Everyone: Thanks for reading and stay safe.
#Justice
#JusticeforBreonnaTaylor
#JusticeforElijahMcClain
Time for the Truth
9:12 pm
The comforting hand that rubbed her back did nothing to smooth her frustration. Her torso inflated and deflated as she breathed heavily inside her hands.
"Don't cry, Star." Retra gently instructed. "He isn't worth your tears."
Starfire removed her hands from her tear-stained face to reveal a frightened look. "How could he? How could she?"
Her eyes glowed green as she thought about Raven's and Nightwing's betrayal. She thought of Raven as a sister. She knew how she felt about Nightwing. She had told her about how she felt about Nightwing. She had shared stories about their relationship with her. And she...
Her hands clenched into fists.
Why did she have bad luck with sisters?
"Starfire..." Retra opened her mouth then closed it before giving Starfire a pitiful look.
"Why her?" Her voice rose. "Out of all the girls in the world, why did he pick her?" The stream of tears flowed more rapidly down her eyes. She covered her eyes again.
"I don't know, Star." Retra continued to rub her back. "Their relationship came to us as a surprise too."
"How did you find out?" Starfire asked, removing her hand again to look at her friend.
Retra sighed and the pitiful look on her face increased. Nonetheless, she told Starfire how she found out about their relationship, what she observed, and how they treated one another.
The more words that Retra spoke, the more sorrow gathered on her face and the more frustrated she felt in her heart.
After Retra finished, she yelled tearfully, "What's wrong with me? Was I not good enough? I wanted that. I wanted to live with him outside of the Tower. I wanted to cook dinner for him after he came home from work. I wanted to go on dates where we both didn't have to wear our costumes. I wanted all of that!
"And how could he tell her?" More tears fell from her face. "We all met each other at the same time. I know him better than she does. We dated for years. He was going to propose to me." She held up her left hand so that Retra could see the ring as proof.
However, as she looked at the ring, she became angry with it. She jerked it off her finger and threw it across the room.
It was a ring that she couldn't take off while she was married to another man that she grew to love. Yet, it was something she didn't want touching her now that it meant nothing.
"They haven't been dating half of the time that we were, and he told her. I would have kept his secret too." she slammed a hand on her chest. "I wouldn't have told anyone. I had planned on not registering our marriage just so he could continue to hide his identity?" She paused. "Why didn't he trust me?" She covered her face again.
"It's okay Star."
She tore her hands from her face. "It's not okay! We dated for years, slept together in the same bed, and I had his baby. Yet, she got to see his face without his mask on. She gets to scream his real name in bed. She gets to do everything I wanted to. What's wrong with me? How come he never told me?"
"Starfire." The blond grabbed her friend and pulled her into a hug.
"It's not fair. I love him too."
"I know. I know."
Starfire sobbed in her friend's neck as she thought about her relationship with Nightwing. She never thought that it was perfect but she thought that it was close enough.
She loved him and he had loved her.
Yet, after listening to Retra describe his relationship with Raven, she wondered if it was an illusion that she conjured up.
She never got to experience all the things that Raven did with him. She never got to see the man behind that mask, the color of his eyes, and how that color lightened and darkened with each expression. She was only allowed access to the man that existed at night, not the one that lived during the day.
That made her wonder: What was wrong with her? What was she lacking? What did Raven have that she didn't?
Did Raven cast a spell on him?
She dismissed the thought as soon as it entered her mind. Raven wasn't that kind of person.
However, her heart broke thinking about her. She always wanted Raven to find someone special. She wanted her to experience the love that she had had with Dick.
Nevertheless, she didn't want Raven to experience that love with Dick. So, it made her sick to her stomach to know that her friend now knew what it was like to have the love of her ex-boyfriend, to know his touch, and to be showered with his affection. And worst of all, Raven now knew secrets about him that she didn't know.
She hated it.
What was she going to do? She wasn't ready to let Dick go.
"Are you feeling better?" Retra asked, still rubbing her back.
"No," she mumbled. She had stopped crying but her heart still felt heavy.
Retra pulled away from Starfire. "I know what will make you better," she said with an excited smile.
"Nightwing and Raven break up, and we get back together."
Retra's smile decreased some. "Nooooo. I mean, yes, that will but I have something else in mind." Retra told her plan for a spontaneous girl's night that would bleed into the morning.
Starfire smiled at Retra's plan. It wasn't going to make her happy; however, it was going to make her feel better for a couple of hours.
