A/N: Sorry, guys…I took a bit longer than I expected. This chapter is especially long, though. About twice as long as the others, in fact. :) So that's good, at least. I don't know how much free time I'll be having next week, so I'm not even going to make an estimate for the next chapter just yet. Anyway, this one isn't as BB/Rae oriented, so some of you will like that. Plus, we all love a good Red X appearance. ;) I really hope you all like it.

My Own Worst Enemy
Chapter 6 – Fault

"I never win at this game."

Beast Boy offered the empath a lopsided smile, stacking his large pile of playing cards as discreetly as possible while she forlornly stared at the small stack that was hers. The small, white table, which had at one point been set up on the side of the room opposite the hospital bed, now stood directly by Terra's bedside. One chair was set up next to her pillow; the other was positioned just beside her feet. Beast Boy and Raven respectively sat in each, both Titans organizing their messy piles and growing either more gleeful or more despondent while they eyed the size of their piles. Five additional cards were lying face-down on the side of the table closest to Terra, serving only the purpose of entertaining the changeling's unpretentious imagination. "It's a game of luck, Raven," he explained, chuckling lightly while he spoke. "The only one I could think of that you couldn't play off of my expression."

Despite herself, Raven let a small smile slip onto her face. He was right; she usually did exactly that when playing him—or any other Titan—in a card game. War, however, was not your typical card game. Nor was it much fun, in Raven's opinion, but she'd agreed to play it anyway, knowing exactly the reason the changeling had chosen it. "There are plenty of games that rely on luck rather than skill. Poker is a game of luck, you know."

"But poker takes strategy, too. If you don't know what you've got, you can't win at it. That's where my poker face always fails me—you can always tell when I've got a good hand."

Raven smirked to herself. "You don't have a poker face, Beast Boy. Even Starfire can tell when you're about to spring a flush on us."

A large grin covered the changeling's face while he mentally acknowledged the embarrassing fact. He was entirely unable to hide his euphoria when he knew he was going to win at anything, not just a card game. His grin only broadened when he moved his stare from his cards to meet the empath's face; Raven's eyes were gleaming with silent laughter and suppressed smiles, just like they always were when he managed to draw her into conversation. There weren't many things he enjoyed more than looking into her eyes and seeing that she was genuinely happy—especially doing something that he was doing with her.

But still, there was something else there; something that showed him some odd, unrecognizable emotion in her expression. Absently, his eyes scanned over her face another time while his mind worked through it, trying to pinpoint the strange look in her eyes before she had a chance to cast it away. She never admitted to him, or to anyone, when she was troubled—and it was a characteristic about her that bothered him to no end. He hated it when she withdrew herself; she hadn't, yet, but judging by the glint in her eyes, it would only be a matter of time. He knew had to tell her why he'd asked her to stay down here eventually—preferably before the other Titans returned to the tower. He merely wasn't sure if he could work up the nerve to do so.

Not that it should have been an intimidating task in the least. He wanted to tell her that he was sorry; for what, he still wasn't sure. But if something was going to cause her to snap at him like she had the night before, then he definitely wanted to apologize for it. He didn't like it when Raven was angry with him, and he liked it even less when she made her anger clear through the hostile tone of her voice.

But why? Why should it matter? It shouldn't, he knew—neither of them were exactly creatures of nobility the previous evening, but neither were to blame for any of the catastrophic events that had occurred. If anything, Raven should be the one feeling the need to apologize to him for the blatant enmity she'd demonstrated toward him. Yet here he was, sitting opposite her and staring vacantly at her increasingly confused expression, trying desperately to think of something to say…something that would stop him from feeling so badly about something he couldn't even properly place in his mind.

Raven watched him while the goofy smile slowly fell away from his face, her brow furrowing slightly at the thoughtful expression that replaced it. She frowned at him; he didn't seem to notice. Something must have been on his mind, she quickly surmised. Beast Boy had never been particularly skilled at thinking and carrying on conversation at once. This instance coincided seamlessly with his usual trend of spacing out when his thoughts overtook him.

She tried clearing her throat. No response from the changeling. A quiet sound of annoyance emitted from her throat, and still nothing. Raven softly sighed to herself before lifting an eyebrow in Beast Boy's direction.

"Something bothering you?"

The question came to the changeling as a surprise; his eyes forcibly snapped away from the jewel on the empath's forehead, their panicked appearance meeting her concerned stare in seconds. "I—uh, no," he stammered, wishing desperately that he had the same degree of control over his emotions as she did—nothing would have pleased him more than to be able to fight away the blush that was quickly flooding over his features.

From her expression, he could tell that Raven wasn't the least bit fooled—not that he could blame her. The reddening tint of his skin did nothing to help his case of denial; the concern in her eyes slowly shifted into a quizzical glare. The expression itself spoke volumes to Beast Boy, and he felt himself pale slightly at the silent ultimatum she gave to him: Tell me willingly, or I'll force it out of you.

But he wasn't ready…he didn't even know why he felt this way, let alone how he was supposed to go about talking about it. The narrowing of Raven's eyes only worked to enhance the uneasy feeling that was starting to get the best of him; nervously, he glanced toward Terra's unconscious form, finding himself almost wishing that something drastic would happen to her monitors that would draw the empath's attention away from the look on his face. In spite of the mental berating he immediately threw upon himself for the thought, he glanced hopefully toward the screens on the walls, more than slightly disappointed to find no relief for his anxiety.

"Well?" Raven prodded, once again successfully breaking his attention away from his thoughts and drawing his stare into her narrow eyes. He visibly started upon seeing her expression; Raven bit the inside of her lip, vaguely regretting the glare she was shooting at him, but the simple fact was that old habits died hard. It had always been her experience that menacing eyes worked wonders in getting the changeling to open up. She'd never once had a glare fail her.

