Well, here we go again. DUPERBRO has returned to the Teen Titans scene due to popular demand (yeah, who am I kidding) to go over the sometimes happy, sometimes dark, sometimes tragic pasts of our heroes! Welcome to that file cabinet in Robin's office you never bothered to look at - The New Titans Files!

MM: Oh, come on! Can't I get a break from this job?

Me: Do it or no TV for a week.

MM: D'oh, fine. DuperBro does not own Teen Titans, or any of the OCs except me. They belong to:

-Talia - Emmeline C. Thornbrooke

-Owen - patattack

-James - Guest

-Solor - The King of Emerald

-Yang - HippieGirl24

-Nauru - POMForever

-Cyan Rush - smashkitty

-Muscle-Man - DuperBro (duh)

Me: Well done.

MM: Can I go now?

Me: Sure. By the way, everybody, today is a very special day. Two years ago, on November 25th, 2012, I joined FanFiction for the first time. So if you want, leave a review wishing me a happy 2-year anniversary! By the way, if you're ever confused about who's who in this mini-story, go to my profile page and read the first story in this series, titled New Titans, Go! But for now, let's get to the story!

Chapter 1: The Tiger Lily

A small minivan drove up to Memorial-Hope Medical Center in Jump City, California through a snowy 2014 January afternoon. It parked in the spot that was as close as the van could get to the hospital's front doors, and stopped. The O'Malley family started to pour out of the cramped van, squirming to get out of the closed space and stretch their legs. From the driver's seat came Andrew O'Malley, the father of the family. Lately, he hadn't been getting a whole lot of sleep due to his job as a lawyer, and that coupled with the reason that he and his kids were at Memorial-Hope today had been keeping him awake long into the night, as evidenced by the slight bags under his eyes.

The rest of the family followed suit of their father. Joshua, the second oldest child, climbed out of the shotgun seat. Joshua was nothing less that an athlete through-and-through. As the starting quarterback for the Jump City Mustangs, he had to be. The two side doors scrolled open, and out poured a mass of kids. First Miriam and Ester, the pranksters of the family, then Naomi, the bookworm, followed by Luke, the fight-picker, succeeded by Ruth, the actress, who precedented Hannah, the shy artist, and Micah, the scaredy-cat. They were all bundled up tightly to keep them warm in the new year's chill. But it was after everybody else got out that the oldest child of the family, who had been sitting in the seat furthest back, got out of the van.

Her name was Talia. Unlike the rest of her physically normal siblings and parents, Talia was born profoundly deaf. Ate age 16, she had braided, waist-length hair that was braided like a schoolgirl's that reached down to her waist when it wasn't. She had on dark wash blue jeans and one of her mother's old T-shirts that simply had a glittery peace symbol on it under a black coat. On her feet were black knee-high boots, and she had on gold hoop earrings. However, the article of clothing that would usually stick out most was a blue butterfly pendant hanging around her neck that seemed to give off a pleasant feeling.

The family all walked up to the front doors of the hospital together. Their reason for being there was that the mother of the family, Lilly, was going into labor. Andrew had received a call from the hospital telling him about Lilly's current state not even an hour ago, and as fast as the wheels of the family minivan could carry him he piled the kids into the car and sped over to where they were now.

Andrew stopped just in front of the doors and, after hesitating for a moment, ushered the kids off to the side and knelled in front of them, his knees just barely touching the snow spread out around them. "Listen, kids," he said, trying to look strong even though his stomach was aloft with butterflies at the moment, "The hospital is not a place where you can be super loud and obnoxious. So I don't want to hear any ruckus out of any of you kids. That means you three, too," he said, looking with a stern eye at Luke, Miriam and Esther, all of whom had on obvious cat-that-ate-the-canary expressions. All the kids nodded and murmured their affirmations.

Andrew smiled at his kids. He loved his family. "Alright, guys, let's go," he said, getting up and walking through the doorway. The O'Malley kin followed his lead, and they stopped behind him when he paused at the front desk to speak to the lady who was there. "Excuse me, ma'am," he said. The lady turned to look at him.

"Yes? How can I help you?" she asked. She sounded like she was in her mid-twenties.

