Back at school now, bummed cus' I had to leave all my friends, family, and my gymnastics team so don't be surprised if this is a little depressing. Sorry about the long wait and even sorrier about the ridiculously long monologue your about to read. If it makes you feel better though, it's just chocked full of back-story. Jeez, will they ever get to that club? Read and find out. Don't forget to review at the end. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the "Teen Titans", or any other item and/or themes from said show. My original characters, however, are my property and may not be used without my permission. Violators may be subject to fines of up to one human soul.
Ch 7: Her Story
"I need to tell you everything…I was going to wait, but that's not fair to you…Please, don't say anything. Just listen. We never knew either of our parents, and I don't think we'll ever want to. We were told that our mother was only seventeen, but nobody knows much of anything about our father. Being that young seems to carry an inherent lack of judgment that they both succumbed to. Our father left after he found out that our mother was pregnant and she kept up her abusive habits even after she found out she was. As a result, the two of us were born conjoined. And not the 'miracle baby' linked at the hip or anything like that. We were completely fused; shared brain mass, two arms, two legs, three eyes, one heart, the whole shebang. I heard the nurses puked it was so horrible. And surprise, surprise; our mother gave us up the every moment we were born. Even though we were delivered in a free clinic, giving us up meant we were the government's responsibility now, and it just so happened there was a program set up for abandoned conjoined children. The top surgeons, geneticists, neurologists, and various other specialists from all over the world came to examine us, experiment on us, and basically treat us like a lab gerbil with extra legs. None of them knew how we were still alive. Even though life support was keeping us alive now, they were amazed that we hadn't been stillborn. After three years, still no one had learned anything new not that it made a difference to either of us. There was a pair of scientists, however, who thought that there was something they could do to give both of us semi-normal lives. They were a married couple from S.T.A.R. Labs who specialized in physics and cybernetics. They wanted to separate us and replace all of the missing organic components with bio-mechanical ones. It was very risky, and it was likely that only one of us would survive. They obviously couldn't ask us if we wanted to or not, but it didn't matter. We had never even been conscious, so what would it matter, right? The doctors determined that I was the most likely to survive, so they gave me the majority of our brain, the extra eye, our heart, and pretty much every other advantage they could give me that didn't involve simply chopping my brother off and forgetting about him. Anyway, my surgery went great; they put in the cybernetic implants and artificial organs, and attached my new limbs. And…I woke up for the first time. I was scared, but too tired to do anything, even cry. I remember my head falling to the side. I saw a little boy in the bed next to me. Half of his body and face was metal. He was attached to a lot of machines and there were tubes going in and out of him everywhere. I'd never seen him, but I knew who he was. I'd felt every feeling he'd experienced over the last three years. I knew that nobody in the world knew this boy better than me, even though I didn't know his name. I tried to reach out to him, I tried so hard, but my arm just wouldn't move. His head fell towards me, and his eyes opened a little. He just stared at me for a while, and then smiled the smallest, but happiest smile I had ever seen. I knew then, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that behind that warm, blue eye was the twin brother I'd know all my life; and the little boy behind the red, mechanical eye was the baby brother I would come to know and love. Then his smile faded and all of the machines started beeping. The doctors around him began to yell, and then everything went black again. As you've probably guessed, his surgery didn't go nearly as smoothly as mine. They lost him a few times, but he kept fighting. We both made it through and the implants took as well as they had hoped. The bodies took a long time to get used to, and it didn't help that we had been comatose for the last three years. The two scientists stayed with us the whole time, teaching us how to eat, talk, walk, and all the other things we should have known by three. They treated us like heir own children, and we came to see ourselves as that. They even brought in their toddler to help teach us. We pretty much just watched whatever he did and copied it. Having each other there was a big help too. You really come to rely on someone who you once shared a brain and heart with. The two of us were rarely seen not holding hands. The three of us became really close. He became like our brother. We spent every day together for three years, and it felt like we were making up for lost time. We did all sorts of fun things; we made up games to play, had ice cream at the shop on the corner, we even got to go to the beach. Not in the water of course, being half machine has drawbacks like that, but it was fun all the same. Nobody treated us normally; they either pitied us or were afraid of us. They had no reason too. Sure, we looked a little weird, but we weren't dangerous. The tech was nowhere near what it is today. The limbs and implants were only sophisticated enough for us to walk, and pick things up. We couldn't write with them or anything like that and we got tired very easily. A regular toddler was actually more dangerous than the both of us combined. Every year though, we got an upgrade; more refined implants, more reliable organs, and stronger, more dexterous limbs. By the time we were six, we were pretty much indiscernible from normal children, thanks to the artificial skin epoxy they made for us. Since the project was a complete success, the board that funded the program deemed us able rejoin society. Against our will we were torn from the only family we had ever known and were put into a foster home in the suburbs and enrolled in public school. Things were ok for a while, but we missed our surrogate parents and brother. We were only six though, so we did the only thing we could do; we began acting out. I won't go into details, but know that it was enough to get us sent to five different homes and schools over the next year. It didn't help that we were stronger than most of our foster and teachers parents either. On our seventh birthday a