CHAPTER V

The ominous dark clouds poured rain heavily across the paved city floor. It was pitch black and for a mere second, a bright flash of lightening cracked a slit in the sky. With that, a pale girl with eyes closed could be seen standing in the middle of an empty street letting the heavy rainwater cascade over her icy skin.

The flash of light vanished almost as quickly as it appeared and the darkness enveloped the atmosphere once more. Yet, the girl continued to stand there without moving a facial muscle. The loud roar of thunder consumed all sound and a small tear started to roll down her left eye, which was then rapidly washed away by the force of the incoming water still falling upon her.

Then, a faint yellow light emerged from the darkness.

She couldn't see the light as her eyes were still shut, but she could feel it. Somewhere deep down where her mind never allows her to go. That abysmal place that was never acknowledged felt the warmth of the golden illumination slowly igniting a fire deep within.

The need to explore more of this soothing and pleasuring light overtook her senses. Her eyes slowly began to open as water continued pouring down. She squinted, but there it was. The warm yellow light continued drifting closer and closer to her.

A familiar voice was then heard softly through the sound of the crashing sound of the dense rain droplets.

"I need you Raven," the wholehearted voice called to her drawing her hand to reach out to touch it.

She used her free hand to hastily block the raindrops falling down to make a clearer picture of what was in front of her. Garfield…

The half demon felt her throat choke up as she heard the only words she wished to never receive.

"I'll always find you Terra," Garfield's merciless voice filled the air.

The light rapidly vanished only leaving behind a dark and rainy scene.

Raven's pale knees hit the floor as the ground started to crumble away. "Garfield…," she lightly whispered as she began sobbing into her hands.

Minutes earlier.

"Koriand'r!" a chuckling black haired leader currently with his spandex suit half way off grunted as he broke into laughter.

The Tamaranian woman snickered softly as she was presently straddling him as he lay on his back awaiting a quick massage. The energy orb she held above his lower back was deliberately growing larger and warmer.

"Does it not feel sensational, Dick?" she mischievously teased.

His back muscles tensed. "Koriand'r, what in the world are you doing. I don't think I have ever felt…. It's tingling and it's travelling..." he tried finishing as she umped up the energy waves. "Kori!"

"Ooh, is that not what your people call a nickname?" She let out a small chuckle knowing exactly what she was doing. "I like it. Dick, this is how my people help each other alleviate stress after a long day of battle," she finished.

Dick moved his right hand to grab the nearest pillow to dig his face into. "The warmth is travelling lower," his muffled voice trailed off to a yearning whisper.

Starfire's grin grew from cheek to cheek. "My dearest Dick, there are a lot of things that I have been dying to do to you since I met you," she stated in a rather carnal tone. The large muscular man beneath her released a low longing growl into the pillow inviting her to continue.

With that body response, she hastily closed her fist and halted the warmth of the energy orb.

A head of jet-black hair impatiently pulled up from the pillow in confusion. "Koriand'r?" He placed his elbows on the bed allowing him to turn and face the orange alien.

She quickly stood up and put her finger to his mouth trying to detect something. "Do you hear that, Dick?"

He gazed at her in confusion. At that very moment he honed in on his hearing and there it was, soft screaming increasingly getting louder and louder. How did I miss that?!

"That's Raven!" Koriand'r shouted running to the door as fast as she could. They both sped off in the direction of their distressed team member.

Now

They made it to their destination under fifteen seconds all to find the door completely locked. Nightwing forcefully kicked the door down as Starfire ran through to find their floating comrade wallowing in pain in her sleep, still suspended above her bed.

"Raven! Wake up!" Nightwing yelled trying to frantically shake her out of her sleep. The only response came from the windows on her wall beginning to form cracks.

A sudden burst of dark energy appeared from her chest and began forming a vortex. Air started to get pulled in a twister formation.

"Kori! End it NOW!" Nightwing shouted in disbelief. Starfire charged up a starbolt and shot it directly at her left temple.

A large blast erupted breaking all the windows in the room followed by her body dropping back onto her mattress. The Tamaranian quickly appeared next to the motionless body. "Raven! I am so sorry! Please wake up!" Starfire whimpered.

The half demon opened her eyes in perplexity. "What…what's going on? Why are you both here?!"

The worried couple quickly looked into each other's eyes looking for the right way to explain what just occurred.

Starfire slowly responded, "Raven, we heard you screaming from Nightwing's room. Your voice sounded like you were being attacked."

