Next Chapter and the darkness is about to begin! Warning there will be a character death ahead so if you can't deal with it, don't read it. If not go ahead!
Forgot to do this last time, Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, I can only dream.
Robin sat at the table in the kitchen, groggily swigging black coffee and praying the aspirin would kick in at some point. It was only mid-morning and after the party last night, there was practically no one else up but already he felt done with today. He looked down at his watch. He had to go on patrol in less than an hour and he hoped he would feel a little better when that time came. If he didn't, he knew he would deal with it though. He had a city to protect and it wouldn't wait around just because he was feeling a little worn out.
He scowled as he looked around the room. Cyborg and Beast Boy had done their best frantic last-minute tidy-up but the place still looked like a bomb had hit it, which wasn't far off given Mas y Menos had remained hyper until the early hours of the morning when they had suddenly dropped to sleep like toys that had ran out of battery. The furniture had all been righted and put back in place but there were sticky stains and bits of gravity-defying food stuck on their sides. The music system had been hastily put away but there were still some long black cables curled out on the floor like nesting snakes. Despite all the scrubbing, there was still a large faint pink splat on the ceiling and there was now a brown mark on another wall where Robin had been informed a bottle had been thrown. That had really made him cross-they were supposed to be the protectors of this city and yet two members of the team had been dangerously throwing glass around like they were in a bar room brawl. He really needed to have words with Wally and Roy. It was always hard having to tell off his best friends but they really shouldn't be acting like idiots.
Most of the stuff that they had felt too tired to clean at four in the morning had been swept into the corners and the sunlight was catching at the little fragments of brown glass on the floor, making it wink at him. He looked into another corner with a bigger heap of stuff and saw something black and lacy perched on the top. Was that Argent's? he thought, just as the door opened and his friend Wally West walked in. Unlike Robin, he wasn't fully dressed yet, wearing a white t-shirt and red shorts, and he was groaning a little as he swept his fingers through his tousled bright red hair.
"Hey Dick." He said, surprisingly brightly for this time in the morning with a sparkle in his baby blue eyes. He began looking in the fridge and started pulling random stuff out. "Is there anything good to eat in here?"
"Not unless Beast Boy's stuff counts." Robin smirked.
Kid Flash stuck out his tongue in disgust and he had to laugh before remembering why he needed to see him. "Wally, what happened last night?"
"You can't remember, huh?" he said innocently as he started to assemble some sort of giant sandwich. "It's blurry in places for me too. Still, most of it is pretty clear…"
"That isn't what I meant and you know it." Robin's eyes narrowed. "I know you and Roy got into a fight last night, a pretty serious one by the look of that wall. That just isn't acceptable Wally and you should know that."
Wally looked down at the floor and had the grace to look guilty. "Hey, he started it!" He mumbled darkly. "He shouldn't have been checking out my girlfriend!"
"Oh for God's sake." Robin felt like smashing his head into the surface of the table. The absolute last thing he needed was Jinx and Kid Flash related problems. "Are you sure it was Jinx he was looking at? You couldn't have been overreacting?"
"Jinx, Kole and Aqualad were the only ones on the dance floor," Kid Flash explained defensively. "Kole is just a little girl so frankly I'd be really worried if he started leering at her and Aqualad…well I don't know how he stands him sometimes; they're always arguing recently."
"That's not the point." Robin sighed. "Jinx is a big girl who can take care of herself perfectly well. She doesn't need you to leap into battle for her all the time."
"Well said Rob." A voice came from the door and they both turned to see Jinx standing there, her hair all loose and wavy, wearing a pink vest top and sweatpants, and with a stern look at her boyfriend, whose face had broken into a bigger grin when he saw her. "You really should listen to him more." She walked over and crossly jabbed a finger into Wally's chest. "What you did last night to Speedy was unbelievably dumb, even for you."
