Nobody was confused more by Jan's fleeting clarity than Jan herself. It confused everyone, of course, but things were as they were. Jan could not remember anything from before, like where she came from or who her friends were. And she was certainly the only one confused, waking up in Titans Tower after passing out.
The sheets were comfortable, and the room seemed to be painted as a dark sky and red-dirt canyons. Jan looked about nervously. Once boredom was strong enough to override the feeling that originally forbade her to leave the bed, she explored. The room was fairly bare, and the door was automatic. She flinched nervously as it opened in front of her.
The hallways were empty, and Jan wandered them aimlessly until she heard noise. It was the rambunctious voices of teenagers at play. Cautiously, quietly, she made her way toward the noises. Eventually, they led her to a set of double-doors, which she assumed were also automatic. They hissed open almost silently amidst the noise of Robin and Beastboy playing video games while Raven and Starfire seemed in deep conversation. Hesitant to enter, Jan watched from the doorway.
"So, you're finally awake." Cyborg said from behind Jan, who leapt into the room with surprise. "I was going to see if you were, but the room was empty when I got there."
Jan turned to look at the view that was behind the game screen. It was a perfect view of the city from here. That was when she realized where she was. Strange how that simple thought made her shoulders even more tense. Why was she here? Why did she feel like she shouldn't be?
Robin and Beastboy turned away from their game. Starfire and Raven paused in their conversation, and Starfire waved. Jan gave a lame wave back.
"Why am I, um... here?" Jan asked.
"Slade's still out there." Robin said from the couch.
"We figured we'd let you stay here until you got back on your feet. You hungry?" Cyborg asked, heading to the kitchen.
"Uh, no, I'm fine." Jan said. Her stomach loudly disagreed.
"It's about time to eat, anyway." Beastboy said, bounding off the couch to join Cyborg in the kitchen.
Slowly, Jan walked further into the room. It struck her just how huge this place was, and she was actually starting to like it. There were all sorts of high-tech things here. As she looked around at the walls, she saw so much more than just the large TV that was projected onto the window. Finally, she sat on a stool near the kitchen.
"So, what's your type? Breakfast burrito? Steak? You haven't eaten in a whole day." Cyborg said, pulling out pots and pans.
"How about a nice tofu hotdog?" Beastboy said, wiggling his eyebrows at Jan.
"Ain't nobody want tofu." Cyborg scolded Beastboy, glaring before pulling various meats out of the refrigerator.
"Of course people want tofu!" Beastboy exclaimed before the two went into a very long-winded argument about tofu and why people did or did not want it. It didn't take long for Jan to understand that Beastboy was a vegetarian, and Cyborg was almost entirely the opposite. According to the way everybody else was reacting, this was normal.
"Hey, Jan!" She turned to see Robin. "Why don't you play a game while you're waiting?"
"One of those games?" Jan asked, pointing at the screen.
"Yeah, come here."
Robin motioned with the free controller. The girl found herself hesitating, but got up from the stool and took the controller, sitting on the couch. She didn't even know if she had ever played these games before, but the form of the controller felt natural, and it was wireless, so she wasn't worried about getting tangled or tripping.
"So... What's the game?"
"Mecha Fighter 9," Robin replied.
"Basically, robot boxing?" Jan asked, seeing a flash of two robots in a ring on the menu before Robin selected something.
"Basically. Go ahead and make your own profile."
It took Jan a little bit to get used to the controls, and she quickly found that she did not like being new to something. The controller, though its form fit her hands well, was not something her fingers knew as well, and so she had to learn every button as fast as she could without tarnishing her pride and asking questions. After her profile was made, it was off to selecting her robot. Robin promised to go easy on her after she chose one that had a very balanced set of stats. She figured he didn't trust in her ability to fight because of her obvious awkwardness and the all-around low stats of her robot. She just smirked in reply.
In the first round, she was immediately smashed down to the ground. Robin's fingers were quick on the buttons, and Jan learned very fast how to dodge, jump, and move on screen. By the second round, she was exploring different ways to attack, but she didn't dish out much damage. She could hear Cyborg calling taunts from the kitchen.
On the final round, Jan mashed the defense button. Robin kept coming at her, and she would dodge when she found an opening to do so. It became a sort of game for Robin to try and predict where she would dodge to, but she had him right where she wanted him when he thought he knew how she moved.
Robin mashed the buttons he thought would end the game as Jan's health slipped down to the lower tier. Here was her opening, and she took it with a quick pressing of three buttons at once. The result was a combo that she hadn't known was there- she was aiming for some other move she had seen previously- but it knocked Robin's robot back, and his health down to half. Robin was stunned, but Jan kept moving forward. She couldn't afford any more hits to her health, so she focused on dodging and retaliation. In a shocking set of accidents, she knocked Robin down to her little sliver of health. The two robots wrestled with each other on screen, and the more experienced player managed to throw Jan's robot onto its back, ending the game.
