A/N: Wow. That's it. By the looks of it, I'll probably have about twenty more chapters until this is done. Long, right?
Disclaimer: No matter how much I wish, the Teen Titans will never be mine.
TT2
Saturday September 19, 2019
Clara awoke around twelve the next morning. She stretched in her bed so her top exposed her mid-section, and yanked the hem down so she was covered properly again. Clara slid herself out of bed, yawned, and stumbled over to her full-length mirror that happened to be a door to her closet. She examined herself in her short black and blue plaid flannel shorts, and her dark blue DCShoes long-sleeved shirt. She looked decent enough to go grab a bite of breakfast. She would normally take a shower and get dressed, but she was still kind-of tired from the night before. She would be fine, it was just the Titans.
Clara began walking, her ankle-cut white socks protecting her feet from the cold metal floor. Once more she yawned, before loosening her hair of its messy bun. She continued to walk as she pulled it back up into a bun that hung loosely off her head. "What will today bring?" she asked herself, crossing her arms over her chest and adjusting her eyes to the long hallway before her.
Clara was first greeted by her sister as she entered the living room. "Hey Clare," she started softly, making her lunch of a tofu ham sandwich with mustard. "I made you a sandwich too if you want one."
"I'd love one," Clara replied happily, sitting at the kitchen counter and slumping over. She saw Kyle on the couch, reading the newspaper, and Taku and Danny in the center battling each other in video games. Kimi was in the seat next to hers at the bar, eating her own lunch of penne and meat sauce. "Hey Kyle, what are ya reading about? Some whackjob celebrity that just needed to have a cameo on the front page?"
Kyle snorted to himself. "You could say that."
Sara slipped the sandwich in front of her. Clara responded with a small smile. With her magic, she slipped the orange juice out of the fridge and poured herself a tall cup. "It looks delicious, thanks." Kyle stood from the couch, the paper folded so that the front page was all that was showing. There were four pictures, of what Clara could see, and they looked to be of a snotty celebrity.
"You could say a celebrity has been hogging the spotlight on the paper, where I normally assume I will get real news instead of the large protruding face of some celebrity I don't really care to see." Clara was now thoroughly confused. "But today, when I picked up my newspaper, I was greeted by the face of someone very different."
Kyle stood next to her and smiled the sweetest he had ever smiled in his life. This greatly scared Clara. Before she knew what hit her, he slapped down the paper on the counter next to her lunch, the side that was not occupied by Kimi, and began to glare. "Care to explain?" he spat, taking his hand off of the paper to let Clara examine it. The other Titans in the room all jumped up from their current positions and craned their necks around Clara to get a better look.
Clara snatched the paper up from the counter and glared in horror at it. Below a large article about the destruction of Masuka's, the headline read:
Titan Clara Having Too Much Fun?
Believe it or not, last night was quiet uptown. All was undisturbed. All, except a teen nightclub where the undiscovered band Cosmic was playing and young teens were dancing and having fun. One of these teens, in fact, was Clara of the Teen Titans. While her other teammates were in their giant T-shaped tower training or sleeping, Clara was out partying with a young man said to be her current fling (see pictures above). This young man, who is yet to be identified, was seen riding his motorcycle to Titans tower around seven last night, and the two were spotted all around town thereafter until they were seen driving over Titans bridge around three AM. After three AM, the solitary young man was seen driving around Jump City until he disappeared from one of our reporters' views around 3:30. Now, the question we all have to ask ourselves is: who is this young man, and what does he have to do with the young woman Clara? Sources inside say (continued on page A4)
Clara stared in horror at the four pictures above this article. The first was of her kissing Jake when she very first saw him, her legs locked around his waist and her arms wrapped around her neck, his motorcycle in the background. The second was of them eating at the Pizza Place, their hands intertwined across the table. The third was a picture of her inside the community center, sitting on Jake's lap, her arms around his neck and his arms around her waist, sitting next to Adam who had his arm around the girl Clara vaguely knew as Arabella. The third was a picture taken latest in the night, Clara and Jake riding up Titans bridge before he dropped her off at home, as she fell asleep on his shoulder blade while pressed up against his back.