Nightwing hastily chimed in, "You were having a nightmare of some sort. Is this the first time this has occurred? What's going on?"

Raven curled up her legs on the mattress as the images of her dream started coming back to her. "It's…. my mind... I haven't been sleeping lately and this is why," she gloomily replied.

The team leader opened his mouth to demand answers when he felt his girlfriend place her hand on his back in an attempt to hold off his response. Starfire took a step forward, "Raven, you should have told us. I am so sorry that you have been dealing with this by yourself."

The pale young woman raised her hands in disbelief as she scanned her surroundings. "I am so sorry, I didn't mean to cause this destruction. I haven't slept in over six days," she replied drowsily.

Nightwing took a quick scan of the damage done in the room and nodded, "No need to apologize, but you do need to get an adequate amount of sleep Raven. Is there anything we can do to help?"

Starfire squeezed her hand knowing Raven wouldn't budge. She turned to face Nightwing. "I want to stay here with her for the night, if that is okay with you Raven," she commented as she turned to make eye contact with her friend.

Raven sighed knowing this was more of a demand that a request. She also knew that maybe having a friendly and positive presence could possibly help balance all the negative she recently subconsciously experienced.

The lavender haired girl smiled as she lightly let her weight fall back onto the mattress. "That's fine, but no accidental spooning. I've seen what risqué positions you two end up in when you both pass out on the living room sofa," she replied with an exhausted smile attempting to deflect the conversation from her.

Nightwing lightly let out a nervous chuckle scratching the back of his hair. "Sounds good, I need to go change anyways," he stated lowering down to give Starfire a quick peck on the lips.

In a sense, he was elated to have Starfire out of his bedroom. He had not gotten good quality sleep these past weeks since he suggested she sleep in his room. The first night he passed out in her room while talking late night. From that night on, he needed to feel her body next to his. They had yet to take anything further, as he recognized taking things slow was the only way to make his leadership and new romance concurrently work. He understood he had ultimate control over his mind, but he had come to learn that his body acted upon completely different impulses, especially at night.

Whether he woke up in the middle of the night from a sexual dream with her or he modestly woke up with his dick actually boning her fully clothed and sleeping body, he simply had lost track of what good quality REM cycles could accomplish.

The thought quickly left as he turned to face the door and exited the room. It was then when their communicator alarms started sounding. He quickly glanced at the incoming alert and read the information on the screen. Fuck, he inwardly groaned knowing there was never time for healthy sleep for anyone on his team.

Nightwing quickly grabbed the spandex, which was still half way hanging off his waist from the earlier massage, and swiftly suited up. "Sorry ladies, Cyborg and Garfield have encountered an intruder in the north portion of the energy corridor near the docks.

Starfire stood up, "Raven, you need to stay here. You are not of any help in your current condition. The tired woman replied by closing her eyes without a rebuttal. Starfire smiled, "I will be back as soon as I can." She made quick eye contact with Nightwing and quickly exited the tower.

Alarms filled the air with earsplitting sounds paired with bright flashes of red and yellow. It was nearly 3AM when the patrolling members of the team detected a break in the energy sector adjoining Jump City.

The green changeling morphed from bat form into hummingbird when he realized the alarms were too intense for his prior forms sensitive ears. He flew up several stories high in order to maintain a true bird's eye on the situation.

"Beast Boy!" yelled Cyborg from beneath. "Someone is jamming the signal which usually tells us the exact signal of the break in! Check the left two buildings! I'll meet you while I check out the next two to the right!"

Cyborg ran into the first building expecting an easy entrance but was confused when his typical routine was held up. My tech should override these doors; why aren't they opening? His thoughts shifted to running to the adjacent building and attempting to override his entry there. He ran closer and immediately noticed the same problem.

The half robot stood in perplexity. He irritably began manually hacking the system.

A deep revving engine came to a halt in front of the various buildings overshadowed by the noise the alarm system was still creating. Nightwing stepped off skimming the sky for his significant other.

She should have technically been here before me, odd.

He opened his communicator attempting to make a connection with the team's patrolling members of the night, Garfield and Cyborg.

The link was established. "Cyborg, report with your findings."

The deep but friendly voice replied," Beastie is currently searching the two left buildings northwest of this entire sectors perimeter. I am presently frustrated and stuck in what seems to be a security breach zone somewhere within the following right buildings."

