"You think the boss is gonna stay holed up in here forever?" asked Joe.

The four of them were on guard duty, each armed with a semiautomatic weapon. Joe and Luke were sitting on a couple of crates. Nathan and Rick stood before the doors with their guns strapped on, looking out into the cool night.

"If I double crossed Slade I would bunker down too," Nathan said. He was a short man with a large blue dragon tattoo on his left bicep. In his opinion he was far too smart to hang out with these assholes, but he understood why he had to do grunt work. He only hoped the higher ups would recognise his value and promote him quickly.

"I remember when the boss ran the Westside," said Joe in his nasal, whiny voice. "Now he's scared to come out."

"Shut the hell up, asshole," spat Luke, turning on him. "You wanna get us all killed?" Luke was a vicious bastard who would murder his own mother for ten bucks.

"I'm just sayin'. You guys ever wonder if we're on the wrong side?"

"No," said Nathan. "Listen, Slade is tough. But he's an assassin. He's only dangerous if you're down on his list. He's just one man. We're a whole army. He can't stand up to us."

"Then how come we're hidin'?"

"It's just until the Titans go down. Then we'll take the whole city. Anyway, we're not hiding. It's a tactical retreat."

A chilling cackle tore the night, coming from everywhere at once. The four men sprang to attention, aiming their weapons into the dark.

"What the hell was that?" hissed Joe.

"Don't be scared, boys." The voice was low, dripping honey. "I'm not going to hurt you." There was a jingle of bells, and she stepped into the circle of light cast by the streetlamps.

"Her!" said Joe.

"Yes, me," she agreed. "Careful now. You'd better lower those guns before someone gets hurt."

"A-are you meant to be here, Your Highness?" stammered Nathan. "I mean…"

"Ooh, what good manners you have." She smiled at him, showing a row of pearly white teeth. It was the kind of grin a shark might give to a seal pup. "I'll remember you. As a matter of fact, your boss is expecting me. Go ahead and call him. But don't take too long. You don't want me getting bored. I might start looking for a way to entertain myself."

Nathan fumbled with his phone and got through to the boss. He confirmed that her story was legit. "He's expecting you, ma'am. Please go in." They opened the doors for the Queen and let her through. Once the doors had closed behind her, the four of them looked at one another in disbelief.

"Holy shit," whispered Joe. "I was shittin' myself the whole time. When I saw her I thought we were gonna die."

"We still might," Luke said grimly.

"I thought she was just a myth, like the Southside Strangler."

"Stop worrying," said Nathan, putting on a show of bravado. "She's working with the boss now. It's good to have her on our side."

"She's a maniac," said Joe. "She must be. You know who her father is?"

"I know. And like I said, even if she's a loose cannon, it's better to have her on our team than someone else's." He said it firmly, almost as though he believed it.

…

Beast Boy dreamed. He was walking in a field of golden flowers, chasing a girl with a fall of sunlight for hair. She peeped over her shoulder and laughed at him as she skipped away. He laughed too, running after her. The air was speckled with butterflies of every colour. The sunshine poured over him, filling him with happiness.

"Come on, Beast Boy!" she called.

"Wait up! I'm coming!"

When she smiled back, he could see the blue of the sky reflected in her eyes. Her slender limbs propelled her away like a leaping gazelle. He redoubled his pace, tearing after her as fast as he could, but she drifted further and further from him. Try as he might, he couldn't catch up.

"Terra!" he called, panic in his voice now. "Terra!"

She vanished over the gentle curve of a hill. The sun disappeared. Shadow fell over the land, blotting everything grey. The flowers were gone, replaced by thorn bushes and cold black gravel that crunched under his feet. The dark sky was dotted with icy stars.

Beast Boy's limbs slowed, heavy as lead. He dragged himself up the hill. It was more like a mountain now. He didn't want to reach the top any more. He was afraid of what he would find there.

Breathing heavily, he gained the summit and saw her. She stood with her back to him, shrouded in a blue hood and cloak that rippled gently although there was no wind. He took a step towards her, then another. She turned.

"Raven?"

Her dark violet eyes were blank. She looked troubled in a vague, distant way.

"Beast Boy," she whispered. She stretched her hands out towards him, pale and grey as sick moonlight. He reached out to touch her. Her fingers felt cold as marble.

Bang!

Beast Boy opened his eyes and sat bolt upright, the blanket sliding from him. He blinked a few times. His throat was dry and his head hurt. There was a woman lying next to him with blonde hair, but she was not Terra. Her body gently rose and fell with each breath.

He had this weird feeling that Raven was in the room with him. The back of his neck prickled. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw shadows crawling on the edges of the walls, and he turned towards them expecting to see… something.

