Chapter Nine: The Clock Chimed Eleven

Cassius Wolfe sat back in his chair, considering his options, and smiled. This, this was good news indeed, no doubt about it. Now all that was left was the question about whether he wanted to take advantage of the situation, saying as much to the head scientist, who was standing in front of his table.

"I beg your pardon sir?" the head scientist asked incredulously, before he immediately backed down in the heat of Cassius's gaze. "My apologies, sir."

Cassius bore down on him for a few moments longer, cowing the man a little more, before he broke into a wide smile. "Don't apologise, Doctor. Never apologise, especially when you know that you're right, which, in this case, you are. Fear not, I'm as anxious to see this project off as soon as possible myself. Are you sure that we may proceed as ahead of schedule as you say we are?"

"But of course, sir. The implants are performing far beyond our expectations, sir. Contrary to what we previously thought, they work better as the creature ages and grows; in short, making it easier to control as it becomes more powerful. Even if this single creature does not perform as well as expected, we have enough stored genetic material to clone an army of them!"

Cassius's smile grew wider; the doctor was trying to hide it, but the fact that he was now as giddy as a schoolboy let loose in a candy shop was quite obvious to him. "As tempting a possibility as that might be, we still have to test the capabilities of this one. Are you sure we can move the schedule up so much?"

"With the creature's receptiveness to the implant procedure, as well as your protégé's speed at achieving total control faster than we had anticipated, testing the project's capabilities this morning has become a great deal more feasible, as I have said, sir."

"How long will it take for us to prepare?"

"An hour or two after you give the word, sir."

"Well then, it should follow that I give it now."

"Excellent, sir," Doctor Anton Sevarius said as he exited the room.

It was going to be a good day.

An absolutely wonderful day

(scene change)

Beast Boy sat with his face in his hands, not believing, no, refusing to believe what he had just heard.

"Do you think I want it to happen?" Robin argued.

"Yeah, I do!" Beast Boy shouted at him.

"Beast Boy-" Starfire began.

"Shut up, Starfire!" Beast Boy said angrily. "You're as bad as he is!"

"You leave her out of this, Beast Boy! She's just trying to help!"

"Yeah, help beat up on Raven as soon as you ask her to!"

Dawn turned to Blackfire. "Is it always like this?"

Blackfire shook her head. "Not always, but it can get pretty exciting when it does," she said nonchalantly as she watched the three-way argument unfold. It was pretty obvious to Blackfire that at the way it was going it was best if she didn't get involved.

"I'll bet- wait hold on, my ship is receiving a transmission," Dawn said. "Be right back."

As Dawn walked back up the stairs to her ship, Blackfire turned her attention back to the argument, which seemed to follow a certain pattern: Beast Boy would shout at her, Robin would shout at him, and the process would repeat itself. Of course there were slight variations from time to time, but it mostly followed that pattern.

-funny, all this fuss about a girl you don't really like-

Blackfire shook her head. Where had that thought come from?

And why did it make her so uncomfortable?

Suddenly Dawn's hand grabbed her shoulder. "We need to talk," she said as she pulled Blackfire away from the shouting. "What is it?" Blackfire asked, as they stood at a window across from where the argument was still going strong.

"The thing is, Blackfire, I- I agree with what your friend Robin is saying."

"Yeah, so do I," Blackfire lied. "So what?"

"So I was wondering whether you would go through with it." She turned to Blackfire, and this time there was no mistaking the desperation in her eyes.

And neither was there no mistaking the shock in Blackfire's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Blackfire," Dawn said, looking down. "I didn't mean, that is- I just need to know how you really feel about her. I know we've been through all this before, Blackfire, but…"

Dawn sighed. "The thing is, I'll be leaving tonight."

"Tonight? But you just got here!"

"I know, but the Guild has just contacted me. Apparently one of their scout fleets ran into some trouble, and they need a new one. Guess who was one of those scouts they thought of first? They're willing to return the rest of my money for cutting my vacation short, of course," she finished bitterly.

