Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or any other DC characters that show up in this fanfic series.

Now before anyone asks, this is NOT meant to be a shipping story, any romantic subtext you see is purely unintentional.

Enjoy

XXX

Tara Markov shot upright with a sharp gasp, her body drenched in sweat.

She looked down at her palms, they were still wrapped in the same bandages she was wearing under her armour, except that her gauntlets were gone…in fact, all of her armour was gone.

Her body felt stiff, as if she hadn't moved for weeks. She closed her eyes and concentrated, her hands glowed yellow for a few seconds before going out. Oddly enough, the usual shaking of the earth beneath her did not follow. Tara opened her eyes, her mind wrecked with confusion and worry. What happened to her? The last thing she remembered was being in Slade's lair…

It was then that she noticed that she was in a bed, a bed in a dark blue room. The curtains were drawn shut, letting only a glimmer of daylight through the window. Wrapping the blanket around her Tara swung out of the bed and walked toward the window, reaching for the curtains.

*Whump*

Turning around, she noticed a stack of clothes had fallen off the bed, dragged off by the disturbance of the blanket. She turned around and picked up the shirt, there was a note pinned to it.

'Put these on.'

Tara was sceptical about the oversized T-shirt she was holding in her hands, but anything would be better than her current attire. Putting her suspicions aside, Tara dropped the blanket and got dressed.

XXX

Tara cautiously crept down the hall, now fully awake and wondering where the hell she was. The house had a dull, detached feel to it. The walls were an ugly shade of beige, and there was no carpeting on the floor. One thing was clear though, she not inside the hideout of some nefarious super-villain, nor the headquarters of a superhero team, she was in someone's house.

What's going on?

She could think of two different possibilities, 1. This was all a dream and she'd wake up to the sound of either Beast Boy licking her face or Slade barking out orders, 2. She'd been captured by some unknown third party for nefarious purposes. However the first option and seemed highly unlikely.

Either way she was going to get to the bottom of this, whoever brought her to this apartment was going to have a lot of explaining to do.

The sounds of a climactic battle drifted up from downstairs as she approached the stairwell, laughably bad dialogue peppered amongst battle cries. Someone was watching television downstairs…the house's owner?

Quietly sneaking down the stairs, Tara caught a glimpse of the living room. It was considerably less drab than the hallway, if only because of the posh leather couch and the giant flat-screen television in front of it. The television was playing some kind of generic action movie, while a vaguely humanoid shape lay sprawled out on the couch.

Tara tiptoed behind the couch and peered over at the mysterious figure: It was a boy, rather…well-built by the looks of things, not that anything was left to the imagination, the only thing he had on were a pair of red boxers.

Well, that and a black spandex mask with a white skull on it, a thin red 'X' cutting across one of its eyes.

The mask did not faze her that much, she had long gotten used to that kind of thing. Was this her mysterious kidnapper? It looked like he was still asleep. She should probably try to find a way out of the building before he woke up…

Alas, curiosity got the better of her and before she knew it she was reaching out for his mask.

Tara gave a little squeak as she felt the stranger's hand suddenly close around hers. He rose slightly from his position and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Rule number 1," the boy's voice sounded robotic, synthesized, "the mask stays on."

Tara yelped and jumped away from the boy, latching on to the nearby lamp for support.

'Who are you?!' She struggled to keep her balance, she felt weaker somehow…

The boy sighed and got up from the couch, dragging the dirty blanket that lay underneath him behind.

'Don't…' Tara stammered, stretching out her hand, 'Don't come any closer!' Her eyes and hand glowed bright yellow and the earth seemed to shake…only for a small pebble to fly into the boy and bounce off his head.

The boy's eyes narrowed behind his mask, before she could react the boy grabbed her arm and threw her onto the couch, draping the blanket over her head.

'You're still weak from whatever it is you did to yourself the last few months,' the boy spoke, in the same robotic voice, 'You're reflexes are so pitiful you might as well still be encased in rock. I don't have the patience to deal with any shenanigans from you, especially not after all the trouble I've had to go through already. Now just sit here and…'

The boy was cut off by a load growl erupting from Tara's abdomen.

The boy sighed; Tara looked up and smiled sheepishly.

'Hang on a sec…' the boy disappeared down the hall, muttering and cursing to himself.

She was now alone in the living room, a scratchy blanket draped over her shoulders. She looked left and looked right, and bounced on the couch a few times.

This couch is…really comfy.

XXX

The boy soon returned a stack of warm TV-dinners in his hands, he set them down on the coffee table in front of Tara and took a seat beside her.

