Chapter Eleven: Deception and Truth
"Hey Cyborg, are you all right?"
Raven bore a small grin as she saw Cyborg turn around from the diagnostic monitor where he had been making a few adjustments to stabilize Red X's condition. "Yeah, I'm fine," he told his friend, who had just walked in with a couple of mugs and some food held on a disc of magical energies.
"You don't look it," Raven replied, handing Cyborg one of the mugs, and setting the plate down on the table where the two of them had been keeping watch on Red X since she and Blackfire pulled the near-conscious villain into the Tower.
"Look who's talking," Cyborg retorted, and Raven had to admit that he had a point. Red X had been in far worse shape than she had thought at first, a matter made much worse by the fact that he also needed a fast-decaying nanotech system to survive, which was why Cyborg was needed there as well.
"What's so funny?" Cyborg asked, when he saw Raven crack a small smile as she sipped her tea.
"Nothing," Raven said. "It's just that…have I- have we really changed so much?"
"Huh?"
Raven turned her weary smile on Cyborg. "I wanted to go along with Blackfire, remember?"
"So?"
"And she was the one who wanted me to stay to make sure Red X pulled through," Raven sighed ruefully.
Cyborg looked at her for a moment, then grinned as well. "Guess you have, Raven. You and Blackfire both."
"Guess so," Raven replied, then her smile disappeared as she looked into her tea. "I hope she's all right."
"Don't worry, she'll be okay," Cyborg told her.
"I hope so," Raven replied, her whispered reply as much for herself as it was for Cyborg. "But honestly, Cyborg? I wish I was there to make sure she would."
"So why aren't you, you idiot?"
Raven looked up in shock, wondering why Cyborg would say such a thing, then she realized that the voice wasn't Cyborg's; judging by the look on his face, so did he. "Red X?" she asked, turning to the recumbent figure on the bed.
His eyes could not be seen through the mask, but even so, Raven got the feeling that he was looking at them through squinted, disapproving eyes. "Your girlfriend is putting herself in danger- for someone other than you, let me remind you- and you're sitting here, changing the bedpan of someone who's supposed to be your freakin' enemy!"
"Uh, X," Cyborg began. "You do know we're trying to save your life, right?"
"Yeah?" Red X replied. "So?"
He sighed, and turned to Raven. "Look, I know you and that alien girl- Blackfire, right? Yeah, I know you two have something going on. Aside from the fact that it's hot as freakin' hell," he added, ignoring the disapproving look the Titans were giving him, "I'm sure that you'd rather be there with her, right?"
"But you-"
"The way I see it, you have three choices," Red X went on, heeding Cyborg's interruption as much as he did Raven's displeasure, "First, you two stay here trying to stabilize my condition, because the only way you're keeping me here is if you beat me to Death's front yard. Two, I tell you that I'll be all right, so you two can go out and do your hero thing, while I sneak out of the Tower. Three, we all go along and save the day like the Three Freakin' Musketeers. Okay, so maybe two and three aren't all that different-"
"Sneak out and do what?" Raven scoffed. "Even if you do manage to survive without our help, you're still too weak to do anything."
Red X looked up at her. "If you were in my place, and Blackfire in Jessie's, what would you do?"
Raven involuntarily stepped back, her expression one of both fear and worry before she managed to bring it under control. "…That doesn't have anything to do with-"
"GOD DAMN IT!" Red X yelled, leaping from the bed to stand in front of a surprised Raven. "It has everything to do… everything… uhh…"
He collapsed down to the ground- or would have, had Cyborg not caught him in time. "Sorry, X, but we ain't going nowhere, and neither are you."
"Yes, I am," Red X insisted. "Look, there is… there is an option four here," he said. "My systems have a hibernation point if they or I get too damaged."
"Oh really?" Cyborg said sceptically. "Then why didn't you mention it before?"
"Because I didn't think it would have made a difference!" Red X snarled. "At least, not to you."
"And why not?"
"Well, first of all, in my condition, I wasn't actually sure they'd work," Red X replied. "And since you guys are apparently all so god damned noble, you'd just take that as 'Red X's got a death wish'. Second, well, there's a cutoff point for the hibernation; basically, as soon as they run out of Xinothium, I've run out of time."
