Author's Note: As promised, here is your extra special bonus chapter! Happy Labor Day!

Also, about my chapter-updating. I put up a new chapter every week (usually Friday), but if you guys wanted it to be more frequently than that, I could probably do that. I have this fic written up to Chapter 11, so I could speed it up if you guys were suffering, haha! Just let me know!

About a sequel: I decided not to do a sequel for "Burn", but I do have an idea for another fic entirely that I will begin posting shortly after I finish this one. Be on the lookout for that!


Chapter 4: Deceit

The first thing Starfire was aware of were voices. The muffled mumblings put her at ease for some reason, but she could not yet comprehend any more than that. The second thing Starfire was aware of was that she was in a bed. Likely a hospital bed, considering the beeps and hisses that were interfering with the voices she was trying to understand. The third thing Starfire was aware of was that she could not yet muster the strength to open her eyes, but the panic of this discovery was replaced by curiosity as the voices became more audible.

"But she'll be okay, right?"

'Beast Boy?' She tried to open her eyes to confirm her suspicions, but she could only manage a slight fluttering of the eyelids.

"I didn't sense anything…physically wrong with her."

"Physically?"

'Robin…'

"I can't get any particulars, but whatever's going on with her, it's psychological."

"So, she'll be okay?"

A spasm of pain crossed her heart at Beast Boy's earnest tone. Siphoning energy from anywhere she had some to spare, she pushed her eyes open. She blinked a few times as her vision cleared, the ceiling gradually coming into focus. She was thankful for the darkness of the room, for any lights would have only irritated the pounding in her head. Glancing around, she noticed the various monitors that were emitting the offending beeps, which bore into her head like shrapnel. Somehow, she heard Robin's voice through the din, and looked out toward the door to see his silhouette through the glass.

"Raven, couldn't you-"

"You know it doesn't work that way, Robin," Raven snapped back at him. "And, even if it did, I wouldn't invade her privacy like that. Not without her permission."

"And what if she doesn't tell us?" he argued, his silhouette gesticulating.

"That's kind of up to her, man." Cyborg was being gentle with him, Starfire could tell.

"But it could be really awful! It could be- She could be- Someone could have-"

"She's awake," Raven interrupted, a little bit of relief evident in her otherwise usual, matter-of-fact tone.

The door banged open, eliciting a wince from Starfire, and three heads were suddenly hovering over her, the spiky one notably absent.

"You're alive!" Beast Boy cried, his upper body crashing down onto her bed as he attempted to hug her lying down.

She smiled in spite of the pain his yell had caused. Beast Boy was always amusing, if a little loud.

"Hey there, little lady," Cyborg leaned down toward her, "Sleep well?"

She was about to answer when a wave of fatigue overtook her. Her eyelids fluttered as she fought to stay conscious, a faint groan slipping past her lips. She felt Beast Boy's head lift off her bed.

"Raven, what-"

"Move"

The blurry heads above her parted and were replaced by a single, very easily identifiable one.

"Robin…" she said weakly, unsure if he could even hear her.

"Get those wires off," he ordered, and Raven's hooded figure entered her field of vision. No sooner had the last sensor been peeled off than the blanket was whipped off of her, and she was swept into leather-clad arms.

"What are you-"

"She needs sun," Robin answered Raven's unfinished query.

She felt herself moving, but the path was a blur. Before she knew it, the insides of her eyelids turned red as a familiar warmth crept into her skin. Her eyes flickered open to reveal the roof of Titans Tower, which stretched before her until it gave way to shimmering, blue water. A warm breeze twisted a strand of hair across her face, and raised her hand to brush it away.

"Better?"

She smiled up at the mask staring down at her. "Much. Thank you," she answered.

A ghost of a smile flickered across his face, but he replied with a rather curt, "You're welcome."

Starfire's heart sank a little bit. In spite of the frequency of its occurrence, she did not know if she would ever become accustomed to this tendency of his. It was obvious that the Robin she had seen before -the tender, caring, vulnerable one- was gone now. Apparently, her face betrayed her mourning.

"Something wrong?" His face was crumpled in confusion, and she felt a faint exasperation at his ignorance.

