Jan was caught, but not in time. Her head hit a metal beam in the construction area before Starfire swooped down, and Slade escaped in all the fuss with the stolen item. By then, their main concern was Jan, who was unconscious.

The somewhat mysterious girl was sent to a hospital, and the Titans watched over her, checking in periodically as she began to make a recovery. Her health wasn't in any extreme danger, but her head was cracked open from the force of her fall. An unfortunate side effect was that she didn't remember anything.

It was a natural instinct to be untrusting of these people who didn't know her well, but still kept checking in on her. Starfire came in often, eager to have a new friend. Jan noticed that Robin was just outside the door more than once, but he rarely came in. Still, they all seemed nice enough, so she allowed herself to relax marginally around them.

Even though her head healed up well and there were no cognitive problems, Jan wasn't allowed to leave the hospital for a while. They said it was to make sure there was no more damage. It wasn't too bad of a thing to deal with, but it made Jan nervous. She was told she had been supposedly part of a secret agency, but no one came to pick her up. It was very suspicious, and it made Jan want to force her way out. What if she had lied? What if she had become a loose end, and whoever came for her came to kill her?

The thing that made it worse was what she later heard. The man that had escorted her for the night and told the Titans that their employment and mission were a secret had sabotaged the night, turning off the lights and fighting off the Titans. If he was against them, why wouldn't she be? She wondered if he had diverted from what their superiors said, or if she had.

It seemed that Jan was an ally of the Titans. She had not joined in the thievery, although she had acquired the item of question in order to foil Slade. Who was the traitor was uncertain, but the fact of the matter was that she was an enemy of Slade. He had fought her without reserve to acquire the item, which he did, and then he dropped her off the side of a building, which had led to her current state.

Slade. She tried to remember him, mainly at the behest of a slightly annoyed Robin. Even when she closed her eyes and tried very hard, the best she could get was a flash of his mask as she was falling away, and then a wave of rage. Nothing else came to her, and it was all very far away, as if she had watched it from a distance instead of lived it. The only thing that stuck with her was that feeling of rage. Whoever Slade was, she had not liked him in the end.

It didn't take too long for the hospital to become unbearable. With Robin watching for her to go rogue and the rest of the team inundating her with friendship and well wishings, the small room was fast stifling her. Despite that, she did her best to hold onto her sanity. In order to stave off persistent humming or tapping, she found ways to entertain herself. She found that if she pulled on the mirror in the bathroom with her mind ever so gently, she could actually distort the figure it reflected. The girl also accidentally broke a couple of machines because she had tried this too hard on their displays, since they were closer. She could barely manipulate those dull, scratched up screens, but the mirror seemed to work easily.

Despite this exercise of what she assumed was some sort of power she possessed, her weariness returned without her bidding. Her legs itched to walk on something that was not white, with real shoes. She started moving in her room, at night, when it was safe. The doctors and nurses came by to check about once every couple of hours, though, so she still had to be careful. Even then, it was hard to stifle her heavy breathing after a brief work-out.

Finally, the day came when she was released. Her name was Jan. She heard it said almost a million times that day, it seemed. She was glad to be back out on the streets, but she found her clothes were unbearably... Oh, what was it? They were simply too normal for her.

Starfire cheered for Jan's release. Jan did her best to smile.

"Yay! Is it not wonderful to walk about now?" Starfire giggled, hovering in the air outside the hospital.

"Yeah. Nice to have real shoes, too."

Jan looked at her feet. She was at last wearing shoes, but these were sneakers. She felt like the hospital had planned on sending her to a tennis match right after her release. Oh well, at least she wasn't barefoot in the city.

"So, where are you going to go?" Cyborg asked in a friendly manner.

Jan frowned a little. She finally nodded in the direction of the sea. The Titans looked. Cyborg looked back at her, confused.

"Uh, sorry, I didn't catch that. Where, exactly?"

"There's no 'exactly'. I'll just be going in that direction." Jan said, motioning her hand in the direction of the docks.

"Do you make all your choices like that?" Beastboy asked, staring skeptically at the water far away.

"Like what?" She asked.

"Like, without actually weighing anything, just choosing a random direction."

"It's not random."

"It's not? I could have sworn..." Beastboy mumbled.

"Then where are you going?" Now it was Robin speaking up. "You have a place to go, right?"

"No." Jan said flatly.

"Then why were you just telling us you were going that way?" Starfire asked.

"Because I wanna go that way!" Jan said, becoming exasperated.

"Where are you going that's in that direction?" Starfire was really trying to narrow this down.

"Nowhere!" Jan finally exclaimed. "My gut is just telling me to go in that direction." She continued with much hand movement.

