Bargains and Balance
I don't own Teen Titans
Chapter II
The next morning was more relaxed than the night before. Beast Boy had finally stopped sulking and his mood had changed considerably. Raven had entered the common room after her morning meditation to find Beast Boy and Cyborg arguing over a video game like nothing significant had taken place.
"Dude, you totally cheated!" Beast Boy was saying.
"Cheated? C'mon, BB, it's called 'pure skill'," Cyborg said as he laid down his controller and reclined on the curved couch.
Raven let the two bicker as she floated to the kitchen where Starfire was preparing some sort of Tamaranian horror for her breakfast.
"Um, Starfire . . . what exactly is that?" Raven asked carefully as she pointed to the dish of pink and purple stuff.
"Oh, it is most enjoyable! It's a concoction of the most intricate of plants found only on the -"
"Forget I asked," Raven interrupted.
Starfire only shrugged as she continued to do whatever to the . . . whatever.
"So, Raven's done with morning meditation. Normally she's the last one here. Where's Robin?" Cyborg asked without looking away from the screen.
"Why don't you go find him?" Beast Boy said casually.
"Nuh uh. No way am I falling for that again, man." And with that, Cyborg promptly shoved Beast Boy off the couch ensuring his victory in the game.
Raven rolled her eyes as Beast Boy started complaining and looked around the room. It was true that the Boy Wonder hadn't entered the room at all. Besides Raven, Robin was normally the first one up ready to start training, or research the next big criminal.
"He doesn't normally sleep late," she commented as she opened up her book and began to read it.
Starfire had just finished inhaling whatever she had made and looked at Raven with a large grin. "Shall I check on friend Robin while you three do the relaxing?"
No one answered and Starfire merely shrugged and left the room in search for Robin.
"Hey, Raven!" called Beast Boy once Cyborg had beat him again and they had quit the game.
"What?" Raven didn't stop reading as she answered. She had learned that multitasking was something that just happened when you lived like she did.
Beast Boy ran until he was standing on the other side of the island in the middle of the kitchen looking at Raven who was sitting on a bar stool reading. He did his signature grin as he answered her.
"When does Friday come before Thursday?" He paused waiting for some sort of response.
"In your world," Raven said monotonously.
"In the dictionary!" he said as he started on a large round of laughter. "Get it? Because Friday and Thursday, and hehehehehe!"
Raven closed her book and just looked at him with the slightest hint of amusement in her eyes. "You crack yourself up."
He wiped a tear from his eye. "It's just that I'm so funny!"
Cyborg had just finished putting everything away and called from his side of the room, "No, you're not!"
Beast Boy only glared at him before Cyborg palm slapped his face like he had the night before.
"Car?" Raven asked.
"I wish. Hair Gel asked me to upgrade the training course today and I totally just remembered. But now that you mention it," Cyborg grinned at Raven in a way that made her regret asking, "I re-waxed and repainted the T-Car last night. Would you mind going to check if everything's dry for me?"
"Why can't Beast Boy do it?" she asked immediately after Cyborg had finished.
Cyborg grabbed the back of Beast Boy's collar and dragged him behind him as he walked towards the door. "Grass Stain here is gonna help me upgrade the course." And with that, they two boys left the tower.
Raven growled before she got up and levitated to the door and down the hall. "Stupid car. Stupid me. Note to self: never bring up Cyborg's car to him again."
As Raven turned the next corner, she was hit with a blast of rage, fury, fear, and confusion from what she deducted was Robin's study. Feeling only the tiniest bit of guilt, she put her ear to the door and barely managed to hear what they were saying.
"- fine, Star! I said I'm fine and the team's fine!" she heard Robin say.
"Robin, I care very much for you. If you would just tell me what has you, as you say, 'scared to the death', then I am sure that I can help you."
There was a pause before Robin replied. "No. Right now, the team just needs to rest. Especially after Beast Boy's Terra incident and the whole fight with the Brotherhood of Evil. We all need to settle down."
"So why have you not?" Starfire asked Robin softly.
Robin sighed and Raven pressed her ear into the door even more.
"Because, I'm your leader and your friend. All of you. And I need to protect you from some things that aren't worth your concern and risk harm to you."
Starfire let out a sigh as well. "If you trust me in the way that I trust you, you will know that I will stay safe as much as I can."
"It's not that I don't trust you, Star! It's just . . . aarrrgghhh!" Robin exclaimed.
"I will be most patient with you, Robin. And I will be here for you," Starfire said quietly.
Raven almost took her ear away from the door because the silence that followed Starfire's comment was so long. But then she heard them speaking again and put her ear to the door again.
"Fine." Robin took a long, deep breath. "It's Slade. He's back. And he want's us."
"Azarath, Metrion, Zenthos," Raven chanted as she meditated.
After reporting Cyborg's car's condition to him (it was in pristine condition), Raven had begun another meditation session.
Yes, she had meditated already that morning, but she really needed to control herself before she made everything explode in the tower. Again.
