So, to begin with, no I'm not dead and I'm not abandoning this story or any of my stories for that matter. Real life just sometimes seems to suck people in and sometimes refuses to let go.

Good news is: I'm back (I totally didn't think that I hadn't posted this chapter yet, and thus edited this and came back to realize I did post it already, shut up.)

Even though you might have read the original version of this, I would highly recommend rereading it or at least skimming because I changed and fixed some very important things.

I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will hopefully have a NEW one soon and not a year plus after. (Starts screeching in despair because I thought this was a new chapter and now this just means I'm further behind than I first thought)

-Somewhere in Russia-

It was a Friday night, or if one wanted to be technical it would be early Saturday, and most of the city life were finally calming down after a loud and rambunctious night. And where else would most people spend a Friday night after a long and hard week at work but at a bar or club.

In one of the more well-known clubs in the eastern part of Russia, among the passed out patrons, only 2 people were awake; the current bartender and a customer. Well actually, it was more of the bartender cleaning up to finally head home after such a hectic night while talking to the last customer who was just a good 10 minutes away from passing out. It had been a couple of hours since the last customer had left and even a longer time since the last customer passed out.

The passed out patrons were incredibly lucky that the owner and manager of the club were sympathetic enough to wait until the morning to kick them out. Usually, most club owners kicked out the customers right away as it cost more to have someone there all night to make sure none of them woke up and started to mess around with things they shouldn't. But the owners of the current club have figured out a loophole: if they do allow patrons to sleep through the night and wait until the morning, more people would be willing to come thus making them one of the best up and coming clubs, as long as there is supervision.

The male bartender that was currently cleaning the last few glasses behind the counter quickly glanced at his Silver Tungsten watch to note the time. The overnight guard and manager weren't due for another half an hour. 'Good. Enough time to finish this up, write the report, and get some sleep finally.' He thought to himself taking a glimpse at his barely conscious companion.

'Yeah, these missions are running you ragged but luckily this is the last one and you can finally take a vacation or, at least, break.' A feminine voice spoke in the young male's head.

Usually normal people would freak out but instead, the man's lip just twitched a bit in a smile before his face went back to a neutral expression.(It also was never claimed that this man was normal.)

The man across from the bartender was currently clutching a half full glass of Rum on Rocks and just minutes from passing out. Currently, he was rambling about his job and what he did there. Luckily for the bartender though, the man was still aware enough to form complete and coherent sentences even if it were sometimes hard to understand some of the words the man was saying. It would make it much more difficult to write up a report when the person couldn't properly speak thus making most of what he said, void and unreliable.

The pale bartender was fairly young looking yet no one ever dared questioned the man. It helped the bartender though that most people could make out his muscles through his black sleeveless button up that had white trimming and a white collar. Also, with gray hair along with his silver-gray eyes that held wisdom and a mysterious glint that no one could identify, it made him appear even older. He wore dark gray slacks, which were held up by a white belt, which matched the vest that was unbuttoned over his black button up. There was a new white rag slung over his right shoulder as he cleaned the glasses with another white rag.

A silver cross dangled from his right ear and a dark-gray woven-styled necklace with a silver Wiccan pentacle-shaped pendant attached to it only helped fuel his mysterious aura. Also, standing at almost 6'1", he seemed to tower over everyone adding even more to his intimidating aura.

"So, why don't you tell me more about this Project M that you and your company are working on, Mr. Vyacheslav?" The young bartender asked the grown man in front of him in fluent Russian while refilling the man's glass.

The man seemed reluctant to say anything as he took another sip of the Rum but the alcohol seemed to loosen his tongue.

Mr. Vyacheslav was an obsess man with a big brown bushy mustache that made the man almost look like a walrus. He had beady hazel eyes and his head was shiny and bald, the man unfortunately didn't have much of a neck but had 2-3 chins that wobbled a little when he talked. There was sweat shining all over his face and he took out a handkerchief to wipe away the sweat and swallowed once before opening his mouth. "I can't speak of it but it's a new weapon which we have decided to call Project M." The man admitted in a thick accent, hoping to not anger the man while not giving anything away.

"What makes this weapon so special, Mr. Vyacheslav?" The bartender asked the man, trying to remain patient with the intoxicated man.

At that moment the man shut his mouth and refused to open it again. The bartender kept trying to coax the man into talking for 10 minutes before the voice spoke again, 'Uh oh.'

'Uh oh? What is uh oh for?' The bartender questioned the voice in his head with the slightest narrowing of his eyes.

'Um…well…the guys to take your shift next are actually leaving early so you only have 17 minutes to wrap this up.' The female replied.

