Surrender Chapter Two:
The Incredible Flying Graysons Part One
Dedicated to: Charmed Night Skye,Godsspiker,EvilsAngel,Cherished18, CreativeSpark-read msg at end,TheLion3Wolf8986, Ravenslair,RionVhenteuno-chk msg at end.
Raven threw back her covers, showered, and was headed to breakfast. She sat down on the edge of her bed before heading to breakfast. She inhaled deeply and folded a leg up onto the bed in a half-lotus position as she exhaled.
'This doesn't change anything. Well it does, but at the same time...Ugh, just don't expect things to be all different because you finally said what you felt. I don't know...things are just so strange. I suppose everything will be the same.'
She stood up, grabbed her cloak and walked out her room. At the same time a nervous Robin walked out of his room and into the kitchen. His dread at facing Starfire had not only multiplied but escalated to the point that at the sight of anything the resembled Starfire had led him to cowering like a small child from a slap. The palpable tension that greeted him was not acknowledged by any of the other Teen Titans. Beastboy shrieked at the sight of Robin, Raven and Starfire entering simultaneously from the three different entrances to the kitchen. Cyborg tensed up for a split second and then went back to flipping waffles while whistling inconspicuously. Indecision lingered in the air as the trio approached the seats. Starfire, hesitated before promptly plopping herself at the empty table. Raven, as if not phased by all sat down one seat to the left of the one across from Starfire. Noticing her actions Robin sat down next to Starfire, but across from her. He turned towards Starfire, loosely set his elbows on the tables and smiled at Starfire. Beastboy and Cyborg gulped audibly but Raven only stood towards the cupboard and pulled out her box of teas.
"Good morning, Starfire. I think that we should have a serious talk later. I'm sorry about all this confusion." Despite his somber tone he smiled at her after briefly glancing at Raven with a caring gaze. His voice was apologetic, nurturing and just a bit patronizing.
"Tin man! Pass me the tofu pancakes." Beastboy sat down next to Raven and smiled at her before beginning to scruff down his waffles. Raven gazed idly out of the window while reaching for her tea only to find it missing. She looked at the space puzzled only to find Robin holding her tea.
"You forgot the honey."
Cyborg peered at her sideways. "He's right, you seem a little more spaced out than usual, is something wrong?"
"No." Her monosyllabic reply had no one convinced. She drained her tea cup and began to walk out.
"I'll be on the roof meditating. Don't bother me."
The alarm went off. "Never mind." The Titans hurried towards the Conference Room, and strapped on their gear as Robin typed furiously at the computer.
"It's Mad Mod again. Titans the usual, CONSTANT VIGILENCE! and let's make this quick."
The weary Titans trailed into the Common Room three hours later full of grime, dirt, blood and a mysterious purple liquid. Starfire quietly began to depart for her room.
"Starfire, wait I need to talk to you. Walk with me please."
Robin and Starfire departed in ambiguous silence. Raven transported to the top of the roof and cradled her head on her knees. 'Oh Robin, I don't know what to do.'
"Starfire, I'm sorry if I led you on. I felt like I had been doing a pretty good job of making it clear that you're like I sister to me. I care about you just not in that way."
Starfire's gaze was level with the floor and her shoulders flared as she stopped to wipe her tears and gaze at him.
"Robin, I'm sorry. None of this is your fault. I was acting foolishly and I'm sorry that things are so strange now. I hope things can go back to normal."
Robin outstretched his arms and encompassed Starfire in a hug.
"Starfire, I love you." She beamed up at him tearily.
The Raven that was walking back to her room and had just rounded the hall froze.
"But I hope you understand, that I love Raven more and that I will always be with her no matter what." There was an underlying warning in his voice as if to banish any malice stricken thoughts from Starfire's head. Raven phased into her room clutching at her head, pushing her hair backin a swirl of emotions.
"Friend Robin, I understand and I congratulate you most whole-heartedly." Robin leaned back, saluted her and headed down the opposite end of the hallway. His tall masculine shoulders cut through the hallway as Starfire's retreating figure seemed even more feminine and weaker despite her intergalactic strength.
Ironically the three Titans stepped out of their showers at the same time. Raven quickly dressed and burst into Robin's room. The towel clad teenager was bracing himself against his writing desk, tense muscles straining and face set in a scowlas he looked at what was in his hand.
"We need to talk. By the way, what is that?" Raven's tone was ominous and it didn't surprise him.
The Boy Wonder turned wrapped his arms around a stiff Raven, buried his strained face in her hair,discarded the strange peice of paper he had been holding,and responded.
"A note from Slade. It's about my parents."
"Oh Robin." The dejection in her voice was clear as she led him to the green covered bed and sat him down.
