"That dragon, Malchior, is still nowhere to be found," Cyborg announced after Robin had returned to the waiting room and sat down. "You'd think it'd be easier to find a bus sized, flying lizard."

"You'd think," Robin agreed with a simple shrug as he sank back against his seat, his unseen eyes focused on the ground.

"You know, Titan's East offered us to bunk up with them until we have time to fix the tower. I wouldn't mind stayin' with the twins and I'm sure you and Speedy have a lot of hair gel secrets to catch up on."

He threw his friend a playful smirk but he wasn't even sure if Robin caught it.

"You can go if you want, I'm fine where I am. I wouldn't want to burden them."

"You know I'm not gonna just leave you here by yourself."

Robin only shrugged in reply.

Cyborg sighed. Their leader was impossible to deal with anymore if Starfire wasn't around. The two sat in silence in the dark room for what felt like hours. Cyborg was lucky that his room remained mostly intact after that battle with the dragon. He made sure he had enough backup power so that he wouldn't need to sleep for the next week or so, and he knew Robin was a master at staying up through the nights. This could turn into a very long night of silence if he couldn't think of something to say.

"Beastboy and Raven will be okay," Cyborg said at last, though he wasn't all that sure why he said it. None of them had really sat down and talked since their friends were taken. For Cyborg at least the past few days had just been a blur of communicating with other Titans and trying to track down any known leads. Sadly, what few criminals that weren't frozen statues had nothing to do with Blackfire or her plan, whatever it was.

"I'm not worried about them," Robin replied, breaking Cyborg from his train of thought.

"You're not?" Cyborg asked, genuinely surprised. 

Robin shook his head. "They are both very capable fighters and, whatever Blackfire has planned, I don't think it involves hurting them. Well, at least not killing them."

"And why do you think that? You know something I don't?"

Robin shrugged again. "Not really. But Blackfire fits the bill of an intellectual manipulator. She could just be using Beastboy and Raven as hostages to keep us from going after her."

"So, sending Starfire might be a bad idea after all?"

"Maybe, but unless she can contact Starfire before she reaches her home planet she won't be able to stop her from joining with her people, then Blackfire will be at a major disadvantage."

"But Blackfire has Raven's communicator. If she's somehow keepin' tabs on us, she'll know that Starfire is heading for their planet. She'll be able to get to Starfire before she can make it."

"Not unless Starfire doesn't have this," Robin replied, holding up a Titan's communicator in his hand. For some reason, Cyborg was expecting some kind of cocky grin. There wasn't one.

"Dude, that isn't--"

"It is."

"What are you thinking? Without that--"

"Starfire won't be able to contact us—I know," Robin quickly interrupted. "But you remember how the Brotherhood of Evil got to us? The communicators are a double edged sword. If Blackfire managed to reconfigure them like the Brain did, not only would she be able to contact Starfire, she'd also have the capability of hunting her down."

Cyborg sat there, head in his hands for another moment or two, before looking back up at his leader. "Look, I get why you did it, but now if Star gets in trouble how are we even gonna know about it?"

"Because I placed a tracker on her about the same time I stole her communicator," Robin said, this time there was a faint ghost of a smile on his lips as he finally looked up at Cyborg. "It's that new one you built that syncs up with your systems."

"You mean the one I had locked up in my room?"

"Well, the lock was broken after that fight with Malchio,  and I thought we might need it sometime soon."

"Aw, man, don't tell me you knew Starfire was going to go off on her own this whole time."

"I just knew I wouldn't be able to stop her if she did," Robin said with a third shrug.

"So, the next best thing is to steal her communicator and stick her with my tracker like she's one of the bad guys?"

"...Yes."

"Dang, Robin, I can already tell you two are going to have a nice, long, and loving relationship."

"Starfire will understand when I explain it all to her."

"Yeah, not that you'd be able to do much explaining without her communicator."

Robin looked back over at Cyborg. "What about your tracker?"

"What? No..."

Robin's face went white. Cyborg stared back, his expression blank for only a moment.

"Are you serious, man? Why would I build a tracker that would allow me to communicate to the guy I'm trying to find?!" Cyborg exclaimed. "So I could be all like, 'hey, bad guy, mind sitting around a bit so I can catch up'?"

"Okay, okay I get your point," Robin shot, pinching the bridge of his nose. "But are you saying there is no way we can get in contact with Starfire now?

