The Titans had spent a few minutes scouting around the huge building Slade used as this base. It was, like many of his bases, just outside the City, past the suburb area. The area was in a less populated area and was mostly forest. The building looked to be an old brick type building, which had been reinforced. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. It made a great base or hideout.
They remembered bugging this base, along with many others. And coming back when the surveillance equipment mysteriously quit working. And again. Then finally giving up on keeping a tap on all his bases. But they had explored this, and all his bases, very thoroughly. They knew these walls were reinforced with steel on the inside. The best route inside was the front doors.
Cyborg was scanning the building with a device while Beastboy sniffed the air in one of his animal forms. They stood back from the doors and Raven used her power to open them. Robin spoke up "Be ready for anything. This is Slade here so expect a trap" Cyborg grabbed a controller and using it directed the robot duplicate of himself inside. Whatever the robot saw was transmitted to the screen on the remote. The Titans jumped when they saw Starfire on the screen. Even Robin forgot his own words of warning as they all ran toward their friend. Starfire approached the robot as they ran inside.
When they ran inside they saw Starfire looking at the robot with her familiar look of wonder while knocking on its metal head. She turned to see her friends run thru the doors toward her.
Starfire was ecstatic too see them "My Friends, I am so happy to see you all" she ran forward hugging them, which brought smiles from them all.
Robin was the next to speak, noting her slightly more muscular frame, the fact she was wearing Blackfire's outfit and a headset with a microphone "We're happy to see you too, Starfire. You're looking well"
Starfire paused and spoke slightly quieter "Yes, I have been well physically, but missed you all very much"
Beastboy had latched onto Starfire's arm and even Raven was smiling a little. Most of the Titans at this point cared little that they were in Slade's base, or even what he was doing. They were happy to have their friend back. Cyborg spoke up "And we missed you too, lets get out of here and get you home" the words were spoken with the best intentions, but cut Starfire deep. She spoke up again "Yes, please. Go back to the tower, order pizza and the soft drink. But, I cannot go with you."
Robin spoke up with his usual seriousness "And we can't leave. Not with Slade on the loose. We need to take him down"
Starfire replied "Slade has spent most of his time with me and has no plan doing harm. There are no weapons at this base. You can go search all the rest of his bases if you like, but you have no reason to be here. Please leave."
Robin looked at her intently and took her hand. "I can think of a million reasons to be here" the others nodded to agree.
Starfire heard Slade's truth in Robin's words and disengaged her hand from Robin's, backing away from him a step, walking into Raven who uncharacteristically put one arm around Starfire and pointed at the half open door they had rushed in earlier. The doors flew outward off their hinges and Raven looked into her eyes seeing the chaos that was starting there. "Please Starfire, lets just leave this place" she said this half to Starfire, half to the Titans.
Starfire's thoughts were racing. Trying to find the perfect words to stop what seemed to be inevitable. Her friends were only here because of her, so she had to make them leave. Beastboy was making his cute puppydog face at her and Cyborg and Raven were leading her to the door, but Slade's words were like a poison in her blood that wouldn't go away. She couldn't leave, even if it would be the easiest thing in the world to do. She had almost been led out the doors by the others when she noticed Robin.
Robin had stayed behind as the others tried to lead Starfire out, he was moving toward the elevator that lead downward. To the main base and their living quarters. Starfire couldn't let him reach it. Starfire called his name "Robin" but he paid her no heed, he was intent on reaching Slade. As Robin neared the elevator door Starfire disengaged herself from her friends and with a flying leap she flew a put herself between Robin and the elevator.
Robin faced her "Slade's down there. Isn't he?"
Starfire pleaded with him "Please, Robin. Just go"
Robin looked her in the eyes his hands clenched "You know I can't leave without taking Slade down"
Starfire couldn't bring herself to look at her friends when she said the hardest words she ever spoke "You know I can't let you. So please just leave."
"Why" Raven shouted at her "Why are you protecting him?"
"And why are you wearing Blackfire's shirt?" Beastboy yelled at her.
Starfire's voice cracked a little while she spoke "I can't explain right now, but I have to do as Slade says. Please go."
Cyborg : "I don't know what Slade's using to control you, but you don't have to do this. If he's got some virus on us again you don't have to do this to protect us."
Robin : "I can't leave you here under Slade's control Starfire. I can't leave Slade here so he can attack the city. He has to go down"
Starfire was quickly losing what little control she had on the situation and was past desperate. She just didn't want to hurt her friends like she had so recently done to Mammoth, Gizmo and Jinx. "Slade wont hurt anyone. I won't let him. But please, you have to trust me. Please go"
Robin replied darkly "I'm sorry Starfire, but I can't take that chance" and he quickly pulled out his staff, extended it to push the elevator button, and then used it to flip over her head in a quick maneuver expecting to take her off guard. He was shocked when she grabbed his ankle when he was mid flip and tossed him toward Cyborg who caught him and set him down unharmed. His action had caused her reflex and now the dye was cast.
"Titans, immobilize Starfire so we can take Slade down" Robin ordered. The Titans moved into action. They had been preparing for this unfortunate event as well.
