67. Wind Tunes
"Dude….so like…tell me where the logic is in going West to get to the East Coast!"
Cyborg gripped the wheel and eyed the road as he replied: "We're not exactly going 'West' per se. We're just rounding the Bay and river beds till we get south into Virginia. There we'll have damn good beaches. I promise you that."
"Well, there'd better be pretty, sunbathing chicks down there," Beast Boy folded his arms and scrunched in the backseat. The wind rushing over the convertible T-Car kicked at his green hair. "Or else this trip will be wasted, you know what I'm saying??"
"B.B., trust me," Cyborg said, "…there're a lot of miles along the Atlantic Coast…and plenty of fish in the sea." He smirked at that.
"Yeah, whatever."
"Didn't Lancelot say that once to King Arthur?" Robin remarked.
"Uh….y-yeah…I think so," Cyborg shrugged as we drove down a country road leading past green pastures with huge stretches of blue sky hanging all around us. It was the most I'd seen of the blue sky—unobstructed—in nearly a year.
It's felt so long since I've been out of this state. Westhaven was a trip all in itself….but this….this was like being on the road again.
I did my best to solace myself with the aura of my friends riding the T-Car with me.
"Merlin…," Raven droned, her nose in a book.
"Huh?" Robin blinked under his mask.
"Merlin said the 'fish' line to King Arthur. Not Lancelot."
"Is that before or after the badass rabbit rips people's heads off?" Beast Boy beamed.
Raven glared at him. "That is not canon, Arthurian Legend."
"Pfft!! Nuts to you! They didn't have cannons in medieval England!"
Raven sighed and returned to her novel. Vampire Eunichs of the Crescent Moon or something…
"I think I get it now….," Starfire spoke. "Beautiful earth females have their spawning pool on the Atlantic Coast. Do aesthetic males come from the Pacific Coast?"
Robin chuckled.
"Nah," Cyborg shook his head. "Just actors and serial killers."
"Hey, you've been to Virginia before, right Rae?" Beast Boy smiled.
"Yup….," she blurted, flipping a page.
"Tell me. Any drop dead gorgeous chicks on the beach there?"
"I wouldn't know. I don't have testicles."
"Ahem."
"Let'sssssss put in some music right about now," Cyborg sweatdropped.
"Oh!! Me me me me me me!!!!" the changeling hopped in his seat.
"You you you you you you you what?"
"I've got an album!!"
Everyone moaned.
"What?!?" Beast Boy cackled, fumbling through a plastic bag where his stack of albums were. "What am I missing this time? And don't say 'a higher education'!"
"A higher edu—"
"Dude, Cy! Shut up!!"
"Ha ha ha!!"
"We all know that….erm…..y-you brought an awful lot of music with you, B.B.," Robin sweatdropped…trying to be mediator.
"Yeah, and---?"
"If you try and force us to listen to it all, we'll gut you with a plastic fork," Raven said.
"There ya go," Cyborg nodded in the rear-view mirror.
"No need for plastic threats! I brought my own cd player and headsets. I only want to share this album!" he beamed, teeth glistening as he whipped out a CD in its case.
"Just that and that alone?" Robin asked, eyebrow raised.
"Yuppers!"
"All right…everyone else willing to risk it?"
"What's a vacation without its sense of danger?" Cyborg mused and reached back with one hand while driving. "Give it here, B.B."
"Treat it like the Quran, man…," the changeling gently, carefully, steadily handed it to the driving android. "It's one of the first CDs I ever bought."
"Right…," Cyborg one-handedly shook the disc loose of its casing and jammed it into the deck.
Beast Boy winced.
"I am most intrigued to hear the music that epitomizes you, Beast Boy," Starfire remarked from the front seat, smiling as the wind blue her red hair back wildly. "You are a Titan of many skins and certainly that must have an effect on your perception of acoustics."
"Actually…it's just the pointy ears," the changeling winked.
Starfire giggled.
"I'm not hearing anything…," Robin said.
"Whoops, my bad," Cyborg fondled the knob. "Had the volume down."
"Heh….good one."
"Shhhh!!" Beast Boy hissed and leaned forward towards the front speakers. "You'll never guess who it is!"
"Adam Sandler??" "Shhh! Raven!"
I smirked slightly.
As the track began, just about everyone in the car except Starfire instantly understood:
"Ahhhhh."
"Of course."
"Naturally…."
Beast Boy beamed. "I tell you…aren't the Beatles great?!"
"I should have figured."
"Why? What's that mean?"
"Well…," Robin folded his arms and smiled slightly. "The Beatles are just so….so….you. I dunno. Bouncy, happy, yell 'woooo!' a lot—"
"Dude…that's EARLY Beatles. Like, in their Boy Band phase. Wait till you hear their later stuff. I put it on this CD. It's a mix. 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' will dunk over your happy-go-lucky perspective of the Beatles."
"Yeah, allright," Robin smirked.
"I was not aware that beetles were capable of recording music," Starfire said.
"It's a group name, Starfire. Kinda like Teen Titans. They aren't real beetles."
"Yeah…heheh," Beast Boy grinned wide. "They're British, Liverpool heart-breakers who had a penchant for melodies, movies, and a little marijuana. Oh, and half of them are dead by now. I suppose that's worth mentioning."
"Long live the atman of George Harrison…," Raven droned.
"Say what?"
"……….never mind."
We were all silent for a while as 'Yesterday' by Paul McCartney graced the speakers.
"It is most beautiful…," Starfire blinked. "I believe you are incorrect, Robin. This music is downright melancholy."
"Nah, it's bouncy too, Starfire," Beast Boy interjected. "That is, the stuff the Beatles could do was both happy and sad. They liked to change. They covered a lot of bases with their talent. There's a song for happiness, like 'All Together Now', there's a song for sadness, like 'For No One', there's a song for mental craziness, like 'Tomorrow Never Knows', and then of course plenty a song for romance, like 'Something'."
"Ah! A most splendid array of talent!" Starfire beamed. "The music shifts and changes to conform to different shapes of emotion. Almost liken unto you, Beast Boy!"
"Hehehehe! N-Never thought of it that way, Star! Thanks! Cool! Dig that, guys! The Beatles were made for shape-shifters!"
"Can't wait to see what happens when 'I Am the Walrus' rolls around," Robin smirked.
"Huh?"
"Nothing."
The cd played on, and 'Eight Days a Week' came through the speakers.
"This is a good driving song…," Cyborg commented.
"Yeah…," Beast Boy sighed dreamily and leaned against the back of Starfire's seat….staring lazily out the front of the car. "I always imagine that…as soon as I get a license…this is the song I'll be driving to. It sorta fills your head with the images of spinning hubcaps. Maybe it's just me."
"I want to bounce for some reason!" Starfire giggled.
"Wait till we're at the beach."
"Cyborg….," Robin grumbled.
"Hehehehehe…what??"
I stared out to my left. Cars and scenery whizzed by me.
The uplifting beat blurred with the speeding gravel beneath us as we slowly headed southwest till a highway would take us back towards the Atlantic Ocean.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Rickety thumps rattled beneath us as we throttled over the tracks.
I leaned against the open door, taking a deep breath of the warm Pacific air. Sunlight reflected off my brown eyes as I smiled and looked out at the majestic, brown landscape.
"I think we better get off soon…," she said from behind me.
I turned around, smiled, and said: "So eager to get a job done?"
"Jordan…you know the Master is timing us!" Ana walked over by my side and finished fastening the scabbard to her back. "I dunno about you…but I'm not exactly rearing to scrub the dojo clean for a month."
"Why not? It builds character!"
She stuck her tongue out and shoved me.
"Ack!!" I teetered and grabbed to the doorframe at the last second. "You almost pushed me out!!"
"You would have survived it," she giggled. "You're the best of us three when it comes to hopping around."
"Still…'look before your leap' is a platitude I intend to hold tight to…"
"Don't use your prep school words on me!"
