Disclaimer: By this means, I rightfully claim ownership to this FanFiction story and my original character within it, by my trademark signature T.M.O at the conclusion of every update. Any other characters that may appear in this work and are new, these are the rightful properties by their creators as well and cannot be reproduced, or duplicated without their individual consent. I do not own anything within the DC Universe, from Warner Brothers, or on Cartoon Network. The only original character and the name that I created for him; that I accept half ownership on is Falcon from this telling. Scififanfreak222 owns the second half of him as well, for drawing him upon a collaboration of various new designs and sketches within the year of 2010; and cannot be knowingly placed into another literary document, writing community, comic book series, and or televised broadcast without either of our written or verbal consent in front of legal consultants. TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne, Scififanfreak222, xSaffire55x, Novus Ordo Seclorum, and RavenxIsxAxBlackxRose; each of these fellow writers have helped me to press onwards with this story, every-time I have come across writers block. Without their outstanding guidance, the updates would have taken me even longer to complete.
Chapter 20 is at last finished! The regrouped heroes try to forge ahead, villains prepare their next move, while the new dawn arrives. "Failure is a teacher, a harsh one but the best." –Thomas J. Watson Sr.-
Chapter 20 - Agitation
"You see, I was in a very uncomfortable position and I never thought things could become what they had inevitably turned into." Robin paused to catch his breath. "I only wanted to explore all of the options, with what we could learn about Falcon, and none of us could get close enough to him, except you."
Beast Boy shook his head in a very disgruntled fashion. The explanation was unlike anything he had ever experienced in his life, and it was baffling to wrap his mind around the specific reasoning or logic, with why his friends would use him in a ploy such as this.
"None of us expected things to go this far." Robin continued, hoping that his words would not fall upon deaf ears.
The shapeshifter sighed, as he lifted his gaze to stare at his disconnected commander. He was about to say something, but whatever it was became hung-up in his throat.
"We were doing what we felt was the only option we had left." Raven said next.
Beast Boy remained mute, unable to speak as this was a devastating blow to the trust that they all carried for each other. It had become shattered, broken into a thousand pieces and there would be no return to a normal state of affairs, after learning of this. Despite being on the outside, regardless of the truth coming out now, Beast Boy felt like he was considered a token on a chessboard and it hurt.
"It was never about betraying the trust that we had with you, but that is what it became." The Titan's Captain continued. "It is on me, everything is. From the course of action we took to stop Slade, to you getting injured at the dam, from what happened with Falcon . . . everything."
Beast Boy swallowed a lump of saliva in his throat, the air in the room was chilly, and the understanding was increasingly more disorienting.
"It was wrong on multiple levels, and while there could have been some other time or place to come out with all of this, exposing this later would not make it any easier." Robin lowered his head in grief. "Everything is on me. . . there is nothing else that I can do. I am . . . I'm sorry."
Starfire reached over and clasped Robin's right hand into hers, and they stared into each-other's eyes. The room had become as silent as a religious cloister, and still Beast Boy said nothing.
"It is difficult to come to terms with." replied Starfire. "But we shall become stronger because of this honesty."
The changeling breathed in through his nose where his nostrils flared outwards, and the intake of oxygen caused everybody to turn and look at him. They were awaiting him to say something for the longest time, and still, he said not a single word.
"There are no words to make amends here." Robin finished his response with his head lowered. "What else can I do, only offer you my deepest apology that I can give, and as your leader, I did betray the trust you have in me. While the intentions to use this . . . plan for good, it backfired."
"You could have kept it to yourself." Cyborg replied with his arms interlocked. "You could have waited, until this crisis was over."
Raven expressed a frustrated scowl at their Second-In-Command, and his continued efforts to put himself on some higher pedestal over the group was disturbing. It was very distasteful, as she clearly remembered that they all had come to an agreement, with explaining this to the green shapeshifter back at The Tower.
Why would Cyborg say this? Raven asked herself.
