Chapter 13: Titanium

Chapter 13 dedicated to: All of the Anonamous reviewers... You all deserve a chappie too!

Starfire's breath came in slow, even tides as she let her fingers run across the silver wall before them. Something now spoke to her and erased all humor from her mind. When this wall was passed… there was no turning back. Only moving forward to face whatever it was that lay ahead.

Visions seen to cast four fates, to summon loyalty the deepest hates. Final death, it here awaits.

Starfire's green eyes fluttered shut briefly. As her hand lightly danced across the silver wall a soft trail of streaking jade lingered behind. The Tamaranian eyed it. She turned back to look at her four friends, all of whom had taken on her silent mood and were waiting. All playing and jesting aside. "I-I do not even know how to begin…" Starfire shook her head. "I do not know what I am expected to do."

Raven blinked. Well… this was great. Starfire had turned back to the wall. Her mind drew forth a memory. When she had first received the second shard… The fleeting visions. Her sister. Projecting the shard onto the wall with glowing magenta fists. At this, Starfire frowned. Perhaps this was what was to be done. And yet, look at where it had gotten her sister. The alien scoffed at her own nagging tentativeness and took a few steps back from the wall. She let her feet lift softly from the ground and beneath her the golden dust stirred.

Hands lifted before her, she flicked her wrists so the symbols were exposed, blazing brightly through the fabric of her open gloves. Star's eyes flashed emerald and she felt the heat run through her body, the familiar rush of energy surging to her hands. Now lingering on her wrists. She pulsed the solar energy through both shards and then brought her arms to make an x before her face, wrists still exposed.

On the wall, a soft lime form began to take shape. The light in the shards intensified, as did the projected green that bounced from the silver wall. Brighter and brighter until the two shards could be seen projected onto the barrier in the color of true starbolt fashion. The symbols on the wall seemed greatly enlarged, as if Starfire was magnifying the expelled image. She stared straight forward, studying this huge version of the two tiny marks on her wrists.

The ornate lines had apart appeared to be nothing but a strangely weaving, silver-green thread that acted as representative to the rest of the shards lying deeper within her flesh. However, now projected as they were they depicted a set of wings, lavishly detailed with the various swirls and twists the silvery line had cut.

The wall seemed to shudder as the symbols reached their peak brightness. Starfire closed her eyes and breathed deep, expelling more energy. She was using the power much more frequently now and she was beginning to feel frightening physical effects. Not so much any pain or even weakness but a numbness. Starfire found the absence of feeling much more worrisome.

The titans all stood, watching in battle stances, their bodies tensed as they watched the bright glow of the shards depicted on the silver wall. Raven felt a roll of nausea and her glowing obsidian hands faltered. Cyborg's sonic cannon was emitting a very soft, high pitched whirring sound that seemed to speak of his caution as well as everyone else's.

The metal titan's eye narrowed as two blazing streaks of emerald flashed suddenly, rushing down from the tips of the "wings" the symbols had created and straight to the ground. The softly glowing green particles of earth floated up and out from beneath and around them. Beast Boy's eye twitched as he watched the tiny specks floating out.

The two lines seemed to flare and crackled with jade fire in a patient wait for the tiny green specks to "organize" themselves. And they did, creating a third line that ran in a harsh horizontal and split the images of the shards into halves.

Starfire felt a rather large wave of energy torn off of her and her eyes blinked wide for a moment and she stared up at the huge door shape that had been carved into the silver with green flame.

She tried to land on her feet, but the numbness seemed to have spread as a very tangible entity in her body and her knees buckled and she toppled forward. Resting on all fours she glanced up, panting in surprise. The silver groaned and wailed and then began to fall forward.

Onto the titans.

It was only a fraction of a second before Robin shouted the orders. "Raven, don't let it fall! Beast Boy, help her! Cyborg, get Star and get out of the way!" He barked. Immediately, the teens sprang into action. Beast Boy's tiny elf form stretched up and was soon the hulking form of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. He let out a bellow and charged forward, head lowered. His dinosaur skull impacted hard with the thick silver that was teetering and looming down on them.

"AZERATH, METRION, ZINTHOS!" Raven shouted. A massive wave of black energy sizzled out from her hands and wrapped itself around the huge, falling silver block. She let her power swell as she tried to push it in the opposite direction. Her teeth gritted, she squinted her eyes shut.

"Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azerath, Metrion, Zinthos." Raven hissed under her breath. Beast Boy continued to push his huge form against the block.

"Raven, hold tight," Robin growled as he darted by. He dodged the fleeing form of Cyborg pushing Starfire out of the way of the groaning, tumbling mass of silver. The Boy Wonder produced several explosive discs and threw them into Raven's control. The lights flared red on the devices and a sudden bloom of smoke erupted with a shattering boom within Raven's bind of telekinesis. The silver wall had had bits of it blow off and was considerably smaller, chunks of the metal barrier now trapped and suspended within the black energy as well.

Beast Boy grunted the best one could in dinosaur form and hobbled back a few steps on enormous feet. The explosion had surprised him, despite it being safely contained within Raven's onyx grasp. Raven gave a silent snarl against the explosive force of Robin's discs and continued to hold the wall fast.

Robin struck again, blasting away at the huge wall. It was hard for Raven to remain in control of the wall while explosions were going off rapidly inside, but the fact the one massive silver piece was becoming several small pieces made things a bit easier. Beast Boy shifted back to elf form and cleared the area as Robin and Raven did their work. Soon enough, Raven was able to carefully separate her massive orb of power containing the extracted silver into three separate ones each filled with hovering silver debris and levitate them to safely distanced piles.

With a soft whirring sound, her black powers released the piles and were drawn back into her body like snaking tendrils of obsidian. Raven rested her hands on her knees and glared out from beneath her hood, violet eyes weary and irritated. She huffed and reached up a pale hand to push back in the straying strands of indigo hair that fell forward.

Robin stood, staring through the open space in the huge silver wall and quietly returned the next three explosive discs he'd readied back into his utility belt. His eye mask narrowed. Beyond the silver wall was a seemingly endless expanse of titanium. In the far distance, he could see a large copper gate standing in the way. He frowned at the strangeness of the spectacle and turned back to his team. "Titans, are all of you ok?" he asked, his voice indicating he pretty much expected everyone to say yes. Once he started a mission… he finished a mission and everything in between was business. It was all to be handled professionally. Nothing could intervene with that.

"Ugh… depends…" Beast Boy rubbed his skull with a tender hand. "I am never head-butting solid silver walls again," he muttered. Cyborg looked over at his friend, one big metallic arm steadying Starfire who had been watched the other three's performance wide-eyed.

"Probably a pretty smart idea, little man," Cyborg hummed. Beast Boy wrinkled his nose. Starfire's eyes had fallen on Raven.

"Friend, are you going to be undamaged?" She inquired earnestly. Raven peered up from where she was still leaning over and regaining her sanity…

"I'm fine." She said bluntly. The dark girl shifted. "What about you, are you alright?" she asked suddenly. Star nodded her head furiously.

"Perfectly undamaged!" she declared, removing her weight from Cyborg and floating up into the air on her own. She seemed to find even the simple act of flight a bit awkward at the moment and landed.

"Gracious… I can feel the power at the center of this place already…" she commented. Both her eyes and the shards on her wrists flared green. Robin took note.

"Is something going on?" he asked, brows furrowed as his gaze landed on her wrists. Starfire followed his eyes down to the shards.

"I should think everything is fine for the most part," she smiled meekly.

"Alright, let's get going." Robin said. Starfire nodded and trotted over to his side, followed quickly by Beast Boy and Cyborg and finally trailed by a moody Raven. Her head hurt. The alien looked at the Boy Wonder quietly as they stepped through the gaping hole in the wall and struck out into the new titanium environment.

"This is a rather strange place, is it not?" Starfire commented. Robin glanced her way.

"Yeah."

Starfire chewed on her lip and looked down. Gone was the gentle look on his face. It bothered her. Such a sudden change from affectionate to distant. Star wondered why. Perhaps he was having second thoughts about going after this power. Perhaps he had been angered that her performance earlier had gotten them all into a potentially very dangerous situation.

Behind her, Cyborg's human eye glowed yellow and he gave a soft grunt.

BANG!

