Chapter 10Divine Intervention

"Friend Raven?"

A tall, slim figure edged its way closer to Ravens' door. The sound of crying was loud enough to waken the slumbering Garootopilak from its underground home. Starfire knocked worriedly on the cold metal, wondering what could have distressed her friend so.

"...Go away..." said Raven, in between heavy sobs.

"But Raven, you are crying. You are my friend and I wish to know why."

"You wouldn't understand..." Raven crawled onto her bed and assumed the fetal position, sobbing into her knees.

"Does it have to do with Aqualad? Is that why you wish not to talk about it?" Starfire questioned.

It was amazing. When Raven first met Starfire, it was like the intelligent goth meeting the popular and stupid cheerleader. Starfire would always try to pry into Ravens' life, asking for trips to the mall, and to do her hair and whatnot. Raven had thought that Star was only skin-deep, a beutiful, intrusive, annoying shell. But as she got to know her, Raven discovered a unique depth to the Tamaranean. The empath dicovered her inquisitiveness, her desire to understand this new world. They started talking like friends, about what was in, and their interests, and their pasts. And then it all made sense. Starfire was so cheery and happy, to escape a violent past. They were more similar than Raven had thought. And, Starfire, was able to read people. And she was good at it too.

"Raven..."

The mechanical door opened, revealing Starfire, worried, and carrying what looked like chocolate mint ice cream with mustard.

"Do you wish to partake of my midnight snack?" The tamaranean held out the bowl.

Raven shook her head, and invited Star into the room.

"Now, Raven," Starfires' voice becane sternly sympathetic. "Please tell me what happened."

"I made a terrible mistake." Raven walked over to the window in her room, and looked out at the ocean. "I gave up something that I needed to survive."

"Aqualad?" Starfire said, through a mouthful of ice cream and mustard.

Raven smiled softly, in an act of assurance.

"What mistake could you have possibly made?" Starfire asked.

"I went out tonight. With Gage..." Raven started to cry again.

"GAGE?" Starfire jumped up. "You cannot possibly mean unpleasant, pale, skinny Gage, can you?"

Raven turned around, surprised. Since when did Starfire say anything bad about anyone?

"What are you talking about?"

"Friend Raven!" Star clutched her by the shoulders. "Do you honestly not remember why you left Gage in the first place? He was entirely unpleasant to you!"

The memories returned in a flood of bad images. Raven remembered. Gage would always con her into paying for him, buying him things, and would show no respect. He would lie, mislead her, ogle other girls...But, in a way, Gage was a big help. He showed Raven that she deserved so much better. It was his fault that she fell in love with Aqualad. Gage showed her the negative, the bad side to people. She had always thought that this was the best she could do, until that fateful sea adventure. Aqualad was so chivalrous, so gallant. It wasn't shortly after that Raven broke up with Gage. She must have been weak. In her state of impromptu singleness, she forgot all the bad memories of Gage, in an attempt to forget all of the memories of Aqualad. But thank God for good friends.

"Thank you so much Star," Raven took a seat on the edge of her bed. "You've helped me solve half of my problem."

"And the other half is to re-acquire the love of friend Aqualad, correct?" Star sat next to the empath, who promptly leaned her head on the Tamaraneans' shoulder.

"How do I do that?" Rae asked, while taking the bowl of mustard chocolate mint ice cream from Star.

"Why do you not just go over to the Titans East tower, and declare Merenielra?"

"What?" Raven asked, staring at the alien girl.

"Undying love and devotion." Star smiled at her.

It was so simple, so elegant. Raven took a spoonful of ice cream, and the two friends planned an alibi.

Aqualad trudged up the steps to the living room. Bumblebee had called all of the team in for an impromptu meeting. And the leader made a point of it to scold him especially, for being excessively mopey and lacking in his crimefighting, despite Zam and Speedys' attempts to convince her otherwise.

"Good, you're all here." Bee scanned the room, accounting each member. "Now, I called you all up here to..."

"Yeah, yeah, we've been lacking in the crime-fighting, we know." Speedy interrupted, busy fixing his hair.

"We've already scheduled extra trainings for this weekend!" Zam whined.

"¡Somos cansados!" Mas grumbled.
"¡Reclinémosnos!" Menos pleaded.

Bumblebee crossed her arms, and glared at her team.

"That's good,"Bee started. "But it is not what I called you up here for."

"Then why are we here?" Speedy asked annoyedly.
"The Titans West are coming over for a few days, and I called 'yall up here to tell you to clean the place up! It's a mess!"
Aqualad stared in disbelief at the teams' leader. How could they be coming over here? What could have possessed them? The Atlantean looked hopefully at Zam and Speedy, praying that something in their faces spoke of a plan to avoid this altogether. But to no avail. Aqualad stared blankly into the panoramic window, thinking of a way to get out of this. He decided, that he knew enough about Ravens' personality to know that she would never come here, especially after the messy break-up. She probably wouldn't show up! Yeah, right. Raven probably wanted to kill him. Thats' how strong she was.
"...When are they coming?" Aqualad asked, face downcast.
"Tomorrow. Thats why this tower needs to be spotless TODAY." Bee answered sternly. The team gave a collective grumble.
Tomorrow. The first day of the end of his life.