Full Summary: Catalyst, noun.

DEFINITION: a person or thing that causes an event or situation to suddenly happen.

She was a catalyst to a series of events that the Titans would be pulled into.

Feelings awake. Betrayals occur. Villains emerge.

She was a catalyst to a series of events she didn't know she would be pulled into, too.

Genres: Romance, Drama, Friendship, Tragedy

Chapter 1: The Girl

Screams of frenzy filled the streets of Jump City, from the people who ran to avert Johnny Rancid's looting rampage as he motorcycled his way out of a bank. A contradiction appeared in itself as the day seemed to be a normal one with soothing, heart-warming weather coupled with a soft humming breeze, but it quickly progressed in a perverse manner as the City's latest criminal went on an adrenalin, power-hungry spree. The revving engines of Johnny's motorcycle mixed with the cries and shrieks of the people around him, made for refreshingly-twisted music to his ears.

"Run ya little punks!" Johnny laughed wildly as he shot his gun in the air to heighten the fear that grew around him. But his heart sank when he heard a familiar motorcycle bounding closer to the area.

"Damn, I wanted a little more fun!" He gritted his teeth in annoyance. He revved his engines, stuffing his looted cash into his side satchel and sped away down the streets.

As he sped down the streets he saw a figure standing in his path as it was enveloped in black coloration and watched as the figure streamed forth a shock of black energy that came at him as quickly as he rode towards it. He took out his demonic machete and held it up in front of him as he steered with his left hand and anticipated the force that would reflect off the machete as he pushed the gas gunning it to gain speed to withstand the strength as the dark magic met the machete's blade, it shattered and scattered in a repelling nature, like water hitting the curve of a spoon, as his blade reacted concurrently sparking off red electric energy as it fought with its' opposing enemy. He continued ride forward and held his machete in front of him to protect him from the dark magic's harm. He could see Raven, levitating about six feet from the ground, eyes glazed over in black magic. He waited till he was closer until he flipped up a switch cover right next to his left handlebar and pushed a button. A fairly large grapple-claw rapidly burst forward from a compartment in the front of his bike, towards Raven, grabbing and binding her arms to her sides. Startled, Raven's concentration broke and her dark magic receded as she was catapulted up and over, far in the air. Wicked laughter filled the air as Johnny continued onward to escape.

Suddenly, a starbolt flashed by, catching him off-guard as it landed right ahead of him, creating a rubble of cement to explode in his path, threatening to end his chase. He quickly dodged the obstacle and glanced at his side mirror to reveal Starfire, flying after him with her hands poised to fire again.

"Stop criminal!" She shouted after him and shot another starbolt, this time aimed for his back tire. Johnny, anticipating another attack and nothing but straight open streets ahead, watched from his side view mirror, just long enough to see another starbolt leap forward and quickly dodged her bolt before it could meet its' target. Beast Boy came around and attempted to side-rammed him, in the shape of a pterodactyl, to grab him off his motorcycle but Johnny reacted quickly and ducked, instinctively turning around a sharp corner before Beast Boy could catch him. It became apparent that he was out-numbered and handicapped as he couldn't take on two opponents while driving and decided that he had no choice but to outrun them.

"You'll have to catch me first!" He yelled out and howled as he throttled his super gas-guzzler, which tripled his speed.

"You'll never catch me now!" He mocked as his motorcycle built momentum, he noticed up ahead at the corner of the street, peeking out was Cyborg's T-Car. Knowing that a Titan lay in wait, he could only assume that a trap was set up for him. He noticed in his side view mirror, Robin's R-Cycle made an appearance and growled in irritation as he felt the panic of capture. Johnny scanned his surroundings for another exit plan and to his right, saw a nearby mall. An idea struck him and grinned malevolently as he made his way onto the grass plains towards the outdoor food court that sat right around the side of the mall, where people could be seen sitting down, eating their meals and, at this point, oblivious to the impending danger headed their way. Soon, panic set in as people caught sight of the oncoming threat and ran every which way to avoid the mad motorcyclist as he zig-zagged his way through the crowds of people. He scooped up a girl in his arms and turned to face the Teen Titans as they gathered around him.

"Let go of her, Johnny!" Robin commanded, aiming his bird-a-rang at him with his staff ready at his side. The others soon caught up to him and joined around him and cautioned to advance.

"Come any closer…" Johnny quickly pulled out a switchblade and propped it against the girl's neck. "...and I'll do more damage than robbing a couple of banks." A devilish smirk flashed across his face as he felt triumphant with his leverage.

