Chapter 22
The next day, Raven cornered Robin in the kitchen, she looked tired and he felt entirely guilty about it. It was early, and she knew that he would take advantage of the knowledge that Ops would be empty. He hadn't exactly wanted to speak to anyone last night, and she doubted he would want to speak to her now. Unfortunately for Robin, they were going to talk whether he liked it or not. "Robin, you've been screaming at me all night. You've got so many conflicting emotions going on that I can't make sense of any of it."
Robin leant back against the counter, he didn't want to look at her. "Sorry..." he mumbled, finding the floor really interesting.
"You need to talk about it." She took a tentative step towards him, pulling her good down. "I get it, but..."
"No I don't think you do." He caught her gaze and sighed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude, it's just... I don't even know what I'm feeling to be honest. Angry, which is the obvious one. Absolutely terrified. Slightly thrilled that she's finally come out of hiding, which means she lived through her injuries on top of whatever else Slade has put her through. I feel horrendously guilty that I'm going to have to get her into that collar knowing what I know." He ran a hand down his face.
"Surely she'll understand when she comes around though?" Raven tilted her head, sensing a rising dread in Robin.
"Raven, you don't know." Robin sighed and glanced at the door before pulling her closer to him. "I won't give you all the details, but if you knew what she'd been through, you wouldn't understand how she could crack a smile at all. Her family sold her into slavery. When she said she was on her way to the Citadel the day she landed on Earth, she was being escorted back after escaping. She was told that as princess, she would be treated as a prisoner of war, but she was tortured, among other things. When she finally escaped, Blackfire tried to catch her and they were both captured by Psions. They're alien scientists that tried to see how much solar energy a Tamaranean body could hold before it exploded. That's why Starfire and Blackfire both have Starbolts. The Citadel attacked the Psion ship, allowing them to escape. When Starfire returned to Tamaran, her father gave her back to the Gordanians to be taken back to the Citadel. Despite telling him what had happened to her. She was escaping them when she landed here. It's a miracle she's even alive."
Raven was a little paler than usual when Robin stopped talking. She brought a hand to her chest and she felt all of the emotions Robin had let off as he explained to her. Even from what he had said, she knew it was so much worse by the intensity she was getting from him. "Azar, Robin." She grabbed the counter to straighten herself.
Robin sucked in a breath and straightened himself. "You're right though, I need to get a hold of myself. Thank you for dealing with everything last night, anything I should know?"
Raven eyed him wearily, she could tell he was pushing some of his emotions down. Normally she would scold people for it, but this was different. "Beast Boy has the Network on standby, if or when the time comes, whoever is readily available will come to help us. Cyborg and Flash set up the perimeter sensors, if someone gets on the island, we'll know about it. Batman and Superman weren't best pleased at the revelation that Starfire is active. They said that the containment unit isn't complete, but it could help us if we can get the collar on her first. Unfortunately, we've got another thirty six hours before the collar gets to Earth."
"Did they say what kind of containment unit it is?"
A piece of paper appeared in her hand and she handed it to him. It looked like a glass box with metal bars. "Classified apparently, but they said something about diamond fragments and titanium." She hesitated to carry on and Robin caught it. He turned the paper over in his hand to read on the back. A particular phrase caught his eye.
"If they're saying it's classified, it means that it wasn't exactly legal to create. The less people know, the better. Why does it say that it's completely sealed?"
"It's not built with a door. There's no way in or out of it, physically. They said that since they can't guarantee the collar would take effect immediately, depending on how much her energy needed to be drained, they didn't want to give her the opportunity to escape." Robin raised an eyebrow at her as she went quiet, asking a silent question. Raven sighed. "They're planning on using the Red X Belt."
Robin's eyebrows raised a little. He was silent for a moment and Raven was having a difficult time figuring out what he was feeling. Robin placed the paper on the counter next to him. "At least something good will come from that bloody thing." He went silent again, Raven could see the cogs turning in his head. After a moment, he looked up at her. "When the time comes, we need to be able to get that collar on her and get her into the cell before she has chance to react. It will be easier for us to do that on our terms. I'll get Batman to bring it here."
"They also said it was untested though. It's expensive, and apparently illegal, to make. Meaning they can't just try it and make a new one if it breaks. They estimate that Superman could escape it, which is why they're relying on this collar."
