Okay, only good chapters from here on out. Unfortunately really bad things happen when you happen to be fighting ultimate evil, so I hope you'll all forgive me. Man I almost wanna stop updating because it's getting close to being finished. But then I'd get so many angry notes so I guess I have no choice. So, before I start the chapter I guess I'll start by thanking everyone who reviewed last chapter.
Thanks; Samanthe2121, Valda, Rose Re2.0, Realfanficts, Stargirl915, April4rmH-Town, Itxprincessxlala, TTHPFan, and Johnn23.
Chapter Eighteen
The burden of Leadership
The Titans all filed into the common room, deathly silent. None could nor wanted to speak. Cyborg pushed past Robin without saying a word and headed straight to his room. Starfire quietly told Robin of her growing nausea and need for food. He told her he'd take care of it and to wait for him in their room. Beast Boy soon followed with the same instruction from Raven and she stood looking out the large window. She put her hand up to the glass and bowed her head.
"Rest in peace my friend. I hope wherever you are…you're happy." Robin went through the fridge and small pantry to find anything that would sit well with Starfire's upset stomach. He glanced up then looked back as Raven hadn't moved from her spot at the window. Remembering their dealings with Trigon all over again Robin drummed up his best pep talk and walked beside her.
"How ya doing?" Raven wiped away her eyes.
"Anubis just wiped out over a hundred billion innocent lives plus one Teen Titan, and I as good as killed her Robin."
"Raven, I want you stop thinking that right now because it's not true and you know it."
"But she was right not to try and challenge Anubis in the first place. I should have just come back with her and I never would've been comprised, Arameth would've never been able to make me into a host, I'd never have abducted Starfire-"
"Are you finished?" asked Robin. Raven looked back out to sea hopelessly. "Look I'm in no way going to diminish her loss nor am I going to even try, but Taka knew what she was getting into when she signed on the dotted line. I know for a fact she'd never blame you for what happened." Raven nodded though she clearly continued to blame herself. "We we're all very happy and thrilled to have her as part of the team. Now all we can do is pray she's found some amount of peace."
"I guess your right." Robin embraced her then slowly pulled away. "Thank you."
"No problem, now if you'll excuse me I have some guest quarters I need to dish out." Raven watched him quizzically.
Blackfire walked down the hallway to a spot she had been called to. She spotted Robin outside a door and paused. When neither said a word she shrugged in a 'well what are we here for?' way.
"You sent for me?" Robin handed her a slip of paper.
"Memorize that."
"What is it?"
"The locking code, for your room." She looked up in surprise just as Robin opened the door. Still holding the slip of paper in her hands she hesitantly made her way past Robin and into the room. Sensing her presence, the lights hummed and came to life. Robin walked in behind her as Blackfire continued to examine the room that had been prepared for her. Robin thought he caught a tiny smile from her as she looked over the pieces of Tamaranian furniture. She made sure she had a straight face on before turning back to him and handing back the slip.
"And what makes you think I want to live here?" she asked looking around at the ceiling. Robin shrugged his shoulders.
"I guess nothing, just thought you should know you're not considered a prisoner anymore. And we have to try and make things go back to normal around here as best we can."
"You mean you're just going to go right back to the way things were even after a member of your team has perished?" Robin pursed his lips together.
"I really miss her, we all do, but we also have work to do." He pulled out the gold triangle and held it out. She frowned in confusion and shook her head to show it. "Right now you're the only one in the tower who's said much of anything."
"So why are you giving this to me?" Robin stepped closer to her.
"When you were forced to try and steal this, you were…our enemy." Blackfire's mouth slacked open. She let him set it down in her open hand. "See if you can find out exactly what it's supposed to do, and if possible who made it. If you find anything please let me know." He turned to leave and was halfway out the door.
"Robin…" She called after him. He stopped and looked back at her. She sighed while setting the triangle aside. "I'm-I'm sorry about Taka." Robin nodded then continued on his way. Unable to decide what to think, Blackfire closed the door that was now hers and sat at the small desk across from her bed. She placed the triangle down on the surface and stared at it. She didn't know why, it was completely unlike her, but she was going to do whatever she could to find out what this thing was for Robin.
OUTSIDE ANOTHER TITAN'S ROOM…………..
Robin came to the door he'd been dreading the most; he stood outside Cyborg's room. Ever since Robin took the T-Ship into hyperspace Cyborg hadn't said a word to anyone, Robin in particular. He tapped the door chime and waited. The door opened and Cyborg appeared. He stood in the doorway for the longest of moments giving Robin the impression he was debating whether or not to try to kill him. Cyborg then stepped away granting Robin access. Cyborg returned to his computer and the systems checks he'd been going over.
"T-Ship's shields were damaged, the port nacelle sustained a minor hull rupture, and it looks like the locks holding the pods together have been fused shut. In short the T-Ship won't be able to separate until we address that problem."