"Why don't you just stay with us?" Cyborg said uncertainly. "Until you figure out exactly where you're going. Just to be safe."

"Oh, no. No way. I am not staying where bird brain can breathe down my neck." Jan finally said, irking Robin.

"Robin is just trying to help." Starfire said a little sadly, though she knew full well Robin's tendencies.

"I know, I know. He's just checking to see who crossed the line. But he seems to think that maybe I wasn't entirely honest. What if I was the one who crossed the line, but not the way he thinks? What if I was the one who disobeyed orders and tried to keep it away from Slade?" Jan clarified.

The group was silent. Beastboy was messing with something on the ground. Raven gave Jan a straight, even look. The other two were struggling with figuring out something to say. Not Robin, though. He gave Jan a steady look, which spoke clearly to the girl. She was not trusted. She could tell he didn't like the idea of being wrong, either.

"Look, I've spent way too long in a place that smells like bleach and chlorine. A few of my brain cells probably died just by sitting there, and my legs are itching to move. Talk to me later. I won't leave immediately. Just let me be for a while."

There was a tentative agreement. Jan decided, based on their muted reaction, to watch out for being tailed by any of them. She headed off with hands in the meager pockets of the normal jeans she was wearing. Perhaps, if she walked around, she could blow off some steam.

It wasn't as though she didn't like the Titans. They were ok. But she trusted them about as much as they trusted her. As hopeful as some of them were for a friendship, she just didn't seem to be the type. In fact, she was holding Robin as far away as he was holding her. She doubted they would ever see eye-to-eye.

The streets of Jump City were strangely familiar. She walked through them warily, waiting for someone to jump out at her or pull some kind of crap that the dirt of the alleyways usually did. But although whispering groups went silent as she passed by, none of them pursued her. In fact, she could have sworn some of them gawked at her as she went by.

It didn't take long for Jan to notice that she was drawn to the familiar backstreets of the city. Nor did it take long for her to suspect she was being followed, and she rounded a block to rejoin the main street and notice the over-rushed form of a green bird, which had taken all three right turns.

Jan headed for the clothing stores to window shop, peeking through the glass to see what kinds of things there were. She found there were always pieces of clothing that she liked, but never the entire style. She'd like the arms of one shirt, the torso of another, and the wrists of a third. All together, they would have looked nice, but alone they were as useless as this overly-large work-out shirt. Perhaps if she got fabric... No, then she'd have to steal it, and with a second bird boy hovering over her, that would not happen.

Boredom descended quickly, and gave birth to slightly mischievous thoughts. While the Titans switched off following her, Jan made it a game to lose them. She did it in inconspicuous ways, dodging around corners and into small nooks that were hidden to most, or that only she seemed to know existed. She came around the same alley more than once, though she couldn't remember why. There was only an abandoned subway entrance, and she had no inclination to enter it.

Jan's game proceeded into the night. Titan after Titan lost track of her, and when one finally tried to speak to her, she made it the most difficult for him to find her. No cyborg could sense much through a wall full of lead. Since then, each tail happened with more and more discrepancy until Robin finally came out.

By this time, Jan had explored running on rooftops. This also seemed to be an easy task for her. She could both make the large leaps required and map out her path ahead of time, almost completely getting rid of those moments when she realized the jump was just too far.

Robin had chosen what Jan suspected to be the wrong time to tail her, because the thrill of the rooftops made him easier to spot. While Jan had fun with her street parkour, he tried to keep up with her while staying out of her line of sight. She let him think he was hidden for a time. However, when she tried to lose him, she found him even more difficult than the others. Raven had been the champion in Jan's mind, due to her ability to phase through walls. But Robin was so persistent, he easily took first place within a half-hour.

The leaps eventually took Jan to a rooftop that gave her an idea. There was an entrance on top of this building, and Jan swerved to duck in front of it. She opened it and swung it wide, then hid behind it and let it go while Robin shot past the door. He stopped, saw the door closing, and didn't hesitate to dive inside with an angry noise made under his breath. Jan waited quietly on the other side until she heard the door shut. Then she bolted in another direction and dropped down onto the ground. Finally, he was gone.

Without someone tailing her, Jan found her walks through Jump City to be fairly relaxing. The city was beautiful, and although the lights were bright, the stars could still be seen at night. After losing Robin, Jan's feet took her to the docks. She stood there, quiet and watching the lights play on the waves.

Where was she going to go? Jan knew she had an overwhelming urge in her stomach to leave Jump City and go across the water. But she doubted she could swim wherever she was going, so she'd have to wait for a free boat. Even then...

Perhaps the Titans were right. Maybe she should bunk somewhere else until she had everything figured out. There was a possibility that she would regain her memories if she just stayed in Jump City. But the will to leave was overpowering. She didn't just want to go. She needed to go. It was difficult believing anything otherwise.

