Alright everybody! At this time, I give you Shadows of Love, the next epic episode of the A-LionGleek Teen Titans season 6! Here's to hoping you're ready for yet more Teen Titan-ic awesomeness! I'll admit, it is rather late/early for some tiny bit of the subject matter, but nonetheless, here's to hoping you enjoy it nonetheless!

A/N: But first, let me start right away on this story in reminding you that I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC related. The only thing I remotely qualify as owning is the OC villain that makes his 'debut' (so to speak) in the prologue. And with that out of the way, I now proudly present the prologue for my new Teen Titans story, Shadows of Love!

Prologue:

It was a very beautiful day in Jump City. Quite appropriately so in fact, for it was now February 10, 2018. Valentine's Day would be occurring the very next week. And the people of Jump City knew it to. In fact, quite the majority of the citizens were either hard at work planning things out, or fighting with all their willpower not to burst from the anticipation that came from already being fully prepared and having to wait until the day finally arrived. And of course, not only were all the couples already present within the city very strongly looking forward to the arrival of the much loved holiday, but quite a respectable number of brand new ones were now starting to pop up in the advent of the atmosphere that was even now rapidly forming in the air in anticipation for the holiday.

Even the environment within the city itself seemed to be well aware of the upcoming holiday. Just about every major building or similarly important location was in some way decorated appropriately, some with a considerably more over the top flare than others. Multiple flowers and other plants had begun to sprout into bloom to herald the coming spring. Various shops had taken stock of and put on sale quite large numbers of appropriately themed cards as well as candies and similar gifts. Even the animals of the city seemed to be somewhat feeling the effect of the atmosphere, from pets, to wild free roaming critters, to even the creatures on display at the zoo.

One location in particular located somewhat within the center of the city seemed particularly well aware of and prepared for the holiday to come. And it had more than enough of the appropriate atmosphere to prove it. The location in question was Youngberg Café, an admittedly rather relatively newly designed establishment, but a popular one nonetheless in the current time and age. In fact, since its opening day, there had rarely ever been a day in which there hadn't been guests present within the café to give the staff a good day's work. And today was no exception. Both the inside and the immediate outside were jam packed with patrons. And even though the actual holiday that the place was decorated in preparation for was still several days away, many of them already seemed in the mood to celebrate.

In fact, there was one particular young adult couple on the inside of the café sitting at a table literally right by the main front window that was currently in the midst of a quite passionate and intimate display of love. Quite honestly, the exact nature of the way they were currently kissing could easily be seen as considerably more overly . . . romantic . . . then should have likely been considered decent, let alone legal, in such a public location as the café they were at. But even so, no one else present in the café, including the faculty, seemed to even bother to care. Indeed, quite a Valentine's Day friendly picture was present and coming to life within Jump City, but especially within the interior and outer patio of Youngberg Café.

. . . . .

However, there was one element in particular that most certainly did not match up with the otherwise exact image of the perfect Valentine's Day atmosphere present at Youngberg Café. The element in question was what appeared to be a humanoid saber-toothed goat dressed in nothing but a chainmail chiton leaning up against the main front window of the café from the outside, exactly positioned so that the one particularly amorous couple was directly in front of it on the opposite side. As if to further emphasize how incongruently it fit with the overall environment, it looked especially sinister. It was almost entirely from head to hoof in coarse black fur, with a few white stripes here and there. It also had very craggy looking hoof-like feet. Its hands, however, were almost exactly like those of a human; aside from the fact that they were furry and had unnervingly sharp and long claws in the place of fingernails.

The creature's face hardly looked any less eerie. For starters, it was saber-toothed. And the two iconic saber-teeth poking from the front of its jaws weren't the only sharp teeth it had either. In fact, every single one of its teeth was a dangerously pointy fang. It also had two ominously sharp curved stereotypical goat-like horns on the very top of its head between its pointy elf-like ears. And finally, it had two almost human-like yellow eyes that currently had a mad, maniacal, and almost hungry look inside them as it gazed intently at the overly romantic couple in front of it, with its wickedly clawed furry hands up against the window as well.

