Disclaimer: Same old.

Chapter 9

It wasn't as if he didn't have enough time on his hands, but rather it was what he did with this time that was keeping him from getting anywhere with an escape plan. He had been sitting in the same position for the past few hours and yet had not managed to make any progress at all. Well, that wasn't exactly true. He had managed to sit up this time. His arms were sore and he was starting to weaken with hunger, but at least he wasn't numb anymore.

His eyes had become accustomed to the darkness by this time and he could see every crack in the wall, every drip of water in this musty place. He had also managed to turn around far enough to see how his hands had been tied. It was a truly uncomfortable position, really, but now he was able to see if he was making any progress in slipping the ropes off of the hook on the wall.

Searing pain rushed up his arm as he tried to turn to far. He let out a strangled gasp as he tried to regain his breath, but the past few days were starting to catch up to him. His chest felt like it was on fire at this point, what with his previous injuries. He was sure he had re-broken several of his ribs at this point, not to mention he had probably strained both of his arms.

His vision started swimming again, and he was starting to feel frustrated with himself. Why couldn't he handle this? Normally, he would have shrugged off pain and just kept going. But apparently the mental stress caused by all this talk of emotions added to the physical pain generated by so much fighting and then struggling against his restraints was starting to take its toll.

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind and focus on the goal at hand once more, but it didn't seem to be working just quite yet. Sighing, he leaned his head back against the damp walls and closed his eyes. What he wouldn't give to be back at the tower right now, preferably sitting in the medical ward and getting these bruises treated, maybe even sipping some of that herbal tea with Raven.

His stomach growled once more, pulling him out of his reverie as he glanced sadly down at himself. When was the last time he had eaten? Dejectedly, he realized that he had forgotten to eat dinner the night before. Great. Now he was hungry, tired, AND confused.

Starfire was sitting in front of the screens. Normally that was Robin's spot: the chair that he always sat in, staring blankly at the monitors so as to catch any villains in the middle of their criminal activities. They had come to call it the obsession seat over time, and now here she was sitting in it. She had good reason to as well, considering the fact that it was her Robin that was missing. She was absolutely determined to find Doctor Light or Professor Chang and make them pay, make them tell her where they were hiding him.

Raven opened the door slightly to see her friend sitting there, and she smiled a bit. Starfire really was starting to take up Robin's obsessive side, especially when it came to matters concerning the Boy Wonder himself. As she had become accustomed to doing lately, she had to calm the monster within her chest before she could enter the room and talk to the girl.

"It's horrible not knowing where he is, isn't it?" Raven asked quietly so as not to startle her friend as she came up beside her.

Starfire turned to face her, and Raven noticed the distinct lines on her cheeks that meant she had been crying. The poor girl's eyes were also puffy and red, not at all their usual sparkling green color. Raven was taken aback for a minute. She had no idea that Starfire cared this much. "Raven, it is absolutely horrible as you say. I do not know what I will do if we cannot find him!" she sobbed.

Raven fought down the monster once more. She wanted to say, "Too bad, he's mine!" or something along those lines, but she wasn't even sure herself that it was the truth, so she refrained from speaking her mind, for now. "I'm lost too, Starfire. He was my best friend too," she said, then wondered how far she could take it. "We shared a bond, remember?"

Starfire nodded. "I remember only too well when you entered Robin's mind that night. You helped us to save him from himself, and for that I am most eternally grateful, as I am sure he is as well. It must be so incredibly hard on you as well, knowing that you had to leave him." She choked. "I do not know if I would have posessed the strength to sacrifice my own feelings as you did, Raven. You are a true friend!"

Raven turned away for a moment. A true friend, huh? Now she only felt guilt and worry. Was she really a true friend? Was she behaving as one? No, a true friend wouldn't be trying to steal a boyfriend. But Robin and Starfire had never officially hooked up, had they? She truly didn't know what had gone on that day when they were stranded on the alien planet, and for all she knew, the two of them were secretly boyfriend and girlfriend. But then how could she think that when Robin had been so close to her the night before? She grasped her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She wasn't behaving as a true friend, that much she knew was true.

