Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, nor the characters affiliated with the series.
Teen Titans
Carved Glass
.:Chapter Ten:.
Respite
The first thing that Robin thought was Beast Boy! He could see from his teammates' faces that they had realized their friend's danger, as well. Together they rushed back through the labyrinth passages. Cyborg went first, his thermal scanner bleeping as they made their way through the hallways. The darkness was occasionally lit by flashing red lights that were doubtless signaling that the base would self-destruct soon. Robin worried for the civilians overhead—would the destruction of the base harm them?
"Don't worry about the self-destruct sequence," the stranger beside Robin panted. "It's designed not to affect the streets and buildings above. It will incinerate everything in the tunnels, but won't harm the structure itself."
This comforted Robin some, but he was still worried about Beast Boy. "Can you pick Beast Boy up on your scanner?" he asked Cyborg.
"Yeah," Cyborg replied. "According to my scanners he's almost out onto the street. And he has someone with him."
The boy beside Robin let out a gasp, "She's alive?"
"It would seem so," Cyborg said. The boy let out a relieved sigh and then nodded. Together the Titans continued to make their way through the tunnels, this time with the dark-haired boy leading them, as he knew the quickest way out. The door at the end of one of the hallways was locked, but Raven wrenched the door from its hinges and threw it aside, her hands absorbed in dark energy. Robin led the Titans out into the street just as Raven began fitting the door back in place and placing empty cars and other objects on top of it. The fire would not escape onto the street, so they were safe for the time being. Robin looked about him and then turned to Starfire.
"I need to get to the T-Car! Beast Boy is probably there!" he said. Starfire nodded and grabbed him by the wrist. Robin felt the familiar sensation of being lifted from the ground and hung limply from Starfire's grasp as she took him back to the T-Car. They landed smoothly and Robin raced over to where a familiar green boy was gently closing the white-and-blue car door.
"Beast Boy!" Robin called. Beast Boy turned and looked at him with a solemn expression on his face.
"Slade?" he asked.
"He managed to escape, and his hideaway is going to self-destruct. We need to find Slade—"
"Leila needs a safe place right now," Beast Boy said quietly. Robin heard the footsteps of his friends as they raced to join them. He stared at Beast Boy blankly, not knowing what to say.
"Slade will already be gone by now," the stranger said quietly. Terra walked up to his side and crossed her arms over her chest.
"It'd be wise to wait him out for now. Until we can gather our strength," she noted.
Beast Boy looked at Terra and then he glanced back at the T-Car. The look on his face was one of confusion and indecision. Finally he shook his head and sighed. "I want to get Slade as much as anyone. But right now Leila needs me."
"Then we'll head back to the Tower for now," Robin said. "We'll be able to start looking for Slade once Leila is safe." He turned to Terra and the stranger. "You both can come with us."
"Sounds good to me," the boy said.
"Whatever," Terra replied with a shrug.
Once the Titans arrived at the tower, Beast Boy carried Leila straight to one of the training rooms where first-aid supplies were kept. He placed her onto a simple gurney and then leaned against the counter, his palms gripping the edge of it as he fought to remain calm. A hand rested on his shoulder and he turned to see Starfire looking at him with big, honest eyes.
"It will be all right, Beast Boy," she said.
"Yeah," Beast Boy responded, his voice barely above a whisper. The Titans gathered in the room and Cyborg went to work setting up some of the hospital equipment they kept there. Beast Boy stood by Leila's side, one hand placed over hers, wishing he could see her open her eyes and smile at him.
They soon had her as stable and comfortable as could be managed. Then the Titans gathered outside the hospital room. A grave silence had settled between them. Beast Boy could hardly bear being apart from Leila. He stared through the glass walls at her, his arms crossed over his chest, his attention not focused on the strange boy or on Terra.
Finally Robin spoke. "Will you tell us who you are?" he asked the boy.
"My name is Shadow… or it was, when I served under Slade." He took a deep breath and continued, "My real name is Nathan Holloway. Slade tried to kill my mother and my sister… He spared her at the cost of my obedience. I don't know what happened to my mother." Nathan stared at the floor, his jaw set grimly. Terra touched his arm and he glanced at her, relaxing at the sight of her reassuring look.
"Is your sister all right?" Starfire asked.
Nathan looked at her blankly. Then he nodded towards the girl lying motionless in the other room. "That's my sister there."
"Leila is your sister?" Beast Boy asked, turning towards Nathan with a surprised look on his face. He thought of their encounter in the park and couldn't believe this boy could be the same person who had imprisoned her again. "Why would you do that to her?" he demanded, hands curled into fists.
"I thought it was the only way to keep her alive," Nathan said softly. "I rationalized it any way I could, but I know I went about it all wrong. I've always been doing things wrong. It's Laura that was always the hero." He looked through the glass at his sister, his brows furrowing in pain.
"Laura?" several voices repeated.
"That's her real name. She had forgotten it until just before she passed out. I thought she had died after removing the tracking chip from my shoulder." Nathan patted the place where the chip had been.
"How did she do it?" Cyborg asked, thinking of the neural devices Slade had used in the past. It could not have been easy to remove such a device no matter what shape it took.
"My sister is special. She controls density," Nathan replied.
"Density?" Robin frowned and thought back to the moment Cyborg's hand burst apart fighting one of Slade's robots.
