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-Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN THE $&#%!@? TITANS ALREADY!! ... Sheesh

A Dish Best Served Cold-Chapter Ten



"Alright, Sir Freezealot, you're goin' down...hard."

"Touché, Mr. Roboto."

The game announcer one again counted down the match: "3... 2... 1... GO!!"

Immediately, Cy and Zero were off in pursuit of one another.

Cy had set this one up to be a special match. He and Zero were the only players, there were no weapons, health, ammo, or armor scattered around the level anymore, and they were both armed with scoped, automatic rifles.

It didn't take long for them to find one another.

"Eat lead!" Cy laughed and immediately opened fire. Zero, however, leapt over his shots and bashed him in the head with the butt of his rifle as he landed... and then ran off, laughing.

"Grr...lucky hit." Cy muttered

"Lucky? Heh, I'd say it's more just a test of reflexes and skill." Zero retorted.

Cyborg stomped off in pursuit, carefully keeping his eyes peeled, lest Zero ambush him. Zero however, was standing on the roof smiling. He kicked a large barrel with a 'highly flammable' label off and shouted "Hiyah!"

Cy, naturally thinking Zero had jumped down to attack him again, reflexively whipped around and let fly with bullets... realizing too late he had just blasted an explosive barrel...

KABOOM!!

Cy was utterly splattered by the blast, and a small message popped up onscreen, saying: 'SUB-ZERO WINS' Cy stared in disbelief while Zero chuckled. "Looks like I didn't even have to waste ammo on ya."

Beast Boy was dumbfounded. "Dude! He just beat Cyborg on his first try!"

"And without firing a shot..." Jinx said, just as impressed.

Zero turned to the big man, and held out his gloved hand and grinned sheepishly. "So... no hard feelings, right?" Cy grinned back "Nah... I guess I'm just out of shape."

The two competitors shook hands and grinned.




Back at Slade's Lair


Slade stood calmly in front of a large computer screen with his hands folded behind his back. The monitor was connected to several large cables that, in turn, attached to a large metal platform with a glass casing. On the platform was the stolen stone, and it was currently being studied by a large number of automated cameras, probes, scanners, and sensors. Large bold words on the screen read:

SCANNING IN PROGRESS... ... ... ...

Percentage Completed... ... ... ...67% and counting.


"Soon... very soon, the secrets of this artifact shall be revealed. Those fools at Omega only saw part of the solution. They cared more about what it said in plain sight... any fool should have seen that this stone's most valuable secrets... were on the inside."

So saying, he turned and addressed Brother Blood, whom was also watching the screen.

"We will need a diversion. The Titans cannot be allowed to realize the true significance of this find. You said you could provide a suitable solution to divert their attention, correct?" he said in his typical, eerie voice.

"Correct." Blood said with a nod. "My troops are at the ready, and are prepared to launch a full scale assault upon Titan's Tower at your bidding."

If Slade's mouth were visible, he probably would have been smiling cruelly.

"Very good..."


Several Hours Later...


Raven sat quietly in her room, reading a thick book, presumable some novel. All of the hubbub earlier over Sub-Zero and Cyborg's little video game battle had been much too noisy for her taste, so... she had taken refuge in her room.

Before reading, she had tried for a few minutes to meditate, but to limited effect. She had an unexplainable feeling... she felt nervous, although she didn't know why. In a way, she felt almost sick to her stomach and she felt herself filled with dread, as if impending some forthcoming disaster.

Dismissing these feelings as aggravation from all the earlier noise and activity, she then turned to her books... but she soon found she still couldn't relax...

She sighed softly and thought: 'What's wrong with me... ... is something terrible about to happen...?'


Elsewhere, Starfire was on the roof of Titan's Tower gazing up at the twinkling stars above, as they lit up the night like rays of hope in a bleak horizon. She smiled happily as she watched them shine in the black night sky.

She got awfully homesick for her native Tamaran sometimes, and when she did, looking at the stars always seemed to comfort her.

Maybe it was because they reminded her of space, and of the fact that if the stars were close enough to be seen, then Tamaran probably was so far off after all. Or, maybe it was the fact that she took part of her name from the stars. Either way, it amounted to the same thing.

The young alien was suddenly brought out of her reverie by a voice from behind... Robin's voice.

" Star?" He said hesitantly, not sure if she would take offense at him intruding on her privacy.

She turned around and beamed at her masked friend, no trace of offense or anger whatsoever. "Yes, friend? Did you want something?"

"Oh, no, no.... just wanted to talk...if you're not busy..." he added hastily.

"Not at all! I was merely...err... enjoying the view." She said, a little embarrassed to admit she had been stargazing.

"Well... I wanted to say 'thanks'...y'know, for convincing me to take my mind off Slade for a while... I didn't think so at the time, but... it helped." He said gratefully.

Star beamed in response, and her entire person seemed to be aglow with happiness.

"Star... I was also wondering... do you ever...uhh ... No, never mind." he said, deciding the question was a little too personal.

"No, please do not hesitate to ask! I will answer, if I can." She said quickly. As strong as her feelings were for Robin, the last thing she wanted was for him to be afraid of asking her things.

"Well, I.... I was just curious... Do you ever, like... miss your home? Your planet? I was thinking about it earlier and thought that it must be hard to live here when your home is so far off all of the time!" he said

Star stared in disbelief. It was like he was reading her mind, somehow!

"Well...in truth, I.... I do, sometimes. That is why I came out here to look at the stars. But also... I have always thought of this small place as my secondary home. Even though I was not born, nor raised here, and don't know much about it.... I feel...comfortable...here." She said simply, unsure how to phrase it more accurately than that.

Robin walked over and sat down near where she was floating. He looked up at the starry night sky, and saw that she had a point... it was very comforting, and the sort of thing so many people, himself included, always take for granted.