"We can deal with this later. I'm sure that's not what you're here to talk to me about." His plastered on smile didn't fool her and he knew it but she, selfishly, didn't push it.
"Robin, I'm confused." She crossed her arms and turned around to face his Slade bulletin board. The various old newspaper clippings that she ran her hand over were distracting. Robin stepped up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He whispered in her ear.
"Raven, I sorted things with Starfire, although I wish we'd done that together, it was something I had to handle." His ability to push Slade out of his mind so quickly frightened her, but she lent into his embrace.
"Robin, these feelings are strange and confusing. I never felt this strongly, I can't stop it. And at the same time I don't want this to just be any old relationship. If we do have a relationship, I'mnot sure about thisbutwe need to learn to be completely open with each other if we want this to work out."
She turned in his arms and tiptoed to brush a light kiss against his mouth. She thwarted his attempts at deepening the kiss.
"And that includes that letter Slade left about your parents." Her scolding tone swiftly grounded him on planet earth again. The tension in his shoulders returned and he walked away to his wardrobe clutching his towel without saying a word.
"Okay," shattered the silence as he walked into the bathroom to change.
Raven let out a breath and sat on his bed willing to wait forever until he was ready.
'I wonder if I'm pushing too much. But it has to be done.' Her hand fisted against his sheet when he came out cool and composed as usual.
"Slade said that my parent's death wasn't an accident, and they knew it.And I couldn't agree any more."
Silence filled room. Raven's widened eyes swept across Robin's face but she didn't say a word. Robin let out a breath and then flopped across his bed gazing at the wall with his hands under his head.
"He implied that it was my fault, that they suicided themselves, and that I'm a coward that won't go out and fight him because I knew it was their faults." His voice held doubt as he continued to speak. "I don't believe that. All my memories of them are happy and while I may have been young I feel like I understood what our environment was like." He picked the note up from the floor and pinned it to his Slade board under all the others so that no one would be able to know it was there by just glancing the board.
"Raven, I know my parents didn't kill themselves,"he stated vehemently, "but at the same time I know that their death was no accident. And I'm not just being ol' paranoid bird boy." Robin went and gripped her shoulders as he talked. He sat across from her and leaned his forehead across her shoulder, awkwardly staring at the bed sheets. "The night that they...when I saw them...the accident..." He inhaled shakily. "When they died that night that they didn't perform their normal routine...
The recently turned eight-year old Robin laughed as his mother and father swung him back and forth. His cape, shiny and new a birthday present from his recently dead grandfather, swirled and spun through the air as he did spins, leaps, and more circus tricks high in the air. His mother's chestnut brown hair twirled around his jubilant face as she kissed him on the check while flipping from the trapeze and spinning in the air onto the platform while cradling him. She stumbled a bit at the force of the impact but braced herself with a foot and let him down. Together they took a bow for the screaming and clapping crowd before sliding down the platform's ladder and walking backstage for their ten minute break.
"Daddy, did you see me? Huh, did-ja?" The little boy raced to his similarly (Sp?) costumed father's side and slipped his small boyish hands into the older man's calloused grip.
"Yes, Robbi-boy I did. You were spectacular." The man's voice was deep and caring as he swung his son up into his arms.
"Daddy, I'm a man, put me down. I'm too big for you to carry me anymore, I'm eight!" He crossed his arms. They strode into their tent and walked into their makeshift kitchen.
"You're still Mama's little boy to me Robin. Now that you're a man are you to big for any of Mommy's cookies." His costumed mother had pulled her mask onto the top of her head, warmed a baked cookie for him. "Now eat it, use the bathroom and hurry along because our big finale's coming up. Then we'll go out for ice-cream and to a movie."
The little boy glomped the cookie down his throat after chowing it down and ran into the port-a-potty outside the circus tents. He tried to sneak back in hoping to scare his parents but they were already striding from their living quarters while in an argument.
"Clark Tom Arnold, it won't hold and unlike you I won't be doing anything to put his life in danger."
"Yes, it will Chloe dear, don't you worry our finale will be fantastical." They both knew better. They'd been trapeze artist for years, met, married, and had Robin with the circus. Robin ran to catch up with his parents as they entered the tent. With ease all three climbed the wooden ladder up the thirteen stories of height, and stood waiting for the announcement of their turn.
"Robbi-boy, you and I are going to be trying something different tonight," stated his mother as she knelled next to him. "You're going to go first, and then wait for me at the platform. Okay?" He nodded and they waved at the crowd before getting started. His father gave him a clap on the back.
The monopoly-like ring leader announced their arrival to the excited crowd.
"And now, spectacular-spectacular our super-duper amazing grand trapeze finale that you've all been waiting for. Give a round of applause, for The Incredible Flying Graysons!"
