A/N: Second update in two days...yeah that's right, I'm not completely useless...well actually, that might be a lie. Anyways, this chapter is a bit...yeah know, I'm not exactly sure what to say about it...have fun...next chapter is about a quarter done already...and will kind of flow with his one. I might write it tonight but I kind of want to go back and come up with titles for all the chapters that don't have them and because I suck at that...it could occupy the rest of my day...good luck to that...

Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, but hey, I think we all knew that already

Trying to Do the Right Thing

Chapter 33: A Rose by any other name...

By: Finalitylife

The tension at the table for the Titans was incredible while Rose seemed to be totally and completely unaffected by the situation as if she either really just didn't care all that much or she knew something that just no one else knew, and from the small smirk on her face, one would truly think that. All the Titan's eyes remained firmly on the white haired young woman in front of them as she twirled a small knife effortlessly in her hand, smiling a little wider, before resuming her business of cutting some of the food in front of her, eating it slowly and methodically, and Raven just knew she was doing it purposely to annoy them.

After Rose's shower, she had come back out into the main room, looking everything like an average teenage girl in a t-shirt and cotton shorts...well average if you didn't count the eye patch and white hair. She had preceded to order some food from a nearby Italian restaurant, asking the Titans if they had wanted any with they had all declined though Raven got the feeling both Cyborg and Beast Boy wanted to say yes despite their apparent nervousness around this girl. Rose had simply shrugged and used a cell phone to call, only increasing her appearance of just a normal girl chatting away on the phone. It was a slightly unnerving thing to see...so casual...so simple even though Raven knew this girl was nothing of the sort. Despite Rose being exemplary at blocking off her emotions from Raven's empathy, her one eye could not hide all the secrets the girl was hiding, and Raven knew Rose would inevitably be trouble for all of them despite being there best hope.

Raven had been amazed when the food had shown up so quickly to this desolate and nearly abandoned area of this city, but all of this was quickly explained when Rose handed the smiling delivery guy a handful of hundreds without hesitation. Enough money makes anything possible.

It was then that Rose had asked to hear everything about what was going on, and she did want to hear everything if she was indeed going to help in an effective manner, and Raven had proceeded to do so, hiding as much as she could, but being rather specific when it came to Slade and the Titans and Robin's history with the madman.

As she ate her dinner during the conversation, she remained causal and smiling yet again Raven could see it in her eye every time certain things were said about her father, could see the cold almost deadly glimmer there...it was hatred, a hatred toward her father which was something Raven could understand so perfectly and so easily. Her father had been the most evil and destruction being existence had ever known, and she had hated him beyond almost any fathomable meaning of that word, and she wondered if that look in Rose's eye had mirrored the look in her own. If it had...Raven didn't want to think about it.

"Wow...the apocalypse...nice going Rae. Brought it about and stopped it within the same day...glad I didn't have to be there for that one. Of course it seems you lost something of value in the process...and truthfully, what is actually the value of your leader?" Rose's eye sparkled with mischief as she smiled directly at Raven, a smile that Raven truly found disgusting for some reason. It was Starfire who responded to the question.

"The value of Robin can never be put into monetary value or words...he is our friend and he is our family...he is simply beyond value to us." The Titans couldn't help but inwardly smile at the kind and heartfelt words of Starfire. Rose only chuckled slightly.

"Of course...family is just such a sacred thing isn't it." Everyone felt themselves grow cold as Rose's smile disappeared, a deep, dark sarcasm in her voice as she twirled the knife in her hand again before in a lightning quick movement, flung it to the side, impaling straight through a small fly that had been on a nearby wall. Everyone flinched but Raven who only narrowed her eyes from beneath her cloak as she looked upon the one-eyed girl as she stood up from the table, taking in every detail she could, noticing the slight clench of her one hand.

"Well if you'll please excuse me..." Rose walked off again in the direction she had gone to shower, again leaving the Titans in confusion.

"Woah...this girl is nuts...remind me not to mention family again." For once, Beast Boy actually made sense...all of them easily realizing Slade and family was an extremely touchy subject with Rose.

"Yeah B.B...I really don't want to be on the sharp side of those blades of hers...I really don't think she's the type to hesitate to kill if she felt it necessary."

"She's not Cyborg...that's why we have to be careful. Rose is dangerous...very dangerous...trust me on this, but as I've said before...we need her."