But then again, there was always a first time for everything.

"It's nothing, really," Beast Boy tried, forcing a smile that conveyed all of his usual nervousness without any of the usual confidence. "Just…some stuff about Terra, that's all."

It sounded logical enough…so why wasn't she buying it? Raven lifted an eyebrow, her curious expression masked only lightly by the shadow her hood cast upon her face. He still looked incredibly nervous; the glance he'd thrown toward Terra was hardly a glance of concern for the geomancer. It looked to Raven more like an "I wish you could help me" expression than one that said "I wish you would wake up."

Hidden as her face may have been, Beast Boy knew that she wasn't quite convinced with his excuse. He let out a quiet sigh, his eyes straying toward the discarded playing cards strewn across the table while he tried one last time to gather his thoughts. Now or never, he reasoned to himself, taking a deep breath of confidence before looking back toward the empath in front of him. "I guess I sort of was hoping I could talk to you a little…about whatever happened yesterday…between us."

There was nothing particularly accusing about what he'd just said. As a matter of fact, Raven knew that he meant nothing hurtful by it—it was nothing more than an innocent request for conversation on a topic that wasn't yet quite comfortable. Nevertheless, she felt like she'd been stabbed by his words. "Between us." Just the tone of his voice, perhaps, or the sad expression that flickered across his face… Raven shook her head quickly, trying to clear her mind of the rampant thoughts before they could devour her. "What about yesterday?" she asked, trying hard to sound casual and feeling anything but satisfied by the resulting tone.

"I mean…everything about yesterday." He frowned, disliking the uncharacteristic tone of remorse his voice was carrying, but Beast Boy suspected that there wasn't much of anything he could do to change it. Initiating a heartfelt conversation wasn't really one of his strong points; he was terrible at it, in fact. But if he didn't try to fix things, then the uneasy feeling he got when he looked at her would never be acknowledged…and what would he do if it never went away? "About Star, and…just the way I acted…about Terra…"

"You had every right, Beast Boy. Terra's important to you."

She surprised herself with the monotone she managed with the sentence; the pang of jealousy that surged through her was almost enough to shoot a wave of dark energy toward every electronic device in the room. Really, she didn't think he'd had any right at all, but how was she supposed to tell him that without starting an argument that would quite possibly end in a devastating explosion—and a real one, at that?

Still, she forced herself to offer him a small smile, lying through her teeth while she attempted to console the desperate-looking changeling through his guilt. "There was nothing wrong with what happened. Nothing you did, at least."

Again, he found himself wishing that he was as stupid as the others thought he was. He would have missed the trace of a frown that overtook her face for the split second it had been there. He could have brushed off the fake tone of her voice as a figment of his imagination. Blocking out the memory of her angry glare when she dove off the cliff to search for Starfire would have been all too easy.

But he wasn't that stupid, and he wasn't so naïve to think that everything was all right just because Raven said it was. Maybe he wasn't an empath, but he knew his friends well enough to be able to tell when they were lying.

"Rae…don't pretend with me. Please."

She could tell by his tone that he wasn't going to be easily fooled by her feeble attempt at a confident appearance. The false smile quickly fell away from her lips; she only stared at the changeling while he stared back into her, a sad look of regret passing onto his face while he forced himself to go on.

"I know you pretty well…I know you're upset with me. I don't want you to pretend that everything's okay. I know it's not."

Raven's mouth fell open, any words she intended to speak with it neglecting to come along. A few nonsense syllables were all she managed to sputter for a few seconds until she found her voice. "I don't know what you're talking about." Beast Boy lifted an eyebrow in skeptical disbelief; Raven found the presence of mind to narrow her eyes at him. "Everything's fine."

"Everything's not fine. I'm not an idiot, Rae."

"Could have fooled me."

He winced slightly, wounded by the verbal jab, but pushed it out of his mind before he could let it get to him. She was only angry—Raven tended to lash out when she was angry. Concern wasn't her style, and if a member on the team showed any toward her, they were more likely to find themselves angry with her than to successfully offer her any comforting words. "Look, I'm not trying to start a war or anything. I just want to apologize. So, Raven…I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it, Beast Boy. There's nothing to worry about."

"Yes, there is. I hate it when you do this, Rae. You always pretend there isn't a problem, and then you sit there and meditate about it for days and refuse to do anything with anyone. I don't want that to happen again—I want to talk about it. Is that so hard?"

She didn't respond; instead, she abruptly pushed herself away from the table, letting the sliding noise of the chair while she got up answer him for her. Beast Boy only watched, dumbfounded, until she'd made her way halfway across the room. Then, he quickly pushed himself out of his seat, as well.

"Raven! Stop it!"

"I'm not having this conversation in here," she snapped at him without so much as glancing back. Her hand fell upon the doorknob before she shot the changeling a look that could have killed him. "I'm sure it's the last thing Terra would want to hear while she's waking up."

She retreated through it before she even finished the sentence. Beast Boy caught the door before it could close him out, following the empath into the small control room just outside the hospital bay. It clicked noisily shut behind him and left the forgotten card game alone with its unconscious player.

x-X-x

Robin's eyes were closed behind his mask while each of his hands massaged either of his temples. Cyborg was stooped near the ground in front of him, prodding gently at a melted piece of plastic. It took every ounce of willpower in the boy wonder's body to keep him from shouting his frustration for the world to hear.

