AN: I know I know. "Another story!" What the hell am I thinking, right? Well Unexpected Youth doesn't feel right to continue for now since it's not excelling like the others like the others. I might continue it again one day but for now I've had this idea swimming in my head but was afraid to put it on since I thought I already had enough. But then I saw people with a ten stories being worked on so I was like "I can do that too." so here I am. Summoner's Sadness is still being continued so don't worry about that one. I'm kind of surprised no one's made story like this. Oh well that just means that this will be the first story that I had thought of myself without any clue from anyone.
This is placed about a year after the end of the world fiasco with Trigon, Raven's father, in the animated cartoon series. I hope you like it. And I surely hope this comes out as well as I want it to. Tell me how you think of it, and if the result's good then I'll continue.
Disclaimer: I do not own the wonderful world of the Teen Titans or the awesome anime show. If I did this story would so happen.
"Talk"
'Thought'
A Sword Soaked in Blood
Chapter 1
It had been a normal night like always. The Teen Titans were spread throughout the Tower doing their own thing as usual. Cyborg was working on his 'baby' in the garage, Beast Boy was playing Super Mega Monkey Turbo Explosion 4 in the living room, Starfire was eating mustard cover ice cream in the kitchen, Robin was training in the weight room, and Raven was sitting in the privacy of her room, reading a book. Everything seemed somewhat peaceful until…
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
The 'Trouble' siren went off, red lights flashing throughout every room in the tower, alerting its inhabitants to whatever 'trouble' had befallen Jump City. The team immediately stopped what they were doing and gathered into the living room. Robin looked at the computer to see where the disturbance was.
"The power plant," he announced to the team.
"Who would be attacking that now?" Cyborg said.
"I don't know. From what the report says the threat is… unidentifiable."
"Who cares? Let's just take care of it," Raven said as she crossed her arms.
"Raven's right. Let's go," Robin agreed and they headed over to the Jump City power plant.
As they entered the power plant they realized that, for a place that had given a disturbance call, it was unusually quiet. They searched every sector until they ended up in a room where there had definitely been chaos. Barrels looked they were either thrown to the surrounding walls or crushed like soda cans. There were dents in the sliding doors, meaning that it was opened with extreme force, and scratch marks littered the wall and floors.
The Titans searched the room for anything else and found something that shook them all to the core:
It was a corpse; a male one, and one of the guards if the uniform was any indication. There was blood leaking out of it's neck which looked like it had a savage bite mark on it. The corpse looked to be sucked dry of its lifeblood. Its eyes were open in pain as it lifelessly looked at the ceiling above him.
Starfire shrieked in terror of the scene and buried her face in Robin shoulder to hide from the sight. Beast Boy looked a little greener than usual as he moved away from it, Cyborg following close behind him. Robin widened in fright while Raven seemed to have done nothing but if you looked carefully you would see that her jaw had clenched tightly.
"Who… or what could have done this? The only thing I can think of doing something like this would be a vampire but those don't exist… right Raven?" Robin turned slowly towards Raven for her opinion, since everyone was occupied at the moment.
Raven made no hint that she heard him but after a minute she answered him, "Vampires do exist Robin. But I can tell this wasn't a vampire's work. It's too messy and too sloppy. And I'm pretty sure that it would have stashed the body after it was done. Also, I can't sense one anywhere near here. No… this was something bigger if the bite marks are any clue. But what I'm not sure." She bent down closer towards the body for anything she might've missed while Robin led Starfire out of the sector.
Raven was alone with the body while the others waited outside. She couldn't remember ever seeing anything like this, but for some reason the way this man was killed seemed awfully familiar. Like from a distant dream that seemed to get foggier the more she tried to remember it. She tired even harder to remember what this memory; what creature did this that she did not even realize that something was sneaking up on her until it was right behind her breathing its hot breathing it hot breath on the back of her neck and snarling menacingly.
Raven's eyes widened as she turned around swiftly and what she saw made her gasp in surprise.
