Disclaimer: I own nothing but the storyline and any original characters. Everything else belongs to DC Comics.
Chapter Fourteen:
Raven sits in her room, reading a spell book. Her mind wanders to the events of the last few weeks. The crime rate has been unusually low in the two months since she discovered Robin's secret. Even when they did fight, it was the minor villains- Mumbo Jumbo, Mad Mod, etc. Despite the lack of crime, the Titans hadn't grown any closer. Robin was mistrusted. Raven was avoided. The emotional turmoil she was going through between the situation with Robin and her current circumstances with Malchior had left her unable to meditate.
"You're a hypocrite, my Love." Raven looks up from a large, ancient tome. Malchior sits on the edge of her bed. She scowls. "Why are you in my room?"
"You're mine. I have access to everything of yours. You're being a hypocrite, Love. You won't allow Robin his secrets, yet you continuously hide your own?" Raven shakes her head, drawing her knees up to her chest. She rests her chin on her knees, her eyes never straying from Malchior's. "There's a difference. My secrets could destroy the world should anyone find out. Robin's secret would've destroyed the team, thus endangering the city, had I not ousted them."
"I still think you're being hypocritical."
"And I don't like you considering me yours. I never agreed to that."
He raises an eyebrow at him. Raven frowns. "Why are you suddenly cocky?"
"I've always been cocky." He grabs her suddenly, pulling her onto his lap. He traps her in his arms and she struggles to get out of them. "Malchior," she hisses, "let me go."
"Sorry, little bird, but I'm quite comfortable." He leans back against her headboard. One arm holds Raven on his lap. The other hand picks up the book she was reading. He begins to read aloud and slowly, the sorceress surrenders to the comfort she finds in her mage's arms.
Until the alarm goes off.
The Titans gather in the common area. Where there is usually a window, is the face of Slade. Behind him is an industrial area. Raven's body quickly fills with fear. She motions for Jinx and Malchior to keep out of the shot. At this point, the other two mages are secret weapons that no villain has discovered. The Titans need to keep the situation that way.
"Good morning, Teen Titans. I do hope I didn't wake you."
The changeling yawns. "What are you, an insomniac? Who calls at five in the morning?" Raven elbows him in the stomach, effectively cutting off his blubbering. Robin ignores his team members. "What do you want?" He demands.
"Well, that's precisely what you've been trying to find out, isn't it? And in spite of all your efforts, you're still in the dark about my intentions. Disappointing, Robin. I expected a little more from you."
Robin scoffs, leading Raven to take a step forward. Intervention may be necessary, and at the moment, she's the only one that trusts the team's leader. "Like I care what you think!"
Slade ignores Robin's denial. "But since you've been unable to discover my plan, I suppose I'll just have to reveal it myself."
The screen shows two cyber bots. They stand on either side of a tarp-covered object. Raven swallows back her fear and doubts. She knows whatever Slade is about to reveal to them could quite possibly destroy them. Slade isn't stable. He's willing to do anything to destroy them. He wants the world, and he'll do anything to take it. That's what scares her.
"I'm sure you're all familiar with the concept of a chronotron detonator."
The object revealed is a large piece of machinery. The egg-shaped object has red lights set into the front of its surface. Telescopes resting on the upper portion of the detonator point toward the roof of the warehouse.
"No!" Cyborg exclaims. Starfire gasps and Raven feels her stomach fall to the ground. "Uh-oh."
"No way!" Beast Boy shouts, trying to sound like he knows what's going on. Giving up on that ideology, he turns to Starfire. "Um, what's a crouton detonator?"
"It eradicates all chronotrons within a localized area, utterly destroying the temporal component of the space-time continuum."
"Hmm?" He turns to Raven, hoping she'll explain the gibberish that just fell from the alien's mouth. "It stops time. Permanently."
Beast Boy cries out, and then falls to the ground. On closer examination, Raven realizes the green shape shifter fainted. "If he triggers that thing downtown, it'll freeze-frame the entire city," Cyborg says. Raven nods, knowing he's right. She glances over to where Malchior and Jinx are standing. Concern is evident on all three of their faces.
"Tell me where!" Robin shouts.
"You're a clever boy, Robin. I'm sure you and your little friends can figure it out." He holds up a remote. "However, since I control the detonation, time is not on your side."
Raven frowns. "Time has never been on my side." The comment is made under her breath. Malchior hears it, and so does Robin. Seeing the look of confusion on her leader's face, she realizes she's just made a massive error. Robin can't know anything about the Prophecy or her birthday.
"Fan out! Find it! Shut it down!" Robin lets off a string of orders as soon as Slade's face disappears. He storms off, heading for the door. Beast Boy and Cyborg quickly intercept his path.
"Hey, uh, maybe you should stay here and coordinate the search." Beast Boy's trepid suggestion is met with a look of anger from Robin. "What?"
"Man, when it comes to Slade, you've got issues. It might be better for the team if you sit this one out."
"No. There's too much at stake for me to-"
"Robin…" Starfire moves toward him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We have not forgotten the last time you faced-"
"I made a mistake, Starfire." He glares at Raven who is standing in front of the computer. "It won't happen again. I can handle it. I promise."
"Would you at least like to know where to look?"
Everyone in the room stares at the sorceress. She's still standing at the computer, examining video. A freeze frame is shown on the screen. The frame is from the part where the robots revealed the detonator. "Slade gave us more information than he realized."
She types a few words and the image zooms in. A small blurry image is shown. "Here, in this reflection."
"Ooh, squiggly lines. Way informative." Malchior scowls at the changeling's blatant disrespect for Raven. "Watch your tone, boy."
