AUTHOR'S NOTE: This doesn't take place in the same storyline as my "Forced Base" and "Fractured Heart" stories, so forget those when you're reading this. Also, about Sanza/Red X: When he's wearing the mask, he's Red X. When he's not, he's Sanza. Simple as that.
SECOND AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a sequel to "The Life and Times of Red X", which is in my profile. Read that before you read this. Also, this fic COMPLETELY IGNORES the events of the fifth season (with the exception of "Go"). For the purposes of this fic, "Things Change" NEVER HAPPENED.
O-O-O
The LaredoSoft production facility was a large building nearly five stories high and approximately seven times the size of a football field. Built in 1999 during the height of the company's success, it was the building site for many of the large war machines that would use the company's software in their design. Built out in the wilderness nearly five miles from the Jump City metropolitan area, it was a building staffed by several thousand workers... who on this particular night were conspicuously absent. The only workers that remained were a staff of several hundred guards loyal to Sedaris and the two Jarvins.
Somewhere inside the building was the master system that controlled the signals to the three seismic generators, which had been placed throughout Jump City. This master system was heavily guarded by some of the company's most innovative and powerful weapons... so if Red X did defy Sedaris' warning not to interfere, he would likely meet with a swift and painful end.
Toward the south end of the factory, several men, each dressed in black sweatshirts, baggy camouflage pants, and thick black gloves, were milling about a large production room, guarding several machines that were currently producing mechanical arms and legs that were to be fitted onto an armada of military robots. The men carried high-powered assault rifles in their hands, to shoot down anyone who would be foolish enough to attempt a raid on the building.
"This is the night, you know," said one of the men, slumped against the conveyor belt of one of the machines and talking to a fellow guard, who was standing nearby. "That earthquake's gonna get activated tonight... we're all gonna make tons of money helping to rebuild."
"Yeah," replied his partner, sipping on a bottle of soda which he'd purchased from a vending machine in the other room. "I bought some tickets to an amusement park for my family... they'll be two hundred miles away. Eh, we got insurance, not like we're gonna need it after all the money this quake'll bring in."
The two men began to laugh amongst themselves, when suddenly, they heard a loud crash coming from the windows far above their heads. Before they could even look up, they were set upon by Beast Boy, who had transformed into a puma, and Starfire, her eyes open and brightly aglow. The men raised their guns, but Beast Boy's powerful claws swatted them out of the men's hands.
"You will never be allowed to profit off the suffering of others!" shouted Starfire, who blasted a Starbolt into the chests of both men, hurling them into the air and over the conveyor belt behind them.
"Azarath, metreon, zinthos!"
Elsewhere in the room, Raven had levitated a stack of robot limbs high up into the air, above the heads of three more guards. As they started to raise their weapons, two strong metal arms looped around them, bringing them all together and causing them to drop their guns.
"I don't think so," said Cyborg, collecting the men's guns and getting out of the way as the three guards were buried in a large pile of metallic arms and legs. "Robin, how's things going on your end?"
The Boy Wonder was in the thick of a battle of his own, using his bo staff to keep away the remaining two guards in the room. He twirled the staff around, knocking the guns out of both men's hands, before spinning the staff again to catch them both in the head. As the two men stumbled about disoriented, Terra floated into the room on a boulder, taking a few seconds to watch in delight as the two dizzy guards staggered around the room. She then leapt off of her boulder, which split into two halves. The two halves each slammed into a guard's chest, sending him flying into the nearest wall and knocking him out.
"This room's clear," said Robin, making one last look around to make sure there were no men still awake in the room that may be hiding in the shadows. As soon as Robin had finished speaking, the seventh of the facility's intruders stepped out into the dim light.
"The longer before I have to make my presence known, the better," replied Red X, who knew that if anyone in the building knew that he was inside, Cleo's life could be put in serious jeopardy. "I didn't think you'd need me to take those scrubs out, anyway."
The Titans and X's mission was twofold: the primary objective being, of course, to protect Jump City by preventing the terrible earthquake that the operators of the factory could cause at any time. The secondary objective, and the one nearest to Red X's heart, was to rescue Cleo, while ensuring her safety by keeping the thief largely out of sight.
"If we are going to be attempting a rescue mission at the same time that we are saving the city, then perhaps we should do the... 'splitting up'," said Starfire, just as the group had gathered in front of the large, metallic door separating the room that they were in from the rest of the building. "Three of us could go and try to find the people who are activating the seismic generators, while the other three could go to rescue Sanza's friend."
"It's Red X while the mask is on, kid," replied the thief, "and in reality, I'm not sure I like that idea... a group of three people might not be able to win a fight as easily, and I might have to show myself. That puts Cleo at risk."
"So... you just want to deactivate the weapon now and go after Cleo later?" asked Robin, puzzled that Red X wouldn't want to organize a rescue party right away. "I'm happy that you're not just thinking of yourself, but-"
"I'd actually prefer to go after Cleo first and worry about the city later, but... I don't think that's going to happen, so... you'd better hurry up and save the city."
"We'd better hurry up and quit talking," said Cyborg, easily lifting up the metallic door and gesturing out toward the long, wide hallway that led to the rest of the building. "We'll probably end up finding Cleo on the way to stopping these guys anyway... right now we'd better move!"
"Cyborg's right. Titans, go!"
And with that, Robin led his team down the hallway, with Cyborg, closely followed by Red X, bringing up the rear. It was only the beginning of a long, vital mission, and already, Red X had a bad feeling. Though he knew that with the Titans, he would have a decisive force advantage over any of the guards in the building, he still worried that something was going to go terribly wrong... and it was a feeling he couldn't shake, no matter how hard he tried. What if Cleo was already dead? What if the photo Sedaris had taken of her hadn't been from today, but from yesterday, when she'd apparently been taken?