"True." Robin rebutted. "But what good would it do? We were trying to understand who Falcon was, and well, nothing else matters as I crossed a line."
Cyborg stepped forwards, where the others looked from the leader and co-captain staring each-other down. All eyes were focused onto these two, except for Beast Boy who remained eerily silent, and focusing his attention at the wall. He suddenly felt overcrowded.
"There is nothing more potent, or distasteful that can weaken us from within, only when we are bickering among each-other can Slade win." rasped Raven.
"But you were okay with it? With using me like I was . . . a-a pawn in some scheme?" Beast Boy finally spoke up.
"Beast Boy, now hold on a minute, that's not fair."
"But you went along with it!" The stunning disbelief in all of their actions, it made the birthday boy feel utterly disjointed and afflicted. "All of you did."
The Empath paused to consider her options. She was greatly overjoyed to have him returned to her, and she wanted to tell him exactly how she felt, of what an important role that the changeling had in her life but now, it would have to wait a bit longer.
"I went along with things, yes, but I was the first to want all of this behind closed doors talk, to come out in the open. That we should have told you much sooner, and I wanted to." She looked from Robin's domino mask, back into the changeling's green eyes, and she held Beast Boy's hand.
"Before any of us could act, Slade threatened to destroy the city and everything else was put on hold." Starfire chimed in. "Beast Boy, the intention to wound you was not warranted."
Beast Boy arched his neck to find a more comfortable position, and he bit his lower lip while scanning across the same expressions of his teammates. The look of guilt and shame, of sorrow and remorse was everywhere.
"Things just got out of hand so quickly." Robin's voice picked up. "Even I couldn't fully grasp what the next course of action should be."
"You all still decided to . . . to use me like it was some sick game?"
"Beast Boy, Falcon was withholding information about his past from us. Just as Terra did." The Boy Wonder felt his voice becoming louder. He had come so far, and he did not want to lose any more ground. "We could not allow what happened before, with the distrust the lies and fallout to ever occur again."
The Titan's Technician turned to look over his shoulder. As much as he did not like to think about it, there was strength in this statement. A leader had to take responsibility for the failure of the team, which Robin was doing.
The shapeshifter was thinking deeply, as the group focused on their own memories with The Geomancer, and how distraught they all had become following that terrible incident.
"Finding answers was a top priority." Starfire gently spoke in her angelic voice. "And while I did not like the idea at first, Cyborg and myself, we . . . did uncover things."
"Really?" Beast Boy's ears twitched with curiosity. "So, even without anything that I could have contributed, you still found something?"
"It was through what we pieced together, from his earliest days with us. Things that he told us." Cyborg stepped forwards while speaking. "About Gotham, of his life on the constant move, about him not having a home. Of the monster that destroyed so much that he was trying to find a sense of retribution to make things right."
"We needed answers." Raven chimed in.
Beast Boy ignored her. "So then, what did you guys uncover?"
There was a very long hush that made their hesitation to explain things in greater depth, to feel uncomfortable once again.
"It doesn't matter now." Raven deadpanned, while she clasped her fingers around her wounded comrade's fingers.
"Falcon is gone." said Robin. "What I was hoping to uncover, it lead us into deeper conflict anyway."
Beast Boy felt his eyebrows rise. "Oh?"
"He is no longer with us." Starfire agreed with her eyes closed. "It brings me much of the sorrow to think about the entire ordeal, and nothing more can be done to change what has already occurred."
The elf eared birthday boy leaned back into the pillows, while the gravity of everything flowed through him in various stages. It was only leading to a dead-end, and the fact remained that a deeper tragedy had been uncovered.
Something sinister that his friends were still not telling him.
"So then it was all for nothing?" Beast Boy asked in a defeated manner. "From betraying my trust, to wanting to use me in something that as it turns out, you never did in the end? From striving to dig yourselves out of one problem, you only fell into another hole. As Cyborg put it, why even bother telling me any of it?"
