With Or Without You (fourth in Destiny Series)

5) Objection

Changeling sat up with a start, propelling Violet off of his chest. She chirruped grumpily at him. Something seemed terribly wrong, but he couldn't place what it was.

He pulled back his sleeve to check on the strange curse branded on his forearm:

The day will come where you think you have won,

Until the fall of your silvery sun, the might of her vermilion shadow,

The change of your name, the end of needless bravado.

Though you might run like lightning on the earth,

Unfettered wild and free, fly the sky and swim the deepest sea,

You will never find your star, for the cosmos itself will keep you apart.

It was the curse that Raven warned him about.

Parts of it had already come true; he had thought that he had defeated Slade and that he had won; and Rage was certainly red and mighty, and could be considered the evil shadow of Raven.

He could most certainly fly, run, and swim; but nothing he could do would unite him with Raven because the laws of the universe separated the dead from the living.

He could join her, but that would go against her final wishes, and Changeling did not want to let her down.

Two more parts had come true, he reminded himself, he had changed his name and let his personality all but fade away.

He winced, the marks on his arm were growing blacker day by day. The poison, or curse, or whatever is was, was spreading. It might even eventually kill him.

Changeling was too deep in regret and pain to care.

-Scene Break-

He was having lunch when a cold feeling passed through his body. He looked at the other Titans. They were all eating, seemingly unfazed.

"Anyone else feel that?" he asked. They all looked up at him.

"Feel what?" Starfire asked, wiping the mustard off of her lips.

"A cold surge," Changeling tried to explain the phenomena.

"I thought Richard was the one who was supposed to feel last-minute panic," Cyborg grinned at Nightwing. The Titan's leader gave the robotic Titan an odd look.

Changeling decided to drop the subject. It was obvious the Titans had no idea what he was talking about.

"Maybe it's the weather," Bumble Bee suggested.

Changeling looked outside. There were some wild looking clouds in the distance. "Maybe," he shrugged.

"Stupid clouds!" Starfire shook her fist at them. "I do not want rain on my wedding day!"

"That would just figure," Changeling smirked slightly.

"Please don't tell me you listen to that junk," Cyborg rolled his human eye at the shape-shifter.

"Heard it on the radio," Changeling replied.

"Bumble Bee and I have to get ready for the wedding," Starfire informed them. "Remember to be at Mr. Wayne's mansion at..."