Chapter 3: Cold Shoulder

Entering the Tower, I immediately noticed how little the place had changed in the last 2 years. There was the same gray, round couch in front of the large flatscreen TV and the kitchen was exactly as I had left it, except the goop on Starfire's baking pan was blue and not pink and there were no freshly washed tea cups next to the sink. Quickly moving on from the ghost town of a living room, I entered the unchanged hallway and hurried to the medical room. As I neared the white double doors of the medical room, I suddenly became very aware of the loud clacking noise of my heels on the ground. The slippers I had worn 24/7 with my uniform had never made this much noise and the echo in the desolate hallway sounded unnatural in my ears.

Apparently the clacking of my shoes had not been noticed by only myself. The three team members gathered in the medical room had all turned to face me as I approached the two doors and very carefully pushed one of them open.

"R-Raven?" Cyborg asked, his mouth gaping open and his hand hovering over a knob on the machine in front of him. Starfire offered me an enthusiastic smile, but dropped it when she realized the other two were not as excited to see me. Robin scanned over me quickly, barely registering my face, and then turned back to his screen which showed a complex analysis of BB's lab results.

Wanting nothing more than an end to the awkward silence between us, I pushed myself further in to join my former team. And that was when my eyes landed on her. Sitting in a chair pushed up against the bed was the one, the only, Terra. Her hands were intertwined with Beast Boy's limp, glove-free hands. Terra had also noticed my entrance, but instead of showing hatred or annoyance like the others, she wore a victorious smirk, clearly rubbing in the fact that she was now with BB and I was not. I clenched my jaw, but bottled my annoyance with Terra; a war against her right now would do nothing to save BB's fleeting life.

"So, what happened?" I asked, brushing past Terra's smug smile and moving closer to the bed to inspect my new patient. I could feel the two boys' eyes on me, probably wondering where exactly the innocent, robe covered friend they once knew had gone, but I ignored that too and waited for Robin's explanation.

"We were downtown trailing Cinderblock when out of nowhere this creature swooped down and attacked us." he explained.

"Creature?" I asked as I pushed Terra away to inspect BB's recently bounded wounds. "What kind of creature?" I began to peel the binding away from the bloody gashes. Three of them, long and slightly curved, trailing across Beast Boy's muscular abdomen. They were matted with half-dried blood and appeared to be pretty deep.

"Don't know, never seen it before." Cyborg explained.

"Did you get a picture? Or a video off of one of the stoplights?" I pressed. A three-clawed beast attacking my former teammates while I'm away... it could have been anything. But there was something about the shape and length of the cuts that seemed familiar and my father's name rang in head.

"I can hack in and get one," Cy said, beginning to type on the computer. I nodded and turned back to my injured friend. A moment later Cyborg exclaimed "got it" and I inspected the video he played on the large screen. As soon as the creature came into view I knew that my darkest nightmare was indeed coming true. I looked over at Starfire and she nodded her head limply. She knew too.

"Do you recognize it?" Robin asked suddenly.

"I-It's familiar, but I'll need to do more research to be sure."

"Well, what do you think it is?" he pressed. I studied the black, winged creature. It resembled a dragon with a long tail, spiked on the end, and large black wings. It stood on its two hind legs and used its clawed hands to bat at its opponents.

"A Skyffer; we have them around Azarath, they help to protect the borders. Usually they're pretty peaceful, unless trained otherwise."

"Trained? As in someone sent this thing to attack us?" Cyborg asked incredulously.

"Yep, and it'd have to be someone with access to an inter-dimentional portal too." I explained.

"Awesome, because there's a ton of them around here." Cyborg remarked bitterly. Part of me wondered if they had been searching for one to take them to Azarath, but I didn't dwell on the thought too long.

"I'll start looking for a source tomorrow but right now I need to extract the venom from BB's wounds."

"Oh, so this creature is venomous too!" Cyborg overreacted. I rolled my eyes.

"Not to me, but you guys, yes. Azarathians are naturally immune to the venom on their claws." I explained.

