Dark Titans

by Lathis

The ongoing adventures of Heroes and Martial Artists alike, as two very different worlds collide. The day of Starfire's wedding is at hand. Shocking family reunions and meddling wedding crashers promise much intrigue. Meanwhile, back home, Ryouga and the not quite Titans are throwing their own party. Kasumi only knows who is on the guest list.

27. Titan Rising! Chapter 2

Dark Titans – Arc 4 – Titan Rising!

Chapter 2

Enjoy if you will, Tolerate if you won't.

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Beast Boy squinted his eyes painfully as the first detestable rays of the rising sun lanced in through the windows in a vindictive attempt to blind him. Unfortunately, he couldn't spare a hand to shield his sensitive, reddened eyes, on account that both appendages were clamped onto his Gamestation controller in a manner that had him a little worried that Rigor Mortis might have begun setting in on his extremities. So, instead, he just leaned to the side until the hated sun was strategically hidden behind the massive television screen.

That accomplished, he resumed his near zombie state of concentration, zoning out anything and everything that didn't involve massive CGI explosions, or anonymous players half a world away shouting out 'Tea Bag!' over his ear mic.

As such, he barely even registered the sound of one of the side doors sliding open. And even if he hadn't been so spaced out, he probably wouldn't have heard the graceful, whispered steps of the newest occupant gliding into the room.

The exasperated sigh from behind him grabbed his attention, though.

"Garfield Logan. Please tell me that you haven't been up all night playing that video game."

Beast Boy didn't even cringe at the use of his real name. It just didn't faze him when Kasumi, or even Kunou, used it. Maybe because they didn't realize the comic implications of his name in the western world, or just because they didn't choose to tease him about it, it was still nice.

The changeling then remembered that she had actually asked him a question. He quickly turned around, throwing his arm up to rest on the back of the couch, to face her. He matched her expectant gaze and wracked his brain for a suitable response. Well, he guessed he would have to go with the direct approach, it was way too early . . . late . . . whatever, to think so hard.

"Aww, I could never lie to you, Kasumi . . ."

He then flipped back around and returned his attention back to the flashing screen. An amused giggle from his lovely companion quirked the corner of his lip up into a smile; the fact that he'd made Kasumi giggle so early in the morning almost made up for the fact that his character had died a gruesome death while his back had been turned.

Well, that stank on ice. Deciding he needed a short break, at least long enough for him to load another map, he turned back to face the small kitchenette at the back of the massive main room. The lovely Tendo woman was already rooting through the cupboards in search of God knew what.

"You're up pretty early, aren't you, Kasumi? I mean, we don't usually have breakfast till 'round ten-ish on account of our whacked schedules."

Kasumi turned and offered him a smile very nearly as sunny as the sun at his back.

"Very true. However, Victor taught me the most delightful chili recipe and I was hoping to try it out. Apparently it will take several hours to prepare, and if I want it ready for lunch, I need to start it very early."

'Wow.' That was super nice of her, going to all of this trouble just to make them a nice meal. Of course, it was about then that he realized a very dire implication of her statement.

"Ummm, Kasumi?"

"Don't worry, Garfield, I'll fix you up something closer to lunch time. I already know quite a few tofu recipes, so I'm sure I can make something you'll like."

He smiled a broad, fanged smile. "Ha! I know you will. I bet you could cook an old boot and it'd taste awesome!"

Another airy giggle caused Beast Boy to preen in the young woman's presence. To be honest, he hadn't really had many opportunities to spend any time alone with Kasumi, since Robin and Cyborg both did their best to co-opt all of her spare time at every opportunity.

"So, how's your trainin' going, anyway?" he asked with genuine interest.

Kasumi paused in her gathering of equipment and ingredients, and rose up from kneeling before the cupboards. The pony-tailed brunette then looked at the various foodstuffs she had gathered, then back in his direction. Her smile widening just a little bit, she gave a tiny shrug and strolled over to join him. He swallowed a little nervously as the stunning lady actually sat primly on the back of the couch, only a few inches from where his arm was resting. She then graced him with a happy smile.

"That's very sweet of you to ask. Which training were you wondering about, my medical training, or my martial training?"

He scratched his head at the question for a moment. He'd nearly forgotten that she was getting lessons from Cyborg too, since Robin had been making such a big production of his combat training lately.

"Hmm, how's your stuff going with Cy? We don't really hear anything about that, since Robin is always bragging about what a great teacher he is," he inquired teasingly.

Kasumi tapped a graceful finger against her chin in thought. "Now that you mention it, Robin's training has been taking up more and more of my time lately. Unfortunately, it hasn't given me nearly as much time as I would like to spend with Victor. Robin insists that the simply excruciating schedule he set for us shouldn't last for much longer, but I would dearly like to devote more of my time to my medical studies."

Beast Boy nodding agreeably.

"Heh, I bet. I mean, I don't even know why he's teaching you to fight in the first place. I mean, you're so nice I doubt there's a person on the planet that'd want to hurt you."

The young woman rolled her eyes in fond amusement. "Now you're just being silly. After all of that nasty business with the Headmaster, I can understand perfectly well why Robin would be so worried. I just wish he wouldn't be so . . . consumed by it."

Beast Boy chuckled weakly. "Heh, well, that's Robin for you. That guy gets obsessed at the drop of a hat. You're just lucky you weren't here when Slade was still around. I mean, sheesh, some of the stuff Robbie pulled even had Starfire upset with him."

Kasumi covered the tiny, shocked 'o' that her mouth had become with her fingers. "Oh my! That's terrible. I certainly hope he doesn't do something like that again on my account. Those two would make such an adorable couple."

He waved his hand in dismissal of her worries. "Meh, don't worry about those two. They're pretty much guaranteed to end up together. I mean, she's always forgiven him before, and it's not like there's anyone else that Star gets all moon-eyed over."

Hand still covering her mouth, Kasumi tittered lightly. "Well, then if you believe it, then I don't have anything to worry abo-"

The familiar sound of the elevator door sliding open interrupted their conversation and heralded the arrival of another early morning enthusiast. Except the person that arrived was even less of a morning person that Beast Boy himself was.

Raven floated into the room, making her way unerringly for the kitchenette counter and the teakettle that rested there. Something seemed slightly off about the young woman to the emerald changeling. Asides from the super early morning thing, there seemed to be an unusual look on Raven's face, a tightness around her eyes and a paleness of her cheeks that struck him as even tighter and more pale than usual . . .

The violet haired Titan spent several moments filling the kettle from the sink and setting the water to boiling. Then, with a start, she looked up, as if just realizing that she wasn't actually alone. Raven's gaze swung over to take in the sight of Kasumi and Beast Boy sitting rather close together on the couch, and to Beast Boy's tired eyes, he could have sworn there was a vaguely haunted look in those bottomless violet orbs.

Beast Boy looked up to the woman sitting by his side to see if Kasumi had noticed anything odd. Only to see something equally odd when he did. Kasumi was staring right back at Raven, only the sunny smile she had been wearing for him was gone, replaced by a very strained looking smile indeed. The two women maintained the staring contest for a moment that seemed to drag on about a dozen moments too long for Beast Boy's taste.

Raven broke eye contact first, giving out a weary sigh and returning her attention back to her warming water.

"Do either of you know if Ryouga is back from Terra's cave yet? I was hoping to speak with him this morning." There was an odd tone in her voice that Beast Boy couldn't place for the life of him.

He was about to reply, when Kasumi cut him off, her smile widening slightly.

"Good morning to you too, Raven. I'm afraid I haven't seen him since dinner yesterday. It wouldn't surprise me if he spent the entire night with Terra again. You know how stubborn that boy can be when he has his mind set on something . . . don't you, Raven?"

Beast Boy felt his jaw working up and down slowly, unable to produce a sound. Everything seemed to be perfectly normal in the room around him, but his instincts were screaming at him that a battle was being waged beyond his ability to comprehend, and that where he was sitting was not a good place to be. His urge to flee for no discernible reason at all was so strong, that it almost made him forget what he was about to say.

"Um, actually Kasumi, Ry-"

Something odd happened then, just as he was about to make his dramatic revelation. Kasumi turned back to face him . . . and she shrugged. It wasn't just a normal, shrug, either, it was a shrug which lifted her shoulders and brought them an inch or two closer together. This innocuous act produced a number of secondary reactions which proved absolutely devastating on Beast Boy's cognitive functions, including his ability to speak.

"Garfield, would you be a dear and find me the T-Slow Cooker? Victor didn't tell me where he stored it."

Apparently his susceptibility to suggestion had been seriously affected as well, as he dumbly nodded and stumbled his way to the kitchen area.

Raven observed the exchange, totally ignorant to what had just occurred, and watched him begin to root through the cupboards in his furtive search.

"Well?" she asked, slightly annoyed.

Beast Boy didn't even register her interrogative and just kept on looking for the elusive cooking device. It wouldn't even have helped if Cyborg alphabetized the kitchen, either, since he named all of stupid inventions the 'T-this' or the 'T-that'.

Behind him, Raven stared at him expectantly for another moment, before shooting a dark look Kasumi's way. The Tendo woman just smiled all the wider for it, her smile no longer bearing the strained look it had. Finally, Raven let out a long, weary sigh.

"Forget it, I'm going to talk to Ranma."

Kasumi nodded, still smiling that odd little smile of hers.

"I'm certain that he'll be quite happy to hear from you. Please tell him that I said hello, and to say hello to Akane for me."

Raven locked stares with Kasumi for another long moment, but again was the first to relent. It was hard to stare into the serene, perpetually smiling face of the Tendo woman for any length of time without feeling the desire to get sick all over the kitchen counter.

"Of course, Kasumi . . . and, have a good morning."

Quickly filling her tea cup with the lukewarm water, Raven retreated to the elevator and made her escape.

Approximately seven seconds later, Beast Boy leapt up, holding his prey above his head in triumph. The gleaming silver T-Slow Cooker shone brightly in the morning sun and he displayed his quarry for all to see . . .

"Wait a minute," he mused in confusion, "Wasn't Raven just here?"

'Whoa', that was odd; it sure felt like he'd just missed something. He could have sworn that Raven had been standing right on the other side of the kitchenettes' island counter.

"Oh, she had to run. She said she was going to speak with Ranma, again. Thank you for your help, by the way," Kasumi replied sweetly.

He smiled happily and waved off her compliment. "Ah, t'weren't nothing. But, I should go tell Raven that Ryo is in his room. Heck, I should know, I brought him in last night."

Kasumi finally rose from her perch on the couch to join him in the kitchen. She deftly plucked the T-Slow Cooker from his hands and placed it carefully on the counter beside the other things she had gathered already.

"Is that so?" she asked in a perky tone, "Now don't I feel silly for making such a rash assumption. Still, I'm certain that if she really wanted to speak with Ryouga, she would have just used her communicator to find out where he was."

Well, he could hardly fault her logic on that point. Still, he couldn't help but get a strange feeling that there was something odd going on between Raven and Kasumi. He couldn't put his finger on it, since Kasumi acted just as sweetly as always around Raven and Raven acted just as sour as always around Kasumi . . . but there was just something - Aw heck he just had no idea.

"So, you want any more help? I'm always good for an extra pair of hands, or two - or four," he offered proudly, transforming into an emerald octopus to prove his point.

Kasumi giggled as he changed back.

"My, I've cooked with Octopi before, but never like that." She smiled an impish smile as he paled slightly at her insinuation. "I appreciate the offer, but you go on back to your videogame and have fun, I'm sure I can handle this on my own."

He shrugged and nodded agreeably. Heck, he wasn't even sure why he offered to help her cook meat in the first place. What had he been thinking? As quickly as possible, the emerald changeling made his way back to the couch and picked up his forgotten controller. Soon enough, he had another map picked out and his pixilated warrior was marching through the desert wastes in search of things to frag.

Still, something was nagging at the back of his mind, keeping him from focusing on the game.

"Soooo," he drawled over his shoulder, "What do you think of Raven and Ryouga, eh?"

The sounds of an unidentified vegetable being diced by a razor sharp blade rang out in rapid succession behind him for several seconds before he received an answer.

"I think they would make a . . . cute couple." The answer sounded sincere, and Kasumi certainly wouldn't lie to him. "However, it takes more than that to make a relationship work."

He'd had this conversation a few times with Cyborg, since his buddy seemed to be of the same mind as Kasumi on the subject, though he never really explained his reason for thinking so. Beast Boy actually paused his game this time and spun around to face the Tendo woman as she continued to prepare the day's lunch.

"What makes you say that? They both seem to like each other a lot, not to mention they're two of the gloomiest people I know, so they got a lot in common, to boot."

With great care, Kasumi laid the gleaming knife on the counter and turned to face him. A weak smile still adorned her lips, but it didn't quite seem to reach her eyes.

"Garfield, sometimes having things in common is a good thing, but not necessarily all of the time. Sometimes it is the differences between two people that draw them closer together."

He scratched his head at that, not quite sure what she meant.

"Sooo, you're saying that Raven and Ryouga being alike is a bad thing?"

Kasumi let out a weary sigh.

"No, nothing like that. I believe their common traits would let them be good friends, but I'm not sure that they could make each other truly happy in . . . that way."

'Ahhhh . . .' He raised an inquisitive finger . . .

"Ahhhh . . . you lost me."

The brunette stared at him for a moment, incomprehension in her eyes. Again, Kasumi abandoned her culinary efforts and joined him on the couch. This time she actually walked around the piece of furniture to sit directly beside him and took one his hands in her own.

"Garfield, don't feel bad for being confused. I'm doing a very poor job of explaining things. I don't exactly have a lot of experience myself. However, let me try to explain it a different way."

He nodded dumbly, doing everything in his power to stop himself from blushing at the sensation of her hands on his. Again, the lovely Tendo woman regained her genuine, caring smile, tilting her head to the side slightly. She seemed to think about something for several moments, before finally beginning to speak.

"Now, Garfield, imagine there are two people that really love pie-"

"Done!" Hey, this was an explanation that he could really relate to.

