Disclaimer: I don't own.

.◄◅...chapter seven...▻►.

It was late afternoon when Zuko told See-More that they were going to look around the city for any sign of their friend. He didn't look too thrilled by the idea, grimacing and saying, "Oh, but I think it's going to rain today, are you sure you want to go out..?"

"We're not made of sugar," Toph sniped, "We won't melt from a little water."

"We'll be fine," Zuko assured.

Kyd Wykkyd walked into the living room, then, nodding politely to Zuko, Toph, and his one-eyed friend. He approached the kitchenette, an eyebrow shooting up when he noticed the kettle was warm and steaming.

"Ah, well, okay," See-More said, still looking unsure. "Take your H.I.V.E. Communicator with you though, just in case you run into trouble."

"Sure," Toph answered with an airy wave. Zuko made sure they were watching when he tucked the device into his belt, staring back at the two costumed teenagers with a pointed glare.

"Alright, alright, great," See-More edged around them to join his teammate by the kitchen counter, leaning back with his arms crossed over his skin-tight shirt. "Good luck finding your friend." Then, quieter, he said to Kyd, "Can I have some of that? Smells good."

The darkly dressed boy nodded mutely, spelling something out with his hands in rapid gestures, and then See-More was nodding back with fresh understanding, turning to Zuko, "Thanks for the tea."

"Sure," Zuko said, leaving the two to their wordless conversation. Toph followed after him, saying under her breath, "If I couldn't see with my feet, I would think he was talking to a ghost."

It was an innocent remark made in passing, but it only served to remind Zuko that there was potentially a dark spirit still on the loose, if it had indeed followed after them from their fall at the Air Temple. A dark spirit that had specifically spoken to Zuko and not Aang, the Spirit Bridge incarnate. A dark spirit that brought with it the smell of a forest fire in the wind—an ominously foreboding sign. He wished he had listened more to Uncle when he had talked about old spirit tales instead of insisting that the only spirits he wanted to talk about were the Avatar reincarnations.

They were one floor from the main entrance when Jinx stopped them, her cheeks flushed like she'd had to run to catch up with them. A yellow raincoat was folded over one arm, crumpled from haste. Toph's head tilted to the side, curious.

"Where are you two going?" the teen sorcerer asked, exhaling heavily, "You looking for your friends?"

Zuko opened his mouth to cut her off before she could offer to help them look—they didn't need a chaperone, especially not one they couldn't trust—but Toph interrupted with a thankful, "Sure! You went to a shopping mall this morning right? Let's start there."

Jinx glowered at Toph, but she just stared back, unseeing, a smile in the corner of her mouth. "Why would your friend be at a shopping mall?" she countered snippily.

"We have to start somewhere," Toph shrugged, and started to continue on her way, heading out of the underground lair. Zuko kept pace with her, turning his back on Jinx. As they opened the door, an overcast day greeted them. The air was sticky and humid, with a few people walking on the sidewalk with umbrellas unopened by their sides.

"Well, I have some ideas about that," Jinx started, her footsteps quickly trying to catch up with their brisk pace, but Toph talked over her, "And Zuko said he wanted to buy some more candles. He likes looking at fire. Personally, I don't see the appeal."

Jinx gave them both sour looks that either went unnoticed or ignored. "Cause you're blind," she completed flatly. "Hilarious. Fine, the mall's this way," she gestured to their left, and they let her take the lead.

Quietly, Zuko asked Toph, "Are you sure about this?"

She nodded. "It's not like we'd be able to find the mall on our own, anyway."

As they walked down the sidewalk, Zuko noticed with a scowl that he was getting more wary and fearful looks than usual. A woman in a rainbow dress gasped, pulling her child's hand closer as they crossed the street a block away from the designated crosswalk. Another man in business-like attire had looked up, seen the firebender, and then turned on his heel the opposite way.

His scar wasn't that bad.

Jinx shot a confused look back at him, and he crossed his arms over his chest, glaring back. She turned back around, a stiff set to her shoulders as she seamlessly led them through the City's busy grid-like streets.

It didn't take them long. The mall was crowded with people, umbrellas popping open hurriedly from those still on the sidewalk as the rain started to shift from a misty drizzle to a sudden downpour.

"Ugh," Jinx complained, only her face visible from inside the sunshine-yellow raincoat. "I hate this weather."

Zuko glared back at the man who'd given the teenager a double-take, staring at the ex-prince and then giving the doors of the shopping mall a wide-eyed look. He turned around, ushering his wife back to the car with hushed voices. Zuko was getting really sick of this.

"So this is the mall you went to this morning?" Toph confirmed a second time, and Jinx grumbled out another affirmative. "Uh, huh," she allowed, making sure Zuko could see the subtle shake of her head, "Well, let's go get Zuko his candles. You can be my eyes, look for this flighty kid who, hmm..."

