Chapter 10: A Matter of Faith
Disclaimer: I do not own any DC characters or logos.
Earth 2 - Watchtower
Nightwing's eyes widened beneath his mask as he heard these last few words, his mouth opening slightly. Realizing he had lost his composure, the dark-clad hero quickly covered up the gesture with his trademark scowl. Cyborg's comment about Beast Boy felt like a blow to the gut for the young vigilante, and he soon found himself unable to maintain eye contact with the prisoner. Although neither hero spoke for several minutes, the tension in the air thickened considerably, making it difficult for either of them to resume the conversation.
Realizing the betrayal of his own thoughts, the former boy wonder shook his head to clear away any doubts before addressing his friend. "The Beast Boy we knew is long dead! You're only deluding yourself by projecting your regret onto someone else!"
"You're the one who's lost it, man!" Cyborg shot back with a grim expression, his eyes moving towards the shackles on his wrists. "Talking to this Beast Boy made me remember the kind of person I really am… The kind of people we used to be."
"Just because he reminds you of our friend, doesn't mean he is!" the masked hero warned, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"I talked to him, and it felt just like old times…" the half-robot replied, the tiniest of smiles gracing his bloodied features.
Dick Grayson grit his teeth in response to the statement. "You and I both know that isn't true, especially since you already acknowledged that this Beast Boy was from the Justice League's dimension. Seeing what he did to you is proof that he's too dangerous to be kept alive!"
The mechanical hero looked slightly taken aback by the harshness of the statement, but after a moment he could only nod his head with a sense of disgrace. To his one-man audience it looked as though he had repented, but this couldn't have been any farther from the truth. Cyborg wasn't ashamed by his own beliefs anymore, instead he pitied how low his friends had fallen in the last few years. Ever since the death of their shape-shifting friend, the Titans had slowly fallen into darkness one at a time.
It was painful to be thinking clearly for the first time in years, because now he could see the inevitable truth they had all cast aside in exchange for power. Even so, the things he had said to Supergirl back in Titans Tower were still true. Even if his superiors executed him as a traitor, Cyborg knew that he would leave behind no regrets. He had come to his senses for the first time since the murder of Lex Luthor at the hands of their leader, and despite the consequences of his actions, he actually felt happy with himself.
The robotic man's smile unnerved Nightwing, causing the latter to fire up. "What's so funny?"
"Strange how you sounded just like Superman a second ago." answered the prisoner.
"Just what are you suggesting? You know that everything I said was the truth!" Dick retaliated.
"Which is exactly why I want you to shut up and hear what I have to say! Why don't you try and remember what it was like to think before the Justice Lords started doing it for you?" Cyborg screamed, his brutal words silencing the other man. He took a deep breath, waiting to see if his friend would interrupt before speaking again. "From what we know, the Justice League's world and ours used to be a lot alike before Lex Luthor became president?"
The former boy wonder frowned. "After that happened, we evolved in order to survive."
"You're missing the point…" Cyborg hissed through grit teeth, silently biting back the pain as his wounds began to reopen.
"Then please enlighten me." Dick Grayson challenged his friend's statement, a note of impatience hidden beneath.
His former teammate only frowned. "The fact is that the major differences between our world and the Justice League's world started happening after BB was executed by the government. Because of that, the Beast Boy who came from that world is exactly the same as the friend we lost."
Nightwing took a step away as if he were afraid standing too close to his friend would place him at risk of catching a deadly virus. He couldn't find a way to fully deny the sense of logic that he just been shoved into his face, but his pride prevented him from fully believing what he was hearing. Had he been a lesser man, the young vigilante would have bolted from the room and slammed the door behind him to block out the conflicting knowledge.
Cyborg's poisoned expression tightened into a bittersweet grin. "Don't you get it yet? We're the ones who changed! Beast Boy hasn't, which is why he reminded me of the friend we lost. He's exactly the same, and because of that he made me remember the way things are supposed to be."
"I… We… That's not… …" Every time he tried to make formulate a counter argument, he found himself unable to form the right words.
"Wake up and look around… The human race is terrified of us! Police are killing people in the street for committing misdemeanors!" the half-robot bellowed, his screams reverberating off of the thick metal walls of his cell. "Is this the way things are supposed to be?"
"Shut up!" Nightwing seethed dangerously, his face contorting in a strange mix of rage and confusion. As he attempted to come up with a way to answer his friend, the young vigilante felt his body quivering violently, his hands clenching into fists.
The half-robot ignored the display and continued speaking. "Raven turned herself into a monster to cope with the pain of losing Beast Boy! I was arrested and nearly killed just for saving my best friend from that crazy bitch, Supergirl! And you… You turned the woman you loved into a robot because she stood up for her own beliefs!"
"I said… SHUT UP!" Nightwing's cool exterior evaporated in an instant, his right hand tearing a birdarang from his utility belt and hurling it at the mechanical hero with as much force as he could muster.
The projectile stuck into the wall less than an inch from Cyborg's face, causing him to close his eyes for fear of being slashed by the flying object. Craning his neck around, he was relieved to find that the object had missed, but the fact that Nightwing had reacted so coldly only served to further his own point. Realizing he hadn't breathed in the last ten seconds, the robotic man exhaled deeply to release the tension in his body, his eyes settling on his friend with a fearsome intensity that would have made anyone uncomfortable.
"I would seem you've forgotten your place." Nightwing turned his back to the robotic man, doing his best to keep his hands from trembling as he headed for the door.
"Nice shot! The fact that you attacked a defenseless man, let alone one of your best friends, only proves my point." the prisoner's bruised face displayed a sense of sorrow for his teammate. "You knew that everything I said was true… That's why you lashed out, and that's also why that last shot missed!"
