Author's Notes

Balkoth, thanks for the tips; I really appreciate it.

Chapter 3, S.T.A.R. Labs

Cyborg hit the brakes and switched off the engine.

He and the others piled out of the T-Car and cautiously approached the smoldering ruins of what was clearly once an impressive building. Dust and debris were clogging the air around it. Bricks and cracked concrete were lying all over the snow in uneven chunks. One slab bore the words S.T.A.R. Labs in faded navy lettering. Apart from the crackling sound of severed wires that were still live and jumping with high-voltage electricity, the place was eerily quiet.

Cyborg only took a few steps before he standing frozen before the building. Years of memories flooded his brain, making his head swim.

Beast Boy started to approach him, but Starfire stopped him with a touch of her hand to his elbow.

Robin carefully approached the gaping hole in collapsing lab, but was forced to jump back and shield his face with an arm as a pair of wires jolted and emitted sparks. "Raven, do you think you could—?"

Raven nodded before closing her eyes to focus on summoning her dark energy. Her magic rose from the snow-covered ground and enveloped her and her friends to bring them safely inside.

The Titans crouched in the shadows, using the darkness as a cloak. Robin crept along the wall against his back and peered around the corner. He couldn't see a thing in the dim light given off from flickering bulbs overhead.

"Shall I ignite one of my starbolts to aid us in our search?" Starfire offered in a whisper.

"No, not just yet. As much as I'd like a clear sight of what we're getting into, it'll attract attention." He flicked his eyes around the dark hallway in thought before turning back to his teammates. "Beast Boy, go on ahead to scope out the area and give us the all clear."

Beast Boy's body shrank as he turned into a fly.

"Come right back if you run into any sign of trouble," Robin said in the general direction of where Beast Boy's dark outline had been a moment earlier. The dull buzz of Beast Boy's wings faded as he moved down the passage.

Cyborg had been strangely mute since they had arrived. Raven sensed the mixed emotions he was giving off as they waited for Beast Boy to come back. Starfire groped blindly for his hand and felt him squeeze her fingers slightly.

Minutes ticked by, and still Beast Boy had not returned. They couldn't hear him at all now.

Raven was starting to become rather fidgety when Beast Boy's panicked voice rang down the hallway. "Guys, over here! Hurry up!"

The others bolted towards the sound of his voice, Cyborg and Robin's feet pounding on metallic surface of the floor while Raven and Starfire took to the air. They went on that way for what seemed like ages before two dark masses appeared in the center of the area just ahead of them.

Beast Boy come into view. He was kneeling by a dark heap on the floor. "Cyborg," he began, "it's—"

"Dad!" Cyborg yelled.

With a burst of speed he sprinted over to his father's motionless body. Cyborg looked upon Silas's unconscious face. It had been years since he'd last seen him after storming away from this very lab and time had not been kind to his father. A grayish stubble shadowed Silas's sunken cheeks and the bags under his eyes were hollow and dark. There were scrapes, bruises, and dried blood peppered all over him, making him look even shabbier.

Starfire ignited a starbolt so Cyborg could have light to see his father better, though everything was discolored by the green glow it cast, and oddly enough much of the area seemed to…glimmer.

Raven extended a glowing hand over Dr. Stone's chest to heal as many of his injuries as she could. None of them seemed to be life-threatening at least.

"These don't look like they're from a direct attack," Robin said studying Silas as Raven healed him. He glancing around the damaged lab. "They're like shrapnel wounds."

Cyborg tore his gaze from his father and looked around at the ruined, green-lit area with a hard glint in his eye. Glass was shattered on the floor and huge chunks of the walls had been completely torn away. And there was still that strange, shiny quality about the place.

Silas began to stir.

Cyborg's attention swiveled instantly back to his father as he emitted a low groan and blinked his eyes open. Groggy and clearly still dazed, it seemed to take him a few moments before his vision cleared enough to see.

"Victor?" Dr. Stone said, doubtfully at first and then with more certainty. "Victor, you came."

"What have you done this time?" Cyborg asked harshly.

Before Silas could even open his mouth to answer, a high-pitched scraping noise rent the air.

"Quickly, to the panic-room!" Dr. Stone ordered, regaining his wits and shepherding the confused Titans down the corridor. He whipped to look at a startled Starfire. "And child, please put that light out!"

Her starbolt dissipated.

"What did you do?" Cyborg repeated, but he hurried along beside his father as the scraping sound grew closer and shriller, seeming to come from everywhere at once as the noise bounced and echoed along the pitch-black halls. Something was clearly in pursuit of them.

"Not now," his father yelled back. "Come this way." Turning into another passage, he led the Titans into a small room, shutting and barring the heavy iron doors behind them.

"Emergency power cell protocol, activate," Silas spoke aloud, and immediately the room was flooded with light.

Squinting into the sudden brightness, the Titans peered around this new room. Their jaws dropped. They now saw what was once hidden by the darkness and disguised by the green light Starfire had been casting.

Gold.

They were surrounded by gold. Golden objects lay scattered, and some destroyed as well, all over the room. It was as though someone had dipped a random assortment of tech and equipment into a vat of liquid gold.

While Robin, Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy gawked, Cyborg only had eyes for his father. "You have some nerve calling me for help after everything you've done. Do you want to explain what the hell going on?"

