"I just added some more onto the security system," Cyborg told the other Titans, huddled around him. "We'll know if someone enters within a mile of the cavern."
"What happens after they enter? Are there any traps or anything? Knowing someone is there won't do any good if we can't adequately protect ourselves," Raven spoke up from her corner.
"Don't worry. If they don't provide a hair sample that matches up with the DNA scanners, traps will appear. It's fool proof."
Of course, assurances like this have a nasty way of coming back to haunt you.
The Titans, exhausted from their battle, went into their respective rooms. Unfortunately, Star was unable to sleep.
"What is wrong with me? Why can I not sleep?" she asked herself, leaving her room softly. She light a small ball of green light and lighted her way to the stairs. Climbing them, she reflected on the day. 'I still cannot believe that my sister betrayed me. Why does she not like me? Oh well. Maybe the breeze on the roof will help put me to sleep.'
Star climbed out onto the roof. She walked toward the edge, glancing downward. There was a small bird, trapped in a web of some sort.
"Poor bird!" Star spoke aloud, not even realizing it. She quickly flew toward it, her silk, pink nightdress purchased when Robin wasn't looking, fluttered as she flew.
Robin couldn't sleep either. 'What's going on?' He thought to himself. 'First I couldn't kill Star. Well, that wasn't my fault. I mean its hard to kill someone in cold blood. Especially someone your own age. And pretty.'
He sat up with a start. "What's going on?" he demanded out loud. "Why am I thinking like this? I need fresh air."
He climbed down the ladder of his loft bed. His room was very small so he could use all of the space that the loft provided. He opened the door and tip-toed silently down the hall. He didn't want to wake anyone.
He climbed up the stairs. He had become so used to the cavern he knew where everything was in the dark. Except the item, he tripped over once he was on the roof. Picking it up, he saw it was Star's boots, set nicely next to each other. He couldn't see Star anywhere. 'It's odd she left her boots out in the open. Maybe she always had servants pick up after her,' Robin thought.
He climbed back down the stairs, holding onto the boots. Making his way to Star's room, he pressed the secret button. The door didn't budge.
'She must have figured out the button,' Robin thought, smiling proudly instead of becoming mad. It was amazing what she had learned in the few days they had known each other. He pulled a small wire out of his belt and carefully fitted it through a small slit in the door.
The door slid open smoothly. Stepping into the room, Robin set the boots next to the empty bed. Straightening up, he walked back to the door.
Then he turned. "What?" Robin yelled. He had just realized what the empty bed meant.
-----------
Star shivered. She felt so cold. She didn't understand. She was right next to the tower part of the cavern. Besides the bird was so close. She had almost reached it. "Here you go little bird........"
Star fell, at a dizzying rate. Cold blackness closed in on her. Fortunately, she didn't land on the ground. She landed in Slade's arms instead.
-----------
"Titans, Star's gone!" Robin yelled.
"I don't wanna grow up," BB muttered still asleep.
"Did you check the roof?" Raven had not trouble snapping back into her normal self.
"Yea. She's disap...."
Slade had that annoying sense of timing that would always cut people off in the middle of sentences.
"Hello Titans," Their video game TV turned itself on showing an image of Slade.
"Are you my mother?" BB asked, still asleep.
Everyone stared at him, them with a quick slap, Raven freed him from his slumber.
"Dude! What's everyone doing?" BB asked, irritably.
Ignoring him, Robin turned back to Slade. "What do you want with her?"
"Oh I don't want her. That's what her sister wants. I just want a quick and easy way to get you back," Slade spoke calmly. Even in the middle of the night, his cold, evil demeanor held. "You see, no one quits me," he hissed.
"Dude! Say it don't spray it! What's he talking about?" BB asked.
"You know where I am. Come alone." Slade ended his transmission, the TV turning off automatically.
"I don't know how he got in. My system should have detected him," Cyborg whined.
"Did you turn it on?" Raven asked, pointing to the unplugged machine.
"What? How did this happen? I know I plugged it in!"
The Titans turned to BB.
"Its humming was keeping me awake. What kind of villain attacks during the night anyway? You know I sleepwalk sometimes..." BB tried to come up with an excuse that didn't make him sound like a complete idiot. It was hard to do.
Robin sagged down. He felt like something had been ripped out of him. Everything was so bleak. "It wouldn't have worked anyway. I lived with Slade and everyone for a few years. He would definitely thought to have brought along a piece of my hair or some of my DNA to use."
Turning back to the Titans, he spoke softly. "I'm going after her."
"Say hi for us," Raven told him.
Robin walked into the tunnel and disappeared from their vision.
"OK. I put the tracking device on him. We need to wait a few more minutes though so he arrives before us. We can't risk both him and Star getting into trouble because Slade sees us too soon." Cyborg whispered to the others.
Nodding their heads, Raven, BB, and Cyborg sat down and waited the longest 5 minutes of their lives.
