The metal barred door of the dark prison cell slid open violently and slammed against the far wall. The warden, his gun trained on the boy in shackles in front of him, lifted his chin and said in a gruff voice, "#468, the commander requests to see you."

Angel stood up slowly from the cement floor and walked over to the guard, who grabbed him roughly by the arm and led him down the long hall. The other prisoners looked on without a word, for they knew that the young man was probably not going to return to the cell, and so did Angel. There was no "small crime" in Dimension X, no pardoning offences. Either you lived in the prison for the rest of your life, or you were sent to death row. Angel had a sick feeling that that was where he was going now.

The guard yanked him around a corner without even giving him a chance to walk himself. Angel knew that he was the most disliked person in the whole place, even by the other inmates, who were jealous of his ability to break out twelve times, though he never had gotten far and was always dragged back to his cell. For that reason, his wrists were kept together in shackles in front of him 24/7.

Now they reached the commander's office, and the guard opened the heavy door and looked in.

"Do you have #468?" the commander said, his hands folded on his desk in front of him.

"Yes, sir."

"Bring him in."

The guard, who had never let go of Angel's arm, pulled him out of the dark hall and into the well lit room. The commander held up his hand at the guard and said, "You may leave now." The guard raised his eyebrows, then turned and left the room. Angel stood in front of the commander silently, only waiting for the words that would put him on death row.

The commander folded his hands again and rested them on the desk, keeping his eyes on Angel. He didn't know how this boy in front of him had caused so much trouble, how he had accomplished the things he had, and how he had managed to escape a dozen times, but he was determined to find out. "#468," he said. "How long have you been in my prison?"

"Five months, sir."

The commander looked Angel's thin figure from head to toe, from his thick black hair and wild bangs, his somewhat pale face with black surrounding his eyes, his dark blue trenchcoat and shining leather shirt and pants beneath, down to his black knee-high boots and then back up to his face. He was impressed. And just to tease him he said, "And how have you been enjoying it here?"

Angel didn't hesitate. "I haven't, sir."

"I didn't think so." The commander leaned forward in his chair and held out his hand. "Come on closer." Angel took one step forward, but it was enough for the commander to reach him. He took his wrists, and suddenly the steel shackles hit the floor with a thud.

Angel rubbed his wrists, staring at the commander in amazement. He was tempted to ask what was going on, but let the commander speak when he was good and ready. Obviously he was now.

"#468, or should I say Angel, I have quite an offer for you." He motioned to a chair in front of him. "Why don't you sit down."

Angel sat slowly, cautious to what was going on and refusing to let his guard down. It had been something he had learned during the years of martial arts training with various instructors, all of whom he had defeated at their own game and had to move on.

The commander smiled. "You can relax now. It's not like you're going to death row or anything." He laughed, but Angel only swallowed hard and didn't speak. The commander saw the look on the boy's face and got serious. "Your records are quite long, you know. Theft seemed to be your favorite hobby until we finally caught you, which was a job in itself. I see you are also wanted for various murders...?"

"It was self defense, sir."

"Yes, yes, that's what they all say. But enough of that, let's get to the point. I have a job offer for you."

"A job, sir?"

"Yes. As you know, as the head of this prison, I have many enemies, and there are quite a few of them that are wanted, not only here, but also other places. Do you follow me?"

"So far, sir."

"Sometimes there is just no way to punish them or stop their crimes, so elimination is the wisest and best choice for everyone."

Angel's eyebrows shot upwards. "You want me to be your bounty hunter?"

The commander laughed good-naturedly. "Ah, you catch on so quickly. Yes, that is exactly what I want from you."

Angel stood up from his chair. "So under normal circumstances, someone would be put in jail or executed for murder, but in this case you're going to pay me to take out your enemies? I don't think so."

"I didn't say anything about payment in money, Angel. Now sit back down." Angel did. "If you do accept this and do a good job, the better the chances get for your freedom. You complete all of the assigments I give you, and you'll be a free man."

