Chapter 6: The Unraveling

--

"She's not breathing!"  Beast Boy shook and shook, but no breath came out of Starfire's body.  After bawling his fists together, he lifted them above his head.  "Hang on, Star!  I'm saving you!"  He slammed his fists into her stomach, but nothing.  No whoosh of air, no movement.

"How hard did you hit her?" Robin kept his eyes on Starfire, but knew Blackfire still stood behind him.

"Hard enough to knock her out for a while.  Let's get out of here.  We're done."

"That would be a wise decision." Slade's voice came over the communications system.  "Return.  The battle is over and neither you nor the Titans are in any condition to continue fighting."

"Like hell there isn't!" Jinx motioned towards fresh buildings.  "There's still half a block left we can burn in ten seconds!"

"Are you reluctant to obey my instructions?"

Jinx's body shuddered from head to toe.  She shut out the thought of Slade's arm reaching through the communicator and snapping her neck.  "No, sir.  We're returning now."  She looked to Gizmo and Mammoth.  "Let's get out of here."

Cyborg tore away from Beast Boy and charged his cannon at the retreating Robin.  "Hey, where do you think you're going?  You're just gonna walk away?!"

"Stop, Cyborg!"

Cyborg froze at the sound of Raven's voice.  More of a command than a plea or request, he noticed, but Raven never did come across as pleasant.  "We're in no condition to keep fighting.  Our best bet is to regain our strength and rethink a strategy."

"You wanna lick your wounds while Robin gets away?!  I've got a clear shot of him!  One shot and BAM, he's gone!"

"If you want to go after them and get yourself killed, go ahead!  You don't have the strength to keep going and you know it!  Use some common sense and think with your head or your emotions will get the best of you;" she looked to Starfire, "just like it did to her."

Cyborg groaned and checked his cannon.  He stood at fifty-two percent.  And he noticed Raven kept to walking instead of flying.  Beast Boy didn't transform when he tried to hoist Starfire onto his back, either.

"Fine.  Let's go."  He conceded.  Robin won this round, but next time would be different.  He looked to Raven.  "What about the fires?  The city?  What happens here?"

"Don't worry, dude." Beast Boy replied.  "They'll just blame this on the fire department.  Besides, it's not like anyone died."

--

"Are there any fatalities amongst you?"

While Jinx raised an eyebrow at the question, Gizmo patted his body for broken bones.  He found nothing.

"I feel like I'm alive, I guess."

"As such you should be."  Slade turned back towards the monitors.  "The Titans have taken the bait.  Without leadership, they claw at one another like crows until they have slaughtered each other in a battle for superiority.  Without a leader, there will be no more 'Teen Titans.'  They have lost what kept them together, and with that goes their hope."

"You make him seem like some kinda saint."  Gizmo shoved his hands in his pockets, but took them back out when Slade glanced in his direction.  "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

"What was wrong was the lack of communication between certain members."

"If you're still brooding over one little punch, be my guest!"  Blackfire didn't try to hide her anger.  She did Robin a favor.  Yes, punching out her sister isn't the best way to earn a partner's trust, but what else could she do?  "She got halfway through your ribs when I stepped in and just because you didn't want help doesn't mean you don't need it!"

"I could have handled myself."

"That's a load of crap!"  Gizmo entered the argument for the sake of entering.  "She kicked your butt and you were lost because your hair got in the way and-"

"Silence.  All of you."

And that was all it ever took: a simple command from Slade zipped everyone's mouths for fear of death or brutalizing.

"Robin, you have made it clear that you wish to become stronger here.  Such a task cannot be completed alone.  As incompetent as you may find your teammates, they and other Legion members are here to assist you.  Your final test has not yet come, and until it does, you will receive assistance from those I designate to you."  Slade noticed the smirk curving on Blackfire's face.  "Then again, if all of you do not work as a team, you shall fall.

"If one wishes to fight alone, honor that request the same way they would honor yours.  Dead or incapacitated is what I told you," he stared at Blackfire, "yet you disobeyed my orders for the sake of showing off your power."

"That's not true, sir, I-"

Interruption.  Blackfire never saw Slade vanish, but she did feel the air shoved out of her stomach when his knee connected.  She flew through the air and her body clanged against a gear.

No one bothered to help.

"Now, return to your quarters and recuperate.  The time to bring chaos to the city is upon us.  Be well rested and remember to continue training.  No improvement comes through laziness."

As Slade turned around and walked back to his desk, Jinx, Gizmo and Mammoth scurried like pack rats to their rooms.  Robin took one step before Slade called out his name.

"Return for training when you are summoned.  Also," he paused to see if he could hear Blackfire's faint moaning.  He did.  "take her with you."

--

"And take him with you!"  Raven shoved Cyborg and Beast Boy out of the Titans' Tower medical ward before returning to Starfire.  Still not breathing, but the wavelengths showed signs of a pulse.  Faint, but there, and it was better than nothing.  What the hell am I joking about?  Nothing would have at least put her mind at ease.

That Jinx girl swiped a card across her neck and Raven didn't kill her.  Her body ached from relying too much on her spells.  Robin became more of a bastard than before and proved he loves anything alien.  Beast Boy thought CPR was the best method to revive Starfire.  Cyborg threatened to walk off and go after Robin himself.  Half of a block of Jump City went down in flames and those responsible had gotten away and Starfire's sister managed to knock her out in one punch.

Damn it.  She ran a hand across her forehead.  I hate taking his job.  Why the hell did he have to put me in charge next?  She closed her eyes to erase the day from her mind; that damn day when her role as a Teen Titan changed forever.  Damn that day.

"Go away." 

Raven shut out the knocks on her door long enough before it became annoying.  With a frustrated groan, she lowered herself onto the ground and approached the door.  A thin rectangle of light pierced the darkness as the door slid open.

