Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, or anything else in this fic except Shadow.
I hope you all enjoy this one. I plan to put a little more of X's side into this one and some of what the Titans are dealing with while he is gone. Such as Batgirl coming and Star being jealous, mwhahaha. Enjoy!
A shadowy figure was silently watching the demonic ritual with fascination. He had never seen something so carnal, so undeniably strange that had appealed to his naturally sinister mind before. None of the robed figures below were aware of his presence in the rafters above them, so he was able to view the object of his new fascination in relative peace. Even though he hadn't been sent to stop this one as he had so many others he still felt as if he wouldn't have tried to stop this one, it was supposed to happen. He was there to make sure it did happen. He was supposed to stop the police when they come after the initial ritual was performed. This was the day Raven would be conceived, this was the day that had started the reason Shadow was willing to go through so much. X could only guess that the woman that the ritual was centered around at the moment had to be Raven's mother. Now he had somewhat of an idea as to why Shadow was so crazy about this girl, if she looked anything like her mom X would easily forgive Shadow of that fault.
Strange, even though the two were so much alike X couldn't' remember everything that had happened to Shadow. He remembered some, but nothing of the friends or family that Shadow had had, except for Richard. Richard was the one that Shadow would always protect, even if Rich had no idea that he was being watched. Richard was someone that X cared about, and that was something that could be accounted as a weird phenomenon. X would do anything to protect the young hero known as Robin, because Shadow would. They still were the same person underneath it all, just different versions. Shadow had somehow managed to maintain his sanity, while X had not. One of the biggest deciding factors as to why X would never stop avenging of defending Rich, was a statement made by Shadow ages ago when they were younger. 'Anyone who hurts Richard will be hurt by me.' Such a simple sentence, yet it would affect thousands of lives before the end.
X was jerked out of his observance of the ritual by the scene of Trigon appearing. His presence caused everyone to radiate fear. X was in awe, now that was power. And one day he would have that power, he would make sure of it. Well, well, here come the cops, time to get bloody.
While X was protecting those completing the ritual, Shadow was just a few months in the future standing guard at an infant girl's balcony in Azarath. Azar had no idea that he was there, and he was supposed to keep it that way. The little baby known as Raven had been born only a matter of hours before then and it was his job to make sure the emissaries of her father didn't get her. Already she was beginning to mimic the Raven he knew. She hadn't cried at all and had the same, I don't care what you think attitude to everyone around her. But he couldn't help but notice that she was so much more peaceful in her first sleep than in the ones he had witnessed during her time among the Titans. No nightmares could affect her now because she was too young to understand her destiny.
He envied her sleep, he had discovered that the escape that sleep offered was stolen from him when he had accepted his own destiny and started his term of service for the council. He no longer required the physical aspects of sleep, and his mind never tired. But he still longed for the few hours of freedom he had gained from sleep while he was still a mortal. Sleep was the one thing that had kept him sane. He would be able to run from his responsibilities for just a few short hours, then he would occupy his mind with tasks to keep the madness of his memories from eating him away. He was still able to keep his mind busy with small games he had made throughout the years of his service thus far. During the time that lesser men slept and he kept watch around the campfires he would play small word games that grew ever more complicated as time went on. Now he doubted that he could ever teach them to anyone because of their absurdity, but they amused him enough to keep his mind from going back to his horrific travel trough a demon infested hell. To returning to the feelings of despair he felt at seeing the armies of Scath overrun Azarath, and his feelings of failure, when after everything he had done he couldn't stop the rampage of Trigon and was lying in a puddle of his own blood with the sight of a crying Raven kneeling next to him and Robin.
He had made these games to occupy the time he had normally spent with his surrogate family, the Titans. He missed messing around and pulling pranks with Gar and Tara. He missed his training time with Rich. He missed his time spent tinkering on their rides with his best friend Victor. But most of all, he missed his quiet time spent in meditation and secretly playing video games with Raven. He had even caught himself thinking about how he missed Star's naivety, that was something that he had never thought of before, she had grown on him. While he would never admit it she was just as much his annoying little sister as she was Richard's, but he still didn't like her. She would always be the one he never could have something in common with, and she never would understand him.