"But you can cure Beast Boy, right?" Robin asked. Honestly, it hurt that they were doubting my abilities.

"Of course I can," I answered confidently.

"We'll leave you to it then." Robin stated curtly, leading his team out of the room, a less enthused Terra trailing behind them. Once I was alone, I allowed myself to touch the soft, green skin of Beast Boy's abdomin, tracing the soft outline of his six-pack. Since when did Beast Boy have a v-line? I wondered briefly, but pushed the distracting thought away. I had a job to do.

Placing my hands on the middle cut, I used my magic to heal the wound. Slowly the deep cuts began to close together and heal, the venom leaving with it. A cooling sensation washed over me as my blood filtered out the venom from his.

As the cuts and the pain began to fade away, I noticed BB's complexion returning back to normal, well Beast Boy normal anyway. The grimace on his face also relaxed. Satisfied with his improvement, I ended the spell and checked the monitors connected to him, just to make sure everything was still running normally. I was just about to leave, seeing that he was stable, when his hand suddenly caught mine.

"Rae..." he choked out. I froze, half turned to the door.

"I'm here," I said awkwardly. I was not the greatest when it came to sappy, emotional moments.

"W-what happened?" Beast Boy asked, now opening his eyes. "Why are you dressed like a stripper?" I laughed.

"You were injured in battle. I came back to heal you." I explained with a small smile.

"With your magicalness?" he asked, clearly still under the influence of the pain medication. His words were slightly slurred and his eyes droopy.

"Yes," I responded with a small laugh, "with my magicalness."

"Okay... but why are dressed like that?" he asked again.

"You don't like how I look?" I teased him, fluffing one of my purple curls.

"No, you're always beautiful, it's just not like you." he explained, tracing the top of my hand with his thumb. I almost missed the always, almost.

"True, but I had to go to a fancy dinner earlier tonight and unfortunatley my uniform didn't fit the dress code." He nodded.

"I missed you," he admitted after a moment of silence. I nodded. "I called you." he continued.

"I know."

"And I texted."

"Yeah, I know."

"And you never responded."

"Beast Boy," he looked at me, his dark green eyes showing the hurt they had been hiding for, probably, the last two years. "I'm sorry. I should've told you."

"You still haven't told me, or any of us" he replied, the bitterness clear in his voice. Starfire knows, I thought. But I knew that telling him I was able to tell Star but not him would only hurt him further.

"Honestly, I don't think you'd want to know." I admitted truthfully.

"You think I can't handle it?" he asked, growing frustrated.

"I didn't say that," I argued, looking him sharply in the eye. "I just meant that right now isn't the best time to dive into that subject." Beast Boy narrowed his eyes at me.

"Why? Because I'm "unstable"?" He retorted, air quoting with his fingers the word unstable.

"No, though you are hyped up on quite a few pain-relievers right now." I said calmly.

"Then why can't I know?" He demanded.

"Because..." I paused, trying to come up with an answer that would please him while at the same time not disclose the full truth. "Because maybe I'm not ready to talk about it!" I had attempted to remain calm, but the frustration was clear in my voice. What was it about Beast Boy that made it so hard to contain all of my emotions?

Hearing my response, Beast Boy fell silent and studied me, staring into my eyes as if the answer could be found there. Uncomfortable, I pulled my hand away and quickly turned to look at the wall. "Rae...what happened?" Beast Boy asked softly, more comforting than demanding. But it didn't matter, I had already iced over my emotions, shutting them away to the deepest depths of my heart. I've shared way too much with him already.

"Nothing I can't deal with." I said quickly, standing up to leave. I needed to get out before I completely lost it and told him everything. "You should get some rest, now. I'll go tell the others you're okay now." Beast Boy frowned, aware that I was intentionally avoiding his question.

"Will you be here when I wake up?" He asked, a small, almost hopeful, smile on his lips. A part of me swooned at the fact that he wanted me to be here, but another remembered the image of Terra's hand intertwined with his only minutes ago.