But what really caused the whole thing to go from creepy to downright bizarre was what appeared to be mass clouds of what appeared to be a golden yellow dust emanating from the amorous couple and phasing right through the window straight towards the mysterious goat creature's face. In fact, not only was the 'dust' going towards the creature's face, but the creature was actually inhaling the stuff through a mixture of opening its mouth wide open and using its nostrils. And with each inhalation, whether through open mouth or nostrils, the creature would exhale in a clearly pleased tone and even lick its lips hungrily as if appreciating some sort of delicious taste. And even more bizarrely, for some impossible reason, absolutely no one seemed to even notice it was there.

For another few minutes, the bizarre creature continued to inhale the golden dust it was causing to be emitted from the amorous couple in front of it, sighing and chuckling with an increasingly fast and maniacal pace and tone as it continued to devour more and more of it. "More, more, more," the creature snarled delightfully in a slightly raspy and gravelly masculine voice as he continued to apparently feed upon the golden dust. He took an extra deep breath, inhaling a particularly massive portion of the dust into its nostrils in the process. He unleashed a particularly heavy sigh of delight at the taste. "Oh yes," he then whispered to himself in a quite happy manner. "So delicious, so scrumptious, so tasty, and it's all mine right here in front of me."

The creature opened his mouth wide, inhaled in yet another massive dose of the golden dust, snapped his jaws closed, swallowed, and opened his mouth in yet another sigh of delight, and then licked its chops once more. "Oh," he sighed happily. "What a delightful feast." He chuckled in pleasure. "This is so easy," the creature said to himself in a whisper. "Like taking candy from a baby." He inhaled some more of the dust through his nostrils, and let off yet another delighted sigh. "And oh how sweet, tasty, and extra, extra, extra sugary that candy is." The creature chuckled once more, and licked his lips yet again. "And the best part is, I still haven't even finished the main course."

The creature inhaled yet another hefty dosage of the golden dust through opening his mouth. "But it won't be too much longer now," he whispered to himself. "Not at all. Sooner or later, I will finally finish the main course, and then . . . my favorite part . . .," a maniacal, and this time considerably more ominous and malicious looking grin, came on his face. "Dessert." The beast then proceeded to absorb yet another dosage of the dust through his nostrils, clearly feeling on top of the world and anticipating the moment when the time came for 'dessert'.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

The abrupt shout not only jolted the goat-like creature out of his focus on his 'meal', but it also attracted the attention of the couple it had directing its full attention towards. Within seconds after the couple turned their heads towards the window they'd been sitting by, the girl's green eyes widened in shock before she then leaped backwards from her seat in horror, her blonde hair going flying, and a shriek emanating from her mouth. "WHAT IS THAT THING?!" she screamed, clearly having finally managed to catch sight of the humanoid saber-toothed goat that had up till now miraculously avoided getting seen at all. Her black haired gray eyed boyfriend hardly reacted any better to his suddenly catching sight of the creature, and he slipped and fell flat on his backside in his efforts to back away from the window. Everyone else inside the café likewise acted quite stunned and horrified upon finally catching sight of the horrific monster that had been right there at the window the entire time.

It didn't take long at all for the creature's shock at the unexpected interruption to turn to anger at the sight of all the terrified people inside the café who'd now been alerted to his presence. Growling and slavering with rage, he turned his head to look behind him, and saw that every person on the outside patio of the café were reacting in the exact same manner as those on the inside. All of the people, that is, except for five individuals standing right behind him that the creature knew, for a fact, had not been there when he had arrived at the café and begun his 'feast'. The five individuals in question, were instantly recognizable, and his eyes narrowed in a mixture of fury and mild annoyance at the sight of them.

Robin narrowed his own mask covered eyes back at the creature. "You heard me," he practically spat out at the creature. "Whatever it is you're doing, stop it this instant."

The creature mentally cursed. Admittedly, he was quite new in town, but even he had managed to hear enough about the local heroes of Jump City to know that it was wise to be wary of them if you were one with reasonable grounds to be worried about them being on your case. And just the fact that they'd been able to even see him at this moment was definitely a good sign of them being a credible threat. To elaborate, another ability that the creature had aside from his ability to 'summon' and devour the golden dust he had been causing to emit from the amorous couple earlier was to mentally cast a glamour that would cause him to seem absolutely invisible all relatively weaker minded people in the area. This very glamour aura was what had allowed him to be able to be present in the café and feast upon the golden dust from the couple for so long without being noticed till now, and had proven equally useful in multiple past situations before now. But unfortunately, stronger minded people, with the Teen Titans clearly having now revealed themselves to be an example, were not so susceptible to this trick, and in managing to sufficiently call the attention of the weaker minded people, they had also caused the glamour to dissipate entirely and allow the creature to be seen clear as day by all the people present.