"What?! Oh Jinxie, how you wound me!" Kid Flash clutched his chest dramatically as he held his other hand up to his forehead. When Jinx turned away with a huff, he swooped in and grabbed her by the waist, nuzzling his head into her soft hair. "What about what I did to you last night? Didn't you like that?" He whispered thickly into her ear and even though she elbowed him away, he saw that she was smiling and went in for a kiss.
"Guys, I can't deal with this this early in the morning!" Robin cut through as they broke apart. "And Wally, you really need to learn how to whisper."
Kid Flash went almost as red as his hair and he stammered a little before he said "Oh shut up Robin, I passed your room last night when you were in there with Star. From the noises you were making, the stuff you were doing was hardly PG, was it?"
Robin tried to hide his blushing by chugging the last dregs of his coffee but ended up with brown dribbles down his chin. He tried to look dignified as he wiped them away but he could tell it wasn't working. "Is anybody else up?" He asked Jinx who was trying to make her own breakfast but kept having what she needed snatched away by Kid Flash making a second sandwich. Her room was isolated right at the back of the Tower so she had to pass everybody else's rooms to get here. Anyone else would have moaned about the walk but he knew that after living with five other guys she enjoyed the privacy. Kid Flash also didn't seem to mind.
"I'm not sure." She answered. "Most people still seem to be asleep, I heard Cyborg snoring so he's definitely out for the count. Argent and Hotspot seem to have ended up in the same room-" Wally and Dick snorted at that in unison. "I didn't hear anything from Raven and I think Bee is dead to the world after running around after the twins. I did hear stirrings from Beast Boy's room though. I bet you he'll be along soon."
"Great." Robin said. "I need him to come on patrol."
"Why don't you just take one of us?" Kid Flash asked.
"Because neither of us are ready," Jinx pointed out, pouring herself some coffee. "And I'm on tomorrow night."
"Yeah, with so many of us here now, there's no need for anyone to do that. Besides, after last night he needs some sobering up." Robin said wickedly just as the green teenager walked in, dressed in stripy pyjamas bottoms and nothing else. His eyes still looked half-asleep and he was moving around stiffly like a zombie.
"Hey dudes, what's up?" He said, cracking a weak smile as he grabbed something from the fridge. "Last night was great, huh?"
"Sure was." Wally agreed and Robin shot him a look.
"You best eat that quickly Beast Boy." He said as he tucked in. "You need to be ready for patrol in forty minutes."
"What?!" Beast Boy nearly spat out his tofu and stared at him in astonishment. "What gives man, I'm not on patrol for another three days!"
"Well, it's either patrol with me this morning or cleaning the entire Tower top from bottom to get rid of every trace of last night." Beast Boy looked around the room with a guilty look, saw the underwear on one of the piles of stuff and his face visibly paled.
"Great." Robin stood up. "I'll see you at the door." He looked down at his watch. "You have thirty-eight minutes." He called back over his shoulder as he heard him groan loudly. He smiled a little as he walked back to his room to wake Starfire up. Being leader really did have its perks. Now all he needed to do was find out how to get those space berries out of the ceiling.
About an hour later, Beast Boy and Robin were making their way through the maze that was the back streets of Jump City. It wasn't the friendliest of neighbourhoods around here so both of them had their guard up. Robin had gotten a call from the police department not five minutes into their patrol and they were heading to the site that had been mentioned. The officer had sounded really shaken up, Robin thought worriedly. He hoped it was not too awful or he might regret bringing Beast Boy along. Although he pretended he was fine, Robin could tell he was still fragile over the whole Terra thing. He knew her high school was only a few streets away and he had deliberately taken a path that meant they avoided it. Reminders were the last thing Beast Boy needed.