The young man groaned internally but thanked his lucky stars that he had his sister, Twyla, for help. Plus, his patience was rather thin, so all the more reason to speed the process up.

With his patience close to snapping, the bartender had already set down his rag and glass. Now that his patience has snapped, the young male lashed out as if he was going to punch Mr. Vyacheslav in the chest but instead, the hand went through his chest but stopped halfway up his forearm. Half of his black fingerless gloves that rested on his elbow could be seen coming out of the man's chest.

Mr. Vyacheslav seemed to freeze in terror and instantly sobered as he looked in complete and utter fear at the bartender. "Now, Mr. Vyacheslav, I have been very patient man tonight, but I'm running out of time. Now, my hand is grasping your heart at the moment. I can squeeze your heart and with how your health is, it will look like a normal heart attack, especially since you've been drinking. But we won't have to go to such drastic measures as all I need you to do is to tell me everything about Project M."

The native Russian seemed to be frozen and was opening and closing his mouth like a fish. The now threatening bartender gave an irritated sigh before giving the man's heart a tiny squeeze which made Mr. Vyacheslav yell out, "Okay, okay! I'll tell you! Please don't kill me! I have a wife and a son!"

The bartender's expression seemed to soften just a tiny bit at the mention of his family. The man seemed to clench his jaw and whispered to himself in English, "I'm sorry…I'm not a bad guy…"

'You aren't the bad guy anyway, we are just doing our jobs and our job isn't always the best thing on the planet but we do what we must to help our world.' Twyla whispered in her brother's head as reassurance, though it seemed she was trying to convince herself at the same time.

Twyla's brother took a deep breath and closed his eyes as if to steel himself. As his eyes were closed, an illusion seemed to form in front of Mr. Vyacheslav's chest where instead of his arm sticking out of his chest, there was a gun pointing towards his heart. Opening his eyes he looked at the fat man in front of him and stated, "My name is Blake and I will let you go, but I need you to tell you everything you know about Project M before I do that."

Mr. Vyacheslav nodded and opened his mouth and started to completely just word vomit all he knew, "Project M stands for Project Muhandint, but we don't know what the word means, we were never told!" Mr. Vyacheslav looked at Blake is pure fear, expecting the man in front of him to kill him for not knowing the definition of the word.

Blake gestured with his free hand for the man to continue and the older male seemed to visible relax slightly after confirming that the younger person in front of him won't kill him for not knowing something. "I have been working with the company for only 4 years now, so I don't know much. For even before I was working with the company, we have been collection chemicals and a variety of substances and trying to infuse them together. Only a couple of the substances and chemicals have made it through the trial period, most of them either react violently, or sometimes the substance will destroy the chemical. I'm just an infuser! That's all I know!" Seeing the unimpressed look on Blake's face, the man continued, "We're just looking to see if we can infuse it with a fetus to make humans invulnerable to diseases and such. It was originally to find cures for different injuries and illnesses since many of them have healing abilities but it wasn't working as well as we thought it would so we made Project M as a side project. So far, we haven't been successful but we are getting close. I have no idea who I'm working for; I just know he is called SWD!"

The native Russian continued to mumble out how he was only an infuser while Blake looked thoughtful.

From the beginning, with every fact he was told, Blake's jaw seemed to clench harder and harder, seeming to almost crack his teeth with the intense pressure. Though, he took a deep breath and relaxed after Twyla whispered in his head again, 'Calm down….you have less than 10 minutes and Robin is calling in 20 minutes. This man will be quitting his job soon anyway.' The fat man seemed to be working himself into a panic until he was hit in the head hard with the man's others hand.

Blake released the man and the man slumped against the bar. With a sigh the man lowered the other's head to gently lay on the counter while turning the man's head in a direction so if the man fell or vomited, he would be alright.

Blake heaved another sigh and stretched while reaching up towards the ceiling. A couple of his joints cracked and he groaned in relief as some tension seeped away. 'Ew…you cracking your joints is just weird.'

'Oh hush Twyla, if you had been just standing here all this time you would be the same; so how much longer until my shift is over?' Blake asked the inside his head with an amused smirk tugging on his lips.

'Five minutes. You just sent an important email from the nest and Harold is going to meet at the apartment in 12 minutes.' Twyla answered her older brother calmly.

He gave the whole club a look over and just finished cleaning up what little he had left until his replacement came along. Finally, a little less than 5 minutes later one of the managers came in and gave Blake a grin and asked in Russian, "Are you sure about quitting? You are one of our finest bartenders and you could be a great bouncer."