Kasumi shook her head in amusement before continuing.

"Now, if these two people go to a restaurant and order pie together, they would both enjoy the pie equally, enjoying what they had in common; that would make them both very happy, right?"

He nodded frantically. Been there, done that.

"Now, say there are two people that really hate pie-"

"That's impossible!"

This time she glared at him mildly, prompting him, politely, to shut his trap.

"Now, let's say that these two people went to that same restaurant and ordered dinner and got pie for desert. They would both refuse to eat the pie, and be equally unhappy with receiving the pie. Tell me, would the fact that they have a dislike for pie, together, make them happy at all?"

He thought about that, long and hard, and the answer was blatantly obvious.

"No, probably not. They'd probably both be complaining about the pie so much, that they wouldn't be able to enjoy anything else . . . whoa . . ."

Kasumi giggled lightly. "I hope my example wasn't too silly, but I think you're starting to understand what I mean. Having something nice in common can be a very good thing, but having something negative in common might not be. Sometimes we need people that are different from us, if only so they can help balance us out. After all, if someone that hates pie goes for dinner with someone that likes pie and that happened, what do you think would be the result?"

The changeling let out a bark of excited laughter. "Ha! That's an easy one! The person that hates pie would give it to the person that likes pie. That way they'd both get something they wanted, one of them would get more pie, and one of them would probably get a peck on the cheek for being so nice."

At that moment, Beast Boy completely and utterly lost his battle against blushing as Kasumi leaned in and gave him a playful peck on the cheek. Before he even had the chance to regain any semblance of normalcy, the lovely Tendo woman rose to her feet and started to make her way back to the kitchen, light hearted giggles trailing behind her.

"I don't think I could have put it better myself. Now, I hope you understand my thoughts, if only a bit, and know that it most certainly isn't anything personal."

Beast Boy nodded enthusiastically and gave her a quick thumbs up. "Sure thing, Kasumi. Now all we gotta do is figure out if Ryouga hates pie or not, so we can figure out who he likes!"

Kasumi's world weary sigh was cut off by the whisk of the elevator door sliding open yet again. The rectangular sheets of metal slid apart to reveal the unusually cheerful face of Ryouga Hibiki, who then proceeded to stride into the room with an unusual spring in his step. A little on edge by the fact that there were now two people acting slightly odd this morning, Beast Boy asked the first question that came to mind.

"Hey, Ryo! Do you hate pie?"

Ryouga stopped in mid-springy-step to stare at him. A look of utter confusion flashed across the other fanged boy's face, only to be replaced by a look of sheer disbelief.

"What? How could anyone possibly hate pie, Beast Boy?"

Kasumi's hand rose up, as if she was about to say something, but then the young woman simply shook her head in helpless amusement and returned back to her work.

"Good morning, Ryouga. You seem to be in a good mood today."

Hibiki continued to stare at Beast Boy strangely for another moment, before shaking his head several times and turning his attention to the Tendo woman.

"Good morning to you, too, Kasumi. And yeah, I guess I am in a pretty good mood. Speaking of which, do you guys know if Raven is up yet? I was hoping I could talk to her this morning; that and it's her turn to take me down to Terra's cave."

Well, that sounded fine by Beast Boy, anything that involved getting Terra back to normal was always a positive in his book. He was about to offer to take the Lost Boy to the Goth girl's room, when Kasumi stepped back into the conversation.

"Are you certain about that, Ryouga? I can take you down now if you like. I've noticed you've been . . . well, hesitant to speak to Raven lately."

Ryouga blushed in embarrassment at her rather accurate assessment of his actions over the past week. Even Beast Boy had noticed the cold shoulders and colder stares that had been passing between the two darker Titans, though it was mostly a one way chill factor.

Kicking his toe into the floor nervously, Ryouga began to run his hand through the hair at the back of his head. "Umm, yeah, well, that was kind of what I wanted to talk to her about. You see, now that I've had some time to think about it, I realized that I – I may have been acting really unfair towards her lately and I wanted to . . . to apologize . . ."

Kasumi tilted her head in curiosity. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Well, I was a little annoyed with her for a comment she made, but now that I've cooled off, I'm pretty sure she didn't mean what I thought she meant by it, so the way I've been acting lately may have been a little . . . jerkish, I guess."

Kasumi nodded, smiling sweetly. "That's very mature of you, Ryouga. Why don't I take you up to her room right now? I'm sure she won't mind the interruption as long as it's you."

Ryouga looked at her oddly. "Interruption? What are you talking about?"

Beast Boy was kind of wondering that as well.

The Tendo woman innocently tapped a long finger to her chin in deep contemplation. "Well, Raven told us that she was going to speak with Ranma this morning, in fact, she's probably speaking with him right this minute. We all know how much she dislikes being interrupted when she's conversing with him, but I'm certain she'll make an exception for you."

Beast Boy vaguely recalled something along those lines being said . . . though it was all a little fuzzy for some reason. However, as helpful and innocent as Kasumi's explanation was, Ryouga didn't seem to take it that way at all. Right before the changeling's eyes, the cheery, light expression that had been alighting on the Lost Boy's face was slowly crushed beneath a dark weight which seemed to drag the guy's entire body down towards the earth.

"She's speaking to Ranma, again?" His words held a rather sharp bite to them which Beast Boy wasn't sure he liked.

Completely oblivious to the effects her words were having, Kasumi nodded, smiling happily, even as she continued to prepare Cyborg's chili. "Oh my, yes. Those two must have so much to talk about, the way they're always chatting back and forth. Isn't it nice to know that Raven and Ranma are such close friends now?"

Ryouga smiled a mildly terrifying smile that didn't come within a million miles of reaching his eyes.

"Yes . . . nice . . ."

Still smiling as cutely as could be, Kasumi quickly grabbed a nearby cloth and wiped off her hands.

"Well, let me take you up to her room. I'm certain she'll be just as happy to speak to you as she is to speak to Ranma."

Just as Kasumi was about to remove her apron, Ryouga quickly leaned over the counter and placed his hand on hers to stop her.

"No, that's fine, Kasumi, I wouldn't want to interrupt her and Ranma. I'll just go find Cyborg; the T-Car will get me there faster than walking, and the sooner I start, the better."

Beast Boy agreed with the statement, though the way it was said left him feeling a rime of ice crusting his soul. Unfortunately, the potent combination of shock and sleep deprivation left him sitting in confusion long enough for Ryouga to make his way back into the elevator before he could think to offer to fly the Lost Boy to Terra's cave himself. The changeling almost considered going after Hibiki, if only to see if he was alright, but wasn't sure how close he'd get to the elevator before he dropped. Instead, he turned his attention to the humming Tendo woman.

"Ummm, Kasumi? Are you sure Ryouga is gonna be okay? I mean, you didn't tell him anything he didn't already know . . . but, he sure switched gears from loving pie to hating it pretty quick."

Kasumi turned her gaze his ways, her eyes rolling in amusement.

"Oh, Garfield. That's just how Ryouga is. I'm sure he'll be over it before he even reaches Terra's cave."

Beast Boy looked at her oddly. Was this the same Ryouga that declared a bread feud and hounded Saotome across China for revenge that she was talking about? Still, she had known the guy for way longer than him, so who was he to question her? Something about the entire morning was rubbing him the wrong way so far, but it still wasn't anything that he could actually put his sleep addled finger on, so he just shuffled it to the back of his mind for re-analysis when he wasn't only half conscious from playing video games all night.

That in mind, he resolved to rectify the situation in the only way he could, by turning his attention back to said video game he'd been playing all night and picking up where he left off. Within minutes, he regained his trance like state of concentration, with the new addition of Kasumi's soothing humming blending quietly into the background as he played.

The pleasant circumstances lasted for a good hour or two.

As was inevitable, though, the relative peace was destined to be broken. The next opening of the elevator door actually shocked Beast Boy out of a state of obliviousness so deep, that the changeling hadn't even realized that Kasumi had finished whatever she was doing in the kitchen (the details were pretty fuzzy on that) and the demure woman was actually sitting beside him on the couch, engrossed in a text book and still humming that same soothing tune.

As one, the two couch surfers turned to greet their next morning companion.

"Good morning, Robin."

"Howzits goins, duuude . . .?"

'Wow', Kasumi's greeting hadn't sounded very coherent to Beast Boy at all. Maybe she was feeling sleepy?

Robin took a moment to survey the situation, taking in the simmering crock pot of something that Beast Boy felt he really should have recognized, Kasumi's smiling face and finally, Beast Boy's rather dubious state. The masked hero shook his head sadly.

"Morning, Kasumi." The Boy Wonder then turned to glare his way. "Beast Boy, tell me you didn't stay up all night playing that game, again."

Beast Boy considered his options quickly - then, smiling widely-

"Okies!"

-he turned his back on the masked Titan and went back to the playing of said video games.

Robin let out a helpless groan of disgust, but really, what could he do? So, instead, Robin turned his attention back to the only female present.

"The chili smells really good, Kasumi. How's it coming along?"

Kasumi gently rested her book on her lap and turned a little more fully to face the young man.

"It's coming along quite well, I believe. It needs to simmer for several hours, though, so I've been spending some quality time with Garfield."

Beast Boy peered at her curiously.

"You have?"

Her lip quirked up into an amused smirk.

"I haven't?"

"Ah, touché."

"Why thank you."

Robin rolled his eyes at their barely sensible repartee.

"Well, if it's still got a few hours, why don't we get some training in before it's ready, then?"

Beast Boy waved him off in annoyance.

"Dude, seriously, are you joking? I doubt I'd make it off the couch in one piece at this point."

Beside him, Kasumi giggled conspiratorially, while Robin shot him an eerie, pupil-less glare.

"I wasn't talking to you, Beast Boy. I was asking Kasumi."

The changeling offered the woman beside him an apologetic shrug; he'd tried, at least. Kasumi replied with a thankful smile, then looked to Robin, then down to the book in her lap, then finally back to Beast Boy again. In a private little gesture, for him and him alone, the lovely brunette rolled her eyes and let out a tiny sigh. She then donned a wide smile and turned back to Robin.

"Of course, Robin, that sounds like a wonderful idea."

Kasumi then rose to her feet and carefully placed her book on the couch, right beside Beast Boy, as if making a silent promise that she would be back, hopefully sooner than later.

"Can you keep an eye on lunch for me, Garfield? You shouldn't need to do anything, but just in case, okay?"

He nodded agreeably.

"Sure thing, Kasumi. You two crazy kids go on and have fun."

This time, the rolling of her eyes was all for him. Then, in the next moment of his half oblivious state of mind, the dynamic duo vanished from the room in a blur of motion.

Once again, the serenity that could only be provided by the dispensation of High Definition Doom unto unsuspecting strangers ruled his roost. He had no idea how long this stretch lasted, as his ability to quantify the passage of linear time had been lost . . . yestermorroyear?

This time, it actually took a hand on his shoulder to break him free from his unholy love affair with the Gamestation. Luckily, he maintained at least the motor functions necessary to turn his head.

The sight of Cyborg recoiling at the sight of him was actually pretty darn funny, prompting the emerald changeling to start giggling in a slightly unhinged manner.

"Holy Jeez, BB, go to bed!"

Beast Boy shook his head from side to side in a bout of drunken stubbornness. "Ah, common, Styborga, just Repnak-Ba'an more minutes . . ."

His best friend stared at him in confusion for approximately three nanoseconds . . . or was it five Baker's minutes? Man, a bakery would be pretty sweet right about now.

"Okay, man, you are officially beyond help. Before you totally crash out, though, can ya tell me if ya know where Kasumi is? I'm supposed to be schoolin her medical wise today."

Beast Boy racked his brain for a really short eternity.

"Aha! Robin took Kasumi to Jim's for train sets!"

It took Cyborg thirteen and a half moments to sort through the shape shifter's helpful explanation, but when he finally did, the titanium Titan snapped his fingers in annoyance.

"Dang it! He did it again! Does Robin have even a clue how much he's crampin my style lately? I mean, geez, if the guy is so desperate for a lady to throw down on the mats for some advanced grappling, why doesn't he just go grab Star?"

Beast Boy offered his buddy a sympathetic word.

"Whuu?"

Or, at least he tried.

Cyborg groaned loudly. "Man, this is so unfair. Just cuz he's the boss means he gets to say who does what? Well, might as well hit the lab then, since there ain't anything else to do."

The changeling nodded his support.

"Bhuu."

"And, Dawg, seriously, go to bed. I don't want you droolin all over my couch again."

And then, before Beast Boy even had the time to formulate a suitable reply, his friend vanished into the mists of time . . . or he took the stairs, one of those two things for sure.

Alone again, in the (relative) silence of the cavernous main room, the changeling had to admit, even in his current state, that he missed Kasumi's quiet humming. Even though it had hardly even been audible over the sounds of the Game Station, it had still sounded so nice and warm and fuzzy . . . it almost reminded him of someone . . . from . . . some time . . .

He didn't have time to lose track of the world this time, though, since almost immediately after one door closed with Cyborg's exit, another door opened with Starfire's entrance.

Sheesh, what was this: Revolving Door Day?

"I bid you morning greetings, friend Beast Boy."

"Mornin', Star," he replied a little more coherently than he had for Cyborg.

With graceful ease, the Tamaranian female floated around the couch until she was almost blocking his view of the television. Even his sleep addled mind could make out the stubbornly optimistic expression on her face . . . and the weathered pair of tickets clutched in her hand. He stared at both Starfire and the tickets warily.

"What up, Star?" he asked as casually as possible.

Starfire took in a deep breath, apparently steeling herself for what she was about to ask. Internally, Beast Boy began to quail helplessly-

"Do you know where Robin is? I have already checked his room, but he was not present and I wish to ask him to accompany me to the cinema of movies so that we may enjoy the comedic misunderstandings of the Hugh Grant in his furtive attempts to find romance while consuming heavily buttered popcorn and sitting in close proximity to one another . . ." Finally, Starfire's lungs gave out on her, leaving the girl gasping for breath after her verbal landslide.

