of her. She turned towards her friend, eyes blazing, saying, "I'm just worried about Beast Boy because he's being an idiot and now he's going to get hurt!" That was as close as she would get to lashing out, though, for she took deep, calming breaths before continuing. "Sorry, Star. I didn't mean it."
"Friend Raven, are you sure you are feeling well? Your emotions have been surfacing quite often lately, something that until recently you have been very against doing," Starfire gently prodded.
"I'm fine!" she snapped, but just for good measure, she crossed her legs. "I'm going to meditate until the boys get here with the T-car."
This was not how he had expected things to go. He had wanted to find Robin and get out so that everything could go back to normal, but it didn't seem to be working, seeing as he was currently running for his life and dodging blasts of xinothium as he tried to scamper down the shrinking hallway. He turned a corner to find a dead end. He wanted to go back, but Chang's henchmen were right in front of him now, their weapons ready.
Screaming in fury, he changed into a crocodile, which only seemed appropriate now that they were practically in the sewers. Lashing out with his teeth, he was able to throw the henchmen off long enough to get around them. Taking on the form of a falcon, he sped through the air, ducking into a corner before they could figure out which way he had gone. Changing into a fly, he waited for the henchmen to walk right past him before he reverted back to his human form and wandered back through the halls.
He found the hall with the rooms he had previously seen and opened each door, not able to remember which one Robin was held in. After the third door he found the Boy Wonder, who was still convulsing on the ground and writhing in agony, even though he was unconscious. Wincing in pain as he wondered what Chang had done, he changed into a bird so that he wouldn't be hit as Robin thrashed. He took the handkercheif off of his leader's mouth and gently poked the Boy Wonder in the side of the head.
"AH!" Robin screamed, his eyes flying open. Seeing no one, he gritted his teeth against the agonizing pain coarsing through his body, forcing his limbs to discontinue their thrashing as he took calming breaths, trying to breath normally again so that he could take in his surroundings.
He needed have tried so hard. Beast Boy jumped down in front of him. "Shh! Robin! I'm here to rescue you!" Beast Boy paused. "Wow, I never thought I'd say that."
Robin rolled his eyes. "Great," was all he had the strength to say, and even then, it wasn't very loudly spoken.
"Look, we have to get out of here fast. Chang and the others probably heard you scream, and they'll be here any minute," Beast Boy said, a rare urgency entering his voice as he began to untie the ropes around the Boy Wonder's hands and feet.
"On the contrary, we're here already," said a voice in the doorway, causing both boys to jerk their heads up. Chang.
"Great. More company," Beast Boy said, rolling his eyes before changing into a growling wolf.
Doctor Light stepped into the doorway as well. "I suppose you've seen the rooms we prepared just for you. It would be such a shame not to use them, don't you think?"
Beast Boy faltered a bit, surveying his opponents. "I don't think this is a fair fight," he stammered.
Doctor Light stepped forward. "Who said we have to be fair?" he asked menacingly.
"He's trying to (gasp) distract you (pant) Beast Boy. One of the henchmen are coming (pant, pant) behind you!" Robin cried out, depleting himself of much-needed energy in order to warn the changling.
"Thanks, dude," Beast Boy replied, dodging the attack before it came.
"Now it definitely isn't a fair fight," Chang drawled as he secured the gag once more around the Boy Wonder's mouth despite much struggling on the hero's part. "Go on," he nodded to his partner.
"It's payback time," Doctor Light grinned, charging up a xinothium fueled attack.
Raven was determined to find two particular emotions and give them a what-for: confusion and love. Deciding that confusion was probably the one that she needed to give a thrashing first, she headed towards the place where she knew the brown cloaked Raven would be, in the forest.
That was the thing that she hated most about confusion; it was hard enough trying to deal with her, but trying to find her was something else altogether. Brown clothes in a forest full of trees wasn't exactly easily distinguishable. Perhaps that was why she was having so much trouble lately.
