A/N: This story is going to go slooooow. I've sort of, fine, definitely walked away from my fanfiction sight. But, I'll give it a shot to be good. I remember my earlier plans for this story; but any ideas to keep me going are welcome. I haven't watched teen titans for a few years so don't expect this to be too current.
Disclaimer: ditto.
Speedy, Starfire, and I had returned after our 'expedition.' I let them explain things to Robin. When I tried to I always frustrated him by jumping around too much. I just expect people to be able to read my Chant the way I can read theirs. And well…they can't.
As they spoke downstairs I walked up to Beast Boy's room. Pausing outside his door I gave a sharp rap. 'I wonder who that could be…' his chant murmured as he walked towards the door.
I felt a ridiculous surge of pride when I remembered NOT to answer his chant and to let Beast Boy find out on his own. See, I was getting people skills. Sort of.
He opened the door and looked up at me, "Oh, hey Mage." He rubbed the back of his hair and stepped aside to let me in.
I walked in, unable to help smiling at his befuddled expression. "How long are we going to hide Power's from the team?"
'Well, I guess she isn't one to beat around the bush,' Beast Boy closed his door and looked at me, shrugging. "I don't know."
"I don't think we should be hiding them."
He looked away, trying to think. I stayed away from his Chant, though I did have some difficulty to block out a Chant as strong as his. "Neither do I."
For some reason that calmed me, my shoulders slumping a little out of their rigid posture. "So what do we do?" I sat on his bed, looking at him and savoring one of the few times where I got to let someone else make the decisions. He was the one with close ties to the Powers in question, and he knew more of what was going on then I did.
Beast Boy pulled up a seat, his eyebrows knitting together. "I'll go talk to the Power's. I'll see if I can get them to work with the Titans."
"I'd like to go too," he looked up at me with surprise. I arched an eyebrow, unable to hide my slight smile, "I'm not always antisocial."
'Could have fooled me, you're worse then Raven.' He smiled at me, letting me know that thought was meant to be heard.
We both stood to leave, and I stuck my tongue out at him; unable to think of a better response.
Beast Boy got that look, the I'm-going-to-crack-a-bad-joke look. "Don't stick it out if you're not going to use it."
I snapped my tongue back in, never having heard that one before. Though I suppose I probably should have. He just laughed at me, but he was nice about it.
Beast Boy looked back at me, "Race you down stairs!" And he changed into a cheetah and made a break for it.
"Hey!" I started running down the stairs as fast as I could; not much in the mood to use my powers right then. What can I say, I didn't mind loosing too much. At least not in this.
He lounged on the couch, pretending to read a book. 'Hold it, here she comes. I can hear her. Look relaxed, look really relaxed.' "What took you?"
I swatted him with a pillow and headed to the front door. He laughed and jumped up, falling into step beside me. "Beast Boy and I are heading out," I yelled to no one in particular; checking that someone heard me but not bothering to investigate who.
He looked over at me, "Why do you do that?"
"Do what?" Boy was I getting good at not poking around in other people's chants. Oh boy.
'Like you don't know.'
"I don't!" He gave me a weird look, and I realized it had been his chant. Damn. And I'd been doing so well too!
"Ok…so what'd you do? Listen in to the wrong part of my chant?"
"I'm trying to stop listening in. It bothers people," my voice giving hint to my wounded pride.
Beast Boy smiled and let it go, "Always let someone know when you're leaving. We're not your parents."
"Yes, but you're heroes and might need my help at some point. And I think Robin would have a heart attack if he didn't know where everyone was."
Beast Boy laughed again, he handed that laugh out like penny candy in a parade. It was oddly endearing. "Good point."
He turned into an alley and stopped in front of a back door. Well, actually it was a back door that a Power had disguised as a brick wall. But its chant just screamed door. There was no movement for a moment, a feathered girl peaking out the door's window to see who we were. Mind you, all this time it LOOKED like a solid brick wall. I was cheating and reading their chants.