Blake gave a fake grin and replied just as easily in Russian, "I am sure. I need be getting back home as my mother has fallen ill."

The manager's grin dropped a bit and he nodded a good night to Blake and headed to the office. Blake let his fake grin fall and made his way outside.

As his apartment was not that far away from the club, Blake decided to talk a walk and just talk to his sister.

A year ago, his twin sister Twyla was put into a coma. But because of her powers, along with Raven's ability, Twyla had been able to be with her brother constantly and talks to him inside his head and also being able to use her powers to help him.

While on missions, Blake still looked for a way to help his sister wake up. Luckily though, Raven and Saffire combined to put her body under a status so her body was able to stay in perfect condition and she wouldn't have to be out of commission for even longer.

Blake entered his apartment and immediately entered a code into a hidden panel on the right and instantly started stepping on certain tiles while entering in different codes to different areas and allowing a couple of scans. You can call him paranoid for setting up so many security measures but being a superhero meant you were hunted constantly and paranoia is usually what kept you alive.

Pale fingers lightly strummed the strings of the guitar, as if they were tickling a small child. Music bounced off of the mountains and echoed through the valley. A mouth opened as if to sing along with the music, but no sound left the mouth as it mouthed words that no one would hear.

Wavy blonde hair fell in front of closed eyes as the young male continued to mouth the words to a song only he knew. With his back propped up on a rock as he sat on top of a mountain, the lone boy smiled softly as he continued his song.

As the last note echoed through the empty valley, a shrill ring could be heard from the boy's pocket. With a silent sigh, the young hero opened his eyes to show baby blue eyes though spoke a million emotions and words that would never be to leave his mouth.

The young man pulled out a round communicator and flipped it open to reveal Robin's tired face, which made Robin appear to be much older with his slightly haggard appearance. With a raised eyebrow, the blonde had a half smile, half smirk on his face as he look at the boy wonder. "Hey Jericho." Robin spoke softly as he smiled at the blonde boy.

Ever since Jericho met the Titans, he gained more confidence and even had a little mischievous streak once in a blue moon. It had been hard work for all the Titans, considering his past and he didn't exactly trust people, hence living alone on the mountain. That and he just favored solitude, though once in a while it did get lonely but usually Harold popped up. The trumpet played had a 6th sense for when Jericho started getting lonely or started to have negative thoughts.

Jericho waved at Robin and started signing with one hand as he held the communicator away from his body so Robin could actually see him signing. 'Hey Robin. Is there something you need from me?' Jericho signed after he set his acoustic guitar to the side and sat straight up, giving Robin his full attention.

Robin gave a sigh and looked at Jericho for a moment with slight remorse in his eyes at what he was asking of the mute Titan.

Jericho lost any of his remaining amusement and looked at Robin suspiciously as the Leader of the Teen Titans started to chew on his bottom lip. Robin and Jericho had bonded over many things in the past so they each knew some of the other's quirks. One of Robin's main quirks was to start chewing on his bottom lip which signified that he was nervous and had to do something he particular didn't want to but was given no choice.

'Come on Robin, just tell me what it is.' Jericho signed as he got up to grab his laptop that was hidden in a hollow rock that was wirelessly charging. Oh the advantages of having technological geniuses as friends.

Robin sighed and just said, "Just boot up your laptop and open up an email I just sent you."

Jericho looked at Robin still suspicious but did as told. It only took a minute for the laptop to be completely up and running and Jericho was already in his email looking for Robin's email. Saffire had emailed Jericho 3 times, Cyborg had emailed him twice, a couple from the other Titans, and lastly Duplicate who has emailed him every day ever since they met.

Jericho wasn't attached to his laptop, that sentiment was reserved for his guitar, so sometimes he just forgot to check his email but Duplicate still emailed him every day. Though if he was on, they would just IM back and forth but it wasn't that common, maybe just once a week.

Though, what caught Jericho's eye was the just received forward from Robin. He arched a blonde eyebrow as he opened the email and gave a quick glance at Robin before shutting his communicator and opened up the webcam so now he was able to sign with both hands.

Jericho settled a little as he read the email, though the further he read, the wider his eyes got. Finally, he finished the email and gave Robin the most incredulous look he could muster. The email's contents were just that mind numbing, and stupid.

Though, once Jericho had processed the information all the way through, he signed with both hands now, 'That is not only stupid but I'm guessing that you need me to go with you guys, which is why you were so nervous earlier.'

