Left Behind: TT Style

Chapter 8

Church Service

A/N- I'm baaaack with more Teen Titans Left Behind action! Sorry for taking so long and to answer your questions, I have NOT DIED! I've just been busy with high school, other stories and music practices (Since entering high school, I am in almost all of the bands, which includes Junior Concert and Jazz, Senior Concert and the Honor Wind Ensemble, and I'm playing tuba in all but Jazz Band, where I play guitar) I'll skip the review thanks this time around and just jump right into the story.

(I borrowed the below idea from BehindmyBlueeyes77 or whatever she is calling herself these days. LOL. Hope you don't mind!)

Me: Take 'er away Dick!

Dick: DashRendar does not own the Teen Titans, as much as he'd like to, or the Left Behind series, from where he got the Rapture message. He also doesn't own any songs used in this fanfiction.

Me: Thank you. Now go back to the story where you're needed!

Dick: OK. (Goes back to story)

The sun rose slowly over the hill, its rays piercing through the small glass windowpane in Mia Grayson's room, playing reflections over her face. She squinted her eyes tighter, thinking, 'Do I have to get up already?' She rolled over, stuffing her face into her pillow.

"Mia! Breakfast!" Jake called from the foot of the stairs and went to help Victor with the waffles. (A/N- Evil, beware! We have waffles! Lol)

She groaned into her pillow, but got out of bed, fluffing her hair before pulling on her bathrobe to go get some food. Cracking open her door, she went downstairs to the kitchen and sat down at the table, looking extremely groggy. "Couldn't you have waited? We stopped jamming at 11:00. I need my beauty sleep." She inhaled, eyes opening fully. "Who made waffles?"

Victor smiled at her, apron over his neck, working over the waffle iron. "Morning to you too Sunshine!" He laughed and put more waffles onto a plate, putting them down in front of her. "Here ya go. Blueberry waffles. Syrup and butter are already out and waiting for you." He indicated the fridge. "Grab whatever you want. Dick left a few minutes ago. He's setting up the video projector at the church. He'll be back to pick us up for the morning service."

Jake looked at her, cocking an eyebrow. "Hopefully, he won't take you to church like that. You'd better hurry if you want to look presentable." He grinned at her as he left to go grab a shower.

"You're one to talk skater boy." She smiled back and began eating her waffles with a glass of orange juice she got from the fridge. She took a bite, eyes widening. "Man, these are good Uncle Vic! Where did you learn to cook so well?" She started scarfing them down.

"Well, I started cooking just to help Mom around the house. Before long, I was doing the meals seven days a week." He unplugged the iron, setting it into the sink to cool down. "I began experimenting with different combinations of ingredients in my waffles and I found one that really jumped out at me." He indicated her now empty plate. "Seems like it jumped out at you too." He smiled.

"Sure did. Those were great!" She downed what was left of her juice, put her dishes in the dishwasher and went upstairs to shower and change into some 'church clothes' as Terra came thundering up the stairs from the basement, an upset look on her face. "Aunt Terra, what's wrong?"

The blonde stopped and turned around. "Have you seen my jade ring? I left it on my nightstand and when I woke up this morning it was gone. I can't find it anywhere." She sighed, shaking her head. "I need to be more careful with things."

Mia shook her head, brown hair swishing into her face. "Sorry, can't say I have. Wait, are you sure you took it off last night? Maybe it came off when we were jamming and fell into the sound hole of the acoustic." The water stopped, signifying Jake had finished with his shower. "Hope you find it!"

Terra thought for a second and then ran downstairs. She turned the acoustic guitar upside down and shook slightly. Sure enough, the small ring popped out and landed with a dull tink on the concrete floor. "Thank goodness." She put the ring back on her middle finger on her right hand and went back upstairs, just as Mia got out of the shower, towels wrapped around her as she headed back to her room.

"MIA! You've got five before your dad gets back! Hurry it up!" Terra called from the stairs and quickly tied her hair into a ponytail and pulled on some black heels to go with her blue blouse and skirt combo.

Mia grumbled to herself, "Never enough time to make myself look good. Sheesh." She pulled open her closet, looking through quickly and grabbed a pair of black dress pants and a green long sleeved shirt to highlight her green eyes. Looking at her mirror, she combed her hair straight, just as Dick pulled the van into the yard.