"Don't get me wrong, that tracker you put on her is probably the most state of the art device ever made. I can pinpoint her location anywhere on Earth and even anywhere our T-Ship has been, so as long as she's heading to Tamaran, we'll know exactly where she is. But as far as we are concerned, she is on her own."

Robin sat in silence then, fingers interlocked, his gaze obviously elsewhere. Cyborg long understood these as signs that his friend was in a very deep train of thought. It was soon broken when Robin focused back on his teammate across the room.

"Are there any other Titans that can go into space without a ship?"

"You see, I was just thinking the same thing, but the strange part is..." Cyborg then pulled up a  different monitor on his other arm, the one that acted as a communicator, "...the only guy I could think of is that Herald dude—You remember, the guy with the trumpet thing?" Robin nodded. "Yeah, anyways, he hasn't exactly been talkative since the fight with the Brotherhood, but he also hasn't answered any of my calls when I was contacting the Titans for info about what happened with BB and Rae."

"Something must have happened to him," Robin mused.

"That or we made a pretty bad first impression." Cyborg replied, switching off the communicator.

The two then sat in silence again for another few minutes until Robin suddenly stood up.

"Are there any villains that can enter space?" the boy wonder asked, looking over at Cyborg expectantly.

"Uhh, a few, maybe, why? You don't expect we can just unfreeze them and ask politely for help do you?"

"We won't need to ask them, we just need to ask a Titan," a smile then crept on Robin's lips.

"What--" Cyborg began when the same revelation hit him. "Oooh."

"What is the status of the T-car?"

"A little banged up, but nothing a little elbow grease and a few hours in the shop won't fix," Cyborg replied, now standing up too.

"Well, we better get started then." Robin started making his way out of the police doors.

"Uh, Robin, you sure we should leave?" Cyborg questioned, motioning to the small gathering of police officers that were knocked out in the corner of the room. "What about those guys?"

"I didn't hit them hard; they should be awake with only minor headaches in a few hours."

"You know, we're going to eventually have to explain why a dragon flew out of our tower and nearly destroyed half the city."

Robin's eyes were on the ground again. He glanced over at the cuffs that lay broken near the chair legs.

"I know, Cyborg, let's just deal with one disaster at a time though, alright?" He then looked up at his friend to see the half metal man looking back at him before Cyborg gave him a helpless smile and shrug.

"Whatever you say, man. The sooner this nightmare is over the sooner I can go back to sleep in hopefully one piece. Let's go save Raven and the grass stain."

Robin nodded and, with that, the two remaining Titans left the police station.

...

The 36th child that I took

The 36th mother that I shook

The 36th father I killed with a hook

How frightened do you look

Oh 36th child that I took

Do your eyes be spoiled?

Do your pants be soiled?

On how little I toiled

How hot the bodies boiled

They tasted oh so sweet

Red blood and raw red meat

You sat there at my feet

Watched me as I eat

Eyes unspoiled

Nor pants even soiled

A smile you had, on that bright face

A smile, I dare, I shall not waste

We took you, She and I, with great haste

To new home, new friends, and new life...to taste

"Fixit, wait man, just wait!" See-More cried out almost as soon as we flew from the darkness. The momentum carried through my teleportation, sending See-More bounding onto the large, soft bed, and I face down on the hard stone floor.

I glanced up from my painful position to see See-More seemingly struggling with himself, or more accurately, his large mechanical eye, on top of the bed. I considered trying to help him in some way when he cried: "Kyd! Don't let me see you! Fixit's in control right now and he's trying to kill you, man! He thinks you're the enemy!"

With that fair warning, I kept my body firmly against the ground, while keeping both eyes on my former teammate as he thrashed around the bed. Various large, plush pillows fell like rain from the bed as he struggled, the great purple blankets thrashing around like they were alive.

"Fixit! Cut it out, man, it's cool, we're cool!" See-More was saying between grunts. "Look, let's just--No, wait! Don't shoo--!"

See-More was cut off when a bright red laser  fired out from his eye. I watched as See-More lost control of the eye. It immediately swiveled on its own when it was free of See-More's hands, the laser moving across the room with it, searing through furniture and paintings as it went. I immediately rolled across the floor and under the bed, hoping that I wasn't caught. The piercing sound of the laser stopped then, and I was about to let out a breath of relief when See-More's voice cried out: "Kyd Wykkyd! He switched to x-ray! He knows you're under the--!"

