Long Road to Ruin

Instigator

Red X is a jerk … an all around asshole, but no matter how many names he's called it won't change the fact that he knew what he was doing. I guess that's what made him hateable, he was a smart-asshole, and no one I know liked a smart-asshole. Especially Robin, upon the discovery of Blackfire's set destination, Steel City (act surprised), which was two days ago Cyborg had also informed us that her beckon suddenly blinked off his radar. Needless to say for the remainder of that hour the team debated on the appropriate action to take, Beast Boy said he was Titans East's problem now and we didn't have to do anything anymore. Maybe warn Titans East, but that's about it.

For the most part Robin agreed, however, claimed that Red X and Blackfire were our problem and that at least one of our members should oversea the investigation. As predicted he volunteered himself and everyone on the team semi agreed to the arrangement. Starfire was the only one who had a problem with him going alone, she didn't care if he went so long as he had backup. This is where Robin the Stubborn came into play, he insisted on going alone claiming that two was one too many, it would become conspicuous.

Which basically set himself up for my attack, I told him it was already conspicuous enough that the leader of Titans West was gone, so in that case we might as well all go. Of course I added a dash of sarcasm to make it believable and Robin hated it when Starfire – still unable to pick up on what sarcasm was – backed me. Thus, he lost, and I ended up being the one to go on his crusade as Little John with Robin Hood on a whirlwind adventure of a lifetime.

Go me.

I wasn't exactly thrilled to be the one picked to go on this assignment, I was actually suspicious that Robin hadn't picked Starfire to be his partner … wouldn't it make sense since they were already going out? Apparently, I wasn't the only one to notice the odd decision, Terra and Starfire herself noticed it. Although, Starfire was more of an emotional acknowledgement, she was jealous of the bond Robin and I share while Terra just added this to her list of oddities concerning the over obsessive bird and myself.

With all that said, now here I stand on the rooftop of Titan Tower at the crack of dawn preparing to leave for Steel City with Robin, however … we were suppose to be at the subbasement preparing to leave on Robin's backup civilian bike. Why I found him on the rooftop went beyond me, but we were going nowhere fast with him just staring off into the horizon waiting for the sun to rise with me leaning on the doorframe waiting for him to notice me. So I got the ball rolling, I pushed off the frame and silently walked up to his side, he spared me a glance of acknowledgement before he straightened up and sighed, "Time to go?"

I nodded dryly in confirmation, but for a full 30 seconds we didn't move, the dark night sky was slowly creeping away with every second the sun battled the moon for the skies. It was an epic battle, one that was displayed with a brilliant array of approaching colors that would soon claim the heavens and give the sky a warm orange glow with a light pink kiss. Beautiful in its own right, yet tragically short-lived, but I wax poetry, which I shouldn't I don't have a poetic bone in my body to be romantic. I can dream it, but I can't live it. It wouldn't be practical, and neither would it be sensible.

Yet … I stood here with Robin, silently taking in the moment as the world suddenly became still … the seagulls weren't squawking, the waves that crashed against the island seemed to calm for the moment as if waiting for the sun to rise. It was just so … still … that I could almost swear I heard the city stir as the dawn. I closed my eyes and sighed heavily, such a peaceful moment that anyone could get lost in, but we couldn't … so to break tranquility, I asked, "Why did you pick me to go with you?"

I was almost too quiet for Robin to hear, but he heard … the world around us had grown so still it was almost possible for me to whisper and even the wind wouldn't steal my words from his ears. I reopened my eyes to look at him and found his head was bowed with furrowed brows in thought as he glared at nothing but air. Almost as quietly as I had asked, he responded in equal tone, "I trust you …"

Of course you do … I whispered to myself in disappointment, but outwardly I tilted my head, "That's not the only reason … is it …"

At this he did turn to face me and with a mysterious glare he leveled with me, "I don't know why … but Red X wants us at Steel City …"

"…" I refrained from frowning in worry as the pit of my gut churned anxiously.

He shrugged and turned away from me to head back into the Tower. I arched a brow and eyed him suspiciously, but followed anyway to hear him say, "It's almost too perfectly laid out for us … but … I trust you …"

Why did he have to keep saying he trusted me?

Just to spite me or something?

Make me feel guilty?

Well, for whatever the reason, it was working.

Without further questions I followed him to the subbasement and beyond to Steel City.

