Teen Titans: Rebirth

by Chronos

1

She shivered at the cold damp pavement beneath her as she woke up in the dark alley. Where was she? How did she get here? She couldn't remember.

She slowly sat up. She was wearing a tattered black leotard that covered her torso and arms, but not her legs. On her feet were a pair of boots. She knew this was her usual outfit, but it certainly wasn't a good one for sleeping in an alleyway. And why did she feel like she was missing a vital part of her outfit...?

Nearby, a raven was eating something from a pile of trash that appeared to have fallen from an overflowing dumpster. Suddenly, it seemed to notice her. It gave a caw, then flew off. Vaguely, she wondered what the bird had been doing about in the middle of the night, but she pushed the question aside – she had other concerns.

Shakily, she got to her feet. She now realized she felt quite sore, and had many bruises and other minor injuries. Her forehead hurt, and when she put her hand to it, she discovered a bloody gouge in it, like something had been removed from it.

What had happened to her...?!

She stumbled out of the alley. She was in a bad part of town, she could tell that. The buildings were in a bad state of repair, there was garbage and graffiti everywhere, and the only light besides that emanating into the sky from other parts of the city was one dim, flickering street lamp.

Damn, she thought. This was not a place for a girl in an outfit like hers to be wandering around, especially in the middle of the night. Still, what choice did she have...? It was either that or go back into her alley and wait out the dawn.

The cool, wet feeling of the blood trickling down her face from her forehead decided her. She needed to get that wound tended to, or she'd probably die of blood-loss.

She made her way down the deserted street, looking for a store, a building that might actually have inhabitants, or some other sign of life.

Unfortunately, she really wasn't up to the trek, and even as she walked, she began to nod off. Thus, she never noticed the group of men until they had come up behind her.

"Well, what have we here?"

The girl twirled around to see the man addressing her. He was tall, muscled, and had a Mohawk. Five other men were with him – none of them friendly looking. A gang, perhaps. Or just a group of friends who liked causing trouble. At any rate, she could tell by the looks they were giving her that they didn't have good intentions for her, and from the guns they carried that they weren't likely to put up with resistance.

"So, how much do you charge?" The man who seemed to be the spokesman said, lewdly.

"Excuse me?" the girl asked, offended. She was mildly surprised by her voice – it sounded rather hoarse.

"Come on, don't play dumb. There's only two reasons for a girl to be out at this time of night in this part of town. She's looking to make a little money giving a guy a good time, or she's a damn fool. Or both."

"Then I guess I'm a fool. Now, unless you have a first aid kit I can use, I really need to be going."

"Hmm... you are a little banged up there, aren't you. How about this, we patch you up, if you... entertain us tonight."

"You, patch me up?"

"Well, we do know a bit about treating injuries – that sort of thing happens around here."

The girl thought about it. She really needed to have her wounds tended... But the price...

"Well, what's it gonna be?"

She frowned. She didn't like this. To defile her body, and sacrifice her dignity... And yet, she knew she couldn't last much longer otherwise. And besides, what was she giving up, really? With her body in the state it was in at the moment, she didn't have much dignity left, and she wasn't sure there was a heck of a lot of defiling left that could be done to her body that didn't require she be dead first. Still, to sell herself like this would be to cross a line that couldn't be uncrossed, and no matter how low she had sunk, she was still too good for these lowlifes...

She replied firmly, "Not interested."

The man's eyes grew hard, but his smile remained, and his tone didn't change. "Wrong answer."

The men began to approach her, and the girl backed away in fear.

One of the men lunged forward, and grasped her arms. She tried to struggle free, but couldn't manage. They began to push her into an alleyway.

Fear and anger coursed through her... Suddenly the alley became pitch black.

"What the--?" one of the men asked.

Four glowing red eye-slits appeared where the girl's face had been. A deep, ragged breathing could be heard, and the men felt their skin crawl, then a sudden chill.

For a moment, the men stood there, frozen in fear and confusion.

Then there was a wet cracking sound, followed by a scream from the man holding the girl, a scream that died away in a gurgle.

The remaining men as one turned and tried to bolt from the alley... But more screams rose up, and as the one who had been furthest away from the girl ran, he turned to look back to see a black tentacle dragging the last of his companions back into the alley.

The escaping man focused his eyes ahead of him, and didn't bother to look back again. He didn't stop running for quite some time.

--Darkness--

When the girl woke again, pre-dawn light had started to change the black shadows of night into the far more hospitable shadows of daytime.

Cawing drew her attention to several ravens that were eating from the dead bodies of the men who had attacked her.

Her eyes widened. What happened to them?! The last thing she remembered had been overwhelming fear, with perhaps a touch of anger. Then, everything had gone black.

Wearily, she stood up. All but one of the ravens cawed in surprise at this movement, and flew off. The remaining one looked at her and cocked its' head.

She looked over the bodies for clues to what had happened. One had large, deep claw marks on him; another had tiny bite marks all over his body, while a third had his neck and limbs bent at unnatural angles. Perhaps the strangest was the one who had grabbed her – there was a hole almost a foot across straight through his chest.

The girl felt sick at the sight of the slaughter, but felt no regret that they had died – for what they had attempted to do, they deserved what they got. Still, she couldn't help but wonder what had happened to them. Had something (or things) come to her rescue, or had she done this somehow?

Now what? She wondered. She remembered that last night she'd been trying to get the wound on her head tended to. She put her hand to her forehead, and to her surprise, found that although there was quite a bit of dried blood, the wound seemed to have completely healed. Strange. Still, that's one less thing to worry about.

With that out of the way, she found herself at a loss. The logical thing to do would be to try to find her way home – but now that she thought about it, she realized she not only had no idea where she was, she also had no clue where her home was. In fact, she couldn't remember anything about her home – or even if she had one.

Nor could she remember what she did, how she lived or got food... Everything before waking up last night was a shadowy blur at best, if not cloaked in impenetrable darkness, much like that which had came over her just before her attackers had died.

She looked at the raven, which was still watching her, and asked, "So, friend, do you know who I am?" The raven cawed, then, to the girl's horror, a third eye opened on its' forehead. It launched itself into the air at her, and she reflexively closed her eyes and shielded her face with her arms.

A shiver ran through her body, but other than that nothing happened, so she opened her eyes again. The bird was no longer in front of her, and as she glanced around, she found it had disappeared without a trace.

She supposed she should be disturbed by all this, but despite its' frightening appearance and odd behavior, she felt that the raven meant her no harm.

Pondering her situation, the girl decided she couldn't stay here – she needed to find food, and she didn't want to have to explain these bodies to anyone.

She didn't really want to walk around the city in just her leotard and boots, though, so deciding it was the lesser of evils, she chose one of the smaller and less torn up men, and removed his belt and pants. With one last glare of distaste, she pulled the pants on and belted them up. She then took a black jacket from another of the men, and put that on as well.

Satisfied that she no longer looked like a lost gymnast, she started to head out of the alley in search of food, when it occurred to her that money would make that significantly easier. She turned back to the bodies, and putting aside her disgust, searched them for wallets and valuables. Her search got her a little bit of jewelry, and about thirty dollars. She also turned up some drugs, but decided to leave them, regardless of how valuable they might be.

Now slightly more prepared, she left the alley, and began looking for food, a place to stay... or clues to her past.

Author's Note: This story fragment came to me as a burst of inspiration, essentially as presented here. I have no idea what happened to Raven to put her in the state she was in at the start of the story, or what should happen next.