Credit goes to Meredith Cantoni, webmaster of Temple O' Trunks,for allowing me to use the title "Traces Of Insanity." If you're a DBZ fan, check out her site.

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"Titans! Regroup!" The leader of the Teen Titans yelled as he was knocked back by a punch from Adonis.

The others obeyed his command and moved back into their primary fighting positions. Adonis, who upgraded himself and was now even stronger and tougher than he used to be, didn't care and charged at them full force.

"Wait for it." Robin thought while watching Adonis approach them at incredible speed, but before Robin could throw his plan into action, Adonis jumped in the air and began falling towards the youthful teens.

"Titans! Move!" The Boy Wonder yelled out at the last second.

"You don't have to tell us everything to do!" Cyborg yelled after jumping out of the way and standing up.

Raven used her powers to pick up two cars and sling them towards Adonis, but he caught them like frisbees and threw them back at her. Terra seeing it, made two boulders and shot them at the cars, causing them to explode, but also to leave oil all over Raven.

"Sorry." Terra sheepishly laughed before heading back into battle.

Raven wiped her face, and followed.

Starfire shot several star bolts at Adonis, but they didn't faze him. He didn't notice because he was fighting Robin. His punches weren't connecting, due to Robin's superior speed and agility. Robin did a back-flip as Adonis punched the previous spot that Robin was in leaving a whole in the ground.

Adonis grunted as he pulled his fist out of the ground, then looked up only to be with a punch to the face from Cyborg, sending the muscle-bound maniac stumbling backwards. Cyborg continued with a flurry, that connected and was getting the upper hand, but Adonis caught a left punch from Cy and a small match of strength ensued between the two. Neither one was showing an advantage in strength, but Adonis used his brain and crushed the hand of Cyborg's that he was holding, then twisted the arm and broke it before taking Cy for a giant swing and released him, sending him right past Starfire.

Robin watched his friend fly away and was filled with rage. He charged at Andonis and attacked him. It caught Adonis off guard and he was unable to put up a defense.

Cyborg was heading for the bay and was vulnerable to the water because his arm had exposed wires. He tried to cover up as much, but he was running out of time. Just before hitting the water, Starfire saved him.

"Thanks Star. For a while I thought I was going to be known as Fryborg." He mused as she flew him back to the action.

When they got back, they saw that the others had defeated Adonis.

"What happened?" Cyborg asked once his feet hit the ground.

"When you were knocked away, Robin attacked him from the front, then I attacked him from behind." Beast Boy said. "When we knocked him to the ground, Terra pinned him with boulders and Raven used her powers to seal it off until he ran out of air and now he's unconscious." He finished.

"You're cold." Cyborg said to Raven as they began walking the T-Car.

Raven just shrugged nonchalantly as she walked with the rest of the team. All of them, except Cyborg got in. Robin started to call out to Cy, but then saw him way ahead of it and ran up to him.

"Cy, what's going on man?" Robin asked when he caught up.

"Hmm, oh nothing. Just that there isn't room for all of us, and I wanted to walk back." He replied

"But, you're the one who drives the car."

"Oh, right." Cy answered and headed back to the T-Car.

Robin got in again and Cy opened his door to also.

"Computer, auto-drive. Destination: Titan's Tower." Cy said.

"Understood." A computer automated voice replied and the engine started.

"There you go. It'll take you back. I just need this time to myself." Cy finished as he held his damaged arm behind his back.

Cyborg watched his baby drive off, as it's passengers were watching him. He stood there until it was out of sight. Once they were gone, he sighed and began walking.

"Man, this is going to set me back a while. At least this walk will help clear my head before I get back." He said while walking. "I might as well disguise myself while heading back to the tower." He finished as a small compartment opened up on his right arm and his holo-ring slowly lifted up. He took it out and placed it on, and became Stone.

As he walked the streets of Jump City, he saw people all over the place, enjoying themselves and living life. He smiled on the inside and continued walking. While passing the park, he saw several people playing football, and memories of when he played came back. He stopped at continued watching for a few minutes. Another man was walking up, he had dark brown hair and was wearing sports clothes. He took of his sunglasses, then joined in.

The smile slowly started to fade from the inside, as the memories continued to flood Cy's mind. Before he broke down, he started back on his way to the tower. A cry from a young child echoed and Cy looked over instinctively wondering what was going on, only to see the child had scraped his leg while rollerskating. Cy looked at his own legs and remembered all those times in battle when he was slammed against the hard ground or a wall, and he didn't feel pain.

"Why would anyone miss pain?" He asked himself. "Why do I?"