Two of the five titans jumped and looked behind to confront whatever it was that had made such a monstrous noise. Both Beast Boy and Starfire's green eyes thinned. The hole in the silver wall was filled. Robin and Raven glanced back without such excitement and both frowned at the sight as well. Cyborg stared ahead. Starfire exhaled and moved forward again. She kept her gaze off of Robin. He was not being cold really. He was simply acting as one would have expected him to on any other mission the titans took. She was being silly to think that the young man would have let his feelings interfere with how he conducted things.

The fave walked in silence, their footsteps echoing on the cold metallic floor. It was a loud and lonely sound. Robin spoke. "Starfire, are you really alright? You seem kind of quiet… even considering what's going on…" he shrugged. Starfire looked over and a tiny smile lit her face. Upon witch a mighty wreath of green flashed over her figure and shot forth in a wide emerald beam and then ceased.

"Eep! Robin! Have I harmed you!" Starfire squealed as the green dissipated as suddenly as it had come. Robin picked himself up from where he dove to the ground to avoid the wild shot.

"No, I'm fine. What happened?" he coughed, puzzled at the random attack. Starfire breathed and looked down at the shards. As her gaze drifted over them again both eyes and symbols winked jade.

"The power source. It is adding to the shard's power even from this distance. I am sorry. I must contain the energy rather than release it. I will try to keep this from happening again," Starfire peeped. She looked down, ashamed. Robin nodded.

"Ok. Try not to… ya know, kill me or any of the others on accident, alright?" he simpered. Starfire offered a weak grin in return. "Right, so, like I asked earlier. Are you alright? For real?" he inquired as the titans moved forward again. None of the others had said a thing about Starfire's random burst of energy. The echo of their footsteps was quieter.

"Yes, I am fine. I was simply, er, thinking," she said. It was true. Robin nodded.

"If you say so. But, just remember we're here for you. This is all for you. Don't hold back to talk about something if you need to. I understand." He offered. Starfire was both warmed and chilled by the statement. This is all for you. Starfire didn't like that. She didn't like the fact that her friends were going into danger for her and for no other reason what so ever. She didn't like the idea that they were stepping into the greatest power ever created, and that was created for destruction at that, and that they were doing it for her alone and not for some personal gain.

"Thank you, Robin," Starfire said softly. It was then that both titans became aware of how quiet it truly was. Robin turned first, slowly, the hair on the back of his neck quivering on end. It was not a pleasant feeling. Starfire turned as well and she swallowed hard.

"Cyborg, what are you…AAARRRGGGHHH!" Robin was blasted backwards by the explosive blow of Cyborg's sonic cannon. Starfire shrieked and ran towards the fallen leader. Robin was back on his feet before she reached him, though. His bo-staff was in his hand lightning fast and he twirled it and swung into a defensive position, glaring at Cyborg. "Cyborg, what the hell do you think you're doing!" he snarled. The android stared at him with one yellow eye and one red. The red one flashed and the yellow one looked dead.

Leaning against either shoulder of the metal titan, Beast Boy and Raven were propped up. Cyborg grinned and took a step forward. Beast Boy and Raven lost their support and slumped to the ground. Little ripples of electricity still danced over their recently harmed bodies. Starfire gasped.

"Friend Cyborg! What has happened?" she shuddered. Cyborg continued to leer at the two and take slow, mechanical steps forward. His sonic canon was raised.

"Biological creatures are obsolete. Superfluous matter must be disposed. HA!" Cyborg's voice came like a strange, lisping, computerized voice. The cannon glowed blue and fired. Robin slid to the left to avoid the beam but Cyborg shifted quickly. Robin began to run in a wide arch, trying to keep out of Cyborg's beam. Robin growled and dove, hitting the ground just as the cannon's beam swept over where he'd just been. His bo-staff slipped from his hand and rolled forward. Robin reached out and grabbed it as he flipped back onto his feet, twirling the staff and charging towards the android.

"Cyborg, what's going on? What are you trying do?" he grunted as he was forced to vault over Cyborg's shoulder when the metal titan swung his laser cannon, converted it to a chainsaw and jabbed straight into Robin's path.

"Friend! What has caused you to turn against—AAHH!" Starfire was sent flying backwards as Cyborg's other fist plowed hard into her midsection. "I do not wish to fight you!" she pleaded as she stood back to her feet and launched into the air with glowing eyes and blazing fists.

