Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.

ARACHNE

Ouch. That didn't turn out well. Now my abdomen aches; those bolts sting pretty badly.

Now they know about the trap, and I can't jump on them from above again… How am I gonna get us out of here? We don't have another exit, and I'm not quite strong enough to just tear a hole in the side of the ship.

I mean, probably not. Maybe, but I don't want to break my fingers finding out.

"Ara?" Conan's voice calls out from the darkness. "What was that?"

"Nothing." I say quickly. I skitter over to the door and start webbing it up. Seeing as I can't win by surprise attack, I'll just try to block it until I can think of something else. "We need a new plan though."

He doesn't say anything, but I have no doubt he has a grimace on his face right now. "Fuck, alright… What do you figure the ceiling is made of?"

"Metal." I say. I stand back and observe my handywork. It won't hold for long, but it might buy us a few seconds.

"Okay, so we're not smashing through that." He grunts. "Damnit… I wonder if they have anything down here that can help…"

I can hear him slide off the crate I put him on. The trembling of my web signifies that he landed in it, meaning I'm going to have to pull him out in a moment. I make my way over and I can see him straining to pull the lid off the crate he was sitting on. His feet are already stuck the the webbing on the floor, and when he pulls too hard and his fingers slip, he falls back onto the floor getting even more stuck.

"Goddamn it." He snarls, straining uselessly against the webbing as he tries, and fails, to get up off his back. "Stupid fucking crates won't open."

Lowering myself down so I can reach him with my hands, I gently cut away the strands sticking to his arms and legs. Conan realizes what I'm doing and stops moving about so much, staying still so that I don't cut him by accident.

I purse my lips when I get to his head. "You're going to lose some hair." I say bluntly.

"Yeah, yeah." He grumbles, looking dour. "It's fine."

I try to cut as low as possible, but I can't avoid cutting out some of his well-kept blonde hair. With his body freed, Conan stands up and immediately runs his hands through his hair, accesing the damage.

"Not too bad." He mumbles. "Just a small trim and I'll probably be fine."

I still can't help but feel a bit bad. Logically I know it's not really my fault, but it feels like just another screw up in a long line of them. Conan is always a bit self-conscious and withdrawn, but it's been especially bad for the last few months, and it was a few months ago that we started dating, so I can't help but worry that it's me who's the problem, so I've been trying to keep my behaviour in check.

It's not easy to figure anything out when he's avoiding me though. He's refused to even meet with me for the last few weeks. I finally confronted him yesterday, and he just said he was 'out with friends'.

I know he's lying. I talk to his mother, and while he is actually out some of those times it's mostly for scouting out a new heist, and not with the HIVE gang. All the other times he's cooped up in his room doing who knows what.

While I'm glad to know he's not just entirely ignoring me for others, I'm worried because he's straight-up lying now. Usually he would just refuse to answer rather than lie, so he really wants me off his back.

I must have done something wrong, or maybe he's just finally tired of dealing with a mutant spider instead of a normal girl… I hope that's not it, I hope it's something I can fix. Aside from the HIVE gang, Conan and his mother are the only ones who didn't fear me on sight. He said me being half-spider was 'cool'.

"Fuck!" He snarls, failing to lift the lid again. After catching him as he stumbles, I realize the remaining webs must be sealing it shut, so I quickly cut them off and lift the lid with the other hand. Conan sags and sighs a bit when he sees me do this and I can't help but cringe a bit. What did I do wrong? "Whatever." He grumbles. "At least it's open."

He digs through it for a moment, tossing out some less than useful things: some spare silverware and dishes, several cooking tools, baking sheets, and so on.

"Nothing." He grumbles, pushing around the remaining utensils. "There's- Wait a moment…" He squints hard down at the box. "Do you we have a light somewhere I can use?"

"I'll turn on the lights." I say, walking over to the switch near the door and flipping it. We both squint as the harsh light fills the room. Conan adjusts quicker than me and starts inspecting the box again. When I get back to his side, still blinking spots out of my vision, he's reaching into his back pocket and pulling out his lock-picking tools.

"The bottom is too high… Here's the hole." He mutters. He takes out a small torsion wrench and one of his numerous picks. "Give me a 'sec. I think we have a secret compartment here."

"On a cruise boat during prom?" I ask, confused. "Why?"

"Hell if I know." He mutters, fiddling around. "I just want to see what's here… Raking isn't doing anything, gonna use the hook. This might take a minute."

"So much for a new plan huh?" I think to myself wryly, stepping back and letting him work. "Whatever, I didn't think we'd escape after my ambush failed anyways. I'll just hope the Titans aren't too rough. Conan's not tough like I am."

