Bargains and Balance

I don't own TT. (I updated the previous chapter and made a major change to the story plot; I changed one paragraph but seriously guys, it effects the whole enchilada)

I'm adding a whole new layer to this story. I had a large epiphany. Ish. And I am totally making this story way more intricate and, well, you'll see. . .

Chapter XII

Detective Ian Rolfe found his job incredibly dull. Sure Jump City was completely inhabited with the most bizarre criminals, but his job was comprised of driving to the crime scene at the last minute and arresting whoever the Titans had just defeated. And dealing with payments for whatever had been damaged in the process.

So it was a large surprise when he was called into the investigation of Deathstroke. Known to the Titans as Slade. He hadn't really tried. After all, this was probably going to end up like all of the other criminals. The Titans would take him down, and Rolfe would swoop in and slap on the cuffs.

But now . . . well now he found himself in Slade's secret lair. Looking at Slade. Or what he assumed was once Slade.

Half of the man had been melted - a gruesome sight in itself. The rest of him was . . . well it looked like it had been shredded by some animal. But what skin that showed was red. Not from blood.

Rolfe sighed and shook his head as he pulled out his notepad to take notes on what the forensics leader was listing.

Wait till the Titans hear about this one.

"Wait - you said he was red? As in red, red?"

"Like I told you before Mr. .. .uh, Robin. The man was red. The coroner has no idea what caused it, but whatever it was was completely infused with his DNA. It's not dye and it's not a disease."

Robin put a hand on his face as he shifted the phone that he was holding with the other hand. "Anything else?"

"Not yet. But I do apologize for the untimely hour of this call . . . I-"

"No," Robin interrupted, "it's fine. Thanks Detective."

"Rolfe out."

Robin tossed the phone onto the couch next to him. He stared at the blank television in front of him and let his mind wander.

Red skin? The only other being he had encountered with red skin was a freakishly large demon with family problems. Robin shuddered. He hoped that wasn't what had killed his nemesis. If it was, then that meant that the red demon parasite had escaped from its host. Which happened to be -

"Beast Boy!"

Robin sprinted to his friend's room and stood in front of the door for a few seconds after it had opened.

"Beast Boy?" he called cautiously.

Robin stepped into the room and the first thing he saw was the messy, empty bed. Before he panicked, he then noticed the lit bathroom on the other side of the room.

Robin hurried to the bathroom and found Beast Boy on the floor unconscious, his hair still brown and his skin still "normal."

Robin checked his friend's pulse and found that it was beating frighteningly slow. He grabbed his Titans communicator.

"Cyborg!"

Cyborg's sleepy face came into view. "Wha?"

"I need you in the infirmary, ASAP! Beast Boy's been . . . attacked or something!"

Cyborg was now up all the way. "Understood. Cyborg out."

Robin hefted Beast Boy onto his shoulders and headed towards the infirmary.

"It's gonna be okay, Gar. I promise we'll make it through this."

Beast Boy awoke to find Starfire in his face. Quite literally.

"Gaaahh!" Beast Boy sat up and backed against the wall.

"Beast Boy? How is it that you have acquired the 'normal' look of this planet?" Starfire looked at him quizzically with big eyes.

Beast Boy rubbed the back of his neck. "It's a long story. What about you? When did you finally come around?"

"I did the coming around maybe two days ago. I have been resting in my room for that time. Robin sent me up to check on you," Starfire said almost happily.

"I've been out for how long?!" Beast Boy yelped.

"Do not worry, friend Beast Boy. You have only been out for a week. Cyborg and Robin have been absolutely worried that you have been in the coma."

Beast Boy finally realized why Starfire was more serious than normal, he realized she was dodging something. . .a really important unasked question.

"Starfire . . . where's Raven?"

There was a horrible, almost heart stopping silence that Beast Boy almost screamed during; he knew the answer.

Starfire's eyes filled with tears. "Beast Boy, I did not want to be the one to do the breaking of the news. I am so sorry. Robin said that she has been gone since you became free of Trigon. We do not know where she is."

Beast Boy could only stare at her with his mouth open.

Starfire broke down crying as if she had been holding it in since she had learned the news herself and draped her arms around his neck.

Beast Boy didn't notice. His mind had gone elsewhere. He knew what had happened.

He would've died. No one could've gotten Trigon out. No one had the power to. No one except Raven. His Raven. She had known that Slade was bluffing when he had said he knew how to get Trigon out. She had known that she was his only hope. And the only reason that Beast Boy was sitting in the Tower alive and well (besides his power; he could've cared less at the moment) was because she had sacrificed something to keep it this way. Raven was gone because of him. Because of her father. And Beast Boy was furious. He was torn. He was filled with an imaginable amount of loss. And yet . . .