With the speeds Robin traveled by it wasn't long till we reached Steel City, probably early in the evening did we finally enter the outskirts of the city and Robin had me hail the Tower to let them know we were near by. One of the reasons why it took us two days to get here was because we had to work out the agreements with Titans East. Though they didn't mind us visiting the Tower in the slightest, we just had to make an arrangement to trade off Titans, since two of us were going to Steel, two of them should be going to Jump. The two chosen were Jinx (yes, much to my shock she did join Titans East, although I think that had more to do with the geographical location what with Steel being nearby Central City and all) and Mas y Menos.

The reason this was done was so if the media were to actually notice a change in characters the simple explanation would be the Titans were undergoing a mandatory transfer in which teams would be switched up to ensure political ties. Plus, it helps to keep the number of teams even so if something bad were to go down in Jump while Robin and I were away at least we'll have the reassurance that our team was not a man short. Needless to say, the transfer worked like a charm, Jinx and Mas y Menos had arrived at Jump just about the same time as Robin and I arrived at Titans East Tower.

Bumble Bee, of course, was the first to greet us as Robin rolled into their garage, stopped, and kicked down the kick-stand, "Hello, what's this? The R-Cycle in the shop?"

She snickered and Robin cringed, of course the news of his utter defeat in Jump City had spread to Steel, which would be the reason why Bumble Bee was cracking the jokes to begin with, she knew the R-Cycle was totaled. Robin grumbled as she giggled, "I'm playin', sorry, bad joke you sounded like you really wanted to catch this guy over the transmission … Speedy shares your same sentiment, the thief does know how to get under a guy's skin."

Robin arched a curious brow, "You make it sound as if you've fought him before …"

Bumble Bee scoffed, "Fought him? I damn near killed his ass for being that, an ass! Boy has the balls to come rollin' up in our city – outta nowhere – and starts to call us out on being Titan-wannabes. God! If Aqualad hadn't hold me back I woulda – ooo, just talking about him get's me pissed!"

Robin and I exchanged looks of suspicion and Robin being the detective asked, "When was this?"

She shrugged as she tried to calm herself down, "Eh … I dunno, started about five, six months ago? I wish I could say it's ancient history, but it still strikes a nerve in me."

I disregarded her, "He strikes a nerve in everyone …"

Robin, however, didn't let it go, "You said started, you mean this has been on going?"

Bumble Bee scoffed, "Like a bad reoccurring unwanted rash, yeah."

I frowned, Five, six months ago … that's around the time I first met X … he really did curve his trend … through the corner of my eye I narrowed my gaze on Robin, There's no way he didn't notice that … if Red X was confronted by Titans East and it reached the papers Robin would have picked up on something … is it possible … he knew from the start? But then that wouldn't make senses … Robin was … Robin! If he knew I was being a bad-girl he'd call me on it … he wouldn't let that go … he couldn't! His code of conduct wouldn't allow him to … which means … he suspects something, but he didn't have enough to follow up on it.

He knows I'm doing something bad; he just doesn't know what it is and to what degree and for what drive. I suddenly felt very uncomfortable being in Steel City alone with Robin and other Titans that had no personal connection to me. It felt like I was being set for failure … in Jump City I had plenty of places to hide and I knew the city like the back of my hand, but in Steel … a place I wasn't familiar with. It seemed to me like I was being backed into a corner, here, if I made any mistakes there was no place to hide no place to run … I was screwed if Robin even so much as sniffed fowl-play on my breath.

Check.

He had me at check … soon enough it would be checkmate, and I can't let that happen, I can't lose this game.

"… Well what are we doin' standing around here for?" Bumble Bee suddenly exclaimed, her wings buzzing to life as it lifted her into the air and she gestured for us to follow her into the Tower, "Come on, and I'll get you guys set up, Aqualad and Speedy are running down the location your Blackfire dropped off the radar. They should be back with something anytime now."

Robin smirked, "Thanks, I didn't even have to tell you to check up on it, good work Bumble Bee."

She winked at him, "I run a tight ship here captain and I make sure all my ducks are in a row."

They shared a mutual laugh and I stayed delightfully-stoic as I stepped into the Tower's Control Room where all the magic happens. With dual pools on either side of the walkway, a loft over looking the entire Control Room, and a catwalk looping around the room, it felt more like a summer-home than an HQ. Yet, our sight-seeing was cut short when Bumble Bee immediately set out to show us to our rooms for the remainder of our stay. She showed us to the top floors where Robin would be housed a corner from me as Bumble Bee showed me to my quarters. Interestingly enough (or rather not) I happened to be just across the hall from Speedy's room, but his door was a little further down from mine.

