A Teen Titan Again (complete)

Breaking the Limit

Starfire

"Oh Silkie, what are we to do? Terra has just come back, and I rejoiced, but now there seems to be a metaphorical wall within the team. Why does Cyborg not accept her?" I look Silkie in his slime-covered face, and sigh. I wish this were all easier. "And what of Raven? Does she not have the feelings for Beast Boy as well? Why must Earthly emotions be so difficult? On Tamaran, our marriages were arranged, such as mine with Glgrdsklechhh. None of this confusing feeling inside me."

"Well personally, I think Glgrdsklechhh wasn't a very good match for you. He would never have appreciated you." I look up to see Robin leaning against my doorframe and grin. "There's definitely some people here on Earth much better fit for a beautiful alien such as yourself." He walks over and sits next to me as I feed Silkie, trying to look calm. It is not easy, as my heart is beating faster than a Gilnorg Thlumprong. These silly emotions always take control whenever I see Robin's mask, yellow cape, red top, green socks and gloves.

"Robin, why do you Earth adolescents have to deal with such... awful feelings inside?" He stays silent for a while, and I worry he has no response, but he finally speaks up.

"It's just how we are. But are all of the emotions really so bad? I honestly like some of them." Robin hesitates. "I especially like the ones I feel when I'm around you." My eyes widen, and color rushes into my face. I throw my arms around him, and he buries his face in my hair. "I just don't want her to mess up again. Cyborg could be right, there's a lot we dont know."

I push him off of me. "Robin! Terra is completely broken right now! She sacrificed herself to save Jump City! She went through so much! Now she has finally returned, and is ready to shatter if we refuse to accept her! Do you realize how much of a Clorbag Varblernelk you are being?!" I stand up abruptly, and he backs out the door. I see an apology sitting on the edge of his lips, but do not wait to hear it. Rather, I slam the door in his face, and slide to the floor, defeated inside. If this is how Terra feels, I wish I could send every ounce of optimism I own into her. Is what her broken-ness feels like?

Robin

Punch, punch, kick, punch, staff-whack, punch, roundhouse kick, uppercut, KNOCKDOWN!
I'm breathing hard from the workout session, and it's the only thing I can do to get my mind off of it all. Terra, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, myself. When did I become so responsible for all of these people? The bonds between some of us are so brittle, Starfire's right. It's all like Terra's emotions; my whole universe could shatter if even the smallest void in our team were opened. I originally planned to work alone, for our first team-up against Tamaran's enemy to be our last. If I'd known this connection would have been formed, I'm not sure I'd do it again. All these people I care for now, and they could get hurt, and I would have no one to blame but myself. This is the problem with having people worth your time.

50, 5 blocks, 20x3, 30 second intervals, 15 foot drop. I punch in the coordinates for holding up the weights, then stand on the 'X' with my hands up, ready to catch the blocks. It's really easy until block 5, when my mind wanders back to all these people. I feel beads of sweat on my forehead, my arms weakening, my legs giving out beneath me. The blocks force me to my knees, and I switch my arms out behind me, shifting the bulk of the weight to my back. I vaguely hear the doors swish open, and in the back of my head, a voice tells me to get back up, to keep pushing my limit. The limit does not exist. The limit does not exist. THE. LIMIT. DOES. NOT. EXIST!

"Aaauuugh!!!" I finally give up, and collapse to the ground, overwhelmed by the storm inside of me. I dont even feel the blocks collapse on top of me. The limit does exist, and I just broke it. It takes all of my strength left just to muster up enough breath to whisper a tiny 'help', and circles spin around me, but I can feel something grasping my arms, pulling me forward.

------------------------------------------

Beep beep. Levels normal. Beep beep. Heartbeat rising. Beep beep. Regaining consciousness. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

"Blehh. Gah, where am I?" The words escape my lips of their own accord, and I groan, squinting into the bright light hanging over me. It takes me a second until I figure out where I am. The room where they helped me after Trigon brought Slade back and made him haunt my head in the dark. I glance down, and see I'm not restrained; they're just sending some stuff inside me to help... something. I can see shadows moving behind the curtain, and someone waving their arms-big and bulky. Cyborg?

I press the button on the controller they must have put in my hand. The arms abruptly stop moving, and the door next to the window opens, revealing the Titans and Terra. Wait, Terra is a titan. That's gonna take some getting used to.

"Hey," Raven says, walking up with her hands outstretched. When she asks me to flip onto my stomach, I comply-slowly and painfully. I feel a warming sensation spreading. "I'm trying to reduce your injury a bit." I think I mumbled something about asking what happened, because Cyborg pitched in his two cents.

"I walked in on you lifting your weights, and I just went to plug in information for my own workout. Then I heard you muttering about a limit, and the bricks crashed down. They flattened you on the ground, but the tower floor's damaged, so we need to fix that now." Wow, Cy, thanks for caring about the tower more than your possibly injured friend!

"Cyborg," Raven interjects, "Go easy. It's not his fault."

"You're right," Cyborg agrees, "It's her fault!" He swivels around and points at Terra, who looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Beast Boy wraps his arm around her protectively, protesting that it wasn't her fault at all. Terra stares at her shoes as Cyborg continues issuing out blame, while we all look on.

"Robin could easily have lifted ten times what he did earlier before you showed up! We never had to worry about feelings before you showed up! We never had to look out the window nervously before you showed up! We never had to deal with all this crap BEFORE YOU SHOWED UP!" We all stare at him, stunned. Terra nods solemnly, as if she fully exected this. She must have, after Raven's outburst at dinner. She quietly removes Beast Boy's arm, walks towards the open window, and jumps out. Beast Boy, Starfire and I all push up to go after her, but someone stops us. Raven keeps me still, saying my back isn't healed. Cyborg blocks the window from BB and Star, saying that now we could have peace. Starfire floats to the floor dejectedly, but Beast Boy keeps fighting. He turns into everything, shoving as hard as possible to get bast Cyborg, but he just holds him back with one hand on his head. Beast Boy doesn't give up; he repeatedly rams into Cyborg, over and over, until we see Terra slowly rising up on a rock. As she wooshes away from the tower, with (almost) all of us screaming for her, we see water streaming behind her. Starfire remarks that she never knew Terra controlled rain, and Beast Boy says quietly, "That's not rain." A moment of awkward silence passes, then Beast Boy speaks up again.

"You... Big... Fat... JERK!!!" He leaps on top of Cyborg, and knocks him down, since Cy wasn't prepared. Beast Boy whales on him, yelling and sobbing about 'how much of a traitor you are, you big hunk of scrap metal!' Starfires quickly goes over and tugs on Beast Boy, and Raven and I help as soon as Raven is finished fixing me. It takes all of our force combined to yank off the attacker, and it doesn't help that Cyborg is spending the whole time trying to pin him down. Beast Boy finally gives up and lets us drag him away, the sudden force change throwing us backwards, Cyborg forwards. Beast Boy sees a chance, and takes flight-right out the window.