A new idea for a multi-chapter series that I had in my head for a looooooong time. This is my second Fanfic and I hope you all like this chapter with more to come!
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans… I guess some dreams don't come true.
Grim
Chapter 1: Grim beginnings
(XxX)
It has been two whole years of nothing but relentless wandering about this Star-Spangled country, from sea to dismal sea. Two whole years since I ran away from Death's side. Two whole years without sleep. Cursed to wander the ends of the world for the rest of my days with no rest for, "betraying" my so called, "master." On the other hand, I don't have to wander if I don't want to but what's the point in staying in one place when you can't sleep and every Tom, Dick, and Harry rejects you, being labeled as a freak. A demon. Can't blame them, though. I mean, who would want a teenager with piercing red eyes, along with, black tar as the whites of your eyes in your town? No one. I even went as far as to try to get some sort of salvation from the "big man upstairs" but I can't get within a 20 yard radius of a church without someone trying to "Damn me back from whence I came." No. The only escape from all the gapes and glares is this large, beaked tipped leather hood that shadows out my entire face. It serves as a mask, a shield to protect me from the sea of judging faces. Attached, is my leather jacket.. Guilty pleasure, I suppose. Besides, it's perfect and socially acceptable.
I have been roaming around aimlessly running away from, well, everything but those years didn't go to waste. I've spent these two years trying to right my wrongs, trying to use my hellish power to do some good in this world for a change. I've spent 4 long years a slave to Death, helping him harvest the souls of the innocent to spread grief and hatred in the aid to Lucifer down below. Armed with the cursed power of overwhelming darkness and hellfire; I've tracked and hunted down some of the unshackled demons that have been secretly terrorizing the people of earth for the past few millennia. In all my travels and demon hunting, my efforts have led me to the ever so famous, Jump City. Home to its fearless and famous protectors, the Teen Titans, along with some of the city's most dangerous criminals. A perfect place for demonic activity to take place. I'm here in the city because, I've received a note from an anonymous tipper in Gotham City about a satanic cult trying to summon a demon lord known as, Zoulthiem. When I heard that terrible name, I immediately began to tremble. Zoulthiem is a powerful demon lord who has laid waste to several inter-dimensional worlds, and for him to come to Earth would be extremely bad news, to say the least. The note being complete with a time and address I had to get to Jump City ASAP… It wasn't until I got to the address, which is an abandoned storage building, is when I realized that.. That I had been a fool… I was being led into a trap all along. It was all just one big cover up. I should've known but not once did I question who this anonymous tipper in Gotham was. I was too shocked at the news that, "Zoulthiem is coming!" to even investigate the source. For one, there are only a handful of people or entities that even know who Zoulthiem is and none of them good. And two… In the note, the Unknown tipper called me Grim… Only one, twisted, vile, despicable, no good literal bag of bones knows me by that alias… It wasn't until I was staring face to skull with Him that I realized just how naïve I am. Two years of running… Pointless.
(XxX)
"It has been awhile hasn't it.. Grim?" Death spoke in a most unearthly grave tone.
He and I are standing in the middle of a completely empty abandoned warehouse under a single dangling light. Death is just as you'd imagined he'd look. At least six and a half feet tall, draped in a haunting black cloak, complete with the hood covering his awful boney face. In his right skeletal hand is his infamous scythe, which looks like an abnormally lengthy spinal cord complete with the unnerving sickle. I couldn't help but shudder when I caught sight of my reflection staring back at me in the blade of the Reapers' scythe.
"After two wasted years of senseless running only for you to be so easily caught now" Death mused.
I finally came out of my shock and took a defensive stance. "..Something tells me you've always known where I was" I said sternly.
"Oh, don't insult me. Of course I've always known, you idiot child. It's my job to know where everyone is." He sneered.
"Then why?! Why let me escape!? I demand to know!"
Death then let out a long eerie, yet, booming laugh that shook my very bones and had caused the single light above our heads to flicker. "Who said you ever truly escaped? You are and always have been mine." He said as he clenched his boney left fist, gesturing that I am his.
I just looked at him dumbfounded, not understanding what he's getting at. "What do you m-mean?" my voice trembled.
"You've been aiding me more than you have realized, Jack Freeman."
I winced at the use of my full name.
"All that you've done under my tutelage has always been for a much greater plan." Death began walking around me in a circle as he continued to speak in his demonic toned dissonance. "A plan that Lucifer himself has been overseeing for a long time now."
I never left his soul glaring gaze as he continued to circle around me like a vulture waiting to swoop down to its meal below. "A plan?" I thought, "But meeting him so long ago was a complete-"
"Coincidence?" He spoke, finishing my thought.
"How did you-"
"Meeting me wasn't a coincidence, Jack. You're mom dying from cancer before your eyes wasn't a coincidence either. I knew that you'd gladly give me your life in order to save your only parent, your only loved one."
I broke his gaze to look at the grey granite floor below, desperately trying to hold back tears.
"..Shut up."
" It was too easy from the start… You had to leave it all behind, including your only friend who ever cared about you." Death always had enjoyed torturing the minds of others. "You left without saying goodbye and you ended up hurting everyone you loved, heh. Even for someone like me, that's cold."