"I know. We'll just have to keep an open mind. Try to think of something we could do if this really doesn't work. Even then, we have no way of knowing when she's next going to come our way. As well as the need to keep her separated from Slade."
"We'll just have to wait and see." They fell into a silence with Robin letting out a bitter snort through his nose. Raven moved to make herself a pot of tea. As she was heating the water up, she heard Robin mumble under his breath. "What?"
He looked up at her, his brow furrowed. "Do you think she'd forgive me?"
Raven was slightly taken aback by the question. "Robin... I don't know. I'd like to think so, but like you said, I don't know what happened to her. Not really. But I think she would forgive us if it means we could stop her from hurting anyone." Raven poured her tea and brought the mug up to take a sip. "Besides, I think that's something we can worry about after we actually catch her."
Robin nodded absently. "Yeah, good point. By the way, did you get any further with that link I asked about?"
She shook her head. "No, I did a lot of research on it, but it seems that these kind of links have only ever been created by accident. No one really knows how or why certain links between people stick, but it's not something that anyone has been able to replicate. That I or Arella know of, anyway. Sorry."
Robin smiled at her. "That's fine, just thought I'd ask. I just wanted an easier way of making sure that three of you were okay when it comes to it. We'll just have to keep an eye on each other."
"Yeah. That reminds me actually, we spoke last night and decided it might be a good idea that patrols should still go ahead, but in pairs instead of solo. That way we have more chance of catching her out and about, but no one would go up against her or Slade alone if it came to it."
"Yeah, it's s good idea. I'll get Cyborg to draw up a new rota. Beast Boy is on tonight, we'll decide who should go with him when they're both up and Cyborg can go from that. In the meantime, I don't think there's a whole lot else we can do." Robin soon removed himself from the kitchen, allowing Raven to get some breakfast while he called Batman. Soon after, he went and sat on the console, absently just going through CCTV footage throughout the city. He wasn't expecting to find anything but it helped.
Beast Boy and Cyborg soon joined them, they had their usual argument of what would be the best to have for breakfast, meat or not meat. After they had decided, as usual, just to eat separate things, Robin asked Cyborg about the patrol system. Cyborg had kindly agreed to join Beast Boy on the patrol that night, and would create a new rota based on pairs. Robin was thankful. They spent an hour or so updating each other on information and such pertaining to their current case. Flash zipped in not long after they finished. He was through the kitchen and sat with a bowl of cereal before the door shut behind him.
"Morning!"
They all threw him a response, absently just going about their business. Robin realised, annoyingly, that unless anything happened, today was going to be a long and boring day.
XXXXXX
"You okay up there BB?" Cyborg was driving through the city streets in the T-Car while Beast Boy was roaming the skies above. He landed on a building top to reply.
"Yeah, nothing of interest that I can see." He took off again as a falcon, catching up to where Cyborg was on the ground.
"Alright, well it's been an hour. I'm gonna head onto the highway, do another loop and head back. You just do a fly over Main down to seventh, and I'll meet you at the marina. I wanna pick up a hotdog before we go home."
Beast Boy let out a shriek in reply and Cyborg saw him bow off to head towards Main Street. Cyborg found his way to the highway, and started his loop. He was super excited for these hotdogs. "Booyah! I'm gonna get me some chilli, cheese, onions... and I'm gonna drown it in the best mustard this side of the United States." He smiled to himself, knowing that Beast Boy was listening and probably wanting to berate him for wanting to eat meat. "I can't wait to..."
"Cy!" Beast Boy's voice shrieked through the speakers, causing Cyborg to jump a little.
"B? What's wrong?" Cyborg checked his map for the nearest exit on the highway.
"I got a runner!" He sounded rushed. Cyborg realised he was probably having to change to be able to communicate with him. "Main Street!"
"Alright BB, I'm on my way." Cyborg sped up and headed for the slip road, finding his way off the highway and back towards the city centre. He was about five minutes out. He checked the system, but nothing had been reported yet. He would have to just see what he found when he got there.
Beast Boy had been flying down the centre of Main Street when he spotted someone climbing out of a window and climbing up onto the roof of the building before running off. Reasonable grounds for suspicion, but solidified when he landed behind them, asking them to stop. Naturally, they ran. They always run. Also, he noticed, the person was dressed in all black, including a ski mask. If that didn't scream burglar, Beast Boy didn't know what did. He turned into a Peregrine Falcon, and flew off after them.