Not that anyone was around to hear it, anyway. This part of town was virtually empty; Robin couldn't imagine much of the rest of the city being very different. If there was one thing he could say about the people of Jump, it was that they were extremely quick to find shelter when devastating attacks from psychotic evildoers struck the city. It was probably only all the more terrifying to see one of the Teen Titans acting as said psychopath this time.

Although the citizens of Jump had endured such a feeling before—when Terra had done the same thing that Starfire was now apparently doing. At the thought, Robin frowned to himself; there was no way she could be doing this of her own free will. She was too innocently sweet, too charming. It wasn't in her nature to destroy—not intentionally, at least—and he couldn't even imagine her deliberately joining forces with Slade. Assuming that was who Red X had meant by the "pumpkin king" comment.

"I don't know, man." Cyborg shook his head lightly; Robin opened his eyes, looking downward toward his older teammate while the half-robot gave him a sympathetic stare. "This is it. No evidence of any other blasts, no bloodstains, nothing."

The boy wonder was dumbfounded. How could that be all? How could X have managed to get away without a single shot fired by the alien beauty? The thought of the thief striking some sort of agreement with her rather than sarcastically digging into her as much as he possibly could wasn't even fathomable. There was no way the other boy would have left without saying something snide—something that should have made her want to blast him.

"At least we know she wasn't hurt?" he offered almost hopefully, lifting a quizzical eyebrow at his friend. Cyborg couldn't help cracking a smile at the comment—they both knew that Starfire wasn't the one they should worry about getting hurt in a confrontation between the two. Robin smiled to himself, as well, before breaking his eyes away from Cyborg and looking to the sky. "I guess there's no way we can track her, is there?"

"We could try running a heat sweep. I don't think I could do one large enough from here, though. We'd have to go back to the tower."

Robin visibly winced. Returning to the tower empty-handed was one of the last things he wanted to do. "There isn't anything else we can do here?" he asked desolately, his hidden eyes probing the skies while he spoke as though he expected to see her tanned figure appear at any moment. As if he thought that, if they waited for long enough, she would reappear and make herself known to them.

Cyborg's regretfully honest tone dashed any hopes he might have let himself develop. "I don't think so, man. Not anything that would be very helpful, anyway."

He was defeated, and he quickly found that admitting it to himself didn't make it any less difficult to accept. "Okay," he sighed; even while he acknowledged the half-robot's suggestion, his mind still raced to find an excuse to stay. He knew full well that any further amount of time spent here would more than likely become time entirely wasted, but…he just had a feeling.

Raven had discussed these "feelings" with him once before. "Don't ignore it," she'd told him very gravely. "It's instinctive; it can't always be explained. But if you push it out of your mind, you'll regret it later. Trust me."

He remembered the way she closed her eyes when she spoke the last words; the pained look that passed for an instant over her features was too intense to ignore. Raven evidently knew what it was like to betray such foreboding thoughts, and he had grimaced slightly at the idea of falling prey to a similar stab of remorse. Now he was once again faced with the same problem he'd been faced with then. In reality, it wasn't so much a problem—Robin already knew what he wanted to do. The only thing he had to figure out was how to convince Cyborg that it was right.

By the time his senses returned to him, Robin found himself quite alone in the back alley he and his friend had been standing in. The burnt piece of plastic was gone; the boy wonder blinked, turning around just in time to see Cyborg's hulking form disappear around the corner of the building. "Hey, wait up," he called out automatically, starting after the other hero as soon as the words left his mouth.

He hadn't gone two steps before something hit him hard in the back. Robin shouted a mangled curse, topping forward and finding himself sprawled on the pavement in seconds. Instinctively, he rolled to his side, landing neatly on his knee and balancing himself in a crouched position on the ground with his hand and foot, glaring at the spot he'd been standing in an effort to intimidate whatever had hit him. His hidden eyes widened slightly at the sight he was met with.

Nothing. There was nothing there—just empty air and a building a few yards away. "What the…?" he absently asked himself, pushing himself up off of the ground to stare in confusion at the brick wall he was facing. His mind raced—what could have struck him that would be able to get away fast enough to avoid being seen? "X?" he guessed, grabbing at the only name he could come up with of a villain who regularly employed cloaking technology.

The building didn't confirm nor did it deny his deduction. Robin blinked at it, waiting a few seconds for a response before uneasily glancing around himself, wondering whether the attacker was still beside him. His eyes were cast off to his left when he felt a fist collide with his right arm. His guard wasn't up; he barely kept his footing while he whirled around, stumbling backwards and holding up a hand to deflect another attack should one come to find him.

Again, there was nothing there. Robin was beginning to get a little freaked out. "Slade?" he guessed again, careful with his tone not to sound too completely clueless. It wasn't like the Titans' arch-nemesis to use any sort of stealth power to its fullest extent when messing with one of the members; typically, Slade liked to make his presence known, thriving on the fact that his very name struck fear into the hearts of the average city resident. Granted, Robin wasn't exactly your everyday, average citizen…but still, Slade had never hidden himself when initiating a fight of any kind with the young hero. Robin couldn't imagine a reason he would want to start now.

"Robin!"

The boy wonder's attention snapped back toward the corner that Cyborg had just disappeared around; the taller boy was hurrying back, a slightly panicked expression on his face. The alarms were quick to go off in the young hero's mind; concerned, he turned to face the half-robot fully, temporarily forgetting the invisible attacker he'd just been attempting to decipher the identity of. "What is it?"

"It's the heat sensor. Someone's here. Right here."

"Right here," a familiar, female voice jeered suddenly. Before either Titan could even turn around, a blast of emerald light engulfed Cyborg's metallic body. The older boy cried out helplessly, his body flinging backwards and colliding with the building behind the teens. A shower of bricks immediately rained over him; another curse escaped his mouth before the crumbling wall effectively covered the hero up.

