Chapter 20

Cyborg bundled his way through the Tower, a giggle escaping him every now and then as he made his way towards Ops. Every so often he would have to bring a hand to his mouth to stop himself from bursting out into laughter. He couldn't wait to tell the others. As he hopped through the door and down the steps, he noticed Robin and Kid Flash sat at the table, going through some paperwork. Robin was probably catching Flash up on the events that had transposed over the last year or so. Raven and Beast Boy were sat on the sofa, they were just watching Tv.

"Guys, guys, you have got to see this." Cyborg was very jolly as he moved over to the computer, typing in some stuff. The rest of the team gathered up behind him.

"Where's the fire, Cy?" Beast Boy was jumping up, trying to see over Cyborgs shoulder.

"Hold on a sec and I'll show you."

"Have you got the info on Control Freak?" Robin moved forward, trying to understand why Cyborg was so giddy.

"I have, and I can tell y'all that this party ain't going to be half as difficult as we thought."

The rest of them looked at each other quizzically. Flash was tapping his foot, his impatience growing as Cyborg kept typing. "Well? Some time today Tin Man."

Cyborg shot him a small scowl as he brought up what he wanted them to see on the big screen. Robin's hands dropped from where they were crossed over his chest. Beast Boy stopped jumping, and Flash went still. Raven didn't respond. Cyborg turned to them with a smug smile. "See."

A small, cocky smirk landed on Robin's face as the rest of them started laughing. "So guys, who's ready for a house call?"

XXXXXX

Twenty minutes later, the Teen Titans were stood on the pavement, staring at a house that looked immaculate. There were flowers neatly planted in the front garden, a perfectly painted white picket fence, and a garden gnome with a welcome sign.

"So..." Raven broke their silence. "Who wants to knock?"

Robin was immediately pushed forward and he shot a glare at Flash who held his hands up in a protest of innocence. With a small sigh, he muttered something under his breath before opening the gate to the garden.

"What was that, Dickie?"

"Nothing. Wally!" He hissed his response, sending Flash a warning to be quiet.

As the rest of the team followed, Beast Boy nudged Flash. "Wally?" Beast Boy started giggling, but abruptly stopped as Raven cuffed him.

"We can talk about stupid names when we get back to the Tower... Garfield." She shot him a smirk before moving past him to join Robin at the door step. Beast Boy stared after her, a small nudge on his elbow pushing him forward a bit. He turned to see Flash wiggling his eyebrows at him.

"Yeah come on, Garfield." Flash sidled past him, and it took Cyborg grabbing him by the collar and lifting him off the ground to get him to the door step. Robin rung the bell, and they waited a moment. They could hear someone moving about inside.

"Just a minute!" It was a high pitched feminine voice that spoke to them. They could hear the door being unlatched, before it opened to them. They were greeted with an older woman, who had an obnoxiously yellow summer dress on. "May I help you children?" She was overly nice, and there were hints of a fresh blue rinse in her hair. Not exactly what they expected, but they'll go with it.

"Um.." Robin stuttered, unsure what to say. "Hi, we're the Teen Titans, we were just wondering if..."

"Oh!" She exclaimed do loudly that they all jumped. "You must be my Little Dumplings friends! I should have known when I saw your pretty costumes. I must say they're very good! Please come in, come in." She moved out of the way of the door, and someone pushed Robin again. They filtered into the house. "I'll go and get him for you!" As she moved away she shouted, "Sweetie Pie!"

The Titans all looked at each other, they felt incredibly out of place and unsure. The room was a sickly yellow colour, and there were trinkets hung everywhere. China plates, paintings, and lots of cat figurines. "Cy, when you said he lived with his mother, this is not what I expected." Robin looked around at the horrors of the house he was in. "There's doilies on the tables."

"Can I leave?" Raven looked genuinely spooked. This was not the type of environment she was used to.

"No. If I have to be here, so do all of you."

They quietened down as they heard footsteps returning. "He's on his way up. Would any of you dears like a sandwich?"

Robin moved to speak before Beast Boy had a chance to raise his hand above his head. "No, thank you." He shot a glare at Beast Boy who slowly lowered his arm from where it had gotten to.

"Alright. Make yourselves at home. I'll be in the kitchen if you kids need anything!" She swanned away. Robin ran a hand down his face.

"Boss, do you want me to do a sweep? Won't take me long." Flash jogged on the spot to emphasise his point.

"No, lets just keep this contained for now. She obviously doesn't know what her idiot son gets up to after hours."

"MOM!" The voice was loud and obnoxious. "My meeting of the elves requires chips! But don't mix the packets in the same bowl!"

"Of course sweetums."

Control Freak appeared in the hallway, he was straightening out the strange robes he was wearing, and didn't notice that the Titans were there. "Alright, the elf meeting will be conducted in the Cave of..." He looked up and trailed off as he spotted them there. The colour drained out of his face. "MOM! I told you not the let the Titans in, ever!"

Robin grabbed Control Freak by the collar. "We need to have a little chat."

