Disclaimer- I do not own the Teen Titans nor anything known to be associated with them in the past or present, blah, blah, blah…

Dedication- because every book needs one. I wont go by names but this is dedicated to all of those who have favorited Promised and faithfully reviewed despite my many months between postings.

So here is installment two. This is the prologue introducing 'new' characters and recapping with an old. The first chapter will follow in a few days but I wanted to put this up so you all know that I am here and ready to start writing again. But I will be making time to read more of my reviewer's stories. Fair is fair right?! Anyways-happy reading:

Chapter-Prologue

The room hadn't changed since she left it so many years ago. Not a thing out of place, not a blanket disturbed; the simple messed up bed she had slept it when she was five--the last time she ever saw her room. It was ordered after her disappearance that nothing was to be agitated for upon her return her parents didn't want anything to have changed. Of course, they assumed with the money and power they held, the child's return would have been immediate. That was not the case.

Cortni knew her sister was alive. She knew it. Why she hadn't returned is what she didn't know. But she vowed to find out. It was quietly in the night that Cortni would visit her sister's room. It was where she learned the most about the sibling she had never known. Her brother wasn't much help. He had refused to speak of her. It was like she hadn't existed. But Cortni knew the truth-he blamed himself for her kidnapping. After all, he was there when it happened and powerless to have stopped it.

But no matter, Cortni was good at sneaking around. Really good at it. So on a regular basis, she would sneak into Tara's room and lightly run a finger across her bed, look at herself in the mirror, hug a teddy bear that was laying on the floor. She took special care to not only keep the room dust free, but to make it seem as no one had ever been in there since Tara.

Cortni was tired of waiting for Tara to return. She was tired of searching for answers to her questions because everyone refused to answer them. Cortni was only seven after all. What did it matter to some little girl who never knew her sister. It was too painful to relive. It was as if they were killing her. That's how she thought of it; by refusing to talk about her or acknowledge that Cortni had a sister, it was like they committed her to death.

Cortni had had enough of that. It was time to find the long lost sister. It wouldn't be hard. Cortni had learned some key things about her in the years of her absence. Things that would be of great value. So Cortni stood in the doorway to the girl's room, staring at all that had become of the memory of her older sister. Above the dresser was a large portrait of her. Cortni was a remarkable resemblance. Long blonde hair, bright blue eyes. But where Tara was small for her age, Cortni was big. And where Tara was always in a girly sundress, Cortni was always in pants and a tee shirt. Where Tara had been shy, well, better not cross Cortni.

Cortni closed the door and made her way silently down the hall, around the many twists and turns, down both flights of stairs and through the front door, out into the yard. It was late, every one was in bed. Brion, her brother that everyone referred to as Geo, was the only one that had ever caught her up when she wasn't supposed to be. But Cortni timed her departure right because Geo was far from home on another training mission in Verddum. So she crept to the lining of the woods closest to the front door, careful to stay in the shadows. With a light bag slung over her shoulder, she crossed the lining and listened carefully to what was going on around her. Not an unnatural sound graced her ears. So Cortni set down her bag and made her transformation. Where a blonde girl once stood, a leopard now rested, delicately licking her paws. Gracefully she stood, stretched, and picked up the bag between her teeth, careful not to puncture the fabric and bounded off silently into the night.

Quietly she sat in the rocker, the steady movement settling her child down to sleep. So many nights she had done this since her daughter was born a year ago. So many times had the young one awaken her mother throughout the night begging for some food. And gingerly she would creep into the baby's room, careful not to wake her husband, and pick the baby from the crib. She'd hum a little rhapsody to calm her as they made their way to the rocker. The baby always knew what the rocker meant and started rooting for her mother's breast.

Now Glaleanna was one and had stopped nursing some weeks ago. Glaleanna would still wake in the night, begging for her mother so Koma would go to her and hold her tight, singing softly of all the goodness in the world. Koma'd often take this time to admire her youngster. Bright red hair lit up her head like it was on fire. Large, inquiring, green eyes were softly hidden behind soft lids. The child's skin was so tinted she looked to be orange.

Koma sighed. The minute Glaleanna was born Koma knew who she resembled-her lost sister Star. Not lost in one of those tragic family stories about how one child died at birth or ran away. She was lost because all Koma's family was lost to her. Koma had gotten into a huge fight with her family when she was young. At eleven she was demanding to know who her promised was and upon learning it, she immediately moved there and cut off all contact with her family. The last time she saw her parents, younger brother and sister was at her reception. There she hadn't bothered to 'know' them.

None of the knew of her daughter, none of them knew anything about her life. She had refused to speak to them since eleven and Dustin had kindly accepted her decision. But what finally made her realize that the past was to be forgiven was not Dustin's many pleadings for her to rethink her choice, or seeing Glaleanna with his parents. No, it was the moment Glaleanna was born because she looked identical to Star. It was not only the happiest day of her life but also the most miserable. After many years of trying for a baby, the baby granted to them could have been a twin to the sister she refused to be related to. She cried and cried upon holding Glaleanna for the first time. Glaleanna looked nothing like her or her husband, but only like Star.

Koma looked up into the mirror that sat across from them in the rocker. She'd often look here as she rocked her baby, admiring the mother-daughter time that she swore she would never lose. She would sit and memorize every detail of their sitting, as if it was a picture she was looking at. Koma wore a satin night gown, short to her mid thighs. The color was called pumas and it hugged her every motherly curve. Koma's hair was long, to her buttocks and a sleek black glistening in the moon light from the window behind. Her light lavender eyes seemed to glow in the darkened room. Her skin was a healthy peach, sculpted and smooth.

