Part 43: Searching

The Titans didn't split up to look for the monster (Thank God!). They were walking silently through the dark corridors of the Tower. Actually, they couldn't walk silently since Robin's steel-toed boots and Cyborg's feet were making too much noise.

"Robin, here's a suggestion: Take off the boots," Draco whispered.

"Why don't you take off yours?" Robin shot back.

"Coz mine don't have steel toes!"

"Why are we whispering?" asked Starfire, she was floating.

"Stealth is needed to track down the monster," Shadowcobra explained.

Raven, who was walking next to Shadowcobra started to ask, "Shadow, why did you want to stay close to me?"

Shadowcobra's eyes turned to her direction, "Because I want to protect you."

"I can take care of myself, you know."

"I do. However, let's just say that I inherited this habit from my father."

"What habit?"

"The habit of protecting the one you love," Shadowcobra confessed. Raven blushed at his statement. He explained, "My father was very protective of my mother you see, when they were younger. My father would always panic or go frantic whenever my mother was in danger. Calm as he was, my mother was, and is, the only person that could make him panic, severely." Shadowcobra smiled.

"So you are doing this because you love me?" Raven asked skeptically.

"By my honor as a Zodiac Knight, I will protect the one I care and love dearly," he answered, "Does that answer your question?"

Suddenly all the Titans stopped in front of Draco's room.

"What is it Cy?" Pluto asked.

"Shhh…" Cyborg hushed him. "I think I hear something."

Opening the door they all entered. The room was really dark, so Starfire lit up a Starbolt to illuminate the room. She turned around and screamed. Every one turned in surprise as Starfire pointed to what had scared her.

"Star…" Draco assured the Tamaranian girl, "It's only a statue," Draco explained. Starfire sighed, it was only Draco's dragon statue. Every one turned back around to investigate, leaving Terra and Beast Boy with their backs turned towards the statue. The statue's eyes started to glow as it growled.

"BB? Are you hungry? I can hear your stomach growling," Terra said.

Beast Boy shook his head, "That wasn't me, Terra." Suddenly their hair stood on ends as they felt a warm breeze on their backs. They turned around to see the statue, moving, and baring its fangs.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" they both screamed, hugging each other. The rest of the team turned around to see Terra and Beast Boy on the floor, with the big dragon statue hovering over them.

"Titans, GO!" Robin ordered. Draco was about to stop them.

"Wait! That's my…"

Cyborg blasted the statue with his sonic cannon while Starfire and Raven attacked it with Starbolts and dark energy streams. Terra used her powers to finally destroy it. Sending fragments everywhere as it crumbled to dust.

"Favorite statue," Draco finished as he cried and fell on his knees. Starfire floated down to console the dragon knight. Jinx also kneeled down next to him.

"We are sorry friend Draco that we had to destroy your beloved sculpture, but if we didn't, Terra and Beast Boy would've been in danger," Starfire smiled sadly at him.

"Besides, you can always get another one. You can't replace friends though," Jinx finished.

Draco's lenses slid back into his helmet as he wiped his tears away. "Thanks Starfire, Jinx." He got back up to his feet.

"We should get going," suggested Pluto. As they got out of the room, tentacles grabbed Beast Boy and were dragging him into the darkness.

"What did I tell ya? Funny guy always goes first!" Beast Boy screamed.

"Beast Boy!" Terra yelled as she grabbed Beast Boy by his ankles. However, she wasn't strong enough and was being dragged too. She was grabbed by the boots by Starfire, then Jinx grabbed Starfire's legs, then Robin grabbed Jinx's ankles, then Pluto grabbed Robin, then Draco grabbed Pluto, then Raven grabbed Draco's legs, then Shadowcobra grabbed Raven's legs and finally, Cyborg grabbed Shadowcobra's legs.

"Don't let go guys!" Cyborg yelled as he began pulling. The others tightened their grip on each other's legs as Cyborg pulled. Cyborg pulled as hard as he could, perhaps too hard. Terra's feet popped out of her boots as Beast Boy was being pulled into the darkness. Cyborg fell on his butt and watched with his friends as Beast Boy and Terra disappeared into the shadows.

"They are gone," Starfire gasped.

"No! They can't be!" Cyborg screamed. He turned to the two magic users, "Can you sense them?"

"I can't," Shadowcobra said, "I can't sense them anywhere. It's like they've disappeared off the face of the Earth, or that they're…"

"Don't even finish that sentence Shadowcobra! That's an order!" Robin said firmly, "We have to keep looking! They just got to be here somewhere!" Robin frowned as he led the group to go looking for their missing comrades. Raven stayed with Shadowcobra and spoke to him.

"You were going to say that they were dead, didn't you?" she asked. Shadowcobra nodded. "How could you even think that?" She asked him again, angrily. Shadowcobra lowered his head.

"The first thing you learn when you are a Zodiac Knight is that the monsters from the Mirror Dimension don't take prisoners," he explained, grimly, "Their victims are as good as dead."

"This is not a Mirror Dimension monster."

"It just might as well be!" he cried. "I lost a good friend! I'm not going to lose any more! I'm not going to lose you!" he embraced her and cried into her shoulder.

Raven patted his back. "Nothing is going to happen to me, Shadow," she assured him. "Now, c'mon, we have to catch up to the others." Shadowcobra wiped his tears.

"Sure." He floated in the air with her. "Much faster if we flew, right Raven?" he smiled. Raven smiled back as they flew through the corridor to catch up to their friends.

Raven's POV:

When Shadow embraced me and cried, I learnt a little bit more about him. When he told me he lost a friend, I understood why he had chosen to become a Zodiac Knight. I also understood why he was very protective of me.

The 'friend' that he had mentioned might have been much more than just a friend to him.

Maybe it was someone far more precious.

To be continued…