Chapter 11: Digging Up The Past

Downtown Jump City

Robin growled angrily as the smoke cleared, to reveal that The Forgotten Faces were gone. He gripped his bow staff tightly, trying to suppress his anger at their escape. Cyborg turned his head to stare at the rest of the group. "Yo, who the heck were those guys?"

"I don't know, but their costumes were AWESOME!" Beastboy chirped excitedly. Raven sent a chilling glare that instantly shut him up, causing him to morph into a rat and crawl up an unsuspecting Cyborg's arm. Robin shook his head, but stopped and stared when he noticed a small shimmering substance against the wall where the Faces used to be.

He bent down on one knee and examined the substance closer, realizing that it was glowing a bright green color with specks and swirls of crimson red. "What is it, Robin?" Raven asked, bending down next to him, Cyborg at her side. "I don't know." Robin admitted. "Raven, can you..." He stopped when she moved her hand over the glowing puddle, causing it to rise off of the ground.

"Uh, thanks." Robin said as he pulled a vial from his belt and collected the strange substance.

"We need to run some tests."

Titans Tower

"It'll take a few days for the results to come back for that liquid." Cyborg said, turning to Robin, who stood behind him. "But where did it come from?" He asked. Robin sighed, he knew the answer, spending so much time in Gotham, he knew instantly by the way it was positioned on the ground that it was blood. But it wasn't like any blood he had ever seen.

"Tell me when the results are ready." He said gruffly as he walked out of the room.

Cyborg sighed and placed the vial of liquid into the machine. He sat back in the chair. "How in the world did that guy hack into my systems? Nobody can hack into my systems." He fumed for a while as he tried to figure out what had happened.

"Well, he's obviously their techno supporter. Too bad he's a bad guy. We probably would have made good friends." Cyborg sighed.

His mind drifted back to the kid's mask. It was gold with different circuits and wires. "Really good friends." Cyborg realized, knowing that the kid was probably just like him, well, except for the crimes. "Well, they did help defeat the Hive. The only really bad thing they did was property damage, aggravated assault, which we kind of started, and resisting arrest. That's not THAT bad, right?" Cyborg asked, to nobody in particular.

He sighed once more, staring at the monitor, even though he knew it would be a couple days before the results came back. Maybe the results could help unravel the mystery behind those vigilantes.

Starfire laid on her bed, holding Silkie above her face. "Oh, my little bumgorf. I am confused, and those people that we fought tonight are the source." She placed the maggot on the bed and turned onto her stomach to face him.

"The girl that I fought, I believe her name was Selenium, she did not seem bad, like many of the villains we have fought in the past." She stared at the maggot. "In fact, she seemed...scared."

She kept looking at the creature, hoping the answer would pop out of his mouth, but he only kept purring at her. "It is true, I did not wish to hurt her, and deep down, I believe she did not want to hurt me. But she did. And it looked like she regretted fighting us...fighting me." She flipped back over and stared at the ceiling.

"They did no wrong. At least, not much. They merely protected the citizens from the attack, damaging some property in the process. But we damage the property all of the time when we are fighting. So why are they the bad people? Is it because they would not willingly be arrested, or because they fought us? But in all honesty, we fought them."

She remembered the conversation she had had with the masked girl, and when that boy with the ice powers had saved her from being hurt. "Oh, Silkie. I do not know what to do! They are the bad people, but I do not want to hurt them like normal bad people! What is the matter with me?!" She cried, holding Silkie tightly, tighter than he would have liked.

"What do you do when the bad guy is not bad?" She asked herself, knowing she didn't have the answer.

Beastboy watched as his car crashed, signaling the Game Over sign on the monitor. He grumbled and sat back, but he really hadn't been paying any attention to the game at all.

Like the others, he was busy thinking about the Face that he had battled. The girl with the white and copper mask. Copper, that was her name.

Beastboy sighed, not from defeat or anger, but admiration.

That girl was tough. He only knew one person that could take out his animal forms with only a staff, and luckily he was on his side, but still, she was impressive. And pretty. He thought, only to shake his head. Snap out of it Beastboy. We don't need another Terra incident. He lowered his head at the thought of the girl.

Terra.

I don't need another distraction like her. He thought bitterly, only to end up in an argument with himself.

A distraction. Is that all she was to you? A distraction?