Sprawled in her arms was the year old baby girl she cherished more than life. Her shoulder length fire red hair was scattered all over in an array. Her lips were lightly parted and her hands clenched, one around her mothers nightgown the other on her own night shirt. She lay in a position where her head was back over her mothers arm, like she was looking at the ceiling her legs sprawled on either side of her mother's leg. She wore blue shorts and a green top, courtesy of her own picking. Koma's free hand was upon Glaleanna's stomach keeping her steady as they rocked.

Mother and daughter, was there ever a more beautiful sight.

Koma sighed as her decision was finally made. Soon, she would take Glaleanna and visit her sister and perhaps the rest of the Anders family.

There were only a few things in life that Robin would have changed, he had decided. One-the fact that his identity was always concealed. It was a burden living so many different lives, knowing that the littlest slip up could ruin a whole lot of things. Hadn't Batman warned him of that many times?

Two-that he could only play "Robin" at certain times. Why couldn't he just be the hero always?? But with that would mean he'd have to give up his real identity. Real identity? They were both real, not one more than the other. If they could just both be one. Of course with this problem came his third-Raven.

He sighed. Raven had captured his attention so thoroughly and so quickly that it was like a dream. Purple hair, purple eyes, gray skin… She was foreign and exotic no matter how you looked at it. So she was just a girl. In her country alone, her age was nothing but a number. In others, good mothers were made at even younger an age. So she wasn't really all that young. Just because it'd be frowned upon in America didn't mean anything.

Ahh… America. That meant he was worlds, miles and hours away from the girl who was occupying much more of his thoughts than he'd like to admit. It had been so long since he had seen her. Was he possibly forgetting her appearance? The smell of her skin? The taste of her lips?

"Yea right!" He said aloud, surprising himself.

Robin sat in the same position he had on so many occasions: at his desk, in his uniform, staring at his computer screen. The laptop was open and on but the screen was simply his desktop. Next to him was an arrangement of all his communication items. Com-link connecting him with with his technician friend back home. His personal cell phone. His business cell phone. And his blackberry. The room was dark, only the glow from the computer screen gave any light, though it had just became darker as his marquis screen saver had appeared. He watched the dark letters scroll across the screen. "Call it bad timing, But I call it destiny. It wouldn't have happened it if wasn't meant to be."

He felt the corner of his mouth curl slightly. It had been the same marquis for years now. Lines from a song he had forgotten long ago but the words still burning deep within him. And now, when the words seemed to fit so perfectly to his life… why??

Again Robin sighed. Since he was young he had been 'Robin' the boy wonder of Gotham City and protégé to the dark knight, Batman. Now on his shoulders he had the welfare of a city to contend with. He had responsibilities, many more than a typical teenager should have.

This he could handle.

Then he had his personal life. His friends needed him to be there for them, needed a shoulder to lean on and advice at the drop of a hat. His family needed him; he had a family to make proud of him. He had family duties and siblings and parents to bond with and build a future with.

And this he could handle.

Education was also high on his list. Not just academics, he also had body strengthening and a career to prepare for. His preliminary schooling was just about complete. Then he had to decide exactly what direction he wanted his life to go in. There is a plan for everything; a place for everything and everything in its place.

Even this he could handle.

All this he'd been prepared for. Robin was brought up by so many role models that all this was expected of him and he had learned not only to accept it, but also prepare for it. He was ready. What he wasn't ready for was Raven. She had walked in to his life in need of help. In a position that needed immediate attention. From the moment he had held her in his arms for the first time, his world became different. His view on the world shifted. Now he had a whole new category infiltrated into his life: love.

It had happened so precariously. There were so many things and people around that were not only depending on him, but that also cried for concentration. And yet, she had had it from the second his eyes fell on her dark violet hair from above. She was the answer to prayers he hadn't known he had been praying. She was the breath of life. She awoke things in his body-feelings in him-he hadn't known were there; hadn't known they existed.

She had also made him corny as hell!!

Robin gave a bitter chuckle as he watched his screen savor run across his desktop. But it was interrupted with a little message in a light yellow box in the corner of his screen. (1) new message, it read. Generally speaking, he wouldn't give it much thought. But the last few days had been so hectic that he had just emptied his email without bothering to read a damned thing. It was his fan email after all. What good could come of it. But having deleted over a hundred without bothering to read one made him feel slightly guilty. So he'd open this one, read it and write back to which ever love sick girl was emailing him.

The address was simple, yet questionable. 'DarkShadow' was the name of the sender. No subject line. The email astonished him though.

Robin -

I don't know if you remember me, but I hope you do. I will be getting married tomorrow and all I can think about is getting out of it some way, somehow. Any suggestions? Heh.

So…I don't expect you to actually read this or respond back, but I just thought I'd say hi.

-Raven

'The breath caught in his throat.' 'Butterflies fluttered in his stomach.' 'His heart skipped a beat.' All those stupid cliché sayings that he used to laugh at seemed to come to life in him all at once. The object of his obsession was his new email. How his good fortune had worked this time. Destiny? He had a contact with Raven now.

He couldn't help the goofy grin that he felt appear unwelcome to his face nor could he get rid of it. As he pushed the reply button in the upper left corner somehow he knew, he could handle this too.