A/n: Sorry for the delay! School's been tough lately. But here we are! I loved the episode where Cyborg gets to pretend he's human! Poor Cyborg, he wants to be human so bad… hugs Oh, and Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo are all late teens. And this chapter's gonna seem REALLY un-fantasy like but, remember, it's a fantasy AND sci-fi kind of thing. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to have Cyborg join us. OR Gizmo. OR our computers. OR our cell phones. OR our spaceships. OR--is whacked over the head All right! I'll stop now!

Chapter 8

Slade slammed his fist into the table, breaking his teacup. Robin had failed him. For some reason he hadn't killed that child-Queen Starfire and was now, of all things, her friend. He had even ratted out on who had hired him, not that it mattered that much. Slade sneered at that. He'd get rid of Starfire and get Robin back as his apprentice. Once King Slade had decided on something, it happened. He would just have to try a more direct means of killing the Queen. Robin probably didn't even know Slade knew what had happened, so he had plenty of time to act.

Cyborg looked up when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in," he called. The door opened to reveal Robin. "What do you want?" Cyborg growled, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"I need to talk to you. Star's still in trouble."

"Really? Did you change your mind and decide to kill her?"

"Stop it, Cyborg. This is serious." Raven rose out of the floorboards.

Robin looked startled at her sudden entrance, but he recovered quickly. "Nice trick." Then he turned back to Cyborg. "Slade isn't going to be happy when he hears I failed and I doubt he'll give up. You don't hire the most expensive assassin out there just to give up after one try."

"So what are you saying we do? Locking Starfire up will hardly work, and Slade could already have an assassin here in case you failed," Raven pointed out.

"We need to get rid of Slade. Without him, an assassin won't get paid, so there's no reason to finish the job and risk getting killed."

"So you're suggesting we take out the king of another planet? Some how I doubt that's going to work," Cyborg said sarcastically.

"It will. If you can get me in there, I can kill him. I might need help to get past his guards though…" Robin seemed to speaking more to himself than to the other two. "I could call in those three, if they're not on another job, and they do owe me. Alright," he said appearing to make up his mind. "I'll need to make a call, excuse me." He left the room.

Cyborg and Raven looked at each other. "Are you as clueless as I am, Rae?" Cyborg asked.

"I certainly don't know what's going on."

Robin held the phone up to his ear (of course they had phones in the Middle Ages/Renaissance, didn't you know that?) and waited for it to stop ringing. The answering machine clicked. "Hey—SHUT UP YOU TWO!! Hey, you've reached us, leave a message." A female voice said before a beep.

"Hey, you three, it's Robin. I could use your help, call me when—"

A voice cut him off. "Hey Robin, how's it going?"

"Hey, Jinx. Listen, I need a favor, but there's no money involved. I need to eliminate someone but I have to get to him first. Can you, Mammoth, and Gizmo take care of his guards?"

"I suppose I should check with the guys so they don't feel left out, but we'll do it. Where are we meeting? I suppose you'll tell us who when we met."

"Planet (…I forgot what it was called………) at the salle at the Queens' palace. You shouldn't have any trouble getting in. How soon can you get here?"

"Hmm…the palace, huh? Tomorrow around noon if we leave right now. It'll probably end up being about five. If we're running late, I'll call you. See you then."

Robin smirked as he hung up his phone. Slade soon wouldn't be a problem for anyone ever again.

Jinx hung up their phone and turned to go find her two friends. "Mammoth! Gizmo! Where are you?!" Mammoth stuck his head out from the kitchen, mouth full of food. Gizmo called "what?!" from his workroom.

"We're leaving to help Robin out with a job of his in one hour. Pack what you need!"

"Don't we get a say in this?!" Gizmo shouted while Mammoth just swallowed and shrugged. He didn't care, so long as he got to fight.

"No, so hurry it up!" Gizmo grumbled something that Jinx ignored.

The next day around five in the afternoon…

"When are they gonna be here?" Cyborg asked for the fifteenth time. "And you ever gonna tell us who 'they' are?"

"You'll find out when they get here which should be any minute," Robin replied, not moving from where he was leaning against the wall, arms folded across his chest.

"Calm down, Cyborg, they'll be here eventually," Raven said quietly from where she was meditating.

A few minutes passed before "When are they gonna be here?"

A few more minutes passed before "When are they gonna be here?"

"Cyborg…" Raven growled. Cyborg was quiet for about ten minutes. Then, "when are they coming?" Raven was looking murderous when, luckily, they heard, "Hello? Robin! You here?"

"In here Jinx!" he called. The door opened to reveal a girl with purple-pink hair and outfit, a giant of a man who looked as though he was all brawn and little brain, and a short boy dressed very geekily. Robin moved to greet the three as Cyborg and Raven inspected them.

"Jinx, Mammoth, Gizmo, it's good to see you again. Been having fun? Any good jobs recently?"

Robin was answered with various replies.

"Hi, Robin. Great to see you, too. It's been pretty fun."

"Hey. Good. Jinx wouldn't let me finish eating so you better have somethin' that I can eat. I'm hungry."

"Hiya, Bird-brain! It's been loads of fun lately! Just got an order for explosives, that I'm puttin' on hold."

