Chapter 14
As she waited for his response to her speech, she saw him grab his head as if in pain. Confused, she went to put her hand on his shoulder to ask him what Slade had done to hurt him now, but she was stopped dead in her tracks by a sudden, odd sensation. It started in the pit of her stomach as a sudden lurch in her insides, as if she were about to vomit, but then it spread to the rest of her body. She watched as if from afar as her already orange-tinted skin became a darker hue of orange spotted with areas of white as well. Then came the pain.
Everything was on fire. Her arms were as stone and even her eyelids were heavy. She couldn't think; all she knew was this coursing pain that ran through her veins and around her. She grasped her stomach and pulled with her arms, trying to eliminate the source of the pain, but it was coming from inside of her, and no inch of her was spared. Her hands shook with the dreadful pain as she tried to remain conscious. Faintly, she was aware that she had lost the will to fly and that she was going to drop, but she couldn't think. Almost as if in a dream, she could feel two hand catching her and a voice, a melodious voice, crying into the night. "Stop! No!"
It faintly registered to her. The probes. This was what they were capable of doing. It was no wonder to her now that Robin had gone to such great lengths to spare them from this torture; it was a horrible fate. She tried to clear her mind, tried to think logically about what was happening, but all she was able to focus on besides the pain was the face that she could faintly make out that looked down at her. Those masked eyes showed no emotion, though she could tell by his facial features that he was also in pain, not pain like she was experiencing, the physical pain, but emotional pain, the kind that one can never escape from, not even through death. She tried to work her mouth, to find some sort of inner strength with which to speak, to tell him that she would be okay. All she could manage was one word: "Robin."
As she looked on, he bit his lip, obviously fighting back a year's worth of tears, perhaps even more, as he tried to find the words to say to her. "I'm sorry," was all she could discern. He seemed to be repeating that phrase over and over again as he set her down. Then, she saw a red flash, then nothing.
Her eyes slowly opened, she was alive? Rolling over, she saw Terra standing beside her on a rock and Raven floating above Beast Boy and Cyborg, trying to wake them up as well. "Where...? What...?" She couldn't form the questions just yet, but Terra knew what she was trying to ask.
"He's gone. Cyborg told Raven to act like she was in pain so that Slade wouldn't suspect that we had discovered the probes. Unfortunately, Raven isn't a good actress, so she just chose to create a huge black force field around herself and, accidentally, me. She just stood in the middle, moving it in and out, making it seize up and swell, so that it looked like she was in pain. I didn't get to see anything else, but then I could hear Beast Boy saying, "What just happened?" and then silence. Raven and I figured that since he was talking, the probes' attack was over and that it was safe to come out now, and when we did, we found all of you out cold. There was no sign of Robin, either. Whatever just happened, it was the weirdest thing that I've ever experienced," Terra said, her voice growing quite distant as she remembered the strange happenings and wondered what had happened outside of that black force field.
Terra helped Starfire onto a rock and they gently flew back down to the ground to meet the others. Cyborg and Beast Boy looked just as weak as she felt, while Raven seemed distant and a bit frightened.
"Can somebody please explain to me what happened?" Beast Boy was screaming at Raven.
"I don't know. At first all I could hear was moans of agony and Robin saying 'sorry' over and over again, then I heard a loud whir, and there was silence. After that I could hear running footsteps as Robin left, and I faintly heard him muttering, 'I hope you're happy' under his breath," Raven said, recounting the story to the best of her ability, mostly for Starfire to hear.
"I believe I now understand why Robin was so intent on my leaving the lair so as not to be plagued by the probes; that was one of the worst things I have ever experienced," she muttered, shivering slightly as she remembered the horrific pain. "All this time, we never knew what horrible danger he had been trying to protect us from; let us hope that we are never reminded of it again."
"Well, I don't know about y'all, but I'd feel a lot better if we get these things out of our bodies now, before we have to deal with it again. At least now that the probes have been in use I can trace them more efficiently. If we hurry, we can get these things out of our bodies before midnight tonight," Cyborg said, standing up straight and hobbling over to the T-car. The others followed close behind, only too happy to comply.
Throughout the ride back, Terra constantly doted on Beast Boy. "Where does it hurt?" she asked over and over again, and always, the answer was the same: "Everywhere." Then always, she would respond, "Oh, I'm sorry Beast Boy!"
Raven was apparently also getting annoyed with so much love and affection in one car, so much so that she elected at the next stoplight to exit the car and fly home herself, wanting nothing to do with this obvious flirting. Starfire, however, didn't mind so much. She knew from experience that once you find somebody that you care for, you should let them know. She was glad for Beast Boy, happy that he had found somebody to laugh at his jokes. (At least she and Raven wouldn't be annoyed by him trying to get them to laugh anymore.)
As soon as they arrived, she zoomed through the tower, traveling as fast as she possibly could. In order to fly, she needed to feel unbridled joy, so she imagined how she would feel once Robin was back with them and everything was said and done. Within seconds, she had flown through the room, rushing around as setting everything up. She slowed down a bit, though, when it came to getting the equipment on. She had a bit of trouble putting everything on, but by the time the others had caught up to her, she was ready.
"Oookay, I guess you want to go first, then, huh?" Cyborg said, half smiling. She responded with an eager nod of her head; the sooner she got these things off, the sooner she would be able to feel safe again. After that last experience, she felt like she was on the edge, as if making another move might trigger more pain. So, yes, she would very much appreciate being able to get these things out of her body.
Cyborg walked Terra through it this time, for she would operate the process when Cyborg's turn came, so she was sitting in a bunch of wire for a long time. There was plenty of time for her to build up excitement as she invisioned how it would happen: how she would swoop in with her friends and give Slade the beating of his life, bring Robin back and "live happily ever after" as some of the earth books she had read so often ended. She like that ending, so she decided to keep it. The only hard part now was actually getting it to happen.
After an hour, she was done, surprisingly. She had expected it to take much longer than that, though she was not going to object to taking all of this stuff off. She hovered over Terra, nervously monitoring the girl's every keystroke as Cyborg's systems were purged of the probes. She was growing impatient; she could hardly wait until they were done working so that she could go save him. Even the fact that Terra was working on both Beast Boy and Cyborg at once did not calm her nerves.
She felt a small hand on her shoulder and turned to see Raven, her hood down and a smile on her face. "What do you say you and I go ahead of the others and start this mission of yours?"
Her eyes lit up as she nodded vigorously. Raven smiled back, and the two girls flew out into the night, leaving the others behind.