Beast Boy did his best to sort through the spiel, which probably would have been trying at the best of times, but finally managed to pull out the pertinent information he needed.

"Oh, thank God!" He let out an explosive sigh of relief. He'd thought she was asking him again.

The sight of Starfire's eyes narrowing (and glowing) quickly reminded him that she was still standing directly before him. The sudden threat of physical bodily harm sent a pleasant surge of adrenaline through his system and helped to clear his mind slightly.

"Ahh, what I meant to say, was that he's down in the Gym with Kasumi. I think someone said they were practicing advanced grappling-" He giggled in a somewhat disturbing manner as he thought that one over- "Heh, I wouldn't mind teaching Kasumi some advanced grappling, if you know what I mean."

Starfire quirked an eyebrow as she looked at him strangely.

"I do not. Your lack of knowledge and experience with advanced grappling forms would make it impossible for you to teach Kasumi in any meaningful way."

"Ouch, Star . . . just ouch."

The alien girl sent him another look, this one apparently questioning his fleeting sanity. A moment later, she shook off the absurdity of his antics and a slightly glum expression came to settle on her normally care-free features.

"So, Robin and Kasumi are doing the training . . . again?"

Beast Boy shrugged in helpless agreement.

"Tell me about it! I'm ticked cuz Kasumi's humming was really nice, Cy's ticked cuz they had a lesson today, and I'm ticked, cuz Kasumi's humming was really nice!"

"Umm, Beast Boy, you already stated-"

"And what's he even bothering for?" he asked, arms flailing, "Kasumi's, like, the nicest person on the planet, even nicer than you, Star, so who's gonna wanna hurt her?"

Beast Boy's ranting did not have the desired effect.

"She is . . . nicer, than me?"

'Backpeddle, backpeddle now, damnit!'

"No! That's not what I meant! I mean, it's just that she's so pretty, y'know? Who'd wanna bruise up that face?"

'Crap!' He realized his mistake before Starfire even said a word.

"She is . . . prettier than me?"

"Argh! No! Of course not, Star! It's just that - that-"

That what? Taller? More Human? A better cook?

No! No! No!

"She's just got more – more-" He clutched the air in front of his chest in a very visual manner. "Experience! Yeah, that's it!"

Except, the look on his lovely companion's face, rather than brighten up with cheer, descended straight from merely melancholy all the way to crestfallen.

"She is more mature than me, that is it, is it not?"

"Yes! Wait – no! It's just- she's just . . . Awww, Star, come back!"

His plaintiff wail fell on deaf ears, as the flame haired young woman floated morosely out of one of the side doors. He considered chasing after her; however, considering his track record, even when he was at top form, the odds of him actually making the situation better were pretty much nil.

The emerald changeling turned back to the Gamestation and glared at the controller in his hand.

"This is all your fault," he muttered darkly to the traitorous machine.

Well, he was pretty sure he'd managed to cause as much damage as possible for one morning.

Screw it, he was going to bed.

---

Robin took a long, refreshing swig from his water bottle before leaning back on the bench to rest his head against the cool metal of the gymnasium wall. He had a pretty good sweat going, but was actually feeling a little better than usual after his morning workout. Kasumi, who was lying on the floor at his feet, looking exhausted; breaths coming in ragged gasps, likely didn't share his sentiment. Seeing her in such an undignified state was still a strange sight for the Boy Wonder to take in. It made her seem more . . . human somehow; not quite the image of perfection which he'd built up around her.

He did feel a little bad for pushing her so hard, especially since part of his motivation was quite selfish. It was important that she be able to defend herself, he was just exaggerating the timeline a bit. Still, she was in amazing shape, especially for a home keeper. It made him wonder if some aspect of a super martial artist's abilities were genetic. Considering her conditioning and her learning curve, she had a good chance of catching up to him in a few years.

As if to prove his point, Kasumi chose that moment to sit up, already looking well on her way to recovery after only a few minutes of rest. The gi clad brunette then pushed herself to her feet and moved to sit beside him in a very prim manner.

"So, Robin, now that we've had our workout, don't you think it's past time for you to stop avoiding Starfire and accept her invitation to that movie already?"

"Gah!" Robin clutched his chest in shock as the seemingly oblivious woman cut right to the heart of his scheme like she'd known of it the entire time.

The eldest Tendo sister played her role well, leveling a disapproving gaze his way.

"And don't you even try that clichéd stammering denial. I've seen more than my fair share of that over the past two years, and it never works."

He considered making the attempt regardless, but then let his shoulders sag in defeat as he released a weak sigh. Looking up to catch her eyes, feeling more than a little guilty, he felt compelled to ask.

"So, how long have you known?"

Kasumi rolled her eyes in amusement.

"You may have tipped me off around the time you said 'That new romantic comedy?'. You know, for a world class detective and a master of disguise, you certainly aren't very good at hiding your feelings."

The young hero felt his cheeks heat up, though he wasn't sure if it was from the reprimand, or from the fact that he'd been found out so easily-

"Wait a minute! That was last week, before we'd even started. If you knew, why did you go along with it?"

The young woman smiled fondly, then caught him off guard by running her fingers through his spiky hair. He didn't recoil this time; it was something she did rarely, but he'd gotten used to the intimacy of the contact . . . as long as it was her that was doing it.

"Because, as boyish as it is to hide your feelings like that, I know you wouldn't have suggested this training regimen if it wasn't actually necessary. That, and I knew it would make you happy."

His blush doubled as she drew her hand back from his hair only to pinch his cheek.

"T-thanks, Kasumi. That was really cool of you to do. Still, you didn't have to do that just to make me happy . . ."

Kasumi's lips shifted from fond smile to impish smirk.

"Well, doing something that you might not want to do, to make someone else happy is what a good friends does."

Robin let out a long groan. "Ohhhhh, I see how it is. This is where the life lesson gets learned and I end up feeling like even more of a heel than I do already, right?"

The brunette nodded energetically, her smirk taunting him with its soft smugness.

He let out a weary sigh. If only it were as simple as the lovely Tendo woman believed . . .

"Kasumi . . . this is really hard for me to say, but I really did want to go see that movie with Star. I wanted to go so much it hurts. Heck, I even sat through that Hot Dog documentary, because she wanted to see it"

The Tendo woman paled slightly at the mention of the documentary, but forced herself to carry on.

"But, then why didn't you go?"

"It's hard to explain, it doesn't even all make sense in my head. All I can say is, that we're heroes, y'know?"

Kasumi's head swung slowly from side to side, indicating that she did not.

"Ahhh . . .well-" he steeled his resolve for what he was about to say, "Kasumi. What we do is important, very important. We help people, we save lives, we are heroes. Our line of work doesn't leave much time for extraneous activities, we don't get vacations, we can't let ourselves be distracted from our duties by anything, no matter how much we might like it . . . especially me."

"Because you are the leader?"

He nodded once, but it soon shifted into a slow swinging from side to side.

"Yes . . . and no. I am responsible for everyone, true, so if I make a mistake it could very easily hurt everyone on the team. I can't afford to let my emotions control me in my position. But that's not the whole of it . . ."

He gazed down at his ungloved hands, stared at the soft, pink skin that stretched across the backs of his hands. It was so fresh and tender looking, from spending endless hours sealed within his near ever present gloves. Such a meager layer of cells seemed a woefully fragile defense against the harsh cruelties of the world.

"More than anyone else, I can't afford to make a mistake, any mistake. I-it was easier to ignore before - before Ryouga joined us. Back then, I was the best fighter on the team, the only real martial artist. Sure, I knew there were people better then me, but Ryouga! Meeting him reminded me just how . . . normal I was."

Kasumi gasped in shock.

"But, Robin, that's just not true. You are an exceptional young man."

He nodded, a humorless smile on his lips.

"Yeah . . . and I used to think that was enough. I mean, at least with Batman, I knew that, in time, I could catch up, even surpass him. But with Ryouga, and Ranma, and all the others like them, I'll never attain that level. And even if I did, by that time, they would have grown so far beyond it that it would be exactly the same . . ."

He felt a comforting hand rest on his shoulder.

"But with Cologne's training, and Ryouga's help, surely you can-"

He shook his head slowly.

"I'd like to say yes, but, it would be naïve – foolish even, to think that someone that started so much later could catch up to warriors that have dedicated their entire lives to the art, with just a few months of intensive training.

"But that's not even the point, it's just that . . . I can't fly, I can't fire energy blasts, I definitely can't get punched through a concrete wall and just brush off the rubble like it was nothing. All that I have is my skill, and my faith in myself . . . and frankly, the latter has been a bit shaken lately."

A look of comprehension dawned on his companion's lovely face.

"So, this training has been as much for you as it has for me, is that it?"

He nodded sheepishly.

"Of everyone here, you're in the most similar position to me. An ordinary person thrust into extraordinary circumstances. So I hope you can understand how I feel. It's not that I don't like Star . . . I do . . . but can I really afford to let anything happen between us? I mean, what happens if I get too involved and it affects my judgment?"

He rose to his feet and started to pace anxiously.

"What if I turn my back on Cyborg in a fight because I'm worried that Starfire might be in danger? What if I see someone about to blast Star, and the first thing I think to do is push her out of the way and the energy blast that might have bruised her blows me into meaty chunks? What if – what if . . ."

So lost in his increasingly grim vision of the future was he, that he nearly walked straight into Kasumi, who gently rested her hands on his shoulders to stop his frantic pacing.

"Robin, please stop. You're going to worry yourself sick if you keep this up."

He looked up to her, a twisting tightness in his chest.

"But – but -"

She shook her head firmly.

"Just put all of that nonsense out of your mind. You know very well that you would never leave Victor in danger, no matter the circumstances. And you are also a very intelligent young man that is keenly aware of his limitations. Besides, you already feel strongly for Starfire, don't bother denying it, so I'm sure you've dealt with both of those situations countless times before and dealt with them all calmly and professionally. Having faith in your friend's strength is just as important as believing in yourself, after all."

He considered that. It did make sense. He knew that each of his friends were more than capable of taking care of themselves, and he knew that they felt the same way about him. Kasumi then placed a finger under his chin and lifted his gaze to match hers.

"Remember, you help people, Robin, you bring hope and happiness into the hearts of those people that truly need a hero . . . but what does it all mean if you can't make those closest to you happy as well?"

The alien thought brought him up short. What exactly did she mean? Was he really more concerned for strangers than for his friends? No, that wasn't it, couldn't be it. He cared about everyone one of the Titans more than he had imagined possible when they had first been forced together as a team.

"I . . . I don't know . . ."

"Shhh, shhh . . ." Kasumi drew the young hero into a comforting hug, resting his head on her bosom as she whispered into his ear. "Don't try to figure everything out all at once. These things take time, even for 'ordinary' people like ourselves. You take as long as you need to sort out your feelings. I know that Starfire will wait for you."

Robin relished the warmth of the young woman's tender embrace, drowned in the feeling of security that enveloped him. For someone who had always been so self reliant, it was a strange, almost uncomfortable sensation . . . but, as long as it was Kasumi, he didn't mind. Of course, if Cyborg or Beast Boy chose that moment to walk in, he'd be forced to kill them both on the spot.

"I'm so glad that I finally told you how I feel, Kasumi. It feels so good to finally get it all out into the open like that, like I can breathe again."

Kasumi smiled down at him.

"I'm so glad that you told me, as well. Though, I think you should tell Starfire at some point. She's a big girl, so I'm certain that she'll understand your feelings."

He nodded absently, still enjoying the simple pleasure of human contact that didn't involve the subsonic collision of fist and face.

"I will . . . eventually. I just don't know how to tell her about this yet."

Finally, Kasumi released him from her embrace and pushed him back to arm's length.

"Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually. Now, why don't we go get cleaned up? Lunch should be ready soon and I don't particularly want to eat while smelling like this."

To drive her point home, the young woman gingerly pinched the shoulder of her gi top and lifted it slightly. Her nose wrinkled cutely in apparent dissatisfaction with the current odor it was giving off.

He chuckled quietly to himself, feeling better than he had in quite some time. Sure, he still had a lot of stuff to figure out, but at least he knew he wasn't alone in his 'normalcy'.

"That sounds great."

---

Starfire floated down a random hallway, feeling more alone than she could ever remember since her misadventure into the future with the villainous Warp. Honestly, she did not even have an idea which hallway she was floating down. It was becoming increasingly difficult to concentrate on anything aside from the nearly unrecognizable remains of the tickets which she clutched so desperately to her chest. Really, though, misplacing herself in the hallways of her own home, perhaps she was emulating her would-be brother incrementally more than was necessary.

That errant thought wormed its way through her gloomy mindset and managed to lift her flagging spirit . . . if only a little. Despite everything which had been occurring as of late, or not occurring, she knew that her Lost Boy would be untouched by it, that he would be there to support her, if she but asked. Certainly, he appeared to be going through a 'rough patch', was it?, with Raven. However, as much as she had a vested interest in the outcome of that match, it was no more her business than what occurred (or did not) between herself and Robin was any of Ryouga's business.

Somehow, the knowledge that she had the support of someone, no matter how silent, made her feel slightly less alone at that moment. It also helped to firm her resolve. She had promised herself to ask Robin one last time to join her and that was what she would do!

That in mind, she embarked on what turned out to be a most abridged journey to the gymnasium. In fact, without even realizing it, her random floating of mopeiness had delivered her to the very same floor upon which her quarry was located.

She giggled brightly; perhaps she was not acting so similar to Ryouga as she had assumed.

Quite happy with her unintentional efficiency, she glided soundlessly down the hallway to the main entrance of the massive exercise chamber-

"- so glad that I finally told you how I feel, Kasumi. It feels so good to finally get it all out into the open like that, like I can breathe again."

Starfire stopped dead in mid-float, her eyes widening at what was undoubtedly Robin's voice.

"I'm so glad that you told me, as well. Though, I think you should tell Starfire at some point. She's a big girl, so I'm certain that she'll understand your feelings."

