Okay, okay, OKAY! I know I keep promising that I won't take ages between updates and then I go and leaving you hanging for like three months… Only I actually have a (semi) valid excuse this time around. Well, I added a lot of stuff to the FFNet version of Black Magic and had to add a lot of stuff to the FFNet version of Remember the Titans, and I needed to add some stuff this chapter to tie up the loose ends concerning Arella, Marcus Vandiver and Jonathon Vaughan the Ubër Friendly Ghost, only I really haven't have time to get around to it before now. I have exams on right now, I had a lot of work for university previously to that, and I've been working on Poison Apple over on the Death Note section as well as other projects for that section, and I kept meaning to update this but I couldn't unless I added the relevant stuff in here…
And, well, never mind, because it is DONE NOW! Hurrah!
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the penultimate-penultimate chapter of Remember the Titans. After this only TWO CHAPTERS remain and then we are FINISHED!!1111!!11! OMG, we've come so far, thankyou so much to everyone who is still here, I know I've been a bitch for updating this past year or so… O.o
TO CHANCELESS: Finally, we come to the chapter in which is the (very brief) cameo from the one and only Static Shock! Oh, god, feels like I've been promising you this for like a year… You probably don't even care anymore, hahaha… :)
Thankyou to: Quinn and His Quill, Coolteenzz, Guardian of Azarath, Someone, Amara-chan, Narroch, TheFallenAngel67, Kitty-Katz-Katz, Shinigami-Virus, LoopyLouise123, The Fate of an Amaryllis, WonderRaven13, Brendan Aurabolt, Simmie, DragonPrincess1988, Me and SylverEyes!
A NOTE: I do like RobinxRaven. It was the first pairing I latched on to when I started writing Teen Titans fanfiction many years ago. In fact, back then, I thought I'd invented it… O.o BUT this fic is CANON, and thus… the RobinxRaven-ness has to fade away.
I'm sorry.
A Better Place
"It is done."
Marcus Vandiver looked up from his desk towards Arella, who stood wraithlike before him in robes of cream and gold.
Arella offered a weak smile, clutching at one of her elbows as her gaze slid away to the floor.
"I know," she said softly. "With… Seth, anyway, and his child, but…"
"Arella…" Marcus sighed it, sweeping a tress of his brown hair aside from his indigo eyes. "…Trigon, you know that nothing can be done, you know it as well as I – no, as her mother, better than I…"
"But this business with Seth…!" Arella cried. "Hasn't it only proved that… that prophecies can be changed, avoided…? It was prophesied that that boy would die and Seth would get his power back, and it didn't happen! Raven destroyed him—"
"Arella," Marcus interrupted wearily, "you forget yourself. Trigon is unspeakably… well, his powers far eclipses Seth Elliott's, and why was it that Raven was able to kill Seth? Because of Trigon's power. And if Seth himself could not stand up against the daughter of Trigon…"
"But Raven is not evil," Arella argued. "She is a good person, she—"
"Sometimes goodness alone is not enough."
"Then why do those children fight as they do?" Arella burst out, leaning over the desk. "Tell me that, Marcus – those Teen Titans, why do they fight for the sake of good?"
"I never once meant to imply that goodness alone was a noble cause for which to fight," Marcus replied coolly. "For why else did Jonathon lose his life? He was powerful, but no match for Seth, and he was killed because of the goodness for which he fought. Don't you see, Arella? Goodness is a noble cause – but not an end. It is not a weapon with which we can fight, only the flag that we carry with us into battle."
Arella fell silent, and Marcus tiredly rubbed at his aching temples.
"Still," he said, in a tone yet quieter, "perhaps you may be right. Perhaps there may be odds we have not considered, perhaps Raven shall prevail, who is to truly know…?"
Arella looked up, her smile weak but definite; Marcus returned it.
"And," he went on, more firmly, "let us not look to the wars of tomorrow, but to the victories of the present. Seth and his influence are gone. It is no mean battle which we have won."
"Yes," Arella agreed softly; and when Marcus held out his palm towards her, she clasped her slender hand in his.
"To a better time," Marcus said, "and a better place."
Arella gave a nod of firm agreement, taking her hand back as she prepared to leave; he was visibly busy, and she had errands of her own to attend to.
