Chapter 3 - The Secrets We Hold

Chapter Three: The Secerts We Hold


She had gone to him willingly. It had always been willingly. He had trusted her and so she had been one of the few that he never had to control. She would have done anything for him. . . then. So she had become his prize student, his top student. Wanting to please him ever since they found each other when she was a mere child of eleven.

He was fascinated with her, she knew, in a way that was not proper for a grown man to be fascinated with a child. He would often invite her to have private study sessions with him. A little one-on-one tutoring, saying he wanted his top student to stay his top student, but there was never any studying done, not once. And she never said a word when she was with him, as she did what was expected of her.

She would undress herself in his presence and he would wait for her to join him as he sat comfortably in a large bath. But the bath was never filled with water, as one would expect, but with the essence of another's life. The crimson wet liquid would shine bright under the lights as she would let it engulf her small body, before bathing herself within it.

He had never touched her when she was younger as he had preferred to watch. . . then. It wasn't until she had turned fourteen that their routine started to change. It had started out just like any other night. She had gone to him, undressed, and had bathed as he watched. But then he did something that had completely taken her by surprise. As she had finished and was about to rise out of the bath, he had stopped her by lightly grabbing her forearm. He then pulled her to him, encasing her within his arms. She was frightened and confused as he told her she would not be returning to her quarters that night. He then asked her if that was okay, but he already knew the answer she would give him.

It was that night that she realized that he never had to physically warp her mind -like the other students- because with her, he had simply done it with his words. She was only a child when she had joined him; she was easy to influence, easy to manipulate. Within her time at the school, he had trained her body to be strong -- to be lethal, if necessary, but he had also trained her mind to obey him, and it had to end. She decided she would not be controlled anymore and that she would not let another man order her around or use her as if she were his property. So she had never been the spy the others had come to believe that she was, because she had been worst than that, she had been a traitor.

"shoot," Bumblebee said quietly to herself as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before running the water in the sink to clean up the mess she had made. She then looked at herself in the mirror, she was slightly trembling. She knew Speedy didn't mean to, but for a split second, he had made her feel as if she were that fourteen years old girl again, covered in blood under a man she had not the power to fight back. She didn't want that, she didn't want to feel as if someone had a control over her and in his own way, Speedy did. "I can't work like this," Bumblebee concluded.

OoOoO

Aqualad was in one of the many rooms within the training area. He had just gotten finished taking a quick dip in the pool which, unlike the one in the common area, lead straight out to the ocean that surrounded their Tower. He was in the middle of watching and laughing at the twins who were doing more playing than training as Menos was chasing after Mas trying to trip him with at fighting staff. He was amazed how slow they seemed when they weren't touching each other to run at a super high speed. He was in the middle of that thought as he heard Bumblebee call him. "Aqualad, we need to talk," she told him as she took him by the arm and pulled him into a corner.

Aqualad looked at her oddly as he realized there was something off about her since he spoke to her that morning. "What is it?" he asked.

Bumblebee looked at her most trusted friend and said firmly. "I want him gone, Aqualad. Today."

Needless to say, he knew exactly whom she meant and though the two had never gotten along well, she had never once said she wanted him gone. What had changed? "What do you mean, you want him gone?"

"Gone. As in not here -- not in the Tower -- not on the team," she told him. "I don't want to deal with him anymore."

Aqualad was confused; he didn't know where this was coming from. "Alright, Bee," he took her arms and looked at her seriously. "But I need you to talk to me. Why?"

Bumblebee couldn't look at him. Aqualad was her best friend, that went beyond doubt; she trusted him with her life, but not with her secrets. When they had met, back when they were thirteen years old, it was an instant bond of air and sea. They told each other everything, but she could never bring herself to tell him about the Brother Blood she knew behind close doors. She was ashamed of it, ashamed of herself. "Please, just second the decision." She looked back up at him. "Please."

"What?" Aqualad whispered astonished. He had never known Bumblebee to stoop down to, something she thought of as lowly, as begging. "You know I can't second a decision like that, not without an explanation and you have failed to give me one."

"Don't you trust me?" Her eyebrows drew together.

"That doesn't even need to be asked. But that has nothing to do with what you have asked of me."

