by Snea A/N: This was actually supposed to be two chapters. But I decided to combine them to make more progress. Of course, this means I don't have two chapters to post like I'd wanted to. Well, at least now you have an extra long one than originally planned.
Anyway, there's a list of episodes I need everyone to erase from their minds, even though they were burned in when they aired: 1) Betrayal, 2) Aftershock Pt. 1 & 2, 3) The End Pt. 1-3. So, in essence, the Titans learn all about Raven's deal, but Terra hasn't betrayed them, whee. Titan Rising I placed after The Prophecy, although I did push the Raven arc further down the timeline to fit. Birthmark is in the same place (Terra comment is replace with something else...you'll see later on since I don't know what it is yet), but everything else is really spaced out and squished so that all the episodes not concerning Raven but after Birthmark are between Birthmark and The Prophecy with Titan Rising on the end. So this fic is picking up about two years down the road to that, making Cyborg 19 about to turn 20, Robin 19, Starfire 18, Terra 18, Raven 18, and Beast Boy just turned 18 (in order from oldest to youngest, poor BB).
Now that we have the extremely confusing (for you, I'm guessing) timeline out of the way, continue on. But, again, Terra hasn't betrayed them, so she and BB are together. Like I said, members of the infamous 'R&B Shippers United' and fellow Raveast fans: flame me.
Disclaimer: Oh yeah, I own Teen Titans. I also own Jackie Chan Adventures and Xaolin Showdown. Phhtt! Suckers!
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Key:
"..."
–Regular speech
'...' –Regular thought
Bold
Italics –Flashback
"Italic speech" –Different
language (depends on character what language that is)
/.../
–Thought speech/Telepathy
Italic –Translation
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Chapter Two: Security of Times
Cyborg sat his sub down, still chewing as he contemplated something. Had the security system always felt like that?
Cyborg, being true to his name, was a hybrid of machine and human. Thus, being so, he was tapped into pretty much everything electronic in the Tower. The security frame was one, and the most important. The security frame was like a giant slate of marble in Cyborg's eyes. Normally it was pockmarked with all the times the Titans had punched in their enter/exit codes. The gritty feeling was still there, but a long, smooth plane was burned through. An almost sticky-like feeling was covering the rest of registry.
Someone had wiped the frame.
Cyborg frowned and checked his records. Who had been the last to punch in? The T-Car came up.
'Three hours old. When we came back,' he thought. He checked further back. The T-Car popped up again. 'Four hours old. When we left. Look like I was wrong.' He sighed and started back to close the frame.
A small blip caught his attention before he could. It was the T-Car's code. Only it had logged in and out within a half-hour.
While they'd been fighting.
Cyborg stood quickly, abandoning his sandwich. He needed to tell the others about this.
Today was just one of those days. The kind you
always remembered but wanted to forget. The ones that pestered you to
do something that needed to be done no matter how slow. Today was
pestering Beast Boy. It was pestering him to think, the one thing he
didn't want to do.
Thinking led to doubting, doubting led to
confusion, and Beast Boy dealt with enough confusion as it was. So
why would he want to make more of it?
'Because your life was
built on confusion?' he thought.
It was summer. A warm summer
at that with a current heat wave. The Tower's air conditioner had
once again been stressed to its max, forcing the Titans to open
windows in hopes of breezes. The air in the Tower was sticky, muggy,
and Beast Boy's extremely light covering of fur didn't help him
much to stay cool.
He was currently camped out in his room,
splayed on top of the sheets of his bed, and wearing boxers with his
window open to catch the breeze. He had long ago given up his bunk
bed and now had a full size against the wall. Posters lined the
forest green walls picturing various bands like Linkin Park, Sum41,
System of a Down, The Killers, and, the most modern, Aiko-Aiko
Yori-Yori. His green eyes stared up at the black ceiling as he
thought. He sat up and ran his hands through his hair
furiously.
'NO! No thinking! Just get up, eat some lunch, and
play videogames! No laying here thinking over the world!' He
mentally scolded himself as he fell back onto the bed. Sighing, he
gave his brain a limit on how long he was going to let it wander.
