Author's Note: The next few chapters are giving me some serious trouble, I've rewritten them half a dozen times and it's still not working to my satisfaction. So next update is delayed for a few days while I get this right. Enjoy the update.

Also, Feifiefofum, I smell the blood of an anon. Did you forget to sign in?

Chapter 12

Two days ago.

A shower was blissful after her time in the cell, even if she had to have it under guard. She gulped at the water, trying not to drink too much less she become sick.

Red X was forced to stand in the bathroom with her, a gun to his head, if she made even a single wrong move, he was forfeit. It was obviously a staff bathroom, just a long row of showers and wooden benches in the middle, they didn't even leave the factory.

Octave had picked out a dress for her, as it had appeared he'd picked the suit for Red X. Although she thought he looked quite handsome, not counting the yellowing bruises to his face, it was clear he was very uncomfortable.

A spaghetti strapped, little red dress, as she discovered when she took it from the box. Completely not the kind of thing she would have chosen herself, especially since it clashed with her skin and her hair, and she had the distinct impression she was going to be shown off. Her only concession was she was allowed to weave her arm through Red X's on the walk to where Octave waited.

Red X didn't talk to her, that blank look on his face and Starfire began to realise this was how he coped with things. He'd been wearing a mask all his life, but only recently had it become a physical mask. Well, she had a mask too, one developed by training. If Octave wanted to dine, he'd see just who it was he asked to dine with.

Red X hand gripped her arm just below the elbow as they were led into destination, a brief warning perhaps, or maybe simply an impulsive clench. An office by the look, up a landing and through a few doors. There was a long table in what looked to be a conference room and it was decorated with various foods. Too much for the three settings on the table. Octave sat at the head of it, two place settings beside him, one on each side.

Men in beige coat stood all around the room, standing watch and there was a very large man who stood directly behind Octave.

"I thought Vi was joining us," Red X said the moment he was through the door.

Octave raised an eyebrow. "You, your sister and your girlfriend in the same room? I think not."

"You have seen her?" Starfire asked as Red X led her to her seat.

"No," he told her.

"Starfire, my dear, you look ravishing." Octave licked his lips, then bit into a cherry tomato. It made a small squishing sound in his mouth. His attention had the feeling of slime attached, she didn't like it.

"And you remind me of the Dofestki creatures of Masktaret Prime," she said as sweetly as she could, as if to say, it's a compliment, truly, would I lie?

"Why isn't Vi here?" Red X snapped, taking his seat.

Octave raised his eyebrow then declined to answer. "Eat," he told Starfire. "You must be starving."

Although she was, she just sat there and stared at him. She would not allow him to intimidate her. There was only so much she would allow.

"How are you finding our accommodations?" Octave asked, sly. He leant on the arm of his chair, waving a strawberry around.

"I have been contained in worse places."

"Really?" Octave asked, intrigued. "Do tell."

"I would rather not."

"It sounds interesting."

"You did not strike me as someone who required ideas on how to detain people."

Octave laughed.

Red X slid some chicken on his plate, nodding at the food when she glanced at him. She did not eat, but she did lift her glass and smell it. Satisfied it was water, she took a drink.

"You insult the host by not eating," the man behind Octave said, crossing his arms on his chest in an attempt to be imitating.

"If we were on my planet, you would insult me by insisting the use of utensils," Starfire replied.

"Planet?" Octave asked, intrigued. "You are an alien?"

She raised her eyebrows at that. "Indeed."

"Well done," Octave told Red X, reaching across to slap him on the back. "Dining with an alien, I could not be more pleased."

"Don't touch me," Red X said, more as an automatic reply than an actual spurn.

"My boy, you need to stop pouting. Be grateful I haven't had her simply killed."

"I would like to see you try," Starfire said.

"She's so feisty." Octave laughed. "Delightful."

"Starfire," Red X said, a warning in his voice.

"Oh, do not chastise the girl, you pick your playthings well."

