Dedication: Bunnysquirrel, RoseXxxXThorn, and realfanficts!

Kori was leaning against a wall with her knees pulled up tightly to her chest and her head resting on her knees. She figured it would be best to just save her energy and not waste it on trying to break out of here. Besides, it was not like the strength she possessed would even come close to the strength the metal could take. Maybe if she possessed her Tamaranian powers it would be easier.

But life was not about what ifs, maybe ifs. It was about reality. That was something she had learned while living on Earth. You just deal with reality. And right now, reality was telling her that she was to be kidnapped with little hope of getting out.

But that meant she would not give up. It just meant that she wouldn't do anything right now. Not until she knew enough information to get out. Although, it was not that bad here. So far she had been left relatively alone- and was away from the hell that was her life.

She jumped at the sound of the door creaking open.

"I've brought your lunch," and elderly woman informed her.

Kori looked at her curiously. The woman looked so familiar.

"H.I.V.E. Headmistress?" Kori asked.

The woman laughed. "So you recognize me."

Kori nodded. "What do you want of me?" Kori demanded.

"Do not concern yourself with that."

"How can I not?" Kori demanded. "I'm being held captive."

The headmistress set the tray down in front of Kori.

"If you insist on knowing, I will tell you what you wish to know," she said as she walked to the door.

"What will you do to me?"

"That depends on others. You are really just a bargaining chip. We can't harm you right now."

"A bargaining chip? For what?"

"That does not matter," she answered Kori, walking out the door. "Oh," she said, turning around to face Kori. "I've heard that rebels have taken your niece," she informed Kori with a small smile before walking out the door, leaving Kori dumbstruck.

Kora was floating. That was the only way to describe it- floating. She wanted to open her eyes, but she had a strange feeling that that might not be a wise idea, so she kept them wired shut. Not more than two seconds later, she learned that her decision had been a good one.

"What do I do with the Princess?" a gruff voice asked.

"Over there," was the reply. "There should be a pillow that you can put her head on. We don't want to inconvenience Princess Kara," the man said sarcastically.

Wait. Kara? They got the wrong girl. She would just have to play the part of her friend. No cousin, she corrected herself. If she let it slip that she wasn't Kara, Kara could be in danger too. She would have to pretend to be her cousin. It was the only way to protect her. But who would want to go after Kara?

Kara felt herself begin to move in some direction. She wasn't being moved in the gentlest manner but she knew that couldn't be helped. What a thought to think that her captors would actually be gentle. She felt herself come to a stop, the suddenness of it causing her head to hit her captor.

"This is the room," she heard a voice say.

"Everything is prepared," another voice, a younger one, continued.

She heard the opening of a door and than felt herself begin to move again. She was then set somewhat gently on the floor, her head placed on a pillow. She then felt her left leg be chained to something. She waited for her wrists to be bound but it didn't happen. There were some brief whispers and then the sound of a door slam.

Kora was about to role over and open her eyes when she heard a heavy sigh.

"Why the hell did I get stuck doing this job?" the young voice grumbled. "I don't even want to do this! It's been 'Kyler' do this and 'Kyler' do that. Now I'm stuck guarding some spoiled Princess."

"Hey, I'm not spoiled!" Kora exclaimed, sitting up with a wild look in her eyes. Her eyes widened when she realized her mistake.

"How long have you been awake?" the young boy demanded.

"Long enough to here you call me spoiled," Kora answered.

"Hey!" he answered, pointing at her. "Don't give me attitude!"

"Or what?" Kora demanded.

"I don't feed you!"

"Fine! It's not like I'd want to eat it anyway! Who knows if it's been poisoned or something!" Kora retorted.

"Fine! Go hungry!" he answered her, before turning his attention away from Kora.

It gave Kora the opportunity to get a better look at him. He didn't look to be much older than her. He was a skinny lad with tan, spiky hair that flopped down into his green eyes. He was wearing a traditional Tamaranian outfit which made Kora suspect that they could be Tamaranian rebels. She didn't know much about the rebels but knew they were working hard to try and overthrow Galfore who had been declared Grand Ruler by the royal family almost 18 years ago.

"Do you want food?" he asked suddenly.

"I'm not hungry," Kora answered before her stomach growled.

He snorted. "That noise would suggest otherwise," he remarked.

"Fine," Kora said. "Maybe I'm a little hungry."

"Here," he answered, sliding over a tray with a peace of bread and what looked like a meat. He had an identical tray in front of him.

"So do you have a name?" Kora asked, picking at the food.

"Kyler," he answered, taking a bite out of his bread.

Kora nodded. "I'm Ko-Kara," Kora answered.

"I know."

"Oh. Um, ok."

