My apologies for this chapter taking almost a month to finish, but since the last one was rather short I decided to make sure this one was long. Enjoy!

Chapter 7

Light on the Situation

Terran stared at his sister in disbelief. He couldn't believe what she had just accused him of doing. She was either pulling his leg, or she was crazy. "What do you mean: 'Working for Slade'?"

"Exactly what I said," Terra said. "You-are-working-for-Slade." She prodded her finger into his chest with every syllable.

Terran swatted it away and rubbed the place where she had poked him the most. He then prodded his own finger into her and snarled: "I'm-not-working-for-Slade!" He folded his arms and they both stared each other down.

"Oh, and I guess I just imagined it all huh?"

"Yeah, I guess that's it."

Terra folded her arms as well and glared at her brother. She was quickly becoming agitated with him. "Oh ok then. I guess we can rule out that Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Raven imagined it all to."

Terran moved closer so that was staring directly into her eyes. His mood wasn't any better than Terra's. "You know what Terra?" He shoved her. "I thought when we met again you'd at least be overjoyed to see me."

"I was!" Terra retorted. "But then you attacked me, not exactly what I'd call friendly." She shoved Terran back, and pressed her advantage by not allowing him to regain his poseur. "Besides, you're supposed to be dead!" Terra stopped at that, she had gone too far.

Terran looked away. It took him a few moments to recover from the blow. "Yeah, and I bet you wished I stayed that way," he said.

Terra was about to retort when she noticed how hurt Terran looked. They both fell silent and for several minutes said nothing to one another. It was obvious to the both of them that this reunion was going to anything but a happy one. Terran, who had been recently deceased, was hurt how Terra was blindly accusing him of something he had no knowledge of. And Terra, who would have given anything to have her brother back, was devastated that when they finally reunited, Terran was once again on the side of evil. It only made her even angrier that when they caught Terran in the act, he denied every word of it.

Finally, after a long silence, Terra spoke up. "Terran, I didn't mean it that way. Yes I'm glad you're back, really. But you…" Her voice trailed off. Tears began to form in her eyes and she struggled to hold them back. "I don't want to see you being evil again."

"I'm not," Terran replied. "Nor will I ever be again." He stood up straighter and refused to meet Terra's blurry gaze. "I learned my lesson the first time; I just wish that you trusted me more."

"Terran," his sister began. Instead of finishing her sentence, she hurriedly embraced her brother and hugged him with all her might. "But I saw you, beneath the mask. And I know my eyes weren't playing tricks on me." Her beloved brother finally hugged her back and the twins both stood in silence. "I love you bro, and I'll never be able to say it enough."

Meanwhile, Robin and Bumblebee were finishing up watching the recording of the Titans' encounters with Terran a few floors up. Each recording had been taken by his team's communicators so they were bound to only a few perspectives. By the end, Bumblebee was still slightly unconvinced but still nonetheless suspicious about Terran.

"Go through it one more time for me," she asked as she ran over the information in her head. "Mainly the start and end of the battles."

Robin hit the rewind button and they once again watched the events of the past week play out before them. Bumblebee watched intently but something was still missing, something that didn't quite place the blame on Terran. Likewise, there was still something fishy about the situation all together. Terran had never left the Tower…

"Hey, can you turn on the time and dates of these attacks," Bumblebee told Robin.

Robin nodded and hit the button on his communicator, displaying the time. The first attack, where Robin first came across Terran, read 8/17 at 1:00 P.M. The second was, again on the same day, 8/17 at 7:00 P.M. And finally, the third attack was 8/18, the next day, at 6:30 P.M. Bumblebee wrote the times down on a scrap piece of paper and smiled to herself.

"What are you going to do with those?" Robin asked as he disconnected his communicator from the main view screen.

"Just a little something to look up," she smiled. "If we're going to get to the bottom of this, than we're going to need to investigate everything."

"So, why don't we search his room?"

"Good luck finding anything in there."

7th Floor

Workshop…

"So you don't remember anything."

"Nope, nothing."

Terra and Terran were both engaged in a one-on-one conversation. They both had finally calmed down a bit and were now discussing how Terran survived. So far, Terran was as clueless as the rest of them.