"Let's do it!" Starfire shouted.
"Really? I don't want you to force yourself, but I don't want you to waste your tears on him."
"No, I think it's perfect. Tonight we will have fun and forget our worries."
"And tomorrow, we'll conquer the world." Retra added the rest of the word to their friendship's slogan that they used when they were in a bad mood.
"Heck yeah!"
They laughed before pulling each other into a warm hug. They stayed like that for a moment until someone knocked on the door, causing them to pull apart.
"I'll answer it." Retra said, getting up.
"No, I got it." She placed a hand on her friend's shoulder so that she could sit back down. She stood wiping her face with a clean tissue. "This is my room after all. On Tamaran, it would be rude if a guest answered the door and the owner is in the room."
She traipsed to the door and opened it. Raven stood on the other side.
They stared at each other.
"Cyborg is in trouble." Raven announced.
"Let's go."
9:08 pm
The common room began to clear out after the meeting. Nightwing watched as Starfire left the room with Retra at her side.
He frowned as the surprised and hurt image of her came back to his face. He didn't mean to hurt her feelings but he did.
He originally wanted to have a scheduled conversation with her to break down the news gently and to answer any questions that she had. Unfortunately, life rarely goes as planned. Now, he had hurt someone that deserved all of the happiness in the galaxy.
"Nightwing, what did you want to talk about?"
His head pivoted around on his neck to face his girlfriend. He had asked her to stay behind. He didn't want her to find out what had occurred from someone else. He wanted to inform her of the events that had transpired himself.
"Yeah," he answered as he moved to sit on top of the coffee table that was in front of the couch where she sat. "I need to tell you about what happened before the meeting. " He then proceeded to tell her about the highlights of his and Starfire's conversation before she and the rest of the team entered the room.
"Rae, you should have seen her face." He ruffled his hair, thinking about Starfire's expression again as he finished the story. "You would have thought that I had personally stabbed her in the back.
"I mean, I was planning on telling her when things settle down. And, I knew that it was going to hurt her feelings, but... Urgh. I can't believe that I hurt her like that. I never wanted to hurt her. She is precious to me. I mean, we dated for years...years." He stood up and walked to the other side of the coffee table where he began to pace.
"She is probably crying her eyes out as we speak. What should I do? Should I get her something? Maybe that would make her feel better. What do you think?"
He stopped pacing and faced his girlfriend, who had a blank expression on her face. It was then that he realized what he had done.
"Raven, I-"
"Do you want to break up?" She cut him off.
He was taken aback by her words but he understood where she was coming from. Just a moment ago he wasn't talking to Raven as his girlfriend. He was talking to Raven as a friend who he needed help from in order to fix his relationship with his girlfriend.
It was unfair to her especially after he spent the last few days reassuring her that nothing would change between them.
"No," He replied with a determined voice. "I love you."
"Are you sure? Because that would be the only thing that you can do to make Starfire happy."
He moved back to his original spot on the table and grabbed her hands into his. "I'm sorry. I got confused for a second because she kissed me. And-"
"You two kissed." Her hands were yanked from his.
"Raven, it meant nothing to me. That's why I wanted to let you know. I don't want you to have doubt for any reason in the future. The kiss meant nothing. I love you and only you." When she didn't respond to his words, he asked "Do you trust me?"
"Do you remember the night you asked me out?" He nodded slowly unsure where this was going. "I asked you, If Kory was still here, would you have liked me. You answered 'no'. "
"Raven-"
"I trust you. I had no reason not to... until a moment ago."
"The kiss meant nothing."
"I know, and you know that's not what I was talking about. You need to figure out if you trust yourself and whose boyfriend you want to be."
"I want to be with you. I am with you. I'm your boyfriend." He grabbed her hand. "Raven, I-"
The ringing of the Tower's doorbell interrupted them. He looked at Raven with regret before answering the monitor.
When it came on a handsome but frantic Asian appeared. "Hello, is there a problem?" Nightwing asked.
"I'm Yuki Tanaka, with the FBI. Open up this is an emergency." He announced flashing a badge.
The couple shared a look before Nightwing gave him access into the Tower. "Come up."
From the monitor, they saw the guy run into the Tower. As the FBI agent rode the elevator up to the main floor, Nightwing verified his information.
It came up clean.
The elevator dinged and opened. They were there to greet the man. However, the man rushed past them. His eyes scanned the common room as his feet moved him.