"Is he telling the truth, Cyborg?" Raven asked.
"I dunno," Cyborg admitted. "Honestly, I'm still in the dark about most of his systems. If Batman was here, maybe he'd be able to figure them out."
"But he's not, is he?" Red X said. "Look, it's simple; just run an ionic positron charge through my nervous system- that should fool the hibernation systems."
"Run an ionic- X, you crazy?" Cyborg said incredulously. "That would kill you!"
"No, it'd kill an ordinary person, but I'm able to take it," Red X countered. "You know Xinothium tolerance levels, you know I can take it. Just don't overdo it, and I'll be all right."
"Do it, Cyborg," Raven said.
"What- Raven, you gone loco too? Just because you're worried about Blackfire-"
Raven looked up at Cyborg. "He loves her," she said simply.
"She's right," Red X said quietly. "And one way or another, you guys are going to help her. You have to."
Cyborg looked from Red X, then to Raven, then to Red X again. "… I hope you two know what you are doing," he said, shaking his head, and hooking Red X back up to the diagnostic machine, with an additional connection into his arm cannon's battery. "This is the most I'm gonna give you," he told Red X. "If this doesn't work, we're staying."
"It'll work," Red X reassured him. "Now hurry, you don't have much time."
Cyborg sighed, then took a deep breath before pressing a series of buttons on his arm.
Red X's body stiffened in the bed, and small arcs of electricity pulsed on what little skin was visible through his suit. For a moment, the two Titans watching him were gripped by a heart-sinking terror, wondering whether this was Red X's simple, brutal way of forcing their hand- then he settled back down, and the diagnostic machine's steady beeps and visual readouts showed that he was still alive. In fact…
"Holy… he was right?" Cyborg said incredulously, as he peered into the screen displays. "He was right!"
"He's not in any danger, then?" Raven asked.
"Doesn't look like it," Cyborg told her. "I mean, I can see signs that things are going to get worse, sure," he added, "but he's not going as fast as he was just now. Funny thing, though…"
"What?"
"Judging by these screens…" Cyborg said, uncertain, before his face froze in shock and despair. "Oh no… X, what have you done? What did you just make me do?"
(scene change)
"I don't know," Robin admitted, as he slowly rappelled down the elevator shaft, "but honestly, I don't think we have any other choice."
"I know that," Starfire sighed reluctantly, as she and Blackfire orbited Robin, keeping their eyes out for any hidden dangers. "I am just not used to- to 'breaking and entering'," she said, the Human saying coming a little easier to her than most.
"Personally, I'd do a whole lot better with some backup- and silence," Blackfire grumbled, scanning the sides of the shaft. Sure, between Robin and Beast Boy, they had managed to rig up a crude, though adequate jamming system that would hopefully last long enough for the four of them to enter the interrogation chamber Beast Boy had glimpsed, ostensibly to rescue the girl in there.
Even so, Blackfire had to admit that she was in it as much to- what? Humiliate Red X? Make him indebted to her? One way or another, she was going to come out ahead of him after this, and there was no way she'd allow him to forget it.
Hey, she was good; nothing there about being nice.
That being said, she wished Red X was here to assist them; from what she heard of Robin's preliminary assessment of the building's defences, it was sealed up pretty tightly. However he'd got in, he had the advantage of preparation, reconnaissance, an apparent in-depth knowledge of the enemy - basically, everything the Titans currently entering the place didn't have.
Although, considering how smoothly things were going, there was no doubt that it wouldn't have helped anyway; Simone knew they were coming. Undoubtedly, there would be guards galore, maybe even a deathtrap or two waiting for the Titans at their destination, and from the look on Robin's face, so did he.
Oh what the hell, Simone knew they were coming anyway…
"Hey, you want to back out, feel free," Blackfire grinned.
"I could say the same to you," Robin replied, smiling himself.
"I would, but a girl has a reputation to keep."
"Uh-huh, and whatever Raven would think of you when you get back, that's nothing, right?" Beast Boy said through the comms.
