69. Hidden Sun part 1

Suddenly things become unsound
Stumbling on the shaky ground
Given arrows to shoot tornadoes down
Shoot them down, to the ground

Saw a falling leaf, a good luck jump to grab
Much to our surprise, a butterfly
Then it sunk in this enduration,
enduration in our lives

Inside ourselves
A hidden sun that burns and burns
But never does any harm to anyone

Shivering madly in the dark
Like an animal abandoned in the car park
And she held me and then she showed me the
Beauty of the human heart

Inside ourselves,
A hidden sun that burns, and burns
But never does any harm to anyone
A hidden sun that burns, and burns
But never does any harm to anyone,
anyone, oooh, anyone.

.-~-."Hidden Sun" by Barenaked Ladies

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A puffy white cloud swarmed high overhead, blocking out the Sun.

Starfire looked up. She tilted her head to the side. Her green eyes narrowed.

The cloud passed out from having squeezed out the sun as quickly as it appeared. The warmth was once again filtering down the thin air and making things all nice and toasty again in the noonday.

To the alien girl, it felt like a guiding light from home was winking at her.

The Tamaranian giggled, lowered her head, and continued her trek down the hill. A hill that was one of many hills. And the many hills dotted the side of a mountain. And the mountain sloped to the East side of the Blue Ridge where we had all paused at a rest stop along the winding, elevated roads to collect our wits and fill our stomach. It was many miles and a good many hours from our starting point: our hotel on the beach.

Here we were now, cutting our way gently into North Carolina.

"Friends! Is not the sky beautiful today?" Starfire mused as she came down from a bank of trees up on a higher plateau. "It is like the sky parted into blue around the mountains just in time for our visit!"

"Yeah Yeah, Starfire…we hear ya," Beast Boy nodded absent-mindedly and swiftly returned to the miniature radio in his grasp as he leaned back against the T-Car. "Come on! Drive it to the goal! Drive it to the goal!"

There was a resounding crash of disappointed crowd murmurs through the speaker of the radio.

"Awwwwww! Burn!" Beast Boy frowned. "How hard is it to kick a ball into a lousy goal, for once!"

"I never know you were a soccer fan, B.B.," Cyborg said, polishing the hood to the T-Car a few feet away.

"I'm not…," Beast Boy said. "Up here in these mountains…this is the best station I can get. Everything's in Italian. Only, I recognize 'goal'!"

"How do you know which team to root for!"

"The sexy one," Beast Boy snickered.

"How can you tell that from a radio!"

"Dude. It's all in Italian. I know!"

Another rush of murmurs through the crackling speakers then a stereotypical announcer shouting: "GOAAAAAAAL!"

"YES!" Beast Boy hopped. "Go Sicily!….er…or whoever!"

Cyborg shook his head.

"I see now…," Starfire remarked. "It is customary of Italians to run endlessly around a field and kick a ball into white nets! Perhaps that would explain the transitional government that Robin is constantly claiming that they fail to check up on—"

"I never even knew Italians PLAYED soccer!" Cyborg said to Beast Boy.

"Dude! Duh! It's like Canadians playing American Football! It happens!"

"Yeah…with wyrd-ass fields, they do!"

"What'd you know! You're not Canadian!"

"I've never seen you north of the dividing line, yankee!"

Starfire sighed. She wandered over towards the far side of the rest stop, alone.

Raven and Robin sat on a bench, looking over a map.

"Are you sure you know the way to get to Asheville, Robin?"

"Hey…I was tutored by a detective who runs around the City with twin-peaking cowls over his head. I think I know what it means to acquire a sense of direction!"

"I was not trying to interrogate you, Robin…," Raven blinked. "My only concern is that we've spent two hours on this mountainside's roads alone…and it still doesn't seem like we've made any cardinal progress westward. It would be prudent—I believe—that we construct new means of reaching our destination."

"I'd love to have you and Starfire just…ya know…fly us over the mountains in the T-Car…but that'll probably be breaking a rule or something. I'm strange to this state."

"I couldn't have guessed…."

"Greetings, fellow travelers," Starfire walked up, clasped her hands together, and smiled. "Do you require any assistance with your navigation?"

"Uh….yeah, sure, Star. Just hang on a second. Now look…if we followed this down to the ravine and swung north…we could take an indirect route there."

"I say we should just stop and ask for directions!"

"Not if we don't need to! See! Bam! Instant success if we take that route!"

"Typical guys….."

"Huh?"

"That route will lead us nowhere. You can't make up a solution. I can't make up a solution. I don't see how Beast Boy or Cyborg together could collectively come up with something. We need…to ask…for directions."

"Perhaps if I were to fly up into the air—" Starfire gestured "—and provide reconnaissance from a high altitude, I could be of much help!"

"For the last time, Raven! I can handle it! We all can handle it! And—stop hogging the map! Sheesh!"

"I don't do 'hogging'."

"Suuuuuure."

"I don't."

Starfire sighed. She limped over towards the side of the rest stop.

I sat on the ground with my back against the wall of a structure. My head was bent downward. My arms were crossed.

Starfire walked over, leaned back against the wall, and sighed.

A beat.

"How are you fairing, Noir?"

Silence.

"I do not understand what is happening…," she said. "Our friends…all of us…we seem so disbanded."

Silence.

"I know it is customary for earthlings to distance themselves from each other and bicker in order to collect their thoughts, but oftentimes it is most vexing to experience first hand."

Silence.

"I only want for every one of you to understand that I am constantly concerned for your well-being! And furthermore, I look forward to the time of day when we are once again joyously in the communion of social traveling!"

Silence.

"Noir?" A beat. She glanced down at me. "Are you feeling okay?"

I snored.

I was sleeping the whole time. She couldn't see my closed black eyes through my shades.

Starfire sighed and tilted her head up against the structure. She looked up at the Sun.

A cloud had blocked it out again.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The only thing blocking us from careening into aluminum oblivion over the cliffsides was a winding guardrail of alternating blue metal and brown wood. Beyond the constantly twisting horizon was a blue sky. But the sky wasn't atmosphere. It was mountains. Hills. Trees. Beautifully hazy with the distance. The Blue Ridge Mountains…the Eastern slopes, dipping into western North Carolina.

It was in the middle of summer, but the high altitudes thinned the air so much that it felt deceptively like early spring. The rows of pine escalating above and cascading below our curved countour of asphalt filled the air with a freshness that the City streets could only dream about. With every round we made in the T-Car, the continent yawned before us. Ancient and nubile all the same. Flesh of wood and blood of birds. If Thoreau was sitting in the back seat with us, he would have lit a cigarette.

"Seen any ghosts yet, Raven?" Cyborg remarked.

"I only see mine," she muttered. "Forever haunting the gully of this mountain after your speeding crashes us over the side and kills us all."

"Hey! I'm obeying the speed limit!"

The T-Car swerved maniacally around another mountain bend.

Beast Boy gulped and ducked in the back seat. "And whoever wrote the speed limits for these roads must have been a paranoid schizophrenic! Wake me when it's over!"

"Relax, B.B.," Robin said, looking desperately at a map in his hand that was flapping annoyingly in the passing breeze. "Even if we were to go falling to our screaming deaths, at least you could fly away."

"Yeah…and become ashamed with the fact that I survived while my friends became aluminum stroganoff!" Beast Boy shivered in the back seat. "I'd become a hermit and hide out in the forests."

"An elf in the forest? Rather conspicuous," Cyborg smirked.

"I'll turn into a bear or something."

"Man…you know what you'll be doing in the woods, right?"

"Better than what you'll be doing in the afterlife if you DON'T SLOW DOWN!"

"Fine fine," Cyborg rolled his human eye. "Just wanted to get us to Asheville quickly, man."

