Disclaimer: I don't own.
|.◤..chapter four...◥.|
Robin was the first to return to the Tower, taking the elevator all the way up to Ops Room. He put the theater mask on the kitchen counter, sighing as he stretched his arms over his head and suppressed a yawn.
It was half past midnight, and they had left for the Amusement Park just after sunset. Either his teammates were in trouble, he thought with a frown, or they'd found something that they didn't want to call in. He flipped over his communication device, studying the emblemed design.
Not a single beep sounded.
The alert console in front of him remained similarly quiet, no supervillainy crime to report, so he walked over to the window. Looking out over the water, all he could see were the twinkling city lights, yellow and bright. He caught his reflection — haggard, with his hair wild and windblown, his mask narrowed in thought — before he glanced back down at the T-communicator.
They were fine... probably. They'd likely just gotten carried away on their rounds.
"Starfire," Robin said, flipping the device open. "Come in."
"Robin," Starfire immediately answered, her smile beaming at him through the small round screen. Next to her, he heard Raven say, "Perfect timing, Robin, we're on our way up the elevator now."
Robin raised his eyebrows in surprise, "You're back at the Tower?"
The doors to the corridor opened.
"Yes," Starfire answered in person, and the image on his screen fizzled out as he snapped it closed. Raven stood next to her with arms crossed and a disgruntled expression on her face.
Behind his two teammates were two teenage boys: the older one regarded the Titans with cautious suspicion, dressed like the two from the video in a loose kimono-like style but colored in shades of blue; the other boy with the Shaolin monk appearance waved cheerfully, bounding over to Robin with bright eyes.
Raven gestured with an unenthusiastic hand, "Robin, this is—"
"Hi! I'm Aang," the bald child with the arrow tattoo said, bowing at his waist, his palms pressed together in brief ceremony. He straightened up, looking over to his companion and then back to the teenage hero with wide smile. "And that's Sokka. We were told you could help us find our missing friends."
Robin looked over the kid's shoulder. Raven offered him a neutral shrug, and Starfire smiled just as big as the young monk.
"Hello," Sokka greeted, giving the two teenage girls a wide berth as he crossed over to join them. He put a hand on his friend's shoulder, but his expression was serious when he looked back at Robin, visibly taking in the other boy's clash of bright green and red.
Robin observed the interaction stoically. "Your friends," he started and then stopped. They still hadn't yet heard back from Cyborg and Beast Boy. If the remaining two Titans had found more information, it would be best to wait until they'd have had the chance to talk as a group. "Have they been missing long?" he pivots instead.
Sokka doesn't answer, instead asking his own question. "Nice place," he compliments casually, "do you all live alone out here? In the middle of the ocean?" When no one says anything, he continues, the suspicion couched in innocent curiosity, "Are you... not allowed to live in the city?"
Was he trying to ask if they were exiled to the Tower, like they were the dangerous ones here? Robin considered him, the puzzle pieces he'd shaped in his mind shifting, now looking like two different sets irresponsibly jumbled together. Were they wrong, and these people were innocently caught up in something bigger than they had intended? Or were they lying, and this was Terra all over again?
"Titans Tower. It's on an island in the middle of Jump City's bay," Robin corrected, making a decision, "And we're the superheroes who protect it. I'm Robin." He nodded once, reaching out a hand.
Sokka's gaze focused on the view outside the window, eyeing the faraway lights, before his eyes flicked over to study their TV screen and then the overhead lights with a contemplative frown. He looked back at Robin and then gripped his hand at the forearm. "Sokka, and likewise."
"Protect the city from what?" Aang asked, his head tilted curiously.
"From supervillains," Raven rejoined, stepping over to be beside her leader. She had an open bag of potato chips in one hand and wordlessly held it out to Robin. He took the bag and ate a handful of chips. She added pointedly, "And criminals."
"Hey now," Sokka said, exchanging a defensive look between the two, "We're not supervillains or criminals, okay. We didn't take anything that wasn't ours to begin with."
