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
"We've been all over this floor and we still haven't found any sign of the signal controller," said Cyborg, as he, Robin, and Starfire continued to navigate the hallways of the Laredo production facility's fifth floor. "My scanners are showing that the controller's nearby, but it's got a jammer and I can't tell exactly where in the building it is."
"Keep looking," Robin replied, a determined look on his face. "Try to override the signal jammer if you can... I'm pretty sure that the controller is on this floor. This is the only place in the building where a signal of the strength required to activate those generators could be transmitted from."
The three Titans knew that they were running out of time... and if they couldn't find the controller, they could only hope that the other members of their team could locate it before it was too late.
The Titans' search was disrupted by the sound of running, accompanied by quiet sobbing... the sounds were coming from the hallway just ahead, and the three teens readied themselves for what could be a potential ambush. They stood in the middle of the hall and went into fighting stances... only to see a bruised and disheveled girl turning the corner and running toward them. When she saw the Titans, she slowed down a bit, jogging over to Robin and nearly collapsing into his arms.
"My goodness... you appear to be injured, what has happened to you?" asked Starfire, before recognizing the girl as Cleo. She and Robin had met Cleo once before... at the Fall Festival, when she and Sanza were out on a date together. "Cleo... what has happened?"
Cleo sniffled, burying her head in Robin's shoulder, her entire body trembling. When Cyborg did a brief scan of Cleo's body, he realized the grim truth of her condition.
"Robin," whispered Cyborg, leaning in toward the Titans' leader and quietly speaking into his ear, "I think she's been... I think she's been raped."
Robin didn't say a word... he simply wrapped his arm around Cleo and held her tightly to his body for several seconds, letting her get out all the tears that she wanted... from the way that her body was trembling, he knew that Cleo had been through hell.
"Who did this to you? Can you tell me their name?"
Cleo sniffled, and slowly pulled away from Robin. She bit her lip and looked away from him for a couple of seconds... then her gaze returned to Robin's face, and she finally worked up the nerve to speak her attacker's name.
"It was... it was Jarvin's son... that rich kid that's on the news all the time, he... he came in where I was being held, and he... he..."
Cleo began sobbing again, and nearly collapsed to the floor. Starfire rushed over to help her to her feet, but she waved Starfire off and stood on her own, then looked away from the Titans for several seconds, just staring out into space with a blank look on her eyes. Every time she tried to think, her mind kept replaying the horrified images of what had happened to her over and over again... she couldn't even think of Sanza, who'd been the entire reason that she had been kidnapped in the first place. Gently, Starfire reached over and placed a hand on Cleo's shoulder.
"I... I am truly sorry..." said Starfire, as tenderly as she could. "How horrible it must be to have someone force himself upon you... even on my open-minded planet, such conduct is regarded as absolutely reprehensible..."
Starfire's sweet, understanding voice managed to pierce through Cleo's horrible flashbacks in order to bring her a few seconds of comfort... and she once again managed to calm herself down, wiping away the tears from her face and slowing down her breathing a bit.
"You need to go to the hospital," said Cyborg. "Any one of us could take you, but you need to go right now..."
Without a word, Cleo nodded, and Robin walked over to face her.
"I'll take you... I'll make sure you get there safe, and I'll stay until your parents arrive. Cyborg, you're in charge of the team until I get back... take Starfire and find the other members of the team. We have to stop these guys right now."
"Robin... I could probably reach the hospital faster if I flew... maybe I could-"
"Starfire, you and Cyborg need to stay here... you're a lot more useful in taking people down than I am. I'll be back as soon as I can..."
Robin gestured for Cleo to follow him, and with some reluctance, she slowly began walking alongside him, knowing that Robin was probably the only man in the entire world that she could trust at that moment. As the leader of the Titans, he could protect her from anything... and unlike Sanza, he'd never endanger her.
"Thank you... Robin..." Cleo's voice came in a weak, almost-terrified tremble... her spirit had been completely crushed by her ordeal, and she'd used the last of her emotional strength to rebuke Sanza just a few minutes before. Robin looked over at her with an expression that reflected complete understanding and concern.
"Did you escape on your own, or...?"
"Sanza rescued me," replied Cleo, almost spitting his name as she continued to look down at the ground. "It's the only goddamned good thing he's ever done for me... I want nothing else to do with him, ever again."
Robin was surprised by Cleo's hatred of Sanza... especially since whenever he'd seen the two together, they'd been so close... did Cleo really blame Sanza for everything that had happened to her? Whatever it was, it was obvious that the two of them had had a serious falling-out... and wherever Sanza was, he was probably hurting almost as much as Cleo was.
"She... she probably blames him for putting her in danger... and I know Sanza can't be happy about what's happened to Cleo."
O-O-O
The cold concrete of the storage room was no comfort for Sanza, who had been sobbing on the floor for the past several minutes, his hands curled into fists as he crouched into a fetal position and thought of all the horrible things that must've happened to Cleo... all because he wasn't there to protect her.
"It could've been mom... it could've been Maddy... god, my luck's completely run out... Cleo's never going to speak to me again, and I don't blame her."
Sanza's worst nightmares had been realized... someone he loved had suffered horribly because of his life as Red X, and he'd been too late to save them from that suffering. The very mission that he'd become Red X to complete had been completely botched. Now, all Sanza could do was lie down and cry about it... or was there something else?
As his mind continued to dwell on all the horrors that Cleo must have suffered, his grief and sadness slowly began transforming into rage... Lonnie Jarvin was somewhere in this building, and Sanza had to make him pay. Screw the seismic generators, screw the city... Sanza had focused all of his anger and his determination on finding Cleo's rapist and making him regret ever laying a finger on her.
Sanza picked his mask up from the ground and slowly began to rise, wiping the tears from his face and sliding the mask over his head. He looked out at the exit to the storage room, his mind alternating between what Lonnie had done to Cleo and what he was about to do to Lonnie. There would be no escape... no chance of mercy... Sanza Salazar was going to rip Lonnie Jarvin apart.
"This is for you, Cleo..." thought Red X, walking toward the door and pushing it open. He was now standing in another dark storage room, with another large, metallic door at the far end. As soon as he'd taken the first step toward that door, it began to open, and someone stepped through it, a smile on his face. That someone... was Lonnie Jarvin.
"Guess this'll be the last time I get to have my fun before the quake hits," Lonnie said to himself, oblivious of the costumed thief standing at the other end of the room. Whistling to himself, he casually strode past several rows of boxes, before a quiet voice jolted him out of his lustful excitement.
"This'll be the last time you do anything, you son of a bitch."
The young man stopped in his tracks and stared straight at Red X, an expression of surprise appearing on his face.
"H...hey there," said Lonnie, a nervous twitch in his voice as one of his hands slowly began reaching behind his back. "I... I suppose you found your girlfriend, huh?"
Without a word, Red X rushed toward the younger Jarvin, his hand pointed straight at the young businessman's leg. He fired a single exploding X, which detonated as it hit Lonnie's ankle and sent him catapulting into the air before landing on his face on the concrete floor with a loud cry of pain. As he tried to stand, X's foot slammed into his side, rolling him over onto his back so that he was staring up at the ceiling. Soon, he was staring right into the eyes of Red X's mask.