She didn't need to find Confusion to get her answer, though, for on her way she stumbled across Bravery, who had considerably shrunk. In fact, she stood about a foot above the green cloaked apparation, which was odd, considering her emotions were supposed to look like her in the fullest.
"What's going on? Why are you..." Raven searched for the right word. "...short?"
Bravery put her hands on her hips. "You haven't figured that out yet? Sheesh, Intelligence must have shrunk even smaller than me!"
Raven rolled her eyes. While Bravery was handy during a fight, trying to deal with her wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do. Maybe she could arrange with Meekness to give this particular emotion an attitude adjustment. "Look. Just tell me what's going on and why I can't keep my emotions under control as well as I used to!" she shouted.
Bravery rolled her eyes back. "Well, excuse me! Look, you want to know what happened? Then you're lucky I just got back from talking to Intelligence, because Confusion is not easy to get answers from, let me tell you! Anyway, when you put some of your soul, meaning us, into the xinothium, some emotions shrunk. The emotions that you were feeling strongest at the time: Love, Confusion, and Anger, they were enlarged while the rest of us shrank. Why'd you do that to me?"
Raven took it all in. "How do I fix it?"
Sighing, Bravery said, "Well you could start with making up your mind. Confusion's starting to mess with my head, and I'm pretty sure I saw Timid come out of here crying a little while ago."
"I wish I could, but it's not that simple," Raven sighed.
"Sure you can! Which guy do you like better?" Bravery asked as if it were as simple as picking out clothes to wear.
"That's the problem! I don't know!" Raven shouted back.
"Well you'd better decide soon, because Anger's feeding off of Confusion, and it's not pretty," Bravery stated, casting a sidelong glance into the woods.
"Why don't you try picking between your best friends sometime and tell me how it goes!" Raven shouted, lashing out.
Bravery shook her head. "See, there you go again! Breath, Rae, breath!" she reprimanded.
Gnashing her teeth in anger, Raven stormed away. This meditation really hadn't helped her at all. Punching a few stones in the wall before she reached her central rock in the middle of the air, the one that Beast Boy and Cyborg had originally landed on during their journey through her mind, she crossed her legs to try and calm herself down. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos..."
Starfire gave her friend a sidelong glance. The girl had been sitting there for quite some time now, and she wondered if she was okay. Perhaps she should not have lashed out so harshly at Raven, but she had felt betrayed after all, and she was perfectly justified in her anger, wasn't she? Sighing, she crossed her legs in the air and started to join in meditation, but a loud car horn jarred her concentration, bringing Raven out of her stance as well.
"Friends, why do you startle us so?" Starfire called down as she saw Red X and Cyborg get out of the T-car down below them.
After locking the door and giving Red X a pointed stare, Cyborg called back up, "We were coming to help follow Beast Boy!"
Leaning against the wall in perfect relaxation, Red X added, "Isn't that what you asked us to do?"
Raven glared. Red X had this annoying habit of pointing out the painstakingly obvious and turning it against them. "We asked you to come help, not scare us out of our wits!" Inwardly, she reminded herself not to lash out, to try and keep Anger down inside of her.
"Sorry, Rae. Just get down here already! I'm picking up a signal from BB's communicator!" Cyborg shouted.
Raven immediately teleported down, followed close behind by Starfire. "What's his position?"
Concern washed over Cyborg's face. "He's not moving."
Always optimistic, Starfire tried to offer an explanation. "Perhaps he is hiding and moving could give away his position. Or perhaps he is waiting for us to catch up to him."
"Or maybe he's out cold," Red X added, earning several icy glares.
Cyborg shook his head. "Look, everybody. Here's what we do. As soon as we get down there, Red X and I will handle Doctor Light, since my sonic cannon's fully loaded with what we need and his gadgets are packed too. You two will go after the boys."
Raven mentally slapped her forehead. Great, this was just what she needed, to go after Robin with Starfire. This could only end badly for the three of them. "Fine," she agreed halfheartedly.