"If we ever get to Asheville at all…," Raven muttered. She glanced to her right. "How lost are you getting us, Robin?"

"Hey…it's a big, fat, mountain range. How hard is that for me to get us around?"

The dark girl blinked. "How lost, Robin?"

"Lost my foot!" the Boy Wonder spat. "I'd say we're a good hour and a half from our destination!"

"You said that two hours and a half ago."

"No…I was referring to Clingman's Dome," Robin muttered. "That's further out there."

"What the heck is 'Klingon's Dumb'?" Beast Boy remarked from where he ducked.

"A lookout point where you can see all of the Appalachians around here!" Robin said. He sighed dreamily. "Praise God for altitude."

"Dude…I can just fly up right now and do that!"

"Yeah…why don't you? You're ruining my concentration."

"And what exactly are you concentrating on?"

"Navigation of course."

"Pure…absurdity….," Raven droned.

"Okay…you're REALLY annoying me now!"

"Kids…kids…," Cyborg smiled. "Don't make me stop the car and pull it over to the side!"

"Uhhh…," Beast Boy gulped. "What side?"

"Exactly," Cyborg winked in the rear view mirror.

Robin cleared his throat and returned to his flapping map.

I wasn't paying much attention to the conversation. We were heading west. I kept to myself…leaning away from Raven.

She was silent…gazing ahead.

The entire time, Starfire was gazing out to her right from the front passenger's seat. She had the best view of the slopes vomiting down from the guardrails. If she closed her green eyes, she could envision herself sailing innocently over the edge. Taking flight. Bathing in a sea of blue-hazed pine forest and crystal clean air. It was a face of Earth she hadn't seen before. And in spite of the majesty of it all, she couldn't bring herself to smile. Or to gasp in wonder.

There was a strange numbness smothering the Titans. It felt like it had grown overnight. Something stifling the joy. Drifting them apart. Saturating them in monotony.

She couldn't understand why it was happening. And deep down in her Tamaranian heart, she knew it was only a temporary thing. Her friends recovered from such exhaustion before. And the moments they'd experience afterward would be full of the usual joy and camaraderie that she practically lived for. But it hurt. At that very moment, it hurt. If Starfire glanced left and back at her friends, she felt like she was seeing strangers. Aliens. These strange 'terrans' who drown themselves in the fear of drowning and subconsciously blame each other for it. It was an ugliness Starfire had seen among earthling before—especially her friends. But her usual enthusiasm and eye for beauty drowned out the negative skin.

But at that moment, the sunlight had been washed away. As by a puff of cloud. And in the shadows, Starfire saw nothing but the ugliness…and it silenced her. It distanced her from them almost as much as they distanced themselves from each other on occasion. With many light-years boiling behind the psyche of the green-eyed girl, that distance was amplified. And for once her heart was burning hidden and tense with a desire not for communion with these strangers around her, but for a loving touch of Tamaranian hands that never, ever lied or tried to hide their feelings.

The T-Car went around another curve. The pine forest yawned again. Above and below. Starfire twisted her head to the side, lost herself within the blue haze parallax, and sighed.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay…so now we've hit a new low…," Beast Boy muttered—two hours later—as the Titans stepped out of the T-Car and onto a parking lot. "Why on God's green earth are we going to Wal-Mart?"

There the huge, blue-painted building stood. A base for a corporate empire. Wandering throngs of multi-colored, bipedal Americana flocked in and out between the crowded interior and the crowded exterior. Everywhere in the parking lot, there was a car. And where there wasn't a car, there was a pedestrian. And where there was a pedestrian, there was a shopping cart. And where there wasn't any of those things, flocks of birds came down to snack on bits and scraps of cheese nachos or hotdog buns discarded on the asphalt before flitting away last second to avoid a semi-truck with 'Wal-Mart' splashed loudly across its trailer rounding the rear of the building to unload more stock.

"Anyone care to answer me?" Beast Boy frowned.

Robin: "Food."

Cyborg: "Batteries."

Raven: "Directions."

Noir: "………." I lifted my left shoe…showed how worn out it was…and smiled slightly.

"Uh….okay," Beast Boy blinked. "How's this gonna get us to a hotel faster?"

"I don't know about the rest of you guys…but I'm working on that…," Raven said. She glared at Robin.

Robin glared back.

"Whatever. I'm just along for the ride," Beast Boy said. He dashed ahead of the group. "Hey! I wonder if they have one of those coin-operated carousel things!"

"Aren't you a little old for that, B.B.?"

"Dude…just what do you need batteries for? Is your butt running out of juice or something?"

"Okay…that sounded bad…" Cyborg walked towards the entrance.

So did Robin and Raven, in separate paths.

I took an even more separate path.

But all in our own ways…we inadvertently left Starfire behind.

She stood besides the T-Car, in a green t-shirt, a pink cardigan sweater, and jeans.

She sighed.

A breath of wind kicked at her plume of red hair. She hugged herself and stared down the road leading past the parking lot. The asphalt ramped up and down. Lines of buildings, shop fronts, convenience stores and the like rose and fell with it. And beyond the gentle mound of suburban chaos was the pristine steeples of pine trees like tufts of hair lining an old earthling's ear canal. And then rising in the distance—looming like the bald blue crown of some forgotten god—the Blue Ridges boomed.

Starfire bit her lip. She never felt so alone since her arrival on that planet.

She wished she could explain her mood. All the dramatics surging in her heart and in her mind. Like a chemical reaction all gone wrong and snowballing down her spine with ten times the force of gravity.

It was a sensation she hadn't felt since the last time she was awake to see Blackfire in person. Her last true contact with another Tamaranian. The hidden aura inside themselves…like starbolts pulsing in recognition of each other.

Starfire shuddered. It was haunting. She needed a place to meditate and collect her thoughts and be calm.

And…in pure naïve fashion, she walked straight into the garden section of Wal-Mart of all places.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So….uh….like what do you need batteries for anyway, dude?" Beast Boy asked.

"I was thinking we might all enjoy a walk on the Appalachian Trail," Cyborg smirked. He looked through dangling, plastic-cardboard packages of batteries along a hardware aisle in the far side of the department store. "Gotta have some light in case the trek goes into the evening time!"

"So why not just use that light on your chest and arm?" Beast Boy smirked. "That's good enough, right?"

"For me, perhaps," Cyborg nodded. "But what if we all get lost?"

"Dude…Noir can see in the dark and I can just turn into a coyote or cat or something," Beast Boy shrugged. "Save your money!"

"Save yourself, man," Cyborg retorted. "Gotta think about Raven, Robin, and Starfire too, ya know. I don't want to take any chances. They should be able to light their ways as much as the rest of us."

"Oooh! Oooh!" Beast Boy hopped. "How about some of those glowy-string-thingies? Ya know…like the stuff they hand out at Epcot!"

Cyborg glanced awkwardly at his changeling friend. "You've been to Epcot?"

"Yeah…why do you ask?"

"I guess it's no big deal…," Cyborg shrugged, rummaging through the batteries again. "I just have this habit of castrating anyone I know who's remotely enjoyed the Walt Disney Company."

"Ah, I understand---wait…WHAT!"

Cyborg chuckled.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood in an aisle…slowly walking sideways. Rubbing my chin. Scanning the labels of line after line of shoeboxes thrugh my shades.

In adjacent aisles, I could hear people rummaging around me. A child or two wailed from the seat of a shopping cart. The myriad of store speakers overhead tried desperately to crackle forth the latest pop-song, but were intermittently blotted out by hauntingly clear intercom messages and Wal-Mart specific advertisements with some Anglo-Saxon voice or another.

My feet came to a shuffling stop on the spongy, blue carpet---cratered here and there with loose staples—and I froze. I smiled.

