Chapter 5

This dimension

Robin spent the whole of the next day in his study. He stared at a map of Jump City, searching desperately for anything that might help them get Starfire and Raven back. Both Warps were in the other dimension, and Cyborg couldn't fix the device on his own. Robin slammed his fist onto the table in frustration. He hated the helplessness he felt, and he was heavy with desperation. He couldn't stand the thought of his Starfire in that hopeless place that he knew absolutely nothing about.

Someone knocked on his door. He kept quiet, hoping they'd get the message, but instead the door opened slightly and that other Starfire stuck her head in.

"There you are, Robin." she said, stepping into the room and shutting the door. Robin couldn't stand to look at her. She was like a cruel trick that God was playing on him. She looked and sounded like the perfect girl he loved, but she wasn't. She was a criminal, the complete opposite of everything Robin stood for. He knew it wasn't her fault, and that she was probably just as distraught as he was, but he didn't care.

"I don't remember inviting you in." he said darkly, still not looking at her.

"I thought I could help." she said, and he heard her jump up to sit on the desk behind him.

"No thanks." he said. She didn't say anything for a moment, and Robin hoped he'd upset her enough for her to leave, but then she said,

"Fine. I'll just stay here and keep you company then." Robin gritted his teeth,

"I prefer to be alone." he said, his words sounding very controlled. Again there was another pause, and Robin was sure she knew what he was trying to do, so why did she insist on staying?

"You know," she began, and Robin groaned loudly, fearing a lecture, but she just continued as if she hadn't heard, "My Robin used to be like you."

Surprise, surprise thought Robin.

"He would dedicate every waking moment to work, spend hours in his study in the dark, and shun the rest of us. But then he realised something."

"Oh yeah? And what would that be?" said Robin.

"That the world wouldn't fall to pieces if he let himself be happy."

Robin turned around and looked at her. She kept her face serious, and was looking at him meaningfully. Robin just snorted disdainfully and turned back around.

"Whatever" he muttered, and went back to the map. He picked up his pencil and returned to trying to find a loop-hole, something he'd been missing. He'd just submerged himself in his work when he was broken out of it again.

"You should try it sometime." he heard Starfire say behind him. He sighed and decided to try humouring her into going away.

"Try what?" he asked.

"Try letting the world take care of itself for once, while you sit back and enjoy life."

Robin frowned, who was she to tell him how to live life? She didn't know him.

"Look," he said, throwing down his pencil "I know this is all one big joke to you, but I'm serious about getting Starfire back, so if you'd just leave me alone and let me get back to work…"

There was a long silence, then,

"How dare you say that? That I'm not serious about getting home? Do you think I wanna be stuck here with you, in a strange dimension? You may love Starfire, but I love Robin, and I would do anything to see him again. And if you don't understand that, well, then I think I've overestimated you. I thought you were a nice guy."

Her words were tense and controlled, thrumming with anger. Robin knew he'd gone too far, and he scowled as he felt bad for her. He heard her slide off the desk and walk towards the door. Swallowing his pride, he called out to her,

"Starfire?" She stopped and turned back to him with her hands on her hips.

"What?" she spat.

"Can you help me with this?" he said, motioning to the big map in front of him. He could see her think about it, and eventually she trudged over. He smiled at her, and she just gave him a sceptical look. He could see why his alter ego liked her

so much.

The other dimension

Cyborg stared worriedly at his leader, as his leader stared back at where the portal had been. The startled girl whose hand he held's eyes were darting all around the room. Meanwhile Beastboy and the new Raven were looking each other up and down disapprovingly, then they both looked away.

"Oh crud." they said in perfect timing.

Cyborg knew when to keep his mouth shut, and this was one of those times. Eventually, Robin cleared his throat and said,

"Well, I'm sure you're all tired, so why don't we call it a night?" his eyes were frighteningly wide and empty, and his voice was weak and slow. He dropped the girl's hand and walked forward and through the automatic doors. Starfire looked over at Raven. She looked worried, and Cyborg felt sorry for her.

