Evil: The Other Side

by Blair Lebeau, SocialButterfli

Summary:

Starfire has always been sweet and innocent. But when Slade realizes her power, he brainwashes her to become his next apprentice and the Titans can only watch as she embraces the other side. Is it possible that Starfire has become truly evil? RobStar

Disclaimer:

You'd think that if I owned Teen Titans, I would have told you by now. But I don't. Still. Damn.

Quote:

"So we'll rescue Starfire and take Slade down. Way down! So down that he'll start speaking Australian." –Beast Boy

Part Two: Captured

Chapter Seven

Nineteen hours. It was the longest the video game system had gone untouched. The last time someone had played it was when Robin and Starfire had been left at the park in the rain and Beast Boy and Cyborg needed something to do to pass the time until the pair got home. But what with the battle and the abduction of Starfire, no one was in the mood to play. Since Cyborg had fully recuperated, he had stayed in his room, working on repairing the tracking device. Robin had been pacing for a full three hours, the amount of time since he had conversed with the humanoid. Beast Boy and Raven also stayed in their rooms, knowing better than to get in Robin's way.

Robin's obsessive pacing suddenly stopped when he heard the sound of a door sliding open and heavy footsteps racing to the living room, where he was. Seconds later, Cyborg appeared.

"It's fixed," he announced, breathlessly.

"It's fixed?" Robin said, trying his hardest not to get his hopes up. There was still the possibility that Slade had disabled Starfire's tracking device. "I thought you said it would take until tomorrow."

"It could have," Cyborg admitted. "But this was important, so I had to take a chance and use this new tool I had to fix it. I didn't know if it would work–there was the possibility it would damage the device beyond repair–but I had to do it. And it worked. I know where she is." Robin's heart soared. He knew where Starfire was. They could rescue her.

"There's no time to waste. I'll get Beast Boy and Raven, you get the T Car ready. Let's go."

"Do you realize what this means?" Beast Boy asked excitedly as Cyborg slammed down on the gas pedal, taking them well over the speed limit. "Not only do we know where Starfire is, but we know where Slade is. We know his hideout! So we'll rescue Starfire and take Slade down. Way down! So down that he'll start speaking Australian." Up until now, the Titans had tuned him out, but this was too weird for them to ignore.

"Say what?" Cyborg asked.

"Speak Australian. 'Cause, you know, Australia is the land down under? So he'll be so down, he'll be Australian. Get it? . . . Anybody? . . . No?" This reply was met by silence. There was nothing they could say to that–it was just that bad–so they went back to ignoring him. "Oh, come on, you guys have no sense of humor."

More silence. Until Beast Boy suddenly burst out laughing.

"Oh my God! Guys! Seriously! I just pictured Slade in one of those khaki safari hats or whatever holding up a gigantic snake and going, 'Crikey!' Slade! 'Crikey!' Big, floppy . . . Australian hat . . . Come on, guys! You gotta admit that's funny! Just picture it!" Finally, Raven couldn't take it anymore.

"No. Now please shut up." Beast Boy crossed his arms huffily.

"You're just jealous that you don't have my hilarious comedic skills." Suddenly, the ever-unamused Raven burst out laughing, followed by Cyborg and even Robin, who had lost his angsty, sullen mood as soon as Cyborg told him that he knew where Starfire was.

"Raven jealous of your comedic 'skills'. Now that was funny," Cyborg said, grinning widely. Now it was Beast Boy's turn to ignore them. The T Car fell into silence.

Without the sarcastic banter of his friends to keep him preoccupied, Robin's thoughts turned back to Starfire. He was much more at ease now that he knew they were on their way to save her. But still, couldn't Cyborg go a little faster? It wasn't like Starfire was completely out of danger yet. They had to get there first.

This thought made Robin's pulse speed up a little. He had been so caught up in his heroism fantasies, where he would rush into Slade's hideout just in time, kick Slade's ass, then lift Starfire into his arms and carry her off into the sunset (has anyone noticed how many times I use that scenario? I love it) that he forgot to consider the fact that maybe it wouldn't work out like that. There were so many possibilities, and Robin didn't want to consider any of them. But now, all of a sudden he couldn't ignore them.