Nevertheless, she pitched a smile on her face. "Nothing is wrong," she chirped listlessly, "You may release me now."

He looked at her suspiciously, but made to set her on the ground all the same.

She didn't land, however, and instead floated several feet above him to hover in the fresh, morning sunlight.

"Starfire?" Robin's hesitant voice drifted up to meet her.

She turned, but did not change her altitude.

"Uh…" He looked extremely uncomfortable, as if not sure how to proceed. "About before. I want to- Well, I was wondering…"

For a moment she was looking at the other Robin, his expression concerned. He lowered his gaze and sighed heavily, and when he lifted his eyes up to her again, his countenance had gone stony once more.

"What happened?" he pressed, business-like.

She felt her lips close together with annoyance, but she quickly pushed it aside and lowered herself down in front of him.

She hesitated, her mouth opening and closing several times. She did not want to lie, but she certainly could not tell him the truth. She brushed her fingers against the stone in her breastplate, wondering if they were being overheard this very moment. 'Then again,' she thought, glancing down at the green gem, 'maybe Slade was lying…' It would be very much like Slade to fabricate the whole thing just to keep her in line; the stone may not be a spying device at , even if it were, he could not possibly watch her all the time. If she could just tell Robin, he would figure something out. He always did. Sucking in a deep breath, she launched into what she intended to be the fastest story of her life.

"Well, I beat Cinderblock. It did not take me very long and I remained undamaged. Before leaving to find you, I saw a type of communicator in his hand which contained a map to Slade's headquarters- Please, let me continue uninhibited," she interjected quickly as Robin opened his mouth to interrupt.

He looked rather shocked, but nodded.

"I followed the map and, when I got to the end, I foun-"

"AGH!" Robin cried, clutching his side and crumpling to his knees in front of her.

"ROBIN!" She darted forward, placing her hands on his shoulders as she kneeled in front of him.

His face was creased in pain, his breathing shallow, and she could tell he was struggling not to cry out again.

Just as quickly as it began, it stopped. She could feel the tension in his shoulders release, and his breathing returned to normal as his body relaxed.

"I'm fine, Star," he said softly, lifting his head to meet her eyes. "Just a muscle spasm or something," he smiled reassuringly.

Starfire let out a small, involuntary gasp, her hand clutching at her own chest. For, at that very moment, the gem vibrated ever-so-slightly against her sternum. She looked up at Robin's sincere smile and knew he was lying. That was not a muscle spasm. It was a warning.

"Really, I'm fine," Robin continued, misinterpreting her reaction. "Probably just a bruise from the fight," he speculated nonchalantly, rising to his feet and pulling her with him.

Starfire slid her arms out from his grip, momentarily wounded. She looked into his face, searching, but he betrayed nothing. If she did not know he was lying, she would never have been able to tell. She turned away from him, taking a few steps toward the roof's edge to gaze out at the bay. How many times had this worked? How many lies had she believed? She knew Robin was secretive, but somehow she had always thought she was…different. She wrapped her arms around herself as she heard Robin approaching from behind.

"So?"

She turned her head to where he now stood beside her, facing her with his arms crossed. "So…?" she inquired, confused.

"Slade!"

She took a half step back, startled by his reaction.

"Did you find his headquarters? Where was it? Was he there? " he moved toward her, arms waving wildly, his voice getting louder with every question.

"Robin," she cautioned, retreating.

He stopped his advance, and she heard him take a single, deep, calming breath.

"Sorry," he said quickly, obviously uncomfortable with the word. "Just…continue. Please," he added, the word losing some of its politeness in his curt tone.

She frowned, both at Robin's impatience and her own, impending dishonesty.

"I- I found," she hesitated, still forming her falsified story in her mind. "I found…nothing," she finished, trying to keep her voice even. "It was…a trap," she added, creating details as she went along. "There were…machines," she included that small element of fact, "and it was dark, like some sort of cave."

Robin's eyes widened, and she had the bittersweet realization that he was believing her.

"There was…an explosion," she continued, hating herself for every word, "but I managed to escape before the cave collapsed."

Robin frowned, and her chest tightened with guilt.

