My Strength, and Greatest Weakness

by Blue Ten

Summary:

Jump City has been quiet on the crime front for the past few months and the Titan's are starting to get restless. Starfire tries her best to raise the Titan's spirits, even after Slade meets a rather pointless death. A night at the fair brings Robin and Starfire closer than ever. But when a man calling himself Fear shows up, things start to go horribly wrong. RobinxStarfire.

Disclaimer:

I do not own Teen Titans. Do I?

Chapter 6: Masked

Starfire sat alone on the cold metal floor. The air was dry and stale, and the room was pitch black. She hated the dark, ever since she was young the shadows seemed so intimidating, fear of the unknown; however, here it was not a phobia, in this situation her fear was rational. 'I can not stand this.' she thought as she charged a starbolt in her hand. To her surprise, the light wasn't any more comforting than the dark, it revealed how very small the room was, it brought into view the cold steel walls, showing that there was no visible exit. Even more frightening, the walls were stained with a dark liquid, '...It is blood.' she thought, now regretting the light. She decided to examine the walls closely, perhaps a way out could be found. Starfire stood up and faced the wall she had been leaning against, slowly she began to move her hand toward it. As she touched it, her starbolt was drained from her hand and seemed to be pulled into the wall. She quickly withdrew her hand as a sensation of pain began to surge through it. The room was dark once more.

"You saw the blood didn't you? Try to guess which stain was the deathblow." Fear's voice resonated through the room from some unknown location.

"NO! It is a lie!"

"Deny it all you want. The truth, is painted on the walls."

- - - - - -

The quarter moon shone on Titans Tower, it was uncharacteristically quiet, as each of the Titans were silently and discreetly carrying out their orders. Cyborg walked through the halls of his tower, searching for signs of entry. His cybernetic eye was set to detect any changes in temperature. Noticing a strange substance lining the halls around the Titan's bedrooms, he nonchalantly swiped his hand across a wall.

Sitting at a computer, Beastboy tried to ignore the stares he was getting in the city's library, while he looked up the information Robin had given him. For once he wished that the Titans weren't so famous. He had been searching for hours trying to find a match for the map. Finally, an identical map showed up on screen with a link. Clicking on the link, Beastboy's eyes widened, what he discovered was more horrible than anything he had ever imagined. "Great, sciencey stuff... How am I EVER going to be able to report this?" he asked himself with a twitch.

Raven levitated in her room, feeling rather useless. 'That mask... He must have known I would try to read him. He counted on deception...' she thought. Raven wondered about the crime level, how the drop had been so sudden, 'Could he have something to do with it?' she dwelled on that question for a while and decided to contribute something to the research. Waking from her trance, she booted up the computer in her room. Checking the status on every criminal in the Jump City police records, she found something strange.

- - - - - -

The night, and the shadows of the trees in the forest, cloaked Robin's form as he silently rushed his way through, following the blinking dot on his communicator. Though he was taught that the shadows were the best camouflage, in them he felt that he was truly alone, and it scared him. He wanted to know where he was going, and even more, what he was going to steal. Robin remembered how Slade had used him to steal before, this situation was similar, it frightened him. Now, this man Fear, he was doing the same thing, only he was using Starfire alone as bargain material, toying with Robin's emotions, playing games with his deepest, darkest fears. As Robin increased his pace, he saw something strange in front of him. '...A light? No... An eye!' he thought, as he continued running, it seemed to be moving toward him. The eye from Fear's mask hit Robin in the face, so hard that he fell to the ground.

Robin got up quickly, he found that his head was pounding, his breathing labored. Tearing off his mask, he struggled to restore his breath, the hammers continued to beat on his head, and he threw his hands to his face attempting to relieve the pain. "Uuuhn... What was that? A hallucination maybe..." he said. Looking up, he saw a thick tree branch had broken off and fallen next to him, he realized he must have hit his head on it. "Gotta pay more attention..." he told himself, staying down and placing the mask back on, the pain finally subsiding. He looked at his communicator, twenty minutes had passed.

"Robin, come in!" Beastboy's voice sounded over the small speaker.

"...Robin here." he responded, he hated the way his voice sounded through the mask.

"What happened? We've been trying to reach you for... twenty minutes now." Beastboy said, sounding worried, and annoyed.

"Ran into a little... obstacle. Anything to report?"

"Actually we all have something. But I'll go first. Okay, the place your going is called... BIO-GEM or something... they specialize in geriatrics... and bio-engines." Beastboy sounded confused.

