Prologue 2: Questioning – Part 2

Two men stood side by side in the pitch black room. They stared at the large screen, its glaring glow the only source of light. Quiet, subdued, almost muffled sounds of machinery beeped and chirped in the background, their source hidden in the darkness of the large chamber.

A voice, an odd mix of roughness and sickly-sweetness, broke through the almost-silence. "Still no sign of her?"

The second man, his voice deep and gruff, answered him. "None."

"How could that be?" The first man questioned, confused. "We had her just last night." He added with irritation. He had had so much trouble getting that one, and now, after all the progress he'd made, she had slipped once again from his grasp.

"She must've found a place beyond my range of surveillance." The second man replied dryly.

"What?" The man burst out in shock. "I thought you had cameras everywhere, all over Jump City."

"I do," the second man said, "but some of them have been taken out, or fallen into disrepair."

"Not like you to be neglectful." The first man huffed.

"True, it's not. But I've had…some recent difficulties that needed my attention. I'm sure you can understand that I would be distracted." The second man drawled.

"Any idea where she might have gone off to?"

"The Titans." The gruff-voiced man was quick to reply. "They were pursuing her earlier last night. I can only assume they've captured her."

"Do you think they'll get anything out of her?"

This caused the man to chuckle. "Not likely. With how…fiery she is, she'll be out and back on the streets in no time. Then you can go back to hunting down your little lab rat. After all," he added, "you saw how quickly she escaped prison."

"I think she might've had some help with that…." The strange-voiced man muttered softly to himself. Louder, he said, "Do you still want her?"

"No," the second man answered.

The screen switched to showing a young blonde girl in a small canyon. She raised two hands in the air. A boulder followed suit.

The deep-voiced man turned his head to look at who he had come to consider his business partner. The light emanating from the screen glinted off an orange mask.

"I already have my eye on another one."

The door slammed shut behind her. The interrogation had – thankfully – ended after she had started crying. She'd almost, almost, cried more just in relief. Apparently Robin – that was the harsh boy's name – had given up after that, figuring he wouldn't get anything out of her anyway, and called it a day.

At least for now. No doubt they would try again sometime in the very near future, and she was not looking forward to that.

Young Avari Willoné stood still, rubbing her wrists and arms where they had been cuffed. The action was almost out of habit now. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but over the weeks, she had gotten used to being chained, cuffed, and tied up in general.

She really wished it would quit.

She had stopped crying on her trip back through the halls, though her breathing was still a little unsteady. Raven had been the one to take her back. At least, she thought that was her name. The blue-cloaked girl hadn't said anything, just silently gripped her arm – firmly, but not roughly like Robin had – and led her away. Avari couldn't put her finger on it, but there something about her presence that had been calming to her.

It was weird.

She took a deep, slow breath to finish calming her nerves all the way down. She looked around the room, rubbing her arms and wrists softly as she did so. This was a different cell than the one they had put her in last night. It was still white, bland, and barely furnished, but it was bigger, and the bed looked a bit more comfortable. There was a door on the far right, slightly ajar to reveal a decently-sized bathroom. Obviously, they planned on her staying here awhile.

I guess it could've been worse, she thought. Her scalp itched from her unkempt hair, and she lightly scratched at it. She sighed when she noticed the gunk, mainly composed of dirt and dandruff, that had collected underneath her nails from the action.

The bathroom actually sounded like a pretty good idea right now.

Upon closer inspection, the bathroom was actually very inviting. It wasn't exactly a five-star suite, to be sure – it was a cell, after all – but it was spotlessly clean, and had a shower-tub with working hot water. Which was much more than she could say about the "bathrooms" at Jump City prison. Two tiny bottles, one of shampoo and one of body wash – which reminded her of the type she'd seen at hotels – sat on the edge of the tub.

I hope I don't ever go back there again, she thought has she combed her fingers through her tangled, knot-riddled hair, wincing whenever it pulled on her scalp. The hot water raining down felt so good on her bare skin. The young girl hummed in pleasure. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a real hot shower. Avari picked up the shampoo and squeezed a little amount into her hand, before closing the cap and setting it back down.

