DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Titans, obviously. Nor do I own Soothsayer or Kenkaku; they belong to Rei Ronin. Green Destiny belongs to whoever owns the rights to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

SPOILERS: Up to Aftershock 2.

SUMMARY: Some souls are meant to be lovers for all eternity. Some, however, are meant only to be enemies. When a new serial killer blows into town, Beastboy discovers exactly what that means. (Part of Rei Ronin's Prophecies Universe.)

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story takes place after Rei Ronin's "Waves of Fate", and occurs at the same time as "Rolling the Dice" by the same author, so go read those first, 'cause they're good and this story won't make much sense otherwise. You can find them in the C2 community in my profile.

Also, anything in bold is a reference point, so kindly make your way to the end of the chapter for a translation and/or explanation. Okay, enough with the babbling. Read and enjoy.

Reflexions

Somewhere in the distance the sun had just set, softly caressing the land in its last golden rays as it relinquished its hold on the sky for the day.

That night as the last traces of sunlight faded, Beast Boy remained perched on a rock on the west end of Titans' Tower in a manner vaguely reminiscent of an old poodle, diligently waiting for its master to come home, even though its hope for such had died long ago. With sad green eyes gazing over the horizon under a head of shaggy green hair, pointed ears drooping so low that they almost touched his slumped shoulders, it was safe to venture that the boy was depressed. The reason for his current mood lay innocently on the ground next to him, well within his reach, but gratefully out of his eyesight.

Green Destiny.

A jian granted to him by a prophecy that didn't really have all that much to do with him anyway.

With his shapeshifting ability, he'd never really thought to have a weapon outside of his own body, after all, the average criminal had a small problem with a full-sized T-Rex breathing down their neck, but he had to admit that he rather liked wielding Green Destiny. It felt warm and natural in his hands, and when he fought with it, it felt like shapeshifting, like instinct, and it played well with his spirit. Somehow, it made him feel more confident, and somewhat content, like a piece that had been missing had returned…

…But sometimes, when the sunlight caught it at just the right angle, the usually silver blade would shine gold and it would remind him of her, of Terra. And when the curving silver designs carved into the blade danced in the sun's golden light, intertwining with the green lacquer underneath, it would remind the more poetic side of his soul of what they could have had, and suddenly he wouldn't feel so good anymore.

Sighing, he picked up a smooth stone and skipped it over the still waters of the bay. He didn't think he could take this waiting. It would be another month before Kenkaku could even think about reviving Terra and the anticipation was killing him. All he really wanted right now was to see her again, and not her stone encrusted form. He wanted her flesh and blood and standing by his side right now.

The way he was feeling at the moment, a month might as well be forever…

Suddenly, Beastboy felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. If he were in cat form right now, all the fur on his back would bristle and he would be hissing as he sensed danger. Wrapping his fingers unconsciously around Green Destiny, he tensed the muscles in his legs and cocked his ears, listening to the near-silent footsteps drawing closer…and closer…

"YAAAH!"

In one fluid movement, Beastboy pushed himself to his feet and spun around with Green Destiny slicing through the air towards his opponent…

He recognised the intruder milliseconds too late to stop the blade from piercing her skin, but fortunately, early enough to stop it from lopping her whole arm off.

Soothsayer winced as Beastboy pulled away his sword, the blade somehow causing more pain on the way out than it did going in.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry," he said, guilt and concern etched on his face as he absently wiped the blood off his sword on his leg before sheathing it on his back.

Soothsayer fingered the tear in her sleeve, staring at the bleeding wound blankly until Beastboy's gloved hand blocked the view as he applied pressure to stop the blood flow.

"Are you okay? We need to get this fixed," he said, leading her back towards the tower.

"It's okay, Beastboy," Soothsayer grimaced. "It looks worse than it is. It will heal on its own."

"But-"

"Besides, you wouldn't want Robin to catch you after you skipped his training session tonight, would you?"

Beastboy's eyes widened. He hadn't thought of that. Robin wouldn't hesitate to rip him a new one for that…well, at least not until he got wrapped up enough in tracking the military weapons and/or making out with Starfire to forget about it.

"One second," he said, holding up a finger as he reached for his communicator. Flipping it open, he scrolled through the options, pulled up the tracking screen, and located Robin's signal. It looked like he was with Star in the fifth floor evidence room. Perfect.

