CHAPTER5

Author: trickNtreat - currently sipping at piping hot tea...and writing at the same time.
I'm so cool, I decided ever so triumphantly. XD

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"What the..." Raven grimaced at a sudden spasm of headache and slammed a hand on the side of her head while the other on the wall of the staircase to keep her balance. As soon as it came, the nauseous pain went away, leaving Raven rubbing confusedly at her head which felt like being hammered a minute ago. After rubbing at her head for some time, Raven shrugged it off and proceeded down the stairs. She tiredly yawned under her hand and muttered, "Must the cold..."

-

Raven made her way down to the kitchen as quietly as possible, in attempts to not awaken her still sleeping teammates, not that she wasn't always quiet. She just wanted a few more minutes to herself, in peace and quiet. After all, these special golden moments were indeed rare in the Titans Tower.

As the doors leading into the living room via kitchen obeyed and slid opened for her, Raven stifled yet another yawn as she walked into the kitchen. Almost absentmindedly, she reached out and grabbed the tea mug she always used from the dish rack, in the same way she'd always do.

As she waited for the water to boil in the electronic kettle, Raven rubbed at her head again. Her headache usually came with Beast Boy, tofu, spatula, toenail clippers or Cyborg and Beast Boy. Or lately just Starfire, but this one was something she couldn't put full description or understanding on. Different.

A bell within Raven rang, told her something was up. Something in her guts told her. Preferably something not good.

She snapped out of her little thought as the kettle whistled and gurgled. Fixing herself a cup, she thought of what today might bring other than obvious bickering and pecking of her forehead which would bring more headache. Honestly, sometimes she wondered why crime couldn't occur daily and keep her occupied, giving her headache a break.

Sighing almost in pity of herself, she picked up the mug by its side and made her way to the lounge where the couch and coffee table greeted her, coaxing her to rest her fatigue body. Raven floated over and sank down deep into the couch and heaved yet another sigh, this time out of contentment and comfort. With her first sip, she remembered a pact she made the day before.

She wrapped both her hands around the mug as she teleported a piece of paper and a stubby pencil from nearby. Once they were both laid on the table before her, she slowly and reluctantly took her hands off the warm mug, placing it distractedly on the table and massaged her cold hands while staring down at the paper, wondering what she should write. As a thought shot into her head, she stopped warming her hands and grasped the mug again with her hand, picking up the pencil in the other while a smile tugged at her lips, placing the tip of the pencil a top of the paper.

She indeed hadn't done this before. It was always either Robin or...well, only Robin. Him being leader and the sensible one and all. At the thought of her leader, Raven suddenly pressed down the pencil tip harder against the paper, as if pressing down on his face. What he could do, she could do.

Almost instantly as the thought of Robin crossed her mind, it was replaced by a question mark. Robin was her leader, the team's leader. Despite his height, he deserved to be called the Teen Titans' leader. Most of the times. Why the sudden jealousy? Instantly making a face, she quickly drank from her mug and placed it back down, propping her left elbow on the table as she rested her chin in her palm.

She stared down at the pencil tip as it moved across the page and wrote down her thoughts directly onto it.

Tea.

Stumped, Raven lowered the pencil and bit her lower lip as her eyes moved about, trying to think up more to write. Another subject flashed by, jerking her out of her trance and once again scribbling on...

Bread, butter, milk...

-

Deep within the tower, in one of the many rooms, a green changeling dragged himself out of his messed up bed with even messier hair. He grumbled as his feet touched the ground and pushed himself up with what strength he had. Rubbing at his eye and stretching some, Beast Boy slouched towards his door with his arms dangling without structure in front of him.

Amidst the faint light filtering underneath the door, he spotted something stark white in front of it. In mid yawn, he slumped towards it with slight interest and picked it up. Not surprisingly, something was written on it. He was hoping it to be a fan letter but as his eyes traveled further down the paper, his face contorted in confusion and all the drowsiness in him left.

"Tea…butter, milk?"

-

"Titans, assemble to the main atrium a.s.a.p.!"