"Fine. Are we going or are we going?"
"Now look who's impatient!" she smirked.
"Nah…," I shook my head. The wind kicked at my short black hair as I added: "I just trust your judgment, Ana. When it's time to get going. It's time to get going!"
"Woman's intuition?"
"You're not a woman. Not yet."
"And who are you to judge?"
"Heh……good point."
She winked, stepped up to the door, and held a graceful hand out. "Together?"
"Need some of my 'hopping' talent?"
"Nah…just something to land on."
I rolled my eyes. "Why'd the Master have to pair me with you this time?!"
"Beats the heck out of me," her blue eyes twinkled. "Let's make the best of it."
"Okay……," I took her hand.
"One……"
"Two……"
"Three!!"
Together, we jumped out of the boxcar of the moving train. We were planning on landing gracefully with blurred feet on the passing grasslands, but somehow in the middle of our descent we must have gotten distracted by the warm wind and scurrying jackrabbit and—oh yeah—gravity.
THWUMP!!!
"Oof!!"
"Ackies!!"
It was only natural that we clung to each other during the collapse, as if that would somehow make the calamity any less chaotic. And also…it was only natural that the outcome of such spontaneous decision was my rolling to a stop on my back and Ana quite obviously lying on top of me.
"………," I blinked.
"Erm……," Ana blushed.
So did I.
When we realized the embarrassing situation that we were in, we realized thatwe realized what embarrassing situation that we were in, for it was a good five seconds before we took notice and took notice of taking notice and finally shot off the synapses in our respective brains to—
"Dah!!"
"S-Sorry!!"
"M-My bad!" Ana hopped off.
"N-No…my fault," I shuffled over.
She swallowed.
I scratched my neck.
A beat.
"The Master would snap at us for sitting on our butts this long."
"As long as it's just our butts…," I stammered.
"Huh?"
"Never mind," I stood up and—like a good gentleman—helped her up.
"No chivalry," she pouted, tossing my hand off. "It gets points deducted from both of our grades."
I smirked and shrugged. "I can settle for a 'B'."
She blushed at that.
I chuckled.
"Oh hush!" Ana hid a smile. "Come on…we got a forest to find!"
And we wandered across the tracks once the train was gone, and headed towards a dark line near the horizon where the grasslands eventually died.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
We had stopped at a gas station.
Cyborg leaned lovingly against his convertible. He whistled a tune as he filled the T-Car with the pump and looked around the station with half human and half robot eyes.
Off to a corner, Robin was doing his expert best to uncrinkle a single dollar bill just right for a Pepsi machine to take it.
"That which you are doing is futile at best…," Raven muttered, leaning against the machine while reading her second book of the trip.
"Love you too, Raven…," the Boy Wonder muttered. He slipped the bill in, watched it come out, straightened it, slipped the bill in again, watched it come out, straightened it…. "You may not know this…but what I'm doing is an artform."
"Oh really?"
"Yes…it requires…..dedication….concentration….and focus. Just about everything I've learned as a crimefighter up to this point in my life has prepared me for this Pepsi Machine on the outskirts of a town probably named after some half-cousin's goat. For a band of superheroes who have learned to respect the whims and fickleness of destiny, we should be happy to have arrived at this point of reckoning."
Raven smirked ever so slightly. "You desire to kick the ever-living fecal matter out of that machine right now, don't you?"
"Oh god yes…," Robin slipped in the bill, watched it come out, straightened it, and slipped it in again.
"It's a funny thing, capitalism," Raven said. A beat. "Well, who am I to say 'funny'. Rather, capitalism is an ironic, hypocritical thing. Adam Smith fashioned it with the concept of laissez faire democracy. He envisioned an empire that could allow people to acquire the wealth and fame due to them in respect to their social input into civilization. But what was made instead was money-grabbing, unequally yoked, totalitarian dogma that seeks to force young entrepreneurs like you fishing endlessly for a goal that can never, ever be achieved because of the monetary constraints of powers infinitely higher on the social ladder than people like yourself."
"How cheerful…," Robin slipped in the bill, watched it come out, straightened it, and slipped it in again.
"Keep fighting for that carbonated pie in the sky, Robin," the girl droned, her nose in her book. "No amount of patience will ever change the perpetual stigmas enforced by acquisitive man in this Western Hemisphere of ours."
Robin smirked cynically as he straightened the bill again and shoved it in. "Might I ask, Raven, is your solution for the world the Communist Manifesto?"
"No," she gently shook her head. "Something more along the lines of 'Dante's Inferno'."
"Ah…," Robin uttered, slipping the bill in again.
"Dudes!!" Beast Boy hopped out of the convenience store and pointed in through the door. "They sell edible panties here!! This place is crazy cool!!" And he hopped back in.
Cyborg sweatdropped over by the pump.
"Ahem….," Raven emphasized, her nose in the book.
"What do you think capitalism has in store for people like him?" Robin uttered.
"If he's lucky…he could get early retirement by becoming a cadaver," Raven said.
"Heheh…I hear you," Robin fought the dollar bill again. "Though…I wonder if medical research could really benefit from tearing open somebody's dead pointed ears."
Raven looked up. "Better yet, if he turned into a blue whale right before dying, his body would become really, really expensive."
"Huh….never thought of that." Robin slipped in the dollar bill. A pause. He gasped for joy--
Whurr!
The bill came back out.
The Boy Wonder sighed.
"For money is the root of all e—"
"Oh hush!"
HONK HONK Vroooom!!
"Got her filled up, people!!" Cyborg grinned wide and motioned over from the driver's seat. "Everybody hop in!!" "J-Just a sec!!" Robin growled, fighting the dollar bill.
Raven clasped her book closed, straightened her robe, and headed towards the car. "Come on, Robin…," she sarcastically droned. "We have bikinis to get to."
"Lovely thought…but I'm kinda busy here…"
Without looking, Raven flicked a wrist behind her shoulder.
The dollar bill flew up out of Robin's hand, straightened with black telekinesis, and zooped straight into the slot of the Pepsi machine.
Whuuuur-DING!
Robin blinked. "Well…maybe patience is a virtue after all."
He pressed on the button for Dr. Pepper…and a Diet Pepsi bottle rolled out instead.
CLUNK!
"Dah!! Son of a----"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
VROOOOOOOOM!!
The T-Car thundered southward. Small, quaint towns passed by and the breeze was inviting to our faces.
"Word to the wise, Cyborg," Robin uttered. "If we—the Titans—so much as speed a half mile-per-hour above the limit, I'm putting your keys on the railroad track and wearing them around my neck as a souvenir."
"Shut up and hand me my CD," Cyborg chuckled.
Robin grabbed an album in its case, handed it to me—who was directly behind the android—and I gave it to Cyborg over his seat.
He grabbed it, flipped the disc out, and shoved it in the deck.
"Now…this is REAL music!" Cyborg beamed.
"You mean Beast Boy's music was fabricated?" Starfire remarked.
"No, he's just being a show-off," the changeling smirked and kicked his legs back into the middle of the front passenger area and folded his arms behind his neck. "I wanna see just what makes Cyborg's musical taste tick."
"Oh, it'll be ticking inside each and every one of y'all soon enough!" the android winked in his rear view mirror.
The album started….and a chaotic ensemble of electronica and layered guitar riffs floated haphazardly out of the speakers, accompanied by a wailing….wailing…wailing voice.
I raised an eyebrow over my glasses.
Starfire winced. "Um….i-it is must…..intriguing, Cyborg."
"Y-Yeah….," Beast Boy rubbed a finger in his pointy ear. "Who in god's name is it?"
"Pfft! Figures you wouldn't know! It's Radiohead, man!"
"Radio-who?!"
"I've heard of them," Robin smirked. "The best music these days is anti-music."
"You said it right!" Cyborg barked. "Thom Yorke is an absolute god! All of his stuff is about the proximity of dystopia on the horizon and mankind's post-modern anxiety and the effects of mass communication and advanced technology on the promotion of social obliteration."
