Honor Born, Honor Bound

Chapter One: Recitation

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. I don't even have a share in Warner Brother's or DC Comic's stock, so don't sue me if something shows up here that unintentionally matches the comics, or somebody else's ideas. Also, the whole real scenario here is mine, as well as all the new characters I bring in.

Author's note: For those of you who are reading this without reading Of Shadow and Flame, STOP! Go back and read it, or else you'll be lost! One directly feeds into the other! Other than that, constructive criticism is, of course, still greatly appreciated.

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"In times long before the birth of life, before the time of golden grace, the forces of reality struggled with each other over the realms of pre-birth..." Raven sighed and looked up from her translation.

Falchion had a wide grin on his face as he wiped off the counter.

"Well? How far off am I?" Raven asked in annoyance.

"Well, you've got the basic meaning...sort of. Really I'm rather impressed you learned this much in a week," Falchion said, smirking. "Now read it aloud in the old tongue."

Raven shuddered. No matter how hard she tried, there were only three words she could say in the old tongue: Azerath Metrion Zinthos. Anything else gave her the chills and made her feel unclean, or unwanted, or just generally uncomfortable; it depended on what she was trying to say.

"Vorenki shauo raeikien morutsi myung, akremanyi," Raven read through clenched teeth. "Gonryu funriunq vond shoumangu kitse..." Raven shook her head and closed her eyes. This poem made her feel terribly cold, like she really was in the time before life, or whenever mortusi really meant.

"Heh, not bad. But if you're going to speak this language, you'll need an accent," Falchion said, smiling broadly as he switched to a broom and started sweeping the kitchen area. "And don't abuse the privilege of speaking the language; don't forget how powerful it is, especially with names."

"I know. My powers stem from the old tongue, after all," Raven said defensively. "I'm not a fool."

"Then why aren't you speaking the whole language the same way as you say the Shadow chant?" Falchion said reproachfully, raising an eyebrow and pointing the broom accusingly. "It would be much more amusing."

Raven stared at him like he was mad; speak the language from her soul? That was ridiculous! She'd be creating everything she said!

"Um, excuse me, but would either of you have perhaps seen Robin?" Starfire asked as she walked into the room. She had that slightly worried look on her face that meant she wanted someone to talk with about something delicate. Raven chalked it up to being too feminine.

"I think he's in the garden, actually," Falchion answered kindly, smiling broadly. "I made a few suggestions for improvements and he took it personally." Starfire was taken aback; for some reason Raven couldn't fathom, she didn't trust Falchion at all, and even less when he separated Robin from her.

"Oh. Then, perhaps, you would like to meditate with me, Friend?" Starfire said, turning to Raven. "Or perhaps read?"

Raven sighed and closed the immense Demonology book Falchion had lent her.

"Might as well. I'm burned out on books for the moment," Raven said as she stood up. "Come on, we'll use my room. I think Falchion's getting ready to vacuum."

Falchion cracked a smile at them as they left, and he was indeed getting out the vacuum cleaner.

"Why must he always keep everything in such a state of clean-ness?" Starfire asked distrustfully, narrowing her eyes. "He does not act like other earth people."

Raven shrugged and shook her head. She'd asked him about his obsession with cleanliness, but he'd just said he was a clean freak. It certainly hadn't shown in the shop, though.

They slipped inside Raven's room, the one place in the tower Falchion didn't seem interested in cleaning. It was a good thing, too; Raven had all her books piled on the floor in just the right way for her research, and the slightest disturbance would undo all her sorting.

Starfire turned out to be a disturbance.

The first thing Starfire did was to accidentally knock over one of the teetering piles of books; the second was to try to catch it and in the process knocked down half of the rest. She gave a nervous series of laughs and smiled

Raven ground her teeth and pointed to the bed, her whole body shaking slightly.

"Just go over there," Raven said crossly as she levitated her books up and started sorting them. "I'll be with you in a second."

Starfire obediently flew over to the bed and carefully took a seat in the air above it, looking very sorry. Raven looked at Starfire's overly emotional, down turned eyes and realized that she had no intention of meditating.