Shadow turned his head to look at the baby that was lying peacefully in the crib. His newest and last assignment was simple, protect the little girl at all costs until she left for earth. And he was going to make sure she had the happiest life here that she could.
The Titans were sitting in the main room watching a movie together. They didn't understand why, but ever since Shadow had left it became an unspoken thing between them that they would never mention his name, but they had tonight. Yes, they had done the unspeakable by mentioning the name, but it wasn't who they thought it would have been who spoke it. They had been walking through the video rental place when Raven had been the first to find something to watch.
"Hey why don't we watch this one." She said while holding up a movie that seemed to be something none of them would watch. It was one of those fantasy movies that Shadow would have tried to suggest when they were looking for movies. In fact, Shadow was the one who started a regular movie night every Saturday night. They had never taken his suggestions though and had never been able to see one of his favorite movies. "Why is everyone looking at me like that? Shadow had shown me this movie last movie night we had with him. I think we should at least try it, because he always did say that he had ideas for movies we would all like."
In the end they had decided that they owed it to Shadow to at least try one of his movies. They reluctantly started to break out the popcorn as the movie began. It was the typical evil wizard takes over a kingdom and a few unlikely people try to stop his evil plans. But as the movie progressed, they found that it did appeal to all of their tastes. Robin had all of the action and fighting he could dream of. Cyborg discovered how some of the wizard's experiments had some scientific reasoning to them and he had seen enough magical stuff since joining the Titans to believe that it existed, just not in the way it was portrayed in the movie. Beast Boy got enough of his comedy and comic relief characters to satisfy his needs. Raven had enough magical and dark things to keep her happy (and secretly she was as enthralled by the romantic scenes just as much as Terra and Star). Terra had enough heroic women inside to keep her from yelling out that it was always the men who did the great deeds. Star was just enthralled by the sappy romance stuff.
Now by the end of the movie they were sorry that they had never watched any of these even though Shadow had never pushed them to see one. In fact, they decided that when Shadow came back they would let him have a regular spot in the movie choosing order. All night they had been trying to see why Shadow was so enthralled by this kind of movie. Robin insisted that it had to be the action, Cyborg chose the science/magic references, BB the funny guys, Terra voiced that it had to be the strong characters, Star sided with the romantic scenes (this caused a few snickers and chuckles). But in the end Raven voiced that Shadow probably saw it as his own story. When she received quizzical looks asking for an explanation she expanded upon that.
"Shadow probably likes to think of himself as the hero who is trying to escape a past that won't leave him alone, while trying to save the ones he cares about and serving a higher cause. Such as being a superhero and doing everything he can to make our lives comfortable and happy." The empath looked around the room as realization dawned on the other teen's faces. Her point of view did make sense, Shadow was doing all of those things and liked to feel that he was making headway in the war against things like Trigon and Slade. Only Robin knew much about Shadow's past, and it made sense that both of them were very similar in their tactics to hide it than even Raven had.
The Titans were getting ready to go to bed when the doorbell rang. When all the others looked at Robin with smirks on their faces he noticed that he was the closest to the stairwell that lead to the front door.
"Oh Robin… you're the closest to the door. And you know what that means. You have to go get it. And stop grumbling, you're the one who made that stupid rule." Gar was thrilled, he always seemed to be the one closest and Robin always enforced that rule, so this was just payback. And oh how sweet it was.
"Fine I'll get it. And I wasn't grumbling." Robin sulked out of the room.
"Come on Robin, everyone heard you. You are such a loud mouth when you're depressed." Raven's monotone voice echoed a sentence that Shadow had used back before they had become superheroes. Back when they had just been twin brothers who liked to get into trouble together. Blane had always been there to protect him back then, if some bully hit Richard, that bully could expect to receive a full month in the hospital from Blane. That was the way things had worked. Richard was the guy every other guy wanted to be, and Blane was his protector.
Robin chose to ignore the fact that Raven seemed to be acting a little more like Shadow recently and headed down to the door. When he opened them his jaw hit the floor as he stared at a girl he hadn't seen in years, a girl who had haunted his dreams ever since he had left Gotham, Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl.