The two sat in an awkward silence. Kyler continued to eat his food while Kora just picked at it. She wasn't sure what to make of the food. The bread was a little hard and the meat was a little rubbery.

"So, do you know why I'm here?" Kora asked nervously.

"Not really," Kyler answered. "I just do what I'm told- whether I want to or not."

"Oh. So I guess this is something you didn't want to do?" Kora asked.

"Babysitting a spoiled princess isn't my idea of fun," Kyler remarked dryly.

"I'm not spoiled!" Kora snapped. "Nor am I a princess."

"Just because your aunt named Galfore the Grand Ruler of Tamaran before she disappeared, that does not mean that you are not a princess. Your mother is still of royal blood."

So her mother was the one who placed Galfore in charge. And no wonder they thought she was Kara. Her mother had disappeared before she was born so no one knew of her birth. And Kara and Kora looked almost exactly alike. It was starting to make sense. But why would the rebels want to kidnap Kara? Unless they were using Kara to get to Kari.

"What is going on?" Sunfire demanded.

"What aren't you telling us?" Raven asked.

"Nothing!" Jenny said in a high pitch squeak. "It's really nothing. Why would anything be going o-" Redmond stopped Jenny's babbling by covering her mouth with his hand.

"Nothing is going on. Jenny is just acting a little funny because she is tired," he informed the Titans.

"Come on. Are you going to expect us to believe that?" Arsenal asked.

"What letters are you talking about?" Nightwing demanded.

"Letters? What letters? Redmond do you know of any letters?" Jenny squeaked.

"The letters are nothing," Redmond answered, ignoring Jenny, who was looking at him with a look of horror on her face.

"Then why is she so concerned about them?" Changeling asked, pointing to Jenny.

"Because she worries about petty stuff," Redmond answered coolly.

"Hey!" Jenny exclaimed. "I do not!" She paused then giggled. "Wait, uh yes! Yes I do!"

"Look, maybe we can help," Cyborg said, trying to play peace maker.

"Yeah," Terra agreed. "Just tell us what is going on.

"Nothing is going on that our family cannot handle," Redmond answered coolly.

"Starfire is our family too!" Rose exclaimed.

"And I'm actually family by blood!" Sunfire continued.

"Look, guys, it's cool that you want to help. Really. But well, we just don't need it," Jenny said. "We've been able to handle things before, we can take care of ourselves now."

"Why are you fighting this?" Terra asked. "Why can't we help?"

"Starfire left you for us!" Jenny snapped hysterically. "We can handle this ourselves."

"Really, because it doesn't look like it," Rose pointed out.

"Starfire doesn't need your help! She doesn't want it! If she did she would have asked you for it a long time ago!" Jenny yelled, bunching her fists against her small trembling body. "Do not interfere."

"It's ok. We got it," Redmond told the Titans, ushering his small, quivering companion away from the Titans and to his room.

"Why can't they let us handle this?" Jenny demanded. "Why? This is our problem."

"But Starfire- Kori is a Titan. We just want to help protect one of our own," Terra said, coming into the room.

"Ex! Ex Titan!" Jenny squealed angrily.

"Why are you all fighting this?" Terra asked. "Why?"

"Don't come butting into our business!" Jenny exclaimed, storming out to go to her room.

"Look, Terra is it?" Redmond asked then continued when he saw her nod. "If Kori needed your help, she would have asked for it earlier."

"But what if she didn't know what she wanted?" Terra asked.

"We're Kori's family now. Ok? And right now, family is all any of us have," Redmond said. "And I'm not about to lose my family."

How dare they! How dare they! Where do they think they get off, telling Redmond and her how to deal with the situation? She felt like throwing something, breaking something. This was her family they were trying to interfere with. And until Kori said she wanted their help, she was going to keep on shutting them out.

There was a soft knock on her door.

"Why are they trying to butt into our lives?" Jenny demanded, her back to the door so she missed Cyborg slipping in. "I mean seriously. We can handle our-" Jenny cut off her sentence as she whirled around to get a look at who was at her door. "Oh. Sorry," she said, lowering her bright pink eyes. "I thought you were Redmond," she whispered.

"You want to tell me what's going on?" Cyborg asked, still leaning in the doorway.

"Nothing we can't handle!" Jenny snapped.

"Are you sure? Because you seem really wound up," Cyborg commented.

"I'm not wound up!" Jenny yelled.

Cyborg came took a step closer to Jenny. "Are you sure your all right? Or, do you always act like this now?" He tilted up her chin to get a closer look at her pink eyes, which now happened to be shimmering with tears.

"Everything is not all right!" she choked.

"What's going on?" he asked, taking her hand and sitting her down on her bed. He pulled out a chair from the desk for himself. "You can tell me."

