Disclaimer: It's always the same, only this time, I don't own Vulcans or Star Trek either.
XxX
When the door was opened to their current living area, even in the tough conditions that they were facing, one would have expected to hear several different things as the Titans returned from their mission. You may have expected to hear Beast Boy crack a joke, coupled with Raven's immediate complaint and Terra's soft laughter. You may have expected to hear Starfire trying to start up a conversation with someone. You may have expected to hear Cyborg praying that neither the police nor Slade had touched his baby, a.k.a. his car.
Tonight, everything was different. There was silence when the door was opened. The Teen Titans walked in and, for the first time, felt truly defeated. Not that they had been defeated in battle, but that they had been defeated in their mission, purpose, and will to protect Jump City. Cyborg sat down on one of the couches and put his head in his hands, shaking his head as he did. Raven levitated herself and began to silently meditate, attempting to purge the emotions she currently felt and failing miserably. Beast Boy started to walk towards his room, head and shoulders low. Before he got there, Starfire flew in front of him. Once again, she hugged him. It was not a boyfriend/girlfriend hug or even a between-friends hug. It was a comforting hug. As the tears started to come to his eyes, BB quickly pulled away and went to his room, closing the door behind him.
Cyborg sat up. He looked at the three girls in the room. "I don't know about the rest of you, but that's it I won't stand by and watch while another innocent person is killed. I'll die before another cop does."
Silence returned to the room. Then, "I agree," replied Starfire. "The cost is too high. We must escape from Slade before he forces us to kill anyone else."
"I hate to always be the bearer of bad news," came Raven's response, "but exactly how do we plan on escaping from Slade and still living afterwards?"
Terra quickly responded, "By using the one good thing that may have come because of what happened today."
"Yeah? Like what?" Cyborg scoffed.
"How that we've actually killed someone for Slade, he'll probably believe that we'll do more for him."
Star piped up, "Terra may have a good point. Slade has most likely pushed us as far as he could. He may believe that we will now be less resistant to his instructions."
"So how does this work for us?" Raven asked. "I mean, he's not just going to let go of the leash he has us on all of a sudden."
"True," replied Cyborg, "but I might be able to construct something that can temporarily disrupt his signal that he has going into the devices he's planted in our comms. Then, we just take out the comms and we make our move."
"Wouldn't you need scans of the communication devices to try to implement this plan?" asked Terra.
"I've been doing my homework," said Cyborg. "I've already taken several scans of the devices to see how their internal mechanisms work. I've been looking for a way to disrupt the signals and I think I've found one." Cyborg paused momentarily, then continued. "There is one foreseeable problem."
"And what is that?" asked Star.
"I won't be able to conduct a trial run on this test. Meaning that once we go, we go. We either succeed and get away from Slade, or he sees what we're doing, and kills us."
Silence filled the room as the Titans pondered their current predicament. Terra was the first to speak. "At this point, I don't care if Slade kills me. I will not help him. I will not. He's already caused all of us too much pain."
"I'm with you," Raven said. "He's pushed us too far. Stealing for him is one thing. But killing - ," pausing for effect, " – there is not way in hell that I'm going to kill someone for Slade."
The three Titans looked at Starfire. She looked up at them. "I agree, but I do not wish to leave…." her voice trailed off as she started to tear up.
"Robin." Raven looked at Star. "Starfire, I don't think that there's anything that we can do for him. He has thrown in his hat with Slade. We can't change that. He must change his own mind."
Cyborg eyes then lighted up, as the proverbial lightbulb went on. "Hey, Rae. Have you sensed any sort of mind control on Robin? Maybe Slade is controlling him or something."
"Come to think of it, I haven't sensed much of anything from Robin. It's like I don't even know him anymore, like he's a totally different person."
"I don't know about you guys," said Terra, "but I think it might be possible that that person isn't our Robin. Not the real one."
"Meaning?" asked Star.
"Meaning that once we get out of here, we should try to find him. But, in order to get away, we're going to have to take him out." Starfire seemed unsettled by the prospect of hurting Robin, but Terra came back in, saying, "If we don't, Robin will tip Slade off, and this little insurgency will be over about two seconds after it starts."
Starfire still seemed unsettled, but then said, "Alright."
"Then it's settled," Cyborg said as he stood up. "On our next mission, we're going to break away from Slade." He started to move towards his own room. "I'm going to look at the scans I've taken of the comms and I'll see if I can find a weakness in them." The door closed behind him as he walked away.