However, as she reached the door, she glanced back at him, as she had many times before, and asked of him;
"…And what of Jonathon?"
Marcus met her gaze determinedly across the office.
"I believe that he, too," he replied, "is in a better place."
It was extremely out of character for him to do so, but Robin slept late the next morning; sprawled on his mattress on his stomach, one leg hanging off the edge of the bed, the covers half on the floor, and with his curtains pulled across, until gone eleven.
He seriously hadn't slept that late in years.
He didn't like to sleep in, which was why he didn't do it – but this morning he didn't feel too bad for it. In fact, he had rather enjoyed it, although he wasn't going to make a regular habit out of it.
Eventually sitting up, he was surprised that no-one (namely Starfire or Beast Boy) had bounded in and disturbed him by now, but clearly they were aware of his need to rest and catch up on sleep and had left him alone.
It was 11:07am when he finally pried himself from his bed and went to go have a shower.
In the bathroom, he leaned against the sink and looked at his hands. He had wrapped bandages around them, from his wrists upwards but leaving his fingers and thumbs free; in the way that he often to did to give his hands a little more support when going through a rigorous martial arts workout. The burns were extremely painful but he had rubbed anti-burn ointment on his hands and wrapped them up, and that was really all he could do.
He slowly unwrapped the bandages now, catching sight of himself in the mirror and voicing a weary little groan; it looked as though someone had backcombed his hair with a brush charged with static electricity.
He ran his hands under cold water for a while to soothe them, then turned on the shower and stepped into the cubicle. It was agony on his hands as he washed his hair, but he found some comfort in the shower radio, which played, rather ironically, Sweet Child of Mine. He couldn't sing it as well as Cyborg, but he went along with the words he knew to the best of his ability.
It made him feel better.
He stepped out, towelled off, got dressed, rubbed his hair dry, brushed his teeth, combed and gelled his hair, sat on the edge of the bath and rubbed more anti-burn stuff onto his hands and then wrapped the bandages back around them; and then sat for a little longer, pulling on his gloves over the bandages, and decided that the "Get-Ready-O-Matic" machine they had in The Jetsons really wasn't such a bad idea.
Get in, push the button, and the machine did everything for you; and you walked out the other side, completely washed, dressed, and ready to face the day ahead.
Too bad it was just a cartoon. Fantastical nonsense…
He smiled, and couldn't think why.
He left the bathroom and went downstairs in the elevator; on his way there he passed the gym, the door of which was closed, but he heard an animalistic roar from beyond it, and the familiar metallic twinkling sound of starbolts.
Beast Boy and Starfire were working out.
Robin was pleased, and decided to join them after he got something to eat.
He found Cyborg in the front room on the couch, drinking a strawberry milkshake from MacDonald's and watching wrestling on TV.
"You know that's all fake, right?" Robin asked sweetly, leaning over the back of the couch.
Cyborg blinked and looked over at him; and then grinned.
"Yo, Robbie. How's life treating you this morning?"
"Okay." Robin shrugged. "They played Sweet Child of Mine on the shower radio."
"Ah, wish I'd been there…"
Robin blinked at him, alarmed.
"I'm glad you weren't!"
Cyborg pulled a grotesque face at him.
"You know what I mean."
He looked back at the TV screen, on which a masked wrestler in red leotard with a skull on the front, and with a matching mask, was rolling and writhing on the floor of the ring, while another bulky fellow in black and silver was hoisting himself up onto the ropes.
"And yeah, I know this is all fake." He pointed at the wrestler in red. "I mean, check out that guy. Complete faker. Honestly, some of these wrestlers should be awarded Oscars for their acting ability…"
Robin looked at Cyborg pointedly.
"And speaking of fighting… how come you aren't practicing with BB and Star?"
Cyborg grinned guiltily.
"I thought I might as well take advantage of the fact that you were still snoozing…"
"Uh-huh…"
Robin walked away towards the kitchen.
"I'll be back now!" He called.
"Okay!" Cyborg paused, and then added; "Yo, bring me a Mallow Blaster, will you?"
Robin looked back around the doorframe, his masked eyes narrowed.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I read in a history book somewhere that Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in the US…"
"Just get that candy bar, Batboy!"