"God bless you…," Beast Boy blinked. "The only thing I understood from the first word is the name of this stuff. 'Radiohead'. Kinda fitting for your titanium skull, eh Cy? Heh heh heh!"
"Just listen to the music and be educated!"
So we did.
The caustic clanging of 'Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box' opened up with an epitome of isolation and angst. Then the music dipped down into a melancholy funeral drone of 'Pyramid Song', before slipping into utter, symphonic insanity with 'Pull / Pulk Revolving Doors'.
"I like it…," Raven blurted from her third book.
"Figures you would," Beast Boy shuddered. "Um…Cy…do we really have to listen to the rest of this album?"
"Why, what's wrong with it?"
"Well…um…….."
"It sounds like someone is dying," Starfire said with a drooping face.
Robin laughed his head off.
I smirked. I was actually liking the music.
"Come on! Be fair! Besides, it's my car!"
"Knew THAT was coming eventually…," Raven droned.
As we rolled along through another old fashioned town, I glanced left at the passing scenery again. Soon we were drifting past an old, civil war battlefield. The haunting music and wailing of Thom Yorke in 'You and Whose Army' floated into my ears and I envisioned through my shades dozens of ghostly soldiers wandering around in a limbo of an abyss…never to bind their bullet-splattered bodies.
The thought of blood and its smell stabbed me in the brain and again I tripped backwards past the painful threshold to a time when things were cleaner…
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Wow……," Ana blinked as we passed through the mighty trunks of a cedar tree forest. "These are even bigger than the ones around the mannor!"
"The further north you go…the denser it gets," I said. I glanced at her. "Or so I've heard."
The Sun filtered down in intermittent waves of ivory and platinum. It filled the cedar tree forest with a fantastical glow: dim in nature yet heavenly to the eye. If we looked down, it'd seem as if we were stepping in gold mist.
"What does the Master want us to find in here?" Ana remarked.
"All he said was that we'd sense it with our eyes shut."
Ana winced. "It would be a test of our spatial awareness today, wouldn't it?"
"Hey…I don't make up the tests."
"What did we have to 'look' for, exactly?"
"He said something smooth and spherical. It'd be…um…in this forest. Somewhere."
Ana and I took a look across the forest. We eyed the many huge bodies of cedars. The veritable chaos of wooden bodies and disillusion of direction. A perfect maze from the inside out. And we were in the thick of it.
"Well…this is gonna be fun with our eyes closed."
I shrugged. "Might as well get this over with," I reached into my pocket.
Ana smirked at me as she reached into her own. "Am I boring you that much?"
"Yes…positively dull to the bone," I muttered, hiding a smirk. I pulled out a red bananna and fastened it around my forehead…covering my eyes completely like the Master had told us to do when he sent us on this 'learning mission' about one hundred and fifty miles south of there. "I'm bound to get a low score with you talking my ear off." The crimson bandanna blocked out all vision. I took a deep breath and gathered together a focus of murk through my limbs. It took some effort, but I could sense the wooden trunks of cedars around me. "Seriously, Ana. I enjoy talking to you and listening to whatever you have to say—even when it's boring—I just rather spend time doing that than this wyrdo test we're on. Save the best for last, you know?"
A beat.
"Ana?"
I turned towards her and sensed her hands covering her mouth from a couple feet away. I soon heard a girlish giggle—suppressed and helpless.
"You look so silly with that thing covering your eyes."
I rolled my brown pupils—not like anyone could see them. "It's part of the test."
"Pfft! I know that. Sheesh…you're so uptight. By the way, it looks cute on you."
My cheeks fought not to match the hue of the bandanna, but failed. "Th-Thanks…," I mumbled. "Now are you gonna put yours on too or am I gonna have to lie to the Master when we get back for your sake? You know how easily he looks through stuff like that!"
"Yeah…spatial awareness grand marshall, he is." I sensed Ana's limbs going about her cranium as she attached her bandanna. If it was the bandanna I remembered, it was yellow. She always loved yellow. The color made me think of her.
"Shall we do this thing?"
"Yup," Ana replied. "Keep in contact with each other."
"Sure thing."
"Just……ya know…don't 'feel' me anywhere your hands wouldn't go."
I chuckled. "What about eyes?"
"Hmmm……give me a second on that."
And then…as if like clockwork…the two of us immediately concentrated on the test in hand. Like two warriors in sync with each other, we combined our spatial senses with a merge of murk. Smoke swirled together outward from our bodies and connected. Two wielders of the waves of Construction and Destruction. It was a very intimate thing. 'Intimate' in the manner that partners of the blade connect. It was always like that for the Master's three tutors. Today, it was just Ana and I in sync. But when all three students were testing together…the resulting power was indescribable. You had to have been one of us. You had to have felt it.
"Ready?" I asked.
Ana took a breath. "Yeah…"
CHIIIIIING!!!!
CHIIIIING!!!
We unsheathed our wooden swords at once. Mine was solid black. Ana's, solid white. Both curved and blunt—save for when black murk from our smoking centers encased them and turn the staffs into blades.
I, with Myrkblade, was a moderate student. I was adept at speed. At agility. I mastered the art of evasion, short-ranged teleportation, speed, and vaporous form. I could cut through things like the thinnest razor and come screaming out the other side. My element was Wind…and yet darker than wind. A smoking wind that spoke of some unseen fire nobody could find burning. Endless smoke. Boundless murk.
Ana, with Choral, was the epitome of Earth. And yet, at the same time she was Water. But both Earth and Water would never meet in the center of her might. They always ran off each other. Untouchable. And stuck in the constant flux was a hardened force much like layers and layers of seashells congealing together after millennia of abandonment until all that's left is the white fury of eons of Life who—altogether—know what beats in the hearts of all things mortal. Whenever Ana swung Choral, breath and blood bowed down. She was powerful. She was a goddess. She was easily the most powerful of the Master's three apprentices, and she made him proud. Yet, despite her awesome power…she refrained. She depended on the spirit and fury of her two compatriots to give her support. To uphold the trifold balance. She was white life, purity, Construction at its finest. Wisdom itself.
The element of Fire, the third student, was not there that day. Though we wished he was…in that we could very easily have benefited from his passion and the impressive wield of his red blade.
"Let's go…," Ana spoke softly into the golden forest.
I nodded. When Ana commanded, nobody argued. She set sail and I provided the wind. Wisdom and Balance…earth and murk…walking side by side into maturity.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"So, let's hear your music, Raven!" Robin smiled.
Raven glanced up from her fourth book. She blinked. She returned. "It's not worth it."
I smacked my forehead.
"Surely, but it is!" Starfire exclaimed from up front. "Now that Cyborg's….erm….interesting collection has ceased, we are most curious as to what album you have selected for us to indulge in!"
"You guys wouldn't like it…"
"So?" Beast Boy shrugged. He gestured towards the progressively orange sky. "The sun's beginning to set! It's getting dark! The mood's set for 'Raven'!"
I smirked, the wind kicking at my long black locks.
Raven sighed. "All right. Robin, check the bag to your lower left."
"The one with the Martian Manhunter patch sewn into the canvass--??"
"NO!!" Raven snapped, blushed, and cleared her throat as she calmly uttered: "Ahem…look for the plaid one—"
"Oh, this?"
"Y-Yes…," Raven gulped. "Not the other bag."
I scratched my head.
Robin reached in, pulled out a CD, and tossed it at Cyborg.
"Watch it!!" Beast Boy shrieked. "We're in a convertible, ya know!"
"Take it easy, B.B.," Cyborg chuckled, jamming Raven's CD in.
"Yes, Beast Boy," Starfire giggled. "Be easy when you take it!"
"….."
The music started playing.
I leaned forward, resting my chin on my knuckles.
Raven read her book.
