On Love, In Sadness

Alternate Title: Whatever Happened to Infinity Plus One?

I don't own Teen Titans, etc. Rated PG-13 for language and very mild violence. Rating might change later in fic, but as of now probably not. Title named after a Jason Mraz song which I also don't own.

A/N: This is those 20 years that happened if Starfire had never returned in "How Long is Forever?" I'm not obsessed with that episode or anything, but I thought it would be an interesting idea if one Titan just disappeared and then boom, this episode basically handed me a fanfic. And plus, since it was Star, that means I don't have to worry about writing like she talks! Yay!

Chapter 1

"Starfire!" Robin screamed as the tunnel closed inches from his grasp.

"Um… where did she go?" Beast Boy shrugged, glancing around the room.

"Damnit! Star!"

"She's… gone?" Cyborg questioned, advancing slowly toward the spot where a worm tunnel once stood.

"No, she can't be. It's just… she's been transported. To somewhere else. We have to search for her!"

"Robin, calm down. We're not going to get anywhere with you acting like this," Raven mumbled, carefully examining the area.

It took Robin a minute not to blow up. He was getting pretty close to it. How could they all act as if nothing had happened? They were all merely standing there, looking around as if that would solve everything. He felt a tingle on his neck and glanced back at Raven. She was staring at him intently. Suddenly he felt much more relaxed and in control. He smiled at her slightly.

"You're… right Raven. We have to be rational. Let's split up. Search all the dark places Warp might have taken her."

"Hate to break it to you, man, but I'm not sure that's going to work. Think about it. That was a wormhole going through time. That means Star is no longer in the present. She's… somewhere else. Somewhere we can't get to."

"No, Cyborg. That's not the case. We have to be able to get to her. And if she's not in our time… we'll… make a time machine! If they have them in the future it must be possible somehow."

"Warp said he was from 100 years in the future. That's a pretty long time to be able to invent time travel. And even if we did somehow come up with some machine, how would we know exactly where she was? Was he rounding when he said 100? It could really be 101 years or 98 or 95. Then if we finally got the year, how would we get the month? The day? That's not even including how we'd find the place they'd end up. Time is much too large to explore," Cyborg explained, staring straightforward to avoid eye contact with Robin.

The calmness he once felt was gradually leaving his swarming head. "You know, your logic is really starting to piss me off."

"Hey, man, I'm just calling it like I see it. I want Star back as much as you but we have to be honest with ourselves. We can't go chasing something that's not there," Cyborg said, turning to face Robin defiantly. Robin's blood began to boil.

"You couldn't possibly even begin to understand how much I want her back. All you think about is yourself and… and… you never even cared about her and… AHH!" Robin screamed, forgetting words as he lunged toward his friend.

Suddenly a green gorilla appeared between Robin and his target. Robin fell right into the large monkey's grasp. Slowly Beast Boy returned to his human form, keeping his arms on Robin's shoulders.

"We have to put some faith in Starfire. She's the only one that can do anything now. Wherever she is, she's with Warp who's with the time machine thing. She's the only one that can come back to us."

"But that's so… hard." Robin turned around, carefully brushing off Beast Boy's hands. He looked at Raven who was slightly levitating with her eyes to the floor.

"I know. Waiting is the worst punishment."

Beast Boy slumped out of bed around noon. He sluggishly got dressed in his everyday clothes and headed to the main room. He then noticed the creepiest thing of all – it was quiet. Dead quiet. Did they go on a mission without me? Shit, I'm gonna be in so much trouble.

Running down the rest of the hallway, he stopped as he finally reached his destination. To his astonishment, there were his friends. Well, three of them. Suddenly, the memories of yesterday rushed back into his head. Starfire. She was gone.

He carefully stepped over the Blor-whatever beads that still lay on the floor. None of the other Titans had touched them, and he didn't dare be the first. Cyborg was playing on his gamestation with the sound turned off. He didn't look too interested in it, however, and kept dying at the easiest parts. Robin was sitting. Just sitting. Raven was meditating silently, hovering slightly in the air.