"I can't focus on the negatives now... I've gotta make these guys pay for hurting Cleo, just like I made Slade and Sorel pay for hurting my family."
The thief soon picked up his pace, overtaking Cyborg and Raven and running right alongside Terra and Beast Boy in the middle of the group. As he ran with them, he could see Beast Boy's head turning toward him.
"Don't worry..." said Beast Boy, a confident smile portrayed on his lips. "We're gonna save Cleo... helping people in trouble is what we do."
Terra said nothing, continuing to look forward as she and the rest of the team ran down the long corridor. For her, this mission was a test... a test to see if she was truly worthy of saving Jump City, if she was truly worthy of being on the team. She knew that most of the Titans, especially Raven, still didn't fully trust her... but if the Titans were successful in this mission, maybe Terra could once again return to a sense of normalcy and belonging.
The Titans and X continued to run until they reached the end of the hall... they could no longer go straight, but a long hallway stretching to the left and right lay out in front of them. A sign on the wall facing them had two arrows posted on it, one pointing to the left and one to the right.
"All right, team, which way?" asked Robin, staring up at the sign. "Main Production 1 or Main Production 2?"
Neither one of the signs gave Robin any indication that they would lead to either the main systems control or to the hostage. With so much at stake, and with the signs not giving him any clues at all, Robin made the only decision that he could.
"All right, we'll split up. Starfire and Cyborg, you come with me to the left. Beast Boy, Terra, Raven... to the right."
Robin left the thief to his own devices... as a non-member, he wasn't bound to follow the Boy Wonder's decisions, and even if he was part of the team, Robin knew that Red X would never obey any orders that he was given. Without a moment's hesitation, X followed Beast Boy, Terra, and Raven to the right, toward Main Production 2. In making his decision, X had to factor in that Raven's darkness-oriented powers might do a better job in keeping him concealed than if he'd gone with Starfire and Cyborg, who routinely threw around energy blasts that could light up a whole room.
The three not traveling with Red X made their way to the left as quickly as they could, immediately running up against a contingent of guards who'd just emerged from a side room. There were three guards in all, and though Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg held no sufficient numerical advantages over them, their superhuman abilities enabled them to take out the guards in mere seconds.
"This way," shouted Robin, as soon as the guards had been rendered unconscious. He led Starfire and Cyborg around a corner and into an enormous, wide-open area with a metallic balcony framing the entire perimeter of the room. When he looked up, he could see four more balconies, each one higher than the last. The room itself was mostly empty, save for what appeared to be an empty reception desk toward the right side of the room. To the group's left were several glass doors. "This room is..."
"The lobby," said Cyborg, walking toward the center of the room and gazing up toward the four balconies. "We could reach anywhere in the building from this room..."
Starfire's focus was on an elevator to the right side of the reception desk. On the other side of the desk was another elevator, and both of them appeared to be in proper working order.
"Perhaps the people controlling the signal for the generators are on the top floor?" remarked Starfire, pointing toward the elevator. Robin and Cyborg looked over at the elevator, and began to suspect the same thing. Any signal would likely be stronger the closest it was to the top of the building... so the people that the Titans were looking for were probably located on the fifth floor.
"Good work, Starfire," said Robin, walking over to the elevator. Cyborg and Starfire followed, the latter having a smile on her face from Robin's small display of encouragement.
"I was merely following what I believed to be logical... but I do cherish any good words that Robin has for me," thought Starfire, standing patiently alongside Cyborg as Robin pressed the elevator's 'up' button and waited for the door to open.
O-O-O
While the group of three waited in the lobby, the group of four had made an almost immediate detour after Beast Boy found a flight of stairs and went up to the second floor before anyone could stop him. Both Raven and Red X had wanted to explore the first floor a bit more thoroughly, but before they could say anything, Beast Boy and Terra had made the ascent.
They emerged in another hallway similar to the one from which they'd just came. The hallway was long and wide, with a grated metallic door on each side every thirty feet or so. It seemed that every room on the second floor was a miniature factory, each one responsible for producing a different kind of military hardware.
"There's nothing here," said Red X, lifting up one of the metallic flaps and briefly looking underneath to inspect the contents of the room. "They're making guns in there... big guns. No signal controller, and no Cleo."
"I know there's something up here," said Beast Boy, stopping in front of another of the metal gates and transforming into a gorilla, "and I'm going to find it."
"Suit yourself, Red X replied, following Beast Boy as he lifted up each of the gates, looking into the rooms, each of which was producing a different piece of military hardware. As the green gorilla and the thief continued their search, Raven and Terra lagged behind, walking side-by-side down the center of the hallway.
Raven could sense a constant, underlying emotional vibe from Terra... it was faint, but it was there nonetheless.
"Don't be nervous about this," said Raven, looking over at Terra and calmly offering her advice. "You're a part of this team again... just remember the mission and you'll be fine."
"Look, I know that you still don't fully trust me... and you're perfectly right not to, after everything I did..." replied Terra, her hands clasped in front of her just below her waist. "I'm going to do the best I can, Raven."
"It's not just you I'm worried about... it's Beast Boy," said Raven, briefly glancing over at her changeling teammate as he opened up yet another room on the left side of the hallway. "He feels very strongly about you... I don't think he's entirely sure that you're going to be okay."
"That makes two of us," said Terra quietly. Beast Boy had detransformed in front of the most-recently opened room, and was standing alongside Red X, the both of them focusing their attention on its contents. "Hey, what's in there? Did you find anything?"
Inside the room were twenty large vehicles that resembled RVs, only three times bigger. They were painted bright yellow and bore the LaredoSoft company logo on their sides.
"Those things are the coolest cars I've ever seen," said Beast Boy, an awed expression on his face.
"They're mobile command centers," replied Red X, walking into the room and carefully inspecting the front of one of the vehicles. "They get sent out to areas where disasters have struck."