"Oh, they are so lovely, are they not?" Star sighed dreamily.

Robin looked at her and nodded. He smiled and said: "Yeah, you're right... they are. But..."

She looked at him curiously. 'But?'

He grinned and put an arm around her. "But... I think I know of one little star in particular... that's the most beautiful out of all of them."

He got up and walked back down into the tower saying, "If you need me, I think I'm going to watch some T.V."


A few moments later, the only ones left outside were a bunch of shining stars... and a certain one of them had a deep red blush covering her face.

In another room in the Tower, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Sub-Zero had just finished cleaning out an old storage room filled with mainly just trash and junk. Now, it was clean, empty room.

Cyborg was effortlessly lifting a large desk with a vanity mirror attached and toting it into the room.

A large green ox with a T.V. Box on it's back trotted in after him, and Zero came in last carefully pulling in a black, metal bed frame with pinkish mattress and neon pink satin sheets. Poofy purple pillows were stacked on top.

Normally, all this would be to heavy for normal people to carry, but then again, our guys were anything but normal.

The ox tilted it's back with a bellow and tipped the T.V. box slowly on to the ground. Then, it changed back into a joking green changeling.

"Whew! Finally!" Beast Boy groaned.

"Ah, it wasn't THAT bad." Cyborg said shrugging.

"Yeah well, at least we're done now." B.B said, relieved.

"Not quite... we still gotta get this placed fixed up."

That said, Cyborg started to take the TV out of the box and preceded to hook it up, while Zero pulled and shoved the bed into the far corner, being very cautious so as not to bang up the walls.

Figuring he might as well help, B.B. grabbed a blanket from the bed and preceded to begin wiping off the vanity mirror with it, making sure his reflection was spotless.

"Ooh man, who's that good lookin', mean, green, party animal?" he asked to his reflection, smiling.

"Beast Boy! Quit fooling around! We need to get this finished!" Zero said slightly annoyed.

"Alright, alright.... Don't get in such a huff!" he said, changing into a bull and pawing the ground a couple times before pressing his head to the desk and pushing it up against the wall.

Once Cyborg had the wide screen TV up and running, B.Boy had the desk straight against the wall, and Zero had the bed made properly, they took a step back to survey their work.

"Well, I gotta hand it to us... this place just went from a pile of junk... to a pile of crunk." Cyborg said, pleased with their handiwork.

"Yep... and at least now we'll be able to put this room to some good use... other than as storage for our crap." B.Boy agreed.

Zero grinned brightly. "Alright! Okay, now there's just the one thing left to do...but leave that part to me, guys..." he said motioning for them to go.


While all this was going on, Jinx sat on the couch in the living room, watching a fashion show on TV. She was only enjoying herself minimally, however, because she despised most of what she saw.

"Hmph. Well, style's certainly gone to Hell just recently." As she watched a blond model in a ridiculously frilly yellow dress strut around like an oversized peacock.

"Yeah, well, I think I know something that might cheer you up a bit." Zero said walking suddenly into the room.

She blushed. "Oh, um... I'm sorry, I didn't know you were there..." she mumbled.

Zero shook his head and grinned. "S'okay. ...Hey, would you mind coming with me for a minute? Got something to show you." He said mysteriously.

"Uh...sure, why not?" she said, switching the so-called 'fashion' program off and walking towards him... until he held up a hand to stop her.

"BUT... close you eyes, first." He said firmly.

"Uhhhh... Oh-kay..." she said, becoming slightly nervous, but doing as he said nonetheless.

Immediately, he took her by the hand, and led her down the hallway.

They walked for a little while, with a beaming Sub-Zero leading her every step of the way.

"This had better be good." She sniffed sarcastically.

"Oh, don't worry... I promise it'll be worth your time m'lady." He retorted, also kidding.

Finally he reached the overhauled room, now complete with a large Label etched into the doorway, clearly reading 'JINX'

He opened up the door led her just inside, got out of her line of sight and spoke:

"Alright... open up your eyes on three......one.......two......" he paused for dramatic effect. "......three!!" he finished.

Jinx opened up her eyes....and nearly swooned on the spot.

"Oh my god.....what....what...is this?" she gasped. Zero smirked and pointed to the door, where the enchantress saw her name printed on it.

"Wait.....this is for ME???" she yelped, almost startled by the realization.

Zero laughed and slapped his forehead. "Finally, she gets it!"

Jinx just stood looking around at her new digs, unable to speak. Finally she began to tear up. "You did this for me?"

"Eh...well, I'll be honest, I had some help... but it was my idea." He said, trying to keep as much modesty as possible, even though he was very pleased by her reaction.

"I figured that since you don't live at the H.I.V.E. anymore, and since I can't keep you cooked up in my ship forever, you ought to have a room here!" he said, explaining his intentions.

She sniffled and smiled. "You just don't realize it, do you?" she said.

"Huh? Realize what?" he asked, perplexed.

"Realize that you've done so much more than enough already." She said.

"Well, as a wise man once said, 'enough' never really is." He said "Besides, it was really nothing at all."

"....." she remained silent, but stared at the ground intently.

He was a little alarmed by her silence. "Huh? Is something the matter?"

She looked up smiling. "Z-Zero...I...I .... I don't know....er, I mean..." she stammered quietly. She looked at him sadly, as if there was something she dearly wanted to tell him, but just couldn't.

Finally, unable to get the right words out, she strode up, put her arms around him in an affectionate hug, and leaned up on tiptoes to give him a full, wet kiss on the lips, instantly causing his face to go beet red and his eyes to bug out of his head. After pulling away, she giggled and ran out of the room before the thunderstruck warrior could react.