"MIA! We gotta go NOW!" Vic yelled. He had traded the apron in for a black suit with a red necktie and black dress shoes so polished you could see your reflection in them.

Mia came running down the stairs, nearly smacking into Jake, who was dressed in a blue plaid shirt with tan pants, black hair combed off to the side. "Whoa, slow down there. Trying to flatten me into one of those waffles you like so much?" Jake asked, picking himself off the floor and holding the door open for Mia and Terra.

"Oh, please. You're too cute to eat anyways." Mia laughed and ran out the door, Jake close behind, ready to noogie her to death. Dick looked at Jake, raising an eyebrow and mouthed, 'Save it for later.' He shifted his eyes and continued, 'When you go out on another date.'

The others got into the van, Mia, Jake and Rachel in the back, Vic and Terra in front of them and Dick drove. The radio was set to a Christian station that a local pastor had taken over at the last second. It was playing 'No One Like You Lord' by Robin Mark. Dick started humming along and Jake started playing air bass, as Mia looked at him and laughed. "Do you know how stupid you look doing that?" she hooted and clutched her side from the fit of laughter.

(A/N- I love Robin Mark's music. I have the above song in my MP3 player, along with bands like Relient K, Hawk Nelson, Hedley, Switchfoot, a bit of Green Day, The All American Rejects, a little bit of Billy Talent and the ApologetiX (Remember I mentioned those guys in the last chapter?))

"I know, I know. Nasty habit I have. Dad played air drums when Mom drove. You should see how stupid that looked." He stopped playing and smiled, flashing his straight teeth.

The van rumbled to a stop at the church, sliding into the "Reserved for Pastor" parking spot. They got out, looked around and saw they were the first ones there.

"Dick, did you manage to get the projector working? I've got the tape in my briefcase here." Vic asked, patting his black case in his left hand.

"Barely. I had to cross a few fuses and cut a few wires so the bulb won't blow out, but I can fix it back again after we get a new bulb in." Dick pulled out the church key and unlocked the door, pulling it open for the others.

The church looked the same as it did the previous Sunday, the oak pews with the blue seat cushions, the Roland 4-piece electronic drum set sitting behind the pulpit, the bass amplifier and Yamaha piano sitting the next level down. The small balcony above held the video cameras for taping the services, in case someone missed a day and wanted to catch up. One of the guitarists, who had been taken in the Rapture, had left his red Seagull on its stand to the right side of the platform, the bassist's Fender Precision behind it.

(A/N- One of our guitarists has a red Seagull and when he left the band, he took it with him. No duh, right? Our bassist has the Fender and I love that thing! I get to play it when the bassist for the day doesn't show up.)

"Anybody know what happened to the bassist?" Jake asked, eyeing the black and white Fender, sitting in its stand.

Dick nodded. "He's gone. The only one left was his wife, but she moved back to her parent's place after her husband went. The bass now belongs to the church, same with the Seagull." He asked Victor, "You want us to lead the service? I can play guitar, Jake can play bass, you can play drums, Mia can sing and I think Terra said she knows how to play keyboard."

"Why not? Just set up a microphone in front of the drums and I'll lead the service from there." Vic looked at Terra. "Can you play keyboard?"

Terra nodded. "I started with keyboard, then branched out to guitar." She pulled out the bench for the Yamaha and sat down, turning it on.

Mia finally got a word in. "EXCUSE ME?! Who said I wanted to sing?" She looked at her father. "Singing at home is one thing, singing in front of a congregation is a whole different ball game!"

"Mia, you'll do fine. We've all heard you. The people will love ya." Vic smiled as he sat down behind the drums, picking up a set of 5B Groove sticks that were resting on the snare and clicked on the amplifier and percussion unit mounted to the drums. He flipped through a few sets and finally settled on the Ballad X set.

(A/N- The drum sticks- the number refers to the size of the stick. The bigger the number, the smaller the stick. The letter refers to the head size. I don't know what B stands for, but that is the letter one of the drummer's at the church used on his sticks and I like them.)

Dick looked around the stage, asking, "Anyone got a tuner handy? I want to tune the Seagull up." He sat down beside it, picking it up and pulled a pick out of the pick guard glued to the top of the guitar.

