Chapter 3: The Beast Within
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"Something's happened to him and I know what it is."
Raven and Cyborg shared a skeptical look as Beast Boy, wearing a cap and long coat not unlike Sherlock Holmes, paced back and forth in the operations room of Titans Tower. After a few seconds, Beast Boy's pipe exhaled several smoke circles and he turned to face the Titans. He pulled a "Weird Shock" comic book and held it up for everyone to see, ignoring Cyborg's overdramatic sigh and preparation for another of Beast Boy's crackpot theories.
"The way I see it…there are only two logical explanations." He paused and flipped to a page where a robot had a field day detonating a school. "Robin's been replaced by an evil robot double…" Beast Boy flipped to the next page where a zombie feasted on an unwilling human's intestines, "…or he's another innocent victim of zombie mind control."
As Beast Boy sat down in the plush chair and took another puff from his pipe, Raven and Cyborg wasted no time in emitting those theories from their brains and trying to figure out just how far off the deep end Beast Boy had gone. No one else had come up with a reason for Robin's sudden betrayal, but a comic book was not going to get the team any closer to answering the all important question.
At last, Raven spoke. "As…illogical as that sounds, if anything was controlling his mind, I would have sensed it."
Cyborg nodded and checked his forearm panel on his left arm. "And my scanners confirmed his biometrics. That was the real Robin-our Robin." Or rather, Slade's Robin, he thought as he and Raven held their heads down long enough for Starfire to somehow life their spirits.
"Lies!" All turned to the sound of Starfire's shrill cry. "That was not Robin, your scanners are wrong! Robin is out friend and nothing would ever make him betray us…nothing."
She bit her lip and fought back the urge to scream. She replayed his words again; don't ever compare him to Slade. The repressed confusion mixed with sudden sadness as Starfire stifled back a sob. Robin is still their friend, he may not have trusted his teammates, but he always came through. Nothing should have broken him away from them.
"But something did."
Raven nailed another nail in Robin's coffin as Beast Boy arose with another idea. "Three words: disgruntled radioactive clone."
Having had enough of Unsolved Mysteries, Cyborg yanked Beast Boy by his hair and pulled his fist back to punch him, but Raven was faster as rage, for a moment, took over her common sense. Bad humor at an inappropriate time was one of Beast Boy's faults, and Raven had given him a kick or two to the face to let him know that. But the sudden rage in her face coupled with the spin kick that sent Beast Boy flying into a kitchen shelf let him know that he should shut up if he valued his life.
"No matter what the reason, no matter how much we wish it wasn't true, Robin's a criminal now. And just like every other criminal-"
"-the Teen Titans have to bring him down."
Cyborg and Raven's words sliced Starfire's vocal chords down the middle as speech, let alone a choked sob, escaped her. Fighting Robin? Treating him like every other criminal? No chance for redemption? No! She could not, would not accept that.
"Nothing would make him turn against us." Starfire's sobs ascended and fresh tears began to flow until Raven walked over and slapped Starfire in the face. The stinging pain in her cheeks stopped the crying and she held her breath for fear of being slapped again.
"Look and listen to us, Starfire. The Robin you knew is gone and isn't coming back. Can you comprehend that without breaking into a fit?"
In her mind, Starfire replayed the conversation she had with Robin on the roof of the tower after Blackfire had been jailed, how she did not yell at Robin after everyone discovered he was Red X. In her heart of hearts, even though Starfire did not know the game, she believed that Robin was a hero. Her heartbeat shifting into second gear, Starfire ran past the Titans without a word and fought back any oncoming urge to cry or scream. What everyone got was the loud slam of the door as Starfire broke herself from the rest of the world to mellow in her own sorrow.
Beast Boy, remembering his experience with Raven and her emotions, decided to stay out of whatever Starfire was brooding over. He dragged past Raven and collapsed in a heap of pillows on the couch while Raven vanished to her room. Cyborg shook his head and muttered "That bastard" under his breath as he walked up and down the common room.
Cyborg couldn't believe the lie, deceit, and disregard for the word "team." It wasn't Slade who they had seen atop that roof that fateful night, but the silhouette of the body through the smoke formed a similar body that they had known all too well.
"Damn it, how's he gonna just switch all of that hero stuff he said? All this truth and justice crap just gone like that! What the hell is wrong with him?" He kicked the couch twice, causing Beast Boy to clutch his head as pain rippled in his brain. The ticking clock, the sole noise in the tower, was interrupted by Beast Boy.
"Dude, don't think we're not all steamed up like you are. I don't get why he did it, either, but we're gonna have to find out if we see him again." Perish the thought that the Titans would have to fight or even kill Robin. While he had demonstrated his leadership ability, there weren't many occasions when they fought one on one unless it was a practice round.
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Upstairs, under a veil of darkness, Raven sat in deep meditation, her body hovering inches above her bed. She was trying to get a lock onto his mind, figure what had made him even think of betraying the team he led to victory in many battles. With her mind sealed from the world, Raven wasn't surprised when she opened her eyes and realized how little she knew about Robin. He was not a treacherous bastard. That much she knew. One word kept crossing Raven's mind when she thought of the train wreck this would soon cause.
