"If I had a heart I could love you. If I had a voice I would sing. After the night when I wake up, I'll see what tomorrow brings."
The Titans sat in worried silence.
Raven still held her head in her hands, leaning forward on her knees in the backseat of the T-Car. Beast Boy rubbed her hunched back steadily and whispered encouragements in her ear. One of his green hands was tangled up with hers. He had long since lost feeling in it.
Indeed, she had squeezed—and was still squeezing—it so tightly that the emerald color of his skin was turning a disturbing shade of chartreuse. He made no complaint. His attention was focused intently on Raven's face.
The young Empath was through the worst of Robin's magnetic distress and the boy wonder's mind was closing itself off again; however, Raven wasn't ready to let go of him just yet. She had to be sure. They had to be sure.
It wouldn't be long before the master and apprentice realized what the Titans had done. The tracker she had planted in the haired nape of Robin's neck was a good hiding spot, but Slade was no amateur. What if he found it before the Titans could pinpoint his location? What if he had already disposed of it? What if the hunted had become the hunter?
A small, audiovisual display sat unassumingly on the dashboard of the T-Car. It whirred softly and portrayed two red dots on a gray grid. The dots were a couple inches apart, but one of them was moving ever so slightly to the right and blinked intermittently.
Robin was on the move.
Cyborg frowned and he turned his mismatched stare to the backseat. His countenance was serious, grim.
"We gotta keep movin'," he said to Beast Boy.
The jade-colored changeling flicked his eyes in Cyborg's direction.
"Just a few more seconds," Beast Boy requested solemnly.
Cyborg's grimace deepened. He inhaled deeply, readying himself for a fight.
"In a few more seconds we could lose Robin's signal," he grunted.
Beast Boy turned and glared at his best friend. The sharpened tooth that peeked out from underneath his lip sparkled in the burgeoning daylight. Starfire watched the primordial argument with wide, yet steady eyes. Her presence was unusually muted.
Beast Boy jerked his chin in Raven's direction.
"She's not—" he began to complain.
"I'm fine."
All three of the Titans twisted in Raven's direction.
Her delicate, pale chin was lifted in determination even though her head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. Her violet eyes were clear and held no trace of magical black. Her pallid complexion was positively pasty, sickly. The imprint of Robin's enormous pain still echoed through her bones, but it was finally fading.
She was horribly tired and her body whined, wanting a nap, but her mind was resolute. She had stayed in Robin's head long enough to know that the tracker had not been destroyed or discarded. She also knew that Slade was beating Robin within an inch of his life in a place that looked an awful lot like a sewer tunnel.
This information gave her an edge of confidence. The Titans were close to Robin's position. It wouldn't be long before they found him or, at least, evidence of his presence. A footprint would be a welcome sight. Even if Slade found the tracker now, the team would still have a lead—something that had eluded them for months.
We're coming, Robin. Hold on. Raven thought with a worn smirk.
She quickly explained her findings to the team, speaking with an impatience she had not felt in memory. Afterward, when none of the Titans moved, Raven raised a cool, lavender brow at them.
"What are you waiting for?" she snapped in her typical monotone fashion and then waved her free hand in the direction of the road. "C'mon, let's go!"
Acting as if he had just been electrocuted, Cyborg jumped back around and yanked the car into drive. The tires shrieked as he swerved into traffic and began the tracking anew. The second red dot on the dashboard screen started to blink along with its counterpart.
Hybrids, buses, and taxis were multi-colored blurs in her window as Cyborg glided around them gracefully. Beast Boy's paw was still tucked away in the prison of her pale fingers. She turned her heart-shaped face toward the window to hide the faint blush that began to blossom on her cheeks. When she began to pull her hand away from his, he refused to let go.
Her blush deepened but she didn't fight him. Selfish creature that she was, she couldn't muster up the irritation necessary to push him away. She had already lost one friend. She couldn't bear to endanger another.
So, instead, she pulled her hood up, positioned it into its familiar place, and allowed herself to be weak just this one time.
Hand-in-hand, Beast Boy and Raven looked toward the windshield horizon.
The chase was on.
The T-Car pulled smoothly into an almost vacant parking lot. The sound of the ocean filtered through Raven's open window along with the distinct scents of salt, industry, and garbage. This part of the wharf, despite its coveted location, was not well known for its beauty.
A massive truck was the only inhabitant in the dull parking lot. The word 'truck' couldn't really describe it, however. It was more of an elegantly designed tank than a simple car. If Raven stood beside it, the tires would be taller than her easily.