"Raven?" Starfire cut in on her thoughts. "What is wrong? You appear pale- paler then usual, may I add." Her face was one of true compassion and worry. This was only making her feel even more guilty, thinking about Starfire. The Tamaranean girl was so trusting, so completely full of love, something she couldn't do, especially not now that her emotions were starting to get the best of her.

"I'm sorry, Star. I'm just really lost right now. Everything is happening so fast," she said, not wanting to reveal too much.

"Friend Raven, you know that you may tell me everything and anything," Starfire said, one of her sugary sweet smiled plastered onto her face as she took her hand.

She sighed. If only she could... "Well," she paused, looking for the right words to say without giving anything up. "I'm having problems with my emotions right now."

Starfire gasped. "It is not of your father's influence, is it?"

She shook her head. "No, it's something even more complicated than that." She took a deep breath. "You see, there's this boy."

Starfire's smile broadened. "Oh, you are doing the falling in love? Tell me, Raven, who is it that you are feeling the yearning for?"

Raven's eyes dropped. She couldn't, wouldn't tell Starfire what she was truly feeling, especially after what she had just witnessed of Starfire's own emotions for Robin. She couldn't do that to her best friend, could she? But the fiery monster inside her kept telling her to break the news to her, to let her know how she really felt so that they could get it out in the open before she burst. "Well, there are two somebodies, actually, and both of them are really nice, and they've both given me hugs and made me feel important..."

Starfire's grin got smaller, but she continued to smile nonethless. "So you are feeling the confusion as to what your feelings are for each particular friend?"

Raven nodded. "Exactly."

"Tell me, Raven. Do I know these two boys?"

Raven paused. "You might."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and Cyborg came rushing in. "Where have you two been?" he thundered, waving his arms about madly.

Raven looked up, glad for the interruption. It really was hard to keep secrets from Starfire, and she had come so close to accidentally spilling her secrets. "We've been talking, Cyborg. Sorry if we worried you."

Beast Boy peeked around his friend's shoulder. "Rae? You sure got up fast!"

At first when she saw him, she felt a rush of embarassment, then guilt, then confusion once more. He was just so darn cute when he was confused that it was hard to keep her mind focused on other things! But then she would think of how dang hot Robin was when he was fighting and that would just confuse her even further.

Starfire seemed to notice her confusion and she leaned over and in a whisper asked, "Is our friend Beast Boy one of those boys whom you previously mentioned?"

Raven blushed and nodded before replying, "Star, there's something you need to know. Something about the other boy who I told you about. See, there might be some conflict between you and me..."

Star raised a hand. "You need not tell me now, Raven. I am sure that when you are ready to tell me you shall, but I do not wish to rush you into things that you do not want to do."

Raven shook her head. "But Starfire, you need to know this. Robin's having the same troubles I am."

Starfire paled. "He said that?"

Immediately, she wished that she hadn't spoken up, but now what could she do? She had already said it, and there was nothing more she could do but to explain. "Well, he said that he was having trouble sorting out his emotions lately, that's all." She knew it was a cruel lie, but judging by the look on Starfire's face, the girl wouldn't have been able to take the news, not now with all this added stress as well.

This seemed to calm her nerves a bit and Starfire relaxed a bit more into the chair, turning back to the computers. "That is good."

It had been hours of grueling torment on his arms and many times he had been forced to stop pulling to prevent himself from losing consciousness, but he had finally done it. He had managed to slip the ropes that were so tightly bound around his wrists off of the hook on the wall, thus enabling him to move his arms a bit. He relaxed for a moment, enjoying the slight freedom he had gained in moving his arms around.

This time he had managed to keep his thoughts from wandering. The searing pain in his arms helped, of course. They felt at this point as if they were about to fall off and he wished that he could just get done with it and break free, but he knew that he had already taken a big step in even getting this far, so he allowed his eyes to close as he started to drift off to sleep, but he soon found that his thoughts had not vanished, but were merely waiting for him to invite them back in, whether on accident or not.

