Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.
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She stood on the hilltop, gazing at the destruction below her. The city was in ruins; smoke from a dozen fires clouded the air above what crumbling structures were left. Chunks of rubble and debris littered every street; broken water pipes flooded some areas, while live electrical wires danced sparks across the wet surfaces.
Even from this distance, the acrid smell of death assaulted her senses. The few people who had survived had long since fled the horrific scene, but thousands of casualties lay buried beneath the destruction. Somewhere in the core of the city, one of those casualties was Robin.
She closed her eyes, shutting out the terrible vision of death and destruction before her, but she could not suppress the wrenching feeling of guilt and sorrow that tore through her being. Despite her years of training and near-perfect mastery over her emotions, she could not stop the tears from trickling silently down her pale cheeks.
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"He says he'll destroy the city in two hours." Robin nodded to his teammates. "We've got a lead on the bomb's location, but I want you four to split up and search for him, see if you can find the control that will trigger the explosion."
"We don't even know where to start looking," Cyborg argued.
Robin looked up at the large teen. "If he's planning on destroying the city, I doubt he'll hang around inside it. My guess is he'll be somewhere nearby, on the outskirts. After all, Slade likes to be around to see his fireworks go off. He just makes sure not to get burned by them."
"A reasonable assumption," Starfire put in.
Beast Boy glanced at their leader. "What are you going to do, Robin?"
The dark-haired boy's eyes narrowed behind the mask. "I'm going to disarm the bomb."
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"Raven?"
She heard the voice behind her, felt the gentle touch on her shoulder. Blinking away the tears, she turned to see a familiar green face looking worriedly at her. Raven felt the need to fake a smile, to try and relieve his concern, but couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead she glanced back at the crumbling remnants below them. "Is Starfire back yet?" While none of the fevered emotions running through her were shown on her pale face, they came through in her voice. It wavered, threatened to crack and break down into choking sobs in just that short space of four words.
Beast Boy let go of her shoulder and ran a hand through his tousled hair. His emerald eyes were bleary, and exhaustion showed on his paler-than-normal features. "No." His immense feelings of hopelessness and despair were evident as he sighed the word. He gazed toward the center of the city. "She won't stop. I know she's exhausted and needs some rest at least, but she won't stop looking for him. She thinks it would be abandoning him."
Raven gave a slow nod. "I'll go find her and bring her back to the Tower." She turned her tired gaze back to her green companion. "You can head back and meet us there if you want."
At his nod of agreement, Raven levitated herself into the air and began her flight towards the center of the city.