The feeling of being dragged underground was just how I had remembered it. The suffocating feeling while being dragged through the dirt is hard to forget. Just as fast as I had been dragged down I was up and out of the dirt. The plants that were around my body wrapped around me more so I was sat on my knees. They were wrapped tightly around me, but not nearly enough to hurt. Grunting and panting was heard behind me and I knew it was the rest of my team. "Is everyone okay?" I asked. "I am the alright." Star said softly. "I'm fine." Raven's monotone voice said. I heard someone spitting and I knew it was Beast Boy. "Bleh! Gross! I had my mouth open that whole time!" He said continuing to spit dirt out of his mouth. "I'm not getting any type of signal down here. How far down are we?" Cyborg asked.
The room we were in must've been completely separate from the club we'd just been inside. The ground covered in dirt beneath us all started to shake slightly. The team all voiced their concerns towards me but I stayed silent. From the ground multiple long green vines as well as dark branches and roots came from the ground before peeling away to reveal Night Shade. She was wearing her dark green hood, black shorts, the same shirt she had on earlier, and with the infamous black cloth covering her mouth reaching slightly over her cheeks. She had her arms crossed over her chest as she stared down at all of us.
She stepped down from the roots that had brought her up as her hard stare met each of us. "Is there a reason you all decided to break the rules on your very first visit? Let me guess...heroes?" She asked with a raised brow. Her voice was a bit rougher than I'd remembered. "Everyone assumes that the villains would be the first to act out, but it's always the heroes." She said staring down at us. There was suddenly a stem pulling out the ear piece from my ear. I heard my teammates shutter behind me and I knew the same happened to them.
We all watched as a large leaf was presented to Night Shade filled with each of our ear pieces. She picked one up carefully and inspected it. I watched as her eyes narrowed as she read the 'TT' engraved on the inside of it. Her (e/c) eyes landed on me with a harsh glare. The roots around my body brought me closer to her so I was right in front of her and farther away from my team. She crotched down in front of me and stared at me with narrow eyes.
She slowly raised one of her hands up to me. She slowly took the beanie I was wearing off showing my spiked hair. I watched her stare at it for a moment as she brought her hand down. "May I?" Night Shade asked. Her voice was soft and sweet. The roughness in her voice had vanished completely as she asked. Her normally cold eyes softened as she silently asked me a question more important than the other one. I gave her a slight nod that I'm not even sure my teammates saw. Her hand carefully reached towards my glasses. "Hey! What do you think you are-" Star fire was cut off by the vines tightening around her. Night Shade raised the glasses just far enough so our eyes would meet. We stared at each other for a moment before I noticed her smile from behind the mask. "Forget me not." She said soft enough just for me to hear before placing the glasses back down on my nose.
"Looks like we have the whole gang here, don't we?" She said before standing back up. "Let's see if I got this right. Teen titans consists of five members. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!" She said counting out each of us on her fingers. "We've got the entirety of the animal kingdom that looks like it's forever celebrating saint Patrick's day." She said and I heard Beast Boy let out a growl. "The tin man with a heart." Her gaze moved to who I assumed was Cyborg as he let out a scoff at her. "A gothic witch with the personality to match." She said and I could feel ravens sharp glare. "A small part of an alien monarchy. Oh! Guess I should bow to the princess. Such a grand honor." She said giving a small insulting bow before her gaze met mine again. "And last but not least. The eternal pain in my ass, the itchy tag in my favorite shirt, and the thorn that will constantly forever be in my side til the day he dies, the boy wonder himself. I'm right aren't I?" She asked and we could all tell she was smirking behind the mask.
"This is absolutely too good to be true. I can't believe I'm in the presence of such high moral standards. Where do you possibly find these people, wonder boy? Let alone, people that want to be heroes and do good for a world that will gladly take a swing at anything that sparks any amount of joy in any person alive." She said still smirking under her mask. "You've had your fun, Night Shade, now will you let us go?" I asked her through gritted teeth. I had forgotten just how infuriating she could be sometimes.
"There's gotta be a reason why you're here, wonder boy." She said as she turned away from us. Roots came up from the ground and made a sort of table. I watched as she turned around to lean against it putting her hands in her pockets. "Let's sift through them shall we?" "Can we please-" I tried to interject. "I'm sure I made it very clear multiple times that I wanted nothing to do with this team you were making...so it wouldn't be that." She said sarcastically itching her head in 'thought'. I could feel my teams stares on my back as she talked. "You already gave me an earful for the bank situation a few months back...even though I had a perfectly good reason that you wouldn't let me explain." "Perci there's no good reason to rob a bank!" I said scolding her once more.
I watched as she tensed up at the name. Her skin separated around her cheeks to show pink rose petals peeking up from behind her mask. Not even a second after the petals appeared behind her mask, thorns came out from various parts of her body. The area around her skin looked just how I'd remembered. Just a bunch of tangled roots with just the surface the color and elasticity of normal skin. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?!" I heard the anger in her voice. I was ready to be attacked by the thorns. She suddenly took a deep breath pinching the bridge of her nose annoyed and I watched as the thorns slowly crept back inside her body. Her body no longer showed the tangle of roots, vines, stems, leaves, and flower buds that was underneath the top layer that resembled skin.