I started at it contemplatively when a random thought suddenly popped into my head: I hardly know Speedy. We've met on occasion (fought each other once) but that's about it … we were never really formally introduced and neither did we ever have any conversation whatsoever. Not that I cared or anything, this was just a random observation that happened to pop into my head at the moment as Bumble Bee fiddled with the control panel to my door trying to get the computer to recognize it's newest tenet. After about a minute of typing away she huffed in exasperation and turned to me, "Sorry, this is gonna take a while, apparently Speedy's being an ass."

I arched a brow, "Meaning …?"

She snorted as she proceeded to override the computers mainframe database to manually reset the encryptions and thus finally grant me access, all while calmly replying, "He doesn't like to share his section of the Tower, and to make his point he overrides my settings and completely rewires the codes so only he has access to all the rooms surrounding his room. Problem is, when the lockdown is initiated this entire section of the Tower doesn't respond to protocol so it leaves us wide open for trouble. I've warned the carrot-top to knock it off, but he never listens to me, always thinking he's the shit …"

From there I tuned her out as she began to mumble to herself and complain about how moronic Speedy was and in truth I was on her side where the safety of the other Titans were concerned. Sure I loved my privacy, but I won't take it to such extremities, this was pretty much border-lining sabotage, and if anything did happen to the Tower (like that Brother Blood fiasco) Speedy could be held liable and ultimately kicked off the force. I had gotten the impression that Speedy was a hot-headed character, always looking for the next 'gig' that'll give him a bigger fan-base. So doing something as selfish as locking out his own leader from the Tower was not something ideal to the image of Speedy I had painted in my head.

Then again … I had no right to paint any pictures of Speedy when I didn't know him in the slightest.

So with that I sighed heavily and said, "Maybe there's another room you could give me, clearly Speedy doesn't want anyone invading his personal space, and I don't exactly enjoy instigating a fight."

Bumble Bee spared me a glance of acknowledgement, but only seemed to be far more determined to pick the number sequence than before, "No, Speedy has to learn that he can't have everything his way, but if he does give you any trouble, just make sure to send him straight to me. I'll deal with him, besides, Robin requested that I give you guys neighboring rooms and you know with how big the rooms are already this is the closets set I have to give. Got it!"

With a smug chuckle of success the door slid open and I was welcomed to my new room for the duration of my stay here in Steel City. Bumble Bee stepped aside and allowed me entrance with a big proud smile on her face as she waited patiently for my reaction. Politely, I commented, "It's big …"

That was an understatement, the room was huge … slightly bigger than my room that's for sure. Off to my right was a large king size bed, low to the ground the way I liked it, but it was in its own little corner tucked in front of the ceiling-to-floor window that overlooked the ocean horizon. There was a couch situated slightly off center, closer to the window with a coffee table, a rug and other necessities sprawled throughout the room to accommodate my stay. The room, I had to say, was too much for one person … it felt empty, and I felt like I didn't deserve it, but I didn't protest it.

I stepped further into the room and set down my backpack on the couch as Bumble Bee beamed deviously and confessed, "I made sure all the girls' rooms were bigger than the guys, cuz us girls you know, we need our space."

"That we do …" I responded distantly as I continued to survey the room and concluded there was no possible way X could penetrate through these walls. Titans East's Tower was a definite upgrade from Titans West. Reinforced steel walls with two feet thick concrete cement outer-linings, micro-vents that not even Mas y Menos could crawl through, tempered glass that was shatter, bullet, sound, and was that pressure proof? Did they expect this Tower to drop forty-thousand leagues into the sea or what? That, to me, was overkill.

I also noticed another thing that made me cringe, "No privet bathrooms huh?"

Bumble Bee shared my dismay with a shrug of defeat, "We have it in the works, but it's difficult to find a contractor honest enough to work on the Tower without snooping around, ya know."

Ain't that the truth … I silently agreed as I sighed heavily and asked solemnly, "Coed shower-rooms?"

Again she shrugged with a look of utter defeat, "You'll be sharing with Speedy and Robin, its back down the way we came you won't miss it I promise."

Oh this is just spectacular.

BEE-BEEP!!