"Oh my God," she breathed, her eyes taking in each picture of her and Jake. Everything that could have possibly went wrong right now did. She was looking at the one newspaper that would destroy her reputation. "No! How did they get these pictures! This isn't possible!" she yelled to no one but herself.
"Whoa, Clare, who's that guy that you're with?" Taku asked. "I didn't know you had a boyfriend." He said the word boyfriend as if it stung his tongue.
"He's not my boyfriend!" she retorted. In all truthfulness, she had no idea what Jake considered them. Were they, in fact, a couple? "Well, maybe he is. I don't know. I just...I can't think." She slapped the paper down on the table and sighed, rubbing her face with both her petite hands. "Why would they target me? There's nothing interesting going on in my life to broadcast to all of Jump City!" She groaned.
"Clara, that's besides the point!" Kyle snapped. "We don't care if he's your boyfriend or not. We don't need the media spotlight thrust upon one of our teammates like this! When you're going out, you need to be more careful. And just to show you how serious I am, I am suspending your privilege to leave this tower alone for the next two weeks."
"What?" Clara asked in a rage, standing up and causing the crowd of Titans around her to back up. "You can do that!" she retorted in a dignified manner. "I am a human being, and as a human being I have my rights! One of my rights is the ability to conduct myself in my own manner. You are not my father! You cannot order me around!"
"But I am your legal guardian!" he told her in a fierce tone. "And that allows me to suspend your rights. I am sixteen, and I do, indeed, have the power to tell you what to do, since I am older than you!"
"That's not right!" Clara yelled. "That's not fair!"
"Life isn't fair. Get used to it!"
"Kyle!" Sara gasped, stepping in between the two to stop the fight. "Don't speak to Clara like that. Calm down! I know you're mad, but this is no way to act!" She rested a hand on his chest and a hand on her sister's arm in attempts to calm both of them. "Now, if we could act like adults and conduct ourselves in an orderly manner, maybe we can actually get something resolved around here!" Sara sighed. "Now Kyle-"
But Kyle didn't listen and instead pushed Sara aside so he could step up to Clara and look down upon her. "Clara, this is a serious matter. You need to learn respect for your team leader, and you need to realize what you've done! You can't be letting your personal get all over the news! That could spell bad trouble even for your teammates. And just think about Kimi's family! We could've found her mother if you had been with us! But no! You were out with your boyfriend, doing GOD KNOWS WHAT!"
"I'm sorry!" she yelled. "I wasn't thinking, is that what you want to hear?" she threw her hands up in the air, exasperated. "I didn't think my every move would be followed by the paparazzi! I didn't think I'd be needed for a life or death situation!"
Sara regained herself and realized what Kyle had just done. He had dared pushed her out of the way just to continue yelling at her sister? Who did he think he was? "Kyle! She's sorry, she didn't mean to, can you just leave her alone!"
"No, because she doesn't understand the severity of what she did!" he retorted.
"I do!" Clara retorted.
"You're just flying off the handle!" Kimi added to the conversation.
"I don't think he was!" Taku retorted, only taking his side because he didn't want to admit he was jealous of Clara's little flame. "He had every right to be angry! We don't need things to be complicated by Clara's little side-fling! We don't need this kind of publicity. And we sure could've used Clara's help last night!" Clara glared at Taku.
"Fuck you! You just don't want to admit you're jealous!" she yelled at him. His jaw dropped and he looked beyond angry for a moment, before turning on his heel and stomping out of the room.
Kyle sighed and rubbed his temples. "Everyone but Clara, OUT!" he ordered. "We don't need an entire team fight at the moment, and Clara and I need to talk things out. I mean it, now!" When he yelled the second time, everyone cleared out besides Sara, who stood there with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Whatever you can say to Clara, you can say to me," Sara stated, and you could tell that no matter what she was NOT leaving until they solved this.
"Clara," Kyle started seriously. "Look, maybe I did fly off the handle, but you need to understand we can't do things like this. We can't have this type of thing happening everyday. What if...I don't know..." he thought for a moment "Say Sara and I started going out. We couldn't risk anything by going public about it! We'd have to keep it a secret."