"I- I believe it was simply a distraction; a way for Slade to separate us." It really was much easier for her to be deceptive when she included portions of the truth like that.

"Yea, that makes sense," Robin mused, one hand cradling his chin as his eyebrows furrowed in thought.

Starfire's eyes widened in surprise at her success, but Robin, thankfully, did not appear to notice the momentary break in her façade.

"But," he added, and her heart stopped. "You were gone for hours. What happened after the explosion?"

"Oh," she barely contained her sigh of relief, "I was lost in the sewers."

"For two hours?" he interrogated.

She swallowed hard. Obviously, he was more suspicious than she had thought.

"I- I…" her mind worked frantically, trying to think of something Robin would accept, something that would deter him from asking any more questions. She was reminded of an event that had taken place only a few weeks ago. It had certainly made Robin angry enough then; maybe it would distract him now too. "Well, I surfaced at one point, but the area was unfamiliar."

Robin scowled, and Starfire assumed he was thinking of the many areas of Jump he had advised her never to go to.

"There were many fires in the bins for trash, and people shouting." She was pulling details from television shows now, hoping the bad areas of Jump were similar. "Then, a group of men began following me," she began, observing Robin's reaction.

His mouth twitched slightly as his hands balled up into fists. Sadly, this was exactly what Starfire had been hoping for.

"They were yelling things -I did not understand most of it- and were doing the…whistling of wolves?" She could not quite recall what Robin had called the distinct sound a couple of boys had made on that occasion a few weeks ago, but he seemed to understand what she meant.

His fists clenched even tighter as she continued.

"I was frightened," she tried to make her voice match the words, "so I hid until they left. Then I returned to the sewer until I found somewhere familiar." She held her breath, hoping that would be enough explanation.

"Hmm," Robin considered, his eyes lowering to the communicator at his belt, "I guess the communicators don't work underground. I'll have to look into that." He looked back up at her, his expression indiscernible. "I'm glad you're okay," he said flatly, before turning away from her and heading toward the entrance to the stairs.

She watched as he walked to the door, turning the handle and opening it with a scrape of metal. As he did so, however, three people tumbled out onto the roof, landing in a tangled pile at his feet.

Starfire smiled, her spirits still too damp to muster the giggle this normally would have elicited.

"Subtle, guys," she heard Robin mock before he stepped over them and disappeared down the stairs.

Beast Boy chuckled nervously, inciting glares from Raven and Cyborg as they all untangled themselves to standing.

"What? It was Cyborg's idea!" he defended, pointing at his robotic friend.

"You're the one that said-"

"Guys!" Raven interjected, stepping in-between them. "Priorities," she gestured to Starfire.

Starfire smiled meekly, raising a hand in a small wave. "Greetings, friends!" she chirped, approaching them. "Tell me, what perils did you encounter after our separation?"

"Oh, you won't believe it!" Beast Boy began eagerly. "Cyborg tried to disable the autopilot and the boat starting freaking out and then he had to blast it and then the time-stopper thingy…"

She followed the group down the stairs, pretending to be listening to Beast Boy's explanation and Cyborg's frequent interruptions to add supplementary details. It was difficult to feign surprise at the right moments when she had seen most of what he was describing on Slade's television screens, but she did her best. She then had to retell her falsified tale, with many interjections from Beast Boy, before excusing herself under the guise of exhaustion.

Hours later, however, she was still lying awake, her head lolling off the bottom in her usual sleeping position. Her mind was spinning with questions, guilt, and fear. She had lied to her best friends, her surrogate family, and that was certainly only the beginning of the evils she was destined to commit. She moaned, rolling over and grabbing a pillow to hug between her chest and the bed.

Everyone else, truly exhausted from the all-night search, had gone to bed quite some time ago, and Starfire could no longer find an excuse to delay the inevitable. Rising from the bed, she floated over to the glass wall of her room, opening one of the windows as quietly as possible. She deftly slipped out, making sure to secure the bar so the window could not blow shut before her return. With that, she shot off toward the mainland, hoping no one happened to be looking out a window at that particular moment.