"I hold the blame for everything." The Boy Wonder explained, where he sensed that everyone was looking back at him. "I take full responsibility on this. Beast Boy, you have every right to be upset with me. The others only did what I asked."
The green hero was lost in what he wanted to say, but he did manage to find what he could articulate during another uneasy silence, that gripped the hearts of all gathered in the hospital quarters.
"I think that I can understand what you were trying to achieve Robin. I can even come to terms, that it was for some logical standpoint, but I don't know what you are expecting me to say?"
"What I did was wrong, and while it would feel nice . . . but I am not asking you to forgive me." Robin said as his shadow covered the wall behind him. "I just want you to understand that I made a call, and for what the original purpose that I could come up with, it doesn't change anything. Beast Boy, I'm sorry."
The now turned sixteen-year-old felt the sadness building within him, as tears began to form. It was all so surreal, and the knowledge that Falcon had perished, it was a very hard truth to swallow. Everything about what he was learning was unpleasant, and the rift he felt while in his sleep-state was growing steadily deeper. Who could he trust, if after all this time that even these close friends, were willing to keep him on the outside?
There was so much that he wanted to share with the newest addition to the team, and now he would never get that opportunity. As unfair as this was, the deeper sting had been learning that all these efforts had brought nothing to the table.
"Do not feel the need to direct this anger on friend Robin only Beast Boy." Starfire's words cut-into the group. "We all share responsibility."
"Don't cover for him Star." Cyborg scoffed. "He did orchestrate this plot!"
"Don't you remember what we uncovered Cyborg?" Raven jumped in. "About Arkham, of the program to use kids in a twisted military experiment? Of the tragedy that you in particular uncovered!"
The Second-In-Command was flabbergasted. "We don't even know if that was him Raven! It was all speculation, and that's all it ever will be."
"Falcon was a military experiment?" Beast Boy felt his body tremble, as the discussion was very taxing mentally to dissect. "Robin . . . is . . . is this true?"
The group was openly disjointed with the entire debacle. The Boy Wonder exhaled to calm himself down, and in a softer voice he replied; "We don't know."
There was a brief pause the data being exposed.
"It still doesn't change the fact, that we were lost from day one of his stay with us." Raven's gravelly voice echoed about them. "For all that Falcon may have seemed to be a member of our team, and we did welcome him into our midst, giving him a communicator before heading out, but he still withheld his previous life away from us. Why?"
"Anything we did find, it only led to more questions." Robin explained with his arms interlocked across his chest. "With you befriending him Beast Boy, it had the potential to open up another avenue to us that we could use."
"But he is no longer with us. And those of us left, we are more divided than ever before." Beast Boy answered.
Just then, each of the Titan's Communicators began to chirp loudly. Robin was the first to open his device, as everybody else remained frozen in their confounded states.
"Titan's, trouble!" The Boy Wonder spoke up, as the others released a groan of frustration.
"So much for a party then." Beast Boy whispered in a crestfallen tone.
"The city needs us." Robin put the communicator back onto his belt. "I don't think it will be too serious but, we have to check it out."
Beast Boy nodded his head towards the door. "I . . . I need some time to think."
"Beast Boy-" Raven pleaded.
The changeling gradually pulled his hand away from her grasp. "Don't let me hold you back, you can still contribute to the team. Just look at me Raven, I'm no good to anybody out there."
One by one they each started to depart, where the two girls waited by his bedside.
"It's alright Starfire." The green hero told her. "I wouldn't mind being alone for a little while."
"But I can not be of the assistance to our friends either."
He looked to her leg still propped up in the wheelchair and he sighed.
"Come on Star." Cyborg leaned his head around the corner. "You can check in on Terra, while Robin, Raven and me deal with this."
The Tamaranean Princess was beside herself, unable to speak and she nodded her head in solemn agreement. She reached down to grab the wheels, and she rolled herself out.
Raven became slightly tense.
It was all becoming a sloppy discombobulated headache. She wanted to have the opportunity of just her and the changeling, and now was that time. Being with their teammates had given her a profound strength, and she understood what she was going to do.