"So you just…woke up," Terra asked, not quite believing her brother couldn't remember anything.

"Yeah," he replied. He sensed the uncertainty in her voice but what else could he tell her. He couldn't remember. "I remember blacking out, after I erected that wall-"

"-Which I wasn't too happy about," Terra added.

Terran gave her a sarcastic smile and continued. "-Which you weren't too happy about. But you wouldn't have made it out if you took me along." He stopped, his thoughts returned to that time. Strangely, he had felt the greatest amount of peace then. Perhaps it was because he was no longer burdened by the constant presence of his master. Terran winced at the thought. No, he thought, not master.

"Terran?"

Terran snapped back to realty. Apparently he had been zoned-out longer than he realized. "Sorry."

"It's ok," his sister said with a smile. "Just lost you there for a moment."

"Thanks. Now, where were we?"

Terra playfully smacked on the side of the head. "I was trying to get you to remember what happened to you when you died. Apparently your memory problems go farther than light."

"Oh, right…hey!"

Terra chuckled but Terran merely rolled his eyes. "Gotcha," she joked.

Terran ignored her to and tried recalling them memory again. This time being careful not to let his mind wander incase tried to crack another joke. "Let's see. I remember me dying but…it wasn't as if I died but like..." He looked to Terra, a feeling of desperation in his voice, then a look of shock. "Like I was half-dead ya' know. Not quite dead but…not quite alive either. Like you when you were stone."

"Don't remind me."

Terran rolled his eyes and continued. "Like I said, I feel into darkness then nothing but a big blank."

"Oh come on, there has to be more," Terra replied, still unsatisfied with his answer.

"I told you already there isn't, give it a rest," Terran repeated, his anger rising.

Terran got up to leave but his sister sat him back down. She gave him a stern look and said: "No I'm not going to give it a rest until I know the truth. Now come on Terran, just one more try…" her frown faded and turned into a caring smile "…please."

Terran let out a long annoying groan and settled into his seat. "Terra," he began, resting his hands on his lap, "I can't remember, I'd love to but I can't. There was nothing mo-" Terran stopped mid-sentence, his mouth gaping slightly.

"Bro, you ok?"

Terran didn't answer, something had snapped on in his head. A single word echoed through his mind like a silent chorus. A word repeating over and over.

Rest…

The voice was so familiar, yet so strange at the same time. Terran tried harder to remember the rest, but it slipped from his grasp like sand through his fingers. He pressed harder for the memory.

Rest now. Don't struggle…

"Terran?"

The memory vanished and Terran felt a feeling of anger towards his sister for distracting him. He was so close to remembering and she had distracted him. He felt like lashing out at her, but remained in control of his temper.

"Terran, mind telling me why you just spaced-out like that, again," Terra asked, a little annoyed.

Terran clenched his fist, trying to ball up his rising temper. Don't yell, she was just worried, Terran told himself. He took a deep breath and spoke to his sister in a calm voice. "I remembered something."

"Really, what?"

"Well if you let me finish I could tell you," Terran snapped, letting his anger slip. Terra frowned at him and settled back into her seat and motioned for him to continue. "I remembered someone talking to me…but I can't remember who."

Terra's expression softened and she leaned forward. "Well what did it sound like," she asked, wanting to know more.

Terran struggled over how to describe the voice. It was kind, but also had a sense of authority and power. Still, anyone could have sounded like that, heck Robin did on a daily basis. But before the twins could explore the memory further, Bumblebee walked looking quite cheerful.

"Hey guys, whatcha doin'," she said, a wide, confident smile on her face.

The twins looked at each other and cocked an eyebrow, then turned back to the leader of the Titans East. "Just talking," they said together.

"Oh good," Bumblebee replied, her smile growing slightly wider. "Hey Terra, mind if I talk to you for a moment?"

Terra nodded and followed her out of the room. As soon as Terra stepped out of the doorway Bumblebee closed the door behind them and her face bore a serious tone. "Terra, I need a favor."

"Ok, what is it," Terra asked, suspicious of the sudden favor she had to fulfill.

"I need you to take him out for awhile."

"What for?"

"So you two could be alone for awhile and talk."

Terra put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. "What do you think we were just doing?"