The place they were heading for was right on the edge of the city, where there was a small cluster of old-fashioned houses, some of which hadn't been lived in for years. They saw a police car parked outside a small wooden outbuilding that looked like it could crumple over at any minute. It had a low flat roof of corrugated metal and appeared to be made of a bunch of planks quickly stacked and nailed together. The door had a giant broken padlock on the outside and it had no windows. Two police officers were taping it off with solemn faces, one even looked like she had been crying. Robin motioned Beast Boy to stay put as he walked over to the police car. He had had a bad feeling about this as they were walking over and it was getting worse, like a hand was gripping his insides and refusing to let go.
The officer was one he and the Titans knew well and they shook hands. Usually he was quite a cheery man but today his face was chalky white and he looked like he wanted to be sick. "Thank God you came quickly. This is a bad one."
"What's going on?" Robin asked cautiously looking over at the wooden building. He could smell its musty sawdust smell from here and he wandered what it was hiding.
"We got called in this morning by a neighbour," The officer said, wiping sweat from his brow. "She said the padlock on this building had been broken. Nobody owns this place, it's been abandoned for a while now and she suspected some kids had come in to wreck the place. We came in and looked inside…" He visibly shuddered. "There's a…just go and look. We're handing this over to you, we suspect it was one of your lot."
One of your lot. That meant a villain. Robin turned around and went over to the building. Beast Boy made to follow him but Robin again motioned him to stay there. He gave a sulky expression which Robin ignored as he opened the door and slipped into the building.
There was very little light inside, the only bits were small white beams sneaking in through thin gaps in the planks and it took Robin's eyes a second to adjust. When they did he looked up and his body recoiled in horror at what was there. He could feel his stomach trying to gag but the rest of him was frozen so still, it made no effect. He had seen many harrowing things but nothing like this.
The musty smell of wood was gone now and all he could smell was blood. It was so strong he felt like he was being choked by it. The floor was soaked in it, the thin layer of dust and grime marred a rich crimson. But the real horror lay above it, suspended in the air by the collar of her school uniform. The body of Terra was hanging from the ceiling, her collar pinned over a nail like she was a coat propped onto a coat hanger. Her head was lolled backwards and was being fanned by her long blonde hair as wisps of it had fluttered over her face. Her eyes were mercifully closed, never to reopen and her mouth was slightly open like she was about to speak. Robin gazed at her serene face-it looked like she was only asleep and about to wake. However, he looked down and his eyes forced themselves shut. Her body had been completely butchered. There were long red slashes across her body that were dripping red but the biggest one was a horizontal line that ran from her throat all the way down to her stomach, splitting her open. Her uniform flapped miserably next to the huge open wound as her limbs hung limply by her side, her feet pointed about four inches from the ground as she dangled there like a piece of meat.
Robin looked at the body of the girl who had once been his friend and felt a great surge of anger. This was no ordinary murder, this was revenge, revenge of the cruellest possible kind and all on a young girl who had wanted no part in the world she had been forced into. What a life you led, he said to her inwardly as he felt his hands clenching into fists, but you will be avenged, your killer will be brought to justice.
He must have let out some sort of noise as he heard people rushing to the door. "Dude? Robin, what's happening in there? Hold on, I'm coming in!"
"No Beast Boy stop!" Robin spun around and yelled but it was too late. Beast Boy had already burst in the door and seen her hanging in the middle of the room. He stopped and for a moment he just stood there, unable to register the sight of the girl he had loved in this state. His chest gasped for air as he hurled himself towards her, screaming her name.
"Terra! Terra!" He cried out as Robin blocked him and held his body in place. Beast Boy had gotten stronger and it took all his might to stop him getting any closer.
"Beast Boy this is a crime scene!" He shouted, trying to reach him in his shock and anger. "I'm sorry but we need to examine it, if we contaminate it we'll never find who did this, I'm sorry, Beast Boy please…"
"Terra! Terra…" Tears were flowing down Beast Boy's face as he grew weaker and stopped struggling. Instead he clung onto Robin and sobbed into his shoulder as Robin held him and tried to comfort him. He could still hear him weeping her name faintly, his hands gripping his cape as they stood there in the place where their old friend had lived the last moments of her short young life.