Ticked, Robin stomped to the fridge, grabbed the Mallow Blaster and threw it onto the table. Then he bent down and had a rummage around for something for himself. Perhaps it was because it was late – almost noon – or maybe it just because he hadn't eaten very much these past few days, but he was starving this morning.
He got a plate and piled some leftovers on it; a slice of Cajun chicken and red pepper pizza, a few king prawns and some strips of honey glazed flame-grilled chicken.
"Hey, Cy, you want some pizza?" He yelled into the front room.
"Sure!" Cyborg called back. "And don't forget my Mallow Blaster!"
Robin muttered to himself as he put his plate and the pizza box on the sideboard, pulling out two cans of Coca Cola. Then he made himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, balanced it all in his arms, and went back into the front room.
"Jeez," Cyborg commented in surprise, looking at Robin's plate. "Is there a special occasion for this gluttony?"
"Yeah." Robin flopped onto the couch and slouched right down, balancing his plate on his stomach. "I'm hungry."
Cyborg shrugged and opened the pizza box, immediately stuffing a slice down him.
"What was that about gluttony?" Robin barbed, picking up the remote and flipping the channel.
"Hey! I was watching that!" Cyborg protested.
"Uh, Cy, they have better fights on Jerry Springer…"
Cyborg went back to his pizza rather sulkily as Robin channel-surfed.
Wildlife programme. Cooking programme with that weird French guy. Something about sharks. Barney the Dinosaur (he changed the channel as though it was burning his eyes from their sockets). Fox, showing something with Luke Perry in it. Some black and white preppy 50s sitcom. Beast Boy's favourite, Clash of the Planets. Sesame Street…
He stopped on the news when something caught his eye.
Something big and handsome in red and blue.
There was Superman, grinning away at the camera, being interviewed by Lois Lane.
LIVE was at the top left corner of the screen.
"Hey, Superman!" Cyborg exclaimed.
Blanking him, Robin turned up the volume.
"…And that's the last of them, Superman?"
Superman nodded; and then the camera pulled back to reveal the rest of the Justice League – all six of them – behind him. Batman was off to one side, looking very bored.
"That's right, Ms Lane," Superman replied. "The Justice League, with the help of the Teen Titans in Jump City and one Static Shock of North Dakota, has successfully rounded up all of the inmates who escaped from Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane during the break-out last month and put them back where they belong."
Robin and Cyborg exchanged glances, grinning.
Lois Lane was suddenly elbowed out of the way by a redheaded reporter who was familiar to Robin, at least: Summer Gleason.
"Have you just come from the asylum now?" She asked excitedly.
"Uh-huh." Superman gave another nod. "Just put the last of them away. The past few days have been busy. We had a dozen non-notorious escapees trying to get away on a ship from Metropolis docks, and the Riddler took us for a ride over in Steel City two nights ago. Thanks to the Teen Titans and Static, the job has taken less time than it would have. The Titans took care of Killer Croc for us just the other day, and Static carted Harley Quinn back to Arkham himself yesterday evening."
"Little punk, horning in on our racket," Cyborg muttered, referring to Static. "Damn amateur…"
Robin smiled, still watching the screen; he was pleased and relieved to hear that all of the criminals has been returned to Arkham and locked up again where they belonged.
A grainy feed of Static Shock had appeared on the screen now, with the words RECORDED EARLIER flashing along the top of the screen. The African-American teen, with his white face-mask and blue and yellow hip-hop inspired hero uniform, was grinning enthusiastically as he spoke.
"Well, I'm just glad I could help, you know?" He rubbed at his black dreadlocks, as though embarrassed now at being in front of the cameras. "I just figure we heroes gotta stick together and help each other out. When I heard the Justice League was looking for these guys, I felt like I should help out. I figured one of 'em would come running my way sooner or later…"
"Thankyou, Static."
Static gave a little wave and big white-toothed grin at the camera before the feed vanished, presenting Robin and Cyborg with the live interview again.
Cyborg was insulted.
"Yo, they interview that little wannabe before us?" He stormed. "We're the professional teen heroes. He's just some kid who got zapped one night by weird gas and decided to borrow an outfit from Lil' Romeo's closet…"
Robin smiled and patted Cyborg's arm, taking a bite of his sandwich.
"Cyborg, be very glad that Lois Lane wasn't stalking us…"
Looking back at the screen, they could see that Wonder Woman and Batman were now flanking Superman, although the latter still seemed very disinterested.
