DISCLAIMER: I don't own Teen Titans. If I did, this would be on TV and not here.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This doesn't take place in the same storyline as my "Forced Base" and "Fractured Heart" stories, so forget those when you're reading this. Also, this takes place after the fourth season, so anything that happens in the show after that isn't applicable to this. Also, about Sanza/Red X: When he's wearing the mask, he's Red X. When he's not, he's Sanza. Simple as that.
O-O-O
Sanza spent nearly an hour in the bathtub after his mother left. Every time he tried to rise from the water, his bruises and cuts flared up with pain, and he was forced to return to the gentle caress of the hundred and twenty-degree water enveloping his skin. The blood washed from his body had diffused into the water, giving it a red tint that constantly reminded Sanza of the long battle scar still splayed across the side of his face.
When he finally peeled himself out of the water, he wrapped a towel around his waist and immediately walked over to the medicine cabinet. He took a large strip of gauze and plastered it over his now clotted wound before peeling off a piece of medical tape and sticking the gauze to his face. He took one last look at his face in the mirror, his eyes staring deep into the eyes of his own reflection, recalling once more the great battle that had taken place that evening.
Sanza had been proven wrong about Robin not caring for Starfire... the Boy Wonder had fought furiously, and Sanza, even as Red X, never stood a chance.
"Mom wasn't kidding when she told me about why I shouldn't get into fights," thought Sanza. But of course, the people Sanza had fought previously were nothing compared to Robin... stronger, it seemed, than any of the other Titans, even though he was the only one without superpowers. "Kid, you messed me up big time..."
As Sanza turned to leave, the door to the bathroom slowly creaked open. At first, Sanza thought it was his mother, there to give him another lecture.
As it turned out, it was even worse. Instead of Sanza's mother at the door, it was his sister Maddy, wearing a white nightgown and tiredly rubbing her eyes.
"Maddy," sighed Sanza, distraught that his sister would see him in his current condition, "it's two in the morning... what are you doing awake?"
When Maddy's hands drifted from her eyes, and she saw her brother for the first time since he'd left to go to the dance... his face, chest, and arms covered in bruises... she let out a loud, horrified gasp.
"Sanza... what happened to you?" she said, her voice a low, shocked whisper. "Mom said you got into a fight, but... but this is..."
Sanza didn't know what to say. His sister, young and innocent, had never seen Sanza after a fight before, and even if she had, she wouldn't have seen him in this kind of condition. She was afraid, Sanza could sense that immediately... and he could also see the tears starting to fill her eyes.
He lifted his hand and brushed a tear from Maddy's cheek. She grabbed his hand with both of hers as he tried to move it away, clinging desperately with her fingers, unwilling to let her brother go for fear he'd run off and get hurt again.
"Promise me... promise me you'll never fight again, Sanza..."
She released his hand and wrapped her arms around Sanza's waist, her head leaning against his bare, bruised chest. Sanza couldn't bear to speak, because he knew that whatever came out of his mouth would have to be a lie. Instead, he placed both of his hands on the back of Maddy's head, gently stroking them through her long, black hair.
He couldn't promise her anything... Slade was coming back, Sanza knew... and to protect Maddy, he'd have to fight... he'd have to break his promise.
A single tear fell from Sanza's chin onto the top of Maddy's head.
O-O-O
"I've compiled all the data from Red X's previous robberies... so far, there's no visual pattern, especially now that he no longer needs to steal Xynothium," said Raven, her fingers working tirelessly at the controls of the Titans Tower main computer. After Robin and Starfire had returned, the Titans worked all night trying to find a way to stop Red X before he struck again... but as morning slowly neared, it was quickly becoming clear that tracking the thief would be an impossible task.
"Keep searching," said Robin, with a determination in his voice unlike any he'd shown before, except perhaps when he'd been dealing with Slade. By abducting Starfire, Red X had elevated himself to first place on Robin's most wanted list, and the leader of the Titans wasn't going to stop until he'd brought X down.