I looked up when Bumble Bee's communicator went off and I listened closely when she answered, "Bumble Bee here, go a head."

Speedy was on the other line and he sounded irritated, "We got nothing, thanks for the wild-goose chase."

"You're welcome, now come back to the Tower for a briefing; Robin and Raven have finally arrived."

"Raven? Why her?"

"Does it matter?"

"Not any more … damn I was hoping Starfire would show, it'll be a change of pace from the usual witches I'm forced to deal with."

"Speedy!"

"Whatever, we're on our way." With that he hung up before Bumble Bee could scold him for the obviously rude comment he made about 'witches' when the correct terminology would be sorceresses.

She looked up at me and smiled apologetically; I shook my head and disregarded her when she did apologize on Speedy's behalf. There was no point in apologizing for a jerk, a jerk is a jerk no matter how hard one may wish it to not be true, or how hard one would try to change said jerk. It's just asking for trouble, and personally I don't think it's right to try and change a jerk … but then again the jerk I was referring too was just fine with me. As a matter of fact, I didn't want him to change … for X to change would be changing the one reason why I was attracted to him to begin with.

He may be overbearing, even downright unbearable, but I liked it.

Is it strange for me to be more attracted to someone's flaws rather than their perfections?

Is it really a flaw at all?

Or is it merely the human quality in him I'm drawn to?

He wasn't perfect … he wasn't nice … he was … human.

I could stand here and debate my attraction to X all day long (maybe even longer than that), but I had a job to do and that's to track down and capture him and Blackfire. Well, at least, pretend very, very hard to be into the chase and convince everyone around me I was just like everyone else that was a superhero. Actually, all I had to perform for was Robin, the other Titans didn't matter because they didn't know me thus they wouldn't feel inclined to investigate me like Terra had done.

I still can't believe I've been had (well … sort of) by that geomancer.

It completely blew my mind that she had made such a connection from Robin's odd behavior to ultimately witness me interacting with my secret 'civilian-boyfriend' however was too dense to further her investigation and figure who my 'civilian-boyfriend' really was. Either she was very trusting and took my word for it (which no one should) or she wasn't cut out to be a Titan if she didn't at least suspect me of fowl-play. After all, the guy she saw me with wasn't 'Dodger Drayton' it was with someone else … which lead me to ponder if Terra really didn't care, or was really very naïve.

My thoughts from then on randomly bounced back and forth from one topic to another for the next ten minutes while Bumble Bee, Robin and myself kick-back in the Control Room. I use the term kick-back, because Bumble Bee and Robin were really engaged in a conversation only understandable if one were a leader of something, while I sat at the table with my feet kicked up on one of the chairs and a book opened to help me relax while I waited. My eyes scanned the pages, read off the sentences, while my mind weaved the images of the story in my head as I finished off one chapter and proceeded to the next.

However, before I could finish one paragraph Aqualad and Speedy had finally arrived.

Although, judging by their posture I wasn't quite sure either were happy to see us, Bumble Bee inquired, "What took you guys so long?"

"Fish-boy over here had to lecture a bunch of innocent fish-marketers about the sever consequence of marine fishing, it took forever just to pry him off his frickin' soapbox." Speedy gruffly replied as he took his seat, which was the one I had my foot propped on, he jerked it so hard I almost didn't have enough time to sit up as I marked the spot in my book and closed it.

While across the table from me beside Bumble Bee, Aqualad scowled, "I was not lecturing or standing on any soapbox, I was merely enlightening the people on the importance of fish and the huge role they play in the ecosystem."

Speedy scowled back in response, "Which is what they are, food."

Aqualad pointed at him and staked his claim, "I take offence to that! You don't know what it's like to talk to sea-life –!"

"And I don't care to know either."

"Most of these fish I protect I've befriend! How would you like it if I ate your best friend?!"

Eww … I thought in disgust, while Speedy scoffed, "I'm sure Nemo appreciates your valiant efforts to protect all marine-life, but I'm sorry to say Nemo is just too delicious to pass up when starving. So sit down and stop whining."

"Are you completely lacking in all sensitivity?! Don't you care that all around the world sea-life is being threatened because of you humans over-fishing, and slaughtering helpless whales and dolphins for food, fake-medicinal cures, and phony lucky-charms?! Where's your heart for them?!"

