Chp. 7, happy happy joy joy. It's kinda short, but you'll just have to deal until tomorrow. This fic should be finished by Friday, at this rate. So, keep reading and reviewing. i like reviews. they're fun. and cool. reviews make my day.
I've decided that I'm going to stop apologizing for bad writing every chapter. So I'm just going to apologize in advance: Sorry for the sucky writing and cliches, I'll probably never write another fic like this, so don't worry. :-D
Oh! and I forgot to mention, the Teen Titans don't belong to me. (sob)
"Told you it wouldn't work."
Raven's first words to Robin as he entered the Tower glumly, hunched over and both furious and scared at the same time, were enough provocation (in his opinion, anyway) for Robin's rebuttal.
"WHY DON'T YOU JUST SHUT THE HELL UP! YOU'RE NOT HELPING THE SITUATION, RAVEN!"
Raven looked startled for a split second, but regained her composure almost instantly.
"And what's your problem, Spyboy? Star find out you were stalking her and her friend?"
I wasn't stalking her, he was, Robin thought fiercely, but after a moment of hostile thinking he spilled.
Sighing, Robin said, "Star's gone."
"How so?"
"She's been…" he hesitated, trying to buy time-he knew once he said it, it would be official- "Star's been, umm, kidnapped…"
"She's been WHAT?" Cyborg and Beast Boy came bursting into the room, toppling all over each other as they completely ignored the fact that they blew their new-and-improved-let's-listen-in-from-behind-the-door technique.
Raven didn't even bother to make an exasperated comment at them.
"By who?"
Robin rubbed his forehead with his hand. "By her 'friend' as you put it."
Silence.
More Silence.
Cricket, cricket…
"Let me get this straight," began Beast Boy, clearly not understanding what he thought to be Robin's attempt at cracking a joke. "Starfire's been kidnapped—by her internet friend? Dude, this stopped being funny…"
"He's not joking," said Cyborg, a look of quiet disbelief on his face.
"HOW DID WE LET THIS HAPPEN!"
"Thanks for rubbing it in, Beast Boy."
A few more moments of silence, then-
"Hold on a second." Raven closed her eyes and floated into her meditating position. "I'm going to try to find her."
After screening through the anxiety and disbelief that flooded the room, Raven focused on trying to find Starfire's thought patterns, anything that had to do with her, shocking pink smiley faces, the energizer bunny ("how adorable!" Star would gush), pink flowers, the pink parts of the rainbow…just about anything pink…but it was a no-go.
"Damn."
"What's wrong?"
"I can't find her, she's unconscious, I can't trace her thoughts."
"Well, that really helped a lot. Hey Raven, ever considered becoming a therapist? Your advice is so calming and light-hearted…" Beast Boy ducked just in time to avoid a flying pillow.
Meanwhile, Star was having what was quite possibly the worst night of her life. Well, she would have, anyway, had she been awake.
But her very subconscious…the part that Raven can't trace…was still talking to her. Wake up, honey, you have a deceitful scumbag to beat to a bloody pulp…you can win this battle, just wake up, stir, do something! He's drugging you, Star, you know what that means, dontchya? It means that he dumped a bunch of bad stuff into your blood, stuff that obviously shouldn't be there, and that's why you're still asleep, listening to me nag you to wake up, when you should be kicking butt.
I bet Robin could get up faster than this, he's faster with everything, and he's better too…He told you to stay away from that jerk, he warned you that he was trouble…but did you listen? No! So now here we are, with you lying there like some pathetic wimp, when you could get yourself out of this situation, prove that you're not worthless-
Starfire stirred. Subconsciouses were jerks.
There ya go, honey, that's called 'reverse psychology,' say that 10 times fast...
'Don't you ever shut up?' thought Starfire groggily.
Nope, I'm the part that kicks in when you're down, this is my job…now get up, you can do it, nice and easy honey…
Star was waking up, slowly but surely, and she had the air of a twitchy, disoriented person who had suddenly been drugged and kidnapped by someone who they thought was their friend, to prove it.
There ya go! Good job, Star, now wake up entirely, and watch your leg, I bet it hurts pretty bad now—
"OW!" Starfire gasped. There was something wrong with her leg, it hurt so much…
Sorry about that honey, you went into shock when he shoved you oh-so-gently into the back of his car and broke your leg on the trunk door…
Well. So much for the encouraging subconscious. As Starfire winced, clutching her leg, to her body, she managed to glimpse at her surroundings through the tears that were springing up at her eyes, an entirely useless reaction to the pain. At least she wasn't tied up or something, that was nice, especially since most kidnappers like the ones Star had seen on T.V. would usually gag and tie up their hostages. But then again, it was probably in consideration of the fact that she had been heavily drugged. But otherwise she was simply sitting in a room that looked more like a row of showers and sinks than one of those freaky experimental science labs. The side affects of the drug were just kicking in though, and suddenly Star's cotton candy was being pushed back up her throat (sorry for the visual). She fought to keep it down but gagged at the attempt and she just let herself cough up dessert.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that immobilizing drugs can make you sick?
Great. Just great. Star sat there, huddled up against the wall, with her leg hurting too much to stand on and her stomach clenching and her head throbbing painfully. Her forehead burned, but she was shivering and sweating. Organizing her thoughts was proving to be a difficult task, her mind was racing between thoughts of how tired and sick and hurt she was, how Robin was right, how she now hated her subconscious, what was the best way to get revenge at Andrew without actually killing him…personally, Star liked the idea of tying him to the underside of the docks, so that he would have to hold his breath when the tide got high…wait, no, that probably would kill him, but in the meantime she didn't care much.