Jake pulled one off of the bass amp and passed it to him. "Here, I need it after you though." He plugged in the bass and turned on the amp, plucking the top string, letting the low E resonate through the air. "Whoa! This thing is way out. You done yet Uncle Dick?"

"Yup, here ya go." The tuner came back and Jake turned off the amp and plugged the tuner in. A few seconds later, the bass and guitar were both in tune; the drums and piano were both on, playing away. Jake looked over at Mia, nodding towards the mike on the pulpit. "You gonna sing or am I going to and make everyone's ears bleed?"

Mia sighed, "Fine. You talked me into it. I know how horrible your singing is." She tossed a smirk his way. "What's the list this morning?"

Jake looked at Victor, who shrugged. "No list. We'll have to make one up fast. People start showing up in thirty minutes, 10 seconds and counting."

Mia grabbed a song binder, labeled A-M, flipping through and pulled out four songs, showing them to the others and went to grab the next binder, L-Z, pulling out three.

"Okay, so far we have Blessed Be Your Name as the opening, then Jesus, Friend of Sinners, No One Like You Lord, Kindness, God of Wonders, Majesty, like the old Majesty and close with To The Ends of the Earth so Uncle Vic can go into the tape from Pastor Barnes." Everyone, except Victor, rapidly flipped through binders, pulling out the songs that were listed. Soon, the sanctuary was filled with the sounds of music.

The people started showing up right after they finished, filling the seats in about ten minutes. The next batch of people had to go to the balcony and finally, the place was so packed that Victor had to close the doors to keep everyone out. "We'll have to let you in at the 6:00 service. I'm sorry, but we're full."

As soon as Victor sat down behind the drum kit and had his sticks ready, Dick started into the opening song, palm muting the chords for the intro two times, then Mia came in.

Blessed be Your name, in the land that is plentiful

Where streams of abundance flow, blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name when I'm found in the desert place

When I walk through the wilderness, blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say

Jake and the others layered in here, giving the full sound to the group, who had started singing along with the chorus.

Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your glorious name

The band went through the list, stopping after Kindness to take up an offering, then finished the songs and went to sit down as Victor took Mia's place at the pulpit to address the people.

"Good morning to you all. I hope you all enjoyed the worship this morning." The crowd burst into applause, a few people whistling. "Thank you. Since most of our original worship team was taken in the return of the Lord, we threw a team together quite quickly. Our lead vocalist this morning was Mia Grayson."

The crowd again gave polite applause as Victor continued. "Our bassist was Jake Roth."

More polite applause. "Our keyboardist was Terra Michaels and our guitarist was Mia's father, Dick Grayson." He smiled and added, "Oh, and I think it was obvious who was playing the drums." The people laughed lightly.

"I haven't seen this many people since… I don't know when! Now, presumably, you have all lost someone in the Rapture or thought you were saved, but didn't go and are confused. After a video from the Senior Pastor of our neighboring church, New Hope Village, I'll open the floor for questions and prayer for those who want to reconfirm their faith in the Lord." He nodded at Dick, who flipped up the switch on the side of the projector, turning it to Video and clicked 'Play' on the VCR. A picture of an aging black man came up.

(A/N- I have taken and condensed the message below from the Left Behind movie and the book on which the movie is based. Therefore, I didn't write it!)

"Hello. My name is Vernon Billings and I'm the pastor of the New Hope Village Church.

As you watch this tape, you are not doubt confused. Let me encourage you. Your loved ones, your friends, your acquaintances have not been snatched away by some evil force or an invasion from outer space.

"You're watching this tape because millions of people have disappeared. Babies, children, still innocent in the eyes of God, have vanished. There is much to fear, but not for those who were taken. They have placed their faith in Christ alone for salvation and have been taken to heaven by Jesus himself.

"Let me show you from the Bible exactly what has happened. You won't need proof by now, because you will have experienced the most shocking event of history. But as this tape was made beforehand and I am confident I will be gone, ask yourself, how did he know? Here's how. Let me read to you what the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at the church in the city of Corinth, found in 1 Corinthians 15:51-57:

"Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed-in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?' The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

"Let me paraphrase some of that so you'll understand it clearly. When Paul says we shall not all sleep, he means that we won't all die, but will receive an incorruptible body, which is to last for all eternity. Christians who have already died and those still living at the time of the Rapture will receive this immortal body.

