Another Shot.

Chapter two

-40 years prior, 72 hours since Starfire disappeared-

Robin closed his eyes to that single eye focussing on him from all sides of the room and took a deep breath. For once Slade had nothing to do with this. It was a criminal named Warp who had Starfire but where he took her and how he could get her back where answers he didn't have. For once he wished Slade was behind this, he may not have much on Slade but he deffintantly knew more about him then he did about Warp.

At the moment he stood behind the counter of his personal work space in the tower decorated in pictures of the man who haunted his dreams; trying and failing to find a lead on where Starfire was. Three days without rest and he still had nothing.

"Where are you Star?" he grumbled to himself speaking for the first time in hours as he went over the only evidence he had at the moment. Security camera snipets of the fight and Warp breaking in, samples of the still frozen ice that kept the guards in a frozen tomb and a glass shard that had fallen off of Warp's devise. Nothing more. Nothing helpfull in telling him where Warp was or what he did with Starfire. If he simply took her to the future and nothing more, wouldn't she be back by now? Couldn't she have stolen a time machine after defeating the villian on her own and come back to them? Had Warp overpowered her and done something to her? He didn't want to dwell on those kinda thoughts, but anything was after all possible. There was always that .01 percent possiblity and he had been taught to never over look even the smallest, most seemingly impossible possiblity; no matter how much he didn't want it to be possible.

He snarled under his breath a sudden bought of rage striking hard inside him at his lack of progress. With one swift montion he knocked everything off the counter space. A loud shattering filled the room as the glass exploded on the floor and liquid he had been testing for different cases bled into the carpet leaving a large permant stain, that threw away weaks of research as to who was behind a string of robberies...he didn't care though. He kicked over a file cabinet not far from the counter as another bought of rage stuck its nails into his self control, the drawers bounced out of it landing halfhazardly near his feet; paper work for different cases raining across the room.

He clenched his fists taking deep breaths trying to calm himself down so he didn't destroy more evidence or research. One breath. Two breath. As the rage began to subside, he began to fill rather empty. Was Star okay at the moment? He tried to shake the thought but it only brought up images of people he couldn't save. His parents. His team at the hands of Slade's probes.

Face it Robin, he clenched his fists tighter as once more he felt Slade whispering into his ear, You need me. You need my training. Without it you will only watch more people you care about die...

A bird a rang then struck Slade's mask dead center from where it perched atop his wall; its single eye slot mocking him. He could practically hear Slade laughing at his failure, telling him how much better he could be do, how it didn't matter any way since she was holding him back anyway. He snarled again clenching his fists preventing himself for going a few rounds against the brick wall.

After a few tense moments passed he released his fists and sighed in defeat rubbing at his blood shot eyes. He'd spent another all nighter trying to find some lead as to where she was but found nothing. Strangely enough he wasn't as tired as he thought he should be; he only felt more determined to crack this case. To find his friend. To prove Slade wrong. But for now, he needed a break before he went berserk on the pictures of the madman eying him obsessively. And he needed coffee so he could begin to think straight to even hope to find the lead he desperatly needed. Glancing at the room that looked like a torando just hit it and left, he groaned loudly. Why did he always let his rage get the best of him?

...TT...

"Any good news?" Beast Boy asked with a hint of desperation in his tired voice as he entered the command center noticing all his friends gathered around the room. He had slept for only about an hour last night and by the looks of his worn looking friends he could tell sleep was their enemy as well. An enemy that all of them had been fighting since she disappeared three nights ago. Beast Boy sighed taking another look around the room.

Raven sat behind the counter with bags beneath her eyes and paler then usual, a book stood straight between her fingers but the page hadn't been turned since she opened it an hour ago. Cyborge sat on the couch with his head resting against the back; blood shot eyes staring to the ceiling; the remote was in his hand but he had yet to turn on the teliviosion. And last but not least, Robin sat two seats away from Raven behind the counter with his head resting on the cool red surface and a slowly cooling cup of freshly roasted coffee sitting beside his head with his fingers loosly grasping the handle. Beast Boy walked straight in front of their leader with hope filled eyes.

"If I found anything," he spat not even bothering to hide the fact that he was ready to strangle the first person who looked at him wrong,"Wouldn't I have told you by now?"

"I was just curriose," Beast Boy snapped back too tired to deal with his anger issues,"I mean you worked with freaking Batman! If anyone can find Star, I figured it would be you!"

