Summary: A none-too-successful date with Robin leaves Starfire doubting their relationship. She goes to Raven for advice,
but then Blackfire shows up looking for revenge.
Standard Disclaimer: Teen Titans and all related characters are the sole property of DC Comics. I do not claim to own them,
blah, blah. If you would like to use any of this, PLEASE email me!! As a side-note: there will be femslash in here. You
don't like, you don't read.
Violence Disclaimer: Mostly standard TT violence, but there are a few bloody scenes....
Language Disclaimer: Despite my dislike of swearing, there will be a few words.
Sex Disclaimer: Nope. However, there are references.
Universe: Eh, I'm playing this like the characters are from the cartoon. However, I'm taking liberties and giving them a lot of
their comic powers (as well as their names).
Thanks to: Fieryneze (aka Mom), Scott, Brian, and Kathus (my best bud (and dog...hehe) whom I got into this show and a few more :P). And,
of course, Emberfyre, my soul-sister. I thank all of you for beta-reading this!!
----------
Chapter 1: Introduction
----------
Countless candles burned around the room, placed carefully on the floor, a couple of tables, and some shelves. The glow they threw across the walls was dim and
eerie, turning the smoke from burning incense into phantom entities that floated to the ceiling and dissipated in the soft breeze the air conditioning created.
Seated among a ring of vanilla-colored candles was Raven, the darkest and most mysterious member of the Teen Titans. Most of her waking hours were spent doing exactly
this: meditating to keep control over her dangerous powers. Legs crossed with her hands pointer-finger-touching-thumb-palm-up on her knees, she was levitating a few inches
above the floor and repeating her mantra over and over again.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."
The words came in a breathy whispered voice, as she was concentrating harder on her breathing rhythm than the syllables in her chosen phrase. Still, it was weird to hear the
otherworldly words slipping like snakes into the shadowed corners of her room.
So deep into her meditation was Raven that her keen mind did not register the insistant knocking at her door. She probably wouldn't have, either, except a sudden burst of
aural energy disrupted her still mind and sent her crashing to the ground in a heap. Pushing her amethyst hair out of her face, Raven glanced at the door,
caught between agitation and worry.
The knocking continued a fourth time and then ceased altogether.
Reaching out and gently tapping her visitor's mind, she found herself suddenly overwhelmed by an intense amount of energy; unmistakably Starfire's aura.
She was about to brush the Tameranean princess off and apologize to her later, explaining how she had been too deep in her meditation to hear her, but when she'd tapped
the girl's mind, she had found an unusual amount of grief.
Something a lot more important than a question about Earth culture was bothering the red-head, and Raven was suddenly worried.
Picking herself up off the floor, she walked lightly over to the door and opened it a few inches.
"Yes, Starfire, what troubles you?" She whispered softly through the crack in the door, face expressionless as far as anyone else was concerned. It wasn't uncommon having
the girl knocking at her door becuase she was confused about something and needed some insight, but there was no smile on the girl's face this time, no boisterous greeting, or
too-excited embrace that could crack her ribs.
"May I come inside, friend Raven?" Even her voice no longer held an ecstatic tone. Her beryll eyes were cast to the ground, her head bowed forward slightly, her hands clasped
together in front of her.
Without thinking twice about the privacy of her room she usually guarded with her life, she automatically swung the door open further and nodded. There was definately something
wrong.
The red-head shuffled her way inside, oblivious to the fact that she was the first invited guest into the dark sorceress' room. In fact, she did not act like this meant anything
at all to her. She came to the edge of Raven's bed and sat down on it without asking. Raven shut the door and followed her over, not minding the intrusion. Although it was
quite awkward for herself, Raven sat opposite of the alien girl on the bed, and allowed the girl to speak in her own time.