"So, you're saying that you wouldn't want anyone to know, you'd just keep me a secret?" Sara asked, a hint of hostility in her voice. "You wouldn't care enough to want anyone to know?"
"No, that's not what I'm saying!" he defended, his hands in front of himself as if portraying a point. "I'm just saying publicity could hurt us! That's why no one should know, and we shouldn't go out into public, hypothetically."
"So, hypothetically, if we started dating we couldn't go out on dates? We would stay cooped up in this Tower and just pretend we're having fun here? God, what is it with boys and being such jerks?" Sara asked him.
"No! That's not what I'm saying either!" he retorted. "Stop twisting my words into something you want to hear!"
"Oh, so now I'm twisting your words? I don't think I'm doing anything. Clara, do you think I'm doing anything wrong?" Sara asked her innocently. Clara shook her head. "Aha, see?"
"Don't go bringing Clara into this! Of course she'll agree with you! She's your twin sister!" he yelled at her.
"You're just afraid to admit I'm right! There's no reason to forbid a girl from having a little bit of fun! She just needs to be more careful next time," Sara told him, her voice calming a little.
"A little bit of fun? HER LITTLE BIT OF FUN LANDED HER ON THE FRONT PAPER,DIRECTLY AFTERTHE EVENT OF THE CENTURY! That's not a little bit of fun, that's reckless. That's what you two girls are! You two are reckless, and you don't care for anyone but yourselves!"
Sara stepped forward so she was chest to chest with Kyle and stared him straight in the eye. They were almost eye level, but she was about an inch shorter than him so it wasn't too even. "Talk about not caring about anyone but yourselves!" she spat. "I can't believe I ever liked a stubborn and unreasonable guy like you!" she screamed at him, before huffing, turning on her heel, and striding confidently out the door.
Kyle stood there, dumbfounded, then looked to Clara, then looked back to the open door where Taku, Danny, and Kimi were all peering in at him. Had he just heard what he thought he heard? Kyle continued to ponder if what he just heard was real. He was confused.
Sara liked him?
TT2
Kyle retired to his room to blow off a little steam. He went on his computer for a little while to read his E-mail and instant message friends before he sighed, dressed in long black cotton shorts, and began towards the gym. With a water bottle in one hand and a gray Kelvin High School Football tee-shirt in the other, he entered confidently and sighed with relief to see no one was there.
Kyle scratched his well-defined abdomen after he slung his tee-shirt over his shoulder. From the door he looked out upon the entire gym. In front of him where many different weight training machines scattered about, all state-of-the-art. Farther than that was a balcony protected by a glass fence-like guard that overlooked a track that hugged a turf field. Don't ask me whythe Titans needed a turf field, but apparently whoever built the tower thought it was necessary. To his right were cardiovascular machines, like treadmills, elliptical machines, bikes, and other things. There was another balcony with a glass fence-like guard, that overlooked an Olympic-sized pool. There was nothing to the left of him.
He sighed and started right towards the cardiovascular machineries. He took the best treadmill they had, pumped it up to eight miles per hour (which was a light jog for a boy as fast as him), and began his warm-up run. After he had jogged for five minutes, he began to stretch by the pool's balcony, just so he could watch the beautiful sight of the reflective water. It was something that calmed him, besides working out.
After Kyle had warmed up, he began weight training at 50 pounds on a machine to work his abdominal muscles. He had been losing a lot of the muscle strength in his stomach lately, and if he was to go up against Baron he would need that strength in case he got scratched again. And, of course, the ladies were impressed by six-packs.
Kyle then started training his calves, another weak spot for him. He just love criticizing himself on what he knew he needed to work on. He would make up a list and when he got some free time he would work on everything on that list. He was a perfectionist, despite what most believed.
After an hour of training, Kyle was finished. He was sweaty, hot, and disgusting. He needed to get out of there before it permanently settled in. Kyle grabbed his shirt, slung it over his shoulder (it was way too hot to put it on, so whoever he passed would have to bear the sight of his bare chest), and began out the door. All was silent; Danny and Taku were playing games up in the game room, Kimi was on her laptop in her room(where she had been since last night except for lunch), and Sara and Clara were both in their rooms.