Robin's eyes followed his friend in an unbalanced blend of shock and horror. He watched the debris tumble over his helpless form, unable to make even the smallest movement; his voice, in turn, failed to shout out the fallen hero's name in panic as he normally would have. The caped crusader was entirely torn—half of him wanted to rush to Cyborg's aid while the other half wanted to turn back and face the attacker.

But he didn't know what he would do if he turned around. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who the assailant was, and Robin wasn't sure if he was able to face her without letting the encounter run off in a million different directions. He'd been hoping to find her, but not like this. Not with these circumstances. Now, he knew that he should be challenging the wrongdoer who had just attacked his friend—but how could he do that when the attacker was such a close friend? He only wanted the moment to freeze in time forever; that way, he would never have to make the choice, nor would he need to deal with the consequences of his actions.

The time-stopping machine he and his friends had once raced to disarm, however, turned out to be nothing more than a decoy, and Robin was unfortunately left to realize that time was not currently frozen forever. The girl standing behind him cleared her throat pointedly as though to enhance his awareness of the fact; he visibly winced, squinting his eyes shut in another effort to will her away. She would seemingly have none of it. "Hello, Robin," she innocuously sang, her melodic voice sounding just as endearing as ever.

He found himself almost wishing that she'd adapted to a more malicious and menacing tone—it was too difficult to be upset with her when she sounded just like the beautiful princess he'd always known. "Starfire," he dully responded, still unwilling to face her; she cleared her throat again as if she was demanding his eyes upon her. Robin couldn't quite bring himself to comply.

She waited a few seconds before she went on; he could only presume that she was waiting for him to look at her, and surely she was disappointed that he wouldn't give her the pleasure. "I apologize for my hostile approach with our friend Cyborg," she said in a tone that was almost careful. "I merely wished to speak with you alone."

His eyes opened almost automatically; he resisted the urge to shoot her an incredulous glare. Instead, he kept his stare on the newly formed hole in the wall of the adjacent building, letting a small smile play disbelievingly onto his lips while he formed a string of retorts in his mind. It was a pity, really, that he cared far too much for this girl to let himself rattle off whatever snide rejoinders popped into his head. "Nice way to go about saying so," he idly remarked, suppressing the harsher snappish comments he wanted to use for the time being. If it turned out that she was doing this of her own free will—if she wasn't being controlled as Terra was—he would be more than happy to bring them into action.

She seemed oblivious to his sarcasm. She seemed oblivious, in truth, to the fact that what she'd done was more than simply impolite. Vocalized or not, Starfire disregarded his comments, shrugging them off in an uncaring manner that would have enraged him had he been watching her. "I have been informed that you were rather willing to bring an end to your own life for a mere attempt to save mine."

This was an observation he hadn't been expecting to hear. Surprised, he automatically looked at her, grimacing and tearing his eyes away the instant they met her petite form. The orange and black she wore hardly complimented her—though, admittedly, Robin knew he may have only felt that way because of his hatred toward the man the colors represented. Reluctantly, he set his stare on her eyes, hoping that the familiar, emerald shine would blind him to her difference in attire. "You mean last night?" he questioned in spite of the obvious "yes" that he would surely receive in response. He opted not to wait for her to answer. "I would have done anything to save you, Star. You have no idea how relieved I am just to see you alive."

Her clothes may have been drastically different, but her face still remained the same. The smile that formed on her lips relaxed the boy wonder considerably, allowing him to relax his tense muscles and stand to face her more comfortably. Still, he tried to keep his guard up; there was no telling what she would do next, especially if she was nothing more than a puppet being controlled by some greater force. "The fall alone would have killed you. You must have been aware of this, yes?"

He couldn't fight away the smile that wanted to come over his face. If she was a puppet, she was a stunningly convincing one, and just as gorgeous as ever. Looking into her eyes showed him nothing more than her typical shining expression, complete with the modest smile to match. "I didn't even think about it," he replied honestly. A twinge of embarrassment crept into his voice while he continued, "I would have gone after you if someone hadn't stopped me."

"The Red X," she said knowingly, giving a small nod to indicate that she already knew. Her action brought him back to reality—back to realizing that she may not have complete control of her mind. She and X had had an encounter, he concluded; it was only much less violent than he would have expected. "Surely you will suspect, as he did, that the reason for my betrayal is that you failed to rescue me."

"…as he did…" Robin shuddered discreetly, wondering if the past tense she used could have implied that the thief was no longer a concern of hers. He couldn't believe that she would have killed him, even if she was under someone else's control, but there was always the possibility… He quickly decided that, the next time Beast Boy wanted to request a Titan to stay behind, Raven would be off-limits. He very much could have used her abilities to help determine what was going on with Starfire.

Of course, had Raven come along, she may have only met with the grim fate Cyborg had encountered. Robin glanced behind him, his frown deepening when he caught sight of the bricks moving slightly, showing the half-robot's weak struggles against the concrete piled atop him.

Starfire's voice drew him out of his guilt-ridden contemplations. "I would like to personally assure you that your failure to successfully save me has nothing to do with my decision to work with Slade," she said almost snidely; his eyes snapped back to her face, which now wore a detestable smirk rather than a smile. "I would also like to extend my sympathy to you. It is very unfortunate that you did not fall to your untimely death from the cliff I fell from last night."

"Is that so." He wasn't sure why, but her expression momentarily faltered, a perplexed look covering her face for a mere instant. He didn't give himself time to ponder the reasons for the sudden change—it changed back immediately, anyway, so surely it couldn't have mattered. "Why, if you don't mind my asking, should that be considered 'unfortunate?'"