"Every person who believed in and accepted the sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ anticipated his coming again for them. As you see this tape, all those will have already seen the fulfillment of the promise of Christ when He said, "I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.'

"I believe that all such people were literally taken from the earth, leaving everything material behind. If you have discovered that millions of people and that babies and children have vanished, then you know what I am saying is true. Up to a certain age, which is probably different for each individual, we believe God will not hold a child responsible for a decision that must be made with hear and mind, fully cognizant of the ramifications. You may also find that unborn children have disappeared from their mother's wombs. I can only imagine the pain and heartache of a world without precious children, and the deep despair of parents who will miss them so.

"Paul's prophetic letter to the Corinthians said this would occur in the twinkling of an eye. You may have seen a loved one standing before you, and suddenly they were gone. I don't envy you that shock.

"The Bible says that men's hearts will fail them for fear. That means to me that there will be heart attacks due to shock, people will commit suicide, and you know better than I the chaos that will result from Christians disappearing from various modes of transportation.

"I will lead those who want to commit or recommit their lives to Christ in a simple prayer of repentance. Those who are going to, please bow your head, close your eyes and repeat after me." He waited for a few seconds, and then began, pausing every few words. "Dear Jesus, please forgive me for all my wrong doings. I realize that my life is meaningless without you and I need you now more that ever. Please cleanse my heart, so I may live for you. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

"Now, my time is coming to a close. Please, if you have any questions, please talk to the junior pastor, Bruce Barnes or me. May God bless you richly during this rough time." The image faded to black and the lights came up. Victor moved back to the microphone.

"Well, that's the video folks. If you prayed that prayer, please fill out one of our green cards, which you will see in front of you. Hand it to me on the way out, with "Wanting prayer" checked off. Please come again next Sunday." He put down the mic and headed for the doors. A bunch of people looked around for the green cards and pens, filling them out rapidly and heading for the door.

Jake scooted over next to Mia. "You sounded amazing this morning." He smiled warmly.

"Thanks. I think I could have done better. You sounded good yourself." She also smiled. Making sure no one else was around, she asked, "So, you interested in going out on Friday? Maybe grab a movie or something?"

He did a mental victory dance in his head, but responded, "Sure. What movie?"

"I hear they are playing all three Spider-Man movies back to back at the theatre, starting at 6. Wanna go?"

"We're going to have to ask our parents first, but okay. Love Spider-man movies. Haven't seen them in a long time." He leaned back in the pew. Just then, Dick called, "MIA! JAKE! WE'RE LEAVING! COME ON!"

"COMING UNCLE DICK!" Jake bolted out the door after Dick, climbing into the back seat of the van. Mia was out a few seconds behind him, getting in and sitting next to Jake. Rachel and Terra sat in front of them, Victor and Richard in the front seats.

"So, what does everyone want for lunch? I'm buying!" Vic said as Dick put the van into drive, the tires crunching over the gravel and hit the main road, going in towards town.

"I could go for a McChicken right about now and maybe a Sprite," Mia said, leaning into the plush seat, closing her eyes at the thought of her favorite burger.

"Big Mac with large fries and a root beer…" Jake called, his mouth already watering.

Dick shook his head. "I guess we're going to McDonalds. Everyone okay with that? We'll go through the drive thru and eat on the way home." He pulled into the McDonalds, rolling his window down.

A metallic voice asked, "Can I take your order?"

Dick said, "Hold on. I have another few people who need to decide." He asked, "Who wants what?"

"I'll have a double Big Mac with a coke." Victor said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Oh man, it's been awhile since I had one of those."

"Quarter Pounder with cheese for me please, coke as well," Terra replied.

"Nothing for me. I'll get a sandwich when we get home." Rachel said, leaning back and closed her eyes. "Then I'm going to take a nap."

Dick rolled the window back down, saying, "Sorry about that. I'll have one Big Mac with large fries and a root beer, one McChicken meal with Sprite, one Double Big Mac meal with coke, one quarter pounder with cheese and coke and I'll have a Big Mac meal as well, with a large Fruitopia."

After a minute, the voice came back, "That will come to $25.90. Please drive through."