"Star," a voice said from the infirmary's entrance.

Starfire made a choking noise and ran to Robin's arms.

"I'm guessing she told you." It wasn't a question.

"Yea," Beast Boy managed to get out. "And I'm guessing you know the reason for her leaving."

Robin's wordless response only confirmed what Beast Boy knew.

"Your powers?"

"I . . . it's the last thing on my mind right now. We need to find Raven. We need to! She could be in danger, she could be terribly lost, she . . . she . . . we -"

"Beast Boy! Raven's seventeen and way too smart for her own good. She's fine. I promise. Also you have to consider that if we go searching for her, it could make things worse."

Beast Boy gave a choked cry that sounded like a strangled animal noise.

"Gar-"

"I . . . I need some air. I . . . I need air." With that, Beast Boy left the room and went to the roof where he began to feel raindrops hit his face. Strangely enough, some of them tasted like salt.

When Raven had awoken after she had made her deal with her father, she had found herself in a different place than her room in Titans Tower. Actually it was quite a terrifying experience.

Apparently her father had helped lock her into his deal by teleporting her body into an ally in the middle of Jump in civilian clothes. Some homeless man had found her and graciously gave her to the hospital for medical attention.

She was a regular Jane Doe for the longest time until apparently when asked her name, she had given her number one alias: Rachel Roth.

Boy was that last name going to stick out to the people she really was supposed to stay away from. And for their own safety too.

Trigon had delt with it though. And she hated him even more for it. She was Rachel Roth: homeschooled, orphaned, and legally living on her own.

Oh yeah, and since he had stripped her of who she was, Raven no longer looked like herself. She had found out when she had walked into the hospital's bathroom.

Black hair, dark grey eyes. She still was unusually pale.

Raven had almost flipped out then and there, but lasted through her time at the hospital and was eventually released.

She shuddered as she thought of the last words her father had said to her: I can find you without trying. You go to them, you speak to them, they and the rest of your precious planet go into chaos.

He had even been considerate enough to leave her an impossibly large bank account to start her new life off with. She technically had access to everything she could ever want, even a break from being a superhero. And yet, she wanted more. She wanted one person more.

Raven sat down in her small apartment. It had been a month since she had been found in the allyway. She had gotten a reasonable job at a small tea shop that was only known to those who lived on that block.

Raven knew that eventually her father would forget about her in his universal conquest and never ending hunger for more power. When that happened she could go back to her friends. To her family. But by then she'd be gone.

Raven plopped down on her back onto the small sofa with a groan. She didn't regret what she had done. But at the same time she wished she had at least consulted with someone about this.

She had left without seeing if Starfire was okay, for crying out loud. And she didn't get to say goodbye to the young man she had saved . . .

"Stop!" Raven said aloud. "I'm going to fix this. I'm going to fix this!"

One of her best friends was one of the world's best deductive and inductive thinker she had ever met. She was also quite intelligent.

"Robin, I hope you know about steganography."

Robin and Beast Boy were different people from the day Beast Boy had found out about Raven's absence. The Tower was a lot quieter, filled with more tension than usual.

Especially in the month that followed. Robin was constantly talking to the big man in Gotham for advice, Beast Boy was always patrolling the streets day in and day out, Starfire was more serious, more . . . human. Cyborg . . . all he ever did was hack into more databases and police records to find something new. Nothing showed.

Not until they got a newspaper from the mayor of Jump. At first the Titans had been curious. These days, people didn't just get newspapers. Then they had dismissed it. The front page had their faces on it. It wasn't new. But after that day, Robin had spent the following 24 hours in his study, and every Saturday when the mail came, would wait anxiously for the mayor to send more news.

Beast Boy, Starfire and Cyborg had only looked at each other and shrugged. Robin was Robin. He would tell them when something became dangerously important.

A Year Later:

"The new Teen Titans? Rache, look at this."

Raven, now Rachel looked at the newspaper that had been slid across the table in front of her face.

"Well, they can only be the 'Teen' Titans for so long, Gabbi." Raven pushed the paper away and took another sip of her tea.

"Admit it, you care." Gabbi calmly said as she wrapped the newspaper into a neat roll.

Raven nearly choked on her tea. "Pardon?"

"New fourteen slash fifteen year olds to defend the city? You were dumped into an ally by who knows who. You care about who's watching."

Raven sighed in relief. "Right. What happened to the old Teen Titans?"