"But you can still come back, right?" Blackfire said, trying hard not to show her desperation, and failing, as both she and Dawn were aware.

Dawn looked up, and Blackfire found her own eyes locked with Dawn's. "I'm not sure if I would want to," Dawn told her.

"What are you talking abou-"

"I just don't think it would be appropriate to come back to someone who loves another, that's all. I wouldn't want to intrude, after all."

"Hello, can't you see what's happening back there? There is a reason Beast Boy's defending Raven!"

"So? That does not tell me hezmana about how she feels about him, does it? Or about how you feel about her, either!"

Suddenly, Blackfire found her hands being taken by Dawn's. "The point is, if you truly felt about me the way I want to think you do, then I wouldn't have to come back, because you would have come with me. Please, Blackfire," she implored, "come with me. I have a lot of money saved, trust me on this, and with your help, we'll make enough money for us to buy our way out of the Guild. And then… I don't know, but at least we'll be able to face it together."

"You make it sound so easy," Blackfire whispered. "What help could I be?"

"Blackfire, you know better than I do that the Guild does not care how you make money, just as long as we don't get caught." Her hands gripped Blackfire's even tighter as she continued, "Besides, Earth may be great, but it's one planet in an infinite Universe, a Universe we could see together."

Dawn's sky-blue eyes seemed to gaze all the way into Blackfire's soul as he asked, "So, Blackfire, what do you say? Just the two of us?" Her gaze seemed to become even more desperate as she added, "I just need to be sure, Blackfire."

Blackfire was about to answer when "QUIEEEET!" Cyborg shouted, having come in through the main doors and seeing the argument. "Geez, aren't you guys embarrassed? What would the Canadians think?"

"Canadians?" Beast Boy asked, momentarily thrown off his stride.

"Considering they probably heard the three of you yellin' at each other, yeah, the Canadians!"

"Is Raven all right?" Blackfire blurted out.

Cyborg looked up at Blackfire, whose inadvertent question had also caused her to endure a very dirty look from Dawn. "Yeah, she's all right," Cyborg said, in a softer tone. "She just needs to be alone for a while. That includes you, Beast Boy."

"What did I do?"

"It ain't what you did; it's what you're going to do. Raven needs some alone time right now, and that means alone. She don't want anybody going in her room right now, trying to cheer her up or anything like that, she just need some time to think, you get me?"

"Yeah, we get you, Cyborg," Robin said, surprised by Cyborg's vehemence.

Cyborg looked at him a moment, then let out a long sigh. "I'm sorry, Rob, but you should've seen her in there. You think you're scared? You should look at her," he said, pointing down the corridor.

"Is there nothing we may do for her?" Starfire asked.

" 'Fraid not, Starfire. She even agreed with Rob's plan, that's how bad she's got it."

You'd have only noticed it if you were either specifically looking for it, or at least suspecting that it would be done; as Cyborg said "that's how bad she's got it," he glanced, perhaps involuntarily, at Blackfire. Blackfire never knew if Dawn managed to catch Cyborg's look as well, but the message to her was clear: This is all your fault.

What do you expect me to do? Blackfire wanted to scream out at Cyborg. Did you think I wanted this? she wanted to add. That was when it hit her: didn't she? What was wrong? Didn't she have Dawn back? Didn't she have a chance to be free again?

So why did it feel so bad?

Why did it feel so…wrong?

Why didn't she want what she thought she always did?

Suddenly, Blackfire found her thoughts were interrupted when she heard Dawn tell Cyborg, "So what are you saying? We should just give up on your friend? Not even the Thanagarians could be that merciless!"

If the look on Cyborg's face was any indication, he was probably as surprised as Blackfire was. "What are you talking about, Dawn? I didn't say anything like-"

"Yeah, but your friend Robin did! But after all, it isn't as if she has people who care about her, does she?" With that remark, Dawn stormed off. Blackfire moved to follow her, glanced back at the group of stunned Titans, and followed Dawn out into the corridor.