Starfire, meanwhile, was sitting meekly on the couch in front of the computer, her hands in her lap. She rubbed her wrists, still sore from trying to escape the metallic bands that Red X had placed around them. She wasn't thinking about trying to catch Red X... instead, her mind was on the fact that Robin had done so much to save her. He'd risked his life fighting Red X, and if Starfire hadn't been able to escape when she did...
It was the escape that had puzzled Starfire most. She replayed the moment over and over in her mind... how Red X had fired an X at Robin that had seemingly missed and flown back to free her. But X was standing right in front of Robin when he'd fired... surely he couldn't miss from that distance, not when his aim had been so accurate before.
And the look in Red X's eyes when he'd fired that final attack... throughout the battle, he'd been confident and vicious, attacking Robin with unbelievable and unprecedented ferocity. But toward the end of the fight, he'd seemed tepid... afraid even.
"Robin, we've been trying to find a pattern here for the past three hours, man," said Cyborg, sitting across from Beast Boy at a table some distance away from the Titans computer. "You've had a long night... we all have. Maybe you oughta give it a-"
"NO!" shouted Robin, turning his attention from Raven to Cyborg. His fists clenched, and immediately Cyborg could recognize the anger and determination in Robin's eyes as the same expression he'd had when he'd gone after Slade, or when he'd been trying to save Starfire the previous evening. "X is dangerous, and we've got to stop him before somebody gets hurt!"
"Before I get hurt, you mean..." thought Starfire, her eyes looking up at Robin, a worried frown across her lips. Though she'd been terrified when Red X had kidnapped her, and even angry at him when he'd hurt Robin, she still couldn't feel the same malice and anger toward him that Robin did. Whether it was her kind and gentle nature, or something else... Starfire didn't know.
What she did know was that the scared look in Red X's eyes when he'd fired the errant X that freed her from the tree was a look that Starfire had seen before... only briefly, and only once, and she, like Robin now, had been blinded by anger and unable to see it.
When X had first tied Starfire to the tree, and he reached his hand up to touch her face... that was the moment Starfire had seen fear in him before. He was afraid of something... something that he knew might bring harm to him. It wasn't just Robin... something else, in the back of Red X's mind, had triggered that scared look.
"Hey, Robin!" shouted Beast Boy, angry that Robin had snapped at his friend. "We know X is a dangerous criminal, but we've got other things to worry about besides him! Like sleep, for instance..."
Beast Boy let out a yawn, and Robin turned back to Raven, a slightly calmer tone in his voice.
"Run one more search," said Robin, "cross-reference a few more variables and check out a wider view of the city. If we don't find a pattern, we'll call it a night."
"I'd call this morning, actually," replied Raven, noticing the first rays of light from the sunrise begin to stream into Titans Tower. "and I'm pretty sure we're not going to find anything."
With a disappointed sigh, Robin walked over to the couch and sat next to Starfire. He took a brief look in her direction before glancing back to the front, his chin cupped in his hands.
"Sorry I got so... obsessed," said Robin, looking over at Beast Boy and Cyborg, then at Raven. Deep within his mind, he knew that Red X most likely wasn't an immediate physical threat to anyone... but he'd taken Starfire, and that made him a vicious criminal on Robin's list. He turned back to Starfire. "It's just that... when someone messes with my friends-"
"We know, Robin," said Cyborg, smiling. "I was steamed at X for taking Starfire, too... anybody who messes with one of us messes with all of us."
"Robin, you are... not at fault for being angry," said Starfire, trying to comfort Robin as best she could. "I knew that you were just trying to keep me from being kidnapped again. But I do not believe that Red X is as dangerous as you say he is."
"What do you mean, Star?" asked Robin, perplexed at Starfire's comment. He thought that she was just as eager to catch him as he was, perhaps even moreso. "You're the one he kidnapped, remember?"
"I told you, he did not harm me," said Starfire, "and in fact, I believe that he did not wish to fight you, either."