Nightwing nodded his head. "Well find a way out soon. I lost Star on the way over here, but I am certain she is flying somewhere around here."

Cyborg released a small grunt in irritation. "I'm about to blast a hole through this damn door. I have to manually override every access point. It's almost as if someone anticipated my tech being here to open the place up for you guys. Your call wasn't even reaching me. I had to manually pick it up off the network."

The leader took his words into careful consideration. "The authorities have not been alerted of this break in. I checked their systems and it seems whoever is here has bypassed the system to go silent. I'll try the building directly north of yours. Nightwing, out." He found the fastest route to his given building and made his way.

Minutes later, Starfire finally made it to the coordinates given to her by Nightwing some 30 minutes ago. She was running late, but in her defense she had witnessed a small burglary on the way there. She simply took some extra time to apprehend the robbers and take care of the situation.

But, she was here now and it was now time to get up to date with what was occurring at the moment. She opened up her communicator and tried calling Nightwing.

What? Signal not available? I was not aware that this communicator was incapable of locating signal regardless of any location…

She ended her thoughts putting the communicator away. She scanned the area unable to see much. She quickly took back to the sky attempting to get a better view without the blinding flashing lights.

Once in the air, Starfire examined her surroundings and headed to the right building next to a large sitting satellite. She spotted a small air ducts opening near the corner of the building and figured she was small enough to fit right in. She started making her way to the air duct when the main entrance to the building swooshed open below.

For a second, she questioned the random opening of the door. But she then quickly dismissed it realizing Cyborg typically always opens the main doors to buildings as a way for the team members to easily get in.

She stepped into the dimly lit building as the entrance doors swooshed closed behind.

She pulled out her communicator once more to check if any signal had come through, however there had been no change.

Perhaps I can check if there is an open Wi-Fi connection? Although technology wasn't her main suit, she had learned quite a bit from the countless amount of technology ramblings that Cyborg and Nightwing partook in throughout the years.

She checked for open networks but everything seemed to be password protected. Reminder to self, ask Dick or Cyborg for hacking lessons, she mentally scolded herself.

She flew around for about 3 minutes up and down a few flights of stairs. She was about to enter a wooded door when she faintly heard energy beams being blasted from a few buildings to her left. The familiar buzzing noise that reverberated from the beams could only be one person. "Cyborg!"

The Tamaranian rushed out the building to find the source of the commotion. Back outside, she was able to see bright white lights being emitted from a larger flat building near the center of the energy corridor. There was already a hole made from an energy beam on one of the large windows. She used this crevice to fly in.

Upon entering, she immediately had to dodge an incoming blast from Cyborg's cannon. "Starfire!" yelled Cyborg from below. "Watch out! There are about seven of those robots from a while back!"

She nodded and flew down towards her comrade. "Are you okay?" she asked. Cyborg shook his head in response. "About ten minutes ago, I lost all contact with the other members. Something or someone is purposely jamming our signal. Then out of nowhere those robots attacked me. They opened up a hidden door that leads to a bottom floor, but the floor plan to what's beneath this building is not available in the blue prints on the building," he stated reading the blueprint on the screen on his left arm.

Starfire ran a quick hand through her thick hair. "Well, there is only one way to find out. I will go and catch up to them. Wait here for the remaining members."

Cyborg let out a quick sarcastic laugh, "You know damn right you ain't going anywhere by yourself. Last thing I need is Nightwing grilling me if you came home with a single scratch," he replied.

She raised an eyebrow. "Friend, I have always been able to take care of myself." Cyborg looked at her knowing she had a good point. "I'm going with you. Let's go."

Starfire sighed and found the access point to the wide and long spiraling staircase down. Cyborg reached his hand up as Starfire grabbed it lifting him into the air and flying directly down to the last floor.

She let him go a few feet from the tiled floor. "Thanks for the lift," he commented as he scanned the area for any additional information. "Nothing, I am not picking them up at all, although I am picking up a heat signature about 200 ft from this wall northwest to us."

Starfire glanced at the wall and exhaled deeply recognizing there were four doors, which could lead practically anywhere. "And you did state this entire area is not listed in any maps correct?"

Cyborg stepped closer to the designated wall. "That is correct," joining her as he greatly exhaled in annoyance. "I'll take the far left and you take the far right."

The tanned beauty nodded in agreement whilst pushing through her selected door.