She worked the soap into her hair, then repeated the same process with the body wash over the rest of her. The hot water cascaded over her head, through her hair, and down her body, soothing her sore muscles and washing away the filth, along with the soap, that had nestled into her locks and coated her skin. As Avari slowly worked her fingers through her hair, many tiny, ratted knots came away in her hands, which she clumped together and set on the side of the tub to throw away later. The water on the tub floor became black with dirt, grime, and soot. The girl glanced down and grimaced at the sight.

As she continued her shower, Avari went back to her thoughts. She wasn't sure how long they'd keep her here.

I guess until they think they've gotten all they want. Though that's never going to happen.

It was a tricky game for her.

Sure, she'd had absolutely no desire to talk about the subject, and she was way too emotionally overwhelmed – and the nightmare the night before certainly hadn't helped – to say anything intelligent even if she'd wanted to, but those weren't the only reasons she had kept her silence.

She played the questions out in her mind, answering them in her head like she had earlier, during the interrogation.

Who are you? Avari.

Where is Slade? In his hideout. Duh.

What is he planning? He wants a new apprentice. Besides that? Taking you out of the picture. Also duh.

But she hadn't dared to say any of that out loud.

The safest way to play this game, she figured, was to just keep her mouth shut and not say anything. There was no telling which information could bring danger.

Avari rubbed her hands across her arms, not only to get the soap off, but also for comfort.

Are they going to send me back?

That was the most logical course of action, after they figured they'd gotten all they could out of her.

And this time, it wouldn't just be Jump City prison, either. They knew she had escaped that one, and fairly easily, too. No, they would send her somewhere with far more security, where the wardens were far more brutal and strict.

No. No. She couldn't let that happen.

She smoothed her hand through her hair, then leaned her forehead against the wet shower wall.

How had it ever come to this? Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined this would happen, that she would end up here.

Hot tears forced their way up and gathered beneath her eyelids. For a moment, she was tempted to hold them back, but no one was here but her – there was no point. So she let them go – let them fall from her eyes and mix with the rain of the shower water around her.

It was all too much – all so overwhelming.

The shower continued pattering down on her back, and she let it. It soothed her, somewhat at least – at least she could have one constant for a while.

She couldn't go back to prison; she could not let them send her there. That had been on the list of top things to avoid, and despite it coming to pass, still was. It would keep her in one place for too long, and that was dangerous.

Well, and then there was the fact that no one wants to spend their lives in that kind of place, for any amount of time. That was kind of the point of jail's existence.

I'm not going back to jail. I'm NOT. She resolved in her mind. The occurrence was imminent, and no one was going to come rescue her.

She would have to do it herself.

I'm getting out of here.

She had to escape; it was the only way.

On her way to the interrogation room that morning, she'd overheard the robot-boy – Cyborg, was he? That's funny, calling him what he is instead of an actual name. Aliases…. (she mentally rolled her eyes) – say that her restraints were the most fire-resistant material known to mankind.

Avari finished her shower. As she dried off with one of the towels from the rack, she looked down at her clothes piled on the floor. They were still filthy.

It wouldn't do to put those back on like that.

She opted to washing them out in the sink (it wasn't as if she had anywhere to be, so there was no hurry) – which actually turned out to work pretty well – and then she dried them by having the water evaporate off of them.

Once dressed, and much, much cleaner, the young fire-maker left the bathroom and sat on the bed. Now all she could do was wait until they came for her again.

Time to show them how fireproof their cuffs really are.

Machines whirred in the background. A screen's glow glared in the otherwise pitch-black room.

"What? Are you going to help?"

"Let's give them a distraction."

It was a few hours after lunch when Robin decided they'd waited long enough and it was time to interrogate the girl again. Raven had insisted that they wait awhile, and give the girl time to calm down and recuperate.

"Recuperate?" Robin had echoed, incredulous. "All I did was ask her questions!"

All Raven had done was glare at him and turn back to the counter to finish making her herbal tea.

"You did make her cry," Starfire had reminded Robin. "She was quite shaken and upset." Starfire hadn't been present for the whole thing, so she hadn't actually witnessed the girl crying, but she had glimpsed the emotionally distressed girl being led down the hallways by Raven, and had then learned the entire story from her afterwards.