A series of violins and bass fiddles mingled together with a deep drum beat, creating what felt like a strangely 'rocking' take on….I dunno……celtic? Folk?
"This is interesting…," Cyborg nodded. "Very…..old fashioned and yet modern at the same time. I dunno."
The violins went into overdrive, and the voices of two female vocalists created a bitter-sweet chorus along with the drum beat beneath the layers of string instruments.
"Sounds like a Wiccan barbecue," Beast Boy suggested.
"Hardy har har….," Raven droned.
"I think I've heard them before…," Robin blinked under his mask. "What're they called?"
"Rasputina," Raven replied, her nose still in her book.
"Rasputina…," Starfire blinked. "If I'm not mistaken, earthling folklore dictates that there was a castrated Russian zombie by a similar name—"
"Different story altogether," Raven retorted. "This is Rasputina. The gothic rock artists. All fear and beware…..er…or something."
The second track on the mix played, a surprisingly melodic tune entitled 'Transylvanian Concubine'. Starfire seemed really in tune with the beat. It made me smile.
"Kinda freaking me out," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Cyborg, put back in some more of your Refrigeratorhead!"
"RADIOHEAD!!"
Raven rolled her blue eyes. "Fine…if you're all so bored. Cyborg, flip to track twelve."
"Will it put a hex on me if I don't?"
"Wanna find out?"
Cyborg quickly obeyed the dark girl.
A quick drum beat began an almost-square dance sounding tune which---by God—turned out to be the total antithesis of a square dance. I gasped and smiled as the tune rolled on.
So did the other guys.
"Dude!!" Beast Boy gasped. "I know this tune!"
"Led Zeppelin," Robin nodded his head and grinned.
"Only….like…violins. Wicked!"
It was. Rasputina echoed through the speakers a violin and bass fiddle cover of 'Rock and Roll'. It was ungodly.
"They're good," Cyborg nodded. "Why didn't you share this stuff with us before, Raven?"
"Nobody asked…….," Raven uttered. "Even though it was all right before your very eyes."
"What do you mean?" Beast Boy squinted his eyes.
Raven lowered the book in her grasp. Beast Boy noticed—for the first time—Raven's black t-shirt with an album cover on it reading: 'How We Quit the Forest'. Besides that, Raven was adorned in black, reflective jeans with a chain latched from the waist to her pocket where she housed…..er….something.
"Oh…," Beast Boy blinked.
"Leave it to you to pay attention to what I'm wearing," Raven rolled her eyes.
Beast Boy likewise rolled his. "Leave it to me to care," he hummed.
Raven shook her head and glanced at me. "People are so ignorant."
I stared at her.
"Noir??"
I blinked behind my shades and then mouthed: 'Huh?'
Raven…..slowly….returned to her book.
Starfire smiled. "The belated revelation of the music is nonetheless rewarding. Thank you, Raven."
"This isn't the only cover Rasputina's done, I don't think," Raven uttered, flipping a page in her book as the wind kicked at her blue hair. "They made a cover of 'Tourniquet'…at least I think it's a cover. Original artist was…I dunno…Marilyn Manson perhaps. God, what a poser. He thinks he's so evil and whatnot. I tell you…when you've lived your life with a real demon in your brain, famous people start to look silly. Heh."
Nobody had anything legitimate to respond to that. So we were just silent as Raven read to herself and Rasputina mourned on.
One particular song, 'A Quitter', really moved me. And I looked out at the golden sunset resting across the passing scenery and thought of mystical, dying days in the shadows…
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
As I stepped through the bodies of wood, I sensed Ana's flesh to my left side. We were both slow in our movement. Both gliding through as if the grass and underbrush were water. I was the smoke and Ana was the smooth surface. It was like warm ice.
We combined our spatial senses and shot them outward in multiple, mental directions. Spiraling together like horizontal cyclones. Our consciousnesses spiraled together, wound like rope, and felt around the forest for the synthetic object of the Master's emphasis. The treasure. The sphere. The end of our quest.
And all the time, we were perfectly blind.
I was just as lost as Ana was, or at least I thought. Out of nowhere she exclaimed in a whisper: "Jordan…I think we've found something."
I took her word for it…
"Where at?" I hissed.
"Over here…on my side."
Of course it was on her side.
We softly padded through the grass together, our white and black swords raised. Choral and Myrkblade smoked separately, but surely—as had been witnessed before whenever the Master's tutors train together—the mist had to have been commingling. A visual symbol of our combined powers.
Before us, we sensed an opening in the cedar forest. The air warmed up…and I assumed the Sun was shining in through a clearing above. What's more, I lifted my nose and could smell an air of moisture settling down. Like floating rust. It was going to storm by the end of that night--
WHUMP!!!
I fell over. "Dah!!"
"Jordan??" I sensed Ana lift the yellow bandanna from her eyes. She took one look at me and giggled girlishly. "Well…I don't know if that deducts points or wins us the grade!"
"H-Huh?!" I whipped off my red bandanna and looked beneath me. As my brown eyes focused in on clearing in the golden forest, I realized I had tripped on a smooth, metal sphere sticking out of a pike in the tall grass. "Awww jeez."
Ana giggled some more, Choral dangling by her side. "Nice job…hotshot. Leave it to you to stumble for a good grade!"
I stood up, brushing myself off with one hand while gripping Myrkblade in the other. "Well…some of us have to resort to desperation, ya know."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"Whatever."
Ana wandered over and knelt in front of the metal object. "So……um…do we take this back to the Manor or something?"
"Sounds like a good idea."
"And it is so…," Ana smiled, reaching for the metal sphere.
Suddenly, there was a gasp of light.
She gasped and stood up.
I looked at her.
"W-Wasn't me!" she exclaimed.
Shadows dropped down all around us.
SWIIIIISH!!!
SWOOOSH!!
Ana and I instantly posed into battle-ready positions, our swords held high. We eyed with brown and blue eyes a circle of what appeared to be………black ninjas. Silently gathered on all sides. Katanas and shuriken in their grasp.
Ana gulped. "Anybody you know?"
I took a breath. "Something tells me we're about to get really, really intimate."
The 'ninjas' glared…and they dove at us.
"DEFEND!" Ana shouted.
Heck yeah……
I dove forward, slashing hard at two attackers in the forest clearing with Myrkblade while Choral danced behind me.
SWOOOOOOSH!!!
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Aerosmith….," Cyborg mumbled. The T-Car rolled along under a darkening sky as Steven Tyler shouted away the lyrics to 'Jaded' in endless rhythm and….well…his Steven Tyler voice. Cyborg glanced back in the rear view mirror and again uttered: "Aerosmith…."
"Got a problem with that?" Robin's arms folded. "I tell you…they've been around forever, man!"
"Yeah, I know that but……..Aerosmith?"
"Yes. I've always been an Aerosmith fan. Always am. Always will be. Even if I were to die tomorrow at the hands of Plasmus or Lex Luthor or something…I'd still have 'Sweet Emotion' carved on my grave."
"Robin!" Starfire exclaimed. "Please, do not say that!"
Robin sweatdropped. "You're right. I think I'd have 'Back in the Saddle' on my gravestone…"
"No! The dying part!" Starfire pouted. "You must never die!"
"Oh, that," Robin blushed. "Heheheh—I wasn't being serious—"
"You must never die, Robin! You understand?"
"Okay! Okay, Star! I'll live forever!!" Robin chuckled. "I give!"
"You had better stay alive," Starfire 'frowned'. "It would be most harrowing if you died."
"Somebody's gonna get 'harrowed' one of these days," Raven muttered to her fifth book.
I elbowed her.
"…………'ow'."
The T-Car's speakers shook happily as 'Love In an Elevator' rolled out with the bass.
A beat.
"Well," Beast Boy smugly lifted a finger, "I like it!"
At that, half of the T-Car burst out laughing.
Robin pouted, his arms folded. "Okay then. Friends, Titans, countrymen…lend me your stigmas. What band do you think the Boy Wonder should be listening to?"