"Oh, Raven!" the girl finally blurted out, "I do not know what to do!" Starfire was already in tears, discomforting Raven further. Of course, her sitting there quietly seemed
to help -much like a safety device- because Star collapsed forward, throwing her slender arms around Raven and crying into Raven's shoulder. Embarassment burned hot on the dark girl's
cheeks, and she was suddenly feeling self-conscious and very awkward. Still, the friendship between herself and Starfire came before her own feelings.
'What is so terrible that you act this way, Star?' Raven wondered sadly, allowing herself to put her arms around the princess. She had told herself she would never look into
another's mind unless she had a good reason, and this was something Starfire would need to tell her; going about probing other's minds meant others started to lose their trust in you.
And this was all ready a problem for her....
Calm down, Kory. She stroked the girl's back in a soothing motion, rocking her back-and-forth slightly. Whatever it was that was upsetting the girl, it most likely stemmed
from the date she and Dick had gone on earlier that night. The Tameranean had been so excited before they'd left, nigh glowing with joy. And then Raven had retreated to her room for
alone-time. That was when Star had come in here crestfallen. Please tell me, Koriand'r, what troubles you? She felt Kory trying to stifle her sobbing, and ran a hand through her
beautiful red curls. Encouragement was what Star needed. The words would come in time.
"I went out with Dick on.. on.... um.. it is named after an earth-fruit...."
A date, Star.
Sitting back and wiping at her eyes with her palms she nodded. "Yes, a date. And he suggested we go out to eat, so I agreed. So we went to this quaint little restaraunt on the harbor
that served all kinds of different foods; I could even get my pizza with M&Ms and mint frosting. After ordering, we talked about all kinds of things... but then he
brought up Slade." Raven noticed Star was bordering on tears again, and reached out to take one of her hands between her own. "X'Hal! I just couldn't believe he'd bring this up on our
date -after he told me he would never speak of him again while out of uniform! And he just went on... and I asked him to stop, tried all sorts of things, but he just kept on! It just
got worse with every word... and then.... and then..." Kory went back to crying, hands over her eyes.
"I got up to leave, because I was mad at him, and he followed me out. He grabbed me by the arm... and I turned to yell at him. Then..." She was back against Raven in a heartbeat,
curled into a ball, her head in Raven's lap.
The empath did not need the rest of the story to infer what had happened between them. Star was not used to fighting with her comrads -especially Richard. It must have rattled
her. Running her hand across Koriand'r's hair, she sat solemn and brooding.
'Why'd Kory come to me for advice?' Raven wondered off-handedly. She answered herself immediately. 'Because the guys wouldn't understand. And I'm the only other girl.'
Koriand'r, I am sorry you feel so downtrodden, but please understand that everyone in a relationship goes through this. Perhaps you should speak with- Star was silent.
When Raven looked down at her, she found she had fallen sound asleep. Despite the fact she still looked stoic, Raven felt a smile make a brief appearance on her lips, and then disappear within the next
breath. The moment of weakness past, she carefully slipped out from under Star and situated the girl in a more comfortable position under the covers.
Taking her cloak off and hanging it in her closet, she blew out the candles and doused the incense. Sitting in a chair -a chair she'd never used before because it had
been a present from Beast-Boy- next to the bed, she fell asleep worrying about Koriand'r.
------
Raven woke -or, rather, nearly jumped out of her skin- to the Titans' alarm. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she estimated the time to be close to dawn; too damn early. Glancing
sideways, she saw Star struggle to sit up in the bed. "Metrion?"
Rae put the eternal scowl mask back on and retrieved her cloak, fastening the front and pulling the hood up over her silken hair. "It's the alarm. Better grab your uniform, looks
like Robin's pretty angsty... could be Slade." She saw the shadow fall across Koriand'r's face as she stood up to leave, and felt her heart suddenly ache. This hurt the alien girl more than
it had appeared last night. Raven knew she could alleviate physical pain, and so she felt at a loss because she couldn't help Kory's emotional distress.
Without a second word, Star was gone, leaving the witch to brood once more in silence.