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The other Titans had taken to just sitting outside while Raven handled the body, until they heard a loud roar followed by a thump and yell of pain resonating from the room.
"Raven!" Robin shouted, and they all hurried into the room to see Raven thrown to the opposite side of the wall, where the body was, and banged into a steel wall. Her teammates reached her as she slid to the floor.
"Raven! Are you okay?" Beast Boy asked.
Surprisingly Raven had not blacked out from the collision and simply shook her head to clear it before climbing to her feet with Cyborg's help.
"Yeah. I think so," she said as she rubbed the back of her head, where she already felt swelling. She had a bloodied cut on her cheek and her left leg, but overall she was fine.
They moved their attention to the beast that had hit her and was now rising towards them, set to attack again.
The monster was the size of a very large lion, if it could stand on its hind legs. Its arms were so long they reached the floor, and its jowls, which looked like a giant mouth a bat's, held twp jagged rows of razor sharp teeth. Its dark skin looked like it had been stretched over its body in some places and placed in excess in others. Its eyes were a bright red as they focused predatorily at the five teens. It drooled as it long tongue rolled out of its mouth and it started to licks its lips in hunger.
"What is that thing?" Cyborg asked with a quivering voice as it started to slowly advance towards them.
"I have no idea… do you think it's an alien or a mutant of some kind?" Robin inquired, as it grew closer.
"I am not sure friend Robin. I have never come across nor heard of any alien like this before,"
Starfire said.
"Nor have I," Raven said as she poised herself, ready to protect the team when needed.
Her slow movements seemed to have made the fearsome creature think she was about to try to escape, and it sped into a run, its nails scraping the floor as its long fingers drag across the floor.
That drove Robin to act; he took once of his explosives out of his belt and threw it at the beast. It hit right in the chest and exploded.
"Nice shot Robin," Cyborg cheered throwing a thumb up, obviously thinking the thing was down for the count.
Robin scoffed at his praise and said, "Let's not celebrate just yet. We have to get this thing to somewhere before it gets back u-."
He was interrupted by an angry roar.
The smoke cleared and the creature was lying on its stomach surrounded in its blood. But then it started to rise from its position until it was standing again. There was a gaping hole in its abdomen, but then its skin started to bubble like it was boiling. Then it stretched over the wound until it looked like Robin had never created it the opening.
"What is that thing?" Beast Boy screamed as the thing let out a ferocious roar.
"I'm not sure." Robin yelled as he kept throwing projectiles at it. But each just seemed to slow it down for only a few moments and succeeded in getting it angrier and angrier. Starfire began to join him in his effort with her starbolts, followed closely by Cyborg and his sonic boom. But it still wouldn't stop.
After a minute they realized that it wasn't working therefore Beast Boy exclaimed, "RUN!" which they did. Well, all of them except Raven. She seemed to be staring at the beast as if she were in trance. She simply stood and watched, as it grew closer to her. The creature seemed to ignore them as they ran in favor of going after the half-demon.
Robin stopped and yelled at the others to go ahead as he ran back to Raven. He stood in front of her and even then she didn't acknowledge his presence.
He planted his hand on her shoulders and shook her, but still she stood frozen. "Raven? Raven! Come on! Snap out of it. This is no time to have a break down!" He looked over his shoulder as the beast crept eerily slow towards them, as if to make their doom more frightening than it already was.
Raven seemed to have slipped slightly out of her state as she focused on Robin face. The irises of her eyes turned a glowing blood red before turning back to their normal lavender hue.
"Robin?" She whispered. She groaned and grabbed her head, "What happened?"
"You tell me," Robin said as he studied her face. She looked confused as her eyes slowly considered the space around her before landing on his masked ones. Robin looked behind him and saw that the monster had stopped and seemed to be studying them as it sniffed the air.
"Tell me later. Right now we need get out of here," he took hold of her arm and started to drag her towards the door where the others were, all the while never taking his eyes off the beast. The beast's read eyes simply followed them as they moved closer to the door, but to Robin it seemed like it was looking at Raven.