"Then you should've picked a better hostage."

Johnny stopped and panicked. Someone had replied within close range and frantically searched around him, until he decided to look down to reveal that the girl he was holding hostage had spoken.

Not a second past before he was uppercut in the air before being thrown down by his hostage's spiraling kick to the side of his head. His body hit the ground with a loud pounding thud. The 'hostage' twisted his arm around his back and securely interlocked his arm with hers and kneeled on his backside for good measure.

"Also, you had the blunt back-end of the knife to my throat. Idiot." She stated in a calm manner and gave a slight eye-roll at the end. The Titans stood by, dumbstruck, as they witnessed the whole situation unfold so unexpectedly in front of them.

"Woah." Beast Boy said in a stunned daze.

"Well, that was…" Cyborg restored his hand, returning his sonic cannon within, and scratched at the side of his cheek. "…unexpected?"

"Yea." Raven dragged on with a bit of surprise. She hovered down to the ground with the rest of the group and walked up to Robin, noticing that he was silently gauging the situation in front of him.

Johnny let out a struggling grunt before he lost consciousness and passed out. She took notice and released her hold on him after she made sure. She picked herself up from the ground and stood five foot five inches, her olive tan skin gave off a healthy glow from the sun's reflection and her straight, yet voluminous, chestnut hair fell around the nape of her neck. She was dressed like any other normal teenager her age with a t-shirt and a pair of jeans with sneakers. She was lean with a proportionately smaller torso as her waist swooped down her slightly widened hips towards her long shapely and slim legs. Her middle-eastern appearance gave her an exotic air coupled with her vibrant silver irises outlined by an upturned eye shape, which bared her a naturally smoldering look. She quickly realized that the team were standing behind, probably waiting for an explanation. She hesitantly turned her attention to them and started to make an excuse, until Starfire suddenly leapt forward.

"That was marvelously done!" Starfire cheered out, clapping her hands in delight and grabbed forward the girl's hand's together and pulled them up in anticipation.

"You fought so valiantly and bravely! Tell me, what is your name?"

The girl was thrown off by her sudden friendliness and struggled to reply. "Uh. Um, I actually-"

"Dude, where'd you learn to fight like that? That was so fast! I could hardly see it!" Beast Boy cut in as he attempted to imitate her moves as Raven watched him with a tired expression.

"Yea, you've got some major fightin' skills there!" Cyborg complimented her as he joined Starfire and Beast Boy.

"Thanks, but I-"

"Where do you come from? What's your favorite color? Do you like pancakes? And would you like to be friends?" Starfire interjected, not holding back. As she pushed in closer and closer, the girl became increasingly uncomfortable with the growing close proximity and started to avert direct eye contact.

"Y-You all seem really nice, but I..." She said with quick assertion, pushing away with both her hands and started to back up as she struggled to find the words to finish. "…I have to be somewhere. Sorry."

She looked at them with sympathetic eyes feeling sorry for her abruptness but worried for her own situation. A slight panic set in at the thought of these superheroes somehow getting any more involved in her life. Before her expressions could betray her thoughts, she quickly turned around and walked away. The Teen Titans simply stood there and watched as she left, again, dumbfounded by the situation.

"What just happened?" Beast Boy broke the silence.

"Was it something I have said?" Starfire blinked with a confused and worried look about her.

"Well that was weird." Beast Boy stressed at the end, voicing his bewilderment. The Titans poured into the common room as they continued to speculate their encounter with the strangely withdrawn girl.

"Did I say something that was not appropriate to Earth etiquette?" Starfire walked up to Robin who stood behind the couch, with an uncertain demeanor.

"You didn't say anything wrong, Star. But it was kind of strange for her to just leave like that. As if she was trying to avoid us." He rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner with a glazed expression as he looked out at the sea from their tower window. "I wonder who she is."

"I feel kind of bad. I mean, were we not friendly enough?" Beast Boy waved his hands in the air as he walked towards the kitchen area.

"Maybe she's just not the friendly type." Cyborg shrugged his shoulders and took a seat on the semi-circle couch.

"Yea," Beast Boy snickered as he poured himself a cup of orange juice, peering over to Raven who was busy making tea right behind him. "Like Raven."