Her smirk widened and her eyes narrowed at the inquiry. "Now, you must endure a death brought about by one of your dearest friends. Imagine how much less it would hurt to die in consequence to your own stupidity."

Naturally. So she was going to kill him. Robin shot another glance toward Cyborg's hidden form; the bricks that covered him were finally beginning to shift more rapidly, hinting to the boy wonder that his robotic friend was starting to return to full consciousness and fight his way atop the pile. If he could hold off her attack for just another moment… "So would it be safe for me to assume that you took care of X, then?"

She laughed. It was a chilling laugh; a startling contrast to the normal, joyous sound he was used to. "If that is how you prefer to put it," she grinned, seemingly disregarding the visible shudder that overtook Robin's body. "Yes, I 'took care of him.' Such a charmingly deceitful phrase, is it not?"

"Charming," he repeated dryly, allowing his sarcastic nature to get the best of him. If she was allowed to act uncharacteristically arrogant, he reasoned with himself, then he was certainly willing to treat her in a way he never would have dreamed of treating her normally. It was as fitting a time as any to do so—the Starfire he was currently conversing with was definitely anything but normal. "Did he fight back?"

"He begged me for death."

It was by far the iciest tone he'd ever heard her use—the sound of it alone startled him out of his charade and drew a stunned look of disturbance onto his face. Again, she laughed at his appearance; he shook his head ferociously, trying to shake the thought of the thief being murdered by his closest friend out of his mind. "Don't," he said quietly, choking on his words before he could form a complete sentence. "Don't even say that, Star. Please. Tell me you aren't serious."

"I am very serious, Robin."

Her voice had reverted back to its sugary, sweet sound; his head was spinning, still reeling with the thought of death. A real death—and the real possibility that he'd never see the boy who'd stolen his suit again. There's no way…

His thoughts were broken by a sudden, forceful grab at his throat. The fact that he couldn't breathe immediately slammed into the center of his attention. Starfire's hand was around his neck, easily lifting him from the ground; she smirked laughingly at his helpless position while his hands grabbed reflexively at her arms. "Soon, you will be begging for death, as well," she threatened quietly before snapping her arm around to hurl him against the building opposite Cyborg's.

x-X-x

The first thing her throbbing mind processed was the sound of two angry voices arguing nearby. Initially, fear overwhelmed her; after a moment, she realized that the voices were not in her own mind but right outside the door of the room she was in.

Terra weakly struggled to push her head off of the pillow it rested on, turning her eyes toward the clouded glass in the doorway of the hospital wing. It didn't take much thought to realize where she was—she'd seen this room on more than one occasion before. She was in the Titans' Tower. And the voices she was hearing—they belonged to Raven and Beast Boy.

A small smile overpowered her face while she listened to them argue, still unable to make out what they were saying. Most of it sounded like nonsensical gibberish to her at the moment, and she didn't even care to try and make out what they were so worked up over. The important thing was that she wasn't overcome with the urge to hurt them both.

The darkness that inhabited her mind was finally lifted. She was free.

The blonde continued to smile to herself while she watched the shadows of the two Titans outside the door. Slowly, the words they were speaking were beginning to make sense to her, though the point of the argument was not. "Why won't you just talk to me?" Beast Boy was saying; by the looks of things, the shorter boy's arms were folded over his chest, and Terra could picture the look of the scowl that surely adorned his face. "I know you're mad at me, but you won't even tell me why. What'd I do, Rae?"

"You didn't do anything," Raven's voice said coolly, though the geomancer could detect a trace of evident anger in her tone. "I'm not mad. I don't get mad."

"Don't give me your 'I don't do emotions' crap. I don't care whether you express them or not—everybody feels, Rae. And you're one of my best friends. I know when something's wrong with you."

"Then just forget about it. I don't want to talk, Beast Boy. Let me know when there's a real emergency with Terra; I need to meditate."

The smile finally began to fall from Terra's face, replaced quickly by a worried frown while Raven's shadowy figure began to stalk away. It moved past Beast Boy's shorter form; the smaller boy turned, a noise of speechless frustration emitting from his throat before he moved after her. "Raven," the boy finally sputtered, his voice increasingly distant while he followed the empath away. "You can't keep running away from this. If you don't talk to me now, you're never going to."

They were beyond her field of vision, now, but judging by the fact that she could still hear the changeling, Terra guessed that Raven had come to a stop before exiting the medical bay entirely. "Then I'm never going to," the empath coldly snapped; Terra strained to listen with baited breath for another word from the pair, wondering what had happened to cause such a scene between two friends, but the silence that followed lasted a few long moments.

She was beginning to think that the pair had left the med bay when she heard Beast Boy sigh deeply in the hallway. "Rae," he said again, much more pathetically this time. Terra's frown turned from concerned to vaguely hurt at the unrecognizable emotion she heard in his tone. Unknowingly, he didn't give her time to think much about it. "Please don't do this. I know you don't like opening up, but please. I'm having a bad enough couple of days already."

The admission was followed by a soft, sad chuckle from the green changeling. Terra pushed herself to an upright sitting position, wondering whether she had the energy to move and peek out the door. There was a lot of silence all of a sudden, and the geomancer didn't know what was going on between the pair of Titans in the hallway. But would she even want to find out…?

Before she could effectively ponder the question, her attention was snapped away from the pair in the hallway by the clatter of a sheet of metal falling from the ceiling. Alarmed, Terra looked up, noting an outstretched, gloved palm poised in the now-empty air duct above her. Her heart clenched up within her; someone was breaking into the hospital room. The gray color of the glove that quickly drew back didn't leave much of a need for guesswork.