Turning his head, he saw kids across the street getting out of school. It was getting to him; the pain of his past had caught up and he broke. The memories of him when he was fully human flooded his mind. Like the ocean's waves crashing against the shore, they slammed into his brain, rattling it with pain. His head hurt, and he stumbled to the nearest bus stop to sit at a bench and catch his breath.

The pain subsided and he got up, only to see a couple holding hands as they kissed before getting into a cab. Cyborg slowly closed his eyes and exhaled, then slowly opened them. Fire replaced the emptiness in his eyes, and he walked at a faster pace to get back to the tower. What cause it was the worst type of gasoline...hate.

At the tower, Robin and Beast Boy were relaxing while playing video games, Starfire and Raven were meditating and Terra was in the kitchen.

"Bam Robin! In your face!" Beast Boy exclaimed while throwing his hand in Robin's face and sticking his tongue out.

Robin, who never took defeat easily, challenged Beast Boy to a rematch, and it was quickly accepted and they began again.

The sliding of the doors opening was the only other sound that could be heard as Cy walked in. Beast Boy had just lost to Robin this time, and Robin was accepting all challengers.

"Hey Cy, want a game?" He asked.

"Nah man, I gotta take care of this." Cy responded while pointing at his arm. "I'm going to be busy for a few hours, so I don't want to be bothered." He finished before leaving.

Normally, the Titans wouldn't have minded, but it was Cy's tone that got them wondering why he was so mad about it. He continued all the way to his room, and was so distracted by anger that he acted like he slammed his door shut, when it automatically slid closed behind him. He looked back at his door in disgust and grunted with frustration before walking to his chair and slouching in it.

Cyborg sighed, shook his head, then walked over to a clear tube that was standing up. It had a silver top, with four legs holding it up that connected to the top. He opened the door, then took off his broken arm and placed it inside.

"Computer, repair left arm." He said after closing the door.

"Understood." A mechanical voice replied, as a light surrounded the damaged left arm in the repair unit.

Cy walked over to his shelf, which had most of his memorabilia from when he was fully human, and moved some of them around. There were pictures of him with his mother, both parents, his grandparents, and the whole family. There was an autographed baseball in a plastic case from when he and his father went to a baseball game and he caught the ball from a home-run. There were so many trophies from his athletic accomplishments, that the ones that were too big and what couldn't fit on the shelf was in a box next to it. He rearranged some of them, and then placed them back where they were. After rubbing his head, he walked out of his room and headed into the kitchen.

In the living room, the others were playing elemental uno, which Starfire was about to win, until Terra pulled out the meteor card for a surprise win. She then collected the cards and shuffled them before distributing them again to the others as Cy walked in. He saw them, and was careful not to disturb them because he didn't feel like talking to any of them, but it didn't work as the microwave went off, startling him while he was in the fridge and he hit his head at the top of it.

"Damn!" He cried out, making the others turn towards him.

"Hey Cy, come and join us for a game!" Terra exclaimed.

"No thanks. I just came to get a snack." He said back while turning to face them, revealing his missing left arm.

He had a sandwich and drink with both hands and began heading back to his room.

"Do you want some help?" Terra asked.

"No thanks." He said in a hurry.

"But you might--"

"I got it!" He yelled back.

"I was just trying to help." Terra responded sully.

"I don't need your pity help." He grunted.

"I'm not pitying you."

Cy raised his plate and began to throw it at her, but gritted his teeth. "Leave! Me! Alone!"

The fire in his eye surfaced again, then he stormed out of the room. Once he entered his room and the door closed, he leaned against it before yelling out and throwing his snack against the wall across the room, making the plate shatter. He then slowly slid down to the floor and began to cry.

The shattering of the plate could be heard all the way in the living room, which interrupted the game the others had finally got back to playing.

"I wasn't pitying him." Terra pleaded.

"Actually, you were." Robin said.

"How?" BB and Terra both asked.

"When you saw that he was missing his left arm, you wanted to help him right?"

"Yeah." Terra said while nodding.

"Well, that was you pitying him because he didn't have it and you wanted to help because of that. If he had both hands, then you wouldn't have been pitying him. Either way, you should go apologize to him for that." He finished.

"No-ho way. I already had my head bitten off once, I'm not going for two."

"Why is he so upset anyway?" Beast Boy asked.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling that it had something to do with our fight with Adonis. That or maybe he something happened on his walk back to the tower." He said before looking over at Starfire to hand him some chips, but she wasn't there.

Starfire was walking towards the hallway.

"Where are you going Star?" He asked.

"Our friend is in pain, we must find out why." She replied.

"Might wanna tape your head to your body, he might bite your head off too." Terra smirked.

"But Cyborg isn't a cannibal. Or is he?" She questioned.