Gabbi shook her blonde head to get some hair out of her blue eyes and skimmed the article. "Well you know how that strange Raven girl disappeared? Well after that, Beast Boy didn't show himself in public anymore for who knows why. It doesn't say. I assume they just took up their secret identities and went."

Raven felt her heart lurch. She was still protecting her friends. Her father still spoke to her every now and then in her dreams to remind her of it. There were some times in between "chats" where she even thought to call them. But then he'd appear and tell her everything she had done that day as proof that he was still watching. She was stuck between Trigon and a hard place. And it hurt.

Raven kept her face straight. "Well, I hope they've moved on easily."

Gabbi sighed. "I do too. The poor people." She looked at her watch. "Great. The place opens in ten minutes."

Gabbi stood up and began wiping down tables. "So, how's your book coming along?"

Raven stood up and put her cup in the sink in the back of the shop before coming out and replying, "I don't really know. I need a certain inspiration, you know?"

Gabbi gave a short laugh. "The girl who wrote an essay overnight on 'the mind and its funtions' and got four awards thinks she lacks inspiration. Really Rache, you doubt yourself too much."

"You're too optimistic."

"And you're too tense. You need a boyfriend."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Just because you just got one doesn't mean the world needs one."

Gabbi put her hands in the air. "I'm just saying."

The day went smoothly after that. So smooth, that Raven almost forgot about her life's issues. That is, until he walked into the shop.

A young man, tall, handsome in a disheveled sort of way. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes that pierced her soul.

"Oh, Dylan! I didn't expect to see you here!" Raven lied through her false smile.

Dylan was handsome. He was smart. He was fit. He was really really nice. And he was interested in her. Thanks to Gabbi. It was really annoying to Raven, probably because he had been showing up at the shop every day around noonish.

"Heh, heh. Yeah I was near and decided to stop by."

Raven looked over his shoulder and saw Gabbi give her a wink from the opposite side of the place. Raven frowned.

"So, did you come to talk to Gabbi about that new show you guys have become obsessed with or what?"

Dylan scratched his ear nervously with a finger. "I was wondering, actually, if you would come with me to a, uh, the Music Festival this weekend with a couple of my friends."

Raven calmly began polishing a cup and merely raised an eyebrow. The poor kid began to trip over his own words.

"I . . . I mean Gabbi will be there. A . . . and some of my college buddies. Her . . . her boyfriend Gavin an . . . and his friend Mark who goes by Mark because he's completely embarrassed by his first name which I don't blame the poor guy, I mean I haven't met a guy with such a uniquely strange name before an-"

Raven cut him off by putting a hand in the air. "If you can stop rambling maybe I'll go."

"Great!" Gabbi exclaimed from right behind Raven. "Rachel and I will meet you there!"
"Woah!" Raven said.

"Really?" Dylan said at the same time.

"Yes," Gabbi looked at Raven with a face that said it would happen regardless.

Raven looked at the ceiling. "Yes."

Dylan practically glowed. "Great! I gotta go, but I promise, you won't regret it!"

The second he left the small shop, Raven just looked at Gabbi.

"Don't look at me that way, hon. What you need is fun. I just gave you fun."

"With my stalker."

"He's not a stalker," Gabbi said. "He's actually pretty fun when you get to know him. Him and all of his friends. His friend Mark is pretty funny."

Raven put her newly polished cup onto the counter. "The guy with the embarrassing first name?"

"Yeah, that's him," Gabbi started neatening the cups displayed by the window.

Raven walked over to where her friend was working and just stood there in her indigo jacket.

"Mark's not even his last name either. His name's just as strange as he is. Although, he isn't bad looking at all," Gabbi kept on talking and stood up.

"I think that's it. I gotta head out. Gavin and I have a date tonight!"

Gabbi grabbed her purse from behind the counter and strode to the door and flipped the open sign to closed.

Before she walked out she started snickering.

"What?" Raven said exasperated.

"A: You like, never smile. I don't know what's wrong with you. And B: I can't get Mark's name out of my head. It's so funny, the poor guy."

Raven stuck her phone in her pocket and threw up her hands exasperated. "Well if it's so funny you should tell me, since I don't smile as much as I should."

"Garfield! HA! Can you believe it?" Gabbi started laughing.

Raven froze and felt her heart skip a beat.

"Garfield Mark Logan! It's like, soooo sad!"

Raven struggled to breath properly. "Yeah. It's sad. It's very, very sad."

Okay, told you guys I'd deepen the plot and the detail. I am soooooo getting into the BB/Rae stuff now.

REVIEW!

-Belgaria