"Come on. I know how to get around Robin." Beastboy put away the communicator and grabbed Soothsayer's hand, pulling her towards the front door. "We're gonna fix that whether you like it or not."

She rolled her eyes, but acquiesced nonetheless, walking into the tower.

As Beastboy moved to close the door behind her, his eyes skimmed over the beach again, searching the darkness for whatever it was that still had his hackles up. Finding nothing but the usual scattering of rocks on the sand, Beastboy shrugged, dismissing his feeling as pure paranoia, and followed Soothsayer to the elevator.

Had he looked a little further to the left for just a bit longer, he would have noticed the pair of eyes slinking off into the night.

An unnaturally green house lizard skittered up a wall in the hallway and cautiously peered around the corner. Blinking his bulbous black eyes, it detached itself from the wall and dropped to the ground, landing lightly on two human feet.

"Coast is clear. C'mon," Beastboy whispered, tip-toeing down the hall towards the medical bay, practically humming the 'Mission: Impossible' theme song under his breath. Soothsayer followed behind him with decidedly less stealth, clearly amused by the whole thing.

Beastboy breathed a sigh of relief as the infirmary door swished closed behind them. They made it without any sign of Robin and the impending lecture of doom.

"What are you two doing?"

Beastboy let out a very unmanly shriek as the Boy Wonder suddenly appeared out of nowhere, a knowing smirk on his face.

"R-Robin! Heh heh, w-what's up?" he stammered, shrinking under Robin's gaze.

"Friend Soothsayer!" Starfire gasped as she hovered down from the ceiling, where she'd been holding Robin out of sight. "You are damaged?"

Robin turned away from the cowering changeling and followed Starfire's line of sight to the long red trail of blood on the sleeve of Soothsayer's white shirt.

"What happened?" he asked, gently lifting her arm to see the wound better.

Soothsayer glanced at Beastboy. "It was an accident," she replied. "Beastboy was going to help me patch it up."

Robin raised a dubious eyebrow at that, sensing that they were hiding something. "Fine. BB, come see me in the training room when you're done," he ordered, fixing him with a firm glare, before walking towards the door. "You coming, Star?"

Beastboy turned to Soothsayer as Robin and Starfire vacated the room. The seer just stared back at him steadily for a few moments before hopping onto the nearest bed.

"You gonna fix this, or what?"

"Duuude," Beastboy said in disbelief, throwing his arms in the air. "How come you didn't tell Robin what happened? I, like, totally skewered your arm just now!"

"Hardly." She rolled up her sleeve, making a face at the bloodstain. "See? It's only a shallow cut."

"But still, I shouldn't have attacked you like that," he insisted, moving to get a first-aid kit from a cabinet. "I coulda killed you!"

"I'm not dead, am I?" she pointed out. A fact that fell on deaf ears as the changeling rambled on.

"Dude, Kaku was supposed to show me how, but then that mission came up and he ran off with Cyborg to HIVE, and…" He trailed off thinking about what he just said. He blinked, and then burst into a fit of giggles. Soothsayer rolled her eyes. "But seriously, dude, I am so not gonna touch Green Destiny until Kenkaku gets back." But even as he said that, he knew it wasn't true.

Soothsayer was silent, seemingly lost in her own world for a few moments.

"I don't think that's wise," she said, finally.

Beastboy looked up from his nursing, a curious eyebrow raised.

"I sense that there is more to your fate with Green Destiny than we realised," she continued slowly. "I'll have to meditate to get a fix on the prophecy."

He smirked mischievously. "This another excuse not to pay attention in Math class?"

She smiled innocently back at him. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Beastboy snorted as he stuck a long white bandage on her arm, sealing the wound from the air. "There. All done," he announced, unrolling her sleeve. A large drop of sweat rolled down the back of his neck as he scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. The big red bloodstain had imprinted on the other side of her sleeve making a reflected twin. A butterfly effect. "Heh heh. I think I owe you a new shirt."

Somewhere in the heart of Jump City, about two blocks away from the police station, a coroner wheeled a black body bag into the morgue. The only sound in the empty corridor was the echo of the gurney's squeaky wheels and the squeal of his sneakers on the freshly polished linoleum. Bypassing the ME's office and an ancient soda machine, he pushed the gurney through the double doors at the end of the corridor, into the examination room.

The nightshift medical examiner was hunched over a laptop in the corner, alternately tapping at random keys on the keyboard and shaking a handheld laser scanner as if expecting a pink leprechaun to jump out at any moment and show him how it worked.

