Author's Note: I do not own Teen Titans. I do own my version of the Tamaranean language, though.

Mind and Body Chapter 10: The Fire Within a Star

"Look out!" Cyborg shouted as he dove to the side. In passing, his arm knocked against Oracle's chair and knocked her sprawling. Luckily, Robin's instincts also allowed him to dodge as a ball of green light blasted through the wall and opened a path for the humanoid flying through the building.

"It's just like my dream," Robin said in a hushed voice, "That ability was in my dream!"

"What do you mean?!" Cyborg said angrily as he helped Oracle back into her chair, "What dreams? And how did reality find it's way from there?"

"Never mind," Robin said urgently as he shook his head, "Let's just stop it before it destroys half the city."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Cyborg retorted, "If I'd known this was the type of enemy we'd face, I would have taken a while longer to think about it before joining."

"First of all," Robin said angrily as he headed down the stairs, "I didn't exactly know that this was going to happen either, and second, we have an advantage here."

"Oh really?" Cyborg said sarcastically, "Would that be that it thinks we're dead?"

"No…." Oracle said in realization, "The advantage is that we can use Robin's dreams to learn more about the enemy. With that information, we could set up a counter attack expressly designed to neutralize this threat with the least collateral damage."

Robin shook his head. "As good as both those reasons are," he said, "neither was what I was thinking of." At the look in their eyes he smiled slightly, "I don't think she's an enemy."

"Whoah now, wait a minute," Cyborg said as he raised a hand in protest, "She?"

"Yes, she," Robin said, "That was the first thing I learned in those dreams: it's a girl."

Frowning, Oracle brought her helmet up to stage 2 again. "I think it's time you told us everything about your recent dreams, Robin."

"Are you sure this is a good time?" Cyborg said as he stared at his right arm.

"What are you doing?" Oracle asked.

"Oh yeah," Cyborg said, "I didn't tell you about my tracer?"

"No, you didn't."

"Oh, well I've had lots of free time to improve my software and upgrades, and one of the things I added was a tracking feature: it automatically downloads the signature of any being I've had contact with and allows me to see where it's going for the next 30 minutes. The connection naturally fades after that time. But that's besides the point! Look at this!"

When he showed them the screen they were blank. A purple dot was progressing smoothly parallel to the road, and seemed to be headed directly inland. "I don't get it," Robin said, "We know if we leave it too long we'll lose her, but running in without a plan in this situation is suicide."

"This is the problem," Cyborg said as he traced the hypothesized route. A purple line grew from the dot and continued straight even after the road split at a strange, triangular building.

"Seriously," Robin said, "what is wrong?"

"Man, that's my favorite pizza place! There's no way I'm gonna let a super-powered alien trash Linguini's Pizzeria!"

Raven, Beast Boy and Cael had just landed behind a building that proudly stated its name to be "The Roach Motel". Its otherwise bare brick walls sported a giant neon sign with its name. The leg of the "R" was fizzing out, making it the "Poach Motel", and the asphalt parking lot had a good dozen potholes scattered about. Only two cars were parked there.

Looking at the state of the place, Raven couldn't help but mutter, "I bet that beat up pick-up is the owner's ride."

"Yeah," Beast Boy replied, "And that Mitsubishi is his banker telling him he better shell out or get out."

"So…" Cael said reluctantly, "This means we sleep outside right?"

"Yup," Raven said simply.

"A couple rocks never hurt anyone," Beast Boy continued.

"Man, what do you two have against a soft mattress?"

"Nothing," Beast Boy laughed, "We're just against sleeping with bedbugs the size of dogs. Would you like an example?"

"Ah, no thanks," Cael said, sweating, then he stared at the sky in a mock attempt to see the good in the situation, "A blanket of stars is more comfortable than one of nice…down…feathers…."

"Dude," Beast Boy said with a shake of his head, (that was now his favorite word) "In a place like that, those 'nice down feathers' of yours would be untreated cotton. Way too itchy, man."

With a sigh of defeat, Cael followed them to a patch of wheatgrass that had less thistles in it then usual and tried to sleep with his jacket curled about him. He shifted as the cool inner of the jacket chafed on his skin and kept him awake. He turned to see Beast Boy shift into his ferret form, stretch, and crawl into Raven's flannel hood.

