Disclaimer: I don't own either show.
\◣\ ...chapter five... /◢/
Finders, keepers, it read. You're MINE now.
"The H.I.V.E. Five," Robin growled, as the link encoded in the message took them to a live recording of the teenage villains robbing a local mall, bundles of high-fashion clothes in plastic trash bags for easy transportation and layers of sparkling jewelry worn tastelessly over their costumes. "Titans, move!"
And like a well-oiled machine, they did—Starfire and Raven were out in the hallway, already taking to the air, and Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Robin raced after them, hot on their heels. The exhausted looks had changed to ones of fierce determination. Quicker than they had expected, Team Avatar was alone again, the sun steadily rising behind them, dazzling the City and its bay in peaceful oranges and reds.
"I'm going back to sleep," Sokka grumbled, stuffing a pillow on top of his face. "It's too early for this."
Katara didn't seem to share the same sentiment, looking out the way the others had left. "What if they need help?"
"So what?" her brother answered grumpily, the sound muffled.
"So, what?" Katara echoed in a biting tone, "They could be running right into danger!"
Sokka took the pillow off his face to stare back at her unamused expression. With no hesitation, he chucked it at her, the pillow bouncing off her shoulder and falling into her lap.
"Guys," Aang said, raising his hands in an effort to forestall further arguments or pillow-throwing. Luckily for him, he was used to waking up at sunrise already, feeling a glowing, beating warmth from inside his fire chakra. Zuko's early morning practices turned out to be pretty handy, he thought with a twinge of fondness.
"Well, excuse me for being worried about the people who kindly gave us food, and a place to stay!" Katara returned with a huff, flinging the pillow right back at Sokka.
"Look, they're superheroes, who can move stuff with their mind," Sokka exclaimed, throwing his hands up, "I think they'll be fine."
Well, he wasn't wrong. The group of teenagers had seemed well-equipped, with an abundance of flying, and magic, and state of the art technology. They would probably be okay without any help from the people that they had literally just met a couple hours ago, people who also didn't know their way around the city in the slightest.
"I'm going to look around, try and find the bathroom," Katara said instead, getting up. She pulled her hair into a quick, loose braid, and folded the quilts on her side of the futon. Sokka blearily watched her, his head poking up from under the starry blanket. When she looked back up, Aang was in front of the tall windows, watching the sun. She joined him, stepping up to his side.
She couldn't think of anything to say, not about Zuko and Toph, and not about the strange teen Titans. She could only hope that they would all be okay.
"Do you want to join me?" she offered softly. The sun warmed her, tinting the room in a golden glow.
Aang was already shaking his head. "Zuko said I have to do one hundred hot squats at the first sign of daybreak."
Katara smiled at him. He had come a long way from the silly boy who'd rather goof off than learn to master his bending. She was so proud of him. "Alright, well, I'll be around."
"Be careful," she heard Sokka grumble from under a pile of blankets as she passed by the mattress. She opened the large steel door into the corridor, feeling a colder breeze welcome her. "I will," she answered, her water skin at her hip.
The Tower was well lit, with torches like the fireflies the Mechanist used in the Northern Air Temple lining the wall and ceiling. She didn't fully understand how it worked, but the technology reminded her a bit of the Fire Nation's brutish but efficient designs. She passed by a couple bedrooms but left them unopened, not wanting to betray the team's privacy, and walked into the metal box at the end of the hallway with only some hesitation.
Beast Boy had pressed a number, and it had taken them to the matching floor. She did the same for the level right below the one she was on—and then the one below that—and then the one below that. One of the floors was locked (the "Danger Room"), so she left it alone, instead wandering through the hallway on the fourth floor.
There was no sign of a bathroom, no sign of anything that wasn't locked up. Maybe she should just wait until the Titans got back and ask them then, she didn't want to be caught snooping. She walked back to the elevator, grumbling under breath.
Av—a—tar.
Gasping, she spun back around, the elevator doors only a few steps away at her back. "Beast Boy, Cyborg, are you back already? Hello?" she asked, taking a few more steps forward. Had the sound come from there? The door was nondescriptive, just like all the others, steel-plated and grey.
There was no answer, just a still quietude.
Then, she thought she heard a high-pitched buzzing—right before an alarm stabbed through the near-silence, the lights on the wall turning red, and she jumped, her fingers automatically finding the cork of her water skin. But, the space around her stayed empty and undisturbed. Sokka, Aang, she thought, and bolted back to the elevator.
The seconds it took as the box flew her upward were spent with her heart in her throat.
"Are you all okay?" she yelled, throwing open the door to the living room.