"Just when you thought you were making progress." Raven said, making the others smack their foreheads.

Starfire's head was still tilted, before she decided to go ahead and find out why Cyborg was so mad.

"Tell him that pizza will be her soon, while you're in there!" Robin shouted.

In Cyborg's room, he was in deep thought and didn't hear the door open. Starfire placed a hand on his should and he jumped up.

"It's me Cyborg. I am wondering what's troubling you."

"I-It's nothing Star. I'm just a little wound up from that battle with Adonis today."

"May I inquire as to why it has you 'wound up?" She asked.

He didn't say anything, he just shook his head. "Please" She asked; her emerald green eyes sparkling from the lights in his room.

"If you must know. I miss it."

"What do you mean?"

"I miss being my original self."

"But you are your original self."

"No, this is what's left of it. To you, this is the original because it's what you've grown to know. Myself, I miss being human."

"Why?"

"T-That's private."

"But if you never became Cyborg, we would never have met you and we wouldn't be friends." She began to pout.

"Maybe, but it still doesn't change the fact that I miss it."

"So you would rather be human than be my friend?" She asked with tears coming down her eyes.

"I'm not saying that. I'm glad that I'm your friend, I just wish I could have back what I lost is all."

"Really?"

"Really." He smiled.

"Okay, well Robin told me to tell you that pizza will be here soon."

"I'm right behind you."

They left his room and walked back into the living room. The other had finished playing and were now sitting on the c-shaped couch watching TV. Robin wasn't there, he was at the door paying the pizza-boy and giving him an autograph.

He walked back in with four pizza boxes. One for Cy, one for him and Star to share, one all veggie for Beast Boy and the other for Terra and Raven to share. Robin passed out the pizzas to their designated eaters and they all dug in. The incident with Cy was still fresh in their minds, so out of respect, they didn't talk, they just ate so they wouldn't say something they shouldn't have said; even if they didn't mean it in any bad way.

After dinner, they all gather around to watch TV. Which, this night was Beast Boy's night to choose. He picked up the remote and began surfing.

"If you act now, you can buy this whole set for--" A man selling silverware on the TV said.

"Boring." Beast Boy said before changing the channel.

"Billy, I love you! I've always loved you!" A female voice cried.

"Really boring." Beast Boy said before changing the channel again.

"In late breaking news, at S.T.A.R. labs, a new form of reconstructive surgery has been found--"

"News." Beast Boy groaned before changing the channel.

"Put it back B!" Cy expressed.

"Why, it's just the news?" He asked before Raven smacked him upside the head.

"Put it back!" They all yelled in unison.

"Fine...jeez." He groaned while putting it back.

"Prof. Lewis of S.T.A.R. labs is with me here to explain what it is. So prof. what is this new form of reconstructive surgery you're discovered?" The female reporter asked before pointing the microphone in his direction.

"Well, we have created a new form of surgery with what we call A.N.T.S. or Advanced. Nanotechnological. Surgery. What happens is we take the patient who has lost any form of tissue and have him/her lie on this bed, and unlike our last project which copied DNA with microscopic nanobots, we have A.N.T.S. which acts like a real group of ants and crawls over the patient. I know it sounds disgusting, but what they do is map what's been lost and reconstruct it. The patient can be awake or asleep and he/she won't feel a thing. Although if you're squeamish about millions of tiny bug-like robots crawling on you, we can put you to sleep first." He joked at the end.

"Thank you Prof. Lewis. Back to you." The reporter finished, then Beast Boy turned the channel before he fell asleep.

After hearing that, Cy got up, with heavy thoughts on his mind.

"Cy, what is it?" Robin asked.

"Nothing man. At least nothing you guys have to worry about." He replied, just before the alarm on his right arm went off, signaling that his left arm was fully repaired. "Besides, I gotta go. My arm's fixed."

He left the room with everyone yet again wondering what the hell was going on.

The cylinder that held his arm was full of steam. He opened it and he felt the hot steam blow on him as he pulled his new arm out. Instead of placing the arm back, he looked at it for a few seconds, then put it on. He flexed his fingers and moved his arm up and down, but something was going wrong.

"Crud. The leveler must be off. I hate this part." He fumed just as Robin came in.

"Cy, what's going on?" The Boy Wonder asked.

"My arm is messing up. I think that it's equilibrium is off." He replied before going back to his arm.

"No, I mean with today. You haven't told any of us what's going on. We're a team, we don't keep things from each other."

Cy looked at him with that what-did-you-just-say look. "Excuse me? We don't keep anything from each other?"

"Yeah." Robin said while nodding.

"Tell me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember a certain Boy Wonder not telling his team when he went behind our backs as Red X."