Bumblebee sighed, seeing that Terra was going to force an explanation out of her. But she was his sister, what harm could it do? "Alright I'll tell you why. We need Terran out of the Tower for awhile so we can do a little investigating."

"What difference would it make if he were here?"

"Because," Bumblebee began, growing a little irritated, "if he is here, he might try to stop us from finding evidence."

"So you suspect him?"

"Don't you?"

Terra was about to respond when she stopped herself. She did suspect him. Terra rubbed the back of her neck and said sadly: "Yeah I do, but I can't be sure. There are too many things pointing away from him."

"My thoughts exactly," Bumblebee agreed, hoping it would reassure Terra of her suggestion. "But there is also strong evidence against him, which is why we need him out of the way."

Terra eyed Bumblebee for a few moments before seceding. "Ok, we'll head out for a little while."

"Great," Bumblebee exclaimed as soon as Terra finished. She rested her hand on Terra's shoulder and said reassuringly: "Don't worry; we'll get to the bottom of this." The earth mover smiled, thankful for the support and went back into the workshop where here brother was anxiously waiting for them to return.

Bumblebee smiled to herself and headed back to the elevator. She pressed the button and it opened immediately, allowing her entry. She gracefully stepped inside and hit the button for the second-to-top floor. The elevator wined as it tugged on its strained cables before finally ascended. It was several minutes before the elevator finally halted at the proper floor. Bumblebee stepped out and stopped when she reached the circular table where all the Titans had gathered.

"Well," Robin asked.

Bumblebee smiled and placed her hands on her hips. "Ok everyone, time to get to work."

Titans Tower East

Entrance…

"Tell me again why you want a tour of the city?"

"Because Terran, I've never been here before," Terra replied, somewhat annoyed by her brother's stubbornness. It had taken her nearly ten minutes to drag him down here. "Besides you already know the city I live in, I want to get to know yours."

The sound of metal-on-metal echoed inside the garage as Terran forced the garage door open. "Somehow I doubt that," he grumbled, securing the latch so the door wouldn't come crashing down on their heads. Terra strode up to Terran's side as they rounded the corner and headed to the back of the Tower. Ahead was a wide tunnel penetrating the cliff side at a forty-five degree angle and the twins began they trek up.

"Why's this here," Terra asked as she inspected the tunnel. She guessed by the thoroughness of the excavation that it was Terran's handiwork.

"I dug it up so we could have a quick way up to the city," Terran answered. "After all, me and Bumblebee are they only ones who can fly."

"Since when could you fly," Terra joked, knowing full well what he meant by fly.

Terran wheeled around and gave her an icy stare. "I can bring up a platform to carry me around, you can do it to. Duh."

Terra returned the look and snapped: "Jeez Terran lighten up! I was only trying to have a little fun."

"Well I don't want to have any fun, ok!"

"Why not, if anything it'll do you some good!" Terra clenched her fists and Terran did the same. They both felt confrontation between them was inevitable at this rate.

"Because I just don't feel like it!"

Terra growled in anger. She was tired of Terran trying to push her away when he obviously needed her. And the fact that he had attacked her days earlier with no remorse didn't improve her attitude toward him either. "Terran," she began, biting her lips so she wouldn't start screaming at him, "didn't you tell me how you never got to be a kid. How you never got to have any fun?"

Terran's expression darkened and he stared at the floor. Terra could tell he was reflecting on his life and knew it saddened him. "Yeah."

Terra placed her arm around Terran's shoulder and gave him a half-hug. "Well now's the time to have fun bro, just the two of us. It'll be like old times."

Terran's expression lightened. He had had doubts about Terra wanting to spend time with him for the sake of spending time with him, especially after how she accused him of working for Slade. But now he felt that she was sincere and still cared about him. "Ok," he smiled, "let's have a little fun."

Terra's ceased her embrace and shoved Terran to the side. While Terran was off balance she broke into and sprint and called back: "Race ya to the top!"

Terran was about to retort when a faint smile spread across his face. He pushed off from the wall he had been using to support himself and raced after her. "You're on!"

Titans Tower East…

Well this is interesting…

Robin tapped on the display and brought up a page for the Titans East roster. The roster listed bios for every member of the Titans East, including Terran. Robin was a bit skeptical of this at first but was eased when he saw Terran was listed under the "Honorary Membership" category. Anyone under "Honorary Membership" had restricted-to-no access to the Titans mainframe as well as any other sensitive information.