"Wouldn't you rather be with your girlfriend?" I asked. I had meant for it to sound like playful teasing, but it came out as more of a hiss. I really need to get my emotions under control. Beast Boy gave me a confused look that slowly grew into a large smile.

"Are you...jealous, Rae-Rae?" He asked, sounding more like his egotistical self. I scoffed.

"You wish!" I retorted, brushing the implication away. Me...jealous of that rat Terra? As if! I think we both established here that I am still the better Titan. At least when I leave I don't come back as a spy for the enemy. Besides, Beast Boy is just a friend. And I'm not here because it was him in the hospital bed. I would've came back for any of the Titans. It just happened to be Beast Boy.

"Seriously, though," Beast Boy tried again, sounding serious, a tone I wasn't quite used to when it came to him. "Are you going to stick around a bit longer, or are you going to leave us again?" The way he said the word leave, as if it was dirt in his mouth, suddenly made me feel all the more guilty.

"I can't stay forever, I mean I have to return to Azarath at some point. But I think I'll stick around at least until that creature is caught." I said truthfully. Honestly, I hadn't really had the chance to think further than tomorrow, but this response seemed to make BeastBoy a little bit happier as he yawned and mumbled an okay, finally letting himself fall asleep.

So, I guess I am stuck here until we catch that creature. I suppose it is for the best, though, since I would more than likely be back to help stop it anyway. And I knew one thing for sure, if a Skyffer was here to attack my friends, something had pissed off Trigon. And I seemed to be the only one strong enough to subdue him. My friends needed me; they had no idea what was coming their way.

***** ***** *****

Beast Boy was cured, tired, but cured. I presented this piece of news to the team in the living room before plopping myself onto the couch beside Starfire. I could still feel their stares on me, following my every movement. For a moment I considered running away to my room, but I knew that their prying questions would only be put off until the morning when I would be forced to confront them at breakfast. So I grudgingly joined them, waiting for one of them to ask the obvious question: where was I?

In the end, it was Robin who ended the silence. "So, I suppose you should be heading back to your kingdom soon, huh?" he asked, though it came out as more of a sentence. It wasn't accusatory, more of an observation, a statement. But it made me feel guilty all the same.

"Actually, I thought I'd stick around a bit longer, if you guys don't mind." My response had apparently surprised them as they all turned to look at me, wondering if I was serious. Terra's expression was my favorite, though, she almost looked disappointed. And seeing this, somehow made me want to stay even more. My thoughts were pulled away from this, however, as Starfire pulled me into a bone-crushing hug while exuding a high-pitched squeal, clearly ecstatic that I was staying.

"Of course you're welcome to stay," Robin chuckled, touching my bare shoulder lightly. I smiled back, thankful that things were finally beginning to feel almost normal.

"Team's not the same without you!" Cyborg added, pulling me into a hug as Star finally released me. In the corner of my eye I saw Terra scowl, crossing her arms over her chest, and I felt my lips curve slightly into a small, victorious smile.

"So where've you been girl?" Ah there it was, the dreaded question. Cyborg had asked it as he pulled away and looked me over. Before I could dive into another lie, though, he continued. "Because, damn, you lookin' fine!" I allowed myself to laugh slightly, thankful that my appearance was enough to delay the previous question, if only for a few minutes.

"I had to attend a lame dinner party that one of the councilmen had thrown." I supplied truthfully. If they stuck to questions about the last 6 months, I think I might be able to make it through a whole conversation without lying, or even stretching the truth.

"So you've been in Azarath this whole time then?" Robin clarified.

"Uh, for the most part, yes." I replied. Translation: I went to Azarath at first, was gone for a bit, and then returned for the last six months. So technically, that wasn't a lie either.