The dark-clad vigilante hesitated for a moment before turning to face his friend once more. "What makes you think that?"
"Because I know how good you are with those toys, and the hero I knew would never have missed an unmoving target at point-blank range." The half-robot hero replied almost mockingly.
"Don't give me any of that! Every situation you described earlier is much more complicated than you seem willing to believe." he answered coolly.
Cyborg spat on the ground as he felt the shackles tightening on his wrist. "I know that's a load of crap, and so do you!"
The former boy wonder looked away. "I was forced to cooperate in order to save Starfire's life. She was blacklisted by the Superman for speaking out against his policies and charged with treason against the Justice Lords. Do you have any idea what they would have done to her if I hadn't agreed to the procedure?"
"That computer chip inside her head made her into a robot! I would know!" the imprisoned hero remarked, his arms tugging at his bindings. "The Dick Grayson I knew back when we were kids would have fought tooth and nail to save her, even if it meant the ultimate sacrifice. You wouldn't have been alone either! I would have done anything to help!"
"And where would we be then?" the vigilante stepped forward challengingly. "We would have been executed, and all of us would be dead. I chose the lesser of two evils… I chose to save her life and place my services in the hands of the greater good! As harsh as it may seem, the Justice Lords made a world without crime!"
"I used to think the same thing until Beast Boy helped me see the truth." The mechanized hero added with a new sense of respect for the green shape shifter.
"Sometimes doing the right thing isn't always easy. You of all people should understand this."
Cyborg could only sigh in response to this, having grown tired of the conversation at this point. Whether it was a combination of Nightwing's stubbornness or simply a result of Superman's powerful indoctrination, the robotic hero realized that until his friend was personally willing to accept the truth, he might as well be arguing with a wall. Perhaps the decision concerning Starfire's fate had scarred him to the point where the man that had once led the Teen Titans had died long ago.
Regardless of the reason it seemed as though Dick Grayson was no longer willing to accept his own responsibility for what had happened. Cyborg had poked several holes in the logic of absolute justice preached by the Justice Lords, and still Nightwing refused to see the truth behind this nightmare of a world.
"When we first met, you said that Batman's stubbornness was one of the reasons you left Gotham, but it looks like you're just as bad as he was."
"You don't know what you're talking about!" the former boy wonder hissed dangerously, his shoulders tensing up at the unwanted comparison. "He was a manipulative sneak, and to make it worse he was crazier than you would ever know."
"If he's half as crazy as Superman, than I can see why things didn't turn out so well."
"Nightwing did not even dignify the statement with an answer. "In addition, the old man was also led astray by the Justice League's Batman, and almost ruined everything we worked so hard to build.."
"I take it back… At least he had a shred of common sense and tried to put things right!" the metallic hero shot back. "You're just too damn stubborn to realize that all of us made the wrong choice, and that's the reason why the rest of the world went to Hell! If anything, you're about ten times as stubborn than Batman was!"
Something inside the young vigilante snapped again. "That's enough!"
He raised his right fist, he spun around and planted it into his friend's jaw with a brutal upward motion. The robotic man choked back a cry of pain along with several curse words, his body unable to recoil due to the fact the high-tech binders that chained him to the wall. A loud metallic crunch sounded as the blow struck his face, and the only thing that had stopped Nightwing from breaking the man's face were his robot components.
Dick Grayson recoiled his fist, looking up to see that several of cuts on his friend's face had opened and were now bleeding profusely. He was shocked to see the other man suffering in silence, his fist shaking as he realized what he had just done. Now that his mind had been cleared of the shroud of anger, the vigilante tried to wiped the blood from his hands, but to no avail. The shock seemed to shock him back to reality long enough to make him realize that he had so callously struck an injured man for the second time that evening.
"I regret it… There's no excuse for what I did just now." Nightwing's expression softened as he uttered these words.
When the prisoner did not answer him, Nightwing continued his procession to the exit undisturbed, his right hand quivering again. Despite his normally unshakable demeanor, the conversation had actually taken quite a bit out of him. The young vigilante had come here in an attempt to talk some sense into his friend and possibly formulate a story by which they could acquit him of his treason, but instead all he had done was further.
A tight knot had formed in the boy's stomach during their discussion, but he did his best to ignore it as he shut the door behind him, silently hoping to leave any doubts locked in the room with Cyborg. He would do his best at his friend's hearing to reduce the sentence, but something in the back of his mind told him that Superman would hear none of it if the entire council was involved. Whenever a superhero went rogue, the punishment was usually passed onto the higher ups to decide the penalty, and after hearing Cyborg's testimony, the odds were not looking good.
Dick Grayson's heart sunk as he exited the room, only to be greeted by the cold lifeless eyes of the woman he had once loved. She was quickly shunted aside by J'onn J'onzz, who had also been awaiting his return.
"Would I be correct to assume that you are finished with the prisoner?" interrogated the Martian.
"The appearance of the Justice League's Beast Boy has him acting strange." The younger hero replied tactfully, his eyes migrating towards the floor. "This intruder to our dimension possesses dangerous potential, especially if he could talk someone as loyal as Cyborg into helping him escape us."
The Martian withdrew a small card key from his cloak and slashed it through the slot near the door, activating the electronic lock so that the prisoner could not escape even if he broke free from his binds. He glanced up at the light above the door and waited for it to turn green, the sudden change in color signifying that the security system was armed. Giving the entry a gentle tap, the alien hero placed a hand on his colleague shoulder and guided him back to the hall, Starfire following along behind them.
"I understand that Cyborg is your friend, but you must realize the danger he could pose to us if allowed to roam free." J'onn J'onzz reasoned emotionlessly.