Well, at least they took precautions, Robin thought as he clicked on Terran's profile.

To Robin's dismay, the bio was merely comprised of information on Terran's past endeavors with the Titans and barely anything recent. The only thing recent, that Robin hadn't already known, was Terran's progress with the Titans East. From the way the report described his life with the Titans East, it looked as thought Terran had been invaluable in the reconstruction of Titans Tower in Steel City. He had even gone to great lengths to ensure the Tower would survive a landslide which Terran, ironically, had caused to destroy the Tower in the first place while under the influence of Brain. But, again, the evidence the Titans had greatly contradicted what Robin was seeing in the computer. There was no way Terran could make it from Steel City to Jump City in time for the attacks, unless.

Robin closed the bio and accessed the program that linked the Titans East communicators to the mainframe. Now if only…yes! It was posted that Terran had a communicator, now Robin had something to work with. Robin tapped on an icon and a signal was sent out to link him to Terran's communicator. But then a message flashed across the screen.

ERROR. UNIT HAS BEEN DISCONNECTED FROM MAINFRAME. ENDING LINKUP.

Disconnected? Robin hummed to himself as he tapped his thumps together. This defiantly requested further investigation. If Terran's communicator was disconnected from the mainframe then he could go anywhere he wanted without it ever being recorded.

Suddenly an idea popped into his head. Robin pulled out his own communicator and sent a message to Bumblebee to meet him in the main control room. Robin brought up a page displaying the daily activities of the Titans East from when Terran was first found until now. Moments later, Bumblebee flew into the room and landed next to Robin.

"What do you need," she asked as she fiddled with one of her B-shaped weapons.

Robin turned to her and leaned back in the chair. "Did you know that Terran's communicator isn't linked up to the mainframe?"

Bumblebee looked at him in astonishment. "Are you serious?"

Robin motioned towards the computer terminal in front of him. "Look for yourself."

Bumblebee looked over his shoulder and found he was right. This alone raised great suspicion as to whose side Terran was on. "When did this happen," Bumblebee asked. "We should have been informed when he disconnected it."

Robin terminated the linkup and opened another file. "I was about to find out." Robin studied the page as Bumblebee tried to recall anything Terran had done to tamper with his communicator. So far she couldn't remember anytime he would have been able to reprogram it.

"Well, I found out why the system didn't pick it up," Robin announced after several minutes. Bumblebee peered at the screen to see what Robin had found. A normal communicator carried a transmitter that sent a signal to up link itself into the mainframe of the given Tower, therefore allowing the mainframe to record anything and everything that the owner did. Terran's on the other hand was sending out a signal, but a different kind. The signal it was sending was causing the mainframe to block anything the Terran's communicator was sending or receiving. But that was only half of the mystery.

"Bumblebee, do you still have the dates and times of the attacks?" Robin asked as he opened up a record of the communicator logs. Robin studied Terran's portion of it, and found it to be very intriguing. Terran's communicator wasn't always inactive. The logs showed that there were only a handful of times when his communicator began inactive.

Bumblebee handed the scrap piece of paper that she had used to write down the times of the attacks. Robin took them gratefully and plugged the times into the computer and compared them to the times of when Terran's communicator became inactive. Aside from a few hours difference from start to finish, they were a complete match.

Now we're getting somewhere, Robin said to himself.

Steel City

Burger Café…

The café, roughly two miles away from the coast, was relatively empty except for the pair of twins roaring with laughter. Terran and Terra were both sitting by themselves eating their meal of burgers and fries while sharing tales from their childhood.

"Oh, oh," Terra laughed as she choked on her soda, "remember the time when mom made that peach cobbler…"

"…and told us not to eat it…" Terran cut in.

"…and we did anyways!" Terra finished.

Terran and Terra broke into another fit of laughter as the memory became as clear as day. They were both six at the time and their mother had just finished making a cobbler pie for desert.

"Now remember," she told them, her hair falling in front of her face as she leaned over. "This pie is for desert, and NOT for before. Understand?"