"Well, damn, who knew a title was what it took to get you to take off that robe?" Cyborg added jovially. Robin narrowed his eyes slightly at my response, having caught the deeper meaning, but decided to leave it. "And, you know," Cy was continuing on next to me, "you're hair actually looks good when it's long like this. Why'd you always cut it before?" He was playing with my loose curls, batting them slightly. Even though it annoyed me, I let him continue. I guess I had kind of missed the attention. 

"I always told her she should grow it out but she never listened to me!" Star added, starting to play with the curls on the other side of my head. Okay, now this was getting to be too much.

"Yep, I look hot now, I get it. Can we talk about something else now?" I interjected, backing away from Cy and Star and pulling my hair out of their reach. I am not a cat, they cannot just sit there and pet me.

"Sure, how about you tell us all about Azarath?" Terra offered, an evil smirk upon her lips. Well the others probably saw it as friendly, but I could see the venom dripping from the corner. "I heard you had quite the ordeal with deciding where to put the new fountain." I sent her a glare.

"Yes, that was our most recent piece of business, but it wasn't our only, if you remember correctly." I replied icily.

"Are you implying that I was somehow there? Because, I assure you, I've been nothing but faithful to the Titans since you left." Terra said innocently. I scoffed loudly, about ready to expose her lies but stopped as I remembered that the others were still watching us intently.

"I think we both know the flaw in that statement." I seethed. Then, turning to Starfire, I said, "It's been a long day, I'm going to go to bed."

"I'll walk you there," she said, pulling me away from Terra. Terra mumbled some excuse as well and headed for the door.

She didn't live in the tower, I thought briefly, smiling at the fact that she wasn't a full-fledged member yet. Timing and coincidence had no doubt brought her here today. And while this fact should have made my smile grow wider, it only brought about a new thought. A skyffer was attacking my friends and Terra just happened to be there. Her ties with Trigon clearly must still be intact.

When Starfire and I arrived at my room, we both entered and plopped down onto the bed, exhausted from the day's events but still in need of a girl to girl talk. After all, Star was the only one in the Tower who knew about everything that had been going on with me during the past two years, well almost everything. "You did the 'bitch-fighting' with Terra. What has she done wrong?" Star asked when we were both seated.

"Terra's not exactly on our side. She was working with Trigon while I was gone." I revealed to Star, knowing that the truth needed to be told.

"But she has been here as well. She helped us fight in missions."

"As a spy, no doubt. Did she ever ask about me? About where I was?" Star shook her head.

"She asked once the first time she came around. You had been gone about a week or so. She asked where you had gone, we said you had just left in the night without a word. She never approached the subject again." Starfire explained. "Why do you ask?"

"Because she knew the whole time exactly where I was. She was there all the time. She'd come and just stand in the corner watching as my father- as Trigon... as he....he...." I stood up suddenly, shaking from the memory. Star followed me.

"You could not have stopped him. It was not your fault." She said hugging me. I nodded slowly as I swallowed the lump in my throat, blinking away the tears that threatened to break free.

"I know, it just hurts remembering." I finally said. "Anyway, Terra was there. She was always there. She'd leave, to be with you guys I'm sure, but she'd always return. She'd talk in whispers with Trigon about who-knows-what. And then she'd always leave me with her signature evil smirk. Probably because she was leaving to go fuck Beast Boy or something." Star laughed at this. "What are you laughing at?"

"Friend Raven is jealous over friend Beast Boy." Star said through bursts of laughter.

"I'm not jealous, I'm just saying that it was a possibility." I said.

"Sure, and I am a purple glorbocalus." Star said, still laughing. I'm not sure what that is in her language, but I'm pretty sure it is not an alien Teen Titan named Starfire. "Raven, when will you admit that you have the 'feelings' for Beast Boy?"

"I do not! And even if I did, why do I have to be the one to admit it first?"

"His calls and messages should be enough to tell," Star pointed out.

"They were just messages, they didn't mean anything." I retorted. Star raised an eyebrow at me. "Alright, fine, so maybe he likes me. And maybe I like him. But he clearly still likes Terra, so there's no point in trying to pursue any sort of relationship while that bitch is still around." Starfire laughed again. Maybe it's just the word bitch that sets her off...

