Blackfire skidded around the corner and pulled open the door. The titans stared at her as she stood in the door way gasping for air.
"Sister?" asked Starfire, "What is wrong?"
"S…Slade…in the hospital…said," Blackfire started between taking in great lung fulls of air.
"Slade?" asked Robin.
Cyborg pulled a chair forward and Blackfire sat down gratefully.
"What did he say? Are you alright?" asked Robin, walking forward.
"Asked me to…join him…said he'd…turn you against me if…I didn't," said Blackfire, still gasping.
Raven handed her a bottle of water and after she had taken a drink she continued with her story.
"He said that if I didn't join him he'd turn you against me and when I said no he said that he'd warned me and disappeared," said Blackfire.
"Disappeared?" asked Raven, "How?"
"I don't know, one minute he was in the shadows and the next he was gone!" said Blackfire, watching them staring at her, "I know it sounds made up, but I swear I saw him!"
"But Slade is…" began Starfire.
"It couldn't have been him!" said Cyborg.
"Well it couldn't hurt to have a look around the hospital, Blackfire, you go back to the tower and stay there, we don't want him to get you," said Robin.
Blackfire nodded and stood up.
"Should I go with her?" asked Starfire.
"No, we need you to help search for him," said Robin, "Titans, spread out!"
As the titans spread out to look for Slade, Blackfire left the hospital and began making her way back to the tower.
"This is bad," she muttered.
The second Blackfire got back to the tower she knew something had gone wrong. For one, none of the security systems were online. She ran in through the doors and looked around.
"No," she gasped, falling to her knees.
Everything was gone; right down to the ship Cyborg had modified to go into space.
She stood up, shaking with a mixture of anger and fear.
"Slade," she said darkly and left the tower.
Cyborg, Starfire, Raven and Robin all met up again in Beastboy's room.
"Did you find him?" asked Beastboy.
"Nothing," said Robin.
"Not a sign he was even here," said Cyborg.
"But I know my sister wouldn't tell us he was here if he wasn't!" said Starfire.
"But Slade's dead. He fell into the volcano when Terra…" Raven trailed off at the look on Starfire's face.
They all stood in silence for a while.
"Good news," said the nurse walking through the door.
They all looked up.
"His back injury isn't as bad as we had first thought. As long as he rests properly he should be able to go home," she said, smiling, "But no fighting for at least two weeks!"
"In that case we should just head home," said Robin and the nurse started taking Beastboy out of the harness, "And we can ask Blackfire what she actually saw when we got back."
Half an hour later, they were arriving back at the tower. Cyborg placed his hand on the security panel, but nothing happened.
"Blackfire must have already unlocked it." He said, walking in.
Robin flicked the light switch and all of their mouths dropped as the Teen Titans stared around at their home. Everything was gone, right down to the food in the fridge.
"What happened?" asked Cyborg, "Where's all our stuff?"
"Isn't it obvious?" asked Robin.
The others looked at him.
"Who was the only person here?" he asked, "Who was the only person who could've entered the tower and who was the only person who could've thought of the one thing that would distract us long enough to steal everything?"
"You mean my sister?" asked Starfire, "No! It was not Blackfire. She has changed; she would not do something like this to us!"
"Come on Starfire," said Robin, "She's a criminal!"
"She is not!" shouted Starfire.
"Why didn't we see it before?" asked Raven, "We shouldn't have trusted her!"
"IT WASN'T HER!" Shouted Starfire angrily, green light shimmering around her.
They all stared at her, almost pityingly.
"Starfire…it had to be her…" said Robin gently.
Starfire bit her lip.
"Slade," she said quietly, "He said he'd turn us against her."
Starfire turned and began walking towards the exit of the tower.
"And it seems that he's succeeded." She said quietly as she left the tower.