Nightwing nodded his head with a sense of regret. "No matter what the case is, I still plan on speaking on his behalf when the hearing comes up."
The green-skinned alien's expression remained unreadable walked alongside him. "I am certain that Superman will allow you to have your say, but the final decision will be passed down by the council as a whole. I sincerely hope that your conversation with Cyborg has given you a convincing argument for his innocence, because as it stands, I cannot see your friend escaping the ultimate punishment."
The younger hero swallowed the lump that had begun to form in his throat, his face composing itself into an angry scowl. "It's all the fault of that Beast Boy from the Justice League's world!"
"Sentimentality on Cyborg's behalf will not excuse him of these crimes. The fact that he assaulted a Justice Lord, let alone Superman's cousin, can and will not be ignored under any circumstances." The Martian answered in his emotionless drawl.
Nightwing planted his right fist into his left hand. "When our forces on Earth finally capture that little green nuisance, I plan on having some words with him."
"If that was your intention, then I regret to inform that you may not get the chance…"
Dick Grayson froze in his tracks as he heard this, causing the others to do the same. He reached up and seized the alien by the shoulder, forcing him around so that they were both facing each other. "Just what do you mean by that? Is there something going on that I should know about?"
"Superman dispatched Major Force to deal with this threat. We both know how dangerous that murderer can be without question, but in this case he was given permission to use deadly force."
J'onn J'onzz responded with an aura of unshakable calm.
The young vigilante hid his surprise behind his even tone "You're plan on killing the Justice League's Beast Boy without even subjecting him to an official interrogation?".
"This decision was handed down from the top and will not be rescinded… The fugitive Beast Boy is to be terminated on sight, and thereby executed without trial."
Despite having wanted to wring the neck of the green changeling after what he had done to Cyborg, the idea of allowing that madman to kill on sight rattled him just as much. Nightwing had seen Major Force fight before, and knew that his radioactive powers were enough to reduce entire houses to ash with a single blast. Even the hardest steel alloys were no match for the sheer destructive force of his highly concentrated energy attacks, meaning that a single hit would mean death for most people.
Dick Grayson glanced over at his companions, giving her a subtle motion. "Go on ahead and prepare the Javelin for immediate takeoff."
"I shall do as commanded." The Tamaranean Princess bowed her head before departing.
Once she was gone, the brooding man couldn't help but ponder some of the things he had been told during the interrogation. The more he considered Cyborg's testimony, the worse he felt, and slowly he began to ponder the possibility that his friends had been right. Realizing the sheer madness of this thought, he quickly pushed it aside in an attempt to stop doubts from forming. Such thoughts were considered treason, and at the moment he was accompanied by the group's resident telepath.
The Martian stopped mid-step and glanced over at him, causing the younger hero's eye to twitch out of sheer nervousness. "So, what do you plan to do now that your friend has only worsened his own situation?"
"I'll testify on his behalf regardless, even if it means taking the case directly to Superman."
"You are free to do as you wish, but do not forget your place when speaking to him." J'onn shook his head like a disapproving father. "If you truly insist on doing this, then I shall try to arrange for a meeting so that you may address the rest of the council concerning this decision."
"I would appreciate it." Nightwing replied with a respectful nod, quickly turning his back on the alien as he followed after Starfire.
Navigating he halls of the metallic behemoth, he quickly found the way to the space station's docking bay where his personal ship was waiting. His transport was a large silver and green shuttle with a much larger and more streamline design than a normal Javelin-class cruiser. Having been specially built for his personal use, it was naturally equipped with better weapons and a special stealth system originally designed by Batman back when he had been among the Justice Lords. There were several heroes and staff members present, but Nightwing ignored them and continued to his ship.
Starfire floated over to his side as two attendants prepared the gates. "All is ready, my lord."
"Good…" he answered despondently, subconsciously working to avoid her empty gaze.
The brainwashed Tamaranean followed along in his wake, her head bowed slightly and her hands gently resting against each other. "If I may be so bold as to ask, what shall be our next course of action? After our recent encounter with Cyborg, surely you would wish to join the other units in searching for that escaped prisoner back on Earth?"
"I'm honestly not sure what to do next…" He motioned to the pilots to start the spacecraft before speaking again. "Regardless of what the others think, my position prevents them from exerting any direct control over me. I will do whatever I please."
As the two former Titans boarded the ship, the automatic doors slammed shut behind him with a metallic clash. As Nightwing sat in the commander's chair behind the two pilots, he began wondering what he would do if they actually did execute his friend. Thoughts of the Justice League's Beast Boy also floated through his mind, creating a strange mix of anger and regret at having not saved his friend all those years ago. Realizing the possibility of his own thoughts betraying him, he shoved these feelings to the back of mind.
The one thing that he was certain of was that it would be best for everyone if they continued to hide this information from Raven. Living in her temple she rarely left unless given direct orders by the Justice Lords themselves. Useful as she was to the cause, they all acknowledged her mental instability as a major liability. If the blue-clad witch ever caught wind of their inter-dimensional visitor, who knew what she would do or how her tortured mind would react.
Earth 1 – Titans Tower
Raven had returned home to Jump City after failing to find anyone that could help her aboard the Watchtower. Despite the interesting insight that he had provided in response to her predicament, meeting the Question had only made her feel ever more futile than ever before. The idea that billions of dimensions existed and Beast Boy could have been sent to any one of them was something that she would have preferred not to know. Instead, the concept made her infinitely more frustrated, which had resulted in her damaging several spell books.