That Red X, a thief who spent most of his time trying to escape the Titans, would deliberately bait Robin into a one-on-one confrontation by using Starfire as bait, made little sense to the Tamaranian girl. Before, when she was forced to helplessly watch X and Robin fight, afraid for both Robin and herself, it made perfect sense. But now that she'd had time to think rationally, and that she'd recalled how afraid X was...
"Of course X wanted to fight Robin," said Beast Boy. "When you tie somebody's teammate to a tree and call them out, what else do you want?"
"Beast Boy's right, Star," said Robin, annoyed that Starfire didn't believe Red X was a threat. "I mean, didn't he say anything to you?"
"The only thing he said to me before the fight was that he would not hurt me... of course, at the time I did not believe him, but... what about the last X that he fired?" asked Starfire, hoping Robin would remember that it had so easily missed him.
"Yeah, I dodged it," Robin replied, curiously trying to follow Starfire's line of questioning. Meanwhile, Raven, who'd run the final search and had come up with another negative result, was now listening intently to Robin and Starfire's conversation, hoping to discern some sort of clue from their account of the fight.
"He was standing right in front of you... there is no way he could have missed by accident, Robin. How do you suppose I managed to escape from the tree?"
Robin, who figured Starfire had broken out of her bonds on her own, was perplexed again.
"Didn't you... snap the bands yourself?"
Starfire shook her head.
"The X flew back and freed me from the tree, Robin... it was a perfectly aimed shot," Starfire said. "And as soon as I was free, X left."
Raven was intrigued... but Robin was skeptical.
"It was a lucky shot... unlucky for him, lucky for us," said Robin. "Star-"
"Robin, I sincerely do not believe X wanted to fight you."
"I agree with Starfire," said Raven, now convinced that something else was at work behind Red X's motives. "Red X is a thief. He doesn't like to stick around to fight... something else was making him do it."
"He was mad about us stopping him from robbing the museum, so he kidnapped Starfire and challenged me out of anger!" shouted Robin, once again riled up about Red X's actions. "He's a vicious criminal, and-"
"He saved our lives... he's not all vicious," said Cyborg. "And he deliberately threw those exploding Xs at the museum so that the castle would collapse around us, not on top of us."
"...really?" asked Beast Boy, having been terrified when the castle started to collapse back in the museum. "Dude, I spent all that time running and now you tell me I didn't have to?"
"The security tapes the museum e-mailed us confirm that," said Raven. "Red X is a thief, but-"
"I don't care what any of you say," said Robin, getting up from the couch and angrily storming out of the room. "X is a criminal... and I'm going to stop him, no matter what."
Starfire stood up almost as soon as Robin did, turning toward her friend with a look of grave concern on her face.
"Robin..." thought Starfire, her hands clasped nervously in front of her chest. "Please do not become like this again... not like you were when we fought Slade... you might hurt someone... or even worse, you might harm yourself..."
"But if someone was telling X what to do..." Cyborg began, but Raven was several steps ahead of him, already running a new search on the Titans computer.
"Then we're going to find out exactly who it was," said Raven. "Because if we don't, Red X could become a lot more dangerous... and a lot sooner than we could expect."
O-O-O
Sanza dreaded going to school the next day. Not because of the usual reasons... his homework was done, and his relationship with Cleo was better than it had ever been.
But if his bruises and cuts ached last night in the bathtub... they were agonizingly painful as Sanza got out of bed, and they only got worse on the bus ride to school. Sanza entered the building groaning with every step... and he'd completely forgotten about another reason why he didn't want to go to school today. Actually, it was more like two reasons.
Vick and Mick didn't care that Sanza's face was covered with bruises, or that he had a large bandage covering ten inches of the left side of his face. They had been left tied up to a tree in the darkness for nearly five hours before a friendly old couple out on their morning jog saw them and freed them. Now, their blame was placed squarely on Sanza... and they hadn't forgotten about the discovery they'd made in his trunk.
"What the hell's wrong with you?" Vick shouted, blindsiding Sanza and pushing him hard into a locker on the side of the hall. "We nearly got killed because you had a damn Teen Titan in your trunk!"
