Chapter Eight: Beast Boy
I stared at the black TV screen in horror, my green hands still stuck to the controller. "No…!" I whispered, my voice cracking from a spiteful sort of surprise. "No…way…"
The door burst open behind me, and two shadowy figures ran toward me, a green shine emanating across the room. "Beast Boy!" Star said. "Are you unharmed?"
I turned to face them at a snail's pace.
"Are you?" Robin asked, hurrying closer with Starfire at his heels. "Beast Boy?"
"The… the…"
"The…" Starfire urged me to talk.
"The game!" I exclaimed unexpectedly. "The power went out right before I beat the level! And right before I beat Cy's high score!"
Robin rolled his eyes and sighed. Starfire just gave me this odd look, as if she didn't' understand the high score's importance.
"Hey," said a voice from the door. "Did I just hear that BB didn't beat my high score 'cause of this stinkin' power failure?"
Starfire nodded, her odd look forming a smile. "Yes, Cyborg, Beast Boy was just explaining-"
"Ohh, yeah! No one beats Cy at the Gamestation!"
I crossed my arms and leaned back on the couch. "Fine. But I'll beat it later. Once the power's back on."
The room was surprisingly quiet. I didn't remember a time when it was this quiet.
"Where is Raven?" asked Starfire.
Nevermind about the silence, I guess.
"I dunno. You guys seen her?"
"No," Robin answered. Cyborg shook his head.
"In her room?" I asked. We all began walking there.
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Chapter Nine: Robin
I followed Beast Boy, Starfire, and Cyborg as they walked down the hall to Raven's room. It figured that she would be in her room, but it was anyone's guess about what she was doing.
Beast Boy slowed down, as did everyone else. He tapped on the door lightly a few times.
"Perhaps she isn't in there?" Starfire asked.
But from inside, there was a chanting voice saying again and again, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath…"
BB knocked again. Again, there was only chanting.
Starfire tapped my shoulder lightly. "Robin, perhaps she is meditating, and cannot hear us?"
I nodded and opened the door myself. Sure enough, once Star lit the room, we could see Raven floating cross-legged above her bed, chanting, surrounded by candles and incense.
"Yo, Raven!" Cyborg said loudly.
"I do not believe Raven can hear us," Starfire said a second time.
Beast Boy's mouth twisted into a cynical smile. "Well, then," he said with a smirk. He walked closer until he was right next to her. With great ostentation, he raised both hands and clapped them a few centimeters from her face.
There was silence. And then Cyborg began to laugh.
"Dude!" BB cried out. "No fair!"
Cyborg just kept laughing. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
"Perhaps we should simply wait until she is done…?" Starfire asked.
"Nah, it'll be more fun trying to figure out how to snap her out of her trance-thing!" BB smiled again and pinched her nose, knocking off her hood. Nothing happened.
Cyborg ran over to her and licked his finger, then showily stuck it in her ear.
Again, nothing happen. "Now that's just disgusting," I muttered. "Starfire's right. We should just wait until she's done."
They both stepped away from her. "Fine," Beast Boy whined. "I'll leave her alone… But wait!" His face lit up with a grin only just small enough to fit across his green face.
"Um.." Starfire tried. I shook my head.
"Just leave it, Star. Maybe it'll work. And it can't be any worse than what they already did!"
She nodded and watched.
BB bent down, close to her ear. What was he going to do? Kiss her cheek?
I rolled my eyes at the thought. That would probably work, but he would get a severe punishment for it from Raven. And plus, he wouldn't think of that anyway…. Would he?
He raised a hand next to his mouth, and whispered in a serious tone, "Terra's. Back."
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Chapter Ten: Raven
I sat of the edge of the rocky surface, meditating inside of my mind. An unexpected voice echoed from above me and buzzed around my ears like a giant, horrid mosquito.
"Terra's. Back." The voice echoed over and over again. "Terra's. Back. "Terra's. Back. Terra's. Back. Ter-"
Realization struck me, and I opened my eyes. Back? Terra? This couldn't be… she was encased with stone in her rocky tomb!
I forced myself back to reality and opened my real eyes. I let out a quick gasp of air as my mind refocused to face the actual world. Beast Boy stood at my left, Cyborg at my right, and Starfire and Robin were halfway between the door and me.
"Terra's back!" I asked in alarm. "But she's-"
Beast Boy cracked a grin. "Just kidding! I told you it would work!" He stuck his tongue out at Cyborg.
