A/N: I'm sure nobody cares, but I'm back, finally got my life in order, got all my college-related things done, finally found myself with new ideas and time, and got back to writing. I've not penned anything in months, so I may be a little rusty…be gentle.

PS: for our purposes here '---' means "elsewhere, at the same time" just to be sure no one gets lost, not that I don't trust most of you...

Disclaimer: These are so pointless…but I'm not one to tempt fate without a good reason. I do not own Teen Titans.

4:33pm

"Come on Jerry, hurry up and put the money in the bag!" half yelled half whispered a man in green army camouflage and a ski-mask from behind the teller's counter.

"Gil, get over here and help me! Mike and Steve have all the people on the floor, ain't no one goin' nowhere." The man kept furiously stuffing bricks of hundred dollar bills into a duffle bag as he shouted.

The other man in fatigues and ski-mask lowered his AK-47 from where it had been aimed at several very terrified looking people, all lying on the marble floor, all with their wrists zip-tied behind their backs. He turned and ran into the open vault, wasting no time in grabbing a duffle bag and hurriedly stuffing cash into it.

"4 minutes guys, hurry it up!" Yelled the man behind the counter, glancing down at his watch. He turned slowly over the entire lobby of the bank "KEEP YOUR DAMN HEADS DOWN!" he screamed, shouldering his AK from its position at his side. His hand unconsciously moved into his pocket, fingering the ornate key and ring he had pulled from a safety deposit box.

Those that didn't already have their heads pressed against the cold stone floor slammed them back; face down, the distorted reflections of the polished marble looking back at them.

"Steve" he called to the fourth camo-clad robber on the opposite end of the lobby from him, "go now and get the van started. 2 minutes guys!" he called over his shoulder to the two men in the vault. He walked out from around the counter, into the middle of the lobby, stepping into a shaft of light from the skylight that allowed so much of the slowly shrinking daylight to pour in from above.

'What a job' he thought, a devious smile coming to his lips 'one little lock-box and we get paid two million, plus any of the cash we want to grab in the process.'

A duffle bag thudded heavily to the ground next to him, along with two more. Jerry and Gil quickly followed them, a bag in each hand, rifles slung on their backs.

Mike took his left hand off the AK's grip and picked up a bag. He glanced at his watch once more, and then nodded at the other two.

"Ok, time to go."

"This is going perfect Mike," Jerry said, taking a moment to set down his bag to adjust his ski mask, "you really know how to plan 'em." As if on cue, a green ball of light went whizzing past Mike's head, striking Jerry squarely in the face, sending him flying onto the ground and sliding back into the vault.

Gil and Mike looked at each other; both puzzled and stunned, just as one of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows in the front of the lobby exploded. The robbers turned back to the window, and no sooner had they done so, then a blue beam streaked through the opening and into Gil's chest, sending him sprawling to the floor.

In a split second Mike saw red and blue blurs race into the lobby. The red one was coming right at him, he realized it was Robin. 'Damn Teen Titans' he thought, raising his right arm as best as he could, holding the heavy rifle in one hand, and pulled the trigger. Unleashing a wild spray of bullets at his attacker before black energy sliced his gun in two. He dropped the bag and tried to run the other way, but didn't take a single step before he was tripped up by black energy around his legs. He fell to the ground, smacking his head against the marble floor, knocking himself unconscious.

"God that hurts."

Raven turned from where she was standing above the unconscious bank robbers, to see Robin leaning heavily against the window frame, his right leg out-stretched, and his hands pressing on his thigh.

"Robin! Have you been shot?" She worriedly asked, racing over to him.

"Yeah, but just in the leg, so it's not bad" he took a deep breath, looking down from her to his leg and continued "I'm pretty sure it just went right through, it'd hurt a hell of a lot worse if it'd hit the bone."

At that moment, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg all walked in.

"Who knew the guy had a tazer with him?" beast boy said, rubbing his arm and then trying to flatten down all of his standing green hair.

"You just gotta learn not to let the bad guts reach into their pockets befo—Whoa" Cyborg exclaimed as he saw the blood quickly pooling under Robin's leg.

"Robin!" Starfire cried, rushing quickly to his other side. "Are you alright? What happened? Does it hurt? Will you be ok?" She frantically asked in rapid-fire succession.

"I got hit, it was a lucky shot, it hurts a little, and I'll be fine." He answered all her questions just as quickly, seeing her calm down slightly, he turned his head back towards Raven "Would you please just heal this now, I'm sick of bleeding all over the floor."

