A/N: Welcome back everyone! Sorry for a couple of days delay on this weeks chapter but I polished it up and made it as best as I could for you guys. Its gonna be fun to write the next chapter! As always leave a review, fav/follow and let me know how I'm doing. Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

A cold breeze drifted over gentle waves of the ocean. The bright moonlight gave the stars little room to breathe in the night sky. it seemed like the world had stopped spinning for a moment in the quiet calmness of the evening.

Wooden walkways that extend far off the concrete towards the depths of the ocean, where boats of all different shapes and sizes could dock for business, were the only things clashing with the ease of the gentle waves.

The shadows of the warehouses next to the docks were still illuminated slightly by the brightness of the moon making it difficult for the smallest mouse to conceal its presence completely. There in the shadows stood a masked figure waiting patiently... but anxious.

He was worried about this plan he had agreed to go along with. Every ounce of his being was telling him not to go through with it but something about the intoxicating beauty of the woman who purposed this plan subdued his better judgment and it scared him slightly. He never felt this way before. The feeling of not being in complete control of himself. It annoyed him, yet he enjoyed it. It intrigued him. But the growing annoyance in his gut forced him to once again reiterate his concerns for what they were about to do.

"I still don't like this plan," the masked figure said softly with his robotic voice. It didn't seem like he was addressing anyone. At first glance he looked completely alone.

"Do not be troubled," an even softer voice respond, "this is the only way in which to discover who is behind this."

Red X looked down to his left at a wooden crate amongst tons of other wooden crates. It looked as if it were just another piece of cargo to be loaded in the next shipment of the busy docks in the morning.

"I am truly grateful for your assistance," the crate whispered.

X looked back at the ground where his focus had been earlier. Her voice was captivating. It gripped his mind while tugging at the strings attached to his heart like a musician plucking a harp. He couldn't tell if that was the reason why he was doing this or if that was why he was anxious... or both.

"I still don't like it," he repeat himself, "we don't know what we're up against."

Starfire lay in wait in the crate hiding her presence to pull off the sting she had planned with X. She was to play the role of a captured bounty and X was the victorious hunter. If all went well, they'd discover who was behind the attacks and who was controlling the attackers like puppets. And if they were lucky... put an end to it.

X raised his right wrist and pulled the sleeve of his suit slightly up his arm revealing a digital watch, small and compact, displaying the time. It was 1:55 AM.

"Five more minutes," he said softly. They had only been waiting for ten minutes but his sense of time seemed to have vanished as each second seemed like hours, "what if worse comes to worse?" He asked a little louder with a sense of worry, "do you have a back-up plan?"

Starfire sat in silence. She didn't. This was an all-in gamble with everything on the line. Knowing fully well she might lose everything. But for some reason she was ok with that. If it meant her friends would be safe from harm it made her believe it was worth it.

The silence from the crate only made X worry more. On the surface he seemed calm and steady but inside he was ready to burst with anxiety. An unfamiliar feeling for him... and that might be why he was willing to go through with it. The fear excited him.

He looked back at his watch and the digital numbers turned from 1:59 to 2:00 while he watched and as if on que, the waters of the calm ocean began to rumble as something emerged from the depths.

Towards the end of one of the docks, a platform rose out of the water with a single person standing on top of it. A tall cylindrical bubble encased the person on the platform to keep them dry and safe from the sea water. When the platform reached the same level as the dock, the bubble encasing the individual separated at the top and quickly descend in uniform around them to their feet. The individual stepped forward on to the dock and the platform slowly retreat back into the deaths from where is rose. Then... the person waited quieltly as if expecting someone.

"It's time," X said under his breath. He voice a sense of nervous energy, but he seemed to be enjoying the rush of adrenaline.

Nightwing and the Titans were racing to the docks. His new bike was well equipped with all his latest gear and had the looks to prove it. Meanwhile, the Titans were packed into the T-Ship flying just above him.

"So what's our plan?" Cyborg asked trying to get an idea of what they were walking into.

"Find out who wants Star and take them out," Nightwing respond in a dark tone.

"Yeah..." Beastboy said in a sarcastic voice, "I'm pretty sure Cyborg meant a plan as in how to do that."