Terra then stood. "I'm going to go talk to him."
XxX
The tears continued to flow silently as Beast Boy played the scene in his head over and over. (A/N: while writing this entire scene, I continually played really sad music from Wolf's Rain. It's really good inspiration for sad stuff.)
FLASHBACK
Beast Boy stood there as Terra screamed. He closed his eyes to block out her cries, but that only intensified them. I can't kill this guy, he thought. I can't. He then opened his eyes and felt himself start to cry. As he opened his eyes, they fell onto a loaded pistol. He then closed them again. No, no I can't.
He opened them again. Once again, they fell on the pistol. Do I let him die, or do I let Terra die? he asked himself. Tears flowed freely and fell to the pavement. Slowly, he reached down. He felt himself pick up the weapon. NO! Nononononono I can't do this, I just can't. He picked up the gun. As he started to sob, he pointed it at the man's forehead How can I do this? he asked himself. How can I kill an innocent man?
He looked the police officer directly in the eye, and saw a totally unexpected emotion. Not anger or hate or fear. Understanding. Then, the man spoke, "I don't blame you for doing this."
Beast Boy continued to cry. I'm about to kill him, and he doesn't blame me! He should hate me, why doesn't he HATE ME! He closed his eyes and lifted his head upwards. Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod. He felt his finger tighten on the trigger. He reopened his eyes and looked directly at the police officer. God, forgive me! he silently screamed in his head.
Suddenly, he heard a massive bang. He blinked involuntarily and when he saw again, he saw the man lying on the ground. Dead. His eyes were devoid of any sign of life. His blood flowed out of the back of his head. Beast Boy started to shake. Oh, my God. What have I done? He then started to sob. He screamed in anger and threw the pistol through a window into a nearby police cruiser. He dropped to his knees, sobbing. As he drowned in his own thoughts, he felt arms pull him up and close to someone. He didn't know who. He didn't care. All he could think, over and over, was I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I killed...
END OF FLASHBACK
A knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts. He didn't answer. He heard the door open. Then a familiar voice sounded, "Beast Boy, are you okay?" It was Terra.
BB laughed. "Am I okay?" He turned around to look at her. "I just killed someone, and you ask me if I'm OKAY!" he screamed at her. He then turned away. He heard her continue to walk towards him. She sat down in front of him.
As her eyes began to fill with tears, she said to him, "I'm so sorry. I should have done something so that you wouldn't have to do that. I'm so - ,"
"No, you didn't do anything," BB interrupted. "There wasn't anything that you could have done," he said, his voice breaking as he spoke.
"Gar," she said, using his real name for the first time. "I'm just so sorry."
Though Beast Boy had tried to keep his composure, he felt a lump in his throat and he felt his chest begin to tighten. He looked down as tears fell to the bed. He felt Terra's arms pull her close to him. She wrapped her arms around him. He encircled her with his arms, putting his head on her shoulder, and crying. All he could say, over and over was, "I killed him. I killed him. I killed him."
She then pulled him up and looked at him. "No," she said. "It wasn't your fault." She paused before continuing. "It was him. He forced you to do it." His eyes fell downwards, but then she shook him, making him look back up at her. "It wasn't your fault."
She then pulled him back into the hug. He kept crying, and she laid her hand on his head, saying softly, "It's okay. I'm here for you. I'm here." She continued to hold him, and as the night went on, she began to realize something. I love him.
XxX
The next day, the briefing began again, as if nothing unusual had happened the day before. Once again, Slade was at the head of the table, with the six Titans sitting on the sides, three on each side. Slade was speaking again, but the Titans weren't really paying attention. They were actually thinking about what they planned to do today and how it would affect them in the days to come. Some of the Titans periodically asked questions to make it seem as though they were interested when they were not actually paying any attention at all.
The Titans were on their way to their target building, the Jump City Science Research and Development Center. They drove/flew in silence. BB glanced over at Cyborg, waiting for the sign. Cyborg didn't look back over, so Beast Boy waited, biding his time. Then, he saw Cy nod.
BB landed on the ground and demorphed. He stood directly in the path of Robin, who was speeding up on the R-Cycle. He quickly stopped just short of hitting Beast Boy. He looked at BB with contempt in his eyes. "What do you want?"