Raven nodded and told him to move his hands, she checked the wound, and to her surprise, it was straight through, hitting nothing vital, but leaving a rather painfully large hole. She pressed her hands against his leg, a blue light glowing out from them and holding for a few seconds before disappearing. She stood up, examining her now blood-soaked hands.

"Much better, thanks Raven." Robin said as he bent his leg back and forth to test it. The other Titans all looked relieved, as well as thankful it wasn't any worse. Cyborg looked over the lobby, there were still half a dozen people clinging to the ground as if they would fall into the ceiling.

"Hey, everyone, it's the Teen Titans, we've got the situation under control, you're all safe now." He announced to the lobby. The hostages very cautiously looked up, then began getting to their feet, just as the Titans were walking out through their own custom made doorway.

"Well team, no worse for the ware, we stopped the bad guys, we're all ok, and now that the police are here" Robin added, as half a dozen squad cars screech to a halt at the front of a bank "I think we can leave this mess, to them."

"Alright, who's up for some meatloaf? Cause I wanna make my special recipe!" Cyborg exuberantly asked.

"If by meat you mean tofu…" Beast Boy interrupted.

"Oh please, not this again." Raven sighed, shaking her head.

Robin and Starfire kept walking as Beast Boy and Cyborg shouted back and forth at each other with Raven trying to get them to stop and keep moving. Robin stopped and put a hand to his pocket; not satisfied with the result, he put his hands in his pockets then took them out with an aggravated sigh.

"I left my communicator back there, I must have dropped it when I got hit." He turned back towards the bank and made his way inside.

The police were milling about, collecting evidence and taking statements from all the witnesses. They had already picked up the unconscious bodies of three of the four robbers, but Mike still lay unattended in the middle of the lobby floor. Robin quickly spotted his bright yellow communicator against the polished marble background. He picked it up, and as he stuffed it into his pocket, just as he turned to leave, a glimmer caught his eye.

He took a few steps over to where he'd seen it, next to Mike's unaware form. Lying just outside of his pocket was a very strange looking golden key on a chain. He wasn't sure why, but it occurred to him that he should pick it up and take it with him. He quickly bent down, and grabbed the key; as he crouched down he lifted the key in front of his eyes for a moment, examining it intently before a quick siren burst snapped him out of it and he slid the key into his pocket.

5:06

"What exactly do you mean by 'the mission failed'!?" A man in a black coat and suit shouted at another man with wild, dirty-blonde hair, slamming his fist into the door of the black Mercedes he was standing next to; the two men flaking him only adding to the strangely cold ferocity.

"Yes sir, our men—"

"Your men, Asher, they were your men."

"Yes sir, I contracted out to a local group, I assumed they would know the set-up better than my own men…."

"Well you were wrong, Asher, and now the police have both them, and the contents of my box in their possession. You have made things much more complicated for me." He said calmly, his voice filled with malice, the two imposing bodyguards at his side each taking a step forward.

"I'm sorry sir. The police have all four men in custody, as well as your property. I will take care of the problem immediately."

"I trust you will not fail me again, the consequences would prove…dire." He finished, looking slowly from Asher to the ruthless looking guard at his side.

"I won't fail you." He exclaimed as the man in the black suit climbed back into his now damaged car with his guards and drove out of the alley darkened by the shadow of the massive abandoned factories on either side of it.

---

Robin stared at his open hand, holding it up close to his face as he very intently examined the key he'd recovered from the robbery attempt.

It wasn't like any key he'd ever seen. It had two prongs, like a tuning fork, with each edge of the prongs intricately filed into different configurations of ridges and dips, highs and lows and channels. It was easily the most complicated key he'd ever seen before. But for having so many small pieces, it was somewhat long and quite a bit heavier than it seemed it would be; it also seemed to be very tough as he tried to bend it and met with no success.

He also had no idea what it was for.

'What is it for' he thought 'Why would a regular run-of-the-mill bank robber have a key like this…what on Earth does it unlock?'

5:09

A brunette woman in a short blue dress and high heels opened the door to the police station. She walked past the man at the front desk without question. Her sultry stride moved her efficiently down the hallways of the station, as many officers looked at her, but did not seem to note her presence as anything out of the ordinary.

She made her way to the stairs, descended to the basement floor, and exiting the stairwell door with a sign next to it reading 'Holding Cells'. He high heels clicking on the tiled floor as she approached the locked steel door sealing off that wing of the station. The officer assigned to the desk there stood up at attention.

The woman politely asked him to open door for her and he immediately obeyed her as if commanded, unlocking it with one of the many keys on a large ring attached to his belt. She casually walked in as he shut the door behind her; stopping in front of a holding cell containing four ragged looking men.

