What drives you? What gives you purpose in this world, gives you the strength to go on? A voice questioned, though it sounded too far away to make out whose it belonged to.

I immediately knew the answer, it was so much a part of me that I believed this question to be completely pointless. If this person knew me, and they had to know me, then they already know what the answer is.

Thieving, I answered without a moment's hesitation, even saying the word out loud was enough to get my blood pumping. That's all I ever need in this world, as long as there's something to steal then there's something worth living for.

You do not believe this to be a simple purpose? Simply to steal? Does your heart and mind not desire more out of life, out of your own life?

No, I answered, even quicker than before, almost cutting off my questioner. It doesn't.

What of your feelings towards women? What of your desire for companionship? You know that you feel these feelings, do you not acknowledge them?

They are not real feelings; they are distractions. Nothing more than obstacles in my way.

So, is that why you chose to side with Robin, twice, and chose to help rescue Blackfire and work together with Kyd Wykkyd and See-More? They were obstacles, yet you chose to work with them, not go through them.

I only did those things to help serve me! I shouted back. I only worked with bird boy when I did because if I didn't then I would be in jail right now! I am only trying to rescue that alien and work with those two thief posers for the Zinothium! That's it! They are only obstacles and they are only getting in my way!

So then, why did you bother to drag See-More's corpse down with you? Surely his body was only getting in your way as well.

I feel silent at that, a cold chill running down the entirety of my body.

Just answer me one thing, Red-X, the questioner continued, his voice now sounding much closer and much more familiar. Who are you trying to convince? You? Or yourself?

Wh-

"-at?" Red-X finished out loud as he bolted up right from his slumber. Though, as soon as he did, a great pain immediately racked his rib cage and he quickly fell bad down against the rock bed, cursing and groaning in pain.

"Ah. You're awake," a stoic voice observed. Red-X glanced over in his pain and quickly caught eye of Fixit who was standing near some sort of cave entrance, a roaring fire crackling beside him. Though the thief quickly surmised that it was technically the exit as they were inside the cave itself.

"What happened to me?" Red-X managed to groan out, trying his best to lie still as to not disturb his pained body.

"You survived a spaceship crash, to put it simply," Fixit replied, red eyes fixed on the teen. "Though you have fractured several of your ribs, sprained your ankle, and have a minor concussion. I suggest that you stay awake for the time being."

"Oh, is that all..." Red-X sighed, carefully feeling his body with his hands.

"You should consider yourself lucky. Not many people make it out of such a collision with minor injuries."

"Speak for yourself," the thief returned, groaning again as his fingers traced over his ribs. A sudden thought however made him almost completely forget about his pain. "Hey, where's See-More? Is he...?"

"See-More is over there, by the cave wall." Fixit motioned his hand over by Red-X. The thief turned his head enough to see that See-More was lying down much the same way he was, though Red-X couldn't help but notice how still and motionless he was.

"Is he...dead?"

"No, he is just unconscious. In fact, See-More appears to have taken next to no injury from the crash. I suspect he managed to activate some sort of shielding mechanism before we made impact."

"You mean he isn't hurt at all?" Red-X asked, his masked gaze fixed on the slumbering thief.

"Not in the same way you are. His body may be unharmed, but I have no idea how badly his mind is damaged from the shock."

"Well, can't you just go into his mind like you did with..." Red-X trailed off when he noticed that Fixit's arms were simply hanging by his sides. No longer were they focused on keeping back the deadly powers of a certain Titan.

"Hang on. Where's the Titan? Don't tell me you lost her."

"I did not. Raven is sleeping right there beside you." Fixit pointed to the thief's immediate right, Red-X slowly turned his head to see that the mechanic was right and the purple robed Titan was dosing mere feet from where he lay.

"What the hell are you doing?! If she wakes up we are all going to be demon dessert!" Red-X exclaimed, trying to move away from the hero but only managing to agitate his damaged ribs even further.

"There is no need to get worked up," Fixit said over the thief's renewed groans of pain. "I managed to put the Titan in a deep enough slumber so that I do not require physical interaction to keep her under."

"Well, why didn't you do that before?" Red-X questioned as the pain slowly subsided, looking over at Fixit with an unseen, knowing look. "Enjoying the 'physical interaction' a little bit too much?"

"I was not able to do this by my own knowledge," the mechanic returned, his expression still as blank and unreadable as ever despite Red-X taunts. "As I sat among-st the ruined wreckage of the ship, a sudden wave of intellect emitted from the girl and provided me with the needed information and power to put her under for long periods of time. However, as soon as I had done this, the wave of intellect subsided, along with the information I used to sedate her."

"So what you're saying..." Red-X muttered, glancing over to the almost peaceful looking demon girl, "...is that this is only temporary?"

"What I am saying is that I need to find where Blackfire is being held before the Titan awakens."

"And how do you suppose we do that? In case you haven't noticed, your three partners are a little unprepared for taking a journey across some alien planet."

"I did not say anything about we, Red-X."

The thief and the mechanic shared a silent stare after that before Red-X spoke up again, slower this time. "Are you saying that you are planning to leave us in this cave while you search aimlessly for our damsel in distress? I knew you were a robot Fixit, but I didn't think you were that cold."

"My search is not aimless," Fixit retorted, a very slight hint of insult in his voice now. "Blackfire has provided me with the information of where to find her. Her cell lies within the main kingdom on this planet, its coordinates are stored within my brain."

"And what if you find it? You're going to go in there guns blazing and rescue the princess from the dragon all by yourself?" Red-X shot, anger beginning to mix with the pain in his body.

"Certainly not. If Blackfire needed just me she would of never have made contact with either you or Kyd Wykkyd. The three of us were chosen to be the ones to rescue her, together not alone." Fixit's red eyes bored into Red-X's. "I do not intend to abandon my comrades. I shall find the palace and, when I do, I shall return to free Kyd Wykkyd from whatever trap he is in and to bring you into a full recovery, you have my word."

"Should I take your word as good as a word from the Titans?" the thief asked after a moment of silence, his anger slowly and quietly subsiding. It vanished completely when he caught the slightest hint of a smile twitch at one edge of Fixit's mouth.

"I have learned from the mistake that Cyborg made. You have my word, as a villain, that I shall return."

"Well, now that is reassuring." Red-X said with a chuckle, falling back against the hard rocky ground. "Wake me when I'm not so useless."

"I shall," The mechanic replied, already stepping out from the cave and quickly vanishing from the thief's view as he made he was across the Tamaranian home world.

...

"You know, you'll always be mommy's little blue eyed angel," the beautiful woman cooed as she held her baby close against her chest. The little baby brushed a hand over her tear stained cheek.

"You're never going to be nothing more than a sniveling baby!" The larger boy sneered as he sent another fist into the smaller boy's gut. The blue eyed boy kept his blue eyes to the ground as the humiliation and pain consumed him.

"You need to grow a pair and become a man already," the smelly unshaven man said as he glared down at the crying boy at his feet. The boy's face was red from where he had recently smacked him. "Your mother is dead. Get over it."

"You will always have a place in my heart," the pretty young girl whispered as she hugged the blue eyed boy for the last time. "It's just Andy. I can't control myself when he's around. You understand, right?"

"You're a thief now. The best one there is," the eternal shadow announced though, it was only the two of them in the room. "This is your life and your purpose. Now, go and make your father proud."

"Who are you?!" Robin shouted after the cloaked teen. 

The skull faced thief looked back into the boy wonder's eyes, a hidden smile on his face."Who else? I'm Red-X!"

Suddenly, a low mutter and a curse rang through the hallows of the thief's dreams. Red-X slowly began to open his eyes as the darkness vanished, but he immediately let out a cry of surprise when a loud thud rang throughout the cave. Gripping his now irritated ribs, he looked over in the direction of the noise to see a skinny green teen struggling as he tried to carry Raven on his shoulders.

"C'mon, Raven, wake up already! You're way too heavy!" the green Titan grumbled as he took a few very shaky steps.

"If I was you, I wouldn't try to insult a half-demon," Red-X suggested.

"Oh, Raven's used to that kind of stuff. She wouldn't really--" the green teen began, only to let out a little shriek of surprise when his gaze connected with Red-X's.

"So, where do you think you're going with our hostage, little man?" the thief questioned as he sat up a little, albeit with size-able effort.

"I'm taking Raven back home, and I'm not going to let any of you stop me!" the Titan declared as his green eyes glared straight at the thief. Red-X looked around the cave and couldn't help but notice that it was just him and the two Titans.

"Well, I guess you're in luck," Red-X said as he rested his head on his hand. "It appears that her guard is temporarily out of commission. You'd better go before I decide to actually be of some use."

The Titan looked at him with an embarrassingly large amount of confusion before realization seemed to strike him a moment later. "Oh, well, I guess...I'll just...be going..." The green teen said slowly as he inched even more slowly towards the exit of the cave, his worried eyes still locked on Red-X.

"Sorry, man, but I can't let you do that." See-More suddenly declared, the optical villain standing in the only way out of the cave, hand on his dial. 

The green Titan hesitated for a moment until an idea of some kind appeared on his green face. "Oh, you guys are sooooo in for it!" the teen said as he used a free hand to reach towards his waist. "When I call in the rest of the Titan's, you guys are gonna be..."

Though the Titan trailed off as he began aimlessly patting around his waist, quickly going up and down his legs and soon the rest of his body. See-More and Red-X shared a confused look until, with a defeated sigh, the boy ceased his search and slowly lowered the half-demon girl to the floor.

"Well, time for plan B."

And with that, the small green teen suddenly became a giant green gorilla and with a mighty roar he charge at the surprised See-More. The optical thief quickly ran to the side, doing his best to avoid the large ape arms as the Titan narrowly missed him. The gorilla threw out his now massive hands to grip the sides of the cave entrance to stop his charge. Turning towards the still retreating thief, the Titan made to grab at him.

There was not much room in the small cave and, with little room to run, the gorilla quickly found a grip on one of See-More's legs, quickly pulling the smaller thief to the ground. Though, as soon as he fell, See-More immediately gripped his dial and, aiming his eye at the massive hand on his leg, he let loose a bright right laser beam. The red hot energy connected with the ape hand and the Titan immediately relinquished his hold, gripping his hand and howling in pain.

"C'mon, monkey man, let's take this outside!" See-More called, making a move for the cave entrance. The large gorilla let out a low growl before suddenly morphing into a ram, the animal then immediately charged the thief, its horns making contact with the thief's gut and sending him flying out of the cave.

"I gotcha, Raven.Llet's get out of here!" the green teen who was now just a teen again said as he knelt beside the half-demon.

"Uh uh uh," a voice tutted.

The Titan looked up to see that Red-X was sitting much more upright now, one hand kept him up while the other was aiming its palm directly at Beastboy. The teen could easily see the red x shape in the fabric of the hand. 

"I decided to be of some use after all. I think you remember this particular trick of mine."

A moment later, a large X shot out from his palm. The energy turned into an X shaped goopy mass in mid-air. Though the Titan did in fact remember this attack and morphed. The attack sailed past a quick moving green rabbit, missing the critter by inches.

"Hold still, Whiskers!" Red-X shouted as he shot out another X. The hare easily dodged it again. "Don't make me have to make a lucky rabbit's foot out of you!"

The thief aimed again and let fly another shot as the green rabbit hopped across the entrance to the cave.

"Hey, Red-X, didja get him yet?" See-More asked as he poked his head into the cave, only to be nailed by the goopy mass of X, sending him flying back out with a scream of surprise.

"Oops..." Red-X muttered, before looking around the cave for his prey.

Though, as soon as the thief had finished speaking, he felt a heavy pressure on his legs. Red-X could only look down in time to see a great green snake before the creature wrapped its long scaly body around the thief, sending the teen spinning out of his make shift rock bed, the bones in his body screaming in protest.

The snake finally stopped wrapping around him when Red-X's arms were securely pinned to his sides, the rest of his body tightly wrapped up in the mass of boa muscle.

"Well, little man, I always knew you weren't a hit with the ladies. I guess this explains it." The thief mocked. The green snake hissed before squeezing its body slightly, though it was enough for Red-X to groan in pain as his ribs felt near to breaking.

"Look, let's start over, you and me," Red-X muttered through the waves of pain as the Titan squeezed, using the last bit of strength to adjust one of his hands. "I think we got off...on the wrong foot. Allow me to properly... introduce myself...My name... is...Red-X."

And, with that, the thief pressed his palm as firmly as he could against the massive snake and, with a final cry of pain, he let loose the built up electrical energy in his palm and across the entirely of the scaly creature. The snake let out some strange cry of pain that Red-X had never heard a snake make before and, in an instant, it slithered free from Red-X, morphing back into the green teen.

"I won't let you win," the green Titan growled as he tried to move his electrified body, to little avail.

"Oh, yeah? Well, I won't let me lose, so, guess we kind of have a problem there," Red-X returned, his hidden smile directed at the fallen boy across from him. "So, little man, I told you my name. The least you could do is tell me yours."

And, to the thief's surprise, the green boy not only smiled back, but began to laugh as well. "My name is Beastboy, you jerk," yhe Titan answered as his head slowly began to lower towards the ground.

"That's a dumb name." Red-X felt his head slowly fall to the ground. 

The thief and the Titan passed out exactly at the same time.

...

Fixit hoped beyond hope that he would return to a cave with no problems and no disasters. He found the palace with next to no trouble. Was it too much to ask that everything else go off without a hitch as well?

Yes, it was. It always was. And Fixit knew better.

That's why the mechanic was almost never surprised, and that was why he was also not surprised when the first thing he saw before even reaching the cave was a fully awakened See-More, now stuck in some kind of sticky red substance that kept him pinned to the ground.

"Yo, Fixit!" See-More greeted cheerfully, his arms and legs jutting out in odd angles as he lay there.

"Hello, See-More," Fixit returned as he walked past him.

"I'm stuck!" the optical thief announced, a goofy smile still on his face.

"I am well aware." Fixit  continued to walk towards the cave. He peered inside for one second before letting out a low, mechanical sigh.

"Why am I never surprised..." the mechanic muttered as he proceeded to gather up the unconscious bodies that were sprawled out on the ground.