I do not own the Teen Titans or anything related to them, however I do own this story and all of the non-original characters except for Isis, who I have been given permission to use by a friend of mine and all are copywrited. This means you can not copy the story or any of the characters or use them without permission from their original owners. Check out the mini-fics by my friend, Starfire Fury, called Teen Titans: Alpha Humor, they're mini-fics about these characters and they're really good and absolutely hilarious, so go read them!

Teen Titans: Alpha

Killer or Coward?

Phoe breathed in harshly as the icy water reached her bare mid-driff. Her teeth were chattering and tiredness was sweeping over her. She strained against the ropes that tied her, but was pulled back just as fiercely. It all seemed hopeless as the water rose to around her chest, then higher to her neck. She closed her eyes, trying to calm herself and conserve her energy.

Hope was coming… Wasn't it? She'd seen the Titans coming, but she didn't know what had happened since the screen had been turned off. What if they'd been hurt, or worse? … What if there was no one coming?

No, she couldn't think like that, she wouldn't let herself, they were all fine, they were coming and all she had to do was sit tight… and stay alive. So she closed her eyes, breathed in deeply to calm herself and opened them, trying to keep the darkness of sleep away. She strained her neck to keep her head above the water as she sunk further and the water rose higher, feeling the freezing temperatures stabbing at the nerves in her neck now, she could no longer feel her legs and her stomach and arms were going numb.

'Just a little longer… You can't give up hope. Not after what you did, trust them, believe in them.' And so she did.

The Titans ran to the door that Pyro had come through and walked into the opening hallway that led from it.

"Split up, search all the doors, we have to find her." Taiyou said and all the Titans nodded, taking one of the four doors that led from the hallway. Zeru zoomed down a dark corridor, opening the doors, scanning the rooms quickly and closing the door to a room full of sleeping wild cats just as quickly.

Li and Isis had taken the doors nearest to them, each leading up higher into the confines, where there were small laboratories and bedrooms.

Taiyou however had gone for the one straight in front of him. He ran down the dark corridor, his hand encircled in flames to act as a torch. He ran down, deeper and deeper; feeling the air become colder and colder, as if the air itself was frozen. After a good deal of running he found a pair of double doors, like that to a freezer. The handles were encrusted in ice that looked like crystal, that felt as strong as steel as he pulled the doors open.

Phoenix had just taken her last deep breath as her head disappeared underneath the water, closing her eyes behind her mask as her last shred of hope flickered. 'Come on, you can't give up now, they're coming… just hold on…' but as the tiredness swept over her she felt as though she couldn't hold it off for much longer.

"PHOE!" Taiyou shouted, running and skidding to the pool, trying to pull the cage back out. There wasn't enough time to call the others, he'd have to try and save her himself. It was up to him to save her life and a small part of him couldn't help but doubt himself 'Not again… Not again please…'

He gritted his teeth as he tried to pull the cage back, but there was no use, he'd have to try something else. He encircled his hands in flames and began to melt the ceiling of the cage before it disappeared under the water. As the cage slipped, further into the blue mass, the cold water surrounded his hands and the flames went out, but there was still enough heat there to finish a hole, big enough for him to get through.

He took a deep breath and jumped in, feet first. He landed on the bottom of the cage, seeing Phoe all bound up. Her skin was blue and her hair was moving with the ripples of the water that his jumping in had caused. He shook her, but she didn't respond – she was unconscious. 'Come on Phoe, not you too.' Taiyou thought frantically as he fumbled with the knots that tied her to the cage. He found himself struggling and had to stop to go up for air. He took another deep breath as his head broke the surface and dived back under. He had to do this several times, each one he had to dive further under water as the cage continued to lower into the pool.

Another couple of moments and the bonds tying Phoenix to the cage drifted away, slowly floating to the surface. Phoenix's body slumped limply against Taiyou as he held her to him, she was like ice herself. As soon as he was sure he had a good grip on her he began to swim with her out of the hole in the cage roof and through the mass of water that the cage has sunk through above.

A few seconds later and Taiyou's head broke the surface once more; he pulled Phoenix higher up, pushing her out onto the side, before pulling himself out of the pool.

"GUYS I'VE GOT HER, SHE'S IN HERE!" Taiyou yelled as loudly as he could, too concerned with trying to save Phoenix to use his communicator.

He pushed some sopping wet hair out of his face, before pulling Phoenix further away from the pool to stop any chance of them falling back in, then collapsed to his knees beside her, touching her blue skin gently, she was still ice cold.