Raven grumbled as the loud and obvious Robin's voice sounded out from who knows where and red lights flashed, accompanied by even louder siren. As much as she hated being disrupted from her reading, Raven just had to smile. Only on missions would Robin speak on that level of formality. Just 'Titans, in the main room, now' would have been fine and fitted him much more than the freakishly formal command. She wasn't at all sure if the others understood what he was saying at times, especially the ones with less intelligence quotient and people of different planet inheritance.

Slowly rising from her bed, she spotted her smiling feature in the mirror and her face dropped. Cocking her head just a bit, she scowled. Smiling didn't suit her; she hadn't smiled in awhile, let alone see herself smile in flesh. Walking up to the mirror amidst the flashing light, she stood in front of it and tried to smile again. She stared for a moment and laughed at the unnatural and ridiculous sight.

"Titans! In the main room! NOW!"

Raven stifled the laugh as Robin's slightly edgier voice jerked out.

"Fine, fine...hold onto your balls, I'm comin'," rolling her eyes and floating out of her room, Raven didn't seemed to have noticed her carefree grinning feature reflected up on the mirror or the uncharacteristic comment she has just made.

-

'It seems like Control Freak is back in media. Worse, looks like he's got some minions of his own to celebrate his break out, they're partying all over the city. Fatal mistake though, Control Freak is leaving a trail of his mishap of party animals as he's parading around. Airborne units will trace their movement up the city and take care of the host, the rest will follow on foot and rid of the trail left behind. Titans, GO!'

Robin's commands were still fresh and ringing in Starfire's head as she traveled on air to their location with her other so called 'airborne units'. She glanced over at her left and saw Beast Boy, in the form of a crow and flapping away almost too peacefully for the occasion. To his left, Raven flew with her hood lowered as usual. Star's vision stayed on Raven and tried to read the emotion on her hidden feature but knew it was a hopeless attempt. Even if she knew, it certainly wouldn't be what she was hoping it to be.

Below her were indeed visible tracks of the monstrous walking media and technology, leaving masses of smoke and destruction in their wake as the group advanced in a line and followed their creator; Control Freak. She turned and studied Raven's face one more time before they all swooped down towards the head of the massive trail. Her face, it would be devoid of any emotion—was her final conclusion. She knew that much. Giving up her hope, Starfire turned her attention to the route down below and prepared for the battle up ahead.

Raven once again felt eyes on her. There seemed to be no privacy at all around her these days, but at least she knew whose eyes were on her this time. Trying not to be spotted, she shifted her head just a little but enough to capture Starfire's form. She was looking down to where the action was held and where Raven was so desperately wanting to be to kick some ass and break some limbs. Star's expression was caught somewhere between wanting to understand and wishing for something that for a fact wasn't going to happen. Her expression looked, at least to Raven, depressed but adorable at the same time. Shaking her head slightly and smiling some, Raven too turned her eyes towards the chaos below. No wonder Robin had a thing for her.

'What are you thinking about Star?'

-

"They really are morons, down to their marrows," a bored drawl of a woman's voice hung in the empty tower of the Teen Titans. A squawk accompanied by flapping of a set of wings was the only reply to the intruder.

The ever watchful stranger now stood in the titans' lounge she'd always observe from afar—overlooking the rising smoke and the occasional explosions of the city. It was a nice view.

"It's a great chance then, for such a being as myself to teach them what intelligence is capable of," arrogantly raising her head, she glided over to the rows of tea mugs and cups hanging cleanly off the rack. Her hand passed over them and she picked a particular one up, it was void of colors and dull compared to its lined up counterparts. Her lips curled into a deviant smirk.

-

Beast Boy shifted back into his normal state as he descended upon the ground along with the two female titans beside him. The citizens have already evacuated themselves out of the harm's reach which left the city a free battlefield, a good news for the heroes. Beast Boy nodded a silent signal to the other two and dug underneath the ground as an armadillo while both Raven and Starfire took flight as the earth beneath their feet started to gradually shake from the advancing parade of technology. Anxious from the battle and from Raven herself, Starfire unsurely glanced towards Raven. Noticing the girl's uneasiness, Raven flashed a genuine and assuring grin, applied a wink and a thumbs up directed at Starfire before readying herself as the parade's leader's form slowly began to show over the vibrating horizon.

Dumbfounded and doubting her sight, Starfire gawked at Raven. 'Has Raven just...showed a sign of delight?'