"No, it wasn't. Somebody believed." Raven's words echoed in the back of his mind. She had hugged him that day, a great big, loving guesture that was so rare in her own way. Then again, he had also seen the time that Raven had hugged Beast Boy in the same manner. Oh, he knew for a fact that she hadn't known that he was walking down that hallway at the time, otherwise she very well would not have been so open towards the changeling.

Unbidden, a fit of rage rose up inside of him, directed at the youngest member of the team. He knew it was unwise to feel this way, that he couldn't afford to hate one of his teammates, especially in his position, that is, he being the leader. But how could he ignore the relationship that was growing between that boy and Raven? His eyes narrowed as he remembered well how many times Beast Boy had strived for Raven's attention. No doubt he was the "other somebody" that Raven had been talking about that night.

And what of Starfire? He knew without a sliver of a doubt that the girl had a crush on him, and there were several times that he had come so close to asking her out, but something always stopped him. It was so frustrating, being pulled so close together and then being torn apart. He remembered all those times when he held her hand, when she hugged him, when she kissed him...

That was probably the main thing that was confusing him, was the fact that he and Starfire had progressed so much farther into a relationship than he and Raven ever had. Of course, there was always the fact that the kiss had meant nothing, that it was merely a transfer of information from himself to her, but she had changed after that day. Had she changed for him? Had she been pining for him all along and he had just been too blind to see it?

But that wasn't the question that was tormenting his mind at the moment. The true question was the identity of the one that he was pining for. He and Raven had drawn closer together since the fiasco concerning her father, and he was fully aware that he had allowed it to happen, but what was he to do now? There were so many things that could possibly go wrong, so many ways that a relationship could end in a disaster.

Groaning, he opened his eyes once more. Apparently, he wouldn't be getting any sleep, so there was nothing left to do than to see what he could do about the ropes binding his limbs. Rolling over onto one side, he tucked his feet up to his chest and rolled onto his knees, thus enabling himself to reach the bonds around his ankles behing his back. What he wouldn't give to have his birdarang right now.

His fingers had finally found the knot when the door opened once more and light came streaming in. Groaning inwardly, he realized that Doctor Light had decided to pay him another visit. He fixed the villain with an icy stare as the boots came towards him.

"Red X says that the key to Doctor Light's defeat is polarized matrices of high energy electrons," Cyborg explained, laying out several electric discs both with Robin's insignia and out of Red X's hoard.

"What?" Beast Boy asked, scratching his head in confusion.

Raven had to keep herself from giggling. This time she knew her emotions were really getting the best of her. It seemed at this point that everything that Beast Boy did was starting to strike her as funny, but she couldn't help feeling a twange of guilt every time she bit back a smile. "It's the stuff that Robin's gadgets are made of," she explained so that Beast Boy could understand.

"I'll start working on assimilating some of this technology into my sonic cannon. Red X will help me. I want you three on patrol. Beast Boy, you take the streets as a dog, and Raven and Starfire can take the skies," Cyborg continued, not to be interrupted.

"Good luck finding your boyfriend," Red X smirked.

"He is not my boyfriend!" both Starfire and Raven exclaimed at the same time. Starfire cocked her head in confusion at Raven, who blushed furiously and turned away.

"Right. Anyway, if any of you find anything report to me immediately so we can give you some back up," Cyborg finished, giving both girls an odd expression.

The two of them took off into the sky, followed close behind by Beast Boy as a bird until he touched down on the ground to begin his search there. At first the air was thick with tension and silence. Finally, Starfire spoke up, "Raven, what did Red X mean when he referred to Robin as your boyfriend?"

Raven sighed. She had known that this conversation would eventually come up, but she had genuinely hoped that it could happen after she had sorted out her feelings. Taking a deep breath, she tried to lie, "He was teasing us because I had come to get him to tell him something and that's why I was captured too. So since we were both there, he wanted to rub it in harder." Why couldn't she have come up with a better lie than that?

Starfire cocked her eyebrows at her friend. "Raven, I have known for some time that you have been hiding something from me. Do not be ashamed to tell me. Whatever it may be, I will always remain your friend."

Raven looked away in shame. "Not this time."

"What do you mean, Raven?" Starfire asked, her voice filled with concern.