'11 and 1/2'

I reached in, pulled the shoebox out…and peered into it.

Brown leather.

I made a 'wretching' face, slid it back in, and looked at the next.

Solid black.

I smirked.

I pulled the box out, turned around, looked for a seat…and found one. A tiny horse of a thing with a bright, tan leather seat and an angled mirror facing up. I sat down on it and took my shoes off. I took one of the new, black ones out. I unlaced it…and lifted it up to slip over my foot. I leaned back…

….I miscalculated the shortness of the chair.

I fell back dramatically, shoebox flying.

PLOP!

My black eyes saw stars. I shook my head and was graced with the vision of an upside down kid two rows down, pointing at me with a chubby finger and giggling.

I simpered. I got up, smoothed my black hair back to normal, and sat down to try it again. This time with my back to the aisle itself.

When I was halfway through slipping the shoe on, though…I noticed something and froze. My black eyes blinked.

An extremely colorful font of the words 'Teen Titans' splashed up at me from the side of the shoe. The colors orange, red, blue, green, and dark purple climaxed at an exclamation point following the word 'Go'.

I chuckled breathily. I couldn't help it.

I knew that we were famous…but it still never failed to surprise me whenever I saw what the market had produced. I guess it was that—because we were heroes—I didn't expect for commercialism to exploit our name and legacy. But this was modern America that we lived in. Even if I had 'seen everything', there'd be still more to see.

Though…admittedly…I hadn't see any 'Noir' action figures hanging around yet.

I smiled and turned the shoe over. And then my smile left.

The entire right side of the shoe was dedicated towards displaying one Titan and one Titan alone.

Raven.

For the first time, I noticed the brand name 'Raven Treads' on the shoebox. A rubber formation of the colors black, blue, and gray created a rough image of Raven across the shoe itself. She was in the middle of some heroic pose. Her black telekinesis warbling around her. She seemed so intent on some unknown goal. So courageous.

And it was all a farce. Commercialism at its best. I had been around Raven for so long…and had seen so much of her true self…that the shoe was a slap in the face. People thought they could slap her image on their feet and walk on her. They had no idea of her daily sacrifice…her dedication to her friends…her desperate fight against her own emotions. All they cared about was that she looked 'cool' or 'badass'. And so they worshiped a feminine Doppelganger on their heels.

I felt sick. Sick and depressed.

I dropped the thing, sighed, and put on my own, tattered shoes. I carelessly left the shoebox and discarded contents on the spongy carpet like you always find them in a typical Wal-Mart aisle.

It's the things that life stories are made of.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Uhm….e-excuse me….," Raven waved slightly and walked over towards an elderly greeter by a line of shopping carts. "D-Do you know this area very well?"

The Wal-Mart employee, an elderly stone of a man with stray wisps of gray hair struggling to cling hold to his ivory head, turned around and smiled as gently as could be expected of him. "Like the back of my hand," he replied. "What's left of it…that is."

"Good…I was wondering if you could help me," Raven said. When talking with strangers—dressed as casually and un-Titan as she was—she did her best to lift her apathetic drone of a voice a few decibels up in an attempt to appear modestly sociable. "My friends and I are from out of town, and we're on vacation."

"I can see that…," the greeter nodded. His wilting eyes were fixated on the gemstone set within the girl's head. "How can I help?"

"Well…we're looking for a place to stay just outside of Asheville. But nothing really….you know….popular," Raven bit her lip. She cleared her throat and continued, "We'd like something a little out of the way. Nothing big. Just affordable and…remote."

"Ah…," the man nodded, his wrinkled chin wobbled. "From looking at you…I had a feeling you were someone famous."

Raven blinked.

"But I can't quite put my finger on it…," the man smirked. "Could be Alzheimer's setting in. That's what my doctor thinks. But I don't listen to him much. All I do here is push carts around and check bags. Carts and bags don't give a hoot about Alzheimer's."

"Uhhh…..yeah…," Raven's eyes trailed. She noticed the Boy Wonder gathering a group order of nachos from the dining area for the Titans.

"I know of a place….," the man said.

Raven snapped back to look at him. "You do?"

"Yup," he nodded and pointed through the store. "Take the state road north. Towards Boone. But drop off about ten miles down and head west after a big, white church. You should see an old sign pointing up a hill marked 'Little View'. There're a bunch of cottages there. Kinda like cabins, really. Some people rent them. Some people own them. They're nothing more than retreats, though. So don't expect too much electricity and luxuries and stuff. Still, a great place to 'get away', huh? And it's all up there at the very foot of the mountains. Lots of trees. Even a creek or two. You'll love it."

Raven sweatdropped. "Is it expensive?"

The man smiled and shook his gray head. "No. I promise you that. Check it out."

Raven nodded. "Thank you very much, Mister…."

"Feldman…," the greeter half-bowed. "Jerad Feldman. Tell them 'Jerry' sent you."

"Tell who?"

"The people in the head building of 'Little View' cottages, of course!" he chuckled. "You're from the City, aren't you?"

"Uhmmm…."

"Well that's all right. You take it easy. Oh, and welcome to Wal-Mart."

"Th-Thanks," Raven simpered. "Really, thanks." And she backed away.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Where the warm summer sunlight meandered down into the thin air, there was an enclosed space filled with price-tagged plants, lawn equipment, wheelbarrows, and all manners of plastic and ceramic wildlife and gnomes. In the center of this plastic Eden was a hardwood bench, also pricetagged. But sitting on that bench was a Tamaranian girl who was not pricetagged.

She took a deep breath and looked around her through dangling foliage and the green-filtered fencing surrounding the sides of the department store's garden section.

She could see an island of trees and grass between the Wal-Mart parking lot to the side and a Pep Boys station across the way. Sounds of birds mingled with the distant roar of cars…interrupting both the natural and the unnatural paradise she was submerged in.

A funny thing about earth—Starfire realized—was that it could house an alien world within an alien world. Landscapes could be figuratively recreated all the way down to the most aesthetic detail. But it would all be no more than commercialism, fenced inside and distanced from a mirror world where things were conceptually free. The boundaries of ownership and non-ownership that the humans built—layered into their psyches—confounded the alien girl's perception. She found herself trying to touch things less and less, for fear of stealing something that belonged to an entity she could not name but all the Terrans could. Even if she was out in the mountains that very moment, she wouldn't dare touch a tree.

"Is it wrong…to touch my friends too?" she murmured to herself.

Again…she could not explain the moodiness. The feeling that there was an orb of confusion radiating towards her from some remote location.

Her green eyes darted up and pierced through the mesh of the fence lining the gardens. She glanced out at the island of grass and trees beyond the parking lot…..and noticed something.

Starfire's lids narrowed.

There was a figure…a brown and shrouded figure. It was kneeling by the tree, hidden by a cloak and hood the color of wet sand. A small, thin hand reached out with seed in it. Two or three songbirds floated to the island far away and pecked at the bits of generous food.

The girl's lips parted. She leaned her head to the side.

After a good two minutes, the cloaked figure stood up. For a second or two, it looked like it had glanced the garden's way. Piercing the Tamaranian's soul. But it couldn't have…for it was soon moving off. Walking firmly.

Starfire had seen homeless people before. On walks with Robin or just flying over the City by herself, she familiarized herself with the impoverished, the helpless, the begging wanderers. They wore shrouds much like that person. But usually the shrouds were billowing jackets or raincoats. And whenever they walked, it was a fatalist hunch of the shoulders. With everything sagging outside of them and everything collapsing within.

This figure that she was looking at now was walking firm. Upright. Young and strong.

"Does it belong here?" Starfire murmured.

She stared at the cloaked figure through the fenced sides of the garden until the nose and body of a gnome blocked her gaze.

