Chapter 13

Robin sat with his head in his hands, elbows on his desk, a sigh ready to escape his mouth. Without his laptop, he had nothing on Slade, not that what they had was much anyway. But now he really did have nothing; and he didn't know where to start. To top it all off, the worst part about this all was that Starfire wasn't there to comfort him like she usually was. She wasn't there to coax him out of hiding and clear his mind. And she wasn't there, because he couldn't find any leads on where Slade might be so he could rescue her. Now where was the fairness in that? There wasn't any. But they had been right when they said Starfire could only have one more chance. Robin had tried twice to bring her back and both times she had attacked him, so there was definitely something holding her there. There was definitely something Slade had over her… He hoped anyway.

The alarm went off and Robin didn't even flinch. He just rubbed his hands on his face, through his hair and finally let that sigh out. Getting up he headed out towards the Command Centre, not in the mood for anyone or anything. When he got there he found Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg all looking at the screen where Slade's figure was currently seen; his arms folded behind his back. Robin felt his fists clench subconsciously, his brow furrowing in anger. "What do you want?"

"Now Robin, no need to be vicious, after all I do have something that belongs to you." The smirk was heard clearly in Slade's voice.

"Where is she?" Robin watched as Slade simply stepped aside showing behind him Starfire and Red X stood side by side, with no real expression. "Starfire?" She didn't react.

"Robin, I would just like to give you a sporting chance. After all, I do need to make this fun for myself also. I'm sure that by now, the signal from this transmission is being tracked, I don't doubt that. But just let me warn you that you won't like what you find when you get here so I'm giving you a warning. This time I will win. Any means necessary. I have no inhibitions. So be careful, wouldn't want any of your friends to get hurt now would you?"

"I will find you, and when I do I'm going to bring down your whole operation in a heartbeat. You're going down Slade. That's final."

"We'll see." And with that, the screen went black. Instantly a map of the city came up with a red blinking dot, showing where the transmission had come from. Cyborg went to the controls to zoom in on the location which showed to be the abandoned observatory that hadn't been fixed since the Titans' run in with Professor Chang.

"Why would Slade be there?" Beast Boy looked at the screen in confusion. "The place was gutted, there's nothing there but the foundations. Or what's left of them anyway."

"Just means we'll have to be careful." Robin looked at Raven. "If anything happens, get everyone out. I don't trust this at all. If anything goes wrong, just leave." With one last look at the blinking red dot, Robin's determination grew. "Titan's, go!"

XXXXXX

When the four Titans arrived they were silent, not wanting to alert their enemy of their arrival before it was necessary. Robin had suggested that splitting up may be a bad idea, considering Red X was involved, and that they should probably not enter through the gaping hole in the wall as that would be too obvious. So currently, they were silently creeping through hallways until they had gotten to the main room. Upon entering, it seemed empty.

"Hello Titans."

They all turned to find Slade stood on the balcony behind them, Starfire and Red X on either side of him. Robin realised that she refused to have eye contact with any of them, choosing instead to look at the floor. Robin registered it as guilt.

"X if you will."

Red X disappeared from his place, and all four Titans went on guard. "Remember what I said." Robin whispered. However, Red X hadn't appeared to attack them like they thought he would. Instead, he appeared back next to Slade. Something thin, small and metallic in his hand. He handed it to Slade who rolled it around in his hand. Robin recognised it from the pictures he'd seen of the missing cargo from the freight train and his heart sunk. "It's one of the missiles."

"Very good Robin, you did your homework. You probably also know how explosive these devices are."

"What do you want them for? You wipe out this city and you've got no one to control."

"Merely testing them dear boy. You see I don't need to wipe out the city. One of these is more than enough to take out your little tower." Robin noticed that Starfire looked up to Slade in shock. She obviously hadn't known. "And if I take out your little tower, then you won't be here and the city will bow to me. However, thinking about it, your systems are rather advanced – I can't quite understand why your laptop doesn't follow the same system – but if I get rid of you, I can use your systems in the tower to keep easier control on the city. So to keep what is soon to by my city intact, and to keep your tower in place, I figured why not lure you out? You had incentive enough to come, and I knew you wouldn't pass up the offer."

"If you blow this place, you'll go down with it."

"You think I didn't find myself an escape in all of this. You're a foolish boy Robin." Slade motioned to Red X, who leapt over the balcony and engaged the Titan's. Robin, who was forever on guard managed to get out of the way before he was hit with an X. He noticed that Slade and Starfire had started walking along the balcony to the doorway leading out. While Red X was struggling with Raven, who had gotten out of her bond and was throwing things at him, Robin threw a birdarang at the door and lodged it into the handle, rendering it useless. Slade glared down at the boy who had a smirk on his face.