"…You know, I liked you better when you were jealous," Blackfire said, but she felt the tension drain away from her even as she scowled. True, this wasn't the first time she'd ever knowingly walked into trouble, but that didn't mean she liked it, and the banter, lame though it was, was doing a world of good in calming her down.
Beast Boy just waggled his eyebrows at her and grinned sweetly, before a door at the end of the shaft caught his eye. "That's the place where they're holding Jessie," he said. "It's right behind that door."
The Titans looked at it. The thing was twelve feet high, made of reinforced steel, and, as Robin confirmed through a quickly thrown Batarang, protected by a simple forcefield.
"Well, it's not like they don't know we're coming already," Blackfire sighed as she gathered energy in her hands.
(scene change)
"Ah, the Titans. Right on schedule," Simone Page said as the Titans strode through the smoke of the ruined door. Behind her, Jessie Denton, battered and broken still lay trapped in the machine Simone had interrogated her in.
"Then you know why we're here," Robin said, Starfire and Blackfire taking up positions on either side of him.
"I guess," Simone sneered. "Honestly, I don't know why you're so hopped up on trying to rescue her," she continued, motioning to the near-comatose girl behind her. "You're the last people who I'd think would listen to Red X."
"We'd have come even if he didn't ask for- wait," Robin said, as the full implications of what she said sank in. Seeing the looks on Starfire and Blackfire's faces, he knew that they had come to the same conclusions.
"Oh, don't worry," Simone said, as Robin reached for his communicator. "Your friends in the Tower are perfectly safe. Only a complete fool would try to take on their enemies in their own base- oh wait," she said, her sneer growing positively predatory as her eyes narrowed into slits.
"You know, of all the things you seem to know about us," Blackfire said condescendingly, "you seem to have forgotten one teeny, tiny detail."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, we're the Teen Titans," Blackfire replied, her eyes glowing with power as her mouth twisted into a half-sneer. "And you're outnumbered four to-"
"One!" Beast Boy yelled as he came up behind Simone in gorilla form and caught her in a bear hug.
At least, that was his intention.
Instead, what happened was that his arms closed in on thin air.
"Oh-ho," Simone smiled, from behind him. "I think it's you guys who are outnumbered."
And with one swift kick, she threw Beast Boy across the room with such force, the other Titans had barely a split second to dodge as the green primate slammed into the ground and skidded towards them.
"Beast Boy!" Starfire yelled in distress, but her sister had other plans, screaming bloody murder as she flew towards Simone at top speed, starbolts blazing- only to have her eyes widen in shock as she hit nothing. "What the-? I knew I hit something!" she screamed in frustration.
Then the next thing she knew was pain, as Simone's fists drummed into her stomach and face at lightning speed, sending her flying backwards as well to crash next to Beast Boy. It wasn't just the speed, but the strength of the punches, she realized in her daze.
"What… what are you?" she spat through a cut lip, her eyes beginning to swell. She found herself fearing for both Beast Boy and Robin; she knew that her Tameranian physiology and body armour had saved her from the worst, and for those who lacked both…
"Me?" Simone asked in mock astonishment. "I'm just the end product of her," she motioned towards the barely conscious Jessie Denton, "and the boy your friend Red X was just to chicken to be. I'm the end result of decades of bioweapon engineering!"
A fanatical gleam entered her eye. "I am superhuman! The perfect fusion of technology and flesh! I am-"
"-one of the greatest hopes humanity has."
All eyes in the room turned towards the new voice. "Mr. Walton?" Robin said in disbelief, as the founder of the Aquinas Corporation came into the room on a powered wheelchair.
"You are within this plan?" Starfire asked, her own voice echoing Robin's stunned tones.
"Yes, Starfire, I was in on this," he admitted, before letting out a self-deprecating laugh. "I must admit, it doesn't look to good for me, doesn't it?"
He looked up at Simone, and gestured for her to hold her ground. "I suppose this is as good a time to tell you why I did it- after all, isn't it the done thing for a supervillain to monologue about his plans, at some time or another?"
"You can tell it to the court," Robin snarled, as he slowly reached around for a Batarang. "Besides, in case you haven't forgotten, supervillains also get their rear kicked after they monologue."