Robin bit his tongue to hold back the speech about how just because he worked with Batman it sure as hell didn't make him Batman. Groaning he took a long swig of the warm liquid before taking another deep breath, knowing picking a fight with everyone who came near him was not going to get him any closer to finding Starfire and getting solid evidence out of the wholelotta nothing he had.

"I'm sorry," he said taking Beast Boy back and making his edgy exhausted nerves calm down,"I'm trying. I really am but I can't find her without anything pointing to where she is. The only thing Warp left behind aren't enough to know how we can even get her back."

"So your saying that she's gone," Cyborg said glancing back to the others who all looked away from his gaze. Could they really side with that idea? Give up on finding Starfire, their friend who needed them and inevitably leave her to suffer and most likely die? And if they did find a way to get her back, would it be in time? Would she be alive by the time they got there?

Raven's book snapping shut broke the awkward silence and the grim train of thought as she got up and left the room, mumbling something about needing to meditate. Robin and Beast Boy did nothing more then stare after her as the tv finally burst to life with people who might as well have been talking miles and miles away to the boy wonder. Was he really failing Starfire by not knowing enough? By not being good enough? For not staying in Wayne manor long enough to discover some deep secret from Bruce about how the legendary Batman solved impossible cases with no trail?

The coffee remained half full as he marched out of the room being causiouse as to not step on the beads that she had left there before she disappeared. In fact, he had noticed that everyone was stepping around the fallen beads like they were some kind of crime scene. He supposed that it would be like their shine to her until he managed to get her back. If it meant dragging her from hell and having to fight a thousand demons then so be it. He shuddered as he realized he was more then willing to become Slade's appentice once more to get her back. He needed to crack this case before the villian himself thought he could trick him that way and he was at the point where he was so desperate he would try anything...

...

Raven tried to meditate but couldn't find the consentration to do so. She ended up just lying on the bed staring blankly at the ceiling taking deep breaths to control her emotions and keeping her powers under control. She hadn't felt this way since Slade had taken Robin and forced him to fight them. She felt very lost and had a feeling that she would not see her friend ever again...

She sat up abruptly as half her books shot off her shelf and into the wall next to her bed. Taking another deep breath to get some control back, she looked out the window towards the rising sun. She spent most of last night staring out that window wishing that villians would choose not to capture one her friends right after they had just fought to get one back. Only a weak ago had they all been spending all nighters stessing over what Slade had done to Robin and right after that nightmare was over they step into a second one. Yet, she knew it wasn't the same. They all somehow knew Robin was still alive and that Slade wanted him for something but with Starfire...

She couldn't bring herself to think of the grim fait. Maybe she could think of it for the rest of the universe but not her friend. Starfire couldn't die. Starfire couldn't be tortured into submission. Starfire was coming back. Right? She would delude herself with fairytale endings for the moment. It was the only way to keep her a firm grip on both her powers and her sanity.

...

"Cy?" Beast Boy said after watching both Raven and Robin storm out of the room.

Cyborg looked away from the commercial and turned his head to meet his green friend silently telling him to go on.

"Do you really think we'll never see Star again?"

Silence was the answer to the question. Beast Boy half snarled under his breath to the lack of response. Everyone was acting as if she was already dead and he wouldn't stand for that anylonger. If it was only him who found her, then so be it.

"BB," he paused at the already opened automatic doors,"We may find her and we may not. Dude, Warp took her to another time, possibly another universe. Somewhere we can't just bust into like Slade's lair. No probes will be there to lead a trail to Star. We'll have to be patient on this one and hope more clues arise."

"So we do nothing when our friend needs us?" Beast Boy spat his fists clenching, he didn't want to think of what could be happening to the naive alien at the moment.

Once more the silence was the only answer.

...(end of chapter two)...

Quick question, is anyone even reading this? Is it that bad? I hardly got any reviews for the 1st chapter. I'm sorry to sound demanding or anything, but I'm just curriose if this story is even worth writing. Sigh. For those reading, I did write chapter three and it will be up shortly. And chapter four might come out soon after that...Idk.

And on an unrelated topic, I don't like scorpions anymore. I'm not talking about the band, I still love them. I'm talking about the bug. Got bit by one last night and it hurt like a mother fudger. So if you were planning on moving to a desert...my advise is don't! Its hot and there are scorpions everywhere waiting to bite you! And when they do it hurts!