"I remember seeing one of those a couple years ago..." said Terra, a slightly sedated tone in her voice. "At one of the mudslides that I... I accidentally caused..."
"Somebody's expecting something a lot bigger than a mudslide," said Red X, slapping his hand across the front window of the vehicle. "After the earthquake, they're gonna roll these things out all over the city."
The vehicles, which cost about a quarter of a million each to produce, would be sold to Jump City officials at a price of tens of millions of dollars each after the earthquake. The sale of such vehicles alone would net hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for Nicholas Jarvin's company... just one of the way that he and his fellow conspirators would profit off of Jump City's destruction.
"There's nothing to see on this floor," said Raven, "unless you want to steal one of these vehicles."
Raven's remark netted a smile from Red X that, because of his mask, the blue-cloaked goth wasn't able to see. X shook his head and exited the room, followed by Raven, Terra, and eventually, Beast Boy. The group bypassed the rest of the room's in the hallway, beginning their search for the third floor of the building. All four of them knew that time was rapidly running out.
O-O-O
The elevator opened on the fifth floor, and Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg stepped out into a large carpeted room filled with reflective glass panels mounted on small wooden pedestals. The decorative glass structures reflected the Titans' images in a slightly distorted fashion, giving the beautiful executive lobby a slightly eerie appearance. The lobby contained three doors, one which led to a series of offices, and another that led to a pair of restrooms.
"Guess we'd better go in this one," said Cyborg, opening the door at the back of the lobby and revealing yet another corridor leading straight ahead. "This building's really big, but we've still gotta be close to the people running this place..."
"I agree," replied Robin, stepping out into the hallway with Cyborg and Starfire. As the three began to walk, their steps echoing slightly in the wide, empty corridor, all three of them could hear a faster series of steps off in the distance, making a metallic skittering noise that sounded as if it was being originated by someone wearing tap shoes. "That's strange to hear..."
The noise was slowly becoming louder and louder, and when the Titans reached an intersecting hallway, they could clearly discern that it was coming from the left, increasing in rate and intensity every second.
"There are more guards coming?" asked Starfire, her hands and eyes lighting up defensively. Whatever the noise was, it certainly didn't sound like human feet were making it... and it was continuing to get louder. "Should we attempt to flee, or-"
"Let's go into one of the side rooms and see exactly what it is," said Robin, gesturing for Cyborg and Starfire to follow him to the right. The problem was, however, that there were no side rooms for Robin and the other Titans to duck into... only an enormous production facility, stretching out for hundreds of feet. They emerged from the hallway into this expansive room, looking up and out to see several robotic cranes lowering what appeared to be the frames of vehicles onto a conveyor belt, where they were mechanically assembled with the other parts of the vehicles and then shuffled out of the room into a large hole built into the wall. "Uh... okay, maybe not."
The three Titans turned around and left the construction area... and found themselves facing a large, robotic crab, its large claws opened in front of it. It stood nearly fifteen feet tall, with its claws nearly eight feet in diameter. It was painted dark blue, an abnormal color for a crab to be sure, but its color made it no less dangerous as it quickly skittered about on its eight metallic legs, producing series of loud, metallic noises that indicated to the Titans the exact source of the sounds they'd been hearing.
"I think we just met this place's security system," said Cyborg, his cannon arm beginning to charge up energy. The Titans had been backed into the factory, but they certainly had a lot of space with which to retreat... though none of them believed that they would need any of it.
The eyes on top of the mechanical crab's head began to light up with a bright orange glow, and less than a second later, two powerful lasers were projected from its eyes and straight toward the three Titans. Starfire, closest to the laser blasts, easily dodged them and flew above the robot, launching a flurry of Starbolts at the heavily-armored top of its head. The Starbolts collided with the crab robot and exploded, causing little, if any damage.
"Robin, it is impervious to my-" was all that Starfire was able to say before the crab's left claw came down hard on the top of her head, knocking her to the ground and immediately rendering her unconscious. With a cry of rage, Robin leapt at the robotic creature and swatted it several times with his bo staff, having little effect. He leapt out of the way of another blast of laser fire, then withdrew a small explosive device from his belt and hurled it toward the robot's eyes. Another burst of laser fire destroyed the Birdbombs, prematurely detonating them before they could make impact.
"From one robot to another, I ain't messin' around!" shouted Cyborg, repeatedly firing blasts from his energy cannon at the crab's numerous legs. Like the top of the robot, which had managed to avoid damage from Starfire's energy bolts, the legs were armored and sustained little damage from Cyborg's blasts. "Looks like I'll have to try a different approach..."
He ran up to the crab robot and began pulling at its legs, attempting to tear them from the main structure with little success. It wasn't long before the crab robot realized what Cyborg was doing and swatted him away with one of its claws, just as it had done to Starfire. Cyborg managed to stay on his feet, and was soon making another attack, this time coordinating with Robin.
While Robin used his bo staff to pole vault himself on top of the robot's head, Cyborg had fired his sonic disruption cannon toward the robot's legs. This caused the robot to wobble, and kept the eye lasers that it was firing at Robin from being accurate, with each blast missing the Boy Wonder entirely.
"Thanks for keeping its blasts away," said Robin, holding another of his bombs in hand, this one designed to cover the crab's eyes in goo and render its laser fire completely ineffective. "Now to take out one of its weapons... right now!"
But before Robin could throw the bomb, a laser blast struck him directly in the chest, knocking him completely off of the robot's head and sending him plummeting toward the ground. A brief look around revealed that Cyborg was no longer there to disrupt the robot's aim... and that brief look was all that Robin got, because just a second later, all he could see was complete darkness.
The robot had closed one of its claws around Robin, trapping him completely. Cyborg was trapped in the other claw, while Starfire was just waking up from having been knocked down earlier, her head throbbing in pain.