Deciding to believe her vision for now, Star positioned herself also with a renewed confidence and with a matching smile.

The regrettably familiar obese man with the infamous 'couch potato' flab hanging off his mid section came into view, with a remote control in both his hands and an army of enormous electronic appliances and even enlarged forms of comic and cartoon characters alike, smashing and stomping out buildings on either side. Once again, Starfire gawked at the sight.

Unfortunately, titans' element of surprise went to waste as Control Freak discovered the girls

"Ah! We have guests already? Now now, that's a no way to dress for my welcome back celebration. Fellow party doers, what say we make these two lovely ladies more suitable for partying?" The man's unfitting squeaky speech ended with an equally annoying laugh as the gigantic squad behind him leapt forward to attack the two. So the battle started.

Raven was the first to jump into assault. She kicked off into the air as an electric cord whipped at the place she was levitating a moment ago. As if sensing her movement, several cords flung themselves towards Raven. The cords missed her and rammed themselves into a nearby building, thick dust bursting out of shattering windows.

"Getting physical, are we?" Raven's voice sounded in the midst of the blur, "Not a good idea. I've been cooped up inside that tower of ours without any stress relief or any food. Not a good idea..."

Her voice trailed off as she moved around the smoky cloud, trying to find the machine's weakness. All the while, the machine flailed its free cords in panic in hopes of one of them colliding with Raven. Once she got a strategy planned up in her head, she smirked sinisterly and headed upwards, letting the stuck cords guide her up towards the machine's vital point in the smog. Dodging some misguided cords, she reached the joint where the cords and the main gears met. Raven thrust her hands into the joint and let her powers loose, screaming her known enchantment. The machine seemed to slow down its pathetic attempts of flinging off Raven until it stopped completely, its flailing cords thudding down onto the ground below like heavy rain. Soon every joint on the machine gave out a strange dark hue before exploding in white hot light, sending parts of itself like bullets—the speeding parts collided with other machines and strange cartoon characters, bringing down even the 2dimentional batman Starfire was engaged in a battle with.

A stray remnant piece went shooting for Starfire.

Too surprised and finding out too late, all Starfire could do was to try and guard herself. She quickly brought up her forearms in a cross in front of her face for a poor but the best attempt she could put up for protection, and all she could do now was to wait for it to come. It was going to hurt.

She waited but it never came. Slowly lifting her face, Starfire's eyes grew wide. Raven stood in front of her, hands stretched wide in front of her and her dark powers shielding out every assault their enemies sent their way in a form of a dome.

Shielding out the whole world which was now in black inside Raven's protection—everything looked dead in the color black. Completely lowering her defenses, Starfire stood and didn't know what to do; to attack the enemies from inside the shield, but what if the shield was indestructible from the inside and out, her powers getting trapped within the dome and resulting a suicide for both her and Raven?

As if again sensing Star's nerves, Raven talked to her without turning around, "Sorry, my bad. Just relax while you can Star. If Beast Boy isn't as senseless as I think he is, then we'll be alright..."

Starfire seemed to doubt her hearing now. She couldn't remember the last time Raven actually communicated with her in battles or start a conversation herself. Maybe this was the first. Feeling the guilt and sense of heaviness for uncomforting Raven lifted off Star's chest at the sudden change of Raven's attitude. Relaxing as told, Starfire almost sighed out, "Thank you Raven,"

Turning her head around this time, Raven gave Star a puzzled look then shrugged, "You're welcomed for...whatever you're thanking me about,"

Raven smiled, for what seemed like to be more times than she ever smiled in her life, let alone in one day. Starfire smiled back, a warm spot growing somewhere in her heart.

The downpour of cords and wacky 2dimentional weapons were continuously rebounding and exploding off Raven's temporary shield as Control Freak fretted on his remote controls and screeching out orders.

"Grrr, where the hell is Beast Boy?" Raven growled as her left arm gave away and groaned as it tried to support her right arm which was the only thing keeping the shield up, hers and Starfire's only safety. Seeing the companion and friend in agony, Starfire ran to aid Raven. Just when she got behind Raven's crouched form to hold up her arms for her, the ground beneath them shuddered again. Fearing the worst, both Raven and Starfire grasped each other as they fell to the ground with their eyes clenched shut, the dark safety around them fading. The earth beneath them crumbled and they fell onto a new surface. Wind rustled past their skin and felt their weight leaving them, as if losing gravity.

