Been working on this ever since I finished the last chapter. Seriously, it just got stuck every once in a while. I usually love writing Cyborg, but this one got tripped up when I started trying to work in the sin. But I think it works out alright. I don't think the last three chapters should take as long. I already know who is getting which sin and how they have sinned. But my estimations on these have been off every time. Oh well. Please read and enjoy!
I don't own the Titans. : / - J. Mirembe
He is a sinner.
Honestly though, he doesn't care. He knows all about death and life, heaven and hell. He's come through it all. And he deserves to indulge a little.
In one fell swoop of fate, he lost everything. Nothing was spared. All he had ever considered important and thought untouchable was ripped from him like a bandage from a wound. Instead of fading away though, the pain stayed. Lingering just as sharp and bitter as the day he lost it all.
His entire life was destroyed in a screech of rubber and the crash of metal against metal. He was left alone. No family, no friends, no home, and no future. Even his identity didn't feel like his own anymore. Victor Stone was a person. He was something else now, something undefined and frightening.
He was a monster. Just like the ones he used to read about in school or in comic books by flashlight. Only those terrors had remained chained to the pages. He was all too real.
Those first few months were hell. He felt diseased, unfit to walk amidst the masses. No matter where he went, he could feel their eyes on him. Judging him, condemning him, he can still feel the burn of their accusatory glances. It didn't make a difference how he tried to hide. They always seemed to know he wasn't normal.
It wasn't his fault. He hadn't asked to survive as a monster. Who would want such a life? To be saved at the brink of death to simply be seen as a science experiment. He had hated being trapped inside that stupid clunky metal body. If this was punishment for some past evil, then it was cruel and unusual. He had never done any to warrant this torture.
Then came his salvation in the strangest form he would have never imagined. There was no host of angels present, just invading aliens. The streets were on fire, buildings and streets torn apart. His city was too full of flame to hide in the shadows any longer. Most insane of all was the boy that laughed in the face of widespread chaos and destruction. A child-soldier that reached out happily with a too big smile when the rest of the world had long since turned him away.
He will never forget that moment.
He hadn't known it then, but he had just met the boy that would pull him from his private taste of hell. Well, more like a purgatory. He's not sure what he was paying for, what crime he had committed. But it doesn't matter because he will never go back. That little hero had done more than just save him. He had given him purpose and paradise.
He had lost so much. But now he had it all. Respect, power, friends like family, and a home. He was honored by the city that had once shunned him. Instead of hiding in the darkness, he stood proudly in the light. It had taken very little time to grow used to the life of a hero. Fighting and danger didn't faze him at all. It was a reason to live. That absence of purpose was the reason he had been so miserable before. But it just wasn't enough.
His tiny miserable world exploded the day he met that scrawny child. His odd savior had stories of towering mountains, ancient castles, and vast jungles. They spent long nights talking, often until the sun peaked over the horizon. He would ask and his new best friend would tell. The words drove him wild, inspiring an almost desperate need to see these places. He had to see them, needed to stand on those mountaintops and wade through vast rivers. It didn't even matter that his counterfeit brother's stories were mostly filled with pain. What he wanted was the thrill of adventure, the experience, and the rush of simply going places.
He was never going to get enough of it. After being starved for a real existence for so long, he happily drowned himself in this new lifestyle. He was never satisfied with more knowledge, more power, more upgrades. Even with his power levels at capacity and his memory full to bursting, it was still too little. He knew there was so much more out there. All he had to do was reach out and take it.
The more responsibility, the better. Knowing he had so many to protect didn't worry him. Honestly, it excited him. He was able to do more as a hero than he had ever dreamed of trying as a normal human. He could finally accept the fact that he wasn't normal anymore. It wasn't a curse anymore, at least not always. Sometimes it was inconvenient and awkward but most of the time it was amazing.
He was able to do anything now. So he did whatever he wanted. The days weren't long enough to contain everything he wanted to accomplish. That didn't stop him from trying to pack in more into every hour, every second. Oh the things he could do with just a few moments more in each day.
He's as good as forgotten those dark days. That time before he was a hero, before he was worshipped, is like a nightmare now. Strange, cold and frightening but those long lonely nights are gone now. He's drowned them out with the energy of his new life and fire in his best friend's eyes.
Even the days when he was normal are like a dream. Less disturbing than the nightmare, but still just a foreign. This is his life now. This is always what he was meant to do. So he takes more responsibility. Starts new projects, learns new talents. Creates more, does more, fights more. He and his best friend travel farther, explore wonders few have ever seen. They find greater adventures than will ever be told in story books. He lives harder now than he could have ever hoped.
The only problem is that he hasn't had enough yet and with every day, he doubts that will ever happen. And he doesn't care if it never does.
The more he has and experiences, the better off he is. And the more of a sinner he becomes.
Avaritia - Greed