Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Dreams And Destinies ❯ Not The Way Everyone Wants To Start Their Day ( Chapter 1 )

Author's Note: I do not own Teen Titans or any of the characters in the show or comic but the character of Lyllandra is my own original creation. It's my first TT fic so please R&R! Enjoy!

 

Dreams And Destinies

 

 

Chapter 1

Not The Way Everyone Wants to Start Their Day

 

In the dark forest Lyllandra stood, silent but shaking, her thundering heart the only sound in her ears. It was too dark to make out much but she knew she was in a clearing, surrounded by trees that dwarfed her as she would dwarf an ant. She should have been alone but she knew she wasn't. She knew “he” was there. She couldn't see him but she could sense him. His presence was a tangible weight she could feel on her shoulders, in her stomach and on her lips. She knew he was there because she had been here before. Every night she was here and even though she knew that it was a dream (she had known for weeks) the knowledge did nothing to decrease its potency. She couldn't stop this dream from coming night after night. And that was the real problem…. she wasn't sure she wanted it to stop.

A rustling sound issued from almost right behind her but she was not afraid, only expectant. She knew what was going to happen and her heart, if possible, began to beat even harder. She heard footsteps behind her and she could not move. But again, it was all familiar so she was not afraid. She felt a hand fall on her shoulder and slowly turn her around. She did not feel her feet move but she turned nonetheless and found herself looking into the eyes of the man who had haunted her dreams for more than a month. Those intense brown eyes captured her own and held their gaze. She couldn't look away from those eyes. Which was the most infuriating part of the dream. The one detail that haunted her the most during her waking hours. In all the nights she'd had this truly strange dream, she had never seen the identity of the mysterious figure. But as with all the other nights in this dark forest, with her heart thumping as to break it's way out of her chest, she didn't care. She felt a desire in her welling up that she'd never known before. She knew she couldn't see everything but she knew those eyes belonged to a face and body and suddenly she wanted to be held close to that body more than anything. This feeling was so strong that it really did begin to scare her. Her heart swelled up to overflowing as she realized once and for all, she loved him. Completely and forever, she loved the man standing before her. That she did not know whom it was made no difference. There was no denying it.

The feeling continued to wash over her as she still stared into his eyes. Those eyes that were warm and deep and so intense that she felt they must be burning a hole right through her commanded her attention so thoroughly that she didn't even feel his hand coming up from her shoulder to caress the side of her face. When she finally felt the soft touch, she did one of the strangest things possible considering the circumstances. She began to cry! The tears rolled down her cheeks and although she didn't understand them, she could do nothing to stop them. Mr. Eyes Only seemed to understand perfectly though. With his one hand still caressing her cheek, his other hand came up to gently wipe the tears from her face. Then both hands cupped her face and brought it closer to him. Lyllandra could still not see the rest of his face but felt quite clearly the press of his lips on hers….

And she woke up.

“Damnit Damnit Damnit!”

The curse could be heard at street level causing passers by to stop and stare, wondering what on earth could have happened so early in the morning that would cause someone to wake up so angry.

Inside, completely oblivious to the early morning wake up call she had once again given to her hapless neighbours, Lyllandra was sitting up in bed, hands clenched to her face, trying desperately to slow her still jack hammering heart. She stayed that way for several minutes until her heartbeat slowed to a crawl and she could no longer feel the tingle on her lips. The latter took much longer to go away. When it finally did, she groaned her frustration and swung her legs out of bed. As she turned her head to look at her alarm clock, several strands of hair floated down and landed on her lap. She looked down at the coppery brown hairs that had once shared a home with all the other slender filaments on her head. But these stray few threads, though they had tried to rebel, had finally gone the way of the rest of her once beautiful hair. She stood up completely, looked in the mirror above her dresser and let out a small whimper. The face that greeted her was the same one she had avoided looking at whenever possible for the last four months. It was uncharacteristically bloated and bald, with dark circles under its eyes and discoloured skin.

“Damn Chemo better be doing its job for all this.” She muttered under her breath as she turned away from the horrid sight and made her way to the bathroom. In the shower she had to stop herself again from reaching for the shampoo and instead turned up the hot water as high as her now incredibly sensitive skin could take it and stood in the stream. Her bizarre dream was brought to the front of her mind again as the searing water pounded her bruised and sore skin. “It's gotta be caused by the chemo.” She said to herself, trying to rationalize the intense dream as she had done every day since it had started. “The doctors said that my sleep would be affected as a result of the chemo so that's gotta be it.”

Once again satisfied with the same explanation she'd been giving herself for days, Lyllandra stepped out of the shower and got dressed in a pair of jogging pants and a baggy shirt. These had been her wardrobe items of choice since starting the treatments. The chemo combined with the other myriad of medications she was on was causing significant and severely unhealthy looking weight gain. She had gone from a decent 130 pounds to over 200 in the space of three months. And the fact that she was so tired and nauseous all the time made it all but impossible to exercise. So all her colourful, if slightly revealing clothing had been put away and it had been exchanged for bland, baggy, hide-everything clothing that in reality made her look sort of like a discoloured mushroom. She may have only been 17 years old but she could easily have been mistaken for someone in their late thirties…who had spent a lifetime drinking…and on drugs…and who had been hit by a mack truck.