"It was," I said slowly. "A joke?"
Cyborg grinned idiotically, his face identical to Beast Boy's. Robin and Starfire nodded.
"Why," I said in that same, slow, serious, warning tone. "Why would you think I would find that in the least bit amusing?" The candles around me went out, one by one.
Careful, Raven, I thought. Control the emotion. She wasn't back, it was simply a cruel joke. An incredibly cruel joke played by a fellow teammate.
I narrowed my eyes and glared at Beast Boy. He didn't answer my question; I knew he wouldn't. "Well," I said softly. "What did you fools want so much that you dared come in my room to tell me a joke that wasn't funny and then make me break my concentration by telling me that a girl I despise and assumed was dead was actually alive and well?"
The four of them were frozen there, the insult sinking in, taking it's time.
"Well, we just wanted to let you know that the power is out," Robin said snappishly.
"Sorry if we disturbed your peace!" Beast Boy said in the same sort of tone.
They all turned to the door and began to walk into the hallway. The door closed behind them and my room was silent. Pitch black, too.
I closed my eyes and began meditating again, though not so deeply as before. I wouldn't need my powers until tomorrow if any luck was on my side, and it wouldn't matter how into my senses I was.
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Chapter Eleven: Starfire
The gentle shine of green light from my hand spread across the main room like some sort of blanket of radiance. Robin was sitting on the couch silently while Beast Boy was talking to Cyborg in a furious voice.
"It's not my fault she can't take a joke!" He was saying, fuming. His eyes sparked maliciously. "I'm betting she doesn't even have a sense of humor!"
Cyborg just stood there, leaning against the counter, nodding in agreement. For some reason, I thought that he was simply doing that so he wouldn't have to argue with him.
I turned my gaze to Robin and wandered over. "Are you unhappy with the outage of power?" I asked.
He shrugged and spoke, "No, not exactly. Well, kind of."
I looked at him worriedly. "Is something wrong?"
"Starfire…" he sighed. "I don't know if this is just a glitch, or if this is actually a sly plan by some villain. All of our systems are down -the city mapping system, the villain alert system, the security system- and we virtually helpless. If this is the fault of someone, then that someone –whoever they are- has a big advantage. And since the lights are off, we wouldn't know if anyone else is in the Tower until..."
He stopped. "Until?" I asked.
"Until," he said slowly and sadly, "they show themselves to us. And that would mean an attack."
I nodded, trying not to look worried. He was already distressed by the lack of electricity, and I should not worry him further by inquiring the problem's cause.
My train of thought broke as the main door opened behind us. I spun around.
A shadowy figure walked in as if gliding, a dark cape flowing behind it. Beast Boy stopped talking hastily. Cyborg and Robin stood and faced the person.
"Who is it?" I asked cautiously, raising my hand. The figure glided into the shadows and mumbled something.
"What'd it say?" Beast Boy asked almost inaudibly. He was as confused as me. Who was it? Was it that stranger that Robin had been talking about?
I gasped and attempted to step closer, but Robin stopped me. Was he thinking the same thoughts as I was? I raised my hand a little higher to shine more light.
The figure mumbled something again and shielded its eyes, the outline of its body very faint along the wall.
"What do you want?" I asked. "And who are you?"
The stranger raised its voice. "It's me, Star. I asked if you could lower that light. It hurts my eyes."
"Raven?" Robin asked.
"No, I'm really Slade in a Raven costume, and I just happen to sound exactly like her because I stole her vocal cords. Who do you think it is? Now, can you put that light out?"
I nodded and lowered my hand. Raven stepped forward out of the shadows and put down her hood.
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Chapter Twelve: Cyborg
"Great, it's I-Have-No-Sense-Of-Humor Girl," BB mumbled beside me. I hoped Raven didn't hear it. She already had one reason to beat up the little green dude.
"Cyborg?" Starfire asked randomly.
"Yeah?" I replied.
"Could you possibly light the area more? Your light-"
"I can't. Sorry, Star. If this blackout lasts a while, I might need that energy to do other stuff."
"Oh," she looked at the ground, obviously disappointed. "I was simply getting a bit of the tired, but I wouldn't want any of you to have to be in the dark."
"Tired? Thought so."
I looked at Raven, who had spoken. She was still half-encased by the shadows, however I could see her raise her hand. A medium-sized box was in it.
"What's that?" BB asked. He must have forgotten that he was supposed to be mad.