To really express how she felt a growing closeness to the green shapeshifter from the others, and that her chance was now or never.
Of the strange new emotions that were being realized, and the romantic bond that could be obtained. The Grey Empath was finally ready to embrace what she had been concealing and debating with these past years. She was very certain over her feelings, but she could not grasp what his reaction would be?
Despite Robin's plan being exposed and her hand in the unfortunate problem, she was ready to pour her heart out to Beast Boy, to just tell him everything and that she was no longer afraid. She wanted to become more than friends with him, and because she had almost lost him, the understanding of that Test the guide had explained to her, it was the mental hurdle to accept what she had always known.
She loved him and she was going to say it.
As she sat on his bed with the young man staring off into the dark, she stroked his hand, running her fingernails gently up and down his wrist and he turned.
"Beast Boy?"
"Yeah?"
"There is something I need to tell you."
He sat up a little bit. His head was groggy and the room was spinning like a top. With her fingers wrapped over his wrist, the stinging pain and frustration at everything was suddenly gone. He felt peace and comfort in just the two of them being alone. He felt overcrowded before, but with just Raven and him alone, she always brought a calmness to his anxieties.
"Shouldn't you . . ." he stopped, realizing that this was equally as important. "What is it Raven?"
"Beast Boy I . . ."
This time, he wrapped his fingers around her hand and he smiled his typical upbeat fang-toothed grin. Beast Boy was unsure of what compelled her to agree to go along with the others about the failed plan, but deep down he felt her regret, and something else that she was chocked up over.
"Raven, it's alright. You can tell me anything."
She blushed a little.
"Beast Boy, I-"
"Raven, we need you." Cyborg hurried back into the room. "We can have a proper birthday celebration, after this is dealt with."
Dang it Cyborg! This is the second time you've ruined the moment.
She thought back to the incident after embracing Beast Boy in the compassionate hug, right outside of her bedroom when he told her that she that was not alone. This was immediately following the Malchior Incident. It was right as Beast Boy pulled her away and he was stuttering with something on the tip of his tongue, that the Tin Man threw the scrunched up ball of smelly laundry into his head, and the possible question of what could have developed became lost in a new moment.
". . ." she was stunned.
Beast Boy turned from Cyborg standing in the doorway and then back to her.
He reached up and stroked her cheek. This caused her to look down and to focus onto his green eyes. The crisp tint of them mesmerized her into a stupor, as it was only now that she realized how much she really liked that deep emerald color.
"Go." Beast Boy whispered.
She sat up, walked to the exit and stopped to look back once more. Without saying anything she nodded, and then left the room.
Beast Boy picked up the big gift that Cyborg had handed him and he frowned. There was a lot to think about, and with his struggle trying to awaken from the nightmare in the field of tall grass, to be with his friends, being alone was the most comforting thing he desired after hearing of all that had happened.
"I never saw Raven act like that before. I wonder what she wanted to tell me?"
(~)
The banter and candid cheering erupting from deep within the secluded fortress of The Iceberg Lounge, had continued on for a rather long while. Multiple things to be gained were discussed, dissected and whispered back and forth, while various criminals and villains had become giddy with excitement.
Others were content with saying nothing. Penguin, Victor Zsazs, Two-Face, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy ignored the countless others. They had a reputation of a much higher notoriety than the rest, and they tended to play their cards closer to their chests.
The rest quipped back and forth, it was a bold and inciting offer, and while so many had wanted to break The Dark Knight, the curious option of taking the fight to his very protege, by spreading a new fear and terror across the continent was unheard of. It captivated some, where the rest still doubted anything that they could achieve.
There were lone wolves in this important meeting, that had no intention of joining a group effort. Some liked the idea of combining forces, and there were those that had no claim to anything, other than expanding their territory and increasing their wealth here in Gotham.
The Exile was doing all that she could, as the broken fragments of the hope that she carried were rekindled within her downtrodden spirit; while the less reserved members of the criminal syndicate, were appearing to be on board with heading back to Jump City.