The door swung in, my mind doing a slight flip as the 'wall' managed to simultaneously be a door. I don't know how to explain it, but the Power who had set up the disguise was still telling our eyes that the door was a wall. But at the same time our eyes were telling our brain that the door was opening. So our brain somehow managed to simultaneously accept that it was both a normal wall and an opening door. You wouldn't believe the headache that gave me.
"Come in," she moved aside. The young girl, Anne I believe, stepped aside to allow us entrance to a cramped hallway. On a second glance I realized that the hallway wasn't small; her huge wings took up most of the space.
Avions are an odd race. They have the hollow bones of birds, and a build similar to humans. They always look slightly anorexic. Most of them were. You see, in order to maintain a light enough weight to fly many had to starve themselves. It was a side effect of being part human, their human genes made them too heavy. She had coppery feathers that framed the edges of her face and ran down her flat chest (her kind didn't raise young the way we did. Actually, most avions were infertile. The mix of alien species made them much like a mule, an oddity that couldn't breed.) and the inside of her legs. As a result she wore no shirt (not really needing one) and a skirt so as not to irritate the feathers on her legs. She had long pinion like feathers along her head, forming something almost like hair. Then she had huge wings, each at least as long as she was tall.
Beast Boy and I walked in, inching around her wings. This was rather foolish as she just had to walk back around us to lead us inside. Anne led us to a large room, what was once a kitchen I think. But despite its sink and wires for a stove it didn't sound like a kitchen, it sounded like a meeting room. So I can't be sure.
She turned to Beast Boy, clearly he had come here more then once. "What can I do for you?"
"I'd like to speak with Maria and Tom," he sat down in a nearby chair, I taking the cue to do so as well.
Anne looked at me, cocking her head so her unusually far spread eyes could focus on me. "And her?"
"She's Mage, the girl I talked about. She'd like to speak with them as well." He smiled to let her know it was alright.
Anne nodded, "I'll go tell them."
A few minutes later a man and woman in their late twenties appeared. They were probably the oldest Powers around; aliens not having landed on earth long enough to breed anyone older. Maria appeared completely normal, a tall woman with short brown hair and average brown eyes. She was all together forgettable. She didn't appear to be different from any other human, it was her internal organs that were alien. She probably ate different foods then us, went through puberty differently, and had different pain tolerances. Not to mention that her senses definitely differed from ours.
She looked at me, her eyes sharp and penetrating. And searching. She had very poor eyesight, her alien half probably being nocturnal. Yet her chant whispered about how, 'she smells similar to Garv (A/N: that is Beast Boy's name right?), they must both live in the tower.'
Tom was, adversely, quite clearly a Power. Most original Powers, those who were half human half alien instead of a lesser percentage of alien, were either rather badly disfigured or dead at birth. He…well. His ancestor was similar to some sort of canine. His arms were longer then a normal humans; allowing him to sometimes walk on all fours. His back was painfully bent, a side effect of it having a pelvis that meant him to stand up straight and arms and legs that required him to go on all fours. His face was more human than most half and half Powers, but his jaw still protruded in a sort of muzzle with sharp teeth and far spaced eyes.
He was hurting, how could someone not be in such a situation, but Tom was nice enough. He gave both Garv and I an awkward smile, having difficulty to keep it from appearing that he was baring his teeth. Garv smiled back, "Hey Tom."
"What brings you and your friend here Garv?" his voice was husky and raw, clearly human languages were difficult. That was a common horror of a Half and Half (a Power half human and half alien), they very often had no power of speech in either a human or alien language. Though they could understand quite well.
Beast Boy glanced at me, "Mage and I were wondering how long we'd be expected to hide your movements from our friends."
Maria and Tom focused their gazed on me, Maria asking in a melodic voice, "Yes, and who is this 'Mage'?"
I smiled, a little nervous, "Mage is more of a title really, my name's Amanda."
