Future's Folly

Chapter 15: And Random Stuff Happens

Needless to say it was very hard not to think of the plan. With not really much else to do but think while the others slept, It couldn't be helped that my thoughts would revert back to what I was trying to keep myself from not thinking of.

But then I rounded a corner and bumped into Zak. At least I knew where he was now.

"OOF!"

"AK!"

Zak rubbed his head. "The heck, man!"

"Sorry," I said.

"You should watch where you're going!" the changeling pressed.

"You and me both," I said.

Zak sighed. "Sorry...I should've been paying attention to where I was going. Shouldn't have rounded the corner so sharply."

"I should have too," I said. "I was too deep in thought, though..."

"What were you thinking of?"

"..."

I didn't respond.

"...O...kay then," Zak said, sounding a tad confused. "I...guess I'll just be trying to find Suzan. She ran off again when I was trying to talk to her..."

I cringed.

Stupid fight.

"How is she?" I asked. Zak paused.

"She's...er...acting like her stubborn self, is the way to word it, I guess," he said, his hands digging into his pockets. "She seems upset, but won't talk about it. Like I said, she ran away when I tried to talk to her."

"Oh. I see." As if I didn't feel bad enough.

"Do you know why she's so upset?" Zak asked. Oh gosh...

"Weeeeeellll..."

"You do, don't you?"

"Okay, maaaybe I do..."

Zak stared at me. "Tell. Me. Why. Now."

"She and I had a fight," I said simply. The changeling blinked.

"About what?" he asked.

"Uh...can't tell," I said. Zak was silent.

"...Dude, you fail," he said simply, then walked off, leaving me confused.

"...What's that suppose to mean?" I shouted after him. He didn't hear me, though.

So instead, I kept walking. This time, though, I made it to the play room, where I found Z doodling while Cora played with a few children.

"Now, where did I put that stuffed dog..."

"Behind the trunk, Cora!"

"Oh! Thanks, Rita!"

"You're welcome, Cora!"

I sat down, since there was nothing better to do, and stared at the wall boredly.

Man, being able to do nothing stunk. Badly.

("For you, maybe...")

Z looked up from her paper. "Hiya!" she said. "How are you, Uncle Robin?"

"Good," I responded. She stared at me.

"...You don't seem so good," she said. I shrugged it off.

"What're you drawing?" I asked, changing the subject. She brightened, forgetting her previous statement, and held up her piece of paper.

"Look! I finally got the red sky just the right color of red, and I drew me, Ty, you, and a bunch of other people!" she said, holding up a picture. It was dark red in the background, with some nicely drawn half-stick people on brown grass.

"It looks nice," I said. Z smiled.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah."

She stared at her craftsmanship happily, but the smile quickly left her face. She gazed at me expectantly.

"What if the sky was yellow?" she asked. The question startled me.

"Uh...Actually, it is. When the sun rises. And sets," I said. Z's eyes bugged.

"No way, really?" she asked.

"Yeah, don't you—" She grew up during all of this. Oh...

I chose my next words carefully.

"...It's actually quite nice. I miss it," I said. Z contemplated this.

"Hmm. I wish I could see the sky turn yellow," she said. I nodded. A minute passed, and she jumped up, grabbed another paper, and started coloring it entirely yellow.

I couldn't help but smile slightly.

(Cyborg was babbling something about "Artists and their artistness!")

"Nice save," Cora said, coming up behind me.

"Thanks," I replied. Cora sat down next to me, then sighed peacefully. "Not with your...mom?"

"She's doing buisness-y-stuff with Nightwing."

"Ah. I see."

It was quiet, except for the scribbles of Z's crayons and the few other kids playing with their toys.

It wasn't quiet for long, though, as Mary barged into the room. She looked overjoyed.

"ROBBIEROBBIEROBBIE!"

"...Yes?"

She hopped over to where I was sitting, her arms flailing around madly as she did.