"Unnnggh... Robin? Cyborg?" Starfire said, quickly noticing the absence of her friends and the fact that the giant crab robot was still standing right in front of her. "Where could they possibly have gone?"
Inside each of the confined spaces of the crab robot's powerful claws, a desperate struggle was taking place... while Robin was attempting to use his staff to pry his way out, Cyborg was trying to blast his way out, and neither of them were having any sort of immediate success. Starfire could hear the sounds of commotion from inside the claws, but before she could attempt to free her friends, both claws were brought rapidly toward her, in an attempt to smash her completely. She extended her arms and stopped both of them, and was soon locked in a struggle to keep them from closing in any further. She held her palms out against the sides of the claws, nearly losing her footing as sweat started to pour down her face.
"I... have to... help... Cyborg... and Robin!" thought Starfire, a pained expression on her face as she struggled to hold back the claws of the crab robot. "I just have to focus!"
O-O-O
Elsewhere on the fifth floor, in a glass-windowed office overlooking a wide, empty space, Nicholas Jarvin was observing the battle of strength between Starfire and the crab robot on one of his many security monitors.
"Cancer Beta is performing much better than I'd expected," said Jarvin Sr., a smile showing on his face. "Certainly an improvement over the last guard robot I created..."
With just a small amount of production to be completed, the elder Jarvin was just about ready to activate the trigger signal for the three seismic generators. After the last few vehicles had rolled off the assembly line, he would finally be able to set in motion the events that would lead to the destruction of Jump City... and to trillions of dollars in profit.
"I should've known that even if Red X wouldn't try to stop me, the Titans would... but I planned ahead for that little possibility."
On another of the monitors was a visual display of the large, dark storage room in which Cleo was currently being held. He'd seen his son enter and exit that particular room several times over the course of the day... knowing exactly what the younger Jarvin had been doing.
"For some, the rewards are different than others... for me, the only motivation is money and power. I'm sure that my associate Mr. Dullahan and his headstrong bodyguard feel the same way... and in just a short while, we'll have all the money and power that we could ever want. And it's all thanks to my brilliant efforts..."
O-O-O
Starfire continued to strain against the immense force of the claws attempting to crush her. A searing pain had begun to shoot through her arms, and she knew that her strength was giving out... but she wasn't going to quit, not when her friends' lives were at stake. She could hear her friends' voices from inside the claws... muffled as they were, she could still discern that Robin was in the claw to her right, and Cyborg was in the claw to her left.
"Perhaps this will help..." said Starfire, concentrating just enough to fire her eye lasers at the joint connecting the robot's left claw to its body. The force of the blast wasn't enough to sever the robot's arm, but it did manage to force the arm to the side, and its claw opened, spilling an exhausted Robin out onto the floor. The other claw lifted high into the air and swatted downward at Starfire, who rolled out of the way and fell to her knees at Robin's side. "Robin, are you-"
The pair's reunion was interrupted by a loud explosion, followed by the sound of metallic boots hitting the floor. Cyborg had finally managed to blast himself out of captivity, and for the first time, the crab robot had begun to show signs of vulnerability, both of its arms smoking as it stumbled back into the hallway.
"I was starting to run out of air in that thing!" shouted Cyborg, gasping slightly as he spoke.
"I am just glad that both of you are safe..." said Starfire, glancing over her shoulder to see the crab robot slowly skittering back toward them. "But we still have work to complete..."
With a nod of his head, Robin extended his bo staff again and faced down the robot, with Starfire and Cyborg flanking him on either side.
"Titans, go!" shouted Robin, just as the crab's claws came down upon the Titans once more. Starfire and Cyborg leapt out of the way, bombarding the robot with energy blasts while Robin vaulted onto its head once more and did a flying leap, straight toward the robot's lit-up orange eyes. Before it could fire its lasers, Robin's feet slammed into the glass eyes and shattered them instantly, causing a minor explosion and sending out a huge shower of sparks. He then somersaulted behind the robot and fired his grappling cables at its legs.
"Perhaps if our blasts cannot damage it, we will just have to use our strength!" said Starfire, gesturing for Cyborg to follow her toward the back of the robot, where Robin was standing. As the robot came to a stop and attempted to turn around, it found that its legs were far too tangled up in Robin's cables for it to do so, and the entire frame of the robotic crab began to lurch upward.
"Both of you, get under it!" said Robin, though by now, Starfire and Cyborg had already gotten the idea. They dashed through the robot's tangled legs and ran underneath its metallic underbelly, both of them pressing their arms up against its frame and pushing upward. Slowly, both of them were able to lift its huge body over their heads.
"This thing's real heavy, man, I hope you've got an idea about what to do with this thing..." said Cyborg, straining against the weight of the nearly eight-ton robotic crab.
"I know exactly what to do!" said Starfire, gesturing with her head toward one of the large conveyor belts about fifty feet away. "But it will require us both to work together... are you ready?"
Cyborg nodded, and Robin gave the order.
"On my count... one... two... three!"
The two of them tossed the huge crab robot away with all of their might, its enormous body sailing across the room under it landed on the conveyor belt between two van frames. Its legs still tangled up, it was unable to propel itself off of the belt, and within seconds, it was carried out of the room.
"That was wonderful!" shouted Starfire, wrapping her arms around Cyborg in a congratulatory hug. "Now we will no longer be bothered by that terrible blue monster..."
"Yeah... I'm kinda hoping that conveyor belt doesn't reverse direction, though," said Cyborg, slowly pulling away from Starfire and shooting a glance at the hole through which the robot had disappeared.
"Let's not stay to find out," said Robin, pointing at the hallway leading out of the large factory room. "C'mon, guys... we've still got work to do."