They swiftly ran from the room, and joined the team, who were a good thirty feet away from the door.
When they stopped Robin looked at Raven, who simply leaned against the wall in what looked to be shock.
"Raven, what happened back there?" Robin was seriously worried. It wasn't like the dark sorceress to just freeze up like that. What could have caused it?
"You didn't hear it?" she murmured. Her eyes held something strange in them as she leveled her gaze with Robin's. The others simply stared at Raven confusedly at her query.
"Hear what?" Cyborg asked.
"The song…" she said as she slid down the wall onto her bottom and stayed there.
Robin was critically concerned now. What was going on? He knelt before her and asked, "What song? Raven, what's going on?"
"Perhaps we should continue this talk later, yes?" Starfire said with a scared quivering voice as she pointed with a shaking finger down the hallway. The rest looked to see the beast ripping away the rest of the door away ferociously with its long claws. It tore it off and with a vicious roar it was thrown at them. They moved out the way of it and it sailed down the hallway.
"RUN!!" Beast Boy yelled before he broke for it towards the exit but he stopped so suddenly he almost fell as he saw what was down the other end:
…Another creature like the last.
It had caught the door and with its own brute strength it bended it before throwing it aside. It let forth a roar similar to the first and ran towards them at a quick pace. Robin looked around for an escape route and saw a side door.
"This way!" he yelled, and he ran for it, the others following close behind. All except for Raven, who still sat, slumped against the wall in a daze. Cyborg noticed this and he went back to pick her up bridal style and carry her into the room.
After a glance they saw the room was similar the other one. There were barrels of who-knows-what. A hoist was parked against a wall, and the ceiling held a huge skylight, where they could see a full moon shining that gave them enough light to see.
Robin shut the steel door as soon as everyone inside. "Starfire, seal the door!" And she used her powers to seal the door closed.
Robin stared at the door as it cooled, "That should hold them off for a moment." He looked at his team as he thought of a way to get out of this. He noticed Cyborg holding a catatonic Raven.
"What's wrong with her?" Robin inquired as he studied her. Her breathing was shallow as she simply looked up at the skylight with half-lidded eyes.
"I'm not sure. I can't find anything on my sensors. I'd have to take her back to the hospital wing to find out more… but it looks like we're not gonna get there anytime soon," Cyborg said as he bit his lip in concern. There was definitely something wrong and it had something to with those monsters. But what he was still trying to figure out.
"What are we gonna do?" Beast Boy asked with a shuddering voice. He was shaking visibly from fear of the situation and worry for Raven and he began to bite his nails.
Suddenly there was banging on the door began and it grew louder and louder. Roars and screeches accompanied it and as bumps began to form in the steel plating, Starfire let out a cry of panic.
Robin looked up at the skylight. "That's our way out of this," He said, "We can break the window and fly ourselves out of here." He took a disk out of his belt, but before he could throw it, the door crashed (I have no idea what word to use. Can you help me?) off and crashed right into his back, knocking him to the ground.
"Robin!" Starfire screamed as she rushed to his aid. She lifted it off him with ease and helped him up. That's when the beasts burst through the door. Robin and Starfire were only five feet away from them, but they ignored the two teens for Cyborg, who wasn't anywhere near them. They sped towards him with inhuman speed and rammed him into the wall. He lost his grip on Raven in the collision, and she fell lifelessly to the floor. Cyborg groaned and opened his eyes to see that they weren't attacking him anymore but were advancing on Raven. Raven was not moving but lay on her side in a heap.
"Raven!" Robin yelled in panic as he broken into a run towards her, but, before he could reach her, there was a break of glass and a man landed right in front of him.