Tom nodded and lay down, resting his head on his hands. Though from his position I half expected him to have paws. "And what sort of power do you have Amanda?"
It was odd to be called by my original name; I was so used to being called Mage by the entities and now all the humans I met. But it was a gesture of courtesy to tell them my birth name. "I can understand the languages of pretty much everything," once again I had great difficulty to keep that statement from sounding like bragging. That was part of the reason I hated talking of my 'gift.'
That caught Maria's attention, "Everything?"
"Pretty much everything," I corrected, not sure if I wanted her to be interested in me. She didn't seem as nice as Tom. She wasn't cruel, but Maria was the kind who focused more on the big picture then the people who were needed to complete it while Tom was just the opposite. They were probably a good team.
"Give us an example, please," he requested not unkindly.
I sighed and began to decide what I would quote. "The windows are chattering with the sunlight, the floor is grumbling about how it wants to be waxed, and the walls are talking about how serious us 'silly humans' are." It just wasn't possible to form an entity's thoughts into the limited speech of a human.
They didn't seem to believe me but Garv spoke up, "She can ask entities…things to do favors for her."
They both looked at me expectantly and I sighed; then proceeded to try and find an entity in a good mood. Which was surprisingly hard right then. 'Wind?'
'Not now child.'
'Light?'
It just ignored me.
'Electricity?'
The electricity in the walls responded, 'Yes human?'
I smiled, rather relieved as Maria and Tom had begun to believe me a liar—and not a Power to boot. And that could be dangerous. Regular humans weren't to be trusted as far as they were concerned.
'Would you please do something flashy to prove I can talk to you?'
'Any specific requests?'
'Just don't hurt anything please.'
It zipped over through the extension cord and to a tape recorder, taking a little extra effort to glow and be flamboyant. Then the recorder clicked and through some manipulation I will never understand Electricity managed to get it to say, "The girl has spoken to me. I am responding." Then it stopped, only knowing a very small amount of the human language.
'Thank you.'
'Do not worry about it child. Though I do pity you, having to use such a limiting-young-course language as English every day.' It seemed to shudder then the cord stopped glowing and it went back about it's usual business.
Tom looked at me, getting a kick out of it, "And who was that?"
"Electricity, to be specific the part of Electricity that is in your walls." I shrugged, "It's rather fond of over doing things I'm afraid."
Both Maria and Tom looked at each other, silently agreeing that I was indeed a Power. And as I was with Garv I could be trusted. Tom rested his chin back on his paws—uh hands—and thought. 'The titans have two alien members, and two Powers, not to mention many friends who are Powers… I do believe they only have one Pure (pure blooded human) in the group; the other is part machine and so he might understand us fairly well. Perhaps it is best to let them know what we are doing; to a certain extent. They are still young, I wouldn't want to overburden them.'
Maria steepled her fingers and tapped their tips against her chin, 'How can we trust them not to go running to the Pure authorities? It would be best to leave as many Pure's as possible out of this. They could prove dangerous. Not to mention that they are young, could they handle not being able to tell their superiors of their actions?'
I considered the two and their fair concerns. Could the teens handle such a thing? I believed they could. Robin would have a great deal of difficulty with it, being such a straight shooter, but he'd pull through. I'd be shocked if he did the right thing. As to the others, I didn't foresee them having any trouble with keeping the Powers' and whatever they were doing a secret. Provided they were convinced it was the right thing.
This was such a convoluted mess. Sometimes I just wanted to storm out and ditch the whole rat's nest of a problem. But then I always though about how the situation would still be there. Pures and Powers have to figure out how to live together eventually. I just hoped that Tom and Maria knew what they were doing. I wished I knew what they were doing. At this point there was no backing out, whatever they had set up was in full swing and we just had to ride it out.
Tom looked at Beast Boy, "Maria and I need to discuss this, along with the other Powers in our organization. We'll get back to you in a few days."
Beast Boy nodded and we both stood, "Thanks for your time."