Lois Lane had also reclaimed her place and was asking questions again.
"…Do you have any idea who did this?" She inquired, holding out her microphone.
"Well, word among the criminals we rounded up was that the Joker was behind it," Wonder Woman answered, tossing her mane of ebony hair back.
"Do you believe that?" Lois pressed.
Wonder Woman shook her head, but Batman was at the microphone before she could speak.
"There is no doubt that the Joker has something to do with this," he said, his voice as brittle and cold as always. "However, he didn't do it alone. I was there on the night of the breakout, and he had outside help."
Superman was promptly pushed aside by Lois, who was now far more interested in the Dark Knight; Big Blue looked extremely put out.
"You were there?"
"Robin and I."
"Robin?" Lois Lane was really smiling now; because she was getting the reporting gold.
And Robin was another source.
She beckoned to a cameraman, turning away from Batman for a second.
"Hey, Archie, write that down for me; call up the Teen Titans for questioning."
Robin and Cyborg looked at each other wildly.
"Great," Cyborg groaned. "Now they want us…"
"I thought you wanted to be interviewed," Robin pointed out scathingly, unamused by the revelation that he was going to be plagued by Lois Lane for at least a week.
"Not by her…"
On screen, Archie nodded and went back to his camera.
Batman completely ignored this entire charade;
"The person responsible for this is a man known enigmatically simply as "Slade". He operates from Jump City, which the Teen Titans are protectors of. I am still unsure as to why he did this, but it can be assumed that it was the Joker he was after."
"And did you catch this Slade?" Lois probed.
Behind her, Superman snorted.
"One slippery customer," he muttered; something which Robin heartily agreed with. "And I think I have a hard time with Lex Luthor…"
Lois turned around, not hearing his exact words and thinking he had something to add. The camera followed her, moving away from Batman.
"Could you repeat that into the microphone, Superman?" She asked, holding it up.
Superman smiled serenely, pleased to be back in the spotlight.
"I said that Slade is difficult to catch. The Teen Titans primarily deal with him, but I myself have clashed with him once, and Batman has come into contact with him in the past as well."
"Don't you think that is rather dangerous then, to be allowing a group of teenagers to face this man?" Lois asked emotionlessly; she was only here for the information, after all.
Robin and Cyborg exchanged glances.
Superman shrugged.
"Why don't you ask Batman? He's the one who let his sidekick go running off by himself…"
Lois Lane turned away from Superman again towards Batman… and her face fell. The camera followed her up and once it caught up with her, the reason for her expression became apparent.
Batman had vanished.
Superman sighed and shook his head.
"I hate it when he does that…"
"I'm going to kill him!" Robin seethed, ripping aggressively at a strip of honey-glazed chicken with his teeth.
"Kill who?"
"Batman!" Robin ate very quickly and violently when he was angry. "Jeez, set us up for a huge press conference with Lois Lane! If he'd only kept his mouth shut…"
"I don't mind answering a few questions." Cyborg preened, grinning. "Besides, we can't deny our adoring public, right?"
"Hello?" Robin brandished his Coke and spilt some of it onto his lap. "This is Lois Lane! Scary-much? The other reporters we've spoken to have been for the Jump City Times, and they aren't nearly so aggressive. But the Daily Planet is like the biggest newspaper for about ten states over. It competes with the New York Times, Cy. Trust me… Lois Lane is a scary reporter. And since this is connected with the Justice League, she's gonna want all the information she can get out of us…"
"Ah…" Cyborg suddenly didn't look as thrilled. "You've been interviewed by her before?"
"Oh yes. Little tip, Cy; never work with Superman. Every time Bruce and I helped him out in a case, we always got grilled by Lois Lane for our trouble…"
They watched the rest of the interview in silence; Superman was beginning to look very bored by the end of it. Barely listening – too busy being annoyed with Bruce for landing them in it – Robin finished his "breakfast" mini-buffet and got up.
"Where you going now?" Cyborg asked, flipping back to the wrestling as soon as the interview ended.
"To get ice-cream."
Cyborg gave him a weird look.
"Is it me, or are you eating like a pig today? Don't tell me you're pregnant as well…"
"Real mature, Cy. Just for that, I'm not telling you where those Playboys are hidden…"
He flounced away with his nose in the air.