Lyllandra went out into the empty living room of her mother's spacious art deco house. Prior to being diagnosed with the cancer, Lyllandra had been sharing an apartment with a friend in the city. An exceptionally bright girl, Lyllandra had finished high school a year early and had moved into the city to attend college. But after the diagnosis, her devastated mother had insisted she drop out of school and return to the house of her childhood where she could recover and where her mother could look after her.

Her mother was at work right now and Lyllandra had the whole house to herself. Usually she would veg in front of the TV or maybe try going for a walk around the block if she wasn't too tired but this morning she had the strange compulsion to go through her mother's `memory chest'.

The memory chest was four feet long by two and a half feet high and made of a solid, dark oak. In it, Lyllandra's mother kept all the memento's she had not been able to let go of after her husband had died. Lyllandra's father had passed away of lung cancer only 7 years before and even though the cancer that invaded Lyllandra's body was a different kind and the doctors said that the chemo was helping, Lyllandra couldn't help but note that the doctor's had told her father the exact same thing just weeks before he died.

She knelt down in front of the chest and touched the smooth finish. Her mother was always very particular about taking care of the memory chest. With a sharp pang in her heart, Lyllandra opened the chest and reached inside. She pulled out a photo album. Kneeling back from the chest she rested the album on her lap and opened it. Pictures of her father and mother and her father and her all through the pages. Cooking on the barbeque, sitting on the front porch, birthdays, Christmas, vacations, moments made immortal through the technology first brought to us by the proud makers of the Polaroid. Lyllandra stopped at a picture of her sixth birthday party. She was sitting at the head of the table in front of a cake almost as large as herself with a grin almost as wide. Both her parents were beside her, her father's grin huge as he lifted the knife to cut the cake. It made Lyllandra's heart cry a little to know that these pictures were all she had left of her father. It made her even sadder to think that someday soon, pictures like these would be all her mother had left of her. She closed her eyes and tried to block that awful thought. When she opened them again she found herself staring again at the picture with her sixth birthday party. Although this time, when she looked at her father's hand holding the cake knife, her attention was drawn to a ring on the middle finger of his right hand. She squinted, trying to get a better look at it. She couldn't remember having seen it before. Not when her father was alive and not even five minutes ago when she had first opened the album. But it was there now.

The ring was silver with a dark blue stone. The stone was oval in shape and set low into the ring. Lyllandra stared as hard as her red, tired eyes would allow. She racked her memory, trying to think back to when she had seen her father with that ring. But to no avail. She was as sure as ever she had never seen that ring before in her life.

With his one hand still caressing her cheek, his other hand came up to gently wipe the tears from her face. Then both hands cupped her face and brought it closer to him.

Lyllandra dropped the album and rocked back on her knees. “Where the hell did that come from?” she frightened herself having not intended to speak. She looked at the album that she had dropped and found her gaze once more directed towards the strange ring. She leaned closer…

She felt a desire in her welling up that she'd never known before. She knew she couldn't see everything but she knew those eyes belonged to a face and body and suddenly she wanted to be held close to that body more than anything.

Her hands flew up to her face and she shook her head. Why on earth was she thinking about that stupid dream at a time like this? Her face felt hot under her hands and she was sure she was flushed. “That must be it.” She thought feeling somewhat stupid. She sometimes got fevers from the treatments. She must be getting one now and it was making her brain work a little backwards. “I'll get some Tylenol and all will be well.” She made to get up then turned back to the album lying on the floor. “ I'd better put that away.” She thought. “Once I pass the bathroom for aspirin I'm going right back to bed and I'll forget about it and mom will give me hell when she comes home.” She bent down and picked up the album. When she tried to close it though it wouldn't budge. Perplexed, she looked at the spine of the book, praying feverently that she hadn't snapped it. What she saw almost made her drop the book again. The ring in the picture was glowing! The glow was so intense that she had to squint her eyes against its glare. And it was getting brighter by the second! Lyllandra had just enough time to think of the fact that her fever must be much higher than she thought and then in a bright flash of light, all that was left in her mother's spacious art deco living room was the photo album that landed shut on the rug and lay still.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TTTTTTT

“Yo BB, Robin, Raven, Star get in here QUICK!” The bellow came from the common area kitchen. The four summoned superheroes dropped whatever they were doing and darted into the kitchen. Robin was poised with his staff, Starfire flew in with her hands aglow, Raven was ready with her characteristic chant and Beast Boy arrived last and ran full tilt into the garbage can.

Spitting and sputtering through the remnants of last night's dinner, the grossed out changeling cried “EWWWWW!” before turning into a dog and unceremoniously shaking off the grime he'd been covered with.

“Cyborg what is it! What's wrong?” Cried Robin, quickly scanning the area but finding nothing out of the ordinary.

Cyborg just stood smiling in a chef's hat and apron that said “Kiss the cybernetic chef” and said, “The waffles are ready.”