"War!" Bane barked as he slammed a fist onto the table, easily silencing the dozens of voices. "Let's be brutally honest here señorita, for this is what shall come! Be prepared for a golden opportunity to take a plunge into this, and then what exactly?"
"It is a gambit, there is no mistake in that." replied Scarecrow. "However, it does not bring me anything of value."
"Surely there is more that can be offered?" Killer Frost chimed in, as a puff of her breath evaporated in front of her. "I mean, I do like to fight the do-gooders in any place, but there has to be more in it, other than that one motives alone."
"Slade may have taken contracts out for me in the past." The puppet spoke with his gruff dialect. "And I never forget any debts. But I still need some compensation girl."
"Well spoken Mr. Scarface." Victor Zsasz chimed in with his soft whispering tone. "But unlike you, I never took any contract that I could not fulfill on my own." His bald head tilted towards the young girl making the offer, and he smirked a twisted grin.
Blackfire shivered after this, the balance of everything was being distorted multiple times. She needed to coax them with something of more tangible value, anything was better than nothing at all. Then the image of the skull masked thief clinging to the edge of the cliff came back to her.
"It's always a messy occupation, this path we have chosen for ourselves." He squinted his eyes, to add in the effect of his reply. "Revenge may seem like the sweet dessert that you crave, but it really is quiet tragic. If there be a different road, I'm afraid don't know it."
The coin flipping in the darkness from the once proud district attorney, sliced through the bickering. It brought the Exile back into the room once again.
"Well girl." Two-Face asked in his iconic gruff voice. "What else do you have to offer us then?"
The many glances turned to the man in the shadows. The right unscarred portion of his face and body were revealed, and they all re-focused back onto the Tamaranean Exile. Whenever Two-Face talked, he tended to speak in the third person about his separate halves, yet this did cause the large gathering of villains to remain focused with their own desires.
Slade did not mention anything about a reward. Blackfire said in her mind, as her forehead began to sweat. Dammit! What am I supposed to do now?
As she thought and thought, just then the main screen in the room that revealed Robin, it switched to The Exile's handler. Many gasped and the criminals were perplexed to realize, that the feed had been hacked into, and they were indeed being monitored. The image came from some underground tunnel, where many sladebots were working behind him.
"Slade!" Penguin's voice sneered. "Oy, how did you manage to get into my transmission system?"
"It is easy Cobblepot, your security codes while noticeably difficult to crack for a seasoned detective, they were relatively easy to infiltrate for someone of my many talents."
Penguin glared at the big image on the screen, and he slowly fell back into his throne.
"As my messenger was so thoughtfully explaining, there is an offer on the table that is enticing, but what is more tangible than revenge alone? As I thought long and hard about this for many weeks prior to any meeting actually taking place. It was a more modest compensation method that I think many of you will be hard-pressed to ignore."
"Just get on with it!" Cheshire rasped from her spot at the long table.
Slade turned to his side, and the camera zoomed into the background, where upon a large pallet there were layers in a pyramid of shining bricks of gold. They were being transported onto rail-car in the tunnel, where the destination it was headed was unknown to everybody but the one-eyed Criminal Mastermind.
Everybody's eyes bulged wide in astonishment, at the level of dedication of a most high-stakes bank-heist, at none other than The Gold Depository of Jump City.
"What you see before you now, is just one pallet. In total, it is a prize of well over five hundred million dollars."
"Gold!" The puppet exclaimed.
"Settle down Mr. Scarface . . . please." The Ventriloquist wearing glasses begged his leader.
"Well now Mr. Slade, you have my attention." Catwoman purred, leaning a little closer to the screen.
In the background, there were dozens of sladebots walking about the hidden cavern, as forklifts were being operated and hoisting the gold into multiple platforms.
The plot was thickening for who was going to get what, and how the prize would be divvied out, but the image of golden bars had them all glued to the screen.