Control Freak had taken them down to the basement, apparently that's where he spent most of his free time. There were electronics everywhere, but honestly it just looked like a teenagers room. Comic books, video games, posters on the wall. Robin noticed a poster of Starfire and snorted, anger creeping into his level head. Beast Boy looked like a kid in a candy store. He was going around and looking at all the things he didn't have at home.

"Dude!" He held a game box in front of him. "Zombie Slasher! The original game, still in its box!" Beast Boy drooled a little bit.

Control Freak ran over and yanked the box from him. "Collectible edition. They only made several hundred of them across the planet."

"Cool!"

"Beast Boy!" Robin barked at him. "We're on a job here." Robin turned to Control Freak. "Slade. I want to know everything."

"Mom will not be happy if we start fighting down here, and she can be scary when she gets mad. So I will tell you everything, but just don't break anything! Everything in here is collectible."

"Fine, but the minute I don't like anything, Kid Flash here will rip up everything before you can say 'stop'."

"Look, Slade paid me, I didn't do anything to Starfire. I could never hurt her, goddess as she is. He asked me to keep an eye on her, which I was more than happy to do, and report back to him. I helped him with some tech, and he paid me." Control Freak crossed his arms.

"What did he pay you with?"

"Only the single most valuable thing in the world right now."

Robin raised an eyebrow at him. "Which would be what?"

"Cryptocurrency. I now own 15% of every type of Cryptocurrency in the world."

Robin turned and gave Cyborg a small nod. Cyborg turned and started typing on his arm console. Robin then turned to Raven, a question in his look.

"He's telling the truth." Raven looked back over to Control Freak who had a triumphant smirk on his face.

"I don't know where Slade is now. He stopped all contact with me after he paid me. I tried to hack his system, but he blocked me, and threatened to take back the currency, so I gave up."

"That's the truth too. Do you have any information that is actually useful to us?" Raven was getting impatient, she just wanted to leave. Her eyes flashed red for a second, and Control Freak jumped, a panic spreading through him.

"I honestly don't know anything! He wouldn't tell me anything! He approached me, said he would pay me if I helped him. The only thing I know that might be if use to you, is that I have a couple of the nano probes that Slade used."

Robin clenched his fist. "We already have some of those. The ones the Justice League extracted from Starfire! Do you have anything we can use that might lead us to Slade?!"

"Nothing more than I've already told you! Honest!"

Robin let out a growl and turned to Cyborg. "Well?"

"He's telling the truth. I've checked his entire system, there's nothing about Slade on it. It's a dead end."

XXXXXX

Robin didn't stick around very long after they got back to the Tower. It took Raven intervening to stop Robin from punching Control Freak in the face. He technically hadn't done anything wrong. Still, Robin was difficult to deal with when he was in a mood. No one dared go to him. Not even Wally, who was sat playing video games with a Beast Boy. Raven was sat at the breakfast bar, watching Cyborg as he cooked dinner.

"So, do you reckon Control Freak has mentioned to Slade that we went to go see him?" Cyborg pulled on an oven mitt, ready to take a tray out of the oven.

"It's difficult to say. If I had to guess though, I don't think Control Freak could contact Slade to even tell him." Raven stirred her tea absently.

"Do you think he knows though?" Cyborg fished the tray of lasagne out of the oven and placed it on the side, before reaching down and pulling out a smaller one.

I wouldn't bet against it, Slade knows everything. Robin's right, we need to try and get ahead of him. The question is how do we do that?"

"I don't know. Could you get me some plates please?" Cyborg started to cut into the lasagne as Raven hopped down from her seat and headed to the cupboard. Together they plated up the food, and spread it out on the table. "Wally, get Robin for me. Dinners up."

Wally dropped the controller and was out of the door before it landed on the couch where he had been sat. Beast Boy turned the game off and went to the table. "Which one is mine?"

"Veggie lasagne is that one." Cyborg pointed to a specific plate on the table as he brought over some drinks. Raven mused that in any normal circumstance, Cyborg would have complained about having to prepare and serve a vegetarian meal for Beast Boy. It was interesting to see how losing Starfire had affected them. Even if it was early days. As Beast Boy went to sit down, Wally returned rubbing the back of his head. A scowl on his face.

"He can be such a... a..."

"Dick?" Cyborg chuckled.

"Yes!" Wally exploded as he took his seat. "Honestly, I'm fast, but somehow he throws those birdarangs to where you're going to be. How does he know?!"

"Practice." Cyborg placed some cutlery in the middle of the table.

"How do you guys deal with it?" Wally took a swig of his drink before digging in to his food.

Beast Boy swallowed before pointing his fork at the door. "He's always been like this. You get used to it. Robin thinks everything that happens is his fault, or his responsibility."

"Yeah," Cyborg piped up, "Robin will sulk for a few hours, then he'll either hit the gym, or he'll check the police scanners and CCTV around the city. Then normally, we would send Star in to cheer him up. But last time she went missing, we had to resort to special measures."