The twins nodded, heartwarming smiles on their faces. Their mother smiled and patted them both on the head. She then kissed them on the forehead and stepped towards the door. "Ok, now I'm going to go to the store for awhile. So you two will be on your own."

Scared looks overcame her children.

"But just for a little while ok," she reassured them. "I'll be back in fifteen minutes." She grabbed her coat from the rack positioned a few feet from the door. "Now do you remember what I told you if you both were in trouble?"

Terran and Terra nodded and said in unison: "We're to go over to Ms. Newmen's house."

Terran then whispered into Terra's ear, causing her to let out a giggle: "Even though she's really old."

"Terran be nice, she's just an old woman," their mother scolded.

"Sorry," Terran apologized in a small voice.

"Ok," their mother continued, "And if you can't get over to her house?"

The twins smiled half-toothed smiles. "Then we yell and scream as loud as we can until someone helps us."

Their mother smiled and blew a kiss to them on her way out. "That's my little angels, now be good. And don't touch that pie."

The twins waved goodbye to their mother until the door clicked shut. They waited until their mother's car faded out into the distance, then turned to each other and smiled. "Pie," they said, their mouths beginning to water.

Terran was about to dash into the kitchen when his identical sister stopped him. "Hey, let go," he wined as he tried to push her off.

"No," Terra replied defiantly and pulled harder. "Mom said we can't have any until dinner."

"But you do want some, don't you," Terran tempted. Terra's gaze wavered as she thought it over. She would submit any second. "Come on," her brother continued, "we can't get in trouble unless we're caught."

"Who told you that," Terra questioned.

"Nick told me," Terran answered.

Nicolas Ambrose, or Nick for short, was a fellow student at their school and Terran's best friend. He was always welcomed to their house and after all the times he had spent over he began to feel like part of the family. This suited Terran fine because they were more like brothers than friends, and Nick was one of Terran's few friends that got along with Terra as well. In fact Nick and Terra got along so well that Terran regularly teased them about being married. There was only one downside to Nick; he was infamous for taking anything and everything that he wanted. To their mother's dismay the trait was slowly passing along to Terran.

Terra thought it over before letting go of her brother and charging past him. They raced to the kitchen and stopped where the pie was placed on the counter. It was still slightly warm from the oven and its powerful aroma drifted through the house. The twins took in one deep sniff to savor the smell before reaching up to grab the pie.

"I can't reach it," Terra wined. Her six-year-old fingers fell just inches short of her prize no matter how far she stretched them.

"Me neither," Terran told his sister. He also fell short of the delicious pie, no surprise considering they were the exact same size to the centimeter.

The twins stopped their attempts at reaching the pie and leaned against the counter and pouted. Terran was tapping his fingers against his head, much like Winnie the Pooh did when he was deep in thought, when Terra had an idea.

"I got it," she exclaimed happily.

"What?"

Terra grabbed her brother's shoulders and hefted herself onto his back. They rocked back and forth as Terran struggled to support both their weights.

"You can lift me up and I'll grab the pie," Terra explained as she grabbed onto his head so she wouldn't fall off.

"Why do you get to be on top," Terran wined.

"Because I'm a lady," his sister replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You're not a lady," Terran retorted as he bucked her off his shoulders. Terra fell to the ground and hit her head on the floor. "You're nothing but a little sister."

Terra got up off the floor, rubbing a small bruise on her head, and glared hatefully at her brother. "That hurt!"

"So, I'm the older brother. I can get away with it. I have my wegal rights," Terran told his sister, mispronouncing 'legal'.

"No you don't have wegal rights," Terra snapped, unable to pronounce 'legal' as well, and shoved her brother. "Cause your nothing but a stupid older brother."

The counter shook on Terran's impact, causing the pie to tip towards the edge. Terran was about to retaliate when he Terra cried: "The pie! Catch it!"

The twins both reached out for the pie, grasping it in their tiny hands. The only problem was the pie crust was facing towards them, dumping its contents onto their faces as soon as they caught it. It was at that moment their mother walked back in, remembering she had forgotten her purse at home, when she saw her kids covered in her homemade pie. When they saw the astonished look on their mother's face they quickly pointed at each other.

"He did it!" Terra shouted.

"She did it!" Terran shouted at the same time.