"And you assholes stole my mom's car," said Sanza, pushing Vick away and continuing down the hall. "Fair trade."
The response drew a loud cry of rage from Mick, who rushed forward and grabbed Sanza's shoulder, spinning him around and staring straight into his bruised face.
"You better tell me what's going on, or I'm going straight to the police and-"
"You wanna know what's going on?" shouted Sanza, pushing Mick away hard enough to nearly knock him down. "What's really going on? When I was on my way to the dance last night, Slade jumped out in front of my car, holding that alien chick tied up in his arms. He told me that if I didn't keep her in my trunk until he figured out what to do with her, he'd kill me and my family. After you guys stole my car, Slade got so pissed off that he beat my ass. Why the hell do you think I came in looking like I do, huh?"
"Well... you should have told us that before we-" Vick began before Sanza turned away and started walking down the hall again.
"By the way, this friendship thing I had with you guys? It's over," said Sanza, walking toward his first-period class without even stopping to look back at Vick and Mick. "I wish Slade would've kicked your asses."
Fooled by the skillful lie, Vick and Mick stood speechless in the hall for several seconds before turning back around and heading down the hall in the opposite direction.
"Screw you too," muttered Vick under his breath. "Slade should've finished your sorry ass off."
O-O-O
Sanza couldn't concentrate on his Algebra... his face hurt, his chest hurt, and his arms were so sore he could barely lift a pencil. Mrs. Derringer's lecture on the Quadratic Equation wasn't interesting enough for Sanza to even pretend to pay attention to, and instead he found himself with his head down on his desk. Suddenly, he felt a soft tap on his shoulder, and lifted his head. It was Cleo, seated at the desk next to Sanza with a worried look on her face and a note in her hand.
Sanza unfolded the note, already knowing what it was going to say.
Sanza...
What the heck happened to you? Are you all right?
Cleo
Sanza wrote something on the back of the slip of paper and handed it to Cleo without even looking at her. His mind began to wander again, and he started to think about the next time Slade would strike. What would he tell Sanza to do this time? Would he threaten Sanza's family again? What if Slade went after Sanza's friends?
"Slade knew that putting Starfire in danger would affect Robin... if he realized that me and Cleo were... maybe I shouldn't be getting too close to her."
Cleo handed the note back to Sanza. Scribbled on the back under Sanza's 'I got into a fight in the parking lot after the dance' was Cleo's reply, 'how many people? You look like you were in a car wreck or something...'
Sanza sighed, picking up his pencil and beginning to write something else. A loud, female voice behind him quickly derailed his train of thought.
"Mr. Salazar, why in the world aren't you paying attention?"
"Let me guess," Sanza replied sarcastically, rising from his chair and holding up the piece of paper in his hand. "You want me to read the note, don't you? Well, let me save you the trouble. The note says 'Sanza, want to go back behind the school after class and do it?', and unfortunately for me, you caught me before I could write 'Sure, I'll bring the condoms'. Well, now that I'm completely embarrassed, I guess I'll be taking my seat and wallowing in the laughter of my classmates, happy now?"
Sanza ripped the note into pieces, throwing the scraps up into the air like confetti and sitting down at his seat. Cleo, horrified at what Sanza had said, simply stared at him, her mouth wide open in shock and anger. The entire class began to laugh before Mrs. Derringer silenced them with a loud shout.
"ENOUGH!" Mrs. Derringer yelled, angrily walking back to her seat and filling out an office referral for Sanza. "Sanza, you can just take your disrespect straight to the dean's office, because that's exactly where you're going!"
Without a word, Sanza stood up from his seat and walked emotionless up to Mrs. Derringer's desk to collect the referral. Then, he left the room, allowing the door to close loudly behind him. Meanwhile, Cleo, still stunned at her desk in the back of the room, began cringing as the whispers of 'slut' and 'I knew those two were bangin' it' began filtering softly through the room and to her ears.