The crowd screamed as Robin lept out into the air first. He swished and flew from trapeze to trapeze performing his solo monkey tricks for the first time alone. His excitement was obvious as he swirled his cape around the bar like a monkey tail, hung upside down and crossed his arms and legs in the air while shouting out "Look Mommy no legs!" His cape slowly began to unfurl as below the fireworks exploded, jugglers juggled and circus members performed. His mother quickly lept to grab his hands and throw him the rest of the way to the last platform. The breathless crowd clapped at their dangerous tricks as he sailed through the air, landed with a flip, took a bow and stood back to watch his parents. He watched his parents flip and fly through the air. His happily watched his father's broad shoulders and arms reach out to grab at his mother's hands as she lept into his embrace. She always told him he was the splitting image of his father-dark black hair, shoulders and eyes."Oh those eyes,"she would say.She spun her legs in a split in the air and used his father as a holding bar as she spun, flipped, and cartwheeled through the air. Robin leaned forward watching them, their faces smiled but he knew that those were their acting smiles and he wondered why. Usually his parents were overjoyed at the finally. His mother lept into his father's arms, as the crowd heard an ominous snap. The line went plunging through the air as Robin watched in stone cold horror.
"Mommy, Daddyyyy!" The safety net had been removed for the finale so there was nothing to catch them as their forms arched through the air and were impaled on a rugged wooden stake that had been once a platform. Robin fainted forward in horror as the bloody screams filled his ears. As his small body crumpled in the air an elephant outstretched his wizened old trunk and caught him. Or so he had learned when he woke up from the blackout to the sight of Bruce Wayne standing above his hospital bed.
Raven clutched at Robin's form. "And that's how they died. My parents' murder is the only case that I've never been able to even get near. After I left the circus I thought it would all disappear. But it hasn't and Slade said he knows who murdered my parents, and why. He said he would tell me, but for a small price, that I would surrender my position as Titan captain and become his partner in crime." His detachment as he talked worried her but she didn't mention it.
"Robin...I..."
"Don't worry Raven, I won't pull another Red X." His cynicism hurt.
"That's not it. Robin, I'm honored that you've told me all this but I can't just sit here and do nothing about it. I think you should investigate your parents' death. We can figure it out That is if you want to, we can start by gathering a background check and questioning everyone who worked at the circus."
"I don't." He pulled away from her and stalked out, masculine shoulders tense arms swinging.
Raven phased into her room. Raven's surprise punctuated the air as she turned towards her bookshelf.
"Slade."
"Hello Raven, I've come to play. Have you thought about what I said?"
"Yes." Slade smiled.
Haha he slipped her a roofie! (That was what I was thinking while writing about the tea scene.)
Coming Up: Chapter Three I will integrate the rest of the Titans in my next few chapters, (sorry that they made such sparse showings. Don't worry you'll find more out about Robin's past but first I need to deal with Raven, which will be what's up and coming in the next chapter. I'm having trouble coming up with a good summary so please review and vote for one of the three below:
Choice One:
After Robin and Raven surrender,their pasts won't die and problems arise even more when Slade comes looking for some fun with the lovebirds.
Choice Two:
Raven and Robin surrender.
Choice Three:
The pasts bring new problems to Robin and Raven as they try to fend off Slade and his alluring promises, build a stable relationship, and strengthen the ties that the Titans have not only amongst each other but around the world also.
Choice Four: Come up with a short summary of what you think this story has been like/about and if I like it, I'll post it.
RioN VhEnTeUnO: Hey thanks for reviewing, don't worry you get to find out how Raven got ahold of his first mask in the chapter, when I delve more into her past with the Titans and how she found out so much about Robin as they...oops almost let out a spoiler. Anyway thanks for the feedback. Keep reading! and reviewing!
Creative Spark: Hey! Same as I said to r21 bout reviewing! I WOULD LOVE TO WORK WITH YOU! I sent you a PM but I don't know if you get and then things got all mixed up and confused here, so I have all these cool ideas and stuff and so much I want to say but it's to long to say here. If you're still interested e-mail me at so that we can work something out. THANK YOU SO MUCH! You are awesome!
REVIEW! AND VOTE OOOOR DIE! MUAHAHAHAHAHA! J/k...I NEED A BETA READER!
P.S. Soon I'll update my profile sketching out all my future stories and how I'm doing on this one.
Cookies for anyone who can point out commercials that are obviously designed by people that were high and the likes: For example, the ipod commercial and lil jon video snap you fingerswas such an acid trip; where else would you get the idea to put the black form of a person with white objects against bright color flashing backgrounds. Sorry, I got into a convo w/ my friend who works in advertising and I want to see if anyone else agrees w/ him.