The young sorceress understood anger all too well, having the blood of a demon running through her veins. She hadn't felt this upset in years ever since Trigon was destroyed, yet the emotion that plagued her now was not rage. Having resigned herself to her dark existence at a young age, Raven had long become numb to misery and misfortune, accepting such trivial things as a part of life. This philosophy also served to keep her powers in check, preventing her from accidentally causing accidents, and at times she even reveled in her own despair as a way of coping with it.
Now for the first time in her life, Raven was completely overwhelmed with feelings of sorrow and remorse, and all of it was caused by the disappearance of her best friend. The years she had spent in solitude following the splitting of the Teen Titans were some of the worst in her life, and only through studying alongside Doctor Fate was she able to cope with it. Now the team had come back together years later, only for her to feel the pain of loss.
She had found happiness again after so long of being alone, and now one of her friends was missing again with no sign of coming back. To make matters worse, she had been indirectly responsible for his disappearance. Her destroyed barrier had dropped Beast Boy into the energy vortex produced by Control Freak's machine, and as a result she silently cursed herself for allowing him to fall. Before her thoughts could delve deeper into depression, the doors to the living room opened, revealing the large form of the team's technology expert.
Cyborg flicked on the light switch, his human eye widening in surprise as he realized there was someone sitting on the couch. Even without magical powers he could still feel a cold sense of dread coming from the blue-haired girl. With an air of caution, the half-robot crossed the room and planted himself on the couch directly across from her. Slumping backwards like a defeated dog, Raven's eyes settled on her new visitor for a moment before wandering off towards the ceiling.
Realizing that she wasn't going to talk to him, the metallic hero chose to force the subject. "So Rae, how you holding up?"
She looked back at him with a hollow expression in response to his tactlessness, the gesture making him flinch. "What do you think?" The blue-clad demoness replied, her tone of voice coming out much colder than intended.
Her half-metal friend rubbed the back of head with an apologetic frown. "That bad huh?"
"It's hopeless." Raven blurted out suddenly, quietly refusing to meet his eyes.
"BB may have taken a tumble into a wormhole, but that doesn't mean he's dead! You just spent the better part of last few days looking for some hocus pocus in those books at Doc Fate's tower, and now you're saying it's hopeless."
She gave him a genuinely sad expression, the gesture seemingly out of place on her normally calm visage. "I've asked everyone in the Justice League that might be able to help, and so far we're not any closer than when we started."
"If there's something we've learned after all this time, it's that nothing is impossible." The robotic hero reassured her.
"I never said it was impossible, but I've been researching tracking spells along with the laws of temporal displacement. It's abundantly clear that no conventional magic can summon someone back if that person has been lost through space in time, especially if we have no knowledge of where they are." She paused solemnly.
"So it's possible but highly unlikely… For us that's nothing new." He dismissed with a shrug. "I know you liked the whole goth thing when were kids, but I also remember how we never gave up no matter how bad things looked."
Raven's emotionless expression wavered for a second as she continued her explanation. "The theory of universal existence claims that the new dimensions are made through human decisions. Because of this, there would be an infinite number of dimensions to explore, and our Beast Boy could have been sent to any one of them. From what the Question told me…"
"You actually went to visit that crackpot?" Cyborg exclaimed, giving his forehead a heavy handed slap. "No wonder you're so messed up! I would be too if I listened to everything that came out of that guy's invisible mouth!"
"This isn't funny!" Raven screamed, her unbridled frustration reducing a wooden chair across the room to a shower of splinters.
He bolted upright, gently waving his hands in front of him. "I can see why you're upset, but maybe it would be a good idea if you took it down a notch so we could talk about this without any more explosions."
Realizing her own lack of control, the sorceress took a deep breath, looked embarrassed as she gathered herself again. "I didn't want to believe it first either, but according to Doctor Fate, the phenomenon that the Question described is actually a true principle of the space-time continuum. The truth of the matter is, my magic may not be powerful enough for Beast Boy to find a way out of this situation. This is of course assuming that he's still alive…"
"Well of course he's still alive!" the metallic hero smiled proudly as he dismissed the notion. "BB's a real fighter, and I guarantee that no matter where he ended up, he's trying to find a way back home."
"I just don't want you to get your hopes up in case something bad happened to him." Raven replied with a downcast expression. "I know what it feels like to have hope and then lose it all when the truth of the situation finally hits. That's how I lived my entire life…"
"You're not fooling anyone!" Cyborg cut her off, his expression becoming deathly serious. "The reason you're so upset about this developments is because you care more about Beast Boy than all of us put together."
Raven looked started by this sudden accusation. "Huntress said something like that to me when we met." She murmured more to herself than anyone else. "I just don't know…"
"I'm no expert about this kind of thing, but either way it must be pretty obvious if a head case like her can say it too."
Raven considered him for a moment as her mind began playing back memories of her times with Beast Boy. From the very beginning he had wanted nothing more than to be her friend and make her laugh, even though she constantly spurned his attempts at doing both. It hadn't always been intentional, but looking back she had been pretty harsh towards him when they were kids, despite the fact that he always had her back no matter what.
Back then she found it laughable that anyone would ever be attracted to a deplorable half-demon like her, but looking back she couldn't help but wonder if he ever did feel that way towards her. Her thoughts returned to the moment when she first saw him again after so many years of separation, and she found herself smiling at how much he had grown while still being her same goofy friend on the inside.
"Maybe you guys were right about me…" she mused out loud, her expression softened as she considered the prospect.
The robotic hero let out a small chuckle. "Now, how many years did it take you to figure out what the rest of us had been guessing at for years?"