"Well, we're here to see Lilly O'Malley. Could you direct us to her room?" Andrew asked nicely.

"Sure, just a moment..." the lady responded curtly as she turned to type on the computer, her fingers flying over the keys as she typed in the name.

Andrew felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see Talia looking at him worriedly. She held up her hands and did a quick combination of hand motions that were fairly fluent. Andrew smiled, knowing she was using sign language to talk to him.

Dad, will mom be all right? I'm worried, she 'said.'

Andrew responded with a flurry of sign language himself. Don't worry, honey, he responded. Mom will be just fine. He gave Talia a look of reassurance before turning back to look at the lady, who had just finished looking up Lily's placement in the hospital.

"She'll be on the third floor, room 316," she said, reading off the computer screen before smiling at him.

"Thank you," he responded gratefully before turning to his kids and saying, "Alright, guys, let's get in the elevator so we can go see mom!" The kids followed Andrew to he elevators and he pressed the 'Up' button. Seconds later, a 'ding' was heard, and the O'Malleys poured into the empty elevator. Andrew let Talia press the button for floor 3, and they were on their way up.

Soon, the O'Malley kids were all sitting on chairs outside their mother's room. andrew was inside talking to Lilly, so the kids were left to their own antics. Talia didn't pay much attention to her siblings, as she was mostly preoccupied in her own thoughts. She was worried for her mom. She always felt like this when her mom was having a new baby, but this time... something felt off. There was a sense of dread all around her that only she seemed to be noticing. She fiddled with her butterfly pendant, going over the beautiful piece of jewelry.

Her mother had given it to her when she was six. However it wasn't your typical birthday present. See, Talia's mom was, in fact, a sorceress. That's right. Before she had met Andrew, Lilly had been born to a family of powerful sorcerers as the only child in the family with powers. Her family insisted that she married the eldest son of another equally powerful sorcerer family in order to make even more powerful sorcerers, but when she went to college she fell in love with Andrew, and she went with him instead of following her family's ordres, outraging her family members, especially her father. When she had Talia, her father had wanted Talia as reconcilement for disobeying his orders, but after some pleading, Lilly's father let her keep Talia, but swore that one day he'd come for Lilly. And Talia happened to be the only child out of the rest of her siblings that was born with powers, and so Lilly had given Talia the beautiful blue butterfly pendant to help control her powers. Then she had begun to teach her how to utilize her powers. Talia was decent at her magical powers, but still had a ways to go.

Suddenly, Andrew stuck his head out from the doorframe. "Talia?" he called, and Talia looked over at him. "Your mom wants to see you," he explained, and he waited for her to get up and go into the room with him before following.

As Talia walked into her mother's hospital room, she noticed that her mother looked very pale. Almost unnaturally pale, in fact. Talia walked up to her mother's side and grasped her hand. Lilly looked over at Talia and a smile jumped onto her face. "Talia..." she managed before she started coughing loudly.

Talia's face grew into a concerned and worried frown. She signed, Mom, are you alright?

Lilly looked at her and weakly signed back, I'm fine, honey. Listen, I-

However, before she could continue signing, she cried out in pain. Talia stepped back in surprise. The doctors around her mom's bedside rushed into action as Lilly started flailing her legs. Talia looked on in shock It must have been time for the baby to be delivered. The doctors' facemasks prevented her from reading their lips, so she had no idea what was going on. Andrew pulled up a chair and took Lilly's hand, who squeezed back violently. Talia saw his face slightly contort with pain. Talia rushed up to her mom's side and looked at her worriedly. Her mom stopped screaming and turned to look at her. Tears were flowing down Lilly's cheeks. Lilly weakly mouthed something to Talia. Something that would stay with Talia forever.

I love you. So much.

With that, Lilly's eyes closed and she let out her last breath. Talia's growing fear was realized when she noticed a monitor next to her mom's bed change from a rapidly spiking green line to a flat line that wasn't moving. Tears were now flowing from Talia's brown-green eyes as she started to cry out, "No! Mom! NO!" No response was amassed from Lilly's motionless body.

