The Stone Chest
Chapter 2
"A Treasure is Gone"
The woman walked slowly by the streets watching everything from under her hood; people passing by, cars, advertisements and every little thing related with the City it had always awaken her curiosity. Raven couldn't understand how all those citizens could keep their schedule as if nothing had happened; all the attacks suffered by the City since the Titans became an active crew barely modified the residents' life. And she wasn't against that because other behavior of the citizens would be a kind of victory for the bad guys; but what leaves her perplexed was the way for them to get used to it, they didn't even notice something was wrong at all. Definitely, compared with the citizens of Jump City Raven had a lot to learn in the art of hide emotions.
Of course, that day her visit wasn't related with the study of the citizens but with some kind of tricky taste of her. Nevertheless, the walking thing always helped Raven to forget all her responsibilities at least for some minutes. Robin and the others always asked her why she preferred to walk instead to fly there and back; but that way made her lose the best part of the whole thing not to mention that the flying part made her journey extremely short.
Raven kept walking until she arrived to the place she was looking for; an almost imperceptible smile took form on her lips while thinking what would say the others knowing that she went frequently to that place. The known aroma of the drink served in that place made her feel comfortable and remind her why she liked so much going in there.
"C'est la vie" was the name of the french café where the warrior had just arrived; the place was located in one of the streets near downtown. The decoration was not flashy but kept the characteristic informal environment required for that kind of places. Raven realized when arriving that the place was almost empty which was good considering that she hated multitudes. The young lady selected the most discreet table she could find and set willing to continue her reading of one of her favorites books, but before she could start her hobby, she saw something that greatly surprised her. Right in front of her and just a few tables away, was the guy who helped the titans a few days ago. The first intention of the girl was to ignore him, but then a more elaborated idea was taking form inside her mind; the first thing she did was to make sure she hadn't been seen by him and then, she decided to spy that mysterious guy. She didn't like something about him and she could not loose the opportunity she had to gain more information about that guy.
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In the Tower, the others titans was doing their daily chores; Robin was training while watching carefully the news looking for some clue about the mysterious guy they fought some days ago. Starfire was in the kitchen looking for some juice trying not to think about the ritual case. She still remembered all the things that happened that day after returning to the Tower and she didn't want to keep thinking about it.
Flash Back"That was really weird" - said Beast Boy while scratching his head.
"There's no doubt, that guy who appeared is very powerful" - added Robin.
"And the words spoken by Connor were not polite" - said Starfire.
"It's obvious that they does not want us in their business" - concluded Raven.
"The question is why?" - asked Cyborg.
"I got it. It must be a complot by radioactive guys from Venus who drained all the resources of their planet; and, now they are coming to take over the Earth to suck our brains out which are their main source of power" - said Beast Boy with vehemence while walking one side to the other.
"Someone shut him out please" - said Raven sighing really bored.
"Oh Come on! Think about it just a little and you'll see that everything will make sense" - insisted Beast Boy.
"Those guys are after something and I don't think it's good" - said Robing ignoring the last comment of his green partner.
"Is there something we can do?" - asked Starfire worried.
"Whatever their intentions are, I think that out there something was made clear. We don't stand a chance against them, at least not now" - said Raven while took off her hood.
"Many times before we were in a similar situation and in the end we managed to beat the bad guys" - answered Cyborg.
"You're right, but something tells me that this time it won't be as easy as always... Well guys, right now there's nothing we can do but wait so let's try to rest a while, we really need it" - concluded Robin.
"Bah! What we need to do is to investigate everything about those radioactive guys from Venus who..." - started to say Beast Boy.
"SHUT UP!" - yelled the rest of the team speaking together while morphing into several giant being who tried to crush Beast Boy.
Robin, Starfire, Raven and Cyborg went to their rooms while Beast Boy stayed in the living room; he was sat in the couch looking to nowhere.
End of Flash BackThe red-haired girl quenched her thirst with some grape juice and then she went to the place where Robin was, since the arriving of Zarth, the leader of the team was dedicated almost exclusively to watch the news and training. For that reason, Starfire was beginning to fear about her friend's health.
"Friend Robin, don't you think it's time for you to take a nap?" - said Starfire when arriving beside the young guy with a delicious plate of food.