Cyborg and Beast Boy had been pretty quick to agree. In Robin's opinion, the two just had wanted an excuse to play more video games – I'm totally kicking your butt this time, Cy! You cheated last time! – but Raven and Star had had a good point.

And Robin had had no choice but to relent and listen to reason. Again.

Now it was 4:00 in the afternoon, 7 hours since the last interrogation. Plenty enough time, definitely.

Robin got up off the couch where he had beaten Cyborg in a car racing game for the second time in a row – which was really nothing, taking into account that an hour ago the Cyber-teen had beaten both him and Beast Boy five times in a row on that very same game – and turned to the others.

"It's 4 o'clock," he said. "It's been 7 hours. I think we should try and question her again. Maybe this time she'll be more responsive."

Everyone murmured "alright" or variants thereof.

BEEP! – BEEP! – BEEP! – BEEP!

Before anyone could move, however, the alarms blared, and the room was filled with red flashing lights

The screen switched from video game scores to downtown Jump City. Plasmus had gotten loose again, and was apparently keen on eating the walls of an office building, as well as the cars in the surrounding parking lot.

"I guess it'll have to wait." Cyborg said.

Robin sighed. The timing just had to be that impeccable, didn't it?

Evidently, Plasmus turned out to be in a very grumpy mood and wasn't happy at all that the Titans wanted to keep him from getting his snack.

As a matter of fact, he'd rather lash out with his plasma arms and eat them and cover the kids from head to toe in goo for their trouble.

Which is exactly what he did.

For no less than an hour.

Basically, it went like this.

Robin threw his exploding disks at the creature, which did nothing except spray goo everywhere, including on him, before Plasmus just pulled himself back together, literally.

Beast Boy ran at him as a stampeding elephant. He plowed into Plasmus, but got stuck inside him, comically wriggling his elephant hind quarters to no avail. Plasmus sucked him in all the way, then spit him out. A human Beast Boy landed on the concrete several yards away, covered in gunk.

"Ewww!" he whined. He jumped up and down and flailed is limbs around, trying to get the stuff off of him, splattering some on Cyborg in the process.

Raven flew at Plasmus. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," she chanted, calling ripped lengths of metal to wrap about him. Plasmus was too quick. He lashed a dripping arm toward her and wrapped it around her torso. He pulled her to him, opened his mouth wide, and gulped her down, before spitting her out a second later.

She hit the pavement with a grunt. "Yuck."

Starfire was also subject to this indignity – twice – with one near miss. She finally decided to fire her starbolts from a safer distance.

After Plasmus tossed them around, gulped them down, and spit them out, he ran off to wreak havoc in the park.

The process repeated itself; on and on: in the park, the mall, a random parking garage, and many other places.

Needless to say, it took way longer than usual to take Plasmus down. This sparked something in their minds – that something wasn't normal about this, something was wrong – but they were too focused on the disturbance at hand to dwell on it more.

By the time they succeeded in knocking Plasmus out, it was nearly dark. Beast Boy and Cyborg absolutely refused to go back to the Tower without having a much-needed pizza break. That took another hour and a half, and then it was off to stop Doctor Light from robbing a load of disco balls at the local party store, which took even more time. When they did eventually return home, it was for long showers, large loads of laundry, and more food.

Now it was 11:00 at night. Raven was nestled on the couch, her attention focused solely on the book in her lap, and she refused to budge. Beast Boy was on the other side of the couch, sleeping and mumbling something about a giant pizza-eating sock. (This earned a weird look from Raven, who then turned back to her book.)

Cyborg was in the middle, playing a video game by himself, and Starfire was behind the kitchen counter, making who-knows-what.

So when Robin had the audacity to dare to suggest they bring their prisoner out for another quick interrogation, all he got were glares, a snore, and Cyborg pointing to the videogame screen where he was about to beat a previous high score.

"Look, man, I know you're antsy to get info about Slade," Cyborg said. "I'm not exactly fond of the guy, either. But it's too late now. It's almost midnight, and the girl's probably asleep. I don't think you'll be getting anything out of her now. I'm going to be getting to bed soon. You should, too."