"Are you going to stand there or go after your pals, because I'm already gone!" Red X shouted as he jumped down into the tunnel that led below the ground.
"He'll do anything to keep from working with us directly, won't he?" Cyborg remarked coldly as he went in after their supposed ally.
"Apparently," Raven muttered dryly as she and Starfire followed the boys.
He was encompassed in darkness again, and this time there was no welcome blackness creeping in around the corners of his eyesight that would usher in much needed sleep. He was merely sitting in this stifling room once more as another wave of pain subsided, finally granting him precious moments in which to breath before he would feel again the stings of the enemy within him.
Beast Boy was in the room next to him, no doubt bound in a similar fashion. The last thing he had heard before that door had closed on him once more was Chang saying that it would take another hour to mix up another batch. At least that gave the two boys some time to try and escape, though (he hated to admite it) Beast Boy would probably be doing most of the work, seeing as not much could be done on his part.
A strange sound could be heard above him, like many gunshots at once. It took him a while to realize what it was: raindrops! He sighed. This was the perfect accessory to what was already a dismal day. Now it was raining! Even as he thought these things, an even louder noise erupted above him: thunder. Resting his cheek on the ground, he let out a long, more dreadful sigh. Perfect.
Even as he sat here, feeling sorry for himself, something he did not normally do except in the most dire of situations, a single drop of water splashed onto his forehead. Shaking it off in annoyance, another one merely took its place. Glaring at no one in particular, he struggled to move once more, but his body was still weakened. Great. Now he was hurting and annoyed.
Another round of thunder echoed through the metal hallways. It must have been a pretty significant storm to have shaken such a firm foundation, but it did. It was almost as if the heavens were mourning the dire predicament of the two boys trapped beneath the earth, but must this mourning result in discomfort for himself? he thought in annoyance as the insistant raindrops mercilessly pounded their rythm onto his head.
Suddenly, a resounding crack echoed through the halls, much like the sound of a whip. This sound was accompanied by a deafening thunder clap. Even as he heard this all happening, a tiny sliver of light shone through the ceiling, only about the size of a pinprick, though light enough to shine directly into the Boy Wonder's right eye, only aggravating him more before he realized what that meant.
Grunting with both the struggle to rise and the coarsing pain still steaming through his body, he squirmed a bit to the left in order to avoid the drops of water and to gaze up at the ceiling. As he watched, eyes intent on the dull surface, another crack of lightning struck above him and the small beam of light once more fell upon the place where he once was. He squinted up at the origins of this light. There above him was a place one of Doctor Light's blasts had hit. It must have gone really deep, for by the time it reached the surface, it was only about the size of a safety pin. Yet there it was above him. A hole in the ground leading here. Now if only he had his birdarangs, he could free himself and get help.
Gulping in more air as he struggled to maintain his higher thinking levels despite the enormous amount of pain he was currently experiencing, he ran his fingers over the knots that held the ropes binding his wrists together. They were simple knots, though in his current state, it might as well have been college-level math, because it was all he could do to grasp both ends and begin working furiosly to untie them.
He had no idea what he was going to do once he had freed himself. As far as he knew, he had less than an hour to accomplish his designs. How he was going to get up through the hole in the ceiling was beyond him. Perhaps he would first free Beast Boy and then send him up through that way and dig him out. Or maybe he could simply get the changeling to retrieve his belt from his room... No, he wouldn't let Beast Boy in there for anything.
He sighed. Great, now he was finding yet another thing that he had in common with Raven, the intended secrecy of his room. He sighed in frustration. He didn't have time for this! It was hard enough trying to figure out how to escape within an hour and still maintain consciousness. Of all the times for his love life to want to show up, did it have to be now?
Pushing all thoughts out of his mind except for one of escape, he worked his fingers over the frail rope, his practiced hand giving him some advantage over his weakened mind. He supposed it was because of his repetitive training on the matter. Probably it was now second nature to him, having gotten himself out of many such scrapes before with immense ease.
