A Teen Titan Again (complete)

Breaking Out

Cyborg

"So first, you called them both traitors. Then, you locked them in prison. Now, you understand that you must have made a mistake, and you want to go free them. Do I have all that straight now?" Robin nods, arms limp at his sides. He'd spent the last half hour explaining, in detail, exactly what he's been doing wrong to Beast Boy and me, after I'd finally seen Beast Boy hanging around the Tower, and he came back willingly. As the description went on, Robin slowly started to slump and look more pathetic. The sad confession was basically random, besides the fact that he came right after something really loud shattered, then exploded. Apparently, Robin saw something. . . confidential. . . on Star's computer, then ran in to the ops room to talk to me, and coincidentally Beast Boy, since he came back too.

"Well I think Raven should be free, she probably just accidentally shot out magic, but Terra needs to stay in there for life. She betrayed and tried to kill us, obviously broke Beast Boy's heart, no doubt she'll do it again. Once a traitor, always a traitor." Beast Boy makes a little hmph of protest.

"What about me? I helped Slade as his apprentice once, and-"

"Yeah, but he forced you to, by putting nanoscopic probes in the rest of us. Terra just did it to be a jerk."

"She couldn't control her powers. She was our friend, she saved Jump City."

"Fine. We'll just ask Star. STARFIRE!!"

"I'm not sure you'd want her opinion. . ."

I shake my head at him, and turn to face Starfire, who is avoiding looking at Robin. "Hello friend Cyborg. Hello Clorbag Varbelnik." Harsh.

"Starfire, we need to talk," Robin says. Or, he tries to. Starfire just sticks her nose in the air and moves to the kitchen for some of our blue furry food. "Cyborg, can you help this situation?"

Groaning, I push up to my feet, pull Beast Boy with me, and clank my way over to Starfire, who's pulling out some blue furry turkey sandwiches. "Hey Starfire, can we talk for a minute?"

"Oh, of course, friends Cyborg and Beast Boy!" she cries, very obviously over-enunciating our names, and pointedly not looking near the couch where Robin sits. "What would you like to conversate over?"

"Um, you know. . . One of our teammates decided he did something he shouldn't have, so he wanted us to tell you he feels bad about doing it, and. . . Beast Boy?"

He glares at me for pushing the attention to him, then turns to Starfire. "Robin wants to free Raven and Terra because he feels super bad about it and understands his mistake, but he wouldn't tell us what the explosion and shattering were, so I assume he's sorry for that, I don't know, the end." Wow, that certainly is. . . one way to sum it up.

Starfire raises her eyebrows and looks at us, as if to say, 'Really? That's the story you're going with?' "Truly? That is the tale you are going with?" Hurray, I got it right!

"I think Robin just wants us to go free Terra and Raven," I ammend.

"Well, if that is the case, then why have we not already left?" she cheers, floating higher and out the window. Great. One more thing in this tower I've gotta fix.

Raven

Azarath Metrion Zinthos. Azarath Metrion Zinthos. Azarath Metrion Zinthos. For the past hour or so, I've been meditating while Terra sleeps, since poetry really doesn't help me get out my feelings. Unsurprisingly, it really didn't do anything to help me. When I at last gave up on meditation and looked over to Terra, she was scratching away at the top of her ribcage. She's gonna rip all the skin off if she keeps that up. As I come out of my little cross-legged position, Terra suddenly stops scratching, and moves towards me. I look up at her, completely bewildered, until I see what she was scratching at. A little brown circle with Slade's 'S' on it. Crap.

She throws a punch at my head, which I block, but just barely. I retaliate with a kick to her hip, and she can't quite block it. Another punch actually makes its mark, in my stomach. I double over and groan, then deliver a swift kick behind her knees, knocking her to my level.

"Terra. . . Why are you doing this?" I gasp.

"I'm. . . Not. . . He is!" Tears form in her eyes as she struggles to get up, and it looks like she's battling wind to come back to me again.

"Excellent, apprentice. Keep moving forward," A voice sounds from the bars. I whip my head around to see Slade, foot in the air, then pressing it down on the ground. At the the instant, I feel Terra's foot crush the back of my head. Through the blinding blackness around me, I watch Slade pick up an imaginary figure, and feel myself lifted into the air. He puts his hands on the bars, and pushes them apart, a big enough space for Terra to force me through. I guess he retained some of the power from my father. He mimes handing something off, and I see Terra as I get flipped over and passed to Slade. The darkness is almost total now, except for Slade pinching Terra's shoulder, and as I feel her piled on top of me, a pressure forms on my own shoulder, and the lights go out.

Starfire

"Where are they? Did you not select a power-proof cell? And why are the bars separated?" I ask, anxious. When we arrived, neither Terra nor Raven was present, and two of the bars were spread apart wide enough for two people to fit through at once. No evidence of anything remained, besides two pencils, some drops of red (one of the pencil tips was red as well), and sheets of paper; one with a poem, and a large stack with one really long story on it.

"It is power-proof, Star. I don't know what could have happened," Robin answers. I ignore him, and repeat my questions. Beast Boy delivers the same answer, and I thank him warmly. Robin sighs, rejected, and I turn to him.

"Would you like to know the reason I have chosen to limit my amount of communication with you, Clorbag Varbelnik?" He nods hopefully, and I groan inwardly. I did not have a good reason previously prepared, and now I must have multiple for my rejection to make sense. "Because you broke into my room, read my personal words that were not meant for you or any others, said I must doubt any and all relationships, basically meant I must doubt us, you called Raven a traitor and forced the rest of us to stand against her, you locked her in prison, you originally planned to lock Beast Boy away, you instead locked Terra in here, then you left her anyway, even though she did nothing but befriend Raven after she saved Jump City and anything else within the general vicinity of the volcano that erupted and trapped her as a statue." I never knew I was so good at coming up with reasons on the spot.

"But how can I fix it? I honestly feel bad for every part of that, but how can I possibly fix that? How can I fix us?" Robin asks, desperate.

"First, help us find and save Raven and Terra. Then I may consider forgiveness."

"Oh, thank you so much Star!" he yells, engulfing me in a hug. I flinch under him, but do not resist nor return the hug. Suddenly, his grip tightens immensely, more so than my personal hugs, and I release him, to see him glowing orange and red, just like he did when Slade implanted the Nanoscopic probes. I turn around, and see Cyborg in the same position. Beast Boy is trying to shake him out of it, but Cyborg is writhing in agony on the floor, and I glance over to see Robin doing the same. "I. . . thought you. . . got rid. . . of the. . . probes, Cyborg!"

"I did, man! Maybe he put. . . in more when he. . . blew up the old. . . library we went to. . . before fighting Trigon? There's no way. . . I missed any. . . to take out!"

"AHH!" I scream, collapsing to the ground. I hold out my glowing orange and red hand, and wince. I curl up into a tight ball on the ground, with Beast Boy yelling, clearly wishing to stop Slade, wherever he is. I feel myself lifted, and vaguely see him as a gorilla, holding all three of us and running.