"So you robbed one of the most prestigious vaults in the country, expecting us to sign up on some random escapade, where not only will we be going up against a group of heroes we don't know much of literally squat about, but we are already on the most wanted list of every single do-gooder, across every single stinking city!" Black Mask puffed from his cigar, the red burning end was glowing a vibrant color. "My question is, what's in it for you?"
"Why not just keep the reward yourself, why would you be willing to give any of us, this generous offer?" Carmine Falcone spoke in a slick dialect, famous in countless Italian gangster movies.
The Master Tactician stepped back into the frame on the camera, where the limited lighting about the tunnel obscured his identity into the shadows and mist.
"My reasons and yours should be one and the same." Slade said at last, raising a fist. "To further sweeten the deal, it only makes sense that not only would the Teen Titans be targeted, but for those who do succeed, a fine payment will be evenly distributed to everybody that takes part in my plans.
"This is a mighty generous offer." Scarecrow studied the golden bricks on screen carefully.
"I must admit, the weight of everything is heavy." Killer Frost said next. "But gold is a fine price that never outweighs my attention. You've got my support."
"Mine too." Chimed in The Mad Hatter.
Everybody was so mesmerized and held in complete captivation with the golden hue, that none of them had worked for and were not at all expecting to receive. All except for Bane, and Blackfire of course were absolutely quiet, where the intimidating masked criminal did not care for material things. Blackfire's prize was in getting the disk that contained the whereabouts of her brother.
"You have our attention." Penguin replied over the silence, peering up at the screen a second time.
Things were progressing at a very rapid pace, and just when Blackfire felt that she was doomed, her partner had stepped in. For some reason during this calm, a potent storm was brewing, and the Tamaranean Exile felt more disturbed than she had ever expected to feel.
Even with the knowledge that she was trying to persuade the gathering forces to join in the cause, The Criminal Mastermind based all the way in Jump City was still pulling the strings, and calling the shots.
Is he still testing me? Blackfire questioned in her mind. I don't know if I will ever be able to fully trust him in anything, if he did not even tell me about this heist he pulled.
(~)
A dark room within an apartment at Jump City opened. A young teenage girl of fourteen, with her dark blue hair that was unkempt and partially covering her face, dressed in silk red pajamas emerged from the bathroom.
The teenager wanted to get some rest but she could not, where various bad dreams had kept her heart pounding and thoughts wandering. She was unable to sleep, after everything that had happened.
It was a hectic ordeal, yet she carried out her duties as professional and well rounded standards of getting things done right. She could have walked home, she could have let somebody else enter the train station yet she insisted to go, and do what she could. Upon evaluating a more complete awareness of the situation, in understanding that a life could be saved, she was not going to allow a civilian to just die, if she could do something.
Without knowing who the person was, or what the reasoning for them being inside of a locked down facility had been for, all that she could do, was to try to get into the ruins and find him.
To constantly be putting herself into dangerous situations, this had helped her to gain a solid footing in the medical field. The experiences were very encouraging to her pride, and every day she felt she wanted to do this. Yet at the same time she was drawing herself away from other avenues for her future.
Elizabeth had discussed her course with her father, the borderline irresponsible behavior that she carried-out when she should have just headed home, where Mark had heard enough. She was taking things a little too far while she was compelled to becoming a doctor.
Mark Jackson Spears on the other hand, was becoming deeply worried. What father would be okay with the more risky tendencies of their child, to be put in harms way? He was concerned that she was devoting too much time and efforts away from her youth, time away from her teenage years that she would eventually come to long for.
Her childhood was something which the fourteen-year-old had been robbed of earlier. She had been around enough death and had been unable to do anything.
Now was the opposite, it felt like the tide was turning and she could make a positive impact in the world. Instead of being a helpless witness to a victim, she could preform medical treatments and actually make the difference she never could have before.
She had committed herself to saving lives. To realize that she could do something and rescue people, it compelled her to jump in, even when she did not have to. Never again would she allow the opportunity to save a life, slip through her fingers.