"I'd start with the Doobie Brothers and work up from there," Cyborg said.
Beast Boy laughed.
"Oooh!! How about Elton of the John??" Starfire beamed, a finger held up.
Beast Boy flushed with laughter.
Even Raven smirked slightly at that.
I gestured something in the air.
Cyborg watched me in the rear view mirror, turned it around and read it backwards and somehow managed to drive at the same time while interpreting: 'The Singing Nun.'
More chuckles.
Robin glared at me.
I grinned.
"Everyone's in on it…," the Boy Wonder shook his head.
We sighed and relaxed our sore mouths as 'Fly Away From Here' drifted by in a thrash of powerful melancholy.
"Okay…," Robin breathed—apparently happy with his self indulgence. "Starfire's turn."
"Me??" Starfire replied, as if shocked. "I was not aware that I could share too!"
"Of course you can, Star!" Robin smiled from the back seat. "You did pick out an album, right?"
"Well…yes but….I feel ashamed…"
"Why's that?" Cyborg remarked, already switching discs to an open slot for a new CD.
"I have not memorized all the song titles of my current favorite musical prodigy among earth's artistic elite. Nor have I memorized the band's name. All I know is that this compacted disc—" she held up a case as she spoke "---contains tunes which I consider most passionately glorious!"
"Well…grab bag!" Beast Boy smiled. "Pop the sucker in!"
"That sounded dirty…," Raven droned.
I glanced at her.
"Here you go, Cyborg," Starfire generously smiled and handed his free hand the disc. "Pop the sucker gently."
The android cleared his throat and slipped the disc in.
"Forgive me if the music is anything but appealing…," the Tamaranian modestly said.
"Take it easy…," Raven droned. "We can deal."
"Besides…," Beast Boy grinned, leaning back. "This is 'Starfire' music we're about to listen to! It can't be anymore surprising than what Robin's into!"
And the speakers proceeded to crackle forth a flurry of screams, insane guitar rifts, and schizophrenic tempo.
Cyborg nearly lost control of the wheel.
Beast Boy blinked. "Uhm…..I-I stand corrected."
"Heeeee," Starfire melted into her seat. She clasped her hands together and leaned her fair head towards the speakers where the screams emanated from. "This musical 'band' sings with such righteous fury! I wish I knew their name." A beat. She glanced back at the others. "Friends! Why are you suddenly so mute!"
I shrugged and pointed at the others.
"You don't know who this band is, Star?" Robin remarked…quite amused.
She shook her head. "No, I am not aware."
"It's System of a Down. Nobody told you that?"
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Hardly…," Raven blurted.
I smirked.
'Toxicity' warbled on into the growingly dark air as we zoomed down a highway with lights flickering to life on either side of us.
"Well…," Cyborg smiled, beating his titanium fingers to the wheel of his car and the beat. "I'm certainly more awake than I was back in Steven Tyler land."
Robin fumed.
"I'd say we better find a place to eat before crashing for the night. Man…I'm up for almost anything! Let's just find some field somewhere to hitch up our tents and…like…start a fire or something!"
"Yeah!!" Beast Boy jumped.
"You like the idea of a campfire?"
"No! Food!"
Cyborg rolled his human eye. In the meantime, 'Innervision' came through the speakers and kept our shadowed hearts pumping.
"Why do you like this stuff so much, Starfire?" Raven asked over her book. "To be honest, it just doesn't seem……'you'. System of a Down is not about the color pink or warm fuzzy things."
"If you had experienced the Second Gordanian War of the Reformed Cosmos, you would greatly appreciate how an angry heart lets loose its frustration in the form of singing. As tranquil as my Tamaranian culture wishes to be, our history—even recent history—is filled to the brim with bloody conflicts during which we had to defend our homeland. To speak of the honor and glory of our fight for survival, we commemorate epic poems of lyrical quality concerning the legendary events. It is not uncommon to read off such poetry with a passionate fervor similar to the Downed System."
"System of a Down."
"Yes…them."
"Guess that makes sense, Star," Robin uttered. A beat. "You ought to share with us about that war sometime."
Raven glanced at Robin. So did I.
Starfire blinked. "Yes…," she smiled. "It would feel….good to share such with my friends.
Cyborg and Beast Boy smiled.
'Spiders' came out low and sad through the speakers…then built up. And as it did so, the ghosts from the passing fields reawakened in my dark head. I leaned back, stared up at the pinprick stars appearing above, and took my shades off.
I sighed…inhaling the rushing air in.
"I think I see a place up ahead to eat!"
"Boo-ya!! Good eye, Beast Boy! Let's get to it!"
"Glorious!"
Well…that was short lived.
My head, however, felt eternal….
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
SLASH!!!!
I struck the blade of a black ninja. Surprisingly, there was no sound of our clashing blades. I didn't even feel the impact of our weapons. But I could easily see the recoil of the attacker from my blow. I advanced on him and another shadowed fighter with Myrkblade at full swing.
On the other side of the clearing, Ana was slashing hard at a throng of ninjas surrounding her. She swung Choral high and low. Each attacker jumped back, pacing around her cautiously. None of them made a single noise. Not even a rush of wind. Ana's sapphire eyes narrowed. She seemed troubled by all this.
My feet churned across the gold-illuminated grass between cedars. I blurred, ran up a cedar tree, bounced off, and swiftly sailed down at three ninja with a heavy swing of Myrkblade. Two escape the blow, but one stood straight in the path of my sword slash.
I gasped.
Why wasn't he moving?
SWOOOSH!!
I clenched my eyes shut—wincing. After landing, I opened my eyes.
The ninja was still standing there…even though I could have sword my sword went straight through his torso.
"Um……y-you allright?" I stupidly asked.
The shadow flew at me.
"YAAK!!" I blocked blindly, barely avoiding the attacker's charge.
Ana squinted her eyes at this. She looked back at her opponents. They paced around her soundlessly.
Soundlessly…
Ana glanced down. She gasped.
The grass blades weren't bending under the fiend's feet.
And—as always—Ana figured it all out. She spun around, abandoned her attackers, and ran at me.
"Jordan!!"
"Ana!! Don't let your guard down!"
"Stop fighting!" she dove at me.
"What—OOF!"
She closed her arms around my, pinning my sword arm down.
"A-Ana!!" I stuttered, sweating as I saw my invaders coming at me. "Let me go!! They'll hack us to pieces!"
"No they won't!! Trust me!! This is all part of the test!"
"But---"
The ninjas dove.
"Trust me!!"
I did. I hugged her back.
SWOOOOOSH!!!
The attackers came through us. Their bodies sailed into ours…and emerged on the other side. Their forms warbled like the vapors of a mirage.
I stammered: "Wh-What?"
Suddenly, all the ninjas paused…and disappeared. They flickered out of existence.
I blinked.
There was a whirring sound.
Ana and I spun around as the metal sphere lifted up on a cylinder. It flashed white strobes through us. We spun around as the image of our Master appeared in four and a half foot glory atop the blades of grass.
"A hologram……," I murmured.
"Yes, Jordan," Ana leaned in and whispered. "Holograms…"
A speaker was in the cylinder beneath the sphere. It came to life and broadcasted audio in tune with our holographic teacher's moving mouth. He uttered something short and sharp in Japanese.
Ana and I immediately sheathed our respective blades and stood up straight, our hands to our sides.
Our Master sighed exasperatingly. "Why did you take your bandannas off?? Why did you let down your spatial awareness??"
We glanced at each other.
"Speak up!!" he was a short man with a thick, Japanese-American accent. Balding head. Almond eyes made even thinner by aged wrinkles. He was well into his seventh decade.
Ana—as always—was the braver of the two. She was the bravest of us all.
"Master…we found the sphere. We thought the test was over…"
"It was not over! It had begun!" the Master emphasized with a shake of the holographic finger. "Do you not see what you had done?"