And then she blinked.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So…," Robin munched on a nacho and dipped the rest of it in cheese before he swallowed and said: "You got directions, huh?"

"That I did…," Raven mumbled and took a seat across from him on the smooth, blue table. "How about you? Got cholesterol?"

"I already radioed the other Titans…," Robin said between bites. "They should be coming soon. I ordered enough for all of us."

"How nice of you…," Raven muttered. "Meanwhile…I found us a place to stay."

"Oh really?"

"Here. I wrote it down," she passed him a little paper with her scribbles on it.

He took it and looked. "'Little View', huh? Sounds quaint. Who told you about it?"

"A greeter," she nodded…fiddling around with a few chips below her with her fingers. But not eating. "Feldman was his name. He says that if we go and check the cottages out, we should say that 'Jerry' sent us."

"Did he say if the place was expensive?"

"No, Robin. But at this point…it wouldn't hurt to check it out. It's a good way's out of Asheville. We could settle in without people taking too much notice. I never really liked fame."

Robin smirked. "Come on, Raven. I've seen you revel in those online messageboards of yours. Just what is it called again……..'GothNet BBS'?"

"'Where you can step out of physical purgatory and raise electronic hell'," Raven nodded. "Yes. I'm the mod there. But I don't call that 'fame'."

"Just what do you call it?"

"Poetic justice."

"Whatever you say," Robin shrugged and put the piece of paper down. "I think we should check it out. I'll suggest it to Cyborg. I don't think he'll have a problem with a little side trip that could be productive. Thanks, Raven."

"And thanks for the food," Raven eyed the chips wearily. "Howbeit gruesome."

"Hey…Wal-Mart's been around too long and too successful for these things to have poisoned someone without the nation knowing it!"

"You'd be surprised," Raven said. "The truth about Jimmy Hoffa's body hasn't been released publicly yet."

"And you know that truth?"

"Absolutely," Raven leaned back. "He was a vampire."

"…………….," Robin stared.

"Sorry," Raven sighed. "Bad attempt at a joke."

Robin smirked. "Any attempt at a joke on your part, Raven, is good in my book." He leaned forward. "You seem to be….changing lately."

"Hmmm…fancy that."

"I've noticed Cyborg having these long talks with you. Getting to know each other better or something?"

Raven glared at him. "No." She grunted. "He's been helping me out, yes. Just….," she sighed and looked off towards the busy, loud line of registers in the distance. "I'm trying to set a lot of things straight."

"Like what things."

"None of your business," she blinked. "Not yet at least."

"Ah, okay. I'll keep my distance, Raven," he said.

Raven stared through the nachos. "Distance……..," she hummed.

"Hmmmm?" Robin remarked through another bite.

"All this talk and emphasis on distance lately…," Raven muttered. She shook her head. "Egads…I'm probably just projecting myself."

"No, Raven. Please. I'm listening."

She looked up. "I'm trying to become a better 'friend', Robin. I'm trying to blend in better with the rest of you during this vacation and….now that I'm trying, it almost feels like there's no point. Notice how—ever since this morning---we've been butting heads in the car?"

"We always butt heads, Raven."

"Yes…but…it feels different now. gave her a sideways glance…as if intrigued by her emphasis on something feeling 'cold'.

"Well…Raven…we've been couped up with each other in the T-Car, camping tents, and one hotel room thus far. I think it's only natural for us to rub off against each other…"

"Perhaps so…," Raven said mournfully. "I can't help but feel responsible."

"For what?"

"The distancing."

"Raven….heheh…if I saw you 'distancing' yourself from someone, I'd tell you!"

Raven's gaze aimed aside. She eyed the two bulbous heads of a salt shaker and a pepper shaker. She saw black eyes.

"Yeah……"

A beat.

"Tell me, Robin," she looked up. "Have the Titans even answered your 'call to supper' yet?"

Robin paused in the middle of eating. "Uh……no." A beat. "I'll call them soon in a minute."

Raven blinked. She looked around. "For that matter…when was the last time you saw Starfire?"

Robin froze. His eyemask narrowed. As his head tilted up the black bangs over his forehead drooped as if the weight of Raven's intuition was settling down on him as well. "Ah jeez…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

For the fifth time in a row, Starfire mechanically scooped up the three quarters from a dispenser, slipped them back into a coin slot of a vending machine, and pressed the button of her desired soft drink.

Red letters on a tiny black screen flared a up at her.

"'Sold Out'?" the girl tiredly blinked. "But I do not wish to drink 'Sold Out'. Do you not have 'Sierra's Mystery'?"

The vending machine glared at her.

The Tamaranian sighed. She hit the coin release, scooped up the quarters, and stared out at the wind-blown parking lot.

"I wonder if my friends have found their wares yet….," she purposelessly hummed.

There was a loud honking sound.

He green eyes blinked. "Huh?"

She looked out onto the state road.

A semi truck equipped with an eighteen wheel petroleum tank as its trailer slammed on the breaks as an SUV cut sharply across two lanes barely ahead of it. The driver lost control, and the truck dramatically fishtailed and skidded its way into opposing traffic. Starfire gasped in shock as she watched the explosive hulk of a vehicle plow its way across three lanes of dodging, honking cars and then—of all things—collapse straight into the side of a blue-painted schoolbus.

CLANK!

The bus was slammed hard into a metal lamppost, which caused the front side door to crunch in on itself and become useless. The tank of the semi truck burst and started leaking. The driver inside the engine seemed unconscious.

But what made Starfire horrified most of all were the panicked faces of nearly thirty earthling children…shrieking with their heads above the windows of the bus. They were on their way to a summer camp in a national park. Now they were stuck in the jaws of explosive death. As cars skidded to a stop and kept a distance from the flammable site, the children and the bus driver inside scrambled to open the emergency door in the rear of the bus. But it was jammed for some reason.

Nearly half of a hundred innocent, young lives hung in the balance. The thing could blow at any minute.

Starfire clenched her fists and followed the first desperate thought that came to her.

She flew.

SWOOOOOOSH!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven blinked. She stood up, looking out towards the entrance of the store.

"Hmmm?" Robin swallowed. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure….did you hear that?"

Robin stood up. He squinted and craned his ears. "Sounds like screams…."

"Trouble," Raven spat.

"Let's check it out!"

They abandoned the nachos.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Children were smacking their palms up against the glass of the bus windows.

Meanwhile, the bus driver and a chaperone inside were desperately yanking at the handle to the rear exit to shake it loose.

"Come on…COME ON!"

They both jumped back and a few children shrieked in surprise as a red-headed teacher zoomed up and floated just outside the glass.

"Do not panic!" Starfire exclaimed. "I shall attempt to get you free!"

"Who are you!" the bus driver shouted.

"I am very concerned!" she replied.

"Get help! Get us out of here!"

"One earth second!" Starfire yanked at the door with her hands. She grit her teeth. With Tamaranian strength, she managed to bend it outward. The metal cracked. The door frame rattled. But the manner in which it was constructed, she realized the only way she could bust it open would be if she literally pounded the structure of the bus at full force. There were children inside, though, and she didn't want to injure or frighten them.

She looked at her hands. She considered summoning a starbolt to melt a hole through the rear door. But with all the gas leaking from the nearby semi truck tanker, she didn't want to risk a fiery doom for those trapped inside. Herself included.

So she resorted to one remaining option. She gripped the frame of the bus with firm hands and uttered through the glass: "Tell the young ones to brace themselves! I shall attempt to move the vehicle out of its dangerous holding!"

The bus driver barked: "What are you! Some kind of superher—WHOAH!"

Everyone stumbled and kids shrieked as the bus jolted forward.

Starfire clenched her teeth. Forcing the automobile further and further with her Tamaranian strength. She lifted her legs off the ground and 'flew' into the bus. It budged slowly…grinding against the lamppost and body of the tanker.