See-More was cut off again as the laser kicked back on, scorching through the bed and hitting the spot I had just been hiding less than a second ago. I stood up as soon as I rolled from under the bed. I could see See-More desperately try to remain lying on the bed, but as the laser cut through beneath him and the giant piece of furniture finally caved in on itself. 

The laser immediately stopped, but I barely had time to grip my cape before See-More's eye re-positioned itself to face me. The laser fired just as I pulled the cape around me and I felt a white hot pain reverberate from my right ear. I reappeared from the darkness hitting one of the bedroom walls, though the impact was nothing compared to the pain coming from my ear. I reached up to grip it only to feel nothing there.

What remained of my cowl fell down around my neck, the part that once concealed my now missing ear was gone, too. I screamed silent screams of pain. I did not have long to mourn my loss.

"Kyd Wykkyd! He found you again!" See-More cried and I leapt without really looking, narrowly avoiding another laser to the face.

"Fixit, stop it! Just...REMOTE CONTROLL OFF!"

Suddenly, the laser noise vanished again. I immediately jumped back up, preparing to vanish again, but when my eyes found See-More,my fellow thief was lying among the rubble of bed. His eye was looking back at me, but not with the intention to kill.

"I'm sorry, man. So sorry. Fixit. I turned him off," See-More said through heavy gasps of air. I could only nod back before falling back on my butt. 

Subconsciously, I reached for my ear again, hoping against hope it might have come back. All I felt was a singed nub before the pain forced me to retract my probing fingers.

"Oh, man!" See-More exclaimed. I looked over to see that he had noticed my missing part as well. "Did Fixit really blow off your ear?! Aw, man, I'm so sorry, so so so sorry!"

See-More then carefully stood up from the splintered remains of bed and made his way over to me. I gripped the cloak with one hand, but See-More quickly held up his own hands in defense.

"Hey, man, it's okay. It's okay, really. I turned Fixit off. I'm back in control now."

I looked back at my teammate with a raised eyebrow, using one hand to cup over the burning stub of ear. I was hoping it wouldn't take him long to realize that I was missing something, besides my ear.

"Oh, right! Dude, oh man, some crazy stuff happened while you were gone. Like not what'd you ever believe, man...huh."

See-More then looked at me with a very confused expression in his eye. There was a literal question mark. I looked back into it and could see my reflection. With my hood now gone, my pale gray face was even more visible, but what's more it revealed my...my...

"Dude! I didn't know you had white hair, or pointy ears--ear."

I shot him a dirty look then, but I didn't hold it long. I was too distracted by the whole white hair deal. It was black just days ago.

"I thought only old guys had white hair, man. Are you sure you're a teenager?"

I could only shrug. I honestly had no clue at this point. I reached out to grab one of the longer strands of hair, but I made the mistake of doing it with the wrong hand.

"Whoa, dude, DUDE!" See-More cried out as he bounced slightly away from me. I looked from him to my extended, clawed, hand, and back again. "Is that a...a...claw?"

I nodded.

"And that wasn't there before, right?"

I paused, but quickly decided to shake my head. Truth or a lie, it wasn't like I had to explain myself to him anyways.

"Dude, how'd that happen?! I mean, I know you can't tell me but, uh, did one of the Titans do it? Was it Raven? Blackfire? Dude, you have to tell me!"

I could only shake my head and then finally shrug, resulting in an unhappy sigh from my former comrade.

"Well, then, I mean, are you alright? Like, that thing doesn't hurt, does it?"

I looked back down at the claw. I never really had time to examine it this closely before. I could see that the tips had torn through the fabric of the gloves. They were pitch black in color and made me really against taking off the rest of the glove to see what was underneath. Other than that, it just felt like a regular hand. I shook my head in response to See-More's question.

"Oh, well, that's good, I guess," See-More mumbled before falling silent for a second. His eye quickly lit up in an exclamation point. "Oh, dude, right! You still don't know what all went down! So, like, we were at the Tower, right? And Blackfire and Fixit were trying to figure out how to unlock the Titan's ship so we could leave, right? Oh, and I had to fight Raven after she escaped, how did she escape anyways, man? Oh, never mind, anyways, so there we were in her room..."

See-More then began to delve into everything that happened after they left me with Raven, though he didn't get very far when another voice suddenly invaded my head.