(scene change)

"Okay, what's going on?" Blackfire said as she caught up with the departing Dawn in a corridor.

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked, still walking.

Blackfire threw her arms up in exasperation. "You seemed so fine up there on the rooftop, and suddenly just as soon as you come down here, you seem to lose it! Is it the air here?" Blackfire said sarcastically, taking a few exaggerated deep breaths. "Nope, that doesn't seem to be it. So what is the problem?"

Dawn looked at her, and then let out a weary breath as she stopped. "I'm desperate, Blackfire."

"Desperate?" Blackfire asked, an eyebrow raised.

Dawn gave her a wan smile. "Desperate, selfish, and jealous," she said, leaning against a wall. "Not a good combination, is it?"

"Can't say it is," Blackfire agreed, standing next to her.

Dawn turned to Blackfire, meeting her gaze. "Mind if I get to the point?"

"Should I?"

"I love you, Blackfire, and I always have," Dawn said, ignoring Blackfire's attempt at light humour, "and there's nothing I wouldn't give up to be with you."

"I don't know, the way you were acting just now, it seemed you thought your job in the Traders' Guild was more important than I was."

"It wasn't a question of my job," Dawn said, fire in her voice, "It was a question of whether I could bear the thought of having to- to share you with someone else, I guess," she continued.

"Share me?"

"Oh come on, you can't fool me," Dawn said. "You love her, don't you?"

Blackfire was about to say What are you talking about? Of course not, when she realized that Dawn was right. She did love Raven, and there was nothing either she or Dawn could do about it.

"And," Dawn continued, "considering what is happening, that all of this just seems to occur as soon as I come around, you've just realized that she might feel the same way about you too, don't you?"

Blackfire nodded, her eyes closed to stop the tears.

"Blackfire, look at me."

Blackfire looked up at her, looked up at the blue eyes she had missed so much, and still did in fact, which made it all the more painful.

"I love you Blackfire. You have, and always will be the most important thing in my life-"

"Don't say that," Blackfire whispered.

"I just thought that you felt the same way towards me," Dawn continued, seemingly deaf to Blackfire's words, "I wish you did. But when I saw the connection that you and Raven shared, even when you were apart, I became jealous." Her smile grew even more bitter. "To tell the truth, I wanted to steal you from her, can you believe it?"

"But, but Dawn, I… I…"

Dawn nodded. "See? You don't even know whether you mean it anymore."

"What do you want from me?" Blackfire said, still whispering, her head turned downwards.

"A simple yes or no, that's all. Blackfire, I need to know, when I leave tonight, will you come with me?"

Blackfire looked up, looked into Dawn's eyes, and knew she couldn't lie. She wouldn't lie.

"No," she whispered. "I can't. I'm sorry."

Dawn shook her head. "Don't be. At least now I know where we stand."

"I'm sorry," Blackfire whispered again.

"I told you, don't be. Blackfire, you have always been the most important aspect of my life, and part of that means that any life spent with you would be meaningless if you weren't happy. If I took you away from here, from everyone you know- and love," Dawn said with some difficulty, "then what would be the point? How could I make you happy if I took away the only part of your life that could do that?"

Seeing the look on Blackfire's face, Dawn went on, "I will admit, Blackfire, I'm not too happy about this to say the least," she said, with a sad smile, "but… well, what can I say? People do crazy things when they're in love."

Blackfire said nothing, instead choosing to catch her ex-lover in a tight embrace. "Thank you, Dawn," she said.

"I didn't say you were entirely off the hook, Blackfire my dear."

"What do you mean?" Blackfire asked, suddenly (and inexplicably) wary.

"Before I leave tonight, assuming nothing comes up," Dawn said, "I'd like us to have some private time together- oh no, nothing like that," she said, as Blackfire's eyes opened to the size of small plates, "I just want us to spend some time together, you know, like we did that night in your father's garden? For old times' sake?"

