Chapter 4

That we of six

Starfire eagerly gripped yet another sheet of paper in her hand. She almost ripped it apart in trying to unfold it. She opened it flat and her excited face fell instantly. Her smile disappeared and was replaced by a frown of confusion.

FIVE MINUETS LATER……………..

"Uh Star, its blank," said Cyborg turning the paper upside-down and right side-up again.

"But I do not understand, I was under the impression this would lead us to Robin," said Starfire. She sat down and folded her arms and almost began to pout. Raven and Lee got close and examined it from top to bottom or bottom to top. They looked back up at each other and shook their heads.

"Perhaps the blank page is another clue," suggested Lee scratching his head.

"How do you figure that," asked Cyborg now turning on the TV. Lee opened his mouth to answer but changed his mind.

"Never mind, that's a dumb idea," said Lee scolding himself. While Raven, Lee, and Starfire sat to figuring out Robin's next marker; Cyborg and Beast Boy looked to playing a little bit of Zelda. Beast Boy switched on the Game Station and held the controller.

"Oh no way man, it's my turn!" Said Cyborg snatching the controller up. Beast Boy was surprised for a moment then sought to take it back. While the two of them engaged in a brawl the other three gripped the sides of their heads in trying to concentrate. Raven finally glided over to the couch and melted the controller with her powers. The two stopped fighting and began weeping over the puddle that was once their best friend.

"Oh man I was just about to get the lens of truth," whined Cyborg.

"No kidding Raven, why d'you have to go and do that for?! I mean all our doing is just sitting their looking a blank page with nothing on"- Beast Boy suddenly stopped as his mind thought about Cyborg's lens of truth and the blank page. He ran over to the others and snatched up the page.

"Beast Boy do you mind we're in the middle of something important." Raven was about to psychically retake the paper when Beast Boy held up his hand.

"GUYS! What if whatever's on the paper is invisible?" They all looked at each other then back at Beast Boy.

"I think you've been playing video games just a little too often," said Cyborg hanging over the side of the couch.

"Well if it was the sun light that opened the clock, maybe we need to put this in the moon light." He gestured to Robin's letter and the clock and indeed had a crescent moon along with the sun. Starfire and the others turned to Raven who shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, what've we got to lose?" They all nodded and proceeded up to the roof.

"Uh guys," said Cyborg. They all turned back and Cyborg pointed behind out the windows. "It's eight thirty in the morning with a zero percent chance of moon light until night time." Starfire hung her shoulders and floated back down to the table. "Chill out, all we have to do is kill time until its dark out."

"And what do you suggest we do," asked Raven. It was then that the tower alarm went off. Lee joined Cyborg up at the main screen.

"I suggest we stop overload before he drains the city's power plant." They all began murmuring in agreement.

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea."

"That should take up the day."

"Fine." They all filed out to intercept the villain.

SOMWHERE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY………………………………

A young man no older than seventeen walked out of the gate at the airport in Rome. He wore a black felt coat that went to his knees and carried no bags or cases. He walked up to the customs window and produced a passport. The man behind the counter took it and looked inside. It had the picture of a fairly handsome young man with brown eyes and black hair. If the man hadn't known any better, he'd sworn he'd seen someone like this kid with the Teen Titans. He shrugged and typed on his computer.

"Is this your first time to Rome?" He spoke with a fair Italian accent.

"Yes."

"Purpose of you're visit?" The young man looked confused for a moment. "Business or pleasure?" Prompted the man.

"Oh right, ummm, a little of both," laughed the young man. The customs officer nodded and continued.

"Do you have any relatives, friends, or associations with which you will be staying?"

"No." While the customs officer did is thing with his computer the young man looked around uneasily. The first thing he laid his eyes on was the exit, just in case. Satisfied the customs officer handed back the young man his passport.

"Have a nice time in Rome Mr. Zane."

"Thank you." He took the passport and head toward the exit. While he walked a certain girl with green eyes and red hair occupied his thoughts. 'I hope she's all right. I don't want any of them to get hurt because of me.' As soon as he turned the corner he was gone and out of sight; there was no place to hide or veer off, he simply vanished.

BACK AT THE TOWER…………………..

The Titans had returned from dispensing some indiscriminant justice on not one but two familiar foes. Overload had been their primary objective but it wasn't long before Dr. Light became involved, for whatever reason God only knows. They came into the common room one by one and seated themselves on the couch. They were correct in thinking it would take all day, Overload and Dr. Light simply refused to give up until both had been subdued to the point of unconsciousness. Beast Boy got up and stretched out his arms.

"Alright guys I have an appointment with Dr. John Q. Bedtime so I'll see you guys in the morning." Starfire nodded with the others and glanced outside and saw a bright full moon.

