The Wicked One

Chapter Thirty-Two | Understanding, Part Two

"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?"