"He never gave up on me, no matter what I said or did." She muttered to herself, seemingly ignoring her friend's previous rambling. After several seconds of complete silence, a sense of life returned to her eyes, and everything seemed to become clear. "He always made me feel like I could rely on him for anything… Which is exactly why I shouldn't give up on him either!"
"Booyah! That's the crazy demon we all know and love!" Cyborg shouted, his upbeat demeanor instantly returning the room's tense atmosphere to normal.
Despite the glimmer of hope that had permeated the room, Raven still appeared as ragged as ever. She hadn't slept in several days aside from passing out for short spans of time while reading the books in Doctor Fate's library. As a result her neat blue hair had become tangled and unkempt and bags had formed under her eyes. Nevertheless, she seemed much less depressed than before, as though a shroud of hopelessness and despair had been lifted.
The smile on her lips wavered, her usual façade quickly returning. She stood up and stepped around the table so that she was standing closer to her friend. "I still don't know if anyone will be able to find him, but until we succeed I plan to do everything in my power to help no matter what the cost."
Cyborg placed hand on her shoulder, causing her to look him in the eye. "Ever since the Secret Society of Villains broke up, business has been a lot slower around the Watchtower that usual. J'onn has half the league's members out searching for clues, and even the Doom Patrol knows he's missing."
She let the tension in her shoulders drain away and gave him a brisk nod. "What about Nightwing and Starfire? Have they found anything that might prove useful yet?"
"He went back to Gotham City to see if Batman could help, but since the old man was too busy to get involved, Dick took Batgirl with him to shake down some of the crooks in Gotham in case someone had any idea where Control Freak might have run off to. They think that the couch potato might be able to help, considering it was his technology that sent BB away."
"Did they find anything significant to the case, or is Nightwing acting on a whim?"
The metallic hero shrugged. "Last I heard they found some evidence connecting the case to some whacked out crime ring in Central City. A few hours ago they grabbed Starfire for backup and ran off to investigate the situation."
Raven took a second to think about her own options, her mind quickly piecing together a plan of her own. While the mystic arts seemed unable to provide her with an answer to their problems, she had begun to consider other options. Despite her predisposition to the dark arts, she had yet to research the more heinous side of magic in search of a way to save Beast Boy. In addition to that, their friends had also brought technology into consideration, something she had yet to properly account for.
With a wave of her hand, the young sorceress conjured a portal of swirling black energy, immediately catching her friend's attention. "Going somewhere, Rae?" He cocked an eyebrow, looking genuinely curious.
"Sitting around here isn't going to solve anything. We have to explore every option, no matter how obscure." She replied hastily, stepping through the shadows mid-sentence.
Cyborg took a step towards the vortex as if beckoning to her. "What do you plan on doing?"
He received no answer as the portal closed around her, leaving him standing alone in the center of the living room. Sighing in frustration at being left out of the loop by his friends, he decided it was better to head back to the Watchtower for the time being. Crossing the room, he turned off the lights and typed in a sequence of numbers in the panel on the wall, causing the building's security grid to reactivate upon his departure. The metallic hero reached up to his earpiece before pressing the button to contact the dispatchers aboard the space station.
"This is the Watchtower, how may we be of assistance." The Martian's deep tone issued from the speaker of the communicator.
"This is Cyborg, requesting immediate transport from Titans Tower." He responded.
Mr. Terrific's voice answered from the other end. "Roger that, we hear you loud and cloud! We'll beam you up momentarily!"
"That would be appreciated…" Seconds later a strange light engulfed the robotic hero's body, and then he was gone.
Earth 1 – Central City
It had been a long day searching for clues in Central City, and so far Nightwing's team hadn't found much concerning Control Freak's whereabouts. Accompanied by Starfire and Batgirl, the trio had spent several hours searching every shadow business, criminal hangout, and suspicious institution that they could find. They had only recently stopped to rest at a local coffee shop, although their superhero costumes attracted unwanted attention from the local clientele. Of course due to the Justice League's worldwide fame, no one asked questions.
Nevertheless it had been an interesting day, having spent it with both his ex-girlfriend and his current girlfriend, and surprisingly enough the pair seemed to get along relatively well. Starfire's slightly naïve yet upbeat nature meshed well with Barbara's clever wit and cynical humor, and to top it off it seemed as though neither girl felt awkward about spending time with the other. Now seated in the small restaurant, they spoke casually to one another.
Twiddling his thumbs idly, the alien princess finally worked up the nerve to ask the question that had been sitting on the edge of her mouth for days. "So from what I have been told, you were romantically involved with Nightwing before our friends came together and formed the Teen Titans?" she hoped to be as casual as possible.
"We were pretty young, and it was just a case of puppy love…" Barbara said with a wink, her comment earning a small grunt from her ex-boyfriend.
Starfire wore an innocently confused expression, although a look of dawning realization came to her as she remembered her relationship with Beast Boy's pet, Silky. "Oh, so this would mean that you only loved him the same way that humans would show affection for a pet?"
"What!" Batgirl snorted loudly, causing her to spit a mouthful of coffee back into the cup. "Wait a minute…"
The Tamaranean glanced between her two teammates with a self-conscious look. "You have my apologies… Did I say something wrong?"
"Don't worry about it." Dick Grayson looked up from his own drink with an amused look before turning to his ex-girlfriend. "Starfire's been living on Earth for years now, but she's still not that good when it comes time to human expressions."
"All right, I guess that explains a lot." Wiping her mouth with a napkin, Barbara Gordon set down the styrofoam container in her hand and nudged it away to avoid drinking her own backwash. Once the mess had been cleaned up, she turned to the alien girl and smiled. "What I meant was that we dated for a while, but it didn't get too serious."