Slade could have realized that he didn't disable Starfire's tracking device and moved them. Slade might have hurt her for resisting him. It could even be too late and Slade had already convinced Starfire to be his apprentice . . . but was that possible? How was he even planning to do that? He had talked about breaking her . . . what did that mean? Starfire would never agree to be his apprentice. Would she?

"Cyborg, why the hell aren't we there yet?" he barked out. The Titans all looked at him, surprised by his outburst. He had seemed so calm before, but all of a sudden he was irritable.

"Man, do you see how fast I'm going?" Cyborg replied, increasing speed only by a little bit. "Any faster and we'd probably lift off the ground."

"Can't you do that in this thing?" Robin pressured, but Cyborg ignored him.

"You're being irrational, Robin," Raven said. "The only way we can save Starfire is to not be killed along the way."

"Where are we going, anyway?" Beast Boy asked. "We might need to know in case you accidentally press the ejector seat button and we have to take over." Cyborg raised an eyebrow at this highly unlikely scenario.

"Yeah. Like you could handle the T Car. Not happening." Cyborg turned back to concentrating on the road. Finally, he began to slow the T-Car down. Before Robin could protest, he explained.

"It's around here," he said, taking his eyes off the road for a second to check the tracking device on his arm. "But I'm not quite sure where." As if to answer him, a flood of green light illuminated the windows of a nearby storage building. No one had to say a word; they all knew that light had to have come from Starfire. Cyborg gunned the engine and quickly pulled into the parking lot. Robin was the first to jump out, followed by everyone else. He began to run forward, but Raven put up a black blockade to stop him. He whirled around, glaring. He was about to shout at her, but Raven held up a finger to her lips to silence him.

"We don't know what's going on in there," she whispered. "We shouldn't rush in, and we shouldn't announce ourselves. We should just keep quiet and creep up, check out the scenario, and then figure out what to do about it." Robin shook his head.

"Didn't you see the green light? She must in trouble!" he protested, but he lowered his voice.

"Or she could be training," Raven replied cooly. Cyborg and Beast Boy both held their breath to see Robin's reaction. Only Raven was brave enough to suggest that to Robin's face. Robin was about to contradict her, but seemed to think better of it.

"Fine. We'll do it your way. But if we see her fighting him, we're not going to hesitate to help her." Raven nodded.

"Fine." As the rest of the Titans crept up to the door of the storage building, Beast Boy turned into a sparrow and flew to the window so he could inform the others of what was going on. Relief flooded his body when he saw that Starfire was fighting against Slade, not with him. And even though he could tell she was a little battered, it looked like she was winning. But the sense of urgency did not escape him; he quickly flew over to the team and told them of the situation. Without wasting any time, Robin kicked the door down and the Teen Titans raced into the room.

"Starfire!" Robin cried out, and the in-flight girl stopped her attack to turn to look at him. She lit up.

"Robin!"she cried. "You have come!" As she turned to fly towards him, Slade shot a stream of fire at her. The second she hit the ground, Slade turned and ran, but the Titans didn't notice, as they were already heading towards the injured Starfire. They crowded around her, trying to help her stand. It was clear she had taken a beating, as her legs were shaking almost uncontrollably, but she smiled at them reassuringly.

"Star, are you okay? What happened?" Beast Boy asked. Robin was at a loss for words; he still couldn't believe that she was okay and alive and . . . well . . . not evil.

"Slade attempted to wash my brain," she replied. "Because I would not willingly be his apprentice. But I did not let him! I fought back and then you, my friends, came back to save me!" Starfire looked troubled for a moment. "But it appears that Slade has escaped." Robin whirled around, feeling his stomach drop to realize that Starfire's words were true. He took off, ran out the door, and came to a stop. Slade was nowhere in sight.

As he stalked back, the Titans waited for him to start screaming about how they should have stopped him. Instead, he took a deep breath and smiled.

"I'm just glad you're okay," he said, walking towards Starfire and tentatively putting his arm around her so she could lean on him. She was still wounded, and since he had come back, Slade could hit pretty hard, so he didn't want her to exert herself too much. "Let's go home."

"Oh, yes, please. I am eager to return to the large T that we call home," Starfire said, resting her head on Robin's shoulder. Robin was surprised by this, not that he minded, as were the rest of the Titans, but nobody said anything. Now was not the time. They could tease Robin later. For now, they were just glad to have her back.

