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. And I can't think of another "witty" comment.
Chapter 8: A Life for an Eternity
The common room of the tower, it had been vacant for a great amount of time, or at least what felt like a great amount of time, the dust of lost time had settled on the untouched floors and table tops. Walking in the door, the Titans felt nostalgic, remembering the times they spent here. Beastboy and Cyborg would always argue about what to eat for breakfast, and lunch, and dinner. They had all bickered with each other so much then. Even Raven played her part in it, mostly with Beastboy. All the fighting, all the opposition, over such small things, it seemed so trivial now. But the good times heavily outweighed the bad, Starfire was always central to those moments. Happiness, it had become a distant dream, lost, stolen away along with her.
Robin looked at the hallway, he felt a twinge of pain in his heart as he thought of the last day he spent with her. That night was perfect, everything about it told him that by Starfire's side, was right where he belonged, no one had ever made him feel this way about himself, and he had never felt this way about anyone else. He realized that the only times in his life, when he felt truly happy, were spent with her. He wanted to tell her these things, but he was so afraid of what her reaction to his feelings would be, so afraid of rejection, that he held off on telling her until it was too late. He didn't want the last thing he said to her to be, goodnight. He would fight his hardest to see her again, no matter what it took.
Here they stood, together, yet alone. The last person they wanted to see again, would show his face at any moment. The screen lit up, and there he was, the man they despised above all others, Fear. He stood in front of the same window, behind which, Starfire was held, still shackled to the wall, the light cast on her flickered and blinked. His mask, that eye, that penetrating eye.
"Robin, I see you have accomplished your mission. What took so long, run into any, problems?" maybe it was the static, but his voice seemed to crack. Robin didn't like how Fear said 'problems', it seemed to imply that he knew about the incident in the forest.
"We have what you want, come and get it." Robin said solidly.
"Very well. Wait outside on the street across from your island. I'll find you." the screen went blank, Robin hadn't looked at Fear at all, his attention was tied to Starfire in the background. The Titans were surprised to see the communication end so quickly, Fear seemed rushed.
Without saying a word to each other, Robin, Beastboy, and Raven left to wait on the street, Cyborg stayed behind to look further into the uses of the Lazarus water.
- - - - - -
The road was empty, and oddly enough, all the lamp posts were shut off. The scene was very strange, they had never seen the city this quiet. It was too dark to see much, but the light from the moon offered some illumination as the clouds that blocked it out, parted slowly. Robin looked from his left to his right, scanning the area for anyone, the eerily quiet atmosphere and the cold rushes of wind sent a shiver down his spine. Robin, centered his view to look across the street, he saw Fear's eye glowing in the dark, for a moment he thought he was seeing things again, until he realized it was attached to a body.
"There he is." Robin pointed across the street.
"Titans, beautiful night isn't it?" Fear said, crossing the street, walking to within five feet of the Titans, where he stopped. He sounded much more relaxed than he did back at the tower.
Robin walked forward and set the case on the ground, never taking his eyes off Fear, all the while, glaring. He found it hard to control his anger, here was the man that had taken Starfire, the one who had caused her so much pain, and Robin couldn't risk beating the living daylights out of him, however much he wanted to. Fear reached down and inspected the case. He opened it, "Ah, this is it." he said.
"Where's Starfire?" Robin demanded.
"Don't worry, you will see her again, in time." Fear began backing away, preparing to leave. Robin became infuriated, his already clenched fists began shaking.
"What did you do to put all those people in the asylum?" Raven questioned Fear in her monotone voice, changing the subject.
"So you figured that out did you? Clever girl." Fear turned his eye to Raven. "In order to achieve one's goals, obstacles must be removed. Speaking of which, I'd like to thank you personally for removing my greatest obstacle for me. I believe his name was Slade. He had proven rather resilient to my influence." Fear sounded amused by his own words, knowing he had angered the Titans by not only mentioning Slade's death, but crediting them for it.
"I think it's about time you left." Robin spoke through his teeth.
Fear laughed calmly, and turning around, disappeared into the shadows. Robin waited a few moments before he decided to speak again.
"Beastboy--" Robin started.
"I'm way ahead of you." Beastboy turned into a pigeon and flew after Fear.
"I'm going with him." Raven added.
"Good, two sets of eyes are better than one. I'd go too, but he'd notice me first." Robin said. Raven nodded and sunk into the shadows, following after Beastboy.
