My apologies for not being able to post this earlier, I needed a couple of days break from writing and will hhopefully carry on now. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.
It must of been quite a bit before seven in the morning when the remaining Titans; Robin, Beast Boy and Cyborg, began searching every inch of the city for the lost girls. Usually they would not even wake up before eight, let alone eat breakfast, get ready and be out the door over an hour before that, but it was a very urgent case. Not that they ate much breakfast anyway, their nerves did not allow them to eat as their stomachs felt tight and knotted. None of them could sleep, so they all came down at around the same time, even Beast Boy who almost always slept for the longest out of all of them. Today he was the second out of three though, only Robin beating him, although this was probably due to the fact that he did not go to his room at all. The two men had made up, since Beast Boy knew exactly how much Starfire meant to him, and he had had the whole night to think everything through and forgive him. Cyborg was the last to come down, and even though he was not interested in either of the girls romantically, he loved them both in a sibling way and also had a sleepless night. Deciding it was useless to be just sitting around and waiting until later on in the day when their teammates' lives could he in danger the three sleep deprived boys split and began looking through the entire city for hours, not missing anything and making sure to keep in contact with each other, calling each other on their T-Communicators every fifteen minutes.
"Beast Boy, are you still alright?" Robin's voice asked through the communicator on Beast Boy's wrist.
"At the moment yes," he replied back.
"Find anything new?"
"Not as of now, I'll give you a call if I do." Robin nodded to that then rung Cyborg up, and they had a similar conversation to this one. It was coming up to ten, meaning they had spent just over three hours searching already, and they hadn't found much. They had asked the police and some of the public if they had seen anything to do with the case, which they replied with that they hadn't but will inform them if they do find anything. Of course, this was not very useful to the team since they didn't get much further, but at least they had some more backup and extra pairs of eyes to help them, and this was important now that they were missing two of their strongest teammates.
Everything was going far too easy. Their plan was going exactly as to plan, almost too well, so they decided to have a little bit of fun with it. No one could really blame them, planet Earth was really boring compared to their old home. All the citizens seemed to do to amuse themselves was sit in front of a flashing box for hours and watch other ones of their kind make fools of themselves. It just didn't do it for them though. They needed something to keep them entertained while waiting for the right time to carry out the rest of their mission. So they added a little bit extra to their plan, something they could carry out now.
Another hour passed and their situation didn't seem to get any better. At least, it didn't get any worse either, though it depended on which way you looked at it. The boys were missing their girls more and more with each passing minute, getting more depressed at the thought they couldn't find them and were all slowly loosing hope even though they would not admit to it. So yes, it really depended on what perspective you viewed it from. Secretly, Cyborg wanted to do something else, maybe get the help of other Titans from around the world, or look outside of the city, since they had checked every single milimeter of it and did not find anything new and it seemed they were going in circles. They needed help or to make a change. But he didn't want to suggest it to their leader yet, he was stressed enough and would probably snap badly at him and not even consider what he was telling him. He wanted to tell Beast Boy though, since he would probably not flip out at him that much, and maybe even feel the same way as him. He did notice that his friend was almost as down as Robin was which concerned him; he was usually the cheerful type that would try and make everything seem better, but he did not try to joke around once since the incident. In fact he hardly saw his green friend at all since he spent most of his time in his room.
Also last night when he tried to apologise for Robin he had seemed quite upset with him when he mentioned that he didn't know what it felt like to loose a close loved one. He didn't mean it in a rude or personal way; just didn't think he loved someone currently. Then he mentioned Terra, but Cyborg definitely didn't believe that. It had been years since she lost her memory and broken his heart, and he seemed to have recovered from that some time ago. She wasn't even involved in this whole situation right now, so he was definitely attempting to cover something up desperately, but he didn't want to question and bother him at a time like this, once they found the girls then he could be the annoying, nosy older brother like he always was. He just hoped and prayed they would be found soon, he did not enjoy the stress and atmosphere that was around currently. He knew they would be found eventually though; not like they had a choice really, none of them would ever give up on such important members of the group. If Beast Boy was covering up his feelings for a girl like he thought he was, he wondered which one. The first one that sprung to mind was Starfire; she was friendly and bubbly like him, and they got on perfectly well, so apart from the fact she was going out with Robin, why couldn't he like her? They seemed like a good match, even though their relationship was mostly a brother and sister one, it could escalate into something more if Robin was out of the picture, though that would never happen for a lot of reasons.
And that's why he believed him and moved onto Raven. He did not understand this one at all, while she was not taken (as to his knowledge anyway) by anyone, she was just the total opposite to the guy. Where she was quiet, reserved and intelligent, he was fun, loud and bouncy. Where she would meditate to calm herself down he would joke and mess around. Where she would spend hours alone in her room he preferred to spend his time surrounded by friends and people in general. Where she didn't want any attention he craved it like a criminal would a drug or kid a sweet. How could they possibly even come close to being a match? He couldn't bring himself to believe Beast Boy would like her, and once everything we sorted, he would need a serious conversation with him on this matter.