Speedy sneered dismissively, "Jesus fucking Christ first there are the hippy-freaks that complain and complain about environmental issues and relentlessly hound the government to Go Green when they don't have a solution to the problem themselves. You think anyone is going to listen to you bitch about the end of all humanity because there's one too few fish out in the ocean? Please man, going Green is enough for me; don't force me to go Blue just for you!"

"HEY!!" Bumble Bee screamed to grab everyone's attention and to halt the argument before it escalated, which was too bad, I was actually enjoying that debate. Both sides brought up excellent points that I wanted to hear play out; unfortunately we still had other business to attend to. Bumble Bee glared at either offender and said, "Enough of the pro and con dispute for now, pick it up on your own time ladies, right now is my time so Robin, if you will."

With that she sat back down and Robin took the floor trying to hide the obvious amused smile on his face as he cleared his throat and Aqualad plopped back down in his chair with a defeated pout. Robin then went on to say, "Well … um … I guess I should start by thanking you guys for allowing us to come out here to conduct our investigation and I assure you there will be no need to alter your schedule. We'll be acting as additions to your team, participating in your training exercises, as well as assisting you anyway we can while we track down Red X and his accomplice. Your help will be greatly appreciated as well as needed and besides all that, it's good to see you guys again."

Speedy perked right up with a casual smirk, "Good to see you to man, but … who's Red X's accomplice? As far as I know him he doesn't seem the type to work with anyone else."

"Same here, but apparently we're wrong …" Robin sighed and bent down to pick up a small suitcase which he dropped on the table, unlocked, and opened. He then pulled out a few photos which he slid to all Titans East and Speedy, who was beside me happened to grab a photo of Blackfire riding on the back of Red X's bike.

The image may have been blurry, but it was enough to catch a shot of her face and Speedy arched a curious brow, "This chick looks like your girlfriend … what she do? Dye her hair? It's either that, or they're sisters …" He looked up at Robin and smirked, "They're sisters aren't they?"

Robin nodded and I couldn't help to inwardly snicker at that, he had a good eye if he was able to tell the relation based on looking at a blurry image. Speedy chuckled, "Well damn I knew hot girls were dangerous, she seems to take it to a whole 'nutha level."

Robin informed, "Her name is Blackfire and she's Starfire's older sister, exiled from her home planet for heinous crimes she's a criminal at best."

I scoffed, "You'll be paying attention to far more than just her looks if you ever get the chance to face her."

Speedy smirked and looked at me, his masked eyes narrowed as he gave me a look I've seen similar to something X would give me when he had a naughty idea in his head. A chill went down my spine at the intensity of his heated stare, but with a mask of indifference I sat there as he playfully jibed, "She sounds like my kinda girl."

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever."

"What? You don't like her?"

I sneered and with a straight face I said, "You kidding me, I absolutely adore her, she's my most bestest-friend in the whole world … but don't tell Robin he frowns on hero/villain relationships."

He snickered and held out his fist for me to pound in mock agreement, "You got my word."

I stared at the fist, and then turned to face Robin with a shrug, "Is the meeting over yet?"

With the same face I had stared at Speedy's fist dismissively Robin gave me the same look, only instead of being dismissive he too arched a curious brow and through our bond I felt him inquiring on my being friendly with Speedy. If he only knew the only reason why I was being 'friendly' was because I was feeling him out … I wanted to know what kind of person he was, and if he were to catch me doing anything suspicious what action would he take. My room was just across from his, if he so happened to catch me sneaking out of my room in the middle of the night would he call me on it or not care?

So far, I was getting the impression that he wouldn't care.

However, he wasn't called a Robin-clone for nothing, so I had to be carful.

Robin held my gaze for a while, but then blinked away to look at Bumble Bee and nodded, "We're done here."

Bumble Bee smiled clasped her hands and stood up, "Alright then! So whaddya say we get this show on the road, bust out the drinks and let's paaaarrrrt –!!"

"No thanks," Robin cut her off suddenly, "I got a lot of work to do. I'll be using you guys' computer to cross reference a few government claims of UFOs entering the atmosphere in the last few weeks. Raven –"

"I know the drill," I quickly responded as I followed his example and stood up from my chair with my book in hand, "I'll patrol the city and get to know my surroundings incase something should come up."

"Uh, no, actually I was gonna ask you to join me in identifying a few things incase I spot anything that might be linked back to Tameran."

I blinked and propped my fist on my hip as I asked, "You think this has something to do with my capture?"