Wally raised an eyebrow. "Special measures... such as...?" Cyborg flicked his gaze over to Raven, she didn't even move, but Wally jumped as Robin landed on the floor next to him out of a portal. "Oh.. such as that."

"Raven!" Robin growled out at her. She didn't look at him, she just continued to eat. Cyborg grabbed Robin's arm and pulled him into the spare seat. Robin was about to protest, but his body betrayed him and his stomach growled. Without a word, he picked up his fork and started to eat. Nobody dared say anything, just in case they scared him off.

XXXXXX

Over the next couple of weeks, Robin was became more and more agitated as the time ticked over. He was getting marginal updates from the Justice League as they put their efforts into creating a containment unit that could hold Starfire. So far, Superman had been able to easily escape anything they had created. If he could get free, she could get free. So they carried on trying.

The Green Lantern Corps didn't help much, as they had limited access to any information regarding Tamaran. They didn't operate in that sector, and as such they didn't have anything that could help. They only really had information that Robin already knew from Starfire herself. Diana had checked the Justice League archives, but again found limited information that they didn't already know.

The saving grace of sorts, came in the from of a call from Galfore. "Greetings." The call had been patched through to the Titans as well as the League. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman were stood together.

"It's good to hear from you Galfore." Robin looked awful. Galfore could see the rising stress, and in such a young soul too. It was a shame.

"Good evening, Galfore. I trust you have something for us?" Batman looked stoic as ever. He and Dick had been in constant contact over the last few weeks, with nothing but disappointment and 'no, not yet's' to share.

"Indeed. I have sent over the information you required on the healing sleep, it's everything we have so there's a lot to go through. But I hope it will be of use. Our top scholars have copied everything about it, so there will be information there that might be irrelevant to your need."

Batman nodded and typed something on his keyboard. "I've got the file you sent. I'll send a copy over to Robin and his team. If we both look, we have less chance of missing something important."

Cyborg moved over to the console, he confirmed they had gotten the file before the conversation moved on.

"I took it upon myself to look through Koriand'r's medical file. Unfortunately, she has no other known allergies, and nothing that could be considered a weakness other than what we discussed in our prior talk."

Robin's heart dropped a little.

"However,"

However? Robin's ears pricked, and his heart jumped.

"I do have something that will be of use to you." Galfore moved to a side as he was handed something. He held in his hand a ring of metal.

"It looks like a restraining collar," Superman piped up, "but we've tried those, she can get out of them."

"Not this one. I know of no being that has ever escaped this without aid."

Robin squinted at the screen, looking at the metal in Galfore's hand. He moved closer to have a look. 403 And'r. He could see it printed on the dark grey metal. Galfore continued. "It is a Citadelian restraining collar. I apologise for not mentioning it earlier, I am loathe to use it. But as our research has come up with nothing of use, I do not see any other choice. As well as an inhibitor of abilities, it will also drain a being of their power over time."

"It was Starfire's." Robin didn't ask. It wasn't a question. He had seen the small tattoo on the inside of her wrist. A small reminder of her days as a slave. Galfore nodded, his face solemn.

"Koriand'r kept it, she gave it to me to keep when she returned to Tamaran after escaping the Citadel. She said we needed to keep it as a reminder of why we would never enforce these collars on our enemies. It is cruel, and it shows cowardice to take away your opponents power. However, in this situation, your opponent will need it. I will have it shipped to Earth as soon as possible."

"Galfore," Batman spoke up. "You said that you know of no one who has escaped a collar without aid, but did Starfire manage to escape it with help?"

"Indeed. She knew how to take it off, she just needed the aid of a fellow prisoner."

"And by aid, you mean what exactly?"

Galfore held up his hand, a strange piece of metal within. "The key. Citadelian restraining collars are of the top technology in the known universe, but they require a key to be unlocked. Though it is not a lock that can be picked, as many a prisoner have realised. Every key is the same, but every lock is different. They change their collars to suit their captor. In her case, Koriand'r needed to have her energy levels lowered, and her strength gone. Her lock was made so that in case the collar failed in any way, it could not be melted apart by her abilities. I will send the key to you with the collar, but be weary that if you lose the key you will not be able to unlock the collar."

"Thank you Galfore, we appreciate it. We will keep you updated on anything regarding Starfire." Batman and Galfore signed off. Robin had been suspiciously quiet during the end of that conversation. Raven looked at Wally, prompting him to say something.

"Dick? What do you want us to do?"

Robin sighed, his shoulder visibly dropping. "Nothing we can do."

"Are you okay?"

"I can't do it." Robin's voice was quiet. He turned to his team, he looked stricken. "I can't do it, I can't let them put that collar on her."

"Robin it might be the only way." Raven was sympathetic. She didn't know what had happened to Starfire, none of them except Robin did. But she had an idea.

"Raven. I can't." Robin pleaded with her, his voice strained.

"You can't." Wally stepped forward. "But that's why you called the Network in. You can't, but I will... just don't hit me for doing it."

At that moment, the a Titan alarm started blearing.