social worker came to take us back to S.T.A.R. Labs for our annual checkup and upgrade. We were so excited that we could see our new family again, but instead there was another scientist who we'd never met. He quickly did our physicals, installed the new components, and coldly sent us back to the home. We asked over and over where the scientists and their little boy were, but nobody would tell us. We went back into foster care with even weaker spirits that before. School and our home lives got even worse. Our foster parent and teachers were more afraid of us than ever and the kids made fun of us for our pale complexion, awkward movement, and because we still held hands all the time. Mark had also gotten into a bad habit of striking the ones who pointed and laughed. He never lost his temper; he just hit them 'til they stopped. Little action was taken because everyone was so afraid of us. The others eventually left us alone and we were all by ourselves again. The only thing that kept us mildly happy was meeting J.D. in the second grade. He was an outcast, much like ourselves. He was teased because he was big for his age and dressed strangely. It wasn't his fault really. His mom was a world class body builder and is dad was the lead guitarist for a punk band, so the grunge look and muscular physique followed kind of naturally. He never beat any of them up though, easy as it would have been for him. He simply didn't care about what anybody thought, and I think that's what drew us to him. When he started to hang around us, the kids stopped making fun of him as well. Finally having a friend gave us a reason to stay in one place, so we decided to behave ourselves. We took up aggressive inline and martial arts because no one would accept us into any club or team. We got legally emancipated when we were fifteen, got an apartment in the city, and took up odd jobs. J.D. came with us since his parents were never around. About a year after we left foster care, we met a man named Ed. He owns this place and gave the both of us and J.D. jobs here. Life was finally good for us. To top it all off, one of the scientists who had saved us gave us a call and told us that he would be the one giving us our annual upgrade. Angry as we were that he disappeared on us for nine years, we couldn't hold back how happy we were. Well, I couldn't. Mark had no problem not being happy. Anyway, we returned to S.T.A.R. Labs and went to see him. He looked much older than either of us remembered, but he was energetic all the same and welcomed us warmly. While he was doing our physicals, we asked where his wife and son were. He told us that his wife had been killed by one of their experiments. We took it the same as anyone would after hearing their mother had died; we cried, both of us, for a long time. He did his best to cheer us up, telling us that she knew the risks and perished doing what she loved. It didn't help much, but his asking us to stay the rest of the week while he finished the last minute adjustments on our new body parts made us a little happier. I finally worked up the nerve to ask where his son was. He was quiet for a long time and looked very sad, but he eventually smiled at me a said something I'll never forget, 'Well…at least I still have two children who love me.' He didn't say anything after that. Figuring this would be our only chance, Mark and I spent the rest of the week studying schematics and learning as much about the technology that made us tick as we could. Comprehending this came to us almost naturally. After only a few days, we knew ourselves inside and out. If necessary, we probably could have built the new body parts ourselves. I guess we can thank the computer parts of our brains for that. At the end of the week he installed our new implants and body parts. They were sleeker, stronger, and more sophisticated than any previous model. He said that they were the best he had ever made, and with the technology he put into them, they wouldn't be obsolete for another ten years. We, of course, asked why that was necessary when we would see him next year. He was quiet for a little…but he eventually told us that he was retiring. So much had happened and he was tired of it all. It was perfectly understandable. He had lost hi wife to that job and his son didn't like him much anymore. He deserved a good long rest. After giving us our new repair kits and supplies of epoxy skin, we said our goodbyes. We asked him to come visit us sometime to see the lives we had made for ourselves. He said he would if he had the time. That was good enough for us. We went back home and life continued as normal. Having seen dad made us happier than we had been in the longest time…for a little while anyway. It seemed like we had just seen him, but only a few months later we got a call from S.T.A.R Labs telling us that he was dead. He had been diagnosed with radiation poisoning a year beforehand. I guess he didn't tell us because he didn't want us to worry. It took a little of the sting out of it knowing that he had seen it coming for a while, but it still took us a long time to get over it. The geniuses at S.T.A.R. Labs didn't tell us this until a week after the actual funeral took place, so we went to visit his grave when we thought we were ready. We spiraled back down into the torrent of depression that had once been our previous lives. We tried desperately to find his son, but we didn't make any progress. It's like he had fallen off the face of the earth. Life pretty much went on as usual from there. Then, one day, a pale girl with purple hair and some of the strangest clothes we had ever seen wandered through the doors of the Amontillado. By her look, J.D. should have stopped her at the door. We found him unconscious by the front door which had been smashed open. We didn't know anything about her, but we liked her immediately. That was about two years ago. And the rest you know."
Victor sat speechless across the table from her, a single tear trickling down his cheek.
"You, of course already know why I'm telling you this. The scientists who saved us and built the bodies we have today, the same people who gave us our lives and made us feel loved for the first time in our lives, the only mother and father that either me or my brother will ever know: Dr. Silas Stone and his wife Dr. Elinore Stone. And of course their son-"
"Victor Stone." Vic-…Cyborg said quietly.
Sorry if this was a boring chapter. I tried to keep it Emily's monologue short, but that just didn't happen. No word on the artwork yet. Don't hold your breathes though, I think the artist I got might have forgotten about me so it might be a while. All the same I hope you guys liked this chapter. Don't forget to review. Thanks again for your patience. Peace and Love.