The creature let out a low snarl. "Kids these days," he thought to itself irritably. He glared at the five teen heroes, his mouth now closed so that only his saber-teeth were visible. "Good grief," he groaned. "What is it with people your age this time and age? Can't a guy eat in piece anymore?"

"Depends on what you're eating scumbag," said Cyborg. He intertwined his robotic fingers, stretched them and his hands forward, and then said, "But if whatever it is you're eating has anything to do with the murders you appear to have been responsible for in Metropolis, Central City, Star City, and quite a few other cities before your arrival here in Jump City, then it's definitely a serious no-no to let you keep eating."

The creature's eyes narrowed. "Murders?" he asked in a half irritated and half curious tone of voice. "What makes you say that I've committed murders?"

"You've left quite a trail," said Robin. He pointed his right index finger at the creature, a hard eyed glare on his masked face. "And I'm not talking about footprints either. Rather, you've left a trail of bodies. All the people you've killed have been found in various locations, some of them even within their own homes, all dead, appearing to have been in the midst of some sort of romantic activity, and all seemingly without a mark. All of them, upon closer examination, have turned out to have died from a heart attack."

The creature raised his eyebrow. "Heart attack you say?" he asked. "Well if that's so, how can you know for sure it was murder? Heart attacks don't sound like the kind of thing that can be caused through murder."

"Under most circumstances, yes that's true." Robin folded his arms across his chest. "But every single one of the victims has been as healthy as a horse in the immediate days preceding their deaths, had zero existing heart problems, and all have been older than 21 but younger than 50. And that age range is hardly the kind of age where it would be perfectly natural to be wary of potentially suffering heart attacks."

"And not only that," said Cyborg. He gazed intently at the creature, a small grin of amusement coming on his face as he thought about what he was now about to say. "But one especially curious detail that all the scenes have had in common is that there are goat hairs within the area." His grin faded. "Though admittedly, that detail's considerably less funny now that we know where the hairs came from."

The creature growled, now showing the rest of his fangs. "Well I'll certainly admit that you've done your homework," he growled. He then spread his arms out to his sides. "But even so, how can you know for certain that it was me? Sure, the sight of me alone can be pretty scary to some, but certainly not necessarily enough to trigger a heart attack in people as healthy as the ones you seem to believe I'm responsible for killing. Heck, I'm almost certain that some of those people, plus multiple others, would probably laugh at the sight of me if they had the mental strength to do so."

"That's where your powers come in," said Raven. She folded her arms across her chest, her purple eyes narrowed, cold, and glaring from underneath the raised hood of her cloak. "From what we heard you saying while in the midst of your little feast and what we saw of that dust you were eating, you appear to have the power that we in the super community refer to as 'emotional vampirism', in other words, the ability to detect, extract, and eat the 'energy' if you will of emotions."

The sorceress nodded her head, then glared back at the creature, who now quite clearly seemed somewhat surprised that she knew the nature of his power and feeding methods. "As you appear to be aware from the way your face looks, beings with this power are quite rare. In fact, you're only the second emotional vampire we've ever encountered. And that being said, both you and the very first one we encountered last year feed on love. However, the first one we encountered, who liked to call herself Mother Mae-Eye, fed upon the kind of love that children feel for their parents, whereas you seem to prefer feeding upon romantic love. Also, Mother Mae-Eye used spells to enchant her victims into thinking that she was their mother and unwittingly being forced into feeling the kind of love towards her that she liked to feed upon, whereas you feed upon already existing naturally occurring love."

Raven pointed at the couple that the creature had been earlier 'feasting' upon. "And finally, Mother Mae-Eye's end plot was to cook us in a pie and eat us, thus both devouring us and all our remaining 'love'. You, however, presumably upon reaching the moment in which you have 'dessert', proceed to extract such a large portion of love from your victims that the resulting stress on their hearts causes them to suffer a lethal heart attack so strong that it takes virtually seconds for them to die. And by the time anyone else in the area would have managed to notice that couple you were feasting upon suddenly dead in their chairs, you presumably would have been already long gone in search of either your next victim or your ticket out of Jump City. Quite frankly though, my guess is you'd have gone searching for new victims considering how this couple appears to have been your first chosen victims here in Jump City."