BB walked towards Robin, keeping his head and eyes away from Robin's field of vision. "I just want to ask you something," he said. Without any warning or noise, he swung his fist towards Robin's head as hard as he could. Before Robin could even react, the blow connected solidly with the side of his head, sending him flying off of the R-Cycle. He landed on the ground, knocked unconscious.
No sooner had this happened did Cyborg start to work some buttons on his arm. He then nodded. Each of the five remaining Titans took their comm devices out of their ears, laying them on the ground. They then began to run down the block, trying to get out of the range of the comms so that they could talk without Slade listening in on them.
They turned a corner and went down a dark alley. Cyborg kept his eyes on the display in his arm, waiting for the coast to be clear. His indicator light changed from red to green. He stopped and turned around. "We're out of range. We can talk now."
"So," BB said, trying to catch his breath, "where do we go from here?"
"There's a safehouse nearby, remember?" Cyborg said. "We planted about four of them in the city after the H.I.V.E. managed to beat us in our own tower. We can head there."
XxX
About an hour and a half later, the Titans arrived at the safehouse. It normally wouldn't have taken them that long to get there, save for the fact that they had to avoid the now ever-present JCPD patrols that were on the lookout for them. The Titans all spread out around the safehouse, leaving themselves to their own thoughts.
Raven went over to BB and sat down next to him. "Hey," she said.
He looked up, seeming surprised that she was there. "Oh, hi. Is there something you need?"
"No, I just wanted to see if you're okay."
He laughed wryly. "Why?"
Taken aback, she replied, "What do you mean 'why'?"
"I thought that you hated me."
"I don't hate you. It's just that you really annoy me sometimes." He didn't respond, seeming to be put in his place. "And I'm sure that I sometimes annoy you, am I right?" she asked.
He nodded. "That's true."
They sat in silence for a while, until Raven spoke again. "I can help you through this, you know."
"How?"
"I can go into your mind, help you suppress the guilt and anger you feel about this."
He looked up at her, hope in his eyes. "You can really do that?"
"Of course," she said. "I've looked into people's minds before, remember?"
"But…." he stopped in mid-sentence, nervous about continuing. "Would you want to do that? I mean, you suppress your emotions, and if you try to take some of mine away, it might hurt you. It's like you're the emotionless Vulcan who's going to meld with the chaotic human." (A/N: for those of you who know Star Trek)
"What?" she asked, confused beyond reason.
He laughed. "Never mind. But anyways, are you sure you want to?"
She inhaled deeply. "If it will help you, then yes."
"Well, okay then," he replied.
She put her hands on his head, near to his forehead. They both closed their eyes. She then spoke softly. "Azarath Metrion Zynthos." At the last word, she opened her eyes, dark energy pulsing through them. She went through his emotions, trying to find the guilt and anger. Suddenly, like a dam had broken, they all came rushing towards her at the same time. They nearly managed to break her grip on his mind, but she was strong. She continued to siphon away the guilt and anger, taking it into her own mind a little at a time and then suppressing it within herself as she would normally do.
She then removed her hands from his head. He opened his eyes. She looked at him. She still saw that there was guilt and anger, but it was lessened. She saw some of the person who she knew coming back to life. "Whoa," he said.
"What?"
"It's like someone lifted a five hundred pound weight off of my back. Thanks."
She smiled. "I told you I'd help you."
Later, the Titans gathered for a group meeting, trying to decide how they would defeat Slade and how they would, if possible, restore their own public image. They had been talking in circles for about fifteen minutes.
Finally, Raven stood. "Enough!" she yelled. "We are not getting anywhere. We need to address the first and foremost question that we have. How are we going to defeat Slade?"
A voice came from the darkness. "The way I see it, you're short one member." As the Titans processed and recognized the voice, their mouths began to drop. The mystery man stepped from the shadows, revealing first green pants and then the red shirt that they had all come to recognize over the past couple years. The eyes were then revealed next, those mysterious masked eyes. The black spiked hair appeared last.
"You're going to need my help," said Robin.
XxX
Author's Note: And so ends Revelations, Part Two. I've finally finished with Chapter Eight, and now that I've gotten over some pretty bad writer's block, I hope to be getting back into the swing of things. Anyways, what did you think of this cliffhanger? Good? Bad? Horrible? Anyways, till next time on Revelations.
Next on Revelations: The Titans finally get some answers as Robin tells the truth. Answers will shock and surprise you as Revelations races towards its stunning conclusion in Chapter Nine – Roll the Hard Six.