"Come now my boy, do you honestly think you could do anything with the Director in the room?" he asked, gesturing to the grinning Simone. "You should at least get to hear just what you had to die for."
"Nobody's dying here," Red X said as he stepped out of a portal in a wall, followed by Cyborg and Raven, after which the portal closed.
"What?" Walton asked incredulously, "How- Simone, I thought you had the outside of the building magically warded?"
"I did, sir!"" Simone protested.
"Yeah, about that," Cyborg said. "We can expect guards or some sort of security soon. I kinda made our own way in. Good news is, since the rest of the building wasn't warded, Raven took care of the rest. In any case," he added grimlu grimly. "Only thing that really matters now is how we're going to get Jessie out, and you in prison."
"Prison…?" Walton asked quietly. "Prison… for what, Cyborg?"
"For what?" a shocked Cyborg asked. "Well, for starters-"
"FOR WHAT, YOU INGRATEFUL CHILD?" Walton yelled in sudden rage. "Look at you, Cyborg! Look at you! Do you remember what you were before the accident that made you this way? Do you, Stone? Do you remember how it was, lying in bed, crippled and broken? Try living with those memories every day of your life."
His face contorted into a snarl, he pointed at Cyborg. "Oh, I am sure that every day of your life you look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that you're 'normal' again, that it's no big deal, that you are not in fact lying through your teeth! Wake up, Cyborg! Open your one remaining eye! Because when you get right down to it, you're as much a cripple as I am!"
He pointed at Jessie. "But she, she's the key to a cure! A cure for both of us! Nanotechnology, Cyborg! Think of the possibilities! You could have all the powers you have now, but look normal! You could walk out on the streets and nobody would give you a second look! I would be able to walk again. Damn you, Cyborg! Do you know how many senators I had to bribe to get Aquinas the contract! How many favours I had to pull? And do you know why I did all that? Not to create human weapons, it was to provide people like you and I hope, hope that you seem all to bent to destroy for some naïve morality!"
"Kidnapping innocent people as experiments is your definition of hope?" Cyborg retorted. "If that's the price I have to pay for being normal, I'd rather stay like this."
"Grow up, Cyborg! She was homeless! Trash, the waste of society! Nobody would ever miss her!"
"I would!" Red X retorted.
Walton gave him a cold, hard stare. "You? You're a criminal; even more worthless than she is."
"Blackfire was a criminal too," Raven said, her tone equally cold. "And if you say another word, I'll…"
"Damnation," Walton scowled. "I don't know why I bothered trying to make you understand. Simone? Take care of them, please."
"Finally!" she said. "All this talking was making my ears fall off." She looked at Raven, then at Blackfire. "You know what, she seems to like you- let's see how she responds to another woman's touch."
"Raven! Watch out!" Blackfire cried out in distress, but it was too late- Simone had reached Raven, and in one agonizingly slow moment, Blackfire saw Simone's fist cone closer, ever closer to Raven's face even as the Azerath was raising a shield to block it-
-not that it would have been necessary.
"What the-" Simone gasped, as her eyes widened in shock at her fist-
-caught in Red X's palm. "Simone?" he said calmly. "I never really liked you."
With that, she threw a punch of his own at her, one which she was too slow to dodge, but too fast for any of the other Titans to see, and this time it was her turn to skid along the floor.
Walton pressed the controls of his wheelchair, but found it unmoving; something was holding it back-
"Going somewhere, Mr. Walton?" Blackfire asked sweetly, holding the wheelchair in place.
Meanwhile, Simone was stood up, rage filling her eyes. She didn't register the other Titans making a beeline for the machine holding Jessie, and wouldn't have cared if she did. As far as she was concerned, she was 13 again, and Rex was standing in her way, spoiling the fun she was going to have beating up Jessie.
Red X's eyes narrowed, and underneath his mask, he was grinning. He felt the same way; the only difference now… now he could make a difference. No matter what was going to happen to him, he knew that at least Jessie was safe.
With a simultaneous battle cry, the two of them charged.
(scene change)
"Starfire! Help me take care of these guys!" Raven said, as one of the main doors opened, and a group of Aquinas mercenaries came charging in. The Azerath barely managed to raise a shield a split second before the bullets impacted. Starfire and Blackfire hovered behind her, throwing starbolts through the shield to impact on the ground in front of the guards. Robert Walton lay tied up, an injured Beast Boy wrapped around him as a bio constrictor.
