Stranger from the Sky, chapter 7

Identity Crisis

Within an hour, the HIVE Five were hiding in the darkness of an alleyway behind the First National Bank of Jump City. "Give me the bags," said Athena, "and wait here. I will be back shortly." And with that, she phased through the ground, passing under and through the foundation of the bank, her senses telling her where the vault her new friends had described was.

Osirans, especially Osiran warriors, have the psionic ability to manipulate photons, so as to make themselves, for all intents and purposes, invisible, a sort of Osiran stealth mode. Plus it was occasionally useful against some types of beam weapons, especially those based upon the electromagnetic spectrum. Omega had very seldom used this, as he had figured out, long ago, that an invisible person tended to make humans rather nervous. But now an invisible Athena phased upward into the bank vault's floor, and, with her senses, watched the guard through the walls. When he turned away from the monitors momentarily, she moved at super-speed, phasing her hands into the cubicles where the money was stored, without opening them, and placing it into the bags. Then, before the guard could turn back to watch the monitors, she had already phased back down into the ground and returned to the location of the HIVE Five. "Here," she said, handing them the now- bulging bags. Although super-strong, she could only physically grasp so many at one time. "If you like, I will go back for more."

"No, no," said See-more, "the longer we stay here, the greater the chances of detection. We've accomplished a lot here just now. Let's get while the getting is good."

Back at the HIVE Five's headquarters, the group counted the money. "Fifty million dollars?" gasped Johnny Rancid. "That's … I've never even seen that kind of money! And all in less than half an hour!"

"And we owe it all to Athena, here!" crowed Blackfire. "We couldn't have done it without her!" And she turned, threw her arms around Athena's neck, and, apparently impulsively, kissed the surprised alien girl.

Right on the lips.

And something amazing happened.

Normally, when Tameraneans kiss someone on the lips, they automatically learn that person's native language, or any other language they may know. But Osirans do not normally communicate via the spoken word; they use something called the Link, a kind of artificial telepathy. Extremely broadband. It compares to human speech in much the same way that smoke signals compare to fiber-optic data transfer.

It had been Blackfire's intention, partially, at least, to learn, "accidently," Athena's language. But what she got was much, much more.

She got Athena's mental impressions, her memories, her thoughts and feelings, and, not only that, but, since Osirans have racial memory, the thoughts and feelings of hundreds of thousands of generations of warriors.

She saw battlefield after battlefield, war after war, strife magnified by more strife, the forced conditioning that made the warriors obey their Lords without question, the orders themselves, the special process that made Prime warriors different from any other kind, the Lords telling the warriors what to think, what to feel, even—for hundreds upon hundreds of thousands upon thousands of years.

And she experienced the forced mind-share with Omega, the sense of violation, and the feelings that Athena really felt for him, feelings that she feared had been made public during the mind-share, feelings that were masked by an artificial hate, a belief that if he died, she'd not have to face these feelings anymore…he'd be gone, and she wouldn't be forced to confront her true feelings for him every day.

…And so much much more…..something repressed, yet also visible, to her, in a shadowy sort of way…another violation, but something far, far worse than anything Blackfire could imagine…..

Blackfire was reeling from the shock of the memory transfer, like an electrical jolt, when Athena grasped her by the shoulders and pushed her back. "Whatever it was that you just did," she said, "kindly do not do it again." Blackfire nodded, numbly. She was still trying to sort it all out.

"Anyway, here's your cut, Athena," said See-More, handing her several thick wads of bills. "And here. Here's a bag to put it all in. Now. We'll meet back here tomorrow night, and see what else we can come up with. Everybody cool with that?" All nodded, Athena nodded, too, mostly because everybody else did. These people did not condemn her; she could see herself fitting with them, actually liking them, making them her friends. Even the one called Blackfire, who had, what was it called? Oh, yes: kissed her, seemed nice enough. Though if what she understood of human sexuality was true, from Raven's book, that was usually considered a prelude to an even greater intimacy, and Athena had absolutely no desire for that. At least not with another female. At least, she didn't think she did.

Although the kiss itself had been rather pleasurable.

What if it had been the traitor who'd kissed her? Would that have felt better? But no, surely not. He was a traitor; she hated him. She was supposed to hate him. The very thought of even that small an intimacy with him made her slightly ill to think about. Why would she even think about such a thing as that? Why?

She flew back to the Tower, carrying her bag of money. Surely the others would be proud of her; after all, she had collected a large amount of this money that humans deemed so important, and she had hurt no one in the process. She phased into her room, noting the sounds coming from Robin's room denoting sexual activity. She knew by now it was polite to ignore such things, and did so.

Someone signaled for entry, at her door, while she was counting her money. "Enter," she said, even as she continued to count.

It was Hank, Haywire, as he was called. "I just wanted to let you know that Raven's cooled off a bit-uh, Athena? Where, uh, where did you get all that money?"

"From the First National Bank of Jump City. Some new friends of mine showed me how. It was really easy to do."

Hank stared, bug-eyed. His mouth worked soundlessly for a moment, as he tried to grasp what he'd just learned. Then: "Athena. You robbed a bank?!"

"I…do not know if that is the word or not. Did I?"

Hank hit the alarm button. "Red alert, people. Situation here."

Shortly, the Titans convened in the main conference room. Athena innocently and fully detailed the evening's activities, including her part in them. "And then I immediately came back here."

There was stunned silence all around the room. Robin recovered first. "Who, uh, were these 'new friends' of yours?"