He noticed, with annoyance, that whoever this was, was good at hopping gaps between buildings. They didn't lose their footing once. Just landed perfectly and carried on. If Beast Boy didn't know any better, he'd have said it was Robin, but this person was definitely not Robin. The skin tight black suit told him that much. Unless there was something Robin wasn't telling them. Beast Boy shook his head out of its train of thought. Concentrate.
Just as the runner was about to take another jump, Beast Boy swooped down, if he could get close enough, he could tackle them. Just as he was about to make contact, he turned into a gorilla, in the hope of catching the runner around the waist. What he didn't expect, was that the runner didn't take the jump. Instead of jumping the gap, they leapt over the edge and down the side of the building instead. Beast Boy looked down in confusion, noticing that the runner had landed ever so elegantly on their feet at the bottom of a ten storey building. What?
Then he looked up. Uh-oh. He had made the tackle expecting to hit something to lower his momentum. Well... that didn't go to plan did it. He grunted as he hit the next rooftop quite hard, and rolled a little. In a daze, he turned back to himself and stood. "Cy!" He ran to the edge and saw that the runner had crossed Main Street and was heading down into the subway station. "Subway Station!" He spotted the T-Car as it pulled up quite quickly. Cyborg jumped out and ran down the steps. Beast Boy made his way as fast as he could to join him.
As Beast Boy hopped the last couple of steps, he bumped into Cyborg who was stood at the bottom. His arm out in front of him, scanning. "Come on, I know you're in here. Come out and fight like a man."
"Um, Cy, you might wanna rephrase that." Beast Boy tapped him on the shoulder, as the runner stepped out from behind one of the pillars on the opposite platform.
Cyborg narrowed his eyes a little. "My bad, come out and fight like a girl." He dropped his arm, readying himself for whatever this girl was going to throw at him. Cyborg noted that there were no distinctive features he could try and remember for a later date, if needed. Her clothes were plain black, her ski mask was plain black, and the gloves she wore were plain black. Great. He was too far way to make out any detail. Though he had noticed the several cameras in this station, which would be of help. If they got away. Which they weren't going to, if he had anything to say about it. He took a couple of steps towards the edge of the platform, testing the waters. Would she run?
She didn't. She just cocked her head slightly, stood rigid as a board. Beast Boy moved out from beside Cyborg and started making his way to the edge, a bit further across. Cyborg put his hands up, a polite gesture really."Come on now. We won't hurt ya!" He reached the platform edge, noticing that Beast Boy had too. She looked between them, small movements of her head. Was she weighing them up? Deciding which one to go for first? Or was she deciding which one would be easier to get past? The platform she was on could only be accessed from the one she was on. There was no exit behind her. No way out but through them, or down the tracks into the path of a train.
But then surely, Cyborg thought, any one who would be trying to escape would have known that. They wouldn't choose to get themselves locked in a dead end. Unless it was a last minute decision because Beast Boy had spooked her when he caught her. You don't have time to think in those situations. "Look. We won't hurt you, if you don't do anything stupid."
Really, Cyborg realised afterwards, he should have seen this coming. Sure, they'd been dealing with robbers and burglaries the last two weeks, and most of them dressed this way. But realistically, what are the chances of a girl getting herself trapped in a subway, when they were aware that Starfire had just gone active. It came as more of a shock than it should have when the girl flicked her head the side, as if she were listening to someone -which she probably was - and flicked her head back to him as her gloves started to disintegrate, being replaced with green light.
Cyborg didn't have time to utter the profanity he was thinking before he jumped to avoid the starbolt that was aimed at his face. Looking up he noticed Beast Boy had disappeared, no doubt having turned into something small to get out of the way. Cyborg pressed his distress call and scrambled to his feet, taking refuge behind a pillar as another starbolt snaked past his shoulder and into the wall opposite. He noticed that the two burn marks in the walls had disintegrated the tiles and made sizeable divots.
Beast Boy had turned into a mouse, and had made his way across the tracks while Starfire was busy focusing on Cyborg. He leapt up onto the platform and hid under a seat. He watched her for a moment. He knew she had noticed he was missing. Hopefully, he could keep it that way, and not be noticed. She was scanning the opposite platform, looking for him as she let off starbolt slowly at Cyborg. Well, the smaller you are, the harder you are to see. A fruit fly. He buzzed up and flew behind her. He would wait on the wall a moment.