"You little prick... you think you can get away with everything just because you're rich, don't you? You hurt Cleo... you hurt her... but you don't care, do you? All you care about is fulfilling your sick fantasies, don't you?"
Thinking quickly, Lonnie struck X in the stomach with his right foot. This stunned the thief just long enough for Lonnie to roll out of the way and stand up.
"You're damn right I can get away with whatever I want... destroying the city... raping your little bitch... but it's not because I'm rich, it's because I'm smart!"
Lonnie pulled his hand out from behind his back and leveled the barrel of a revolver at Red X's head just as the thief turned back toward him. As he fired the first shot, Red X ducked and charged forward, slamming his elbow into Lonnie's chest and knocking him to the ground again. He skidded back several feet but managed to get the gun pointed at X again, his eyes narrowing as the thief fired two metallic Xs that embedded themselves into the ground around Lonnie's ankles, pinning him down.
"So I'm not going to be getting up again, big deal," said Lonnie, his finger on the trigger of the revolver. "This Desert Eagle says you won't be getting up again either!"
Another shot rang out through the room, and this time, the bullet grazed X's shoulder.
"You think that's going to stop me?" said Red X, paying no attention to his wound as he walked toward the partially-immobilized Lonnie Jarvin. "You have NO idea what I'm going to do to you!"
X's voice was gradually getting louder and more furious with every second, and Lonnie couldn't help but feel a twinge of fear at the thief drew closer and closer to him. With a shaky hand, he fired two more bullets from his gun... which missed Red X completely and embedded themselves into a concrete pillar near the center of the room. As he raised his gun to fire again, X struck with a kick that knocked the gun from Lonnie's hands and sent it skidding across the room. Now, Lonnie had a reason to be scared... and as he tried to pull out the metallic bands keeping his legs anchored to the ground, X struck him with another kick... this time to the face.
"AAAGH!" screamed the rich young businessman, his body snapping backward from the force of the kick. When he lifted his face again, it was covered in blood that was rapidly trickling down his nose and lip... clearly, the kick had done some serious damage. "You... you can't do this to me! I-"
"Shut the fuck up!" screamed Red X, launching a kick that impacted the side of Lonnie's jaw and sent him splaying out on the floor, his hands limply resting at his sides. "I'm gonna make you pay for what you did to Cleo..."
By now, it was obvious to Lonnie that he was completely at Red X's mercy... his plan of shooting the thief dead should he ever come across him had failed miserably, and with his legs pinned to the ground, it would be impossible for him to run. His entire body shook with fear, and the first of many tears began making their way down his face.
"P...please... I'm sorry..."
"Sorry that you raped Cleo, or sorry that I'm about to beat you to death? Don't answer, I already know what you're sorry about."
Red X bent over and struck Lonnie hard with a punch to the gut, knocking the wind out of him and stopping the next words that he was about to say. He sat up and stared at the ground, which was rapidly starting to spin... but before he could even think of passing out, X struck him with a kick to the side, triggering a sharp pain that forced out a loud scream.
"And I'm just getting started..." said Red X, kneeling beside Lonnie and looking right into his terrified eyes. "When I'm done with you, you're going to wish that you were Cleo..."
O-O-O
Raven leaned against the wall outside the men's restroom with a perturbed frown on her face, annoyed that Beast Boy couldn't hold it in until after the Titans had stopped the threat against the city. Terra paced in front of the door, bearing a far more stoic expression... she too wished that Beast Boy could just wait, but then again, she didn't want him to suffer... and either way, it wasn't like their search had been exactly fruitful.
"We've got just a little bit more of this floor to search, then we're heading back downstairs," said Raven, briefly glancing over at Terra.
"All right..." Terra replied, her mind focusing on the task at hand... stopping the terrible fate about to befall Jump City. "I just hope Red X found Cleo okay... he seemed really worried about her."
"A little too worried if you ask me..." thought Raven, her arms crossed over her chest. "I know she's in danger, but so is the city... and a million people are a lot more important than just one."
Still, Raven understood the importance of making sure one's loved ones were safe... and certainly, if it were one of the Titans in danger, even Terra, Raven wouldn't be able to help but be at least a little distracted over their plight.
"He'll find her... what we need to worry about is stopping the-"
"Raven! Terra!" Starfire's voice, loud and cheerful, had interrupted Raven and had drawn both her and Terra's attention to the end of the hallway, from where Starfire and Cyborg were charging down, both of them excited to reunite with their fellow Titans.
"Yo, where's BB?" asked Cyborg, before spotting the men's restroom nearby and realizing exactly where his friend had gone. "Oh... that figures."
"Where's Robin?" Terra responded, noticing that Starfire and Cyborg's group was one member short. "Did he go off and-"
"It is a long story... and a sad one as well," said Starfire, bowing her head as she remembered what had happened to Cleo. "To make it short, Red X found Cleo, but she had been... she had been forced into the act of mating."
"Cleo got raped, and Robin took her to the hospital," said Cyborg, rephrasing Starfire's description of Cleo's plight.
"Where's Sanza?" asked Terra, a wave of concern filling her body and inadvertently causing her to refer to Red X by his real name. "Is he all right? Is he going after the person who-"
"That's what we think," replied Cyborg, "and we should probably find him before we pick up our search... I know where he might be, it's the area we saw Cleo coming from."
Raven, like Terra, was shocked and saddened by the news of what had happened to Sanza's girlfriend... rape was a crime that the Titans typically let the police handle, as none of the supervillains they faced in their various crime-fighting excursions were sexually deviant in any way. They'd seen buildings destroyed and had rescued people in danger, but rarely did they come face to face with some of the uglier things that criminals were capable of... being an empath, Raven could easily imagine some of the things both Sanza and Cleo must be going through.
But the fact remained that Jump City was in danger... though the overwhelming consensus among the Titans was that they had to make sure that Red X, in his rage, wasn't endangering himself or anyone else. They had to find him before they could go ahead and save the city... hopefully, it wouldn't be too much of a detour.
"Are you sure we've got enough time to check on Red X?" asked Raven as Cyborg signaled for them to follow him down the hall. "The city's still in danger... and he might not even be where you're thinking he is."
"If Red X is as angry as I believe him to be, he may do something that he will almost certainly regret later... and we cannot allow that to happen," said Starfire.
"It's not gonna take that long, he's not all that far from here," added Cyborg. "Besides... if the machine being used to control those generators is heavily guarded, we're gonna need X's help anyway."
Cyborg, Starfire, and Terra began running down the hall, while Raven slowly shook her head and started to follow them, walking instead of running. A hand touched her shoulder, and she turned around, knowing exactly who it belonged to.
"Beast Boy, you almost got left behind," said Raven, before turning and running down the hall. "See why we didn't want to stop for you?"
"Wait, where are you guys going?" shouted Beast Boy, struggling to keep up with the rest of his friends. "At least I feel a whole lot better now!"
O-O-O
Red X stomped on Lonnie several times, his foot coming down on various parts of the rapist's body. After working his legs and chest for several seconds, X stomped down repeatedly on Lonnie's crotch, forcing several progressively louder screams from the younger Jarvin's mouth.
"Stop! Stop, you're killing me!"
