The Watchtower was often left uninhabited. There were so many problems to solve, and real lives to juggle, that the only people that permanently resided there were limited to Victor, Red Tornado, Martian Manhunter, and Harper. It seemed, at first, as if luring Cyborg out would be a fairly easy process...but luck was swiftly pitted against her. On this particular day the orbital structure was filled with Metahumans, and so any attempt to fake an attack near Amnesty Bay would be pointless. Victor would just send someone else, and Harper couldn't risk that potential threat to the security of her mission.

So, instead, she opted for continuing her work on Val. She had almost restructured the skeletal frame, and was hoping to have it done by the end of the day. Unfortunately, distractions were easily found when the Watchtower was so full of people.

"Omg! It's the robot girl!" A voice akin to nails on a chalkboard yelled from the Hangar entrance.

Harper didn't need to look over to know who was there, but she did so anyway with a somewhat fake smile crawling onto her lips. "Good to see you again, Beast Boy."

The green Metahuman morphed immediately into an eagle, and flew towards one of Harper's bigger suits known as 'Atlas'. He perched himself on its shoulder, then switched back again with a massive grin stuck to his face. "Can I ride it? Pretty pleeeeeease?"

"Leave her alone, Garfield." Victor's voice pierced through the air in response. He was leaning against the far wall, but Harper hadn't noticed that he was there. It made her wonder how she hadn't heard his large, metallic footsteps.

"Aww you're never any fun." The young boy whined, a frown quickly replacing his previous excitement. "She doesn't mind, do you?"

Harper rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "I...suppose not."

"See?!" Garfield yelled so loudly that it vibrated through Atlas' metal exterior. "Not everyone's as grumpy as you are, Cy."

The young boy clasped each leg around the robot suit's shoulder then hung upside down from it; like a monkey with no tail. Victor sighed and moved closer towards Harper. "Do you have to encourage him?"

"I'm not encouraging him, I'm distracting him." Harper explained. "What do you say we go and finish that date? There's a place near Amnesty Bay I wanted to check out."

The only human side of Victor's face seemed to scrunch in confusion at this suggestion. "Why?"

"Uh, maybe because our last one was interrupted by a massive missile?" She laughed light-heartedly, as if she'd completely forgotten her brush with death. "And I still don't know as much about you as I would like to. That was the whole point of the date, right?"

Victor didn't reply for another few moments. He looked like he was in the midst of his own thoughts, and then rather unexpectedly, the ghost of a smile quirked onto his lips. It was barely noticeable, but still there. "I...appreciate the effort, but I'll tell you anything you want to know."

Harper's brow furrowed. "Really? 'Cause you haven't been too forthcoming in the past."

"Neither have you."

Harper shrugged her shoulders and slumped into her seat. "Touché."

The subtler approach had clearly failed. She couldn't push the subject any further, otherwise her attempt to lure him into the A.R.G.U.S headquarters would be at risk.  On the bright side, Victor's willingness to speak to her so casually was fair confirmation that he truly had started to trust her. That would definitely save her some trouble.

Harper decided to sort through the plethora of questions that she could possibly ask a human turned alien machine, but before she could voice any of them she heard a squelching thump approaching on their position. She glanced up, and immediately recognised the chiseled face of Aquaman. He was completely soaked; leaving large puddles of sea water with each step that he took.

"Hey, your highness!" Beast Boy chirped, still swinging gleefully off the arm of Atlas. "I don't see you here very much... What ya up here for?"

Arthur raised his right hand, and inside was an oval shaped gem that sparkled like thousands of tiny stars. "Found a weird artifact. Thought I should stash it in the vault."

With all attention focused on the glittering jewel, no one, except maybe Victor, seemed to notice the brooding blonde that was slunking past the hangar. Her presence was suddenly known to everyone though when she slipped on the trail that Arthur had left behind with a loud yelp. Her mop of blond hair tumbled down like loose threads of yarn, scattering around her face and hiding the severe frown that embedded itself on her mouth.

"Oi! Fish Fingers!" Silvia Stone, apparently of no relation to Victor, yelled so loudly that it made Garfield jump in surprise. "Have you never heard of a fucking towel?!"

Arthur didn't appear too bothered by her comments. In fact, there was an air of pride that circled around him. As if he were glad that he had annoyed her. "Watch your step next time."