The plants surrounding me and my team slowly went back into the ground. The only thing that was left from them was small sprouts in the ground. "What do you want, Robin?" Crossing her arms over her chest she stared down at her black boots defeated almost. I stood up from the ground while my team still sat on the dirt covered floor. "With how you spoke to my team, it's safe to assume you still have a good amount of information flowing in?" I asked and she looked up at me with a scoff. "Your team isn't exactly hush hush, bird brain." She said and I glared at her making her roll her eyes.
"To answer your question, yes I do. Information comes with a price though, Robin. Are you willing to pay?" She asked. "This is extremely important Night-" "You wouldn't have tracked me down or tried to take me by surprise if it wasn't important to you, Robin." She said crossing her arms over her chest. "Do you know anything about someone that goes by the name Slade?" I finally asked. She thought for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't." "Why are you being so difficult?" I asked and I watched her eyes narrow towards me. "Do you want the full list?" She asked raising a brow at me.
"What do you want?" I watched as she thought for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. "Don't know yet. Let's just say you'll owe me a favor." She said smirking and I shook my head no. "I'm not owing you another favor." I said and she rolled her eyes. "Fine by me. By the way I'm going to be doing you a favor for not doing to your team what I normally do to others that break my rules." She said as we glared at each other. "Is that a threat?" I could feel myself become more and more annoyed by her antics while she stayed calm. "Threats are just unfulfilled promises aren't they?" She let out a sigh as she looked at the ground again before looking back up at me.
"You and your team will still be welcome here. I'll send you each letters if we have to change locations or any events we might have." She said making me raise a brow at her. "Since when do you give second chances?" I asked as she stared at me with familiar cold eyes. "A lot has changed over the past couple years. Not like you'd take the time to figure out what though. What I built here is for everyone. This is a sort of safe place for people like us. I can promise that I won't be as generous the next time you decide to mess with me. You know I make good on my promises." She said shoving my beanie into my chest hard.
"The doors of my place are always open to heroes and villains alike. Even you two." She said nodding over to Beast Boy and Cyborg. "People will figure out who you are just from how you look, but I give all of you my word that it's perfectly safe and if anything is said or fists are thrown against you, they'll be dealing with me. Just so we're aware the same rules still apply to you. If I hear any of you trying to go after villains or trying to find out secret identities I'll have all of you 6 feet in the ground with no escape. Do I make myself clear?" She asked only to be met with silence. "Good. And Robin? Let me know when you change your mind." With that she was surrounded by roots and branches before being dragged underground. Just as she'd left, a pathway out was made for us. "Titans...let's go." I said heading towards the exit she made for us.
"Well that was a complete bust." Beast boy said crossing his arms over his chest. "She sure had one hell of an attitude." Cyborg said annoyed at Night's ways. The group was leading the way while I stayed in the back making sure Night didn't collapse the tunnel behind us. "She was a bit mean. Is she normally like that?" Star asked and the others shrugged their shoulders. "Who cares. I wouldn't mind not having to see her ever again." Beast boy said just as annoyed with Night's behavior. "For once I agree with beast boy." Raven said.
"I wish you both could have seen the inside! You would have enjoyed it so very much!" Starfire said and I could feel her smile from here as she talked to Beast Boy and Cyborg. "Maybe we'll find our way there again." Cyborg said half jokingly. "Staying away from plants makes a lot more sense now." Raven said making the others nod. "Did no one else know she had powers?" Star asked. "Every news article or video of her never shows that she has powers. The only thing they all talk about his her fighting style. Guess no one finds out about her powers until they face her one on one." Cyborg explained before they all turned to face me. "Wanna tell us how you know the poison ivy rip off?" Beast boy asked and I rolled my eyes.
"We have more pressing matters than Night Shade and her attitude. We weren't able to get information from her. I'm going to do some more digging and try to find something she might want." "Ha ha! Digging! Plant joke!" Beast boy laughed and I fought the urge to face palm. "Why not just owe her a favor?" Raven asked. "I already owe her one. I'm not owing her another." I said putting my hands in my now dirty jean pockets. "What could she want?" Star asked and I shrugged my shoulders. "Who knows. It could be as simple as food to something extremely dangerous and illegal." I said and the others nodded. "We need to keep moving. I don't want her to possibly collapse this tunnel before we can get out." "You sure she's not a bad guy, Robin?" Cyborg asked. "She did sound and act like the bad guys we normally face." Star said softly. "Can you blame her? We did invade her space." Raven said making the others think for a moment. "She can actually be rather nice." I said. "Ha! I'll believe it when I see it." Beast boy said.
"Looks like we're almost out." Cyborg said pointing towards the end of the tunnel revealing a light source. We all jumped out from the exit Nigh Shade had made for us. "She led us home." Starfire said out loud as we all noticed where we were. I looked behind me to see the roots and branches start to move back into the ground. The only remanence of what had happened was a new patch of dirt and a light green stem growing out of it. A bud grew from the stem and bloomed in front of us to reveal a soft yellow rose with a small note in the center.
I picked up the note and opened it while the titans surrounded me trying to get a look at what it said. "What's it say?" Star asked leaning over my shoulder. "Glad you made it back safe titans. I'm not in the hero business, but I have no desire to work against you. If you need anything, let me know." I said before handing the note off to the group. "She says to let her know, yet she didn't leave any way to contact her." Cyborg said as he read the note. "Don't worry. She'll know if we need her." I reassured the team while staring down that the yellow rose.