"Private time, you say?" Blackfire asked coyly.

"Yes, private time," Dawn said. "No Titans, no tourists, nobody but us. Us, the stars, and our dreams."

" 'Us, the stars, and our dreams'? Where did you get that horrible poetry from?" Blackfire asked, feeling as if a great weight had been lifted from her soul.

"Hey, it's the best I could come up with on such short notice," Dawn replied, also smiling. "Look on the bright side: at least it isn't Vogon," she said, referring to the only race in the Galaxy that used its poetry as a torture device.

And so it was that with a mixture of relief and mirth, the two of them set off to go back to the other Titans when, turning a passage, they bumped into a very stunned Robin, his mouth wide open in surprise.

(scene change)

Within a secret Wolfe Conglomerate laboratory, the most elite, most highly trusted members of its research divisions hustled and bustled, some of them checking parameters and charts, some of them monitoring various readouts, while others still hacked into vital security systems, all of them working doubletime to ensure the success of the project at hand.

All save one, but not for lack of enthusiasm.

"Sie faule Schweine," Karl said in a snarling whisper, "Schnell!"

"Calm down, Mr. Mannheim," Dr Sevarius said, at a console next to the helmeted Karl. "We do not want to attract undue attention to ourselves."

At that moment, a large truck and a van wove their way slowly through the late morning Jump City traffic. Both of them didn't display any markings that showed them as being the property of the Wolfe Conglomerate, neither did any of them have anything in their outward appearance to indicate the heavy armour plating they had been outfitted with.

"This the place?" the truck's driver asked over the intercom to the van's driver, as they pulled into an area full of abandoned, dilapidated buildings.

"Looks like it."

"Alright. Let's just drop off what we have to and go. This whole thing gives me the creeps."

"You mean they didn't tell you anything too?"

"Nope," the van's driver said, getting out.

"Geez, you'd think they'd trust us," the truck driver said, pressing a few buttons on his truck, activating its auto-unload equipment.

"Yeah, well, as long as they keep on paying us what they do, they can sell bioweapons to Al-Qaeda for all I care," the van's driver said to his friend, as he activated his own vehicle's auto unload.

The two of them watched as two silver rectangular crates, one much larger than the other, were unloaded, and then they began the aligning process the two of them were asked to do, moving the crates until the two crates were touching end to end.

"Hey, wait, you did it wrong," the truck's driver said.

"Whaddaya mean?"

"You see this part her? This hole? Remember what the boss said?" the truck driver said, indicating the hole in the end of his own bigger crate. "Hole to hole."

The van driver snickered. "Man, what I'd give to see that."

"Oh for… Get your mind out of the gutter, willya?"

"Queer."

Having managed to manoeuvre the crates into the correct position, the two of them were in the middle of returning to their vehicles when the van driver fell forward.

"Watch your step, man- what the hell?" the truck driver said when he saw the blood spatter from the bullet his friend took in the head. He turned, and ran for his truck.

He managed to take three strides before everything went black.

I'm getting sloppy, the assassin thought to himself in disgust, as he stepped out of the shadows and walked toward the two vehicles. His instructions were clear: kill the two drivers, but leave the crates untouched. His money would be in a suitcase underneath the truck; and sure enough, there it was.

For a moment he wondered about who his employers were, why they wanted these two bozos killed, and what was inside those crates that made them so damn important. And then, as always, he dismissed those thoughts. He had not survived as long as he did in his work by being curious.

As he opened the suitcase, a series of small holes in the thick handle opened up, sending small hypodermic needles up through the assassin's gloves, and penetrating his skin. The assassin quickly snatched his hand off the suitcase with a curse. He looked at his hand, saw that some of the needles had become embedded in his skin, and that was when everything disappeared into darkness as he fell forward.

The last thing the Wolfe Conglomerate needed were witnesses.