Starfire flew over, then, bending down to ask Robin quietly for a piece of the food, never mind that they had an entire pantry full of the unhealthy foodstuffs. Aang brightened when he saw her, and Robin narrowed his eyes behind his mask, but before he even had the chance to think a single bad thought, the monk was gushing, "How are you flying like that? Are you an airbender? The monks said Guru Laghima achieved flight by letting go of his earthly tethers, but I think Monk Gyatso might have been exaggerating the story a bit."
Starfire flew behind him and he turned around, watching her with apt attention. "To fly," she puffed up her chest, smiling as she performed a weightless loop, "I must feel a great happiness. On my home planet Tamaran, we are all capable of flight."
Raven rolled her eyes, recognizing the similar explanation from the time they swapped bodies. Starfire completed another loop and Aang clapped politely, excitedly offering to show her his own moves.
"So what can you do?" Sokka asked, and Robin realized a second too late that the other boy was talking to him. When there was no answer, he prompted, "Can you fly like them? Or... use magic?"
The Boy Wonder crossed his arms, trying to read the teen for any hidden judgement in the words. "No," he answered simply.
"Huh, me neither," Sokka disclosed easily, shrugging. "Hey, can I have some of that?"
Robin handed him the bag of chips, and the other teenager messily stuffed a fistful into his mouth, moaning happily. In the background, Aang had started to move in a Baguazhang martial art style, saying, "And then you just—" and raised his arms up in a smooth wave. With no further warning, the air in the room shifted into a light breeze, wrapping around the group in a gentle flow. The oni mask trembled from its spot on the counter, lifted by the unnatural current, but it wasn't light enough to fall over.
"Aang, stop showing off," Sokka said, and then held up the plastic bag like it was the greatest thing he'd ever seen, "You've got to try this. The texture is like fire flakes, but it's salty instead of spicy!"
The breeze stopped as Aang straightened.
"It's vegetarian," Sokka added helpfully, shaking the bag.
As the two quickly finished off the snack, Starfire asked in concern, "Have you... not eaten already?" She looked back to Robin and Raven, but the two were busy in a low conversation by the couch and she didn't want to interrupt. "Please, take what you wish from our kitchen. There is pizza, and sputflinks, and Robin's stuffed mushroom.. crab.. thing, and tofu, and waffles!"
"Ah," Aang answered, his look of confusion transforming to one of interest after she finished listing them off, "You have tofu?! Can I have some of that, please?"
"Food," Sokka sighed in obvious relief. "Oh how I've missed you."
"Please," she invited, beckoning them to follow her as she went over to their refrigerator. As she handed Aang "the Avatar" the tofu he'd requested and welcomed them to sit at any of the tables in the room, she noticed that they looked similarly perplexed by the other items stacked on the shelves. She wondered if they were also an alien like her, lost on Earth and unfamiliar to its strange customs and foreign cuisine.
"Tell me," Starfire asked, joining them at the table. Sokka was looking at his slice of pizza tentatively before he braved a bite, and then he was perking up, sheer wonder on his face. "From where do you hail? Are there others from your home who can bend the air as you do?"
Sokka and Aang shared a look, and then Aang was answering, "We're from a place called Earth. There are four nations: the Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and..." he trailed off, a sad look in his eyes. Sokka put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing, and the monk finished quietly, "...and the Air Nomads."
"I see," Starfire said, mirroring the solemn atmosphere but not entirely understanding why. "And there are the benders of water, earth, fire, and air in these nations?"
The boys nodded, and Sokka added around a mouthful of pepperoni pizza, "And nonbenders."
"And your friends—are they benders too?"
Sokka and Aang looked over Starfire's shoulder. Robin had his arms crossed, his mask raised questioningly, but at his side, Raven looked like she'd remembered something she'd long forgotten. Her violet eyes were wide, and she held a hand up to forestall any more questions. "Water, earth, fire, air," she parroted, looking back at the two intently, "and the Avatar is the only one who can bend all four. He's destined to save the world."
She'd heard this all before, in a vision, though she couldn't remember most of the details (like what was he going to save the world from?). Even though it was mostly just flashes of thoughts and feelings, she suddenly knew that they did not belong in this world—in this dimension, even.
"I think I know what brought you here," she declared aloud, "and how you can get back."
The broken sword must have activated an inter-dimensional portal and pulled them here, and it was her responsibility to help them get back home.