"I believe their names were Blackfire, Gizmo, See-more, Mammoth, Billy Numerous, Kyd Wykkyd, and someone named Johnny Rancid. Why?" There was honest puzzlement in her voice.

Robin groaned, holding his head in his hands. "Athena. You've committed a crime. It is against the law to take money from a bank like you did. It's the sort of thing we fight to keep from happening. Didn't you read about these exact same people in those files I gave you?"

"But—but the one called Blackfire explained to me, that they were no longer criminals, having spent time in this jail thing, and assured me that no one would be hurt, and that everyone would gain. How can that be a crime?"

"First off, they escaped from prison. They did not 'pay their debt to society.' They are still criminals. And, yes, the funds are insured. Yes, most of the people will get their money back-eventually. But it doesn't happen instantaneously-and right now, some people may find themselves unable to pay their bills. They may be unable to buy food, and many other things they need. Besides. The bottom line is: that money belonged to them. What you did was no different than taking that book from Raven's room without permission. What you did actually hurt people. That's why we fight it. That's why we call it wrong."

Athena was aghast. A horrible suspicion was going through her mind, one she really didn't want to think about…."Do you mean to say," she began, "that I have acted against the law?"

"I mean to say exactly that."

Without another word, Athena flew out of the room, phasing through the wall, heading east. "Omega, follow her. You, too, Starfire, Raven. See where she's going." Although he had a good idea.

The HIVE Five were still counting their money (except for Blackfire, who still seemed shellshocked, for some reason), when an angry Athena blasted in the doorway. "You have deceived me!"

Billy Numerous immediately divided. "C'mon, ya'll. No matter how strong or fast she is, she cain't get us all!" But Mammoth and See-more, along with Gizmo, moved into attack formations.

And Athena brought her hands together in a thunderous clap that rattled the entire building. The shockwave slammed into all the Billy Numerouses, See-more, Johnny Rancid, and shattered Gizmo's weapons systems. Kyd Wykkyd was caught in the blast before he could teleport away. Even Mammoth was smashed back against the wall with elephant-stunning force.

Only Blackfire was left standing. She immediately shot upwards, crashing through the building, heading upward, towards the stars.

It did her no good whatsoever. Suddenly, Athena was just there, right above her, and, doubling her fists, slammed her downward with sufficient force to drive her partially into the ground into the alleyway behind the HIVE Five's HQ. She grabbed Blackfire by the throat and slammed her up against a brick wall. "You deceived me," she snarled again, pulling her fist back for a lethal blow. Somehow the deception, the lies, were worse with this one, the one who'd kissed her; Athena didn't know why, and, at that point, didn't really care. Blackfire struggled, her face contorted, blood trickling from a gash on her forehead, trying to turn her head, but the Osiran's grip was as immovable as adamantine steel. For all her formidable Tameranean strength, Blackfire might as well have been a human infant.

"Athena!" It was the traitor, stand just behind her. "Stop what you are doing!"

"She must die! She caused me to break the law! And I must die, as well, but she will die first!" And she drew back her fist, preparing to splatter parts of Blackfire's head across at least three area codes…..thoughts ran through Blackfire's head, about what she'd learned about Osiran warriors, their culture, and their dedication to their law…and, in particular, this warrior, and her feelings….her lips…..so good, they had felt, pressed against hers….

And then Omega did something he'd never done before, that he didn't even know he could do. Athena, his friend (even if she wasn't his friend, he remained hers) was about to become a murderer. He could not stand by and let that happen, but although he was only a few yards away, he was still too far away, physically, to stop her, even at super speed…..

{{YOU WILL OBEY ME!}}

The thunderous command slammed through Athena's mind like a sonic boom in an elevator. It literally obliterated conscious thought. Her entire body spasmed like a human who'd stepped on a live electrical wire. She let go of Blackfire, who dropped to her knees, rubbing her throat. Athena herself fell to her knees, her hands on the ground, literally gasping, even though Osirans don't have to breathe.

The other Titans arrived. Blackfire was still conscious, but seemed oddly disoriented, somehow. Terra and Beast Boy checked out the hideout; the others were still out of commission, even Mammoth, from Athena's thunderclap.

Blackfire struggled to her feet. Robin readied his bo staff, with Starfire standing by; they'd both seen and knew what Blackfire could do….

"I, I surrender," Blackfire said. All the while, rubbing her throat. She stuck her hands out so Robin could put the special shackles on her, that would neutralize her powers, and she made no response when he placed the polarized band around her head that would contain her optic blasts. Her expression was….strange. Like someone waking from a dream. Neither Robin nor Starfire really knew what to make of it. They'd never seen Blackfire look like this before…."I'll show you where the money is." She led Raven back into the room, accompanied by a suspicious Starfire. "There," she told her sister, indicating several large bags. "We were going to transfer it tomorrow. It's all there, except for what we gave Athena, of course."

Omega went over to a still-kneeling Athena. "What did you do to her, anyway?" Kitten asked. She and Haywire had arrived shortly after the main activities were over.

"I—I'm not sure. I thought I was simply telling her not to kill Blackfire. It was, it was supposed to be the equivalent of a shout, through the Link, I guess you'd say. At least, that's what I thought I was doing at the time."

Athena was still only semi-conscious, if that. She seemed dazed, barely aware. She made no response whatsoever when Omega gathered up her multi-ton body and carried her back to the tower.

Back at the Tower, he placed her on the reinforced bed that had been placed in her room. Then he turned to the others that had followed him back.

"I don't know what I did!"

Robin thought later, that he'd seen the Osiran battle foes more powerful than he, foes that could have killed him easily. But he'd never sounded scared before.