"Sanza, what the hell is wrong with you?" Cleo thought.
O-O-O
Sanza couldn't feel sad about being sent to the dean's office. Even the cruelest school official in the world was nothing compared to a monster like Slade... and if Sanza was in detention, Slade most likely couldn't get to him.
What was Sanza thinking... of course Slade could get to him. He'd gotten to him last night, and Sanza knew Slade could be lurking anywhere... if anything, being in detention would make it easier for Slade to find him, since he'd know where Sanza was.
At least with the show he'd made in the room, he'd probably ruined any chance he and Cleo had of getting together. That made one less person for Slade to be able to threaten Sanza with... one less pawn on Slade's chessboard.
Sanza walked into the dean's office and sat down in a small, burgundy leather chair in front of the secretary's desk. He handed his referral to the secretary, who simply shook her head, tsk-tsked, and told Sanza that the dean would be in to see him shortly.
Sanza didn't have long to wait. The dean, an average-sized, slightly muscular man, with graying hair and a red and white striped tie worn with a blue dress shirt and black slacks, walked into the room and sat down at a larger desk next to the secretary's. Sanza stood up from his chair and walked across to the chair placed at the dean's desk, sitting down and retaining a scowl. The secretary handed the referral to the dean, who took a brief look at it before setting it down on the desk and looking down at Sanza.
"Backtalking a teacher... not the first time I've seen you in here for that," said the dean, furrowing his brow and frowning. "Sanza, you've got to learn some respect for your teachers. They come in every day, get paid way less than they should to teach you, and they definitely don't need to be treated with hostility by the people they're trying to help!"
Sanza continued scowling, but didn't say a word. He'd heard this talk before... nothing he could say was going to reduce his punishment, already predetermined by the school discipline code.
"I mean, am I getting through to you?" asked the dean, his voice raising slightly. "Answer me!"
Sanza continued staring silently at the dean for several seconds before finally offering a response.
"Algebra is boring," said Sanza, only talking so that the dean wouldn't think he was crazy. The dean sighed, leaning back in his chair and shaking his head. He, like Sanza's mother and friends, noticed the bruises and cuts on Sanza's face and arms.
"I see you like to get into fights," said the dean, crouching forward and pointing at the bandage across Sanza's face. "Last time I talked to your mom, she said that was a big problem for you."
"It's not your problem," replied Sanza. "What the hell does that have to do with disrespecting a teacher?"
"I don't think I've told you this the last few times you were in here, but I was friends with your dad back in high school," said the dean. "Back when he and his friends were running with one of the big gangs in Jump City. Some of his friends who weren't in the gang, like me, tried to get him to stop, but..."
Sanza didn't want to hear about his father, especially from a man who looked like he had no idea what kind of person Sanza's father really was. He had no business talking about Sanza's injuries, and he certainly had no business talking about his father.
"You were never my dad's friend!" shouted Sanza, rising from his chair. "If you were his friend, you'd know why he fought! You'd know the courageous, strong person my father was, just trying to protect what was right and good!"
"He was a hoodlum, just like it looks like you're becoming!" shouted the dean. "If you keep getting into fights, you're going to end up in jail, or you're going to end up dead!"
"He's just like my mom..." thought Sanza, turning around and starting to walk out of the dean's office.
"Don't you dare walk out of here, Sanza!" said the dean, pointing at him as he left. As Sanza reached the door, he stopped, turned, took a look at the dean... then continued out the door and into the hall.
"You don't have any right to be concerned about me..." Sanza thought, ignoring the shouts of the irate dean coming from the office. "The only people that have that right are my family... the ones I'm trying to protect. Them, and no one else."
O-O-O
Sanza spent the rest of the school day in detention, which was probably good, considering how angry Cleo still was. She told Rob and Marcy about what he'd said in class, and her anger was unquenched when Rob tried to tell her that Sanza always got sarcastic when he was mad.