After what he registered as about ten minutes, maybe at maximum fifteen, he was finally able to undo the first knot in the sequence. He sighed, allowing himself a moment's rest before he began again. Even as his nimble finger wove their way in and out of the strings, it would take a miracle at very least to get out of here within the small time limit of an hour, much less to come to the aid of his teammate as well.
Groaning in both agony and annoyance, he narrowed his eyes in concentration. Why he did so, he was unsure, for his eyesight was not essential to the task at hand. (Though, granted, it would have been much appreciated in this dire situation.) For whatever the reason, though, it seemed to help him to think straight as he tucked his tongue in the corner of his mouth even as the second knot in the sequence came undone.
Had he the strength he had before Professor Chang's visit, he would have merely broken the ropes at this point. Granted, he might have been able to even now in his weakened state, but the to attempt an escape after such an exertion of energy would be almost suicidal. Grunting in annoyance once more, he ran his fingers over the next knot in the sequence, now thoroughly annoyed with his befuddled mind.
Beast Boy found himself in a worse predicament than he could have imagined. Grunting in frustration, he tried once more to break free of this dumb rubber-band-thing that held his fast against the uncomfortably damp wall, but as Doctor Light had explained earlier to him, the design was made especially for the changeling. No amount of struggling could change that, no matter how much he disliked it.
He sighed, tossing his head to prevent a wet strand of hair from falling over his own eyes. No doubt those two nearfights were busy creating more of the xinothium-based drug to give him a taste of what he had seen Robin experiencing. His eyes narrowed at the thought of having that disgusting stuff shoved down his throat.
He leaned his head back in annoyance as he tried to clear his mind of those thoughts. Surely at this point the others would notice that he hadn't reported in and come looking for him. His communicator was thrashed, though. What good would that possibly do? He sighed once more, annoyed that he hadn't thought to call in backup before diving right into a situation. Perhaps his mind had been too full of fanciful ideas as to how impressed the others would be when he would have emerged victorious with their leader, but now, as usual, the others would be the ones saving his hide.
Leaning farther back as if it would help him to clear his clouded mind, he tried to focus on something else. Perhaps he could now think about his past, maybe come to grips with it. Most imporant on his list would be coming to grips with Terra's betrayal, but that wasn't what he wanted to think about so soon into his thoughts, especially not in this depressing manner.
Perhaps he could focus on something more optimistic, something more hopeful, maybe a possible relationship with another member of the team, one who had been there for him in so many instances before he had ever become infatuated so easily with Terra, someone who had been there from the beginning and who he had been realizing feelings for from that time onward. Raven.
He had noticed her small smiles and her encouraging nods every so often. Perhaps that was why he so craved her attention, to earn another one of those rare smiles. He had seen them every now and then, whenever he had poured his soul out to her or comforted her when she was down, but that had required emotion, something that no boy was really good at. At all.
Then there was also the fact that she was the one to pull him out of situations. He remembered only too clearly all the times when she had saved his life. Gone out of her way to save his life, more appropriately, actually. Perhaps it was merely the instincts of a friend in an attempt to keep her fellow friends out of harm's way, but he had often noticed her looking back to see if he was alright.
Then there was always the problem, the plaguing question that had kept him from ever revealing his own feelings to the empath. The question of her feelings for him in return. He had seen the way she hugged Robin, the way she talked to Robin, the way she smiled at Robin. Why was he now starting to hate Robin? He shook his head, trying to think straight once more and sort everything out, but that is something that should be done in times where the mind is not preoccupied with worry.
He shook his head. Maybe he should have started with Terra.
It wasn't that she hated Raven. It was that she didn't want to talk to her at the moment, Starfire reminded herself for the tenth time in the past two minutes. She looked back to see if Raven was still in the air behind her. She was, thankfully, but it wasn't as if she would make much of it. Shaking her head, she had to remind herself for the eleventh time that she didn't hate Raven. She didn't hate Raven.
Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she almost walked into the open without checking to see if there was any security there, but Raven pulled her back just in time. Her first instinct was to lash out at the girl for even touching her. Her second thought was one of gratitude as she realized what a friend Raven was being, saving her from her own mistakes even when she was so aggrivated at the girl.
She poked her head around the corner more carefully this time. Seeing nothing, she realized that it would have been fine either way, and once more the dark anger entered her heart. She had not felt such hatred since she had been taken captive from her home planet. Ever since she had joined the Titans, she had felt that she had done away with such emotions, but she now knew that she had not. Her warrior heritage had never left her, but instead had merely been waiting to awaken. The stimuli was only done away with for a time, the anger and jealousy of a lover.
Hearing the whisperings of two men, she motioned for Raven to cloak the both of them so that they might gather intelligence undetected. Feeling the strange sensations of being seperated from one's reality, from one's central being was extremely strange, especially since she hardly experienced such things. Normally Raven would render her serviced to the boys who could not fly rather than her.
"It is the perfect weapon, and it will be a most fitting end to those annoying teens," cackled a voice that Starfire immediately identified as Chang's. She remembered only too clearly how Robin and Red X had saved her from his clutched. She had enjoyed the priveledge of watching, though she did not enjoy the aftereffects. It had taken months for her hair to grow back after that close call with Chang's weapon.
Raven's soul eyes narrowed as they watched their two adversaries walk underneath them, the speaker carrying an empty vial in which some sort of red liquid had recently been contained. A few drops of the said red substance had collected at the bottom, and the girls thought that they could see an imprint on the side of the bottle where it had been apparently pressed against skin.
Her eyes and shoulders dropped as she noticed this particular detail. No doubt one of the boys had been administered this substance, but who and for what reason was unsure to them both at the moment. Deciding that their best bet would be to go the opposite way of the two villains, they dropped out of the ceiling tiles and began to travel down the hallway.
They seemed to reach a central room. Many diverse vials and machines filled several shelves and a large quantity of xinothium lay in the center of the room. The girls looked nervously at each other and backed away from the red substance before getting a better view of the room. There were at least twenty doors circling this room, and which door led to the boys, they were unsure.
Raven checked her communicator. "I can't tell which one Beast Boy was in last. The signal's too scrambled." She sighed, pocketing the device once more.
After a moment's thought, Starfire gave a suggestion. "Perhaps you could determine which of the tunnels our friend had not been traveling through?"
Raven considered the suggestion for a moment, taking out her communicator once more, then sighing in frustration. "Great. He's been through most of them. The last five were untouched, but he must have been chased or something for a while there, because it says that he's been almost everywhere."
Starfire gave Raven a cheerful smile. "Do not worry. We will find the boys soon enough." Secretly, she thought to herself that as soon as she found the two, she was going to lock Beast Boy and Raven together until the two of them developed intense feelings so that Robin would be hers once more. It was a cruel idea, but she was willing to do anything to retrieve her best friend.
"Well, which one should we take?" Raven asked, gesturing at the many doors they had to choose from.
"Our friend Beast Boy has a rhyme to choose from a group when he does not know what is best," Starfire said, her eyes narrowing as she attempted to retrieve said rhyme from her memory.
"Oh great," Raven muttered sarcastically.
"Oh yes. Ahem. Eenie, meenie..."
As much as Cyborg hated being paired with a stick like Robin, he was starting to hate this partner even more. Would the guy at least talk? Say something? Okay, at this point, Cyborg would even settle for a cry for help just so that there would be some sort of conversation in the air.
"So, where do we go now?" he asked for about the third time, trying to make some sort of conversation. He hated silence. It was too eerie.
Red X turned around, his eyes narrowing in annoyance. "Would you quit asking me that already! Look, we should find Doctor Dim and his buddy soon enough. I told you that I planted a tracking device on the doctor guy. We're going the right way. Maybe you should check your coordinates one more time if you don't trust me that much."