She was on the roof, near where she had talked to Beast Boy the night before. Before she had gone into her trance, Raven had seen Beast Boy and Cyborg fixing the course below and making some changes every now and then, talking about some comic book.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zenthos."
Slade. That man was a big pain in the . . . well everywhere. He always knew exactly how to get to each and every one of them individually and seemed to have a knack for getting what he wanted.
She remembered seeing her familiar masked friend at Slade's side before he turned away and helped them chase Slade away. She remembered Slade coexisting with her father at his side. She remembered a lot. More than she cared to.
The last thing she wanted was something to remind her of that fateful birthday and what had ensued afterwards.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zenthos."
Plus, with Slade back, Robin was guaranteed to be locked in his study all day, every day until either Slade got away, or was behind bars.
Raven, in a word, was scared.
"Azarath, Metri -" Raven opened one eye and saw a green cat pawing at her right knee. She lowered herself to the ground.
"Lost something?"
Beast Boy transformed into himself. "No, just worried about you. Everything okay?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't it be?"
He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck in what Raven had long identified as a nervous habit. "It's just that . . I'm not a stalker or anything, but when you meditate . . . again I don't watch you . . . you look serene and calm and just kind of gone, you know? But this time, when I came up here to find you, you looked like you were focusing on something. Something . . . not too good."
Raven looked into his caring green eyes and gave up. She sat on the edge of the roof again like she had the night before.
"I was. But . . . I don't think it's time for you to know yet," she said vaguely.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Beast Boy was very curious now.
She looked out to the water. "It means that something bad is about to happen."
"Titans! GO!" Robin cried his signature battle cry as the Titans charged the unknown creature climbing out of the water onto the Titan's shore.
Soon after Raven and Beast Boy had returned to the inside of the Tower, the alerts had gone off stating that someone had triggered the alarms at the base of the shore. Robin and Cyborg had immediately called everyone together to face what looked like some sort of liquid based, greenish blue creature.
Beast Boy turned into a rhino and charged into the creature, but only went through the thing. Cyborg followed Beast Boy's attack with a laser from his hand gun, but that only went through the thing's chest leaving a small cloud of evaporated whatever liquid it was which quickly filled up.
"It restores itself like Plasmus!" Beast Boy almost wailed.
Starfire shot the creature with starbolts from her hands and eyes, but all that it did was make a section of the creature evaporate and reform.
Robin's gadgets did practically nothing, while Raven's magic seemed to slide off the thing.
"Why can't you just cover the dude with your dark magic stuff and tear it to pieces?" Beast Boy yelled over to Raven.
"Because it's soaking up my powers! Every time my powers get near it, it just soaks it up and nothing works!" Raven called back.
Beast Boy turned into an elephant and sucked up all the liquid through his trunk and spewed the remains of the creature along the shore. He ran back as a dog and turned back into himself with a grin.
"Leave it to me to save the day," he said.
Robin however was still very tense.
"Lighten, up dude!" Beast Boy gave Robin a friendly nudge in the shoulder.
"It's just . . . after all that didn't work .. . . it just seems way too easy," Robin shook his head in disbelief.
"The guy was practically chemically enhanced nasty water," Cyborg said.
"Um, friends? What is that?" Starfire suddenly said in a frightened voice that caused everyone to look where she was pointing which happened to be by their feet.
They all slowly looked down at their feet where a one inch tall, blue-green fog was covering the ground of the entire island and quickly rising higher.
"He can be any state of liquid! Hurry, get to the Tower! There's no telling what this gas will do!" Cyborg started to head to the Tower entrance, but it was too late, for the gas had all of a sudden surged upwards as if it had heard him; which it probably had.
The Titans were submerged and Beast Boy quickly turned into a mole and burrowed himself safely in the ground. Robin had completely covered himself with his cape, careful not to let any gas in. Starfire had simply flew higher than the gas had gone.
Raven however was having issues. She couldn't fly, which was problematic, and every time she tried to fly or create a safety bubble, the gas only seemed to suck her powers dry. As well as her energy. Soon she had to take a breath, and when she did immediately felt light headed. Really light headed.
It wasn't long before Raven collapsed, unconscious before her head hit the ground.
When the gas cleared, the Titans made sure they were all okay. Robin had a red rash on the tips of his ears, but nothing Cyborg couldn't handle, while Starfire and Beast Boy went unharmed. Cyborg had a giant rash all over and was incredibly itchy, but for the most part fine.
The only problem was Raven. And that was because she was gone.
"Wha? But . . . she . . . . I just saw her! The gas was up maybe ten seconds! How does someone just disappear?!" Beast Boy was practically tearing his hair out.
Robin and Cyborg went around the island while Starfire tried to calm a panicked Beast Boy.
That's when she looked where she had last saw her cloaked friend.
"Robin!" Starfire practically screeched.
The Boy Wonder was at her side in a flash and looked to where Raven was pointing.
In the dirt was a neat, clear, zig-zaggidy "S."
Robin clenched his jaw really tight before he finally said one word.
"Slade."
Yea, so that's the second chapter! REVIEWS, peeps. Please. Just one comment at least?
I'll try to post more as soon as possible.
-Belgaria