Rob, who didn't bother trying to talk to Sanza on the bus, was also concerned about Sanza's injuries... he knew his friend liked to pick fights, but agreed with Cleo in her thinking that Sanza may have bitten off more than he could chew.
Cleo was the first to spot Sanza as he exited school and walked out toward the bus. He was still scowling, having spent the entire day thinking about what the dean had said. He saw Cleo, but ignored her, hoping he could make it to the bus before she got to him.
He didn't have a chance.
"Sanza!"
Her hand stopped him from entering the bus, and as soon as he turned around, her other hand smacked him hard across the face, the side uncovered by a bandage. As he winced in pain, he couldn't help but think that he probably deserved the slap. Still, it hurt... pretty badly, in fact.
"Whatever issues you have, it doesn't mean that you have to dump them all on me!" Cleo shouted. "All day, people kept calling me a slut, or a whore... even my friends made fun of me!"
"Then they're not your friends," Sanza replied, turning around to get on the bus.
"No, Sanza... maybe you're not my friend," said Cleo, turning and walking toward her own bus. "Goodbye, Sanza."
"You're not my friend..."
Immediately, Sanza knew he'd gone too far. He started to say something to Cleo, but before he could, she had already boarded her bus. Bowing his head, he walked into his own bus and sat down in the front left seat, just behind the driver. Rob was several rows behind him, but Sanza didn't even bother to look back.
"Cleo, I'm sorry, it's just... it's just that you happened to be there when I went off," thought Sanza, resting his head against the bus seat, which was hot from the sunlight of the day. "Maybe after you've calmed down, I can explain..."
"Sanza, you don't mind if I sit next to you, do you?"
Sanza looked up... it was Rob. Sanza nodded, and his friend sat down next to him just as the bus began to move.
"Cleo told me what happened in Algebra class..."
"The note... it was Cleo asking me if I was all right," said Sanza, looking back down at his feet on the floor of the bus. "She was worried about me, and I trashed her reputation in front of the whole class."
First Sanza's mother, then Maddy... and now, indirectly, Cleo. This little thing with Slade was starting to become really personal, really fast. And Sanza knew that it would just keep getting worse and worse as long as it went on...
"Look... I know I like to joke around a lot and stuff, but still... if you need to talk about anything-"
"I'm fine," replied Sanza, still bowing his head. "I'll handle it myself."
Rob kept silent the rest of the trip. Something was wrong with Sanza... and it wasn't just the scars and bruises on his body. Something else was bothering him... but whatever it was, Rob didn't want any part of it. He was a good friend, but a bad psychologist. He watched Sanza get off the bus at his stop without saying a word to him.
"Whatever it is, you'd better handle it pretty soon, man... or it's gonna handle you."
O-O-O
Sanza walked into his house and saw his mother seated at the kitchen table, staring angrily at him, her arms folded in front of her. Her body language let Sanza know that he should probably stop, so he dropped his backpack at the door and sat down across from her.
"The dean called," said Sanza's mother, "and said you spent most of the day in detention."
"I've got detention all day tomorrow, too," said Sanza, "since it's a fifth incidence of talking back to a teacher now."
"Do you even care?" shouted Sanza's mother, rising from the table. "Last night, you get into a fight... you come home with your body covered in bruises... and today you do something like this. Sanza, I... I... I... I don't even know what I'm going to do with you anymore! Please, don't you dare tell me that your father was just like you... as soon as he married me, he tried to get out of the life, don't you know that?"
"I thought he stayed with his gang until he died," said Sanza, glaring at his mother.
"He left the gang after you were born! The only fights he got into were when members of other gangs attacked him and he had to defend himself!"
"Look, just because I get into a few fights doesn't mean I'm gonna join up with a gang!" shouted Sanza, pounding the table with his fists. "You don't even know why I got into a fight, do you?"
"The dean said that he heard you shouting in the parking lot after the dance," said Sanza's mother. "Was it about a girl, Sanza? Was that why you were fighting?"