"Cyborg…"
"Also the transport technology Blackfire installed still needs some looking after seeing it could use some adjustments-"
"Cyborg will you let me talk for second." Cyborg closed up his computer and swiftly turned in his seat.
"Talk about what Rob, I have absolutely nothing to say. So I hope you came down here with a damn good apology."
"I didn't have choice Cyborg."
"Yes you did Rob, now either you're too stupid to admit it or you're just too proud."
"Excuse me? Were you asleep the whole time because if you weren't then you would've seen the huge shockwave that eventually destroyed the entire Andale solar system."
"Yeah, yeah I remember. But I also remember Taka still on that sensor while you sent the ship back home," said Cyborg in growing anger.
"There wasn't any time to save her and everyone-"
"What happened to 'leave no man behind'? I thought we cared about our people, I thought that's what separated us from Anubis!"
"It does," said Robin in a desperate attempt to get through to his friend. Cyborg just kept looking at him with nothing short of contempt. "Cyborg we were trying to beam you both out, we took a hit, we lost a lot of power, and the computer randomly selected one of you to bring back. It was nobody's fault but the one's shooting at us." Cyborg shook his head.
"I ran a diagnostic of that time frame; my readings indicated that there was in fact just enough power to get both of us safely on board." Robin ran a hand through his hair.
"Yes I know what you're talking about, but I'm afraid it's not like that. Making another transport would have drained our power cells to maximum entropy and we wouldn't have been able to enter hyperspace." Cyborg narrowed his eyes. "I made a call to save as many as I could."
"Yeah well, you forgot one."
"Come on Cyborg-"
"No, I don't think so Robin. You turned and left leaving Taka on that station with God knows what."
"Hold a second; I seem to remember telling you 'Cyborg I don't think she's ready, she needs more experience'. But you told me to send her in there anyway."
"Don't even start by telling me it's my fault."
"I'm not, what I'm saying is you made a recommendation and I went by it. Now this is something we're both going to have to live with." Cyborg crossed his arms and turned away. "Cyborg I wake up everyday afraid that today is going to be the day I have to give one of my friends and family an order that may result in their death. Having to make decisions sometimes based on bad information, and if I'm wrong I suffer the consequences. And you would have had to deal with the same thing had you stayed as the leader of Titans East."
"I wouldn't have left our people behind."
"I WANTED TO GO BACK FOR HER BUT I COULDN'T!"
"YOU WOULD'VE GONE BACK FOR STARFIRE AND YOU KNOW IT!" Robin was at a loss for words. He and Cyborg had had arguments before, but never like this. Cyborg's face was practically twitching. Robin stepped back and nodded.
"You're right I would have, and I would've gotten us all killed doing it."
"You're unbelievable, why won't you just admit you were in the wrong!"
"Because I was and I wasn't, you were there Cyborg you saw how little time we had." But Cyborg had apparently had enough of their discussion.
"Get out." Robin looked up at him despondently. "And don't come back." Cyborg said no more to him and went back to his computer. Robin could do nothing but take his leave.
ROBIN AND STAR'S ROOM………………
Starfire sat in their room eating her food glumly. She often spoke to Robin about coming back to the tower for old time's sake. Though every time she did she pictured it far more enjoyable than what they'd so far experienced. Robin came in and landed himself down on their bed. He rested his face in his hands prompting Starfire to sit down beside him. She rubbed his back comfortingly.
"Robin? Are you okay?" He pulled his face up with his mouth slacked open.
"No Star; you're not okay, Cyborg's not okay, Raven's not okay, no one here's okay!" He knocked away a chair in frustration making Starfire jump. He sat back down and sighed raggedly. "And there's not a thing I can do about it. What does it even matter if I'm okay or not?"
"It matters to me Robin," said Starfire her eyes wide imploring him to understand. He didn't look convinced so she reached inside her shirt and pulled out her half of the locket that held Robin's picture. "Caring deeply for one another is part of our vocation, and my life." She placed a hand on his cheek and turned his face to hers. She kissed him tenderly and he fell into her touch.
CYBORG'S ROOM……………
He sat hunkered over his computer trying to take his mind off the angered and heated debate that just took place. 'How thick and full of himself can a guy get?' thought Cyborg. He sighed and rubbed his face. "Man I wish you were here Taka."
"Cyborg." He looked up and slowly swiveled around in his chair. His mouth trembled and he knocked over a pencil holder when he saw Taka standing before him. She was dressed in dazzling white and was smiling warmly.
"Ta-Tak-Taka…" Her smiled widened.
"Hello Cyborg." He stood up but almost fell down. He was transfixed by the soft glow that made her beautiful features stand out. He wasn't sure if he should scoop her up in a tight hug or run out of the room in pure fear. She put up a reassuring hand. "Don't be afraid Cyborg, it's me." Cyborg felt his mechanical legs give out and he lowered himself down to the cold floor.