And they lived happily ever after, right? Psh, what kind of writer do you think I am? Trust me, this story is far from over. Don't you think Slade gave up a little too easily? After all, he isn't the kind of villain that just runs away. So where is he going? And why? What could the evil genius possibly be planning next?

I won't say anymore, so I guess you'll just have to wait and see. And unfortunately for you, you'll be waiting for a little while longer than usual, because to celebrate the end of sophomore year and the beginning of summer I'm going down to my beach house! Hell yeah! But I won't have an internet connection as my parents are too cheap to hook me up with wireless. Bah. However I will be taking my laptop down so I'll be getting some serious writing done while I work on my tan.

Also, it was pointed out to me by dragonofraven and Princess Starfire of Tamaran that how could Starfire see Slade smile if he's wearing a mask? Ah, dummy me, maskno mouth. So please ignore that mistake.

I'm hoping that by now all of you have seen Stranded. And if you haven't, are you crazy? I don't think I've ever smiled so much in my life. Every now and then I would randomly jump up and down and giggle and clap my hands like a five year old little girl. And because I taped it I've watched it about . . . nine times now. It never gets old.

Beast Boy and Cyborg were hilarious. "Pull the red candy cane thingamawhosit now!" And Raven? Priceless. It was a nice break from her darker side that's been coming out more and more because of the prophecy.

And finally, the RobStar fluff. Ohhhh man. As Jules said, a shipper's dream.

I loved how Robin and Starfire perfectly portrayed your typical awkward high school relationship. The girl is confused about where they stand, the boy is uncomfortable and doesn't want to talk about it, the boy needs his space and doesn't realize how hurtful that is to the girl (when Robin said that, I was like ohhh, Robin, no you didn't. But he so paid for it and it worked out quiiite nicely), the boy doesn't understand when the girl gets upset and holds a grudge, and the girl confronts the boy about his feelings and he freaks out. The way Robin awkwardly made it up to her was not exactly what I wanted to hear, but cute all the same. And his facial expressions were priceless.

Not to mention the fact that they hugged, and when Cyborg interrupted them, Robin didn't let go. Starfire waved, but Robin kept his arms around her waist which made for the cutest and most satisfying picture ever. I think I'm in love.

But what drove me absolutely crazy was that when they were falling in the darkness and we couldn't see or hear them, Robin obviously said something that enabled Star to fly again (remember the power of flight comes from happiness!) and that's why she was like, "Gasp, Robin!" and then they hugged. I need to know what he said! It's driving me crazy.

Not to mention that after this massive fluff overdose, they're going to lay off on the RobStar. We probably won't see even the slightest hints of it for a loooong time. Waaah!

Okay I promise I'll shut up now. This author's note is turning out to be longer than the chapter. So now for a couple quick reviewers.

TheNextTitan: I'm just going to make her evil, she'll keep her name. Aww, I'm sorry you haven't seen the fourth season yet, because it is amazing, but at least you have something to look forward to!

funvince: Uh oh. Didn't think of that. You're right; in this fic Slade isn't working for Trigon, so he wouldn't be resurrected and have those cool new fire powers. But . . . um . . . can we just pretend that he does anyway? A writer's fatal flaw, I apologize. Thanks for catching me on that. But I won't tell if you won't!

JulesFire: You have no idea how reassuring it is to hear that you were impressed with Slade's dialogue. I constantly worry that he's OoC and not realistic, so I definitely love you for that. And the thing with Cyborg was once again me focusing on Starfire's impact on the other characters, because in my opinion, everyone has a special bond with her. How could they not? But of course Robin's special bond with her is . . . specialer.

CidGregor: Loved your super long update. Also read what you wrote on TGN in reply to that person who was talking about Starfire being dull . . . I was ready to kick their ass, but looks like you did it for me (and everyone else who was incredibly irritated, they all quoted you!) My hero.

Princess Starfire of Tamaran: Thanks for catching the smile thing. Could I be any more retarded? And yes, Starfire is smart, and I wish more people would notice that. And you probably won't be hearing about my plans for my next fic until the end of this one. It's top secret. ;) lol Just kidding, it's definitely not that special.

Okay, that's it, except for one last note . . . you guys don't actually have to harass Riles, although I was pleased that some people offered. Tehe, I love you guys.

As always, what do I want you to do?

Duh. Review!

Blair