The minute the timer went off, BB jumped up. Cyborg led the way, following the small beeping of his tracking device.
-----------slades lair-------
Star's eyes were blurry. She couldn't see clearly, and everything was doubled. She had to keep blinking her eyes for a long time before they adjusted.
She was in a small room. All of the walls were clear, including the door. She walked over to the door and tried to turn the handle. Instead, she felt electricity coursing through her. Quickly dropping the handle, she looked around for another way out.
She tried to fire a starbolt through the walls, but it seemed to get sucked into the walls instead. The walls flared green for a moment, then turned back to their natural color.
"I would try to escape," A voice spoke from the side of the box. Star turned, but she couldn't see anyone.
'I'm going crazy. This is just a dream. I'll wake up in a second,' Star tried to reassure herself. She grabbed part of her arm, and pinched. Everything remained the same but now she had an angry red mark and burning sensation in her arm.
"No, this isn't a dream," A man seemed to emerge out of thin air. In truth, he had a special cloaking device allowing him to turn all black, part of the reason the room was adjusted to be so dark. Since Star still hadn't fully regained her sight, she had been unable to see him. He couldn't resist scaring the little alien even more. "This is a nightmare."
Star tensed up. The man was obviously crazy. She had to keep him talking while she looked for a way out. "Who are you?" she asked.
"I'm Slade." The man disappeared again, leaving Star to her own thoughts.
-----------------
Robin seemed to never touch the ground. He was running fast, faster than anyone had even seen him run. Turning and weaving, he ran through the forest, like he knew it like the back of his hand. At last he found an old crumbling warehouse. Entering the warehouse through the roof, he broke through a window and descended into the room.
There wasn't any point to being quiet. Slade probably had cameras surrounding his factory for miles.
"Slade?" Robin yelled. "Where is she?"
"Right here," The lights turned on revealing Star in her box-room. Next to her stood Slade.
"What do you want from me?" Robin asked. "You had me for years, you could have asked for anything during that time."
"The problem is, you left me. No one leave Slade. Especially not you. I raised you. I took care of you..."
"You turned me into a criminal."
"Is that so bad? It pays well."
Robin didn't answer, just kept staring at Slade. "Where does she come in? What does she have to do with this?"
"She is your weakness. You failed me the second you let her live. And failure is not tolerated. She is my weakness too. She is living proof that my assassins, and thus me, can fail. I'm just happy that her sister will be here soon to finish her off before anyone else can find out about her."
"You monster..." Robin spoke softly.
"Hardly. I prefer to think of myself as an entrepreneur."
"What does she have to do with me then? If you're going to kill her off, what can I do to save her?"
"I'm glad you asked. See you seem to think you can survive, no, do better, without my guidance. So I'm giving you a chance to prove yourself. Hand to hand combat. Right here, right now. You win, you take the girl and disappear. I win, you come back and the girl goes to her sister."
"You're on." With the words barely out of his mouth Robin lunged. He was smaller and weighed less, but he could recover faster and had better reflexes.
They fought for a while. Even though they were both sweating, Robin still seemed to have energy. "It seems you've grown soft," he taunted Slade.
"It seems you over estimate your skill." Slade replied, attacking with a fresh burst of energy.
They kept on fighting, until Robin made a mistake. He slipped on the puddles of water and sweat that were gathering. Falling down, he looked up to see Slade's smirking face. He tried to flip up, but Slade quickly pinned him.
"I...lose," Robin said in disbelief.
"You failed yourself. And you failed her. Just like you always do."
Robin screamed in frustration, trying to get a grip on Slade. His own body rebelled, leaving him gasping on the floor.
"Now, I'd like you to call me master," Slade said, laughing at Robin's discomfort.
Star had seen the entire thing from her clear box. She could hear every word they spoke, every gasp for breath they made. She saw Robin fall. And she heard Slade's last sentence. "You are nobody's master!" she hissed.
Her eyes and hands glowed bright green. Then, green lines seemed to filled her body into a brightly glowing orb. Her entire body was flooded with light. She walked forward, the clear material shattered when it touched her. She kept on walking. Slade and Robin looked up at the bright light. Slade got off Robin and backed away. "How could this happen? I sprayed Gorish on you,"
"For the last time," Star spoke slowly enunciating each word, "The....royal...family...is...immune...to...Gorish." With he last word complete, Star focuses her energy on Slade. He was blasted away, along with several support columns and an entire wall.
The ceiling began to crumble. Seeing Star fall to the ground, Robin found a hidden reserve of strength. Grabbing the girl, he was surprised at how light she was. He eyes were closed and she had turned deathly pale.
"Starfire," he whispered. He quickly, carrying her, shot out a rope and flew back onto the roof. There, he was stunned to see his friends. His energy gone, he collapsed.
"Let's go." Raven grabbed both Star and Robin, wrapping them in her black energy. She and the other titans carefully flew away. Cyborg hung off of BB in his crane shape.