"This is the rendezvous location for the bounty," Nightwing respond over their comm link, "when we get to the bottom of whomever is behind this we'll be able to get an idea of what we're up against."

The Titans had a bad feeling about this.. Not because they were diving in head first without a plan and with no idea what they were getting into but because something about Dick seemed different. They had seen this side of him before but this... this was a new level.

"They'll see us coming a mile away," Cyborg said realizing it may have been a bad idea to take the T-Ship, "what if they don't show?"

"I got that covered," Nightwing respond instantly. As he said that a red dot on the map of the T-Ship's GPS began blinking with a new location not too far from the other one specified earlier, "land here. I'll head to the rendezvous point and we'll regroup there."

"It'll take us a minute to catch up from there," Cyborg said disapproving.

"Just do it. Get here as soon as you can." Nightwing blew off his friends concerns like they meant nothing to him. But that didn't stop Cyborg from pushing back.

"Hey man, at least wait for us before you just barge in with no backup," he kept his voice down but his tone expressed a great amount of frustration.

"No time," Nightwing instantly replied once again ignoring the concern, "every second counts at this point. Nightwing out." As he finished the comm link went dead and he accelerated on his bike leaving the T-Ship hovering above in the dust.

"Something isn't right," Raven said with a sense of urgency, "it's not like him to go in blind."

"You're tellin' me," Cyborg respond, "its like he's a whole different person."

"He knows Star isn't with us," Raven replied, "he has to."

"Yeah," Cyborg replied, "he's different but not stupid. He wouldn't fall for what I told him."

"Wait... So then that's why he's going in alone?" Beastboy joined in the conversation trying to piece it all together.

"Can you blame him?" Terra shot at the team with a little anger, "I would want to do the same thing."

The team went silent after hearing Terra. She was right. Back when Nightwing was still Robin he would literally chase her across the galaxy to make sure she was safe. He stopped her fake wedding. He tracked her through the stars when she ran away during her transformation. He even went as far as attacking her just to save her life from Slade's probs. He did things he would never do to save all of them. But Starfire brought out a different person every time.

The T-Ship's engines slowly grew quiet as it hovered over the location Nightwing had given them. Once it landed, the team jumped out and grouped up. Terra took her goggles from around her neck and placed them over her eyes and lifted her hands as her eyes began to glow yellow. The Earth beneath the team rumbled softly before lifting them all in the air and took off with intense speed towards their originally intended target.

"We should be there in a few minutes," Cyborg said looking down at his arm displaying a small map, "let's hope Nightwing can hold out long enough for us to get there."

At the dock, Red X began approaching the end of the long wooden path extending into the ocean to greet the figure standing at the end. They wore a long smooth robe. in a dark velvet color that gave an overwhelming sense of elegance and royalty with an oversized hood draped over their face. Before long he stood a few paces away and crossed his arms.

"I take it you're the one who will be paying me?" His robotic voice echoed to the stranger.

The stranger stood silent but picked their head up just enough to see who was speaking to them from under their hood without revealing their face.

X patiently waited for a response but to his surprise he received none.

"What's the matter? Upset that I'm not willing to hand over the girl without seeing some compensation first?" He taunted.

The hooded figure turned their head ever so slightly as if looking over his shoulder behind him. Before X had time to turn and look at what the figure had turned its gaze to, a hand grabbed his right shoulder and spun him around.

X now stared at the very vicious face of Nightwing with a fist cooked back ready to go flying straight forward at the mask bearing a red x as if his face was saying X marks the spot.

"Consider this your payment!" Nightwing's fist snapped forward like a missile fired from a fighter jet with twice the force and landed a devastating blow right in between the eyes of his target sending tumbling backwards before catching himself in a kneeling position just shy of the feet of the hooded stranger.

X looked up to see the face of the person standing at the end of the dock but even from his lowered position the oversized hood still concealed their face. He could only see the smooth skin and soft lips in the shadow of the hood. He looked back at Nightwing who took a steady fighting stance waiting for X to pull some kind of shady trick or attack.

"Kid, you have no idea what you are doing," he said in a insulting tone.

"I know I'm stopping you from selling Star to someone who can't possibly have good intentions for her," he spat back with angst, "I should've known you were all talk. Everything you said was all a lie. You only care about yourself!"