'I heard you had a huge appetite so I brought as much of this stuff as I could carry, there's more in the fridge if you want anym…' The boy looked over at Tara, and noticed that half of the trays of TV-dinners he had brought were now empty, aluminium foil strewn all over his living room floor. The girl in question was already devouring the next one at rapid speed.

'Oookay…'the boy raised an eyebrow, before quickly changing the subject, 'You probably have a lot of questions…'

'Gee, Ya think?' Tara mumbled between bites, "I just woke up in a stranger's house stark naked with no idea what happened or how long it's been, why wouldn't I have any questions?"

'Look, all I did was get that armour out of your skin,' the boy raised his hands in defence, 'You better be grateful for that, I missed out on The Big Boss and Fist of Fury …'

Tara's eyes narrowed as the boy proceeded to complain in startling detail about the events of the previous night. While she was grateful for the food, her host was doing very little to quell her suspicions. One thing was for sure, she had been wrong: This was somebody's lair, but there was little she could do about it with her powers on the fritz…

'Just who are you anyway?'

The boy stopped talking and leaned back on the couch, folding his hands behind his head, Tara could almost see his smug grin through his mask.

'Me? I'm Jump City's number 1 Thief: Red X.'

Silence fell upon the two as Tara stared at the super-thief with wide eyes…

'Never heard of you.' Tara turned away and resumed her meal.

'Doesn't surprise me,' Red X smirked, 'a good thief never stays in the spotlight…'

'Then again, I've only ever been Red X when you were…indisposed.'

Tara's hand froze, a spoonful of mashed potatoes inches away from her mouth, '…what do you mean?'

"Oh that's right…" Red X fell silent and turned away, "you wouldn't know…would you?"

'It's been a thousand years since you disappeared,' he told her.

The spoon fell to the floor, its holder sudden hit with the realization of what had transpired in the cave the last she remembered. The battle with Slade, the erupting volcano, her body turning into stone, had she really been trapped for that long? Tara thought as her vision started to go blurry, She didn't even get a chance to…wait.

"You're just messing with me, aren't you?" She frowned, shooting X petrifying glare.

"Okay you got me," Red X threw his hands up in surrender, "It's only been a couple of months."

Red X barely had time to dodge the incoming tray of food, which splattered on the wall behind him. Red X looked up and suddenly realized that his guest was crying.

'That's not funny…" Tara sniffed, returning to seating position and grabbing another box from the pile.

"Just trying to lighten the mood…" Red X said, with a hint of apology, "Sorry."

"So…what happened?" Tara continued, struggling to tear the wrapper off her next meal.

"Oh nothing much…" Red X replied nonchalantly, "Mad-man tried to flood the city, giant dragon showed up, a dashing super-thief robbed half of Jump's major technological firms while the titans were distracted…you know, the usual stuff."

"No!" Tara cried, "I meant…what happened to me."

"What happened to you?" Red X shrugged his shoulders, "Don't know, the Titans were really tight-lipped about the whole thing. As far as the general public knows you and your boss were KIA."

"That's what I thought too," Red X continued, grabbing a can of soda sitting on the end table next to him, "until I found you while I was trying to survive the Demon Invasion."

"DEMONS?!" Red X winced as Tara did a spit-take all over his coffee table.

"Yeah it was kind of a weird day…" Red X frowned, grabbing a bendy straw out of a conveniently placed cup on the same table as the soda, "Titans were real tight-lipped about that one too."

Red X opened the can of soda and put the straw into it, inserting the other end into the slits in his mask so he could drink. As he was doing this he noticed that Tara was looking at him funny.

"What?"

"Have you been wearing that mask all night?"

"Uh…yeah." Red X replied, matter-o-factly, "you know, in case you woke up."

"That's disgusting."

"Better than letting you find out my secret identity." Retorted X, taking a good long slurp out of his can of soda.

"I…" Tara sighed, stuffing more food into her mouth, "just my luck…" she grumbled, "held prisoner by another freak who never takes his mask off."

"Whoa Whoa whoa," Red X cried, putting his soda down, "Who's holding who prisoner?"

"You are, aren't you?" Tara replied bitterly, "You want me to use my powers to help you steal stuff right?"

"What? The power to throw pebbles at people?" Red X chuckled, "I can handle that myself thank you very…" Red X stopped talking…there was that glare again, he sat up straight and cleared his throat.

"Look, I'm not some maniac trying to take over the world or an old fart looking for someone to carry on his legacy. I'm just a thief, the best around." He told her, "I don't need your help and I never will."

"Oh?" Tara growled, "Then why did you save me?"

"Let's just say…" Red X's thoughts briefly drifted back to the first time he broke into the Titans Tower, "Let's just say I owed you a favour."

