[I do not own Teen Titans. Hey guys! I know I've been gone a while, sorry. So, I've been talking headcanons with letsjustnaptogether, and this shitstorm popped out. I hope you like it. It's...kinda everywhere.]

Jericho didn't know exactly what to expect upon moving into the city. He hadn't had contact with real people in an incredibly long time. Maybe he expected someone to just walk into his life and make it better, maybe he'd enter the city and he'd fall flat on his face from the surprise. Either way, he definitely didn't expect to feel so cripplingly sick to the stomach from just his window view of the city.

Herald had tried to help, so had Raven. Neither succeeded. For the past week and a half that he'd been apart of Titans North, he'd tried so very hard to adapt to his new surroundings. He'd focused on decorating his room, he'd focused on painting familiar landscapes in his head, he'd focused on everything he could to clear his mind of the fact that he was stuck right in the middle of a huge, terrifying place that he knew nothing about in the least.

Jericho closed his eyes in determination one more time before he yet again pulled back his curtains and trembled at the city before him.

Growing up, Jericho's mother and father had kept him far away from the city because of their unique lifestyle and formidable enemies. After the incident, Jericho was driven even further from civilization. And now?

Now he was gaping shallowly, his fingers trembling pathetically with the edge of his dark purple curtain in hand. Jericho was a thinker, whenever he was faced with something impossible, he broke it down into smaller parts and picked away at his own opinions of it until he understood it fully. But this was different. This city wasn't even as big as Jump City was, and Jericho felt like he were going to keel over anyway. He tried to flick his eyes this way and that, focusing on one thing at a time of the view.

Jericho looked down at the seashore that spread in between Titans Tower and the city itself first, coming to the dawning realization that he'd never been this high above the ground before. He'd always been able to take off his shoes and remind himself that no matter what, he was still there. He was still on the ground and connected to everything around him, he wasn't walled off and pushed away by steel buildings and technology that he couldn't work. Even the inside of his room in the tower felt cold and desolate, like an icy prison or a hospital room. He felt too far away from the earth, from nature, from himself to even sleep well in the room.

Jericho shook his head and forced his eyes somewhere else, now on the sea itself. It disgusted him, to say the least. Jericho wasn't an easily disgusted person, but if living in the city taught him anything so far, it was that humanity was capable of truly moronic actions. Since Titans North had stationed, the people had been turning to their appointed leader, The Herald, for things the mayor of the town should've been able to handle, but wasn't handling. One of these was how terrible the sea was. Jericho frowned mournfully, sure that once upon a time, the sea was a dazzling blue, with fish of all colors running through its ebb as children playfully splashed on the shore. Now it was dark and murky, filled with trash and pollution. It was disgusting.

And then...then Jericho looked out onto the city. It all came buzzing to him in a blur, speeding up his heartrate and making him feel weak and small. In the mountains, he was strong. He barely ever met with a person, so he was the biggest organism in his home compared to the rabbits and the birds he'd watch during the day. Here he was small. He didn't matter, he was forgettable and irrelevant. The city was huge, filled with huge monsters and people and god like superheroes. He felt like the weight of the city was going to come crushing down on him. Even so, he'd agreed that now it was his job to make the city right again, to make the people happier and safer in their homes.

Joseph was terrified, terrified of everything set before him.

Jericho yanked the curtains shut again, hissing in a scared breath, feeling like his thoughts were going to suck him in.

Jericho opened his eyes, and he nearly cried at the backpack he had set on his bed.

Jericho was a thinker. He thought a lot, something you got used to when you couldn't talk a lot. He never did anything in his life just on a whim - 'gut feelings' were false, 'love' was a chemical reaction in the body, and being rash was just being foolish at this stage in life. Jericho held onto these beliefs tight his entire life away from his family, maybe he was right, maybe he just hadn't experienced enough yet.

Jericho thought long and hard about this decision.

For a week and a half Mal and Raven had been trying to help Jericho cope with the fact that he hadn't left the tower even once. They told him it was 'okay', they told him 'better luck next time', they told him 'it's a rational fear'. But it wasn't - Jericho knew that, so did Raven.

Jericho had never in his life let fear hold him back, and he wasn't going to start that day. Despite everything, despite their difference in ego, despite their difference in moral standard, despite their strengths and weaknesses, Joseph was his father's son. Not Joseph nor Slade would ever in their lives admit how similar they each were, but they could agree that letting fear hold you back from doing anything was a foolish, insane thing to do.

Jericho didn't need to be treated differently - he'd dealt with that enough, considering the other Titans seemed to think that since he was mute he didn't qualify as being as capable as the other Titans, he really did hope they all got over that concept quickly. Jericho didn't need someone to hold his hand and walk him through it. That's why Jericho took in a deep breath, clenched his fists and his teeth, and he slung the backpack over his shoulder before heading out the door, and inevitably into the impending city that had struck fear into his heart for so long.

[This is the longest document I've ever written in one sitting. It's all fifteen pages that I'm separating into chapters. Wow. Read and review please!]