X narrowed his eyes under his mask and rose to a similar fighting stance Nightwing had, "you know, for once... You're wrong." As he finished that sentence two blades in the shape of x's grew from the back of his fists and he lunged forward with his right arm across his chest before swinging it across his body at his target.

Nightwing began performing acrobatic back flips one after another, dodging each strike. He knew on this narrow dock with Red X's close proximity weapons, he was at a disadvantage and needed to get to an area with open space so he had more viable options to fight back.

As Nightwing performed each back flip, X was exchanging arms swinging across his body. Left, right, left, right. Trying to catch up to his opponent and slash across his midsection. Before he knew it they were both standing on the concrete of the dock's bay. Tons of open room for Nightwing to fight back with an number of options. X knew this and stopped his attacks to rethink he strategy.

"Where is she?!" Nightwing yelled with a serious amount of anger and desperation in his voice.

"If I told you... That would defeat the purpose of being here," his voice never seemed like he was angry. Always seemed like he was trying to give Nightwing the run around. Taunting him with the one weakness he had.

"You mean collecting a massive reward and getting filthy rich on dirty money?" Nightwing shot trying to insult him. But he knew it was pointless. X didn't care where the money came from. He was just a greedy thief.

"You got it backwards kid," he instantly respond, "but you wouldn't understand anyways." X withdrew his blades and reached to his belt where he pulled out fist fulls of small shurikens like the one he used to slice through the pistol of the driver he had thwarted from kidnapping Starfire earlier. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and flung them out like a slingshot sending a barrage of small sharp x shaped blades flying like little helicopters at Nightwing.

Nightwing dove to his left summersaulting to a new position where he returned fire with a blade of his own in the shape of a black bird. Just before it landed on the enemy standing in front of him, the intended target vanished into thin air like a blur and quickly reappeared right behind Nightwing.

Nightwing was expecting this. He through his hips into a spin, wildly throwing his left arm in a back fist but he only struck air as Red X ducked. This wild back fist had left him wide open.

X used all of his body weight to extend his fist upward in an uppercut that landed perfectly on the underside of Nightwing's chin with a loud pop.

This sent his head snapping back with his hair flowing shortly after, cracking like a whip from the movement of his head. He stumbled back before regaining his balance but Red X was already on top of him from lunging his entire body forward with a spinning back kick from his left leg planting it deep in his chest sending Nightwing flying across the concrete rolling to a slow stop. Nightwing looked up from where he lay and wiped the blood slowly seeping from the corner of his mouth.

"Still too slow, kid," he continued to taunt. He raised a hand with a red x glowing bright in his palm, "no hard feelings," he said sarcastically. Then the bright glow discharged a massive x at his enemy where he lay. The intention was to bind him so he couldn't move and they could carry out the rest of the plan so Nightwing would finally understand what was going on.

But before the x reached its target a loud screech echoed from behind Nightwing with a bright blue light following the sound hitting the x and causing a loud explosion in a cloud of smoke concealing Nightwing from his opponent.

As the smoke cleared Nightwing was on his feet standing in front of his former teammates. Cyborg had is sonic cannon raised with a small amount of smoke like steam drifting in the breeze from the barrel of his cannon he had just fired at the projectile X had shot.

"Booyah," he said softly.

"Hey there Titans," X said calmly with a chuckle in response, "I was wondering when the rest of you would show up."

"Sorry to rain on your parade," Beastboy mocked.

"You aren't getting away," Raven followed up, "give us Starfire back and we won't hurt you." Her voice has stern and serious. She meant business.

But unknown to them... Red X also meant business in a similar if not identical way.

"If you know what's good for all of you and her... You'll get out of my way," under his mask Red X now had a look of extreme commitment. He had a mission here and he was going to complete it.

He took another fighting stance but before he attacked a presence behind him took him by surprise.

"If you snot lickers know whats good for all of you... you'll hand us the dumb red-head and get lost!" Gizmo shouted with confidence.

X turned around and both he and the Titans now had a look panic and shock. They now faced the members of the Hive, Jonny Rancid, Kitten and Fang. From what it looked like... they had all teamed up but not all of them wanted a piece of the reward.

Some wanted revenge on one person in particular...