Well, it's better than thinking of her as something else, especially considering she's de... He stopped himself from thinking anymore on the topic. He knew he had to focus the next time they'd face. He couldn't think of that girl...Copper, of anything other than what she was, a vigilante, a criminal.

So why did his heart start hurting when he thought of hurting her?

Raven was confused.

She hated being confused.

That boy. The one she had fought with Robin, there was something odd about him. He reminded her of Plasmius. The same feeling she had gotten from that man. The feeling of being dead, but still alve at the same time.

It's impossible.

She shook her head and tried to go back to concentrating on her meditating, to no avail. She stopped and walked over to her bed. Ghosts were creatures she would rather not have to fight. She had read enough about them to realize that they were worthy adversaries.

But what she couldn't understand was why that boy gave her the same feeling that Plasmius, an evil ghost, had given her.

Maybe that boy had more secrets than she knew.

Robin growled.

The eyes that could be seen through the boy's mask. That same icy blue.

Robin had seen it in millions of photos and on a certain runaway boy.

So what had happened? Was the boy a meta? And his friends. Were they just accomplices, or were they something more?

Do they have something to do with the Spectral Suspects, or are they one in the same?

If they are, then why would the Suspects do something like this. Last video I saw of them, they were scared out of their minds. Why would they risk being caught saving the day, and then attacking the local heroes, which they know have connections with the Justice League.

The whole thing confused Robin, and he hated being confused.

He knew he shouldn't jump to conclusions, it went against everything he had been taught, but something in his gut was telling him otherwise.

The Forgotten Faces and The Spectral Suspects were one in the same.

The main thing that was confusing Robin was their motive. Why would they attack? It didn't make any sense.

It was one mystery Robin was determined to find out.

Abandoned Factory

"Dude! That was...!" Tucker exclaimed.

"Dangerous." Danny finished, removing his mask. Sam and Jazz did the same, glancing at each other with worried expressions, silently asking each other if they were okay.

"Is anyone hurt?" He asked as he removed the leather jacket, leaving just the dark grey shirt, wincing as he did so.

"I don't think so." Jazz said, going over to each teen, checking for wounds, only stopping to wrap a bleeding cut on Danny's arm. "That was close." She said when she was done.

"GUYS! We just fought the Teen Titans! How cool is that?!" Tucker shouted, waving his arms. Danny simply glared at him. "It'd be cooler if they didn't think of us as lowly criminals or stupid vigilantes." He growled, flopping onto the stone floor. Tucker sighed, knowing it was true.

"Well, get used to it. Now that they're distracted, they won't go looking for us. So as long as we keep them entertained, we should be okay, for now at least." Sam said, sitting down on the floor next to Danny. "Well, next fight, don't do too much damage. Remember, we don't want to hurt them. We just want to annoy them." Jazz said, knowing she should be more careful not to hurt the Titans next time.

"If our goal is to annoy them, we should just tie them up with Tucker and leave them in a room with no food. That'll get them plenty annoyed." Sam smirked.

"Hey!"

"Yeah, or tie him with them while he's bored, they'd hate us for that." Danny chuckled.

"Hey!"

Jazz smiled. "Or have him play games with them. That'll get us a few years behind bars." They all burst out in laughter, much to Tucker's displeasure.

"HEY! I'm right here, ya know!" He shouted indignantly.

"Sadly...I know." Sam sneered playfully. Tucker clenched his fists and Sam stuck her tongue out at him.

That was all it took.

Tucker lunged for her and together, the two of them went rolling along the stone floor, throwing insults as well as soft, lazy punches. Danny and Jazz watched, laughing all the while. Danny glanced at Jazz playfully, causing her to look at him warily. "Oh no! Don't even think about it!" She shouted, just as he threw a speck of ectoplasm at her forehead. She growled and tackled him to the ground. The kids laughed as they came together in one big, massive pile of laughs and kicks.

When they finally broke apart, they were panting heavily, glaring playfully with cheeky smiles at each other. They didn't even both climbing into their sleeping bags. They just clumped together and quietly fell asleep to the sound of their snores.

Titans Tower

3 days later

"They haven't been spotted in three days, Robin. Maybe they got the message." Cyborg tried to reason with the stressed leader.

"Yeah, that the Teen Titans aren't a force to be reckoned with!" Beastboy shouted, jumping up from the couch.

Raven growled at him and he promptly sat back down with a cheeky smile at her. Starfire giggled when Raven flipped the changeling onto his back.