A few seconds passed before the black-clad thief fell noiselessly from the ceiling, his masked eyes clearly fixed on the broken vent cover now lying guiltily on the ground. "Oops," the teen grumbled to himself, scratching the side of his head in anxious embarrassment.

Terra held her breath; it was evident that he hadn't noticed her looking at him just yet. Maybe, just maybe, she could manage to lay back down before he looked at her…maybe she could pretend to be sleeping and avoid whatever confrontation he wanted to initiate. The hope was far-fetched, she knew, but she wanted nothing more than a few more blissful hours of sleep before any of the Titans were alerted to her condition. If Raven and Beast Boy would stop arguing for long enough to notice her increased heart rate, they might even see her before Red X did.

His gaze quickly shifted from the scrap of metal on the floor back up to the vent above him; Terra could only speculate as to what was going through his mind. Before long, though, his eyes fell upon her. He visibly started, markedly surprised to see her awake, as she did the same in reaction to being seen. "Glad you're up," he said monotonously, recovering quite nicely from his initial shock to appear as nonchalant as he usually did.

She wasn't sure what to say in response. "Thanks?" she guessed, her eyebrows lifted in an unsure, apprehensive expression. The geomancer knew virtually nothing about the thief in front of her—only what she'd been told in preparation for capturing him. Unfortunately, what he may do as revenge against her hadn't been included in the description of his powers and tendencies. "Uh, I'm…sorry about last night…" she tried, falling silent when he shook his head at her attempt at an apology.

"Forget about it. I'm not here to smite you. I'm here because you know something that I need to know."

Terra merely stared at his impatient stance while realization slowly fell upon her. She could only barely remember her last few moments of consciousness from the previous night, but her instructions going into the confrontation with the Titans had been clear. "It's Starfire, isn't it?" she hesitantly asked, biting her lip while his eyes narrowed slightly behind his mask.

"You don't think," he droned in mock surprise; she scowled, but chose to keep any rebuttals she may have come up with to herself. Betraying his bitter mindset, X let his sarcasm stop there and instead opted to level with the girl—asking for her help wouldn't do much good if she disliked him enough to make a point of keeping the information from him. "She's wrecking the city, and I need to stop her. I need you to tell me where Slade is."

The geomancer's sapphire eyes slipped shut for a moment while she gave a small shake of her head in response. "Don't waste your time looking for Slade."

On a normal day, Red X had a relatively short temper. Thus far, his day hadn't exactly been normal; his fuse was nearly entirely gone. A sound of mild annoyance emerged from behind his mask before he spoke again. "If you want to be the one to go up against her, be my guest, because I sure as hell am not doing it. Tell me where he's hiding, and I'll take out his control on her. It'd be that easy."

"No." She shook her head again, bringing the thief's piercing glare to her eyes in an instant. "I can't tell you where he's hiding because I don't know. Slade's got nothing to do with this."

"She told me Slade was behind this. She said he wants her to destroy her friends."

Terra narrowed her eyes at him. She was relatively quick to grow angry, as well, and the fact that she was currently lying in a hospital bed with only a fraction of her physical strength hardly quelled her temper. "Well, fine. Why don't you just let her? Your job might be a lot easier if the Titans weren't around to stop you all the time."

"They don't stop me all the time, and I'm not doing this for them," he argued. "I'm doing this because she's wrecking the city—my city—and I need that city there. What good is being a thief if there isn't anything to steal?"

"What good is being a thief, regardless?" she returned; she could sense the scowl that overtook his face. "If you're so stuck on the Slade thing, maybe you should go talk to Robin. I hear he's had a pretty difficult time letting go of the past."

"I'm not stuck on anything. I just want to stop the alien from blowing up the city."

"How noble of you. Out to save the world, huh?" Terra smirked.

X was growing more furious with her by the second. "Are you still being controlled?" he sneered at the girl; she merely grinned in response. "I don't care who's behind it, just tell me where he is so that I can kick his sorry ass."

The blonde didn't seem to be intimidated. "Why bother? Why not just kill her?"

X's eyes narrowed further. "Why not just drop it?"

"Why not just shut up?"

Both pairs of eyes shot toward the doorway; Raven was standing with one hand outstretched, and X quickly found himself caught in a ball of dark energy. Beast Boy was standing beside the empath, scowling in X's general direction, though his worried eyes were clearly resting on Terra. The anti-hero glared at the empath, silently cursing her for her unparalleled ability to sneak up on the unsuspecting. Before he could think of a clever remark, he found himself flying hard against the wall, slamming painfully into it and shaking everything on the shelves beside him along with his impact.

"Two questions," Raven said darkly, capitalizing on her tendency to send dreadful chills down the spine of whatever poor criminal she was apprehending. X squirmed inwardly, though he was outwardly unable due to the hold her dark energy had on him. "How did you get in here, and what the hell do you want?"

It was obvious from her tone that today wasn't the best of days to be messing with Raven. Red X swallowed thickly, trying to fidget his way out of her magic with no success. "Years of practice," he replied to the first question, earning only a scowl and another hard thud against the wall.

"I'm not in the mood today, X." The thief felt himself being pressed into the wall almost gently. Almost, if he could ignore the choking pressure that was slowly developing between it and the magic she used to hold him there. Raven paid no attention. "You've broken into the tower; that alone is enough to get you put away for quite a while, not to mention all the other charges of burglary or breaking-and-entering we could slap onto you on behalf of the city."

"You remember," he sarcastically commented, trying to keep his voice from sounding strained from the lack of oxygen his short breaths were able to take in. "I'm touched."

"Whatever. I don't have time for your bullshit. You tell me why you came here, and I'll tell you how long it'll be before you're out of prison."