"I TOTALLY ALMOST FORGOT THAT I COULD DO THIS BUT LOOK—" She made some noises, and wings popped out from her back. The heck? "—HALF TRANSFORMATIONS!"

She smiled. I was at a loss for words.

"...You almost forgot you could do that."

"Yahuh."

"...And you've had a tail the past two days and today, too."

She gasped. "I have a tail?"

I gave her a long, hard look.

Was she for real?

She started laughing. "Nah, I'm just kiddin', I know I gots a tail. The only thing, though, is that it kinda got stuck like that and I kinda forgot how to make it disappear and reappear until just a few seconds ago when I woke up!"

Cora joined in on the conversation. "You just woke up and came here?"

Mary nodded, her wings disappearing. "Yup!"

"Without eating breakfast?" she continued.

Mary's stomach growl answered for her. She smiled nervously.

"Hehe...Oops?"

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, numbskull," Cora said, shaking her head playfully. Mary pouted.

"I know! But this was the biggest thing of the day! So far!" she replied.

"Go eat breakfast, Mary," the blonde said. Mary slumped over and nodded sullenly.

"Yes ma'am..."

And with that she left.

Cora chuckled softly, and went back to watching the younger children play.

Then Mary barged back into the room, a scowl on her face.

"Waaaaait a minute..."

"Yeeees?" Cora asked, laying her head back to view her.

"You're younger than me! You can just order me around! That's Louie's job!"

Cora rolled her eyes. "Breakfast, Mary."

"Yes ma'am..."

"I think I'll go with her," I said. If anything, she would keep me distracted.

"Alright then," Cora said. "Have a good time."

I nodded, and followed an excited Mary out.

"Hey Robbie, guess what today is?" she asked as we walked.

"What?" I asked. Mary scowled.

"No, guess, Robbie!"

"Uh...I really can't guess, Mary."

She smiled, ignoring my comment. "Today's lazy day!"

What...? "'Lazy day'?"

"Yeah! The day of the week every other Sunday the Twenty Seventh when Louie agrees to do nothing with me for a whole day!" she exclaimed happily.

Okay...Confusing.

"Uh, alright."

"You wanna be lazy with me and Louie?" she asked.

"Mm..." If I had anything better to do, it would have been paperwork or researching villains. But since those two things weren't here, and there weren't really any villains I knew of I could be researching at the moment, that was out of the question. Instead, I just shrugged. Mary took that as a yes.

"Cooool! We can get so much laziness in today that we won't need to be lazy until next lazy day the next every other Sunday the Twenty Seventh!" she said ecstatically.

She did realize I was leaving sometime tomorrow, right?

"FOOD!" she screamed as we reached where breakfast was being served, and consequentially almost gone and all packed up. She sped away to try and get some leftovers before everything was packed up.

("And she said it was Lazy Day!")

I decided to sit down and wait for her. To keep my thoughts off what I was trying to not think about, I unhooked the disk from my belt and glanced at the time.

It was at 44:54:22 and slowly ticking down. 21, 20, 19, 18...

Mary slammed her plate down with a smile.

"Good old food!" she said happily. "How I missed thee! I'm glad I didn't eat you all last night!"

Before I could comment on anything, she started gobbling down her food. So I glanced around. Nightwing was nowhere to be found. I let out a breath I didn't even realize I was holding, and rested my chin on my hand.

There has to be something to do...

Mary was halfway done with her meal when she suddenly stopped, noticed something, and smiled. I turned around to see what she was looking at, and saw the girl from earlier.

"AJ! AAAAEEEJAAAAAAAAY!" she called, waving her arm around happily. The blonde turned to see who was calling, saw it was Mary, and came over.

"Yeah, Mary?" she asked.

"This is AJ," Mary told me, ignoring her. "She's, like, super awesome and can get rid of Bots like it's no one's buisness! She's one of my bestest friends besides...uh...my other bestest friends! I don't see why we don't take her with us more often..."

"It might be because I have a job as junior-inspector-chief of box packing right now," AJ said, crossing her arms. "Otherwise, I'd be sitting and doing what I wanted to do right now. Like getting blue streaks in my hair, if Mom let me."