"Bad guys do learn, sometimes, Robin." Raven said, closing her book. "Maybe they decided this wasn't the best city to play vigilante."

Robin nodded to the girl and turned back to the screen, knowing they were wrong.

"I don't know guys. Something is telling me that they're still out there."

Night was falling. The Faces hadn't been seen in three days. Robin was starting to get anxious, waiting for them to show themselves again. Suddenly, the screen started to flash red, and popped to a news report showing the Faces battling Plasmus.

"Finally. Titans, Go!"

"Okay, any villain who reminds me of Spectra in snot-form sucks!" Danny yelled, annoyed as the muck monster swung a fist at him, which he easily avoided.

The thing roared in pain as Tucker wrapped his whip around it's legs and yanked, bringing it crashing to the ground.

Jazz slammed her staff down on it's eyes and Sam reared a punch right into one of the filled spores on it's back. The creature roared once more and melted out of Tuckers whip, charging the group once more. "Man, how do the Titans fight this guy?" Sam asked as she sidestepped a muck-ball that the creature had just thrown.

"Don't know, but they are really slow." Danny said as he fired an ice blast at the creature, freezing it's arms and legs. He then created another ice blast with swirls of his ectoplasmic energy blast mixed in and fired in at the creature's chest.

He watched with satisfaction as it blasted a hole in the creature's chest, which he easily mended, but then roared out as his body began to be covered in ice. Danny flew down, fast, and sent a hard punch at the now frozen creature, shattering him into a million pieces.

"Ugg, finally." He turned his head, glancing around for the Titans. He sighed and turned to the others. "Okay, I guess the Titans are no shows." He frowned.

He barely got the last word out before a blast hit him in the stomach and sent him sprawling to the asphalt.

"Da-Arsenic!" Jazz screamed as the Titans appeared.

"Guess again!" Robin yelled.

Danny groaned and pushed himself up. "Ugg! Man, you guys really know how to make someone feel welcome." He said as he floated up and in front of the others. "You guys ready for a rematch?" Beastboy asked, transforming into a bear.

"Are you?" Tucker asked, cracking his whip, while Sam's gloves crackled with electricity and Jazz's staff twirled in her hands.

Robin braced himself, waiting for them to attack, but they never did. They were waiting for the Titans to attack them. Robin was about to hesitate and try and figure out what they were doing, but instead, he just shook his head, trying to clear his mind from all of his confusing thoughts and just focusing on one. They were the bad guys. And they needed to be brought down.

"Titans, Go!"

He leapt at Danny, causing the teen to float to the side, around the boy's attack. He faced his opponent once more that week. "Come on, Robin." He said as he froze Robin's feet to the ground once more. As the boy fell onto his back, Danny froze his hands to the ground as well. "Haven't we already been through this?" He smirked, only to have a glowing green hand punch him in the chest. He groaned and fell to the ground.

When he looked up, Starfire was floating above him, electric eyes glowing. "Not with me! You will leave and never come back!" She growled. Danny smirked at her. "Sorry, I've never been big on listening to orders!" He shot a blast at her chest, encasing her arms and torso together in a case of ice. She crouched down on the ground and stared at the boy with wide eyes, expecting a killing blow. But it never came. He merely stared at her and jumped over her head, going over to help the others.

Starfire charged her blasters and broke through the ice in a blast of electric green light. She then ran over and did the same for Robin. They nodded to each other and ran over to continue the fight.

Unlike last time, the Titans had developed a plan to fix what went wrong last time they fought. They had taken them on one by one. Each titan batting a Face. But now, their plan was to separate the strongest opponent, which was Arsenic, from the bunch, and take out the others together. Robin and Starfire ran over to the battling group, trying to gain control over the super powered boy once more.

Cyborg fired a shot at the group of teens. Tucker tackled the two girls down to the ground, much to their surprise. "Ladies..." He smirked as he got up and wrapped his whip around Cyborg and Beastboy, tying the big and small titans together. "Ugg, you did not just tie me together with this little grass stain!" He shouted trying to break the strong material. "Hey, I can hear you, ya know!" Beastboy snapped. "Yeah, I know." Cyborg grumbled as he continued to struggle.

Raven raised her hands. "Azarath Metroin Zin..." She wasn't able to finish before Sam had grabbed her shoulders and threw her to the ground. Jazz then straddled the girl's torso and placed her staff horizontally on her shoulders, pressing her into the ground. Raven grunted with the added pressure as Jazz placed her feet on the girl's hands, rendering them useless. "Sorry about this. But we don't need your magic screwing with us." Jazz said as she used her free hand to place a rag over the girl's mouth, stopping her from chanting. She was immobile.