O-O-O
Raven, Terra, Beast Boy, and Red X's decision to use the stairs instead of the elevator to reach the top floor of the facility brought them face to face with more security guards... but none of them were any match for the three Titans and the expert thief, and the group made it to the top floor without any problems whatsoever.
They emerged into a small, carpeted room with a table in the center, directly adjancent to an enormous, expansive factory area. This area was one of the building's huge processing rooms, with conveyor belts delivering completed vehicles onto large service elevators that then took those vehicles down to storage areas elsewhere in the building.
"So this is how they got all those cars down to the second floor," said Terra, peeking through the room's glass window into the processing area. "It's all so very..."
"Efficient? Yeah, deadly efficient," said Red X, using one of his Xs to make a hole in the window, through which he then climbed to emerge into the processing facility. "C'mon, I'm sure we have to go through here to get to the rest of the floor, so let's hurry up."
The three Titans used the more conventional method of going through the door next to the large window. When they emerged into the processing area, they could see that one of the vans coming through on the conveyor belt wasn't a van at all... but a large blue robotic crab, its legs tangled up in thin, wiry cable.
"Is that... Robin's cables around that thing's legs?" asked Beast Boy, his finger pointing up at the crab as the conveyor belt slowly carried it across the room toward the service elevator.
"I think so," replied Terra, her eyes narrowing as she looked up at the tangled robot, wondering what it could possibly be doing on one of the room's conveyor belts... unless, of course, her fellow Titans had put it there. "Has Robin's group already been through here?"
A loud snapping noise was immediately followed by the sight of the enormous robot leaping up off of the conveyor belt and landing directly in front of the group, its impact shaking the ground and nearly knocking the four of them off their feet. Its legs generated small cracks in the concrete floor as it landed, and its sparking and smoking head clearly indicated that it had been in a battle.
"Guess Robin and the others didn't finish it off all the way," said Red X, his palms glowing bright red. "Figures that he wouldn't finish what he started..."
The thief launched a series of exploding Xs at the front of the crab's main section, creating a fireball but little else. Before he could fire again, the crab's left claw had swatted him away, and his back impacted a pillar supporting a conveyor belt.
"My turn," said Raven, her eyes beginning to glow as she used her powers to take control of the robot's legs. "Azarath, metreon, zinthos!"
Slowly, the large crab began to lift off of the ground, its metallic legs having taken on a black glow. Sensing that it was in danger of being turned over, the robot activated a panel placed in the center of its body. The panel slid away, revealing several small holes through which incendiary rockets could be fired. Beast Boy saw that Raven was directly in the line of fire, and as the first of the rockets began to deploy, he ran at her, tackling her out of the way.
"Beast Boy, I was trying to-"
Raven's protests were cut off by the sound of an explosion, just as the rockets slammed into the ground next to Beast Boy and herself, generating a huge fireball that reached clear up to the ceiling of the room. Her eyes widened as she realized what her green teammate had just saved her from.
"Definitely should be more careful next time..." thought Raven, raising her cloak over her face to shield herself from the smoke that the explosion had generated. Meanwhile, Terra, realizing that the ground was concrete, used her powers to lift up a huge chunk of the floor underneath the robot and rapidly levitate the metallic crab into the air.
"I think I'll put you right through the floor," said Terra, who then tried to flip the concrete chunk over, only to have the robot leap up off of it and position its body directly above her head. She let out a worried scream, and Beast Boy rushed to her rescue, transforming into a gorilla and lifting his arms to catch the giant crab before it could smash Terra. "Whew..."
"Looks like I'm saving everyone today..." thought the exhausted Beast Boy, straining to keep the robot over his head. As his legs began to give out, he got some unexpected help as Red X used his body as a wall, leaping off of him in order to blast the crab's main body with a large, glowing net. As the robot was blasted backwards, tangled in the net, Beast Boy detransformed and began rubbing his arms, aching from the strain of having supported so much weight. "Ow... ow ow ow..."
"Beast Boy, that was amazing!" said Terra, placing her hand on Beast Boy's shoulder. "Are you all right?"
Beast Boy nodded, managing to give Terra a smile.
"Yeah, but only because you're all right," said Beast Boy. Terra giggled and leaned over, gently placing a kiss on her green friend's cheek. At that moment, the robot's claw smacked Beast Boy away, sending him skidding nearly twenty feet across the room. Terra let out another horrified scream.
"How the hell did you break that net so fast?" shouted Red X, watching as the robot opened one of its claws and attempted to trap Terra. She managed to get her arms up, holding its claw open, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before her strength failed and she was trapped. "Shit, that's not good..."
Seeing that Raven was busy with the other of the robot's claws, X leapt at Terra and attempted to knock her out of its grasp... only to miscalculate and plow into her at an awkward angle. She screamed and let up on her grip, and the robot's claw closed around both of them.
"Terra! X!" Raven was consumed with dread on seeing the crab robot's claw close around both of her partners, and again she began focusing her powers, attempting to pry the claw open so that they could both escape. As soon as the claw had begun to turn black, she found herself completely trapped in darkness as its other claw closed around her. "No!"
Outside of both of the robot's claws, Beast Boy immediately went for the one holding X and Terra, transforming into a gorilla again and attempting to pry it open. He stopped when another flurry of rockets slammed into his back, knocking him away again and causing him to let out a roar of pain.
Inside the robot's left claw, X and Terra were crammed extremely tightly inside a space that was just big enough to accommodate them both.
"I tried to help you, I really did," said Red X, coating the inside of the crab's claw with goo in an attempt to force it to open by expanding the liquid. "I guess I just missed by a little bit..."
"Don't talk..." gasped Terra, her eyes widening as she realized that neither of them had very much air to breathe... only enough for each of them to breath maybe a couple of times. "This space is airtight... so we have to conserve..."