When nothing happened when something painful should have, Raven opened her eyes. She gasped at what she saw. She seemed to have grown a few thousand meters, she was staring in the face of one of the humungous machines. Feeling a spasm of panic and chill, she gripped tighter at what she was gripping from the start that gave her security. Strangely, the thing was warm. Warm ,soft and she could feel a pulse. A heartbeat. Another sort of fear shot up to her heart, freezing her solid. What if Control Freak was taking her hostage on one of his weird inventions? What if she was to never see her teammates again? What if he was the one she's holding onto and cradling her!

Raven shot up her head to shout or yell in his face to scare him off but instead she was staring at something Control Freak couldn't have. As a matter of fact, men couldn't have.

Bust. Breast. Heck, call them whatever, her head was buried in them. Had Control Freak had a sex change or something in the last thirty seconds? Gripping even tighter, Raven gritted her teeth and brought up all the courage in her to look up even more to see her capturer's face, but alas, her sight was blocked out of the well developed bosoms.

'Pervert...' was all that registered Raven's mind when she realized a firm grip on her waist. But...wasn't she who was implanted in 'his' chest and gawking at them? 'Well, it's not like I have any choice now do I?'

The surface she was sitting on was moving and letting out a strange noise she was familiar with. So pulling her courage together again, Raven pulled away from the hug and to look at the face of her capturer properly. The next, she wasn't prepared for or expected.

Hers and Starfire's eyes locked. Starfire being the taller frame, had an arm around Raven, gripping onto her waist. The other holding tightly onto Raven's hand which was on the forearm of Starfire's, and was currently locked with Raven's. From this close proximity, they had raised their heads to stare at each other.

Physically they said nothing, though meaningless voices were bouncing off inside their heads endlessly. So close, so close, too close, tooclosetooclose…

Starfire laughed nervously and broke their physical silence first, "Um, haha, hello Raven. It is...great to see you?"

Raven blinked out of her trance and replied without letting go of her grip, "Likewise..."

Without both of them fully conscious, almost a natural instinct, Raven's grip was getting tighter as their faces were advancing towards each other in unsure motion. Eye closing, lips parting...

But their grips and holds were released as the floor beneath them jerked hard and a pained howling was heard. Raven was all on fours as she tried to recollect what was happening. First of all, the so called 'floor' was green with little bumps everywhere. Like goose bumps currently on her skin. She wasn't cold, why the goose bumps? She rubbed at her arm to rid her skin of strangely occurred bumps on her arms and realized she was on a green T-Rex, which was ripping and gnawing at the never-ending line of monstrosity but getting attacked twice with every assault attempted.

Beast Boy needed help. Raven swung her head around to where Starfire dazedly half laid down from the sudden jerk, her torso supported up on her elbows. Forgetting everything but to take down the source of unlimited technology, Raven stood up as quick as she could and grabbed the bewildered Starfire's wrist.

Without even preparing Star with a plan, Raven jumped off the unnaturally green tyrannosaurus in one hand out stretched, glowing black with energy and in the other Starfire. Star soon readied herself too with a starbolt gathered in her free hand. Their minds were both set on the source of the destruction; Control Freak.

Righteous anger settled in Star as her eyes glowed a fluorescent green. The said couch potato was not hard to spot at all, screaming in joy as his strange combination of cartoons and machines pummeled the weakening green dinosaur.

Raven let go of her hold on Star as she gathered her energy in both of her palms. Starfire and Raven's gaze met once again, both just staring for a moment before blinking and nodding. Stafire's hands were filled with full starbolts, ready for firing. When she aimed for Control Freak from the air and was about to fire, a cord off track struck her from behind, with a surprised scream, Starfire's starbolts were astrayed and away from her current target.

Noticing this in a flash, Raven chanted her incantation, "Azarath, Metrion...ZINTHOS!"

Hurling her arms behind her head and bringing them down as quickly as she could, her energies wrapped around Star's stray starbolts and guided them back on course. Clear glowing pure green surrounded by a soft black gleam, they sped and collided with the remote controls in Control Freak's hands. A piercing scream went up as there were whirs of machines shutting down and cartoons fluttering to the floor like giant confetti.