As Cyborg and Beastboy struggled against the strong material, Beastboy transformed into a snake and slipped from the whip's grasp, crawling up Sam's arms, tying them together. she grunted and grabbed the back of the snake's head. She twirled him around her head and lazily tossed him to the ground, careful not to hurt him too much in the process.

Cyborg narrowed his eyes. The girl wasn't using her full strength, and now that he realized it, the boy that had hacked into his systems hadn't done anything to damage him, just annoy him. He shook his head and felt the rope around him fall to the ground, now that Beastboy had escaped. He ran forward and grabbed Tucker by the shoulders. "Let go, ya big bucket of bolts!" Tucker exclaimed, trying to wiggle free of the boy's grasp. "T-Gold!" Jazz yelled, turning her head towards them. Raven narrowed her eyes, seeing her chance, and thrust upwards, throwing the girl off of her.

She raised her hands and encased a few of the cars along the side of the road. She moved her hands in the direction of the group of girls. Sam gasped and rammed herself into Jazz, knocking the two out of the way. She then grabbed Cyborg's leg and felt electricity spark through it. Cyborg screamed and threw Tucker down as he hopped up and down on one leg. Tucker hit the side of the car that Raven had thrown, and crumpled down onto the ground.

"Gold!" The girls screamed, as Jazz ran to him and Sam stood in front, guarding them from the three titans. Tucker groaned as Jazz helped him sit up against the car. Beastboy faced them from the other side of the car, out of their sight, ready to attack, but stopped when they started talking. "You okay?" Jazz asked. Tucker sighed. "Yeah, I'm good." He said, watching Sam battle against Cyborg and Raven, and Danny fighting against Robin and Starfire. "Go, I'll be fine. Go help Sam. Make sure they don't hurt her. I'll be there in a minute. Just let me catch my breath."

"Okay." Jazz said as she glanced back at him once more before going back over to help Sam. Beastboy turned and placed his back against the side of the car. "Who the heck is Sam?" He wondered, about to go and attack the boy, but stopped when he started to get back up and wrapped his whip around Beastboy, faster than he could register. Beastboy yelled out in surprise and fell down to the side. Cyborg saw Gold standing over Beastboy and ran over. He charged up his sonic blaster and was about to fire at the boy, but stopped when he didn't do anything.

He watched as Gold simply stared at Beastboy, and was about to run back to the others, when Beastboy asked him something. "Hey, wait! You aren't going to hurt me?" He asked. Gold merely stared at him. "Why would I hurt you? Why would any of us hurt you guys?" He asked. "Because you're the bad guys? Duh!" Beastboy exclaimed. Cyborg shook his head at the kid's ignorance. Gold sighed. "You heroes are all the same. Attack first, ask questions never." He glared at Beastboy, before turning and running back towards the girls. Cyborg slowly put down the sonic blaster and ran over to Beastboy, who was squirming like a worm. "Hold still, ya little grass stain." Cyborg said. "Dude, did you see that?" He asked. Cyborg stared at him. "I saw."

Robin slammed his staff across the boy's chest, sending him reeling right into Starfire's arms, where she wrapped them around his chest and started crushing him. "Let..GO!" He exclaimed. releasing a shock wave of ice, hitting Starfire and Robin, sending them back, encasing them in ice. Starfire easily broke through, and flew over to Robin, doing the same for him. When she turned back, she was Arsenic crouched on the ground, breathing heavily. He had some cuts and bruises on his body, but other than the large expanse of energy he had just released, he wasn't too harmed. He saw Starfire and Robin and froze their feet to the ground, going over to the other Faces. "Come on, Star." Robin said, breaking the ice, following the boy into the battle

Danny flew down next to Sam as Jazz whacked Cyborg upside the head and Tucker wrapped Raven in his whip. "You guys okay?" He asked as Robin and Starfire appeared as well. He sighed as he charged up his hands. "Could be better." Sam said as she saw the approaching two titans. Danny threw his hands in Cyborg's direction, freezing the opening to his sonic cannon. "What the..?" Cyborg growled, trying to fire the ice out of the cannon. Robin threw a bird a rang at Danny, who froze it before it could get to him. Starfire threw a punch at the side of his face, which he caught, sending her to the ground. "Leave her alone!" Robin shouted, hitting Danny in the chest.