"Y-You're alive…" Her face fell somewhat and she shook her head.
"No, Anubis destroyed the entire system. Myand'r and I both perished in the blast." Cyborg still wasn't sure if he was hallucinating or not.
"What're you doing here?" She laced her hands together. "I mean, shouldn't you be in Heaven or something?"
"Well, simplistically I'm in the middle of a cleansing."
"Cleansing?"
"As you may recall I was a vicious assassin for a while, can't get into Heaven with that on my shoulders. You could say I'm in a purgatorial state. But that's only half of why I came. I wanted to see how you were doing?" Cyborg stared up at her concerned face and did his best to hide away his before breaking into silent tears. She immediate sat down next to him though he felt the floor around him warm up. "Ohhh Cyborg, it's okay." She cooed gently running a hand over his head. "It's okay…"
"No," he sobbed. "You're dead." He sputtered out another choking sob.
"But you're not, look at me." He did. "You can still make a difference, I will not have you sitting here and mourning me for days on end."
"But I want to," said Cyborg now over the initial shock of seeing a dead person appear before him. "I want to make sure you have a proper farewell." Taka smiled but shook her head.
"There is time for that later, right now you should all be focused on the task at hand; just as Blackfire is."
"Blackfire?"
"You'll see later. I can't stay for very long." Cyborg quickly took her hands.
"Oh yes you can, you're gonna spend the night here and then you'll keep coming back and coming back and…" He trailed off as he became lost in simply looking at her. "You're so beautiful, especially as an angel." Taka chuckled in a flattered way.
"We don't become angels Cyborg."
"Could've fooled me." Taka adopted a more business-like demeanor.
"I've also come to warn you, Anubis views what you all did only as a minor set back. Soon he will come again and try to steal Starfire and her child. You must do what you can to help Robin protect her." Cyborg's face grew hard.
"He's so confident, he can do it by himself." Taka folded her hands and sighed.
"There's something I need you to do for me Cyborg."
"Anything," he answered in a faraway voice.
"I want you to forgive Robin." Cyborg looked as if he got a high fever.
"I can't, he left you behind when he could've gone back for you-" She silenced him.
"I told him to leave me."
"You…what?"
"I was dying Cyborg, even if he had the chance to beam me away you could not have saved me. Robin was in a terrible position and he made the best choice he could to save as many lives as possible."
"But.."
"What is done is done, don't presume to judge others simply by what you've seen or heard. And please don't destroy a friendship which you truly value even now. You will all need each other very shortly."
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Cyborg curiously.
"Well technically I can't directly interfere with anything, but I can guide you along the way. Such is part of my cleansing." She stood up. "I'm afraid I must go now." Cyborg shot up.
"No! No, please don't go. Stay for just a little while longer…five minuets." She hugged him tightly and he felt nothing but warmth and comfort. Much to his dismay she pulled away and stood before him.
"I am sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that when the time comes you will all stand before Anubis, and you will be victorious." Cyborg laughed lightly in a half hearted way.
"If you say so." Taka smiled and sniffled looking almost saddened herself.
"I'm gonna miss you guys." Cyborg returned her smile and nodded.
"Yeah, you too."
"Don't worry Cyborg I know you will all find your way, because I'm going to help you get there." Cyborg glanced down and saw a few pencils from the holder he knocked over. He bent down to pick them up.
"What's that mean?" But when he straightened back up he saw that she was gone. He felt his spirits falling as he would rather she not have come than appear for a while then vanish. It was if she was being dangled in front of him. But a voice in his heart told him that was wrong and that she was closer to him now more than ever.
MEANWHILE…………
Blackfire sat in the exact same spot she had been for the past several hours. She kept looking and staring at the triangle hoping a memory from Arameth would resurface. She would get flashes of when he spoke with Anubis and taking orders, and chasing Taka down a snowy hillside. She closed her eyes feeling something drawing closer and closer. She saw through her own eyes as Arameth bowed before Anubis and received the order to retrieve the triangle.
"My lord, I beg to ask; what is the significance of something so small?"
"Yet only ancestors would be able to understand Arameth." Her vision ended and Blackfire's eyes opened. She tried to attach relevance to what she just saw and how her own people might address this probl- She stopped thinking as it finally came to her. Her eyes wide and her mouth open she slowly stood up.
"I've got it," she whispered. She sprinted out of her new room and glided down the halls. "Robin! I've got it!"
I so want to keep going but I really can't because I just realized I have homework I need to get done, and I'm afraid school has to come first. Yes please feel free to throw wadded up pieces of paper at me. Just like that kid in everyone's class who tells the teacher he/she forgot to assign homework at the end of the day. So, hope you liked this chapter and next one is on its way.
Happy very late Valentines Day