"Hold on, everyone! H-Hold on!" the chaperone gasped and commanded.

Children sobbed. Mommies and Daddies were cried out for.

Starfire pushed with all her might. But the bus could barely move. She sweat. Her cardigan sweater and red hair billowed from the strain of her alien energies.

Overhead, the shattered bulb of the lamppost was starting to spark. Sprays of red embers danced down, landing dangerously close to the leaking semi truck and the driver inside.

The children shrieked. The bus driver murmured.

Starfire's eyes glowed a desperate green as she put all of her strength into it. Any second now, and the entire street would be engulfed in flames. She wasn't strong enough to move the bus on her own. Not with it wedged the way it was. She needed an extra push. An added shove. She needed--

CREEEEEAK!

The bus suddenly lurched forward.

"!" Starfire gasped, almost losing her grip of the rear of the bus. But soon she realized—by some insurmountable force—the vehicle had been yanked in the same direction towards which she was pushing. Suddenly testing a hypothesis, she added the same force as she had been adding…and the bus moved much more freely. It was no longer tightly wedged in. As she wheeled it forward and onto the sidewalk and a fair distance away from the semi truck…she felt something once again tugging along the front of it until it was at the end of the parking lot.

The bus became heavier, and Starfire finished pushing. The cries of distress inside the shell of a vehicle lowered.

The girl let out a huge breath and drifted down to the ground on the side of the vehicle. Instinctively, she looked towards the front.

She gasped.

There was a figure at the front of the bus. A figure with a brown cloak. The figure with a brown cloak. Small hands released the aluminum siding, where dents had been formed through some unnatural show of strength. When the figure looked back at Starfire with a jerk, the hood fell away.

Starfire's green eyes widened.

Green eyes were looking back. Narrow green eyes. Firm lips. A frown. Fury. A soft, round face etched in stone. A hedge of very short, disorderly red hair crowned the brow. Like a sea of crimson follicles slaughtered mercilessly with sloppy scissors. And between the green eyes and the red massacre of hair were two scarlet specs. Tiny, elevated eyebrows.

A young, post-adolescent boy. A snapshot of mystery and anger.

And as soon as that split second of hood-falling had taken place, the brown-cloaked boy was gone. Rushing off across the street, past a plaza, and through a line of trees. He moved inhumanly fast…and Starfire could swear she saw a light of green streaking behind him.

"W-Wait!" she called out, a hand stretched forth.

The sounds of those inside the bus reawakened her to where she was and what she was doing. Her emerald gaze lingered on the side of the road for a few seconds before she swiftly flew up, charged two green hands, and commanded: "Stand back! I am going to get you all out!"

FLASH!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I glanced down the aisle from where I was shifting through posters on display.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were walking up together, a bunch of batteries in their hands.

Haven't they heard of baskets?

"Dude…this is nuts," Beast Boy exclaimed. "We have enough batteries here to survive the Y2K bug…..or maybe a Game Gear tournament."

"You're about five years too late on the Y2K joke, little man," Cyborg replied. A blink. "And what's wrong with Game Gear? Game Gear's tight, dawg!"

"Hey, Noir! What're you up to, dude!" Beast Boy uttered. A beat. "Noir?"

I was looking at a poster. A little too long for my own good.

Beast Boy sauntered over, nudged me playfully with a battery-cradeling elbow, and murmured: "Ya know…if you just openly admit it…this wouldn't be so awkward."

I glanced at him funny. I looked back at the poster and realized then and there that I was staring at a Supergirl photo. I jolted, slapped the poster closed against another one and frowned at the two.

They laughed.

I hand-signed madly.

"Suuuuuure, man," Cyborg nodded. "'Pure research'."

I sighed and hung my head.

Just then, Robin's voice came blaring electronically through Cyborg's communicator in his arm piece.

"Titans! Trouble!"

Cyborg immediately turned serious. He lifted his arm to his head. "Where at!"

"Front of the parking lot! Tanker truck spill! Kids in danger!"

Beast Boy's eyes widened.

My fists clenched.

Cyborg nodded. "We're on it! Let's move out!" He looked at me.

I nodded and blurred through shocked customers towards the front of the Wal-Mart.

Cyborg dropped the batteries and went in pursuit.

"So much for vacation….," Beast Boy murmured.

More batteries fell to the floor.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside, Robin was sprinting in his slacks and t-shirt and Raven was floating overhead in jeans and a jacket.

Screw costumes….

"Looks like Star's got everything under control with the bus!" the Boy Wonder shouted. He headed straight for the tanker. "That thing's gonna blow soon!"

"There's a driver inside still," Raven's eyes narrowed.

"I'll get him out! Clear the street! We'll need your shields!"

"Got it!" Raven soared overhead.

Robin sprinted towards the front engine. The driver inside was still. Unconscious. The Boy Wonder whipped out three spare birdarangs from his pants pocket and tossed them out collectively with a grunt.

SWOOSH-SWOOSH-SWOOSH-SWOOSH-SWOOSH-CLANK!

Each respectively struck dead center in the side door's two hinges and handle.

Once Robin reached the truck, all he had to do was simply yank the door completely off.

CLANG!

He dove inside the compartment and shook the driver.

"Sir! Can you hear me!"

The man's breath was shallow…but stable. He was out cold.

Robin yanked at him, teeth gritting.

He had his safety belt on.

Robin fumbled for the release.

He couldn't find it.

In desperation, the Boy Wonder looked around and finally settled his eyemask on the driver's side window.

He gritted his teeth and raised his bare fist. "This is gonna hurt…"

SMASH!

He shattered the glass with a punch, pivoted his wrist, and grabbed a huge shard in midair. He brought his hand back—bleeding in a few places—and swiftly ripped the belt apart with the shard.

SNAP!

He then swung his arms around the driver's body, tensed his muscles, and began to drag him out.

Up above in the air, Raven was directing traffic….literally. With telekinesis, she moved cars, trucks, and even people gently away from what would become the blast radius of the tanker truck. "Move, people!" she shouted. "This thing is going to explode soon!"

People nodded—dumbfounded—and backed up. They mostly obeyed not because of the risk at hand…but rather because they were being ordered to move by a floating girl in blue jeans with a gemstone in her head and a penchant for moving cars with the flick of a wrist.

Raven looked down. Her eyes widened as she saw sparks from the shattered lamppost igniting the corner of a pool of leaking fuel. A trail of flames ate their way up towards the tank.

"Robin! It's caught fire! It's caught fire! Get out of there, now!"

Starfire looked over from the bus. She gasped. She flew over in a green streak.

Robin was just stumbling out of the engine with the man in his arms.

The Tamaranian flew down. "I will take him!"

"Good!" Robin shouted. "Go! Get him out of here!"

The girl flew off, effortlessly carrying the driver.

Robin stumbled forward into a mad sprint as the fire ate up past him.

"Time to drop the shields, Raven! Now or never!"

The dark girl's eyes glowed gray from above. She extended her hands and chanted. "Azarath…Metrion…ZINTHOS!"

A circle of black floated above the tanker truck, warbled outward like mid-air molasses, and formed an obsidian dome blanketing the truck in place.

The Boy Wonder dove forward onto a grass island just inches ahead of the closing dome shield.

The fire streaked up into the tanker and—

PHWOOOOOOMB!

Cyborg, Beast Boy, and I were treated with a sudden lightshow and thunder as a black dome turned hot red for a split second across the parking lot and then became a pressure cooker of steam and smoke.

"Dude…not a good time of day for a barbecue…," Beast Boy muttered.

Cyborg ran forward. "Robin! Star! Anyone hurt!"