"You wish," said Red X, striking Lonnie in the side of the head with another powerful, brutal kick. As Lonnie closed his eyes and emitted several pained, terrified sobs, X brought his leg back to strike him again, while in his mind, his rescue of Cleo played out over and over again. He could remember every bruise, every cut on her body... he could hear every hateful word she yelled at him... and knew that he deserved every single one. How could he say that he loved her if he couldn't even protect her? "Cleo... I'm making it right... I promise, this man will never touch you again."
Instead of kicking Lonnie, Red X walked over to where the Desert Eagle had skidded earlier, bending over and picking it up. Through swollen, tear-filled eyes, Lonnie could see X picking up the gun, and let out another loud scream before shaking his head rapidly as the thief slowly came back toward him.
"N...no! No, that's murder! You can't do that!"
"Last time I checked, murder and rape were both crimes, Lonnie," said Red X, kneeling down beside the terrified man and pressing the barrel of the Desert Eagle against the side of his head. "The way I see it, I'm just balancing out the universe."
In an act of desperation, Lonnie tried grabbing for the gun, but Red X raised his foot and stomped down on Lonnie's wrist, breaking it almost instantly. The man gave another scream and turned his head away, sobbing violently and using his left hand to nurse his broken right wrist.
"N...no... please..."
"This is how Cleo begged too, isn't it? This is how she begged before you raped her... oh, I forgot, she was gagged, so she couldn't beg. Yeah, that's really tough of you, Lonnie, raping a girl who can't even defend herself. You're a reeeeeeeeeeal tough guy, aren't you?"
"Please... please... don't kill me... I... I have so much to live for..."
By now, a pool of tears had formed around Lonnie's head, mixing with the blood still dripping from his face. With the barrel of the Desert Eagle pointed at his temple, Lonnie Jarvin knew that he only had a few more seconds to live. He closed his eyes and waited for the end... waited for Red X to kill him.
The thief pulled the trigger.
"Click."
The thief pulled the trigger again.
"Click."
Lonnie opened his eyes.
"Click. Click. Click. Click."
Red X tossed the gun down in front of Lonnie's face, revealing an empty chamber. Then, he opened his palm and showed the trembling, sobbing man two small bullets. He had emptied the chamber before he'd fired the gun... and in the process, he'd scared Lonnie Jarvin nearly to death.
"I could've killed you... I could've blown your head off right there," said Red X, who, despite all that Lonnie Jarvin had done... despite the fact that he'd probably ruined Cleo's life by raping her, and had helped plot to destroy the city, couldn't bring himself to kill someone who was lying on the ground helpless and sobbing. "But then I'd be no better than you... you, a person who would force himself on a helpless girl. I spared you so that I could show you that I'm a million times the man you'll ever be... think about that while you're spending the rest of your pathetic, miserable life in jail."
Red X struck Lonnie with another kick to his side. Lonnie let out a scream and spat a small amount of blood onto the ground... he leaned his head to his side and closed his eyes, completely humiliated as he continued to sob violently.
"And while you're in your cell... or in the prison shower, getting ten times the treatment that you gave Cleo, I want you to think that the only reason that you're alive is that I spared your pathetic life. And believe me, you will go to jail. I'm sure the Titans are taking Cleo to the hospital, and the DNA evidence that the doctors get from her, on top of all the blood you left on this floor, are going to put you in a fix that even your million-dollar lawyers can't get you out of."
Red X's beating and humiliation of Lonnie Jarvin had served a cathartic purpose... while he still felt horrible about what had happened to Cleo, he could at least get up and finish the other job he'd come here to do... which was making sure that the city, as well as his family at home, remained safe. He turned away from Lonnie and started walking toward the door that led back to the main hallway.
He'd barely taken a step when the door opened and the Titans, sans Robin, entered the room. They saw Red X, they saw Lonnie, and they immediately put two and two together.
"I didn't kill him, if that's what you're wondering," said Red X, walking toward the Titans while still retaining a slight hint of anger in his voice.
"We know," replied Cyborg, gazing around Red X toward the sobbing and injured Lonnie Jarvin. "I can hear him crying..."
Beast Boy, who'd been given the lowdown on what Lonnie had done to Cleo while the Titans were heading toward the storage area, gazed at the sobbing man with an angry, hateful glare. He could only imagine how angry that he would be if someone had done something like that to Terra... or to Raven, or to Starfire.
"Whatever you did to him," thought Beast Boy, "he deserved it."
"I am... sorry," said Starfire, placing her hand on Red X's shoulder as he walked past the Titans and toward the room's entrance. "I only hope that Cleo will recover, and-"
"She'll be fine," replied Red X, though in truth he knew that even if Cleo 'recovered' from what had happened to her, she would never be the same again... no one who had gone through an ordeal like that was ever truly able to return to the same person they were before. "Right now, we've got a city to save."
The five Titans followed Red X out of the room, leaving Lonnie Jarvin behind, having absolutely no sympathy for the injured man now writhing on the concrete floor in pain and humiliation. For Red X, saving Jump City would be the first step on what he knew would be a long road to redemption... but only if he did a better job saving the city than he did 'saving' Cleo.
O-O-O
Robin took one last look into the hospital room... the sight of Cleo's mother weeping over her physically and emotionally ravaged daughter was hard for even him to bear, and only the fact that Cleo was now safe and sound brought him any comfort at all.
"That's the risk of being a hero... that's why I always have to wear this mask..."
The young hero slowly walked down the sterile corridors of the hospital, making his way out of the Intensive Care unit and toward the lobby. He still had a job to do, and his friends needed him... but it was a long journey back to the processing center, even on his ultra-fast T-Cycle. The entire way back, he knew he would be thinking of Sanza... and how devastated the young man must be to see such a terrible fate befalling one of his loved ones. He walked out into the parking lot, climbed onto his T-Cycle, and raced off into the night, silently thankful that only Batman, Barbara Gordon, and the Titans (except for Terra), knew of his true identity. For Robin, the people he truly strove to protect already knew who he really was... and could adequately defend themselves. For Sanza, the situation was quite different... the people that he wished to protect had no idea of his dangerous secret.
"I just thank God that it wasn't Maddy who was raped..."
O-O-O
The group was silent as they made their way into the last area of the fifth floor that they hadn't previously searched. Cyborg was at the head of the group, with Red X close behind him, and Raven, Terra, Starfire, and Beast Boy clumped together and bringing up the rear. Any security guards that the six came across were swiftly taken down, and many of the guards who had been patrolling the floor decided to simply leave the area before the Titans and Red X found them.
"Are you sure you wanna stay here?" asked Terra, having seen no visible emotions from Red X as the group was navigating the hallways.
"Just because Lonnie was the only one who raped Cleo doesn't mean that everyone else here isn't somehow responsible," replied Red X. "There are more people here that need to be punished, and I'm going to do just that..."
Soon, they passed a sign reading 'Central Communications', and Cyborg could start to detect signs of a nearby transmitter, the signal becoming too strong for the jamming devices to block it.
"This is it, we're getting close now," said Cyborg. They passed through several more hallways, many of them lined with windows and offices, before making their way to another set of metallic double doors similar to the ones leading into the storage area where Cleo was being held. "Signal's strongest right here... whatever triggers the earthquakes has to be behind this door."
"I just hope we're not too late..." said Beast Boy, a hint of nervousness in his voice. A reassuring look from Terra steeled his courage and focused his attention back on the metal doors.