She entered a long hallway and noticed the temperature dropped at least 30 degrees. Strange…

She continued to make her way for another 15 minutes on what seemed like a wild goose chase. She wasn't sure what she was looking for and as far as she could tell she wouldn't know how to precisely get back.

The current hall she was in had another four doors she could try but the large metal door directly ahead immediately caught her attention. She ran to it but realized it was electronically locked via the hand print reader slightly to her right.

Okay, I will learn to hack now if it is the last thing I do, she mentally berated herself once more in irritation. She knew she could easily either break the door down or fry the electronic pad, but she remembered Nightwing's earlier meeting about minimizing damage while on missions about two weeks ago.

She shrugged and turned around to see what the other doors might hold when a muffled yet loud explosion was heard from behind the metal door. Alright, goodbye keypad," she told herself as she lit a green starbolt and shot it at the electronic pad.

A short second later, the door zoomed open. Before walking through she noticed how there was no light beyond the door. She lit a small orb of light in her hand and carefully walked through. A few steps in she realized whatever made the explosion was perhaps in another room past this.

She lit her energy orb stronger in order to see more. She was about halfway through a large open room. The floor seemed to change in texture from the other rooms and hallways as well. She noticed another metal door about 30 ft away from her. She smiled picking up her pace.

This door involved turning a wheel-like lock in order to proceed. She placed her hands on it and started turning left. There was a large clock and the door slowly began opening when a large whirring noise above her activated followed by a large red beam shooting down at her. All the lights in the room turned on instantly.

The Tamaranian barely managed to dodge it in time by diving back. She fell back onto her rear when she realized the tile she was currently on turned red as the large laser that shot at her moments ago moved to that exact tiled square and shot again.

Starfire rolled to her right yet again dodging the intense beam, yet the squared tile she rolled to also turned red followed by the laser directly above moving to make another assault. She quickly charged up a starbolt and was about to shoot when a laser beam shot at her from her right.

"NO!" she tightly closed her eyes and yelled preparing herself for the worst when she felt an immense pressure roll her back behind the blasts. With her eyes squeezed shut she heard both laser shoot their beams.

She opened her eyes with the realization of her body firmly gripping the hard figure lying openly beneath her. Her face was buried in someone's chest. She quickly raised her head knowing the lasers would soon move.

Wait, what?!

The memorable white skulled mask stared directly into her while hastily shouting, "Get the top one and I'll get the other!"

The tile beneath them had already turned red and the beams were soon to follow. Starfire rolled off the man's body and aimed one hand above and the other to the right. In that split second both lasers were blasted as their metal parts shattered onto the floor.

Still lying on her back, she slowly let her arms fall to the floor finally processing the last 20 seconds. Red X leisurely made his way standing directly above her. He then crossed his arms. "I prefer you straddling me a different way, but who am I to complain."

She snickered at his usual egotistical remarks. She knew he was smugly smiling beneath that mask somewhere.

He extended a black-gloved hand in an attempt to help her up. She quickly accepted and was standing next to him. "Why are you here? I am assuming you are the heat signature Cyborg picked up a while ago."

Red X crossed his arms once more tilting his head up. "So your friends are here too. Interesting," he replied while putting his hand near her right hip marginally pulling her in closer. There was a brief ten-second silence.

What is he doing? She faintly thought to herself.

"It was nice seeing you again," his voice trailed off letting go of his hold on her. He turned around and began walking back towards the metal door with the wheeled-lock.

Starfire felt strange with that last comment from him. Why would he….she began thinking but quickly shifted gears. "Red X! Wait. Are you with those robots? They attacked Cyborg. Are you stealing something? You know I can't let you leave if you are."

He opened the door wide and took a step into the next room as he picked up a metal suitcase from the floor. "Look, I have no idea what you are talking about in terms of robots. I'm only here for this. I was about to make my way out of here when I heard that weapons room go off. I took a quick peek to see who managed to set the weapons off and that's when I saw you." He opened the suitcase and took out a red tube. He added it to the core processer in his suit and closed up the suitcase.

"Like I said, it was nice seeing you again," he distantly stated while walking away.

Starfire flew to his side grabbing the palm of his left hand as he stood still facing the other way. "Thanks for saving me back there."

Red X remained facing away from her. He swiftly took off his mask with his free hand.

Author's Note: Alright it's been a looooong time since I updated. So so so sorry about that. I was busy with school and making a Starfire cosplay. ***which by the way I completed ^_^ *** Anywho, I'll update super soon.