Sokka and Aang looked back at her with various degrees of confusion, shock, and horror, Sokka's finger still pressing the emergency button Robin had shown them last night.
"What?" she asked, a nervous pit in her stomach. She followed her brother's muted gaze with trepidation. On one of the Titan's large technology "screens" was a moving picture of Zuko (an announcer saying something in the foreground, but they didn't have any audio to hear the reporting)— and their (new) friend was fighting the Titans.
"You were right," Sokka said, his face serious, "I think they're going to need our help."
The shopping mall was empty when the Titans arrived, the door broken open. The telltale sign of hexes was one of the only hints that there had even been a break-in; the other was that piles upon piles of bags lay abandoned at the bottom of an escalator, designer coats and the newest game consoles poking free from the top.
Robin snarled as he ripped open one of the bags, and an assortment of lacy pink bras, soaps and candles, cosmetics, and shoes tumbled out onto the floor by their feet. It was a bunch of useless junk.
This was the second time in less than 24 hours that the H.I.V.E. teens had just up and disappeared on them. Either they were spooked by something (someone?) or they were leading them here. But why, what were they playing at? He was starting to get really sick of these games.
"Hello," someone said conversationally, and they all looked over to a teenager, about their age, leaning against the wall.
Immediately, everyone reached for their weapons, Starfire's fists lighting up green as she burst back into the sky, using the height to her advantage. Raven hands were raised in front of her, a focused look in her eyes. Next to her, Cyborg's sonic blaster was blue and bright, and though Beast Boy hadn't yet shifted, he was crouched low, prepared for anything. In front of them all, Robin held three birdarangs between his fingers, wary and still.
"Who are you?"
The boy walked over, stopping in front of a bench. He had an old burnt mark over his left eye, puckered and dark, and was dressed in simple shades of red.
"Yo, Robin," Cyborg said lowly, but Robin didn't take his eyes off the other boy who had slowly raised a hand in greeting, waving at the group like they were long-lost friends. "That's one of them, from the pier."
"I think..." Raven tried, remembering back to what Aang and Sokka had said during the night before, "Zuko?"
"Hi!" the boy said back, smiling with his teeth. He had two swords strapped to his back, but wasn't reaching for them. "You must be the Teen Titans!"
"Oh marvelous," Starfire applauded, drifting down from her space in the air though not yet touching the ground. "Your friends will be much cheered to know we have found you unharmed."
"Yeah, could you give them a message for me?" he wondered, but didn't wait for them to respond. The roof above them suddenly exploded, raining debris over their heads, but Zuko didn't even flinch. Starfire yelped, grabbing Robin and flying them out of the building while Raven drafted a black shield around the remaining three Titans. "Go! We'll meet you outside!" Raven shouted above the crashing and crumbling of glass and shingles around them.
Outside, with the sky a blazing orange, the scarred teenager raised a blaster that hadn't been strapped to his arm earlier, pointed unerringly at Starfire. It glowed red, pulsing dangerously, not unlike the thermal blaster Robin had stolen when he was under Slade's forced tutelage.
"Don't take it personally," Zuko said, with an ill-fitted smile, "You're not the ones I really want. This is just a job for me."
Above them, the mall's security camera turned its lens onto the group.
"Hnnng," Starfire raised her hands, combining her green starbolts into one massive burst and then throwing her arms out with a warrior's scream. The green flared up like a comet, hitting the other teenager straight on, and a cloud of dirt exploded outward. Starfire gasped, flying down next to her friend.
"Is he..." she didn't finish.
Robin held up a hand, and she fell back, floating a step away and biting her lip. Robin gripped his staff in one hand, cautiously approaching the spot Zuko had been before the blast. The air smelled like ozone, sweet and metallic, but there was also the undercurrent of something burning in the wind.
"Sorry," a voice said through the cloudy debris. A hand swatted through the air, and Zuko stepped out from the dirt cloud, completely unharmed as he patted dirt off his clothes. "But it'll take more than a bug bite to stop me."
Without warning, Robin spun into a kick, aiming for Zuko's left side with a hope that the other boy's impaired sight would slow him down. There wasn't even a hint of hesitation. Zuko grabbed his foot before he could make contact and didn't let go, instead leaning down, pulling him closer. "You're Robin, huh? Slade told me you would be a challenge," he sighed, disappointment on his face. "At least this will be fast."
Robin dropped his weight, throwing his elbow into the villain's face with as much power as he could, and he heard a crack as he threw himself over the other boy, softening his landing with a series of roundoffs. Starfire was instantly at his side, already throwing starbolts with fiery intensity, lobbing one right after the other. He heard a crash behind him, from inside the mall, and then the rest of the Titans were also next to him, dirt smeared on their cheeks and dust in their hair.