Danny groaned, holding his chest as he stared at Robin. He glanced towards the others and saw that the Titans were starting to surround them as they peeked at Robin coming towards Danny. Suddenly, Cyborg's cannon blast through the ice, much to his surprise as the blue blast hit the building above Robin's head. The blast crashed into the side of the wall, dislodging boulders the size of small cars, sending them hurtling towards the street. Danny, along with the rest of the titans, gasped as they saw that one of the boulders was headed towards Robin.

Danny stood and flew as fast as he could towards the Boy Wonder, much to his surprise, and grabbed onto his waist, yanking him out of the way of the oncoming rock, into one of the stores below. Robin groaned as he held his head and looked around, seeing Arsenic on the ground next to him, holding his shoulder. His eyes widened when he saw Robin. "You...saved me?" He asked. Arsenic said nothing, only flew over to his friends, who were still being cornered by a group of now shocked Titans. They could only stare at Danny as he grabbed his friends. "I think it's time to go." He said as he ran with his friends around the corner of the building, down the shadowed alley, which knocked the Titans out of their trance. Following them down to the end of the alley, they looked around, but saw no trace of the Faces.

They had escaped again.

Robin watched as the Titans appeared from around the corner, confused faces on all of them. "What happened?" He asked. "They disappeared." Cyborg said.

"Again."

Danny gasped as he collapsed on the concrete floor, sighing in relief that they had escaped.

"Dude, you okay?" Tucker asked as Jazz checked him for wounds. "Yeah, I'm awesome." He sighed, watching Jazz make sure his best friends wasn't hurt, which luckily, he wasn't.

"Man, Robin is so lucky you were there." Sam said. Danny turned over and looked at the ceiling.

No WE"RE lucky. If any of them get hurt or worse, that will be seriously bad for us.

We'll look like even bigger criminals to them if we hurt their precious heroes. He thought bitterly.

"You sure you guys are okay?" He asked the group. "Yeah, man. We're fine." Tucker sighed, lying down onto the ground. Sam tossed a sleeping bag towards him, hitting him square in the face. He sat up quickly and glared at the girl, who was now smiling from ear to ear.

Jazz grabbed another one and placed it on the ground next to his, curling up into it, falling asleep instantly, next to a now snoring Tucker. Sam look over to Danny, both of them laughing.

She grabbed two more sleeping bags, tossing one to Danny who unfurled it next to hers.

"You okay?" She asked. Danny sighed as he pulled the cover over his chest, folding his arms under his head. "I guess." He said. Sam slammed her fist down onto his stomach, making him sit up quickly, coughing and sputtering. "What..?" He asked. "Don't lie to me, Danny Fenton!" She whispered as loud as she could as to not wake up the already sleeping two. He sighed and propped himself up with his back leaning against the wall.

"Just worried, I guess. I mean the Titans are better opponents than I first thought. What if they start putting things together? I mean, normal criminals don't go out of their way to save the heroes that want to put them behind bars." He said.

"Well, yeah, but what could you do? You couldn't let him die. I mean, criminals aren't heartless, not even fake criminals." She smirked, hoping to ease the troubled boy's mind. He sighed and placed his head on the cool stone walls. Sam grabbed his hand and rested her head on his shoulder. Danny was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't even realized what Sam had done, neither had she, until Danny shifted and they both jumped up and blushed when they faced each other.

"Uhh, s..s..sorry." Danny fumbled with his words, causing Sam to smile slightly at his embarrassment. She grabbed his hand again, much to his surprise. "Don't worry, Danny. Everything will be fine. I know it will." She said as Danny lay his head on the end of the sleeping bag, Sam resting her head on his shoulder once more.

"Man, I wish I had your confidence." Danny chuckled as his eyes slowly closed.

"Hehe. Everyone does." Sam said, her cheek brushing the boy's chest as she fell asleep, finally relaxing for the first time in days.

Sorry for the DannyXSam moment. I am not that good at writing couples. And while I do like their relationship in the show, I might not show TOO much in the story.

But don't get upset. I said too much. But I didn't say I wouldn't include it. Just be patient. By the way, another INTERLUDE will be included soon, this one including the Justice League, The Guys In White, and Slade and his new partner. (Do you know who it is? Hope you do, I made it pretty obvious.)

P.S.- Dani fans, your pleas will be answered soon. Just wait.