I tried to make this one longer than the others like so many of you asked. Let me know if it's to your taste. However, this is the last of the chapters I had set aside, so it'll probably take longer for me to write longer chapters and post them. DX I'll try not to make it too long. Sorry this is a day late, but it's up now! I don't own Teen Titans.
It felt like they had been there forever. Raven thought it wasn't more than a week, but her reason's were shot when Beast Boy pointed out that since the 'Master' could control everything else in the room, he could probably set what time of day it was as well. Eventually they ended up lying in the grass in a small meadow watching the clouds drift across the sky-painted ceiling.
"So why do you think we're still here?" Beast Boy asked, breaking the silence that had just settled around them. Raven sighed and closed her eyes.
"I don't know, because we were interesting specimen?"
"No, not here. HERE. As in, still in this room? Didn't they say they'd have the other - cages - done by now?" Raven sat up and looked down at him.
"I've been thinking. With all the regulation set here I don't think we're in here just so they can build us extra space. I think they have a plan for us, I just haven't figured out what it is yet."
"I honestly don't know. I hadn't thought of that," Raven said, pondering the question.
Looking up at her the changeling smiled and said, "I hope that's the case."
Seeing her look he explained himself, "Well, I was thinking that with all the time we've spent together it'd be kind of weird to be split apart, ya'know? And, I dunno, you being the only person I know and all, I'd hate to loose you. And I'm pretty sure if I'm left on my own for too long, say the rest of my life, I might go insane, well, more insane. So when I say 'I hope they have a plan' it's because I don't want to, ya'know, loose you." He propped himself up on his elbows as he said this and smiled sheepishly. Rubbing the back of his neck he watched for her reaction.
Raven just looked at her lap and smiled. "I was thinking the same thing. Minus the 'more insane part'."
Beast Boy flopped back onto the grass. "I mean, you're not as entertaining as video games. But without them here to occupy me, I guess you'll do."
Raven just smirked and lay back down in the grass. "I'll admit you're not as annoying as I thought you were. I guess when you don't have the means to play pranks you can be tolerated.
Beast Boy just snorted and pointed out a cloud flying overhead that looked like a demonic jellyfish.
"This is no use!" Cyborg whispered to Robin as they hid from the party of Spindren hunting them.
"You right. The communicators aren't picking anything up, and we've been searching for three days. They can't be here."
"But they must!" Starfire's suppressed voice called from above them in a tree. "This is our only lead. Our searching has lasted almost two weeks! Any other trail would have become chilly, and this is the only place that could agree with the hair of spiders Friend-Robin discovered!"
"Starfire, my sensors haven't pick up either of their body rhythms and we've been here long enough. It's time to see if we could find anything else," Cyborg shot back in a low tone.
"But-"
"Cyborg's right, Starfire," Robin interjected before they got too loud and attracted attention. "Besides, the book did mention one other place. It mentioned a zookeeper, right? We'll just have to have another look at that book entry. . . We'll wait until the hunting party moves on and then go back to the ship."
Starfire looked troubled, but she sat back in the tree's branches and watched the giant spider-people look around. Shivering, she decided she didn't like them. They reminded her too much of the Chrysalis-Eater that had almost killed her years ago.
"Beast Boy, do you want to take a walk?" Raven asked the silent boy beside her. "Beast Boy?" Looking over at him she realized he had fallen asleep. Sighing, she stood up, careful not to wake him.
"Should have known. He's never quiet that long unless he's some sort of unconscious."
Beast Boy just mumbled and rolled over in his sleep.
Rolling her eyes, Raven walked away. She headed toward a black strip about a foot high resting on the ground.
Not long after being trapped here, she and Beast Boy had decided to walk the parameter and were trying to find the wall. Beast Boy walked into it before they realized it was camouflaged to look like the rest of the room. The only thing that gave it away was the black bar running along the bottom.
Raven laughed at the memory of Beast Boy's whines when he was knocked over backwards running into the side of the room.
Putting one hand to the wall she began to walk and ponder the conversations she had had with the Beast Boy. What were they here for?
Stopping short she looked at her hand on the wall and thought about the tour the zookeeper had given the teens before they were put in here. Waving at the wall she whispered, "window," and watched the surface ripple outward and grow transparent.
"Alright, here's the book," Starfire sat the encyclopedia on the table and turned to the page she had marked earlier.
The Spindren Clan:
A sub-species of spider aliens, they are a distant cousin of Chrysalis Eaters. The average male can grow to be up to ten feet tall and weigh three tons, the female just nine feet and two and a half tons. They consume any living creature they can catch, although they prefer the blood of humans or creatures with similar soft skin and low defenses. The Spindren Clan is a small, endangered group of aliens. They have very low intelligence as a group, and seem to interact like cave men, with grunts, hand gestures, and whistles. Though one man, a Mr. Carlise Retchmund, caught and raised a female Spindren, a Spindress, and has learned that they have the potential to be just as intelligent as us, if given the right surroundings and technologies. This small population of aliens can be found on the Tankorus Planet by the Moons of EntRaant, though visitation is prohibited, as they are dangerous to any outsider.
She read it out to them again and sat back, waiting to see what they had to say.
"So, let's see if our computer can't find this Mr. Retchmund," Robin mused going over the control panel. He typed a few things in and watched the screen as the machine thought and searched for his enquiry.
"Starfire, can you see if they have anything in there on him?" Cyborg asked her, gesturing to the book.
"Yes, of course!" She began flipping though pages until she stopped at a familiar looking symbol. Quickly scanning though it she turned pale and took a deep breath before looking back up. "This is not a good thing."
Carlise Retchmund:
A young entrepreneur, Mr. Retchmund is the proprietor of the famous Retchund's Universal Zoo. He collects rare and interesting species and adds them to his zoo. The zoo has it's own research facilities and a network of labs across multiple planetary and solar systems. The number of scientific awards and achievements the zoo and it's facilities have received is unnumbered, and unmatched.
After Starfire finished reading Robin and Cyborg both sat back and looked at her.
"I don't get it," Cyborg said. "Why is this such a bad thing? We just have to go to that zoo guy and ask him if his spider-woman recently went missing and where she might be, right?"
"On Tamaran we have a word for what that man is. I believe on Earth you would call him a . . . kidnapper? A baby-snatcher? A person-taker? Translated literally, it would be a 'vanisher'."
"Wait, so you're saying this man took Raven and BB? What for? What would he want with them?"
"I do not know," Starfire replied. "Before I left home I heard that he was being looked at by many governments, and was a wanted man in some solar systems, so he started cloning instead of kidnapping. I don't know why he would take our friends."
"Something isn't right," Robin stood up, having stayed quiet while Starfire and Cyborg talked. "I have a bad feeling about this. We have to go there. Now."
They all turned to the computer screen as it let out a soft ping and a brightly colored banner crossed the screen.
Come see RETCHUND'S UNVERSAL ZOO now touring the Canairis system!
Amazing wonders! Creatures you've never seen before! See the monsters of your nightmares and beauties you've never known existed! Bring this as a print out and get 50% off parking!
Hours of operation:
7:00-20:00
6:00-19:00 Star of Baltaang time
Sending you all love!