In the sudden quiet, Robin's T-communicator beeped, flashing red. With a small amount of hesitance, he excused himself, letting Raven take his place next to Starfire as he headed out into the corridor for some privacy. "...Cyborg? Beast Boy? Everything okay?"
"We found someone we think you'll want to meet."
The polluted air smelled of a hearth: like billowing smoke, black as ash, was overlayed with the nauseating sweetness of a burning, consuming, fire. He could almost taste the screams. Behind his mask, Slade smiled.
Resting ceremoniously in front of him was the broken half of the dimensional cutter, shimmering like the stars outside, only for the pinpricks of light to be swallowed whole by the larger void of dark empty space.
"And where is the other half?" a voice asked, like the hushed swish of fabric over a tiled floor. It sounded neither female nor male.
"Your last assignment will be the Teen Titans," Slade answered smoothly. "I expect pleasing results first. Then we can finish our talk."
The face tilted its head with a blank expression. It had neither eyes, nor mouth, nor nose, but an expressionless nothingness where a face should have been. A nonexistent fire crackled and snapped, like a promise, "Consider it done."
Yes, everything was going as planned.
Katara touched the hollow of her throat, quiet as the metal box they were in carried them higher up their Tower. Cyborg and Beast Boy were similarly unspeaking, a tired look in their eyes. They had told her she could stay the night once they talked with their other friends, and she hoped their conversation would go okay; she didn't want to go back to the cold, dark city, alone once again.
When she had woken up by herself, unfamiliar to the strange technology and the peculiar layout, she had started to lose hope that the others were here, looking for her. For all she knew, she might have been stranded on some strange world, parallel to her own in some regards but still so, so, so different in others. Alone.
But then, she'd seen the bracelet on a young woman's arm, walking down the street and talking on a small hand-held device.
Toph.
Even if the others weren't here, she wasn't alone anymore. She'd find Toph, and maybe Zuko if the two were together, and then they'd go home, together. Somehow, someway.
She clutched the meteor bracelet in a white-knuckled grip.
"Just a head's up, Robin can be kinda intense sometimes," Beast Boy told her when the so-called elevator dinged lightly at their chosen floor. "But he's a secret softie, so you have nothing to worry about."
"I'm not worried," Katara said, and she put her hands back down by her side. She could handle herself, no matter what happened.
Luckily, she didn't have to. When the group walked into their living room, the windows were dark and lights like firefly torches were artificially illuminating the clean room. And sitting on the couch on the left side— were two familiar faces, their tired looks immediately transforming to ones of relief and concern.
"Sokka," she said, her eyes stinging as she ran over, throwing herself at her brother. He caught her, returning her tight hug with one of his own. "Aang," she sighed, holding back a sniffle. They were okay. Thank Tui and La.
"You all must be exhausted," Robin finally said, interrupting the peaceful silence that had settled over the group huddled together. "You can sleep here on the couches, or we have a couple of futons in storage."
Sokka nodded, rubbing a hand over his eyes. "Yeah, that sounds good. Thank you."
Robin and Starfire returned with the beds, pillows, and a pile of folded blankets. Raven offered them a gentle nod and a smile before leaving for her own bed, Beast Boy following after her, yawning and stretching his hands over his head. "I'm pooped," they heard him say as the door shut behind him.
"If you need anything before morning, press this button," Robin directed, pointing to a key on the console. "It'll send an alert to the whole Tower, so only use it for an emergency."
Cyborg added, the lights turning off, "Tower's all locked up. Good night."
"May you have sweet shlorvax," Starfire joined kindly, trailing Robin and Cyborg out of the room. The door shut behind them, and then they were alone in the dark, only the faraway city's glow twinkling back at them.
"You're okay," Katara repeated, her voice watery, "you're okay."
Aang hugged her back, and Sokka wrapped a couple of blankets around the three of them. He handed Katara her missing necklace without saying anything, and she hiccupped, immediately returning it to its rightful spot around her neck.
"They said they'd help us look for Toph and Zuko tomorrow."