Andrew was kneeling next to her, pleading with her to stay with him. The doctors ushered Talia and Andrew away as they charged up two pads and brought them down onto Lilly's chest. Her body jolted upward from the shock, but she didn't wake up. She noticed one of the doctors at the foot of her mom;s bed holding something attached to a fleshy tube that led between her mother's legs that the doctor hastily cutted. It must have been the new baby, but that didn't matter to Talia at the moment. She stared at her mom's motionless body as the doctors did compressions and brought down the defibrillator once again, to no further avail.

When Talia blinked to clear the tears out of her eyes, she saw something that would haunt her dreams for months to come. A tall caucasian man in a purple and black robe with black and grey hair and strange medallions hanging from his neck was standing on top of Lilly's neck, seemingly determined to cut off any air flow. The man had a steely look in his eyes; one of revenge. He noticed Talia staring at him and he pointed a finger at her, as if to say You're next. When Talia blinked again, the man had vanished, and the doctors around Lilly's lifeless body stared down in defeat. Talia couldn't believe it.

Her mother was gone.

~Six months later, Downtown Jump City~

Talia walked down the street of the bustling downtown Jump City with her hands in her pockets. She had been sent out on a grocery run by her workaholic father due to a lack of eggs in the family's fridge. Ever since her mother died, her father had buried himself in his work, shutting her and her siblings out altogether. He was rarely home and he never came to any of her siblings' social events. It disgusted her.

As she walked toward the store, she was drinking in the summer sun's heat. She was walking past an alleyway before she felt someone grab her arm and pull her into the smelly alley. Turning to blast her assailant with a wave of magic, she reached for her butterfly pendant-

-just as another man ripped it from her neck. She was stunned as the thief looked at the pendant, saying to the others, "This thing's gotta be worth some money!"

Her face was grabbed by a beefy hand and was turned to look at a large, dirty-looking man who smiled at her with a mouth of missing teeth. "Hey there, little girl," he said sexually. "What's a pretty thing like you doing in this part of the city?"

She turned to run, but more men stepped in front of her, blocking her escape. She became nervous. Without her pendant, she was defenseless. The first large man stepped in front of her again, smiling as he drew out a rusted knife. "Hey, hey, no need to leave so early! We're just getting started with the show..." he said devilishly as he reached for her shirt. Shocked, she slapped his hand away.

The man's face became dark. "Well, then. I see you want to play rough," he said gruffly as he put the knife to her throat in a flash. "Look, sweetie, you got two choices now - you can bleed RED or GREEN! Whaddaya say?" For some reason Talia decided that the best course of action would be to stomp on his foot. The large man cried out in pain before glaring at her with malicious intent in his eyes. "You're gonna pay for that, girlie. Big time. Red it is." He raised the knife to bring it down on her and-

A small flash of green and red flew from above into the mugger's knife, knocking it away. Shocked, Talia looked up to see where it had come from, and saw one face she recognized and another she didn't.

One of them was Robin. Everybody in Jump City knew who Robin was. Mysterious, charming leader of the Teen Titans, who had recently disbanded as she'd read in a paper. And there was another, someone about Robin's age. He had on a black mask and a purple shirt, with cargo shorts and a red cape and boots. He looked even more athletic than Josh. Robin cleared his throat. She read his lips. "IF you want her, you'll have to get through us first," he stated boldly.

The thug turned his attention from her to the two heroes. "Get 'em!" he shouted loudly. Talia could see the fear sewn onto his face, One of his goons pulled out a knife similar to his and threw it at Robin's comrade. However, he somehow caught it by the hilt with incredible timing, and Talia saw him clench his fist until he smashed it to splinters in his hand. Talia stared, mouth slightly agape. Even for a sorceress, this was impressive.

Robin turned his head to look at his friend. "So… that's why you're named Muscle-Man, huh?" the boy wonder joked to his friend. The goons were now terrified of Robin and this newcomer whose name was apparently Muscle-Man.

Muscle-Man smiled and tilted his head to the side. "I'm full of surprises," he replied.

Robin smirked back before turning back to the thugs, but still speaking to MM. "Well, it's time to empty your bag of tricks. Let's do this!" With that, Robin and MM jumped from the roof and landed in front of the goons. They went to work, and Talia did her best to stay out of their way.