Once he snapped out of his thoughts he checked the time, which was included on his T-Communicator. He saw that it was 11:20, and that it had been over fifteen minutes since Robin last checked up on him. He found this slightly odd and worrying; if it was any other member of the Titans he would just think that they had forgotten, but he knew Robin was not that type, and they had been doing it for the past four or so hours. No, he definitely would not forget. So he decided to call him himself, but to his surprise, the leader did not pick up. This worried him even more, he always picked up unless something was wrong or they done something to upset him. Had he done anything to offend him? He couldn't think of anything.
Quickly, Cyborg ran as fast as possible to Robin's chunk of Jump City. Usually they'd be able to locate one another rather quick, but now they all had to take on a much larger part for themselves. He checked the whole thing within five minutes and did not find him. He was about to give Beast Boy a call, when he heard noises coming from a nearby alley.
Robin had checked his whole part of the city many times and was thinking about a new plan. It was quite clear wherever they were kept was not within Jump City and they needed to look elsewhere. He was about to do the routine check up on the two boys, when he heard something coming from inside an alley. It sounded like metal breaking, certainly suspicious. Most of the alley was filled with shadows even though the day and weather was bright and sunny, and at first he could not see what was happening while his eyes adjusted. When they did, he saw a hunched over figure leaning over broken parts of metal all over the floor, smoke coming off of them. The thing that made him step back was when he realised that the figure was looking right at him with a malevolent, murderous glare. Its eyes were a vicious blood red, and in the middle the pupil was blue, almost as if it were frost. No matter how much he tried to look away, he simply couldn't, they hypnotised him and forced him to keep looking into them. They sent chills down his back and he was truly terrified of the creature staring at him. Even his thoughts could not focus on anything apart from the eyes and fear they gave him. They looked like ice bergs surrounded by the hottest lava. He could not understand how something like that could exist.
He only managed to snap out of the trance when something got placed in between him and the view of the two eyes. Then the figure smiled to himself and stood up, and slowly stepped towards Robin. Only then he realised who this horrid creature was; it was Arion, but he did not have his glasses covering his eyes. Now he knew why he kept them on. They were truly evil.
"Hello, Robin. Recovered already? How's your mouth?"
"Where are they?"
"Who?"
"You know very well who I'm talking about!"
"Oh, it looks like your mouth hasn't changed at all. Wanting to get to the subject as soon as you see me. If you are talking about your girls, they are safe, at least for now."
"Give them back!"
"What happens if I don't?"
"I will - I will kill you!"
"You really think you can kill me? You couldn't kill me when you had five people with you, what makes you think you can take me on alone and win?"
"I'll get the others."
"That's still only three, sorry to break it to you but you do not have a very big chance."
Robin could not control himself anymore - how dare he say such things to him. He started charging towards his opponent, only to have his forehead meet a metal fist. He stumbled backwards and gasped from both shock and pain.
"You just never learn, do you?" Arion said, shaking his head. If he was meant to represent the rest of the people in his city he was not doing a very good job of it. At least now the next phase of his plan might go smoothly.
Robin was preparing to attack again, he did not see anything else he could do, he already began and had blood dripping from his forehead, and he couldn't exactly let Arion escape again, this could be his only chance to find Starfire and Raven. He started running at the villain again, and this time predicted the metal fist going for him and dodged it. He jumped up and kicked him in the chest, causing him to stumble backwards this time, but he did not hurt him yet. As he went to make another blow, something hit him hard across the back from behind. It felt like an electric shock slowly spreading through his entire body. Then he dropped to the hard ground like a lifeless rag doll.
"I could've got him," Arion snapped as he stood up and started brushing his shirt where it had been kicked with his human hand.
"You need to take things more seriously, we aren't here to play we have a job to do," Castor said, picking Robin up by the back of his uniform with one hand. Robin was still awake, but barely. Every inch of his body felt bruised and broken. He did not entirely understand what was going on around him, but the one thing he did notice was that there was two people, one of them he did not recognise. He did not have much time to think about it though, as the pain made him faint.
"Technically we are doing this for fun, so I'm not supposed to take it seriously."
"You still can't let anything go wrong, this is now a part of our plan. If we take out the Titans, this city no longer have anyone to protect them and will give up much easier."
"Castor..." Arion suddenly growled, but when his brother was about to scold him for using that tone with him, he heard someone coming up behind them. "Run! Leave the boy!" Usually Castor was not one for obeying anyone's orders apart from his own, especially from his brother, but he didn't have much choice this time, and let Robin fall back to the ground before shooting up into the sky at such high speed you couldn't even see him.