"Oh sure," he muttered as Raven curled up inside the vast former blanket in such away as to vanish within its folds, "you two never have a problem no matter where we stop."

"My calculations put her arrival at that shop of yours in thirty minutes," Oracle said before Robin could try to strangle Cyborg, "And as we have a ride that will take us there in 10, that gives us twenty minutes to come up with a plan and still get there in time. Besides, that's as good a place as any to take the battle to her."

"Fine then," Cyborg said, "Let's do this. What happened in your dreams Robin?"

He sighed and began from the first dream.

Once he was done, Oracle and Cyborg were both deep in thought.

Cyborg spoke up first. "So this girl can fly, is super-strong, can survive the trial of space without a suit and throw pieces of the sun at her enemy? This is what I meant by 'not what I signed up for'."

"Enough, Cyborg," Oracle said darkly, making him cower just a little bit, "Believe it or not, I'm actually more worried about that ship: it would mean she was followed in the worst case. We must always keep it at the back of our minds."

"No, that's not the danger here," Cyborg said, his voice starting to rise, "At least those pursuers need something between them and deep space: this thing doesn't need that. Do you know what that means? Her body has to have an internal core of gravity that is many times stronger then an object that size can naturally develop.

"In other words, she has to be of far greater mass per cubic inch than anything on earth. Her home planet was probably much larger than this one, and that accounts for both her needed mass and her strength.

"In addition, she has to resist the sucking sensation of a vacuum, which means her cells attract each other more strongly than anything we know exists. That also applies to her faster-than light travel: her cellular cohesion level has to be so high that even those speeds don't tear them apart, which is the natural cause of energy production."

"So we know why she has these powers," Robin said, "But how do we stop her from using them?"

"Mostly we can't," Oracle said, "But the only one that really poses a major, unique obstacle are those starbolts."

"Hey, that's a good name for them."

"Why thank you, Robin."

"Way to go, Romeo," Cyborg whispered, and winced when Robin elbowed him in the side then held it to his own side in pain.

"As I was saying," Oracle continued as she finished her typing, "I've cross-referenced the composition of the sun with known materials that resist its effects, and the answer is a Titanium/Silver alloy sprayed with a bicarbonate coating. Luckily that is all easily done right here, so I set our machines to developing a shield for you Cyborg."

"Why me?" Cyborg asked.

"You're the one who's scared."

"I am not!"

"Ignore it, Cyborg," Robin said, "She does this with everyone. The reason is that I am more agile than you: I stand more chance of dodging her bolts rather than having to endure them. What's the plan, Oracle?"

"We'll head to the interception point," Oracle started immediately, "And station Cyborg on the restaurant's balcony. Her current altitude puts her at precisely that range anyway. The silver should add enough reflection to the titanium's strength that it edits out the starbolts entirely. An enemy at her height will force her to land, where the two of you will engage her at 135 degrees to each other. This will achieve the needed cross-fire—if your sonic cannon is up to it, Cyborg—and still keep the two of you out of each other's range of fire."

"Don't you worry about my cannon," Cyborg said proudly, "This baby is capable of putting out 1200 decibels at maximum power."

"Wow," Robin said with a sarcastic smile, "That's one hell of a sound system."

"Har-de-har-har," Cyborg said, "Luckily I also installed directional mirrors to focus the sound into a localized beam of energy. That's the only reason I don't shatter half of the windows in this city every time I let loose."

"That's quite the secret weapon," Oracle said while nodding in approval.

"What about my stuff?" Robin asked plaintively, "It's pretty cool, right?"

Oracle groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Oh please, God, give us another member to this team soon; we're going to need it. They were developed by Wayne Industries, Robin, of course they would be 'cool'."

Later that night Cael still couldn't sleep as his gaze shifted periodically to-and from the blue flannel pile that was his young friends, the admittedly-run-down motel not 20 yards away, and the thickly starred sky. A couple hours before he had seen a shooting star, which was supposed to be luck, but as it was green he didn't know what to think. He did, however, get the sense that he had witnessed something significant. If it would not be in his life, then it would be in the lives of his young charges.

He sighed and turned on his side, determined to get even the slightest bit of sleep before sunrise. However, before he could do that, Raven and Beast Boy stirred and Raven sat up. Beast Boy, on her shoulder, was staring urgently at the building with his beady ferret eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked nervously.