"Terra was a distraction for friend Beast Boy while you were away." Star explained. "After you left, Beast Boy was quite the state of devastation. He would not laugh or make the jokes for the longest time. It was not until Terra came that he became happy, well happier. Even with Terra here, you could tell he was still sad." Beast Boy had been that upset over my leaving?

"I guess I never realized my leaving would hit him that hard," I said quietly.

"Beast Boy is delicate under the surface, though he would never show that to anyone." I nodded, realizing the truth in Star's words.

I don't know all the details of Beast Boy's past, but I know that it's not a happy tale. As a titan, it's pretty much a requirement to come from a tortured past. I seriously cannot think of a single titan, in any of the divisions, that was not casted out of society in their youth because they were different. There were different levels of torture and torment among us, but we all suffered at one point in time, causing us to seek acceptance and friendship among the other titans. I mean, who better to understand a social pariah than a group of tight-wearing, day-saving, socially outcasted feaks?

"So, when Terra did come over here, did anything ever, you know, happen between them?" I finally asked the question that had been on my mind since I saw that bitch holding Beast Boy's hand in the hospital room. Star thought for a minute, before breaking into a smile.

"Terra makes you quite green with envy." she said, almost with pride. 

"Okay, fine, the skank makes me feel a little jealous." I admitted. "Now answer my question, please?" Star chuckled, her smile growing wider at the fact that I had just openly admitted my jealousy for Terra's interaction with Beast Boy.

"She was never the 'girlfriend', but they would sometimes do the hanging out." Star explained. "I think Beast Boy just liked having a friend on the weekends when I would be with Robin and Cyborg would go visit BumbleBee. He always would deny having the 'feelings' for her, though. I think he was still not over you." 

"We were never together, we were never even a thing, we were barely even friends!" I suddenly felt the need to point that fact out. I mean, it was not until after I had left that I had really started to consider Beast Boy to be anything more than just a teammate, and that was only because of his annoyingly persistent calls and texts and messages that I came home to after my father finally released me. And by that time I was about 18 months too late to explain without also giving away the details of why it took a whole year and a half for me to each out to them. At least now I have six months of stories about ruling Azarath to share if I'm prompted to talk about my time away, which will more than likely happen. 

"Perhaps now you can change that." Star suggested, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. 

"Even if Beast Boy still feels the same, I'm not sure it'd be a great idea to start something between us. I mean, I have everything going on with Azarath, and my dad, and we both know me, I'm not really  much of a relationship person. Committment's not really one of my strong points." I replied truthfuly, listing off all of my flaws. 

"Now you are just making up excuses," she teased. "Stop being such a glor-glorb and give it a chance. Beast Boy just might surprise you."

"Why are you so intent on the fact that we will make a good couple? We're like polar opposites!" I argued.

"You complete each other. He makes you more fun, and you make him more serious. You balance each other out quite nicely." Star said thoughtfully, then added with a wink, "Besides, opposites attract." 

"Yeah, sure." I huffed. "It's pretty late Star, how about we call it a night and pick things back up tomorrow?"

"So, you really are planning on staying then?" she asked surprised.

"Mm-hmm." I mumbled, stifling a yawn. "I have missed being here with the team, and Beast Boy kinda asked me if I would stay." 

"Oh..." Star said suggestively. "And when did this happen?"

"We talked for a few minutes before he fell asleep, and he asked if I would still be around when he woke up." I explained. "But he was tired and hyped up on drugs so I don't know how much credit can be held to his words."

"You know what they say: drunk words are sober thoughts." Star said, starting to head for the door. 

"So they are," I mumbled as she exited my room, throwing back a goodnight. I wished her a good one too before throwing myself down onto my bed, officially done with the day. I had endured a lot: a fancy dinner party, Beast Boy's injury, and reuniting with my teammates. I was way past exhausted. 