"Yeah Raven, but does she need us?" Raven did not respond, did not want to confirm that the Titans were indeed expendable in the grand scheme of things to Rose because what could she possibly need from them that she probably couldn't get on her own. However, Rose's true and complete motives were still a complete mystery to them, and Raven doubted they would ever be truly revealed until absolutely necessary by Rose.

It was a few moments later that Rose appeared again, leaving both Cyborg and Beast Boy wide-eyed with the smallest bit of drool starting to fall from Beast Boy's mouth.

"So how do I look?" Rose stood in a pair of high heels, an extremely short white skirt, and a top that seemed to consist of nothing but a few randomly placed straps of cloth that miraculously held together covering her chest. She again slyly smiled directly at Beast Boy who could not take her eyes of the very attractive and very revealed girl.

"I'll take that as I look good Beast Boy...thank you for the compliment." Beast Boy managed to pull his eyes back into his head for a moment and mutter out that he didn't say anything.

"I know..." Rose stalked seductively up to Beast Boy leaning close to him. Raven felt her body tense up at the action, not liking Rose getting so close to Beast Boy because she knew Rose was a predator, enjoying the display of power she could so simply do to the rather weak willed Beast Boy, nothing truly emotional about what she did.

"But your reaction said it all..." Rose kissed Beast Boy on the cheek quickly, before giggling in a very non innocent and slightly disturbing manner.

"Well before I join you in this 'all consuming' quest to find your lost leader, I'm going out for the night. You can let yourselves out I imagine. Don't wait up." The giggling Rose bounced out of the building humming to herself and soon was completely gone.

"I repeat...that girl is completely nuts." Cyborg smacked his small companion in the back of the head.

"Pull it together B.B. You enjoyed that far too much. How about a little bit of professionalism." Beast Boy responded in a slightly high pitched voice.

"What? Um...no...I'm just ya know, making her think we're friendly to gain her trust...so she'll help us more with stuff and..."

"That's enough Beast Boy." Raven's stern voice cut off the green changling's confused ramblings.

"Cyborg is right Beast Boy. This is still nothing but a game to her, and like I said, she's dangerous despite how she's acting. She is in no way our ally or our friend in any sense of the word...she is hopefully a guide, and once we have Robin back, she will be nothing but a fading memory." Everyone nodded in agreement, Beast Boy doing his best to get his hormones more in control because even he knew that Rose was just toying with him to get a reaction out of him for her own amusement. He just didn't like that the fact didn't bother him more, but maybe he was just a little bit lonely and this was the first beautiful girl who had shown any interest in him since Terra...Terra...the name passed quietly through his mind. He really did miss her every moment of the day.

"Beast Boy." Again Raven's stern voice caught Beast Boy's attention immediately.

"Um yeah Raven?" Even under her cloak, Beast Boy could tell Raven was shaking her head in some type of disappointment or inability to 'get' him.

"I said we're going back for some rest. There's no point in staying here, and I get the feeling Rose will find us when she's ready to progress. Beast Boy nodded and quietly followed his friends out of the building toward the T-car.

--

It was only an hour later that the Titans were back at their current place of occupancy, a larger than usual hotel room on the other side of town. As always, Cyborg in his holographic disguise was the one used to book the room while the other Titans snuck in with the help of Raven's powers. They were always doing their best to remain unnoticed, but then again, Slade had so easily seen through Robin's Red X disguise, he would probably find them if he really wanted to. This place was bigger than what the Titans were used to, each one of them getting their own rooms for the first time in months, but it proved to be a good location for them while they search the surrounding areas.

The Titans had come back from their meeting with Rose weary and tired, and Beast Boy and Starfire had quietly gone to bed upon returning while Cyborg and Raven had remained up discussing plans of actions and of course Rose. It made Raven a little bit more confidant that her and Cyborg were both on the same page...to be as paranoid as possible and to not trust anything about Rose though both of them understood just how important her help was. Rose would undoubtably know her father...know something that could be the key to finding Slade, and once they found Slade...they would find Robin, and all this could finally be over.

Eventually Cyborg went to his room, plugging himself into the wall, his re-energizing taking a long time because of the available power sources but thankfully, he really hadn't been expanding that much energy as he normally did in normal Titan battles. Searching didn't use that much power.

Raven grimaced slightly...searching for Rose was over, but searching for Slade had just begun. It had only just begun. Raven slowly glided toward her room, remembering her time sleeping in Robin's room as she entered, slowly remembering the night she had spent by his side there before her father had come back. She truly wished she could experience a sleep like that again...Raven shook her head. She didn't wish...she couldn't wait to experience a moment like that, the smallest of private smiles allowed on her face as she sat on her bed, beginning to meditate.