Why was this urge so strong?

Just standing there thinking about it was unbearable. Her feet moved without much thought on her part. She just wanted to get a slightly different view, that was all. Jan proceeded down a dock, her footsteps quiet on the wooden boards.

From out of nowhere, a hulking figure sprung up. Jan recognized the posture, and then was flying back. She flew so far, she hit the warehouse all the way behind her and left a dent in it. There were spasms of pain from all along her spine, but she recognized that nothing was broken.

'Jan?'

'Jan.'

'Jan!'

'Jan, why?'

'You know what has to be done, Jan.'

'JAN!'

'Run, Jan!'

She shook her head ferociously as voices erupted in her head. One hand on her head, she pushed herself from the dent in the wall and landed weakly. Slowly, the voices faded out, and Jan focused on the form that walked slowly toward her. It was a giant that mimicked the human shape. It seemed to be made out of some kind of cement. There was nothing Jan could see being used against it, except maybe the water.

Her hand lowered from her head as the cement man stopped. He stared at her for a moment. For a few moments, neither moved. Out of curiosity, Jan took a step to the side. He did not move. So Jan turned and began to walk toward the exit to the docks.

The blow was so fast, she was barely able to jump back out of the way- the wind from this punch had her clothes moving like there was a storm coming to the docks. She ducked under a second punch and got backed up against the warehouse. While Jan ran from under the blows, the giant ripped apart the warehouse wall.

Jan made a run for it while the giant was searching the dust cloud. But as she turned down to head for the city, five robots that looked the same descended before her. Two on the roof and three right in front of her, they all had shiny metal hands and black and orange faces. According to the Titans' earlier description, these were what were called 'sladebots'.

The girl began to back up, but the cement giant blocked off her other route of escape. There would be no choice but to fight. Jan didn't particularly like the idea. She was finding thoughts of dodging beneath their blows and disappearing much more appetizing, but what the cement giant lacked in speed, the sladebots made up for. She'd have to fight in as balanced a form as she could.

The cement giant came on first, ripping a light post out of the ground and swinging it as he came on. She jumped over the swing and kicked his head as she passed over, making the giant lose his balance and crash down. The sladebots were too quick, however, and dodged out of the giant's way. The two on the roof began shooting with laser guns of some sort, and the other three came at Jan.

Their blows were fast enough to make Jan worry, but she believed she could dodge them all as long as she paid attention. She elbowed one in the face very hard and saw sparks fly as it fell to the ground, and then managed to give another one a good kick, which sent it flying. Another came up behind her and grabbed her arms, holding her. Jan wasn't sure what for until she heard the giant make an angry grunt. He ran at her, arm raised. There weren't many options, but Jan just managed to run up the giant's torso when it was close enough and flip over the robot. The overpowered punch hit the robot, and Jan scrambled to loosen herself from its torso's grip. Just when she thought she had herself free, the robot began functioning again and refused to release her one arm.

Fine. If it wanted to be stubborn, Jan could play. The giant kept swinging at her, and when she was done trying to pry the damned robot off her arm, she ran up the giant's arm and slammed the sladebot torso into the giant's head. She thought it was clever. The cement giant was not as amused.

The giant hit faster, and what Jan also suspected to be harder. She did her best to focus on dodging out of the way. Unfortunately, she had also momentarily forgotten about the sladebots on the roofs, and a laser from one of them hit her in the back. While she was stunned, smoke rising from the back of her normal shirt, the giant picked her up and hurled her into another warehouse. This time, she went through the wall.

She bounced like a rag doll on the ground and lay there in the dirt for a couple of moments. What was wrong with her? Wasn't she supposed to be stronger than this? Oh, hell, how was she supposed to know? She only had amnesia, after all!

With a grunt, she pushed herself up onto her elbows and looked at the cement giant as he stepped through the hole in the wall and walked toward her. There was really nothing to do other than get up and keep going, so Jan did so with a pained sigh. The back of her head pounded. Those damn voices were coming back.

'Jan? Where are you?'

'Come over here, I'll show you something.'

'Jan...'

'Would anybody but me be so nice?'

'Quit crying, girl.'

The sudden jump caught the girl off-guard, and the only thing she could do was put her arms up in defense. She crashed through several layers of boxes before finally hitting the other wall. Slowly, she slid down and slumped onto the ground.

She was sitting outside in a clearing. Her best friend was there, too. Safia. With blond hair and big, blue eyes. They were picking flowers around them and comparing them. Daisies to baby's breath. Forget-me-nots to yarrows. They didn't know the names. But they knew the colors.