Then there was silence.

-

When Raven, Starfire and Robin returned to the tower after kicking Control Freak back into the big house, Cyborg and Beast Boy were in the kitchen with grocery bags on the counter. Cy, currently gulping down a can of drink turned and gave them a pleasant grin as they entered into the living room. Beast Boy on the other hand, constantly rubbed the back of his neck with complaint written all over him.

"Dude, I still can't believe this. While I saved the girls, you two 'brave men' were just trying to catch up to the end of the line all this time! And when you get there, what do you find? Everything solved already! This is so unfair...and I had to go grocery shopping. And I'm not getting paid for doing this either! Can YOU believe this?" Beast Boy spilled his complaints while the other titans moved about to their favorite places to be after a crime fought.

Groaning because no-one was taking his pain seriously, Beast Boy just slumped onto a stool and went through the grocery he just heaved up ten or so stories.

"Relax man, I went with you. Don't take all the credits yourself," Cyborg took the last sip from the can, "Besides, it wasn't our fault we couldn't fly there and rescue you,"

Beast Boy just snorted and carried on rummaging through the plastic bags. His search became more desperate as the object he was looking for wasn't found.

Suddenly stopping, Beast Boy stood and walked speedily over to Cyborg. Cyborg seemed a little freaked by Beast Boy's sudden action and took a step back, but instead of settling some sort of score with the bigger teen like Cyborg was expecting, Beat Boy snatched the forgotten paper held in Cyborg's hand. As he went through the list, his face turned pale. Looking up at Cyborg with disbelief on his face, he went through the paper yet again, this time more frantic.

"Huh?!"

"What's up?" Cybord regained his composure and tossed the empty can into the bin, peering over Beast Boy's shoulder.

"There's no tofu on this thing!" Beast Boy lifted his head and shook the shopping list in front of Cyborg's face.

Snatching the paper away from the swearing changeling, Cyborg calmly went through the list, but soon, he too lost his calm demeanor, "No 10 pound ribs neither!"

"Who wrote this anyway?" Beast Boy fumed. He had had enough for today, and a wrong shopping list was the worst icing on his cake. Now, someone, probably him and Cy would have to go shop for the missing and vital supplies again. Both glared at the paper until the answer crashed into them. Only one person wrote shopping lists for the titans.

"ROBIN!" They both made a beeline for the training room to consult.

As they grumbled and stomped past Raven's door, she stood with her back to it, trying not so hard to withhold her soft smile. "Oops,"

-

Everything was at right now. Underneath the night sky and atop of the Titans Tower, the titans were preparing for a party of their own. A barbeque.

The boys were putting the grill together, Beast Boy ignoring the mechanic of the bunch, Cyborg, which resulted in a obvious quarrel once again and Robin chasing after them both, trying to pry off the parts of the grill from being used as a weapon. Same old usual.

Starfire decided to watch awhile but then found herself looking for Raven. For some reason she sought her companionship tonight. Floating about aimlessly, Starfire searched for her, but when she knocked on Raven's door and no reply came, she knew that was as far as she goes.

Feeling just a little disheartened, Star returned to the top of the tower where the boys seemed to be making a little more progress. It would still take awhile to settle their arguments however so she gave up on Robin's company and decided to wait for the grill to be perfected on the bank, where the city was visible in a panoramic view, with calm water surrounding the whole area.

Starfire glided off from the tower and down onto the bank with a surprise waiting for her. Raven already sat there with her knees drawn up and arms crossed atop, staring off into the distance, apparently in a deep thought. Not wanting to disrupt her, Starfire sat back a little way off from Raven and stared at whatever she was staring at. Even though she was quiet, Raven seemed to have heard her arrival and greeted her in a friendly way. Or as friendly as Raven could get, which was a lot more than Starfire thought possible these days.

"Hey Star," greeted Raven, not taking her eyes off of the horizon.

Starfire shifted her knees and arms so they were in a similar way as Raven's and placed her cold cheek onto her folded arms, "Good evening to you too Raven,"

They remained silent for awhile, staring out into the vast blackness with nothing on their minds for the moment.

This time, Raven broke the silence with a sigh and placed her chin on her own folded arms, watching her breath turning into mist, "What do you want to talk about Star?"

