The next day Terra was sitting up in her bed at the hospital. She couldn't stop thinking about what happened at the school. How Beastboy saved her. How the city thought he was a vicious animal. And how wrong they were. Even more... she couldn't stop thinking about her dreams. The carnival. The volcano. They all felt so real. She was beginning to believe that they were more than just dreams.
Her parents were sitting in the recovery room with her. Her adopted mother sat to her left reading a book while her adopted father sat on her right watching the news with his daughter.
The news no longer played the video of Beastboy but the video was still the only thing anyone could talk about.
"This is serious," one of the anchors on tv said, "if the Titans can't hold back from hurting a bunch of kids at their school, what's to stop them from hurting the rest of us? Just because you're a 'hero' doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want."
The debate continued on the the screen but Terra had stopped listening. She turned to her right to speak to Carver.
"Dad," Terra said softly, "you don't believe them do you?"
"Of course not hun," Carver said looking to Terra, "the Titans have always protected us. They stand in between us and evil men. Without them we wouldn't last a day." His voice sounded like he was trying to comfort a toddler.
"But if it weren't for that green one all these students wouldn't be in here right now," Lindsey spoke with detest, not even looking up from her book. After she saw the news, her outlook on the Titans instantly changed. She immediately regret thanking Robin and Cyborg with a long hug. She felt like she'd been tricked.
"Mom how could you say that?" Terra sounded heart broken, "he saved my life."
"You might not have needed saving if it weren't for him," her mother shot back, turning to the next page in her book.
Terra started to get angry. She explained everything to them earlier about how she remembered falling back into the crowd of students. About how Beastboy was the one who helped snap her out of it. About how the video showed him saving her from death. She was thankful for Beastboy but she couldn't deny that if he had just left her alone she probably wouldn't have ended up in the condition she is.
Still something about this fascinated her. Why did he snap her out of it? Why was he the only one she could see in her dreams? Why did he risk everything to get all the other students off her? As she continued to think about it, she got more angry with her mother.
"You don't know what you're talking about! He saved me!" Terra winced in pain immediately after she yelled at her mother and laid back against her bed to ease the pain.
She was starting to realize she wasn't just talking about the incident at the school something inside her was telling her he had done much more than just save her from that.
Terra's parents looked at her concerned with worry.
"Terra!" Her father shouted, "please, calm down..." His tone eased up and began to soothe her, "you're in no condition to get too worked up like this."
Her mother stared at her over her book with shock. Terra had never yelled at her before. She instantly knew there was something else going on here that was changing Terra... and she didn't like it.
Terra calmed down and looked to her mother, "I'm sorry mama," she said softly, "but I know he saved me," she paused for a long moment and closed her eyes, "he saved me."
Her mother watched her dose off to sleep and closed her book. She stood up and walked out of the room without another word. She walked down the hallway of the hospital and peered into each recovery room as she did. The nearest ten rooms had teens from Terra's school in them. One had a broken leg, another had a broken arm, some had cracked ribs and some had bad concussions. After seeing all this and what her daughter looked like and how she was behaving, she refused to believe that the Titans were good for anyone.
She stood in the window of the last recovery room when another woman approached and stood next to her. She was just about the same height but slightly thicker than Lindsey. She was wearing a business casual dress with blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Terrible isn't it?" She said to Lindsey, "what these kids had to go through." Lindsey didn't look at her but continued to listen, "if the Titans hadn't interfered none of this would have happened. That mad man was just using your children to get to them," she sounded intelligent like she knew what she was talking about, "if the Titans didn't exist this entire tragedy wouldn't have happened."
Lindsey turned to look at her. The woman also turned to Lindsey and their eyes met. The womans eyes were dull and lifeless. As if all emotion had been ripped out of her long ago. Leaving her bare and empty. Lindsey didn't trust her.
"Just because they messed up once doesn't mean they're the problem," she didn't like what Terra said to her but she did take what she said to heart. Perhaps she was saved by the Titans even if she didn't like them.
"You yourself said if it weren't for them your daughter and these students wouldn't be here," the woman argued, "and believe me... It's not the first time they've messed up," she looked back at the students in their hospital beds.
Lindsey looked away as well. How did she know what I said? She thought to herself. Was she just waiting outside Terra's room just to talk to me?
She knew what she said to Terra and she truly did believe it. She fully heartedly believed Beastboy was the reason her daughter was in this place with the others. But she also knew the Titans have done a lot more good than harm. She looked back at the woman one more time.
"Who are you?" Lindsey sounded like she was slightly intimidated. But woman looked back at her and smiled.
"I'm part of an organization that helps people like you in your time of need," the woman continued, "the Titans should be held responsible for their actions. Good intentions don't pay the medical bills or property damages," she handed Lindsey a small card with her name and phone number on it, "if you have questions or want to talk... Call me," the strange woman put her hand on Lindsey's shoulder for a second then walked away.
The card read Melissa Wallace, Attorney at Law with a phone number underneath. She had been going room to room trying to convince the victim's families to file lawsuits against the Titans. She seemed to be relentless and would play her hand off the emotions of her audience.
Lindsey starred at the card for a long moment before looking back up at the teens that lay in pain. She tought once again about how Terra yelled at her. She felt a wave of anger and put the card in the back pocket of her skinny jeans.
Back at the Tower, Cyborg and Robin had long finished their conversation but Cyborg left Robin with something that he had also been wondering.
Doesn't this whole thing seem weird to you? Robin was thinking about what Cyborg had told him. First, that thing attacked us, it lead us to the school where BB found Terra, then Mad Mod attacks that exact school? Doesn't that... I don't know... Seem weird to you?