X was still enjoying himself, after he had finished off the cops in his last mission he had been allowed to join the cult of Scath and learned their ways. He was enjoying this spy business, especially the fact that he had risen among their ranks so quickly. He was now one of the most revered assassins in the cult, and so he was sent to kill the enemies of it. The council had told him to do whatever they asked, as long as it didn't interfere with Shadow's mission or Raven's life. Luckily for him, Trigon didn't trust mere humans with tasks of that caliber, he also had no idea that X was a spy among their ranks and new about what ever the cult was told to do. This new level of double-crossing and challenge was becoming a drug to the teen. He was becoming addicted to the evil way of life, but still held to the basic ideals of Shadow in his own twisted way. Yes, X would have to try and live up to the neutral standing that Shadow had created for Red X. He would live a life that was neither good nor evil, he wouldn't play hero, but he wouldn't try and destroy humanity. And if anyone messed with Richard, they would pay dearly, very dearly.
In Azarath there were two sections of the city. One was the area that Azar and Arella lived, the one where monks and priests sought to purify themselves and try to stem the coming of Trigon. That was the brightly lit part that had the tall golden skyscrapers. The other was dark and full of smog, the giant stone fortresses were carved out fo black rock and this was the side that the Dark Azarathians lived. Their leader was a devout follower of Trigon and had been in every war the demon had waged upon mortality, he was Rath the Slayer. He had been there when Azarath had been the greatest kingdom on Earth, before it had been removed to a different dimension. At first only the Light Azarathians had moved to the different dimension. And Rath had covered the world in darkness. Except for one kingdom. A kingdom of Barbarians who had always fought him, siding with light when all of their kin had joined to darkness. He had tried to crush them, and he would have with the demonic armies of his master, and all of the dark ones at his command. But he failed. He failed because of a young boy who had lead the people of the north in a desperate war that had sent him and his master's hordes running with their tails between their legs. He would never forget the humiliation that he had received during his one on one battle with the blonde haired teen. The boy was able to fight off hundreds of demons almost single-handedly.
But today was the day his master would begin to set up the chess board to bring about his return. Today, Rath had been sent to retrieve the portal, the gem, the catalyst for the apocalypse, Raven, Trigon's four year old daughter. This time, not even a boy like the one in the great war that had officially banished Rath and his people to this dimension, could stop the armies of Scath from destroying mortality.
"Good evening my dear Azar. I hope that you are well, I heard that you still have not found a male that suits your needs as well as your last love interest." Rath was smirking with a sick amused look on his face. Before the people of Azar had split he and Azar had been madly in love with each other, and he knew she was still as crazy about him as he was her, but they were both too stubborn to leave their ideals behind for the other.
"I wish the same for you Rath. I heard that you are still having your own love problems." Rath cringed; she still knew how to play the game of witty banter and insults. Azar was not about to allow him to have the final laugh, but she knew why he was here, and no one had the power to stop him anymore, not since Shadow had disappeared after the war.
"You know why I'm here darling. And I know you haven't a warrior capable of stopping me. So I guess we'll have to see if the girl has the power to fight me, but we both know she won't." Rath began to walk up the stairs to Raven's room. Nothing could stop the joy he was feeling at the moment. Yes, it was a sick, twisted form of joy, but it was still joy in his book. Today, everything will fall into place, and Azar would finally see that his side was the true one and join him in her rightful place at his side.
Rath confidently threw open the door to the little girl's room. A startled Raven looked up to see a man she knew she didn't like just by the emotions she sensed coming from him. "Hello Raven. I've come to take you to go live with your daddy. I'm a very good friend of his and he asked me to personally take you to stay with him." Rath thought that Azar would have tried to hide the girl's destiny from her, but he thought wrong.
"NO! I don't want to see my daddy! He'll make me hurt people and destroy everything that is good! I don't want him to come back! I want him to leave me alone, and tell him to let me sleep in peace!" The girl had risen to a height that towered over Rath. Black tendrils of her soul self swirled out around her and her eyes were glowing a fierce white. Rath had never considered that Azar would have the heart to tell this girl what she was born to do in such detail, nor did he expect a six year old to be so eloquent.