Starfire arched an eyebrow at Red X. "Plaything?"

Red X shook his head, a skittish gesture.

Octave picked up a piece of chicken, shredding it with his fingers before he ate it. "There are not many people who will be as open with me, it is refreshing."

"I feel for you," Starfire said. "Perhaps it is because you surround yourself with people who are afraid for their lives."

"There's an old Japanese proverb, 'When something is broken and then put back together, it only becomes more beautiful'." Octave bit down on a tomato, "I look forward to breaking you."

Starfire looked Octave in the eye. "There is an old Tamaranian saying, 'Break me and you shall only cut yourself of the sharpness of my edges'."

"Then we shall discover your edges." He laughed and she felt his hand slide along her knee. "Perhaps I will take her to my bed tonight," he said, leaning toward her although he was speaking to Red X. "Discover what intrigues you so much-"

"Get your hand off me," she snarled.

Red X jolted, his hands gripping the table as he half rose from the chair. "Octave, leave her alone."

"Off-worlders are not permitted to touch me without my permission," Starfire snapped, her words meshing with Red X's protests as they talked at once.

"You do not call the shots," Octave said. "If she wants you safe, she'll-"

Starfire and Red X caught each other's gaze, there was a limit she would put up with and Octave's hands were not included.

She wanted out, she wanted it now and even though she knew Red X's family was at stake, there was no proof they even survived. Nothing beyond one phone call to Red X by someone who might have been his sister.

Red X must have seen something in her face because he plucked one of the knives from the table and threw it at the large man who had stood behind Octave. The knife impaled in his shoulder and Red X launched himself at the man.

Starfire picked up one of the knives and gripped Octave's hand. Although the temptation to stab the knife in Octave's wandering hand, instead she yanked him forward and elbowed him in the face. She kept his hand, meaning the elbow to the face snapped his head back, then forward into the table. Rising quickly and holding Octave face first on the table, she kicked her chair at the man behind her to stop him advancing on her.

Pressing the tip of her knife to Octave's throat, she sneered. "You will take us to his sister and then we shall leave."

"You're bluffing."

She was, but she wasn't about to tell him that. "Try me," Starfire sneered and jolted him forward a fraction.

A bead of blood trickled down and splashed on the table. She removed the knife to kick a man approaching her away, saw the muzzle a gun and hoisted Octave away from the table so she could use him as a shield, her knife still pressed to his throat.

"There is a reason why Robin keeps me ranged," Starfire sneered into Octave's ear. She held him off the ground, his head back. He was off balance and completely at her mercy.

"How are you doing this?" he gurgled.

"Is it not glorious what can occur when you leave a Tamaranian in the dark to experiment with her pain threshold. Would you like to see what else I can do?"

"Okay, okay, deal."

"Tell your men to back off."

"Back off," Octave blurted.

"X?" Starfire peered over her shoulder at him as she forced Octave to inch toward the door, keeping the other men at bay.

"Coming," he said, dropping the now limp body of Octave's bodyguard on the floor. He pushed past her, touching her hip as he went, and opened the door. He peered through, "Clear. Let's go."

She forced Octave through the door, Red X closing it behind her and she eyeblasted the lock to seal it shut.

"Where is your suit?" she asked Red X.

He tilted his head in the direction of the next door over. "Next room."

"Get it."

Red X bolted.

"You'll never get out of here alive," Octave said.

"Who said I planned to?" Starfire bluffed, still holding him tightly.

"They'll be calling for back up."

She didn't doubt that.

Starfire spent the next few minutes anticipating some sort of attack from any direction. She held Octave tightly in her grip, ready to move at any time. Red X came out a few nerve-wracking minutes later, completely dressed except for his mask. Lifting his palm at Octave, he jerked his head. Starfire moved away as quickly as she could and Octave was thrust up against the wall and trapped there by Red X's sticky binds.