Angel thought on this for a moment. Did the commander mean just free as in out of prison, or free, as in out of prison and not having to worry every day about getting caught by the police? He asked the commander.

"I said free and I mean free, boy. I would clear your records from the past and you would no longer be wanted, as long as you didn't commit more crimes later."

Angel's heart jumped. This was almost too good to be true, but the commander went on talking without giving Angel time to think about it.

"You're strangely gifted with these... unique powers, and we all know it. I've seen you use them with my own eyes, when you were intent on escaping, and I'm sure you weren't going as hard as you could if-"

"Commander," Angel said, reaching out his hand. "I'll take the job."

The commander stood, smiling, and shook Angel's hand hard. "Good deal. You won't regret it."

The door of Titans' Tower shook violently, then exploded inwards. Angel shielded his face from the debris with his arm, and tried to regain his senses through the confusion of the smoke and blaring alarm. Angel backed up from the door when he saw three figures through the clearing smoke walking towards him. He didn't know if he should run or fight, but didn't have time to decide. Stardust flew over his head to meet the intruders head-on, and she landed in the doorway, her starbolts charged and ready, the rest of the Titans right behind her.

"All right, who are you?" Stardust demanded, her eyes glowing.

The smoke cleared somewhat more, and the figures outside were starting to take more shape. One of them, a man in a full body suit of armor, his face hidden by a helmet, held out some sort of badge. "We are the police of Dimension X."

Angel gasped slightly, but no one seemed to hear him. He backed up again, but one of the officers, another man, leaped forward and grabbed him by the arms, attempting to lock his wrists together by a metal band, but he was blasting away by a starbolt.

"Now hold on just a second here," Stardust said. "If you're police, why are you here kidnapping our friend?"

"He is wanted all over the dimensions by police everywhere," the last officer said, a woman. "His record goes to show he is guilty of unpardonable crimes."

Stardust turned to face Angel. "Is that true?"

Angel looked up into her purple glowing eyes and felt like a little kid confessing something to an angry parent. "Yeah, but I was cleared of all that a long time ago. I don't even know why they're here." He nodded to the police.

"He deserves to be in prison for what he has done," one of the men said, aiming his high powered gun at Angel. Stardust held up her hand to make sure he didn't shoot.

"I don't know about all this," Talon said, touching Angel's arm. "Angel's a good guy, and he wouldn't do that kind of stuff... whatever you say he did."

"He has done them," the other man said. "And we are required to bring him back with us." He raised his weapon quickly and was about to fire, but his gun was burst to pieces by an oncoming starbolt. Stardust frowned deeply and was about to demand a more thorough explanation, but the female officer jumped on her and they engaged in hand-to-hand.

One of the men followed the woman's lead, and Rorek took him on without hesitation. Talon and Rusty stood idle, but Angel flew out the broken doorway in an effort to escape, at least for a little while so he could catch his breath.

The fight in the doorway made its way onto the rocks outside, somehow across the water, and into the city, and quite a fight it was. The woman aimed some kind of strange gun and fired, it's contents hitting Stardust in the stomach and plastering her to a tall building to where she couldn't move. The same happened to Rorek, and when they were out of the fight, Rusty and Talon jumped forward and took their places, though Talon was quickly taken down and against the wall with Rorek and Stardust. Rusty stood on a hovering rock, narrowing his eyes and adjusting his small black mask. Then he raised his hands and boulders were ripped from the ground and went flying in the direction of the woman and the man. They found their mark and sent them flying, or at least temporarily. The man retaliated with a shot from a laser gun that knocked Rusty off his rock, and once he was down he was restrained plastered against the wall as well.

The woman raised her gun and looked around. "Where's the boy?"

The man nodded to his left. "There."