It was a school day, Wednesday morning was already here and she had gotten no sleep.
There was a big test that was going to be in her history class in the coming hours. Her father had driven them both home last night, and while she missed classes yesterday because of her little field trip out of town, going to school and sticking to the strict schedule was a no negotiating matter, when her father and her had spent time together the previous day.
It was a commute of hours from Jump City to Los Angeles, where their apartment was on the far side of the metropolis, close to the freeway.
Titans Tower was visible from her bedroom window, where the lonely night hours were steadily transforming into a new dawn. Every evening, the golden lights of the 'T' shaped structure cut through the darkness about the vast city, and she could see from the window of her room the impressive structure that was home for the local city heroes.
Although many people fawned over them, she did not really care to know who they were, and she tended to go about her day without delving into what their purpose was to begin with.
As she walked down the hall, the strewn papers of her father's cases were spilled across the big table in his office. She briefly glanced at this, she sighed and continued on her journey.
Always so focused on work, work, work. And he wonders where I get it from?
Elizabeth Saffire Spears realized that school homework, the debate team and countless other projects were going to consume most of her free time. Spending what time she did have at the hospital, it was like a second home to her. Strange to so many yet for her, in all this chaos and stress, from the noise and clutter of people, of doctors and patients it was through this massive place that she had found her real comfort.
She was inexperienced in so much, but she was learning and adapting very rapidly. Acting like a sponge to absorb all of the wisdom that she could about preforming this delicate craft. While some would become a nurse or an Emergency Medical Technician, this teenager wanted to become a doctor.
A goal to achieve this would take many years of schooling, and endless hours of research and testing in order to be granted this highest of job opportunities. A drive of such ambition is not an easy thing to maintain, but it is what she deeply desired.
Mark was noticed snoring in his bed, the long day's struggle had exhausted him out, where even though Elizabeth had done more than enough, surprisingly she could not sleep so soundly tonight.
Elizabeth had gone to the coffee shop in the downtown area because it was something she did most nights, when she had something troubling her mind. There was indeed a pestering thing that she could not so easily forget. It had to deal with the loss of loved ones when she was but a small child, and how this new day that was coming, it was going to be extra strenuous because it was always an important reminder of the life that she could never return to.
It was somebody's birthday.
As she looked to the clouds from behind the blinds in the living-room, and the breaking sunlight of the dawn that was slowly rising, she closed her eyes as a tear traveled down her cheek.
"Funny." Elizabeth sniffled for a second. "Even after all this time, the pain never goes away. I miss you. God why did it have to be today?"
The anniversary of a loved one who has passed, it can bring about a variety of emotions that lingers as one focuses on the good times, and the bad. It is an out-of-body experience that time itself feels to have stopped, and the reflection of the past collides with the present.
A tear had managed to descend from her right eye, rolling down her cheek and across her lips. The salty taste clung to her, and the damp streak was swiped clean from her hand.
"I told myself that I would not cry." Elizabeth lightly spoke. "But it looks like the one rule that I tried to keep so strong, is one that I just can't keep today."
She stealthily went back to her bedroom, and she closed the door. A piece of her childhood had been torn away from her, and she was trying desperately to make up for things, by striving to save lives. Any life, so that no others would have to know that deep sorrow as she felt.
It compelled her to focus more on her efforts, to devote more time and resources into the local hospital. To strain every avenue until she could give nothing more.
Upon her dresser a photograph in its glass frame was picked up by her trembling hands. She understood that he past can never be altered, where the difficulties and tragedies all brought her to where she currently found herself. With a foster parent that was trying his best to take care of her, and yet it seemed like a burden.
"You and our parents are gone, and I am still here." Elizabeth shut her eyes as a constant flowing of tears began to pour down her face, and they splashed against the glass. "The void of your deaths is never going to leave me, and it doesn't matter how many lives I save, or the destiny I forge to become a doctor . . . it-it still won't bring you, mom and dad back. Nothing can."
