Chapter 10

Powers

"Listen up Titans, there hasn't been much activity since our last encounter with Slade." Robin had called an immediate team meeting which meant that everyone was to attend, with the exception of Starfire. "I don't like our current situation with Starfire but we have to take advantage of the situation at hand and reteach her her powers. Even though the incident with her and her memory didn't happen too long ago, it would be best if we told her now so she can join us on the battlefield."

Beastboy lowered his hand from the air, which was raised as soon as Robin had mentioned about Kori and her powers, and decided to announce his question without permission. "So how exactly do we tell Kori about her powers? Are we just gonna go up to her and say, 'Hey Kori! Guess what? You have superpowers that allow you to fly, shoot green rays and starbolts out of your eyes and hands, and have super strength! Oh, and you're an alien princess from a weird planet that doesn't even have food for vegetarians!'" Beastboy took a second to look at everyone in the room and finished his point. "I don't know about you guys, but if I was her then I'd think that you were all crazy."

Before Robin was able to respond to Beastboy, Raven, without putting down her book, joined the conversation. "You have to admit that he's got a point."

Astounded that Raven, the person who seemed to hate Beastboy, had actually agreed with him, Cyborg spoke up for clarification. "I'm sorry, what? You're actually telling me that you, of all people, agree with Beastboy? The little booger himself?"

The empath sighed, closed her book, and emphasized her opinion. "Think about it, of course she won't believe us. It doesn't matter if it's the truth or not, it's still not something you hear every day. Then again, she might actually believe us."

"What do you mean?" Beastboy asked.

"Look at who she lives with: a half-man half-metal person, a guy who's green, has fangs and pointy ears, and can't stop saying the word 'dude', someone who wears a traffic suit and a mask with overly gelled hair, and a goth chick who's the spawn of a demon, always has her nose stuck in a book, and is emotionless. Let's face it, we're not the average Joe and we never will be. I can feel her emotions and she knows that something's different about her. She doesn't like the way she looks and I'm guessing it's about her insecurities but I'll tell you one thing that hasn't changed about her, she can still feel her emotions strong enough to give me a headache."

Robin was smirking inwardly when he heard Raven talk about Beastboy but frowned as soon as he heard her mention him and Starfire. She was his best friend and yet he had no idea that she had insecurities. Of course, everyone did but the Tamaranian seemed to be confident in some areas, areas that seemed to include her beauty, but apparently he was wrong. What Raven said made Robin rethink what he knew about Starfire. Matter of fact, did he really know anything about her?

Like Robin, Beastboy had opened his ears once Raven spoke about him. A small grin was brought upon his face when he heard her call him a 'guy'. She had referred to Cyborg as a person and called Robin 'someone'. However, his happiness soon faded when he heard the empath insult herself. Sure, she had to suppress her emotions but she wasn't emotionless. Whenever he thought about her, none of those traits that she said came to mind. In his eyes, she was perfect. So when she finished talking, Beastboy denied her words and spoke up.

"You're kidding me right? Come on Raven, stop putting yourself down! You don't always have your nose stuck in a book, you just read to help calm yourself from all of the stuff I put you through. Let's face it, I can be a handle. And you're not a goth chick, you just like some stuff that others might not find fun to do. And for the love of God, don't say you are emotionless. Your 'dad'," the changeling had used the term 'dad' loosely for he knew that she didn't care for Trigon, "just left you with a burden. But let's face it, you wouldn't be who you are today if you didn't have to suppress your emotions. I like this Raven a lot so don't you change a single thing about yourself." Silence enveloped the room. Beastboy had stated his thoughts out loud and for a moment, didn't seem to care who heard him; as long as Raven was one of those people.

"We'll talk later," Raven commanded before her pulled her hood up and over her head. The shadow once again cascaded over her heart-shaped face just in time for a blush to form on her cheeks. Raven was shocked that Beastboy would say those things about her. Did he really like her for who she was? Not that she cared of course. In fact, she could care less if he liked her or not. At least, that was what she kept telling herself. Slowly, the empath could feel her control on her emotions unwinding so to regain authority over them, she closed her eyes, took deep breaths, and quietly muttered her mantra.

"Right, so…" Cyborg, confused by the outburst of his best friend, spoke up and decided to turn back to the important subject at hand, "…how exactly do we tell Kori about her powers?"

The mention of Starfire's other name snapped Robin out of his thoughts and brought his attention back to the problem they had. Righting himself, he cleared his throat that seemed to have brought everyone's attention back to him.

"Well first things first, we can't all be there to tell her this. Raven's right. It is a delicate subject and I have no idea how she'll take it but I think that one of us has to tell her, alone. Meaning no eavesdropping or else you'll get 400 extra laps to do during training tomorrow." Robin made it obvious that he was talking about Beastboy and Cyborg by turning his head their way and did his best impression of a Batman glare. Lucky for him, the message went through as he took notice that the two had visibly shrunken back.

"Okay, that seems fair but now we have to decide who wants to break the news to her." Beastboy had recovered shortly after being threatened by the Boy Wonder and brought up the minor problem.

"Are you really asking that? Obviously, the Boy Blunder himself is going to go and tell Starfire. You'd think that after years of living with the two that he wouldn't understand how they feel for each other already." Raven had muttered her last statement before picking up and returning to read the book.

Robin, hearing the last things she said, became embarrassed and began to blush. Thinking that he could still convince the three Titans otherwise, he started, "Well she is my best friend so of course I'm going to tell her. But that doesn't mean that I have feelings for her. Why do you guys keep thinking that?"

Before Cyborg was able to respond to Robin's question, Beastboy had spoken up and added a hint of laughter to his voice. "Well maybe because it's true? Come on Robin, the whole planet knows that you're in love with her!"

"Yeah man," Cyborg joined, "if you really want to hide your feelings for her then you shouldn't be hanging out with her 24/7, be so protective and jealous when another guy looks at her, and blush every time we say that there's something between you two. But seriously, who cares if you like her? It's not going to be the end of the world if you two start to date. Why don't you just accept the fact that you have feelings for her?"

Before they had gotten a response, Robin had stormed out of the common room but not before muttering, "You wouldn't understand."

"Soo… is he going to talk to Kori or not?" Beastboy had asked.

Cyborg, without looking at Beastboy, got up and walked over to the game console, searching for a video game to play as well. After he decided on the game, he set it up and walked over to Beastboy with two controllers in his hands. Once he was settled on the couch, he responded. "Of course he is. Now go grab a controller and be prepared to lose."

I have decided something: I think I'm going to use 'Starfire' when I'm writing about solely Robin and his thoughts/feelings, and I'll use 'Kori' at any other time. I'm sorry that I haven't updated recently but I just honestly haven't had the time. I know I don't update frequently like other author's and I'm not those types of authors that when they do update after a long time, it's because they were working on a big piece and they end up making it amazing. My writing dream is to become one of those authors and make a lot of people happy with stories. Just a piece of advice for anyone whose thinking of writing more than one story at a time: unless you're 100% positive that you can do it, then don't! Save yourself from the stress and guilt! I'm sorry about this long message and me monologuing. Please review and all that other good stuff! I don't own anything but Warner Bros. and DC Comics do!

Always yours,

light is in the dark