Angel had made an attempt to get away for now, but the remaining man had come after him and was doing his best to take him down. Angel shot off a few bolts of electricity, but they all missed their target. He knew he could defeat this man in a hearbeat, but fighting with the Dimension X police would only add to his record and result in unknown punishment, so he just attempted to avoid the whole thing and get out of here for the time being. But that wasn't happening. The police, and this man especially, seemed intent on taking Angel back to X with them dead or alive.

The man fired off his laser gun, but Angel dodged quickly, his heart pounding at the desperatness of his situation. The others didn't know why this happening, but Angel knew all too well. His work as a bounty hunter had bought him his freedom, but there was no normal life for him. He was feared and hated, but was wisely respected as well. Eventually the stress had taken its toll on him, and he had left the dimension entirely. At his next destination, the living was rougher than it had been before, and the authorities had a covetous eye for Angel, and eventually forced him into work for them, which resulted in the murder of the commander of Dimension X, thanks be to Angel. But it wasn't like he really had a choice, for he had been made to do their work for them, and death was the penalty if he didn't. He had tried leaving he dimension before things got too bad, but they captured him and locked him in a dungeon-like place and left him half starved, unable to break out, until he agreed to their demands. He had felt awful for offing the commander, especially after his generosity of getting his freedom from the man. But there was no going back on it now; nothing could be said or done to change the past, but the X police had revenge in their hearts and were determined to carry out a deserving punishment.

Now Angel, half panicked, knew that if the police caught him he would surely be dead in the next twenty-four hours. He didn't want to fight, and he couldn't run away, but he was not giving in. He just didn't know how to stall them.

The man managed to grab Angel's arms, after jumping across a few rooftops, and now held him in a vice-like grip. He said in a hissing voice, "You're going to pay for what you did to the commander,

#468."

Angel growled and struggled to get away without using his powers, but the situation was getting desperate and he knew he had to do something. He closed his eyes and let his powers surge through him, and the man was shocked savagely and stood there, momentarily paralyzed. Angel jerked his arms out of the man's grasp, then stopped when he heard something whistling through the air, then a feminine battle cry. He looked up and was shocked to see Miss Metal coming down through air, as she had just jumped off her hoverboard, and she planted a hard kick into the unmoving man's face, slamming him off the roof of the building and onto the ground in front of the rest of the Titans.

"Miss Metal!" Stardust cried, struggling once agan to get free of the strange bands that held her to the wall of the building, but it was impossible. Had the girl taken out the police officer just so she could have the fight with Angel to herself? Was this revenge for the way he had beaten her a few months ago, leaving her nearly dead? Stardust didn't know, but she didn't want to leave Angel facing off with three of those people and Miss Metal. She struggled to get free and looked at Rorek. "We have to help him. He can't take on all four of them by himself."

"Yes he can," Rorek said, "but you're right, it doesn't mean we have to make him." He charged up his powers, but they did nothing to break the restraint.

"What in the world?" Talon said suddenly. "Look!"

They looked up at Angel and Miss Metal and were amazed to see them embrace each other briefly. Stardust's mouth fell open and she couldn't speak for a few seconds, then she grew angry. "I knew it! That traitor... I'm gonna kill him when I get outta this thing!"

"Hold on," Rorek said, trying to raise a hand to shush her, but he still couldn't move. "Look, she's helping him fight. Perhaps she's on our side."

Stardust just growled, but Miss Metal was helping Angel. She knocked the three officers around like they were just a warm up, and when they were down at out she turned back to Angel and hugged him again, this time harder and longer.

On the rooftop, Angel stroked Miss Metal's hair tried to catch his breath. "Faith," he said, tilting her chin up so he could look into her eyes. "You don't know what you've done. Now those people are going to chase after me even more than they were. I'm wanted for so-"

She cut him off by kissing him abruptly. When she stopped, he was quiet, and she raised her finger to his mouth. "It doesn't matter you've done. I'm not going to just sit back and let them take you away."