"Why is he attacking us?"
"Yeah, what's his deal?"
"Is Slade—?" Starfire started, but then stopped. "I do not understand."
"I don't think our new friends have been entirely truthful," Robin ground out. But it didn't matter, they needed to end this. Quick. "Titans, go!"
Zuko, who had been watching them assemble with quiet amusement, didn't even bother to dodge the combined attacks of Robin and Cyborg's sonic boom. He laughed, unharmed, and when Raven threw a black-encased car at him, he only reached out a hand to cover his face. It hit him, and he went rolling into the mostly empty parking lot, but in less than a second he was already standing up, nothing broken or bleeding.
"What is he?" Beast Boy asked, his voice both awed and fearful.
"A criminal," Robin answered coldly. Even though Sokka had never answered his question about bending, he suspected this one was a firebender, despite the massive burn scar over his eye. So where was the fire?
"My turn," Zuko sang, and the red glowing from the device on his wrist expanded outward in a red halo. It got bigger and bigger and bigger, and then snapped into a single point, like a red giant star collapsing into a black hole.
"Find cover," Robin yelled, not a second too soon, as the next thing they knew a shockwave erupted, fracturing the ground below them and shattering the streetlights into empty socket, glass bursting around them. The couple of cars parked in the area went pitching over their heads, rolling and crashing into each other.
"Ah!" Raven shouted, her ears ringing, weakly throwing out a black-haloed hand as a massive van was about to land on top of her. Starfire grabbed at it, stopping the car from hitting Raven but was carried backwards from the force. Raven burst after her, Beast Boy at her side as a huge T-Rex, blocking more of the wildly thrown cars with his large jaw.
The red was starting to pulse again, weak but growing brighter by the second.
"Throw me," Robin commanded, and Cyborg gave him a worried look, but complied quickly at Robin's unflinching stare. He spun with enough force to knock back a moving train, and Robin went shooting straight at the other boy.
They both collapsed onto the ground, and Robin pinned Zuko's arms over his head. "Why are you working for Slade?" he shouted, tightening his hold. Zuko didn't even wince, his eyes molten as he smiled. Robin searched his face, and in the briefest moments before he was thrown off, he saw a crack on the other's face from when he'd hit him with his elbow, like the fractured surface of broken ice, splintered and spidery.
"That wasn't very nice," Zuko said smoothly, getting up and turning the weapon onto Robin, who was trying to catch his breath and struggling to stand up. Cyborg was suddenly there, his own blaster pointed back.
"Don't do it, man," he said, "It doesn't have to be like this."
"Sentiment," Zuko scoffed and the red expanded outwards again, dimmer than before but still bright enough to overpower the rising sunlight.
"Zuko!"
A boomerang went flying overhead, and despite Zuko's lackadaisical consideration before about his health, this time he actively tried to dodge the boomerang on its return flight, ducking away from the whistling weapon before it could hit his head.
"Are you okay?" Katara asked, falling to her knees next to him. Water was encased around both her palms, glowing. "I can heal you," she hurried to say, her voice thin and rough. "Please."
Robin shook his head, climbing to his feet. "I'm fine. I just need you to help me stop him."
"I don't understand," Aang said, his voice shaking, as he approached the other boy like he was spooked animal, "Zuko, what are you doing? They're our friends! You're our friend."
"The Avatar," Zuko said, brightening, but there was no real recognition on his face, for any of the three teenagers who had joined them. "This changes things."
"Zuko," Aang tried again, his voice breaking. "Please. We can help you."
"Avatar," he hissed, approaching him with a greedy look in his eyes.
Raven, Starfire, and Beast Boy had returned, the latter two flying above, whereas Beast Boy remained in his large T-Rex form, the teeth sharp and snapping. Cyborg gripped Robin's elbow, holding half his weight. By their side, Sokka had his boomerang in one hand, his eyes sharp, and Katara's water skin was open, her hand poised. Aang returned to stand with them, and his grey eyes were wide and shiny from the unexpected betrayal.
"Where is Toph?" Katara demanded. Even though she had warned Zuko not to slip up, not entirely trusting he had switched sides for good, she still hadn't expected... this. "What did you do to her?"
Zuko only smiled, giving her a uncaring shrug and raising the red weapon again. Sokka's eyes narrowed with suspicion; none of this was making any sense. The weapon, the weird behavior.