Silvia jumped up, fury turning her face several shades of red. Harper could almost see the steam ringing from her ears. "This is a floor, you giant piece of Narwhal shit, not an ocean. I shouldn't have to watch where I walk, the stupid ground shouldn't be wet in the first place!"

"Get me a towel then, if it bothers you that much."

"Unlike everyone else in your life, I'm not your damn slave. Bring Kaldur'ahm next time, he's basically your little boy servant." Silvia hissed, bottom half of her pants absolutely saturated from the fall.

Harper could tell that Silvia's words had hit a nerve. Arthur was two seconds away from starting a brawl inside of the Watchtower; one that he would, inevitably, win. Somehow he managed to suppress his more violent urges for long enough to be joined by the big blue boy-scout himself, Superman.

He stepped in, signature grin already stretched across his perfect face. "We all playing nice in here?"

"Arthur's being an ass." Silvia groaned. "Tell him to stop leaving water all over the floor."

"Tell her to watch where she's going." Arthur retorted lowly.

Clark's eyes darted from his friend, to his girlfriend, then back again. He sighed, then sucked in a large breath of air. Arthur's expression dropped. "Don't you dare..."

But it was too late. Clark blew out a cold influx of wind so powerful that, had she been closer, Harper would have been knocked off her chair and sent flying to the other end of the room. Instead, however, the only real effect it had was completely drying Arthur of his previously water-drenched appearance. The wet sheen of his armour dimmed dramatically, though didn't completely disappear, and his hair had been rendered to a puffy mess. It took every ounce of strength that Harper possessed not to laugh at the man's new hairdo, that quite frankly, made him look a little like a puffer fish.

Apparently Silvia and Garfield had no intention to hide their amusement, because as soon as it had happened, they both fell into hysterics. Their laughter filled the hangar, echoing off every wall and provoking an annoyed growl from Aquaman's throat. "Really Clark?"

Superman's smile never wavered. "Don't want anyone hurting themselves."

There was an immense smugness on Silvia's face that couldn't erased. As if praising her life partner for taking her side, she promptly patted him on the head like some kind of pet and hummed "Good boy."

As she skipped away, rather cheerful after watching Arthur become progressively more annoyed with her, the room was left in silence...all except for Beast Boy who was still snorting with laughter.

Arthur's gaze soon narrowed at Clark as he attempted to brush down his messy locks. "Still sure you wanna marry that psycho?"

"Marry?!" Victor suddenly interrupted. This reaction alone was enough for Harper to deduct that he wasn't the biggest fan of Silvia. "You can't be serious... You two are so incompatible that the likelihood of you two even stopping to speak to each other is practically none existent."

"Well, I haven't asked her yet." Clark said, ignoring the blaringly your obvious glares of disapproval that he was receiving. "Got to wait for the right time."

Harper was a lot less invested in this conversation than everyone else. She wasn't too fond of Superman. In fact, she held much more respect for people like Silvia; the ones that weren't afraid of harsh actions in dire circumstances. Superman just appeared, to her, as a man that was too idealistic. He had too much faith in humanity to see their many flaws.

"Want us to take that thing to the vault for you, Arthur?" Harper asked in a desperate attempt to leave the tense atmosphere.

The king flashed her a skeptical look, and instead tossed the unknown artifact in Victor's direction. Harper had the sudden thought that this was a bit careless of him until Cyborg caught it with little to no effort at all. It was a much needed reminder that Victor was difficult to take off guard.

As Cyborg left to secure the jewel, Harper trotted after him; listening to the sounds of Arthur groaning "Why do you always take her side?" and Clark swiftly replying "I don't always take her side..."

The vault wasn't too far from the hangar, and as they strolled there side by side, Harper deducted that it was probably the most opportune moment to test his trust in her. "So...you were serious about playing 21 questions with me, Robocop?"

Victor huffed in slight amusement. Apparently, he had suddenly decided to not take her nicknames seriously. "I told you that I'd answer anything you wanted to know. I wasn't lying, if that's what you mean."

"What's your processing power then?" Harper mused, nodding at Wonder Girl as she passed by.

"100 zettaFLOPS." Cyborg replied nonchalantly. "Is that really the first question you wanted to ask me?"

Harper halted and stared up at Victor in absolute amazement. "Are you kidding me? That's...incredible. We haven't even managed to create a computer with one ExaFLOP, let alone a zettaFLOP..."