"If we are, then Robin is in serious danger..." thought Starfire, who knew that Robin was still in the city with Cleo... and right in the danger zone if the earthquake were triggered, which is exactly why she'd wanted to fly Cleo into the city. "Let us make haste."
Cyborg pushed the doors open, and followed Raven, Terra, Beast Boy, Starfire, and Red X into a large, empty room with gray metallic panels lining the walls and the floor. At the far end of the room, a long, glass window could be seen twenty feet above the ground, stretching across the entire length of the wall. A single man could be seen inside, his gaze focused down on the six teenagers who'd come to stop him.
"You made it, Titans... and you as well, thief," said Nicholas Jarvin, a supreme confidence in his voice. He sat in a tall leather chair, his hands resting on a long control panel. "I should have known that you would defy Sedaris' warning."
Red X gazed up at the elder Jarvin with contempt, mentally blaming him for the actions of his son.
"You really should've raised your son better," said Red X. "If you had, then maybe I wouldn't have had to make up for all those spankings you never gave him."
Jarvin Sr. let out a chuckle, seemingly unfazed that his son had sustained such a violent beating.
"I could care less what my son does, as long as he follows in his father's footsteps," said Jarvin. "As for you, rest assured, I will pay you back for what you did to him... by killing you with all the rest of your Titan friends. You children are in my house now, and that means that you're all mine!"
The metallic panels under Starfire, Terra, and Beast Boy lit up, and in less than a second, large metallic claws burst up from the ground and clenched around the midsections of the three of them, holding them high in the air and squeezing the three tightly. As they struggled and strained to escape, Red X blasted the glass window at the front of the room with exploding Xs. The glass didn't even crack from the force of the blast, and Jarvin simply laughed as the smoke cleared and his control room remained undamaged.
"This glass is designed to repel the force of a nuclear explosion, what makes you think you can break it with your pathetic little xynothium firecrackers? People like you disgust me."
Jarvin pressed a button on his control panel, illuminating a large section of floor at the center of the room. The metallic squares on the floor disappeared, and from them emerged an enormous silver head, its hair comprised of large black cables that gyrated back and forth.
"Activate Medusa Program A! Target... Red X."
The eyes of the metallic head lit up, and two bright blue laser beams slammed into X's chest, sending him flying back into the wall, his costume giving off tiny wisps of smoke.
"Azarath, metreon, zinthos!"
Raven attempted to use her powers on the head, but couldn't even get it to glow for half a second. Before she could try again, one of the cables slammed into her face, sending her into the left-side wall, her impact knocking out several panels.
"Beast Boy!" screamed Terra, leaning over and reaching out to him, thinking that he could pull her free of the metallic hand's grip. He too was having trouble with his escape, and when he tried to transform, he found that the fingers around him were gripping so tightly that he couldn't expand or contract his body enough to change shape. "This room's made of metal, I can't get any rocks from the outside... there has to be something I can do!"
While Terra and Beast Boy were struggling, Starfire had burst free and was attacking the bases of the hands gripping her friends with multiple Starbolts. After several such blasts, the hands finally released them both, and Beast Boy quickly transformed into a gorilla, ripping both hands out of the ground before they could grab him again.
"Terra, come over here and help out, I've got my hands full!" shouted Cyborg, using his energy cannon to blast away the cables emerging from the large robotic head at the center of the room. Every time he destroyed one, another would grow back, and Cyborg soon realized that he was embarking on a futile task. "I need someone to help me!"
"I'm coming..." thought Raven, running away from the wall and toward the center of the room to assist Cyborg. She pointed her hands at the top of the metallic head and once again began to chant. "Azarath, metreon-"
She hadn't seen that the panels underneath her had begun to light up, and before she could finish, small black cables had wrapped around her entire body, mummifying her and preventing her from finishing her focus chant. She struggled for several seconds before feeling the cables around her being cut away, and when she could see again, she was staring into Red X's face.
"He's got weapons everywhere," gasped Raven, already tired from having exerted herself so much during the fight with Cancer Beta. She looked up briefly to see Jarvin pressing another button on his control panel, and saw the area on the floor directly underneath Cyborg starting to light up. "Cyborg!"
Several large missiles from Cyborg's auxillary cannons had slammed into the robotic head at once, blowing it to pieces and sending fragments of scrap metal all over the room. As Cyborg did his victory dance, he didn't see the lit-up panel, and he tuned out Raven's warning.
"Go Cy, go Cy, it's your birthday, it's your birthday... go Cyborg, go Cy..."
An enormous explosion engulfed Cyborg, diverting all the Titans' attention to the spot in the room where he was once standing. Starfire let out a very audible gasp.
"No!" she screamed, quickly flying through the smoke, her glowing eyes showing her exactly where Cyborg had fallen. "This is not good..."
Cyborg was lying face-down on the ground, showing no signs of life. Starfire turned him over, her hand immediately going to his neck to check his pulse. He was alive, but unconscious, and for the moment, out of the fight.
"You're gonna pay for that..." said Red X angrily, gazing once more at the window of Nicholas Jarvin's control room.
"Like I'm going to pay for my son having his way with your girlfriend? I think you're the one who needs to be worried right now," said the confident executive, pressing several more buttons on his control panel. Nearly two dozen of the panels on the far wall began to open up.
"Get ready," said Raven, narrowing her eyes and raising a dark energy shield in front of her body. "This isn't going to be good..."
Suddenly, spheres of energy, flashing yellow and blue, began shooting out from the holes at the rate of nearly ten a second, a constant bombardment on the six teens. Starfire immediately raised her arms to protect Cyborg, and was herself engulfed in a large explosion as the spheres began slamming into her body. Out of concern, Red X ran toward Starfire, only to be hit multiple times himself and disappear in a cloud of smoke.
Fearful for her safety, and unable to defend herself, Terra crouched down into a fetal position, pulling her knees to her face and putting her hands over her head. Beast Boy rushed to her aid, transforming into a gorilla again and smacking several of the energy spheres away with his powerful fists. He then detransformed and knelt down beside Terra, placing his hands tightly around her body.
"Terra, you have to try and focus... I know you're far away from rocks, but that never stopped you before... just concentrate and bring them into the room, you can smash this whole place and take out all this guy's weapons!"
"Beast Boy, I don't know..."
Focusing as much as she could, she realized that many of the rooms inside the facility had concrete floors that could be molded and shaped just like rock... she'd done it before to help beat Cancer Beta, and she could do it now... she just had to figure out which direction the rooms were in.
"There's rooms like that all over this place... if I'm careful, I'll be able to call up rocks from anywhere in the building!"
While Terra was steeling herself for battle, Red X and Starfire were standing back to back near the fallen Cyborg, both using their explosive attacks to keep the energy spheres from getting close.
"You took a bunch of hits earlier, babe... you sure you're all right?"
"I will be just fine... and do not call me babe!"
"This shield... can't hold... much longer..." The bombardment of energy spheres had battered Raven and her magical shield to the point of near-collapse, and a few more seconds of having to endure all the explosions would almost certainly lead to the shield's destruction. While Beast Boy rushed to Raven's aid, Terra could feel a familiar rumbling from below her... and knew that just beneath her feet, the earth was stirring.
"I can keep this up all day," said Jarvin Sr., looking out over the group of Titans and seeing that they were rapidly succumbing to his barrage of energy spheres. "But I'd give you just a few more seconds..."
