Chapter 19: The Rift
This is not happening. Robin's fine, I know he's fine. I'm fine, Batman is wrong – I'm not insane. Why do we have to stay here? It's almost as pointless as time out. Scratch that, just as pointless. Batman is bent on keeping us out of this – it's annoying, I need to make this right. Well, can't do much about it now, especially since Robin hasn't budged since Batman told him to stay put. Shadow, or Wraih, lied…why? Wraih clearly had a plan, but the book she gave me is useful. Hmm… He hasn't said a word, or even looked at me for an hour. I doubt that's a good sign…
"Hey," Raven said, looking over to Robin.
Robin didn't say anything; he kept staring at the screen, sitting in Batman's chair.
"Robin," she said.
"I'm not talking to you…at least I think I'm not. I'm not sure. Maybe I'm imagining this," Robin said, mimicking the monotone voice Raven frequented.
"Why aren't you speaking to me?" she asked.
"I listened to you, I trusted you, and now we may be going insane like Terra or Beast Boy," he said.
"So, you think it was easy for me to trust you? I shared plenty with you, and you wouldn't tell me anything until I threatened to stall our relationship. Even now, you know more about me than I know about you," she said.
"Good, then you won't be able to ruin anything else," he said.
"And so your answer is to shut me out? You can't, even if you wanted to…" she said.
"I know…and I hate that I know. The others always just assumed you were shy, protecting yourself from your powers, and…different. But that isn't it…you're much more dangerous than any of us believed. I wanted to think otherwise, but…" he started, still staring at the screen.
"Don't," she said, "you know how I feel…"
"So, I shouldn't tell you what I think? What I know? You're poison – brought here to spread Trigon's power over everyone…You made us worse for being with you…You tied me to you…and I can't escape without risking my life. Maybe I will…you're not worth this," he said.
"Don't put this on me, you knew what I was – now we're in this together, as long as you stay with me…and…I didn't ask for this," she said, feeling a wave of sorrow wash over her.
"But that's it – you don't, so you have to reach out for help, which makes us all a target just for helping you…talking to you…liking you…and loving you… And that makes us miserable…maybe insanity is better," he said.
"After everything I've done with or for you and our friends… after facing the end…you're going to call me an enemy, and what, leave me to die?" she asked.
"You would deserve it – Rachel," he said.
"No…I…I couldn't stop it," she said through forming tears, "I had no control of myself…no choice."
"Now I don't have one. I should never have listened to you…I'm going to go and wait for the insanity to set in – alone," he said, getting out of the chair and walking away, heading out of the cave while Raven remained, crying into her hands.
Where was everyone? No one had bothered Terra for hours. Hopefully, they were questioning Raven about killing Beast Boy. Nothing was more pressing in her mind, nothing caused the same amount of feeling, and nothing was the same. What she saw was what she thought. If she thought about Raven killing Beast Boy with fire, that's what appeared before her in the interrogation room. Watching Raven force a ball of red flame from her hands, Terra could see it all happen again and again in slow motion. The worst part was the pain that she felt as she watched Beast Boy die repeatedly.
Terra hadn't remembered an event that vividly before, it was weird. She wondered why Cyborg had insisted that he was Robin, and why he didn't seem to think Beast Boy had died. It was perfectly clear to her, why didn't he see? Maybe Cyborg's as insane as Beast Boy was… He was insane enough to attack a friend, after ignoring Terra. He didn't seem to care… Why did she? Raven was just reacting to him, as she had reacted to him. What if he was upset with both Raven and Terra? If he's dead…maybe Raven feels as bad as she does, and if he's not, then Raven did what she had to, and Beast Boy had some more explaining to do. It's not her fault… Looking around the room, Terra noticed Beast Boy on a bed in the corner. Had he been there the whole time? She had looked over there plenty of times and hadn't seen him.
"Beast Boy?" Terra asked.
"Yeah. What do you want?" Beast Boy asked.
"You're sane?" she asked.
"Guess so, weird, huh?" he said.
"For how long?" she asked.
"I don't know…maybe a while after Raven laid me out," he said.
"Why did you attack her this time?" she asked.
"Trigon threatened me," he said.