"Um, can we help you?" Raven created a dark wall to stop the man from moving.
"I don't have time for this." The man informed Raven. "Put down your shield."
"You need to make time," Nightwing said, "You can't just storm into our house and look around. This is not a tourist attraction. "
The man clicked his tongue. "Where is Willow Harrison?"
The couple spared a glance at each other. "She's not here. No one has seen her since yesterday. How did you know that she was here?"
"Because we have been monitoring her. Where is Cyborg? I need to speak to him now."
9:10 pm
Cyborg sat in his room as he thought about the meeting. A minute passed when the phone attached to his body rang. Seeing the name and number that came through his system, Cyborg answered immediately.
"Willow, where are you? I've been trying to contact you since last night. I've been worried about you."
"I think you know where I am." Her voice was different. It didn't hold the sweet, angelic tone that he loved.
Wrinkles were created on the human side of his face as it bunched up with confusion. "What are you talking about, Willow? Is something going on? You have been weird lately." He added, hating the desperation in his voice. Yet, he was truly concerned about her wellbeing. "Where are you? I will come and get you."
"You know where I am."
"No, I don't. Where are you?"
"Having you been receiving my emails?" The phone went dead. His wires froze over, and memory from his past played in his head.
As it played in his head, he stood up to leave the Tower. Knowing that Nightwing and Raven were in the common room, he took the second entrance to the garage.
His mind was racing as he drove down the road that connected the Tower to the city, missing the car that turned on the road from his rearview mirror.
How could he miss the signs?
How could he forget such a critical memory?
How could he let her play him? Why were his teammates right?
His hands tightened on the steering wheel and his foot pushed heavily on the pedal. Soon, he was at Lab 52 A.
He got out of his car and walked to the lift. The digital pad that was used to access the lift had been tampered with, yet it was still able to control the lift. He entered the lift and took it down to where the specimen was.
When he reached the bottom, he was greeted by the sight of Willow staring up at the tank, looking at Ant.
As he walked closer, her eyes connected with his. However, his eyes quickly shifted to a movement that came from behind the tank.
Willow stepped back, creating a space for another person.
"Amy!" He stared with wide eyes as his secretary who was supposed to be on vacation came out with a gun pointing at Willow.
"Surprise?" Her beautiful face held an innocent glowed while her eyes were a crazy storm. "What you are feeling right now is what I felt when I found out you kept this piece of trash alive.
"Do you know how hard I worked to kill him? But you had to play hero and keep him alive. Oh, before I get carried away, I wouldn't try to contact your friends. The nanos that I have been adding to your coffee before I went on 'vacation' will fry your system and I will pop a cap inside your girlfriend's head.
"What? You don't have anything to say?" Amy asked.
"What exactly is going on? You loved Anthony." His nervous system was in overdrive as he tried to process what Amy was saying, what she was doing.
All the while his eyes traveled between her and Willow. He was looking for an opening while his system did a diagnostic test.
"Love," Amy let out a humorless laugh. "I hated him. He was an abusive piece of trash. The only reason why we were together was that I got in trouble with a Triad group back home. I was using Anthony as a shield while he was using me for my most marketable services. It was a mutual relationship until that idiot got too cocky.
"Fortunately, I wasn't the only one that he got cocky with. He ended up pissing off the same Triad group that I was running away from. The group and I made a lucrative deal. His head for my freedom. Of course, me being the girlfriend, or fiancee, that I was, I took the deal before it could hit the table."
She smirked as she tilted her head. "You still look confused. Let me explain. My forte is building bioweapons. I usually sell them for a large profit. It helps to pay off my student loans." She shrugged. "All those designs that Anthony presented to you. Those were my designs. So it was nothing for me to build this lab for Ant."
"You built this?" The diagnosis was completed. Cyborg read it quickly.
"Correct." She scanned the room with a smile. "I must say. I like what you did with the place. It was better than the tomb that I built for that trash."
"You planned for it not to work." He said, referring to the machine that was supposed to switch their bodies. "You also planned for the circuit to backfire."
"Correct. I also planned for you to take the fall. I created the perfect setup. A business partner who was angry with his partner for stealing from his company and sleeping with his girlfriend. What started off as self-defense turn into a murder."
"It was you who was stealing from the company?" The nanos affected most of his communicated system. However, there were some things that weren't affected.
