A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you're all doing well. This week's chapter is a bit... well... Dark. I hope it's not too dark but it's important to the plot of the story and the development I have planned for the characters. Anyways, I hope you enjoy! Keep leaving me reviews as they help keep me motivated to continue writing. I love hearing what you guys have to say or think about these stories!

The air in the Tower felt heavy. It weighed with an intense feeling of uneasy tension. Night had fallen and the team sat around the dinner table in living area still leaderless.

Cyborg prepped a dinner for his teammates though no one said a word to each other. Raven sat quietly with her eyes closed and her hands in her lap with her head lowered. Beastboy sat next to her with his elbows on the table letting his forearms dangle lazily over the edge with his right crossed over the left. He quietly studied her carefully. He worried about her. Wondering what he can do to help her emotional state at the moment. No matter what scenario he ran through his mind he only came to the conclusion he would only make her feel worse. He sighed and faced forward hanging his head as low as Raven's.

Terra sat across the table from the two. She sat upright with her heel kicking up and down tapping on the floor with nervous energy. Her eyes would slowly switch between staring at the Titans sitting across from her while her mind raced with questions. Where is Starfire? Why aren't we looking for her? What's the plan? She was about to speak but was silenced as Cyborg placed a large bowl of pasta in the center of the table.

"Eat up y'all," he said softly. His voice seemed as heavy as the air in the room, "we're gonna need our energy if we're gonna get her back."

Terra saw the sincere concern on Cyborgs face. Like he was worried they were in over their heads with this situation. He began using a pasta utensil to place a portion of the meal on the plates in front of his teammates.

Beastboy and Cyborg started quietly eating their dishes in front of them while Raven continued to sit in silence with her hands in the same place they had been the entire time she sat at the table.

Terra stared at the plate in front of her. The steam rose from her plate like a sad soul extending its existence into the next life. It put her in a trance. She couldn't seem to bring herself to eat...

"How...?" She whispered softly. It was so quiet the words barely brushed over her lips. However, the room so silent, save of the additional clinking of silverware, that the boys could still hear her and their gaze shifted towards Terra, "how?" She repeated a little louder. She began to tremble as she slammed her fists on the table making her plate jump in between her fists with a loud clang, "HOW COULD YOU JUST BE EATING AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!" She screamed. She clenched her jaw and welded her eyes shut fighting to control her emotions, "Starfire is out there somewhere and she needs us! WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING?!"

Cyborg and Beastboy watched her as if unphased by this reaction. It's not like they weren't thinking the same exact thing. In fact, it was the only thing they could think about. They both turned back to their meals, finished what they had in their mouths and placed their forks next to their plates. Before they could speak Terra opened her eyes ripe with emotion and turned to them.

"WE SHOULD BE OUT THERE LOOKING FOR HER!!!" She screamed.

Beasboy rasied his hands in a gesture to calm her down but before he could respond a just as emotional voice answered Terra.

"And where do you suppose we start?" Raven shot back aggressively, "you don't think we haven't been trying to figure something out? That we haven't been exhausting ourselves trying to come up with any kind of idea of where she might be?" She opened her eyes and stared at Terra across from her. Her eyes held an intense amount of sinister aggression as she she continued, "if you have any idea where she might be then by all means share with us..." Raven never raised her voice over what you would consider a casual conversation but something about the way she spoke... It seemed like she was screaming louder than Terra.

Terra's jaw dropped as she found herself at a loss for words. Her tongue was tied in multiple knots as she fumbled for a response. Unable to answer Raven's request, she closed her mouth and continued to tremble with her hands still clenched in fists, buried in the table next to her plate.

Beastboy and Cyborg now had a look of shock on their faces as they watched the encounter unfold in front of them. Their eyes darted back and forth between the two girls. It looked as if they both were shooting lasers from their eyes at each other creating a small explosion in the center between them.

After a long moment of silence so quiet you could hear your own heart beating in your chest, Terra relaxed and bowed her head in defeat before silently replying to her closest friend, "I... Don't know."

"None of us do," Raven respond also easing the intensity of her voice, "but Cyborg is right," she looked down at her plate of pasta and picked up the fork next to it before looking back up at Terra, "if we're going to find her we need all of our energy."

