She saw their forms save her beloved city more than once.
She had seen the mayor give them an award more than twice.
She had spoken to their arch enemy at least three times.
Now she was about to go through the worse betrayal ever, four times in a row.
"Pyro!" Her name caused tremors of hatred to vibrate throughout her body as she growled in response. She turned to her captor and he smirked at her.
"Do you want to be released, little one?" He asked through the bars of the cage he kept her in. She whimpered as he pressed a button and a shock went through her entire body. She growled again as he chuckled evilly.
"I will release you only if you promise to do me one itsy, bitsy little favor. Kill the Teen Titans." She froze. She remembered the Teen Titans. The heroes of the city. Superheroes to the world. She stared at her captor in shock.
"Teen Titans?" She asked.
"I know you know their leader, Ariana. Come now, don't you want to see him again? Too see how well he's done without by his side?" Her captor teased her with her old life, knowing how she craved the friends and family she had lost so long ago.
"You will free me? Permanently?" She questioned, unsure of whether to trust her captor.
"As permanent as death." The man spoke deathly soft and she shivered in response to the fear it sent trailing up her spine.
"Then yes." Her response was pained and her captor could hear it.
"Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire, Cyborg! Come on!" Robin urged the others on his team to follow him but they stayed back. Something about this assignment seemed off. All of them knew it but none of them were willing to admit it. Finally they sighed before following their leader into the abandoned warehouse.
"This place gives me the creeps." Beastboy muttered softly.
"Me too." Cyborg agreed.
"I do not like this feeling I am receiving." Starfire mumbled.
"It's called fear." Raven supplied the Tamaranian and looked around in anxiety, her own fear heightened by the dreary atmosphere.
"Shh…" Robin tried to quiet his restless team but found it to be of no use. They didn't want to be here anymore than he did until he saw her. She was bound to a chair, blood dripping down the side of her face and chains were wrapped around her limbs. He recognized her almost instantly.
"Ariana!" His voice echoed in the building as he made his way to the unconscious girl. Her sable curls were in tangles around her bruised and beaten body. Her small frame was barely moving with her shallow uneven breaths and he could see the blood that ran down her wrists from the wire that bound her to the chair. He tore at the metal, prying it away from her skin and she fell forward limply.
"Robin, the place is deserted!" Cyborg said from beside the young super hero. Robin nodded as the other members of his team eyed the girl with worry.
"Hey uh…Rob, who is she?" Beast boy asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"An old friend. Help me get her to the T-car, Cyborg." Robin answered briefly before Cyborg lifted the girl up into his arms and began to walk out of the warehouse.
"It is strange, is it not?" Starfire questioned.
"What?" Robin asked in return turning to the Tamaranian for clarification.
"That this friend who is old is here where an alarm was tripped." She answered. Raven was tense as she looked around and Beastboy nodded in agreement with Starfire.
"Yeah, man! Who set off the alarm?!" Robin tensed when he thought about his friends' question and he grew anxious of his surroundings. He ordered his team to retreat, completely oblivious to their movement being watched.
"Very good, Pyro…"
"Her vitals are stable but her wounds are pretty nasty." Cyborg said after evaluating the mystery girl's injuries once they had returned to Titan Tower. Robin looked over the girl once more before nodding and leaving the doctor titan to his work. Somehow Robin felt uneasy with the return of his childhood companion. So uneasy he set upon looking her up to see where'd she'd been all these years.
"No results found."
"Come on! I know she existed!" Robin exclaimed as he retyped her name over and over again.
"No results found."
"Hey Robin!" Beastboy startled the young leader as he finally turned from the super computer that had so greatly disappointed him.
"What is it, Beastboy?" Robin asked, his patience gone. Beastboy pouted before sighing.
"Well I was just gonna tell ya that girl we saved is awake now." Robin nodded, his blood humming in response to the news. His mind wandered to his younger childhood days and he frowned.
Where had the girl disappeared to after their training?
"What's your name?" Cyborg asked as Robin came into the room. Amethyst eyes slowly changed to a sapphire blue when she saw him. He looked the same as he did all those years ago. Just taller and more mature looking but otherwise the same.
"Ariana." She supplied softly, her voice like satin to ears of the boys around her. She looked down as she clutched her hands in her lap, her heart pounding in her head.
"Do you know what happened to you?" Cyborg continued to question her as Robin stepped up beside him, his eyes wide as he saw her.
"No...I don't remember anything."
"Not even me?" Robin asked as she turned her full attention on him. She shook her head. Robin looked downcasted. They had been best friends before, but what had happened.
"So you have no recollection of anything before now?" Robin questioned as Ariana shook her head.
"Only that my name is Ariana. My birthday is October 31st and that I am a girl."
"She seems kinda creepy to me..." Beast Boy mumbled as the Titans held a team meeting.
"I do not understand why she is creepy." Starfire spoke curiously as Raven rolled her eyes.
"No memory? Seems like a trick." Raven supplied as Cyborg shook his head.
"I don't know. I did see some brain damage from all of those injuries she had. It could very well be the truth. What do you think, Robin?" His team turned to him as he sighed. He wanted her to stay but he was cautious. Something was definitely off.
"We'll keep an eye on her. It may turn out that she honestly has no memory of her past life before now."