Titans Beyond
Episode 12: Regrets
Author: Brruundin
Warning, I do not own the Titans or any other DC characters I may use.
It was another early morning in Titans Tower. Starfire awoke before the sun rose like she normally does, with such a great sense of pose and joy. However, as she started her morning routine something felt wrong, she couldn't quite think of it at that moment, but she knew that something wasn't right. It was cold and ominous, like a wave of evil had left her normally happy thoughts into a dark barren place. She shuddered at this thought, and wasn't sure what to do about it.
"Maybe I should ask friend Raven?" She thought to herself while doing her morning exercises, but then she thought she might wait it out until after they'd found friend Cyborg, once that was solved it wouldn't be such a burden to her friends.
Meanwhile, Robin had lain awake all night like most nights nowadays, he couldn't sleep anymore and it was starting to affect his daily performances, and even his disposition towards the others. Usually he was calm and level headed most of the time, but lately he had been more heated with outbursts. He was even starting to notice it, it scared him, he didn't want to push his friends away from him, and he felt that might have already started to happen. He sighed, it was time to get the group together; they had work to do.
It was about 7 am now, and most of the gang had assembled, even though Beast Boy was fast asleep on the couch. Robin looked around however, and noticed someone else was missing.
"Is everyone here?" Robin asks as he looks around the room once more to double check. The others look back at him with a confused look, then Jinx notices exactly what Robin does.
"Where's Vibe?" She exclaims, worried about the one she cares for most in the group.
"Is he still in his room, I haven't a heard any noise come from his room all morning?" Robin states in very dull voice, as though it wasn't a big deal.
"Hmm let's go find out then," Robin says while heading down the hall towards Vibe's room. When he arrives in front of the door with Jinx he knocks twice and they wait for a response. Nothing but silence, then they knock again, but yet again still just silence. Robin then opens Vibe's door and sees a note on the bed. It simply says, "Thanks for the ride, no apologizes no regrets" with Vibe's scribble of a signature at the bottom. Robin then turns back to Jinx whose face was a state of distress, he wasn't too sure how to break it to her, so he just handed her the note.
"Here, I'm sorry Jinx" Robin says, and then heads out the door. As soon as Jinx reads what's written she immediately bursts into tears and runs back into her room and slams the door. Robin sighs and puts his face into his hands. But then the sleep deprivation started to kick in, and he becomes angry, angry about those he called his teammates leaving him like this. He heads into the living room and punches the wall. He then yells at the top of his lungs alarming the other four who were still in the room at the time. Raven was the first to respond, finding the outburst to be unnecessary.
"Robin, relax and please tell us what's going on? Why is Jinx crying, and where did Vibe go?" Raven says as Robin tries to take a deep breath in and looks back at Raven.
"He's gone I don't know where he went but he left this note" He tosses the piece of paper now rolled up into a ball towards Raven. "I'm getting sick and tired of everyone just calling it quits all of a sudden when all I do is try to make this team work. Well if all of you want to leave, THEN LEAVE! Go, I don't care just go!" Robin exclaims while Raven tries to make sense of the note.
"Dude calm down! None of us want to leave otherwise we'd all be gone. I'm pretty sure what Cyborg has to do is really important, and I'm sure the only reason Vibe is gone is because you've been acting like a crazy person!" Beast Boy responds, real tired with the way Robin has been treating everyone.
"I'm not acting crazy! I'm trying to take this serious unlike you, who only wants to joke around all the time". Robin yells back, angry at Beast Boy's comment.
"I can be Serious…"
"Friends please stop fighting! This is not helping!" Starfire yells, while trying to get in the middle of the two, trying to stop them from hurting each other. But then, without thinking Robin's rage has consumed him so much that he throws a punch of a rage and hits Starfire square in the face. She immediately hits the floor in a state of shock because of what just had happened. Robin then realizing what he has done snaps out of the rage and immediately makes sure his friend is okay.
"Oh my… Starfire! I'm so so so sorry. It was an accident, I let my anger get the best of me" Robin says while trying to help Starfire up.
"Robin, I would think it would be best if you leave me alone, please". Starfire responds still really upset about what had just happened. She gets up and heads over to her room. Robin is just in shock about what had just happened.
"I'm sorry…." He mutters, and then passes out onto the floor.
Insert English Intro Music.
Raven looks at Terra and Beast Boy, who appear to be the only ones who haven't broken down yet, and heads back into her room.
"Beast Boy do you think we should help Robin get into his room, I mean I know what is he did was totally uncalled for, but it just seems wrong to leave him here." Terra says while looking at Beast Boy and then at Robin and then back at Beast Boy.
