Authors Note: Well, lets see. I've been incredibly slack and its taken FAR too long to actually write this chapter, let alone post it. In all honesty, I started writing it at about 4pm today; Its now 1am -shot- I'm not happy with the "real" name I gave Jinx, but she needs one and I could find nothing that hinted at what her real name actually is. I more or less made it up on the spot. Not particularly original, but it'll work.
Also really sorry to those that sent in Reviews and didn't get comments... I've been so slack. I really appreciate all of them, however, and if you have any specific question, I'll answer, though I can't guaruntee answers, per-say.
Chapter Eight
Another Four Years Later
Current Ages-
Cyborg: 25 (Victor Stone)
Robin: 24 (Nightwing/Richard Grayson)
Starfire: 24 (Kori Anderson)
Jinx: 23 (Um… Jennifer Hexmoore –twitches-)
Garfield: 8 (18 when changed to 3yrs)
Ravanna: 8 (18 when changed to 3yrs)
"You do realise," she said primly, as she looked up and across the table, tapping the paper in front of her with the back of her grey lead pencil, "that you have absolutely no skills in English, don't you?" On the other side of the table, the eight-year-olds companion grinned smugly and held up a maths sheet, his blue eyes alight with amusement. "Whatever you say, Rae, but at least I get a mark in English. You've failed every maths test we've had for the past year." He pushed the sheet of paper across the table, where it stopped under Ravanna's nose. The girl hmped, and shoved the paper into her folder, not worried about the crinkles it received from her rough handling.
"I got some right." She pouted.
Garfield laughed softly, and leaned forward across the table, his expression sobering enough to be a simple grin. "Yeah, that test was five out of twenty, Rae. C'mon. I'll help you with the maths. Not like it's hard."
"Ha! For you, maybe."
His grin widened slightly, "and I'll help with your Science, History, P-"
"I get it!" Ravanna sulked, looking grumpily at the ground. "I suck, okay."
Garfield stood up, picking up both their plates absently and putting them on the dirty-dishes side of the sink, before returning and leaning against the back of Ravanna's chair, peering over her shoulder at her English work.
"Only because you get detentions in all the other classes." The boy shrugged when she looked up at him when he gently took her English work. "If you put half as much effort into maths and science like you do English, you'll get awesome marks."
"Maybe." She shrugged, tilting her head and then slipping off the side of her chair to stand near the table.
Both children were quite short for their age; neither had changed much from when they were first transformed into children, aside from the obvious growth spurts, if they could be called such. Garfield was only slightly under the average height of other boys his age, at 136 centimetres. He had the gangly underfed just grown look of all kids in and around his age. His hair was still blonde, but starting to darken towards a golden colour. Big blue eyes framed by thick lashes gave him a cute look he abhorred, especially when older ladies commented on it. Undisguised intelligence shone out from his curious gaze, tinged in increasing amounts with a bright mischievous streak.
Ravanna was shorter still, at a tiny 122. She was short enough to not quite appear gangly, but was defiantly approaching a growth spurt, since Jinx and Starfire had recently taken her to buy new pants and shirts when they became short at the ankles and wrists. She had new shoes too. Inky black hair swept down her to her shoulder blades in soft waves, crinkled and showing that, until recently, it had been in a tight plait. Her blue eyes were bright as she pushed Garfield out of the way and shoved her chair in under the table, shoved all her work back into her bag, and threw it in the general direction of the kitchen counter, hearing a satisfying smack as it struck the target.
"Who cares,' she said happily enough, ducking under her friends arm as he tilted forward to catch his balance on the chair she'd shoved him away from and then moved almost out of reach. Frowning, Garfield regained his balance and turned to find out where the girl he'd grown up with had vanished to.
"Rae?" He questioned, folding his arms over his chest and walking towards the girl, who was digging through the cupboards around the room, grumbling to herself as she did so.
Garfield sighed. "You're banned from the Gamestation for another week." He reminded her, standing slightly to one side with a brow arched. Ravanna glanced up at him in irritation.
"Are you going to scold me or help me?" She demanded, standing as tall as her tiny four foot frame would allow and glaring up at him with fiery blue eyes.
Garfield considered her for a moment, the pause long enough to lick his lips and blink twice, before he leaned down slightly to whisper to the girl, smirking mischievously.
"It's in the fourth cupboard on the left side of the kitchen." Then, he grinned and walked out of the room. Ravanna sighed dramatically and fetched it herself.
T - T - T
"Hey, Uncle Cy?" Garfield asked calmly, entering the garage where the metallic Titan was hidden underneath something he was constructing, his large feet the only part visible. Garfield grinned and climbed up onto the bench, being careful that it was clean, he sat down, cross-legged.