"ONE MOMENT PLEASE!" She jumped off the couch and herded all of them to the roof. Cyborg yawned for a very long time.

"What is it Star, it's kinda late." She produced the paper and they all remembered from earlier. She unrolled it and with the help of Raven held it in the moon light. They held it there for at least five minuets, and nothing happened.

"Well so much for my idea," said Beast Boy thoroughly disappointed.

"Hmm," said Starfire. Then it was as if a light bulb flicked on over her head. "If study Robin's letter and the clock you will see that it is a crescent moon, not a full moon."

"Well what are we supposed to do? Wait around a few weeks for another crescent moon," asked Cyborg looking up at the sky. Raven rolled her eyes and let out an annoyed sigh. She motioned for Lee to take her place at holding the paper with Starfire. Raven approached the edge of the roof and held her arms out.

"Azerath Metrion Zinthos, Azerath Metrion Zinthos, Azerath Metrion ZINTHOS!" Energy from both her hands flew up into the sky and began covering portions of the moon. Soon Raven had reduced the moons shape to a perfect crescent. The others then looked away from the sky and back to the paper. For a moment nothing happened just like before. Then each of them let out an awestruck gasp as they saw fine lines forming all over the page. It was as if an invisible hand had been writing the letters at record speed.

"Beast Boy, you had a most brilliant idea," exclaimed Starfire. Beast Boy nodded in thanks and looked rather proud of himself.

"I'm glad we're getting somewhere but if you could just write that stuff down I'd appreciate it," said a struggling Raven. She could only manage that much effort for so long. They quickly wrote down the lettering and gave Raven an "Ok." She let up and the moon went back to being a big bright ball. Back inside they were at a loss for words.

"It's in some weird language," said Cyborg. Raven finally came back over to them and read it over.

"Cyborg this is Japanese." All heads turned to Lee who looked up from a platter of Sushi.

"What?" They dragged him over and sat him down before the page. He removed from his robes a pair of glasses and heard Cyborg and Beast Boy snickering. "You find something amusing?" He glared at the two.

"Lee needs glasses," whispered Cyborg to Beast Boy. They both hid their faces and laughed.

"Oh ha ha, yes lets all make fun of Lee and his glasses," the irritated samurai turned back to the paper. He read it over and then removed his glasses in wonder. "It's just a bunch of zeros and ones." Cyborg immediately looked up.

"That's binary code, its used in computers all the time. Hang on yall I'll have it put in English in no time." He clicked on his arm and his face fell when he finished translating the numbers. "Now here's something you don't see everyday. He wrote down the words and Beast Boy let out a "HA!"

"What?"

"Dude, these are dwarf runes from the hobbit."

"You, read Tolkien," asked Raven in disbelief.

"Hey just cause I act goofy doesn't mean I don't know anything. Now just gimme a sec." He got out his copy of The Hobbit and flipped to the translator. When he finished he handed them a page of gibberish. "Alright, which one of us speaks a weird alien language?"

"Oh that would be me," said Starfire brightly. She took it and excitedly took to writing down the words. She straightened back up and held it out trying to make sense of it. "Raven, perhaps you can translate the text as you are the only one who has not." Raven shrugged and looked it over.

"Its Latin," she said her eyes darting from left to right.

"Can you read it," asked Cyborg.

"Of coarse I can read it," said Raven giving him a sideways glance. He put his hands up and backed away. She ran her finger along the text and finally stopped when it came to something important. She motioned for someone to be ready with a pen. "Vicus ut lumen est niveus domus suus holiness." She looked back up and thought for a moment.

"It says; 'The Street to the eye is within the home of his Holiness. It's another riddle."

"His holiness is the Pope, and his home is in Rome," said Lee causally."

"Okay but what about the 'eye' what's that supposed to mean," asked Cyborg.

"We will simply have to deduce that after we have arrived in the Rome," said Starfire. She had pulled out a duffle bag and was already stuffing things in it.

"Starfire I'm not sure we're actually supposed to go to Rome, I mean we haven't even figured out the rest of it," said Raven.

"That matters not to me, I will address it after arriving at my destination." She looked up and saw them with looks of uncertainty. "Please, I do not believe Robin would tell us of this location and not expect us to be there." They all thought about it and agreed it was the best thing to do.

"So it took all six of us to figure out how to read the message," said Lee. "That we of six may discover the elusive key. You gotta and it to Robin-San on a pretty well hidden read crumb trail."

"You know I've been needing a good vacation anyway. Titans, we're off to Italy!" He was about to go pack when Starfire held up her adopted silkworm to Cyborg.

