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Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or anything else I may mention.

…..

Cursed

Chapter Fourteen: Sneaking Out

….

I wake up a few minutes before my alarm is supposed to go off, which is odd because I don't even remember going to sleep. Yet here I am, lying on my side in Jade's bed, her head lying against my back. I get up carefully so I don't wake her up, and tiptoe into the closet.

Since it's dark in there, I have to feel my way around for a moment to find a clean uniform. Once I do, I take off the dirty one and put the new one on. The alarm starts going off at around this time, and it's only then that it really sinks in.

We're actually doing this.

I take a moment to collect my thoughts so Jade doesn't see how worried I am. Otherwise her and Roy wouldn't trust me to lead, if I can't even lead my own emotions. Leading a team is like a second nature to me; I don't want to give it up so soon. When I'm sure I'm ready, I go back into the room.

I'm met by an obviously worried Jade. She doesn't bother to hide it, instead tackling me and giving me one of the tightest hugs I've ever received.

""I thought you left me!" she whimpers, nuzzling my shoulder.

"Calm down," I groan. "Your powers are the only reason we can even attempt sneaking out."

Jade lets go and looks up at me sheepishly. "Sorry. I'm just really happy to see you."

I roll my eyes and begin to fix my hair as Jade gets dressed. "Remember your pants this time, okay?"

"That was one time!"

I chuckle at the memory as I finish tying up my hair into pigtails. I then turn to my backpack and double check to make sure everything I need is in there. Since Jade is still hiding in the closet getting dressed, I go ahead and check hers too. But when I unzip her backpack, I don't just see what we'll need on the trip. I see everything.

"Um… Jade? I don't think you need all of this."

"All of what?" Jade asks, walking out of the closet. Her eyes widen when she sees me holding the bag, and she immediately tries to snatch it from my grasp. "Give it back!"

I oblige, tossing her the backpack.

"Thank you," she says politely, before shoving her Cheshire Cat in the bag as well.

"Do you really need to take Cheshire with you?" I groan. "The big kids are going to laugh."

Jade doesn't seem to care. "Well, I'm not leaving him behind too."

"Which would make perfect sense if you actually left something behind to begin with. You know, I'm pretty sure I saw the kitchen sink in there!"

Jade ignores me and zips up the backpack. I'm pretty sure those are tears in her eyes, and I feel guilty because my teasing is surely the reason they're there. Maybe I have been too standoffish lately. I can't help it though- I'm under a lot of stress! I just wish things could be different. I can't wait for things to go back to normal, if such a thing even exists anymore. Then, me and Jade can play together like we used to, without having to worry about our plans to sneak out. We'll spend so much time together that it will be like this never happened.

We put on our backpacks and wordlessly link our hands together. Jade takes a deep, shaky breath and makes us turn invisible. We turn out the lights and leave the room. Quietly, we tip-toe down the halls until we reach Roy's room. Jade knocks on the door, and we take a few steps back. And then, we wait.

Finally, Baran peeks his head out the door. He pretends to look around for a moment, eventually opening the door completely and sighing in fake defeat. "Huh. Guess I was just hearing things."

We take that as our signal to run into the room, where Roy is sitting on his bed clutching his backpack. Jade deactivates her powers as Baran closes the door.

"Ready?" I ask.

"Ready," Roy grins.

The three of us sit down on Roy's bed while Baran sits on a chair in front of us, repeating the instructions for the next part of the plan. When he's certain that we know them by heart, we sit around talking and waiting we didn't have so much time to kill. I can't help but notice the look of guilt on Roy's face, or the one of Jade's either for the matter. I try my best to stay composed so Baran doesn't think I'm a scardy-cat or goody-two-shoes like my friends are, but I don't think it's working. I feel sick, and my hands tremble as tiny pink sparks sizzle around my palms. That feeling of dread returns, hitting me like a bullet.

Part of me doesn't want to do this anymore.

Part of me doesn't care.