She knocked on the steel door and the officer quickly jumped up to unlock it and she walked past him as he held it open. She ascended the stairs, and made her way into the evidence room, walking right past the officer manning it. She looked up and down the shelves for a moment before finding the box she wanted. She pulled it off the shelf, threw off the top and began rifling through its contents. The woman found a small plastic bag containing a gold ring and slipped it into her handbag, she kept searching for another minuet, but failed to find whatever else she was searching for and replaced the box then quickly exited the station.

"How in the hell did this happen!" Screamed an angrily shocked police lieutenant as he observed the gruesome scene before him.

"Good god, what a mess." One officer commented.

"Smith, how did you let this one slip by?" The lieutenant said, waving to the cell where the four bank robbers were being held, the cell that was now in gory disarray, with blood spattered liberally across the walls and floor and several mutilated body parts lying much further from their former owners than usual.

"I didn't see anyone except the Captain, sir." He managed to stammer out under the pressure of the overbearing lieutenant.

"Well that's odd, seeing as Captain Grimes is on vacation in Hawaii!" The lieutenant yelled.

"I don't know how it happened sir."

"Ramirez says she saw a woman in a blue dress walking through the station, but since no one else seemed to care, she thought the lady was supposed to be here." Another officer added.

"Damnit. Nobody walks into my damn station and makes it into the scene of quadruple homicide. Get all the damn security tapes and bring them to my office, I'm dealing with this one personally.

5:15

"The problem has been taken care of sir." Asher said into his cell phone.

"Good. And my property?" The voice of the man in the black suit responded.

"The ring was recovered sir. However, no key was found. It was not in the evidence box." He tentatively answered. A loud string of curses flowed from the receiver, most of them aimed at him, followed by a few moments of silence.

"Are you sure, Asher?" The man asked forcefully through obviously gritted teeth.

"Yes, Mr. Thanatos. I sent in my best agent, she did not find the key. But I do have a lead on it. I've gotten the security tapes from the bank from my man on the inside, I've reviewed them, and it seems that Robin of the Teen Titans stumbled upon the key when it was on the floor, and now has it in his possession."

"Do you think he knows anything of its value?" Thanatos asked, a twinge of concern slipped into his voice.

"No sir. Do you want me to take care of it?"

"No, I have people for just this kind of work. I will send my team to recover the key. Standby for your orders."

"I Understand, Sir." Asher responded and a click was heard from the other end of the line.

---

Beast Boy and Cyborg were in the kitchen, shoving each other back and forth, trying to gain the upper hand so one of them could make their preferred meal while Starfire sat at the kitchen table, squirting mustard into her gaping mouth. As usual, Beast Boy couldn't match the size or strength of his friend and Cyborg had an easy time of hold his green buddy at bay.

Raven sat in a large, comfortable looking armchair near the window where she had turned on the heavy tint on all them allowing the artificial lights to pick up any lost light, a thick old leather-bound book—more of a tome really—in front of her, open somewhere near the middle. Robin walked into the large kitchen-living room, key still in hand, mind still lost in thought. He stood there for a moment, he felt he need to take in what he saw, his friends all going about their business, the same things that happened every day.

He shook his head; he walked over to where Raven was sitting, so engrossed in her book, she completely missed his first question.

"Raven…hello, Raven, you there?" He asked, finally waving his hand in front of her hood where he face lay in partial shadow. She snapped out of her intense reading and pulled down her hood, looking up at him next to her.

"Oh, yeah, sorry Robin…good book." She laughed lightly, closing the massive work and setting on the table with a heavy thud, causing the table's legs to creak and moan under the pressure.

Robin glanced at the cover where the title read in large Old English style letters 'The rise and fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur' he shuddered. "Uh yeah, I can imagine…I have something to show you." Raven sat up slightly as he said this "I found this," he said, holding out the key for her to take "fallen out of the pocket of one of the bank robbers."

"This is the strangest key I've ever seen, but it reminds me of something…" she trailed off, as both of them stared at the key dangling in the air before them. Then she broke the few moments of silence "Do you know what it opens?"

"No," he laughed "I was hoping you could tell me. It looks fairly old, and it's markings and designs aren't like anything I've seen before; I thought it was something you might know about, you are kind of our resident expert." He said, bearly containg a laugh as he pointed at the huge book on the table.