"So you're taking his side?" She pulled herself away from him.

"I don't even know what we're talking about," Aqualad almost yelled.

"Well, well, well," Speedy strode into the room, a small frown on his face and a bow in his hand. "what do we have here? A lover's spat, maybe?"

"Mind your own business, Speedy. This doesn't concern you," Bumblebee stated.

"That's a straight up lie, because you tell your boyfriend here everything." Speedy looked from her to Aqualad and back to her. "Come on now, I apologized. I didn't mean to scare you upstairs." He smirked.

"I wasn't scared," she said defiantly, trying not to clench her teeth.

"What the hell happened upstairs?" Aqualad asked now growing upset as he looked at his fellow teammates stare each other down. "Bee?"

"Nothing," she stated a moment later. Forget this. I've gone through worst and I am not letting this boy get to me. I'll show him once and for all who has who and bring him down a peg or two in the process. Bumblebee smiled inwardly. "Just forget what I said earlier," she directed towards Aqualad. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be in the boxing room. I really need to hit something."

As she was starting to walk out of the room she almost fell over Mas who was running pass her to get away from Menos. Then as Menos passed, Bumblebee yanked the staff from his hands. “Alto!” she yelled at the boy. She then turned to Aqualad. “That means stop, right?” And he nodded. “Good.” She turned back Menos. “You wouldn’t want him to chase you with a stick, would you?” Menos just smiled. “Don’t give me that look. I know you understand me.” She then handed the staff to Mas. “Here. Have a ball.” She then shook her head as she watched Mas began to chase Menos. “Bad @$$ kids,” she commented before leaving the room.

Aqualad turned towards Speedy, who was looking at Bumblebee as she left the room. Speedy looked at her curiously, she seemed quite vengeful, but he shrugged it off as he directed his attention to Aqualad. “Want to spar?” he asked as he pulled out an arrow. “I could do with a moving target.”

"What did you do to Bee?" Aqualad got straight to the point.

"Like the lady said," he placed the arrow on the bow and got ready to shoot it, "nothing. So are you going to move, or would you rather I shoot you point blank? Though honestly, that doesn't help me none." Aqualad knew he wasn't going to get anything out of the archer anytime soon. He would have to try his luck later, because he knew Bumblebee's request was more than nothing.

OoOoO

"God, I hate my life," Speedy said to himself. It was later in the day and he was in this room cleaning off the guck that had explored near him earlier that day. It had been about midday when they had gotten the alert that some lunatic, named Pioneer, had equipped the bridge with explosives and was holding the city hostage until he got the amount of cash he wanted. He gave the city five hours to come up with it or they would have to kiss their bridge good-bye and soon following, their beloved Steel City.

As they had arrived, the last remaining people were running off the bridge towards the city, because Pioneer, a burly man dressed in brown and gold, had his minions blocking the other side of the bridge which prevented anyone from leaving. The minions, the Titans were able to defeat without much help from each other as they avoided the minions' weapons. The weapons were gun type devices that shot out a pinkish sticky goo. As the Titans fought they discovered that the minions were also made of the same goo.

Before long there stood only the five and their newest villain. "Now, now children," began the older man. "If you wanted to play," the pinkish goo swirled around his hands at a furious rate, "all you had to do was ask." He then swung both of his arms in front of his body, bring his wrist together. As they connected the pink goo broke off and from into thousands of solid sphere pieces before shooting out in all directions, heading towards each Titan.

"Titans move!" Bumblebee yelled and the team scattered.

Mas y Menos dodged each shot easily with their speed, but found that they couldn't get any closer to the enemy than he would allow them to. Aqualad was able to deflect all incoming shots by putting up a barricade of water, changing the current flow within it, and then shoot the pellets back out at Pioneer.

Pioneer not expecting his own weapon to be shot back at him was hit several times in surprise my them as he staggered back a few steps. After quickly regain his footing, he laughed. "I'm impressed," but he then frowned, "but now you've pissed me off," he stated as he sent out another arsenal of pink bullets.