Starfire lowered the man onto an island of grass, glanced back at the scene, panted, and said: "Negative. Nobody has been damaged."

Robin stood up and brushed himself off. "Now that's what I call quick thinking." He looked up over the dome. "You got it, Raven?"

"Consider it 'got'," she uttered. She relaxed and lowered the shield.

The dome disappeared. Smoke billowed up into the air for emergency crews all around to see. Already we could hear firetrucks somewhere in the distance of the elevated suburbs.

I walked over towards the scene and glanced to the side.

A whole bus-load of children were sitting on the sidewalk as people walked up from all around to see if they were safe.

And they were.

I smiled.

"So….um…what the heck happened?" Beast Boy uttered.

"There was a terrible automobile crash," Starfire said. "The truck swerved to miss a vehicle and loss control. It forced that bus of young earthlings up against a lamppost and burst open."

"Wow, Star…," Cyborg blinked. "Did you move those kids out of danger all by yourself out here!"

Starfire looked at the bus. She glanced forlornly at the edge of the woods and brought a hand to her chin. "I…..I-I…."

Raven landed gracefully down. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe Starfire deserves a standing ovation!"

"Woo! Yeah! You said it!" Beast Boy smiled.

"Well done, Star….you saved a lot of lives today," Robin smiled.

"Yeah, you go girl!"

I smiled and did a thumb's up.

She was staring out at the forest. She murmured aloud: "But…..wh-where did he go?"

Raven's eyes narrowed. "Who?"

My ears pricked.

I turned around.

A black, four-door pickup truck wheeled in from out of nowhere. Very polished. Very clean and shiny. Also very, very black….

It rolled to an eerie stop beside us all, and like clockwork…all four doors opened at once.

Men in dark black suits emerged. They approached us. The first of which was the man from the front passenger's seat. A tall and statuesque man with a crown of black hair. Greased. He looked to be in his middle thirties. He took off his glasses to reveal cold blue eyes…and suddenly appeared to be in his twenties.

With a relatively emotionless face—save for a slight hint of resentment—he glared at us and held out a tag.

"Sergeant Booker. FBI. Which one of you was here at the exact moment of this incident?"

All of us looked at him. Silently. We blinked.

Five fingers pointed at Starfire.

She blushed.

"Ma'am…I have an important question to ask," 'Booker' said. "Do you recall seeing a stranger here before the tanker blew up?"

"A…s-stranger?" Starfire stammered.

"A cloaked figure. About your age…if not younger. Quiet and elusive."

"Uhm…..," Starfire slowly glanced back at the line of trees.

Sergeant Booker's eyebrow rose.

She glanced back. She swallowed. "No," she said. "I didn't see such a figure."

Robin glanced at her curiously. His eyemask thin.

"Very well then," the man nodded and backed up simultaneously with his three, dark suited associates. "Thank you for your cooperation."

"Excuse me…," Robin stepped forward. "My name is Robin, and we're the Teen Titans. We happened to be in town and were more than willing to use our superpowers in preventing utter disaster here. If you can, please tell me…….is there something going on here? A lot of children—innocent people—nearly got hurt!"

"It is none of your concern," Booker glared. He slipped sunglasses back on and entered the truck with his companions. "Thank you for your duty performed for these citizens. Have a safe day."

SLAM!

The doors to the vehicle closed. The truck rolled away.

Silently, I lowered my shades.

I got a good luck at the black tires as the truck drove down the parking lot.

Satisfied, I blinked and brought my shades back up.

I was quiet.

The sirens of emergency crews and police cars began erupting all around.

Beast Boy glanced at everyone. "So….um….am I wrong? Or do government officials usually hang out at an emergency scene like this until everyone else has assembled?"

"Not unless they had more important things to do…," Raven droned.

"Yeah…," Cyborg nodded. "Looks as though they're after somebody. Somebody important."

Starfire was silent.

She walked off a few ways.

Robin looked at her. He then faced us. "See to it that the firefighters fight the fire…and that the paramedics….er….para the medics or whatever."

"Yeah, whatever, Robin," Cyborg smirked and waved him off. "We know how to keep watch."

The Boy Wonder walked after Starfire.

Raven glanced at them…then at us.

"Does Starfire seem…..distracted all of the sudden?"

"Come to think of it…," Beast Boy nodded, "She hasn't laughed much today. If at all."

I continued staring off in the direction that the truck had went.

Thinking…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire approached the side of the street where the cloaked figure had run off.

She stared into a thick layer of trees…scaling up the hills that lead into the feet of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Robin walked to a stop behind her. "Gonna tell me why you lied?"

Starfire bilnked. She turned around, hugging herself. "I b-beg your pardon?"

Robin gestured. "When that Sergeant Booker person asked you earlier if you had seen a cloaked figure, you said 'no'. That wasn't the truth. I could see it in your face."

She bit her lip and looked to the ground. "I am sorry. It is very complicated…"

"Starfire…," Robin spoke softly. He walked over and placed his hands on her shoulders. "What's wrong? You've been down all morning…and now this!"

"That is also a very complicated matter…," Starfire sighed. She looked at his face with sincere green eyes. "I wish I could explain everything. But as of right now, something else has distracted me greatly."

"What, exactly, Star?"

She turned around and faced the forest again.

"I….I-I did not save that bus of children on my own."

"You didn't?"

"Negative," she shook her head. "I-I had assistance."

"From whom?" Robin asked. A beat. "The cloaked figure…," he surmised.

She nodded away from him. "But what is most shocking is what I saw….wh-what I saw in his face."

"And what was that, Star?"

She spun around and pointed emphatically at her trademark, Tamaranian eyebrows. "This, Robin! And this!" she pointed at her green eyes. "And this!" she pointed at her fiery red hair. "Only…," she sagged, "…it was not like 'this'. He was emaciated…disheveled….and….a-and angry. So much anger…"

Robin leaned his head to his side. "You saw a boy?"

"Not just any boy….I….I-I know it's impossible, but…," Starfire bit her lip. "He was Tamaranian! H-He had to have been! And the way he pulled the bus out of danger with me! His hands…they were bending the sheer metal! And when he ran off into the woods, it was speed unfitting of a human!"

Robin walked over towards the line of trees and faced it alongside her. "You're sure….you saw all this, Starfire?"

"Positive, Robin!" she exclaimed. "With every fiber of my being, I know what I saw! Because….B-Because I felt it…" she clasped a hand over her gut.

Robin looked.

She lowered her head slightly to his eye level and emphasized: "Each and every Tamaranian has a gift, Robin. A secret sense. My people—we relate to one another on a special plane! When others of my kind are near, I can sense it! Because each of us have a green fire inside of us that is stronger than blood! It is…it is…l-like a hidden sun! And it resonates when in proximity to another Tamaranian soul. This same power is what grants us our starbolts. Our righteous fury. Our flight. The very spirit of green that burns within us."

"I-I had no idea, Starfire…," Robin blinked under his eyemask. "As long as I've known you, I've only witnessed one light in your being. And I've always perceived it as an endless bank of warmth indicative of yourself and yourself alone." He smiled. Then he said: "Are you telling me that Tamaranians all share a common spirit energy?"

"It is something to that effect," she murmured. She looked down. "When Blackfire first 'paid us a visit'…it was most difficult for me. I had been separated so long from my very own people. And when Blackfire came…the resonation of her energy threw me off balance. I could not cope with her presence. I became moody…depressed…I-I even considered leaving the Titans!"

"Uhm….I-I thought that was all a matter of sibling issues you had with her," Robin said. "Besides…it took some convincing, but you were also realizing how much we really admired you as both a friend and a teammate. Remember?"

"I suppose that is also correct…," Starfire nodded. "But the powers inside of me were also responsible for what took place."

"Blackfire seemed unaffected."

"That is because whatever honor or glory of Tamaranian energy she once had has died out inside of her," Starfire mournfully stated. "She is no longer a wielder of the burning green…but a thief of purple deception."

"I see now…," Robin nodded.

"Today….I have been feeling…..most distraught," Starfire said…pacing in front of the Boy Wonder. "During the ride here, I could not focus my energies on anything. If I were Raven, I would be in desperate need of meditation right now." She paused. Silently, her eyes trailed tentatively towards Robin. She was tempted to expound upon her anxieties concerning the dissension she had been sensing that day, but instead she uttered: "I-I believe it all may very well be a r-result of my coming into close proximity of one of my kind once again…"

"The boy?" Robin asked. A beat. "D-Do you…..ya know….'sense' him now?"

She shook her head. "He is gone. I did not even get to thank him for what he did to save those children."

"You mean what you both did," Robin said. He walked over and placed a hand up on her shoulder. "You're the hero of the day, Star. You gotta believe that. Those kids are alive thanks to you. Even if that stranger helped. Even if we helped."

Starfire stared at him. She smiled finally, her eyes shut. "I-I suppose you are right…"

Robin felt a warmth come over him at the first smile in her face for hours.

Together, they looked into the forest.

A beat.

"Question now is…….what the heck would creepy FBI men want with him?"

Starfire swallowed and breathed: "I am uncertain, Robin. But I was not and I am not willing to assist them and find out. Not after what I have so recently felt…"

And she clutched her heart.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWAP!

'Sergeant' Booker slapped down a folder onto a desktop and slumped down into a seat with an exasperated sigh.

He was in an office. Or maybe he was in a laboratory. Or maybe it was both.

Four desks were surrounded by a throng of computer equipment, medical tables, chemicals, and everything you would want from a horror movie.

There were no windows. Merely metal bulkhead lining the walls to some mysterious, shadowed chamber.

A man in a dark suit cleared his throat and slowly approached the desk.

Booker glared up. "He's on the move again…."

"The Titan was lying, you think?"

"Oh, she saw him…," Booker rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And she's too much of a hero for the four of us to intervene. We can screw around with heat, but not THAT kind of heat."

"You think they suspected anything?"

"No. We came in. Did what we had to do. And cleared out," Booker said. "But it still doesn't stop the fact that the little shit is running amok and we can't even track him!" He pointed angrily. "I thought I told you three to look in on the Sandersons again!"

"You know that ain't easy, Booker…," the man shook his head. "Once they caught onto us…they threatened to flag down the real authorities if we ever show our faces again! The fact remains that we just can't scoop the kid up from his home again. We gotta trap him when he's on one of his little, nomadic journeys."

Booker groaned. "And the next time we do…it's gonna be permanent isolation."

"Right."

"I'm gonna miss this place…," Booker swiveled around…eyeing the lab/office. "But it'll all have to go 'kaboom' once we're out of here with him. This state is too sticky now."

"In the meantime," the man shrugged. "What do we do?"

Booker was silent. He opened the file. A photo of the six Teen Titans was on top of a thick stack of papers. The face of Starfire was highlighted.

"What are the odds that she and her punk friends would be hopscotching their way through North Carolina for a vacation?" Booker mumbled.

"Not much we can do about it now, sir."

"Perhaps…," Booker nodded. "But now that they're in our hair….," he placed the photo down onto the desktop and tapped Starfire's image. "….maybe we can make the best of things."

The man looked at the photo…then at Booker.

Booker's eyes stared up. He swallowed. "Track 'em."

"On it."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat silently in the rear of the car. Staring out the side as we angled up a thin, dirt road lined with pine trees.

"Uhm….," Cyborg muttered. "You're sure this is taking us somewhere where we can stay for a few nights, Raven? Or stay for eternity!"

"Yeah…I don't like haunted forests, dude…," Beast Boy gulped.

"These directions can't be wrong…," Raven muttered. "The 'Little View' cottages should be just beyond the crest of the hill. We already passed the white church."

I blinked. I looked at the front of the T-Car.

Starfire sat silently in the passenger seat. She had been silent almost all day. Her fingers were toying with a lock of red hair.

I watched her….

"Okay…," Raven squinted her eyes as she sat next to me. "Mr. Feldman has realllllly bad handwriting."

Beast Boy did a double-take. "Feldman? Why's that name sound familiar?"

"Think of a nametag…," Robin smirked.

"That old Wal-Mart greeter when we walked into the store!" Beast Boy cackled. "You got directions to a place to say from a Wal-Mart greeter!"

"His name is Jerad Feldman," Raven sneered out of honor.

"Pfft! Some luck we're in now! He's probably a cantankerous old loser who decided to play a practical joke on us! Watch us end up at an abandoned Prozac factory or something!"

Cyborg chuckled.

"Hardy har har….," Raven muttered. "I like to believe there is some decency left in America. People whom we can trust in on the street."

"Why…how very optimistic of you, my lady!" Cyborg quipped.

"Are you going to heckle me too?"

"Nope."

"Scared?"

"Hardly. We're there."

The T-Car lurched to a stop.

Beast Boy jolted forward. "Whoah!" He shook his head. His green eyes turned into white specks as he saw an immaculate, white sign reading 'Little View'. "Oh….."

A quaint path of fresh, black asphalt winded up a hill that was lined with thick, lush pine trees and dangling moss and green undergrowth. The path took an elliptical, elevated shape as it nestled against the foot of the mountains and encircled a tiny, partially cascading pond in the middle. Everything looked clean, ornate, and—yes—old fashioned.

Raven smirked ever so slightly. "I rest my case."

"We're heeeeeeeeeeeeere!" Cyborg turned off the engine and stepped out.

Robin hopped out and stretched his stiff legs while Starfire floated alongside him. "Well…I'll admit it…," the Boy Wonder stated. "Raven does directions better than I do."

"We're nearly three days into this vacation and FINALLY you put that ego of yours to rest," the dark girl said. "Come. We need to get a room."

"J-Just one room?" Beast Boy muttered.

Raven rolled her eyes. "All right…a cabin."

"There's the office right there," Cyborg pointed.

"All right…let's get to it…," Raven said and wandered off with the android.

I jumped out of the T-Car, flexed my muscles, and took a deep breath.

Pine.

I smiled.

I glanced back at the other Titans, waved, and went off for a brief stroll.

"Lucky Noir…," Beast Boy folded his hands. "Must be great being a loner."

"He's a loner?" Robin remarked.

"To me he is!"

"B.B…..to you, Oprah Winfrey is a loner."

Beast Boy looked at the Boy Wonder. He blinked. He smiled. "Say…I think I can take that as a compliment."

"You're most welcome."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A little bell rang over the door to the office as Raven and Cyborg walked in.

An old lady behind a counter stood up from a stool and put down her copy of "Reader's Digest". She lowered her reading glasses that hung around her neck and waddled over. "Well, now……how can I be of assistance---" she paused. "Hmmmm," she smiled in a jolly fashion. "If you two aren't the most peculiar couple!"

The android and the dark girl looked at each other. They blushed.

"Ahem…," Cyborg cleared his throat. He approached the counter. "The name's Cyborg. Teen Titans. Due southwest from the City."

The woman slowly nodded. "Yeah…," she hummed. "Read about you kids in the paper."

"And we were wondering if we could check in with a cabin," Raven smiled slightly and raised the scribbled note. "We were sent her by a man name—"

"Feldman," the woman finished. She smiled a fat smile and said: "And am I right to assume there are four other 'Titanics' checking in as well?"

Raven blinked. "Um….ahem…'Titans', ma'am." A beat. "H-How did you know about Mr. Feldman?"