"HYA!" Robin slammed his bo-staff hard onto Cyborg's head from behind while he was distracted by Starfire. Cyborg didn't even flinch. "Huh….? OOF." Robin grunted as he was flung backwards by the quickly acting half-robot. Raven groaned on the ground and lifted her head up slightly.

"The first task… Visions seen to cast four fates, to summon loyalty the deepest hates… it's a task… testing loyalty… the titans' friendship…" Raven groaned from her slump on the floor. "The-the first of… four… ugghhh…" Raven seemed to slip out of consciousness. Starfire heard the empath's words and bit down on her lip, hard.

"Starfire, watch out!" Robin's voice yelled for attention. Starfire brought her gaze up off of Raven in time to see a madly charging Cyborg, his sonic cannon back and aimed up at her. Starfire's eyes widened and she flung down a rain of starbolts while jetting out of the way. When the smoke from her alien blasts cleared Robin threw a freeze disc at Cyborg.

C-C-CRAAAACKK… Cyborg was frozen in spot. Robin ran over and glared.

"Cyborg, I don't know what that was about but you better snap out of it!" Robin snarled. Cyborg's eye glowed bright yellow. Wicked yellow. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Robin crumpled to the ground as Cyborg burst from his ice tomb with a stun beam mounted on his arm. Starfire inhaled sharply.

"Robin!" she cried out. Cyborg looked up.

"Biological matter to be disposed of: located," Cyborg cackled forth in the same electronic voice. Starfire gasped as he activated the little rockets in his shoes and blasted upwards towards her, perfectly prepared to blast her to bits. She flew away. She flew as quickly as she could towards the distant copper gate. Cyborg easily kept right behind her, taking mad shots with his sonic cannon. Starfire dove towards the copped gate at high speed but a titanium hand wrapped around her ankle. Both she and Cyborg plummeted. The landed on the metallic floor with resounding thuds.

"Cyborg, I plead with you, release me!" Starfire squirmed as she was held captive in the leering android's arms. Her mind was swimming as he freed one hand, converted it to sonic cannon and aimed at her skull. Blue light swam before her eyes. Starfire's mind raced. Visions seen to cast our fates. Cast our fates. Rule the outcome of this mission. Must summon loyalty…. Deepest hates… Cyborg. Deepest hate. Becoming nothing more than a mindless computer. He despised what had been done to him… loyalty… loyalty.

The cannon whirred. The other titans were down. "Friend Cyborg, can you hear me? Can you understand me? Friend Cyborg, it is I, Starfire. You must resist. You are not this thing! Friend Cyborg, you must be yourself. You are not simply circuitry! You are a soul, Cyborg! Friend Cyborg, p-please!" Starfire still struggled in the steel grip and the sonic cannon was jammed up to her skull. "Cyborg, you must refrain! Cyborg… please, please… it is I, your friend! Do not let the machine rule your mind… Cyborg, you MUST LISTEN!" Starfire shuddered against the humming cannon.

The grip on her body became loose. Starfire pulled herself free and fell to the ground. She scrambled backwards and rammed her back against the copper gate. Cyborg's yellow eye flickered. His red eye glittered. Cyborg twitched, jerking as if possessed. "Cyborg!" Starfire urged. The yellow left his eye and his human gaze was wild and frenzied. In the space between them there was a large silver disc that had tiny spikes poking out from it. Cyborg stared at is, grunting as he fought to keep himself from returning to the machine-yellow state.

He shuddered and lumbered forward. His eye flashed yellow, returned to dark brown and then flickered yellow again. "RRRRRAAAAAAAHHHH!" Cyborg lunged forward and Starfire yelped and pressed herself harder against the copper gate. The first gate. She cracked open her tightly shut eyes and blinked as a high whining sound filled the air. Cyborg had jammed his sonic cannon over the silver disc in the floor. He yelled and jerked and there was an explosion of blue.

THUD!

"Starfire, Starfire you have to get up," Robin's voice fogged through her mind. His hand was on her shoulder, shaking her back awake. She opened her eyes. She was still leaning against the copper gate. Raven was at Cyborg's side and Beast Boy was still struggling back onto his feet. All three of them were a bit wobbly from Cyborg's stun beam.

"Cyborg…" Starfire started. She was cut off by Robin, who exhaled in obvious relief at hearing her talk and fairly crushed his mouth over hers. "Mff…." Starfire protested. Robin pulled back instantly and stared at her. "Is Cyborg…" she lifted a hand and pointed at the fallen android with dread encasing her heart.