"I believe you don't have a choice in the matter dear." Rath waved his hand and red energy shot at the young girl. But it never reached her. Rath's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when he saw the person who had blocked his attack. There, standing in front of a startled Raven, was the boy who had defeated him so many years ago. The teen hadn't aged a day, and his black blade was deflecting the red soul self towards Rath. The dark one barely dodged out of the way of his own sleeping spell just in time to avoid being at the teenager's mercy. "You! How is this possible! You're only a human, how can you still be alive!"
"I don't believe that it is any of your business as to why I'm not dead, Lord knows I should be. I believe what you should worry about is that I'm here to protect this girl with my life, and there is nothing that will stop me from doing so. Now, Raven, I believe that you were in the middle of something?" With that Shadow turned aside as Raven rushed forward and threw Rath around the room slamming into walls, and flying right out the door.
Rath was sent tumbling down the stairs in a very undignified sort of way and all of the monks he passed stared at him in disbelief. No one had the power to beat Rath, not even Azar, but here was rolling down the stairs with a very pissed off six year old making sure he went down the most painful way possible.
"Next time I tell you no, remember that I mean it!" with that final outburst of anger Raven threw him at Azar's feet and returned to the privacy of her room. She needed to meditate to get Rage under control. She also wanted to find out who that strange person was.
"Barbara?" Robin could not believe that he was staring at the girl of his literal dreams. She was the real reason he had never wanted a relationship with Star, who had gone back to incessantly flirting with him once Shadow had left. She kept insinuating that she wanted to become more than just friends, but Richard Grayson still believed he had a shot with Barb, and that kept him from going with the obviously appealing prospect of being Star's boyfriend.
"Hey Rich, listen I kinda got kicked out of my house, and I was hoping that I could stay here with you and your team for a while. If its not a problem or anything?" Batgirl had never been this nervous before, sure she could have asked Bruce, but she had really missed Richard after he had left, and still hoped that the stories the tabloids printed about Robin and his female teammates weren't true. She was thinking about turning and running when Robin answered.
"No. It's not a problem at all. Why don't you come upstairs and we can find you a room to stay in while you're here, and you can meat the team. We just finished having movie night. C'mon!" With that he grabbed her wrist, picked up her suitcase, and dragged her upstairs. Barbara was surprised by his reaction, they had had a little fight when he left with Raven to make the Titans and she hadn't expected him to be so forgiving about it. Apparently he and Bruce were still ignoring each other about the fights they had had.
When they came into the main room they found the other Titans watching in fascination the part on the DVD that showed how the movie was made. They each found something interesting about it. Cy the special effects, BB the pranks the cast members pulled on each other, Star just loved documentaries, and Raven was fascinated by the legends that had inspired the writers.
Robin cleared his throat in a loud obnoxious way and pushed the pause button. Star and Raven turned around to see what he had to announce and were surprised to see him with a girl they had never met before who honestly looked as if her greatest dream had come true. BB and Cy turned and were about to announce to the world what a jerk Robin was but both of them forgot everything when they saw his companion. And when I say everything, I mean everything, including their names and all about whether or not eating tofu or meat is better. They would let the very pretty girl in front of them decide which was better.
They snapped themselves back into reality when Robin started to speak, maybe he would say which one of them the girl had come to visit. "All right team, I'd like to introduce you to Batgirl. She was one of my close friends back in Gotham, and before you ask BB she hates tofu and she loves a good steak when she can get her hands on one." Cyborg was ready to jump up and do a jig when Robin started talking again. "Now Batgirl this is the team, Cyborg's the metal guy, Beast Boy's the green kid, Stafire's the red headed alien, Terra is the girl with blood red hair, and Raven is the girl with the purple hair. Now team, batgirl is going to be staying with us until she can get things settled with her dad. So I want you to be one your best behavior, no huge tofu vs. meat wars and no ridiculous pranks that Shadow taught you. Now I'm going to show her where her room will be and I want you all to go to bed."
With that Robin walked out of the main room and the other Titans completely ignored the last statement about going to bed and started to watch the rest of the making of the movie clips.
Meanwhile Robin was catching up with Barb as they climbed the stairs to the guest rooms. "Rich do you really tell them when to go to bed?" Babs was startled, Rich was an insomniac and it didn't seem like him to tell others to go to bed.