"Star, if I told you that I knew somebody who liked Robin, what would you say?" Raven asked, trying to skim around the subject.

Starfire shrugged. "It appears to be a common subject in this city. You do recall the incident with the one named Kitten?"

Raven nodded, hoping that Starfire wouldn't react in a similar fashion to what she had to say. "And what if I told you that Robin might possibly like her back?"

Starfire's eyes opened wide and she faltered in the air for a moment, but regained control. "I am unsure as to what I would think. I had always believed that Robin had the feelings for me. I have been waiting for him to say it, but if what you say is true..."

Raven shook her head. "No, Robin likes you too. It's...complicated, Star. See, sometimes people don't know what to think. Sometimes when people like other people, they start to find themselves feeling that way about more than one person. And then it just gets more confusing and you end up confusing other people as well with your own emotions..." She paused to calm herself down, for she had accidentally torn a few shingles off of various homes.

Starfire's eyes opened wide in realization. "Friend Raven, is the boy who you were...do you...does he?" This was perhaps the first time that Raven had seen Starfire so unsure of what to say. Normally, words seemed to come naturally to her, but this time...

"Star, I don't know how to say this to you, but Robin, well, I think, that, um, I might be crushing on him, and that, well, he might have feelings for me too," she said in a single breath.

Starfire's eyes watered and she landed on the roof of a nearby building, hugging her knees close to her chin as she took in everything that had happened. "How did this happen?" she whispered. "Raven, I thought that you were my best friend. I did not forsee something like this."

Raven landed beside her and went to put her hand on Starfire's shoulder, but the Tamaranean whirled on her. "Do not touch me!" Starfire shouted, her eyes blazing and her teeth gritted. Immediately, though, her demeanor changed and she began to hug Raven, sobbing, "I am sorry, friend Raven, I should not have let my emotions overtake me so. You are still my friend and it is no fault of mine that you are beginning to have feelings for our friend Robin." She turned away, continuing, "We must continue our search for him, though I advise you to keep your distance. I do not wish to cause you any harm in my anger."

Beast Boy wasn't having much luck finding anything as of yet, although he had managed to stick his nose in a puddle of something foul smelling. A burning sensation filled his nostrils and he reverted back to his human form, shaking his head to relieve the pain. Then it occured to him what he could have found. Through hazy eyes, he focused on the puddle he had recently discovered unwillingly and realized what color it was.

"Maybe if I follow it, the xinothium will lead me right to the bad guys," he mused aloud, changing into a tiny hummingbird to follow the trail. He watched it closely, following its twists and turns. Suddenly, though, it just stopped.

"What in the...?" Beast Boy reverted back to normal, searching the ground for some sort of clue as to where Doctor Light could have gone. Finally giving up, he went to sit down on a trashcan, but even as he put pressure on it, it sank into the ground, revealing a trapdoor beside it.

"Yes! Go Beast Boy! Go Beast Boy!" he smiled , transforming into a rat and scurrying down the tunnel.

He could hear the sound of men's voices faintly in the distance, and he transformed into a fly so that he would not be noticed as he flew into the room. He finally came to the end of the tunnel to find Chang and Doctor Light discussing something that Chang was holding.

"It is ingenius!" Chang said, shoving the vial up underneath Doctor Light's nose. Beast Boy noticed that it had a faint red glow about it.

"Yeah, yeah, but does it work?" Doctor Light said, shoving Chang's hand away.

"What better way to test it, my friend?" Beast Boy saw Chang's evil smile and wondered what was going on.

"I agree," Doctor Light nodded, the same sinister smile on his face.

With that, Chang walked out of sight. Deciding it best to follow the guy with the strange vial, he trailed the villain through the dark hallways. He realized that they were getting deeper and deeper underground, for it was getting really damp and musty. He passed nine different rooms before Chang finally stopped at the last one.