She frowned, having thought they'd leave, take Octave with them in their hunt for his family, but Red X levelled a gun at Octave's chest. "Is she alive?"

Octave didn't answer, just smirked at them.

Red X's expression was tight. "I've checked all your safe houses. I've hacked every database I can find. I've interrogated countless of your minions. I've searched CCTV images. There's nothing. Coming back to you, begging for a place, it was last resort and still, nothing. Is. She. Alive?"

Octave's smile didn't stop. "No."

Starfire closed her eyes in sympathy. "X, I am so sorry-"

He clicked off the safety and Starfire shifted, nervous. Should she try and stop him if he tried to kill Octave? "The picture of my sister. The phone call."

Octave didn't want to answer, but the smile had dropped off his face.

"I will kill you," Red X snarled and lifted the gun higher to illustrate.

"Look alike," Octave choked out. "To lure you in. We needed your expertise."

"It's been two years. Two fucking years. Why couldn't you just let me go?"

"No one ever gets free."

"You knew." Red X jabbed the gun at Octave to emphasis his point. "You knew you'd have nothing to hold on me, even if I came back of my own free will. That's why you only went after me when Starfire came."

"I knew the knowledge your family might be alive wouldn't hold you long term. But a young man, prime of his life, you'd have to have someone special. Nothing screams better than a lovesick puppy. I knew you couldn't stay away from someone who was putting out for you for long. 'Course, we didn't expect that." He glanced at Starfire. "How'd you manage to bag that?"

"Starfire's right. You're a sad, pathetic man." Red X lifted the gun.

Starfire shifted, not standing in the line of fire. Instead, she stood by his elbow, facing him. "X, we should go."

He was immobile. "I should kill him."

Starfire touched his arm. "You have received the information you came for."

"He killed them."

"Then we shall bring him to justice."

He snorted. "Like that hasn't been tried."

She did something she had never done before. She used his name. His real name. Just a whisper of the word, a small caress of his name.

He shifted his gaze from Octave to her. The muscle beneath his eye twitched for a moment, then he lowered his gun. "Right."

Octave, who'd remained wisely quiet while Starfire pleaded for his life, ended that by stupidly opening his mouth. "You'll never be free of us-"

"There are other ways to be free," Red X said and clasped Starfire's hand. The gun went into a holster on his hip and he tugged her into a run, leaving Octave yelping behind them.

He knew this place, so Starfire followed his lead.

"He's not going to let this go," Red X said, pressing them both against the wall beside a corner, then peeked around it. Releasing her hand, he took a moment to put his mask on.

"I am certain we will find a way to bring him to justice."

"He kidnapped a Titan," Red X said. "That's a start."

"Precisely." Starfire didn't want to mention she wasn't a Titan any more.

Red X nodded, then pulled her around the corner.

A maze of corridors and doors, some open office areas with desks and chairs, Starfire was amazed such a complex was attached to a factory, but she supposed it was normal. How this all existed and the workers didn't know about the basement, she couldn't imagine but as Red X pulled out a key card to get them through another door and into a corridor, she realised they probably didn't have access.

"Where are we?" she asked, curious.

"Munitions factory," Red X said, a small pant to his voice and she noticed his limp. Robin's blow to his knee must still be bothering him. "Octave owns it, runs it under a different name."

"Why have the police not done something?" she asked, surely a munitions factory in the hands of a mob boss was not good. "By X'hal, he has a dungeon, do people not notice?"

"The cops can't get anything on him, he's got plants in their departments. "

"Oh."

He glanced at her and by his body language she could tell he was smiling beneath the mask. "Run now, talk later."

"Okay."

There would be time to discuss a wide variety of things later, after they were free. The least of which was what would happen to them now.

A noise of feet alerted them and Red X ducked them into an office at the edge of the large open plan floor space and under the desk to hide. She pressed against his side in the small space beneath the desk and he wrapped his arm around her, as if he could keep her quiet or safe by having her in his arms. She listened to his thudding heart and quickened breath as they waited for the coast to be clear.

