22.
They all took off running, following different roads, but before Robin and Starfire split up, she stopped him, grabbed him by the wrist and turned him to face her.
"Robin, be careful..." She looked worried. Robin was touched, but confused. He placed a hand on each of her shoulders,
"Don't worry Star, we got this." She didn't look convinced.
"There is something about this that seems...wrong. I worry for you." She leaned forward and they embraced.
"Star, I'm worried for you as well. Be careful, ok?" They stayed like that for a moment, her on her tip toes with her chin resting on his shoulder. They could feel each other's heart beat, feel the swell of each others chests as they breathed. Robin suddenly felt very little like going after Slade, but knew he had to. He pushed her away a little, but only so he could look into her eyes.
"I'll be alright, I promise." He planted a quick kiss on her cheek.
"Are you ready?" He asked her. He cupped her face in his hands, lightly brushing her cheeks with his thumbs. She smiled, and nodded.
"Alright then!" He ran and she followed, flying over his right shoulder. When the time came, they parted, each chasing a different super villain down a different street.
They didn't know it, but Slade saw the entire exchange between the two of them. There in the shadows, out of view of everyone, he smiled.
His plan was in its final phase, and soon, Robin would pay.
23.
Starfire was chasing Control Freak. She saw him off in the distance, but he wasn't really doing anything, just running away. That suited her fine, it would make his eventual capture that much easier. He also was not the fittest villain in the world, and she was quickly gaining on him.
"Go on Starfire, faster. Catch the little troll." It was a whisper, drifting to her from no certain direction. She stopped and looked around her, but there was no one. She swore it sounded like Slade, but in the whispered voice, she couldn't be sure. She shook it off and continued to fly towards Control Freak. When she looked she noticed something odd; he had stopped when she did, and waited for her to move again before continuing to run. Odd...but she ignored it. If he wanted to be caught, she would be happy to deliver him to that end. She saw him duck inside a building, and sped towards it with confidence.
Inside, it was a sorry sight. It was a completely dilapidated apartment building, that had been abandoned years ago. There was still furniture in the rooms, but it, too, was old and ready to fall apart. Starfire could smell the waft of stale air and rot. It was clear that no one had lived in this building for years...why had Control Freak come up here?
"Up here, green eyes!" He sneered at her from the top of an old set of stairs. She took off after him.
As soon as she crested the stairs and entered the room at the top, she heard a loud pop, and something struck her neck, a needle of some kind. A second later, she felt her eyelids getting heavy, and felt herself sinking. She landed – crash landed – and skidded across the floor. Whatever had hit her, it hadn't knocked her out, but it had definitely took the fight out of her. She staggered to her feet and looked around the room. There, in a dusty old arm chair, sat Slade, with his legs crossed and a smoking gun in his hand. Control Freak stood next to him.
"Thank you for your assistance, you may go, now." He looked up briefly at Control Freak, who nodded and walked calmly out of the room. He quietly passed Starfire by, throwing only the briefest of glances her way. Starfire felt half asleep, she was able to stand, think, see, but if Slade wanted a fight, she would be lacking in that department.
If the situation demanded her to fight, however, she would try.
"Hello Starfire." Slade said, standing. She wrenched the needle from her neck, and looked at it in her fist before throwing it away.
"A mild sedative. I would like very much if you stayed on the ground from now on." He looked out an open window while she fought the urge to fall to her knees.
"I suppose you are wondering why I've lured you here." He walked over to her and took up her chin in his hand. Unlike Robin, he was rough, and pinched down with his thumb, hard. She reacted to the pain by trying to throw a punch at Slade. It bounced off of his chest like a wet snowball, and he ignored it.
"You are my masterpiece." He shoved her backward and she stumbled and fell. As she picked herself up, still woozy, she spoke;
"What do you mean, masterpiece?" She tried to sound serious, mean. She was never very good at that, though. Slade walked over to her, and slapped her with the back of his hand, very, very hard.
"The culmination of all of my hard work." She was on all fours on the ground, trying to get enough strength to stand. Before she could, he brought his foot up into her ribs, and she let out a groan of pain. "Mumbo, my little performance downtown, the jailbreak. All of it, every single moment, every word said. All of it, building to this." He bent down and made fist of her shirt, lifting her up off the ground.
"What do you want with me?" She stuttered. There was a small dribble of blood coming from the corner of her mouth. He unceremoniously threw her into the wall, and she bounced off with a loud smash. She landed in a heap and didn't move.
"What I want, Starfire, is sweet revenge." He picked her up again. "You see, your little boyfriend wronged me horribly. So badly in fact, that I have deemed death to good for him." He let go of her and she slumped to the ground, unable to stand. He walked, calmly, towards the table beside the chair he was sitting in. "I have tried to break him in so many ways...I have tried turning him on his friends, and I failed. I tried turning his friend on him, and she rebelled. I tried driving him completely out of his mind, and succeeded only in giving him a new set of bruises. But you, you are may way in, aren't you?" He was fiddling with something, blocked from Starfire's view by his back. She slowly started to pull herself off the ground. There was pain in every joint, and the dart that Slade had shot into her was in full effect, casting a haze over the whole world.
"Love..." Slade continued, "...it is the all binding force, is it not? That which 'conquers all'." He turned, and in his hand was a sleek, dark gray handgun. He popped a clip into it, and continued to speak. "Of course, both you and Robin felt content to skirt the issue, and make eyes at each other for all eternity. That is why I attacked you yesterday, to drive the two of you together." He strode over and yanked her to her feet by her hair. "Tell me, did it work?" He brought the gun down, across her face, opening a gash on her cheek, and sending her sprawling on the floor. "Did you sleep with him?" He bent down over her sobbing, crumpled form, and brushed the hair out of her face. Despite the blood, he could tell she was blushing. "I thought so. How predictable." He shoved her with his foot, and she slid another few feet. "You see, that too, was part of my plan. In order to make what I am about to do mean anything, you two must be in love, completely and without restraint. I can see now, that you are." Starfire wiped the blood and tears from her eyes, and tried to speak.
"What are you going to do?"
Slade sighed a little, and went down on his haunches to address her. "Now, that is a good question." He grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked so her eyes were on par with his. "I hope you realize that there is nothing personal between us. I hold no grudge with you, young one. In fact, I really must thank you." He pulled her to her feet, and shoved her backward. Her trajectory was such that she fell down the stairs that she'd moments ago flown up. With a series of crashes and bangs, her limp body went hurtling downwards. She managed to connect with about every second step, and her shoulder rammed into the wall half way to the bottom. She landed at the bottom with a lifeless thud.
The fall was nearly enough to knock her out, but through eyes that could hardly see, and a mind that was spinning endlessly, she saw Slade descend the stairs, and walk to her side.
"I must thank you for being so easy to manipulate, for falling so easily into his arms, for being there for him. And most of all..." Slade pulled the slide back on the gun. It made a horrible click as it chambered a bullet. "...I must thank you for dying here today." He lowered the gun. Starfire saw it out of the corner of her eye, and used every bit of her strength to try to pull away. There was a shooting pain in her legs, and when she tried to move them they wouldn't listen. She clawed at the ground, trying desperately away from Slade. She pulled, with all her worth, but it wasn't enough. Slade angled the gun towards her, and shot Starfire, once, in the centre of her back.
"There." He said, again kneeling over her. She was still breathing, but it was shallow and slowly coming to a halt. He methodically grabbed the communicator from her belt and turned on its emergency beacon.
"Goodbye, child."