Cyborg's communicator went off, as another starbolt his the pillar he was stood behind. He ducked involuntarily and felt the impact shake the pillar. He was aware it was a supporting beam. "Rob, I can't exactly exchange pleasantries right now."
"Where are you? What's going on?"
"Main Street Station." Another Starbolt hit the pillar and it shook even more. "It's her."
Robin was silent a moment. Cyborg would have to move soon, if she kept going, the pillar would fall. Taking half the ceiling with it. Robin needed to hurry the hell up, but Cyborg's prayers weren't exactly answered when Robin replied. "Try and get her out into the open. We'll meet you on the street. Be careful."
"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" He had no idea where Beast Boy was and was in fear of losing a limb if he stepped out. He would have to take a look though. Think of something. Luckily though, he knew Beast Boy hadn't abandoned him. He took the chance to use his finger camera to peak around the pillar, he noticed that Beast Boy was stood behind her as a kangaroo. Good job Beast Boy. Cyborg used his moment as a distraction. He stepped out from behind the pillar and brought Starfire's attention to him. "Come on Fly girl, you'll have to do better than that!" He took a couple of steps back towards the steps. And watched in amazement and what unfolded in front of him.
Beast Boy was poised. He bent his legs in anticipation as Cyborg stepped out from behind the pillar. Starfire readied another starbolt to fire at him, but hesitated as Cyborg took his steps backward. Beast Boy jumped, and was ready to kick her in the back, hopefully off of the platform. But what had been a good idea, didn't turn out as such. She knew he was there. She jumped as he kicked out, hopping over his extended legs, and brought her calves together, trapping his ankles in a vice like grip. He tried to pull them back from her, but he just couldn't. He landed on his tail bone with a bump, and turned back into himself as he felt her grip loosen.
Beast Boy didn't have time to react as she fired her bolt off at Cyborg, who scurried up the stairs a little to avoid it, and quick as a flash turned to him, grabbing his collar and lifting him to his feet. He chuckled nervously, he could see the green of her eyes, narrowed ever so slightly. "Hi, Star. Fancy seeing you here." She didn't react at all, other than narrowing her eyes at him just a little more. And then her hand moved. At least it must have done, because the arm that wasn't holding him was now outstretched, out toward the other platform. Beast Boy followed the length of her arm and swallowed nervously.
In her hand, she held a birdarang. Just past the end of her arm, Beast Boy could see Robin, positioned with his arm stretched out having just thrown it. Raven was floating behind him with Cyborg next to her. Kid Flash wasn't there, but Beast Boy didn't care to wonder why at that moment. Not one of them said anything. How on Earth had she done that? Beast Boy didn't even realise Robin had arrived, let alone that he'd thrown the damn thing. Her gaze hadn't shifted from him at all. And she just caught it, mid air. He would have been impressed if he wasn't scared out of his mind right now. No one moved. And for a moment, it was slightly surreal. Beast Boy could feel the sweat running down his forehead. He was nervous. What was she going to do?
His reply came in the form of the smallest jolt of movement, and a sharp sound that echoed through the station. He looked to see that Robin was now stood straight with his back against the wall, his eyes wide. The birdarang that had moments ago been in Starfire's hand, was now lodged in the wall. It had ever so slightly nicked Robin in the ear, not even enough to bleed, but it was enough that he was aware of it. Robin swallowed nervously himself, aware of how differently that could have gone. Beast Boy looked back at Starfire who hadn't taken her gaze off of him the entire time.
"Come on Star, you can stop messing around now." It was eerie how stoic she was. There was no flicker to suggest she registered anything. Almost like she couldn't hear him. But regardless of whether the person in front of him was his friend or not, she still had ears. "Star... can you.. put me down now?" He glanced at her fist that was wrapped up in his uniform. Her response to his question was unexpected. She did put him down. Well, technically she threw him, but it wasn't really the time to be pedantic. One second he was behind held off the ground by Starfire, and the next he was flying sideways across the tracks.
Raven caught him in a bubble, gently placing him down behind the pillar Cyborg had been stood behind. He shook his head, and stood to his feet. As he joined his teammates, he saw that Starfire was now on this side of the tracks, stood on the edge of the platform. They all noticed as she tilted her head slightly away from them. A sure sign that she was probably listening to something. Robin realised, probably listening to Slade talking in her ear. She looked back up at them and stepped towards them. And then she flew. It was quick, and unexpected but she flew past them and up the stairs.