Baran stands up, jolting me from my thoughts. A hex unwillingly shoots from my wrist, hitting the closet. No one notices.

"It's time."

Without another word, the three of us stand up and link our hands together. Jade's hands tremble as she activates her powers to shield us. Baran nods, opening the door.

"Bye Roy," he yells, holding the door open for an unreasonable amount of time. We use this as our opportunity to slip out.

Once Baran decides we've had enough time, he closes the door and starts walking towards Selinda's room. We follow him hand in hand, and I completely block all thoughts from my mind. Finally, after all these weeks of planning, it's time to put our plan into action.

It doesn't take us long to reach Selinda's room , which is really helped by the fact that no one ran into us. Baran knocks on the door, and Selinda answers it. As according to the plan, she leaves the door open for an extra amount of time so we can get in. After we do, Jade immediately turns off her powers and collapses on the spare bed.

"That. Was. Exhausting." Jade fans her head dramatically. "Did you guys see that? I must've had my powers on for like, forever!"

"You did very well Jade," Selinda says, stuffing her backpack with books.

"Well, how would you know?" Jade asks as she hangs upside down on the foot of the bed. "You weren't even there!"

Selinda laughs. "Okay then, you caught me oh wise grammar-nazi. I'm sure you did very well. Now c'mon, let's go!"

"Shouldn't we wait for Jade?"

Selinda stops tugging on her brother's arm and looks back at Jade. The five year old pushes herself off the bed and links her arms with mine and Roy's. I give her an inquisitive look, but she just looks up at me and grins.

"What? I'm fine, really."

"Okay then," I say hesitantly. "I guess we're ready if you guys are."

The next part of our plan takes longer, since Selinda's room and the place we're going are on different sides of the school. As we walk I can feel Jade's hand tremble in my own, and I can't help feeling nervous myself. I wish I could see Roy right now, to guess what he's feeling, but Jade's powers make it impossible to see either of my friends. So I push the thought to the side and focus on the faint outlines of Selinda and Baran as we move through darkened corridor after darkened corridor. My heart skips beats every time we pass an unfamiliar shadow, and there are moments when I'm certain it's another student and we're about to be caught. But every time it turns out to only be a fluke, and I'm reminded that even if it weren't for Jade's powers it would be too dark for anyone to truly know what they're seeing.

I feel relieved when we make it to the cafeteria, where there's light. Selinda walks in first and looks around, and then comes back and gives us a thumbs us. We don't know if there are security cameras or if anyone else had the idea to come early, so Jade keeps her powers on. Baran leads us to the kitchen, where the door we snuck out of the first time is already cracked open. Jade drops our shield as we walk out of the academy and into the cold winter air. Sitting in the parking lot is a great big truck with a lot of the paint scratched off the sides. The door in the back is opened, but I can't see anything inside of it. Probably because the sun isn't quite up yet.

"Alright, get inside. When you hear the other kids, make sure to turn on your powers. Okay Jade?"

Roy seems surprised. "Wait, inside? You mean we're taking that truck there?"

Roy's right- it seems pretty small. Unless we're riding in the back, that is. But what if we wreck? There can't possibly be seat belts back there.

"Is it big enough for all of us up there?" I ask.

Baran laughs. "We're not riding in the front, kid."

Jade's eyes light up, and she jumps up and punches the air. "Oh yes! I've always wanted to ride in the trunk!"

"Are you sure it's safe?" Roy asks.

Selinda seems hesitant. "Well, the Headmistress has gotta know what she's doing, right? It's not like she'd have us do something really dangerous, you know?"

I look at the back of the truck, and my stomach churns at the thought of it ending up turned over in a ditch on the side of the road. While I've done a lot of dangerous things in the past few months, there's just something about this that doesn't seem right. I feel like I should grab Jade and Roy and run back to my room where we can forget that we even had this idea. But in a weird way, I know that I can't. Not after we've gone this far. To give up now would be unthinkable.