"What? Trigon's gone," she said.
"I guess not," he said.
"So how are you sane now?" she asked.
"Uh…maybe something shut him out…" he said.
"What?" she asked.
"I'm not sure," he said.
The door to the interrogation room opened and Cyborg walked in with a file folder, closing the door behind him, he walked over and sat across from Terra at the table in the center of the room.
"Hey Terra… Look, I'm not going to talk for an hour before I tell you this time – Beast Boy is alive," Cyborg said.
"I know, Cyborg, he's in the bed in the corner. Where's Robin? We have to talk about something," Terra said.
"You're…back? Great! Robin and Raven left this morning to stay with a friend of Robin's," Cyborg said.
"For how long?" she asked.
"Maybe forever," he said.
"Trigon is behind this insanity stuff," she said.
"Yeah, I know," he said.
"How?" she asked.
"Robin's friend figured it out. What we couldn't figure out was how to get you back to normal," he said.
"Will it happen again?" she asked.
"Nope. Robin's friend is going to take care of that, Raven told him about this cult following that Trigon has, and where they might be," he said.
"Why did Trigon pick us instead of Raven?" she asked.
"Probably because we helped her and he wants her supporters gone so he doesn't have to deal with us later…Or something like that, Robin's friend gave me a lot of information," he said.
"Beast Boy is sane again, too," Terra said.
"Sane?" Cyborg asked.
"Or…back to his usual self," Terra said.
"Good. This should be over soon, but for now, we're staying put," Cyborg said.
"We're not going to go and get the cult?" she asked.
"No. Robin's friend is going to deal with them – he said that there was a good chance that we were fine, but he didn't want to risk us going insane while dealing with Trigon's cult," he said.
"Okay…So, what are we going to do?" she asked.
"Get back to normal…After I find Star. Stay here, alright?" he said.
"Sure, Cy," she said.
"I'll be back soon…maybe," he said, leaving the file on the table in front of Terra as he got up.
"What's this?" she asked.
"It's from Robin's friend, just some info on what's been going on," he said.
"Thanks," she said, watching Cyborg walk out of the room and close the door behind him.
"Cy's the boss? Guess I'm his second in command, cool," Beast Boy said.
"No, I am," Terra said.
"Seriously?" he asked.
"Um, yeah, why's that surprising?" she asked, slightly annoyed.
"It's not- um…Are we okay?" he asked.
"We're sane and we know it, so," she started.
"No, I mean are you and I ok?" he asked.
"Oh…I…don't think so…" she said.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because you haven't done anything to show me you give a damn," she said, opening the file.
"I wanted to hurt Raven because I thought she told you to dump me," he said.
"That shows her that you care, it doesn't show me that you care," she said.
"What do I have to do?" he asked.
"You didn't really ask that, did you?" she asked.
"What?" he asked.
"No clue…what a surprise," she said, reading.
"You're not going to say anything?" he asked.
"No, I'm not," she said.
"That's stupid," he said.
"It's very 'you', then," she said.
"Terra-," he began.
"Before this insanity started, I said I wanted a break, and…that hasn't changed," she said.
Starfire flew through the night sky, determined to reach Gotham before the morning. She felt robbed, betrayed, and…hurt. Accepting what Robin had said wasn't something she was prepared to do, and she didn't believe him. Despite his words, she felt that he had lied to get her to leave him alone. It didn't matter to her what Raven said, because Raven was a part of Robin's lie to her. What she knew of Robin convinced her that he would never leave. They were closer than any of the others, even though he shared a bond with Raven, he had helped her understand Earth – there was something deep between them. She thought Robin left so that she would go to him, and learn something more – and Raven had agreed to help him with his plan.
There was more to what he had said; he had tried to get her to find things out for herself by doing something, and then asking her why she thought he had done it. Robin had told her that Raven suggested that idea, when he had started doing that a couple years ago. She didn't consider that she was wrong, because she believed that no one else would either.
(My classes aren't piling me with as much work anymore and I'm starting to get back into the flow of the story. The next chapter is shaping up to be pretty good, if I am any judge. It will be long, it will be deep, and it will be…up in 2 weeks. :) As always, thanks for reading and all input. ~RavensMind~)