"Yeah, B?" Cy's voice floated out from under the car. Garfield grinned. He liked how Cyborg called him 'B' from before. He and Ravanna had been six when they were sat down by the Titans and – to Nightwing's irritation – Slade, and told about their… pasts. Garfield still wasn't sure what Ravanna thought of it, since she didn't talk to it about him, though he suspected she might with Jinx. They got along well. Garfield liked to talk about what he'd been like as Beastboy. He found it interesting. Especially when Cyborg let him know how different they were. He wasn't really supposed to do that, but Garfield wasn't stupid; he could put two and two together, and knew he was nothing like his green past self in personality or appearance. He also had some idea that Ravanna was incredibly different, too. Something Cyborg had said about her being unemotional at some point before he'd shut down and refused to talk.
"What cha doing?" It wasn't really what the boy wanted to ask, but his curiosity was spiked. Cyborg scuttled out and into view, and sat up, wiping his hands on an old rag before giving his 'nephew' his attention.
"Present for Star and Rob," he grinned, the look slightly mischievous.
Garfield smirked. "Wedding present?"
"Yup." A small pause as Cyborg got to his feet, dusting himself off with metallic slaps. "What are you really after?"
A cheesy grin formed on the boy's face, reminding Cyborg as much as the little blonde boy was able to, of his green counter part. Cyborg almost couldn't remember Beastboy… The green Changeling should have celebrated his twenty second birthday that year. Instead he turned eight and entered second grade.
"More stories?" Cyborg grinned in return, laughing when Garfield nodded enthusiastically and folded his hands in his lap. "Lets see…"
"Raven." He piped up, startling Victor out of his thoughtful silence.
"What?"
"Tell me about Raven."
A single eye was narrowed suspiciously at the little boy. "Why do you want to know about Rae?"
The kid shrugged, blinking and tilting his head at Cyborg. "No one talks about her, and you only tell me about Beastboy." Garfield never referred to Beastboy as himself. It was just too weird.
"Okay then." The man frowned, sitting down on a stool he pulled over with his foot. "What do you want to know?"
Blonde head tilted to the left, chewing absently on his bottom lip. "Hmm; what was she like?"
Cyborg laughed softly, amused. "Nothing like Ravanna, B, nothing like Ravanna."
Blinking innocently, Garfield righted his head and leaned forward slightly. "Really? How was she different?" His voice was slightly soft, and held a great deal of curiosity.
"She was quite, withdrawn, shy." The boy's blue eyes bugged out at this. "She had naturally purple hair, and the biggest, prettiest violet eyes." Cyborg grinned. "And a temper to make Hell shudder." The hidden meaning in there was lost on the little boy, who was frowning at Cyborg like he was the world's biggest fibber.
"Purple hair and eyes?" He sounded so sceptical.
"What? You were green."
Garfield accepted this with a shrug, but still seemed extremely sceptical. Cyborg laughed and stood up, lifting the kid off the bench and onto his shoulders, he turned and left the garage. Out of site, Garfield grinned in triumph.
Video time!
T - T - T
Ravanna smirked to herself as she set up the Gamestation, hooking up the various plugs with a seemingly common knowledge; after all, what eight year old doesn't know how to set up a Gamestation!? Turning on the TV, which was also banned from the girl until the end of the week, Ravanna put it on mute, clicked the channel to AV and booted up the gaming system. While she waited for it to load, Ravanna skittered into the Kitchen to steal some of Jinx's cola, Robin's plain, thin salty chips, and Cyborg's sweets. Struggling to carry the food, and bottle to the table, the girl almost dropped her glass, only just managing to grab it before it fell too far. She thought nothing odd of it.
Arriving back at the couch, Ravanna dumped her stash on the seat, grabbed the first player remote, and scrambled up onto the seat, settling as far back into the cushions as possible and crossing her legs Indian style. Filling the glass with black bubbly drink, Ravanna placed it in her lap, and un-wrapped a sweet, sticking it in her mouth as she pressed "start" on the control. A smirk wound itself over her lips.
Then she nearly had a heart attack.
"What do you think you are doing, little missy?" A soft voice asked sweetly from behind her, causing Ravanna to squeal loudly and jump upwards. Her drink went flying and smashed on the ground, the bag of lollies was sent exploding across the floor, the coke bottle got kicked by one of her feet and sent careening towards the television screen, just missing it and instead landing on the Gamestation, and upon impact exploded into a fountain of black bubbles. Ravanna herself toppled off the couch and landed hard on her bottom, rolling backwards and hitting her head on the floor. The girl blinked dizzy blue eyes up at the hysterical adults.