Speedy jumped backwards onto an abandon vehicle as he began reaching for his unlimited supply of arrows at a remarkable velocity as he shot three- four of them at a time. Each arrow collided head-on with a corresponding pink bullets. Bumblebee had shrunk down to her smallest size as she zigged and zagged through an air maze of the blurring objects.

Being so small, Pioneer had been unable to see her at first, but his eyes had soon picked up the fluttering wings coming towards him. Now distracted by the heroine, Mas y Menos took the opportunity to get closer. Bumblebee, though small, could still pack a punch as though she were her original size. Her left hand balled into fist and she struck Pioneer's face with a fearsome blow. Mas y Menos seemlesslyy appeared out of nowhere and tripped Pioneer so they he fell on his back. As he tried to rise he was immediately doused with an onslaught of water, courtesy of the Atlantian. "Come on Speedy," Aqualad shouted over the rush of the water to the boy whom had taken a sit on the car he had been on. "We don't have all day."

"Just hold your sea horses!" Speedy shouted back to be heard as he loaded his bow with an arrow leisurely. He then saw Aqualad turn to Bumblebee and Mas y Menos saying something Speedy couldn't hear, but he saw the smiles on the other's faces. Speedy then lined up his shot pointing it towards Aqualad as he murmured to himself, "One of these days." He then aimed it towards Pioneer. "Now!" he shouted and Aqualad ceased his water attack as Speedy's arrow went zipping through the air. It glided gracefully towards its target before the end of the arrow opened up and released a net to capture Pioneer so that they could deliver him to the nearest jail cell.

But Pioneer had been quicker than they had imagined, for he was able to send out one last echo of an assault towards Speedy before the net tightly wrapped around his body, leaving his hands at his sides. "Speedy, watch out!" he heard Aqualad yell. With no time to reload his bow, Speedy quickly jumped out of the way, but he wasn't fast enough as several of the sphere bullets struck him with an unimaginable force while midair. It also didn't helpnone as he crashed back into the car before rolling off of it and landing on the ground.

He groaned slightly as he tried to pick himself up, but couldn't lift himself off his hands and knees. He then heard the sound of footsteps coming in his direction. "Come on, we'll get you back to the Tower and check you out," Aqualad explained to him as he held him up while Menos picked up his bow which had fallen from Speedy's hand.

"Where's Bee?" Speedy asked groggily as he put an arm around Aqualad as he other hand came up to his head. "Damn, that hurt."

Aqualad then answered his question. "She's taking Pioneer to jail."

"She didn't wait to see if I was okay?"

Aqualad cocked an eyebrow. "You seem disappointed."

"Well, I'm not." Speedy looked at him with narrowed eyes. He then sighed. "Let's just get back to the Tower."

So now Speedy was his room, growing furious as he continued to try to scrub the guck off his favorite bow. "Get off!" he yelled at it, as though it would help. He then heard a knock at the door and his head snapped up at the sound. And so he placed his bow down on the bed and stood up as a small smile came across his lips. But his smile was soon replaced with a frown as a sharp pain struck him in the side. He was still quite sore from the day, but he tried not to let that bother him as he went over to the door. His smile returned as he started to open it and spoke. "So you finally came to check on me. Worried, are we?"

"No, not really." Aqualad smiled at him as Speedy's door fully opened.

Speedy's shoulders dropped. "What do you want, Fish Boy?" he asked him.

"I want to talk to you," he said as he barged into his teammate's room.

"About what?" Speedy asked a little agitated.

"About what happened with you and Bee this morning," he explained. "She won't talk to me and that's not like her."

Speedy felt like he was being interrogated and he didn't like it. "Look, I know that this is kind of hard for you to understand, but like I told you before, nothing happened." He then smirked. "And even if something did, it wouldn't be any of your business." He started to walk away from Aqualad, wanting to get back to cleaning his bow.

But Aqualad grabbed his arm as he passed. "No, you look," he began. "I am tired of all the bullshoot between you two. So we're going to talk about it, we're going to work it out, and we're going to end this."

"There's nothing to discuss," Speedy almost yelled as he pushed Aqualad's hand off of him.

"Then why did she want you off the team?"

Speedy looked at him in surprise. "You're playing with me."

"I don't play," Aqualad confirmed. "So talk. Now."

To Be Continued. . .

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment