Red X Returns

Red X Returns is the ninth episode of Rise of The Teen Titans season 3.

### Plot

As the Teen Titans attempt to stop a break-in of a warehouse, Nightwing narrates a muse on the true nature of Good and Evil. The story is being explained all the while the culprit weaves through the security systems and the Titans follow him until they have him cornered in the main storage facility. And to their shock, they discover that the culprit behind this break-in is none other than Red X.

### The Return of Red X

Despite the Titans' best efforts, Red X's mastery over the battlesuit's weapons combined with his own battle training manages to best them. He steals the device he came for and though his power belt briefly malfunctions, he vanishes into the night with the aid of the belt's teleporter. After convincing the rest of the Titans that he had nothing to do with the mysterious return of a villain of his own creation.

### The Origin of Red X

Nightwing explains the full backstory behind the manifestation of Red X; As the leader of a team of champions tasked with protecting Jump City from crime and villainy, he is always expected to be able to see the fine line between him and the people he fights. But back then, the line was impossible to see. A madman was threatening the city, and Nightwing's plan to defeat him was to create the persona of a ruthless thief who could get closer to the madman than Nightwing as himself ever could. However, his plan failed because he did not trust his teammates with the plan, and he almost lost his life and his friends because of it. That mistake was the closest he ever came to crossing the line. Upon returning to the tower, Nightwing discovers that the Red X suit has indeed been stolen from the vault Robin locked it away in, and he makes it his mission to catch the crook responsible.

### Who is Red X?

The Titan's investigation as to who he is proves completely hopeless and Nightwing decides that it does not matter who the guy is, only that whoever's inside the suit is his responsibility due to every manifestation of what Red X is being his creation, and defeating him is the only way to rectify his mistake. Cyborg decides that the best way to find out who he is would be to find out what he is after, and Nightwing knows right away: Zynothium, a very dangerous and unstable radioactive substance which functions as the suit's power source (and the waning supply of said substance being the reason for Red X's brief malfunction during the warehouse fight). The device Red X stole from the warehouse is in fact a scanner that will locate any zynothium within a ten-mile radius. Cyborg downloads its chemical footprint for the Titan's communicators to scan for, but Robin says that he would not be needing it, as he is going to the same place he found the zynothium the first time.

### The Manhunt For Red X

Robin's hunt takes him to an abandoned observatory on top of the mountains overlooking Jump City, where he encounters Professor Chang, the criminal scientist who had helped him in procuring the zynothium in the first place. Nightwing forces him to reveal the most likely location where more zynothium is stored; With his supplier skipping town months ago, the only other possible lead would be a tech company on the city's south end rumored to have an impenetrable vault containing a lifetime supply of zynothium ore. While the Titans' search for Red X turns up fruitless, Nightwing informs the other Titans of where he plans to strike. But before Cyborg and Blue Beetle can get there, they were ambushed and incapacitated by an unknown assailant.

### The Third Fight With Red X

Arriving at the place, Nightwing confesses to Beast Boy that the one and only reason Nightwing did not destroy the Red X suit was because the zynothium power core is too dangerous to dispose of. It was supposed to stay locked away in the vault where its radioactivity could deteriorate on its own safely. When Raven and Starfire and the others arrive to inform that Cyborg is missing, Nightwing comes to the conclusion that Red X attacked him, and takes blame for it. Starfire reasons with him that Robin's mistake of inventing Red X is in the past, and whatever whoever's inside the suit does with it is not his fault.

At that moment, the Titans encounter Red X when he appears at the facility, but are again unable to defeat him or stop him from infiltrating the facility. When they get inside, Nightwing tells the Titans to split up and be careful so nobody else gets hurt. But one by one, Beast Boy, Raven, Terra, Superboy, and Starfire are neutralized and captured by armed goons inside the facility. Nightwing comes to a huge metal door at the end of a curving corridor when he hears Starfire scream. When he turns around to go to her aid, Red X appears behind him and throws shurikens at the control console behind him, destroying it and opening the door. Nightwing gives chase and after leaping through a laser labyrinth tunnel, they come to the first security obstacle; a massive shaft-like pit shielded with a force field. Red X uses one his X-shaped constructs to momentarily carve a doorway in the shield while it slows Nightwing down for just a minute. When he gets through, the tunnel beneath it takes him to a room with black checkerboard-like floor tiles with the door to the zynothium vault right on the other side. Red X sneaks up behind him and nudges him onto the floor. Upon contact with it, The tiles illuminate, revealing themselves to be a targeting interface for the room's main defense system; an enormous zynothium-powered laser cannon rigged right above him via ceiling-mounted gantry assembly. While Nightwing swerves all over the floor dodging the laser blasts, Red X jumps right over while Nightwing occupies the laser's attention.