"The dean didn't even see me fight," Sanza mumbled. "I was fighting because two kids stole your car, and I went after them! When I found your car, a bunch of them jumped me, and-"
"Don't even tell me a lie like that, Sanza," replied Sanza's mother, not knowing that Sanza was telling her at least half of the truth... the car was stolen. "You didn't get jumped, Sanza, you picked a fight!"
"How can you even say that for sure?" Sanza shouted. "I come home hurt and you yell at me? You're my mom, you should be comforting me, not picking me apart like this!"
Sanza's mother opened her mouth to reply, but instead, she began to get choked up, a tear slowly forming in her left eye. He had a point... she should've tried to comfort him more instead of putting blame on him... what if he was jumped? What if he really was only trying to defend himself?
But every fight Sanza had been in, he'd started... she wanted to believe him, but she couldn't... and if he was picking fights, she needed to yell some sense into him, especially after the horrible fight he'd evidently started the previous night. Whoever Sanza had fought was dangerous... a dangerous person who'd hurt him badly.
"Sanza... you're my baby..." said Sanza's mother, her voice much quieter, her face now more sad than angry. "I... I just don't want you to end up dead... I was so scared last night, seeing you hurt like you were..."
Guilt flooded back to Sanza now, just like it had in the bathroom last night with Maddy. She'd cried upon seeing Sanza hurt, and now, apparently, his own mother was about to cry as well.
Sanza immediately wanted to blame Slade... it was Slade who'd forced him to fight Robin to the point where he was nearly killed... but knew that the blame lay only with himself. He had taken the Red X suit, and he'd been careless in allowing Slade to get to him. He'd taken the suit to protect his family... but now, they were being hurt, and it was all Sanza's fault.
"Your little sister cried herself to sleep, Sanza!" Sanza's mother shouted through her tears. "She'd just woken up from a nightmare about you being killed in a fight, and so when she got up and saw you hurt like you were, it scared her half to death!"
Sanza stepped back from the table... he couldn't take it anymore. The yelling from his mother, the thought of his sister in tears... he turned back toward the door and ran from the house, his feet dashing down the sidewalk as quickly as they could. He heard his mother yelling, but as he got a good distance from the house, her screams finally faded. He closed his eyes and shook his head, not even knowing where he'd go, just that he had to run... he desperately had to clear his head.
"Maybe if I run fast enough, I can go back in time and stop myself from taking that stupid suit... stop all of this from happening... because it's all happening way too fast..."
O-O-O
As it turns out, Sanza didn't run very far. He played a few games at the local arcade, bought a shake and a hamburger at the nearby fast food restaurant, then came back home once the sun began to set. He walked into his house and saw a note on the kitchen table.
"Mom? Sis?" called Sanza, picking up the note as he called out their names.
Sanza,
Went with Maddy to Chuck E. Cheese for supper. Will be back soon, will talk when we get back. Please understand that all I want is for you to be safe... you're my baby boy, Sanza, and I love you very much. That doesn't mean that you're not grounded for a week, but I do love you.
Love,
Mom
Sanza smiled and set the note down on the table, in a slightly better mood than he'd been in before leaving. He didn't care that he was grounded... he usually just snuck out anyway. He ran up to his room, hoping that getting to go to Chuck E. Cheese's would help Maddy forget about what had happened to Sanza the previous night.
"She'll really enjoy that," thought Sanza as he walked into his room.
"Hello there..."
The voice was unmistakably Slade. A chill went through Sanza's body, and he began to shout, but immediately Slade's cold hand slapped over his mouth and pulled him roughly back.
"That was an excellent show you put on against Robin last night... can't say I enjoyed the ending, though."
Sanza continued to scream, his voice muffled by Slade's hand. "Mom... sis... Slade, what have you done with them?"
The note couldn't have been a forgery, and Sanza's mother's car was gone... but Sanza knew his family could still be in danger.
The hand slipped away from Sanza's mouth, and Slade pushed Sanza hard onto his bed. Sanza quickly struggled to a sitting position and crawled backward with his hands to the head of the bed, looking up at Slade as he closed the door.
