Hey everybody! Author here! If you're reading this, then you probably like my story so far! 'Cause normal people don't keep reading something they hate. They just go, "Wow, I do not like this.", and close the browser. At least, I think that's what normal people do. I wouldn't know, though. I'm not a normal person.

Are you still reading this? C'mon! Get to the story! It's right down there.

It's been three days since we've heard from Robin.

On the first day, none of us were worried- except me. Actually, I wouldn't say I was worried- I was pretty much just concerned. It's not like I was panicky, I was just afraid that something had happened to the Teen Titans leader. To our leader. No one else seemed to be distressed about Robin missing, though, which somehow got me even more stressed about it.

On the second day, Starfire and I decided to call him on his communicator. We would have done it sooner, but Robin always tells us not to bother him if he leaves for a few hours, so we didn't at first. Two whole days was a different story, however, so I got my shiny, new communicator out and tried to contact him. There was no answer the first time, or all the times after that.

On the third day, everyone was getting on edge. We all seemed to argue with each other about the littlest things; even Starfire threw an insult once or twice at me. Cyborg said we should go looking for him, so we split up to search Jump City. Beast Boy and I covered the west, Cyborg and Starfire went south, and Raven stayed in the tower to get the peace and quiet needed to contact Robin telepathically. When searching, Beast Boy found a strip of yellow fabric that could belong to Robin. We weren't exactly sure, though, so we brought it to Cyborg and he said he would have the fingerprints analyzed by morning. We all went to sleep with high hopes.

#***********#

I wake up and stare into darkness. My heart skips a beat, as it always does when I awake. I blindly reach for my mask, and press it onto my face.

My room is full of color.

I can see the white nightstand, the blue bed sheets, the white carpet, the blue walls. Everything. I feel the silky touch of my blonde hair sticking to my neck. For half a second, I get confused. My hair isn't blonde, it's brown. Then I remember, the hair dye, the name change, the outfit, the accident, the powers.

The powers.

I stare at my slim hands, wondering if they still glow blue with the energy flowing through them. They don't unless I tell them to.

I carefully focus my attention on bringing power to my hands. It's an easy task, like slipping on a glove. My hands radiate energy, and I create a small blue force field around them. I stare at this, until I let the force field evaporate into the air. Next, I climb out of bed and start jogging laps around my spacious room. Faster and faster I go, until the carpet gets hot from friction under my feet. I stop and look at the carpet. Its smoking.

How funny it is, that just about a month ago, I was in a wheelchair, not even able to push it around without help. Now, I can move at around 400 miles per hour. Funny.

Beast Boy peeks into my room. I snap my head to the doorway where he's standing and smile at him.

"Heya, BB. Is breakfast ready?"

Beast Boy looks at the smoking carpet and laughs.

"Dang, Rush! Did you have a marathon in here or something?" He says.

"Yeah, just seeing if my powers are still working."

Beast Boy gives me a toothy smile.

"Really? Y'know you don't have to do that! Your powers are going to stay with you for as long as you live!" Beast Boy says reassuringly.

"Heh, yeah."

Beast Boy shows himself out the door, and it closes behind him with a hiss.

My powers are going to stay with me for as long as I live. As long as I live. As long as I like. What if there was a way to get rid of my powers? If there was, would I even do it?

I walk over to my blue vanity mirror and stare at myself. My round, blue eyes stare back. They look tired, as though someone sucked the life out of my eyes, and nothing else. I guess that's what you get for only having about three hours of sleep every night. Every night, before I take off my mask and surrender myself to complete blindness, I think about all those faces. Faces full of pity, staring at me as though I was some sort of freak. A freak in a wheelchair. A freak in a blue and white jumpsuit. Candace Ross the freak. Cyan Rush the freak. I can't be both, but I can be Candace Ross, the girl. Candace Ross with no wheelchair, no superpowers, just a girl. A girl who makes a difference in Jump City. Not as a superhero, but as an everyday giver. A girl who isn't pitied, or feared, because there's nothing to be pitiful or afraid about.

If I could get rid of my powers, would I?

If Cyan Rush the Freak could become Candace Ross the Girl, would she?

Yes.

She would.

#************#

"Did you analyze the prints yet?" Raven asks someone.

I look up from my cereal and see Cyborg walk into the room with his head hanged low. I'm guessing he didn't.

He walks over and takes a seat at the bar stool next to me.

"No, I couldn't find anything."