"No, that's kind of an inside joke among the team. After we drop off your stuff we'll head back down and watch themovie with them. Besides, apparently its one that Shadow tried to get us to rent when he was here but no one really wanted to see something like that when he was here." Robin stopped because he realized that Babs had stopped walking and was staring at him with a questioning look.
"Wait a second, Blane was here? On your team? Why didn't you ever tell me?" She had a hurt expression in her eyes because she considered Blane as a best friend when they were going to school, and had been really hurt when he left Gotham. "Did Bruce know?"
"Yeah, sorry about that, but he told me not to tell you because he didn't want you to worry about him. Bruce didn't want you to throw away your life just to come and see him. Shadow had been living on his own for about three and a half years before we finally talked him into joining the team. He wanted to wait to tell you he had resurfaced because he was constantly gone and training to fight off the apocalypse. Oh yeah, you haven't heard the story about how the Titans stopped Trigon from destroying all of humanity. I'll have to have Beast Boy give you a dramatic retelling about it tomorrow. But for now don't get your hopes up on seeing Shadow again for a while. He still has to finish the last terms of his contract, and we don't know how long he'll be gone." With that said the two walked on in silence until they were putting some sheets on her bed and Babs asked a question that had been bothering her since she got back.
"So… are you romantically involved with anyone out here?" she was excellent at disguising the emotions in her voice and Rich couldn't tell that she was asking it in a more personal way than how just a good friend would.
"Well Starfire won't stop insinuating that she wants to be more than just friends, but I have my eye on someone else, someone a little more like me." Robin wanted to almost scream to the world that she was the one he wanted to become involved with but he didn't want to scare her off after she had just gotten here so he hid the emotion in his voice as well.
"Oh, Is it Raven?" Babs could barely keep the disappointment out of her voice. She knew that Raven probably stirred that whole wanting to learn about the mysterious part of Richard, and that she was probably the one he was talking about.
"Raven! No, I will admit I seriously considered it once, but she's not the one I was talking about. Besides, I'm the only one besides Bruce who saw what happened between her and Shadow the day he left, and lets just say that I think her heart is long gone." Rich all of a sudden felt something push against his mind, and he all of a sudden said something he would never have said, and he had the distinct feeling that Shadow knew about what was going on in the tower. "No, not Raven. The girl I was talking about was you." Richard winced and was about to apologize the minute he heard himself say those words when Barbara stopped him.
"Do you really mean that Rich?" Robin saw the hope in her eyes as she said the words in a very vulnerable tone for her.
"Yes I do. But please don't leave, if you want to be just friends we can and just pretend this never happened, but I don't want you to be shoved out of my life again because of the choices I make." Robin was way out of his comfort zone now and he wasn't sure why he kept blurting out what he felt. Dang! It must be Shadow pushing him to this. Little did he know, but he was doing the same to Babs.
"You have no idea how long I've waited to hear that Rich. Blane always told me that you liked me, but I never did believe him. I guess he was right all along." With that she gave him a small kiss before grabbing his hand and running back into the main room. She wanted to become a part of this team, and she was gonna start now.
The Titans were completely enthralled by the movie as they watched it a second time so Batgirl would be able to see it. They were at the best part of the movie, the final battle between the rag tag group of friends and the wizard and everyone was on the edge of their seats.
"Well, well, I go on a little trip and then you guys decide that my movies are cool. And I see Batgirl finally joined the team." The movie suddenly seemed completely unimportant as every Titan spun around to see if the creepy, yet completely welcome voice was part of their imaginations.
There, leaning up against the doorframe was Shadow. A very different Shadow than they remembered. He didn't have the Red X suit on any more and had gotten rid of the cloak they had last seen him wearing. He had Gurthang strapped to his back and a curved dagger attached to his utility belt. He took off the jet-black mask and they saw the ever-familiar eye mask he and Robin always wore. His hair was definitely different, instead of being spiked like Robin's was, it was hanging down and falling into his eyes. Raven thought that he had never looked better, even though he obviously looked as if he hadn't slept ever since he left (which was completely true, but they don't know that). In fact, he looked like a vague memory she had but couldn't place as to where she had seen him like this before, but she didn't care, he was back and this time it was for good.