It was not inconspicuous, but it was well hidden.
No one came to this part of the city. Not even criminals. What had once been a thriving port had disintegrated into a ghost town. The cries of annoyed seagulls, the faraway whooshes of the nearby ocean, and the faint rumbles of the T-Car disrupted the would-be dead silent atmosphere.
Wary of the monstrous truck, Cyborg pulled into a space a few spaces away from it. The engine died without a whimper and Cyborg turned his dark brown eye to the dashboard GPS.
The two red dots had gotten closer. They were not even half an inch apart. If Robin still had the tracker on him, he would have been about a mile northwest from the Titans' current location. What's more, his position had stalled; he wasn't on the move any longer. Cyborg's intense gaze flicked from the screen to the world outside the windshield, calculating.
Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire peeked eagerly from the backseat, waiting for a verdict.
"Hm…" Cyborg hummed with a look of puzzlement on his split face.
"What is it, friend?" Starfire wondered, her fingers curling eagerly around driver's side shoulder.
Cyborg leaned back and sighed.
"If this is sayin' what I think it's sayin'," he said, tapping the GPS. "Then Robin should be chillin' on the beach right now."
Beast Boy groaned and flung the back of his head against his seat melodramatically.
"Oh c'mon!" he complained. "He ditched the tracker?!"
Instead of answering the bemused changeling, Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire took to studying the parking lot with furrowed brows and shrewd expressions. There was an unspoken conversation ping-ponging between them.
Left in the dark, Beast Boy's gaze swiveled back and forth, trying to uncover the secret that his friends seemed to already know. His emerald eyebrows disappeared into his hairline when no one offered to clue him in. His countenance was cutely confused.
"Hello? Guys?" he yelped.
"I do not think that is the answer," Starfire finally said in a dreamy voice.
She twisted her door handle and floated abruptly out of the car. Beast Boy perked up, cocking his head like a baffled puppy at her departure. A stern breeze riffled through the open door and rustled his disheveled green locks.
"Where's she goin'?" he squeaked, jerking a thumb.
Not speaking, Cyborg and Raven followed the alien's lead and began unbuckling their seatbelts. When Beast Boy didn't move, Cyborg grinned and threw the changeling a superior look over his mechanical shoulder.
"Better hurry up, BB!" he taunted, flashing perfect white teeth. "Or we're gonna leave you behind."
Beast Boy's perplexed expression darkened. His lip pulled down in a severe pout and he crossed his arms defensively.
"Isn't anyone gonna tell me what's goin' on?!" he squeaked, glaring mutinously at Cyborg.
Adjusting her hood, Raven sighed profoundly from beneath her violet cowl.
"Slade didn't find the tracker and Robin isn't on the beach," she informed Beast Boy in a mildly annoyed tone.
"Then why did the—?"
"Because he's underground."
"Oh, man! It reeks down here!"
Beast Boy's shrill complaint ricocheted off the sewer tunnel walls, echoing for miles. The other three Titans stiffened beside him at the sudden burst of overt noise and did not relax until Beast Boy's reverberating squeal settled back into eerie silence.
"Nice acoustics…" Cyborg muttered absentmindedly under his breath.
"The smell is most unpleasant," Starfire conceded, pinching her petite nose.
Clenching her fists underneath her cloak to keep from smacking Beast Boy upside the head, Raven rounded on the unhappy changeling. The light from the open manhole trickled down from above, casting her infuriated glare in deep shadow.
"Quiet!" Raven snapped in a terse whisper. "Are you trying to tip Slade off?"
"Heh. Whoops," Beast Boy apologized softly with a sheepish shrug and smile. "Sorry."
Exasperated, Raven rolled her eyes, shook her hooded head, and marched over to where Cyborg stood. His back was turned to the rest of the team and his quizzical stare was fixed on his robotic wrist. The GPS from the T-Car had been downloaded into his system and was imprinted on his right forearm. The blue-tinted screen there glowed gently in the rancid dark.
"My scanners are picking up a fresh heat signature," Cyborg said softly at her approach. "Someone's been down here."
"Lead the way," Raven replied with a nod.
Cyborg lowered his arm and a flashlight popped out of his shoulder cavity, revealing the way forward. The exposed rats that had been watching the Titans from the safe cover of darkness squeaked crossly at the sudden disturbance and scurried off.