"Please, might we bring Silkie with us?" Raven telepathically yelled at Cyborg to say "NO."

"Uh Star I don't think"-

"Pleeeeeeease," she widened her eyes ad forced a couple of tears. Cyborg put his hands up and tried to look away.

"OH not the Starry eyes come one." Starfire continued her assault by trembling her lower lip and holding up Silkie. Beast Boy came up behind Cyborg and whispered in his ear. 'Be strong, you're going to tell her that we can't bring Silkie right?' Cyborg stiffly nodded. Beast Boy rejoined Raven and gave Cyborg a thumbs up.

"Star"- He opened his mouth to speak but Starfire added a whimper at the last second. Cyborg hung his shoulders and sighed. "Oh all right you can take him."

"YAAAH!" She flew up and hugged Cyborg and went back to packing.

"Boy you sure showed her," said Lee as he passed by. Cyborg looked a little miffed but went off to his room to pack.

LATE THAT NIGHT………………………..

Starfire sat at the table with head down and sleeping like a log. She had been packing and thinking about Robin so much that she wore herself out with excitement. She sat there and her stomach rose and fell. Up above a masked figure swooped along the roof supports. He peered down and saw the sleeping form of Starfire. Making sure that no one else was around he reached inside his pocket and took out a small vile. He unwound a piece of string tied to the mouth of the vile and let it hang down over Starfire. It stretched downward to where it was directly over her mouth and only a few inches away from it. He then opened the small bottle and tipped it over ever so gently. A sinister liquid slowly came out and caught the string. Instead of spilling all over the place it road down the string and towards Starfire's mouth.

She smiled dreamily as she had vision after vision of her reunion with Robin. The liquid got closer and closer. She stirred a little and sighed softly. As the liquid ran down the string and even closer to her warm lips the masked man began looking around uneasily. It finally reached the end and stopped to make a large drop. The man atop began breathing heavily with anticipation. It collected for a moment more then fell from the string. Just as it was about to land on Starfire's lips the broad side of a sword caught the drop with tiny ring. The looked down and saw Lee standing over Starfire.

"I thought I heard something." He took out a sherikan and threw it up at the man. The blades unfolded and forced the man to come down. Starfire awoke with a start and stared at the intruder.

"Lee who is"-

"Go in on the right, I'll take his left!" So saying Lee ran up and attacked the man form the left. Starfire flew up and launched a couple of Starbolts at him. The man dodged Lee swipe and threw up a net at the alien girl. It wound around her and she floated back to the ground. She tried to break free of it but fond it was reinforced with a type of steel. Lee rolled forward and slashed at the man who blocked the attack with a pair of Sai. Twirling them in his hands he slashed at Lee who did his best to block each attack. Lee finally sliced both of them off the handle and waited for the mans next weapon. The man threw them down and took out a short chain. He pitched it forward and it wound around Lee's neck.

Starfire managed to break free and called for the others. Dropping his sword Lee gripped at the metal chain around his neck in an effort to get free. The man pulled at the chain and Lee let out a stifled cough. With little amounts of air left Lee reached down to his waist and found his short sword. He flicked it out of the sheath and it cut the chain. The man lost his balance and fell backwards. He got back up but was pinned to the wall by a wave of black energy. Raven and the others had come in and Cyborg knocked the guy out. Starfire helped Lee unwind the chain from around his neck.

"Who is this guy," asked Beast Boy holding the man's broken Sai. Lee picked up the fallen vile.

"He is a user of Jujitsu, a ninja or trained assassin. And this was his tool." He held up the empty vile.

"What is it," asked Starfire.

"Poison, and a very lethal kind at that," said Lee putting it on the counter.

"Looks like we're on the track," said Cyborg.

"But who would want to kill me," asked Starfire holding Silkie.

"Someone who knows you're connected with Robin," said Raven lowering her hood. "Whoever sent that man to kill you and probably the rest of us, is most likely the one is hunting Robin."

"This is too weird," groaned Beast Boy. Lee bound the man and stuck a sedative pin his neck.

"They won't send another for now. I suggest we spend the rest of the night in here together and then promptly take our leave tomorrow morning."

"Sounds like a plan," said Cyborg.

From the docks a host of men wacthed the Titans through a high powered telescope. The one looking through stood back up and toldthe others to get moving. Dalton straighened back up and motioned for his partern, Decker, to walk with him. "Take the next flgiht after them, they won't be too hard to catch up with. This is important Steven, I need him found." Decker gave a nod and the two entered a black Lincoln and headed for the airport.

Okay I will have to end it there but I will pick it up later. I hope Riles wont kill me for stopping here but it couldn't be helped. Thanks for reading so far, reviews please.