"She also has a hat!" Mary said, ignoring her once more. She reached up to grab the odd looking hat, successfully taking it. AJ did not look pleased.

"Gimme back my hat," she hissed. Mary laughed.

"What if I d—" Mary squealed as AJ got up in her face. Did her eyes just flash different colors?

"Give. It. Back."

Mary flung it at her, as if her reflexes were automatic. AJ picked it up and carefully placed it back on her head, ignorant of the trembling Mary next to her.

"Y-you sca-scaryyyy..."

"That's what you get for takin' my hat," she said simply. I stared at her.

"Uuuh..."

A flash of recognition flashed in her eyes.

"Hey, I remember you," she said. "You're the kid who bumped into me and picked up my hat."

I twitched. Kid?

She paused. "No one touches my hat."

"So I see..." I said.

"Yeah," she said. "So...I guess I'll see ya later, uh..."

"Robin," I said. She nodded.

"Yeah, later," she said, walking away. Since Mary was still trembling and started muttering to herself, I watched as AJ walked away. She silently took a box from some guy. It looked like she was struggling with it, and he was trying to take it back from her, but she kept shaking her head and continued to walk forward slowly.

She looked like a stubborn one.

"Hey."

I turned around to see Lou. He sat down, making himself comfortable, next to Mary.

"Hey," I said back.

"It's the day of the week every other Sunday the Twenty Seventh that I spend with Mary doing nothing," he said. Then he sighed. "I might as well get a head start."

Still confused here...

He glanced over at Mary. Then he looked back at me.

"AJ here?" he asked.

"Blonde, yea tall, odd hat with cat ears on it?"

"The one and only."

"Then yeah, she was here," I said. "What'd she do to traumatize Mary so much?"

"Just the usual," Lou replied. "Momentarily took her thoughts away, invaded her personal space, made her give it back like a puppet. Like I said, the usual."

Wait. What?

"'Took away her thoughts'?" I asked. Lou nodded.

"Yup," he said. "AJ's got this power she uses. I'm not really sure how it works, but she can control people like puppets, I guess would be the way to say it."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Interesting."

("Interesting indeed," Cyborg muttered. "I wonder how she got powers like that."

"You and me both," Beast boy said. "Those powers'd be awesome!")

Lou slowly coaxed Mary out of her trauma, and she went on to devour the rest of her food. After that, since it was 'lazy day', we sat around talking.

"Wanna hear a joke?" Mary asked. "I heard it from Uncle Cy."

"Shoot. His jokes are good," Lou said.

"Alright then, there was once this redheaded girl named Stacy, and she was a really big bully in the fourth grade. Somehow, though, there was this guy who liked her, and one day she told him to say 'Purple passion!' during class. So he stood up when the teacher was writing on the board and shouted 'PURPLE PASSION!'" she shouted, lazily pumping her fist. "And the teacher literally stops writing, turns and looks at him, and says 'WHAT did you say young man?' and he said 'Purple passion?' and the teacher goes CRAZY and literally drags him to the principals office and literally throws him in there."

"What does purple passion mean?" Lou cut in. Mary shushed him.

"I'm getting to that," she said. "So he's in the principals office, right? And the principal asks him why he's there. The kid goes 'Well...the redheaded Stacy told me to say something in class, and the teacher went crazy and dragged me here' and the principal asked him 'what did you say?' and he was like 'purple passion'. Then the principal freaks and expels him from school, then literally kicks him out!"

"Expels?" I asked. "Isn't that a little harsh?"

"I'm getting to that!" Mary hissed. "Where was I? Oh right, expelled. So the kid's walking home, and a police man drives by him and asks him 'hey, shouldn't you be in school?' and the kid says 'well, the redheaded Stacy told me to say a word in class and the teacher got mad and threw me in the principal's office and I told the principal who freaked and expelled me from school.' So the policeman asks, 'well, what'd you say?' and the kid says 'well, I don't...really...wanna...tell you...' and the policeman's like 'aw, c'mon kid, I'm a policeman! You can trust me!' So the kid says '...purple passion' and the policeman's like 'what?' and he says 'Purple passion!' and the policeman freaks out and arrests him!"