When he reaches the other side, he locks the door on him and leaves him at the mercy of the cannon. Finally inside the zynothium storage vault, Red X procures a zynothium containment tube which will power the suit for quite a while, along with an entire containment case for six more tubes. Just as he is about to secure them and make his escape, Nightwing lasers the entire wall down with the cannon (which he disassembled and modified) and the warriors get on with their duel. For the moment while Nightwing has Red X cornered, he demands to know of his master plan, starting with why he stole the battlesuit. Red X reveals his true nature as a selfish thrill-seeker instead of the psychotic mastermind Nightwing initially took him for. Finally having enough, Red X threatens Nightwing to trip the zynothium power core in his belt which will trigger an explosion that will bring the whole facility down on their heads if he does not let him escape. Nightwing tries to call his bluff since he doubts Red X wants to be disintegrated, but their fight is interrupted by men in HazMat suits. They neutralize both warriors and steal all the zynothium in the vault. One guy leaves a video comm device for Nightwing, revealing that these HazMats are henchmen sent by Professor Chang. He reveals to him that by breaking into the facility and disabling all the security systems, Red X and Nightwing enabled Chang to steal the Zynothium ore for himself to put his master plan in motion; to destroy Jump City with the observatory's main telescope, which he has repurposed as a giant disintegrator cannon powered by the zynothium to help Slade. In order to ensure no interference from Nightwing, he had his men capture the other Titans, who are standing flash-frozen in stasis pods as hostages in the observatory.

### X Team Up

Red X awakens just in time for Nightwing to imprison him in a cage rigged in the vault and explains that both of them are responsible for a lowlife maniac obtaining enough zynothium to destroy the whole city. Nightwing tries to convince Red X to help him correct their mistake by lecturing him about his selfish nature, but he refuses, claiming that "some guys don't like to play the hero". Nightwing leaves, promising to return with a prison transport, with Red X thinking about Robin's words of wisdom.

Chang monologues to Starfire (who unfreezes her head with her eye lasers, but it still unable to escape) about the "breathtaking" nature of disintegration while he prepares the finishing touches to his disintegrator cannon. Despite Chang's cocky doubts and threats, Starfire holds out the hope that Nightwing will come to the rescue. The cannon's charge reaches full power and Chang prepares to take his revenge on the city. But just as he prepares to fire away, Nightwing interferes just in time with only the top portion of Titans Tower getting disintegrated by the beam. Nightwing beats all of Chang's henchmen easy, but ends up on the run from the cannon's blast beam and ultimately taken out and captured by Chang's men before the gun's muzzle. Suddenly, Red X appears and disables the cannon's controls, saving Starfire from being disintegrated and Nightwing. Red X confesses to having a momentary change of heart at playing the hero and he helps Nightwing in bringing down Chang and his henchmen. When Chang bangs on the already damaged controls to the cannon in frustration, it goes haywire and the whole thing blows the rest of its zynothium charge, firing one continuous blast beam that slices the entire mountain peak in half. With his plan foiled, Nightwing knocks out Chang and Red X prepares to take what he came for. However, the rest of the Titans, who were freed from the stasis pods in the cannon's malfunction, stand in his way and prepare for battle. Red X takes a vial of Zynothium, planning to use it to power the suit for a good long time and for the sake of this standoff. But much to his surprise, Nightwing reveals that he has rendered the zynothium vial worthless by taking Red X's power belt during the malfunction as well. As the Titans have Red X cornered this time, he throws the vial of Zynothium at their feet, using the detonation as a smokescreen to cover his getaway off the cliff.

### The Last We See Red X

After the mission, Raven returns the zynothium to the tech company's vault, Cyborg carts Professor Chang and his goons off to prison, Starfire and Beast Boy search in vain for Red X (who manage to escape through the sewer), and Nightwing locks away the power belt in a safe. All the while, Nightwing once again narrates a dark muse about the clarity of the lines between good and evil, wondering whether or not he is to blame for one past mistake or if Red X coming to his aid makes him a hero. The episode ends with Nightwing lost in deep thought, coming to the conclusion that the answers never come easy, and the whole concept is much more complicated than previously thought. Nightwing kneels on the edge of the roof of Titans Tower, which has begun its early stages of reconstruction as the screen fades to black.

## Cast

* **James Marsden** as the voice of **Dick Grayson/ Nightwing.**
* **Kari Wahlgren** as the voice of **Koriand'r/ Kory/ Starfire.**
* **Tara Strong** as the voice of **Rachel Roth/ Raven.**
* **Greg Cipes** as the voice of **Garfield Mark Logan/Beast Boy.**
* **Khary Payton** as the voice of **Victor Stone/ Cyborg.**
* **Eric Lopez** as the voice of **Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle.**
* **Nolan North** as the voice of **Conner Kent/Kon-El/Superboy.**
* **Tara Strong** as the voice of **Terra Markov.**
* **James Hong** as the voice of **Professor Theo Chang.**
* **Billy Kametz** as the voice of **Red X.**