Then he got a brain wave. He closed his eyes as he felt his blood heat up, as if the red liquid were on fire itself, warming himself up as he had done when they'd gone camping when he was little and it'd turned cold. As he felt his hands heat up, he smiled, nodding to himself as he placed his hands above Phoenix's heart, warming her skin and her blood, as it pumped around her body, slowly melting the coldness that had enveloped her and warming her through.

The Titans seemed to have heard him on their way back to the hallway and had all dashed through the door that Taiyou had taken. Li led them through as he was the only one who could see through the pitch black clearly, and as they all emerged on the other side they squinted at the light before running to where Taiyou knelt, trying to warm Phoenix through as best as he could.

"What happened?" Zeru asked, looking at Phoenix who was still a pale blue, apart from the where Taiyou's hand was upon her heart, where the skin had returned to its warm tone. Taiyou was too exhausted to speak as he used all his energy trying to warm Phoenix. Isis tapped Zeru on the shoulder, pointing to the pool. Zeru's and Li's jaws dropped as they looked over the edge at the cage.

"That maniac had her in a cage?" Zeru asked flabbergasted. Isis nodded as Li examined the water in the pool, putting his hand in for a moment, causing him to shiver and recoil.

"That water's freezing!" Isis nodded.

"He was trying to slowly freeze her to death… The pain of the cold must've been bad. It's a long, cruel and painful way to die."

"He was trying to kill her then?" Zeru asked and Isis nodded once more.

"If she didn't die from the cold she would've drowned." Li had knelt down beside Phoenix on her other side, checking her pulse, though because it was so faint he had trouble finding it.

"She has a faint pulse, so that's something." He spotted the red rope burns around her wrists and looked at Taiyou with a disgusted face.

"He tied her up as well?" Taiyou nodded tiredly, Phoenix was warming up, but he couldn't keep this up for much longer. Li had noticed the tired look on his face and realized what he was doing.

"How much longer can you keep that up Tae?" Li asked, his face concerned as the other Titans looked to them.

"Not much longer, we need to warm her up quicker, this isn't working as well as if it were just me, its like sharing blood between the two of us." Li nodded.

"It's sapping your strength because you're trying to keep two people warm. Isis, call the police, get them down here. Ze, I need you to whip up a wind for us, we need to dry these pair off." Isis and Zeru nodded, going about their allocated tasks. With in minutes both Taiyou and Phoenix were dry and it was a lot easier for Taiyou to keep them both warm without having to compensate for the water in their clothes.

After a few more minutes Taiyou thought he was about to collapse himself when he heard a faint cough.

"Phoe?" He asked as her eyes flickered open (well all they could see was her mask obviously) and she coughed up the water in her lungs.

"She's awake." Taiyou stated as the other Titans gathered around her. She sat up and once she'd coughed up as much of the water as she could, she wiped her mouth and looked at them all.

"I'm so sorry guys." She said weakly, though her strength was gradually returning.

"Don't worry about it, we know you thought you were doing the right thing." Zeru said shrugging with his typical 'Zeru grin' plastered on his face, Li nodded,

"Yeah, but you could've told us you know, we're all big boys and girls, we can take care of ourselves." Phoenix smiled broadly.

"Thanks guys." They helped her to her feet and they began to walk back into the hallway, Li leading the way as Taiyou was finding it hard to maintain a torch after the draining he'd just taken. As he and Phoenix followed the others, Phoenix turned to him.

"Thanks Taiyou, for saving me." He looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

"How did you know it was me, you were unconscious." Phoenix smiled.

"You're the only one who could've warmed me through after the water." In truth she hadn't known at all, but she'd hoped anyway, hoped that he didn't hate her enough to let her die down there. Taiyou nodded and shrugged.

"That's what friends do I guess."

"So we are still friends then?" Phoenix asked quieter than before and Taiyou looked at her.

"Yeah, 'course we are.'" Phoenix beamed as they reached the main room where they had left Pyro… Only Pyro wasn't there, well at least, not in his cage.

It took a split second for Isis, Zeru, Li and Taiyou to realize that Pyro had escaped and that they needed to move, but Phoenix didn't know this and so barely missed the laser beams that shot from his eyes.

"I see you survived sister, I guess I will have to give you a quick death after all." Phoenix glared, she dove for him, knocking him to the ground, pinning him, her hands wrapped around his throat, where she got the strength from God only knew.