Whatever had happened between Dick and Koriand'r last night... it was none of her business. Or was it? Star had come to her for help-
Cleaning up the sheets of the bed Kory had successfully managed to twist, Raven huffed. Turning to the door, she slipped through the steel and appeared on the other side. Heading
down the hallway, she could hear everybody scrambling for their stuff in their respective rooms. Gliding just above the floor, she made it a point to glare daggers at Robin's door while keeping her powers from
blowing the thing in. Although, that would be something funny...
She, of course, was the first to their transportation, the T-Jet, followed closely by Victor and Garfield who were shoving and pushing the entire way towards it; another one of their
childish games. Slipping through the metal exterior, she took her seat in the back and waited for everyone else. In time, everyone was there: Starfire sitting close to a window,
Robin and Victor at the controls, Garfield trying to goad the latter into doing ridiculus aerial stunts.
Before long, they were at the scene of something horrific.
Sirens wailed all around them as Cyborg set the aircraft down. Raven hurt to hear the painful screaming of the people outside as volleys of gunshots pierced the air erradically. It
was practically a war zone!
"All right, Titans," Robin spoke over the intercom as the back wheels touched ground, "here's the situation. Slade's terrorists have taken around fifty people hostage in the bank.
Our plan: Gar is going in to relay information on where they are and exactly what we're up against. Vic and Kory are going to lead the attack, and then Gar I will follow-up. Raven,
you're going to get up a protection shield around those innocent people. Anybody have questions?" He paused. No one spoke. "Good. Titans go!"
They all clambered out of the T-Jet, Beast-Boy shifting into a mouse and scampering into a drainage pipe. Robin stood off to one side, hand over his left ear as he listened
to Gar's relay. "All right, Raven, go." The sorceress became a shadowed version of her namesake bird, and flew head-on into the wall. Passing through it, she continued on. Robin's voice
echoed in her ear as he guided her. "They're in some back room on the western side." Banking sharply, Raven passed through several more walls until she found the terrorists.
I see them, she replied coolly, her mental voice hard and icy.
Circling above them in lazy arcs, she studied the men below her.
Seven men. Kevlar. Guns; possibly illegal semi-automatics. Pausing, she could hear Robin's strained voice shouting at the rest of the team, his mike obviously away from his mouth
momentarily. The men below her were watching her in confusion, unable to understand what a raven was doing flying around a museum. Slade's terrorists would have been informed of the
entire teams abilities... including her ability to shape-shift. Are you sure they're Slade's??
Silence.
Oh, no. Now she'd gone and challenged mister-leader-man's surety on the subject; he would reply by ignoring her.
Bastard.
The men stared at her as she landed, pecking nonchalantly at the tiled floor with her beak. She had taken care to land closer to the hostages than the terrorists, and she was close
enough to a hostage to feel his body warmth as he stared down at her sudden strange appearance. Flapping her wings, almost in a spasm, she carefully retucked them under each other and cocked her
head at the men with the guns. They were as befuddled as fawns who had just stumbled onto a skunk.
'Now is as good a time as any,' she finally decided.
The raven squawking on the floor flung out its wings, and a blue mist blurred the creature as it suddenly turned into a woman. The fog that accompanied her magic swirled around her slender
form as she finished shifting completely, twining about her person almost suggestively. Standing stoic and utterly indifferent to the dropped jaws all around her, Raven brushed back the ends of her indigo cloak so that her hands were free.
The shadow deepening across her fine-boned face, she stretched her arms out above her head in a parody of a wizard.
"What the fu-" Something similar to a black shadow started crackling as it stretched across her fingers. "Get her!" The men were raising the barrels of their guns, but it was too late.
The shadow extended across her entire hands, hissing angrily. Her heliotropic eyes started to burn with a holy light as the black energy spread outwards.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" The black shield shot out around the hostages, creating an inpenetrable dome of energy around them. The firing started, then, and though the hostages ducked
out of fear, the bullets bounced off Raven's magic harmlessly.