"It's not necessary, believe me. Thanks for worrying anyway" - answered Robin.
"You have been doing that routine of watching the news and sparing for several days by now, you've barely eaten. I'm starting to... I mean we're starting to get worried about you" - said the young lady blushing hard because what she almost said.
"I'm sorry if I've made you get worried about me, but you have nothing to be worried for. I just want to know if those guys make another movement, that's all" - answered the boy giving her a charming smile.
"At least eat something, it'll make you feel better" - insisted Starfire giving him the food.
"I'm not hungry, really" - replied Robin.
Starfire sighed with discouragement realizing that nothing she said would change his mind so she decided to leave the room taking the food with her. Although she knew that he would never admit it, anyone who sees Robin could find that he was suffering very slowly the consequences of that harmful routine of him, not to mention that he'd barely slept those days. It was clear that this new threat they just confronted had affected him badly and that hurt the Tameranian hard, she just could not stop worrying about Robin's health, as he wanted. However, while she was walking along the corridor, Starfire felt a hand over her shoulder that stopped her.
"I'm very sorry for making you get worried about me, that was not my intention at all" - said Robin shameful.
"I... is just... what you're doing is harming you" - answered Starfire blushing again.
"I know Star, I know, well I finished the sparing and I decided to stop the TV thing for a while... besides, all this effort has whetted my appetite... so, that food you just showed me is still available? - added Robin smiling.
"Thank you so much friend Robin! Of course it's still available!" - yelled Starfire while throwing the plate above them to hug Robin.
"You're welcome" - said Robin surprised while grabbing the plate before it fell to the floor.
"I'm so sorry friend Robin" - said Starfire blushing hard and very shameful while letting him go.
"You have nothing to be sorry" - said the Titans' leader before start eating.
"It will be better if we sit over there, eating while standing is not healthy friend Robin" - added Starfire pointing the table in the training room and smiling at him.
"Yeah, sure" - answered Robin with a drop in his head.
Both titans came back to the training room and Robin began to eat while Starfire watched him without knowing that their feelings were evolving quicker than they could understand.
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The quiet that was felt in almost all the Tower contrasted greatly with the deafening sound of the Home Theatre system united with the desperate cries of Beast Boy and Cyborg while playing a new game which was anything but similar to the classic Mega Monkeys 4. This time, the hero of the game was in some kind of devilish Hospital trying to evade several possessed nurses, who wanted to kill him, while looking for a code to open a strange box.
"Come on you idiot! Beat her! If you have that plank in your hands is for beating those monsters! What do you think it was? A giant toothpick!" - yelled a desperate Cyborg while watching Beast Boy letting the nurses hit him several times.
"Take this you Raven's apprentices!" - said Beast Boy while seeing that one shot of the shotgun killed all the attacking nurses.
"Wow! I see that sometimes the few neurons that you have decide to work" - said a smiling Cyborg.
"The great Beast Boy is not going to be defeated by a group of foolish nurses".
Right in that moment, another nurse appeared behind the hero and killed him, which caused a big "Game Over" label took over the screen.
"I think those neurons work for small periods of time" - said Cyborg sighing - "At least you saved the game, didn't you?"
"Eh... well... you see..."
"Beast Boy, you're not trying to tell me that you were so moron to forget saving the game knowing that we have 10 hours playing it by now, are you?"
"He, he, he, he, you know what? I forgot that I must do this important thing in my room" - said Beast Boy while starting to run.
"Freeze! Hang on you stupid piece of...! 10 hours of continuos game lost! 10 hours! I'm going to blast you into pieces!" - yelled Cyborg while starting to run after his green partner.