The first room was nothing ordinary, neither was the next one, though Beast Boy did notice that the doors were as far away from each other as possible, and that the wall between these two rooms had more reinforcements than any other. The third room was solid concrete surrounded by sheer metal and the door must have weighed at least two tons. By the time he got to the fourth and fifth rooms, he had figured out pretty much what they were for. Both rooms were greatly reinforced and completely fireproof. Beast Boy realized what they were for. These rooms were where they planned to hold the Titans captive! The first two rooms were for Mas and Menos, the next for Cyborg...In fact, Beast Boy could probably identify each room with its intended captive, but curiosity was getting the best of him.

Chang had been in the end room for some time now, and he could hear the footsteps of several henchmen approaching as well. He zipped over to the doorway just after the henchmen entered the room. The shocking scene before him was so surprising that he almost dropped out of the air.

As Chang exited the room, Beast Boy looked down on the Boy Wonder, who was now writhing in pain. So that's what the vial was for, he realized. Suddenly, a large hand came up in front of his face to swat him. He couldn't duck in time and found himself flying into the wall. His head was spinning as he reverted back to his human form, holding his throbbing head.

"It's one of the Teen Titans!' Get him!" Chang ordered his henchmen.

"Oh boy," Beast Boy muttered, jumping back up even as he narrowly avoided a direct blow from one of the glowing red objects. Changing into a cheetah, he rushed out of the way with those henchmen on his tail.

Numbing pain. That's all he could feel. That, and burning tears that had collected at the bottom of his cloth mask. He couldn't remember the last time he had let tears fall freely, but desperate times called for it. Having not forseen Professor Chang's appearance, he had neglected to arrange himself so that it would appear that he was yet incapacitated. Now he was feeling the repurcussions of his miscalculation.

Having not forseen Chang's appearance, he had not known what had been coming. All that he could remember were flashes of thoughts as he struggled to regain his thinking abilities. It was slowly coming back to him even as his own consciousness was slipping away. Chang had removed the foul cloth from around his mouth and held something even more foul-smelling up to his lips. He had lashed out with his legs, delivering a swift blow to the man's face, but it had been a short-lived victory.

He struggled for consciousness once more as he thought about what he had done next. Everything was blurring again and he was having trouble recalling it. Recovering slightly, he continued his attempts to retain his own being. Remembering the previous minutes would be key in planning for the next time. He shook his head as if to clear the cobwebs.

Chang had delivered a solid blow to his stomach, that much he remembered. Then he recalled falling over and holding his ribs as searing pain rushed through his being. Surely they were all broken at this point. He remembered being roughly yanked back up by his collar and then feeling the container pressed against his lips once more. He recognized the scent of it and knew what was coming, and he tried to fight back again, but by this time reinforcements had come in. His arms and legs held fast behind him, he recalled the burning sensation as the liquid coursed down his throat.

Which brought him to the present, where he lay on the ground, now writhing in pain at the enemy he was now inwardly fighting. It had been a cruel punishment, really, and he recalled on several occasions wishing that he could just lose consciousness quickly to end it, but something was preventing him from doing so. He faintly felt the pain shooting up his arms as they were once again thrust behind him and fasted more securely this time.

Through blurry vision, he saw the outline of boots before his eyes and a smirking face bent down in front of his. He was faintly aware of the need to hit that face, but at the moment his own physical pain was taking over his emotional needs. At least now he wasn't thinking about his feelings.

"What do you think of my latest breakthrough? It's amazing what xinothium can do to the body, isn't it? Don't worry, though. It won't kill you as of yet. I only put a small dose in this particular tube. I'm afraid it will cause you some slight discomfort though," Chang smirked even as he felt his body convulse yet again.

"You're despicable," he managed to gasp, but even that small sentence left him gasping for air.

Chang's smirk widened. "I'm sorry, did you say something? You shouldn't talk through clenched teeth, you know."

Robin fixed him with the iciest stare he could before grunting in response.

Chang stood up once more and made as if to leave, then turned back. "There was one more thing that I wanted to do before I left. Now what was it?" A crazy grin spread across the man's face. "Oh, yes."

His eyes opened wide even as he saw it coming. The white sole of a large boot connecting with his face. An explosion of sound seemed to fill his ears and his eyes were regestering fireworks even as blackness crept in around the corners. He closed his eyes as searing pain swept over him again before he finally allowed himself to slip into unconsciousness.