"Raven, can we talk for a second?"

"No." As Raven prepared to slide the door shut, Robin stuck his elbow in between the opening.  "What is it, Robin?"

"I need you to take my place."

"If you want to do some soul searching, you came to the wrong person.  Now-"

"In case I get hurt, I want you to be the second in command of the team.  We don't have an emergency backup plan if one of us is gone.  Heck, look at what happened when Cyborg left.  If something happens again, like if one of us dies something like that, there should be an established chain of command."

The rectangle of light grew, revealing the thin outline of Raven's robe to Robin.  "And…you want me to be second?  Why?"

"Come on, after almost scaring Dr. Light to death and all of those creepy spells you know, I figured you would be able to lead the team.  You can fly, you got the psychic powers and you can go demonic on command.  Plus, you're more devoted to our missions than everyone else.  Heck, I don't know why you don't lead it now.  "

"You won the talent portion of that contest."  She waited for a response at her ill-fated attempt at humor, but nothing came.  "Are we done?"

"After you will be Cyborg.  Don't look at me like that.  I know he left the team, but he does have the strength to back up his smack talk.  If he can put the same amount of time and effort he put into his car on his job, he could improve."

"I…see."  Raven fidgeted, anxious to return to her meditation and hear the rest of the chain of command.  "And the others?"

"That's where it gets gray.  I know Beast Boy-"

"Has no brain.  We've established that."

"But he knows his way around the planet more than Starfire.  Whenever Star gets angry or ticked off, she goes crazy.  I can't take a chance at her blowing up half the city because I'm missing."

"She just needs to learn to control her emotions.  Why do you think she meditates with me?"

"Because she won't adjust to guy talk and you'll give her the time of day?"

More silence.  "Good point."

"Besides, even if Beast Boy kids around a lot, if he puts some thought into what he's doing, he can be pretty useful.  No one who can transform into every animal can be useless, I guess."

"Robin, he considers channel flipping an extreme sport.  He is a vegetarian.  But above all else, he entered my room without my permission."  She slid the door all the way open.  "And you consider him a better leader than Starfire?"

"Believe me; I hate it as much as you do, but I'm doing what I think is best for the team.  It's based on what I've seen in the battlefield.  Starfire is strong, but she doesn't have control or discipline.  If she could put those emotions to good use, then she would be higher up, but she can't, so I won't take that risk."  He shrugged.  "Besides, if I'm gone and you see it as a problem, you make the changes.  But I know you'll make the right decisions.  I trust you."

Robin walked off without waiting for Raven's response.  Raven stood in silence for five…ten…twenty seconds as new ideas raced across her mind.  Without a quick response to give Robin, she slid the door together just as a glass of water on her table exploded.

"Damn it.  Damn it!  Damn it!"

"Damn it."  Raven slammed her hand on a syringe filled dish, almost ecstatic when a black tendril shot out of her hand and stopped one needle from pricking her skin.

He trusted her all right, trusted her to let him stab her in the back and screw everything for the rest of the team.  She ran the chain through her head again.  Robin, herself, Cyborg, then…Beast Boy and Starfire last.  He had abandoned the Titans, leaving a half-man half-robot, an unfunny changeling and an alien in her hands.  "Good job on living up to your title, Robin."

Raven ran a hand across the sheet covering Starfire's body before she shut her eyes.  She muttered an incantation to herself and pressed her hands together.  Moments later, a cerulean orb materialized in front of her hands and she began to guide it across Starfire's body.  "Healing her is going to take awhile, but as long as there aren't any more interruptions, she should be fine."

At once, Starfire shot forward, hacking up a mouthful of blood.  Splashes of crimson jumped onto the sheet as she grabbed her neck to try and extinguish the ache.

"Robin!"  Starfire strained, but could not talk without feeling that knifing pain in her throat.  "You will not leave us behind!  I will not allow you to betray your friends and family!"

Raven forced her hands on Starfire's chest to hold her down.  "Starfire, you have to calm down!  You're letting your emotions get the best of you again."

"But friend Robin has gone against his word!"  Try as she could, Starfire argue as loud as she wanted, but could not wrestle out of Raven's hold.  After several seconds of yelling, Raven pressed two fingers on Starfire's forehead, muttered another incantation, and waited three seconds as black energy seeped into Starfire's eyes.  Soon, she fell silent.

Without interruption, Raven dropped her shoulders and head as she went back to healing Starfire.  She couldn't stop the quickening of her heartbeat when she saw a flicker of red appear in Starfire's eyes when she almost attacked her, but she tried to bury that for now.

--

"Welcome back."

Blackfire jumped, but regretted it when pain stabbed at her back.  Even though she had gotten used to his face, sometimes- just sometimes- Robin made her nervous.

"How hard did he hit you?"

"It's weird.  Not as hard as usual."

Thunder clapped in the distance; lightning bolts zapping in and out, signaling the arrival of a storm.

"Thanks."

"What?"

Robin didn't want to repeat himself, more than ever a sign of gratitude.  "I said thanks.  Truth is if you hadn't come, Star would've killed me.  Then again, her hugs did enough damage to my ribs."  He trailed off and put a hand on Blackfire's window.  "I guess I won't have to deal with that anymore."

The lack of confidence in Robin's voice had Blackfire searching for an answer to that all important question, but Robin never opened up to anyone.  She knew that much.  If they had to work together and stay inside during a storm, she may as well ask.  What the hell?  She may never have another chance.

"Robin?"

"Yes?"

Blackfire narrowed her eyes towards Robin and asked the question she always wanted to hear since they became partners.  She noticed Robin and his fingers rap his pants when he heard the question.  When no response came, Blackfire repeated herself.

"Why did you decide to join us?"