"Where do you want to go?" Red X asked, when it was obvious by the voices in the open office next to them were not going anywhere soon. He kept his voice low so as to not attract attention.

"When?" Starfire whispered, confused.

"First date."

She tilted her head back so she could look at him. "What?"

"You were right, it's a crime we haven't tried to do things normally. We should. Where do you want to go? Dinner and movies?"

She smiled. "That would be glorious."

His hand squeezed her upper arm. "Good," he murmured.

"Although, not immediately."

"Oh?"

"I require some time."

"Time for what?"

"I need to move from the Tower and acquire the job and the apartment. I do not think I can be doing the dating for a little while until I am settled."

"I don't think Robin was serious, cutie."

"Perhaps not, but I was."

"But... your friends," he was astounded.

"Will always be my friends. I am not forsaking them for you."

"Well," he said, unsure. "You can always bunk with me-"

She regarded him. A part of her appreciated him opening up to even allow her a place with him, but she needed to do this on her own.

"Ahh... no? No," he amended, judging her expression. "You can... stay with me until you find a place?"

"I would appreciate that."

"Seems we gotta lot of things to talk about."

"Indeed."

They stiffened as the voices grew closer, preventing any further conversation. He passed the time by examining her bracers, twisting her wrists to get a better view, but ultimately, he didn't know how to remove them.

When they were clear, which was a good while before the voices moved far enough away for Red X and Starfire to crawl to the opposite end of the room and use the key card on the door to escape, they continued their dash for freedom. It seemed to Starfire like they were going in a wide circle, her suspicions confirmed when they came out into that large machinery filled area again. But Red X, instead of pulling her into the lines of machinery, tugged her toward a metallic ladder which headed to the roof.

"Can you fly?" he asked, looking up.

"No," she admitted.

"Damn, I don't have enough juice for a teleport."

"We can make it to the roof."

"Hopefully they'll still be looking in the office for us. Let's go." He gestured the ladder indicating she should go first.

She gave him a bland look. "This dress is not truly conducive to climbing."

"Which is why you're going first."

She thumped him on the arm.

"I suppose you'd prefer someone else get an eyeful? It's not anything I haven't seen before. Besides, nice close up of that mole."

She huffed and shot him a dark look, but headed up the ladder. "You make a single sound of gratification and my foot will be in your face."

"Noted," he said, climbing up behind her. "Can I think it?"

"I cannot stop you thinking."

"Hmm..."

Starfire peered down at him. "That better not have been a sound of gratification."

"Nope. 'course not."

She scrunched up her nose at him.

"Just enjoying the view."

She made to retort, but something tinged against the ladder beside her. It startled her enough for her to shriek and cringe away.

Red X was suddenly climbing over her so he was behind, protecting her. "Gunfire! Climb! Move!"

It was quite difficult to climb with him directly behind her, taking fire at the same time. She curled herself as small as she can, since she was not bullet-proof and his cape was but as the gunfire continued to ting around them, becoming more and more frequent, Red X grunting for every one lucky enough to strike his cape. As his urging grew frantic, she knew what she had to do.

She shifted, spinning around, holding onto the metal ladder with one hand.

"Star, move!"

She gripped the front of his suit.

One of his hands came down over hers as he tried to pry her away from his suit. "What are you-"

Starfire tore him away from the ladder. Surrounding herself with as much happiness as she could, she launched them toward the roof.

Gizmo's bracers didn't let her. They protested vehemently. Gritting her teeth as the electricity surrounded her, Starfire tried to force herself through the pain, but when one of the bullets pierced her shoulder, she lost control.

So she did the only thing she could. In a swift movement, she tossed Red X straight up toward the roof, judged his trajectory and eye blasted the roof so he'd sail through it.

His cry of denial was the last thing she heard as she fell toward the ground.