"Just shut up." A few tears like gasoline dripped to the floor.
"But that's the thing about destiny. It's always easy because, after all, it's already written in stone."
My head shot back up to only realize that he's been towering over me. I am immediately entranced from gazing square up into the two black voids of where Deaths' eyes should be.
My breath quickens knowing that there is only one thing to ask now but I'm afraid to give in. It can't be helped.
"W-what destiny?" I reluctantly asked.
Death firmly placed his unnaturally cold left hand on my right shoulder. "Congratulations, Jack. You're Lucifer's vessel. You're the Anti-Christ."
His grip tightened and began to burn.
Then I saw it.
A vision crept over me like a jump scare from a horror film. I began to see images of me taking over this world, turning everything into a literal Hell on Earth. Crimson skies with the clashing amber of burning buildings and lava flowing landscapes. Demons of your worst nightmares running ramped, attacking the weeping and gnashing of teeth. A world no longer filled with hope nor solace. Just death, disarray, and eternal darkness.
What I witnessed are all the things that are to come to pass but not if I could help it.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I jumped away from Deaths grasp. "I won't let this happen! I WON'T!"
In absolute rage and fear, I summoned an explosion of hellfire from deep within the darkness of my soul and which caused a blast radius strong enough to collapse this rickety old building over our heads.
(XxX)
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos… Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"
"Ohhh, Raaaaaeeeee" Said a green young lad in a sing songy tone, waving his gloved hand in the face of a floating, chanting sorceress.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"
"Ohhhhhh, Raaaaaaaaeeeeeeee" He pestered.
"Azarath Metrio-"
"Rae.."
"Zintherath- Zin-Ugh! WHAT IN AZAR DO YOU WANT!?" Ravens' eyes snapped open into an angry white as Cyborg's sizzling ribs, which he's cooking in the kitchen, then exploded from the pan into his robotic face.
A silhouette of Ravens' shadow covered Beast Boy as she towered over him.
Beast Boy chuckled nervously doing his best to not show his fear but failing miserably. Scratching the back of his head, "Heh, w-what do you get when you cross a raven with a mad dog?" Beast Boy then morphs into a little bulldog and growls ferociously.
Raven just angrily stares at him and is fuming over his utter audacity to cross her, yet again, with another one of his futile attempts to make her laugh at his stupid jokes.
"Hm, gee, I don't know? What's green, dumb, and IS THE PRIME DIFFINITION OF ANNOYANCE!? RIDDLE ME THAT!" the dark sorceress yelled.
A drop of sweat fell from the young changeling's brow as he maintained a nervous grin, "Heheh, I asked y-you first?"
BZZRT BZZRT BZZRT
I guess you could say that Beast Boy is one lucky idiot because, the Titan alarm came just in time to save his life.
Robin suddenly came through the door into the common room with Starfire following close behind.
"Trouble!" Robin exclaimed.
"Oh, that's great, boy detective! What was your first clue?.." Raven sarcastically said in her classic stoic expression, though, a little disappointed that her plans to send Beast Boy to a different dimension had been put on hold.
Everyone followed close to Robin as he began to search the crime alert on the Titans computer.
Ignoring Raven's smart remark, "There appears to be some sort of disturbance in the slums. Report says that there was some kind of explosion." Robin then moved away from the computer to face his team.
"Titans, Go!" He commanded.
The Titans began flooding out of the room. Beast Boy fell a little behind in the group so he didn't have to be close to Raven. He doesn't want to die just yet. Cyborg fell back a bit for his buddy to ketch up to him.
"So, I've been wonderin'" Cy began.
Beast Boy looked up to his metallic friend, "yeah?"
"What do you get when you cross a raven with a mad dog?" Cyborg laughed.
The green teen smiled, "Heh, a ravin' lunatic!"
(XxX)
"Oof!" is what came out after I'd just been slammed into a cement wall after being picked up and thrown across the street by a shadow like appendage.
The entire block became an intense battlefield, full of burning debris to torn up roads and sidewalks. I had been managing well by myself but Death is relentlessly strong for an ancient skeleton. It's also a bit disorienting, as well as, unfair that he's summoned a few undead possessed by demons to his aid.
As I sat there dazed against the wall after hitting it hard, I looked up to see seven of the undead charging up to me. I let the closest one get a just few feet closer to me before I made my move. Once in proximity, I leapt up off the ground to meet my first victim. I grabbed the decaying man by his right arm with my left hand as I also grabbed hold of his collar from behind his head with my right and used his momentum to cave his head into the cement wall of the building behind me. Acting quickly, I wall jumped off the building back into the fray of the walking dead, landing perfectly on top of another zombie, crushing its head once it hit the pavement. Death saw a perfect opening to strike and shot a ghastly green arc of lighting from his scythe in my direction. Luckily, I anticipated this and missed the attack by encompassing myself in flames to turn my physical appearance into a cloud of smoke. The menacing lightning passed right through me without harm and struck Deaths' remaining horde of demon possessed zombies instead; shorting out whatever brains they had left. I minimized the size of the cloud of smoke 'till it lit back ablaze to which then reappeared my physical body.