"Don't worry, we'll get you home." he said, but she could only nod. Raven drifted slowly over to her,

"Come on, Star, we'll deal with this in the morning. Let's just go to bed for now."

She began to lead Starfire away, but stopped and looked back at Beastboy.

"Is it okay if we use the other girls' rooms?" she said.

"I guess, they'll probably be doing the same. But be warned, Raven's room is pretty creepy." he replied.

"Just the way I like it." said Raven, turning around. Then she left with Starfire following close behind her.

The next day, Robin called all the Titans to the common room to decide what they would do.

"Well, we have both Warps somewhere in the city, and we're going to need at least one of them, so BB and Raven can go after the one from the other dimension, the criminal one, and Starfire and Cyborg can track down the cop."

"And what'll you be doing?" asked Cyborg.

"I'll be… visiting some friends." he said ominously and Beastboy and Cyborg nodded.

As Cyborg and his charge drove silently through the city, Starfire wondered what Robin had meant earlier. She decided to ask.

"Cyborg?" she said timidly.

"Yeah?"

"Who are these friends that Robin has gone to visit?"

Cyborg looked shifty, "They're not really his friends, Star, they're the city's crime-lords. He'll have gone to see them to see if they've heard anything about Warp."

"Oh, I see." Starfire was sad to hear her hero consorting with criminals, but she told herself this wasn't her Robin, this Robin was a criminal. "And does Robin enjoy going to see these people?" she asked, dreading the answer.

Cyborg sighed, "No, he doesn't." Starfire was relieved, but then she began to feel sorry for this world's Robin. She knew how much Robin burdened himself trying to do what needed to be done, and she only wished he would let her help him.

Cyborg had decided not to tell his guest just what Robin became when he met these people. He lost control, he saw the evil, corruption and injustice that rotted this city and he took it upon himself to dispense justice, fight fire with fire, and he became a thousand times worse. An unstoppable force, he'd come home late with blood staining his gloves and void of any regret. Something horrible had happened to him to deprive that young man of any kind of child-hood, and now all that was left was a monster without a conscience. Cyborg suspected Robin of hideous crimes but he'd never asked. That was before he and Starfire had hooked up. When he was with her he was closer to normal than Cyborg had ever seen him. He'd joke and smile. There were no more late night excursions. Starfire was his sanity, and now she was gone, he was terrified of what would happen.

They spent the rest of the journey in silence, with Starfire staring out the window. The Jump City rushing past her window was definitely not the one she had come to call home. The buildings were in serious disrepair and litter lined the streets. Even the sky seemed darker.

"We're here." said Cyborg, his voice pulling Starfire back to reality as he stopped the car.

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Meanwhile, Beastboy and Raven weren't having much luck. Their next stop was Arkham Asylum. Beastboy had a theory that since the policemen in Raven's dimension had thought Warp was crazy, maybe his had too. And in his Jump City, that only meant one thing. A one way ticket to the loony bin.

They touched down silently on the front step and Beastboy morphed back into a human. Raven honestly thought the castle was cool, but only because it was so creepy. It was built on a hill among some mountains, which were supposed to be picturesque, but instead only added to the disturbing atmosphere by blocking out the sun, casting a permanent shadow. The black, wrought-iron gates stood at the foot of the hill, opening to a jagged path that crossed the yard like a scar. Dead trees scratched at the sky like desperate fingers, added to by the racing wind that whistled like a scream through the mountains and the only thing that seemed alive was the ivy creeping up one side of the castle like an all-consuming cancer. The castle itself was built of stone, complete with turrets, and Raven couldn't help but notice the black bars on all the windows.

Beastboy pushed the door open and they stepped inside. The reception area was that clinical off-white spotted with mould, and was lit by two rows of weak, flickering halogen lights. Hard, plastic seats lined the walls on either side of them, but apart from that the room was bare. At the far end, a receptionist sat at a counter, flicking through a magazine. Two corridors led off behind her, one left, one right.