"Okay, well, when you get fat from all this junk food, I'm just gonna laugh!" Cyborg called after him as he stalked into the kitchen. "And then I'll enrol you in a weight-loss club, and then laugh some more!"
Robin leaned back around the door and pulled a face at him.
And then the phone rang.
Robin scarpered back into the kitchen.
"If that's Lois Lane, tell her I'm dead!" He yelled.
"That's right, save your own ass," Cyborg griped, getting up and stomping out of the front room to answer the phone.
Sincerely hoping it wasn't Lois Lane, Robin dug into the freezer and found some Ben and Jerry's that Cyborg hadn't scarfed yet. He got a tall glass and made himself a sundae of New York Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Cookie Dough ice cream, topping it with chocolate sauce and marshmallows.
He couldn't explain why he suddenly had this desire to eat so much junk, but…
…hey, why not?
"Moment on the lips, forever on the hips"? At the moment, he really just didn't give a damn—
"…Robin's in the kitchen. Yeah… uh-huh…"
Cyborg came into the kitchen, the phone to his ear; and grinned at Robin, who was perched on the sideboard eating his ice-cream.
He shot Cyborg a filthy look.
Cyborg smirked in reply.
"Yeah, you can talk to him… No, he's not busy. In fact, he's in here stuffing ice-cream… Well, I just told him that…"
Robin glared at him; although he was getting the feeling that it wasn't Lois Lane Cyborg was talking to.
Come on, even Cyborg wouldn't just tell Lois Lane that Robin was eating ice-cream. She wouldn't care.
Cyborg held out the phone and Robin grudgingly took it.
"Hello?"
"Hey," came Batman's emotionless drawl.
"Hi, Bruce." Robin gave a nervous little swallow; he hadn't spoken to Bruce – his Bruce; his Batman – since that night at Arkham Asylum, and even then… he had yelled at him.
"Just saw you on the news," he went on, putting his ice-cream to one side.
Batman snorted.
"Lois Lane… nice girl, but a pain in the backside…"
"Yeah, even Superman looked bored by the end of it…"
"Yes." Batman suddenly went silent.
"Uh, Bruce?"
"Mm?"
"Why… why did you call?" Robin slipped down off the sideboard and walked away across the kitchen, turning his back on Cyborg.
"Oh…" More silence. "I just… wanted to… talk to you…"
Robin got the feeling that Batman wanted to say something, but either couldn't find the words for it, or…
"Okay, well…" Robin trailed off hopelessly. "Here I am…"
"I know."
There was yet another long awkward silence.
Batman cleared his throat.
"Robin—"
He cut himself off abruptly as Robin heard another voice suddenly in the background.
"What do you want?" Batman hissed, obviously not speaking to Robin.
Silence.
"Clark says "Hi"," Batman said eventually, addressing Robin again; his tone was very jaded.
"Oh, um… tell him I said "Hi" back," Robin replied after a long pause.
Batman relayed the message and Robin heard them converse beyond his comprehension for a moment or two.
"Robin, Superman said that one of Brainiac's viruses has attacked the bank's computer mainframe," Batman said eventually. "The League has to move out now."
"Oh. Okay." Robin didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.
"Listen…" Batman dropped his voice to a whisper. "Meet me tonight on the roof of Wayne Enterprises. Midnight."
"O-okay, but-"
Batman was gone.
Robin turned off the phone and held it out, looking at it for a moment or two.
"Jeez, that was weird…"
He turned back to Cyborg—
"Hey!"
Cyborg was gone.
And so was Robin's sundae.
—
By four in the afternoon, Lois Lane had caught up with the Titans.
And by six in the evening, the three available teens – Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy – were seated together at a table, waiting for the camera cue.
Raven was still unconscious, healing herself; it was taking her a very long time due to the nature of the knife, and Starfire had opted to stay behind and keep an eye on her.
Although Lois Lane and the rest of the Daily Planet crew were more interested in Robin than anyone else, since he had been a witness at the Arkham break-out, they seemed pleased to have three members there.
Beast Boy was inspecting his teeth in a hand-held mirror, while Cyborg was mumbling something to himself.
