Robin woke up first, apparently it was morning. He sat up, and looked over at Starfire. She was gone. His heart raced.
Raven was still sleeping though, and so was the little girl. He opened the door, and rushed into the large corridor. He then turned right into an open door, and there she was.
She was fine, drinking something from a small coffee cup, and watching a small TV nearby. The table she was sitting at was very small, and was by an indoor window facing the huge abandoned assembly line. He stood at the doorway, looking around the room. The space next to her looked like a normal kitchen, but the counters were on all 3 sides of the small room. It included a clean sink, white wooden cabinets, and white marble countertops. The TV was a small white one, but it had to be to fit between the small height between the cabinets and the countertop.
He opened one of the cabinets' doors, and looked inside. A box of Cornflakes, and a clean bowl with a clean spoon in it on the top shelf inside, and a white flat rectangular plate on the bottom shelf.
He got out the cornflakes and the cereal bowl and spoon, and sat it down on the counter. The clunk of the bowl hitting the counter made Starfire twirl around in surprise in her chair, which surprised Robin with her sudden movement.
"Oh, Robin." She said, smiling.
"Uh, hey." Robin said, setting down the bowl and corn flakes for the moment. He walked over and sat down beside her in the nearby chair, her looking at him on the way sitting down.
"So, are you okay?" he asked, looking at her.
"Actually.. Robin.." she began, looking off out the indoor window, "I am worried for our friends. What if they become the new leaders?". She frowned, and he did too for a second. He then put on a smile, and looked at her, taking her hand in his.
"They won't, Star. We won't let them." He said.
They both smiled, and then William walked into the open doorway. "Making yourselves comfortable?" he asked, smirking.
Robin and Starfire then turned to face him, and Robin replied, "Yeah, we are."
"Good." William said, starting towards them. "You're just normal civilians, right?" he inquired.
Raven was now at the open doorway, and stood behind him. "Do normal civilians fly?" she said.
"Well, I'm a firm believer anything is possible." He responded, now looking at her. He then turned back, looking at Starfire for a moment, thoughtful.
"Anything…" he muttered, looking at her still.
Robin stood, and said, now in a serious tone, "What's going on? Why are you looking at her like that?"
"With your permission, I'd like to run some… completely safe tests… on her." The boy William said, still looking at her.
"What?" Robin asked, louder now.
Starfire then stood up, looking at him, "But what will it hurt? He says the tests are safe, and we have do not have a cause to not trust him," she said.
"Not yet…" Raven muttered, still behind William.
Robin looked right at Starfire, and whispered, "Are you sure?"
She nodded, and they both looked at William. Starfire's expression showed trust and willingness.
Robin's expression showed uncertainty, and also, determination. "If he hurts her, he will never get away with it." He thought.
--
With Raven and Robin watching in a nearby window, Raven's hood down showing her purple hair, and Robin wide-eyed and on the watch.
William had a clipboard, and Starfire was laying flat on her back.
"I'm going to run you through this machine, and it's just going to scan you with a red light. It'll take about 15 seconds, then you'll go backwards for a second scan. The second scan will make sure everything in the first one was accurate, for about 15 seconds. Then you will be back out here, and all is fine. Got it?" William said, explaining it all. She simply nodded, and he wrote something on the clipboard with a ballpoint pen.
"Okay then, starting," he said, his finger over a green button on a nearby panel, "… now."
He pressed it, and she went in, it scanning.
He then walked over to another nearby monitor, with a keyboard.
He then pulled up the scan status, and started muttering again.
"Solar input… normal…" he muttered, looking at the temperature going into Starfire's body.
"Solar output…" he began, but stopped mid-sentence. The scanner started getting high levels of solar energy. Plasma.
It began beeping, and he quickly walked over to the other monitor, checking its screen.
"Radiation… radiation where?!" he said, getting a bit louder.
"From her?!" he said loudly, in shock.
"Crap, that can mess up the machine!" he yelled loudly, catching Robin and Raven's attention.
As Starfire came back in reverse for the 2nd scan, William began beating buttons saying loudly over and over, "Abort! Abort! ABORT!"
Robin banged his fist on the slightly soundproof glass, in curiosity, saying, "What's going on?!"
Suddenly, sparks flew out of the machine, and the power went out in the entire complex. The lights behind Raven and Robin in the hall went out, and William began screaming in panic.