Instead of scolding her kids, which is what the twins were expecting, she stood in the doorway trying to hold back a tremendous laugh. It wasn't everyday someone saw their kids' faces painted in pie.

"Come here my little cobbler faces," their mother giggled as she reached for a towel, "and let mommy clean you two up."

The memory subsided as Terran and Terra's laughter quieted down. They sat at the table, half choking on their drinks as they tried to steady their breathing. Terra was pleased that her brother was, at least on the outside, happier. He looked as though he hadn't had a good laugh in a long time and she was glad to have given him that.

"See you can still have a little fun," said Terra.

"Yeah," Terran admitted, hiding a smile with his cup, "thanks."

Terra returned the smile and took a sip of her own drink. "No problem, I'm just glad to see you like your old self again."

Terran nodded, the smile on his face slowly melting, and continued to eat his meal. They sat there for few minutes, quietly eating their meals before Terran finally spoke up again. This time his voice wasn't as cheerful as before, but monotone. "Speaking of the old days, didn't mom used to have black hair?"

Terra stopped mid-bite, and thought about it for a few moments. "I think you're right, yeah she did use to have black hair. Weird, I always remember it being blonde."

"Maybe she dyed it," Terran suggested.

Terra accepted this theory. She placed her hamburger down and leaned on her elbow. The thought of their mother brought forth a hurtful truth. "Ya know," she said in a depressing voice, "it's sad."

"What?"

"I can't remember her name." Terra's mood plummeted and her eyes grew cold. She flicked half a fry off the table and watched it fall to the ground. "I feel awful about it." She picked up her drink and shook it around before taking a long sip. "No matter how hard I try, I can't remember." She gave her brother a longing look and said: "All I know is that it began with an 'A', that's it."

Terran was about to say something when he realized he didn't remember either. He slumped in his chair, all evidence of his once cheerful mood was now gone. "Come to think of it," Terran mumbled, a new depression taking hold of him, "I can't remember dad's name either."

"I don't either. Besides, I don't think mom ever used it."

Terran gave his sister a perplexed look. "What do you mean?"

"Well," she began, trying to recall her memories, "I remember mom always calling him 'Sal' or something like that. Sal isn't a real name, just a nickname."

Terran felt a little better now that his sister mentioned they had never heard it. He leaned back in his chair, thinking of any names that would abbreviate into Sal. "Well," he said, after long consideration, "It's obvious that his name began with an 'S', maybe Salvador."

"Doubt it; we didn't have any Spanish relatives."

"What about our Uncle?"

"His name sounded British."

Terran let out a small snort as he thought of how ridiculous their Uncle's name sounded. "He did have a weird name."

Terra let out a small laugh of her own. "Yeah, sounded like a brand of tea or something."

Terran and Terra let out another laugh before deciding it was time to leave. There were still entire districts of the city that Terra hadn't seen yet, and now Terran was eager to let their time together disappear. They exited the café and just as they stepped around the corner an all too familiar tone sounded inside Terra's pocket.

Terra pulled out her communicator, its yellow casing vibrating while emitting the tone, and flipped it open. "What's up," Terra asked, noticing a disgustful look from her brother.

Robin, who was on the other end, leaned back in his chair. "Terra, is Terran there with you?"

Terra lifted an eyebrow and looked to her right. Not surprisingly, he was exactly where he was standing five seconds ago. She looked back to Robin and replied in a sarcastic tone: "Uh, yeah."

Robin hummed to himself and quickly jotted down something onto a piece of paper. "Ok just wanted to make sure."

"What's going on over there," Terra asked, wanting to know the reason behind the ridiculous question.

Robin took in a deep breath and whispered: "Just wanted a little more info to go off of."

"So you're not finding much to convict him," Terra asked, a hint of hope in her voice.

Robin grinded his teeth and rubbed his fingers back and forth across the paper. "Not exactly," he said. "We have found evidence that it was him, but it's just a suspicion."

Terra's heart dropped. "Oh." Robin gave her a smile and reassured her that everything would work out and they'd get to the bottom of it. Somehow this didn't help ease Terra's nerves. The communicator snapped off and Terra replaced it to her belt where it always hung.

