Teen Titans: How Long Is Too Long?

Chapter 3: Time on my Wrists

*Starfire's POV*

I'm...

Where am I...

What happened?

My hands are tied, my body on the floor, my head throbbing with pain. Pain, all over and all around me, surfacing from within, in tangent with my slow, forceful awakening.

I try stretching, I try moving, acknowledging then fighting against the soreness in my muscles.

Then I flutter open my eyes, keen on gathering information of my own whereabout.

But it takes me a moment to believe my eyes. How is it possible? It doesn't make any sense, how...

Who am I looking at?

Why does it look so much life myself??

X'hal... Am I dead?

"You're a much weaker version of myself, judging by how easy it was to knock you out," the person in front of me says.

"Version of...?" I mumble, more to myself than to her. I can't even think straight, I don't know what this means I... "Robin..." Where is he? Was he captured too, is he okay?

I must get up and help him, I...

"Wow wow, stop moving so much, you'll just faint again and this will take a lot longer than it needs to. I need you awake for this," she says, pushing me back down with her foot. I lay still and flat on my back, lacking the strength to resist her push. I glance around for something that might help me, something to grab unto, anything...

But I don't even understand where I am.

It's a small empty room with a bare desk and wardrobe, and a simple bed without sheets. I've never been in this room before, I don't know where this is located and I much less understand how I got here.

And yet there's something about the shape of it, the size... The view out the window, the ceiling, the feeling of being in it...

"Where am I?" I ask, also noticing that it's dark out but not stormy. Has a lot of time passed since I was captured? But, I'm still soaking wet, she's dripping water too...

We must be outside Jump City then. How was she that quick? And just how far away are we?

She ignores the question I made out loud and all the other ones I only muttered in my head. She's constantly testing my strength with her foot, still anchored right on the center of my abdomen.

"If I explain it all now, are you awake enough to really pay attention to me?"

I try launching at her, trying to take any opportunity I can to separate myself from her. I need to escape this room!

I managed to briefly knock her off balance but I fail at getting myself up from the floor. I can't fly, I can't fly... She crosses her arms in distaste. I try but also fail to target her with my eye beams. What's going on?

I look at my hands again, see that they're tied at the wrists with a particular kind of handcuffs.

They're...

It can't be...

The same ones the Gordonians used on me! Only these seem to work so much better, I can't access my powers at all. I roll to one side and lean on my arm, a small action that exhausts me for no reason.

At least it helps me get my bearings better, and it's only then I realize...

The door, the window frame, it's all the exact same as my room. But it can't truly be the same one... Can it?

"Okay!" she claps her hands together, moving to where we're facing each other again. She's not the least bit exerted by my futile attempt at fighting her - meanwhile, I'm all out of breath. "I see you're starting to piece it out by yourself. You're not as stupid as you are weak."

"I am neither of those things!" I yell at her, wishing I could really show her just how wrong she is about me.

She just shrugs. She's smiling the way Blackfire always does around me. Taunting me, fully confident in herself and completely underestimating me. How infuriating.

"You think it's not fair because you're incapacitated. And you think without that metal in your wrists, I'd be regretting my choice of words right now."

"That's correct," I sneer at her.

She takes it in a stride. "What you don't know, is that I've been watching you very closely, for the last couple of weeks. I've seen you in battle, I've measured you up, so to speak. I've also seen you outside of the battlefield, when you think you're all alone with that little friend of yours, when you think you're keeping each other safe..."

"Where's Robin?" I demand to know. I can't stand it, I can't listen to this anymore. I don't want to imagine him harmed in any way, I need to know he's alright. "If you did anything... at all... to him..." I say in between grunts and labored breaths, as I prop myself up to a higher sitting position. If I could just stand on my own two feet, maybe she wouldn't feel so un-threatened by me.

She waves my warnings aside, and doesn't even bother knocking back to the ground again. It's like she's seen enough to write me off entirely. "You'll be pleased to hear, that it's not him or any of your other friends that I'm after. Worrying about them is pointless. Worrying about yourself, on the other hand..."

"Just tell me what you want. Tell me who you are! Why do you look exactly like me?" I ask, raising my voice as much as I can. If we really are in the tower, maybe someone will hear. Maybe someone will come for me.

Her smile widens. "I want... what you have."