I bit my lip. "Um…I-I did sorta trip over the sphere and—"
"No! You relied on sight!" the 'Master' leaned forward. "How many times have I taught you that sight is superficial? It is the great lie of this world! The impurity that betrays us! We are blinded by seeing itself, and the best way to see things is to not see anything at all. You have the powers of Construction and Destruction inside of you…you have the power to discern what is real from what is fake. You shouldn't have even fought the holograms to begin with! Who are we to know when—someday—we think we are fighting an enemy and it turns out to be a spirit of innocence? Sight is only an idea! Do not let it be the focal point of your actions!"
Ana and I stared down at the ground.
"We understand now, Master," Ana nodded. "We have failed the test."
"No! You do not understand! You never understand!" The Master's hologram lifted a finger. "You learn! Learning is all you'll ever do. Only if you achieve another Plane Beyond…then you might understand. But understanding is not for those whose lives are ruled by sight. And as it is fated, sight is both our greatest deceiver and our closest companion. We must learn to deal with it…always finding ways to sneak around it as it sneaks on us like a thief in the night! We are always fighting…and as such, we are always learning."
The two tutors nodded.
I smirked and stammered: "So…w-we learned well today, right?"
"No!"
I winced.
"Though…not a failing grade. Journey back to the Manor. I anticipate your arrival by supper time tomorrow."
"Hope we find a train going the other way…," Ana mumbled to me.
"What was that??" the speaker crackled in cadence with the hologram.
Ana—flustered—cleared her throat. "We will attempt to be there as fast as possible, sir." She bowed.
I smiled and bowed too.
The Master had a sudden grin on his face only found in old creatures of the human race. He uttered: "Do be back promptly, students. I know how easy it is for you two in particular to spend time idly."
The both of us did double-takes…and blushed.
"Th-That's not true!" Ana protested.
I cleared my throat. "We'll be returning now, Master. Thank you for the lesson."
"B-B-But……," Ana looked at me.
"Cover the sphere with leaves as you go. Farewell." The hologram disappeared, the speaker died, and the cylinder slid back down into the earth. I proceeded to gather leaves and bits of earth and hide the metal object beneath them.
"You're gonna just let him say stuff like that without protesting?" Ana exclaimed.
"What's to protest?" I smirked. "I'm certainly feeling like being' idle'. How about you?"
"…………," she stared at me. She blinked. "Jordan…will I ever understand you?"
I stood up, brushing my hands free of soil. "Am I really that complex?"
"No."
"Hehehehehehe," I chuckled. "So much for my ego."
Thunder rolled.
We both looked up. A drop or two of water padded on our face, and we both flinched cutely at the same time.
We were fifteen.
"When it rains…it pours," Ana smirked, wiping the rainwater from her eyes.
"Ana…did anyone tell you that you're dreadfully literal?"
More thunder. More drops.
Ana grabbed my hand and rushed through the forest, giggling. "Come on! We'll get soaked!"
"Whoah! Slow down!"
"Hehehehe!"
We must have gotten failing grades.
We didn't care…
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Cracker Barrel…," Raven mumbled. "I cannot believe we are sitting and eating at a Cracker Barrel."
We were.
We sat at a small wooden table in the center of the dimly lit restaurant, an oil lamp between our respective plates and glasses. Tons of families and traveling folk filled the rest of the occupancy, as the place was always busy in every part of the East and Southeast. Every now and then, a random glance or gasp would announce that someone had recognized us—the Titans—outside of our costumes and sitting down to eat at a highway rest stop. Cyborg was usually the dead give-away in such cases. Seeing that all he wears is all he wears—titanium goodness. Cyborg and Beast Boy were having breakfast for supper. Robin and Starfire shared chicken and dumplings. Raven had a steaming mug of tea or two and I had a nice, big plate of salad.
"What're you talking about??" Cyborg grinned. "This is Americana at its best!"
"Yes!" Beast Boy jumped. "I, for one, am making the best that I can of it! 'Always good to fraternize with the local culture', that's my motto!" the changeling grinned, bubbled about, and greeted every waiter and roadster who passed by the table with a smile and a nonchalant wave: "I just want you to know that I greatly respect Redneck culture. Yes, Ronald Reagan was a good president. I firmly believe that. Howdy! God's blessings, one and all!"
Robin chuckled, meanwhile Raven planted a hand over her face.
I was halfway through picking through my salad when the shivers hit.
I flinched openly and gritted my teeth…but nobody seemed to see. The coldness swept down from my center and outward through my body. My metal left hand shook and rattled. I gripped it, swallowed, and tried to wait out the waves of false 'coldness' sweeping through my body and hoping nobody took notice of it.
"So we'll hit the beaches tomorrow?" Robin asked.
"Yup," Cyborg nodded. "Gotta find a place to camp first. But that shouldn't be a problem. This is the countryside we're in anyways."
"You do seem a maverick of the road, Cyborg."
"Yeah…well…it's when we get to the water that I'll leave it up to you to ramp things up."
"Are you adept at the water as Cyborg is to the asphalt, Robin?" Starfire asked, her green eyes twinkling.
"I'm no pro by any means…," Robin smirked and leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head. "But I've been known to swim laps around Batgirl once before."
"If anyone could beat Batgirl at the 'breast stroke', I'd be surprised," Beast Boy remarked. "Hehehehehe!"
Robin glared.
"Ahem…," Beast Boy sweatdropped.
My teeth chattered. I hugged myself, but tried not to show it.
Shaking, I glanced over—and froze upon realizing that I had the full attention of Raven's gaze.
She blinked at me, returned to her sixth book, and gently slid a mug of warm tea my way without looking up.
I nodded silently with clenched teeth, eagerly took the mug, and sipped from it. Perhaps it was psychosomatic…but it seemed to do the trick. The shivers went away. My titanium hand was no longer 'numb'. Again…I had recovered.
I took a deep breath.
"So…Cy," Beast Boy leaned over. "Got some snazzy trunks to show off to the ladies tomorrow?"
"Pfft! My titanium skin's enough for an ocean dip, thank you."
"Eww….every time you say that, it sounds like you're naked," Beast Boy mad a face.
Cyborg winked. "Only because—technically—I am naked."
"………so…..um…..your skinny dipping tomorrow?"
"Yup."
"And that doesn't bother you?"
"Nope. Does it bother you?"
"Well…."
"Nothing for me to be ashamed of."
"Sure there is! People will be there! Lots of people—and BABES—on the beach! They'll take one look at you and shriek at the indecency!"
"I'd have to have organic genitalia first in order for that to happen," Cyborg grunted.
Beast Boy winced. "Okaaaaaay. Didn't need to know that. Ahem….Pass the dumplings!"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
A matter of minutes later, and we were out on the road again. And everything was blurring by as we headed blindly down the asphalt river again. And even though we were heading southward, I still had the feel of the West stirring in my body. Like hair growing back after two or three days of forgetting to shave. My past was sprouting out and blooming ugly in my face. And though I enjoyed the trip and the music and—the company, I felt helplessly alone. Helplessly suspended in the shell of my mind and the constant echoes of friends long disappeared ricocheting off the inner walls of my skull--
"Hello??? Earth to Noir!"
I snapped out of it.
I looked to my right beyond Raven.
I the passing glow of one lamppost after another, I noticed Beast Boy and Robin and Starfire staring at me.
"That's the third time we called your name, dude," Changeling uttered. "You falling asleep or something?"
I smiled and shrugged.
"It's your turn!"
I raised an eyebrow.
"You know…," Robin smirked.
"Share your music with usssss!" Starfire clasped her hands together and hopped in her seat. "Hehehehe!"
I smiled bashfully. I glanced up ahead.
Cyborg noticed me in the rear-view mirror and said: "Well, naturally you brought some tunes of your own, right?"
I nodded. I bent over and reached into a small bag and produced a cd case.
"Starfire, will you do the honor? I'm negotiating our way around two semis up ahead."