"Which is precisely why I'm trying to get us both out of here," said Red X, attempting to be calm, when in reality he was quickly becoming terrified as he realized how shallow his breaths were getting. The fact that the two of them took up so much space inside the claw meant that there was very little for air to actually inhabit... he had to get the two of them out immediately. "Please let this work..."
The goo began to take on a dim, red glow, and for a brief moment, both X and Terra could see each other inside the otherwise complete darkness of the inside of the crab's claw... then the glow disappeared, and X realized that his plan to expand the claw wasn't going to work. His goo had dissolved completely.
"DAMMIT!" X shouted, his fists rapidly pounding the metallic interior of the claw. "Someone get us out of here! Raven, Beast Boy, get us out!"
Terra had never seen Red X this worked up before... he'd gone from cool and calm to frantic and fearful in just a matter of seconds... and it was doing nothing to calm her own nerves, which were also rapidly fraying.
"Sanza, you have to calm down... there's still air in here, just not very much..."
Terra's voice was trembling as she spoke, and she could feel Red X trembling beside her... their bodies both cramped so tightly together inside the closed space of the inside of the robot's claw.
"Beast Boy..." thought Terra, closing her eyes and taking extremely slow, shallow breaths, trying both to calm herself down and to conserve oxygen, "please... please hurry..."
Beast Boy and Raven were still attempting to save X and Terra, though the crab's constant barrage of attacks was keeping Raven from being able to concentrate her powers long enough to open the robot's claw.
"Beast Boy, the only way I'm going to get that thing open is if you can distract it long enough for me to concentrate. I just need a few seconds, can you do that?"
Beast Boy nodded, his worry for Terra motivating him as he transformed into an elephant and rammed hard into the robot's frame. It skittered backward before charging back equally hard, ramming its body into Beast Boy's forehead and nearly giving him a concussion. As he charged forward again, Raven pointed her hands at the left claw, which once again took on a black glow.
"Come on, you can do this... it's strong, but you're stronger... just focus..."
Slowly, the robot's claw came open. It opened up a few inches, then snapped shut again, the black glow disappearing. While Raven's action hadn't freed Red and Terra, it had allowed fresh air to fill the space they were inhabiting, giving them at least a minute of precious oxygen while the two Titans outside attempted to free them.
The robot charged into Beast Boy again, and this time, he lost his balance, detransforming and painfully rubbing his forehead as he fell to the floor.
"Okay, seriously, how the heck can a crab be stronger than an elephant? That violates practically every law of nature!" shouted Beast Boy, angrily staring up at his robotic foe. "Raven, did you get X and Terra out of-"
"Still trying," said Raven. The robot's panels opened again, and several more rockets shot out, each of them aimed at the cloaked half-demoness. She turned around and put up an energy shield, blocking the rockets but losing whatever progress she'd made on getting Red X and Terra free. "The attacks are coming too quickly!"
Inside the claw, Red X continued trying to free both himself and Terra, after having been told by her that the metal completely surrounding them made her terrakinetic powers useless.
"I can't dissolve the frame with my Xs..." said the thief, a slight fearful tremble still evident in his voice. "Damn... what's taking Raven and Beast Boy so long?"
"Please, just don't talk..." replied Terra. "Raven got us a little bit more air to breathe, we can't waste that."
"She's calmer than me..." thought Red X, "at least from what I can tell..."
X knew that Terra was afraid, but unlike him, she hadn't once lost her cool... even as the air present inside the confined area they were in began to get thinner and thinner. It was likely the fact that Beast Boy was trying to rescue her that gave her comfort... X knew little about their relationship, besides the fact that the two had apparently fallen in love with one another before Terra's betrayal.
"I wonder if Cleo is as calm as Terra is? If she expects me to come save her?"
The bad feeling that Red X had been sensing ever since he and the Titans had entered the factory was returning, stronger than ever... not only was his life in danger, but Cleo's as well. He had to escape if he ever wanted to see her again... but right now, escape for X and Terra didn't seem very likely at all... and once again, his breaths were becoming shallow.
"Terra... I'm sorry..." said Red X quietly, still trying to figure out a way to extricate the two of them from the claw. "If I'd just aimed a little better, neither of us would be in here, so..."
"It's not your fault," replied Terra. "You tried to help... if it hadn't been for you I'd still be in here, just... alone..."
It was then that Red X could feel Terra's arms wrapping around him... she was trembling just as much as he was.
"Yeah, but you'd have a lot more air to breathe," said Red X. It was then that Terra did something that he never would've expected her to do in a situation like this... she gave a giggle. A nervous giggle, but a giggle nonetheless.
"Shh..." whispered Terra, once again admonishing him to be quiet. She tried to take another breath, but could no longer feel oxygen entering her lungs, just the unpleasant warmness of carbon dioxide. "No..."
Light came in an instant, followed by the shattering of the metallic walls around Terra and Red X, who fell to the ground on top of one another, both of them gasping for air. Raven was standing a few feet away, also gasping, though out of exhaustion, while Beast Boy had transformed into an octopus and had placed two of his tentacles in all four of the crab robot's missile launchers.
"About... time..." gasped Red X, briefly lifting up his mask so that he could take in a few full breaths of air. Terra, her face red and completely covered in sweat, stood up and ran over to Beast Boy as soon as he detransformed, wrapping her arms tightly around his back in a warm, thankful embrace.
"Thank Raven too..." said Beast Boy, a warm smile on his face. "She's the one who blasted you guys outta there..."
"I'll thank her as soon as I kill this thing for almost suffocating me," said Red X, his eyes narrowing as he stared down the robot, skittering about with only its right claw intact. "Let's put this thing down..."