"Oh, Jerry?" the woman waddled over towards a rack of numbered keys. "He keeps in good touch with me from time to time. It's probably why I married him!"

"………..," the two Titans were silent.

The woman picked up two keys, dangled them from her grasp, and walked around the counter…smiling. "My name is Susan. Susan Feldman. Jerry called and we already have the perfect place for you. Come. I'll show you!"

Cyborg and Raven helplessly looked at each other. Between the two halves of them…a single, confused grin formed.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And you must be Robert!"

"R-Robin, ma'am," the Boy Wonder corrected as he and the other four Titans slowly, lazily sauntered after the waddling innkeeper. "And I must say, this is a surprise. We just came here looking for a place to rent while on vacation and—"

"And you got it!" Susan Feldman turned and smiled. She returned to huffing and puffing her way up the small, asphalt path. Something which she had evidently done many, many times before on a regular basis—only it always showed a case of elderly strain regardless. "We're always looking to invite new guests to this place! Especially the ones who…ya know…really want to avoid the public eye."

"It's not so much that we want to avoid the public eye…," Beast Boy said. "Just…ya know…civil camouflage never hurts. Heheheheh…."

"The fact that you can all afford a vacation is beyond me," the woman shrugged. "But however you do it is fine by me. Right, Best Buy?"

"Um…B-Beast Boy, ma'am."

"Aw shucks…I might as well stop trying," Susan waddled. "Say…isn't there a sixth one of you?"

"Yes. Noir."

"Where'd he run off to?"

Beast Boy shrugged. "Oh…he likes to do that from time to time. He's probably off in the pine trees……being………………..dark."

"As long as he doesn't scare away the ducks. Those ducks are my pride and joy."

"Really? Why is—"

"Had a kid here once who chased the ducks around for a full week. They migrated away for two years before returning."

"That's really interesting. Do you think that we coul—"

"Damn Generation X-ers….never cared much for foul. Unless it was communist. HA!"

Cyborg smirked and whispered in Raven's ear. "I like how she laughs."

She batted him away and he chuckled.

"Here we are!" Susan Smith gestured towards the right.

Everyone turned and looked.

It was a small cabin. Not a log cabin, of course…but a cabin nonetheless. Its foundation jutted up to balance the house out and keep it from sloping like the hill it was built on. It only halfway succeeded.

"Ah yeah!" Cyborg smiled. "Now this is what I'm talking about!"

"It is so cute….," Starfire blinked…admitting.

Robin smirked.

"Can it fit us all?" Beast Boy said.

"Well….," Susan scratched her head. "It's a tight squeeze. But I'm sure y'all are used to that!"

"More or less, speaking," Robin nodded.

Susan Smith opened the front door and they all stepped inside. There was a main room, a tiny sliver of a kitchen, a back porch room, and a large room parallel to the rest of the cabin that had a fireplace and wooden floors.

"The couch in the main room folds out into the bed. The back porch has glass panels replacing the screen. It's insulated, so it can be used as a sleeping quarters. There're two beds in there. And there're at least three other cots for the fireplace room. More than enough for the whole lot of you, I'd say."

"Cool!" Beast Boy nodded. "Quaint…old fashion…lacking a lot of luxuries—but hey! I'm feeling brave this vacation! Woo hoo!"

"All right," Robin smiled.

Starfire clasped her hands together.

Raven swiveled around and faced Susan. "So…what are the rates?"

The old woman smiled. She handed the dark girl the keys.

Raven looked at the keys in her palm…then back at the woman. "You can't be serious…"

"You have a problem with it, take it up with Jerry!" Susan winked and waddled out of the house.

While the other Titans shared dumbfounded stares, Raven ran out after her and stood in the asphalt street. "And just where is your husband as we speak, Mrs. Feldman!"

Susan pointed without looking. "Oh…by the pond. As usual. Lazy butt!"

Raven blinked. She looked over.

There was a lone man standing in front of the pond with a fishing rod.

A Wal-Mart greeter without his Wal-Mart outfit.

She slowly—dazedly—stumbled towards him.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Dude! Fresh firewood and everything! We can pop popcorn in this thing, I bet!"

"Gotta find a general store around here, first," Cyborg replied.

"General store!"

"Yeah! That's what they're called out here in the country!"

"How do you know, City Boy!"

"Want me to tell you with my fist!"

"Pfft…that was lame. Oooh! I bet they have a pump out back! Let's go check it out!"

The changeling and the android bounded out towards the front.

Robin and Starfire stood alone in the main room.

"Well…this vacation is certainly looking up," Robin smirked. He glanced over at the Tamaranian. A pause. "You're still thinking about him, aren't you?"

She slowly nodded and sighed. "That I am…"

Robin tilted his head to the side. "I can't blame you, Star. If there's anything I can do---"

"I…I-I was thinking…," she blushed. "Would it be allright if I went out on a walk? L-Like Noir is doing?"

The Boy Wonder's lips parted. He eventually smiled a soft smile and said: "Why, of course, Star. Not a bad idea, either. This place is beautiful!"

"I think I will embark upon that…," she said. She moved to leave—but paused and gave Robin a gentle hug. "Thank you….for everything, Robin. I-I just need time to think."

He patted her back as their embrace parted. "I understand, Star. I'll be here if you need me."

The girl nodded…and gently glided out the doorway.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven stepped over to the pond an stood beside Jerad Feldman.

"Took you long enough," he smirked…casting his line into the pond and slowly reeling it in. "Tell me…do you like the place or hate it? I've poured my heart and soul into it over the past twenty years!"

Raven planted her hands to her hips. "You set this up all along, didn't you?"

"I would hope so!" he said. "You'd feel pretty stupid otherwise, wouldn't you?"

Raven pouted. "We just cannot stay here for free! That is too nice of you."

"Nice! Nice! Niceness has nothing to do with it, little lady!"

"Then what is it?"

"Same reason I'm casting a fishing line into a pond which I've known for the last five years has absolutely no fish!" he looked over at her and winked. "I'm a crazy old man!"

Raven blinked.

Jerad laughed a jolly laugh, his whole body tilting back and his wrinkled eyes thinning.

Raven couldn't help but smirk.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was rounding a bend of dirt road…leading back onto the main asphalt curve of the cottages.

I took another breath of nature….and relaxed.

It was good to be relaxed that far west.

I slowly turned around to head my way back to the T-Car, when something caught my eye and I froze.

I knelt down and lowered my shades.

Having found something I was subconsciously looking for.

There were tire tracks on the edge of the road where the dirt was.

And the tracks were identical to that of the FBI truck…….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire's walk was really a flight.

She drifted higher and higher through the escalating pine and forest.

She took a deep breath. A bird fluttered overhead, and she smiled slightly.

She was floating over a babbling creek when it hit her. And when it hit her, she gasped and clutched her heart. Her green eyes widened.

He was there…

She looked down.

There was a clearing.

And there was a figure.

She took a breath, settled down to the grassy floor weightlessly, and crept up behind a tree. She stared out into the shadowy clump of grass between trees.

The boy had his cloak parted And she could see his thin figure kneeling down…gently offering food for a band of squirrels at the base of the tree. A bird or two were gathered on the branches above. Like a scene out of Disney.

She exhaled.

The sound pricked the ear of the boy.

And he looked up. And his face was not the snapshot of anger and fury that she had seen in him earlier, though she sensed it trailing on the line of his mouth and the curves of his eyes. Rather—in a brand new snapshot—he looked cornered. Like a deer in the headlights. His lips parted slightly and his green eyes narrowed curiously under a jagged halo of sliced, red hair.

The warmth burned from within Starfire…and whatever hesitancy and depression she had felt all morning washed away as she stepped out a few feet into the clearing, basked in the warmth of another, and unabashedly and maternally uttered: "Greetings….f-friend…"