"Gladly," she took my CD and ritualistically jammed it into the deck like Cyborg had done so much in the afternoon earlier.
"Lemme guess…Frank Sinatra," Beast Boy lifted his eyebrows.
I rolled my black eyes.
As 'my music' started to crackle forth through the speakers, Raven glanced up from her seventh book suddenly and craned her fair ears.
Robin and Cyborg likewise listened intently.
I leaned against the side of the car and sighed as the memories washed over.
It was folk music…with two voices in perfect cadence with each other. One song would be soft and melancholy, while the other upbeat and provocative. But there was this overall sense of tragedy in the music…like some everlasting epithet to life itself.
"Simon and Garfunkel…huh?" Robin remarked. "I should have guessed."
'Sound of Silence' came and went, having its expected affect on everyone.
"Dude, that's a classic," Beast Boy smirked at me. "Good choice."
I shrugged. I gestured in mid-air.
Somehow—even with darkness falling—Cyborg looked in the rear view mirror and read aloud: "He says that the next song is really close to his heart."
"Fascinating…," Raven smirked slightly as she listened.
Starfire leaned an ear in.
I looked off towards the side.
It was 'The Boxer'. A folk epic that only Simon and Garfunkel could deliver. With its perfect melody of the two singers and the gentle acoustic guitar proceeding onward into softness with a subtle accompaniment of a mouth organ at one point and a foot-beat at another. The Titans seemed overall impressed. But I didn't expect too much from their faces or reactions. Not a single one of them could have known what the song meant to me. How it connected with a time in my life when I reemerged upon the world as a freak. When everything I once loved and believed in had been wrenched away and I was truly, utterly, inescapably alone And all I could do besides eat, breathe, and shit was constantly run away eastward from this aching pain that I felt—in some figurative fashion or another—I was mentally (if not physically) reentering subconsciously on this trip. The voices of the two singers ran through me, echoing in some black, black darkness that matched the smoke in my blood. The smoke that only I shared because the earth and the fire—the wisdom and the passion—had been stolen from my life without any promise of return and every waking day of my living and fighting with the Titans was an attempt to either make up or outgrow that incalculable loss.
I sighed…..
"Beautiful…," Starfire uttered breathlessly as the song came to its crashing end and returned with full force to the soft acoustic guitar before fading away like so many a mortal life does on this bleak, bleak earth.
"Says a lot, Noir," Robin uttered.
I raised an eyebrow. I looked at the Boy Wonder.
"I think so, at least," he said. For a second there, I wondered if he truly knew what it all meant. But I knew he didn't.
"Now's high time I find a place for us to camp…," Cyborg said, eyeing the fields we passed.
"Agreed," Starfire nodded. Everyone was suddenly exhausted by the song, or so I assumed. "Beast Boy's babes will be promptly waiting for him at the shores tomorrow."
"Don't lead him on…," Raven droned.
Beast Boy shrugged. He seemed absorbed by the music suddenly. Music tames the wild beast.
At some point, the track switched to 'Cecilia', and we all felt in better spirits.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
The flickering amber light of a campfire danced across Starfire's face. She stared into the flames, hugging her knees.
"The apex of the experience began when the Gordanian ship I was imprisoned in fell hard into the planet's surface. Ironically enough, there was a fierce ground battle taking place in the exact plain where the ship crashed. The Plain of Flight, as it is called today. Sometime shortly following the crash, I woke up and realized I was no longer in the prison cell. There was no stasis field canceling out my powers. So I—and a few other Tamaranian freedom fighters—fought our way to the bridge of the collapsed Gordanian flagship. We acquired the communication signal frequencies of the enemy from the computer stations and then made a dangerous flight towards the besieged capital of Tamaran. We had barely arrived safely, but when we did—the data we brought with us was priceless. It exposed the locations of the Gordanian's Cloaked Squadron. Our starfighters and galactic mavericks forced them to retreat…and the Second Gordanian War of the Reformed Cosmos took its campaign away from our home planet. A blarthoid and a half later, and the conflict ended with a truce. Things have been tense—but peaceful ever since. I was thirteen Earth years at the time."
Silence.
"Wow." Cyborg uttered, leaning forward and looking at Starfire with wonder through the flames. "That was awfully brave of you to have gone through, Star."
"Yeah…," Robin patted her shoulder with a bare, uncostumed hand and smiled proudly. "Undoubtedly you've seen a lot more action than most of us had at such an age."
"That, I cannot say for sure," Starfire blinked her bright green eyes. "The limits of my extraordinary experience are that of my own life. I hold no pride in the part I played in the relaying of crucial data, but rather I was merely ecstatic to be reunited with my sister."
Raven raised an eyebrow. "Blackfire?"
"Yes…before she was treacherous, she was merely a beloved sister of mine," Starfire said. "In fact, my admiration for her has not changed. A sibling's love outshines evilness, I'm concerned."
"Man…Tamaranian family values…," Beast Boy shook his head, roasting marshmallows by himself. "There's a lot right there us earthlings could learn from!"
"Show me a sibling of mine first and maybe I'll consider it," Raven droned.
Beast Boy stuck his tongue out.
"I must admit…," Starfire chuckled and stared at the ground, hugging herself. "I did hug Blackfire quite adamantly that day. War will make you desperate for personal touch. In any fashion. Because there's always so much waste involved—and at the same time, so much sacrifice."
Silence.
I glanced up after nobody had said much of anything anymore. All the faces of the vacationing Titans seemed suddenly weathered. At first, I thought the exhaustion of a full day of travel was wearing down on their bodies and hearts. But there was a definite touch of melancholy there. It worried me up until Starfire tilted her face up through the flames….and looked directly at me.
"Noir….when we last saw Terra…a-alive, that is…," the Tamaranian spoke, "…she proved herself trustworthy to us in the end in one manner and in one manner only."
I listened silently.
Beast Boy sighed and looked at the flames. Cyborg placed a gentle hand of titanium on his shoulder.
Starfire continued, her head cocked to the side: "Terra….s-sacrificed everything for us. Perhaps it was an attempt at subconscious self-obliteration that she turned herself to stone while stopping the volcano. But there is no doubt that she desired our safety and the safety of the entire City. After all of her betrayal…of all the things she had done to us, we needed only one thing from her to earn our everlasting admiration. And that was sacrifice."
The alien girl's eyes fell, and I knew instantly that she—and every other Titan—was finally staring at my left hand after hours of riding in the back of the T-Car and resisting the urge.
"When you sacrificed yourself for us, Noir…..it was more than enough to win our trust. True, we were beginning to suspect your innocence in regards to the situation of the Third Apprentice…but what you did…what it took for you to save all of us…it is something we will never forget. Never."
Robin leaned forward. "We can't ever begin to say thank you….or to apologize."
I lifted an eyebrow.
"To apologize for ever doubting you….," Robin said. "Trust me…such betrayal—on our part—will never happen ever again. For a while there while you joined our ranks…we were so boiling over with pain and distrust and angst—we forgot the sacrifice Terra had performed and the immensity of her action. What you did hammered it all in once and for all. We owe our lives and our continued chance at being brave for the City to forces beyond just us five alone. We needed you, Noir. We always did. We're sorry that we turned our back on you. And at the same time…we're so thankful."
"So very thankful indeed…," Starfire nodded.
I glanced around.
All the Titans were staring at me. Even Raven. Warmth and cold in their eyes all the same.
Melting.
I groaned inwardly.
I stood up and gestured.
'Time for bed', Cyborg interpreted.
Everyone's head hung low as I walked slowly…coldly towards my tent.
I paused.
"………….."
I turned around.
I walked over to Starfire, knelt down, and hugged her.
She seemed a bit startled—but in true Tamaranian fashion, she smiled and hugged me warmly back.
Robin was…….generous in his distance.
After about forty seconds, the hug parted…and the night ended.