Suddenly, the left and right walls of the room gave way as dozens of large chunks of concrete ripped through them and flew right toward the back of the room. Before Nicholas Jarvin knew what was happening, a prodigious jolt nearly rocked him from his chair, a jolt caused by the pieces of concrete being propelled into the wall above and below him. The explosions caused by the spheres slamming into the ground and into the Titans ceased immediately as the cannons that had fired them into the room were destroyed.
"Bet you weren't expecting that," said Terra, looking up at Jarvin Sr. with a smile on her face and her hands on her hips. Stunned, he looked down at his control panel and saw that many of his weapon systems had been disabled by Terra's impressive show of force.
"That was awesome!" shouting Beast Boy, running over and throwing his arms around Terra. Exhausted, she let out a sigh as Beast Boy hugged her, her head softly draping over his shoulder. "I totally knew you could do that!"
Red X and Starfire, themselves exhausted by playing keep-away with Jarvin's energy spheres, had sat down in front of Cyborg, leaning against each other's back and breathing quickly for several seconds.
"We must still... stop... the seismic generators..." said Starfire, taking a quick look through Jarvin's window.
"This is... kind of nice, actually..." thought Red X, who could feel every breath that Starfire took as she leaned her back against his. He quickly brought himself to his senses, slowly rising to his feet at the same time as Starfire. Raven, Beast Boy, and Terra were standing as well, and all of them were ready to put Nicholas Jarvin out of business for good.
"You think this is over?" shouted Jarvin, his eyes scanning the control panel until he found one of his weapons that actually did work. "My technical genius trumps your strength and teamwork any day of the week!"
From the front wall of the room, just above the entrance, came the sound of nearly sixty panels lighting up, each making a progressively higher-pitched electronic beeping sound. Starfire, Raven, Terra, Beast Boy, Red X, and the just-reawakened Cyborg turned and looked up to see the panels disappearing and a miniature jet with a ten-foot wingspan begin to slowly hover forward out of the opening.
"Okay, what'd I miss?" asked Cyborg, though none of his fellow Titans answered him... their attention was completely focused on the miniature black fighter jet hovering at the front of the room, about twelve feet above the floor.
"Blink, and you'll miss this," said Terra, taking preemptive action by hurling several of the pieces of concrete she'd brought into the room straight at the front of the fighter jet. Out of its wings came several bright orange lasers that blasted the concrete chunks to pieces, the dust landing on the floor of the room. "Okay... that's not going to work..."
With amazing speed, the jet blasted forward, soaring over the heads of X and the Titans and spanning the hundred-foot length of the room in a twentieth of a second, generating a shockwave that knocked all six teens to the ground. Instead of hitting the wall, it stopped instantly and spun around, flying across the room again and keeping the group pressed face-first into the metallic floor.
"It flies faster than I do!" screamed Starfire, covering her ears to block out the intensely-loud noise that the jet made as it rocketed across the room several times in the span of a single second. "And my ears feel as if they will explode!"
"Tell me about it..." thought Red X, barely managing to turn himself around before the jet came by again. He raised up his arms and tried firing an X, but the jet was simply too fast, and his electrical disruption device pasted itself harmlessly to the ceiling. "Dammit!"
After the jet had made three dozen such passes, it stopped and began hovering in the center of the room, allowing the Titans and Red X to stand up again before circling around at a much slower speed.
"At least I can hit it now!" said Cyborg, attempting to latch onto the jet with suction cables, though as soon as he'd affixed them to one of the wings, the jet accelerated and ripped free, hurling Cyborg across the room and into a pile of rubble. "Aaaaaagh!"
"I'll handle this," said Beast Boy, transforming into a pterodactyl and swooping over to Red X. He couldn't talk, but he gestured with his head to indicate that he wanted the thief to climb onto his back.
"I think I know where you're going with this," said Red X, hopping onto Beast Boy's back and blasting sticky goo around his own legs and Beast Boy's sides to ensure that he stayed on. "You'd better not fly into a wall or anything stupid like that."
As Beast Boy flew up into the air with Red X, Starfire and Raven had already engaged in aerial combat with the jet, both of them firing energy blasts in an attempt to bring it down. The blasts hit the wings and nose of the jet, but proved to be ineffective, allowing the jet to return fire with laser beams and missiles. The two girls screamed as they were bombarded, but remained in the air and continued pursuing the jet as it repeatedly circled the room.
"You girls look like you could use a little help," said Terra, using a wayward chunk of concrete to levitate herself right into the center of the jet's circular flight path.
"I have an idea," said Raven, breaking from her position near Starfire and flying over to Terra. "Try to get a rock into that jet's engine... if you can do that, the jet will explode. Starfire and I will cover you."
"I don't think that's going to happen," said Jarvin, turning the jet toward Terra and Raven and causing it to launch a flurry of missiles in their direction. Raven put up a shield at the last moment to try and protect them, but the missiles punched right through, creating an explosion that hurled both Terra and Raven to the ground. The jet then hovered over them, preparing to finish them off with another missile barrage. "The best-laid plans always go wrong in the end..."
"I think you've got your quotes a little mixed up there, Jarvin," said Red X, leaping off of Beast Boy's back and onto one of the wings of the jet. It briefly tipped with his weight, nearly causing him to slide off, but he managed to crawl onto the main body of the jet and formed another electrical-disruption X in the palm of his right hand. "I'll see your missiles and raise you one completely disabled jet."
But before Red X could place down the electrical disrupter, he felt a sharp pain emanating from his groin. He looked down to see that the jet had raised a small metallic fin, sending shockwaves of stunned pain throughout his body. The X disappeared from his hand, and he slid off the back of the jet, landing on the ground next to Raven and Terra.
"This ain't good!" shouted Cyborg, watching the jet as it floated toward the back of the room. Out of its wings emerged several large, glowing guns, each of them pointed at the six weary heroes. "It's about to fire something, and whatever that something is, I don't wanna find out!"
Large red and white missiles, three times bigger than the ones that had taken out Raven and Terra, blasted forth from the wings of the jet and zoomed straight toward X and the Titans.
"They are powerful enough to destroy everything in this room!" shouted Starfire, her eyes wide with fear. She took a defensive stance and prepared to fire her eye lasers at the missiles, when suddenly, she could see a single white flash across the tips of all of them. Just after the flash, a huge explosion engulfed all sixteen missiles, detonating them at a safe distance from their targets.
"What happened?" shouted Beast Boy, who had detransformed and was now standing in-between the fallen Terra and Raven. "Did they all malfunction?"
When the smoke cleared and the light of the explosion died down, a single person was standing just below where the rockets had exploded... holding a long bo staff in his hands.
"Sorry I'm late," said Robin, a smile on his face.
Terra and Raven stood up, followed just a second after by Red X... they, along with Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg, were stunned to see Robin in the room... but all of them were glad that he was back.
"Robin, you have returned!" said Starfire happily, resisting the urge to run over and embrace him.
"So what, now you have seven instead of six," said Jarvin Sr., annoyed that the missiles hadn't found their targets, but confident that his jet was still capable of destroying the intruders. "I still like my odds very, very well..."
"We're not going to let you destroy Jump City, and we're not going to let you get away with what your son did to Cleo," said Robin, briefly causing Red X to look over and smile at him. "Titans, go!"
