Yet to come:

At first there was only darkness, no sound or sensation other than the dark abyss that engulfed him. But after what felt like an eternity came light, a solitary light up ahead in the darkness gave Robin hope, the light grew larger and brighter every few moments and he awaited its embrace. However as the light grew and grew, the sense of comfort and relief began to fade quickly and instead was filled with pain and panic. The comforting, reassuring light had now began to scold him, the pain was immense and he could feel the blood begin to boil beneath his skin, his muscles burned as he tried to move to flee from the light but he was trapped. The void around him began to glow luminescent green and the pain became agony, he screamed but no sound escaped his mouth. The energy pulsed rapidly around his body and it felt like all of his nerves were firing at once, through the pain he began to re-establish a connection with his body, he could feel the cold metal floor beneath him and began to desperately lift himself up using his hands. His eyes locked on to the being in front of him, the twisted psychopath was laughing, despite all the pain he had caused, he was still laughing. The unbearable agony had shifted into something else now, seething anger, boundless rage. HE had done this, HE had caused all of this to happen, HE was going to pay for what he had done…

Chapter 1 – In our absence

Coming back to the tower had been a bittersweet event for the Titans, they were glad that the incident with Brushogan and Daizo was over but the hospitality of the people of Tokyo had made the five wish they could stay longer. A lot had happened in the space of 2 weeks, they had halted the corruption of the Tokyo police force, defeated a living ink monster which existence alone still baffled the Titans. They had become international celebrities and heroes to the people of Tokyo. But probably the biggest shock for the Titans was the fact that Robin had actually changed his mind. For years the boy wonder had held tightly to his beliefs that relationships were a distraction that he could afford to have, he had rehearsed the words of his former mentor hundreds of times over in his head and yet still the argument in his head over that case had raged on. It seemed that the trip had allowed him to clear his mind of all outside influences and allowed himself to decide what was best for him and not just what was best in hindsight. His conversation with Starfire on the rooftops of the crowded city had been the tipping point in his favour, he had thought that keeping Starfire at arm's length would stop him hurting her but watching her cry as she flew away made him realise that he would be hurting her either way.

Overall the trip had been an enlightening experience for all of its members, it showed them that there was a big open world outside of their crime ridden city. It had given them perspective for the future and that Jump City may not be their permanent residence. This had become especially true since numerous reports of meta-humans springing up all of Jump City to do their part in fighting crime, so much so that they had picked up the slack whilst the Titans were away and were continuing to do an excellent job. The Titans had already been back 4 days and they hadn't had a single alert. The ops room had essentially become 'Robin and Starfire's cuddling room' since that was the activity that seemed to be happening 99% of the time the two were in close proximity of one another. Cyborg had been the main rooter for the two of them to get together but he was starting to rethink his choices because of the sickeningly sweet barrage of affection between them. Cyborg sighed as he stepped into the ops room and noticed the pair in their usual spot on the couch, he made his way over to the kitchen area and his ears perked up. There was a loud wailing sound and he thought he was hearing things for a few moments before he realised the alert was actually going off. Robin and Starfire seemed to be similarly confused as they stood up from the sofa.

"False alarm?" Robin asked in confusion

Cyborg began to tap on his arm console, "Nope, Dr Light is apparently attacking Jump City bank"

"Has he not heard about all the new meta-humans?"

"The reports said that he was one of the first criminals to be brought in by the new guys, why would he go after a target like Jump City bank when he knows what's coming?"

Robin repositioned his mask over his eyes, "Regardless of that, Light is our responsibility to deal with. Get the others and we'll head out"

The battle they had been expecting seemed nowhere to be found, when they arrived the bank had been surrounded by armoured soldiers. They made their way up the stairs to the bank but a soldier quickly stepped in front and gestured them back. "The incident is contained, step down"

Robin was utterly confused, "Dr Light is in there! He's too powerful to be stopped by normal firear-" the words died in his mouth as he witnessed the bruised and battered, fearful looking Dr Light being escorted down the stairs from the bank entrance, his eyes went wide as he spotted the Titans and his pace sped up towards the escort van. Robin turned back to the guard, "what the hell happened here?"

"One of your new buddies decided to take the law into his own hands and beat Dr Light to a pulp, would have killed him if we didn't get here and restrain him"

The Titans looked to each other in shock, "Has he been detained?" Robin asked

"Yes, and he is awaiting further action. Now step aside so we can clear the area", as the soldier turned Robin spotted a small engraving on the firearm. It read "S.T.A.R Laboratories", Robin had known of the group for a while but he no idea they were producing firearms. That fact didn't sit well with Robin but he allowed it to slip from his mind for the moment.

"I don't get it, why would one of these new meta-humans want to kill Dr Light? They've been doing a great job so far, why ruin it now?" Beast Boy asked, perplexed.

"That's what I'm worried about, Beast Boy" Robin replied, concern evident on his face "We need to keep an eye on these metas, make sure that they're stable"

End of chapter 1

Author's Notes:

I've been sitting on the idea for this story for around 3-4 months now so I thought it was time to put them down in writing. I estimate that this story will probably be around 10 chapters long, I already have the ending planned out so I'm working on the filler/padding for the middle of the story. Gonna try to update this story once a week but I can't guarantee any kind of schedule for updates. Feedback is something that I sadly don't seem to get much of on my stories so even just something short would be appreciated.