All the civilians found their eyes widening and gaped in horror at the creature as they realized what had been happening under their very noses without even realizing it. The other four Titans seemed impressed with Raven's description and analyzation of the creature's abilities. Even the creature himself gaped at Raven in what looked like a mixture of shock and grudging respect. Then he leaned his head forward, his eyes narrowing venomously, and he turned his entire body around to face the Titans. "Clever, I'll give you that." He directed his eyes left and right without moving his head as if trying to determine an escape route, then stared back at the Titans.

"And that being said, it seems there's no point now in any more fruitless denial from me since you appear to have figured it all out." He lifted his arms up, claws extended into the air. "You're correct Titans. I am the one who killed those people. And yes, if it hadn't been for your untimely interruption, those two lovebirds behind me would have suffered the same fate." The two 'lovebirds' in question gulped, and looked each other nervously in the eyes.

Then the creature grinned, and pointed his finger at the Titans. "And since you've clearly proven yourself worthy opponents by being able to successfully catch me in the act and stop me, you've earned the right to know a proper name to refer to me by." He leaned forward, his arms still stretched up into the air. "And as of today, I shall from here on out be referred to as . . ." he reared his head up so that he was facing the sky, his arms still raised, and loudly yelled "CAPRICARN! Eater of love! Killer of those blessed with Cupid's arrows! Romantivore supreme! The ultimate epitome of how powerful and savage a satyr could be if they existed and were carnivores!" Upon shouting all this, Capricorn snapped his head down to face the Titans once more, an absolutely maniacal look of glee on his face. "MAAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA!" he then laughed in a psychotic sounding tone that sounded just as much like a goat's bleating as it did like an actual psychotic human laugh.

The Titans, it has to be admitted, flinched somewhat to varying degrees upon hearing the sound of Capricarn's laugh. Robin, in particular, actually closed his eyes and had to shake his head side to side a couple times to clear his head of some very uncomfortable memories he had of an enemy from his past that had a very nightmarishly high tendency of emitting an especially disturbing evil laugh that had now been triggered by the sound of the maniacal caprine laughter he was now hearing.

Then Beast Boy shook his head rigorously to clear his head, snarled viciously at Capricarn, and pointed his finger at the villain before yelling, "Enough with this! You may have made it this far in your career, and you certainly have a good laugh to add to your scare factor, but it ends now!"

"Your heartless murders end today," Starfire said in agreement, balling her fists and causing star bolts to appear around them. The other Titans likewise took on battle-ready positions.

"And you're going to jail," Robin growled, his masked eyes narrowing in determination.

Capricorn smirked, clearly not at all afraid, and he then said. "Oh go ahead and try Titans. Go ahead and try. But the thing is . . ." he abruptly pointed upwards towards the sky behind them. "Ooh, look! Bald eagle!"

Embarrassingly, all the people on the outside patio of the café, the Titans included, fell for it, and they turned their heads to look in the direction Capricarn had pointed, only to find absolutely no birds at all, let alone a bald eagle, present in the sky. The Titans mentally grumbled irritably, and snapped their heads back to where Capricarn had been standing . . . and he was gone!

The Titans had just enough time for their eyes to narrow irritably, and to grit their teeth in anger before they heard the sound of Capricarn's distinctive bleating laugh coming from their left. They turned their heads in time to see the saber-toothed satyr-like villain eagerly prancing away down the street, sending a mocking wave their way. "You gotta catch me first suckers! BAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA!"

Robin growled, his masked eyes clearly showing just how angry he now was. "Titans move!" the Boy Wonder yelled. And just like that, the Titans lunged off in pursuit of Capricarn, not at all keen on letting the satyr-themed miscreant and confirmed wanted serial killer get away.

And just like that, the story begins! And boy are we off to a bleating start! (Heh, heh) Yeah, I'll admit, this is pretty short. But don't worry, with the chapters to come, this story will still be plenty worth your while! ^_^ And that being said, here's to hoping you read, enjoy, and review! And just like with the last few chapters of my previous story, it is MANDATORY that I receive at least one review for this prologue before I complete the official first chapter to come for this story after the prologue. If that little request isn't fulfilled, then this story (and effectively the entire rest of the season) shall end before it can even begin. You want that to happen? I certainly hope not! So somebody had best leave a review! Because boy am I already having fun! ^_^

Coming up next: The chase is on!