Raven looks at him with slight annoyance.

"Well, there must have been something, Cyborg. You just have to look harder. Maybe-"

Cyborg slams his fist down onto the table, and I hear a loud crack. My cereal spills onto my lap.

"No! There was nothing! Absolutely nothing! Why is he doing this to us? Just leaving without warning? He's done this before, and it's never ended well! Why?!" Cyborg screams.

"Cyborg! Dude, it's okay, we'll find him. We just need some more time." Beast Boy says.

"We're running out of time, Beast Boy! If we don't find Robin soon..." Cyborg tells him.

Starfire comes into the room with Silkie perched on her shoulder.

"I heard the shouting. What is going on, friends? Have we found Robin?"

Cyborg gets up abruptly and storms out of the kitchen and into the hall to his room. We hear the sound of a door hissing open and closed, then locking.

Starfire stares at the hall, then at us.

"What did he mean by, 'If we don't find Robin soon'?" Raven wondered out loud.

This is all too much right now. I get up and quickly run around the living room a few times. When I'm done, the milk from the cereal on my lap is dry. I pick off the remaining cereal pieces, and start to go outside. I need a walk.

#********#

There's a secret path I like to hike around that I discovered the day I became a Titan. After the explosion, I ran all the way to Jump City, which only took about a half hour. I was holed-up in an alleyway somewhere near downtown Jump when I first heard the name "Teen Titans". I had lived in Newburry all my life, which was a small town a few miles from Jump City, so the Titans never really reached word up there. In that lonely alleyway, I was scared, hungry, and confused. People never tried to help me. I was a freak to them. A scrawny, pale, lost freak. How could I show them I wasn't so fragile? No one had seen my powers yet, so, I made the second worst decision in my life. I summoned my new and unknown energy, created a large blue force field around me, and walked to a heavily-occupied park. There, I started running laps, faster, faster, faster. I thought people would stop and see how powerful I really was. They would stop tossing me aside like trash. I broke my run to face the gathering crowd, when I heard a scream. People were pointing at me, with fear plastered on their faces. I heard someone telling others to call the police. Others were throwing things at me. All I can remember was thinking, Stop. Stop pointing. I'm not bad, don't be afraid. Don't cry. Don't scream. Stop.

Then, I heard one voice that stood out against the rest.

"Someone get the Teen Titans!"

I didn't know what to do, so I ran. I ran all through the city, not knowing where to go. I ran without thinking, until I felt myself hit something hard and metallic. I looked up.

I had run into a street lamp.

Of course- going about three-hundred and fifty miles per hour- I blacked out.

When I had woken up, I was faced with a black-masked stranger. He was watching me in the corner of the room, as if I was some sort of disease. He made me angry. I summoned that signature Ross courage and spoke first,

"What are you looking at?"

He smiled and walked over to the side of the bed.

"You must be that crazy girl they were talking about on the news." He said.

I flinched at the word 'crazy'. That was a crazy thing I did, but I was far from being it.

"I'm not crazy." I told him.

"Clearly."

He took out the IVs in my arm and looked at me. Our two masked faces stared at each other. Suddenly, he held out his hand,

"I'm Robin, leader of the Teen Titans. Who are you?"

I looked at his outstretched hand and took it with my pale one.

"Ca-Cyan Rush. My name is Cyan Rush."

#************************#

I walk through the path that Raven had shown me that day.

I remember walking through it with her. Robin didn't want me out of the med bay for a few days- even though I wasn't injured, he was still suspicious and wanted to question me. Raven had said that she could sense I wasn't harmful, but she could sense how scared I was, so she took me through the flowered dirt road to help me "meditate" or something. It worked, and when I became an official Titan a week later, I had started walking through it almost every day.

I casually view the colorful flowers and trees, letting my mind float aimlessly. If Robin never comes back, who will take charge? Cyborg would be my guess, and I think he's fitting to be our next leader. Even so, Robin is-well- Robin. He seems to know everything about anything and anyone. If we didn't have him, the Teen Titans wouldn't be the same.

What am I thinking? Of course it wouldn't be the same- we're like a family. No family would be the same without all its members. That's just how it works.

Well, for most families, anyway.

I furiously kick a rock as hard as I can, and it shoots up into the air like a rocket.

Not my family. My family would be just fine without me. They would be happy. They would be stress-free. They would be richer. They would be respected.

But what's the use worrying about it?

They're dead.

And it's all my fault.