"Go ahead then sister. Kill me! Go on!" Pyro sneered up at her and Phoenix glowered back.

"Phoe?" Isis asked, the Titans were all looking at her, dumbfounded, would she?

"Go on. Kill me, or are you too weak? Choose, sister dear, killer or coward?" Phoenix glared at him as he grinned evilly up at her, the Titans enclosed around them and Phoenix spoke clearly, though her eyes were filled with tears that leaked underneath her mask.

"Coward, every day." She got up and Li restrained Pyro, picking him up and walking him outside. Phoenix looked at the floor until she found a hand on her shoulder, she turned to look, surprised that it was Isis nodding and smiling at her, it was a small smile, but it was genuine and Phoenix was grateful for it all the same.

Zeru nodded to her, a big grin on his face before flying after Li with Isis following behind them. Phoenix breathed in deeply and Taiyou walked to stand beside her. She looked to him with a tear-ridden smile, slightly forced, but at least she was trying. He put an arm around her and hugged her briefly, before they followed the others out to meet the police.

They watched as Pyro, the newly defrosted Ninjari and her animals were carted away in several secure police vans and headed back to the Tower.

It had been a couple of hours since the Titans had arrived home. Zeru and Li had led everyone in, cheering and grinning from ear to ear that their leader was back and everything was normal again. They immediately got out the game station and decided to have a celebratory game tournament in honour of the victory. Isis had rolled her eyes, but retrieved a glass, clicked her fingers to fill it with water and then sat down to watch them.

Taiyou was about to join them when Phoenix began to walk past the common room.

"You ok Phoe?" He asked and Phoenix nodded.

"Yeah, I was just going to call my mom and dad, they'll want to know that I'm safe." Taiyou nodded and went to join the others as Phoenix walked away.

She returned a while later, picking up her communicator from the table, noticing the photograph, but leaving it there.

"I'm just going onto the roof for a bit, just call me if you need me." Zeru and Li shouted 'Yeah Ok' over their game and Isis nodded. Taiyou got up to follow her, but Isis stopped him.

"Just give her some time." Taiyou nodded and reluctantly watched the game once more.

It was a couple of hours later and as Phoenix sat on the roof, looking out over Jump City, she heard foot steps walking towards her, though there was something familiar about these foot steps and so wasn't alarmed or apprehensive.

"You ok?"

"I will be." She smiled, a small but genuinely hopeful smile as Taiyou sat next to her. She spoke quietly, as though unsure of her thoughts, or that she was speaking aloud. "I couldn't do it. I didn't have the strength to kill him. I guess he was right, I am weak." Taiyou looked at her, she was looking out at Jump City as the sun was setting, the golden reddish glow from the sun highlighted the beauty he saw in her once more and the tear stains of tears she'd tried to wipe away.

"No Phoe, you're different. You're stronger." She smiled at his words, though there was disbelief in her face as she stared at the horizon. "No seriously Phoe, you're stronger than he is. You decided to do what was right, even though it meant living with your fear, instead of taking the easy option and getting rid of the cause of it." Phoenix tore her eyes away from the sun to look at him when she knew he was looking away from her. Even after all she'd done, all she'd said, he still believed in her.

"Thanks." She said quietly, looking back to the sun and Taiyou shook his head.

"I'm only saying the truth." He got to his feet and began walking back inside. "You staying out here a bit longer?" Phoenix looked over her shoulder at him, then back to the landscape. She breathed in the fresh air deeply, only a few hours ago she had been thinking she'd been taking her last breaths down there and that she wouldn't smell fresh air again.

Taiyou watched her silently as she turned, walking to him. When she spoke, it was as if she was speaking to the whole of Jump City, or even the wind itself, in quiet, but purposeful tones.

"I think it's time for me to come back now." Taiyou smiled and she smiled back as they both walked back into the main room. He watched her walk in first, plonking herself next to Isis on the end of the sofa, smiling and laughing as Zeru and Li battled it out and Isis made sarcastic remarks. He smiled, whispering to himself;

"Welcome back Phoe, welcome back."

Awwwwww, nothing like a bit of serious and heartfelt fluff for the end of a chapter LOL. Anyway, what do you think? I'm not sure if this is where this fic will end, just have to wait and see, but there are definately more episodes to come for these Titans, so stay tuned, review and read my friend Starfire Fury's fics. That's all for noe folks... Always wanted to say that LOL.

P.S. Sorry for the long wait.