Memories of last night came back to him in fragments. What had happened to him? He'd lost it again, all over a girl who'd never loved him. Forget about her. Forget. It's over, you dumbass. Stop beating yourself up. Why couldn't he just move on? He was only hurting himself.

He scrambled out of bed, got dressed and opened the window. He paused at the sill and looked back at the bed for a second.

"Caw caw caaaw." On a rooftop somewhere in the city, a crow croaked its greeting to the new day.

He became a hawk and took flight in the early morning light.

…

Cyborg hummed to himself as he squirted light polyunsaturated oil into the bottom of the frying pan. The Tower had an automatic food preparation device, but nothing beat good old-fashioned bacon and eggs made by human hands. Well, fifty percent human. Besides, there was something relaxing about cooking food yourself.

"Birds flyin' high, you know how I feel. Sun in the sky, you know how I feel." Crack. The eggshells broke against the side of the pan, spilling their contents into the pan's base. The slithery yolks and gooey whites hissed and spit wonderfully, bringing up bubbles of golden oil. Even before becoming a Titan, Cyborg had been an athlete and had stuck to a strict diet. It was rare that he allowed himself unhealthy food like this, but he thought he deserved a treat after the work he'd put in last night.

Seems like I'm doing most of the work around here, he thought to himself. Robin and Starfire had returned just before midnight. Beast Boy was still nowhere to be seen, which was probably for the best, because the sight of Cyborg cooking his animal friends would have only upset him.

"Breeze driftin' on by, you know how I feel." Cyborg slid in a couple of bacon rashers, which made satisfying crackling noises as they wallowed in oil. "Mmm." The aroma of frying pig wafted through the kitchen.

The doors to the living room breezed open and Kid Flash strolled in, stretching. It was the first time Cyborg had seen him moving at something resembling normal human speed. His red hair was tousled and he wore a pair of red pyjamas instead of his usual suit.

"Morning, Tin Man," the speedster said. "Man, did I have a good night's sleep. That was your guest bedroom? You sure got a nice place here. Something smells great."

"Oh, no, this is mine. My preciousss. Make your own."

"Chillax. Lord of the Rings references? I didn't think you were a geek."

"Beast Boy would have appreciated it."

"Just proves my point, doesn't it. Say, where is Shrek Junior, anyway?"

"He hasn't come b -"

"Yeah, I don't really care. Where's Starfire?"

"I dunno. I haven't seen her since she went out last night. With Robin." Cyborg let that sink in for a couple of seconds. He flipped the bacon and worried at the eggs with his spatula.

Kid Flash looked troubled. "Is there something going on between Starfire and Robin?"

"Yeah." Cyborg tried not to sound too gleeful. "There's been something going on between them for a long time."

"Oh." Kid Flash slumped a little. Then he said, "I don't suppose Starfire is one of those modern girls who believes in open relationships and free love?"

Cyborg shrugged. "Well, from what I understand of Tamaranean culture, they're quite big on openness and free love…"

"Really?" Kid Flash perked up.

"But not on free sex."

"Oh." Kid Flash sagged again. His disappointment didn't last long, though. Apparently his super speed included an amazingly fast ability to recover from rejection. "Well, there are lots of other hot girls around here. Mind you, Starfire would've been nice. They don't make 'em on Earth like they do on Tamaran."

"Well… You know, Starfire has an older sister who sometimes visits Earth. Maybe I could introduce you to her sometime."

"Is she hot?"

"Is she hot? Dude, she is something else. A real killer. She's got half the galaxy chasing her." Cops, mostly.

"Sweet. You'd introduce me to her? Thanks, bro. I'll owe you one."

"Anytime, bro." Cyborg pictured the meeting between Kid Flash and Blackfire. He imagined it would begin with Kid Flash using a corny pick-up line, and end with Blackfire tossing Kid Flash's crushed, deep-frozen balls into a supernova. Cyborg was so amused by this fantasy that he almost let his breakfast burn. Cursing under his breath, he rescued his meal and carried his loaded plate to the breakfast table.

"Does this thing work?" Kid Flash asked, standing before the food preparation device.

"Sure does. Just ask it for whatever you want and it'll make it for you, provided we have the ingredients."

"Okay. I want a tall, slim alien girl with red hair, green eyes, golden skin and two big, bouncy -"

Whoosh. The doors to the living room popped open again and Starfire sailed in.

"Good the morning, friends!" she cried rapturously as she floated in mid-air surrounded by a corona of flame coloured hair, her hands clasped before her – well, there was no other word for it – bosom.

"Good morning," said Kid Flash. To Cyborg he added, "Wow, you really know how to build machines."