"Flashlights. Six of them. We can each have one until we go to sleep, and then we'll simply turn them off. If we run out of batteries, I found some extra in my closet. And we have the spare flashlight."
"Great idea, Raven," Robin said appreciatively. She handed him one, then one to Starfire, then one to Beast Boy, and, finally, one to me.
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Chapter Thirteen: Raven
I put the box of flashlights down and held onto mine with a loose grip. I seriously doubted that I would need it- I had candles in my room, after all, and once I was done with them, I would go straight to bed.
I yawned and blinked sleepily. "I'm going to sleep," I said decisively.
The four of them nodded, and Starfire said, "Good night, friend."
I turned on my heel and walked out the open door to my bedroom.
As soon as I got there, I sat on my bed and sighed. Terra wasn't back, I reminded myself. I don't know why that news scared me. I was the one who said that we'd be searching for a cure, wasn't I? I did, and we are… but now, I'm regretting ever thinking that.
Terra had invaded our home, betrayed us, almost destroyed us. It was a miracle that all five of us had met up after she had defeated us, one by one. And it was a miracle that I got all of that mud out of my cloak. It was nearly impossible!
I yawned and laughed quietly. For some reason, my voice echoing throughout my empty room began to become eerily unfamiliar, as if it wasn't my own. I shivered and crawled under my black, satin sheets, forgetting about my cloak entirely. After a moment, I took it off and threw it onto my floor.
Ah, well, I could put it away later. Tomorrow. Sometime when it wasn't pitch black, and sometime when we weren't unsure what had caused this blackout.
I shivered again, a cold kind of feeling creeping through every bone in my body. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but that seemed impossible. Almost as impossible as getting the mud out of my cloak…
My head filled with thoughts of betrayal and Terra's return, I fell into a deep, troubled sleep.
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Chapter Fourteen: Beast Boy
I tossed the flashlight up and down in my hands, wondering if I, too, should go to bed. I mean, my lovely green skin needs its beauty sleep to stay green and fresh!
I laughed at the thought, and Cyborg looked down at me like I was strange. Strange? Me?
I just grinned and then looked outside. It was still raining, though not as heavily.
"Hey," I thought aloud. "Don't we have a generator?"
Robin looked up from his discussion with Starfire. "Do we?"
Cyborg's normal eye lit up happily. "We do! And it's in…" he paused.
I sighed. "Don't tell me; it's in Raven's room?"
He nodded.
"Great. Now we'll have to go into Miss Happy's room."
Robin glared at me. "Do you want to play Gamestation, or don't you? Do you want to have warm tofu? Do you want to have to sleep in the dark?"
I shivered. "Fine, but only because of the warm tofu thing!" I wasn't going to let them know that I hated sleeping in the dark. Especially during thunderstorms, and especially when Miss Happy was mad at me. She'd never done anything to me yet, but between that Terra thing and the tea-spillage junk, I'm not sure what punishment she would lay on me. That is, of course, saying that she would do something, and not just go to sleep like she said she would. So she could do nothing, or she could do something bad. But it all depended on-
Wait a minute. Why did it matter? I shrugged to myself and laughed again.
"So, should we go get it?" I asked, and Robin nodded.
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Chapter Fifteen: Robin
We walked down the hallway, up the stairs, and down yet another hallway in the dark, with only the bouncing light of my flashlight bobbing along the floor in rhythm with my footsteps. I ran my fingers through my black, gelled hair tiredly and smirked, wondering what Raven would act like when we barged in on what I hoped would be her peaceful slumber. Chances were, though, that it would be the farthest thing from peaceful.
After all, Raven was definitely rattled when she thought that Terra had come back, and that in and of itself would probably develop into more problems later.
We arrived at the door too soon for my preference, and obviously Beast Boy's, too. He slinked back behind Cyborg and Starfire when I asked if he wanted to knock.
"Well, man, that leaves you!" Cyborg said with a nervous grin.
I shrugged and knocked loudly on her door. "Raven?" I asked loudly, perhaps too loudly. My voice carried down the hallway and faded away before I spoke again. "Is there a generator in your room? I mean, your closet?"
Silence.
"Should we go in?" Star asked, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder.
I shrugged and looked at the other two. "I don't know. Should we?"
Cyborg shrugged back at me. "I guess it has to go better than before, right?"
Beast Boy said nothing.
"Alright," I said. "We're going in, whether she likes it or not."