Before anyone else had moved a muscle after taking in the new Shadow, Raven jumped over the back of the couch and flung her arms around his neck pulling him into a hug the like of which no one had ever seen Raven give to anybody. "I'm so glad you're back. I missed you so much." Raven was almost in tears because of the joy and relief she felt at seeing Shadow back among their family, because that's what the Titans were, a family.
After Raven had almost tackled him the others leaped into action. Beast Boy turned into a bear and pulled his "big brother" into an actual bear hug. Then Cy dropped all pretenses of being the macho kind of guy and started balling and pulled Shadow into a bone snapping embrace, well at least it would have been bone napping to any normal human, but no one noticed that Shadow hadn't even been bruised by the monster hugs these people who putting him through. Terra tackled him, or at leads tried to, but ended up just hugging the buy who had never stopped helping her out of the holes she dug for herself. Robin came up and did some weird handshake/hug thing that only twins would come up with. And Batgirl just walked up and gave him a sisterly kind of hug. Then it was Starfire and Shadow standing in front of each other with guarded looks on their faces. Babs was smart enough to realize that they probably didn't get along very well and stood next to Robin in apprehension with the other Titans.
"Well Star, I'm sorry that we started off on the wrong foot, and I'll try to find something in common with you, but I wont make any guarantees. So what do you say? Friends?" The others stared at Shadow, what had come over him to try and be Star's friend? What could possibly make him be the first to try and break down the walls that the two had erected? What had happened to him while he was gone?
Star didn't move for a few moments and the others started to think she would just stay hike that when suddenly she ran up to him and gave him an arm-crushing hug. There, everything was right in the tower and the Titans could live in peace and harmony.
Raven noticed that everyone had left the room quietly during the movie. Well, everyone except her and Shadow. She would have to thank Robin for making them leave in the morning, but now she had to see if Shadow still felt the same about her. She looked at him and saw him staring right back. By silent agreement they turned to each other and crossed their legs, they both wanted to clear up just how they felt about each other and they wanted to see how far they wanted to follow those emotions.
"Shadow, I need to know something. Do you still feel the same way about me as you said you did before you left?" Neither one was much for beating around the bush and they wanted to get this cleared up now, before they slipped back into the routine they had going before he left.
"Yes, if anything they got stronger. Now its your turn."
"Same as you. Now what do we want to do about it?"
"Not sure for myself, I've never gotten this far into a relationship before. Do you have any ideas?"
"Well actually I think I know how far I want to go with this at the moment, but I'll ease you into it and that way we can see how comfortable you are about it."
"Well, we've established the fact that we love each other, and that I have no idea where to go from here."
"How about we just experiment until we know what we want to do and what we don't. That way, we can decide how fast we want this to go, and see how much of it we mind the others seeing."
"Sounds reasonable enough. I say we go with that plan, and then it'll be a trial and error thing. So I guess that I could walk you to your room now that we got that out of the way, but I'll let you decide."
"I would love it if you walked me to my room Shadow." Raven was wearing a smile she reserved only for him, one that hadn't been used in almost six months.
"Ok, then I'll take you to your room, but please when it's just us you can call me Blane. I think that it's appropriate for you to know my real name." Shadow felt like a fish out of water. He could face hordes of demons and charge into machine gun batteries without feeling a shred of fear, but here he had absolutely no knowledge or experience and even Raven the daughter of a demon would have to teach him how to be in a relationship with someone.
Raven was feeling like a giddy schoolgirl because of his last statement. He actually trusted her enough to tell her his real name, even though she had already known it she would never have called him that without his express permission. "All right Blane, Thank you for being such a gentleman. And I think that I might let you call me Rae, but cont get your hopes up." With that they walked out of the main room to head to their own rooms.
Hey everyone! I hope you like this chapter as much as I do. Please review, and don't think dirty thoughts about why I stopped before they actually got to their rooms. Shadow just walks her to her own room, gets a small kiss on the cheek, then goes to his room and they each stay there for the rest of the night. Next Chapter will have a ton of X trying to find his calling in life. And lets just say that the world isn't gonna like it when he does. But it will have the Titans and Shadow in it as well. Once again PLEASE R&R. thanks
Anduril