X tried a snappish retort, but the air had abandoned his lungs, effectively rendering him entirely speechless. Beast Boy stared nervously at the thief's struggling form, watching his body writhe helplessly in the hold of Raven's dark magic before casting a worried glance toward Terra. The geomancer's blue eyes were also flicking between the empath and the thief, a look of concern drawn all over her face. Timidly, the changeling cleared his throat, moving to set a hand on Raven's shoulder until he thought better of it. "Rae, I don't think he can breathe," he offered quietly. "Maybe you should—"

"I don't care what you think, Beast Boy," Raven shot at him, a flare of dark magic suddenly surrounding her; the changeling audibly yelped and jumped back, dodging an errant blast that shot toward the light fixture in the ceiling, causing a shower of sparks to rain down over the three. Terra shrieked and threw her hands over her head in an effort to shield her hair; Beast Boy was pressed back against the far wall, his fearful eyes turned upward toward the now-darkened bulb. Raven quietly gasped, surprised by her own actions, and hastily released her hold on Red X. The thief fell to the ground with a dull thud.

Silence filled the dark room—the only sounds came from the machines that quietly hummed to themselves next to Terra's bed. Her blue eyes were fixed nervously on Raven, whose cloaked form had retreated toward the doorway, though she'd stopped before she let herself escape the room. Beast Boy was focused on an effort to stop his heart from beating so wildly, staring at X's wheezing form while he struggled to bring the oxygen back into his body. A few minutes passed without a word between the four; X eventually looked up from where he lay, pushing himself weakly to his feet and looking between the other three teens while they awkwardly glanced at each other. Quietly, Raven cleared her throat, casting a remorseful peek toward the anti-hero.

"I'm sorry."

He wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't even sure if he was still supposed to be here. Self-consciously, the thief rubbed the back of his neck, leaning backward against the wall he'd just been pinned to and offering the empath a feeble smile in the hopes that the sentiment would come across regardless of how hidden the expression might be. "Don't worry about it."

Terra shifted her gaze from the empath toward the thief, biting her lip in a hollow feeling of regret. Perhaps if she hadn't gotten so snide with him, Raven wouldn't have come in, and the poor thief wouldn't have… She shook her head, expelling the thoughts as quickly as they'd come and resolving to ignore the lingering feeling of guilt that plagued the back of her mind. "He came here because of me," she said softly, smiling wryly at the skull mask that was somehow suddenly much less intimidating. "Because of what happened to Starfire. He wants to stop her."

Raven shook her head slowly. Guilt was plaguing her enough as it was—she didn't need the added effect of the regret she'd feel if she acted so brutally toward a boy who simply wanted to offer them his help. "Starfire is our teammate…our friend. She's our problem. We'll take care of her."

"We'll save her," Beast Boy put in, disliking the sound of the words Raven had chosen. Hopefully, his eyes turned toward the geomancer, a tiny, worried smile forming on his lips the instant his stare fell upon her. She wasn't looking at him, but at Raven; the changeling gulped nervously, his voice unnervingly squeaking when he tried to gain her attention. "Terra will help—won't you, Terra?"

The blonde's blue eyes shifted uneasily from Titan to Titan. She bit her lip, looking back toward the empath, and then at Beast Boy once again. Hesitantly, she tried, "I, um…"

"I'm going to take care of it," X tersely clarified, interrupting Terra and drawing the eyes of the others upon him once more. He looked very casual—lazy, even—causing Raven to lift an eyebrow at his nonchalant disposition in such an unfriendly and presumably threatening situation for the young thief. Still, though, he was acting just as cocky as ever. It was as though being physically weakened by her dark, magical onslaught and finding himself surrounded by three people who were more than capable of apprehending him as the moment barely worked to faze him. "I just need to know where the bad guy's hiding, and I'll handle it. You two don't have to worry about your friend. I'll get her back for you."

Raven's stare turned to one of suspicious skepticism. She didn't know the boy very well aside from the snide remarks he usually threw at her in battle, but something about his typical attitude told her that he wasn't really the "hero" type. Why he would want to go up against a villain like Slade to rescue a superhero was beyond her. There was only one logical reason he would willingly volunteer to help with something like this—moreover, to want to do it alone. "What's the catch?"

"No catch. You guys can deal with her while she's trying to wreck the place. I'll go after the big, bad villain. Once I break his control on her, she's free. My city is safe and your friend is back on your side. Everybody wins."

Still, the empath couldn't bring herself to entirely trust him. "I can't believe that you'd do this if there isn't anything in it for you," she told him truthfully. "There's got to be something you're going to get out of this. What is it?"

X sighed; it was a very quiet noise that was intended only for himself to hear. "Peace of mind."

"Peace of mind?" Beast Boy echoed, resisting the urge to tack on a "what's that supposed to mean?" for fear of making himself sound like a complete idiot. Raven shot the changeling a glance; if even he wasn't convinced, then she was sure that something wasn't right with the offer the thief was making. Beast Boy continued without noticing. "Starfire isn't a friend of yours, she's a friend of ours. We're the ones worried about her—her safety and her well-being. I don't get what you need peace of mind for."

Behind his mask, X closed his eyes. If he was going to need their help, he reluctantly reasoned to himself, he may as well be honest with the heroes…especially if doing so would get him out of a one-way trip to jail. "It's not because I'm worried about her. Or the rest of you, for that matter. I could care less what happens to you at the hands of some big-name villain. Like the girl said—with you kids gone, my job would be a lot easier." He paused to smirk, though the others couldn't see. "A lot less exciting, but easier."