Victor shrugged, seemingly not as impressed by his own technology as she was. "Yeah, I suppose."

Next, Black Canary dashed by. Her blue eyes darted to each room, as if she were searching for someone. Likely her husband, Green Arrow. As previously mentioned, the Watchtower was unusually packed. Harper's gaze followed her for as long as it would seem natural, then replied "You were expecting me to ask something more personal?"

"Are you not going to?"

Harper smirked. "Of course I am. How'd you meet the Titans?"

"Starfire crashed her ship. We all just happened to be in the area at the same time." Victor explained, surprising Harper with his honest reply. "We fought her, which is just as difficult as it sounds, and only came out of it alive because Starfire realised that we weren't her enemies. If you want to be technical, that was the second version of the team. The first was a sausage feat; Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad. They added Wonder Girl, Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy and I after that attack but Aqualad returned to Atlantis."

"Sounds like a decent team. Robin was the leader, right? Is there any reason why you chose him, of all people, to be in charge?"

"We didn't choose, it just seemed like the most natural decision." Victor sighed. "He may not have powers like the rest of us, but he was a good leader. The best we could have hoped for."

Another Metahuman sauntered around the corner just as they reached the vault. Hawkgirl didn't even seem to notice them as she continued down the hall. Harper crossed her arms as Victor unlocked the door with nothing but a glance in the direction of a security camera. Apparently, this was enough for the system to identify him and allow access.

"I'll take your word for it." She hummed with apparent skepticism. "How 'bout your parents? I never heard you talk about them."

Victor froze, briefly. As if her words were still being computed. It was clear that this enquiry made him uncomfortable. She had expected him to refuse answering this question, but for some unfathomable reason, he simply put the artifact down on a bare tabletop and answered "There isn't much to tell. My mom died in the same accident I was in...and I don't talk to my dad."

"Why not?"

The cyborg's human eye flickered downward; left to stare into the ground beneath them. "He... He's the one that did this to me. He made me a monster."

The atmosphere was suddenly much tenser than it had previously been in the hangar. "You mean he saved you."

Victor scoffed. "He didn't save me. He doomed me. You don't know him like I do. All he ever cared about was his research, not me...not even my mom. I was probably just some little pet project to further his ego."

"Why did he choose you then? Surely, if that was the case, he would have done this to someone else..." Harper rationalised. She could tell that Victor obviously had a rocky relationship with his father, but Victor was given a second chance. His father had done that for him.

"It doesn't matter what his intentions were. I'd prefer to be dead."

For the first time in a while, Harper felt slightly frustrated by his admission. Death was so final, and as someone who could see its scythe looming over her own head, hearing anyone disregard their own life simply wasn't acceptable. "You must have had a pretty spectacular life before the accident then, you know, if you think anything less isn't worth living for."

The man managed to glance over at her with his mismatched eyes. He looked confused by her comment.

"You were a star athlete, I know that much. Probably received quite a few college offers and had a pretty girlfriend that was relatively popular." Harper recounted everything she could recall from his room in Titans tower. It was a sad place to be. It belonged to a man stuck in an unreachable past. "That's the dream, at least for a teenage boy it is. But now, in this new life, you have the opportunity to make a difference in the world. To save people. To make their lives better...and you don't want it."

Cyborg shook his head. He didn't look angry despite what Harper had been expecting. Instead, he just appeared upset by the thought. "I didn't ask for this, and I never pretended to be a saint. If I had the choice to go back to my old life, or save a few in this one, I think you know which one I'd choose."

The small, broken remnants of a smile fell onto her lips. At first, this completely baffled Victor, but soon after she had leaned over and kissed the cool metal of his cheek. "Yes. I do know which one you'd choose. And no matter how much you try to deny it, you know as well."

She left after that; walking down that long winding hallway alone. Victor couldn't tear his gaze away. His heart had almost erupted in his chest at the memory of her closeness...he only wished he had felt the kiss that she had placed on the cybernetic side of his face. She was right, and it was hard to admit that to himself. He missed his old life, but preventing anyone else from suffering as he had was far more important than throwing an oval ball across a small field. He often forgot how clearly she saw through him and his constant fury; it made him feel like he was made of something translucent, like glass, instead of the advanced alien material that covered more than ninety-eight percent of his body. It was, honestly, a little aggravating...but of all the people he had met both before and after his accident, no one understood him quite as unconditionally as Harper Reid.