Katara nodded, telling them of the similar promise Beast Boy and Cyborg had offered earlier in the night. As the minutes ticked by, they shared their stories, explaining how they'd woken up alone (or in Sokka and Aang's case, together but separate from the others) and found their missing items littered randomly across the city. They all understood that this world—if it was another dimension, like Raven claimed, or some version of the Spirit World that had yet gone unexplored—was full of strange abilities far different than bending or even the spirit magic that they were used to.
"Can we trust them?" Katara asked in a small voice, pulling the fuzzy blanket closer. It was decorated with stars that glowed in the dark, burning green in the shadowed space, and Aang was a warm weight on her side. They all had dark bags under their eyes.
"I think we can," Aang voiced thoughtfully. "Zuko had said he heard something at the Western Air Temple, and Raven knew a little bit about our home. Maybe it was them?"
"Maybe," Sokka said, but thinking back on Zuko's weird behavior when they had gone hunting, he wasn't so sure the other boy had heard something benevolent. If they didn't find the others soon, it would be worth considering if the Spirit World had something to do with the earthquake and subsequent transportation. There was a similar parallel here from the time a tornado had blown them into the Foggy Swamp, and Sokka didn't want to rule anything out just yet.
"We should get some rest," he said, pulling a pillow to his chest. Even though their adventure had started out with just the three of them, Toph and Zuko had quickly wormed their way into the group (though Zuko was still a work in progress for the Water Tribe siblings), and their absence was felt intensely. "Tomorrow, we'll find them. These Titans seem to know their way around the city. How hard can it really be," Sokka finished with a yawn.
"Destiny is a funny thing," Aang mumbled, his eyes already closed. Katara was sleeping lightly next to him, all but passed out. They were sharing the same futon, curled up together under a couple layers of blankets, and Sokka looked at his empty futon a couple feet away
"Scooch over," he said, poking the soft spot between the airbender's shoulder blades. When Aang dutifully shifted over, mumbling under his breath, he snuggled under the blankets next to them. All three squished onto the same mattress, warm and together.
Sleep came in waves.
"So what do you think?" Raven asked, standing up from where she had been leaning against the wall. Beast Boy was shifted into a green cat, curled up and sleeping lightly by her foot. She tapped him gently, rubbing behind one of his pointed ears, and he sleepily opened his eyes. He quickly changed back into a human, giving Raven a sheepish look, obviously not having meant to doze off.
Cyborg and Starfire joined them, and they all looked to their leader.
"I think we should help them find their friends," Robin answered, but did not elaborate on what would then happen after that.
Cyborg considered them, having already told Robin about how he'd met the young waterbender. "They seem like they're telling the truth. When BB and I found Katara, she was already looking for her friends."
"We experienced the same, when we found Sokka and Aang robbing the store of cheap knickknacks," Starfire supplemented.
Though, they couldn't rule out the chance of deception. They all remembered Terra's stinging betrayal after they had invited her into their home and welcomed her as part of their team. Was it pure coincidence that they had a world with powers just like hers, with the ability to bend earth (and water, fire, and air) to their will?
"There's a lot of moving parts here," Robin allowed. Was the H.I.V.E. also a part of this then? If Raven was right and that the sword breaking had broken the time-space continuum and poked a hole between their dimensions, then the centipede demon must have also come in through the cracks. "We'll need to be careful. Get some sleep, and we'll regroup in the morning."
The group wished each other a restful sleep and peaceful dreams, splitting off into their separate rooms.
It was less than five hours later when the alarm went off in the Tower, glaring red and ringing nonstop in a loud, jarring melody. With their hair askew and shadows under their eyes, the teenage superheroes met each other at the Ops Room. The three strangers from another world were clustered on one futon, wide-awake but confused, shooting wary looks at their hosts.
It hadn't been them.
"Titans, trouble!"
A beeping message blinked at them from its place on the large screen.
Finders, keepers, it read. You're MINE now.
|.◤.◥.|
Author's Note: Sorry about the long wait. I have writer's block, and still I am not completely sure I like this chapter. If you have any question, feel free to ask. Thanks for reading, and please review.
UPDATE: this was updated 1/8/23. I also struggled to re-write this chapter, especially compared to the previous ones, so this must be a weakness of mine if I had writer's block last time, haha. I'm also not thrilled with how it turned out, but I can't spend forever picking it apart until I like it. Hope it works for you (and at least it was better than the first version).