"Why, then?" Raven prodded, an equal mix of impatience and curiosity in her tone. "If you aren't concerned, and if you want us dead, then—"

"I never said I wanted you dead."

The empath pressed her lips together. "Okay. If you want us 'out of your way,' then why would you want to save one of us? Why put forth the effort for people you don't even care about?"

"Because." He hesitated. He didn't want to say it. He hadn't admitted it aloud yet, and he didn't exactly want to jump on the opportunity to. But if it was the truth… "It's my fault she's like that."

"What?" Beast Boy and Raven gaped in unison, both their eyes notably widening.

Terra, however, vehemently shook her head at the thief's admission. "It wasn't your fault. It was my fault. I was the one who hit her."

She seemed to understand, and had evidently been experiencing a similar feeling herself, but X held up a hand to silence the girl. "I was stupid enough to let you grab me. I knew you were there, and I didn't do a damn thing about it. Just let myself get knocked out and carried off. I figured it was one of them—" He waved a hand toward the stunned Titans to demonstrate. "—and that there would be plenty of sarcastic remarks flying back and forth before any real fighting started. I took it for granted, and I wasn't ready. And look how it ended up."

"X, that wasn't your fault," Terra said again, the frown on her face nearly doubling in remorse. "I was the one who got tricked into doing it in the first place. If it's anybody's responsibility, it's mine."

"This was nobody's fault," Raven cut in, putting her hands to her forehead in an attempt to massage the dull ache out of it. "Slade is responsible for all of it. No one else needs to take any blame for anything."

"But—"

"No, Raven's right," Beast Boy interrupted, rendering the black-clad boy silent with his words and a quick glare. Just as suddenly as he boldly entered the conversation, the changeling's frown turned to a small, hopeful smile. "But if you're willing to help, we'd really appreciate it."

Raven opened her mouth to berate the boy, but she knew that he was right—they would need all the help they could get. X was a capable fighter, anyway. And who knew? Maybe the thief would be able to surprise Slade when the Titans couldn't. "Slade's a tough enemy," she acknowledged, surprising the changeling slightly with her agreement to his proposal. "Maybe if you can infiltrate his facility somehow…"

She fell silent, her thoughts beginning to take her to the various plans that could be made surrounding X's xenothium-powered suit. The teleportation and invisibility features could prove to be incredibly useful…and the sticky, red X's that he could fire from his palms, if used correctly, could be very effective…

Terra's voice brought her back out of her thoughts before they could form even the beginnings of a plot against the arch-villain. "Don't waste your time thinking about Slade. He isn't the one behind this."

"What?" Raven's eyebrow lifted at the girl, an outline of a glare of incredulity coming over her features in an instant. "Who is, then?"

Terra paused, biting her lip in an expression of uncertainty. "I don't know. She never told me her name."

"But you know where she's hiding," X said, his interested eyes now fixed on the nervous-looking geomancer. "And you know how she's controlling Starfire, don't you?"

"Well…yes…"

"That's all I need," the thief declared, pushing himself off the wall and taking a few steps toward Terra. He stopped when he noticed the glares that Raven and Beast Boy were shooting him. Innocently, he held up his hands, rocking backward slightly in an effort to deflect their narrow sets of eyes. "Hey, no need for the death glares, kids. I'm just trying to help."

"To ease your own troubled conscience," Raven commented, earning a hidden scowl and a "tch" of annoyance. "Look, X. I'll have to talk with Robin about it, but I'm willing to accept your help. We might need it. But Terra just came to; give her a few hours to rest and regain her strength."

"And then I'll come with you to find the girl who had me capture you," Terra offered along with a small, encouraging smile. Beast Boy shook his head and began to protest; Terra ignored him. "I know exactly where it was. We've got to go quickly, though—she isn't exactly an evil genius, but she isn't stupid, either. She probably relocated as soon as she realized she lost control over me. Let me take a shower and grab something to eat, and we can go."

"Sounds like a plan," X nodded, opting not to take the hardened stares he was still receiving from the pair of Titans to heart. "I'll meet you downtown in two hours. Deal?"

"Deal."

"No deal," Raven countered, seemingly readying herself for a fight with the boy; X only shot her an incredulous glance. "You aren't going anywhere," the empath told him, her palms beginning to emit a chilling, dark power that quickly surrounded her clenched fists.

The thief shook his head at the girl in front of him. "Sorry, but I don't do well with crowds. Besides, this place isn't exactly warm and inviting."

"Need I remind you who broke into where?" she snapped; he grinned a hidden grin at her retort. "You aren't going anywhere until Robin comes back, at least. If he wants your help, then we'll accept it. If not, you're going to jail."

"With that kind of attitude, you're just going to scare me away," he drawled, his voice taking on a false tone of disappointment. She scowled at him; his grin only widened. "Two hours, Terra."

"Right."

"Terra," Beast Boy all but whined, staring at the geomancer with a look of hurt in his eyes. Raven's eyes darted toward the green changeling for an instant, as well; immediately, she cursed herself, looking back toward the thief on the brink of alarm.

By then, though, it was too late. He'd teleported upward and out of her sight, presumably escaping through the same vent he'd used to enter the room. Raven wanted to shout at the emptiness in front of her in raw frustration—or possibly send her soul-self up into the duct as she had once when Robin had crawled through it, if only to see where the thief was going. But she didn't do either.

Instead she only sighed, slouching her shoulders and turning toward the other two teens. Her eyes stayed on them for only a moment before she forcibly pulled herself away from the remorseful looks they were giving each other. I don't need this, she sternly told herself, turning to leave the room, leaving them alone together. They probably need to catch up, anyway.

She hated the bitter tone her conscience used in making the silent comment.