--

Beast Boy was sleeping restlessly in his bed, images of Terra's final moments still at the surface of his mind from before, and his eyes finally opened ridding himself of the images if only temporary. Of course he was awoken by a breeze coming from a nearby window which he had known to be closed, locked, and covered before going to bed. His mind started to register this when he noticed something else...a heavy lump next to him that he couldn't understand how he didn't notice before. He turned his head to find the surprise of a lifetime...Rose laying on her side, her head propped up as she leaned on her arm, smiling eerily at him. Beast Boy went to yelp, but a delicate hand covered his mouth as Rose's voice spoke to him

"Shhh...don't make a sound...I don't think you want anyone else to know I'm here because then I'd have to leave...and I just know you won't want that." Beast Boy found himself in a state of shock as Rose gracefully began to move, positioning herself so that she was straddling his lap, and Beast Boy quickly realized she was still in her clothes that she had gone out in, her bare legs easily felt by his own body.

"See..isn't that better...oh...I bet your getting excited." Beast Boy tried to sit up, his instincts telling him to get out of this unexpected situation despite other parts of his more basic instincts telling him to do the opposite. He tried to move Rose off of him only for his arms to be pinned down on the bed by surprising strength from Rose as her face now just hovered above his own, her smile one of pure amusement at his struggles which only seemed to excite her more.

"How nice...you really are a cute one aren't you? Don't you want to play with me?" Rose seemed to pout for a second before a dark smile crossed her face as she harshly kissed Beast Boy on the lips, him continuing to struggle, his brain not understanding the concept that he could transform into any number of animals to easily get out of this. Rose moved against him, and Beast Boy couldn't help but moan slightly which elicited another strange smile from Rose as she pulled back slightly.

"See...you do want to play with me...hehehe...and I like to play so very much..." Beast Boy found his resistances slowly melting away to the beautiful, sexually charged woman on top of him but thankfully, someone came to his 'rescue'

"Get off of him now." Beast Boy easily recognized the voice of Raven and most especially the tone, one in which she was barely suppressing her rage...a tone that told him not to mess with her though Rose did not seem to register it. She sat up slowly still straddling Beast Boy, flipping her hair out of her face looking over her shoulder at Raven standing menacingly in the doorway.

"Care to join us Rae? A black talon of energy shot out of Raven's hand, clasping tightly around Rose who seemed not to care at all, only laughing insanely.

"I guess that's a no." Raven floated forward, holding tightly around Rose's body.

"Beast Boy...leave us." The changling knew to get the hell out of there and ran out of the room as Raven waved her other hand to close the door with dark energy.

"Calm down Rae...you really don't want to hurt me do you?"

"Stop calling me Rae."

"No." Raven seethed with anger as she did her best not to tighten the large talon around Rose.

"What are you doing here?" Rose laughed again.

"I didn't find anyone up to my standards tonight so I decided to pay a house call to green boy. Is something wrong with that?" Raven was now only a few feet in front of Rose.

"Stay away from him."

"Oh alright Rae. I'll stay away from him. I mean there always is Starfire, and there is the chance she would be a little more receptive to my advances if you know what I mean." Raven growled.

"You will stay away from all of my friends...do you hear me! All of them or else I will..."

"What? Kill me? I don't think so Rae. Despite being demonspawn, you don't have it in you, so don't make your pathetic little threats against me. I'll do what I want when I want, and if you want my help, there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Have I made myself clear?" Rose's voice became serious and slightly sinister as she spoke, her voice no longer sounding carefree and sing-songy, and for a moment, Raven saw Slade in front of her and not Rose. Raven let go of her powers, releasing Rose who smiled as she mock dusted herself off, then moved her clothes back into their proper place.

"Now that's better...but you did ruin my fun tonight so you'll have to make it up to me with more fun. Meet me at my place in about an hour...main floor where you first saw me...I think you'll understand when you get there." Rose mock bowed to Raven before backflipping on to the edge of the window, smiling once more, her slightly crazed cackling fading away with her into the night. Raven stood there for a few seconds before disappearing into the shadows, relenting all of her power, finally allowing the door of the room to fall down from the force of Cyborg banging against it to get in. He found no one inside, and of course, during the whole thing, Starfire slept like a rock without disturbance.