"Fearful thoughts,"

"Bad vibes." They said at the same time. In the next instant, a scream broke out from the building in front of them.

With a reaction honed by ten years on the border of civilization and wilderness, the three of them sprang to their feet and began flying toward the building. They landed at the front porch and Cael kicked down the door.

His gray hairs shone silver in the faint light coming from a room to their right. They could see some shadows dancing in the light, but Rachel stopped the two others before they could advance: Cael in his martial arts stance, and Beast Boy in Silverback Gorilla form.

"Wait," she whispered, "there's a couple guards just inside the door: they're hoping someone hears the noise so they have someone to beat up. Also, there is a man threatening a woman further in."

Can you get a lock on their position? Cael asked in his thoughts, but Raven shook her head.

"Leave it to me," Beast Boy whispered, and took his fly form. He buzzed stealthily through the door and landed on the ceiling. Once there, he changed into a gecko so as not to confuse the images. In his head he heard a voice that had been there for ten years now.

May I borrow your eyes?

Of course, he said, come inside my house.

Shut up, BB. Rachel said with a chuckle.

Beast Boy relaxed as he felt his consciousness be laid gently to the side and Rachel looked about the room with his eyes. They saw that besides the two next to the door, there was a woman standing in front of the man at a desk: she was wearing cut-off jeans and a black t-shirt with a white skull and crossbones splayed all the way across her chest.

Some banker, Beast Boy thought, but Rachel's presence interrupted. I don't think that's his banker, Beast Boy. Maybe we switched who had which car. Anyway, I've relayed the information to Cael and we're ready to go in on your signal.

Not yet, he said suddenly, a chill having run up his back, I think there's a little more going on here than we think.

"This is the last time, Mendel," the girl was snarling, "I need the money you owed my father, and you WILL pay up."

"But Janice, dear," the seedy man wearing an old suit said nervously, "can't we talk about this?"

"I'm tired of trying to get you to talk about it," the girl said in a low voice, "So I decided to beat it out of you instead."

Janice cocked a large fist back and prepared to let fly, but then the confusion let loose.

Five masked people burst out of a back room and launched themselves at her arms. As they restrained her, Janice called to the two men. "Hank! Johnson! Get these bastards off me!"

As the two giant men left their post, Raven and Cael pounced. They came in and Cael conjured a wall of fire around each man. But they hadn't noticed that there were new inhabitants. The two free ones turned to the approaching strangers and lifted up oddly short guns. But before they could fire Beast Boy changed back into a gorilla and fell from the roof.

As he descended, he slammed both fists into the ground right in front of them so as to buckle up the rotting wood. This threw the two men into the wall and knocked them out.

As the seated man stared in shock, one of the standing grunts left his allies to charge the three friends. Before Beast Boy could do anything, Raven had levitated the door out of its frame and slammed it into the soldier, leaving him with a heavy oak panel lying on top of him.

They turned to see Janice slamming her heels into the feet of the two holding onto her arms so that they let go. Then she turned and cocked her right fist once more. When the fist made contact, the man's face literally exploded in a mess of fire, blood and brains.

As everyone stared in shock, she turned to the last man standing and hit him a solid left hook to the jaw, again accompanied by a sickening BOOM.

"Well?" she snarled at the trio, "Who are you, what do you want and why are you staring?"

"Who we are has no meaning," Cael replied, "We wanted to make sure that the fight we heard ended the way it was supposed to, and you just made a man's face explode."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Actually, it does."

"Whatever," she shrugged, "you aren't trying to kill me after seeing what I can do, so I guess you're good guys. Wanna help me search for the money he was supposed to pay my dad off with?"

"What," Beast Boy said while still in gorilla form, "just like that?"

Janice stared for a second, then turned to Raven. "I see why you weren't surprised," then she turned back to Beast Boy, "Yeah, that's right, just like that."

"Sure, why not."

"You can't just answer for all of us, Gar," Raven said darkly.

"Eh," Janice said, "You don't have to come."

But when she started strolling down the hallway with the two stunned cow-hands at her side, the three of them followed readily enough.

After they had walked down 7 flights of stairs, Janice stopped at a large door.