"I don't know, it seems familiar," she said, ignoring his remark "I know I've seen something like it before, but I can't say where. There must be something in one of my books, let's go back to my room and check my library for it." She continued, never taking her eyes off the key she held in front of herself. Raven rose from her window side seat and they both walked through the living room to the hallway. When they got to her room, she typed a code into the pannel next to the door and it slid open, Robin followed her into the dark room, the door quietly hissing shut behind him.

Black sheets and curtains on the bed and window, dark purple paint on the walls with navyblue bookcases brimming with banned novles, aicent accounts, timeless books, scrolls and parchments and just about every other immagineable type of written information.

The only thing Robin saw in contrast to the overall dark theme was the bathroom, the door was slightly ajar, allowing out a bit of light from the large white tiled room. Raven scanned over the shelves of her bookcases, finally she located the book she was looking for and pulled it down from the top shelf. She opened it and set it on her bed, she began to read but then realized Robin was still standing at the door, taking in the other Titan's room, she cleared her throat, and when he looked at her, she motioned for him to come over and sit down.

She held up the key once more for both of them to look at. She began flipping through the well worn pages of the book, past beautiful illistrations of equally horrible things, she kept flipping though the pages one after the other when Robin suddenly shot out his hand and stopped her.

"Oh god, now I know why I've seen it before…"

A loud explosion could be heard and the whole tower seemed to shake for a moment. Both Robin and Raven spang to their feet, they could hear Starbolts being shot off and blasts from Cybor's sonic cannon. It occurred to Robin that he should take the key, so he snatched it off the bed and placed the light chain around his neck, tucking it into his costume. They wasted no time rushing to the door and then racing down the hallway.

Smoke was pouring into the corridor, eclipsing the main room at its end. A stray starbolt tore through the smoke and past their heads as the rushed forward into the haze. As soon as they burst through the smoke, it was instantly clearer; Robin kicked aside the small, cylindrical grenade it was all bellowing out of as he and Raven quickly assessed the situation.

Five men had entered their living room through the elevator shaft leaving the twisted and smoldering chunks of doors and cars strewn about.

They were obviously not there to make friends as Raven saw Cyborg locked in hand to hand combat with one, while Starfire was struggling with one on each arm as they fought her alien strength, and Beast Boy, transformed into a grizzly bear, up on his hind legs trying to swipe at his black-clad attackers as they moved around him nearly dancing as they struck at him.

Without a word the two remaining Titans jumped into the fray. Robin dove into Starfire's battle with the two warriors. They looked almost like ninja to him, dressed in black with their faces covered. But at this point he didn't care as he sailed through the air with his right leg extended. Connecting it with an attacker's left side, sending him crashing to the ground.

Starfire looked at him and wordlessly expressed her thanks as she brought her now free and starbolt charged hand to the face of her other foe. The bolt exploded in his face and added to the Titan's already formidable power, sending him slamming into the nearby wall and leaving quite a dent.

Robin squared off against the first man as he rose from the ground. Robin was concerned that his opponent seemed unfazed by his first attack, but as the man took a fighting stance, he forgot it and quickly followed suit. He charged forward, attacking the man with all his strength. They traded punches, following attacks with blocks and then counter blocks and counter attacks.

'He's not even trying. Damnit!' Robin thought as they battled 'maybe this will get his attention!" His mind raced as he took a step and threw all his momentum and power in kick to the side of the man's head. As his leg flew through the air at tremendous speed, he felt a horrible pain in his thigh when his wound from earlier reopened and blood began flowing out, but he kept going and it stuck home without being blocked; Robin thought that was it, but when he realized as his kick ended that even though his steel-soled boot had hit dead on, his enemy was still just standing there, completely unharmed.

The Boy Wonder's shock only lasted a fraction of a second because his opponent wasted no time in using Robin's opening to his advantage, punching him in the stomach, totally knocking his breath out and then kicking him, flinging him sprawling to the floor several feet away.

He lay on the ground, unable to move, watching, as Cyborg traded blows with the man he was fighting, and looked like he was losing. His opponent picked up his nose, as if he smelled something, and began slowly walking towards the prostrate hero.

The man Starfire had hit was picking himself up off the ground, while Beast Boy—as a bear—was grappling hand to 'hand' with his remaining foe. The blood was already leaking through his costume and pooling on the ground around his leg.

He watched as Raven telekinetically threw any object that wasn't nailed down at one of them, but he kept coming, breaking through each and every thing thrown at him. The man had reached Robin, and was starting to bend down, as he reached behind his head and started to undo the mask that concealed much of his face.