"What's wrong?" Raven asked, dropping her remaining books and joining Starfire above the bed.

"It's...Falchion. Those eyes, and his smile, and the cleaning he does and how little we know about him..." Starfire said urgently, a bit too quickly. "And his powers, and the way he gets us to do things for him..."

"Hold on, one thing at a time. The eyes I can agree with. I shiver just thinking about them. But what's wrong with his smile?" Raven said quietly, gesturing for Starfire to calm down.

"It is...well, not fake exactly, there is kindness in it, but no joy. It's like he has to strain against pain and anger to smile, and it just isn't right," Starfire explained, looking down. "I see sorrow in his face every time he stops smiling, and it never really goes away."

Raven looked at her for a moment; of course what Starfire had said was true, Falchion did have that tragic look to him, but Raven had taken it as just the way he was. It certainly wasn't her business nosing into his affairs.

"I wish to look in his room," Starfire said suddenly. Raven swayed in the air at that and stared at her friend in disbelief.

"Don't be ridiculous! I don't even know what half the symbols on that door mean and the other half tell me that it's extremely dangerous to open it, especially, if you don't know what the rest says!" Raven explained in as urgent a tone as she could with out straying from her monotone entirely. "If you can get Falchion to agree, fine. Otherwise, I'll rat you out if you even move for it."

Starfire stared at Raven for a moment, startled. She'd never gotten such a fierce reaction from her friend before. Unless, of course, you counted accidentally blowing up the refrigerator.

"Is he so dangerous?" Starfire asked, startled. Raven pulled down her hood and dimly remembered that Starfire had never actually seen Falchion fight yet.

"Just don't go into the room," Raven said quietly. "He might have something dangerous in there, anyway."

"Okay. But is there not somewhere else we can look for clues about him?" Starfire asked, looking up. "Perhaps the shop?"

"Yes, of course. I still need to get my dress back from my apartment, anyways," Raven said calmly, levitating upright. "But not right now. We'll go tomorrow, before Falchion's up. Besides, it's time for afternoon training."

"Yes," Starfire said quietly, levitating towards the door, then brightening up. "Perhaps Robin can help?"

Raven shrugged and followed her friend. Training was a bother now; before she'd left she'd had too much power, but now she used up so much energy working with the old tongue that she had trouble lifting any more than a ton or so. That could be trouble if they had to fight, but for the most part super villains seemed to be laying low. The media was keeping them scared stiff with exaggerated reports about Falchion. Or at least, Raven hoped they were exaggerated. For all she knew, he might be as fast as the Flash and as ruthless as Batman, but it seemed unlikely.

She walked into the practice room several minutes late and the others had already started. Raven trudged across the room to her position, catching a mildly annoyed and slightly inquisitive glance from Robin as she took her position.

Falchion chose that moment to walk across the room and lean against the wall behind Raven. She faltered slightly at that, because she'd completely missed him earlier. It was strange; normally even someone that had carefully concealed themselves were easy to find by their energy, but Falchion escaped this somehow.

She started up the training program and began making barriers in an almost routine way to block the blasts coming at her. It was practically boring to her mind, though her body was obviously getting a good work out dodging the annoying little hover blasters circling her. It wasn't hard to block them, or to catch them and send them hurtling into the ones next to it, but it was, in a way, good practice.

"Isn't that too little?" Falchion called to her from his position along the wall. "You aren't trying at all."

Raven stared at him for a moment as she blocked several more of the annoying little blasters. He had a point; she probably could have carried on a conversation during this training.

She didn't have the option to do so; Falchion had wandered off to watch Robin sparring a Titan robot.

Robin was sparring a combat robot at the moment; beating it to pieces, actually. It was much too slow for him.

"Perhaps you'd like to try a living opponent?" Falchion said coolly, cocking his head to one side. "You might learn something new instead of repeating the same thing over and over again."

Robin spared him a glance and frowned; the machine was quite predictable. Unless he tried something risky it was really nothing more than a mild workout.