"He has an arrow tattoo," Zuko supplied helpfully.

"Why do I have to be your eyes? Your friend is literally right here."

"You can both be my eyes," Toph said, like she was consoling two jealous lovers.

As they walked into the building, Zuko couldn't help but overhear a small child ask enthusiastically, "Are the Teen Titans going to come fight in this mall too, papa?" only for the child's dad to shuffle them around the corner, mumbling about the morning news and superheroes. The teen Titans, Zuko pondered on as he followed the girls' lead down the busy hallway full of shops. Toph was busy asking (interrogating) the gothic girl about the city and her powers, slyly poking more at the topics when she would answer with a lie.

Zuko ducked his head so his hair covered more of the scar. Their best hope was that tomorrow's mission would lead them to Aang so they could finally be done with this weird world.

Ever since Robin had told his team to hold off on doing anything rash, the group had seemed unsure of what to do with each other. Lunch had been pleasant, with warm conversations and curious stories, but after the food was put away and the dishes were cleaned, no one seemed all that inclined to disappear into their room or separate on their own after what had happened earlier in the day.

"Aang," Raven was the first to say, "Could you tell me more about the Spirit World?"

And so the young Avatar and Raven went off to the couch, cups of tea between them, smelling nicely like ginseng and jasmine. Sokka and Katara had given each other helpless looks, but before they could hide themselves away and start plotting, Cyborg had pounced, asking if they knew any board games. Beast Boy had excitedly joined them, piles of boxes in his arms as he held up each label for picking, ignorant to their overwhelmed expressions.

Starfire generously chose one for them, taking from the top of the pile with a happy cheer as she circled them in the air. "Friends, let us play this one! The game of the cards!"

"Go fish," Sokka said, his eyes peeking out above his fanned-out collection. Katara judgmentally looked over at him, wearing the pair of dark sunglasses that Cyborg had given her to add to their gaming aesthetic. Next to her, Starfire was adorned in pink shutter shades and a fluffy scarf colored in the same bubblegum-pink family.

"Dude, we're playing Uno now," Beast Boy explained, pointing to the red +2 card in the middle of the table. His purple sunglasses had tacky wings on the corners. "You have to play a card that's either red or matches the action."

"Right, right," Sokka said and, with an evil grin, slapped a blue +2 on top of the pile. "Sorry, Katara."

She sulked as she collected four cards from the deck. "Can I still put a card down?"

"No," Cyborg said, shaking his head.

"Yes," Beast Boy answered at the same time. They traded glares. "We're not playing with your weird rules, dude! You just made them up so you would beat Robin the last time we played!"

Starfire put down a yellow three on top of Katara's sneaky blue card while Cyborg returned with justified outrage, "I didn't make them up! It was in the rulebook!"

"Pfft," Beast Boy scoffed, putting down a yellow skip, jumping turns from Cyborg to Sokka, "Who actually reads the rulebook?"

Cyborg's face was turning red in anger. "Me!"

Katara giggled as Sokka took his turn, making the order of the players reverse backwards, kickstarting another round of complaining and competitive shouting. "This is nice," she told her brother in low tones, barely audible over the others' voices, "I feel like we haven't had time to relax since..."

"Since we found Aang in that iceberg," Sokka returned wryly, but he was smiling back at her. It slowly dimmed as he looked down as his cards, though, his sudden fixed look at odds with the low-stakes of the game. "...I'm just worried that we'll get back, but Sozin's Comet will have already passed. I wish we knew what was happening back home."

Katara swallowed, looking down at her dealt cards with shame. She hadn't thought about that—as they were wasting time playing a game, their father and all their allies were suffering in Fire Nation prisons, lives being lost to the ruthless empire's vainglorious conquests. Here they were, stuck on this strange realm with no solid plans to get back yet, abandoning their friends and family just so they could have fun playing a useless game.

"Katara," Sokka said, putting a hand on her elbow. "I didn't mean to... it was just a thought."

"Apologies," Starfire interrupted, her alien eyes an unnatural green behind the pink frames. Her face was curved with a gentle understanding as she continued unprompted, "I could not help but overhear your conversation. On my planet, we were taught Mahakala's Principle, which is roughly similar to this Earth's philosophy regarding General Relativity."

"Einstein's Theory of General Relativity?" Cyborg asked with easy recognition, putting Beast Boy back down on the floor. The green lemur he had been wrestling with transformed back into a green boy, one who was rubbing his head in confusion, mouthing, "general relativity?" to himself.

"Yes," Starfire confirmed, "This principle explains how the closer one is to a source of gravity, the slower the time passes. Such as with the black holes in the Draconis Nebula. It is part of what makes that sector of space so dangerous."