"Yeah, you're probably right but I don't think we're gonna being doing much team stuff for a while, at least until Cy gets back. And Vibe, man what happened, one day we were joking around and the next day he just leaves. It's crazy." Beast Boy says, then morphs into a gorilla to make carrying Robin easier.
"Yeah I know what you mean, do you think I should check on the girls in a little while? They seem emotionally distraught." Terra responds, concerned for her females companions.
"I don't know what you're talking about Raven seems fine" Beast Boy says while laughing deeply like a gorilla as he lays Robin on his bed.
"You know what I mean silly!" Terra says, while hitting Beast Boy on the arm.
"Ow!" Beast Boy says, and then starts to laugh while they head back to the living room. "Yeah you probably should, they'd like that".
Meanwhile Slade was watching all this from far away, laughing for he knew it was time to launch his plan. He just had to wait for the final pieces to fall in play.
While continuing to feel terrible about what had happened earlier that morning Jinx overheard the fight that broke out. She felt terrible; she was inside crying over a boy while her best friends were all taking verbal shots at one another. She wiped the tears from her eyes, the tears and eye make-up smeared into her hands. Great, this is exactly what she needed right now, to look as terrible as she felt. As she walked over and looked into her mirror she suddenly felt better about herself, like a gentle hand had come over and told her everything was going to be okay. She felt a little bit better about the situation, for she knew it would probably turn out all right, just not the way she had originally envisioned it. But she still had a hole inside, and she knew that hole probably wouldn't be filled for quite a while, and that moment she thought deep and hard about this and decided to give up boys for a good while, until at least you could trust again. It wasn't going to be easy but she was a tough girl, and could deal with the pain that has been brought upon her. She headed into the bathroom, rinsed off what remained of that smeared mess and dried her eyes with a towel. Then she reached for her favorite pair of sunglasses; she headed back out to the living room where Beast Boy and Terra were sitting and watching TV on the couch. She decided to do the same and sat across the other side of the room. Terra was the first of the two to notice her as Beast Boy was like a drone when watching TV.
"Oh hey Jinx how are you feeling? I can imagine how upset you are." Terra says, trying to figure out the right things to say to her troubled companion.
"I'm fine but thank you for asking about me though. It means a lot". She replies sweetly, thankful she has friends that do care about her.
"Are you sure? Is there anything you want Beast Boy and I to do for you? We'd be more than happy to help." Terra replies always, happy to help a friend in a need.
"Yes I am positive but thanks for your concern I really appreciate it though". She smiles at Terra and continues to watch TV.
About an hour later, Beast Boy and Terra decide to go take a walk around the Tower, so Jinx was left sitting alone on the couch. However, shortly after Starfire decides to leave her room, she sits down next to Jinx quietly and reminds silence for a short period. During this time Jinx noticed how unusual this was, because Starfire was normally very upbeat and talkative around her, but she hasn't as much uttered a sound since she had entered the room. Jinx decides to break the silence.
"Hey Starfire, are you alright, I heard some of what happened when I was in my room, but I'm not sure exactly went on though." Jinx asks while carefully looking at Starfire. She noticed something different about her. Something big had happened while she was in her room, and it appeared to change the shear presence about Starfire. She wasn't sure what to make of it just yet though.
"Oh friend Jinx no need for your concern, for I can assure you that all is fine now, mistakes are to be made, all will be good in time." Starfire replies in a sort of serious matter that Jinx hadn't heard before. It took her by surprise.
"Oh okay, I'm glad to know everything is alright. Just let me know if you need anything." Jinx responds trying to get Starfire to return to her normal self.
"Once again thank you friend, but I do hope you are not harmed emotionally either, I am able to understand what you are going through. So I hope all is well with you." Starfire says, the tone is a little bit sweeter, and Jinx think she notice Starfire let a glimpse of a smile go. But still there was something different about Starfire that she couldn't help but notice before, there was something about her appearance and even her tone was sort of cold, it made it feel warm inside like a safety blanket of sorts. Either way she decided would go think about this subject in the privacy in her own room before she said something stupid. She looks back at Starfire then begins to open her mouth, but has trouble thinking of what she was going to say. She was speechless and her train of thought was lost.
"Umm I guess I'll go to my room now and lay down" she barely could get the words out and she even noticed that she fumbled on a couple of those words. She felt so dumb inside and noticed her face was turner warmer by the second. She quickly got up to her feet, and turned towards her room. She was about halfway when she heard the sweet sound of Starfire's voice again.
"Okay well if you need anything friend please be sure to let me know." Jinx freezes, she didn't know how to respond right away, she thought to herself "Please don't say something dumb, please don't say something dumb, please don't say something dumb…" in a repetitive drone until she finally decides to just spit out the first words that came to her.