Robin had thought about it before but ever since Cyborg said it out loud to him the previous evening, it was all he could think about.
Robin was in his study trying to figure out the connection behind the three issues they've faced in the past week. The creature, Mad Mod at the school, and Terra. Something didn't make sense to him. All three happened so close together and somehow led from one into the other. The creature attacked them. Led them to Terra's school. Then Terra's school got attacked. There is no way it was just a coincidence.
In front of him was a layout of a map with everything that happened. The location of where they first ran into the creature. Where the school was. Where they followed the creature after Beastboy had left the fight to talk to Terra. Nothing seemed to have any connections. It looked like it really was just a bunch of coincidences. But something about it seemed familiar to him. Like he had seen this kind of sequence of events before. He was searching the deepest pits of his memory trying to figure out what it was about this that seemed so familiar to him.
Robin snapped out of his deep thought when a knock on the door jolted through the room.
"Robin," Starfire said, "you are, ok?" She sounded worried, "you did not attend the practice of combat you wished us all to perform."
Robin had always been the first one at combat practice. As the leader, he determined what time it took place, when to be there, and what course they were going to do. So missing combat practice was a shock and left Starfire concerned.
Robin looked at his clock and saw it was already 9:00AM. Combat practice usually took place at 8:00AM. He hadn't even noticed he stayed up through the entire night after he left Cyborg's room.
He turned from the map and went to the door. When he opened it, he saw the entire team standing outside with worry. They could see Robin hadn't slept yet.
"Dude," Beastboy said slowly, "you look..."
"Awful," Raven finished for him.
"Yeah, man," Cyborg said standing behind them, "didn't you sleep last night?"
Robin saw the worry on their faces and decided to be honest.
"No. I didn't," he looked from teammate to teammate with no excuse as to why he missed combat practice but instead came clean, "I've been trying to figure out what's going on. You're right Cyborg. Something about this whole thing isn't right," he looked over his shoulder back at the map as if still searching his mind for the answer, "I could've sworn I've seen something like this before somewhere, but I can't figure out where,"
"Perhaps, you may come to find the answer after you had, the sleep?" Starfire said with hope that Robin could bounce back. She didn't want to see him become overly obsessed nearly killing himself over his work again.
"Star's right," Cyborg added, "sometimes the answer isn't there because your head ain't thinkin straight," he sounded like a leader. Like when he had his own team at Titans East, "get some rest. We'll take it from here."
The rest of the team nodded and Robin had no choice but to agree. "Alright. But if anything comes up-"
"Yeah, yeah. We'll call you," Beastboy said as if he's heard this a million times, "dude, go get some rest. We got this."
Robin nod to them and walked past them towards his room. He was still deep in thought but his team was right. He needed to sleep. He knew that if he didn't he'd never figure out the missing connection in the case.
The rest of the team started to make their way to the living area for breakfast but as Cyborg walked past Robin's study he peered in at the wall with a map and all the locations of the previous events. It looked like a jumbled mess with nothing in common with the next. After going over it a dozen times, with nothing coming to mind, Cyborg sighed. He felt he may have made a mistake telling Robin his concerns the night prior.
Beastboy, Raven, and Starfire entered the living area. Beastboy walked over to the kitchen to cook his usual tofu bacon and eggs. But Raven stopped Starfire at the door to talk privately for a moment.
"Starfire," she began, "I need your help with something."
This took Statfire by surprise. Raven Never asked for help... Ever. Starfire's eyes lit up with joy seeing Raven come to her in confidence.
"Oh yes!" Starfire exclaimed happy to help with anything she could, "I would be most honored to help my friend in need!"
Raven panicked for a second and covered Starfire's mouth to try to keep her voice down. She didn't want anyone to worry any more than they already were with everything else going. She looked at Beastboy who didn't seem to notice as he continied to cook his breakfast. She breathed easy and lowered her hand before continuing.
"You've spent some time with my powers," Raven was referring to the time the Puppet King had switched their bodies, "you know better than anyone they are unstable and highly dangerous."
Starfire nod her head wondering where this was going.
"So how did you figure out how to use my powers so quickly?" Raven didn't want to sound rude but Starfire is a loose canon when it came to her emotions. She never surpressed any of her emotions. They just poured out like a never ending fountain. But when Raven tried to use Starfire's power she almost never figured out how to use them. It took her much longer to learn how to fly let alone use Starfire's real power even though they were also connected to emotion.
"Well..." Starfire was trying to think back to the time they switched bodies and how she used Raven's powers, "I simply did as you instructed."
"But you use emotion to fuel your powers," Raven argued, "how did you keep them in control when you used mine?"
"Oh... Um... I suppose... I did not?" Starfire was a bit confused by the question. She didn't quite understand what she meant. She thought she was a wrecking ball with Raven's powers. But when she thought about it... She found herself doing most of the work to save the boys. Raven didn't come close to learning how to use Statfire's powers until her emotions forced their way out only after seeing her friends in mortal danger. The quickest thing she learned was how to fly but even that was difficult for her.
Raven sighed. She didn't think this was going to work anymore. But she figured it was still worth a try anyways.
"Can you... um... teach me?" Raven sounded almost embarrassed to ask.
"What is it that you are hoping to learn?" Starfire asked still wondering where this was going.
Raven looked at Beastboy. Last night when he held her as she was on the brink of destroying her room. She let all her pain pour out of her on to his shoulder, and she noticed her destructive force faded away. She was so close to destroying her room but she didn't, even though her emotions were being released more than she had ever allowed. She looked back at Starfire who had followed her gaze over towards Beastboy. Starfire looked back at Raven with a little more understanding. Once their eyes met Raven spoke up...
"I think... I might have found another way to control my powers."