Robin dropped his staff in shock, Starfire lowered herself to the ground clearly confused and Beast boy yelped in delight, turned back into a human and leapt to the table. “Alright! Waffles!”

“You yelled like that for us…for waffles?” Raven accused, her eyes glowing black.

“Hey these are my patented strawberry sausage waffles with extra thick corn syrup!” Cyborg pouted. “And they're getting cold!” He pointed to the table where there were four plates which were heaped with waffles and on top of which what must have been a pound of sausage and dripping with strawberry sauce and enough corn syrup to keep Robin's hair spiky for the rest of his natural life. Beast Boy looked at the plates covered in dead animal unimpressed.

“Dude! Where's mine? I'm not eating sausage!” He yelled turning himself into a pig in protest.

“Finally your true form revealed Beast Boy.” Raven hid a smile as she got the dig in. Robin, who's face had been turning several shades of green at the sight of the artery-hardening meal laughed heartily at Raven's jibe. Starfire just looked even more confused.

“Please,” she said not understanding Raven's sarcasm. “Why does Raven say that Beast Boy's true form is a pig? Could it be that he is not really human as we have always believed?” If possible she looked even more confused as Beast boy glared at her and Cyborg burst out laughing.

“It's okay Star.” Robin patted her on the shoulder before sitting down at the table. “Raven was just making a joke. We all know Beast Boys true form is really a Hoover Vacuum anyway.”

Beast Boy looked completely put off. “Dude that is SO not funny!”

Raven just sighed. She knew her joke had gone too far and if she wanted to eat this year… “Can we just eat please?”

“No!” Beast Boy shouted. “Not until I see a meat free offering at this table for our resident vegetarian!”

“Chill out BB I got ya covered.” Cyborg produced a plate with waffles, strawberry sauce and corn syrup with, instead of sausages, heaps of tofu cubes. Beast Boy's face lit up like a drooling light bulb and he dug in. And darned if his face didn't resemble a Hoover vacuum cleaner just a little bit…..

Once everyone had tucked in, Starfire said, “Friends may I ask how was your sleep last night? Mine was most restful!” She smiled a brilliant smile, proud at her attempt of making conversation. Even though she'd been with the Titans for a long time, she still had trouble picking up the smaller nuances of the English language (especially the sarcasm). So she practiced whenever possible.

Cyborg and Beast boy grunted and nodded in between stuffing themselves. Raven answered with a quiet “Fine thank you.” Robin did not respond but dropped his fork on the table.

“Robin.” Starfire persisted. “How did you…”

“Just fine Starfire. Thanks for asking.” He stared at his waffles. Raven shot a knowing glance in his direction and then went back to picking the waffles out from all crap they had been loaded with. She hadn't gotten the first bite when all of a sudden, alarms started going off all over the tower.

“Titans. Trouble.” Robin said simply and he dashed from the table. The other titans quickly followed suit.

Seconds later Starfire, Raven and Beastboy were flying towards the downtown core, Cyborg was in the T-Car and Robin was revving his bike. They arrived at a most peculiar situation. They had expected to find a familiar enemy (or even a brand new one anything was possible in Jump City) rampaging downtown, trying to steal, smash and cause general disarray. Instead they arrived in the middle of a small, localized but incredibly potent storm!

A section of sky approximately three blocks wide, had turned a dangerous shade of purple and the winds had picked up in this area so quickly that it felt like the titans had just stopped in the middle of a psyclone.

“Cyborg have you got any idea what this is about?” Robin tried to make himself heard over the melee as Starfire and Raven struggled against the intense winds and Beastboy turned into an elephant to root himself.

Cyborg checked the instruments on his arm. “This doesn't make sense man.” He yelled back. “There's no reason for this to be happening. This is definitely not a natural storm but there's no machinery in the area that could be causing it and all the citizens have been evacuated from the area and I'm reading no life signs in the immediate area aside from us.”

“Well if no one is causing it then how do we stop it?” Raven yelled from where she had enveloped Starfire and herself in a ball of black to keep from blowing away.

“I…don't know.” Robin admitted in defeat. How could the titans stop a weather phenomenon without even knowing what was causing it?

“Do not worry friends. I will determine the cause.” Starfire came out from behind Raven's wall of protection and flew up towards the centre of the disturbance.

“Starfire NO!” Robin yelled as she streaked further and further upwards. Then as all the titans watched breathlessly, she disappeared into the dark clouds.

“Starfire” they all yelled practically in unison. Seconds later the middle of the phenomenon flashed a bright white causing all of them to shield their eyes from the light. When they were finally able to look again, the sky was clear and the wind was gone!

“Star….Starfire!” Robin yelled towards the sky.

“I am here.” Robin spun on his heels at the sound of her voice behind him. The other titans gathered to see that their friend was okay. Starfire emerged from an alleyway seemingly unharmed but she was not alone. She was carrying someone. A girl, unconscious, with long copper brown hair and dressed in gray sweatpants and t-shirt.

 

Author's Note: I know, not much. But I hope I have at least intrigued you enough to read some more. It'll get way more interesting I promise! : )