Val was given the couch to sleep on, but she wasn't getting much sleep; she lay awake with her arm over her eyes, she let out a heavy sigh.
Suddenly she heard footsteps and she sat up quickly.
"Forgive me new friend! I did not mean to wake you." Starfire apologized sadly.
"No!- it's ok! I mean, I've been up all night." Val sighed.
"Oh, I have also not been able to get any of the sleep."
"Is everything ok, um, Starfire?"
"Of course! Why would things not be the ok? I am not upset about my friend that is a boy, Robin at all!" Val raised an eyebrow. "Oh, everything is not the ok! Robin is once again obsessing over Slade and I do not know what to do. I fear this is hurting him." Starfire began to tear up.
"Hey, I'm sure he'll be fine, and you guys will take down Slade anyway, right?" Val gave the alien a small smile.
"So, come here for a midnight snack?" Val questioned.
"It is the six in the morning, my friends should up very soon."
"Oh, heh." Val laughed, not realizing she'd been up to long.
Starfire went to the fridge and began to mix strange ingredients together, mustard, surgar, hot sauce, mint frosting, carrots, and a banana, she mixed it all together and it turned into a lumpy brown liquid, she set it over the stove.
"What's that your making there, Star?" Val asked, stomach churning at the smell.
"It is a recipe I created for when I am sad." She said, squeezing in more mustard.
"Oh... Yum..." Val said, trying not to sound disgusted.
Starfire took the pot off the stove and poured some of the strange liquid into a cup.
"Friend Val, would you like to try some of my sadness drink? You look as though something is troubling you as well."
"Oh, no that's ok-"
Val was interrupted when a spoonful of the 'sadness drink' was shoved into her mouth by the alien princess. Starfire pulled the spoon out of her mouth and gave her a hopeful look. Val was expecting to have to hold back vomit, but the taste wasn't awful, it certainly wasn't pleasant, but she could stand it, and she definitely wasn't focused on being sad any more. Val smacked her lips together.
"Um, needs more hot sauce?" Val questioned herself, not sure if it really did.
"Yes, I was thinking so as well." Starfire responded. She added more hot sauce to the pot and her cup and poured another cup for Val.
"Here you are friend!" Starfire smiled.
"Oh, thanks." Val wasn't excited about drinking any more of Starfire's strange drink, but she sat on the couch and took small sips to make Starfire happy. The hot sauce did improve it a bit.
"Dude, what is that smell?!" Beast Boy shouted walking into the living room with Cyborg. Val turned around and shot him a glare, motioning with her eyes towards her drink, then towards Starfire.
"Oh, um... I mean what is that smell? It smells great! Beast Boy shouted. Cyborg ruffled Beast Boy's hair and headed towards the kitchen to make breakfast, Beast Boy raced him so he could make his food first before Cyborg hogged the stove, they started pushing each other and arguing, Val and Starfire just ignoring them, drinking their 'drinks'.
Raven floated into the room and sat down on the couch next to Starfire and began meditating.
"Raven?" Starfire said.
Raven let out a sigh. "What?" She sounded tense.
"May I meditate with you?" She asked setting her drink into the table. Raven's shoulders relaxed and she actually gave the alien a small smile.
"Sure."
The alien began floating, closing her eyes and putting her thumb and index finger together. Val watched them for a few moments before she realized she could probably stop drinking the sadness drink. Starfire's eyes flew open widely.
"Friend Val!" She shouted, Raven flinching at the sudden energy and happiness the alien gave off.
"Would you like to meditate with Raven and I?"
"Uh." Val gave it some thought. "Ok." She said, smiling.
"Glorious!" Starfire once again shouted.
Starfire and Raven were helping Val with her meditation when Cyborg and Beast Boy called for breakfast. The five teens sat down and began eating; occasionally Cyborg would make fun of Beast Boy's fake eggs and milk, Val giggling at Beat Boys frustrated face, but she reminded him that she still enjoyed his food, and he once again hugged her and made a goofy face at Cyborg, who just went on about how delicious the bacon was, raising his eyebrows at Beast Boy, who began shouting about how he could turn into a pig, and then actually turned into a big green pig, making loud snorts at Cyborg and digging his snout into his tofu eggs, Cyborg responded by eating more bacon, and Beast Boy turned into a cat and hissed at him before turning back into a human. Raven let out a frustrated sigh and Val was giggling at the argument, she then looked at Starfire and realized she had barely touched her food, twirling her fork in her eggs, she looked sad, Val knew it was because Robin had not showed up for breakfast. Val put her hand on the alien's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile.
After breakfast Beast Boy and Cyborg were having a rematch on their racing game. Raven had gone back to meditating and Starfire had gone back to her room, Val assumed it was to get some sleep, but she thought Starfire just worrying about Robin was a possibility too. Val was sitting on the couch watching Cyborg and BB play, she had declined to join the game, and quickly fell asleep.
Val awoke to an empty tower, she looked around and called out the names of the Titans, yup, empty tower. She got up and walked into the kitchen, a post it was stuck to the fridge.
~Friend Val, we wished not to wake you, we have gone out for the pizza and will be back very soon,
Starfire.~
Val smiled at the fact that Starfire's strange way of speaking was also present in her writing.
"Enjoying your time here?"
Val's eyes widened in fear at the familiar voice. Slade. She stayed frozen in place, not even turning to look at Slade.