Cyborg looked at Starfire through Kid Flash's eyes, imagining that he was seeing her for the first time. She was so happy today, she looked even more radiant than usual (Starfire had explained that emotions had dramatic effects on Tamaranean physiology). She hovered on the spot, her round face lit by its upturned emerald cat-eyes. Her golden-orange skin had that slight metallic sheen to it that hinted at her alien ancestry. Her hair trailed behind her like a cloak of red starlight. And her body… well, she was beautiful. Cyborg had forgotten, partly because he'd spent so much time with her and partly because he didn't look at women that way any more.

What was the point? Most of the women he'd met since his accident had looked at him with that strange mixture of revulsion, kindness and pity in their eyes. Good old Victor Stone. Such a brilliant mind. Such a nice guy. So dependable, reliable. So sweet. Too bad he's a cripple. Oh, poor thing. Poor broken thing. He's only half a man. There would be girls out there willing to take him, but he would die before he had someone date him out of pity. In the years since his accident he'd turned so much of his life around. He'd made his metal prison into an instrument of freedom, turned it from a symbol of weakness into one of power. He'd realised that just because his father's beloved science had rebuilt him didn't mean that his father had won. Cyborg was his own man and his life was in his own hands. He'd learnt to accept that he was different now, not less. But he still hadn't allowed anyone to love him. Because he still couldn't love himself.

When he'd prepared for his undercover mission to infiltrate the H.I.V.E., he'd programmed his personal holographic projector to mimic his real, human body. His pre-accident body. He'd stood in front of the mirror watching the play of light on his dark brown skin, the ripple of muscle, the elegant choreography of veins. It all felt so right, so much better than the cold, dead ugly metal that usually waited for him in his reflection. And just as he'd come to the verge of tears, Starfire had flown in and embraced him.

"I prefer the original Cyborg," she'd said, referring to his cybernetic body. She had embraced him. Without flinching! With nothing in her eyes but love and friendship! She said that she liked his post-accident body better, and because it was Starfire, he knew it was an honest opinion and not a fake cheery silver lining sentiment: "Well, your life is ruined and you're not human any more, but at least you can fight crime!"

Starfire had seen beauty in him when he couldn't even see it himself. That was the kind of person she was. Only she could have done that. Raven would have told him to accept his body because he had no choice. Starfire showed him how to do it. She just did it – touched him lovingly, as a friend, her soft Tamaranean flesh against his dead robot arms as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She made it seem effortless. Like the sun radiating light, she gave love without any expectation of return. And like the sun, she lit up their little universe.

Kid Flash couldn't see that. Most of the guys who chased after Starfire with drool dripping from their mouths couldn't see that. They were too distracted by her hot body to realise that her real beauty was on the inside. Robin, though, he was different. He was used to looking beneath the surface. He didn't put much stock in appearances. That was what made him such a good detective. Maybe it would also make him a good lover. Cyborg was glad Robin and Starfire were finally together. They would be good for each other. Better Robin than Kid Flash, anyway. Speaking of which…

"Where is Robin, Star?" Cyborg asked.

"I believe he has gone to interrogate the prisoner," replied Starfire. "Kid Flash, once we have broken our fast, let us hurry and visit the Ms Jessica Williamson."

"Sure," said Kid Flash. "But you know, I really think we should be keeping an eye on the True Human League guys."

"Robin gave us our orders," Starfire said.

"Robin didn't see the rally we saw. What do you think, Cyborg?"

Cyborg made a noncommittal noise. "Right now I think we should be more concerned about the people we know want us dead. The True Human League and all that? People being ignorant bigots? That's nothing new, just human nature. We have our priorities. We investigate when they become a threat, not before. But if you saw something that concerned you, go ahead and talk to Robin about it. It can't hurt."

"Okay, I'll do that. I sure hope you're right. I don't want a mob at the door. I guess you'll be okay if they come for us. You were born fully human, right? I'm a mutant and Star's an alien."

Cyborg snorted and shook his head. "You really don't understand these people, do you? Do you think it matters to them that I was born a regular human? You think they make rational decisions? You think if a mob comes after us they're going to stop and DNA test everyone and check their ID papers before they stab us and beat us to death and burn us? Hell no. They'll go for anyone who looks different or acts different or thinks different, anyone who doesn't fit inside the narrow vision of right and wrong in their tiny minds. I look less human than you or Starfire. Big scary robot man? Doesn't help that I'm black, either. Trust me, if a mob comes I'll be the first to go. Beast Boy second, 'cos he's green. The rest of you could pass as normal humans."

"Please, let us not talk of such things," said Starfire. "No mob shall come for us. And if they do try to come for you first, friend Cyborg, they shall not have you. I will put myself between you and them."

Cyborg nodded. "I know you will, Star. I know you will."