"What's so bad about purple passion?" Lou asked. Mary growled.

"Just be patient, Louie!" she exclaimed. "I'm trying to tell a joke here!"

"Sorry," he said, relaxing his posture a bit. "Continue."

"Thanks. So, the kid gets arrested. He's put before the judge who asks, 'why are you here, young man?' and the boy says 'well, the redheaded stacy told me to say...a word...in class today, and the teacher got mad when I said it and threw me into the principal's office, and the principal freaked and threw me out of the school, and then I talked to the policeman and he arrested me, and now I'm hear.' The judge asked 'well, what did you say?' and the kid said 'well...I don't...really...wanna...say it' and the judge's like 'son, I'm the judge, tell me what you said' and the kid says 'purple passion'. The judge flips and sends the kid to jail for a life sentence!"

Dang. Poor kid.

"So forty years later, the dude's in jail. But he's that really really good guy that no one can imagine would get in jail. So he was in there long enough that he'd go out on some parole thing in three years, so this guard that he was really good friends with asked him exactly why he was there..."

"Robin?"

"Hm?" I turned to see Z, who was smiling at me. She was also holding some papers and a pair of scissors, and seemed to be ignoring the fact that Mary had been telling a joke.

"Look!" she said, holding up a paper. It was the one she was coloring yellow—now with people added to it. "It's you and me and Cora!"

I nodded.

"And this one—" She switched papers, showing me a cut out dinosaur. "—Is Mary as a T-Rex!"

I nodded again.

"And this...Uh...This is a messed up rainbow!" she declared, holding up a paper full of multiple colored scribbles and swirls.

"Intriguing," I said. Z's brows knitted together.

"What's that mean?" she asked.

"Same as saying interesting," I said. She nodded.

"Ooooh."

Then Lou cut in with a loud "What?"

"I'm tellin' you, that's how it ends!" Mary said, resting her arms behind her head.

"That's messed up," Lou said. "Why's he hit by a car?"

"A car?" I asked.

"Yeah! The dude's in England, wants to talk to the queen of something, crosses the street to get a sleeping bag, and gets hit by a car!" Mary said. "Moral? Look both ways before crossing the street!"

("That really is messed up!")

"So then what does purple passion mean?" Lou asked. Mary shrugged.

"Beats me!" she declared.

("...The heck? Then what's so bad about it?" Beast boy asked.

"No idea," Robin said. "Ask Cyborg. He told her the joke."

"I have no idea either," he said before the question could be asked again. "Just get on with the story, man, this is getting us nowhere.")

"Then why tell the joke?" Lou asked, sounding a little annoyed.

"To see your reaction, of course, my dear Louie! It's absolutely priceless!" she said, snickering. Lou groaned, rolling his eyes as he did.

"What joke?" Z asked. Mary smiled.

"Oh! It's this joke about a kid who says a word and gets in trouble for it!"

"Is it the f—"

"No, not that word! He says 'purple passion'!"

"...What's that mean?"

"No idea!"

"Uh, sorry to interrupt your conversation," I said, "but I think Lou's having a seizure."

("Huh?"

"Seizure?"

"How?"

"Getting to that.")

"Huh?" Mary looked at our purple haired companion, who was sweating profusely and twitching. She looked around, her gaze finally ending on Z. Or, more importantly, the scissors in Z's hands. She looked at them as well, and her skin paled.

"Ah shoot," the young girl murmured.

"Zorana," Mary began, talking slowly, "I want you to slowly walk away now."

Z did as told, tiptoeing away from the table. Lou stood up. She froze in place.

"Gimme the scissors," he said. Z shook her head.

"No," she said, shaking her head.

"Please, gimme the scissors."