Go, she breathed into Robin's mind.
but then Blackfire shows up looking for revenge.
Standard Disclaimer: Teen Titans and all related characters are the sole property of DC Comics. I do not claim to own them,
blah, blah. If you would like to use any of this, PLEASE email me!! As a side-note: there will be femslash in here. You
don't like, you don't read.
Violence Disclaimer: Mostly standard TT violence, but there are a few bloody scenes....
Language Disclaimer: Despite my dislike of swearing, there will be a few words.
Sex Disclaimer: Nope. However, there are references.
Universe: Eh, I'm playing this like the characters are from the cartoon. However, I'm taking liberties and giving them a lot of
their comic powers (as well as their names).
Thanks to: Fieryneze (aka Mom), Scott, Brian, and Kathus (my best bud (and dog...hehe) whom I got into this show and a few more :P). And,
of course, Emberfyre, my soul-sister. I thank all of you for beta-reading this!!
----------
Chapter 1: Introduction
----------
Countless candles burned around the room, placed carefully on the floor, a couple of tables, and some shelves. The glow they threw across the walls was dim and
eerie, turning the smoke from burning incense into phantom entities that floated to the ceiling and dissipated in the soft breeze the air conditioning created.
Seated among a ring of vanilla-colored candles was Raven, the darkest and most mysterious member of the Teen Titans. Most of her waking hours were spent doing exactly
this: meditating to keep control over her dangerous powers. Legs crossed with her hands pointer-finger-touching-thumb-palm-up on her knees, she was levitating a few inches
above the floor and repeating her mantra over and over again.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."
The words came in a breathy whispered voice, as she was concentrating harder on her breathing rhythm than the syllables in her chosen phrase. Still, it was weird to hear the
otherworldly words slipping like snakes into the shadowed corners of her room.
So deep into her meditation was Raven that her keen mind did not register the insistant knocking at her door. She probably wouldn't have, either, except a sudden burst of
aural energy disrupted her still mind and sent her crashing to the ground in a heap. Pushing her amethyst hair out of her face, Raven glanced at the door,
caught between agitation and worry.
The knocking continued a fourth time and then ceased altogether.
Reaching out and gently tapping her visitor's mind, she found herself suddenly overwhelmed by an intense amount of energy; unmistakably Starfire's aura.
She was about to brush the Tameranean princess off and apologize to her later, explaining how she had been too deep in her meditation to hear her, but when she'd tapped
the girl's mind, she had found an unusual amount of grief.
Something a lot more important than a question about Earth culture was bothering the red-head, and Raven was suddenly worried.
Picking herself up off the floor, she walked lightly over to the door and opened it a few inches.
"Yes, Starfire, what troubles you?" She whispered softly through the crack in the door, face expressionless as far as anyone else was concerned. It wasn't uncommon having
the girl knocking at her door becuase she was confused about something and needed some insight, but there was no smile on the girl's face this time, no boisterous greeting, or
too-excited embrace that could crack her ribs.
"May I come inside, friend Raven?" Even her voice no longer held an ecstatic tone. Her beryll eyes were cast to the ground, her head bowed forward slightly, her hands clasped
together in front of her.
Without thinking twice about the privacy of her room she usually guarded with her life, she automatically swung the door open further and nodded. There was definately something
wrong.
The red-head shuffled her way inside, oblivious to the fact that she was the first invited guest into the dark sorceress' room. In fact, she did not act like this meant anything
at all to her. She came to the edge of Raven's bed and sat down on it without asking. Raven shut the door and followed her over, not minding the intrusion. Although it was
quite awkward for herself, Raven sat opposite of the alien girl on the bed, and allowed the girl to speak in her own time.
"Oh, Raven!" the girl finally blurted out, "I do not know what to do!" Starfire was already in tears, discomforting Raven further. Of course, her sitting there quietly seemed
to help -much like a safety device- because Star collapsed forward, throwing her slender arms around Raven and crying into Raven's shoulder. Embarassment burned hot on the dark girl's
cheeks, and she was suddenly feeling self-conscious and very awkward. Still, the friendship between herself and Starfire came before her own feelings.