"Damn."
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Out of all affected, Starfire was the worst patient. There was still much she didn't know about Earth, its strange customs, what, with the sudden obsession with appearance, but she knew what disappointment, confusion, surprise, all of those feelings running around in circles in her head. Her, Robin…the bond they shared went beyond any emotions Starfire had for her sister. The bond that always let her heart run free and fly high into the sky while Robin's remained locked in a chest.
The Robin you knew is gone.
Starfire bit her lip, ignoring the metallic taste of blood as she put her hand on the growing stain on her pillow. On the outside, the shell was still strong, but within, everything had shattered and flew in different directions. How long was all she could ask. Was it even a question of how long? Did he plan this from the beginning? Did all Earthlings act with such disregard for the emotions of others? Her lips warbled and wrestled for speech.
"It cannot be."
Sure it could. The memories of deception came to her once again. Her sister had visited a while back, her intentions sound at first, but behind that smile was evil, as seen when the two sisters fought. As of now, Blackfire was the enemy, but somewhere underneath that mask lay a sister willing to do anything for her younger sibling. But their leader was not female, he could not fly, and was not related to any of his comrades. How the two could be similar was what she wondered to herself.
At the same time, it wasn't surprising, judging by his behavior earlier that day. When fighting those Slade-bots, Robin took every opportunity to beat them to bits, even if it meant getting in the way of one of the Titans that would have done the task themselves. There were occasions where he had a violent temper, and the others accepted that, with reluctance. Despite Robin's shortcomings, he was still a worthy leader who always stood for justice.
"Was it all…a lie?"
No! Starfire shook her head at the thought of the last few months being nothing more than a fairy tale. There had to be something wrong with Robin…a fault in his programming.
Another beat as life dripped from Starfire's mouth and her best friend dripped away with it. What was she thinking? Earthlings were not robots and their emotions weren't controlled by someone else. Robin did everything of his own free will: letting Cyborg leave the team for awhile, becoming the bandit Red X without warning the team, leaving her…leaving her. She leaned forward, her neck almost cracking and falling in line with her heart, and brought her jittering fingers together and formed a circle.
Joy. Unspeakable joy. None of it was coming to Starfire. The fountain of youth had dried up and darkness banged at the door, waiting for its release. The beast within had been stirred awake, but was still in its cage. In the depths of the body lay a sleeping creature. The sleeper had woken up, yet restrained. Red began to seep out, mixing in with the green, the colors fought for dominance as a spark, then an emerald sphere materialized within Starfire's hands.
Anger. Rising anger. Starfire's hair danced on all ends and her teeth rattled against each other. A spark of electricity danced up Starfire's arm and rippled through her hair as it wailed like a perfect storm. Was Robin gone? Was he no longer a friend of Starfire? Did he ever care for her at all? Starfire's heartbeat went into third gear as the anger battled the joy for control. She wanted to yell, to cry out in anger, to embrace her comrade in a warm hug before ripping him to shreds. To save a friend or kill him?
As the walls around Starfire began to tremble, life leaked from Starfire's body as a green sphere began to surround her body and the starbolt could no longer stay contained within her hands. Her vision blurred on and off…her friend for life, her joy, her squeeze, all a lie! The first date he had taken her on, the passionate, in her eyes, conversations they shared, the missions that the Titans had completed together and sharing Earth food afterwards. It was not just a mission for Starfire, Robin and the Titans were a family, a home to her.
All of that meant nothing now?
"My…leader is my…enemy." Venom laced Starfire's tongue as her erratic heartbeat doubled the growing pain in her head. The energy leaking from the starbolt stretched to every corner of the room until everything was bathed in green. Anger was winning the fight and joy retreated back to its corner as, unknown to Starfire, the beast was free and nothing was stopping it from raging to the surface.
One last beat, then the starbolt detonated.
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A shockwave thundered through the tower as Beast Boy stumbled awake and Cyborg emerged from the kitchen. "Dude, what the heck's going on?!"
Not answering, Cyborg converted his right arm to its blaster form and ran up the stairs. Beast Boy followed him. The two ran past an open door and stopped next to Raven, who stood where the entrance to Starfire's room would be if it existed anymore. Cement littered the carpet and Raven tried to maintain her indifferent expression, but when a spark shot up two meters away from her foot, her right eye twitched.
The power was incredible. Starfire was not aware of everything that had happened except that something new was flowing through her veins besides blood and she enjoyed it. The brilliant glow radiating from her eyes was enough to blind Beast Boy, who held his hand in front of his face as the aura surrounding Starfire shrunk until it just traced her body. With her teeth a bit sharper than before and jolts of electricity crackling around her, Starfire could not describe her transformation. Raven, however-
"Anger." Cyborg and Beast Boy looked in her direction. "You know how Starfire's powers are triggered by her emotions? Well, when she's happy, they work fine, but I…I can't explain what happens when she's angry. But I think we all know what's on her mind right now."
Starfire lifted her head and ignored not only the hair flowing in her face, but the strange demonic change in voice.
"Revenge."
A moment later, the crime alarm went off.