"Nu-uh! Ty told me never to give you scissors! Or sharp objects! Or anything metal!" Z shouted.

"Pleeeeease?" Lou asked. ...Was he pouting?

"No!" Z shouted.

"Scissors. Please."

"No!"

"Louie, listen to her," Mary said, coming up behind him. "There is no reason why you need—"

"GIMME THE SCISSORS ALREADY, DANGIT!" Lou shouted, pouncing the young girl. Luckily, though, she dodged him just in time. He hit the floor face first.

...I had no idea what was going on.

("It's goin' to the dogs!" Beast boy randomly cried. Everyone was confused. Why were the scissors so important?)

Z shrieked. "Don't kill meeeee!"

"If you give me the scissors, I won't hurt you!" Lou said, rubbing his forehead.

"But—Ty told me—"

"Just give them to me already!"

And thus a mini chase scene took place with Lou chasing Z for the scissors. I looked to Mary for an expression. She laughed nervously, but it soon died down.

"Why're the scissors so important?" I asked. Mary rubbed her forehead.

"...He has a thing...fear...? Uh...sort of a want to get rid of...Shiny things? Like scissors?"

"...What?"

("Huh? Shiny things?")

"Hey! I'm back from scout duty!" It was Ty, coming over, happily oblivious to his little sister being chased by Lou. "We mapped out a path that'll be safe for when we move the boxes to the new ba—who the heck let Lou see the scissors?"

"Z," Mary said simply. Ty groaned.

"Why...?"

Not looking for an answer, he quickly ran over and picked Z up, then ran as quickly as he could away from Lou. Lou, following them, ran into AJ, who had another huge box in her arms, and the two both fell over. The box landed on its side, spilling a few things on the ground.

Ty made it away safely with Z, but not before accidentally dropping the scissors. Lou sat up and looked around. His shoulders slumped a moment later. Then he saw the scissors, grabbed them, and started...

...Gnawing on them. ...No comment.

("What the heck...?"

"Like I said. No comment.")

AJ groaned, rubbing her head.

"Okay, ow," she groaned, hissing slightly.

"Lou's sorry even if he's not saying it right now!" Mary shouted from our spot over here.

"A'right!" AJ shouted back, slowly standing up and going back to her box. Mary ended up running over and dragging Lou back over here. He was still gnawing on the scissors—wasn't that bad for his teeth?

The only sound was Lou's awkward nomming of the non-pointy edges of the scissors. It was miraculous that he didn't cut his mouth or break his teeth.

"Louie," Mary began, "you're gonna have to give me the sci—"

"MY SCISSORS!"

Mary sighed.

"Wanna play...Monopoly?" she asked, with a hint of detest. Lou stopped his gnawing for a second.

"Monopoly?" he asked. Mary nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "As long as...you...stop the scissor thing."

Lou seemed to be weighing his options. Mary took the scissors from him forcibly, causing him to squeal and whine. It was...unnerving.

Mary then gazed at the scissors. "Yeck. Gonna hafta disinfect these later..."

Lou shook his head. "Calm...calm...peace and calm..." he murmured, breathing in and out. He smiled awkwardly. "So...uh...Monopoly?"

Mary sighed. "So much for lazy day," she said, making sure to sneakily hand me the scissors from out of Lou's view. I gagged inwardly.

Lou nodded. "Y'know, we haven't played Monopoly for a while."

"Yeah, 'cause you always win," Mary said.

"That's why I like it."

Mary snickered. "Uh, Robbie, you comin'?"

"I'd rather...not," I said. I didn't really feel like playing Monopoly at the moment. Mary nodded.

"Alright," she said. "C'mon Louie, maybe Cora'll wanna play."

"Awesome."

And with that, they left. I set the scissors down, since I didn't really know what to do with them. As I got up and was deciding whether or not to go wander around some more, Zak appeared behind me.

"Robin!" he exclaimed. He probably expected me to jump. Not that I would. Instead, I turned around.

"Yes, Zak?" I asked.