"It's nothing really," Jenny answered.

Cyborg shrugged. "Well, if its nothing then you should be able to tell me."

"It doesn't matter!" Jenny exclaimed, her tiny body shaking.

"Obviously it does," Cyborg said gently, "Or else you wouldn't be this crazy right now."

"Fine! You want to know what my problem is?" Jenny asked. "It's you Titans! You come bursting into my family's lives and get mad when we don't tell you things that doesn't matter to you in the first place!" she yelled. "If Kori really wants your help, she will ask it! Until then, don't mess with my family!"

"Family really means a lot to you huh?" Cyborg asked.

"You have no idea," Jenny answered. "I've never had a family until them." Jenny paused as tears filled her eyes. "Ok, so that's not true. I did sort of have a family with The Flash," Jenny admitted.

"What happened?" Cyborg asked carefully.

"I messed up," Jenny confessed.

"How?"

Jenny sighed. "I got mixed up with a bad crowd. It cost me my home, my husband, our children."

"Was the Flash your husband?"

Jenny nodded. "After ya'll defeated the Doom Patrol, we kind of settled down." Jenny felt a fresh wave of tears hit her. "I finally had a family that I had never had. And we had children! It was a happy home. Then one mistake and it was all over." Jenny sighed, trying to stop her tears. "But now, I have a family again. Another happy one. And it's falling apart!"

"Kora has been gone for a long time," Kara whispered to her cousin. "Didn't she say she was going to be right back?"

"Maybe she got distracted," Sean whispered.

"Or maybe she got taken!" Kara gasped.

"By who?" Sean demanded. "Nobody is after her."

"True."

"Look, if she doesn't come back in a few hours, then we could worry," Sean told her.

"Yeah, but then the adults will know by then too," Kara said.

"What do you propose we do?" Sean asked. "We don't know anything.

"What if she went to Red Hills?" Kara asked.

"And do what? She doesn't know anything either."

"I don't know ok? I was just suggesting something!" Kara yelled, before realizing her mistake and turning down her volume. She started towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Sean demanded.

"To the roof. I'm going to get some fresh air," Kara answered.

"I'm coming with you," Sean informed her.

"Fine," Kara whispered back.

"Where are you to going?" Sunfire asked, surprising the pair.

"Oh, we're just going to the roof," Kara told her nervously.

"Where's Kora?" her mother asked.

"Um, she's um," Kara sputtered.

"She's already up there," Sean quickly cut in. "We were coming up to join her because we finally saved the file."

Sunfire nodded suspiciously. "All right. Why is she acting weird?"

"Weird, I'm not acting weird," Kara laughed nervously.

"She's just tired," Sean said quickly. "She's tired of homework. Good thing we finished huh?"

"Sure," Sunfire said, still looking at her daughter with doubt.

"Bye now," Sean said, pushing Kara towards the door.

"They're up to something," Sunfire told her husband who just walked up. "I just don't know what."

"That was close," Kara giggled nervously.

"You need to stop spazing out," Sean told her. "Your mom is going to start to wonder."

"Sorry!" Kara yelled. "I panicked."

"Well calm down," Sean said.

"Hey, what's that?" Kara asked, leaning against the edge of the roof and pointing at a something fluttering in the wind at the ground of the tower.

"I dunno."

"Well, I'm gonna go look," Kara said, flinging her arms out and taking a nose dive off the side. She pulled before hitting the ground and grabbed at it. She then did a flip and flew up to Sean. "Let's look at it inside."

Sean nodded and headed towards the door. "Do you know what it is?"

Kara shrugged. "No idea. But we can look at it in the computer room," she said as she followed Sean, the fact that she wanted fresh air had slipped her mind.

He opened the door to the computer room and slipped inside. Kara immediately sat down and opened up the first envelope and scanned it quickly. She gasped at what she was reading.

"What? What is it?" Sean asked.

"A ransom note! For Kori!" Kara said quickly.

"What's in the other one?" Sean asked anxiously.

"What do you have there?" Sunfire asked, blocking the doorway.

"Nothing!" Kara yelled, shoving the letters behind her back.

"Really?" he mother asked. "Because it certainly looks like something."

"If it's nothing you can show us," her father answered.

Kara exchanged a look with Sean who shrugged. Kara sighed and handed over the letters to her mother. Sunfire glanced over the first letter as her eyes grew wide.

"This is a ransom note for my sister!" she exclaimed, showing the letter to her husband.

He grabbed it from her. "What is the other one?"

"I don't know," she answered as she opened the second one. Her eyes skimmed over it quickly before gasping. "Kara! It's a ransom note! For you!"