Their energy renewed by the presence of their leader, the Titans raced into action, while Red X charged forward as well, not because Robin had told him to, but because he knew that now was their best chance to strike.
"This is it, Jarvin... even with your expensive fighter jet and all your weapons, there's no way you can beat all seven of us... you'll be going down in no time."
But before he could join the Titans in their attack, X saw something out of the corner of his eye... through one of the holes Terra had made in the right-side wall, he could see a dim hallway... and across that hallway was a door marked 'Communications Control Employee Entrance'. The Titans were too caught up in their attack to see Red X disappear from the room.
"This time you ain't gettin' away from me!" shouted Cyborg, blasting the wings of the jet with two more of his suction cables. The cables latched onto the jet, which attempted to accelerate to jettison itself free. Cyborg grabbed the ends of the cables with his hands and held tight, holding the jet in place and pulling it down slightly. "It can't fly away, hit it with all you've got!"
"Got it!" Terra said, giving the thumbs up to Cyborg as she levitated herself and Beast Boy into the air on the same chunk of concrete. While she began pelting the jet with stones, Beast Boy leapt onto the back of the jet and transformed into an elephant, his massive frame taking up all of the jet's wingspan and his weight causing it to slowly fall toward the ground. It retaliated by firing several missiles from its wings, forcing Beast Boy to detransform and throwing him off of the back of the jet.
Beast Boy let out a scream as he plummeted toward the ground, only to be caught by Raven, who swooped him up in her arms and gave him a much gentler landing a few feet away.
"Next time, try transforming into something that isn't such a big target," Raven advised, before floating up in front of the jet and focusing her powers. "All right, Raven... you can bring this thing down... you've taken control of much bigger things than this jet before."
As Raven focused, the black jet began to get even blacker as Raven's powers slowly washed over its surface. Jarvin repeatedly attempted to fire the jet's missiles, but Raven had completely overridden its systems, and all of its weapons were completely useless.
"Starfire, Robin, I've stopped its weapons, now take this thing apart!"
Starfire picked up Robin and lifted him onto the front of the jet, then gently released him onto its nose. He lifted up his bo staff and began repeatedly smashing the jet's front window, shattering it after just a few blows. On the floor below, Cyborg was beginning to strain, and the cables that he was using to hold the jet in place were starting to fray. Raven, who'd already exerted a great deal of her powers, was struggling to keep her control over the jet, and already she was on one knee, her hands pressed against the sides of her temples.
"Come on, come on, work!" shouted Jarvin, who had resorted to slamming his hands against all of the jet's controls in an attempt to try and get it to fire its weapons or fly away. Raven and Cyborg were keeping the jet from making any sort of moves whatsoever, and Terra's bombardment of rocks was rapidly weakening its external armor. "Dammit... at least I only have to stall for a few more minutes..."
Robin's hands began fishing through the front window of the jet, ripping out cables and attempting to put a permanent end to the jet's function.
"Raven, Cyborg, hold on just a little bit more... I know you guys are hurting, but give me just a little more time..."
Suddenly, he could hear two simultaneous screams, and a loud snapping noise. Cyborg had fallen to the ground, and Raven had passed out, the strain of controlling the jet's weapon systems proving to be far too much for her. With a triumphant shout, Jarvin triggered the jet's propulsion system, an acceleration that would almost certainly blast Robin back into the wall and kill him.
But the jet didn't move an inch... Starfire was holding onto the jet's tail with all her might, while Beast Boy, having transformed into an elephant again, had his trunk around her legs.
"Aaaaagh... ahhh... Robin... hurry..." The effort was clearly printed on Starfire's face, and her body was covered in sweat, a sign that she was exerting all her energy to keep the jet from moving. Beast Boy was holding on for dear life as well, the initial acceleration of the jet nearly ripping the trunk from his face.
"It's not going to help him if he gets blown to pieces!" shouted Jarvin, activating the jet's weapon system and triggering a gun mounted on top of the jet to point right at Robin's head. "Say goodnight, Boy Wonder!"
A small piece of concrete fell onto the gun, completely wrecking it and causing sparks to emanate from the top of the jet. Terra, balancing on a small stone about the size of a football, levitated in front of Jarvin's window and stuck out her tongue.
"Got it!" shouted Robin, ripping a huge chunk of cables from the interior of the jet. He leapt off of the nose and landed safely on the ground. "Starfire, you can let it go now."
Happily obeying, Starfire let out a gasp of relief and watched as the disabled fighter jet dropped out of the air like a rock and fell to the floor beside Robin, now nothing but a big piece of useless scrap metal.
"We did it, you guys..." said Robin, gently helping Raven up from the floor, then turning to the rest of the team. "All of us together..."
As the Titans exchanged celebratory high-fives, Nicholas Jarvin leaned back in his chair, his face in his hands, letting out a cry of frustration.
"That was the best weapon I had!" Jarvin shouted to himself, looking down at his now mostly-dim control panel. "How am I supposed to stop them-"
The phone on Jarvin's desk began to ring. With a loud, exasperated cry, he leaned over and picked it up.
"Hello?" shouted Jarvin indignantly into the phone. "Can't you see I'm-"
"Sir," came the calm, female voice on the other end, "we have all of the trucks and the supplies loaded, and they're ready to be deployed. You can trigger Trembling Heaven right now."
A smile slowly crossed Jarvin's face... he didn't have to defeat the Titans at all, and in his anger and dismay at seeing them survive his weapons, he had forgotten that all he had to do was stall for time. Now, their time was up, and he could activate the seismic generators that had been planted throughout the city.
"It's over," said Robin, looking up into Jarvin's window and staring him right in the face. The other five Titans were standing beside him, each of them bearing an equally serious expression. "We're going to get into that room and stop you... you have no more weapons to fight us with."
"You're right... it is over," said Jarvin, his finger levitating over a large, flashing red button at the center of his control panel. "Over for your precious Jump City... once I press this button."
A sharp shuriken X flew across the top of Jarvin's hand, knocking it away from the button and opening up a large, bloody gash in his skin. He turned around in his chair and saw Red X standing just a few feet away from him, his arms across his chest.
"You're not pressing anything," said Red X, prompting the stunned Nicholas Jarvin to let out a loud, angry yell.
"Just try and stop me!" replied the wounded executive, once again attempting to press the flashing red button. In less than a second, X hit Jarvin Sr. with a powerful shoulder charge, pressing him up against the protective glass wall and knocking all of the wind out of him.
"This is for not stopping your son!" shouted Red X, striking the old man in the cheek with a punch that knocked his glasses from his face and gave him a deep, purple bruise. "Now you're going to show me the button that turns off those goddamned seismic generators and makes it so that they'll never, ever work again."
"There... there is no... such button..." coughed Nicholas Jarvin, his feeble fingers once again trying to reach the red button at the center of his control panel.
"Fair enough," Red X replied, jamming his hand down on a smaller, green button toward the right side of the panel. The glass wall behind Jarvin Sr. opened up, which meant that the barrier separating the small control room from the large, impromptu arena that the six Teen Titans were standing in was now completely gone. "I'll just make it so you can't reach the button."