'What is so terrible that you act this way, Star?' Raven wondered sadly, allowing herself to put her arms around the princess. She had told herself she would never look into
another's mind unless she had a good reason, and this was something Starfire would need to tell her; going about probing other's minds meant others started to lose their trust in you.
And this was all ready a problem for her....
Calm down, Kory. She stroked the girl's back in a soothing motion, rocking her back-and-forth slightly. Whatever it was that was upsetting the girl, it most likely stemmed
from the date she and Dick had gone on earlier that night. The Tameranean had been so excited before they'd left, nigh glowing with joy. And then Raven had retreated to her room for
alone-time. That was when Star had come in here crestfallen. Please tell me, Koriand'r, what troubles you? She felt Kory trying to stifle her sobbing, and ran a hand through her
beautiful red curls. Encouragement was what Star needed. The words would come in time.
"I went out with Dick on.. on.... um.. it is named after an earth-fruit...."
A date, Star.
Sitting back and wiping at her eyes with her palms she nodded. "Yes, a date. And he suggested we go out to eat, so I agreed. So we went to this quaint little restaraunt on the harbor
that served all kinds of different foods; I could even get my pizza with M&Ms and mint frosting. After ordering, we talked about all kinds of things... but then he
brought up Slade." Raven noticed Star was bordering on tears again, and reached out to take one of her hands between her own. "X'Hal! I just couldn't believe he'd bring this up on our
date -after he told me he would never speak of him again while out of uniform! And he just went on... and I asked him to stop, tried all sorts of things, but he just kept on! It just
got worse with every word... and then.... and then..." Kory went back to crying, hands over her eyes.
"I got up to leave, because I was mad at him, and he followed me out. He grabbed me by the arm... and I turned to yell at him. Then..." She was back against Raven in a heartbeat,
curled into a ball, her head in Raven's lap.
The empath did not need the rest of the story to infer what had happened between them. Star was not used to fighting with her comrads -especially Richard. It must have rattled
her. Running her hand across Koriand'r's hair, she sat solemn and brooding.
'Why'd Kory come to me for advice?' Raven wondered off-handedly. She answered herself immediately. 'Because the guys wouldn't understand. And I'm the only other girl.'
Koriand'r, I am sorry you feel so downtrodden, but please understand that everyone in a relationship goes through this. Perhaps you should speak with- Star was silent.
When Raven looked down at her, she found she had fallen sound asleep. Despite the fact she still looked stoic, Raven felt a smile make a brief appearance on her lips, and then disappear within the next
breath. The moment of weakness past, she carefully slipped out from under Star and situated the girl in a more comfortable position under the covers.
Taking her cloak off and hanging it in her closet, she blew out the candles and doused the incense. Sitting in a chair -a chair she'd never used before because it had
been a present from Beast-Boy- next to the bed, she fell asleep worrying about Koriand'r.
------
Raven woke -or, rather, nearly jumped out of her skin- to the Titans' alarm. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she estimated the time to be close to dawn; too damn early. Glancing
sideways, she saw Star struggle to sit up in the bed. "Metrion?"
Rae put the eternal scowl mask back on and retrieved her cloak, fastening the front and pulling the hood up over her silken hair. "It's the alarm. Better grab your uniform, looks
like Robin's pretty angsty... could be Slade." She saw the shadow fall across Koriand'r's face as she stood up to leave, and felt her heart suddenly ache. This hurt the alien girl more than
it had appeared last night. Raven knew she could alleviate physical pain, and so she felt at a loss because she couldn't help Kory's emotional distress.
Without a second word, Star was gone, leaving the witch to brood once more in silence.