Muscle-Man came over and socked the goon holding her butterfly pendant, knocking the brute unconscious and sending her pendant into the air. She reached out to catch it, but Muscle-Man beat her to it. He caught it in midair and handed it to her with a grin. "This yours?" he asked, and Talia nodded gratefully as she slipped it back on, the familiar feeling of its cold metal on her skin returning.

Suddenly, she noticed a thug with a knife sneaking up behind Muscle-Man with a malicious grin. Wanting to help her friend, Talia's hand clamped around her butterfly pendant, which shone blue as she focused her power. She pictured a dome around herself and Muscle-Man and felt her powers rushing into the shape she desired. The thug's knife bent on the force field and shattered. Taking advantage of the opening, Muscle-Man unleashed a blur of body blows on the thug, and he fell over, cleanly unconscious.

Muscle-Man looked back at Talia, looking just as astonished as the thug he'd just taken down. Talia giggled a little at his comical expression. Shaking it off, Muscle-Man smiled gratefully at Talia and said, "I guess I'm not the only person around here with surprises in store." Talia's bubbly smile turned sheepish. Muscle-Man ran over to help Robin, who was being overwhelmed by thugs.

After Muscle-Man and Robin had dispatched the last of the muggers, they handed the criminals over to the police. As they watched the cop cars drive away, Robin turned his head to look at Talia. "So, you're sure you're not hurt?" Robin asked. Talia nodded, as she figured they didn't know jack about sign language.

"That thing you did... was that magic? Are you a witch?" Muscle-Man inquired. Talia's face scrunched up. She didn't like being called a witch. She was a sorceress. Muscle-Man rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "No? No magic?" Talia shook her head. "Oh, so it was magic? Then that makes you a witch, right?" Talia shook her head even harder, sucking in a breath to speak - something she didn't do very often, since she was usually surrounded by people who knew sign language.

"I'm a sorceress," she said shakily, unsure of her own voice. "My name's Talia."

Robin looked at her, analyzing how she was nervous of speaking and how hesitant she had been to do so. With a little Batman training resurfacing, he deducted that she must be profoundly deaf - and, as such, probably was most comfortable using sign language. Having learned this language from the dark knight, he made symbols with his hand that Talia seemed surprised to see coming from him. As of now, he signed to her, the Titans have multiple openings available for team spots. I was wondering if you had any interest in joining.

Talia, after recovering from the shock of seeing Robin use sign language so fluently, pulled out her phone and texted Josh.

Talia: Can you handle me being gone for a couple more hours? I might run a little late.

Josh responded almost immediately. This indicated he had been doing something on his phone when she texted him.

Joshua: Yeah, I don't mind. Everything's under control here.

Putting her phone away after receiving the message, Talia signed back. Sure.

Muscle-Man stood to the side of the two, completely stupefied at what he was seeing. "Uhh... I don't know how you two managed to hit it off so well that you've already got some kind of morse code already, but we should probably head back to the tower. I'm huuuungry!"

Robin and Talia laughed at Muscle-Man's childish plea, and Robin pressed a button on the inside of his glove. The squealing of tires was heard, and the R-Cycle sped into the street. Robin hopped on, and after putting on his helmet, he handed Talia a spare, which she took and put on as she mounted the back seat of the cycle. Robin tossed a glance at MM and said, "How are you gonna get back, MM? Ol' foot travel again?"

MM laughed heartily as he replied, "Saves on gas, buddy. But no. I still got old faithful up my sleeve," Muscle-Man remarked, grinning. Then he blasted into the air towards Titans Tower.

Robin watched for a couple seconds before looking back at Talia and asking with a smirk on his face, "Think we can beat him there?" to thich Talia responded with a vigorous head shake, smiling the whole time. Robin's smile widened as he said mischievously, "Worth a shot." With that, he revved the engine and took off towards the large T-shaped skyscraper in the distance. Talia held on tightly as the wind ripped past her face. She felt like she was speeding off to a new future.

There you go! Hope you guys will enjoy this little mini-series as it goes along; I'll be working hard on it! By the way, if you've got the time to spare, I have a FictionPress account now with a story up on there. If you'd like, check that out, too! But until next chapter...

Stay frosty!