He didn't fall to the floor, it was like he simply floated (ya know… how Inuyasha jumps and then slowly lands on the floor sometimes like he's floating) and landed lightly on his feet. This man looked to be any normal man; he possessed black hair that reached his shoulders and was tied to the nape of his neck with a blue ribbon, a few wisps of hair covering his pale face. He wore dark colored pants, a jacket with a white shirt underneath it, and pair of black shoes. He looked like just any normal man, but Robin knew better. He carried a large case on his back, a sheathed sword at his hip, and one of his hands was covered fully with bandages and irregularly shaped compared to the other one.¹
"Wh-who are you?" Robin hesitated.
The man remained quiet as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a throwing knife. In a smooth, swift motion the knife flew out of his hand as it dove right into a beast's eyes. Blood spouted out of it as the beast yelled in pain and fury. It wrenched it out and threw it angrily in a random direction, which happened to be Beast Boy's direction. He let forth a frightened yelp and dove for the ground. It sailed over his body and drove itself into the wall.
The beast screeched at the man, but the man showed no sign of fear or, for that manner, no emotion at all. It charged at him but the man simply jumped onto to its back in an attempt to get higher. In midair he freed the case from his back. He landed between Raven and the other beast, and instead of opening the case to use whatever weapon was inside of it, he used the large case itself and rammed it into the beast's side, knocking it a good distance from the two. The man turned his attention to Raven, who was still laid unmoving on the ground. He took a few steps towards her when the beasts began to advance on them again, but before they could touch the two, a blue-tinged barrier rose around them and the beasts bashed their heads into it painfully.
This surprised the team, but the man didn't seem shocked at all. Then, out of the shadows, a young boy who looked about eleven or twelve arose, with a blue glowing hand posed at the two inside the shield. Obviously, he was the one who created it. The boy looked as normal if not more than the other stranger, with brown hair and brown eyes. His skin wasn't as pale though, and he looked far more emotional and innocent. He wore the same suit as the man though.²
Seeing that he and Raven were safe for now against the monsters, the man continued to walk calmly towards the small girl. He stopped before her and simple stared at her, before he went for his bandaged hand and went through the process of unwrapping it.
What was underneath made Robin gasp in horror; Cyborg's and Beast Boy's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets while Starfire let forth a startled scream as she covered her mouth in terror.
It wasn't a normal human hand. In fact it didn't look human at all. It looked similar to one of the monsters' hands, except it was smaller and the claws were shorter yet more deadly looking.
With his human hand he reached for Raven and turned her over on her back. Then he reached into his jacket pocket and brought forth another throwing knife, same as the first.
Robin's eyes widened at what he thought of what the man was planning to do with that. Cyborg's thought process seemed to be along those lines as well, as they both started to run towards them.
"HEY! STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he ran full force, but both of the teenaged boys ran into the barrier. They beat against it futilely until they realized it was no use. Robin growled and turned his attention to the boy who had created the barrier. "You! Kid, let it down right now or else…" He narrowed his eyes dangerously to show his point.
The boy looked at him an apologetic look as he said, "Sorry. I can't do that… at least… not right now. We need Rachel to finish this."
"Let it down now!" Robin screamed furiously. He didn't bother thinking about who "Rachel" was.
"Sorry, but I can't." the boy replied.
Robin snarled in frustration before throwing a birdarang at the boy. The preteen raised his other hand and it also glowed blue before forming a barrier around his person, effectively blocking the projectile from harming him.
"Don't worry. We just need to Wake³ her up. We would never hurt her. It'll be over soon enough. Just try to avoid the chiropterans until we're done."
Robin didn't have enough time to contemplate what a "chiropteran" was before one of the beasts swung a huge clawed hand at his head. He ducked down just in time and rolled out of the way. His eyes darted back towards where Raven and the man were to see the man raising the knife above his head before bring it down into his inhuman hand. He carved an X into it and gripped it, instantly drawing blood. Robin was so focused on what the man was doing that he didn't even notice the monsters trying to rip into the barrier, nor his friends that also watched the proceedings with anxiousness for their dark friend and teammate.