The Tamaranian swallowed a shocked gasp at the mention of her name, and the fact that it was spoken in the voice of Kasumi. What did Robin need to tell her? What feelings were Robin unburdening upon the Tendo woman?

Apprehension clutched her heart and she felt an overpowering desire to flee before she could hear any more . . . yet she was drawn inexorably forward. With fearful reluctance, the Tamaranian edged towards the corner that signified the end of the corridor and the beginning of the gymnasium until, finally, she could just catch a glimpse of what was occurring within.

This time, she was forced to cover her mouth lest her shocked gasp alert half of the tower.

It was Robin, in the arms of that – that . . . she could not even think of an appropriate term. To her shame, she still could not find it in her heart to blame the older woman. After all, it was only too obvious why Robin would choose a perfect and beautiful woman like Kasumi over an alien freak such as herself . . .

But – but, perhaps she was misinterpreting things? Perhaps the situation was not as she imagined it to be-

"I will . . . eventually. I just don't know how to tell her about this yet."

Before she even realized what she was doing, Starfire was flying down the hallway as fast as the restrained space would allow, a comet tail of tears twinkling in her wake. Too fast, perhaps, as her shoulder slammed heavily into a random wall, caving in the frail metal in her blind retreat. She ignored the collateral damage and escaped out of the closest window that she could locate.

The alien girl soared over the city that had become her home, raining her misery over the people she had sworn to protect.

'How could he . . . how could she?'

Starfire bit back a sob. She wanted to feel betrayed, but that was not truly the case, was it? Though she had made her own feelings clearly known, Robin's feelings had always been shrouded in mystery, always sending conflicting signals of distance and affection which she could not understand. Had he ever truly returned her feelings?

Had he ever been hers to lose in the first place?

That was a sobering thought, enough to bring her aimless flight to an end. She slowly lowered herself to the earth, mulling over that depressing thought even as she dashed her tears away. Perhaps she had read too much into Robin's previous actions? Perhaps her own desires had simply caused her to see only what she wished to see?

It did not make the pain any less, but it did allow her to put what she had seen into a strange kind of perspective. After all, she was not Robin's keeper, he was free to do as he wished. Nor was it a betrayal of her trust if Kasumi returned Robin's affections, since there was no true relationship for Kasumi to interfere with . . .

And if she actually believed that, she had a Buat'luk in Rigel Four to sell herself. .

Maybe it was just the shock of the situation, but she just did not know what to think, what to do. All she did know, was that she needed to do something - talk to someone . . .

Finally, she looked up to take in her surroundings. A pained smile strained her lips at what she saw. Apparently her subconscious knew her better than she knew herself.

Before her loomed a very familiar cave, a long strip of bright yellow tape which read 'Absolutely Do Not Disturb' hanging across its mouth.

Well, that hardly applied to her, now did it?

Without a trace of hesitation, she glided over the meager defense and began her slow descent into the earth. Around her, responding to the signal of her communicator, pale lights adorning the walls of the cave flared to life to light her passage.

Her mind swirled with a thousand thoughts as she descended, her heart overflowed with a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. Righteous fury eluded her, her affection for Robin was unchanged, just . . . shaken. Jealousy and envy battled friendship and camaraderie as she agonized over the images burned into her memory of Robin enveloped in Kasumi's arms.

A pained sigh escaped her lips.

It was no use; she loved them both far too much to ever hate them. But, then considering all that her own sister had done to her without losing her love, it hardly surprised the young Tamaranian. She was obviously too nice for her own good.

Maybe she needed to think of herself first, even if only once.

That thought brought her to the end of her journey. The narrow cave she had been floating through opened wide before her into a massive and intimately familiar cavern. Terra held her silent vigil at the heart of the cavern, just as she had been doing since her heroic saving of the city.

But where was Ryouga?

Her friend was nowhere to be seen. Curious, the Tamaranian floated further into the cavernous space to investigate. The Lost Boy's mountainous pile of pizza boxes remained stacked against one of the far walls, just as she remembered it. Finding nothing else immediately obvious, she continued to float to Terra's resting place.

She gave a tiny wave of her fingers and a melancholy smile of greeting to her frozen friend, then noticed something unusual. Littering the ground around the base of Terra's statue was an array of strange scrap materials: A small pile of plastic fragments that may have once been a bottle, a pile of white sand that looked to have been knocked apart and swept back together again many times, several shattered flower pots, a small steel plate with several small indentations suspiciously similar in size to a finger tip, and, finally, a small glass half filled with water-

Before Starfire could even begin to unravel the strange mystery so deliberately lain out before her, a sharp report echoed though the cavern. The sudden sound shocked a tiny 'eep' from her lips and she spun quickly to find the source. Despite the misleading echoes of the cavern, it did not take her long to find where it had come from.

Located at the distant end of the cavern, well clear of Terra's statue . . . and for some reason surrounded by a wide semi circle of tiny holes in the stone floor, was Ryouga. And for some reason, he was lying face down with limbs spread out across the igneous surface.

It looked, much to her amusement, as if the boy were attempting to hug the very earth itself.

Starfire hung in the air where she was, silently studying the Lost Boy's prone form. Strangely, it felt as if she were truly looking at him for the first time . . .

He was not asleep, that much was certain. Even with his cheek pressed firmly to the floor, she could see that his eyes were open, his pupils dilated so wide that she could scarcely see the exotic brown color that ringed them. Whatever it was that he was staring at, though, she had no idea.

The male was, she noted, actually quite handsome, in a rugged manner. Of course, she had always known that, but it had never really registered to her before, just as she had never really noted the more aesthetic features of Cyborg, Beast Boy, or Raven in any serious fashion before.

There was, of course, the rather shallow physical appeal of a specimen in such prime condition. Not even their friend, Aqualad, possessed such a toned, a more artistic soul might say sculpted, physique. And, while the Atlantean was undeniably . . . prettier, she found herself preferring Ryouga's roguish aesthetic.

More attractive to her was the young man's spirit. Even across the distance between them, his dark soul sang its sad, yet determined song to her. By no means were her fledgling senses as sharp or refined as Raven's and Ryouga's, but they were more than enough to feel his life energies flowing over and around her own as the warrior spread his aura throughout the cavern. It was forceful and desperate, holding a hint of malice that could not be washed away with the mere passage of time. The fading pain and loneliness that were buried at the core of his being drew her like a moth to a flame, filling her with the desire to consume his darkness with her light . . .

It was, somewhat ironically, very much the same way in which she felt for Raven. The only difference being that the violet haired Titan often went to great lengths to create distance between them, while Ryouga welcomed her into his life with arms wide open.

Then, there was her one guilty pleasure, her darkest secret which she had shared with no one. His raven hair, so very much like Robin's, yet at the same time so different. It was so exotic, so alien . . . so dangerous . . . just like her sister's. On Tamaran, black hair was all but unheard of. In all of her short lifetime, Starfire had only met one Tamaranian whom possessed hair of such inky darkness: her sister Blackfire. True, it was much more common on Earth, but her associations were already inescapably entrenched.

A petty little thought flitted across her mind: at least with Ryouga, she had not to fear smearing copious amounts of hair gel across her hand were she to run her fingers through his soft, untamed locks . . . unlike a certain other male, whom was so afraid of not being in control, even for a second, that he felt compelled to lock his poor hair in place with such unnatural chemicals.

She quickly banished the unseemly thought, feeling bad for thinking such a thing, and returned her attention to the prone form of her close friend.

The Lost Boy looked to be concentrating very hard on . . . whatever it was that he was doing. For a moment, a wave of guilt washed over her. Her and her friends had possessed months to try to restore Terra, but how hard had they really tried? Certainly, tests had been run and experts visited, but once those had failed, then what? Had it merely been a token effort?

Yet here was a man that knew nothing of Terra, had never heard her laugh, never seen her shed a tear, never shared an embrace with her, who had no bonds of friendship to motivate him . . . working harder than anyone ever had to free their entombed Terra.

How could one person be so selfish, yet so selfless at the same time? So cruel to his enemies and compassionate to his friends? How could one person deceive the woman he believed he loved one moment, only to be ready to sacrifice his life for her the very next?

It was all so confusing and intriguing. Sometimes, she wanted to bludgeon the boy herself, sometimes she wanted to-

She cut off that line of thought quickly.

Honestly, she did not know what to think, but there was one thing that she did know at that moment. Despite his remarkable resilience (for a human, at any rate) there was simply no way that he could possibly be comfortable lying as he was on that cold stone floor.

Well, at the very least there was something she could do about that.

A mischievous smile pulled at the corners of her lips.

---

Ryouga did his best to narrow his focus down even further, trying desperately to follow and map out the almost infinitesimal lines of energy which hung suspended between the much more visible breaking points, linking them into a massive and intricate web of unfathomable complexity. Perhaps if he could, then he could determine why he kept failing-

He started suddenly, as he felt a warm pressure unexpectedly lower onto his back. His first instinct was to throw off the weight and flip up to his feet – but somehow the meager weight on his back was pinning him to the ground with an unearthly strength that-

Immediately, Ryouga relaxed, rolling his eyes in fond annoyance. As soon as he stopped his struggling, he felt Starfire relax as well, nuzzling comfortably onto his back. She had also laid her legs to rest on top of his and slid her arms down until her hands wrapped around the backs of his, lacing her fingers between his own.

He turned his head slightly to see her smiling face only inches from his own, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Sheesh, Star, you scared the begeezus out of me!" he stated with a little more amusement than intended.

The flame haired female giggled teasingly into his ear.

"Heeheehee, perhaps you are not the master of the martial arts that you believed yourself to be, if someone as unskilled as I could catch you so off guard."

The fanged boy was about to retort - but was overcome by an irresistible urge to stretch out his limbs. Squeezing his fingers closed around his lovely companion's, he relished the life giving warmth radiating from her body, warmth that he hadn't even realized he was missing until that moment. A blissful sigh escaped his lips before he let out a weak chuckle.

"Heh, I'd hardly call you unskilled. Besides, that's not fair. I've gotten so comfortable with your aura that it didn't even register to me. If it had been anyone else, I would have noticed them half way down the tunnel."

Starfire offered him an assuring nod, squeezing his hands in return.

"Of course you would have."

He scowled lightly at her, but even that soon dissolved into an affectionate smile.

"So, what brings you down to my little dungeon, then? This is the first time you've visited me in a good week."

A look of guilt flashed across the girl's lovely face, stabbing him through the heart, but it was quickly replaced by a weak smile.

"Well, you had placed a series of blatant warnings at the mouth of the cave declaring your desire for solitude . . ."

He rolled his eyes and used their combined knuckles to rap her on the head.

"Come on, Kori, you know that could never apply to you."

Starfire used their intertwined hands to rub her forehead before sticking out her tongue in a most proficient Earthly raspberry.

"I am aware of that and I apologize. I have been preoccupied lately . . . with Robin . . . and have neglected to visit you. I am a most selfish sibling analogue."

He shook his head in amusement.

"Don't be like that. You're the best sister I've ever had-" His eyes narrowed as he remembered his other would-be sister. "-Trust me."

The heartwarming sound of her giggles brought a smile back to his lips, his ever present fang peeking out from his fanged grin.

"Besides, I can hardly blame you if you've been preoccupied with Robin. So, where did you get preoccupied, his room, or yours?"

"Ryouga!"

His wicked chuckle was cut short as the red faced girl ever so gently bumped her forehead to the back of his skull, incidentally embedding his face a good inch into the solid stone floor.

A moment later, he lifted his face out of his new crater, spitting out a few pebbles as he did, only to continue his chuckling.

"Mayhaps the lady doth protest too much?" He performed his best Kunou.

The Tamaranian let out an indignant sniff, face still flushed as crimson as her hair.

"You are worse than Kasumi in your most inappropriate comments."

He would have scratched his head at that comment, had his hands been his own at that moment. 'Worse than Kasumi'? Well, he certainly hoped so, in fact, he probably had a lot of company on that particular list . . . like Gandhi.

"Alright, alright. If you don't want to kiss and tell, I understand."

Starfire averted her eyes for a moment, looking to be struggling with something. A moment later, she matched his gaze once more. There was a look of something in her eyes, something he didn't like at all.

"In all honesty, there has been no lip contact of any kind. Robin has been most frustrating in his behavior lately. And just recently I saw - saw . . ."

"Saw what?" he asked quietly.

The Tamaranian quickly shook her head from side to side, pasting a most disingenuous smile on her face.

"Nothing! Nothing . . . of impact. Let me just say that my visit today was prompted as much by my desire to escape the tower as it was to bring joy to you."

His hackles began to rise as he thought about that. A low growl escaped his lips.

"You want me to beat Robin up for you? No one chases my sister out of her home . . . even if it does get her to finally visit her big brother."

Surprisingly, the alien girl seemed to consider his offer . . . then consider it some more . . . then, finally, she shook her head in the negative.

"I do not believe that would solve anything. And what precisely were you implying with your 'big brother' statement? I am obviously your big sister."

"Umm, I'm older than you, Kori, so I'm the big brother."

"But I am more mature than you, thus I am the senior sibling."

"Yeah . . . yeah – well I'm more worldly than you."

A smug look settled across her exotic features.

"Really? Then I am to suppose that you have traversed more than twenty seven separate planetary bodies in your journey?"

"Damnit! B-but I'm bigger!"

Her smirk only widened as she forced his arms to his sides with her superior strength.

"But I am stronger."

Ryouga released a defeated sigh.

"I don't suppose we can call this a draw, can we?"

Starfire retained her teasing smirk for another moment, before is melted into a genuine, loving smile.

"Very well, but only for the reason that I believe our fondness for one another is equally strong."

Well, he could live with that. Sighing in relief, he lowered his cheek back down into his custom made crater.

"So, Ryouga, what is it that you are endeavoring to do now? What does the presence of these unusual holes surrounding you signify?"

Immediately, his mood soured once more as his recent training endeavors were brought back into the spotlight.