Beast Boy squeaks, turning into a rat and hiding behind Cyborg. The half-robot takes a step to the left, not offering Beast Boy any refuge. The boy shifts back to his human form. "Gee, thanks man." Cyborg shrugs. "You disrespected my little sister."
Raven points back to the screen, redirecting their attention. While she's focused on the task at hand, she's hiding the pleasure she gets from Cyborg defending her. She types a few more things into the keyboard and the blurry image becomes clear words.
"PIER 41" is shown backwards on the screen. A single keystroke turns it around to be read the usual way. Starfire smiles. "Pier Forty-One!"
Robin steps closer to the image, and therefore Raven. He'd been keeping his distance from her, but her discovery had him remembering his friendship to her. He knew she'd been trying to keep the team together. That didn't mean he didn't resent her.
"the docks," he said, comprehension dawning.
Raven glares at Beast Boy. The lad chuckles nervously and grins in response. "Sorry?" He offers a weak apology. Malchior moves toward Raven. He places his hands on her waist, forcing her to look up at him. "Be careful. I don't trust this man, not that any of you do. He is unstable, Love. He'll do anything to hurt any of you. Don't let him take advantage of your loyalties to each other."
Raven swallows. "If he attacks any of them, Mal, I'm not going to stand by and let them be hurt. We're a team. I protect them. They protect me."
He scowls in response. The team looks away. Jinx steps forward. "Raven, Slade is going to target you. He's going to recognize that you're close to Robin, and it wouldn't surprise me if he's working with You-Know-Who. I worked for him when I was with the HIVE. He is ruthless. Be careful."
"Of course."
Cyborg's sonic canon fires. The doors to Pier 41 are blasted open and the Titans run in. They're expecting a fight, a big one. They expect Slade to have his machine guarded by a thousand cyber bots, But there's nothing. No machine, no army, no Slade.
"Empty?" Starfire questions, confused.
"Oh, man!" Cyborg exclaims.
"I don't believe this!" Robin kicks a small rock on the ground of the warehouse. Raven waves her hand, startling the team into silence. She listens. Suddenly, the army appears. The team is completely surrounded.
"Great," Beast Boy growls, "Now what do we do?"
Robin looks at him as though the answer is completely obvious. "We fight."
"Titans! Go!"
The Titans comply with the order. Robin moves quickly, seeming to be everywhere at once. He knocks out robot after robot. The rest of the team isn't too shabby either, but as soon as one of them starts to disable an enemy, Robin swoops in and destroys it. Cyborg's attempts at knocking out a few are ruined when Robin intercepts him.
"Hey, I was gonna do that!" Cyborg protests.
In other areas of the warehouse, Starfire is fighting. She falls backward, surrounded by the robots. She fires starbolts, but misses as Robin, again, destroys the robots. She stares, incredulously, after him. Boy Wonder does this again to Beast Boy, and to Raven.
When Robin goes beserk on the final robot, the other Titans stare at him. They're terrified. Robin continues to hit it, but the robot's head is almost entirely demolished. There isn't much left to destroy. Raven recognizes his inability to stop. He's taking his anger out on it. The situation is all to familiar. It's exactly what she did to Dr. Light.
"Uh, Robin? I think you got him."
"Yes, please. You may stop now." Starfire reaches out to him, placing her hands on his. He stops moving the staff. The team sighs in relief. "We are victorious."
Robin rounds on her. "Slade's got his finger on the button, and we've got nothing." He shortens his staff, shoving it back in his belt. "Does that sound like a victory to you?"
Robin stalks off, and the team stares after. The rest of the team circles. "Okay,"Cyborg takes control. "We know the chronotron detonator was here. Now we just have to figure out where it went."
"No problem," Beast Boy claims. "We should split up and-"
"-waste hours searching only to come up empty-handed?" Raven finishes.
"Well when you put it like that."
"Raven is right," Starfire says. "We must find some other way to track the device."
Robin comes back over to the team. He stops when he hears a noise in the alley, raises a quizzical eyebrow at the sound. "Freeze!" He shouts.
He disables the man, holding up Slade's insignia. "Tell me everything you know about this!" The terrified man stutters and mumbles inarticulate sentences. "Answer me! Now!" He shoves the man into the wall. "I've never seen it before!" The man denies, "I don't know anything! Honest!"
As the man denies everything, Raven casts her powers over Robin. She flings him into the wall of the warehouse on the other side of the alley, holding him against it with her magic. The other Titans approach and the man runs off. "You said you could handle it," Raven growls. She allows him release from her spell.
"You promised," Starfire sounds hurt.
"We're wasting time."
Beast Boy calls after the striding superhero. "You know, just 'cause we're trying to catch Slade doesn't mean you have to act like him!"
Robin stops walking. "Don't you ever compare me to him!" He stalks back toward the youngest meber of the team. "He's trying to destroy the city. I'm trying to save it!"
Starfire sneezes, sending a starbolt down the alley.
"Gazunheit," Raven murmurs, contemplating the alien's sudden allergies. "Forgive me," she says flushed and sniffling. "I am allergic to metallic chromium. There must be a source near-"
In preparation for the sneeze, the other members of the team disappear. She sneezes again, and again the starbolt flies from her nasal passages. She sniffles and groans.
"Sorry."
Beast Boy appears from behind a trash can. Robin jumps down from the roof of a warehouse. Raven returns to the alley through a wall. Cyborg just walks over to the group, looking at his robotic arm. "Interesting," he muses.
"Not really," Starfire denies through sniffles and groans. "On my world, chromium allergies are quite common."
"No," Cyborg says. "The key component of a chronotron detonator is a metallic chromium core, which means-"
"-Starfire can track it!"