The man murmured something, but it was so soft that all Robin could make out was "Rachel" and "wake". Neither word was making any sense to him. The adult stranger brought the wounded hand to his mouth and seemed to be drinking his own blood. Robin watch in disgusted interest as the man drank for a good ten seconds. He lowered his hand and knelt before Raven who was still unmoving. And then he did something that made Robin's, Cyborg, and Beast Boy's eyebrows rose past their hairlines and Starfire yelped and covered her mouth in surprise.
He kissed her. From where Robin stood it looked like a dark version of Snow White, when the Prince kissed her to free her from her cursed slumber. And he soon realized that it was more similar than he thought. He focused more and saw that the guy's mouth was moving, as if he was spitting out something into Raven mouth. A drop of blood escaped their connected lips and Robin's eyes widened in horrified revulsion when he realized what was happening…
He was making Raven drink his blood!
Robin took a swift glance at Cyborg and saw that he was frozen to the spot in shock. There was a flicker of disgust in his human eye that showed that he knew too what the man was doing.
This went on for twenty seconds and finally the man rose, wiping the blood left from his mouth with a jacket sleeve and standing. He stared at Raven prone form as if waiting for something to happen. There was silence and then…
Raven's eyes snapped open. Her limbs began to twitch as if she was using them for the first time. She turned slowly on her side and used her arms to raise her half-way up. When she seemed to not be able to stand, she threw out a hand that, surprisingly, the man hurriedly took to help her easily to her feet. Raven rose calmly as if it was natural for her. She leisurely assessed the situation, looking over the entire room to the man, the boy, the four teenaged superheroes, and the two chiropterans. Her eyes landed on Robin and he was extremely shocked to see that instead of the lavender eyes he was so accustomed to see, her irises were the same glowing blood red that he had seen earlier. They seemed to burrow into his soul and it sent a shiver down his spine.
She looked away to focus on the two chiropterans who were still trying to tear away at the barrier. "Sword," she said clearly for all to hear, as she held out her left hand expectantly. The man reacted immediately to this, and pulled the forgotten sword at his side out of its sheath.
It was beautiful weapon, and if the situation had been different, Robin would have taken the time to appreciate its elegance. It looked like any normal sword, except near the hilt it had a bright ruby red stone. And where the blunt side should be, near the hilt, was another sharp edge. There were wedges in the sword that ran down it. The man put the hilt into Raven's hand and she instantly wrapped her fingers around it. She gave a practice swing, cutting the air in front of her. "Thank you for Waking me, Haji," she said coolly. The man nodded his head, allowing Robin to now know what this mystery man's name was. But how Raven knew him was still unknown.
She smirked mockingly as the monsters seemed to freeze under her glowing stare. "Let it down, Riku," she said calmly and boy, now known as "Riku", let both his hands fall, dropping both the shields he had erected instantly. The monsters still didn't move. They simply huffed and puffed and ran their fingers along the steel floor, as if biding their time to attack. Raven snickered darkly, shocking her teammates (She barely ever did any kind of laughing around them!), as she said, "You poor… poor creatures… you two must be in so much pain." Her smirk grew larger, "Do not worry. I will end you miserable existence right here and now." She reached up for the pin of her cloak and unclipped it before throwing the cloak haphazardly to the floor behind her. This shocked Robin, for he had never seen her willingly remove her cloak before in battle. This behavior was so unlike her and it most likely had something to do with what "Haji" had done to her.
In nothing but her leotard and boots, she advanced towards them in a walk. She poised her hand right hand over the sharp edge of the back of her sword and she pressed down, drawing blood. The blood moved down the edge and moved through the wedges of the sword like water through an aqueduct, striping it with crimson liquid. She poised the sword in front of her, and then ran full force towards the monstrous couple. Her face grew serious as she closed in on them.