"These holes?" He pointed to several of the tiny gouges in the bedrock, ranging from two feet from him, to a dozen feet removed. "Each of these holes represents me murdering Terra."

Starfire's shocked gasp was not unexpected.

"What do you mean?"

Rather than tell her, he decided to show her. He didn't bother closing his eyes this time, just let his mind's eye wander until the familiar sight of a glowing matrices of glowing golden threads spread out before his eyes to encompass every inch of the cavern. Taking another moment of concentration, he chose a nearby breaking point and did his best to predict a probable route for it to follow.

"Now, watch closely," he whispered.

He didn't release his focus for an instant, and amazingly, even having Starfire laying directly on top of him, her aura pressing down on his own, didn't distract him in the slightest.

He then touched his index finger, a small spark of his faintly azure ki glowing at its tip, to the breaking point.

It all happened in a flash, but to his trained eye it all seemed to occur like a slow motion sports replay. The tiny spark of ki entered the breaking point . . . but rather than detonate it instantly, as normally it would, the flicker of energy was actually absorbed into the point and flitted down one of the near invisible threads of energy which intersected the nexi. The spark slid down the line, entered another breaking point, then continued down yet another string of the Earth's own energy. This continued for three more breaking points, before the tiny flicker of light went off course, shooting down one of the other innumerable lines that spread out from the fifth breaking point. Surprisingly, the spark of his spiritual energy made it through three more random nexi before finally destabilizing and detonating into a small puff of dust and stone roughly four feet from where he'd intended.

Hmmm, interesting, that. It had actually made it fifteen feet, his furthest attempt to date - but it still wasn't enough!

Starfire let out a long 'oooh' of amazement.

"Ryouga, you have developed a long range revision of your Breaking Point Technique!"

Ryouga quickly shook his head. "No, that's not what I'm doi-"

He stopped abruptly, his jaw working slowly on its own.

". . . wait a second . . . You're right! Oh man! How the heck did I miss that?"

Another round of Starfire's pleasant giggles prompted him to drop his head back to the stone floor with a dull crunch.

"Perhaps if you were to inform me what it is that you were attempting to do, that could illuminate the situation."

The fanged boy let out a long, weary sigh.

"Maybe, but it is kind of a long story. I had started to tell Raven about it before . . . things happened, but let me try to explain."

Starfire waited patiently as he tried to organize his thoughts. Then, taking one last breath, he began.

"Okay, it starts like this. After studying Terra for a few weeks, I finally realized what, or at least what I think had happened. Incidentally, I also think I finally figured out what Cologne was talking about all that time ago. Somehow, when Terra stopped the volcano that was going to destroy the city, I think she used every last bit of power she had to do it . . . and that power became infused into the very earth and stone of the cavern around us. There's still a connection there, between Terra and her energy, so that's why I'm so sure there's still a chance to revive her. Heh, of course, the only reason it took me so long to figure all of that out is because Terra's energy is almost indistinguishable from the energy of the Earth itself."

The Tamaranian's eyes widened as she tried to process the information he was giving her.

"Of course, when I figured that out, I suddenly realized exactly what it was that Cologne had attempted to do when she used the Bakusai Tenketsu on Terra . . . and was left wondering why it didn't work. Thankfully, thanks to a conversation I had with Raven, it didn't take me to long to figure that out either."

"Really? How is it possible that you could have divined something that Cologne could not? I know you are very skilled, but her knowledge is beyond comprehension."

He smiled a rare smile of pride.

"Because, like I said, I had information that she didn't. Well, that and I spent more than five minutes examining Terra's statue. And now that I know what it was that's stopping Terra's energy from returning on its own, I can fix it . . . theoretically. Of course, even if I did that right now, it would still probably take months for Terra's chi, or life energy, or whatever, to return naturally, so I've been trying to emulate Cologne's technique, to kind of . . . jump start Terra, I suppose. By forcing a tiny amount of my energy to travel down Terra's chi meridians, I'm hoping that I can artificially start her chi flowing again, which will hopefully begin drawing her energy back into her body immediately."

Starfire smiled ecstatically.

"That is ingenious, Ryouga!"

He shook his head modestly.

"No, not really. Just good luck and good teachers, really."

"But, then if you have determined how to save Terra, then what seems to be the hindrance to your plan?" she asked with marked interest.

He rolled his eyes, more annoyed with himself than her. "Aside from the breaking points exploding you mean? I don't dare use the technique on her before I'm sure I can do it without killing her. If I could get my energy to run its full course without exploding, then I could be sure I wouldn't hurt her. Unfortunately, I can't get it more than a dozen feet most of the time before my energy reverts and detonates a breaking point."

A puzzled look descended on the alien beauties face.

"Reverts? What do you mean by that?"

He stared at her for a moment, before realizing he hadn't explained that part yet.

"Ahh, well, you see, I've spent most of my time down here attempting to accumulate my chi to match Terra's-"

"I believe the term you are referring to is 'acclimate'"

"Sheesh, now I'm getting corrected by an alien."

"Heeheehee."

"Anyway, my earlier attempts were complete failures. My chi, as it is, is too different from Terra's to interact with the breaking points without detonating them. However, I noticed that the longer I tried it, the easier it got. At first, I thought it was just the training paying off, but then I noticed that my chi had actually been changing, adapting to the Earth's energy. So then I started doing everything I could to acclimate my chi more thoroughly."

"Hence the lying upon the stone floor?"

He nodded.

"Exactly, by staying down here as much as possible, and remaining in contact with the stone as often as I could, I've actually been able to slightly modify my own energy . . . make it more compatible. It's still not there yet, but I'm getting closer. Now, the only thing I can't quite figure out is controlling the path the energy takes. I'd been worried about it looping around in Terra's body and causing problems in her chi flow, but, now that you mentioned it, if I wanted to make it into an effective combat technique, the aiming would be pretty crucial as well."

She smiled then, just for him.

"Your progress is most heartening. The thought that Terra might soon be returned to us fills my heart with hope . . . Though . . . perhaps - perhaps it would be best if I left your company for now, to allow you to return you to your work."

A sudden and very out of character desire to not be by himself when he was training gripped him from seemingly nowhere. He quickly closed his fingers tightly around hers, holding her in place as best as he could.

"No, you don't need to go. I can keep training while you're here. It won't distract me as long as it's you," he stated rather quickly.

Starfire's joyous smile warmed his heart in a way that not even her warm body pressed against his could. The alien girl then lowered her head to rest on his back and nuzzled her cheek into the rough material of his familiar yellow sweater, obviously getting comfortable.

"Very well, I will remain here. You may proceed with your training, I shall be more than content simply to . . . be here."

He smiled at that, content to feel the warmth of her breath seeping through his sweater to warm his skin. He'd have to watch himself, lest he be lulled to sleep by his comfortable new blanket.

An amusing stray thought flitted across his mind.

"Y'know, Kori, as long as you're here, maybe I could try to teach you the Bakusai Tenketsu. I mean, you already have an excellent understanding of energy manipulation, and you figured out the Hiryu Shoten Ha, so this shouldn't be too much more difficult."

His companion perked up quickly at that though, interest twinkling in her enormous emerald eyes.

"Really? You believe I could attempt it?"

He nodded reassuringly.

"Sure, you're a natural. I bet you could even help me with Terra. Here, give me your finger."

He deftly slid his index finger under hers and straightened them both out.

"Now, focus a tiny amount of energy right to the very tip of your finger. Just a little bit." He did so himself, demonstrating the technique for her to emulate. He could see her studying his fingertip, it was pretty obvious that she was having trouble making out exactly what it was he was doing. Well, he shouldn't have been too surprised, he hadn't actually gotten around to teaching her about sensing chi yet, and Raven had only taught her a minimum about sensing auras and such herself.

Still, remarkably, after only several minutes of intense concentration, he saw a tiny green star alight at the tip of the young woman's graceful finger.

"Alright, good work. Now, just let me find a breaking point for you to hit annnd . . ."

Very carefully, he directed her finger towards a smooth section of the floor, carefully curling up his own finger to avoid hitting the point himself. Then, after aiming very carefully, he prompted her to touch her finger to exactly the right spot-

And, with the sizzling hiss of melting stone, Starfire's finger buried itself right up to knuckle into the once unyielding stone floor.

The two shared a brief glance.

"Ummm, maybe I'll teach you the Bakusai Tenketsu after I help Terra . . ."

"Umm . . . perhaps that would be for the best."

---

Starfire shifted slightly, sliding her hands beneath her to rest on the broad shoulders of the young man below her. She had relinquished the use of his hands back to him so that he might continue his training. It was a slow process, to be sure. In the half hour since she had made her embarrassing attempt at the Breaking Point Technique, he had only done his modified technique twice. The first attempt traversed seventeen feet and had been followed by ten minutes of silent contemplation. He then made a second attempt, which traveled only thirteen feet before detonating.

He had yet to make a third attempt, and a small frown still adorned his lips in testament to his rather notable regression in progress. This situation was, she believed, a most excellent opportunity for her to be learning about the technique, as well as the fine control of chi necessary to perform it . . . so she felt quite ashamed with herself that her mind was focused on anything but the educational process occurring directly beneath her nose.

Instead, all she could see was the image of Robin in Kasumi's arms, cycling endlessly, over and over again. The masked hero, he looked so . . . so safe in her arms, as if he had not a care in the world. She had never seen him in such a state, not during any of their missions, not on any of their wondrous trips to the mall of shopping, not even in their most private of discussions during the middle of the night, when all other Titans were sleeping. He had looked so vulnerable then, as if all he desired was to be cared for . . . only it was Kasumi caring for him, not herself.

But, then why should he feel safe in her arms? How many times had Starfire unintentionally harmed him when demonstrating her affection for him? How many other people had suffered similar afflictions? She knew that her control over her own strength was less than perfect, especially when she was so charged with emotion. It was hard to remember that so many of her friends were so . . . delicate . . .

Slowly, she slid her hands down her mortal mattresses' sides and beneath his chest. Accommodatingly, he lifted his torso from the ground to allow her arms to encircle him fully. The Tamaranian hugged him then – it was a true hug, a hug like the ones her mother gave her as a child, filled with all of her passion and joy, untainted by fear and restraint.

To her relief, the human martial artist barely even grunted in protest, his ribs failed to cave in, his internal organs did not rupture or burst . . .

"It feels good, does it not?" she asked quietly.

He turned slightly to face her, a fanged grin on his lips.

"Heh, well, hugs usually do, Kori."

She offered him a weak smile in return, shaking her head slowly.

"That is not what I meant. I meant, it feels good to hug someone, to show them your true affection without fear of causing them harm . . . Do you know what I am speaking of?"

She regretted the question almost immediately, at the haunted look that suddenly passed through the young male's dark eyes.

". . . Have you ever heard the person you love telling someone how much you terrified them? Yeah . . . yeah, I know what you are speaking of . . ."

She wondered what it was that his eyes were seeing, what scene was playing out in his mind's eye, for surely his eyes were not looking upon her at that moment. The young man slowly lowered his head back to the stone floor, the distant, pain-filled look still lingering in his eyes.

The silence lasted for several long minutes; she honestly had no idea what to say to follow up her question. He looked so forlorn so in need of reassurance - almost in as great a need for reassurance as she herself was. She hated herself for her selfishness at that moment, but felt compelled to press on, regardless.

"Ryouga, do you find me to be . . . attractive?"

Instantly, the look of remembered pain vanished from Ryouga's face, replaced by overstated shock, however, it quickly faded back into amused fondness as he turned back to face her.

"Heh, you're as cute as a button, Kori. You know you're one of the prettiest girls I know."

She quickly caught his averting eyes with her own, pinning him down with a serious look.

"No . . . do you find me to be attractive."

He matched her serious gaze, fear, amongst other conflicting emotions beginning to swirl in the far depths of his bottomless chestnut eyes.

"W-w-wha . . . Star, why are you . . ."

Slowly, she slid her hand down his arm once more to entwine it with his. She could feel his body temperature begin to spike and his cheeks flushed with blood at the very same contact which he had not even questioned less than an hour earlier.

'What am I doing?'

---

'What is she doing!'

The pressure in his nasal cavity was approaching critical mass at Starfire's sudden and drastic change in approach. Where moments ago they had been enjoying comfortable silence, he was now battling to remain conscious. Fortunately, of all of the emotions currently swirling through his brain, Fear was close enough to the surface that he was able to latch on to it with both metaphorical hands and clamp down with every ounce of willpower he had.

Hopefully it would explode into full-blown Panic soon and get him out of this mess!

She matched his gaze; he could see the very same mass of confused emotions mirrored in her eyes that resided in his. Fear, uncertainty . . . and something else swam around in those huge, glistening emerald eyes of hers. Her inviting lips trembled in trepidation, her breathing slowing down to almost nothing.

"Please do not tell me that you have never even considered it . . . considered being with someone whom you did not have to fear harming with your affection?"

The fanged warrior looked away sharply, feeling ashamed for some reason. His lowered gaze brought their clasped hands firmly into his view. Absently, with his free hand, he lifted a fist sized stone from the cavern floor. At the same time, he began to close his hand around the hand and the stone with equal fervor; not with a grip meant to harm, but with the desperate, wild abandon of a man grasping his last life line.

In his right hand, the stone slowly crumbled into a fine powder, in his left, Starfire's hand accepted the pressure without the slightest complaint, she didn't even tense the muscles of her hand to resist his intense grip . . .

Instead of a squeal of pain or protest, Starfire made a content sound. "It is nice… to feel you holding my hand . . . and not just feel a faint sensation of touch telling me that something is within my grasp . . ."

Before he could even think about it, he pulled their entwined hands to his chest, pressing them to his heart fervently. It felt so – so right . . . yet so terribly wrong. He didn't even know what to think, in fact, thought was getting harder and harder by the second.

"B-but why?" was all he could force himself to say.

She averted her eyes for a moment.

"I . . . I have seen something which has made me reconsider my feelings . . . on a great many things. Does it – does it strike you as so unnatural that I might find you to be desirable?"