Cyborg's mouth was still open when Red X turned away once more. He was right, and he knew it. Maybe he was being distrustful, but after all, he had a reason to.
Suddenly, Red X raised a gloved hand. "Shh. Listen."
Cyborg looked around, expecting something to come bursting through the walls as it normally did whenever Robin used that particular line. "What?"
Raising a finger to his lips, Red X motioned Cyborg into the shadows, himself hiding in the dark corners of the hallways. No sooner than the two of them had done so than an angry Professor Chang came rushing down the hallway, not noticing the two perfectly still figures.
After a moment's pause, the two looked at each other, then back at Chang. Nodding, they silently readied themselves for battle. "NOW!" Cyborg shouted, blasting the unsuspecting Chang with his sonic cannon.
"What in-" Chang stammered as he was blown back also by a few exploding X gadgets. He was then hoisted off the ground by what he had supposed to be a shadow that had suddenly appeared in front of him and, the next thing he knew, he was pinned against the wall with similar X gadgets.
"Talk, Chang. Where are the Titans you're holding captive?" Red X growled, his X-shaped dagger coming dangerously close to the professor's chin.
"I don't-"
"Talk!" X shouted once more, this time drawing a drop of blood from the frightened villain.
"They're in the second corridor from the right, then go left!" Chang shouted, obviously scared out of his wits.
"Thanks," X muttered sarcastically. "Hey, metal man, why don't you take him to jail or whatever you want to do with him. I'll tell the girls where their boyfriend is and we can get back to leading normal lives.
"You don't know how happy that would make me," Cyborg muttered under his breath.
"Excuse me?" Red X turned slightly.
"Nothing," Cyborg lied. The sooner this petty criminal was off their hands, the better. He didn't like having to work with theives.
"I told you, the second corridor on the right, then go left!"
Starfire sighed. Those were the same directions that she had been asking Red X to repeat over and over again, but it still wasn't making any sense to her. "How can we find this hallway? We are lost at the moment, and your directions are not helpful to us!" she shouted back.
He sighed over the communicator. "Look, find this communicator on yours, then follow the blinking dot. That's me," he explained as if he were explaining it to a small child.
Raven's cross face came on his communicator. "We know how to do that! The signal's jammed down here!" Even as she spoke, the connection broke, leaving the two girls without any way of knowing what to do next.
Starfire sat down hard on the ground. They were back in the central room, and she was absolutely exhausted. "Friend Raven?" she asked suddenly.
Raven's eyes opened in surprised, and she sat down beside the Tamaranean girl. "Yes?"
Starfire sighed. "I wish to apologize. I did not mean to intrude on your personal life. Those you love and those who have feelings for you in return should not shatter our relationship, even if my own feelings are in question. I was wrong to treat you as if you had broken any promise to me. You made none. You are entitled to your own emotions, and I suppose I should in fact be happy for you, since this means that you might now be progressing more fully in your own feelings since the defeat of Trigon," Starfire said, all in one breath.
Raven's eyes opened wider. "Has this been bothering you all this time?"
Starfire looked up at her with wide eyes. "Yes. Have I caused you any grief?"
Raven shook her head. "No, not at all. I'm the one who was wrong. I'm supposed to be your best friend. I shouldn't have told you about my feelings. After all, they may amount to being nothing. You're totally entitled to being mad at me, anyway."
Starfire shook her head as well. "But nothing should stand in the way of friendship. I have been taught that many times."
Raven put her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Well, if it means anything, I forgive you for being mad."
Starfire hugged her friend. Hard. "Oh Raven! This is wonderful! Now I will no longer feel shame or guilt or jealousy or-"
"Well, look who's here!"
Starfire stopped hugging Raven as her face turned pale at the sound of that familiar voice. The two girls turned to face the man who had spoken, but as white as ghosts with the surprise of being caught. This someone nodded to several more someones- white cloaked henchmen, to be precise.
"Get 'em."