Beast Boy and Terra broke off their hug and faced the robot, while Raven and Red X stood on either side of them. The group of four quickly split off, each of them going to one side of the robot and surrounding it. Red X took the front, Raven took the back, and Beast Boy and Terra went to the left and right respectively. The robot began turning rapidly, not knowing which of the four to attack. Finally, it slid open its panel and launched four rockets, each one directed toward a different person. Raven easily blocked the rocket with an energy shield, while Terra leapt back and used a large chunk of concrete to deflect the blast. Red X formed a spherical energy ball out of one of his Xs that caught the rocket and harmlessly absorbed the explosion, and Beast Boy transformed into a snake, causing the rocket to sail over his head and hit the floor behind him.
"I've got an idea," said Terra, uplifting the concrete underneath Beast Boy to slide him gently over to her. "Don't change back yet..."
She picked up the still-serpentine Beast Boy and placed him inside one of the rocket launching holes just before the panel closed.
"What are you doing, Terra?" asked Raven, puzzled and a bit worried by Terra's plan to place him inside the robot. "That looks dangerous..."
But as soon as Beast Boy had gotten inside, he transformed himself into a mouse and began chewing on every wire that he could find, until the interior of the robot was a sparking, smoking mess.
"Great job, Beast Boy!" shouted Terra, who could see more smoke spewing from the holes in the robot's head and its left claw.
"One problem," said Raven, noticing that the panel on the robot's chest was still closed. "How is he going to get out?"
"That's where I come in," replied Red X, placing a single X on the robot's main body and causing the rocket panel to slide open. A second later, the small, furry Beast Boy jumped out, running over to Terra and detransforming. He coughed several times, placing his hand over his chest as he watched the huge crab stagger about, its entire body now beginning to spark.
"Was getting a little nasty in there..." coughed Beast Boy. Terra slapped him on the back a couple of times, getting all the smoke out of his lungs. "That's better."
The disabled robot stumbled forward, then backward... then forward again.
"I... think we should probably go now," said Raven, indicating the exit to the room, a large opening in the left wall that led out into the fifth-floor hallway. Beast Boy and Terra quickly dashed toward the exit, and Raven followed them, with Red X lagging a few seconds behind. He lingered near the exit, watching as more sparks and smoke engulfed the crab robot... then, finally, a large explosion turned what had once been a dangerous machine into a heap of scrap metal, scattered about the processing area. Then, he turned and left with the others, the bad feeling he had about Cleo still lingering inside of him.
O-O-O
The halls of the fifth floor were like a maze, with few rooms and even fewer signs to indicate where one should go if they were searching for a specific thing. Raven, Beast Boy, Terra, and Red X dashed through the empty corridors, not realizing that some of the areas they explored had already been covered by Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg earlier.
Red X was starting to get fed up with running around aimlessly... especially with his gut telling him that something was terribly wrong. The only rooms of any consequence that the group had managed to find were a few offices... and after a while, Beast Boy began whining that he needed to get to a restroom.
"You would think that in such a big building, there would be at least ONE place to go pee... I mean, do the people who work here just carry around buckets, or what?" shouted an exasperated Beast Boy, grimacing and clutching the area between his legs. "C'mon c'mon c'mon... I think we passed one a few minutes ago..."
"That's it," said Red X, turning away from the group and walking in the opposite direction. "Obviously, you guys aren't finding Cleo, or anything else, and I can't put up with Beast Boy's whining for one more goddamn minute."
"...if you want, you can X his mouth shut," remarked Raven, only half in jest.
"Wait, you can't leave!" shouted Beast Boy, ignoring Raven's comment and walking over to Red X. "I thought we were a team!"
"No," said Red X, turning around and pointing at Raven and Terra. "You, Raven, Terra, Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg are a team. I work alone. Always have, always will."
Red X then began to walk, before turning a corner to the left and making his way into an area of the building that he and the group hadn't previously explored. Beast Boy attempted to stop him, but Terra walked over and grabbed him by the shoulder, gently leading him back toward Raven.
"Let him go," said Terra, though in her mind she was worried about Red X, not only that he might not be able to fight off potential attackers, but that there was a higher likelyhood that the people holding Cleo would spot him. "He... he obviously has his own agenda in mind..."
"We need to hurry," replied Raven. "This building is huge, there's still a lot of ground to cover on this floor alone."
And so the three Titans left Red X to his own devices... something that Beast Boy and Terra were hoping that they wouldn't regret.
The thief's turn had taken him down another long hallway, and as he ran, he soon encountered a chance to turn left and a sign posted on the wall.
"According to this sign, to the left are restrooms... well, Beast Boy would be happy. Straight ahead... 'Auxillary Storage'. What the hell is Auxillary Storage?"
Red X would soon find out... after about a half minute of running, he came upon a set of metallic double doors. After pushing them open, he emerged into a large, cement-floored room with red brick walls, lit only by a few dim yellow lights dangling from the ceiling. Boxes were stacked all over the room, labeled with their contents. Inside the boxes were things that wouldn't be needed in the city's post-earthquake relief effort, things that were being put away to save space for the items that would eventually be deployed throughout the city in the coming days.
As Red X slowly walked through the room, toward another set of metallic double doors, he could faintly sense that the growing feeling of dread inside him was getting stronger and stronger. He could only hope that they hadn't detected him inside the facility... that they hadn't killed Cleo because he'd shown up.
"Think positive, Sanza... your family was rescued unharmed, Cleo's going to be safe, too..."
He'd become Red X to protect his loved ones... and if they were safe, his mission was successful. If not... then he was a failure, who didn't even deserve to put on the suit.
He pushed open the double doors, expecting to find another room filled with boxes... but instead, he found exactly what he was looking for.
He found Cleo.
She had been bound to a chair in the center of the room, strong, course rope encircling her wrists and tying them to the back of the chair, while rope tied around her chest secured her even more. Her legs were spread out and bound individually to the legs of the chair, the rope wrapping around and cutting into her ankles. A thick cloth was tied tightly between her lips, and the skin on her face was clearly bruised around where it had been tied. Her head drooped. She weak from lack of food, and her body was covered in bruises. She'd been beaten... but Red X didn't discover her most horrific injuries until he got up close.