"Where are they? Where's my family?" shouted Sanza. "If you've hurt them-"
"They're enjoying themselves at Chuck E. Cheese's, where a kid can be a kid... at least that's how I think the jingle goes."
Slade looked down at his wrist, where a small, mechanical screen was displaying to him Maddy and Sanza's mother's every move, completely without their knowledge.
"Maddy's quite the little skeeball player... you must be so proud."
"BASTARD!" shouted Sanza, lunging at Slade from his position on the bed. He had barely stood up before Slade gave him another hard shove that knocked him back down on the bed.
"I told you... if you do as I say, they won't be harmed..."
"They already have been," thought Sanza, recalling the anguish he'd caused his mother and sister by nearly being killed in his fight with Robin. "...what is it this time, Slade?"
"No threats? No obscenities?" mused Slade, sarcastically dancing around the point of his conversation. "You're lucky I left your family alive after what you said last night... I told you to kill Robin, but-"
"But the girl escaped," said Sanza. "My suit's strong, but I'm surprised the bands I wrapped around Starfire lasted as long as they did. She got out of them... chalk it up to bad luck."
"Bad luck or not, I can have your family terminated any time I want... so from now on, you had better do EXACTLY as I say!"
The threat angered Sanza, but he knew that if he insulted Slade again, his family could suffer Slade's wrath... he restrained himself and stayed on the bed.
"What do you want?" asked Sanza.
"I'd like to invite you to my new headquarters," replied Slade. "The old Tekita Refinery on the edge of Jump City... if you care about your family like you say you do, you'll be there. Or, more specifically, Red X will be there."
Suddenly, Slade leapt from Sanza's room to his window, and out onto the fire escape. With another leap, Slade was back out on the street, and quickly dashing away.
Sanza grabbed his Red X suit from under the bed. The tear in Sanza's mask was still there, and the face, neck, and chest of the suit were still stained with blood. Sanza briefly brushed his hand over the blood-stained costume and began to wince.
"At least it's not a fight," thought Sanza. But he still knew that his mission would be no less dangerous... he'd be heading straight into the belly of the beast... straight into Slade's headquarters. There, he'd probably be receiving further instructions... another clash with the Titans wasn't completely out of the question.
He hesitated for a few seconds before removing his clothes and putting on the Red X suit. Before putting on the mask, he ran a strip of red gel over the front of the mask where the tear was. The gel quickly hardened into a seal that closed the tear almost seamlessly. Then, he put the mask over his face and ran down the fire escape.
"Tekita Refinery, on the west side of Jump City..." thought Red X. "Abandoned for years... until now."
O-O-O
The Tekita refinery was an enormous complex consisting of a massive, circular building surrounded by a chain-link fence that enclosed both the building and a large, nearly empty parking lot. The building, seen from above, would look like an enormous disc, with a tall, wide tower at the center of the disk, going up nearly four hundred feet. Surrounding the tower, which served as the center of operations for the building, were hundreds of small smokestacks placed evenly on the refinery's enormous roof.
"Slade must've bought out the whole building..." thought Red X, walking toward the entrance of the refinery through the building's enormous parking lot. "Wonder if anyone's actually wondering what he's using it for..."
As Red X approached the front of the building, he wondered if he may have once stolen something from inside. It looked like the typical building he'd steal from... but Tekita was a steel refinery, not a Xynothium refinery. What could he possibly steel from there, a bunch of girders?
The front door was made of glass, with a large metal handle. Red X tried the handle, but the door was locked. About fifteen feet away, he could hear a metallic gate slowly begin to open.
"Welcome," came a loud, unfamiliar voice as Red X walked over to the open gate. A long, empty garage stretched out in front of him.
"You sound as if I actually want to be here," said Red X as he slowly stepped across the threshold and into the building. As soon as he was inside, the gate slammed shut behind him.
O-O-O
So, Red X is in Slade's headquarters. But why has Slade called him, and what's his next mission? And will the Titans find out who's really pulling Red X's strings?