Kyle stopped in front of Sara's door, lost in his thoughts but snapping out just in time to realize where he was. He watched the door for a few seconds, before sighing, coming forward, and knocking gently.
There was no answer.
"Hey sunshine." Silence. "Look, Sare, I know you're mad at me," he started softly, smiling as he used his nickname for her. "I want to say I'm sorry. I'm an asshole and I'll admit it, right now, right here, without shame. I hope I gave you enough time to chill, because we can't honestly have two members of this team mad at each other," he sighed, scratching the back of his sweaty head. "It wouldn't do anything good for us. So what do you say? Friends again?"
Kyle knocked again. "Sara? Sare?" He punched in the access override code into the keypad beside her door and let it swing open. She was nowhere in sight.
Clara passed by, a book in her arms and iPod earphones in her ears. "Hey Clara," Kyle asked. "Have you seen Sara?"
Clara paused her silver mp3 player. "She's up on the roof," she told him. "I'm not so sure if she wants to talk to you yet, so you might want to just let her chill for a while. A few days, maybe. My sister is a very angry person sometimes, and I just don't want you to make it worse since you weren't properly informed of that fact."
"Oh," Kyle whispered, downcast.
"It's sweet of you to want to apologize, though," Clara told him, trying to help the situation a little. "It'll be ok, I promise. It's no wonder she likes you so much." Clara's face was split with a smile before she turned her music on again and began on her way.
"Thanks," he whispered, though she couldn't hear.
Kyle then returned to his room.
TT2
It was late that afternoon that the Titans had visitors to the tower; Raven Roth, Richard Grayson, and Victor Stone. Kimi was more than ecstatic to see her father, since she hadn't been seeing her parents much lately. They were there to use the high-tech computers to try and get a tracking signal on Kori, somehow.
"Do you know of any enemies she has?" Kyle asked in his all-business-no-nonsense tone as he sat back in his chair and stroked his chin. "That could influence the search for her. We could start out in places her enemies are known to hang out."
Richard sighed. "She could be anywhere in the world at the moment, Kyle. I really have no idea. I mean, who could make an enemy out of the sweetest girl on Earth?"
Raven was sitting in the center of the floor in front of the couch, her back to Sara and Clara, who were sitting on the couch. Raven had her eyes closed and her fingers in delicate positions on her knees, as she sat in her trademark lotus position, chanting the ever-timeless, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos". Sara and Clara were sitting towards each other, their eyes connected and never breaking, never blinking, with their hands connected. The twins were mimicking Raven's lotus position.
Suddenly they began chanting a mantra of their own. This went on for a few minutes as Victor and Richard researched, Kyle looked on at their side, Kimi paced nervously, Taku and Danny researched on Danny's notebook computer, and Raven attempted to locate her as well.
Raven let out a loud gasp as her eyes snapped open and she immediately stopped chanting. "I keep losing her!" she announced angrily. "I get so close. I can feel it. My soul self is almost there, but then it just shortens out. It's like...she's underground or something. My soul self can't go through solid ground or anything like that, so, if she's underground, we're screwed."
"If that's your attempt at cheering me up, it's not working," Richard deadpanned.
"Sorry."
Sara and Clara stopped chanting and both sighed in unison. "We can't get her either," they both announced.
"Our attraction keeps shorting out somehow," Clara explained. "It's like she's...I don't know, it's like she just vanished off the face of the Earth."
"She's not..." Richard trailed off, horror striking his features.
"No, no, no!" Raven was quick to argue. "I told you, I saw her in my vision yesterday. She doesn't even know where she is, so wasting my own energy to attempt a mental connection with her is pointless. But I promise, she's not dead." Raven stood from her spot and traveled over to where Richard was sitting, his head in his hands. She placed a comforting hand on his back and patted it softly. "We'll find her. It may not be today or tomorrow, but we'll find her, alive."
Richard smiled gratefully up at her. "Yea, dad!" Kimi empowered.
"Wait!" Clara shouted. "There's something I can try. I can't promise it'll work, but I might be able to talk with her." Clara's counterpart looked up at her, silently questioning her. "The Acratic Theory...that states one can communicate with one's own mind. If I have the spell right, I can talk to Kori. But this is advanced magic and I can't promise I'll be able to do it. If I can, it'll be a miracle."