A shadow overcame them, and the two girls looked up. A big hand reached down. Safia screamed.

"Safia."

Jan came back to her senses. She looked up to see Cyborg between her and the cement giant. Starfire was also there, her hands aglow. What were they doing here? According to the lack of destruction in the room, Jan could only assume they had only just arrived.

It was strange. In this moment, she felt incredibly clear. Her name was Jan. She was a thief, and worse. She was in the wrong company. She had to leave Jump City. But even those simple facts were fast fleeing her.

With little effort, Jan pushed herself up from the ground. The idea of protecting Safia, her old friend, pervaded for a moment before she reminded herself that Safia was not there. She'd have to focus to keep everything straight.

"Good. You're awake. Just give us a moment." Cyborg said with a smile.

Jan didn't wait for a moment. She stepped forward, and then was in front of the cement giant, giving him a spin kick that sent him sideways. Then her heel came down, and his face met the dirt. With another kick and a cry, she sent him skidding backwards into the wall.

For a moment, she stood there. Her body was tired and beaten. Just kicking that huge lug made her legs vibrate in the same way sleeping limbs would. Not that she was incapable of it, but Jan was not generally a strength fighter.

Still, she needed to end this now. As the cement giant rose, Jan was already starting to lose her clarity. The confused young girl was beginning to return, taking all the seriousness away from Jan. She had to focus. Be strong. See it to the end. But the little girl wanted nothing more than to run.

The giant stood on its two feet. Both Starfire and Cyborg's weapons were glowing, ready to strike. They seemed to have shaken off their momentary shock. The cement giant roared.

"Lookie what I found in the boxes you broke." Jan said with an evil grin, holding up shining fragments of metal. There was only a moment for confusion before Jan threw them, and then they glowed and exploded with such force that Jan, standing so close, had to stumble back.

Her renewed clarity seemed to draw more trouble, however. Around the trio appeared a new horde of sladebots. And not just three to five. There were at least thirty-five of them crammed into the little warehouse with Cyborg, Starfire, Jan, and the cement giant. All of them held up little orbs, and all of them threw down the smoke bombs.

Jan closed her eyes. She could sense the stuff was bad for her senses before the burning sensation stung her nostrils. It wasn't like she would be able to see anyone through the smoke, anyways. Her time was running out. She couldn't remember where she came from.

Something tried to swipe at her, but Jan felt the wind before the blow and caught the offending hand. Gripping it curiously, she tilted her head to the side and gave a small smile. Perhaps this wasn't entirely hopeless.

"You, sir, have a very shiny metallic hand." Jan said. She would have to imagine the look of confusion on the robot's face.

With a motion, Jan sent the offending robot back. She extended her senses, desperate to get at everything before her sanity left her. Jan could sense, one by one, the robots around her, their shiny metallic parts proving to be a very malleable substance for Jan. She took hold of them with her mind, lifting them from the ground and pulling them away from Cyborg and Starfire. One sladebot got smart and shot at the source of the disturbance. Jan, however, only stumbled forward. They did not drop. In fact, Jan drew her open hands in to her sides and balled them up into fists. As she did so, the many shiny parts of the robots twisted and collapsed upon themselves, making the robots effectively useless.

Then Jan allowed herself to start coughing because of the gas. She tried to breathe through the fabric of her shirt, but it didn't do well. Desperately, she tried to hold onto anything about who she was. In the end, she crouched there with an image of Safia's face in her mind. Eyes squinted tight, she did everything she could to remember that one person. Blond hair. Blue eyes. Innocent smile.

"Here."

Someone put something over Jan's mouth. After she realized it wasn't something meant to harm her, Jan held the cloth to her mouth. Breathing into it made her feel better while someone led her out of the warehouse.

"You can open your eyes now."

She did. She looked at Robin, who looked slightly miffed about losing a chance to really fight. He didn't have the full picture about the situation, but this made it clear to him that Jan was a person of interest to Slade still. That made her a person of interest to Robin.

"Jan, are you alright?" Starfire said kindly. She landed next to Jan and put a hand on her arm. Jan flinched away, realizing there was a cut there.

"Yeah, um..."

Jan looked around, suddenly confused. There was something...

"What's wrong?" Robin asked.

"I don't know. I just... feel like there was something important that I was supposed to remember."

Shieb: I've found this fanfic has a special kind of quality to it. I was wondering why it was so hard to start writing for all my other fanfics, and then I came to this one and read pieces of it over again, and it just got my blood pumping. This fanfic is fun. Take a lesson, kids. If it ain't fun for you, it won't be fun for anybody else. You'd have to be really disciplined to keep writing something that's always serious.

P.S. I went through and re-read this story 'cus I was in the mood, and I edited what mistakes I saw.