She walked into her room with every intention of meditating. She was tired but she could feel her power push against her being. Her feelings were conflicted and in turmoil, and anyone who knew he well could tell that when she was conflicted, bad things would happen.
It's not that she was upset, far from it. When she was upset, she just left the building for fear of hurting her friends. Rather, she was confused. She didn't like it when she came across people she couldn't read right away. At first she didn't trust Robin too much because of his enigmatic personality, likewise she didn't fully trust Dib because he had some of the same qualities. However, with enough watching and patience, she knew she would figure out Dib and since she knew Robin she no longer had anything to fear.
And then there was Zim.
Raven had the feeling that she could watch the short Irken defect for years and not even begin to scratch the surface of what he was really like. He was quite upfront about his personality. He was brash, rude, conceited and overall not a nice person. It was obvious that he only cared about himself and his ideals. That's who he was, that was his personality.
But then, conversely, she knew that Zim wasn't supposed to have a personality. Starfire and Dib had hinted as much and it wasn't like it took a genius to figure it out after Zim's memories and personality had been sealed. So, here was this little jackass alien, with maybe two redeeming qualities, whom they were depending upon to help them save the world.
Raven had problems with trust. She rarely made friends and after she found her place with the Titans she did her very best to make sure that she kept them safe. Only after years and years of being alone did she even begin to think she could have friends. And now she was being asked to put her faith into an alien who would kill them all in any other situation.
She didn't like it.
What's worse is that she couldn't read Zim. She knew she couldn't. He was a moron and yet amazingly smart, he hated everything but cared for two of the most annoying things she had ever had the displeasure of meeting and he wanted to destroy the earth and yet he was trying to save it. What screwed up life would create a person so full of contradiction? It frustrated her and she didn't like the fact that despite her efforts everything she thought she knew about him was somehow disproved not long after she formed an opinion.
She was worried. She was worried for her friends, she was worried for her planet and worst of all, despite everything telling her otherwise, she was worried for Zim. Zim was a threat, there was no doubt about it but… he was up against amazing odds. He had every galaxy that was not in alliance with Irk hating him, he had Irk hating him and he had all of those people wanting to destroy him for either his race or his lack of acting like he should. Two reasons no one should ever be destroyed. She should know.
Raven sighed and shut her eyes, floating in midair. Her thoughts wandered to her own life. Being alone. Being hated for what she was and being hated for what she decided to be. No place to fit in and hating everyone for it. She saw a little bit of her situation in Zim's. Even if the alien was one of the most obnoxious morons she had ever met, there was no doubt that he was unique and he lived by his own rules.
She doubted she would ever like Zim. He was too loud, too abrasive and too evil for her liking. Zim was bad; there was no ifs ands or buts about it. He even said he was a bad guy. Still, it's not like he was too much of a threat to them at the moment and apparently the Dib kid had kept tabs on the moronic alien for over four years.
She would learn to tolerate him and she would probably come to like Dib to an extent. Dib was annoying in his own way, but no worse then Beast Boy and it wasn't like she hated him.
Anymore.
The next morning, Robin woke up bright and early. He was always and early riser. Up with the sun, if there's light then there's work to do. Or so he was taught. He would always start with stretches in the morning. He liked to loosen up his muscles before the day began, just to wake himself up and make sure he was on his toes.
After that he would do light gymnastics and staff training. He did this every day, with no exceptions. He had no powers. Nothing to fall back on if he was in a sticky situation. Raven could teleport, Beast Boy could become a tiny animal, Cyborg could muscle his way through or use one of his non-human parts to block an attack and keep from being too horribly injured and Starfire was ridiculously strong. He was human. Plain and simple. He had no super secret attack to use, he had his wits, his brains and his agility. So, he trained his mind and his body constantly, day after day so as to always stay that one step ahead. If his weapons were taken away then he needed to use his body. If he was immobilized then he used his brain. Such was his philosophy.
He finished his exercises on that note and walked out of his room, softly. He knew at least four people out of the seven were still asleep. Beast Boy and Cyborg slept in as late as possible when they could. Starfire slept in until ten. And he guessed that Dib wasn't much of a morning person after witnessing the 'coffee scene' between Dib and Zim the previous morning.
Raven was probably in her room meditating, as she always did. It used to awe Robin that Raven could meditate constantly for hours on end. He knew that meditation, especially for that long, required concentration levels that were beyond his own abilities. However, now that he knew why she meditated, it made more sense. It wasn't as if she had a choice in the matter.
Robin walked out into the main room and saw Zim, sitting exactly where he had left the alien the night before, typing away and every so often glancing down at his sleeping robots that rested on either side of his person. Robin grinned and leaned over the couch. "Morning," he greeted the alien.