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Raven tried hard to keep the speed of her target, always being careful to be invisible to him; the young titan had several hours in her "mission" and until that moment she hadn't discovered anything. After the café, Connor decided to take a walk across the park and after that he went to the Zoo and finally he entered to a big mall. Inside it, the young guy only saw the shopwindows as he was looking for something but the strange thing was that every time a salesman or a saleslady get close to him to ask what he wanted, Connor rejected the help and went to another shop. Raven was starting to get tired with all that, but when she decided to come back to the tower, the young guy left the mall walking towards one of the nearby streets. The warrior thought that now it could be her chance to gain some useful info about the mage so she started to follow him again, this time, Connor was walking by desert streets. Finally, Connor turned around a corner towards a dead end, and she was sure that now she was up to find something good. Nevertheless, and for her surprise, when she turned around that corner she didn't see anybody. Everything in that dead end was old newspapers and a big trash container. The warrior could feel how anger and frustration started to take over her body, but she quickly regain control of herself and decided that the only thing left to do was coming back to the tower without telling anything about her huge failure to the others. Right in that instant, Raven saw an envelope just in the middle of the street. At the beginning she thought that it was nothing but trash, but then she realized that it was really clean and looked new so she decided to take it, and for her amazement the envelope was labeled "For my dear spy". The young titan quickly started to read the letter and a mixture of feelings took over her body.
I really hope that you have enjoyed our little walk; I know it could have been better, but I had not the proper time to make a proper schedule so I had to improvise. Besides, you must agree with me that this was a very strange date so I can be forgiven if I did not make you feel great. Unfortunately, duty calls and I must leave now, but I assure you that I enjoyed a lot this walk... together? I sincerely hope that we have another date, but an old fashioned one. I really don't understand these modern manners.
Greetings,
Connor.
Raven red the letter several times without believing what her eyes was watching; the young titan wanted to be the hunter and ended being the prey; in fact, she was swindled by him. For a while, she just shook her head while laughing; definitely, Connor was not a stupid guy and the woman started to ask herself since when he realized her trap. Besides, what he wrote was funny in her thoughts; it made more comfortable the ridiculous scene she just did. Finally, Raven hid the letter in her costume and started her way back to the tower.
"C'est la vie" – said Raven reminding the name of the place where everything began while starting to fly back home.
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Beast Boy again walked slowly inside the cave that had been witness of his tragedy; every day passed he felt that the chances of see her again, in flesh and blood, faded helpless. His partners gave up a long time ago and now they accepted the idea of no seeing her anymore, but Beast Boy resisted that way of thinking. He kept his faith intact and was sure that there's still a way to bring her back, but without the help of the others everything became more complicated. Aqualad and BumbleBee helped him for a while, but finally, they reached the same conclusion and abandoned the research; and, the poor titan had not anybody else to call. He kept cursing his luck and regretted seeing his friend inside that stone dress, but the worst thing was that he had done nothing to help her, so close and so far he thought. After a few minutes, he arrived to his destination, but nothing in the world could prepare him for what he found. The entire place was intact but yet something was different and that detail, just a trifle for almost anybody, represented life for Beast Boy: The Statue of Terra was gone.
Beast Boy searched everywhere; he morphed into almost all the known animals from a T-Rex, to tear down some walls, to an ant, in order to search through the scratches. He saw the remaining walls, the floor and the roof, but in the end, he did not find a clue of what had happened. Slowly a dark feeling started to take over his body and suddenly he understood how Raven felt in her battle against Terra; the young guy felt how anger moved itself inside his body while tightening his fists so hard that blood started to come out of them. If it had been other thing he would have taken it easy, even disdainfully; but if something sacred ever existed to Beast Boy it was that statue; everybody has a limit and Beast Boy one has reached a long time ago.
"Whoever who did this will pay, I'll make sure of that" - said Beast Boy trying not to explode while walking towards the tower to tell the others.
What happened with the Statue of Terra? Will Connor and Raven have another "date"? ¿Will Beast Boy and Cyborg be able to recover the 10 hours lost? Stay Tuned and don't miss next episode.
Author's Notes: Wow, this chapter is a little bit longer than the previous one, but I did not want to edit the scenes. I know the story is a little slow right now, but there're things that must be said in detail in order to understand what's going to happen next. By the way, well, poor Robin, he's being consumed by the Zarth thing and I don't blame him, after what happened even me would be alert even if I were the titan's leader; let's hope Starfire keeps taking care of him with the same attitude. Man, what happened with the videogame was awful, if somebody do the same to me, the less thing I'd do would be not invite him ever again to my house, but considering it was Beast Boy, well we can understand.
Anyway, I don't want to make a long note so one more thing: "C'est la vie" is a French phrase that means, "This is how life is". See you in chapter 3.