Dr. Stone stared into his son's eyes for a moment, then he let out a sigh. "For several months now, I've been testing out the possibility of alchemy—with tremendous breakthroughs. I actually discovered a way to recreate something which people have coveted for millennia: the Hand of Midas. The legends said it could transform any item it touched into solid gold, and when I realized I had discovered a way to recreate it…." He rubbed his eyes wearily.

"Unfortunately, it was only yesterday that I recognized a serious flaw in my calculations that if left unattended could prove to be treacherous. Before I could destroy it, the Hand of Midas mutated into this massive, monstrous beast with a will of its own. With its ability to convert anything into gold, the thing is fatal for anyone who touches it. I…I didn't know what to do once it started to demolish the lab and pursue me. I turned to the only place I knew I could find help—you, the Titans."

"I can't believe you," Cyborg ground out. "After everything that's happened—after mom died—how could you possibly continue to be so careless? Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!"

"You didn't seem to mind it so much when I built Titans Tower," Dr. Stone replied evenly.

Starfire gasped.

"What?" Cyborg managed to choke out.

His mind was whirring. He and Robin had been led to believe that Jump City had the tower constructed for Titans as a thank you for saving them from the Gordanian attack and as an invitation to be their official protectors.

Dr. Stone took advantage of his son's silence and attention. "I was a wreck when you left, Victor. I knew I couldn't force you to stay, so I supported your new life the only way I could. You never would have accepted the Tower if you knew I had anything to do with it, so I never told you," he finished with a sad little smile.

"Dad," Cyborg started. He had tried so hard to forget his father, but his father had never forgotten him. "Dad, I—"

A thunderous bang resounded from the panic-room door.

What none of them had realized while they so focused on Cyborg and Silas was that t the iron door was now solid gold. The ear-splitting clang of metal on metal shook the room again. The third boom brought the door—now made of soft gold—blasting off its hinges with absurd ease.

In the clear doorway stood a bizarre sight. A gold-plated hand at least seven feet in height from wrist to fingertips stood on its middle and index fingers almost like a pair of legs. It had no eyes that anyone could see, but they somehow knew that this thing sensed their presence. It crept forward on its fingers like a curious hand-puppet, sending the Titans and Dr. Stone retreating farther backwards into the recesses of the panic-room.

Dr. Stone spoke urgently and quietly. "Don't let it touch you."

"How can we stop something that we can't even hit?" Beast Boy muttered as he backed away from the creature.

"Any way we can," Robin responded. He reached into his utility-belt and removed a fistful of birdarangs. Taking aim, he flicked his wrist to release them with deadly accuracy at the thing. They bounced harmlessly off of the hand in a shower of gold. It had, however, gotten the beast's attention.

The hand seemed to vibrate with fury slightly as it bull-rushed Robin.

Starfire sent starbolts crashing into the creature to subdue it, but they had no effect. Neither did Raven's magic, and by that time it was inches from Robin. At the last possible second, he flipped to the side to avoid being touched so that the hand went crashing into the wall. Chunks of plaster and dust flew everywhere.

Cyborg protected himself and his father from the cracked beams that had buckled from the hit by reducing them to sawdust with his sonic cannon.

"Dad," he shouted, "there has to be something you can do to stop it. It's an unstable experiment. There's always a way to dismantle them."

"Dismantle it?" Dr. Stone repeated, a strange glint in his eyes. "Dismantle it. We can break it down, that's it! Victor, can you all lead it into the main chamber? Leave the rest to me."

"You got it."

Dr. Stone slipped past the hand while it was distracted with the others and ran.

"I feel like we're herding sheep," Beast Boy snickered as he backed away from the rearing, vibrating hand. He changed into a Labrador, barking and wagging his tail.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Is this really the time for you to be working on your standup material?"

It wasn't easy, but the Titans managed to alternately drive back and lure the creature into the main chamber with nearly everything in their path turning to gold.

As they continued to try and subdue the monster, Dr. Stone was tinkering with an elaborate-looking device. "That's it!" he encouraged them. "When I say so, give it everything you've got. Ready? Now!"

In a blinding flash of sonic-cannon fire, magic, explosives, and starbolts, the hand was overpowered long enough that it fell to the ground in a shaking heap. It was all the time Dr. Stone needed to fire from the atomic subverter he had rewired to destabilize the element Au—gold.

The thing was pierced by the subverter's ray straight-on and started to disintegrate. Weakened and already unstable in its mutagenic composition, it quaked violently once more before melting completely into a bubbling heap of molten gold in the middle of the floor.

"We are victorious!" Starfire clapped and giggled a little.

Through the thinning smoke and debris, Cyborg turned to face his father and Dr. Stone met his gaze. Without exchanging another word, the two crossed the room to embrace just as the sun broke over the horizon.

"It's Christmas, you guys!" Beast Boy declared. "Let's go back home and party. My tofu-nog is calling."

"Oh, yes!" Starfire cried. Floating closer to Robin, she whispered so only he could hear her next words. "Perhaps when we return, we can properly practice this custom of standing under the mistletoe greenery at last."

Robin swung his head to look at her so fast that he pulled a muscle in his neck.

Cyborg muttered past the lump in his throat, "Merry Christmas, Dad."

"Merry Christmas, Victor. I've missed you."

End Author's Notes

Best wishes to everyone this holiday season!