Chapter 10: Suspicious Circumstances

The Titans alarm startled Raven out of her meditation. Her mind must have been away for at least a couple of hours. In that time she had found out so much about her emotions and herself, she still could not believe what she had heard. But now was not the time to think about herself. Focusing, Raven quickly made her out into the Titans common room where everyone had already gathered.

"Titans! There's been a breach in security at the old steel mill in sector 4—" Came Robin's briefing.

Everyone looked tired and unhappy. Raven had barely even taken note of the time, which now read 2:15 am. The meditation had done her some good, but like the others, she still felt the loss of sacrificing a good night's sleep.

To Raven's surprise, Beast Boy was among the others. He was standing directly across from her, but he didn't look at her. His jaw was set and he appeared ready to fight. He had changed into a fresh uniform, she noticed, as she recalled the very shredded and blood-stained uniform he wore just a couple hours ago. A feeling of guilt came over her. Beast Boy was going through enough right now, she shouldn't have lost her temper at him the way she did.

When she regained focus on her surroundings, however, Raven became aware of the commotion that was occurring around her.

"This is Bullshit!" Came Beast Boy's bitter remark. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Beast Boy, we don't have time for this," said Robin. "Tonight you lost control. You could have compromised our entire mission! No, you stay here. Titans go!"

Raven watched for a second as Beast Boy threw himself down of the couch in frustration. Then she turned and reluctantly followed behind the other Titans.

Beast Boy could not stand feeling like this. The anger he felt towards Robin's call mixed distastefully with the frustration he had been feeling for the last few days. On top of everything, now he was a prisoner in his own home. Beast Boy began pacing.

He couldn't believe that Robin was making him stay back. It was as if Robin was trying to punish him for what happened earlier. It didn't matter what Beast Boy told him, Robin would never accept the fact that he had not been himself, that what he did had not been his fault, or within his control.

Forget what happened with Poison Oak, Robin was trying to get back at him for what happened with Terra! Ever since the Titans had learned of Terra's betrayal, Beast Boy got the sense that Robin carried negative feelings toward him. It was probably because, at that time, Beast boy had gotten his feelings involved and he had convinced Robin to give her another chance…

Beast Boy tried to shake those thoughts out of his head, but was not entirely successful. He did feel quite a bit of guilt for trusting Terra, he realized suddenly. Contemplatively, he sat down in front of the Titans computer, where he just so happened to stop his pacing. He thought about earlier when he lost control. He had a sudden horrific flash back of the blood that soaked his gloves and the pool of it that surrounded him. He shuddered. That horrible feeling that accompanied those memories was also guilt. It didn't matter if what he did had been out of his control, it did not change the fact that he still felt guilty for what he did.

Maybe Robin was right, he thought. Maybe he was a liability until he got himself under control.

Beast Boy was just about to head off to try to get some sleep, when something made him take notice of the computer screen below him. The Global Positioning System displayed the close-up outline of one of Jump City's oldest mills located on the other side of the city. But something about the picture didn't seem right. Within the building's outline were about forty or fifty red blinking dots. These dots were a way of showing anything in an area that emitted thermal infrared energy. Beast Boy pulled up the scan that Robin had done just minutes earlier. In this case, the dots' low level of infrared energy seemed to indicate that whatever was inside of the building was not human, but most likely another band of Slade's robots. What intrigued him about the picture was that the blinking dots did not move.

To Beast Boy, it seemed very suspicious that at least forty robots would break into a building that had served almost no purpose for the past decade, and on top of that, stay completely immobile until the Teen Titans arrived. Almost as if they were waiting…

A grave thought came to Beast Boy suddenly. Heart rate steadily increasing, he pinpointed the location of his friends on the GPS. Sure enough, four more dots indicated the Titan's position as they neared the steel mill. Zooming out of the picture, Beast Boy got a broader perspective of the area surrounding the steel mill. And what he saw next confirmed his dread.

Almost five hundred red blinking dots, exactly the same as those in the old mill, were closing in on the area. When the Titans reached their target, it would take only minutes until they were completely surrounded by an army of Slade's robots.

The Teen Titans were heading into a trap.

Raven felt uneasy as they approached sector 4 of the old mill. As she and Starfire flew closer towards the site of the disturbance, she was struck by how eerily calm it seemed. Whatever had breached security in this place did not fit the description of a usual break-and-enter case. So far, there appeared to be no visible forced entry, no noise of scrambling criminals inside, and more importantly, nothing inside that seemed worth the trouble of a break in.

The T-car came to a halt below, and Raven and Starfire swiftly landed next to the vehicle to meet Robin and Cyborg. Robin took a second to survey the area around the factory's main entrance. Like Raven, he also seemed suspicious of the situation.

"Everyone be on your guard," Robin said. "Something doesn't feel right," he added quietly, almost only to himself.

Raven thought that Robin looked a little more anxious than usual. She couldn't help but wonder if he regretted his decision to leave Beast Boy behind. With unexpected empathy, Raven considered how difficult it must be for the leader to make certain decisions.

"Cyborg, Raven. You guys go around and use the back entrance. Starfire and I will go through the front. Whoever's in there, we'll catch them off guard when we have them surrounded. Go!"

Splitting up, the Titans wasted no time before breaking into the seemingly deserted building. Just as they were instructed, Raven and Cyborg found the back entrance, in this case a large steel garage door, threw it open, and in seconds they were looking at the building's interior.

Robin and Starfire appeared inside at the very same moment. It did not come as much of a shock to any of the Titans that, in the middle of the large concrete room stood at least forty of the robots formerly belonging to Slade.

"Hold it right there!" Robin shouted. At his words, the robots that had been immobile suddenly sprung into action.

Raven jumped back and narrowly avoided a blast that was aimed in her direction. Instinctively she sent spears of energy flying back at her opponents, easily taking out two robots. Before long the four Titans had spread out strategically toward each corner of the large open space, dividing the group of opponents so that they could defeat them more easily.

Using her powers, Raven picked up large pieces of industrial machinery and hurled them at her enemies. Robots tumbled to the ground in pieces and a few lay pinned and short-circuiting under the remains of the heavy iron equipment.

A sudden blast caught her off guard, and she immediately felt the sting of a grazed shoulder. However, it was a minor injury and could have been a lot worse, especially from a robot that managed to slip behind her.

The onslaught of attackers was strong, mostly due to the sheer number of offenders. But it was only a matter of minutes before all of the robots were defeated and the Titans stood victorious.

Raven made her way over to the others. She noticed that Cyborg had also been hit by a laser. He held his left forearm, which sported a hole revealing a series of sparking electrical circuits.

"Man, do you know how long this is going to take to repair?" Cyborg said to no one in particular.

"Good work, team." Said Robin, but his voice was no where near triumphant. He looked around the room thoughtfully.

Raven also took a second to survey the situation, and the same questions as before came into her mind. Why break into a place where there was nothing to steal? Why were the robots just waiting for the Titans to arrive? Raven scanned her surroundings as she had a sudden thought.

"Robin?" she said, "Why would such a run-down old mill have a security system?"

Robin seemed to just be arriving at the same conclusion. "It doesn't. Someone must have found a way to hack into our computer!" he replied, looking angry with himself. "The break in must have been staged! We've been set up!"

Before Robin could even tell his teammates to regroup and prepare for the trap they were led into, blasts of laser energy began to hit and penetrate every wall around them. As the walls of the old mill crumbled to pieces, not one of the Titans had expected to see the hundreds of enemies that now had them surrounded.