Cyborg moved out front of the others, transforming his arm while the other titans quickly slipped something in their ears. Starfire prepared to dodge his cannon blasts. "I'm sorry Star" is all Cyborg said as he opened fire. There was no blast though. He had modified his cannon arm to emit sonic disruption in a wave, basically hitting everything in front of him with the loud sonic disruption. Glass shattered, smaller objects flew away from him and Starfire dropped to one knee almost passing out. The pain was enormous, but she didn't give in. As the Titans behind Cyborg held their hands over their ears (the sound behind him was terrible, even with earplugs. Cyborg had turned off his hearing, so was not affected. Starfire on the other hand was taking the brunt of it, she got back to her feet and forced herself to walk toward the source of her pain. Cyborg almost turned off the cannon when he saw her coming, with tears in her eyes and blood coming out of her ears. She gained speed as she walked then ran toward Cyborg who had turned the cannon up to maximum. The other Titans were feeling pain from the cannon and were effectively nullified. Cyborg knew he didn't want her hitting his arm in cannon form, it was too delicate an instrument in that form. At the last second as she reached him, he transformed his cannon back to arm form and hoped to hit her with a knockout blow while she was still disoriented from the sonic disruption. As he punched, he grabbed his arm, flipped past him, and with a turn of her hip she threw him out the doors. hard. He skipped aacross the ground a couple times before stopping in a nearby stream.
Starfire dropped to her knees, breathing heavily. With her ears ringing she couldn't hear Robin's next orders. Starfire's world went dark as she was encased in a black sphere summoned forth by Raven. She was slow to stand up, still a little dizzy from Cyborg's attack. Her breathing turned into a powerful exhale as Raven forcefully sucked all the air out of the sphere to make her pass out. This kind of attack, however, will not work on someone who safely transverses the stars through the vacuum of space. Starfire pressed her hands against one side of the sphere. Raven saw her attack had been ineffective and held out her open hand, palm up. She made a fist and instantly her sphere turned into a cocoon, trapping Starfire inside. The cocoon held for a few seconds then suddenly exploded outward with green energy releasing a backlash, which threw Raven backward.
Starfire got up hurt and disoriented. She was now fighting mostly on instinct, she launched herself at Raven who immediately threw a shield around herself. Starfire's eye beam hit the shield hard. Raven planted her feet holding her arms outward, palms out. She strained with the effort of holding the shield up. When Starfire's fist impacted on the shield it gave and Raven was thrown backward taking the backlash, which was nearly as bad as if she got hit. Raven landed hard against a soft surface (thankfully) and was set down. Starfire, too disoriented to fly, ran toward Raven and Beastboy intervened. He had saw Raven flying backward and transformed, first to a hummingbird to get behind Raven, then to a bear to absorb her impact (the fat on a bear can be fairly soft) and then saw Starfire charging. He transformed to a tyrannosaurus rex and charged toward her roaring. Starfire's path never deviated, and as Beastboy's huge jaws came snapping down at her (he had intended to trap her between those powerful jaws. (He had transformed to a dinosaur with dull teeth. He can do that). Starfire avoided his jaws by ducking low, then she came up under him with an uppercut with enough power to launch her into the air and even knock out a huge dinosaur. Which is exactly what it did. She hit him square under his huge jaws and the dinosaur flew upward and backward, and Beastboy landed a second later with stars in his eyes mumbling jibberish.
Starfire landed and before she could stand was hit in the back with a device from Robin. Her eyes opened wide as electricity surged from the device through her body. Her hair stood out, small sparks of lightning passed between her fingers and shot from her body to the floor and anything else nearby. She dropped to her knee again as the device ran out of power. As she stood back up another disc hit her and she cried out. This time small bits of smoke came from her as the device wore off and she launched herself up, narrowly avoiding being hit again. She landed in front of Robin who now had his trademark staff in his hands. He knew she was not using her starbolts and eyebeams in an attempt to not hurt the Titans, so he planned to use this to his advantage. She couldn't hope match him in hand-to-hand. He immediately attacked her with his staff, hoping to knock her out. She blocked his strikes at her head with her bare arms while taking some blows to her body. He came in with a roundhouse kick followed by a ferocious staff strike. She took the kick, but before the staff could strike she caught it with one hand. The sudden stop to his attack momentarily stunned Robin and Starfire ripped with staff from him with such force that stung his hands and left his fingers numb.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry" he heard her whisper as she grasped the end of his staff with her other hand. Then his unbreakable titanium staff screamed and shredded as she bent and then broke it with an ease which would scare even Slade, who was watching the fight unseen. Robin stepped back startled then got a fighting stance as she dropped the staff and looked at him. As Cyborg ran in the doors, and Raven and Beastboy both came up behind him, Robin's eyes met Starfire's. Time slowed for as he gazed deep into her eyes and he could almost see…
"Titans, fall back" he ordered loudly.
"WHAT?" was the reply from the others. So Robin repeated his order "Fall back, we're leaving." With that he turned his back to Starfire, and walked out. The other Titans were stunned, but they followed him. Some small part of Starfire died as she watched her friends leave.
Slade's voice sounded in her ear, snapping her back to her reality. "Well done, apprentice. Well done. Report to the medical bay." She hung her head down and sighed. And pressed the button to summon the elevator down to the main base.