"There we are." Conan says, giving a rare grin. He pulls the rest of the stuff in the box out of the way. Glancing into the box, I can see a small panel has shifted along the bottom, giving him something to grip so he can pull up the bottom. He does so, easily lifting it up and out of the way. "What the-?" He stares at the contents of the secret compartment. "Aren't these the anti-magic crystals the JCPD use?"

I peer in beside him, staring down at the yellow crystals sitting neatly in their little plastic cases. "I think so. Giz would know, we can ask her later."

"When you're thrown in jail next to her?" Conan grumbles. "Not how I'd prefer to ask her. By the way, the producer of these crystals sound familiar." He squints at the label. "Chang laboratories… Swear I've heard that before."

I grimace. "Lady up on the hill."

"Of course, Professor Chang." He shakes his head. "Crazy old lady… Helped make mom's moths though."

"I don't like her." I say bluntly.

"Mom?"

"Chang."

"Don't blame ya, according to mom Chang's got some pretty weird stuff down under the hill. Even experiments with human DNA. Creepy." He shudders. "Apparently she made Plasmus and Cinderblock too."

"She's got quite the collection down there." I murmur. Bad memories flit through my head. I hold in a shudder.

"You've been down there before?" Conan asks.

"Yes." I say curtly, not elaborating. He seems to take the hint and doesn't press the issue.

"Anyways, I'm gonna replace the bottom." He lowers it back in and flicks the panel back into place. "This probably belongs to some villain, maybe even Rose. I don't wanna push my luck."

I help him put everything back in. When the lid closes, we stand there awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

"I've got one idea." He says after a moment. "I could always rush them while you try and push by."

It takes me a moment to realize he's referring to the Titans. I scowl down at him, not even dignifying that stupid plan with an answer. Like I'm going to let him charge straight-up superheroes. If anything I should rush them while he tries to sneak by. I'm not sure how he'd get off the boat without being caught though, which is why I don't mention it.

"I, uh…" Conan coughs. "Maybe we should just… Surrender?"

My scowl turns into a stare of blatant shock.

"I mean, if we don't think we can win, then wouldn't it be best to just give up and not get punched around?" He says, showing his reasoning. "I wouldn't want you t- Erm, I don't want to get hurt."

"You think they'll let us?" I ask.

"They're heroes, they have to. Plus, it's not like anyone was hurt aside from them." Conan shrugs.

Yeah, fair point. As much as I don't want to, giving ourselves up seems like the best option. "Alright." I grumble. "Let's go…"

ROBYN

Alright, the others should arrive in just a minute. Then we can go in and get-

Knock knock knock.

I blink, glancing over to the door where Starfire is standing guard. He seems surprised too, shooting me a confused glare.

"Can we talk?" Conan's voice calls through the door. It's slightly muffled by the metal.

"About what?" I ask, approaching cautiously.

"Terms of surrender." He says

What the hell? What is with today, everything is just… Gah… Whatever, I'll take it. This is just a strange day for me. "Terms?" I ask, scoffing. "We've got you stuck in there."

"That's why we're offering to surrender dipshit." He says, sounding exasperated. "Get it through your head. Surr-en-der."

That's certainly a stark contrast to the egotistical flirtatious bastard he was before. "What terms?" I ask suspiciously. I'm fairly sure if I don't agree they'll probably try to fight their ways out, and I'd prefer not to go up against the spider girl again.

"Uh…" He sounds caught off guard, maybe he was expecting me to protest more. "W-Well obviously you can't hurt us, seeing as we'll be giving up; and… uhh... " I can hear him consorting with his ally. "Did we even have anything else?" He whispers.

"No."

"Damn, we should have thought of something more." He grumbles. Speaking up, he adresses me again. "Actually that's- Oh! We get to stay with mom or someone we know."

I blink, that's a bit of an odd request (and not one I have the authority to enforce) but I can understand why he might ask it. Prisons aren't the nicest places. "No guarantees." I say after a moment of consideration. "I'll put in a word with the JCPD though."

"I suppose that's the best we'll get." He sighs. "Alright, we're coming out, don't shoot."

Me and Star take positions at either side of the door. It swings open inward, and the two come out, hands in the air. The spider girl leads, glaring at us the whole time with narrowed eyes. Conan just looks annoyed, and maybe bored; his eyes are half-closed and his posture is rather relaxed.

I quickly snap cuffs onto the spider girl. She's easily ten times more dangerous than Conan. Only when I'm sure she's secure (as secure as she can be considering her legs could cut us to ribbons right now) do I move over and put on Conan's pair.