"No, but I do think it has something to do with Blackfire."

"… So are you ordering me to stay, or asking me?"

"… Asking …"

Like it'll matter, you want me to slip up to give you a reason to interrogate me, I thought bitterly and refrained from glaring in frustration as I opened my mouth to consent to his 'asking' me to help him. That is until Speedy spoke up with a gruff scoff, "Jeez, don't you birds ever relax? You guys just got here and it's all about business, chill a little will ya come on."

Robin frowned at his interjection, mainly because he knew this gave me more time to think of a way out, "Blackfire's beckon went offline two days ago, every hour we waste is an hour that could be spent tracking her down, that's valuable time we can't afford to lose where Red X is concerned."

Speedy, with equally narrowed eyes squared off with Robin … something I don't see happening too often in Titans Tower Jump City. Usually it's me doing all the troublemaking, maybe Speedy is a little more hot-headed than I gave him credit for, "If you've never caught him before what makes you think you'll find him the instant you log onto that computer?"

"I don't expect to solve the case in an instant, Speedy, I just think that if we manage to get ahead someway, maybe then we won't be sideswiped if ever Blackfire and Red X strike somewhere unexpected."

That's when I cut in, "What makes you think they're planning a heist?"

"My gut, and you know Red X almost as well as I do Raven, he doesn't just lay low for a few months then suddenly pops back into the radar without reason … he always has a reason, always has a plan."

Speedy scoffed, "Still don't see why you have to subject your lacky here to your obsessive drive to win everything." He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me to him, I blinked bewildered as he all but leaned on me to say, "You really haven't changed a bit, have you."

It was more a statement than a question, and so was my next response, "If you value that arm, get it off me, now."

In an instant he backed off, and Robin huffed in exasperation, "Look, Speedy, this really doesn't concern you; the question was directed at Raven, so Raven are you going to help me or not?"

Again I opened my mouth to reply, but Speedy cut me off with a crude, "You put it that way you might was well be pointing a gun to her head, what kind of request is that?"

He had a point, but I shook my head as I felt Robin's frustration level rising and I didn't want to be the cause of some unnecessary fight, "Enough," I walked to Robin, away from Speedy and eyed the archer warningly, "As much as I'm sure he appreciates your kind offer to relax, he's right."

Speedy scoffed dismissively and shrugged nonchalantly, "He usually is … don't expect anything less from a Bat-trained birdbrain."

With narrowed eyes I flat out asked, "Do you have something against Robin that I should know about, because if so I don't want any part of it."

On the side Aqualad spoke up with a tired sigh, "He's an instigator; he likes to start trouble Poseidon knows why."

Speedy pouted, "I don't start trouble, I call it as I see it."

Aqualad sneered, "Right, so …"

So the argument proceeded as such as Robin softly called me to his side and I glanced at him in acknowledged before I turned back to narrow my eyes on Speedy while that word echoed in my head, Instigator … Speedy was an instigator. He did like to start trouble, but the thing was that he started trouble with the wrong people particularly those he considered his friends and his colleagues. Now why do that unless one was afraid of getting too close to the people he was already close to. That didn't sound like a very Speedy thing to do … as a matter of fact, it sounded a lot like something I've done, and I'm still doing to this very day.

Only, I push people away now because I'm afraid of what the repercussions would be if it was found out about my sins.

I could deal with the consequences: jail, revoked status, etc … but what I can't deal with is the shame and the hatred that might form within the people I once shared meals with.

The people I laughed with.

The people who cared about me.

No … I can't deal with that kind of guilt.

The point here that I am trying to make is: was Speedy, like me, hiding something as dire as my resentment towards my job and my obligation?

Or was that just my wishful thinking?

Did I want to see in him what I saw in myself to help lift this seclusion from my shoulders, the belonging-syndrome where one would connect with another under a false sense of security?

Was I that pathetic?

Maybe I was, but I didn't linger on it, I turned my back on the arguing duo and followed Robin to the computer with a clear head. It was dangerous to think of the possibilities of another Titan suffering the same delusional state of in denial as I was, much less start to see it in a Titan such as Speedy, that was instigating trouble.

--

Disclaimer: Don't own the teen titans, or titans east, dc owns'em

A/N: YAY!! They're in Steel City finally!! :) …. And …. I have nothing left to say, so drop me a review or a comment or a question and we'll wait to see what happens next.

L8er daez