Starfire ran a finger through her long red hair, gently returning the other girl's gesture. "I did not mean to pry, although it is interesting to know that Nightwing has had more than one friend who is a girl." She responded nervously.
Barbara spared a sideways glance at her ex-boyfriend. "She meant to say girlfriend, right?"
"Yup!" Dick Grayson answered her question before shifting his focus back to the alien princess. "Batgirl and I dated for well over a year, but with all the costumed crime-fighting chewing up our time and the fact that we had different opinions of Batman's methods…"
"We just grew apart." Batgirl finished for him, gently folding her hands in her lap as she spoke. "Shortly after we split up, he left Gotham City to do some training and eventually met you and the other Titans. We met again after your team disbanded, although since the breakup had been a little awkward, neither of us really talked about it much after the fact."
The orange-skinned girl had been listening intently up until this point, although she couldn't help but ask more questions. "And you are both still friends, despite what happened in the past?"
Her teammates glanced at each other before Nightwing answered. "We spent years watching each other's backs while cleaning up the streets of Gotham. Maybe things were a little weird for a while, but would take a lot more than the loss of a relationship to make us hate each other."
"We never stopped being friends." Barbara agreed with an air of confidence. "I can't say he took it well when I agreed to stay with Bruce, although there were some…" she paused for a moment and seemed to look away. "Extenuating circumstances."
"If you are uncomfortable with this, I shall not force you to continue." Starfire folded her hands almost eagerly, although her tone was as polite as ever. "Once again, I am sorry."
Batgirl shook her head and seemed almost endeared by the other girl's sincerity. "Don't apologize…"
An awkward silence fell as the couple realized they had delved too far into Barbara's personal life. Nightwing new for a fact that his she had been romantically involved with Batman for a while, but due to the caped crusader's loner personality, it had been doomed to fail from the very beginning. It usually took a lot to upset someone as stubborn and strong-willed as her, but ever since the failed relationship with Bruce, Barbara had been keen to avoid the subject and often swept it aside whenever someone mentioned it. He often guessed that she was bitter about the way things turned out, but having known Batman longer than her, he was not surprised by it.
Seeing that the others had stopped talking, Dick Grayson drained the small dregs of coffee left in his cup and relaxed. It took a minute or two of silence for the tension to subside, but the girls quickly returned to their previous topic. After several more minutes passed, Nightwing glanced at the clock hanging from the wall of the shop, now realizing exactly how long they had wasted lounging around.
He stood up, immediately gaining the attention of his teammates. "All right… We've spent enough time resting. Considering how little we know so far, I think it's high time we get back to the mission at hand."
"I suppose that would be wisest." Starfire chimed in, cementing her decision with a stern nod. "The possibility exists that Beast Boy could be in danger, and yet we have found no clues as to how we may enact a rescue."
As if on cue, the ground beneath their feet shook violently, followed by an Earth-shattering explosion. Several customers panicked as the noise intensified, one woman dropped her cup on the ground as decorations began falling off the shop's walls. Batgirl and Starfire stood up and bolted to the windows just in time to see an explosion in the distance, their eyes widening in shock. Once the thrill subsided, the three heroes shared a collective stare as they realized the irony of what had just happened, although Barbara was the first to recover.
"Are you psychic or something?" she mused out loud, gently cocking an eyebrow.
"This isn't time for jokes." Nightwing shot back, looking equally as concerned. He threw the door open and began running towards the source of the smoke, the others following his lead into the streets. "If there's a major crisis going on outside, then there's a good chance that some of this town's resident super villains are involved."
Starfire's feet left the ground as she took flight, although she chose to remain close to her teammates rather than flying ahead. "As heroes it is our responsibility to address the threat, but how can we be certain that this has anything to do with our own predicament?"
"We got some solid leads on this Control Freak guy from a reliable source back home." Barbara Gordon explained.
Nightwing nodded to affirm her claim. "The two of us subjected an old friend to some interrogations in the back room of he Iceberg Lounge. Assuming that the Penguin was telling us the truth, the Central City rogues might know where Control Freak is holding up."
The trio rounded another street, the two humans showing surprising agility even when compared to their alien companion. They soon found themselves standing outside of a laboratory located in the heart of the city, fire shooting out of the windows as the inside of the building was destroyed. The main entry to the building shot open as the billowing clouds of smoke poured through the newly opened exit, closely followed by several scientists and other workers as they ran to the safety of the streets.
"How did this happen?" Dick Grayson called out to the fleeing crowd, only for his question to be subsequently ignored by the panicked citizens.
"Look up there!" Batgirl added nervously, pointing up to the top of the building.
Starfire searched the surroundings for the source of the trouble, finding an answer relatively quickly as her eyes moved towards the roof. Standing atop the building was a man wearing a white jump suit with and red-tinted goggles. An orange strap stretched across the front of his uniform, holding a weapon holster over the left side of his upper chest, and a matching belt orange and gray belt covered his waist area. Using the flamethrower in his hand, the villain continued to set more portions of the building ablaze, occasionally reaching into his utility belt to lob explosives into the streets.
Rather than wait for her cue, the Tamaranean Princess took the element of surprised and slammed into the fiery villain with all of her might, sending him flying off of the roof with minimal effort. Seeing that their target was vulnerable, Batgirl reacted by tossing a device at their falling enemy, her weapon releasing thick steel cords that wrapped around their prey and bound his limbs upon impact. This action rendered the flailing man's arms and legs immobile as he finally crashed down onto the cold, dark asphalt.
His attacker immediately rejoined her friends in the street, although it was the former Titan leader who pulled the newly captured villain to off of the roads and onto a sidewalk. They surrounded him from all sides in case the enemy attempted to escape, ignoring his offensive mix of cursing and outrage. Nightwing kicked him onto his back so that the pyromaniac was looking up at them before making a positive identification.