Back at the Tower the Titans were getting quite a workout running between different computers throughout various rooms of the house. Even Beast Boy, who had a history of crashing computers, was assigned a task: he got to check for any instant messages Star's SN might have gotten, in case it was used as a negotiating contact. Meanwhile, Raven had pulled up all security cameras at the fairgrounds trying to find the direction Andrew's car had sped off to, Cyborg was tapping into police records, looking for a crime on Andrew's record in hopes of finding some sort of pattern, and Robin was personally overseeing the review of Andrew's personal stats: buddy lists, family addresses, friend addresses, school, cell phone, lost library book records, you name it, Robin probably had made a note of it.
But even that wasn't enough: soon Raven had given up on the security camera feed (those idiotic security guards knew nothing about camera wiring) and instead devoted her efforts to attempting to sort out where Andrew or Star might be. She even analyzed the minds of those teenagers who had been in Robin's way as he had dashed madly after the perp, but it really was no good, mainly because she didn't know Raven's suspicions were confirmed; the typical teenager of Jump City had nothing but cars and…other teenage angsty feelings on their minds. Attempting to understand Raven's telepathy was enough to drive anyone crazy; but to put it simply, when analyzing the minds of strangers, it was easier to read many minds in a group, when most of them seemed to have at least one topic of contemplation in common; but when trying to read the mind of one single stranger, the thought patterns were much harder to understand, much less to track.
And Robin, after collecting all possible information that he hadn't already, had dispatched Cyborg to quit looking up police records (this guy didn't have so much as a parking ticket) and get to work on tracking down Star's communicator, which was no mean feat when it was turned off, most likely by Andrew after he stuffed her into the trunk of his car.
"I think we need to have a talk, Kory."
Andrew was walking into the shower area where Star lay moaning and shivering, with a look that kind of resembled one of the hyenas from The Lion King, mocking and horrible.
"So for about 3 months we've been talking, becoming friends, especially close friends. You told me everything about you, except who you were exactly. Not that I needed you to. I knew who you were all along. I hacked your password. Found where you were IMing from."
Star tried to stand, tried to push through the pain, prove she was strong. It was no good. She toppled to her side. She would have hovered, but her head was in searing pain, both from her fever and her panicked thoughts. She couldn't concentrate, but she tried. She needed to get through to Robin. Or Raven. They knew her best. Andrew ignored her attempts and kept talking.
"And I'll admit, I was surprised, and impressed, that you'd want to talk to someone like me. But as we became friends, I saw a side of you that I didn't see before. You have everything, friends who were like a family…a place to live…and a love. Well, 2, really. 1 for your job, and 1 for…well, you know. But you were still lonely. No one really appreciated you, or thought you could make it on your own. I did. That's why we were so compatible. I made you feel good, and you trusted me. It worked."
Come on, Raven, please…find me…
"But you still avoided me. You put off meeting me, telling me about you, because you thought I would freak if I knew you were a Teen Titan. But then, after so long, something changed, and we arranged to meet. I was excited. I spent hours, no, days preparing. But I wasn't stupid. I knew that you wouldn't change your mind to meet me one day in advance. I knew something big must have happened. When I talked to you, planning what we were going to do, you were impatient. In a huff, so to say. And when I mentioned if your friend 'Rob' was o.k. with our going out to the carnival, you got avoided the subject. Kept on talking about something else while I asked. I'm not an idiot, you know. I could tell something had happened between you."
Star squirmed, dragging herself along as Andrew walked slowly, very slowly, towards her. Come on, Raven…
"So, knowing that Robin is the type of guy who would spy on his friends as soon as he'd say 'hello,' most especially after a huge fight, I figured I'd better come prepared. Robin is human. If there was trouble, if I was fast enough, I could stick him with a needle, get him to chill out and leave us alone. Never imagined I'd have to use it on you."
Andrew was now a few inches from Starfire's tired face. She tried desperately to clear her thoughts, to send one signal…RAVEN!
"It wasn't supposed to turn out this way, sweetie. You were supposed to like me. You were supposed to love me. You were supposed to introduce me to your friends. But you didn't. I'm sorry, Kory. But I can't have a girl who can't see what's right in front of her. I wonder if Robin ever felt the same. But I guess we'll never know. Goodbye, Star."
And with that, Andrew raised a fire hatchet from behind his back, and tightened his grip, swinging down on the wimpering, tired alien…
OMG THE CLICHENESS! AND CLIFFIE! OOH! (but honestly, at this point I think most of you will be able to tell how it ends)
Thanks to all of my reviewers! I love you all dearly! (tosses out Mrs. Fields cookies)
So, as I promised (I'm actually keeping my promises this time! Butter me cause Im on a roll! jk!), here are my responses to my reviews:
Tony Dimera: Well, if you haven't read these last two chapters, then don't worry, it won't. Oh, and yes, that is Robin's conscience, or conscious, whichever you choose to describe it as.
lilpyro900: maybe you'll be able to get a glimpse...
cruise gal: muchas gracias for the support. And keep reading, your questions just might be answered.
...( ): I'm assuming that this is Tony Dimera...you're right, sorry for the confusion. but by now ive kinda given up on logic, it has eluded me completely (how else can i explain my repetetive use of cliches?)
StarfireLover: thanks!
Sorry guys, I know these weren't very detailed but whatever. And like i said, ive kinda given up on logic, so if my weak answers fail to satisfy you, make up some cool explanation for the out-of-characterness (lol).
Two chappies to go!