With that, she picked up a piece of the food on her plate and with the grace of trained royalty, she raised the fork to her mouth and began chewing. She almost looked like she was forcing herself to eat. As if she couldn't keep it down or had absolutely no appetite but she swallowed one bite at a time regardless.

Terra looked up to see Raven with her eyes closed as she struggled to force her meal into her system. It inspired her slightly. She picked up her own fork and began to follow her lead no matter how hard it might be to eat at the moment.

Terra thought about her outburst and began to realize just how ignorant she must have sounded. She felt terrible about her actions and now felt a pit in her stomach, along with the unwanted food, making it feel even worse. She was about to apologize in the hopes that admitting her unacceptable behavoir would quell the uncomfortable feeling but before she could, the computer screen across the living room lit up the area with the image of Nightwing staring at the team.

"Titans, I got a lead on who's coming for Star," he said firmly, "sending you coordinates."

All the Titans communicators beeped in unison as they recieved his message.

Nightwing focused more on his own communicator as he didn't see the one person he wanted to see on the screen, "where's Starfire?" His eyes narrowed under his mask and his voice seemed aggravated as the words left his lips.

The team looked at each other wondering who was going to be the one to tell him and explain... When no one said anything right away, Beastboy decided to take this one...

"Uh... Well... She's..." He stammered looking for the right words.

"Trying to find some kind of lead in your old office," Cyborg cut in, looking at Beastboy trying to get the team to play along, "ever since you put her in charge, she's been just as stubborn as you were when you led the team."

Nightwing stared at Cyborg intensely. He wasn't buying it. Something about her not being in the room with the others didn't sit right with him, "get here as soon as possible," his voice grew more aggressive as he spoke, "we need to face this and find out what's going on. Nightwing out."

"Wait-" Cyborg shouted but it was too late. The connection had ended and now the team stood awkwardly in the room looking at each other with puzzled looks on their faces.

"He knows," Raven said with certainty. Her voice carried a hint of concern that this could make Richard do something foolish.

"We better get down there as fast as we can," Cyborg said with all the seriousness he could muster.

They all began to head down the hall towards the hanger where the T-Ship was docked. Terra followed closely behind Cyborg as Raven and Beastboy trailed them. They all jumped in the ship as the engines began to whir and roar to life. As the team strapped in putting their headsets on, they did their final checks before take off and Terra spoke over the intercom to Cyborg...

"What were you going to ask him?" She asked out of sheer curiosity.

Cyborg remained silent as he thought about what the answer to his question could have been. It rattled him to his core. He felt like he might not even know one of his best friends anymore. Something about him was different. The question Cyborg wanted to ask was simple... But he was worried he might get an answer he didn't like...

"I was gonna ask him where he got this info," he paused for a second trying to fight off the horrid thoughts to the second part of his question, "and how..."

The screen went blank as Nightwing pressed the disconnect button on his communicator. He grit his teeth and his blood boiled in his veins. His gut was telling him something was seriously wrong and it terrified him to the point his anger was about to explode out of him... If it hadn't already.

He stood in a dimly lit underground room with small tanks and cages all around him. Each cage had its own lamp as a heat source for the living things inside. Every one held some kind of insect or unidentifiable creature that had obviously undergone extensive experiments.

One cage in the middle of the room was smashed with a body laying on top of it, just barely conscious moaning in pain. He had wings on his back and had a face like an insect. Though, you could hardly tell now. What used to be two giant eyes like that of a fly were just bruised and swollen lumps of flesh with blood oozing from every orifice of his face.

Robin began walking towards the exit and as he did, his feet marched past a small blonde teenage girl, unconscious on the floor near the wall. Next to her was the body of a man. His head was a giant four legged spider and he sat with his back against the wall hunched forward. His arms lay lifeless in his lap with his eight eyes closed. About shoulder height on the wall behind him was a massive crater that his body had created from the force of an unstoppable man hellbent on some kind of rouge vigilante witch hunt.

Dick continued to clench his jaw as he walked up the stairs to the entrance to this basement of an experimental lab. Leaving behind his three victims to fend for themselves with no remorse in his heart. As he reached the top of the stairs he mumbled a fake sense of gratitude through his clenched teeth...

"Thanks for the tip..."