"Heya, Steve," the coroner greeted as he rolled the gurney to a stop next to an empty examination table. "Twenty-first century tryin' to kick your ass again?"

The medical examiner raised a choice finger in response.

The coroner chuckled as he unzipped the body bag and shifted the body onto the silver examination table.

"I got another one for ya."

"No, really? I thought you were here for my charm and hot body," Steve murmured absently, still fiddling with the computer.

The coroner scoffed, ambling over to look over the ME's shoulder. Steve barely spared him a glare over his shoulder, before clicking a few more keys on the computer.

It bleeped angrily at him.

"God-damnit, what the hell is wrong with you?" he yelled at the screen. It beeped at him again. "'Error message 57'. Yeah, that's real helpful. That explains everything, don't it? Worthless piece-a crap…"

"Look, just…" the coroner shoved Steve out of the way and started typing.

The computer flashed another error message followed merrily by its partner in crime, the illegal operation window.

Steve snorted. "Hooray for the technologically savvy," he droned dryly.

The coroner rolled his eyes and flipped the power switch off and on. "Tried and true method."

"Heh, right." The medical examiner wandered over to the new corpse, slapping some new white latex gloves on his hands. "What'cha got for me, Dave?"

Dave turned and leaned back on the desk, crossing his arms over his chest. "Male. Around seventeen or eighteen, I'd say. No ID. Lividity says he was moved a couple hours post mortem. He just went into Rigor, so my best guess is six hours ago." He crossed his legs and gestured to the body with his head. "Check out his forehead," he said, unnecessarily, as the ME reached out to part the long black hair that obscured the victim's face.

"Similar markings to Ms. Glitter over there," Steve commented. He pulled out a pair of scissors and cut open the victim's t-shirt. He nodded his head as he found what he was looking for. "Same four scratches over the left pectoral."

The coroner strolled over and peered over the ME's shoulder. "Looks like we got a serial on our hands."

"It's not a serial until there's a third body," Steve corrected.

Dave rolled his eyes. "Picky bastard. Say, did you ever figure out what the message on the girl's head said?"

Steve was busying himself with a little white sponge, cleaning the dried blood off the symbols etched in the dead boy's flesh. When he finished, he stuffed the sponge in a plastic evidence bag and set it aside.

"That's what the scanner's for," he said. "The city'd rather torment me than spring for a human translator that'll keep this on the DL."

Dave glanced back at the offending machine. "Well, it's on now. Let's break it out and see what it says, already."

"Don't you have other bodies to pick up?"

"Nope," Dave answered with a cheeky grin.

Steve sighed. "Fine." He pulled off his gloves and stuffed them in a separate evidence bag before pulling on a fresh pair and walking over to the other occupied table. "You set up the program, I'll prep the body."

Steve carefully peeled back the thin white sheet that covered the body, barely even disturbing a golden hair on her head, as Dave fiddled with that infernal machine. Like every other time, her eyes stared blankly at the ceiling still heavily painted in that gold-plated film that he knew coated her entire body. She'd been in here for the past two days, but somebody had yet to claim her. Steve shook his head. It was sad.

Suddenly, Dave materialised by his side wielding a T-shaped hunk of plastic and circuits. A white light glowed dimly on the wider end of the machine.

"You know how that works?"

"It looks like the scanner down at the supermarket, how hard can it be?"

That said, Dave held it over her forehead and pressed a button on its underside. A dozen streaks of white laser light spilled from the top of the machine and caressed the dead girl's skin, its beams sinking into the grooves of split flesh that made up the symbol.

Behind them, the laptop played an encouraging series of beeps as Dave clicked the scanner off.

"That's it," he announced, moving away from the body and towards the computer. "Now we just have to…"

Dave trailed off as he started off the translation program.

At the centre of the window was a large digital printout of the symbol. All around the edges, the program scrolled through various symbols from every language imaginable, though Steve had a pretty good idea which one the message was written in.

Finally, the flashing symbols came to a stop, and a translation into English appeared on the screen.

Dave raised an eyebrow. "Gold?" He streamed extremely disappointed as he turned back to the body and took in the shiny colour spray-painted on her skin. "Well, duh."

REFERENCE POINT:

Jian – This is a double edged sword that's sharpest at the tip and gets duller at the guard, used in Tai Chi. In laymen's terms, it's the sword from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".