Raven twitched with irritation as Beast Boy took a drink, joining Cyborg at the couch circle. Black energy encapsulated the cup and a yelp escaped him as it erupted like a volcano in Beast Boy's face, leaving his head drenched in juice,

"That is so not cool!" He wailed after her as she casually hovered passed him holding her cup of tea with a gloating smirk on her. He cringed at that the thought of the subsequent stickiness that would soon follow as Cyborg burst into laughter, holding his stomach as he pointed. Beast Boy growled and looked around to see a controller at his foot and threw it at Cyborg. The laughter stopped, and Cyborg returned fire with a pillow, challenging his initiative.

Soon enough, the semi-couch turned into a small battlefield as Beast Boy and Cyborg bickered away and reanimated a war-like zone, throwing various nearby objects at each other. Robin shook his head at how immature his friends can be, yet slightly entertained by it all, anyways. Raven seated herself away from their noisy quarrel and began reading a book. Starfire watched on with a small amount of amusement, as Beast Boy and Cyborg continued to fight, but her thoughts still lingered with the girl. Robin took notice of her contradicting expression, and felt the conflicts that stirred within.

"Don't worry about it Star. There are going to be lots of people in the world that don't exactly like us, even though our job is to protect them." Robin turned to Starfire and reassured her with a warm smile and a comforting pat and rub on the back.

She gestured a small attempt to smile back and nodded. "I guess you are right. However, is sad to think though, that some people do not think well of us."

"Yea." Robin mirrored her worries with brows furrowed with his own look of slight dismay with a smile and continued in a consoling tone. "But the world isn't perfect and neither are people."

Starfire looked to Robin, comforted in the fact that he shared her feelings. She smiled warmly towards him with no signs of distress and nodded in agreement as Robin matched her smile in warmth and comfort.

Beast Boy and Cyborg soon evolved from battlefield to video games as the two bantered in the background. Raven seemed to have gone up to the roof to start her meditation regime. Despite sudden turn of events earlier in the day, things appeared to return to its normal routine.

Two weeks had passed by and the girl had largely left the minds of the Titans as they continued to answer the call to stop crime and fight criminals and evil-doers. For a short while, it had bothered Robin and Beast Boy as they disliked being kept from knowing the real reason but towards their own respective questions. But soon the day-to-day duties washed over their brief fixation.

The day woke up to a brisk morning but soon fell into a pleasantly warm breeze as people slowly began to fill the streets towards the afternoon, to enjoy the nice weather. It was a great day for a social outing as the team decided to go for an outing to the local mall. Starfire was lit with excitement as she rushed out the doors, hardly able to wait to practice Earth's favorite past time of shopping which she quickly grew to enjoying doing herself. Starfire quickly whisked Robin away to join her in the tradition of giving opinions to another as they try on outfits of cloths before purchasing. Raven would head over to the bookstore to browse through any newly arrived books, after making a trip to the tea shop she bought her supply of tea leaves from. Beast Boy and Cyborg stopped by the video game store to purchase the game they've been anxiously waiting to play. It had been advertised in the market for quite some time and with each passing month, Beast Boy and Cyborg became more and more enthusiastic for its' release date. Afterwards, they decided to go down to the food court to grab something to eat.

"Dude, you totally hogged the whole thing. I thought we were going to share, you junkyard scrap!" Beast Boy complained as Cyborg popped another pretzel bite in his gaping mouth, looking very pleased with himself. When they arrived at the food court they had realized that they hadn't brought enough cash on hand and decided to split a bag of pretzel bites at a nearby stand.

"Hey, I'm bigger than you so that means I need to eat more than you!" Cyborg teased as he faced Beast Boy and popped another pretzel bite right in front of him. Beast Boy fumed in aggravation and impulsively lunged forward in an effort to swipe the snack away. But Cyborg saw through him and kept him at a distance as Beast Boy continued to run into Cyborg's palm, in an ever-struggling failed attempt to reach the pretzel bag from the other hand.

"Let's make a bet then!" He panted in exhaustion and proposed a challenge.

"First person to guess if a guy or girl is going to turn that corner," Beast Boy pointed to the corner edge from the store of Hot Subject that stood about 20 feet away from them. "Gets the last of everything."

"You're on!" Cyborg replied in a deep tenor with a mischievous grin.

"I say boy!" Beast Boy quickly declared.

"Fine. Girl!"

They quickly directed their eyes to the corner and concentrated fiercely because the last of the pretzel bites were on the line. They stared, resisting to blink for fear that they would miss any action. Beads of sweat fell down their cheeks as their concentration increased. An elbow revealed itself around the corner and their anticipation increased as hair made an appearance. Soon Beast Boy's heart sank as Cyborg's grew. The flick of long hair floated in the air.