Kyd Wykkyd.

I immediately recognized it and immediately knew what to do next.

Fixit, what the hell?!

Keep your face and emotions in check. Do not let See-More know that you are being distracted.

To hell with you! You blew off my ear!

And if you do not control yourself, I will take control of See-More and incinerate more than just your ear. Now, act natural.

The unfamiliar anger in Fixit's voice shook me from my own anger for a moment, which gave me enough time to realize See-More had paused in his story and was giving me a strange look. I quickly shook my head to tell him it was nothing before motioning with my clawed hand for him to continue.

Alright, we're good, I thought as See-More picked back up where he left off. Now, are you going to explain to me why you were trying to kill me?

I was not trying to kill you, I was merely attempting to sear off an arm or a leg to rend you incapable of escaping. If it were not for See-More's attempts to stop me, you would not have been in fear for your life.

Okay, and why were you trying to sear my arms and legs off?

Perhaps because you have betrayed us.

I...that collar that was around my neck. Num-- Blackfire threatened to have it kill me if I didn't do what she wanted--

Yes, I know, I was the one who designed it for her.

Well, she told me to find you, See-More, and Red-X--Where is Red-X? And you?

Ah, I suspected as much. I hypothesized that we might be hunted down, so I forced us to split apart. Red-X left us and I am a part of See-More now.

So, you are, like, in his head or something?

No, to put it simply, I am a hyper-advanced upgrade that See-More's hardware has received. I am a part of his eye, not of him.

So, could you communicate with him too?

Yes.

And? Have you?

No.

Why?

There was silence then and I quickly took that opportunity to nod and appear that I was still listening to See-More's story, which from what I could pick up sounded very interesting. I would have to remember to somehow ask him to tell it again when I could actually listen.

Blackfire is planning something. I do not know what it is. And shall I assume she has not divulged it to you?

I was about to shake my head, but quickly stopped myself, knowing it would more than likely confuse the still talking See-More.

No.

From what I have gathered, her plan involves heavily on us being alive and in her custody.

So, she was never in any trouble then? She went through all this effort just to get us to her planet? How did this happen? Why us? Why choose to involve us?

I am not entirely sure. Kyd Wykkyd, something is troubling you.

Well, yeah. Just found out that I'm getting stabbed in the back.

No, it is more than that. I can feel your thoughts. You are more than angry, you are hurt.

Fixit, please, don't look into this more than you should.

Normally, I would not. But I fear anything more hidden between us will only hinder our escape from this planet. Now, I know everything there is to know about See-More, Red-X is no longer an issue now that he is on his own, but if you still wish to join us, I must know everything, Kyd Wykkyd.

I let the silence drag on then. I even focused back on what See-More was saying.

"...and we totally crashed on the planet, man! I didn't get too banged up, neither did Fixit or Raven really, but Red-X was in pretty bad shape. Oh, man, it was nuts! When I woke up, we were all in some small cave thing and another one of the Titans was there and about to attack Red-X! Naturally, I came to the rescue..."

Kyd Wykkyd.

I knew Blackfire, alright? I really had to fight to keep in control of my face now. I had been doing my best not to think about the past. I had been upset whenever I thought on what happened before, but now? Me and her were a part of this secret cult. I didn't even know she was an alien at the time. She must have had make-up on or something. But yeah, I was kind of friends with her until she left the place. I haven't seen her since, well, since today.

I sense that you are not telling me everything.

Just trust me. That's all you need to know.

I see. Now, do you mind explaining to me what has happened to your hand?

What do you mean?

Do not play dumb. It was not clawed the last time I had seen you. Did Raven or Blackfire do this to you?

No. I, well, I guess you can say I did this to myself.

Please, do explain.

Is it really that important?

Kyd Wykkyd--

Alright, alright. It's my cape. When I use it to teleport I have to do it with bad intentions, otherwise it, um, corrupts me.

How would an inanimate object know such a thing?

Probably because it's not exactly inanimate. The person I got it from apparently made a deal with a demon to get it herself.

You knew this yet you continue to use it?

I didn't know until just a few days ago, when I was trapped inside Raven's head.

Oh?

Oh, right, none of you know about that either. We have a lot of catching up to do.

This is true. Unfortunately, I fear my time has run out. See-More is preparing to finish his relation of past events and you two must then begin to plan our escape.