"See," she said, "behind this door is another one with a lot more security, that's where the money is."

She immediately punched the door, blasting it off its hinges, to prove it.

Rolling her eyes, Raven allowed Beast Boy to become an osprey and settle on her shoulder. Then she floated forward and let her energy play over it. However, instead of ripping it off the hinges, she used an ability she hadn't often used since she learned it four years before. She let herself and Beast Boy fade through it and to the other side as she said, "You could use a little more finesse."

She very much enjoyed the woman's look of astonishment.

As Janice stared in shock, Beast Boy and Raven talked quietly on the other side of the door. "There's something bothering me," Beast Boy said quietly.

"What is it?"

"Well, those masked men seemed familiar for some reason. It just worries me that I can't figure it out."

"Considering your photographic memory," Raven whispered, "That worries me too."

At that point they heard Cael say "Aren't you going to go through?" and heard Janice snark back at him, "Sure, right when you tell me how I can use explosions to get through an explosion proof door."

Suddenly a small, white flame poked its way through the door and carved a large, rectangular hole in it. Cael stepped through, followed by a white-faced Janice. Raven turned to her and said, "So that's why you invited us: you couldn't do it on your own."

"Shut up."

They descended another flight of stairs and Raven then started talking to Janice. "So let me get this straight: that man up there owed your father money, and didn't pay up. Now you're taking it upon yourself to make him pay up. But because he's physically incapable of doing so at the moment, you've decided to just steal it."

"That's right," Janice replied brightly.

"I don't know who's right or wrong in this situation," she muttered, and Cael shook his head.

"Sometimes it's impossible to know," he said quietly as they reached the bottom step and saw a large, wooden chest across the room from them, "and you have to hope that your heart told you to do the right thing."

Janice opened up the chest, smashing the lock with a small explosion that also, conveniently, shredding the booby trap. When she lifted the lid, they found a large stack of gold bars.

"The guy is so much of a scrooge," Janice said ironically, "That he has enough money to buy out Ramada yet doesn't even fix this place up." She took out one of the bars, and moved to the scale set into the ground next to the chest. She weighed the bar, which came out at 8 pounds, and smiled in satisfaction. "It's a good thing he always keeps his gold in 8 pound bars," she said as she weighed two others and stuffed all three into a pack on Hank's shoulder.

"That's all we were owed," she said in reply to their looks, "so I'm not taking anymore."

"See?" Cael said after a while, "Your heart almost always knows what's right." Then he saw her picking up two other bars. "Hey, I thought…."

"These are for the damage control, and the inconvenience," she said, "And if you believe that one, you really need to learn from your experience, old man. Johnson! You pick up the chest; we're getting out of here. Hank can collapse the roof on these…unwanted guests."

"Damn it," he said as the girl and her cronies dashed up the stairs, "and sometimes they're completely wrong. She probably wanted us down here to do just that. No witnesses, after all."

The mini-jet that Oracle had been speaking of was cramped for two passengers—especially when one was twice as big as he should have been—but it's linear black curves and blacked-out windows belied its purpose for speed and stealth.

"God it's cramped in here," Cyborg complained, "I hope we don't have to keep this thing."

Robin shook his head from the pilot's seat. "Personally, I would like to keep it. But it's a loan from Batman so it goes when Oracle does."

"Really?" Cyborg asked as they flashed above the metropolis, a small black streak in the fading sky, "I thought she was staying?"

Robin laughed a little scornfully. "Yeah right!" he said, "She's Batman's top informant, as well as filling the same role for most major super-hero teams. It's not like she'll settle down with the 'newest kids on the block'."

"All right, I get it," Cyborg grumbled, "So when is she leaving?"

"When we have all five members of our team and we have confirmed that we are able to work as a team."

Cyborg found it a little difficult to resist launching into the 'Team vs. Family' speech, but he did it.

Suddenly they stopped. "Here we are," Robin said cheerfully, "keep all possessions firmly clasped to your chest, and don't forget to open your parachute."

"Wait, wha--?" Cyborg started to ask before the floor below him popped open and he reflexively clutched the oval sheet of specialized metal to his chest.