"Try anything to get to her," Richard encouraged. "I'm sure you can do it. We didn't pick you as a Titan for nothing."
Clara, flattered, smiled. "And...let's see. The Acratic theory also states you can talk with one while in the body of another," she mumbled to herself. "Sara. If I do this right, you'll hear me talking in your mind. I need you to relay what I say back into this room." Clara sat back down on the couch across from her sister.
"Can do," Sara replied, a small smile on her face. "Go get 'em, Clare." Clara took her sister's hands in her own, and one connection glowed black while the other glowed yellow. Clara mumbled a long mantra under her breath and closed her eyes.
Behind her lids colors swirled softly and dissolved into the same dark cell that Raven had described to the Titans a half an hour earlier. "Huh? What? Who is there?" an innocent voice asked in her mind.
"Kori, don't be afraid, it's me. I'm Clara, of the Teen Titans. I'm here to talk," Clara told her softly, her voice ringing through the cell. "I'm in your mind. I can see what you see and feel what you feel, hear what you hear, you get the point."
"Indeed I do." Then, to test it, Kori lightly pinched herself. "You felt that, yes?"
"Yeah, and I can also feel that pain in your stomach. What is that?" Clara asked.
"I have not eaten," she responded. "I refuse to eat until they tell me where I am."
"You have to eat, Kori. You may be here a long time until you're able to break out or we can find you," Clara told her. "Please, eat."
Kori sighed. "I shall. Now, I assume you have come here in my mind for something?"
"Your husband was worried. I told him I could try and come here to communicate with you. He loves you very, very much. Don't forget that." Kori nodded, and Clara could feel tears springing to her eyes.
"Sara," Clara hissed. Kori couldn't hear her talking to her sister.
"Yea?" Sara's faint voice asked.
"Kori is fine. A little hungry, but she's doing just fine. They haven't hurt her, nor does it look like they intend to. But ask them if there's anything they need to know that I haven't mentioned," Clara stated. "Ok?"
Her sister affirmed.
Sara's eyes snapped open. "She's successfully connected to Kori," Sara stated with a large grin. Richard's face split into a grin as well, and he sighed in relief. "Kori is absolutely fine. She's a little hungry, but besides that she's safe, not hurt, and it doesn't seem like they intend to hurt her. Clara wants to know if there's anything to ask her."
"And tell Richard I already told her he loves her."
"And Clara says she already told Kori that you love her, Richard," Sara stated with a knowing smirk.
Richard blushed softly. "Tell Kori to hang tight. We'll find her soon."
"And tell mommy I love her!" Kimi chimed in. "And that I miss her already."
Sara repeated this all back to Clara.
"Your family misses you," Clara told Kori. "Kimi really hasn't been herself. She kinda just shut herself in her room since yesterday and really isn't as...well...happy. Kimi says she loves you and that she misses you. Richard says to hang tight; they'll find you soon."
Clara could feel a smile working across her face. "I am sure he will. I do not doubt his abilities." Suddenly, the barred door next to her swung open and Kori gasped. A hand reached out from the darkness and grabbed onto the top of Kori's vest, that she was still wearing from the previous night.
Kori screamed shrilly, but even her alien strength was overpowered by this mysterious figure.
"KORI!" Clara screamed. "KORI!"
And she was snapped back to reality, where she herself was screaming in the shrillest tone possible. Her eyes snapped open and she stopped screaming to see she had fallen on the floor and everyone was crowding around her. Kyle lent her a hand and helped her up (Sara stuck her nose up when he stood next to her; she was still mad) and she rubbed her head softly.
"Something got Kori," she breathed, panting slightly. "I don't know. They just took her off and that's the last I saw."
Richard's face went white.
TT2
After about an hour of more dilligent research, Victor, Richard, and Raven had left, all saying they would be back the same time tomorrow. Kimi retired to her room to rest a little (she was wiped from the excitement of the past two days), Kyle went to swim a few laps, Danny was fixing himself the "sandwich of all sandwiches" as he called it, and Taku was in his room, playing his guitar.