What? Why can't you help us?

Because See-More must not know I can communicate with him. Currently, he believes I have simply been reduced to a program in his hardware and that would be the story he tells Blackfire should she capture him. If Blackfire believes my conscious is all but gone, that is one more advantage we have.

So why let me know you're still alive?

Two reasons. One, because I will need someone to salvage this hardware in case See-More falls. And two, because I believe you deserve a chance to explain yourself before I killed you.

Ah, so, are we still on the same side?

Your head is still on your shoulders, is it not?

With that, I knew Fixit would remain silent. Emotionless or not, I knew he enjoyed scaring people.

"...and Fixit was dying man, dying. I think he said something about downloading into me? I don't know, but I thought he'd be okay after that, like he would be able to talk in my head and stuff, but I just get these warning and suggestion messages all the time about what I should do or whatever. He can even take control of my eye, man! If it's even him, or like a program based off him or something, it's really fast. Faster than I could ever move it around! But, right, man, you were there! Sorry again about that. I thought Fixit was after you or something, but if he was, you know, really here he wouldn't ever attack you like that, we're all friends! But, yeah, I guess the program just saw you as a threat for some reason. I guess I'll have to be careful with it around you, man. But yeah, so after that Fixit or the program or whatever totally kicked the two Titans butts! With my help, of course, but then Blackfire, that big guy, and you showed up and then we were all captured and then we all got free and then you tackled me. And, well, I guess you know all that and the rest."

I nodded and See-More took a minute to catch his breath before smiling at me and standing up. Keeping my hand clamped around my missing ear, I stood up with him. We then finally decided to take a look around the room we had just a few minutes ago been sort of fighting in.

"Is this like a bedroom or something?" See-More asked out loud.

It was Number 26's bedroom. I thought with a satisfied smile.

"Oh, man, is that...outside?!" See-More exclaimed as his eye fell over the large window that had been smashed open by a stray laser. The thief than ran over to step out in the porch, being mindful of the shards of glass that now littered the ground. "It's not Earth, but it's a lot better than being in that dungeon place any longer!"

I made my way over until I was standing on the porch with See-More. I could see the sunrise beginning way off in the distance, though it looked like more than one sun was rising.

"Do you think Blackfire even had a way of freeing our friends?" See-More randomly asked as we stood out there.

I turned to him, surprised that I had not been thinking the same thing. I could only shrug, my desire to kill unsurprisingly growing stronger. See-More's smile was all but gone as he kept his gaze on the multiple rising suns.

"She got you out though, for whatever reason, she's got to know how to do that again. Do you think Fixit helped her do it?"

I wanted to shake my head, if Fixit had the technology to free our friends, I was sure he would have told me while we were talking. Again, I could only shrug.

"Then we force it out of her," See-More said, he then let out a groan before smacking his eye a few times. "Enough with the warnings! Kyd, before we get out of here, we have to get Blackfire to tell us how she freed you. Man, we can't have gone through all of that and get nothing, that's not how we do things!"

See-More was then looking at me and I was looking back at him. His costume was torn in multiple places, the exposed part of his face was caked in orange and red dust and dirt, his eye, although apparently fully functional, was still cracked and damaged looking. For the first time, I could see how worn and beaten my comrade really looked. And I could see in the reflection in his eye that he was seeing the exact same person standing before him. 

In a single motion, I placed my last remaining normal hand on my comrade's shoulder before giving him the best smile I could muster. See-More quickly smiled back.

"That's it then, man! Let's go hunt us an alien princess!"

As See-More turned around, I had to let my smile vanish. Righteous or not, revenge or not, not matter how badly I wanted to stop the bitch's heart from beating, I knew this was going to suck.

...

Starfire could not stop kicking herself for leaving her communicator behind. It was bad enough she had waited so long to even attempt to use it. Robin would be furious with her whenever she got back home, even if she had Raven and Beastboy with her.

But it was too late to turn back now. Already, Tamaran was within her sights. Starfire couldn't help but allow a smile to fall on her lips, despite her current troubles. Even though it really had not been that long since she had last been at her home planet, she still missed it all the same.

Now that was strange. Starfire could not remember her people ever guarding the perimeters of Tamara. Nor could she remember the guards ever wearing such extravagant looking purple armor.

Even stranger still was the fact that they were now approaching her, at a very rapid speed, with long, sharp, and elaborate looking spears.