Zim jumped and leaned back until Robin came into his view. Zim was looking at Robin upside-down and Robin was highly amused. "Hello, bird-human," Zim greeted him sourly. "Is it your morning time already?"
"Couldn't sleep?" Robin asked.
"Don't sleep," Zim corrected him.
Robin raised an eyebrow and Zim sighed exasperatedly as if explaining something to a four year old. "See, unlike you PATHETIC humans, as a superior Irken, I have no need of the weak activity you call 'sleep'" Zim said distastefully as he brought up his hands to make air quotes when he said 'sleep.' "My Pak has a power cell that erases my body's need for sleep or any other energy producing activity."
Robin thought about this as Zim glared at him, still upside down. "So you don't need to eat either?" Robin asked.
Zim shook his head, his antennae flopping. Robin noted this and wondered if it meant anything. He had never seen Zim's antennae flop before. He knew when they moved that whatever position they were in was a pretty good indicator of his mood, but in so far as careless movement, he wasn't so sure. "No food, no sleep, no feeling, no personality," Zim grinned sadistically. "The perfect soldier."
Robin was a little creeped out, but he didn't show it. "Do you eat and sleep?" he asked.
"Duh," Zim replied as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Irkens love to snack," he said gleefully. "But we don't have to, and that's the point. I don't sleep that much though. I see it as an amazing waste of time and I have no need for such stupid… things."
Robin nodded slowly as if he was absorbing this. "Okay," he said. "Well, as an inferior human, I'm going to go eat my breakfast."
Zim nodded, not realizing that what Robin had said was clearly sarcasm. "Very well, HUMAN, I will continue making my… weapon thing."
"You do that," Robin said under his breath and rooted through the fridge. He wasn't in the mood to banter with Zim just yet. It took a special mood to feel like going one on one with someone whose ego was so big that they thought they were actually perfect in all senses of the term.
Later that morning, Cyborg was the first to come out of his room, looking well rested and happy. He was followed by a sleepy looking Beast Boy ten minutes later and then a somewhat awake Dib about 2 minutes after that. Starfire had been up for about an hour but she had disappeared off to the mall with Raven to 'take practice in the art of doing up hair.'
Although Dib was the last one out, he was the first one to grab a cub of coffee. He sipped on it and looked around. "Zim still working on that thing?" he asked.
"Yeup," Robin replied.
"He outside?" Dib asked.
Robin nodded. "Yeah. He doesn't like to be inside, does he?"
"Correction," Dib replied and sipped his coffee. "He doesn't like to be where he's told to be. Zim does not like doing what he's told to do unless it concerns his leaders. And even now, I don't think that's true anymore. He's pissed off so he's going to contradict everything he possibly can to feel in control." Dib sipped his coffee again and looked down into the liquid, swirling his reflection around in the cup. "Not that I blame him."
Robin nodded, "That makes sense."
"Dude, you guys are thinking too hard this early," Beast Boy said grumpily.
"BB, it's 10:46," Cyborg said with a laugh. "Wake up already."
Beast Boy yawned and flopped on the table. "I'm bored," he complained. "We're waiting for some giant space armada to kill us and all we can do it sit around and wait."
Robin patted Beast Boy on the shoulder apologetically. "It's all right, Beast Boy. We'll be doing things soon enough."
"But what about now?" the bouncy teen asked. He wanted to do something, but the tower needed to be watched in case any transmissions came in from Jenjiba.
Cyborg looked thoughtful as he chewed on his morning bacon. "Hmmm… well," he said slowly. "We could have a four way Battle Showdown tournament."
Dib looked at Cyborg blankly. "What?"
"Battle Showdown?" Cyborg asked. "Only the coolest videogame ever. You create these characters and then have them fight on different terrains. There are the basics, ice, fire, water, what have you but then there's also mech, forest, space AND THEN if you're real good you can mix em up. It's so cool," Cyborg said happily.
Dib laughed nervously. "I'm not much for the videogames," he admitted. "My sister is though. She's really good at them."
"Give it a shot," Cyborg chided. "Come on, four way lets you mix up to four fields and the girls never want to play."
"Oh yeah!" Beast Boy said excitedly. "Yeah! Let's do that! Come on, Dib. I wanna see what happens when you mix space and water."
"The water contracts into spherical shapes that float until they are separated by an outside force," Dib and Robin answered automatically.
Cyborg and Beast Boy exchanged looks. "Come on Sci-boys, time to melt your brains with video games," Cyborg told them.
"You're half robot," Dib laughed. "You're probably better and engineering then I am."
"Ah, but I know how to game," Cyborg replied. "So, what do you say? Or are you chicken."
Dib grinned and finished off his cup of coffee. "Chicken? I've piloted a planet before," he bragged. "I'll show you how chicken I am when I kick your butt."
"Big words little man!" Cyborg retorted good naturedly.