Her body slowly collapsed backwards onto her bed, and she held the picture frame tightly to her chest.
The extremely devoted nursing intern felt the room spinning like a merry-go-round, she was nauseous and the gut-churning reaction to every memory of a horrific accident that she had come across, their faces were what she remembered the most clearly.
Countless lives were saved by this young teenage girl, and it was because of her journey to work in the medical field that all spawned out of the tragedy from the deaths of her actual family.
Mark Jackson Spears was her adoptive father, where she had once lived in Africa with her parents and an older brother. She was sent away after an accident that had hurt her, then a short time from this event, she received word that they had all perished, where she was living with her only other relative, her grandparent at the time of her recovery back in the States.
While things were bad, this story only became more depressing. A car accident took her only grandparent's life away, and so she was sent to an orphanage, and through here the doctor with his wife adopted her.
Through all of this pain and heartache, at being the last living relative of her family it was through her very first steps, out of a desire to make amends from something she had no control over. This purpose drove the deepest commitment.
It was a revelation, and it was on this anniversary of all days, that the clarity of her choices and incredible fortitude became the most apparent. As she finally drifted to sleep, the electrical glow from Titan's Tower shined brightly across the bay area. The building was a beacon that stood for truth, justice and honor.
It was a landmark of the city that all of the residents felt some pride in knowing, that there were superheroes that lived among them.
{{End Of Scene}}
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Reviews From The Previous Chapter:
Linzerj: "Uh oh...if all of those villains are ganging up on Robin, then...oh, this does NOT bode well for them! Darn, I want to hear what happened when Beast Boy walked out the door that day... Curse you, cliffhangers! I can't wait for the next update to come around!"
~~I do enjoy adding into the suspense. The story is still early yet, there is bound to be a big brawl in the streets of Jump City in the updates ahead. Thanks for the support, as always it boosts my moral when I see that my story is an enjoyable adventure to read.~~
Shac89: "Wow epic work as always oh and to answer your question its Two Face."
~~Thanks buddy. I try my best and there is always so much more for me to do. I don't know where the story will take me as I am allowing the characters to drive this story, but I have a few ideas. ;-) Two-Face, nope, his name was spoken multiple times. The correct answer to that question is Scarecrow.~~
Author's Note:
This update has taken me a very, extremely, intensively, over the top and super long time where a reasonable disclosure is required on my part to come forth. I need to shine some light and truth about the overly extended hiatus, that I have left all of you (the fans) in the dark with, and it was wrong of me to do so. I did leave an explanation on my profile page when I put everything on hold, where I shall explain things in detail a final time.
The main reason that can hopefully alleviate any frustration, on you (the reader's) behalf, by reading from chapters one to this very point, is to recognize that there were numerous errors and mistakes that had caused me to understand a grave hindrance in all that I was hoping to achieve. Where I did not know if I should keep progressing forwards, as everything from before, it only continued me to hamper any progress that I might have made.
Therefore, I decided to dedicate myself to re-writing and then re-posting everything, from chapters one through nineteen before uploading this chapter. I had so much to do, and to fully move forwards in a story that I had always striven for the better elements of myself, that in order to achieve any sense of pride in my work, that I had to go back to the very beginning and to make things right.
It has taken a long number of years to upload this chapter, where INNER DEMONS has taken me and all those still hanging around, years of a struggle that in all honesty, I had never thought it could take me this far. But because I dared to dream, to see if something could be made better, I strove forwards with my head held high, in an effort of making the right call, and producing the best quality of work I have ever been possible of crafting.
I want to thank everybody for staying with me on this monumental project, and to understand that I can now continue with writing and building this story. Chapter twenty-one shall be uploaded next month. The hiatus is finally over, the story shall go on!
"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
On a side note, I also managed to create two trailers for this story that can be found on YouTube titled:
TEEN TITANS (Season 6) INNER DEMONS Teaser Trailer
TEEN TITANS (Season 6) INNER DEMONS -Part I- New Beginnings
~~T.M.O~~