"AHAAAAAA! I WIN!" Cyborg bellowed. He dumped the bag upside down and inhaled the rest of the pretzel bites. Beast Boy stood by and whimpered as the sight of his delicious pretzel bites disappeared in the belly of the whale. As the last bite vanished Beast Boy caught a glimpse of the person responsible for his loss. He stopped and recognized a silver-eyed girl.

"Hey, look! Isn't that that girl?" Beast Boy tapped Cyborg to get his attention.

"Oh yeeea." He recalled, as he watched the girl walk into a store.

"Come on." Beast Boy goaded Cyborg to follow his lead.

"What, like follow her?" Cyborg asked in disbelief, but Beast Boy had already walked into the store after her.

They hid behind some clothes rack as they continued on with their pseudo-spying mission. They watched her as she continued to go through a shirt rack, sliding across the hangers as she looked them over.

"What do ya think you're going to find out?" He whispered to Beast Boy. "Besides that you a peepin' tom."

"I don't know, but don't you want to find out why she freaked out like that?" Beast Boy pushed the curiosity.

"Then why don't you just go talk to her." Cyborg pushed back.

"Dude, that would be weird. I mean, going up to her out of nowhere?!" Beast Boy argued.

With a deadpan expression Cyborg slowly turned to him, who dug his head deep into the clothes as if they would act sufficiently as camouflage.

"And this isn't weird?" He stated matter-of-factly, no longer whispering. Beast Boy picked up on the tone of flat sarcasm and pointed his finger at him.

"Then why don't you talk to her." He whispered back loudly.

"Fine! I will." Cyborg came out from behind the rack but stopped to see that she had gone.

"Where'd she go?" He searched around the store for her chestnut hair. Beast Boy noticed she had disappeared and joined him but saw no sight of her.

"Why are you following me?" A stern voice from behind them asked.

They both jumped and twirled around to see the girl they were searching for standing before them, who appeared very impatient and displeased.

"Um, wha-da-ya-mean…." Beast Boy's voice trailed off in a nervous stutter. He attempted to smile but cracked under her glower.

"Why have you been watching me from behind these racks, whispering?" Her rigid tone demanded answers as Beast Boy and Cyborg micro-gestured to one another for one.

"U-um, sorry we just…we were…just wanted to talk?" Cyborg weakly replied and chuckled in hopes to relieve some of the tension.

"Y-Yea, well I mean since that day you kicked butt you just…left like that," Beast Boy rubbed the back of his head in an anxious gesture. "And we were wondering why?"

"Well, not me. Just Beast Boy." Cyborg immediately corrected, pointing at him.

"Thanks man, I really wanted to be thrown under the bus." Beast Boy squawked, flapping his arms around like wings, while Cyborg put his finger in the ear Beast Boy was yelling into, to lessen the screeching pain. The girl just looked on, perplexed.

"Look," She interrupted their squabbles, waving their attention down. "It's nothing personal but can you just...leave me alone. It wasn't a big deal that day, OK?" She put up her hand to express her urgency.

"We just want to talk." Beast Boy shrugged with his hands in the air to appeal amiably to the girl.

"Sorry, I have to go." She said, and promptly took her leave. Then a brief silence settled in as they watched the girl walk away, again.

"I don't get it. Do we stink or something?" Beast Boy sniffed at himself to validate his speculation.

"Come on. It sounds like she doesn't want to be bothered. Let's go, Beast Boy." Cyborg turned him around.

Starfire giggled at Robin's comment towards the movie they had just watched. They decided to get ice-cream cones as an after-movie dessert. It was a little past five and had just begun to get dark but decided to walk down the streets of downtown as they enjoyed the sunset skies. Robin smiled at her, feeling good about making her laugh but his thoughts lightly wandered back to a conversation he had with Beast Boy and Cyborg two days ago, when they told him about another encounter with the girl.

"It was most humorous! It appeared that he had become a glarthsnor but was really a flagsnart!" She continued to laugh and didn't take notice as her hand slowly tilted sideways and her ice-cream scoop was in danger of falling off the cone. Robin's attention momentarily slipped away but caught sight of the ice cream and grabbed her hand before it could fall and held it right-side up.

"Watch out! You almost dropped your ice cream." He chuckled, then realized that he was holding her hand and blushed, quickly taking his hand away as soon as she found her grip again. Starfire soon realized as well and blushed slightly with a small satisfied smile, as it grew quiet between the delicate emotions.