"Heat Wave… What a pleasant surprise." The male vigilante commented with a note of sarcasm.
"I was expecting the Flash to zoom on in and save the day. Looks like the Justice League's real heroes were too busy saving the universe to show up." The restrained villain replied.
Barbara looked insulted as she addressed the captive. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"
"That's not important…" Nightwing ignored her question as he stepped forward to perform his own interrogation.
Grabbing a fistful of the prisoner's shirt and wrenching him upwards into a standing position. Although the man did not seem nervous, a simple glare from the young vigilante was enough to make him reconsider the situation. The hero's eyes narrow dangerously in a similar manner to Batman, although he would never admit where he had copied his intimidation techniques. The gesture caused a small drop of sweat to trickle from beneath the other man's goggles and down his exposed cheek.
"You're going to explain what's going on here!" he scowled angrily, not leaving him any choice in the matter. When the target proved unresponsive to his commands, Dick Grayson gave the villain an aggressive shake. "That wasn't a request!"
Although his eyes were invisible beneath his tinted eyewear, the corners of his mouth curled into an unpleasant leer. "Let me guess? This is the part where I'm supposed to get scared and spill my guts, right?"
"Talk, or we'll make you regret it!" the young vigilante added through grit teeth.
The scene grew still as quiet as Nightwing realized he had yet to master his mentor's type of interrogation tactics. His grim expression slipped for a fraction of a second, but the gesture did not go unnoticed by the rogue, earning a small look of satisfaction from him. Before he could try to question the villain again, one of his own teammates slammed into him from the side, tackling the young vigilante to the ground while causing him to close his grip on their prisoner. They rolled twice before he realized that Barbara was the one who had hit him.
"What was that for?" he screamed, gently rubbing the side of his head in agony.
She opened her mouth to answer, but soon found it unnecessary as a pair of bladed boomerangs soared inches over their heads. The heroes quickly regrouped as another man emerged from the ruined laboratory. Standing in front of them was a middle-aged man wearing a blue coat and white belt, a long white scarf hung loosely from his neck, and a blue hat with a small arched symbol rested on top of his head. It was clear from the projectiles in his hands that he had been the one to attack them.
Batgirl vaguely recognized him from a profile she had read while looking through the league's files on super villains. "Captain Boomerang!" she exclaimed.
"Aye, good to see that my reputation precedes me!" the blue-clad villain replied in his trademark Australian accent.
While they prepared to assess the new threat, a white colored spray engulfed Starfire's entire body, encasing her in a pillar of solid ice. Dick and Barbara turned just in time to see their teammate preserved like a frog in the ice, her eyes wide in shock and her mouth hanging open as she remained trapped in the pose. Using this distraction, the boomerang themed villain tossed another slew of boomerangs at his captured teammate, cutting the cables that bound Heat Wave in place.
A man wearing a blue and white parka and blue goggles stepped out from behind her frozen form, a freeze gun gripped tightly in his right hand. He shot another blast at Batman's former sidekicks, both the agile back flipped several times to avoid getting caught in the icy assault, both realizing that the enemy had prepared for their interference. Due to the Justice League uniting costumed crime-fighters under the banner, super villains had begun working more closely to avoid being overwhelmed by the well-equipped heroes.
"Glad to see you made it in time for a change, Captain Cold." Captain Boomerang greeted.
"Looks like we've got them outnumbered." The ice-themed villain replied as he picked up the flamethrower on the ground, tossing it towards his colleague.
Heat Wave caught the weapon in mid-air and shot a blast at the heroes, only for them to dodge again. Despite the fact that he had failed to burn either of them, the villain looked much more confident than he had before. "Looks like you kids were way in over you heads without even knowing it!"
The projectile-themed villain withdrew another pair of boomerangs from the inside of his coat. "All right boys… Let'em have it!" he screamed, causing the other two rogues to raise their elemental weapons and open fire.
The villain closed in around their prey, forcing them on the defensive with a barrage of freeze blasts, fire, and exploding projectiles. Standing back to back in the center of the streets, they alternated between attacking and dodging, intercepting Captain Boomerang's bladed weapons with their own volley of birdarangs and batarangs. The battle almost seemed like a dance as the former partners helped pulled each other out of the way, both leaping and diving away from attacks while shouting warnings to the others.
Having learned how to fight from Batman, both heroes had practiced together as teenagers, and even after all these years of absence their teamwork was undeniably impressive. Although they had yet to be struck yet, Nightwing was silently impressed by the planning that the villains had done, although his concern for his frozen girlfriend was making it hard to completely focus on the battle at hand.
"We need to free Starfire!" he screamed in an attempt to be heard over the ruckus.
"That would certainly even the odds…" Barbara replied, barely moving her head in time to avoid another of her enemy's projectiles.
Nightwing made a pointing gesture with his hands. "Just hurry up and follow my lead…"
Realizing that their enemies favored long-distance fighting, Dick Grayson shot his grappling hook at the nearest streetlight and pulled himself into the air, withdrawing a birdarang from his belt and disarming Captain Boomerang with a well place throw. The projectile struck his hand, causing him to drop his own weapon as Nightwing swung towards him. Adjusting the angle of his swing, the bird-themed hero kicked the villain in the face.
"Why don't you take a chill like your friend?" Captain Cold shot a blast at the male vigilante, only to miss.
While Nightwing distracted the first two villains, Batgirl was forced to deal with Heat Wave's powerful flamethrowers. Walls of flame spewed from the end of his heat blaster, but the girl's cape seemed fire resistant, and her movements we too quick for him to follow. At the same time she was finding it difficult to catch her adversary off balance due to the nature of his technology, the feat only made more difficult by the fact that they were facing off against an arsonist who relished starting fires and could care less about public safety.