"Sorry, I--"

"Or when he knew about Terra not being able to control her powers and just blurting it out."

"Okay." Robin said while gritting his teeth.

"Or when--"

"You made your point!" Robin yelled.

"You know Rob, you don't want any secrets but you're the one who doesn't tell us things, and especially yourself."

"What are you talking about?" Robin asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You haven't told yourself of Star how much you love her." Cy smirked, making Robin turn bright red.

"I am not!" He lied.

"Right..."

"Besides! This isn't about me, it's about you!" Robin defended himself while still sporting his new-found blush. "Now, you wanna tell me what's going on?" He asked when he blush faded.

"Sure, once you help me with this." Cy said while pointing at his hand.

"Okay, what do you need me to do?"

Cy opened up a panel on his back, which showed a series of wires on top of several circuit boards. "See those wires? Tell me in order from left to right what the colors are."

"Okay. Red, blue, white, and yellow."

"Do any of them look like their fried at the core?"

"Yeah, the yellow one."

"Thought so, that's the one that controls my nervous system. It must've burned out in the fight. It has to be replaced."

"So what do I do?"

"There's a drawer to the top right of my main computer, it has replacement pieces. Go in and find a replacement yellow wire."

Robin did and found that there was only one left. He grabbed it and walked back over to Cy.

"Okay, you're going to have to pull out the ruined wire and replace it."

"Is it going to hurt?" Robin asked.

"Yep, but it has to be done." Cy groaned. "I'm ready." He said as he braced himself.

"Okay!" Robin exclaimed before carefully wrapping his hand around it and yanking it out, as sparks came out.

Cy's body reacted by involuntary shaking. Robin wasted no time and placed the new wire in, making Cy's body slowly stop shaking and settle down.

"I HATE THAT!" Cy yelled before cracking his neck.

"May I ask what the other three wires are for?"

"Red is for my organs, white is for my memory and blue is for my respiratory system. I'm just glad it wasn't any of those three. That would've hurt even more."

"Yeah. Well, I kept my part of the bargain, now you tell me what's going on."

"Sure." Cy said, before turning to face his friend. "Today, I realized that there was something missing, and that's my humanity."

"Go on..."

"That fight with Adonis showed me how easy I couldn't died with this." He said while looking at his arms. "And after-wards, the things I saw, the things that I missed, the memories that came with them. It's just so damn painful. Especially in certain areas."

"Like what?"

"A lot of things. I miss school, I miss playing on a team, I even miss getting the bumps and bruises from playing, and most of all...I miss having someone to love."

"I see..."

"No. You don't. You've never had to worry about what the girls think of you."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh come on Rob! Don't even try being smug. You know the ladies swoon anytime you're around. They love seeing you fight, they love your spiky hair, and how you look. They do, for whatever reason I don't know why, for Beast Boy. I guess it's because of his goofiness. You've even seen how they act when we've teamed with Speedy and Aqualad. You all have never had to worry about the girls looking at you...but me...to them, all I am is a robot. They just see me being half-robot and are turned away automatically. I know you remember how Star and Raven were practically drooling over Aqualad and how they even look at you; and when I became Stone. I had what I lost. The girls didn't see my robotic side. They saw the man underneath it and I loved it." Cy choked, trying to hold back the tears.

"Cy, I-I don't know what to say. You never acted like it bothered you." Robin said while placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"When something like this happens to you, you learn to hide the pain. That's why when I saw that report about reconstructive surgery, the idea popped into my head. And now I am going to find a way to get back what I lost."

"I see. Is there anything I can do?"

"Maybe, but I'm not sure." Cy said while he lowered his head and began to think. "I don't want the others to know, you know how they worry."

"Yeah."

"When I do, I'll probably been gone a while, plus I'd have to decide how to adjust to my new-found humanity. The only way I can see it being done is that I die."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Say what now!" Robin cried out.

"Not literally. I mean, fake it."

"Oh..."

"You want to help right?"

"Yeah, you're like family to me. Of course I would."

"Okay, well the next time we go to battle, you have to make sure I don't come back."

"How?" Robin pondered.

"My robotic copy. I've made adjustments and now it's voice controlled, like all my stuff. I did that so I can work on more than one project at a time, but anyway. When you guys go into battle next time, he's going with you. You just have to make sure that he dies, and there's not way I could've survived."

"You got it. Anything else?"

"Yeah, I might need your help after-wards with all the planning."

"No prob."

"Yeah...no matter what, I will become human again. Even if it kills me." Cy said, with his cybernetic eye glowing immensely, just before his light went out. "Right after I fix that light."

End Of Chapter One.