"…And with the entirety of the Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane escapees from the break-out right here in Gotham last month now back behind bars, we can now only do two things," Lois Lane was saying, speaking into a microphone in front of a wine-red wall adorned with a US flag. "Ask ourselves just who was responsible for this chaos, and furthermore praise the authorities and costumed heroes of all the cities involved. Spreading outwards from Gotham City, criminals fled to surrounding areas, including Metropolis, Jump, Steel, East, Central, and even fleeing as far in opposite directions as New York and Dakota. The criminals were rounded up by various police forces and costumed crime-fighters, including some independent such as Dakota's own Static Shock; but most notably the Justice League and the Teen Titans. The Gotham City Police Department also played a key role in the arrests and handling of many criminals."
Lois Lane crossed to the table, her high heels tapping sharply on the linoleum floor, the camera tracking her movement.
"I have here with me now three of the five members of the teenaged super-group, led by a familiar face to Gotham City." Ignoring Cyborg and Beast Boy, Lois shoved the microphone right at Robin. "You were at Arkham Asylum with your partner on the night of the breakout. Do you have any inside information?"
"I don't remember it very clearly," Robin admitted. "There was a lot of confusion; someone had let the Scarecrow's fear gas loose throughout the corridors. A lot of the criminals and the GCPD breathed it in, accounting for the mass escape."
"Do you know who was behind it?"
Robin looked at her coolly.
"As Batman said, it was the criminal known as Slade. He was after the Joker to cement a partnership with him, and he let all of the other criminals loose as a distraction."
"Do you know what he wanted with the Joker?"
Robin hesitated; he did.
But it involved the prophecy, which had turned out to not be a real prophecy at all, and that was where it started getting very complicated…
He shook his head firmly.
"No, we don't know. The Joker was captured soon after. We can only assume that their plan never came to pass."
Cyborg and Beast Boy stared at their leader in amazement; at his ability to lie so stone-faced in front of a dozen cameras. Slade and the Joker's plan had come to pass.
Their plan had been to lure Robin to Arkham Asylum so that Slade could rape him and take his virginity. As it happened, they hadn't needed to, but they had succeeded.
And yet Robin lied to the cameras, completely unruffled.
"Do you know where Slade is now?" Lois wanted to know, pushing the microphone further at him.
"The Teen Titans came into contact with him only last week," Robin replied icily. "We were unable to apprehend him, however. We have no idea where he is now, but we are searching."
Someone handed Lois something and she looked at it before turning back to the Titans.
"Before we wrap this interview up, could you answer a few more questions for us? About the team?"
Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy exchanged wary looks.
"Uh, sure…?" Robin's tone was slightly questioning as he answered.
Lois Lane held up the thing; it was the previous morning's newspaper, with its headline about Raven's pregnancy.
Robin went slightly pale.
"This?" Lois Lane's eyes glittered excitedly in the face of scandal. "Is it true, or just a rumour that has been blown out of proportion?"
Without missing a beat, Robin replied that it was the latter, sounding even amused by it.
Lois blinked and looked at the paper.
"It isn't true?"
"Nope."
Well, it wasn't; at least, not anymore.
"Then where did it come from?" Lois demanded.
Robin shrugged.
"Perhaps a look-alike trying to tarnish our reputation," he fabricated smoothly. He shrugged again. "Or, well… these newspapers. They'll write anything on the front page just to sell the paper…"
Lois blinked at him; and then she smirked at him, half in dislike and half in admiration at the quickness of his comeback – a jibe aimed at her occupation.
"You confirm in a statement that your team-mate Raven is not pregnant?" She said, not faltering in the slightest.
Robin nodded.
"Yes."
"Then where are the two female members of the team?" Lois probed. "Why aren't they with you?"
Robin scowled.
"Well, there's still crime happening out on the streets. We couldn't all come."
It was true; although he felt guilty for leaving Starfire with the responsibility, Robin had told her to watch the surveillance as well as Raven, so that she would be aware of any criminal activity. If it was a small crime, she would sort it out herself. If it was big and required a team effort, she would transfer the signal to the communication system and alert the boys.
Lois nodded again.
"Wasn't there a sixth member of the team at one point?" She asked. "A blonde girl?"
Behind him, Beast Boy tensed, and Robin sensed it.
"She wasn't suitable," he said shortly. "Didn't really work with the team dynamics…"
Lois Lane nodded a third time, couldn't seem to think of any more questions to ask, and turned back to the cameras.