Tara's eye narrowed, she didn't trust him especially given what happened the last time she trusted a strange man in a mask. Nevertheless she could sense the sincerity in his voice, even if it was altered beyond recognition by the aforementioned mask. And right now, given the state of her body and her powers her 'benefactor' was holding all the cards.

"So…" she finally said, "what happens now?"

"Now?" X picked up his soda, "For now I want you to stay here until you're back in shape or your powers come back, I won't consider my debt repaid till you're back on your feet."

"Hmph," Tara grunted, resuming her meal, "Must have been some favour if you're willing to harbour someone like me."

"Am I to take that to mean that you have no objections?"

"It's not like I can do anything about it right?" Tara replied, polishing off the last of the TV dinners, "Got any more of these?"

"No but there's ice cream in the…"

Red X flinched as Tara did a 180 to face him, her eyes wide and copious amounts of drool leaking from her mouth.

"Hooo boy…"

XXX

Night soon fell on 357 Ackleson Street, within its walls a skinny blond girl slept soundly on a comfy leather couch, an old blanket draped over her; A grand total of 31 empty cartons of ice cream lay strewn about all over the floor around said couch.

Meanwhile upstairs in his workshop, Red X sat at his computer, opening and closing a black cell phone.

His brows furrowed and he gave a heavy sigh, before dialling a number.

Two rings later…

*click*

'You have reached…' a deep voice began; Red X groaned and held the phone away from his ear, 'THE PHAAAANNNTAAASM!'

'Hello Danny.'

'Red X!' the voice replied, surprised and elated, 'I wasn't expecting you to call back so soon!' it sneered, 'I trust the information I provided was….useful?'

'The money's in your account,' Red X growled, 'but you're lucky I paid you at all, you son of a…'

'Language X,' the voice touted, 'it's not my fault you lacked the necessary mechanical and medical knowledge to complete the procedure in the time I calculated. If you had just allowed me to lend my vast expertise first hand we could have been done in ten minutes.'

'…and you would have charged me double for borrowing fantastic mind of the incredible Phantasm.' Red X retorted, his voice dripping with sarcasm, 'besides, it'll be hard enough getting her to trust me, let alone you.'

'Yes…how is our little runaway anyway?'

'Asleep on a pile of empty ice cream cartons' Red X sighed, 'She's gonna eat me out of house and home.'

"Ah, sweets; One of the three keys to a woman's heart," the voice laughed, "But my…you sure work fast don't you, Rawr…'

'As much as I enjoy matching with your incredible wit,' Red X replied coldly, 'I didn't call you to make jokes.'

The laughing ceased, and Red X continued.

'Tara isn't half as well as I had hoped, she can barely lift a pebble in her condition. She should be strong enough to handle herself in a few days, but she won't be able to protect herself if a professional comes knocking…'

'So I'd appreciate it if you kept your mouth shut,' Red X snarled, 'because if some nutjobs come here and wreck my apartment looking for her…'

'I know where you live.' For that small, brief moment, it was as if Red X was channelling the soul of the Dark Knight himself

'Ge..ge..ge..gee X,' the voice stuttered, no longer nearly as cocky as before, 'You don't have to threaten me…besides, there's nothing to gain from shooting my mouth off…Really…'

'Just wanted to keep all my bases covered.' Red X smirked, 'later…'

X snapped the phone shut, Danny might have an ego the size of a planet, but he could keep a secret if he had too. As sad as it was, The Phantasm was the only person X could turn to in this situation.

He didn't know how long he was going to be able to keep Tara out of trouble, but he owed her…in a roundabout way. He wouldn't have gotten the suit if she hadn't screwed the Titans over, and heaven forbid a gentleman like himself abandon a damsel in distress…

But for now, he had to plan his next job, Red X leaned back and swivelled his chair over to his bulletin board, glancing across the articles on the various conventions and goods shipments that were occurring the following week. He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out his emergency Snickers, the only scrap of food left in the house.

After all, he had a bottomless pit to feed.

XXX

Author's Note:

Ha Ha! It's been a while hasn't it? As you probably already guessed I actually gave up on this project a long time ago, but after taking a look at the new series I felt inspired to try and get this thing going again; and no, not for the reasons you're thinking.

I've matured as a writer since then however, and a lot of the stuff I had planned for this series is now starting to look like really awful. Essentially I'm going to be doing this whole thing over again from scratch, I've also started up other projects since then so fanfiction is not on my top list of priorities right now.

Nevertheless, this story will receive updates at sporadic intervals; so check back every couple of weeks if you find yourself still interested in this concept.

Ta ta!