Robin gave a huge sigh of relief and grinned at Jan.
"You almost had me there," he admitted.
"Oh." Jan said, staring at her controller. "So that's what those buttons do."
There was what Jan assumed was a stunned silence. And then Cyborg, behind her with a plate of hot food, busted up laughing. Beastboy joined in not too long after while Starfire looked on in confusion. Raven seemed uninterested. She was still in the back, but with a book floating in front of her now.
"You almost got beat by a newbie!" Cyborg burst out.
Robin didn't seem very happy about it, but at least he had won the game. It would have been infinitely more embarrassing if he had actually lost. Starfire congratulated Jan on a job well done, although Jan had by now captured the plate of food and was munching hungrily on a stack of ribs.
Robin smiling and being friendly was strange to Jan. She expected a more determined, less friendly version of him, but he seemed nice enough. The girl enjoyed his company much better this way, anyways, since he actually made for good conversation. Everybody else was fine as well, and Jan learned to deal with how over-eager they could be sometimes. If there was anything she appreciated the most in the Titans Tower, it was Raven's silence. She was good at watching and listening, which was something that seemed very rare in the Titans once they were home.
There were many more games to be played and things to watch on TV that Jan was swept away with this new way of living. She couldn't help but believe that she hadn't had these things before. In fact, she almost got a guilty feeling whenever she would first start to experience something. She even started thanking them excessively.
It was a good day. There wasn't much talk of Slade or Jan's memory loss. Still, it was strange to just enjoy things as they were. It was almost too stagnant, but she still somehow managed to enjoy it. To Jan, it was obvious that she was easily bored and tended to seek out things that would end that boredom. Even with the endless games and new things to play with, however, she expected herself to get as bored as she always did. Perhaps the difference was the people she was around.
However, when night came, she found it was a very different story. Jan was fairly tired- enough to sleep. But as she lay in the bed, she found her eyes would not close for very long. An hour passed, and then two. Finally, she could not stand it. The girl threw the covers from herself and tried pacing across the room. If anything, that just made her more energetic, so she walked down to the room where she had spent the day.
Not that she knew what to do there, but Jan wandered around there for a while, curious as to what she could find to do. Finally, out of desperation, she began cleaning. It was little things at first- the couch, the floors, putting the gaming gear away, and such. Then she started digging for things, and she found several books that seemed to have been hidden away, a pair of toenail clippers, a ball of yarn, and several odd things that were placed around the room in what Jan thought would be their appropriate places, depending on who used the items.
She didn't clean everything, of course. But she did have a nasty fight with the fridge, which she thoroughly worried had some sort of part-werewolf food that came alive at night. She could have sworn those things were not in there earlier that day.
Eventually, the door to the living area opened up, and Raven floated through.
"Can't sleep?" She asked quietly as Jan tied the garbage can securely closed.
"Sorry. Did I wake you?" Jan replied, just as quiet.
"Not really. I didn't know you were here until I heard you while I was in the hallways."
"So I shouldn't be too loud for everyone else?"
"No."
There was silence as Raven watched Jan bravely tangle with the leftover spoiled food in the fridge and freezer. Most things she could tell at a glance were dangerous. At least with Raven here, she could ask to make sure about some things that seemed on the edge. There were quite a few things that had been in there for far too long.
"Looks like we'll need to restock soon."
"Yeah."
"Thanks," Raven said after a moment.
"'Welcome." Jan replied after an equally long pause. "There are some books I found around the room. They're over there."
Raven turned and floated over to the pile of books that were stacked where she had been sitting earlier that day. She picked up a few, and Jan heard a few remarks that told her she had been right to find them. Raven had been searching for many of them for months, now, and she was glad to have most of them back. Or, at least, Jan assumed she was glad. Raven showed her happiness in different ways than the rest of the hyper Titans, but just a small smile told Jan that Raven was thrilled, and it made Jan's night.
So, once Jan was done with the kitchen and hauled out the dangerous garbage, she figured she was done for the night. Tiredness was finally starting to take hold of her. Raven was eager to return her books to their rightful places in her room, so the two proceeded to the bedrooms and said goodnight.
"I can finally go back to sleep." Raven sighed, her books floating beside her.
"Were you keeping an eye on me?" Jan asked. Raven gave an odd look. "Don't worry. I don't blame you. A stranger walking around your home in the dead of night? I'd be cautious, too."
