"What?" Cyborg exclaimed, jumping up front his seat in front of the computer. "That guy must be crazy!"

"NO!" Robin shouted from the bed. "NO! NO! Don't let them take her!"

"Robin, that guy's not taking anyone," Cyborg assured the shaking Boy Wonder. "Not as long as I'm here." He ran out of the room, initiating a high-tech security system to protect Robin from his arm as the door closed behind him. Even if someone was fool enough to try to break in, this should take care of them. He powered down the hall as fast as he could.

"You must come willingly," The man was explaining as Cyborg came around the corner like a speeding car, "or he won't be saved."

"What happens otherwise?" Raven asked testily.

"He dies." The young man answered in a definite tone.

The apprentice looked fearfully at her master. Would you really... kill him like that, master? she thought. You wouldn't, would you? You're not a murderer, master. Please don't give me a reason to doubt your intentions. She looked up as she heard someone step forward.

"I will go willingly."

"No!" Beastboy and Cyborg shouted together.

"You don't have to do this," Raven said.

"I do," Starfire said, standing straight and tall, her emerald eyes burning with determination.

"Starfire!"

Everyone turned at the sound of the weak outburst to see a pale Robin come limping around the corner. No gloves, no boots, no cape- he had come straight from the medical bay. The pain radiated from his face as he made his way towards them.

"Robin!" Beastboy ran over to help him, putting Robin's arm over his own shoulder. "What are you doing out of bed?" Beastboy asked him.

Robin shook his head and groaned. "Starfire!" he called again, unable to say anything else. Even with Beastboy's help every step sent shocks of pain through every bone, nerve, and muscle of his body. But he kept inching forward.

"Do you not wish to be freed, Robin?" The young man asked.

"Starfire," Robin said yet again, softly, weakly, reaching out to her.

Starfire looked back at him and smiled. "Do not worry, Robin," she said with assurance. "You will be cured very soon." She turned back to the face the man and his apprentice.

"You agree to come with me willingly?" The man asked her.

Starfire nodded. "Yes."

"And you are willing to give up everything you know?"

Starfire cringed for a moment. Everything that I know? My friends, my home, fighting the crime, and having fun with them? In the midst of this twinge of doubt, an image popped into her head. It was a picture of her friends. Robin, Beastboy, and Cyborg playing videogames on the couch; Raven sitting in a corner hiding a smile behind the book she was reading at the boys' childish antics. Then another image took over that one: Robin strapped to a bed, shaking, screaming, flailing, glowing the hurtful orange color on one side and flashing changing colors on the other side. She closed her eyes and opened them, "For Robin's health and freedom from this terrible pain," she replied, "yes."

"You are the only one strong enough to handle this," the young man stated. He handed something to his apprentice.

She took it and timidly approached Cyborg. In her eyes he now seemed to be a great, menacing, monster robot. He probably wants to kill me right now, she thought as he looked down at her, his red eye glowing with deathly rage and his human eye boring a bullet hole through her forehead. Fearful and trembling, she held the item out in her hands towards him with her head bowed and her eyes squeezed shut.

"What is this?" Cyborg asked in a harsh voice, scaring her even more.

Her whole body flinched noticeably before she answered. "An an-antivi-r-rus," she stammered in a small voice.

"A what?" Cyborg demanded, annoyed at her babbling.

"An antivirus," she said again, more clearly this time, but still frightened. "To destroy the probes in your leader's body."

"An antivirus?" Cyborg asked, analyzing the computer chip with his bionic eye. She's right, Cyborg realized. The components of the chip were specially designed to take out whatever was in the probes and shut them down completely.

"Well, uh, thanks," Cyborg mumbled. "I guess."

The apprentice nodded quickly and hurriedly ran back to her master's side.

"As for the biological half of his ailment," her master said loud enough for everyone to hear. He raised his arms with his hands spread. His hands glowed that menacing white.

Everyone turned to the sound of two male teenaged screams. They watched as Beastboy was thrown to the ground off of a glowing white Robin. Robin's scream of pain turned into a moan that sounded like his very breath was being drawn out of him.

At that moment, Starfire gasped as she began to glow white. The light was cool but it burned intensely all over. She began to scream but the sound was cut off as if someone was ramming a waterfall of air down her throat. She began to gasp heavily as if trying to take it all in.

"Starfire!" Raven shouted, but she couldn't do anything. That cursed light! she thought. It suppressing my powers. I can barely think straight!

Are we just gonna let him take Starfire like that? Beastboy wondered helplessly along with his two remaining healthy comrades.

I hate to admit it, Cyborg thought.

But there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop him from taking her, Raven thought reluctantly.

They watched together as, floating in the air, Starfire went from glowing white to flashing colors just as Robin had- except her whole body was in the rainbow act. She screamed and shouted, fidgeting in the air, supposedly looking for something to bang on.

Robin got up from the ground, finding his body perfectly intact. He stood to his feet cautiously, expecting to feel pain anywhere at any second. Nothing. He felt perfectly fine. In fact, this was the best he had felt in months. He looked around. Beastboy was on the ground, Cyborg was standing clutching something in a tight fist, and Raven looked like she was ready to jump on someone. He supposed it was the guy they were all staring at. There was a young girl standing beside him with large eyes the color of the night sky and spiky, fluffy hair. He looked up just in time to see Starfire scream one last time before falling gently into the waiting arms of the young man. Starfire?

"Take care, Titans," the man said in a formal tone. He and his apprentice then stepped back into a white, oval-shaped portal that appeared behind them. It grew in size as it swallowed them, then dimmed and shrank out of sight.

"What just happened?" Robin asked, looking at the sullen teenage faces of his friends for his friends for an answer.

Cyborg looked at the item in his hand then left without a word. Beastboy stared at the place where the man had been standing, seemingly at a lost for word or deed. Robin directed his questioning look to Raven. She shook her head and replied, "That was you being healed."