"Hey guys," BB announced timidly. Even though his voice was quiet, it startled all the other Titans. Cyborg dropped his controller while Robin jumped 10 feet in the air. Raven opened her eyes with a jolt, but was able to keep most of her composure.

"Oh, hey man! Wanna play some 'cause I was just stopping. Gonna go lift some weights or something," Cyborg stammered as he left the room. Beast Boy glanced at him but decided to leave him on his own.

He couldn't play video games. And to think just yesterday they had both been fighting relentlessly for game time. Maybe if they hadn't been so obnoxious, Starfire wouldn't have felt obliged to jump through that hole. Maybe if they'd just given more time to that holiday thing she was ranting about, none of this would have happened.

Maybe maybe maybe.

"Maybe won't get us anywhere," Beast Boy mumbled to no one. Raven and Robin continued with their sitting. Beast Boy stood there awkwardly. Right as he was about to go hide in his room, the Titan communicator started beeping. Robin raised his head to look at the blinking red light. Raven stood up and turned to Robin. Cyborg returned from the weight room. All eyes pointed at Robin.

Robin cleared his throat. "Well, guys... Titans go?" he seemed to ask as if unsure of himself. There was a moment where no one moved. Finally, Cyborg nodded and turned to face the door. Slowly he exited, hoping for the others to follow.

One by one the remaining Titans left the room until all but Beast Boy remained. "Going to fight some bad guys? Feeling like this? This could get ugly…"

"I can't think of anything witty to say, so you're just gonna get your ass kicked!" Robin screamed, jumping on the unsuspecting burglar. To Robin's surprised, the man dodged his attack and quickly somersaulted out of the way.

"Oh, am I now. If I play my cards right, I don't think I'll have any problems," and with that he flung three razor sharp cards at Robin. Robin dodged, but one card slashed his cheek.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Cyborg yelled, preparing to sonic blast the guy into the next century. Then, suddenly, the burglar disappeared. "What the…"

"Be careful, you need a good poker face if you want to make any money," the man retorted from behind Cyborg. Cy turned around quickly only to be met with a long pole being flung at his head. Boomerang style, the poll returned to its original thrower, leaving Cyborg passed out on the floor.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Suddenly two desks flung toward the burglar, successfully hitting their mark. Raven almost smirked at her handy work, until she noticed the same man who she had assumed was under the desks standing at the door.

"It was nice playing with you all, really, but now I must leave. My name is Ace and I was happy to have the pleasure of defeating you this afternoon," the strange burglar bowed and moved to open the door.

"Not so fast!" Beast Boy yelled, changing into a cheetah and dashing after Ace. Before he could reach him, however, the strange man was gone, leaving the Titans in a complete mess.

"We… lost? Against a cheesy guy with a pole, some fancy cards, and a cheesy name like Ace?" Robin stammered.

"Hey, we're not ones to talk about cheesy," Beast Boy muttered softly, trying to be funny but failing horribly at it.

"I think we just need to go home. Anything that guy does with a few thousand will haunt us later. For now I think we could all use some rest," Raven said and the others merely nodded and were quickly enveloped into a swift black bird shadow, heading back to the tower.

A/N: Alrighty, thanks anyone who actually read this for starters. Excuse any typos or mess ups. I know there's some OOC stuff, too, but I'm trying to get away from the closer years of Star's disappearance so I can have more liberty (and thus fun) in the future chapters. Please R&R dissing it, praising it, criticizing it, whatever. Opinions are good! A few notes:

1) No, Raven making Robin feel better had nothing to do with her powers. It was just her presence there to support him which made him feel better, I'm not giving her some wacky power that makes her make people feel good.

2) Yes, I know the whole cards-theme bad guy is non-original and all of his phrases were really stupid. I was trying to be like the show in that sense (the cheesy one line phrases that bad guys say – we all know they do it!). Yes, he was kinda based on Gambit from X-Men, though very loosely. Just in the sense he has a pole and cards. I'm not planning to do a lot with him, but I needed a fresh bad guy since I don't know everything about any existing ones. I figured this would decrease the amount of mess ups along with providing less stress while writing.

Oh! And thanks so much to Ryoko at "Forever" for providing me with the transcript to "How Long Is Forever?" It was really helpful to double check a bunch of stuff!