Behind all of them, two desperate battles raged; one was between Simone and Red X, trading kicks and punches at speeds too fast for the naked eye, and the other involved Robin and Cyborg struggling to free Jessie from her restraints. Having finally pried a casing open, Cyborg inserted a jack from his arm in place of one of the exposed wires.
"Cyborg, are you nuts? You have any idea what's that going to do to your systems?" Robin protested.
"I know, Robin, but this way is quicker, trust me! I know machines!"
"But-"
"I'm a whole lotta things, Robin," Cyborg said in a firm, but slightly desperate voice, "but I'm not a killer."
"What? Cyborg, disconnecting that won't kill Jessie-"
"I'm not talking about Jessie," Cyborg snapped. "Now let me work!"
He pressed a button on his arm, and a few sparks flew around the connection as power surged into them. "Come on… come on…"
(scene change)
"Is that the best you can do?" Red X taunted, as he deftly ducked under another one of Simone's punches.
"You bastard! You're not supposed to be this fast!" Simone screeched in frustration. "I'm supposed to be the strong one! Me! ME!"
"Aww, is pore li'l Pagie sore that I'm actually better than her?" Red X laughed.
"Nope, not at all," Simone said with cold, gleeful malice, and Rex X saw where he had gone wrong; in ducking backwards, he left himself open to the upward kick Simone was throwing. He felt her foot plant itself in his pack with a jolt of pain, and he flipped through the air to land on his face. He tried to get up, but before he managed an inch off the ground, he felt Simone's foot on his head.
"Thought you could distract me, make me angry enough to slip up, Rex?" she gloated. "Guess what? You little plan failed." She was about to say more, when she heard the sound of tearing metal behind her, and everything went black as she fell unconscious.
"Good thing he's got a Plan B, huh?" Jessie Denton said, striding over to help Red X up. Behind her, a stunned Cyborg and Robin sat near the ruins of the machine a recharged Jessie Denton had ripped herself out of. Flying to join them were Starfire, Blackfire and Raven, who had finally seen off the last of the mercenaries, who had decided that they just weren't being paid enough to fight girls. "Rex, are you okay?" she asked, helping the prone Red X up.
"Yeah, I'm all right, I'm-" he began, when his back suddenly arched up, and electricity arced on his flesh.
"Rex? REX!" Jessie screamed. "Help me! Something's happening to him!"
"Come on, Jessie, there's no time to lose!" Cyborg yelled. "We have to introduce some of your nanomachines into his bloodstream!"
"Wait, you know what's happening to him?" Robin asked.
"Red X told us about it," Raven explained, as she and Cyborg moved to assist. "He tricked Cyborg into overcharging his system so it'd last just long enough to rescue Jessie."
"But don't worry," Cyborg said desperately, as he managed to extract a second sample of Jessie's blood and inject it into Red X. "As soon as we manage to get enough nanomachines into him, he should be A-OK!"
"Won't… work," Red X gasped from his place in Jessie's arms.
"What? Whaddaya mean it wouldn't work! You said-"
"I said what I had to, to get you to stop acting like doctors and acting like heroes…" Red X replied. "Besides… was living… borrowed time… nyway…"
"Wha- X, this is no time to be screwing around with us!" Cyborg yelled.
"Come on, Rex," Jessie literally cried, tears running down her cheeks, "stop playing around! Tell him how to save you!"
"Diff'rent systems… incompatible…always better than I was… good heart…" Rex said, his breathing growing more laboured.
"Rex! Rex, please, pleasepleaseplease…" Jessie wept, the sobs coming in big, heaving gasps now.
"You were always the nice one, Jessie," Rex said. "Stay nice, okay? Stay nice."
And with that, the Xinothium factories inside Red X, worn out from years in far-too-extensive service and burnt out from power, too much, too soon, shut down. One by one, mere nanoseconds from each other.
Even so, Rex's final thought before the pain in his body ebbed away and darkness took him, was one of happiness.
She's safe, and that's all that matters.