And with that, Red X hurled Nicholas Jarvin out of the control room and down to the floor below. Knowing that a fall from that distance would probably kill a man of Jarvin's age, Terra levitated a chunk of concrete below the man, softening his fall halfway down. The force of him hitting the concrete was still enough to knock him out, however, and as his unconscious body was slowly levitated to the ground, X leapt down from the control room and landed safely on his feet a short distance away from the Titans.
"Oh, he would've lived," said Red X, feigning annoyance that Terra had softened the elder Jarvin's fall.
"Just trying to be on the safe side," replied Terra. "As despicable as he is... I think jail is going to be punishment enough for him."
"How did you reach that room?" Robin asked, briefly looking around for any secret passages the Titans might've missed. Before he could catch sight of the route that X had used to reach the control room, X pointed him to it, indicating the hole Terra had created.
"There... it was luck, mostly," replied Red X, pointing at Terra. "So when you're giving out credit for saving the city, make sure it goes to that girl right there."
"No... you're the one who stopped him, I just smashed the wall," Terra replied, blushing slightly.
"Are you kidding? You totally kicked butt tonight, Terra..." said Beast Boy, patting the blonde geomancer on her back. "I knew you could do it!"
"We all kicked the butt tonight!" said Starfire, smiling as she looked around at all of her friends. "And now the city is safe!"
Just then, a loud rumbling, followed by a violent tremor, began to shake the room, knocking nearly all seven heroes off their feet. Terra gasped when she realized the cause of the rumbling.
"All that concrete I took out... it must have destabilized the whole building!" shouted Terra, a horrified look on her face. "I'm sorry, you guys-"
"It's all right," said Cyborg, taking a quick look at his scanner. "Except for Lonnie Jarvin, all the people in this building have gotten out already... I guess after we kicked their butts, they didn't want to stay around to protect their boss anymore..."
"So that means we need to get out," said Robin.
"Not a problem," replied Raven, pointing her arms up at the ceiling. "Azarath, metreon, zinthos!"
The metallic panels that formed the ceiling of the room began to rip away, and soon, the entire area was exposed to the night sky. Starfire grabbed onto Robin, Raven grabbed onto Cyborg, and Terra ushered Beast Boy and Red X onto a large chunk of concrete, which she then levitated into the air. The Titans and Red X escaped the building just as the top floors began to collapse, quickly taking the entire center-third of the building with it. The signaling mechanism for the seismic generators was destroyed almost instantly, rendering all three of them completely useless... but it wasn't until the Titans and X had lowered themselves into the parking lot that Starfire remembered one critical thing.
"We... we left that man in the control room..."
Another pang of guilt entered Terra's body, and she bowed her head, realizing that it was her fault that the Laredo production facility had partially collapsed, burying Nicholas Jarvin in a crush of metal and concrete.
"Hey... don't worry about it," said Red X, placing his hand on Terra's shoulder. "Remember Dr. Ruell?"
With a sigh, Red X continued to speak, remembering that Lonnie Jarvin had also been in the area of the building that had collapsed.
"Maybe... maybe these people are too dangerous to be left alive," said Red X, staring up into the night sky. "Which means that God will forgive me for killing them..."
With Terra's guilt quickly subsiding, the Titans were free once again to celebrate their victory... though they knew that for Red X, it had been an empty one. Cleo was in the hospital... though with her rapist now dead, Red X knew that she would at least be spared the pain of having to testify against him in court. Still, that didn't spare Cleo the pain of what had happened to her... or spare Red X the guilt of knowing that he'd been partially responsible.
"Sanza... we're going to go back to the tower... if you want us to drop you off at the hospital so you can talk to Cleo, just-"
"Robin, Cleo doesn't want to talk to me... and she never will," said Red X. "Just... just take me back home. There's something very important that I have to do."
After a year of keeping the secret to himself... of only revealing his identity to the Titans as a gesture of trust, it was time for Sanza to let the two most important people in his life know about Red X... know about the potential danger that they faced because of his double life. He knew that they, especially his mother, probably wouldn't respond the way that he wanted to... but this wasn't about what he wanted anymore. It was about what they needed... and they needed to know.
"All right," said Robin, "I'll have Cyborg take you back home in the T-Car."
As Raven, Beast Boy, Terra, and Cyborg headed with Red X toward the T-Car, Starfire walked with Robin toward his T-Cycle... her eyes focused on Red X nearly the entire time.
"I know exactly what you intend to do, Sanza... I just hope that once the anger of your family has died down, that you will continue to help us protect the city..."
Because tonight, more than any other night that Starfire had known Red X, he had shown that he was capable of playing the hero... if he only set his mind to it.
O-O-O
In the living room of the Salazar home, Maria and Maddy were seated in the living room, watching a documentary about the making of an upcoming movie.
"I can't believe it costs those studios over $200 million to make a movie," said Maria, rolling her eyes. "Sounds like a whole lot of waste to me."
"Half of it goes to pay all those actors!" Maddy responded.
On the floor of Maddy's room sat dozens of toys that she'd taken from the prize counter of the besieged Chuck E. Cheese as she and her friends left... the toys would more than make up for all her birthday presents being destroyed. The only thing that Maddy really wanted replaced was the book that Sanza had gotten for her, and Maria had already agreed to take Maddy to Bargain-Mart right after church to buy another copy.
"And do those actors really deserve all that money? Absolutely not... your teachers probably work ten times as hard and they make half as much as I do," said Maria. "It's an absolutely ridiculous world we live in..."
Just as a commercial began, Sanza, wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, emerged from upstairs, carrying a long, white box in his hands.
"Oooh, did you go out and get me another present?" asked Maddy, quickly standing up and walking over to her brother. "You didn't have to do that..."
"It's... it's not that," said Sanza, sitting the box down on the ground, then sitting down behind it. "Please... please let mom not ground me for the rest of my life... this is... this is something a lot more important. Mom, sis, you'd better sit down."
"Um... okay," said Maddy, sitting down on the other side of the box, while Maria remained seated in her chair in the living room. A look of concern formed on her face, and she wondered what her son could possibly want to tell her about... though from Sanza's expression, she knew that it wasn't going to be good.
"About... a year ago, I went to Titans Tower with Maddy... Maddy, you remember, mom, you probably remember too..."
"Yes, I remember that very well," said Maria, her mind still puzzled about what Sanza could be trying to tell her. She began wondering if she and Maddy's abduction by Slade several months before may have something to do with what Sanza was saying... if they were in danger from Slade again, perhaps? "Please... please don't let this be about Slade..."
"I took... I took something from them, and... and that's why you've been put in danger so many times," said Sanza, lifting up the cover of the box and revealing the Red X suit. "For the past year, I've been Red X. I've been stealing from people and fighting the Titans... and Slade saw that and wanted to make me his apprentice. That story about Starfire, that was a lie... I put both of you in danger, and... and I got Cleo hurt, and-"
"You did WHAT?" shouted Maria, rising from her chair and placing her hand over her mouth. She trembled as she stared at the contents of the box that Sanza was showing to her... as the terrible secret he'd been keeping from her and Maddy finally came to light. "You... you were Red X?"
Maddy was shocked at well, but unlike Maria, she wasn't angry... or even hurt. Instead, she was fascinated, and a bit... a bit amazed that her brother had been Red X. Her mind immediately recalled the moment when Red X had saved her from Plasmus... and remembered again when Red X had come to save her and her mother from Slade.