'Five minutes,' he thought to it, 'If you're not back by then,
too bad.' His mind raced off to do the day's bidding.
The
first thought it hovered over were the current relationships in the
tower. Beast Boy's teammates had all grown as much as he had:
mentally and personality wise as well as physically. And almost each
of them was in a romantic relationship as well. Robin and Starfire
had finally gotten together, Cyborg and Bumblebee had
announced their engagement two months earlier, and he and Terra's
relationship was starting to get more intimate.
Now this was were
the confusion started to set in. Raven was still a loner, even though
boys asked her out every time the team went out for dinner. In a way,
she'd made a personal mark in the team as always being the sought
after single.
"Hero worshipping," he remembered her saying
once when they'd gone out for pizza and a movie to celebrate Cyborg
and Bumblebee's engagement. They'd ended up being followed by
pining guys trying to hit on Raven. It didn't bother them, but it
aggravated the hell out of Raven to the point that she left, phasing
through the street and meeting up with them at the theater. She'd
been that way all the time, but never as tolerating until she'd
come back. And here, at this point, Beast Boy's mind settled on its
new topic.
A short while after Terra had returned, Raven left. At
first they'd just thought she decided to skip breakfast, but when
she didn't show up for dinner, they worried a little bit. But
again, Raven had had these kinds of stints before, so they decided to
leave her be until the morning. When she didn't show again for
breakfast, it was assumed that she'd gotten something to eat before
Cyborg, the earliest riser, had woken up. Again the teens left her to
her own devices, all the while oblivious to Starfire's
fidgeting.
Terra was probably the first one to notice, but Beast
Boy always had a sneaking suspicion it was Cyborg who noticed first.
They'd been eating lunch and Starfire had knocked over a glass of
Coke on the table.
"Starfire, why are you so fidgety?"
Terra asked, handing the girl paper towels. Starfire glanced at her
as she helped Robin, whose glass she'd knocked over, wipe up the
mess. Cyborg had currently vacated the table to make another sandwich
since the soda had spilled into his plate. Beast Boy was wiping the
underside of the table and the floor where soda was already
escaping.
"I am sorry, friend Terra, but I am not
fidgeting. I merely titled over Robin's glass of carbonated water
and syrup."
"And ruined a perfectly good turkey sandwich!"
Cyborg ranted from the kitchen sink. Terra rolled her eyes as she
pulled off more paper towels from the roll and handed them to Beast
Boy.
"Yes, Starfire, that's exactly it. You never
knock things over. Not once have I seen you knock over an
empty glass or even spill water when you fill an ice tray! So, why
are you fidgeting enough to knock over a full glass of Coke?"
"And
ruin a good sandwich!"
"Cyborg, for the love of God, would
you shut up about the sandwich already! She said she was sorry!"
Robin yelled at the eighteen year old. Cyborg pouted and muttered
angrily under his breath as he fixed another sandwich.
By this
time Terra had made a good point and the soda was cleaned up. Beast
Boy stood to get some wet paper towels to wipe the sticky table off,
the rest of the teens, minus Starfire and Beast Boy, sat and waited
for a reply from the Tameranean. Beast Boy sat back down at his
plate, wiping the area around it with the paper towels before passing
them off to Cyborg. Still standing, Starfire played with her hands as
she looked at the ground, hair swinging from around her shoulders to
create a curtain around her face.
"It is about friend Raven,"
she said timidly. That got everyone's attention, Cyborg placing his
sandwich down and causing Terra to stop munching her chips. Robin
looked at her in concern.
"What is it, Star?"
Starfire
looked up at her team through her hair. It had been a while. Surely
Raven wouldn't be angered if she told them now. "Raven has left,"
she said, her tone timid but clear in volume. "She left yesterday
night."
The impact of the words took a moment to settle in.
Robin stood suddenly, his chair falling to the ground. "What do you
mean she left? Why!"