"Sure, why not. I've been wanting to see what you can do," Robin said calmly, turning off the robot program. "Want a full match or just hand to hand?"

"You may do as you please," Falchion said calmly as he walked about to face Robin. "I will fight as your style demands."

Robin was interested now; the only other person that had suggested fighting like this was a young man Robin had met in Korea on his training escapades. He decided that he'd save his weapons unless Falchion forced him to use them.

The two bowed courteously and Robin leapt into the air, aiming an excellent front kick for Falchion's head. Falchion caught his foot with little effort and tipped his head back to avoid the second kick Robin sent toward his head. Falchion dropped him and hopped back to avoid the third kick Robin launched as soon as he landed.

The other Titans were watching now; Cyborg had stopped halfway through bench-pressing a couple tons to watch the match.

Fifteen minutes later Robin switched to weapons; he just wasn't going to hit Falchion without them.

It didn't help much.

The birderangs were a joke; Falchion caught them like leaves. The exploding disks made him move more, but didn't come any closer to hitting him; The Bo staff made the biggest difference, though. It extended his reach enough to limit Falchion's movements, which gave Robin an idea.

Robin shoved off the staff and launched toward Falchion with a sidekick. As expected, Falchion hopped to the side. Robin smirked and planted his free hand on the ground, whipping his body and staff around for a follow up attack.

There was nothing Falchion could do to avoid it; he was still in mid air. Falchion caught the staff and skidded six feet along the ground.

Robin smirked. Falchion raised an eyebrow and let go of the staff.

"I'm impressed. Most people take days to figure out the flaw," Falchion said coolly. "Tell me, when did you first realize I had a gap in my style?"

"Right away. I just had some trouble finding out how to use it," Robin said coolly. "You're strong, but not unbeatable."

Falchion smiled and strode out of the room.

-

Robin played the movie back again. He'd spent the last half hour going over his fight with Falchion and he still couldn't figure out quite what was bothering him. Obviously, Falchion had been toying with him, but what really annoyed him was that he'd given up. There was no way that Falchion failed that one time when he'd always had a way out before, even if it was an unorthodox attack.

And that was it, of course. Robin stopped the movie and looked at Falchion's form. Yes, it certainly wasn't a technique he'd seen before, and what a technique it was! It seemed to be a way of perfectly gauging your opponent, but it lacked any offensive movements. Or at least, Falchion hadn't used any.

It was really annoying trying to find anything about Falchion, as well. He simply didn't exist in any of the records Robin had access to and the few video clips they had of him didn't help. Certainly his strength and speed surpassed Robin's, and his fighting technique was impressive, but Robin had a hunch that Falchion was holding back the majority of his powers. Raven had told them about the scrolls, but that didn't seem to fit with his personality. Falchion wasn't one to depend on a piece of paper to protect his life.

Robin played the end of the fight again and watched Falchion's face carefully. The only emotion Robin could see on that face was pure amusement.

-

Author's note: All right, before anyone says it, I meant for Starfire to say Clean-ness instead of cleanliness. This chapter crammed in a lot of stuff real quick, but the rest of the fic should be okay. As you've probably noticed, I'm going to be using two perspectives most of the time: Robin and Raven.

Character Talk

Robin: He's still got the benefit of the doubt.

Starfire: But I do not trust him.

Raven: who are we talking about?

Falchion: They're talking about me.

Robin: No.

Falchion: Then who?

Starfire: The author.

Me: Hey! I don't talk about you that way!

Starfire: But you don't have a reason to doubt what we do; you know everything before it happens.

Me: So? That doesn't mean you have to say I'm untrustworthy! I'm in the BSA after all.

Robin: That's why we don't trust you. Boy Scouts make up some of the most embarrassing skits in the world. We don't want that happening to us!

Falchion: Well, Since this isn't going anywhere…next episode, The Vanishing Shop! Don't miss it!

Me: Oh that does it! You guys just earned yourselves a horrific fate! I'm talking unlimited humiliation here…