"Don't look so surprised, 'master,' after all, you're the one who gave me these powers." I said feeling somewhat pleased with myself.
Death chuckled, "I'm not surprised at all. It's just about what I'd expect from you. Weak."
"Weak?"
"Why, it's true that you have my powers, the very same, but you'll never be able to tap into your potential and beat me if you can't rid yourself from the fear of wielding your own scythe."
"Yeah, but it's because of that fear that is keeping me from becoming like you!" I fought back.
"Silly boy… You're becoming more and more like me than you even realize" He spoke in a grave cryptic manner. "Ever think you enjoy the thrill of battle a little too much?"
I just stared at him confused.
He reached out with his left boney hand and pointed behind me. "Look."
I looked behind me and to my absolute horror, I no longer saw the bodies of undead zombies but of what were once living civilians. There flesh were fresh and no signs of decay. Death must've played some illusion on me thinking I was seeing undead. But what happened next was truly frightening. I began to see ghostly like images exiting their fallen bodies. Their spirits. Then, it was like a vortex were sucking them into something and that something was me. Their very spirits clung to me and absorbed into me. I felt dazed at first… Dazed just like any other time I reaped someone in the past. I felt.. Darker. As if my very skin grew paler.
"Lucifer needs an absolute corrupt body." The Reaper said. "All the spirits that we've reaped together were aaall for the sake of making you the perfect conduit for his taking."
I could feel my hands shaking.
"I let you go when you went rouge, knowing very well that you'd hunt evil spirits only furthering your tainted development."
My hands clenched. "Damn it." I said under my breath. I had enough. If drawing my scythe will be enough to destroy him, then so be it. I reached out with my right hand and summoned forth out of darkness an ebony spinal cord staff, cold to the touch, complete with its own gleaming, soul screaming, sickle.
"..So you finally decided to accept who you are?" Deaths voice got deeper.
"Only to stop you!" I shouted in anger.
"Heheh, good enough for me. In which case, I'll take my leave."
Death then seemed to descend down into what closely resembles seeping black tar and then vanishes.
I jumped after him, slashing with my scythe but it was too late. He's gone.
"What in the name of!?" Said a voice
I stood up frantically and quickly turned around to face the voice I heard. What I saw before me are five battle ready teens that are about my age with the look of horror and confusion of the dead bodies that are laid out scattered around the area.
The spikey haired kid, clad in red and green in front, stepped forward, drawing to what appears to be a metal bo-staff.
"Identify yourself!" Commanded to whom I deduced to be the leader. "Why did you kill all these people!?"
It wasn't until then that I realized how wrong this must've all looked. Here I am with an eerie demeanor wielding a scythe with the innocent deceased laying around. To appear that I mean no harm (and I don't), I send my scythe back into the void from where it came and put both my hands up.
I try to find the right words to speak, "I-I know this looks bad but I've been set up, I swear!"
"Dude, that's what they all say!" Said the green skinned pterodactyl that then morphed into a human lad who seems to be the shortest out of the group.
"Look I know it's all hard to believe right now but I can explain-"Then it donned on me who these people are. "You're the Teen Titans, correct?" I queried as I got a better look at them. A half robotic man who seems to be doing something with his scanners, an orange skinned girl with blazing red hair and glowing green eyes, and a blue cloaked girl, a sorceress by the looks of it. Hence the black energy emitting from her hands. Out of everyone, she's giving me the hardest stare.
"Yes, but you still didn't tell us who you are." Stated the leader whose features softened a bit seeing how I'm not going to fight.
"He's very bad news Robin." Said the hooded girl in a cracking monotone voice. "I can practically feel demonic energy radiating off of him."
Yup, she knows who I am but she doesn't know what I am.
"My name is.. Well.. You can call me Grim." I deadpanned, knowing how that name is only going to raise more questions.
"…Like, the Grim Reaper?" Said the metallic man.
Bingo. "No, I'm not the Grim. Though, I am unfortunately affiliated with him." I look to the side gathering my thoughts.
The Titans began looking at each other in surprise that they're dealing with a "possible agent of Death" or so that's what it would seem. However, the blue clad young woman continued to glare at me through her hood.
"Well, Grim, you have a lot of explaining to do for this slaughter out on the street and you will answer for it." The Boy Wonder grimaced. "You're coming with us and you will be interrogated. Will you come quietly?" I had no choice but to comply. I had no interest in running (again) nor to fight. I nodded.
The sorceress looked towards her leader with a look on her face that said, 'Are you out of your mind!?'
I hope you all liked the first chapter to what I hope to be a great series. I will do my best to post new chapters regularly. So it looks like Grim is going to be interrogated by Robin. How will Grim be able to convince them that he's a good guy? I guess we'll find out more next time! It would help out a lot if you all could leave a Review and tell me your thoughts. This way, I can see what you guys like and don't like. Plus it helps me write faster because Reviews also help inspire me to work faster to get more chapters out. 'Till next time, peace!