"Both Anthony and I were. However, money wasn't my end game."
"Why did you stay at the company afterward?" He connected with the robots in the labs. The connection was taking longer due to the nanos.
"The benefits were good and I needed a way to move the illegal money that I was making."
"And you planned for me to find out about Anthony and Sarah that night?" He watched as the connection percentage slowly increased in his system.
"No, not that night but eventually. Anthony accidentally found out I told you, so my plan got off its timeline. It was okay. The result was the same minus the fact that you kept this a secret. Although, I feel bad about Sarah. She really loved you. Too bad I forced her to cheat on you with Anthony."
"What?!" He stopped focusing on Willow and the connection.
"I forgot to mention that my specialty was designing equipment for mind control. My phone call with her slowly influenced her life choices. Just like I did with Changeling using video games"
"Changeling? Mind control? You are Black Willow!" He tried to focus on the connection again.
"Yes," she confirmed. "I used that alias to push the blame on her," She placed the gun against Willow's temple and pushed. "But little miss sunshine was playing the both of us. She's working with the FBI."
Willow chuckled. "That was your fault. You shouldn't have killed the CTO and gave me the position."
"Shut up before I send a bullet through your throat before I shoot you in the head."
"Why did you kill him? " He wanted her attention back on him.
"That trash was trying to blackmail me. He wanted to use me just like Anthony did." She sighed. "However, what sealed his fate was the discovery of this lab. He happily informed that Triad group that Anthony was still alive and you were trying to revive him. So, I killed him and made sure I turned this idiot into a permanent vegetable for good." She knocked on the tank with her free hand. "I wanted to get the Triad off my back."
"Unfortunately, someone else took an interest in our little friend and used it to his advantage before I could get in here without you knowing. However, the deal that I had with that person went south. Now, I need you to create a safe passage for me to Atlantis until I can think of my next move."
Cyborg chuckled. "Aquaman won't let that happen."
A twisted smile formed on her lips. "In that case, let's all dead together."
A lab robot came out of the corner and slammed into Amy. A shot was fired into the tank.
"Nanos activate!" She yelled as she and Willow wrestled for the gun.
His world went black as his system shut down.
9:25 pm
Changeling examined the sheet of paper that he and Retra had been working on before the meeting. He couldn't figure out how and when Willow had been able to hypnotize him. It was frustrating him.
He knew that the correlation was there. He just couldn't find the link.
"Emergency, emergency."
"Ah!" Changeling jumped at the unexpected noise, causing him to fall on the floor. He looked at his communicator that was on the desk and got up to open it.
Opening it, he noticed the distress signal that was coming from the device that he had given Willow after yoga class one day.
He exited his room and ran to Cyborg's. He would want to know first. He slowly changed his pace as he noticed the sight in front of Cyborg's door.
"What is my yoga instructor doing here?" He asked once he got close.
"Agent Tanaka is-"
"Emergency." Changeling's communicator cut off Nightwing's explanation.
"What is that?"
"I think Willow is trying to contact me."
His yoga instructor grabbed the device from his hand and ran down the hall, causing Nightwing to yell, "Changeling, come with me. Raven, go get Starfire and Retra. "
His two team members ran in opposite directions. Changeling quickly took after Nightwing who was following his instructor. "What's going on?"
"There's no time to explain." Nightwing answered.
...
Later on, that night, Changeling got his answer.
"So, you two are federal agents?" He asked the bruised woman who sat in the back of the ambulance.
"I am." His yoga instructor Yuki confirmed. "She is an ex-agent who is helping me on the case."
Willow smiled up at Yuki. "We were assisting each other. This case meant a lot to me too."
"I'm just happy that you weren't seriously injured." Yuki smiled back down at her. "You are important to me."
Changeling coughed breaking up the moment. "I have one last question."
"Sure, what is it?" Yuki asked.
"Since you are not a licensed instructor, am I going to get my money back for the class."
They all chuckled as Yuki answered. "Sorry to disappoint you but I'm a licensed instructor. So, no refund."
"I should get a refund. Your class sucked." Changeling pouted playfully.
"If you want a refund, take it up with the government."
"Then that definitely won't happen. You should forget about it." Raven said to Changeling before addressing Willow. "I'm all done. How do you feel?
"Great," she replied, flexing her joints and muscles. "Thanks."
"No problem. If it wasn't for you, something could have happened to Cyborg."