They walked up to the woman at the desk. She was a mean looking woman with a sunken face, and black hair pulled tightly back in a bun. She was chewing gum absent-mindedly.

"Has a man named Warp been committed?" asked Beastboy, without a word of greeting. The woman flicked her eyes up to look at him emotionlessly, then she slowly shook her head. Beastboy nodded and stepped away from her, and her eyes slid back down to her magazine.

"Great, now what?" said Raven when they were safely out of ear shot. Beastboy seemed to be thinking.

"Since we don't have any more leads, I want to show you something. Wait here." And with that Beastboy left Raven standing in the silent hall. She saw him morph into a bird and fly off outside. She was standing there maybe ten minutes, and was feeling just about ready to give him a piece of her mind, when he reappeared, this time with a beautiful white lily in his hands.

He rushed up to her and she eyed the flower suspiciously, but he pretended it wasn't even there.

"Come on." he said and he took her hand and led her past the woman and along one of the corridors. She felt funny holding his hand, but she didn't say anything. She was trying to get more used to being touched.

"Was there a Terra in your world?" he asked, flicking his hair out of his eyes.

"Yes."

"What happened to her?"

"She betrayed us, then redeemed herself, but in doing so she died." Raven abbreviated.

Beastboy just nodded. They headed up some stairs, then along another corridor to a cell at the end. The door was thick metal, with a small window and bars set into it. Beastboy slowed, and his whole demeanor seemed to sadden and assume a quiet respect. He headed up to the bars and Raven hung back, feeling that somehow she was intruding on something deeply personal. Beastboy looked back at her, obviously expecting her to come forward, so she slowly closed the distance she'd been keeping.

Raven could see the cell had dirty, padded walls and a feeling of dread settled over her. Against the opposite wall, a girl sat motionless. She was wearing a straight jacket and pale blue, hospital slacks. Her blond hair was a tangled mess, and her blue eyes stared emptily forward.

Terra.
Raven looked at the young man beside her, who was staring into the cell, lost in thought.

"What happened to her?" Raven asked softly.

"She used to be one of us," he began quietly, " a Titan. But then she made a deal with the police, one that would send us all to jail, but would get her father out. But at the last moment she backed out. They didn't like that." His words were becoming more and more bitter. "So they caught her, locked her up, and did everything in their power to get her to reconsider. They tortured her, threatened her, and when she refused to cooperate, they stuck her in here. The highest room in the tallest tower." His speech was punctuated with long pauses between the sentences, as if he was only thinking aloud. "Being this far away from the earth affected her mind. She threw fits and was deemed as dangerous. Electro-shock therapy did the rest. They didn't understand her, nobody did, and now look at her." Tears glistened on his cheeks.

Raven said nothing. Sometimes, when people open their hearts to you, all you can do is listen.

"I come up here every Sunday, hoping that she'll recognise me, show some sign that she's still Terra." He sighed deeply, as if he was wary to the bone. "She never does." Suddenly he turned to Raven and looked her in the eyes with a raw hurt. "Open up to him, Raven, he deserves it." he said, and Raven didn't need to ask who he was talking about.

Beastboy.

"It's not that simple." she said quietly.

"Isn't it? Or are you just afraid?" said Beastboy accusingly. Raven glared at him. That wasn't fair. He can't assume to know me after two hours she thought. She retaliated before she could stop herself.

"No, it's not that simple. Don't think you know me Beastboy, because you don't. I'm nothing like your whore girlfriend."

"Don't call Raven a whore, because she's not. You're not the only one with problems, she just deals with hers differently." he said back. The two glared at each other, before realising that they were being childish.

"I'm sorry. I'm just frustrated. Coming up here takes a lot out of me." said Beastboy.

"I know, and I'm sorry too." replied Raven. Beastboy looked back at the cell and the broken girl inside one last time, before sliding the beautiful lily between the bars so that it hung there, and turning away, they walked back down the corridor together.