He glances down at them with apathy. "Kinky." He says, shooting me a dry, sarcastic grin. "Guess this means the date went well?"

I just scowl and move away as he gives a dry chuckle and moves over to stand closer to the spider girl.

"Higher?" Starfire whispers, looking at me. "What was that word he just used?"

"Which one?"

"'Kinky.' What does that mean?"

"Uh… You don't need to know that Star."

"Why not?"

"It's inappropriate." I say firmly.

"Inappropriate?" Conan scoffs, having overheard us talking. "If you want inappropriate, I can give you inappropriate. That was hardly anything."

"Please do not." Star responds bluntly. "We do not need to hear of your bedroom activities."

"Wha-?" Conan sputters. "No! That's not what I meant! I wouldn't tell you that anyways!"

"Are you kids getting rowdy down here?" Changeling's husky voice calls down the stairwell. She saunters down the stairway, a lush grin on her face as she gazes around with heavy-lidded eyes.

Maybe it's just me though. I don't see a reason for her to be putting on a show. "It's probably just natural. She does it all the time after all."

Cyborg and Crow follow close behind her, with Cyborg just rolling her eyes and Crow hiding behind her, peering curiously at our captives with large, innocent eyes.

"The whole gang's here huh?" Conan smirks. "I think they like us Ara."

"I'm sure." Ara says dryly.

"So, uh, what now?" Conan asks, glancing at me. "I've never done this before, so…"

"'Never done this before'? This isn't a party or something!" I snap. "You're under arrest!"

"Yeah, yeah." Conan sighs, seeming mostly indifferent. "Whatever."

"Gah." I groan. "Star, will you be able to carry the spider?"

"I have a name." Ara grunts.

"Yes." Star nods, ignoring her. "I will manage."

"Can you take Conan?" I turn to Crow. He jumps, surprised. I think he expected me to ask Changeling. Nonetheless, he nods and puts Conan in a black bubble.

"Great." I sigh. Cyborg leads the way back up while Crow and Star take up our captives. "I can't wait for this day to be over…"

I'm telling you all this in case you (somehow) didn't figure it out already: Robyn is jealous of Changeling. Seriously, go back through the chapters and see how she describes her. She even gripes about Changeling being better at a few things than her, and Rob is a bit preoccupied with Changeling's appearance. The little section just a dozen lines up or so is a good example.

Can you say 'inferiority complex'? Changeling's self-confidence perfectly highlights Robyn's lack of it.

Ara's verbal tic is speaking bluntly, in case you didn't notice. Starfire never uses contractions and is more formal, Conan swears a lot and is very emotional, and Crow stutters when nervous and is otherwise like Starfire. Hex is playful, Gizmo indifferent, Mammoth doesn't swear and is more practical in what she says. Changeling has two very different ways of speaking depending on whether she's addressing Crow or not (flirtatious/seductive or calm and gentle), and Robyn is my baseline (AKA, generic as fuck).

Conan and Ara's relationship actually reflects Crow and Changeling's a lot. It mostly involves dealing with insecurities, but whereas Changeling can wheedle it out of Crow, Conan won't say anything and Ara doesn't push that much.

You know, while I'm at it, I might as well point out that the theme of this arc is 'Gender'. I'm fairly sure you all caught on that. A bunch of Robyn and Crow's issues revolve around that, and I've gone out of my way to flip the normal gender roles in a couple ways; not all ways mind you, I'm not that progressive. :P

Origami Stars: Nope, Conan will never get any powers. He's just an oddity among his family, and dirt useless in a fight. He couldn't take down even a measly thug if he tried. He's a skilled thief though.

razgriz108: Yeah, they're compatible. I won't go into detail for obvious reasons. Yes, spiders may eat their mates (depending on a large amount of factors), but Ara's brain is human, not arachnoid, so that doesn't really apply.

Incidentally though, the type of spider she is, a black widow, the females are basically famous for eating their mates. Sometimes they're just known as 'widow spiders' because of this.

A person: Yes, Trigon is the most powerful demon, and by a large margin. I've actually seen a few other stories where demons are handled differently. There was this one where there were a certain amount of 'domains' and Trigon was just the guy who had the one that most aligned with Earth. He wasn't actually the 'ultimate evil' or anything, he was just an egotistical bastard.

Kitten always rubbed me the wrong way. I liked Fang though. I actually took bits and pieces of his personality and put them into both Ara and Conan.

I love writing the villain perspectives! They're so unique!

Yes, all the shipping! Muahahahaha!