Robin looked up into his eyes as was stared back at by icy, deep blue eyes, as lifeless and cold as the ocean depths. But before he could move in any further, Raven, now against the back wall, encased a ceramic paperweight in black energy and sent it rocketing towards her enemy; he casually swung his arm, brushing it aside, and flying right into the center of a window, completely shattering it, causing the system tinting the windows to short out and flooding the room with afternoon sunlight.

All the men turned from their battles and sprinted away as fast as they could manage back towards the elevator, in less than a second they had all disappeared back into the darkness and it was all over.

5:27

The room was completely silent except for the gentle whisper of the wind from the now very open window. The Titans all stood still, in shock from what had just transpired.

"Uh…guys, does anyone know what the hell just happened?" Beast Boy was the first to break the silence as he stared confoundedly at the torn elevator doors.

Smoke still hung dully in the air, floating near motionless, the wind from the open window gently blowing in.

"I'm not too sure myself." Cyborg said as he turned towards the rest of them noticing Robin on the floor, he called to the other Titans and ran over to him.

"Raven, you mind redoing this?" Robin asked through clenched teeth.

"I said this could happen…" she responded, a slight hint of her displeasure at not being heeded slipping into her voice as she healed the wound yet again. "This time, you'll actually have to rest and let it recover."

"I didn't exactly have time for that today did I?" He replied, standing up and dusting himself off.

The Titans stared at each other as they stood in a circle for a moment before they all began surveying the damage to their home.

"So who the hell were those people?" Robin asked himself, but still loud enough for the others to hear.

"Perhaps, Robin, if we viewed the footage from our many security cameras we could gain some insight." Starfire offered as she righted a fallen chair.

"Yeah, you're right." Robin walked over towards the elevator shaft "Cyborg, see if the computer is still working and then pull up all the security camera footage of the fight and when they entered and fled." He looked down the seemingly endless black pit.

"There's no lights, the cords have all been cut,…" he mumbled to himself "how the hell did they get up and down here?"

"K, I got it all up and working." Cyborg called. The other four Titans quickly gathered around the lager computer console and watched as their metal companion went through all the cameras and angles.

"God these guys are fast." Raven said, as the five assailants nearly flew out from the destroyed elevator doors and began the battle.

"And we know how strong they are." Beast Boy added, rubbing his arm.

"They came up through the sewers…" Cyborg pointed to the screen, an image from their lone camera down there played across the screen. "Then, they busted through the welded shut 200 pound man-hole cover and into the basement." He paused a few seconds as he changed the view on the screen to another set of cameras. "They loaded the elevator with a bomb, and rode the cables behind it up. It blew open the door and they rushed in. The explosion damaged the circuitry…" he pulled up a schematic of the elevator shaft and then of a series of wires which were flashing red "…on the lower level lines running down the shaft, all the cameras below this floor were knocked out."

"So we don't know how they managed to get down an eight story drop in a matter of seconds without smashing into the concrete floor?" Robin asked.

"Perhaps they did simply, jump down." Starfire offered.

"Come on Starfire, no one could fall that far and get away without a scratch." Beast Boy interjected.

"But we still haven't answered 'why'." Robin stated flatly.

"Who knows, man? Last time I checked, we've got a lot of enemies, anyone of them could have hired some experts to come and get rid of us." Cyborg responded grimly, turning his chair toward him.

"Yeah they're tired of gettin' their butts kicked all the time." Beast Boy said looking for a high-five from Cyborg but finding only air.

"Robin, I think I know why they attacked us." Raven spoke up, coming out of her absorbed thought process, and taking a step closer to the rest of the team.

5:40

"We were unable to recover the key lord, a window—" The five men knelt before Thanatos, their heads lowered.

"I don't want excuses! What I want…is results." He finished coldly. "Kain, assemble the rest of your men." The man in the middle of the five raised his head to look at him "I will contact Asher and let him know he and his men can help us. You must recover that key before then end of the night. I need it, tonight."

"Understood, my lord." Kain replied, all five men rose in unison and left the room. They walked a few feet down a large hallway, ubiquitous with the trappings of wealth; they entered a large room brimming with every kind of weapon imaginable. The walls lined with swords and axes, pistols and shotguns, machineguns, assault rifles, grenade launchers and even a harpoon gun.

"We will not fail Mr. Thanatos again. Call in the other men; next time…" Kain pulled a sheathed sword from its place on the wall and slid it quickly through his belt "we go armed."

A/N: I had no idea that the first chapter would turn out so long when I started writing it. However, I think it came out quite well. Not sure how long succeeding chapters will be, but somewhere in this ballpark most likely. Hope you liked it, and if you didn't, feel free to tell me why.