"Cleo...?"
She slowly raised her head, letting out several fearful, muffled cries. As soon as her eyes met with Red X's, they began to widen, and she slowly calmed down... though tears were clearly seen to be running down the sides of her face.
"Cleo... oh my god, I'm so sorry..."
With gentle, trembling hands, Red X reached behind Cleo's head and undid the knot that held the cloth between her lips. It dropped into her lap, and she let out several weak sobs, her head drooping forward again.
"I'm here to... to rescue you... just... just try to stay calm..."
Red X reached behind Cleo and untied her wrists, then undid the ropes around her chest that held her arms to her sides. She continued to tremble, to sob, not saying a word or even moving from the chair as Red X untied the ropes around her ankles. Once she was freed, Cleo continued to sit in the chair, a lifeless look in her face. Red X lifted up her chin and gently looked down into her eyes before helping her up and holding her tightly to him.
"Cleo... you don't have to... to be afraid... it's all right... I'm here..."
Though he was wearing the mask, and the costume, Red X was no longer Red X... not now, in a situation like this... he was Sanza Salazar, Cleo's friend and comfort, and he was going to be there for her, no matter what. It was clear that she'd been hurt, and she leaned her head against his shoulder, just continuing to sob, not saying a single word.
Something had broken her spirit... her body was still trembling, and no matter how long Red X held onto Cleo, the trembling didn't stop.
"They... they hurt me... they hurt me..."
"Cleo... oh god, this is my fault..." thought Red X, tightening his grip around Cleo, his hand gently rubbing her back.
"One of them... he... he came in here, he... he..."
"Shh... Cleo... it's going to be-"
"He... he raped me...!"
The words came in a sudden gasp, almost a scream, and it took several seconds for Red X to comprehend what Cleo had just told him. Slowly, he released her and briefly looked down at her pants... the zipper had been broken, and the button at the top had fallen off. Several times during Cleo's captivity, Lonnie Jarvin had come into the room and had stolen Cleo's innocence... she'd been raped repeatedly.
"No... no, no, no... no!"
X's entire body began to tremble, and he shook his head, an overwhelming and crushing feeling of guilt and rage overtaking his body. He looked into Cleo's tear-filled eyes and could only imagine the horrific trauma she'd been through... and all of it being his fault. If he hadn't put on the suit, if he'd done a better job protecting Cleo...
"I'm sorry... I... I'm so sorry..."
"...no... no, you... you have nothing to apologize for..." said Cleo, her trembling hand reaching over to touch Red X's masked face. "You saved my life... you came all the way here to save me... just like you saved me back at the fair-"
"No, Cleo, you don't understand," said Red X, turning around and reaching up to pull off his mask. "I have to tell her... it's because of me that she was kidnapped... it's because of me that she was raped... I have to show her the truth."
And slowly, he removed his mask... once it was off, he turned around to look into Cleo's eyes.
"Cleo... it's because of me that you were kidnapped," said Sanza, his own eyes beginning to water. Cleo, completely shocked at what she was hearing, let out a gasp and put her hand to her lips. "They took you to keep me from interfering with their plans... I'm Red X, and somehow they figured that out... it put you in danger... and I'm... I'm so sorry..."
Cleo didn't say a word for several seconds... she just continued to stare at Sanza, still stunned at his incredible revelation.
Then, she walked up to him and slapped him hard across the face, hard enough to draw blood from his lower lip.
"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" shrieked Cleo, tears coursing down her face. Her fists clenched, and as Sanza slowly recovered from the shock of having been slapped, she rammed one of her fists into his stomach, causing him to gasp and double over. "I can't believe you wouldn't tell me something like that! You KNEW that being Red X would put me in danger, and you didn't even warn me that something might happen? I loved you, Sanza... I... I was going to give you... last night... I was going to give you what that rapist son of a bitch Jarvin kid took from me over and over again... do you know... how much pain I went through, Sanza? DO YOU?"
Sanza couldn't speak... he couldn't even bear to look up at Cleo... he took a gasp of air, but that was it... and Cleo continued to rain her wrath down upon him.
"I LOVED YOU! I LOVED YOU AND YOU COULDN'T PROTECT ME! ...I don't love you any more, Sanza... I hate you... I hate you for putting me in danger... I hate you for letting me get raped... I hate you... I never want to see you again..."
Cleo's sobbing overwhelmed her words, and gave Sanza time to recover. He slowly stood up, not knowing what to do... he knew he deserved every hateful word that Cleo was saying to him, but he still loved her... and he was still sorry about what had happened to her. He felt as if his soul was being ripped from him... and he had to say something, had to do something to try and comfort Cleo.
He slowly reached out to touch her shoulder... and she kicked him as hard as she could, right in the groin. As he let out a gasping scream and fell to the ground, Cleo began to leave the room, stopping only to yell at him some more before running out.
"FUCK YOU, SANZA! I hate you for everything you've done to me! GO TO HELL!"
And with that, Cleo fled the room, pushing her way out through the double doors, tears streaming down her face. Sanza, his mask lying on the ground next to him, could only writhe on the ground, his heart aching for Cleo, not caring that she hated him but only that she'd been through such terrible agony... and that he hadn't been able to protect her.
And then, he began to cry.
O-O-O
And that concludes this sad and historic chapter! Historic because for the first time in the history of a Teen Titans fanfic, someone gets raped that's NOT Starfire, Raven, Robin, Beast Boy, or Terra. Because when you get right down to it, the only person capable of raping a Teen Titan is Jack Bauer, and only then if it's for national security. ("There's a bomb in your vagina and this is the ONLY way to get it out!") So anyway, I want some reviews. Pwease?