"Time for Plan B Slade?" Robin shot a grappling hook and pulled himself up over the balcony to Slade and Starfire's level. "Come on Slade, you wouldn't blow this place while you're still in it would you?"

Slade stepped around Starfire, pushing her behind him. "You're a fool Robin. You've just endangered the girl you came here to save."

"You brought her into this."

"No Robin, you did. The day you met her. You shouldn't have even been in this city. If you'd have stayed where you were, she wouldn't be here right now. She might not even be on Earth for that matter. But Robin is always there to save his precious Starfire isn't he?"

Starfire gasped a small 'no' and she stepped back from Slade who turned so he could see the two teenagers. To Robin, Starfire looked genuinely terrified. "You cannot possibly…"

"I told you I'd find out, anyway I needed to. If it weren't for Robin here, you'd be there still. You might have escaped once, but you know that without his help and the help of your friends, you'd be back there."

"It is not your place to discuss this!" Starfire's eyes glowed and she produced a starbolt, aiming it at Slade's chest, Robin mirroring her and producing a birdarang. Slade just looked at her, and chuckled. "Really, you're going to use those against me? Knowing what I know?" He grabbed her wrist in an instant and pulled her to him so Robin couldn't hear his words. "Do you really think they'd still want you on their team if they knew?" he pushed her back, just as Robin had thrown his birdarang at Slade. It missed him by an inch and instead his Starfire in the shoulder, cutting her.

"Star!" Robin ran forward to comfort her but was punched in the gut and sent onto his back. When he opened his eyes, Slade was about to kick him, but he managed to roll backwards out of the way and land on his feet, ready and itching for a fight. Slade however, was against the idea. He called down to Red X, who was having trouble with the three other Titans, and hadn't heard him. It was in the next moment that the world around them exploded. Slade had obviously set the missile to hit the rocks under the observatory, burying the Titans, rather than just explode the building.

Starfire felt the vibrations run through the building before the walls and ceiling started to crack. Her, Slade and Robin had all been knocked off balance, and since she couldn't use her arms to stop herself falling, she landed on top of Slade who had fallen beside her. Before she could react, Slade had grabbed her arm and flipped them over so he was hovering over her. She didn't know what he was doing until she had seen a part of the ceiling detach and fall onto the madman. It hit him in the back of the head and made him dizzy; he rolled to the side and groaned. Starfire realised that Slade had basically just saved her life.

A hand found its way to her shoulder, and she looked up to see Robin holding his hand out for her. Graciously, she grabbed it and let him pull her up. "Come on Star, let's go." He grabbed her around the waist and shot a grapple up to the railing of a higher walkway. They swung down for a moment before being enveloped in black energy, and the next moment they found themselves on the floor of the Command Centre in Titan's Tower. Starfire breathed a sigh of relief and sunk back against the back of the sofa. Robin was knelt before her, concern in his eyes. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you, it was supposed to hit Slade." He gently pulled her arm out so he could inspect her shoulder, but Raven intervened and healed the gash as best she could. The cut wasn't there anymore, but the aching would be there for a few days. Star stood up and looked around, she was so glad to be back home.

"I am home." She smiled, but the rest could see that it wasn't genuine. Robin stepped forward and smiled at her.

"It's good to have you back Star." He wanted so badly to hug her, but he refrained, finding that he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"It is good to be back." She wandered around the front of the sofa and sat down, letting herself sink into the familiar fabric. Robin dismissed the other three, indicating that he needed to talk to Starfire alone. They understood, not questioning it. He looked too serious for this to be a talk about feelings. He joined Starfire on the sofa.

"Star, I know you just got back and all, but we need to talk about what happened while you were with Slade…" he looked at her and she had such a sad look in her eyes. "I also… I was wondering, what was it that you and Slade were talking about when we were on that balcony? I don't understand."

Starfire went straight into panic mode. She hadn't known how soon she would be with Robin again, so didn't know when it would – or even if it would – come into conversation. But then Slade's words flashed before her again. Would they really still want her there, knowing where her powers actually came from? Knowing what they were the product of. "Robin… I am feeling very tired… could we talk about this at a later time? I wish to retire to my room for sleep." He gave a swift nod, and she wasted no time in getting up and leaving.

Robin knew she was avoiding it, and he didn't know why. What could be so bad that he couldn't know? Well, he would find out.

Hey guys. you know the drill! Let me know what you think :D Love Midge.