It was easy enough to find the stashed tools of her deception, and she did not believe anyone had seen her enter through a nearby manhole. She unrolled the suit to ensure the communicator was still inside, and, as her fingers grazed the metal insignia, the communicator burst open. She nearly dropped her suit fumbling to catch the device, but she managed to get a grip on the top part of the open screen.

"Nice catch," came a now-familiar voice.

Starfire looked down to see Slade staring up at her, his masked face upside-down. She readjusted the suit under her arm and righted the communicator, raising it up in front of her face.

"I see you got my message," he taunted, and she could feel her pulse quickening with mounting fury.

"I did not tell him anything, there was no need to-"

"You were about to," he interjected calmly, and she knew arguing was pointless. "But you pulled it together quite nicely. Clever," he praised, "using Robin's jealousy against him like that. We have more in common than I tho-"

"I am nothing like you!" she bellowed, feeling her eyes burning green.

"Oh, aren't you?" he challenged, leaning closer so his face took up more of the screen. "Lying to your friends, manipulating their weaknesses to your advantage. You're more like me than you dare to imagine, my dear."

"You- You are threatening me!" she shouted, her voice strangled. "I am not- not- EVIL like you! I am only doing this to protect my friends!" Her hands were shaking with fury, but Slade remained completely unconcerned.

"We'll see, my dear. We'll see," he snickered. "I'll be seeing you," he added knowingly before the screen went black.

It took Starfire several minutes to calm down enough to where she felt comfortable emerging from the sewer and back into society. The suit and communicator tucked under her arm, she flew off toward Titans Tower, willing everyone to still be asleep. Assumedly they were, because she entered her room and closed the window without any confrontations. She stood there for a moment, uncertain where to hide the shameful instruments. She finally settled on a back corner of her closet, behind the store of zorkaberries Galfore had sent her from Tamaran. She doubted anyone would be doing the snooping through her room, but, if they did for any reason, they would certainly not think to look back there.

With a sigh, she fell back onto her bed, suddenly realizing how exhausted she really was. She knew this was only the beginning, but she could not worry about that at the moment. She would do whatever was necessary to protect her friends, however terrible the cost. With that cause easing her conscience, her eyes drooped and she surrendered to the darkness.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Robin

He stared at the computer screen, eyes aching, but he would not succumb to sleep. Something wasn't adding up, something didn't feel right, and he couldn't sleep until that nagging suspicious was satisfied. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he clicked through data, inputting numbers into formulas and completing calculations. He frowned as the solutions flashed in front of him. Lifting his communicator off the desk, he turned it over in his hands skeptically.

"It should have worked…" he mumbled to himself, his eyebrows wrinkling together.

As far as he could tell in all his tests and calculations, there was no reason Starfire's communicator wouldn't have worked in those sewers. He'd had a hand in designing the tech for these communicators himself. The only way to jam the signal was to use, well, a frequency jammer. Sure, certain things could cause interference, but there were no power plants, cell phone towers, or radio broadcast stations in the vicinity of where they had been that evening. Even accounting for the radius Starfire could have travelled in the time between separating from them and reappearing, considering Robin had no idea where exactly she had been, he could find no reasonable explanation for why she went dark all that time.

It was possible, of course, that Slade had set up a frequency jammer in the explosion Starfire had mentioned, but Robin doubted that. In fact, Robin doubted Starfire's entire story. She had seemed uncomfortable explaining it, and hadn't gone into her usual, flamboyant detail. And then there was the fact that parts of her story just didn't make sense. Why would Slade want to separate her from the group? Why try and kill her? Not that she wasn't important, but Robin had always thought he was Slade's primary target. Was Slade trying to get to him through Starfire now?

That was a thought Robin found particularly disturbing. He had been rather careless lately. It was possible Slade could've picked up on something…compromising. Suddenly all of Batman's advice about keeping people at arm's length made sense, something Robin never thought he would be able to say. As much as he would hate it, and as difficult as it would be, he would have to be more careful about that from now on. He couldn't let her get hurt, not for any reason, but especially not because of him.