Slowly, he nodded, not trusting himself to say anything else. Her weak smile grew in strength at his silent admission.

"But you are. You are passionate, courageous, selfless, you are unafraid to express your feelings, you are strong enough to survive the expressing of my feelings . . . You should know that you would have made a most excellent Tamaranian."

He smiled weakly at that, at least she wasn't comparing him to a pig. His smile quickly floundered, though, as she slowly began to lower her head toward his. His eyes widened frightfully wide as her lips pursed ever so slightly, he could feel the intoxicating warmth of her breath on his own . . .

A thousand thoughts all exploded in his mind at once, cheers of joy, screams of horror and everything in between. However, of all of the voices in his head, there was only one which was truly his and he latched onto it with the last flagging reserves of his will. Just as her lips were a fraction of an inch from his own –

"P-please don't . . . Kori . . ."

Starfire stopped at his whispered plea; he could see mingled disappointment and relief flooding her eyes.

"But, why not . . . am I that unappealing to you?" she asked quietly.

He shook his head slowly.

"No . . . no, it's just that . . . that you know that I'm not – not a strong man."

"That is not true, you are the strongest human I know-"

"That's not what I meant," he interrupted her with slightly more force than he wanted to, "Y-you know what I meant. You know what kind of man I am. I'm not strong . . . like that. If - if you kiss me right now . . . I'd fall for you. I'd fall hard . . . and I'd never stop falling . . ."

---

A weak gasp escaped Starfire's lips at his choked admission. She slid her free hand up to gently run her fingers along his cheek, gently holding his face steady before her. Her lips lingered mere millimeters above his, the light tickle of his breath playing over her nose.

"And . . . would that be so bad?" she asked in a low voice.

The veritable titan trembled beneath her feather light touch, unable to match her intense gaze. It felt so intoxicating, knowing that she held such power over him . . . power she had never known before, never even wanted before. It was so heady, yet so terrifying at the same time. Despite his feeble protests, all it would take was a single kiss and . . .

And . . .

"Maybe . . . maybe not . . . but it would be different . . . and nothing on this entire planet frightens me more than the thought of losing what we have right now."

She looked at him in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

He continued his intense study of the cavern floor.

"I'm so sorry, Kori, I know this is selfish of me, but to me, you're my sister, and I need you more than I need any girlfriend, wife, or . . . lover . . ."

His gaze finally returned to hers, determination filling them.

"This isn't that 'best friend' bull crap that Ranma tried to feed Ukyou. I love you, I do, and I could very easily love you like that . . . But what we have now is special, unique, something that no one can take from us, no matter who either of us might end up with . . . and I'm just too selfish to give that up so quickly . . ."

Starfire felt hot tears begin to gather at the corners of her eyes. She felt so terrible at that moment. How could he possibly believe himself to be the selfish one here? Even an hour ago, she had thought of Ryouga as nothing more than a brother . . . and yet now here she was, trying to woo his affections for herself. All of the things which he claimed to be too selfish to give up, were all of the things that she was selfishly willing to sacrifice as a balm to sooth her damaged heart.

Ryouga obviously misinterpreted her tears. The young man quickly flipped over, enveloping her in a crushing hug of comforting.

"Please don't cry, Star! I-if that's what you really want . . . I . . . I don't know . . . but – but if it will make you happy, then . . ."

She quickly silenced him with a finger to his lips.

"Cease your speaking, Ryouga. I have been most unfair to you in my actions. Perhaps you are right . . . perhaps I am more in need of a brother at the moment than anything else as well."

And just like that, her world seemed to realign, and her guilt and shame vanished to the wind. The pain was still present, but it could not harm her while she was in his arms. His arms would always protect her, no matter what the cause, because that is what brothers did . . . was it not?

"Ryouga . . . I have done something very selfish today, and hopefully you can find it in your heart to forgive me . . . but you must never believe that it was a mistake. I love you very much, and maybe someday we may be prepared for such a thing . . . but for now, for right now, I need my little brother, just as you need your big sister."

Ryouga rolled his eyes in fond amusement, doing everything in his power to hide the many conflicting emotions in his eyes from her. He was correct, they were both in very confusing situations at the moment, and proceeding as she had wished would have likely ended in disaster . . . but she had meant what she said. Though Robin held a large place in her heart, if it was not meant to be, then it was not meant to be . . . And if Raven could not see what was right in front of her face . . . then that was a problem of her own devising . . .

"Kori . . . you know I can forgive you for anything . . . even things where I have absolutely no idea what's going on - like right now - but just so you know, you seriously owe me for this one, because I am very, very confused right now."

Starfire smiled widely at his admission. Yes, he would have made a most perfect Tamaranian indeed, her own little Ryond'r. She then giggled, a perfect plan coming to mind.

"Well, it so happens that I do have a pair of movie tickets in my possession. As my way of apology, I shall allow you to accompany me to the cinema of movie watching!"

He shot her a flat look.

"Do I have a choice in the matter?"

She shook her head energetically.

"Of course not, my silly little Ryond'r."

"Huh, Ryond'r?"

She smiled all the wider.

"Your new Tamaranian name! Combined from your Japanese and my Tamaranian, it would be translated here as 'Good Fire' . . . I believe it suits you well."

Her beloved brother chuckled happily at his new designation, all traces of fear and confusion finally fled from his features.

"Alright, Kori, alright, you win. Tonight we'll go see your movie."

Then, the boy turned back to the cavern, a smile forged of certainty formed on his lips. He then tapped a single finger to the ground; prompting a tiny explosion of rock and dust to burst into the air nearly a dozen yards away.

"Tomorrow – tomorrow, we restore Terra . . . I swear it!"

---

-Three Days Later-

"Son of a bitch!"

His irate curse drew a sympathetic sigh from his companion.

"I understand that you are upset, Ryouga, but how could the male progeny of a female canine possibly be of any assistance to us at this moment?"

Ryouga wasn't even fazed by the non-sequiter, he'd known the young woman too long to be put off by her minor eccentricities. Instead, he let out a pained groan as he continued his frantic pacing around Terra's statue. Starfire continued to watch his frantic pacing, looking a little perplexed.

"I just can't believe how stupid I've been! I mean, how did I not realize that was a possibility? Man, am I trying to kill Terra here?"

The Tamaranian quirked an eyebrow at his ranting.

"I did not desire to distress your mental stability to such a degree, however, my concern was a valid one. If you are trying to force the reversion of Terra's body from its igneous state back to flesh and blood at a greatly accelerated rate, is it not possible that initiating the process with only her heart could lead to the restoration of that organ before any other-"

"-And if her heart starts trying to beat when all she has in her veins is gravel, and without any other organs functioning to support it . . . then if the process is too slow, she could die while I'm trying to save her!" he finished irately.

He clubbed himself upside the head with a curled fist. Why hadn't he thought of that? He had no idea how fast or slow the process could be.

"Why not simply activate several points in rapid succession, then?"

Ryouga rubbed his chin in consideration . . .

"It could . . . no – no, that would be too risky. To do it right, I'd have to inject energy directly into all of her major organs, so if I screwed up, even a little, it could kill her. I have to do the Bakusai Tenketsu with absolute perfect precision, not to mention using the exact right amount of chi and trying to match it as close to hers as possible, all at the same time. I'm pretty sure I can do it once, with enough preparation, but to do that at least seven times in a row, in rapid succession? I mean, I've done a rapid fire Bakusai Tenketsu before, but this – this is on a completely different level."

And so, the two of them continued to circle Terra, Ryouga wandering clockwise, while Starfire orbited counter clockwise. Looks of deep contemplation were etched on both of their respective faces.

Fifteen minutes later, Starfire's eyes lit up and she spun to face the Lost Boy over Terra's shoulder.

"I know! We should seek Raven's assistance-"

"No."

"But she could help!"

"No!"

"You are being unreasonable!"

"No!"

"Do you desire twenty of your indigenous currency units?"

"No – wait, what?"

Starfire's merciless giggles brought his cyclical wandering to an abrupt halt.

"C'mon, Kori, please just try to concentrate. I'm sure we can figure this out ourselves. We don't need to bring Raven into this."

Her eyes narrowed dangerously to fire a heated glare in his direction, her dainty fists resting firmly on her hips.

"Is this reluctance due to your lingering anger towards Raven, or is it motivated by some misplaced desire to impress her?"

Ryouga scratched his chin for a moment, before shrugging sheepishly.

"Umm, a little from column A, a little from column B?"

The Tamaranian let out a weary sigh.

"Very well, I can see that solving this dilemma is very important to you, that and your timely use of the Simpson's quotation have won me over . . . for now. However, there will come a time when we shall be forced to realize that animated entertainment programs do not contain the answers to all of life's questions."

He waved dismissively, chuckling in amusement at her latest life lesson. "Yeah, yeah, I know tha-"

The rest of his reply was cut off by the look that suddenly bloomed on his lovely companion's face. Though few would call Hibiki Ryouga a poet, or a prodigy of the spoken word, all he could think of when he looked upon her was the word 'Epiphany', and it looked like she was most certainly having one.

"However," she exclaimed excitedly, "This is not one of those times!"

The girl then flew forward in a flash of orange and purple. He braced himself for a bone crushing hug . . . except none came. Instead, his head was snapped harshly to the side as one of his bandannas was ripped from his head. Ryouga's eyes snapped open to glare at the headband thief, only to see the unusual sight of her staring intently at the bandanna held in her hands.

Starfire then looked up to him. "Ryouga, tell me, how was it that you were able to cause your head coverings to attain such rigid sharpness in our battle so long ago?"

His answer was almost by rote.

"That's easy. I just infuse them with my chi."

Her smile widened, brightening the entire cavern with infectious cheer.

"And how long can they contain the chi which you infuse into them?"

He shrugged, not really sure where she was going with thi-

Ah ha! Epiphany indeed! He snapped his fingers as realization suddenly flooded over him.

"Potentially, they can hold the chi as long as I concentrate on them, and then for at least a minute or two after I let them go. It's what lets me throw them like I do."

Already a plan was forming in his mind, a brilliant plan, a plan that couldn't fail and best of all, it was a simple plan! He was so caught up in his own excitement, that he swept the deceptively light girl up into the air and spun her around.

"If I can prepare several bandannas-"

"Or paper wards inscribed with Kanji," Starfire interjected unexpectedly.

The completely random statement stopped him in mid spin. He looked at her oddly for a moment, before managing to catch the tail end of his train of thought before it could slip away.

"Ah, yeah, or that. Anyway, if I could prepare a number of them with the exact type and amount of chi, then, in theory, then I could place them over all of Terra's major organs and I could get them all to release their power at the same time."

He looked into Starfire's bottomless emerald eyes in wonder.

"Where on earth did you come up with that idea? It's brilliant, Kori!"

The Tamaranian looked to the floor, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

"It – it simply occurred to me. Do you recall the animated program of female empowerment which Beast Boy watches avidly yet refuses to admit to enjoying?"

Ryouga wracked his brain for a moment, then-

"Oh yeah! Sailor Moon!"

She nodded in agreement.

"I recalled that the raven haired warrior of love and justice whom derives her powers from this system's fourth planet would often wield strips of paper imbued with her spiritual power . . . not completely unlike what you did with your own clothing."

He smirked wickedly.

"Heh, and you said that T.V. didn't have all the answers-"

It was about that moment that Ryouga realized his hands were still wrapped tightly around the trim alien girl's bare midriff, holding her aloft. Instantly, his face burned red and he snatched his hands away, leaving the Tamaranian floating in the air.

"Man . . . this is going to be a little awkward for a bit, isn't it?" he asked morosely.

Starfire floated back to the floor, a light tinge on her cheeks as well.

"It need not be. We are both mature individuals-"

He shot her an extremely dubious look.

"-in comparison with Beast Boy-"

Well, that he could agree with.

"And . . . and our continued affection is very important to me. I refuse to let it be ruined so easily, I refuse to let the closeness which has formed between us lessen in any way."

His dubious look shifted to a merely skeptical one, but she was absolutely right. Starfire was the only family he had (within a thousand miles, at least) and he refused to lose what they had as well. Unfortunately, it would not be as easy as the optimistic female imagined. Until recently, she had been in the same category in his mind that Ukyou resided in: ambiguously female, however, her little stunt had forced him to realize that she was indeed a lovely and desirable young woman.

It was such a disturbing concept that he had to shake it off physically. He seriously needed to find out what had brought on her strange behavior, if only he could find out who, or what he needed to beat into submission for suddenly thrusting his already fragile world onto such a tenuous and steep precipice. Until then-

"Alright, Kori, I think we can do this. However, right off the top of my head, I can think of a few things that I'm going to need to pull this off. I can start practicing the technique while you go get them…"

The Tamaranian nodded hopefully, carefully memorizing the list of items that he began to rattle off.

'Heh,' he thought to himself.

'You'll be free by this time tomorrow, Terra, I promise."

---

-Two days later-

"Dang it!"

"Garfield, language."

Beast Boy shrunk under Kasumi's mildly disapproving gaze, all the while cradling his foot and awkwardly hopping to keep pace with his companions.

"Sorry, Kasumi. Just stubbed my toe really bad there."

Raven, following up at the tail end of the procession, rolled her eyes.

"Beast Boy, you regularly get beaten by super villains and yet you're complaining about a stubbed toe?"

The changeling glared back at her.

"Pretty high and mighty coming from the Queen of the paper cuts."

Raven refused to give him the satisfaction of her blush.

"That's completely different . . . ancient tomes have very sharp pages."

A round of polite chuckles and amused giggles echoed off the walls of the winding tunnel that encapsulated them. It was pretty rare for the hooded Titan to attempt a joke – at least, Beast Boy was pretty sure it had been a joke.

"So, anyway, any idea why Ryo is draggin' us all down here?" Cyborg directed his question to their silently gliding guide. The cybernetic teen had become their unofficial liaison between the tower and Ryouga and Starfire's little two person Terra Squad. Considering neither of them had been out of the cave for anything but a sleep for a good five days, it seemed like an appropriate title.