"Bring it," Dib shot back and followed Cyborg into the living room, followed closely by Beast Boy and Robin.
"I'm going to kick both of your butts!" Beast Boy announced as he picked up his controller.
Ten minutes later, Robin was grinning the smug grin of victory.
Later that night, everyone was doing pretty much nothing but lazing about. Except Starfire. She was at the kitchen, banging around and creating some new monstrosity from her planet.
The odor of the food was enough to make one gag. Dib started to look a little green while Beast Boy laughed at his misfortune. "We're used to it," he whispered. "Just get ready to bolt if she comes near you with it."
"Have you ever eaten it?" Dib asked while trying not to look too ill.
"Once," Beast Boy replied. "And I will never again try anything she makes. Ever."
"Yeah, Star has a real… unique sense of flavor," Cyborg said knowingly. "Way more unique then I ever want to try."
Dib laughed and sunk a little lower into the couch. "Oh boy," he muttered.
Starfire came out of the kitchen, holding up a lumpy grey mass of bubbling… something, looking quite proud. "Who wishes to partake of the dish of the Retaklant Feast?" she asked happily.
"I uhhh… I'm full," Cyborg lied. "Mmm, that pizza was filling!" he said while patting his stomach.
"Me… uhh too! Yum tofu!" Beast Boy added quickly.
"I'm fine, thanks," Dib managed to get out.
Robin had already safely disappeared to a different part of the building.
Raven merely glared at Starfire before closing her eyes and returning to her meditation.
Starfire looked a little put out but then remembered that there was a new person to try her recipes on. "All right, I'll go ask Irken Zim if he wishes to partake," she said a little stiffly and floated upstairs.
"Poor Zim," Dib laughed. "He's allergic to human food, I wonder how he'll take that."
Starfire floated out onto the top of the building where Zim was sitting, looking out over the city. His feet were dangling over the edge and he looked almost thoughtful. Starfire cleared her throat and Zim jumped, revealing that he had only been spacing out. "Hm? What is it?" he asked rudely.
"I have made a feast food," Starfire said cheerfully. "Do you with to partake of it?"
Zim turned slowly to see the mush in her hands. He raised an antennae and gave her and odd look. "Alien food?" he asked.
"From my planet," she said softly. "I like to make things that remind me of my home. I miss it sometimes, you know."
Zim frowned and Starfire half expected a sarcastic reply. She was totally caught off guard with what Zim said next. "Well, at least you can return home," he said, almost bitterly.
Starfire had no idea what to say to that, so she merely floated over and set the dish next to Zim, then sat down next to the dish. "I can," she admitted. "But I rarely get the chance. Tamerania is very far away."
Zim shrugged. "I have no home to speak of now," he said stiffly. "Irk is being STUPID," he hissed. "And this planet is STUPID."
'This planet is wonderful," Starfire argued.
"No it's not," Zim said exasperatedly. "This planet has a bunch of morons on it. No one notices ANYTHING and everyone seems to just follow some invisible rule set that makes NO SENSE."
"You see things very differently, Irken Zim," Starfire told him.
Zim sighed and took a spoon of the mess that Starfire had made. He took a tentative bite and found that it did not hurt him in any way and that it actually was pretty good. He missed eating and he figured it would be okay to continue eating it. "I see things as they ARE, Tameranian. Your silly little club only protects weak and idiotic humans who could care less about anything. Which is exactly why I will take over this planet."
"Why?" Starfire asked, confused.
Zim took another bite. "Because, it's in my programming first of all. And secondly, I WANT to. I like destroying things," he said and grinned. "It's fun."
Starfire shook her head. "You make little sense."
"You make little…er sense," Zim shot back.
He and Starfire traded glares for a second before turning back to watch the city.
"At least the scenery of the planet is not bad," Starfire prompted as she looked at the sunset over the ocean.
Zim snorted. "I hate water," he muttered. He took another bite and sighed then stood up, signifying the end of the conversation. "I am going back down now, Tameranian," he announced and left.
"I like the sunset," Gir said suddenly, popping up next to Starfire. "It's puuurrrrddyyyy."
Starfire smiled and drew her knees to her chin. "Yes," she agreed. "Yes it is."
Mmkay, I got a review that said I didn't have enough focus on the Titans, so here was an intospective chapter almost completely dedicated to their views on the situation. Also, there was Dib getting his poor non-gaming butt handed to him.
Thank you soooooo much to everyone who reviewed. I love getting the reviews that tell me things. Really. Bad things good things, I like knowing it all. Sorry if this chapter seemed a little bland, I'm real tired right now and I kinda am running out of steam. Anyways, thanks to all my awesome reviewers, please keep the comments coming!
Hugs to everyone and next chapter is Tak's entrance. Yay!