"So yea. Pretty funny, huh?" He interjects hoping to break the awkward tension.

"Yes. Quite." It grew quiet again, as they walked down the sidewalk. Robin began to say something until a loud clang interrupted him. Starfire heard the noise as well and stood still to hear where it originated from. Another bang sounded off ahead of them from an alley-way several yards away.

They sprinted off towards the alley and turned the corner to see a man, clothed completely in black, engaged in a choke-hold against a girl. Her feet lifted off the ground and wrestled to find footing.

"Let her go!" Robin shouted and darted towards them.

He threw a bird-a-rang which expertly cut into the unknown attacker's arm that held the girl in a choke hold. He yelped out in pain as he reactively loosened his grip. The girl saw her chance and grabbed his cut arm and positioned her feet against his two legs. She pushed off and grabbed on, leaving gravity to work in her favor which forced him to lean forward and front flip on his back with unexpected force, which gave way for her to escape his hold.

Starfire flew close above the attacker and launched a star bolt but the attacker came to just before it hit and dodged it. The man realized he was out-numbered and grabbed two explosive pellet-balls. Robin noticed the assailant's intentions and reached around for an electric disc to interfere before he could escape but was too late. The pellet balls erupted as they hit the ground, before Robin could throw his disc, and produced a pepper-gas smokescreen to mask the attacker's exit. The three who were left in the alley, unfortunately inhaled the gas and began coughing profusely as it irritated their esophagus.

"Is everyone alright?" Robin sounded off in between reflexive coughs caused by the gas.

"Yes," Starfire coughed and landed herself onto the ground behind him. "I think so."

Robin wiped away his teary eyes, which also resulted from the gas, and searched for the victim.

"Hey, are you ok?" He found her crouched down, holding her hand up to her face, and laid a hand on her shoulder. The victim turned to face him and he met eyes with her silver teary eyes. Robin coughed and wiped his eyes again to re-adjust his vision more clearly.

"Wait." His grip tightened slightly on her shoulder. "Aren't you from the mall?"

She realized her situation and hastily shoved his hand off her with brisk force and swept kick Robin from under. Robin momentarily lost his balance but caught himself by somersaulting forward. He followed behind her as she turned the corner out the alley but when he came to the streets there was no sign of her among the few people walking around nearby.

"Robin, are you ok?" Starfire hovered over and did as he did, searching for the same girl. "Was that not the same girl from the mall?"

Robin clenched his jaw in dismay. "Yea, I think so."

He and Starfire returned to the scene of the crime and Robin noticed a wallet that had hid next to a pile of deconstructed cardboard boxes. He picked it up and searched for a license. The card read Kaya White and saw the same girl in the photo.

"Let's go Star. We need to find out who this girl really is."

Robin called everyone back to the Tower for an emergency. As they all arrived, he relayed his and Starfire's encounter with the same girl they met at the mall. They gathered around the computer screen as the database continued its' search for a Kaya White.

"Finally! We get to find out who this girl is!" Beast Boy groaned out.

When Beast Boy had told Robin about how the girl had reacted towards them, he found his curiosity grew to scrutiny. However, he thought it best to respect her wish to be left alone since there was no other reason not to. Until, one too many encounters coupled with rather strange behavior and events, pushed the bar for alarm.

The result quickly produced a record of Kaya White.

"Looks like we found her." Robin opened the record to reveal credit scores, driving records, address history, job history and a death certificate.

"Or not." Cyborg pointed out.

"I do not understand. She is dead but she is alive?" Starfire questioned.

"No, Starfire. She stole someone's identity." Raven answered her.

"Oooh." Starfire paused for a minute but another question formed. "But how can one live on another person's death? Do the authorities not know of this person's death?"

"Most states don't cross check other state databases for a death certificate in that person's name. But our database searches all records of anyone, worldwide." Robin explained to her.

"She's only been here for six months." Raven pointed out, raising a curious observation.

"Her address is 120 Feltner Ave. Apartment 213." Robin grabbed his gear that lay ready in wait next to him. "Titans, go!"

On his command the Teen Titans rushed off as they all headed towards the girl's address.

Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter and look forward to reading more of them in the future. Reviews for constructive criticism or first impression opinions would be greatly appreciated and most welcome!

Helpful tip: "the girl" is about an inch shorter than Starfire's height but an inch taller than Robin and Raven. Thought that would be useful to envision her height.

Thanks to my beta-reader McDiggity for fine-tuning this chapter!