Everyone headed respectably to the tent that he or she was sharing with another.
I took a few minutes to stare off beyond where the T-Car was parked at a length of field stretching before dark trees.
I sighed…
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"Jeez!! We're getting all wet!!"
"I know!! Hehehe!!"
"Can't we just…ya know…blur our way back to the manor and be done with it?!"
"I don't know my way out of this forest, do you?!"
"Crap……come to think of it……"
"We're lost!"
"We are not!! We're just………okay, so we're lost."
"And soaking! Don't forget soaking!"
"Lost and soaking. Look, heaven awaits us over there!"
"Yes! Good eyes, Jordan!"
"Hurry up! It's starting to pour!"
Ana and I hurriedly ran—hand in hand—into the rotted out cave of a giant cedar tree where it was dry from the sudden monsoon of inclement, Pacific weather drenching us from all around.
We were soaked…shivering…and immaturely giddy. I laughed, wringing the water out of my bandanna and tossing it to the mulch-laden ground.
Ana giggled, her girlish voice echoing in the 'cave'. She ran a few hands through her short, angelic hair and shook the droplets loose from the blonde wisps. Funny—in a cute way—we had almost the same length of hair at the time.
"Man…if we stay here much longer, Master's gonna chew our guts out," I muttered.
"You think he expects us to trudge through the downpour for one hundred and fifty miles?"
"Uh……yeah!"
"Hehe……good point."
"Heheheheh…"
We both stared out into the mist and moisture-laden forest. Even though it was raining heavily, the sun was still out. It was one of those queer thunderstorms when barely the edge of a cloud formation was dumping off all the excess moisture, and there was still plenty of sky being skewered by the sun so that the forest stretching out from beyond was still golden with the solar rays as the water drifted down like liquid platinum and splattered over green leaves and underbrush.
Steam was evaporating about our feet and rising up into a dissipating cloud where our heads bent low to avoid the tree-cave's 'ceiling'.
"Heh……," Ana uttered, her eyes blazing blue into the gold aura. "It's the Big Bang."
I looked at her funny. Every now and then, some stupid little 'unstupid' thing like that would come from her mouth. She was like that.
She looked over at me. She smiled ten religions at once.
We were at eye level. Blue eyes and brown eyes. Temporary lives with eternal destinies.
Nobody took the lead. We both just leaned in at once and our lips made contact. But it wasn't the sort of sloppy, forced kiss of overpopularized sexuality like on every Hollywood production between here and Hoboken. It was a gentle contact. Like reminding each other that we had a thing layer of skin over our lips and nothing more. But oh so warm and soft…and living.
Whatever started as a kiss turned into an embrace. Soaked shirt to soaked shirt and soaked arms to soaked arms. I pivoted my shoulders up and gently placed my hands on either side of Ana's temples as I tilted forward and rested my forehead to hers. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and took a hot breath against my scar-less neck. The steam was rising around us. And yet we shivered. My fingers gently nestled in her stringy-wet, angel hair and I smelled her in. I wanted to cry.
"Hehehe…," Ana awkwardly giggled against my neck. "Something you find absurdly fascinating about my skull, Jordan?"
"Yeah…….," I breathed, "…it talks to me."
She simply smiled at that and retreated into the crook of my neck, as if she was equally obsessed with my throat as I was obsessed with her hair. And we drifted into a gentle rock and sway together in such jigsaw perfection. And I felt honored…for in such, Ana was resting against me, as if I could support her. And I did the best that I could…for I knew enough for the both of us that a moment like this would be only once in a life time.
And I was so damn right.
And I was so damn right……
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
It was well into two and a half hours of slumber that the sobbing woke me up. Better yet—it woke up Robin, who then woke me up.
"Noir…..Noir!!" he hissed while shaking my shoulder.
The two of us were sharing a tent. Cyborg and Beast Boy were in another. The girls had their own.
I stirred awake, took off my sleeping mask and blinked up at him with naked, black eyes.
"I-I think there's something wrong!" he whispered hoarsely. His eyemask reflected moonlight like the lonely eyes of a Pac-Man ghost inside the tent. "Do you hear that?"
I groggily sat up and craned my neck.
I froze.
Sobbing.
"It's Starfire!" Robin exclaimed. He was sweating. "C-Come!" He motioned as he unzipped the tent and crawled out onto the grass of the night-shrouded field.
I scampered after him.
We both approached the girl's tent. As we got closer and closer—it was obvious. There was a distraught soul inside the tent. A stirring figure tossed and turned.
Starfire's sobs lit the nearby air.
"R-Robin……Robin!" she warbled softly—but still in a haunting tone of slumbering desperation. "Robin…don't give in! I-I won't let him get you!"
The Boy Wonder gulped. "She's having a nightmare." He shook the door flap to the tent. "Star?? Star?! Wake up! It's Robin! Wake up, Star!"
She stirred even more on the inside. Her voice wracked sadly: "No! Slade! How dare you! L-Leave him alone!"
The Boy Wonder sweated bullets. "Raven?! Are you awake?!" No response.
He fumbled at the tent flap for the zipper handle. But bother were securely on the inside.
"Damn it…," Robin shook. He looked at me. "Noir! You gotta help me out! Teleport inside or something so that you can let me in!"
I raised an eyebrow. I glanced at the tent. I mouthed: "Girls!"
"I know it's their tent!!" Robin shook my shoulders. He was desperate. "Please! I gotta get to Starfire!" I stared at him. Slowly, I nodded.
"N-No! Slade!! You fiend!! Do not kill him! I would gladly give my life for him to live!!"
I took a deep breath, concentrated, turned to smoke form, and drifted myself in a blink of an eye through the folds and zipper of the tent flap. Once on the inside, I solidified. I could see the sleeping bodies of Raven and Starfire a good space apart. The tall one of the two was visibly shaking and turning in sleep.
I took a deep breath, spun around, and unzipped the double flaps. Robin practically dove in and crawled past me to Starfire's side.
"Star! Star! Wake up!"
"No!! Robin!! Robin!! Slade is going to torture us and kill you!!"
"Star!!" Robin shook her. "It's okay!! Please!"
"Do not die, Robin! Do not die! DO NOT DIE—" the alien girl shot up, eye wide and glowing green. She was sweating all over and panting.
"Star….," Robin breathed, staring her in the face and strongly gripping her shoulders. "It's okay! We're no longer hostages of Slade's! We got out, remember? Slade is dead and we got out!"
Starfire stared at him. Her red hair a mess. Clinging a blanket to her PJ-covered torso…all shivering.
"Starfire….say something…please….."
"You are….u-undamaged?" Starfire's lip quivered. Green colored tears streamed down her alien cheeks.
Robin took a deep breath and forced a smile for her to believe in. "Yeah, Star! I'm okay! See? I'm smiling! I'm safe! It was just a nightmare. Slade is gone. Gone for good. We're all okay."
"Oh Robin…," Starfire hugged him and sobbed. "I am sorry…I am so sorry I could not do anything….I am so sorry…."
Robin bit his lip and patted her shoulder. "It's…o-okay, Star. I promise."
"P-Please do not die…," Starfire shook, holding him tightly and shivering as the tears sprang loose. "I do not want you to die, Robin. S-So many g-good people died on that Gordanian ship an-and I watched them all go. All friends of m-mine. I do not want my n-new friends to perish as well. Please, Robin…do not die….please do not die…"
The Boy Wonder held her close, gently rocking her to tranquility as the sobs rode their waves through her system.
I stroked my forehead…sighing and swallowing down an exhausted lump in my scarred throat.
I glanced down at Raven and was startled to see the moonlight reflecting off her open, blue eyes.
The dark girl was staring straight at me in the dark. She had been the whole time since Robin and I entered. After a few seconds of emotionless gaze being shared between the two of us, she turned around—faced her haunting gaze away—and settled back into her sleeping bag…falling asleep. Impervious. And it was at precisely that moment that I got the shivers again.