Cyborg entered the alley confidently, after all, he did not expect much and had little reason to. He looked around it, scanning it, but he did not notice anything or anyone, but he still had a feeling something was watching him. "Who's there?" He called, but got no response. Suddenly he saw something move out of the corner of his eye, and when he looked, it lunged out at him and knocked him right off of his feet onto the ground and pinned him down. "Arion, I should have guessed," he growled when he looked up and saw who it was.
"You should have, but it is a bit late now, sorry." Cyborg opened his mouth to say something back, when he noticed something else out of the corner of his eye. This time the figure was joined with colours even the shadows couldn't conceal. As he looked, he realised that it was Robin. Laying on the floor. Barely breathing.
"Robin!" Cyborg shouted, then tried to throw the villain off of him to no avail. Arion quickly turned his head to see that Robin had fallen out of his hiding place and was now in full view.
"Crap," he muttered to himself quietly under his breath. "I didn't want to do this, but you leave me no choice." Before the hero under him could react, he shifted his position so his human hand was holding him down by the neck, and lifted the metal one high in the air. Then he brought it down. Onto Cyborg's face. It knocked him right out and Arion sighed and got off. Castor appeared behind him, looking rather annoyed.
"What did you do that for?" Castor yelled.
"He saw his leader."
"So?"
"So, the plan was that if anyone sees what's going on we would capture them as well, so obviously I had to knock him out to do that." Castor rolled his eyes and picked Robin up by the back of his shirt again, leaving Arion to get Cyborg.
A couple of more hours passed when Beast Boy finally decided to give up. It had been hours and he was pretty sure the others were back at the T-Tower by now. He wondered why no one had called him to bring him back, since he was certain they would of given up by now already, at least Cyborg would have. They had been out since before the sun was up and now it was disappearing behind the horizon.
As he entered the tower, he called out that he had returned. He got no reply. "Robin? Cyborg? I'm back!" He tried again. His voice was so loud he was sure they would of heard him wherever they were in the tower. Confused, he checked every single room to find it empty. With every room he visited his panic was rising and rising inside of him. Where was everyone? Maybe they hadn't come back after all, and were still out there. He decided they would probably come back soon as well, or give him a call, so there was no point in going back out. He sat himself down on the sofa, turned on the TV and decided to wait.
Robin slowly awoke. The pain had mostly vanished, but his limbs still felt a bit numb and tingling, and the wound on his forehead was pulsing but it wasn't bleeding anymore. He looked around the place he was in. It was a room, all white with a slight blue tint to it. There was a large window that went across the whole wall in front of him, but he couldn't see what was on the other side since it was black. As he tried to move he realised he was tied to the wall by his arms, legs and hands.
"You're finally awake, sleepy princess," teased Arion from a chair in a corner nearby that Robin had not noticed earlier. He was obviously referring to 'Sleeping Beauty' but made a mistake. Robin's muscles tensed and he clenched his teeth in anger, knowing he couldn't do anything while he was tied. "Relax, what you stressing for? You're still alive, and we helped take care of that ugly wound of yours." It was only then Robin realised he had a bandage wrapped around his head.
"It would've been better if you didn't make the wound in the first place," he replied, groaning.
"You're the one who started," Arion said, shrugging. "You wanted to see where the girls were being kept at, so I took you here."
"Starfire is here?" Robin asked, his eyes going wide. Arion smiled and nodded.
"She is."
"Can I see her? Is she safe? Can you let her go?"
"Woah, easy there. You will see her soon, she's absolutely safe but I'm afraid I can't let her go."
"What's stopping you?"
"My plan," he said with a wink, "I will explain later, but I will first make your wish come true and allow you to see her."
Arion revealed a remote, as white as the rest of the room, and clicked a button. With that, the window turned into a one sided one and on the other side he could see Starfire. She was tied to a wall as well, and her eyes were closed. He could not see her move.
"Starfire!" Robin screamed. His patience had been broken, he needed to get to her. Now. "Starfire, wake up!"
"Shhh, she can't hear you, this room is sound proof."
"No! Let me go to her! What did you do to her? She's not waking up!"
"A minute ago you requested to see her, and now you want to go to her. I can only do one wish at a time, don't be so greedy. We didn't do anything to her, she is asleep right now therefore not waking up."
"You - you bastard!"
"Watch your mouth kid, I can make you hurt all over again," Arion snapped, standing up, but managing to just about calm himself down instead of punching Robin another wound. "You've seen enough for today, now you know she's safe." He pressed another button and it flipped the window again so that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't see through it. Then Arion left, leaving Robin shouting and struggling to get out of the ties on his own.