Disclaimer: I don't own…You can't sue

Author's notes: Takes place between Aftershock II and Haunted. I've been working on this for quite some time and I have 30 chapters mapped out (some complete, some not) so hopefully now that I have this up and running on fanfiction I can post the rest fairly quickly. Reviews needed, flames will be used as kindling….enjoy.

Chapter 1: Capture

The first thing Starfire became aware of was the pain. Her face, no, her whole body, ached. She shifted her weight to try to sit up and was rewarded with nausea and dizziness. She opened her eyes and tried to take in her situation. It was dark and cold and she was lying on a concrete floor. As her eyes got used to the darkness she realized that she was in some sort of cell. There was a door with a small, barred opening, but there were no windows. "This is not good." she thought to herself, "I must find a way to escape or contact the others. I must get up." She slowly forced herself into a sitting position. Taking a moment to rest before trying to stand, she tried to remember...

"Where am I and how did I get here and where are my friends?" she questioned herself. What had happened? She remembered coming back to the tower after enjoying a morning flight and watching the sunrise. She had landed on the roof and was going toward the door when she felt a sharp pain at the back of her neck. Turning to face her attacker, she had tried to summon her starbolts. Nothing happened. She tried to fly away. Nothing happened. She put a hand up where the pain had been and felt an object there. "It must be draining my powers." she thought.

Again searching for an adversary, she called out, "Who's there?" A man stepped out from behind one of the generators on the rooftop. Slade! He was alive! But how? How had he survived falling into molten hot lava? "Never mind that." she told herself. He had done this to her! Somehow he had stolen her powers. She remembered taking a defensive stance. Slade haughtily approached her, not at all afraid of the now powerless Tamaranian.

She touched her hand to her cheek at the memory of what had happened next. Slade had backhanded her across the face, knocking her to the ground. As she skidded to a stop, he followed her. Before she could even try to lift herself off of the ground or wipe the blood from her mouth, he was there. He had knelt down, grabbed her by the hair, and held her face level to his. "Robin will pay for his disobedience…starting with you." he had muttered. She saw his other arm move; felt a new prick on her neck, and then the world fell away.

Now she was here, wherever here was. She had been attacked, robbed of her powers, drugged and brought to this place, this prison. There was nothing within the four concrete walls except her. No bed, no blanket, no toilet; nothing. It was cold and dark and empty. The only source of light was outside of the cell and it was very dim. She put a hand on her hip, feeling for her communicator. It was not there and something else seemed to be missing. She glanced down at herself and gasped. Her uniform was gone! Slade had taken away her gloves and arm band as well as her purple top, skirt, and boots; leaving her with only a sports bra and underwear. Even though nobody was around to care, she was suddenly very embarrassed. She drew her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs. The situation had changed from 'not good' to 'really bad'. Without her the locator chip hidden in the chest plate of her top, the Titans had no way of finding her.

Another thought occurred to her…if she could get that thing off the back of her neck maybe her powers would return and she could escape. She reached back and felt it with her fingers. It was round, a little bigger than a quarter, about half an inch thick and stuck to her by several tiny claws that had dug into her flesh. She managed to get a grip on it with her fingernails and tried to pull it off. The device sent a blast of pain to her head, making the dizzying effects of the drug worse and causing her to let out a sharp groan. "That would have been too easy. I should have known better," she silently scolded.

She was stuck. No powers, no uniform, no communicator, no windows, no escape. Wondering what was outside of this tiny room, she pushed herself up on her feet and rose slowly so as not to exacerbate her now throbbing headache. She walked to the door and peeped out of the tiny window. Save for a lone light bulb hanging from the ceiling and a few crates in one corner, there was nothing to see. Having absolutely no view of the outside world, she guessed that this was some sort of basement and her cell was a large closet refitted with a heavier door. If there were stairs, they were beyond her scope of vision.

She took a few steps back from the door and sighed, letting her shoulders sag. Finally, she sat back down, curled up like earlier, and waited. She wanted to cry or scream, but she refused to give Slade the satisfaction of hearing her pain. Still woozy from the drugs and now tired from the exertion of getting up, she rested her forehead on her knees and dozed off.