That only left Sara and Clara. Each were in their respective rooms, of course. Jake had suddenly appeared on Clara's vanity stool and nearly gave her a heart attack. After playfully yelling at him a little, they began to talk about the headline on the newspaper this morning, and how his mother had a coronary after she recognized him. They laughed about it a little, but then Clara reminisced about how it had gotten Sara and Kyle into a fight.
Sara was in her room, laying on her stomach on her bed, her bare feet bobbing up and down as she talked on the phone to her best friend and her friend that happened to be a boy. She had been doing this for the past hour, just sitting and talking.
It was not long before Jake had to leave and Sara hung up on her two friends. And then, at the same time, the two sisters sat up, and started towards the other's room. They met face-to-face in the middle of the hallway. "I need to talk to you," they both started at the same time, and then both sighed. "Stop doing that!" They both groaned.
"Look, we need to talk. Now," Sara ordered, taking her sister's hand and dragging her into her brightly colored room. Sara jumped onto her bed and sat cross-legged across from her sister who had also chosen a spot on the bed. Sara sighed. "What did you need to talk about?" she asked, selfless person that she was.
"I wanted to talk to you about...Jake," Clara mumbled. "That's the guy I was out with last night. I know I kind of lied to you all by saying it was a blind date, because it wasn't. We've been...er...seeing each other. But I just don't want things to get too serious because..." there was no way Clara could say this without revealing his identity as Black Baron. "...I just don't. For personal reasons. But I really like him. What do I do?"
Sara thought for a moment. "I really couldn't tell you the right way to keep it from getting serious. It's all based upon his feelings, and how he feels about you."
"I really think he likes me, which is great, because I like him too, it's just while I'm a Titan I don't spotlight on me for this relationship. I guess the real reason I came to you is advice to keep it low key but still have fun with him," Clara told her, looking down to her fiddling hands then looking back up.
"Well, first you know you can always come to me if you need help planning a 'secret' date. I'm good with that kind of thing. But, besides that, just keep it low-key for a while. Maybe have him come to the tower and hang out here. Just make sure that's ok with Kyle first. You don't necessarily always need to go out on a date," Sara explained. "And maybe seeing him less often. How often do you see him?"
"About every day, I'd have to say," Clara responded, blushing. "We kinda can't stay away from each other."
Sara smiled. "And try not seeing each other everyday. It'll test if the relationship is mere lust or actual attraction."
Clara inwardly snorted. Kinda hard to not see each other everyday when he either pops up, or they end up fighting him. "Hopefully that'll work. I don't know it's just...I feel like I'm doing something wrong in Kyle's eyes. Like I'm inadequate or something since he yelled at me for getting caught with Jake. I don't want that happening again."
"Kyle can get a little hotheaded sometimes. I've noticed that." Sara snorted. "If he wants to be a hotheaded idiot, so be it, but it shouldn't stop you from seeing your little boyfriend."
"Thanks, Sare. So what did you want to talk about?" Clara asked.
"I just...I don't know what possessed me but Jared...he asked me out today, because he said he'd liked me for a really long time and since I broke up with Tommy...well, yea," she started unsurely. "And, something, I don't know what, made me say yes. So, now we're basically dating. And part of me thinks I did it because I wanted to make Kyle jealous..."
"You probably did," Clara affirmed. "Subconsciously, since you haven't been told how Kyle feels, you naturally assumed he doesn't like you, so you said yes to someone else to make yourself feel better and possibly make Kyle jealous in the process."
"But...Jared is my best friend. We've been tight since like fifth grade. I don't want to date him, but just somehow I said yes. How do I tell him that?"
"You don't. Dating Jared could possibly help you in your situation with Kyle. You date Jared, possibly bring him over to the tower so you don't have to directly tell Kyle you two are dating, Kyle sees you acting all boyfriend-girlfriend with him, confronts you, and confesses his feelings," Clara told her confidently.
"Really? Oh thanks Clara! I knew you were a genius in this type of situation!" Sara exclaimed, leaning over to hug her sister. "Now, get out. I need to make plans for tomorrow!" she giggled excitedly.
Clara stood and walked from her sister's room, never stopping until she was back in her own room. "Or, you know, this situation could possibly make things worse," she continued. "And you could screw up things with Kyle forever."
TT2