Heck, the poor duo had missed out on a bank robbery, two hostage situations, and a short visit from Control Freak and his new, Brushogun inspired, anime motif . . .

Beast Boy shuddered at that memory. A sailor scout, Control Freak was not!

Anyway, Cyborg's status had also been forced upon him by the fact that, for some reason, when Starfire had actually come up to the tower to invite them down to Terra's cave, she had gone out of her way to invite everyone but Robin. Something weird was going on, which was par for the course lately, and Beast Boy still had no idea what it was.

Avidly not looking at Robin, who shrank slightly at the dismissal, Starfire turned to Cyborg to reply.

"Ryouga believes that we are very close to being prepared for the fortuitous return of our beloved comrade-"

Beast Boy's ears perked up excitedly at that news.

"However, there is one step that must be taken before we can initiate our attempt, and that step requires some assistance."

Cyborg nodded, flush with anticipation.

"Well alright! Let's get this party started! Our pretty little stick has been a stone for way too long."

By general consensus of excitement, the group of them eagerly picked up the pace and quickly finished their journey to Terra's cavern. Awaiting them in the spacious hollow was the familiar duo of Terra and Ryouga. The fanged fighter was sitting cross-legged beside the stone beauty, his eyes closed tightly. The second that their Tamaranian Tour Guide floated over the threshold, though, the martial artist's eyes snapped open and he pushed himself up to his feet.

"Great, you guys are here. Now we can finally get started."

Beast Boy rushed ahead excitedly.

"You mean you're gonna bring Terra back now?"

Ryouga smiled confidently, dropping a hand on the changeling's shoulder.

"Soon enough. There's just one thing that needs to be done first, but I'm going to need some help to pull it off."

Robin joined the two of them, inspecting Terra's statue with a critical eye.

"You've got any assistance we can offer, you don't even need to ask. However, it doesn't look like anything has changed since we were last down here. What exactly do you need our help to do?"

The Bandanna Clad boy nodded sharply.

"True enough. We haven't actually done anything to Terra, yet. Starfire and I have spent the past week or so perfecting the various skills that are going to be needed to restore Terra-"

To Beast Boy's side, Raven seemed to shrink in on herself for some reason, vanishing even deeper into the shadows of her hood.

"-and thanks to her quick thinking, we now have a method that I'm confident will restore Terra. Before we can use it, though, we need to remove the one obstacle that is preventing Terra from recovering."

Beast Boy grumbled, already getting impatient. "Sheesh, Ryo, get to the point already. What do you need us to do?"

At the changeling's interruption, a somewhat evil smile found its way on to the Lost Boy's face. Ryouga then turned to Kasumi.

"Kasumi, you and Starfire have the most important job."

Said Tendo woman's head tilted to the side in an inquisitive manner. She then turned her attention to the Tamaranian, who was now floating just to Beast Boy's other side.

"I'm pleased to help, but whatever would you need the two of us to do?"

The emerald shape shifter was pretty curious about that, too. Before he had the chance to vocalize his curiosity, though, Starfire replied far too cheerfully.

"We have the most pressing task of enforcing immobilization upon Beast Boy."

'Oh,' the changeling thought to himself, 'Well, that did sound pretty importa-'

"Wait! Wha-"

His exclamation was cut off abruptly when the Tamaranian suddenly enveloped him in a gentle, but unbreakable hug, holding him firmly in place. Instinct flared to life and almost instantly the beastly boy began to rail against his captivity.

"Starfire! Leggo!"

He writhed and wriggled in her grasp, seconds away from the point of flailing his legs – when he felt another set of arms slide around his shoulders. His struggles stopped as quickly as they started; the changeling turned his head to see that Kasumi was now holding him as well, her shoulders brushing Starfire's. The lovely woman offered him a sympathetic smile.

"Please don't fight, Garfield. I'm certain that Ryouga and Starfire have a very good reason for this-" The Tendo woman turned her gaze to the Lost Boy. "-Isn't that right, Ryouga?"

The Hibiki nodded seriously.

"I need the two of you to hold him-" He then turned back to face the stone girl at his side; the martial artist rested a companionable hand on Terra's narrow shoulder. "-So that I could do this-"

Abruptly, before Beast Boy even had a chance to react, Ryouga flipped his hand over and delivered a sharp strike to Terra's shoulder. The deceptively small strike landed with a deafening crack and a deep web of cracks began to spread out from the area of impact.

The emerald shape shifter felt his heart drop down into his shoes and only the physical restraints of his body kept his jaw from following. The shocked gasps and alarmed protests of his companions were all drowned out by the sound of splitting stone ringing through his ears. Only the impossible strength of Starfire and the delicate fragility of Kasumi kept him from losing it on the spot.

Then, even as Raven stared in mute shock, Robin settled back to critically observe the unfolding drama and Cyborg made ready to deck the itinerant martial artist, Ryouga flipped his hand over again and with all of the care of an archaeologist at the dig of a lifetime, gently brushed away the shattered and crumbling fragments of stone-

Revealing the dull, weathered steel of Terra's shoulder armor lying right beneath the thin shell.

". . ."

". . ."

". . ."

Beast Boy felt all the strength in his legs evaporate like the morning dew, only Starfire's caring embrace kept him upright. Pure relief and sheer confusion warred for dominance in his mind, leaving him unable to do anything but stare in awe.

Before him, Cyborg stumbled to a stop, looking every bit as confused as Beast Boy himself. Raven continued to stare, though the unmistakable look of her oft-seen annoyance was creeping on to her face. To his side, Kasumi let out a breath that he hadn't even realized she'd been holding in – it reminded him to start breathing again himself, actually.

Of them all, Robin was the first to recover. In fact, the thoughtful look on the masked boy's face made the changeling wonder if Robin had even been surprised at all by the turn of events.

"Impressive, but were the shock tactics really necessary? We had already known that the metal of Terra's suit had survived the transformation-"

"The heck we did!" Beast Boy surged forward, but was held firmly in place by his captors.

Robin shot him an apologetic look before continuing. "It's just that we didn't see how that could help us, so we left it alone, rather than risk accidentally harming Terra."

Ryouga nodded slowly, but a confused look quickly settled across his features.

"Wait, if you two knew, then why was Cyborg getting ready to clock me?" The fanged fight pointed accusingly to the cybernetic teen in question.

The Titanium Titan offered up an apologetic shrug. "What? You freaked me right the heck out, Ryo. It slipped my mind, so sue me."

Raven glided forward to join the conversation, a look of not so mild annoyance showing even through the shadows of her hood.

"And would it really have been too much for you to explain what you were doing, instead of shocking Beast Boy half to death?"

At Beast Boy's side, Starfire nodded sympathetically. "I had suggested such a course of action, however-"

"-However," Ryouga stepped in, "I figured that, rather than spend half the night explaining and trying to convince you all that it was almost perfectly safe-"

"Almost?"

Ryouga rolled his eyes in the direction of the irate shape shifter.

"-We'd just get it over with so that we can get around to actually saving Terra. You know the old saying, 'It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.'"

Beast Boy's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Wanna bet?"

This time, the Lost Boy actually had the audacity to scoff at him.

"Yeah, we'll see how vengeful you are this time tomorrow, when you're eating pizza with Terra back in the tower."

Before the changeling could respond, or even come up with a response, Robin took charge of the discussion once again.

"That's enough. Look, what's done is done. Though it was reckless, Ryouga is the foremost expert on the subject here, and I happen to agree with him. Terra sacrificed herself to save us, so I don't want her trapped down here one more second than necessary."

The masked Titan then turned back to Ryouga.

"So, fill us in on the situation as you see it, and what we can do to help."

Ryouga gazed across the small group gathered before him, before nodding to himself.

"Alright, to catch you all up, Starfire and I have developed a technique that should let us bring Terra back from her petrified state."

Starfire, finally releasing Beast Boy, smiled proudly, her cheeks tingeing a light red.

"Truly, I did little more than act as the echoing length of planed timber for Ryouga's own analysis."

Of them all, only Cyborg had the nerve to ask the question that was on all of their minds.

"Ah, you mean the 'sounding board'?"

"Yes, that as well!"

". . ."

A quick group head shake later, and everyone was back on topic.

"Anyway," Ryouga continued, "It's pretty much just a revised version of the technique that Cologne used when she examined Terra. The only difference is that I learned about something that she didn't, so I know why her attempt didn't work."

The Lost Boy, obviously too impatient for a question and answer period, quickly pointed to the metallic shoulder cover adorning Terra.

"The reason Cologne's technique didn't work, and the reason that Terra hasn't restored herself already, is this suit." Ryouga nodded curtly in Raven's direction. "Raven told me that the suit had somehow bonded to her, assimilated into her skin, and that she would have never been able to remove it. Well, I think that's why she isn't recovering. Her body is trying to heal itself, but the invasion of the suit into her body is interfering in several key chi points and is preventing that from happening."

A thoughtful finger resting on his chin, Robin nodded in agreement. "And this presents us with a perfect opportunity to remove the suit, as well. We're much less likely to harm Terra in her current state than if we tried to remove it when she was flesh and blood."

"Exactly, however, since I have no idea how far the suit has assimilated into her, I'm going to need Cyborg's and Raven's help to remove it." Ryouga's voice rose with each word of his explanation, it was obvious how excited he was at the prospect of this endeavor. He then turned back to Terra and placed both of his hands, ever so delicately, on the edges of the metal spaulder. With the deft sureness of a surgeon, the martial artist then lifted the piece of metal free from its stone moorings with only a minor splintering of Terra's stone encrusted bandages.

After moving the piece only a quarter of an inch (after nearly two minutes of work), he gestured everyone to move in with a nod of his head.

Beast Boy gently broke free from Kasumi's supportive embrace to scurry forward. Ahead of him, Cyborg, Robin and Raven were already examining what Ryouga had revealed. Changing into an emerald sparrow to get a closer look (and not accidentally break anything) the changeling alighted on Terra's shoulder and peeked under the lifted piece of armor.

'Ahhh . . .' So, that was what Ryouga had meant. Sprouting from the base of the spaulder were countless strands of gleaming silver, like a mass of tiny steel roots, all burrowing into the stone that had once been Terra's silky soft skin. Beast Boy looked up to Ryouga, only to see the boy sporting a nervous bead of sweat rolling down his forehead and the tip of his tongue poking out in concentration.

Without moving his eyes for a second, Ryouga resumed his explanation.

"Cyborg, I need you to use your scanners to track how many of those wire things there are, and how far into Terra they go. I don't want to leave anything behind if I don't have to." The Lost Boy's eyes then flashed to Raven for a second.

"Raven," he began tersely.

The violet eyed Titan shrank slightly at his tone, but replied just the same.

"Yes, Ryouga?"

She wasn't quite able to keep all of the emotion out of her voice apparently, as her sullen reply drew Ryouga's eyes to her once more. The fanged fighter's eyes lingered far too long for Beast Boy's frazzled nerves, until Ryouga let out a tiny sigh.

"Raven-" he started over in an apologetic tone, "I really need your help on this. I know about all of the training you've done with Cologne to control your powers, so I'm sure that you can do this. Heck, you're probably the only one on the planet that can. I know I'm asking a lot from you, but can you use your power to somehow protect and strengthen all of those wires? I'm afraid that if I tried it without your help, most of them would just snap and get stuck inside her."

Raven's eyes widened at his request. Rather than balk, though, the young sorceress turned her critical gaze to the item in question. From his perch on Terra's shoulder, Beast Boy could almost see the reflection of hundreds of gleaming filaments in her glistening violet eyes.

"It would be unlike anything I've ever tried before . . . The probes are so fine and there are so many of them . . ."

She turned back to face the Lost Boy.

"Do you really think I can do this?"

He nodded confidently. "There isn't anyone else I would trust more to do this."

His supportive gesture was joined by Cyborg, Robin and Starfire.

"C'mon, Rae, you know you got the mad skills to pull this off!" crowed Cyborg.

"What better way to put all of your training to the test, than in saving a friend?" added Robin.

Starfire simply crushed her in a supportive hug, whispering something into the girl's ear that was too quiet for Beast Boy to hear. Whatever it was, though, the effect was immediate. Gently breaking from of the Tamaranian's bone crushing embrace, Raven nodded slowly.

"Very well. I'll do everything in my power to restore Terra, just as we all promised."

With that, the dark sorceress laid her hand on Terra's spaulder, resting her wrist across Ryouga's to steady herself. So serious were both individuals, that neither even blushed at the incidental contact. Cyborg nodded as well, lifting his left arm before him. The display embedded in its surface flashed to life.

On the tiny screen, upside down from the changeling's point of view, a three dimensional wire frame of Terra's body appeared, rotating slowly. With several deft taps of Cyborg's finger, the display ceased its rotation and zoomed in to the shoulder in question. Several more quick taps brought the metallic shoulder covering to life in flashing yellow, clearly highlighting their prey.

"Man," Cyborg grumbled, still typing away, "Those filaments are tiny, no wonder they didn't register on my earlier scans. Here, let me try a few –"

The cybernetic teen's contemplation was cut off as his eyes widened in shock. Displayed on the screen, a mass of tiny yellow lines extended from the shoulder piece and down into Terra. From there, to Beast Boy's dismay, the tiny wires spread out into a complex filigree that ran down most of her arm, across her chest, up her neck . . .

"Whoa . . ."

Sparrow Beast Boy nodded in slow agreement with his buddy's statement. Robin let out a low whistle, while Ryouga and Raven both grimaced in unison.

After several moments of simply boggling at the monumental, yet infinitely minute task before them, Raven finally took in a deep breath, steeling her resolve, and began.

With glacial speed, the familiar ebony aura of Raven's dark power spread out across the surface of the metallic shoulder guard, enveloping it completely. Beast Boy ducked his head, intent on watching the progress. On the underside of the armor piece, the inky black aura began to coat the fine filaments at an agonizing rate.