"ABORT! ABORT NOW! YOU STUPID MACHINE! ABORT!!" he yelled.
Robin then began banging on it louder, and yelled, "STARFIRE!"
Robin then backed up, and said, "Raven, blow the glass!"
Raven then quickly blew the glass window towards the room, but immediately a large-scale wind from the room blew it back to them. Robin ducked it, and it swooped over Raven, landing on the tile floor behind her and sliding towards the other wall behind them.
Robin hurdled over the bottom part of the wall, which was below the glass, small particles of rock blowing past him on the floor.
William, was slumped down on the machine, as winds pushed out of the machine like a hurricane. Robin stood, walking towards the wind.
"What did you DO?!" Robin yelled to William.
"I couldn't abort it… I couldn't stop it…" William muttered.
"WHAT?!"
"Get your girlfriend out of here, get your friends out of here, now! It's about to blow!!" William yelled, waving his arm and facing Robin.
"I'm not leaving you here!" Robin yelled back, now yelling to voice over the sound of the high winds.
"Leave me! I'm choosing this!" William yelled.
"I'm going down with my fortress…" William yelled, dramatic sadness filling his voice during the sentence.
Robin struggled to get to the machine, and then pulled an unconscious Starfire out. He carried her back towards the window, and William lifted his head, checking the monitor, now with the power going in and out.
"My defenses are down! Go out the back through the assembly line! It's the only way you'll get out of here!" William said.
"Thank you!" Robin replied.
"Remember what I said man. Be VERY overprotective!" William shouted, smirking, now starting to run out of breath.
"I will." Robin said.
Robin smiled briefly, then William said, "Go! Now!"
Robin got himself and Starfire back over with Raven, as her little sister had woken up and arrived behind her.
"We've got to get out of here, it's going to explode. We need to go through the assembly line to get out of here, let's go!" Robin yelled to Raven over the loud sounds.
They all rushed down the hall, and opened the large door to the destroyed assembly line machinery. They got out the back, and continued down a grassy alleyway underneath the freeway that intersected the bridge.
William, out of breath, hurried to the front gate. His mouth was hanging open for air. As he opened it, Slade and Cinderblock were waiting there.
Slade kicked him in the jaw, sending him back down the hall and up against a wall.
"You knew this day would come, William. Jennifer was the first to perish in your fight against us. Now you're unprotected by your Stronghold. Unmanned, unarmed, and unable to go on against us. We win, William, because now we'll get the Core of Evil that you worked so long and so hard to keep from us. Now those Teens will be stuck here forever, all because you failed." Slade, or rather, Negato, said in his deep voice.
William held a remote behind his back, and told the possessed Slade face to face.
"You know, Jen always wanted me to try using her trademark that she always used during her time at the shooting range." He said, smirking.
"Well, I think I'll finally give her what she wants."
"So, what are your final words before I kill you and take the Core, mortal?" Negato bellowed, snickering with Cinderblock.
William held up the remote, and Slade's one eye widened.
"Ka-boom." He said, clicking the remote.
The fort exploded, sending the bridge down on top of it, then a huge white light came from the center of the fort, spiraling.
Robin, Starfire, Raven, and the little girl all got far enough away from the explosion, and then looked as the wave of light came towards them. But the little girl turned away, and smiled.
The white washed over them, and were they stood before, was a court.
An empty basketball court.
--
All 5 of the Titans, and the little girl, were now on the roof of the Titans' Tower, staring off at the sunset.
Robin said, smiling. "All in a day's work."
Raven muttered, "So, what happened to William?"
Starfire, standing beside Robin, replied, "We may not ever know."
Robin said, "Actually… I think William was just an example."
"An example of how much a person can lose in their life standing up to evil, but still carry on fighting them because it's for the right thing to do." He said.
Beast Boy, nearby with Cyborg, said, "Hey, why does everything we ever do end up with a 'moral of the story'?"
He looked at Cyborg, "Did you notice that?" He then turned to look at Raven. "I mean, we're practically saluting policemen and all those people right now."
"Raven?" he asked.
Nobody said anything, and everyone then walked back towards the stairs leading down to the inside, Beast Boy standing behind.
Beast Boy ran after them, arms up in the air.
"Hey, I'm just saying! Wait up!"