"Well, it's truly thanks to Gar here. If he hadn't given Cyborg those nano cookies or me that distressed device, this could have ended differently."
"It was a group effort." Changeling added sheepishly as he rubbed his nape. He didn't want to think of the reason why he gave Cyborg those cookies.
"Oh here." Yuki reached into his pocket and handed him his communicator. "Sorry for snatching it out of your hands earlier."
"No problem. "He said as it was snatched out of his hands again by Raven. She stared at the device with an intense glare.
"Harrison, Tanaka, come here for a moment." An agent called.
"Sorry, we have to go."
"Sure, no problem." The two titans answered.
Yuki held out a hand for Willow and helped her up. The two said their goodbyes before moving over to the agent who called them.
Changeling scanned the area. Retra and Starfire were assisting some agents with transporting equipment from the lab into a truck while Nightwing and Cyborg spoke with the agents that were loading Amy into the back of a vehicle.
"I can't believe that it was Amy this whole time. We trusted her."
When Changeling didn't get a response to his comment. He turned to Raven, whose eyes were fixed back on his communicator.
"Raven?"
She looked at him and held his device in front of his face. "What is this?" She asked.
He took it and studied the strange marking on his device before answering, "I don't know. It was there when Starfire handed it back to me. She found it outside of the pit that we were trapped in. Why? Can you read it?"
Instead of a reply, Raven began to tremble uncontrollably.
"Raven, are you okay?"
"I...I am not well. I must have used more energy than I thought on Willow."
"Raven-" He reached out to touch her but she stepped back.
"I will go back first."
"Do you want me to go back with you?"
"No, I just need to lay down for a moment. It's not that serious." She opened a portal and disappeared from in front of him.
He stared at the spot for a moment with concern.
"Where did Raven go?"
Changeling turned to his left to see Nightwing. "She said that she wasn't feeling well and that she was going back to the Tower to lay down for a while. "
"Okay. Stay here with the others. I will go back to the Tower." But before he could move, an agent stopped him.
11:16 pm
Amy glanced up from her restraints after sensing another presence inside the truck with her.
"You must find this enjoyable, little assassin."
"I must admit that I thought that I would," said the man in the black and orange mask. "However, when I look at you like this, I see myself. This could be my fate as well."
"You pity me?" She let out a dry giggle. "If you pity me, help me escape."
"Sorry." He drew out his sword. "There is someone I want to meet after this is over. Helping you will leave me at a disadvantage. Don't hate me too much. It's not personal-"
"-Just business."
"I'm glad you understand."
He drove a sword through her heart and cut the vein in her neck before leaving the vehicle.
Time: Unknown
Raven's head swirled as memories flashed before her eyes.
"But he told me to give you a message." Raven stopped to listen to Mad Mod. "He said, He is back."
"I know that he is back, Mod." She was angry. Her voice became eviler. "That is a useless message."
"Wait….there is more. I remember that he also said: It isn't over."
She threw up the content in her stomach inside of her flat's toilet as she remembered that night.
When she was finished throwing up, another memory started.
No Man spoke to her. "I'm to inform you that you are taking too long to find Slade. He's patiently waiting for you all's arrival."
She stood up and grabbed her throbbing head. She stumbled to the sink. There, she grabbed a bottle of pills and tried to open it. She struggled for a moment. When it was finally open, the pills spilled in the sink and on the floor.
She didn't make a move to pick them up.
She stared at the back of Changeling's communication device. The one written on the back of the device in the language of her people read: Blüdhaven.
How could Slade do this to her? How could he wait so long?
She entered into her loft. She could hear the noise from the bar entering her place through the opened window. She frowned at the window. It had been closed when she left here days before.
Nonetheless, she thought nothing of it after she closed it. Her head was occupied with what she had discovered tonight.
Yet, it was sheer luck that the alert from a secret app on her phone penetrated her thoughts. Her hand trembled as she read the message from Finder. He had found Slade.
His location had been added in the message along with another message from Slade.
He said hurry up and come to him. The message read. He has been waiting for you for almost two years, and he is getting bored.
Finder's message was the final piece to the puzzle. She finally knew what Slade was trying to tell her.
She gripped the bathroom sink with her head bent forward as she thought about what to do next.
First, she needed to go to Slade.
Next, she needed to-
She stopped thinking as she felt a presence behind her. She looked up. Her eyes connected with an orange and black masked face in the mirror.
There was the person that she wanted to see the most.