Resigned to this necessary action, if a little frustrated by it, he turned his thoughts back to Starfire's strange behavior. She had been bordering on hysterical last night, nearly scaring him to death, but today she was claiming nothing really happened. He didn't like to think Starfire would lie to him, but he couldn't shake this feeling that something just didn't add up; like her whole wolf-whistling story, for instance. If he didn't know better, he would swear that she had thrown that out as a red-herring. And what was with her snapping at him like that? "Please, let me continue uninhibited"? What was the big rush?

"Ugh!" he snarled, his fist pounding the keyboard in frustration at the infinite, unanswered questions. He folded his arms on the edge of the desk, resting his forehead against a forearm and staring down into his lap. Even exhausted, his ears picked up the faint sound of footsteps entering the room behind him. The heaviness and tonal quality of the steps made it obvious that this was the latest round of the ongoing 'Sneak Up on Robin' game.

"Hey, Cyborg," he smirked, raising his head and spinning in his chair, his arms crossed in front of him smugly.

"Aw, man!" Cyborg whined, stomping his foot. "How do you do that?"

He chuckled, turning back to the computer now that his Bond-villain moment was over. "A lifetime of practice," he answered, hitting a few buttons on the keyboard to make his research disappear.

"What's that?" Cyborg asked, entering the room to stand behind him.

"Just some numbers I'm running," he shrugged, trying to avoid suspicion.

"Do you ever sleep?" Cyborg goaded.

Robin shook his head mournfully, rubbing his temples.

"You okay?" Cyborg moved to stand beside him, dwarfing him in his chair.

"Yea," Robin brushed off, "Just…something Star said."

"Uh-oh! Trouble in paradise?" He wiggled his eyebrows as Robin glared at him.

"No!" he corrected, realizing too late that his answer carried an implication. He hastened to change the subject. "It's just something she said while we were talking. She got all," he struggled for the word, "…snippy." It sounded so dumb coming out of his mouth, and Cyborg seemed to agree because he laughed loudly.

"Snippy?" he guffawed. "Okay, okay," he said, growing serious under Robin's glare, "What happened?"

"Well," Robin began, setting his elbows on his knees and holding his head in his hands, "she was telling the story, and she got to the part where she mentioned Slade and-"

"And you lost it," Cyborg finished, as if there was no doubt.

"What? No!" he snapped, offended. "I was just gonna ask a question, but she cut me off and said- she told me- Oh, what was it?" he paused, searching his memory. "She said, 'let me continue uninhibited'"

Cyborg burst into hysterics, clutching the back of Robin's chair for support. Robin's eyes widened, surprised and confused.

"Star- Star told you to shut up?!" He could barely get the words out through the laughter.

"No!" Robin stood up, trying to be intimidating in spite of the height difference, "She told me to let her continue uninhibited!"

"Yea, but in Starfire that's like: 'Shut up, you spiky-haired midget!'" He laughed even harder at himself, and Robin fumed.

"Ugh, forget it!" he shot over his shoulder as he stormed out, leaving Cyborg to his hysterics.

He could still hear Cyborg's faint laughter as he got to the door of his room. Glowering, he entered the sliding door, sighing along with its closing hiss. It had been stupid to try and talk to Cyborg. It was stupid for Robin to try and talk to anyone, really. He couldn't afford to have friends the same way 'normal' people did. He was a leader, a leader whose orders needed to be followed. If he started confiding in people, if he showed weakness, they wouldn't respect him enough to follow those orders, and people would get hurt.

'Oh, god,' he thought, his eyes widening in horror, 'I'm Batman!'

With a dismayed cry, he collapsed onto his bed, bouncing slightly as his back hit the mattress. He was just laying there staring at the ceiling, one arm over his head, when something flashed in the corner of his eye. Turning, he saw a streak of purple approaching the Tower. He propped himself up on his elbow, twisting toward the window.

"Starfire?" he asked the empty room.

He contemplated getting up and going to the window, but his lurking suspicions convinced him to stay put and watch. As she got closer, he noticed she was carrying some sort of black bundle. He squinted, but it was impossible to discern exactly what it was. Her room being just down the hall from his, she got close enough for him to get a pretty good look at her face before she disappeared beyond his sightline. She looked nervous, maybe even downright afraid, and also a little bit sad.

"What happened to you?" he wondered aloud, his chest weighted with concern. He couldn't answer that question yet, but he was determined to find out.