Robin sighed. True, he was tired. And he wasn't about to drag the – possibly sleeping – girl out of her cell, through the halls, by himself. No way was he going to admit it, but he was a little afraid of her.

It would have to wait 'til morning, then.

"It didn't work."

"It will."

The sun rose over the horizon, the soft, yellow light glinting off the tall buildings of the city, creating an almost mirror-like affect. The sky turned orange, purple, and pink – awash with colors. The beautiful morning light shone down upon the Tower built on a small island, where six kids were sleeping – though not all of them could see it.

Regardless, a few hours later, all were fully ready to face the day. One of them in particular had gotten some much needed rest.

Avari sat on her bed in her cell, smoothing the bed-time wildness out of her hair. Setting her hands in her lap, she looked down at them and began fiddling with her fingers.

What a relief it was that she hadn't been called out for another interrogation yesterday. For several hours, she had been on high alert, every muscle in her body – her mind as well– on edge, sure that at any moment, the cell door would swing open and she would be dragged out for more handcuffs and questions.

She didn't know if she could have handled any more of that yesterday, and she knew she would still be feeling the effects of it today. She was okay now, though. With all that time to recuperate, she was calm now, and could actually think straight. Being clean helped a lot, too.

She thanked God she didn't have any dreams last night.

As it was, the only person who had come to her cell at all was the funny-looking girl with orange hair – she wasn't too sure of her name yet. She'd come twice, but each time was just to bring her food.

With all the craziness going on, Avari had completely forgotten about eating. At the sight of food, though, her stomach was quick to remind her. And the food here was much better than what she'd been given at the Jump City jail.

But that was yesterday, and this was today.

Now, all she could do was wait.

It wasn't long before she heard footsteps echoing down the corridor.

Robin unlocked the cell door and opened it. He found the girl on the gray-sheeted bed, just sitting there. She moved her gaze up from her lap to look at him.

She looked decidedly cleaner, Robin noticed. It looked like she'd made good use of the bathroom. Her clothes, though still stained in some places, weren't covered in dirt and soot anymore, and her hair was longer, falling down to her shoulder blades.

Robin stepped back to let Raven in. She took a few steps into the room, fireproof handcuffs dangling from one hand.

"Come on," she told the other girl in the cell. Surprising both of them, they didn't have to physically drag her from cell this time. The young girl stiffly rose from the bed and walked over to Raven. The handcuffs were snapped over the brunette's wrists, and together Raven and Robin escorted her to the interrogation room.

They sat her down and secured her arms to the chair. Robin, too, sat at the table, in the place across from her.

"Let's try this again." Robin said. His tone was still serious, but less harsh. He was determined to keep his temper under control this time. "What's your name?"

The girl wasn't shaking this time – didn't seem scared or emotionally unsettled, but was calm. But like last time, she didn't answer. Nor did she look at him. She kept her gaze downward, her eyes flitting to and fro in their sockets.

Robin sighed. He tried a different question. "You're with Slade, aren't you?"

The girl still remained silent.

"Look, we can get this whole thing over with a lot faster if you just answer me. It's a yes or no question. Are you with Slade, or aren't you?"

Raven, who had taken her position from the previous interrogation, widened her eyes as she heard a voice, loud and clear, ring out in her mind.

Howabout we just end this now?

In that second, the room erupted in heat.

The cuffs holding the girl in place simmered and evaporated. Fire shot out from her hands, partially melting the table as she leaped over it and past Robin at lightning speed.

In the moment it took for the other inhabitants of the room to process that and blink, the door was seared off its hinges and the fire-safety sprinklers on the ceiling were going at full blast.

Oh, and the girl was gone.

A quick look at Raven, and a shake of her head confirmed that the girl was nowhere on the Tower's grounds.

Robin's frustrated cry could be heard clear on the other side of the building.

There was no time to look for her, however. Not two minutes later, the alarms blared, and they were rushing to save a blonde-haired girl from a giant black scorpion.

"You can't run forever."

Author's note:

Hi, all! Here's another chapter for you to enjoy.

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