"Are you afraid, Valerie?" He asked sarcastically, putting his hands on her shoulders, making her tense."Y-you know I hate that name..." She said shaking, trying and failing to sound brave.
"Ah, yes, Val." He responded a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Let's not make this difficult, I'm not in the mood to deal with the Titans." He said, becoming serious.
"They'll stop you."
"Are you making friends with them now?" Slade asked, the amusement in his voice once again. "Only a few weeks ago you wanted to destroy them." He taunted.
Val whipped around and pushed Slade forward, he didn't move much, keeping his balance, but backing up a bit.
"That was because YOU told me they were bad people! You knew I wouldn't hurt them otherwise, you told me everyone was trying to destroy the world, that we had to take it back and show them! I can't believe I actually believed such a STUPID lie!" She shouted, taking in a large breath after talking so fast.
Slade's one eye glared down at her.
"If you stayed out of my files we would have been ruling the city soon." His voice growing angrier.
"I'm glad I did! You're nothing but a selfish, evil, manipulati-"
She was cut off when Slade's hand connected with her cheek, making her hit the ground. She quickly got up, nothing but anger across her face, looking Slade in the eye, fire floating over her hand, she took a swing at Slade but he grabbed her wrist, her powers immediately stopping. Slade twisted Val's arm, she let out a scream as she was pushed to the ground, Slade finally let go, Val brought her wrist into her hand and felt something cold, it was a bracelet, THE bracelet. Slade had made her wear it when she was struggling controlling her powers. She was powerless now.
Slade crouched down at her.
"I don't enjoy hurting you Valerie." He said in a stern voice. "Let's go." He grabbed her arm, forcing her to stand up.
Once again Val took a swing at Slade, aiming for his masked face. He easily dodged.
"I would have thought you'd be better at controlling your emotions while fighting, I did train you after all, I'm not impressed, Valerie." Slade tsked.
Tears began streaming down Val's face, she let out an angry cry and jumped at Slade, tackling him over the counter. Slade easily flipped her over and pushed her off of him, standing up, ready to fight again.
"Surely you can do better." He mocked. All of the sudden Beast Boy and Cyborg's muffled shouting could be heard, making Val turn towards the door, when she turned back Slade was gone. Val quickly wiped her face of her tears as the Titans walked through the door. Starfire was clinging to Robin's arm with a big smile on her face as he tried telling her about having to get back to looking for Slade. Beast Boy and Cyborg were arguing about wether to have another rematch on their video game, and Raven just looked irritated.
The five Titans all came to a stop when they saw Val.
"Dude, you ok?" Beast Boy spoke up.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Val asked, putting on a fake smile and holding back tears.
"You look upset." Raven said flatly.
"And your arm!" Robin pointed out the bruised wrist.
"Oh, I just..." Val was looking around for an answer when she spotted Silkie and grabbed him. "... I tripped over Silkie, landed on my wrist, it hurt really bad!" She quickly spit out her answer.
"Silkie! That is a bad little bumgorf!" Starfire shouted, grabbing the large larva. "We do not trip our friends!" Starfire scolded.
"It's ok, Star." The aliens naive way making her genuinely smile.
"Here, let me look at it." Cyborg said, walking toward her. He gently grabbed Val's wrist and scanned it.
"It's sprained." Cyborg said, glancing at Robin. "Must've been a pretty hard fall." Val nodded in response.
"I'll be ok, guys, really."
Robin ignored her statement. "Raven, why don't you heal her."
Raven stepped forward and put her hands over the sprained wrist, her hands glowed and when she took them away the bruises were gone, making Val's arm feel much better.
Raven let out a small sigh, irritated that she had to use her powers because a girl tripped over the oversized worm.
"Thank you. I'm sorry." Val apologized.
"No problem." Robin said. "You're our friend."
Call gave a small smile to her new friends.
Robin was in the room with his newspaper clipping on Slade pasted onto the wall. He was glaring down at the mask on the wall when Cyborg walked in.
"Hey man, I've got something important to show you.
Robin turned around. Cyborg set a few pictures on the table.
"This is a picture I took of Val's wrist when I scanned it." Robin was looking at the photo and had only just realized the obvious bracelet Val was wearing.
"The bruises looked like someone grabbed her." Robin took note of. Cyborg nodding in agreement.
"And that's not all, I noticed a small dot, here, on the bracelet." Cyborg pointed out. "I zoomed in and cleared up the image an I got... This." Cyborg lifted the first photo off the second, Slade's 'S' symbol could clearly be seen.
Robin's fist clenched. "This ends now." He said coldly, beginning to walk out of the room.
"Wait man." Cyborg stopped him. "I don't think she's working with Slade."
Robin turned around and walked back to let Cyborg make his case.
"I looked over the video footage of the tower right before we left, no bracelet. Then I tried to look at what happened when we were gone, the footage is gone, nothing." He went on. "But I found some bad audio, you can hear some talking I can't make out, and what sounds like a scream." He showed the static screen. "The footage starts again a little bit after we. Come inside, then Val is wearing the bracelet." He finished.
"So what is this supposed to mean?" Robin asked, losing his patients.
"I think Slade was in the tower, he must've attacked Val and left before we showed up. Did you see how upset she was when we came in? That girl didn't trip over Silkie." Cyborg explained.
"We'll discuss this with the team tomorrow." Robin said as he left the room.