"You... you saved my life, big brother... you helped the Titans save me and mom, you-"
"I'm the reason both of you were put in danger in the first place, Maddy," said Sanza, turning away from his sister and trying to fight back tears. "I... I'm sorry..."
"Why... why would you keep something like this from us, ESPECIALLY after everything that happened?" shouted Maria, storming over to Sanza and grabbing him by the wrists. Her fingers tightened around his arms enough to cause him a bit of pain, but he didn't make a sound, he only turned his head away from his mother and looked at the ground, far too ashamed to look at either member of his family. "Was it because you thought I'd condemn you for stealing? Of COURSE I would, stealing is a sin! It's in the Ten Commandments, 'thou shalt not steal', 'thou shalt not steal'! But that's not why I'm mad at you, Sanza... that's not... that's not why..."
Maria released her grip on her son's wrists and put her head in her hands, letting out several quiet sobs.
"Mom... mom, I'm-"
"Mommy, no... Sanza didn't take the suit just to steal... I know he didn't..."
"I... I just wanted to protect Maddy... I saw Mumbo attacking her that day and I... I just... I made that promise to dad, and..."
Before Sanza could say another word, Maddy's arms wrapped tightly around his midsection, her head lovingly nuzzling his chest.
"Sanza... big brother... you... you just wanted to protect me..."
Maria wiped the tears from her face and watched as Sanza slowly wrapped his arms around his sister's back, returning her embrace with one of his own. Then she looked down at the box, and at the Red X suit inside... the suit that had caused so much trouble for her family... that put Maddy and herself in danger...
And that Sanza had used repeatedly to save Maddy's life... even if he was the reason she'd gotten into danger in the first place, he'd shown up to rescue her... and every single time, Maddy had been safe... and so had Maria.
"Sanza, that time when me and mom were kidnapped, you brought the Titans to save us, right? And that time at the Fall Festival, when that big purple thing was about to eat me, you beat the crud out of him, right?"
"Y...yeah... but... but..."
Maddy hugged Sanza even tighter. She could feel a few of his tears start to drop into her hair, and that only made her latch onto him even more...
"Maddy, you're choking me..."
"Oh... sorry..."
With a giggle, Maddy released Sanza from the hug. Sanza started to walk away, only to be embraced a second time, this time by his mother, Maria.
"I'm just glad... that you are safe... Sanza... my darling son... I love you so much... I don't want you endangering yourself... I know that you'd do anything to protect your little sister and that makes me so worried..."
All those times Sanza had come back with bruises and cuts... it made sense now, and Maria couldn't believe that she hadn't found out about her son's secret for more than a year.
"I love you too, mom... I'm not going to put on the suit again... if you don't want me to... I won't be Red X anymore..."
"Sanza..." said Maria, slowly releasing her son from the hug and looking into his face with an expression that Sanza couldn't tell if it was angry or calm, "I am going to tell you right now that I don't approve of you going out and stealing... that I don't approve of you putting your sister in danger... and that I don't approve of you lying to me all this time. But I know that even if I tell you not to be Red X again, that even if I destroy this suit you're going to find a way to get it back and go out behind my back anyway. You'll be eighteen in eleven months, if you can keep a secret for twelve months you can keep one for eleven more, and once you're eighteen I can't do a damn thing about you. So you're going to have to decide whether or not you think it's really right to be running around as Red X again..."
Sanza didn't reply... he just stared at his mother for several seconds, seemingly thinking about what to do or what to say next.
"But Sanza... whatever you decide to do... just... just try to make it something that God would want you to do. I know that you know what He wants..."
O-O-O
Sitting on the roof of the building and looking up into the stars, Sanza had no idea what God wanted him to do... and no idea if he ever wanted to be Red X again. He'd become Red X to protect the people he loved, and all he'd managed to do was to cause Cleo to get raped. So what if he'd been able to protect his mother and sister? He knew that every time he was going out as Red X, he was pressing his luck... and Maddy and Maria just might be the bad guys' next targets.
"Sedaris... he's still out there... him and that other old guy... and I know that they still want to destroy this city..."
"Sanza?"
A soft, gentle voice that could only be Maddy's signaled to Sanza that he wasn't alone on the roof... and sure enough, he looked to his left and saw his sister sitting next to him, a smile on her face.
"Maddy... I haven't told you or mom what happened to make me actually tell you guys why I told you about me being Red X, but..."
"Cleo, right? Something happened to her? You mentioned that when you told us... did she get hurt?"
"She got raped, Maddy... that's what happened to Cleo. She got kidnapped by a group of people who wanted to keep me out of their business, so they took her and attacked your birthday party. And one of the people holding Cleo hostage raped her. That's what happened... and it's my fault because I didn't get there soon enough to save her."
Maddy's smile immediately disappeared. Sanza bowed his head and let out a sigh, while Maddy took several seconds to let what her brother had just told her begin to sink in.
"I... I see..."
"And if I couldn't protect Cleo, then... I can't protect you guys either."
"But... but you did protect us, Sanza..." said Maddy, reaching over and taking her brother's hand. "Yesterday, you helped us fight off the robots..."
"Not really," Sanza replied. "You and mom and your friends fought off the robots."
"Yeah, but... but you saved me and mom from Slade. And don't tell me that the Titans saved us, because you were right there with them... I mean... you were up there fighting Slade, but... but if you hadn't fought him, then he'd have had us killed, so... so you did save us, just like I knew that you would."
Maddy's smile returned, and she gripped Sanza's hand even tighter. He looked over and into his sister's face, his eyes meeting hers.
"I kept... I kept imagining you coming in and freeing us... that's what kept me from going completely hysterical in there... I mean, I was scared, but... but somehow I knew that you would save us, Sanza. And I still believe that you can protect me..."
Sanza couldn't believe what he was hearing... after all Maddy had gone through, and after he'd just told her about what happened to Cleo, she wasn't scared at all... she still trusted him to protect her, no matter what.
"I think you should still be Red X... I think you should go out there and try to help people... and maybe steal a present for me every once in a while."
Maddy's last comment managed to make Sanza smile... the first time he'd smiled since he'd gone up onto the roof. He laughed for a second, then looked up into the sky again and began to think.
"Maddy... I'm still deciding... what I'm going to do... I just... the bad guys are still out there, and-"
"Then you need to help the Titans stop them! You've helped them before, right? So help them now... help them protect the city..."
Sanza stood up, still looking at the moon and the stars and thinking about what he was going to do now... if he was ever going to become Red X again... if he was ever going to protect the city, or protect his mother and sister again...
"You know I believe in you, Sanza, and I always will," said Maddy, standing up and once again wrapping her arms around her brother's back. Sanza took one last look at the sky before resting his chin on the top of his sister's head and slowly wrapping his arm around her, pulling her closely to his body. "I love you, big brother..."
"I love you too, Maddy..."
O-O-O
One more plan is foiled, and it looks like it's decision time for Sanza! While Maria may not be much of a hurdle, it's still up to Sanza to trust himself and figure out if he ever wants to put on the Red X suit again! And what of the Titans, who have no idea what the two remaining members of the 'Smartest Men in the Room' are planning next! Dullahan and Sedaris are still alive, will they continue their campaign to destroy Jump City? All these questions will be answered in the next chapter... or maybe none of them will be answered. Let's all wait and see how many I feel like answering.