Realizing that the pyromaniac's blasts were getting closer with each second Barbara quickly plotted her course. A mighty gout of flame followed her step, but she had planned for this. Using her own grappling hook to escape the inferno, she pulled herself to safety at the last second, causing the blast to hit the icy pillar where Starfire was imprisoned instead. It only took a moment for the villain to realize what he had done, the heat of his blast weakening the frosty spray that covered the frozen hero.
Starfire's body began glowing with a green shimmer as beams of energy exploded from her eyes and hands, causing the ice around her to shatter like glass as she freed herself. She lashed out like an angry snake towards the nearest villain. Heat Wave ignore Batgirl and turned his attention toward the alien, but she charged through his fiery blast and nailed him in the stomach with a bare-handed punch, sending her opponent crashing through the window of the nearby building.
Captain Boomerang's eyes widening in shock as he saw the body through the wall. "What in blazes was that?"
"The sound of your plan failing!" Nightwing bantered as he delivered a strong left hook to the older man's jaw.
"You broke my nose!" his opponent stumbled backwards, leaving a stream of blood on the street.
"This battle has finally come to an end!" Starfire screamed, as she dove from the sky towards the remaining villains.
She slammed down onto the asphalt with excessive force, instantly creating a small crater and a web of cracks where they had been standing seconds before. Even Nightwing found her display impressive. While he had known her for several years now, their romantic moments often made him forget how immensely powerful she could be when provoked into fighting at full strength. The blow to the Earth caused the ground to shake, causing the villains to lose their footing.
Batgirl disarmed the ice-themed villain with a batarang, cocking an eyebrow as she bore down on the hooded man. "You should give up before this gets out of hand."
"I beg to differ!" Captain Cold drew out his spare freeze ray and pulled the trigger.
The female vigilante realized she had been caught off guard and quickly braced herself, but when the icy blasts never came, she spared a glance at her enemy. Not only had the weapon in his hand refused to fire, but it was also coated in a faint pick glow. Barbara dove away as the weapon exploded in the face of its owner, having been jammed by whatever force had created the strange glow to begin with.
Several yards away, a pair of boomerangs that had been thrown at Nightwing gave off the same pink glow before splintering apart in mid-air, allowing the hero to knock him out with a well-placed karate chop. Once all of the villains were unconscious, the costumed trio frisked the villains to make certain that they didn't have any more weapon before cuffing their respective opponents. Starfire carried two of them over her shoulders as she walked across the street, laying them next to the ring leader that Nightwing had caught.
"It appears this struggle was most successful." The Tamaranean Princess added cheerfully.
Nightwing grimaced as he stared down at the evildoers before turning to his teammates for answers. "I'm not trying to be a downer here, but am I the only one who noticed that weird glow from earlier?"
"Unfortunately I do not remember seeing such a thing." His girlfriend replied earnestly.
"Come to think to think of it, I did see something like that." Barbara Gordon walked up from behind them, gently clutching her injured back with a gloved hand. After straightening herself out, the female vigilante quickly elaborated. "At first I figured it was just a trick of the light, although since you saw it too, I guess we can't both be nuts."
All three teammates stood quietly as they pondered the situation, but their respective trains of thought were interrupted by a shadowy silhouetted emerging from the nearest alley. The lone male of the group reached for his utility belt in response to the possible danger while his girlfriend ignited her hands, both digits casting a green glow indicative of her star bolts. The alien princess stepped forward challengingly, her eyes also taking on the same frightening quality as she rounded on the newcomer.
"Who are you?" Barbara moved to stand beside Starfire, both girls looking equally aggressive.
"The glow you saw was a manifestation of my powers." The figure answered, her soft tones indicating that it was a woman underneath the cloak.
While the revelation did little to calm the nerves of the two girls, Nightwing seemed much less apprehensive than before. He held out an arm in front of them, silently analyzing the girl through the eyeholes of his hero mask. "Show us your face…" he replied suddenly.
The newcomer shifted uneasily before answering. "As you wish…"
Reaching up, the woman removed the hood of her cloak, revealing a pale feminine face, pink tinted eyes, and matching hair styled into two separate points that curved outwards like a pair of horns. Although she appeared older than the last time they had seen her, the face was one that Dick and Starfire had seen several times in the past, both as a friend and as an enemy. Barbara remained lost due to her lack of familiarity with the woman, although the looks worn by her teammates made it clear that they knew her.
"Been a while, hasn't it Jinx?" Nightwing greeted with a suspicious look. "What really makes me curious is why you came here?"
The pink-haired woman sighed with a neutral expression before running a pale hand through her unnaturally colored hair. "Let's just say that it's a long story…"
Note to Readers: Sorry for any errors in spelling or grammar, or typos, but I usually write chapters for this story late at night or when I'm tired. As for the story… For the Earth 2 characters I tried to show the conflicted nature that exists within the tyrants who were once great heroes, particularly Nightwing. Also I gave Raven a partial confession of her personal feelings in this chapter. I know it this chapter might not have been my best work, but maybe I'll be able to get back into the swing of the story in future chapters.
Phew… It took me a while to write this chapter once I decided to try my hand at writing this story again. I was writing a story based on Marvel comics stories for a while, which was a nice break from DC. Hope the next update to this story won't take so long to get to. If anyone who started reading this still cares, please drop me a word so I know that not everyone left. I have a few ideas right now for future chapters, but I still welcome more story ideas, reviews, and comments, because it may help motivate me to possibly finish this story.