Robin waited alone on the street. It was up to the others now.
- - - - - -
The buildings passed quickly by, under him, as Beastboy kept his unblinking eyes on Fear, who began running as soon as he was out of Robin's view. Even though he was the one following someone, Beastboy couldn't shake the feeling that he was being followed as well. Fear came to a sudden stop in an alley, Beastboy landed on a nearby rooftop and reverted to human form. He saw that Fear was breathing heavily, resting his weight on his knees with his arms, he looked in pain. Fear reached in his pocket and pulled out a syringe, stabbing it into his leg, he let out a grunt.
"What the--" Beastboy felt a hand cover his mouth and pull him away from the edge of the roof. He turned to see Raven. "Rrraabbn?" Beastboy asked, his voice muffled.
"Shhh." Raven hushed him. Both looked back over the edge, it looked like Fear was stopping to take a break. Raven let go of Beastboy.
"Raven. What are you doing here?" Beastboy whispered.
"I knew you'd give yourself away if I didn't follow you." Raven said.
"Like I need your--" Beastboy retorted, still trying to keep his voice down.
"Starfire's safety is at risk, you need all the help you can get."
"...You're right. I'm sorry." Beastboy apologized, realizing the seriousness of the situation. Raven seemed surprised by this, the last thing she expected out of Beastboy, was an apology.
"Um... don't worry about it." hearing movement in the alley, Raven grabbed Beastboy's hand, "Come on, my way is a lot, more quiet." with that, she pulled him into the shadows and continued following Fear, who was on the move again. Jumping from shadow to shadow, Raven and Beastboy trailed him through the alleys until he came to a dead end where three buildings converged. Fear quickly looked around him, when he knew he was alone, he placed his hand on the wall, pushing in one of the bricks. A hidden door opened and Fear walked in, it closed swiftly after he entered. This area looked strangely familiar to the two Titans.
- - - - - -
Robin had been trained to keep his composure in any situation, but he felt useless just standing beside the road, waiting for the go ahead from his teammates. He was anxious to follow Fear and find Starfire, as well as give Fear some well-deserved payback. He imagined himself, breaking into the hideout, beating up Fear, and saving Starfire; he knew however, deep in the pit of his stomach, that the scenario wouldn't play out like that, Fear was far too cunning, he was unlike any other enemy the Titans had faced. Fear was similar to Slade in many ways, but, in many ways, he was worse. The familiar ring of his communicator interrupted his thoughts.
"Robin here." he said.
"Robin, we found his place. You better hurry down here." Beastboy spoke quickly.
"I'm on my way!" Robin shut off the communicator, and began to run, when his communicator went off again. "I said I'm on my way."
"Robin?" Cyborg sounded confused.
"Oh, Cyborg. What is it? I'm kind of in a hurry right now." Robin continued running in Beastboy and Raven's direction while he spoke.
"I know. But you need to hear this... It's about the Lazarus water." Cyborg sounded quite distraught, "When the liquid is coursing through someone's bloodstream, concentrated energy of a specific frequency would radiate the effects of the water throughout the entire body, effectively changing the subject's genetic code, theoretically it would cause rapid cell regeneration, indefinitely." he continued.
"You mean, immortality--" Robin asked, not wanting to believe that Fear could obtain this power.
"And near-invulnerability. Robin, I had a suspicion, so I compared the required energy frequency to the energy Starfire emits when she uses her powers... it was a perfect match." Robin could hear the distress in Cyborg's voice.
"What does that mean?" Robin asked, part of him already knew the answer.
"I think Fear plans to use Starfire as a battery, draining the life force from her body..."
Cyborg told Robin he would catch up with him, and shut off the communicator. Robin couldn't believe what he had just heard, how could Fear sacrifice such an innocent person for his own selfish gain? 'Starfire could die because of this.' he thought. Robin increased his pace as much as he could, rushing through the alleys to his destination. He wouldn't, he couldn't let this happen, not to Starfire.
Author's Note: I can't explain why, but this chapter seemed special to me. So I worked extra hard on the wording and scene layout. I even gave Beastboy and Raven a bigger part in this chapter, I realized I had been neglecting them.
As usual, your reviews are very much valued.
Next Chapter Preview: Robin and the others enter Fear's hideout only to find that it once belonged to someone they knew all too well. Will Robin make it in time to save Starfire, and stop Fear from obtaining immortality? Fear is unmasked and the end nears in Chapter 9: Please Don't Die.