Whatever had happened between Dick and Koriand'r last night... it was none of her business. Or was it? Star had come to her for help-
Cleaning up the sheets of the bed Kory had successfully managed to twist, Raven huffed. Turning to the door, she slipped through the steel and appeared on the other side. Heading
down the hallway, she could hear everybody scrambling for their stuff in their respective rooms. Gliding just above the floor, she made it a point to glare daggers at Robin's door while keeping her powers from
blowing the thing in. Although, that would be something funny...
She, of course, was the first to their transportation, the T-Jet, followed closely by Victor and Garfield who were shoving and pushing the entire way towards it; another one of their
childish games. Slipping through the metal exterior, she took her seat in the back and waited for everyone else. In time, everyone was there: Starfire sitting close to a window,
Robin and Victor at the controls, Garfield trying to goad the latter into doing ridiculus aerial stunts.
Before long, they were at the scene of something horrific.
Sirens wailed all around them as Cyborg set the aircraft down. Raven hurt to hear the painful screaming of the people outside as volleys of gunshots pierced the air erradically. It
was practically a war zone!
"All right, Titans," Robin spoke over the intercom as the back wheels touched ground, "here's the situation. Slade's terrorists have taken around fifty people hostage in the bank.
Our plan: Gar is going in to relay information on where they are and exactly what we're up against. Vic and Kory are going to lead the attack, and then Gar I will follow-up. Raven,
you're going to get up a protection shield around those innocent people. Anybody have questions?" He paused. No one spoke. "Good. Titans go!"
They all clambered out of the T-Jet, Beast-Boy shifting into a mouse and scampering into a drainage pipe. Robin stood off to one side, hand over his left ear as he listened
to Gar's relay. "All right, Raven, go." The sorceress became a shadowed version of her namesake bird, and flew head-on into the wall. Passing through it, she continued on. Robin's voice
echoed in her ear as he guided her. "They're in some back room on the western side." Banking sharply, Raven passed through several more walls until she found the terrorists.
I see them, she replied coolly, her mental voice hard and icy.
Circling above them in lazy arcs, she studied the men below her.
Seven men. Kevlar. Guns; possibly illegal semi-automatics. Pausing, she could hear Robin's strained voice shouting at the rest of the team, his mike obviously away from his mouth
momentarily. The men below her were watching her in confusion, unable to understand what a raven was doing flying around a museum. Slade's terrorists would have been informed of the
entire teams abilities... including her ability to shape-shift. Are you sure they're Slade's??
Silence.
Oh, no. Now she'd gone and challenged mister-leader-man's surety on the subject; he would reply by ignoring her.
Bastard.
The men stared at her as she landed, pecking nonchalantly at the tiled floor with her beak. She had taken care to land closer to the hostages than the terrorists, and she was close
enough to a hostage to feel his body warmth as he stared down at her sudden strange appearance. Flapping her wings, almost in a spasm, she carefully retucked them under each other and cocked her
head at the men with the guns. They were as befuddled as fawns who had just stumbled onto a skunk.
'Now is as good a time as any,' she finally decided.
The raven squawking on the floor flung out its wings, and a blue mist blurred the creature as it suddenly turned into a woman. The fog that accompanied her magic swirled around her slender
form as she finished shifting completely, twining about her person almost suggestively. Standing stoic and utterly indifferent to the dropped jaws all around her, Raven brushed back the ends of her indigo cloak so that her hands were free.
The shadow deepening across her fine-boned face, she stretched her arms out above her head in a parody of a wizard.
"What the fu-" Something similar to a black shadow started crackling as it stretched across her fingers. "Get her!" The men were raising the barrels of their guns, but it was too late.
The shadow extended across her entire hands, hissing angrily. Her heliotropic eyes started to burn with a holy light as the black energy spread outwards.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" The black shield shot out around the hostages, creating an inpenetrable dome of energy around them. The firing started, then, and though the hostages ducked
out of fear, the bullets bounced off Raven's magic harmlessly.
Go, she breathed into Robin's mind.