Behind him, Raven's eyes began to glow with the white luminescence of the incredible concentration required for the task. Even though she had just started, a bead of sweat was already forming on her brow.

Back before him, the darkness of her power began to flow down the countless probes and vanish into the unyielding hardness of Terra's stone skin.

It was over ten minutes of absolute silence before Raven finally broke it with a relieved gasp.

"I – I think I have it all . . . start whenever you're ready, Ryouga."

The martial artist nodded, then, with an impressive display of incredible strength and amazing control, he began to lift the piece away from Terra's shoulder.

"Easy, Ryo, easy now." A pregnant silence hung in the air, until- " . . . Alright, I'm starting to see movement . . . Ah yeah, Dawg, it's working."

Beast Boy let out a tiny whistle of a sparrow sigh, unable to even contemplate the sheer amount of relief he was feeling at that moment. After that, the changeling, like the rest of the captive audience, settled in to watch the show . . .

---

Raven let out a thankful sigh as Starfire very gently mopped the beading sweat from her brow. Not that she could even see her closest female companion at the moment. Her entire world had long since dissolved away into an abstract plane of sensory perception that most mortals would never even imagine. Vague sensations of concepts beyond normal comprehension translated themselves into colors, flowing currents and swirling eddies of life force, the static matrices of the cavern's ambient energy, the kaleidoscopic clouds representing the mixture of concern and anxiety that all of her friends were experiencing . . .

And, at the center of it all, at the very center of her being, the endless mass of metallic strands that were woven so expertly through the skin of their traitorous, wondrous friend. As she had once told Cyborg, she placed a small part of herself into a thing whenever she used her powers . . . and at the moment she was feeling stretched very thin indeed. Hundreds of wires, consisting of thousands of feet of length, she controlled them all, encompassed them all, was them all . . .

And, quite frankly, it was almost too much for her mind to bear.

Still, the end was in sight. After nearly an hour of continuous work, of intense and perfect concentration, she could feel the end was close. Most of the probes had already been pulled free, allowing her to focus more of her power on the longer, more intrusive probes, making sure that they survived the resistance of being forcibly pulled from their stone moorings.

Just . . . one . . . more . . . inch-

Raven let out an explosive moan of exhaustion as she felt the very tip of the very last filament pull free from Terra's skin. A moment later, she was falling backwards – right into the waiting arm of Ryouga. It took her a moment of blinking her eyes to adjust her sight back to the world of reflected light that her eyes were actually designed to perceive. She looked up, then, into the equally exhausted looking (which confused her, since the boy was like a living power reactor of endurance), but widely smiling face of Ryouga. There was a light sheen of sweat on the young man's face which glistened in the dim light of the cavern.

Ryouga lifted up the piece of Terra's suit which they had just removed, a small forest of wire filaments dangling from its undersurface, ranging in length from an inch to nearly two feet in length. The look of pride on his face as they examined the artifact was almost worth the pain of removing it.

That had, quite honestly, been the most gruelling hour of Raven's life.

Which, of course, must have been the exact reason that Beast Boy chose that moment to jump down and resume his elfin form.

"Alright guys, you did it! That's one down and only about fourteen or so more to go!"

Raven and Ryouga both chose that moment to display their hidden talents for multilingual cursing.

---

-Two Days Later-

Cyborg let out a long sigh as he leaned back against a convenient stalagmite . . . or stalactite, whichever one came out of the floor, damn geology! Anyway, giving his head a shake, Cyborg took a quick glance around the cavern. Robin was leaning against the same rock column that he was, almost shoulder to shoulder (or shoulder to elbow in Robin's case) with him. On the far side of the room, Raven was sitting on the floor, resting back against one of the cool cavern walls. It was obvious the poor girl was utterly exhausted and recovering from their latest extraction.

Heck, he was mentally exhausted just from monitoring the operation; he couldn't even imagine what she must have been feeling at that moment.

Kasumi was absent, much to his disappointment. The lovely woman had offered to run out and pick them up some lunch and it would likely be some time before she returned.

Back in the center of the chamber, Ryouga, Beast Boy and Starfire were gathered around Terra's statue. While the latter two looked to be mostly just hovering around anxiously, it looked like the Lost Boy was taking advantage of Raven's recuperation period and was intently examining the final piece of armor that they had to remove. Judging by the worried look on the guy's face, Ryouga obviously didn't think it would be an easy task.

It was about then, that Ryouga leaned back letting out a defeated sigh.

"I'm sorry, guys, I just can't do this. No matter how I look at it, the blood loss from removing this piece of armor will be dangerous, possibly even fatal!"

Beast Boy's shocked gasp wasn't the only one, just the loudest.

"What? You mean, if you remove the last piece of the suit, Terra will bleed to death!"

Ryouga looked at the boy oddly for a moment.

"What? No, not her, me!"

Ryouga pointed dramatically to the final piece of Terra's suit which needed to be removed . . .

To the gently curved plate which covered Terra's modest breasts.

"There's no way that I can remove that!"

Needless to say, everyone's reactions to that declaration were immediate and diverse.

Raven let out a disgusted groan from her seated position across the room.

Cyborg immediately burst out into laughter, then leaned towards his immediate neighbor whispering quietly, "Seriously, Dawg, what's Ryo talkin' 'bout? Even you got more in the chest department than she does."

Amazingly, his off the cuff joke drew a quiet snicker from the masked vigilante, at least until Raven shot a suspicious glare in their direction. It was obvious that she hadn't heard what they'd said, but that lack of evidence would never hold up in a female court of law.

Beast Boy, on the other hand, handled the news slightly differently.

"W-wha? You jerk! I'm gonna kill you!"

The emerald tackled the fanged martial artist to the ground with all the force his ropey body could generate. The two guys rolled around on the stone floor, Ryouga laughing uproariously as Beast Boy did his futile best to choke the life from him.

Starfire simply watched the spectacle, an uncharacteristically flat expression on her rather un-amused face.

As that insanity unfurled, Raven rose to her feet and floated over to the pair of stalagmite leaners. She still maintained her suspicious glare, but it looked like her annoyance at Ryouga and Beast Boy was outweighing that at the moment.

"I have officially lost all hope that I may have once had in the male sex. You are all beyond help."

Cyborg and Robin both took a moment to consider her words . . . then nodded in unison.

"Heh, took ya that long to figure out, Rae?"

"It really is hard to refute with that going on, like, ten feet away," Robin added, wearing an amused little grin.

The hooded Titan rolled her violet eyes, apparently disappointed that they hadn't put up a better argument (or an argument at all, really).

Behind them, Ryouga let out another bark of laughter as Beast Boy rolled them over several more feet.

"How can you joke at a time like this?"

"C'mon, Beast Boy, give it up! You aren't strong enough to strangle me!" Ironically, the only thing choking Ryouga's words was his own laughter.

"Not until you feel it!" Beast Boy then turned to the observing Tamaranian. "Star! Help me out!"

Starfire took a moment to consider the request, then gave a minor shrug and dived into the fray.

"Wait – Kori, don't – Gaauughk!"

Raven watched the display for several seconds before turning back to the two of them.

"I take it back-"

"This entire dimension is beyond help."

---

With a clatter of metal, the last and final piece of Terra's infamous suit dropped to the stone floor. Ryouga let out a sigh of relief as he stared at Terra's armor-less figure, now adorned with a large, fluffy towel draped over her shoulders. Thankfully (once they had finally dragged Beast Boy and Starfire off his nearly asphyxiated corpse) someone had thought to go and fetch something to preserve the slight girl's decency.

'Sheesh', that would teach him to try to cut the tension during an overtly serious moment.

To his side, Raven let out an even more exhausted sigh of relief. He smiled weakly as the cloaked female listed slightly to lean against his side. He could hardly begrudge her the support considering that she had done pretty much all of the heavy lifting for the entire process of removing Terra's suit. He doubted even Cologne herself could have pulled off the feat of sheer will power and control that Raven had demonstrated over the past days.

She really was an amazing young woman.

Still, as nice as the companionable contact was, he still had a job to do. Hopefully, after the hell they had just gone through, it would be the easy part. With great regret, Ryouga gently placed his hands on Raven's shoulders and guided her over to rest on Beast Boy. Neither one looked overly happy with the arrangement, but thankfully the former was too tired to complain about it openly.

"Alright, Star, do you have the wards?"

The Tamaranian in question floated forward quickly, nodding in the affirmative. The lovely young alien then pulled a short stack of paper strips from behind her back. For some reason, the strips had the kanji for 'Breaking Point' written very neatly on them. Ryouga stared at her oddly for a moment, before shrugging.

Cyborg's curiosity wasn't so quickly dismissed.

"Um, Ryo? What the heck is with the scrap paper collection? You making a Papier-mâché Terra?"

Ryouga looked to the small handful of wards, then up to his erstwhile sister, then finally over to the curious cyborg.

". . . just . . . don't ask."

With that, the bandanna clad martial artist turned his attention back to Terra's frozen form. Unfortunately, he was going to have to move the towel for this part of the operation, but there was simply no avoiding it. Even worse, if he was going to find the correct Breaking Points, most notably the chi point of Terra's heart, he was going to be forced to survey that . . . area of Terra quite intently.

Why did the Gods hate him so?

He turned back to look at his gathered audience. All around him, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Kasumi, Raven, Robin and Starfire all watched intently.

"Ummm, you guys might all want to turn around . . . or something. I kinda have to move that towel for a bit . . ."

Immediately, Beast Boy's face went red and he spun around. Cyborg and Robin simply shrugged, apparently not that concerned . . . at least until the other females present set their glares on them. Roughly five seconds later, the three other males were shepherded to the far end of the cavern.

Oh, how Ryouga envied them.

With that rather depressing thought in mind, Ryouga set about his grim duty (and hoped to whatever god out there that didn't have it out for him, that Ranma never heard about this, ever).

Asides from the obvious, and enormous, discomfort factor, the work was rather meticulous. First, he found the chi points in Terra's meridians which were tied to her major organs: Brain, Liver, Gall Bladder, Spleen, Lungs, Stomach, Bladder, Small Intestine, Large Intestine, Kidneys and finally her Heart. Sure, the Brain wasn't one of the official ones, but he figured it couldn't hurt to do it anyway.

Next, he very carefully took one of the paper wards that Starfire had prepared for him and used his iron cloth technique to infuse his chi into it. With utmost care, he placed his free hand to the cavern floor, trying to make his own chi as earth-like as possible as he let it flow into the slip of paper. After days of intense training, the sensation of his own chi was almost alien to him, so much heavier, denser than it had been, but not in any way associated with any of his emotions.

With a flick of his wrist, the paper ward straightened out with all of the rigidness of a steel playing card, its corners almost gleaming with deadly intent.

'Yes.' He could feel it, it felt so right. He then reached out an expectant hand to his lovely assistant. Predicting his need, Starfire handed him the long, thin shard of wood which he needed. Using a small surge of chi, he increased the strength of the glorified tooth pick and stabbed it straight through the ward and precisely into the chi point over Terra's heart. Much like Kunou's bokken, the wooden implement impaled the stone without even the slightest resistance.

He then quickly withdrew all of his chi from the wooden acupuncture needle, not wanting to disrupt the perfect balance of chi that he had infused into the ward. Once that was done, he repeated the process with the next organ, and the next, and the next . . . All the while maintaining enough concentration on each ward to prevent it from releasing its energy too early.

It was, he imagined, a very, very pale imitation of the ordeal that Raven had had to endure to use her power to remove Terra's suit.

Finally, after a good fifteen minutes of work, it was finally done. He stood back to examine his handy work. Only blushing slightly at the sight of a topless Terra with nearly a dozen paper wards pinned to her body, he was satisfied that he was as ready as he was ever going to get.

"Ryouga, whatever are the wooden sticks for?" asked a curious Kasumi.

Keeping both his eyes and his concentration solely on Terra, he replied quietly.

"They should act as channels for the chi in the wards when I activate them. If I had just placed the wards directly on Terra, the chi would just spread out ineffectively, this will force it all directly into her meridians . . . in theory, anyway."

He was vaguely aware of Raven moving to stand at his side. She, too, was intently studying Terra's form.

"So, you really think this will work?" she asked seriously.

He grinned a humorless grin.

"There's only one way to find out –"

Ryouga clasped his hands before him, extending the first two fingers of each hand upwards and curling the rest into a tight half-fist. Gathering all of his will, the master martial artist focused all of his concentration on the eleven chi charged wards before him

"Bakusai Tenketsu!"

---

The young woman felt strange, disoriented . . . and most notably, stiff as a board! The last thing she could remember was . . . was fire – fire and stone. It had been so hot, so painful, so bright . . . and then nothing . . .

And yet here she was.

Unsure of what was happening, she forced her eyes to open. What should have been the simplest act in the world felt akin to performing one of the labors of Hercules himself. It took almost more energy than she felt she possessed to flicker her eyelids open – and when she did, her confusion only increased.

For a moment, all she saw was a blur of colors. She blinked rapidly several times, dispelling the discomforting inability to focus. Her efforts were not without reward, as they revealed several figures standing before her. She didn't have time to make any mental connections between the faces of the flame haired and violet haired females, though, as all of the energy she had used to open her eyes had apparently been stolen directly from her legs.

The narrow limbs that held her upright immediately began to buckle under her own meager weight, as if she had been trying to support the entire weight of the world for just a second longer than Atlas would have recommended. Then she was falling forward with all of the weightless grace of an autumn leaf.

Thankfully, something stopped her imminent collision with the Earth. She felt a pair of strong arms lift her from the ground and looked up into the face of her rescuer.

Something was very strange to her, at that moment. The face that she looked into was the face of a perfect stranger, lacking even the hint of recognition that the flame haired and violet haired females triggered in the back of her mind. Whoever it was that was now holding her in his arms, it was someone that she was absolutely certain she had never laid eyes on before . . .

And yet, for the first time that the Super Hero known to the world as Terra could recall . . .

She felt like she had finally come home . . .

And then the darkness consumed her . . .