Note: Sorry about the long wait; my Internet was removed for a while as a result of going over 1 Gig of bandwidth per week. Boarding school Internet rules suck.
A/N: In this story (and hopefully others), Terra has indeed returned to live in Titans Tower and is in a romantic relationship with Beast Boy, though she still attends the school seen in Things Change and is somewhat of a reserve member on the team.
A/N 2: The letter from Silas Stone in the first few chapters has nothing to do with the events in this chapter; it was just a cancelled idea I was working on.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.
Chapter 4
Raven placed her herbal tea on the coffee table and listened to Cyborg's story. "You already know about the accident I had, right? The one that made me like this?" he gestured towards the metal portions of his face. Raven nodded. "Well, there was a side effect, besides the red eye and stuff. It first came up during that battle with Cinderblock…"
"Titans, GO!" Robin yelled the battle cry from his cycle as the team raced towards the steel factory where the menace known as Cinderblock was destroying everything in sight. Beast Boy was the first there, followed by Starfire and Raven. Cyborg parked his car and walked towards the entrance to the factory. "Let's do this," the android grinned, preparing his new and improved sonic cannon for battle. After that incident with the Brotherhood mysteriously disappearing from their subzero prison (not to mention that incident in Tokyo), the Titans had to be ready for anything. "I wanna see what my baby can do!"
Robin pulled up on his R-Cycle and headed inside, with the other Titans following. "We have to be careful," the leader warned. "He could be anywh-" A huge fist shot up from directly underneath Robin's feet, catching the boy by surprise. Starfire flew to his aid, blasting the hand until it disappeared under the ground. A second later, Cinderblock himself emerged from the floor, looking very ticked off. Robin threw a few exploding birdarangs at him, yelling (need I say it?) "Titans, go!"
Beast Boy morphed into a gorilla and proceeded to attack, only to be thrown off by the hulking stone mass, who seemed to have gotten stronger after his imprisonment. Raven's telekinesis gave little help; they were in a steel factory, and Cinderblock could easily withstand the metal objects. Cyborg took aim with his "cyber cannon", as he liked to call it. "Hey, rocks for brains!" Cyborg fired. "Booyah!"
Cinderblock was faster than expected. He jumped over the beam of energy and landed right in front of Cyborg. The teen sweatdropped as Cinderblock's hand enclosed around the opening of his weapon, crushing it into a compact ball. Cyborg screamed as the energy feedback from his blast rebounded throughout his own body, sending several circuits into oblivion. Instinctively, Robin rushed to help his comrade, only to be backhanded into a pile of metal plates.
Cyborg took the opportunity to run, examining his arm as his feet took him in an instinctive direction. Cinderblock was not to be evaded so easily, however. He let loose a roar and gave chase, each thunderous step echoing throughout the factory corridors. He caught up with Cyborg and proceeded to punch Cyborg into the ground, keeping up a steady hail of fists until the half-robot's inner mechanical workings were fully exposed and blood poured from his organic half.
The stone creature swung Cyborg into several walls, finally throwing him through the roof and into the harbor nearby. His howls could be heard from many miles away as he crashed into the freezing water.
2 Hours later
The team trudged into the tower, sore but victorious. Cinderblock was definitely stronger. All of them had their own share of wounds, not to mention Cyborg, who had miraculously, albeit not unscathed, survived the plunge into the Jump City harbor.
"At least we won," the Boy Wonder commented in a weak attempt to cheer everyone up. Starfire nodded and smiled halfheartedly. Cyborg was leaning painfully against the window, lost in thought. On all accounts, he shouldn't have survived. Cinderblock's barrage should have left him for dead. He looked down at his right arm, now nothing more than a half melted piece of metal with oil slowly oozing from severed hydraulics. He grimaced and made a crude attempt to wipe away some of the caked blood from his chin.
Raven noticed his apparent discomfort and floated over to him. "Let me help," she offered, holding a recently teleported cloth in her hand. The titan shook his head. "I got it," he mustered through gritted teeth. "No, you don't. You are hurt, and I'm trying to help you." Her purple eyes flashed in irritation. Cyborg threw up his hands-er, hand. "I said I got it! I've been in worse. Look, Raven, thanks for the offer, but I really shouldn't be here right now. I should be at the bottom of the ocean in pieces." A few objects started to levitate as Raven floated upwards to see eye to eye with Cyborg. "Well, you are not at the bottom of the ocean, and what's more, you should be glad to have survived. Not many people have the chance to-" Cybrog cut her off. "To what, Raven? To make everything all better just by ordering a new set of parts? I shouldn't be here." He took a few breaths to calm down. "Something's not right is all I'm saying. My dad put all this stuff on me to keep me alive, not so I could go out and fight evil. At least, that's what he told me. This," he pointed to his arm, " is so the human muscles won't collapse, not so I can shoot stuff from it." His shoulders sagged. "I don't even know why I'm pissed off. I just… I dunno. I gotta go think about this." Victor went to his room to make repairs, leaving a confused team and a concerned Raven.
Cyborg sat in the metal chair at his desk, trying to remove the water from his arm. Why was he mad at Raven? She had only been trying to help. Besides, he hadn't really been in worse. At least, not before the incident that made him like this, anyway. Why was he alive? It didn't add up. Cyborg gave up the attempt to drain his arm and decided to go to STAR Labs. Maybe his dad could help.
Raven interrupted the story. "Why didn't it add up?" She raised an eyebrow. "You should have been happy to be alive; instead, you were worrying about not dying." Victor released a sigh. "I honestly don't know, Raven. I was just… worried, is all. Wouldn't you be disturbed if you were beaten within less than an inch of your life and survived?" She shrugged at his inquiry. "We can finish this later; I'm hungry." Cyborg's face lit up. "Now you're talking!"
He got up and remembered that the kitchen hadn't been used to cook anything more than Raven's tea in years. A light went off in his head. "Say, Raven, why did you come back to the tower after all this time?" Raven put her hood up. "No reason," she offered somewhat weakly. Cyborg didn't notice her nervousness. "Looks like we're going to have to get some tools to fix this kitchen, and maybe some of the rooms. I'm tired of sleeping on the couch." Raven nodded her agreement, although she secretly enjoyed his company. She felt safer knowing he was right next to her. They grabbed some supplies and headed towards Jump City for their scavenging hunt.
That's it for the 4th chapter. Interesting outlook on his metal half, eh?
That review button's looking mighty good today.