"He's… he's completely drained of power. Until we get him back onto the star ship there's no way…" he trailed off as Starfire ducker her head into her arms and let out a breathy sob.

"Starfire! Don't cry, jeez! He's going to be alright! This has happened before. We've just got to get through this thing and get back to him ASAP. Everything's going to be fine…" he tried to console her. Starfire whimpered.

"B-but… it is all my fault… I should have n-never drawn you all into this… mess… I-I am sorry… please let no one else be hurt!" She grabbed his arm and stared at him with furiously green eyes. Robin sighed heavily, drew her to her feet, and met her gaze.

"It's not your fault. I don't know what got into Cyborg but… either way, you shouldn't feel guilty, Star. I can't guarantee nobody else is going to get hurt but none of us care. We just want to help you, ok?" he assured her. Starfire hiccupped and stared forlornly at their fallen friend.

"But… he is without the power because… he wished to save us… he sacrificed… I cannot help but feel the guilt," Starfire hugger herself. Robin looked over at him as well. Beast Boy had managed to get over and was frantically discussing with Raven and waving and gesturing at Cyborg. Sleeping Cyborg. Robin led Starfire over to the others.

"How did he want to save us…? He kinda tried to blast us all to bits." Robin remarked quietly. Starfire felt more tears leak from her eyes.

"Something was… controlling him. I saw him. He tried to overcome it… He really did. The only way he could see to stop himself from seriously hurting us was… to…" Starfire looked down. Robin understood.

"Starfire…"

"Robin, please. Must we leave him?" she asked. Robin nodded slowly.

"There's no way to revive him right now and… off hand I'm starting to feel we really need to finish this as fast as we can," he mumbled. Starfire bit her lip. She had similar sentiments but…

"It simply feels so wrong… Raven, did you not say this was only the first of four tasks?" Starfire shivered. Raven looked up from where she was sitting by Cyborg. She nodded Starfire breathed. "Let us hope that all of us can overcome our deepest hates,"

"What?" Raven asked. Starfire blinked.

"The-the tasks. I believe they will force each of us… or at least three more of us to face our deepest hates… fears…" Starfire looked away. "I simply hope that like Cyborg we will do everything to overcome," Starfire sighed. More tears. She turned and with rigid steps she moved to the copper gate. She stared at it. She felt the power source throbbing its energy through the shards. She wanted so badly to let it out. But… control it. She must control it.

"So… you open that gate and we face another task thingy?" Beast Boy asked from behind her. Starfire paused then nodded.

"I believe so," she said.

"Well I'm not going down as fast as I did this time. I'm not gonna mess up," he declared. Starfire nodded slowly again. Distracted. She heard Robin walk up beside her, but she did not see him. All she saw was green light blinding her vision. Starfire swallowed. Raven's light, dreary footsteps as they essentially abandoned their fallen friend for the time being. Starfire concentrated on their melancholy sound. More green before her eyes. She held up a hand, balled a fist and let the starbolt fly. The copper gate forced open easily.

"Damn." Raven said suddenly. The green faded from Star's vision and she looked back at her friend.

"What?" Starfire asked.

"What if the thing I fear and hate most is being consumed by an inter-dimensional demon that lives inside my head?" she droned. The others were silent.

Author's Note: I feel really stupid right now, but I'm rather pleased with the chapter. I saw Sky High today! It made me happy. It's a really cute movie. Everyone, I demand you go watch it! I hope you guys like it and can see the direction in which all of the tasks are going. I kind of took out the whole intermission thing but if I have time, after the story we'll have the little "interview" thing with the titans to see how they feel about what's happened or something else totally off the wall like that. Ok? Ok... so, um, reviews are really appreciated. I will do my best to get you a chapter tomorrow, but no garuntees.

Love, Princess Starfire of Tamaran ((Who is currently surviving off 1 1/2 hours of sleep and twizzlers...))

Titans News: Ok, really short and sweet. I was informed by PaintingYourEmotions that there is supposed to be a new Starfire plushie coming out or something. There's also supposed to be a new kind of Cyborg toy, I believe is what she said? Thanks for that info. A tid bit I found out about season five... it is reported that we should expect... Gordanians... interesting... Well, that's all for now!