Dick rolled his window back up and drove up to the first window, which popped open. A teenager nodded a hello and said, "You've got quite the order there Mister. You feeding an army?" He put his hand out for the money.

Dick handed the exact money over and said, "No, just two teenagers and three adults." The teen gestured to the other window.

"Your order will be ready in a minute or two. Drive up and we'll give it to ya there." The window closed and the teen disappeared.

Dick drove up to the second window, stopping the van near the window, setting the parking brake. He turned on the radio again, letting the Christian station play. It was the youth hour, so it played a lot of contemporary music. It was currently playing Relient K's When I Go Down. Right near the end of the song, the window popped open and another lady came out, holding two bags of food.

"Here ya go hon. I'll bring the drinks and straws in a second." She went away, then came back about ten seconds later holding two drink trays with straws in all of the cups. "Have a nice day." The window closed, Dick released the parking brake and they set off again.

The bags were passed around, people pulling out their respective meals. Mia sighed happily, pulling her McChicken out of the box and started munching. "Man, this is good." She swallowed a chunk of burger and leaned back in her seat.

Jake merely grunted, his mouth filled with his own burger. He followed the ground meat with a few fries and a swig of his pop. "Oh, Uncle Dick, you mind if Mia and I go out to a movie marathon at the theatre on Friday? They are playing all three Spider-Man movies back to back to back, starting at 6:00." He took another bite and swallowed as Dick nodded from the front seat.

"Sounds good. I want you to call as soon as the movies are over, just to let us know you're coming home. No hanging around, no matter who shows up. Got it?" He took a turn and slowed down, pulling into the driveway and parking the van in the garage.

The two kids nodded and raced into the house, food already gone, to go and jam downstairs. Victor was heading upstairs to change, as was Terra, and Dick went into the kitchen to finish his own meal. The sounds of a distorted electric guitar came up from the basement and he yelled down, "TURN THE DISTORTION DOWN, WILL YA JAKE?"

Jake sighed, but turned it down anyways and continued to play along with the black Les Paul, as Mia sat and stared in wonder. His fingers were simply flying over the frets, pick moving constantly from string to string. "I thought you only played bass and sax," she said, eyes still captivated by his moving fingers.

"Are you nuts? I can play pretty much everything! I can play guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, sax, trombone, and clarinet. Only things I can't play well is the euphonium and tuba, believe it or not. Valves never worked well for me, ya know what I mean?" He sighed, putting the guitar down and grabbing his bass, which was sitting nearby. "You want me to show you how to play some easy stuff?"

Mia shook her head. "I tried bass already and thought it was too hard. What makes you think it would be any easier after two years?"

Jake smirked. "You are going to learn how to play this thing if it is the last thing I ever teach you to do. Now, you're taking this bass and putting it on your knee, NOW!"

Mia sighed, and laid the blue Firebird across her right knee and soon, Jake was rattling off things about proper posture, wrist angles and other things she didn't understand. Waving her hand at him, she said, "You might as well be speaking Spanish, 'cause I can't understand any of this stuff. You want to take that back a bit and maybe in non-musician lingo?"

Jake sighed and started again, stopping to explain different things as he did so. About an hour later, Mia was playing some basic bass riffs like she never had before. "You see, it just takes a little bit of help and explanation. We'll move onto slapping and popping later on, which are a lot of fun, once you know what you're doing."

Dick called from upstairs, "Guys, you wanna come up here? We're about to start a card game!" He was shuffling the cards as he called to them, doing his signature cut-the-deck-in-half-and-flip-them-back-together trick. Just as he was going to start dealing the cards out, Mia and Jake showed up.

"We're in, whatever we're playing." Jake said, sitting down beside his mother, and cracked his knuckles, causing Rachel to shudder.

"Jake, you know how much I hate that," Rachel said, after receiving her cards for the game of poker. "Now, let's get playing here."

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A/N: Well, here's the new chapter. Once again, I'm sorry for taking so long to update. Like I said, I've been busy. I'll be even busier with the new year coming up, especially in the music department, as I got a new acoustic guitar for Christmas and I'm going to do a lot of playing on it, maybe do some song writing if possible.

Smell ya later like…

Love, peace and chicken grease!

Dash Rendar

PS-Merry Belated Christmas and a Happy New Year to all! WOOT!