Starfire looked up in alarm. "She said
she needed to get away, that her powers were too unstable to stay
much longer. She said she needed to train them to deal with..." At
this point Starfire clammed up, slapping a hand over her mouth. Robin
narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Deal with what? Did she say?" he
demanded. Starfire shook her head furiously, orange hair swinging
into wide green eyes. Robin looked at her before calming and looking
down at the floor. Without looking back up he asked, "Did she say
when she'd be back?"
Starfire shook her head, hands dropping
from her mouth slightly. "No, she did not. Only that she would come
back when she was ready and we needed her. Then she asked me to leave
her room of dwelling. I have not seen her since and her door refuses
to open to me."
Robin looked up. "Won't open?" He looked
at Cyborg. "Is that possible?" Cyborg shrugged and picked up his
sandwich.
"I've learned never to underestimate that girl."
He dug into his sandwich, ignoring the awkwardness of the other
Titans as they too returned to their meals.
A light tapping at the door brought Beast Boy out of his brief reverie. "Come in!" he shouted to the person on the other side of the door. It slid open to reveal Terra, who arched her eyebrow at him. Beast Boy shot up like a rocket, flipping over and off his bed, taking the covers with him on his trip to the floor. He sat up under the mound of fabric. "Yeah?" He asked meekly. Terra smirked and leaned against the doorframe.
"Cyborg says he wants to talk to all of us." She tilted her head as she watched Beast Boy struggle to stick his head out.
Finally accomplishing this, he looked at her. "Why? It's even hotter in there." She shrugged, pushing off with her shoulder so she could stand.
"Not sure. He said it was really important and went to look for the others." She started to turn, but paused and looked back at him over her shoulder. "By the way. Nice boxers, BB." The door slid closed. Beast Boy blushed.
He always knew rubber ducks were lucky.
The Titans were assembled in the main room. Robin was pacing in front of Cyborg, who stood in front of the window. The computer console behind him beeped and brought up the security register.
Cyborg turned as Robin glanced up at it. Starfire stood behind the couch, Raven seated in front and to the left of her. Beast Boy fidgeted on the floor with Terra sitting on the couch, her legs leaning against his left arm. They were all nervous. Someone had invaded their home.
Someone who could easily come back.
"Is this it?" Robin asked, pointing to the triple log of 'T-Car' on the screen before a large space appeared between them and the next 'T-Car.' Cyborg nodded, clicking on the second one.
"This one was five minutes after we left, meaning they were waiting for us to leave." A screen of birds-eye-view video feed from the front of the Tower popped up. It showed the ground and door. Out of the top left corner, a tendril of light floated into view before the camera cut to static. Cyborg closed it and clicked the next log. "This one was fifteen minutes before we got back." He let the grim silence that followed continue.
"They knew we were coming back," Raven stated. The others cringed slightly, but Cyborg nodded.
"Yeah, they did," Cyborg confirmed. The video started. Like before, it started off showing the front walk ground. Only this time the door opened before light tendrils drifted out and swarmed the camera, making it cut to static. It resumed shortly after showing the walk as if nothing had even happened.
Cyborg closed the windows and turned to the somber team. He gave them a couple of seconds to let it all sink in. "When I checked out the Tower, the only thing I could find displaced was the med-lab. We're missing a lot of bandages, stitches, and anti-septic. Not that it's a big deal, but we'll want to restock in case they tampered with anything else." He frowned slightly as he contemplated telling the last thing. "That...and BB's entire tofu section's been cleaned out in the fridge as well as some of Starfire's stuff, too."
Cringes were exchanged at Beast Boy's reaction.
"What? My tofu's gone!" He shot up and over the dining counter, landing in front of the fridge. He yanked the door open and the Titans watched as he screamed and literally keeled over. Starfire floated over to the open fridge and peeked inside.
"It appears that my gorka berries missing," she stated calmly, brows furrowed slightly. "What would anyone want my gorka berries for?"
Almost as if on cue, an overly large Silkie managed to squirm into the room and gurgle, grinning.
"Well," Cyborg said, "at least we know they like pets. Or at least Silkie."
"Yeah, I think they liked Silkie," Raven muttered. The larva gurgles one more time before curling as far as he could on his side and went to sleep.