"Okay Starfire that sounds nice, we should definitely hang out more often!" in a giddy school girl sort of tone. "Wow what was that Jinx, who talks like that?" Jinx thought in her head in disgust to the way she had just spoken to Starfire.
"Of course, anytime friend". Starfire responds, and Jinx's face turns bright red, she realizes it probably wasn't the worst thing she could have said and hurries back into her room and lays on her bed in complete joy.
"Life is good" she says out loud, and basks in all of what had just happened.
Meanwhile Starfire who was also confused about was going on, heads over to her friend Raven's room to see if she could help with how she was feeling. For inside Starfire was starting to feel a pit of darkness that shouldn't could control or no how to deal with. She didn't really want to do anything and she didn't why she felt this way. Maybe Raven could help? She thought to herself, and when she arrives and Raven's door she knocks three times. A faint moan could be her as Raven gets up and heads on over to the door, she slowly cracks it open so she can peak eyes out from the darkness and see who has come to bother her this time.
"Yes?" Raven asks in her normal monotone voice.
"Oh sorry to bother you friend Raven, but is there any way I can could possibly could in and discuss something with you. I feel a very dark emotion inside me and I am not sure how to control it. Is there a way you could help achieve this?" Starfire asks, a little more cheerful than earlier but still with a darker side behind her voice.
"Oh I see, well I guess you can come in, but I'm going to need a favor in return, understand?" Raven says while opening the door wider so that Starfire can enter. Starfire slowly walks in and takes her usual seat on Raven's floor while Raven sits down next to her.
"Okay Starfire, the key to controlling your emotions especially those that are dark and uncomfortable, is to focus. Wait for them to arise and when it's almost too much harness it like you would your powers. Don't be afraid to hold back. Trust me, it's better that way." Raven says while both of them begin to mediate, first silently then they both start to chant Raven's famous three words. While doing this Starfire digs deep into her emotions, darkness surrounds her, trying to take away any energy she has, but it's no use and the darkness succumbs to her, like it's under control and will do whatever to please her. Starfire gasps for air once this is done. Raven opens her eyes and looks at her weakened friend.
"How do you feel?" Raven asks, wondering if she truly took control over it.
"I feel as if I have control over myself, but it is like a demon is inside of me waiting to escape, but it is under my control and listens to me. It is unusual but I am not sure if it is a thing of terribleness yet." Starfire says, softly while trying to catch her breathe again.
"I see. Well I think you get the idea. But I now I need that favor from you." Raven says responding to Starfire's comment as it appears she has recovered from the rigorous mediation session.
"Okay friend Raven, what do you require of me?" Starfire asks, willing to do just about anything for her best friend.
"I need you to help me express my emotions, especially being able to show that I'm happy. I don't want to be expressive as you but I'd like to be able to at least show the others that I'm not a cold hearted monster all the time." Raven confesses, with a pinch of sadness in her voice. It was clear to Starfire that Raven was upset about feeling like this.
"Oh Raven!" Starfire immediately grabs her friend and hugs her tightly, throwing Raven off guard for a minute. "I did not know you felt this way. None of us think that you are a monster. You are our friend, and the one who is always level headed. You should not change who you are because of how you think it will make the others feel. You should want to be who you are inside. But…" Starfire pauses for a second to think; then she continues. "If you desire to express more joy in your life then I shall very much teach you how to do so." Starfire said, and this seemed to make Raven happy as she even let part of a smile show. Starfire noticed this and lit up with joy. She was so excited for her friend.
"Well I am glad this brings joy to you, but I do not believe this will be a simple task. It will take some time to get used to be more…. Expressive!" Starfire says with a huge smile now, she clearly had a sense of mood change.
"Yeah I believe you, but hey this will probably even be a little fun." Raven says with a sort of half smile again. The two girls laugh about this as it seems things were actually starting to get better for the Titans. But was it really? In a very far off place, an evil laugh could be heard.
"Well well, looks like these pieces are coming along sooner than I thought; time to launch phase 2." Slade picks up the phone and dials a number. A familiar female voice answers.
"Well my sweetheart I believe everything is in play. Go ahead and move along with the plan. Everything is set." The voice responds with a simple "Yes" and the call ends. Slade continues to laugh and presses a button. Cyborg answers, and responds the same way when Slade tells him what to do. The place then goes black with laughter in the background.
A/N Chapter 12 is done! It's a long one as you can tell but I feel it's chalked with a whole bunch of good and important details. I hope you all are enjoying how it's coming along! More updates will be on the way soon! As always comments and questions are amazing! (:
