What Lies Within, Chapter 8

Batgirl, Nightwing, Nightstar, Changeling, Impulse and Silverstar sat in the living room of Silverstar's warehouse. It had been an hour since they returned with Raven's unconscious form, but, in spite of stopping her bleeding and patching her wounds, the woman had not woken up. Ed and Velvet the ferret sat next to each other on the floor, eating pieces of dog food as they chatted to one another with help from one of Coba's animal communicators. Dick placed a hand on Coba's shoulder as a grin spread on his face. "Looks like Ed found another buddy," he murmured heartily.

"Yeah," Coba replied, smiling as well. "I'm glad he's making friends."

"Speaking of making friends," Grayson continued, "do you think you have?"

Brooklyn looked at the other teenagers in the room, smiling bigger as they grinned back. "Yes," she answered, reflecting on the night's events. "I think I have."

Dick ruffled Coba's hair fondly, then reached over and did the same with Mar'i. "Good."

"Night... wing?" a voice rasped wearily from the other side of the room.

The man in question stood up and went to the operating table the voice came from. Coba, Mar'i and the other teenage heroes followed suit. "I'm here, Raven," Dick answered calmly, gently touching his old friend's shoulder. "Take it easy."

Raven looked up at her ally, her eyes dull with pain. "Red X... Blackfire... they took..."

"I know," Dick gently interrupted. "Nightstar and Batgirl filled me in. We'll get our friends back."

"They wanted to... take you too," the woman said weakly.

"What?" Mar'i gasped in alarm at Raven's words to the one-eyed hero. "Why take him?"

"Why take the others and leave you to die?" Ian inquired.

"Why burn the tower?" Bart asked.

"It's part of an old trick in the book," Coba said grimly. "To strike fear into everyone's hearts."

"In that case it's working," Ian admitted. "I'm pretty scared."

Coba placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. "We all are," she said quietly. "Whether we want to admit it or not," she added, noticing Bart was about to protest that he was not afraid. "Still, we can't let that stop us from doing something about it. We've got to come up with a plan." She turned to Raven. "Is there anything else you recall?"

"Batgirl," said Dick in a warning tone, "she's not well enough to speak all at once. Let her rest."

Raven shot Nightwing a haughty glance. "I'm well enough," she rasped. She softened her gaze as she looked at Batgirl once more. "As Red X and the others attacked... he said something about accomplishing... what Deathstroke hadn't before."

"But that could be a number of things!" Bart exclaimed.

"I wasn't finished," Raven stated, giving Impulse a glare.

Allen swallowed and stepped back uncomfortably. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "Continue."

"Defeating the Titans... is a major possibility," Raven continued after casting another rueful glance at the speedster, "but so is taking over the city."

"You're saying it could be both?" Mark guessed.

"I didn't say that, but apparently I didn't have to," she nodded. "Who are you, exactly?"

"Silverstar," he replied. Not wanting to give away his identity, Wilson went back to addressing the problem. "So, we'll have to prepare for both."

"That wasn't all Deathstroke tried to do, though," Coba said grimly. "He tried to obtain the powers I have. When I was injected with them to keep them from him, he started keeping tabs on me, waiting for the right moment to kill me. Except, that moment never came; he died a few weeks ago. I feel that this has something to do with it."

"That would explain why they tried to kill you earlier," Ian stated. "Then again, they tried to kill all of us."

"To get the Titans to act out of grief, perhaps," Mark reasoned.

Raven nodded grimly. "That sounds about right."

"But when that failed, they tried something else," Coba continued. "When Nightstar, Changeling and Impulse left the tower, they saw their chance to kill the offspring of the Titans and Justice League as well as capture the senior Titans." She noticed her friends' downcast expressions. "It wasn't your fault this happened," she assured them. "If you hadn't gone, you'd have either been killed or taken as well."

"We shouldn't have run off, though," Ian said sadly.

"She's right, though," Nightwing agreed with his granddaughter. "It's a good thing you left when you did. Otherwise—"

"—we'd be more outnumbered, and we wouldn't stand a chance against them," Batgirl finished.

"But how can we get our parents back?" Mar'i inquired.

Coba thought deeply for a moment. "Storming into their fort is out of the question, since we don't know where it is and we'd lose the element of surprise," she reasoned.

"I can try to find it!" Impulse exclaimed, about to run out the door.

To everyone's surprise, it was Mark who stopped Bart. "We can't afford to take that chance, either," Silverstar said sagely. "They'll detect you from a mile away, even at your fastest speed."

"He's right, Impulse," Nightwing said grimly. "They'll figure us out if they catch you, let alone see you."

Bart sat down moodily in a chair. "Can you think of a better way?" he said bitterly.

"Not to be offensive, Bart, but I can."

The teens, Raven, and Nightwing looked at the speaker. "What might that be, Batgirl?" Raven asked.

Brooklyn was nervous at the attention, but managed to push it away after a heartbeat. "It'll be risky, but it's the best chance we have," she continued. "Here's the plan..."

Her allies listened attentively, though some of the steps caused their faces to grow more and more grim. Once Coba was done stating the plan, it was Dick who first nodded. "It's dangerous, but it just might work."

"I'm in," Silverstar volunteered grimly.

"Ditto," Raven said.

Mar'i nodded. "Alright, I'll go as well."

Bart and Ian both nodded in agreement. "I'm in," they said in unison. They looked at each other in surprise. "Jinx!" they said at the same time.

"Then we're agreed," Coba grinned. "We start in a few hours, once we've gotten some rest."

"Yeah! Then we'll—wait, what?" Bart stopped, confused by his friend's words.

"Batgirl, those are our family members out there!" Mar'i snapped. "Do you really expect us to just sleep when they're in danger?"

Coba closed her eyes grimly, then reopened them slowly. "I don't like it any more than you do, but if we go in while we're exhausted, what good are we to them? We'll be either captured or killed within the first five minutes."

"She's right," Dick agreed with Coba. "We'll need all the strength we can muster to get them back."

Mar'i sighed heavily in defeat. "I guess so," she muttered. "But what if they need us sooner?"

"At this point, we can only hope that they'll be alright till we get there," Brooklyn answered solemnly.

Nightstar stared at her niece angrily for a moment, then snorted and stormed over to a spot on the floor to sleep. Bart shrugged, then went to lay down as well. Ian patted Coba on the shoulder. "I wish we could go sooner, too, but you do have a point," he said quietly. He sat on the floor beside Bart, then leaned against a couch and fell asleep almost immediately.

Batgirl sighed sadly before sitting down in a chair. If only we didn't have to wait, she thought.

Raven nodded to Nightwing, who had asked her something in a hushed tone. "Batgirl," her voice rasped, "perhaps now would be a good time for you to learn to control your emotions."

Coba blinked in surprise. So that's what he was talking to her about. "Yeah, I guess so," she said uncertainly.

The half-demon sat up on the table, feeling much better than she had before Coba came up with the plan. "Alright, then. Close your eyes," she instructed. Once Coba had done so, she closed her eyes as well. "Find your center, and say with me: Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos..."

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," Coba repeated quietly, keeping her eyes closed and her mind focused. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos..." She continued to say the words, even when she was deep in her thoughts. Coba pictured herself sitting in the house she used to live in with her mother, surrounded by the turquoise walls of her bedroom. After a while, she felt more collected than she ever had before in her life. She managed a small grin to Raven. "Thanks."

Raven nodded, grinning a bit herself. Coba leaned back in her chair, now relaxed enough to sleep.

~!~

Three hours after the teenagers had fallen asleep, Nightwing ventured out into the city. It was barely light out at this time; the sun was just barely starting to rise from the eastern sky. I hope this isn't a rare plan of Coba's that fails, he thought.

Just as he rounded the corner of the old pizza parlor he and his friends would go to as kids, Dick heard a loud booming sound from the middle of the street. Turning his head in that direction, he caught a fleeting glimpse of Cinderblock stomping towards him before feeling a swift kick between his shoulder blades. He hit the ground, gasping for breath and unable to get up. "You're more out of shape than I had anticipated, Nightwing," an all-too familiar voice jeered.

"You're more cowardly than I remember, Red X," Dick growled, glaring at his old foe. Especially by using Cinderblock as a distraction! he thought.

"No matter," Red X continued, seemingly oblivious to Nightwing's words. "It just makes it easier for us."

Before Grayson could say anything, he was hit in the back of the head. He grunted in agony, then felt his vision swim and darken as unconsciousness took hold.

Yeah, a bit of an uneventful chapter, but the next one is when all the action really starts. A big round of thanks goes to Silverlynx13 for their suggestions for this chapter, although part of them will be in the next chapter.

Chapters 2, 3 and 4 have been edited to change the timing of the story. Instead of this story happening the same day and night, it occurs over the course of two days and nights thus far. I figured it would be more realistic. XD

Ooh, I'll also be posting the prologue to another BOTF story I'm working on! Woohoo! It'll take place during the episodes "Big Time" and "Betrayal," but I'm still not sure of whether or not to have the "Big Time" part be between "Last Resort" and "The Call" or after "What Lies Within." :/ ...I'll figure it out...

Please leave a review and have a great rest of your day!