Although Jan pulled it off as something that didn't bother her, it did. As soon as the bedroom door closed behind her, she sighed deeply. It didn't feel good to be mistrusted. In fact, it almost convinced Jan that she was going to have someone looking over her shoulder for the rest of her stay here. Despite the struggle she would have to go through, it made her want to get out soon. But she doubted it would happen. Not now, anyway.
Jan was out almost as soon as she hit the sheets. It was nice to be tired, and she felt accomplished after cleaning up what she could in the living space. Then her mind descended into sleep, and she experienced dreams, which she found odd for some reason.
The alarm woke Jan from sleep. According to the daylight trying to get in past the drapes, it was already well past noon. The red flashing and loud wailing of the alarm, however, distracted Jan from the fact that she should be up and, in fact, made her wish she could nod off again.
The door opened. Raven was standing there, the jewel on her clothing glowing in time with the siren.
"Get up. We've got to go. Oh, and this is for you."
A bag was tossed over. Jan caught it uncertainly, and reached inside to immediately pull out a pink shirt. She looked at Raven in what she imagined to be an expression somewhere between 'are you trying to kill me' and 'you've gotta be joking.' Raven shrugged.
"Starfire thought it'd look cute. There are some other ones on the bottom."
Thank God, too. Raven left Jan to get dressed. She found a group of black clothes at the bottom, nothing too fancy- a sleeveless shirt, pants, a coat she wouldn't be wearing today, and boots. Nice. Simple. Comfortable.
Once she got out of her room, Jan hurried down the hallways with Raven to meet up with the rest of the crew. As soon as Robin saw the two of them jogging up, he announced they were leaving.
Jan found it was strange that she was going with them. After all, she was just a guest. A part of her just wanted to go back to sleep. Then again, these people had offered her food and a temporary place to sleep, so she didn't feel she had the right to complain.
"You hoping I'll be of some help?" She asked those who were in the car. Raven was flying outside the car so that Jan could ride inside.
"I heard you were pretty good at fighting the other day. Startled Cinder Block, at least." Robin replied.
"Yeah, well, that was different."
"How? Cinder Block was bigger. This is just a thief. You should be able to deal with him, right? You got all those cool moves."
"How would you know? You weren't even there."
"I heard from Cyborg! You just shot off and knocked 'em down! You'll do fine."
'It's still different...' Jan thought persistently. She was different when she had fought with Cinder block, and in all honesty she didn't fully remember that fight.
As they got closer to the origin of the thievery, everyone started looking out the windows. Then they saw a shadow leap over the streets. Robin made an exclamation, and Raven flew after the shadow immediately. Everyone got out of the car except for Cyborg, who followed the thief via the streets. Jan kept up with everyone else, finding that maneuvering the streets was just as natural as it had been before. She and Robin found an easy way onto the roofs while keeping up with the thief's pace.
Starfire managed to stop the thief on a roof, and everyone else caught up to them there. It was quite an interesting scene to watch. The thief was someone called 'Red X', and his suit was a black body suit with a belt and a cape. His face mask looked like a skull without the bottom jaw. Jan really liked it, but his presence only served to annoy the Titans.
Jump and twist, dodge and disappear, the thief easily outmaneuvered the superhero team. It seemed every weapon he had was based on his name, and each X that he produced from his palms served a different function.
Starfire shot bolts at him, but he dodged and disappeared from view, only to appear at her right and throw an adhesive X at her. She screamed as she was thrown back and onto a water tower. Then Robin came to preoccupy X, and the two's similar form of fighting was almost like a dance- until Robin's feet got tied up. A pterodactyl came to swoop at X, but he stepped easily away, grabbed the dinosaur's wing, and threw it into the water tower. The water tower exploded and thoroughly soaked everyone on the roof.
Jan was not too happy about being soaked, but she shook her hair as if it would dry and set like Robin's hair tended to. As it was, it just settled back to how it was before. As Cyborg tried shooting at X with his sonic cannon, Jan decided to run at X and catch him from the side. He sensed her approaching, however, and jumped out of the way before she could tackle him.
Seeing the new girl, Red X engaged with Jan. The two traded blows, Jan not acting too aggressively but trying to catch him off-guard. Robin came in from nowhere and tried to tackle X from the side, but the masked thief disappeared before Robin reached him, and Boy Wonder almost rolled off the roof. Jan glanced around, trying to figure out where X had gone, but hands closed around her wrists and held them behind her back.
"The Titans have a new pet?" Asked the modified voice at her ear.
"Don't get too curious," she said, struggling to free her wrists.
"Well, at least this one's cute." She could hear the smile in his voice.
Jan threw her head back into the mask and then kicked at him. He avoided her easily, but her hands still weren't free. Looking back, Jan saw one of those Xs on her wrists. Angrily, she tried to get free of them while the Titans preoccupied X again.