Terran, who had been waiting patiently for Terra's call to end, lifted an eyebrow and pointed to the communicator. Terra waved him away and strode in front of her brother. "They just wanted to check up on us. Come on, let's get going."

Steel City

Burger Café…

Robin shut off his communicator and holstered it onto his utility belt. Robin then lifted himself out of the chair he was seated in and headed out the door with Bumblebee following close behind. Moments later the chime went off again, this time it was Cyborg and Beast Boy. They had found nothing in Terran's room. As Bumblebee had said there wasn't much to find. A cot, a bag of clothes, and a few blankets were all that occupied his room.

"Are you sure that's all," Robin asked his robotic teammate, somewhat skeptical that that was all in his room.

"You can come down here and check for yourself, we didn't find diddle," Cyborg replied.

Robin growled, knowing that he was telling the truth and shut off the communicator. Robin moved down the hallway at an increasing pace

"What's wrong," Bumblebee asked Robin, noticing his uncertainness.

Robin shrugged. "I don't know. Something about this doesn't feel right. There shouldn't be enough evidence to prove Terran is guilty AND innocent." He planted his fist into his palm began grinding it into his hand. "What is Slade up to?"

Bumblebee didn't know what to tell him. All she could do was keep him hoping that they would eventually outsmart Slade, and learn of his intentions for Terran and Terra.

Slade's Lair…

Mindcheat waltzed into a dark, cavernous room where her master was perched upon his throne, as usually. She was unusually cheerful today, and for good reason. She had finally completed the task that her master had challenged her to take on, one that she was constantly mocked for not understanding. But today she had done it and could finally gain her master's respect.

She danced right up to Slade's throne, feeling rather bold, and rested her elbow upon his shoulder. He did not respond. Mindcheat was about to make a comment when she noticed the increases tenseness in her master's posture. She smiled in delight. She stared down upon him and after several minutes he finally turned to her. She was about to speak when she saw the seriousness in his eye. His gaze bored into her and Mindcheat's courage shrank away. She returned to a standing posture and decided to watch what the recording that had transfixed her master's attention.

Without saying a word, Slade returned to his study of the recording. They continued to watch until Mindcheat finally summoned the courage to speak again.

"They're going to figure it out you know," she told him.

"Oh really," Slade replied, his voice cold and unfeeling.

Mindcheat nodded, regaining her courage and spite. "Yeah, the Titans aren't stupid. They're going to put two-and-two together and realize they've been doped." She looked back to her master but he did not look in her direction. "And poof! There goes your master plan," she finished, making an exploding gesture with her hand.

The apprentice then placed her hands behind her back but her gaze on her master. She noticed the slight relaxation in his posture and sparkle in his eye. Mindcheat's spirit rose, taking this for satisfaction in her work, even if her analysis was bleak.

Suddenly there was the muffled sound of gears turning in the background and Mindcheat instantly wiped around. She looked back to her master. "Terran?"

Slade rose from his throne and made his way to the door. "No," he answered, "an old friend of mine." Slade looked back at the monitor and studied the clock. "And he's ahead of schedule. That's unlike him."

Slade opened the doorway leading to the corridor. But before he left Mindcheat alone in his throne room, he looked back to her. "Oh, and Mindcheat?"

"What?"

"What makes you believe this is my master plan."

Terran and Terra were hurried along by their mother, and when they reached the bathroom she grabbed a towel from the sink and began to clean their faces. Like every six-year-old they struggled to get free, but to little avail.

"Now we can't have you two looking like," their mother said as the twins' faces broke through the mush, "after all, daddy's coming home tomorrow from his business trip."

At the mention of their father, the twins quickly ceased their resistance and began nudging each other so that they could get clean first. Their mother smiled at their childish act and calmed them down. After several soaking minutes they were finally clean and followed their mother into the living room.

"Hey mom," Terran said. His mother looked to him. "How come daddy's always on business trips?"

"Because he has a lot of business to do," his mother replied, quickly thinking of an excuse.

"Is he going to bring us presents like last time," Terra asked hopefully.

"Even better," her mother replied.

"What," they twins asked.

"Your Uncle."

"Which one, we have like two," Terra asked, seeking clarification.

Their mother ruffled their hair and finally answered. "You're Uncle Wintergreen."