"That," Jinx gasped, holding her sides, "was freaking brilliant." The pink haired woman was managing to calm her hysteria as she wiped tears from her eyes, standing up straight and taking a deep breath. To her left, Starfire was floating above the floor, in what would have been a sitting position, her head buried in her arms as she rocked backwards and forward, laughter coming out muffled. Leaning heavily on the couch, Nightwing was gasping with laughter also, watching the girl in deep amusement as he removed his mask, wiping at his own blue eyes to remove tears.
"Not. Cool." Ravanna grated, standing up grumpily, failing to see the humour of the situation as she brushed herself down, grimacing at the lovely cola stain on the front of her school shirt, and flicking her fingers in disgust, as if that could remove the stickiness from her body.
"Yeah, well, someone should know better than to use that which she's been banned from." Jinx grinned, looking around at all the mess. "Guess who gets to clean it all up?"
Ravanna turned dark blue eyes on the pink sorceress, narrowing them dangerously and crossing slim arms over her flat chest, lips forming a flat line.
"Look out! Raven's come out to play!" Jinx crowed, sending everyone into a torrent of laughter once more. Huffing, Ravanna frowned at them all, picked her way daintily around the mess, and left the room, grumbling something about a shower.
T - T - T
"You know," Garfield said softly, wide eyed and slowly turning his gaze away from the screen on the wall, where a projection of Cyborg's memory had been, "that was really scary."
Cyborg laughed his agreement, lifting the young boy off his lap and putting him on the floor, and standing up. "C'mon before someone comes looking for us. I'm not meant to show you that stuff."
"I know." Grinning brightly, Garfield slipped ahead of Cyborg and opened the door, not looking where he was going before stepping out, he ran straight into Ravanna, who shrieked.
Puzzled by the vocal display from Ravanna, followed quickly by a cackling Garfield, Cyborg made the five hasty steps required to stop in his doorway, before laughing himself at the display: Ravanna was sitting on the floor looking quite sour, wrapped in a deep purple towel and pouting viciously, a deep blue towel was wrapped around her shoulder; Garfield was sitting opposite the girl, sniggering to himself at her face and dress code, and struggling to come to his feet. Cyborg shook his head and lifted Garfield to his feet, sending him off down the hall to the main room with a calm glance.
"You alright, Rae?" He asked, gently lifting the little girl to her feet, watching her pout and wrap herself tightly with fond amusement.
"Peachy." She grumped, causing Cyborg to arch an eyebrow. That wasn't very Ravanna-ish. Shaking his head, the part robot watched the girl stalk down the hall to her room, glad that sliding doors don't slam.
Cyborg turned and followed after Garfield, walking into the main room only to stop dead and stare at the mess near the television setup, his jaw dropping slightly and eye widening.
"Catching flies for dinner, Vic?"
Turning at the saucy comment, Cyborg frowned at Jinx, who grinned in return. "Do you want some?" He questioned, smirking at the girl. Brushing pink locks out of her face, Jinx smirked in return, eyes bright.
"Maybe." She purred, inching closer to him and peering up from under thick lashes, Cyborg opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted.
"Please, flirt later and clean now?" Starfire questioned, walking past to the kitchen where she grabbed some cleaning items and handed them to the pair who were both scowling at her. Garfield sniggered as he ducked past, dumping soggy lollies in the bin and washing his hands at the kitchen sink.
Deciding to ignore the jib from Starfire, Cyborg took what he was handed and made his way over to where Robin was picking up glass pieces, and asked: "What happened in here?"
"Ravanna," was his answer from Robin.
"Okay, but that doesn't tell me much."
"She decided to play with banned equipment, steal various snacks, and wasn't prepared for Jinx's little comment." Robin smirked as he spoke, before he and the two women burst into laughter again, Starfire's feet leaving the ground.
"Huh?" The brainless and completely lost tone of the single word turned question caused the other three to bubble up into laughter again, while Garfield shook his head.
"And you say Beastboy was immature," he murmured as he passed Cyborg, causing the man to nod absently his agreement.
"Where is Ravanna?" Starfire questioned when she was safely in control of herself once more, green gaze turning upon Cyborg and Garfield as she brushed off her faded jeans.
"In towels when we saw her. Dressing by now," Cyborg answer, just as Ravanna's terrified screech reached them.
"JINX!"
Author's Note: I suppose that could be called a Cliffie. However, if you read the above chapter nicely, you should have some idea of what I've got planned -grins-
Sorry it took so long to get an update done. I hope five pages is good for a while, even if it is a very random chapter -grins- Also, it was all nice and indented at the paragraphs and stuff, but FF ate them -twitches-
If my muse doesn't vanish between now and waking up in the morning, I should have the next chapter done in a few days. Also, for those of you who haven't seen it, tell me what you think of my completely random and very scary "Hot Chocolate"... It needs some major editing -bashes it into shape-
Hope this chapter lived up to any and all expectations XD