Robin sighed and rubbed his blue eyes tiredly but then he seemed to almost puff up with irritation and frustration. "Yeah Jericho, I need you to go with us, and I just hate the simple fact that I'm pulling you away from your home to do this. And I'm not only pulling you from your home but I'm pulling others for this and…" Robin paused in his slight rant and seemed to deflate, "I hate doing this to you guys…but we need you and we really need you to get here as soon as you can so maybe you can call up Harold and ask him for a ride here. The others should be here in a day or two…"

Jericho looked at Robin with a spark of sympathy in his gaze. But Jericho knew Robin hated sympathy so it quickly vanished. Jericho gave Robin a firm nod before his gaze softened and asked, 'So how is it going over there? How is everyone taking the news? More importantly, how are you holding up?'

Richard looked at Jericho and let his shoulders slump making it appear as if Richard was trying to curl into himself and sighed. "I could be doing worse, just this whole situation puts me on edge and just when I thought we got a break for once, but the good news is though that I don't have as many nightmares and it's been more than a year since the hallucinations finally disappeared." Richard smiled softly and continued, "The others are doing much better too, Raven has been showing more emotion, Cy got this new program up and running, Kid Flash and Jinx are still going strong, and Saffire came out on her own today and looks healthier. I feel like the twins will cause more trouble than usual."

Jericho laughed soundlessly as Richard's face fell. The 'twins' were actually Saffire and BG as they were so alike that it was uncanny. It didn't help that they had the exact same birthday so the rest of the Titans, and even the girls themselves, referred to themselves as the 'twins'. Though the Titans did have 2 sets of actual biological twins, it was usually the 'Speedster Twins' and the 'Silver Twins'.

Richard smiled softly at Jericho's laughing face. The mute teen was still somewhat stoic during most thing and always smiled his fake smile on reflex and never showed how he was really feeling. Yet he opened up to Richard first and let into his cold, war beaten heart, and with time and patience, the others were let in as well. Jericho became friendlier and smiled more real smiles and let his true self out throughout the process.

Jericho finally calmed down enough, except for a snicker or two, and turned to Richard signing, 'So how long ago did you get Titans East to send over their candidates?'

Richard mentally smiled at how much Jericho noticed that was left unspoken; it was both refreshing and annoying at times to the leader. "I actually told them yesterday and that was around noon but knowing them, they are probably going to be here tonight. So I'm trying to get everyone here by tonight so that I can break the news tomorrow morning." Richard explained while looking down at his communicator.

Jericho slightly raised his brow at the fact that Richard hasn't told any of the team yet but instead of voicing his thoughts, he simply nodded and signed, 'I'll get ahold of Harold in about 10 minutes. Then I'll send him over to go pick up the Silver Twins seeing as they are in Russia the last time I checked and I'm pretty sure it's a long trip from Russia to the US.'

Jericho gave Richard a smirk as Richard rolled his eyes at the fact that Jericho knew where the Silver Twins were, even though he wasn't supposed to. Then again, Jericho seemed to always know stuff he wasn't supposed to.

Richard seemed to sober though and gave a genuine smile, "Thanks for doing this Jer. I know that everyone will be happy to see you."

Jericho gave a soundless laugh while nodding, 'Well, I'll be happy to help the others cause chaos.'

Richard groaned half-heartedly which seemed to release most of the tension in his muscles and stretched in his chair, "Well, I have to get going, I need to make sure some of the rooms are set up. Take care of yourself Jericho."

Jericho smiled and signed, 'I will, but make sure not to overwork yourself, also remember that I'm only a phone call away.'

Richard nodded and waved goodbye and shut off his webcam.

The leader sighed as he ran a hand through his hair and tilted his head back while closing his eyes. This was going to be a long year, he could feel it in his bones, and it all was going to kick off tomorrow morning.

So there's chapter whatever number this is.

Here's some notes:

-Yes, Blake's scene was very intense/not what is typically written but that was for a reason (for later)

-There is a really good reason why in Jericho's scene, I switched from Robin to Richard in the middle (cookie for anyone who noticed that the first time). They aren't different people or anything like that, it was more of what Robin/Richard were saying and what it concerned. It was mostly Robin, the Teen Titans leader, apprentice to Batman, that was delivering the news and trying to get everything together. But after Jericho asked how he was and it became personal, Robin was able to relax and just be Richard, a leader but also a very close and dear friend.

-Yes there is that stupid pun in the middle of Jericho "voicing his thoughts" but couldn't resist.

Shout out to everyone who is still here and is still interested in this story. So please leave a review down below and let me know how I'm doing. (And if you had already left a review on the original version of this, you could do it in a PM or anonymously, I would really appreciate it)

Thanks guys!

-Saff