"Yeah. She can make things ten times harder than diamond or as fragile as glass. But Slade kept her powers in check by draining away her energy. He barely fed her or allowed her to see sunlight… After all these years the only freedom she's tasted was when she escaped and found you." It was then that Nathan and Beast Boy's eyes met. "She changed when she met you," Nathan murmured. "She was more like her old self again." He looked thoughtful for a moment and then turned away.
"So what do we do now?" Raven asked. "Slade is still out there."
"We find him and we beat him," Robin said as he drove his fist into an open palm.
"How do you plan on finding him?" Terra inquired.
Robin was silent for a few moments. Then he turned to Nathan. "You've served him for some time now. Where do you think he would go?"
Nathan shrugged. "He knows that I'm against him, so he would avoid the places I know of. I don't think I can help you."
"The least we can do is keep up surveillance all over the city," Cyborg said. "Try to flush him out, if we can."
After a moment of silence, Nathan spoke up. "There might be someone who could help us."
The Titans turned to him, their gazes expectant.
"She calls herself Horizon. Slade wanted me to track her down a few years ago, but she wasn't exactly the type of person one can track down. Still, I met her once, and I realized what Slade wanted her for."
"What?" Beast Boy asked impatiently.
Nathan glanced and him and then continued. "She can find anything. Anything. I'm not sure how, but I guess she's just different. Like us." He gave a rueful smile.
"Do you know where to find her now?" Robin asked.
"Not exactly. I said I met her, but that's not because I found her. She found me. She knew someone was looking, and she found me to tell me to stop looking. So I did. Slade was able to perfect his tracking devices soon after, so I guess he figured he didn't need her anymore, and he never asked about her again."
"So how are we going to find her?" Beast Boy asked. He felt the breath catch in his throat as he thought of Slade and what he had done to Leila—Laura, as he now knew her. If there was a chance they could stop Slade once and for all, he would take it gladly. He wanted Laura to wake up and know that she was safe.
"Let her know that we're looking, somehow," Nathan said.
"How do we do that?" Starfire asked.
"I can ask some of my old contacts," Nathan murmured. "That's how she got tipped about me before. Maybe it will help this time, too."
"It's a plan, at least," Raven said.
Robin nodded. He spoke with the authority of the group's leader when he said: "Let's do it."
Smoke curled out from the tip of the man's cigarette. He balanced it in between his teeth and felt the warm comfort of the buzz rising up in his lungs. Shrugging his powerful shoulders, he screwed up his thick eyebrows and squinted through the cloud of smoke he was emitting. The alleyway he stood in looked empty, but he had the distinct feeling that he was not alone.
"Lovely to see you again, Aaron," a light, almost childlike voice said. Aaron tried to pinpoint its source and thought to look up. Peering at him from the window of one of the warehouses he stood beside was a girl's face. She had short, golden-red hair that spiraled up in curls around her freckled face. Her dark green eyes stood out starkly against the paleness of her skin. He knew her on sight, and felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead as he looked up into her deceptively innocent gaze.
"Horizon," he said, hating the way his voice caught in his throat. He grabbed at his cigarette and felt as if his lungs were shaking as he exhaled a wide billow of smoke.
"Those things will kill you, you know," Horizon said nonchalantly. She winked and smiled at Aaron. The sort of smile that belonged on the face of a wicked Cupid.
"People say you've got something to tell me," Horizon said.
"Y-yeah, well, you told me to tell you if people came asking…" Aaron muttered, trying not to look up at the girl but also trying not to appear quite as frightened as he was. Horizon looked like a young girl, talked like one, but he knew from experience that she was far more than she appeared.
"People are asking? For me? I'm flattered." Horizon slipped out of the window and fell nearly a full story before landing in the alleyway beside Aaron. Her bones let out a faint sound like gears turning. Then she straightened herself, brushing off the folds of the ridiculously ruffled dress she wore.
"It was that dark guy again," Aaron said. "Shadow. He didn't say why he was looking again, but I asked, I really did."
"What a good boy," Horizon said, patting Aaron's elbow because his shoulder was far too high for her to reach. She strolled a few paces and then glanced over her shoulder. "Did Shadow say anything else?"
"No. He just asked where to find you."
"And what did you tell him?"
"I said I didn't know."
"True enough," Horizon laughed. No one knew where to find her. But she knew where to find everyone.
"D-do you need me to do anything else?" Aaron asked nervously. Horizon looked at him with eyes that were chillingly calculating.
Finally, with a girlish smile, she said, "No. That will be all, Aaron."
Horizon's expression faded to one of dead-like calm as she watched the thug step out his cigarette and rush out of the alley. She straightened and her eyes narrowed as she considered the information he had given her.
"So," she said, drawing the word out, tasting it. "Shadow is trying to find me once more. I would have thought I made myself clear last time we met."
Horizon began walking, her short, white heels clicking faintly on the rough concrete. "But it seems I was wrong."
Author's Note:
It's been a long time coming, but here is the new chapter! Thank you for reading and for being patient with me. It's been a long time since I felt up to writing so much, but it's so wonderful to feel the motivation again. I think things are on the up-and-up, and I'm excited to be feeling that way again after battling depression these past two years. It's quite a long story, and not one I imagine you'd like to hear about. So I'll just leave it at that. I hope you enjoyed this update and look forward to more. Feedback is so appreciated. Thank you for all your support!