Cyborg was nodding, but when Katara and Sokka only looked more and more puzzled, he added helpfully, "It's basic time dilation... okay, picture someone traveling at the speed of light. Time will actually pass slower for that person relative to someone standing still."

"Dude, I'm even more confused," Beast Boy whined, throwing his hands in the air. Their game was all but abandoned, a red zero sitting unchallenged on the top of the pile.

Cyborg shook his head, but allowed with reasonable fairness, "Yeah, this stuff is pretty complicated."

Starfire put a hand on Katara's shoulder, taking off her shuttered shades so she could see the other more fully. "What I am trying to say, friend Katara, is that the time on your home world may not be the same as the time here. Please, do not punish yourself for something that is outside of your control."

Katara blushed under the other girl's intense scrutiny, ducking her head down embarrassedly. "Ah, alright... thanks."

Sokka slanted his head at them. He didn't understand half of the words they were talking about, but it was fascinating concepts. Though Starfire's explanation only served to describe how time could potentially work differently depending on where you were (slower, faster, or the same), there was still no solid confirmation that such a theory applied to their dimension too. Still, she was right that it was basically out of their control—what was within their power was confronting (not-)Zuko and researching ways to get back. They could take a day to really center themselves... they might just need it.

"I believe the turn is yours," Starfire told Katara gently.

She smiled at the group of strange but friendly heroes. "Yeah," she whispered, "my turn," and placed a wild card on the top, face-up, "I think I'll go with... blue."

On the other side of the room, Raven and Aang were also talking about spacetime and dimensions, just in different terms.

"The monks said that the Spirit World is a parallel plane of reality that coexists alongside the physical world."

"And you've been there?" Raven asked curiously, taking a sip of her warm tea and feeling at peace. She was floating in place with her legs crossed, while Aang sat opposite from her on the couch. "What was it like?"

Aang thought about it before saying quietly, his knees pulled up to his chest, "It was... scary. I didn't know what was happening. I hadn't been with the monks long enough for them to explain that I wouldn't have my bending. The first time I went into the Spirit World, it was an accident. I was just trying to save my friend."

Raven softened, putting a hand on the thirteen year old's shoulder. "That does sound frightening."

"Then I met my past life, Avatar Roku," Aang continued, his voice slightly muffled, "And he told me I had to defeat the Fire Lord before this comet arrives that's going to give the Fire Nation unimaginable power."

Raven didn't need to be an empath to feel the overwhelming sadness and helplessness from the young airbender. "That's a heavy burden to bear," she reflected back.

Aang looked up at her, his grey eyes glassy. "I know you might not believe me after what happened this morning, but Zuko, he's my firebending teacher. He's a good person. He saved me even when he was trying to capture me—he's always been a good person, he just didn't know how to show it."

Raven didn't say anything, watching Aang with a look of open consideration. The situation was complicated, but she trusted Robin's judgement on this; the Titans' leader suspected there was more going on behind the scenes, and she agreed. The one they had fought did not seem the same as his friends, from his abilities to his behaviors. She hoped they would have more information tomorrow that could clear everything up. She knew what it was like to be considered an outcast, something dangerous and to be feared, and she wanted to believe that Aang was right about his friend.

"We saw the Old Masters together," the other boy continued without waiting for her input, "They're these two dragons that showed us that firebending is not just destruction and death, but life. He hasn't told anyone this, but sometimes, when he thinks I'm not looking, he makes his flames have these really pretty rainbow strands in them, like streams of confetti."

With a sniffle, Aang looked up at her, smiling wobbly. "I'm sorry, you had asked about the Spirit World."

"That's okay, Aang," she smoothed over. "But, would you like to meditate with me? We don't have to talk about this anymore, but maybe it would help calm your mind. Meditating has helped me when I feel overwhelmed by my emotions."

"I would like that," he answered, sounding so much older than the young monk she saw in front of her. "I would like that very much."

So together, they mirrored each other's meditative poses, closing their eyes and breathing in the sweet floral perfume of the jasmine leaves. Their friends' background laughter and shouting from the kitchen table disappeared in the calming sound of an ocean's wave, swashing against the shore, only to return to the ocean and repeat the process, starting again. The wave always crashed, coming and going, but the water faithfully remained.

The elevator dinged on the fourth floor, interrupting the peaceful atmosphere. Robin headed purposefully for the unidentified door at the end of the hallway, holding the cracked theater mask in one hand. The steel door opened with little fanfare, and he walked through the rows of glass-encased items with little attention. There was something in particular he needed to see.

He stopped in front of the broken sword, a twirling nebula of red and orange catching his eye. The dimensional cutter, Raven had called it, citing it as the reason their new friends were stranded here, stolen from their home. He held up the cheap theater mask, staring at the two next to each other. Together. He wondered what the connection was, with everything that had happened so far.