Back down on the ground, Stardust was practically steaming at Angel's unloyalty to the team. All this time when he had gone out late at night, he had been out gallivanting with Miss Metal? She almost found it too weird to be true. And he had lied repeatedly, telling them that he was "out" doing different things he obviously had not been doing. Under normal circumstances, Stardust wouldn't care if Angel found a girl he liked, but this- this girl was a villain, an enemy! Her eyes glowed, and she struggled hard with her super strength to get free, and finally the thing holding her down snapped. She ripped the bands off the rest of the team and looked at Rorek.

"We'd better go on home. I have to talk with Angel."

"I knew you would have tried to stop it if you found out," Angel was saying later at the tower. "So I just thought it was best to cover the whole thing up."

"You know, this is so stupid, I almost feel like your mother," Stardust said. "Look, it'd be none of my business if you wanted to have a relationship with some girl. But this is MISS METAL, need I remind you."

"She's a nice girl," Angel said, crossing his arms.

Talon spoke up. "How can a villain be nice? It just doesn't happen, Angel."

"Well, it happened here. And I know a lot about her that you guys don't."

Stardust scowled. "I'm sure you do. But anyway, I don't care what her motives or excuses are for being a villain. She's still a huge problem that works alongside Eva, and I'm not going to let her romance you into making her way into the tower."

"That's not what she's doing!"

"How do you know for sure?" Rorek said. He had stayed out of the argument until now. It was as if he just couldn't bite his tongue any longer.

"Because I know her. It's hard to explain, but I just know. And I also know that I love her."

Stardust put a hand to her forehead. She knew how he felt. "Well, something's gotta be done about this. We can't have heroes and villains together, it just does not work." She turned towards the door. "I'll be back. I have to go talk to my mom."

"You can't be serious!" Eva exclaimed. Miss Metal looked down at the floor of the dark lair. "I can't believe you. What are you thinking?"

Miss Metal shrugged. "I had to tell you sometime."

"That's right, you did." Eva whirled around on her heel and flipped her red hair to the side. "And I doubt I'm going to be the only one upset about this." She dragged Miss Metal into the next dark room, where it was mostly shadows and barely any light.

Miss Metal felt awful. When pressed by Eva about where she had been, Miss Metal had just spilled the whole story without thinking. Now who knows what was going to happen.

"It seems that Miss Metal has a boyfriend," Eva said, her voice echoing off the walls. "And it's not just anybody; he's a Teen Titan."

There was silence for a moment, followed by, "Good. We could use someone on the inside." Slade rose up out of his chair and looked down at the two girls. "Miss Metal, I didn't know you were so clever. Good job."

Miss Metal closed her eyes tight to keep herself from exploding in a rage of metals. She felt like knocking Slade onto his face, and she knew she just couldn't go along with this anymore. "No," she said boldly, though she felt quite small and scared on the inside. "I'm not doing this to win their trust. I'm not betraying him. I won't."

Slade stepped down to the ground and looked down at her silently. Then he reached out and grabbed her by the throat. "You will do as I tell you. You have the skill and the ability to take the Titans down from the inside. Now all you have to do is go through with it. If you don't, I'll kill them for you, saving your boyfriend for last and making you watch. And after that, I'll get rid of you." He shoved her backwards, and she fell down to the floor. "It's such a wonderful plan, isn't it?" he said sarcastically. "But you can avoid it all if you merely do it yourself. Though you'll have the help of Eva later on, you still need to concentrate on winning their trust for now. Do I make myself clear?"

She was tempted to attack him full-force, but knew she had better not. She nodded, and he waved them away. Back in the other room, Eva looked at her and smirked. "I know it hurts, but, well, you'll get over it." She laughed quietly and walked away.

Miss Metal hit her knees in grief. She knew that there was no way she could harm Angel, even if she wanted to. Not now; their relationship had gone too far, she loved him too much. Well, she would go along with Slade's plan for now. But no matter what he told her, in the end, she was not going to betray Angel. Not a chance.