He managed to right himself and pull the string before he smashed into the roof of Linguini's Pizzeria, so when he landed he immediately shouted up at the stationary sardine-can of a heli-plane. "I am so gonna get you for that, Robin!" He bellowed.

Then he heard a voice in the intercom they were borrowing from Oracle. "Hey Cy," Robin's voice said over his protests against the nickname, "I'm going to try something: hopefully it'll end everything immediately."

"And what's that?" Cyborg asked suspiciously.

"Oh, I'm just going to attack with the heli-plane."

Oh come on," Cyborg said angrily, "for one thing, you're not sticking to Oracle's plan. For another, you're the one who dreams about this alien girl: do you think that would succeed?"

"…No," Robin reluctantly admitted, "I wouldn't."

"Okay, then, let's do it by the book for once."

Robin grumbled a bit and said "Fine, but just this once: in the future, I will be giving the orders to the entire team."

"Agreed, agreed," Cyborg said lightly, and thought Pompous brat, I sure hope the new members can do something about it. Because he knew by now that the more he tried to get Robin to stop, the more stubborn he would be about it.

He took the shield and slipped it over his right arm, so he could still see that arm's sensors and have his sonic cannon free.

He managed to position himself on the balcony in front of the few customers just before the purple blur reached them. He heard a breath of shock run through the people behind him as a starbolt blasted forward and made contact with the special shield. Thanks to the titanium, it didn't dent; thanks to the carbonized covering the silver didn't melt; thanks to the silver and the curve there was nothing keeping the bolt in place. It bounced off at an angle upwards and to the left to land in a 20th story window of the skyscraper that discovered itself in the new path.

Cyborg's eyes bulged as the green light exploded, shattering that section of the wall and rimming the resulting hole in flame that quickly regained a familiar color. He quickly swiveled his head to look back forward to see an orange-skinned girl hovering in mid-air right in front of him. According to her expression, she was just as surprised as they were.

She turned to Cyborg and shouted "Klarbag! Zof snoot krang yizelsnuf dragnad!"

"Huh?" was all Cyborg was capable of saying.

Robin poked a finger in his ear and wiggled it around, saying, "I was able to understand it in my dream, so why not know?"

"Maybe because it was a dream!" Cyborg suggested sarcastically.

Then the girl interrupted, "Zeska, hagefti tren kurlszoon TURFLA!" After shaking his head, Robin charged.

"That language is making my head hurt: let's stop this right now!"

"Robin, you idiot!" Cyborg shouted, "Are you forgetting that we're…," but it was too late, and the girl fired one of her starbolts at Robin.

Quickly, Cyborg hurled the shield between them, and just managed to get it there in time: unexpectedly, the shield had reached the spot with its' straps facing directly at the starbolt. When it hit, the starbolt was focused by the reverse curve and sent back at its' launcher with even greater power. They heard a startled shout both in front of and behind them when it hit and exploded.

A quick glance behind him showed Cyborg that the few guests on the balcony were scrambling for cover.

"Um," Robin said quietly, "You were saying, Cyborg?"

Cyborg rubbed his eyes and said, "We're relying on your agility, not you suicidal tendencies." The smoke cleared and they say her still floating, her body unharmed.

"If that can't do it, nothing can!" Robin said.

Cyborg snorted as he jumped forward to plant a metal fist in her face. He could see that it hurt her, but he nonetheless was startled when tears started in her eyes. However, he had no time to think over this, as a fist seemingly harder than his returned the favor with interest. His breath left him faster than ever before as he was hurled to the ground and hit the asphalt below with enough impact to leave an imprint of his body. He sat up and aimed his now-deployed sonic cannon as Robin threw some disks at the girl.

Each disk exploded on contact, but as she was clearly unfazed Robin dived down beneath her and threw some more from below. These froze her before she could react, but in the next instant she had broken the sheaf of ice and dived down to confront him.

Robin barely dodged her punch and tried to get a kick in but it bounced off as she twisted to send a short jab into his stomach. He doubled over wheezing as Cyborg rushed in with both fists pounding, his sonic cannon too much of a risk for Robin.

The next couple of minutes were a confusion of fists flying and both boys finding themselves entirely out-classed thanks to their lack of teamwork. They got in each other's way constantly as they vied for the best angle at which to fire their attacks.