Cyborg shot his cannon at X, but X, as always, was too fast. Robin was back up on the roof and ran after Red X, and the two sparred. It looked like sparring from where Jan was standing, anyways. Kick, weave, punch; these two were matched hit for hit. They fought so alike that Jan wondered if she could tell them apart if they had switched costumes.
Starfire came to Jan's aid and burned away the binding on her wrists. After thanking the kind girl, the two ran towards the fight. X was beating them with ease, and if they didn't tie him down somehow, he was going to get away.
"Where are your abilities? Can you not use them?" Starfire asked.
"What do you mean?" Jan quirked an eyebrow at her.
"Last time you found those metal pieces, and they exploded."
Jan made a face at Starfire. She had done what? She didn't remember that! Then again, there was that weird trick she did with the mirror that distorted everything. Perhaps she could find something like that around here.
Jan jumped in at an odd angle and pushed X towards Starfire. Starfire, in turn, used her starbolts. Those missed, and she chased him further with a burst from her eyes. X jumped out of the way, but went after Jan. The two traded blows again, this time with Jan more aggressively inclined. She managed to pin one of X's arms and headbutt him. Although he stumbled back, it wasn't for long, and he was able soon enough to turn and bind Beastboy yet again. Cyborg was quickly stuck to the ground with an adhesive X for just charging his cannon.
Jan could feel the end of the battle coming. There weren't enough people here to surround him and make sure he wasn't going to flee. Robin was more than frustrated at this, which Jan understood. It was his job to catch bad guys like this. But Jan also wondered at this encounter. X, during the latter half of this fight, seemed almost furtive, avoiding Jan's blows.
Starfire and Raven kept X busy while Jan and Robin took a couple of breaths. They looked at each other for a moment, and then sprang into action while X was thrown into the air. Predictably, he disappeared while he was flying. He appeared behind Jan, but she wasn't fast enough to ward off his kick, which sent her flying over the edge. For a moment, she saw Robin jump on the thief, trying to detain him. Then she curled up in a ball before she crashed through a large window.
The shattered glass didn't hurt her too much, but she knew the scratches would annoy her even after she got clean. After a pause to see whether or not she would fall further, Jan got up. She looked around her, noticing that the room seemed to be a building in the making. This room was still being built, and there were construction parts scattered around the floor.
She shook her hair, somewhat like a dog, to scatter the glass that had made its way on her head. It settled again, and she began brushing herself off. It was quiet outside, she noticed. A moment after she noticed this, however, she heard a frustrated shout from Robin. He must have lost X.
"Not to be nosy," X's voice said conversationally from behind her, "but what's a thief doing among heroes?"
Jan turned around, distrusting of X. He didn't move toward or away from her, however. This was just fine for Jan. She was curious as to what he just said.
"What do you mean?"
"You're Jan, the many-faced thief. I have a few bones to pick with you, but at the moment, the most important thing to me is the hope that you'll quit stealing my jobs."
"What the hell are you going on about?" She suddenly burst angrily. Why was someone else remembering her past better than her? "I don't remember being a thief."
"Oh, you can't disguise yourself from someone who's good at disguises."
"Coming from someone with bright red X on their chest, I think I'll take that opinion with a grain of salt."
There was a moment's pause as both of them heard Robin telling the freed Titans to search around the immediate area. Red X began backing up into the darker parts of the room.
"Your roots are showing." She could hear the smirk in his voice. "Listen, if you ever remember the thrill of thievery, maybe you could find me, and we could go out and steal something together."
Just as he vanished, Robin came in the window, Starfire flying in after him. Her light lit up the darkest corners. No one was there.
Jan's mind was functioning a little slowly. She was wondering over the possibility of her actually being a thief. If she was one, then friendship with the Titans would be difficult. A part of her liked that. Also, did Red X just ask her out?
"Was he here?" Robin asked, glancing at Jan with worry.
"Not anymore." Jan said after a moment.
"Is there something wrong?"
"Wrong? No, just… confusing. I'll talk about it later."
"Alright, well…" Robin sighed. "So he got away again."
"What is it he took?" Starfire asked curiously, allowing her light to dim.
"Another piece of technology. This one could be used to enhance his belt." Robin frowned.
"Oh." Starfire said a little quietly.
"Come on, let's go." Robin sighed, turning just before his and Starfire's communicators went off again. Robin flipped his open. "We got more trouble."
Shieb: Already chapter 8. Wow. Or, not already, depending on your point of view. Not too exciting, I don't think, but I'm trying to develop a few things here. X is going to make things a little more interesting, I promise.