I make up my mind: it's time to climb in.

Well, here goes nothing.

I walk closer to it, before breaking out into a run. When I get close enough, I jump up and push myself up onto the floor. I crawl in a little farther before turning around and peeking my head out.

"Well? Come on!"

Jade doesn't hesitate to follow me, and after a moment of thought Roy joins her. Jade isn't tall enough to reach, so we have to pull her up. Other than that, things go pretty well. Jade leans out and yells a "See you later!" to the siblings as they walk away. For now, we're alone. But that doesn't bother me like it should. Most of my worries have faded away, so all there's left to do is wait for the real problems to begin.

"Hey guys? Look at this box I found!" Roy yells from the back of the truck.

Jade and I get up from where we're sitting on the edge, and follow Roy to the back. Sure enough, there's a silver box stuck to the floor. It looks like it can be opened, but a lock on the front of it stops us from doing so. Overall, it reminds me of a treasure chest. I wonder what's inside, if it's contents are important enough to need a lock.

"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's pick the lock!" Jade says with a grin.

"I don't know if we can. It's the kind with a code," I explain. I don't know for sure that we can't pick it, but it's never the kind people on movies pick. That kind always needs a key, and I'm pretty sure you can't pick a lock unless it needs a key.

"Then why don't we try to guess the code?" Jade asks mischievously.

Roy smirks. "Guys? You know that might not be necessary."

"Why not?" I ask.

"Because there's already a code entered."

Another look at the box reveals that yes, there is in fact a code entered. If it's the right code or not we can't be sure, but it's worth a try. I lean forward and press the button next to the keypad, and with a click the box pops open slightly. On the count of three, we all carefully lift the lid.

Inside is a blue binder that looks like it has seen better days. The cover is dusty, stained, and torn up. Roy seems a little annoyed when Jade is the one to lift it out of the box. Opening the front of it reveals a thick set of well-preserved pages that seem to be in much better condition than the binder that protects them. The first page seems to be a title page.

Quantum Generators, Black Holes, and the Multiverse Theory

Research gathered by Professor Martin Stein and Charles "Charlie" Snow

"Martin Stein… I think I've heard that name," I say, thinking out loud.

"Yeah, it sounds familiar," Roy agrees.

Jade glances at the cover again. "Hey guys? What if this is what the Headmistress is giving Madame Rouge?"

"But why would she want something like this?"

Roy shakes his head. "Who knows?"

I take it from Jade's hands and flip through the pages. "Maybe we should put it back. It looks important, and we wouldn't want to rip any pages."

"Good idea," Roy says, taking the binder from me. He sighs, wiping some of the dust off the cover before putting it back.

I don't miss the way he hesitates before closing the lid.

…

Hi again! There's… really no excuse for going so long without updating. When I first started writing fanfic, I vowed that I wouldn't be one of those people who constantly left their readers in suspense, but here I am. But it's a new year, right? 2017 already feels different than 2016 did! And it's a good different! And while I'm not going to promise that I can update every three days or once a week like I used to since I know I won't be able to keep up with that, I am going to promise that I'm at least going to try to do better.

Anyways, thank you Quaarus, Silver-Infinite, bdjc, nikki Diaz, and juliette01 for favoriting, and Silver-Infinite, Liely, nikki Diaz, and juliette01 for following. Sorry if I missed anyone :)

Reviews:

CursedRedRose- Thanks :D

Juliette01- Thanks, and you're about to find out ;)

So yeah, I think that just about sums things up. Next chapter is when crap hits the fan. I've noticed that when I give specific dates I'm going to update by I always end up going way over, so let's just say I'll update soon and leave it at that. I hope you guys had a great Halloween, an amazing Thanksgiving, a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year :)

Quote of the day:

"Hey, what do you say we both be independent together!" –Hermey the elf, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Titans go!

Spectrobes Princess

(p.s. Has anyone else watched Justice League Action yet? It kind of reminds me of Teen Titans, in a way.)