The chiropterans decided to move then, and one ran at her as well. It slammed its claws down on her, but she just held up her sword to block the blow. The other one went to attack from behind, but Haji moved to push it away. With inhuman strength, Raven over powered her monster and pushed it off balance; then, in a quick pace, stabbed the already bloodied sword into its chest. The monster screamed in rage, and moved to remove the weapon. Bbut it suddenly froze, and then it let loose an unearthly screech of indescribable pain. Raven removed her sword to reveal a bleeding wound that wouldn't close and heal. The skin around it began to harden and crack. The beast kept screaming as this phenomenon spread across its body, as if it was poisoned. Seconds later, the beast had taken on the appearance of a statue; unmoving and stiff in the position that it had been stabbed in. Raven smirked as she pushed lightly on the statue, making it fall over. It broke into thousands of pieces, revealing the inside as nothing but shards of ruby stones. The beast had been crystallized from the inside out.
Raven turned towards the other beast that was being held at bay by Haji. Haji moved out of the way, and the beast instantly ran for the dark witch, but Raven showed a stoic face as it came. The beast was about ram into her when she jumped and flipped over it with remarkable ease. The beast ran for her again, but Raven was ready for it as she poised her sword in front of her, and swung it deep into its side as stopping it in its tracks. The beast still wanted to fight before it died, as it began to struggle. Raven's eyes narrowed, and she grinded her teeth as she drove her weapon deeper and deeper into the beast's abdomen. With a finishing cry she cleaved the beast's upper body clean off and it landed several feet away. Blood flowed like a fountain out of the bottom half, splashing Raven's face before it fell over. The upper half squirmed about before it froze. It's turned into a statue, and its red blood crystallized into that red stone.
Raven slowly rose into a standing position, recognizing that her job must've been finished, for there weren't any chiropterans left. Her eyes stopped glowing, and instead showed a duller color of dark red.
She walked over to Haji and whispered something in his ear, to which he nodded. Then, suddenly, she fell over in a dead faint. Haji caught her easily before she hit the ground and lowered her slowly to the ground. Then he walked away towards Riku.
Robin felt that this was his cue to get Raven. He hesitantly ran toward her, not taking his eyes off Haji and Riku as they conversed, just in case they tried something, the others following him. He knelt beside her and held her upper body, shaking her gently. "Raven? Raven… are you okay?" he received no answer as the mysterious teenager slept on, obliviously to what was around her.
He noticed out of the corner of his eye that the strangers were about to depart. He gave Raven over to Cyborg to analyze her for any problems as he stood up.
"You!" he yelled, making the two stop to look at him. Haji simply looked at him with stoic expression, while Riku looked at him nervously. "What did you to Raven?!" he said, frustrated. He had no idea what was going on and that made him feel helpless. He hated feeling helpless.
Riku bit his lip as he looked at Haji for guidance on what to say to the concerned teen. Haji studied Robin before answering cryptically, "We Woke her up." And with that he jumped out of the skylight-hole that was created earlier… which was over thirty feet high. He landed on the top effortlessly and ran out of sight. Robin got over his amazement at the feat to look back at Riku, who gave him a sad smile as he looked over Robin's shoulder towards the sleeping Raven. He looked back into Robin's masked face and said quietly, "Take care of her…" He quickly followed Haji before Robin could ask more.
Robin let loose a frustrated sigh, looking at the rest of the group; intently thinking of what else Raven could be hiding from them.
End of Chapter
Guess who this is.
Guess who this one is too. And I know he doesn't use magic and he should be dead but I made it so. So ha!
For those who watch the Blood, you would understand why I have that capitalized "woke". It holds a deeper importance and symbolism than just being woken up.
AN: Well I hope you enjoyed that. There was gonna be more but I decided to cut it off here. If you don't know the show Blood+ but would like to check it out you can see it on youtube or something or get the DVDs. It's a really good series. For those who have seen it and understand the plot of it all: Who thought Raven was going to turn in a chiropteran or was going to take the place of Saya by the middle of the story? I'm interested in seeing how people will take this one. Well that's it. Cya. The beta for this story is the lovely and talented yllom21. Check out her stories and profile.
Also one more thing: I have a poll on my profile. It would mean a lot if you voted. The question is: Which one of my stories do you like the most?
Hunnypooh