It didn't take them long to catch up, but they weren't expecting to see her stood out in the middle of the street. Beast Boy made a triumphant smile as he noticed Kid Flash was stood further down the street, waving to her. Oh so he'd been waiting out here just in case, that made more sense. They stood opposite each other, Starfire just watching, Flash just waving. "Hey Legs!" Flash shouted, his voice was jolly. "Why don't you come fly over here and we'll make Robin jealous." When he didn't get a response, he shrugged. "Or not!" He poised one leg back, as he crouched a bit. "If talking's not your thing, we don't have to talk! How about a nice game of chicken instead?" Flash shot off, and Robin made a note to get the camera footage from the street because he'd need to see it in slow motion to believe it had happened.
Flash had shot off towards Starfire, and as his yellow blur met her in the street, it stopped instantaneously. She had somehow managed to get him face first onto the floor, twisting his arm behind his back with her knee between his shoulder blades. "Ow! Uncle!" Flash's face betrayed how much pain he was in, he was lucky she hadn't snapped his arm, but she would if she kept pulling! Robin clenched his teeth, he was just about to order the rest of them to go for her, against his better judgement, when she let go of Flash, allowing him to zip away. He dashed in behind Robin to rub his shoulder.
Before Robin had a chance to think what they should do next, she was in front of them. Robin held in a breath, as they all took a tentative step back. She brought her hand up, and they readied themselves for her. But she didn't do what they expected. Instead, she brought her hand up to her head, and pulled the ski mask off. Robin's breath caught as he watched her glorious red hair fall down her back. She looked as breathtaking as she always had done. Those brilliant green eyes that shone will all the wonder in the world pierced into him as she tilted her head slightly.
Robin stepped towards her, but his wrist was grabbed from behind. Raven had grabbed him, whispering behind him. "Robin, don't." He didn't look at her, he was scanning Starfire's face. Looking for any cuts, bruises. Anything. But she seemed fine. Her wonderfully orange skin was perfectly free of anything. He relaxed a little. Knowing she wasn't injured, that he could see.
"Starfire?" He said it so quietly as her name got stuck in his throat. She didn't respond. Instead she reached into one of her pockets, pulling out a ball. Robin recognised it as being similar to the one Slade had used to send them a message when he broke out of prison. She held it out in front of her. Robin held his own hand out, and she placed it gently in his grasp. He desperately wanted to grab her hand, but Raven was still holding his other wrist, and he as unsure how Starfire would react. Before he could do anything, Slade's face appeared from the ball, a hologram, just as before.
"Hello, Titans. I have to say this has been rather unimpressive entertainment. I expected you would hesitate, but you're hardly putting up much of a fight at all. Of course, Starfire has been instructed to only engage if you do, or unless I tell her otherwise. Not to worry, we have just been testing the waters tonight. After she did so well yesterday, I thought I'd give her a reward in the form of a less vigorous test."
Robin flicked his eyes up to see that Starfire was still stood in front of him, not really focusing on anything. She was waiting for her next instruction. He looked back down at the face he hated so much.
"You also don't have to worry about what she stole today, as she didn't steal anything. The building she snuck out of is empty. It was merely to get your attention. Right place, right time. I wanted to see how she would fare against you. I can't have her hesitating. She's impressed me so far."
Robin twitched as he felt his anger rise. Behind him, none of the other Titans moved as they listened to Slade.
"I have a few more tests I'd like to run, before we get down to business. So forgive me for having to steal her away so soon."
The sarcasm that dripped form his voice was sickening to all of them. His word play even more so. And Robin knew, that Slade knew it. He was doing it on purpose. To get to them.
"Starfire will be returning to me now. But I promise, you'll see her soon."
The image flickered off, and Starfire held her hand out to Robin again. He looked up at her shining eyes, and tightened his hand around the ball as she squeezed his eyes shut. With a deep breath, he wrenched his wrist out from Raven's grasp, and made a grab for Starfire's arm. Before he made contact, she had bolted into the air, leaving a streak of green behind her as she flew off into the distance. Robin looked up to the sky as Cyborg's sensors rang out an alarm.
Well, at least they knew that the energy sensors worked.