...The H.I.V.E. stealing the weapon, but trying to mask it by stealing everything else too. Then, their trap at the shopping mall, where their waiting villain had mentioned Slade with blasé indifference. There might be two masterplans here from two different starting points, plans that had started parallel but then gotten crossed when he wasn't looking close enough.

Next to the shimmering starlight of the blade, the cheap festival oni mask leered at him, the horns sharp and rough only to be disrupted by the cracked web, shattering the porcelain's smooth surface.

Was Slade trying to cross over to the Avatar's realm, or was he trying to call them to his world? With a sigh, Robin set the mask down, leaning it against the glass frame. Hopefully, tomorrow they would get some more answers to these questions that were dogging him.

"Robin."

With a distracted "Hm?" Robin turned around, expecting to see Cyborg asking him why he hadn't joined them for their card game. Instead, he was alone—the hallway was silent, and there was no one else in the Evidence Room besides himself. Was... he hearing things?

The Boy Wonder turned to look at the mask again, and then his eyes traced up to the broken half of the sword. His mask narrowed. Though he hadn't seen it happen up-close, he knew that the centipede demon had appeared around when the blade had cracked. A centipede demon that had looked like it had a Noh mask for a face—

"Robin."

"Robin!"

He spun around, two birdarangs suddenly between his fingers. Beast Boy blinked at him, and slowly lifted his hands, his eyebrows raised, "Dude, chill. It's just me."

Robin relaxed from his stance, taking a step towards his teammate. He didn't look back at the mask. "Sorry, I thought I heard something."

"Nah, it's cool," his young teammate replied easily, falling into step next to him, "Sorry for startling you."

"You didn't."

"Sure, sure," Beast Boy said, waving a dismissive hand in the air. He punched the button for the Main Ops floor. "We finished playing Uno. Want to help us pick out a movie?"

"Cyborg sent you, didn't he?" Robin guessed, stepping out of the elevator and walking down the corridor with light steps. "Probably wants to make sure I'm not obsessing over strategies," he added dryly under his breath.

Beast Boy looked over at him with a genuine smile, not opening the door just yet. "Maybe. But it's nice when you can join us for movie night—when the whole team gets together! And this time, we have some new friends joining us."

Robin nodded, tossing the changeling a small smile of his own. His team wanted him there with them, so who was he to say no. "They've never seen a movie before right? That should be fun."

Beast Boy perked up, his eyes widening at the new possibilities. "You're right! This changes things... I wonder what would be best.. Clash of the Planets... or, no..."

They pushed open the door, joining the rest on the couch. The buttery smell of popcorn filled the room, and outside, the moon steadily rose in the sky, bright through their windows.

Somewhere, in a unknown location...

The two masked villains regarded each other evenly, shrouded in darkness save for the streams of moonlight from the rounded, open-air skylight. The cosmos crowned them from above, magnificent and merciless.

"The Titans are still alive," Slade said, his voice monotone. The copper half of the mask glinted when he tilted his head questioningly, "I thought we had a deal."

"The Avatar," the one dressed as a young monk replied without moving her lips, like the ghostly howling of the wind in white-out blizzard conditions. Her hair was parted in such a way that the tip of a blue arrow was just visible over the puckered, burnt skin, and the smoky, acrid perfume of ash followed her leisurely, clinging to her every move. "He's working with your Teen Titans now."

The other masked villain considered her blankly. After a considerable moment of quiet, he finally leaned forward, his hands steepled in front of his chest. "Then it appears our goals are now aligned."

"Yes, it does appear so," she answered, not looking up from where her attention now rested. The broken blade glimmered, mirroring the starlight from above. Her home was nestled in a nebula there, somewhere in the vast blackness of space.

With a touch of amusement, he continued, "And have you finished your final project?"

"It is done."

Slade's mask showed no emotion, hiding his face in a cold, metallic shield, but inside, deep below, there was a cruel smile twisting his lips. "Good. We will expedite our plans. The Teen Titans will fall, and they will bring Jump City with them."

"The Avatar," she repeated, like a hiss through the crumbling floorboards of a dilapidated house, "he's mine."

"Of course," he agreed easily. "The child is yours to take, but later. Right now, we need them alive."

She ran a chalky finger along the sharp edge of the blade, pushing hard enough to draw blood, but her hand remained uninjured and the blade remained unsoiled. Faintly, they could hear a buzzing, a shrill, relentless whine. "For now," she returned simply. "...For now."

.◄◅...▻►.

Author's Note: Please, Read and Review. ~~Enjoy the rest of your day!~~

UPDATE: this was re-written 1/13/23. Not my favorite chapter, but a good launching off point.