"Gimme that!" Cyborg could be heard fighting for the communicator. "First, It's called BIO-GEN, not BIO-GEM! And second, they specialize in genetics and bio-engineering, not geriatrics and--" Cyborg corrected Beastboy.

"I knew that!" Beastboy retorted.

Cyborg sighed heavily, "Anyway, for my part, I found something strange in the tower. A sedative gas of some sort, the residue was lining the walls around our rooms, it causes temporary paralysis, and drastically lowers body temperature, it explains how he was able to... take Starfire without us noticing." he continued, wary of his words. "Raven." Cyborg handed the communicator to Raven.

"I looked up all our usual enemies. It turns out, they're all either in prison, or presumed missing or dead. There were names on the list... Plasmas, Mad Mod, Killer Moth, and more. Last time I checked, they were still on the loose. Fear must have something to do with it, think about what happened with Slade." She finished.

"Thanks guys." Robin said. "Beastboy, any information on what it is he wants me to steal?"

"Sorry, that's all I could find, everything else was classified." Beastboy replied.

"I figured it would be, don't worry about it." Robin said, knowing now that this item must be of great importance. "Raven, I want you to look further into your discovery, I think it could be our best lead yet. If he contacts you, try to get him to spill something about it. Over and out." Robin cut the communication.

Robin sighed, he didn't mean to cut their conversation so quickly, but he didn't want them to hear his voice the way it was, shaky and weakened. Attempting to push himself up with his arms, Robin found it difficult to stand up again, he wobbled a bit before he regained his balance. Moving was even harder, to Robin, it felt like his legs weighed a ton. He moved slowly, crunching the forest floor under his feet, and using nearby trees to hold his weight as he gradually learned how to walk again. His strength returned to him step by step, and he began running once more. He found that the more he thought of Starfire, the stronger his will became. 'I'll do whatever it takes, to save you...'

- - - - - -

Robin reached the edge of the forest and stopped. Looking out through the trees he saw a large facility, in big bold letters on the side of one of the buildings was the word "BIO-GEN". Though it looked to be heavily guarded, sentries moving about their shifts, there were barely any lights and the rooftops would make for the perfect entry point. Robin was standing on a hill that dropped straight down, there was nearly twenty feet between him and the first rooftop, he decided that his best course of action would be to jump. Robin took a few steps back, charged, and launched himself across the gap, landing silently on the roof. In a hurry, he jumped from building to building, until he was directly over his destination on the map. Robin searched the roof for a way inside, the air vents. Removing the cover, he quickly crawled in.

The air vent was cold and dusty, Robin had to suppress the urge to cough. He came upon a vent cover, where he was looking down at a hallway, removing the cover, he quickly scanned the hall for guards and cameras, there was nothing, several doors lined the walls. Checking the map, he saw that his destination was in the northernmost room. Robin carefully, and quietly, let himself down into the hall, heading north he found a door, in front of which he came to a complete stop. There, right above the door were the words "Project Lazarus".

- - - - - -

The night winds were cold and swift, the water at the shore of the island moved inward and outward, crashing against the rocks. The Titans stood outside by the tree, Raven held the communicator in her hand, everyone had their eyes on it. They realized Robin was in a hurry, they knew he had other things on his mind, but he seemed to be quick with his words, too quick, like he was hiding something. They all sighed and began making their way back to the tower, unsure of what their next move should be. Raven stopped.

"Wait, there's something I should tell you... Fear targeted him out of all of us, I think he did something to Robin, and it seems to be affecting him greatly. I felt it when I read him, and it became apparent when he talked about his dream like it had actually happened... I sensed the same thing from Slade, before he died." Raven admitted.

"Raven. Are you telling us... Robin's gone off the deep end?" Beastboy questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"No. He seems to be fighting it with all his strength. But I have a feeling that, out of all of us, he may be in the most danger."

The helplessness of their situation began to sink in again, as the winds swept by and the emptiness of the night surrounded them, they were alone in the dark.

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, I realize I had been doing daily updates, but I missed a day because I was distracted by work and... Naruto(Watch it dub-haters and be amazed!).

On another note, this chapter had an overall theme for all of the Titans: Even though they are apart, together, they are alone in the dark.

Anyway, if you can offer anything constructive in your reviews, please do.

Next Chapter Preview: Robin finds the object Fear wants, but what is it? The Titans dig deeper into the disappearance of their enemies, and come to a shocking revelation about what is happening to Robin. A strange piece of the puzzle is unveiled in Chapter 7: Lazarus.