"Oo-kay," Cyborg muttered, turning to Robin. "Whoever it was that logged into the Tower would have had to go through the main frame in other to wipe the security clean. They would have had to log on as me or you..." Cyborg paused as Robin's expression. 'Oh no, he's not going to–!'
Robin looked at him. "Slade." Cyborg instantly felt like throttling the boy.
"No," came Raven's curt interruption as she quickly stood up, "do not put this into your Slade obsession. It's getting old. He- "
"- couldn't have done this," Robin finished, looking aggravated. "Slade's cocky and manipulative, not smart. Whoever did this knew we'd find out about it." He started pacing, staring at the ground as he went.
"Then why would they do it?" Terra asked, confused as she drew her legs up in front of her on the couch.
Robin shook his head. "I'm not sure. It may have been as a warning, it may have been nothing but a show of power."
"Do you think the one we were fighting had something to do with it?" Starfire asked, coming to sit between Raven (who had sat down only a moment before) and Terra. "She did admit to being the distraction of us." The others, save Beast Boy, looked at her.
Terra recovered first, "She has a point." Robin nodded and turned to the computer consol.
"She does." He typed a command and criminal files started flashing up on the screen. "Cyborg, can you upload a picture of her into the database, see if we get a match?"
"Yeah, hold on." His mechanical eye flashed. "Sent. Should be coming up in a second." A window opened and a pixilated picture started to focus.
It showed her when they just arrived and she had stood up. Robin zoomed in on her face and hit the search button. Pictures started to scroll past, red marks appearing in the corners of possible candidates. The search began to narrow itself down. A prompt popped up.
No Direct Connections. Check Backgrounds?
Cyborg hit yes as Robin went back to pacing. The girls fidgeted slightly, Raven shifting as she brought her legs up Indian style underneath her. So far there were no matches, not even possible ones. Robin stopped pacing and sighed. "This isn't working, Cy. Just stop- " The computer beeped.
Brother Blood's profile came up. Cyborg tensed. Pictures of students flashed up next to Blood's. It stopped on a random student who'd had the unfortunate luck of joining the High Five after Jinx had quit. He'd been arrested on his first outing with them and was the only one who hadn't gotten away. A picture of his arrest popped up. The computer zoomed in on the background where you could see spectators. It zoomed again.
And there she was. Standing near the forefront. Cyborg relaxed and shook his head. "That's it. She's not in any other profile." He looked up at the screen. Maybe we should just give it a rest."
Robin stopped and looked at him. "No way. Someone invaded our home and while we were fighting her, she admitted to being some kind of bait." He stopped and took a deep breath, eyes closing under his mask. He opened them, "Send her pictures to the Justice League and ask if they have anything on her. Make sure to tell them why. I'm going to the library to look through the archives and see if she's in any other articles. I should be back in three hours." They looked at him sternly, Starfire looking almost disappointed. He sighed. "I promise not to get fought up in figuring this out. I swear it." They just continued looking at him, Raven crossed her arms and Starfire began to look teary.
Now Robin felt bad as it was, and now his team thought he'd get caught up again (obsessed), but seeing Starfire getting ready to cry resolved him. He smiled. "Okay, if you guys promise to order Chinese and get me some Kung Pao Chicken, I'll be back in two." Cyborg, Raven, and Terra grinned as Starfire squealed and threw herself from the couch to hug Robin, who quickly went from red to purple.
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W00t! 341 hits and this chapter is 5 pages! Anyway, I'm happy with how this came out. Means I can get further that I thought I would. As far as the years this is set in, it's after a lot of out current celebs have gone and either retired, overdosed, or died and left their kids to it. So Linkin Park and the others on BB's wall are Hendrix-classic status...or close to it, anyway. AA-YY are from an HP fic I'd started before my laptop was wiped, so now I'm re-planning it.
I was also asked on AIM why my paragraphs are so short. Answer: I write in my notebook before I transcribe to the computer. So a nice long paragraph on the computer is almost an entire page of writing. So if you're curious, there you go. Enjoi!
Next Updates: Dancing to Find Nemo and Blackbird Rising