"Yeah, what's this job you have?" Jinx asked. Then she spotted Cyborg and Raven. "Ooh, never mind that! Who's your friend?" She darted over to Cyborg and grabbed his arm. "Hi! I'm Jinx! Aren't you cute?" Cyborg's eyes widened and his face turned light pink. Gizmo started fuming but Jinx didn't notice.

"That's Cyborg and this is Raven. And about the job, we'll be going after King Slade of Xanos. I'll need—"

"WHAT?!?!?! Are you INSANE!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! You're gonna take out Slade?!" Gizmo shouted.

"What's the big deal with Slade?" Cyborg asked. "I'm sure you've gone after rulers before."

"Well, duh, we have. It's just that Slade has the best state-of-the-art security system and a gazillion guards and is a kick-ass martial artist at that! That's the big deal."

"I know that. And I know we can take him down, but I'm going to need your help. Are you still willing to lend a hand?" Robin asked, unfazed.

"Of course we are," Jinx answered. "We still do owe you from… last time." She glanced at Raven before she avoided saying exactly what "last time" had been.

"Great. Now here's what I need you to do."

A sleek state-of-the-art spaceship landed in the forest outside of the walls of the capital city of Xanos. The door opened and six figures dressed in black stepped out. Raven and Cyborg had insisted on coming and Robin had let them rather than waste more time arguing. The group ran through the forest before they came to the wall. At the top, they could see guards patrolling, or, rather, playing dice.

"Raven," Robin whispered, having just thought of something. "Can you get us through to the other side? I know you can teleport with your powers, but can you take all of us and for how far? Maybe, the castle?"

"I can take all of you for a short distance or a few of you for longer, but getting into Slade's castle is not an option. He'll probably have alarms that can detect my magic. Also, there's no way to tell if there would be someone to spot us. However…" she trailed off. She closed her eyes and when she opened them, they blazed white. "I can take you to the back of an alley that is a block away from the castle walls. No one is there."

"Do it." Darkness enveloped the group, transporting them into the city. When complete darkness peeled back, the dimly lit alley way surrounded them.

"The castle is that way," Raven said, pointing to the right and down the alley.

"Then let's get going!" Jinx said, starting to leap up the wall of the building next to them. The others followed. Robin leaped up much as Jinx did, Mammoth and Cyborg climbed up, Gizmo's backpack sprouted legs that propelled him up the wall, and Raven simply levitated. Once they were all assembled on the flat roof, Robin turned to Gizmo and Cyborg.

"Can you jam the security system?" he asked quietly.

"Well, duh! Of course I can, Bird-brain!" Gizmo exclaimed before Jinx glared at him to be quiet. He did, but muttered under his breath.

Cyborg scanned the security system and looked at the results. "Yeah, there's a master fuse box under ground that can knock out all of it, or if less will do, I can shut down the system in certain areas. I can localize the power and shut it off. Shouldn't be too hard, but I need to get closer for any small-scale work."

"Alright. Cyborg, I want you to knock out the power in three different areas, two east, and one west, two guardhouses at each area. That way we can distract them." Cyborg started punching buttons on his arm and nodded to Robin once he had finished. "Good," Robin continued. "Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth. I need you three to deal with Slade's guards once we get inside the castle. Cyborg and Raven, you're with me. I'm going after Slade and if we run into trouble, I'll need you. Now let's move."

The group headed towards the western most area of darkness. Once inside the walls, they encountered robot guards scattered all over the place. The six teens flung themselves into the fight, smashing through the guards.

"Raven, can you locate Slade?" he asked, amidst the fighting. Raven closed her eyes briefly before they blazed open with white light.

"Second floor, south wing, last hallway on the left coming from this direction." Raven answered. Robin nodded and he, Raven, and Cyborg vaulted into a second story window, leaving Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo behind to keep fighting. Raven led the way through the maze of the castle.

Eventually they came to the part of the castle that Raven had said Slade was in. The three skidded to a halt when they saw the rows of guards standing in front of two open doors, apparently waiting for them. The robots launched themselves at the teens, who immediately started fighting back.

"Slade's in the next room," Raven called out, black power smashing one of the guards into the wall. "Go ahead, Robin, we can take care of these." Robin nodded and flipped over the robot in front of him, landed one another's face, used it to push off of, and made it through the doors just as they closed behind him.

The room was dark; the only light an eerie orange glow that did little to illuminate his surroundings. Robin tensed, staring into the darkness for any sign of his former employer. His eyes slowly adjusted to the dark. He could see nothing but large dark shapes that were distinguishable from each other only by their size. Suddenly a bright light clicked on in front of him. Robin drew back from the sudden brightness which blinded him. He squinted into the light and saw a lone figure sitting in a chair.

"Welcome, Robin," the man said and stood up. Robin's eyes narrowed when he saw who the person was.

"Slade."

I'M SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SORRY THAT I TOOK SO LONG TO GET THIS OUT!!!! BUT SCHOOL HAS BEEN WORKING ME SO HARD AND I HAVEN'T HAD BARELY A MINUTE OF FREETIME SINCE SUMMER!!!! SORRY!