"You know, it's great that you're all here," he gushed, so out of character for the ex-prince that they knew, both when he was chasing them across the world and when he'd joined them, claiming to have had a change of heart. "Now I don't have to go on another search."
"Wait," Robin told his team quietly. "Don't attack. I want to try something."
"Are you crazy?" Beast Boy hissed, turning into a human to finish saying, "You're going to get yourself killed." He changed into a green-spotted cheetah, prowling around the group, his back legs tense.
"What is that," they heard in the background from Sokka, Aang, and Katara, but ignored them.
"Give me a chance," Robin asked of the three, knowing they were under no obligation to listen to his orders. Sokka searched his face, and then gave a resolute nod.
They needed to break the weapon first. That was there only chance to salvage this messy battle. "Raven," he yelled, and even though they hadn't had the chance to talk it over, he hinted, "on my command," and held up his right hand in a fist, the same hand where Zuko was wearing the weapon Slade had likely given him.
Robin combined his two birdarangs into a slim sword, pointing it back at Zuko, whose weapon was now fully charged, glowing red like a beating heart.
"You won't get away with this," he told him, a harsh look on his face, obvious even with his mask. He ran at him with his sword, throwing a slash down and aiming mercilessly for his head.
Zuko's eyes widened, and he threw a hand up, catching the sword on his arm. There was no blood, not a drop, Robin realized, but didn't have the time to really consider what it meant before he went flying back, quickly turning the shove into a controlled cartwheel. "Now!"
The blaster on Zuko's wrist darkened black, Raven's eyes a bright, pure white behind him, and then the blaster fell into separated parts on the ground. Broken.
Zuko scowled, slowly putting his arm back down his side, totally fine. He hadn't used either of the two perfectly good swords at his back, almost like he'd forgotten they were even there.
Sokka pulled Aang's shoulder, and he nodded with only a little hesitation.
"Zuko," Aang said, his voice heavy. "This is your last warning."
"Avatar," the one who looked and sounded like Zuko traded back with a leery grin. "You're the one who I really want. Blood traitor."
Even though Aang was still getting used to it, the bending came naturally. Moving in a Northern Shaolin style, he sharply directed a roar of fire at his wayward firebending Sifu. Like Zuko had seen a ghost, he immediately threw his hands over his head, quickly backing up, avoiding the fire like it was the only thing that could hurt him. He screamed as if he was burning alive even though no flames had even gotten near him.
Everyone looked on, horrified, and Katara threw a wave of water over him, her eyes big and blue even though she was beyond angry at him.
They heard a crackle and pop, like crumpling paper, and Zuko got back up, unsinged, but a hand was covering the bottom of his chin. He looked back at Aang, not bothering with the Titans or Water Tribe teens. "Next time, Avatar," he assured, and then—just—vanished.
Only the settling dust remained, a cicada buzzing at them from a bent bench with beady eyes. A centipede was rolled upside down on the ground, its tiny legs moving fast.
Beast Boy transformed back into a boy. He was the first to speak, echoing what they were all thinking. "What. Was. That?"
"I don't know," Robin answered, at the same time Sokka shook his head, saying, "Not Zuko, for one."
They exchanged weary looks, dirty and tired. The broken glass crunched beneath their shoes.
"We should return to the Tower," Robin finally decided, sighing as he slumped back. Raven caught one arm, and Starfire grabbed the other. "Thanks," he told them quietly.
With wild hair and heavy looks in their eyes, the Titans shuffled back to the T-Car.
"Are you coming?" Raven asked, looking back at the three from another dimension. They looked shell-shocked, their eyes aimless, but then Sokka was nodding, a determined expression taking over his face. They joined them in the car, but it was too small for all eight of them. Katara shook her head when Starfire offered to sit in her lap.
"We'll meet you there," Aang said, his voice course, like he'd swallowed gravel.
Robin looked back at them. "Don't make any hasty decisions. This isn't over."
"We won't," Sokka answered, putting a hand on Katara and Aang's shoulders. "We're in this together now."
Robin nodded, and the car door closed behind him. As the vehicle drove off, the three quietly walked back to the beach. Katara crafted an ice float for them, and they wordlessly joined her as she bent the current, pulling them to the tall T shaped building in the middle of the bay.
They needed to find Zuko. Again.
\◣\. /◢/
Author's Note: Please read and review.
UPDATE: this was re-written 1/10/23. And it was so much fun, wow! I loved writing this chapter even though there were too many characters running around. (Also, why was my original version so freaking dark? Like, there was a murder (of a random stranger, but still) and everything. Nah, we're making this one more fun. :)) There are also so many fight scenes, y'all. Why did I make the story like this. Why.