Cyborg's linear beam made it simple to predict, unfortunately, and soon the girl had figured out the timing. Immediately after a blast she dove in under the beam to get close to him. At the same time as he desperately fired again, some more of Robin's exploding disks flew in on a curving course.

The combination of the two attacks created an explosion that seemed to consist of sound waves flying in all directions. It shook the posts of Linguini's Fettucini and elicited some screams from the people that hadn't managed to leave.

The girl seemed to have been knocked unconscious by this new blast, but as Robin slowly approached, she sat up abruptly and hit his forehead with the dome of her skull. He was on the ground writhing in unexpected pain when Cyborg quickly closed the distance.

She then grabbed his arm and started to spin him in a circle at an angle that, when released, flung him up three stories to land in the side of the building.

"Man," he said angrily just before he fell from his own indentation, "we're having our asses handed to us! By an alien girl!"

He groaned and tried to rise, but two sets of feet landed in front of him, facing away….

In an instant, as the ceiling collapsed all around them, Raven instinctively threw up a shield of black energy that kept all of the bricks from touching them. As they bounced off of her new shield, she stared at the bricks that should have crushed her and her friends.

"All right," Cael said, "How come you didn't do this when that Mountain Lion attacked us a couple years back?"

"She couldn't do it then," said Beast Boy in a hushed voice, "she has been slowly discovering all her powers for all her life."

"Okay," Cael said as the last brick hit the shield with a clunk and fell to the side, "So what do we do now?"

"We get out of here somehow," Beast Boy said obviously, "But being stuck like this isn't going to help us fly out." He turned to Raven expectantly, "always before your powers have appeared in sets: what else can you now do?" he asked curiously.

"I don't know," she said shortly, "But I have a feeling I know how to find out." She sat down with her legs crossed and let the shield collapse. With a deep sigh she went into the trance again.

At first everything was black as she retained her ordinary sight, but soon enough her inner vision cleared to reveal an ancient black rock under her feet. Despite it's flat surface, Raven knew that the underside would seem as if torn from a mountaintop and left suspended as the rest was taken away.

Surrounding her was a ring of statues that each showed a duplicate of her self. Directly in front of her there was a trio of statues: in the middle was another one of her self, but on her right there was a statue of Beast Boy and on the left was a statue of Cael.

Then she spotted some cloaks rustling behind the statues and relaxed. Her duplicates had arrived. The first arrival was cloaked in red and always inspired disgust in her. When she had begun separating her emotions she had been sure to extract every bit of rage and hate she had ever possessed in the creation of this avatar: if even a scrap of her original hate remained she would never be able to keep her emotions under control and her powers would always be beyond her control.

Luckily a yellow-cloaked Raven sporting glasses arrived immediately after. This was her avatar of Calculation, and the only thing that could prevent Rage from overtaking her completely.

Soon afterward the Orange-cloaked Rude, the green-cloaked Bravery, brown-cloaked Despair, silver-cloaked Grief, purple-cloaked Reticence, gold-cloaked Love and pink-cloaked Happy soon followed.

When all of them had arrived, she sat up straighter, eagerly awaiting the last arrival. Slowly, her white cloak swirling solemnly about her limbs, Instinct floated lightly into the center of the ring.

She looked as Raven suspected her mother would: a taller version of herself with long hair and full lips. Instinct smiled softly and asked "What may we do for you, my dear?"

"I have recently been having new powers appear again," Raven began, "And I was hoping they could be explained to me. Would you happen to know what new powers I have recently come into possession of?"

Instinct shook her head, "My dear, you have not gained any powers since birth."

"What do you mean?" she asked in bewilderment, "I couldn't levitate before I did it a couple days ago, so I know I've gained that much…."

"No," Instinct said simply. She waved her hand and the other avatars vanished into thin air. Then she sat down and patted the ground beside her. "Sit next to me and I will tell you what it truly means to learn more about yourself."

To be continued…

*Klarbag zof snoot krang yizelsnuff dragnad=Bastard! Just get out of my way right now please!

**Zeska hagefti tren kurlszoon turfla=Excuse me, but I really have to leave this place immediately or your doom will be certain, so LET ME GO!

A/N: Sorry this chapter was delayed a bit, but I am going to college after all. I hope you like this entry, and I REALLY hope you tell me if you did or didn't.