Just as my eyelids began to flutter shut as sleep crept closer, I felt a vibration underneath my stomach. Realizing that I had flopped down on top of my clutch I pulled it out from under me and retrieved my phone from it, the source of the vibration. There was a banner displayed across the screen that told me that I had received 1 New Text Message. Unlocking my phone and navigating to my messages, I realized that the text had come from an unknown number. 

'Hey, it's Ty. Hope you didn't forget about me ;)' A soft chuckle escaped my lips as I remembered the dance and Tyler, or Ty as he preferred. 

'The name sounds faintly familiar... ;)' I typed back. For some reason I found it much easier to, as Star would call it, "flirt" over a text message. Maybe because the other person could not see my beat-red face. 

'Haha so did you take care of that emergency?' Ty asked, clearly remembering my reason for having to leave the party early. 

'Yep :)' I replied, hoping he wouldn't press me for further details. Sure, he knew that I was a teen titan, everyone in Azarath did, but that didn't mean I wanted to talk about Beast Boy of all people with him. My teen titan drama can stay here on earth, thank you very much. 

'That's good :)' He texted back, then a few seconds later, 'So I was thinking about how we never got to finish our dance. Maybe we can make it up with dinner sometime?' 

Seeing the second message, I almost dropped my phone. He wanted to have dinner... with me?  Having to dance with me wasn't torture enough for him? Maybe this guy isn't normal after all...

'Sure, sounds fun.' I typed, then paused to think of something else to say. When would I be able to get away from my friends to have dinner with Ty? 'I'll check my schedule and find a time. Talk to you tomorrow?' 

A minute later my phone buzzed with Ty's response. 'Sure thing. By the way, I don't think I ever got the chance to say this earlier, but Goodnight, Beautiful.' I blushed at this, though the compliment didn't seem to bring about the same stomach-flipping sensation that Beast Boy's comment had. Great, there I go comparing the two again...

Shaking away all thoughts of Beast Boy, I quickly typed in a response to Ty's compliment. 'Thank you :) Night.' After the text had sent, I plugged my phone into the charger and opened up my closet to change into some pajamas. A few months before I had left the titans, I had charmed my closet to serve as a portal to my closet in Azarath. The charm is still intact and proves to be very useful, as I  no longer have to carry luggage from one place to the other when traveling. From the closet, I grabbed a pair of black shorts and a plain purple scoop-neck tee. 

After taking one last look in my floor length mirror, admiring the dress and my curls one final time, I slipped off the black dress and slipped on the shorts and tee, immediately feeling much more comfortable. I hung the dress back up in my closet and put the jewelry and heels with it. Turning to my vanity, I picked up my brush and brushed through my curls, ruining their curly-ness and flattening them into soft, loose waves. I also wiped off my makeup. Looking into the mirror again, I could now see the resemblance to that purple haired girl in the picture taped to my mirror back in Azarath. My hair was longer, and my eyes still seemed to be missing that sparkle, but without the makeup, I looked a lot more like the clean-faced, almost-smiling, purple haired girl in the picture. 

I shook the thought away. What did it matter if I no longer looked like the girl I was over two years ago? A lot has happened, a lot has changed, of course I look different. The others all look different too. We all changed, it's a natural part of life.

With this conviction in mind, I slipped into my bed and finally allowed myself to fall asleep, suddenly feeling the exhaustion from the day's events. Tomorrow I would have to face my friends again and answer all of their long-kept questions. Plus I will also have to start researching Trigon and his skyffer connection, make sure the one that's here is really one of my father's. And I'll also have to keep a sharp eye on Terra. The others may think that she has changed, but I know differently. Only six months ago she was working hand-in-hand with my father, I doubt that has changed. Terra never changes.

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Sorry about the super long wait, but I wrote an Extra Long chapter to compensate!!

So what do you guys think about Ty? Terra? And what has Raven been up to the past two years?

Hope you enjoyed reading it! Leave your COMMENTS below! VOTE and FAN to tell me how I'm doing!! :D

~ Rain