"Tell me what's up with Suzan!"

"I thought we already went through this," I said. Zak frowned.

"But...She's all mad at the punching bag! She might punch it off the hinges! Was it something that involved punching bags?"

Bingo. She was in the training room. Thank you, Zak. I told myself if I thought over my words carefully, I could apologize without causing further trouble. Now to get rid of Zak.

"No," I said. "Nothing to do with punching bags."

I started walking away, but he followed me.

"How about books? Was it something to do with that torn out half of that Shakespeare book?"

"No."

"How about your personal life?"

"No."

"Her personal life?"

"No."

"Batman's—"

"No. Just leave me alone. If you do, I might be able to work this out." I paused. "On my own."

Zak whined softly, but relented. "Fiiine. Only because I care about Suzan's wellbeing more than your stupid need to do personal stuff solo." With that, he was gone.

The words stuck to my head for a while. Only because I care about Suzan's wellbeing more than your stupid need to do personal stuff solo.

Well, he wasn't involved. If anything, Lou should have come along. But since he was currently in post-scissor-exposure-then-removal-trauma, and playing monopoly with Mary, that left him out. So there was just me.

I walked down the hallway and found the door to the training room. I heard whacking inside. Which didn't really sound like punching, but rather like someone hitting something with a pole.

I slowly opened the door. Suzan was inside, whacking the punching back with the pole from the weight lifting station. No one else was in sight. Probably for their own good.

"Suzan?" I asked, walking inside. Suzan whirled around, surprised, the pole slipping out of her grip. It headed straight for me. So I ducked. It nearly missed my head as it crashed into the wall. Luckily, it wasn't damaged too bad. The wall had a slight bruise though.

I looked back at her. Her surprised expression flattened to a serious one.

"Oh, it's you," she said, then turned back around, kicking the bag once. "What do you want?"

"Look, Suzan..." This was awkward. "Uh...I'm..."

"Sorry?" she pitched in.

"Uh, yeah. That."

("Can't even apologize...")

"Mm. Whatever," she said, shrugging. What. That's it?

"That's it?" I asked. She turned around.

"It's not like you're gonna tell me what you're up too, or let me help anyways. And you'll be gone soon. What difference does it make?"

("Ooh, harsh.")

"Uh..." I couldn't think of a response at the moment.

Suzan sighed. "See? Just leave it."

The silence that followed after that was too hard to bear. I felt like I should leave, but I didn't.

Instead, I started the conversation back up.

"Suzan...I...You guys need to be safe, since—"

"Haven't you thought of your own safety?" she asked, turning around. "From what a big deal you're making of not having us involved, you could die. If you die, this, here, right now, will cease to exist, and many of us might not exist! Time can be rewritten, for better or for worse."

I sighed. She went back to punching the punching bag, ignoring me. This was going nowhere. Fast.

DISCLAIMER: Teen Titans was never mine, is not mine, and never will be mine. I use my free speech to do any of this. Or...free text-writing-ability. ...Yeah. I only own what is mine.

I will finish this eventually. Not soon-eventually, but eventually-eventually. Just be patient. All good things come to those who wait...!

...Hm. Yes. All is good? *hides behind desk* ...Haha...uh...sorry? I went to go upload this today, but then fanfiction went screwy and wouldn't let me login. :( Finally got to it now. LOOK HOW LONG THIS IS, TOO. YAAAY. *claps and cheers* *...* *...excitement plz?*

Uh...Louie can't have scissors (poor him). Zak shows up a lot at the wrong time. Suzan is stubborn. AJ is AJ. Everyone else is either oblivious, or just choosing to ignore/be uninformed about plot-related junk that involves a Suzan and Robin argument and certain secret plans. Yes, ending sucks, but I needed to get this out so the majority of you know I'm not dead. Don't know when next update will be though, sadly...

I'm also thinking of going back over the story and editing some little things. So there's also that. Just a little heads up incase I do do that. Mostly little things, nothing to plot-changing major. Hm.

Review?