Unseen droplets plinked and plopped from above, occasionally smacking the tops of the Titans' heads. A steady stream of sewer water trickled serenely beside them. It was three feet deep and took up most of the cramped space. Luckily, there was a slim cobblestoned walkway that was wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder. Rusted, sentinel ladders decorated the brick wall on their left. Many of them had missing rungs.
Although Cyborg's flashlight greatly abated much of the fear associated with walking in a pitch-black sewer, there was still a sense of heavy dread permeating through the fetid air. A stomach-twisting presence pressed against their minds and rested weightly on their shoulders.
Something, or someone, was watching them.
"This way," Cyborg said in a hushed voice. "But stay on your toes, y'all. I don't like the feel of this place."
"Nor do I," Starfire agreed with a shiver.
"Definitely creepy," Beast Boy mumbled.
His verdant eyes flicked side-to-side, top-to-bottom, as they searched for an invisible enemy.
"Let's go," Raven pressed and began walking forward.
Her ashen expression was as hard as marble. Her unwavering violet glare held no fear or, at least, hid it well. Black magic crackled on her twitching fingertips. The others followed her lead with Cyborg lumbering next to her, Starfire floating behind them, and Beast Boy trotting on Raven's other side as a perceptive cat.
Cyborg's guiding light surrounded them in a small cocoon of radiance. Its radius was not as large as they would have liked it, but it kept them from tripping over themselves. The further they traveled, the more crowded the tunnels became. Critters of all sorts were common occurrences, dancing around their feet. The cat Beast Boy hissed intermittently to keep the more aggressive rats and reptiles away.
It grew colder. The darkness circled around them, waiting to pounce. Starfire rubbed her bare upper arms.
About five minutes into their journey, Raven's eye caught something.
"Wait," she ordered suddenly.
Shoving her hood back, she crossed over to the curved wall and crouched to the tainted ground. Cyborg raised a silent eyebrow, but when he followed her stare, he soon joined her on the tunnel floor. His redwood iris sparkled with emotion. Beast Boy pattered over and gave a startled yowl. Starfire landed lightly on her feet and peeked over Raven's shoulder.
Three baseball-sized pools of blood were splattered on the grimy stone, creeping up the black-lunged wall.
Understanding bolted across Starfire's face like a flash of lightning. She put a hand to her mouth to keep herself from whimpering. A crystalline tear trickled down her tanned cheek as she gawked at the blood stains in horror.
With eyes like moons and his feline pupils fully dilated in total eclipses, Beast Boy wandered numbly over to Starfire and brushed up against her leg. His ears were flat against his olive head and his flicking tail swayed sadly.
Raven's hand shook as she reached out from beneath her cloak. Her quivering fingers hovered over the crimson splotches in dazed intrigue.
Drops of blood on wet stones, her vision was confirmed.
"Robin was here," she whispered.
With a sigh, Cyborg stood and turned his split face toward the bleak horizon. The flashlight moved with him, shrouding Raven in black and cutting off her view of Robin's blood. That somehow made it worse and she retracted her hand.
"We'd better get a move on," Cyborg said with an accent of courage. "C'mon. Robin needs us."
With a melancholy sigh of her own, Raven pulled her hood back over her face.
She was going to find the truth. She was going to find Robin. And, if she had the chance, she was going to end Slade.
The Demon within her grinned.
The haunt was quiet. Not even the ghosts in Robin's head whispered.
In the center of the deserted atrium, Robin laid on his good side, waiting. His destroyed hand was cradled against his stomach. His eyelids were heavy, cutting his sight in half. He was enveloped in layers of multi-varied pain. He clung to consciousness by the skin of his teeth. His breath was shallow. His snowy stare was vacant. His beat-up knees were tucked against his chest.
Any moment now, he thought distantly.
A set stage, a single spotlight shone down upon him. His left ankle was shackled with a heavy chain, bolting him to the concrete. Speckles of blood ringed around him like posies. His one bare arm was a mosaic of bruises and cuts. The story was the same everywhere else.
He was a prime cut of meat. He wagered not even Bruce could resist Slade's bait.
The numb apathy that had been his constant companion was taking control. His death-bed heart was calcifying, petrifying, into stone. He was embalming himself.
Everything he had done, the people he had killed, the crimes he had committed—it was all for nothing. The fears he told himself would never come to fruition were right in front of his face. The storm he had dreaded for so long was here. The enemy was at the gates.
The game was over. He had lost.
Slade was going to fulfill the promise he had made to Robin all those weeks ago:
"I'm going to make you kill your friends, Robin."