Starfire slowly raised her head to look at Raven then lowered it back with a smile. Raven wanted a conversation and was inviting her to it. Thinking about what she needed reassuring on, Starfire thought up a topic which only her gender might understand. Childishly she thought, maybe only Raven might understand.

"Well, if it is all right with you Raven...I wish to know, some aspects of 'Love'," it was hard for her to bring the subject up, seeing as Raven didn't at all seemed to like movies, books or poems relating to romance as far as she knew.

Raven raised her head up and straightened her back, looking at Starfire a bit bewildered and then, as realization hit her, she smiled.

"Ah, I almost forgot. Robin and you. How are things going?" Raven asked, once again her gaze fixed on the same spot she's been staring at for at least past half an hour.

Starfire too focused her gaze onto the horizon and almost whispered, "It is going great. I still do not understand the whole concept of 'going out'. He is more protective of me and should I say more physical?"

Then came something Starfire did not expect. Raven laughing. She had never heard Raven laugh. She wondered why Raven didn't do so more often after hearing it. It was pleasant.

Slowly seizing her laughter, shaking her head slightly Raven said with a smile which seemed to be permanent recently, "Physical? Eager to please I see… Things are taking off quickly for you Star. That Robin...I didn't know he had it in him. I'll give him that,"

Raven paused for a moment and looked to Starfire as if she was contemplating how she was going to shape her answers so she could understand with ease.
Raven's intense gaze was now wholly on her. Star's insides gave a jolt as she met her sharp eyes. Just a jolt, and then mellow comfort. Like getting electrified and the lightheadedness that came as an aftermaths.

Once again though, Raven changed her focus onto the distance, her eyes sort of glazed.

"Love is a wonderful thing Star. You know when you're in love when everything seems beautiful. Then again, it could turn your life upside down and tear you apart until it hurts so much that you just want to give up. With the person you love, you can think you're capable of doing anything, everything. Without, you're weak and insignificant. You constantly want to be with the person you care about, hold onto their hands, their hearts. So they can never leave you. You wish for the time to stop when you're content in their arms. When you're addicted to that person, when you just can't get enough of that person, you know you're in love,"

Starfire was deeply taken aback at Raven's reply. Raven didn't seem the person to think so deeply and feel so deeply. Does this mean...

"Raven, forgive me if I am being intrusive, but, have you...ever been in love?"

Raven thought through Star's question carefully in her head as she tilted her chin to the stars above and gave a reply which appeared to be the triggering something hurtful.

"I used to think...love is pointless. Maybe I still do, I don't know. It gets you down and makes you weak. It's so…undefined and…" Raven waved her hand around as an attempt to make her words flow better but seemed to fail as she chuckled some and sighed as she corrected her eyes back to the dark horizon.

"But...someone proved it all wrong for me. They didn't even ask for permission ya know, don't you think that's really malicious of them? I wasn't supposed to feeling anything...that person made me feel everything. I hated the person for making me feel. And as usual, I think, I was being stupid and blew the whole thing. I can't even remember now, who I loved, who I'd have loved to confess to…

"The only thing I remember is...a vague outline, a blurred silhouette of that person. It's too distorted; I probably wouldn't be able to tell even if that person was to appear right in front of me. I doubt...if I wanna see them again…maybe I do, but I really doubt…"

Turning her head back down and onto her arms, Raven continued to stare out into the open water. There was no doubt about it. Right now, Raven in Starfire's eyes, was possibly the most sensitive being she'd encountered yet, no matter what Raven might have to say to that. Starfire was about to say something comforting and reached out to help her for the second time today but was interrupted by their leader calling them up, alerting them the barbeque 'party' was starting.

Raven told Starfire to go ahead, her head buried in her arms and her voice all muffled. Obviously stifling a tear. Determination set on Starfire's features as she grabbed Raven's wrist without any warning and drifted upwards, dangling Raven up behind her. As they made their way up, Starfire sent her teammate a grin. Raven saw and lowered her head to hide her wet eyes and a small smile.

Somewhere over head in the dark, a grey peregrine circled.

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trickNtreat: The plot will twist a little change in the next chapter. Hopefully it'll assist in helping the story to run a bit smoother. :D