"Thankyou to the Teen Titans. If we cross now to our correspondent, David Hackney, outside Arkham Asylum…"
The camera moved away from the Titans as Lois walked away and they were given the all-clear to get up and leave.
"Dude, she didn't ask us a thing!" Beast Boy whined to Cyborg on their way down the exit corridor towards the car park.
"BB, it was me she wanted to talk to," Robin said wearily. "I was there on the night, remember?"
"Besides," Cyborg put in, "Robbie's like the Justin Timberlake of the group."
"Thanks, Cy."
"How you figure that?" Beast Boy asked.
"He's the only one of the team who's known by absolutely everyone. The rest of us are just kinda… Well, do you know the names of the other four members of N-Sync?"
"Uh, I think there's one called Keith…" Beast Boy said thoughtfully.
Ignoring them, wondering what Batman wanted to talk about, Robin almost walked into Commissioner Gordon, who was coming the other way.
"Oh, Commissioner!" Robin smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry!"
"That's alright, lad," the Commissioner grinned. "Interviews with Ms Lane always leave me feeling a little frazzled too…"
There was a little giggle from behind Gordon; and there, with her bright green eyes and wave of brilliant red hair, was Barbara Gordon.
Robin's heart did something weird at seeing her again.
But then, she didn't know that he was…
Damn alter-egos.
Gordon gave Robin a little nod and carried on; Barbara gazed at him for a while longer, looking very hard at him, as though…
…she knew.
Robin shot her a little grin as he sailed past, hoping he wasn't blushing.
He had a feeling that he was going to be seeing her pretty soon.
Swooping around Gotham City in a cape and cowl.
There was just… something about her.
Getting into the car, Cyborg and Beast Boy both looked at Robin.
"Well?" Cyborg pressed.
"Who was she?" Beast Boy added. "You knew her."
Robin smiled as he pulled across his seatbelt.
"That," he said, "was Batgirl."
"A better place?" Jonathon Vaughan said loudly, approaching Marcus in the midst of his meditation.
"What did you want me to say?" Marcus bit out, opening one eye as Jonathon flopped down side him on the bank of the calm river – the imagined spot for his interior meditation. "That you spend most of your time barging into my meditative states to "haunt" me?"
"Hey, I can bring bedsheets and chains next time, if you want; you know, to simulate the whole ghost thing. I can clink up and down behind you, moaning that you must change your ways or else Tiny Tim will die, stuff like that."
"No thankyou." Marcus opened his other eye, looking at Jonathon. "Were you this flippant when you were giving Robin advice through his dreams?"
"Pretty much."
Jonathon beamed.
Marcus gave a sigh, closing both eyes again and falling silent.
"You know," he said after a long bout of blissful peace, "I think you are in a better place. We both are, when we're here."
Jonathon smirked.
"Do explain."
"Well…" Marcus opened his eyes again, turning his full attention towards the other man. "We can just be together; me and you, the way we couldn't be back… well, you know. Back in the Senate House. I… I think this is a better place, Jonathon – I really do."
Jonathon rolled his eyes and flopped back onto the grass with a grin.
"Cornball."
ZOMG, okay, that is it for Marcus, Jonathon and Arella – of course, this contains many allusions to the Season Four spectaculaire concerning Raven, Trigon, Slade's new souped-up powers and Raven metaphorically bitch-slapping Starfire by hugging Robin right in front of her, this episode following the loved-by-RxS-shippers/hated-by-RxR-shippers Stranded…
Well, that's all because this is still set waaaaaaaaaay back in Season Two. I feel that I have to keep reminding people of this because… a fanfic set in Season Two? What's up with that? God, that was sooooooooooooooo long ago, right? O.o Makes you feel old…
Chanceless, it wasn't much, but I hope you enjoyed your Static cameo. God, I haven't seen that show for an age… Seems like Ben 10 is the new kid on the block as far as DC Warner Bros kid's shows go. Still, Ben 10 is pretty good, I have to say…
Okay, next chapter: THE PENULTIMATE CHAPTER, with added Batman-ness! Yayz!
I'm not going to say I'll be quick(er) this time because I'm so tired of lying to you guys and then having to confess to lying in the next ANs…
RobinRocks xXx